I told you we should have given the money to the people at the bottom...

but, no! We gave it all to the rich and now there is not enough to help the vast majority of people who need help.

Homes keep falling into foreclosure as programs fail to help

More than three years into the housing crisis that helped trigger a worldwide recession, the torrid pace of home foreclosures continues to tear at the core of the American dream.

New figures Thursday from Realty-Trac showed that foreclosure activity declined over the first six months of the year in nine of the 10 large metropolitan areas with the highest foreclosure rates.

However, most of the 206 metropolitan areas with 200,000-plus residents didn't fare as well. In fact, three out of four posted year-to-year increases in their foreclosure rates. Seventeen of the 20 hardest-hit areas were in Florida and California

Read more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/07/29/98357/homes-keep-falling-into-foreclosure.html#ixzz0vJPPrADY

Rollins-Mackenzie Expedition returns from the wild west...

The site of the Wilco Loft/recording studio on North Kedzie in Chicago...


After 14 days of long drives,intense sightseeing, T-shirt buying, visiting chiropractor offices, camping with the bears, eating all that peanut butter and jelly and not to mention attending a killer Wilco concert in South Bend last night, the road trip has unfortunately come to an end. I will provide a quick list of sights and activities we participated in, if anyone is interested. Spent the first whole day (Monday) in Chicago. We visited the sight of the Wilco loft, bought tickets for a Cubs game, took the "L" downtown and walked about fifty miles ending up at Gino's East for Chicago's best deep dish Pizza. I prefer Pepe's in New Haven but it was okay. Took the "L" back to the North Side and witnessed the Cubs get their ass's beat by the Astros at Wrigley Field. The next day after some car repairs we were off to South Dakota. Made it to the Badlands by sun up Wednesday morning. Eventually, that day, we took in the Badlands, Mount Rushmore, The Crazy Horse monument(not yet finished), Custer State Forrest, Deadwood and Devil's Tower in Wyoming. On Thursday we began our trek to Glacier National Park in Montana. We made a stop along the way at the Custer Battlefield site and camped at a crappy campsite an hour or so from the Glacier Park entrance. Glacier National Park is probably pretty cool to see. Unfortunately due to clouds and fog, we didn't see too much of it. But what we could see was great. While heading to Yellowstone, I visited the first of three chiropractors I would need to see in order to straighten the old back out. It was a rough drive to say the least. Yellowstone National Park was great. Camped there two nights, saw our share of wild animals including black bears, a grizzly, a wolf and a coyote. Old Faithful lived up to her name and the miles and miles of walking was great for the back. Headed out of Yellowstone on Monday afternoon and spent a couple of days driving back to Chicago. Visited Fort Phil Kearney and the Fetterman Massacre sight in Wyoming along the way. Stayed at the condo of Kevin's friend in Chicago on Thursday and Friday nights, taking in a trip to the top of the Willis Tower(Sears Tower) and grabbing another Chicago pizza. Set out Friday afternoon for South Bend, Indiana, for Friday's Wilco concert at a minor league ball park. We were able to see the sound check performance in the afternoon and met some friendly South Bend folks waiting for the show to begin. Drove straight home back to CT after the show and got back around noon today(Saturday). I will post some pictures soon. For those who couldn't make it this trip, you missed a great time. I've got some catching up to do news wise so I'll be getting back to normal here slowly. By the way, Joe Biden was at Yellowstone when we were there but we didn't see him. We also heard later, two people were killed by bears while we were there as well. I am sure I forgot a few things, but you get the gist of what we did.

Song for the next two weeks(vacation time): The Eagles

Hitting the road...


This will have to last you for the next two weeks. Going on a little vacation. Next post will be the first week in August. If you remember, check back then.

Song of the day: Ryan Adams

The Spaceman speaks...

Bill Lee on Steinbrenner’s death: ‘Good’

Former Red Sox pitcher Bill Lee did not soften his stance on George Steinbrenner following the Yankees owner’s death Tuesday. “As far as Steinbrenner’s passing? Good,” Lee said in an interview with New Hampshire TV station WMUR. Added Lee: “Trust me, if hell freezes over, he’ll be skating.”

Lee, who spent 10 of his 14 major league seasons with the Red Sox and took part in a number of heated battles vs. Steinbrenner’s Yankees in the mid-1970s, claimed that Steinbrenner tried to have him banned from baseball. “He said I was an incompetent and I was bad for the game of baseball,” Lee recalled. “Well, I’m not a convicted felon like George Steinbrenner, and he’ll take that to his grave.”

Lee continued his rant during an appearance on WEEI’s Planet Mikey show Thursday night. “He tried to run me out of the game a long time ago, after the [1976 Red Sox-Yankees] brawl,” Lee said. “He said I was a pariah, I wasn’t good for baseball. … I told him basically to shut up.”

Asked if he had any sadness about Steinbrenner’s death, Lee said: “I have no sadness. I’m Irish, I’m Catholic, and when you’re gone, you’re gone.”

On Planet Mikey, Lee joked his golf game improved dramatically when he learned of Steinbrenner’s death. “When I heard he was dead, I went out and sank seven 30-footers,” Lee said. “I was like on Tequila. I was floating. I took the team — we were 1-under and we went to 10-under, and the best golfer was me, and I’m a 15-handicap.”

Link:
http://fullcount.weei.com/sports/boston/baseball/red-sox/2010/07/16/bill-lee-on-george-steinbrenners-death-good/

Too fat? No health care for you...

Obesity Rating for Every American Must Be Included in Stimulus-Mandated Electronic Health Records, Says HHS

New federal regulations issued this week stipulate that the electronic health records--that all Americans are supposed to have by 2014 under the terms of the stimulus law that President Barack Obama signed last year--must record not only the traditional measures of height and weight, but also the Body Mass Index: a measure of obesity.

The obesity-rating regulation states that every American's electronic health record must: “Calculate body mass index. Automatically calculate and display body mass index (BMI) based on a patient’s height and weight.”

The law also requires that these electronic health records be available--with appropriate security measures--on a national exchange.

Link:
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/69436

The elite's plan for the future. Read it for yourself...

Rockefeller Study Envisages Future Dictatorship Controlled By Elite

The Rockefeller study is not a warning against preventing the kind of tyranny contained in this scenario from unfolding, it’s a blueprint for how globalists want to exploit global crises like bio-terror attacks and pandemics in order to completely destroy society and rebuild it under a new world order in their image.

The Rockefeller scenario bears more than a passing resemblance to a 2007 UK Ministry of Defence study which forecast that by 2035, people would have brain chips implanted, that the middle class would become revolutionary, and that society would be gripped by chaos and civil unrest as a result of increased globalization, immigration and a more authoritarian state.

Global pandemics that kill millions, mandatory quarantines, checkpoints, biometric ID cards, and a world of top-down government control. These things are not lifted from the latest sci-fi blockbuster movie, they’re part of the Rockefeller Foundation’s vision for what the globe might be like in 15-20 years’ time under a new world order tightly controlled by the elite.

This is one of four scenarios for the future of the planet outlined in the Rockefeller Foundation’s “Scenarios for the Future of Technology and International Development,” a study produced in association with the Global Business Network.

Entitled “Lock Step,” the scenario depicts,”A world of tighter top-down government control and more authoritarian leadership, with limited innovation and growing citizen pushback.”

After global H1N1 pandemic originating from geese infects 20 per cent of the global population and kills 8 million people, the economy grinds to a halt and governments impose authoritarian measures to respond to the crisis.

“During the pandemic, national leaders around the world flexed their authority and imposed airtight rules and
restrictions, from the mandatory wearing of face masks to body-temperature checks at the entries to communal spaces like train stations and supermarkets,” states the study.

Tellingly, even after the pandemic fades, these draconian measures remain in place and even intensify, as leaders take a “firmer grip on power” and citizens willingly sacrifice their sovereignty and privacy, leading to “a more controlled world” bossed by “paternalistic states” who impose biometric ID cards for all citizens. “Enforced cooperation” with global regulatory agreements forges the path towards global governance even as a backlash ensues following public displays of “virulent nationalism”...

It is crystal clear from reading the “Lock Step” scenario that the oppressive society portrayed in the study is not presented as an admonishment of how governments would cynically seize upon a pandemic to set up a police state and empower themselves as dictators, it’s a ringing endorsement that this approach would be the correct thing to do.

This is the post-industrial society demanded by Bilderberg luminaries like European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso.

This is what the globalists want – pandemics, warfare, chaos and crises that they can engineer and then exploit to lock in place a dictatorial society ruled by the elite from their ivory towers, while the citizens are reduced to impoverished, squabbling, dependent peasants tightly controlled with sophisticated big brother technology, far too concerned about where their next meal is coming from to have time to overthrow their new rulers.

Link:
http://www.prisonplanet.com/rockefeller-study-envisages-future-dictatorship-controlled-by-elite.html

Here's the Rockefeller study. Read it for yourself...
http://www.gbn.com/articles/pdfs/GBN&Rockefeller%20scenarios.technology&development.pdf

Obama Phone: This is not a joke...

I received this info in an email. Be sure to click on the link to prove this is legit...


The "ObamaPhone"...You're Paying for it. What's next?

I hope you are sitting down.
I had a former employee call me earlier today inquiring about a job, and at the end of the conversation he gave me his phone number. I asked the former employee if this was a new cell phone number, and he told me yes, this was his “Obama phone.” I asked him what an “Obama phone” was, and he went on to say that welfare recipients are now eligible to receive (1) a FREE new cell phone, and (2) approximately 70 FREE minutes of air time every month
I was a little skeptical, so I Googled it, and lo and behold, he was telling the truth. TAXPAYER MONEY IS BEING REDISTRIBUTED TO WELFARE RECIPIENTS FOR FREE CELL PHONES. Enough is enough, the ship is sinking, and it’s sinking fast. The age-old concepts of God, family, and hard work have flown out the window, and are being replaced with “Hope and Change”, “Change we can believe in”, and "Why should I work for it, when I can get it for free?"
You can click on the link below to read more about the “ObamaPhone”…just have a barf bag ready.

https://www.safelinkwireless.com/EnrollmentPublic/Home.aspx

The OBAMA motto: We've got what it takes, to take what you've got!

OBAMA VOTERS,DO YOU FEEL DUMB YET?

Link:
https://www.safelinkwireless.com/EnrollmentPublic/Home.aspx

It's a record...

Duration of Unemployment in U.S. Rises to Record 34.4 Weeks

Unemployed Americans are facing the longest wait on record to find work, a sign faster economic growth is needed to reduce the jobless rate from close to a 26- year high.

The average duration of unemployment jumped to 34.4 weeks in May from 33 weeks the prior month and 16.5 weeks in December 2007, when the recession began, a Labor Department report showed today in Washington. The number of unemployed has almost doubled to 15 million since the start of worst slump since the 1930s.

“We need faster growth, because without it, we won’t get the jobs,” said Henry Mo, an economist at Credit Suisse in New York. “We are working in that direction, but it’ll take a very long time to resolve the long-term unemployment problem. The Federal Reserve acknowledges that the labor market will take time to fully recover.”

Private payrolls rose by 41,000 in May, today’s Labor Department report showed, trailing the 180,000 gain forecast by economists. Including government workers, employment rose by 431,000, boosted by a jump in hiring of temporary census workers. The jobless rate fell to 9.7 percent from 9.9 percent as Americans discouraged by the lack of available jobs dropped out of the labor force.

Link:
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-06-04/duration-of-unemployment-in-u-s-rises-to-record-34-4-weeks.html

A look back . News story from those crazy conspiracists at the NYT...

Remember the post yesterday about the terror attack comment made by one of Clinton's former aides?


Senators Warned of Terror Attack on U.S. by July

Published: February 2, 2010

WASHINGTON — America’s top intelligence official told lawmakers on Tuesday that Al Qaeda and its affiliates had made it a high priority to attempt a large-scale attack on American soil within the next six months.
The assessment by Dennis C. Blair, the director of national intelligence, was much starker than his view last year, when he emphasized the considerable progress in the campaign to debilitate Al Qaeda and said that the global economic meltdown, rather than the prospect of a major terrorist attack, was the “primary near-term security concern of the United States.”

Link:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/03/us/politics/03intel.html?emc=eta1

Check this out...

Video: Can Burning Enron and WorldCom Files Melt WTC7 Steel?
I couldn't help the sarcastic title - I blame it on a bit of grim humor I sensed in the video - you'll see - but the documents are, after all, an important part of the experiment. But if one is to accept the official explanations fed to the public to explain the events of September 11, 2001 in general - and WTC7 specifically - reliance on the absurd is a prerequisite. The experiment documented in the excellent video below provides yet another grass-roots forged nail for the coffin of the Federal Fairy Tale built on a foundation of fraud.

What can explain how a one-inch-thick column found in the WTC7 rubble was reduced to 1/2 inch thickness with gaping holes, curled like a paper scroll, thinned to almost razor sharpness with a "swiss cheese" appearance? A highly unusual event - called by the New York Times "perhaps the deepest mystery uncovered in the investigation."

The video below shows an experiment designed to test the official hypothesis attempting to explain the source of the sulphur that would be required to lower the melting point of this steel - thereby enabling such corrosion. The official hypothesis: That the source of the sulphur was from normal building materials found in the rubble. Finally the hypothesis is tested experimentally.

Watch for yourself -



If it looks like a controlled demolition, collapses like a controlled demolition, and leaves a mountain of evidence like a controlled demolition - then ...?


Link:
http://americansjourney.blogspot.com/2010/07/video-can-burning-enron-and-worldcom.html

Sorry about all the bad news...If you want good news (lies) put on Fox or MSNBC...

The U.S. Economy Is A Dead Horse And The American People Are Starting To Get Really Pissed Off And Frustrated

For most Americans, all we have ever known is tremendous prosperity. All our lives we have been taught that America is the richest and most prosperous nation on the planet, and that while there will always be times of "recession", things will always bounce back and be better than ever before.

But this time things aren't bouncing back.

And Americans are starting to become extremely frustrated.

A couple of quotes that appeared in a recent article in The New York Daily News really embodied the growing frustration that so many are feeling at this point....

"My husband and I are fortunate to be able to move in with my 81-year-old mother-in-law. But how sad is that? I apply for jobs and nothing happens," writes Gayle Hanson. "Who wants to hire a 59-year-old woman? My answer is nobody. [I] have years of experience, excellent references. And nothing to show for it."

"I am soon to be 57 and considered too old, too expensive, etc. I can't get an employer to hire me at any salary," writes Mike Stiller. "I am BOILING MAD."

But Gayle Hanson and Mike Stiller are far from alone.

Millions upon millions of Americans are "boiling mad" about the economy at this point.

The truth is that the United States has lost 10.5 million jobs since 2007. Many of those jobs have been shipped off to countries like China and India where labor is much cheaper and they are never coming back.

There just are not enough jobs for everyone in America at this point. The number of "chronically unemployed" has been rising at a frightening pace. In fact, the average duration of unemployment in the United States has risen to an all-time high.

If you have never been unemployed and unable to find a job, then you just don't know how soul crushing it can be. This is especially true when you have a family to support.

Right now, there are 9.2 million Americans that are unemployed but are not even receiving an unemployment insurance check. It is easy to tell those unemployed workers that they should "get a job", but as the chart below shows, the gap between the number of unemployed workers and the number of job openings has increased dramatically over the last couple of years....

Link:
http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/the-u-s-economy-is-a-dead-horse-and-the-american-people-are-starting-to-get-really-pissed-off-and-frustrated

Another warning...

World at Risk of Folding in on Itself: Deputy Doom

The global economy is at risk of folding in on itself unless policy makers face up to the threat of inflation and exchange rate inflexibility, according to Arun Motianey, director of fixed income strategy at Roubini Global Economics.

A Japan-like outcome is a big risk for the developed world with deflation a big danger, he said.

Recent figures show that the recovery is sputtering in the US while China's booming growth has slowed down slightly, as Beijing unwinds stimulus measures.

Link:
http://www.cnbc.com/id/38255206

I told you this was going to happen...

The Bush Revival: How Jeb, Rove, Gillespie Are Leading The GOP Again

Sagging poll numbers and policy setbacks have done little to dissuade these rosy prognostications. There's only one thing that makes Rosenberg nervous: another Bush.

"Jeb [Bush] is married to a Latina, is fluent in Spanish, speaks on Univision as a commentator, his Spanish is that good," Rosenberg said of the former Florida governor and brother to the 43rd president during a lunch at NDN headquarters last week. "And if you look at the electoral map in 2012, you have to assume that Obama is going to have a very hard time in holding North Carolina and Virginia. The industrial Midwest, where the auto decline has been huge, has weakened Obama's numbers... a great deal. So Ohio, Michigan, Indiana and Wisconsin become a bit more wobbly. So if you're Barack Obama, the firewall is the Latin belt from Florida to southwestern California. And there is only one Republican who can break through that firewall. And it is Jeb."

Link:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/15/the-bush-revival-how-jeb_n_647403.html

This might be interesting to read...

ATTENTION FALSE FLAG TERROR ALERT!

Just as the three days befor 9/11 there was unusual amounts of trading going on with American Airlines (goldmansucks)

We are seeing the same type of action this time with power companies. This as Obama suporters say an act of terrorism is the only thing that will save him.


Interesting Options Volume for CenterPoint Energy (CNP)
Posted on 07/13/2010 by Leo Goldman

NEW YORK (Market Intellisearch) -- Unusual volume of put contracts was traded today. There were 713 puts contracts versus the ten day average volume of 55. On the calls side, 27 calls contracts were traded. Today's traded Put/Call ratio is 26.41. There were 26.41 puts traded for each call contract.

Put/Call ratio is often used to measure investment sentiment, the ratio serves as a predictor of investor behavior. Unusual options volume provides reliable clues that the stock is expected to make a move.

Unusual Trading Activity for Iron Mountain Inc. (IRM)
Posted on 07/13/2010 by Leo Goldman

NEW YORK (Market Intellisearch) -- Unusual volume of call contracts was traded today. There were 756 call contracts traded compared to the ten day average volume of 122 contracts. On the put side, 42 put contracts exchanged hands. Today's traded Put/Call ratio is 0.06. There were 18.00 calls traded for each put contract.

Options are useful tools for predicting the movement of the underlying stock. Put/Call ratio statistics serve as a useful predictor of investment sentiment, indicating what experienced investors are doing in preparation for a move of an underlying stock. Thus, unusual volume provides reliable clues that the stock is expected to make a move.

Link:
http://beforeitsnews.com/story/102/476/ATTENTION_FALSE_FLAG_TERROR_ALERT.html

A history lesson we didn't learn from...

Tell it to the 58,000 American who died and the 250,000 wounded. Don't forget the 1 million Vietnamese who died. All for a lie. Sound familiar?


Records Show Doubts on ’64 Vietnam Crisis

In an echo of the debates over the discredited intelligence that helped make the case for the war in Iraq, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday released more than 1,100 pages of previously classified Vietnam-era transcripts that show senators of the time sharply questioning whether they had been deceived by the White House and the Pentagon over the 1964 Gulf of Tonkin incident.
Related

“If this country has been misled, if this committee, this Congress, has been misled by pretext into a war in which thousands of young men have died, and many more thousands have been crippled for life, and out of which their country has lost prestige, moral position in the world, the consequences are very great,” Senator Albert Gore Sr. of Tennessee, the father of the future vice president, said in March 1968 in a closed session of the Foreign Relations Committee.

The documents are Volume 20 in a regular series of releases of historical transcripts from the committee, which conducted most of its business in executive session during the 1960s, before the Senate required committee meetings to be public. The documents were edited by Donald Ritchie, the Senate historian, and cover 1968, when members of the committee were anguished over Vietnam and in a deteriorating relationship with the Johnson White House over the war.

Historians said the transcripts, which are filled with venting by the senators about the Johnson administration and frustrations over their own ineffectiveness, added little new to the historical record. Even at the time, there was widespread skepticism about the Gulf of Tonkin incident, in which the North Vietnamese were said to have attacked American destroyers on Aug. 4, 1964, two days after an earlier clash.

President Lyndon B. Johnson cited the attacks to persuade Congress to authorize broad military action in Vietnam, but historians in recent years have concluded that the Aug. 4 attack never happened.

Still, the transcripts show the outrage the senators were expressing behind closed doors. “In a democracy you cannot expect the people, whose sons are being killed and who will be killed, to exercise their judgment if the truth is concealed from them,” Senator Frank Church, Democrat of Idaho, said in an executive session in February 1968.

But the senators also worried that releasing a committee staff investigation that raised doubts about the Tonkin incident would only inflame the country more. As Senator Mike Mansfield, Democrat of Montana, put it, “You will give people who are not interested in facts a chance to exploit them and to magnify them out of all proportion.”

At another point, the committee’s chairman, Senator William Fulbright, Democrat of Arkansas, raised concerns that if the senators did not take a stand on the war, “We are just a useless appendix on the governmental structure.”

Link:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/15/world/asia/15vietnam.html?_r=4&emc=eta1

This dude must be really horny...

Sunbathing boosts men's testosterone (thanks to vitamin D)

By increasing circulating levels of vitamin D, sunbathing may help increase men's testosterone levels and thereby their sex drive, according to a study conducted by researchers from the Medical University of Graz, Austria, and published in the journal Clinical Endocrinology.

"Men who ensure that their body is at least sufficiently supplied with vitamin D are doing good for their testosterone levels and their libido among other things," said Ad Brand of the Netherlands-based Sunlight Research Forum.

Link:
http://www.naturalnews.com/029197_sunbathing_testosterone.html

Federal Reserve admits failure...But we knew that already, didn't we?

Federal Reserve: Continued High Unemployment Threatens Fed Policy Of Pursuing 'Maximum Employment'

Members of the Federal Reserve lowered their expectations for economic growth and raised their projections of the nation's unemployment rate, cautioning for the first time in recent memory that the low employment rate "over the next several years... would likely be below levels they consider to be consistent" with their mandate to maximize employment, according to meeting minutes released Wednesday.

Link:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/14/federal-reserve-continued_n_645745.html

That's why it will happen....

Study: Attack on Iran would be ‘start of long war’

An Israeli attack on Iran would fail to stop Tehran's alleged nuclear weapons program and would lead to a "long war" that would be marked by economic instability and mass civilian casualties, says a study from British think tank.

In a report (PDF) released Wednesday, the Oxford Research Group stated that, while the likelihood of a US attack on Iran's nuclear program has been lessened by the Obama administration's policies, advances in Israeli military technology have increased the potential for an Israeli attack.

The study, entitled "Military Action Against Iran: Impact and Effects," also argues that an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities would galvanize the Iranian public behind the leadership of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and give the regime in Tehran more support and rationale for developing nuclear capabilities.

Link:
http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0714/study-attack-iran-start-long-war/

Signs, signs, everywhere a sign...

Signs of the Stimulus

As the midterm election season approaches, new road signs are popping up everywhere – millions of dollars worth of signs touting "The American Reinvestment and Recovery Act" and reminding passers-by that the program is "Putting America Back to Work."

ABC News has reached out to a number of states about spending on stimulus signs and learned the state of Illinois has spent $650,000 on about 950 signs and Pennsylvania has spent $157,000 on 70 signs. Other states, like Virginia, Vermont, and Arizona do not sanction any signs. One state brags it posts signs but manages to keep the process cost-effective. The Tennessee Department of Transportation boasts, "There are a total of 324 signs statewide for a total cost of $12,931 and an average of $37.67 each." The reason for the small cost, they say, is that their signs are small-- about equal to a speed limit sign.

Congressman Aaron Schock (R-IL) has joined the chorus of Republican outrage over stimulus signs and claims at least $20 million has been spent on them. He told ABC News, "I think it's a bit of an oxymoron to spend tens of millions of dollars of taxpayer money, borrowed money, on a bunch of signs to tell them how we are spending their taxpayer money."

Link:
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/signs-stimulus/story?id=11163180

Telling it like it is....And the song of the day: Barry Mguire

America Stands On The Precipice Of Total Collapse

There can be little doubt that America, along with the west as a whole, is being set up for a total collapse in which life as we know it will be fundamentally altered and rebuilt around a collectivist model managed and controlled by the same criminals who engineered the crisis in the first place.

America has been targeted for an economic, military, and social coup d’état by globalists who know that to get people to accept a new way of life under the heel of the new world order requires that the pillars of everything they knew before are completely pulverized. Freedom, prosperity, and community have no place in a “post-industrial revolution,” and every assault on the living standards of American citizens is designed to infect and wither these ideals.

We are looking at a road warrior style collapse of society within two years if the entities that orchestrated the crisis are allowed to pose as saviors and institute their austerity fascism, carbon taxes, “green economy,” post-industrial revolution, and the evisceration of America’s first world status that will inevitably follow if such measures are allowed to pass.

The plan for America is to sink the country into chaos so that it can be swallowed whole and consumed as part of the march towards global government. The globalists want to do to America what they have done to the third world, by creating an underclass of impoverished and deprived citizens who are dependent on government for their every need.

Millions of Americans have been dumbed-down to the point where, as major newspapers announce that the country is heading into a third great depression, as unemployment soars, as police departments announce they will no longer be responding to crimes, and as infrastructure crumbles, the top story this afternoon on Yahoo.com, the most heavily trafficked website in the country, was about how Brad Pitt had shaved off his beard.

Link:
http://www.prisonplanet.com/america-stands-on-the-precipice-of-total-collapse.html

Things are warming up in Canada...

Alberta walloped with snow

You're not seeing or hearing things. It's the middle of July and heavy snow is blanketing parts of Alberta.

“There wasn't any snow on the ground last night when I went to bed,” says Megan Gibson from the Marmot Basin Ski Resort near Jasper. “I think it started snowing as early as this morning and since about 6:30 this morning, we've had around 18 centimetres fall at the lower chalet.”

Gibson adds that even heavier amounts are expected higher up. Usually at this time of year crews are preparing for the next ski season instead of actually partaking in winter-like activities.

While not completely impossible, heavy snow like this in July is pretty rare.

“This is totally out of the blue. To receive this much snow in July and have it stay on the ground is unheard of,” says Gibson.

Link:
http://www.theweathernetwork.com/news/storm_watch_stories3&stormfile=jaspersnow_13_07_2010?ref=ccbox_weather_bottom_title

Religious love their porn sites...religiously.

Religious Conservatives Love Online Porn

America's religious conservatives — and even secular conservatives — are among the first to complain about pornography and anything which makes sex easier to see. It's therefore very curious to learn that these same conservatives are also among the biggest consumers of pornography. Among the states which lead the nation in subscriptions to online pornography sites, 8 out of 10 supported John McCain in the last presidential election. The biggest consumer was the very Mormon Utah!

Link:
http://atheism.about.com/b/2009/03/06/religious-conservatives-love-online-porn.htm

Smoke and mirrors...

What Does The Financial Reform Bill Do Other Than Being Completely And Utterly Worthless?

So will the financial reform bill do any good at all?

Well, yes.
A very, very small amount.
Essentially, it is kind of like going over to the Pacific Ocean and scooping out a couple of cups of water.
That is about how much good this bill is going to do.
But U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is making this sound like this is some kind of history-changing legislation....

"We’re cleaning up Wall Street."

Oh really?

Charles Geisst, professor of finance at Manhattan College recently had the following to say about this absolutely toothless bill....
Like health-care reform, this bill is being drawn up to grab headlines but its details betray it as nothing more than a slap on the wrist for Wall Street. It is true that Wall Street can commit grand theft and apparently get off with nothing more than community service.

The truth is that most of us never expected the U.S. government to truly take on Wall Street. The relationship between the two is just way too cozy for that to happen.

So does the financial reform bill actually accomplish anything?
Yes.
Let's take a look at the "sweeping changes" contained in the bill....

*Federal regulators will receive more authority to monitor everything from mortgages to complex derivatives. (Oh goody! Just what we needed - more federal regulation! As if federal agencies have ever been very good at regulating the financial industry...)

*Financial firms will be required to reduce the debt they take on and to hold more capital in reserve. (This will make financial firms marginally more stable, but the truth is that the big banks are so good at accounting tricks that this will not really make much of a difference. When a big firm is going to fail a few extra bucks in reserve is NOT going to make a difference.)

*The U.S. government will be given extensive power to seize collapsing financial firms. Federal regulators would keep collapsing firms operating long enough to prevent a massive panic and would slowly sell off its pieces. (This does not eliminate "too big to fail" - instead it enshrines "too big to fail" into law permanently. The bill institutes "orderly procedures" for exactly how to proceed when the U.S. government steps in and takes over failing financial firms. Just what we need - more socialism!)

*The financial reform bill creates a new Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection at the Federal Reserve that is supposed to help prevent abusive lending by mortgage and credit card companies. (Wait a second - this bill gives the Federal Reserve more power? Who came up with that grand idea? Yeah, let's give the fox more power to guard the hen house. The truth is that the Federal Reserve is one of the core problems with our economic system as we have written about previously.)

*Some rather toothless regulations will be placed on the derivatives markets, hedge funds and credit rating agencies. (A big emphasis on "toothless".)

Link:
http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/what-does-the-financial-reform-bill-do-other-than-being-completely-and-utterly-worthless

I told you...Trillions for war but none for you...

They are probably hoping you'll be dead by then...


Both parties mull raising retirement age

In a rare departure from this year's intense political posturing over the soaring budget deficit, House leaders of both parties recently signaled that they are prepared to tackle a leading long-term liability — Social Security — by raising the retirement age.

Politicians often talk in generalities about cutting the deficit, but discussing specifics about how Congress may curb the growth of the biggest and most popular programs such as Social Security and defense is controversial and usually taboo in an election year.

But lessons learned from the debt crisis in Europe and worries that the U.S. could soon confront its own debt crisis, with annual deficits projected at about $1 trillion for years to come, may have prompted the unusually frank comments by House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer, Maryland Democrat, and House Minority Leader John A. Boehner, Ohio Republican.

Speaking in unrelated forums, both leaders stressed that with people living longer and enjoying better health in their senior years, the nation simply can't afford any longer to be paying out benefits for as long as 30 years after retirement.

"We need to look at the American people and explain to them that we're broke," Mr. Boehner said in an interview last week with the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

Link:
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/jul/13/both-parties-mull-raising-retirement-age/

Guess which country we will attack next?

Venezuela oil 'may double Saudi Arabia'

A new US assessment of Venezuela's oil reserves could give the country double the supplies of Saudi Arabia.

Scientists working for the US Geological Survey say Venezuela's Orinoco belt region holds twice as much petroleum as previously thought.

The geologists estimate the area could yield more than 500bn barrels of crude oil.

This assessment is far more optimistic than even the best case scenario put forward by President Hugo Chavez.

The USGS team gave a mean estimate of 513bn barrels of "technically recoverable" oil in the Orinoco belt.

Chris Schenk of the USGS said the estimate was based on oil recovery rates of 40% to 45%.

Petroleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA), Venezuela's state oil company, has not commented on the news.

Link:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8476395.stm

Remember yesterday they said the food was safe?

Scientists Say Gulf Spill May Permanently Alter Food Chain

After various reports of dead and mutated animals, scientists have concluded damage will infiltrate the entire food chain.

Here's a rundown of the early ecological impact of all that oil, from the AP:

* Researches have documented a massive die-off of pyrosomes -- cucumber-shaped, gelatinous organisms fed on by endangered sea turtles.
* droplets of oil are being found inside the shells of young crabs that are a mainstay in the diet of fish, turtles and shorebirds.
* And at the base of the food web, tiny organisms that consume oil and gas are proliferating.

Link:
http://www.businessinsider.com/scientists-say-gulf-spill-may-permanently-alter-food-chain-2010-7

I'm sure they are working on it...

Remember this one?


Top Clinton Official: Only A Terror Attack Can Save Obama

A former senior advisor to President Bill Clinton says that the only thing which can rescue Barack Obama’s increasingly tenuous grip on power as his approval figures continue to plunge is a terror attack on the scale of Oklahoma City or 9/11, another startling reminder that such events only ever serve to benefit those in authority.

Buried in a Financial Times article about Obama’s “growing credibility crisis” and fears on behalf of Democrats that they could lose not only the White House but also the Senate to Republicans, Robert Shapiro makes it clear that Obama is relying on an October surprise in the form of a terror attack to rescue his presidency.

“The bottom line here is that Americans don’t believe in President Obama’s leadership,” said Shapiro, adding, “He has to find some way between now and November of demonstrating that he is a leader who can command confidence and, short of a 9/11 event or an Oklahoma City bombing, I can’t think of how he could do that.”

Shapiro’s veiled warning should not be dismissed lightly. He was undersecretary of commerce for economic affairs dung Clinton’s tenure in the Oval Office and also acted as principal economic adviser to Clinton in his 1991-1992 campaign. Shapiro is now Director of the Globalization Initiative of NDN and also Chair of the Climate Task Force. He is a prominent globalist who has attended numerous Bilderberg Group meetings over the past decade.

Shapiro is clearly communicating the necessity for a terror attack to be launched in order to give Obama the opportunity to unite the country around his agenda in the name of fighting terrorists, just as President Bush did in the aftermath of 9/11 when his approval ratings shot up from around 50% to well above 80%.

Link:
http://www.prisonplanet.com/top-clinton-official-only-a-terror-attack-can-save-obama.html

Bankster sweetheart deal...

Thanks Pete...

This says it all...

Daughter of Bilderberger says get used to the idea of not receiving your Social Security benefits that you have contributed to your whole life...

Mika Brzezinski: People Are Going to Have to 'Get Used To" the Idea of Having Their Social Security Gutted

Brzezinski: Because that’s the bottom line. And I do think we are learning. People are learning, they’re being forced to live without and I do think that this reset that we’re going through will ultimately perhaps open the door for a leader who says well we’ve reached that thing, but here’s the thing, you’re not going to have what you’re used to having and we’re going to have to cut some things, and they’re going to be things that you have been used to for decades and thought you would have for the rest of your life and you will not.

McKinnon: And it’s going to hurt.

Brzezinski: And it’s going to hurt. I don’t know. It’s much easier said than done.

McKinnon: We’ve got the example of Greece if we don’t.

Brzezinski: Exactly. That’s where we’re headed.

Link:
http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/node/38338

Education news...

Our Vision for Improving Public Education

At the AFT convention last week in Seattle, I outlined a vision to save public education. Our vision is:

* That every neighborhood school should be an excellent school that all families know they can count on, every year, for all of their children.
* To build on what works, and replicate it for all kids, in all schools, in all communities.
* Of schools where good teachers can work together to meet each child’s individual needs, where students develop their unique talents through a well-rounded curriculum, where all children have the support they need to reach their full potential.
* For teachers to get the necessary support to constantly improve, in an environment in which students have what they need to succeed.

That’s in sharp contract to the vision of what I call the blame the teacher” crowd, which has made some inroads among politicians and the mainstream media. Their proposed solutions inevitably come down to affixing blame – usually on teachers – rather than fixing schools. Their vision is:

* Constantly hiring tens of thousands of new teachers, leaving them to sink or swim, and then losing many of them within the first three years.
* Shutting down schools, firing all the teachers—particularly if they’re veterans—and relocating kids regardless of how it affects them or their neighborhoods.
* Constantly opening new charter schools with the hope that those that the minority of charter schools (see here and here) that succeed will somehow rub off on the many.

Link:
http://firedoglake.com/2010/07/13/our-vision-for-improving-public-education/

Another video: History related...

Restoration Of 'Star Spangled Banner' Uncovers Horrifying New Verses

The Boss on Seinfeld...

Song of the day: Steve Earle, again...considering the article is related to the video....

Court tosses FCC expletives policy inspired by Bono

NEW YORK — A federal appeals court on Tuesday tossed out a government policy that can lead to broadcasters being fined for allowing even a single curse word on live television, concluding that the rule was unconstitutionally vague and had a chilling effect on broadcasters.

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan struck down the 2004 Federal Communications Commission policy, which said that profanity referring to sex or excrement is always indecent.

"By prohibiting all 'patently offensive' references to sex, sexual organs and excretion without giving adequate guidance as to what 'patently offensive' means, the FCC effectively chills speech, because broadcasters have no way of knowing what the FCC will find offensive," the appeals court wrote.

"To place any discussion of these vast topics at the broadcaster's peril has the effect of promoting wide self-censorship of valuable material which should be completely protected under the First Amendment," it added.

The court said the FCC might be able to craft a policy that does not violate the First Amendment.

Link:
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/38227020/ns/today-entertainment/

Everything will be ok...Everything will be ok...

Historian warns of sudden collapse of American ‘empire’

Harvard professor and prolific author Niall Ferguson opened the 2010 Aspen Ideas Festival Monday with a stark warning about the increasing prospect of the American “empire” suddenly collapsing due to the country’s rising debt level.

“I think this is a problem that is going to go live really soon,” Ferguson said. “In that sense, I mean within the next two years. Because the whole thing, fiscally and other ways, is very near the edge of chaos. And we’ve seen already in Greece what happens when the bond market loses faith in your fiscal policy.”

Ferguson said empires — such as the former Soviet Union and the Roman empire — can collapse quite quickly and the tipping point is often when the cost of servicing an empire’s debt is larger than the cost of its defense budget.

“That has not been the case I think at any point in U.S. history,” Ferguson said. “It will be the case in the next five years.”

Ferguson was conscious of opening the Ideas Festival on such a stark note.

“Walter Isaacson, the leader of this great institution said, ‘Don’t be too dark!,’” Ferguson said.

The affable British scholar tried to keep it light. He used a stage whisper to tell the Aspen Institute audience, “I know you’re not comfortable with the word ‘empire,’ especially just after the Fourth of July, but you are the Redcoats now.”

He said the U.S. is now deeply in the red as a country because of a combination of the Great Recession, the resulting federal stimulus and financial bailout programs, two wars, the Bush tax cuts, and a growth in social entitlement programs.

And economic debt can lead to a sudden loss of military power and global respect, Ferguson said.

Link:
http://www.aspendailynews.com/print/141349

Get one of these for Sal....

Backlash grows vs. full-body scanners

Opposition to new full-body imaging machines to screen passengers and the government's deployment of them at most major airports is growing.

Many frequent fliers complain they're time-consuming or invade their privacy. The world's airlines say they shouldn't be used for primary security screening. And questions are being raised about possible effects on passengers' health.

"The system takes three to five times as long as walking through a metal detector," says Phil Bush of Atlanta, one of many fliers on USA TODAY's Road Warriors panel who oppose the machines. "This looks to be yet another disaster waiting to happen."

The machines — dubbed by some fliers as virtual strip searches — were installed at many airports in March after a Christmas Day airline bombing attempt. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has spent more than $80 million for about 500 machines, including 133 now at airports. It plans to install about 1,000 by the end of next year.

The machines are running into complaints and questions here and overseas:

•The International Air Transport Association, which represents 250 of the world's airlines, including major U.S. carriers, says the TSA lacks "a strategy and a vision" of how the machines fit into a comprehensive checkpoint security plan. "The TSA is putting the cart before the horse," association spokesman Steve Lott says.

•Security officials in Dubai said this month they wouldn't use the machines because they violate "personal privacy," and information about their "side effects" on health isn't known.

•Last month, the European Commission said in a report that "a rigorous scientific assessment" of potential health risks is needed before machines are deployed there. It also said screening methods besides the new machines should be used on pregnant women, babies, children and people with disabilities.

The U.S. Government Accountability Office said in October that the TSA was deploying the machines without fully testing them and assessing whether they could detect "threat items" concealed on various parts of the body. And in March, the office said it "remains unclear" whether they would have detected the explosives that police allege Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab tried to detonate on a jet bound for Detroit on Christmas.

Link:
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20100713/1abodyscans13_st.art.htm

Those terrorists are only trying to be helpful...

CNN Host Calls Deadly Terror Bombings “Helpful” To NWO Agenda

CNN host Rick Sanchez let slip a telling admission in response to the deadly bombings in Uganda during his show yesterday, the fact that such attacks are “helpful” for the military-industrial complex agenda to take over and occupy third world countries under AFRICOM, the United States African Command.

Speaking with a former CIA agent, Sanchez stated, “You know what’s interesting about this, in a strange way the event is helpful to the cause of those of us who know how sadistic these fundamental radical Islamic terrorists are and if it helps get the message out there that these are not the good guys then so be it”.

Sanchez is brazenly admitting that deadly terror attacks like the bombings in Uganda only aid the military-industrial complex agenda to take over and occupy third world countries. Given the fact that such attacks help the geopolitical agenda of the powers that control the United States, who has the strongest motivation to carry out the attacks?

We heard similar rhetoric back in 2008 when shocking excerpts of confidential recordings released under the Freedom of Information Act featured former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld talking with top military analysts about how a flagging Neo-Con political agenda could be successfully restored with the aid of another terrorist attack on America.

The tapes were released as part of the investigation into the Pentagon’s “message force multipliers” program in which top military analysts were hired to propagandize for the Iraq war in the corporate media.

Link:
http://www.prisonplanet.com/cnn-host-calls-deadly-terror-bombings-helpful-to-nwo-agenda.html

They're not stupid...

First Lady Encourages Americans to Vacation on Gulf – But Obamas Head to Maine Instead

The Obama family will be taking a mini-vacation of their own this weekend, but instead of going to the Gulf Coast they are traveling to Maine’s Mount Desert Island, home of Acadia National Park.

Link:
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2010/07/first-lady-says-americans-should-vacation-on-the-gulf-coast-to-help-local-economy.html

Did I post this already?

Vitamin D promotes memory and cognitive function in seniors

A lack of vitamin D has already been linked in several studies to depression. Now it appears a deficiency of this crucial nutrient could also play a role in robbing the brain of the ability to process information correctly and clearly.

Defined as a person's ability to process thoughts, cognitive function includes memory and the ability to learn new information, as well as speaking and reading comprehension. Aging is known to affect cognitive function in many people, resulting in memory loss and difficulty thinking of the right words while speaking or writing. But what if a lack of vitamin D could be the culprit that is causing or contributing to cognitive impairment in many elders -- and not simply aging by itself? If that's the case, it offers hope that adequate vitamin D could help keep minds agile and memory sharp.

Link:
http://www.naturalnews.com/029190_vitamin_D_brain_function.html

The Left is confused...

They just can't figure out why Obama is no different than Bush. I bet you thought liberals were smart? They can't put two and two together. Obama is nothing but a puppet of the global elite who put him in power. He cares not for you or me. His policies confuse the progressives because he is not a progressive. Some day folks will see the light.


Holding Ourselves Responsible for Electing Obama

Another cycle of conversation on the bitter disappointment that is the Obama presidency appears to be taking place once again among liberals or progressives. Writers for prominent progressive media like The Nation and leaders in prominent progressive organizations like Progressive Democrats of America (PDA) are expressing their discontent and offering suggestions to dismayed Americans who had hoped change would actually come from the Obama Administration.

Eric Alterman of The Nation published an article recently calling the Obama presidency "a big disappointment." Katrina vanden Heuvel, also of The Nation, suggested that people aren't just disappointed in Obama but really wonder where this country is headed. And, Norman Solomon, on the executive board of Progressive Democrats of America, recently told Real News' Paul Jay, "The Obama Administration is more and more moving towards policies that many who worked to elect Obama have worked to oppose in recent years."

Link:
http://www.opednews.com/articles/When-Will-We-Take-Responsi-by-Kevin-Gosztola-100712-597.html

Song of the day: The Jayhawks

Man-made global warming goes the way of Napoleon...

Global warming meets its Waterloo. Literally.

Uh-oh. A new peer-reviewed study authored by Dr. Qing-Bin Lu of Canada’s University of Waterloo, calls bullshit on the whole global warming scam.

Actually, the good doctor is more generous in his assessment of the scammers than we are. He says they were merely wrong.

The Financial Post has the red hot details:

Long-term global cooling began in 2002, according to a just-released study in the Journal of Cosmology, a peer-reviewed publication produced at Harvard-Smithsonian’s Center for Astrophysics. Man-made global warming was real and dangerous, the study finds, but the danger has passed.

The study, authored by Qing-Bin Lu, a rising star at the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Waterloo in Canada, explains why climate models have been so spectacularly wrong in trying to tie the global warming of the last half of the 20th century to CO2 — the climate modelers fingered the wrong culprit when they targeted CO2. The true culprits, Dr. Lu explains, were CFCs, the now banned substances that until the 1990s had been a refrigerant and propellant to products as diverse as air conditioners and hair spray cans.

Fortunately for the globe, environmentalists had CFCs banned because of their role in depleting the ozone layer, not realizing that the ban was simultaneously solving the global warming threat.

According to Dr. Lu, the phase-out of CFCs will be reversing the global warming effect by ushering in a 50 to 70-year period of global cooling.

Link:
http://www.ihatethemedia.com/global-warming-meets-its-waterloo

Israel investigates itself...

Gaza Flotilla Raid Report: Israeli Military Finds Flotilla Killings Justified

Flawed intelligence-gathering and planning led to Israel's botched and deadly raid on a Gaza-bound protest flotilla, with security forces underestimating the potential for violence, said the official report released Monday.

The report, however, praised the commandos who took part in the operation, saying they were justified in opening fire and killing nine after being confronted by violent pro-Palestinian activists on board one of the ships.

The report concluded that intelligence-gathering was deficient and that various intelligence units did not communicate properly with each other. It criticized the operation's planners for not having a backup plan in the event of violence.

It did not recommend any dismissals, though it is possible that some senior officers will be ousted or demoted in an ensuing shake-up.

Link:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/12/gaza-flotilla-raid-report_n_642808.html

What else is new?

Controlling the wealth of America – top 1 percent control 83 percent of U.S. stocks. As a share of personal income mortgage debt ate up 19 percent in 1949. In 2003 it went up to 85 percent. 80 percent of Americans 65 years and older depend on Social Security for half of their income.

Mayer Rothschild was quoted as saying “give me the power of the money and it will not matter any more who is commanding.” Today Wall Street is in full command of our government. The impact of massive lobbying has guaranteed that many of our politicians are bought off and are serving as serfs to their feudal lords on Wall Street. How else can we explain the lack of reform in the financial industry after the biggest economic crisis since the Great Depression? Wealth is massively concentrated in a few hands in America. Just because you have access to debt does not make you wealthy. 83 percent of all U.S. stocks are in the hands of the top 1 percent.

Let us look at the data:

See the data:
http://financemymoney.com/who-controls-wealth-in-america-top-1-percent-own-83-percent-of-stocks-housing-debt-eating-personal-income/

More local news...

East Haven Cop Shoots Dog in Front of Children

It was an idyllic afternoon in this quiet East Haven neighborhood. At Michael Dadio’s house on George Street, his girlfriend’s kids played in the back yard while his dad mowed the lawn.

Then the cops showed up.

They killed the family dog, tasered Michael Dadio Sr. and then arrested him — all because he didn’t show up to court on DUI charges. (Dadio Sr. was not available for comment.)

This overreaction by two East Haven police officers — in front of children — has upset neighbors on a street where many families own dogs.

“The way this happened was totally reckless,” says Dadio Jr. He says he went to the police to complain and was told, “It’s just a dog.”

Link:
http://newhavenadvocate.com/featured-news/east-haven-cop-shoots-dog-in-front-of-children-10

Ask them which team Lebron James signed with and how much jail time did Lindsay Lohan get and they would know...

Pretty sad...

Have another twinkie, babe...Sorry!

Teenage girls live on junk food

Teenage girls eat substantially worse than teenage boys and older women, according to the preliminary results of the United Kingdom's National Diet and Nutrition Survey.

The average teenage girl consumed 54 grams (1.9 ounces) of French fries or other fried potatoes per day, in comparison with only 40 grams per day among women between the ages of 19 and 65. Teenage girls consumed 14 grams of potato chips and other salty snacks each day, 22 grams of chocolate and candy, and 37 grams of cakes and cookies. In contrast, adult women consumed only 6 grams, 10 grams and 27 grams of these foods per day, respectively.

Teenage girls were getting an average of 13.1 percent of their daily calories from saturated fat, higher than both the percentage in boys (12.7 percent) and the recommended daily maximum (11 percent). When it came to sugar consumption, girls performed marginally better than boys but were still above the daily maximum, acquiring 15 percent of their daily calories from sugar.

Link:
http://www.naturalnews.com/029184_teenagers_junk_food.html