Ummm, Dick? The Taliban execute drug farmers. That is why prior to the US invasion, the opium trade had all but been wiped out in Afghanistan.
And if fighting opium is your goal, WHY ARE US SOLDIERS GUARDING THE POPPY FIELDS!
Monday, June 29, 2009
what part of "no!" do you not get?
The Gay Secretary
What is going on in this country, right now, is the 21st century's version of taxation without representation.
Oh, of course, we have our Kabuki-style elections every so many years to give the American people the illusion that their interests are really deemed valuable by their congressional representatives.
But in reality, those representatives are simply acquisitions of those large corporations which, overtly and covertly, fund their campaigns. And these acquisitions will never vote against their masters' wishes on specific pieces of legislation, and the needs of the people they allegedly represent is of utterly no importance.
And if Congress decides on a middle class tax hike, they will have demonstrated, very clearly, that they consider the needs of the people they allegedly represent to be utterly irrelevant to them.
That is going to motivate people (particularly, the young and skilled, with kids) to vote with their feet, and move to another place on the planet where, if they are paying high taxes, they actually get benefit from those taxes paid, and where they feel the country to which they have emigrated actually has a future; both a personal future for themselves, and for that economy.
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Read The Damn Thing First
American Scofflaw
Objecting to the fact that 300 pages were added to the bill at 3 a.m., Minority leader John Boehner attempted a brief filibuster, giving time for colleagues and aides to scan the unread extra passages and present certain excerpts on the floor.
That wasn’t good enough for House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio), who delayed the roll call vote by reading page-by-page through a 300-page managers’ amendment Democrats added at around 3 a.m. Friday. Boehner seemed to relish the hour-long stunt, picking out the bill’s most obscure language and then pontificating about what it might – or might not – mean.
Despite heated objections by some Republicans, the unread 1,200-page Waxman-Markey climate bill was passed 219-212 in the House on Friday.
Final roll call votes are listed here.Objecting to the fact that 300 pages were added to the bill at 3 a.m., Minority leader John Boehner attempted a brief filibuster, giving time for colleagues and aides to scan the unread extra passages and present certain excerpts on the floor.
That wasn’t good enough for House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio), who delayed the roll call vote by reading page-by-page through a 300-page managers’ amendment Democrats added at around 3 a.m. Friday. Boehner seemed to relish the hour-long stunt, picking out the bill’s most obscure language and then pontificating about what it might – or might not – mean.
Bernanke As Scofflaw Supremo
American Scofflaw
THIS IS WHAT I PREDICTED WAS GOING TO HAPPEN!
Bernanke is acting just like a CEO who is suspected of embezzling from his own company and decides to burn the building down before the auditors can look at the books!
The Federal Reserve is NOT your friend. It does NOT provide a service. It is and always has been a scam to transfer wealth from the people to the owners of the Fed and Bernanke's threat to crash the whole system is a giant neon sign on the building flashing "GUILTY AS HELL!"
Mossad still stalking malls near U.S. military bases
by Gary Fleming
Cells of young Israeli intelligence operatives continue to openly solicit relationships with U.S. military personnel from shopping mall kiosks, according to an informed source.
WMR has learned that one such kiosk operates at the MacArthur Center Mall in Norfolk, Virginia, where a number of U.S. Navy personnel from the nearby naval bases are regularly confronted by aggressive young Israelis selling Dead Sea cosmetic products who inquire about where the personnel are stationed and the nature of their jobs. Young Israeli women working at the kiosk also appear to want to strike up a closer relationship with some of the naval personnel.
The use of young Israelis, many of whom continue to serve in a reserve status with the Israel Defense Force, as intelligence agents, has changed somewhat over the past decade. Young Israeli “art students” first conducted unsolicited visits to the homes and offices of federal and military employees trying to sell cheap Chinese-made bogus Israeli artwork while casing neighborhoods and office buildings.
Israeli-operated mall kiosks have transitioned from selling toys to cosmetics.
On August 7, 2005, WMR reported: In November 2001, the INS arrested several Israelis, including some with military backgrounds, selling Puzzle Car and Zoom Copter toys from shopping mall kiosks and vending carts. Many of the malls were located near U.S. government facilities, including the Pentagon and CIA. A majority of the Israelis, arrested for visa violations instead of espionage, worked for a Florida-based company called Quality Sales. A spokesman for the company admitted the company hired vacationing Israeli students but they had the wrong visas. The spokesman also revealed the Israelis were deemed “special interest” cases by INS-- a new government designation applied to terrorism suspects in the wake of 911. Federal authorities suspect the Israelis were using the kiosks as intelligence fronts in the same manner that Israelis were using door-to-door art sales as covers. The National Counterintelligence Center (NCIX) stated in a report issued in March 2001 that, “In the past six weeks, employees in federal office buildings located throughout the United States have reported suspicious activities connected with individuals representing themselves as foreign students selling or delivering artwork. Employees have observed both males and females attempting to bypass facility security and enter federal buildings.” The report was temporarily removed from the NCIX web site.
One of the malls where the Israeli”toy sellers” based their operations was the Pentagon City Mall, just across Interstate 395 from the Pentagon. In July 2004, the mall served as the rendezvous point for alleged Israeli Pentagon spy Larry Franklin and Keith Weissman, an AIPAC official. Franklin warned Weissman that Iranian agents were going to start attacking American soldiers and Israeli agents in Iraq. Weissman then went to brief the account of the meeting to Steve Rosen, another senior AIPAC official. They both informed the Israeli embassy in Washington and Glenn Kessler, a reporter for The Washington Post. Those phone calls were being wiretapped by the FBI as part of its investigation of a major Israeli spy ring in the United States, an investigation that had been going on since before the 9/11 attacks. The FBI was also monitoring meetings between Franklin, Weissman, and Rosen, including one held in February 2003 at the Arlington, Virginia, Ritz-Carlton hotel, which adjoins the Pentagon City Mall.
In February 2005, an Israeli man named Ohad Cohen was deported, along with four other Israelis, from Omaha, Nebraska. In what was becoming a common occurrence in the United States, a total of 10 Israelis, who were working at shopping mall kiosks in the Omaha and Lincoln areas, were deported by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials for illegally working in the United States on tourist visas. The Israelis operated out of Omaha’s Oak View Mall and Lincoln’s Gateway Westfield Mall. The Federal government probe was reported to be part of a wider probe of Israeli shopping mall kiosk activity throughout the Midwest. In December 2004, FBI and immigration officers arrested 15 Israelis in Minnesota and three operating from a mall kiosk in Grand Forks, North Dakota. Omaha is also the headquarters of the U.S. Air Force Strategic Air Command (SAC).
War with China, Anyone?
American Scofflaw
One has to wonder is General Sharp's verbal salvo is some kind of preparation to "groom" the American people for some kind of false flag to justify another war in Korea.
There are only a couple of minor problems with this.
North Korea has a defense treaty with China; the US has a defense treaty with China.
A shooting war with North Korea means that China must, under its treaty obligation, defend North Korea.
War with China, anyone, not to mention China's capability of "dumping" billions of dollars of US debt with which we have been funding our other wars without end?
Let's hope that some adults in the room in Washington realize that this would be the worst of all possible outcomes.
If we are able to get North Korea back to the bargaining table (after the US having broken its word the last time around), it will take a lot of wheeling and dealing by China to make that happen.
I .. Am ... Going ... To ... Hurl ...
The House of Representatives held a moment of silence Friday morning to mark the passing of legendary singer Michael Jackson.
"His heart couldn't get any bigger, and yesterday, it arrested," said Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. "I come to the floor today on behalf of a generation to thank God for letting all of us live in his generation and in his era."
"His heart couldn't get any bigger, and yesterday, it arrested," said Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. "I come to the floor today on behalf of a generation to thank God for letting all of us live in his generation and in his era."
$$$ Well Spent
American Scofflaw
The health care industry's "acquisitions" will simply vote as they're told, the hell with what people may really want or need in terms of health care.
Countries like Belgium have publicly and privately funded health care, and they have made it work. As reported in:
http://www.expatica.com/be/health_fitness/healthcare/belgian-healthcar...
"You can be assured of the highest-quality medical care in Belgium, regarded as among the best healthcare systems in Europe. As in most countries, the system divides itself into state and private, though fees are payable in both, so you need to ensure that you are adequately covered through either the state insurance and/or private insurance. The advantages of the state mutuelle/mutualiteit scheme is that you can choose any doctor, clinic or hospital you like, in any location and without referral, according to your needs in much the same way as you can with private insurance."
If a country like Belgium can make something like this work, why can't the US?!?
Friday, June 26, 2009
He Thinks W e're Stupid
by Gary Fleming
HCL Technologies is one of India's most powerful and respected tech firms. The company scored a massive $170M USD outsourcing contract from Microsoft last year. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer lavished them with praise, stating, "That extra mile walk by the team (at HCL) has increased our mutual trust and has taken our relationship to newer heights. "
Now HCL's CEO Vineet Nayar has gone on record with some controversial remarks about the quality of American technology college graduates. Tired of hearing stereotypes about Indian tech grads, Mr. Nayar, speaking before an audience of business partners in New York City, blasted American tech grads as "unemployable".
He elaborated that he views American tech grads as inferior to those from India, China, and Brazil as the Americans only want to "get rich" and dream up "the next big thing". He says students from countries like India, China, and Brazil are more willing to put the effort into "boring" details of tech process and methodology, such as ITIL, Six Sigma, etc.The Only Reason
American Scofflaw
I think that McConnell is pushing so hard for this is that he believes that the only way the US can possibly pull out of its current economic death-spiral is another major war.
I think that McConnell is pushing so hard for this is that he believes that the only way the US can possibly pull out of its current economic death-spiral is another major war.
A non-consensual maritime interdiction by US forces would be incendiary, and would be - rightly - considered an act of war by North Korea.
But let's remember something here: North Korea has a defense pact with China, and South Korea has a defense pact with the US.
Let us hope that there are some adults in the room in Washington , Pyongyang, and China who will not let things get out of control.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
My Sunny Beatdown
American Scofflaw
Two burglars in southern Florida got more than they bargained for when they broke into a couple's home early Monday morning.
Two men broke into a home around 1 am Monday morning. One pointed a gun right at the resident's face while he was in bed.
"Screamed at me don't move, don't move, with vulgarities involved, that wasn't happening in my house. He came to the wrong party."
The victim, who wishes to remain unidentified, is a retired special operations officer for the coast guard. His fiance who was also in bed is a former maximum-security corrections officer.
"We weren't just going to let them rob us, absolutely not. I work too hard for the things I have and people who don't have jobs who make a living off of robbing people, not me."
The male victim and one of the suspects got in a fight, both trying to get control of the gun.
"When the victim and the suspect were fighting in the corner of the bedroom, a shot fired from the gun, went through the wall, through the medicine cabinet, and right into the bathroom mirror."
The other suspect ran out of the house.
Meanwhile, the victim's fiance grabbed their own rifle and beat the other suspect so hard the rifle broke in two. Then the male victim got a hold of the suspect's gun.
"At that point I was going to take his life, and he begged for his life, 'I don't want to die, I don't want to die, please don't kill me, let me go.'"
That's when he took the suspect outside-- and bashed his head into this truck before the man ran away. But not before the suspect was able to fire two more shots at the house, one going through the door and grazing the male victim's shoulder.
The Lee County Sheriff's Office is still searching for the suspects.
As for the victims, they say what they did was risky, but because of their law enforcement training, they knew how to react.
Fake That Suicide, Boy
American Scofflaw
Two people asked a Pentagon official cooperating with prosecutors in an investigation into the American Israel Public Affairs Committee to fake his own death to avoid testifying against two pro-Israel lobbyists charged in the case, according to the Justice Department.
Pentagon analyst Lawrence Franklin pled guilty in October 2005 to participating in a conspiracy with AIPAC officials Steven Rosen and Keith Weissman to obtain and distribute classified information. The Justice Department dropped the case against Rosen and Weissman last month as a trial approached.
"Just prior to the entry of his guilty plea, Franklin was approached by two individuals who made a pitch to Franklin about faking his death by suicide and disappearing, thus thwarting any cooperation in the case against Rosen and Weissman," prosecutors wrote in a brief filed in connection with a motion to reduce the 12-year prison term Franklin was originally sentenced to.
"In January 2006, Franklin conducted five consensually recorded telephone conversations with one of these individuals, in support of an obstruction of justice/witness tampering investigation; however, the FBI was unable to obtain the requisite incriminating evidence to support a criminal investigation," the Justice Department brief said.
Lawyers for Franklin also cited his report of the apparent tampering effort as part of their arguments for reducing Franklin's sentence. The government recommended lowering Franklin's sentence to about nine years imprisonment. Franklin's team asked for probation. Judge T.S. Ellis, who imposed the first 12-year prison term several years ago, re-sentenced Franklin to probation and 10 months home confinement. (The Pentagon official never started his original sentence; he had been free pending Rosen and Weissman's trial.)
The alleged witness tampering was first reported by POLITICO following Franklin's re-sentencing earlier this month.
A lawyer for Weissman, Baruch Weiss, said today he knew nothing about the alleged incident.
"If there was any witness tampering it wasn't by us. We had zero contact with Larry Franklin through all of this. That's true for us, our lawyers and anybody acting on our behalf. It’s totally surprising to me," Rosen said.
An AIPAC spokesman also denied knowledge of or involvement in the alleged approach to Franklin.
Memoirs of an Obama Dupe
The Gay Secretary
I didn't vote for President Obama because he had no track record proving to me that his actions matched campaign promises. I voted for the promises Dubya made eight or so years ago (more humbler foreign policy being one I fell for) and found out the hard way that talk is cheap - it is action that really matters. I can't think of a single promise kept from the Bush campaign - I can't think of anything done by the Bush administration that helped anyone I personally know anywhere. That is a universal statement - and I mean it. That, I think, is saying a lot.
Fast forward to the Obama campaign. Perhaps you've heard the saying that "a sure sign of insanity is repeating the same action while expecting a different outcome each time." My lesson learned - don't vote for promises - vote on proven track records - don't make the same mistake twice. I supported Ron Paul based on his consistent record of action matching principals and promises. But forget that for now - Obama was elected - he's OUR president - yours and mine. (Apologies to non-American readers) I want to join the Obama supporters in supporting our new president. So far I don't think I can. Why?
Because the signs I've seen so far like (CLICK) this article where we read:
"Speaking to the State Department after Richard Holbrooke was appointed Special US Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Obama said the worsening situation in the region poses a grave threat to what he called 'global security.'
"Afghanistan and Pakistan are the central front in the America's war against terrorism and the deteriorating situation in the region poses a grave threat to the global security. It's an international challenge of the highest order. That's why we are pursuing a careful review of our policy."
One problem I have with the statement above is the phrase "war against terrorism" which is really meaningless - or can mean anything anyone wants it to mean. It is a propagandistic phrase that we are all supposed to pretend we understand while none of us can define. I had hoped Obama was smart enough to understand that as someone said "a problem properly defined is half solved." What kind of problem statement is "war against terrorism?" What about things the U.S. military does that terrorize our foes? Are we at war against that terrorism too? This is not a word game - this is propaganda for public consumption - I'm not buying it.
Here's another reason I'm concerned that Obama isn't changing much regarding America's empire-oriented foreign policy. (CLICK) This article reports:
"At least seven people were killed, most of them foreigners, in a suspected US missile strike in northwest Pakistan, bringing to 15 the number killed in such attacks on Friday, officials said.
Friday's suspected US missile strikes were the first since US President Barack Obama took office in Washington and came one day after he appointed veteran diplomat Richard Holbrooke special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan."
Then I came across this video regarding the banking situation and those Obama has appointed to key positions:
I also found (CLICK) this article by Grossman describing appointments made by Obama regarding the military-industrial-scientific complex.
Here is (CLICK) another article reporting on troop buildups coming for Afghanistan. Why? What is the mission?
We also know Obama appointed Rahm Emanuel, a former Israeli soldier, as the second most powerful man in the country. I don't see how change will come to America's policy toward Israel - a policy I disagree with very much since it seems so one-sided. If you don't think Rahm was in the Israeli military, watch this video where he doesn't deny it:
Now I ask you, reader, if you voted for Obama, are these moves representative of the change you voted for? Do you believe these initial moves are helping America? Why? How? Help me to understand exactly what it is you had hoped Obama would change because so far I see more of the same.
I would appreciate comments - I'm not picking a fight - but I would love to get on board with the "change we can believe in."
Fast forward to the Obama campaign. Perhaps you've heard the saying that "a sure sign of insanity is repeating the same action while expecting a different outcome each time." My lesson learned - don't vote for promises - vote on proven track records - don't make the same mistake twice. I supported Ron Paul based on his consistent record of action matching principals and promises. But forget that for now - Obama was elected - he's OUR president - yours and mine. (Apologies to non-American readers) I want to join the Obama supporters in supporting our new president. So far I don't think I can. Why?
Because the signs I've seen so far like (CLICK) this article where we read:
"Speaking to the State Department after Richard Holbrooke was appointed Special US Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Obama said the worsening situation in the region poses a grave threat to what he called 'global security.'
"Afghanistan and Pakistan are the central front in the America's war against terrorism and the deteriorating situation in the region poses a grave threat to the global security. It's an international challenge of the highest order. That's why we are pursuing a careful review of our policy."
One problem I have with the statement above is the phrase "war against terrorism" which is really meaningless - or can mean anything anyone wants it to mean. It is a propagandistic phrase that we are all supposed to pretend we understand while none of us can define. I had hoped Obama was smart enough to understand that as someone said "a problem properly defined is half solved." What kind of problem statement is "war against terrorism?" What about things the U.S. military does that terrorize our foes? Are we at war against that terrorism too? This is not a word game - this is propaganda for public consumption - I'm not buying it.
Here's another reason I'm concerned that Obama isn't changing much regarding America's empire-oriented foreign policy. (CLICK) This article reports:
"At least seven people were killed, most of them foreigners, in a suspected US missile strike in northwest Pakistan, bringing to 15 the number killed in such attacks on Friday, officials said.
Friday's suspected US missile strikes were the first since US President Barack Obama took office in Washington and came one day after he appointed veteran diplomat Richard Holbrooke special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan."
Then I came across this video regarding the banking situation and those Obama has appointed to key positions:
I also found (CLICK) this article by Grossman describing appointments made by Obama regarding the military-industrial-scientific complex.
Here is (CLICK) another article reporting on troop buildups coming for Afghanistan. Why? What is the mission?
We also know Obama appointed Rahm Emanuel, a former Israeli soldier, as the second most powerful man in the country. I don't see how change will come to America's policy toward Israel - a policy I disagree with very much since it seems so one-sided. If you don't think Rahm was in the Israeli military, watch this video where he doesn't deny it:
Now I ask you, reader, if you voted for Obama, are these moves representative of the change you voted for? Do you believe these initial moves are helping America? Why? How? Help me to understand exactly what it is you had hoped Obama would change because so far I see more of the same.
I would appreciate comments - I'm not picking a fight - but I would love to get on board with the "change we can believe in."
Ben's False Flag
The Federal Reserve sought to hide its involvement in Bank of America Corp's (BAC.N) acquisition of Merrill Lynch as Merrill's financial condition worsened, the top Republican on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee said on Wednesday.
The Fed "engaged in a cover-up and deliberately hid concerns and pertinent details regarding the merger from other federal regulatory agencies," Representative Darrell Issa said in a statement released to Reuters.
Bernanke has in the past denied any inappropriate pressure on Bank of America. Fed spokeswoman Michelle Smith on Wednesday referred to a letter Bernanke sent Representative Dennis Kucinich on April 30 and later testimony in which he offered an "unconditional assertion" that he did not ask Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis to withhold information regarding Merrill.
"The Federal Reserve acted with the highest integrity throughout its discussions with Bank of America," Bernanke wrote to the Ohio Democrat, who chairs a subcommittee on the Oversight panel.
The Democrat who heads the committee, Edolphus Towns of New York, has called Bernanke to testify on Thursday. "I am not going to prejudge these issues. We are not even close to finishing the Bank of America-Merrill Lynch investigation at this point," Towns said in a statement.
War with Russia, Anyone????
American Scofflaw
Well, at least you can credit Tel Aviv for wanting to be upfront about waging a clandestine intelligence war against Iran, prior to an actual invasion!
But do take a second, hard look at that statement ".....Failing that, Israel, which is widely assumed to have the Middle East's only nuclear arsenal, has hinted at a military option, though many analysts think Iranian sites are too dispersed and fortified for its air force to take on alone."
Guess who is going having to go to bat for Israel, should there be a military confrontation? None other than the good old US of A.
Your kids' lives and your tax dollars will pay for this next war, should it happen.
Any of our troops left in Iraq, and elsewhere in the Middle East, will be sitting ducks for a counter attack by Iranian military forces.
And here's something to chew on. Russia is Iran's 7th largest trading partner; what are they going to do when they see their 7th largest trading partner attacked?
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Okay, here ya go!
The Gay Secretary
You want to save the economy?
Okay, here ya go!
Short term: Cut taxes by 50%. That will light up the economy for the short term. Yes, we will have to make sacrifices like not running around the world killing brown people, or giving very expensive (and illegal) weapons to other nations so that they can kill brown people, but I for one an willing to make that sacrifice.
Long term: We have given away our manufacturing to other countries for the last 30 years. Our government actually gave tax breaks to corporations to make it easier to send high paying American jobs to other countries, then scratched their heads trying to figure out why Americans stopped buying things and worse, were suddenly unable to make the payments on their mortgages and credit cards!
Rather than deal with the loss of manufacturing back when it was still a small issue, the government covered up the loss of manufacturing jobs with the so-called "service economy"; the theory that you can prosper a nation by doing each others' laundry for a fee. From the point of view of the government (composed of politicians only thinking in terms of the next election) this was a great plan because tax revenues still poured into government coffers from all the services. Problem was that while money transferred from the private sector to the government, no new money was coming into the system. Inevitably that leads to a point in time where people start doing their own laundry again and tax revenues dry up.
So, here we are, dirty clothes piling up. unable to find work, unable to pay the bills, unable to buy new products, and unable to manufacture.
We cannot simply re-open the old factories. We could spend 100 years playing catch up to the nations who now lead the US in manufacturing, if we manufacture what they manufacture, and those foreign governments, much wiser than our own, will not allow their leads to evaporate. Look how Japan has committed to better computers and robots (while the US commits to making better bombs).
If we are to save our nation, we need a national commitment to new technology development. Not just refinement of what already exists but a leap way beyond, into totally new and portable energy sources (not just storage), photonics, large scale ultra-cheap desalinization, and of course ideas not yet thought of.
We need a revived CIVILIAN space program to jump start our technology the way the Apollo missions jump started our technology in the 1960s. Or we need a new Manhattan project devoted to the development of commercial technologies. We need to create something that ONLY the United States knows how to make, and that the rest of the world will want to buy.
Above all we need to recreate our national culture so that the products are the focus and value of a company, not the stock options. We need to remember that it is the beans and not the counting of the beans that makes real wealth. Above all, we need to reverse the trend that abandoned products as a way to make money and made money itself the product.
These are the ONLY things which can save our economy and our nation from economic collapse.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Monday, June 22, 2009
Mom Wants To Know
The mother of slain U.S. Army Ranger Pat Tillman says Lt. Gen. Stanley McChrystal lied about her son's death during a congressional hearing. 
Mary Tillman talks about her son Army Ranger Pat Tillman's death, during a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing on the Army's misleading information regarding the death of Pat Tillman
Mary Tillman, mother of the former NFL star who was killed by friendly fire five years ago in Afghanistan, said McChrystal lied Tuesday during a hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee when he said there was no intent to deceive anyone about the cause of Tillman's death, CNN reported.
Mary Tillman has long complained that the military ceremony and posthumous Silver Star medal awarded to her son lacked any mention that his death was the result of fire from his own platoon, despite officials knowing at the time he did not die from enemy fire.
"McChrystal was lying," she told CNN.
During his testimony,McChrystal said of Pat Tillman's death, "I didn't see any activity by anyone to deceive."
"He said he didn't know for certain Pat was killed by fratricide. That isn't true in and of itself, but the fact is, it doesn't matter whether he knew it for certain," Tillman said.
She contended that Army protocol at the time required families to be told of possible fratricide, regardless of whether it had been confirmed.
I Don'y Pay No Stinkin Taxes
American Scofflaw
President Obama’s choice as Chief of Protocol for the State Department, Capricia Penavic Marshall (J.D. 1990, Case Western), and her cardiologist husband, failed to file their 2005 and 2006 tax returns. She balmed the problem "on the Postal Service and on miscommunication between her husband and their accountant":
President Obama’s choice as Chief of Protocol for the State Department, Capricia Penavic Marshall (J.D. 1990, Case Western), and her cardiologist husband, failed to file their 2005 and 2006 tax returns. She balmed the problem "on the Postal Service and on miscommunication between her husband and their accountant":
Ms. Marshall, who was the social secretary in the Clinton White House, notified the Obama administration about the late filings before she was nominated on May 14. She has since provided written answers to questions about the matter from Senator Richard G. Lugar of Indiana, the top Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee, which will hold a hearing on the appointment next Wednesday. The post requires Senate confirmation. ...
Ms. Marshall may fare better because, after ultimately filing the 2005 and 2006 federal and local paperwork, she was entitled to $37,259 in refunds, according to data she provided to Mr. Lugar. ... An aide to Mrs. Clinton, Philippe Reines, said, “In the end, only two American taxpayers were adversely impacted by this inadvertent lapse.”
In her written answers and in accounts she gave to government officials, Ms. Marshall has said the errors were unintentional. She has said that her husband failed to recognize that the couple’s accountant had included the tax returns for 2005 in a binder he provided with copies of the returns, and that the actual paperwork was never mailed.
The couple learned something was awry, Ms. Marshall has said, when the IRS notified them last fall that their 2006 return had never arrived. She wrote that an agent “advised us that there were a large number of tax returns misplaced by the D.C. post office for the 2006 tax year.”
Revenge, Pure and Simple
American Scofflaw
Outed CIA agent Valerie Plame will not get her day in court.
Outed CIA agent Valerie Plame will not get her day in court.
“The Supreme Court announced Monday it will not give further consideration to a lawsuit brought by a fired CIA agent and her husband against high ranking Bush administration officials, including former Vice President Dick Cheney,” Lee Ross reports for Fox News.
Fox adds, “The decision is a victory for Cheney and his former chief of staff, I. Lewis ‘Scooter’ Libby, former White House Chief of Staff Karl Rove, and former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage. They and nine unnamed co-defendants were sued by Valerie Plame Wilson and her husband Joseph after her CIA cover was leaked to reporters.”
Cheney and Libby never cared about the consequences of what they did to Plame, and the organization she worked for; they just wanted revenge against Wilson for having told the truth about Iraq, and this was how they got it.
This is a travesty; Plame should have had her day in court. The absolute, undeniable harm this action did to this country's intelligence will have repercussions for years to come.
Payola
American Scofflaw
As the blogs become the new mainstream media, mainstream-style corruptions are starting to sneak in, and the issue of payola has become a major problem. Some bloggers now accept gifts from advertisers.
There is another problem with the blogs still unaddressed by the FTC and that is the practice for public relations companies to create hundreds of fake identities on popular review blogs and use them to skew the online opinions. A typical example is for popular movie review blogs to get "front loaded" with fake positive reviews for a movie as a form of covert advertising.
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Piranha Brothers Revisited
American Scofflaw
"Everyone was terrified of Doug. I've seen grown men pull their own heads off rather than see Doug. Even Dinsdale was frightened of Doug."
"What did he do?"
"He used ... sarcasm. He knew all the tricks; dramatic irony, metaphor, bathos, puns, parody, litotes, ... and ... satire."
The life-art imitation loop continues to fascinate and bemuse.
Whoever imagined that Monty Python's seminal tale of Doug Piranha's cruelty would wend a decades-long path into contemporaneous American political discourse, not as the satire it originally was, but as a real political excuse for expanded claims of state secrets?That it has done this, however obliquely, is amusing enough. But it has done this without a hint or nod by the Obama administration as to the provenance of their latest fear in refusing to release notes from Patrick Fitzgerald's interview of Dick Cheney during the Plame investigation.
So, why, exactly, does the White House insist on keeping the interview notes a secret? Presumably, there is nothing in the notes that would be incriminating, or, one would think, Fitzgerald would have done some indicting. But that didn't happen. So, what excuse is on offer now?
Saturday, June 20, 2009
It's a Bird, A Plane, no, It's a Geek Spy
American Scofflaw
To the list of collegiate types -- nerds, jocks, Greeks -- add one more: spies in training. The government is hoping they'll be hard to spot.
The Obama administration has proposed the creation of an intelligence officer training program in colleges and universities that would function much like the Reserve Officers' Training Corps run by the military services. The idea is to create a stream "of first- and second-generation Americans, who already have critical language and cultural knowledge, and prepare them for careers in the intelligence agencies," according to a description sent to Congress by Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair.
One has to wonder just how many of these people will be recruited for international operations, and how many for domestic surveillance of "terrorists" like Quaker anti-war groups, people who can actually speak coherently in complete sentences, etc., etc., etc.,
We are rapidly devolving into a society where "thought crime" is any logical disagreement with any policy or position this government may take, and that is chilling in the extreme.
Oooh La La
American Scofflaw
Law enforcement officials say that sting operations like these are an extremely effective means of lowering crime rates and stopping the criminally minded before they commit worse offenses.
Opponents call it entrapment
Moonlighting Israeli Spies
Cells of young Israeli intelligence operatives continue to openly solicit relationships with U.S. military personnel from shopping mall kiosks, according to an informed source.
WMR has learned that one such kiosk operates at the MacArthur Center Mall in Norfolk, Virginia, where a number of U.S. Navy personnel from the nearby naval bases are regularly confronted by aggressive young Israelis selling Dead Sea cosmetic products who inquire about where the personnel are stationed and the nature of their jobs. Young Israeli women working at the kiosk also appear to want to strike up a closer relationship with some of the naval personnel.
The use of young Israelis, many of whom continue to serve in a reserve status with the Israel Defense Force, as intelligence agents, has changed somewhat over the past decade. Young Israeli “art students” first conducted unsolicited visits to the homes and offices of federal and military employees trying to sell cheap Chinese-made bogus Israeli artwork while casing neighborhoods and office buildings.
Israeli-operated mall kiosks have transitioned from selling toys to cosmetics.
On August 7, 2005, WMR reported: In November 2001, the INS arrested several Israelis, including some with military backgrounds, selling Puzzle Car and Zoom Copter toys from shopping mall kiosks and vending carts. Many of the malls were located near U.S. government facilities, including the Pentagon and CIA. A majority of the Israelis, arrested for visa violations instead of espionage, worked for a Florida-based company called Quality Sales. A spokesman for the company admitted the company hired vacationing Israeli students but they had the wrong visas. The spokesman also revealed the Israelis were deemed “special interest” cases by INS-- a new government designation applied to terrorism suspects in the wake of 911. Federal authorities suspect the Israelis were using the kiosks as intelligence fronts in the same manner that Israelis were using door-to-door art sales as covers. The National Counterintelligence Center (NCIX) stated in a report issued in March 2001 that, “In the past six weeks, employees in federal office buildings located throughout the United States have reported suspicious activities connected with individuals representing themselves as foreign students selling or delivering artwork. Employees have observed both males and females attempting to bypass facility security and enter federal buildings.” The report was temporarily removed from the NCIX web site.
One of the malls where the Israeli”toy sellers” based their operations was the Pentagon City Mall, just across Interstate 395 from the Pentagon. In July 2004, the mall served as the rendezvous point for alleged Israeli Pentagon spy Larry Franklin and Keith Weissman, an AIPAC official. Franklin warned Weissman that Iranian agents were going to start attacking American soldiers and Israeli agents in Iraq. Weissman then went to brief the account of the meeting to Steve Rosen, another senior AIPAC official. They both informed the Israeli embassy in Washington and Glenn Kessler, a reporter for The Washington Post. Those phone calls were being wiretapped by the FBI as part of its investigation of a major Israeli spy ring in the United States, an investigation that had been going on since before the 9/11 attacks. The FBI was also monitoring meetings between Franklin, Weissman, and Rosen, including one held in February 2003 at the Arlington, Virginia, Ritz-Carlton hotel, which adjoins the Pentagon City Mall.
In February 2005, an Israeli man named Ohad Cohen was deported, along with four other Israelis, from Omaha, Nebraska. In what was becoming a common occurrence in the United States, a total of 10 Israelis, who were working at shopping mall kiosks in the Omaha and Lincoln areas, were deported by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials for illegally working in the United States on tourist visas. The Israelis operated out of Omaha’s Oak View Mall and Lincoln’s Gateway Westfield Mall. The Federal government probe was reported to be part of a wider probe of Israeli shopping mall kiosk activity throughout the Midwest. In December 2004, FBI and immigration officers arrested 15 Israelis in Minnesota and three operating from a mall kiosk in Grand Forks, North Dakota. Omaha is also the headquarters of the U.S. Air Force Strategic Air Command (SAC).
On January 13, 2009, WMR reported: WMR has also learned of other Israeli mall kiosks around the country that hired aggressive Israeli young men and women who badger customers and ask personal questions. Israeli mall kiosks engaged in the aggressive sales practices have been set up at the North Shore Mall in Peabody, Massachusetts, and Northeast Mall in Hurst, Texas, a Dallas suburb. The mall kiosks in Peabody sell Israeli hand cream and nail files. The kiosk in Hurst has a male overseer, about 45 years old, who lives in the Bahamas.
Many of the Israeli mall vendors claim ignorance when told by customers that Israeli mall kiosks were identified as Mossad front operations in a Fox News report. More incredibly, some Israelis feign ignorance when the term “9/11” is used. They claim not to know what the term means.
Can We Forget About It, Scofflaw?
by Larry Doyle
If a tree falls in the forest and nobody is there to hear it, does it make any noise?
If an agency is sitting on billions in losses but nobody asks about it, can we forget about it?
If an entire group of banks is sitting on hundreds of billions more in losses, and the media is not even aware of this banking system, can we pretend they don’t exist?
Oh, if only we could, perhaps our economic life would be so much simpler.
While Uncle Sam and the media can choose to overlook these institutions, the losses are real and will serve as a drag on our economy and nation for the foreseeable future. Yet, they receive very little attention. Fortunately, Bloomberg shed a hint of light on part of this problem today in writing, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac in Limbo as Geithner Seeks More Time:
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will remain in limbo as the U.S. Treasury secretary said the government doesn’t have time now to deal with the future of the two mortgage-finance companies it seized in September.
“We did not believe that we could at this time — in this time frame — lay out a sensible set of reforms to guide, to determine what their future role should be,” Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told the Senate Banking Committee in Washington today. “We’re going to begin a process of looking at broader options for what their future should be.”
Doesn’t have time or doesn’t want to admit that these agencies represent an ongoing and enormous drag on our economy? How so? Fannie and Freddie hold 50% of the mortgages in our country. These entities are most likely sitting on hundreds of billions in embedded losses currently with limited prospects to generate real revenue. They have no viable business model at this point in time. As a result, rather than entering into an unpleasant and economically harmful dialogue, Geithner chooses to sweep this under the rug. How can Tim do this? Because Uncle Sam has allocated, if not necessarily set aside, funds for these agencies to offset future losses. As Bloomberg highlights:
The remainder of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s $400 billion U.S. Treasury lifeline should still be “sufficient” until the government decides how to restructure the companies, Federal Housing Finance Agency Director James Lockhart said in June 3 testimony to a House subcommittee. Washington-based Fannie Mae and McLean, Virginia-based Freddie Mac have already requested $84.9 billion in taxpayer aid through the Treasury’s program to buy the companies’ preferred stock to keep them solvent.
Over and above swimming in a sea of losses, both Freddie and Fannie are effectively rudderless. Fannie Mae’s acting CEO, Herb Allison, was recently appointed to oversee management of TARP funds at Treasury. Freddie Mac’s acting CEO, John Koskinen, had resigned and only returned when beseeched. While Koskinen has committed to retaining the role of chairman of Freddie, he can’t get out of his daily Freddie Mac responsibilities quickly enough as the WSJ reports, Freddie’s Accidental CEO Tries to Shed Job.
The dirtier little secret hidden by Uncle Sam is embedded within the Federal Home Loan Bank system. Why? After Uncle Sam, the FHLB system is the second largest creditor in our country with approximately $1.2 trillion in outstanding debt. While Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae’s portfolios are chock full of agency mortgage-backed securities (MBS backed by conforming size loans), the portfolios within the FHLB system (12 regional banks) are stuffed with Jumbo mortgages, Alt-A, pay-option ARMS, and sub-prime. In short, lots of toxic assets and lots of embedded losses hidden by the artful deceit of the relaxed mark-to-market accounting standard.
Where are we going with these future wards of the state? I project that in 2010, we will see these 14 entities (Freddie and Fannie and 12 regional FHLBs) combined into one large government owned housing finance entity.
Shhhhh . . . don’t tell anybody!!
Friday, June 19, 2009
BullDoze Heaven
American Scofflaw
In a nation with a huge homeless population, the US Government plans to start demolishing empty homes, simply to create an artificial shortage and boost housing prices supposedly to protect the value of the mortgages the banks hold.
But the mortgages the banks hold are not valued based on UNsold homes!
The only point of bulldozing empty homes to create an artificial shortage to keep prices up TO PROTECT BANKERS' FUTURE PROFITS!
If homes are cheap, you borrow less and the banks get less interest from you. If the homes are expensive, you have to borrow more money anmd the banks make more interest off of you.
In other words, they are using bulldozers to re-create the housing bubble from a few years ago.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Two Days Before
American Scofflaw
The US military conducted a training exercise in the five days before the September 11 attacks that included simulated aircraft hijackings by terrorists, according to a 9/11 Commission document recently found in the US National Archives. In one of the scenarios, implemented on September 9, terrorists hijacked a London to New York flight, planning to blow it up with explosives over New York.
The undated document, entitled "NORAD EXERCISES Hijack Summary," was part of a series of 9/11 Commission records moved to the National Archives at the start of the year. It was found there and posted to the History Commons site at Scribd by History Commons contributor paxvector in the files of the commission's Team 8, which focused on the failed emergency response on the day of the attacks. The summary appears to have been drafted by one of the commission's staffers, possibly Miles Kara, based on documents submitted by NORAD.
In the September 9 scenario, the fictitious terrorists' goal seems to have been to kill New Yorkers with the rain of debris following the plane's explosion. However, in the exercise, the military intercepted the plane and forced it away from the city. When the terrorists realized they were not near New York, they blew the plane up "over land near the divert location," leaving no survivors. The military unit most involved in this scenario was NORAD's Northeast Air Defense Sector (NEADS), which also played a key role in the air defense response to the 9/11 attacks, two days later.
Gimme The McDonald's
American Scofflaw
A Denver police officer has been suspended after allegedly brandishing his gun at a McDonald's restaurant in Aurora after his order took too long to fill.
Aurora police confirmed the CBS4 investigation saying the incident occurred May 21 at the McDonald's at 18181 East Hampden Avenue.
A spokesperson for the Aurora Police Department said they plan to present the case -- now classified as a felony menacing incident -- to the Arapahoe County District Attorney's Office Thursday for possible filing of criminal charges.
Sources familiar with the case, and the fast food worker's account of what happened, say two off-duty Denver police officers placed an order from their car in the early morning hours of May 21. But once at the drive through window, the employee said the men became agitated and angry at how long their food was taking. The men thought they were being ignored, according to contacts familiar with the worker's account. The male clerk then said one of the officer's flashed his police badge and pointed a pistol through the drive through window in a threatening manner, before driving off without paying.
Both officers are assigned to Denver International Airport although only one has been placed on administrative leave with pay, pending the outcome of the case.
A Denver police officer has been suspended after allegedly brandishing his gun at a McDonald's restaurant in Aurora after his order took too long to fill.
Aurora police confirmed the CBS4 investigation saying the incident occurred May 21 at the McDonald's at 18181 East Hampden Avenue.
A spokesperson for the Aurora Police Department said they plan to present the case -- now classified as a felony menacing incident -- to the Arapahoe County District Attorney's Office Thursday for possible filing of criminal charges.
Sources familiar with the case, and the fast food worker's account of what happened, say two off-duty Denver police officers placed an order from their car in the early morning hours of May 21. But once at the drive through window, the employee said the men became agitated and angry at how long their food was taking. The men thought they were being ignored, according to contacts familiar with the worker's account. The male clerk then said one of the officer's flashed his police badge and pointed a pistol through the drive through window in a threatening manner, before driving off without paying.
Both officers are assigned to Denver International Airport although only one has been placed on administrative leave with pay, pending the outcome of the case.
I Wanted to Serve My Country
Mass Cops Got Grenade
Like other law enforcers, West Springfield officers carry the usual handguns, handcuffs, pepper spray and ammunition.
Unlike most police departments, this particular police force is also equipped with 2 grenade launchers, 4 M-14 semi-automatic rifles and one M-21 sniper rifle.
According to the Boston Globe, West Springfield is one of 82 Massachusetts police departments that have obtained military surplus weapons over the last 15 years as part of a federal program.
West Springfield Police Chief Thomas Burke told 22News, the grenade launchers can be used to fire tear gas in the event of a riot or a standoff.
He says his officers are trained to use them if needed. "We haven't had to use this particular type of weapon but we have it in case we did," he said.
Chief Burke added that taxpayers already paid for the guns and it would be a waste to have them destroyed.
For the department, owning these weapons also means not having to wait for State Police to respond to a major emergency.
The bottom line, he said it's better to be prepared than sorry.
There are a handful of western Massachusetts police departments that have obtained military weapons from this federal program. Westfield has more than 30 rifles. Monson has 6 and Belchertown has 4.
There's Only One Way To Go
by Mr. X
You're looking for a job. You want to get paid several times your worth, come and go when you please, work only when you feel like it, take as long a lunch as you want, and get ten paid holidays per year and six weeks paid vacation per year. There's only one way to go: work for the federal government.
Few Americans, I'm afraid, have any idea, what it's like. If they did, there would be a political earthquake. As a member of the Parasitic Class for 15 years, I have witnessed and participated in this corrupt and grotesquely unfair system first hand. I am both qualified and morally obligated to expose it.
You could, of course, call me a hypocrite. I have prospered financially beyond my wildest dreams. Given my talents and work, my standard of living is higher than anything I could earn in the private sector.
But by reading the right books, and talking at length with my wife (a private-sector employee) and our friends in the private sector, I have come to see this repugnant system for what it's worth.
What draws people to government work? What keeps them there for a lifetime? It's simple: overcompensation, huge benefits, and great working conditions. It's attractive to sign up and nearly impossible to leave. That's because the government, by and large, rewards skills and experience that are unmarketable in the private sector, at least not at the same level of pay.
Take me for example. I have a degree in political science. I write, edit, and research. The taxpayers pay me approximately $65,000 in salary, excluding benefits. I could not legally earn this in the private sector. If you don't believe me, peruse the want ads. Salaries for "writer/editor" and "research analyst" start in the low $20s.
Let's say I took a job in the private sector (presuming that someone would hire a person who has spent his whole adult life working for the government). And let's pretend I can earn $65,000.
What would I lose if I left the government? The short work week would be out the window. I could take off early, but this would be detrimental to my income. I would have to meet deadlines, because consumers want jobs done in a timely manner.
I would have to forget about ten paid holidays. People in the private sector have a hard time getting paid on Thanksgiving. My private-sector friends laugh at me when I tell them I get paid for such bogus holidays as Presidents Day, Martin Luther King Day, and Columbus Day.
And vacations? Right now, I can spend 8.7% of my work time on vacation. That's six weeks per year in perpetuity. The average vacation time in the private sector is two weeks, and it's not an entitlement.
I could also forget about the unofficial "bennies": for example, I take an hour-long jog every day, followed by a shower and a leisurely lunch. It keeps me in tip-top condition for my vacations. And shopping excursions during work are always possible. What about stress? If relaxation lengthened life, bureaucrats would live to be 150 years old.
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Every few years, a big-shot commission bemoans the disparity between public and private sector work. It invariably concludes that bureaucrats need much higher salaries and more benefits. Nonsense. If bureaucrats were paid according to their net value to society, the result would be mass exodus and the federal government would have to shut down.
For anyone versed in free-market economics, the reasons for all this taxpayer abuse are obvious. Unlike the private sector, the government is not subject to the rigors of the profit and loss system. The government can tax, print, and borrow money to meet its obligations. It can pay millions of people salaries absurdly out of proportion, and not be outcompeted.
Lacking the discipline imposed by the market, the government cannot be efficient by private-sector standards. It will never terminate or scale back unnecessary functions on its own. So long as people are tricked into thinking that government employees are sacrificing anything for the public good, politicians won't feel pressure to end it.
I have begun in earnest to look for employment in the private sector. I have to take a huge salary cut and give up those generous "bennies," but I will at least then contribute something to society. And at least I'll be able to live with myself.
June 15, 2009
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Shaddup Already
Some people in Ohio complain they received $25 parking tickets last week when their vehicles were parked in their own driveways.
Toledo Mayor Carty Finkbeiner defends the citations, saying they were issued under a city law against parking on unpaved surfaces -- including gravel driveways. The mayor, who's facing a recall vote, says he stands by the city's acting commissioner of Streets, Bridges and Harbor, Susan Frederick, who wrote the tickets.
During a news conference Monday, Finkbeiner ignored a reporter's question of whether the crackdown and fines are at all related to the city's budget crisis.
City Councilman D. Michael Collins calls the ticketing "Mickey Mouse nonsense." He has told residents he'll try to have the citations rescinded.
Toledo Mayor Carty Finkbeiner defends the citations, saying they were issued under a city law against parking on unpaved surfaces -- including gravel driveways. The mayor, who's facing a recall vote, says he stands by the city's acting commissioner of Streets, Bridges and Harbor, Susan Frederick, who wrote the tickets.
During a news conference Monday, Finkbeiner ignored a reporter's question of whether the crackdown and fines are at all related to the city's budget crisis.
City Councilman D. Michael Collins calls the ticketing "Mickey Mouse nonsense." He has told residents he'll try to have the citations rescinded.
Stephen Tyrone Johns: How Did He Really Go down?
HENRY: And then you saw some of the return fire from the security personnel?
MARIA: Yes, it hit the security man. I am not sure where, but he was flat on his back.
American Scofflaw
It appears that the prison guard who tragically died at the Holocaust Museum may have been accidentally shot in the back by his fellow security officer. And if he was killed by his own people, albeit unintentionally, why not say so?
This was reported at CNN.com, aired 10 June, 2009:
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0906/10/cnr.06.html
Monday, June 15, 2009
Not Our Problem, Pal
American Scofflaw
The $60 Sam Volpe thought he had lost for good hardly rates among the biggest rip-offs we've covered.
But the story of his run-in with a Rockledge bank over some "funny money" is interesting, if not instructive. It may cause you to double-check any Benjamins -- or Andrews or Ulysseses -- you receive from a bank teller or automated teller machine.
On Thursday, June 4, Volpe visited his Washington Mutual branch at Barnes Boulevard and Murrell Road, just north of his Viera East home. The 83-year-old retired pipe fitter cashed a check for $300 and pocketed the dough for the weekend. On Friday, he stepped into a checkout line at a Publix store, also at Barnes and Murrell, and pulled out the first crisp $20 bill.
"The clerk held it up to the light and said, 'I'm sorry, sir. This is counterfeit,' " Volpe recalled. "I said, 'Doggone!' and went right over to the bank."
At the WaMu branch, a teller examined the cash Volpe said he had received there a day earlier and spotted two more phony 20s. She gave Volpe a photocopy of the three fakes, and said the bank would report them to the U.S. Secret Service, which investigates counterfeiting.
Volpe was in no legal trouble. But the bank wouldn't replace his $60. He could appeal to a manager the next day.
"The first night, I couldn't sleep. . . . I just laid there and thought about how someone could burn me," Volpe said. "I sure hated to lose 60 bucks that way."
Volpe struck out with the manager that Saturday.
"She said: 'How do we know you got it from this bank? Once you walk out of this bank, you're responsible for the money.' "
The $60 Sam Volpe thought he had lost for good hardly rates among the biggest rip-offs we've covered.
But the story of his run-in with a Rockledge bank over some "funny money" is interesting, if not instructive. It may cause you to double-check any Benjamins -- or Andrews or Ulysseses -- you receive from a bank teller or automated teller machine.
On Thursday, June 4, Volpe visited his Washington Mutual branch at Barnes Boulevard and Murrell Road, just north of his Viera East home. The 83-year-old retired pipe fitter cashed a check for $300 and pocketed the dough for the weekend. On Friday, he stepped into a checkout line at a Publix store, also at Barnes and Murrell, and pulled out the first crisp $20 bill.
"The clerk held it up to the light and said, 'I'm sorry, sir. This is counterfeit,' " Volpe recalled. "I said, 'Doggone!' and went right over to the bank."
At the WaMu branch, a teller examined the cash Volpe said he had received there a day earlier and spotted two more phony 20s. She gave Volpe a photocopy of the three fakes, and said the bank would report them to the U.S. Secret Service, which investigates counterfeiting.
Volpe was in no legal trouble. But the bank wouldn't replace his $60. He could appeal to a manager the next day.
"The first night, I couldn't sleep. . . . I just laid there and thought about how someone could burn me," Volpe said. "I sure hated to lose 60 bucks that way."
Volpe struck out with the manager that Saturday.
"She said: 'How do we know you got it from this bank? Once you walk out of this bank, you're responsible for the money.' "
It's a Joke, Right?
American Scofflaw
FORMER prison inmate, Dawud Yaduallah is suing a nurse in the United States, claiming that he suffered an erection that lasted 55 hours as a side effect of medication he had been given.
Yaduallah, 43, said he had to wait more than two days before being taken from the New York prison to hospital for treatment.
According to media reports, Yaduallah said that his daily dosage of anti-psychotic medication was increased by 25 per cent by nurse Judith Lovelace and as a side effect he had a persistent and painful erection.
This left him "irreparably injured" with "severe damage to his penis, including erectile dysfunction, inability to ejaculate and pain during sexual intercourse", court papers say.
Yaduallah also claimed that he now needs a prosthesis "to possibly restore some sexual function" and says "his medical problems have caused difficulty in his marriage".
He has also accused Ms Lovelace of giving him no medical relief, doing nothing "other than telling Mr Yaduallah to apply ice to his penis".
FORMER prison inmate, Dawud Yaduallah is suing a nurse in the United States, claiming that he suffered an erection that lasted 55 hours as a side effect of medication he had been given.
Yaduallah, 43, said he had to wait more than two days before being taken from the New York prison to hospital for treatment.
According to media reports, Yaduallah said that his daily dosage of anti-psychotic medication was increased by 25 per cent by nurse Judith Lovelace and as a side effect he had a persistent and painful erection.
This left him "irreparably injured" with "severe damage to his penis, including erectile dysfunction, inability to ejaculate and pain during sexual intercourse", court papers say.
Yaduallah also claimed that he now needs a prosthesis "to possibly restore some sexual function" and says "his medical problems have caused difficulty in his marriage".
He has also accused Ms Lovelace of giving him no medical relief, doing nothing "other than telling Mr Yaduallah to apply ice to his penis".
This Was Pure Hell
The Gay Secretary
Family advocates are outraged by a prom held at Boston City Hall that was open to children apparently as young as 12 featuring crossdressers, homosexual heavy petting, suspected drug use and a leather-clad doorman who teaches sexual bondage classes.
Children from middle schools and high schools across Massachusetts on May 9 attended a Youth Pride Day event ending with a prom inside of Boston City Hall sponsored by the Boston Alliance of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Youth, or BAGLY, a group seated on the Massachusetts Commission for GLBT Youth.
Boston Mayor Thomas Menino issued a proclamation welcoming homosexual and transgender youth to the celebration. A man in drag introduced a homosexual activist from Menino's office to read the letter. A video of that proclamation is belowLA Suckers
L.A. Lakers fans celebrated their NBA championship victory Sunday night (June 14) by rioting outside the Staples Center in Los Angeles.
Eyewitness reports said that the police officers at the scene were being belted with rocks and bottles. There are also reports of fans starting fires, although it isn’t clear at this stage whether those fires included buildings or vehicles. One unconfirmed report says that at least one police vehicle has been set on fire. Live footage at 9:15pm local time from a local television station clearly shows rioters attacking signs and shop fronts. Police control of the area was limited, with vehicle traffic having to turn away as they approach the rioters.
Eyewitness reports said that the police officers at the scene were being belted with rocks and bottles. There are also reports of fans starting fires, although it isn’t clear at this stage whether those fires included buildings or vehicles. One unconfirmed report says that at least one police vehicle has been set on fire. Live footage at 9:15pm local time from a local television station clearly shows rioters attacking signs and shop fronts. Police control of the area was limited, with vehicle traffic having to turn away as they approach the rioters.
Get the Picture
American Scofflaw
If you owe your bank $1,000 you have a problem, but if you've borrowed $1 million it's the bank that has the problem.
Going by that old maxim, then China, which has lent the United States upwards of $1.3 trillion, has a very big problem.
And it knows it. As a consequence, Beijing is diversifying its overseas investments and pressing U.S. officials for an "exit strategy" from the ultra-loose fiscal and monetary policies that China fears will eventually inflate away the value of its U.S. bond holdings and fell the dollar.
"We have seen the growing integration of the Chinese financial system into the global economy, and over time we will see a gradual enhancement of the role of renminbi," Charles Dallara, managing director of the Institute of International Finance (IIF), told a meeting of his group in Beijing last week.
"Will it replace the dollar?" Dallara asked. "The fact is that I don't think this is what Chinese officials want."
And the reason for that is simple. What the Chinese want is for the US government returning to the task of printing its own currency.
The US Government, through an Executive Order signed by President Kennedy, gives the government the ability to print its own currency, and not use currency coming from the Federal Reserve.
The banks and the Fed don't particularly like this, one bit.
The last President who actually did this (Lincoln) wound up assassinated, and the last President who signed this executive order (Kennedy) wound up assassinated as well. Get the picture.
If you owe your bank $1,000 you have a problem, but if you've borrowed $1 million it's the bank that has the problem.
Going by that old maxim, then China, which has lent the United States upwards of $1.3 trillion, has a very big problem.
And it knows it. As a consequence, Beijing is diversifying its overseas investments and pressing U.S. officials for an "exit strategy" from the ultra-loose fiscal and monetary policies that China fears will eventually inflate away the value of its U.S. bond holdings and fell the dollar.
"We have seen the growing integration of the Chinese financial system into the global economy, and over time we will see a gradual enhancement of the role of renminbi," Charles Dallara, managing director of the Institute of International Finance (IIF), told a meeting of his group in Beijing last week.
"Will it replace the dollar?" Dallara asked. "The fact is that I don't think this is what Chinese officials want."
And the reason for that is simple. What the Chinese want is for the US government returning to the task of printing its own currency.
The US Government, through an Executive Order signed by President Kennedy, gives the government the ability to print its own currency, and not use currency coming from the Federal Reserve.
The banks and the Fed don't particularly like this, one bit.
The last President who actually did this (Lincoln) wound up assassinated, and the last President who signed this executive order (Kennedy) wound up assassinated as well. Get the picture.
Fudd Nation
American Scofflaw
If I was an oligarch and I wanted to buy my spoiled little shit of a son a toy that would make him laugh and laugh for hours, I'd buy him a middle-class American. Because Americans are funny the way all dupes and chumps are funny.
You can trick today's Americans time and again, and they always fall for it. And when you trick them, they stomp around dramatically and make a lot of blustery noise about "the people" who allegedly "aren't going to stand much more of this" because "our founding forefathers bla bla bla" and of course the ol' "you can fool some of the people some of the time, buttcha can't fool bla bla bla..."
Basically, if you've seen your Elmer Fudd, then you've seen your American sucker in all of his cartoon comic-foil glory: a sentimental buffoon, a harmless chump whose guns don't fool anyone but himself.
Every day, Americans play the role of Elmer Fudd to the oligarchy's Bugs Bunny--if you look at it from the oligarchy's point of view, at least.
this dumbing-down of American kids is deliberate.
If you have masses of people who can't think critically, can't see beyond the latest fashion trends, and for whom consumption trumps substance every time, you have a population willing to believe everything the government tells them.
This includes the government's reasons for wars without end, massive taxes which never come back to as services to the citizens who pay them, and cuts in services for the most fragile and at risk; infants, children, and the medically fragile elderly.
A population like this is any politician's (and government's) wet dream.
If I was an oligarch and I wanted to buy my spoiled little shit of a son a toy that would make him laugh and laugh for hours, I'd buy him a middle-class American. Because Americans are funny the way all dupes and chumps are funny.
You can trick today's Americans time and again, and they always fall for it. And when you trick them, they stomp around dramatically and make a lot of blustery noise about "the people" who allegedly "aren't going to stand much more of this" because "our founding forefathers bla bla bla" and of course the ol' "you can fool some of the people some of the time, buttcha can't fool bla bla bla..."
Basically, if you've seen your Elmer Fudd, then you've seen your American sucker in all of his cartoon comic-foil glory: a sentimental buffoon, a harmless chump whose guns don't fool anyone but himself.
Every day, Americans play the role of Elmer Fudd to the oligarchy's Bugs Bunny--if you look at it from the oligarchy's point of view, at least.
this dumbing-down of American kids is deliberate.
If you have masses of people who can't think critically, can't see beyond the latest fashion trends, and for whom consumption trumps substance every time, you have a population willing to believe everything the government tells them.
This includes the government's reasons for wars without end, massive taxes which never come back to as services to the citizens who pay them, and cuts in services for the most fragile and at risk; infants, children, and the medically fragile elderly.
A population like this is any politician's (and government's) wet dream.
Saturday, June 13, 2009
It's Your Fault, Not Mine
by Gary Fleming
So, I’ve done it to you again. My gay marriage series this week has lit a fire under you, and I took all your punches.
This series was designed to do just that. The goal was to challenge your notions of both sides of the gay marriage debate and make you think about things you may not have considered before. I didn’t ask you to agree, just to think.
Two stories particularly grabbed your attention. The first was about a gay black man who is struggling to awaken the black community — which largely opposes gay marriage — to gay rights.
In his eyes, many African-Americans are being hypocritical by not supporting gay rights, considering their own background of oppression and prejudice.
I received buckets of letters saying I had no business equating the civil rights movement to the gay rights movement. So let’s be clear: I made no such argument. I brought you the story of a man who makes that argument. It’s up to you to decide whether you agree.
The second story that got you fired up was one featuring gay marriage opponents who say their stances don’t make them bigots. I brought you three people who voted for Proposition 8 in
Well, you just ripped me a new one. You told me that if I was willing to run such a story, I must be willing to run a story on backing slavery and the like. You said I was giving credence to hatemongers and that I ruined your gay pride month celebrations.
So, another point of clarification: For those who said I’m supporting “hatemongers” by printing a certain side of the debate, talk to your fellow readers who told me the opposite the day before. 
More importantly, the opinions of the opponents are theirs, not mine. I simply brought you the story, and let you decide for yourselves. By presenting both sides of the debate, I was bound to irk some readers one day, and others the next.
If the story ruined your good time, that’s your fault for letting it get to you that much.
Palau Boss: Just A Freaking Coincidence
by Dan Rea
Under the palm trees of Palau two items of news have got the islanders talking.
One is about the latest battle raging in the Philippine jungle between government forces and al-Qaeda linked militants.
The other is about the islanders’ soon-to-be neighbours – the Guantánamo Bay inmates who are to be settled in their midst.
The two news stories are inextricably linked in the minds of the Palauans, whose tiny remote Pacific nation of islands lies 500 miles east of the Philippine province of Mindanao, where al-Qaeda-linked separatist groups are engaged in a war with the government. Outwardly welcoming, they admit privately that they are concerned about the arrival of up to 13 Muslims, Uighers originally from landlocked western China, who for the past eight years have been held in the prison camp.
"Every day we hear about the kidnappings and the bombings by Muslim terrorists in the Philippines and we worry that it might spread to our islands. Since we first heard about Muslim terrorism we have worried. We would not like it to come to our oasis."
Tiny Palau – population 21,000 – has stepped in where other nations have feared to tread to help President Obama achieve the goal he set in January of closing Guantánamo within a year.
Although the Uighers were cleared for release from Guantánamo Bay more than a year ago and were not classified as enemy combatants, the Obama administration has struggled to find refuge for them elsewhere in the world. Four others have been accepted by Bermuda.
Palau’s president, Johnson Toribiong, said it was his two most senior tribal chiefs who persuaded him to agree to a US request to give the detainees a home, reminding him of the Palau tradition of helping those without hope.
"Palau has an age-old tradition of accepting helpless people who come to our shores," he said. "I told my two paramount High Chiefs that if we did not accept these men they would be detained or sent to where they would face persecution or execution. They reminded me of our tradition and said, 'Let's accept them'.
"We agreed to do so on humanitarian grounds. They should not be incarcerated any more." The fact that Palau is also getting an extra $200 million (£125 million) in development and budget aid from Washington – more than $11.8 million per Uighur – was not a consideration, he insisted.
"The economic package is not linked to the arrangement, it is just a coincidence," he said. "Palau is the United State's closest ally at this time," he said proudly, adding that just this week a young Palauan-born soldier died fighting for America in Afghanistan.
My Man Larry: Free At last
American Scofflaw
A federal judge has virtually wiped out the prison sentence of more than 12 years he first imposed on a Pentagon analyst who pled guilty to leaking classified information to two pro-Israel lobbyists.
At a hearing Thursday evening in Alexandria, Va., Judge T.S. Ellis reduced the sentence for the former defense official, Larry Franklin, to probation plus 10 months in "community confinement," likely a halfway house.
Prosecutors had asked the judge to drop the sentence to 8 years in light of Franklin's cooperation, while a defense lawyer for Franklin, Plato Cacheris, asked for "no sentence at all."
In explaining his decision to dramatically reduce Franklin's sentence, Ellis cited the lack of punishment and light punishments imposed on other leakers, as well as Franklin's cooperation in the prosecution of the two lobbyists later fired from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, Steven Rosen and Keith Weissman.
Last month, days before the case against the pair was set to go to trial, the government dropped the prosecution. The Justice Department said legal rulings in the case and the threat of new disclosures of classified information made a trial unadvisable.
"It's a very difficult and unusual situation," Ellis said. "This one is unique."
The judge said he did not quibble with the government's decision to drop the Rosen and Weissman prosecutions, but that the move was "significant" and had "some relevance" to what punishment Franklin should receive. He said it was "very disputable" whether some of the information at the heart of the case was actually the kind of "national defense information" it is illegal to relay outside the government.
Ellis railed Thursday against people who leak classified information, including those who leaked national intelligence estimates about Iran and revealed the existence of the warrantless wiretapping program maintained by the National Security Agency. However, he also said he had no problem with people who disclosed such information as an act of civil disobedience and accepted what followed. "Disclosing it was okay, if a person is willing to stand up and say, 'I did it. Give me the consequences,'" the judge said.
Ellis said he wanted Franklin's punishment to serve as a "beacon" to other officials that they would face serious consequences if they committed similar breaches. "Secrets are important to a nation. If we couldn't keep our secrets, we would be at great risk," the judge said.
Franklin pled guilty in 2005 to three felony counts involving illegal distribution and possession of classified information. He had been free pending the trial for the two ex-AIPAC officials. His attorney, Plato Cacheris, said the former policy analyst had trouble finding good work.
"He's been digging ditches. He's been cleaning cesspools," the attorney said.
The information that Franklin gave to the two AIPAC lobbyists has never been officially detailed, but it related to the threat Iran posed to U.S. forces in the region. He also acknowledged numerous meetings with an Israeli diplomat, Naor Gilon.
In a plea for leniency Thursday, Franklin said he was motivated solely by "love of our republic and by the safety of our military personnel that were about to go into Iraq." He insisted he wasn't trying to leak anything, but simply to use a back channel to alert "a particular NSC source" to the dangers in Iraq. The ex-Pentagon analyst didn't know at the time that Rosen and Weissman worked for the pro-Israel lobbying group.
Friday, June 12, 2009
For Shame, Arianna, For Shame
American Scofflaw
Within a few hours, I received an email from a Huffington Post administrator informing me he had scrubbed my video from the site. "I don't see that it has any real news value," the administrator told me. "For me it only proves that one can find drunk people willing to say just about anything. Especially drunk, moronic people." For the first time, the premier clearinghouse for online news and opinions had suppressed one of my posts.------Max Blumenthal
Within a few hours, I received an email from a Huffington Post administrator informing me he had scrubbed my video from the site. "I don't see that it has any real news value," the administrator told me. "For me it only proves that one can find drunk people willing to say just about anything. Especially drunk, moronic people." For the first time, the premier clearinghouse for online news and opinions had suppressed one of my posts.------Max Blumenthal
Mondoweiss, the group that made the original video, has some very interesting commentary on the ongoing controvery this has caused, as well as Gawker, who broke the story about Huffington Post censoring the video .
The Anti-Defamation League purports to fight bigotry, racism and intolerance, but it has been noted here at Under The Radar Media that the organization selectively chooses which issues that it wants to address. HR 1913, the House version of the hate crime bill, was authored by the ADL and they hailed it’s controversial passage on April 29, 2009. While the bill purports to protect gays and minoritys, it’s true intention is to make criticism of Israel and Zionism a “hate crime.”
If the ADL-controlled YouTube decides to censor this video you can watch it here or here.
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