I think that it has been pretty well established that the new TSA Scanners are a result of the last breaths of Bush cronyism through former Department of Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff. Chertoff's company, "The Chertoff Group" is conveniently poised to be awarded contracts to build scanners for the TSA, thanks to "the need for the scanners" being established by Chertoff while he was head of the DHS. I think this in your face corruption is almost as bad as former Bush Treasury Secretary Hank Paulsen's preferential treatment of his former company, Goldman Sachs. I don't doubt that there are maniacs out there, including Islamists who would love to hit us. However, I do think that the hysteria and gross abuse of trust perpetrated by the TSA is either (a) another example of government inefficiency and largesse or (b) a clear picture of corruption and a thinly veiled exercise to train Americans to be obedient and subserviant at the whim of government.
Apparently, these scanners are in question as to whether or not they would even stop the most rudimentary of "terrorists"...
Shocker! TSA's nude scans would miss taped-on bombs: Peer-reviewed paper says terrorists could fool clothes-penetrating tools
By Jerome R. Corsi - © 2010 WorldNetDaily
Posted: November 29, 2010 - 9:08 pm Eastern
A new peer-reviewed scientific study says the backscatter full-body imaging X-ray machines being used by the federal Transportation Security Administration could be fooled by terrorists who simply would mold explosives to conform to their bodies.
WND obtained an advance copy of the report, titled "An evaluation of airport X-ray backscatter units based on image characteristics," in which University of California scientists Leon Kaufman and Joseph Carlson demonstrated that packages of explosives contoured to the body or worn along the sides likely would not be detected by TSA X-ray units built to "see" hard edges and anatomical features, and used primarily to image the front and back of the body.
The article comes from Dr. David Brenner of Columbia's Center for Radiological Research, whose research includes estimating the risks of low dose X-ray exposures.
WND previously reported that Brennan has cautioned that it is "quite likely" that radiation from screening machines being installed nationwide by the TSA to use on airline passengers will cause cancer, especially among high-risk groups that include frequent fliers and children.
The issue has erupted into headlines and protests during this month as the agency rolled out new requirements that demand passengers go through a scanning process through which essentially nude images are produced for TSA agents to screen, or submit to a hands-on full-body pat-down that includes agents touching private areas of the passengers' bodies.
FOR FULL STORY CLICK HERE
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Monday, November 29, 2010
Continuity of Government: Is the State of Emergency Superseding Our Constitution?
by Peter Dale Scott - Global Research
November 29, 2010
Is the State of Emergency Superseding our Constitution? Address to Commonwealth Club, San Francisco, November 23, 2010)
In July 1987, during the Iran-Contra Hearings grilling of Oliver North, the American public got a glimpse of “highly sensitive” emergency planning North had been involved in. Ostensibly North had been handling plans for an emergency response to a nuclear attack (a legitimate concern). But press accounts alleged that the planning was for a more generalized suspension of the constitution at the president’s determination.
As part of its routine Iran-contra coverage, the following exchange was printed in the New York Times, but without journalistic comment or follow-up:
[Congressman Jack] Brooks: Colonel North, in your work at the N.S.C. were you not assigned, at one time, to work on plans for the continuity of government in the event of a major disaster?
Both North’s attorney and Sen. Daniel Inouye, the Democratic Chair of the Committee, responded in a way that showed they were aware of the issue:
Brendan Sullivan [North's counsel, agitatedly]: Mr. Chairman?
[Senator Daniel] Inouye: I believe that question touches upon a highly sensitive and classified area so may I request that you not touch upon that?
Brooks: I was particularly concerned, Mr. Chairman, because I read in Miami papers, and several others, that there had been a plan developed, by that same agency, a contingency plan in the event of emergency, that would suspend the American constitution. And I was deeply concerned about it and wondered if that was an area in which he had worked. I believe that it was and I wanted to get his confirmation.
Inouye: May I most respectfully request that that matter not be touched upon at this stage. If we wish to get into this, I'm certain arrangements can be made for an executive session.[1]
Brooks was responding to a story by Alfonzo Chardy in the Miami Herald. about Oliver North’s involvement with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in planning for “Continuity of Government” (COG). According to Chardy, the plans envisaged “suspension of the Constitution, turning control of the government over to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, emergency appointment of military commanders to run state and local governments and declaration of martial law during a national crisis.”[2]
CLICK HERE FOR THE REST OF THIS STORY
Hillary Nixon Clinton
Author: Jason Ditz - 11.28.2010
'National Humint Collection Directive' Also Called for Them to Steal Passwords, DNA
One of the first eye-opening revelations from the massive WikiLeaks diplomatic logs release is the length to which the US State Department is being treated as just another of America’s many spying apparatus.
Among the leaks was something called the “National Humint Collection Directive,” a secret document signed by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton last year. The document orders officials at the State Department to conduct mass surveillance and in some cases outright theft against high ranking UN officials.
Incredibly, beyond the simple collection of secret information about officials including UN chief Ban Ki-moon, the directive also calls for State Department officials to try to steal credit card data from a number of top officials, as well as passwords and personal encryption keys. They also sought to collect DNA samples from UN members.
The directive was sent to 33 US embassies across the world, and specified not just Ban, but his top advisers, the heads of all UN agencies, commanders of UN military missions and representatives of all the permanent members of the UN Security Council.
The State Department was chiefly responsible for this attempt, but they were also to enlist the CIA, FBI, and the US Secret Service in the collection of data if necessary. The 1946 UN Convention prohibits most if not all of the attempts at theft and surveillance detailed in the operation.
Fastball Right Over the Middle
So far, the Obamunists have not proven to be the "peace at all costs" spring lambs that NeoCon Chicken Hawks tried to paint him to be during the 2008 election. The 2010 Mid Term election was a "target rich environment" for Republicans and Tea Party candidates alike. However, there were no attacks regarding Barry's execution of the "War on Terror." If anything, Obama has ratcheted up the pressure in the War on Terror. He stood by his promise to get tougher on the "real war" in Afghanistan and sent an additional 30,000 troops there. He stepped up drone attacks and "hornet nest kicking" in Pakistan and Yemen. He's even going so far as to not only keep the shop open at Guantanamo, but codifying "Indefinite Detention" without trial. Will a surprise action against Tehran be in the cards for Obama? NeoCons are arguing that the floundering American Economy needs a "war" to pull itself out of the Great Recession. David Broder of the Washington Post said War with Iran could save the Obama Presidency and struggling American economy. Could the Wikileaks Dump be just what the doctor ordered for Obama? Personally, I am not so sure that the Wikileaks misadventure isn't a sophisticated piece of intelligence work. Perhaps it is not the intelligence disaster that some, especially the GOP are making it out to be. I don't mean to minimize potential deaths in Iran as a trivial matter to resuscitate a failing Presidency. But that is what the open speculation regarding Iran and a near-certain one term Presidency seems to be pointing at. Stay tuned.
Meagan Carpenter - TPM Muckraker
November 29, 2010
Yesterday, Wikileaks released a selection of more than 250,000 U.S. diplomatic cables dating from the mid-sixties to the present day -- widely presumed to have been provided to them by the currently-incarcerated Private Bradley Manning -- accessed through the military's SPIRNET system that was intended to reduce the bureaucratic "siloing" on information deemed partially responsible for the intelligence failures in a pre-9/11 world. Those cables were provided earlier under embargo to five international media outlets: the New York Times, The Guardian, El Pais, La Monde and Der Spiegel. For most readers, it made for a dizzying array of information: the cables themselves incorporated both banal gossip and important intelligence, and each media outlet attempted to give as much context to their release (and the reactions to their release) as to the nuggets of information found therein.
But for all the Administration's condemnations and the muted international response to date, there were five astonishing revelations uncovered by the 120 reporters given early access to the documents.
1. Nearly every country in the Middle East wants us to attack Iran.
In 2007, when then-presidential candidate Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) suggested that the best way to deal with the nuclear threat posed by the Iranian regime was to "Bomb, bomb Iran," most people -- including then-Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) -- thought he was altogether too hawkish. According to the cables brought forward by Wikileaks today, McCain's opinion is shared by many of Iran's neighbors.
According to Le Monde (in translation), a cable relayed to Washington a conversation between the emir of Qatar and Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) last February: "Based on over 30 years of experience with the Iranians, the emir concluded the meeting by saying that we shouldn't believe but one word in a hundred that the Iranians say." The prime minister of Qatar told Kerry later that trip that Ahmadinejad told him: "we beat the Americans in Iraq, the final battle will be in Iran."
The president of the Upper House of the Jordanian Parliament, Zeid Rifai, was said in a cable (translated) to have told the U.S. that "the dialogue with Iran will go 'nowhere', adding: 'bomb Iran or live with a nuclear Iran: the sanctions, the carrots, the incentives, have no importance.'"
The Omanis were similarly concerned, according to cables relayed by the New York Times, as an Omani military official told officials that he could not decide which was worse: "a strike against Iran's nuclear capability and the resulting turmoil it would cause in the Gulf, or inaction and having to live with a nuclear-capable Iran."
The United Arab Emirates' deputy defense chief, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed of Abu Dhabi, called Iranian Prime Minister Mahmoud Ahmadinejad "Hitler" to U.S. officials, also "stressed 'that he wasn't suggesting that the first option was 'bombing' Iran,' but also warned, 'They have to be dealt with before they do something tragic.'"
The Saudis, the Bahrainis and even Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak were all similarly inclined, as has been widely reported -- El Pais reported that Mubarak's hatred for Iran was called "visceral" and the New York Times reported the existence of cables referring to the Saudi king's "frequent exhortations" to engage in military action against Iran. The Bahrainis, too, are said to be keen to see Iran's nuclear program halted, and King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa is said to have blamed problems in Iraq and Afghanistan on the Iranian government -- and both Kuwaiti and Yemeni officials reportedly told U.S. diplomats similar things about Iranian involvement in fomenting dissent in their own countries.
2. State Department officials ordered U.S. diplomats to spy on their foreign and UN counterparts.
While creating a database of information contained on foreign diplomats' business cards might not seem so shady, the foreign press has been especially focused on a series of directives in 2009 -- including one signed off on by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton -- ordering Foreign Service officers to assemble dossiers on their counterparts that would clearly allow U.S. intelligence to do more than compile their cell phone numbers. Le Monde reported that U.S. diplomats were encouraged to find and report "names, titles and other contained information on their business cards; numbers of landlines, of cellular phones, of pagers and fax; phone books and lists d' emails; passwords Internet and Intranet; credit card numbers; card numbers of frequent flier programs; work hours..."
Der Spiegel added that the directives included intelligence wish lists, including information on UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon's plans for Iran and information on the following topics: "'Darfur/Sudan,' 'Afghanistan/Pakistan,' Somalia, Iran and North Korea. Similar espionage directives were issued for Paraguay and Palestine, for eight West African states, including Burkina Faso, Mauritania and Senegal, as well as for various states of Eastern Europe."
The Guardian's review showed that U.S. diplomats were further instructed to pass along "passwords and personal encryption keys used in private and commercial networks for official communications."
Spying on the UN, its employees or diplomats is not allowed under international law, and the use of diplomats to engage in espionage or intelligence-like activities is strongly frowned upon in the international community. The State Department has already responded strongly to the revelations:
Nonetheless, the revelations are the most likely to have a negative effect on U.S. diplomatic efforts -- especially at the UN, where cooperation will be key to pressure both North Korea and Iran to cease their respective militaristic actions.
3. North Korea supplied Iran with long-range missiles.
Both Iran's nuclear weapons capabilities and the range of its missiles remain in dispute -- and that dispute proved particularly problematic in 2008 and 2009, when the U.S. plans to build a missile shield in Eastern Europe had a deleterious impact on the U.S.-Russian diplomatic relationship. The cables released yesterdayreveal that, in fact, the State Department was in possession of intelligence that North Korea had provided Iran with missiles based on a Russian design that could carry nuclear warheads to Berlin -- or Moscow.
Though the New York Times noted that there was publicly available information that North Korea had sold Iran components for such a weapon, the U.S. government believes that North Korea in fact sold the full missiles to Iran and that the missiles could easily allow Iran to develop intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) capable of striking not just Israel, Germany or Russia... but of striking at Western Europe or even the United States.
4. Iran used the auspices of the Red Crescent to smuggle spies and weapons into war zones.
The Red Crescent -- an equivalent organization to the Red Cross -- is supposed to be equally independent and free from government influence, which is why they are allowed to provide medical and other services in war zones. But the cables, as reported by The Guardian, reveal that the U.S. believes Iran used the organization "to smuggle intelligence agents and weapons into other countries, including Lebanon during the 2006 war with Israel."
During that war, a source told the U.S. that "The only true Iranian Red Crescent officers dispatched to Lebanon were the doctors and drivers. Shipments of medical supplies served also to facilitate weapons shipments." Sources saw medical shipments full of weapons -- including missiles -- and that the organization in Iran was "purged" of staff deemed insufficiently committed to using the organization to exporting the Islamic revolution after the election of Ahmadinejad.
Iran also reportedly used the organization to send intelligence officers into Iraq after the most recent U.S. invasion.
If true, it could seriously undermine the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Society's missions throughout the world and in conflict areas.
5. U.S. foreign policy relies heavily on blog-ready gossip items.
To get into the U.S. Foreign Service (and thus write diplomatic cables), applicants are required to pass an hours-long, highly competitive written examination, followed by an even more competitive oral examination and then go through months of intensive training. Then, it appears, they are dispatched to foreign embassies to write gossip about high level officials.
A sample? Libyan President Muammar al-Qadhafi gets Botox and travels constantly with a "voluptuous blonde" Ukrainian nurse named Galyna Kolotnytska. Azerbaijani First Lady Mehriban Alijewa has had so many facelifts that she resembles her own daughter from a distance -- but you can tell the difference close-up because she can't really move her face. A British Labour minister is quite the player (and is having marital problems) and might be bipolar. Russia's Vladimir Putin and Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi might have more in common than their reported extramarital shenanigans -- they could well be in business together, too. Russian President Dmitri Medved's wife, Svetlana, reportedly keeps a blacklist of staffers she deems insufficiently committed to her husband. Oh, and German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle is basically considered an idiot who knows little about foreign policy, but only the Germans really care about that.
Your tax dollars at work.
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Government as god
 |
| For Newsweek, Government IS god. |
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
The Next Republican President
William Shatner in a hillarious bit as the "next Republican President". I especially love the bit where Shatner says "The American public will find it refreshing to finally get a Republican candidate who's not a moralistic, sexually-repressed crusading hypocrite who cruises airport mens rooms late at night."
Monday, November 15, 2010
RASMUSSEN: Bush Now Seen as Somewhere Between Best and Worst President
RASMUSSEN REPORT: Majority of Americans now see Bush as Between Best and Worst Presidents
After exposure to nearly two years of Barack Obama and "change no one believes in", it is interesting to see how the image of George W. Bush is experiencing a resurgence among Americans. President Obama practically had a free pass upon his inauguration because he had inherited two wars and one of the worst recessions since the Great Depression. However, Obama squandered his opportunity and "free pass" from an adoring media as his agenda reflected one that was hidden in stealth from the voters during the 2008 campaign and did not address the most important issue to voters, which was economic recovery and a return to relative full employment. A majority of voters during the 2008 campaign shockingly believed that Obama would promote lower taxes than Senator John McCain.
Instead, the focus on "Obamacare", International Apology Tour, complete disdain for the Republican opposition alongside an arrogant and corrupt House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, George W. Bush doesn't look so bad to an increasing amount of voters by comparison. The rejection of Obamunism at the polls in the form of the "Shellacking" and the disdain the G20 leaders showed Obama and his economic policies is creating the type of sentiment among the voters that calls for "change". Ironically, it was this sentiment that swept Obama over McCain into the White House in 2008. People are being reminded of what it is like to have decisive leadership instead of the soft, morally relative non-leadership of Obama. Regardless of what one thinks of the decisions themselves, people long for the type of leader that Bush was versus what they see in Obama.
Rasmussen Reports: As George W. Bush tours the country promoting his new memoir, “Decision Points,” voters are a bit less critical of the former president than they’ve been in previous years.
For the Full Story, Click Here
After exposure to nearly two years of Barack Obama and "change no one believes in", it is interesting to see how the image of George W. Bush is experiencing a resurgence among Americans. President Obama practically had a free pass upon his inauguration because he had inherited two wars and one of the worst recessions since the Great Depression. However, Obama squandered his opportunity and "free pass" from an adoring media as his agenda reflected one that was hidden in stealth from the voters during the 2008 campaign and did not address the most important issue to voters, which was economic recovery and a return to relative full employment. A majority of voters during the 2008 campaign shockingly believed that Obama would promote lower taxes than Senator John McCain.
Instead, the focus on "Obamacare", International Apology Tour, complete disdain for the Republican opposition alongside an arrogant and corrupt House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, George W. Bush doesn't look so bad to an increasing amount of voters by comparison. The rejection of Obamunism at the polls in the form of the "Shellacking" and the disdain the G20 leaders showed Obama and his economic policies is creating the type of sentiment among the voters that calls for "change". Ironically, it was this sentiment that swept Obama over McCain into the White House in 2008. People are being reminded of what it is like to have decisive leadership instead of the soft, morally relative non-leadership of Obama. Regardless of what one thinks of the decisions themselves, people long for the type of leader that Bush was versus what they see in Obama.
Rasmussen Reports: As George W. Bush tours the country promoting his new memoir, “Decision Points,” voters are a bit less critical of the former president than they’ve been in previous years.
For the Full Story, Click Here
Sunday, November 14, 2010
The Greatest Con of All
The Grandest Grift Ever
Adam Less - Senior Editor, Wave Length Options Weekly
Posted in TAIPAN DAILY - Thursday November 11, 2010
These Devils are Killing America -- But the Pay is Really Good!
Friends, I am truly torn today, between the moral and the practical.
I have read with great interest and concern my compatriot Justice Litle's calls to arms against the "creature from Jekyll Island," i.e. the U.S. Federal Reserve. Heck, I've written a fair amount myself as to how Washington has become a wholly owned subsidiary of a Wall Street cabal intent on making insane profits by ripping off each and every rube who has done business with them over the past 10 years.
The cons are manifold and seemingly endless: Just today, I read a six-page report out of Bloomberg noting how 10 years of highly profitable interest rate swaps are literally killing the municipalities that were suckered into them.
And now, just to dot the "i," Wall Street is shaking down these nigh-bankrupt towns and villages for billions more to get out from under these farcical arrangements. (I won't burden you with the details of this grift. If you are enthralled by this sort of lurid "true crime" story, you can read all about it here.)
The Greatest Con of All...
But the grandest swindle of all, the one that has responsible folks in an uproar around the globe is the plan to rob Washington and Wall Streets creditors blind -- with each and every U.S. citizen in the country written off as "unavoidable collateral damage."
This time I will go into the details, because it is essential that we all understand EXACTLY what is going down here.
Over the past few years Wall Street and Washington have borrowed dollars on a hitherto unheard-of scale. You are of course familiar with the credible acceleration of our federal debt (currently $13.7 trillion and rising by $4.15 billion per day.)
But Wall Street has been equally profligate: Nonfarm nonfinancial corporate-business credit market liability as of the end of the second quarter of 2010 was $7.2 trillion, and growing roughly $100 billion a quarter. And didn't we just hear about Goldman Sachs peddling $1.3 billion in 50-year notes locked to a mere 6.12%?
The last thing any of these guys plan to do is pay it all back.
... And How the Game Is Run
Oh, they might pay back each individual dollar. (Or they just might not!) But the Federal Reserve Chairman's and the Secretary of Treasury's publicly declared intent is to dramatically reduce the purchasing power, value and cost of each one of those dollars, so that they and their puppet masters will, in the end, truly only return pennies on the dollar.
This is what it means when they say that they want more inflation. Borrow X in VALUE, now (forget the dollar figures for a moment). Return ½ X in VALUE later.
As for that collateral damage? Each and every dollar YOU are getting paid in, banking or spending, why, it gets cut in half too!
This progressive destruction is actually offers several side benefits for Washington and Wall Street as well. Inflation forces dollars out of savings, where they will simply be destroyed, and into Wall Street's pocket as purchases that you must make sooner rather than later (lest the damn price go up). It allows well-connected speculators to make fortunes (as seen in the recent bubbles in real estate, oil and bonds). And it allows Washington to increase the amount of raw dollars it takes from you as taxes.
Sorting Out My Moral Dilemma
Now, I began this column noting a dilemma. On the one hand, I am morally outraged at these grand grifts, and horrified at the various destructions such tactics engender, including the cyclic destruction of wealth when the bubbles pop and the fostering of permanent cynicism regarding our nation's endeavors.
But on the other hand, Washington and Wall Street kind of figured I might be, so they are offering me a bit of a bribe. And I just might be cynical enough by now to take it.
You see, a normal, unmolested stock market might grow at a few percents a year for decades at a time. (At least we presume so, since we haven't seen such a beast in my lifetime.)
Boring!
While this might be a wonderful orderly method for allowing folks to send capital to companies in exchange for modest profits, it would be boring as all get out for option traders, who simply adore volatility.
But the very cyclic nature of the Axis of Error's grand grift, the booms and busts that it creates, is a devil's playground as company share prices swing up and down not in accordance of the abilities of management or the interest of customers in product, but rather more like leaves twisting in a foul erratic wind.
Have you seen some of the market's moves over the past weeks as the herd tries to factor the future impact of trillions of new dollars? Investors have been enticed to sink trillions of dollars into the market, all the while knowing damn well that the market will almost certainly crash again, but staying in dollars means losing a fortune anyway.
The (Admittedly SWEET) Wages of Sin
In the past week alone, one of my option trading services has posted fresh new maximum gains of 188% by going short the dollar and long gold, 160% from an oil company, 193% off a car maker (we all know it's Ford, so why the hell am I being so coy?), 150% from a major materials outfit, 99% from "the worst tech company in the world," and 91% off a couple of transports. And when the seesaw flips the other way, we will simply move into puts and make even more.
It's a bribe, plain and simple. But it's a really good one.
Do I shut my mouth, accept a modicum of complicity and take home the cash? Do I join with the protestors, and attempt to guide the country back to sanity?
I hope that the question is not quite so black and white. Perhaps the best I can do is speak out loudly when I see conmen, pickpockets and muggers, while still attempting to help folks navigate the world they have created.
Adam Less - Senior Editor, Wave Length Options Weekly
Posted in TAIPAN DAILY - Thursday November 11, 2010
These Devils are Killing America -- But the Pay is Really Good!
Friends, I am truly torn today, between the moral and the practical.
I have read with great interest and concern my compatriot Justice Litle's calls to arms against the "creature from Jekyll Island," i.e. the U.S. Federal Reserve. Heck, I've written a fair amount myself as to how Washington has become a wholly owned subsidiary of a Wall Street cabal intent on making insane profits by ripping off each and every rube who has done business with them over the past 10 years.
The cons are manifold and seemingly endless: Just today, I read a six-page report out of Bloomberg noting how 10 years of highly profitable interest rate swaps are literally killing the municipalities that were suckered into them.
And now, just to dot the "i," Wall Street is shaking down these nigh-bankrupt towns and villages for billions more to get out from under these farcical arrangements. (I won't burden you with the details of this grift. If you are enthralled by this sort of lurid "true crime" story, you can read all about it here.)
The Greatest Con of All...
But the grandest swindle of all, the one that has responsible folks in an uproar around the globe is the plan to rob Washington and Wall Streets creditors blind -- with each and every U.S. citizen in the country written off as "unavoidable collateral damage."
This time I will go into the details, because it is essential that we all understand EXACTLY what is going down here.
Over the past few years Wall Street and Washington have borrowed dollars on a hitherto unheard-of scale. You are of course familiar with the credible acceleration of our federal debt (currently $13.7 trillion and rising by $4.15 billion per day.)
But Wall Street has been equally profligate: Nonfarm nonfinancial corporate-business credit market liability as of the end of the second quarter of 2010 was $7.2 trillion, and growing roughly $100 billion a quarter. And didn't we just hear about Goldman Sachs peddling $1.3 billion in 50-year notes locked to a mere 6.12%?
The last thing any of these guys plan to do is pay it all back.
... And How the Game Is Run
Oh, they might pay back each individual dollar. (Or they just might not!) But the Federal Reserve Chairman's and the Secretary of Treasury's publicly declared intent is to dramatically reduce the purchasing power, value and cost of each one of those dollars, so that they and their puppet masters will, in the end, truly only return pennies on the dollar.
This is what it means when they say that they want more inflation. Borrow X in VALUE, now (forget the dollar figures for a moment). Return ½ X in VALUE later.
As for that collateral damage? Each and every dollar YOU are getting paid in, banking or spending, why, it gets cut in half too!
This progressive destruction is actually offers several side benefits for Washington and Wall Street as well. Inflation forces dollars out of savings, where they will simply be destroyed, and into Wall Street's pocket as purchases that you must make sooner rather than later (lest the damn price go up). It allows well-connected speculators to make fortunes (as seen in the recent bubbles in real estate, oil and bonds). And it allows Washington to increase the amount of raw dollars it takes from you as taxes.
Sorting Out My Moral Dilemma
Now, I began this column noting a dilemma. On the one hand, I am morally outraged at these grand grifts, and horrified at the various destructions such tactics engender, including the cyclic destruction of wealth when the bubbles pop and the fostering of permanent cynicism regarding our nation's endeavors.
But on the other hand, Washington and Wall Street kind of figured I might be, so they are offering me a bit of a bribe. And I just might be cynical enough by now to take it.
You see, a normal, unmolested stock market might grow at a few percents a year for decades at a time. (At least we presume so, since we haven't seen such a beast in my lifetime.)
Boring!
While this might be a wonderful orderly method for allowing folks to send capital to companies in exchange for modest profits, it would be boring as all get out for option traders, who simply adore volatility.
But the very cyclic nature of the Axis of Error's grand grift, the booms and busts that it creates, is a devil's playground as company share prices swing up and down not in accordance of the abilities of management or the interest of customers in product, but rather more like leaves twisting in a foul erratic wind.
Have you seen some of the market's moves over the past weeks as the herd tries to factor the future impact of trillions of new dollars? Investors have been enticed to sink trillions of dollars into the market, all the while knowing damn well that the market will almost certainly crash again, but staying in dollars means losing a fortune anyway.
The (Admittedly SWEET) Wages of Sin
In the past week alone, one of my option trading services has posted fresh new maximum gains of 188% by going short the dollar and long gold, 160% from an oil company, 193% off a car maker (we all know it's Ford, so why the hell am I being so coy?), 150% from a major materials outfit, 99% from "the worst tech company in the world," and 91% off a couple of transports. And when the seesaw flips the other way, we will simply move into puts and make even more.
It's a bribe, plain and simple. But it's a really good one.
Do I shut my mouth, accept a modicum of complicity and take home the cash? Do I join with the protestors, and attempt to guide the country back to sanity?
I hope that the question is not quite so black and white. Perhaps the best I can do is speak out loudly when I see conmen, pickpockets and muggers, while still attempting to help folks navigate the world they have created.
Friday, November 12, 2010
MUST SEE Documentary Video: The End of Liberty
The National Inflation Association presents END OF LIBERTY. About three years ago while having a casual political conversation with a friend and former employer, I asserted "The United States will have a 'Soviet-style' collapse because of the combination of the Welfare and Warfare States, alongside the overall 'entitlement mentality." Welcome to the U.S.S.A. This is where being "Red" is a BAD THING!
"I'm Mad As Hell...So Do Something About It, Government!"
Compare "2010 I'm Angry, Do Something Government" to "1976 I'm Mad as Hell":
Gordon Chang: Our Inflation May Blow the Economies of Other Countries
Gordon Chang, author of "The Coming Collapse of China" and also columnist at Forbes.com explains why we are in a currency war and that our causing inflation may severely impact the economies of other countries through "QE-2". He believes that we should not be embarking on this level of currency manipulation in light of the affect on the dollar as well as other economies. The Fed's actions through "QE-2" or "Quantitative Easing II is basically allowing the Federal Reserve to print money to buy up other financial assets in the marketplace. Printing more money and pumping it into the marketplace will inevitibly cause inflation and weaken the dollar. Click here for a good explation from the Wall Street Journal on the concept of "Quantitative Easing" and potential implications for our economy overall.
And now, Gordon Chang on QE-2:
And now, Gordon Chang on QE-2:
Was That Missile Fired off CA Coast from a Chinese Submarine?
 |
| Type 092 Chinese Nuclear Sub |
iReport - cnn.com
iReport — China flexed its military muscle Monday evening in the skies west of Los Angeles when a Chinese Navy Jin class ballistic missile nuclear submarine, deployed secretly from its underground home base on the south coast of Hainan island, launched an intercontinental ballistic missile from international waters off the southern California coast. WMR’s intelligence sources in Asia, including Japan, say the belief by the military commands in Asia and the intelligence services is that the Chinese decided to demonstrate to the United States its capabilities on the eve of the G-20 Summit in Seoul and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Tokyo, where President Obama is scheduled to attend during his ten-day trip to Asia.
The reported Chinese missile test off Los Angeles came as a double blow to Obama. The day after the missile firing, China’s leading credit rating agency, Dagong Global Credit Rating, downgraded sovereign debt rating of the United States to A-plus from AA. The missile demonstration coupled with the downgrading of the United States financial grade represents a military and financial show of force by Beijing to Washington.
The Pentagon spin machine, backed by the media reporters who regularly cover the Defense Department, as well as officials of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), and the U.S. Northern Command, is now spinning various conspiracy theories, including describing the missile plume videotaped by KCBS news helicopter cameraman Gil Leyvas at around 5:00 pm Pacific Standard Time, during the height of evening rush hour, as the condensation trail from a jet aircraft. Other Pentagon-inspired cover stories are that the missile was actually an amateur rocket or an optical illusion.
Experts agree that this was a ballistic missile being fired off of Los Angeles. Pentagon insists it was a jet aircraft or model rocket.
There are no records of a plane in the area having taken off from Los Angeles International Airport or from other airports in the region. The Navy and Air Force have said that they were not conducting any missile tests from submarines, ships, or Vandenberg Air Force Base. The Navy has also ruled out an accidental firing from one of its own submarines.
Missile experts, including those from Jane’s in London, say the plume was definitely from a missile, possibly launched from a submarine. WMR has learned that the missile was likely a JL-2 ICBM, which has a range of 7,000 miles, and was fired in a northwesterly direction over the Pacific and away from U.S. territory from a Jin class submarine. The Jin class can carry up to twelve such missiles.
Navy sources have revealed that the missile may have impacted on Chinese territory and that the National Security Agency (NSA) likely posseses intercepts of Chinese telemtry signals during the missile firing and subsequent testing operations.
Japanese and other Asian intelligence agencies believe that a Chinese Jin-class SSBN submarine conducted missile “show of force” in skies west of Los Angeles.
Asian intelligence sources believe the submarine transited from its base on Hainan through South Pacific waters, where U.S. anti-submarine warfare detection capabilities are not as effective as they are in the northern and mid-Pacific, and then transited north to waters off of Los Angeles. The Pentagon, which has spent billions on ballistic missile defense systems, a pet project of former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, is clearly embarrassed over the Chinese show of strength.
Click Here for Original Link Provided to CNN iReport
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Robert Kiyosaki on Why the Rich Get Richer
The Rise and Fall of American Democracy
by Robert Kiyosaki
Alexander Tytler (1747-1813) was a Scottish-born English lawyer and historian. Reportedly, Tytler was critical of democracies, pointing to the history of democracies such as Athens and its flaws, cycles, and ultimate failures. Although the authenticity of his following quote is often disputed, the words have eerie relevance today:
A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time voters discover they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by dictatorship.
The average age of the world's greatest civilizations from the beginning of history has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, these nations always progressed through the following sequence:
• From bondage to spiritual faith;
• From spiritual faith to great courage;
• From courage to liberty;
• From liberty to abundance;
• From abundance to complacency;
• From complacency to apathy;
• From apathy to dependence;
• From dependence back to bondage.
Tytler's Cycle and the U.S.
In looking at American history, we can see Tytler's sequence in action. In 1620, the Pilgrims sailed to America to escape the religious bondage imposed by the Church of England. Their spiritual faith carried them to the new world. Because of their deep faith, the Pilgrims left England in spite of the high percentage of deaths incurred by earlier American settlements. For example, when Jamestown, Virginia, was founded in 1607, 70 of the 108 settlers died in the first year. The following winter only 60 of 500 new settlers lived. Between 1619 and 1622, the Virginia Company sent 3,600 more settlers to the colony, and over those three years 3,000 would die.
In 1776, the Declaration of Independence was signed. From spiritual faith the new Americans were garnering great courage. By crafting the Declaration of Independence, the colonists knew they were essentially declaring war on the most powerful country in the world -- England.
With the onset of the Revolutionary War, the colonists were moving from courage to liberty, following Tytler's sequence. By demanding their independence and being willing to fight for it, a new democracy was born. This new democracy grew rapidly for nearly 200 years.
Then, in 1933, the U.S. was thrown into the Great Depression and elected Franklin Delano Roosevelt as president. Facing total economic collapse, Roosevelt took the U.S. dollar off the gold standard. At the same time, Germany, also in financial crisis, elected Adolf Hitler as its leader. World War II soon followed.
In 1944, with WWII coming to an end, the Bretton Woods Agreement was signed by the world powers and the U.S. dollar, once again backed by gold, became the reserve currency of the world.
After the war, America passed England, France, and Germany to become the new world power. Having entered the war late, the U.S. emerged as the creditor nation to the world. Our factories weren't bombed and the world owed us money. The U.S. grew rich financing the rebuilding of England, France, Germany, Italy, and Japan. The American democracy was transitioning from liberty to abundance -- maybe too much abundance.
In 1971 President Nixon violated the Bretton Woods Agreement by taking the U.S. dollar off the gold standard because America was spending more than it was producing and the U.S. gold reserves were being depleted. In 1972 Nixon visited China to open the door for trade. What followed was the biggest economic boom in history -- a boom fueled by the U.S. borrowing money through the sale of bonds to China, one of the world's poorest countries at that time. The sale of these bonds financed a growing U.S. trade deficit. China produced low-cost goods, and we paid for them with money borrowed from the Chinese workers.
American factory production, which had fueled the American boom after WWII, was "shipped" overseas along with high-paying American jobs. America was shifting from abundance to complacency. Rather than produce, we borrowed and printed money to maintain our standard of living.
In 1976 America celebrated its 200th anniversary as a democracy. Rather than produce, we kept borrowing to finance social-welfare programs. Over the next three decades or so, America slid from complacency to apathy. In 2007 the subprime crisis reared its ugly head. And by 2010, unemployment increased to double-digits, even as the rich got richer. Once-affluent people walked away from homes they could no longer afford. The U.S. moved from apathy to dependence.
Today we're dependent upon China to finance our debt as well as fill our stores with cheap products. At the same time, millions of Americans are becoming dependent upon the government to take care of them. If Tytler is correct, the American democracy is presently moving from dependence back to bondage.
Filling the Void
History reminds us that dictators and despots arise during times of severe economic crisis. Some of the more infamous despots are Hitler, Stalin, Mao, and Napoleon. I find it interesting that the U.S. is now dependent upon Chairman Mao's creation, the People's Republic of China, for the things that we buy and the money that we borrow.
To me, this is spooky, foreboding, and ominous. While the Chinese people, as a rule, are good people, my business dealings with Communist Chinese officials have left me disturbed and concerned about the rise of the Chinese Empire. As you know, China doesn't plan on becoming a democracy. With money, factories, a billion people to feed, and a massive military, could they put the free world into bondage?
Although I don't like the way the Chinese do business, I continue to do business in China. I have to. They're the next world power. I cautiously believe that trade, business, and understanding offer better options for world peace and prosperity than isolationism.
Now the Western world must seek to grow stronger financially as China continues to gain power. To do this, our schools need to offer more sophisticated financial education to children of all ages.
This is not the time to be complacent or apathetic. This is the time to think globally. Putting up trade barriers would be disastrous. Instead, it's time our schools train students to be entrepreneurs who export to the world rather than employees looking for jobs that are being exported to low-wage countries.
Please be clear. I don't fear the Chinese. I fear our own growing weakness. Only a weak people can be oppressed. Today, America has too many people looking to the government for financial salvation.
In 1620 the Pilgrims fled the spiritual oppression of the Church of England. Today Americans may need to flee the financial oppression of our own government as our democracy dies. If we follow Tytler's cycle for democracy, our financial dependence will lead us to financial bondage.
The Rise and Fall of American Democracy
by Robert Kiyosaki
Alexander Tytler (1747-1813) was a Scottish-born English lawyer and historian. Reportedly, Tytler was critical of democracies, pointing to the history of democracies such as Athens and its flaws, cycles, and ultimate failures. Although the authenticity of his following quote is often disputed, the words have eerie relevance today:
A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time voters discover they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by dictatorship.
The average age of the world's greatest civilizations from the beginning of history has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, these nations always progressed through the following sequence:
• From bondage to spiritual faith;
• From spiritual faith to great courage;
• From courage to liberty;
• From liberty to abundance;
• From abundance to complacency;
• From complacency to apathy;
• From apathy to dependence;
• From dependence back to bondage.
Tytler's Cycle and the U.S.
In looking at American history, we can see Tytler's sequence in action. In 1620, the Pilgrims sailed to America to escape the religious bondage imposed by the Church of England. Their spiritual faith carried them to the new world. Because of their deep faith, the Pilgrims left England in spite of the high percentage of deaths incurred by earlier American settlements. For example, when Jamestown, Virginia, was founded in 1607, 70 of the 108 settlers died in the first year. The following winter only 60 of 500 new settlers lived. Between 1619 and 1622, the Virginia Company sent 3,600 more settlers to the colony, and over those three years 3,000 would die.
In 1776, the Declaration of Independence was signed. From spiritual faith the new Americans were garnering great courage. By crafting the Declaration of Independence, the colonists knew they were essentially declaring war on the most powerful country in the world -- England.
With the onset of the Revolutionary War, the colonists were moving from courage to liberty, following Tytler's sequence. By demanding their independence and being willing to fight for it, a new democracy was born. This new democracy grew rapidly for nearly 200 years.
Then, in 1933, the U.S. was thrown into the Great Depression and elected Franklin Delano Roosevelt as president. Facing total economic collapse, Roosevelt took the U.S. dollar off the gold standard. At the same time, Germany, also in financial crisis, elected Adolf Hitler as its leader. World War II soon followed.
In 1944, with WWII coming to an end, the Bretton Woods Agreement was signed by the world powers and the U.S. dollar, once again backed by gold, became the reserve currency of the world.
After the war, America passed England, France, and Germany to become the new world power. Having entered the war late, the U.S. emerged as the creditor nation to the world. Our factories weren't bombed and the world owed us money. The U.S. grew rich financing the rebuilding of England, France, Germany, Italy, and Japan. The American democracy was transitioning from liberty to abundance -- maybe too much abundance.
In 1971 President Nixon violated the Bretton Woods Agreement by taking the U.S. dollar off the gold standard because America was spending more than it was producing and the U.S. gold reserves were being depleted. In 1972 Nixon visited China to open the door for trade. What followed was the biggest economic boom in history -- a boom fueled by the U.S. borrowing money through the sale of bonds to China, one of the world's poorest countries at that time. The sale of these bonds financed a growing U.S. trade deficit. China produced low-cost goods, and we paid for them with money borrowed from the Chinese workers.
American factory production, which had fueled the American boom after WWII, was "shipped" overseas along with high-paying American jobs. America was shifting from abundance to complacency. Rather than produce, we borrowed and printed money to maintain our standard of living.
In 1976 America celebrated its 200th anniversary as a democracy. Rather than produce, we kept borrowing to finance social-welfare programs. Over the next three decades or so, America slid from complacency to apathy. In 2007 the subprime crisis reared its ugly head. And by 2010, unemployment increased to double-digits, even as the rich got richer. Once-affluent people walked away from homes they could no longer afford. The U.S. moved from apathy to dependence.
Today we're dependent upon China to finance our debt as well as fill our stores with cheap products. At the same time, millions of Americans are becoming dependent upon the government to take care of them. If Tytler is correct, the American democracy is presently moving from dependence back to bondage.
Filling the Void
History reminds us that dictators and despots arise during times of severe economic crisis. Some of the more infamous despots are Hitler, Stalin, Mao, and Napoleon. I find it interesting that the U.S. is now dependent upon Chairman Mao's creation, the People's Republic of China, for the things that we buy and the money that we borrow.
To me, this is spooky, foreboding, and ominous. While the Chinese people, as a rule, are good people, my business dealings with Communist Chinese officials have left me disturbed and concerned about the rise of the Chinese Empire. As you know, China doesn't plan on becoming a democracy. With money, factories, a billion people to feed, and a massive military, could they put the free world into bondage?
Although I don't like the way the Chinese do business, I continue to do business in China. I have to. They're the next world power. I cautiously believe that trade, business, and understanding offer better options for world peace and prosperity than isolationism.
Now the Western world must seek to grow stronger financially as China continues to gain power. To do this, our schools need to offer more sophisticated financial education to children of all ages.
This is not the time to be complacent or apathetic. This is the time to think globally. Putting up trade barriers would be disastrous. Instead, it's time our schools train students to be entrepreneurs who export to the world rather than employees looking for jobs that are being exported to low-wage countries.
Please be clear. I don't fear the Chinese. I fear our own growing weakness. Only a weak people can be oppressed. Today, America has too many people looking to the government for financial salvation.
In 1620 the Pilgrims fled the spiritual oppression of the Church of England. Today Americans may need to flee the financial oppression of our own government as our democracy dies. If we follow Tytler's cycle for democracy, our financial dependence will lead us to financial bondage.
Those Dastardly Derivatives Strike Again
J.P. Morgan Faces Suits Alleging Foreclosure Fraud
by David Benoit - The Mesh Report
NEW YORK—J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. is facing two purported class-action suits alleging foreclosure fraud after the bank temporarily halted foreclosures in September. In its quarterly filing Tuesday, J.P. Morgan also reported that its trading operations managed a perfect quarter, with no net loss on any day. Over the past three quarters, J.P. Morgan said it had experienced only eight days of losses, all of which were in the second quarter.
Over those nine months it said its trading averaged $91 million in revenue a day, with 12 days bringing in more than $200 million each. J.P. Morgan joins Bank of America Corp. in posting a perfect quarter during the previous three months. J.P. Morgan also became the latest big Wall Street bank to disclose a laundry list of lawsuits it is facing that allege the banks’ underwriting of mortgages used in securitizations harmed investors in those securitizations.
Click Here for the Full Story
by David Benoit - The Mesh Report
NEW YORK—J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. is facing two purported class-action suits alleging foreclosure fraud after the bank temporarily halted foreclosures in September. In its quarterly filing Tuesday, J.P. Morgan also reported that its trading operations managed a perfect quarter, with no net loss on any day. Over the past three quarters, J.P. Morgan said it had experienced only eight days of losses, all of which were in the second quarter.
Over those nine months it said its trading averaged $91 million in revenue a day, with 12 days bringing in more than $200 million each. J.P. Morgan joins Bank of America Corp. in posting a perfect quarter during the previous three months. J.P. Morgan also became the latest big Wall Street bank to disclose a laundry list of lawsuits it is facing that allege the banks’ underwriting of mortgages used in securitizations harmed investors in those securitizations.
Click Here for the Full Story
GOP, We Are Watching You! RASMUSSEN: GOP Voters Express 3rd Party Option
GOP Primary Voters Express Interest in Third-Party Option
Via Rasmussen Reports - Monday November 8, 2010
Roughly one-quarter to one-third of Republican primary voters say they would be inclined to consider a third-party candidate if any of the current favorites wins the GOP presidential nomination for 2012.
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 31% of likely primary voters say they are at least somewhat likely to consider supporting a third-party candidate for president if former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin is the GOP nominee. That includes 17% who say it is Very Likely.
For Full Story Click Here
Via Rasmussen Reports - Monday November 8, 2010
Roughly one-quarter to one-third of Republican primary voters say they would be inclined to consider a third-party candidate if any of the current favorites wins the GOP presidential nomination for 2012.
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 31% of likely primary voters say they are at least somewhat likely to consider supporting a third-party candidate for president if former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin is the GOP nominee. That includes 17% who say it is Very Likely.
For Full Story Click Here
Monday, November 8, 2010
Banks Foreclosed After Deciding Modified Payments Were Too Small
By the Associated Press - Sunday November 7, 2010
Grocery store owners William and Esperanza Casco were making enough money to stay current on their mortgage, but when JPMorgan Chase & Co. offered a plan that reduced their payments, they figured they could use the extra cash and signed up.
The Cascos say they never missed a subsequent payment, so they were horrified when the bank decided the smaller payments weren't enough and foreclosed on their modest Long Beach home.
Their story is echoed across the country by people who claim — some in lawsuits — that banks didn't live up to their end of the deal when they agreed to trial mortgage modifications.
The suits add to a feeling among many struggling homeowners that they're getting little help from the part of the government's $700 billion Wall Street rescue that aimed to help them directly.
Indeed, Treasury statistics show that only about one-third of the nearly 1.4 million homeowners accepted into the government's payment reduction program over the past year have had their reductions made permanent.
"It is extremely unfair that someone like me and my wife who have owned our home for 17 years and never missed a payment could end up in foreclosure," Casco, 47, said in Spanish through an interpreter.
Chase spokesman Gary Kishner was unable to comment on whether Cascos had been current on their payments but insisted the bank had treated the couple fairly.
"We worked with the borrower to give him as many opportunities as possible to qualify for a modification," he said. "However, they were not able to do so and therefore we were forced to foreclose on the property."
Several federal lawsuits filed in Boston accuse major lenders of breach of contract under the government's Home Affordable Modification Program, in which banks agreed to participate as part of the bank bailout.
The lawsuits say the banks agreed under HAMP to grant permanent mortgage modifications to borrowers who make all payments during trial modifications.
Attorney Shennan Alexandra Kavanagh said several of the plaintiffs lost their homes after their payments reverted to their original sums that they were unable to pay. She said she believes tens of thousands of borrowers in Massachusetts alone could be covered by the suits if they get class-action status.
One of the lawsuits, against Bank of America Corp., was consolidated earlier this month with similar complaints in five other states, Kavanagh said.
Bank of America spokeswoman Shirley Norton said in an e-mail that the lender will continue aggressively defending itself against the cases.
More lawsuits have been filed against other lenders elsewhere.
In San Francisco, the Housing and Economic Rights Advocates legal services group sued Chase, accusing the New York bank of profiting from collecting payments during long trial modifications that ultimately end in foreclosure.
"They're participating in the crisis they had helped to foment by refusing to honor loan modifications they had already agreed to," said attorney James C. Sturdevant, whose firm is assisting in the lawsuit.
Chase's Kishner said he could not comment on the pending litigation.
Joseph R. Mason, a professor at Louisiana State University's business school who has written widely on the subprime lending debacle, said he suspects the loan modification disputes are a legacy of the federal government's rush to stem the flow of foreclosures before it had adequate plans in place.
"These policymakers said, just go out and do this and don't let us worry about the details," he said. "These details are now what are coming to the fore in these modification cases."
Laurie Maggiano, policy director at the Treasury Department's Homeownership Preservation Office, said banks were encouraged to offer trial modifications based on interviews with borrowers about their incomes and expenses while they sorted out the paperwork to qualify for permanently reduced payments.
The banks were under no obligation to make trial modifications permanent until this June, when new regulations stopped loan servicers from offering the trials based on stated income, Maggiano said.
Now, incomes and other details are being fully vetted before trial periods, and borrowers are preapproved for a permanent modification as long as they make three trial period payments, she said.
She also said banks are only obliged to grant modifications if the investors who hold the mortgages also benefit from the modification, as mandated by the October 2008 legislation approving the bailout.
Those explanations provide little comfort to the Cascos.
"I think that banks are playing games with us," William Casco said.
Casco said his monthly mortgage payments to Washington Mutual Inc. went up to $2,765 when he refinanced his home in 2006 to pay for a new a meat counter at his store in the industrial Los Angeles suburb of South Gate.
Chase was in the process of acquiring Washington Mutual in January 2009 when Casco said it sent a note telling him he qualified for a lower forbearance rate. The El Salvador native sent the tax returns and business documents the bank was requesting.
His payment was reduced to $1,250, where it remained for several months until Chase told him to apply for a trial loan modification.
Again, Casco said, he sent Chase the documentation they requested. His payment rose to $2,363 in June, then returned to the forbearance rate in October.
Casco said he continued paying what he was asked until August 2010, when Chase told his family that they were $50,000 behind on their payments and put them into foreclosure.
The home has since been sold and Casco is currently fighting eviction. That has him considering joining an existing lawsuit against the bank or seeking support to file a suit on his own.
"I'm determined to do whatever it takes in order to keep my house," he said. "I feel that a great injustice has been done to my family."
The Associated Press
Friday, November 5, 2010
PELOSI: Will Seek to Stay On as Minority Leader
 |
| CA Rep. Nancy Pelosi |
WASHINGTON – Nancy Pelosi, the nation's first female House speaker, said Friday she will try to stay on as leader of the House Democrats despite huge election losses that cost her party the majority.
Pelosi, a California liberal, rejected pressure from moderate House Democrats — and even some liberal allies — who said the widespread defeat cried out for new party leadership. Allies said they doubted Pelosi would make the bid unless she felt certain she had the votes from her colleagues, who are proportionately more liberal after many conservative and moderate Democrats lost on Tuesday. -Charles Babington, Associated Press
Click Here for Full Story
Thomas Jefferson Quote:
-Thomas Jefferson
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
The Terror of Taxes
by Linda Brady Traynham - The Mesh Report
"I always knew that it was dangerous to allow my husband to treat me as though I were an antebellum belle, but it never seemed worth fighting about. It was. He handled tax matters, and I signed the paperwork obligingly to preserve the peace, always suspecting that he should have had an accountant do it. Despite the fact that he was a genuine mathematical genius he wasn’t a tax authority, and that was that. I entreat you earnestly, if you are an older couple and one of you has handled all such matters–my mother always did it in my family–rectify the situation as quickly as possible. Ignorance can be devastating and very, very dangerous. The matter is worsened by the fact that we sheltered ladies don’t know what we don’t know. We do know that the IRS has hired 16,000 new agents with nothing better to do than pounce on the ignorant and vulnerable, and once you come to their attention they can go through back submissions for years and audit your returns for several years to come."
Full Story
DeMint Threatens To Leave GOP If Agenda Is Not Limited Government
Bravo, Senator DeMint! I hope Senator DeMint sticks to his word, about holding the GOP's feet to the fire. After it was pretty clear that the GOP was going to retake the House, Senator DeMint was pretty firm on why the people overturned the Democrat Majority. It wasn't because they were so in love with the Republican Party. Here was a statement he made prior to the election, regarding the GOP agenda sticking to what the people actually send them to Washington D.C. to pursue:
We need more DeMints, Pauls and Bachmanns to hold the line on Big Government.
Bachmann to Matthews: "That Thrill Isn't Tingly Anymore!"
 |
| MN Rep. Michele Bachmann |
Bachman would not take the bait and stuck to areas that she felt were important to the American people, as having been communicated by last night's election results. Bachmann finally got fed up with Matthews' "gotcha" question and said "we're out of this "nightmare" and "we're thrilled."
"I think people are thrilled tonight, I imagine that thrill is maybe not quite so tingly on your leg anymore," Rep. Bachmann told Matthews. After the interview, a purple-faced Matthews said "I never used that word" and called Bachmann a moron. No, he didn't say "tingling", he said "thrill running up his leg." But kudos to Michele my Belle for sticking it to Chrissy.
Here's the exchange:
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
What Was That Again Joe?
 |
| Joe "the Gaffer" Biden |
Biden predicted a victory for the Democratic candidate in conservative Kentucky, state Attorney General Jack Conway, where the GOP nominee is Rand Paul, son of former presidential candidate Ron Paul. “I think we can beat Rand Paul — absolutely,” Biden said. “I think we’re going to do a great deal better than anyone gives us credit for. I do not see this grand debacle. Because by the time people walk into the booth, they’re going to have to choose between two people.” Ditto for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), who faces Republican Sharron Angle: “Yes. I give him a 55 percent chance or better.”
Give Joe credit for calling Nevada. He must have known that the Democrat Machine was going to pull out all the stops to keep ol' Dingy Harry Reid from being the first Senate Majority Leader to lose re-election. There was a story of Harrah's Executives pushing employees to vote early to help the Harry Reid campaign. I think more stories of voting shennanigans and outright corruption will be sure to emerge in the coming days and weeks after the 2010 election.
Chris Matthews on Obama: From a Thrill Up His Leg to a Pain in His Rear
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| MSNBC Host Chris Matthews |
Matthews had also famously said early on in Obama's administration that his job was to make sure that Obama's presidency was a success. Matthews is apparently finding it harder and harder to grab those pom-poms, slip on those tights and go out and "rah-rah" for Barry.
White House Insider: Pelosi Willing to Take Obama Down
In early September, Blogger Ulsterman in the Newsflavor Blog reported that a former Obama White House Insider and long term Democrat operative based in the District was coming clean about the turmoil in the Obama Administration. The "Insider" is a recognizable person but for obvious reasons wished to remain anonymous. Earlier discussions with the Insider revealed how irresponsible the President's behavior was and how the administration was shocked at his behavior. He was becoming increasingly unwilling to engage the challenges of his Office. Members of his administration were openly wondering what kind of lapse they had in judgement thinking that the President was at all prepared to handle the job. His behavior was becoming detached and would spend a lot of time watching ESPN and engaged in sports but not showing much willingness to tackle the severe challenges facing his administration and the nation as a whole. The Insider described President Obama as an incredible campaigner but totally lost at handling the actual job of being President. The President was especially callous and unmoved with respect to the gravity of the situation facing our troops in Afghanistan. At this point in time, the President is "absolutely lost", according to the Insider. They also said that the country could not afford another 4 years of a second Obama term. When told that they "sounded like Rush Limbaugh", the Insider told the interview (Bleep) You! The Insider is still a loyal Democrat, as such a reaction would suggest.
Now, in this interview, the Insider details the impact of the failure of Obama and the implications for the Democrat Party. Not many are going to be willing to go down with the ship. The Insider revealed that they will now work very hard to save not only the Democrats, but the nation itself. The insider was planning on campaigning openly for a primary challenger once they felt safe to do so. Should the Obama administration learn of their identity, their career in D.C. would be destroyed. The news of a primary challenger for such a "historical candidate" as Obama may not sound particularly revelatory today, it was quite the breaking news when it was first released in early September. John Fund of the Wall Street Journal reported today that 47% of Democrats believe that Obama should face a challenge in the 2012 Primary. According to the Insider, there is a serious scandal brewing in the White House and the Democrat leadership is increasingly less willing to defend Obama. They are in fact, furious at how oblivious the President is to not only the nation's challenges but to the Democrat Party's travails as well. Instead of inspiring hope, he has become a hopeless liability. Time will tell.
Excerpt from the Insider's account regarding Pelosi's potential turn on Obama:
I have never seen party members so actively motivated to openly challenge a sitting president in their own party. (The) Trip to India has Dems shaking heads in disbelief. Phrase “running away” being repeated often. WH appears oblivious to situation. Once again, CLOSELY watch for Pelosi news. Speaker preparing for departure from Congress, but going to burn bridges as she does so – namely all those leading to the White House. Speculation she will assist in clearing way for Congressional investigations against Obama White House in coming year. In effect, Pelosi willing to help take Obama down. Quote from within her office that came back to me as follows, “How that -expletive- idiot ever got elected is beyond me. Well let’s see how he does without me around to carry his -expletive- water.” Pelosi very unhappy receiving directive from WH to not attempt any significant legislation during lame duck session. “Leave a mess for the Republicans.” Pelosi furious over directive as it will further diminish her legacy. I don’t think the lady likes being told what to do…
Full Story
 |
| White House Insider: A significant rift exists between soon to be outgoing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and President Obama |
Now, in this interview, the Insider details the impact of the failure of Obama and the implications for the Democrat Party. Not many are going to be willing to go down with the ship. The Insider revealed that they will now work very hard to save not only the Democrats, but the nation itself. The insider was planning on campaigning openly for a primary challenger once they felt safe to do so. Should the Obama administration learn of their identity, their career in D.C. would be destroyed. The news of a primary challenger for such a "historical candidate" as Obama may not sound particularly revelatory today, it was quite the breaking news when it was first released in early September. John Fund of the Wall Street Journal reported today that 47% of Democrats believe that Obama should face a challenge in the 2012 Primary. According to the Insider, there is a serious scandal brewing in the White House and the Democrat leadership is increasingly less willing to defend Obama. They are in fact, furious at how oblivious the President is to not only the nation's challenges but to the Democrat Party's travails as well. Instead of inspiring hope, he has become a hopeless liability. Time will tell.
Excerpt from the Insider's account regarding Pelosi's potential turn on Obama:
I have never seen party members so actively motivated to openly challenge a sitting president in their own party. (The) Trip to India has Dems shaking heads in disbelief. Phrase “running away” being repeated often. WH appears oblivious to situation. Once again, CLOSELY watch for Pelosi news. Speaker preparing for departure from Congress, but going to burn bridges as she does so – namely all those leading to the White House. Speculation she will assist in clearing way for Congressional investigations against Obama White House in coming year. In effect, Pelosi willing to help take Obama down. Quote from within her office that came back to me as follows, “How that -expletive- idiot ever got elected is beyond me. Well let’s see how he does without me around to carry his -expletive- water.” Pelosi very unhappy receiving directive from WH to not attempt any significant legislation during lame duck session. “Leave a mess for the Republicans.” Pelosi furious over directive as it will further diminish her legacy. I don’t think the lady likes being told what to do…
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Uncle Joe Should Know!
Many fear that technology driven companies such as Diebold will do for the sanctity of our voting process what technology also did for sanctity of our mortgages through the collateralized mortgage obligations. Check out http://www.blackboxvoting.org/. Founder Bev Harris in 2003 exposed how Diebold voting machines can be manipulated and used for vote fraud. Harris also identified and broke the story on the criminal records of a number of individuals who owned, programmed, and printed ballots in the elections industry.
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| Is Diebold the "fox guarding the henhouse?" |
Rep. Michele Bachman: Teach Members About the Constitution
For the Tea Party soldiers worried that the young upstarts they’re poised to send to Congress will lose their constitutional druthers once they get to Congress, Rep. Michele Bachmann has a message: Fear not, she’s going to set up constitutional classes. Bachmann won’t be teaching the classes, Gor says, but will help organize sessions with constitutional scholars, experts, and judges likely to be held in one of the committee rooms on the Capitol Hill complex. The classes will be open to any members — not just freshman — looking to continue their study of America’s founding documents. - Marin Cogan, Politico
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| Rep. Michele Bachmann |
Preview: Why Michele is "My Belle": TEACH MEMBERS THE CONSTITUTION. What a concept!
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Bank of England Chief Mervyn King Proposes Eliminating Fractional Reserve Banking
Preview: The subtitle should read: "Make Banks Behave More Like Insurance Companies: Fiat Currencies Are Unsustainable"
Mervyn King - the governor of the Bank of England - has proposed abolishing fractional reserve banking. King, has tonight made a big intervention into the debate on banking reform.
"Radical Proposals" listed but not endorsed by King include...
1- Forcing the riskiest banks to hold capital "several times the magnitude" of requirements at present.
2- The Volcker rule-style enforced breakup of banks into speculative and non-speculative arms.
3- The "Kotlikoff proposal", which forces banks to match each pool of risks with a requisite amount of capital, preventing losses in one spilling over into another.
4- Stunningly, Mervyn King imagines the "abolition of fractional reserve banking"
King said "Eliminating fractional reserve banking explicitly recognises that the pretence that risk-free deposits can be supported by risky assets is alchemy. If there is a need for genuinely safe deposits the only way they can be provided, while ensuring costs and benefits are fully aligned, is to insist such deposits do not co-exist with risky assets." -Washington's Blog
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GOP Hawks and Doves
Preview: What Impact Will Tea Party Have Within GOP on "National Security" Issues?
Republican victory today might produce some interesting shifts in foreign and security policies, even though Congress has only limited ability to influence either. Changes that might take place would not necessarily be those that one would have anticipated given the Republican reputation for being proactively strong on national security issues. The fact is that while there is only a handful of antiwar or anti-interventionist Republicans, most candidates have not been talking about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan because they clearly understand that neither is particularly popular and it is hard to describe them as successful. And, with some exceptions, the congressmen themselves are not particularly keen on expanding what is now conveniently seen as Mr. Obama’s war to include Iran, Yemen, and Somalia in his “overseas contingency operations.” Unlike some of his predecessors, John Boehner is not particularly interested in foreign policy – nor is Senator Mitch McConnell – and with the neocons in decline within the party it is likely that the GOP will support some version of the status quo, with occasional sniping over particular issues. But there will not be any fire in the loins to go out to convert the heathen – the passion will be reserved for domestic policies.
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