Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Storm'n Norman's Sheeple Warning (Who's laughing now?)

Click on picture to enlarge.
Americans are sheep! :-(
from cyber wolfman (Please check out his Freedom page.)

In certain places within Europe, if the government tries to spy on people, the people get extremely upset about it, because the memory of the Nazi government is still fresh in everyone's minds, and the older people tell their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren about the horrors that they lived through.


But here in the US, the people are so passive, it's like they're all sheep or something! They willingly go along with just about everything, no matter how intrusive it is, or how much of their privacy it'll take away. It's like they willingly obey almost without question anyone that may be seen as an authority figure, whether it's a cop, fireman, politician, or even just some pompous, self-important, and snobby jerk in a suit.


These are the descendants of the Americans that rose up against what they considered wrong and revolted against tyranny going so far as to even risk their lives by dressing up as native Americans and tossing tea into the Boston harbor?? I wonder what those proud and brave people that drank at the Green Dragon would think of the Americans of today?


Most Americans today are essentially sheeple. People who act like sheep. Baaaaaaa!!


If something is really bad, and enough people learn about it, there's a little public outcry (the sheeple bleat "Baaaaaa!"), a few press stories, and usually the plan isn't implemented (or at least not to public knowledge). Then later on, it's back on again, usually advertised as a way to keep people more secure, or to protect them from some real or imagined threat. The people feeling scared, and believing what they're told without doubting for a moment that the person telling them this may be misinformed, lying, or at the very least, bending the truth to make it sound convincing, or not telling them everything, go along with it, and support it even in their conversations with each other, spreading the lies hidden within like a type of verbally communicated virus.


Next thing you know, the FBI, NSA, DEA, ATF, and the police no longer need a warrant to tap your phone or break into your house with guns drawn, shooting on sight anyone they wish, or someone's injecting small ID chips (that're placed inside of a small sealed tube of glass that's about the size of a grain of rice) into you in the middle of your back between your shoulder blades using a syringe (possibly doing it at your local hospital or doctor's office. You won't know they're going to do anything until it's done, because they're behind you and you don't see it coming. They could always tell you that they were just removing a bad zit. Once done, it'll probably remain within you for the rest of your life. After all, what can you do about it, once it's implanted?) or maybe scanners that can pick up police frequencies will be made illegal and the police start listening to their radios with earplugs, so people around them can't hear, thus our 'public servants' will be easily recognized as the secret police that many people see them as already.


No doubt there are some who don't believe that such things will ever come to pass, but because a lot of my other predictions based upon what my past experiences have taught me and what I know have come true, I think they're in for a rather unpleasant surprise. Besides, regarding those ID chips... they're already in use in certain areas because they're implanted into some dogs, and the animal control officers in the area use them to find out who owns the dog, so they can return it to its owner.


Do you really believe that the government wouldn't use something to control or monitor people if they had the chance? Let me put it this way: When the Social Security system first came out, people were assured that the Social Security numbers they were going to be given wouldn't be used as a kind of national ID, but only for the Social Security administration's use. Now, it seems everybody in the US wants to know your SSN (Social Security Number), from your bank and boss, to the grocery store where you buy food. I even heard that Jewel / Osco stores required their customers to give them their Social Security numbers in order to get a kind of preferred shopper card. Supposedly, there's a legal limit on who can ask you for your Social Security number, but laws aren't enforced, even ones against modern-day slavery.


This technology (and much more that you don't suspect is possible) is already thought up, invented, manufactured, tested, and in use today. It wasn't so very long ago that the stuff that was written up in science fiction was merely the stuff of fancy, real only within the author's mind, and the minds of her or his readers. The ray-gun was sci-fi, and everyone thought it could never become real. Then the LASER (Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation) was invented, used for the military and industry and now is becoming a common school kid's toy.


While you may think that the people in the United States could never be convinced to go along with something, I invite you to read the words of Hermann Goering, a Nazi war criminal:

"Of course the people don't want war. But after all, it's the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it's always a simple matter to drag the people along whether it's a democracy, a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism, and exposing the country to greater danger."


What would one of the founding fathers of the United States, and a signer of the Declaration of Independence say?

"Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety." - Dr. Benjamin Franklin, November 11, 1755


For more quotes, please see the Cool Quotes page. :-)


Although others will try to claim that the future will be bright, and that the United States of America is, and will continue to be, a free country, I know the truth, and based upon what I know, I believe that privacy, liberty, and freedom will be severely restrained if not outright destroyed in the future. Perhaps a little here, a little there, and they might even use the Nazi's ideas to get the sheeple to go along with it by claiming that those who oppose it aren't being very patriotic, and are exposing those who need protection to danger.

Biff, bam, slam, right up against the wall, a left and a right and the kid is down! How does it feel to be a bully cop? Ya don't know,then check this

A south suburban Chicago police officer was caught on a security camera beating up a high school special education student, CBS2 reports. Marshawn Pitts, 15, was walking down his school hallway when he says a Dolton, Ill. police officer went from berating him for his untucked shirt to slamming him to the ground and beating him. "The officer was in his face because he didn't have his shirt tucked in," Pitts' attorney told CBS 2's Davis Savini. "That's the officer put in that school to protect these kids, and instead of doing that, this officer is literally assaulting this kid." Read full story here

Weeds! They're a dang nuisance!

Click on pictures to enlarge.

For the story behind the pictures go here:




The Obama Backlash ...Do I hear UNEMPLOYMENT...naah, that's just a rumor!

Click on picture to enlarge.

Urban League: African-Americans Faring Worse Than Whites

The National Urban League says, despite the hope generated by the election of the first black U.S. president, African-Americans are faring worse in an economy in which the gap between the "American dream" and reality is widening. The Urban League says it will be pushing to ensure blacks benefit from the jobs and money Congress and President Obama made available in the economic stimulus plan.

On "H" Street in Washington, D.C., about 13 blocks from the U.S. Capitol, there is a steady stream of people at the unemployment office.


Stanley Currie says African-Americans have a harder time getting jobs
Stanley Currie says African-Americans have a harder time getting jobs

One of them is electrician Stanley Currie, who is in a training program for government jobs.

"It's possible that you will get hired. But the probability of you getting hired - the odds are not with you," he says.

And that is the story in places that are predominantly African-American, in city after city. Unemployment, running nationally at 8.1 percent, is in double digits among blacks.

"Might be higher than that. I am a believer that it's higher than that, because I've been living here all my life and I see it," says Donald Long, who is unemployed.

And unemployment is just one factor leading the National Urban League to conclude there is still an "intolerable divide" between blacks and whites.


"African-Americans remain twice as likely as white Americans to be unemployed, three times more likely to live in poverty, and six times as likely to be incarcerated," says Urban League President Marc Morial.

The civil rights group says there is a gap in educational achievement - whites doing better than blacks. Blacks also have less access to health care. Government figures show about one in five do not have health insurance.

Many African-Americans were sold risky subprime mortgages, which led to higher foreclosures
Many African-Americans were sold risky subprime mortgages, which led to higher foreclosures

As for housing, African-Americans are rejected more often for home mortgages. And a greater percentage have been sold risky subprime mortgages, which have led to higher foreclosures.

-All of these statistics have remained dismal, even as the first African-American president took office.

Mr. Obama himself speaks of the "justifiable pride" people took in the country moving beyond "the searing legacies of racial discrimination."

"But that lasted about a day..." he said. "And right now, the American people are judging me exactly the way I should be judged."

And that would be on how he can repair the economy, he told reporters at a news conference this week where he was asked about race.

Morial, the Urban League president, says there is still new hope.

The election of Barack Obama as the nation's first black president will not solve problems plaguing African-Americans, but Urban League President Marc Morial says it does give blacks hope for the future
The election of Barack Obama as the nation's first black president will not solve problems plaguing African-Americans, but Urban League President Marc Morial says it does give blacks hope for the future

"I think the euphoria and the excitement is still there. It's not just an excitement about the president. It's an excitement about the possibilities for the future."

But now, with billions of dollars in economic stimulus money going out to communities, Morial is urging local officials and unions to include blacks in the hiring.

Civil rights officials, he says, will keep both light and heat on the situation.

"Light, in the sense of transparency, so that we're monitoring very closely what they're doing," Morial says. "Heat, in the sense that we're going to keep the pressure on everyone to ensure that urban communities are not left by the wayside."

At the unemployment office, they've heard all this before.

"I hope they do that. They say that a lot," says Long. "Sometimes we be the last ones to find out about the jobs."


And Urban League leaders say despite having a black president in office, they cannot close up shop and go home.

______________

How are you faring as employers shed more jobs than expected?

October 2, 2009, by Henry Unger

The unemployment picture is worse than expected.

Has your situation tracked the national trend? Or have you been able to buck it?

While the U.S. unemployment rate ticked up slighlty to 9.8 percent in September, from 9.7 percent in August, employers shed a lot more jobs than economists were anticipating.

The Labor Department said today that the nation’s economy lost a net total of 263,000 jobs last month, up from a downwardly revised total of 201,000 in August.

That’s well above Wall Street economists’ expectations of 180,000 job losses, according to a survey by Thomson Reuters, the Associated Press reported.

If laid-off workers who have settled for part-time work or have given up looking for new jobs are included, the unemployment rate rose to 17 percent, the highest on records dating from 1994, AP said.

What are you experiencing in the job market?

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

ElBaradei ...ho hum...boring (He wouldn't take sides now would he?)

Click on picture to enlarge.
"In a job that requires inscrutable objectivity, Mr. ElBaradei has never tried very hard to contain his prejudices. The world is better off with him retired."
And they call this the Best of the Web (What a joke!)
ElBaradei says nuclear Israel number one threat to Mideast (And another joke!)Nuke
Sunday times reveals Israel nuclear
Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Mohamed ElBaradei said Sunday that "Israel is number one threat to Middle East" with its nuclear arms, the official IRNA news agency reported.

At a joint press conference with Iran's Atomic Energy Organization chief Ali Akbar Salehi in Tehran, ElBaradei brought Israel under spotlight and said that the Tel Aviv regime has refused to allow inspections into its nuclear installations for 30 years, the report said.

"Israel is the number one threat to the Middle East given the nuclear arms it possesses," ElBaradei was quoted as saying.

Israel is widely assumed to have nuclear capabilities, although it refuses to confirm or deny the allegation.

"This (possession of nuclear arms) was the cause for some proper measures to gain access to its (Israel's) power plants ... and the U.S. president has done some positive measures for the inspections to happen," said ElBaradei.

ElBaradei arrived in Iran Saturday for talks with Iranian officials over Tehran's nuclear program.

Leaders of the United States, France and Britain have condemned Iran's alleged deception to the international community involving covert activities in its new underground nuclear site.

Last month, Iran confirmed that it is building a new nuclear fuel enrichment plant near its northwestern city of Qom. In reaction, the IAEA asked Tehran to provide detailed information and access to the new nuclear facility as soon as possible.

On Sunday, ElBaradei said the UN nuclear watchdog would inspect Iran's new uranium plant near Qom on Oct. 25.
I found the above story somewhat contradictory because here you have ElBaradei making excuses for the Iranians (see 2nd question/answer below):

June 09, 2009

El Baradei: Iranians are not "fanatics"

I recommend reading the June 1st Newsweek interview with El Baradei

Q: Had the Bush administration been more flexible, do you think it could have had a deal to freeze the Iranian enrichment program in its experimental phases?

El Baradei: There is no way you are able to deny them the knowledge. But if they do not have the industrial capacity, they do not have weapons. It is as simple as that. I have seen the Iranians ready to accept putting a cap on their enrichment [program] in terms of tens of centrifuges, and then in terms of hundreds of centrifuges. But nobody even tried to engage them on these offers. Now Iran has 5,000 centrifuges. The line was, "Iran will buckle under pressure." But this issue has become so ingrained in the Iranian soul as a matter of national pride.

...

Q: You focus on actual nuclear material. But the Americans have supplied the IAEA with the documents in question. The Iranians insist they are fake and refuse to talk about them.

El Baradei: A lot is in documents which we cannot share with the Iranians because of the need to protect sources and methods. Iran says, how can I tell you if it is fake or authentic if I am not getting a copy? So in many ways it's like a merry-go-round.

And who was threatening to blow Israel off the map?
I like the following headline a little better:
National Post editorial board: ElBaradei won't be missed (He sure won't be!)
Posted: October 06, 2009, 10:00 AM by NP Editor

Mohamed ElBaradei is stepping down at the end of the year as head of the United Nations' International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and not a moment too soon. Mr. ElBaradei may have been awarded a Nobel peace prize for his work on nuclear non-proliferation, but only an organization as politically correct and naive as the Nobel committee could think his bias and blind-eye-turning has made the world safer from nuclear war.

In Tehran over the weekend, the Egyptian-born lawyer held a joint news conference with the head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, Ali Akbar Salehi, at which he proclaimed that Israel's atomic weapons are the "number one threat to the Middle East."

Just what was the basis for Mr. ElBaradei's preposterous claim? In 30 years, Israel has never used or even threatened to use its nuclear arsenal. Still, Mr. ElBaradei seems to feel the Jewish state is a greater risk to world peace than Tehran because Israel has refused UN inspectors access to its nuclear facilities, whereas Iran has permitted some entre, however sporadic.

From Your End Of Life Guidance Counselor...have a pleasant voyage.


----- Original Message -----
From: link removed
To: undisclosed-recipients
Sent: Tuesday, October 06, 2009 6:51 AM
Subject: Fwd: Wonderful Alaskan Cruise for Seniors




Click on picture to enlarge.

Sorry....the US can't afford your ailments anymore....so your "End of Life Guidance Counselor" has selected you to participate in an all-expense paid cruise! "Hope" you enjoy your cruise!

Dear Anonymous, Does this report the story? and When They Want You Dead They Mean It

In a previous earlier post "The Other War...Just because you live north of Oklahoma don't think this will not affect you. "

Anonymous said...

You fail to mention the role of the military in these kidnappings and deaths. This is not simply the handiwork of the drug cartels - the Mexican military is responsible for much of this carnage but few people realize it because the reports mainly focus on and implicate the cartels. There is a story here NOT being told and it involves the Mexican military but too many of us are silent about it. In Cuidad Juarez for example, the military is heavily implicated in death squads and kidnappings. Please report this story as it truly is unfolding.


OK...Is this (see below) what I see unfolding? (I don't know where you've been all this time but I saw this happening over forty years ago...not just unfolding! Yeaaaaaaaaaah, maybe a little more violent now, but definetly not unfolding) Lets face it, Mexico is corrupt from the inside out! ~ Norman E. Hooben

Mexican Army cracks down on corrupt police

Americas News

Jun 12, 2009, 6:18 GMT



Mexico City - The Mexican Army, put in charge of fighting the rising tide of drug crime, has seized the weapons of police officers accused of corruption in the cities of Monterrey, Nicolas and Escobedo.

Parts of the police force in Mexico are believed to be infiltrated by drug gangs.

Supported by federal police, the soldiers seized the weapons of 2,700 police officers, local media reported Thursday. The mayors of the affected cities had approved of the drastic measure, said Aldo Fasci, minister for internal security of the state of Nuevo Leon.

The measures were triggered by police protests on Tuesday aimed against the army and federal police, in which the police blocked two important roads.

Eighty police officers had been arrested earlier on suspicion of cooperating with drug gangs.

Meanwhile, unidentified gunmen shot and killed five guests at a hotel in the northern city of Ciudad Juarez. The victims were killed in their sleep, reports said. One woman survived the attack with serious injuries and was in intensive care. The motive of the killings remained unclear.

More than 6,000 people were killed in Mexican drug violence in 2008, and 2,500 people died in drug-related killings this year.

Then we have...
More police fired and murdered

In Baja California, eight Mexicali police officers and an official of the state public prosecutor’s office were fired “for carrying out their duties without probity and without honesty.” In Iguala, state of Guerrero, two state police officers were found shot to death inside the regional police facility.

In the towns of Emiliano Zapata and Tenosique, state of Tabasco, four “narcopolicemen” were under preliminary detention due to their links with organized crime. Of the four, two were chiefs of police and one other a deputy chief.

And that's just the Mexican Police!
And now for the Corrupt Mexican Army and Police (from LinkNZona)

Corrupt Mexican Army and Police Cannot Slow Violence in Mexico

With much fanfare, the government of Mexico sent approximately 10,000 soldiers and police to Ciudad Juarez (across the border from El Paso, TX) to get control of the narco-violence there. The government criminals and the drug cartel criminals are all too often the same. Here is more evidence that Mexico is a failed state source

Excelsior (Mexico City) 4/30/09

* (Last April 20 we reported on the death of eight Mex. federal agents, mostly “AFI” (Mex. equiv. to FBI), during an attack and failed attempt by thugs to rescue Geronimo Gamez, a Gulf Cartel finance head, who was being transported to prison at Tepic, Nayarit)
A Mexican federal judge has now ordered twelve “AFI” agents to be placed into temporary, 40-day detention; the twelve are under investigation for their possible connection with the failed attempt to liberate Geronimo Gamez.

More Violence... from The M3 Report

El Diario de Coahuila (Saltillo, Coahuila) 10/5/09

When They Want You Dead They Mean It

This past Saturday three men were admitted to a hospital in Villa Union, Durango, after they were shot while in a vehicle. A while later, four men armed with assault rifles burst into the hospital and shot and killed all three of the wounded.

They really mean it! ...eight times?

And this morning (Mon.), a 27 year veteran of the city of Saltillo “Investigative Police”, Commander Pedro Ojeda, was hit with gunfire eight times and died as he returned home after dropping his children off at school. His killers had been waiting for him and fled after the murder.

First it was the corrupt Mexican Police then we have the corrupt Mexican Army...check out this headline:
Dear Anonymous,
Does this report the story?

Do Not Send Freebies! ... I cannot afford them! Has the FTC become Obama's Heinrich Himmler?*

Geeesh!

Ref: "... up to $16,000 for Not Disclosing Freebies"

Remember that time I called you and offered to take you out to lunch whenever I was in your area... That would have been an awful expensive lunch!



Breaking: Government Figures Out How To Shut Down Blogs


The Federal Trade Commission has just released a ruling (PDF) that requires bloggers to disclose anything–and I mean anything–they receive as a result of their blogging. Free review copies of books. Trips to oil rigs. Payments. T-shirts. Whatever it is, you better disclose it, or you get slapped with a fine of $11,000 per infraction. [...]

Snooper adds...
"Yep. It's unconstitutional. Come shut me down, morons. I don't care how many pdf files these morons come up with but shutting me down for any reason just shy of making threats against someone is against the US Constitution. Screw them all."

Read the full article here (with links to more).

*Hitler's Right Hand Man

Monday, October 5, 2009

The Other War...Just because you live north of Oklahoma don't think this will not affect you.

Rusty Fleming


by Rusty Fleming

A couple of weeks ago I was in New York, meeting with network television producers about a series they wanted to run about a story my production team and I have been reporting for more than five years: the narco-insurgency currently wreaking havoc on the U.S. and Mexico.

Just as we all sat down around the conference table, my cell phone rang. Given the importance of the meeting, I normally would have let the call go to voice mail, but when I looked at the number I knew I had to pick it up. This person would not be calling unless it was an absolute emergency. I opened the phone and didn’t even get the “Hello” out of my mouth before a shaken and somewhat scared voice said, “Rusty when can you be here?”The caller was my most trusted source in Mexico. Slightly stunned by the abrupt nature of the call, I responded inquisitively, “Pretty soon, I should wrap up here in New York in a couple of days, why?”

“We have to talk right away, we have a huge problem down here and you’re in the middle of it,” he exclaimed.

When I returned to Texas a few days later, I called my source and we arranged to meet at a public place. He got in my truck and we drove away. As I found a place for us to park we quickly disposed of the normal chit-chat about family and business; I could clearly see he was rattled about something, so we got down to what was on his mind.

He looked outside the window, took a deep breath, looked me square in the eyes and said, “Kidnap orders have been issued for a long list of people along the border and one of the names on that list is yours.”

“Do you understand what I’m saying to you?” Before I could answer he added, “Rusty they have the cops, customs agents and the military looking for you down here, if you cross that bridge into Mexico tonight, you won’t make it a block down the street before they’ll grab you and take you away.”

I fully understood the point my friend was making. This was not the first time a threat had been made on my life. You don’t report on the cartels in Mexico without getting the attention of the individuals you document on film and write about. They are going to come after you sooner or later and I’m no exception to these rules.

The head of Mexico’s National Human Rights commission reported recently that 52 journalists and media workers have been killed in the last decade in Mexico. Most of the slayings remain unsolved. Seven other reporters went missing and six newspaper offices were attacked with explosives over the same period. The president of that same commission was quoted as saying “Impunity has become the hallmark of the aggressions against journalists in Mexico.”

I’ve had a front row seat to the attacks made on the journalists all over Mexico and the United States for the past five years. The bombing of numerous newspapers and television stations combined with the assassinations of reporters has constrained the free press in what is supposed to be the strongest democracy in Latin America.

The armed attacks and threats by drug traffickers against media organizations have made Mexico the world’s most dangerous country after Iraq for journalists, according to the French media advocacy group Reporters Without Borders.

Freedom of the press is one of the most sacred institutions in this country and it too is under attack. In July 2007 several newspapers in Texas received notification of specific threats made by Los Zetas to kill an American reporter in Laredo. The San Antonio Express News published the story about the threat on its reporter and decided to pull him from the paper’s Laredo bureau.

That same year a local television station in McAllen, Texas, was set to broadcast a series of reports and interviews showing that the Zetas had ramped up its army of mercenaries and was preparing for all-out war. The station received a credible death threat from the Zetas shortly after airing the first part of their series, making them pull the stories.

To many people this is an invisible war zone. But to those who live and report in this war zone, these threats are real.

I’ve spent nearly five years documenting the Mexican drug cartels, including the Zetas. After I made the documentary Drug Wars: Silver or Lead, the threats we received were for the most part, directed simply to get us to give up. And they came close to achieving that goal. I had cast and crew members quit in fear of their lives because of these threats, I had sources back out, and I had people in my own government back away from me.

There is one axiomatic truth that’s worth repeating. If you go after the narcos or the corrupt police who do their bidding, they will go after you. It matters not who or where you are—these guys are not going to walk away quietly from $40 billion a year.

According to the 2009 National Drug Threat Assessment report, Mexican and Colombian drug trafficking organizations generate, remove and launder between $18 billion and $39 billion in wholesale drug proceeds annually. This is just the dollars they are laundering and taking home and does not include the profits that they leave here in the U.S., such as real-estate businesses or other tangible assets. They also use drug profits to trade for weapons.

But now I recognize this as probably the most credible threat directed at me. Part of me has known all along this was inevitable but I was still taken aback. I’ve obviously struck a nerve with these guys. And now I’m confronted with a choice.

Getting all the facts is of paramount importance to the men and women who practice good journalism in this country. Indeed, exposing the truth in a free press has done more for positive change and government and corporate accountability in our nation than perhaps any other single component, but that simply does not fit in the world of terror that the narcos create and perpetuate. Needless to say, a threat by narco-terrorists from Mexico to kill or kidnap American reporters on U.S. soil should send a chill down the spine of anyone who values democracy and freedom.

Every time I think about backing off, tucking tail or going to a new line of work in my field, I think of those brave souls that are down in Mexico risking life and limb every day to report just slivers of the truth. Take William Slemaker, for instance, whose daughter was kidnapped by these same terrorists in 2004 and she has yet to be found. Still, Slemaker continues to speak out against these criminals every chance he gets. I think about the law enforcement officials like the Border Patrol agents, the county sheriff’s and their deputies that live along that border and are under constant threat by these narco-insurgencies.

So, in all humility, I have to say, the fear of what these narco-terrorists are doing and are continuing to do to our two countries., exceeds the fear of what they’ll do to me for reporting it.

Source: Andrew Breitbart Presents Big Hollywood

IAEA to inspect Iran's Qom site October 25 - Sometimes the news is just a crock...just like the IAEA

The following news item is from the Washington Post and I ask myself, "What for?" and then respond with, "What a crock!" Sometimes we just have to ignore the obvious. When was the last time the IAEA, a unit of the United Nations ever served it's usefulness? And the whole idea of inspections is yet another crock... Let's see, you have something that you shouldn't. So I tell you I'll be over to check it out. Just how long will it take you to remove said 'something' to an undisclosed location? In the situation below, Iran has approximately twenty days to hide their stash.
Now from here on in even a 5th grader could write the next headlines. ...and here's what they will be: IAEA Inspectors Find Traces Of Enriched Uranium, or IAEA Inspectors Find Traces of Uranium at site such and such and nothing will come of it. Iran has been accused of lying on more than one occasion and I'm 99% certain they will lie again. Just as North Korea pulled the wool over the eyes of the IAEA, Iran will duplicate the feat and laugh all the way to nuclear heaven.
And then it says, "Iran agreed with six world powers -- the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany..." And that's another crock! Iran talked with some people and not a one of them have what the Koreans call “power of their nunchi” which means the sense to assess a situation. Do you think for a minute Hillary Clinton can assess the situation buried in the desert in Iran...if you do, then that's another crock! ~ Norman E. Hooben

ps: They will not find anything of significance because they...the IAEA...are going in there with predrawn conclusions. How do I know this? Because the head of the IAEA, ElBaradei, said so.
Oh, so you conveniently forgot that ElBaradei said back in early September, "... there is no proof the Islamic republic will soon have nuclear weapons." He said it was all, "hype". The 5th grader asks, "How could he know it was hype if he didn't go there to check it out? And, "There's no proof?" Of course there's no proof, Iran has been hiding it! Hello!

IAEA to inspect Iran's Qom site October 25

By Parisa Hafezi
Reuters
Sunday, October 4, 2009 4:45 PM

TEHRAN (Reuters) - U.N. experts will inspect Iran's newly disclosed uranium enrichment plant on October 25, the IAEA nuclear agency chief said on Sunday, praising a shift "from conspiracy to cooperation" between Tehran and the West.

The underground nuclear fuel facility near the holy Shi'ite city of Qom had been kept secret until Iran disclosed its existence last month, setting off an international furor.

Iran agreed with six world powers -- the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany -- in Geneva on Thursday to allow IAEA inspectors unfettered access to the site.

"IAEA inspectors will visit Iran's new enrichment facility, under construction in Qom, on 25th of October," International Atomic Energy Agency head Mohammed ElBaradei told a joint news conference with Iran's nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi.

"It is important for us to have comprehensive cooperation over the Qom site ... It is important for us to send our inspectors to assure ourselves that this facility is for peaceful purposes."

The West suspects the Islamic state is covertly seeking to develop nuclear weapons. Iran denies it.

U.S. National Security adviser James Jones said Iran did not appear to be closer to having a nuclear weapon. The New York Times said on Saturday that an IAEA report had concluded Iran has sufficient information to produce a bomb.

Jones said it was significant that Iran had agreed to inspections of the new uranium enrichment site near Qom.

"We now have an Iran that is willing to come to the table," he said on CBS's "Face the Nation" program.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Iran's cooperation with the IAEA had left no "vagueness" about its nuclear work.

"There are no ambiguous issues remaining because of Iran's good cooperation with the agency," Ahmadinejad said in a meeting with ElBaradei, state radio reported.

The IAEA says Iran needs to clarify some issues such as alleged studies by Iran on high explosives and a missile delivery system for a nuclear warhead.

ElBaradei said the IAEA and Iran disagreed over the timing of the disclosure of the pilot enrichment plant.

"Iran should have informed the IAEA the day they had decided to construct the facility," he told the news conference, referring to an IAEA transparency statute that was tightened in 1992 to require immediate notification of planned nuclear sites.

Previously a state had to alert the IAEA of a new site just six months before introducing nuclear materials into it.

Salehi rejected this, saying: "Ever since the unfair entry of the U.N. Security Council into Iran's nuclear dossier, we reverted to the old arrangement in protest at U.N. sanctions."

Salehi will discuss details of the inspection with the IAEA in Vienna on October 19, ElBaradei said.

Iran has said the site, which has space for about 3,000 centrifuges, is about 18 months away from going on line.

SANCTIONS

Last Thursday's talks in Geneva are expected to win Iran a reprieve from tougher U.N. sanctions, although Western powers are likely to be wary of any attempt by Tehran to buy time to develop its nuclear program.

Iran's top nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili said the outcome of the Geneva talks was "agreement over the manner of continuing talks with six powers," the Abrar daily reported.

ElBaradei said that remaining differences could be resolved through diplomacy. "The relation between Iran and the world powers is shifting from conspiracy to transparency and cooperation," he said.

U.S. President Barack Obama has described the talks as a constructive beginning but warned that Tehran must do more to prove that it would not use its nuclear program to produce atomic bombs.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said on Sunday that there was a small opening in the dialogue between Iran and the international community even if the country must answer questions over its suspected nuclear ambitions.

"We are ready to no longer speak about sanctions, but we need to discuss what we call the heart of the matter, that is to say is this uranium enrichment dangerous or not?," Kouchner told RTL radio and LCI television.

Several U.S. lawmakers called on Sunday for new sanctions against Iran in the wake of the New York Times report.

"We've been lied to enough by Iran. I would hope that the President would go ahead and impose sanctions," Republican Senator Saxby Chambliss of Georgia told the "Fox News Sunday" program.

But ElBaradei said there was no "concrete proof" that Iran was seeking nuclear weapons capability, adding that the IAEA remained concerned over the possibility.

Western officials said Iran had agreed "in principle" in Thursday's meeting to ship out most of its enriched uranium for reprocessing in Russia and France. It would then be returned to power a Tehran reactor that makes medical isotopes.

(Additional reporting by Reza Derakhshi in Tehran and Tamora Vidaillet and Julien Ponthus in Paris; Writing by Andrew Hammond, Parisa Hafezi and Anthony Boadle; Editing by Dominic Evans, Bill Trott and Paul Simao)







123456

Health Care and You... HR 3200 Controlling Costs

Click on image to enlarge.


Quick Facts About Obamacare
by Art Kelly
  • The Obama-backed House Democratic Health Care bill, HR 3200, which has already been favorably reported out of three committees, would slash spending for Medicare by more than $500 Billion, ration treatments for everyone, encourage euthanasia for the elderly, and provide federal funding of elective abortions.
  • President Obama told the New York Times, "The chronically ill and those toward the end of their lives are accounting for potentially 80 percent of the total health care bill out here. There is going to have to be a very difficult democratic conversation that takes place."

  • To control costs, Sections 122, 123, 142, 203, 312, and 1145 in HR 3200 require rationing of health care. A government committee will decide which treatments will be available under what circumstances. A Health Choices Commissioner will determine what benefits everyone can receive. The Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) “shall provide for an appropriate adjustment” in the costs for hospital treatments of cancer.
  • Expensive diagnostic tests, such as MRIs and CT scans will be strictly limited for everyone.

  • Seniors and those suffering from major illnesses would be denied the vital treatments they need--including expensive drugs and life saving surgeries--because, under the value system of Obamacare, the "costs" will exceed the "benefits."
  • Section 1233, Advance Care Planning Consultation, in HR 3200 requires all seniors to be given at least every five years (more often if there is a significant change in his or her health) a compulsory "explanation by the practitioner of the continuum of end-of-life services and supports available, including palliative care and hospice, and benefits for such services and supports that are available under this title."

  • That consultation would must contain an explanation why a directive to end their life would be “beneficial to the individual and the individual’s family.” Subsection (5)(A) provides that “life sustaining treatment” can be ended by an order of any “health care professional as specified by the Secretary (of HHS)…including a nurse practitioner or physician assistant.”

  • Obamacare is the most anti-senior bill ever introduced in Congress. It seeks to eliminate those who they consider to be a burden on society.
  • The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is already encouraging euthanasia for severely wounded warriors by publishing a booklet, Your Life, Your Choices, by Dr. Robert Pearlman, an advocate of health care rationing and physician-assisted suicide. This federal publication encourages injured military personnel to consider that their life may be “not worth living.”

  • That's the same future our grandparents, our parents, and we ourselves will face if Obama’s government-run medicine is enacted into law.

  • The House bill, HR 3200, would circumvent the current law that prohibits federal funding of Medicaid abortions except in cases of rape, incest, or to save the life of the mother. The National Right to Life Committee says the bill would produce the greatest expansion of unlimited abortion on demand since Roe v. Wade.

Just say whatever is on your mind. - "Take him out and shoot him..."

Sunday, October 4, 2009

Claybank Day...it was a good turnout and some soldier will receive a very special Christmas Card

Every year on the first Saturday in October our small southeast Alabama town of Ozark celebrates the Claybank Jamboree. Claybank Day as it is more commonly called, is held downtown around the square where they display some of the local arts and crafts. If you are a regular to this event you probably want to see the locally made quilts and enjoy the variety of food offered nowhere else...everything from the great American hot dog to 'gator-on-a-stick'! Then there are the local bands that will entertain you with music...the Carroll High School band and the U.S. Army band from nearby Fort Rucker are regulars. And lets not forget the kids. There's kiddie amusements and entertainment...and I know I liked it when I was a kid, cotton candy!
Members of the Alabama State Defense Force (ALSDF) use this day to solicit signatures from fellow Alabamians for Christmas cards to be sent to our Alabama soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. Last year we sent over 3,000 cards to our Alabama heroes. We...the ALSDF, provide this service absolutely free of charge...all we want is for our fellow servicemen and women to receive a touch of home at Christmas time.
As you can see from the following slide show pictures we get an excellent turnout.


Occasionally someone will ask, "What shall I say?" We respond with, "Anything that comes to mind like, "Hurry home.", "Thank you for your service.", or simply sign your name with a Christmas wish.
It was about mid-morning when I took my turn at the tables assisting the others garnering signatures when along came this young lad just barely head and shoulders above the edge of the table. Without hesitation the young boy began scratching out his message on one of the available Christmas cards. When he was finished he looked up to me and asked, "Can you check the spelling?" I said, "I certainly can." as I looked at his card, "... the spelling is just fine. but wow!" as he turned and disappeared into the crowd. I just have to share with you, the little boy's profoundness...

Click on picture to enlarge.

Norman E. Hooben

Mortgaging My Doll House


Remembering Triffin's Dilemma...I think things will get a little worse before they get better (and that may take a long, long, time)

Source: tigerdroppings.com

Fed Governor Kevin WarshTo G20 : Dollar Defense By Inflation


Interesting CNBC video interview with interpretations of what Kevin Warsh's message to the G20 was about... Below are some excerpts from the Jim Rickards interview: First link at bottom of this post is to Rickards video, second link is to Warsh's comments in the rare Fed Governor WSJ op/ed. The timing of Warsh's comments almost certainly mean they were for the benefit of the G20 participants.

'Fed governor Kevin Warsh's opinions in WSJ were aimed at the G20 participants'

'Fed might target asset prices (gold) in addition to using the usual metrics to decide when to raise interest rates...This would be in defense of the dollar'

'If gold goes to $1,500 it's not because dentists are filling a lot of teeth...the Fed is not going to let the dollar implode...the Fed is preempting the collapse of the dollar'

'The dollar must be defended because it is the lynch pin of national security' (a fact that I have pointed out often; ie, no economic strength = no military strength)

'In order to defend the dollar, the Fed should have began raising interest rates 6 months ago' (of course this would have collapsed the economy, stifled any hope of a Keynesian recovery, and collapsed the too big to fail businesses, so it was not done)

'The Fed needs the dollar to go down by about half over the next 14 years' (inflate at ~ 4% per year)

'There is no combination of growth and taxes that will pay for the $60 Trillion in US contingent liabilities...but the US can pay half thus the dollar will be cut in half by inflation in the next 14-17 years' (that is what the Fed does best...inflate away the dollar)

'The concept of the Fed maintaining price stability is nonsense...If you had a nickle and three pennies in your hand that is the current value of the dollar compared to 1913 when the Fed was created.'

'Fed inflation is a dynamically unstable process but it is done to prop up the value of the banks.'

'The Fed would love to inflate gradually but if the market sees what is going on we could have a very rapid collapse in the dollar which would be reflected in gold prices.' (NOTE: I have no desire for the dollar to collapse, for gold to rise dramatically against the dollar, for personal profit taking by selling gold for inflated dollars...and I have made these points clearly in past posts. The dollar is simply a hedge against inflation, a way to preserve wealth, individual's personal savings that the Fed cannot inflate away without extreme intervention in commodities markets...which the Fed and all central banks do on a routine basis.)

'The IMF is being anointed as a global central bank and is now issuing debt (SDRs) on a large scale for the first time in history. The issuance of SDRs by the IMF is simply printing more money backed by nothing.' (sound familiar?)

'This has to do with Triffin's Dilemma (from 1960) which postulates that "in order to stimulate world trade some hard currency country must run persistent large deficits, but if that country runs persistent large deficits eventually that country goes broke" (more about Triffin's dilemma at this Wiki link LINK )

'In order for the US to get it's own economy/dollar in order the problem is being handed over to the IMF. The global economy will be fueled by SDRs issued by the IMF. This will allow the dollar to be taken off into a corner and depreciated to solve the US debt problems.'

'The IMF issuance of SDRs will solve the US dollar problem but the US will no longer have the privilage of being the world reserve currency and this fact will have national security implications. The dollar will be just another currency among many fiat currencies.'

'What Fed Governor Warsh is saying is to the G20 is 'we are not going to let this happen'. If gold goes to $1,500 - 2,000 per oz (because people become frightened of a dollar collapse) we are going to raise interest rates ~ 50 - 75 basis points to defend the dollar.'

'I reccommend to my clients that they hold 10% of their assets in gold but the problem with holding gold is that you are fighting every central bank in the world. Central banks hate gold because it limits their ability to print money...but the markets are the markets and even the central banks are not bigger that the markets.' (Mr Market always wins)

'Warsh is trying to preempt an unstable decline of the dollar. What the Fed wants is a stable, steady decline.'

I have my own opinions about what Rickards and Warsh are saying and they are not necessarily the same position of either man. I have posted this for the benefit of readers that want to know what MIGHT be ongoing in behind the scenes manuvering between various world governments/central bankers. Rickards made an attempt to read between the lines of Warsh's op/ed WSJ piece and he might be partially right, totally right or totally wrong. IOWs, use your own judgement...thimk! ...and, this is not a Q&A with Rivers...I will not be defending this post or the opinions of Rickards...and I will not be speculating on the comments or goals of Warsh and the Fed.

LINK

'The Fed's Job Is Only Half Over' Kevin Warsh, Fed Reserve Governor... LINK


See also Money, Banking, Economic Collapse...so ya think ya know it all! This should help!

Kelly The Scammer...Should have went to the Slammer...Judge Judy, ya gotta throw the book at 'em...but nice job anyway.

Tell Me You Don't Feel This Way ...I bet you feel the same as I (You can read it or simply let Glenn read it for you...)

You can read it or simply let Glenn read it for you...either way, do it. Do it for yourself. Do it for your country.

I'm a home grown American citizen, 53, registered Democrat all my life. Before the last presidential election I registered as a Republican because I no longer felt the Democratic Party represents my views or works to pursue issues important to me. Now I no longer feel the Republican Party represents my views or works to pursue issues important to me. The fact is I no longer feel any political party or representative in Washington represents my views or works to pursue the issues important to me. There must be someone. Please tell me who you are. Please stand up and tell me that you are there and that you're willing to fight for our Constitution as it was written. Please stand up now. You might ask yourself what my views and issues are that I would horribly feel so disenfranchised by both major political parties. What kind of nut job am I? Will you please tell me?

Well, these are briefly my views and issues for which I seek representation:

One, illegal immigration. I want you to stop coddling illegal immigrants and secure our borders. Close the underground tunnels. Stop the violence and the trafficking in drugs and people. No amnesty, not again. Been there, done that, no resolution. P.S., I'm not a racist. This isn't to be confused with legal immigration.

Two, the TARP bill, I want it repealed and I want no further funding supplied to it. We told you no, but you did it anyway. I want the remaining unfunded 95% repealed. Freeze, repeal.

Three: Czars, I want the circumvention of our checks and balances stopped immediately. Fire the czars. No more czars. Government officials answer to the process, not to the president. Stop trampling on our Constitution and honor it.

Four, cap and trade. The debate on global warming is not over. There is more to say.

Five, universal healthcare. I will not be rushed into another expensive decision. Don't you dare try to pass this in the middle of the night and then go on break. Slow down!

Six, growing government control. I want states rights and sovereignty fully restored. I want less government in my life, not more. Shrink it down. Mind your own business. You have enough to take care of with your real obligations. Why don't you start there.

Seven, ACORN. I do not want ACORN and its affiliates in charge of our 2010 census. I want them investigated. I also do not want mandatory escrow fees contributed to them every time on every real estate deal that closes. Stop the funding to ACORN and its affiliates pending impartial audits and investigations. I do not trust them with taking the census over with our taxpayer money. I don't trust them with our taxpayer money. Face up to the allegations against them and get it resolved before taxpayers get any more involved with them. If it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, hello. Stop protecting your political buddies. You work for us, the people. Investigate.

Eight, redistribution of wealth. No, no, no. I work for my money. It is mine. I have always worked for people with more money than I have because they gave me jobs. That is the only redistribution of wealth that I will support. I never got a job from a poor person. Why do you want me to hate my employers? Why ‑‑ what do you have against shareholders making a profit?

Nine, charitable contributions. Although I never got a job from a poor person, I have helped many in need. Charity belongs in our local communities, where we know our needs best and can use our local talent and our local resources. Butt out, please. We want to do it ourselves.

Ten, corporate bailouts. Knock it off. Sink or swim like the rest of us. If there are hard times ahead, we'll be better off just getting into it and letting the strong survive. Quick and painful. Have you ever ripped off a Band‑Aid? We will pull together. Great things happen in America under great hardship. Give us the chance to innovate. We cannot disappoint you more than you have disappointed us.

Eleven, transparency and accountability. How about it? No, really, how about it? Let's have it. Let's say we give the buzzwords a rest and have some straight honest talk. Please try ‑‑ please stop manipulating and trying to appease me with clever wording. I am not the idiot you obviously take me for. Stop sneaking around and meeting in back rooms making deals with your friends. It will only be a prelude to your criminal investigation. Stop hiding things from me.

Twelve, unprecedented quick spending. Stop it now.

Take a breath. Listen to the people. Let's just slow down and get some input from some nonpoliticians on the subject. Stop making everything an emergency. Stop speed reading our bills into law. I am not an activist. I am not a community organizer. Nor am I a terrorist, a militant or a violent person. I am a parent and a grandparent. I work. I'm busy. I'm busy. I am busy, and I am tired. I thought we elected competent people to take care of the business of government so that we could work, raise our families, pay our bills, have a little recreation, complain about taxes, endure our hardships, pursue our personal goals, cut our lawn, wash our cars on the weekends and be responsible contributing members of society and teach our children to be the same all while living in the home of the free and land of the brave.

I entrusted you with upholding the Constitution. I believed in the checks and balances to keep from getting far off course. What happened? You are very far off course. Do you really think I find humor in the hiring of a speed reader to unintelligently ramble all through a bill that you signed into law without knowing what it contained? I do not. It is a mockery of the responsibility I have entrusted to you. It is a slap in the face. I am not laughing at your arrogance. Why is it that I feel as if you would not trust me to make a single decision about my own life and how I would live it but you should expect that I should trust you with the debt that you have laid on all of us and our children. We did not want the TARP bill. We said no. We would repeal it if we could. I am sure that we still cannot. There is such urgency and recklessness in all of the recent spending.

From my perspective, it seems that all of you have gone insane. I also know that I am far from alone in these feelings. Do you honestly feel that your current pursuits have merit to patriotic Americans? We want it to stop. We want to put the brakes on everything that is being rushed by us and forced upon us. We want our voice back. You have forced us to put our lives on hold to straighten out the mess that you are making. We will have to give up our vacations, our time spent with our children, any relaxation time we may have had and money we cannot afford to spend on you to bring our concerns to Washington. Our president often knows all the right buzzword is unsustainable. Well, no kidding. How many tens of thousands of dollars did the focus group cost to come up with that word? We don't want your overpriced words. Stop treating us like we're morons.

We want all of you to stop focusing on your reelection and do the job we want done, not the job you want done or the job your party wants done. You work for us and at this rate I guarantee you not for long because we are coming. We will be heard and we will be represented. You think we're so busy with our lives that we will never come for you? We are the formerly silent majority, all of us who quietly work , pay taxes, obey the law, vote, save money, keep our noses to the grindstone and we are now looking up at you. You have awakened us, the patriotic spirit so strong and so powerful that it had been sleeping too long. You have pushed us too far. Our numbers are great. They may surprise you. For every one of us who will be there, there will be hundreds more that could not come. Unlike you, we have their trust. We will represent them honestly, rest assured. They will be at the polls on voting day to usher you out of office. We have cancelled vacations. We will use our last few dollars saved. We will find the representation among us and a grassroots campaign will flourish. We didn't ask for this fight. But the gloves are coming off. We do not come in violence, but we are angry. You will represent us or you will be replaced with someone who will. There are candidates among us when hewill rise like a Phoenix from the ashes that you have made of our constitution.

Democrat, Republican, independent, libertarian. Understand this. We don't care. Political parties are meaningless to us. Patriotic Americans are willing to do right by us and our Constitution and that is all that matters to us now. We are going to fire all of you who abuse power and seek more. It is not your power. It is ours and we want it back. We entrusted you with it and you abused it. You are dishonorable. You are dishonest. As Americans we are ashamed of you. You have brought shame to us. If you are not representing the wants and needs of your constituency loudly and consistently, in spite of the objections of your party, you will be fired. Did you hear? We no longer care about your political parties. You need to be loyal to us, not to them. Because we will get you fired and they will not save you. If you do or can represent me, my issues, my views, please stand up. Make your identity known. You need to make some noise about it. Speak up. I need to know who you are. If you do not speak up, you will be herded out with the rest of the sheep and we will replace the whole damn congress if need be one by one. We are coming. Are we coming for you? Who do you represent? What do you represent? Listen. Because we are coming. We the people are coming.

Janet Contreras

Principles

I. Illegal immigration. I want you to stop coddling illegal immigrants and secure our borders. Close the underground tunnels. Stop the violence and the trafficking in drugs and people. No amnesty, not again. Been there, done that, no resolution. P.S., I'm not a racist. This isn't to be confused with legal immigration.

II. TARP. I want it repealed and I want no further funding supplied to it. We told you no, but you did it anyway. I want the remaining unfunded 95% repealed. Freeze, repeal.

III. Czars. I want the circumvention of our checks and balances stopped immediately. Fire the czars. No more czars. Government officials answer to the process, not to the president. Stop trampling on our Constitution and honor it.

IV. Cap and trade. The debate on global warming is not over. There is more to say.

V. Universal healthcare. I will not be rushed into another expensive decision. Don't you dare try to pass this in the middle of the night and then go on break. Slow down!

VI. Growing government control. I want states rights and sovereignty fully restored. I want less government in my life, not more. Shrink it down. Mind your own business. You have enough to take care of with your real obligations. Why don't you start there.

VII. ACORN. I do not want ACORN and its affiliates in charge of our 2010 census. I want them investigated. I also do not want mandatory escrow fees contributed to them every time on every real estate deal that closes. Stop the funding to ACORN and its affiliates pending impartial audits and investigations. I do not trust them with taking the census over with our taxpayer money. I don't trust them with our taxpayer money. Face up to the allegations against them and get it resolved before taxpayers get any more involved with them. If it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, hello. Stop protecting your political buddies. You work for us, the people. Investigate.

VIII. Redistribution of wealth. No, no, no. I work for my money. It is mine. I have always worked for people with more money than I have because they gave me jobs. That is the only redistribution of wealth that I will support. I never got a job from a poor person. Why do you want me to hate my employers? What do you have against shareholders making a profit?

IX. Charitable contributions. Although I never got a job from a poor person, I have helped many in need. Charity belongs in our local communities, where we know our needs best and can use our local talent and our local resources. Butt out, please. We want to do it ourselves.

X. Corporate bailouts. Knock it off. Sink or swim like the rest of us. If there are hard times ahead, we'll be better off just getting into it and letting the strong survive. Quick and painful. Have you ever ripped off a Band%u2011Aid? We will pull together. Great things happen in America under great hardship. Give us the chance to innovate. We cannot disappoint you more than you have disappointed us.

XI. Transparency and accountability. How about it? No, really, how about it? Let's have it. Let's say we give the buzzwords a rest and have some straight honest talk. Please try %u2011%u2011 please stop manipulating and trying to appease me with clever wording. I am not the idiot you obviously take me for. Stop sneaking around and meeting in back rooms making deals with your friends. It will only be a prelude to your criminal investigation. Stop hiding things from me.

XII. Unprecedented spending. Stop it now. Take a breath. Listen to the people.

________________

If You Agree Sign The Petition Here (please, do it for your country, Norm)

Saturday, October 3, 2009

Money, Banking, Economic Collapse...so ya think ya know it all! This should help!

From Storm'n Norm'n
Forward by Norman E. Hooben
Years ago I was taking a course in basic medical procedures and each and every time this particular instructor made this statement while simultaneously writing on the chalk-board that which he wanted you to learn, "I want you to know and I want you to remember." ...you could rest assured that it was going to be on the exam. Then there was this expression that I first read on a small flier as a child sifting through my grandfathers papers... My grandfather had invented the spanner wrench many years before I was born and with the spanner came a set of instructions and/or uses for the spanner. And on the cover page of these instructions was a drawing of a little man shaking a stick with the inscription overhead, "And don't you forget it!"
So what's this all have to do with your money, banking, economic collapse, etc....? For one thing the average person on the street does not have a clue as to what is going on in the political arena...they just think they know it all and that's why we're in trouble (they vote for the wrong person for all the wrong reasons). There are however, some people that do know what's going on and I'm going to try and help you gain some of that knowledge. One such knowledgeable person is someone who devotes much of her time researching (I should repeat that word several times...researching and researching...you get the point) that which most of us know very little. Her name is Ellen Brown and she writes extensively about these behind the headline shenanigans while we tend to the frivolous local news. I've provided a partial reading of of one and a full reading of her latest research so that you will be in-the-know...and everybody else will be still clueless!
With that said... I want you to know and I want you to remember...the following:

From and article published September 21, 2009 "LANDMARK DECISION PROMISES MASSIVE RELIEF FOR HOMEOWNERS AND TROUBLED BANKS"

“...MERS (MERS is an acronym for Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems) has reduced transparency in the mortgage market in two ways. First, consumers and their counsel can no longer turn to the public recording systems to learn the identity of the holder of their note. Today, county recording systems are increasingly full of one meaningless name, MERS, repeated over and over again. But more importantly, all across the country, MERS now brings foreclosure proceedings in its own name – even though it is not the financial party in interest. This is problematic because MERS is not prepared for or equipped to provide responses to consumers' discovery requests with respect to predatory lending claims and defenses. In effect, the securitization conduit attempts to use a faceless and seemingly innocent proxy with no knowledge of predatory origination or servicing behavior to do the dirty work of seizing the consumer's home. . . . So imposing is this opaque corporate wall, that in a “vast” number of foreclosures, MERS actually succeeds in foreclosing without producing the original note – the legal sine qua non of foreclosure – much less documentation that could support predatory lending defenses.”

The real parties in interest concealed behind MERS have been made so faceless, however, that there is now no party with standing to foreclose. The Kansas Supreme Court stated that MERS' relationship “is more akin to that of a straw man than to a party possessing all the rights given a buyer.” The court opined:

“By statute, assignment of the mortgage carries with it the assignment of the debt. . . . Indeed, in the event that a mortgage loan somehow separates interests of the note and the deed of trust, with the deed of trust lying with some independent entity, the mortgage may become unenforceable. The practical effect of splitting the deed of trust from the promissory note is to make it impossible for the holder of the note to foreclose, unless the holder of the deed of trust is the agent of the holder of the note. Without the agency relationship, the person holding only the note lacks the power to foreclose in the event of default. The person holding only the deed of trust will never experience default because only the holder of the note is entitled to payment of the underlying obligation. The mortgage loan becomes ineffectual when the note holder did not also hold the deed of trust.” [Citations omitted; emphasis added.]

MERS as straw man lacks standing to foreclose, but so does original lender, although it was a signatory to the deal. The lender lacks standing because title had to pass to the secured parties for the arrangement to legally qualify as a “security.” The lender has been paid in full and has no further legal interest in the claim. Only the securities holders have skin in the game; but they have no standing to foreclose, because they were not signatories to the original agreement. They cannot satisfy the basic requirement of contract law that a plaintiff suing on a written contract must produce a signed contract proving he is entitled to relief. Read the full article here

________________

So now that you fully understand shenanigans lets move on to Ellen's latest...(This one ought to scare the begeebees out of you. What's going to happen to ALL of your money?)

The IMF Catapults From Shunned Agency To Global Central Bank

"A year ago," said law professor Ross Buckley on Australia's ABC News last week, "nobody wanted to know the International Monetary Fund. Now it's the organiser for the international stimulus package which has been sold as a stimulus package for poor countries."

The IMF may have catapulted to a more exalted status than that. According to Jim Rickards, director of market intelligence for scientific consulting firm Omnis, the unannounced purpose of last week's G20 Summit in Pittsburgh was that "the IMF is being anointed as the global central bank." Rickards said in a CNBC interview on September 25 that the plan is for the IMF to issue a global reserve currency that can replace the dollar.

"They've issued debt for the first time in history," said Rickards. "They're issuing SDRs. The last SDRs came out around 1980 or '81, $30 billion. Now they're issuing $300 billion. When I say issuing, it's printing money; there's nothing behind these SDRs."

SDRs, or Special Drawing Rights, are a synthetic currency originally created by the IMF to replace gold and silver in large international transactions. But they have been little used until now. Why does the world suddenly need a new global fiat currency and global central bank? Rickards says it because of "Triffin's Dilemma," a problem first noted by economist Robert Triffin in the 1960s. When the world went off the gold standard, a reserve currency had to be provided by some large-currency country to service global trade. But leaving its currency out there for international purposes meant that the country would have to continually buy more than it sold, running large deficits; and that meant it would eventually go broke. The U.S. has fueled the world economy for the last 50 years, but now it is going broke. The U.S. can settle its debts and get its own house in order, but that would cause world trade to contract. A substitute global reserve currency is needed to fuel the global economy while the U.S. solves its debt problems, and that new currency is to be the IMF's SDRs.

That's the solution to Triffin's dilemma, says Rickards, but it leaves the U.S. in a vulnerable position. If we face a war or other global catastrophe, we no longer have the privilege of printing money. We will have to borrow the global reserve currency like everyone else, putting us at the mercy of the global lenders.

To avoid that, the Federal Reserve has hinted that it is prepared to raise interest rates, even though that would mean further squeezing the real estate market and the real economy. Rickards pointed to an oped piece by Fed governor Kevin Warsh, published in The Wall Street Journal on the same day the G20 met. Warsh said that the Fed would need to raise interest rates if asset prices rose - which Rickards interpreted to mean gold, the traditional go-to investment of investors fleeing the dollar. "Central banks hate gold because it limits their ability to print money," said Rickards. If gold were to suddenly go to $1,500 an ounce, it would mean the dollar was collapsing. Warsh was giving the market a heads up that the Fed wasn't going to let that happen. The Fed would raise interest rates to attract dollars back into the country. As Rickards put it, "Warsh is saying, 'We sort of have to trash the dollar, but we're going to do it gradually.' . . . Warsh is trying to preempt an unstable decline in the dollar. What they want, of course, is a stable, steady decline."

What about the Fed's traditional role of maintaining price stability? It's nonsense, said Rickards. "What they do is inflate the dollar to prop up the banks." The dollar has to be inflated because there is more debt outstanding than money to pay it with. The government currently has contingent liabilities of $60 trillion. "There's no feasible combination of growth and taxes that can fund that liability," Rickards said. The government could fund about half that in the next 14 years, which means the dollar needs to be devalued by half in that time.

The Dollar Needs to be Devalued by Half?

Reducing the value of the dollar by half means that our hard-earned dollars are going to go only half as far, something that does not sound like a good thing for Main Street. Indeed, when we look more closely, we see that the move is not designed to serve us but to serve the banks. Why does the dollar need to be devalued? It is to compensate for a dilemma in the current monetary scheme that is even more intractable than Triffin's, one that might be called a fraud. There is never enough money to cover the outstanding debt, because all money today except coins is created by banks in the form of loans, and more money is always owed back to the banks than they advance when they create their loans. Banks create the principal but not the interest necessary to pay their loans back.

The Fed, which is owned by a consortium of banks and was set up to serve their interests, is tasked with seeing that the banks are paid back; and the only way to do that is to inflate the money supply to create the dollars to cover the missing interest. But that means diluting the value of the dollar, which imposes a stealth tax on the citizenry; and the money supply is inflated by making more loans, which adds to the debt and interest burden that the inflated money supply was supposed to relieve. The banking system is basically a pyramid scheme, which can be kept going only by continually creating more debt.

The IMF's $500 Billion Stimulus Package:
Designed to Help Developing Countries or the Banks?

And that brings us back to the IMF's stimulus package discussed last week by Professor Buckley. The package was billed as helping emerging nations hard hit by the global credit crisis, but Buckley doubts that that is what is really going on. Rather, he says, the $500 billion pledged by the G20 nations is "a stimulus package for the rich countries' banks."

Why does he think that? Because stimulus packages are usually grants. The money coming from the IMF will be extended in the form of loans.

These are loans that are made by the G20 countries through the IMF to poor countries. They have to be repaid and what they're going to be used for is to repay the international banks now. . . . [T]he money won't really touch down in the poor countries. It will go straight through them to repay their creditors. . . . But the poor countries will spend the next 30 years repaying the IMF.

Basically, said Professor Buckley, the loans extended by the IMF represent an increase in seniority of the debt. That means developing nations will be even more firmly locked in debt than they are now.

At the moment the debt is owed by poor countries to banks, and if the poor countries had to, they could default on that. The bank debt is going to be replaced by debt that's owed to the IMF, which for very good strategic reasons the poor countries will always service. . . . The rich countries have made this $500 billion available to stimulate their own banks, and the IMF is a wonderful party to put in between the countries and the debtors and the banks.

Not long ago, the IMF was being called obsolete. Now it is back in business with a vengeance; but it's the old unseemly business of serving as the collection agency for the international banking industry. As long as third world debtors can service their loans by paying the interest on them, the banks can count the loans as "assets" on their books, allowing them to keep their pyramid scheme going by inflating the global money supply with yet more loans. It is all for the greater good of the banks and their affiliated multinational corporations; but the $500 billion in funding is coming from the taxpayers of the G20 nations, and the foreseeable outcome will be that the United States will join the ranks of debtor nations subservient to a global empire of central bankers.

Follow Ellen Brown on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ellenhbrown

And don't you forget it!

See also Keeping The Banks Honest