AIG needs another bailout after Exec bonuses: Peter Schiff

American Scofflaw

Perhaps Blackwater should shoot them!!!! If it saves us $$$, right!!!

EXPLOSIVE NEWS : Information Clearing House - ICH

EXPLOSIVE NEWS   : Information Clearing House -  ICH

So Much for White Liberal Guilt

Eight die in Afghan bombing as US loses 1,000th soldier

American Scofflaw

Memo to US General Stanley McChrystal: you understand, the Afghan people understand, and the world understands that the statement about foreign troops being in Afghanistan "to protect the Afghan people" is a complete, utter, and abominably transparent lie.

The US and NATO are in Afghanistan for two reasons, and two reasons only.

The are:

1. to "pacify" the Afghan population to the degree necessary to install the pipelines with which to to control Eurasian oil for private profit, and

2. To control production and the flow of drugs from which so many profit so handsomely.

The second outcome seems to have been well accomplished, to the point where the Russian government was complaining stridently last year about cheap heroin flooding the market in their country, destroying the lives of their kids (when you control the drugs, you control where the drugs wind up).

The first outcome is still absolutely no where in sight, which is why, 8 years on, we are at the painful milestone of 1,000 Americans killed in battle here.

Mother Nature sends Al Gore a message

Take My Pound of Flesh and Sleep Well.

The Gay Secretary

If you’re reading this, you’re no doubt asking yourself, “Why did this have to happen?” The simple truth is that it is complicated and has been coming for a long time. The writing process, started many months ago, was intended to be therapy in the face of the looming realization that there isn’t enough therapy in the world that can fix what is really broken. Needless to say, this rant could fill volumes with example after example if I would let it. I find the process of writing it frustrating, tedious, and probably pointless… especially given my gross inability to gracefully articulate my thoughts in light of the storm raging in my head. Exactly what is therapeutic about that I’m not sure, but desperate times call for desperate measures.

PHOTO DESCRIPTION:Bunch of anti-government kooks tarring and feathering a tax collector, circa 1776.

We are all taught as children that without laws there would be no society, only anarchy. Sadly, starting at early ages we in this country have been brainwashed to believe that, in return for our dedication and service, our government stands for justice for all. We are further brainwashed to believe that there is freedom in this place, and that we should be ready to lay our lives down for the noble principals represented by its founding fathers. Remember? One of these was “no taxation without representation”. I have spent the total years of my adulthood unlearning that crap from only a few years of my childhood. These days anyone who really stands up for that principal is promptly labeled a “crackpot”, traitor and worse.

While very few working people would say they haven’t had their fair share of taxes (as can I), in my lifetime I can say with a great degree of certainty that there has never been a politician cast a vote on any matter with the likes of me or my interests in mind. Nor, for that matter, are they the least bit interested in me or anything I have to say.

Why is it that a handful of thugs and plunderers can commit unthinkable atrocities (and in the case of the GM executives, for scores of years) and when it’s time for their gravy train to crash under the weight of their gluttony and overwhelming stupidity, the force of the full federal government has no difficulty coming to their aid within days if not hours? Yet at the same time, the joke we call the American medical system, including the drug and insurance companies, are murdering tens of thousands of people a year and stealing from the corpses and victims they cripple, and this country’s leaders don’t see this as important as bailing out a few of their vile, rich cronies. Yet, the political “representatives” (thieves, liars, and self-serving scumbags is far more accurate) have endless time to sit around for year after year and debate the state of the “terrible health care problem”. It’s clear they see no crisis as long as the dead people don’t get in the way of their corporate profits rolling in.

And justice? You’ve got to be kidding!

How can any rational individual explain that white elephant conundrum in the middle of our tax system and, indeed, our entire legal system? Here we have a system that is, by far, too complicated for the brightest of the master scholars to understand. Yet, it mercilessly “holds accountable” its victims, claiming that they’re responsible for fully complying with laws not even the experts understand. The law “requires” a signature on the bottom of a tax filing; yet no one can say truthfully that they understand what they are signing; if that’s not “duress” than what is. If this is not the measure of a totalitarian regime, nothing is.

How did I get here?

My introduction to the real American nightmare starts back in the early ‘80s. Unfortunately after more than 16 years of school, somewhere along the line I picked up the absurd, pompous notion that I could read and understand plain English. Some friends introduced me to a group of people who were having ‘tax code’ readings and discussions. In particular, zeroed in on a section relating to the wonderful “exemptions” that make institutions like the vulgar, corrupt Catholic Church so incredibly wealthy. We carefully studied the law (with the help of some of the “best”, high-paid, experienced tax lawyers in the business), and then began to do exactly what the “big boys” were doing (except that we weren’t steeling from our congregation or lying to the government about our massive profits in the name of God). We took a great deal of care to make it all visible, following all of the rules, exactly the way the law said it was to be done.

The intent of this exercise and our efforts was to bring about a much-needed re-evaluation of the laws that allow the monsters of organized religion to make such a mockery of people who earn an honest living. However, this is where I learned that there are two “interpretations” for every law; one for the very rich, and one for the rest of us… Oh, and the monsters are the very ones making and enforcing the laws; the inquisition is still alive and well today in this country.

That little lesson in patriotism cost me $40,000+, 10 years of my life, and set my retirement plans back to 0. It made me realize for the first time that I live in a country with an ideology that is based on a total and complete lie. It also made me realize, not only how naive I had been, but also the incredible stupidity of the American public; that they buy, hook, line, and sinker, the crap about their “freedom”… and that they continue to do so with eyes closed in the face of overwhelming evidence and all that keeps happening in front of them.

Before even having to make a shaky recovery from the sting of the first lesson on what justice really means in this country (around 1984 after making my way through engineering school and still another five years of “paying my dues”), I felt I finally had to take a chance of launching my dream of becoming an independent engineer.

On the subjects of engineers and dreams of independence, I should digress somewhat to say that I’m sure that I inherited the fascination for creative problem solving from my father. I realized this at a very young age.

The significance of independence, however, came much later during my early years of college; at the age of 18 or 19 when I was living on my own as student in an apartment in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. My neighbor was an elderly retired woman (80+ seemed ancient to me at that age) who was the widowed wife of a retired steel worker. Her husband had worked all his life in the steel mills of central Pennsylvania with promises from big business and the union that, for his 30 years of service, he would have a pension and medical care to look forward to in his retirement. Instead he was one of the thousands who got nothing because the incompetent mill management and corrupt union (not to mention the government) raided their pension funds and stole their retirement. All she had was social security to live on.

In retrospect, the situation was laughable because here I was living on peanut butter and bread (or Ritz crackers when I could afford to splurge) for months at a time. When I got to know this poor figure and heard her story I felt worse for her plight than for my own (I, after all, I thought I had everything to in front of me). I was genuinely appalled at one point, as we exchanged stories and commiserated with each other over our situations, when she in her grandmotherly fashion tried to convince me that I would be “healthier” eating cat food (like her) rather than trying to get all my substance from peanut butter and bread. I couldn’t quite go there, but the impression was made. I decided that I didn’t trust big business to take care of me, and that I would take responsibility for my own future and myself.

Return to the early ‘80s, and here I was off to a terrifying start as a ‘wet-behind-the-ears’ contract software engineer... and two years later, thanks to the fine backroom, midnight effort by the sleazy executives of Arthur Andersen (the very same folks who later brought us Enron and other such calamities) and an equally sleazy New York Senator (Patrick Moynihan), we saw the passage of 1986 tax reform act with its section 1706.

For you who are unfamiliar, here is the core text of the IRS Section 1706, defining the treatment of workers (such as contract engineers) for tax purposes. Visit this link for a conference committee report (http://www.synergistech.com/1706.shtml#ConferenceCommitteeReport) regarding the intended interpretation of Section 1706 and the relevant parts of Section 530, as amended. For information on how these laws affect technical services workers and their clients, read our discussion here (http://www.synergistech.com/ic-taxlaw.shtml).

SEC. 1706. TREATMENT OF CERTAIN TECHNICAL PERSONNEL.

(a) IN GENERAL - Section 530 of the Revenue Act of 1978 is amended by adding at the end thereof the following new subsection:

(d) EXCEPTION. - This section shall not apply in the case of an individual who pursuant to an arrangement between the taxpayer and another person, provides services for such other person as an engineer, designer, drafter, computer programmer, systems analyst, or other similarly skilled worker engaged in a similar line of work.

(b) EFFECTIVE DATE. - The amendment made by this section shall apply to remuneration paid and services rendered after December 31, 1986.

Note:

· "another person" is the client in the traditional job-shop relationship.

· "taxpayer" is the recruiter, broker, agency, or job shop.

· "individual", "employee", or "worker" is you.

Admittedly, you need to read the treatment to understand what it is saying but it’s not very complicated. The bottom line is that they may as well have put my name right in the text of section (d). Moreover, they could only have been more blunt if they would have came out and directly declared me a criminal and non-citizen slave. Twenty years later, I still can’t believe my eyes.

During 1987, I spent close to $5000 of my ‘pocket change’, and at least 1000 hours of my time writing, printing, and mailing to any senator, congressman, governor, or slug that might listen; none did, and they universally treated me as if I was wasting their time. I spent countless hours on the L.A. freeways driving to meetings and any and all of the disorganized professional groups who were attempting to mount a campaign against this atrocity. This, only to discover that our efforts were being easily derailed by a few moles from the brokers who were just beginning to enjoy the windfall from the new declaration of their “freedom”. Oh, and don’t forget, for all of the time I was spending on this, I was loosing income that I couldn’t bill clients.

After months of struggling it had clearly gotten to be a futile exercise. The best we could get for all of our trouble is a pronouncement from an IRS mouthpiece that they weren’t going to enforce that provision (read harass engineers and scientists). This immediately proved to be a lie, and the mere existence of the regulation began to have its impact on my bottom line; this, of course, was the intended effect.

Again, rewind my retirement plans back to 0 and shift them into idle. If I had any sense, I clearly should have left abandoned engineering and never looked back.

Instead I got busy working 100-hour workweeks. Then came the L.A. depression of the early 1990s. Our leaders decided that they didn’t need the all of those extra Air Force bases they had in Southern California, so they were closed; just like that. The result was economic devastation in the region that rivaled the widely publicized Texas S&L fiasco. However, because the government caused it, no one gave a shit about all of the young families who lost their homes or street after street of boarded up houses abandoned to the wealthy loan companies who received government funds to “shore up” their windfall. Again, I lost my retirement.

Years later, after weathering a divorce and the constant struggle trying to build some momentum with my business, I find myself once again beginning to finally pick up some speed. Then came the .COM bust and the 911 nightmare. Our leaders decided that all aircraft were grounded for what seemed like an eternity; and long after that, ‘special’ facilities like San Francisco were on security alert for months. This made access to my customers prohibitively expensive. Ironically, after what they had done the Government came to the aid of the airlines with billions of our tax dollars … as usual they left me to rot and die while they bailed out their rich, incompetent cronies WITH MY MONEY! After these events, there went my business but not quite yet all of my retirement and savings.

By this time, I’m thinking that it might be good for a change. Bye to California, I’ll try Austin for a while. So I moved, only to find out that this is a place with a highly inflated sense of self-importance and where damn little real engineering work is done. I’ve never experienced such a hard time finding work. The rates are 1/3 of what I was earning before the crash, because pay rates here are fixed by the three or four large companies in the area who are in collusion to drive down prices and wages… and this happens because the justice department is all on the take and doesn’t give a fuck about serving anyone or anything but themselves and their rich buddies.

To survive, I was forced to cannibalize my savings and retirement, the last of which was a small IRA. This came in a year with mammoth expenses and not a single dollar of income. I filed no return that year thinking that because I didn’t have any income there was no need. The sleazy government decided that they disagreed. But they didn’t notify me in time for me to launch a legal objection so when I attempted to get a protest filed with the court I was told I was no longer entitled to due process because the time to file ran out. Bend over for another $10,000 helping of justice.

So now we come to the present. After my experience with the CPA world, following the business crash I swore that I’d never enter another accountant’s office again. But here I am with a new marriage and a boatload of undocumented income, not to mention an expensive new business asset, a piano, which I had no idea how to handle. After considerable thought I decided that it would be irresponsible NOT to get professional help; a very big mistake.

When we received the forms back I was very optimistic that they were in order. I had taken all of the years information to Bill Ross, and he came back with results very similar to what I was expecting. Except that he had neglected to include the contents of Sheryl’s unreported income; $12,700 worth of it. To make matters worse, Ross knew all along this was missing and I didn’t have a clue until he pointed it out in the middle of the audit. By that time it had become brutally evident that he was representing himself and not me.

This left me stuck in the middle of this disaster trying to defend transactions that have no relationship to anything tax-related (at least the tax-related transactions were poorly documented). Things I never knew anything about and things my wife had no clue would ever matter to anyone. The end result is… well, just look around.

I remember reading about the stock market crash before the “great” depression and how there were wealthy bankers and businessmen jumping out of windows when they realized they screwed up and lost everything. Isn’t it ironic how far we’ve come in 60 years in this country that they now know how to fix that little economic problem; they just steal from the middle class (who doesn’t have any say in it, elections are a joke) to cover their asses and it’s “business-as-usual”. Now when the wealthy fuck up, the poor get to die for the mistakes… isn’t that a clever, tidy solution.

As government agencies go, the FAA is often justifiably referred to as a tombstone agency, though they are hardly alone. The recent presidential puppet GW Bush and his cronies in their eight years certainly reinforced for all of us that this criticism rings equally true for all of the government. Nothing changes unless there is a body count (unless it is in the interest of the wealthy sows at the government trough). In a government full of hypocrites from top to bottom, life is as cheap as their lies and their self-serving laws.

I know I’m hardly the first one to decide I have had all I can stand. It has always been a myth that people have stopped dying for their freedom in this country, and it isn’t limited to the blacks, and poor immigrants. I know there have been countless before me and there are sure to be as many after. But I also know that by not adding my body to the count, I insure nothing will change. I choose to not keep looking over my shoulder at “big brother” while he strips my carcass, I choose not to ignore what is going on all around me, I choose not to pretend that business as usual won’t continue; I have just had enough.

I can only hope that the numbers quickly get too big to be white washed and ignored that the American zombies wake up and revolt; it will take nothing less. I would only hope that by striking a nerve that stimulates the inevitable double standard, knee-jerk government reaction that results in more stupid draconian restrictions people wake up and begin to see the pompous political thugs and their mindless minions for what they are. Sadly, though I spent my entire life trying to believe it wasn’t so, but violence not only is the answer, it is the only answer. The cruel joke is that the really big chunks of shit at the top have known this all along and have been laughing, at and using this awareness against, fools like me all along.

I saw it written once that the definition of insanity is repeating the same process over and over and expecting the outcome to suddenly be different. I am finally ready to stop this insanity. Well, Mr. Big Brother IRS man, let’s try something different; take my pound of flesh and sleep well.

Police Union Boss: ‘Sorry If The Average Citizen’s Taxes Go Up to Cover My Raise, but I Have To Look Out for Myself’

By Mac Slavo

Albany Police Officers Union President Chris Mesley says that, regardless of the faltering economy, a no-raise new contract is unacceptable.

And to hell with the public.

“I’m not running a popularity contest here,” Mesley said. “If I’m the bad guy to the average citizen . . . and their taxes have go up to cover my raise, I’m very sorry about that, but I have to look out for myself and my membership.“

Mesley added: “As the president of the local, I will not accept ‘zeroes.’ If that means . . . ticking off some taxpayers, then so be it.

It’s comments like these, coming from the head of a police union, that will drive most Americans to rebuff any proposed assistance for union pensions, benefits and salaries.

The debate between whether or not unions are partially responsible for the mess America is in will likely go on for decades to come. But it is becoming more and more clear that union members don’t understand the basic economics of the current fiscal crisis in America.

Case in point: Albany Police Officers Union President Chris Mesley recently chimed in regarding his position and the American taxpayer:

Non-union Americans have seen their retirement plans decimated, wages cut and jobs incinerated. Similar to Mr. Mesley’s view of the taxpayer, the taxpayer could care less if union members lose their jobs or pensions because they are unwilling to negotiate fair settlements with governments or private industry. The American taxpayer is fed up with strong arm tactics and overpaid government employees.

The fact is that Mr. Mesley is either in denial or ignorant of the economic situation in this country. Tax reciepts are down across the board, government spending has essentially hit a wall, and local and state governments around the country are about to begin declaring bankruptcy en masse.

Unions can continue to play these games as long as they want, but it’s a basic math equation, and the math clearly shows that governments will have to make cuts — and we suspect Mr. Mesley’s union will be hit as hard as anyone else.

Because a majority of liberal leaning politicians currently control Congress and the White House, unions in general may continue to see benefits and bailouts, but be assured that down the line, this will be yet another reason for voters to kick union inclined socialists out of office come election time. Americans are sick of seeing the Too-Big-To-Fails receive bailouts, and this includes unions, while they are scrounging to pay their electric bill and put food on the table.

Gross misspending happens on all levels of government, and it’s clear that unions are one of the most overblown public and private expenses in America.

Frankly, we have no sympathy for what organized labor has coming to it. The American people can only take so much before they snap.

Perhaps the best course of action would be to follow Ronald Reagan’s example. When 13,000 air traffic controllers went on strike in 1981, they attempted to disrupt America’s transportation systems, essentially holding the United States hostage. Rather than negotiating, President Reagan fired everyone. The police union may have the same idea, and unfortunately, there is probably no politician in America with the backbone of Reagan. Maybe the next round of elections will change that.

Police officers or other government employees want to force the hand of the American taxpayer? Private industry unions want to strike?

FIRE ALL OF THEM.

There are millions of Americans without jobs right now. Those positions would be filled in under four weeks - guaranteed. And the American taxpayer would save money, private industry could be a bit more competitive. Where’s the downside?

US has no plan for military action against Iran: Clinton

The Gay Secretary

Any attempt to get the UN to go along with more stringent sanctions is a completely lost cause, as China (and possibly Russia) will veto sanctions, and Clinton knows that.

Any multilateral sanctions against Iran will almost inevitably lead to war; Clinton knows that also.

Israel may either create some kind of "false flag" incident to kick things off, or simply attack Iran unilaterally at first.

That, of course, will drag the US into the fray, because although Israel may well start such a military campaign, it cannot conclude such a campaign on its own without US military help.

Admiral Mullen, the Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, was in Israel over the weekend, and made a statement to the effect that the US would always protect Israel.

Clinton understands this also.

But threatening the UN to go along with sanctions because Israel may attack Iran is a very dicey tactic for the following reasons.

1. Iran is a signatory to the NNPT.

2. Consistent inspections of Iranian nuclear facilities have revealed no missing nuclear material, nor the level of uranium enrichment necessary to create a bomb. Yes, they are enriching uranium to 20% for medical isotopes. But weapons-grade uranium must be enriched to over 90%, which is not happening.

3. Israel has nuclear weapons, as confirmed by the revelations of Mordechai Vannunu, former Israeli Prime Minister Olmert, and former US President, Jimmy Carter.

4. Israel refuses to become a signatory to the NNPT, and consequently, there are no IAEA inspections of their nuclear facilities.

So what we have here is a threat by a rogue nation (Israel) to attack Iran, which is playing by all the NNPT rules unless the UN issues sanctions against Iran?!?

What's wrong with this picture?!?

Flipping everything!

And just as a little side note, the US is violating its own laws by giving any military and financial aid to Israel.

There's a law on the books called Symington Amendment, which forbids the US from giving any aid to any country which has nuclear weapons, but is not a signatory to the NNPT.

Chew on that one for a while as you're filling out your tax paperwork this year, with the understanding that the US gives 3 billion dollars every year in aid to Israel!

Plane crashes into Northwest Austin building

American Scofflaw

"Yes-sirree bob; that building's gonna come right down into its own footprint just like the World Trade Towers. Got a plane strike, fire, yep, any second that's gonna come right down. Any second. Gonna fall. Any second. Any second now. I forget, did a plane hit the WTC-7 building? No? Odd. Anyway, this here building will come right down into its own footprint any moment now. Really. Any moment."

UPDATE: The TV news is (surprisingly) confirming reports we got in the email earlier today that the plane crash was an intentional suicide attack on the offices of the IRS located in that building.

I say surprising because normally when IRS offices are burned or vandalized it is not reported lest it give the people "bad ideas."

But the latest report I have is that the IRS was seizing this guy's home, so he burned it down rather than let the government have it, then flew his plane into the IRS offices.

Black Girls Gone Wild

Cop “Jokes” About Murdering Armed Citizens

American Scofflaw
I had exactly this problem yesterday morning on my commuter rail train platform when I refused an unconstitutional random bag inspection by transit police.

by William Grigg

Rod Tuason apparently suffers from a personality disorder common to professional bullies — a tendency to think that bullying behavior is hilarious. This could explain why Tuason, a detective with the East Palo Alto Police Department, used his Facebook page to suggest that police should shoot “open carry” advocates who carry firearms in public.

East Palo Alto Mayor David E. Woods told a local TV station that while he disapproved of Tuason’s comments, he is “concerned — although it’s legal — about people walking around with firearms.”

What Woods means, of course, is that he’s concerned about law-abiding private citizens exercising the innate individual right to armed self-defense, rather than the fact that the community he represents plays host to scores of armed people employed as enforcers by the political caste.

Some might say that Tuason, who appears to be an aspiring stand-up comedian, should keep his day job. In fact, he should quit that job and find honest work.

The Government Claims Job Situation is Improving

The Gay Secretary

Or maybe we're just running out of people to fire.

But "improve" is such a relative term. The US is still losing jobs and the fact that it slowed down is about as useful as the Titanic sinking a bit slower; the end result is the same.

Now, contrast this number with the Obama promise to create 95,000 (probably useless paper-shuffling) jobs each month and the word "ineffective" comes to mind.

You want to save the economy Barack? Here is how to do it.

1. STOP THE WARS. You promised you would do it. The longer you wait the worse you and your party look, and nobody falls for that "hide the mess you have made of this country by creating messes in everyone else's country" stuff any more. That kind of propaganda trick is sooooooo last century anyway. I would be careful touting the glories of war right now; you are dangerously close to having one show up at your front door.

2. Shut down the Department of Defense. We don't need "defending" by constant invasions and garrisons in every nation and continent on the planet. The US has the world's largest nuclear arsenal (we are still making the payments on). Anyone attacks us, they vanish in a blinding flash of light. They know it. The only one attacking us, from USS Liberty to USS Cole to 9-11, is Israel, trying to trick us into killing Israel's enemies. Which is making them our enemies for no good reason at all.

Shutting down the department of defense would allow you to cut federal taxes by 50% across the board. You don't need an economics degree to know what a sudden lowering of taxes would do to this nation's economy.

3. Speaking of Israel, stop pouring our hard-earned money all over Israel's self-made problems. For one thing, the United States is not responsible for the Holocaust, whatever it actually was. It happened before most of us were born and if history serves me right the US sacrificed much blood and treasure to STOP Hitler from completing whatever his plans were. Israel should be sending money to the families who lost fathers and mothers in WW2, not the other way around. They do not act like they are grateful. Let's stop being schmucks. Israel does not act like they are grateful for our assistance for the last 60 years; next time we should stay at home.

Israel wants to be an independent nation? Independent means standing on their own two feet, learning how to get along with their neighbors, and paying their own damned bills.

Second, all that money the US sends to Israel is a CRIME AGAINST THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. Israel, a nuclear power with a not-so-clandestine weapons factory underneath Dimona, has never signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty despite requests to do so from both the US and UN. The Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 was amended by the Symington Amendment (Section 669 of the FAA) in 1976. It bans U.S. economic, and military assistance, and export credits to countries that deliver or receive, acquire or transfer nuclear enrichment technology when they do not comply with IAEA regulations and inspections. This provision, as amended, is now also contained in Section 101 of the Arms Export Control Act (AECA).

The Glenn Amendment (Section 670) was later adopted in 1977, and provided the same sanctions against countries that acquire or transfer nuclear reprocessing technology or explode or transfer a nuclear device. This provision, as amended, is now contained in Section 102 of the Arms Export Control Act (AECA).

STOP STEALING FROM THE AMERICAN people! Those who rob Peter to pay Paul will always have the support of Paul, but Peter has had @#$%ing enough of this crap!

Okay, that's the cost control part.

4. Make it a criminal offence to export American jobs. The CEO's of corporations like to pretend they are the best and brightest. Well, considering the state of our manufacturing they come across as a generation of spoiled brats born into privilege, whose access to the corporate suites is based on memberships in the right country clubs and degrees from the right schools that daddy got them into. Your predecessor is a good example, a man who ran how many companies into the ground before inheriting his daddy's job at the White House?

So let's see how smart our best and brightest really are. Let's hurl down the gauntlet and see if they can restart the manufacturing they so glibly tossed away. Frankly, I don't think they can do it. After a generation of MBA's educated to have little respect for the products they were manufacturing and seeing business activity as centered on that giant open-air casino called Wall Street, I think they are functionally idiots. Ruthless and greedy idiots, but still idiots when it comes to actually making products that last (and as a side note, my Zenith TV set died last night and nobody knows where to even find parts for the thing).

This leads me to my next point.

5. We need a national non-military technology incubator. The US will recapture its technological lead and manufacturing might only with new technologies that leapfrog us ahead of other nations. That means creating a space where the creative innovators (not the country-club dunsels) can create the next generation technologies on which to base new products and new jobs. We need real solutions to real world need, not a lot of snake-oil for made-up crisis like human-caused global warming. If we spent 1/10th on R&D what we spend on killing brown people around the world, we wouldn't need to steal their oil any more.

Off the top of my head I can think of some real projects that need doing, like hot fusion, cold fusion, cheap bulk desalinization, photonics, cheap Earth-to-orbit transportation (leading to cost-effective garbage collection of all those pieces from collided satellites), and maybe it is time to seriously look at developing commercial spaceflight around the solar system to find new sources for the raw materials we have so recklessly squandered here on Earth to date. Our whole economy seems geared to digging up minerals, fashioning them into this year's fashion statement thingamajig, then 6 months from now tossing it back into a landfill and starting the process all over again.
Maybe instead of building robots to hunt down and kill people we could build robots that sort through the trash before it gets to the landfill and bring recycling to a realistic level.

NASA used to serve the function of technology incubator well. Indeed the tech boom of the 1970s and 1980s all traces back to the innovations created during the race to the Moon. But NASA's budgets have been crushed, NASA itself compromised and corrupted by Climategate, and being from the old NASA I can tell you that the "New" NASA management (Yes, they too were MBAs) was a serious impediment to innovation.

6. You need to realize that an economic system is a system and that money has to flow through all levels of society. Looting the people and piling the cash up in the banks and investment houses may get you some tasty campaign donations, but the country is dying out here and from where we sit nobody in the government has a clue what to do about it or maybe they just don't give a flying ... you know. Maybe we need to go back to having a government that is representative of the people, and dump all these lawyers and millionaires for some teachers, engineers, farmers and a few more doctors in Congress; people who actually KNOW how to make a nation operate and prosper.

7. Finally, the United States has had three central banks. All three have brought the nation to the edge of collapse. Insanity is repeating the same mistakes over and over and expecting a different outcome. Ergo, we must conclude that the US Government is insane and incompetent, and needs to be sent en masses to the Happy Vale Home for the terminally befuddled.

Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln, and John F. Kennedy all had the wisdom and courage to do what was best for the people of the United States.

Are you ready to admit that you are not even close to being the equal of those men?

Bob Kerrey (911 comm) admits 911 was Pre-Planned

American Scofflaw

Begin @ the 5:55 on the playback.

Kerrey : I don't think, Well if that's the condition upon which we'll be saving our country, because , the problem is it's a 30 year old conspiracy.

LA CHANGE : No, I'm talking about 911.

Kerrey : That's what I'm talking about

LA CHANGE : Oh , you are.

We are now a nuclear state, is a BOGUS site

The Gay Secretary

http://www.smh.com.au/world/we-are-now-a-nuclear-state-says-iran-20100211-nv8t.html

is a bogus site!!!!

A Whois.com lookup reveals that that domain (supposedly an Iranian opposition website) is registered by Domains by Proxy, Inc. at GoDaddy.com

A whois.com lookup for http://www.siteintelgroup.com (Ms. Rita Katz' website), reveals that that domain is registered by ....

... Domains by Proxy, Inc. at GoDaddy.com !

It's a small world huh.

Domains by Proxy, Inc. exists solely to allow intelligence operators to create untraceable websites. This is actually a violation of the ICANN rules which require full identification of website owners. Website domains can and have been cancelled for incomplete identification. So it hardly comes as a surprise that a cut-out has been created to allow nefarious operators to create bogus "Muslim" websites.

After all, would a real opposition group need to conceal their identity?

Colbert: ‘Sarah Palin is a f**king retard’

The Gay Secretary

Stephen Colbert has fine words for former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who defended Rush Limbaugh's use of the word "retard" this weekend after attacking an Obama aide for the same offense.

"Sarah Palin knows that it's okay to call someone a retard if like rush you clearly don't mean it which is why we should all come to her defense and say: Sarah Palin is a fucking retard," Colbert quipped.

Palin's son, Trig, has Down Syndrome. She had criticized Obama chief of staff Rahm Emanuel for telling liberal activists that a political strategy was "fucking retarded" during a private meeting in the White House.

But when Rush Limbaugh used the same word, Palin declared that his usage was acceptable because it was satire.

On his radio show, Limbaugh said: "Our political correct society is acting like some giant insult’s taken place by calling a bunch of people who are retards, retards. I mean these people, these liberal activists are kooks. They are looney tunes. And I’m not going to apologize for it, I’m just quoting Emanuel. It’s in the news. I think their big news is he’s out there calling Obama’s number one supporters f’ing retards. So now there’s going to be a meeting. There’s going to be a retard summit at the White House."

Thick as Thieves: The Private (and very profitable) World of Corporate Spying

By Tom Burghardt

(The Intelligence Daily) -- When Comverse Infosys founder and CEO Jacob "Kobi" Alexander fled to Israel and later Namibia in 2006, the former Israeli intelligence officer and entrepreneur took along a little extra cash for his extended "vacation"--$57 million to be precise.

According to investigative journalist James Bamford's exposé of the National Security Agency, The Shadow Factory, Alexander was facing a thirty-two-count indictment by the Justice Department "charging him with masterminding a scheme to backdate millions of Comverse stock options ... that allowed Alexander to realize $138 million in profits--profits stolen from the pockets of the company's shareholders."

When the scandal broke, one former colleague told The New York Times, "The one thing about Kobi is that he did have a sense of entitlement," said Stephen R. Kowarsky, who was an executive at Comverse from 1985-97. "Most people are a little bit shy or self-effacing about asking for something, but not Kobi. It was easy for him to say, 'I want that. I deserve that.'"

Sounds like business as usual to me!