Global Collapse of the Fiat Money System: Too Big To Fail Global Banks Will Collapse Between Now and First Quarter 2011

Global Collapse of the Fiat Money System: Too Big To Fail Global Banks Will Collapse Between Now and First Quarter 2011

Readers of my articles will recall that I have warned as far back as December 2006, that the global banks will collapse when the Financial Tsunami hits the global economy in 2007. And as they say, the rest is history.

Quantitative Easing (QE I) spearheaded by the Chairman of Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke delayed the inevitable demise of the fiat shadow money banking system slightly over 18 months.

That is why in November of 2009, I was so confident to warn my readers that by the end of the first quarter of 2010 at the earliest or by the second quarter of 2010 at the latest, the global economy will go into a tailspin. The recent alarm that the US economy has slowed down and in the words of Bernanke “the recent pace of growth is less vigorous than we expected” has all but vindicated my analysis. He warned that the outlook is uncertain and the economy “remains vulnerable to unexpected developments”.

Obviously, Bernanke’s words do not reveal the full extent of the fear that has gripped central bankers and the financial elites that assembled at the annual gathering at Jackson Hole, Wyoming. But, you can take it from me that they are very afraid.

Why?

Let me be plain and blunt. The “unexpected developments” Bernanke referred to is the collapse of the global banks. This is FED speak and to those in the loop, this is the dire warning.

So many renowned economists have misdiagnosed the objective and consequences of quantitative easing. Central bankers’ scribes and the global mass media hoodwinked the people by saying that QE will enable the banks to lend monies to cash-starved companies and jump start the economy. The low interest rate regime would encourage all and sundry to borrow, consume and invest.

This was the fairy tale.

Then, there were some economists who were worried that as a result of the FED’s printing press (electronic or otherwise) working overtime, hyper-inflation would set in soon after.

But nothing happened. The multiplier effect of fractional reserve banking did not take off. Bank lending in fact stalled.

Why?

What happened?

Let me explain in simple terms step by step.

1) All the global banks were up to their eye-balls in toxic assets. All the AAA mortgage-backed securities etc. were in fact JUNK. But in the balance sheets of the banks and their special purpose vehicles (SPVs), they were stated to be worth US$ TRILLIONS.

2) The collapse of Lehman Bros and AIG exposed this ugly truth. All the global banks had liabilities in the US$ Trillions. They were all INSOLVENT. The central banks the world over conspired and agreed not to reveal the total liabilities of the global banks as that would cause a run on these banks, as happened in the case of Northern Rock in the U.K.

3) A devious scheme was devised by the FED, led by Bernanke to assist the global banks to unload systematically and in tranches the toxic assets so as to allow the banks to comply with RESERVE REQUIREMENTS under the fractional reserve banking system, and to continue their banking business. This is the essence of the bailout of the global banks by central bankers.

4) This devious scheme was effected by the FED’s quantitative easing (QE) – the purchase of toxic assets from the banks. The FED created “money out of thin air” and used that “money” to buy the toxic assets at face or book value from the banks, notwithstanding they were all junks and at the most, worth maybe ten cents to the dollar. Now, the FED is “loaded” with toxic assets once owned by the global banks. But these banks cannot declare and or admit to this state of affairs. Hence, this financial charade.

5) If we are to follow simple logic, the exercise would result in the global banks flushed with cash to enable them to lend to desperate consumers and cash-starved businesses. But the money did not go out as loans. Where did the money go?

6) It went back to the FED as reserves, and since the FED bought US$ trillions worth of toxic wastes, the “money” (it was merely book entries in the Fed’s books) that these global banks had were treated as “Excess Reserves”. This is a misnomer because it gave the ILLUSION that the banks are cash-rich and under the fractional reserve system would be able to lend out trillions worth of loans. But they did not. Why?

7) Because the global banks still have US$ trillions worth of toxic wastes in their balance sheets. They are still insolvent under the fractional reserve banking laws. The public must not be aware of this as otherwise, it would trigger a massive run on all the global banks!

8) Bernanke, the US Treasury and the global central bankers were all praying and hoping that given time (their estimation was 12 to 18 months) the housing market would recover and asset prices would resume to the levels before the crisis. .

Let me explain: A House was sold for say US$500,000. Borrower has a mortgage of US$450,000 or more. The house is now worth US$200,000 or less. Multiply this by the millions of houses sold between 2000 and 2008 and you will appreciate the extent of the financial black-hole. There is no way that any of the global banks can get out of this gigantic mess. And there is also no way that the FED and the global central bankers through QE can continue to buy such toxic wastes without showing their hands and exposing the lie that these banks are solvent.

It is my estimation that they have to QE up to US$20 trillion at the minimum. The FED and no central banker would dare “create such an amount of money out of thin air” without arousing the suspicions and or panic of sovereign creditors, investors and depositors. It is as good as declaring officially that all the banks are BANKRUPT.

9) But there is no other solution in the short and middle term except another bout of quantitative easing, QE II. Given the above caveat, QE II cannot exceed the amount of the previous QE without opening the proverbial Pandora Box.

10) But it is also a given that the FED will embark on QE II, as under the fractional reserve banking system, if the FED does not purchase additional toxic wastes, the global banks (faced with mounting foreclosures, etc.) will fall short of their reserve requirements.

11) You will also recall that the FED at the height of the crisis announced that interest will be paid on the so-called “excess reserves” of the global banks, thus enabling these banks to “earn” interest. So what we have is a merry-go-round of monies moving from the right pocket to the left pocket at the click of the computer mouse. The FED creates money, uses it to buy toxic assets, and the same money is then returned to the FED by the global banks to earn interest. By this fiction of QE, banks are flushed with cash which enable them to earn interest. Is it any wonder that these banks have declared record profits?

12) The global banks get rid of some of their toxic wastes at full value and at no costs, and get paid for unloading the toxic wastes via interest payments. Additionally, some of the “monies” are used by these banks to purchase US Treasuries (which also pay interests) which in turn allows the US Treasury to continue its deficit spending. THIS IS THE BAILOUT RIP OFF of the century.

Now that you fully understand this SCAM, it is left to be seen how the FED will get away with the next round of quantitative easing – QE II.

Obviously, the FED and the other central banks are hoping that in time, asset prices will recover and resume their previous values before the crisis. This is a fantasy. QE II will fail just as QE I failed to save the banks.

The patient is in intensive care and is for all intent and purposes brain dead, although the heart is still pumping albeit faintly. The Too Big To Fail Banks cannot be rescued and must be allowed to be liquidated. It will be painful, but it is necessary before there is recovery. This is a given.

Warning:

When the ball hits the ceiling fan, sometime early 2011 at the earliest, there will be massive bank runs.

I expect that the FED and other central banks will pre-empt such a run and will do the following:

1) Disallow cash withdrawals from banks beyond a certain amount, say US$1,000 per day; 2) Disallow cash transactions up to a certain amount, say US$10,000 for certain transactions; 3) Transactions (investments) for metals (gold and silver) will be restricted; 4) Worst-case scenario – the confiscation of gold AS HAPPENED IN WORLD WAR II. 5) Imposition of capital controls etc.; 6) Legislations that will compel most daily commercial transactions to be conducted through Debit and or Credit Cards; 7) Legislations to make it a criminal offence for any contraventions of the above.

Solution:

Maintain a bank balance sufficient to enable you to comply with the above potential impositions.

Start diversifying your assets away from dollar assets. Have foreign currencies in sufficient quantities in those jurisdictions where the above anticipated impositions are least likely to be implemented.

CONCLUSION

There will be a financial tsunami (round two) the likes of which the world has never seen.

Global banks will collapse!

Be ready.

Charles baffled by climate sceptics

The Prince of Wales has said he finds the views of climate change sceptics "extraordinary".

The heir to the throne made the comment in an interview with ITV's new breakfast show hosts Adrian Chiles and Christine Bleakley to highlight his cross-country campaign to promote sustainable living.

Charles has spent the past week travelling around the UK encouraging the public to make simple changes to their lifestyle to help combat climate change.

His chat with Chiles and Bleakley from the Daybreak programme was filmed on Thursday evening in the garden of Clarence House.

Asked by Bleakley what he thought of climate change doubters, the Prince responded: "I find it extraordinary. To me it seems sensible to take a precautionary approach.

"Clearly something is going very wrong. I would say to sceptics - it may be convenient to believe all these greenhouse gases we are pouring into the atmosphere disappear through holes conveniently into space, but it doesn't work like that."

He warned that living on the planet would be "no fun at all" for future generations unless people took action to combat climate change.

"Personally I'm not prepared to see your children be handed a completely malfunctioning planetary system," he said.

Charles has been touring the country since Monday as part of his Start initiative - which aims to encourage the public to move towards a more sustainable lifestyle.

50 Mind Blowing Facts About America That Our Founding Fathers Never Would Have Believed

If our Founding Fathers were alive today, what would they think of America? Surely they would be very proud that the United States stretches from the Atlantic to the Pacific and has built some of the most amazing cities that the world has ever seen. They would probably be surprised that the country they founded went on to become the greatest economic machine in the history of the world, and they would be absolutely astounded by things like our interstate highway system and the Internet. However, there are quite a number of things that they would be horrified about as well. The fact that over 40 million Americans are dependent on the federal government for their daily food would be deeply disturbing to our founders. Also, the fact that the U.S. government has accumulated the greatest mountain of debt in human history would be incredibly distressing to George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and the rest of the founders. But perhaps most of all, our founders would be absolutely disgusted that the land where Americans could once be free to pursue life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness has become so tightly regulated and controlled that Americans dare not even squeak without the permission of the federal government.

Needless to say, our founders would certainly not understand many of our institutions or many of the advanced technologies that we have today. But without a doubt they would be able to grasp how far we have fallen as a nation and how far we have strayed from the fundamental principles that they enshrined in our founding documents. The United States is a much different place today than it was in 1776, and unfortunately many of the changes have been for the worse.

The following are 50 mind blowing facts about modern America that our Founding Fathers never would have believed....

#1 In 2010, not only does the United States have a central bank, but it also runs our economy and issues all of our currency. The Federal Reserve has devalued the U.S. dollar by over 95 percent since 1913 and it has been used to create the biggest mountain of government debt in the history of the world.

#2 The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has ruled that U.S. government agents can legally sneak onto your property in the middle of the night, place a secret GPS device on the bottom of your car and keep track of you everywhere that you go.

#3 The 50 wealthiest members of Congress saw their collective fortunes increase by 85.1 million dollars to $1.4 billion in 2009.

#4 The U.S. government has accumulated a national debt that is rapidly approaching the 14 trillion dollar mark.

#5 All over the United States, asphalt roads are being ground up and are being replaced with gravel because it is cheaper to maintain. The state of South Dakota has transformed over 100 miles of asphalt road into gravel over the past year, and 38 out of the 83 counties in the state of Michigan have now turned some of their asphalt roads into gravel roads.

#6 Americans now owe more than $849 billion on student loans, which is more than the total amount that Americans owe on their credit cards.

#7 In 2010, Americans waste an astounding amount of food. According to a study by the California Integrated Waste Management board, 63 percent of the average supermarket's waste stream is food. When you break that down, it means that each supermarket wastes approximately 3,000 pounds of food each year.

#8 The city of Cleveland plans to sort through curbside trash to ensure that people are actually recycling properly. If it is discovered that some citizens are not recycling they will be hit with very large fines.

#9 Once upon a time, U.S. industry was the envy of the world. But since 1979, manufacturing employment in the United States has fallen by 40 percent.

#10 Even though the U.S. population has exploded in size, the number of Americans with manufacturing jobs today is smaller than the number of Americans who were employed in manufacturing in 1950.

#11 Having one out of every eight Americans enrolled in the food stamp program is now considered "the new normal" and Americans continue to drop into poverty in astounding numbers.

#12 One out of every six Americans is now being served by at least one government anti-poverty program.

#13 A family of four actually has difficulty surviving on an income of $50,000 a year in America in 2010.

#14 Barack Obama is backing a proposal to create a national database that will store the DNA of all individuals who have been arrested, even if they end up not being convicted of a crime.

#15 In 2010, it takes the average unemployed American worker over 8 months to find a job.

#16 The U.S. government has made some parts of Arizona off limits to U.S. citizens because of the threat of violence from Mexican drug smugglers. The federal government has actually posted signs more than 100 miles north of the Mexican border warning travelers that certain areas are unsafe because of drug and alien smugglers.

#17 One recent survey of last year's college graduates discovered that 80 percent moved right back home with their parents after graduation.

#18 In one of the very first military commissions held under the Obama administration, a U.S. military judge ruled that confessions obtained by threatening the subject with rape are admissible in court.

#19 The average American worker now pays literally dozens of different kinds of taxes each year.

#20 In recent years the U.S. government has spent $2.6 million tax dollars to study the drinking habits of Chinese prostitutes and $400,000 tax dollars to pay researchers to cruise six bars in Buenos Aires, Argentina to find out why gay men engage in risky sexual behavior when drunk.

#21 Christians are being arrested and thrown in jail in some areas of the United States for quietly passing out Christian literature on public sidewalks.

#22 The Florida State Department of Juvenile Justice has announced that it will begin using cutting edge analysis software to predict crime by young delinquents and will place "potential offenders" in prevention and education programs.

#23 Organic milk is now considered such a national crisis that the FDA has been conducting military style raids on Amish farmers in the state of Pennsylvania.

#24 The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently announced that they are considering a crackdown on farm dust.

#25 According to a new CDC report, nearly half of all Americans now use prescription drugs on a regular basis.

#26 Oakland, California Police Chief Anthony Batts says that due to severe budget cuts there are a number of crimes that his department will simply not be able to respond to any longer. The crimes that the Oakland police will no longer be responding to include grand theft, burglary, car wrecks, identity theft and vandalism.

#27 Today, Americans are losing their homes in staggering numbers. One out of every seven mortgages was delinquent or in foreclosure during the first quarter of 2010.

#28 Many of our leading scientists are now calling themselves "transhumanists" and are openly proclaiming that a future where men have fully merged with machines is inevitable.

#29 Americans who spend large amounts of cash are viewed as "potential criminals" by the U.S. government in 2010.

#30 New full body security scanners going into airports all across the United States can actually see through our clothing and produce very clear and very detailed images of our exposed bodies as we walk through them.

#31 The U.S. financial system has become a massive gambling parlor in 2010. As a result, a horrific derivatives bubble has developed that threatens to destroy our entire economy at any moment. Nobody knows exactly how big the derivatives bubble is, but low estimates place it at around 600 trillion dollars and high estimates put it at around 1.5 quadrillion dollars. Once that bubble pops there simply will not be enough money in the entire world to fix it.

#32 The U.S. government is spending an amount of money equivalent to approximately 25.4 percent of GDP this year.

#33 Today, 10,000 people make 30% of the total income in the United States.

#34 A 2006 Immigration and Customs Enforcement investigation discovered that 250 employees of the Defense Department used credit cards or PayPal to purchase images of children in sexual situations. However, the investigation also found that the Pentagon investigated only a handful of those cases.

#35 According to a recent poll of Americans between the ages of 44 and 75, 61% said that running out money was their biggest fear. The remaining 39% thought death was scarier.

#36 Approximately 57 percent of Barack Obama's 3.8 trillion dollar budget for 2011 consists of direct payments to individual Americans or is money that is spent on their behalf.

#37 A recent Department of Justice guide for investigators of criminal and extremist groups lists "constitutionalists" and "survivalists" alongside organizations like Al-Qaeda and the Aryan Brotherhood.

#38 The U.S. trade deficit has exploded to nightmarish proportions over the past two decades. Every single month tens of billions more dollars goes out of the United States than comes into it. Essentially, the United States is becoming far poorer as a nation each and every month.

#39 Factories are closing in droves across the United States because the American people would rather buy things made in China.

#40 Millions upon millions of good paying middle class jobs are being shipped off to China and they are never coming back. Meanwhile, U.S. politicians stand by idly and do nothing.

#41 Some analysts now believe that China could become the largest economy in the world by the year 2020.

#42 If the U.S. government was forced to use GAAP accounting principles (like all publicly-traded corporations must), the annual U.S. government budget deficit would be somewhere in the neighborhood of four to five trillion dollars.

#43 According to one recent survey, 28% of all U.S. households have at least one person that is currently searching for a full-time job.

#44 The U.S. dollar continues to rapidly decline in value. An item that cost $20.00 in 1970 will cost you $112.35 today. An item that cost $20.00 in 1913 will cost you $440.33 today.

#45 Major international organizations are actually proposing that the United States start considering the adoption of a truly global currency.

#46 Students at a high school in Missouri have built a car that they claim can get up to 450 miles per gallon. On another note, some of the top energy experts in the world believe that thorium could solve our energy problems and supply very cheap energy for society for hundreds of thousands of years. But in today's world technologies such as these are endlessly suppressed by the rich and powerful.

#47 One Colorado high school student is seeking an explanation from officials at his school after he was ordered by security guards to remove American flags from his truck because they might make other students at the high school "uncomfortable".

#48 Three California high school students were recently forced to remove their American flag T-shirts on Cinco de Mayo.

#49 Memorial crosses erected along Utah public roads to honor fallen state troopers have been found unconstitutional by a federal appeals court and now must be removed permanently.

#50 One group of high school students made national headlines recently when they revealed that a security guard ordered them to stop singing the national anthem during a visit to the Lincoln Memorial.

Priest sex abuse linked to 13 suicides in Belgium

BRUSSELS — Hundreds of sex abuse victims have come forward in Belgium with harrowing accounts of molestation by Catholic clergy that reportedly led to at least 13 suicides and affected children as young as two, an independent Belgian commission said Friday.

Professor Peter Adriaenssens, chairman of the commission, said the abuse in Belgium may have been even more rampant than the 200-page report suggests, because his panel's work was interrupted and all its files seized in a June 24 raid by Belgian judicial authorities who are conducting their own probe.

Adriaenssens, a child psychiatrist who has worked with trauma victims for 23 years, said nothing had prepared him for the stories of abuse that blighted the lives of victims. He called the report's findings "a body blow" to the Roman Catholic Church in Belgium.

more
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5h6zARxT-_a009R_vd...

Political Solutions Are Hard to Come By in the Matrix

"No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it." -- Albert Einstein

Human World Order
Activist Post

Obviously it is important for the recently awakened Human Tribe (Truth and Liberty movement) to discuss and analyze the faults of the corporate-government system in order to determine solutions. However, it seems as though even the group the mainstream views as radical is still trying to affect change within the same corrupt system. These pragmatists are still operating by rules of the system that have been written by the controllers for the sole purpose of supporting their agenda.

There are many in the Tribe with great ideas, such as returning to the sanctity of the Constitution, thus limiting government control. This would indeed restore certain personal liberties and local controls, but the corporate controllers seem to have their claws into all aspects of Federal and local governments. So the notion that it is feasible to have a strict return to the Constitution is slim at best.

Consequently, we must begin to question the solidity of the Constitution itself if the document hasn't prevented the complete mutation of what America was meant to be -- a new land with equality and freedom for all. It hasn't prevented corporations from forming monopolistic cartels with the power to control entire industries and buy politicians (and judges). It hasn't prevented a private central bank from being formed with unprecedented power over the global economy. It hasn't prevented our leaders from taking our country to unnecessary and unjust wars, against the will of the people and common human decency. It did not prevent the "checks and balances" from falling to the agenda of the robber barons. And, finally, it has failed in protecting the individual rights of the citizens, which arguably is the sole purpose of the Bill of Rights.

Yes, the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights are still the most brilliant documents in history to define a fair and just government. However, after centuries of perversion by court interpretations and rulings, and millions of liberty-smashing laws and statutes which allowed the rise of our Ponzi economy built by private counterfeiters and consolidated by anti-competition cartels, we must now question the power of the Constitution to address such shortcomings. Incidentally, returning to the strict interpretation of the Constitution would undo the centuries of precedents in the court and alter the public's perception of reality so dramatically that it is unlikely to happen.

Many of us in the movement to restore human freedom have formed or joined political action groups in hopes of changing unjust aspects of the system. All of these deeds should be commended and supported. However, we must remain mindful that the whole as it pertains to the system is greater than the some of its parts. In other words, the system and its controllers are more powerful than the individual parts of the system. They have full control of the elected officials no matter which branch they serve: the courts, the regulatory agencies, the economy, the war machine, and the media propaganda machine.

Furthermore, when we achieve small political victories they can take decades to implement, and ultimately they become hijacked or corrupted in the end. The most glaring example is the Audit The Fed measure that was passed in the absurd financial "reform" bill. Ron Paul, who is courageously doing his best to affect change within the system, originally proposed auditing the Federal Reserve three decades ago. And when it finally was passed into law, it had no teeth left due to the utter corruption of the system. It is important to note that this highly contested piece of legislation does nothing to change or halt the actual practices or structure of the Fed. It only allows the Congress a one-time peek behind the curtain at what will surely be a well-orchestrated puppet show with a fictional script called "Cook the Books."

Granted, promoting the Audit the Fed bill, like other causes in the Liberty Movement, can lead to a new levels of awareness among the public. Ultimately, humanity will only achieve victory when enough people can see the true nature of the system's prison. So in that sense, these measures do serve a vital role to the movement. However, we must realize that this watered-down political victory will do nothing to fundamentally change the system.

It seems that in order to truly affect change we must first, as individuals, resist aspects of the system through non-cooperation. In other words, we must do as Gandhi said and we must "Be the change we wish to see in the world." It is living the change on a mass scale that will create the new level of consciousness needed to solve the problems created by our corrupt corporate-government.

More Human World Order Articles:
Collapse Survival Will Be Tribal: Begin Recruiting Now

PUC, PG&E Investigate Complaints of Gas Prior to Explosion

As homes still smoldered in a San Bruno neighborhood after a gas line ruptured and sparked a massive inferno Thursday, residents in the area said they had complained about a gas smell for weeks.

People who live in the in the Crestmoore neighborhood told reporters thay had complained to Pacific Gas and Electric about the smell of gas in the area and wondered why the utility had apparently not done anything about it. Late Friday, the California Public Utilities Commission established a toll-free number and an email address for anyone who has information on a natural gas smell in the San Bruno area in the weeks before Sept. 9 explosion. The number is 800-789-0550 and the email address is SBFire@cpuc.ca.gov.

MSNBC posted an article that said steel gas mains are drawing the attention of regulators across the country. It sites failure of pipes like the one here triggering action in other states. A map of pipelines across the country is included.

PG&E President Chris Johns said at a news conference Friday morning that they are looking into the reports and will go over their records from the phone calls about the complaints.

Eerie Headline on Charred Newspaper

LOOK

Eerie Headline on Charred Newspaper

Dramatic Photos: The San Bruno Explosion

LOOK

Dramatic Photos: The San Bruno Explosion

Still Photographer Walks in the Ruins

WATCH

Still Photographer Walks in the Ruins

"Right now, we haven't got confirmation about that, but we have records that we are going back right this minute to try to confirm what exactly those phone calls look like and when they occurred, and we will report back as soon as we know something," Johns said.

Tim Guiterrez, who lives in the neighborhood, said he was one of those who told PG&E about a distinct smell of gas. Guiterrez said a representative from the utility was in the neighborhood last week and told people to shut their garage doors and stay inside as they looked into the complaint.

Waiting in the wings of all the investigations are the victims desperate to know if their homes survived the flames.

State Assemblyman Jerry Hill, who represents San Bruno, also heard reports from people who says they had alerted the utility of gas odors in the neighborhood before the disaster. Hill says the residents "deserve to know if PG&E used the correct procedures" leading up to the explosion.

State Senators Alex Padilla and Mark Leno also jumped into the investigation fray. They announced plans for a hearing into the cause of the explosion. They also say they want to see how similar events can be prevented in the future. Padilla is chair of the Senate Energy, Utilities and Communications Committee and Senator Leno is chair of the Senate Public Safety Committee. The senate review is supposed to begin immediately with hearing scheduled for next week.

"This horrible accident is a wake-up call that California needs to do more to protect the public and meet the highest safety standards. I look forward to an in-depth review into what caused this tragedy and what lawmakers and regulators can do to prevent similar tragedies in the future," Padilla said.

Dozens of homes caught fire in quick succession at 6:15 p.m. Many residents said they ran for their lives from a wall of flame and raining asphalt.

The utility that operates the 30-inch diameter line said it was trying to find out what caused the steel gas pipe to rupture and ignite. Federal pipeline safety inspectors were also on the scene Friday afternoon. "It was just an amazing scene of destruction," National Transportation Safety Board vice chairman Christopher Hart told the Associated Press.

By Friday evening state officials said In all, 38 homes were destroyed. That number is down from the 52 homes listed as destroyed late Thursday night. Seven more suffered serious damage and dozens more had some damage. The fire zone spanned 15 acres. A Google representative alerted NBC to this map which marks the firelines.

Friday night state officials stood firm on the death toll. They said four people were dead. They also said 52 patients were treated for burns and smoke inhalation; four of them suffered critical burns. Four firefighters were also treated for smoke inhalation.

Fire crews went door to door Friday searching for more victims. They said some of the homes were still too hot to search and would have to wait until Saturday.

From the Associated Press:

Compared to the tens of thousands of miles of gas pipelines across the country, accidents are relatively rare.

In 2009, there were 163 significant accidents involving natural gas pipelines, killing 10 people and injuring 59.

Transmission lines like the one that burst in San Bruno deliver natural gas from its source to distribution lines, which then carry it into neighborhoods before branching off into homes.

Over the past two decades, federal officials tallied 2,840 significant gas pipeline accidents nationwide -- including 992 in which someone was killed or required hospitalization, according to the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.

Those accidents killed 323 people and injured 1,372.

Experts say the nation's 296,000 miles of onshore natural-gas lines routinely suffer breakdowns and failures.

More than 60 percent of the lines are 40 years old or older and almost half were installed in the 1950s and 1960s, according to a recent analysis by the Pipeline Safety Trust, a nonprofit advocacy group based in Bellingham, Wash.

Most of the older pipelines lack anticorrosion coatings that are prevalent in the industry today, said Carl Weimer, executive director of the trust, which was set up following a 1999 explosion that killed three people in Bellingham.

Below is a fire official walking a Southern California producer through a home to check that the home is safe from gas leaks.

Come on Terry Light My Fire

Hey there Reverend Doctor Man of G-d and War Terry Jones, it’s almost September 11, 2010 and I really wanted to dash off this open letter to you so you can make the most of your Qur’an burning day on Saturday. I have a question or two for you and some suggestions and I think combined they’ll make for one hot day down there in Florida. BTW, has the BP oil spill stuff gotten into the water supply down there yet? Just curious, but I digress.

Anyway, first of all, I have a couple of questions for you. Which riwayah of the Qur’an will you be burning? Will it be Hafs ‘an ‘Asim? That’s the most common one found today and you could get it at just about any mosque. Get a bunch of’em. Also, make sure to then to get a Warsh ‘an Nafi’ recension , it’s not quite as available, but there’s still quite a few around. Make sure you get your Warsh Qur’an in both the Uthmani script – again pretty common, but if you really want to piss of the people of North Africa, especially in Morocco, be sure to get a Warsh Qur’an that is in the Magrebi script. These are much harder to get and the copy I own personally I really treasure, so if you can burn some of those it will just hurt so, so much.

There’s lots of other recensions you can get as well. If you are really lucky you might find the Riwayah of Ruways and Rawh from Yacub al-Hadrami – very rare. Might even be worth some real money and then you could just drop it into the fire. How cool is that?

Oh, in case you didn’t know, the Qur’an only exists in Arabic, so if you just get some English, Spanish, or Redneck translation – that won’t be burning the Qur’an at all and you won’t be sending a message to the Mooselims who are hiding under your bed. In fact, even if your translation of the Qur’an contains the entire Arabic text, if there’s more English or Redneck in the volume itself due to comments and footnotes and the like, then some Muslims won’t be as offended since the book is not mainly the Qur’an itself. So please go to your local mosques and buy those Arabic only Qurans just to be on the safe side. I’m sure your tax-paying Muslim neighbors will be happy to oblige.

Oh, another question. Did you know that the Quran was meant to be recited? (That’s what the word Qur’an means – not that I would expect you to know that.) So you should buy a bunch of CD’s of Quran recitation, get a big shredder, put the CD’s in and shred them to bits and then toss them into the fire too. There’s lots of places to get Quran cd’s. Also, if you go here, you can download all the Sura’s in the Quran you want from all of the Riwayahs for free, burn your own cd’s (pun intended) and then shred them and toss them into the fire. I bet that’ll get you excited. Oh, I almost forgot, at the mp3 site I just linked to, you can get the entire Quran in mp3 format in the Ruways and Rawh riwayah. It differs from most of the others in a way that involves including some of the case endings in the recitation, not that you would know what those are, and it does so in a way that I find artistically effective. Oh, my Elohim, it would just so piss me off if you did burn that one.

Oh, and there are also DVD’s, lots of them, showing men reciting the Qur’an. Go here to Amazon.com. Oh, wait, none are left. Everyone must have bought them so they can burn them. But be sure to buy those too – this is sort of like killing two birds with one stone – like the Israelis do when they shoot pregnant women – they even sell t-shirts advocating the practice. Anyway, you can be just like the Israelis and burn not only the Quran, but the images of the dude who is reciting it too. Man that will just piss so many people off – and probably get you and your followers off too.

Oh, you are going to burn copies of the Talmud too right? You told Mark Glenn in your interview with him that you would. I am linking to it so everyone can hear. I’m sure that Zionist Jews who hate Islam would be glad to give you copies of the Talmud for free – and remember it’ll need to be in the original language(s) – mainly Hebrew, I think some Aramaic too. Aramaic – that’s the language Jesus spoke. That’s the language he was speaking up on the cross when the Muslims, oh wait, I mean the Jews – err the Italians – crucified him because the Muslims, oh wait, the Jews – err – the masses (of no particular persuasion) – preferred a common criminal be freed instead.

Since you don’t want those evil Mooselims to build the falsely-named ground zero mosque in New York, I strongly suggest you burn the Constitution of These United States. I have a copy of THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION here for you to print out and burn. Readers of my blog should also print it out and fax it to you at 352-371-6511.

Since you do not care about anything except yourself, and I agree you have the right to burn whatever you want as long as it doesn’t make the waters of the Gulf any more polluted than they now are, you should go whole-hog and burn the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, and the Oslo Accords principles of whatever. We’d appreciate it at Mantiq al-Tayr, since you are burning all this stuff you don’t care about, if you’d toss in anything written by Pam Geller and/or Robert Spencer that you might come across.

Oh, and it would also be good, since you don’t like the devil very much, if you’d burn a witch or two. We’re not that good at Mantiq al-Tayr at determing who is a witch, so we don’t get into that sort of thing. But why let all the people up in Salem have all the fun. I’m sure there are plenty of witches down there in Florida.

Wish I could be there in Gainesville for this great event which will go down in history as one of the great achievements of Christianity. I mean, it won’t match the Inquisition in Spain where Muslims were forced at the sword to convert to your religion and the Jews were driven out and sought refuge in Muslim lands because Christians were behaving, well they were behaving like Christians I guess, based on what you are doing.

As the time draws near, all of us here at Mantiq al-Tayr wish you and those who worship with you a happy holiday on September 11, 2010 as you burn copies of a book held sacred by more than one fifth of mankind, preserved in its riwayat lovingly and handed down generation after generation for all mankind to read, study and reflect upon.

And all the tuyuur here at Mantiq al-Tayr forgive you, for you know not what ye do.

Nobody expects the American inquisition!

By Pepe Escobar (A hat tip to Monty Python's legendary Spanish Inquisition sketch.) [The White House Oval Office] Vice President Joe Biden [anxiously pacing the room]: Mr President. Mullah Omar, you know, the one-eyed Taliban leader, he just said we have to get the hell out of Afghanistan as soon as possible. And he said the Taliban were winning the war. [1] United States President Barack Obama [contemplating a basketball]: No wonder I cannot run a business here. Why can't these COINistas bring me Omar's head on a plate? Even I know he lives in Quetta [in Pakistan]. And why can't they track Osama bin Laden? What are these Special Forces doing, watching Mad Men on cable? Biden: Mr President, believe me, it's we who are winning, not them. Obama: Oh no, no, no, Joe. Get a grip on this AfPak business. The COINistas want nation-building and war against the Taliban, which for them is the same as al-Qaeda. You want only counter-terrorism against al-Qaeda on both sides of AfPak. Whatever we do, we will get clobbered in the November polls. I need a narrative arc of victory here, Joe! Biden: Mr President, you did finish the Iraq War last week ... Obama: I was not awesome enough, Joe. Besides, [George W] Bush did it before me, and it didn't work. Biden: I'm afraid there's more trouble ahead, Mr President. The Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth were in congress and at the National Press Club telling everybody that the Twin Towers collapsed in near free-fall because of pre-set demolition explosives. It says here, Mr President, and I quote, "An international team of scientists found nanothermitic composite material in World Trade Center dust, providing the first hard evidence of the presence of advanced pyrotechnics or explosives in the disaster debris." They want a Grand Jury investigation of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, Mr President. Obama: For Heaven's sake Joe, can you imagine if I decided to reopen 9/11? Did you see that poll last week where a majority of Republicans said, let me see if I remember correctly, that I "definitely sympathize with the goals of Islamic fundamentalists who want to impose Islamic law around the world"? Who are these people? Whatever I do I'm a racist, a communist, a radical Islam-hugger ... I didn't expect a kind of American Inquisition. [Jarring chord] [The Oval Office door flies open and messianic Fox News host and self-appointed God's spokesperson to the United States Glenn Beck enters, flanked by former vice-presidential candidate and Tea Party icon Sarah Palin, former speaker of the house (and aspiring presidential candidate) Newt Gingrich, former US ambassador to the United Nations (and aspiring presidential candidate) John Bolton, the Texas energy conglomerate billionaires the Koch brothers, and Glenville, Florida fringe extremist Christian pastor Terry Jones, a mini-Koran burning in his hands in homage to his proposed, then aborted, International Burn-a-Koran Day on 9/11.] Beck [bombastic]: Nobody expects the American Inquisition! Our chief weapon is surprise ... surprise and fear ... fear and surprise ... Our two weapons are fear and surprise ... and catchy sound bites ... Our three weapons are fear, surprise, and catchy sound bites ... and an almost fanatical devotion to God ... Our four ... no ... Amongst our weapons ... Amongst our weaponry ... are such elements as fear, surprise ... I'll come in again. [The Inquisition exits] Obama: I didn't expect a kind of American Inquisition. [Jarring chord] [The group burst in, minus Terry Jones, who had his hands burned by his burning Koran.] Palin [squeakily]: Nobody expects the American Inquisition! We love weapons! Oh you betcha! We have so many of them, fear, surprise, catchy sound bites, an almost fanatical devotion to shooting wolves from my helicopter, these nice red leather pumps ... And I can see Russia from my house! Oh darn!?[To Bolton]: I can't say it - you'll have to say it. Bolton: What?? Palin: You'll have to say the bit about "Our chief weapons are ..." Bolton: [rather impatient]: Nah, let's get on with it, we gotta rush to the part where we frame all Muslims as neo-nazis. [The group bundles outside again] Obama: I didn't expect a kind of American Inquisition. [Jarring chord] [The group enters] Bolton: Er ... Nobody ... um ... expects ... Nobody expects the ... um .. the American ... um ... Beck: Inquisition.? Bolton: I know, I know! Nobody expects the American Inquisition. In fact, those who do expect know that we can't be at the mercy of terrorists, we have to reclaim the date of September 11 from these deceptive Islamic supremacists, and that's why I'll be running for President in 2012. Gingrich: OK! OK! OK! Stop! Stop. Ah! ... our chief weapons are surprise ... blah blah blah. Alright. Glenn, read the charges. Beck: You are hereby charged that you did on diverse dates commit heresy against the American flag. You are a racist ... a guy who has a deep-seated hatred for white people, the white culture, I don't know what it is. You are a Muslim. You were not even born in the United States. You are a servant of Islam ... Gingrich: That's enough. [To Obama] Now, how do you plead? Obama: This is ridiculous. Of course I'm innocent. Gingrich: Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! [diabolical laughter] The Koch brothers [surreptitiously]: We'll soon change your mind about that! Bolton: Fear, surprise, and while we're at it, at war with all servants of Islam, which is taking over the world and it is now America's turn to fall. Hush, Glenn, grab the prayer rug! [Beck produces a stinky prayer rug he got from a Special Forces officer who bought it on Chicken Street in Kabul for $10. Gingrich looks at it and clenches his teeth in an effort not to lose control. He hums heavily to cover his anger] Gingrich: You ... Right! Make him hug the rug. [The Koch brothers make a pathetic attempt to rub the rug against President Obama's lap] Gingrich: Right! How do you plead? Obama [imperturbable]: Innocent. Beck: Ha! Right! Newt, don't you think he should kneel down and pray? [Gingrich stands awkwardly, shrugs his shoulders] Gingrich: I ... Beck: [gritting his teeth] I know, I know you can't. Gingrich: I ... Beck: Just pretend for God's sake. Ha! Ha! Ha! [Gingrich dreamily grabs the rug and lays it on the floor. Fuzzy focus, dreamy soundtrack...] [Cut abruptly to the group torturing US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton] Beck: Now, old woman - you are accused of heresy on three counts - heresy by thought, heresy by word, heresy by deed, and heresy by action - four counts. Do you confess? Clinton: I haven't the faintest idea what I'm accused of. Don't you ever watch my press conferences? Bolton: Ha! Then we'll make you understand! Glenn! Fetch ... the Islamic cushions! [Jarring chord] [Beck holds out two Islamic-green, made in China cushions] Beck: There you are. Can you believe they sell these in Manhattan only a few yards away from Ground Zero? Gingrich: Now, old lady - you have one last chance. Confess the heinous sin of heresy, reject the works of the ungodly - two last chances. And you shall be free - three last chances. You have three last chances, the nature of which I have divulged in my previous utterance. Clinton: I don't know what you're talking about. Gingrich: Right! If that's the way you want it - Bolton! Poke her with the Islamic cushions! [Bolton carries out his pathetic torture] Gingrich: Confess! Confess! Confess! Bolton: It doesn't seem to be hurting her. I always thought this woman was evil. Gingrich [angrily hurling away the cushions]: Hmm! She is made of harder stuff! Glenn! Fetch ... the comfy mosque! [Jarring chord] [Beck pushes in a miniature comfy mosque - a model of the Islamic Center projected for Ground Zero] Gingrich: So you think you are strong because you can survive the Islamic cushions. Well, we shall see! Give her the comfy mosque! [They roughly push the comfy mosque into Clinton's lap] Gingrich [with a cruel leer]: Now - you will be prostrated in front of the comfy mosque until dinner, with only a cup of green tea at sunset. Time to pray, lady! [aside, to Beck]: Is that really all there is? Beck: That should be enough. Gingrich: I see. I suppose we make it worse by shouting a lot, do we? Confess, woman. Confess! Confess! Confess! Confess! Palin [squeakily]: I confess! Gingrich: Not you! Note 1. See for example, Mullah Omar Says in Statement Afghan Taliban Near Victory Over US Forces Pepe Escobar is the author of Globalistan: How the Globalized World is Dissolving into Liquid War (Nimble Books, 2007) and Red Zone Blues: a snapshot of Baghdad during the surge. His new book, just out, is Obama does Globalistan (Nimble Books, 2009). He may be reached at pepeasia@yahoo.com. (Copyright 2010 Asia Times Online (Holdings) Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us about sales, syndication and republishing.) Will our generals ever shut up? (Sep 9, '10) US religious leaders condemn Islamophobia (Sep 8, '10) 1. Searching for yield - at a cost 2. Hariri exonerates Syria over father's murder 3. AfPak and the new great game 4. Tibetan hope for Obama's India visit 5. There's another side to Obama's COIN 6. Ahmadinejad envoys stir trouble at home 7. Taliban winning hearts - and more 8. Sri Lanka shuns West, finds solace in East 9. Doubts cast over China's 'wonder weapon' 10. Pakistan stares into a void (24 hours to 11:59pm ET, Sep 9, 2010)