Thursday, July 21, 2011

20 Signs That The Fabric Of American Society Is Coming Apart At The Seams...

20 Signs That The Fabric Of American Society Is Coming Apart At The Seams...


There is wild disagreement about what is causing it, but what most people can agree on is that there is something fundamentally wrong with America.  The fabric of American society just does not seem to be as strong as it used to.  In fact, many would argue that society is coming apart at the seams. Corruption and decay seem to be everywhere.  I spend a lot of time in my other articles blaming a lot of this corruption and decay on politicians, bureaucrats and business leaders, but the reality is that they are only part of the story.  The truth is that those who are leading us are a reflection of what we have become as a nation.  If you got rid of all of our corrupt leaders that would not suddenly “fix” this country.  Millions of ordinary Americans have become deeply corrupt as well.  The kinds of things that you are about to read about below were very rare in past generations.  Society is falling apart all around us and we haven’t even seen the complete collapse of the U.S. economy yet.
A lot of people like to blame the increasingly bizarre behavior of the American people on the economy, but the reality is that things are not nearly as bad as they are eventually going to be.  Yes, the U.S. “Misery Index” recently hit a 28 year high.  Tens of millions of American families are deeply suffering. Unemployment is rampant and unprecedented numbers of Americans have been getting kicked out of their homes.
But that is nothing compared to what is coming.
So what is America going to look like when true economic suffering comes along?
That is something to think about.
A lot of the items in the list below may seem easy to dismiss as “isolated incidents”.  But when you start examining patterns of behavior over an extended period of time, certain trends begin to emerge.  America is become a very cruel place.  The love of most people seems to be growing cold.  What some people are willing to do for a little bit of money or just because someone has “pissed them off” is absolutely stunning.  The America of today is fundamentally different from the America of past generations.
We have changed, and not for the better.
The following are 20 signs that the fabric of American society is coming apart at the seams…..
#1 A 17-year-old Florida teen is being accused of killing his parents with a hammer, hiding their bodies in the master bedroom, and then inviting dozens of people over for a massive house party.
#2 What is it with 17-year-olds?  Another 17-year-old has been charged with putting a plastic bag over the head of his mother and choking her to death with a belt.  His two brothers just stood by and watched while this happened.  Apparently the 17-year-old was infuriated because his mother wanted them to play a game of Yahtzee with her.
#3 The largest school cheating scandal in the history of the United States was recently uncovered in the Atlanta area.  Dozens of teachers and principles were involved according to a recently released 413 page report….
More than three quarters of the 56 schools investigated cheated on a 2009 standardized state test, with 178 educators implicated, including 38 principals. Eighty-two teachers confessed to erasing students’ answers and correcting tests. The report says widespread cheating has occurred since at least 2001 and that orders to cheat came from the top.
#4 A Vancouver, Washington woman has been charged with trying to sell her newborn baby in front of a Taco Bell.  Apparently she was hoping to get somewhere between $500 and $5000 for the baby.
#5 In the United States today, if you don’t show cops “proper respect” there is a good chance that you are going to get tazed.  Just check out this disturbing video of an incident that recently happened in Alabama.
#6 A 48-year-old woman in California was recently arrested after she drugged her husband, chopped off his manhood and threw it into the garbage disposal.
#7 In the Dallas area, five people (including a pregnant woman) were trampled while lying on the ground as thousands of desperate people madly dashed to get into line to get on a waiting list for rental assistance vouchers.
#8 A 35-year-old New York man that has been charged with “kidnapping, killing and dismembering an 8-year-old boy” says that he “hears voices” and he has been ordered to undergo a psychological evaluation.
#9 There has been a rash of car robberies in the Atlanta area recently.  Just a couple of nights ago, more than 30 cars were broken into in a single night in south Buckhead.
#10 All over the United States this summer, thieves are stealing just about anything they can get their hands on.  People are stealing air conditioners, copper wiring, restaurant furniture, metal drain covers and even hair extensions.
#11 In Woodstock, Georgia a 61-year-old man reportedly promised to give a 17-year-old boy money if he would do certain “things” for the man.  Well, it turns out that the 61-year-old man ended up setting the teen on fire….
A 61-year-old man has been arrested on charges of aggravated battery, cruelty to children, false imprisonment, and solicitation of sodomy after he set a 17-year-old boy on fire in Woodstock.
#12 In Washington state, a 23-year-old woman is accused of dumping her newborn baby into a trashcan at the hospital.  When a nurse finally found the plastic bag with the baby boy inside of it, the child was blue in the face from a lack of oxygen.  Fortunately, the baby survived the ordeal.
#13 In another story from Washington state, a man that is being charged with producing child porn is being allowed to watch that porn all he wants while he is in prison because he is acting as his own lawyer and needs to have “access to the evidence“….
So because he’s acting as his own lawyer, he gets full access to the evidence against him. Which means that as he prepares for trial, a private room has been set up in the jail where Gilbert can watch the full 30-hour archives of his own child porn collection.
#14 The National Retail Federation says that “inventory loss” for retail storeswas up 11% last year.  Most of the “inventory loss” is attributed to such things as shoplifting and employee theft.
#15 In Minnesota recently, a mob of teen girls brutally pummeled a mother and her two daughters until they were black and blue.  Apparently the mob of teen girls was enraged over a pair of missing sunglasses.
#16 One of the hot new trends for young males is to play the “knockout game“.  In this “game”, a group of young men picks out an innocent bystander and the first one to knock that person out is the “winner”.
#17 Prior to 2011, most Americans had never even heard of “mob robberies“.  Today, they have made headline news all over the nation.
#18 In the San Francisco area recently, fire crews and police just stood on the shore and watched as a suicidal 50-year-old man slowly drowned to death in the San Francisco Bay.
#19 Meanwhile, the federal government continues to waste money on some of the most bizarre things imaginable.  For example, the federal government actually gave money to the National Institutes of Health to study the effect that the size of “a certain part of the body” has on the sex lives of gay men.  Can anyone think of a reason why the federal government would want to throw money away on such frivolous studies when millions of Americans can’t even find jobs right now?
#20 Many believe that a big reason for all of this chaos in America today is the decline of the American family.  In 1960, married couples accounted for 75 percent of all households in America.  Today, they account for just 48 percentof all households.
Whatever your political or religious philosophy is, hopefully you can agree that America is in trouble.  Every single day, there are more shocking revelations about the corruption and the decay that are spreading throughout this nation.
Sadly, instead of coming together to work on some solutions to our growing problems, Americans are becoming more divided than ever.
The mainstream media teaches us that our “opponents” are those that belong to political, social or religious groups that are different from our own.  They love to divide us and play us off against each other.  Everywhere you look in America, hate is growing.
But hatred is never the answer.  Yes, we should always stand up for what we believe is right, but we can do that and still love one another at the same time.
Unfortunately, as America continues to come apart at the seams we are probably going to see this country become even more divided.
United we stand, divided we fall – you make the call America.

Courtesy of infowars.com

State Prosecutes Sports Fan For Saying Mean Things On Facebook...

State Prosecutes Sports Fan For Saying Mean Things On Facebook...


The BBC is lending a hand in the propaganda blitz now in full swing to demonize the internet ahead of the government regulating speech and controlling who is allowed to use the electronic medium.


In Scotland, the police apparently have nothing better to do than monitor Facebook and other social networks in an effort to ferret out mean people making nasty and snide comments.
Michael Baily, an intemperate 20 year old Celtic fan, posted a racist comment about El Hadji Diouf, a Senegalese footballer, on Facebook.
“He was caught after a police task force began reviewing internet sites after March’s so-called Old Firm shame game,” reports the BBC. “At Glasgow Sheriff Court, sentence on Bailey was deferred for reports.”
Sentence? That’s right. The Scottish kid will be punished by the state for making admittedly insensitive and stupid comments. It is now a crime in Scotland to say mean things. Scots can go to prison or be sentenced to do “community service” – slave labor for the state – for making comments that are uttered every single hour of every single day in pubs and on the streets of Scotland and everywhere else.
In addition to scouring the internet for bigots, the Scottish police are jailing football fans for singing God Save The Queen or crossing themselves. The worst “offenders” could face five years in prison, according to the Daily Record. A community safety minister told the newspaper it is criminal to sing God Save The Queen or Rule Britannia in or near sports grounds or in pubs.
The effort specifically targets “keyboard warriors” who use the internet to “spread hate,” in other words post racist or insensitive comments.
As early as 2001, the EU moved to ban racist speech on the internet. In 2009, the Canadian Human Rights Council declared a law banning so-called hate speech on the internet unconstitutional. China is notorious for its internet censorship and India recently passed regulations banning speech the government considers “disparaging,” “harassing,” “blasphemous” or “hateful.” In 2009, Australia proposed establishing an internet filter to censor political speech.



In May, former president Clinton proposed censoring internet speech. “It would be a legitimate thing to do,” Clinton said in an interview that aired on CNBC. Clinton suggested the government should set-up an agency that monitors all media speech for supposed factual errors.
“That is, it would be like, I don’t know, National Public Radio or BBC or something like that, except it would have to be really independent and they would not express opinions, and their mandate would be narrowly confined to identifying relevant factual errors” he said. “And also, they would also have to have citations so that they could be checked in case they made a mistake. Somebody needs to be doing it, and maybe it’s a worthy expenditure of taxpayer money.”
In 2010, we exposed a plan by Cass Sunstein, head the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, to ban speech on the internet the government disagrees with. Sunstein proposed the creation of an internet “Fairness Doctrine” similar to the one that was used for years to limit and eliminate free speech on the radio.


Courtesy of infowars.com

Cash Crunch for Cities, School Districts may Worsen...

Cash Crunch for Cities, School Districts may Worsen...


 (Reuters) - Local governments across America are getting spotty relief at best from fiscal pains even as state governments put 2011's budget battles behind them and worrying headlines about state fiscal difficulties dwindle.
"There's a credit risk rotation away from the states and down to local governments," said Gary Pollack, a managing director at Deutsche Bank Private Wealth Management in New York. "And it's just beginning."
America's nearly 90,000 counties, cities, public school districts and other local governments rely heavily on property taxes and aid from state governments to provide essential services, such as fire protection and education.
But the five-year-old U.S. housing downturn is savaging property tax revenues, and state legislators looking to balance their own budgets in a slow national economic recovery are often cutting aid to cities and towns.
Counties typically get just shy of 31 percent of revenues from state governments, cities and towns about 19 percent, and school districts over half, according to U.S. Census data cited in a report by Wells Fargo Securities analyst Natalie Cohen.
And just a few weeks ago, temporary federal aid authorized under the 2009 economic stimulus program came to an end. Those funds had helped local and state governments through the worst of America's Great Recession.
"They'll be running a bit naked for a while," Pollack said.
For investors such as Pollack, who oversees about $6 billion in municipal debt assets, the pressures on local government finances will require more rigorous bond research before buying bonds.
"I don't want a downgrade, or worse," Pollack said, adding that he favors buying mainly general obligation and 'essential services' municipal bonds, as well as debt issued by top universities and some big hospital systems.

Courtesy of reuters.com

Fed Planning for Potential Default...

Fed Planning for Potential Default...


(Reuters) - The Federal Reserve is actively preparing for the possibility that the United States could default as a deadline for raising the government's $14.3 trillion borrowing limit looms, a top Fed policymaker said on Wednesday.
Charles Plosser, president of the Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank, said the U.S. central bank has for the past few months been working closely with Treasury, ironing out what to do if the world's biggest economy runs out of cash on August 2.
"We are in contingency planning mode," Plosser told Reuters in an interview at the regional central bank's headquarters in Philadelphia. "We are all engaged. ... It's a very active process."
Plosser said his "gut feeling" was that President Barack Obama and Congress will come to an agreement to increase the Treasury's borrowing authority in time to avert a default on government obligations.
Obama was due to meet with top Republicans in Congress on Wednesday to discuss the latest attempts to end the dispute over raising the country's debt ceiling, a row which has raised the prospect of the Treasury Department running out of money to pay its bills next month.
The Treasury has repeatedly said default was unthinkable and that there was no alternative to raising the debt ceiling. Plosser's remarks marked the most extensive public comments yet on preparations for a default from a U.S. official.
A Treasury spokesperson could not be immediately reached for comment.
One aspect of the Fed's contingency planning is purely operational: the Fed is developing procedures about how the Treasury would notify it on which checks would get cleared and which wouldn't, Plosser said.
The Fed effectively acts as the Treasury's bank -- it clears the government's checks to everyone from social security recipients to government workers.
"We are developing processes and procedures by which the Treasury communicates to us what we are going to do," Plosser said, adding that the task was manageable. "How the Fed is going to go about clearing government checks. Which ones are going to be good? Which ones are not going to be good?"
"There are a lot of people working on what we would do and how we would do it," he said.
Plosser added that there are difficult questions that the Fed itself had to grapple with.
The Fed lends to banks at the discount window against good collateral. But what happens if U.S. Treasuries no longer fit that bill?
"Do we treat them as if they didn't default, in which case we would be saying we are pretending it never happened? Or do we treat them as if they defaulted and don't lend against them?" Plosser said. "Those are more policy questions."
Plosser, who was a vocal critic of some of the Fed's extraordinary lending during the financial crisis -- which he said veered into fiscal policy and risked the central bank's independence -- warned it would be crucial for the Fed not to do the Treasury's work for it.
"We have to be very careful that we don't become, that we don't conduct fiscal policy in this context," he said. "That we don't substitute for the inability of the Treasury to borrow in some circumstances."
INCLINED TO TIGHTEN
Plosser, a noted policy hawk on inflation, argued the Fed might need to raise interest rates before the end of the year, despite recent evidence of renewed economic weakness.
He said he expects the economy to grow at a 3-3.5 percent annual rate over the second half of 2011 with the jobless rate declining to around 8.5 percent by year's end.
"The more my forecast comes to fruition the more I'm going to feel like we may have to act," said Plosser, who is a voting member of the Fed's monetary policy-setting committee this year. "I'd like to have a little more confidence in that forecast."
Plosser pinned the slowdown in economic growth over the first half of the year to "easily identifiable" factors, such as weather, a spike in oil prices and supply disruptions from Japan's earthquake. He also cited uncertainty stemming from Europe's fiscal morass and the wrangling over U.S. debt in Washington.
"I don't see the fundamentals of the economy as changed that much," he said. "Yeah, there's been some shocks and disruptions, but the underlying forces that are going to cause us to continue a slow, moderate recovery are still in place."
That said, the Fed, which is charged with ensuring financial stability, would clearly feel the responsibility to step in as a lender of last resort if markets seized up after a U.S. default, he added.
Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke last week warned that a default could have "catastrophic" effects on financial markets.
Plosser, a former dean of the Simon School of Business at Rochester University, was more circumspect.
"It could be very bad. At some level we don't really know what the consequences could be. It could be very serious. It could be less serious. Do we really want to run that experiment?"

Courtesy of reuters.com

Police to Begin iPhone Iris Scans Amid Privacy Concerns...

Police to Begin iPhone Iris Scans Amid Privacy Concerns...


(Reuters) - Dozens of police departments nationwide are gearing up to use a tech company's already controversial iris- and facial-scanning device that slides over an iPhone and helps identify a person or track criminal suspects.
The so-called "biometric" technology, which seems to take a page from TV shows like "MI-5" or "CSI," could improve speed and accuracy in some routine police work in the field. However, its use has set off alarms with some who are concerned about possible civil liberties and privacy issues.
The smartphone-based scanner, named Mobile Offender Recognition and Information System, or MORIS, is made by BI2 Technologies in Plymouth, Massachusetts, and can be deployed by officers out on the beat or back at the station.
An iris scan, which detects unique patterns in a person's eyes, can reduce to seconds the time it takes to identify a suspect in custody. This technique also is significantly more accurate than results from other fingerprinting technology long in use by police, BI2 says.
When attached to an iPhone, MORIS can photograph a person's face and run the image through software that hunts for a match in a BI2-managed database of U.S. criminal records. Each unit costs about $3,000.
Some experts fret police may be randomly scanning the population, using potentially intrusive techniques to search for criminals, sex offenders, and illegal aliens, but the manufacturer says that would be a difficult task for officers to carry out.
Sean Mullin, BI2's CEO, says it is difficult, if not impossible, to covertly photograph someone and obtain a clear, usable image without that person knowing about it, because the MORIS should be used close up.
"It requires a level of cooperation that makes it very overt -- a person knows that you're taking a picture for this purpose," Mullin said.
CONCERNS
But constitutional rights advocates are concerned, in part because the device can accurately scan an individual's face from up to four feet away, potentially without a person's being aware of it.
Experts also say that before police administer an iris scan, they should have probable cause a crime has been committed.
"What we don't want is for them to become a general surveillance tool, where the police start using them routinely on the general public, collecting biometric information on innocent people," said Jay Stanley, senior policy analyst with the national ACLU in Washington, D.C.
Meanwhile, advocates see the MORIS as a way to make tools already in use on police cruiser terminals more mobile for cops on the job.
"This is (the technology) stepping out of the cruiser and riding on the officer's belt, along with his flashlight, his handcuffs, his sidearm or the other myriad tools," said John Birtwell, spokesman for the Plymouth County Sheriff's Department in southeastern Massachusetts, one of the first departments to use the devices.
The technology is also employed to maintain security at Plymouth's 1,650 inmate jail, where it is used to prevent the wrong prisoner from being released.
"There, we have everybody in orange jumpsuits, so everyone looks the same. So, quite literally, the last thing we do before you leave our facility is we compare your iris to our database," said Birtwell.
One of the technology's earliest uses at BI2, starting in 2005, was to help various agencies identify missing children or at-risk adults, like Alzheimer's patients.
Since then, it has been used to combat identity fraud, and could potentially be used in traffic stops when a driver is without a license, or when people are stopped for questioning at U.S. borders.
Facial recognition technology is not without its problems, however. For example, some U.S. individuals mistakenly have had their driver's license revoked as a potential fraud. The problem, it turns out, is that they look like another driver and so the technology mistakenly flags them as having fake identification.
Roughly 40 law enforcement units nationwide will soon be using the MORIS, including Arizona's Pinal County Sheriff's Office, as well as officers in Hampton City in Virginia and Calhoun County in Alabama.

Courtesy of reuters.com

Iran Shoots Down US Spy Drone...

Iran Shoots Down US Spy Drone...


How would the US react to a robotic Iranian spy plane flying over American nuclear plants, unannounced, to see how things were shaping up at the country’s uranium facilities? I know, I know. Easy answer.
It’s no surprise then that officials out of Iran today are saying that they shot down an US drone aircraft after a robotic, unmanned spy plane was seen flying over the city of Qom.
Iranian lawmaker Ali Aqazadeh Dafsari tells Press TV that a drone was flying over the holy city on a mission to identify the location and other information relating to a nuclear facility in order to gather intel for the CIA. The announcement comes only a day after Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast announced that the country was installing new centrifuges at its uranium facilities in order to expedite refinement procedures of the material for peaceful purposes.
The US, however, believes that the uranium research is being used to help create nuclear weapons. The United Nations has been investigating the intent of Iran’s nuclear program but has been unable to verify if they intend on using the uranium for good or for bad. CNN reports that the French Foreign Ministry has called the research "a new wave of provocation" that disregards UN resolutions.
Following the announcement out of Iran, the United States has denied the allegations, claiming that the US did not lose any drones. Though it is unclear when the supposed shot-down occurred or what kind of drone was involved, the US price for each aircraft can run from nearly 5 to 10 million dollars.

Courtesy of rt.com

80 Percent of Americans are Angry at the Government...

80 Percent of Americans are Angry at the Government...

Here’s some breaking news: Americans are angry at the government! A new poll conducted by ABC News and the Washington Post reveal that dissatisfaction with the US political system is at its highest in nearly 20 years.
The results of the poll reflect that the last time frustrations amounted to this level was in 1992 during an economic downturn that plagued the end of President George H.W. Bush’s first and only presidency. Now 19 years later, American opposition to Washington is at a nearly two decade high.
When polled on their thoughts regarding the federal government, 80 percent of those surveyed told researchers that they were either dissatisfied or even angry with the current state of government. This statistic marks an increase in 11 points from a month earlier, suggesting that the debt ceiling drama dominating both Capitol Hill and the White House is to blame for the sentiment. Despite weeks of attempted negations, Congress has yet to settle a way to deal with the debt limit crisis as the country gets closer and closer to the August 2 deadline imposed by the Treasury.
This week’s poll also reveals that, though President Obama’s approval rating in regards to handling the economy is at its lowest ever, congressional Republicans are only seeing an endorsement of 28 percent of the country. Both Obama and the GOP are also scorned particularly for their inability to handle the deficit and US taxes.
American angst is nearly double what it was in the year 2000. Since frustrations were last this high back in 1992, the US has witnessed the September 11 terrorist attacks, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Patriot Act, Bill Clinton’s sex scandals, the FBI firebombing of the Branch Davidian compound and eight glorious years of the George W Bush administration.
Good going, federal government!

Courtesy of rt.com

China Begs the US to Save the Dollar...

China Begs the US to Save the Dollar...


China has a pretty big question for US lawmakers: What the hell are you doing?
With concerns amounting regarding the decline of the American dollar, China is pressuring Congress to take action before the US economy is driven to default. As the biggest holder of US Treasury debt, China stands to be massively impacted if the debt ceiling isn’t raised which could lead to grave global consequences.
In a statement published on their website, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange writes, "We hope the US government will take responsible policies and measures to boost global financial market confidence and respect and protect the interests of investors.”
As of April of this year, China held around $1.15 trillion in Treasury debt, making it the largest creditor of the States. Japan holds onto the second largest sum of American debt at around $912 billion, with the UK coming in third at $346 billion.
Should America be driven to default, the US would postpone payment to China and the American credit rating would drop. From there, the trillions of US dollars belonging to China would decline in value, which not only angers the Chinese for obvious reasons, but also means that goods produced overseas could cost more in America, impacting export initiatives out of the Far East.
Even if a default doesn’t occur, the US credit rating is already in jeopardy. Standard & Poor’s announced last week that there is a 50 percent likelihood that they will downgrade the US credit rating over the next few months, even if Congress can vote to raise the debt ceiling before the August 2 deadline imposed by the Treasury. “The positions of the administration and the Republican leadership are still very far apart,” S&P Managing Director John Chambers says to the Washington Post. “The tone of the debate has made us wonder whether a compromise can be achieved.”
Both Moody’s and Fitch have also threatened to cancel the current triple-A credit rating as attempts at negotiating on Capitol Hill and in Obama’s White House have gone unresolved.
President Obama said on Friday that Congress would need to come up with a plan before the weekend was over, yet the doomed deadline is still looming with debt discussions at a deadlock still.

Courtesy of rt.com

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Stranger moves into foreclosed home, citing little-knownTexas law...

Stranger moves into foreclosed home, citing little-knownTexas law...



Courtesy of infowars.com

FLOWER MOUND, Texas - A little-known Texas law and a foreclosure could have a man in Flower Mound living on easy street.
Flower Mound's Waterford Drive is lined with well-manicured $300,000 homes. So, when a new neighbor moved in without the usual sale, mortgage-paying homeowners had a few questions.
"What paperwork is it and how is it legally binding if he doesn't legally own the house?" said Leigh Lowrie, a neighboring resident. "He just squats there."
Lowrie and her husband said the house down the street was in foreclosure for more than a year and the owner walked away. Then, the mortgage company went out of business.
Apparently, that opened the door for someone to take advantage of the situation. But, Kenneth Robinson said he's no squatter. He said he moved in on June 17 after months of research about a Texas law called "adverse possession."
"This is not a normal process, but it is not a process that is not known," he said. "It's just not known to everybody."
He says an online form he printed out and filed at the Denton County courthouse for $16 gave him rights to the house. The paper says the house was abandoned and he's claiming ownership.
"I added some things here for my own protection," Robinson said.
The house is virtually empty, with just a few pieces of furniture. There is no running water or electricity.
But, Robinson said just by setting up camp in the living room, Texas law gives him exclusive negotiating rights with the original owner. If the owner wants him out, he would have to pay off his massive mortgage debt and the bank would have to file a complicated lawsuit.
Robinson believes because of the cost, neither is likely. The law says if he stays in the house, after three years he can ask the court for the title.
He told News 8 his goal is to eventually have the title of the home and be named the legal owner of the home.
"Absolutely," he said. "I want to be owner of record. At this point, because I possess it, I am the owner."
Robinson posted "no trespassing" signs after neighbors asked police to arrest him for breaking in.
Flower mound officers say they can't remove him from the property because home ownership is a civil matter, not criminal.
Lowrie and her neighbors continue to look for legal ways to get him out. They are talking to the mortgage company, real estate agents and attorneys. They're convinced he broke into the house to take possession, but Robinson told News 8 he found a key and he gained access legally.
"If he wants the house, buy the house like everyone else had to," Lowrie said. "Get the money, buy the house."
Robinson said he's not buying anything. As far as he''s concerned, the $330,000 house is already his and he has the paperwork to prove it.

131 Children Vaccinated at Gunpoint in Malawi...

131 Children Vaccinated at Gunpoint in Malawi...

Courtesy of infowars.com

JULY 8- About 131 children from Nsanje who fled into neighboring Mozambique during the anti measles vaccine a few months ago were vaccinated this week at gunpoint.
The children, belonging to Zion and Atumwi Churches were taken into Mozambique by their parents to hide them from officials fearing they might get vaccinated.
According to Dr Medison Matchaya District Health Officer for Nsanje, medics went to vaccine the children in Nsanje under police escort.
“We were alerted that some children who were hiding in Mozambique were back in the country and we asked police to escort the health officials in order to vaccinate them and we have managed to vaccinate about 131 children,” said Matchaya.
In a related development Mchinji Third Grade Magistrate Court has sentenced Appolo Chitsonga of the Seventh Day Apostolic faith to two years imprisonment for refusing his three children to access measles vaccine.
Magistrate Robert Mbewa, found Chitsonga guilty of an offence of endangering life by failing to supply necessities of life to a person under ones care without lawful excuse according to section 242 of the penal code.
Read full article



Leuren Moret: Nuclear Genocide of Babies and Children in Japan, US, Canada Grows...

Leuren Moret: Nuclear Genocide of Babies and Children in Japan, US, Canada Grows...



Pharmageddon: Prescription Drugs are Killing America’s Youth...

Pharmageddon: Prescription Drugs are Killing America’s Youth...


No parent wants to lose a child, but when one dies from something that should be very preventable, the heartbreak and tragedy is compounded. Such is increasingly the case with prescription drugs – they’re killing our youth.
Sarah Shay and Savannah Kissick, of Morehead, Ky., best friends since high school, were both victims of what experts and the White House are describing as an epidemic of prescription drug deaths. Sarah died in 2006 at the tender age of 19; Savannah just three years later, at 22.
Since the medications they were using were prescribed by physicians, some experts believe they carry some sort of legitimacy. But the fact is they are being abused by young people just the same as drugs that are illegal – more so even, in some cases.
“I don’t think the kids have any idea how addicting the substance is,” Karen Shays told the BBC in an interview. “Before they know it, bam! They’re addicted.”
Drugs like Xanax, Oxycodone, Klonopin and Hydrocodone are routinely being abused more and more in Kentucky in particular, but in other parts of the nation too, by teenagers and young adults. So bad is the problem that the state has set up rehabilitation centers, where a huge number of addicts – more all the time – are being treated.
So bad is the addition that some kids have even turned to crime to feed it.
Some of the kids say they could have likely found other drugs to feed their habit, but prescription drugs were not only legal but much easier to get.
All in all, it’s sort of like Armageddon, but with prescription drugs – a sort of “Pharmageddon,” if you will, as evidenced by Kentucky’s overflowing jails, say state officials.
“I believe I can safely say that over 80 percent of the inmates in the Pike County regional detention center are in there for something dealing with their addiction to prescription drugs,” Dan Smoot, director of law enforcement with an organization called Unite – a new and innovative counterdrug that combines police investigations, treatment and education.
According to the federal Office of National Drug Control Policy, in a recent report, the problem stretches beyond the borders of Kentucky – and it’s getting worse.
“A number of national studies and published reports indicate that the intentional abuse of prescription drugs, such as pain relievers, tranquilizers, stimulants and sedatives, to get high is a growing concern — particularly among teens — in the United States. In fact, among young people ages 12-17, prescription drugs have become the second most abused illegal drug, behind marijuana,” said the study, called, “Teens and Prescription Drugs.”
“Though overall teen drug use is down nationwide and the percentage of teens abusing prescription drugs is still relatively low compared to marijuana use, there are troubling signs that teens view abusing prescription drugs as safer than illegal drugs and parents are unaware of the problem,” it said.
In particular, the study found:
- Teens are turning more and more away from illegal street drugs and instead are taking (and abusing) more prescription medications – so much so that new users of prescription drugs have caught up with new users of marijuana;
- Next to marijuana, the next most common thing kids use to get high are prescription drugs;
- Teens abuse prescription medications because they mistakenly believe that, since they are prescribed, they provide safe highs;
- Most teens get prescription drugs easily and free, usually from friends or relatives;
- The most commonly abused drugs by kids are OxyContin and Vicodin; and
- Adolescents are more likely to get hooked on prescription medication than are young adults.
The study found that teens most likely to abuse prescription medications live in the west and southeast. The most common abuse occurs in the following states: Arkansas (10.3 percent); Kentucky (9.8 percent); Montana (9.6 percent); Oregon (9.3 percent); Oklahoma (9.1 percent); Tennessee (8.9 percent); and West Virginia (8.9 percent).
“There’s a reason that prescription drugs are intended to be taken under the direction of a doctor: if used improperly they can be dangerous,” said a recent National Institute of Drug Abuse summary.
Abuse of prescription painkillers in general is not new. In fact, such abuse has risen 400 percent between 1998 and 2008.
But now it seems, our kids have made a startling discovery – that using prescription meds to get high – is too easy and too accessible. And it’s costing more of them their lives.

Courtesy of infowars.com

Woman Boards Plane With 3-Inch Knife TWICE but TSA Plays It Down Because Explosives are ‘Biggest Threat’...

Woman Boards Plane With 3-Inch Knife TWICE but TSA Plays It Down Because Explosives are ‘Biggest Threat’...

An Indianapolis woman was shocked to discover she had been able to board a plane with a three-inch knife in her carry-on bag not once, but twice.
Sara Gallienne had not realised the blade was in her luggage until she got home.
But that hadn't stopped her successfully carrying it through TSA checkpoints at both Richmond and Providence, Rhode Island.
'I was going through it (bag), pulled out my headphones and I realised, "Oh crud. I have a knife in here,"' Ms Gallienne told WTVR News.
'I was blown away I could not believe that I had just made it through with this knife. Not one, but two TSA checkpoints,' she added
The TSA has seemingly played down the incident saying its greatest focus needs to be on explosives rather than blades.
This despite evidence to suggest that some of the terrorists who carried out the 9/11 attacks may have been carrying Leatherman-style utility knives.
'We continue to take the discovery of knives and other prohibited items seriously, however, in today's post-9/11 security environment, intelligence tells us our officers' greatest focus needs to be on the biggest threat to aviation security today - explosives and explosive components,' TSA said in the statement.
The news comes just days after a Department of Homeland Security report revealed there have been more than 25,000 security breaches at U.S. airports since 9/11.
Fourteen thousand of those people have made their way into sensitive areas and more than 6,000 people have made it past screeners without proper scrutiny, according to the report.
That is an average of slightly more than five security breaches a year at each of the 457 commercial airports, and 'these are just the ones we know about,' said Republican Rep. Jason Chaffetz, who is overseeing a congressional hearing on security shortcomings.
'I think it's a stunningly high number.'
The TSA has been dogged by controversy over the past year mainly for its full-body scanners and aggressive pat downs, especially on young children.
The most recent breach of security occurred earlier this month when a cleaner discovered a stun gun on a JetBlue plane that had landed in Newark from Boston.
Before that a Nigerian national was able to fly cross-country on an expired boarding pass in someone else's name.
Courtesy of infowars.com

6 Steps By The IMF For A One-World Currency...

6 Steps By The IMF For A One-World Currency...

In mainstream financial circles, the concept of a global currency is often spoken of only with an atmosphere of caution. It is approached always in hypothetical terms. It is whispered of as some far off dream; a socio-economic moon landing in the far reaches of fiscal space. Perhaps in 2015, or 2020, or maybe 2050, but certainly never just over the horizon, or right around the corner posing as an innocuous trade asset created over 40 years ago and used only on rare occasions. Unfortunately, the development of a centralized global security representing the creation of a supranational economic body is much closer than many would care to admit…
The most common argument made in the mainstream against a global currency taking shape is the argument that no other currency in the world today has the strength or widespread circulation necessary to replace the dollar as a primary reserve unit. This is true, if, you only look at separate currencies, and not the big picture. The reality is, central banks and the IMF have no intention of replacing one national currency with yet another national currency as the world reserve. What they DO intend to do, however, is replace the dollar with a basket of national currencies linked together and homogenized under a single unit. This has been openly announced by the IMF for months, and Dominique Strauss-Kahn even produced a press release explaining the plan (this was before he apparently watched ‘Maid in Manhattan’ 57 times in a row then allegedly tried to “romance” a cleaning lady, which of course landed him in court):
http://www.imf.org/external/np/speeches/2011/021011.htm
The G20 has also raised discussion of a global currency and a greater oversight role for the IMF on a number of occasions:
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/business/article/at-g20-kremlin-to-pitch-new-currency/375364.html
http://www.asianews.it/news-en/Sarkozy-in-favour-of-an-international-currency-of-reference-21179.html
A more in-depth look at the IMF plan for the SDR can be seen in a white paper released at the beginning of this year entitled “Enhancing International Monetary Stability – A Role For The SDR?”:
http://www.imf.org/external/np/pp/eng/2011/010711.pdf
A global currency, or at least the foundation for one, already exists in the form of “Special Drawing Rights” (SDR’s), created by the IMF in 1969 as paper collateral used to replace gold as the primary means of international trade between governments and central banks without the need for Forex exchanges. That is to say, the SDR was used as a tool for displacing the strength of gold. Today, the asset has morphed into a trade mechanism representing a basket of currencies, and, a tool to displace the U.S. dollar as the world reserve currency.
Skeptics will argue that the SDR is a “long way” from being ready to unseat the dollar, but, these economists and pundits rarely consider that the financial circumstances of markets today could quickly change tomorrow. Yes, by the standards of this very moment, a move to elevate the SDR to reserve status is impractical, mainly, because the dollar is still clinging to its relative value and widespread use. This will not be the case for much longer.
Over the past month, the “big three” ratings agencies; Moody’s, Fitch, and S&P, have suddenly decided to do the job they should have been doing years ago, and have begun a wild roller coaster ride of credit downgrades for countries with immense Debt-to-GDP ratios. Greece has been junked. Ireland has been junked. Portugal has been hit. Spain has been hit, and is ready for yet another downgrade. Italy is on the chopping block. Finally, even the U.S. is near losing its AAA status as S&P has announced it will decide within the next month whether a downgrade of our rating will soon be necessary.
The most important aspect of the S&P announcement is their statement that the downgrade is NOT about the impending debt ceiling decision, but America’s overall creditworthiness and our lack of ability to maintain our current spending and inflationary habits. That is to say, even if the debt ceiling is raised, as all the Keynesians are clamoring for, we could still lose our top credit rating:
http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?singlepost=2623832
This storm of downgrades after years of inaction by ratings agencies, in my view, is simply not a coincidence. The fact that Ben Bernanke has admitted that QE3 is on the table as well after the Fed denied any need for more stimulus only two months ago is also highly suspicious (though he tried to take back the statement later after a thorough grilling from Ron Paul):
http://www.businessinsider.com/black-and-white-and-red-all-over-2011-7
The bottom line is that if the ceiling is raised, the Fed is ready to print the dollar into an early grave. If the ceiling is frozen in place, America defaults on its debts and its credit rating evaporates. Either way, the dollar will inevitably lose its world reserve status. Enter the SDR…
What we are witnessing is a careful and deliberate “shuffle” of economic circumstances towards a financial and political environment more receptive to a global currency. Or, indeed, a public so desperate for stability as to have no other choice but a global currency. Here are some of the steps that will likely take place and in certain cases must take place before the SDR is able to fulfill the role the IMF intends. Many of these steps are already being implemented as this is written:
1) The IMF Must Increase Circulation Of SDR’s
The normal restrictions on SDR printing were removed in 2008 by the IMF just as the credit crisis began to take shape under the guise of “producing more liquidity”. SDR’s can now be created in unlimited numbers. Allocations of SDR’s by IMF member countries leaped in 2008 to 2009. America’s holdings of SDR’s grew from 21 billion to 203 billion in the span of a single year:
http://www.imf.org/external/np/fin/tad/extsdr1.aspx
Using the “SDR Department”, the IMF has also been issuing SDR’s to emerging market countries and needy nations off the books, at the expense of the American taxpayer! Rich countries like the U.S. pay into the SDR Department program which is supposedly designed to redistribute “foreign aid” to poorer countries as low interest loans denominated in SDR’s. These loans show up nowhere on our Federal Budget:
http://www.house.gov/jec/imf/sdrdept.pdf
In 2004, the cost of paying into this program was around $5 Billion a year, but this has surely been expanded since. Finding accurate numbers on current U.S. loans through the hidden SDR Department program has proven difficult, to say the least…
The point of all this? The SDR is being widely circulated under various operations, some of them public, some of them not so public.
2) Standardized Exchange Tables For The SDR Must Be Put In Place
The IMF now releases daily conversion and exchange tables to SDR’s for almost every other currency on the planet:
http://www.imf.org/external/np/fin/data/rms_five.aspx
One important aspect of SDR conversion to take note of is that the currencies most highly valued on global forex markets, and the SDR table, are the Bahraini Dinar, and the Kuwaiti Dinar. The Bahraini Dinar is pegged directly to the SDR basket, while the Kuwaiti Dinar is pegged to “an undisclosed basket of currencies” (probably the SDR). The dollar, on the other hand, is relatively weak in comparison when converting to SDR’s, even though most of the IMF’s funding, and thus ability to create SDR’s, comes from the U.S.
Doesn’t seem fair, does it…?
Another important fact to remember is that the IMF admittedly sets the valuation of the SDR using factors outside of natural supply and demand. Meaning, they have the ability to place any value they please on the SDR versus other currencies. It is no surprise then that currencies which tie themselves to the IMF basket and placate IMF desires are rated strong in SDR’s, and perform well in forex markets, while the dollar, which remains (supposedly) independent, is weak versus SDR’s. Today, one dollar is worth 62 cents in SDR’s.
3) The SDR Must Be Made Indispensable To Global Markets
The IMF has openly suggested that the SDR could be used as an intermediary asset in volatile currency markets through what is sometimes referred to as a “Substitution Account”. Meaning, if China, for example, wished to dump their holdings of U.S. dollars because they are devaluing rapidly, they could exchange those dollars for SDR’s instead of directly converting them into another standard currency, like Euros, or Yen. This, according to the IMF, would lessen the direct damage to the Dollar, because the SDR is partly denominated in dollars. Therefore, as China throws out dollars in exchange for SDR’s, the value of the American Greenback goes down, but conversely, the value of America’s SDR holdings will go up.
This sounds like a brilliant strategy to offset sudden currency collapse. However, it is actually a very subversive way to slowly elevate the SDR as a world reserve currency itself, and to replace the dollar entirely, while the IMF plays the hero. It also allows the IMF to slowly “harmonize” all the world’s currencies until there is no distinction in their value. The SDR becomes a de facto reserve unit without officially overthrowing the dollar.
If the U.S. is faced with the nightmare of having its own currency dumped by international central banks, obviously, our Treasury would jump at the chance to support conversion to the SDR to lessen the damage, rather than face the full brunt of losing our reserve status. In fact, the U.S. would have NO CHOICE but to support the SDR and the IMF as the intermediary in all global financial transactions, otherwise, we would face certain long term full spectrum collapse. The only support holding up our financial system would then be our membership in the SDR basket. We would become completely dependent, and the IMF would have total centralized control over our economy.
What the IMF has done is create a potential environment in which any country that does not participate in SDR exchange will be left in the dust by every country that does. They have conjured an artificial economic matrix, where traditional laws of supply and demand no longer apply. A kind of “manipulated evolution” of finance. A chimera economy. They will have the power to determine the value of every currency on the planet arbitrarily using the SDR Substitution Account.
4) China Must Be Given Membership In The SDR
Right now, it appears, the only thing holding the SDR back from its debut as a global currency asset is the inclusion of emerging markets into the IMF basket. Talk of China joining the basket in 2015 has been floating around for the past couple years. However, I believe that the inclusion of the Chinese Yuan may come much faster than this.
New IMF Managing Director, Christine Lagarde, has offered China a greater role in the IMF power structure, including a post for Min Zhu, a Chinese national, as a deputy managing director:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/06/us-imf-lagarde-china-idUSTRE7655JM20110706
Lagarde and members of the G20 have also been pressing hard for the addition of the Yuan and perhaps other currencies into the SDR. A decision on Chinese inclusion may come as soon as this November:
http://www.emergingmarkets.org/Article/2818350/G20-presses-for-yuan-SDR-inclusion.html
http://english.capital.gr/News.asp?id=1163175
5) China Must Decouple Completely From The Dollar
One of the points of contention over Chinese inclusion in the SDR is its ties to the U.S. dollar and economy. That is to say, China would first have to decouple from the dollar, before coupling to the SDR. Its sounds like some weird parasitic experiment, and, it is.
China started taking steps to make decoupling from the U.S. and the dollar a reality back in 2005 (which suggests foreknowledge of collapse), when they began issuing Yuan denominated bonds (to circulate Yuan around the world), and, when they began converting away from an export based economy and towards a consumer based economy. The problem is that because of the wider circulation of Yuan, the increase in stimulus, and the Chinese refusal (so far) to allow faster currency appreciation, China is now in the midst of a double digit inflationary crisis (that’s REAL inflation folks, not fraudulent Chinese CPI numbers):
http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90001/90776/90882/7432861.html
Because they have deliberately restructured towards a consumer based economy, eventually, China will have to allow the Yuan to increase substantially in value versus other currencies in order to amplify the buying power of its citizens. Otherwise, they will be crushed under the weight of rising prices:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/06/26/us-britain-china-idUSTRE75P1V120110626
This cannot be done without a considerable dump of their forex reserves and treasury holdings, most of which are composed of U.S. dollars and securities. This means that in order to counter inflation, and to be included in the SDR, China will have to liquidate a large portion of its U.S. holdings. This would strike the American economy hard.
6) The Dollar Must Be Removed As The World Reserve Currency
All of the above factors are leading towards one obvious conclusion; the end of the dollar as a reserve currency. The IMF will never achieve its goal of complete centralized administration of the global economy without a common supranational currency unit. And, a supranational currency unit cannot exist while the dollar remains in its current position. Thus, for the IMF to succeed, the dollar must be removed.
The expansive debt of the U.S., the endless fiat printing of the Federal Reserve, the Chinese adaptation away from the dollar and towards the SDR, and the quiet spread of the SDR itself, are all leading to this end. This does not mean, though, that the tangible version of the dollar will disappear. The interesting thing about the SDR con game is that many Americans may barely notice the transition of the global economy into IMF hands, because physical dollars will likely remain. We might feel the heartache of a devaluing monetary system, and an extremely weakened economy, but the flow of power will be obscured for a time from those who are unaware. In the end, all currencies will be tied to and completely reliant on the SDR, but our Greenback funny money will still be in our pockets. The issuance of an “SDR note” may come one day (if we allow this farce to continue), but it is not necessary. As long as every currency is required to be pegged to the SDR, the IMF will retain control.
A common assumption is that changes like these take place in some distant future we will never witness, not right under our noses while we sleep. The current evidence suggests, though, that an engineered transference to a highly condensed global economic system is underway right now, and that our country will suffer greatly in the process. To understand the tactically implemented disaster we are about to experience, it is vital to become aware of the intended end result. Just as in understanding any criminal act, it is vital to first understand a criminal’s ultimate motive.

Courtesy of infowars.com

Get Ready for a 70% Marginal Tax Rate...

Get Ready for a 70% Marginal Tax Rate...

Some argue the U.S. economy can bear higher pre-Reagan tax rates. But those rates applied to a much smaller fraction of taxpayers than what we're headed for without spending cuts.


President Obama has been using the debt-ceiling debate and bipartisan calls for deficit reduction to demand higher taxes. With unemployment stuck at 9.2% and a vigorous economic "recovery" appearing more and more elusive, his timing couldn't be worse.
Two problems arise when marginal tax rates are raised. First, as college students learn in Econ 101, higher marginal rates cause real economic harm. The combined marginal rate from all taxes is a vital metric, since it heavily influences incentives in the economy—workers and employers, savers and investors base decisions on after-tax returns. Thus tax rates need to be kept as low as possible, on the broadest possible base, consistent with financing necessary government spending.
Second, as tax rates rise, the tax base shrinks and ultimately, as Art Laffer has long argued, tax rates can become so prohibitive that raising them further reduces revenue—not to mention damaging the economy. That is where U.S. tax rates are headed if we do not control spending soon.
The current top federal rate of 35% is scheduled to rise to 39.6% in 2013 (plus one-to-two points from the phase-out of itemized deductions for singles making above $200,000 and couples earning above $250,000). The payroll tax is 12.4% for Social Security (capped at $106,000), and 2.9% for Medicare (no income cap). While the payroll tax is theoretically split between employers and employees, the employers' share is ultimately shifted to workers in the form of lower wages.
But there are also state income taxes that need to be kept in mind. They contribute to the burden. The top state personal rate in California, for example, is now about 10.5%. Thus the marginal tax rate paid on wages combining all these taxes is 44.1%. (This is a net figure because state income taxes paid are deducted from federal income.)
So, for a family in high-cost California taxed at the top federal rate, the expiration of the Bush tax cuts in 2013, the 0.9% increase in payroll taxes to fund ObamaCare, and the president's proposal to eventually uncap Social Security payroll taxes would lift its combined marginal tax rate to a stunning 58.4%.

But wait, things get worse. As Milton Friedman taught decades ago, the true burden on taxpayers today is government spending; government borrowing requires future interest payments out of future taxes. To cover the Congressional Budget Office projection of Mr. Obama's $841 billion deficit in 2016 requires a 31.7% increase in all income tax rates (and that's assuming the Social Security income cap is removed). This raises the top rate to 52.2% and brings the total combined marginal tax rate to 68.8%. Government, in short, would take over two-thirds of any incremental earnings.
Many Democrats demand no changes to Social Security and Medicare spending. But these programs are projected to run ever-growing deficits totaling tens of trillions of dollars in coming decades, primarily from rising real benefits per beneficiary. To cover these projected deficits would require continually higher income and payroll taxes for Social Security and Medicare on all taxpayers that would drive the combined marginal tax rate on labor income to more than 70% by 2035 and 80% by 2050. And that's before accounting for the Laffer effect, likely future interest costs, state deficits and the rising ratio of voters receiving government payments to those paying income taxes.
It would be a huge mistake to imagine that the cumulative, cascading burden of many tax rates on the same income will leave the middle class untouched. Take a teacher in California earning $60,000. A current federal rate of 25%, a 9.5% California rate, and 15.3% payroll tax yield a combined income tax rate of 45%. The income tax increases to cover the CBO's projected federal deficit in 2016 raises that to 52%. Covering future Social Security and Medicare deficits brings the combined marginal tax rate on that middle-income taxpayer to an astounding 71%. That teacher working a summer job would keep just 29% of her wages. At the margin, virtually everyone would be working primarily for the government, reduced to a minority partner in their own labor.
Nobody—rich, middle-income or poor—can afford to have the economy so burdened. Higher tax rates are the major reason why European per-capita income, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, is about 30% lower than in the United States—a permanent difference many times the temporary decline in the recent recession and anemic recovery.
Some argue the U.S. economy can easily bear higher pre-Reagan tax rates. They point to the 1930s-1950s, when top marginal rates were between 79% and 94%, or the Carter-era 1970s, when the top rate was about 70%. But those rates applied to a much smaller fraction of taxpayers and kicked in at much higher income levels relative to today.
There were also greater opportunities for sheltering income from the income tax. The lower marginal tax rates in the 1980s led to the best quarter-century of economic performance in American history. Large increases in tax rates are a recipe for economic stagnation, socioeconomic ossification, and the loss of American global competitiveness and leadership.
There is only one solution to this growth-destroying, confiscatory tax-rate future: Control spending growth, especially of entitlements. Meaningful tax reform—not with higher rates as Mr. Obama proposes, but with lower rates on a broader base of economic activity and people—can be an especially effective complement to spending control. But without increased spending discipline, even the best tax reforms are doomed to be undone.

Courtesy of online.wsj.com

City Council Attempts To Oulaw Free Speech And Freedom Of Assembly...

City Council Attempts To Oulaw Free Speech And Freedom Of Assembly...


Small government is increasingly taking a leaf out of the book of big government throughout the US with fresh reports of another city council railing against free speech and the right to assembly.
As Fox 16 news reports, in Gould, Arkansas, the City Council has moved to ban all gatherings and groups, no matter how small from discussing city matters without prior permission from the authorities.
A proposed ordinance would even extend to residents’ own homes and is so broad in its reach that it covers boy scout groups and book clubs. Even dinner table conversations about the local community would technically be outlawed.
“You can’t just come in here, get with four people and decide to start an organization,” Gould City Councilor Sonja Farley told the reporters, adding, “You will go through your city council with legal documentation and get approval.”
The city mayor, Earnest Nash, is standing up for the people of Gould and fiercely opposing the move.
“They can take me to court,” said Nash. “This is America and even though this is Gould, Arkansas, this is still part of America. And in America, you can’t just vote and violate peoples constitutional rights.”
“With this city council, it’s their way or the highway,” Nash added. “They act more like Napoleon Bonaparte. Total domination.”
The mayor has vetoed the ordinance on a technicality, but has warned that if it is reintroduced at an upcoming council meeting next month, it could be passed into law without his approval.
The local Fox affiliate had John DiPippa, Dean of the Law School at the University of Arkansas, examine the proposed ordinance, which he instantly dismissed as unconstitutional, noting “I couldn’t believe that it was real.”
“The truth is the city of Gould doesn’t have the authority to tell anyone that they have no right to petition them, no right to speak and no right to exist in their city,” DiPippa told Fox16.
“The fact is, if it’s aimed at this group, it also extends to you talking to your mother or a church group or any other group that wants to form. A garden club! It’s so broad that it can’t possible comply with the First Amendment,” he added.
When DiPippa attempted to inform the council of his conclusion, members reportedly attempted to have him fired from his job at the University of Arkansas.
As the reporter states in the following clip, under the new ordinance even the interview the station conducted with the mayor would be classified as illegal.



This is, unfortunately, not an isolated incident. As we reported last week, an Arizona woman was arrested recently at a town meeting in Quartzsite after the council ordered henchmen to remove her when they realized she was about to air their dirty laundry.
Despite the fact that the Mayor intervened and confirmed Jennifer Jones had been recognized to speak and had not violated the council’s rules, police still dragged her from the meeting and threw her in jail.
The Quartzsite Police Chief then asked the town council to declare a “state of emergency” in light of the publicity the town received from the incident.
In other recent incidents across the country, local councils and police have targeted residents for innocuous activities such as maintaining front yard vegetable gardens, owning unlicensed dogs, setting up lemonade stands and collecting rainwater.
Welcome to the new Amerika, overrun by corrupt power hungry government from top to bottom.
Courtesy of infowars.com

Gold Hits Record High...

Gold Hits Record High...

$1,603.40. That’s the price it’s going to cost you for an ounce of gold today, and if it seems like a pretty hefty price, that’s because it is — gold is at an all time high.
Monday’s cost-per-ounce marked the eleventh consecutive rise in gold prices this trading season, which also puts the precious metal at its highest dollar amount ever. Last week’s high of $154.90 had set the previous record.
This doesn’t necessarily mean things are going good for the US economy, however, so don’t get your hopes up — it’s actually quite the contrary. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke suggested that the Fed might be in the market for some gold purchases in the near future as the dollar weakens, which many are saying has caused a surge in demand and thus cost.
"I think people are coming to realize that the economy is weakening again and the government might see a need to try to stimulate the economy further," Joe Foster, portfolio manager for the Van Eck Global International Investors Gold Fund, tells CNN.
EverBank World Markets President Chuck Butler adds to the sentiment, saying that the rise in price is a result of fears of the economic crisis only worsening. "We've had no shortage of people saying there is going to be Armageddon if the debt ceiling isn't raised,” Butler tells TheStreet.com.
Adjusted for inflation, today’s high still falls short of the price of gold back in 1980. In January that year, the cost of an ounce hit the equivalent of $2.261.33 today, as inflation plagued the country.

Courtesy of rt.com

Sunday, July 10, 2011

Internet Providers Pull the Plug on Downloaders...

Internet Providers Pull the Plug on Downloaders...


If the Recording Industry Association of America doesn’t send you a nasty letter in the mail for that Steely Dan album you downloaded, you might not necessarily be quite off the hook.
Internet service providers in the States are considering slowing down connection speed and even kicking customers offline if they are caught with copyright violations.
Those are some of the “best practice” recommendations that Time Warner, Verizon, AT&T, Comcast and Cablevision Systems — some of the biggest ISPs in America — said on Thursday that they were discussing. The Center for Copyright Information is suggesting that Internet providers adopt these policies in the ongoing effort to discourage customers from downloading and sharing material illegally.
Internet providers are insisting on a “six strikes” plan that will give customers half a dozen warnings as they are caught with copyrighted material. Major entertainment companies, including EMI, Sony, Disney and Warner Bros all seem to think that this process could cut illegal file sharing by up to 70 percent.
A 2007 study from the entertainment industry says that online piracy costs the US economy over $50 billion every year, which includes 373,000 lost jobs.
"Frequently, independent producers and distributors are hit the hardest by content theft. This agreement is a textbook example of the private sector working cooperatively to help solve a glaring economic problem while protecting consumers," Jean Prewitt, President & CEO of the Independent Film & Television Alliance, tells the IB Times.
For each infringement, the content owner will have to contact the accused’s ISP and inform them of an alleged violation. Strikes one through four will be email warnings of increasing severity, but strike five will discuss “mitigation measures.” Here is where ISPs might suspend your Internet connection for a time until you speak to them about "educational information" regarding copyright laws. They also might decide to limit your connection.
The fifth strike might not necessarily lead to punishment, but it is mandatory at strike six. Once you hit strike five or six, ISPs could consider terminating connection altogether.
And if that sounds like a problem, you could always file an appeal. For $35, that is.
"We anticipate that very few subscribers, after having received multiple alerts, will persist (or allow others to persist) in the content theft,” reads a statement from the Center for Copyright Information.
"We are confident that, once informed that content theft is taking place on their accounts, the great majority of broadband subscribers will take steps to stop it," says National Cable & Telecommunications Association President James Assey in a statement.
The White House too has commented, saying that the CCI should “have a significant impact on reducing online piracy.”
File-sharing has been a hot-topic among artists and industry big-wigs since it became fast and easy at the dawn of the twenty-first century. Rock group Metallica famously sued 20 of their fans in 2000 for sharing their songs on the Napster platform. Back then drummer Lars Ulrich made a statement that "[It's] sickening to know that our art is being traded like a commodity rather than the art that it is."
Eleven years later, downloading “Enter Sandman” might not get you in a courtroom, but it could cost you your connection.