Looks like a win win situation all the way around to me, except if your a taxpayer that is
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Federa...sset=&cc ode=
The Federal Reserve has made $14 billion in profits on loans made in the last two years, The Financial Times reported on Monday, citing officials close to the matter.
The U.S. central bank also earned about $19 billion from interest and fees charged to institutions that tapped liquidity facilities during the global financial crisis, the report said.
If the Fed had invested the same amounted loaned out
Monday, August 31, 2009
Sunday, August 30, 2009
What are the odds of this being a natural occurrence
http://pakalert.wordpress.com/2009/0...-worlds-media/
In the world of MSM spin, hype and complete avoidance of very critical issues it's quite obvious to see that the deck has been stacked to push all information toward a particular thought direction.
The question is how does a thing like this occur without attention being brought to it, my personal thought is it can't unless it was deliberately squelched
Six Jewish Companies Own 96% of the World’s Media
In the world of MSM spin, hype and complete avoidance of very critical issues it's quite obvious to see that the deck has been stacked to push all information toward a particular thought direction.
The question is how does a thing like this occur without attention being brought to it, my personal thought is it can't unless it was deliberately squelched
Six Jewish Companies Own 96% of the World’s Media
57% Would Like to Replace Entire Congress
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/general_politics/august_2009/57_would_like_to_replace_entire_congress
If they could vote to keep or replace the entire Congress, just 25% of voters nationwide would keep the current batch of legislators.
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 57% would vote to replace the entire Congress and start all over again. Eighteen percent (18%) are not sure how they would vote.
Overall, these numbers are little changed since last October. When Congress was passing the unpopular $700-billion bailout plan in the heat of a presidential campaign and a seeming financial industry meltdown, 59% wanted to throw them all out. At that time, just 17% wanted to keep them.
There has been a bit of a partisan shift since last fall. With Democrats controlling both chambers of Congress, it's not surprising to find that the number of Democrats who would vote to keep the entire Congress has grown from 25% last fall to 43% today. In fact, a modest plurality of Democrats would now vote to keep the legislators. Last fall, a plurality of Democrats were ready to throw them all out.
If they could vote to keep or replace the entire Congress, just 25% of voters nationwide would keep the current batch of legislators.
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 57% would vote to replace the entire Congress and start all over again. Eighteen percent (18%) are not sure how they would vote.
Overall, these numbers are little changed since last October. When Congress was passing the unpopular $700-billion bailout plan in the heat of a presidential campaign and a seeming financial industry meltdown, 59% wanted to throw them all out. At that time, just 17% wanted to keep them.
There has been a bit of a partisan shift since last fall. With Democrats controlling both chambers of Congress, it's not surprising to find that the number of Democrats who would vote to keep the entire Congress has grown from 25% last fall to 43% today. In fact, a modest plurality of Democrats would now vote to keep the legislators. Last fall, a plurality of Democrats were ready to throw them all out.
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Obesity linked to swine flu deaths
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009...u-obesity-link
Study of pandemic reveals that weight problems and pregnancy are significant factors in fatal cases
Obesity has emerged as a possible contributing factor in fatal swine flu cases, according to ground-breaking research looking at deaths caused by the pandemic in countries around the world.
The claim is made by a team from the French Institute for Public Health Surveillance, which has studied the characteristics of 574 deaths associated with the pandemic H1N1 influenza up until the middle of July. According to the team's findings, published in medical journal Eurosurveillance, underlying disease was found in at least half of all fatal cases.
Mortality patterns were in many cases similar to those associated with normal, seasonal flu. But the team observed: "Nevertheless two risk factors are noticeable: pregnancy and obesity."
Pregnancy is already a well-documented risk factor in seasonal influenza and in previous pandemics. The study found that 16 women – representing 10% of all female deaths that were studied – were pregnant or had recently delivered at the time of their death. Half of these also had other health issues. But the conclusion that obesity may be a factor in some swine flu deaths opens up a new line of investigation for epidemiologists. Where an underlying disease was found to be present after someone had died of swine flu, in more than one in four cases the deceased had a metabolic condition – diabetes and/or obesity.
The team, which concluded further research needed to be done to establish the link between obesity, severe influenza and mortality, also found significant demographic variations among those affected by the pandemic.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009...u-obesity-link
Study of pandemic reveals that weight problems and pregnancy are significant factors in fatal cases
Obesity has emerged as a possible contributing factor in fatal swine flu cases, according to ground-breaking research looking at deaths caused by the pandemic in countries around the world.
The claim is made by a team from the French Institute for Public Health Surveillance, which has studied the characteristics of 574 deaths associated with the pandemic H1N1 influenza up until the middle of July. According to the team's findings, published in medical journal Eurosurveillance, underlying disease was found in at least half of all fatal cases.
Mortality patterns were in many cases similar to those associated with normal, seasonal flu. But the team observed: "Nevertheless two risk factors are noticeable: pregnancy and obesity."
Pregnancy is already a well-documented risk factor in seasonal influenza and in previous pandemics. The study found that 16 women – representing 10% of all female deaths that were studied – were pregnant or had recently delivered at the time of their death. Half of these also had other health issues. But the conclusion that obesity may be a factor in some swine flu deaths opens up a new line of investigation for epidemiologists. Where an underlying disease was found to be present after someone had died of swine flu, in more than one in four cases the deceased had a metabolic condition – diabetes and/or obesity.
The team, which concluded further research needed to be done to establish the link between obesity, severe influenza and mortality, also found significant demographic variations among those affected by the pandemic.
Wall Street Betrayal Seen in $4.8 Billion Company Debt Losses
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=a0kvXdQtvCWw
Eighteen months after investment banks quit supporting auction-rate securities that were once marketed as an equivalent to cash, companies from Dallas-based Texas Instruments Inc. to Israel’s Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. have more than doubled writedowns on the debt to $4.8 billion.
While U.S. state and federal regulators have announced settlements with 23 banks since December 2008, obliging them to repurchase a total of $61 billion in the bonds from individual investors, almost all new sales are failures. More than 400 companies stuck with $22 billion worth of the debt are selling at losses of as much as 40 cents on the dollar to get cash, according to SecondMarket Inc., a New York-based brokerage firm. Others have decided to wait decades until the securities mature.
“We’re not happy about this,” said James B. Flaws, chief financial officer of Corning Inc. The glass-fiber maker is one of two owners of Midland, Michigan-based Dow Corning Corp., a manufacturer of silicone products that holds $1.1 billion of the securities in a market once worth $330 billion.
Corning wrote down its share of the portfolio by $33 million and reclassified the assets as a long-term investment, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing for the quarter ended June 30. Its affiliate trusted the auction-rate market after functioning smoothly for more than two decades, Flaws said in a telephone interview.
Eighteen months after investment banks quit supporting auction-rate securities that were once marketed as an equivalent to cash, companies from Dallas-based Texas Instruments Inc. to Israel’s Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. have more than doubled writedowns on the debt to $4.8 billion.
While U.S. state and federal regulators have announced settlements with 23 banks since December 2008, obliging them to repurchase a total of $61 billion in the bonds from individual investors, almost all new sales are failures. More than 400 companies stuck with $22 billion worth of the debt are selling at losses of as much as 40 cents on the dollar to get cash, according to SecondMarket Inc., a New York-based brokerage firm. Others have decided to wait decades until the securities mature.
“We’re not happy about this,” said James B. Flaws, chief financial officer of Corning Inc. The glass-fiber maker is one of two owners of Midland, Michigan-based Dow Corning Corp., a manufacturer of silicone products that holds $1.1 billion of the securities in a market once worth $330 billion.
Corning wrote down its share of the portfolio by $33 million and reclassified the assets as a long-term investment, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing for the quarter ended June 30. Its affiliate trusted the auction-rate market after functioning smoothly for more than two decades, Flaws said in a telephone interview.
Group: U.S. is monitoring journalists in Afghanistan
http://www.kmtr.com/news/world/story/Group-U-S-is-monitoring-journalists-in-Afghanistan/EEHP8MpYukuPnNziNN-UPA.cspx?rss=194
Just Another example of the selective insurance to make sure you view the US military interventions framed in the positive light that they would have you see it in.
The International Federation of Journalists complained Wednesday that news people covering the war in Afghanistan are being monitored by the U.S. military to see if they are sympathetic to the American cause.
The federation said journalists seeking to travel under the protection of U.S. armed forces in Afghanistan may be screened first by an American public relations firm to see if their coverage portrays the military in a positive light.
"This profiling of journalists further compromises the independence of media," Aidan White, general secretary of the Brussels-based federation, said in a statement.
"It strips away any pretense that the army is interested in helping journalists to work freely," the federation statement said.
The complaint followed the publication Aug. 24 of an article in the Stars and Stripes, an independent daily covering the U.S. military, reporting that journalists were being screened by The Rendon Group, a Washington-based public relations company.
The article said the company "gained notoriety
Just Another example of the selective insurance to make sure you view the US military interventions framed in the positive light that they would have you see it in.
The International Federation of Journalists complained Wednesday that news people covering the war in Afghanistan are being monitored by the U.S. military to see if they are sympathetic to the American cause.
The federation said journalists seeking to travel under the protection of U.S. armed forces in Afghanistan may be screened first by an American public relations firm to see if their coverage portrays the military in a positive light.
"This profiling of journalists further compromises the independence of media," Aidan White, general secretary of the Brussels-based federation, said in a statement.
"It strips away any pretense that the army is interested in helping journalists to work freely," the federation statement said.
The complaint followed the publication Aug. 24 of an article in the Stars and Stripes, an independent daily covering the U.S. military, reporting that journalists were being screened by The Rendon Group, a Washington-based public relations company.
The article said the company "gained notoriety
Friday, August 28, 2009
The Fed's Creative Self-Destruction
http://www.minyanville.com/articles/economy-fed-fdic/index/a/24261
Van Hoisington and Lacy Hunt have figured out what few others have; namely, that excessive debt and falling asset prices have conspired to render the best efforts of the Federal Reserve impotent.
Please consider the Hoisington Second Quarter 2009 Outlook.
“One of the more common beliefs about the operation of the US economy is that a massive increase in the Fed’s balance sheet will automatically lead to a quick and substantial rise in inflation. [However] An inflationary surge of this type must work either through the banking system or through non-bank institutions that act like banks which are often called 'shadow banks.' The process toward inflation in both cases is a necessary increasing cycle of borrowing and lending. As of today, that private market mechanism has been acting as a brake on the normal functioning of the monetary engine.
Foreclosures and delinquencies on mortgages are continuing to rise, indicating that the banks and their non-bank competitors face additional pressures to re-trench, not expand. Thus far in this unusual business cycle, excessive debt and falling asset prices have conspired to render the best efforts of the Fed impotent.”
With that, we can safely add Hoisington to the small group of people who understand that Belief In Wizards Is Misguided. Continuing with a discussion from Hoisington:
The Complex Monetary Chain
Van Hoisington and Lacy Hunt have figured out what few others have; namely, that excessive debt and falling asset prices have conspired to render the best efforts of the Federal Reserve impotent.
Please consider the Hoisington Second Quarter 2009 Outlook.
“One of the more common beliefs about the operation of the US economy is that a massive increase in the Fed’s balance sheet will automatically lead to a quick and substantial rise in inflation. [However] An inflationary surge of this type must work either through the banking system or through non-bank institutions that act like banks which are often called 'shadow banks.' The process toward inflation in both cases is a necessary increasing cycle of borrowing and lending. As of today, that private market mechanism has been acting as a brake on the normal functioning of the monetary engine.
Foreclosures and delinquencies on mortgages are continuing to rise, indicating that the banks and their non-bank competitors face additional pressures to re-trench, not expand. Thus far in this unusual business cycle, excessive debt and falling asset prices have conspired to render the best efforts of the Fed impotent.”
With that, we can safely add Hoisington to the small group of people who understand that Belief In Wizards Is Misguided. Continuing with a discussion from Hoisington:
The Complex Monetary Chain
Government's Money-Manipulating Wizardry
http://www.minyanville.com/articles/minyanville-moneydebt-Fed-inflation/index/a/24267/from/home
There's great debate about inflation versus deflation. Most who are buying stocks aren't doing so because they see good fundamentals, but are doing so because they're worried about inflation. Clearly the Federal Reserve is doing “unconventional” things (perhaps I should use better words such as crazy and irresponsible) which have a lot of people worried about a crashing dollar.
In order to clarify my position, I want to describe to you some mechanics of Federal Reserve operations, the wizardry behind the curtain. I recommend you send this to all of your friends so they can decide for themselves. This is long and tedious, but I think worth it.
The Federal Reserve is a private bank, albeit special. It has shareholders that care about profits and risk. These aren’t normal shareholders, but other banks or the boards of those banks. The Fed was given certain powers by Congress in 1913 to regulate the money supply of the US. That benign-sounding statement has vast implications on capitalism and liberty itself.
Capital can be loosely defined as wealth, unencumbered assets of various forms like
There's great debate about inflation versus deflation. Most who are buying stocks aren't doing so because they see good fundamentals, but are doing so because they're worried about inflation. Clearly the Federal Reserve is doing “unconventional” things (perhaps I should use better words such as crazy and irresponsible) which have a lot of people worried about a crashing dollar.
In order to clarify my position, I want to describe to you some mechanics of Federal Reserve operations, the wizardry behind the curtain. I recommend you send this to all of your friends so they can decide for themselves. This is long and tedious, but I think worth it.
The Federal Reserve is a private bank, albeit special. It has shareholders that care about profits and risk. These aren’t normal shareholders, but other banks or the boards of those banks. The Fed was given certain powers by Congress in 1913 to regulate the money supply of the US. That benign-sounding statement has vast implications on capitalism and liberty itself.
Capital can be loosely defined as wealth, unencumbered assets of various forms like
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Federal regulators ease rules for private investors seeking to buy failed banks
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/FDIC-eases-rules-for-private-apf-3414679871.html?x=0
Once again the compromise with unwise connotations prevailing, but we're in a jam so we'll let it slide, the hell with everything
Squeezed by rising bank failures, regulators made it easier Wednesday for private investors to buy failed institutions.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s board voted 4-1 to reduce the cash that private equity funds must maintain in banks they acquire.
Private equity funds tend to buy distressed companies, slash costs and then resell them a few years later. They have been criticized for excessive risk-taking. But the depth of the banking crisis has softened the FDIC's resistance to them.
The agency's deposit insurance fund, which insures customers' deposits, has shrunk under the weight of collapsing banks. Analysts warn it could fall below zero by year's end. At least in theory, having private investors buy failing banks would allow the FDIC to reduce the losses it would have to cover at a failed bank.
Under the new rules, a buyer would need to maintain the bank's capital reserves equal to 10 percent of the failed bank's assets, down from 15 percent under an earlier proposal. That compares with a 5 percent minimum requirement for banks that buy other banks. And the new policy limits the circumstances under which private investors must maintain assets that could be provided if needed to bolster banks they own.
Once again the compromise with unwise connotations prevailing, but we're in a jam so we'll let it slide, the hell with everything
Squeezed by rising bank failures, regulators made it easier Wednesday for private investors to buy failed institutions.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s board voted 4-1 to reduce the cash that private equity funds must maintain in banks they acquire.
Private equity funds tend to buy distressed companies, slash costs and then resell them a few years later. They have been criticized for excessive risk-taking. But the depth of the banking crisis has softened the FDIC's resistance to them.
The agency's deposit insurance fund, which insures customers' deposits, has shrunk under the weight of collapsing banks. Analysts warn it could fall below zero by year's end. At least in theory, having private investors buy failing banks would allow the FDIC to reduce the losses it would have to cover at a failed bank.
Under the new rules, a buyer would need to maintain the bank's capital reserves equal to 10 percent of the failed bank's assets, down from 15 percent under an earlier proposal. That compares with a 5 percent minimum requirement for banks that buy other banks. And the new policy limits the circumstances under which private investors must maintain assets that could be provided if needed to bolster banks they own.
Agency that insures bank deposits may need help
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Agency-that-insures-bank-apf-1953199638.html?x=0
Fully backed by the government means another bill for the taxpayer to pay
The government agency that guarantees you won't lose your money in a bank failure may need a lifeline of its own.
The coffers of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. have been so depleted by the epidemic of collapsing financial institutions that analysts warn it could sink into the red by the end of this year.
That has happened only once before -- during the savings-and-loan crisis of the early 1990s, when the FDIC was forced to borrow $15 billion from the Treasury and repay it later with interest.
On Thursday, the agency reveals how much is left in its reserves. FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair may also use the quarterly briefing to say how the agency plans to shore up its accounts.
Small and midsize banks across the country have been hurt by rising loan defaults in the recession. When they fail, the FDIC is responsible for making sure depositors don't lose a cent.
It has two options to replenish its insurance fund in the short run: It can charge banks higher fees or it can take the more radical step of borrowing from the U.S. Treasury.
None of this means bank customers have anything to worry about. The FDIC is fully backed by the government, which means depositors' accounts are guaranteed up to $250,000 per account. And it still has billions in loss reserves apart from the insurance fund.
Fully backed by the government means another bill for the taxpayer to pay
The government agency that guarantees you won't lose your money in a bank failure may need a lifeline of its own.
The coffers of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. have been so depleted by the epidemic of collapsing financial institutions that analysts warn it could sink into the red by the end of this year.
That has happened only once before -- during the savings-and-loan crisis of the early 1990s, when the FDIC was forced to borrow $15 billion from the Treasury and repay it later with interest.
On Thursday, the agency reveals how much is left in its reserves. FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair may also use the quarterly briefing to say how the agency plans to shore up its accounts.
Small and midsize banks across the country have been hurt by rising loan defaults in the recession. When they fail, the FDIC is responsible for making sure depositors don't lose a cent.
It has two options to replenish its insurance fund in the short run: It can charge banks higher fees or it can take the more radical step of borrowing from the U.S. Treasury.
None of this means bank customers have anything to worry about. The FDIC is fully backed by the government, which means depositors' accounts are guaranteed up to $250,000 per account. And it still has billions in loss reserves apart from the insurance fund.
Breast cancer 'wonder drug' increases risk of rare tumour by 440%
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1208966/Breast-cancer-wonder-drug-increases-risk-rare-tumour-440.html
And rather than admit this drug to be the failure that it is, they will create a new drug to eradicate the more dangerous tumors that it creates as a secondary cancer from it's use.
I ask you America and the world for that matter, How much longer will you put up with this treatment of abuse?
It's clearly obvious that you are nothing more than a cow to be milked by the medical community and big pharma.
Breast cancer patients given tamoxifen are more than four times more likely to develop a more aggressive tumour than those not prescribed the drug, scientists have warned.
A study of over 1,000 patients found the oestrogen blocking drug reduced the risk of the most common, easy to treat cancer recurring by 60 per cent.
But the chances of a rarer type not sensitive to the female hormone appearing in the opposite breast increased by an alarming 440 per cent.
These are known as ER negative tumours, as opposed to ER positive, and are much more dangerous as there are no drugs that specifically target them.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1208966/Breast-cancer-wonder-drug-increases-risk-rare-tumour-440.html#ixzz0PLX0xoVR
And rather than admit this drug to be the failure that it is, they will create a new drug to eradicate the more dangerous tumors that it creates as a secondary cancer from it's use.
I ask you America and the world for that matter, How much longer will you put up with this treatment of abuse?
It's clearly obvious that you are nothing more than a cow to be milked by the medical community and big pharma.
Breast cancer patients given tamoxifen are more than four times more likely to develop a more aggressive tumour than those not prescribed the drug, scientists have warned.
A study of over 1,000 patients found the oestrogen blocking drug reduced the risk of the most common, easy to treat cancer recurring by 60 per cent.
But the chances of a rarer type not sensitive to the female hormone appearing in the opposite breast increased by an alarming 440 per cent.
These are known as ER negative tumours, as opposed to ER positive, and are much more dangerous as there are no drugs that specifically target them.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1208966/Breast-cancer-wonder-drug-increases-risk-rare-tumour-440.html#ixzz0PLX0xoVR
Feds: Stimulus money sent to 4,000 cons
Feds: Stimulus money sent to 4,000 cons
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view/20090826feds_stimulus_money_sent_to_4000_cons_herald_report_spurs_probe/srvc=home&position=also
It's time to face the fact that the system is a mess, how is it possible for those that don't receive a SS check, to be issued a stimulus check for it?
One day after the Herald reported some surprised Bay State inmates - including murderers and rapists - were cashing in $250 stimulus checks, federal officials revealed the same behind-bars bonus was mailed to nearly 4,000 cons nationwide.
A federal watchdog is now probing how the cons were cut the checks. The same cash also may have been sent to fugitive felons, people kicked out of the country and even individuals now deceased.
It’s all part of the massive American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 - and what is becoming an accounting nightmare for red-faced feds
Social Security Administration spokesman Stephen Richardson said yesterday none of the prisoner recipients receive monthly Social Security benefits, meaning they should not qualify for a stimulus check. Such benefits are generally cut off to the incarcerated.
The IG also is investigating whether any improper payments were made to dead beneficiaries, felons on the run from the law, individuals living overseas and recipients no longer legally authorized to live in the United States, said IG spokesman George Penn
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view/20090826feds_stimulus_money_sent_to_4000_cons_herald_report_spurs_probe/srvc=home&position=also
It's time to face the fact that the system is a mess, how is it possible for those that don't receive a SS check, to be issued a stimulus check for it?
One day after the Herald reported some surprised Bay State inmates - including murderers and rapists - were cashing in $250 stimulus checks, federal officials revealed the same behind-bars bonus was mailed to nearly 4,000 cons nationwide.
A federal watchdog is now probing how the cons were cut the checks. The same cash also may have been sent to fugitive felons, people kicked out of the country and even individuals now deceased.
It’s all part of the massive American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 - and what is becoming an accounting nightmare for red-faced feds
Social Security Administration spokesman Stephen Richardson said yesterday none of the prisoner recipients receive monthly Social Security benefits, meaning they should not qualify for a stimulus check. Such benefits are generally cut off to the incarcerated.
The IG also is investigating whether any improper payments were made to dead beneficiaries, felons on the run from the law, individuals living overseas and recipients no longer legally authorized to live in the United States, said IG spokesman George Penn
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Don't Inject Me (The Swine Flu Vaccine song)
http://www.naturalnews.com/Dont_Inject_Me_The_Swine_Flu_Vaccine_Song.html
Children's books are too bleak, says Anne Fine
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/booknews/6085928/Childrens-books-are-too-bleak-says-Anne-Fine.html
How bazaar is it that we enforce realism on small minds when most adults live their lives in a world enforced of make believe.
Too often they tended to veer towards bleak "realism" that had gone "too far", which gave youngsters little hope and little aspiration, the best selling author commented.
While Fine insisted that she was not advocating a return to books with a "Blyton-ish view of things", she said she was worried about the effects that so many downbeat stories were having on children
How bazaar is it that we enforce realism on small minds when most adults live their lives in a world enforced of make believe.
Too often they tended to veer towards bleak "realism" that had gone "too far", which gave youngsters little hope and little aspiration, the best selling author commented.
While Fine insisted that she was not advocating a return to books with a "Blyton-ish view of things", she said she was worried about the effects that so many downbeat stories were having on children
RI gov to shut down state government for 12 days
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20090825/D9A9IKMG1.html
One would think that the state employees union would be greatful to at least still have a job, but the age of entitlement is still to far entrenched in their minds for them to understand that compromise must be made, lest they have no jobs left to go to at all.
Rhode Island will shut down its state government for 12 days and hopes to trim millions of dollars in funding for local governments under a plan Gov. Don Carcieri outlined Monday to balance a budget hammered by surging unemployment and plummeting tax revenue.
The shutdown will force 81 percent of the roughly 13,550-member state work force, excluding its college system, to stay home a dozen days without pay before the start of the new fiscal year in July.
The closures come as the worst recession in decades has eliminated hundreds of millions of dollars in tax collections and pushed unemployment to 12.7 percent, the second-highest jobless rate in the nation behind Michigan.
Carcieri predicted the state's fiscal future could grow even bleaker.
"There are going to be inconveniences for the public, and there are going to be sacrifices, as I said, for state employees," Carcieri said at a Statehouse news conference. "These steps right now are unavoidable if the state is to live within its budget, live within its means."
The governor ordered the shutdown in an executive order but said he's willing to negotiate a different deal with state employee unions so long as it saves the same amount of money, roughly $22 million. But time is short: the first shutdown day has been scheduled for Sept. 4. Additional shutdown days have been scheduled every month through June.
Critical workers such as state police, prison guards and child abuse investigators still will report to work during the shutdown, Carcieri said. He ruled out raising taxes to balance the budget and said the state cannot lay off more workers since it deeply trimmed its work force last year.
At least 19 other state governments have proposed furloughing w
One would think that the state employees union would be greatful to at least still have a job, but the age of entitlement is still to far entrenched in their minds for them to understand that compromise must be made, lest they have no jobs left to go to at all.
Rhode Island will shut down its state government for 12 days and hopes to trim millions of dollars in funding for local governments under a plan Gov. Don Carcieri outlined Monday to balance a budget hammered by surging unemployment and plummeting tax revenue.
The shutdown will force 81 percent of the roughly 13,550-member state work force, excluding its college system, to stay home a dozen days without pay before the start of the new fiscal year in July.
The closures come as the worst recession in decades has eliminated hundreds of millions of dollars in tax collections and pushed unemployment to 12.7 percent, the second-highest jobless rate in the nation behind Michigan.
Carcieri predicted the state's fiscal future could grow even bleaker.
"There are going to be inconveniences for the public, and there are going to be sacrifices, as I said, for state employees," Carcieri said at a Statehouse news conference. "These steps right now are unavoidable if the state is to live within its budget, live within its means."
The governor ordered the shutdown in an executive order but said he's willing to negotiate a different deal with state employee unions so long as it saves the same amount of money, roughly $22 million. But time is short: the first shutdown day has been scheduled for Sept. 4. Additional shutdown days have been scheduled every month through June.
Critical workers such as state police, prison guards and child abuse investigators still will report to work during the shutdown, Carcieri said. He ruled out raising taxes to balance the budget and said the state cannot lay off more workers since it deeply trimmed its work force last year.
At least 19 other state governments have proposed furloughing w
Monday, August 24, 2009
Speed up US flu drugs, vaccines-White House panel
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N24154495.htm
Tamiflu hastens the recovery time by half a day, and yet they still push it. The question is why.
The UK was handing it out like candy with only a phone call for confirmation of the symptoms reality, causing a few deaths, but then really what can you expect when kids are handling the phones.
U.S. officials should help drug companies speed up the supply of swine flu drugs and vaccines, making at least some shots available by mid-September, White House science advisers said on Monday.
Calling the H1N1 pandemic "a serious threat to our nation", they also urged the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to quickly decide on new, intravenous formulations of flu drugs, including current drugs such as Roche AG's Tamiflu and GlaxoSmithKline's Relenza but also BioCryst Pharmaceuticals' experimental drug peramivir.
Tamiflu hastens the recovery time by half a day, and yet they still push it. The question is why.
The UK was handing it out like candy with only a phone call for confirmation of the symptoms reality, causing a few deaths, but then really what can you expect when kids are handling the phones.
U.S. officials should help drug companies speed up the supply of swine flu drugs and vaccines, making at least some shots available by mid-September, White House science advisers said on Monday.
Calling the H1N1 pandemic "a serious threat to our nation", they also urged the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to quickly decide on new, intravenous formulations of flu drugs, including current drugs such as Roche AG's
H1N1 October surprise prevention
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=14884
It's time to get involved people, coz this one ain't going away and is coming to a head
Code Red in effect now - martial law
Few choices will be allowed to citizens in the present Code Red Emergency, according to Barbara Loe Fisher, President National Vaccine Information Center. (video)
Massachusetts legislators have already passed pandemic influenza legislation legalizing entering homes without consent of occupants, quarantining without consent and abandoning free assembly of citizens.
The National Vaccine Information Center public vaccine education and advocacy watchdog, urges everyone to rapidly become informed about H1N1 ‘swine’ flu, vaccines and rights on freedom of choice, and to act upon them:
"As Dept of Homeland Security Officials are declaring that ‘any’ disease outbreak is a matter of ‘Homeland Security,’
As Dept of Defense are defining public demonstrations as ‘low-level terrorism,’
As plans are being made to designate 'selected US airports as quarantine centers through which all airplanes would be Re-routed for passenger health inspection;’
And as fast-tracked ‘experimental’ pandemic flu vaccines are being created to be given first to American children in schools:
It is time for all of us, whether public health doctors or ordinary citizens trying to protect our health; it is up to all of us to act in responsible and rational ways.” (Barbara Loe Fisher, 2009)
Mass public education about mass vaccination planned
Yesterday, Dr. Sherav agreed with knowledgeable ethical doctors globally: the "vaccine can absolutely spread the H1N1 ‘swine flu.'” (KPFK Sherry Beal radio interview, “Healthy Planet Healthy Me, August 21, 2009) (audio)
“This is no time to be a spectator, nor to hide in fear, and there's no sense in waiting until the worst possible scenario happens,” writes citizen action group, Vaccine Resistance Movement
It's time to get involved people, coz this one ain't going away and is coming to a head
Code Red in effect now - martial law
Few choices will be allowed to citizens in the present Code Red Emergency, according to Barbara Loe Fisher, President National Vaccine Information Center. (video)
Massachusetts legislators have already passed pandemic influenza legislation legalizing entering homes without consent of occupants, quarantining without consent and abandoning free assembly of citizens.
The National Vaccine Information Center public vaccine education and advocacy watchdog, urges everyone to rapidly become informed about H1N1 ‘swine’ flu, vaccines and rights on freedom of choice, and to act upon them:
"As Dept of Homeland Security Officials are declaring that ‘any’ disease outbreak is a matter of ‘Homeland Security,’
As Dept of Defense are defining public demonstrations as ‘low-level terrorism,’
As plans are being made to designate 'selected US airports as quarantine centers through which all airplanes would be Re-routed for passenger health inspection;’
And as fast-tracked ‘experimental’ pandemic flu vaccines are being created to be given first to American children in schools:
It is time for all of us, whether public health doctors or ordinary citizens trying to protect our health; it is up to all of us to act in responsible and rational ways.” (Barbara Loe Fisher, 2009)
Mass public education about mass vaccination planned
Yesterday, Dr. Sherav agreed with knowledgeable ethical doctors globally: the "vaccine can absolutely spread the H1N1 ‘swine flu.'” (KPFK Sherry Beal radio interview, “Healthy Planet Healthy Me, August 21, 2009) (audio)
“This is no time to be a spectator, nor to hide in fear, and there's no sense in waiting until the worst possible scenario happens,” writes citizen action group, Vaccine Resistance Movement
US Air Force prepares drones to end era of fighter pilots
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/aug/22/us-air-force-drones-pilots-afghanistan
War means big business financial stability, the proof is in the trade shows and they will do whatever it takes to keep the industry alive
As part of an expanding programme of battlefield automation, the US Air Force has said it is now training more drone operators than fighter and bomber pilots and signalled the end of the era of the fighter pilot is in sight.
In a controversial shift in military thinking – one encouraged by the now-confirmed death of Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud in a drone-strike on 5 August – the US air force is looking to hugely expand its fleet of unmanned aircraft by 2047.
Just three years ago, the service was able to fly just 12 drones at a time; now it can fly more than 50. At a trade conference outside Washington last week, military contractors presented a future vision in which pilotless drones serve as fighters, bombers and transports, even automatic mini-drones programmed to attack in swarms.
Contractors made presentations for "nano-size" drones the size of moths that can flit into buildings to gather intelligence; drone helicopters; large aircraft that could be used as strategic bombers and new mid-sized drones could act as jet fighters.
This Terminator-like vision in which future generations of fighter aces become cubicle-bound drone operators thousands of miles from conflict is already here: the deployment that began during the Bush administration has accelerated during the first seven months of Obama's term.
Some 5,000 robotic vehicles and drones are now deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan. By 2015, the Pentagon's $230bn arms procurement programme Future Combat Systems expects to robotise around 15% of America's armed forces. In a recently published study
War means big business financial stability, the proof is in the trade shows and they will do whatever it takes to keep the industry alive
As part of an expanding programme of battlefield automation, the US Air Force has said it is now training more drone operators than fighter and bomber pilots and signalled the end of the era of the fighter pilot is in sight.
In a controversial shift in military thinking – one encouraged by the now-confirmed death of Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud in a drone-strike on 5 August – the US air force is looking to hugely expand its fleet of unmanned aircraft by 2047.
Just three years ago, the service was able to fly just 12 drones at a time; now it can fly more than 50. At a trade conference outside Washington last week, military contractors presented a future vision in which pilotless drones serve as fighters, bombers and transports, even automatic mini-drones programmed to attack in swarms.
Contractors made presentations for "nano-size" drones the size of moths that can flit into buildings to gather intelligence; drone helicopters; large aircraft that could be used as strategic bombers and new mid-sized drones could act as jet fighters.
This Terminator-like vision in which future generations of fighter aces become cubicle-bound drone operators thousands of miles from conflict is already here: the deployment that began during the Bush administration has accelerated during the first seven months of Obama's term.
Some 5,000 robotic vehicles and drones are now deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan. By 2015, the Pentagon's $230bn arms procurement programme Future Combat Systems expects to robotise around 15% of America's armed forces. In a recently published study
Bombshell report on CIA interrogations is leaked
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/aug/22/cia-interrogation-report-leaked
How much is to much and how far are you really willing to overlook it
Findings suppressed since 2006 detail death threats against prisoners and other methods that may constitute tortutre
CIA interrogators threatened a captured al-Qaida leader with a power drill and a pistol in what was described as a mock execution, according to a long-suppressed report due to be released on Monday.
Details of the report by the spy agency's inspector general have emerged in the Washington Post and Newsweek. The full findings on the CIA's interrogation programme are to be made public after a federal judge upheld an appeal from the American Civil Liberties Union for their release.
The report is understood to describe mock executions where interrogators tried to get detainees to talk by firing a gun in an adjoining room to pretend another prisoner had been killed.
According to leaked information from the report, Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri was threatened with a drill and gun during his detention at one of the CIA's so-called black site prisons after his capture in 2002. He was subjected to the near-drowning technique known as waterboarding, as were two other al-Qaida leaders.
Nashiri, who remains in detention at Guantánamo Bay, has been accused of masterminding the 1999 bombing of the USS Cole, which killed 17 American sailors.
Sources familiar with the report told the Washington Post that Nashiri was threatened with death or grave injury during his questioning. A CIA officer showed Nashiri a gun and suggested he would be shot, and a power drill was held near Nashiri's body and repeatedly turned on and off. US law on torture prohibits a US national from threatening anyone in his custody with imminent death.
The disclosures come as the CIA faces intense scrutiny. The US attorney general, Eric Holder, has been examining
How much is to much and how far are you really willing to overlook it
Findings suppressed since 2006 detail death threats against prisoners and other methods that may constitute tortutre
CIA interrogators threatened a captured al-Qaida leader with a power drill and a pistol in what was described as a mock execution, according to a long-suppressed report due to be released on Monday.
Details of the report by the spy agency's inspector general have emerged in the Washington Post and Newsweek. The full findings on the CIA's interrogation programme are to be made public after a federal judge upheld an appeal from the American Civil Liberties Union for their release.
The report is understood to describe mock executions where interrogators tried to get detainees to talk by firing a gun in an adjoining room to pretend another prisoner had been killed.
According to leaked information from the report, Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri was threatened with a drill and gun during his detention at one of the CIA's so-called black site prisons after his capture in 2002. He was subjected to the near-drowning technique known as waterboarding, as were two other al-Qaida leaders.
Nashiri, who remains in detention at Guantánamo Bay, has been accused of masterminding the 1999 bombing of the USS Cole, which killed 17 American sailors.
Sources familiar with the report told the Washington Post that Nashiri was threatened with death or grave injury during his questioning. A CIA officer showed Nashiri a gun and suggested he would be shot, and a power drill was held near Nashiri's body and repeatedly turned on and off. US law on torture prohibits a US national from threatening anyone in his custody with imminent death.
The disclosures come as the CIA faces intense scrutiny. The US attorney general, Eric Holder, has been examining
What the Stress Tests Didn't Predict
http://finance.yahoo.com/banking-budgeting/article/107585/what-the-stress-tests-did-not-predict.html?sec=topStories&pos=1&asset=&ccode=
How much more are you willing to give to keep the Titanic afloat?
With that in mind, Christopher Whalen, managing director at Institutional Risk Analytics, a research firm, has analyzed financial data from the second quarter of this year that almost 7,000 banks submitted to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. The data includes 90 percent of institutions with federally insured deposits but excludes reports from the 19 money-center banks like Citigroup, Bank of America and Wells Fargo. Those reports are filed later to the F.D.I.C.
Even with the big guys missing from the analysis, it is an illuminating look at the health of regional and community banks and a fairly comprehensive assessment of the industry's well-being.
Unfortunately, that assessment shows that the number of financially sound banks is declining and that the ranks of troubled institutions are growing. Indeed, Mr. Whalen said his figures show more stress in the banking industry in the second quarter of 2009 than in the immediately previous periods.
For example, Institutional Risk Analytics gave 4,234 banks a rating of A+ or A (as a measure of their financial soundness) as of June 30. That total was down 21 percent from the end of March and 25 percent from the end of 2008. Meanwhile, it slapped a failing grade on 1,882 banks as of June 30, up 16.5 percent from the end of March; the number with failing grades had dropped a bit in the first quarter.
This downward migration is a sign that more banks are now feeling the effects of economic conditions regardless of their business models, Mr. Whalen said. In other words, even the best-run banks are having trouble escaping the impact of a sluggish economy and high unemployment.
Based on his preliminary review of individual bank reports, Mr. Whalen said the greater stress across the industry results from the large number of banks getting dinged by losses or charge-offs. The figures, Mr. Whalen said, call into question assumptions made by the government earlier this year, when it put major banks through "stress tests."
In short, the tests may not have been tough enough.
How much more are you willing to give to keep the Titanic afloat?
With that in mind, Christopher Whalen, managing director at Institutional Risk Analytics, a research firm, has analyzed financial data from the second quarter of this year that almost 7,000 banks submitted to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. The data includes 90 percent of institutions with federally insured deposits but excludes reports from the 19 money-center banks like Citigroup, Bank of America and Wells Fargo. Those reports are filed later to the F.D.I.C.
Even with the big guys missing from the analysis, it is an illuminating look at the health of regional and community banks and a fairly comprehensive assessment of the industry's well-being.
Unfortunately, that assessment shows that the number of financially sound banks is declining and that the ranks of troubled institutions are growing. Indeed, Mr. Whalen said his figures show more stress in the banking industry in the second quarter of 2009 than in the immediately previous periods.
For example, Institutional Risk Analytics gave 4,234 banks a rating of A+ or A (as a measure of their financial soundness) as of June 30. That total was down 21 percent from the end of March and 25 percent from the end of 2008. Meanwhile, it slapped a failing grade on 1,882 banks as of June 30, up 16.5 percent from the end of March; the number with failing grades had dropped a bit in the first quarter.
This downward migration is a sign that more banks are now feeling the effects of economic conditions regardless of their business models, Mr. Whalen said. In other words, even the best-run banks are having trouble escaping the impact of a sluggish economy and high unemployment.
Based on his preliminary review of individual bank reports, Mr. Whalen said the greater stress across the industry results from the large number of banks getting dinged by losses or charge-offs. The figures, Mr. Whalen said, call into question assumptions made by the government earlier this year, when it put major banks through "stress tests."
In short, the tests may not have been tough enough.
Vaccine-Induced Disease Epidemic Outbreaks The Engineering of 'Pandemics'
http://www.rense.com/general87/indu.htm
This shows the extent of Greed and how far people will go to feed it.
The year was 1921. America was entering a decade of robust prosperity. Later called "The Roaring Twenties", it was a time of unparalleled economic expansion. Debt money from Wall Street banks was plentiful and easy to obtain. The "Great War" was over.
America was flexing her industrial muscles. Factories were being built and expanded in every major city. Automobiles began rolling off Detroit assembly lines in record numbers. The stock market began making millionaires. People were HEALTHY and HAPPY largely because the dreaded "world mystery disease" (which decades later became known as the "1918 Flu Pandemic") had disappeared. Two entire years had passed with no dreaded "mystery deaths" being reported. America had cause to celebrate, and celebrate they did!
As a matter of fact, the American Public in general was so optimistic and HAPPY in 1921, that relatively few people were unhealthy as well. For the first time in decades, hospital beds were empty. The fledgling American Medical Association, formed by John D. Rockefeller just a few years earlier, was worried. Business was sagging.
Profits from vaccines and drugs were spiraling. Something had to be done, and done immediately. False, faux epidemics of smallpox were created to solve the problem, and keep the Medical Mafia's cash registers ringing.
We know this dastardly plan actually happened, thanks to a citizen's WATCHDOG GROUP in Kansas City, Missouri named "The Advertiser's Protective Bureau", who filed, and successfully prosecuted criminal charges against the Missouri state chapter of the AMA the Jackson Medical Society. The 'Protective Bureau's" official report of this cold-blooded plot reads as follows:
"In the Fall of 1921, the health of the city was unusually good, but slow for the doctors. So the Jackson Medical Society met and resolved to make an epidemic in the city. According to the minutes of this meeting: 'MOTION WAS MADE AND SECONDED, THAT A RECOMMENDATION BE MADE BY THE COMMITTEE, TO THE BOARD OF HEALTH, THAT AN EPIDEMIC OF SMALLPOX BE DECLARED IN THE CITY. (Investigation later revealed that there was NO SIGN OF AN EPIDEMIC at the time, in the city, or anywhere in the state or region!)
'It was moved and seconded that a day be set aside, termed VACCINATION DAY, on whic
This shows the extent of Greed and how far people will go to feed it.
The year was 1921. America was entering a decade of robust prosperity. Later called "The Roaring Twenties", it was a time of unparalleled economic expansion. Debt money from Wall Street banks was plentiful and easy to obtain. The "Great War" was over.
America was flexing her industrial muscles. Factories were being built and expanded in every major city. Automobiles began rolling off Detroit assembly lines in record numbers. The stock market began making millionaires. People were HEALTHY and HAPPY largely because the dreaded "world mystery disease" (which decades later became known as the "1918 Flu Pandemic") had disappeared. Two entire years had passed with no dreaded "mystery deaths" being reported. America had cause to celebrate, and celebrate they did!
As a matter of fact, the American Public in general was so optimistic and HAPPY in 1921, that relatively few people were unhealthy as well. For the first time in decades, hospital beds were empty. The fledgling American Medical Association, formed by John D. Rockefeller just a few years earlier, was worried. Business was sagging.
Profits from vaccines and drugs were spiraling. Something had to be done, and done immediately. False, faux epidemics of smallpox were created to solve the problem, and keep the Medical Mafia's cash registers ringing.
We know this dastardly plan actually happened, thanks to a citizen's WATCHDOG GROUP in Kansas City, Missouri named "The Advertiser's Protective Bureau", who filed, and successfully prosecuted criminal charges against the Missouri state chapter of the AMA the Jackson Medical Society. The 'Protective Bureau's" official report of this cold-blooded plot reads as follows:
"In the Fall of 1921, the health of the city was unusually good, but slow for the doctors. So the Jackson Medical Society met and resolved to make an epidemic in the city. According to the minutes of this meeting: 'MOTION WAS MADE AND SECONDED, THAT A RECOMMENDATION BE MADE BY THE COMMITTEE, TO THE BOARD OF HEALTH, THAT AN EPIDEMIC OF SMALLPOX BE DECLARED IN THE CITY. (Investigation later revealed that there was NO SIGN OF AN EPIDEMIC at the time, in the city, or anywhere in the state or region!)
'It was moved and seconded that a day be set aside, termed VACCINATION DAY, on whic
Swine Flu Campaign Waits on Vaccine
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/22/AR2009082202337_pf.html
With a campaign of this supposed importance, what happens when no one willingly stands in line to receive it? The question is: Will they force the issue?
Government health officials are mobilizing to launch a massive swine flu vaccination campaign this fall that is unprecedented in its scope -- and in the potential for complications.
The campaign aims to vaccinate at least half the country's population within months. Although more people have been inoculated against diseases such as smallpox and polio over a period of years, the United States has never tried to immunize so many so quickly.
But even as scientists rush to test the vaccine to ensure it is safe and effective, the campaign is lagging. Officials say only about a third as much vaccine as they had been expecting by mid-October is likely to arrive by then, when a new wave of infections could be peaking.
Among the unknowns: how many shots people will need, what the correct dosage should be, and how to avoid confusing the public with an overlapping effort to combat the regular seasonal flu.
To prepare, more than 2,800 local health departments have begun recruiting pediatricians, obstetricians, nurses, pharmacists, paramedics and even dentists, along with a small army of volunteers from churches and other groups. They are devising strategies to reach children, teenagers, pregnant women and young and middle-aged adults in inner cities, suburban enclaves and the countryside.
"This is potentially the largest mass-vaccination program in human history," said Howard Markel, a professor of medical history at the University of Michigan who is advising the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as it spearheads the effort.
Public health officials describe the effort as crucial to defend against the second wave of the Northern Hemisphere's first influenza pandemic in 41 years.
As schools reopen, the number
With a campaign of this supposed importance, what happens when no one willingly stands in line to receive it? The question is: Will they force the issue?
Government health officials are mobilizing to launch a massive swine flu vaccination campaign this fall that is unprecedented in its scope -- and in the potential for complications.
The campaign aims to vaccinate at least half the country's population within months. Although more people have been inoculated against diseases such as smallpox and polio over a period of years, the United States has never tried to immunize so many so quickly.
But even as scientists rush to test the vaccine to ensure it is safe and effective, the campaign is lagging. Officials say only about a third as much vaccine as they had been expecting by mid-October is likely to arrive by then, when a new wave of infections could be peaking.
Among the unknowns: how many shots people will need, what the correct dosage should be, and how to avoid confusing the public with an overlapping effort to combat the regular seasonal flu.
To prepare, more than 2,800 local health departments have begun recruiting pediatricians, obstetricians, nurses, pharmacists, paramedics and even dentists, along with a small army of volunteers from churches and other groups. They are devising strategies to reach children, teenagers, pregnant women and young and middle-aged adults in inner cities, suburban enclaves and the countryside.
"This is potentially the largest mass-vaccination program in human history," said Howard Markel, a professor of medical history at the University of Michigan who is advising the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as it spearheads the effort.
Public health officials describe the effort as crucial to defend against the second wave of the Northern Hemisphere's first influenza pandemic in 41 years.
As schools reopen, the number
Sunday, August 23, 2009
AP sources: $2 trillion higher deficit projected
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/AP-sources-2-trillion-higher-apf-2763511180.html?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=4&asset=&ccode=
The Obama administration expects the federal deficit over the next decade to be $2 trillion bigger than previously estimated, White House officials said Friday, a setback for a president already facing a Congress and public wary over spending.
The new projection, to be announced on Tuesday, is for a cumulative 2010-2019 deficit of $9 trillion instead of the $7 trillion previously estimated. The new figure reflects slumping revenues from a worse economic picture than was expected earlier this year. The officials spoke only on the condition of anonymity ahead of next week's announcement.
If you have the time to look auction by auction at the treasury website:
http://www.treasurydirect.gov/instit...re/preanre.htm
and enought time to look at the FED buying in both coupons and MBSs at
http://www.newyorkfed.org/markets/po...&opertype=orig
You will find that in 2009 only in FED coupon purchases and treasury auctions the amount is already over 5.2 trillions so far.
No wonder why Obama is rising the # to 10 trillions, but it wouldn't be for the next 4-10 years.
The FED is monetizing the US debt grossly. The FED is using treasury and their primary dealers to launder the money.
The Obama administration expects the federal deficit over the next decade to be $2 trillion bigger than previously estimated, White House officials said Friday, a setback for a president already facing a Congress and public wary over spending.
The new projection, to be announced on Tuesday, is for a cumulative 2010-2019 deficit of $9 trillion instead of the $7 trillion previously estimated. The new figure reflects slumping revenues from a worse economic picture than was expected earlier this year. The officials spoke only on the condition of anonymity ahead of next week's announcement.
If you have the time to look auction by auction at the treasury website:
http://www.treasurydirect.gov/instit...re/preanre.htm
and enought time to look at the FED buying in both coupons and MBSs at
http://www.newyorkfed.org/markets/po...&opertype=orig
You will find that in 2009 only in FED coupon purchases and treasury auctions the amount is already over 5.2 trillions so far.
No wonder why Obama is rising the # to 10 trillions, but it wouldn't be for the next 4-10 years.
The FED is monetizing the US debt grossly. The FED is using treasury and their primary dealers to launder the money.
Thursday, August 20, 2009
What rebound? Foreclosures rise as jobs and income drop
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/100/story/74106.html?storylink=omni_popular
"The rise in prime delinquencies . . . is a clear indication that employment is the driver of mortgage performance, with the worst performance coming in those areas that are combining jobs losses with large drops in home values like California and Florida," Jay Brinkmann, the group's chief economist, told McClatchy. "We won't see a turnaround in delinquencies until we see improvements in employment, most likely the middle of next year."
Forty-one states notched a rise in their foreclosure rate for prime fixed-rate mortgages in the second quarter, and prime fixed-rate loans accounted for one in three foreclosure starts. A year ago they were one in five starts.
Prime fixed-rate loans are 65 percent of all U.S. mortgages outstanding, but more than 32 percent of foreclosure starts from April to June. They also constitute 27 percent of all U.S. loans now in foreclosure, up from 17 percent in the comparable 2008 period.
The rising delinquency and foreclosure rate for prime loans creates new problems for the Obama administration
"The rise in prime delinquencies . . . is a clear indication that employment is the driver of mortgage performance, with the worst performance coming in those areas that are combining jobs losses with large drops in home values like California and Florida," Jay Brinkmann, the group's chief economist, told McClatchy. "We won't see a turnaround in delinquencies until we see improvements in employment, most likely the middle of next year."
Forty-one states notched a rise in their foreclosure rate for prime fixed-rate mortgages in the second quarter, and prime fixed-rate loans accounted for one in three foreclosure starts. A year ago they were one in five starts.
Prime fixed-rate loans are 65 percent of all U.S. mortgages outstanding, but more than 32 percent of foreclosure starts from April to June. They also constitute 27 percent of all U.S. loans now in foreclosure, up from 17 percent in the comparable 2008 period.
The rising delinquency and foreclosure rate for prime loans creates new problems for the Obama administration
Seller, beware: Feds cracking down on garage sales
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/226/story/74102.html?storylink=omni_popular
This is your government working hard for you.
I wonder if they'll have job openings for a yard sale snitch
If you're planning a garage sale or organizing a church bazaar, you'd best beware: You could be breaking a new federal law. As part of a campaign called Resale Roundup, the federal government is cracking down on the secondhand sales of dangerous and defective products.
The initiative, which targets toys and other products for children, enforces a new provision that makes it a crime to resell anything that's been recalled by its manufacturer.
"Those who resell recalled children's products are not only breaking the law, they are putting children's lives at risk," said Inez Tenenbaum, the recently confirmed chairwoman of the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
The crackdown affects sellers ranging from major thrift-store operators such as Goodwill and the Salvation Army to everyday Americans cleaning out their attics for yard sales, church bazaars or — increasingly — digital hawking on eBay, Craigslist and other Web sites.
Secondhand sellers now must keep abreast of recalls for thousands of products, some of them stretching back more than a decade, to stay within the bounds of the law.
Staffers for the federal agency are fanning out across the country to conduct training seminars on the regulations at dozens of thrift shops.
"Even before this law, we had good mechanisms
This is your government working hard for you.
I wonder if they'll have job openings for a yard sale snitch
If you're planning a garage sale or organizing a church bazaar, you'd best beware: You could be breaking a new federal law. As part of a campaign called Resale Roundup, the federal government is cracking down on the secondhand sales of dangerous and defective products.
The initiative, which targets toys and other products for children, enforces a new provision that makes it a crime to resell anything that's been recalled by its manufacturer.
"Those who resell recalled children's products are not only breaking the law, they are putting children's lives at risk," said Inez Tenenbaum, the recently confirmed chairwoman of the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
The crackdown affects sellers ranging from major thrift-store operators such as Goodwill and the Salvation Army to everyday Americans cleaning out their attics for yard sales, church bazaars or — increasingly — digital hawking on eBay, Craigslist and other Web sites.
Secondhand sellers now must keep abreast of recalls for thousands of products, some of them stretching back more than a decade, to stay within the bounds of the law.
Staffers for the federal agency are fanning out across the country to conduct training seminars on the regulations at dozens of thrift shops.
"Even before this law, we had good mechanisms
C.I.A. Sought Blackwater’s Help to Kill Jihadists
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/20/us/20intel.html?_r=2&partner=rss&emc=rss
The Central Intelligence Agency in 2004 hired outside contractors from the private security contractor Blackwater USA as part of a secret program to locate and assassinate top operatives of Al Qaeda, according to current and former government officials.
Khalid Mohammed/Associated Press
Blackwater security contractors flew over Baghdad in 2007. For years, Blackwater played a significant role in the Iraq operation.
Executives from Blackwater, which has generated controversy because of its aggressive tactics in Iraq, helped the spy agency with planning, training and surveillance. The C.I.A. spent several million dollars on the program, which did not successfully capture or kill any terrorist suspects.
The fact that the C.I.A. used an outside company for the program was a major reason that Leon E. Panetta, the C.I.A.’s director, became alarmed and called an emergency meeting in June to tell Congress that the agency had withheld details of the program for seven years, the officials said.
It is unclear whether the C.I.A. had planned to use the contractors to actually capture or kill Qaeda operatives, or just to help with training and surveillance in the program. American spy agencies have in recent years outsourced some highly controversial work, including the interrogation of prisoners. But government officials said that bringing outsiders into a program with lethal authority raised deep concerns about accountability in covert operations.
Officials said the C.I.A. did not have a formal contract with Blackwater for this program but instead had individual agreements with top company officials, including the founder, Erik D. Prince, a politically connected former member of the Navy Seals and the heir to a family fortune. Blackwater’s work on the program actually ended years before Mr. Panetta took over the agency, after senior C.I.A. officials themselves questioned the wisdom of using outsiders in a targeted killing program.
Blackwater, which has changed its name
The Central Intelligence Agency in 2004 hired outside contractors from the private security contractor Blackwater USA as part of a secret program to locate and assassinate top operatives of Al Qaeda, according to current and former government officials.
Khalid Mohammed/Associated Press
Blackwater security contractors flew over Baghdad in 2007. For years, Blackwater played a significant role in the Iraq operation.
Executives from Blackwater, which has generated controversy because of its aggressive tactics in Iraq, helped the spy agency with planning, training and surveillance. The C.I.A. spent several million dollars on the program, which did not successfully capture or kill any terrorist suspects.
The fact that the C.I.A. used an outside company for the program was a major reason that Leon E. Panetta, the C.I.A.’s director, became alarmed and called an emergency meeting in June to tell Congress that the agency had withheld details of the program for seven years, the officials said.
It is unclear whether the C.I.A. had planned to use the contractors to actually capture or kill Qaeda operatives, or just to help with training and surveillance in the program. American spy agencies have in recent years outsourced some highly controversial work, including the interrogation of prisoners. But government officials said that bringing outsiders into a program with lethal authority raised deep concerns about accountability in covert operations.
Officials said the C.I.A. did not have a formal contract with Blackwater for this program but instead had individual agreements with top company officials, including the founder, Erik D. Prince, a politically connected former member of the Navy Seals and the heir to a family fortune. Blackwater’s work on the program actually ended years before Mr. Panetta took over the agency, after senior C.I.A. officials themselves questioned the wisdom of using outsiders in a targeted killing program.
Blackwater, which has changed its name
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Options market allows bets on where hurricanes hit
http://www.miamiherald.com/1460/story/1192704.html
Is there anything that's not bet on?
Is there anything that's not bet on?
My Bad! Woman's House Mistakenly Auctioned by Bank
http://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local-b...-53583357.html
You know times are tough when people are getting kicked out of their house when it’s not even for sale.
That’s what happened to Anna Ramirez after she found all of her stuff out on the front lawn of her Homestead home last week and a strange man demanding she get out of his newly purchased house.
The eviction came after Ramirez’s home was mistakenly auctioned off to the highest bidder by her bank, Washington Mutual. Usually, you get a warning before you get the boot. A foreclosure letter. Maybe a sign saying your house is up for sale. Not Ramirez, who found her belongings bashed and battered in the street.
"This came out of nowhere," Ramirez said. "The bank took the house from right under my feet."
The man who bought the house told Ramirez he paid $87,000 for it, which shocked Ramirez, who bought the house for $260,000.
What's worse is her husband, daughter and grand children were also kicked out by Homestead and Miami-Dade police officers, said Martha Taylor, who witnessed
You know times are tough when people are getting kicked out of their house when it’s not even for sale.
That’s what happened to Anna Ramirez after she found all of her stuff out on the front lawn of her Homestead home last week and a strange man demanding she get out of his newly purchased house.
The eviction came after Ramirez’s home was mistakenly auctioned off to the highest bidder by her bank, Washington Mutual. Usually, you get a warning before you get the boot. A foreclosure letter. Maybe a sign saying your house is up for sale. Not Ramirez, who found her belongings bashed and battered in the street.
"This came out of nowhere," Ramirez said. "The bank took the house from right under my feet."
The man who bought the house told Ramirez he paid $87,000 for it, which shocked Ramirez, who bought the house for $260,000.
What's worse is her husband, daughter and grand children were also kicked out by Homestead and Miami-Dade police officers, said Martha Taylor, who witnessed
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
America's Warfare State: Lining the pockets of Pentagon contractors
http://www.blacklistednews.com/news-5228-0-22-22--.html
On my last day in Iraq,” veteran McClatchy News correspondent Leila Fadel wrote August 9th, “as on my first day in Iraq, I couldn’t see what the United States and its allies had accomplished. …I couldn’t understand what thousands of American soldiers had died for and why hundreds of thousands of Iraqis had been killed.”
Quite a few oil company CEO’s and “defense” industry executives, however, do have a pretty good idea of why that war is being fought. As Michael Cherkasky, president of Kroll Inc., said a year after the Iraq invasion boosted his security firm’s profits 231 percent: “It’s the Gold Rush.” What follows is a brief look at some of the outfits that cashed in, and at the multitudes that got took.
“Defense Earnings Continue to Soar,” Renae Merle wrote in The Washington Post on July 30, 2007. “Several of Washington’s largest defense contractors said last week that they continue to benefit from a boom in spending on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan…” Merle added, “Profit reports from Northrop Grumman, General Dynamics and Lockheed Martin showed particularly strong results in operations in the region.” More recently, Boeing’s second-quarter earnings this year rose 17 percent, Associated Press reported, in part because of what AP called “robust defense sales.”
But war, it turns out, is not only unhealthy for human beings, it is not uniformly good for the economy. Many sectors suffer, including non-defense employment, as a war can destroy more jobs than it creates. While the makers of warplanes may be flying high, these are “Tough Times For Commercial Aerospace,” Business Week reported July 13th. “The sector is contending with the deepening global recession, declining air traffic, capacity cuts by airlines, and reduced availability of financing for aircraft purchases.”
The general public suffers, too. “As President Bush tried to fight the war without increasing taxes, the Iraq war has displaced private investment and/or government expenditures, including investments in infrastructure, R&D and education: they are less than they would otherwise have been,” write Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes in “The Three Trillion Dollar War”(Norton). Stiglitz holds a Nobel Prize in economics and Bilmes is former assistant secretary of the U.S. Department of Commerce. They say government money spent in Iraq does not stimulate the economy in the way that the same amounts spent at home would.
The war has also starved countless firms for expansion bucks. “Higher borrowing costs for business since the beginning of the Iraq war are bleeding manufacturing investment,” Greg Palast wrote
On my last day in Iraq,” veteran McClatchy News correspondent Leila Fadel wrote August 9th, “as on my first day in Iraq, I couldn’t see what the United States and its allies had accomplished. …I couldn’t understand what thousands of American soldiers had died for and why hundreds of thousands of Iraqis had been killed.”
Quite a few oil company CEO’s and “defense” industry executives, however, do have a pretty good idea of why that war is being fought. As Michael Cherkasky, president of Kroll Inc., said a year after the Iraq invasion boosted his security firm’s profits 231 percent: “It’s the Gold Rush.” What follows is a brief look at some of the outfits that cashed in, and at the multitudes that got took.
“Defense Earnings Continue to Soar,” Renae Merle wrote in The Washington Post on July 30, 2007. “Several of Washington’s largest defense contractors said last week that they continue to benefit from a boom in spending on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan…” Merle added, “Profit reports from Northrop Grumman, General Dynamics and Lockheed Martin showed particularly strong results in operations in the region.” More recently, Boeing’s second-quarter earnings this year rose 17 percent, Associated Press reported, in part because of what AP called “robust defense sales.”
But war, it turns out, is not only unhealthy for human beings, it is not uniformly good for the economy. Many sectors suffer, including non-defense employment, as a war can destroy more jobs than it creates. While the makers of warplanes may be flying high, these are “Tough Times For Commercial Aerospace,” Business Week reported July 13th. “The sector is contending with the deepening global recession, declining air traffic, capacity cuts by airlines, and reduced availability of financing for aircraft purchases.”
The general public suffers, too. “As President Bush tried to fight the war without increasing taxes, the Iraq war has displaced private investment and/or government expenditures, including investments in infrastructure, R&D and education: they are less than they would otherwise have been,” write Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes in “The Three Trillion Dollar War”(Norton). Stiglitz holds a Nobel Prize in economics and Bilmes is former assistant secretary of the U.S. Department of Commerce. They say government money spent in Iraq does not stimulate the economy in the way that the same amounts spent at home would.
The war has also starved countless firms for expansion bucks. “Higher borrowing costs for business since the beginning of the Iraq war are bleeding manufacturing investment,” Greg Palast wrote
The Cia, Siberia And The $5m Bar Bill
The Cia, Siberia And The $5m Bar Bill
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.nypost.com/seven/08162009...ill_184851.htm
A FEDERAL COURT CASE REVEALS A BIZARRE TALE OF POST-9/11 OPERATIONS IN AFGHANISTAN
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.nypost.com/seven/08162009...ill_184851.htm
A FEDERAL COURT CASE REVEALS A BIZARRE TALE OF POST-9/11 OPERATIONS IN AFGHANISTAN
Monday, August 17, 2009
Only a third of nurses willing to have swine flu vaccine: poll
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/swine-flu/6043612/Only-a-third-of-nurses-willing-to-have-swine-flu-vaccine-poll.html
This statement is the key of common sense as to why we all should strongly object
to the governments forced intervention into our personal live by mandatory directing the " killer pandemic" procedures that they think we all must be subjected to.
If the virus mutates then how many times must the vaccine mutate
"I would not be willing to put myself at risk of, as yet, unknown long-term effects to facilitate a short-term solution," said one respondent
This statement is the key of common sense as to why we all should strongly object
to the governments forced intervention into our personal live by mandatory directing the " killer pandemic" procedures that they think we all must be subjected to.
If the virus mutates then how many times must the vaccine mutate
"I would not be willing to put myself at risk of, as yet, unknown long-term effects to facilitate a short-term solution," said one respondent
Questions on the vaccine
http://www.rense.com/general87/pandd.htm
THE EMEA PROVIDES DISCLOSURE
Over the weekend, a gentleman in Belgium sent a very interesting e-mail. He had finally succeeded in getting a document from the European Medicines Agency (EMEA -the European Union's equivalent of America's FDA) that listed the basic ingredients in the primary "pandemic flu" vaccine being purchased for Europe * GlaxoSmithKline's (GSK) PANDEMRIX vaccine. This EMEA Document is very, very revealing.
The vaccine consists of:
Active Substance: Pandemic influenza vaccine (H5N1) (split virion, inactivated, adjuvanted) A/VietNam/1194/2004 NIBRG-14.
Clearly, this is BIRD FLU vaccine, with the isolated antigen being the VietNam killer bird flu virus that has exhibited such a high mortality rate amongst victims in that country. The problem is, according to the WHO, the pandemic flu threatening Europe and the world is not a BIRD FLU (H5N1) virus at all, but is a "Novel" Swine Flu (H1N1) virus. How is it possible that such a specific BIRD FLU VACCINE would give any immune protection to a "Novel" Swine Flu "pandemic" virus?
It would seem that GSK is trying to unload stockpiles of its "Avian Pandemic Flu" vaccine by disguising it as a generic "Pandemic" vaccine under the name "PANDEMRIX"!! Why is the EMEA allowing this to happen? Will the FDA follow the EMEA's lead and allow "Pandemrix" bird flu viruses to be shot into millions of school children in America? Or will it be only Novartis or Novavax vaccines allowed in America? When will Americans be given FULL DISCLOSURE OF THE LABELING, and the COMPANIES UNDER CONTRACT??
THE EMEA PROVIDES DISCLOSURE
Over the weekend, a gentleman in Belgium sent a very interesting e-mail. He had finally succeeded in getting a document from the European Medicines Agency (EMEA -the European Union's equivalent of America's FDA) that listed the basic ingredients in the primary "pandemic flu" vaccine being purchased for Europe * GlaxoSmithKline's (GSK) PANDEMRIX vaccine. This EMEA Document is very, very revealing.
The vaccine consists of:
Active Substance: Pandemic influenza vaccine (H5N1) (split virion, inactivated, adjuvanted) A/VietNam/1194/2004 NIBRG-14.
Clearly, this is BIRD FLU vaccine, with the isolated antigen being the VietNam killer bird flu virus that has exhibited such a high mortality rate amongst victims in that country. The problem is, according to the WHO, the pandemic flu threatening Europe and the world is not a BIRD FLU (H5N1) virus at all, but is a "Novel" Swine Flu (H1N1) virus. How is it possible that such a specific BIRD FLU VACCINE would give any immune protection to a "Novel" Swine Flu "pandemic" virus?
It would seem that GSK is trying to unload stockpiles of its "Avian Pandemic Flu" vaccine by disguising it as a generic "Pandemic" vaccine under the name "PANDEMRIX"!! Why is the EMEA allowing this to happen? Will the FDA follow the EMEA's lead and allow "Pandemrix" bird flu viruses to be shot into millions of school children in America? Or will it be only Novartis or Novavax vaccines allowed in America? When will Americans be given FULL DISCLOSURE OF THE LABELING, and the COMPANIES UNDER CONTRACT??
State parks targeted for oil, gas drilling
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2009/08/17/state_parks_targeted_for_oil_gas_drilling/?rss_id=Boston+Globe+--+Today%27s+paper+A+to+Z
Oh look new opportunities, but at what expense?
State parks aren’t just for hiking, camping, and other recreation anymore. Increasingly, these lands are being used for oil and gas drilling as budget-strapped states seek new sources of revenue.
As they allow more energy exploration in state parks - in some cases by reversing previous bans - lawmakers are being met with resistance from environmentalists and park officials.
Opponents of the drilling say it raises troubling questions about acceptable uses of publicly shared land - even when new technology allows rigs positioned outside park boundaries to reach petroleum pockets deep beneath the parks by drilling horizontally.
Sean Logan, director of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, said parks get 40 percent of their money from fees related to camping, boating, beach access, and other recreational activities. If drilling affects the panoramas or the noise level, these other revenue sources could start suffering, he said.
Drilling is still barred in national parks. But the reversal of some state bans coincides with efforts to expand exploration in other previously off-limits locations: offshore in coastal states, near Aztec ruins in New Mexico, and in some urban parks.
Oh look new opportunities, but at what expense?
State parks aren’t just for hiking, camping, and other recreation anymore. Increasingly, these lands are being used for oil and gas drilling as budget-strapped states seek new sources of revenue.
As they allow more energy exploration in state parks - in some cases by reversing previous bans - lawmakers are being met with resistance from environmentalists and park officials.
Opponents of the drilling say it raises troubling questions about acceptable uses of publicly shared land - even when new technology allows rigs positioned outside park boundaries to reach petroleum pockets deep beneath the parks by drilling horizontally.
Sean Logan, director of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, said parks get 40 percent of their money from fees related to camping, boating, beach access, and other recreational activities. If drilling affects the panoramas or the noise level, these other revenue sources could start suffering, he said.
Drilling is still barred in national parks. But the reversal of some state bans coincides with efforts to expand exploration in other previously off-limits locations: offshore in coastal states, near Aztec ruins in New Mexico, and in some urban parks.
US military embraces robot 'revolution'
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.d10c511b69833385c9228d3b65cd742c.1a1&show_article=1&catnum=1
The big business of war, and just how profitable it can be.
Robots or "unmanned systems" are now deployed by the thousands in Iraq and Afghanistan, spying from the sky for hours on end, searching for booby-traps and firing lethal missiles without putting US soldiers at risk.
The use of robotics in the military has exploded in the past several years as technology has advanced while Washington faced a new kind of enemy that required patient, precise surveillance.
In 2003, the US military had almost no robots in its arsenal but now has 7,000 unmanned aircraft and at least 10,000 ground vehicles.
The US Air Force, which initially resisted the idea of pilotless planes, said it trains more operators for unmanned aircraft than pilots for its fighter jets and bombers.
Peter Singer, author of "Wired for War," writes that future wars may see tens of thousands of unmanned vehicles in action, possibly facing off against fleets of enemy robots.
Unlike expensive weapons from the Cold War-era, robotic vehicles are not off-limits to countries with modest defense budgets and dozens of governments are investing in unmanned programs.
At the trade show, military officers from the United
The big business of war, and just how profitable it can be.
Robots or "unmanned systems" are now deployed by the thousands in Iraq and Afghanistan, spying from the sky for hours on end, searching for booby-traps and firing lethal missiles without putting US soldiers at risk.
The use of robotics in the military has exploded in the past several years as technology has advanced while Washington faced a new kind of enemy that required patient, precise surveillance.
In 2003, the US military had almost no robots in its arsenal but now has 7,000 unmanned aircraft and at least 10,000 ground vehicles.
The US Air Force, which initially resisted the idea of pilotless planes, said it trains more operators for unmanned aircraft than pilots for its fighter jets and bombers.
Peter Singer, author of "Wired for War," writes that future wars may see tens of thousands of unmanned vehicles in action, possibly facing off against fleets of enemy robots.
Unlike expensive weapons from the Cold War-era, robotic vehicles are not off-limits to countries with modest defense budgets and dozens of governments are investing in unmanned programs.
At the trade show, military officers from the United
Mexican Army takes over customs on US border
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php...show_article=1
A little shared laugh with one of those "No he can't moments.
The Obama administration has acknowledged the US role in the violence, pledging to stem the flow of weapons into Mexico and curb demand for drugs in the United States, one of the world's top cocaine consumers.
Mexico's Army took control of customs Sunday on the busy US border, as federal authorities pulled agents off the job in a massive anti-corruption shakeup, officials told AFP.
An Interior Ministry official said the dismissals were being carried out at all Mexican border facilities, and that the customs agents were being replaced.
Customs agents were sacked after some were found to be linked to contraband operations, according to sources at the ministry.
Agents in Nuevo Laredo, on the border with the southern US state of Texas, were called in Saturday to be told they were fired, and to hand in their badges and weapons. A total of 1,100 agents were sacked, Mexican media said.
Army troops took over customs border posts temporarily on Sunday.
Mexico and the United States share
A little shared laugh with one of those "No he can't moments.
The Obama administration has acknowledged the US role in the violence, pledging to stem the flow of weapons into Mexico and curb demand for drugs in the United States, one of the world's top cocaine consumers.
Mexico's Army took control of customs Sunday on the busy US border, as federal authorities pulled agents off the job in a massive anti-corruption shakeup, officials told AFP.
An Interior Ministry official said the dismissals were being carried out at all Mexican border facilities, and that the customs agents were being replaced.
Customs agents were sacked after some were found to be linked to contraband operations, according to sources at the ministry.
Agents in Nuevo Laredo, on the border with the southern US state of Texas, were called in Saturday to be told they were fired, and to hand in their badges and weapons. A total of 1,100 agents were sacked, Mexican media said.
Army troops took over customs border posts temporarily on Sunday.
Mexico and the United States share
Sunday, August 16, 2009
The ultimate outsource
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124966930911615069.html#articleTabs%3Dcomments
Like many teenagers spending this summer abroad, Hak-Ju Lee is immersing himself in a foreign culture, making friends and tasting exotic food like moose stew. Unlike most teens, however, he's getting paid three-quarters of a million dollars to do it.
Like many teenagers spending this summer abroad, Hak-Ju Lee is immersing himself in a foreign culture, making friends and tasting exotic food like moose stew. Unlike most teens, however, he's getting paid three-quarters of a million dollars to do it.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-obama-vacation17-2009aug17,0,2102972.story
Time for back to school
I hope your vacation was just this cool
Never mind for what your parents pray
This shows the prosperity of the everyday
For at least 500 hundred is what they say
Taxes spent in the usual way
Time for back to school
I hope your vacation was just this cool
Never mind for what your parents pray
This shows the prosperity of the everyday
For at least 500 hundred is what they say
Taxes spent in the usual way
A litte more war
http://rawstory.com/08/news/2009/08/15/deal-united-states-soldiers-will-deploy-to-colombia/
Oh check it out not one but two reasons to kill more innocent people.
Some American troops will soon find themselves stationed at military bases scattered across the South American nation of Colombia with a mission to use advanced Predator drone technology to aid in fighting the drug trade and to combat terrorism, according to published reports Saturday.
But Colombia’s neighbors certainly do not see it that way.
In Some American troops will soon find themselves stationed at military bases scattered across the South American nation of Colombia with a mission to use advanced Predator drone technology to aid in fighting the drug trade and to combat terrorism, according to published reports Saturday.
But Colombia’s neighbors certainly do not see it that way.
In Venezuela, officials bristled. President Hugo Chavez warned, “the winds of war [are] beginning to blow.”
Chavez has already accused Colombian troops of making an incursion over the border and regional tensions are running high. Honduran de-facto President Rafael Correa also took exception, saying the United States would target Colombia’s neighbors if the deal is finalized.
“It has also sparked concern from moderate Colombian allies, such as Chile and Brazil, who want assurances that U.S. forces won’t be operating outside Colombia’s territory,” The Wall Street Journal adds.
, officials bristled. President Hugo Chavez warned, “the winds of war [are] beginning to blow.”
Chavez has already accused Colombian troops of making an incursion over the border and regional tensions are running high. Honduran de-facto President Rafael Correa also took exception, saying the United States would target Colombia’s neighbors if the deal is finalized.
“It has also sparked concern from moderate Colombian allies, such as Chile and Brazil, who want assurances that U.S. forces won’t be operating outside Colombia’s territory,” The Wall Street Journal adds.
Oh check it out not one but two reasons to kill more innocent people.
Some American troops will soon find themselves stationed at military bases scattered across the South American nation of Colombia with a mission to use advanced Predator drone technology to aid in fighting the drug trade and to combat terrorism, according to published reports Saturday.
But Colombia’s neighbors certainly do not see it that way.
In Some American troops will soon find themselves stationed at military bases scattered across the South American nation of Colombia with a mission to use advanced Predator drone technology to aid in fighting the drug trade and to combat terrorism, according to published reports Saturday.
But Colombia’s neighbors certainly do not see it that way.
In Venezuela, officials bristled. President Hugo Chavez warned, “the winds of war [are] beginning to blow.”
Chavez has already accused Colombian troops of making an incursion over the border and regional tensions are running high. Honduran de-facto President Rafael Correa also took exception, saying the United States would target Colombia’s neighbors if the deal is finalized.
“It has also sparked concern from moderate Colombian allies, such as Chile and Brazil, who want assurances that U.S. forces won’t be operating outside Colombia’s territory,” The Wall Street Journal adds.
, officials bristled. President Hugo Chavez warned, “the winds of war [are] beginning to blow.”
Chavez has already accused Colombian troops of making an incursion over the border and regional tensions are running high. Honduran de-facto President Rafael Correa also took exception, saying the United States would target Colombia’s neighbors if the deal is finalized.
“It has also sparked concern from moderate Colombian allies, such as Chile and Brazil, who want assurances that U.S. forces won’t be operating outside Colombia’s territory,” The Wall Street Journal adds.
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Does virus vaccine increase the risk of cancer?
http://www.bild.de/BILD/news/bild-en...of-cancer.html
The swine flu vaccine has been hit by new cancer fears after a German health expert gave a shock warning about its safety.
Dr. Wolfgang Wodarg is a politician and a specialist in lungs, hygiene and environmental medicine. He is the chairman of the health committee in the German parliament and European Council.
Lung specialist Wolfgang Wodarg has said that there are many risks associated with the vaccine for the H1N1 virus.
He has grave reservations about the firm Novartis who are developing the vaccine and testing it in Germany. The vaccination is injected “with a very hot needle”, Wodarg said.
The nutrient solution for the vaccine consists of cancerous cells from animals and "we do not know if there could be an allergic reaction".
But more importantly, some people fear that the risk of cancer could be increased by injecting the cells.
The vaccine - as Johannes Löwer, president of the Paul Ehrlich Institute, has pointed out - can also cause worse side effects than the actual swine flu virus.
Wodrag also described people’s fear of the pandemic as an "orchestration": “It is great business for the pharmaceutical industry,” he told the ‘Neuen Presse’.
Swine flu is not very different from
The swine flu vaccine has been hit by new cancer fears after a German health expert gave a shock warning about its safety.
Dr. Wolfgang Wodarg is a politician and a specialist in lungs, hygiene and environmental medicine. He is the chairman of the health committee in the German parliament and European Council.
Lung specialist Wolfgang Wodarg has said that there are many risks associated with the vaccine for the H1N1 virus.
He has grave reservations about the firm Novartis who are developing the vaccine and testing it in Germany. The vaccination is injected “with a very hot needle”, Wodarg said.
The nutrient solution for the vaccine consists of cancerous cells from animals and "we do not know if there could be an allergic reaction".
But more importantly, some people fear that the risk of cancer could be increased by injecting the cells.
The vaccine - as Johannes Löwer, president of the Paul Ehrlich Institute, has pointed out - can also cause worse side effects than the actual swine flu virus.
Wodrag also described people’s fear of the pandemic as an "orchestration": “It is great business for the pharmaceutical industry,” he told the ‘Neuen Presse’.
Swine flu is not very different from
Polio surge in Nigeria after vaccine virus mutates
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090814/..._polio_nigeria
LONDON – Polio, the dreaded paralyzing disease stamped out in the industrialized world, is spreading in Nigeria. And health officials say in some cases, it's caused by the vaccine used to fight it.
In July, the World Health Organization issued a warning that this vaccine-spread virus might extend beyond Africa. So far, 124 Nigerian children have been paralyzed this year — about twice those afflicted in 2008.
The polio problem is just the latest challenge to global health authorities trying to convince wary citizens that vaccines can save them from dreaded disease. For years, myths have abounded about vaccines — that they were the Western world's plan to sterilize Africans or give them AIDS. The sad polio reality fuels misguided fears and underscores the challenges authorities face using a flawed vaccine.
Nigeria and most other poor nations use an oral polio vaccine because it's cheaper, easier, and protects entire communities.
But it is made from a live polio virus — albeit weakened — which carries a small risk of causing polio for every million or so doses given. In even rarer instances, the virus in the vaccine can mutate into a deadlier version that ignites new outbreaks.
The vaccine used in the United States and other Western nations is given in shots, which use a killed virus that cannot cause polio.
So when WHO officials discovered a polio outbreak in Nigeria was sparked by the polio vaccine itself, they assumed it would be easier to stop than a natural "wild" virus.
They were wrong.
LONDON – Polio, the dreaded paralyzing disease stamped out in the industrialized world, is spreading in Nigeria. And health officials say in some cases, it's caused by the vaccine used to fight it.
In July, the World Health Organization issued a warning that this vaccine-spread virus might extend beyond Africa. So far, 124 Nigerian children have been paralyzed this year — about twice those afflicted in 2008.
The polio problem is just the latest challenge to global health authorities trying to convince wary citizens that vaccines can save them from dreaded disease. For years, myths have abounded about vaccines — that they were the Western world's plan to sterilize Africans or give them AIDS. The sad polio reality fuels misguided fears and underscores the challenges authorities face using a flawed vaccine.
Nigeria and most other poor nations use an oral polio vaccine because it's cheaper, easier, and protects entire communities.
But it is made from a live polio virus — albeit weakened — which carries a small risk of causing polio for every million or so doses given. In even rarer instances, the virus in the vaccine can mutate into a deadlier version that ignites new outbreaks.
The vaccine used in the United States and other Western nations is given in shots, which use a killed virus that cannot cause polio.
So when WHO officials discovered a polio outbreak in Nigeria was sparked by the polio vaccine itself, they assumed it would be easier to stop than a natural "wild" virus.
They were wrong.
Friday, August 14, 2009
US Builds Crime Cases on Clients of UBS
http://www.cnbc.com/id/32413524
Oh happy day the gov is thrilled with the 400 names out of the 52,000 who ripped off our country through willful and purposeful tax evasion.
And we wonder why our country is in the sad shape it's in, my guess is that it's from decisions made just like this one.
Federal prosecutors are building criminal cases against 150 wealthy American clients of the Swiss banking giant UBS as part of a continuing investigation into tax evasion, a person briefed on the matter said Thursday.
Many of the inquiries, which are being handled by dozens of prosecutors around the country, will result in criminal complaints, said this person, who was not authorized to speak publicly. While it is not clear where the government got the 150 names, federal investigators received 285 names from UBS in February as part of a settlement, as well as names from other sources. In February, UBS agreed to pay $780 million to settle charges that it had helped American clients evade taxes on nearly $20 billion hidden in offshore accounts.
A day later, the Justice Department filed a civil suit seeking to require UBS to disclose the names of 52,000 clients. Of the names on the agency’s original list, prosecutors are focusing on several thousand Americans with offshore accounts containing tens to hundreds of millions of dollars, the person said.
On Wednesday, the Justice Department and UBS reached an agreement on the disclosure of additional names. Under it, UBS will release the names of clients who fit criteria set by the Justice Department.
A second person close to the matter who also was not authorized to
Oh happy day the gov is thrilled with the 400 names out of the 52,000 who ripped off our country through willful and purposeful tax evasion.
And we wonder why our country is in the sad shape it's in, my guess is that it's from decisions made just like this one.
Federal prosecutors are building criminal cases against 150 wealthy American clients of the Swiss banking giant UBS as part of a continuing investigation into tax evasion, a person briefed on the matter said Thursday.
Many of the inquiries, which are being handled by dozens of prosecutors around the country, will result in criminal complaints, said this person, who was not authorized to speak publicly. While it is not clear where the government got the 150 names, federal investigators received 285 names from UBS in February as part of a settlement, as well as names from other sources. In February, UBS agreed to pay $780 million to settle charges that it had helped American clients evade taxes on nearly $20 billion hidden in offshore accounts.
A day later, the Justice Department filed a civil suit seeking to require UBS to disclose the names of 52,000 clients. Of the names on the agency’s original list, prosecutors are focusing on several thousand Americans with offshore accounts containing tens to hundreds of millions of dollars, the person said.
On Wednesday, the Justice Department and UBS reached an agreement on the disclosure of additional names. Under it, UBS will release the names of clients who fit criteria set by the Justice Department.
A second person close to the matter who also was not authorized to
'Tamiflu turned my children into hallucinating, sobbing wrecks'
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/ar...html?ITO=1490#
This week, it was with no small measure of satisfaction that I watched Andy Burnham, our implausibly youthful Health Secretary, squirm on the GMTV sofa.
Andrew Castle, it must be said, is no Jeremy Paxman. So when Mr Burnham agreed to take part in the show to discuss the alleged merits of Tamiflu (how it sticks in my craw even to write those words) he was doubtless looking forward to putting across the Government's point of view in the gentlest of surroundings.
What ensued was an ambush, as the visibly irate presenter revealed that his daughter Georgina had collapsed and nearly died after taking the supposedly harmless drug.
This week, it was with no small measure of satisfaction that I watched Andy Burnham, our implausibly youthful Health Secretary, squirm on the GMTV sofa.
Andrew Castle, it must be said, is no Jeremy Paxman. So when Mr Burnham agreed to take part in the show to discuss the alleged merits of Tamiflu (how it sticks in my craw even to write those words) he was doubtless looking forward to putting across the Government's point of view in the gentlest of surroundings.
What ensued was an ambush, as the visibly irate presenter revealed that his daughter Georgina had collapsed and nearly died after taking the supposedly harmless drug.
Thursday, August 13, 2009
ALIPAC Calls for Napolitano Resignation in Wake of SPLC Scandal
http://www.alipac.us/article-4448-thread-1-0.html
Americans for Legal Immigration PAC is joining the chorus of calls for the resignation or termination of Janet Napolitano due to the Department of Homeland Security's reliance on faulty information from discredited left wing political groups like the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).
"Labeling tens of millions of Americans who are veterans, or concerned about taxes, gun rights, or illegal immigration as potential domestic terrorists is inexcusable," said William Gheen of ALIPAC. "To use anecdotal information found online and provided by discredited leftist groups like the SPLC and ADL to criminalize popular political positions in American cannot be tolerated in a free society. Janet Napolitano must resign or be fired by Obama. If not, then all Americans can safely assume that President Barack Obama supports these highly unpopular and offensive polices coming from the Department of Homeland Security. (DHS)"
DHS documents sent to law enforcement in Missouri and across the nation warns police to be on the lookout for Americans who like short wave radios, Tom Clancy novels, some Presidential candidates, historic American flags, returning veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan, or display political materials and bumper stickers about abortion, illegal immigration, taxes, or gun rights.
These concerns have been elevated by a recent ads run by the National Guard to recruit "Internment/Resettlement" specialists and Executive Branch measures designed to place the President in control of the National Guard.
"People who are concerned about illegal immigration and our Government's complete failure to secure our borders and enforce our existing immigration laws during a time of war represents the popular view on these issues, and not some kind of domestic terrorist threat," said William Gheen. "We call for Napolitano's resignation or termination and ask that all federal officials take immediate actions to dispel public concerns about rampant taxation, gun rights, and open borders plans."
Recent Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests filed by Americans for Limited Government (ALG) found that DHS relied upon strange websites and left wing political groups with reputations for exaggeration and radical political positions such as the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) and Anti Defamation League (ADL).
According to ALG President Bill Wilson, not one single source listed in the 217 pages of FOIA source information received from DHS was a governmental source.
Similar false accusations of domestic terrorism or extremism have been made by Democrat lawmakers attacking the Tax Day Tea Party events and more recently the health care reform town hall protesters.
"When Homeland Security starts branding Americans as 'extremists' based on non-governmental left wing political groups then it is time for immediate change!," said William Gheen. "Either Obama reigns in DHS or we will move to call for the dissolution of the Department of Homeland Security and a return
Americans for Legal Immigration PAC is joining the chorus of calls for the resignation or termination of Janet Napolitano due to the Department of Homeland Security's reliance on faulty information from discredited left wing political groups like the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).
"Labeling tens of millions of Americans who are veterans, or concerned about taxes, gun rights, or illegal immigration as potential domestic terrorists is inexcusable," said William Gheen of ALIPAC. "To use anecdotal information found online and provided by discredited leftist groups like the SPLC and ADL to criminalize popular political positions in American cannot be tolerated in a free society. Janet Napolitano must resign or be fired by Obama. If not, then all Americans can safely assume that President Barack Obama supports these highly unpopular and offensive polices coming from the Department of Homeland Security. (DHS)"
DHS documents sent to law enforcement in Missouri and across the nation warns police to be on the lookout for Americans who like short wave radios, Tom Clancy novels, some Presidential candidates, historic American flags, returning veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan, or display political materials and bumper stickers about abortion, illegal immigration, taxes, or gun rights.
These concerns have been elevated by a recent ads run by the National Guard to recruit "Internment/Resettlement" specialists and Executive Branch measures designed to place the President in control of the National Guard.
"People who are concerned about illegal immigration and our Government's complete failure to secure our borders and enforce our existing immigration laws during a time of war represents the popular view on these issues, and not some kind of domestic terrorist threat," said William Gheen. "We call for Napolitano's resignation or termination and ask that all federal officials take immediate actions to dispel public concerns about rampant taxation, gun rights, and open borders plans."
Recent Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests filed by Americans for Limited Government (ALG) found that DHS relied upon strange websites and left wing political groups with reputations for exaggeration and radical political positions such as the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) and Anti Defamation League (ADL).
According to ALG President Bill Wilson, not one single source listed in the 217 pages of FOIA source information received from DHS was a governmental source.
Similar false accusations of domestic terrorism or extremism have been made by Democrat lawmakers attacking the Tax Day Tea Party events and more recently the health care reform town hall protesters.
"When Homeland Security starts branding Americans as 'extremists' based on non-governmental left wing political groups then it is time for immediate change!," said William Gheen. "Either Obama reigns in DHS or we will move to call for the dissolution of the Department of Homeland Security and a return
Elizabeth Warren on the real of the reality
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/elizabeth-warren-we-have-real-problem-coming
Elizabeth speaks the plain and simple truth about the what the big picture really looks like
Elizabeth Warren, head of the Congressional Oversight Panel, which yesterday released quite a sobering report on the true state of the banking industry, explains what is really going on with the increasingly irrelevant balance sheets of the bailout banks (all of them). Once again underscores what a farce the stress test was, the complicity of the accountants in making the transparency initiative a sham, and why the banks are still as underwater as they ever were. Compliments of Shanky's Tech Blog.
Elizabeth speaks the plain and simple truth about the what the big picture really looks like
Elizabeth Warren, head of the Congressional Oversight Panel, which yesterday released quite a sobering report on the true state of the banking industry, explains what is really going on with the increasingly irrelevant balance sheets of the bailout banks (all of them). Once again underscores what a farce the stress test was, the complicity of the accountants in making the transparency initiative a sham, and why the banks are still as underwater as they ever were. Compliments of Shanky's Tech Blog.
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Fog bank adds an air of mystery to a Boston afternoon
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/08/12/fog_bank_adds_an_air_of_mystery_to_a_boston_afternoon/
Unusual lol,I know for a fact I'd have been waiting for something to emerge.
Stephan King wrote a story about it, and he told it stick with you kind of creepy, and let me tell you it stuck.
Fog in the afternoon may seem odd, but there’s a scientific explanation.
The morning fog we’re used to is called “radiation fog.’’ At night the temperature drops and the earth is giving off energy. As the temperature reaches the dew point, fog forms.
Yesterday’s fog was different. It is called “advection fog,’’ and it forms over an already cool surface like water and is gradually carried inland by the wind.
Unusual lol,I know for a fact I'd have been waiting for something to emerge.
Stephan King wrote a story about it, and he told it stick with you kind of creepy, and let me tell you it stuck.
Fog in the afternoon may seem odd, but there’s a scientific explanation.
The morning fog we’re used to is called “radiation fog.’’ At night the temperature drops and the earth is giving off energy. As the temperature reaches the dew point, fog forms.
Yesterday’s fog was different. It is called “advection fog,’’ and it forms over an already cool surface like water and is gradually carried inland by the wind.
Climate bill could cost 2 million jobs
http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/climate-bill-could-cost-2-million-jobs-2009-08-12.html
At a time when America can't afford to lose another job, along comes the cap and trade bill which within a short period of time starts to erode the industrial jobs we have left and by 2030 will have eliminated the total estimate of two million.
One can only imagine who has their hand in this cash register to make the loss of two million jobs look like and obvious alternative rather than the blight upon the country's limited prosperity as it is.
Add another climate bill cost estimate to the growing pile.
The National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) and the American Council for Capital Formation (ACCF) released a study Wednesday that found under a high-cost scenario the House global warming bill could reduce economic growth by 2.4 percent and cost 2 million jobs by 2030.
Environmentalists were quick to criticize the study for underselling the development of climate-friendly sources of power and not releasing other assumptions NAM and ACCF fed into the computer model to get their economic forecast, which takes more of a glass-half-empty view than recent governmental reports.
But the business groups’ figures will likely provide opponents of capping carbon more ammunition and could add to the angst of senators from industrial states. One key finding is that the climate bill will hurt the manufacturing sector particularly hard. As much as 66 percent of the total job loss from the climate bill could come from manufacturers, the report notes.
And though the impact of the bill will grow over time, the economy will start feeling the effects of the carbon cap almost immediately.
“Industrial production begins to decline immediately in 2012, relative to the baseline,” the report notes.
Tony Kreindler, a spokesman for the Environmental Defense Fund, which supports the climate bill, said the business study is overly pessimistic about the development of nuclear power plants and makes other assumptions that raise the costs of a climate cap. For example, the
At a time when America can't afford to lose another job, along comes the cap and trade bill which within a short period of time starts to erode the industrial jobs we have left and by 2030 will have eliminated the total estimate of two million.
One can only imagine who has their hand in this cash register to make the loss of two million jobs look like and obvious alternative rather than the blight upon the country's limited prosperity as it is.
Add another climate bill cost estimate to the growing pile.
The National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) and the American Council for Capital Formation (ACCF) released a study Wednesday that found under a high-cost scenario the House global warming bill could reduce economic growth by 2.4 percent and cost 2 million jobs by 2030.
Environmentalists were quick to criticize the study for underselling the development of climate-friendly sources of power and not releasing other assumptions NAM and ACCF fed into the computer model to get their economic forecast, which takes more of a glass-half-empty view than recent governmental reports.
But the business groups’ figures will likely provide opponents of capping carbon more ammunition and could add to the angst of senators from industrial states. One key finding is that the climate bill will hurt the manufacturing sector particularly hard. As much as 66 percent of the total job loss from the climate bill could come from manufacturers, the report notes.
And though the impact of the bill will grow over time, the economy will start feeling the effects of the carbon cap almost immediately.
“Industrial production begins to decline immediately in 2012, relative to the baseline,” the report notes.
Tony Kreindler, a spokesman for the Environmental Defense Fund, which supports the climate bill, said the business study is overly pessimistic about the development of nuclear power plants and makes other assumptions that raise the costs of a climate cap. For example, the
Funding stalls putting Guard soldiers on border
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090812/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_national_guard_border
How odd is it that they question the 225 million dollar funding for securing our border with Mexico, but they have no problem finding the billions to keep cash for clunkers program going that no one seems to want.
A proposed government plan to use National Guard troops to help stem Mexican drug violence along the southern border is stymied by disagreements over who will pay for the soldiers and how they would be used.
Ordered by President Barack Obama in June to help secure the border with Mexico, the Pentagon and Department of Homeland Security drafted a $225 million program to temporarily deploy 1,500 Guard troops to supplement U.S. Border Patrol agents.
The two agencies are wrangling over how to structure the deployment, but the primary sticking point is the money, according to senior administration officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.
The funding stalemate lingers even after Obama renewed his commitment to Mexican officials on Monday to reinforce the border and to help Mexico battle the drug cartels. Fierce battles between Mexican law enforcement and the cartels have left as many as 11,000 people dead and fueled concerns about violence spilling into the U.S.
"The United States," Obama said during a news conference in Mexico Monday, "will also meet its responsibilities by continuing our efforts to reduce the demand for drugs and continuing to strengthening the security of our shared border — not only to protect the American people, but to stem the illegal southbound flow of American guns and cash that helps fuel this extraordinary violence."
Meanwhile, state leaders are getting antsy.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry is still waiting for a response to his request for 1,000 more troops, his spokeswoman Katherine Cesinger said Tuesday.
Auto inventories tight, U.S. "clunker" interest slips
http://www.reuters.com/article/ousiv/idUSTRE57B09220090812
How odd is it that they question the 225 million dollar funding for securing our border with Mexico, but they have no problem finding the billions to keep cash for clunkers program going that no one seems to want.
A proposed government plan to use National Guard troops to help stem Mexican drug violence along the southern border is stymied by disagreements over who will pay for the soldiers and how they would be used.
Ordered by President Barack Obama in June to help secure the border with Mexico, the Pentagon and Department of Homeland Security drafted a $225 million program to temporarily deploy 1,500 Guard troops to supplement U.S. Border Patrol agents.
The two agencies are wrangling over how to structure the deployment, but the primary sticking point is the money, according to senior administration officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.
The funding stalemate lingers even after Obama renewed his commitment to Mexican officials on Monday to reinforce the border and to help Mexico battle the drug cartels. Fierce battles between Mexican law enforcement and the cartels have left as many as 11,000 people dead and fueled concerns about violence spilling into the U.S.
"The United States," Obama said during a news conference in Mexico Monday, "will also meet its responsibilities by continuing our efforts to reduce the demand for drugs and continuing to strengthening the security of our shared border — not only to protect the American people, but to stem the illegal southbound flow of American guns and cash that helps fuel this extraordinary violence."
Meanwhile, state leaders are getting antsy.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry is still waiting for a response to his request for 1,000 more troops, his spokeswoman Katherine Cesinger said Tuesday.
Auto inventories tight, U.S. "clunker" interest slips
http://www.reuters.com/article/ousiv/idUSTRE57B09220090812
Officials see rise in militia groups across US
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9A140QG0&show_article=1
Heads up kids,
Militia groups with gripes against the government are regrouping across the country and could grow rapidly, according to an organization that tracks such trends.
The stress of a poor economy and a liberal administration led by a black president are among the causes for the recent rise, the report from the Southern Poverty Law Center says. Conspiracy theories about a secret Mexican plan to reclaim the Southwest are also growing amid the public debate about illegal immigration.
Bart McEntire, a special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, told SPLC researchers that this is the most growth he's seen in more than a decade.
"All it's lacking is a spark," McEntire said in the report.
It's reminiscent of what was seen in the 1990s—right-wing militias, people ideologically against paying taxes and so-called "sovereign citizens" are popping up in large numbers, according to the report to be released Wednesday. The SPLC is a nonprofit civil rights group that, among other activities, investigates hate groups.
Last October, someone from the Ohio Militia posted a recruiting video on YouTube, billed as a "wake-up call" for America. It's been viewed more than 60,000 times.
"Things are bad, things are real bad, and it's going to be a lot worse," said the man on the video, who did not give his name. "Our country is in peril."
The man is holding an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle, and he encourages viewers to buy one.
While anti-government sentiment has been on the rise over the last two years, there aren't as many threats and violent acts at this point as there were in the 1990s, according to the report. That movement bore the likes of Timothy McVeigh, who in 1995 blew up a federal building in Oklahoma City and killed 168 people.
Heads up kids,
Militia groups with gripes against the government are regrouping across the country and could grow rapidly, according to an organization that tracks such trends.
The stress of a poor economy and a liberal administration led by a black president are among the causes for the recent rise, the report from the Southern Poverty Law Center says. Conspiracy theories about a secret Mexican plan to reclaim the Southwest are also growing amid the public debate about illegal immigration.
Bart McEntire, a special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, told SPLC researchers that this is the most growth he's seen in more than a decade.
"All it's lacking is a spark," McEntire said in the report.
It's reminiscent of what was seen in the 1990s—right-wing militias, people ideologically against paying taxes and so-called "sovereign citizens" are popping up in large numbers, according to the report to be released Wednesday. The SPLC is a nonprofit civil rights group that, among other activities, investigates hate groups.
Last October, someone from the Ohio Militia posted a recruiting video on YouTube, billed as a "wake-up call" for America. It's been viewed more than 60,000 times.
"Things are bad, things are real bad, and it's going to be a lot worse," said the man on the video, who did not give his name. "Our country is in peril."
The man is holding an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle, and he encourages viewers to buy one.
While anti-government sentiment has been on the rise over the last two years, there aren't as many threats and violent acts at this point as there were in the 1990s, according to the report. That movement bore the likes of Timothy McVeigh, who in 1995 blew up a federal building in Oklahoma City and killed 168 people.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Global death toll of A/H1N1 flu rises to 1,462, says WHO
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-08/12/content_11865692.htm
According to a WHO spokeswoman, the A/H1N1 influenza, which was declared as a pandemic in June, "appears to have peaked and is now in decline" in some countries in the southern hemisphere, including Argentina, Chile, Australia and New Zealand.
But the spread of the virus is still being seen in many of the tropical countries and in Asia, particularly in India, Thailand and Vietnam.
According to a WHO spokeswoman, the A/H1N1 influenza, which was declared as a pandemic in June, "appears to have peaked and is now in decline" in some countries in the southern hemisphere, including Argentina, Chile, Australia and New Zealand.
But the spread of the virus is still being seen in many of the tropical countries and in Asia, particularly in India, Thailand and Vietnam.
Loopholes
http://www.alternet.org/reproductivejustice/141721/rape_victims_charged_up_to_%241%2C200_for_rape_kits/
Greed is a very insensitive thing
Rape is not something you should budget for. Yet some rape victims, unlike victims of other crimes, have to pay for basic evidence collection. Tools
When a woman is raped, police turn to scientific evidence-semen, blood and tissue samples-to identify her attacker. The evidence is collected through a medical exam of the victim, who is not supposed to pay for this crime-solving process.
But 15 years after Congress passed a law to ensure that rape victims would never see a bill, loopholes and bureaucratic tangles still leave some victims paying for hospital expenses and exams, which can cost up to $1,200.
Congress requires state or local authorities to cover these costs, but the state legislatures that regulate the process offer piecemeal guarantees of Congress’ mandate, the Huffington Post Investigative Fund and ProPublica found. Some states allow hospitals to bill the victim’s insurer. Confusion in California and other states allows police to occasionally ignore Congress’ rules and require victims to cooperate with an investigation before exam costs are covered. Lax enforcement of the law, victims’ advocates say, also means some hospitals in Illinois bill victims directly.
Congress created the Violence Against Women Act to protect victims and encourage them to report rapes. The law known as VAWA has forced many states to crack down on billing problems.
But ambiguities in the law still allow a remarkable disparity in the legal system: Some rape victims, unlike victims of other crimes, have to pay for basic evidence collection.
"We never ask a robbery victim to pay for the cost of fingerprints," said Sarah Tofte, a researcher with Human Rights Watch, which has been tracking how states comply with VAWA
Greed is a very insensitive thing
Rape is not something you should budget for. Yet some rape victims, unlike victims of other crimes, have to pay for basic evidence collection. Tools
When a woman is raped, police turn to scientific evidence-semen, blood and tissue samples-to identify her attacker. The evidence is collected through a medical exam of the victim, who is not supposed to pay for this crime-solving process.
But 15 years after Congress passed a law to ensure that rape victims would never see a bill, loopholes and bureaucratic tangles still leave some victims paying for hospital expenses and exams, which can cost up to $1,200.
Congress requires state or local authorities to cover these costs, but the state legislatures that regulate the process offer piecemeal guarantees of Congress’ mandate, the Huffington Post Investigative Fund and ProPublica found. Some states allow hospitals to bill the victim’s insurer. Confusion in California and other states allows police to occasionally ignore Congress’ rules and require victims to cooperate with an investigation before exam costs are covered. Lax enforcement of the law, victims’ advocates say, also means some hospitals in Illinois bill victims directly.
Congress created the Violence Against Women Act to protect victims and encourage them to report rapes. The law known as VAWA has forced many states to crack down on billing problems.
But ambiguities in the law still allow a remarkable disparity in the legal system: Some rape victims, unlike victims of other crimes, have to pay for basic evidence collection.
"We never ask a robbery victim to pay for the cost of fingerprints," said Sarah Tofte, a researcher with Human Rights Watch, which has been tracking how states comply with VAWA
Why Corporations, Emerging Powers and Petro-States Are Snapping Up Huge Chunks of Farmland in the Developing World
http://www.alternet.org/environment/141734/why_corporations%2C_emerging_powers_and_petro-states_are_snapping_up_huge_chunks_of_farmland_in_the_developing_world/
In the past six months, big players in the global economy have grabbed 50 million acres of arable land, from Africa to Southeast Asia. Tools
Stop me if you think you've heard this one before:
Investment banks, sovereign wealth funds and other barely regulated financial entities in search of fat paydays go on buying binges structurally adjusted to maximize their earnings reports and employee bonuses, while simultaneously screwing their business associates and everyone else in the process. It's all done in near-total secrecy, and by the time everyone finds out about it, they're already in the poorhouse.
That's more or less the playbook for the derivatives and credit-default swaps gold rush that ruined the global economy, which cratered in 2007 and has yet to recuperate.
The bubble money has now moved on from housing and turned to the commodities markets, especially global food production. Given what that money did to the housing market, things don't look good for local communities whose land is being bought up by governments, sovereign wealth and hedge funds, and other investors on the hunt for real value in a hyperreal economy.
Entrenched and developing economic powers -- the U.K., China, South Korea, India and more -- have launched land rushes to outsource production of everything from staples like rice, wheat, corn and sugar to finance bubbles like biofuels. That includes oil-wealthy Gulf States, which recently feasted on commodities speculation that exploded oil prices in 2008.
The hard numbers are alarming: According to the Guardian, in the last six months over 20 million hectares (around 50 million acres) of arable land, mostly in Africa and Southeast Asia, have been sold or negotiated for sale or lease. That's about half the size of all arable land in Europe, or the size of entire U.S. states North Dakota or Oklahoma.
In the past six months, big players in the global economy have grabbed 50 million acres of arable land, from Africa to Southeast Asia. Tools
Stop me if you think you've heard this one before:
Investment banks, sovereign wealth funds and other barely regulated financial entities in search of fat paydays go on buying binges structurally adjusted to maximize their earnings reports and employee bonuses, while simultaneously screwing their business associates and everyone else in the process. It's all done in near-total secrecy, and by the time everyone finds out about it, they're already in the poorhouse.
That's more or less the playbook for the derivatives and credit-default swaps gold rush that ruined the global economy, which cratered in 2007 and has yet to recuperate.
The bubble money has now moved on from housing and turned to the commodities markets, especially global food production. Given what that money did to the housing market, things don't look good for local communities whose land is being bought up by governments, sovereign wealth and hedge funds, and other investors on the hunt for real value in a hyperreal economy.
Entrenched and developing economic powers -- the U.K., China, South Korea, India and more -- have launched land rushes to outsource production of everything from staples like rice, wheat, corn and sugar to finance bubbles like biofuels. That includes oil-wealthy Gulf States, which recently feasted on commodities speculation that exploded oil prices in 2008.
The hard numbers are alarming: According to the Guardian, in the last six months over 20 million hectares (around 50 million acres) of arable land, mostly in Africa and Southeast Asia, have been sold or negotiated for sale or lease. That's about half the size of all arable land in Europe, or the size of entire U.S. states North Dakota or Oklahoma.
3 more Camp Lejeune Marines killed in Afghanistan
http://www.news14.com/content/local_news/coastal/613107/3-more-camp-lejeune-marines-killed-in-afghanistan/Default.aspx
Yeah this war is real, and now they are asking for more kids and a time frame of a dozen years has been referenced.
It's time to get real about the cost of all of this and if they really can be afforded.
They've been identified as 21-year-old Lance Cpl. Patrick Schimmel, 20-year-old Lance Cpl. Javier Olvera and 23-year-old Lance Cpl. Dennis Burrow. Schimmel was from Winfield, Mo., Olvera was from Palmdale, Calif., and Burrow was from Naples, Fla.
All were killed in separate incidents in combat in Afghanistan over the weekend. They were all assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division.
The number of U.S. and international troops killed in Afghanistan has soared this year. July was the deadliest month for U.S. and foreign troops since the start of the war in 2001.
At least 16 deaths
Yeah this war is real, and now they are asking for more kids and a time frame of a dozen years has been referenced.
It's time to get real about the cost of all of this and if they really can be afforded.
They've been identified as 21-year-old Lance Cpl. Patrick Schimmel, 20-year-old Lance Cpl. Javier Olvera and 23-year-old Lance Cpl. Dennis Burrow. Schimmel was from Winfield, Mo., Olvera was from Palmdale, Calif., and Burrow was from Naples, Fla.
All were killed in separate incidents in combat in Afghanistan over the weekend. They were all assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division.
The number of U.S. and international troops killed in Afghanistan has soared this year. July was the deadliest month for U.S. and foreign troops since the start of the war in 2001.
At least 16 deaths
Another 45,000 US troops needed in Afghanistan, military adviser says
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article6789142.ece
The United States should send up to 45,000 extra troops to Afghanistan, a senior adviser to the American commander in Kabul has told The Times.
Anthony Cordesman, an influential American academic who is a member of a team that has been advising General Stanley McChrystal, now in charge of Nato forces in Afghanistan, also said that to deal with the threat from the Taleban the size of the Afghan National Army might have to increase to 240,000.
If Mr Cordesman’s recommendation reflects the view of General McChrystal, who recently presented the findings of a 60-day review of Afghanistan strategy to Washington, it would mean sending another nine combat brigades, comprising 45,000 American troops, in addition to the 21,000 already approved by President Obama. This would bring the total American military presence in Afghanistan to about 100,000, considerably closer to the force that was deployed for the counter-insurgency campaign in Iraq.
If General McChrystal believes that America should send nine more brigades — Mr Cordesman suggested it should be between three and nine brigades — there is bound to be pressure on Britain to send reinforcements as well. The British strength now is 9,000.
The United States should send up to 45,000 extra troops to Afghanistan, a senior adviser to the American commander in Kabul has told The Times.
Anthony Cordesman, an influential American academic who is a member of a team that has been advising General Stanley McChrystal, now in charge of Nato forces in Afghanistan, also said that to deal with the threat from the Taleban the size of the Afghan National Army might have to increase to 240,000.
If Mr Cordesman’s recommendation reflects the view of General McChrystal, who recently presented the findings of a 60-day review of Afghanistan strategy to Washington, it would mean sending another nine combat brigades, comprising 45,000 American troops, in addition to the 21,000 already approved by President Obama. This would bring the total American military presence in Afghanistan to about 100,000, considerably closer to the force that was deployed for the counter-insurgency campaign in Iraq.
If General McChrystal believes that America should send nine more brigades — Mr Cordesman suggested it should be between three and nine brigades — there is bound to be pressure on Britain to send reinforcements as well. The British strength now is 9,000.
Court upholds CIA contractor's detainee abuse conviction
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gSo6iRtgbNNlDhDyO_VcZEmT45MQ
This is what your tax dollars are being spent on.
A CIA civilian contractor, Passaro was convicted in the southeastern state of North Carolina in 2006 for having hit Afghan detainee Abdul Wali with a flashlight and kicked him in the groin during a marathon 48-hour "interrogation." Wali died from his injuries
And this is how they keep you from knowing it. It's a head game children play with each other when there is a witness to the crime they have committed that was so serious they could get into big trouble for it by an adult. So they threanten the other kids silence by refusing to play with them any more. The game is called
"If you tell I won't play with you no more"
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/08/10/BAHQ195SJR.DTL
Most recently, a British government lawyer told her nation's High Court last month that Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton had threatened to limit U.S. intelligence-sharing with Great Britain if the court disclosed details of Mohamed's treatment in Guantanamo.
It's time to start really asking yourself people, that if the games these people play are really worth the cost of our lives
This is what your tax dollars are being spent on.
A CIA civilian contractor, Passaro was convicted in the southeastern state of North Carolina in 2006 for having hit Afghan detainee Abdul Wali with a flashlight and kicked him in the groin during a marathon 48-hour "interrogation." Wali died from his injuries
And this is how they keep you from knowing it. It's a head game children play with each other when there is a witness to the crime they have committed that was so serious they could get into big trouble for it by an adult. So they threanten the other kids silence by refusing to play with them any more. The game is called
"If you tell I won't play with you no more"
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/08/10/BAHQ195SJR.DTL
Most recently, a British government lawyer told her nation's High Court last month that Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton had threatened to limit U.S. intelligence-sharing with Great Britain if the court disclosed details of Mohamed's treatment in Guantanamo.
It's time to start really asking yourself people, that if the games these people play are really worth the cost of our lives
U.S. battling CIA rendition case in 3 courts
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/08/10/BAHQ195SJR.DTL
The Obama administration is fighting on multiple fronts - in courts in San Francisco, Washington and London - to keep an official veil of secrecy over the treatment of a former prisoner who says he was tortured at Guantanamo Bay.
The administration has asked a federal appeals court in San Francisco to reconsider its ruling allowing Binyam Mohamed and four other former or current prisoners to sue a Bay Area company for allegedly flying them to overseas torture chambers for the CIA.
Obama administration lawyers also argued that Mohamed's attorneys had violated secrecy procedures by writing a letter to President Obama, accompanied by a blacked-out document, asking him to disclose their client's treatment. A federal judge ordered Mohamed's lawyers to answer contempt-of-court charges in May that were punishable by up to six months in jail, but has since dropped those charges.
Most recently, a British government lawyer told her nation's High Court last month that Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton had threatened to limit U.S. intelligence-sharing with Great Britain if the court disclosed details of Mohamed's treatment in Guantanamo.
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/08/10/BAHQ195SJR.DTL#ixzz0NvlE9sSw
The Obama administration is fighting on multiple fronts - in courts in San Francisco, Washington and London - to keep an official veil of secrecy over the treatment of a former prisoner who says he was tortured at Guantanamo Bay.
The administration has asked a federal appeals court in San Francisco to reconsider its ruling allowing Binyam Mohamed and four other former or current prisoners to sue a Bay Area company for allegedly flying them to overseas torture chambers for the CIA.
Obama administration lawyers also argued that Mohamed's attorneys had violated secrecy procedures by writing a letter to President Obama, accompanied by a blacked-out document, asking him to disclose their client's treatment. A federal judge ordered Mohamed's lawyers to answer contempt-of-court charges in May that were punishable by up to six months in jail, but has since dropped those charges.
Most recently, a British government lawyer told her nation's High Court last month that Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton had threatened to limit U.S. intelligence-sharing with Great Britain if the court disclosed details of Mohamed's treatment in Guantanamo.
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/08/10/BAHQ195SJR.DTL#ixzz0NvlE9sSw
U.S. Web-Tracking Plan Stirs Privacy Fears
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/10/AR2009081002743_pf.html
The Obama administration is proposing to scale back a long-standing ban on tracking how people use government Internet sites with "cookies" and other technologies, raising alarms among privacy groups.
A two-week public comment period ended Monday on a proposal by the White House Office of Management and Budget to end a ban on federal Internet sites using such technologies and replace it with other privacy safeguards. The current prohibition, in place since 2000, can be waived if an agency head cites a "compelling need."
Supporters of a change say social networking and similar services, which often take advantage of the tracking technologies, have transformed how people communicate over the Internet, and Obama's aides say those services can make government more transparent and increase public involvement.
Some privacy groups say the proposal amounts to a "massive" and unexplained shift in government policy. In a statement Monday, American Civil Liberties Union spokesman Michael Macleod-Ball said the move could "allow the mass collection of personal information of every user of a federal government website."
Even groups that support updating the policy question whether the administration is seeking changes at the request of private companies, such as online search giant Google, as the industry's economic clout and influence in Washington have grown rapidly.
Two prominent technology policy advocacy groups, the Electronic Privacy Information Center and Electronic Frontier Foundation, cited the terms of a Feb. 19 contract with Google, in which a unnamed federal agency explicitly carved out an exemption from the ban so that the agency could use Google's YouTube video player.
Contract Terms
The terms of the contract, negotiated through the General Services Administration, "expressly waives those rules or guidelines as they may apply to Google." The contract was obtained by EPIC through a Freedom of Information Act request.
"Our primary concern is that the GSA has failed t
The Obama administration is proposing to scale back a long-standing ban on tracking how people use government Internet sites with "cookies" and other technologies, raising alarms among privacy groups.
A two-week public comment period ended Monday on a proposal by the White House Office of Management and Budget to end a ban on federal Internet sites using such technologies and replace it with other privacy safeguards. The current prohibition, in place since 2000, can be waived if an agency head cites a "compelling need."
Supporters of a change say social networking and similar services, which often take advantage of the tracking technologies, have transformed how people communicate over the Internet, and Obama's aides say those services can make government more transparent and increase public involvement.
Some privacy groups say the proposal amounts to a "massive" and unexplained shift in government policy. In a statement Monday, American Civil Liberties Union spokesman Michael Macleod-Ball said the move could "allow the mass collection of personal information of every user of a federal government website."
Even groups that support updating the policy question whether the administration is seeking changes at the request of private companies, such as online search giant Google, as the industry's economic clout and influence in Washington have grown rapidly.
Two prominent technology policy advocacy groups, the Electronic Privacy Information Center and Electronic Frontier Foundation, cited the terms of a Feb. 19 contract with Google, in which a unnamed federal agency explicitly carved out an exemption from the ban so that the agency could use Google's YouTube video player.
Contract Terms
The terms of the contract, negotiated through the General Services Administration, "expressly waives those rules or guidelines as they may apply to Google." The contract was obtained by EPIC through a Freedom of Information Act request.
"Our primary concern is that the GSA has failed t
You know one of the things I've noticed is that when the earth quakes it tends to rattle the good things apart to.
Maybe it's just the pressure of having to sell the site, I'm not really sure because that really doesn't apply to me I just do it for the sake of Love and never have to give a thought to any type of monetary gain from it.
But what I have noticed is the MSM spin tactic being used by people that I thought were fighting the good fight to unravel that spin so that the people of world had a chance to at least try to understand just exactly what is going on rather than being told what was wanted for them to be heard.
The first priority of the soldiers fighting the good fight has got to be the truth without the spin hype that collects eyeballs, other wise you can't be trusted to tell the truth and nothing but the truth any more than MSM can.
And with out that trust you just represent another version of them and there are already to many of them as it is.
Freedom fighters please remember the unvarnished truth is your strongest weapon to slay the corruption, which is the very reason we fight this war, and the most important point that can never be forgotten.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Us-TVg40ExM
Maybe it's just the pressure of having to sell the site, I'm not really sure because that really doesn't apply to me I just do it for the sake of Love and never have to give a thought to any type of monetary gain from it.
But what I have noticed is the MSM spin tactic being used by people that I thought were fighting the good fight to unravel that spin so that the people of world had a chance to at least try to understand just exactly what is going on rather than being told what was wanted for them to be heard.
The first priority of the soldiers fighting the good fight has got to be the truth without the spin hype that collects eyeballs, other wise you can't be trusted to tell the truth and nothing but the truth any more than MSM can.
And with out that trust you just represent another version of them and there are already to many of them as it is.
Freedom fighters please remember the unvarnished truth is your strongest weapon to slay the corruption, which is the very reason we fight this war, and the most important point that can never be forgotten.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Us-TVg40ExM
Watchdog says bad assets still threaten banks
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Watchdog-says-bad-assets-apf-2147038643.html?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=6&asset=&ccode=
When people have no jobs, what other outcome can they really expect seriously?
If you have no money you can't buy the honey
Owners of shopping malls, hotels and offices have been defaulting on their loans at an alarming rate, and the commercial real estate market isn't expected to hit bottom for three more years, industry experts have warned. Delinquency rates on commercial loans have doubled in the past year to 7 percent as more companies downsize and retailers close their doors, according to the Federal Reserve.
The commercial real estate market's fortunes are tied closely to the economy, especially unemployment, which registered 9.4 percent last month. As people lose their jobs, or have their hours reduced, they cut back on spending, which hurts retailers, and take fewer trips, affecting hotels.
Ten months into the federal rescue program, the troubled assets "remain a substantial danger to the financial system," the report says. "Financial stability remains at risk if the underlying problem of toxic assets remains unresolved."
When people have no jobs, what other outcome can they really expect seriously?
If you have no money you can't buy the honey
Owners of shopping malls, hotels and offices have been defaulting on their loans at an alarming rate, and the commercial real estate market isn't expected to hit bottom for three more years, industry experts have warned. Delinquency rates on commercial loans have doubled in the past year to 7 percent as more companies downsize and retailers close their doors, according to the Federal Reserve.
The commercial real estate market's fortunes are tied closely to the economy, especially unemployment, which registered 9.4 percent last month. As people lose their jobs, or have their hours reduced, they cut back on spending, which hurts retailers, and take fewer trips, affecting hotels.
Ten months into the federal rescue program, the troubled assets "remain a substantial danger to the financial system," the report says. "Financial stability remains at risk if the underlying problem of toxic assets remains unresolved."
Dirty Secret No. 1 in Obamacare
http://townhall.com/columnists/Chuck...1_in_obamacare
Oh now I see now how Obama is going to create more jobs through the invasion of your privacy and privileges as a parent.
And just what happens if you don't follow their teachings and preachings, will the consequences be the loss of your child?
Dirty secret No. 1 in Obamacare is about the government's coming into homes and usurping parental rights over child care and development.
It's outlined in sections 440 and 1904 of the House bill (Page 838), under the heading "home visitation programs for families with young children and families expecting children." The programs (provided via grants to states) would educate parents on child behavior and parenting skills.
The bill says that the government agents, "well-trained and competent staff," would "provide parents with knowledge of age-appropriate child development in cognitive, language, social, emotional, and motor domains ... modeling, consulting, and coaching on parenting practices," and "skills to interact with their child to enhance age-appropriate development."
Are you kidding me?! With whose parental principles and values? Their own? Certain experts'? From what field and theory of childhood development? As if there are one-size-fits-all parenting techniques! Do we really believe they would contextualize and personalize every form of parenting in their education, or would they merely universally indoctrinate with their own?
Oh now I see now how Obama is going to create more jobs through the invasion of your privacy and privileges as a parent.
And just what happens if you don't follow their teachings and preachings, will the consequences be the loss of your child?
Dirty secret No. 1 in Obamacare is about the government's coming into homes and usurping parental rights over child care and development.
It's outlined in sections 440 and 1904 of the House bill (Page 838), under the heading "home visitation programs for families with young children and families expecting children." The programs (provided via grants to states) would educate parents on child behavior and parenting skills.
The bill says that the government agents, "well-trained and competent staff," would "provide parents with knowledge of age-appropriate child development in cognitive, language, social, emotional, and motor domains ... modeling, consulting, and coaching on parenting practices," and "skills to interact with their child to enhance age-appropriate development."
Are you kidding me?! With whose parental principles and values? Their own? Certain experts'? From what field and theory of childhood development? As if there are one-size-fits-all parenting techniques! Do we really believe they would contextualize and personalize every form of parenting in their education, or would they merely universally indoctrinate with their own?
Monday, August 10, 2009
Governors oppose DoD emergency powers
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/...009-08-10.html
A bipartisan pair of governors is opposing a new Defense Department proposal to handle natural and terrorism-related disasters, contending that a murky chain of command could lead to more problems than solutions.
Vermont Gov. Jim Douglas (R), chairman of the National Governors Association, and Vice Chairman Gov. Joe Manchin (D) of West Virginia penned a letter opposing the Pentagon proposal, which they said would hinder a state's effort to respond to a disaster.
Current law gives governors control over National Guard forces in their own states as well as any Guard units and Defense Department personnel imported from other states.
The letter comes as the Pentagon proposes a legislative fix that would give the secretary of Defense the authority to assist in response to domestic disasters and, consequently, control over units stationed in an affected state.
"We are concerned that the legislative proposal you discuss in your letter would invite confusion on critical command and control issues, complicate interagency planning, establish stove-piped response efforts, and interfere with governors’ constitutional responsibilities to ensure the safety and security of their citizens," Douglas and Manchin wrote to Paul Stockton, assistant secretary of Defense for Homeland Defense and America's Security Affairs.
http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/...009-08-10.html
A bipartisan pair of governors is opposing a new Defense Department proposal to handle natural and terrorism-related disasters, contending that a murky chain of command could lead to more problems than solutions.
Vermont Gov. Jim Douglas (R), chairman of the National Governors Association, and Vice Chairman Gov. Joe Manchin (D) of West Virginia penned a letter opposing the Pentagon proposal, which they said would hinder a state's effort to respond to a disaster.
Current law gives governors control over National Guard forces in their own states as well as any Guard units and Defense Department personnel imported from other states.
The letter comes as the Pentagon proposes a legislative fix that would give the secretary of Defense the authority to assist in response to domestic disasters and, consequently, control over units stationed in an affected state.
"We are concerned that the legislative proposal you discuss in your letter would invite confusion on critical command and control issues, complicate interagency planning, establish stove-piped response efforts, and interfere with governors’ constitutional responsibilities to ensure the safety and security of their citizens," Douglas and Manchin wrote to Paul Stockton, assistant secretary of Defense for Homeland Defense and America's Security Affairs.
Pathogenic flu 'increases risk of Parkinson's disease'
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/6004728/Pathogenic-flu-increases-risk-of-Parkinsons-disease.html
A team led by Prof Richard Smeyne, a neurobiologist at St Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, found that the bird flu virus that can enter the brain and cause damaging changes.
The study provides evidence for the long-held suspicion that viruses can increase the risk of developing certain severe conditions that appear unrelated to the original infection - even decades later.
The researchers found that a variety of the H5N1 bird flu virus was able to enter the brains of mice and cause several of the fundamental characteristics of Parkinson's disease including tremors, movement disorders and the loss of brain cells.
This cell loss was insufficient on its own to cause Parkinson's, because the mice's immune systems could clear the virus from the brain, but their immune systems were left in a chronically activated state.
This activation later led to the build-up of proteins in the brain that characterise diseases such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's.
A team led by Prof Richard Smeyne, a neurobiologist at St Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, found that the bird flu virus that can enter the brain and cause damaging changes.
The study provides evidence for the long-held suspicion that viruses can increase the risk of developing certain severe conditions that appear unrelated to the original infection - even decades later.
The researchers found that a variety of the H5N1 bird flu virus was able to enter the brains of mice and cause several of the fundamental characteristics of Parkinson's disease including tremors, movement disorders and the loss of brain cells.
This cell loss was insufficient on its own to cause Parkinson's, because the mice's immune systems could clear the virus from the brain, but their immune systems were left in a chronically activated state.
This activation later led to the build-up of proteins in the brain that characterise diseases such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/swine-flu/6004313/Children-should-not-be-given-Tamiflu-Oxford-researchers.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/swine-flu/6004313/Children-should-not-be-given-Tamiflu-Oxford-researchers.html
Anti-viral drugs Tamiflu and Relenza, reduce the length of time children are ill with flu by about one day and can cause vomiting as a common side effect, Oxford researchers found.
Vomiting is more dangerous in children than in adults as it can rapidly lead to dehydration and admission to hospital, they said.
Also the drugs had little or no effect on asthma flare-ups, ear infections or the likelihood of a child needing antibiotics meaning on balance the medicine does more harm than good in otherwise healthy children, the authors said.
It comes after research last week showed that Tamiflu reduced the length of flu in adults by just half a day.
Together the findings will question whether the Government's policy of stockpiling enough antiviral drugs for 80 per cent of the population was a waste of money. The exact cost of the stockpile has been kept secret for 'commercial reasons' but is expected to run to tens of millions of pounds.
Countries around the world have stockpiled around 50m doses of Tamiflu, made by Roche, for use during a flu pandemic.
Tamiflu has also been linked to side effects such as
Anti-viral drugs Tamiflu and Relenza, reduce the length of time children are ill with flu by about one day and can cause vomiting as a common side effect, Oxford researchers found.
Vomiting is more dangerous in children than in adults as it can rapidly lead to dehydration and admission to hospital, they said.
Also the drugs had little or no effect on asthma flare-ups, ear infections or the likelihood of a child needing antibiotics meaning on balance the medicine does more harm than good in otherwise healthy children, the authors said.
It comes after research last week showed that Tamiflu reduced the length of flu in adults by just half a day.
Together the findings will question whether the Government's policy of stockpiling enough antiviral drugs for 80 per cent of the population was a waste of money. The exact cost of the stockpile has been kept secret for 'commercial reasons' but is expected to run to tens of millions of pounds.
Countries around the world have stockpiled around 50m doses of Tamiflu, made by Roche, for use during a flu pandemic.
Tamiflu has also been linked to side effects such as
Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act
http://www.usps.com/communications/news/press/2006/pr06_pmg1209.htm
I personally am thinking test..no, more like Oh my God.
How much more money does Timmy really need?
Statement of Postmaster General John E. Potter
Passage of the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act
The Congress is to be congratulated on the passage of the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006. I would single out for extraordinary effort Senators Susan Collins, Joseph Lieberman and Thomas Carper and Representatives Thomas Davis, Henry Waxman, John McHugh and Danny Davis for making reform a reality.
We are grateful that the funding for USPS retiree military service obligations will be borne by the Treasury.
This, combined with release of the escrow funds, will be used for retiree health benefits. We look forward to working with the mailing community, USPS employees, the Postal Regulatory Commission and the Treasury on implementation of the pending legislation and delivery of affordable universal service to all Americans for many years to come.
http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/omb/legislative/sap/109-1/hr22sap-h.pdf
The substantial pension savings from P.L. 108-18 provide an excellent
opportunity to transition to a financially self-sufficient USPS. The President's FY 2006
Budget proposes to use the amounts that would otherwise be held in escrow to enable
USPS to contribute $42.5 billion over the next 10 years toward paying down its
substantial retiree health benefits liability. If these unfunded retiree health benefit
liabilities are not fully addressed now, unnecessarily large spending will be needed in the
future to pay these health benefits costs as they come due.
The President's Budget proposal would allow the elimination of the statutory escrow
requirement to be accomplished in a manner that would have no adverse budget impact.
However, H.R. 22 would allow USPS to use a portion of the escrow as a subsidy for
current operations, and thus would have an adverse budget impact.
Treatment of Military Service Obligations. The Administration believes that USPS must
continue to be responsible for pension costs connected with military service credits for
postal employees under the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) and opposes
provisions in the current version of H.R 22 that would grant USPS a subsidy with a net
present value of $27 billion by transferring all of these military service pension credit
obligations to the General Fund of the Treasury. USPS's responsibility for paying this
military service pension credit obligation is a cost of doing business, and USPS should
not be absolved of its responsibility to pay for these unfunded liabilities
Consequently, we will simply not have the means to meet all of our required obligations as we close the fiscal year. This will have a direct effect on our ability to meet the scheduled payment of $5.4 billion to the Postal Service Retiree Health Benefit Fund, which is required on September 30, by the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006
I personally am thinking test..no, more like Oh my God.
How much more money does Timmy really need?
Statement of Postmaster General John E. Potter
Passage of the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act
The Congress is to be congratulated on the passage of the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006. I would single out for extraordinary effort Senators Susan Collins, Joseph Lieberman and Thomas Carper and Representatives Thomas Davis, Henry Waxman, John McHugh and Danny Davis for making reform a reality.
We are grateful that the funding for USPS retiree military service obligations will be borne by the Treasury.
This, combined with release of the escrow funds, will be used for retiree health benefits. We look forward to working with the mailing community, USPS employees, the Postal Regulatory Commission and the Treasury on implementation of the pending legislation and delivery of affordable universal service to all Americans for many years to come.
http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/omb/legislative/sap/109-1/hr22sap-h.pdf
The substantial pension savings from P.L. 108-18 provide an excellent
opportunity to transition to a financially self-sufficient USPS. The President's FY 2006
Budget proposes to use the amounts that would otherwise be held in escrow to enable
USPS to contribute $42.5 billion over the next 10 years toward paying down its
substantial retiree health benefits liability. If these unfunded retiree health benefit
liabilities are not fully addressed now, unnecessarily large spending will be needed in the
future to pay these health benefits costs as they come due.
The President's Budget proposal would allow the elimination of the statutory escrow
requirement to be accomplished in a manner that would have no adverse budget impact.
However, H.R. 22 would allow USPS to use a portion of the escrow as a subsidy for
current operations, and thus would have an adverse budget impact.
Treatment of Military Service Obligations. The Administration believes that USPS must
continue to be responsible for pension costs connected with military service credits for
postal employees under the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) and opposes
provisions in the current version of H.R 22 that would grant USPS a subsidy with a net
present value of $27 billion by transferring all of these military service pension credit
obligations to the General Fund of the Treasury. USPS's responsibility for paying this
military service pension credit obligation is a cost of doing business, and USPS should
not be absolved of its responsibility to pay for these unfunded liabilities
Consequently, we will simply not have the means to meet all of our required obligations as we close the fiscal year. This will have a direct effect on our ability to meet the scheduled payment of $5.4 billion to the Postal Service Retiree Health Benefit Fund, which is required on September 30, by the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006
I want some more
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124970470294516541.html
Have you ever seen "Interview with a vampire"? There's a really creepy part where the little girl feeds for the first time that somehow reminds me of the insatiable need for money that the treasury needs to acquire to satisfy it's needs.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner asked Congress to increase the $12.1 trillion debt limit on Friday, saying it is "critically important" that they act in the next two months.
This is a rerun of the "Hank Paulson" show, and lets not forget just how much damage that bazooka really did, and just how fast giving them that ammunition did it. a And now.... they want an unspecified amount More.
They are insatiable, just like that little girl and they rely on us "The Taxpayer" to feed them again and again just to keep the world confident that we're not going to stiff them for the bill.
I makes you wonder what happen to our country and just where they have really lead us doesn't it? It looks to me like the "Poor Farm"
Is confidence worth the cost of no future to the taxpayer other than being liable to pay the bills
They are now asking to drain us dry with their unspecified amount and who's going to stop them? You can bet it won't be Congress, who as it would have it, has never turned them away hungry at the door before. They made the mistake of actually inviting them in to feed.
They seem to have no problem with the fact that the reason they are asking to feed again so soon is because the United States really can't pay it's bills or stay on a budget for that matter.
Mr. Geithner, in a letter to U.S. lawmakers, said that the Treasury projects that the current debt limit could be reached as early mid-October. Increasing the limit is important to instilling confidence in global investors
Ah no amount, but we do have a deadline looming ahead of us.
Tell them no more debt America.
It's time to kill the vampire and watch it burn and put an end to this curse.
We owe it to our kids
Have you ever seen "Interview with a vampire"? There's a really creepy part where the little girl feeds for the first time that somehow reminds me of the insatiable need for money that the treasury needs to acquire to satisfy it's needs.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner asked Congress to increase the $12.1 trillion debt limit on Friday, saying it is "critically important" that they act in the next two months.
This is a rerun of the "Hank Paulson" show, and lets not forget just how much damage that bazooka really did, and just how fast giving them that ammunition did it. a And now.... they want an unspecified amount More.
They are insatiable, just like that little girl and they rely on us "The Taxpayer" to feed them again and again just to keep the world confident that we're not going to stiff them for the bill.
I makes you wonder what happen to our country and just where they have really lead us doesn't it? It looks to me like the "Poor Farm"
Is confidence worth the cost of no future to the taxpayer other than being liable to pay the bills
They are now asking to drain us dry with their unspecified amount and who's going to stop them? You can bet it won't be Congress, who as it would have it, has never turned them away hungry at the door before. They made the mistake of actually inviting them in to feed.
They seem to have no problem with the fact that the reason they are asking to feed again so soon is because the United States really can't pay it's bills or stay on a budget for that matter.
Mr. Geithner, in a letter to U.S. lawmakers, said that the Treasury projects that the current debt limit could be reached as early mid-October. Increasing the limit is important to instilling confidence in global investors
Ah no amount, but we do have a deadline looming ahead of us.
Tell them no more debt America.
It's time to kill the vampire and watch it burn and put an end to this curse.
We owe it to our kids
Consumer, Celebrity Bankruptcies May Hit 1.4 Million
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=acQvgRoLQmXQ
Consumer bankruptcies show no sign of abating after rising more than a third this year and may hit 1.4 million by Dec. 31 as jobs are lost and loans are harder to get, according to the American Bankruptcy Institute.
More than 126,000 consumers filed for bankruptcy in the U.S. last month, 34 percent more than in July 2008, the ABI said in its latest report on Aug. 4. The increase came after a 36.5 percent rise in personal bankruptcies nationwide in the first six months, to 675,351, according to the ABI research group, which interprets data collected by the National Bankruptcy Research Center.
“Rising unemployment on top of high pre-existing debt burdens is a formula for higher bankruptcies through the end of this year,” ABI Executive Director Samuel Gerdano said in a statement. The group, composed of lawyers, accountants, bankers and judges, is based in Alexandria, Virginia.
Debt problems don’t stop with sub-prime borrowers. Celebrities who
Consumer bankruptcies show no sign of abating after rising more than a third this year and may hit 1.4 million by Dec. 31 as jobs are lost and loans are harder to get, according to the American Bankruptcy Institute.
More than 126,000 consumers filed for bankruptcy in the U.S. last month, 34 percent more than in July 2008, the ABI said in its latest report on Aug. 4. The increase came after a 36.5 percent rise in personal bankruptcies nationwide in the first six months, to 675,351, according to the ABI research group, which interprets data collected by the National Bankruptcy Research Center.
“Rising unemployment on top of high pre-existing debt burdens is a formula for higher bankruptcies through the end of this year,” ABI Executive Director Samuel Gerdano said in a statement. The group, composed of lawyers, accountants, bankers and judges, is based in Alexandria, Virginia.
Debt problems don’t stop with sub-prime borrowers. Celebrities who
Sunday, August 9, 2009
IMF puts total cost of crisis at £7.1 trillion
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/5995810/IMF-puts-total-cost-of-crisis-at-7.1-trillion.html
The staggering total is is equivalent to around a fifth of the entire globe's annual economic output and includes capital injections pumped into banks in order to prevent them from collapse, the cost of soaking up so-called toxic assets, guarantees over debt and liquidity support from central banks. Although much of the total may never be called on, the potential outlay still dwarfs any previous repair bill for the global economy.
The IMF calculations, produced ahead of the two-year anniversary of the crisis, underline the continually mounting cost. Most of the cash has been handed over by developed countries, for whom the bill has been $10.2 trillion, while developing countries have spent only $1.7 trillion − the majority of which is in central bank liquidity support for their stuttering financial sectors
The staggering total is is equivalent to around a fifth of the entire globe's annual economic output and includes capital injections pumped into banks in order to prevent them from collapse, the cost of soaking up so-called toxic assets, guarantees over debt and liquidity support from central banks. Although much of the total may never be called on, the potential outlay still dwarfs any previous repair bill for the global economy.
The IMF calculations, produced ahead of the two-year anniversary of the crisis, underline the continually mounting cost. Most of the cash has been handed over by developed countries, for whom the bill has been $10.2 trillion, while developing countries have spent only $1.7 trillion − the majority of which is in central bank liquidity support for their stuttering financial sectors
Saturday, August 8, 2009
Regulators close 3 banks in Fla., Ore.; total 72
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20090808/D99UFA180.html
Failure is an option or so it seems for those without the government connections of Wall Street.
The number of banks on the FDIC's list of problem institutions leaped to 305 in the first quarter - the highest number since 1994 during the savings and loan crisis - from 252 in the fourth quarter. The FDIC expects U.S. bank failures to cost the insurance fund around $70 billion through 2013.
The bank failure costliest to the fund came in July 2008 with the seizure of IndyMac Bank. The insurance fund is estimated to have lost $10.7 billion on the closure of the big California lender.
The largest
Failure is an option or so it seems for those without the government connections of Wall Street.
The number of banks on the FDIC's list of problem institutions leaped to 305 in the first quarter - the highest number since 1994 during the savings and loan crisis - from 252 in the fourth quarter. The FDIC expects U.S. bank failures to cost the insurance fund around $70 billion through 2013.
The bank failure costliest to the fund came in July 2008 with the seizure of IndyMac Bank. The insurance fund is estimated to have lost $10.7 billion on the closure of the big California lender.
The largest
Lawmakers' Global-Warming Trip Hit Tourist Hot Spots
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124967502810515267.html
Wake up, this is the coffe that your smelling.
And a good time was had by all and billed to the taxpayers purse.
Taxpayer-funded travel for Congress is booming. Legislators and aides reported spending about $13 million on overseas trips last year, a Journal analysis has shown, a nearly 10-fold jump since 1995.
For Mr. Baird, the trip was one of two such excursions in six months. Last summer, he went to the Galapagos Islands with several lawmakers, also to gain expertise in climate change.
Other lawmakers have taken big-ticket trips. In June 2007, Ted Stevens, then a Republican senator from Alaska, and four other senators went to the Paris Air Show, costing the government $121,000 for hotels, meals and other expenses. Information needed to estimate their flight costs wasn't available.
Mr. Stevens said the purpose was to learn more about developments in aviation. "My state is very dependent on the industry" because many cities can be reached only by air, he said
Wake up, this is the coffe that your smelling.
And a good time was had by all and billed to the taxpayers purse.
Taxpayer-funded travel for Congress is booming. Legislators and aides reported spending about $13 million on overseas trips last year, a Journal analysis has shown, a nearly 10-fold jump since 1995.
For Mr. Baird, the trip was one of two such excursions in six months. Last summer, he went to the Galapagos Islands with several lawmakers, also to gain expertise in climate change.
Other lawmakers have taken big-ticket trips. In June 2007, Ted Stevens, then a Republican senator from Alaska, and four other senators went to the Paris Air Show, costing the government $121,000 for hotels, meals and other expenses. Information needed to estimate their flight costs wasn't available.
Mr. Stevens said the purpose was to learn more about developments in aviation. "My state is very dependent on the industry" because many cities can be reached only by air, he said
Congress Gets an Upgrade
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124960404730212955.html
The old do as I say and not as I do clause.
Congress plans to spend $550 million to buy eight jets, a substantial upgrade to the fleet used by federal officials at a time when lawmakers have criticized the use of corporate jets by companies receiving taxpayer funds.
The purchases will help accommodate growing travel demand by congressional officials. The planes augment a fleet of about two dozen passenger jets maintained by the Air Force for lawmakers, administration officials and military chiefs to fly on government trips in the U.S. and abroad.
The congressional shopping list goes beyond what the Air Force had initially requested as part of its annual appropriations. The Pentagon sought to buy one Gulfstream V and one business-class equivalent of a Boeing 737 to replace aging planes. The Defense Department also asked to buy two additional 737s that were being leased.
.Lawmakers in the House last week added funds to buy those planes, and plus funds to buy an additional two 737s and two Gulfstream V planes. The purchases must still be approved by the Senate. The Air Force version of the Gulfstream V each costs $66 million, according to the Department of Defense, and the 737s cost about $70 million.
Geoff Morrell, the Pentagon press secretary, said the Department of Defense didn't request the additional planes and doesn't need them. "We ask for what we need and only what we need," he told reporters Wednesday. "We've always frowned upon earmarks and additives that are above and beyond what we ask for."
Congress turned harshly critical of companies that fly executives on private jets in the weeks following the
The old do as I say and not as I do clause.
Congress plans to spend $550 million to buy eight jets, a substantial upgrade to the fleet used by federal officials at a time when lawmakers have criticized the use of corporate jets by companies receiving taxpayer funds.
The purchases will help accommodate growing travel demand by congressional officials. The planes augment a fleet of about two dozen passenger jets maintained by the Air Force for lawmakers, administration officials and military chiefs to fly on government trips in the U.S. and abroad.
The congressional shopping list goes beyond what the Air Force had initially requested as part of its annual appropriations. The Pentagon sought to buy one Gulfstream V and one business-class equivalent of a Boeing 737 to replace aging planes. The Defense Department also asked to buy two additional 737s that were being leased.
.Lawmakers in the House last week added funds to buy those planes, and plus funds to buy an additional two 737s and two Gulfstream V planes. The purchases must still be approved by the Senate. The Air Force version of the Gulfstream V each costs $66 million, according to the Department of Defense, and the 737s cost about $70 million.
Geoff Morrell, the Pentagon press secretary, said the Department of Defense didn't request the additional planes and doesn't need them. "We ask for what we need and only what we need," he told reporters Wednesday. "We've always frowned upon earmarks and additives that are above and beyond what we ask for."
Congress turned harshly critical of companies that fly executives on private jets in the weeks following the
DDoS Attackers Continue Hitting Twitter, Facebook, Google
http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/169893/ddos_attackers_continue_hitting_twitter_facebook_google.html
It does make one wonder just exactly why. Perhaps no news is more the purpose.
After all we are all Georgians you know. If you can't see it, it means we didn't do it, just like they tried to play off the first time.
According to news reports and information from companies affected, the attacks appear directed at silencing a blogger in the country of Georgia who has been critical of Russia's actions and policies toward that neighboring country.
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http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601085&sid=a7n61V5ls9h8
Medvedev Says Georgian Army Buildup Causes ‘Concern’
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Georgia’s actions, including a troop buildup on the borders of two separatist Georgian regions, are cause for “serious concern” a year after a war between the two countries.
“Georgia’s actions continue to cause serious concern, from the unceasing threats to restore its ‘territorial integrity’ by force and daily warlike rhetoric to its concentration of armed forces on the borders with South Ossetia and Abkhazia and serious provocations in border areas,” Medvedev said in a letter to French President Nicolas Sarkozy. Excerpts from the letter were posted today on the Kremlin Web site.
Russia routed Georgia’s U.S.-trained army in the five-day war over separatist South Ossetia that began one year ago today
It does make one wonder just exactly why. Perhaps no news is more the purpose.
After all we are all Georgians you know. If you can't see it, it means we didn't do it, just like they tried to play off the first time.
According to news reports and information from companies affected, the attacks appear directed at silencing a blogger in the country of Georgia who has been critical of Russia's actions and policies toward that neighboring country.
Sponsored Resource:Improve your network with the right mix of features, performance and pricing.
Sponsored Resource:Growing your business requires the right tools. Dell's networking servers can help.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601085&sid=a7n61V5ls9h8
Medvedev Says Georgian Army Buildup Causes ‘Concern’
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Georgia’s actions, including a troop buildup on the borders of two separatist Georgian regions, are cause for “serious concern” a year after a war between the two countries.
“Georgia’s actions continue to cause serious concern, from the unceasing threats to restore its ‘territorial integrity’ by force and daily warlike rhetoric to its concentration of armed forces on the borders with South Ossetia and Abkhazia and serious provocations in border areas,” Medvedev said in a letter to French President Nicolas Sarkozy. Excerpts from the letter were posted today on the Kremlin Web site.
Russia routed Georgia’s U.S.-trained army in the five-day war over separatist South Ossetia that began one year ago today
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