Thursday, August 6, 2009
ABC News: No Evidence Of Lobbyists During Obamacare Protest
Democrat claims that spontaneous protests are manufactured disproved again as more citizens express anger at totalitarian Obama health bill
Attempts on behalf of government media fronts to quell spontaneous riots breaking out at town hall meetings amidst anger about Obama’s health care bill by claiming they are manufactured was disproved once again, as ABC News reported that no lobbyists were present at a meeting in Maryland on Tuesday night.
As we reported earlier this week, the George Soros funded Think Progress blog, which is the Internet arm of the Center for American Progress, and has bestowed upon itself the duty of “driving the White House’s message and agenda,” according to its own director Jennifer Palmieri, was at the forefront of attempts to claim that the spontaneous town hall protests were manufactured by lobbyist groups. This talking point has been parroted by other establishment liberal news outlets in an attempt to divide the issue down partisan lines.
As numerous callers who were at the meetings attested to on the Alex Jones Show, the protests were completely organic and were not prompted by lobbyists at all. People showing up at town hall meetings and opposing Obamacare are citizens — not insurance industry operatives or specifically Republicans — who understand very well what the plan means: a totalitarian health care system of medical rationing operated by the government.
Indeed, the event in South Austin at which Democrat Rep. Lloyd Doggett was heckled and hounded by the crowd, was attended largely by Democrats because only registered Democrats received mailings about the event.
Now ABC News reports that at a similar event in Eastern Maryland attended by Rep. Frank Kratovil, during which the crowd vented their anger and frustration about how the health care bill was an assault on their liberty, there was no evidence that the protests were manufactured by lobbyists.
“There were no lobbyist-funded buses in the parking lot of Mardela Middle and High School on Tuesday evening, and the hundreds of Eastern Maryland residents who packed the school’s auditorium loudly refuted the notion that their anger over the Democrats’ health care reform plans is “manufactured,” reports ABC’s Steven Portnoy.
“I went to school in this school,” a man named Bob told me. “I don’t see anyone in this room that isn’t from Mardela Springs right now.”
“We’ve been quiet too long,” said a woman named Joan.
Kratovil came under fire from the audience because of his “undecided” stance on the health care bill, and the crowd soon made their feelings known, with one man shouting, “Our freedom is being taken from us!”
Others yelled, “you don’t get it!,” “you’re deceiving us!”, while another shouted “This bill is un-American.”
Similar scenes are unfolding across the country, including in Worcester Massachusetts, where Reps. James P. McGovern and Richard E. Neal were heckled and booed by the audience after expressing support for Obama’s health care agenda.
Meanwhile in Little Rock Arkansas, U.S. Rep. Mike Ross fellow Democratic Rep. Vic Snyder sat with their head in their hands as a crowd heckled and booed them for refusing to oppose the bill.
Government media fronts like Think Progress and others have attempted to portray the dissenters as a minority of the crowd in every instance, yet the Associated Press reported that “much of the crowd opposed Obama’s plan” in Little Rock.
by Paul Joseph WatsonList of countries bombed by the United States
This is a non-official list of countries that are reported to have been bombed by the United States over the years.
United States bombings of other countries
It is a scandal in contemporary international law, don’t forget,
that while “wanton destruction of towns, cities and villages” is a
war crime of long standing, the bombing of cities from airplanes
goes not only unpunished but virtually unaccused. Air bombardment
is state terrorism, the terrorism of the rich. It has burned up
and blasted apart more innocents in the past six decades than have
all the antistate terrorists who ever lived. Something has
benumbed our consciousness against this reality. In the United
States we would not consider for the presidency a man who had once
thrown a bomb into a crowded restaurant, but we are happy to elect
a man who once dropped bombs from airplanes that destroyed not
only restaurants but the buildings that contained them and the
neighborhoods that surrounded them. I went to Iraq after the Gulf
war and saw for myself what the bombs did; “wanton destruction” is
just the term for it.
C. Douglas Lummis, political scientist {1}
The above was written in 1994, before the wanton destruction generated by the bombing of Yugoslavia,
another in a long list of countries the United States has bombarded since the end of World War II, which is presented below.
There appears to be something about launching bombs or missiles from afar onto cities and people that appeals to American military and political leaders. In part it has to do with a conscious desire to not risk American lives in ground combat. And in part, perhaps not entirely conscious, it has to do with not wishing to look upon the gory remains of the victims, allowing American GIs and TV viewers at home to cling to their warm fuzzy feelings about themselves, their government, and their marvelous “family values”.
Washington officials are careful to distinguish between the explosives the US drops from the sky and “weapons of mass destruction” (WMD), which only the officially-designated enemies (ODE) are depraved enough to use. The US government speaks sternly of WMD, defining them as nuclear, chemical and biological in nature, and “indiscriminate” (meaning their use can’t be limited to military objectives), as opposed to the likes of American “precision” cruise missiles. This is indeed a shaky semantic leg to stand on, given the well-known extremely extensive damage to non-military targets, including numerous residences, schools and hospitals, even from American “smart” bombs, in almost all of the bombings listed below.
Moreover, Washington does not apply the term “weapons of mass destruction” to other weapons the US has regularly used, such as depleted uranium and cluster bombs, which can be, and often are, highly indiscriminate.
WMD are sometimes further defined as those whose effects linger in the environment, causing subsequent harm to people. This would certainly apply to cluster bombs, and depleted uranium weapons, the latter remaining dangerously radioactive after exploding. It would apply less to “conventional” bombs, but even with those there are unexploded bombs lying around, and the danger of damaged buildings later collapsing. But more importantly, it seems highly self-serving and specious, not to mention exceptionally difficult, to try to paint a human face on a Tomahawk Cruise missile whose payload of a thousand pounds of TNT crashes into the center of a densely-populated city, often with depleted uranium in its warhead.
A terrorist is someone who has a bomb
but doesn’t have an air force
The bombing list
Korea and China 1950-53 (Korean War)
Guatemala 1954
Indonesia 1958
Cuba 1959-1961
Guatemala 1960
Congo 1964
Laos 1964-73
Vietnam 1961-73
Cambodia 1969-70
Guatemala 1967-69
Grenada 1983
Lebanon 1983, 1984 (both Lebanese and Syrian targets)
Libya 1986
El Salvador 1980s
Nicaragua 1980s
Iran 1987
Panama 1989
Iraq 1991 (Persian Gulf War)
Kuwait 1991
Somalia 1993
Bosnia 1994, 1995
Sudan 1998
Afghanistan 1998
Yugoslavia 1999
Yemen 2002
Iraq 1991-2003 (US/UK on regular basis)
Iraq 2003-05
Afghanistan 2001-05
Plus
Iran, April 2003 — hit by US missiles during bombing of Iraq, killing at least one persdon {2}
Pakistan, 2002-03 — bombed by US planes several times as part of combat against the Taliban and other opponents of the US occupation of Afghanistan {3}
China, 1999 — its heavily bombed embassy in Belgrade is legally Chinese territory, and it appears rather certain that the bombing was no accident (see chapter 25)
France, 1986 — After the French government refused the use of its air space to US warplanes headed for a bombing raid on Libya, the planes were forced to take another, longer route; when they reached Libya they bombed so close to the French embassy that the building was damaged and all communication links knocked out.{4}
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, May 13, 1985 — A bomb dropped by a police helicopter burned down an entire block, some 60 homes destroyed, 11 dead, including several small children. The police, the mayor’s office, and the FBI were all involved in this effort to evict a black organization called MOVE from the house they lived in.
Them other guys are really shocking
“We should expect conflicts in which adversaries, because of cultural affinities different from our own, will resort to forms and levels of violence shocking to our sensibilities.”
Department of Defense, 1999 {5}
The Targets
It’s become a commonplace to accuse the United States of choosing as its bombing targets only people of color, those of the Third World, or Muslims. But it must be remembered that one of the most sustained and ferocious American bombing campaigns was carried out against the people of the former Yugoslavia — white, European, Christians. The United States is an equal-opportunity bomber. The only qualifications for a country to become a target are: (1) It poses a sufficient obstacle to the desires of the American Empire; (2) It is virtually defenseless against aerial attack.
The survivors
A study by the American Medical Association: “Psychiatric disorders among survivors of the
1995 Oklahoma City bombing”:
Nearly half the bombing survivors studied had an active postdisaster
psychiatric disorder, and full criteria for PTSD [posttraumatic stress
disorder] were met by one third of the survivors. PTSD symptoms were
nearly universal, especially symptoms of intrusive reexperience and
hyperarousal.{6}
Martin Kelly, publisher of a nonviolence website:
We never see the smoke and the fire, we never smell the blood, we
never see the terror in the eyes of the children, whose nightmares
will now feature screaming missiles from unseen terrorists, known
only as Americans.
NOTES
1. The Nation, September 26, 1994, p.304
2. RFE/RL Newsline, April 9, 2003 (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty is a “private” international communications service in Europe and Asia funded by the US government.)
3. Washington Post, January 1, 2003, Australian Broadcasting Company, January 1, 2003, Agence France Presse, September 19, 2003
4. Associated Press, “France Confirms It Denied U.S. Jets Air Space, Says Embassy Damaged”, April 15, 1986
5. U.S. Commission on National Security/21st Century, “New World Coming” (Phase I Report), September 15, 1999, p.3
6. Journal of the American Medical Association, August 25, 1999, p.761
This is a chapter from the book Rogue State: A Guide to the
World’s Only Superpower, by William Blum
The Fabulous Life of Wallstreet Brokers
Ever thought about how those Wallstreet Brokers lived, while speculating with your money and burning it in the financial crisis? In this documentary you see the homes of Billionaires and multi Millionaires who earned their money on Wallstreet. But they don’t only have huge appartements and residences, they have their own private jets, luxury yachts and so on. Not even thinking about small investors they made billions of dollars and enjoy their lives. And you - what are you doing now???
The Fabulous Life Of Billion Dollar Wall Street Ballers
Banks still getting sicker
The economy may have turned, but banks will be cleaning up after their lending mistakes for years. Several big banks may already be doomed to fail.
NEW YORK (Fortune) -- The economy may have pulled out of its plunge, but you'd never know by a look at many big banks.
Even after a rousing market rally that spurred new capital into giant institutions such as Wells Fargo (WFC, Fortune 500) and Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500), numerous large banks around the country are still struggling with deteriorating finances.
Two dozen banks with at least $5 billion in assets get the lowest one-star rating on Bankrate.com's safety and soundness test, which is based on an assessment of regulatory filings for the quarter ended March 31.
More than half of those banks are ranked "troubled" or worse by research firm Bauer Financial, using the same data. Three of these banks, with a total of $45 billion in assets, have made public statements indicating they could soon collapse.
"There are some big ones in fairly dire straits," said Karen Dorway, director of research at Coral Gables, Fla.-based Bauer. "If you see some of these fail, it could add to the stress on local economies."
Many banks have had their capital eroded by losses, while their balance sheets remain bloated with billions of dollars in depreciating real estate investments and construction loans.
These banks have been setting aside more money for future losses, but in many cases the increases in loan loss reserves haven't kept up with the surge in nonperforming assets. That means profits could be pressured even at stronger institutions.
"We don't know when the losses are going to peak, and we don't know how long they're going to stay there," said Chris Whalen of Institutional Risk Analytics, which advises investors. "It's a pretty gruesome picture."
Meanwhile, efforts to remove troubled assets from bank balance sheets have stalled, as banks remain reluctant to sell at the low prices being offered by investors. That leaves banks trying to sell assets and lure in new funds from investors. On those counts, their records are decidedly mixed.
Over the past year, at least eight of the low-rated institutions have agreed with regulators to improve their banking practices. Banks including Pacific Capital Bank (PCBC), Westernbank Puerto Rico (WHI) and the former Lehman Brothers Bank -- now known as Aurora -- have set plans to strengthen their capital bases.
Others have been told to get more capital, but have failed to do so. Among them are condominium construction lender Corus Bankshares (CORS), based in Chicago; Colonial Bancgroup (CNB) of Montgomery, Ala., a troubled mortgage lender whose offices were recently raided by federal agents; and Guaranty Financial Group (GFG) of Austin, Texas.
Guaranty, with $13 billion in assets, said last month it expects to be taken over by regulators. A recent filing from Colonial, with $25 billion in assets, indicated "there is substantial doubt about Colonial's ability to continue as a going concern."
Corus, which has $7 billion in assets and has been told repeatedly to raise new funds, said Friday that "it is highly unlikely that it will be able to obtain additional outside capital that does not include the provision of substantial assistance by the FDIC or other Federal governmental authorities."
While problems at those banks are well known to investors -- a share of all three costs less than a dollar combined -- their failures could strain the federal deposit insurance fund and add to problems in deeply stressed real estate markets.
Corus, for instance, is the lender to 15 Florida condo projects worth at least $100 million each.
"Construction loans are going to be a big part of the challenge, because they're so complex," said Dorway.
The problems at troubled banks could slow the recovery for their healthier counterparts. So far this year, 69 banks have failed -- the most since 1992. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. has already imposed a one-time fee on member banks to shore up its deposit insurance fund and has said it may impose another later this year.
The FDIC's so-called problem bank list had 305 institutions -- with $220 billion in assets -- on it at the end of the first quarter. The agency has set aside $22 billion to cover failure-related costs this year. A law enacted this spring gives the FDIC access to up to $500 billion in Treasury credit though 2010.
Even so, the scale of the banking problem will surely test the agency's mettle. Veribanc, another bank rating agency, suggested as much this spring when it reported a raft of first-quarter rating downgrades and forecast 97 bank failures for the year.
"If the past quarter's trend continues, more than half of all banks could be downgraded during the remainder of 2009," Veribanc said. 
About half of U.S. mortgages seen underwater by 2011
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The percentage of U.S. homeowners who owe more than their house is worth will nearly double to 48 percent in 2011 from 26 percent at the end of March, portending another blow to the housing market, Deutsche Bank said on Wednesday.
Home price declines will have their biggest impact on prime "conforming" loans that meet underwriting and size guidelines of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the bank said in a report. Prime conforming loans make up two-thirds of mortgages, and are typically less risky because of stringent requirements.
"We project the next phase of the housing decline will have a far greater impact on prime borrowers," Deutsche analysts Karen Weaver and Ying Shen said in the report.
Of prime conforming loans, 41 percent will be "underwater" by the first quarter of 2011, up from 16 percent at the end of the first quarter 2009, it said. Forty-six percent of prime jumbo loans will be larger than their properties' value, up from 29 percent, it said.
"The impact of this is significant given that these markets have the largest share of the total mortgage market outstanding," the analysts said. Prime jumbo loans make up 13 percent of the total market.
Deutsche's dire assessment comes amid a bolt of evidence in recent months that point to stabilization in the U.S. housing market after three years of price drops. This week, the National Association of Realtors said pending home sales rose for a fifth straight month in June. A widely watched index released in July showed home prices in May rose for the first time since 2006.
Covering 100 U.S. metropolitan areas, Deutsche Bank in June forecast home prices would fall 14 percent through the first quarter of 2011, for a total drop of 41.7 percent.
The drop in home prices is fueling a vicious cycle of foreclosures as it eliminates homeowner equity and gives borrowers an incentive to walk away from their mortgages. The more severe the negative equity, the more likely are defaults, since many borrowers believe prices will not recover enough.
Homeowners with the riskiest mortgages taken out during the housing boom have seen the greatest erosion in equity, in part because they were "affordability products" originated at the housing peak, Deutsche said. They include subprime loans, of which 69 percent will be underwater in 2011, up from 50 percent in March, Deutsche said,
Of option adjustable-rate mortgages -- which cut payments by allowing principal balances to rise -- 89 percent will be underwater in 2011, up from 77 percent, the report said.
Regions suffering the worst negative equity are areas in California, Florida, Arizona, Nevada, Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, Massachusetts and West Virginia. Las Vegas and parts of Florida and California will see 90 percent or more of their loans underwater by 2011, it added.
"For many, the home has morphed from piggy bank to albatross," the analysts said.
(Editing by Dan Grebler)
Chinese survey finds prostitutes more trusted than officials
Prostitutes are considered more trustworthy in China than government officials and scientists, a recent survey of more than 3,000 respondents showed.
The online survey of 3,376 Chinese showed that 7.9 percent of respondents considered sex workers trustworthy, putting them in third place after farmers and religious workers, the Insight China magazine said on its website.
“A list like this is at the same time surprising and embarrassing,” the China Daily said Tuesday in an editorial, commenting on the result of the survey, which was carried out in June and July.
“The sex workers’ unexpected prominence on this list of honour… is indeed unusual.”
The newspaper said the list showed scientists and teachers ranked “way below, and that government functionaries, too, scored hardly better.”
Soldiers and students were ranked after sex workers on the list of trustworthy professions, the Insight China magazine said.
“Given the constant feed of scandals involving the country’s elite, this is not bad at all,” the China Daily editorial commented.
“At least (the scientists and officials) have not slid into the least credible category which consists of real estate developers, secretaries, agents, entertainers and directors.”
You Tube Pulls Hundreds Of Ron Paul Videos
Popular C-Span Junkie user channel suspended, 6400 videos gone
You Tube has expanded its zealous copyright crusade by suspending the popular C-Span Junkie user channel, and in doing so has pulled hundreds of viral Ron Paul videos, which are now completely dead.
The C-Span Junkie user channel, a non-partisan archive of short clips taken from C-Span broadcasts of events in the Congress and the Senate, has been the home of the vast majority of You Tube videos you have seen of Bernanke, Geithner, Paulson and others being confronted in Congress, as well as Ron Paul’s speeches on the House floor. A total of more than 6400 videos in all have been pulled, hundreds of which featured the Texan Congressman.
Whether or not C-Span itself requested that You Tube pull the channel is not known, but it is clearly in the public interest and constitutes fair use to show a clip less than 10 minutes in length of what the people who are supposedly our Representatives are saying in Congress on our behalf.
As we have highlighted before, You Tube arbitrarily suspends accounts based on flimsy copyright claims that aren’t even properly investigated.
We had our own You Tube account suspended following a copyright complaint from a separate party who didn’t even own the copyright on the original material. In addition, the copyright claim was clearly erroneous as it was based on the fact that Alex Jones held up a printed version of an online newspaper story for a few seconds on camera. The channel was eventually reinstated after You Tube received a flood of complaints.
“I don’t know if you can imagine what it’s like to in a moment see 6400 videos gone,” writes the channel owner on the C Span Junkie website, “Figure 6400 hours (easily) poof GONE! I did this for the common good and now it all gone.”
The channel has now been replaced with a new account but it’s unlikely to survive long if the owner dares to post anything of substance.
Truth is no longer acceptable on You Tube as it transforms itself into a pale reflection of Hulu, a site owned and operated by NBC Universal (GE) and Fox Entertainment Group (News Corp), that is to say a joint venture by a corporation owned by a death merchant (GE manufactures attack helicopters and jet engines) and a disinformation platform owned by a notorious neocon, Rupert Murdoch.
In the Hulu-ized universe, there is no room for truth or alternative media — all channels will contain the same schlock and mindless pablum already available on cable and broadcast television.
Videos of members of Congress grilling Bernanke and his cohorts about auditing the Fed and finding out where trillions in missing TARP funds has disappeared to just aren’t part of the sanitized and lobotomized video landscape that You Tube wants to portray.
If you post videos about people eating each other’s vomit or clips of plastic bimbos with their breasts hanging out then you’ll be left alone, but God forbid should anyone try to give the country a window on what’s actually happening in Congress and what their own Representatives are talking about – in that case your thought crimes will immediately be censored and removed.
by Paul Joseph Watson
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