http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/7536683/SEC-quizzes-US-banks-over-accounting-practices.html
Hey.... are you guys doing that to?
Lol NOW THEY ASK
Shouldn't they already KNOW the answer to that question?
Any bank that took TARP money should submit to an auditing of their books now
"The letter" leaves it open for self regulation again, and hiding and avoiding secrets is their favorite game.
The US’s leading financial regulator is quizzing major Wall Street banks and insurance firms to ensure that they are not using the secretive off-balance sheet techniques which in part led to the downfall of Lehman Brothers.
The SEC has sent letters to the chief financial officers of the US’s 24 biggest financial institutions to ensure that such techniques have not and are not being used.
The requests demand specific information about the use of repurchase agreements, as well as for how such agreements are accounted for and disclosed to investors.
Monday, March 29, 2010
Credibility gap: Pope needs to answer questions
http://ncronline.org/news/accountability/credibility-gap-pope-needs-answer-questions
We now face the largest institutional crisis in centuries, possibly in church history
The Holy Father needs to directly answer questions, in a credible forum, about his role -- as archbishop of Munich (1977-82), as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (1982-2005), and as pope (2005-present) -- in the mismanagement of the clergy sex abuse crisis.
We urge this not primarily as journalists seeking a story, but as Catholics who appreciate that extraordinary circumstances require an extraordinary response. Nothing less than a full, personal and public accounting will begin to address the crisis that is engulfing the worldwide church. It is that serious.
To date, as revelations about administrative actions resulting in the shifting of clergy abusers from parish to parish emerge throughout Europe, Pope Benedict XVI's personal response has been limited to a letter to the Irish church. Such epistles are customary and necessary, but insufficient
We now face the largest institutional crisis in centuries, possibly in church history
The Holy Father needs to directly answer questions, in a credible forum, about his role -- as archbishop of Munich (1977-82), as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (1982-2005), and as pope (2005-present) -- in the mismanagement of the clergy sex abuse crisis.
We urge this not primarily as journalists seeking a story, but as Catholics who appreciate that extraordinary circumstances require an extraordinary response. Nothing less than a full, personal and public accounting will begin to address the crisis that is engulfing the worldwide church. It is that serious.
To date, as revelations about administrative actions resulting in the shifting of clergy abusers from parish to parish emerge throughout Europe, Pope Benedict XVI's personal response has been limited to a letter to the Irish church. Such epistles are customary and necessary, but insufficient
down’s syndrome woman names paedophile ring
http://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/Article.aspx/1488131/?UserKey=
Note the date please, just exactly how long does it take for "due course"
It is now 2010 and the Crown Office has done NOTHING to pursue or investigate the Grampian Police who it's stated to have been involved, meaning that one can only assume that paedophilia is seen as nothing more than a nuisance misdemeanor rather than the felony it is, and doesn't deserve a proper inquiry.
The question is has the Crown Office taken that same committed stance, of to overlook rather than to investigate, in regards to the Vatican's paedophilia plight?
Published: 18/11/2009
Anne Greig with daughter Hollie when she was a youngster
More Pictures
Grampian Police have reinterviewed a disabled woman who claims she was abused as a child by an Aberdeen paedo-phile ring which included a senior police officer and a leading Scottish sheriff.
No charges have ever been brought, although Hollie received £13,500 compensation from the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority in April this year.
A Crown Office spokes-woman said late last night: "We have not received any report from the police.
“If we do receive a report it will be carefully considered in due course."
Note the date please, just exactly how long does it take for "due course"
It is now 2010 and the Crown Office has done NOTHING to pursue or investigate the Grampian Police who it's stated to have been involved, meaning that one can only assume that paedophilia is seen as nothing more than a nuisance misdemeanor rather than the felony it is, and doesn't deserve a proper inquiry.
The question is has the Crown Office taken that same committed stance, of to overlook rather than to investigate, in regards to the Vatican's paedophilia plight?
Published: 18/11/2009
Anne Greig with daughter Hollie when she was a youngster
More Pictures
Grampian Police have reinterviewed a disabled woman who claims she was abused as a child by an Aberdeen paedo-phile ring which included a senior police officer and a leading Scottish sheriff.
No charges have ever been brought, although Hollie received £13,500 compensation from the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority in April this year.
A Crown Office spokes-woman said late last night: "We have not received any report from the police.
“If we do receive a report it will be carefully considered in due course."
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Military top brass ordered to travel second class
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/defence/7533061/Military-top-brass-ordered-to-travel-second-class.html
I had to laugh when I saw the "Humiliating" part, so many people are out of work and times are so lean, it just sounds ridiculous to here them say that let alone be thinking it.
America's government could take a lesson here I believe.
All admirals, generals and air chief marshals have been ordered to travel second class in a cost-cutting measure condemned as “humiliating”.
All armed forces personnel, including senior commanders, must now sit in standard class on trains and planes, under the new rules introduced by the government.
However, the move has provoked anger from military leaders. Major-General Patrick Cordingley, who commanded the 7th Armoured Brigade — the Desert Rats — during the first Gulf war, said there were “very good reasons” to allow first-class travel for senior personnel.
I had to laugh when I saw the "Humiliating" part, so many people are out of work and times are so lean, it just sounds ridiculous to here them say that let alone be thinking it.
America's government could take a lesson here I believe.
All admirals, generals and air chief marshals have been ordered to travel second class in a cost-cutting measure condemned as “humiliating”.
All armed forces personnel, including senior commanders, must now sit in standard class on trains and planes, under the new rules introduced by the government.
However, the move has provoked anger from military leaders. Major-General Patrick Cordingley, who commanded the 7th Armoured Brigade — the Desert Rats — during the first Gulf war, said there were “very good reasons” to allow first-class travel for senior personnel.
States Seeking Cash Hope to Expand Taxes to Services
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/28/us/28taxes.html?hp
In the scramble to find something, anything, to generate more revenue, states are considering new taxes on virtually everything: garbage pickup, dating services, bowling night, haircuts, even clowns.
A Michigan proposal would lower the sales tax but make it broader, levying it on over 100 additional types of services like haircuts, including those at Chaltraw’s Barber Shop in Standish, where Al Marden awaited his turn.
“It’s hard enough doing what we do,” grumbled John Luke, a plumber in the Philadelphia suburbs. His services would, for the first time, come with an added tax if the governor has his way.
Opponents of imposing taxes on services like funerals, legal advice, helicopter rides and dry cleaning argue that this push comes as businesses are barely clinging to life and can ill afford to see customers further put off by new taxes.
In the scramble to find something, anything, to generate more revenue, states are considering new taxes on virtually everything: garbage pickup, dating services, bowling night, haircuts, even clowns.
A Michigan proposal would lower the sales tax but make it broader, levying it on over 100 additional types of services like haircuts, including those at Chaltraw’s Barber Shop in Standish, where Al Marden awaited his turn.
“It’s hard enough doing what we do,” grumbled John Luke, a plumber in the Philadelphia suburbs. His services would, for the first time, come with an added tax if the governor has his way.
Opponents of imposing taxes on services like funerals, legal advice, helicopter rides and dry cleaning argue that this push comes as businesses are barely clinging to life and can ill afford to see customers further put off by new taxes.
Bank For International Settlements (BIS): How The Rothschilds Control And Dictate To
http://www.blacklistednews.com/news-7913-0-13-13--.html
Sounds like a conspiracy doesn't it?
Check the lists.
You'll find it a happening thing.
It's time for too be to fail, to be to large to continue
What’s the significance of having a central bank within a country and why should you concern yourself, your family and colleagues?
Central banks are illegally created PRIVATE banks that are owned by the Rothschild banking family. The family has been around for more than 230 years and has slithered its way into each country on this planet, threatened every world leader and their governments and cabinets with physical and economic death and destruction, and then emplaced their own people in these central banks to control and manage each country’s pocketbook. Worse, the Rothschilds also control the machinations of each government at the macro level, not concerning themselves with the daily vicissitudes of our individual personal lives. Except when we get too far out of line.The grand plan of The First Sphere of Influence is to create a global mononation. Please do not confuse this with the term globalization. Mononation and globalization couldn’t be more different in concept, scope and purpose. Mononation is one state. It has one government. One set of laws for all ordinary citizens, no laws for the elite. Globalization refers to communicating, trading, interacting, etc. among separate, different, independent, sovereign countries.
The grand plan of The First Sphere of Influence is to create a global mononation.
Our own Federal Reserve is an illegally emplaced private bank that is directly responsible for creating all the US’s depressions, recessions, and the inflation and deflation of our dollar. The Fed controls the printing of our own currency, and then charges the US government interest on those loans. The interest is growing each year, making it difficult if not impossible for our government to pay it. How do we pay this interest? By the US Personal Income Tax. This tax goes to the Rothschild family.
Sounds like a conspiracy doesn't it?
Check the lists.
You'll find it a happening thing.
It's time for too be to fail, to be to large to continue
What’s the significance of having a central bank within a country and why should you concern yourself, your family and colleagues?
Central banks are illegally created PRIVATE banks that are owned by the Rothschild banking family. The family has been around for more than 230 years and has slithered its way into each country on this planet, threatened every world leader and their governments and cabinets with physical and economic death and destruction, and then emplaced their own people in these central banks to control and manage each country’s pocketbook. Worse, the Rothschilds also control the machinations of each government at the macro level, not concerning themselves with the daily vicissitudes of our individual personal lives. Except when we get too far out of line.The grand plan of The First Sphere of Influence is to create a global mononation. Please do not confuse this with the term globalization. Mononation and globalization couldn’t be more different in concept, scope and purpose. Mononation is one state. It has one government. One set of laws for all ordinary citizens, no laws for the elite. Globalization refers to communicating, trading, interacting, etc. among separate, different, independent, sovereign countries.
The grand plan of The First Sphere of Influence is to create a global mononation.
Our own Federal Reserve is an illegally emplaced private bank that is directly responsible for creating all the US’s depressions, recessions, and the inflation and deflation of our dollar. The Fed controls the printing of our own currency, and then charges the US government interest on those loans. The interest is growing each year, making it difficult if not impossible for our government to pay it. How do we pay this interest? By the US Personal Income Tax. This tax goes to the Rothschild family.
Saturday, March 27, 2010
DANA PERINO: Where's the Outrage Over What Just Happened to Student Loans?
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2010/03/26/dana-perino-student-loans-health-care-sen-kent-conrad-democrats-students/
So, here we are -- with a majority of Americans feeling distinctly un-American as a partisan takeover of health care was engineered last weekend. But do Americans realize that Congress just took over student loans as well? Unlikely.
Now, not only will government increasingly be making decisions about individuals' health care, but students will also have to deal exclusively with the government to get the financing they need for college. The government will be in charge of the delivery of $1 trillion in federal student loans over the next 10 years. That means 19 million students will have no where to call but to 1-800-DEPT-OF-ED. -- I'm sure the calls will be handled in the order in which they were received. Good luck with that. Competition and choice have been taken away in the student loan market. Let's face it, this experiment can only end badly.
It's frustrating that a law this sweeping was swept under the Obamacare rug. The Senate never introduced a student loan reform bill. It never held a hearing. And proposed changes to the student loan program were never even considered by lawmakers at the committee level.
So, here we are -- with a majority of Americans feeling distinctly un-American as a partisan takeover of health care was engineered last weekend. But do Americans realize that Congress just took over student loans as well? Unlikely.
Now, not only will government increasingly be making decisions about individuals' health care, but students will also have to deal exclusively with the government to get the financing they need for college. The government will be in charge of the delivery of $1 trillion in federal student loans over the next 10 years. That means 19 million students will have no where to call but to 1-800-DEPT-OF-ED. -- I'm sure the calls will be handled in the order in which they were received. Good luck with that. Competition and choice have been taken away in the student loan market. Let's face it, this experiment can only end badly.
It's frustrating that a law this sweeping was swept under the Obamacare rug. The Senate never introduced a student loan reform bill. It never held a hearing. And proposed changes to the student loan program were never even considered by lawmakers at the committee level.
Friday, March 26, 2010
JPMorgan, Lehman, UBS Named as Conspirators in Muni Bid-Rigging
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=anW3hAG0Zw5k&pos=1
Lol even the government admits they're co conspirators.
March 26 (Bloomberg) -- JPMorgan Chase & Co., Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and UBS AG were among more than a dozen Wall Street firms involved in a conspiracy to pay below-market interest rates to U.S. state and local governments on investments, according to documents filed in a U.S. Justice Department criminal antitrust case.
A government list of previously unidentified “co- conspirators” contains more than two dozen bankers at firms also including Bank of America Corp., Bear Stearns Cos., Societe Generale, two of General Electric Co.’s financial businesses and Salomon Smith Barney, the former unit of Citigroup Inc., according to documents filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan on March 24. The papers were filed by attorneys for a former employee of CDR Financial Products Inc., an advisory firm indicted in October. The attorneys, as part of their legal filing, identified the roster as being provided by the government. The document is labeled “list of co-conspirators.”
In a court filing yesterday, defense lawyers said they “inadvertently” included the names of individual and company co-conspirators in a motion asking the court to compel the government to provide more specific evidence of the alleged misconduct. They asked the court to strike the entire exhibit in which the list appears. U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero granted the request.
Lol even the government admits they're co conspirators.
March 26 (Bloomberg) -- JPMorgan Chase & Co., Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and UBS AG were among more than a dozen Wall Street firms involved in a conspiracy to pay below-market interest rates to U.S. state and local governments on investments, according to documents filed in a U.S. Justice Department criminal antitrust case.
A government list of previously unidentified “co- conspirators” contains more than two dozen bankers at firms also including Bank of America Corp., Bear Stearns Cos., Societe Generale, two of General Electric Co.’s financial businesses and Salomon Smith Barney, the former unit of Citigroup Inc., according to documents filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan on March 24. The papers were filed by attorneys for a former employee of CDR Financial Products Inc., an advisory firm indicted in October. The attorneys, as part of their legal filing, identified the roster as being provided by the government. The document is labeled “list of co-conspirators.”
In a court filing yesterday, defense lawyers said they “inadvertently” included the names of individual and company co-conspirators in a motion asking the court to compel the government to provide more specific evidence of the alleged misconduct. They asked the court to strike the entire exhibit in which the list appears. U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero granted the request.
Another "Housing" fix
http://market-ticker.denninger.net/
Looks like another "fix" is in the works.
And no it can't work either
This is starting to remind me of the TV show "House". How many procedures can "WE" try before "WE" finally narrow it down to the "Right symptoms" and gain the collective understanding that there is only one way to fix "the patient", who by now by the way, is always on his last leg and laying in his death bed, waiting to pass over.
Obama's fix is just another eppi to the heart, yours mainly, he wants you to know how much he cares by giving you this compassionate gesture, that can't and won't go anywhere.
It will not start the beat of the heart, because the banks don't have one, as well as legs to stand on if "the patient" is actually fixed. The banks are nothing but the value of their paper, and if their paper (your house) is worth less than so is the bank. Now multiply that times millions and you can really see how piss poor the banks really are.
The Obama administration plans to announce programs to help homeowners avoid foreclosure, including subsidies for borrowers who owe more than their home is worth.
This sounds like homeowners will get some "free money" gifted to the banks so as to make them "not underwater" and thus avoid foreclosure. Well, it is - to a point. (If you were one of the people who put down 20% during the boom and was prudent in your use of debt, are you angry yet? You should be!)
The new plan would increase payments to lenders that modify second mortgages, an official said. Banks’ unwillingness to write down second liens has helped block efforts to prevent foreclosures, said Josh Rosner, managing director at Graham, Fisher & Co. The Washington Post reported earlier on the administration’s plan.
Banks aren't unwilling, they're unable. Look, this has been true since this crisis began - the banks - especially the big banks with lots of these loans - are insolvent if they recognize the "value" of this paper.
Absolutely none of the attempts made thus far have had a damn thing to do with helping Americans, and this "new program" is no exception. They have all - each and every one - been aimed at one and only one thing - allowing banks and the GSEs to LIE about the "value" of the home loans they hold.
Looks like another "fix" is in the works.
And no it can't work either
This is starting to remind me of the TV show "House". How many procedures can "WE" try before "WE" finally narrow it down to the "Right symptoms" and gain the collective understanding that there is only one way to fix "the patient", who by now by the way, is always on his last leg and laying in his death bed, waiting to pass over.
Obama's fix is just another eppi to the heart, yours mainly, he wants you to know how much he cares by giving you this compassionate gesture, that can't and won't go anywhere.
It will not start the beat of the heart, because the banks don't have one, as well as legs to stand on if "the patient" is actually fixed. The banks are nothing but the value of their paper, and if their paper (your house) is worth less than so is the bank. Now multiply that times millions and you can really see how piss poor the banks really are.
The Obama administration plans to announce programs to help homeowners avoid foreclosure, including subsidies for borrowers who owe more than their home is worth.
This sounds like homeowners will get some "free money" gifted to the banks so as to make them "not underwater" and thus avoid foreclosure. Well, it is - to a point. (If you were one of the people who put down 20% during the boom and was prudent in your use of debt, are you angry yet? You should be!)
The new plan would increase payments to lenders that modify second mortgages, an official said. Banks’ unwillingness to write down second liens has helped block efforts to prevent foreclosures, said Josh Rosner, managing director at Graham, Fisher & Co. The Washington Post reported earlier on the administration’s plan.
Banks aren't unwilling, they're unable. Look, this has been true since this crisis began - the banks - especially the big banks with lots of these loans - are insolvent if they recognize the "value" of this paper.
Absolutely none of the attempts made thus far have had a damn thing to do with helping Americans, and this "new program" is no exception. They have all - each and every one - been aimed at one and only one thing - allowing banks and the GSEs to LIE about the "value" of the home loans they hold.
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Sen. Kaufman: Lehman Accounting Just Tip of Wall St. Fraud Iceberg
http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/sen.-kaufman-lehman-accounting-just-tip-of-wall-st.-fraud-iceberg-449812.html?tickers=bac,c,gs,ms,jpm,xlf,skf&sec=topStories&pos=9&asset=&ccode=
Yeah everybody was doing it kids, because they could and still can.
Which ultimately means: Things are much messier than the level they're being viewed at now.
It's time to call in "The Forensic Accountants" . Our floorboards are rotten, that's pretty obvious to see and now it's come to light that the floor joices have that same rot in them to. This wasn't just a one board thing and the condition is wide spread.
Like many Americans, Delaware Senator Ted Kaufman is mad as hell about the Wall Street meltdown. Luckily for the American people, he's not going to take it anymore.
"You read about what went on, and you just shake your head," he tells Aaron in the accompanying clip, taped from Capitol Hill this morning. "If it isn't fraud, it should be fraud."
Kaufman was up in arms after he read the recent report by Lehman's bankruptcy examiner. "This 'repo 105' that Lehman Brothers had is very, very questionable," he says, referring to the accounting maneuver used to hide toxic assets in the months before Lehman's demise.
More troubling, as Kaufman has noted, is Lehman may have been the tip of the iceberg. Propublica reports Bank of America using similar 'tricks' to mask the true state of their balance sheet at the end of quarters.
Bank Of America has denied any wrongdoing, publicly stating:
"Efforts to manage the size of our balance sheet are routine and appropriate, and we believe our actions are consistent with all applicable accounting and legal requirements."
Yeah everybody was doing it kids, because they could and still can.
Which ultimately means: Things are much messier than the level they're being viewed at now.
It's time to call in "The Forensic Accountants" . Our floorboards are rotten, that's pretty obvious to see and now it's come to light that the floor joices have that same rot in them to. This wasn't just a one board thing and the condition is wide spread.
Like many Americans, Delaware Senator Ted Kaufman is mad as hell about the Wall Street meltdown. Luckily for the American people, he's not going to take it anymore.
"You read about what went on, and you just shake your head," he tells Aaron in the accompanying clip, taped from Capitol Hill this morning. "If it isn't fraud, it should be fraud."
Kaufman was up in arms after he read the recent report by Lehman's bankruptcy examiner. "This 'repo 105' that Lehman Brothers had is very, very questionable," he says, referring to the accounting maneuver used to hide toxic assets in the months before Lehman's demise.
More troubling, as Kaufman has noted, is Lehman may have been the tip of the iceberg. Propublica reports Bank of America using similar 'tricks' to mask the true state of their balance sheet at the end of quarters.
Bank Of America has denied any wrongdoing, publicly stating:
"Efforts to manage the size of our balance sheet are routine and appropriate, and we believe our actions are consistent with all applicable accounting and legal requirements."
Mother's love keeps sons on the straight and narrow, study finds
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/7514256/Mothers-love-keeps-sons-on-the-straight-and-narrow-study-finds.html
Does it really have to take a study to give authenticity and credibility to the fact that children need more than the 15 minutes allotted to them per day that a working mother can afford to giver them?
How does one learn to conduct themselves in the manner of a decent human being if no one is at home to teach them how?
Researchers found that sons are less likely to get into trouble later in life if they enjoy a warm relationship with their mother during childhood.
Those who cannot turn to their parents in times of need face a greater chance of developing behavioural problems later in life.
Experts, who analysed data provided by around 6,000 youngsters aged 12 and under, found that boys who never forge close relationships with their mothers are more likely to be aggressive and suffer mental health problems.
By contrast, boys grow up to be calmer, more self confident, and more empathetic if they have been able to seek comfort from their mothers as children.
Relationships between mothers and sons break down from a young age if children are repeatedly dismissed when trying to turn to their parents for help, the study found.
Pasco Fearon, associate professor of psychology at the University of Reading, who led the study, said: "Secure children have had repeated experiences of a caregiver who is responsive when support and proximity are needed and expect the caregiver(s) to be available and comforting when called upon.
Does it really have to take a study to give authenticity and credibility to the fact that children need more than the 15 minutes allotted to them per day that a working mother can afford to giver them?
How does one learn to conduct themselves in the manner of a decent human being if no one is at home to teach them how?
Researchers found that sons are less likely to get into trouble later in life if they enjoy a warm relationship with their mother during childhood.
Those who cannot turn to their parents in times of need face a greater chance of developing behavioural problems later in life.
Experts, who analysed data provided by around 6,000 youngsters aged 12 and under, found that boys who never forge close relationships with their mothers are more likely to be aggressive and suffer mental health problems.
By contrast, boys grow up to be calmer, more self confident, and more empathetic if they have been able to seek comfort from their mothers as children.
Relationships between mothers and sons break down from a young age if children are repeatedly dismissed when trying to turn to their parents for help, the study found.
Pasco Fearon, associate professor of psychology at the University of Reading, who led the study, said: "Secure children have had repeated experiences of a caregiver who is responsive when support and proximity are needed and expect the caregiver(s) to be available and comforting when called upon.
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Mother furious after in-school clinic sets up teen's abortion
http://www.komonews.com/news/local/88971742.html
I'm stunned, had I not read it I would not have believed it.
Just exactly what are "WE" allowing our children to be subject to anymore?
The mother of a Ballard High School student is fuming after the health center on campus helped facilitate her daughter's abortion during school hours.
The mother, whom KOMO News has chosen to identify only as "Jill," says the clinic kept the information "confidential."
When she signed a consent form, Jill figured it meant her 15 year old could go to the Ballard Teen Health Center located inside the high school for an earache, a sports physical, even birth control, but not for help terminating a pregnancy.
"She took a pregnancy test at school at the teen health center," she said. "Nowhere in this paperwork does it mention abortion or facilitating abortion."
Jill says her daughter, a pro-life advocate, was given a pass, put in a taxi and sent off to have an abortion during school hours all without her family knowing.
"We had no idea this was being facilitated on campus," said Jill. "They just told her that if she concealed it from her family, that it would be free of charge and no financial responsibility."
I'm stunned, had I not read it I would not have believed it.
Just exactly what are "WE" allowing our children to be subject to anymore?
The mother of a Ballard High School student is fuming after the health center on campus helped facilitate her daughter's abortion during school hours.
The mother, whom KOMO News has chosen to identify only as "Jill," says the clinic kept the information "confidential."
When she signed a consent form, Jill figured it meant her 15 year old could go to the Ballard Teen Health Center located inside the high school for an earache, a sports physical, even birth control, but not for help terminating a pregnancy.
"She took a pregnancy test at school at the teen health center," she said. "Nowhere in this paperwork does it mention abortion or facilitating abortion."
Jill says her daughter, a pro-life advocate, was given a pass, put in a taxi and sent off to have an abortion during school hours all without her family knowing.
"We had no idea this was being facilitated on campus," said Jill. "They just told her that if she concealed it from her family, that it would be free of charge and no financial responsibility."
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Fox News Poll: 79% Say U.S. Economy Could Collapse
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/03/23/fox-news-poll-say-economy-collapse/?test=latestnews
Wow MSM finally had to admit the majority of "The People" are awake and do see what's happening.
Most American voters believe it’s possible the nation’s economy could collapse, and majorities don’t think elected officials in Washington have ideas for fixing it.
The latest Fox News poll finds that 79 percent of voters think it’s possible the economy could collapse, including large majorities of Democrats (72 percent), Republicans (84 percent) and independents (80 percent).
Just 18 percent think the economy is "so big and strong it could never collapse."
Moreover, 78 percent of voters believe the federal government is "larger and more costly" than it has ever been before, and by nearly three-to-one more voters think the national debt (65 percent) is a greater potential threat to the country’s future than terrorism (23 percent).
Who has a plan for dealing with the economy?
Wow MSM finally had to admit the majority of "The People" are awake and do see what's happening.
Most American voters believe it’s possible the nation’s economy could collapse, and majorities don’t think elected officials in Washington have ideas for fixing it.
The latest Fox News poll finds that 79 percent of voters think it’s possible the economy could collapse, including large majorities of Democrats (72 percent), Republicans (84 percent) and independents (80 percent).
Just 18 percent think the economy is "so big and strong it could never collapse."
Moreover, 78 percent of voters believe the federal government is "larger and more costly" than it has ever been before, and by nearly three-to-one more voters think the national debt (65 percent) is a greater potential threat to the country’s future than terrorism (23 percent).
Who has a plan for dealing with the economy?
You just think health care reform is not going to affect you
http://market-ticker.denninger.net/archives/2115-Its-Gonna-Be-Like-Christmas!-Health-Care.html
Think again
"It's just going to be like Christmas," said DeCarlo Flythe, who lost health coverage for his family when he was laid off almost three years ago. "It's going to be great. You know, no worries (about) the bills. We are going to go ahead and pay our co-pay and be alright."
You got the $10,000 for the policy and another $10k for the out-of-pocket deductibles, right?
Yes, I know if you are lower-income you'll get subsidies. But that being laid off thing might become more-permanently laid off, you see, since if you go back to work your employer will have to either pay a fine (annually) or pick up the majority of that $10k in cost.
If your value in the marketplace is $20/hour, with a 2,000 hour man-year of work (50 weeks x 40 hours/week) your economic value in the economy is $40,000 (gross.) From this your employer is going to have to take $10,000 out to avoid being fined, which means you now make $15/hour. Then you pay taxes (FICA and Medicare) on that. You'll likely get back the rest of your federal income tax (especially if you have a family) but your out-of-pocket medical expenses will still be that $10,000 either way.
So now you've got $30,000/year less about $2,300 in Medicare and FICA tax, and from that you subtract the co-pays and deductibles of $10,000. You're left with about $18,000 to live on, or about $1,500 a month for your family of four.
This sounds like "Christmas"?
Think again
"It's just going to be like Christmas," said DeCarlo Flythe, who lost health coverage for his family when he was laid off almost three years ago. "It's going to be great. You know, no worries (about) the bills. We are going to go ahead and pay our co-pay and be alright."
You got the $10,000 for the policy and another $10k for the out-of-pocket deductibles, right?
Yes, I know if you are lower-income you'll get subsidies. But that being laid off thing might become more-permanently laid off, you see, since if you go back to work your employer will have to either pay a fine (annually) or pick up the majority of that $10k in cost.
If your value in the marketplace is $20/hour, with a 2,000 hour man-year of work (50 weeks x 40 hours/week) your economic value in the economy is $40,000 (gross.) From this your employer is going to have to take $10,000 out to avoid being fined, which means you now make $15/hour. Then you pay taxes (FICA and Medicare) on that. You'll likely get back the rest of your federal income tax (especially if you have a family) but your out-of-pocket medical expenses will still be that $10,000 either way.
So now you've got $30,000/year less about $2,300 in Medicare and FICA tax, and from that you subtract the co-pays and deductibles of $10,000. You're left with about $18,000 to live on, or about $1,500 a month for your family of four.
This sounds like "Christmas"?
13 attorneys general sue over health care overhaul
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2010/03/23/20100323health-care-lawsuit-AGs-ON.html
It looks like the heats still on
Republican attorneys general from 13 states are suing the federal government to stop the massive health care overhaul, claiming it's unconstitutional.
The lawsuit was filed immediately after President Barack Obama signed the overhaul bill Tuesday. It names the U.S. departments of Health and Human Services, Treasury and Labor.
It looks like the heats still on
Republican attorneys general from 13 states are suing the federal government to stop the massive health care overhaul, claiming it's unconstitutional.
The lawsuit was filed immediately after President Barack Obama signed the overhaul bill Tuesday. It names the U.S. departments of Health and Human Services, Treasury and Labor.
Monday, March 22, 2010
Young Girl Charged in Brutal School Attack
http://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local-beat/Young-Girl-Charged-in-Brutal-School-Attacked-88565397.html
No empathy
No compassion
No self control
And a shit stirrer
Makes for Jerry Springer live
The 13-year-old girl who may have helped instigate the brutal school attack on a Deerfield Beach teen girl by her 15-year-old male classmate will be spending the next three weeks in juvenile detention.
The 13-year-old, whose name isn't being used because of her age, made her first court appearance this morning where she was officially charged as an accessory in the beating of Josie Ratley, 15.
Family members sat in the audience as the girl, who wore glasses and an orange jail jumpsuit, had her next court date set for March 26, according to the Sun-Sentinel.
"The family wanted to wish Josie a very speedy recovery," the girl's lawyer, Jonathon Marne, told the Sun-Sentinel after the hearing
No empathy
No compassion
No self control
And a shit stirrer
Makes for Jerry Springer live
The 13-year-old girl who may have helped instigate the brutal school attack on a Deerfield Beach teen girl by her 15-year-old male classmate will be spending the next three weeks in juvenile detention.
The 13-year-old, whose name isn't being used because of her age, made her first court appearance this morning where she was officially charged as an accessory in the beating of Josie Ratley, 15.
Family members sat in the audience as the girl, who wore glasses and an orange jail jumpsuit, had her next court date set for March 26, according to the Sun-Sentinel.
"The family wanted to wish Josie a very speedy recovery," the girl's lawyer, Jonathon Marne, told the Sun-Sentinel after the hearing
Sometimes you gotta ChangeDaChannel on
http://www.spywitnessnews.org/content/debunk-008-911-conspiracy
A show for debunkers to do their thing as well as for the choir to have a reference point.
A little different , yes, I know, but at 2 minutes in
The Truth IS told.
A show for debunkers to do their thing as well as for the choir to have a reference point.
A little different , yes, I know, but at 2 minutes in
The Truth IS told.
Child guidance
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2010/03/21/2010-03-21_violence_is_not_the_way_teen_vic_speaks_out_about_slash_attack.html
It's not like when you were a kid mom!
Your right baby it's not
How will I keep you safe from that fact.
How will I stay sane knowing that I can't?
Every time a teen looks in the mirror, she will see the V-shaped scar - a permanent reminder of the violence that erupted near her grandmother's Brooklyn home.
Shantayah Lewis, 17, sat in her room at Kings County Hospital Saturday, calmly reflecting on the Friday afternoon attack that left her with dozens of stitches in the left side of her face.
"My face is too beautiful to be fighting," Shantayah told the Daily News. "Fighting is not the key. Violence is not the way."
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2010/03/21/2010-03-21_violence_is_not_the_way_teen_vic_speaks_out_about_slash_attack.html#ixzz0ive01sR7
It's not like when you were a kid mom!
Your right baby it's not
How will I keep you safe from that fact.
How will I stay sane knowing that I can't?
Every time a teen looks in the mirror, she will see the V-shaped scar - a permanent reminder of the violence that erupted near her grandmother's Brooklyn home.
Shantayah Lewis, 17, sat in her room at Kings County Hospital Saturday, calmly reflecting on the Friday afternoon attack that left her with dozens of stitches in the left side of her face.
"My face is too beautiful to be fighting," Shantayah told the Daily News. "Fighting is not the key. Violence is not the way."
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2010/03/21/2010-03-21_violence_is_not_the_way_teen_vic_speaks_out_about_slash_attack.html#ixzz0ive01sR7
ObamaCare To Be Enforced By IRS 'Bounty Hunters'
http://www.rense.com/general90/ohh.htm
OH lucky "US"
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) will see its largest expansion since withholding taxes were first enacted during WWII to enforce the glut of new tax mandates and penalties included in the Democrats' latest health care plan, according to Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX).
A new analysis by the Joint Economic Committee and the House Ways & Means Committee minority staff estimates up to 16,500 new IRS personnel will be needed to collect, examine and audit new tax information mandated on families and small businesses in the 'reconciliation' bill being taken up by the U.S. House of Representatives this weekend, according to Brady.
"When most people think of health care reform they think of more doctors exams, not more IRS exams," says U.S. Congressman Kevin Brady, the top House Republican on the Joint Economic Committee. "Isn't the federal government already intruding enough into our lives? We need thousands of new doctors and nurses in America, not thousands more IRS agents."
Scores of new federal mandates and fifteen different tax increases totaling $400 billion are imposed under the Democratic House bill. In addition to more complicated tax returns, families and small businesses will be forced to reveal further tax information to the IRS, provide proof of 'government approved' health care and submit detailed sales information to comply with new excise taxes.
OH lucky "US"
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) will see its largest expansion since withholding taxes were first enacted during WWII to enforce the glut of new tax mandates and penalties included in the Democrats' latest health care plan, according to Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX).
A new analysis by the Joint Economic Committee and the House Ways & Means Committee minority staff estimates up to 16,500 new IRS personnel will be needed to collect, examine and audit new tax information mandated on families and small businesses in the 'reconciliation' bill being taken up by the U.S. House of Representatives this weekend, according to Brady.
"When most people think of health care reform they think of more doctors exams, not more IRS exams," says U.S. Congressman Kevin Brady, the top House Republican on the Joint Economic Committee. "Isn't the federal government already intruding enough into our lives? We need thousands of new doctors and nurses in America, not thousands more IRS agents."
Scores of new federal mandates and fifteen different tax increases totaling $400 billion are imposed under the Democratic House bill. In addition to more complicated tax returns, families and small businesses will be forced to reveal further tax information to the IRS, provide proof of 'government approved' health care and submit detailed sales information to comply with new excise taxes.
A Ruinous Meltdown
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/20/opinion/20herbert.html
A story that is not getting nearly enough attention is the ruinous fiscal meltdown occurring in state after state, all across the country.
Taxes are being raised. Draconian cuts in services are being made. Public employees are being fired. The tissue-thin national economic recovery is being undermined. And in many cases, the most vulnerable populations — the sick, the elderly, the young and the poor — are getting badly hurt.
A story that is not getting nearly enough attention is the ruinous fiscal meltdown occurring in state after state, all across the country.
Taxes are being raised. Draconian cuts in services are being made. Public employees are being fired. The tissue-thin national economic recovery is being undermined. And in many cases, the most vulnerable populations — the sick, the elderly, the young and the poor — are getting badly hurt.
Navy Anti-Terror Drill Will Go Delta Level Security
http://www.rense.com/general90/secur.htm
Navy-wide Anti-Terrorism Training Exercise March 22-26
Heads up kids!
This is just a TEST!
As a part of the exercise, Force Protection Conditions may be elevated, and communications channels may be interrupted
SC/CS-10 will consist of more than 250 individual training events across the country, each designed to test different regional AT/FP operations. Scenarios range from events such as recognizing and countering base surveillance operations, to higher-tempo and active simulated emergencies such as small boat attacks on waterfront bases and cyber attacks on installations.
,
"We are really focusing on the land-sea interface at the waterfront, as well as active shooter scenarios, in light of the incident at Ft. Hood," said McCormick.
Many communication tools will be used to keep base personnel informed about exercise security situations. Computer network alert systems will distribute messages to office computers and the "giant voice system"will be used to immediately alert people base-wide. The giant voice system is an outdoor intercom loud enough to alert anyone outside on base of a potential threat.
Navy-wide Anti-Terrorism Training Exercise March 22-26
Heads up kids!
This is just a TEST!
As a part of the exercise, Force Protection Conditions may be elevated, and communications channels may be interrupted
SC/CS-10 will consist of more than 250 individual training events across the country, each designed to test different regional AT/FP operations. Scenarios range from events such as recognizing and countering base surveillance operations, to higher-tempo and active simulated emergencies such as small boat attacks on waterfront bases and cyber attacks on installations.
,
"We are really focusing on the land-sea interface at the waterfront, as well as active shooter scenarios, in light of the incident at Ft. Hood," said McCormick.
Many communication tools will be used to keep base personnel informed about exercise security situations. Computer network alert systems will distribute messages to office computers and the "giant voice system"will be used to immediately alert people base-wide. The giant voice system is an outdoor intercom loud enough to alert anyone outside on base of a potential threat.
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Tight for cash, governments raise traffic fees
http://www.islandpacket.com/2010/03/20/1179390/tight-for-cash-governments-raise.html
Shomari Jennings was willing to pay the $70 ticket he received for driving without a seatbelt, but not the slew of tacked-on fees and penalties that ballooned the cost more than tenfold.
Every $10 of his base fine triggered a $26 "penalty assessment" for courthouse construction, a DNA identification program, emergency medical services and other programs. Other fees ranged from $1 to $35.
"It's the new tax," Jennings, 30, complained while waiting in traffic court to contest a staggering bill compounded by a $500 fine for missing a court date.
And motorists can only expect more of the same as cash-strapped cities and states consider measures ranging from expansion of red-light camera systems to charging drivers for cleanup after accidents.
In Iowa, lawmakers grappling with shortfalls in the state's public safety budget are exploring ways to increase fines for traffic violations. There's a proposal in Maryland to add a $7.50 charge to traffic fines to help pay for law enforcement and fire protection equipment.
Cash-strapped California, however, is seeing some of the most aggressive efforts to squeeze money out of motorists
Read more: http://www.islandpacket.com/2010/03/20/1179390/tight-for-cash-governments-raise.html#ixzz0imKVOsmh
Shomari Jennings was willing to pay the $70 ticket he received for driving without a seatbelt, but not the slew of tacked-on fees and penalties that ballooned the cost more than tenfold.
Every $10 of his base fine triggered a $26 "penalty assessment" for courthouse construction, a DNA identification program, emergency medical services and other programs. Other fees ranged from $1 to $35.
"It's the new tax," Jennings, 30, complained while waiting in traffic court to contest a staggering bill compounded by a $500 fine for missing a court date.
And motorists can only expect more of the same as cash-strapped cities and states consider measures ranging from expansion of red-light camera systems to charging drivers for cleanup after accidents.
In Iowa, lawmakers grappling with shortfalls in the state's public safety budget are exploring ways to increase fines for traffic violations. There's a proposal in Maryland to add a $7.50 charge to traffic fines to help pay for law enforcement and fire protection equipment.
Cash-strapped California, however, is seeing some of the most aggressive efforts to squeeze money out of motorists
Read more: http://www.islandpacket.com/2010/03/20/1179390/tight-for-cash-governments-raise.html#ixzz0imKVOsmh
US Forest service admits putting surveillance cameras on public land
http://www.islandpacket.com/2010/03/...#ixzz0ijxESGx4
Last month, Herman Jacob took his daughter and her friend camping in the Francis Marion National Forest. While poking around for some firewood, Jacob noticed a wire. He pulled on it and followed it to a video camera and antenna.
The camera didn't have any markings identifying its owner, so Jacob took it home and called law enforcement agencies to find out if it was theirs, all the while wondering why someone would station a video camera in an isolated clearing in the woods.
He eventually received a call from Mark Heitzman of the U.S. Forest Service.
In a stiff voice, Heitzman ordered Jacob to turn it back over to his agency, explaining that it had been set up to monitor "illicit activities." Jacob returned the camera but felt uneasy.
Why, he wondered, would the Forest Service have secret cameras in a relatively remote camping area? What do they do with photos of bystanders?
How many hidden cameras are they using, and for what purposes? Is this surveillance in the forest an effective law enforcement tool? And what are our expectations of privacy when we camp on public land?
Officials with the Forest Service were hardly forthcoming with answers to these and other questions about their surveillance cameras. When contacted about the incident, Heitzman said "no comment," and referred other questions to Forest Service's public affairs, who he said, "won't know anything about it."
Read more: http://www.islandpacket.com/2010/03/...#ixzz0imDvlQHL
Last month, Herman Jacob took his daughter and her friend camping in the Francis Marion National Forest. While poking around for some firewood, Jacob noticed a wire. He pulled on it and followed it to a video camera and antenna.
The camera didn't have any markings identifying its owner, so Jacob took it home and called law enforcement agencies to find out if it was theirs, all the while wondering why someone would station a video camera in an isolated clearing in the woods.
He eventually received a call from Mark Heitzman of the U.S. Forest Service.
In a stiff voice, Heitzman ordered Jacob to turn it back over to his agency, explaining that it had been set up to monitor "illicit activities." Jacob returned the camera but felt uneasy.
Why, he wondered, would the Forest Service have secret cameras in a relatively remote camping area? What do they do with photos of bystanders?
How many hidden cameras are they using, and for what purposes? Is this surveillance in the forest an effective law enforcement tool? And what are our expectations of privacy when we camp on public land?
Officials with the Forest Service were hardly forthcoming with answers to these and other questions about their surveillance cameras. When contacted about the incident, Heitzman said "no comment," and referred other questions to Forest Service's public affairs, who he said, "won't know anything about it."
Read more: http://www.islandpacket.com/2010/03/...#ixzz0imDvlQHL
Evidence found rotting in closed police department
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35956798/ns/us_news/
"They just vanished".
No they weren't paid because their town had no revenue to do so.
Welcome to "The Jungle"
A suburban police department left behind a roomful of evidence when it closed two years ago — including a moldy sexual assault kit that authorities said linked a man to the 2006 rape of a 13-year-old girl, nearly 200 guns and hundreds of bags of narcotics, officials said Friday.
In all, seven rape kits had been left rotting in an unplugged refrigerator in the former Ford Heights Police Department, Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart said. The guns had not been registered with the state as having been seized by police, and Dart's spokesman Steve Patterson said none of the DNA evidence found matches anyone in the state's database.
"You're not talking about ineptness, neglect, you're talking about outrageous conduct of a police department that didn't care about the residents out there," Dart said.
His deputies have been patrolling Ford Heights for the past few years after financial problems forced the village to lay off most of its 16 police officers. The sheriff's department took over completely in 2008, after two years of sharing duties with what was left of the police department, because the last few Ford Heights officers simply stopped showing up for work, Dart said.
"They just vanished," he said
"They just vanished".
No they weren't paid because their town had no revenue to do so.
Welcome to "The Jungle"
A suburban police department left behind a roomful of evidence when it closed two years ago — including a moldy sexual assault kit that authorities said linked a man to the 2006 rape of a 13-year-old girl, nearly 200 guns and hundreds of bags of narcotics, officials said Friday.
In all, seven rape kits had been left rotting in an unplugged refrigerator in the former Ford Heights Police Department, Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart said. The guns had not been registered with the state as having been seized by police, and Dart's spokesman Steve Patterson said none of the DNA evidence found matches anyone in the state's database.
"You're not talking about ineptness, neglect, you're talking about outrageous conduct of a police department that didn't care about the residents out there," Dart said.
His deputies have been patrolling Ford Heights for the past few years after financial problems forced the village to lay off most of its 16 police officers. The sheriff's department took over completely in 2008, after two years of sharing duties with what was left of the police department, because the last few Ford Heights officers simply stopped showing up for work, Dart said.
"They just vanished," he said
California declares war on biker gang accused of 'booby trap' plot
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/california-declares-war-on-biker-gang--accused--of-booby-trap-plot-1924363.html
I see they've been giving the "Angels" a little heat to for stealing "guns and cars" from the "Salvation Army", it's the starting of a new direction in the pattern.
They're getting you use to the idea of "biker terrorism".
[B]30 riders arrested after 'DIY' assassination attempts on surveillance officers[/B]
The FBI calls it "a ruthless criminal organisation" which deals in "guns, drugs, and death". The Justice Department holds members responsible for "assault, extortion, insurance fraud, money-laundering, murder, vehicle theft, witness intimidation and weapons violations". But it turns out that one of America's most notorious biker gangs is also pretty handy at DIY.
Police in California have arrested 30 members of the Vagos Motorcycle Club, a group of 300 Harley-Davidson riders, amid allegations that they have been attempting to use home-made booby traps to maim and kill the detectives who keep an eye on their nefarious daily activities.
In recent weeks, a series of potentially deadly devices, built largely from materials bought at local hardware stores, were discovered at the homes and workplaces of a police gang-enforcement unit in Hemet, a suburban town in Riverside County, on the eastern fringes of Los Angeles. The Vagos gang, also known as "The Green Nation", is suspected of planting them.
One contraption consisted of a natural-gas pipeline which was shoved through a hole drilled into the roof of a police gang unit's headquarters. It filled the building with highly-flammable vapour which, in the words of an officer quoted by local reporters, "would have taken out half a city block" if they had not smelled the danger before anyone was hurt.
Another, set at the
The State of California has offered a $200,000 (£133,000) reward to anyone willing to testify against the group. "It's terrible and unprecedented for police officers to be subjected to these kind of terrorist attacks," said the State Attorney General Jerry Brown.
I see they've been giving the "Angels" a little heat to for stealing "guns and cars" from the "Salvation Army", it's the starting of a new direction in the pattern.
They're getting you use to the idea of "biker terrorism".
[B]30 riders arrested after 'DIY' assassination attempts on surveillance officers[/B]
The FBI calls it "a ruthless criminal organisation" which deals in "guns, drugs, and death". The Justice Department holds members responsible for "assault, extortion, insurance fraud, money-laundering, murder, vehicle theft, witness intimidation and weapons violations". But it turns out that one of America's most notorious biker gangs is also pretty handy at DIY.
Police in California have arrested 30 members of the Vagos Motorcycle Club, a group of 300 Harley-Davidson riders, amid allegations that they have been attempting to use home-made booby traps to maim and kill the detectives who keep an eye on their nefarious daily activities.
In recent weeks, a series of potentially deadly devices, built largely from materials bought at local hardware stores, were discovered at the homes and workplaces of a police gang-enforcement unit in Hemet, a suburban town in Riverside County, on the eastern fringes of Los Angeles. The Vagos gang, also known as "The Green Nation", is suspected of planting them.
One contraption consisted of a natural-gas pipeline which was shoved through a hole drilled into the roof of a police gang unit's headquarters. It filled the building with highly-flammable vapour which, in the words of an officer quoted by local reporters, "would have taken out half a city block" if they had not smelled the danger before anyone was hurt.
Another, set at the
The State of California has offered a $200,000 (£133,000) reward to anyone willing to testify against the group. "It's terrible and unprecedented for police officers to be subjected to these kind of terrorist attacks," said the State Attorney General Jerry Brown.
U.S. Frees Detainees, but Afghans’ Anger Persists
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/20/world/asia/20kabul.html?ref=world
The rules for this same type of engagement are in place in the United States today.
Can you see yourself being put into this same type of scenario because a neighbor was pist off at you, because your dog kept shitting on his lawn, and when he told you, you didn't do anything about it, so he turned you in.
Think it can't happen?
Now think economic hardship, and and all it takes to make a fast buck, is by telling a lie.
The tribal elders had traveled many hours to reach a windswept Afghan military base on the capital’s outskirts to sign their names to a piece of paper allowing them to bring their countrymen home from American detention.
Detainees who were deemed not a threat were released to Afghan tribal elders at a ceremony in Kabul.
The detainees and the elders must sign a pledge.
As an Afghan general read the document aloud, Cmdr. Dawood Zazai, a towering Pashtun tribal leader from Paktia Province who fought the Soviets, thumped his crutch for attention. Along with other elders, he did not like a clause in the document that said the detainees had been reasonably held based on intelligence. “I cannot sign this,” Commander Zazai said, thumping his crutch again. “I don’t know what that intelligence said; we did not see that intelligence. It is right that we are illiterate, but we are not blind.
“Who proved that these men were guilty?”
No one answered because Commander Zazai had just touched on the crux of the legal debate that has raged for nearly a decade in the United States: Does the United States have the legal right to hold, indefinitely without charge or trial, people captured on the battlefield? His question also exposed a fundamental disagreement between the Afghans and the American military about whether people had been fairly detained
The Afghan military made its own effort to solve the problem when it heard the elders’ protests, by simply writing in the word “no” in front of the phrase saying the detainee had a “link to the insurgency.” The version the elders signed said the detainee had “no link.”
In the shifting shadows of this often invisible war, where no one is sure who is lying and who is telling the truth, it seemed a reasonable way to resolve the day’s discord.
The rules for this same type of engagement are in place in the United States today.
Can you see yourself being put into this same type of scenario because a neighbor was pist off at you, because your dog kept shitting on his lawn, and when he told you, you didn't do anything about it, so he turned you in.
Think it can't happen?
Now think economic hardship, and and all it takes to make a fast buck, is by telling a lie.
The tribal elders had traveled many hours to reach a windswept Afghan military base on the capital’s outskirts to sign their names to a piece of paper allowing them to bring their countrymen home from American detention.
Detainees who were deemed not a threat were released to Afghan tribal elders at a ceremony in Kabul.
The detainees and the elders must sign a pledge.
As an Afghan general read the document aloud, Cmdr. Dawood Zazai, a towering Pashtun tribal leader from Paktia Province who fought the Soviets, thumped his crutch for attention. Along with other elders, he did not like a clause in the document that said the detainees had been reasonably held based on intelligence. “I cannot sign this,” Commander Zazai said, thumping his crutch again. “I don’t know what that intelligence said; we did not see that intelligence. It is right that we are illiterate, but we are not blind.
“Who proved that these men were guilty?”
No one answered because Commander Zazai had just touched on the crux of the legal debate that has raged for nearly a decade in the United States: Does the United States have the legal right to hold, indefinitely without charge or trial, people captured on the battlefield? His question also exposed a fundamental disagreement between the Afghans and the American military about whether people had been fairly detained
The Afghan military made its own effort to solve the problem when it heard the elders’ protests, by simply writing in the word “no” in front of the phrase saying the detainee had a “link to the insurgency.” The version the elders signed said the detainee had “no link.”
In the shifting shadows of this often invisible war, where no one is sure who is lying and who is telling the truth, it seemed a reasonable way to resolve the day’s discord.
Medicating the military
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2010/03/military_psychiatric_drugs_031710w/
At least one in six service members is on some form of psychiatric drug.
And many troops are taking more than one kind, mixing several pills in daily “cocktails” — for example, an antidepressant with an antipsychotic to prevent nightmares, plus an anti-epileptic to reduce headaches — despite minimal clinical research testing such combinations.
The drugs come with serious side effects: They can impair motor skills, reduce reaction times and generally make a war fighter less effective. Some double the risk for suicide, prompting doctors — and Congress — to question whether these drugs are connected to the rising rate of military suicides.
“It’s really a large-scale experiment. We are experimenting with changing people’s cognition and behavior,” said Dr. Grace Jackson, a former Navy psychiatrist.
A Military Times investigation of electronic records obtained from the Defense Logistics Agency shows DLA spent $1.1 billion on common psychiatric and pain medications from 2001 to 2009. It also shows that use of psychiatric medications has increased dramatically — about 76 percent overall, with some drug types more than doubling — since the start of the current wars.
At least one in six service members is on some form of psychiatric drug.
And many troops are taking more than one kind, mixing several pills in daily “cocktails” — for example, an antidepressant with an antipsychotic to prevent nightmares, plus an anti-epileptic to reduce headaches — despite minimal clinical research testing such combinations.
The drugs come with serious side effects: They can impair motor skills, reduce reaction times and generally make a war fighter less effective. Some double the risk for suicide, prompting doctors — and Congress — to question whether these drugs are connected to the rising rate of military suicides.
“It’s really a large-scale experiment. We are experimenting with changing people’s cognition and behavior,” said Dr. Grace Jackson, a former Navy psychiatrist.
A Military Times investigation of electronic records obtained from the Defense Logistics Agency shows DLA spent $1.1 billion on common psychiatric and pain medications from 2001 to 2009. It also shows that use of psychiatric medications has increased dramatically — about 76 percent overall, with some drug types more than doubling — since the start of the current wars.
Friday, March 19, 2010
Phone Calls Continue to Batter Congress
http://www.rollcall.com/news/44382-1.html?type=aggregate_friendly
Members continued to be inundated with phone calls from constituents and interest groups Friday thanks to an impending vote on health care reform this weekend.
Calls to the House numbered close to 100,000 an hour, creating a bottleneck in a phone system only meant to handle 50,000 calls an hour. The chamber has been similarly overloaded for four consecutive days, beginning on Tuesday when radio host Rush Limbaugh told viewers to call the Capitol switchboard phone number.
Officials expect calls to taper off after the House’s scheduled Sunday vote on the health care reform package. But Ventura emphasized that the system for staffers’ BlackBerrys and smartphones was running smoothly.
“It’s not like Congress has come to a communication standstill,” he said.
This isn’t the first time Congress has been overcome with phone calls and e-mails in the runup to an important vote. Interest in the 2008 stimulus bill crashed House.gov and some Member Web sites, and in November, the Senate’s voice mail system was overloaded before the chamber’s cloture vote on health care reform legislation.
“It’s hard to predict the interest in this kind of legislation
Members continued to be inundated with phone calls from constituents and interest groups Friday thanks to an impending vote on health care reform this weekend.
Calls to the House numbered close to 100,000 an hour, creating a bottleneck in a phone system only meant to handle 50,000 calls an hour. The chamber has been similarly overloaded for four consecutive days, beginning on Tuesday when radio host Rush Limbaugh told viewers to call the Capitol switchboard phone number.
Officials expect calls to taper off after the House’s scheduled Sunday vote on the health care reform package. But Ventura emphasized that the system for staffers’ BlackBerrys and smartphones was running smoothly.
“It’s not like Congress has come to a communication standstill,” he said.
This isn’t the first time Congress has been overcome with phone calls and e-mails in the runup to an important vote. Interest in the 2008 stimulus bill crashed House.gov and some Member Web sites, and in November, the Senate’s voice mail system was overloaded before the chamber’s cloture vote on health care reform legislation.
“It’s hard to predict the interest in this kind of legislation
IMF calls for new body to save taxpayers from burden of failing banks
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/mar/19/imf-save-taxpayers-failing-banks
Dominique Strauss-Kahn of IMF says new body would force shareholders and creditors to bear costs of bank failure
The International Monetary Fund has called for a European "fire brigade" funded by the finance industry to deal with the collapse of banks that operate in several countries.
Managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn urged the European Union to create a European resolution authority to deal with insolvent banks that would force shareholders and uninsured creditors – rather than taxpayers –to bear the costs of failure. The authority would be funded by the financial industry from deposit insurance fees and levies on institutions, he said.
"What I think is needed is a European resolution authority, armed with the mandate and the tools to deal cost-effectively with failing cross-border banks – an ex-ante [before the event] solution to the problems that currently hamper co-operation in crisis situations, rather than an ex-post one," Strauss-Kahn told a conference in Brussels today.
"It should cover at least the major cross-border banking groups, as well as all banks running large-scale cross-border operations under the single passport."
It sound all good until I read this
That government burden sharing is more taxpayer funding
The system would need access to a fiscal back-up mechanism, he said, with a mechanism of burden-sharing between governments.
Dominique Strauss-Kahn of IMF says new body would force shareholders and creditors to bear costs of bank failure
The International Monetary Fund has called for a European "fire brigade" funded by the finance industry to deal with the collapse of banks that operate in several countries.
Managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn urged the European Union to create a European resolution authority to deal with insolvent banks that would force shareholders and uninsured creditors – rather than taxpayers –to bear the costs of failure. The authority would be funded by the financial industry from deposit insurance fees and levies on institutions, he said.
"What I think is needed is a European resolution authority, armed with the mandate and the tools to deal cost-effectively with failing cross-border banks – an ex-ante [before the event] solution to the problems that currently hamper co-operation in crisis situations, rather than an ex-post one," Strauss-Kahn told a conference in Brussels today.
"It should cover at least the major cross-border banking groups, as well as all banks running large-scale cross-border operations under the single passport."
It sound all good until I read this
That government burden sharing is more taxpayer funding
The system would need access to a fiscal back-up mechanism, he said, with a mechanism of burden-sharing between governments.
Court orders Fed to release bailout documents
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Court-orders-Fed-to-release-rb-4001267651.html?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=6&asset=&ccode=
I can't wait to see this. As a concerned taxpayer I believe "WE" do have the right to know just exactly which banks we were bailing out.
Dime to a dollar says they all weren't American.
In a significant victory for news media, a federal appeals court said the Federal Reserve must disclose records on emergency lending programs to banks bailed out by the government in the financial crisis.
The Second Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday ordered the Fed to release details of programs it adopted starting in late 2007 to shore up the financial system and forestall a complete meltdown of global financial markets.
Bloomberg LP, the parent of Bloomberg News, and News Corp's Fox News Network sought details of the central bank's actions under the federal Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA, which requires government agencies to make documents public.
The Fed argued against disclosure, citing an exemption that it said lets federal agencies keep secret various trade secrets and commercial or financial information.
It also said allowing disclosure of participants in the programs and the collateral they posted could cause "competitive and reputational harm," perhaps triggering bank runs, and impede the central bank's ability "to effectively manage the current, and any future, financial crisis."
Writing for a unanimous three-judge appeals court panel, Chief Judge Dennis Jacobs said, however, that to give the Fed power to deny disclosure because it thinks it best to do so "would undermine the basic policy that disclosure, not secrecy, is the dominant objective of.
"If the Board believes such an exemption would better serve the national interest," he added, "it should ask
I can't wait to see this. As a concerned taxpayer I believe "WE" do have the right to know just exactly which banks we were bailing out.
Dime to a dollar says they all weren't American.
In a significant victory for news media, a federal appeals court said the Federal Reserve must disclose records on emergency lending programs to banks bailed out by the government in the financial crisis.
The Second Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday ordered the Fed to release details of programs it adopted starting in late 2007 to shore up the financial system and forestall a complete meltdown of global financial markets.
Bloomberg LP, the parent of Bloomberg News, and News Corp's Fox News Network sought details of the central bank's actions under the federal Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA, which requires government agencies to make documents public.
The Fed argued against disclosure, citing an exemption that it said lets federal agencies keep secret various trade secrets and commercial or financial information.
It also said allowing disclosure of participants in the programs and the collateral they posted could cause "competitive and reputational harm," perhaps triggering bank runs, and impede the central bank's ability "to effectively manage the current, and any future, financial crisis."
Writing for a unanimous three-judge appeals court panel, Chief Judge Dennis Jacobs said, however, that to give the Fed power to deny disclosure because it thinks it best to do so "would undermine the basic policy that disclosure, not secrecy, is the dominant objective of.
"If the Board believes such an exemption would better serve the national interest," he added, "it should ask
Senate to remove "backdoor bailouts" from bill
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Senate-to-remove-backdoor-rb-337663675.html?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=3&asset=&ccode=
The U.S. Senate Banking Committee will remove a provision from the financial reform bill that bank regulator Sheila Bair said could allow for "backdoor bailouts," a panel spokeswoman said on Friday.
Sheila Bair, chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp, told a conference of community bankers earlier on Friday that the agency had "serious concerns" about a provision in the bill that seems to allow the Federal Reserve to rescue Wall Street firms if their functions were critical to the markets.
That provision will be removed in an amendment as the Senate Banking Committee debates the draft bill, committee spokeswoman Kirstin Brost told Reuters.
"If the Congress accomplishes anything this year, it should be to clearly and completely end 'too big to fail,'" Bair said at a conference of the Independent Community Bankers of America.
Bair said small banks deserve an even playing field and that larger institutions are still enjoying benefits from an implicit government guarantee.
The U.S. Senate Banking Committee will remove a provision from the financial reform bill that bank regulator Sheila Bair said could allow for "backdoor bailouts," a panel spokeswoman said on Friday.
Sheila Bair, chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp, told a conference of community bankers earlier on Friday that the agency had "serious concerns" about a provision in the bill that seems to allow the Federal Reserve to rescue Wall Street firms if their functions were critical to the markets.
That provision will be removed in an amendment as the Senate Banking Committee debates the draft bill, committee spokeswoman Kirstin Brost told Reuters.
"If the Congress accomplishes anything this year, it should be to clearly and completely end 'too big to fail,'" Bair said at a conference of the Independent Community Bankers of America.
Bair said small banks deserve an even playing field and that larger institutions are still enjoying benefits from an implicit government guarantee.
Credit scores can drop after getting loan help
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Credit-scores-can-drop-after-apf-1601705094.html?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=4&asset=&ccode=
Some homeowners who sign up for the government's mortgage assistance program are getting a nasty surprise: Lower credit scores.
For borrowers who are making their payments on time but are on the verge of default, the Obama administration's loan modification program can reduce their credit score as much as 100 points. That makes it harder to get a loan and can present a problem when applying for a new job.
Housing counselors say it's unfair, especially because the news often comes as a surprise to homeowners.
"Why should people's credit be hurt even worse when they're trying to do the right thing?" said Eileen Anderson, senior vice president at Community Development Corp. of Long Island, a housing counseling group in New York.
And many homeowners are angry that a program designed to help carries such a penalty, said Kathy Conley, a housing counselor with GreenPath Inc., a nonprofit group in Farmington Hills, Mich.
"It's a feeling of being duped," she said.
Some homeowners who sign up for the government's mortgage assistance program are getting a nasty surprise: Lower credit scores.
For borrowers who are making their payments on time but are on the verge of default, the Obama administration's loan modification program can reduce their credit score as much as 100 points. That makes it harder to get a loan and can present a problem when applying for a new job.
Housing counselors say it's unfair, especially because the news often comes as a surprise to homeowners.
"Why should people's credit be hurt even worse when they're trying to do the right thing?" said Eileen Anderson, senior vice president at Community Development Corp. of Long Island, a housing counseling group in New York.
And many homeowners are angry that a program designed to help carries such a penalty, said Kathy Conley, a housing counselor with GreenPath Inc., a nonprofit group in Farmington Hills, Mich.
"It's a feeling of being duped," she said.
Europe's bruised economies search for way forward
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Europes-bruised-economies-apf-509572434.html?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=6&asset=&ccode=
People all over the world are asking this question.
Isn't it a coincidence they're all asking it at the same time?
And what do all of them have in common to have to make them ask such a question?
"The Banks"
After the boom, where does growth come from now?
The wreckage of Spain's economic growth model stands neatly aligned on the roads leading out of Madrid -- row after row of unsold houses, windows dark, for-sale signs out front.
Spain and other countries on Europe's financially stricken fringe are groping for a new basis from economic growth to put people to work and pay down crushing deficits and debts. In Spain's case, something to start generating jobs for 4 million unemployed people amid the rubble of an unsustainable construction and housing boom.
The question is especially urgent in countries with the eurozone's messiest public finances: Spain, Portugal, Ireland, and Greece.
People all over the world are asking this question.
Isn't it a coincidence they're all asking it at the same time?
And what do all of them have in common to have to make them ask such a question?
"The Banks"
After the boom, where does growth come from now?
The wreckage of Spain's economic growth model stands neatly aligned on the roads leading out of Madrid -- row after row of unsold houses, windows dark, for-sale signs out front.
Spain and other countries on Europe's financially stricken fringe are groping for a new basis from economic growth to put people to work and pay down crushing deficits and debts. In Spain's case, something to start generating jobs for 4 million unemployed people amid the rubble of an unsustainable construction and housing boom.
The question is especially urgent in countries with the eurozone's messiest public finances: Spain, Portugal, Ireland, and Greece.
Pre-Crime policing
http://reason.com/archives/2010/03/16/pre-crime-policing/singlepage
I strongly urge you to read this and then ask what's wrong with this picture.
People are killed everyday by others that have made KNOWN their intentions to harm them. When these aggressors have been reported to the cops, the cops say NOTHING can be done by them until a crime has been committed.
This is NOT a voluntary surrender, had he not come out, He would have died.
FOR DOING NOTHING WRONG, but because "THE THOUGHT POLICE" thought he might.
Allegedly “disgruntled” man has his guns seized, and “voluntarily” surrenders to two SWAT teams and dozens of police officers for a crime that hadn’t been committed
"They woke me up with a phone call at about 5:50 in the morning," Pyles told me in a phone interview Friday. "I looked out the window and saw the SWAT team pointing their guns at my house. The officer on the phone told me to turn myself in. I told them I would, on three conditions: I would not be handcuffed. I would not be taken off my property. And I would not be forced to get a mental health evaluation. He agreed. The second I stepped outside, they jumped me. Then they handcuffed me, took me off my property, and took me to get a mental health evaluation."
By noon the same day, Pyles had already been released from the Rogue Valley Medical Center with a clean bill of mental health. Four days later the Medford Police Department returned Pyle’s guns, despite telling him earlier in the week—falsely—that he'd need to undergo a second background check before he could get them back. On Friday the Medford Police Department put out a second press release, this time announcing that the agency had returned the "disgruntled" worker's guns, and "now considers this matter closed.
I strongly urge you to read this and then ask what's wrong with this picture.
People are killed everyday by others that have made KNOWN their intentions to harm them. When these aggressors have been reported to the cops, the cops say NOTHING can be done by them until a crime has been committed.
This is NOT a voluntary surrender, had he not come out, He would have died.
FOR DOING NOTHING WRONG, but because "THE THOUGHT POLICE" thought he might.
Allegedly “disgruntled” man has his guns seized, and “voluntarily” surrenders to two SWAT teams and dozens of police officers for a crime that hadn’t been committed
"They woke me up with a phone call at about 5:50 in the morning," Pyles told me in a phone interview Friday. "I looked out the window and saw the SWAT team pointing their guns at my house. The officer on the phone told me to turn myself in. I told them I would, on three conditions: I would not be handcuffed. I would not be taken off my property. And I would not be forced to get a mental health evaluation. He agreed. The second I stepped outside, they jumped me. Then they handcuffed me, took me off my property, and took me to get a mental health evaluation."
By noon the same day, Pyles had already been released from the Rogue Valley Medical Center with a clean bill of mental health. Four days later the Medford Police Department returned Pyle’s guns, despite telling him earlier in the week—falsely—that he'd need to undergo a second background check before he could get them back. On Friday the Medford Police Department put out a second press release, this time announcing that the agency had returned the "disgruntled" worker's guns, and "now considers this matter closed.
Thursday, March 18, 2010
virus designed at the Pfizer laboratory paralyses ex-worker
http://cryptogon.com/?p=14390
I wonder why she couldn't go back to work? Being paralyzed should only pose a slight safety hazard.
Medical experts will be watching closely Monday when a scientist who says she has been intermittently paralyzed by a virus designed at the Pfizer laboratory where she worked in Groton opens a much anticipated trial that could raise questions about safety practices in the dynamic field of genetic engineering.
Organizations involved in workplace safety and responsible genetic research already have seized on the federal lawsuit by molecular biologist Becky McClain as an example of what they claim is evidence that risks caused by cutting-edge genetic manipulation have outstripped more slowly evolving government regulation of laboratories.
McClain, of Deep River, suspects she was inadvertently exposed, through work by a former Pfizer colleague in 2002 or 2003, to an engineered form of the lentivirus, a virus similar to the one that can lead to acquired immune deficiency syndrome, or AIDS. Medical experts working for McClain believe the virus has affected the way her body channels potassium, leading to a condition that causes complete paralysis as many as 12 times a month.
I wonder why she couldn't go back to work? Being paralyzed should only pose a slight safety hazard.
Medical experts will be watching closely Monday when a scientist who says she has been intermittently paralyzed by a virus designed at the Pfizer laboratory where she worked in Groton opens a much anticipated trial that could raise questions about safety practices in the dynamic field of genetic engineering.
Organizations involved in workplace safety and responsible genetic research already have seized on the federal lawsuit by molecular biologist Becky McClain as an example of what they claim is evidence that risks caused by cutting-edge genetic manipulation have outstripped more slowly evolving government regulation of laboratories.
McClain, of Deep River, suspects she was inadvertently exposed, through work by a former Pfizer colleague in 2002 or 2003, to an engineered form of the lentivirus, a virus similar to the one that can lead to acquired immune deficiency syndrome, or AIDS. Medical experts working for McClain believe the virus has affected the way her body channels potassium, leading to a condition that causes complete paralysis as many as 12 times a month.
Germany mulls sending spies to Wall Street
http://rawstory.com/2010/03/germany-mulls-spies-wall-street/
No really we were just kidding......NOT!
Many in Europe see currency speculation as 'economic terrorism'
Germany's finance minister says his government is considering sending spies to London and New York to monitor the activities of currency speculators.
Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble told the German Parliament on Tuesday that he may have to send spies to the world's two most important financial centers "to set up surveillance of who is getting together with whom for which kinds of speculative processes, and where,” according to a report at Bloomberg.
The move comes in the wake of Greece's debt crisis. Many European politicians and analysts blamed the crisis on currency speculation and credit default swaps, which they say caused the cost of servicing Greece's debt to jump this year, forcing the country into severe spending cuts that have led to a wave of protests and riots across the country. Greece's debt crisis, in turn, has caused the euro to plummet in value.
No really we were just kidding......NOT!
Many in Europe see currency speculation as 'economic terrorism'
Germany's finance minister says his government is considering sending spies to London and New York to monitor the activities of currency speculators.
Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble told the German Parliament on Tuesday that he may have to send spies to the world's two most important financial centers "to set up surveillance of who is getting together with whom for which kinds of speculative processes, and where,” according to a report at Bloomberg.
The move comes in the wake of Greece's debt crisis. Many European politicians and analysts blamed the crisis on currency speculation and credit default swaps, which they say caused the cost of servicing Greece's debt to jump this year, forcing the country into severe spending cuts that have led to a wave of protests and riots across the country. Greece's debt crisis, in turn, has caused the euro to plummet in value.
Boeing loses appeal over Oklahoma workers' retirement benefits
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2011382802_boeing19.html
The Appeals Court affirmation of that outcome is scathingly worded, rejecting Boeing's legal arguments as "desperate."
The court said it recognized Boeing's desire to avoid paying lifetime benefits to early retirees and noted that similar collective bargaining commitments had helped drive General Motors and Chrysler into bankruptcy.
"But Boeing is stuck with the commitments," the court ruled. "It was not required to provide lifetime benefits to workers represented by the UAW, but it agreed to do so and must live with its decision."
The Appeals Court affirmation of that outcome is scathingly worded, rejecting Boeing's legal arguments as "desperate."
The court said it recognized Boeing's desire to avoid paying lifetime benefits to early retirees and noted that similar collective bargaining commitments had helped drive General Motors and Chrysler into bankruptcy.
"But Boeing is stuck with the commitments," the court ruled. "It was not required to provide lifetime benefits to workers represented by the UAW, but it agreed to do so and must live with its decision."
Army Corps has plan to reduce Green River flood risk — but no money for it
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2011381478_greenriver19m.html
What's it going to take to see the waste of the war?
For these people to die?
The Army Corps of Engineers has a plan to dramatically reduce the risk of flooding below the damaged Howard Hanson Dam, but the Corps' district commander said Thursday it would take an act of Congress — and quickly — to provide any relief during the next rainy season.
Col. Anthony Wright said his agency doesn't have the $44 million required to hire a contractor and make a second set of interim repairs to slow the flow of water through one flank of the earthen dam on the Green River.
The dam has prevented flooding in Kent, Auburn, Renton and Tukwila for almost 50 years, but damage discovered after a January 2009 storm led the Corps of Engineers to reduce its storage capacity. That means more water may be released during a major storm to guarantee the dam doesn't collapse.
Because permanent repairs can't be completed before 2015, the Corps wants to deepen and lengthen a grout curtain that was installed last year. Construction of the grout curtain and improvements to downstream levees reduced the likelihood of flooding in one year from about 1-in-3 to 1-in-33.
If the grout curtain is improved, the dam could be filled to capacity and the chance of severe flooding reduced to 1-in-140, the historic level, Wright said. Even if Congress were to appropriate money for the fix quickly — "which I don't consider likely" — he said it would take another six months to strengthen the dam abutment somewhat and 10 months to complete the job.
Wright said the additional grouting would have "a lifespan of a couple major flood events," meaning the full benefit of the work might not last all the way until a permanent fix is done.
What's it going to take to see the waste of the war?
For these people to die?
The Army Corps of Engineers has a plan to dramatically reduce the risk of flooding below the damaged Howard Hanson Dam, but the Corps' district commander said Thursday it would take an act of Congress — and quickly — to provide any relief during the next rainy season.
Col. Anthony Wright said his agency doesn't have the $44 million required to hire a contractor and make a second set of interim repairs to slow the flow of water through one flank of the earthen dam on the Green River.
The dam has prevented flooding in Kent, Auburn, Renton and Tukwila for almost 50 years, but damage discovered after a January 2009 storm led the Corps of Engineers to reduce its storage capacity. That means more water may be released during a major storm to guarantee the dam doesn't collapse.
Because permanent repairs can't be completed before 2015, the Corps wants to deepen and lengthen a grout curtain that was installed last year. Construction of the grout curtain and improvements to downstream levees reduced the likelihood of flooding in one year from about 1-in-3 to 1-in-33.
If the grout curtain is improved, the dam could be filled to capacity and the chance of severe flooding reduced to 1-in-140, the historic level, Wright said. Even if Congress were to appropriate money for the fix quickly — "which I don't consider likely" — he said it would take another six months to strengthen the dam abutment somewhat and 10 months to complete the job.
Wright said the additional grouting would have "a lifespan of a couple major flood events," meaning the full benefit of the work might not last all the way until a permanent fix is done.
Walgreens: no new Medicaid patients as of April 16
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2011367936_walgreens18m.html
Effective April 16, Walgreens drugstores across the state won't take any new Medicaid patients, saying that filling their prescriptions is a money-losing proposition — the latest development in an ongoing dispute over Medicaid reimbursement.
The company, which operates 121 stores in the state, will continue filling Medicaid prescriptions for current patients.
In a news release, Walgreens said its decision to not take new Medicaid patients stemmed from a "continued reduction in reimbursement" under the state's Medicaid program, which reimburses it at less than the break-even point for 95 percent of brand-name medications dispensed to Medicaid patents.
Walgreens follows Bartell Drugs, which stopped taking new Medicaid patients last month at all 57 of its stores in Washington, though it still fills Medicaid prescriptions for existing customers at all but 15 of those stores.
Doug Porter, the state's director of Medicaid, said Medicaid recipients should be able to readily find another pharmacy because "we have many more pharmacy providers in our network than we need" for the state's 1 million Medicaid clients.
He said those who can't can contact the state's Medical Assistance Customer Service Center at 1-800-562-3022 for help in locating one.
Effective April 16, Walgreens drugstores across the state won't take any new Medicaid patients, saying that filling their prescriptions is a money-losing proposition — the latest development in an ongoing dispute over Medicaid reimbursement.
The company, which operates 121 stores in the state, will continue filling Medicaid prescriptions for current patients.
In a news release, Walgreens said its decision to not take new Medicaid patients stemmed from a "continued reduction in reimbursement" under the state's Medicaid program, which reimburses it at less than the break-even point for 95 percent of brand-name medications dispensed to Medicaid patents.
Walgreens follows Bartell Drugs, which stopped taking new Medicaid patients last month at all 57 of its stores in Washington, though it still fills Medicaid prescriptions for existing customers at all but 15 of those stores.
Doug Porter, the state's director of Medicaid, said Medicaid recipients should be able to readily find another pharmacy because "we have many more pharmacy providers in our network than we need" for the state's 1 million Medicaid clients.
He said those who can't can contact the state's Medical Assistance Customer Service Center at 1-800-562-3022 for help in locating one.
Gorden's torture torment
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/mar/18/gordon-brown-torture-guidelines
Gordon is on the hot seat I see
Right where Blair left him.
Gordon Brown today broke a promise to publish new guidelines for British intelligence officers dealing with the torture and abuse of detainees held abroad after MPs and peers privately warned that existing guidance was unsatisfactory.
The prime minister was locked in a bitter dispute tonight with the parliamentary body set up to monitor the intelligence agencies over his refusal to publish its criticisms of the new guidance.
The Guardian has learned that members of the intelligence and security committee have expressed serious concern to Brown about the lack of clarity and "ambiguities" in the new guidance on interrogation techniques drawn up for MI5, MI6, and military intelligence officers after revelations in the Binyam Mohamed case.
The committee was assured by Brown last week that the guidance – and its own criticism of it – would be published before a Commons debate on the issue today.
Gordon is on the hot seat I see
Right where Blair left him.
Gordon Brown today broke a promise to publish new guidelines for British intelligence officers dealing with the torture and abuse of detainees held abroad after MPs and peers privately warned that existing guidance was unsatisfactory.
The prime minister was locked in a bitter dispute tonight with the parliamentary body set up to monitor the intelligence agencies over his refusal to publish its criticisms of the new guidance.
The Guardian has learned that members of the intelligence and security committee have expressed serious concern to Brown about the lack of clarity and "ambiguities" in the new guidance on interrogation techniques drawn up for MI5, MI6, and military intelligence officers after revelations in the Binyam Mohamed case.
The committee was assured by Brown last week that the guidance – and its own criticism of it – would be published before a Commons debate on the issue today.
Tony Blair got cash for deal with South Korean oil firm
Well it looks like ole Rupert knew and decided to keep the secret to.
Friends do those kind of things for each other.
Never mind the fact that he is a media mogel, and the exposure of this should have been exposed as a matter of due course for his business investments.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Blair
Relationship with media
Rupert Murdoch
Tony Blair was reported to have been supported by Rupert Murdoch the founder of the News Corporation organisation.[117] In 1995, while leader of the Opposition, Blair disclosed in the Commons register of interests that he was a guest of Murdoch when he flew to meet him in Hayman Island.[118]
Contacts with UK media proprietors
A Cabinet Office freedom of information response, released the day after Blair handed over power to Gordon Brown, documents Blair having various official phone calls and meetings with Rupert Murdoch of News Corporation and Richard Desmond of Northern and Shell Media.[119]
The response includes contacts "clearly of an official nature" in the specified period, but excludes contacts "not clearly of an official nature."[120] No details were given of the subjects discussed. In the period between September 2002 and April 2005, Blair and Murdoch are documented speaking 6 times; three times in the 9 days before the Iraq war, including the eve of the 20 March US and UK invasion, and on 29 January, 25 April and 3 October 2004. Between January 2003 and February 2004, Blair had three meetings with Richard Desmond; on 29 January and 3 September 2003 and 23 February 2004.[121][122]
The information was disclosed after a three and a half year battle by the Liberal Democrats' Lord Avebury.[119] Lord Avebury's initial October 2003 information request was dismissed by then leader of the Lords, Baroness Amos.[119] A following complaint was rejected, with Downing Street claiming the information compromised free and frank discussions, while Cabinet Office claimed releasing the timing of the PM's contacts with individuals is undesirable, as it might lead to the content of the discussions being disclosed.[119] While awaiting a following appeal from Lord Avebury, the cabinet office announced that it would release the information. Lord Avebury said: "The public can now scrutinise the timing of his (Murdoch's) contacts with the former Prime Minister, to see whether they can be linked to events in the outside world."[119]
Media portrayal
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/mar/17/tony-blair-cash-south-korea-oil
Tony Blair has received cash from a South Korean oil firm in a deal kept secret until the business appointments watchdog intervened, the Guardian has learned.
After 20 months of secrecy, the former prime minister has now been overruled by the chairman of the advisory committee on business appointments, the former Tory cabinet minister Ian Lang.
Lang this week ordered publication of Blair's deal with UI Energy Corporation, which has extensive oil interests in the US and in Iraq.
Blair repeatedly claimed to the committee, which assesses jobs taken up by former ministers, that the existence of the deal had to be kept secret at the request of the South Koreans, because of "market sensitivities".
According to a committee spokesman, Blair's claims of the need for secrecy were first made in July 2008, when the committee agreed to break its normal rules, and postpone publication for three months.
Blair's office went back to the committee in October of that year and asked for a further six months. They promised to let the committee know as soon as the "market sensitivity" had passed.
Committee sources said they heard nothing further and had to "chase" Blair. This culminated in a formal
Friends do those kind of things for each other.
Never mind the fact that he is a media mogel, and the exposure of this should have been exposed as a matter of due course for his business investments.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Blair
Relationship with media
Rupert Murdoch
Tony Blair was reported to have been supported by Rupert Murdoch the founder of the News Corporation organisation.[117] In 1995, while leader of the Opposition, Blair disclosed in the Commons register of interests that he was a guest of Murdoch when he flew to meet him in Hayman Island.[118]
Contacts with UK media proprietors
A Cabinet Office freedom of information response, released the day after Blair handed over power to Gordon Brown, documents Blair having various official phone calls and meetings with Rupert Murdoch of News Corporation and Richard Desmond of Northern and Shell Media.[119]
The response includes contacts "clearly of an official nature" in the specified period, but excludes contacts "not clearly of an official nature."[120] No details were given of the subjects discussed. In the period between September 2002 and April 2005, Blair and Murdoch are documented speaking 6 times; three times in the 9 days before the Iraq war, including the eve of the 20 March US and UK invasion, and on 29 January, 25 April and 3 October 2004. Between January 2003 and February 2004, Blair had three meetings with Richard Desmond; on 29 January and 3 September 2003 and 23 February 2004.[121][122]
The information was disclosed after a three and a half year battle by the Liberal Democrats' Lord Avebury.[119] Lord Avebury's initial October 2003 information request was dismissed by then leader of the Lords, Baroness Amos.[119] A following complaint was rejected, with Downing Street claiming the information compromised free and frank discussions, while Cabinet Office claimed releasing the timing of the PM's contacts with individuals is undesirable, as it might lead to the content of the discussions being disclosed.[119] While awaiting a following appeal from Lord Avebury, the cabinet office announced that it would release the information. Lord Avebury said: "The public can now scrutinise the timing of his (Murdoch's) contacts with the former Prime Minister, to see whether they can be linked to events in the outside world."[119]
Media portrayal
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/mar/17/tony-blair-cash-south-korea-oil
Tony Blair has received cash from a South Korean oil firm in a deal kept secret until the business appointments watchdog intervened, the Guardian has learned.
After 20 months of secrecy, the former prime minister has now been overruled by the chairman of the advisory committee on business appointments, the former Tory cabinet minister Ian Lang.
Lang this week ordered publication of Blair's deal with UI Energy Corporation, which has extensive oil interests in the US and in Iraq.
Blair repeatedly claimed to the committee, which assesses jobs taken up by former ministers, that the existence of the deal had to be kept secret at the request of the South Koreans, because of "market sensitivities".
According to a committee spokesman, Blair's claims of the need for secrecy were first made in July 2008, when the committee agreed to break its normal rules, and postpone publication for three months.
Blair's office went back to the committee in October of that year and asked for a further six months. They promised to let the committee know as soon as the "market sensitivity" had passed.
Committee sources said they heard nothing further and had to "chase" Blair. This culminated in a formal
As banks binged on risky mortgages, govt rewarded regulators with taxpayer-funded bonuses
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Govt-rewarded-bank-auditors-apf-3698670682.html?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=6&asset=&ccode=
Gee I wonder if we can demand a refund on the grounds of piss poor job preformance.
There must be a job opening for the Office of Thrift Supervision, because I don't see any being applied.
During the 2003-06 boom, the three agencies that supervise most U.S. banks -- the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., the Office of Thrift Supervision and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency -- gave out at least $19 million in bonuses, records show.
Nearly all that money was spent recognizing "superior" performance. The largest share, more than $8.4 million, went to financial examiners, those employees and managers who scrutinize internal bank documents and sound the first alarms. Analysts, auditors, economists and criminal investigators also got awards
Gee I wonder if we can demand a refund on the grounds of piss poor job preformance.
There must be a job opening for the Office of Thrift Supervision, because I don't see any being applied.
During the 2003-06 boom, the three agencies that supervise most U.S. banks -- the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., the Office of Thrift Supervision and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency -- gave out at least $19 million in bonuses, records show.
Nearly all that money was spent recognizing "superior" performance. The largest share, more than $8.4 million, went to financial examiners, those employees and managers who scrutinize internal bank documents and sound the first alarms. Analysts, auditors, economists and criminal investigators also got awards
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/hotelcheckin/post/2010/03/memphis-motel-rented-out-room-containing-decomposing-body-five-times/1?loc=interstitialskip
Memphis police never checked inside a motel room where a missing woman had been staying - and where her body was discovered months later on Monday, according to various reports including the Chicago Tribune.
The body of Sony Millbrook was found hidden inside a metal frame beneath a mattress and box spring after the Budget Inn motel had reported a foul odor inside her old room, the story says. The room had been locked for lack of payment the day she went missing, but the motel had since cleaned out her belongings and rented it five times, the story says.
Joseph Scott, Memphis police's deputy chief of investigative services, said told FoxNews.com that they've "never heard of anything like this...It's stranger than fiction."
The woman had been reported missing to Memphis police on Jan. 27 after
Memphis police never checked inside a motel room where a missing woman had been staying - and where her body was discovered months later on Monday, according to various reports including the Chicago Tribune.
The body of Sony Millbrook was found hidden inside a metal frame beneath a mattress and box spring after the Budget Inn motel had reported a foul odor inside her old room, the story says. The room had been locked for lack of payment the day she went missing, but the motel had since cleaned out her belongings and rented it five times, the story says.
Joseph Scott, Memphis police's deputy chief of investigative services, said told FoxNews.com that they've "never heard of anything like this...It's stranger than fiction."
The woman had been reported missing to Memphis police on Jan. 27 after
In Defense of Lehman Brothers? What a Difference a Week Makes
http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/in-defense-of-lehman-brothers-what-a-difference-a-week-makes-444445.html?tickers=XLF,FAZ,BAC,C,JPM,MS,GS
I know nothing lol, Does that really wash in todays tech world?
Last Friday, Lehman Brothers' bankruptcy examiner Anton Valukas issued a scathing report that seemed to all-but indict former executives of the firm, as well as its auditor, Ernst & Young. Executives used "materially misleading" accounting gimmicks and former CEO Richard Fuld was "at least grossly negligent in causing Lehman Brothers to file misleading periodic reports," the examiner concluded.
Immediately, the financial media and the blogosphere lit up with stories about the appearance of a $50 billion fraud perpetrated at the failed investment bank. Even those reports were "understating the seriousness of the deception Lehman's executives employed in an effort to fool investors and creditors about the health of their investment bank," declared The Business Insider's John Carney.
What a difference a week makes.
As FT Alphaville reporter Stacy-Marie Ishmael details, "the contrarian camp has come out in defense of Lehman Brothers" with astonishing speed:
-- The NY Post reports Fuld expressed a "sense of vindication" after reviewing Valukas' report. The former CEO "privately believes that the report...provides proof that he did nothing illegal," according to the tabloid. (Even if that were true, you'd think Fuld's attorneys would counsel him to keep quiet.)
-- Fuld's lawyer is apparently planning to use the "Schultz defense", with a modern twist: "A footnote in the report states that Mr. Fuld's lawyer informed the examiner that he did not use a computer and only accessed e-mails on his Blackberry but could not open up attachments, including one that went into the Repo 105 deals in March 2008," The NY Times reports.
I know nothing lol, Does that really wash in todays tech world?
Last Friday, Lehman Brothers' bankruptcy examiner Anton Valukas issued a scathing report that seemed to all-but indict former executives of the firm, as well as its auditor, Ernst & Young. Executives used "materially misleading" accounting gimmicks and former CEO Richard Fuld was "at least grossly negligent in causing Lehman Brothers to file misleading periodic reports," the examiner concluded.
Immediately, the financial media and the blogosphere lit up with stories about the appearance of a $50 billion fraud perpetrated at the failed investment bank. Even those reports were "understating the seriousness of the deception Lehman's executives employed in an effort to fool investors and creditors about the health of their investment bank," declared The Business Insider's John Carney.
What a difference a week makes.
As FT Alphaville reporter Stacy-Marie Ishmael details, "the contrarian camp has come out in defense of Lehman Brothers" with astonishing speed:
-- The NY Post reports Fuld expressed a "sense of vindication" after reviewing Valukas' report. The former CEO "privately believes that the report...provides proof that he did nothing illegal," according to the tabloid. (Even if that were true, you'd think Fuld's attorneys would counsel him to keep quiet.)
-- Fuld's lawyer is apparently planning to use the "Schultz defense", with a modern twist: "A footnote in the report states that Mr. Fuld's lawyer informed the examiner that he did not use a computer and only accessed e-mails on his Blackberry but could not open up attachments, including one that went into the Repo 105 deals in March 2008," The NY Times reports.
Hacker Disables More Than 100 Cars Remotely
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/03/hacker-bricks-cars/
More than 100 drivers in Austin, Texas found their cars disabled or the horns honking out of control, after an intruder ran amok in a web-based vehicle-immobilization system normally used to get the attention of consumers delinquent in their auto payments.
Police with Austin’s High Tech Crime Unit on Wednesday arrested 20-year-old Omar Ramos-Lopez, a former Texas Auto Center employee who was laid off last month, and allegedly sought revenge by bricking the cars sold from the dealership’s four Austin-area lots.
“We initially dismissed it as mechanical failure,” says Texas Auto Center manager Martin Garcia. “We started having a rash of up to a hundred customers at one time complaining. Some customers complained of the horns going off in the middle of the night. The only option they had was to remove the battery.”
The dealership used a system called Webtech Plus as an alternative to repossessing vehicles that haven’t been paid for. Operated by Cleveland-based Pay Technologies, the system lets
Read More http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/03/hacker-bricks-cars/#ixzz0iXJbKBdZ
More than 100 drivers in Austin, Texas found their cars disabled or the horns honking out of control, after an intruder ran amok in a web-based vehicle-immobilization system normally used to get the attention of consumers delinquent in their auto payments.
Police with Austin’s High Tech Crime Unit on Wednesday arrested 20-year-old Omar Ramos-Lopez, a former Texas Auto Center employee who was laid off last month, and allegedly sought revenge by bricking the cars sold from the dealership’s four Austin-area lots.
“We initially dismissed it as mechanical failure,” says Texas Auto Center manager Martin Garcia. “We started having a rash of up to a hundred customers at one time complaining. Some customers complained of the horns going off in the middle of the night. The only option they had was to remove the battery.”
The dealership used a system called Webtech Plus as an alternative to repossessing vehicles that haven’t been paid for. Operated by Cleveland-based Pay Technologies, the system lets
Read More http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/03/hacker-bricks-cars/#ixzz0iXJbKBdZ
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
NFL owners will vote on overtime changes in playoff games
http://www.denverpost.com/sports/ci_14691443
NFL owners will vote next week whether to allow each team a possession in overtime in the playoffs if the team winning the OT coin toss kicks a field goal on the first series.
Previously, the game would end whenever either side scores, as happened in the NFC championship game in January, with New Orleans beating Minnesota on Garrett Hartley's kick. But NFL competition committee chairman Rich McKay says a trend has developed showing too strong an advantage for teams winning the coin toss to start overtime.
Read more: http://www.denverpost.com/sports/ci_14691443#ixzz0iT10k2Zo
NFL owners will vote next week whether to allow each team a possession in overtime in the playoffs if the team winning the OT coin toss kicks a field goal on the first series.
Previously, the game would end whenever either side scores, as happened in the NFC championship game in January, with New Orleans beating Minnesota on Garrett Hartley's kick. But NFL competition committee chairman Rich McKay says a trend has developed showing too strong an advantage for teams winning the coin toss to start overtime.
Read more: http://www.denverpost.com/sports/ci_14691443#ixzz0iT10k2Zo
Abuse of pain pills by troops concerns Pentagon
http://www.usatoday.com/news/military/2010-03-16-military-drugs_N.htm
The military is trying to curb the volume of narcotics given to troops as the number of prescriptions for painkillers and instances of drug abuse continue to soar, according to Pentagon data and recent congressional testimony.
Military doctors wrote almost 3.8 million prescriptions for pain relief for servicemembers last year — more than four times the 866,773 doses handed out in 2001, according to data from the Pentagon health office.
"These are stunning statistics," says Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., who intends to look into the issue next week during a Senate subcommittee hearing that he will chair. Surgeons general of the Army, Navy and Air Force will testify. "I would really like to dig down in the data here and get their thoughts about what is driving this."
Military officials and analysts say the increase in the use of narcotic pain medication reflects the continuing toll on ground troops fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, often through more than one combat deployment. In addition to those who are wounded, larger numbers of soldiers and Marines develop aches and strains carrying heavy packs, body armor and weapons over rugged and mountainous terrain.
"Clearly the stress on the force, because of these continuous deployments, is a component (in the increasing of prescriptions)," says Webb, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and decorated Marine veteran of Vietnam
The military is trying to curb the volume of narcotics given to troops as the number of prescriptions for painkillers and instances of drug abuse continue to soar, according to Pentagon data and recent congressional testimony.
Military doctors wrote almost 3.8 million prescriptions for pain relief for servicemembers last year — more than four times the 866,773 doses handed out in 2001, according to data from the Pentagon health office.
"These are stunning statistics," says Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., who intends to look into the issue next week during a Senate subcommittee hearing that he will chair. Surgeons general of the Army, Navy and Air Force will testify. "I would really like to dig down in the data here and get their thoughts about what is driving this."
Military officials and analysts say the increase in the use of narcotic pain medication reflects the continuing toll on ground troops fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, often through more than one combat deployment. In addition to those who are wounded, larger numbers of soldiers and Marines develop aches and strains carrying heavy packs, body armor and weapons over rugged and mountainous terrain.
"Clearly the stress on the force, because of these continuous deployments, is a component (in the increasing of prescriptions)," says Webb, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and decorated Marine veteran of Vietnam
Government math
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE62F61T20100316
U.S. puts brakes on "virtual" border fence
The U.S. government is pulling $50 million in funding from a problematic "virtual fence" meant to secure stretches of the Mexico border and is freezing additional funding for the project pending review, authorities said on Tuesday.
But not before
spending over $1 billion of taxpayers' dollars on a failed system of sensors and cameras along the Southwest border
U.S. puts brakes on "virtual" border fence
The U.S. government is pulling $50 million in funding from a problematic "virtual fence" meant to secure stretches of the Mexico border and is freezing additional funding for the project pending review, authorities said on Tuesday.
But not before
spending over $1 billion of taxpayers' dollars on a failed system of sensors and cameras along the Southwest border
Thai Red Shirts hurl own blood at PM's house
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20100317/D9EGD4981.html
BANGKOK (AP) - Leaders of Thailand's anti-government protesters, who have hurled their own blood at the offices and home of the prime minister, said Wednesday they will remain camped out in capital indefinitely, though in smaller numbers.
Hoping to bring down Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva's government, red-shirted protesters hurled plastic bags filled with their own blood into his residential compound Wednesday - following similar protests the day before at his office and the headquarters of his Democrat Party.
Several thousand later gathered in front of the U.S. Embassy, saying they wanted to tell the international community that their government is illegitimate.
The "blood sacrifices" grabbed attention, but put the Red Shirt movement no closer to its goal of forcing new elections.
The announcement of plans for an extended protest contrasts sharply with pre-demonstration boasts that they would mount a "million-man march," putting enough pressure on the government to topple it within a few days. More than 100,000 demonstrators converged on the capital Sunday, but their demands and deadlines were snubbed by Abhisit, and the crowd shrunk Wednesday to around 40,000, according to Maj. Gen. Vichai Sangparpai, a commander in the metropolitan police.
The protesters consist of supporters of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted by a 2006 military coup for alleged corruption, and pro-democracy activists who opposed the army takeover
BANGKOK (AP) - Leaders of Thailand's anti-government protesters, who have hurled their own blood at the offices and home of the prime minister, said Wednesday they will remain camped out in capital indefinitely, though in smaller numbers.
Hoping to bring down Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva's government, red-shirted protesters hurled plastic bags filled with their own blood into his residential compound Wednesday - following similar protests the day before at his office and the headquarters of his Democrat Party.
Several thousand later gathered in front of the U.S. Embassy, saying they wanted to tell the international community that their government is illegitimate.
The "blood sacrifices" grabbed attention, but put the Red Shirt movement no closer to its goal of forcing new elections.
The announcement of plans for an extended protest contrasts sharply with pre-demonstration boasts that they would mount a "million-man march," putting enough pressure on the government to topple it within a few days. More than 100,000 demonstrators converged on the capital Sunday, but their demands and deadlines were snubbed by Abhisit, and the crowd shrunk Wednesday to around 40,000, according to Maj. Gen. Vichai Sangparpai, a commander in the metropolitan police.
The protesters consist of supporters of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted by a 2006 military coup for alleged corruption, and pro-democracy activists who opposed the army takeover
States’ Rights Is Rallying Cry
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/17/us/17states.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
And this kind of fun has only just begun.
The alarm clock has gone off and there is no shut off button.
"The People" ARE awake and seemed to have gotten a good whiff of the pencil coffee being served up to them, and they're refusing to drink it.
Whether it’s correctly called a movement, a backlash or political theater, state declarations of their rights — or in some cases denunciations of federal authority, amounting to the same thing — are on a roll.
“Who is the sovereign, the state or the federal government?”
And this kind of fun has only just begun.
The alarm clock has gone off and there is no shut off button.
"The People" ARE awake and seemed to have gotten a good whiff of the pencil coffee being served up to them, and they're refusing to drink it.
Whether it’s correctly called a movement, a backlash or political theater, state declarations of their rights — or in some cases denunciations of federal authority, amounting to the same thing — are on a roll.
“Who is the sovereign, the state or the federal government?”
EU warns 5 major eurozone nations on budgets
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/EU-warns-5-major-eurozone-apf-380714428.html?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=7&asset=&ccode=
We're all going down together kids.
But hey the banks survived.
The European Union on Wednesday warned Germany, France, Spain, Italy and the Netherlands that they are relying too much on a strong economic recovery to meet debt reduction targets.
European Commission reports say that the five largest nations that use the euro have "rather optimistic" growth forecasts in their programs to cut budget deficits to the EU limit of 3 percent of gross domestic product.
It said budget figures could be worse than they expect if growth remains slow.
We're all going down together kids.
But hey the banks survived.
The European Union on Wednesday warned Germany, France, Spain, Italy and the Netherlands that they are relying too much on a strong economic recovery to meet debt reduction targets.
European Commission reports say that the five largest nations that use the euro have "rather optimistic" growth forecasts in their programs to cut budget deficits to the EU limit of 3 percent of gross domestic product.
It said budget figures could be worse than they expect if growth remains slow.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Healthcare reform
http://market-ticker.denninger.net/archives/2088-Wheres-The-Morphine.html
Sometimes there can be no miracle and the inevitable must be accepted. For the sake of our nation this issue must be addressed for exactly what it is. Financial responsibility, because hope can't fix everything, even though we wish it could.
FLINT, Mich. — Carol Y. Vliet’s cancer returned with a fury last summer, the tumors metastasizing to her brain, liver, kidneys and throat.
That's very bad, by the way.
As she began a punishing regimen of chemotherapy and radiation, Mrs. Vliet found a measure of comfort in her monthly appointments with her primary care physician, Dr. Saed J. Sahouri, who had been monitoring her health for nearly two years.
She was devastated, therefore, when Dr. Sahouri informed her a few months later that he could no longer see her because, like a growing number of doctors, he had stopped taking patients with Medicaid.
For what purpose was she being put through Chemo and Radiation "therapy"?
Look, I don't mean to sound callous, but there are times we must be objective. This is one of them.
Sometimes there can be no miracle and the inevitable must be accepted. For the sake of our nation this issue must be addressed for exactly what it is. Financial responsibility, because hope can't fix everything, even though we wish it could.
FLINT, Mich. — Carol Y. Vliet’s cancer returned with a fury last summer, the tumors metastasizing to her brain, liver, kidneys and throat.
That's very bad, by the way.
As she began a punishing regimen of chemotherapy and radiation, Mrs. Vliet found a measure of comfort in her monthly appointments with her primary care physician, Dr. Saed J. Sahouri, who had been monitoring her health for nearly two years.
She was devastated, therefore, when Dr. Sahouri informed her a few months later that he could no longer see her because, like a growing number of doctors, he had stopped taking patients with Medicaid.
For what purpose was she being put through Chemo and Radiation "therapy"?
Look, I don't mean to sound callous, but there are times we must be objective. This is one of them.
Contestants turn torturers in French TV experiment
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100316/ts_afp/francetelevisionpsychologyentertainment
They don't call it the idiot box for nothing now do they.
Game show contestants turn torturers in a new psychological experiment for French television, zapping a man with electricity until he cries for mercy -- then zapping him again until he seems to drop dead.
"The Game of Death" has all the trappings of a traditional television quiz show, with a roaring crowd and a glamorous and well-known hostess urging the players on under gaudy studio lights.
But the contestants did not know they were taking part in an experiment to find out whether television could push them to outrageous lengths, and which has prompted comparisons with the atrocities of Nazi Germany.
"We were amazed to find that 81 percent of the participants obeyed" the sadistic orders of the television presenter, said Christophe Nick, the maker of the documentary for the state-owned France 2 channel which airs Wednesday.
"They are not equipped to disobey," he added. "They don't want to do it, they try to convince the authority figure that they should stop, but they don't manage to," he told AFP.
Nick and a team of psychologists recruited 80 volunteers, telling them they were taking part in a pilot for a new television show.
They don't call it the idiot box for nothing now do they.
Game show contestants turn torturers in a new psychological experiment for French television, zapping a man with electricity until he cries for mercy -- then zapping him again until he seems to drop dead.
"The Game of Death" has all the trappings of a traditional television quiz show, with a roaring crowd and a glamorous and well-known hostess urging the players on under gaudy studio lights.
But the contestants did not know they were taking part in an experiment to find out whether television could push them to outrageous lengths, and which has prompted comparisons with the atrocities of Nazi Germany.
"We were amazed to find that 81 percent of the participants obeyed" the sadistic orders of the television presenter, said Christophe Nick, the maker of the documentary for the state-owned France 2 channel which airs Wednesday.
"They are not equipped to disobey," he added. "They don't want to do it, they try to convince the authority figure that they should stop, but they don't manage to," he told AFP.
Nick and a team of psychologists recruited 80 volunteers, telling them they were taking part in a pilot for a new television show.
Owning The 'United States®'
http://www.rense.com/general90/own.htm
The Census envelope arrived yesterday and with it came some very interesting new information. On the face of the envelope under the line: U. S. Census Form Enclosed is the very large and very bold STATEMENT:
YOUR RESPONSE
IS REQUIRED BY LAW
Then centered at the top of the Envelope was this 'creative' Logo from the U. S. Department of Commerce Economics and Statistics Administration, U. S. Census Bureau
Under a magnifying glass, you can easily read the "R" inside the circle directly to the right of the "s" in 'United States'. This symbol "®" stands for "registered" as in a commercial registration of this image; indicating that the phrase it follows is privately owned and that any use of it (in this case the two words 'United States') beyond the 'owners' specific authorization is prohibited!
THE QUESTION IS:
The Census envelope arrived yesterday and with it came some very interesting new information. On the face of the envelope under the line: U. S. Census Form Enclosed is the very large and very bold STATEMENT:
YOUR RESPONSE
IS REQUIRED BY LAW
Then centered at the top of the Envelope was this 'creative' Logo from the U. S. Department of Commerce Economics and Statistics Administration, U. S. Census Bureau
Under a magnifying glass, you can easily read the "R" inside the circle directly to the right of the "s" in 'United States'. This symbol "®" stands for "registered" as in a commercial registration of this image; indicating that the phrase it follows is privately owned and that any use of it (in this case the two words 'United States') beyond the 'owners' specific authorization is prohibited!
THE QUESTION IS:
Facebook feds go undercover: Document shows federal agents dipping quietly into social media
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Break-the-law-and-your-new-apf-2661969609.html?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=8&asset=&ccode=
The Feds are on Facebook. And MySpace, LinkedIn and Twitter, too.
U.S. law enforcement agents are following the rest of the Internet world into popular social-networking services, going undercover with false online profiles to communicate with suspects and gather private information, according to an internal Justice Department document that offers a tantalizing glimpse of issues related to privacy and crime-fighting.
Think you know who's behind that "friend" request? Think again. Your new "friend" just might be the FBI.
The document, obtained in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, makes clear that U.S. agents are already logging on surreptitiously to exchange messages with suspects, identify a target's friends or relatives and browse private information such as postings, personal photographs and video clips.
Among other purposes: Investigators can check suspects' alibis by comparing stories told to police with tweets sent at the same time about their whereabouts. Online photos from a suspicious spending spree -- people posing with jewelry, guns or fancy cars -- can l
The Feds are on Facebook. And MySpace, LinkedIn and Twitter, too.
U.S. law enforcement agents are following the rest of the Internet world into popular social-networking services, going undercover with false online profiles to communicate with suspects and gather private information, according to an internal Justice Department document that offers a tantalizing glimpse of issues related to privacy and crime-fighting.
Think you know who's behind that "friend" request? Think again. Your new "friend" just might be the FBI.
The document, obtained in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, makes clear that U.S. agents are already logging on surreptitiously to exchange messages with suspects, identify a target's friends or relatives and browse private information such as postings, personal photographs and video clips.
Among other purposes: Investigators can check suspects' alibis by comparing stories told to police with tweets sent at the same time about their whereabouts. Online photos from a suspicious spending spree -- people posing with jewelry, guns or fancy cars -- can l
Passengers on Virgin America flightmare forced to ration Pringles
http://www.news.com.au/travel/news/passengers-on-virgin-america-flightmare-forced-to-ration-pringles/story-e6frfq80-1225841597478
You know what makes this bizarre? It's now considered normal.
High winds divert flight from destination
Passengers trapped in plane for 7 hours
Food rationed to four chips, half a cup of water
Passenger posted crew meltdown on Twitter
PASSENGERS were forced to ration food after what was supposed to be a direct flight from LA to New York turned into a 16-hour nightmare.
Before finally arriving at their destination, the starving passengers of Virgin America Flight 404 had been stranded on a tarmac for seven hours and forced to ride a bus for another two-and-a-half hours.
The New York Post reported that food supplies aboard the plane were so low at one point Pringles chips had to be rationed: four chips apiece.
"That's all we got - four chips and half a cup of water," said Justin Gordon, 23.
Because of 60-mph winds in New York, the plane was forced to circle JFK until it was finally diverted to Stewart Airport in Newburgh, 90 miles (144km) north of New York.
..There, the plane remained on the tarmac until almost midnight, passengers said. The airline said the wait was more like four-and-a-half hours.
You know what makes this bizarre? It's now considered normal.
High winds divert flight from destination
Passengers trapped in plane for 7 hours
Food rationed to four chips, half a cup of water
Passenger posted crew meltdown on Twitter
PASSENGERS were forced to ration food after what was supposed to be a direct flight from LA to New York turned into a 16-hour nightmare.
Before finally arriving at their destination, the starving passengers of Virgin America Flight 404 had been stranded on a tarmac for seven hours and forced to ride a bus for another two-and-a-half hours.
The New York Post reported that food supplies aboard the plane were so low at one point Pringles chips had to be rationed: four chips apiece.
"That's all we got - four chips and half a cup of water," said Justin Gordon, 23.
Because of 60-mph winds in New York, the plane was forced to circle JFK until it was finally diverted to Stewart Airport in Newburgh, 90 miles (144km) north of New York.
..There, the plane remained on the tarmac until almost midnight, passengers said. The airline said the wait was more like four-and-a-half hours.
Americans' Mistrust of Govt. Is Rational and Warranted, But Also Dangerous
http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/americans'-mistrust-of-govt.-is-rational-and-warranted-but-also-dangerous-442780.html?tickers=%5EDJI,%5EGSPC,UUP,TBT,TLT,GLD,XLF
"The United States invariably does the right thing, after having exhausted every other alternative," Winston Churchill once said.
The problem is "we're in the process of exhausting all the alternatives pretty quickly," says William Galston, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.
A recent CBS/NY Times poll showed only 19% of respondents say they trust the government "to do what is right all or most of the time," while 78% believed the government is run by special interests, not for the benefit of the people.
"iI current levels of trust don't improve, I don't see how Americans can be persuaded to make sacrifices now for a better future,
"The United States invariably does the right thing, after having exhausted every other alternative," Winston Churchill once said.
The problem is "we're in the process of exhausting all the alternatives pretty quickly," says William Galston, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.
A recent CBS/NY Times poll showed only 19% of respondents say they trust the government "to do what is right all or most of the time," while 78% believed the government is run by special interests, not for the benefit of the people.
"iI current levels of trust don't improve, I don't see how Americans can be persuaded to make sacrifices now for a better future,
House may try to pass Senate health-care bill without voting on it
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/15/AR2010031503742_pf.html
What won't the government do to get what it wants?
After laying the groundwork for a decisive vote this week on the Senate's health-care bill, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi suggested Monday that she might attempt to pass the measure without having members vote on it.
Instead, Pelosi (D-Calif.) would rely on a procedural sleight of hand: The House would vote on a more popular package of fixes to the Senate bill; under the House rule for that vote, passage would signify that lawmakers "deem" the health-care bill to be passed.
The tactic -- known as a "self-executing rule" or a "deem and pass" -- has been commonly used, although never to pass legislation as momentous as the $875 billion health-care bill. It is one of three options that Pelosi said she is considering for a late-week House vote, but she added that she prefers it because it would politically protect lawmakers who are reluctant to publicly support the measure.
"It's more insider and process-oriented than most people want to know," the speaker said in a roundtable discussion with bloggers Monday. "But I like it," she said, "because people don't have to vote on the Senate bill."
Republicans quickly condemned the strategy, framing it as an effort to avoid responsibility for passing the legislation, and some suggested that Pelosi's plan would be unconstitutional.
"It's very painful and troubling to see the gymnastics through which they are going to avoid accountability," Rep. David Dreier (Calif.), the senior Republican on the House Rules Committee, told reporters. "And I hope very much that, at the end of the day, that if we are going to have a vote, we will have a clean up-or-down vote that will allow the American people to see who is supporting this Senate bill and who is not supporting this Senate bill."
House leaders have worked for days to round up support for the legislation, but the Senate measure has drawn fierce opposition from a broad spectrum of members. Antiabortion Democrats say it would permit federal funding for abortion, liberals oppose its tax on high-cost insurance plans, and Republicans say the measure overreaches and is too expensive.
Some senior lawmakers have acknowledged in recent days that Democrats lack the votes for passage. Pelosi, however, predicted Monday that she would deliver.
What won't the government do to get what it wants?
After laying the groundwork for a decisive vote this week on the Senate's health-care bill, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi suggested Monday that she might attempt to pass the measure without having members vote on it.
Instead, Pelosi (D-Calif.) would rely on a procedural sleight of hand: The House would vote on a more popular package of fixes to the Senate bill; under the House rule for that vote, passage would signify that lawmakers "deem" the health-care bill to be passed.
The tactic -- known as a "self-executing rule" or a "deem and pass" -- has been commonly used, although never to pass legislation as momentous as the $875 billion health-care bill. It is one of three options that Pelosi said she is considering for a late-week House vote, but she added that she prefers it because it would politically protect lawmakers who are reluctant to publicly support the measure.
"It's more insider and process-oriented than most people want to know," the speaker said in a roundtable discussion with bloggers Monday. "But I like it," she said, "because people don't have to vote on the Senate bill."
Republicans quickly condemned the strategy, framing it as an effort to avoid responsibility for passing the legislation, and some suggested that Pelosi's plan would be unconstitutional.
"It's very painful and troubling to see the gymnastics through which they are going to avoid accountability," Rep. David Dreier (Calif.), the senior Republican on the House Rules Committee, told reporters. "And I hope very much that, at the end of the day, that if we are going to have a vote, we will have a clean up-or-down vote that will allow the American people to see who is supporting this Senate bill and who is not supporting this Senate bill."
House leaders have worked for days to round up support for the legislation, but the Senate measure has drawn fierce opposition from a broad spectrum of members. Antiabortion Democrats say it would permit federal funding for abortion, liberals oppose its tax on high-cost insurance plans, and Republicans say the measure overreaches and is too expensive.
Some senior lawmakers have acknowledged in recent days that Democrats lack the votes for passage. Pelosi, however, predicted Monday that she would deliver.
Monday, March 15, 2010
Texas Yanks Thomas Jefferson From Teaching Standard
http://www.aolnews.com/nation/article/texas-removes-thomas-jefferson-from-teaching-standard/19397481
Widely regarded as one of the most important of all the founding fathers of the United States, Thomas Jefferson received a demotion of sorts Friday thanks to the Texas Board of Education.
The board voted to enact new teaching standards for history and social studies that will alter which material gets included in school textbooks. It decided to drop Jefferson from a world history section devoted to great political thinkers.
Widely regarded as one of the most important of all the founding fathers of the United States, Thomas Jefferson received a demotion of sorts Friday thanks to the Texas Board of Education.
The board voted to enact new teaching standards for history and social studies that will alter which material gets included in school textbooks. It decided to drop Jefferson from a world history section devoted to great political thinkers.
Saturday, March 13, 2010
McLoud residents "hook up or pay up"
http://www.kfor.com/news/local/kfor-news-mcloud-water-issue-story,0,6953126.story?track=rss
MCLOUD, OK -- Several residents in McLoud are upset after the city announced a $17 water bill for residents who use a well. According to City Manager Larry Dillon, the small fee will help pay for emergency services such as police officers and fire fighters. Because of an old city ordinance, rural residents with in 100-yards of a water line didn't have to pay for those services; but because of a struggling economy, every dollar counts.
If local residents don't want to pay the fee they'll have to connect to the water line.
"I know nobody likes to pay extra bills, but it's a reality of life and you have to pay your way because there is no free ride anywhere," said Dillon.
If local residents don't pay the $17 monthly charge or hook up to the water line, city officials will fine them of $20 per day.
Read all 26 comments »
MCLOUD, OK -- Several residents in McLoud are upset after the city announced a $17 water bill for residents who use a well. According to City Manager Larry Dillon, the small fee will help pay for emergency services such as police officers and fire fighters. Because of an old city ordinance, rural residents with in 100-yards of a water line didn't have to pay for those services; but because of a struggling economy, every dollar counts.
If local residents don't want to pay the fee they'll have to connect to the water line.
"I know nobody likes to pay extra bills, but it's a reality of life and you have to pay your way because there is no free ride anywhere," said Dillon.
If local residents don't pay the $17 monthly charge or hook up to the water line, city officials will fine them of $20 per day.
Read all 26 comments »
Friday, March 12, 2010
Help Holly
http://www.paltelegraph.com/columnists/peter-eyre/4721-hollie-had-the-potential-to-topple-government
How can the responsible look away? And yet they do!
UK, March 11, 2010 (Pal Telegraph) - The case of Hollie Greig really did open a can of worms and even to this day it is what the media would call a "Scoop". It reveals the evil working of a pedophilia ring that stretches all the way to the highest authority. The pain and suffering by this girl started when she was only six years old and continued on for fourteen years.
Her mum Anne gave a graphic account of what her daughter had been through when she was interviewed by Manchester Radio Online. You can hear the 13 part series about Hollie on the following link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtzehzYQGe4&feature=related
So why is this story not reaching the media in the UK and who is behind this gagging. It all comes down to Elish Angiolini who has gagged the Scottish mainstream media from publishing anything about the Hollie Greign case. This is enforced through her Glasgow based Lawyer, Peter Watson of Levy & Macrae.
UK Official Contacts Paul Drockton: "No D-Notices Against Pedophile Exposure"
No silence can only mean that Holly's case will finally recieve the attention that it's due and actually be investigated.
http://moneyteachers.org/DNotices.htm
"I wish to make it clear that there is absolutely no truth in the statement... that the 'Blair government…issued a D-Notice to gag the press from revealing the names of known paedophiles within the British executive'. No 'D Notice' advice has ever been issued in connection either with the Hollie Greig case or the naming of paedophiles, as these issues fall far outside Defence Advisory Notice concerns. Those cocerns deal only with the disclosure of national security information which falls within the guidelines set by the five Standing DA Notices (see www.dnotice.org.uk). Moreover, the Government does not issue 'D Notices', I do. And I do so on behalf of the Defence Press and Broadcasting Advisory Committee, which is an independent body composed of senior officials and media leaders, the latter being in the great majority."
Sincerely,
Andrew Vallance
Air Vice-Marshal
Secretary, DPBAC
How can the responsible look away? And yet they do!
UK, March 11, 2010 (Pal Telegraph) - The case of Hollie Greig really did open a can of worms and even to this day it is what the media would call a "Scoop". It reveals the evil working of a pedophilia ring that stretches all the way to the highest authority. The pain and suffering by this girl started when she was only six years old and continued on for fourteen years.
Her mum Anne gave a graphic account of what her daughter had been through when she was interviewed by Manchester Radio Online. You can hear the 13 part series about Hollie on the following link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtzehzYQGe4&feature=related
So why is this story not reaching the media in the UK and who is behind this gagging. It all comes down to Elish Angiolini who has gagged the Scottish mainstream media from publishing anything about the Hollie Greign case. This is enforced through her Glasgow based Lawyer, Peter Watson of Levy & Macrae.
UK Official Contacts Paul Drockton: "No D-Notices Against Pedophile Exposure"
No silence can only mean that Holly's case will finally recieve the attention that it's due and actually be investigated.
http://moneyteachers.org/DNotices.htm
"I wish to make it clear that there is absolutely no truth in the statement... that the 'Blair government…issued a D-Notice to gag the press from revealing the names of known paedophiles within the British executive'. No 'D Notice' advice has ever been issued in connection either with the Hollie Greig case or the naming of paedophiles, as these issues fall far outside Defence Advisory Notice concerns. Those cocerns deal only with the disclosure of national security information which falls within the guidelines set by the five Standing DA Notices (see www.dnotice.org.uk). Moreover, the Government does not issue 'D Notices', I do. And I do so on behalf of the Defence Press and Broadcasting Advisory Committee, which is an independent body composed of senior officials and media leaders, the latter being in the great majority."
Sincerely,
Andrew Vallance
Air Vice-Marshal
Secretary, DPBAC
This is what it's like to be hungry
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1257292/The-Mail-apologises-readers-pictures-speak-eloquently-politician-desperate-plight-starving-people-Zimbabwe.html
We idolize the rich and show their pictures as though they're even worthy of something to view.
Well this is what it looks like in the real world.
Mugabe must be damned proud of where he's led his country to.
[B]For us it is a saddening sight - a magnificent bull elephant struck down in his old age.
But for the starving of Zimbabwe, it was little short of a miracle.
The carcass provided a vital source of food, and hundreds of desperate villagers in the Gonarezhou National Park descended on the dead animal within minutes of its discovery.
Using machetes, axes and knives made from tin cans they set upon the six-ton carcass, which was found deep in scrubland.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1257292/The-Mail-apologises-readers-pictures-speak-eloquently-politician-desperate-plight-starving-people-Zimbabwe.html#ixzz0hyNTv4k1
[/B]
We idolize the rich and show their pictures as though they're even worthy of something to view.
Well this is what it looks like in the real world.
Mugabe must be damned proud of where he's led his country to.
[B]For us it is a saddening sight - a magnificent bull elephant struck down in his old age.
But for the starving of Zimbabwe, it was little short of a miracle.
The carcass provided a vital source of food, and hundreds of desperate villagers in the Gonarezhou National Park descended on the dead animal within minutes of its discovery.
Using machetes, axes and knives made from tin cans they set upon the six-ton carcass, which was found deep in scrubland.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1257292/The-Mail-apologises-readers-pictures-speak-eloquently-politician-desperate-plight-starving-people-Zimbabwe.html#ixzz0hyNTv4k1
[/B]
Thursday, March 11, 2010
BofA and the Parrot: Bird’s Eye View of the Foreclosure Mess
http://blogs.wsj.com/developments/2010/03/11/bofa-and-the-parrot-birds-eye-view-of-the-foreclosure-mess/
Who is supposed to pay for all the damage, let alone the inconvenience or emotional stress
“It isn’t about the parrot,” a lawyer for Angela Iannelli told me.
In her suit, filed Monday in the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas, Ms. Iannelli says a contractor hired by Bank of America entered her house about 15 miles north of Pittsburgh in mid-October when she was away. In what it describes as an “invasion” of the home, the lawsuit says that the contractor stopped utility services, cut water lines and electrical wiring, damaged flooring and finishings, poured antifreeze into sinks and toilets and “stole” the parrot.
Who is supposed to pay for all the damage, let alone the inconvenience or emotional stress
“It isn’t about the parrot,” a lawyer for Angela Iannelli told me.
In her suit, filed Monday in the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas, Ms. Iannelli says a contractor hired by Bank of America entered her house about 15 miles north of Pittsburgh in mid-October when she was away. In what it describes as an “invasion” of the home, the lawsuit says that the contractor stopped utility services, cut water lines and electrical wiring, damaged flooring and finishings, poured antifreeze into sinks and toilets and “stole” the parrot.
Bank Sorry for Taking Parrot
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704655004575113872190094934.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_sections_news
PITTSBURGH—Bank of America Corp. apologized after its local contractor entered the home of a mortgage borrower when she was away, cut off utilities, padlocked the door and confiscated her pet parrot, Luke.
Angela Iannelli, 46 years old, alleged in a lawsuit Monday that the October incident—which separated her from her 11-year-old parrot for more than a week—caused so much "emotional distress" that she needed a prescription medication for anxiety.
Here's the twist, she wasn't in default. This is not the first case of it's kind either. It took a week for them to figure that out.
I bet this did cause Angela some major anxiety.
A Bank of America spokesman said Wednesday a bank employee erroneously believed the house was vacant and sent the contractor there with instructions to install a new lock and otherwise "secure" the property. The bank spokesman said those instructions were inappropriate because Ms. Iannelli wasn't in default and the house wasn't vacant
PITTSBURGH—Bank of America Corp. apologized after its local contractor entered the home of a mortgage borrower when she was away, cut off utilities, padlocked the door and confiscated her pet parrot, Luke.
Angela Iannelli, 46 years old, alleged in a lawsuit Monday that the October incident—which separated her from her 11-year-old parrot for more than a week—caused so much "emotional distress" that she needed a prescription medication for anxiety.
Here's the twist, she wasn't in default. This is not the first case of it's kind either. It took a week for them to figure that out.
I bet this did cause Angela some major anxiety.
A Bank of America spokesman said Wednesday a bank employee erroneously believed the house was vacant and sent the contractor there with instructions to install a new lock and otherwise "secure" the property. The bank spokesman said those instructions were inappropriate because Ms. Iannelli wasn't in default and the house wasn't vacant
Lifting of war-zone alcohol ban discussed
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2010/03/11/20100311military-alcohol-ban-war-ON.html
A better stress relief for them might be to bring them home.
I know it would be an economic relief on our country.
Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., a Vietnam veteran and former war correspondent who now chairs the Senate panel that oversees military personnel policy, seemed to endorse the idea of letting troops in war zones drink alcohol as a way to relieve combat stress.
At a hearing of the Senate Armed Services military personnel panel, Webb asked defense and service officials about mental health issues facing deployed service members and, in particular, about a recent Military Times investigation into the military's use of anti-depressants and other drugs for treating mental health issues.
The reported increase in prescription drug use and self-medication
by deployed troops "is, quite frankly, astounding to me," Webb said, adding that it is a clear indicator of the overall fatigue of combat troops who are not getting enough time between deployments.
A better stress relief for them might be to bring them home.
I know it would be an economic relief on our country.
Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., a Vietnam veteran and former war correspondent who now chairs the Senate panel that oversees military personnel policy, seemed to endorse the idea of letting troops in war zones drink alcohol as a way to relieve combat stress.
At a hearing of the Senate Armed Services military personnel panel, Webb asked defense and service officials about mental health issues facing deployed service members and, in particular, about a recent Military Times investigation into the military's use of anti-depressants and other drugs for treating mental health issues.
The reported increase in prescription drug use and self-medication
by deployed troops "is, quite frankly, astounding to me," Webb said, adding that it is a clear indicator of the overall fatigue of combat troops who are not getting enough time between deployments.
KC superintendent says school closings are painful
http://content.usatoday.net/dist/custom/gci/InsidePage.aspx?cId=azcentral&sParam=33002263.story
They had no other choice and the children always lose.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Kansas City School Superintendent John Covington says the decision to close almost half the district's schools was difficult and painful but "unquestionably the right thing to do."
The Kansas City school board voted 5-4 Wednesday night to close 29 of the district's 61 schools in an effort to stave off bankruptcy. The schools will close at the end of the school year.
During a news conference Thursday, Covington thanked the board for its vote. He said the district was spreading itself too thin by educating less than 18,000 students in 61 school
They had no other choice and the children always lose.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Kansas City School Superintendent John Covington says the decision to close almost half the district's schools was difficult and painful but "unquestionably the right thing to do."
The Kansas City school board voted 5-4 Wednesday night to close 29 of the district's 61 schools in an effort to stave off bankruptcy. The schools will close at the end of the school year.
During a news conference Thursday, Covington thanked the board for its vote. He said the district was spreading itself too thin by educating less than 18,000 students in 61 school
Police: Calif. robber holds up 11 people, gets $6
http://www.denverpost.com/watercooler/ci_14646983
Thank God she didn't snap, because this could have ended so badly, all due to the lack of money.
They say crime doesn't pay. For one robber in California, it did—but not much. Authorities in Riverside County say a woman with a gun robbed 11 customers at a market and got away with $6.
Read more: http://www.denverpost.com/watercooler/ci_14646983#ixzz0hsvUnCMV
Thank God she didn't snap, because this could have ended so badly, all due to the lack of money.
They say crime doesn't pay. For one robber in California, it did—but not much. Authorities in Riverside County say a woman with a gun robbed 11 customers at a market and got away with $6.
Read more: http://www.denverpost.com/watercooler/ci_14646983#ixzz0hsvUnCMV
Colo. job losses far steeper in '09, revised figures show
http://www.denverpost.com/ci_14652182
And that's just Colorado.
Who has the real number of unemployed in this country kids?
The government's were off by a million in 2008.
Inquireing minds really want to know, because until "WE" do "WE" have no real idea of the scope of the real unemployment problem in this country.
Colorado employers last year shed nearly 17,000 more jobs than initially reported, according to revised employment counts released Wednesday.
The Colorado Department of Labor and Employment reported a loss of 89,375 non-farm jobs last year based on monthly surveys.
But when those counts were squared up against the unemployment-insurance tax reports that employers file each quarter, the loss turned out to be much larger — 106,300, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Read more: http://www.denverpost.com/ci_14652182#ixzz0hsrzn8LY
And that's just Colorado.
Who has the real number of unemployed in this country kids?
The government's were off by a million in 2008.
Inquireing minds really want to know, because until "WE" do "WE" have no real idea of the scope of the real unemployment problem in this country.
Colorado employers last year shed nearly 17,000 more jobs than initially reported, according to revised employment counts released Wednesday.
The Colorado Department of Labor and Employment reported a loss of 89,375 non-farm jobs last year based on monthly surveys.
But when those counts were squared up against the unemployment-insurance tax reports that employers file each quarter, the loss turned out to be much larger — 106,300, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Read more: http://www.denverpost.com/ci_14652182#ixzz0hsrzn8LY
The Countdown Begins and the Markets Are Ready to Exhale
http://www.minyanville.com/businessmarkets/articles/todd-harrison-greece-economy-global-default/3/11/2010/id/27239
Because WHY?
Ironically--or perhaps coincidentally--the next story I read on Bloomberg offered that the crackdown of naked swaps in Europe will ring hollow without stateside sponsorship. European regulators could initiate a continent-wide ban on speculative trading of sovereign Credit Default Swaps tomorrow but it won't work without American participation in the plan.
My understanding of the EU, is that it's prime directive laws superseed those of the country. If this is an EU backed santion, then the UK is forced to comply, no matter what the UK bank wants to do.
What it will come down to is a power trip.
Is the EU a joke?
Or do the banks take a fall?
Either way SOMEONE is going down!
“Speaking as an ex-lawyer: Greece can "declare" whatever it wants but no one will care. If a fund in London buys a CDS from a bank in New York, and the CDS contract specifies it is governed by UK or New York or Delaware law–they would be insane to specify Greek law -- the Greek government has as much power to nullify the CDS as it does to nullify gravity.”
Karl has my drift I see.
This is going to get verrrrry interesting I think
Is that fear I sense
http://market-ticker.denninger.net/archives/2067-Is-That-Fear-I-Sense-CDS-Regulation.html
Because WHY?
Ironically--or perhaps coincidentally--the next story I read on Bloomberg offered that the crackdown of naked swaps in Europe will ring hollow without stateside sponsorship. European regulators could initiate a continent-wide ban on speculative trading of sovereign Credit Default Swaps tomorrow but it won't work without American participation in the plan.
My understanding of the EU, is that it's prime directive laws superseed those of the country. If this is an EU backed santion, then the UK is forced to comply, no matter what the UK bank wants to do.
What it will come down to is a power trip.
Is the EU a joke?
Or do the banks take a fall?
Either way SOMEONE is going down!
“Speaking as an ex-lawyer: Greece can "declare" whatever it wants but no one will care. If a fund in London buys a CDS from a bank in New York, and the CDS contract specifies it is governed by UK or New York or Delaware law–they would be insane to specify Greek law -- the Greek government has as much power to nullify the CDS as it does to nullify gravity.”
Karl has my drift I see.
This is going to get verrrrry interesting I think
Is that fear I sense
http://market-ticker.denninger.net/archives/2067-Is-That-Fear-I-Sense-CDS-Regulation.html
Foreclosure rates up by smallest amount in 4 years
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Foreclosure-rates-up-by-apf-1830270269.html?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=2&asset=&ccode=
The foreclosure crisis isn't over, but the pace of growth may finally be slowing down.
RealtyTrac Inc. said Thursday that the number of U.S. households facing foreclosure in February grew 6 percent from the year-ago level, the smallest annual increase in four years.
More than 308,000 households, or one in every 418 homes, received a foreclosure-related notice, the Irvine, Calif.-based foreclosure listings company reported. That was down more than 2 percent from January
Still, fears remain about the hundreds of thousands of homeowners who are still being evaluated for help under loan modification programs. Many analysts say most of those borrowers will eventually lose their homes, sparking a new round of foreclosures later this year.
It's premature to declare victory just yet," said Rick Sharga, a RealtyTrac senior vice president for RealtyTrac. He did, however, allow that, "If this is the beginning of a slowdown in growth rates, that would be a good thing."
,
Banks repossessed nearly 79,000 homes last month, down 10 percent from January but still up 6 percent from February 2009.
The foreclosure crisis isn't over, but the pace of growth may finally be slowing down.
RealtyTrac Inc. said Thursday that the number of U.S. households facing foreclosure in February grew 6 percent from the year-ago level, the smallest annual increase in four years.
More than 308,000 households, or one in every 418 homes, received a foreclosure-related notice, the Irvine, Calif.-based foreclosure listings company reported. That was down more than 2 percent from January
Still, fears remain about the hundreds of thousands of homeowners who are still being evaluated for help under loan modification programs. Many analysts say most of those borrowers will eventually lose their homes, sparking a new round of foreclosures later this year.
It's premature to declare victory just yet," said Rick Sharga, a RealtyTrac senior vice president for RealtyTrac. He did, however, allow that, "If this is the beginning of a slowdown in growth rates, that would be a good thing."
,
Banks repossessed nearly 79,000 homes last month, down 10 percent from January but still up 6 percent from February 2009.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Europe bars Wall Street banks from government bond sales
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/mar/08/us-banks-european-bond-trading
I had to laugh when I read the bold. Who's kidding who here, the European banks were knocking just as loud on the FED's window of last resort, and they weren't doing it because they'd been prudent.
European sovereign bond league tables are now dominated by European banks such as Barclays Capital, Deutsche Bank, and Société Générale, the Dealogic table shows. Their business model is usually seen as more relationship-based, while US investment banks have traditionally been focused on immediate deal-making.
I had to laugh when I read the bold. Who's kidding who here, the European banks were knocking just as loud on the FED's window of last resort, and they weren't doing it because they'd been prudent.
European sovereign bond league tables are now dominated by European banks such as Barclays Capital, Deutsche Bank, and Société Générale, the Dealogic table shows. Their business model is usually seen as more relationship-based, while US investment banks have traditionally been focused on immediate deal-making.
Remington Shotguns for the Department of Education?
https://www.fbo.gov/index?&s=opportu...e&tabmode=list
Are we buying for the school of Americas?
The U.S. Department of Education (ED) intends to purchase twenty-seven (27) REMINGTON BRAND MODEL 870 POLICE 12/14P MOD GRWC XS4 KXCS SF. RAMAC #24587 GAUGE: 12 BARREL: 14" - PARKERIZED CHOKE: MODIFIED SIGHTS: GHOST RING REAR WILSON COMBAT; FRONT - XS CONTOUR BEAD SIGHT STOCK: KNOXX REDUCE RECOIL ADJUSTABLE STOCK FORE-END: SPEEDFEED SPORT-SOLID - 14" LOP are designated as the only shotguns authorized for ED based on compatibility with ED existing shotgun inventory, certified armor and combat training and protocol, maintenance, and parts.
The required date of delivery is March 22, 2010.
Are we buying for the school of Americas?
The U.S. Department of Education (ED) intends to purchase twenty-seven (27) REMINGTON BRAND MODEL 870 POLICE 12/14P MOD GRWC XS4 KXCS SF. RAMAC #24587 GAUGE: 12 BARREL: 14" - PARKERIZED CHOKE: MODIFIED SIGHTS: GHOST RING REAR WILSON COMBAT; FRONT - XS CONTOUR BEAD SIGHT STOCK: KNOXX REDUCE RECOIL ADJUSTABLE STOCK FORE-END: SPEEDFEED SPORT-SOLID - 14" LOP are designated as the only shotguns authorized for ED based on compatibility with ED existing shotgun inventory, certified armor and combat training and protocol, maintenance, and parts.
The required date of delivery is March 22, 2010.
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Citibank exposes 600,000 customers' Social Security numbers
http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/...y-numbers.html
Ralph Remakel received a Citibank letter postmarked Feb. 16 that notified him of a recent Citibank error. It turns out he wasn't the only one.
In late January, Citibank mailed year-end tax statements to 600,000 Citi customers via the U.S. Postal Service that included the customers' Social Security numbers ... on the outside of the envelope.
Citi called the mistake a "processing error
Ralph Remakel received a Citibank letter postmarked Feb. 16 that notified him of a recent Citibank error. It turns out he wasn't the only one.
In late January, Citibank mailed year-end tax statements to 600,000 Citi customers via the U.S. Postal Service that included the customers' Social Security numbers ... on the outside of the envelope.
Citi called the mistake a "processing error
Defaulted Loans May Haunt Seniors
http://finance.yahoo.com/focus-retirement/article/109011/defaulted-loans-may-haunt-seniors?mod=fidelity-managingwealth
And just when you thought it couldn't get any worse, it did!
A little–noticed law could soon result in smaller Social Security checks for hundreds of thousands of the elderly and disabled who owe the U.S. money from defaulted loans and other debts more than a decade old.
Social Security benefits are off–limits to creditors, such as credit–card companies and banks. But the U.S. can collect debts to federal agencies by "offsetting," or withholding Social Security and disability payments.
The Treasury currently withholds benefits of 3.1 million Social Security recipients to recover defaulted student–, farm– and small–business loans, unpaid income taxes, amounts veterans owe for health care, and other debts to the government.
Previously, the U.S. hasn't been able to withhold Social Security payments to recover most debts delinquent for more than ten years.
But a provision in the 2008 Farm Bill lifted the ten–year statute of limitations on the government's ability to withhold Social Security benefits in collecting debts other than student loans—for which the statute of limitations was lifted in 1997—and income taxes, where the limit remains 10 years.
This means that a person who defaulted on a small–business loan in 1995, for example, and who is receiving Social Security could be notified that his benefits may be reduced each month until the debt, with interest, fees, and penalties, is paid. The Treasury can withhold 15% of the benefit, though it can't be reduced to below $750. Tax debts have no floor.
And just when you thought it couldn't get any worse, it did!
A little–noticed law could soon result in smaller Social Security checks for hundreds of thousands of the elderly and disabled who owe the U.S. money from defaulted loans and other debts more than a decade old.
Social Security benefits are off–limits to creditors, such as credit–card companies and banks. But the U.S. can collect debts to federal agencies by "offsetting," or withholding Social Security and disability payments.
The Treasury currently withholds benefits of 3.1 million Social Security recipients to recover defaulted student–, farm– and small–business loans, unpaid income taxes, amounts veterans owe for health care, and other debts to the government.
Previously, the U.S. hasn't been able to withhold Social Security payments to recover most debts delinquent for more than ten years.
But a provision in the 2008 Farm Bill lifted the ten–year statute of limitations on the government's ability to withhold Social Security benefits in collecting debts other than student loans—for which the statute of limitations was lifted in 1997—and income taxes, where the limit remains 10 years.
This means that a person who defaulted on a small–business loan in 1995, for example, and who is receiving Social Security could be notified that his benefits may be reduced each month until the debt, with interest, fees, and penalties, is paid. The Treasury can withhold 15% of the benefit, though it can't be reduced to below $750. Tax debts have no floor.
Senate to take up unemployment insurance extension
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Senate-to-take-up-apf-2067961579.html?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=4&asset=&ccode=
By the count of the last census there were 304 million people living in the United States. I do believe it would have been more cost efficient to give each of them a million dollars and to have put an end to this problem.
What exactly is the point of flushing billions of dollars down the the toilet while the clog still exists?
This clean up mess is not worth the cost of the new carpet we're laying.
Legislation extending unemployment insurance for the long-term jobless faces a key test vote in the Senate, its momentum helped by about 60 popular tax breaks for individuals and businesses that expired at the end of last year.
The measure also prevents doctors from absorbing a crippling cut in Medicare payments, extends health insurance subsidies for the unemployed and gives cash-starved states help with Medicaid, the federal-state program providing health care to the poor and disabled.
The unemployment insurance alone -- to provide weekly unemployment checks averaging above $300 to people whose core 26-week benefit package has run out -- will cost $66 billion through December. In some states people are eligible to receive benefits for up to 99 weeks.
The bill, and the test vote Tuesday, demonstrate the difficulty Democrats face as they focus on jobs. It doesn't include new ideas for boosting jobs, but instead reprises elements of last year's $862 billion economic stimulus bill, which is earning mixed reviews from voters. Simply extending those provisions has produced a far more expensive measure than a separate so-called jobs bill that Democrats hope to soon send to President Barack Obama. That measure would boost highway spending and give tax breaks to companies that hire the unemployed and could clear the Senate for Obama's desk this week.
At a gross cost of about $148 billion, Tuesday's measure illustrates the extraordinary cost of the unemployment safety net as the economy inches out of the recession. Democrats say the unemployment benefits inject demand into the economy and say renewing the tax cuts helps preserve existing jobs
By the count of the last census there were 304 million people living in the United States. I do believe it would have been more cost efficient to give each of them a million dollars and to have put an end to this problem.
What exactly is the point of flushing billions of dollars down the the toilet while the clog still exists?
This clean up mess is not worth the cost of the new carpet we're laying.
Legislation extending unemployment insurance for the long-term jobless faces a key test vote in the Senate, its momentum helped by about 60 popular tax breaks for individuals and businesses that expired at the end of last year.
The measure also prevents doctors from absorbing a crippling cut in Medicare payments, extends health insurance subsidies for the unemployed and gives cash-starved states help with Medicaid, the federal-state program providing health care to the poor and disabled.
The unemployment insurance alone -- to provide weekly unemployment checks averaging above $300 to people whose core 26-week benefit package has run out -- will cost $66 billion through December. In some states people are eligible to receive benefits for up to 99 weeks.
The bill, and the test vote Tuesday, demonstrate the difficulty Democrats face as they focus on jobs. It doesn't include new ideas for boosting jobs, but instead reprises elements of last year's $862 billion economic stimulus bill, which is earning mixed reviews from voters. Simply extending those provisions has produced a far more expensive measure than a separate so-called jobs bill that Democrats hope to soon send to President Barack Obama. That measure would boost highway spending and give tax breaks to companies that hire the unemployed and could clear the Senate for Obama's desk this week.
At a gross cost of about $148 billion, Tuesday's measure illustrates the extraordinary cost of the unemployment safety net as the economy inches out of the recession. Democrats say the unemployment benefits inject demand into the economy and say renewing the tax cuts helps preserve existing jobs
Monday, March 8, 2010
Program Will Pay Homeowners to Sell at a Loss
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/08/business/08short.html?hpw
In an effort to end the foreclosure crisis, the Obama administration has been trying to keep defaulting owners in their homes. Now it will take a new approach: paying some of them to leave.
This latest program, which will allow owners to sell for less than they owe and will give them a little cash to speed them on their way, is one of the administration’s most aggressive attempts to grapple with a problem that has defied solutions.
More than five million households are behind on their mortgages and risk foreclosure. The government’s $75 billion mortgage modification plan has helped only a small slice of them. Consumer advocates, economists and even some banking industry representatives say much more needs to be done.
For the administration, there is also the concern that millions of foreclosures could delay or even reverse the economy’s tentative recovery — the last thing it wants in an election year.
Taking effect on April 5, the program could encourage hundreds of thousands of delinquent borrowers who have not been rescued by the loan modification program to shed their houses through a process known as a short sale, in which property is sold for less than the balance of the mortgage. Lenders will be compelled to accept that arrangement, forgiving the difference between the market price of the property and what they are owed.
Under the new program, the servicing bank, as with all modifications, will get $1,000. Another $1,000 can go toward a second loan, if there is one. And for the first time the government would give money to the distressed homeowners themselves. They will get $1,500 in “relocation assistance
In an effort to end the foreclosure crisis, the Obama administration has been trying to keep defaulting owners in their homes. Now it will take a new approach: paying some of them to leave.
This latest program, which will allow owners to sell for less than they owe and will give them a little cash to speed them on their way, is one of the administration’s most aggressive attempts to grapple with a problem that has defied solutions.
More than five million households are behind on their mortgages and risk foreclosure. The government’s $75 billion mortgage modification plan has helped only a small slice of them. Consumer advocates, economists and even some banking industry representatives say much more needs to be done.
For the administration, there is also the concern that millions of foreclosures could delay or even reverse the economy’s tentative recovery — the last thing it wants in an election year.
Taking effect on April 5, the program could encourage hundreds of thousands of delinquent borrowers who have not been rescued by the loan modification program to shed their houses through a process known as a short sale, in which property is sold for less than the balance of the mortgage. Lenders will be compelled to accept that arrangement, forgiving the difference between the market price of the property and what they are owed.
Under the new program, the servicing bank, as with all modifications, will get $1,000. Another $1,000 can go toward a second loan, if there is one. And for the first time the government would give money to the distressed homeowners themselves. They will get $1,500 in “relocation assistance
Palin: Writing on palms ‘was good enough for God’
http://rawstory.com/2010/03/palin-god-wrote-palm-hand/
God wrote about tax cuts onthe palm of his hand? That one is news to me lol.
Oh my god this kind of crap is running out country.
It's damned scary is all I can say.
Admits she used to 'hustle over the border' to 'get health care from Canada'
Sarah Palin has a message for critics of her crib-notes during February's Tea Party keynote speech: God did it too.
At a fundraiser on Friday for the Ohio Right to Life group, Palin assailed the media for getting "all wigged out about that" and claimed they're attacking her because they "couldn't argue the content" of the words.
Referring the crowd to a Bible passage from Isiah 49:16, she assured them she's "in good company."
"If what was good enough for God, scribbling on the palm of his hand, it's good enough for me, for us," Palin said. "In that passage he says, I wrote your name on the palm of my hand to remember you. And I'm like okay, I'm in good company."
The passage reads: "See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are ever before me."
A still-frame of Palin's speech at the Memphis, Tennessee convention revealed that the words she had written on her left hand were "Energy," "Tax cuts," and "Lift America's Spirits." She was later caught peeking at them during the question-and-answer session.
Mediaite notes that the crux of the substantive criticism was because Palin had criticized others for using notes during speeches. "What is ridiculous is that she’s still defending her cheat-notes after mocking Obama for using a teleprompter," wrote Drew Grant.
God wrote about tax cuts onthe palm of his hand? That one is news to me lol.
Oh my god this kind of crap is running out country.
It's damned scary is all I can say.
Admits she used to 'hustle over the border' to 'get health care from Canada'
Sarah Palin has a message for critics of her crib-notes during February's Tea Party keynote speech: God did it too.
At a fundraiser on Friday for the Ohio Right to Life group, Palin assailed the media for getting "all wigged out about that" and claimed they're attacking her because they "couldn't argue the content" of the words.
Referring the crowd to a Bible passage from Isiah 49:16, she assured them she's "in good company."
"If what was good enough for God, scribbling on the palm of his hand, it's good enough for me, for us," Palin said. "In that passage he says, I wrote your name on the palm of my hand to remember you. And I'm like okay, I'm in good company."
The passage reads: "See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are ever before me."
A still-frame of Palin's speech at the Memphis, Tennessee convention revealed that the words she had written on her left hand were "Energy," "Tax cuts," and "Lift America's Spirits." She was later caught peeking at them during the question-and-answer session.
Mediaite notes that the crux of the substantive criticism was because Palin had criticized others for using notes during speeches. "What is ridiculous is that she’s still defending her cheat-notes after mocking Obama for using a teleprompter," wrote Drew Grant.
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