Take back Al Gore's Oscar, 2 Academy members demand in light of Climategate
December 4, 2009
LA Times
No, it wouldn't do anything for the environment.
But two Hollywood conservatives (yes, there are some) have called upon the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to rescind the prestigious, profitable gold Oscar statuette that it gave ex-Vice President Al Gore et al two years ago for the environmental movie "An Inconvenient Truth."
Roger L. Simon and Lionel Chetwynd, both Academy members, are among a small, meandering pack of known political conservatives still believed to be on the loose in the liberal bastion of movie-making.
In 2007, Hollywood's Academy sanctified Gore's cinematic message of global warming with its famous statue, enriched his earnings by $100,000 per 85-minute appearance and helped elevate the Tennesseean's profile to win the Nobel Peace Prize despite losing the election battle of 2000 to a Texan and living in a large house with lots of energy-driven appliances.
Chetwynd and Simon were prompted to make their hopeless demand this week by the....
...leak two weeks ago of a blizzard of British academic e-mails purporting to show that scientists at the University of East Anglia Climatic Research Unit systematically falsified data to document the appearance of global warming in recent years.
The university is reportedly investigating the claims, which added dry fuel to the never-ending political debate over whether the Earth really is warming as a result of human activity or if it's just normal natural cycles and the debate is what's heated. The demand to withdraw Gore's award provides yet another opportunity to argue.
The startling leak comes at an inconvenient time just before next week's United Nations' climate change meeting that will cause an immense carbon footprint with thousands of people flying up or over to Denmark to talk about saving the environment.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2009/12/al-gore-oscar-global-warming.html
LA Times
No, it wouldn't do anything for the environment.
But two Hollywood conservatives (yes, there are some) have called upon the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to rescind the prestigious, profitable gold Oscar statuette that it gave ex-Vice President Al Gore et al two years ago for the environmental movie "An Inconvenient Truth."
Roger L. Simon and Lionel Chetwynd, both Academy members, are among a small, meandering pack of known political conservatives still believed to be on the loose in the liberal bastion of movie-making.
In 2007, Hollywood's Academy sanctified Gore's cinematic message of global warming with its famous statue, enriched his earnings by $100,000 per 85-minute appearance and helped elevate the Tennesseean's profile to win the Nobel Peace Prize despite losing the election battle of 2000 to a Texan and living in a large house with lots of energy-driven appliances.
Chetwynd and Simon were prompted to make their hopeless demand this week by the....
...leak two weeks ago of a blizzard of British academic e-mails purporting to show that scientists at the University of East Anglia Climatic Research Unit systematically falsified data to document the appearance of global warming in recent years.
The university is reportedly investigating the claims, which added dry fuel to the never-ending political debate over whether the Earth really is warming as a result of human activity or if it's just normal natural cycles and the debate is what's heated. The demand to withdraw Gore's award provides yet another opportunity to argue.
The startling leak comes at an inconvenient time just before next week's United Nations' climate change meeting that will cause an immense carbon footprint with thousands of people flying up or over to Denmark to talk about saving the environment.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2009/12/al-gore-oscar-global-warming.html
Chinese Lien on US Treasury?
November 13, 2009
Steve,
submitted by RD
I found news on link of Chinese parties were signing papers, to execute their LIEN on the US Treasury. As one of the key aggrieved Beneficiary Owners of the loaned 10,000 tonnes of gold *500,000 mt of au not 10,000 mt when gold was USD$45.00 an oz.*
*now USD$1,200 an oz. + interest at 7 and7/8% per year compounding *
* WOW now you see, right?*yes ,...big yes..
MY SOURCE---Our comments between he and I was that this war was set to break eventually...i mean you see that someone is owed something when it was cheap and now they are owed something when it's a kings' ransome, so what would you do? go to court? most likely...
we need someone in the washington pool..on this..
it's quite covert and very touchy
So yes. yes yes
it's the only fire stick the good guys with the white hats have left.
(1): The Chinese parties were signing papers at the World Court on 11th November 2009, following preparatory activity on 10th November, to execute their LIEN on the US Treasury. As one of the key aggrieved Beneficiary Owners of the loaned 10,000 tonnes of gold and the currency boxes etc., the World Court powers will enable them to seize US assets around the world within their jurisdictions and probably even on the high seas and at airports, to the value of the stolen/diverted assets.
They have no choice now, given that they acted in good faith; whereas, as usual, the US 'Shadow Government' consisting of Fraudulent Finance cadres functioning as though they are bona fide US officials, appointees and legislators, have gone too far, as previously explained.
(2): We understand that a total of 163 prominent individuals, many from Congress, plus George Bush 41, William Clinton 42 and George Bush 43, plus THREE current and former US Supreme Court Justices, will be arrested on the basis of arrest warrants in the light of the continued sabotage and the deadline for the Chinese to implement their LIEN on the US Treasury.
Our sources initially indicated that 'exposure and lockup orders going all the way to Bush 41' were extant on 10th November. Separate sources stated to us that these arrests were associated with World Court instructions and warrants which were put into process with effect from the sabotage operation on Tuesday 10th November becoming known.
It STANDS TO REASON that this state of affairs represents a massive threat to US national security which has been brought about exclusively by the feckless refusal of the US authorities to do what should have been done in 2007, but was aborted because the Bush dynasty was still in power - and by the lust of various components of the structures for 'the money', representing corruption on a gargantuan scale arising from George Bush Sr.'s insidious technique of enticing collaboration through the mirage or promise of great riches. That has been the technique used throughout, and its absolute decadence and foul origination is now unveiled for even the most blind observers to see (unless they belong to the 'mainstream' media which, like King Zechariah, have had their eyes put out by Nebuchadnezzar and have been transported to Babylon).
http://www.stevequayle.com/News.alert/09_Money/091113.CH.lien.on.US.html
Steve,
submitted by RD
I found news on link of Chinese parties were signing papers, to execute their LIEN on the US Treasury. As one of the key aggrieved Beneficiary Owners of the loaned 10,000 tonnes of gold *500,000 mt of au not 10,000 mt when gold was USD$45.00 an oz.*
*now USD$1,200 an oz. + interest at 7 and7/8% per year compounding *
* WOW now you see, right?*yes ,...big yes..
MY SOURCE---Our comments between he and I was that this war was set to break eventually...i mean you see that someone is owed something when it was cheap and now they are owed something when it's a kings' ransome, so what would you do? go to court? most likely...
we need someone in the washington pool..on this..
it's quite covert and very touchy
So yes. yes yes
it's the only fire stick the good guys with the white hats have left.
(1): The Chinese parties were signing papers at the World Court on 11th November 2009, following preparatory activity on 10th November, to execute their LIEN on the US Treasury. As one of the key aggrieved Beneficiary Owners of the loaned 10,000 tonnes of gold and the currency boxes etc., the World Court powers will enable them to seize US assets around the world within their jurisdictions and probably even on the high seas and at airports, to the value of the stolen/diverted assets.
They have no choice now, given that they acted in good faith; whereas, as usual, the US 'Shadow Government' consisting of Fraudulent Finance cadres functioning as though they are bona fide US officials, appointees and legislators, have gone too far, as previously explained.
(2): We understand that a total of 163 prominent individuals, many from Congress, plus George Bush 41, William Clinton 42 and George Bush 43, plus THREE current and former US Supreme Court Justices, will be arrested on the basis of arrest warrants in the light of the continued sabotage and the deadline for the Chinese to implement their LIEN on the US Treasury.
Our sources initially indicated that 'exposure and lockup orders going all the way to Bush 41' were extant on 10th November. Separate sources stated to us that these arrests were associated with World Court instructions and warrants which were put into process with effect from the sabotage operation on Tuesday 10th November becoming known.
It STANDS TO REASON that this state of affairs represents a massive threat to US national security which has been brought about exclusively by the feckless refusal of the US authorities to do what should have been done in 2007, but was aborted because the Bush dynasty was still in power - and by the lust of various components of the structures for 'the money', representing corruption on a gargantuan scale arising from George Bush Sr.'s insidious technique of enticing collaboration through the mirage or promise of great riches. That has been the technique used throughout, and its absolute decadence and foul origination is now unveiled for even the most blind observers to see (unless they belong to the 'mainstream' media which, like King Zechariah, have had their eyes put out by Nebuchadnezzar and have been transported to Babylon).
http://www.stevequayle.com/News.alert/09_Money/091113.CH.lien.on.US.html
Heads Up – Respiratory Pneumonia in Ukraine Spreading Fast. Get Ready
November 11, 2009
Rick in Romania
Everything I am seeing out of the ukraine is very troubling. The government of ukraine is still holding to the story that this is h1n1, however there are reports now that doctors in ukraine are not allowed to give a diagnosis of "plague", they must call it a resperatory pneumonia.
There are also widespread reports of the police seizing medical records of the dead and cremation of the bodies.
The people are saying the russians did this but I have not seem any evidence to prove that. What I do know is Moshe said baxter was going to release a plague in ukraine and then he is assaulted and arrested by LAPD.
As far as I know we don't know if he was deported to israel or if he was suicided.
We also have reports of low flying planes spraying the cities in ukraine right before the outbreak. We have no idea what or who those planes were and the ukraine govt denys them.
Something is very wrong here and ever serveral days into this thing we are still operating mostly on leaked reports from individuals. Romanian news is no better, they are right next door and we are hearing almost nothing about it.
Major cover up in the works....I hate to think about how bad it really is. I'll keep everyone posted as I hear more.
Rick in Romania
Everything I am seeing out of the ukraine is very troubling. The government of ukraine is still holding to the story that this is h1n1, however there are reports now that doctors in ukraine are not allowed to give a diagnosis of "plague", they must call it a resperatory pneumonia.
There are also widespread reports of the police seizing medical records of the dead and cremation of the bodies.
The people are saying the russians did this but I have not seem any evidence to prove that. What I do know is Moshe said baxter was going to release a plague in ukraine and then he is assaulted and arrested by LAPD.
As far as I know we don't know if he was deported to israel or if he was suicided.
We also have reports of low flying planes spraying the cities in ukraine right before the outbreak. We have no idea what or who those planes were and the ukraine govt denys them.
Something is very wrong here and ever serveral days into this thing we are still operating mostly on leaked reports from individuals. Romanian news is no better, they are right next door and we are hearing almost nothing about it.
Major cover up in the works....I hate to think about how bad it really is. I'll keep everyone posted as I hear more.
Has The H1N1 Swine Flu Virus Mutated To Become More Like The 1918 Spanish Flu?
Bird Flu Pandemic
November 12, 2009
Has the H1N1 swine flu virus in Ukraine mutated to become more like the 1918 Spanish flu that killed 50 to 100 million people across the globe? Just like the current H1N1 swine flu virus sweeping the globe, the 1918 Spanish flu was a virus strain of subtype H1N1. Just like the current H1N1 swine flu virus, most of the victims of the Spanish flu were healthy young adults. Now news has come out that the patients that are dying in Ukraine are experiencing the total destruction of their lungs – just like the 1918 Spanish flu.
Recombinomics has posted a translation from an announcement by the Ukraine Ministry of Health that describes what is happening to these patients and how their lungs are being absolutely destroyed by this virus:
The symptoms are observed at different stages of disease – a fever with a temperature over 38 C, cough, respiratory disorders. When cough was characterized by negligible allocation phlegm or dry unproductive cough with blotches of blood. All the patients come to hospital on average by 3-7 days of onset, were in serious condition. Period of time from onset to death averaged from 4 to 7 days. In all patients during a hospital for signs of respiratory insufficiency of various degrees, which quickly rose and manifested accelerated respiration rate, shortness of breath and effectiveness of independent breathing. X-ray studies were performed on 1-2 day hospitalization. Most patients experienced a double-headed particles of lower lung lesion, followed by a trend towards total destruction.
Reports such as this, along with the fact that the WHO has not released the sequences from the samples taken from patients in Ukraine is leading Recombinomics and others to fear that the H1N1 swine flu virus has indeed mutated and become more like the 1918 Spanish flu.
In fact, infectious disease expert Dr. Donald Lau claims that the odds of the Ukrainian pandemic virus being the exact same H1N1 virus that is infecting the rest of the world are extremely low: “The statistical probability of this being the same H1N1 virus are infinitesimally small.”
http://www.infowars.com/has-the-h1n1-swine-flu-virus-mutated-to-become-more-like-the-1918-spanish-flu/
November 12, 2009
Has the H1N1 swine flu virus in Ukraine mutated to become more like the 1918 Spanish flu that killed 50 to 100 million people across the globe? Just like the current H1N1 swine flu virus sweeping the globe, the 1918 Spanish flu was a virus strain of subtype H1N1. Just like the current H1N1 swine flu virus, most of the victims of the Spanish flu were healthy young adults. Now news has come out that the patients that are dying in Ukraine are experiencing the total destruction of their lungs – just like the 1918 Spanish flu.
Recombinomics has posted a translation from an announcement by the Ukraine Ministry of Health that describes what is happening to these patients and how their lungs are being absolutely destroyed by this virus:
The symptoms are observed at different stages of disease – a fever with a temperature over 38 C, cough, respiratory disorders. When cough was characterized by negligible allocation phlegm or dry unproductive cough with blotches of blood. All the patients come to hospital on average by 3-7 days of onset, were in serious condition. Period of time from onset to death averaged from 4 to 7 days. In all patients during a hospital for signs of respiratory insufficiency of various degrees, which quickly rose and manifested accelerated respiration rate, shortness of breath and effectiveness of independent breathing. X-ray studies were performed on 1-2 day hospitalization. Most patients experienced a double-headed particles of lower lung lesion, followed by a trend towards total destruction.
Reports such as this, along with the fact that the WHO has not released the sequences from the samples taken from patients in Ukraine is leading Recombinomics and others to fear that the H1N1 swine flu virus has indeed mutated and become more like the 1918 Spanish flu.
In fact, infectious disease expert Dr. Donald Lau claims that the odds of the Ukrainian pandemic virus being the exact same H1N1 virus that is infecting the rest of the world are extremely low: “The statistical probability of this being the same H1N1 virus are infinitesimally small.”
http://www.infowars.com/has-the-h1n1-swine-flu-virus-mutated-to-become-more-like-the-1918-spanish-flu/
Barrick shuts hedge book as world gold supply runs out
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard,
International Business Editor
Published: 7:20PM GMT 11 Nov 2009
Aaron Regent, president of the Canadian gold giant, said that global output has been falling by roughly 1m ounces a year since the start of the decade. Total mine supply has dropped by 10pc as ore quality erodes, implying that the roaring bull market of the last eight years may have further to run.
"There is a strong case to be made that we are already at 'peak gold'," he told The Daily Telegraph at the RBC's annual gold conference in London.
"Production peaked around 2000 and it has been in decline ever since, and we forecast that decline to continue. It is increasingly difficult to find ore," he said. Ore grades have fallen from around 12 grams per tonne in 1950 to nearer 3 grams in the US, Canada, and Australia. South Africa's output has halved since peaking in 1970.
The supply crunch has helped push gold to an all-time high, reaching $1,118 an ounce at one stage yesterday. The key driver over recent days has been the move by India's central bank to soak up half of the gold being sold by the International Monetary Fund. It is the latest sign that the rising powers of Asia and the commodity bloc are growing wary of Western paper money and debt.
China has quietly doubled holdings to 1,054 tonnes and is thought to be adding gradually on price dips, creating a market floor. Gold remains a tiny fraction of its $2.3 trillion in foreign reserves.
Gold exchange-traded funds (ETFs) – dubbed the "People's Central Bank" – have accumulated 1,778 tonnes, making them the fifth biggest holder after the US, Germany, France, and Italy.
Ross Norman, director of theBullionDesk.com, said exploration budgets had tripled since the start of the decade with stubbornly disappointing results so far.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/industry/mining/6546579/Barrick-shuts-hedge-book-as-world-gold-supply-runs-out.html
International Business Editor
Published: 7:20PM GMT 11 Nov 2009
Aaron Regent, president of the Canadian gold giant, said that global output has been falling by roughly 1m ounces a year since the start of the decade. Total mine supply has dropped by 10pc as ore quality erodes, implying that the roaring bull market of the last eight years may have further to run.
"There is a strong case to be made that we are already at 'peak gold'," he told The Daily Telegraph at the RBC's annual gold conference in London.
"Production peaked around 2000 and it has been in decline ever since, and we forecast that decline to continue. It is increasingly difficult to find ore," he said. Ore grades have fallen from around 12 grams per tonne in 1950 to nearer 3 grams in the US, Canada, and Australia. South Africa's output has halved since peaking in 1970.
The supply crunch has helped push gold to an all-time high, reaching $1,118 an ounce at one stage yesterday. The key driver over recent days has been the move by India's central bank to soak up half of the gold being sold by the International Monetary Fund. It is the latest sign that the rising powers of Asia and the commodity bloc are growing wary of Western paper money and debt.
China has quietly doubled holdings to 1,054 tonnes and is thought to be adding gradually on price dips, creating a market floor. Gold remains a tiny fraction of its $2.3 trillion in foreign reserves.
Gold exchange-traded funds (ETFs) – dubbed the "People's Central Bank" – have accumulated 1,778 tonnes, making them the fifth biggest holder after the US, Germany, France, and Italy.
Ross Norman, director of theBullionDesk.com, said exploration budgets had tripled since the start of the decade with stubbornly disappointing results so far.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/industry/mining/6546579/Barrick-shuts-hedge-book-as-world-gold-supply-runs-out.html
Polish PM: Poland not buying swine flu vaccination unless it has been properly tested
November 11, 2009
Rick in Romania
Everything I am seeing out of the ukraine is very troubling. The government of ukraine is still holding to the story that this is h1n1, however there are reports now that doctors in ukraine are not allowed to give a diagnosis of "plague", they must call it a resperatory pneumonia.
There are also widespread reports of the police seizing medical records of the dead and cremation of the bodies.
The people are saying the russians did this but I have not seem any evidence to prove that. What I do know is Moshe said baxter was going to release a plague in ukraine and then he is assaulted and arrested by LAPD.
As far as I know we don't know if he was deported to israel or if he was suicided.
We also have reports of low flying planes spraying the cities in ukraine right before the outbreak. We have no idea what or who those planes were and the ukraine govt denys them.
Something is very wrong here and ever serveral days into this thing we are still operating mostly on leaked reports from individuals. Romanian news is no better, they are right next door and we are hearing almost nothing about it.
Major cover up in the works....I hate to think about how bad it really is. I'll keep everyone posted as I hear more.
Rick in Romania
Everything I am seeing out of the ukraine is very troubling. The government of ukraine is still holding to the story that this is h1n1, however there are reports now that doctors in ukraine are not allowed to give a diagnosis of "plague", they must call it a resperatory pneumonia.
There are also widespread reports of the police seizing medical records of the dead and cremation of the bodies.
The people are saying the russians did this but I have not seem any evidence to prove that. What I do know is Moshe said baxter was going to release a plague in ukraine and then he is assaulted and arrested by LAPD.
As far as I know we don't know if he was deported to israel or if he was suicided.
We also have reports of low flying planes spraying the cities in ukraine right before the outbreak. We have no idea what or who those planes were and the ukraine govt denys them.
Something is very wrong here and ever serveral days into this thing we are still operating mostly on leaked reports from individuals. Romanian news is no better, they are right next door and we are hearing almost nothing about it.
Major cover up in the works....I hate to think about how bad it really is. I'll keep everyone posted as I hear more.
ANOTHER STATE INTRODUCES FIREARMS FREEDOM ACT
By Chuck Baldwin
November 6, 2009
NewsWithViews.com
According to a report published on the Tenth Amendment Center's web site, "Introduced in the Ohio House on October 16, 2009, the 'Firearms Freedom Act' (HB-315) seeks 'To enact section 2923.26 of the Revised Code to provide that ammunition, firearms, and firearm accessories that are manufactured and remain in Ohio are not subject to federal laws and regulations derived under Congress' authority to regulate interstate commerce and to require the words "Made in Ohio" be stamped on a central metallic part of any firearm manufactured and sold in Ohio.'"
The report went on to say, "While the HB315's title focuses on federal gun regulations, it has far more to do with the 10th Amendment's limit on the power of the federal government. It specifically states:
"'The regulation of intrastate commerce is vested in the states under the Ninth and Tenth Amendments to the United States Constitution, particularly if not expressly preempted by federal law. The congress of the United States has not expressly preempted state regulation of intrastate commerce pertaining to the manufacture on an intrastate basis of firearms, firearm accessories, and ammunition.'
"Some supporters of the legislation say that a successful application of such a state-law would set a strong precedent and open the door for states to take their own positions on a wide range of activities that they see as not being authorized to the Federal Government by the Constitution."
See the report here.
Two states have already passed their own Firearms Freedom Acts: Montana and Tennessee. And, along with Ohio, at least 7 other states have introduced similar bills. Those states are Alaska, Florida, Michigan, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Texas.
More information regarding the status of these State bills can be seen here.
As you might suspect, the federal government doesn't take too kindly to these State laws. In fact, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) sent an open letter to all Montana and Tennessee firearms dealers denouncing the State laws. ATF assistant director Carson Carroll wrote that "Federal law supersedes the Act."
http://www.newswithviews.com/baldwin/baldwin545.htm
November 6, 2009
NewsWithViews.com
According to a report published on the Tenth Amendment Center's web site, "Introduced in the Ohio House on October 16, 2009, the 'Firearms Freedom Act' (HB-315) seeks 'To enact section 2923.26 of the Revised Code to provide that ammunition, firearms, and firearm accessories that are manufactured and remain in Ohio are not subject to federal laws and regulations derived under Congress' authority to regulate interstate commerce and to require the words "Made in Ohio" be stamped on a central metallic part of any firearm manufactured and sold in Ohio.'"
The report went on to say, "While the HB315's title focuses on federal gun regulations, it has far more to do with the 10th Amendment's limit on the power of the federal government. It specifically states:
"'The regulation of intrastate commerce is vested in the states under the Ninth and Tenth Amendments to the United States Constitution, particularly if not expressly preempted by federal law. The congress of the United States has not expressly preempted state regulation of intrastate commerce pertaining to the manufacture on an intrastate basis of firearms, firearm accessories, and ammunition.'
"Some supporters of the legislation say that a successful application of such a state-law would set a strong precedent and open the door for states to take their own positions on a wide range of activities that they see as not being authorized to the Federal Government by the Constitution."
See the report here.
Two states have already passed their own Firearms Freedom Acts: Montana and Tennessee. And, along with Ohio, at least 7 other states have introduced similar bills. Those states are Alaska, Florida, Michigan, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Texas.
More information regarding the status of these State bills can be seen here.
As you might suspect, the federal government doesn't take too kindly to these State laws. In fact, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) sent an open letter to all Montana and Tennessee firearms dealers denouncing the State laws. ATF assistant director Carson Carroll wrote that "Federal law supersedes the Act."
http://www.newswithviews.com/baldwin/baldwin545.htm
Suspect Was to Be Sent to Afghanistan
By ROBERT D. McFADDEN and JACK HEALY Published: November 6, 2009
Investigators began piecing together on Friday how and why they think an Army psychiatrist facing deployment to Afghanistan gunned down dozens of people a day earlier at the Fort Hood Army post in Texas, in one of the worst mass shootings ever on an American military base.
The gunman, identified as Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, 39, was shot four times by a Fort Hood police officer responding to the scene. Major Hasan remained hospitalized on a ventilator on Friday morning, but was in stable condition, Army officials said at a news conference held at the entrance to the base.
Army officials said they had declared a day of mourning on the base for the 13 people killed — 12 soldiers and one civilian — and 28 wounded in the rampage, and President Obama said that flags at the White House and other federal buildings would fly at half-staff until Veteran’s Day, “as a modest tribute to those who lost their lives.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/07/us/07forthood.html?_r=1&hp
Investigators began piecing together on Friday how and why they think an Army psychiatrist facing deployment to Afghanistan gunned down dozens of people a day earlier at the Fort Hood Army post in Texas, in one of the worst mass shootings ever on an American military base.
The gunman, identified as Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, 39, was shot four times by a Fort Hood police officer responding to the scene. Major Hasan remained hospitalized on a ventilator on Friday morning, but was in stable condition, Army officials said at a news conference held at the entrance to the base.
Army officials said they had declared a day of mourning on the base for the 13 people killed — 12 soldiers and one civilian — and 28 wounded in the rampage, and President Obama said that flags at the White House and other federal buildings would fly at half-staff until Veteran’s Day, “as a modest tribute to those who lost their lives.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/07/us/07forthood.html?_r=1&hp
MARTIAL LAW IN THE UKRAINE
November 06, 2009
TheFluCase.com
The Ukrainian President Victor Yushchenko has issued a statement strongly suggesting that the government is preparing to carry out mass forced vaccinations with the untested swine flu jab.
In a statement posted on the government website, Yushchenko announced a crack down on political protests and orders for the arrest of public health officials who have opposed mass "swine flu“ vaccinations and quarantines.
http://www.president.gov.ua/en/news/15609.html
"I instruct the Government and the Ministry of Health to immediately start preventive and promotional work in areas where there is no epidemic, targeting primarily the special risk groups,“ he said.
"This means that medical aid must be urgently reinforced by emergency, critical care treatment. It is generally known that the only way to prevent any infection is vaccination,“ he said.
Yushchenko said he had ordered key medical officials who allowed political protests against the government to continue in the city of Kiev to be arrested under the pretext that they were jeopardising public health.
"I have addressed the Prosecutor General of Ukraine with the request to institute criminal charges of negligence committed by first of all the Chief Sanitary Inspector, Kyiv City Sanitarian and the officials, who, despite having daily information on the epidemic situation in the country, neglected it in pursuit of political dividends and ambition,“ he said.
Furthermore, he strongly suggested that democracy in the Ukraine was about to be uprooted and replaced by military rule under a special "interdepartmental commission“ that follows orders from WHO and the UN.
http://www.theflucase.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1609%3Amartial-law-in-the-ukraine-president-announces-arrests-of-opponents-of-forced-vaccination-and-quarantines-who-carries-out-coup-d-etat-under-pandemic-emergency-pretext&catid=41%3Ahighlighted-news&Itemid=105&lang=en
TheFluCase.com
The Ukrainian President Victor Yushchenko has issued a statement strongly suggesting that the government is preparing to carry out mass forced vaccinations with the untested swine flu jab.
In a statement posted on the government website, Yushchenko announced a crack down on political protests and orders for the arrest of public health officials who have opposed mass "swine flu“ vaccinations and quarantines.
http://www.president.gov.ua/en/news/15609.html
"I instruct the Government and the Ministry of Health to immediately start preventive and promotional work in areas where there is no epidemic, targeting primarily the special risk groups,“ he said.
"This means that medical aid must be urgently reinforced by emergency, critical care treatment. It is generally known that the only way to prevent any infection is vaccination,“ he said.
Yushchenko said he had ordered key medical officials who allowed political protests against the government to continue in the city of Kiev to be arrested under the pretext that they were jeopardising public health.
"I have addressed the Prosecutor General of Ukraine with the request to institute criminal charges of negligence committed by first of all the Chief Sanitary Inspector, Kyiv City Sanitarian and the officials, who, despite having daily information on the epidemic situation in the country, neglected it in pursuit of political dividends and ambition,“ he said.
Furthermore, he strongly suggested that democracy in the Ukraine was about to be uprooted and replaced by military rule under a special "interdepartmental commission“ that follows orders from WHO and the UN.
http://www.theflucase.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1609%3Amartial-law-in-the-ukraine-president-announces-arrests-of-opponents-of-forced-vaccination-and-quarantines-who-carries-out-coup-d-etat-under-pandemic-emergency-pretext&catid=41%3Ahighlighted-news&Itemid=105&lang=en
Pneumonic Plague Outbreak in China
Health Freedom Alliance
November 5, 2009
Two people have died, a town of 10,000 is under quarantine, and the area within a 17-mile radius around it has been sealed to contain a pneumonic plague outbreak:
Chinese authorities have put a whole town in quarantine after an outbreak of horrifying pneumonic plague.
Two people have died from the highly contagious disease, an even more powerful brother of The Black Death – the bubonic plague believed to have wiped out a quarter of the population of Europe in the 14th Century.
Pneumonic plague is one of the most virulent and deadly diseases on earth, usually fatal within 24 hours.
It attacks the lungs and kills nearly everyone who catches it unless they get rapid treatment with antibiotics.
A dozen people in the stricken town of Ziketan have so far been infected. The disease spreads fast and is passed from person to person by coughing.
Authorities in northwest China have sealed off the remote town of 10,000 people and begun a treatment and quarantine programme.
Residents are terrified, shops have been shuttered, homes disinfected, face masks distributed, there has been panic buying and streets are deserted, witnesses reported.
The World Health Organisation said it was in close contact with Chinese health authorities and that measures taken so far were appropriate.
It looks serious, but the Chinese regime being what it is, they aren’t limited by anything in their choice of means to keep the disease from spreading. People are just worker ants for them.
http://www.theblogofrecord.com/2009/08/03/pneumonic-plague-outbreak-in-china/
November 5, 2009
Two people have died, a town of 10,000 is under quarantine, and the area within a 17-mile radius around it has been sealed to contain a pneumonic plague outbreak:
Chinese authorities have put a whole town in quarantine after an outbreak of horrifying pneumonic plague.
Two people have died from the highly contagious disease, an even more powerful brother of The Black Death – the bubonic plague believed to have wiped out a quarter of the population of Europe in the 14th Century.
Pneumonic plague is one of the most virulent and deadly diseases on earth, usually fatal within 24 hours.
It attacks the lungs and kills nearly everyone who catches it unless they get rapid treatment with antibiotics.
A dozen people in the stricken town of Ziketan have so far been infected. The disease spreads fast and is passed from person to person by coughing.
Authorities in northwest China have sealed off the remote town of 10,000 people and begun a treatment and quarantine programme.
Residents are terrified, shops have been shuttered, homes disinfected, face masks distributed, there has been panic buying and streets are deserted, witnesses reported.
The World Health Organisation said it was in close contact with Chinese health authorities and that measures taken so far were appropriate.
It looks serious, but the Chinese regime being what it is, they aren’t limited by anything in their choice of means to keep the disease from spreading. People are just worker ants for them.
http://www.theblogofrecord.com/2009/08/03/pneumonic-plague-outbreak-in-china/
Republicans Rally Resistance to Health Care Bill, as House Vote Nears
November 05, 2009
Fox News
As a crowd of protesters shouted "kill the bill," House Republicans on Thursday rallied opposition against the Democrats' health care legislation, even as President Obama touted two major endorsements from doctors and seniors groups.
The president interrupted the daily press briefing Thursday to note that the American Medical Association and AARP had just endorsed House Democrats' health care plan.
"This is no small endorsement," Obama said of the AARP's backing. "They know it's a good deal for our seniors."
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/11/05/republicans-try-rally-resistance-health-care-house-vote-nears/
Fox News
As a crowd of protesters shouted "kill the bill," House Republicans on Thursday rallied opposition against the Democrats' health care legislation, even as President Obama touted two major endorsements from doctors and seniors groups.
The president interrupted the daily press briefing Thursday to note that the American Medical Association and AARP had just endorsed House Democrats' health care plan.
"This is no small endorsement," Obama said of the AARP's backing. "They know it's a good deal for our seniors."
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/11/05/republicans-try-rally-resistance-health-care-house-vote-nears/
New arrests in Galleon insider-trading case
Thu Nov 5, 2009
NEW YORK
(Reuters)
Nine more people have been arrested in the Galleon Group insider-trading scandal, bringing to 15 the number charged in the biggest hedge fund-related case in history. The new arrests include Wall Street traders, lawyers and hedge fund managers, according to complaints filed in federal court in New York on Thursday,
The new charges come nearly three weeks after Raj Rajaratnam, the billionaire founder of hedge fund firm Galleon Group, and five others were arrested in the case. Rajaratnam is accused of masterminding the scheme.
Among those charged on Thursday were Zvi Goffer of Incremental Capital hedge fund; Arthur Cutillo, a former attorney with law firm Ropes & Gray; Jason Goldfarb, an attorney; Craig Drimal, a former employee in Galleon's office; and Emanuel Goffer, Michael Kimelman and David Plate, all associated with Incremental Capital.
The complaints allege that Zvi Goffer ran an insider trading network and paid sources for inside information. He provided his tipsters with prepaid cellphones so they could minimize the chances of getting caught when passing on tips, the complaint said.
http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE5A42XF20091105?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews
NEW YORK
(Reuters)
Nine more people have been arrested in the Galleon Group insider-trading scandal, bringing to 15 the number charged in the biggest hedge fund-related case in history. The new arrests include Wall Street traders, lawyers and hedge fund managers, according to complaints filed in federal court in New York on Thursday,
The new charges come nearly three weeks after Raj Rajaratnam, the billionaire founder of hedge fund firm Galleon Group, and five others were arrested in the case. Rajaratnam is accused of masterminding the scheme.
Among those charged on Thursday were Zvi Goffer of Incremental Capital hedge fund; Arthur Cutillo, a former attorney with law firm Ropes & Gray; Jason Goldfarb, an attorney; Craig Drimal, a former employee in Galleon's office; and Emanuel Goffer, Michael Kimelman and David Plate, all associated with Incremental Capital.
The complaints allege that Zvi Goffer ran an insider trading network and paid sources for inside information. He provided his tipsters with prepaid cellphones so they could minimize the chances of getting caught when passing on tips, the complaint said.
http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE5A42XF20091105?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews
E-mail from Eyewitness in Romania Concerning Pneumonic Plague
November 4, 2009
It is quite possible that what they are really dealing with is the Pnumonic Plague or black death. There are outbreaks all over Romania now, however they will not give any details on the infection and are still insisting that it is all swine flu. My bravo sierra detector is going off big time. What I am seeing here in Romania and getting reports of in Ukraine, poland, Bulgaria, and Hungary is afast moving disease. If is is the black death, you should be concerned, when the black death wiped out 25% of Europe it took 4 years before the plague subsided. It is virulent however it does NOT burn itself out quickly. Sounds like I need some thieves oil.
It is still early and details are sketchy, but the Romanian authorities and the press here are definitely covering something up.
---
Hi Will,
Thank you for the kind words. Its the least i can do. I will do whatever I can to be a benefit to this forum and its members. I also want to thank you for your intel and your diligent attention to the unfolding events. You are a great asset here and I just want you to know your contributions are well noticed and appreciated.
Regarding the "man on the street" over in this region of the world, I agree with your assessment. They are in the dark. No one over here is telling them about globalism and its ties to the lucifarian one world adjenda. As a rule I have noticed they tend to be justifiably distrustful of their national and local governments, however inexplicably, they seem to believe that supernational organizations like WHO,IMF, EU, UN etc have their best interests at heart. This is very disturbing and dangerous for all the reasons you know all to well. The only positive thing I can say, is they seem relatively open to listening to the explanation of what is really going on and why. Perhaps this is because of their past experience with communism and the similarity of the tactics used by the forces of globalism.
Thanks for the email and we'll keep this channel open.
Best,
Rick
http://www.stevequayle.com/News.alert/09_Disease/091104.plague.eyewitness.html
It is quite possible that what they are really dealing with is the Pnumonic Plague or black death. There are outbreaks all over Romania now, however they will not give any details on the infection and are still insisting that it is all swine flu. My bravo sierra detector is going off big time. What I am seeing here in Romania and getting reports of in Ukraine, poland, Bulgaria, and Hungary is afast moving disease. If is is the black death, you should be concerned, when the black death wiped out 25% of Europe it took 4 years before the plague subsided. It is virulent however it does NOT burn itself out quickly. Sounds like I need some thieves oil.
It is still early and details are sketchy, but the Romanian authorities and the press here are definitely covering something up.
---
Hi Will,
Thank you for the kind words. Its the least i can do. I will do whatever I can to be a benefit to this forum and its members. I also want to thank you for your intel and your diligent attention to the unfolding events. You are a great asset here and I just want you to know your contributions are well noticed and appreciated.
Regarding the "man on the street" over in this region of the world, I agree with your assessment. They are in the dark. No one over here is telling them about globalism and its ties to the lucifarian one world adjenda. As a rule I have noticed they tend to be justifiably distrustful of their national and local governments, however inexplicably, they seem to believe that supernational organizations like WHO,IMF, EU, UN etc have their best interests at heart. This is very disturbing and dangerous for all the reasons you know all to well. The only positive thing I can say, is they seem relatively open to listening to the explanation of what is really going on and why. Perhaps this is because of their past experience with communism and the similarity of the tactics used by the forces of globalism.
Thanks for the email and we'll keep this channel open.
Best,
Rick
http://www.stevequayle.com/News.alert/09_Disease/091104.plague.eyewitness.html
Jihadi Training Compounds, U.S.A.
by Ryan Mauro
FrontPageMag.com
A battle in the war against radical Islam in Detroit was briefly waged on October 28 when the FBI engaged in a deadly shootout with an extremist imam refusing to be arrested. The imam was a leader in “Ummah,” meaning “the brotherhood,” a group said to consist of mostly African-Americans, many of whom converted in prison. This group isn’t the only one trying to create an Islamic state within the borders of the U.S., and this shoot-out should be expected, unfortunately, to be a sign of more violent conflict coming down the line in this country with Islamic militant groups.
The gunfire began when the FBI tried to arrest Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah, whose original name was Christopher Thomas, for his involvement in a crime ring along with followers of his. Abdullah violently resisted, and managed to shoot and kill one of the FBI’s dogs before falling to gunfire. The spiritual leader of Ummah is Jamil Abdullah al-Amin, a former Black Panther who is in jail for killing two police officers in Georgia that tried to arrest him. To Abdullah, he was just following in his leader’s footsteps and carrying out the “offensive jihad” against the U.S. government he had long preached about.
http://frontpagemag.com/2009/11/03/jihadi-training-compounds-u-s-a-by-ryan-mauro/
FrontPageMag.com
A battle in the war against radical Islam in Detroit was briefly waged on October 28 when the FBI engaged in a deadly shootout with an extremist imam refusing to be arrested. The imam was a leader in “Ummah,” meaning “the brotherhood,” a group said to consist of mostly African-Americans, many of whom converted in prison. This group isn’t the only one trying to create an Islamic state within the borders of the U.S., and this shoot-out should be expected, unfortunately, to be a sign of more violent conflict coming down the line in this country with Islamic militant groups.
The gunfire began when the FBI tried to arrest Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah, whose original name was Christopher Thomas, for his involvement in a crime ring along with followers of his. Abdullah violently resisted, and managed to shoot and kill one of the FBI’s dogs before falling to gunfire. The spiritual leader of Ummah is Jamil Abdullah al-Amin, a former Black Panther who is in jail for killing two police officers in Georgia that tried to arrest him. To Abdullah, he was just following in his leader’s footsteps and carrying out the “offensive jihad” against the U.S. government he had long preached about.
http://frontpagemag.com/2009/11/03/jihadi-training-compounds-u-s-a-by-ryan-mauro/
G20 Meet To Finalize Dumping Of Dollar?
Steve Watson
Infowars.net
Wednesday, Nov 4, 2009
Researcher and author Daniel Estulin, best known for his exposé of the ultra secretive Bilderberg Group, says inside sources have informed him that the core focus of the G20 meeting this weekend will be to discuss ditching the Dollar and implementing a global centralized monetary system.
A press release detailing Estulin’s statements says that G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors, meeting in St. Andrews, Scotland, will debate actions to sink the U.S. Dollar, thereby crashing the present world financial system.
The instability and chaos resulting out of such a breakdown would act as a pretext to launch a consolidating new economic world order.
“Estulin says that the success or failure of this callous plan hinges on the ability of the US and UK representatives to convince the Russian, the Chinese and other national governments to go along with their scheme.” The release states.
Estulin first reported on this agenda at this year’s Bilderberg conference held in Greece back in May. According to the author, the elite group has termed the move “demand destruction”.
The Bilderberg Group meeting is an annual confab of around 150 of the world’s most influential powerbrokers in government, industry, banking, media, academia and the military-industrial complex. The secretive group operates under “Chatham House rules,” meaning that no details of what is discussed can ever be leaked to the media, despite editors of the world’s biggest newspapers, the Washington Post, the New York Times and the Financial Times, being present at the meeting.
http://www.infowars.com/g20-meet-to-finalize-dumping-of-dollar/
Infowars.net
Wednesday, Nov 4, 2009
Researcher and author Daniel Estulin, best known for his exposé of the ultra secretive Bilderberg Group, says inside sources have informed him that the core focus of the G20 meeting this weekend will be to discuss ditching the Dollar and implementing a global centralized monetary system.
A press release detailing Estulin’s statements says that G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors, meeting in St. Andrews, Scotland, will debate actions to sink the U.S. Dollar, thereby crashing the present world financial system.
The instability and chaos resulting out of such a breakdown would act as a pretext to launch a consolidating new economic world order.
“Estulin says that the success or failure of this callous plan hinges on the ability of the US and UK representatives to convince the Russian, the Chinese and other national governments to go along with their scheme.” The release states.
Estulin first reported on this agenda at this year’s Bilderberg conference held in Greece back in May. According to the author, the elite group has termed the move “demand destruction”.
The Bilderberg Group meeting is an annual confab of around 150 of the world’s most influential powerbrokers in government, industry, banking, media, academia and the military-industrial complex. The secretive group operates under “Chatham House rules,” meaning that no details of what is discussed can ever be leaked to the media, despite editors of the world’s biggest newspapers, the Washington Post, the New York Times and the Financial Times, being present at the meeting.
http://www.infowars.com/g20-meet-to-finalize-dumping-of-dollar/
Conservatives’ Blind Support of Our Troops and Their Unintended Defense of the Big Lie
Kevin Copenhagen
Infowars
November 4, 2009
Monday night I attended the “Stand Up America” rally in Houston hosted by the North Houston Tea Party Patriots. And while I feel the event was a resounding success, I couldn’t help but get a feeling of despair among 15,000 patriotic Americans who truly do want to see our country restored to the Constitutional Republic under which it was formed. These are all good, hard-working, salt-of-the-earth people who simply want government out of their lives as every American should. And I couldn’t agree more.
It’s not OK that we went into Iraq and killled over 1.3 million innocent civilians.
No, it’s not that feeling of hope and determination to see our country freed from the grips of corruption and the abject dismissal of the public will by our “elected” leaders which caused me such despair. It was the fact that while so many of these great Americans are so right on so many issues, they have for the most part, fallen hook, line and sinker for the Big Lie. These are the red-blooded Americans who have drunk the “Islamo-fascist” Kool-Aid served up by the main stream media, especially Fox News, and created by the Pentagon, NGOs, “think-tanks” and intelligence agencies of the world. This delusion is akin to the left-wing liberals and “progressives” who drank and still consume the “Change we can believe in” lie which swept Obama into office last year.
We were told more that 8 years ago that 9/11 changed everything. We have largely bought that lie, collectively, as a nation and because of this, let the powers that be run roughshod over our Constitution, our rule of law and our way of life all in the name of “security” and defending our homeland from the “evil doers” of the world. From this lie, has risen in this country a fervent patriotism and attitude that America can do no wrong in the world. We’re the “good guys” after all.
http://www.infowars.com/conservatives-blind-support-of-our-troops-and-their-unintended-defense-of-the-big-lie/
Infowars
November 4, 2009
Monday night I attended the “Stand Up America” rally in Houston hosted by the North Houston Tea Party Patriots. And while I feel the event was a resounding success, I couldn’t help but get a feeling of despair among 15,000 patriotic Americans who truly do want to see our country restored to the Constitutional Republic under which it was formed. These are all good, hard-working, salt-of-the-earth people who simply want government out of their lives as every American should. And I couldn’t agree more.
It’s not OK that we went into Iraq and killled over 1.3 million innocent civilians.
No, it’s not that feeling of hope and determination to see our country freed from the grips of corruption and the abject dismissal of the public will by our “elected” leaders which caused me such despair. It was the fact that while so many of these great Americans are so right on so many issues, they have for the most part, fallen hook, line and sinker for the Big Lie. These are the red-blooded Americans who have drunk the “Islamo-fascist” Kool-Aid served up by the main stream media, especially Fox News, and created by the Pentagon, NGOs, “think-tanks” and intelligence agencies of the world. This delusion is akin to the left-wing liberals and “progressives” who drank and still consume the “Change we can believe in” lie which swept Obama into office last year.
We were told more that 8 years ago that 9/11 changed everything. We have largely bought that lie, collectively, as a nation and because of this, let the powers that be run roughshod over our Constitution, our rule of law and our way of life all in the name of “security” and defending our homeland from the “evil doers” of the world. From this lie, has risen in this country a fervent patriotism and attitude that America can do no wrong in the world. We’re the “good guys” after all.
http://www.infowars.com/conservatives-blind-support-of-our-troops-and-their-unintended-defense-of-the-big-lie/
Plasma Volcanoes
Thunderbolts.com
The recent eruption of Mt. Redoubt in Alaska calls to mind the skeptical imperative to doubt again the accepted explanations of vulcanology.
"If I hadn't believed it, I never would have seen it with my own two eyes."
--- Dr. James C. Kroll
What we see is influenced by what we presume, so the skeptical scientist will make an effort to see things that aren’t readily explainable.
Common things to see around volcanoes are steam and ash plumes, pyroclastic flows, and lava rivers. Less common things are rotation of the plume, lightning around the column, and waterspouts or dust devils downwind under the plume. Since the invention of the seismograph, a sub-discipline of seismic study has developed.
The consensus explanations for volcanoes have lumbered into our modern world from the Age of Mechanics, when slide rules were state-of-the-art and things worked by bumping into each other. Convection is king: Hot, buoyant magma rises through cracks in rocks from the “magic mantle,” that mythical realm far below ground that generates excuses for mysterious phenomena on the ground.
When the magma ruptures the surface, steam and ash boil into the sky. Shear forces generate eddies, which become vertical and coalesce to impart rotation to the plume. Friction between ash particles generates static electricity, which discharges as lightning around the eruption column. Seismic signals are exclusively from displacements and mark out the extents of magma chambers beneath volcanoes.
http://www.thunderbolts.info/tpod/2009/arch09/091028volcanoes.htm
The recent eruption of Mt. Redoubt in Alaska calls to mind the skeptical imperative to doubt again the accepted explanations of vulcanology.
"If I hadn't believed it, I never would have seen it with my own two eyes."
--- Dr. James C. Kroll
What we see is influenced by what we presume, so the skeptical scientist will make an effort to see things that aren’t readily explainable.
Common things to see around volcanoes are steam and ash plumes, pyroclastic flows, and lava rivers. Less common things are rotation of the plume, lightning around the column, and waterspouts or dust devils downwind under the plume. Since the invention of the seismograph, a sub-discipline of seismic study has developed.
The consensus explanations for volcanoes have lumbered into our modern world from the Age of Mechanics, when slide rules were state-of-the-art and things worked by bumping into each other. Convection is king: Hot, buoyant magma rises through cracks in rocks from the “magic mantle,” that mythical realm far below ground that generates excuses for mysterious phenomena on the ground.
When the magma ruptures the surface, steam and ash boil into the sky. Shear forces generate eddies, which become vertical and coalesce to impart rotation to the plume. Friction between ash particles generates static electricity, which discharges as lightning around the eruption column. Seismic signals are exclusively from displacements and mark out the extents of magma chambers beneath volcanoes.
http://www.thunderbolts.info/tpod/2009/arch09/091028volcanoes.htm
Sources: House Health Bill Totals $1.2 Trillion
WASHINGTON
Fox News
The health care bill headed for a vote in the House this week costs $1.2 trillion or more over a decade, according to numerous Democratic officials and figures contained in an analysis by congressional budget experts, far higher than the $900 billion cited by President Barack Obama as a price tag for his reform plan.
While the Congressional Budget Office has put the cost of expanding coverage in the legislation at roughly $1 trillion, Democrats added billions more on higher spending for public health, a reinsurance program to hold down retiree health costs, payments for preventive services and more.
Many of the additions are designed to improve benefits or ease access to coverage in government programs. The officials who provided overall cost estimates did so on condition of anonymity, saying they were not authorized to discuss them.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has referred repeatedly to the bill's net cost of $894 billion over a decade for coverage.
Asked about the higher estimate, Pelosi spokesman Brendan Daly said the measure not only insures 36 million more Americans, it provides critical health insurance reform in a way that is fiscally sound.
"It will not add one dime to the deficit. In fact, the CBO said last week that it will reduce the deficit both in the first 10 years and in the second 10 years," Daly said.
Democrats have been intent on passing legislation this year to implement Obama's call for expanded coverage for millions, curbs on industry abuses and provisions to slow the rate of growth of health care costs nationally.
"Now, add it all up, and the plan I'm proposing will cost around $900 billion over 10 years," the president said in a nationally televised speech in early September.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/11/02/sources-house-health-totals-trillion/
Fox News
The health care bill headed for a vote in the House this week costs $1.2 trillion or more over a decade, according to numerous Democratic officials and figures contained in an analysis by congressional budget experts, far higher than the $900 billion cited by President Barack Obama as a price tag for his reform plan.
While the Congressional Budget Office has put the cost of expanding coverage in the legislation at roughly $1 trillion, Democrats added billions more on higher spending for public health, a reinsurance program to hold down retiree health costs, payments for preventive services and more.
Many of the additions are designed to improve benefits or ease access to coverage in government programs. The officials who provided overall cost estimates did so on condition of anonymity, saying they were not authorized to discuss them.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has referred repeatedly to the bill's net cost of $894 billion over a decade for coverage.
Asked about the higher estimate, Pelosi spokesman Brendan Daly said the measure not only insures 36 million more Americans, it provides critical health insurance reform in a way that is fiscally sound.
"It will not add one dime to the deficit. In fact, the CBO said last week that it will reduce the deficit both in the first 10 years and in the second 10 years," Daly said.
Democrats have been intent on passing legislation this year to implement Obama's call for expanded coverage for millions, curbs on industry abuses and provisions to slow the rate of growth of health care costs nationally.
"Now, add it all up, and the plan I'm proposing will cost around $900 billion over 10 years," the president said in a nationally televised speech in early September.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/11/02/sources-house-health-totals-trillion/
J&J to slash 7,000 to 8,000 jobs
Tue Nov 3, 2009 9:03am EST
NEW YORK
Reuters
Johnson & Johnson said on Tuesday it plans to cut 6 percent to 7 percent of its workforce in a battle to prop up profits in the face of generic competition to its prescription drugs.
The company said the cuts will affect 7,000 to 8,000 jobs, and generate annualized cost savings of $1.4 billion to $1.7 billion in 2011, with $800 million to $900 million expected to be achieved in 2010.
J&J, which employs about 117,000 people worldwide, said it will take a charge of $1.1 billion to $1.3 billion against its fourth-quarter earnings, but did not change its 2009 earnings forecast excluding one-time items of $4.54 to $4.59 per share,
The cuts will mainly be achieved by reducing layers of management and simplifying business structures and processes, the company said in a statement.
http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE5A229D20091103?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews
NEW YORK
Reuters
Johnson & Johnson said on Tuesday it plans to cut 6 percent to 7 percent of its workforce in a battle to prop up profits in the face of generic competition to its prescription drugs.
The company said the cuts will affect 7,000 to 8,000 jobs, and generate annualized cost savings of $1.4 billion to $1.7 billion in 2011, with $800 million to $900 million expected to be achieved in 2010.
J&J, which employs about 117,000 people worldwide, said it will take a charge of $1.1 billion to $1.3 billion against its fourth-quarter earnings, but did not change its 2009 earnings forecast excluding one-time items of $4.54 to $4.59 per share,
The cuts will mainly be achieved by reducing layers of management and simplifying business structures and processes, the company said in a statement.
http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE5A229D20091103?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews
N Korea 'has extracted plutonium'
Tuesday, 3 November 2009
BBC
North Korea has completed the reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel rods to extract weapons-grade plutonium, according to its official news agency. The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) added that "noticeable successes" had been made in turning the extracted material into weapons-grade plutonium.
The statement comes one day after North Korea said it was ready for talks with the US on its nuclear programme.
It also threatened to "go its own way" if Washington refused direct talks.
Eight thousand spent fuel rods had been reprocessed, KCNA said. Analysts say this is enough plutonium to make at least one atomic bomb.
North Korea was already believed by some analysts to have enough weapons-grade plutonium for about six bombs, but had none small enough to place on a missile.
"Noticeable successes have been made in turning the extracted plutonium weapon-grade for the purpose of bolstering up the nuclear deterrent in the DPRK [North Korea]," said the KCNA statement.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8339439.stm
BBC
North Korea has completed the reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel rods to extract weapons-grade plutonium, according to its official news agency. The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) added that "noticeable successes" had been made in turning the extracted material into weapons-grade plutonium.
The statement comes one day after North Korea said it was ready for talks with the US on its nuclear programme.
It also threatened to "go its own way" if Washington refused direct talks.
Eight thousand spent fuel rods had been reprocessed, KCNA said. Analysts say this is enough plutonium to make at least one atomic bomb.
North Korea was already believed by some analysts to have enough weapons-grade plutonium for about six bombs, but had none small enough to place on a missile.
"Noticeable successes have been made in turning the extracted plutonium weapon-grade for the purpose of bolstering up the nuclear deterrent in the DPRK [North Korea]," said the KCNA statement.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8339439.stm
States warned on plague locusts
AAP
QUEENSLAND is facing a threat of biblical proportions as Australian plague locusts mass on the border with NSW.
Biosecurity Queensland has warned that the locust swarms, which can travel up to 600km in a night, could cause damage worth millions of dollars.
In 2004/05, locusts were responsible for national agricultural losses estimated to be worth more than $11 million.
Biosecurity officer Kevin Strong said the locust population in central western NSW was expected to soon form a number of highly mobile swarms.
"We need everyone to be on high alert for any sightings of locusts and report them immediately to Biosecurity Queensland by calling 13 25 23," Mr Strong said.
The ability of locusts to migrate over large distances in short periods of time meant virtually all of Queensland's agricultural areas were at some level of risk.
Health Care Businesses at Risk in House Bill
10/30/09
AP
WASHINGTON -- The health care overhaul bill produced by House Democrats would impose an array of new taxes, fees and government mandates on major players in the health industry, including insurers, doctors and drugs and medical devices makers.
In most cases, the pain has been meted out with an eye toward raising the money needed to finance President Barack Obama's plan for reshaping the health system but also with careful regard for gaining the votes that will be needed to pass a final bill.
Democrats hope to vote next week on the measure, which would extend health coverage to tens of millions of Americans who don't have it, impose sweeping new restrictions on private insurers and create a government-run insurance plan to compete with them.
Among the industries targeted in the bill are medical device makers -- one of the few that failed to cut an early behind-the-scenes deal with Obama and Democrats to help pay for an overhaul. The House added $20 billion in taxes on sales of medical devices like artificial hips and heart stents to the legislation Democratic leaders unveiled Thursday.
That's more than the industry wants to pay, but it's a substantial reprieve from an earlier plan in the Senate to slap a $40 billion fee on medical device makers. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has agreed to slash the fee, in part to win cooperation from fence-sitting Democratic Sen. Evan Bayh of Indiana.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/10/30/health-care-businesses-risk-house/
AP
WASHINGTON -- The health care overhaul bill produced by House Democrats would impose an array of new taxes, fees and government mandates on major players in the health industry, including insurers, doctors and drugs and medical devices makers.
In most cases, the pain has been meted out with an eye toward raising the money needed to finance President Barack Obama's plan for reshaping the health system but also with careful regard for gaining the votes that will be needed to pass a final bill.
Democrats hope to vote next week on the measure, which would extend health coverage to tens of millions of Americans who don't have it, impose sweeping new restrictions on private insurers and create a government-run insurance plan to compete with them.
Among the industries targeted in the bill are medical device makers -- one of the few that failed to cut an early behind-the-scenes deal with Obama and Democrats to help pay for an overhaul. The House added $20 billion in taxes on sales of medical devices like artificial hips and heart stents to the legislation Democratic leaders unveiled Thursday.
That's more than the industry wants to pay, but it's a substantial reprieve from an earlier plan in the Senate to slap a $40 billion fee on medical device makers. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has agreed to slash the fee, in part to win cooperation from fence-sitting Democratic Sen. Evan Bayh of Indiana.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/10/30/health-care-businesses-risk-house/
Spanish Flu : Born Again Bioweapon?
October 2, 2009
George Ure
The hardest daily decisions in most newsrooms is deciding which story to 'lead' with. In television, that would usually be the story with their the catchiest images to would hold people over through breaks while in print it's a combination of exclusivity, insight, quality of writing, and the bent of the publication (news, glitz, business, sports, etc.).
Since the focus here in on long wave economics - and how they come creeping through to form a control layer over much of human behavior - you'd think the decision to lead with something like the Sunday Financial Times article by ace economist/realist Nouriel Roubini where he explains the "Mother of all carry trades faces an inevitable bust" would be a simple call to make; that's definitely 'above the fold, page one material.
But, around here, decision-making is never so cut and dried. Life has become incredibly complicated since mid 2001 when I started writing about a 'predictive linguistics project run by Cliff High at www.halfpasthuman.com - although at the time, there was not HPH and Cliff was much more reclusive. Here lately, the linguistics have - since last spring - been pointing to an October 25/26 turn date which would lead to a period of extremely high building tensions from that 'turn date' until two or three weeks later, by which time we should all be able to look back over our shoulders and say "Damn! That's what a turn date's all about..."
The hints are sketchy - but that's the nature of the technology. The event is supposed to be something on the order of 85% economic and 15% other and it arises from the GlobalPop portion of the modelspace, which means whatever it is, it should be more or less planet-wide and not just some series of events that puts the fear of God into some fraudsters and greedsters down on Wall Street (or in Washington, where they also seem drawn in sizeable numbers).
http://www.stevequayle.com/News.alert/09_Disease/091102.born.again.bioweapon.html
George Ure
The hardest daily decisions in most newsrooms is deciding which story to 'lead' with. In television, that would usually be the story with their the catchiest images to would hold people over through breaks while in print it's a combination of exclusivity, insight, quality of writing, and the bent of the publication (news, glitz, business, sports, etc.).
Since the focus here in on long wave economics - and how they come creeping through to form a control layer over much of human behavior - you'd think the decision to lead with something like the Sunday Financial Times article by ace economist/realist Nouriel Roubini where he explains the "Mother of all carry trades faces an inevitable bust" would be a simple call to make; that's definitely 'above the fold, page one material.
But, around here, decision-making is never so cut and dried. Life has become incredibly complicated since mid 2001 when I started writing about a 'predictive linguistics project run by Cliff High at www.halfpasthuman.com - although at the time, there was not HPH and Cliff was much more reclusive. Here lately, the linguistics have - since last spring - been pointing to an October 25/26 turn date which would lead to a period of extremely high building tensions from that 'turn date' until two or three weeks later, by which time we should all be able to look back over our shoulders and say "Damn! That's what a turn date's all about..."
The hints are sketchy - but that's the nature of the technology. The event is supposed to be something on the order of 85% economic and 15% other and it arises from the GlobalPop portion of the modelspace, which means whatever it is, it should be more or less planet-wide and not just some series of events that puts the fear of God into some fraudsters and greedsters down on Wall Street (or in Washington, where they also seem drawn in sizeable numbers).
http://www.stevequayle.com/News.alert/09_Disease/091102.born.again.bioweapon.html
CIT failure to leave small businesses floundering
By Elinor Comlay
NEW YORK,
Nov 1
Reuters
CIT's $42 bln factoring business in doubt
* Small businesses still facing credit crunch
NEW YORK, Nov 1 (Reuters) - CIT Group Inc's CIT.N bankruptcy filing, while long expected, could still trigger a financing crunch for many of the hundreds of thousands of small businesses it finances.
CIT filed for bankruptcy protection on Sunday, and said its creditors have already approved the century-old commercial lender's reorganization plan.[ID:nN01408863]
The bankruptcy followed a failed struggle to refinance its debt amid the credit crunch and recession, and paves the way for it to restructure.
Under the plan announced on Sunday, the lender expects to reduce total debt by about $10 billion.
But the company's long-term prospects are uncertain and the bankruptcy could leave more than one million small and medium-sized businesses looking for another source of funding, lawyers said.
"This could have a devastating effect," said Jerry Reisman, a partner at law firm Reisman Peirez & Reisman in Garden City, New York, who has been working with many of CIT's factoring clients.
These clients -- about 2,000 small companies -- are in a particular bind when it comes to finding alternative financing since CIT is by far the biggest provider of factoring services.
http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssFinancialServicesAndRealEstateNews/idUSN0140708520091101?pageNumber=1&virtualBrandChannel=10522
NEW YORK,
Nov 1
Reuters
CIT's $42 bln factoring business in doubt
* Small businesses still facing credit crunch
NEW YORK, Nov 1 (Reuters) - CIT Group Inc's CIT.N bankruptcy filing, while long expected, could still trigger a financing crunch for many of the hundreds of thousands of small businesses it finances.
CIT filed for bankruptcy protection on Sunday, and said its creditors have already approved the century-old commercial lender's reorganization plan.[ID:nN01408863]
The bankruptcy followed a failed struggle to refinance its debt amid the credit crunch and recession, and paves the way for it to restructure.
Under the plan announced on Sunday, the lender expects to reduce total debt by about $10 billion.
But the company's long-term prospects are uncertain and the bankruptcy could leave more than one million small and medium-sized businesses looking for another source of funding, lawyers said.
"This could have a devastating effect," said Jerry Reisman, a partner at law firm Reisman Peirez & Reisman in Garden City, New York, who has been working with many of CIT's factoring clients.
These clients -- about 2,000 small companies -- are in a particular bind when it comes to finding alternative financing since CIT is by far the biggest provider of factoring services.
http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssFinancialServicesAndRealEstateNews/idUSN0140708520091101?pageNumber=1&virtualBrandChannel=10522
Number of victims to unknown virus growing! State of emergency to be imposed in Ukraine?
10/30/09
MIG News
Yesterday, on October 29 some media reported that allegedly in the Ternopil Region cases of ill people with typhus were registered, and that militarized detachments limited entrance and departure from the territory of the Ternopil Region. However, the Public Relations Center of the Ministry of Emergencies in the Ternopil Region denied information about it.
Yesterday, on October 29 the chief physician of the regional sanitary-epidemiological station Halyna Hrynchuk assured that Kyiv Region is ready for prophylaxis and treatment of influenza, reported Yulia Makoveeva, MIGnews.com.ua correspondent.
In the Ternopil Region 25 percents of infectiologists who worked with patients with acute respiratory viral infections are ill, the chairman of the Association of infectiologists of Ukraine Mykhaylo Andreychin reported yesterday, on October 29 at a press conference.
"One fourth of doctors had such a disease or they are ill with it now. Fortunately, they are recovering now and soon again be able to work", - said Mykhaylo Andreychin.
Yesterday, on October 29 in Morshyn, Lviv Region a doctor from a local hospital, who contacted with patients with viral infection and visited them, died, is reported by the Deputy Chief of the Health protection department in the Lviv Region Iryna Mykytchak. According to her, a 56-year-old woman "had been previously diagnosed with pneumonia," UNIAN reports.
The medical facilities in the Lviv region have medicines for treatment of influenza and acute respiratory infections for the three-day supply, is said in the summary of information of the General Directorate of Health Protection in the Lviv Regional at the State regional Administration, UNIAN reported.
http://mignews.com.ua/en/articles/376537.html
MIG News
Yesterday, on October 29 some media reported that allegedly in the Ternopil Region cases of ill people with typhus were registered, and that militarized detachments limited entrance and departure from the territory of the Ternopil Region. However, the Public Relations Center of the Ministry of Emergencies in the Ternopil Region denied information about it.
Yesterday, on October 29 the chief physician of the regional sanitary-epidemiological station Halyna Hrynchuk assured that Kyiv Region is ready for prophylaxis and treatment of influenza, reported Yulia Makoveeva, MIGnews.com.ua correspondent.
In the Ternopil Region 25 percents of infectiologists who worked with patients with acute respiratory viral infections are ill, the chairman of the Association of infectiologists of Ukraine Mykhaylo Andreychin reported yesterday, on October 29 at a press conference.
"One fourth of doctors had such a disease or they are ill with it now. Fortunately, they are recovering now and soon again be able to work", - said Mykhaylo Andreychin.
Yesterday, on October 29 in Morshyn, Lviv Region a doctor from a local hospital, who contacted with patients with viral infection and visited them, died, is reported by the Deputy Chief of the Health protection department in the Lviv Region Iryna Mykytchak. According to her, a 56-year-old woman "had been previously diagnosed with pneumonia," UNIAN reports.
The medical facilities in the Lviv region have medicines for treatment of influenza and acute respiratory infections for the three-day supply, is said in the summary of information of the General Directorate of Health Protection in the Lviv Regional at the State regional Administration, UNIAN reported.
http://mignews.com.ua/en/articles/376537.html
Spending drop raises concerns about growth
Oct 30, 2009
WASHINGTON (Reuters)
U.S. consumer spending fell in September after four months of gains as a government program to boost auto purchases ended, adding to fears that economic growth could stumble without government support.
The Commerce Department said on Friday consumer spending fell 0.5 percent, the largest decline since December, after a 1.4 percent increase in August. The decline was in line with market expectations.
A separate report from the Labor Department showed employment costs in the United States rose 0.4 percent in the third quarter, matching the previous period's increase and indicating marginal gains in income.
U.S. stock index futures trimmed losses after the economic data, while U.S. government debt prices rose.
"It sets up a very weak fourth quarter for consumption. It might be around flat to up 1 percent annualized in the fourth quarter," said Ian Morris, chief economist at HSBC Securities in New York.
"But if inventories add and you get some rise in business investment, you could get a much more decent fourth-quarter (GDP gain) of around 3 percent," he said.
http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSN3048206220091030?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews
WASHINGTON (Reuters)
U.S. consumer spending fell in September after four months of gains as a government program to boost auto purchases ended, adding to fears that economic growth could stumble without government support.
The Commerce Department said on Friday consumer spending fell 0.5 percent, the largest decline since December, after a 1.4 percent increase in August. The decline was in line with market expectations.
A separate report from the Labor Department showed employment costs in the United States rose 0.4 percent in the third quarter, matching the previous period's increase and indicating marginal gains in income.
U.S. stock index futures trimmed losses after the economic data, while U.S. government debt prices rose.
"It sets up a very weak fourth quarter for consumption. It might be around flat to up 1 percent annualized in the fourth quarter," said Ian Morris, chief economist at HSBC Securities in New York.
"But if inventories add and you get some rise in business investment, you could get a much more decent fourth-quarter (GDP gain) of around 3 percent," he said.
http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSN3048206220091030?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews
Obama's "too big to fail" plan blasted in Congress
By Kevin Drawbaugh
10/29/09
WASHINGTON (Reuters)
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on Thursday scrambled to fight off attacks from all sides on a new Obama administration plan for tackling financial risk in the economy unveiled just two days ago.
After weeks of negotiations, the administration and Democratic Representative Barney Frank released a sweeping proposal on Tuesday to give regulators new powers to regulate, and even shut down, big financial firms threatening economic stability.
The financial services industry, not taxpayers, would bear the costs of government interventions to prevent the collapse of undercapitalized firms under the 253-page proposal, which tries to walk a middle line between bailouts and bankruptcy.
Both Democrats and Republicans broadly criticized the strategy at a public hearing convened by the U.S. House of Representatives Financial Services Committee chaired by Frank.
http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE59E6M620091029?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews
10/29/09
WASHINGTON (Reuters)
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on Thursday scrambled to fight off attacks from all sides on a new Obama administration plan for tackling financial risk in the economy unveiled just two days ago.
After weeks of negotiations, the administration and Democratic Representative Barney Frank released a sweeping proposal on Tuesday to give regulators new powers to regulate, and even shut down, big financial firms threatening economic stability.
The financial services industry, not taxpayers, would bear the costs of government interventions to prevent the collapse of undercapitalized firms under the 253-page proposal, which tries to walk a middle line between bailouts and bankruptcy.
Both Democrats and Republicans broadly criticized the strategy at a public hearing convened by the U.S. House of Representatives Financial Services Committee chaired by Frank.
http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE59E6M620091029?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews
Stock analysts issue 'Black Tuesday' warning
October 29, 2009
WorldNetDaily
On this 80th anniversary of the "Black Tuesday" stock market collapse, some analysts are experiencing déjà vu, warning a major crash in the stock market is imminent.
Graham Summers, senior market strategist at OmniSans Research, wrote in the firm's daily e-letter yesterday that the markets may finally be on the verge of the crash he has been predicting for more than two months.
"Well, judging from the market's action today, I believe we may be within 48 hours of getting the "Official Sell" signal I've been waiting for," he wrote in "Gain, Pains, and Capital."
Get "The Return of the Great Depression," autographed, at WND's Superstore
The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 119 points yesterday, or 1.2 percent, while the NASDAQ lost 2.7 percent. The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies dropped 3.5 percent.
Summers explained in an online piece Tuesday that he has been watching an ominous pattern develop in which the trading range shrinks as stocks rise higher. In the past, that pattern has led to a sharp downturn, he said.
"I've been forewarning of a potential crash for months now. And the market's current action is precisely what you would expect for a major top (increased volatility)," Summers wrote.
Author and WND columnist Vox Day, asserts in book released last week, "The Return of the Great Depression," that the U.S. is entering the early stages of the Second Great Depression.
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=114373
WorldNetDaily
On this 80th anniversary of the "Black Tuesday" stock market collapse, some analysts are experiencing déjà vu, warning a major crash in the stock market is imminent.
Graham Summers, senior market strategist at OmniSans Research, wrote in the firm's daily e-letter yesterday that the markets may finally be on the verge of the crash he has been predicting for more than two months.
"Well, judging from the market's action today, I believe we may be within 48 hours of getting the "Official Sell" signal I've been waiting for," he wrote in "Gain, Pains, and Capital."
Get "The Return of the Great Depression," autographed, at WND's Superstore
The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 119 points yesterday, or 1.2 percent, while the NASDAQ lost 2.7 percent. The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies dropped 3.5 percent.
Summers explained in an online piece Tuesday that he has been watching an ominous pattern develop in which the trading range shrinks as stocks rise higher. In the past, that pattern has led to a sharp downturn, he said.
"I've been forewarning of a potential crash for months now. And the market's current action is precisely what you would expect for a major top (increased volatility)," Summers wrote.
Author and WND columnist Vox Day, asserts in book released last week, "The Return of the Great Depression," that the U.S. is entering the early stages of the Second Great Depression.
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=114373
Dark Comet in 2012? Researcher Unravels Potential Doomsday Culprit
Melbourne, Australia (PRWEB) October 27, 2009 -- Comet Caesar, with recorded sightings in 44BC, is the oldest known periodic comet. With Bast's hypothesis of 5 orbits averaging 1025 years, the 44BC passage fits in well with the 2012 end date, and just as importantly the 3114BC start date, of the Mayan Long Count calendar. This estimated orbital period differs from the 44BC sighting by only 6 years, or 3 years per thousand year orbit. Given that the periodicy of Halley's comet can vary by 2 years within a 76 year orbit, due to the gravitational influences of the planets, the connection could be precise.
Bast says "Few researchers have paid any importance to the start date of the Long Count calendar. And few have looked into global cataclysms that ancient civilizations were actually capable of predicting".
If any catastrophe in our era could be accurately predicted by an ancient civilization, comets are the leading candidate. The relevant observational and mathematical skills existed in pre-history, and the coding of information in calendars and myth would enable the information to outlast the culture that provided it.
If Comet Caesar does return in 2012, hopefully it will just be a fleeting visit, and not an impact with Earth. If it is on a collision course, we might see it coming within a year or two, providing us with the opportunity to prepare. Unfortunately there is a possibility it is now a "dark comet", having lost its reflective ice during its last passage around the Sun. In that scenario, we won't even see it coming.
The full article is at http://survive2012.com/index.php/comet-caesar.html
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2009/10/prweb3101454.htm
Bast says "Few researchers have paid any importance to the start date of the Long Count calendar. And few have looked into global cataclysms that ancient civilizations were actually capable of predicting".
If any catastrophe in our era could be accurately predicted by an ancient civilization, comets are the leading candidate. The relevant observational and mathematical skills existed in pre-history, and the coding of information in calendars and myth would enable the information to outlast the culture that provided it.
If Comet Caesar does return in 2012, hopefully it will just be a fleeting visit, and not an impact with Earth. If it is on a collision course, we might see it coming within a year or two, providing us with the opportunity to prepare. Unfortunately there is a possibility it is now a "dark comet", having lost its reflective ice during its last passage around the Sun. In that scenario, we won't even see it coming.
The full article is at http://survive2012.com/index.php/comet-caesar.html
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2009/10/prweb3101454.htm
Title.
The Emdrive is an electromagnetic drive that would generate thrust from a closed system — “impossible” say some experts.
To critics, it’s flat-out junk science, not even worth thinking about. But its inventor, Roger Shawyer, has doggedly continued his work. As Danger Room reported last year, Chinese scientists claimed to validate his math and were building their own version.
Shawyer gave a presentation earlier this week on the Emdrive’s progress at the CEAS 2009 European Air & Space Conference. It answered few questions, but hinted at how the Emdrive might transform spaceflight — and warfare. If the technology works, that is.
The heart of the Emdrive is a resonant, tapered cavity filled with microwaves. According to Shawyer, a relativistic effect generates a net thrust, an effect confirmed by various Emdrives he has built as demonstrations. Critics say that any thrust from the drive must come from another source. Shawyer is adamant that the measured thrust is not caused by other factors.
While the argument over the drive’s impossibility continues, so does the engineering work. The problem is that nobody wants to talk about it. Even Shawyer gives little away.
Last year, professor Yang Juan of the College of Astronautics at Northwestern Polytechnical University (NPU) in Xi’an was happy to confirm that they were building an Emdrive which would be tested by the end of the year. But following the publication of this news in Danger Room, the situation changed. I was informed that the publicity was very unwelcome, especially any suggestion that there might be a military application. (Yang had previous published a study on the use of plasma as a weapon against low-orbiting satellites. [.pdf]) No further information has been forthcoming, and no Chinese papers have been published on the Emdrive, though Yang has recently published work on (unrelated) microwave plasma thrusters (.pdf).
Possible deaths from H1N1 vaccine reported in Sweden
digitaljournal.com
10/28/09
There are reports from Sweden of possible deaths linked to the H1N1 vaccine; unconfirmed and unwelcome news which will surely complicate the very busy flu season that has descended on most of the northern hemisphere. While confirmation has yet to be made by health authorities in Sweden, Associated Content is reporting that four people have died after receiving the H1N1 vaccine. Three of those are alleged to have been seniors with serious underlying health conditions. Very little is known about the fourth. The Local has reported that the outbreak of H1N1 flu in Sweden has picked up speed in the past few weeks. About 1 million Swedes have been vaccinated for H1N1. Stockholm News (English) reports that the deaths are being investigated, saying "... Yesterday the national agency received reports that two women had died a couple of days after having received the vaccine, a 90-year-old woman and a 74-year-old woman belonging to the risk group. There are two other cases investigated, one man with cardiac problems who died twelve hours after vaccination and a woman who was found dead two days after her vaccination." An unconfirmed source says Swedish news sources are reporting at least 350 adverse reactions to the vaccine while saying the Swedish Institute for Infectious Disease Control has denied a link between the adverse reactions and the vaccine.
http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/281228
10/28/09
There are reports from Sweden of possible deaths linked to the H1N1 vaccine; unconfirmed and unwelcome news which will surely complicate the very busy flu season that has descended on most of the northern hemisphere. While confirmation has yet to be made by health authorities in Sweden, Associated Content is reporting that four people have died after receiving the H1N1 vaccine. Three of those are alleged to have been seniors with serious underlying health conditions. Very little is known about the fourth. The Local has reported that the outbreak of H1N1 flu in Sweden has picked up speed in the past few weeks. About 1 million Swedes have been vaccinated for H1N1. Stockholm News (English) reports that the deaths are being investigated, saying "... Yesterday the national agency received reports that two women had died a couple of days after having received the vaccine, a 90-year-old woman and a 74-year-old woman belonging to the risk group. There are two other cases investigated, one man with cardiac problems who died twelve hours after vaccination and a woman who was found dead two days after her vaccination." An unconfirmed source says Swedish news sources are reporting at least 350 adverse reactions to the vaccine while saying the Swedish Institute for Infectious Disease Control has denied a link between the adverse reactions and the vaccine.
http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/281228
Council bans parents from play areas
By Tom Whitehead,
Home Affairs Editor
Published: 1:04PM GMT 28 Oct 2009
telegraph
Only council-vetted "play rangers" are now allowed to monitor youngsters in two adventure areas in Watford while parents must watch from outside a perimeter fence.
The Watford Borough Council policy has been attacked as insulting and a disgrace by furious relatives who say they are being labelled as potential paedophiles.
It will further fuel concerns over a growing nanny state amid the deepening row over the Government's new national anti-paedophile database.
That will see at least 11 million adults have to be vetted to work with children or vulnerable adults, including parents who give officials lifts to and from social or sports clubs.
Councillors in Watford claim they are only following Government guidelines and cannot allow adults to walk around playgrounds "unchecked".
But Osfted dismissed the ban while parents branded it "a joke".
The rules have been imposed at Harwoods and Harebreaks adventure recreation grounds.
Activities on the half acre sites include a skateboard half-pipe, a zip line, rope swings, den building, arts and crafts, plus a wide range of indoor and outdoor sports activities.
Play rangers currently patrol both parks – which are specifically for children aged five to 15 – and are fully qualified and have been cleared by the Criminal Records Bureau.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics
/politics/lawandorder/6453268/Council-bans-
parents-from-play-areas.html
Home Affairs Editor
Published: 1:04PM GMT 28 Oct 2009
telegraph
Only council-vetted "play rangers" are now allowed to monitor youngsters in two adventure areas in Watford while parents must watch from outside a perimeter fence.
The Watford Borough Council policy has been attacked as insulting and a disgrace by furious relatives who say they are being labelled as potential paedophiles.
It will further fuel concerns over a growing nanny state amid the deepening row over the Government's new national anti-paedophile database.
That will see at least 11 million adults have to be vetted to work with children or vulnerable adults, including parents who give officials lifts to and from social or sports clubs.
Councillors in Watford claim they are only following Government guidelines and cannot allow adults to walk around playgrounds "unchecked".
But Osfted dismissed the ban while parents branded it "a joke".
The rules have been imposed at Harwoods and Harebreaks adventure recreation grounds.
Activities on the half acre sites include a skateboard half-pipe, a zip line, rope swings, den building, arts and crafts, plus a wide range of indoor and outdoor sports activities.
Play rangers currently patrol both parks – which are specifically for children aged five to 15 – and are fully qualified and have been cleared by the Criminal Records Bureau.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics
/politics/lawandorder/6453268/Council-bans-
parents-from-play-areas.html
Blow to Nymex as Saudis drop benchmark
Javier Blas
London — FT.com
Thursday, Oct. 29, 2009
Saudi Arabia yesterday decided to drop the West Texas Intermediate oil contract as the benchmark for pricing its oil, dealing a blow to the New York Mercantile Exchange.
The decision by the biggest oil exporter could encourage other producers to abandon the benchmark and threatens the dominance of the most heavily traded oil futures contract.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/blow-to-nymex-as-saudis-drop-benchmark/article1343235/
London — FT.com
Thursday, Oct. 29, 2009
Saudi Arabia yesterday decided to drop the West Texas Intermediate oil contract as the benchmark for pricing its oil, dealing a blow to the New York Mercantile Exchange.
The decision by the biggest oil exporter could encourage other producers to abandon the benchmark and threatens the dominance of the most heavily traded oil futures contract.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/blow-to-nymex-as-saudis-drop-benchmark/article1343235/
The raid that rocked the Met:
ADRIAN LEVY and CATHY SCOTT-CLARK
Mail Online
The Finchley Road is one of the busiest thoroughfares heading out of London. It leads traffi c north past Lord's Cricket Ground and the multimillion-pound houses of some of the country's richest hedge-fund managers all the way to the M1. At three in the afternoon it's always pretty slow going, but on this particular summer Monday the traffi c was almost at a standstill.
This was partly because the normal three lanes going north had been cut down to one. But it was also because of drivers slowing down to a crawl so they could gawp at the massive police operation unfolding on a busy corner of the road.
Police vehicles - both cars and menacing armoured trucks - jammed up two lanes. Dozens of armed o fficers in bulletproof vests were standing ready, waiting to be called inside an anonymous-looking building. From the sheer manpower and weapons on display it looked like the capital was under another terrorist attack.
But while this was the Metropolitan Police's most ambitious operation in its 180-year history, it had nothing to do with national security. Only hours before, at a special briefing, teams from SCD6 (the Economic And Specialist Crime unit) and C019 (Specialist Firearms Command) hunkered down with technicians armed with angle grinders and drills. Also present were dog handlers, their animals trained to sniff out guns, drugs and explosives.
In all, more than 500 o fficers had gathered to receive orders to raid smart addresses in well-heeled parts of the capital. The locations included three of Britain's largest and most well-established safety-deposit box depositories in Edgware, Hampstead and Park Lane as well as an offi ce and the homes of the three directors of Safe Deposit Centres Ltd, which owned the vaults - two in Hampstead and one in Barnet.
Read more: http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/home/moslive/article-1222777/The-raid-rocked-Met-Why-gun-drugs-op-6-717-safety-deposit-boxes-cost-taxpayer-fortune.html#ixzz0VGVMr2Qv
Mail Online
The Finchley Road is one of the busiest thoroughfares heading out of London. It leads traffi c north past Lord's Cricket Ground and the multimillion-pound houses of some of the country's richest hedge-fund managers all the way to the M1. At three in the afternoon it's always pretty slow going, but on this particular summer Monday the traffi c was almost at a standstill.
This was partly because the normal three lanes going north had been cut down to one. But it was also because of drivers slowing down to a crawl so they could gawp at the massive police operation unfolding on a busy corner of the road.
Police vehicles - both cars and menacing armoured trucks - jammed up two lanes. Dozens of armed o fficers in bulletproof vests were standing ready, waiting to be called inside an anonymous-looking building. From the sheer manpower and weapons on display it looked like the capital was under another terrorist attack.
But while this was the Metropolitan Police's most ambitious operation in its 180-year history, it had nothing to do with national security. Only hours before, at a special briefing, teams from SCD6 (the Economic And Specialist Crime unit) and C019 (Specialist Firearms Command) hunkered down with technicians armed with angle grinders and drills. Also present were dog handlers, their animals trained to sniff out guns, drugs and explosives.
In all, more than 500 o fficers had gathered to receive orders to raid smart addresses in well-heeled parts of the capital. The locations included three of Britain's largest and most well-established safety-deposit box depositories in Edgware, Hampstead and Park Lane as well as an offi ce and the homes of the three directors of Safe Deposit Centres Ltd, which owned the vaults - two in Hampstead and one in Barnet.
Read more: http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/home/moslive/article-1222777/The-raid-rocked-Met-Why-gun-drugs-op-6-717-safety-deposit-boxes-cost-taxpayer-fortune.html#ixzz0VGVMr2Qv
Senate Democrats push for climate bill ahead of Copenhagen
US environment correspondent
Tuesday 27 October 2009 19.54 GMT
The epic confrontation about how America will power the economy of the future formally got underway today amid stark warnings from the Obama administration of the costs of inaction on energy reform.
Today's hearing, the first of three blockbuster sessions in the Senate, marks a last heave by administration officials and Democratic leaders to advance a bill to reduce America's greenhouse gas emissions before an international climate change meeting at Copenhagen, now just six weeks away.
They were met with strong opposition from a powerful Democrat as well as Republicans on the environment and public works committee.
With the clock running down to Copenhagen, the administration wheeled out four top officials to make the case that failure to act now on climate change would relegate America to lower tier status in the global economy. "When the starting gun sounded on the clean energy race, the United States stumbled," Steven Chu, the energy secretary, told the environment and public works committee. "If we don't choose to begin the development of this new technology, China and other countries will."
Gardasil Researcher Drops A Bombshell
Harper: Controversal Drug Will Do Little To Reduce Cervical Cancer Rates By Susan Brinkmann,
For The Bulletin
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Dr. Diane Harper, lead researcher in the development of two human papilloma virus vaccines, Gardasil and Cervarix, said the controversial drugs will do little to reduce cervical cancer rates and, even though they’re being recommended for girls as young as nine, there have been no efficacy trials in children under the age of 15.
Dr. Harper, director of the Gynecologic Cancer Prevention Research Group at the University of Missouri, made these remarks during an address at the 4th International Public Conference on Vaccination which took place in Reston, Virginia on Oct. 2-4. Although her talk was intended to promote the vaccine, participants said they came away convinced the vaccine should not be received.
“I came away from the talk with the perception that the risk of adverse side effects is so much greater than the risk of cervical cancer, I couldn’t help but question why we need the vaccine at all,” said Joan Robinson, Assistant Editor at the Population Research Institute.
Dr. Harper began her remarks by explaining that 70 percent of all HPV infections resolve themselves without treatment within a year. Within two years, the number climbs to 90 percent. Of the remaining 10 percent of HPV infections, only half will develop into cervical cancer, which leaves little need for the vaccine.
http://thebulletin.us/articles/2009/10/25/top_stories/doc4ae4b76d07e16766677720.txt
For The Bulletin
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Dr. Diane Harper, lead researcher in the development of two human papilloma virus vaccines, Gardasil and Cervarix, said the controversial drugs will do little to reduce cervical cancer rates and, even though they’re being recommended for girls as young as nine, there have been no efficacy trials in children under the age of 15.
Dr. Harper, director of the Gynecologic Cancer Prevention Research Group at the University of Missouri, made these remarks during an address at the 4th International Public Conference on Vaccination which took place in Reston, Virginia on Oct. 2-4. Although her talk was intended to promote the vaccine, participants said they came away convinced the vaccine should not be received.
“I came away from the talk with the perception that the risk of adverse side effects is so much greater than the risk of cervical cancer, I couldn’t help but question why we need the vaccine at all,” said Joan Robinson, Assistant Editor at the Population Research Institute.
Dr. Harper began her remarks by explaining that 70 percent of all HPV infections resolve themselves without treatment within a year. Within two years, the number climbs to 90 percent. Of the remaining 10 percent of HPV infections, only half will develop into cervical cancer, which leaves little need for the vaccine.
http://thebulletin.us/articles/2009/10/25/top_stories/doc4ae4b76d07e16766677720.txt
Has President Obama, the Constitutional Lawyer, Committed Open Treason?
JTCoyoté
Infowars
October 28, 2009
“Has President Obama, the Constitutional Lawyer, Committed Open Treason?”
When the president of the United States, Barack H. Obama accepted rotating status as chairman of the United Nations Security Council, he committed high treason… not only a direct violation of article 1 section 9 clause 7 of the Constitution for the United States of America, which states emphatically:
“No title of nobility shall be granted by the United States; and no person holding any office of profit or trust under them, shall without consent of Congress accept of any present, emolument, office, or title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.”
But this act by the President also has violated the 13th article of amendment that was duly ratified by March of 1819, but with secrecy and by active subterfuge, it was replaced by Lincoln’s 14th amendment right after the Civil War. This duly ratified original 13th amendment states the following:
“If any citizen of the United States shall accept, claim, receive, or retain any title of nobility or honour, or shall without the consent of Congress, accept and retain any present, pension, office, or emolument of any kind whatever, from any emperor, king, prince, or foreign power, such person shall cease to be a citizen of the United States, and shall be incapable of holding any office of trust or profit under them, or either of them.”
http://www.amendment-13.org/
http://www.infowars.com/has-president-obama-the-constitutional-lawyer-committed-open-treason/
Obama’s “National Emergency” Violates the Constitution
Kurt Nimmo
Infowars
October 26, 2009
Drew Zahn, writing for WorldNetDaily, takes issue with Infowars declaring Obama’s “national emergency” amounts to martial law. “An article by Kurt Nimmo of InfoWars took the worry a step further, wondering if the White House’s declaration engaged certain measures of the National Emergencies Act,” writes Zahn. “But even if there really is a plot to manipulate the H1N1 virus scare into enforcing a sweeping expansion of federal power, today’s ‘national emergency’ falls far short of martial law.”
Zahn writes that the laws enacted by the president’s proclamation merely clear administrative hurdles for processing of Medicare payments and that the provisions of the National Emergencies Act cited by Obama in his proclamation limit the power his administration can take. He then cites Section 301 that forbids the president from taking up any powers of the National Emergencies Act except those listed in the proclamation of emergency. The list deals with Medicare, Medicaid, HIPAA privacy regulations, and other bureaucratic functions of the department of Health and Human Services.
Infowars noted that Obama’s “national emergency” is likely a scare tactic designed to stampede people into getting the vaccine. The National Emergencies Act, however, is part of a larger framework designed specifically for the implementation of martial law. The law allows the president to revoke the right of habeas corpus under Article 1, Section 9. It also grants special powers to the executive in times of national emergency and underscores the threat the executive poses to the civil liberties of Americans, regardless of the stipulations in Section 301.
http://www.infowars.com/obamas-national-emergency-violates-the-constitution/
Infowars
October 26, 2009
Drew Zahn, writing for WorldNetDaily, takes issue with Infowars declaring Obama’s “national emergency” amounts to martial law. “An article by Kurt Nimmo of InfoWars took the worry a step further, wondering if the White House’s declaration engaged certain measures of the National Emergencies Act,” writes Zahn. “But even if there really is a plot to manipulate the H1N1 virus scare into enforcing a sweeping expansion of federal power, today’s ‘national emergency’ falls far short of martial law.”
Zahn writes that the laws enacted by the president’s proclamation merely clear administrative hurdles for processing of Medicare payments and that the provisions of the National Emergencies Act cited by Obama in his proclamation limit the power his administration can take. He then cites Section 301 that forbids the president from taking up any powers of the National Emergencies Act except those listed in the proclamation of emergency. The list deals with Medicare, Medicaid, HIPAA privacy regulations, and other bureaucratic functions of the department of Health and Human Services.
Infowars noted that Obama’s “national emergency” is likely a scare tactic designed to stampede people into getting the vaccine. The National Emergencies Act, however, is part of a larger framework designed specifically for the implementation of martial law. The law allows the president to revoke the right of habeas corpus under Article 1, Section 9. It also grants special powers to the executive in times of national emergency and underscores the threat the executive poses to the civil liberties of Americans, regardless of the stipulations in Section 301.
http://www.infowars.com/obamas-national-emergency-violates-the-constitution/
Canadians wary of swine flu vaccine
AFP
10/26/09
OTTAWA
Most Canadians are skeptical of the swine flu threat and of the vaccine to fight it, a survey suggested on Monday as the country's largest-ever vaccination program in Canada got underway.
Fifty-one percent of 1,000 Canadians surveyed by polling firm Strategic Counsel for the daily Globe and Mail newspaper said they would not get vaccinated against the deadly A(H1N1) flu virus, while 49 percent said they wanted a flu shot.
The poll gave no margin of error because the respondents answered voluntarily through an online survey. A similar survey in July showed 62 percent saying they planned to get a swine flu shot.
The split reflects lingering concerns that the vaccine developed by GlaxoSmithKline has not been fully tested and that the influenza outbreak is not very serious, pollster Tim Woolstencroft told the newspaper.
"There has been a real drop-off in the desire to have the vaccination shot," he said, due mostly to safety concerns and the view that health officials "have been crying wolf too many times" about the threat posed.
The swine flu has so far contributed to 86 deaths in Canada, more than 1,500 hospitalizations and close to 300 critical care ward admissions, according to Health Canada.
Even so, 59 percent of respondents said they believe the swine flu is no more dangerous than the common cold. Only seven percent thought it could be life-threatening.
10/26/09
OTTAWA
Most Canadians are skeptical of the swine flu threat and of the vaccine to fight it, a survey suggested on Monday as the country's largest-ever vaccination program in Canada got underway.
Fifty-one percent of 1,000 Canadians surveyed by polling firm Strategic Counsel for the daily Globe and Mail newspaper said they would not get vaccinated against the deadly A(H1N1) flu virus, while 49 percent said they wanted a flu shot.
The poll gave no margin of error because the respondents answered voluntarily through an online survey. A similar survey in July showed 62 percent saying they planned to get a swine flu shot.
The split reflects lingering concerns that the vaccine developed by GlaxoSmithKline has not been fully tested and that the influenza outbreak is not very serious, pollster Tim Woolstencroft told the newspaper.
"There has been a real drop-off in the desire to have the vaccination shot," he said, due mostly to safety concerns and the view that health officials "have been crying wolf too many times" about the threat posed.
The swine flu has so far contributed to 86 deaths in Canada, more than 1,500 hospitalizations and close to 300 critical care ward admissions, according to Health Canada.
Even so, 59 percent of respondents said they believe the swine flu is no more dangerous than the common cold. Only seven percent thought it could be life-threatening.
Strong earthquake rocks Afghanistan
Fri October 23, 2009
KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN)
A strong earthquake rumbled deep beneath mountainous regions northeast of Kabul early Friday, waking residents and sending some into the streets.
But no serious damage has been reported from the magnitude 6.2 quake, which struck about 12:30 a.m. about 50 miles southeast of Feyzabad, Afghanistan, in a sparsely populated area.
Centered nearly 170 miles down, the earthquake's power was muted on the surface, although was felt lightly as far away as northern India.
CNN's Thomas Evans and Chris Lawrence, both in Kabul, said the quake lasted for nearly 30 seconds and seemed to increase in intensity.
"I had gone to bed about an hour ago and had fallen asleep," Lawrence said. "Woke up instantly to the shaking, which was considerable. I could feel our whole house here in Kabul moving."
"I went out on the roof very soon after," Evans related. "I could hear people gathering outside of their homes but no obvious signs of damage, no smoke or sirens, at least not in the Sherpur district of Kabul."
A U.S. military spokesman in Kabul said he had received no reports of damage from military posts around the country and had seen none walking around his base in Kabul.
KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN)
A strong earthquake rumbled deep beneath mountainous regions northeast of Kabul early Friday, waking residents and sending some into the streets.
But no serious damage has been reported from the magnitude 6.2 quake, which struck about 12:30 a.m. about 50 miles southeast of Feyzabad, Afghanistan, in a sparsely populated area.
Centered nearly 170 miles down, the earthquake's power was muted on the surface, although was felt lightly as far away as northern India.
CNN's Thomas Evans and Chris Lawrence, both in Kabul, said the quake lasted for nearly 30 seconds and seemed to increase in intensity.
"I had gone to bed about an hour ago and had fallen asleep," Lawrence said. "Woke up instantly to the shaking, which was considerable. I could feel our whole house here in Kabul moving."
"I went out on the roof very soon after," Evans related. "I could hear people gathering outside of their homes but no obvious signs of damage, no smoke or sirens, at least not in the Sherpur district of Kabul."
A U.S. military spokesman in Kabul said he had received no reports of damage from military posts around the country and had seen none walking around his base in Kabul.
Federal Reserve Runs Our Country
Bob Chapman
The International Forecaster
October 23, 2009
Last week the Dow added 1.3%, the S&P 1.5%, the Russell 2000, 0.2% and the Nasdaq 100, 0.7%. Cyclicals rose 2.6%; transports 3.8%; consumers 1.7%; utilities 1.3%, as banks fell 0.3% and broker/dealers fell 0.6%. High tech fell 0.2% semis 1.1%; bitoechs 1.9% and Internets rose 0.2%. Gold bullion rose $3.00 and the HUI was unchanged, but up 47.5% on the year. The USDX, the dollar index fell 1.1% to 75.62.
The 2-year T-bills fell 2 bps to 0.83%, the 10-year notes rose 2 bps to 3.41% and the 10-year German bund added 8 bps to 3.28%.
There is no question that our government is controlled by the unelected that lurks behind the scenes or are appointed as bureaucrats to run our country. Freddie Mac 30-year fixed rate mortgages rose 5 bps to 4.92%; the 15’s rose 4 bps to 4.37% and the one-year ARMs jumped 7 bps to 4.60%. The 30-year fixed jumbo fell 6 bps to 6.00%.
Federal Reserve credit declined $12.9 billion, up 21% yoy. Fed foreign holdings of Treasury/Agency debt rose $4.1 billion to a record $2.865 trillion. Custody holdings for foreign central banks expanded at a 17.5% rate ytd, and yoy 15.2%.
M-2 narrow money supply fell $23.3 billion to $8.341 trillion, that is 5.9% yoy.
Total money market assets dropped $42.3 billion to $3.404 trillion. They have declined $427 billion ytd, or 14.1% annualized.
The charade in NYC and Washington goes on. There is no question that our government is controlled by the unelected that lurks behind the scenes or are appointed as bureaucrats to run our country. It was never more evident than when administrations changed last January. Team A replaced Team B, all of whom just happen to be members of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Trilateral Commission and the Bilderberg Group. There is no debate. There is only one plan and that is for one-world government. These are the Illuminists who will Shepard us into final bondage. This is what our government is all about today and has been since WWII.
The heart of the elitist control mechanism is the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department. Control of our country emanates from these two entities. They control the purse strings of our nation. They allow us to pay for our own destruction. This is achieved by taxation and debt. The system in place has been used for centuries to keep control over people. The elitists want total power over us and all the inhabitants of the world.
http://www.infowars.com/federal-reserve-runs-our-country/#
The International Forecaster
October 23, 2009
Last week the Dow added 1.3%, the S&P 1.5%, the Russell 2000, 0.2% and the Nasdaq 100, 0.7%. Cyclicals rose 2.6%; transports 3.8%; consumers 1.7%; utilities 1.3%, as banks fell 0.3% and broker/dealers fell 0.6%. High tech fell 0.2% semis 1.1%; bitoechs 1.9% and Internets rose 0.2%. Gold bullion rose $3.00 and the HUI was unchanged, but up 47.5% on the year. The USDX, the dollar index fell 1.1% to 75.62.
The 2-year T-bills fell 2 bps to 0.83%, the 10-year notes rose 2 bps to 3.41% and the 10-year German bund added 8 bps to 3.28%.
There is no question that our government is controlled by the unelected that lurks behind the scenes or are appointed as bureaucrats to run our country. Freddie Mac 30-year fixed rate mortgages rose 5 bps to 4.92%; the 15’s rose 4 bps to 4.37% and the one-year ARMs jumped 7 bps to 4.60%. The 30-year fixed jumbo fell 6 bps to 6.00%.
Federal Reserve credit declined $12.9 billion, up 21% yoy. Fed foreign holdings of Treasury/Agency debt rose $4.1 billion to a record $2.865 trillion. Custody holdings for foreign central banks expanded at a 17.5% rate ytd, and yoy 15.2%.
M-2 narrow money supply fell $23.3 billion to $8.341 trillion, that is 5.9% yoy.
Total money market assets dropped $42.3 billion to $3.404 trillion. They have declined $427 billion ytd, or 14.1% annualized.
The charade in NYC and Washington goes on. There is no question that our government is controlled by the unelected that lurks behind the scenes or are appointed as bureaucrats to run our country. It was never more evident than when administrations changed last January. Team A replaced Team B, all of whom just happen to be members of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Trilateral Commission and the Bilderberg Group. There is no debate. There is only one plan and that is for one-world government. These are the Illuminists who will Shepard us into final bondage. This is what our government is all about today and has been since WWII.
The heart of the elitist control mechanism is the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department. Control of our country emanates from these two entities. They control the purse strings of our nation. They allow us to pay for our own destruction. This is achieved by taxation and debt. The system in place has been used for centuries to keep control over people. The elitists want total power over us and all the inhabitants of the world.
http://www.infowars.com/federal-reserve-runs-our-country/#
Farrakhan: H1N1 vaccine developed to kill people
Andrew Moran
digital journal.com
In Memphis on Sunday, Nation of Islam leader Minister Louis Farrakhan said to an audience that the H1N1 Swine Flu Vaccination was developed to depopulate the human race. The 76-year-old Louis Farrakhan, speaking for nearly three hours to a religious group on the 14th anniversary of the Million Man March in Washington, believes the H1N1 Swine Flu Vaccination is nothing more than a guise to depopulate the Earth, according to United Press International. “The Earth can't take 6.5 billion people. We just can't feed that many. So what are you going to do? Kill as many as you can. We have to develop a science that kills them and makes it look as though they died from some disease." According to Fox News, Farrakhan said that wise people will not take the vaccine. A poll released last month showed that two-thirds of American parents will either delay giving their child the vaccine or just not give them the shots at all. Another survey that was released earlier this month shows that 40 per cent of Americans will not get the vaccine. In Canada, many citizens do not view the H1N1 pandemic as any kind of personal threat. A Harris-Decima/The Canadian Press poll showed that only one-third of Canadians will take the vaccine. Only 11 per cent of respondents said they were very concerned about the Swine Flu and 5 per cent think they will actually contract the flu. Nevertheless, Farrakhan further iterated that the black community should not be complacent and think that President Barack Obama was voted in just to take of the black people but for the United States as a country, “He is the American president, not the black president.”
http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/280790
digital journal.com
In Memphis on Sunday, Nation of Islam leader Minister Louis Farrakhan said to an audience that the H1N1 Swine Flu Vaccination was developed to depopulate the human race. The 76-year-old Louis Farrakhan, speaking for nearly three hours to a religious group on the 14th anniversary of the Million Man March in Washington, believes the H1N1 Swine Flu Vaccination is nothing more than a guise to depopulate the Earth, according to United Press International. “The Earth can't take 6.5 billion people. We just can't feed that many. So what are you going to do? Kill as many as you can. We have to develop a science that kills them and makes it look as though they died from some disease." According to Fox News, Farrakhan said that wise people will not take the vaccine. A poll released last month showed that two-thirds of American parents will either delay giving their child the vaccine or just not give them the shots at all. Another survey that was released earlier this month shows that 40 per cent of Americans will not get the vaccine. In Canada, many citizens do not view the H1N1 pandemic as any kind of personal threat. A Harris-Decima/The Canadian Press poll showed that only one-third of Canadians will take the vaccine. Only 11 per cent of respondents said they were very concerned about the Swine Flu and 5 per cent think they will actually contract the flu. Nevertheless, Farrakhan further iterated that the black community should not be complacent and think that President Barack Obama was voted in just to take of the black people but for the United States as a country, “He is the American president, not the black president.”
http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/280790
U.S. cuts pay at bailed out firms, BofA hits back
By Karey Wutkowski and David Lawder
10/22/09
WASHINGTON (Reuters)
The U.S. pay czar on Thursday slashed compensation for top earners at seven bailed-out companies for the final two months of the year, and was immediately slammed by the country's largest bank which claimed the cuts could send talent fleeing.
Many of the firms, which have together received more than $300 billion in taxpayer aid, issued conciliatory statements, but Bank of America said the ruling would put it at a disadvantage in competing with companies not under the pay czar's thumb.
"People want to work here, but they want to be paid fairly," said BofA spokesman Scott Silvestri.
Pay czar Kenneth Feinberg said competitive concerns and public outrage both played a role in how he reworked pay contracts for the 25 highest-paid employees at the five financial firms and two automakers who are the biggest recipients of government aid.
He said their cash compensation rates for the remainder of 2009 would drop 90 percent compared to 2008. Their overall compensation rates for those two months would on average be cut in half.
But he added he will not claw back payments already made. "I'm not going to go back and ask everybody to repay what they've already earned," Feinberg said.
http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSN221214720091022?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews
10/22/09
WASHINGTON (Reuters)
The U.S. pay czar on Thursday slashed compensation for top earners at seven bailed-out companies for the final two months of the year, and was immediately slammed by the country's largest bank which claimed the cuts could send talent fleeing.
Many of the firms, which have together received more than $300 billion in taxpayer aid, issued conciliatory statements, but Bank of America said the ruling would put it at a disadvantage in competing with companies not under the pay czar's thumb.
"People want to work here, but they want to be paid fairly," said BofA spokesman Scott Silvestri.
Pay czar Kenneth Feinberg said competitive concerns and public outrage both played a role in how he reworked pay contracts for the 25 highest-paid employees at the five financial firms and two automakers who are the biggest recipients of government aid.
He said their cash compensation rates for the remainder of 2009 would drop 90 percent compared to 2008. Their overall compensation rates for those two months would on average be cut in half.
But he added he will not claw back payments already made. "I'm not going to go back and ask everybody to repay what they've already earned," Feinberg said.
http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSN221214720091022?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews
Economic Adviser Predicts 10% Jobless Rate
By EDMUND L. ANDREWS
Published: October 22, 2009
WASHINGTON — One of President Obama’s top economic advisers warned on Thursday that the nation’s unemployment was likely to climb above 10 percent by the middle of next year and that job growth would remain anemic through the end of 2010.
“Unemployment is likely to remain at its severely elevated level” through the end of next year, predicted Christina Romer, chairwoman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, at a hearing of the Joint Economic Committee of Congress.
Ms. Romer said she agreed with private sector forecasters who expected that the economy would expand at a moderate pace through the end of next year as it slowly recovered from its deep recession.
But she cautioned that unemployment usually recovered much more slowly than economic growth, and that the job creation had to make up for a great deal of lost ground from the last two years.
And she warned that the rebound in jobs could actually be even slower than what White House officials and private forecasters had been predicting. That was a sharp contrast to the Obama administration’s forecast at the start of the year, which predicted that unemployment would not climb much above 8 percent and was widely criticized as unrealistic and too optimistic.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/23/business/23outlook.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss
“Unemployment is likely to remain at its severely elevated level” through the end of next year, predicted Christina Romer, chairwoman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, at a hearing of the Joint Economic Committee of Congress.
Ms. Romer said she agreed with private sector forecasters who expected that the economy would expand at a moderate pace through the end of next year as it slowly recovered from its deep recession.
But she cautioned that unemployment usually recovered much more slowly than economic growth, and that the job creation had to make up for a great deal of lost ground from the last two years.
And she warned that the rebound in jobs could actually be even slower than what White House officials and private forecasters had been predicting. That was a sharp contrast to the Obama administration’s forecast at the start of the year, which predicted that unemployment would not climb much above 8 percent and was widely criticized as unrealistic and too optimistic.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/23/business/23outlook.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss
America’s Phoney War in Afghanistan
F. William Engdahl
Infowars
October 22, 2009
One of the most remarkable aspects of the Obama Presidential agenda is how little anyone has questioned in the media or elsewhere why at all the United States Pentagon is committed to a military occupation of Afghanistan. There are two basic reasons, neither one of which can be admitted openly to the public at large.
Behind all the deceptive official debate over how many troops are needed to “win” the war in Afghanistan, whether another 30,000 is sufficient, or whether at least 200000 are needed, the real purpose of US military presence in that pivotal Central Asian country is obscured.
Even during the 2008 Presidential campaign candidate Obama argued that Afghanistan not Iraq was where the US must wage war. His reason? Because he claimed, that was where the Al Qaeda organization was holed up and that was the “real” threat to US national security. The reasons behind US involvement in Afghanistan is quite another one.
The US military is in Afghanistan for two reasons. First to restore and control the world’s largest supply of opium for the world heroin markets and to use the drugs as a geopolitical weapon against opponents, especially Russia. That control of the Afghan drug market is essential for the liquidity of the bankrupt and corrupt Wall Street financial mafia.
http://www.infowars.com/americas-phoney-war-in-afghanistan/
Infowars
October 22, 2009
One of the most remarkable aspects of the Obama Presidential agenda is how little anyone has questioned in the media or elsewhere why at all the United States Pentagon is committed to a military occupation of Afghanistan. There are two basic reasons, neither one of which can be admitted openly to the public at large.
Behind all the deceptive official debate over how many troops are needed to “win” the war in Afghanistan, whether another 30,000 is sufficient, or whether at least 200000 are needed, the real purpose of US military presence in that pivotal Central Asian country is obscured.
Even during the 2008 Presidential campaign candidate Obama argued that Afghanistan not Iraq was where the US must wage war. His reason? Because he claimed, that was where the Al Qaeda organization was holed up and that was the “real” threat to US national security. The reasons behind US involvement in Afghanistan is quite another one.
The US military is in Afghanistan for two reasons. First to restore and control the world’s largest supply of opium for the world heroin markets and to use the drugs as a geopolitical weapon against opponents, especially Russia. That control of the Afghan drug market is essential for the liquidity of the bankrupt and corrupt Wall Street financial mafia.
http://www.infowars.com/americas-phoney-war-in-afghanistan/
Pay Czar Feinberg, Not Obama, Behind Decision to Slash Executive Pay
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Fox News
White House pay czar Kenneth Feinberg was the driving force behind the move to order steep pay cuts from bailed-out executives, and did not even seek the president's approval before making his decision.
The Treasury Department is expected to formally announce in the next few days a plan to slash annual salaries by about 90 percent from last year for the 25 highest-paid executives at the seven companies that received the most from the Wall Street bailout. Total compensation for the top executives at the firms would decline, on average, by about 50 percent.
The sweeping decision, though, came from Feinberg and not from President Obama.
One official told Fox News that Feinberg from the start had the independent authority to work with companies and make such a call. Obama was never required to sign off before final decisions were made.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/10/22/pay-czar-feinberg-obama-decision-slash-executive-pay/
Fox News
White House pay czar Kenneth Feinberg was the driving force behind the move to order steep pay cuts from bailed-out executives, and did not even seek the president's approval before making his decision.
The Treasury Department is expected to formally announce in the next few days a plan to slash annual salaries by about 90 percent from last year for the 25 highest-paid executives at the seven companies that received the most from the Wall Street bailout. Total compensation for the top executives at the firms would decline, on average, by about 50 percent.
The sweeping decision, though, came from Feinberg and not from President Obama.
One official told Fox News that Feinberg from the start had the independent authority to work with companies and make such a call. Obama was never required to sign off before final decisions were made.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/10/22/pay-czar-feinberg-obama-decision-slash-executive-pay/
Hunting banned in parts of Austria after hailstones kill 90pc of wild game
19 Oct 2009
telegraph.co.uk
Hundreds of deer were discovered either dead or so badly injured they had to be put down by wildlife experts.
In the country's rural Salzburg province, 90 per cent of pheasants and 80 per cent of hares were killed in the hail storms.
Sepp Eder, the hunting chief, said : "Animals sought shelter in farms, in fields of grain but the hail was so heavy it smashed right into them. It may take five years for animal numbers to recover, if they ever do so."
Farmers are believed to have suffered more than £60 million in damages to crops and buildings.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/austria/6377192/Hunting-banned-in-parts-of-Austria-after-hailstones-kill-90pc-of-wild-game.html#
telegraph.co.uk
Hundreds of deer were discovered either dead or so badly injured they had to be put down by wildlife experts.
In the country's rural Salzburg province, 90 per cent of pheasants and 80 per cent of hares were killed in the hail storms.
Sepp Eder, the hunting chief, said : "Animals sought shelter in farms, in fields of grain but the hail was so heavy it smashed right into them. It may take five years for animal numbers to recover, if they ever do so."
Farmers are believed to have suffered more than £60 million in damages to crops and buildings.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/austria/6377192/Hunting-banned-in-parts-of-Austria-after-hailstones-kill-90pc-of-wild-game.html#
U.S. Joins Ranks Of Failed States
Paul Craig Roberts
Infowars
October 22, 2009
The US has every characteristic of a failed state.
The US government’s current operating budget is dependent on foreign financing and money creation.
Too politically weak to be able to advance its interests through diplomacy, the US relies on terrorism and military aggression.
Costs are out of control, and priorities are skewed in the interest of rich organized interest groups at the expense of the vast majority of citizens. For example, war at all cost, which enriches the armaments industry, the officer corps and the financial firms that handle the war’s financing, takes precedence over the needs of American citizens. There is no money to provide the uninsured with health care, but Pentagon officials have told the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee in the House that every gallon of gasoline delivered to US troops in Afghanistan costs American taxpayers $400.
“It is a number that we were not aware of and it is worrisome,” said Rep. John Murtha, chairman of the subcommittee.
http://www.infowars.com/u-s-joins-ranks-of-failed-states/
Infowars
October 22, 2009
The US has every characteristic of a failed state.
The US government’s current operating budget is dependent on foreign financing and money creation.
Too politically weak to be able to advance its interests through diplomacy, the US relies on terrorism and military aggression.
Costs are out of control, and priorities are skewed in the interest of rich organized interest groups at the expense of the vast majority of citizens. For example, war at all cost, which enriches the armaments industry, the officer corps and the financial firms that handle the war’s financing, takes precedence over the needs of American citizens. There is no money to provide the uninsured with health care, but Pentagon officials have told the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee in the House that every gallon of gasoline delivered to US troops in Afghanistan costs American taxpayers $400.
“It is a number that we were not aware of and it is worrisome,” said Rep. John Murtha, chairman of the subcommittee.
http://www.infowars.com/u-s-joins-ranks-of-failed-states/
Official disclosure of extraterrestrial life is imminent
October 21, 12:27 AM
Honolulu Exopolitics Examiner
Michael Salla, Ph.D.
An official announcement by the Obama administration disclosing the reality of extraterrestrial life is imminent. For several months, senior administration officials have been quietly deliberating behind closed doors how much to disclose to the world about extraterrestrial life. Dissatisfaction among powerful institutions such as the U.S. Navy over the decades-long secrecy policy has given a boost to efforts to disclose the reality of extraterrestrial life and technology.
The impending disclosure announcement follows upon the secret implementation of a year long openness policy on UFOs and extraterrestrial life. Over the period February 12-14, 2008, the United Nations held closed doors discussions where approximately 30 nations secretly agreed on a new openness policy on UFOs and extraterrestrial life in 2009. The openness policy was implemented but never publicly announced due to threats against UN diplomats not to disclose details of the secret agreement. h The secret UN agreement was based on two conditions. First, UFOs would continue to appear around the world; and second, the openness policy would not lead to social unrest in liberal democracies. Both conditions have been satisfied making it possible for the next stage to begin – official disclosure of extraterrestrial life.
Obama’s September 24, 2009 chairing of the UN Security Council meeting on nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament, signaled his emerging leadership role in tackling major global issues such as nuclear weapons. The Nobel Peace Prize was an important step in giving global legitimacy to President Obama in making an extraterrestrial disclosure announcement. Obama is therefore poised to play a prominent role in the increased global governance that will be necessary after an extraterrestrial disclosure announcement. The timing would most likely coincide sometime soon after his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech on December 10, 2009 in Oslo, Norway.
There have been various sources that have revealed deliberations are underway to make an announcement concerning the existence of extraterrestrial life by the end of 2009. These include, Dr Pete Peterson, a whistleblower who has recently emerged revealing high level discussions have taken place concerning announcing the existence of extraterrestrial life. In a Project Camelot interview, Dr Peterson revealed that “Obama is planning to disclose the reality of ET contact by the end of the year; and that most, but not all, of the ET visitors are friendly.”
http://www.examiner.com/x-2383-Honolulu-Exopolitics-Examiner~y2009m10d21-Official-disclosure-of-extraterrestrial-life-is-imminent
Honolulu Exopolitics Examiner
Michael Salla, Ph.D.
An official announcement by the Obama administration disclosing the reality of extraterrestrial life is imminent. For several months, senior administration officials have been quietly deliberating behind closed doors how much to disclose to the world about extraterrestrial life. Dissatisfaction among powerful institutions such as the U.S. Navy over the decades-long secrecy policy has given a boost to efforts to disclose the reality of extraterrestrial life and technology.
The impending disclosure announcement follows upon the secret implementation of a year long openness policy on UFOs and extraterrestrial life. Over the period February 12-14, 2008, the United Nations held closed doors discussions where approximately 30 nations secretly agreed on a new openness policy on UFOs and extraterrestrial life in 2009. The openness policy was implemented but never publicly announced due to threats against UN diplomats not to disclose details of the secret agreement. h The secret UN agreement was based on two conditions. First, UFOs would continue to appear around the world; and second, the openness policy would not lead to social unrest in liberal democracies. Both conditions have been satisfied making it possible for the next stage to begin – official disclosure of extraterrestrial life.
Obama’s September 24, 2009 chairing of the UN Security Council meeting on nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament, signaled his emerging leadership role in tackling major global issues such as nuclear weapons. The Nobel Peace Prize was an important step in giving global legitimacy to President Obama in making an extraterrestrial disclosure announcement. Obama is therefore poised to play a prominent role in the increased global governance that will be necessary after an extraterrestrial disclosure announcement. The timing would most likely coincide sometime soon after his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech on December 10, 2009 in Oslo, Norway.
There have been various sources that have revealed deliberations are underway to make an announcement concerning the existence of extraterrestrial life by the end of 2009. These include, Dr Pete Peterson, a whistleblower who has recently emerged revealing high level discussions have taken place concerning announcing the existence of extraterrestrial life. In a Project Camelot interview, Dr Peterson revealed that “Obama is planning to disclose the reality of ET contact by the end of the year; and that most, but not all, of the ET visitors are friendly.”
http://www.examiner.com/x-2383-Honolulu-Exopolitics-Examiner~y2009m10d21-Official-disclosure-of-extraterrestrial-life-is-imminent
Vermont, Don't mess with me.
10/21/09
thecommonsenseclub news
Vermont State Rep. Fred Maslack has read the Second Amendment to
the U.S. Constitution as well as Vermont's own Constitution very carefully,
and his strict interpretation of these documents is popping some eyeballs
in New England and elsewhere.
Maslack recently proposed a bill to register non-gun-owners and
require them to pay a $500 fee to the state. Thus Vermont would become the first
state to require a permit for the luxury of going about unarmed and assess a
fee of $500 for the privilege of not owning a gun.
Maslack read the "militia" phrase of the Second Amendment as not only
affirming the right of the individual citizen to bear arms, but as a clear
mandate to do so. He believes that universal gun ownership was
advocated by the Framers of the Constitution as an antidote to a "monopoly of
force" by the government as well as criminals.
Vermont's constitution states explicitly that "the people have a right to
bear arms for the defense of themselves and the State" and those
persons who "conscientiously scrupulous of bearing arms" shall be required to
"pay such equivalent." Clearly, says Maslack, Vermonters have a constitutional
obligation to arm themselves so that they are capable of responding
to "any situation that may arise".
Under the bill, adults who choose not to own a firearm would be required to
register their name, address, Social Security Number, and driver's license
number with the state. "There is a legitimate government interest in knowing
who is prepared to defend the state should they be asked to do so,"
Maslack says.
Vermont already boasts a high rate of gun ownership along with the least
restrictive laws of any state - it's currently the only state that
allows a citizen to carry a concealed firearm without a permit. This
combination of plenty of guns and few laws regulating them has resulted in
a crime rate that is the third lowest in the nation.
thecommonsenseclub news
Vermont State Rep. Fred Maslack has read the Second Amendment to
the U.S. Constitution as well as Vermont's own Constitution very carefully,
and his strict interpretation of these documents is popping some eyeballs
in New England and elsewhere.
Maslack recently proposed a bill to register non-gun-owners and
require them to pay a $500 fee to the state. Thus Vermont would become the first
state to require a permit for the luxury of going about unarmed and assess a
fee of $500 for the privilege of not owning a gun.
Maslack read the "militia" phrase of the Second Amendment as not only
affirming the right of the individual citizen to bear arms, but as a clear
mandate to do so. He believes that universal gun ownership was
advocated by the Framers of the Constitution as an antidote to a "monopoly of
force" by the government as well as criminals.
Vermont's constitution states explicitly that "the people have a right to
bear arms for the defense of themselves and the State" and those
persons who "conscientiously scrupulous of bearing arms" shall be required to
"pay such equivalent." Clearly, says Maslack, Vermonters have a constitutional
obligation to arm themselves so that they are capable of responding
to "any situation that may arise".
Under the bill, adults who choose not to own a firearm would be required to
register their name, address, Social Security Number, and driver's license
number with the state. "There is a legitimate government interest in knowing
who is prepared to defend the state should they be asked to do so,"
Maslack says.
Vermont already boasts a high rate of gun ownership along with the least
restrictive laws of any state - it's currently the only state that
allows a citizen to carry a concealed firearm without a permit. This
combination of plenty of guns and few laws regulating them has resulted in
a crime rate that is the third lowest in the nation.
Congress cranks up pressure on insurance industry
Thu Oct 22, 2009 8:52am EDT
By Donna Smith and John Whitesides
WASHINGTON (Reuters)
Democrats in the U.S. Congress moved on Wednesday to repeal the health insurance industry's exemption from antitrust laws, cranking up the pressure in a growing battle over President Barack Obama's healthcare reform plans. The moves were the latest chapter in an escalating feud between the industry and backers of sweeping healthcare reform that would tighten regulations and create a government-run public insurance option to compete with private insurers.
The fight intensified after an industry lobbying group issued a report saying the healthcare reform plan under consideration in Congress would raise insurance premiums, which sparked protests from Democrats and the White House.
"It's time to level the playing field for American healthcare consumers and make the insurance industry play by the same rules that other industries live by," Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid said.
http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE59L0JJ20091022?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews
By Donna Smith and John Whitesides
WASHINGTON (Reuters)
Democrats in the U.S. Congress moved on Wednesday to repeal the health insurance industry's exemption from antitrust laws, cranking up the pressure in a growing battle over President Barack Obama's healthcare reform plans. The moves were the latest chapter in an escalating feud between the industry and backers of sweeping healthcare reform that would tighten regulations and create a government-run public insurance option to compete with private insurers.
The fight intensified after an industry lobbying group issued a report saying the healthcare reform plan under consideration in Congress would raise insurance premiums, which sparked protests from Democrats and the White House.
"It's time to level the playing field for American healthcare consumers and make the insurance industry play by the same rules that other industries live by," Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid said.
http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE59L0JJ20091022?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews
Hyperdrive Propulsion Could Be Tested at the Large Hadron Collider
The principle behind a novel form of spacecraft propulsion could be tested at the world's most powerful particle accelerator.
In 1924, the influential German mathematician David Hilbert published a paper called "The Foundations of Physics," in which he outlined an extraordinary side effect of Einstein's theory of relativity.
Hilbert was studying the interaction between a relativistic particle moving toward or away from a stationary mass. His conclusion was that if the relativistic particle had a velocity greater than about half the speed of light, a stationary mass should repel it. At least, that's how it would appear to a distant inertial observer.
That's an interesting result, and one that has been more or less forgotten, says Franklin Felber, an independent physicist based in the United States. (Hilbert's paper was written in German.)
Felber has turned this idea on its head, predicting that a relativistic particle should also repel a stationary mass. He says that this effect could be exploited to propel an initially stationary mass to a good fraction of the speed of light.
http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/24211/
In 1924, the influential German mathematician David Hilbert published a paper called "The Foundations of Physics," in which he outlined an extraordinary side effect of Einstein's theory of relativity.
Hilbert was studying the interaction between a relativistic particle moving toward or away from a stationary mass. His conclusion was that if the relativistic particle had a velocity greater than about half the speed of light, a stationary mass should repel it. At least, that's how it would appear to a distant inertial observer.
That's an interesting result, and one that has been more or less forgotten, says Franklin Felber, an independent physicist based in the United States. (Hilbert's paper was written in German.)
Felber has turned this idea on its head, predicting that a relativistic particle should also repel a stationary mass. He says that this effect could be exploited to propel an initially stationary mass to a good fraction of the speed of light.
http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/24211/
California Sending out Approximately 475,000 Notice of Defaults for 2009 yet Overall Foreclosures Declining. Shadow Inventory, Q3 Defaults, Toxic Loans. The State of the National Housing Market.
California is on path for a record 2009. By the end of the year over 475,000 notice of defaults will be sent to California homeowners. This of course is simply from lenders that actually even bother to send a notice of default. The shadow inventory is growing and we have some concrete data showing the mismanagement in the housing market. Banks for the most part are playing hot potato with bad mortgages like Alt-A and option ARMs. It is interesting to note that today, we have data showing a record number of notice of defaults for 2009 yet actual foreclosures are less than 2008. What gives? Well for Q3 we found out that the median months behind before a lender filed a NOD is 5 months. That is right, 5 months with no payment before the lender even notices.
http://www.doctorhousingbubble.com/california-sending-out-approximately-475000-notice-of-defaults-for-2009-yet-overall-foreclosures-declining-shadow-inventory-q3-defaults-toxic-loans-the-state-of-the-national-housing-market/
http://www.doctorhousingbubble.com/california-sending-out-approximately-475000-notice-of-defaults-for-2009-yet-overall-foreclosures-declining-shadow-inventory-q3-defaults-toxic-loans-the-state-of-the-national-housing-market/
Canadian Company Boasts Terahertz Level Horsepower
Written By: Warren Frey
October 20, 2009
Supercomputing is the engine that drives our science, commerce, and communication. Giant search engines trawl the net with billions of queries, molecules are modeled and modified in massive simulations, and deep under Wall Street hulking processors trade massive blocks of money at the speed of light. But the era of the giant, room-spanning supercomputers may soon have some serious competition in the form of a small Calgary-based startup bringing supercomputing to the masses.
Calgary is known throughout Canada as the center of the country’s oil and gas industry, a booming city buoyed by the bubble-swelled profits of 20th century fossil fuel excess. It’s a prosperous if not especially cosmopolitan urban hub on the Canadian prairies. But tucked away in an unassuming office in the suburbs of this middling city, Tycrid Platform Technologies has been quietly putting together desktop systems boasting terahertz level horsepower under the hood since it was founded in 2008.
http://www.hplusmagazine.com/articles/toys-tools/supercomputing-desktop
October 20, 2009
Supercomputing is the engine that drives our science, commerce, and communication. Giant search engines trawl the net with billions of queries, molecules are modeled and modified in massive simulations, and deep under Wall Street hulking processors trade massive blocks of money at the speed of light. But the era of the giant, room-spanning supercomputers may soon have some serious competition in the form of a small Calgary-based startup bringing supercomputing to the masses.
Calgary is known throughout Canada as the center of the country’s oil and gas industry, a booming city buoyed by the bubble-swelled profits of 20th century fossil fuel excess. It’s a prosperous if not especially cosmopolitan urban hub on the Canadian prairies. But tucked away in an unassuming office in the suburbs of this middling city, Tycrid Platform Technologies has been quietly putting together desktop systems boasting terahertz level horsepower under the hood since it was founded in 2008.
http://www.hplusmagazine.com/articles/toys-tools/supercomputing-desktop
Obama scolds Wall Street over reforms, lending
Wed Oct 21, 2009 5:07am EDT
By Caren Bohan
NEW YORK (Reuters)
President Barack Obama chastised Wall Street firms on Tuesday for resisting tighter regulations of their industry and said they had not done enough to boost lending to small businesses.
Lashing out at the "reckless speculation" and "shortsightedness" he said were behind the 2008-2009 financial crisis, Obama expressed frustration at criticism he has taken over the unpopular $700 billion bailout of the financial industry.
Obama told a Democratic party fund-raiser that his administration backed the bailout program, begun in the Bush administration, because it was necessary to prevent a financial collapse that could have devastated the economy.
http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews
/idUSTRE59K0FW20091021?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews
By Caren Bohan
NEW YORK (Reuters)
President Barack Obama chastised Wall Street firms on Tuesday for resisting tighter regulations of their industry and said they had not done enough to boost lending to small businesses.
Lashing out at the "reckless speculation" and "shortsightedness" he said were behind the 2008-2009 financial crisis, Obama expressed frustration at criticism he has taken over the unpopular $700 billion bailout of the financial industry.
Obama told a Democratic party fund-raiser that his administration backed the bailout program, begun in the Bush administration, because it was necessary to prevent a financial collapse that could have devastated the economy.
http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews
/idUSTRE59K0FW20091021?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews
In Atlanta, String of Black Mayors May Be Broken
By SHAILA DEWAN October 21, 2009
ATLANTA — Since 1973, this Southern capital has elected a succession of black mayors, sometimes to the consternation of residents in the largely white, prosperous neighborhood of Buckhead to the north.
But the current race to succeed Mayor Shirley Franklin in the Nov. 3 election has upended normal expectations here in what Chris Rock, in his new documentary, “Good Hair,” calls “the city where all major black decisions are made.” The front-runner, Mary Norwood, is one of Buckhead’s own, a white Junior Leaguer running as a populist outsider.
All three candidates have maintained that Atlanta has moved beyond using race as a qualification for public office. But the ascendancy of Ms. Norwood may also reflect the decline of the city’s black majority and the recession’s sour effect on the mood of the voters.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/22/us/22atlanta.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss
ATLANTA — Since 1973, this Southern capital has elected a succession of black mayors, sometimes to the consternation of residents in the largely white, prosperous neighborhood of Buckhead to the north.
But the current race to succeed Mayor Shirley Franklin in the Nov. 3 election has upended normal expectations here in what Chris Rock, in his new documentary, “Good Hair,” calls “the city where all major black decisions are made.” The front-runner, Mary Norwood, is one of Buckhead’s own, a white Junior Leaguer running as a populist outsider.
All three candidates have maintained that Atlanta has moved beyond using race as a qualification for public office. But the ascendancy of Ms. Norwood may also reflect the decline of the city’s black majority and the recession’s sour effect on the mood of the voters.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/22/us/22atlanta.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss
Poland Agrees to Accept U.S. Missile Interceptors
By PETER BAKER
10/21/09
WARSAW — Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. moved to repair a rift with Eastern Europe on Wednesday by announcing an agreement to station interceptors from President Obama’s reformulated missile defense system on the territory of this NATO ally.
Mr. Obama angered Poland last month by canceling former President George W. Bush’s antimissile shield, including plans to deploy 10 ground-based interceptors here. Although Mr. Obama denied it, many in Eastern Europe perceived the move as a concession to Russia, which adamantly opposed the Bush system.
The deal to base here some of the smaller, mobile SM-3 interceptors at the heart of Mr. Obama’s new missile defense plan may help reassure the region that the United States remains committed to its security. To further reinforce the point, Mr. Biden plans to fly later in the week to the Czech Republic, which was also part of the Bush system and was upset by its cancellation, to discuss basing elements of the Obama missile shield there.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/22/world/europe/22biden.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
10/21/09
WARSAW — Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. moved to repair a rift with Eastern Europe on Wednesday by announcing an agreement to station interceptors from President Obama’s reformulated missile defense system on the territory of this NATO ally.
Mr. Obama angered Poland last month by canceling former President George W. Bush’s antimissile shield, including plans to deploy 10 ground-based interceptors here. Although Mr. Obama denied it, many in Eastern Europe perceived the move as a concession to Russia, which adamantly opposed the Bush system.
The deal to base here some of the smaller, mobile SM-3 interceptors at the heart of Mr. Obama’s new missile defense plan may help reassure the region that the United States remains committed to its security. To further reinforce the point, Mr. Biden plans to fly later in the week to the Czech Republic, which was also part of the Bush system and was upset by its cancellation, to discuss basing elements of the Obama missile shield there.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/22/world/europe/22biden.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
Artificial Sweeteners: How Bad Are Saccharin, Aspartame?
By CLAIRE SUDDATH Claire Suddath
Tue Oct 20, 3:20 pm ET
Too much sugar will make you fat, but too much artificial sweetener will ... do what exactly? Kill you? Make you thinner? Or have absolutely no effect at all? This week marks the 40th anniversary of the Food and Drug Administration's decision to ban cyclamate, the first artificial sweetener prohibited in the U.S., and yet scientists still haven't reached a consensus about how safe (or harmful) artificial sweeteners may be. Shouldn't we have figured this out by now? (See the top 10 bad beverage ideas.)
The first artificial sweetener, saccharin, was discovered in 1879 when Constantin Fahlberg, a Johns Hopkins University scientist working on coal-tar derivatives, noticed a substance on his hands and arms that tasted sweet. No one knows why Fahlberg decided to lick an unknown substance off his body, but it's a good thing he did. Despite an early attempt to ban the substance in 1911 - skeptical scientists said it was an "adulterant" that changed the makeup of food - saccharin grew in popularity, and was used to sweeten foods during sugar rationings in World Wars I and II. Though it is about 300 times sweeter than sugar and has zero calories, saccharin leaves an unpleasant metallic aftertaste. So when cyclamate came on the market in 1951, food and beverage companies jumped at the chance to sweeten their products with something that tasted more natural. By 1968, Americans were consuming more than 17 million pounds of the calorie-free substance a year in snack foods, canned fruit and soft drinks like Tab and Diet Pepsi.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20091020/hl_
time/08599193111600
Tue Oct 20, 3:20 pm ET
Too much sugar will make you fat, but too much artificial sweetener will ... do what exactly? Kill you? Make you thinner? Or have absolutely no effect at all? This week marks the 40th anniversary of the Food and Drug Administration's decision to ban cyclamate, the first artificial sweetener prohibited in the U.S., and yet scientists still haven't reached a consensus about how safe (or harmful) artificial sweeteners may be. Shouldn't we have figured this out by now? (See the top 10 bad beverage ideas.)
The first artificial sweetener, saccharin, was discovered in 1879 when Constantin Fahlberg, a Johns Hopkins University scientist working on coal-tar derivatives, noticed a substance on his hands and arms that tasted sweet. No one knows why Fahlberg decided to lick an unknown substance off his body, but it's a good thing he did. Despite an early attempt to ban the substance in 1911 - skeptical scientists said it was an "adulterant" that changed the makeup of food - saccharin grew in popularity, and was used to sweeten foods during sugar rationings in World Wars I and II. Though it is about 300 times sweeter than sugar and has zero calories, saccharin leaves an unpleasant metallic aftertaste. So when cyclamate came on the market in 1951, food and beverage companies jumped at the chance to sweeten their products with something that tasted more natural. By 1968, Americans were consuming more than 17 million pounds of the calorie-free substance a year in snack foods, canned fruit and soft drinks like Tab and Diet Pepsi.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20091020/hl_
time/08599193111600
Criminalizing Poverty For Profit: Local Government's New Debtors Prisons
October 20, 2009
Charles H. Smith
of two minds.com
Local government is desperate for new funding but doesn't dare tap the wealthy. So they're busily criminalizing poverty and filling new Debtor's prisons.
Correspondent Jeff Ray sent in this story Milking the Poor: One Family's Fall Into Homelessness (The Atlantic) which is representative of the trend in local government to criminalize poverty for its own enrichment. Here's the deal. Local government has grown fat in a decade of gargantuan capital gains and real rising real estate taxes. Employees pulling down over $100,000 each are legion, as are public retirees pulling down over $100,000 a year in pension payments. Local government has added 15% more employees even as population grew by a meager 3%. (The numbers may vary in your area but the percentages won't.) Now the seven fat years are over and local government is not liking the seven lean years. Now that housing has plummeted, so have the tax rolls; capital gains have dried up and even sales tax revenues are crashing. Despite the usual bleatings of hope, the chances of tax revenues recovering are slightly lower than the proverbial snowball's chance of remaining frozen in Heck.
http://www.oftwominds.com/blogoct09/criminalizing-poverty10-09.html
Charles H. Smith
of two minds.com
Local government is desperate for new funding but doesn't dare tap the wealthy. So they're busily criminalizing poverty and filling new Debtor's prisons.
Correspondent Jeff Ray sent in this story Milking the Poor: One Family's Fall Into Homelessness (The Atlantic) which is representative of the trend in local government to criminalize poverty for its own enrichment. Here's the deal. Local government has grown fat in a decade of gargantuan capital gains and real rising real estate taxes. Employees pulling down over $100,000 each are legion, as are public retirees pulling down over $100,000 a year in pension payments. Local government has added 15% more employees even as population grew by a meager 3%. (The numbers may vary in your area but the percentages won't.) Now the seven fat years are over and local government is not liking the seven lean years. Now that housing has plummeted, so have the tax rolls; capital gains have dried up and even sales tax revenues are crashing. Despite the usual bleatings of hope, the chances of tax revenues recovering are slightly lower than the proverbial snowball's chance of remaining frozen in Heck.
http://www.oftwominds.com/blogoct09/criminalizing-poverty10-09.html
Study: H1N1 Vaccine Too Late, Won't Help Most
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Fox News
10/20/09
The H1N1 vaccine will arrive too late to help most Americans who will be infected during this flu season, according to a study conducted by scholars at Purdue University, The Washington Times reported on Tuesday.
The study also estimates that the virus — commonly referred to as the swine flu bug — will infect about 60 percent of the U.S. population, although only about 25 percent of Americans will fall ill.
Published Oct. 15 in Eurosurveillance, a scientific journal devoted to epidemiology and the surveillance and control of communicable diseases, the study was conducted by professors Sherry Towers and Zhilan Feng of, respectively, Purdue's statistics and mathematics departments.
"The model predicts that there will be a significant wave in autumn, with 63% of the population being infected, and that this wave will peak so early that the planned [U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] vaccination campaign will likely not have a large effect on the total number of people ultimately infected by the pandemic H1N1 influenza virus," the authors wrote in their study.
The authors said that this is the week, through Oct. 24, during which the greatest number of people would be infected. The vaccination program has barely started in the U.S.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,568607,00.html
Fox News
10/20/09
The H1N1 vaccine will arrive too late to help most Americans who will be infected during this flu season, according to a study conducted by scholars at Purdue University, The Washington Times reported on Tuesday.
The study also estimates that the virus — commonly referred to as the swine flu bug — will infect about 60 percent of the U.S. population, although only about 25 percent of Americans will fall ill.
Published Oct. 15 in Eurosurveillance, a scientific journal devoted to epidemiology and the surveillance and control of communicable diseases, the study was conducted by professors Sherry Towers and Zhilan Feng of, respectively, Purdue's statistics and mathematics departments.
"The model predicts that there will be a significant wave in autumn, with 63% of the population being infected, and that this wave will peak so early that the planned [U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] vaccination campaign will likely not have a large effect on the total number of people ultimately infected by the pandemic H1N1 influenza virus," the authors wrote in their study.
The authors said that this is the week, through Oct. 24, during which the greatest number of people would be infected. The vaccination program has barely started in the U.S.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,568607,00.html
US scientist accused of trying to sell secrets
10/20/09
Associated Press
By LARRY MARGASAK and DEVLIN BARRETT
WASHINGTON – Prosecutors say a scientist who worked on the cutting edge of moon exploration has been caught trying to sell classified secrets to an FBI agent posing as an Israeli intelligence agent.
Stewart David Nozette, who is credited with helping discover evidence of water on the moon and has been a leader in recent lunar exploration work, was arrested Monday and charged in a criminal complaint with attempting to communicate, deliver and transmit classified information, the Justice Department said.
Nozette, 52, of Chevy Chase, Md., was expected to make his initial appearance in federal court in Washington on Tuesday. Law enforcement officials said Nozette did not immediately have a lawyer.
Nozette worked in various jobs for the Energy Department and NASA. In 1989 and 1990, he worked for the White House's National Space Council.
He developed the Clementine bi-static radar experiment that is credited with discovering water on the south pole of the moon. He also worked at the Energy Department's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, where he designed highly advanced technology, from approximately 1990 to 1999.
At Energy, Nozette held a special security clearance equivalent to the Defense Department's top secret and "critical nuclear weapon design information" clearances. DOE clearances apply to access to information specifically relating to atomic or nuclear-related materials.
Nozette also held top offices at the Alliance for Competitive Technology, a nonprofit corporation that he organized. Between January 2000 and February 2006, Nozette, through his company, had several agreements to develop advanced technology for the U.S. government.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091020/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_espionage_charged
Associated Press
By LARRY MARGASAK and DEVLIN BARRETT
WASHINGTON – Prosecutors say a scientist who worked on the cutting edge of moon exploration has been caught trying to sell classified secrets to an FBI agent posing as an Israeli intelligence agent.
Stewart David Nozette, who is credited with helping discover evidence of water on the moon and has been a leader in recent lunar exploration work, was arrested Monday and charged in a criminal complaint with attempting to communicate, deliver and transmit classified information, the Justice Department said.
Nozette, 52, of Chevy Chase, Md., was expected to make his initial appearance in federal court in Washington on Tuesday. Law enforcement officials said Nozette did not immediately have a lawyer.
Nozette worked in various jobs for the Energy Department and NASA. In 1989 and 1990, he worked for the White House's National Space Council.
He developed the Clementine bi-static radar experiment that is credited with discovering water on the south pole of the moon. He also worked at the Energy Department's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, where he designed highly advanced technology, from approximately 1990 to 1999.
At Energy, Nozette held a special security clearance equivalent to the Defense Department's top secret and "critical nuclear weapon design information" clearances. DOE clearances apply to access to information specifically relating to atomic or nuclear-related materials.
Nozette also held top offices at the Alliance for Competitive Technology, a nonprofit corporation that he organized. Between January 2000 and February 2006, Nozette, through his company, had several agreements to develop advanced technology for the U.S. government.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091020/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_espionage_charged
U.S. Won’t Prosecute in States That Allow Medical Marijuana
By DAVID STOUT and SOLOMON MOORE
Ny Times
WASHINGTON — People who use marijuana for medical purposes and those who distribute it to them should not face federal prosecution, provided they act according to state law, the Justice Department said Monday in a directive with far-reaching political and legal implications.
In a memorandum to federal prosecutors in the 14 states that make some allowance for the use of marijuana for medical purposes, the department said that it was committed to the “efficient and rational use” of its resources and that prosecuting patients and distributors who are in “clear and unambiguous compliance” with state laws did not meet that standard.
The new stance was hardly an enthusiastic embrace of medical marijuana, or the laws that allow it in some states, but signaled clearly that the administration thought there were more important priorities for prosecutors.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/20/us/20cannabis.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss
Ny Times
WASHINGTON — People who use marijuana for medical purposes and those who distribute it to them should not face federal prosecution, provided they act according to state law, the Justice Department said Monday in a directive with far-reaching political and legal implications.
In a memorandum to federal prosecutors in the 14 states that make some allowance for the use of marijuana for medical purposes, the department said that it was committed to the “efficient and rational use” of its resources and that prosecuting patients and distributors who are in “clear and unambiguous compliance” with state laws did not meet that standard.
The new stance was hardly an enthusiastic embrace of medical marijuana, or the laws that allow it in some states, but signaled clearly that the administration thought there were more important priorities for prosecutors.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/20/us/20cannabis.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss
White house controls media
FOXNews.com
Monday, October 19, 2009
The Obama campaign's press strategy leading up to his election last November focused on "making" the media cover what the campaign wanted and on exercising absolute "control" over coverage, White House Communications Director Anita Dunn told an overseas crowd early this year.
In a video of the event, Dunn is seen describing in detail the media strategy used by then-Sen. Barack Obama's highly disciplined presidential campaign. The video is footage from a Jan. 12 forum hosted by the Global Foundation for Democracy and Development in the Dominican Republic.
"Very rarely did we communicate through the press anything that we didn't absolutely control," Dunn said, admitting that the strategy "did not always make us popular in the press."
The video drew attention after Dunn kicked off a war of words with Fox News last Sunday, calling the network "opinion journalism masquerading as news." The White House stopped providing guests to "Fox News Sunday" in August after host Chris Wallace fact-checked controversial assertions made by Tammy Duckworth, assistant secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/10/19/white-house-official-says-obama-team-controlled-media-coverage-campaign/
Monday, October 19, 2009
The Obama campaign's press strategy leading up to his election last November focused on "making" the media cover what the campaign wanted and on exercising absolute "control" over coverage, White House Communications Director Anita Dunn told an overseas crowd early this year.
In a video of the event, Dunn is seen describing in detail the media strategy used by then-Sen. Barack Obama's highly disciplined presidential campaign. The video is footage from a Jan. 12 forum hosted by the Global Foundation for Democracy and Development in the Dominican Republic.
"Very rarely did we communicate through the press anything that we didn't absolutely control," Dunn said, admitting that the strategy "did not always make us popular in the press."
The video drew attention after Dunn kicked off a war of words with Fox News last Sunday, calling the network "opinion journalism masquerading as news." The White House stopped providing guests to "Fox News Sunday" in August after host Chris Wallace fact-checked controversial assertions made by Tammy Duckworth, assistant secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/10/19/white-house-official-says-obama-team-controlled-media-coverage-campaign/
IRS probing home-buyer tax credit claims: report
Tue Oct 20, 2009 2:16am EDT
(Reuters) - The U.S. Internal Revenue Service is probing more than 100,000 doubtful claims of a tax credit meant for first-time home buyers, the Wall Street Journal reported on its website on Tuesday.
The $8,000 tax credit for first-time home buyers under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act was passed in February to help prod the U.S. economy back to life.
Lawmakers have expressed concern that significant number of claims might turn out to be fraudulent, the paper said.
The IRS was investigating 167 "criminal schemes" involving the credit, according to the House Ways and Means oversight subcommittee, the paper said.
The IRS was not available to comment.
(Reporting by Sakthi Prasad in Bangalore; Editing by Dan Lalor)
http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE59J10320091020?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews
(Reuters) - The U.S. Internal Revenue Service is probing more than 100,000 doubtful claims of a tax credit meant for first-time home buyers, the Wall Street Journal reported on its website on Tuesday.
The $8,000 tax credit for first-time home buyers under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act was passed in February to help prod the U.S. economy back to life.
Lawmakers have expressed concern that significant number of claims might turn out to be fraudulent, the paper said.
The IRS was investigating 167 "criminal schemes" involving the credit, according to the House Ways and Means oversight subcommittee, the paper said.
The IRS was not available to comment.
(Reporting by Sakthi Prasad in Bangalore; Editing by Dan Lalor)
http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE59J10320091020?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews
Firefighter suspended for refusing to peel American flag sticker from locker
VINCE LATTANZIO
10/19/09
NBC news
Chester, Pa., firefighter James Krapf wants to know what's wrong with Old Glory. The 11-year veteran was suspended without pay Thursday after he refused to peel a sticker of the American flag from his locker.
"It's pride…it's a matter of pride," Krapf said.
A new department rule mandates that all stickers and statements – union, cartoon and political – be stripped from lockers after several offensive and racist images showed up in the firehouse. But Krapf figured the red, white and blue was safe.
http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/politics/Firefight-Over-the-Red-White-and-Blue-64647657.html
10/19/09
NBC news
Chester, Pa., firefighter James Krapf wants to know what's wrong with Old Glory. The 11-year veteran was suspended without pay Thursday after he refused to peel a sticker of the American flag from his locker.
"It's pride…it's a matter of pride," Krapf said.
A new department rule mandates that all stickers and statements – union, cartoon and political – be stripped from lockers after several offensive and racist images showed up in the firehouse. But Krapf figured the red, white and blue was safe.
http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/politics/Firefight-Over-the-Red-White-and-Blue-64647657.html
Chancellor and Ministers are to receive special vaccine
Chancellor and Ministers are to be protected after Spiegel sources with special vaccine against pig flu. An official of Ministries and subordinate authorities likewise. The Vakzin does not contain disputed additives - contrary to the vaccine for the remainder of the population.
Berlin - until few days ago had hardly anyone outside of specialized circles the word Adjuvans heard. But now a public discussion inflamed over the composition of the vaccine for the shortly starting pig flu inoculation. The term emerges again and again, which an additive is named for effect reinforcement.
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Critics argue that Adjuvantien could lead to increased inoculation reactions such as headache or fever. Supporters hold against the fact that the inoculation is safe with the additives also - and that more active substance doses could be manufactured in this way. Some days ago the German Federal Armed Forces had announced that it ordered a vaccine without additives for its soldiers.
But after Spiegel sources also further person's groups are to receive an inoculation without Adjuvantien: “We have 200,000 doses not adjuvantierten vaccine Celvapan of the company Baxter bought”, grant Christian OF Hübner, speaker of the Federal Ministry of the Interior. Differently than the preparation of GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), which starting from coming week in 50 million doses on the population is spent, contains the Baxter vaccine no effect amplifier.
However Celvapan gets along only therefore without the disputed auxiliary materials, because it contains whole killed viruses and not virus fragments. The substance is squirted the public servants responsible for the maintenance of the public order: Members of the cabinet as well as officials of the Ministries and the subordinate authorities. In addition also the coworkers of the Paul Ehrlich institute responsible for the vaccine permission, which repeats past week its decision defended, count the population the GSK Vakzine to procure.
“Health authorities are on pharmaceutical companies please”
For the chairman of the drug commission of the German medical profession, wolf Dieter Ludwig, that is a scandal, which is hardly to be placed humans. “We are unfortunately further over this vaccination campaign”, so Ludwig. She raises numerous problems, their use is uncertain: “The health authorities are on a campaign of the pharmaceutical companies please, those with an alleged threat directly money to earn wanted.”
http://babelfish.yahoo.com/translate_url?doit=done&tt=url&intl=1&fr=bf-home&trurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.spiegel.de%2Fwissenschaft%2Fmedizin%2F0%2C1518%2C655764%2C00.html&lp=de_en&btnTrUrl=Translate
Berlin - until few days ago had hardly anyone outside of specialized circles the word Adjuvans heard. But now a public discussion inflamed over the composition of the vaccine for the shortly starting pig flu inoculation. The term emerges again and again, which an additive is named for effect reinforcement.
'); document.writeln(''); document.writeln(''); document.writeln(''); document.writeln(''); } // -->
Critics argue that Adjuvantien could lead to increased inoculation reactions such as headache or fever. Supporters hold against the fact that the inoculation is safe with the additives also - and that more active substance doses could be manufactured in this way. Some days ago the German Federal Armed Forces had announced that it ordered a vaccine without additives for its soldiers.
But after Spiegel sources also further person's groups are to receive an inoculation without Adjuvantien: “We have 200,000 doses not adjuvantierten vaccine Celvapan of the company Baxter bought”, grant Christian OF Hübner, speaker of the Federal Ministry of the Interior. Differently than the preparation of GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), which starting from coming week in 50 million doses on the population is spent, contains the Baxter vaccine no effect amplifier.
However Celvapan gets along only therefore without the disputed auxiliary materials, because it contains whole killed viruses and not virus fragments. The substance is squirted the public servants responsible for the maintenance of the public order: Members of the cabinet as well as officials of the Ministries and the subordinate authorities. In addition also the coworkers of the Paul Ehrlich institute responsible for the vaccine permission, which repeats past week its decision defended, count the population the GSK Vakzine to procure.
“Health authorities are on pharmaceutical companies please”
For the chairman of the drug commission of the German medical profession, wolf Dieter Ludwig, that is a scandal, which is hardly to be placed humans. “We are unfortunately further over this vaccination campaign”, so Ludwig. She raises numerous problems, their use is uncertain: “The health authorities are on a campaign of the pharmaceutical companies please, those with an alleged threat directly money to earn wanted.”
http://babelfish.yahoo.com/translate_url?doit=done&tt=url&intl=1&fr=bf-home&trurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.spiegel.de%2Fwissenschaft%2Fmedizin%2F0%2C1518%2C655764%2C00.html&lp=de_en&btnTrUrl=Translate
Obama Poised to Cede US Sovereignty, Claims British Lord
Fightin’ Words
October 15, 2009
The Minnesota Free Market Institute hosted an event at Bethel University in St. Paul on Wednesday evening. Keynote speaker Lord Christopher Monckton, former science adviser to British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, gave a scathing and lengthy presentation, complete with detailed charts, graphs, facts, and figures which culminated in the utter decimation of both the pop culture concept of global warming and the credible threat of any significant anthropomorphic climate change.
A detailed summary of Monckton’s presentation will be available here once compiled. However, a segment of his remarks justify immediate publication. If credible, the concern Monckton speaks to may well prove the single most important issue facing the American nation, bigger than health care, bigger than cap and trade, and worth every citizen’s focused attention.
Here were Monckton’s closing remarks, as dictated from my audio recording:
At [the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference in] Copenhagen, this December, weeks away, a treaty will be signed. Your president will sign it. Most of the third world countries will sign it, because they think they’re going to get money out of it. Most of the left-wing regime from the European Union will rubber stamp it. Virtually nobody won’t sign it.
I read that treaty. And what it says is this, that a world government is going to be created. The word “government” actually appears as the first of three purposes of the new entity. The second purpose is the transfer of wealth from the countries of the West to third world countries, in satisfication of what is called, coyly, “climate debt” – because we’ve been burning CO2 and they haven’t. We’ve been screwing up the climate and they haven’t. And the third purpose of this new entity, this government, is enforcement.
How many of you think that the word “election” or “democracy” or “vote” or “ballot” occurs anywhere in the 200 pages of that treaty? Quite right, it doesn’t appear once. So, at last, the communists who piled out of the Berlin Wall and into the environmental movement, who took over Greenpeace so that my friends who funded it left within a year, because [the communists] captured it – Now the apotheosis as at hand. They are about to impose a communist world government on the world. You have a president who has very strong sympathies with that point of view. He’s going to sign it. He’ll sign anything. He’s a Nobel Peace Prize [winner]; of course he’ll sign it.
http://www.infowars.com/obama-poised-to-cede-us-sovereignty-claims-british-lord/
October 15, 2009
The Minnesota Free Market Institute hosted an event at Bethel University in St. Paul on Wednesday evening. Keynote speaker Lord Christopher Monckton, former science adviser to British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, gave a scathing and lengthy presentation, complete with detailed charts, graphs, facts, and figures which culminated in the utter decimation of both the pop culture concept of global warming and the credible threat of any significant anthropomorphic climate change.
A detailed summary of Monckton’s presentation will be available here once compiled. However, a segment of his remarks justify immediate publication. If credible, the concern Monckton speaks to may well prove the single most important issue facing the American nation, bigger than health care, bigger than cap and trade, and worth every citizen’s focused attention.
Here were Monckton’s closing remarks, as dictated from my audio recording:
At [the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference in] Copenhagen, this December, weeks away, a treaty will be signed. Your president will sign it. Most of the third world countries will sign it, because they think they’re going to get money out of it. Most of the left-wing regime from the European Union will rubber stamp it. Virtually nobody won’t sign it.
I read that treaty. And what it says is this, that a world government is going to be created. The word “government” actually appears as the first of three purposes of the new entity. The second purpose is the transfer of wealth from the countries of the West to third world countries, in satisfication of what is called, coyly, “climate debt” – because we’ve been burning CO2 and they haven’t. We’ve been screwing up the climate and they haven’t. And the third purpose of this new entity, this government, is enforcement.
How many of you think that the word “election” or “democracy” or “vote” or “ballot” occurs anywhere in the 200 pages of that treaty? Quite right, it doesn’t appear once. So, at last, the communists who piled out of the Berlin Wall and into the environmental movement, who took over Greenpeace so that my friends who funded it left within a year, because [the communists] captured it – Now the apotheosis as at hand. They are about to impose a communist world government on the world. You have a president who has very strong sympathies with that point of view. He’s going to sign it. He’ll sign anything. He’s a Nobel Peace Prize [winner]; of course he’ll sign it.
http://www.infowars.com/obama-poised-to-cede-us-sovereignty-claims-british-lord/
JP Morgan staff in line for bumper bonuses after investment bank posts 'blowaway' profits of £2.25bn
14th October 2009
By Simon Duke
U.S investment bank JP Morgan is set to reward its staff with huge bonuses after it announced 'blowaway' profits for the last quarter of the year.
The bank posted profits of $3.6 billion (£2.25 billion), putting its employees on course for pay and bonus packages averaging around £300,000 this year.
The profits were much stronger than expected with the bank's 4,000 London-based employees leading its recovery from the depths of the financial crisis.
So far this year JP Morgan's investment banking staff have generated profits of almost $5 billion (£2.1 billion).
The generous payouts will come as a shock to those who thought that the credit crunch had put paid to the era of bumper City bonuses.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1219345/JP-Morgan-staff-line-bumper-bonuses-investment-bank-posts-blowaway-profits.html
By Simon Duke
U.S investment bank JP Morgan is set to reward its staff with huge bonuses after it announced 'blowaway' profits for the last quarter of the year.
The bank posted profits of $3.6 billion (£2.25 billion), putting its employees on course for pay and bonus packages averaging around £300,000 this year.
The profits were much stronger than expected with the bank's 4,000 London-based employees leading its recovery from the depths of the financial crisis.
So far this year JP Morgan's investment banking staff have generated profits of almost $5 billion (£2.1 billion).
The generous payouts will come as a shock to those who thought that the credit crunch had put paid to the era of bumper City bonuses.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1219345/JP-Morgan-staff-line-bumper-bonuses-investment-bank-posts-blowaway-profits.html
'Magnetic electricity' discovered
BBC
Wednesday, 14 October 2009
Researchers have discovered a magnetic equivalent to electricity: single magnetic charges that can behave and interact like electrical ones. The work is the first to make use of the magnetic monopoles that exist in special crystals known as spin ice.
Writing in Nature journal, a team showed that monopoles gather to form a "magnetic current" like electricity.
The phenomenon, dubbed "magnetricity", could be used in magnetic storage or in computing.
Magnetic monopoles were first predicted to exist over a century ago, as a perfect analogue to electric charges.
Although there are protons and electrons with net positive and negative electric charges, there were no particles in existence which carry magnetic charges. Rather, every magnet has a "north" and "south" pole.
Current event
In September this year, two research groups independently reported the existence of monopoles - "particles" which carry an overall magnetic charge. But they exist only in the spin ice crystals.
These crystals are made up of pyramids of charged atoms, or ions, arranged in such a way that when cooled to exceptionally low temperatures, the materials show tiny, discrete packets of magnetic charge.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8307804.stm
Wednesday, 14 October 2009
Researchers have discovered a magnetic equivalent to electricity: single magnetic charges that can behave and interact like electrical ones. The work is the first to make use of the magnetic monopoles that exist in special crystals known as spin ice.
Writing in Nature journal, a team showed that monopoles gather to form a "magnetic current" like electricity.
The phenomenon, dubbed "magnetricity", could be used in magnetic storage or in computing.
Magnetic monopoles were first predicted to exist over a century ago, as a perfect analogue to electric charges.
Although there are protons and electrons with net positive and negative electric charges, there were no particles in existence which carry magnetic charges. Rather, every magnet has a "north" and "south" pole.
Current event
In September this year, two research groups independently reported the existence of monopoles - "particles" which carry an overall magnetic charge. But they exist only in the spin ice crystals.
These crystals are made up of pyramids of charged atoms, or ions, arranged in such a way that when cooled to exceptionally low temperatures, the materials show tiny, discrete packets of magnetic charge.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8307804.stm
New Rivals Pose Threat to New York Stock Exchange
New York Times
By GRAHAM BOWLEY
Published: October 14, 2009
For most of the 217 years since its founding under a buttonwood tree on Wall Street, the New York Stock Exchange was the high temple of American capitalism.
Behind its Greco-Roman facade, traders raised a Dante-esque din in their pursuit of the almighty dollar. Good times or bad, the daily melee on the cavernous trading floor made the Big Board the greatest marketplace for stocks in the world.
But now, even as the Dow Jones industrial average topped 10,000 for the first time since the financial crisis sent it tumbling, the exchange and its hometown face an unsettling truth: the Big Board, the symbolic heart of New York’s financial industry, is getting smaller.
Young, fast-moving rivals are splintering its public marketplace and creating private markets that, their critics say, give big banks and investment funds an edge over ordinary investors.
Some of the new trading venues — “dark pools,” the industry calls them — are all but invisible, even to regulators. These stealth markets enable sophisticated traders to buy and sell large blocks of stock in secrecy at lightning speed, a practice that has drawn scrutiny from the Securities and Exchange Commission.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/15/business/15exchange.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss
By GRAHAM BOWLEY
Published: October 14, 2009
For most of the 217 years since its founding under a buttonwood tree on Wall Street, the New York Stock Exchange was the high temple of American capitalism.
Behind its Greco-Roman facade, traders raised a Dante-esque din in their pursuit of the almighty dollar. Good times or bad, the daily melee on the cavernous trading floor made the Big Board the greatest marketplace for stocks in the world.
But now, even as the Dow Jones industrial average topped 10,000 for the first time since the financial crisis sent it tumbling, the exchange and its hometown face an unsettling truth: the Big Board, the symbolic heart of New York’s financial industry, is getting smaller.
Young, fast-moving rivals are splintering its public marketplace and creating private markets that, their critics say, give big banks and investment funds an edge over ordinary investors.
Some of the new trading venues — “dark pools,” the industry calls them — are all but invisible, even to regulators. These stealth markets enable sophisticated traders to buy and sell large blocks of stock in secrecy at lightning speed, a practice that has drawn scrutiny from the Securities and Exchange Commission.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/15/business/15exchange.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss
LAWSUIT FILED TO HALT SWINE FLU VACCINE DISTRIBUTION
By Sarah Foster
October 14, 2009
NewsWithViews.com
WASHINGTON – With the U.S. Food and Drug Administration scheduled to begin nationwide delivery this week of swine flu vaccine to 90,000 government-approved locations, attorney James Turner filed a complaint Friday in federal court in the District of Columbia for a Temporary Restraining Order to halt the distribution, licensing and use of four controversial vaccines -- including their use under an existing Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) -- until there has been adequate safety testing and a full opportunity for public hearings.
The suit challenges the Sept. 15 licensing of four swine flu vaccines, alleging that the FDA violated the law in its hurried approval by failing to determine the safety and efficacy of the vaccines as required by law since 1964.
Turner told NewsWithViews that none of the procedures that should have been done, and that make up a formal administrative record, had been done.
“Our argument is that they’re required to follow the law that says how you determine something is safe and effective,” he said. “They did not follow that law. They did not have any public hearings; they did not have any notice and comments. Their core argument is that this is such a unique and significant problem that they must move forward immediately and vaccinate everybody if they can. The way they’re doing that is to argue that the virus itself is so similar to the ordinary, routine flu [virus] that they do not have to go through the regular process of safety approval for this new drug.”
http://www.newswithviews.com/NWV-News/news166.htm
October 14, 2009
NewsWithViews.com
WASHINGTON – With the U.S. Food and Drug Administration scheduled to begin nationwide delivery this week of swine flu vaccine to 90,000 government-approved locations, attorney James Turner filed a complaint Friday in federal court in the District of Columbia for a Temporary Restraining Order to halt the distribution, licensing and use of four controversial vaccines -- including their use under an existing Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) -- until there has been adequate safety testing and a full opportunity for public hearings.
The suit challenges the Sept. 15 licensing of four swine flu vaccines, alleging that the FDA violated the law in its hurried approval by failing to determine the safety and efficacy of the vaccines as required by law since 1964.
Turner told NewsWithViews that none of the procedures that should have been done, and that make up a formal administrative record, had been done.
“Our argument is that they’re required to follow the law that says how you determine something is safe and effective,” he said. “They did not follow that law. They did not have any public hearings; they did not have any notice and comments. Their core argument is that this is such a unique and significant problem that they must move forward immediately and vaccinate everybody if they can. The way they’re doing that is to argue that the virus itself is so similar to the ordinary, routine flu [virus] that they do not have to go through the regular process of safety approval for this new drug.”
http://www.newswithviews.com/NWV-News/news166.htm
US Dollar Crashes Through Major Support Level
Oct 14 2009
Dan Norcini
Jim Sinclair's
Dear Friends,
This evening in Asian trade, the Japanese Minister of Finance once again restated the new view out of Japan that the level of the Yen is no longer an obsession with the monetary authorities of that nation. His comments were interpreted by the Forex markets that intervention to stem the advance of the Yen is most unlikely. With that, market participants wasted little time bidding the Yen into a strong advance.
Those statements of his, combined with that of Federal Reserve Vice Chairman, Donald Kohn, that the US economy would not experience a quick or sharp recovery out of its recession, were both read by traders that US interest rates were not going anywhere anytime soon. Carry traders then beat the Dollar down below critical support near the 76 level on the USDX as they rushed into higher yielding currencies such as the Aussie and Loonie. The Euro also shot up to another new yearly high.
It is looking more and more like the current Administration has set on a course of deliberate destruction of the US Dollar and with it, the economic might that the US has enjoyed since post World War II. As said many times on the pages of this web site, the profligacy of the US has inescapable consequences and we are now seeing a rapid acceleration of the same. The fall in the Dollar is picking up momentum and that is why we are witnessing gold moving into new highs.
http://jsmineset.com/2009/10/14/us-dollar-crashes-through-major-support-level/
Dan Norcini
Jim Sinclair's
Dear Friends,
This evening in Asian trade, the Japanese Minister of Finance once again restated the new view out of Japan that the level of the Yen is no longer an obsession with the monetary authorities of that nation. His comments were interpreted by the Forex markets that intervention to stem the advance of the Yen is most unlikely. With that, market participants wasted little time bidding the Yen into a strong advance.
Those statements of his, combined with that of Federal Reserve Vice Chairman, Donald Kohn, that the US economy would not experience a quick or sharp recovery out of its recession, were both read by traders that US interest rates were not going anywhere anytime soon. Carry traders then beat the Dollar down below critical support near the 76 level on the USDX as they rushed into higher yielding currencies such as the Aussie and Loonie. The Euro also shot up to another new yearly high.
It is looking more and more like the current Administration has set on a course of deliberate destruction of the US Dollar and with it, the economic might that the US has enjoyed since post World War II. As said many times on the pages of this web site, the profligacy of the US has inescapable consequences and we are now seeing a rapid acceleration of the same. The fall in the Dollar is picking up momentum and that is why we are witnessing gold moving into new highs.
http://jsmineset.com/2009/10/14/us-dollar-crashes-through-major-support-level/
FBI building system that blows away fingerprinting
The FBI plans to migrate from its IAFIS fingerprint database to a new biometrics system that will include DNA records, 3-D facial imaging, palm prints and voice scans.
TAMPA – The Federal Bureau of Investigation is expanding beyond its traditional fingerprint-focused collection practices to develop a new biometrics system that will include DNA records, 3-D facial imaging, palm prints and voice scans, blended to create what's known as "multi-modal biometrics."
Slideshow: The changing face of biometricsHow the Defense Department might institutionalize war-time biometrics
"The FBI today is announcing a rapid DNA initiative," said Louis Grever, executive assistant director of the FBI's science and technology branch, during his keynote presentation at the Biometric Consortium Conference in Tampa.
The FBI plans to begin migrating from its IAFIS database, established in the mid-1990s to hold its vast fingerprint data, to a next-generation system that's expected to be in prototype early next year. This multi-modal NGI biometrics database system will hold DNA records and more.
Grever said that fingerprints and DNA appear to be the most mature and searchable biometrics possibilities, but the FBI is working to include iris-scan records among newer biometrics technologies to identify criminals and terrorists. The plan is to share this data with authorized U.S. and international investigative partners, as the agency does today.
http://news.idg.no/cw/art.cfm?id=E7DD109B-1A64-67EA-E4D0CD2824087487
TAMPA – The Federal Bureau of Investigation is expanding beyond its traditional fingerprint-focused collection practices to develop a new biometrics system that will include DNA records, 3-D facial imaging, palm prints and voice scans, blended to create what's known as "multi-modal biometrics."
Slideshow: The changing face of biometricsHow the Defense Department might institutionalize war-time biometrics
"The FBI today is announcing a rapid DNA initiative," said Louis Grever, executive assistant director of the FBI's science and technology branch, during his keynote presentation at the Biometric Consortium Conference in Tampa.
The FBI plans to begin migrating from its IAFIS database, established in the mid-1990s to hold its vast fingerprint data, to a next-generation system that's expected to be in prototype early next year. This multi-modal NGI biometrics database system will hold DNA records and more.
Grever said that fingerprints and DNA appear to be the most mature and searchable biometrics possibilities, but the FBI is working to include iris-scan records among newer biometrics technologies to identify criminals and terrorists. The plan is to share this data with authorized U.S. and international investigative partners, as the agency does today.
http://news.idg.no/cw/art.cfm?id=E7DD109B-1A64-67EA-E4D0CD2824087487
Your Rights Online: FBI Bringing Biometric Photo Scanning To North Carolina, Via DMV
Tuesday October 13, @11:17AM
AHuxley writes
"The FBI is getting fast new systems to look at local North Carolina license photos via the DMV. As the FBI is not authorized to collect and store the photos, they use the North Carolina Division of Motor Vehicles. The system takes seconds to look at chin widths and nose sizes. The expanded technology used on millions of motorist could be rolled out across the USA. The FBI's Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System is also getting an upgrade to DNA records, 3-D facial imaging, palm prints and voice scans."
http://yro.slashdot.org/story/09/10/13/148217/FBI-Bringing-Biometric-Photo-Scanning-To-North-Carolina-Via-DMV?from=rss
AHuxley writes
"The FBI is getting fast new systems to look at local North Carolina license photos via the DMV. As the FBI is not authorized to collect and store the photos, they use the North Carolina Division of Motor Vehicles. The system takes seconds to look at chin widths and nose sizes. The expanded technology used on millions of motorist could be rolled out across the USA. The FBI's Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System is also getting an upgrade to DNA records, 3-D facial imaging, palm prints and voice scans."
http://yro.slashdot.org/story/09/10/13/148217/FBI-Bringing-Biometric-Photo-Scanning-To-North-Carolina-Via-DMV?from=rss
Shooting of Prominent Economist Baffles Police
BETHESDA, Md. - Police are still looking for clues after a prominent economist was shot in the garage of his upscale home.
Ashoka Mody has been identified in an email to his fellow employees at the International Monetary Fund as the man shot Thursday night around 7:30 in his Bethesda garage in the 6800 block of Millwood Road
Mody is currently the assistant director in the European department and an expert in economic development and international finance.
He is also known in his Kenwood Park community as a good neighbor, and those who live near him are stunned that he would be the target of a gunman.
Police say the 54-year-old remains in critical condition after he was shot in his garage Thursday night, before he even had a chance to get out of his vehicle.
http://www.wjla.com/news/stories/1009/666906.html
Ashoka Mody has been identified in an email to his fellow employees at the International Monetary Fund as the man shot Thursday night around 7:30 in his Bethesda garage in the 6800 block of Millwood Road
Mody is currently the assistant director in the European department and an expert in economic development and international finance.
He is also known in his Kenwood Park community as a good neighbor, and those who live near him are stunned that he would be the target of a gunman.
Police say the 54-year-old remains in critical condition after he was shot in his garage Thursday night, before he even had a chance to get out of his vehicle.
http://www.wjla.com/news/stories/1009/666906.html
Plan B for Iran? U.S. Wants Bunker-Buster Fast
WASHINGTON
Associated Press
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Pentagon is speeding up delivery of a colossal bomb designed to destroy hidden weapons bunkers buried
underground and shielded by 10,000 pounds of reinforced concrete
The Pentagon is speeding up delivery of a colossal bomb designed to destroy hidden weapons bunkers buried underground and shielded by 10,000 pounds of reinforced concrete. Call it Plan B for dealing with Iran, which recently revealed a long-suspected nuclear site deep inside a mountain near the holy city of Qom.
The 15-ton behemoth -- called the "massive ordnance penetrator," or MOP -- will be the largest non-nuclear bomb in the U.S. arsenal and carry 5,300 pounds of explosives. The bomb is about 10 times more powerful than the weapon it is designed to replace.
The Pentagon has awarded a nearly $52 million contract to speed up placement of the bomb aboard the B-2 Stealth bomber, and officials say the bomb could be fielded as soon as next summer.
Pentagon officials acknowledge that the new bomb is intended to blow up fortified sites like those used by Iran and North Korea for their nuclear programs, but they deny there is a specific target in mind.
"I don't think anybody can divine potential targets," Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said. "This is just a capability that we think is necessary given the world we live in."
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/10/13/iran-plan-b-wants-bunker-buster-fast/
Associated Press
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Pentagon is speeding up delivery of a colossal bomb designed to destroy hidden weapons bunkers buried
underground and shielded by 10,000 pounds of reinforced concrete
The Pentagon is speeding up delivery of a colossal bomb designed to destroy hidden weapons bunkers buried underground and shielded by 10,000 pounds of reinforced concrete. Call it Plan B for dealing with Iran, which recently revealed a long-suspected nuclear site deep inside a mountain near the holy city of Qom.
The 15-ton behemoth -- called the "massive ordnance penetrator," or MOP -- will be the largest non-nuclear bomb in the U.S. arsenal and carry 5,300 pounds of explosives. The bomb is about 10 times more powerful than the weapon it is designed to replace.
The Pentagon has awarded a nearly $52 million contract to speed up placement of the bomb aboard the B-2 Stealth bomber, and officials say the bomb could be fielded as soon as next summer.
Pentagon officials acknowledge that the new bomb is intended to blow up fortified sites like those used by Iran and North Korea for their nuclear programs, but they deny there is a specific target in mind.
"I don't think anybody can divine potential targets," Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said. "This is just a capability that we think is necessary given the world we live in."
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/10/13/iran-plan-b-wants-bunker-buster-fast/
Weapons failed US troops during Afghan firefight
By RICHARD LARDNER
(AP)
WASHINGTON — In the chaos of an early morning assault on a remote U.S. outpost in eastern Afghanistan, Staff Sgt. Erich Phillips' M4 carbine quit firing as militant forces surrounded the base. The machine gun he grabbed after tossing the rifle aside didn't work either. When the battle in the small village of Wanat ended, nine U.S. soldiers lay dead and 27 more were wounded. A detailed study of the attack by a military historian found that weapons failed repeatedly at a "critical moment" during the firefight on July 13, 2008, putting the outnumbered American troops at risk of being overrun by nearly 200 insurgents.
Which raises the question: Eight years into the war against the Taliban in Afghanistan, do U.S. armed forces have the best guns money can buy?
Despite the military's insistence that they do, a small but vocal number of troops in Afghanistan and Iraq has complained that the standard-issue M4 rifles need too much maintenance and jam at the worst possible times.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5habaKq4oZSDERNm8kpfcAlZcgt7AD9B8SUPG0
(AP)
WASHINGTON — In the chaos of an early morning assault on a remote U.S. outpost in eastern Afghanistan, Staff Sgt. Erich Phillips' M4 carbine quit firing as militant forces surrounded the base. The machine gun he grabbed after tossing the rifle aside didn't work either. When the battle in the small village of Wanat ended, nine U.S. soldiers lay dead and 27 more were wounded. A detailed study of the attack by a military historian found that weapons failed repeatedly at a "critical moment" during the firefight on July 13, 2008, putting the outnumbered American troops at risk of being overrun by nearly 200 insurgents.
Which raises the question: Eight years into the war against the Taliban in Afghanistan, do U.S. armed forces have the best guns money can buy?
Despite the military's insistence that they do, a small but vocal number of troops in Afghanistan and Iraq has complained that the standard-issue M4 rifles need too much maintenance and jam at the worst possible times.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5habaKq4oZSDERNm8kpfcAlZcgt7AD9B8SUPG0
Report: NKorea Fires 5 Short-range Missiles
Oct. 12, 2009
CBS News
North Korea fired five short-range missiles off its east coast on Monday, a news report said, even as South Korea proposed working-level talks with its communist neighbor.
Yonhap news agency, citing an unidentified South Korean government official, said the North test-fired the missiles on Monday afternoon from its eastern coastal launch pad.
Yonhap said the North has issued a no-sail zone in an area off the east coast Oct. 10-20 _ an apparent indication it was planning missile tests.
Calls to the South Korean Defense Ministry seeking comment on the report were not immediately answered Monday.
Earlier Monday, South Korea proposed working-level officials of the two sides meet Wednesday discuss how to prevent floods in the Imjin River running through their heavily armed border. The South also proposed a separate meeting of Red Cross officials on Friday to discuss reunions of families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/10/12/ap/asia/main5378314.shtml
CBS News
North Korea fired five short-range missiles off its east coast on Monday, a news report said, even as South Korea proposed working-level talks with its communist neighbor.
Yonhap news agency, citing an unidentified South Korean government official, said the North test-fired the missiles on Monday afternoon from its eastern coastal launch pad.
Yonhap said the North has issued a no-sail zone in an area off the east coast Oct. 10-20 _ an apparent indication it was planning missile tests.
Calls to the South Korean Defense Ministry seeking comment on the report were not immediately answered Monday.
Earlier Monday, South Korea proposed working-level officials of the two sides meet Wednesday discuss how to prevent floods in the Imjin River running through their heavily armed border. The South also proposed a separate meeting of Red Cross officials on Friday to discuss reunions of families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/10/12/ap/asia/main5378314.shtml
Lobbyists Fight Last Big Plans to Cut Health Care Costs
By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK
Published: October 10, 2009
New York Times
WASHINGTON — As the health care debate moves to the floor of Congress, most of the serious proposals to fulfill President Obama’s original vow to curb costs have fallen victim to organized interests and parochial politics.
And now the last two initiatives with real bite that are still in contention — a scaled-back “Cadillac tax” on high-cost health plans and a nonpartisan Medicare budget-cutting commission — are under furious assault.
Most economists’ favorite idea for slowing the growth of health care spending was ending the income tax exemption for employer-paid health insurance to make lower-cost plans more attractive. But that would hurt workers with big benefit plans, and a labor-union lobbying blitz helped kill that idea by the Fourth of July.
Lobbying by doctors, hospitals and other health care providers, meanwhile, dimmed the prospects of various proposals to cut into their incomes, including allowing government negotiation of Medicare drug prices and creating a government insurer with the muscle to lower fee payments.
“The lobbyists are winning,” said Representative Jim Cooper, a conservative Tennessee Democrat who teaches health policy.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/11/health/policy/11cost.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss
New York Times
WASHINGTON — As the health care debate moves to the floor of Congress, most of the serious proposals to fulfill President Obama’s original vow to curb costs have fallen victim to organized interests and parochial politics.
And now the last two initiatives with real bite that are still in contention — a scaled-back “Cadillac tax” on high-cost health plans and a nonpartisan Medicare budget-cutting commission — are under furious assault.
Most economists’ favorite idea for slowing the growth of health care spending was ending the income tax exemption for employer-paid health insurance to make lower-cost plans more attractive. But that would hurt workers with big benefit plans, and a labor-union lobbying blitz helped kill that idea by the Fourth of July.
Lobbying by doctors, hospitals and other health care providers, meanwhile, dimmed the prospects of various proposals to cut into their incomes, including allowing government negotiation of Medicare drug prices and creating a government insurer with the muscle to lower fee payments.
“The lobbyists are winning,” said Representative Jim Cooper, a conservative Tennessee Democrat who teaches health policy.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/11/health/policy/11cost.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss
The Lost Generation
By Peter Coy
Business Week
10/11/09
nuing job crisis is hitting young people especially hard—damaging both their future and the economy
Bright, eager—and unwanted. While unemployment is ravaging just about every part of the global workforce, the most enduring harm is being done to young people who can't grab onto the first rung of the career ladder.
Affected are a range of young people, from high school dropouts, to college grads, to newly minted lawyers and MBAs across the developed world from Britain to Japan. One indication: In the U.S., the unemployment rate for 16- to 24-year-olds has climbed to more than 18%, from 13% a year ago.
For people just starting their careers, the damage may be deep and long-lasting, potentially creating a kind of "lost generation." Studies suggest that an extended period of youthful joblessness can significantly depress lifetime income as people get stuck in jobs that are beneath their capabilities, or come to be seen by employers as damaged goods.
Equally important, employers are likely to suffer from the scarring of a generation. The freshness and vitality young people bring to the workplace is missing. Tomorrow's would-be star employees are on the sidelines, deprived of experience and losing motivation. In Japan, which has been down this road since the early 1990s, workers who started their careers a decade or more ago and are now in their 30s account for 6 in 10 reported cases of depression, stress, and work-related mental disabilities, according to the Japan Productivity Center for Socio-Economic Development.
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/09_42/b4151032038302.htm?campaign_id=rss_topStories
Business Week
10/11/09
nuing job crisis is hitting young people especially hard—damaging both their future and the economy
Bright, eager—and unwanted. While unemployment is ravaging just about every part of the global workforce, the most enduring harm is being done to young people who can't grab onto the first rung of the career ladder.
Affected are a range of young people, from high school dropouts, to college grads, to newly minted lawyers and MBAs across the developed world from Britain to Japan. One indication: In the U.S., the unemployment rate for 16- to 24-year-olds has climbed to more than 18%, from 13% a year ago.
For people just starting their careers, the damage may be deep and long-lasting, potentially creating a kind of "lost generation." Studies suggest that an extended period of youthful joblessness can significantly depress lifetime income as people get stuck in jobs that are beneath their capabilities, or come to be seen by employers as damaged goods.
Equally important, employers are likely to suffer from the scarring of a generation. The freshness and vitality young people bring to the workplace is missing. Tomorrow's would-be star employees are on the sidelines, deprived of experience and losing motivation. In Japan, which has been down this road since the early 1990s, workers who started their careers a decade or more ago and are now in their 30s account for 6 in 10 reported cases of depression, stress, and work-related mental disabilities, according to the Japan Productivity Center for Socio-Economic Development.
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/09_42/b4151032038302.htm?campaign_id=rss_topStories
Obama vows to end restrictions on gays in military
Sun Oct 11, 2009 7:40am EDT
By Caren Bohan and Nancy Waitz
WASHINGTON (Reuters)
President Barack Obama, speaking on the eve of a major gay-rights march, told gay supporters on Saturday he would fight for their causes and renewed a pledge to end restrictions on their service in the U.S. military.
To a standing ovation at a dinner held by the Human Rights Campaign, a gay advocacy group, Obama said he would "end 'don't ask, don't tell,' That's my commitment to you."
Obama, who was referring to the policy prohibiting openly gay people from serving in the U.S. military, was seeking to shore up his support among gays and lesbians who backed him strongly during last year's presidential campaign.
Many gay activists are frustrated he has not moved more quickly to carry out promises, such as overturning the "don't ask, don't tell" policy and repealing the Defense of Marriage Act, which bars the federal government from forcing states to recognize gay marriage.
Activists plan to march in Washington on Sunday to urge action on those issues.
At the dinner, Obama acknowledged that work on those issues was "taking longer than you'd like" as the push to overhaul healthcare and dealing with the economic crisis dominate his domestic agenda.
http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE59A05K20091011?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews
By Caren Bohan and Nancy Waitz
WASHINGTON (Reuters)
President Barack Obama, speaking on the eve of a major gay-rights march, told gay supporters on Saturday he would fight for their causes and renewed a pledge to end restrictions on their service in the U.S. military.
To a standing ovation at a dinner held by the Human Rights Campaign, a gay advocacy group, Obama said he would "end 'don't ask, don't tell,' That's my commitment to you."
Obama, who was referring to the policy prohibiting openly gay people from serving in the U.S. military, was seeking to shore up his support among gays and lesbians who backed him strongly during last year's presidential campaign.
Many gay activists are frustrated he has not moved more quickly to carry out promises, such as overturning the "don't ask, don't tell" policy and repealing the Defense of Marriage Act, which bars the federal government from forcing states to recognize gay marriage.
Activists plan to march in Washington on Sunday to urge action on those issues.
At the dinner, Obama acknowledged that work on those issues was "taking longer than you'd like" as the push to overhaul healthcare and dealing with the economic crisis dominate his domestic agenda.
http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE59A05K20091011?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews
Supreme court term has major gun rights, business cases
Mon Oct 5, 2009 6:37am EDT
By James Vicini
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court will again consider gun rights and decide an important case that could loosen restrictions on corporation spending in political campaigns in its new term beginning on Monday.
The nine-member panel now includes Justice Sonia Sotomayor. Appointed by President Barack Obama, she is the first justice named by a Democratic president in 15 years and the first Hispanic on the high court.
Sotomayor succeeded Justice David Souter, who retired in June. She generally is expected to vote with the three other liberals as Souter did.
"The 2009 term seems likely to produce important decisions on free speech, government accountability and criminal justice," Steven Shapiro of the American Civil Liberties Union said. "And it certainly will tell us more than we now know about the role that Justice Sotomayor will play on a Supreme Court that remains closely divided along ideological lines."
The term could reveal whether the five-member conservative majority led by Chief Justice John Roberts overturns past precedents on issues like corporate spending limits for congressional and presidential races.
"This term is going to be an enormous test for Chief Justice Roberts and the conservatives on the court," said Doug Kendall, founder and president of the Constitutional Accountability Center, a liberal think tank and law firm.
http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE59312M20091005?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews
By James Vicini
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court will again consider gun rights and decide an important case that could loosen restrictions on corporation spending in political campaigns in its new term beginning on Monday.
The nine-member panel now includes Justice Sonia Sotomayor. Appointed by President Barack Obama, she is the first justice named by a Democratic president in 15 years and the first Hispanic on the high court.
Sotomayor succeeded Justice David Souter, who retired in June. She generally is expected to vote with the three other liberals as Souter did.
"The 2009 term seems likely to produce important decisions on free speech, government accountability and criminal justice," Steven Shapiro of the American Civil Liberties Union said. "And it certainly will tell us more than we now know about the role that Justice Sotomayor will play on a Supreme Court that remains closely divided along ideological lines."
The term could reveal whether the five-member conservative majority led by Chief Justice John Roberts overturns past precedents on issues like corporate spending limits for congressional and presidential races.
"This term is going to be an enormous test for Chief Justice Roberts and the conservatives on the court," said Doug Kendall, founder and president of the Constitutional Accountability Center, a liberal think tank and law firm.
http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE59312M20091005?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews
Surrendering U.S. Sovereignty at G-20 Summit
Townhall.com
While all eyes were on the rantings of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at the United Nations, the United States -- under President Obama -- was surrendering its economic sovereignty at the G-20 summit.
The result of this conclave, which France's president Nicolas Sarkozy hailed as "revolutionary," was that all the nations agreed to coordinate their economic policies and programs and to submit them to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for comment and approval. While the G-20 nations and the IMF are, for now, only going to use "moral suasion" on those nations found not to be in compliance, talk of sanctions looms on the horizon.
http://townhall.com/columnists/DickMorrisandEileenMcGann/2009/09/30/surrendering_us_sovereignty_at_g-20_summit?page=full&comments=true#atuid-4831f86f1cc1e307