What Would the United States Look Like Without the Federal Reserve?

Since H.R. 1207 was introduced by Dr. Ron Paul in Congress this February, there has been a growing movement which questions whether the Fed should continue to operate without more oversight and some question whether or not the Federal Reserve should continue to operate at all.

Currenty, Paul’s “Audit the Fed” legislation has 282 co-sponsors and there are two similar pieces of legislation in the senate. If the legislation is passed, it will allow the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to review the Federal Reserve’s balance sheets and their policy deliberations and monetary transactions. Currently Federal Reserve Chairman, Ben Bernanke, opposes the plan, saying it would undermine the Fed’s independence.

The “Audit the Fed” act has a real chance in passing, but some supporters of the legislation, including Ron Paul, want to take it further than that by ending the Federal Reserve all together. Paul introduced a piece of follow-up legislation, entitled H.R. 833: The Federal Reserve Board Abolition Act which would wind down and eliminate the Federal Reserve over the course of the year. Currently, the act has no co-sponsors, but is gaining a lot of grass-roots support. Paul hopes that members of Congress will join his movement to end the Federal Reserve after they see the results of a full audit of the Federal Reserve. Paul also authored a book about his proposal to end the Federal Reserve, entitled End the Fed.

Although the movement is in its infancy and still gaining momentum, it’s not too crazy to think that the United States wouldn’t be better off without the Federal Reserve. Since the Federal Reserve System was brought into force into 1914, the United States economy has grown at a slower pace than it did before 1914, despite significantly improved productivity. The rate of inflation has been substantially worse since the introduction of the Federal Reserve, despite the fact that the Federal Reserve was around during the greatest period of deflation in US History – the Great Depression.

Apologists for the Fed would certainly have a different take. They would note that the United States was in recession half of the time between the Civil War and 1914 and only 21% of the time since the Fed came into force. However, the frequent down-turns before 1914 weren’t the result of a lack of a central bank, but more-so because of poorly thought government regulations, such as bans on branch banking making it so that banks could not survive localized economic trouble. The Federal Government also forced banks to trade notes at a discount whenever the bank offering the note was from another area.

Gordon Brown’s $1 trillion global rescue package unravels

(David Jones/PA)
At the end of the G20 summit in April, the Prime Minister claimed to have built a 'new consensus'

Alistair Darling is scrambling to plug a gaping hole in the $1.1 trillion global rescue package agreed by G20 leaders in London — hailed at the time as Gordon Brown’s biggest success.

Some countries, led by Germany, are even calling for the bailout to be scaled back amid fears that it risks burdening economies with too much debt and could encourage inflation.

The breakdown of unity reflects the different speeds at which countries are emerging from recession and conflicting views about the outlook for the global economy.

The differences also extend to the kind of capitalism that leaders want to shape out of the global crisis. A serious disagreement will flare this weekend at a meeting in London of G20 finance ministers over whether to impose an international cap on bankers’ bonuses — a measure being pressed by France. Mr Darling believes that the proposal is unworkable and will table an alternative plan to tie bonuses to performance, The Times has been told.

At the end of the G20 summit in April, the Prime Minister claimed to have built a “new consensus” among world leaders and was lauded for his role in securing the rescue deal. But a follow-up summit this month in Pittsburgh will take place against the backdrop of undelivered pledges and wrangles over how to curb bankers’ pay.

Officials admit that almost $200 billion (£123 billion) pledged in credit facilities for the International Monetary Fund has yet to materialise. Most embarrassingly, the shortfall includes $75 billion due from the European Union. The Chancellor has warned Europe to set an example and do more to meet the target of $500 billion. Britain has agreed to lend up to $15 billion to poorer economies and is willing to provide up to $11 billion more as part of an EU package. So far, none of the extra credit has been called in by the IMF, although government insiders believe that it will be needed to prop up struggling economies before long.

Other European nations are resisting increasing their commitments to the IMF, demanding that China and India do more to shoulder the burden.

Germany is leading demands that the Pittsburgh summit start discussions on how to scale back the bail-out. Peer Steinbrück, its Finance Minister, has called for the reduction of fiscal measures as soon as possible. Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, has echoed the call for an exit strategy. An insider at the Bundesbank, said: “I never walk into a room without knowing how to get out of it.”

British officials have barely concealed their irritation at what they regard as “premature” talk of winding up the global bailout. A senior official conceded that the global economy was picking up but added that it was “far too early to declare victory”. In a speech today, Mr Darling is likely to indicate that economic support already agreed, through lower taxes, higher government spending and lower interest rates, should remain until the recovery is “assured and sustained”.

Philip Shaw, chief economist at the investment bank Investec, said: “The authorities are aware that if they start exiting too quickly they run the risk of killing off any recovery. In the 1930s they tightened policy too early and it set everything back.

“The risk of leaving it too late is that you create an asset bubble, leaving interest rates too low for too long. That is precisely the sort of behaviour which sparked off the asset bubble that led up to the current crisis.

“The various governments are starting to talk about the need to draw up an exit strategy. It makes sense that since the bailout and stimulus packages were co-ordinated, the winding down of programmes should be co-ordinated too.”

Last night Mr Darling said that the biggest risk to global economic recovery was complacency and that it was too soon to withdraw stimulus measures. “My view is that the biggest single risk to recovery is that people think the job is done,” he told The Independent. He said that the situation was at a critical stage and added: “Banks must remember they were rescued not for themselves but to get credit going. They forget that at their peril.”

Shortage of Rare Earths Used in Hybrids, TVs May Loom in China

Sept. 3 (Bloomberg) -- China said supplies of dysprosium and terbium, minerals needed to make hybrid cars and televisions, may be inadequate for its own needs, adding to concerns that the largest producer of rare earths may further cut exports.

China, accounting for more than 90 percent of global rare- earth output, “may not have enough supply” of the two minerals as demand increases, Wang Caifeng, deputy director-general of the raw materials department at the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said today.

Surging production of hybrid cars and music players such as Toyota Motor Corp.’s Prius and Apple Inc.’s iPod have driven up demand for rare earths. China has cut export quotas to shore up prices and ensure domestic supplies, though there will be no ban on exports of the elements, Wang said today.

“The rest of the world has become a little concerned” about possible export bans from China, said Judith Chegwidden, managing director at London-based Roskill Information Services Ltd, an industry research group. “Dysprosium is increasingly used in permanent magnet motors in hybrid cars like Prius or wind turbines. Demand is growing fast.”

China has about half of the world’s reserves of rare earths, a range of more than 15 elements such as scandium and lanthanum. The government started to curb output and exports in 2006 as prices dropped, and Zhao Shuanglian, deputy chief of China’s Inner Mongolia province yesterday said the country may stockpile elements in a strategic reserve.

That could force companies to broaden their search for other suppliers.

Toyota Alternatives

“We’re always exploring alternative procurement sources,” said Paul Nolasco, a spokesman for Toyota, declining to comment specifically on China’s policy. Neodymium, a type of rare earth, is used to make the electric motor of its Prius car, he said.

Chinese exports of rare earths fell 35 percent to 34,600 metric tons in 2008 from 53,300 tons in 2006, according to Inner Mongolia Baotou Steel Rare-Earth Hi-Tech Co., which owns the largest rare-earths mine. The company was yesterday tasked to take over smaller rivals in Inner Mongolia to strengthen control over supplies.

“Demand is growing in areas of military defense, missiles, electronic information and green energy,” Wang said at a conference in Beijing. “Modern society can’t do without cell phones and televisions.”

China needs 70,000 tons of rare earths a year, she said. China cut 2009 output quotas of rare earths by 8.1 percent from a year ago to 119,500 tons, the Ministry of Industry of Information and Technology said May 18.

Waste

Terbium is a silvery-white metal used to make alloys and phosphors used in lamps and TV tubes. Other rare earths include neodymium, which is also used in mini hard drives in laptops and headphones in Apple’s iPod. Yttrium and europium are used to generate red on color TV and computer monitor screens.

China is also tightening control of mining for rare earths because it can lead to “serious pollution,” Wang said. To mine a ton of the material could lead to 2,000 tons of dirt and waste, she said.

The Asian country is also encouraging producers of minor metals to export processed products rather than raw materials to increase the value of shipments, said Liang Shuhe, deputy head of foreign trade at the Ministry of Commerce.

Minor metals include antimony, magnesium, zirconium, mercury and bismuth, according to the Minor Metals Trade Association. China’s Jinduicheng Molybdenum Co. is Asia’s largest producer of molybdenum, used to harden steel.

“The majority of China’s minor metals exports remain in the raw material form,” Liang said at the conference. “We encourage exports of high value-adding, high-end products instead of the raw materials.”

Oil prices fall on profit taking

The price of oil ended lower on Tuesday, falling back from an intra-day high of $75 a barrel - the highest so far this year - after profit taking.

Oil prices have hit a series of 10 month highs in recent days

US light crude ended the day down $2.32 to $72.05, while London's Brent dropped $2.44 to settle at $71.82.

Prices had earlier risen following figures showing an improvement in US consumer confidence.

Oil prices hit a record $147 last summer before falling to just above $30 a barrel at the start of this year.

Prices have since recovered as the global economy has pulled back from recession.

中國‧駐華大使：全球問題多‧中美關係面臨考驗

（中國‧北京）美國新任駐中國大使洪博培警告，中美關係的持久性，將面臨全多方面全球問題的的考驗。

擔任美國駐華大使不到2週的洪博培，週三（9月2日）在北京接受上任後首次美國媒體採訪時說，時有起伏、並不穩定的中美關係，在今年剩下幾個月時間中，將面臨全球經濟、氣候變化和安全熱點等方面對話的考驗。

他說，美國總統奧巴馬對他的指示當中，最重要的是，促成世界經濟恢復，對付諸如伊朗、巴基斯坦等地區安全問題，達成減少溫室氣體排放的協議，為達成新的防止氣候變暖的全球協議鋪路。

兩國可表述各自立場

儘管如此，他表示，中美兩國政府有足夠多的機會，表述各自的立場。中國國家主席胡錦濤9月較後將參加在匹茲堡舉行的G20峰會，此外，奧巴馬計劃在11月訪問中國，而且中美兩國官員在這期間，還會頻繁會面。

不過，洪傅培指出，中美兩國的貿易爭端也有可能加劇，例如白宮要決定是否對不斷增加的中國進口輪胎實行懲罰性關稅。

他強調，中美兩國沒有完全一致的利益，但是中美雙方都越來越認識到，如果兩國不認真努力地去尋求解決辦法，那就不可能找到解決辦法。

洪博培也表示，今後幾個月，他給自己定下的目標是加強中美兩國脆弱的軍事關係，並重新開始過去時斷時續的人權對話。

新加坡‧熟食中心“真字機”引人潮‧涉鼓吹賭博被令拆除

（新加坡）麥士威熟食中心設“真字機”機器，引來多名公眾按鈕求多多真字。

環境部認為把鼓吹賭博的真字機安裝在熟食中心的作法並不妥當，週三（9月2日）晚上指示負責人將“真字機”拆除。

“真字機”是麥士威熟食中心為了配合7月中元節，花費800元在農歷7月初一（8月20日）安裝的，原本打算擺放到9月20日。真字機操作簡單，公眾手指往按鈕一按，電子板上就會顯現7個多多號碼，為公眾提供“真字”下注。

顧客增加20%

“真字機”推出後很受歡迎，熟食中心一時之間客似雲來，人流量一下子增加20%，帶動了生意。

週三晚上，環境部的3位官員來到熟食中心，向中元會負責人解釋了當局的立場。

環境部認為熟食中心是公共場所，顧客來自不同年齡階層，把鼓吹賭博的“真字機”安裝在熟食中心的作法並不妥當，於是建議中元會的負責人，把擺在神壇旁的“真字機”移走。

據瞭解，中元會去年也曾裝置“真字機”，為公眾提供的卻是萬字票真字。當時，機器只擺放幾天，也被環境部下令拆除。

印尼‧1300建築坍塌‧5000人疏散‧爪哇7級地震35死

（印尼‧雅加達）緊急救災官員指出，印尼爪哇島週三（9月2日）發生7級地震，1300棟房屋和商務樓坍塌，至少35人喪生。逾5000人已從西部海岸撤離。

衛生部危機中心主任帕卡雅告訴法新社：“打橫市許多房屋和建築物坍塌，許多人喪生，大多數死者是被倒塌的房屋壓死。當地的通訊受干擾。”

300人傷40人失蹤

他指出，另有逾300人受傷，40人失蹤。

地震於大馬時間下午4時發生不久後，當局在震央數百公里以內的沿海地區發佈海嘯警報，但於大約半個小時後撤除了警報。

美國地質調查局起初將震級列為7.4級，並於較後將之降為7級，印尼地震學局則指級數為7.3級。

震央在西爪哇打橫市西南部142公里處，深度達49.5公里。

雅加達市居民指出，建築物搖晃，數百人蜂擁逃出辦公樓。

一名目擊者表示：“建築物搖晃大約10秒鐘後，停頓了一會兒，又再持續晃動。”

打橫市目擊者則指出：“多間房屋坍塌，包括市長的房宅以及一間回教堂被震毀。”

目擊者表示，萬隆市建築物也遭震毀。

印尼電力公司PLN表示，地震並未對電力服務造成影響。

印尼國家石油和天然氣公司Pertamina亦表示，提煉廠未受地震影響。

Victims await aid after the quake
Link to this video

At least 46 people were killed and scores injured after a powerful earthquake struck southern Indonesia yesterday.

Local reports said some of the victims had been killed in a landslide near the southern coast of Java, the country's main island, while others died when houses and other buildings collapsed.

The magnitude-7 earthquake shook buildings in the capital, Jakarta, sending thousands of people on to the streets.

It struck at a depth of about 30 miles (48km) off Java's south coast, the US Geological Survey said, and was the strongest to hit the region since a magnitude-7.5 quake rocked India's Andaman Islands on 10 August.

The government said it was sending medical teams to Tasikmalaya, a town in West Java about 70 miles from the epicentre. Local hospitals said scores of injured people were being admitted.

"We all ran out in panic. We didn't even put our sandals on," said Muharaham Ardan, who lectures at a university in the town. "The neighbours were shouting: 'Get out of the house! Get out of the house!'."

Edi Sapuan, a resident of nearby Margamukti village, said many houses had been flattened. "Only the wooden houses remain standing," said Edi, who fled his home moments before it collapsed. "Many villagers are injured, covered in blood."

At least 10 people died in the southern Cianjur district of West Java, and another in the coastal village of Pelabahan Ratu, where dozens of buildings were badly damaged, said Satrio Nurhadiwibowo, a spokesman for the national disaster management agency.

"A dozen houses were buried by a landslide triggered by the earthquake in Jeblong village."

The quake, which struck just before 3pm local time, was felt as far away as Surabaya, Indonesia's second biggest city, about 300 miles away.

At least 27 people were injured in Jakarta, where buildings shook and swayed, causing panic among office workers and residents of blocks of flats.

"Everything was shaking and my neighbour shouted 'Quake, quake!'," said Nur Syara, who lives on the 31st floor of a block of flats. "You could hear the walls creaking. I lay down on the floor. I was scared things would collapse."

The Pacific tsunami warning centre in Hawaii issued a warning soon after the quake struck, but withdrew it about 30 minutes later.

There were no reports of serious disruption at an oil refinery and power plant in the quake-affected area.

The last big earthquake to strike Indonesia, in July 2006, killed 730 people. A massive earthquake off its western coast on 26 December 2004 generated a tsunami that killed 230,000 people in a dozen countries.

The sprawling archipelago is prone to earthquakes because it sits on continental plates along the Pacific Ocean's "ring of fire".

http://tinyurl.com/m7xxux

Makena Resort and its hotel, the Maui Prince, are now a toxic asset with creditors including the Swiss government.

UBS, the Swiss banking giant, put together the financing for the eye-popping sale of the resort for $575 million in 2007, using the commercial real estate version of the mortgage-backed residential real estate securities that caused so much grief in the housing market.

Only in this case, according to Barry Sullivan, the Honolulu attorney handling the foreclosure, there was no Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac to purchase the bonds created to fund the deal.

In this case, the lenders foreclose, the court appoints a receiver and eventually the receiver will hold an auction. If anybody bids, then the lenders get back some or all of their money.

Only, like houses in Phoenix, buyers are likely to be scarce. Probably only people willing and able to pay cash would be interested. The people who used to lend on CMBS (commercial mortgage-backed securities) paper have disappeared.

A market that hardly existed 10 years ago, but which funneled billions of dollars a year into commercial real estate by 2007, doesn't exist anymore. Not a single CMBS deal has been reported this year.

And, Sullivan said, the biggest hotel loan in the past year was a mere $10 million.

As with the auction of the Sheraton Keauhou Bay Resort & Spa on the Big Island, which his firm, Bickerton Lee Dang & Sullivan, handled earlier this year, there might well be no bidders, and the lenders would claim ownership. They then could try to sell it via negotiation, like any other kind of real property.

Sullivan's client is Wells Fargo Bank, but Wells Fargo is not the lender. It is only the trustee for the mortgage-backed securities that were created after the sale. Nor is Wells an owner.

Sullivan said the buyers apparently put up about $175 million of their own money. They also borrowed $192.5 million, which was guaranteed by a first mortgage on the real estate, as well as claims on revenue from the operating businesses.

But unlike buying a house, he said, in giant deals no one attempts to raise all the borrowed money via a first mortgage.

A big chunk of the borrowed money, around $227 million, came from so-called "mezzanine lenders," who were offered a higher rate of interest (although it was still a low 4 percent or so), but who in turn accepted a huge risk. They got no ownership of real property, but a share of the new owner's interest.

If the new owners couldn't make their payments, the first mortgage holders had at least the chance of taking over the real estate. If the owners walk away, as in this case, then the mezzanine lenders hold only a share in the owner's interest, which is worth nothing.

It happened very quickly. Only a few days before a July payment date did Wells Fargo learn that the owners - Morgan Stanley, Everett Dowling and affiliated partners - were not going to be able to pay.

A similar size debt - something more than $300 million by now - is in default at The Ritz-Carlton, Kapalua and has been for months, but in that case the owners have avoided foreclosure and said they were working to restructure the loan.

Apparently, the Makena owners saw no hope of restructuring or of finding new lenders. So they appear to have lost something like $477 million in equity, now worthless mezzanine investments and another $75 million or more in projects undertaken at the resort.

BBC 'Aftershock' Promo - Economic Collapse/New World Order

Check this link ...... http://bit.ly/olLhn

Cash For Clunkers Conspiracy?

To hear the government tell it, foreign automakers and compact cars were the big winners in the Cash for Clunkers program. The Department of Transportation makes it look like consumers all wanted small fuel-efficient cars, particularly from the import brands.

But an analysis by Edmunds.com tells a very different story. It found that a fair number of Clunker buyers bought pickups and Ford came out as the clear winner in the Top Ten list. Indeed, Edmunds’ analysis shows that the government came up with a bizarre way to count Clunker sales and we know now that the DOT counted sales based on the drivetrain in a vehicle, not by its nameplate. For example, the front-wheel drive version of the Ford Escape was counted separately from the all-wheel drive version. As a result, vehicles that only offer one drivetrain came out on the top of the list.

No one in the history of the auto industry has ever counted sales this way, and it’s mighty peculiar why the government would choose to do so. Is there some other agenda at work?

Once again, the story is the Detroit Three got their butts kicked by the import brands.The way that Edmunds counted sales shows a very different story from the government’s numbers. In its report, Ford captured three of the top four positions. The Toyota Corolla, which is at the top of the government’s list, falls to number five on Edmunds’ list behind the F-150, which didn’t even make the government’s Top Ten. The Chevy Silverado didn’t make the government’s Top Ten either, but it’s number eight with Edmunds.

The downside is that all around the country the media hammered home the DOT’s version of events. Once again, the story is the Detroit Three got their butts kicked by the import brands.

The other story line that the DOT trumpeted is that consumers traded in their dirty old SUVs and bought fuel-efficient, front-wheel-drive compact cars. Boy, doesn’t that just dovetail beautifully with the environmental message the Administration wants to send out about the success of this program? But Edmunds’ analysis tells a truer story. It shows that full-size pickups and compact SUVs were popular choices in the Clunkers program.

The explanation I’ve been given is that the way the DOT counted sales is more in line with the different EPA weight-class categories. But that still doesn’t make sense. Again, the auto industry has never reported sales by EPA weight-class.

And there are other problems with the DOT numbers, too. It shows that there were more Clunker trade-ins than new vehicles sold. Think about that a minute. How could people possibly trade in more cars than they bought?

How could people possibly trade in more cars than they bought?But the biggest puzzle of all is why the Detroit Three have not said a peep about this. Presumably, GM and Chrysler are afraid to bite the hand of the government that just bailed them out. And maybe Ford is just afraid to stir the pot. But they’re doing themselves a great disservice by letting this misperception go unchallenged. And if anyone needs to change perceptions, they do.

Top Clunker Sales According to DOT

1. Toyota Corolla
2. Honda Civic
3. Toyota Camry
4. Ford Focus FWD
5. Hyundai Elantra
6. Nissan Versa
7. Toyota Prius
8. Honda Accord
9. Honda Fit
10. Ford Escape FWD

Top Clunker Sales According to Edmunds

1. Ford Focus
2. Ford Escape
3. Honda Civic
4. Ford F-150
5. Toyota Corolla
6. Toyota Camry
7. Honda CR-V
8. Chevrolet Silverado
9. Hyundai Elantra
10. Honda Accord

Obama Advisor Van Jones: Republicans are "Assholes"

Check this link .... http://bit.ly/4r9lgB

Indoctrination Alert! Protect your kids on Sept. 8th

This Tuesday Sept. 8th President Obama is planning to address the nation's school children DIRECTLY, through a live internet broadcast at 12 noon. If you do not want Obama to have access to your children to say whatever he wants to them during their school hours without you being there, there are a few things you can do:

-Call the school's principal to find out whether the school was planning to show the speech, and if they are, let the principal know that you feel the role of the school is to educate, not to indoctrinate, and that you do not consent to have your child spoken to directly by any politician or government official, for any reason. Maybe if enough parents call, the school will not show the speech to students.

-If the school is going ahead with plans to show the speech, you can keep your child out of school that day.

-You can write up a consent form that would allow a parent of your choice, in your community, to remove your child (and all other children whose parents consent to it) from the area where the speech is being broadcast, and for that period of time, engage the children in some alternate educational activity, such as reading the text of the Constitution, for example.

Here is the government website, with details of the event:
http://www.ed.gov/index.jhtml

and a letter from Education Secretary Arne Duncan to School Principals, encouraging them to broadcast the speech, and to accompany it with other activities promoting the same agenda:
http://www.ed.gov/admins/lead/academic/bts.html
[Check out the suggested activities that are meant to accompany the speech-- I think the intention is for schools to make this a day-long event in honor of the President]

The ostensible message that students should work hard to educate themselves may seem relatively benign, but the insidious subtext is that you should work hard not for yourself and your own individual happiness, but for the country, society, the state-- to make America more competitive in the world, to raise standards of living (through redistribution, presumably) for all Americans, etc... I personally don't want my children to grow up believing that they exist to serve the state, that it is somehow normal to think this way.

But fundamentally, it doesn't really matter what it is that Obama is planning to tell American children on Tuesday. What does matter is that it is totally inappropriate for him to be addressing children directly at a time when they are away from their parents, and a captive audience in their classrooms. State indoctrination of children is a hallmark of totalitarian government. Don't let it happen here.

Even higher taxes coming for Californians

Lower brackets and reduced deductions mean yet higher payments to Sacramento for 2009.

Reporting from Sacramento - While Californians are still feeling the sting of income and sales tax hikes signed into law earlier this year, now comes news that state tax authorities plan to take a little more from their pockets.

For only the second time in 30 years, the tax board is lowering the point where each tax bracket begins, bumping many people into a higher category. At the same time, officials are cutting back some deductions. Everyone will pay more, even people whose bracket or income doesn't change.

The extra sums will total as much as $140 per family, on top of the increases previously enacted.

Officials said the latest adjustments have been triggered by inflation, or rather the lack of it. This year, the state's inflation index was a negative numberfor the first time since 1983. When the economy takes a deep plunge, so do tax brackets.

The new changes apply to the 2009 tax year. Residents are already paying hundreds -- even thousands -- of additional income tax dollars under the quarter-point rate increase and other tax hikes approved in February as part of a budget deal.

"Everything is going up, up, up," said Othman Rabie, owner of a sandwich shop in downtown Sacramento. "And business is going down."

Back in February, state lawmakers and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger approved a slate of temporary tax increases in an effort to balance California's perennially out-of-whack books.

In addition to the income tax rate rising 0.25%, the dependent credit was slashed by more than two-thirds. The vehicle license fee nearly doubled to 1.15% of a car's value. The state sales tax climbed 1%.

This summer, lawmakers and Schwarzenegger decided to withhold 10% more from workers' paychecks starting Nov. 1 -- an accounting scheme to collect taxes faster. Under another bookkeeping maneuver, individuals and businesses that make estimated tax payments will pony up more of that money sooner starting in the first half of next year.

And some local taxes are on the way up. In Los Angeles County, a half-cent-higher sales tax approved by voters took effect in July to fund transportation projects.

Under the latest changes, for a married couple filing jointly, the top tax rate of 9.55% now begins at $92,698, down from $94,110. Combined with the earlier increases, such a couple with two children, earning $100,000, will see their California income tax bill rise by 22.3%, or $716, according to the state Franchise Tax Board. Their tax would go from $3,208 to $3,924, factoring in a $110 drop in the standard deduction for joint returns.

For singles, the top tax threshold has dropped from $47,055 to $46,349. This year, a single filer without children who earned $30,000 in 2008 and 2009 would pay 13.8% more: $617 instead of $542. The standard deduction for sole filers will fall by $55.

The state automatically adjusts its tax brackets. They have moved in taxpayers' favor for the last 25 years, with the amount of earnings required to kick people up a notch continually increasing. But that doesn't salve the pain of the latest changes, said Assemblyman Chuck DeVore, the Republican vice chairman of the Assembly Revenue and Taxation Committee.

"It takes more money out of the taxpaying productive sectors and scoops it into the government coffers at a time when taxpayers are already reeling," DeVore said.

It is unclear how much additional revenue the new brackets will yield for beleaguered state coffers; the state has not computed that yet, said Denise Azimi, spokeswoman for the tax board.

Meanwhile, experts such as Ted Gibson, who was chief state economist under both a Republican and a Democratic governor, remind policymakers even modest tax increases affect the state's financial health because they prompt people to further pinch pennies.

"It will hamper the recovery a little bit," Gibson said.

Some taxpayers say they are worried about their very livelihoods.

Martha Franco, 56, has struggled to keep open her family-run restaurant, Pepe's Tacos in Azusa.

"I average about $6 an hour [in receipts] and I'm open 12 hours a day," she said, sitting in the empty establishment as her son mopped the floor around her. "It already feels like I'm just working to pay my taxes," she said.

Not everyone minds paying more to protect such services as education, healthcare and parks, though.

An extra $100 or so, said Sharon Sugerman, a 59-year-old Sacramento resident who declined to give details about her job, "seems pretty reasonable to me."

Goldman Sachs, the US Treasury, and criminal corruption

This is an extraordinary 26-minute video documenting criminal conspiracy between Goldman Sachs and the US Treasury with information in front of all of us to see:

If you're not sure about this criminal conspiracy absolutely against the public good and at the heart of our still-crashing economy severely affecting at least 100 million Americans (1/3rd of the nation is probably a conservative estimate), think for yourself:

1. Insurance companies, like AIG, were allowed unregulated gambling with credit default swaps (CDS) with people's conservatively invested premiums. Banks were allowed to gamble with CDS also. Why would this be allowed?

2. Insurance companies could have been allowed to fail. If we wanted a bailout, those who purchased insurance could have been refunded their money. Banks could have been allowed to fail with deposits guaranteed and reorganized. Among the most public damaging and criminal options is for government "leadership" to give our public money by the trillions to the criminal gamblers and their "leadership," along with bonuses to top executives to ensure their silence and allegiance against the public good.

3. If this isn't a criminal conspiracy among an oligarchy of political and economic tyrants, what is it?

Don't feel alone in a conclusion of criminal acts. Consider my e-mail to MIT's Simon Johnson, former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund, who came to the same conclusion. Nobel prize winners and Pulitzer journalists are also writing with passion that these are the largest economic crimes in the history of the planet.

UK pledges extra $11bn to IMF to tackle crisis

The UK has promised an extra $11bn of standby finance for the IMF, which will be used to support countries that are struggling in the face of the economic crisis.

This sum, on top of the initial $15bn pledged in spring could be drawn on within months since the IMF’s original war chest is understood to be close to running dry after it has had to come to the rescue of various countries, including Iceland and Pakistan.

Alistair Darling, the Chancellor, wants the G20 to consider any further responses needed to secure a global recovery.Photo: BLOOMBERG NEWS

Britain’s contribution forms part of the cash from the European Union, which yesterday raised the amount it is pledging from about $100bn to $175bn. Nonetheless, the G20 is still understood to be some way short of the $500bn target, despite the pledge.

It comes just days before the world’s finance ministers will meet in London to discuss progress on the G20’s agreement forged in the April summit, and the IMF shortfall is expected to be at the top of the agenda.

An international clampdown on pay and bonuses within the financial sector will also be debated at the meeting on Friday and Saturday. Discussions there will pave the way for the G20 leaders’ summit in Pittsburgh at the end of this month, where they will be keen to signal an agreement on a way forward for this highly contentious issue.

“The bankers are partying like it’s 1999, and it’s 2009,” said Anders Borg, the Swedish finance minister yesterday. “The bonus culture must come to an end and it must come to an end in Pittsburgh.” Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, said separately that “clear pay rules” must be drawn up at Pittsburgh.

So far the French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, has taken the toughest stance among leaders and called for a “cap and tax” approach to bonuses. Leaders will want to emerge from Pittsburgh with an agreement that applies to the next bonus season. However, there are fears that the US will not support tough restrictions on bonuses, and that stricter European laws could undermine the banking industry there.

In a letter to delegates ahead of the meeting in London, the Chancellor Alistair Darling said that other items on the agenda would include any further responses needed to secure a global recovery and ensure “high sustainable growth”.

Bernanke threatens economic crash if Congres audits Fed

The following 7-minute video is one of the best I've ever seen in economics. It begins with Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke threatening an economic crash if Congress audits the Fed, moves to revelaing headlines of financial corporate profits after taxpayers socialized their gambling losses, then closes with Secretary of the Treasury Tim Geithner telling Congress that TARP is really a pertetual line of $700 billion credit for him to do with as he pleases as long as Bernanke agrees. That means, if Treasury can sell the troubled assets, that money returns to Geithner's private reserve to buy more assets. As you may know, Harvard's Elizabeth Warren, the chair for the Oversight Panel, reported to the Senate that Treasury is over-paying corporations by about 50%. That's a gift from us, the taxpayers, to the gambling-addicted plutocrats of $82 BILLION.

What to do about this? Here's Gandhi's take early in his work, in 1903 working for equal rights in South Africa at age 34:

"One thing we have endeavoured to observe most scrupulously, namely, never to depart from the strictest facts and, in dealing with the difficult questions that have arisen during the year, we hope that we have used the utmost moderation possible under the circumstances. Our duty is very simple and plain. We want to serve the community, and in our own humble way to serve the Empire. We believe in the righteousness of the cause, which it is our privilege to espouse. We have an abiding faith in the mercy of the Almighty God, and we have firm faith in the British Constitution. That being so, we should fail in our duty if we wrote anything with a view to hurt. Facts we would always place before our readers, whether they are palatable or not, and it is by placing them constantly before the public in their nakedness that the misunderstanding between the two communities in South Africa can be removed." Indian Opinion (1 October 1903)

I remind you that American colonists petitioned the British government at first, hoping that they would respond by giving Americans equal protection under the law. It was these trials that created the character of our most cherished Americans. It seems that our current choices of action are at least to adhere to the facts, engage in some kind of demonstration/petition/public conversation, and be emotionally and mentally prepared for some form of revolution. I would prefer the easier path that the US government acts in service of the public good rather than an oligarchy. However, at the cost of our collective TRILLIONS of dollars, at the cost of over a million dead and multiple millions in horrific suffering from our imperialistic Wars of Aggression, at the cost of a million children dying every month from preventable poverty and multiple millions more in agony because the US refuses to fund programs like the UN Millennium Goals at more than a token - even programs that generate profit like Microcredit (I personally volunteered 18 years as a lobbyist for RESULTS and witnessed this), if we want a brighter future we need a breakthrough beyond what we've done to date.

As always, share this information with whoever considers themselves competent citizens.

The Record of the Federal Reserve

Not a day goes by without talk of the Federal Reserve, whether by the organization itself or by its opponents. An incessant cheerleader of his organization, Chairman Ben Bernanke will be the first to tell you that the Federal Reserve is an utmost necessity to the smooth operation of the U.S. financial system. Some would disagree. And while ongoing events can be difficult to objectively examine, hindsight is usually much more prescient.

Let's set aside what The Fed says for a moment and examine what it actually does.

• From 1776 to 1912 (136 years), the value of the dollar, relative to the Consumer Price Index, increased by 11%. A dollar could buy 11% more goods in 1912 than in 1776. Thus, if in 1776, you sat on your savings pile of $1,000,000 for 136 years, it would then be worth $1,110,000 in purchasing power (it will have appreciated in value by 11%). A loaf of bread for Thomas Jefferson cost the same as a loaf of bread for Lincoln 50 years later and again the same for J.P. Morgan 50 years after that.

• The United States Federal Reserve System was created in 1913. The stated purpose of the Fed, by the definition taken from its own website, is to "conduct the nation's monetary policy by influencing money and credit conditions in the economy in pursuit of full employment and stable prices." Note that "stable prices" is another way of saying "stable dollar," they are two sides of the same coin (couldn't resist the pun).

• After the Fed's creation, from 1913 to 2008 (95 years), the value of the dollar, relative to the Consumer Price Index, decreased by 95%. A dollar could buy 95% fewer goods in 2008 than in 1913. Thus, if in 1913, you sat on your savings pile of $1,000,000 for 95 years, it would then be worth only $50,000 in purchasing power (it will have depreciated in value by 95%). One would now need to pay about 20X more than J.P. Morgan for one's bread. Ask my mother how much the price of milk has increased just in the last ten years alone.

In other words, the value of the dollar remained extremely stable for 150 years, the Fed was created in order to "stabilize the value of the dollar," and the result has been a 95% devaluation of the dollar in less than 100 years following its creation. Below is a graph of this history, which I've marked with the year 1913 so you can see the change. The graph is also marked with the years of decoupling from the gold standard, as no examination of dollar value would be sound without such mention.

While we all take inflation as a "given" - as something that "just happens" in the economy - this belief is utterly incorrect. Inflation, which is the loss of value in your saved dollars, is caused by the Federal Reserve through its management of the money supply. Next time you see Ben Bernanke on the television telling you that they "will take the necessary steps" to help the country, consider their track record so far, and their dismal failure at their stated objective: preserving the value of America's money.

Yet, American's aren't particularly upset about this, and indeed the vast majority have no idea about any of this. I would wager that this is because Americans are educated in Government schools, which barely teach basic accounting, let alone macroeconomic monetary theory. In public school I was forced to memorize the names of every country in Africa, yet there was never a discussion of the nature of money. Half the nations of Africa have been renamed since, but the economic principles which cause such political turmoil remain the same.

The Federal Reserve System is fraudulent. Whatever its stated purpose, its effect is to create a hidden mechanism of deficit spending by politicians, through the insidious invisible taxation of monetary debasement (inflation). With printed money, the Government can buy services for its voters before the effects of inflation are felt. The voters money buys less the following year, as the new money has raised prices, and they are often none the wiser.

Obama is now mandating that the Fed is to have more oversight, more authority and control over the markets of the United States. If we can learn anything from the Fed, it's that the best way to succeed as a politician is to stretch one's failure over a long enough period that people won't remember it.

By Erik Voorhees :
This article first appeared on LewRockwell.com.

U.S. consumer bankruptcies up 24 percent in August

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bankruptcy filings by U.S. consumers rose 24 percent in August compared with a year earlier and could reach 1.4 million this year, according to an American Bankruptcy Institute and National Bankruptcy Research Center report released on Wednesday.

Despite the spike, consumer bankruptcy filings last month were down 5 percent from July.

The August bankruptcies brought the 2009 number to 922,000.

In 2008, a total of 1.1 million consumers filed for bankruptcy, according to ABI.

(Reporting by Phil Wahba; editing by John Wallace)

Did Hitler Want War?

On Sept. 1, 1939, 70 years ago, the German Army crossed the Polish frontier. On Sept. 3, Britain declared war.

Six years later, 50 million Christians and Jews had perished. Britain was broken and bankrupt, Germany a smoldering ruin. Europe had served as the site of the most murderous combat known to man, and civilians had suffered worse horrors than the soldiers.

By May 1945, Red Army hordes occupied all the great capitals of Central Europe: Vienna, Prague, Budapest, Berlin. A hundred million Christians were under the heel of the most barbarous tyranny in history: the Bolshevik regime of the greatest terrorist of them all, Joseph Stalin.

What cause could justify such sacrifices?

The German-Polish war had come out of a quarrel over a town the size of Ocean City, Md., in summer. Danzig, 95 percent German, had been severed from Germany at Versailles in violation of Woodrow Wilson’s principle of self-determination. Even British leaders thought Danzig should be returned.

Why did Warsaw not negotiate with Berlin, which was hinting at an offer of compensatory territory in Slovakia? Because the Poles had a war guarantee from Britain that, should Germany attack, Britain and her empire would come to Poland’s rescue.

But why would Britain hand an unsolicited war guarantee to a junta of Polish colonels, giving them the power to drag Britain into a second war with the most powerful nation in Europe?

Was Danzig worth a war? Unlike the 7 million Hong Kongese whom the British surrendered to Beijing, who didn’t want to go, the Danzigers were clamoring to return to Germany.

Comes the response: The war guarantee was not about Danzig, or even about Poland. It was about the moral and strategic imperative “to stop Hitler” after he showed, by tearing up the Munich pact and Czechoslovakia with it, that he was out to conquer the world. And this Nazi beast could not be allowed to do that.

If true, a fair point. Americans, after all, were prepared to use atom bombs to keep the Red Army from the Channel. But where is the evidence that Adolf Hitler, whose victims as of March 1939 were a fraction of Gen. Pinochet’s, or Fidel Castro’s, was out to conquer the world?

After Munich in 1938, Czechoslovakia did indeed crumble and come apart. Yet consider what became of its parts.

The Sudeten Germans were returned to German rule, as they wished. Poland had annexed the tiny disputed region of Teschen, where thousands of Poles lived. Hungary’s ancestral lands in the south of Slovakia had been returned to her. The Slovaks had their full independence guaranteed by Germany. As for the Czechs, they came to Berlin for the same deal as the Slovaks, but Hitler insisted they accept a protectorate.

Now one may despise what was done, but how did this partition of Czechoslovakia manifest a Hitlerian drive for world conquest?

Comes the reply: If Britain had not given the war guarantee and gone to war, after Czechoslovakia would have come Poland’s turn, then Russia’s, then France’s, then Britain’s, then the United States.

We would all be speaking German now.

But if Hitler was out to conquer the world — Britain, Africa, the Middle East, the United States, Canada, South America, India, Asia, Australia — why did he spend three years building that hugely expensive Siegfried Line to protect Germany from France? Why did he start the war with no surface fleet, no troop transports and only 29 oceangoing submarines? How do you conquer the world with a navy that can’t get out of the Baltic Sea?

If Hitler wanted the world, why did he not build strategic bombers, instead of two-engine Dorniers and Heinkels that could not even reach Britain from Germany?

Why did he let the British army go at Dunkirk?

Why did he offer the British peace, twice, after Poland fell, and again after France fell?

Why, when Paris fell, did Hitler not demand the French fleet, as the Allies demanded and got the Kaiser’s fleet? Why did he not demand bases in French-controlled Syria to attack Suez? Why did he beg Benito Mussolini not to attack Greece?

Because Hitler wanted to end the war in 1940, almost two years before the trains began to roll to the camps.

Hitler had never wanted war with Poland, but an alliance with Poland such as he had with Francisco Franco’s Spain, Mussolini’s Italy, Miklos Horthy’s Hungary and Father Jozef Tiso’s Slovakia.

Indeed, why would he want war when, by 1939, he was surrounded by allied, friendly or neutral neighbors, save France. And he had written off Alsace, because reconquering Alsace meant war with France, and that meant war with Britain, whose empire he admired and whom he had always sought as an ally.

As of March 1939, Hitler did not even have a border with Russia. How then could he invade Russia?

Winston Churchill was right when he called it “The Unnecessary War” — the war that may yet prove the mortal blow to our civilization

by Patrick J. Buchanan

'Losing the News' by Alex S. Jones

Will there still be a place for investigative reporters such as David Halberstam and Seymour Hersh in tomorrow's newspapers?

Will there be any news media left, except perhaps The New York Times and The Washington Post, to serve as watchdogs over government and hold the powerful accountable?

The problems are obvious. Newspapers are losing advertising revenue and readers to the Internet and scrambling to cut expenses, including laying off the most experienced and well-paid staffers.

A number of papers have gone out of business and many others are combining sections, getting smaller and carrying less news. And stories are getting shorter and shorter, influenced by what's happening on the Web, where almost anything over 150 words is considered too long and unlikely to be read.

The newspaper business is fighting for its life, writes Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Alex Jones in this penetrating analysis of an industry in turmoil.

The real crisis is the erosion of what Jones calls "the iron core of news," or daily press coverage of everything from business and governmental affairs to news from abroad.

This "accountability news," reported by professional journalists, provides the material the rest of the media feed on and is in danger of disappearing, believes the author, who covered the press for The New York Times from 1983 to 1992.

Part of the problem is the time and money required to cover serious stories. A skilled investigative reporter can cost a news organization more than $250,000 a year in salary and expenses for only a handful of stories. A single project can sometimes take months or even years.

"Losing the News" is filled with examples of dramatic changes taking place in news coverage.

The Boston Globe, for instance, has won five Pulitzer Prizes since 2000 and has a distinguished history of foreign reporting. But money problems have forced it to close all its foreign bureaus and eliminate the position of foreign editor, Jones notes, and its front page now has "a strongly local cast."

Other examples include the venerable and respected Christian Science Monitor, which became the first national newspaper to abandon print and go online last year after a century of continuous publication.

And by the spring of 2009, half of the once-mighty Los Angeles Times news staff had vanished.

In one of the most provocative chapters in the book, Jones points out that much of the public doesn't believe the press is objective in its coverage.

Many reporters themselves believe objectivity is an outdated notion, but Jones is convinced it's one of the qualities that matters most in journalism.

How important is it? He writes convincingly about how gritty reporting of the facts about the war in Iraq turned many early supporters -- despite their suspicions of the press -- into opponents of the war.

There's much more of interest here, including an exploration of the "new" news media and the story of the author's own family's small newspaper in Greeneville, Tenn., where he was first exposed to journalism in the 1950s and where his father and several brothers still work.

He also interviewed a number of well-known people in the field, including Dean Singleton, whose MediaNews Group, with 57 daily papers, including The Denver Post, is the nation's fourth-largest newspaper company.

Singleton's newspapers, like many others, are aggressively experimenting with both their print and online editions.

The world of the future is going to be centered on the Web and digital technology, acknowledges Jones, and saving the news has to begin by recognizing that.

But for journalists such as David Shribman, executive editor and vice president of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, his mission remains "putting out a very good, very serious -- and thus old-fashioned -- newspaper."

Nobody yet, including Jones, has come up with solutions to save newspapers, but his terrific book makes a strong case for why they're important.

"One thing is certain, he concludes. "The revolution in news now taking place will be critical to defining what kind of a nation we become in the years ahead."

Elizabeth Bennett has a special interest in this subject. A freelance writer in Houston, she was book editor of The Houston Post, which folded in 1995.

By Elizabeth Bennett

The Rise and Fall of the Dollar: 1800-2009

Mises Daily contributor Sean Malone has created this wonderful graphic summary of the rise and fall of the US dollar from 1800 until now:

Click to download 279 KB image file, 1,388 x 600

Click to download 1.2 MB image file, 2,775 x 1,200

What exactly is your take on 9/11?

9/11 was created by Al Qaeda at the urging and with the financing of the Pakistani ISI (radical half). But they got frightened when it looked like it not only might work, but that Al Qaeda, which has previously promised to bring a nuclear event to the USA, had the brains to suggest putting one of the airplanes into a nuclear power plant. Pakistan briefed Cheney…nations also got wind of this and warned the CIA. We also had two walk-ins to the FBI, one in Orlando, one in Newark, that were dismissed by the FBI because the names were all virgins and not in the FBI data base—the arrogance of stupid bureaucracy.

Cheney saw an opportunity for what Bush called his trifecta, and gave it to him by giving the go-ahead to ISI and Al Qaeda, and ordering up a terrorism exercise that allowed him to send all relevant close-in air defense strip alert craft away from the target areas, and to disable the NORTHCOM normal response to flight path diversion. We still need to investigate degree to which US may have trained some of the terrorists; the degree to which the terrorists may or may not have actually been on the airplanes, and whether or not the two NYC planes also had embedded flight controls taken over and controlled from WTC 7. The pancaking of three buildings, one of which was not hit, I put down to Larry Silverstein, not Dick Cheney, warned by Mossad and with Goldman Sachs and the rest of the NYC Jewish mafia. An opportunity to solve his asbestos problem and make 7 billion surely shared with the insurance executive who had to be in on the scam to ignore all the thermite and the evidence. Giuliani destroyed the crime scene with trucks and GPS prearranged. The Pentagon was hit by a missile and conveniently went into both a construction area while also (it is claimed) destroying all the computers containing all the evidence needed to track down the missing 2.3 trillion Rumsfeld was being grilled about on the Hill on 10 Sept.

Israeli Treachery Against America on 9/11

Cheering Israelis, Were they Tracking Hijackers pre 9/11?

Jews, Mossad, Israel 911 Box Cutter Video

Israeli Treachery Against America, Is it Worth it?

Here is a short narrative regarding the media coverage surrounding the events of 9/11. For an in-depth exploration of this historic attack it is important you visit our Terrorism page. Knowing what we know now, the lack of truthful coverage by the media is really no surprise

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

"YES WE CAN"... End US Aid to Israel

Why stop at just military aid? Our monthly welfare checks to that Apartheid nightmare should also cease. And all of those lucrative Pentagon contracts and DHS funds that either buys military equipment from Israel or sends our police chiefs there for hate training should be cancelled.

And all those 501 c dummy tax free fronts that shovel hundreds of millions each year to Apartheid Israel that is used to expand illegal West Bank settlements should have their tax free status revoked.

The American 5th Fleet that keeps close by in the Mediterranean to guard Apartheid Israel should return home.

And all of those 'training' depots that stash billions of dollars of US weapons in Israel in case the US needs them, but are actually used by Israel when attacking Gaza and Lebanon should be closed and their inventories shipped back home.

All of those anti-missile batteries operated, funded and staffed by the Pentagon in Apartheid Israel should be rolled up and shipped back home.

All of the past money we 'loaned' to that state of hate, that always get written off the books and turned into grants should be immediately called on for payment.

But that would require American politicians who have an actual spine and whose first allegiance is to America and not some SLC. Good luck finding those. As for the rest?

You'll find some of them slinking back home, after spending part of their Congressional break in Israel.

The gawdly 'Christian' Zionists that start braying like a pack of rabid donkeys can just move to their favorite Apartheid state, Israel. Just let them know ahead of time they won't be able to buy any land in Apartheid Israel, since they're not Jews.

More at End the Occupation

Monday, August 31, 2009

Cindy Sheehan: America needs to wake up

In an exclusive interview with RT's Anastasia Churkina, anti-war protester Cindy Sheehan talks about the need of accountability, an end to Iraq and Afghanistan, and the American psyche ignoring the truth.


Source

"Aww, that's not fair! Anytime Obama speaks, I get all warm and fuzzy inside! He's not that mean and nasty GW Bush or that crazy Cheney, no, he's a 'peace' loving man and will do the right thing, just as long as we give him plenty of time and all our money!!"

"Now excuse me, I have to go watch my most fav show, 'Dancing with the Stars!!!" After that, I'll settle down with a large bag of chips and a Diet Pepsi--gotta watch that weight--and read cover to cover that latest National Enquirer!!"

"Then I'll catch up on the latest scoop on Michael Jackson!!!"

"Who says Americans don't read?"

Apocalyptic Pastor Claims to be Protecting ex-Muslim Teenage Runaway

A blog at Christianity Today sounds a note of caution over the case of Fathima Rifqa Bary, a Sir Lankan teenager living in Ohio who recently fled to Orlando claiming that her parents planned to kill her for converting to Christianity:

“They [my parents] threatened to kill me,” Bary says tearfully in a YouTube video …posted Tuesday. She goes on to explain the logic of honor killings: “They have to kill me. My blood is now hallal, which means that because I am now a Christian, I am from a Muslim background. It’s an honor, they love God more than me. They have to do this.”
…Sgt. Jerry Cupp with the Columbus missing persons bureau disputes Bary’s claims, telling The Columbus Dispatch that Mohamed Bary has known about his daughter’s conversion for months and appears to be caring. And today, the attorney for Bary’s parents issued a statement that they have never threatened Bary: “If this case is perceived as a clash of religions, it is because Mr. Lorenz recklessly and without authorization put someone else’s child in front of television cameras to publicly renounce her previous faith,” McCarthy said in the statement. “The parents who love Rifqa are in the best position now to protect her from the mess that Mr. Lorenz has made.”

The girl gives a rather strange interpretation of what an “honour killing” is for; rather than being the remedy for a perceived dishonour suffered by a family, she tells the journalist that to kill her would be an especially ”great honour” because she is the the first Christian in her family for “150 generations” and it would show her family’s love for Allah (Lorenz concurs with a “yes” at 5:03). This seems to me to be a garbled “Christianized” understanding of the phenomenon, making it into something like a human sacrifice. Her claim that Muslim converts to Christianity in Sri Lanka (where Muslims are a minority) are confined to a mental hospital is not one that I have seen reported anywhere else.

Lorenz used to pastor the Pine Castle United Methodist Church, but he now runs the Global Revolution Church, which has no apparent links to any other church or grouping. He believes that he receives special personal messages from God about the imminent end of the world....

Source

The girl’s parents and brother can be seen in the news report below; they do not give the impression of wanting to kill her. However, Robert Spencer – fresh from scrubbing details of the bogus “mass paedo wedding in Gaza” tale from his
website - assures us that this is undoubtedly a “slow-motion honor killing“.



For an update on this 'dog and pony' show, click here and read how minions of the deceased Jerry Falwell are helping propagate lies to keep Americans in a permanent state of hate for anything Muslim/Arab.

Sunday, August 30, 2009

USAG Holder: The man who covered up Waco will now investigate torture?

Don't look for any substantive or honest investigations into the US torture of kidnapped or captured ME types, that's not Holder's job.

It is the job of the USAG, but not the man holding the job, Holder.

Do you really expect the shill that helped whitewash the brutal US government slaughter of those civilians at Waco, Texas to truly look into allegations of torture? All that will happen is that a few low ranking foot soldiers will get tossed into the fire to satisfy those clamoring for an investigation, even though the evidence points to the White House and the Pentagon as the instigators of this horrid practice.

The Waco Cover Up

Holder was a leader in the Clinton/Reno Waco cover up. U.S. Attorney James W. Blagg, who dared to publicly question the Department of Justice cover-up of the Waco/Branch Dividian Disaster, was personally removed from the investigation by then-Deputy Attorney General, and Clinton foot-soldier, Eric Holder.

From the Associated Press, September 14, 1999:

WASHINGTON--The federal prosecutor who raised questions about a possible Justice Department cover-up in the Waco standoff was abruptly removed from the case along with his boss, according to a court filing made public Tuesday.

Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder recused U.S. Attorney James W. Blagg in San Antonio and assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Johnston in Waco, Texas, from any further dealings in criminal or civil proceedings related to the siege.

This is the same man that helped coverup a brutal state sanctioned murder of Kenny Trentadue, who seemed to have a link to another government conspiracy, the bombing of the Murrah building in OK City.

Jesse Trentadue, a Salt Lake City attorney, has been independently investigating the circumstances of his brother Kenny's strange death while in federal custody at the time of the OKC bombing. Go here to see some graphic pictures of what Kenny Trentadue looked like after he was received from the tender mercies of the Bureau of Prisons after what the Clintonistas claimed was a suicide hanging.

“Holder’s job was to stop the Democrats and Republicans from looking into this….you have to ask yourself why the Deputy Attorney General of the United States in involved in covering up the death of an inmate and the answer’s simple, they knew that death if investigated would lead back to the bombing, it would lead back to the government’s knowledge and involvement,” said Trentadue, adding that the release of the information would have been a disaster for the re-election hopes of Bill Clinton in 1996.

Look at the pics of a dead Kenny and see if you think he 'hanged' himself.

Don't hold your breath waiting for truth and justice to find a home at Eric Holder's DOJ. He's got way too many skeletons in his closet that are useful for keeping people in line.

Holder's a 'player' and will do as he's told.

Do you really believe that a DOJ that allows the following is actually going to investigate torture? The following is what happened to a survivor of the Waco massacre who was doing time in a federal prison while Holder was Deputy AG:

24 British nationals were among the 76 fatalities. Two more British nationals who survived the massacre were immediately arrested as "material witnesses" and imprisoned without trial for months.One, Derek Lovelock, was held in McLennan County Jail for seven months, often in solitary confinement. Livingston Fagan, another British citizen, who was among those convicted and imprisoned, recounts multiple beatings at the hands of prison guards, particularly at Leavenworth. He claims to have been doused with cold water from a high-pressure hose, which soaked both him and the contents and bedding of his cell, after which an industrial fan was placed outside the cell, blasting him with cold air. He was repeatedly moved between at least nine different facilities. He was strip-searched every time he took exercise, so refused exercise.

Source

Similar torture tactics used in a US federal prison were imported to Iraq. If Holder didn't bother to look into this torture here in the homeland, he sure as hell won't bother to look into it overseas.

Saturday, August 29, 2009

"Are you a REAL American?"

Are you a REAL American or just some latte sipping poseur?

Take this red, white and blue quiz to see if you really are an American or some Bin Laden wannabe.

1.) Whenever you hear the National Anthem, do you:

A) Come to attention, whip off a snappy salute and get all teary-eyed.
B) Scratch your crotch and wonder if the old lady's getting that beer.
C) Oil your AK47 while shouting "Allah Akbar."

2.) You see a bunch of smelly hippy types protesting the Iraq War, what would you do?

A) Immediately stop your pickup truck, get out your 'tire checker' and start bashing some commie punks in the face.
B) Don't pay any attention, since you're on your cell phone, trying to talk your wife's sister into meeting at a motel.
C) Stop your car and join the traitors.

3.) What cable news channels do you watch?

A) FOX News runs on my TV 24 hours a day.
B) MSNBC and Lifetime.
C) Al Jazeera

4.) While at your son's Little League game, you notice some radicals not saluting "Old Glory" while walking past that icon, what should be done?

A) Grab your trusty TAZER and shock some sense into those Gawd-less lesbian faggots.
B) You didn't see them, since you were too busy trying to seduce the coaches wife.
C) Haul down 'Old Glory' and use it in your Jim Morrison imitation.

5.) While listening to Rush Limbaugh on your 500 watt radio in the park, you notice some shifty types not paying attention to his Majesty, what would be your reaction?

A) Wait until station break, then go over and introduce your steel toed boots to those scum.
B) You didn't notice, since you were too busy making out with your brother's sister.
C) "What's a Rush Limbaugh?"

6.) Although your FIVE college deferments kept you from serving your country during the righteous Vietnam War, you see some punks demonstrating in front of a Marine Corp recruiting office, what would be your reaction?

A) Grab some of your like minded buddies out of the bar and start beating some patriotism into those assholes.
B) "Hey, that one blonde haired babe demonstrating is kinda hot!"
C) Make sure your kaffiyeh is on properly and join the demonstrators.

7.) You hear from the "Glenn Beck" show that the ACLU is going to be in town to file a brief, what would be your reaction?

A) Get in touch with the local VFW (Veterans for Wars) and agree to find these vermin and show them some bare-knuckle respect.
B) You're not sure if you'll be in town that day, since your fraternity bro's are throwing a reunion kegger.
C) Send another healthy donation to the ACLU.

8.) Your US Senator is going to be at a "Town Hall" meeting to discuss health care, what would you do?

A) Go there packing your trusty M-16 with its 40 round mag, waving a sign that says "No Commie Health" even though you don't have health care and will probably lose your home if you ever wind up in a hospital.
B) You won't be able to attend, since the coach caught you making out with his wife and put you into the hospital.
C) I'll be too busy reading my Koran.


SCORING: 3 points for each A; 2 points for each B and ZERO points for each C.

0-8: If you're still in this country by the end of the week, Pinko, TWO of our beefier 'customer service reps' will pay you a visit and give you and up close and personal teaching of what it means to be an American.

9-16: Your blood might be red, but you're nothing more than a Chardonnay sipping, croissant eating pussy.

17-24: Congratulations! You're one of a disappearing kind, a real 'John Wayne' kind of American. Join us in our monthly meeting by the old oak tree on Nathan Forest road and meet others like yourself.

P.S. BYOS---- Bring your own sheet.

Friday, August 28, 2009

AIPAC to go on mourning for Ted Kennedy

According to one tally, Ted Kennedy voted 100 percent in concert with positions taken by Aipac, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. Tom Dine, who served as Aipac’s executive director from 1980-93, was a defense and foreign policy advisor to Kennedy.

In the run-up to his tough 1994 Senate campaign against Mitt Romney, Kennedy accumulated some $45,000 from pro-Israel political action committees over the years, according to former Aipac legislative director Doug Bloomfield, “and presumably a lot more from individual pro-Israel donors, considering his long record of support for U.S. taxpayer aid for Israel.”

In the 1980 presidential race, writes Jeffrey S. Helmreich, “polls indicated that Carter would beat Kennedy in the New York Democratic primary by a margin of 54 to 28 percent. But on March 1, Carter’s UN Ambassador, Donald F. McHenry, voted for a viciously anti-Israel resolution in the UN Security Council condemning Israeli settlement activity in Jerusalem. Three weeks later, Kennedy beat Carter in New York by 59 percent to 41 percent.”

In a statement following Kennedy’s death, Israeli Prime Miniiter Benjamin Netanyahu said, “(Senator) Kennedy has been a friend for 30 years, a great American patriot, a great champion of a better world, a great friend of Israel. He will be sorely missed.”

Source: Jewish Journal

Another branch of AIPAC, the ADL, announced that it too would be wearing black for 30 days, to honor Ted 'Moshe' Kennedy. Abe Foxman, ADL's head, said he bought a smart DKNY black evening gown and matching pumps that he will wear to honor the Senator from Tel Aviv.

Perhaps 'Teddy' was trying to avoid the same fate Israel meted out to his brothers?

Q. "What do you tell a Senator from Massachusetts who is about to vote on an issue affecting Israel?"

A." Not a damn thing, since you done told him twice"

Is any better praise needed than that from one of the 9/11 architects?