"Out of every dollar that funds Wisconsin’ s pension and health insurance plans for state workers, 100 cents comes from the state workers."

The Wisconsin Lie Exposed – Taxpayers Actually Contribute Nothing To Public Employee Pensions

Pulitzer Prize winning tax reporter, David Cay Johnston, has written a brilliant piece for tax.com exposing the truth about who really pays for the pension and benefits for public employees in Wisconsin.

Gov. Scott Walker says he wants state workers covered by collective bargaining agreements to “contribute more” to their pension and health insurance plans. Accepting Gov. Walker’ s assertions as fact, and failing to check, creates the impression that somehow the workers are getting something extra, a gift from taxpayers. They are not. Out of every dollar that funds Wisconsin’ s pension and health insurance plans for state workers, 100 cents comes from the state workers.

Via tax.com

How can this be possible?

Simple. The pension plan is the direct result of deferred compensation- money that employees would have been paid as cash salary but choose, instead, to have placed in the state operated pension fund where the money can be professionally invested (at a lower cost of management) for the future.

Many of us are familiar with the concept of deferred compensation from reading about the latest multi-million dollar deal with some professional athlete. As a means of allowing their ball club to have enough money to operate, lowering their own tax obligations and for other benefits, ball players often defer payment of money they are to be paid to a later date. In the meantime, that money is invested for the ball player’s benefit and then paid over at the time and in the manner agreed to in the contract between the parties.

Does anyone believe that, in the case of the ball player, the deferred money belongs to the club owner rather than the ball player? Is the owner simply providing this money to the athlete as some sort of gift? Of course not. The money is salary to be paid to the ball player, deferred for receipt at a later date.

A review of the state’s collective bargaining agreements – many of which are available for review at the Wisconsin Office of State Employees web site - bears out that it is no different for state employees. The numbers are just lower.

Check out section 13 of the Wisconsin Association of State Prosecutors collective bargaining agreement – “For the duration of this Agreement, the Employer will contribute on behalf of the employee five percent (5%) of the employee’s earnings paid by the State. ”

Johnston goes on to point out that Governor Walker has gotten away with this false narrative because journalists have failed to look closely at how employee pension plans work and have simply accepted the Governor’s word for it. Because of this, those who wish the unions ill have been able to seize on that narrative to score points by running ads and spreading the word that state employees pay next to nothing for their pensions and that it is all a big taxpayer give-away.

If it is true that pension and benefit money is money that already belongs to state workers, you might ask why state employees would not just take the cash as direct compensation and do their own investing for their retirement through their own individual retirement plans.

Again, simple.

Mr. Johnston continues-

Expecting individuals to be experts at investing their retirement money in defined contribution plans — instead of pooling the money so professional investors can manage the money as is done in defined benefit plans — is not sound economics. The concept, at its most basic, is buying wholesale instead of retail. Wholesale is cheaper for the buyers. That is, it saves taxpayers money. The Wisconsin State Investment Board manages about $74.5 billion for an all-in cost of $224 million. That is a cost of about 30-cents per $100, which is good but not great. However it is far less than many defined contribution plans, where costs are often $1 or more per $100.”

If the Wisconsin governor and state legislature were to be honest, they would correctly frame this issue. They are not, in fact, asking state employees to make a larger contribution to their pension and benefits programs as that would not be possible- the employees are already paying 100% of the contributions.

What they are actually asking is that the employees take a pay cut...

Read more:
http://blogs.forbes.com/rickungar/2011/02/25/the-wisconsin-lie-exposed-taxpayers-actually-contribute-nothing-to-public-employee-pensions/

Homeland Security can screen your DNA...

Genetic Patdown
by Katie Drummond

Link to article:
http://www.thedaily.com/page/2011/02/26/news-tsa-scanner-1-2/

The good jobs have been eliminated by union busting or sent overseas. But that was the plan all along...

Someday, you might move up to making fries...

A U.S. recovery built on low-paying jobs

While the unemployment rate dropped to 9 percent in January, from a two-decade peak of 10.1 percent in October 2009, many of the jobs people are now taking don't match the pay, the hours, or the benefits of the 8.75 million positions that vanished in the recession, according to Paul Ashworth, chief U.S. economist at Capital Economics in Toronto.

This may restrain wage and salary growth, limiting gains in consumer spending, which accounts for 70 percent of the U.S. economy. The good jobs that would trigger a solid boost in spending just don't seem to be there.

"In the last recovery we were adding management jobs at this point, and this time it's disappointing," says Ashworth, who published a report on Jan. 27 about pre- and post-slump employment based on U.S. Labor Dept. data. "The very best jobs, we're still losing those."

Projections from the Bureau of Labor Statistics reinforce his pessimism. While the number of openings for food preparation and serving workers will grow by 394,000 in the decade ending in 2018, the average wage is only $16,430 including tips, based on 2008 data. Meanwhile, the number of posts for financial examiners, who work at financial-services firms to ensure regulatory compliance, will expand by just 11,100. The average pay for examiners is $70,930.

Read more:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41781471/ns/business-bloomberg_businessweek/

" 17. Firemen, emergency medical workers, police officers, city officials, WTC employees and TV and print journalists reported explosions going off in the towers and WTC 7."

PAUL BALLES : 9/11 is revisited

The official story about 9/11 is rejected by growing numbers of professors, physicists, architects, engineers, pilots, former military officers and former intelligence officials. — David Griffin

Here I have summarised his 21 points that challenge the official stories:

1. The official story has Osama Bin Laden behind the attacks. However, the FBI “has no hard evidence connecting him to 9/11″

2. Alleged hijackers who regularly drank heavily, went to strip clubs, and paid for sex could hardly be devout Muslims

3. Claims that passengers on airlines made mobile phone calls to relatives has been contradicted by the FBI

4. The FBI also contradicted Ted Olson’s claim that his wife phoned him twice from American Airlines flight 77

5. Reported evidence for Muslim hijackers shows clear signs of having been fabricated

6. The story that incriminating evidence was found in alleged hijacker Mohammed Atta’s luggage was a revision of the original story

7. Planes showing signs of in-flight emergencies are normally intercepted within about 10 minutes. The military’s failure implies something prevented this standard procedure

8. Then Vice-President Dick Cheney, while in the bunker under the White House, apparently confirmed a stand-down order prior to the strike on the Pentagon

9. The 9/11 Commission removed a report from video records of its hearings about when he entered the shelter conference room

10. The commission’s timeline for Cheney contradicts what he told “Meet the Press”

11. Hani Hanjour, who could not safely fly even a single-engine plane, could not possibly have executed the trajectory reportedly taken by American Flight 77 hitting Wedge 1 of the Pentagon

12. Wedge 1 would have been the least likely part of the Pentagon to be targeted by foreign terrorists

13. Claims by Pentagon officials that they did not have the premises evacuated because they had no way of knowing an aircraft was approaching it were false

14. Why would the Secret Service allow President Bush to remain in a Florida classroom for 30 minutes after news of attack?

15. On the first anniversary of 9/11, the White House started lying about Bush immediately leaving the classroom

16. The official explanation of the destruction of the Twin Towers and WTC 7 (a nearby building that also collapsed) contradicts all prior history: steel-frame high-rise buildings have never collapsed except when brought down by controlled demolition.

17. Firemen, emergency medical workers, police officers, city officials, WTC employees and TV and print journalists reported explosions going off in the towers and WTC 7.

18. The destruction of the towers can only be explained in terms of powerful explosives. The fires could not have come within 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit needed to melt steel.

19. Then New York mayor Rudy Guliani allegedly falsified stories about knowing the WTC buildings were going to collapse. His fire chiefs didn’t expect them to come down.

20. The National Institute of Standards and Technology has repeatedly postponed its report into the collapse of WTC 7.

21. The official story about 9/11 is rejected by growing numbers of professors, physicists, architects, engineers, pilots, former military officers and former intelligence officials.

Read more:
http://mycatbirdseat.com/2011/02/paul-balles-911-is-revisited/

A joke for you...

I was in the restaurant yesterday when I suddenly realized I desperately needed to pass gas The music was really, really loud, so I timed my gas with the beat of the music.

After a couple of songs, I started to feel better. I finished my coffee, and noticed that everybody was staring at me....

Then I suddenly remembered that I was listening to my iPod.

Some tips to fight the oncoming food inflation crisis...

14 Ways to Save Money on Groceries
by Joseph Mercola

Yahoo Shine offers some advice on how to save money at the market with tips from Rebecca DiLiberto's Penny Saving Household Helper. Here are a few:

* Try lining your refrigerator's crisper drawer with paper towels; they'll absorb excess moisture and keep your vegetables from rotting
* A bay leaf in a container of flour, pasta, or rice will repel bugs
* Bananas spoil less quickly in a bunch – keep them together until you eat them
* To make cottage cheese or sour cream last longer, turn the container upside down – this creates a vacuum that inhibits the growth of bacteria
* If you're unsure of an egg's freshness, put it in a cup of water; fresh eggs sink, while bad ones float

To read the rest of the tips, you can click on the link below.

Sources: Yahoo Shine February 9, 2011

Dr. Mercola's Comments:

Becoming a savvy grocery shopper is a skill well worth learning, as you will need to invest some high-quality time shopping for, and preparing, your food if you want to stay healthy.

You may be tempted to "save money" on food using the dollar menu at your local fast-food restaurant, but this will cost you dearly in the long-run as the food is virtually guaranteed to:

* Zap your energy
* Sour your mood
* Ultimately cause weight gain and disease

Grocery shopping takes more time and effort, true. But it's also the only way you'll have control over what types of food you feed your family. Learning to be a savvy food shopper is not only about the price tag (looking for freshness and food quality are also important), but, that being said, the more you can keep your grocery bill down, the better.
Money-Saving Grocery Tips

Rebecca DiLiberto shares some great tips in the Yahoo Shine article above. Among those not listed above:

* Store fresh herbs (washed and sealed in plastic bags) in your freezer. They'll stay fresh for a month and defrost instantly when you want to use them for cooking.
* Make limp celery, carrots and radishes crunchy again by placing them in a bowl of ice water with a slice of raw potato.
* Spread butter on the cut side of hard cheeses to keep them from drying out in the fridge.
* Put rice in your salt shaker to absorb condensation and keep salt from hardening.
* Store your butter in the freezer; it will keep fresh for up to six months.

What you'll notice is that many of these tips involve ways to keep your foods fresher, longer, to avoid food waste.

Americans waste an estimated 1,400 calories of food per person, each and every day, according to a study published in the journal PloS One. These wasted calories represent not only 39 percent of the available U.S. food supply, but also account for approximately 300 million barrels of oil annually, with all of the environmental implications that go along with fossil fuel consumption.

Of course, wasted food equals wasted resources of all kinds, including the hard-earned money you spend on groceries that never actually reach your plate.

If you're eating healthy, fresh produce and other foods that spoil easily will be a large part of your diet. So part of being a savvy grocery shopper is knowing how to properly store your fresh foods so you actually get the chance to eat them before they spoil...

Read more:
http://www.lewrockwell.com/mercola/mercola100.html

"It is clear that there has been a sustained move in the direction of martial law preparations, a trend that has been as continuous as it has been unheralded."

War, Martial Law, and the Economic Crisis
by Peter Dale Scott

The Intensive Quiet Preparations for Martial Law

Let us deal first with the preparations for martial law. In late September 2008, at the height of the financial meltdown, The Army Times announced the redeployment of an active Brigade Army Team from Iraq to America, in a new mission that "may become a permanent part of the active Army":

The 3rd Infantry Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team has spent 35 of the last 60 months in Iraq patrolling in full battle rattle, helping restore essential services and escorting supply convoys.

Now they’re training for the same mission – with a twist – at home.

Beginning Oct. 1 for 12 months, the 1st BCT will be under the day-to-day control of U.S. Army North, the Army service component of Northern Command, as an on-call federal response force for natural or manmade emergencies and disasters, including terrorist attacks… After 1st BCT finishes its dwell-time mission, expectations are that another, as yet unnamed, active-duty brigade will take over and that the mission will be a permanent one... They may be called upon to help with civil unrest and crowd control.

This announcement followed by two weeks the talk of civil unrest and martial law that was used to panic the Congress into passing Paulson’s bailout legislation. Not only that, the two unprecedented events mirror each other: the bailout debate anticipated civil unrest and martial law, while the announced positioning of an active Brigade Combat Team on U.S. soil anticipated civil unrest (such as might result from the bailout legislation).

Then on December 17, 2008, U.S. Northern Command chief General Renuart announced that "the US military plans to mobilize thousands of troops to protect Washington against potential terrorist attack during the inauguration of president-elect Barack Obama."

The U.S. Army War College also raised the possibility of the U.S. Army being used to control civil unrest, according to the Phoenix Business Journal:

A new report by the U.S. Army War College talks about the possibility of Pentagon resources and troops being used should the economic crisis lead to civil unrest, such as protests against businesses and government or runs on beleaguered banks.

"Widespread civil violence inside the United States would force the defense establishment to reorient priorities in extremis to defend basic domestic order and human security," said the War College report.

The study says economic collapse, terrorism and loss of legal order are among possible domestic shocks that might require military action within the U.S.

It is clear that there has been a sustained move in the direction of martial law preparations, a trend that has been as continuous as it has been unheralded. Senator Leahy was thus right to draw our attention to it on September 29, 2006, in his objections to the final form of the Fiscal Year 2007 National Defense Authorization Act, which gave the president increased power to call up the National Guard for law enforcement:

It... should concern us all that the Conference agreement includes language that subverts solid, longstanding Posse Comitatus statutes that limit the military’s involvement in law enforcement, thereby making it easier for the President to declare martial law. There is good reason for the constructive friction in existing law when it comes to martial law declarations.

This quiet agglomeration of military power has not "just growed", like Topsy, through inadvertence. It shows sustained intention, even if no one has made a public case for it.

Link:
http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig11/scott-pd8.1.1.html

A perfect place for the song of the day: Creedence Clearwater Revival...

A Bad Moon on the Rise. . .
by Eric Peters

There’s a bad moon on the rise – in the form of upward creeping gas prices.

Unleaded regular is surging toward $4 per gallon again – the same highs that preceded – and which arguably triggered – the current economic catatonia. If it happens again, though, the effects are probably going to be even worse. A man on his feet can usually take a sucker punch, or at least recover from it. But if he’s already on the ground and you kick him in the head, he’s done-for.

$4 per gallon gas could do exactly that to the U.S. economy – what’s left of it.

This time, unlike last time, unemployment is already nearly 10 percent (closer to 20 percent, if you go by the old way of measuring that includes people who’ve stopped even trying to find work).

This time, unlike last time, our “too big to fail” industries – including the car companies – have already failed once and it’s doubtful the government (excuse me, the Fed) can print more funny money bailout bucks without triggering either a currency devaluation or runaway inflation, maybe both.

$4 per gallon gas is going to mean a lot more than just paying an extra $15 to fill-up the car. It will mean everything is going to get proportionately more expensive, from the food on your plate to the stuff down at the mall. The tag-team of rising fuel costs and increasingly worth-less Federal Reserve Notes could seal the deal this time.

People who weathered the first crisis don’t have the reserves built up to handle Round Two.

Frosting their already precarious balance sheet with another $100 per month – just for gas, not counting higher prices for everything else, too – will push many of them over the edge.

Expect unemployment to crest 10 percent – “officially” – and possibly 20 percent in the real word.

Ford is okay right now – and GM at least has a pulse. But neither can survive a repeat of the crisis of 2008, which was sparked by $4 per gallon fuel, which in turn caused millions of people to say sayonara to their V-8 SUVs, formerly the golden calf of the U.S. car industry.

The industry has come about, ditched SUVs as their profit center and worked feverishly to bring forth new economy cars and also next generation hybrids and even electric cars. But the fly in the pie is that unemployed people – or people fearful of becoming unemployed – do not buy new cars anymore than they buy new houses or new anything. If 10–20 percent of the American public is out of the game already – and the next 10–20 percent is sweating bullets about their financial situation and wondering whether they’ll still have a job next month – imagine what that’s going to do to new car sales. And what that will do to the car industry.

And what that will do to the economy.

Think about the millions of suburban communities with houses whose value has already deflated by 20–30 percent, in part because people stopped buying houses an hour’s commute from their jobs. These communities – and 1-hour commutes – were viable when it only cost $30 to fill up. But when your monthly fuel bill becomes a second mortgage and you’re also paying 10–20 percent more for everything from food to utilities, a condo in the city seems a lot more appealing.

Wave goodbye to the ‘burbs. To quote Don Corleone: They are going to sleep with the fishes.

Bottom line – I doubt the country can take $4 gas. It almost dropped the curtain last time – and last time, we had jobs, equity in our homes and 401ks, things to fall back on. Now, we’re facing a repeat with our backs already up against the wall. There’s nowhere to go and no help in sight.

If you haven’t taken some steps to prepare for what’s coming, understand that time is short.

Batten down the hatches. It could be about to get rough.

Link:
http://www.lewrockwell.com/peters-e/peters-e23.1.html

The cell door is being left open, on purpose...

Politicians Slash Budget of Watchdog Agencies ... Guaranteeing that Financial Fraud Won't Be Investigated or Prosecuted

As I noted last year, you can tell how interested Congress and the White House are in uncovering the truth by looking at how much money is actually budgeted for investigation:

The government spent $175 million investigating the Challenger space shuttle disaster.
It spent $152 million on the the Columbia disaster investigation.

It spent $30 million investigating the Monica Lewinsky scandal.

The government only authorized $15 million for the 9/11 Commission.

And how much has the government authorized for the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission? You know, the commission charged with getting to the bottom of what caused the financial crisis?

Just $8 million.

These figures don't account for inflation. For example, the Challenger investigation cost over $300 million in today's dollars.

You can tell alot about the questions which the government is truly interested in finding answers to by the amount of money it authorizes for the various investigations.

The lack of any real interest in uncovering - let alone prosecuting - financial fraud is again on display.

Read more:
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2011/02/dc-politicians-deal-with-financial.html

They openly discuss the transition into the New World Order...

They don't get it do they? The bimbo commentator has no clue. They both act as if this is all a coincidence. The solution? More global governance and a global currency according to the guest. It is all part of the plan, folks...

Greenback Armageddon Ahead?

More war!!! There's money to be made...

"War uber alles": The Pentagon Needs Some More Wars
by Paul Craig Roberts

The United States government cannot get enough of war. With Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi’s regime falling to a rebelling population, CNN reports that a Pentagon spokesman said that the U.S. is looking at all options from the military side.

Allegedly, the Pentagon, which is responsible for one million dead Iraqis and an unknown number of dead Afghans and Pakistanis, is concerned about the deaths of 1,000 Libyan protesters.

While the Pentagon tries to figure out how to get involved in the Libyan revolt, the commander of U.S. forces in the Pacific is developing new battle plans to take on China in her home territory. Four-star Admiral Robert Willard thinks the U.S. should be able to whip China in its own coastal waters.

The admiral thinks one way to do this is to add U.S. Marines to his force structure so that the U.S. can eject Chinese forces from disputed islands in the East and South China seas.

It is not the U.S. who is disputing the islands, but if there is a chance for war anywhere, the admiral wants to make sure we are not left out.

The admiral also hopes to develop military ties with India and add that country to his clout. India, the admiral says, “is a natural partner of the United States” and “is crucial to America’s 21st-century strategy of balancing China.” The U.S. is going to seduce the Indians by selling them advanced aircraft.

If the plan works out, we will have India in NATO helping us to occupy Pakistan and presenting China with the possibility of a two-front war.

The Pentagon needs some more wars so there can be some more “reconstruction.”

Reconstruction is very lucrative, especially as Washington has privatized so many of the projects, thus turning over to well-placed friends many opportunities to loot. Considering all the money that has been spent, one searches hard to find completed projects. The just released report from the Commission on Wartime Contracting can’t say exactly how much of the $200,000 million in Afghan “reconstruction” disappeared in criminal behavior and blatant corruption, but $12,000 million alone was lost to “overt fraud.”

War makes money for the politically connected. While the flag-waving population remains proud of the service of their sons, brothers, husbands, fathers, cousins, wives, mothers and daughters, the smart boys who got the fireworks started are rolling in the mega-millions.

As General Smedley Butler told the jingoistic American population, to no avail, “war is a racket.” As long as the American population remains proud that their relatives serve as cannon fodder for the military/security complex, war will remain a racket.

Link:
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=23394

"...the puppeteers behind the US government, in order to facilitate a move into a new world currency are considering, or may have already begun moving forward with, a plan to confiscate gold and silver from the American public."

Insider Report: US Government Will Confiscate Gold When It Touches $2000

It’s no secret that the US government is broke, the US dollar is crashing and losing credibility globally, and the IMF, China, France and others have publicly stated their desire to eliminate the dollar as the world’s primary reserve currency. The IMF, for example, recently issued a call to replace the Federal Reserve’s fiat paper, ironically suggesting that it should be replaced with yet another synthetic instrument known as the SDR, or Special Drawing Right. The SDR is essentially a monetary unit made up of a basket of other global monetary units that include the euro, Japanese yen, pound sterling, and U.S. dollar. Incidentally, prior to the collapse of the Bretton Woods gold-backed US dollar monetary system in 1973, the SDR was actually ‘backed by gold,’ with one SDR being worth roughly 0.88 grams of gold, or at the time, $1 US dollar.

It’s been suggested that a new SDR, which would likely include the Chinese Yuan within the basket, may also require some non-synthetic units of exchange such as gold.

We’ve learned from well known metals analyst and commentator Roger Wiegand, in an email to silver analyst David Morgan which was subsequently published in Morgan’s latest Silver Investor newsletter available only to subscribers, that several of Wiegand’s high level inside sources have reported that the puppeteers behind the US government, in order to facilitate a move into a new world currency are considering, or may have already begun moving forward with, a plan to confiscate gold and silver from the American public.

The following “Red Alert” was sent by Wiegand to other precious metals experts and analysts and is republished verbatim:

via Sherri Questioning All:

Editor: There is a plan to use the IMF (AKA US Treasury and Wall Street) to be the front man for the new world order and one currency.We also got disturbing news yesterday from an impeccable source that when gold touches $2,000 it’s confiscated in the USAfor about $200. Then it’s to be reissued by the Treasury for $10,000 per ounce to back the new IMF world currency using SDRS in 2011. Large physical gold is being moved to Canada.

We’ve previously commented on the possibility of gold confiscation and other steps that may be taken by our financier controlled government in the event that gold does reach certain thresholds. Reaching these new thresholds, for example $2000 or $5000 per ounce, would suggest that the US dollar has likely crashed or begun a final collapse into oblivion, at which point, all credibility for this unit of exchange will have been lost in the eyes of the rest of the world.

Will this lead to confiscation? Even David Morgan himself, in a recent Youtube interview, suggested that confiscation in the traditional sense was “ridiculous” and an argument that he doesn’t buy.

Confiscation, however, may happen in other forms, as has been suggested by trend forecaster Gerald Celente and precious metals expert Jerry Western.

Celente, who has been forecasting $2000 gold for years, says that governments will intervene if the price gets too high:

We are projecting gold to go to $2000. It can go way higher, but we think that’s going to be the limit because the world governments will do something to push the price down.

The free market will certainly value gold appropriately over the long-term, but in the short-term we cannot underestimate the power of interested banking conglomerates and their marionettes within the halls of Congress and the White House to force the price of gold to whatever value they choose through the use of price controls, much like governments have attempted to do with things like rents and food in various parts of the world throughout history. In the case of Mr. Wiegand’s red alert email, it could be as low as $200 per ounce.

In his timely book Got Gold? Get Gold! covering everything you ever needed to know about precious metals, author Jerry Western writes:

So, will it happen again? I’d have to say overtly, probably not. Never say never, but I believe that covertly it has already begun.

Mr. Western suggests that, while the government will not overtly confiscate, as they did in 1933 when the US dollar was backed by gold, there are other ways that the financial powers that be, who essentially own our government, will strip the people of their precious metals.

…there’s the matter of gold and silver Exchange Traded Funds. Many of these funds, including the largest, are thought by many informed individuals, not to hold the metal they are purported to. At some point, if they don’t have the metal, they will default on their obligations to shareholders. Those shareholders who thought they owned gold will not…They will have had their gold taken from them. Confiscated.

The two largest gold and silver ‘backed’ commodity ETFs currently have a total of nearly $70 billion in market capitalization. If the gold and silver aren’t there, as the fund managers claim, then if and when investors start requesting delivery of the physical metals, the funds will crash in the style of Ponzi and the paper representing their physical holdings will become worthless.

The other real possibility will be confiscation through taxes, writes Western:

The final implementation of confiscation will probably be in the form of confiscatory taxes. If taxes rise to 90% on any profit I must report, then it will be discouraging and not worth the effort to hold the metal.

With the passage of President Obama’s health care bill, the American people found out, after the fact as usual, of the new 1099 requirements which will force gold/silver merchants to declare all precious metals transactions over $600. Thus, the mechanism for tracking and taxing even small cash transactions has already been put into place.

We cannot, however, dismiss outright the suggestion that precious metals will be physically confiscated from the people. The reasoning behind the 1933 confiscation and ban on owning gold until the mid 1970′s was primarily because the US dollar was backed by gold. One US dollar represented a specific amount of gold, 0.888 grams in fact. Today, no such backing exists, and gold has been called a relic of the past by modern day monetary experts.

However, if the IMF gets its wish, and it very well may if the US dollar’s long term plunge continues unabated, then gold will become a part of the new world reserve currency unit, currently being referred to as the SDR.

If the United States is to retain a portion of that SDR basket, we will not be able to do it with our current monetary unit, the Federal Reserve Note, and a new currency domestically would be required. Sure, it may still be called the dollar, but it will likely need to be pegged to some physical asset, at least in part, for it to have any credibility globally and within the SDR basket. This means that the government is going to need to get its hands on some gold. There are supposed to be tons of it in Fort Knox, but we really don’t know because no accounting of those assets have been done for some 50 years. In the event we don’t have as much gold as the Federal Reserve says we do, then those precious metals are going to need to come from somewhere.

For this reason, we can’t dismiss the idea that confiscation may become reality.

So, if you’ve taken our past advice and hold physical precious metals, we recommend looking into some creative ways of making sure they don’t exist if someone ever comes knocking.

Link:
http://www.shtfplan.com/precious-metals/insider-report-us-government-will-confiscate-gold-when-it-touches-2000_02182011

Geithner: "I've never had a real job". No shit?

He did work for his globalist puppet master though...

Over 1,500 dead for a lie...

US military pulls out of key eastern Afghan valley

The US military has begun pulling soldiers out of the Pech valley in eastern Afghanistan, a location once said to be vital to the war effort in the region, the Pentagon said Friday...

During the 1979-1989 Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, the Pech valley, located near the border with Pakistan, was the scene of some of the fiercest fighting between the Afghan resistance and Soviet soldiers.

The Soviets pulled out of the valley in 1988, and many Afghans saw it as a key turning moment in the war, the Times said. Within six months the mujahedeen resistance groups had taken the valley from the Soviet-supported Afghan army.

Nearly 1,500 US troops have died in Afghanistan in the longest US war, launched in 2001 to root out Al-Qaeda extremists responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States.

Link:
http://www.activistpost.com/2011/02/us-military-pulls-out-of-key-eastern.html

"They've got you by the balls..."

A sad day for America...

Obama signs temporary extension of Patriot Act

President Barack Obama has signed a three-month extension of key surveillance provisions of the Patriot Act.

The law extends two areas of the 2001 act. One provision allows law enforcement officials to set roving wiretaps to monitor multiple communication devices. The other allows them to ask a special court for access to business and library records that could be relevant to a terrorist threat.

A third provision gives the FBI court-approved rights for surveillance of non-American "lone wolf" suspects - those not known to be tied to specific terrorist groups.

Obama signed the three-month extension of the provisions Friday. They were to expire Monday.

Lawmakers will soon start debating a multiple-year extension of the provisions, which have drawn fire from defenders of privacy rights.

Link:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/25/AR2011022505562.html

A history of union busting in America...

Union Busting in America
by Stephen Lendman

It dates from America's 19th century industrial expansion when workers moved away from farms to factories, mines, and other urban environments, with harsh working conditions, low pay, and other exploitive abuses. As a result, labor movements emerged, organizing workers to lobby for better rights and safer conditions, pitting them against corporate bosses yielding nothing without a fight.

During unionism's formative years, workers were terrorized for organizing. In company-owned towns, they were thrown out of homes, beaten, shot, and hanged to leave management empowered.

The 1892 Homestead Steel Works strike culminated in a violent battle between Pinkerton agents and workers. As a result, seven were killed, dozens wounded, and, at the behest of Andrew Carnegie, owner of Carnegie Steel, Governor Robert Pattison sent National Guard troops to evict workers from company homes, make arrests, and help CEO Henry Clay Frick's union busting strategy. It worked, preventing organizing of the Works for the next 40 years.

The Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions chose May 1, 1886 as the date for an eight-hour work day to become standard. As the date approached, unions across America prepared to strike. On May 1, national rallies were held, involving up to 500,000 workers.

On May 4, the landmark Haymarket Square riot protested police violence against strikers the previous day. Someone threw a bomb. Police opened fire. Deaths resulted. Seven so-called anarchists were convicted of murder. Four were executed.

Radicalized by the incident, Emma Goldman became a powerful social justice voice through writing, lecturing, being imprisoned for her activism, and finally emigrating to Russia after its revolution, then elsewhere in Europe. After her death, she was buried in Chicago near the graves of the Haymarket radicals she supported.

Led by American Railway Union's Eugene Debs, the 1894 Pullman strike was the first national one, involving 250,000 workers in 27 states and territories. America's entire rail labor force struck, paralyzing the nation's railway system. At the time, The New York Times called it "a struggle between the greatest and most important labor organization and the entire railroad capital."

At issue were unfair labor practices, including long hours, low pay, poor working conditions, and little sympathy from owner George Pullman. On his behalf, President Grover Cleveland sent federal troops. Hundreds of others were given police powers. At the time, unionists were seen threatening US prosperity.

The strike was broken, killing 13, wounding dozens and resulting in Debs' arrest, trial, conviction for violating a court injunction, and imprisonment for six months. Radicalized by the experience, he became America's leading socialist figure when released, later running five times for president, in 1920 while again in prison for opposing US involvement in WW I.

Founded in 1905, the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW or Wobblies) had 100,000 members at its peak in the 1920s. Led by Big Bill Haywood, Eugene Debs, and others, it was committed to help workers against abusive management practices. It's motto was "an injury to one is an injury to all." It's goal was revolutionary, saying in its Constitution:

"The working class and the employing class have nothing in common. There can be no peace so long as hunger and want are found among millions of the working people. (The) struggle must go on until the workers of the world organize as a class, take possession of the means of production, abolish the (unfair) wage system, and live in harmony with the Earth....It is the mission of the working class to do away with capitalism (for) a new society within the shell of the old."

As a result, corporate bosses and Washington sought to crush it. In 1917, the Wilson administration used the Espionage and Sedition Act to raid and disrupt union meetings across the country, arresting hundreds on the grounds that they hindered the war effort by opposing it. In 1918, they were tried, convicted and given long sentences, except Haywood. Released on bail after conviction, he fled to Russia where he remained.

From 1918 - 21, the infamous Palmer Raids ravaged the union further during the time of the first Red Scare, effectively busting it, though it's still around, a shadow of its former self. Visit its web site at iww.org to follow their latest activities, including comments on class warfare in Wisconsin.

In the early 20th century, Colorado labor wars raged, notably pitting mine bosses, National Guard troops, and strikebreakers against workers. In his People's History of the United States, Howard Zinn wrote poignantly about the 1913-14 Ludlow, CO coal strike and subsequent massacre, killing 75 or more strikers, strikebreakers, and bystanders for defying what he called "fuedal kingdoms run by (coal barons that) made the laws," imposed curfews, and ran their operations more like despots than businessmen.

Other Union Busting Efforts

During the 1902 coal strike, 14 miners were killed and 22 injured in Pana, IL. In 1904, a Dunnville, CO battle between state militia forces and workers left six dead, others injured, 15 arrested, and 79 exiled to Kansas.

During the 1909 New York shirtwaist strike, female garment workers were arrested, a judge telling them, "You are on strike against God." In March 1911, a fire at New York's Triangle Shirtwaist factory killed 46, mostly women and young girls working in sweatshop conditions. They still exist today...

Read more:
http://www.uruknet.info/?new=75323

Wall Street pay up again. Thanks, American taxpayers...

Thanks, America...

4.5 Million Orphans in Iraq: Protests Over Food and Shelter

Fadel Mohammad Ra'ad, 10, is one of thousands of children who have lost their parents to the endless violence that has been gripping Iraq since the 2003 US-led invasion.

"My parents were killed in an explosion at the center of Baghdad last year, leaving me and my sister to no one," the kid told IslamOnline.net in a Baghdad orphanage.

"I have relatives but all of them have refused to take us in," he added choking at the memory.

"We were forced to work to survive."

Children, like many other civilians, are the silent victims of violence in war-torn Iraq.

"Violence in Iraq has vast characteristics. Sectarian violence, resistance against US troops, traditional behaviors and the fight against the hungry," explains Haydar Hassan Kareem, a sociologist.

The Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs estimate that around 4,5 million children are orphans. Nearly 70 percent of them lost their parents since the invasion and the ensuing violence.

From the total number, around 600,000 children are living in the streets without a house or food to survive.

Only 700 children are living in the 18 orphanages existing in the country, lacking their most essential needs.

"Unfortunately the budget allocated to projects that help street children and orphans is decreasing day in and day out," notes an Iraqi Red Crescent employee refusing to give his name.

"Worse still, almost no NGO is dedicating itself to this group of kids who are subject to trafficking and sexual abuses in the streets."

Abused

Hamed Abdel-Sattar, 9, has to spend hours at the streets moving from one traffic light to another trying to make a living for him and his 7-year-old sister.

"My father was killed during the invasion and my mother seven months later in a suicide attack," he said.

"We don't know where our relatives are and had to steel to get enough money to buy candies and sell them today," he added.

"I know what I did is wrong but we had to eat. I think that God will forgive me," reasons the nine-year-old.

"Sometimes I cry alone and don't eat to leave it for my sister but one day I will be rich and will help all orphans in Iraq."

Living together at an abandoned shop on the outskirts of Baghdad, Abdel-Sattar says he was once sexual abused while trying to prevent his sister from being raped.

"They took me because I helped her to escape," he says, closing his eyes to the ugly memory.

Read more:
http://uruknet.com/?p=m75324&hd=&size=1&l=e

"In a few short years, the American people will suffer like the factory workers of China’s sprawling electronics factories and Vietnam’s garment shops run by Nike and Adidas."

Bankster Economist Heralds Third World Hellholes

Kurt Nimmo

The banksters are making it known. You’re going to be a pauper. The mega-bank Citigroup has trotted out its prime economist to send the message.

“China should overtake the US to become the largest economy in the world by 2020, then be overtaken by India by 2050,” said Willem Buiter, chief economist. He also sat on the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee.

In order to accomplish this, the banksters will whipsaw the global economy. “Expect booms and busts. Occasionally, there will be growth disasters, driven by poor policy, conflicts, or natural disasters,” warned the economist.

It has little to do with the weather. Central banksters create monetary inflation and credit expansion and thus engineer artificial booms and inevitably busts that work like a sledgehammer on humanity.

“Just as the boom builds outward from banks to the rest of the economy, with banks benefitting the most, the bust collapses inward to banks from the rest of the economy, with banks suffering the most,” writes Jeffrey M. Herbener. “Now the balance sheets of fractional-reserve banks, swollen with loans and checkable deposits during the boom, suddenly collapse. Or rather, the value of their loans collapses initially, as the projects they lent to turn out to be unprofitable, leaving them with negative net worth…. The monetary inflation and credit expansion of the boom are now reversed in the bust.”

Buiter and Citigroup have created a neat little index to explain all of this. It’s called the “3G index” to measure economic progress – or progress as gauged by banksters. “Using that index the nations to watch over the coming years are Bangladesh, China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Mongolia, Nigeria, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Vietnam,” reports CNBC.

“They are our 3G countries,” Buiter boasted.

It is no mistake they are third world hellholes ruled by authoritarian dictatorships.

Banks and transnational corporations love place like Vietnam where slave laborers work seven days a week for six cents an hour. In Bangladesh, factory workers earn about $38 US per month. Indonesia factory workers make about $2 per day. In the Philippines, sweatshop workers earn less than half of the cost of living. In China’s electronics factories, run like military dictatorships, the suicide rate among workers is staggering. Drones work 15-hour days for $50 per month.

Egypt just underwent a revolution, in large part precipitated by high unemployment and poverty. It was shamelessly exploited by AT&T, Google, Facebook, NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC, and MTV. Google exec Wael Ghonim was designated as an impromptu leader of the revolt by the corporate media.

The third world slave labor hellhole model is what the banksters and their soulless corporations have in mind for the entire planet. Revolutions and rebellions in response to intolerable conditions – half the world, over 3 billion people, live on less than $2.50 a day – will henceforth be micromanaged by financial elitists and turned into harmless (for the elite) televised entertainment super events that do nothing to address the needs of billions of people.

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China and India overtaking the United States as the economic dynamos of the future is no mistake. It has nothing to do with hurricanes or mudslides.

Globalism demands a prison planet ruled over ruthlessly by a small hereditary elite. In a few short years, the American people will suffer like the factory workers of China’s sprawling electronics factories and Vietnam’s garment shops run by Nike and Adidas.

Link:
http://www.prisonplanet.com/bankster-economist-heralds-third-world-hellholes.html

Unions and teacher representatives shut out of Sunday talk shows while Governors are booked...

Unions: Sunday Shows Are Shutting Us Out

Though thousands of Americans have turned out this week to show solidarity with Wisconsin's public employees and oppose a threat to their collective bargaining rights, union officials say they have not been able to place a labor voice on this Sunday's editions of the weekly public-affairs TV shows. The shows' producers, they complain, are shutting out the workers' perspective.

A union official told The Huffington Post that when none of the Sunday shows' producers reached out to them to book a labor representative this week, several unions started to pitch the shows with affected workers and local and national leaders who they felt could discuss the protests. The official said the response from the shows was essentially "thanks, but no thanks."

"If you're a Sunday show and there are labor fights going on for two weeks, if you can just book ... Chris Christie, why would you actually go out and get somebody who is actually involved in this? That would be work!" snarked the official, adding, "Everybody's been pushing, and everybody's been shut down."

The Huffington Post reached out to officials at Fox News, NBC, ABC, CNN and CBS. NBC News spokesperson Erika Masonhall said the lineup for this weekend's "Meet the Press" will not be final until Friday and "will highlight a number of topics and include a variety of guests and opinions." An official at another network said their show's guest roster had likewise not been set and a labor representative could still be included. Additionally, there's a chance that not every show will cover the protests this week -- and would therefore be unlikely to have on a labor official -- just as not every show covered the topic last week.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/24/unions-sunday-shows-shutting-out_n_825773.html

Libya framed in Lockerbie bombing?

CIA Involvement.: Lockerbie evidence was faked.
CIA planted tiny fragment of circuit board crucial in convicting a Libyan for the 1989 mass murder of 270 people
A former Scottish police chief has given lawyers a signed statement claiming that key evidence in the Lockerbie bombing trial was fabricated.

The retired officer - of assistant chief constable rank or higher - has testified that the CIA planted the tiny fragment of circuit board crucial in convicting a Libyan for the 1989 mass murder of 270 people.

The police chief, whose identity has not yet been revealed, gave the statement to lawyers representing Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi, currently serving a life sentence in Greenock Prison.

The evidence will form a crucial part of Megrahi's attempt to have a retrial ordered by the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC). The claims pose a potentially devastating threat to the reputation of the entire Scottish legal system.

The officer, who was a member of the Association of Chief Police Officers Scotland, is supporting earlier claims by a former CIA agent that his bosses "wrote the script" to incriminate Libya.

Last night, George Esson, who was Chief Constable of Dumfries and Galloway when Megrahi was indicted for mass murder, confirmed he was aware of the development.

But Esson, who retired in 1994, questioned the officer's motives. He said: "Any police officer who believed they had knowledge of any element of fabrication in any criminal case would have a duty to act on that. Failure to do so would call into question their integrity, and I can't help but question their motive for raising the matter now."

Other important questions remain unanswered, such as how the officer learned of the alleged conspiracy and whether he was directly involved in the inquiry. But sources close to Megrahi's legal team believe they may have finally discovered the evidence that could demolish the case against him.

An insider told Scotland on Sunday that the retired officer approached them after Megrahi's appeal - before a bench of five Scottish judges - was dismissed in 2002.

The insider said: "He said he believed he had crucial information. A meeting was set up and he gave a statement that supported the long-standing rumours that the key piece of evidence, a fragment of circuit board from a timing device that implicated Libya, had been planted by US agents.

"Asked why he had not come forward before, he admitted he'd been wary of breaking ranks, afraid of being vilified.

"He also said that at the time he became aware of the matter, no one really believed there would ever be a trial. When it did come about, he believed both accused would be acquitted. When Megrahi was convicted, he told himself he'd be cleared at appeal."

The source added: "When that also failed, he explained he felt he had to come forward.

"He has confirmed that parts of the case were fabricated and that evidence was planted. At first he requested anonymity, but has backed down and will be identified if and when the case returns to the appeal court."

The vital evidence that linked the bombing of Pan Am 103 to Megrahi was a tiny fragment of circuit board which investigators found in a wooded area many miles from Lockerbie months after the atrocity.

The fragment was later identified by the FBI's Thomas Thurman as being part of a sophisticated timer device used to detonate explosives, and manufactured by the Swiss firm Mebo, which supplied it only to Libya and the East German Stasi. At one time, Megrahi, a Libyan intelligence agent, was such a regular visitor to Mebo that he had his own office in the firm's headquarters.

The fragment of circuit board therefore enabled Libya - and Megrahi - to be placed at the heart of the investigation. However, Thurman was later unmasked as a fraud who had given false evidence in American murder trials, and it emerged that he had little in the way of scientific qualifications.

Then, in 2003, a retired CIA officer gave a statement to Megrahi's lawyers in which he alleged evidence had been planted.

The decision of a former Scottish police chief to back this claim could add enormous weight to what has previously been dismissed as a wild conspiracy theory. It has long been rumoured the fragment was planted to implicate Libya for political reasons.

Read more:
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=23357

Charlie Sheen unleashed...

"#10 StudentsFirst.org is projecting that 161,000 teachers across the United States are in danger of losing their jobs this year alone."

Become A Teacher? 10 Examples That Show Why Becoming A Teacher Is A Dead End In This Economy

Today budget cutters are on the rampage from coast to coast and often one of their first targets is public school teachers. What we have witnessed recently in Wisconsin is just one example of this. The truth is that you do not want to become a teacher if you want to have financial security in America today. Teacher salaries are being slashed from sea to shining sea. But to a certain extent the teachers that are having their wages cut are the fortunate ones. There are thousands upon thousands of teachers that have already been laid off, and there are tens of thousands more that are about to be laid off. It is absolutely brutal out there right now. So if you are thinking about becoming a teacher you might want to think twice. Not that there are a whole lot of other jobs that are more secure right now. The truth is that there is no such thing as a "safe job" in America today.

It is very unfortunate that what is going on right now is going to scare so many young people away from becoming a teacher because the next generation could definitely use some quality teachers.

But the truth is that it is getting really hard to honestly recommend that anyone become a teacher at this point. Just consider some of the following news stories that we have seen around the nation recently....

#1 In Providence, Rhode Island the school district plans to send out dismissal notices to every single one of its 1,926 teachers.

#2 Michigan has just approved a plan to shut down nearly half of the public schools in Detroit. Under the plan, 70 schools will be closed and 72 will continue operating.

#3 In New Jersey, Governor Chris Christie has laid off thousands of teachers and he cut a billion dollars from the state education budget.

#4 Bills in Wisconsin, Ohio, Tennessee, Indiana and Idaho would either significantly alter or completely take away the collective bargaining rights of public school teachers.

#5 The eyes of the whole country are on Wisconsin right now. Teachers there are very alarmed about the $900 million in cuts to school funding over the next two years that are being proposed.

#6 Clay Robison, a spokesman for the Texas State Teachers Association, recently said that his organization is projecting that 100,000 school employees in the state of Texas could lose their jobs.

#7 The current plan is for more than 4,500 New York City school teachers to be laid off after this current school years ends. This will be the most significant teacher layoffs in New York since the 1970s.

#8 In Los Angeles, more than 5,000 teachers will be receiving preliminary layoff notices due to budget cuts.

#9 Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval is being deeply criticized for the teacher pay cuts that he is proposing.

#10 StudentsFirst.org is projecting that 161,000 teachers across the United States are in danger of losing their jobs this year alone.

So in light of the facts above, should we advise any of our young people to try to become a teacher?

Link:
http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/become-a-teacher-10-examples-that-show-why-becoming-a-teacher-is-a-dead-end-in-this-economy

"What is going on up in Wisconsin is nothing compared to what globalism is doing to U.S. workers."

Globalist Shill Barack Obama Asks Business Leaders For Job Creation Ideas Even As He Ships More Of Our Jobs Overseas As Part Of The New One World Economy

The other day, Barack Obama summoned a group of business and labor leaders to the White House and "challenged" them to come up with some great ideas for creating more jobs inside the United States. Meanwhile, Barack Obama is pushing hard for Congress to approve the new free trade agreement with South Korea. This is yet another bad "free trade agreement" in a long string of bad "free trade agreements" that are absolutely gutting the U.S. economy. The truth is that the United States has become a nation which is constantly consuming more while at the same time producing less and less. The gap between the wealth that this nation produces and the wealth that this nation consumes is becoming absolutely astronomical. But instead of fighting for changes that would keep American jobs in America, Barack Obama has allied himself with the multinational corporations that are making huge profits by outsourcing and offshoring our middle class jobs as part of the new one world economy. Our politicians can give speeches until they are blue in the face about how "wonderful" globalism is, but the truth is that it is taking millions of our jobs away and it is ripping the U.S. middle class to shreds.

For a moment, imagine you go to the store and you see two products. They are roughly equivalent, although one may be a little better than the other. One product costs ten times as much, you are going to have to pay a bunch of extra taxes and fees to purchase it and you are going to have to fill out a ton of paperwork in order to buy it. The other product is dirt cheap and all you have to do is take it up to the register.

So which one are you going to buy?

That is the situation that so many of our multinational corporations are facing today. In the new one world economy, they can choose to hire incredibly expensive American workers, or they can go to the other side of the world and legally hire very motivated workers that will gladly work for slave labor wages.

Do you see why so many jobs are leaving America?

American workers were never told that all of these "free trade agreements" would mean that they would be merged into a global labor pool where they would directly compete for jobs with slave labor on the other side of the world.

But that is exactly what is happening and it is destroying the U.S. middle class.

Talk about the biggest union busting plan of them all!

What is going on up in Wisconsin is nothing compared to what globalism is doing to U.S. workers.

And yet idiot American workers keep voting these same chumps back into office again and again and again.

Link:
http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/globalist-shill-barack-obama-asks-business-leaders-for-job-creation-ideas-even-as-he-ships-more-of-our-jobs-overseas-as-part-of-the-new-one-world-economy

"Fiat currencies have a long history, mostly of failure"

The End of the US Dollar?
By: David Chapman

The turmoil across North Africa and the Middle East is threatening not only to overthrow aging dictatorships, autocracies and monarchies, but also to upset the geopolitical balance between the countries of that region and the Western powers that has existed since at least the 1950s. For the West, the issue has always been the security of oil. For the US there is a second issue, and that is the security of Israel. Now both are under threat.

Some 56 per cent of the world’s oil reserves are in the Middle East, with another nine per cent in Africa. Therefore, unrest in the region could be the catalyst that sets off a global monetary-oil shock. The unrest in Libya has sparked a sharp rise in oil price. Libya holds the world’s ninth-largest reserves and is the twelfth-largest exporter, providing about two per cent of the world’s daily oil supply. Not large and it is possible that Saudi Arabia could pick up the slack but it sends out a wave of uncertainty and it is unknown where the next outburst might occur.

Saudi Arabia is the world’s second largest producer, behind Russia. Saudi Arabia exports roughly 75 per cent of its production. If the unrest spreads to Saudi Arabia then all bets might be off the table as to how high oil prices can go.

Saudi Arabia is governed by an absolute monarchy which rules by decree. While its people are generally well-off, it has a minority Shia Muslim population (about 20 per cent), largely employed in the oil-producing regions, who are at the margins of the society. Saudi Arabia has a poor human rights record and its Wabbabi brand of Sunni Muslim religion has often been noted to be behind alleged terrorist organizations. Unemployment is high at just under 11 per cent, although that is better than most Arab countries.

The US is the world’s largest consumer of oil, at roughly 19 million barrels per day. It imports almost 10 million barrels per day. China is now the second-largest consumer. Among the top 15 consumers we also find Japan, Germany, France, Canada, Italy and the UK. Yet outside of Canada and China (which, like the US, produces roughly half of its daily consumption and is also the world’s third-largest producer), none of the others are in the top 15 for production. And amongst the Western economies, only Norway and Canada are listed in the world’s top 15 exporters.

It has often been said the US dollar is a petrodollar. That is to say, it is earned through the sale of oil. Oil-producing countries such as Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, which peg their currencies (within a band) to the US dollar, are as result quite dependent on the value of the US dollar. These countries and many others earn large amounts of US dollars because of their oil production.

The US dollar is also the world’s reserve currency. All commodities are priced in dollars – not just oil. It is the most marketed currency in the world and it is owned more widely than any other currency. One would therefore believe that a strong dollar is not only in the interest of the United States, but everyone else as well.

But the US dollar is also a fiat currency. A fiat currency has value only because the government says so. The Latin word fiat translates as “let it be done”. Thus, the value of money is dictated by government decree.

Today, all national currencies are fiat currencies. The trend began in August 1971 when President Richard Nixon took the US dollar off the gold standard thus also taking the world off of the gold standard. Increasingly from then on, money was whatever a government said it was. As such it has no real value except being declared legal tender.

Fiat currencies have a long history, mostly of failure .The Romans didn’t have paper money but they developed an early form of fiat by constantly decreasing the amount of silver used in the denarius, their main medium of exchange. They continued this debasement until the coinage became intrinsically almost worthless.

The Chinese were the first to issue paper currency in around the tenth century but eventually they printed so much that hyperinflation occurred and their currency became worthless, even though its usage lasted close to 400 years.

History is respite with the failure of fiat currencies. The most recent example was collapse of the Zimbabwean dollar, and a famous example was the Weimar Republic of Germany in the 1920s.

Fiat currencies have a history of ending in hyperinflation – if a country starts printing money excessively, it is often on the road to ruin and hyperinflation. And this is the United States today. The US has unparalleled deficits and debt; it has increasing expansion of its money supply, using a fiat currency; and it is being misleading about its true economic situation through its published economic statistics.

But it also has the world’s reserve currency, and international trade is carried out in US dollars. Any country buying oil, for example, must first convert its currency into dollars to pay for it. The selling country receives those dollars, which are often recycled right back into purchasing US debt, so that the selling country does not adversely impact its own currency.

But the US dollar is a declining currency. In the last 100 years it has lost over 96 per cent of its purchasing power (this process accelerated after 1971). The chart below shows the long decline. The second chart shows how public debt and money supply exploded after cutting the link with gold, and how a fiat currency can be expanded at will, with nothing to prevent it from being issued.

The third chart shows the decline of the purchasing power of the US dollar when using inflation numbers based on the way inflation was calculated up until the early 1990s. At that time the US began to change the way of calculating inflation, the net effect being to lower the reported rate of inflation.

Many items, including Social Security payments, are tied to the reported rate of inflation. With a much higher rate of inflation, many items would have increased in price faster and the US Treasury would have had to pay out far higher entitlements.

The recalculation of the inflation numbers were provided by www.shadowstats.com. That chart suggests that the US dollar has lost over 98 per cent of its purchasing power over the past 100 years.

Read more:
http://news.goldseek.com/UnionSecurities/1298563200.php

Wisconsin wants to know where Obama is?

This crazy terrorist sent emails to himself. Another terrorist conspiracy uncovered by the FBI...

It must be time to ratchet up the fear again...

Foreign Student Targets Bush's Dallas Home

According to the released documents, Aldawsari researched various targets and e-mailed himself information on the locations and people targeted. These e-mails were frequently listed with the subject line "Targets," and allegedly contained the names and addresses of three former US military members who had been stationed at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

In another e-mail entitled "NICE TARGETS 01," the documents claim Aldawsari sent the names of 12 dams in California and Colorado. In another "NICE TARGETS" e-mail, he allegedly sent categories of targets including hydroelectric dams and nuclear power plants.

In a seperate e-mail entitled "Tyrant's House," Aldawsari allegedly included the Dallas address for former President George W Bush. Bush moved to Dallas in 2009 after finishing his second term in office.

Elsewhere in the affidavit, an agent detail Aldawsari's web searches for "party in dallas," "dallas night clubs," and "can u take a backpack to a nightclub," leading the agent to believe Aldawsari was considering the use of "an explosive concealed in a backpack" as part of a nightclub attack.

Link:
http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local-beat/Foreign-Student-Targets-Bushs-Dallas-Home-116820978.html

Anyone need a good cry?

WYOMING - Big Brother at Wyoming schools? Legislature considers filming teachers.

Teachers in Wyoming might someday have to add an extra step to their lesson plans: Smile for the camera.

State lawmakers have proposed installing video cameras and taping lessons to help evaluate teachers’ performance.

The occasional videotaped class has long been a tool for training and self-reflection. But the notion of tying recorded lessons to high-stakes evaluations raises a host of thorny issues.

Schools would have to consider who would be evaluating the taped lessons, what criteria they’d use, and how student and teacher privacy would be respected.

If such details can be ironed out, videos could lead to more-nuanced evaluations, says Elena Silva, a senior policy analyst at Education Sector in Washington. “There’s a lot of consternation [among teachers] about using just test scores [by students to judge them].... This is a way of bringing the human element into teacher evaluation,” she says.

Link:
http://knucklz.com/2011/02/24/wy---big-brother-at-wyoming-schools-legislature-considers-filming-teachers.aspx

Anyone need a good laugh?

Go get him Chief...

Madison police chief asks Walker to explain 'troubling' statements

Madison Police Chief Noble Wray Thursday asked Gov. Scott Walker to explain his "troubling" and "unsettling" statements captured in a secretly recorded phone conversation that he "thought about" planting troublemakers among the thousands of peaceful demonstrators at the Capitol.

The protests, heading into their 11th day, are aimed at a bill Walker proposed to strip most bargaining rights from state and local unionized employees in Wisconsin.

"I spent a good deal of time overnight thinking about Governor Walker's response, during his news conference yesterday (Wednesday), to the suggestion that his administration 'thought about' planting troublemakers among those who are peacefully protesting his bill," Wray said in a statement issued this morning." I would like to hear more of an explanation from Governor Walker as to what exactly was being considered, and to what degree it was discussed by his cabinet members.

"I find it very unsettling and troubling that anyone would consider creating safety risks for our citizens and law enforcement officers. Our department works hard dialoging with those who are exercising their First Amendment right, those from both sides of the issue, to make sure we are doing everything we can to ensure they can demonstrate safely.

"I am concerned that anyone would try to undermine these relationships. I have a responsibility to the community, and to the men and women of this department — who are working long hours protecting and serving this community — to find out more about what was being considered by state leaders."

Link:
http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/govt-and-politics/article_40c3dfbe-402c-11e0-8c68-001cc4c002e0.html

Soon they will be looking up your ass at airports...

No place left to hide drugs with new X-ray technology for airports

NEW X-ray technology that can reveal drug smugglers' internal cavities will be trialled at airports under a plan to fast-track security searches.

Legislation before Federal Parliament would enable customs officers to use new body scanners instead of sending suspects to hospital for internal X-rays ordered by a doctor, reported the Herald Sun.

Federal police wasted more than 4600 hours in hospital waiting rooms last year because of drug smugglers waiting for scans.

More than 200 people were taken to hospital for internal searches, with almost 50 found to have drugs in their bodies.

Drug couriers captured by Australian authorities at airports last year were carrying a total of 27kg of drugs.

Home Affairs Minister Brendan O'Connor said the scanners would also help innocent travellers.

"The option of an internal body scan will more quickly exonerate the innocent and ensure a minimum of delay for legitimate travellers," Mr O'Connor said.

Read more: http://www.news.com.au/travel/news/no-place-left-to-hide-drugs-with-x-ray-technology/story-e6frfq80-1226011075259#ixzz1Ev3DkuyV

Protests spreading all over the country...

Main Street Movement Erupts as Thousands Across Country Protest War on the Middle Class

Inspired by the events in Wisconsin, thousands of Americans all over the country are taking action to battle legislation that would attack their labor rights, defund their schools, threaten their health and safety, and decimate the American middle class. Here are just some of the places across the nation that are taking part in this new “Main Street Movement” to defend and rebuild the American middle class:

- GEORGIA: Hundreds of workers demonstrated outside the Georgia capitol yesterday, declaring their solidarity with striking Wisconsin workers. Some demonstrators wore “cheesehead” hats, a clear reference to a cultural tradition in Wisconsin.

– IDAHO: Hundreds of teachers marched against legislation that would layoff 770 teachers and leave schools severely understaffed.

– INDIANA: In Indiana, House Democrats fled the state, preventing a vote on legislation that would enact “right-to-work” laws that would’ve crippled the right to organize. After the House Democrats took off, hundreds of workers and students marched into the capitol building and staged a massive sit-in, pledging not to leave until the radical legislation was withdrawn. Yesterday, Indiana’s Main Street Movement scored its first victory as Republican lawmakers withdrew the anti-union bill. Indiana Democrats are refusing to come back until right-wing legislators withdraw legislation to undermine the state’s public education system.

– MONTANA: More than a thousand “conservationists, sportsmen, firefighters, teachers, correctional officers and others” descended on the Montana capitol to protest against “unprecedented GOP attacks on public services and education and laws that protect land, air, water and wildlife.” Students carried signs that read “Keep Us In School,” protesting crippling cuts to the state’s education system.

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– OHIO: In Ohio, thousands of ordinary Americans who rely on the right to organize to earn good, middle class incomes are facing off with Wisconsin-style legislation backed by Gov. John Kasich (R). Nearly 10,000 protesters demonstrated in Columbus, Ohio, gaining the support of former Gov. Ted Strickland (D-OH) and Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH). So many demonstrators showed up that the Ohio Highway Patrol was ordered to lock the doors of the state capitol to stop more demonstrators from getting into the building.

– TENNESSEE: Hundreds of Tennesseans gathered to protest a bill that would completely strip Tennesee teachers of collective bargaining rights. “What you have right now is 300 or so of us, standing and asking the state legislature to focus on what the priorities are right now, instead of attacking working people,” said Mary Mancini, executive director of Tennessee Citizen Action. “If they listen to us, well then that’s great. … If not, I can see this thing growing.”

– WASHINGTON: 2,000 demonstrators in Olympia, Washington, marched against the state’s proposed budget cuts that would harm students and middle class Washingtonians and in solidarity with workers in Wisconsin. “If Scott Walker succeeds in ending worker rights in Wisconsin, the birthplace of public servants’ liberty, it could happen here,” said Federation of State Employees President Carol Dotlich.

http://www.truth-out.org/main-street-movement-erupts-as-thousands-across-country-protest-war-on-the-middle-class68039

TSA pat-downs at train station after people departed from the train...

Video of a TSA Pat Down AFTER a Mother and Sons got OFF a Train in Savannah, Ga! What right do they have to do that?!
This is so mind boggling to me! I am still trying to figure out within WHAT law or right would the TSA have to pat down people AFTER they got OFF a train in Savannah, Ga.?

Where is the sense in patting down people when they have gotten to their destination?

But, more importantly what RIGHT OR LAW allows TSA to pat down people riding on trains?

If all of this is true, then we are so down the rabbit hole in being a POLICE STATE in the United States! All of this invasion of privacy and having to SUBMIT to other people feeling us up all in the name of keeping us "safe from terrorism"?

It seems to me there is one terrorist that is standing above all others now! After watching this, I believe those who are reading these words know exactly who/what I am claiming is a terrorist!

If that had been me, I would have demanded what right they had to do ANY pat down and REFUSED to allow it being done to me or my child!


Link:
http://sherriequestioningall.blogspot.com/2011/02/video-of-tsa-pat-down-after-mother-and.html