Obama = Empire Lite

--Obama to seek spending freeze to trim deficits; domestic budgets are focus; pentagon is among exempt. NYT A1



-- But the full cables, obtained by The New York Times, show for the first time just how strongly the current ambassador felt about the leadership of the Afghan government, the state of its military and the chances that a troop buildup would actually hurt the war effort by making the Karzai government too dependent on the United States. ...And while General McChrystal warned of failure if additional troops were not deployed, Mr. Eikenberry concluded by cautioning of competing risks “that we will become more deeply engaged here with no way to extricate ourselves, short of allowing the country to descend again into lawlessness and chaos.” NYT A1



--China Issues Sharp Rebuke to US Calls for an Investigation on Google Attacks; Casting the American government as a cyberhegenomist. NYT A6



--Oil Company Near Settling over Contract in Kurdistan; A US diplomat truned dealmaker stands to benefit. NYT A9



--Ford to being hiring at New Lower Wages, May Make Half of Old Wage. WSJ B1, B2



--“We need a global sheriff.” Those were the words of George Soros ... in 2008, a little more than a month before Bear Stearns neared collapse. Two years on ... we are no closer to any sort of global financial regulator...—NYT B1



-— Several dozen members of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the civil rights group founded by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., gathered here from across the South on Monday to demand the resignations of two board members accused of financial and ethical violations.

The board members have been accused of diverting at least $569,000 from the group into privately controlled bank accounts, according to a letter written by the board’s vice chairwoman and obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. One of the two men, the Rev. Raleigh Trammell, the board chairman, has also been accused of sexual harassment by a female employee. NYT A15 [woosies]