TOP Secret Government Facility (holds Flight 93 evidence)

台灣‧“總統，救救我爸爸”‧災民跪求馬英九

（台灣‧台北）台灣總統馬英九週一（8月10日）赴台東災區視察時，有災民向他下跪陳情，哭喊“總統，救救我爸爸”，更哭訴說：“我們票投給你，為甚麼要見你變得這麼難？”

馬英九當天上午9時到災情嚴重的台東縣太麻里溪上游的嘉蘭村視察，這個村落被連日大雨引發的洪水摧毀，全村1300多人全部被疏散，災情慘重。

當馬準備乘專車離開時，災民李昱穎母子突然從人群中聲嘶力竭地高呼：“馬總統，請救救我的家人！”二人雖遭到隨扈阻攔，但終獲馬英九接見。李昱穎甫見馬英九，便哭問：“總統，我們把票投給你，為甚麼我們真的要見你，變得這麼難？”

遭民眾跪地陳情的馬英九既尷尬又痛心，立即扶起欲跪下的李昱穎母子。李又哭訴：“我不要爸爸身首異處，現在外面又這麼冷！”馬英九緊握李的雙手說：“我的父親也過世了，我明白你的感受。”馬英九當場承諾會盡力救災。

馬英九過後表示，民眾陳情讓他深刻感受到災民的心情，要求各首長們能“將心比心、設身處境”替災民著想。

台灣‧颱風變政治風暴‧監察院要追究責任

（台灣‧台北）颱風“莫拉克”吹襲台灣，造成重大傷亡及經濟損失，暴露當局在天氣預報、救災應變、基建安全等多個環節上，存在漏洞。台灣監察院宣佈成立調查小組追究是否涉及人禍。

同時，由於南部受災最重，在野的綠營料將伺機批評馬英九政府，引爆另一場政治風暴。

馬英九赴中央災害應變中心，把救災相關部會訓了一頓。他對氣象局預報不准頗有微詞。

颱風吹襲期間，全台出現數以百宗路陷、斷橋事故，台東更有溫泉酒店整棟被沖塌。發生“滅村”事件的高雄縣小林村，居民爆料因為河道長年未疏導，大量泥石無法排走而衝進村內，淹沒整個村莊，批評當局長期忽視對南部鄉村民生基建的投入。

台灣監察院週二（8月11日）決議成立跨委員會調查小組，動員超過20名監委進行調查，防災工作上有無人為疏失。

監察院長王建煊說，查了以後不會就此罷休，如果糾正後不改善，就彈劾、再彈劾一直到改善為止。

另外，馬英九今日（週三，8月12日）表示，不會頒佈緊急命令。

5 Simple Ways to Save Money in a Recession

1. Bring back the Barter system
Use your skills & time as currency: I have a friend who owns a hair salon, and trades haircuts for all sorts of things - her website, artwork for her salon, even legal work. I trade my tech services for everything from free drinks at the local pub to free petcare at the vet.

Estimated value of bartered services/month: $200+

2. Grow your own food
It's 3.99 for one red bell pepper in the grocery store... it's free in your back yard garden. Enough said.

Estimated savings/month: $30

3. Buy day old baked goods from your local bakery
My bakery sells their day old items for $1. Even a day old, their bread is fresher and better than the stuff they sell in the grocery, plus about $4 cheaper for a loaf.

Estimated savings/month: $20

4. Cancel Your Cable TV
Most shows on network tv are available online for free, and if not, you can always have viewing parties at a friend's house or the local bar.

Estimated monthly savings: $125 - $175

5. Cowpooling
If you're a meat eater, buying a share of a whole cow from a local farmer is less expensive than buying individual cuts of meat from the grocery. Typically, You'll get a variety of cuts, with the average price per pound around $3. Plus you get the benefit of knowing where your meat is coming from, and what practices are used.

Estimated savings per 50 lb. of meat: $150

Oh, and added bonus? If you do these things, you'll be opting out of systems that are dysfunctional - like the mainstream food system - and supporting new and/or local systems that are better for all of us.

Here's how bartering is taxed (thanks to Doug Ghizzoni on Facebook for looking it up):
“If you conduct any direct barter – barter for another’s products or services – you will have to report the fair market value of the products or services you received on your tax return.”

So, what are YOUR tips for saving money?

Pop-Up Olbermann: A little fun with Countdown with Keith Olbermann

Check this link ...... http://bit.ly/13wVRH

Chris Matthews Unloads On Protester Who Carried Gun To Obama Event

Check this link ........ http://bit.ly/dsPF3

The Horror......The Horror.

Starting today, Treasury will begin it's monthly sale of $75 billion notes and bonds. Today they will auction off $37 billion 3-year notes, followed by $23 billion 10-year notes tomorrow and finally $15 billion 30-year bonds on Thursday. The Financial Times, Record $75 Billion Treasury Sale to Test Bond Investors. reports;

While the central bank is expected to reiterate that rates will remain low for an extended period, investors are focused on the outlook for the Fed's policy of purchasing Treasuries and mortgages.

The Fed has nearly completed meeting its target of buying $300bn in Treasuries, with about $250bn already purchased. But last week, the Bank of England decided to boost its quantitative easing limit. That has some people thinking the Fed could seek to buy more Treasuries in order to keep market rates low.

At its current pace of buying, the Fed's Treasury programme should finish in six weeks, while the purchase of $1,250bn in mortgages should be completed by the end of the year.

Some analysts think the Fed should adopt a flexible approach and extend the terms of the Treasury buying programme until the end of the year.

That way, the Fed could buy fewer mortgages and more Treasuries, should yields rise sharply in the coming months.

Have things been screwed up for so long that the we just don't see the insanity and the futility of this exercise? Every month, due to our sky-rocketing deficits and the official government policy on capping mortgage rates, the Fed has to run around like the Keystone Cops trying to offset the effect of new treasury supply. They do this by buying some concoction of Treasury notes and Mortgage Backed Securities, taking losses all the way, as the natural effect of supply and demand, as well as increasing market duration, takes yields higher and higher. The Federal Reserve has become a comedy act, running around on a gigantic "Fools Errand" at least once a month.

How long will it take before the institution of the Federal Reserve loses all its credibility? Their willing involvement to participate in a political program to artificially cap key interest rates and pump up, or at least artificially support the value of gigantic asset classes like residential and commercial mortgages is both futile and embarrassing. Is anybody keeping score as to whether any "gains" we might be getting by keeping primary residential mortgage rates low has offset the losses the Fed has taken on their MBS and Treasury portfolios? I don't think so.

Yesterday, Maguire Properties, the largest office landlord in Los Angeles, handed the keys to seven properties over to their creditors (special purpose CMBS vehicles). This is starting to go on all over the country. The commercial real estate sector in this country is now suffering from the same things that residential mortgages have already suffered;

• The loans were horribly underwritten.
• The borrowers were a combination of bad and over-leveraged.
• The borrowers had little real skin in the game.
• The value of the underlying collateral was driven up by extremely cheap credit, provided in large part by the Wall Street securitization machine.

The game is over now. The government's answer is to expand the Fed's TALF program to commercial mortgage backed securities (CMBS)? This isn't a liquidity problem! The bonds and loans are bad! They have learned NOTHING from the residential mortgage crisis! How is the Treasury's Public Private Investment Partnership (PPIP) going for residential mortgages? It's NOT EVEN GOING! The only way TALF can work even a little bit for CMBS is if somehow the rating morons can keep the "AAA" CMBS AAA. How are they going to do that when commercial real estate is down at least 30% from when most of the loans were made and borrowers are failing by the dozens? Unless they commit fraud (which isn't beyond the realm of possibility for them) they can't.

The question now is, will the Fed help Treasury engage in another Japanese style exercise wherebye putrefying assets are kept on bank books at cost, clogging up balance sheets and creating a legion of zombie banks? Everything that I have seen in the last twelve months tells me that they will and that scares the crap out of me.

by Monkey Business Blog