Space weather expert has ominous forecast

Mike Hapgood, who studies solar events, says the world isn’t prepared for a truly damaging storm. And one could happen soon.

A massive explosion on the sun’s surface has triggered the largest solar radiation storm since 2005, hurling charged particles at Earth. (NASA / May 4, 2012)

By Dana Milbank, Published: April 30

The Washington Post

The preezy of the United Steezy is making me queasy.I’m not troubled by President Obama’s slow jam with Jimmy Fallon, who dubbed the commander in chief “preezy” during Obama’s appearance on late-night TV. No, preezy is making me queasy because his nonstop campaigning is looking, well, sleazy — and his ad suggesting that Mitt Romney wouldn’t have killed Osama bin Laden is just the beginning of it.

 

Dana Milbank

Dana Milbank writes a regular column on politics..

 

In a political culture that long ago surrendered to the permanent campaign, Obama has managed to take things to a whole new level. According to statistics compiled for a book to be published this summer, the president has already set a record for total first-term fundraisers — 191 — and that’s only through March 6. Measured in terms of  events that benefit his reelection bid, Obama’s total (inflated in part by relaxed fundraising rules) exceeds the combinedtotal of George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush, Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter.It’s not just the gatherings officially categorized as campaign events. To a greater extent than his predecessors, Obama has used the trappings of his office to promote his reelection prospects even while handling taxpayer-funded business.According to the same book, “The Rise of the President’s Permanent Campaign,” by Naval Academy political scientist Brendan Doherty, Obama was the first commander in chief in at least 32 years to visit all of the presidential battleground states during his first year in office. He has kept that pace, devoting nearly half of his travel to 15 swing states that account for just over a third of the population.The election is still six months away, but it’s increasingly difficult to distinguish Obama’s political events and speeches from the official ones.

This was the case on Monday, when he spoke to a group of trade-union leaders at the Washington Hilton. The event, the morning after he and Clinton made a joint fundraising appearance, was ostensibly an “official” speech to the AFL-CIO’s building trades section. But it was a campaign rally in everything but name.

The audience members shouted out Obama’s “Yes, we can” slogan and chanted, “Four more years.”

“I’ll take it,” offered the president, who unloaded on congressional Republicans for not spending money on infrastructure projects.

“Time after time, the Republicans have gotten together and they’ve said no,” he said.

“Boo!” the audience responded.

“I sent them a jobs bill that would have put hundreds of thousands of construction workers back to work,” he continued.

“Boo!” the audience repeated.

“I went to the speaker’s home town,” Obama said, referring to a trip to House Speaker John Boehner’s battleground state of Ohio, “stood under a bridge that was crumbling.”

“Let him drive on it!” somebody shouted.

“Maybe he doesn’t drive anymore,” Obama joked.

Predictably, Boehner has been complaining about the president’s campaigning. He said Obama’s team should “pony up” and reimburse taxpayers for trips to three colleges in swing states last week. Boehner called Obama’s traveling “pathetic.” The Republican National Committee formally asked the Government Accountability Office to investigate the president’s travel.

The Republicans will get nowhere with that, just as Democrats failed when they made similar complaints about George W. Bush. Rules separating the official and the political are flimsy, and even when a president’s campaign reimburses the Treasury, it’s for a tiny fraction of the cost, which includes $179,750 per hour to operate Air Force One.

In fairness, it’s not entirely clear what choice Obama has. As with his blessing of a super PAC after condemning such groups, the alternative is unilateral disarmament. Also, his fundraising total has been inflated by a rule change that allows him to hold events that jointly benefit him and the Democratic Party (although his total number of fundraising appearances still eclipses that of each recent predecessor). Republicans, meanwhile, are determined to block the president’s agenda, so it’s an effective use of time to campaign for their defeat.

Still, Obama’s acquiescence to an intolerable status quo raises a question: Shouldn’t presidential leadership be about setting an example?

Instead, he is erasing the already blurred lines between campaigning and governing. During his “official” speech to the union group Monday, he hailed Tim Kaine as “the next United States senator from the great commonwealth of Virginia,” and his partisan speech spurred audience members to shouts of “Vote ’em out!” and “Gotta throw ’em out!”

“Not everything should be subject to thinking about the next election instead of thinking about the next generation,” Obama said of the Republicans. “Not everything should be subject to politics.”

He should follow his own advice.

 

 

New Obama slogan has long ties to Marxism, socialism

The Obama campaign apparently didn’t look backwards into history when selecting its new campaign slogan, “Forward” — a word with a long and rich association with European Marxism.

Many Communist and radical publications and entities throughout the 19th and 20th centuries had the name “Forward!” or its foreign cognates. Wikipedia has an entire section called “Forward (generic name of socialist publications).”

“The name Forward carries a special meaning in socialist political terminology. It has been frequently used as a name for socialist, communist and other left-wing newspapers and publications,” the online encyclopedia explains.

The slogan “Forward!” reflected the conviction of European Marxists and radicals that their movements reflected the march of history, which would move forward past capitalism and into socialism and communism.

The Obama campaign released its new campaign slogan Monday in a 7-minute video. The title card has simply the word “Forward” with the “O” having the familiar Obama logo from 2008. It will be played at rallies this weekend that mark the Obama re-election campaign’s official beginning.

There have been at least two radical-left publications named “Vorwaerts” (the German word for “Forward”). One was the daily newspaper of the Social Democratic Party of Germany whose writers included Friedrich Engels and Leon Trotsky. It still publishes as the organ of Germany’s SDP, though that party has changed considerably since World War II. Another was the 1844 biweekly reader of the Communist League. Karl Marx, Engels and Mikhail Bakunin are among the names associated with that publication.

East Germany named its Army soccer club ASK Vorwaerts Berlin (later FC Vorwaerts Frankfort).

Vladimir Lenin founded the publication “Vpered” (the Russian word for “forward”) in 1905. Soviet propaganda film-maker Dziga Vertov made a documentary whose title is sometimes translated as “Forward, Soviet” (though also and more literally as “Stride, Soviet”).

Conservative critics of the Obama administration have noted numerous ties to radicalism and socialists throughout Mr. Obama’s history, from his first political campaign being launched from the living room of two former Weather Underground members, to appointing as green jobs czar Van Jones, a self-described communist.

Weis: “I can tell you guys aren’t used to winning. (Pause) Hey. Hey, fellas. OK. Winning a football game is not supposed to be an uncommon occurrence. I know that’s a novel concept around here.

“OK. When you win a football game, there’s supposed to be a celebration that looks like a celebration. And that was a pile of crap.

“I believe in practicing everything, including winning. That’s what this is all about.

“This isn’t about you guys jacking around over here.

“This is about, third game of the season, you’re sitting here 2-0. You’re playing TCU, you haven’t won a conference game in about eight years. (bells) … and you hit a field goal to win the game. Act that way!”

Mort Zuckerman: President Obama’s Economic Programs Have Failed

America has long been a country where almost everyone, including the poor and unskilled, could get a job. Given the will to do a reasonable day’s work, a job was a passport to economic and social well-being; it was the fount of self-esteem and the foundation of family life. Indeed, work was Life.

More than 15 million Americans no longer have that passport to Life. Think of it as roughly the entire population of the states of Connecticut, Delaware, Arkansas, Iowa, and Oklahoma, all standing idle—every man, woman, and child. The traditional breadwinners, namely men between the ages of 25 and 54, are among those hardest hit. According to an Investor’s Business Daily/TIPP poll, some 25 percent of households include someone who is unemployed and looking for work. As well as laying waste to work, to the equivalent of losing every job created in the last decade, the Great Recession has visited us with reduced incomes, declining home equity, and a growing contraction in credit.

[See a collection of political cartoons on the economy.]

For the 80 percent of Americans born after World War II, this is their Depression. They have 5.5 million fewer jobs than at the recession’s start in 2008, despite the most stimulative fiscal and monetary policy in our history. Employment has been below the pre-recession peak for over 50 months. It’s the longest time since the Great Depression that payrolls have not made a new high. The 120,000 new jobs for March make no dent (and adjusted for the peculiarity of warm weather, the number of real net jobs created was 76,000); we need at least 125,000 jobs each month just to provide for new entrants in a rising population.

Discouraged workers dropping out of the labor force make the unemployment rate look fractionally better, but the 8.2 percent headline masks the misery. It is a reflection of the U-3 statistic, which counts only people who have applied for a job in the last four weeks. Among the jobless army, a staggering 42 percent of them are long-term unemployed, without jobs for six months or longer. Look instead at the more relevant U-6 statistic, which counts the number of people who have applied over the last six months. U-6 also includes those who are involuntarily working on a part-time basis. That U-6 unemployment is now in the range of 15 percent. Since 2008, some 3 million people have dropped out of the job market. If they hadn’t, the unemployment rate would be about 10.8 percent. In March, the unemployment rate seemed to fall a tenth of 1 percent, yet the number of people who are actually employed dropped by 31,000. Why? Because the number of people who looked for a job dropped by 164,000 and they are not considered unemployed. Not to mention that half the new jobs are in temporary help agencies.

[Read Mort Zuckerman, Mary Kate Cary, and other U.S. News columnists in U.S. News Weekly, available on iPad.]

America’s great job creation machine is sputtering badly. It is now estimated that structural unemployment has risen from 5 percent before the crisis to close to 7 percent today. This means that one third of the rise in American joblessness may be impervious to the business cycle; it represents lost jobs that cannot be restored by boosting demand.

The problem now is not that people are being laid off by the millions. When an economy has reached bottom, as it did, it has already shed much of its labor, and layoffs slow. But the anemic recovery has not yielded job vacancies. Hiring today is at about 70 percent of the 2006 level. Given the increase in unemployed totals, job seekers are only about one third as likely to find work as in 2006.

Compare that to the fabled Great Depression of the 1930s. In the three years after 1933, the economy rebounded with growth rates of 11 percent, 9 percent, and 13 percent. But in 2010, months into our recovery, growth was about 3 percent, followed by 1.7 percent growth in 2011. The rate for 2012 could be about 2 percent—below the 3.4 percent throughout the postwar period.

What has happened? The process of making stuff fosters innovation, leading to new products. When companies go from prototype to mass production, they scale up, figure out where they can build factories affordably, and hire people by the thousands. But many enterprises in America have discovered they cannot compete in engineering or manufacturing with their Chinese or Indian counterparts, which are equally, if not more, productive with workers willing to accept significantly lower wages. In turn, they gain the skills, knowledge, and experience to innovate. Hence our loss of 6 million blue-collar manufacturing jobs.

April 19, 2012

By Luka Papalko & Dan Peyton

Attorney General Eric Holder is a staunch opponent of laws requiring voters to show photo ID at the polls to improve ballot security. He calls them “unnecessary” and has blocked their implementation in Texas and South Carolina, citing the fear they would discriminate against minorities.

I wonder what Holder will think when he learns just how easy it was for someone to be offered his ballot just by mentioning his name in a Washington, D.C., polling place in Tuesday’s primaries.

Holder’s opposition to ID laws comes in spite of the Supreme Court’s 6–3 decision in 2008, authored by liberal Justice John Paul Stevens, that upheld the constitutionality of Indiana’s tough ID requirement. When groups sue to block photo-ID laws in court, they can’t seem to produce real-world examples of people who have actually been denied the right to vote. According to opinion polls, over 75 percent of Americans — including majorities of Hispanics and African-Americans — routinely support such laws.

One reason is that people know you can’t function in the modern world without showing ID — you can’t cash a check, travel by plane or even train, or rent a video without being asked for one. In fact, PJ Media recently proved that you can’t even enter the Justice Department in Washington without showing a photo ID. Average voters understand that it’s only common sense to require ID because of how easy it is for people to pretend they are someone else

Filmmaker James O’Keefe demonstrated just how easy it is on Tuesday when he dispatched an assistant to the Nebraska Avenue polling place in Washington where Attorney General Holder has been registered for the last 29 years. O’Keefe specializes in the same use of hidden cameras that was pioneered by the recently deceased Mike Wallace, who used the technique to devastating effect in exposing fraud in Medicare claims and consumer products on 60 Minutes. O’Keefe’s efforts helped expose the fraud-prone voter-registration group ACORN with his video stings, and has had great success demonstrating this year in New Hampshire, Vermont, and Minnesota just how easy it is to obtain a ballot by giving the name of a dead person who is still on the rolls. Indeed, a new study by the Pew Research Center found at least 1.8 million dead people are still registered to vote. They aren’t likely to complain if someone votes in their place.

In Washington, it was child’s play for O’Keefe to beat the system. O’Keefe’s assistant used a hidden camera to document his encounter with the election worker at Holder’s polling place:

Man: “Do you have an Eric Holder, 50th Street?

Poll worker: “Let me see here.”

Man: Xxxx 50th Street.

Poll Worker: Let’s see, Holder, Hol-t-e-r, or Hold-d-e-r?

Man: H-o-l-d-e-r.

Poll Worker: D-e-r. Okay.

Man: That’s the name.

Poll Worker: I do. Xxxx 50th Street NW. Okay. [Puts check next to name, indicating someone has shown up to vote.] Will you sign there . . .

Man: I actually forgot my ID.

Poll Worker: You don’t need it; it’s all right.

Man: I left it in the car.

Poll Worker: As long as you’re in here, and you’re on our list and that’s who you say you are, we’re okay.

Man: I would feel more comfortable if I go get my ID, is it all right if I go get it?

Poll Worker: Sure, go ahead.

Man: I’ll be back faster than you can say furious!

Poll Worker: We’re not going anywhere.

Note that O’Keefe’s assistant never identified himself as Eric Holder, so he was not illegally impersonating him.

Nor did he attempt to vote using the ballot that was offered him, or even to accept it. O’Keefe has been accused by liberals of committing voter fraud in his effort to expose just how slipshod the election systems of various no-ID-required states are, but lawyers say his methods avoid that issue. Moreover, he has only taped his encounters with election officials in jurisdictions that allow videotaping someone in public with only one party’s knowledge.

School Homework Offers Little Benefit, Australian Study  Finds

Updated: Tuesday, 27 Mar 2012, 8:02 PM EDT Published :  Tuesday, 27 Mar 2012, 7:26 PM EDT

By: The Daily Telegraph

Read more: http://www.myfoxdc.com/dpp/news/school-homework-offers-little-benefit-australian-study-finds-ncxdc-032712#ixzz1qQXfIRQY

Pope Benedict: communism no longer working in Cuba

Pope, who is due to arrive in Cuba on Monday, says church is ready to help island move forward in a constructive way.

Pope Benedict XVI, flying to Cuba for a historic visit, has said that Marxism was out of place in the contemporary world and urged Cubans to find “new models”.

His remarks on Friday were at least as forthright as any made by his predecessor, John Paul II, on a groundbreaking trip to the country 14 years ago. Answering a question about his visit to Cuba, which has remained a communist bastion for more than 50 years, the pope said: “Today it is evident that Marxist ideology in the way it was conceived no longer corresponds to reality.”

He told reporters accompanying him on the papal plane: “In this way we can no longer respond and build a society. New models must be found with patience and in a constructive way.”

Benedict also said that his church wanted “to help in the spirit of dialogue to avoid trauma and to help bring about a just and fraternal society”. But his comments are likely to cause irritation in Havana.

The pope’s use of the word “trauma” reflected fears in the Vatican of a disorderly transition after the death of Cuba’s 85-year-old revolutionary leader, Fidel Castro. In 2008, the ailing Castro handed over power to his brother, Raul.

The pope himself will turn 85 next month, and Friday saw him with a walking stick for the first time in public. He used the cane to cover the 100 metres or so from his helicopter to the plane that would fly him to Mexico on the first leg of his journey.

Papal aides said he had been using the stick in private for about two months because it made him feel more secure, and not for medical reasons. Last year, he began using a wheeled platform during ceremonies in St Peter’s.

MAYBE SIGNS OF THINGS TO COME!  PROGRESSIVES OUT?????

“That’s amazing,” a shocked Rachel Maddow reacted to the news that Dennis Kucinich lost his primary race on Super Tuesday. Kucinich lost his district after Ohio redrew their Congressional lines, leaving him to run in a nearby district against an incumbent Democrat.
“That means that there’s not going to be a Dennis Kucinich in Congress anymore, which is almost hard to believe. He has been a singular force for his, not only for his ideological position but he’s just been such a character,” Maddow lamented.
“He was the dependable guy with the progressive community. He’ll be missed,” Al Sharpton said.
“He’s a guy that you could always count on when it came to a universal healthcare conversation, or when it came to getting out of Iraq and Afghanistan and also middle-class issues and also he was good on labor,” Ed Schultz said.
Kucinich wasn’t just popular with the MSNBC crowd as Chris Matthews will note.
“Dennis is very popular in these circles, in media circles. We all know him,” the “Hardball” host re

THE STORY OF THE TEACUP

from  Christine4faith@christinewatkins.com

Enjoy!

Here is the much awaited story of the teacup, which was missing in the newsletter sent out yesterday. My apologies! Enjoy this poignantly beautiful story, as we enter together into the three most sacred days of the year. There was a couple who used to go to England to shop in the beautiful stores. They both liked antiques and pottery and especially teacups. This was their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary. One day in this shop they saw a beautiful cup. They said, “May we see that? We’ve never seen one quite so beautiful.” As the lady handed it to them, suddenly the cup spoke: “You don’t understand,” it said. “I haven’t always been a teacup. There was a time when I was red and I was clay. My master took me and rolled me and patted me over and over and I yelled out, ‘Leave me alone,’ but he only smiled and said, ‘Not yet.’ “Then I was placed on a spinning wheel,” the cup said, “and suddenly I was spun around and around and around. Stop it! I’m getting dizzy! I screamed. But the master only nodded and said, ‘Not yet.’ “Then he put me in the oven. I never felt such heat!” the teacup said. “I wondered why he wanted to burn me, and I yelled and knocked at the door. I could see him through the opening and I could read his lips as He shook his head, ‘Not yet.’ “Finally the door opened, he put me on the shelf, and I began to cool. ‘There, that’s better,’ I said. And he brushed and painted me all over. The fumes were horrible. I thought I would gag. ‘Stop it, stop it!’ I cried. He only nodded, ‘Not yet.’ “Then suddenly he put me back into the oven, not like the first one. This was twice as hot and I knew I would suffocate. I begged. I pleaded. I screamed. I cried. All the time I could see him through the opening, nodding his head, with a tear in His eye, saying, ‘Not yet.’ “Then I knew there wasn’t any hope. I would never make it. I was ready to give up. But the door opened and he took me out and placed me on the shelf. One hour later he handed me a mirror and said, ‘Take a look at yourself.’ And I did. I said, ‘That’s not me; that couldn’t be me. It’s beautiful. I’m beautiful.’ “‘I want you to remember, then,’ he said, ‘I know it hurts to be rolled and patted, but if I had left you alone, you’d have dried up. I know it made you dizzy to spin around on the wheel, but if I had stopped, you would have crumbled. I knew it hurt and was hot and disagreeable in the oven, but if I hadn’t put you there, you would have cracked. I know the fumes were bad when I brushed and painted you all over, but if I hadn’t done that, you never would have hardened; you would not have had any color in your life. And if I hadn’t put you back in that second oven, you wouldn’t survive for very long because the hardness would not have held. Now you are a finished product. You are what I had in mind when I first began with you.’” ~ Author Unknown       BY CHRISTINE WATKINS

WHEN EASTER COMES, REMEMBER TO LOOK FOR GOD’S GIFTS:

Dutch mobile euthanasia units to make house calls

Kate Connolly in Berlin

New scheme called ‘Life End’ will respond to sick people whose own doctors have refused to help them end their lives at home

Dutch euthanasia organisation Life-End will be offering its home services free of charge to Dutch citizens. Photograph: Etienne Ansotte/EPA

A controversial system of mobile euthanasia units that will travel around the country to respond to the wishes of sick people who wish to end their lives has been launched in the Netherlands.

The scheme, which started on Thursday , will send teams of specially trained doctors and nurses to the homes of people whose own doctors have refused to carry out patients’ requests to end their lives.

The launch of the so-called Levenseinde, or “Life End”, house-call units – whose services are being offered to Dutch citizens free of charge – coincides with the opening of a clinic of the same name in The Hague, which will take patients with incurable illnesses as well as others who do not want to die at home.

The scheme is an initiative by the Dutch Association for a Voluntary End to Life (NVVE), a 130,000-member euthanasia organisation that is the biggest of its kind in the world.

“From Thursday, the Life End clinic will have mobile teams where people who believe they are eligible for euthanasia can register,” Walburg de Jong, a NVVE spokesman, said.

“If they do comply, the teams will be able to carry out the euthanasia at patients’ homes should their regular doctors be unable or refuse to help them,” he added.

The Netherlands was the first country to legalise euthanasia in 2002 and its legislation on the right to die is considered to be the most liberal in the world.

But doctors cannot be forced to comply with the wishes of patients who request the right to die and many do refuse, which was what prompted NVVE to develop a system to fill the gap.

Sick people or their relatives can submit their applications via telephone or email and if the patient’s request fulfils a number of strict criteria, the team is then dispatched.

Legal guidelines state that the person must be incurably sick, be suffering unbearable pain and have expressed the wish to die voluntarily, clearly and on several occasions.

According to De Jong, the team will make contact with the doctor who has refused to help the patient to die and ask what his or her reasons were.

More often than not, he said, the motivations are religious or ethical, adding that sometimes doctors were simply not well enough informed about the law.

If the team is satisfied that the patient’s motives are genuine, they will contact another doctor with whom they will start the euthanasia process.

“They will first give the patient an injection, which will put them into a deep sleep, then a second injection follows, which will stop their breathing and heart beat,” De Jong said.

Every year 2,300 to 3,100 mercy killings are carried out in the Netherlands, although opponents of the practice claim the figure is much higher because many cases are not registered. The Royal Dutch Medical Association (KNMG) supports euthanasia in principle if there is no alternative, but has distanced itself from the NVVE initiative, arguing that giving it the name Life End will foster the idea that it is for those who it said are simply “weary of life” rather than those who are sick.

It has also questioned whether Life End doctors will have the chance to forge the necessary relationship with a patient to be able to ascertain whether or not his or her life should be ended.

But Jan Kuyper, of the Life End Clinic Foundation, said: “We’re not trying to push any boundaries here.” He said it was quite possible that the mobile teams would not end up carrying out a mercy killing, either due to medical questions about the case or if doubt is cast on the patient’s motives.

Little is known about the Life End teams. But one of the team leaders is believed to be a 67-year-old retired doctor who carried out 20 mercy killings during his medical career.

The teams would be limited to one house visit a week to minimise the psychological burden on them.

In neighbouring Germany, where mercy killings are strictly illegal, euthanasia opponents were particularly vocal in expressing their outrage at the developments. “This is an inhumane proposal,” said the German Hospice Foundation, while the group Life Rights for Everyone called it a “warped understanding of [the meaning of] autonomy”.

Conservative leaders demand apology from Huffington over anti-Catholic column-  HUFFINGTON IS AN IDIOT AOL GETS WHAT THEY DESERVE.

Published February 29, 2012

| FoxNews.com

A group of socially conservative leaders is  demanding Huffington  Post publisher Arianna Huffington apologize for allowing a column to be  published on her website that compares Catholics to pedophiles and attacks  communion as a “barbaric ritual.”

In the letter dated Tuesday and obtained first by  FoxNews.com, the group — never fans of the online news site — writes that the  website, recently purchased by AOL,  is “complicit in bigotry” for publishing columnist Larry Doyle’s article about  Rick Santorum’s Catholic faith.

“Larry Doyle’s recent anti-Catholic screed in the  Huffington Post, ‘The Jesus-Eating Cult of Rick Santorum,’ is bigoted and  unacceptable, and a perfect example of ‘flame-throwing, name-calling, and  simplistic attack dog rhetoric’” that Huffington pledged to avoid when she  launched the Huffington Post in 2005.

“His column should be taken off your site, and you  should issue an apology for ever publishing such trash,” the group  wrote.

In his so-called satire published Friday, Doyle, a  novelist and former writer and producer for “The Simpsons,” writes that many  readers would be “shocked to learn” about Santorum’s religious beliefs, which  stem from the church’s history in the Crusades “and its current role as the  tactical arm” of the fringe North American Man-Boy Love Association.

Santorum, in following orders from the  pope, a  “former” (Doyle’s quotes) Nazi who Catholics believe “chats with God,” has made  “no secret of his plans to implement his leader’s dicta on allowed uses of  vaginas and anuses, but has said little about what additional dogma he will be  compelled to obey.”

Santorum has “remained silent on his religious  organization’s various reigns of terror, in which good Protestants and others  were tortured and killed in imaginatively grisly ways. Even more chilling is a  possible connection between the Roman Catholic  Church pedophile program and NAMBLA, which I discovered after conducting  some research on the Internet,” Doyle writes.

Describing Mass as a “barbaric ritual,” Doyle writes  that “a black-robed cleric casts a spell over some bread and wine, transfiguring  it into the actual living flesh and blood of their Christ. Followers then line  up to eat the Jesus meat and drink his holy blood in a cannibalistic reverie not  often seen outside Cinemax.”

Saying he’s a former altar boy, Doyle, claims to  have “seen behind the curtain” but escaped. He finishes by writing that he has  an “obligation to expose this phony theology” and reminds readers that the last  time a Roman Catholic was elected — John F. Kennedy — it ended tragically.

Doyle’s column was roundly criticized and he wrote a  follow-up on Tuesday saying he would not apologize and doesn’t care if anyone is  offended.

“My criticism took the form of a ridiculously  over-the-top broadside against Roman Catholicism, a demonstration of the type of  vicious religious ignorance and intolerance I too often see coming from too many  so-called Christians, especially Santorum,” he writes.

“I hope (Catholics who are offended) will now think  twice before they question the faith of progressive Christians, or Mormons or  Muslims. I doubt they will.”

“Bigots like Doyle think they can hurl the most  contemptible insults towards Catholics (‘Jesus eaters’) and when called out,  claim it was just a joke. What cowardice. What a double standard,” reads the  letter to Huffington.

“If such an article was written concerning the  Islamic or Jewish faith, the public outcry would be overwhelming, and rightly  so. But anti-Catholicism is the last acceptable form of bigotry, and The  Huffington Post is taking advantage of that bigotry for all it’s worth,” they  continue.

As for Doyle’s claim it was satire, the group writes  that “intelligent readers and the millions of faithful Catholics” who read the  article “don’t buy such equivocating nonsense for a minute.”

The group warned that such sanctioning by the media  of anti-religious rhetoric has enabled the Obama administration to try to  institute mandates like the recent contraceptive rule that forces religious  institutions to provide insurance coverage to employees that “violates their  most sacred teachings.”

The group concludes that if Huffington doesn’t  delete Doyle’s piece and issue an apology, “your so-called news outlet cannot be  seen as anything but an anti-Catholic talking piece.”

The letter is signed by Brent Bozell, founder and  president of the Media Research Center; Brian Brown, president of the National  Organization for Marriage; Brian Burch, president of Catholic Vote; Marjorie  Dannenfelser, president of the pro-life Susan B. Anthony List; Richard Viguerie  chairman of ConservativeHQ.com; and Tony Perkins, president of the Family  Research Council.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/02/28/conservative-leaders-demand-apology-from-huffington-over-anti-catholic-column/#ixzz1noUJ7zL4

An Economy Built to Crash

Who Benefits From the Safety Net

By BINYAMIN APPELBAUM and ROBERT GEBELOFF | New York Times – 19 hours ago

A new analysis from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities underscores that the poor are no longer the primary beneficiaries of the government safety net.

Terms like entitlements, government benefits and safety net often conjure images of tax dollars sliding from the hands of the wealthy into the pockets of the poor. But as we reported Sunday, that image is badly outdated. Benefits now flow primarily to the middle class.

The center’s study found that the poorest American households, the bottom fifth, received just 32 cents of every dollar of government benefits distributed in 2010.

The finding is broadly consistent with the data we reported Sunday that the poorest households received 36 percent of benefits in 2007, down from 54 percent in 1979, numbers that came from a study published last year by the Congressional Budget Office.
While the findings are not directly comparable because of differences in methodology, the new study suggests that the recent recession did not cause any significant increase in the share of benefits flowing to the poor, as might once have been expected.

The study found that older people received slightly more than half of government benefits, while the nonelderly with disabilities received an additional 20 percent. These benefits are not means-tested – indeed, better-paid workers get more in Social Security.

Furthermore, the study notes that politicians have shifted benefits away from the “jobless poor,” through reductions in traditional welfare, and increased benefits for working families, for example through tax credits. The government also has steadily expanded eligibility for benefit programs.

“The safety net became much more work-based,” wrote Arloc Sherman and his collaborators at the center, a left-leaning research group. “In addition, the U.S. population is aging, which raises the share of benefits going to seniors and people with disabilities.”
[Also see: States with the most homes in foreclosure]

Another finding of the study is that the distribution of benefits no longer aligns with the demography of poverty. African-Americans, who make up 22 percent of the poor, receive 14 percent of government benefits, close to their 12 percent population share.

White non-Hispanics, who make up 42 percent of the poor, receive 69 percent of government benefits – again, much closer to their 64 percent population share.

By Harry Papachristou and Yannis Behrakis

ATHENS |         Sun Feb 12, 2012 6:43pm EST

ATHENS (Reuters) – The Greek parliament approved a deeply unpopular austerity bill to secure a second EU/IMF bailout and avoid national bankruptcy, as buildings burned across central Athens and violence spread around the country.

Cinemas, cafes, shops and banks were set ablaze in central Athens as black-masked protesters fought riot police outside parliament.

State television reported the violence spread to the tourist islands of Corfu and Crete, the northern city of Thessaloniki and towns in central Greece. Shops were looted in the capital where police said 34 buildings were a blaze.

Prime Minister Lucas Papademos denounced the worst breakdown of order since 2008 when violence gripped Greece for weeks after police shot a 15-year-old schoolboy.

“Vandalism, violence and destruction have no place in a democratic country and won’t be tolerated,” he told parliament as it prepared to vote on the new 130 billion euro bailout to save Greece from a chaotic bankruptcy.

Papademos told lawmakers shortly before they voted that they would be gravely mistaken if they rejected the package that demands deep pay, pension and job cuts, as this would threaten Greece’s place in the European mainstream.

“It would be a huge historical injustice if the country from which European culture sprang … reached bankruptcy and was led, due to one more mistake, to national isolation and national despair,” he said.

The chaos outside parliament showed how tough it will be to implement the measures. A Reuters photographer saw buildings in Athens engulfed in flames and huge plumes of smoke rose in the night sky.

“We are facing destruction. Our country, our home, has become ripe for burning, the centre of Athens is in flames. We cannot allow populism to burn our country down,” conservative lawmaker Costis Hatzidakis told parliament.

The air in Syntagma Square outside parliament was thick with tear gas as riot police fought running battles with youths who smashed marble balustrades and hurled stones and petrol bombs.

Terrified Greeks and tourists fled the rock-strewn streets and the clouds of stinging gas, cramming into hotel lobbies for shelter as lines of riot police.   see full article on Drudge/Reuters

“They that can give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.”  Ben Franklin, 1759

This is my initial Post on my new website www.peytonspaces.com.  My intention is to have several running pages that focus somewhat on a direction.  The Home page Blog will focus on freedom, liberty, hope, history and politics.  It should be fun and I hope for many comments.  My additional pages will be one on literary, artistic and vocal media.  This might include  books, plays, movies, TV and radio.  I love radio.  Another page will be comments on policy.  This could be current political policy in the US.  It could be policy related to private organizations including religious, charitable, social, artistic, scientific, International and more.  And last but not least will be a Blog page to comment on insanity of the hour or day.  Commenting individuals can also provide this page with crazy, wild, unholy etc. etc. things in the world and shared on some media.

I can’t wait to get started sooo.

Peyton,

12/7/10

By DICK MORRIS & EILEEN MCGANN

For the past three years, the left and Obama have been indistinguishable, joined at the hip in a marriage of ideology and, where that failed, of convenience.  Now the marriage is on the rocks and some see a divorce in the offing.

Obama strayed from the confrontational rhetoric of the left in his post-Tucson speech last week.  While the likes of Paul Krugman and left wing bloggers were hyping the theme that Sarah Palin’s and the Tea Party activists’ rhetoric inflamed people sufficiently to bring out the worst leading — albeit indirectly — to the shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords.

Mooshie speech, poor content, it’s hard for a socialist to be middle.

For philosophical guidance, many proponents look to Jefferson’s words 211 years ago in which he fought against the expansion of federal power during an undeclared naval war against France.

In 1799, Jefferson wrote in the Kentucky Resolutions that “nullification … is the rightful remedy.” Jefferson created the doctrine to express his disgust with the Alien and Sedition Acts that were enacted by then-President John Adams during the war with France.

Idaho Republican Sen. Monty Pearce said the then-future president’s words underpin nullification advocates’ chief contention: States never relinquished final say over federal matters.

“He was at the Constitutional Convention,” Pearce said. “He understood how this whole thing was going to be set up.”

TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK?  peyton

GOOD INFO FROM HERITAGE!  peyton

Egypt remains convulsed by massive popular protests after President Hosni Mubarak sought in vain to appease the opposition.  The police have melted into crowds or holed up at risk for their lives and the once-feared Interior Ministry is under siege.  Army troops on the streets of Cairo reportedly have bonded with the massive crowds and appear to be respected, in contrast to the thuggish police.  President Mubarak, who dismissed his cabinet yesterday, today appointed a vice president for the first time in his 30-year rule, Intelligence chief Omar Suleiman.

The army, which always has been the backbone of the regime, remains the single most coherent force in the country and will attempt to restore order and help create a new political superstructure.  Negotiations probably are underway to ease the passage of the unpopular President out of the country, if only as a contingency plan.  The protesters are unlikely to accept the attempted handoff of power to Omar Suleiman, Mubarak’s close ally, and will continue agitating for a new government to fulfill their demands for freedom, democracy, increased subsidies for Egypt’s huge population of poor and unemployed citizens, and a myriad of other demands.

No government will be able to satisfy the pent up demands in all these areas, particularly if the rule of law is not restored quickly.  And then the question will be what law?  The Muslim Brotherhood is sure to insist on imposition of the Sharia and the jostling for power in post-Mubarak Egypt, which has already begun, will intensify.  The demands for increased government subsidies, continued disorder and an uncertain political situation will set back  Egypt’s economy, discourage foreign investment and make it harder to finance Egypt’s huge national debt.

Such economic trends, higher food prices and a backlash against the Mubarak regime’s backers, particularly the United States, will help create a super-charged atmosphere that will favor radicals, especially Islamists, over moderates.  When the revolution starts devouring its children, the Muslim Brotherhood is likely to emerge on top.

To help the Egyptian people build a more hopeful future, the United States can do little but to encourage a quick restoration of political calm, reduce loss of life and a peaceful transition that would improve the chances for the establishment of a free and prosperous Egypt.  And once a new government emerges, Washington should continue its aid only if that government respects the rights of its own citizens.  Only such a government could be a true ally in the war against Islamist terrorism.

White House quietly exempts pampered politicos

from the Washington Times

 If you would like to know what the White House really thinks of Obamacare, there’s an easy way. Look past its press releases. Ignore its promises. Forget its talking points. Instead, simply witness for yourself the outrageous way the White House protects its best friends from Obamacare.

Last year, we learned that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) had granted 111 waivers to protect a lucky few from the onerous regulations of the new national health care overhaul. That number quickly and quietly climbed to 222, and last week we learned that the number of Obamacare privileged escapes has skyrocketed to 733.

Among the fortunate is a who’s who list of unions, businesses and even  read more at the Washington times.

So here we are being used as a people for political fodder.  If you’re special, rich, powerful you get exempted from the rules while every day folks are stuck with it.  Congress and the President should all have the same care we all get.  Nothing better nothing worse.  Peyton

Are we ready to let congress and Obama shut off Internet and pphone service. !!!

Nationalized IRAs & 401(k)s    2/2/2011

“Government Guaranteed Retirement Income”Do you Believe Government Run IRAs and 401(k)s are Coming?…

Why do they Want Your Retirement Accounts?

Would You believe it if President Obama announced it, In Front of 45 Million people?

He Quietly Did!.. You’re about to see the Video for yourself.

But, first!.. You must Understand who’s behind it AND why Our government says we need it.

Who’s Behind It?

The Obama Administration and a powerful network of Congressional activists, along with
the highly-influential Ford and Rockefeller Foundations.

The 40l(k)/IRA de-privatization plan is the brain-child of Teresa Ghilarducci of the Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis – (SCEPA), who is funded by the Rockefeller Foundation.

Are There Any Government Documents To Prove It?

• In Chapter 3 of the Annual Report on the Middle Class released in February by Vice President Biden and the White House Task Force on the Middle Class, the Obama administration calls for enhancing the “retirement options” The plan, as sketched in the 43-page document, calls for the creation of something called “Guaranteed Retirement Accounts” (GRAs).
• U. S. Federal Register; -”annuitization” of Individual 401(k)s. set forth in a set of “Proposed Rules” published on February 2, 2010.
• Government Printing Office-(GOP) a picture can be seen below.

What Government Agencies Are Involved?

Department of Labor and Treasury… among others. The last meeting took place September 14th and 15th 2010, where they laid out the Course of Action. The agenda is now called “Lifetime Income Options for Retirement Plans”

Why Do They Want Our IRAs & 401(k)s AND What Will They Do With Them?

The Treasury Department has (worthless) Bonds to Sell… and Foreign demand is drying up.
China no longer wants our Debt.. Do You?

This will be Done in an attempt to balance the U.S. Deficit and Once Again make the U.S. Credit Worthy to China and Other Buyers of our Debt.

The Federal Government will Manage and Control an estimated $3.613 Trillion Dollars in IRAs and $2.350 Trillion Dollars in 401(k)s.

The Equity will be placed in U.S. Treasury Bonds that will Pay out an estimated 3%. One major clause is that upon retirement, the value of the Individual’s Account will be placed into Annuities. Once the individual Dies, the Value of the Account will automatically become property of the Government. The Program will be structured much like Social Security Accounts (the biggest Ponzi Scheme ever created).

What Financial Firm Will We Need To Trust, In The Handling Our Money?

The March 9 edition of Business Week, notes that new federal regulations designed to “promote the conversion of 401(k) savings and Individual Retirement Accounts into annuities or other steady payment streams” would help drive cash into government-controlled entities such as American International Group (AIG).

Trust AIG?!

………………………………………………………………………………………………….

The move toward Nationalization of IRA’s & 401(k)s will Initially be Offered as an Option. Those who are Unwilling to accept Government Run Retirement Accounts, will be Stripped of their Current Account Tax Benefits…

The Only way The Government would get away with what will be
“The Largest Heist Known To Man” is by Allowing or Creating a Major Financial Market Meltdown!

An aging person who sees their Retirement Account Drop 30%-40% in a matter of Days…. Is more willing to take a Conservative Approach… Even if it means “Government-Guaranteed Income”.

Isaiah 58: 8-10

WE SO NEED THESE WORDS.peyton  2/6/11

⁸ Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
   and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness^[a] will go before you,
   and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.
⁹ Then you will call, and the LORD will answer;
   you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.

   “If you do away with the yoke of oppression,
   with the pointing finger and malicious talk,
¹⁰ and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry
   and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,
then your light will rise in the darkness,
   and your night will become like the noonday.

Multiculturalism has failed, says French president

AFP/POOL – France’s President Nicolas Sarkozy takes questions from some of nine ordinary people on jobs, security, …

– 2 hrs 7 mins ago

PARIS (AFP) – French President Nicolas Sarkozy declared Thursday that multiculturalism had failed, joining a growing number of world leaders or ex-leaders who have condemned it.

“My answer is clearly yes, it is a failure,” he said in a television interview when asked about the policy which advocates that host societies welcome and foster distinct cultural and religious immigrant groups.

“Of course we must all respect differences, but we do not want… a society where communities coexist side by side.

“If you come to France, you accept to melt into a single community, which is the national community, and if you do not want to accept that, you cannot be welcome in France,” the right-wing president said.

“The French national community cannot accept a change in its lifestyle, equality between men and women… freedom for little girls to go to school,” he said.

“We have been too concerned about the identity of the person who was arriving and not enough about the identity of the country that was receiving him,” Sarkozy said in the TFI channel show.

British Prime Minister David Cameron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Australia’s ex-prime minister John Howard and Spanish ex-premier Jose Maria Aznar have also recently said multicultural policies have not successfully integrated immigrants.

Merkel in October said efforts towards multiculturalism in Germany had “failed, totally.”

The comment followed weeks of anguished debate sparked by the huge popularity of a book by a central banker saying that immigrants, in particular Muslims, were making Germany “more stupid.”

Britain’s Cameron last week pronounced his country’s long-standing policy of multiculturalism a failure, calling for better integration of young Muslims to combat home-grown extremism.

He urged a “more active, muscular liberalism” where equal rights, the rule of law, freedom of speech and democracy are actively promoted to create a stronger national identity.

The prime minister, who took power in May 2010, argued that “under the doctrine of state multiculturalism, we have encouraged different cultures to live separate lives, apart from each other and the mainstream”.

He said this had resulted in a lack of national identity in Britain which had made some young Muslims turn to extremist ideology.

Sarkozy said in his television interview Thursday that “our Muslim compatriots must be able to practise their religion, as any citizen can,” but he noted “we in France do not want people to pray in an ostentatious way in the street.”

French far-right leader Marine Le Pen late last year came under fire for comparing Muslims praying in the streets outside overcrowded mosques in France to the Nazi occupation.

Marine Le Pen said there were “ten to fifteen” places in France where Muslims worshipped in the streets outside mosques when these were full.

Craziness or real.  THE SKY IS FALLING!!!  WHAT DO YOU THINK! peyton

WASHINGTON (AFP) – A growing, more affluent population competing for ever scarcer resources could make for an “unrecognizable” world by 2050, researchers warned at a major US science conference Sunday.

The United Nations has predicted the global population will reach seven billion this year, and climb to nine billion by 2050, “with almost all of the growth occurring in poor countries, particularly Africa and South Asia,” said John Bongaarts of the non-profit Population Council.

To feed all those mouths, “we will need to produce as much food in the next 40 years as we have in the last 8,000,” said Jason Clay of the World Wildlife Fund at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

“By 2050 we will not have a planet left that is recognizable” if current trends continue, Clay said.

The swelling population will exacerbate problems, such as resource depletion, said John Casterline, director of the Initiative in Population Research at Ohio State University.

But incomes are also expected to rise over the next 40 years — tripling globally and quintupling in developing nations — and add more strain to global food supplies.

People tend to move up the food chain as their incomes rise, consuming more meat than they might have when they made less money, the experts said.

It takes around seven pounds (3.4 kilograms) of grain to produce a pound of meat, and around three to four pounds of grain to produce a pound of cheese or eggs, experts told AFP.

“More people, more money, more consumption, but the same planet,” Clay told AFP, urging scientists and governments to start making changes now to how food is produced.

Population experts, meanwhile, called for more funding for family planning programs to help control the growth in the number of humans, especially in developing nations.

“For 20 years, there’s been very little investment in family planning, but there’s a return of interest now, partly because of the environmental factors like global warming and food prices,” said Bongaarts.

“We want to minimize population growth, and the only viable way to do that is through more effective family planning

 PARIS | Mon Feb 21, 2011 8:59am EST

So what do you think, should religious leaders promote unrest?  peyton  2/21/11

PARIS Feb 21 (Reuters) – A coalition of Libyan Muslim leaders has issued a declaration telling all Muslims it is their duty to rebel against the Libyan leadership.

“They have demonstrated total arrogant impunity and continued, and even intensified, their bloody crimes against humanity. They have thereby demonstrated total infidelity to the guidance of God and His beloved Prophet (peace be upon him),” said the group, called the Network of Free Ulema of Libya.

“This renders them undeserving of any obedience or support, and makes rebelling against them by all means possible a divinely ordained duty,” the group said in a declaration obtained by Reuters on Monday. (Reporting by Tom Heneghan; Writing by Christian Lowe; Editing by Tim Pearce)

Sometimes it’s necessary to get out on the streets and “get a little bloody,” a Massachusetts Democrat said Tuesday in reference to labor battles in Wisconsin.

Boehner you are a great leader.  Keep it up!  peyton 2/27/11

ABC’s Jonathan Karl reports: In a speech to the National Association of Broadcasters Sunday night in Nashville, Speaker of the House John Boehner will address “the moral responsibility” to cut spending, reduce the deficit, avoid a government shutdown and also address spending on entitlements, such as Social Security and Medicare.

The speech comes just two days after House Republicans have proposed a new spending bill that appeared more likely than the previous bill to garner support from Democrats in the Senate and avoid a government shutdown. The government is set to shut down at the end of Friday March 4 if lawmakers cannot agree on a way to extend federal funding before then.

The Speaker’s press office has released excerpts of the speech Boehner will deliver tonight. There are two notable things here:  1) Boehner promises the Republican budget for 2012 will “specifically deal with entitlement reform” (something the Republican leadership, so far, has avoided); and, 2) unlike former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who is now saying the 1995/96 shutdown was a good thing, Boehner insists he wants to avoid one. 

“This is very simple:  Americans want the government to stay open, and they want it to spend less money,”  Boehner will say.

His entitlement reform promise comes with a whack at the White House: “To not address entitlement programs, as is the case with the budget the president has put forward, would be an economic and moral failure,” Boehner says. “By acting now, we can fulfill the mission of health and retirement security for all Americans without making changes for those in or near retirement.  And we can keep the promises we have made to our children.”

Here are the rest of the excerpts:
 
On following the ‘will of the people:’

The King’s Speech” continued its winning momentum going into the 83rd annual Academy Awards, taking home the big prize of best picture, while its star Colin Firth received the Oscar for best actor; “Black Swan” star Natalie Portman received the award for best actress

“The Fighter” co-stars Melissa Leo and Christian Bale were among the early winners, receiving Oscars for best supporting actress and best supporting actor.

In a self-deprecating and emotional speech, Firth joked, “I have a feeling my career has just peaked.” With his typical British reserve, he said he was “experiencing stirrings” that were “threatening to turn into dance moves.”

Colin Firth and Helena Bonham Carter were great, a must see!peyton 2/28/11

By BARRY EICHENGREEN    3/3/11

The single most astonishing fact about foreign exchange is not the high volume of transactions, as incredible as that growth has been. Nor is it the volatility of currency rates, as wild as the markets are these days.

Instead, it’s the extent to which the market remains dollar-centric.

Consider this: When a South Korean wine wholesaler wants to import Chilean cabernet, the Korean importer buys U.S. dollars, not pesos, with which to pay the Chilean exporter. Indeed, the dollar is virtually the exclusive vehicle for foreign-exchange transactions between Chile and Korea, despite the fact that less than 20% of the merchandise trade of both countries is with the U.S.

Chile and Korea are hardly an anomaly: Fully 85% of foreign-exchange transactions world-wide are trades of other currencies for dollars. What’s more, what is true of foreign-exchange transactions is true of other international business. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries sets the price of oil in dollars. The dollar is the currency of denomination of half of all international debt securities. More than 60% of the foreign reserves of central banks and governments are in dollars.

The greenback, in other words, is not just America’s currency. It’s the world’s.

But as astonishing as that is, what may be even more astonishing is this: The dollar’s reign is coming to an end.

I believe that over the next 10 years, we’re going to see a profound shift toward a world in which several currencies compete for dominance.

The impact of such a shift will be equally profound, with implications for, among other things, the stability of exchange rates, the stability of financial markets, the ease with which the U.S. will be able to finance budget and current-account deficits, and whether the Fed can follow a policy of benign neglect toward the dollar.

The Three Pillars

How could this be? How could the dollar’s longtime most-favored-currency status be in jeopardy?

View Full Image

See the share of global foreign-exchange transactions involving the dollar, and the dollar’s share of official global foreign-exchange reserves.

To understand the dollar’s future, it’s important to understand the dollar’s past—why the dollar became so dominant in the first place. Let me offer three reasons.

First, its allure reflects the singular depth of markets in dollar-denominated debt securities. The sheer scale of those markets allows dealers to offer low bid-ask spreads. The availability of derivative instruments with which to hedge dollar exchange-rate risk is unsurpassed. This makes the dollar the most convenient currency in which to do business for corporations, central banks and governments alike.

Second, there is the fact that the dollar is the world’s safe haven. In crises, investors instinctively flock to it, as they did following the 2008 failure of Lehman Brothers. This tendency reflects the exceptional liquidity of markets in dollar instruments, liquidity being the most precious of all commodities in a crisis. It is a product of the fact that U.S. Treasury securities, the single most important asset bought and sold by international investors, have long had a reputation for stability.

WSJ’s David Wessel sits down with three senior experts in international finance – Edwin M. Truman, Joseph E. Gagnon and Eswar Prasad – for a discussion on the major issues facing currencies and the global economy.

Finally, the dollar benefits from a dearth of alternatives. Other countries that have long enjoyed a reputation for stability, such as Switzerland, or that have recently acquired one, like Australia, are too small for their currencies to account for more than a tiny fraction of international financial transactions.

What’s Changing

But just because this has been true in the past doesn’t guarantee that it will be true in the future. In fact, all three pillars supporting the dollar’s international dominance are eroding.

First, changes in technology are undermining the dollar’s monopoly. Not so long ago, there may have been room in the world for only one true international currency. Given the difficulty of comparing prices in different currencies, it made sense for exporters, importers and bond issuers all to quote their prices and invoice their transactions in dollars, if only to avoid confusing their customers.

Now, however, nearly everyone carries hand-held devices that can be used to compare prices in different currencies in real time. Just as we have learned that in a world of open networks there is room for more than one operating system for personal computers, there is room in the global economic and financial system for more than one international currency.

OECD Secretary-General Jose Angel Gurria sat down with Dow Jones FX Trader during the meeting of G20 finance officials in Paris to talk about global imbalances and the euro zone’s debt crisis.

Second, the dollar is about to have real rivals in the international sphere for the first time in 50 years. There will soon be two viable alternatives, in the form of the euro and China’s yuan.

Americans especially tend to discount the staying power of the euro, but it isn’t going anywhere. Contrary to some predictions, European governments have not abandoned it. Nor will they. They will proceed with long-term deficit reduction, something about which they have shown more resolve than the U.S. And they will issue “e-bonds”—bonds backed by the full faith and credit of euro-area governments as a group—as a step in solving their crisis. This will lay the groundwork for the kind of integrated European bond market needed to create an alternative to U.S. Treasurys as a form in which to hold

get more at  The Wall Street Journal  3/2/11  WJS.com

Autobiographia

G.E. Patterson

I had everything and luck. Rings of smoke

Blown for me; sunlight safe inside the leaves

Of cottonwoods; pure, simple harmonies

Of church music, echoes of slave songs; scraps

Of candy wrappers – airborne. Everything.

Mother and father, brother, aunts, uncles;

Chores and schoolwork and playtime. Everything.

I was given gloves against winter cold.

I was made to wear gloves when I gardened.

I was made to garden; taught to hold forks

In my left hand when cutting, in my right

When bringing food to my mouth. Everything.

I had clothes I was told not to wear outside;

A face you could clean up almost handsome;

I had friends to fight with and secrets, spread

All over the neighborhood; the best teachers,

White and colored. I’m not making this up.

I knew that I had everything. Still do.

Lovely poem,  peyton

Wis. GOP bypasses Dems, cuts collective bargaining

By SCOTT BAUER
Associated Press

Unions lost there power to rob the taxpayer in Wisconsin!  peyton

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The Wisconsin Senate succeeded in voting Wednesday to strip nearly all collective bargaining rights from public workers, after Republicans outmaneuvered the chamber’s missing Democrats and approved an explosive proposal that has rocked the state and unions nationwide.”You are cowards!” spectators in the Senate gallery screamed as lawmakers voted. Within hours, a crowd of a few hundred protesters inside the Capitol had grown to several thousand, more than had been in the building at any point during weeks of protests.”The whole world is watching!” they shouted as they pressed up against the heavily guarded entrance to the Senate chamber.All 14 Senate Democrats fled to Illinois nearly three weeks ago, preventing the chamber from having enough members present to consider Gov. Scott Walker’s “budget-repair bill” – a proposal introduced to plug a $137 million budget shortfall.The Senate requires a quorum to take up any measures that spends money. But Republicans on Wednesday took all the spending measures out of the legislation and a special committee of lawmakers from both the Senate and Assembly approved the revised bill a short time later.The unexpected yet surprisingly simple procedural move ended a stalemate that had threatened to drag on indefinitely. Until Wednesday’s stunning vote, it appeared the standoff would persist until Democrats returned to Madison from their self-imposed exile.”In 30 minutes, 18 state senators undid 50 years of civil rights in Wisconsin. Their disrespect for the people of Wisconsin and their rights is an outrage that will never be forgotten,” said Democratic Senate Minority Leader Mark Miller. “Tonight, 18 Senate Republicans conspired to take government away from the people.”The state Assembly previously approved the original proposal and was set to consider the new measure on Thursday. Miller said in an interview with The Associated Press there is nothing Democrats can do now to stop the bill: “It’s a done deal.”The lone Democrat present on the special committee, Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca, shouted that the meeting was a violation of the state’s open meetings law. The Senate’s chief clerk said hours later the meeting was properly held.Senate convened within minutes of the committee meeting and passed the measure 18-1 without discussion or debate. Republican Sen. Dale Schultz cast the lone no vote.”The jig is now up,” Barca said. “The fraud on the people of Wisconsin is now clear.”Walker had repeatedly argued that collective bargaining was a budget issue, because his proposed changes would give local governments the flexibility to confront budget cuts needed to close the state’s $3.6 billion deficit. He has said that without the changes, he may have needed to lay off 1,500 state workers and make other cuts to balance the budget.Walker said Wednesday night that Democrats had three weeks to debate the bill and were offered repeated opportunities to come back, but refused.”I applaud the Legislature’s action today to stand up to the status quo and take a step in the right direction to balance the budget and reform government,” Walker said in the statement.The measure approved Wednesday forbids most government workers from collectively bargaining for wage increases beyond the rate of inflation. It also requires public workers to pay more toward their pensions and double their health insurance contribution, a combination equivalent to an 8 percent pay cut for the average worker.Police and firefighters are exempt.Walker’s proposal touched off a national debate over union rights for public employees and prompted tens of thousands of demonstrators to converge on Wisconsin’s capital city for weeks of protests.Wednesday’s drama unfolded less than four hours after Walker met with GOP senators in a closed-door meeting. He emerged from the meeting saying senators were “firm” in their support of the bill.For weeks, Democrats had offered concessions on issues other than the bargaining rights and they spent much of Wednesday again calling on Walker and Republicans to compromise.Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald said earlier that Republicans had been discussing concessions offered by Walker, including allowing public workers to bargain over their salaries without a wage limit. Several GOP senators facing recall efforts had also publicly called for a compromise.”The people of Wisconsin elected us to come to Madison and do a job,” Fitzgerald said in a statement after the vote. “Just because the Senate Democrats won’t do theirs, doesn’t mean we won’t do ours.”Union leaders weren’t happy with Walker’s offer, and were furious at the Senate’s move to push the measure forward with a quick vote. Phil Neuenfeldt, president of the Wisconsin state AFL-CIO, said after Wednesday’s vote that Republicans exercised a “nuclear option.”"Scott Walker and the Republicans’ ideological war on the middle class and working families is now indisputable,” Neuenfeldt said.While talks had been going on sporadically behind the scenes, Republicans in the Senate also had publicly tried to ratchet up pressure on Democrats to return. They had agreed earlier Wednesday to start fining Democrats $100 for each day legislative session day they miss.—Associated Press writers Todd Richmond and Jason Smathers

Omar is the devil, don’t you think?  He has tortured and murdered for 40 years.  Time for a change.  Free the Lybian’s!!! peyton 3/20/11

At Qaddafi Compound, a Human Shield

By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK

Published: March 19, 2011

Qaddafi Backers Defiant as Allies Strike

Enlarge This Image

Moises Saman for The New York Times

Qaddafi supporters rallied at the Bab Aziziya compound in Tripoli on Saturday.

Enlarge This Image

Moises Saman for The New York Times

Inside the Bab Aziziya compound which was bombed by the United States in 1986.

There, hundreds of supporters offered themselves up as human shields, cheering to newly minted dance songs about their adoration for their leader. “House by house, alley by alley,” the catchiest song went, quoting a Qaddafi speech. “Disinfect the germs from each house and each room.”

The crowd included many women and children, and some said they had family in Colonel Qaddafi’s forces. They said they had come to protect Colonel Qaddafi’s compound from bombing by volunteering to be shields. “If they want to hit Muammar Qaddafi, they must hit us because we are all Muammar Qaddafi,” said Ghazad Muftah, a 52-year-old widow of a soldier from the Warfalla tribe, who said she was there with her six grown children. At least one person attending the rally spoke out against Colonel Qaddafi in a recent interview — a double-agent phenomenon that appears common among Libyan demonstrators for and against the government.

In Tajoura — a neighborhood near the capital that has been a hotbed of anti-Qaddafi unrest — one resident had complained earlier in the day that despite the announced no-fly zone, Libyan Air Force jets could be heard taking off from the nearby bases, presumably headed toward the eastern front with the rebels.

“Our suffering is greater than anyone can imagine,” he said. “Anyone who dares go outside is either arrested or shot dead.

“Food is decreasing, there is no tap water, and electricity comes and goes,” he added. “The hospitals cannot really offer much treatment anymore because there are no medicines. There is no milk for the children.”

It was unclear Saturday night whether the missile strikes had hit the air base, but in the city of Misurata — the last major rebel holdout in the west — one person said residents were cheering the sound of airstrikes. The Qaddafi forces had continued their siege Saturday, including the cutoff of water and electricity, he said, and Qaddafi gunmen continued to fire into the city.

Speaking on the condition of anonymity to protect his family, he said: “The airstrikes sound good to the Libyan people.”

Anti-Gaddafi rebels have welcomed the air strikes and no-fly zone over Libya  

French jets have launched a second day of operations over Libya to enforce a no-fly zone against Col Muammar Gaddafi’s forces.

The 15 planes patrolled Libyan airspace but did not open fire because they met no resistance, a spokesman said.

Meanwhile, witnesses in the capital, Tripoli, reported a loud explosion. A plume of smoke was seen rising near Col Gaddafi’s residence, AFP reported.

France also says Qatar is to about to deploy four planes to the operation.

The move would make Qatar the first Arab country to play an active part in the campaign against Col Gaddafi, who has been battling a month-long revolt.

In a statement from the Pentagon on Sunday, US Vice Admiral William Gortney said coalition raids were “judged to have been very effective” and no new Libyan air activity had been reported.

“Benghazi is not completely safe from attack but it is certainly under less threat than it was yesterday,” he said.

“We believe his [Gaddafi's] forces are under considerable stress and suffering from isolation and a good deal of confusion.”

Policy criticised

The head of the Arab League, who supported the idea of a no-fly zone, has criticised the severity of the bombardment.

At the scene

Kevin Connolly BBC News, Tobruk

---

If Western aircraft hadn’t taken to the skies over Libya, they believe in Tobruk they’d have been fighting for their lives with heavy machine guns, not firing from the rooftop to celebrate their deliverance.

Mustafa Gheriani, one of the rebels’ spokesmen, fled Benghazi as Col Gaddafi’s tanks approached. Now he is returning, confident that British, American and French air power have made it safe.

“The intervention of the international community lessened the bloodshed and quickened his demise,” he said, “and we’re looking forward to that, in hours or days instead of weeks.”

There is much grimmer news, though, from Misrata, the last city near to the capital, Tripoli, to be resisting Muammar Gaddafi’s vengeful counter-revolutionary surge.

Local people say tanks and rocket launchers are maintaining a merciless bombardment of the city centre. Snipers are shooting civilians who venture into the shattered streets.

The news from Misrata is a sharp reminder that the arsenals deployed by the allied air forces do not include a magic bullet to resolve this crisis.

“What is happening in Libya differs from the aim of imposing a no-fly zone, and what we want is the protection of civilians and not the bombardment of more civilians,” said Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa.

Arab League support was a key factor in getting UN Security Council backing for the resolution authorising the move.

The BBC’s Jonathan Head, in Cairo, says this looks like a worrying crack in the coalition. Western governments are counting on at least symbolic participation by the air forces of some Arab states, he adds.

In a news conference on Sunday, a Libyan military spokesman said its armed forces had ordered a ceasefire across the entire country, beginning at 2100 local time (1900 GMT).

However, the BBC’s Allan Little in Tripoli says the government had been insisting that its troops were already observing a ceasefire order made on Friday.

Despite Friday’s announcement, our correspondent adds, pro-Gaddafi troops have tried to enter Benghazi and have been in action at Misrata.

A rebel spokesman in Misrata told the BBC that pro-Gaddafi forces had launched fresh attacks on Sunday with heavy shelling.

Meanwhile, US military chief Adm Mike Mullen said the initial coalition raids on Libya on Saturday night had been “successful”.

Allied forces fired more than 120 missiles against Libyan targets, mostly air defences, on Saturday night.

US fighter planes and B-2 stealth bombers were involved, Pentagon officials said.

Cruise missiles hit at least 20 air-defence sites in the capital, Tripoli, and the western city of Misrata, they said.

After an attack by French planes near the rebel-held city of Benghazi, some 14 bodies were lying near destroyed military vehicles, Reuters reported.

Libyan TV has broadcast footage it says showed some of the 150 people it claims were wounded in the attacks. It said 48 people had been killed. There was no independent confirmation of the deaths and Western officials said such claims should be treated with caution.

The world is a dangerous play.  peyton

• KIND OF CRAZY!! WHO STARTED THIS AND WHY!!! DO WE HAVE A LEADER OR NOT!!!
• peyton 3/23/11
• Tensions with Britain as Gates rebukes UK government over suggestion Gaddafi could be assassinated
• French propose a new political ‘committee’ to oversee operations
  
• Germany pulls equipment out of NATO coalition over disagreement over campaign’s direction
  
• Italians accuse French of backing NATO in exchange for oil contracts
  
• No-fly zone called into question after first wave of strikes ‘neutralises’ Libyan military machine
• U.K. ministers say war could last ’30 years’
  
• Italy to ‘take back control’ of bases used by allies unless NATO leadership put in charge of the mission
  
• Russians tell U.S. to stop bombing in order to protect civilians – calls bombing a ‘crusade’
  
• Deep divisions between allied forces currently bombing Libya worsened today as the German military announced it was pulling forces out of NATO over continued disagreement on who will lead the campaign.
  A German military spokesman said it was recalling two frigates and AWACS surveillance plane crews from the Mediterranean, after fears they would be drawn into the conflict if NATO takes over control from the U.S.
• The infighting comes as a heated meeting of NATO ambassadors yesterday failed to resolve whether the 28-nation alliance should run the operation to enforce a U.N.-mandated no-fly zone, diplomats said.
• Yesterday a war of words erupted between the U.S. and Britain after the U.K. government claimed Muammar Gaddafi is a legitimate target for assassination.

U.K. government officials said killing the Libyan leader would be legal if it prevented civilian deaths as laid out in a U.N. resolution.

But U.S. defence secretary Robert Gates hit back at the suggestion, saying it would be ‘unwise’ to target the Libyan leader adding cryptically that the bombing

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1368693/Libya-war-Germans-pull-forces-NATO-Libyan-coalition-falls-apart.html#ixzz1HSlqAG00

Ready for Tea

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said that Libya did not pose a threat to the United States before the U.S. began its military campaign against the North African country.

On “This Week,” ABC News’ Senior White House Correspondent Jake Tapper asked Gates, “Do you think Libya posed an actual or imminent threat to the United States?”

“No, no,” Gates said in a joint appearance with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. “It was not — it was not a vital national interest to the United States, but it was an interest and it was an interest for all of the reasons Secretary Clinton talked about.  The engagement of the Arabs, the engagement of the Europeans, the general humanitarian question that was at stake,” he said.

Gates explained that there was more at stake, however. “There was another piece of this though, that certainly was a consideration.  You’ve had revolutions on both the East and the West of Libya,” he said, emphasizing the potential wave of refugees from Libya could have destabilized Tunisia and Egypt.

SO WHAT ARE WE TO THINK,  OVER REACH  OHHHHHHHHHHHHHH?????

WORRIED, WE HAVE AN AMATEUR PRESIDENT.  POOR OVERAL POLICY.peyton

3/27/11

April 29, 2011 was a great day for love, marriage and faith.  I attended a ‘Kate and Will’ wedding party on Friday.   It was great fun to watch the pageantry, vows and religious service surrounding the marriage ceremony with friends.   Clearly,  Will felt marriage not just living together was important.  Becoming  a family was important for him.  He followed family/royal tradition after becoming an educated and accomplished adult.  He showed his honor with his military service.  Kate became an educated woman.  Graduating from the University with Will.  She has been a model young adult working and living a respectful life.   The institution of marriage was shown with respect and honor and love.  This  is a time when individuals don’t take the commitment of marriage and family very seriously.    Family and marriage are often portrayed as unnecessary and parents often presented as buffoons.  These notions do not help individuals to mature, accept responsibility for their lives and become productive members of society.    The religious service and vows were amazing.  They showcased scripture, classic music, prayer, faith and tradition.   The bride and groom’s religious faith was an important part of the marriage ceremony.  Christianity and particularly the Anglican Church was on display and provided the occasion with solemnity and tradition and faith.  It was most impressive.  Love, faith and hope for the future ruled the day.  The world watched and I believe was inspired by their love and faith and respect for tradition.    Paula Randant, LCSW  4/30/11

 WHAT A CRAZY WORLD!    CAPITALISM WOULD HELP!  SOCIALISM NEVER WORKS!  MONEY RUNS OUT.peyton  5/21/11

MADRID (Reuters) – Tens of thousands of Spaniards angry over joblessness protested for a sixth day on Friday in cities all over the country, and the government looked unlikely to enforce a ban on the demonstrations, fearing clashes.

Dubbed “los indignados” (the indignant), tens of thousands of protesters have filled the main squares of Spain’s cities for six days, in a wave of outrage over economic stagnation and government austerity marking a shift after years of patience.

The electoral board ruled on Thursday that protests would be illegal on Saturday, the eve of elections when Spaniards will choose 8,116 city councils and 13 out of 17 regional governments.

But Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, who has failed to contain the highest unemployment in the European Union, at 21.3 percent, said he may not enforce the ban.

“I have a great respect for the people protesting, which they are doing in a peaceful manner, and I understand it is driven by economic crisis and young people’s hopes for employment,” Zapatero said during a radio interview.

He said the Justice Ministry was reviewing the electoral board’s ruling to determine whether it should stand.

PROTESTERS WILL STAY

“We are not going to budge from here,” said a 44-year-old unemployed man who declined to give his name, during an assembly at Puerta del Sol in central Madrid, where protesters reached an informal consensus to stay in the square despite the ban.

The man was among hundreds who have camped out all week at Puerta del Sol. His wife and daughter join him every day and the crowd swells to thousands every evening. “Our next move is to spread this to the rest of Europe,” he said.

Many protesters told Reuters that they are scared the police will crack down, but analysts said police action against the protesters would be a disaster for the Socialists.

The protesters have called on Spaniards not to vote for the two main parties, the Socialists or the center-right opposition Popular Party.

Spain has struggled to emerge from a recession, and the collapse of the construction sector and a slump in consumer spending have hit the young particularly hard — 45 percent of 18- to 25-year-olds are unemployed.

“They can’t kick us out. The politicians won’t allow it, it’ll make them look bad right before the voting,” said Virginia Braojos, 32, a logistics technician who has come with three friends to the protests every night this week.

NOT A GAME CHANGER

The protests have drawn huge media attention, but will not change the outcome of Sunday’s elections, when the ruling Socialist party is expected to suffer heavy losses over its handling of the economic crisis, a prominent pollster said.

However, the symbolic impact of the protests is huge and will make things even tougher than they already are for the increasingly lame-duck Zapatero, said Jose Juan Toharia, president of Metroscopia pollsters.

“There will be an authentic cataclysm for the Socialists, who are going to head into general elections next year without a single stronghold,” Toharia said.

The next general election is due in March, though some analysts say a Socialist rout could lead to an early election.

The protest movement has captured the mood of many Spaniards who have been out of work for months and face a bleak future as the economy is not yet growing robustly enough to create jobs.

While most protesters are young, organizing themselves through Twitter and social media, middle-aged and older people joined the crowds on Friday, frustrated with stagnation.

STICKING TO DEFICIT COMMITMENT

The risk premium on Spanish debt, as measured by the difference between yields on Spanish and benchmark German bonds, rose on Friday due to concerns that following the elections, new regional leaders will uncover budget shortfalls.

Budget trouble in the regions would rekindle concerns about a fiscal crisis in Spain.

Spain has been under intense market scrutiny since Greece, Ireland and Portugal were forced to accept EU/IMF bailouts. It is widely accepted that a bailout for Spain, the euro zone’s fourth largest economy, would stretch the European Union’s resources and political will to breaking point.

The Spain/Bund spread traded at its widest since mid-January at around 239 basis points.

Zapatero, who slashed government spending this year, promised there would not be a new round of spending cutbacks following the elections, but stressed Spain’s obligation to international markets to stick to its plan to cut the deficit.

“I can guarantee there will be no more spending cuts after the May 22 elections (but) we are committed to the budget target. I insist we will meet this obligation because, if we don’t, markets and investors won’t finance us, and that would make things worse.”

(Additional reporting by Paul Day; editing by Mark Heinrich)

From the Daily Beast   5/23/11

Updated at 4:40 p.m.] A total of 116 people are confirmed dead as a result of Sunday’s tornado in Joplin,Missouri, city manager Mark Rohr told reporters Monday. That means the death toll from the Joplin twister is tied for second most in U.S. history, since the National Weather Service begin keeping such records in 1950.

[Updated at 1:39 p.m.] Rescuers have pulled five families from beneath the rubble in Joplin, Missouri, where a tornado devastated up to 30% of the city, according to Gov. Jay Nixon.

“We still believe there are folks alive under the rubble and we are working hard to save them,” Nixon said Monday afternoon, nearly 19 hours after the tornado struck.

[Updated at 12:02 p.m.] St. John’s Regional Medical Center was hit directly by the Joplin, Missouri, tornado and suffered significant damage, according to a statement from Lynn Britton, president of Sisters of Mercy Health System, which operates the hospital. One facade of the building made of glass was blown out, and authorities evacuated the medical center.

The hospital was treating 183 people when the storm struck, Britton said. It was unclear if any were injured in the storm. The patients were taken to hospitals as far away as Springfield, Missouri, and northwest Arkansas.

Structural engineers were on their way to Joplin to assess the building, where 1,700 people work, Britton said.

[Updated at 11:50 a.m.] CNN producer Eric Marrapodi was in Joplin, Missouri, when another wave of severe storms came through Monday morning.

“As lightning pops and thunder booms, you can see the locals flinch. It’s likely too close for comfort after they lost 89 neighbors to a half-mile wide twister,” Marrapodi writes.

“I was walking down Main Street. Everything was so razed over it was disorienting because some of the streets you couldn’t even tell where you were at. After living in Joplin all my life, it was like living in the ‘Twilight Zone.’“

Zach Tusinger, 26, an attorney in Joplin, lost his aunt and uncle in the tornado. They lived five blocks from St. John’s Hospital.

“Everybody’s going to know people who are dead,” he says. “You could have probably dropped a nuclear bomb on the town and I don’t think it would have done near as much damage as it did.”

Read the rest of this entry »

CHECK OUT MY POLICY PAGE TO GET FURTHER INFORMATION ON THE BILDERBERG’S. peyton  6/10/11

Kurt thanks for sharing.

Kurt Nimmo
Infowars.com
June 8, 2011

Alex Jones and Infowars.com have received inside information regarding the Bilderberg agenda now unfolding in the idyllic Swiss countryside.

According to AFP journalist and legendary Bilderberg sleuth Jim Tucker’s inside sources, the agenda now under review includes a number of critical issues at the top of the elite’s to-do list. These breakdown as follows:

The elite are concerned that the American Congress may soon turn against the illegal and immoral invasion under humanitarian cover by NATO and the UN against the north African dictator Moammar Gaddafi.

As columnist Patrick Buchanan noted yesterday, Congress is rising in opposition to bogus wars launched by the executive branch in violation of the Constitution.

“Last week, House Speaker John Boehner had to scramble to cobble up a substitute resolution to prevent half his GOP caucus from joining with Democrats to denounce President Obama’s war in Libya as unconstitutional and to demand a total U.S. pullout in 15 days,” Buchanan wrote.

More than a third of House Republicans voted to pull out of the NATO coalition attacking Gaddafi’s forces, in essence forcing a NATO withdrawal from the color revolution engineered civil war in that country.

In January, former oil industry pastor Lindsey Williams revealed that his inside sources said oil prices will skyrocket – a fait accompli with gas prices at the pump now at historically high levels – as the global elite work behind the scenes to take take down national economies. Williams appeared on the Alex Jones Show to talk about new revelations that deal with the death of the dollar, exploding energy prices, and the engineered onset of order out of chaos revolution worldwide.

The elite now meeting behind closed doors in Switzerland are pushing for a wider war and incalculable suffering in the Middle East.

The money masters have long profited from war and mass murder. Nathan Rothschild made a financial bet on Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo while also funding the Duke of Wellington’s peninsular campaign against Napoleon. The House of Rothschild financed the Prussian War, the Crimean War and the British attempt to seize the Suez Canal from the French and also financed the Mexican War and the Civil War in the U.S.

In addition to worrying about Congress waking up to the Libyan scam, the global elite is also concerned about a diverse liberty movement that has grown exponentially with the help of an open and free internet.

In response, the pocketed pawns in Congress have introduced a raft of bills over the last few months designed to take down the internet and blunt its impact as a medium for alternative news and information.

On April 1, 2009, the Senate introduced two bills, endangering a free and open internet: S. 773: Cybersecurity Act of 2009 and S. 778 to establish a White House cybersecurity czar.

In addition, on September 20, 2010, S. 3804: Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act (COICA) was introduced.

Early last month, an especially ominous bill was introduced in the Senate. Entitled Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act of 2011, PROTECT IP for short, this legislation would use copyright infringement as a smoke screen to take down web domains and institute rolling censorship.

On the international front, the European Commission gave a nod toward implementing the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), a draconian measure that will subvert national sovereignty, trash Net Neutrality, consumer privacy, and civil liberties. In the United States, the corporate media has virtually ignored ACTA, but then key players in the Mockingbird media are often Bilderberg attendees and privy to aspects of the agenda.

The above represent a small sampling of legislation and treaties that will be used to shut down the opposition under the cover of protecting copyright and preventing terrorism.

Hyperventilating over exaggerated threats of cybersecurity, Senator Jay Rockefeller mused during a congressional meeting on cyber crime and terrorism in 2009: “It really almost makes you ask the question would it have been better if we had never invented the internet.”

The globalists are not opposed to the internet, especially as a corporatized money-making instrument. They are, however, opposed to an open, free, and unregulated by government internet where alternative media opposed to their globalist devices are allowed to thrive.

In addition, we can expect minions of the global elite who parade around as our elected representatives and appointed government officials to continue their propaganda efforts to convince the American people that the internet will be used as a terrorist weapon of mass destruction and as such needs to be tightly regulated – for our own safety, of course, and that of the children.

Finally, the Bilderbergers will work on an effort to sucker an already economically besieged American public into further fantastic debt producing bankster bailouts, specifically for Greece, Ireland, Portugal, and other member EU nations sliding toward bankruptcy and social disruption on a monumental scale.

In late 2010, the U.S. Treasury, now operating as a liaison between the government and the bankster owned private Federal Reserve, indicated it was ready to fork over billions more to the European black hole.

“There are obviously some severe market problems,” said a faceless bureaucrat, speaking on condition of anonymity. “In May, it was Greece. This is Ireland and Portugal. If there is contagion that’s a huge problem for the global economy.”

As of late 2010, the IMF, whose biggest single “shareholder” (read: parasitical host) is the United States, has committed 250 billion euros to the bankster engineered black hole.

“Why should American taxpayers be on the hook because a foreign government cannot cover its debts?” asked Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, at a House subcommittee hearing last May.

Because the plan is to take down national sovereignty, impose drastic austerity measures, hold fire sales on national assets, consolidate wealth and power, and use an endless economic crisis as an excuse to usher in world government, a one-world currency, and a sprawling high-tech police state.

SO HERE WE ARE ANOTHER YEAR WITH THIS SECRET GROUP OF RICHIES WHO WANT TO RULE THE WORLD AND STOP OTHERS , NORMAL FOLKS FROM EXPRESSING THEMSELVES AND LIVING FREELY.  peyton

After 12 hours of travel, plane changes and snoozing we arrived at the Hotel Notre Dame across the street from Notre Dame . It was sunny and beautiful and the hotel is quaint and comfortable. We changed clothes and headed out to explore the area and enjoy the sun of the afternoon. We found shopping, a great cafe with coffee, wine and beer and the view of Notre Dame. A heavenly afternoon.

We had wonderful hosts in France. The Sister City group of Sevres including the Mayor and many great individuals treated us royally. Francoise and Jon provided us a lovely place to stay in their home. It was an enchanting home built in the mid 1800′s. The charm of the home and neighborhood was truly French and a totally life enhancing experience. Francoise is a great gardener and retired teacher.

     Jon showed us the local parks and sites and best views of Paris. He was a charming chatter and interested in the world and politics.  He has a great sense of humor and was great fun.

Maria Kim’s journey to parenthood.                                              Find more of Maria   http://bit.ly/meQW3h

Last Sunday, I went to the most amazing space in Chicago.

Not because it was in Hyde Park, though I certainly love that area. Nor because it was in a vintage condo with all the trappings of a Carson McCullers book that you could devour in one sitting.

No, it wasn’t that kind of a space. Not a physical, literal space, but a better kind of space – the amazing space created only among close friends and family – often across generations, often within a circle held tightly like a hug.

A dear friend of mine wanted to celebrate the 13th birthday of her oldest daughter by creating a new kind of tradition. In other cultures, we find unique ways to honor a young child’s transition into adulthood. In hers, there isn’t an analogous event, so she wanted to create one from scratch.

The invitation? That all the women who her daughter views as role models in her life join together and share a letter with lessons of growing up – of skipping the rock from tween to teen to adult – to wish her well on her first leap.

So there we were – an aunt, a grandma, three neighbors, a colleague, the mom, the potential future step mom, and three friends – surrounding this young girl with honesty, awkwardness, elegance and possibility. And we each lit a candle, then read aloud our letters to this birthday girl taking flight.

From candle 1, I knew that no one tumbles into love quite as fast and as fiercely as a new aunt with her first niece.

From candle 3, I knew that grandmas are weavers – who see the past in new frames every day, in the faces and places and moods and spirit of children, whether 40 or 4 months old. They see beautiful echo in everyone.

From candles 2,4, and 5-9, I knew that friends can amaze you and lift you and surprise you. But above all, they can share an unequivocal love for your child, simply because you invited them in.

From candle 10, I knew that a child’s family includes all she lets in, beyond and because of bloodlines, and that there’s power for that child to have all her family together, in one space, at close bay, encircled.

From candle 11, I knew that she was the type of mom I wanted to be – one who imagines rituals so that her child never doubts that she is backed by an amazing cheering squad who will root for her until she can boldly and fabulously root for herself.

And candle 12? Well, that was lit for all the women who couldn’t be with us that day – either because they were out of town but sent crazy love home, or because they were in heaven and sent crazy love home.

And over 12 candles, 11 letters and a buoy of laughter and love, we unfolded all the little truths. We told her that there would be good days, and there would be bad days.

And just as predictably, there would also be awesome, can’t get enough, my belly is floating like a roller coaster but it feels great anyway, palpable, crazy, alive, sweet, amazing days.

The days when she is fully she. No airs, no accidents, just she – with all her style, humor, smarts, sassiness, kindness, friendship. The days when she is just she and she is fabulous.

The days when she tumbles fiercely into love and chooses someone who chooses her right back.

The days when if faced with a choice of any other day she could possibly dream up, she says ‘I can’t imagine any other place I’d rather be.’

For us, last Sunday was one of those days. Our lives have become richer, with more attitude and more strength, because of her.

And that flight of passage was as much about her and her leap from tween to teen plus, as it was about our flight from “aunt, grandma, mom, friends, neighbors, colleagues and step-moms to be” to just what we were that day – her circle.

Yes, there in the middle of that circle was the best space for me to be. An amazing space indeed.

Maria Kim

Villandry so beautiful Loire Valley

this water spout was one of many used to water the gardens in the 1500's

majestic past of this Castle and Gardens takes ones imagination to what life must have been like so long ago. 

lovely lunch in their home

Jacques dressing up as a cowboy

Paula and Danielle

Jacques and Gary comiserating

Paula and Danielle at our table at Official Dinner

Friends at our table at Official/Community Dinner

Gary making a toast at Official Dinner

Jacques and Gary comiserating

Our relationships with people from Sevres began when they visited Mount Prospect.  Danielle and Jacques stayed with us in 2009 beginning a great friendship.  On our trip to Sevres this month  we spent an evening at the Official dinner and Saturday lunch at their home.  Danielle and Jacques are fun and shared great food and personal interests on this visit.

Mexican troops cross into the United States at Bridge Two

By KGNS News

Our relationship with individuals from Sevres, France began with their visit in 2009.  Jacques and Danielle were guests in our home for the week they were in Mount Prospect.  Jacques speaks English well so communication was good.  I speak a little French and understand more than I can speak.  We had many things in common, grown children close in age, a long term marriage and grandchildren.    We all enjoyed good wine and good food.  There was a great generosity of spirit and fun in our relationship.  Danielle and I also shared a love of cats.  We had a kitty and they have a great cat as well.

Gary and Mike at Versailles

Gary, Paula and Denise at dinner in Tours

Paula and Lorrie visiting de la nouvelle ecole Croix-Bosset May 30, 2011

Kathy, Paula and Lorrie at the Arc D’Triumph nearmonument to Unknown soldier

Gary and Paula with friends at dinner in Tours

Scientists have created more than 150
human-animal hybrid embryos in British laboratories.

The hybrids have been produced secretively
over the past three years by researchers looking into possible cures for a wide
range of diseases.

The revelation comes just a day after a
committee of scientists warned of a nightmare ‘Planet of the Apes’ scenario in
which work on human-animal

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2017818/Embryos-involving-genes-animals-mixed-humans-produced-secretively-past-years.html#ixzz1SwHILHmI

WHAT KIND OF CRAZINESS IS THIS!!!  WHERE ARE THE ETHICS?  peyton  7/23/11

New polls: Obama’s off base

Support waning, even among liberal backers

Even here in bluest Massachusetts, some of President Obama’s stalwarts say their support for the liberal darling is slipping — as a new poll suggests the numbers are plummeting in the president’s base and a call has emerged from the left for a primary challenge.

“Our expectations were high, and the disappointment started happening early and often,” said state Rep. Denise Provost (D-Somerville), a big backer in 2008, now bothered by Obama’s snub to Harvard professor Elizabeth Warren and his extension of tax breaks.

“He needs to stop spending money on the war and sending our youth overseas, and stop spending our money to kill other people,” said Mel King, a progressive community activist and former Boston mayoral candidate, who said he has become disillusioned by Obama’s decision to continue the war in Afghanistan. “That’s one issue that I think he really needs to step up on.”

ck out Boston Herald .com   for full article.

“where is the leadership stop the games Barry”peyton  7/27/11

So finally some honesty about global climate, the models are meant to scare.peyton  7/28/11

By James Taylor | Forbes – 20 hrs ago

See Forbes for full article

NASA satellite data from the years 2000 through 2011 show the Earth’s atmosphere is allowing far more heat to be released into space than alarmist computer models have predicted, reports a new study in the peer-reviewed science journal Remote Sensing. The study indicates far less future global warming will occur than United Nations computer models have predicted, and supports prior studies indicating increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide trap far less heat than alarmists have claimed.

Study co-author Dr. Roy Spencer, a principal research scientist at the University of Alabama in Huntsville and U.S. Science Team Leader for the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer flying on NASA’s Aqua satellite, reports that real-world data from NASA’s Terra satellite contradict multiple assumptions fed into alarmist computer models.

“The satellite observations suggest there is much more energy lost to space during and after warming than the climate models show,” Spencer said in a July 26 University of Alabama press release. “There is a huge discrepancy between the data and the forecasts that is especially big over the oceans.”

In addition to finding that far less heat is being trapped than alarmist computer models have predicted, the NASA satellite data show the atmosphere begins shedding heat into space long before United Nations computer models predicted.

The new findings are extremely important and should dramatically alter the global warming debate.

Scientists on all sides of the global warming debate are in general agreement about how much heat is being directly trapped by human emissions of carbon dioxide (the answer is “not much”). However, the single most important issue in the global warming debate is whether carbon dioxide emissions will indirectly trap far more heat by causing large increases in atmospheric humidity and cirrus clouds. Alarmist computer models assume human carbon dioxide emissions indirectly cause substantial increases in atmospheric humidity and cirrus clouds (each of which are very effective at trapping heat), but real-world data have long shown that carbon dioxide emissions are not causing as much atmospheric humidity and cirrus clouds as the alarmist computer models have predicted.

The new NASA Terra satellite data are consistent with long-term NOAA and NASA data indicating atmospheric humidity and cirrus clouds are not increasing in the manner predicted by alarmist computer models. The Terra satellite data also support data collected by NASA’s ERBS satellite showing far more longwave radiation (and thus, heat) escaped into space between 1985 and 1999 than alarmist computer models had predicted. Together, the NASA ERBS and Terra satellite data show that for 25 years and counting, carbon dioxide emissions have directly and indirectly trapped far less heat than alarmist computer models have predicted.

In short, the central premise of alarmist global warming theory is that carbon dioxide emissions should be directly and indirectly trapping a certain amount of heat in the earth’s atmosphere and preventing it from escaping into space. Real-world measurements, however, show far less heat is being trapped in the earth’s atmosphere than the alarmist computer models predict, and far more heat is escaping into space than the alarmist computer models predict.

When objective NASA satellite data, reported in a peer-reviewed scientific journal, show a “huge discrepancy” between alarmist climate models and real-world facts, climate scientists, the media and our elected officials would be wise to take notice. Whether or not they do so will tell us a great deal about how honest the purveyors of global warming alarmism truly are.

James M. Taylor is senior fellow for environment policy at The Heartland Institute and managing editor of Environment & Climate News.

Boehner, YOU are the man.  Thanks for coming up with a plan and votes.  Shame on you Harry Reid for blocking it.  peyton 7/30/11

The Senate vote was 59-41 to table the measure, which effectively kills it unless Democrats decide to bring it up again.

Earlier, Boehner’s proposal was approved by the House in a sharply polarized 218-210 vote that was delayed by a day while the speaker rounded up support from wary tea party conservatives. No Democrats supported the measure, and 22 of the 240 members of the Republican majority also opposed it.

Even though it was blocked in the Senate, the Boehner plan now is the Republican negotiating position for hammering out a deal with congressional Democrats and President Barack Obama to avert a possible government default next week.

Democratic and Republican sources familiar with the situation told CNN that McConnell insists the White House be present in further negotiations toward a debt ceiling deal.

In a continuation of the political theater that has characterized the negotiations so far, the House scheduled a vote on the Reid plan for Saturday — before the Senate will even begin considering it — as what appeared to be payback for the rejection by Senate Democrats of the Boehner proposal.

Reid, meanwhile, said the Senate will likely vote to take up his plan at 1 a.m. Sunday ET as part of the procedural path required to get something passed in coming days.

As the political maneuvering continues, the clock continues to tick down. If Congress fails to raise the current $14.3 trillion debt ceiling by August 2, Americans could face rising interest rates and a declining dollar, among other problems.

Some financial experts have warned of a downgrade of America’s triple-A credit rating and a potential stock market plunge. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped for a sixth straight day on Friday.

Without an increase in the debt limit, the federal government will not be able to pay all its bills next month. Obama recently indicated he can’t guarantee Social Security checks will be mailed out on time.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta issued a statement Friday to remind military personnel that they should plan to come to work next week as scheduled, regardless of whether a deal gets worked out. Panetta pledged to do “everything possible to ensure that our national defense is protected.”

A Department of Defense official told CNN on condition of not being identified that on the possibility of military pay being withheld, “it’s not a question of whether, but when, if an agreement isn’t reached.”

Friday’s House vote was a critical test of Boehner’s control over his tea party-infused GOP caucus. The speaker was forced to quell a right-wing revolt over the measure after a number of members complained that it doesn’t do enough to shrink the size of government and stem the tide of Washington’s red ink.

Boehner, R-Ohio, managed to sway several of those members by including a provision requiring congressional passage of a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution before the debt ceiling can be extended through the end of 2012.In his floor speech before the vote, Boehner called the proposal imperfect but necessary, and he criticized Obama and congressional Democrats for rejecting all deficit reduction measures passed by the House so far.

“We’ve tried to do our level best … but some people continue to say no,” Boehner said, adding: “I stuck my neck out a mile to try to get an agreement with the president of the United States.”

His voice rising to a shout, Boehner continued to cheers and applause from fellow Republicans: “It is time for this administration and the other party across the aisle — put something on the table. Tell us where you are.”

Democratic leaders vehemently object both to the balanced budget amendment and the requirement of a second debt ceiling vote before the next election. They argue that reaching bipartisan agreement on another debt ceiling hike during an election year could be nearly impossible, and that short-term extensions of the limit could further destabilize the economy.

Earlier in the day, Obama urged Senate Democrats and Republicans to take the lead in the congressional deliberations.

Boehner’s plan “has no chance of becoming law,” Obama said. “The time for putting party first is over. The time for compromise on behalf of the American people is now. … It’s important for everybody to step up and show the leadership that the American people expect.”

“This is not a situation where the two parties are miles apart,” the president insisted. But “we are almost out of time.”

Obama urged Americans to contact their members of Congress “to keep the pressure on Washington.” Phone lines on Capitol Hill were jammed Friday as people from coast to coast tried to weigh in on the debate.

Meanwhile, Reid, D-Nevada, has been pushing his own plan to raise the debt limit, though he will need to win over at least seven Senate Republicans to win the 60 votes necessary to overcome a certain filibuster.

Reid announced Friday morning that he intended to “take action” on a Senate bill by the end of the day. Later, he complained on the Senate floor that Republicans would effectively filibuster his proposal by requiring a 60-vote super-majority in the 100-member chamber to support the start of debate on it. It was unclear when Reid would attempt to hold that vote, and he warned it could as late as 1 a.m. ET Sunday.

Reid also blasted Boehner’s decision to include a mandatory balanced budget amendment provision in the GOP plan, calling the addition of “even more stuff in this right-wing leaning bill. … It’s really hard to comprehend.”

Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-New York, accused Boehner of “adding all kinds of unrealistic poison pills to his plan.”

But McConnell, R-Kentucky, argued Senate Democrats were doing little to actually resolve the crisis.

“I would suggest to my friends on the other side … that they start taking their responsibilities as a majority party a little more seriously, because at this point, the only people who are disregarding the consequences of default are Senate Democrats — not the Republicans in the House — but them,” McConnell said. In a statement after the House vote, McConnell said: “I eagerly await the majority leader’s plan for preventing this crisis.”

Leaders of both parties now agree that any deal to raise the debt ceiling should include long-term spending reductions to help control spiraling deficits. But they differ sharply on both the nature and timetable of the cuts.

Despite the strong partisan rhetoric, there have been signs of a growing recognition of a need for further compromise. Earlier this week, McConnell called for renewed negotiations with Obama, and indicated that his party must be willing to move away from some of its demands.

Sources close to the negotiations have also told CNN that Vice President Joe Biden is very much in the mix of back-channel conversations on a possible fallback position.

White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley told CNN Thursday that, presuming the Boehner plan wins House approval and gets blocked in the Senate, the next step is for everyone “to take a step back in the Congress and look at where is a point of compromise.”

Daley said that similarities between the Boehner and Reid plans “may be the grounds for a deal that, hopefully, both parties can pass.”

Both plans suffered setbacks earlier this week when the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office released reports concluding that they fell short of their stated deficit reduction goals.

Boehner’s plan, which has since been revised, proposed generating a total of $917 billion in savings while initially raising the debt ceiling by $900 billion. The speaker has pledged to match any debt ceiling hike with dollar-for-dollar spending cuts.

His plan, however, would require a second vote by Congress to raise the debt ceiling by a combined $2.5 trillion — enough to last through the end of 2012. It would create a special congressional committee to recommend additional savings of $1.6 trillion or more.

Any failure on the part of Congress to enact mandated spending reductions or abide by new spending caps would trigger automatic across-the-board budget cuts.

The plan, as amended Friday, also calls for congressional passage of a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution before the second vote to raise the debt ceiling, which would likely be required at some point during the winter.

As for Reid’s plan, a revised version he proposed Friday would reduce deficits over the next decade by $2.4 trillion and raise the debt ceiling by a similar amount. It includes $1 trillion in savings based on the planned U.S. withdrawals from military engagements in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Reid’s plan also would establish a congressional committee made up of 12 House and Senate members to consider additional options for debt reduction. The committee’s proposals would be guaranteed by a Senate vote with no amendments by the end of the year.

In addition, it incorporates a process based on proposal by McConnell that would give Obama the authority to raise the debt ceiling in two steps while providing Congress the opportunity to vote its disapproval.

Among other things, Reid has stressed that his plan meets the key GOP demand for no additional taxes. Boehner, however, argued this week that Reid’s plan fails to tackle popular entitlement programs such as Medicare, which are among the biggest drivers of the debt.

A recent CNN/ORC International Poll reveals a growing public exasperation and demand for compromise. Sixty-four percent of respondents to a July 18-20 survey preferred a deal with a mix of spending cuts and tax increases. Only 34% preferred a debt reduction plan based solely on spending reductions.

According to the poll, the public is sharply divided along partisan lines; Democrats and independents are open to a number of different approaches because they think a failure to raise the debt ceiling would cause a major crisis for the country. Republicans, however, draw the line at tax increases, and a narrow majority of them oppose raising the debt ceiling under any circumstances.

what is going on, more Rules for Radicals violence from the LEFT.  peyton

WEST ALLIS – Witnesses tell Newsradio 620 WTMJ and TODAY’S TMJ4 of a mob of young people attacking innocent fair-goers at the end of the opening night of State Fair, with some callers claiming a racially-charged scene.

Milwaukee Police confirmed there were assaults outside the fair.

Witnesses’ accounts claim everything from dozens to hundreds of young black people beating white people as they left State Fair Thursday night.

Authorities have not given official estimates of the number of people involved in the attacks.

“It looked like they were just going after white guys, white people,” said Norb Roffers of Wind Lake in an interview with Newsradio 620 WTMJ.  He left the State Fair Entrance near the corner of South 84th Street and West Schlinger Avenue in West Allis.

“They were attacking everybody for no reason whatsoever.”

“It was 100% racial,” claimed Eric, an Iraq war veteran from St. Francis who says young people beat on his car.

“I had a black couple on my right side, and these black kids were running in between all the cars, and they were pounding on my doors and trying to open up doors on my car, and they didn’t do one thing to this black couple that was in this car next to us.  They just kept walking right past their car.  They were looking in everybody’s windshield as they were running by, seeing who was white and who was black.  Guarantee it.”

Eric, a war veteran, said that the scene he saw Thursday outside State Fair compares to what he saw in combat.

“That rated right up there with it.  When I saw the amount of kids coming down the road, all I kept thinking was, ‘There’s not enough cops to handle this.’  There’s no way.  It would have taken the National Guard to control the number of kids that were coming off the road.  They were knocking people off their motorcycles.”

Another witness, who asked to remain anonymous, said, “it was like a scene you needed the National Guard to control.”

“To me, it looked like a scene out of a movie,” claimed the anonymous witness.

“I have not seen anything like this in my life.  It was a huge mob, and it was a fight that maybe lasted one to two minutes.”

Roffers claimed that as he left the state fair with his wife, crowds near that entrance were large, and someone in that crowd .

“As we got closer to the street, we looked up the road, and we saw a quite a bit of commotion going on and there was a guy laying in the road, and nobody was even laying there.  He wasn’t even moving.  Finally a car pulled up.  They stopped right next to the guy, and it looked like someone was going to help him.  We were kind of stuck, because we couldn’t cross.  Traffic was going through.  Young black men running around, beating on people, and we were like ‘Let’s get the heck out of here.’  The light turned, and I got attacked from behind.  I just got hit in the back of the head real hard.  I’m like, ‘What the heck is going on here?’  I heard my bell ring.”

Roffers further described what witnesses said happened to the man who was lying in the street.

“People were saying he was on a bike.  They tore him off his bike and beat on him.  We were walking to the west on Schlinger.  I was watching behind me a lot more diligently, making sure there wasn’t anybody coming to get us anymore.”

One person claimed that someone was knocked off a motorcycle.

TODAY’S TMJ4 video shows West Allis police handcuffing at least one person, but they won’t say how many people they took into custody.

Some witnesses described attacks on the State Fair Grounds as well.

Milwaukee Police said that their officers were sent to State Fair Park for “complaints of battery, fighting and property damage due to a large, unruly crowd.”

A police sergeant told TODAY’S TMJ4′s Melissa McCrady that the number of calls describing injuries are still coming in, so they could not give an accurate number of people who were injured.

That sergeant explained that some injuries were serious, and local hospitals were attending to the injured.

As of early Friday morning, Milwaukee Police said they had no one in custody.

One woman told police that she was sitting in her car with a window down when some teenagers reached through her window and started attacking her.

“I think once we get all the info in it’ll be just like that, like what happened in Riverwest,” said the police sergeant.

West Allis Police ask you to call them at 414-302-8000 if you have any information.

Eric: “I feared for my life”

Eric, who asked Newsradio 620 WTMJ not to use his last name, talked about the incidents that happened as he, his wife and a neighbor left the fair Thursday.

“We exited at the Schlinger and 84th exit, and we walked south about a block, and then went up and got our car, came back up and around down Schlinger.  When we made a left hand turn, we were stopped in traffic. I looked toward the bridge, right before you get on the freeway, and all I saw was a road full of black kids, jumping over people’s cars, jumping on people’s hoods, running over the top of them.”

Eric then claimed that he saw hundreds of young black people coming down a sidewalk.

“I saw them grab this white kid who was probably 14 or 15 years old.  They just flung him into the road.  They just jumped on him and started beating him.  They were kicking him.  He was on the ground.  A girl picked up a construction sign and pushed it over on top of him.  They were just running by and kicking him in the face.”

Then, Eric talked about trying to get out of the car to help the victim.

“My wife pulled me back in because she didn’t want me to get hit.  Thankfully, there was surprising a lady that was in the car in front of me that jumped out of the car real quick and went over there to try to put her body around the kid so they couldn’t see he was laying there and, obviously, defenseless.  Her husband, or whoever was in the car, was screaming at her to get back into the car.  She ended up going back into the car.  These black kids grabbed this kid off the ground again, and pulled him up over the curb, onto the sidewalk and threw him into the bushes like he was a piece of garbage.”

Eric claimed that the victim in that beating was by himself, and that there was a split of white people on one sidewalk and black people on the other.

“There was nobody else around to help him.  There were no other white people, period, on that side of the street.  They were going in the opposite direction because, those people who were coming out of the fair that saw these people coming, they either went back into the fair or took off running south on 84th Street.”

Eric expressed anger at the State Fair Police for what he considered a lack of response.

“The thing that irritated me, the State Fair Police, the State Police, were down by the Pettit entrance to get in there,” said Eric. “There was probably 5 or 6 officers down there.  That’s where all these kids came from.  They came out of the Midway, across the front of the Pettit.  They were still filing out of there.  The State Fair Police, they knew this was going on.  They knew these kids were beating these guys in between that exit and Schlinger at the next gate.”

“They were stopping traffic, and I said ‘What in the hell,’ excuse my language, ‘what are you guys doing directing traffic when there are 300, 400 black kids up the road beating the hell out of everybody, pushing people off of motorcycles?’  I was livid.  I could not believe they were directing traffic.”

Fair worker: attacks not limited to outside fairgrounds

A witness told WTMJ that as he worked in a kiosk at the State Fair Midway, he saw what he described as “a Riverwest type mob. Easily between 50 – 100 kids all under 18 and all African American.  They were running around knocking people over (young kids and adults), looting the Midway games (stealing the prizes), starting fights.”

The witness, who asked not to be identified, couldn’t say for certain if only white people were being attacked.

“It was just complete chaos.  There were police on horses, lots of security guards, and EMT’s on the scene.  They never got control of the area.”

A State Fair spokeswoman said that there were arrests made involving the incidents on the grounds.

He said that as the violence happened, he was “getting ready to grab my cash register and run.”

“Not to mention this type of behavior started around 7pm and forced me to close down my stand at 9pm.  It scared the paying customers out of the midway.”

The man said hoping to bring family on Friday, but has decided not to.

“I was planning on bringing my two kids to the fair tonight.  I won’t be.  We’ll go to the zoo instead.”

Woman: Teenagers in mob didn’t attend rap concert

One woman who asked not to be identified tells us that contrary to some belief, the young people involved in the mob did not go to the rap concert that night.

“The mob of black teenagers involved in the beatings and damage outside of State Fair last night were not there for the MC Hammer concert,” said the woman.

“I attended that concert with three of my friends last night and the crowd was mostly white and adult (as are my friends and I). Any kids there seemed to be with parents.”

She described what she saw as she left the fair.

“As we came through the exit we saw a white boy lying in the street, in the fetal position right by the traffic light, and coming towards us was tons and tons and black teens – there had to have been over a hundred – in the middle of 84th Street and on the sidewalk headed south,” she said.

“Some who stopped to kick or punch him – or in the case of one girl drop kick him in the head – as they walked past. My friends and I started towards him to help him up and a black girl walked past telling us ‘ya’ll gonna get your ***** kicked’ repeatedly. As my friend stood in front of the boy trying to get him up one of the teens picked up a traffic cone, hit her in the back of the head and ran off. A car stopped, a white woman got out to try and help. Teens jumped onto the hood of the car and ran over it. She just kept saying ‘What is wrong with you!?’ ”

The witness also told us that not every African-American teenager outside the fair grounds acted violent.

“We continued to move towards the parking lot, through even more black teenagers. Thankfully this part of the crowd was not violent.”

Roffers: “What in the hell’s going on there?”

Roffers described his emotions and reactions to the attacks outside the park.

“I turned around and looked, there was this black kid standing there laughing, thinking it’s funny.  My wife’s like, ‘Let’s get out of here.’  It’s one of those things, you don’t expect it.  Your reaction to it is, first of all, quite surprised, then you get so angry, it’s like, ‘What in the hell’s going on there?  Why are these guys acting like such hoodlums?  What are they picking on anybody for?’  We were just like cattle being herded out of the park, and they were picking and choosing who they wanted to beat on.”

He said his injuries were limited to a headache.

Roffers said the attack wouldn’t stop him from attending the State Fair.

“We will be going back,” said Roffers.

“It’s a family event for us.  We get together with our family and we do stuff at the park to enjoy the fair.  My biggest concern is that the State Fair Park Police and West Allis get their heads out of their butts and figure out how to do some security over there.  This isn’t the first year State Fair has been going on.  They should know what the heck they’ve got to do and where they’ve got to have people in place by now.”

He said that the fear spread beyond those who he believed were the target.

“There were a lot of people scared,” claimed Roffers.

“There were even some young black girls.  They were screaming.  They were running across the road.  This one girl was like, ‘I don’t know how I’m going to get out of here.  I’m all by myself.’  My wife heard her saying that.  She said, ‘Walk with us.  Stay with us and you’ll be OK.’  We told her we were going down the street.  If she needed any assistance, we were just going down to our car.  She needed to go quite a way.”

“There was this terror going on when you leave the place, you just wonder.  Luckily, all the violence that was happening stayed right close by the park entrance.  As we got a block away from the park, that’s when the cops started showing up.”

He said the lack of police and security presence will bring about his complaint up the various channels of State Fair and local police.

“They should be able to provide safety and traffic control,” said Roffers.  “I’ve never worried about it before.”

He said he would give a written complaint to the State Fair and put in a call to West Allis Police, but that’s not all.

“I will be contacting the State Fair Park Board and I’m going to chew on their butts a little bit about what happened.”

State Fair spokeswoman: “Unfortunate situation, hopefully an isolated situation.”

State Fair Director of Marketing and Communication Kathleen O’Leary told Newsradio 620 WTMJ’s  “Wisconsin’s Morning News” that the incidents should not stop people from coming to the fair.

“Certainly, don’t change your plans,” said O’Leary.  “Please understand that this is an unfortunate situation, hopefully an isolated situation.”

Though witnesses had reported incidents inside the fair, she said the problems were mainly outside the fairgrounds.

“Not so much inside,” claimed O’Leary.

“We had complete control inside of what was happening inside of our gates.  It’s what what spread into the neighborhoods.”

O’Leary also pointed out that the fair has “taken measures already with the bag checks, when you come into the fair,” but will increase authorities’ presence for the remaining days at the fair.

“We will be taking severe measures, significant measures.  We are in task force already, circling back around, doing everything that we can to make sure the experience is enjoyable and that the safety is insured,” said O’Leary.

“They see the yellow security shirts.  We have mounted police.  We have bike police.  We have our patrolling police.  We have undercover police.  That’s all because that’s exactly what we want.  We want the safety measures intact at every turn.”

“The tea party hasn’t destroyed Washington. Washington was destroyed before the tea party got here. The hope is that the tea party and middle-of-the-road people can find common ground to turn this country around before we become Greece.” — Sen. Lindsey Graham, South Carolina Republican, said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” (Associated Press)

Europe on the ropes, are we following for leading???peyton

Excellent article!   8/12/11

French economy grinds to a halt in Q2 as consumer spending, exports shrink

PARIS (AP) — The French government was put under further pressure to cut deeper into spending after figures Friday showed growth in Europe’s second biggest economy ground to a halt in the spring, in another sign that the global economy is facing rising recessionary threats.

With the worse-than-expected French growth figures suggesting a possible budget shortfall this year, government ministers may have to find additional savings ahead of a key meeting with President Nicolas Sarkozy on Aug. 24.

The flat growth reported in the second quarter of the year was attributable to a slump in consumer spending and exports, and came as policymakers scramble to soothe investor concerns that the country could be the next major economy to lose its coveted triple-A credit rating.

A move Friday by stock market regulators in France and elsewhere across Europe to ban short selling — a form of stock market speculation that some are blaming for the turbulent trading in recent days — looked to be having some impact.

But economists stressed that any rebound was very fragile, and some derided the ban as misguided and ineffective.

French bank shares were performing solidly in Paris, with Societe Generale up nearly 5.7 percent and Credit Agricole up over 2 percent at the close of trading Friday. Over the past couple of days, French bank stocks, and Societe Generale in particular, have been hugely volatile amid rumours of their financial health.

The European Union’s markets supervisor, the ESMA, announced the short selling ban late Thursday night after boosting surveillance of stormy markets earlier in the day. In a short sale, a trader hopes to make a profit by betting on the decline in the price of a share.

Regulators in France, Italy, Spain and Belgium are each implementing the bans, whose details vary from country to country.

Several countries banned short selling during the financial crisis of 2008 to try to tame volatility. But some experts said the bans actually contributed to a feeling of uncertainty.

“The decision (of short-selling ban) is more psychological as it seems to strengthen the position of the regulators compared to the speculators,” said Dominique Dequidt, a fund manager at KBL Richelieu trading house in Paris. “But the speculators have found ways to by-pass this shorting ban for the last two years, when it was in place in the past so this measure seems more like a complete waste of effort towards the speculators.”

News that French economic growth sputtered to a halt in the second quarter may raise concerns that the European economy is being impacted by the debt crisis that has afflicted a number of countries and has fueled the turmoil in the markets.

Separate figures from Eurostat, the EU’s statistics office, showing that industrial production across the 17-country eurozone fell by 0.7 percent are likely to add to market concerns over the pace of the economic recovery in Europe.

The French economy posted zero growth in the second quarter, national statistics agency INSEE said. Government economists had forecast growth of around 0.2 percent in the period. Consumer spending slumped 0.7 percent and exports stagnated during the second quarter. Growth in the first quarter was nearly 1 percent.

Views on the weak performance were mixed, with warnings that a stagnant economy will make it harder to reduce the deficit.

“As for France itself, Q2′s 0.7 percent drop in consumer spending was the sharpest in nearly 15 years, suggesting that the household sector can no longer be relied upon to support the economy,” said Jennifer McKeown, an economist at Capital Economics in London.

However, Laurence Boone of Bank of America Merrill Lynch remained “positive on France overall” based on its careful handling of debt in the past.

“Gradual reforms should bear fruit in coming years, but more needs to be done,” Boone said.

France’s finance minister took to the airwaves again Friday in a bid to put a positive spin on the weak second-quarter numbers.

“It’s not a surprise that the second quarter is worse than the first, we anticipated this,” Francois Baroin said on French radio station RTL. He said the government is sticking with its deficit reduction targets despite the lower growth.

Baroin also pledged France would still achieve its target of 2 percent growth this year, which many economists are skeptical about.

Flagging growth may mean France has to come up with new budget cuts if it is to bring its deficit down to 5.7 percent this year as planned.

In Greece, where Europe’s debt crisis began, statistics released Friday show the country is mired in a deep economic recession, contracting by 6.9 percent in the second quarter compared to the same period last year, on lower consumer spending.

And in Italy, Premier Silvio Berlusconi’s government is holding an emergency meeting Friday to approve new measures to balance the budget by 2013 and calm market concerns over Italy’s public finances.

IT IS ABOUT TIME THAT THESE RULES BECOME MORE REASONABL.peyton

MEAD GRUVER, Associated Press

                Updated 06:02 p.m., Friday,  August 12, 2011

Read more: http://www.seattlepi.com/business/article/Federal-judge-throws-out-Obama-drilling-rules-1927203.php#ixzz1UvQQx9UD

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — A judge on  Friday threw out Obama administration rules that sought to slow down expedited  environmental review of oil and gas drilling on federal land.

U.S. District Judge Nancy  Freudenthal ruled in favor of a petroleum industry group, the Western  Energy Alliance, in its lawsuit against the federal government, including  Interior Secretary Ken  Salazar.

The ruling reinstates Bush-era  expedited oil and gas drilling under provisions called categorical exclusions on  federal lands nationwide, Freudenthal said.

The government argued that oil  and gas companies had no case because they didn’t show how the new rules,  implemented by the U.S.  Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service last year, had created  delays and added to the cost of drilling.

Freudenthal rejected  that argument.

“Western Energy has demonstrated  through its members recognizable injury,” she said. “Those injuries are  supported by the administrative record.”

An attorney for the government  declined to comment but Kathleen  Sgamma, director of government and public affairs for the Denver-based  Western Energy Alliance, praised the ruling.

“She completely discounted the  government’s argument that the harm was speculative,” Sgamma said of  the judge.

The Energy Policy Act of 2005  allows the BLM  and Forest Service to invoke categorical exclusions and skip new  environmental review for drilling permits under certain circumstances.

The circumstances include  instances where companies plan to disturb relatively little ground and  environmental review already has been done for that area. A categorical  exclusion also can be invoked when additional drilling is planned at a well pad  where drilling has occurred within the previous five years.

Categorical exclusions were  widely used throughout the West — especially in the gas boom states of Wyoming,  Utah and New Mexico — until last year.

In Wyoming, the BLM invoked  categorical exclusions for 87 percent of the new gas wells drilled in the Upper  Green River Basin between 2007 and 2010. Those drilling permits added up: Close  to 3,000 over those three years in the basin’s Jonah Field and Pinedale  Anticline gas fields.

The Jonah Field and Pinedale  Anticline ranked fifth and sixth for gas production in the U.S.  in 2009.

Federal land agencies adopted  new rules for interpreting the Energy Policy Act last year in response to an  environmentalist lawsuit over the use of categorical exclusions. The Western  Energy Alliance sued over the new rules last fall.

Read more: http://www.seattlepi.com/business/article/Federal-judge-throws-out-Obama-drilling-rules-1927203.php#ixzz1UvPpkkxh

Salary of House/Senate …………………..$174,00​0 FOR LIFE
Salary of Speaker of the House …………$223,500 FOR LIFE
Salary of Majority/Minority Leaders …… $193,400 FOR LIFE
Average Salary of a teacher ……………. $40,065
Average Salary of Soldier DEPLOYED IN AFGHANISTAN $38,000
…I think we found where the cuts should be made! If you agree… REPOST

By Erik Kirschbaum

BERLIN |         Sat Aug 13, 2011 5:39pm EDT

BERLIN (Reuters) - Berlin’s mayor said on Saturday he was appalled that some Germans were nostalgic for the Berlin Wall and supported a newly fashionable leftist view that there were legitimate reasons for building it in 1961.

At a somber ceremony marking the 50th anniversary of the Berlin Wall’s construction, Mayor Klaus Wowereit, Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Christian Wulff paid tribute to the 136 people killed trying to get over the Wall to West Berlin.

Wowereit said the Wall, toppled in 1989, should serve as a reminder of freedom and democracy around the world. Church bells peeled while trains and traffic came to a standstill at noon across Berlin for a moment of silence for the victims.

“We don’t have any tolerance for those who nostalgically distort the history of the Berlin Wall and Germany’s division,” Wowereit said at the ceremony of the Berlin Wall and Germany’s division,” Wowereit said at the ceremony in front of a small section of the Wall recently rebuilt for posterity.

“The Wall was part of a dictatorship,” he said. “And it’s alarming that even today some people argue there were good reasons to build the Wall. No! There’s no legitimate reason nor justification for violating human rights and for killings.”

Most of the 160-km (100-mile) Wall encircling West Berlin in the heart of Communist East Germany was quickly torn down or chiseled away in the euphoria of 1989. There were only a few remnants of the 3.6-meter-high Wall left when Germany reunited less than a year later.

Now, as growing numbers of tourists come to Berlin each year searching largely in vain for traces of the Wall, the city has re-erected and restored parts. New buildings have gone up on many parts of the former “death strip” and it is sometimes hard to tell where the barrier once stood.

Saturday’s ceremony was held at an 800-meter-long piece of the Wall complex on Bernauer Strasse that has been rebuilt. It was the scene of some dramatic escapes after the Wall was built.

People jumped from upper storey windows in buildings on the east side of the Wall to the street on the west. The windows were soon sealed off and the buildings were later demolished.

The shock over the construction of the Berlin Wall in August 1961 is still palpable half a century later.

“We couldn’t believe it happened and we all felt numb when we first saw the Wall,” said Harry Dieter, 80, a retired West Berlin city official who was on his honeymoon in Italy when the Wall was built but returned a few days later to see it.

“No one ever thought they would do that,” he added. “I remember looking at the barbed wire and the cement and hoping that it wouldn’t take long for someone to order it taken down. Unfortunately, the order never came.”

He and his wife Doris have recently celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary.

“It’s obviously better that Berlin is Berlin again and we’re no longer divided by a Wall,” said Doris Dieter, 72. “But unfortunately there is still a bit of an invisible ‘Wall’ in some people’s minds that I fear will last for quite a while.”

(Editing by Janet Lawrence)

Mitt Romney Dubs Obama’s Trip the ‘Magical Misery Bus Tour’

August 15, 2011  9:45 AM

ABC News’ Emily Friedman (@EmilyABC) reports:

A new web video and harsh criticism emerged from the Mitt Romney camp today as President Barack Obama launched his three-day bus tour that will make stops in Minnesota, Iowa and Illinois.

Dubbing the president’s trip the “Magical Misery bus tour,” Romney said in a statement that “it is unlikely President Obama will speak with unemployed Americans, to near-bankrupt business owners, or to families struggling to survive in this economy.”

“He is more interested in campaigning in swing states than working to solve the economic crisis that is crushing the middle class,” said Romney. “Turning this economy around will require real leadership and the experience of someone who has actually worked in the private sector.”

And in the web video titled “Obama Isn’t Working: Minnesota,” the campaign interviews several Minnesotans ahead of the president’s visit today.

One such interviewee, Joseph Bromley of Minnetonka, Minn., says in the video, “In the last election I voted for Barack Obama and I just feel like I can’t.”

This is the 14th web video the campaign has produced since making the campaign officially in early June.

Today, while Obama is in Minnesota, Romney will hold two campaign events in New Hampshire.

August 15, 2011 in 2012, Emily Friedman, Mitt Romney, President Obama | Permalink | Share   | User Comments (279)

Savannah Guthrie on Meet the Press asked Gibbs to comment on the “images of [Obama] vacationing at a time when people are hurting.” Gibbs offered this response:

The truth is, again, as you well know and as I well know, there–the presidency goes with you wherever you go.  That’s why there’s Secret Service, that’s why there’s communications folks.  And I don’t mean communications folks like me, I mean, people that can get, you know, secret messages to the president.  I have no doubt right now that the president is likely sitting in Martha’s Vineyard getting an update on the situation on Syria and Libya, as well as talking to advisers about the economy.

 

OK MR. GIBBS  SO FAIR IS FAIR, YOU DID NOT SAY THIS WHEN BUSH WAS PRESIDENT!!!!

Congresswoman Waters is Vile

Republican Presidential Candidate and former
Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum, responded today to California Congresswoman
Maxine Waters who during a jobs summit at
Inglewood High School in California said “I’m not afraid of anybody.
This is a tough game. You can’t be intimidated. You can’t be frightened. And as
far as I’m concerned, the ‘tea party’ can go straight to hell.”

Senator
Santorum told WOR Radio’s Steve Malzberg,  “ Maxine Waters is a “Caricature of
what’s wrong with Congress, she is vile.” He also went on to address the double
standard which allows a Democrat to say such a thing without the media scrutiny
that a Republican would get.

Sun Causes Climate Change Shock      “So finally some one with a brain.”

By James DelingpoleEnvironmentLast updated:  August 27th, 2011

1391 CommentsComment on this article

Cartoon by Josh

If Michael Crichton had lived to write a follow-up to State of Fear, the plotline might well have gone like this: at a top secret, state of the art laboratory in Switzerland, scientists finally discover the true cause of “global warming”. It’s the sun, stupid. More specifically – as the Danish physicist Henrik Svensmark has long postulated – it’s the result of cosmic rays which act as a seed for cloud formation. The scientists working on the project are naturally euphoric: this is a major breakthrough which will not only overturn decades of misguided conjecture on so-called Man Made Global Warming but will spare the global economy trillions of dollars which might otherwise have been squandered on utterly pointless efforts to reduce anthropogenic CO2 emissions. However, these scientists have failed to realise just how many people – alarmist scientists, huckster politicians,  rent-seeking landowners like (the late Michael Crichton’s brilliant and, of course, entirely fictional creation) the absurd, pompous Sir Reginald Leeds Bt, green activists, eco-fund managers, EU technocrats, MSM environmental correspondents – stand to gain from the Man Made “Climate Change” industry. Their discovery must be suppressed at all costs. So, one by one, the scientists on the cosmic ray project find themselves being bumped off, until only one man remains and must race against time to prove, etc, etc…

Except of course in the real world the second part wouldn’t happen. No one would need to go to the trouble of bumping off those pesky scientists with their awkward, annoying facts and their proper actual research. That’s because the MSM and the scientific “community” would find it perfectly easy to suppress the story anyway, without recourse to severed brake cables or ricin-impregnated hand-washes or staged “suicides”.

This is exactly what has happened with the latest revelations from CERN over its landmark CLOUD experiment, whose significance Lawrence Solomon explains here:

The science is now all-but-settled on global warming, convincing new  evidence demonstrates, but Al Gore, the IPCC and other global warming  doomsayers won’t be celebrating. The new findings point to cosmic rays  and the sun — not human activities — as the dominant controller of  climate on Earth.

The research, published with little fanfare this week in the  prestigious journal Nature, comes from über-prestigious CERN, the  European Organization for Nuclear Research, one of the world’s largest  centres for scientific research involving 60 countries and 8,000  scientists at more than 600 universities and national laboratories. CERN  is the organization that invented the World Wide Web, that built the  multi-billion dollar Large Hadron Collider, and that has now built a  pristinely clean stainless steel chamber that precisely recreated the  Earth’s atmosphere.

In this chamber, 63 CERN scientists from 17 European and American  institutes have done what global warming doomsayers said could never be  done — demonstrate that cosmic rays promote the formation of molecules  that in Earth’s atmosphere can grow and seed clouds, the cloudier and  thus cooler it will be. Because the sun’s magnetic field controls how  many cosmic rays reach Earth’s atmosphere (the stronger the sun’s  magnetic field, the more it shields Earth from incoming cosmic rays from  space), the sun determines the temperature on Earth.

So if it’s so great, why aren’t we hearing more about it? Well, possibly because the Director General of CERN Rolf-Dieter Heuer would prefer it that way. Here’s how he poured cold water on the results in an interview with Die Welt Online:

I have asked the  colleagues to present the results clearly, but not to interpret them.  That would go immediately into the highly political arena of the climate  change debate. One has to make clear that cosmic radiation is only one  of many parameters.

Nigel Calder, who has been following the CLOUD experiment for some time, was the first to smell a rat. He notes:

CERN has joined a long line  of lesser institutions obliged to remain politically correct about the  man-made global warming hypothesis. It’s OK to enter “the highly  political arena of the climate change debate” provided your results  endorse man-made warming, but not if they support Svensmark’s heresy  that the Sun alters the climate by influencing the cosmic ray influx and  cloud formation.

and

The once illustrious CERN  laboratory ceases to be a truly scientific institute when its Director  General forbids its physicists and visiting experimenters to draw the  obvious scientific conclusions from their results

Lubos Motl, too, detects some double standards here:

One could perhaps understand if all scientists were similarly gagged and  prevented from interpreting the results of their research in ways that  could be relevant for policymaking. However, the main problem is that  many people who are trying to work on very different phenomena in the  climate are not prevented from interpreting – and indeed,  overinterpreting and misinterpreting – their results that are often less  serious, less reliable, and less rigorous, perhaps by orders of  magnitude, than the observations by the European Organization for  Nuclear Research.

Moreover, this sentence by Heuer

One has to make clear that cosmic radiation is only one of many parameters.is  really a proof of his prejudice. Whether the cosmic radiation is just  one player or the only relevant player or an important player or an  unimportant player is something that this very research has been  supposed to determine or help to determine. An official doesn’t have the  moral right to predetermine in advance what “one has to make clear”  about these a priori unknown scientific results.

But then, as Lawrence Solomon reminds us, this was never an experiment the scientific establishment wanted to happen in the first place.

The hypothesis that cosmic rays and the sun hold the key to the  global warming debate has been Enemy No. 1 to the global warming  establishment ever since it was first proposed by two scientists from  the Danish Space Research Institute, at a 1996 scientific conference in  the U.K. Within one day, the chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on  Climate Change, Bert Bolin, denounced the theory, saying, “I find the  move from this pair scientifically extremely naive and irresponsible.”  He then set about discrediting the theory, any journalist that gave the  theory cre dence, and most of all the Danes presenting the theory — they  soon found themselves vilified, marginalized and starved of funding,  despite their impeccable scientific credentials.

The mobilization to rally the press against the Danes worked  brilliantly, with one notable exception. Nigel Calder, a former editor  of The New Scientist who attended that 1996 conference, would not be  cowed. Himself a physicist, Mr. Calder became convinced of the merits of  the argument and a year later, following a lecture he gave at a CERN  conference, so too did Jasper Kirkby, a CERN scientist in attendance.  Mr. Kirkby then convinced the CERN bureaucracy of the theory’s  importance and developed a plan to create a cloud chamber — he called it  CLOUD, for “Cosmics Leaving OUtdoor Droplets.”

But Mr. Kirkby made the same tactical error that the Danes had — not  realizing how politicized the global warming issue was, he candidly  shared his views with the scientific community.

“The theory will probably be able to account for somewhere between a  half and the whole of the increase in the Earth’s temperature that we  have seen in the last century,” Mr. Kirkby told the scientific press in  1998, explaining that global warming may be part of a natural cycle in  the Earth’s temperature.

The global warming establishment sprang into action, pressured the  Western governments that control CERN, and almost immediately succeeded  in suspending CLOUD. It took Mr. Kirkby almost a decade of negotiation  with his superiors, and who knows how many compromises and unspoken  commitments, to convince the CERN bureaucracy to allow the project to  proceed. And years more to create the cloud chamber and convincingly  validate the Danes’ groundbreaking theory.

Still, as you’d expect, the BBC remains dutifully on-message.  Read this report by its science correspondent Pallab Ghosh and you’ll be left in little doubt that a) the latest results are dull beyond measure  and b) that if they do mean anything at all, it’s that global warming is still very much man-made. Here’s their tame expert, Reading University’s Dr Mike Lockwood, on hand to provide them the perfect pull-quote:

Does this mean that cosmic rays can produce cloud? – No”

“I’m talking about a jobs program of a trillion dollars or more. We’ve got to put Americans to work. That’s the only way to revitalize this economy. When people work they earn money, they spend that money, and that’s what gets the economy up and going,” Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) told NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

MAXINE ON MEET THE PRESS.  THE WOMAN IS AN AIRHEAD.  DON’T KNOW WHY PEOPLE KEEP ELECTING HER????peyton 9/5/11

Phase one of the world’s first commercial
spaceport, which will be the hub for Virgin’s consumer spaceflights, is now 90
per cent complete.

The 1,800-acre Spaceport America site, in Las
Cruces, New Mexico, is the home base for Virgin Galactic, Richard Branson’s most
ambitious business venture yet.

It already boasts a runway stretching to
nearly two miles long, a futuristic styled terminal hanger, and a dome-shaped
Space Operations Centre.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2034239/Phase-worlds-commercial-spaceport-90-cent-completed–time-flights-2013.html#ixzz1XGhZ9UuQ

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2034239/Phase-worlds-commercial-spaceport-90-cent-completed–time-flights-2013.html#ixzz1XGgz3Qa7

Comprehensive List of Obama Tax Hikes

“oh my the pain”peyton  9/8/11

Read more: http://www.atr.org/comprehensive-list-obama-tax-hikes-a6433#ixzz1XOfAECNz

By Nia-Malika Henderson and Peter Wallsten, Published:
September 16,2011   “so what is new, arrogant bunch that they are”????peyton 9/17/11

A new book claims that the Obama White House is a boys’ club marred by
rampant infighting that has hindered the administration’s economic policy and
left top female advisers feeling excluded from key conversations.

“Confidence Men: Wall Street, Washington, and the Education of a President,”
by journalist Ron Suskind due out next Tuesday, details the rivalries among
Obama’s top economic advisers, Larry Summers, former chairman of the National
Economic Council, and Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner. It describes
constant second-guessing by Summers, now at Harvard, who was seen by others as
“imperious and heavy-handed” in his decision-making.

In an excerpt obtained by The Post, a female senior aide to President Obama
called the White House a hostile environment for women.

“This place would be in court for a hostile workplace,” former White House
communications director Anita
Dunn is quoted as saying. “Because it actually fit all of the classic legal
requirements for a genuinely hostile workplace to women.”

Dunn declined to discuss the specifics of the book. But in an interview
Friday she said she told Suskind “point blank” that the White House “was not a
hostile environment.”

“The president is someone who when he goes home at night he goes home to
house full of very strong women,” Dunn added. “He values having strong women
around him.”

The book, due out next week, reveals a White House that at times was divided
and dysfunctional.

It says that women occupied many of the West Wing’s senior positions, but
felt outgunned and outmaneuvered by male colleagues such as former Chief of
Staff Rahm Emanuel and Summers.

“I felt like a piece of meat,” Christina
Romer, former head of the Council of Economic Advisers, said of one meeting
in which Suskind writes she was “boxed out” by Summers.

Dunn told Suskind that the problems began during the 2008 campaign. At one
point she was viewing a television ad with other campaign officials and was
shocked to see no women in the spot.

“There isn’t a single woman in this ad,” Dunn said. “I was dumbfounded. It
wasn’t like they were being deliberately sexist. It’s just there was no one
offering a female perspective.”

The ad was later reshot, with women included.

“The president has a real woman problem,” an unnamed high-ranking female
official told Suskind. “ The idea of the boys’ club being just Larry and Rahm
isn’t really fair. He [Obama] was just as responsible himself.”

Based on interviews with more than 200 people inside and outside the White
House, Suskind’s book comes as Obama faces the lowest
poll numbers of his tenure, and deep discontent over his economic
policies.

According to the book, female staffers, like Dunn and Romer, felt sidelined.
In November 2009, female aides complained to the president about being left out
of meetings, or ignored.

Dunn said in the interview that her husband, now-White House lawyer Bob
Bauer, was “surprised to see me as someone who could be talked over in
meetings.”

“It’s a place where there is vigorous discussion back and forth. At various
times people have issues with their colleagues, but we were united,” Dunn said.
“I’ve been very clear that this is a president who values a diverse set of
voices on every issue.”

Dunn refused to discuss the details of “private conversations with the
president,” dinners with the economic team or conversations with book authors.

But she added: “I take issue with the idea that [the White House] was a place
where senior women weren’t involved in every aspect of every major decision and
their voices weren’t heard.”

Obama, according to the book published by Harper Collins, failed to call on
Romer after asking her male colleagues for their opinions. The snub prompted
Romer to pass a note to Summers where she threatened to walk out of the dinner,
according to the book.

The Obama White House has long been dogged by similar claims of exclusivity —
his golf outings have been typically all-male affairs, though Melody Barnes, who
heads the Domestic Policy Council was
invited on at least one round of golf in October 2009 after much grumbling
about Obama’s choice of golf buddies.

In a staff
shake-up after the midterms, Obama pushed out his long time aides, Robert
Gibbs, former press secretary, and senior aide David
Axelrod, according to the book — both remain top advisers to Obama’s
reelection campaign. Karen Finney, former communications director for the
Democratic National Committee, made the short­list to replace Gibbs — new Chief
of Staff William Daley had expressed the desire to add more women to the inner
circle — but the job ultimately went to Jay Carney, former press secretary to
Vice President Biden.

On the economy, one key claim the book makes is that Geithner failed to
follow through on a March 2009 order to look into dissolving Citigroup, and
Obama realized that “the speed with which the bureaucracy could exercise my
decision was slower than I wanted.”

A senior Treasury official pushed back against the book’s claims, saying that
Suskind’s account of Geithner dragging his feet on on Obama’s Citigroup
directive is simply untrue.

In the book Geithner also denies that he ignored Obama’s order, but the book
offers a portrait of a president who was outmaneuvered by Beltway insiders,
according to Suskind.

“The Citibank incident, and others like it, reflected a more pernicious and
personal dilemma emerging from inside the administration: that the young
president’s authority was being systematically undermined or hedged by seasoned
advisers,” the book says.

Key decisions over the size of the February 2009 stimulus package and the
restructuring of major banks were all hampered by disagreements, and left
Obama’s advisers feeling adrift.

Read more on PostPolitics.com

WEIGH
IN: What should Obama do?

Axelrod:
Obama in good position for 2012 with liberal base, electorate

Can
Obama save his presidency?

Women
of the White House

Written on the
occasion of

Irvana  K. Wilks, Mayor September 11, 2011                                    Village of Mount Prospect

50 South Emerson Street

Mount Prospect, IL 60056

Ten Years

By Irvana K. Wilks

Ten years of mourning the dead.

Ten years remembering the living.

Ten years yearning to understand.

Ten years of scars upon our land.

Ten years sifting bones from ash.

Ten years of reading names at the towers.

At the Pentagon.  In a Pennsylvania field.

Ten years of scars upon our
hearts.

Ten years defining our enemies.

Ten years of camouflage and desert
boots.

Ten years of sons and daughters
fighting

an amorphous, but necessary war.

Ten years returning heroes.

Ten years of caskets.

Ten years of winning.

Ten years of weeping.

Ten years of rabbis and ministers
prayers.

Ten years of veterans who bring
the flag.

Ten years of airline attendants
and pilots

grieving the loss of their
innocence.

Ten years of white-gloved firemen

ringing a bell for the brave who
fell.

Ten years of policemen standing

as a bagpiper gives us Grace.

Ten years of Presidential
proclamations.

Ten years of two mayor’s meager
words.

Ten years as writers and
photographers

record our progress of healing.

Ten years of rebuilding the
towers.

Ten years to sift through ashes of
fear.

We seek that fragment of courage,

forged in fire and left by God for
us to find.

Probably true they are such sheep????peyton 9/22/11

CNSNews.com) – Rep. Joe Walsh (R.-Ill.) said Wednesday in an interview with Media Research Center President Brent Bozell that he believes the media will show “real desperation” to protect President Barack Obama during the 2012 campaign.

Having noted that Tea Party audiences show tremendous enthusiasm for Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain, Bozell asked: “Yet, you see this administration playing class warfare and race warfare games. Now, that’s their problem. But what does it say about the national media that they are aiding and abetting this by not exposing the dishonesty here?”

“This guy pushed every one of the media’s buttons,” Walsh said. “He was liberal, he was different, he was new, he was black. Oh my God, it was the potpourri of everything.

Christine Lagarde: IMF may need billions in extra funding

Christine Lagarde has signalled that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) may   have to tap its members – including Britain – for billions of pounds of   extra funding to stem the European debt crisis.

Louise Armitstead and Jonathan Russell

8:04PM BST 25 Sep 2011

The head of the IMF has warned that its $384bn (£248bn) war chest designed as   an emergency bail-out fund is inadequate to deliver the scale of the support   required by troubled states.

The 7 Laws of Leanness

Here we go again with stupid Hollywood folks making violent angry statements.  Roseanne how about you write a check for all your wealth.  It is good to be a volunteer.peyton  10/2/11

Actress, comedienne and now author Roseanne Barr shares her solution for dealing with the rich and how the banks could repay the money the U.S. government bailed them out with in 2008.

“Part of my platform is, of course, the guilty must be punished and that we no longer let our children see their guilty leaders getting away with murder. Because it teaches children, you know, that they don’t have to have any morals as long as they have guns and are bullies and I don’t think that’s a good message,” Barr told Russia Today (RT).

“I do say that I am in favor of the return of the guillotine and that is for the worst of the worst of the guilty.

“I first would allow the guilty bankers to pay, you know, the ability to pay back anything over $100 million [of] personal wealth because I believe in a maximum wage of $100 million. And if they are unable to live on that amount of that amount then they should, you know, go to the reeducation camps and if that doesn’t help, then being beheaded,” Barr said with a straight face.

World facing worst financial crisis in history, Bank of England Governor says———————good info

The world is facing the worst financial crisis since at least the 1930s “if   not ever”, the Governor of the Bank of England said last night.  Sir Mervyn King was speaking after the decision by the Bank’s Monetary Policy   Committee to put £75billion of newly created money into the economy in a   desperate effort to stave off a new credit crisis and a UK recession.

Major: This is our chance to win back power from the EU

By Daily Mail Reporter

Last updated at 12:14 AM on 10th October 2011

Opportunity: John Major said any new treaty drawn up in
the wake of the eurozone crisis would allow Britain to renegotiate its
relationship with Brussels – particularly on employment issues

Sir John Major – who as prime minister signed
up to the Maastricht Treaty – has joined calls for a renegotiation of Britain’s
relationship with Brussels.

His intervention piles further pressure on
David Cameron to use the crisis in the eurozone to demand powers back from the
European Union.

The former premier caused surprise in Tory
circles by saying yesterday that now is the time to insist on ‘looser’ ties with
the EU.

At the Conservative conference last week, Mr
Cameron said he wanted to claw back powers from Brussels, but suggested it would
have to wait for negotiations over a new treaty, which might be several years
away.

The Prime Minister signalled to around 120
Conservative MPs in a new Eurosceptic grouping that the debt crisis engulfing
the eurozone and threatening the British economy must take
priority.

Sir John, however, said there could be a ‘much
more speedy’ opportunity to renegotiate, particularly on issues affecting
employment law and regulation of the City.

He claimed it was likely that Europe was
heading towards a ‘federal state within the eurozone’.

‘At some stage there will be another treaty
because if there is fiscal union in Europe it changes our relationship to
Europe,’ he told the BBC’s Andrew Marr programme. ‘It gives an opportunity for
two things. Firstly it gives us an opportunity to negotiate for the looser form
of Europe that I would have liked to have seen in the 1990s.

‘I think there are some areas that are worth
looking at. Fishing is one. I think there are some elements of employment law…
things like the working time directive, which I think is a very foolish piece of
legislation.’

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2047052/John-Major-We-use-eurozone-debt-crisis-grab-powers-Brussels.html#ixzz1aNthJCx2

By  ERICA WERNER

The Associated Press

WASHINGTON  — In President Barack Obama’s sales pitch for his jobs bill, there are two versions of reality: The one in his speeches and the one actually unfolding in Washington.

FILE – In this Sept. 14, 2011, file photo, President Barack Obama holds up the American Jobs Act as he speaks at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, N.C.  In Obama’s sales pitch for his jobs bill, there are two versions of reality: The one in his speeches and the one actually unfolding in Washington. When Obama accuses Republicans of standing in the way of his nearly $450 billion plan, he ignores the fact that his own party has struggled to unite behind the proposal. (AP Photo/Gerry Broome)

FILE – In this Sept. 8, 2011, file photo President Barack Obama speaks to a joint session of Congress at the Capitol in Washington, as Vice President Joe Biden and House Speaker John Boehner listen.  In Obama’s sales pitch for his jobs bill, there are two versions of reality: The one in his speeches and the one actually unfolding in Washington. When Obama accuses Republicans of standing in the way of his nearly $450 billion plan, he ignores the fact that his own party has struggled to unite behind the proposal. And when the president says Republicans haven’t explained what they oppose in the plan, he skips over the fact that Republicans who control the House actually have done that in detail. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

FILE – In this Oct. 4, 2011, file photo, President Barack Obama speaks at Eastfield College in Mesquite, Texas. When Obama accuses Republicans of standing in the way of his nearly $450 billion plan, he ignores the fact that his own party has struggled to unite behind the proposal. And when the president says Republicans haven’t explained what they oppose in the plan, he skips over the fact that Republicans who control the House actually have done that in detail.  (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

When Obama accuses Republicans of standing in the way of his nearly $450 billion plan, he ignores the fact that his own party has struggled to unite behind the proposal.

When the president says Republicans haven’t explained what they oppose in the plan, he skips over the fact that Republicans who control the House actually have done that in detail.

And when he calls on Congress to “pass this bill now,” he slides past the point that Democrats control the Senate and were never prepared to move immediately, given other priorities. Senators are expected to vote Tuesday on opening debate on the bill, a month after the president unveiled it with a call for its immediate passage.

To be sure, Obama is not the only one engaging in rhetorical excesses. But he is the president, and as such, his constant remarks on the bill draw the most attention and scrutiny.

The disconnect between what Obama says about his jobs bill and what stands as the political reality flow from his broader aim: to rally the public behind his cause and get Congress to act, or, if not, to pin blame on Republicans.

He is waging a campaign, one in which nuance and context and competing responses don’t always fit in if they don’t help make the case.

For example, when Obama says his jobs plan is made up of ideas that have historically had bipartisan support, he stops the point there. Not mentioned is that Republicans have never embraced the tax increases that he is proposing to cover the cost of his plan.

Likewise, from city to city, Obama is demanding that Congress act (he means Republicans) while it has been clear for weeks that the GOP will not support all of his bill, to say the least. Individual elements of it may well pass, such as Obama’s proposal to extend and expand a payroll tax cut. But Republicans strongly oppose the president’s proposed new spending and his plan to raise taxes on millionaires to pay for the package.

The fight over the legislative proposal has become something much bigger: a critical test of the president’s powers of persuading the public heading into the 2012 presidential campaign, and of Republicans’ ability to deny him a win and reap victory for themselves.

“He knows it’s not going to pass. He’s betting that voters won’t pick up on it, or even if they do they will blame Congress and he can run against the ‘do-nothing Congress,’” said Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, a senior fellow at the University of Southern California’s School of Policy, Planning and Development.

John Sides, political science professor at George Washington University, said Obama’s approach on the jobs bill is “more about campaigning than governing.”

“He’s mostly just going around talking about this and drawing contrasts with what the Republicans want and what he wants and not really trying to work these legislative levers he might be able to use to get this passed,” Sides said. “That just suggests to me that he is ready to use a failed jobs bill as a campaign message against the Republicans.”

The president’s opponents aren’t exactly laying it all out, either.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., tried to force a vote on the bill last week, innocently claiming that the president was entitled to one. McConnell knew full well that the result would be failure for the legislation and an embarrassment for Obama.

House Speaker John Boehner, meanwhile, claimed that Obama has “given up on the country and decided to campaign full-time” instead of seeking common ground with the GOP. But Boehner neglected to mention that Obama’s past attempts at compromise with Republicans often yielded scant results, as Obama himself pointed out.

The approach for Obama, who is seeking a second term in a dismal economy, is far different than the one he took when running for president. He criticized the GOP then, but talked about ending blue-state and red-state America, replacing it with one America, fixing the broken political system, and fundamentally changing Washington.

That ended up being change he could not bring about, and now analysts say Obama may have little choice but to campaign more narrowly by attacking opponents rather than trying to bring people together.

Obama’s attempts at compromise with the GOP on the debt ceiling and budget won him little in the way of policy, instead engendering frustration from Democrats who saw him as caving to Republican demands.

The new, combative Obama isn’t looking for compromise. He’s looking for a win. And if he can’t get the legislative victory he says he wants, he has made clear that he’s more than willing to take a political win.

It is, he acknowledges, a result his campaign for his jobs bill is designed to achieve.

Talking up the bill in an appearance last month with African-American news websites, Obama said: “I need people to be out there promoting this and pushing this and making sure that everybody understands the details of what this would mean, so that one of two things happen: Either Congress gets it done, or if Congress doesn’t get it done, people know exactly what’s holding it up.”

Fraud case leaves California Democrats scramble

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Stunning accusations that a top California Democratic campaign treasurer looted the war chests of her big-name clients have left candidates across the state scrambling to raise more money as election season looms.

Kinde Durkee, who controlled the funds of roughly 400 candidates and groups, ranging from Senator Dianne Feinstein to local Democratic youth clubs, was arrested in September and charged with fraud.

While the extent of the losses isn’t yet clear, the coffers of dozens of Democratic politicians have been frozen, prompting the crippled campaigns to ask the California Fair Political Practices Commission to permit further donations from contributors who have already given the maximum.

Feinstein, seeking re-election in 2012, has been forced to start from “square one” to raise campaign money, said Bill Carrick, political strategist and consultant to the Senator.

But a commission official said it wasn’t that simple.

“It’s quite clear that we can’t just say ‘the contribution limit is set aside’,” California Fair Political Practices Commission chair Ann Ravel said, adding that the commission’s legal team was researching what options were permissible by law.

Feinstein donated $5 million of her own money to her re-election bid after the campaign lost access to an estimated $5.2 million, Carrick said. The senator has sued Durkee for fraud and breach of contract in a lawsuit that also accused First California Bank of aiding that fraud.

Durkee, the 58-year-old daughter of a Hollywood pastor, is accused of co-mingling money in the roughly 400 accounts she controlled at the bank, making it unclear to whom any recovered money actually belongs.

The bank reported $2.5 million in Durkee-controlled accounts, according to court documents, far less than the at least $9.8 million that her clients had raised, according to the Los Angeles County Democratic Party.

“We lost at least $200,000 and the impact of that, for us, is much more immediate than it is for most candidates,” Los Angeles County Democratic Party Chair Eric Bauman said.

“We’ve got more than 50 races on the November 11 ballot. Our ability to support our endorsed candidates in these local elections is significantly affected,” Bauman said, adding that the loss represents 90 percent of the party’s total funds.

‘GOING TO BE TOUGH’

If a donor’s campaign contributions were never received, Ravel said, there is a possibility that they could donate again. The commission hopes to decide if and how donors could contribute again by its next hearing on November 10.

That deadline, however, would be too late for local elections slated for the following day, and the sudden loss of funds will be most acutely felt in grass-roots operations.

“It’s definitely going to be tough,” Carrick said. “It’s going to be very difficult for them to replenish that kind of money.”

Not everybody is as sympathetic to the sudden fund-raising challenges facing the California Democratic campaigns.

“Most of these Democrats are very influential, powerful incumbents, and the political parties are able to contribute as much as they want to the candidates,” said Allan Hoffenblum, a former Republican political consultant.

“I don’t think any client of (Durkee’s) will lose because of this. There’s plenty of money out there,” he said

Durkee, who has been called the “Bernie Madoff of campaign finance treasurers” by one former client, Representative Susan Davis of San Diego, admitted to using campaign funds for her own personal expenses, according to court documents.

The mail fraud case against her in federal court alleges that Durkee used campaign donations to make mortgage payments and pay her American Express bills.

“Durkee admitted that she had been misappropriating her clients’ money for years and that forms she filed with the state were false,” according to an account of an interview by Federal Bureau of Investigations agents in September, according to the federal complaint.

The bank angered clients when it handed over control of the 398 bank accounts associated with Durkee to a California state court on September 23, recusing itself from sorting out how much of the recovered money should be doled out to whom.

“In yet another attempt to escape liability for the fiasco that they helped create, First California Bank has turned most of the accounts that Durkee controlled over to the courts,” the Los Angeles County Democratic Party said.

It added that smaller parties who lost funds lack the financial resources to fight in court to get their money back.

First California Bank marketing director Diane Dickerson told Reuters: “It will all come out in time, I promise.” She declined further comment.

A Prayer to Be Free From Tizzies*

Dear God,
you who did not invent tizzies,
be with me when I get
caught
in the wild worrying of my mind,
and the needless scurrying
around
in my fearful heart.

Trip me up when I fret and stew
so I can see the trap of tizzies,
with
their schemes to keep me
bunched up in stress and strain.

Let me fall headfirst into the truth
of your never-ending
presence,
wrap your kind arms around me
and calm my doubts and fears.

Shout loudly in my spiritual ear
when my nerves get knotted,
my mind
feels cramped,
and my stomach screams.

It may be difficult,
but do try to get my full attention,
because
tizzies are not healthy,
and they definitely chase peace
out the front
door of my heart.

Dear God, you did not invent tizzies,
I did,
and only I can send them
on their way,
and I will,
if you strengthen me
to let go of my anxious
hold
on what is nonessential.

—Joyce Rupp

*A tizzy is a “state of frenzied excitement or distraction,
especially over some trivial matter” (Webster’s New Unabridged Dictionary).

ck out Joyce Rupp at her website

First lady MICHLLE OBAMA fuming as PAULA DEEN dishes on her unhealthy eating habits despite new book “American  Grown” PR blitz!

MICHELLE OBAMA is now furious with Southern cooking queen PAULA DEEN for crowing that the first lady, a healthy-eat­ing advocate who’s waging a war against childhood obesity, pigs out on fatten­ing foods.

While plugging her new book, “Paula Deen’s Southern Cooking Bible,” the feisty TV chef took a pot shot at Michelle for gorging herself on greasy french fries, fatty hot chicken wings and sug­ary deep-fried Snickers bars!

“Michelle’s spitting mad,” a source told The ENQUIRER.

“She thinks Paula is trying to smear her and her family just as the 2012 presidential election race swings into gear.”

The trouble first be­gan before Barack Obama was even elected president in 2008, when Michelle made a guest appearance on Deen’s popular “Paula’s Party” show and revealed that fried shrimp was her family’s favorite meal.

Then in an interview af­ter filming the program, Paula quipped that Michelle would be serving high-fat, greasy and sugary foods in the White House if Obama won the elec­tion!

Now Paula is rehashing those at­tacks on Michelle in an attempt to plug her latest cookbook and offset Michelle’s new book about eating healthy, noted the source.

“She’s no different than the rest of us,” Paula said about Michelle in a new interview.

Paula added: “She probably ate more than any other guest I ever had on the show! She kept eating even dur­ing commercials. Know what (the Obamas’) favorite foods are? Hot wings. Y’know – those kinds of foods that aren’t necessarily top-of-the-list healthy foods.”

“Michelle now deeply regrets ever being on Paula’s show,” added the source. “There are a lot of digs she would have been able to brush off, but portray­ing her as a high-calorie gorger during her crusade for healthy eating is crossing the line.”

SANAA, Yemen (AP) — Hundreds of Yemeni women on Wednesday

set fire to traditional female veils to protest the government’s brutal

crackdown against the country’s popular uprising, as overnight clashes in the

capital and another city killed 25 people, officials said.

In the capital Sanaa, the women spread a black cloth across

a main street and threw their full-body veils, known as makrama, onto a pile,

sprayed it with oil and set it ablaze. As the flames rose, they chanted:
“Who

protects Yemeni women from the crimes of the thugs?”

The women in Yemen have taken a key role in the uprising

against President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s authoritarian rule that erupted in
March,

inspired by other Arab revolutions. Their role came into the limelight earlier

in October, when Yemeni woman activist Tawakkul Karman was awarded the Nobel

Peace Prize, along with two Liberian women, for their struggle for women’s

rights.

Wednesday’s protest, however, was not related to women’s

rights or issues surrounding the Islamic veils – rather, the act of women

burning their clothing is a symbolic Bedouin tribal gesture signifying an
appeal

for help to tribesmen, in this case to stop the attacks on the protesters.

The women who burned clothing in the capital were wearing

traditional veils at the time, many covered in black from head to toe.

The women’s protest came as clashes have intensified between

Saleh’s forces and renegade fighters who have sided with the protesters and the

opposition in demands that the president step down.

Medical and local officials said up to 25 civilians, tribal

fighters and government soldiers died overnight in Sanaa and the city of Taiz

despite a cease-fire announcement by Saleh late Tuesday. Scores of others were

wounded.

A medical official said seven tribal fighters were among

those killed in Sanaa’s Hassaba district. Another medical official said four

residents and nine soldiers also died in the fighting there.

Government forces also shelled houses in Taiz – a hotbed of

anti-Saleh protests – killing five people, including four members of one
family,

a local official said. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because

they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Saleh has clung to power in the face of more than eight

months of massive near-daily protests against his rule.

As they burned their veils, Yemeni women activists handed

out leaflets appealing for help and protection.

“This is a plea from the free women of Yemen; here we burn

our makrama in front of the world to witness the bloody massacres carried by
the

tyrant Saleh,” the leaflets read.

Across town, a group of women supporters of Saleh marched

Wednesday up to the U.N. office to voice their opposition to international

pressure on the president to step down. The women entered the U.N. building to

hand in their protest note.

During a meeting with the U.S. ambassador on Tuesday, Saleh

offered to sign a U.S. and Gulf Arab-backed power transfer deal that gives him

immunity from prosecution if he steps down.

The meeting with U.S. Ambassador Gerald Feierstein was

Saleh’s first since he returned last month from Saudi Arabia, where he was

treated after an attack on his presidential compound in June left him badly

wounded.

Saleh has repeatedly backed out of the deal at the last

minute and the opposition has dismissed his latest offer.

In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland

expressed disappointment over lack of progress, despite Saleh’s pledge to sign

the power transfer accord.

“We said that the proof would be in the pudding,” Nuland

said. “We haven’t yet tasted a good pudding.”

© 2011 The Associated

Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,

broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Learn more about our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

Rudy

Former New York City Mayor Rudy  Giuliani says responsibility for the Occupy Wall Street movement rests  squarely on the shoulders of President Obama.

“This is a very dangerous movement, and it’s ironic it’s happening under a  president who promised to unify us,” Giuliani said. “Barack  Obama owns the Occupy Wall Street movement, it would not have happened but  for his class warfare.”

The Occupy Wall Street protests broke out in cities all over the country  shortly after president Obama called for tax hikes on the wealthiest Americans.  Some of the protests have turned violent. In Oakland, California, more than 100  people were arrested and eight were seriously injured Thursday, with protesters  leaving stores in flames, and streets littered with broken glass and debris. A  week earlier a former Marine suffered a fractured skull in a confrontation with  Oakland police.

Giuliani’s words Friday charged up the crowd at the Defending the American  Dream Summit, sponsored by the conservative Americans for Prosperity  Foundation.

The 2008 Republican presidential candidate also predicted the movement  will eventually lead to the end of Obama’s presidency. “Barack  Obama praised it, sympathizes with it,” he said. “As it gets worse and  worse, I believe this will be the millstone around Barack Obama’s neck that will  take his presidency down.

Read more: http://politics.blogs.foxnews.com/2011/11/04/giuliani-obama-owns-occupy-wall-street#ixzz1cm4mJRCA

DAILY HERALD WE ARE IMPRESSED.  peyton 11/6/11

By Jim Davis

At least in the Daily Herald, where we made the decision to depart from The Associated Press’ “style,” which basically decrees everything from when to upper- and lowercase words, how to report crime, and that we say “$3 million” instead of “three million dollars.”

The reason for this seemingly minor detail is important: It’s one of perception, which often is just as important as the reality.

It dawned on me when I was editing today’s Page 1 centerpiece story that compared the fledgling Occupy movement, just making its way into the suburbs in recent weeks, with the now well-established tea party movement.

See what I mean? Why should it be Occupy, uppercased, but tea party, lowercased? I don’t know the genesis of the thinking, but it just didn’t seem right. And one thing we assiduously try to avoid around here is creating the impression that we favor one side over the other in politically charged debates or issues — especially in news stories. Uppercasing one group while lowercasing the other surely could be seen as an attempt to sway readers.

And the last thing we need to do is reinforce a notion many have of the news media as catering to the left wing.

While both groups have a distinct anti-political, anti-establishment flavor, there’s little doubt the Tea Party has a conservative bent and is more likely to be endorsed by Republicans, while the Occupy movement comes from the other side of the political spectrum.

Referencing the Occupy group and the tea party that way in the same sentence just seemed like a bad idea. Unfair, really. So I ran this by our editorial board, and some lively discussion ensued. Suffice it to say, though, the idea of making both movements equal — stylewise, of course — appealed to just about everyone, even though abandoning AP style is not something we do every day.

The most telling argument came from Editor John Lampinen, who chimed in with, “I think we need to find a way to be consistent unless there is a compelling explanation for the inconsistency.”

Of course, this little debate about whether to upper- or lowercase words is minuscule in the grand scheme of things. But it is important that we get the details right in a debate that has ignited so much passion. As just a small example of that passion, take a look at the letters from a Tea Partyer and an Occupyer (Occupyer. Is that correct? Convene the style committee!) we’re running on this page.

There’s another important detail about today’s story by staff writers Robert Sanchez and Marie Wilson: We’ve told it from the suburban perspective.

Of course, the Occupy Wall Street movement started in New York, spread to Chicago and is threatening to spiral out of control in Oakland, Calif. But have you witnessed any of that firsthand? Maybe you saw the protesters in Aurora, Elgin or Naperville, though. The people we talked to for today’s story are your neighbors.

And the Tea Party in many ways had its roots in the suburbs. The early protests — and the movement’s initially meager numbers — occurred in such places as Elk Grove Village.

Another angle explored by Sanchez and Wilson: The Occupy movement is so new, there’s little scientific research on who makes up the group, or specifically what its mission is. But a professor from Benedictine University in Lisle plans to spend some time studying the Occupy Chicago people.

We’ll keep you posted on how that goes too.

• Jim Davis, jdavis@dailyherald.com, is DuPage Editor.

The Permanence of Tears

by Kathleen T. Sullivan

Wisdom and poise dismantled
We wander alone and together
Through a doleful landscape
… … We’ve come to know.

These watery sentiments now familiar
Require a truce that simmers
Between our absolute desire
And an unyielding truth.

Silence is our veil of composure.

A glance becomes a gaze
And a mutual recognition
blooms between us:
Joy and hope are transitory forms.

Wondering whether, or at what point
Should we hear your voice ever or again,
How will it be?
And until when?

*Title inspired by Galway KinnellSee More

Wall Photos

Just yesterday French President Sarkozy was heard saying to Barack Obama:  “I cannot bear Netanyahu, he’s a liar.”

Obama retorted in response:  “You’re fed up? But I have to deal with it all day.”

This is Obama’s “reset” foreign policy. Appease America’s enemies in the Middle East while sticking it to America’s sole ally in the region.

Obama has done a very poor job of hiding his disdain for the State of Israel and her Prime Minister, who are on the frontline of the war against the fascist enemies of the West.  The antagonism our President feels toward Israel is self-evident and disgraceful.  From his call for Israel to reward aggression and retreat to the “67 lines” which would make its borders indefensible to the contempt he has shown for Netanyahu to his attack on Jewish homes in Jerusalem and his embrace of anti-Semitic leaders like Turkey’s Erdogan, Obama has shown that he is unfit to be the leader of the free world, and a danger not only to Israel’s survival but to our own.

David Horowitz

Is there really other life in the universe outside Earth or will it all
remain a mystery? The White House has issued an official
answer in response to two online petitions (with more than 17,000
signatures) that requested the government “formally
acknowledge an extraterrestrial presence engaging the human race” and

UFO

“immediately
disclose the government’s knowledge of and communications with
extraterrestrial beings.” In September, the White House launched “We
The People,” an initiative in which the Obama administration officially
responds to any petition that receives more than 25,000 signatures within 30
days. The petitions assert that extraterrestrials exist on Earth and that the
government has gone to great lengths to hide that information. How did the
government respond? Phil Larson, who works in the WHite House Office of Science
and Technology Policy, said, “The U.S. government has no evidence that any life
exists outside our planet, or that an extraterrestrial presence has contacted or
engaged any member of the human race.” The official White House response also
states that “there is no credible information to suggest that any evidence is
being hidden from the public’s eye.” One questions remains: Why did the White
House respond to these petitions when they were short 8,000 signatures?

European debt crisis spiralling out of control

The Guardian

Reports that Germany and France have begun talks to break up the eurozone amid fears that Italy will be too

 Wednesday 9 November 2011 16.16 EST

Debt crisis sets markets in turmoil amid reports of talks about the break up of the eurozone. Photograph: Jeff Spielman/Getty Images

Fears that Europe’s sovereign debt crisis was spiralling out of control have intensified as political chaos in Athens and Rome, and looming recession, created panic on world markets.

Reports emerging from Brussels said that Germany and France had begun preliminary talks on a break-up of the eurozone, amid fears that Italy would be too big to rescue.

Despite Silvio Berlusconi‘s announcement that he would step down as prime minister once austerity measures were pushed through parliament, a collapse of investor confidence in the eurozone’s third-biggest economy sent interest rates in Italy to the levels that triggered bailouts in Portugal, Greece and Ireland.

Italian bond yields surged through the critical 7% mark, at one point hitting 7.5%, amid concern that the deteriorating situation had moved the crisis into a dangerous new phase.

In Athens talks to appoint a prime minister to succeed George Papandreou were in deadlock, and will resume on Thursday morning. The Italian president, Giorgio Napolitano, sought to reassure the markets by promising that Berlusconi would be leaving office soon.

Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, said the situation had become “unpleasant”, and called for eurozone members to accelerate plans for closer political integration. “It is time for a breakthrough to a new Europe,” she said. “Because the world is changing so much, we must be prepared to answer the challenges. That will mean more Europe, not less Europe.”

The president of the European commission, José Manuel Barroso, issued a new call for the EU to “unite or face irrelevance” in the face of the mounting economic crisis in Italy. “We are witnessing fundamental changes to the economic and geopolitical order that have convinced me that Europe needs to advance now together or risk fragmentation. Europe must either transform itself or it will decline. We are in a defining moment where we either unite or face irrelevance,” he said.

Senior policymakers in Paris, Berlin and Brussels are reported to have discussed the possibility of one or more countries leaving the eurozone, while the remaining core pushes on toward deeper economic integration, including on tax and fiscal policy. “France and Germany have had intense consultations on this issue over the last months, at all levels,” a senior EU official in Brussels told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the discussions.

Financial regulators across Europe were last night carefully monitoring the health of their heavily exposed banks, amid concern that the turmoil could lead to a debt default, or even the break-up of the euro.

George Osborne, just three weeks away from delivering his autumn statement on the health of the economy, believes Europe’s problems are blighting the UK’s growth prospects, but he will use the sell-off of Italian bonds to insist there is no alternative to his austerity plans.

Nick Clegg, the deputy prime minister, spent Wednesday in Brussels urging the council president, Herman Van Rompuy, and a clutch of EU commissioners to focus on growth, and not further treaty changes, warning that if Europe does not become more competitive it will end up in a spiral of perpetual decline. Both he and David Cameron are urging EU integrationists to recognise that EU Treaty changes in the next few months  would be a massive distraction and no cure for the underlying economic crisis. He pointed out that they would require referendums in at least four countries.

The latest chapter in the ongoing sovereign debt crisis came as Bank of England policymakers gathered for their monthly two-day interest rate-setting meeting. The monetary policy committee announced £75bn-worth of quantitative easing last month in an effort to prevent a recession.

City analysts believe the renewed turmoil in the eurozone is pointing to a deep recession in Europe. “It’s unavoidable that there will be an outright contraction in the fourth quarter of this year, and a 60%-70% chance of another decline in the first quarter of next year,” said Nick Parsons, head of strategy at National Australia Bank.

Shares fell heavily on both sides of the Atlantic. The Italian stock market lost 4% of its value. The FTSE100 index of leading shares closed 106.96 points down, at 5460.38. The Dow Jones closed 389 points down at 11,780.94.

Christine Lagarde, head of the IMF, told a financial forum in Beijing that Europe’s debt crisis risked plunging the global economy into a Japan-style “lost decade” of weak growth and deflation.

“Our sense is that if we do not act boldly and if we do not act together, the economy around the world runs the risk of a downward spiral of uncertainty, financial instability and potential collapse of global demand … we could run the risk of what some commentators are already calling the lost decade.”

Simon Derrick, currency strategist at BNY Mellon, said: “We’re at the point of asking the question, if I put my money into Italy, am I going to get it back? The fact is, there isn’t a safety net.” He added that the mood in the City  was reminiscent of Black Wednesday, in September 1992, when the UK crashed out of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism.

The surge in Italian bond yields was eventually capped by the European Central Bank, which intervened in the markets to buy limited quantities of Italian debt. But analysts say the ECB will eventually have to step up its action, and act as a lender of last resort to bring interest rates down to pre-crisis levels. Sony Kapoor, director of Brussels-based think-tank Re-Define, said: “We may be fairly close to the point where an existential threat to the eurozone, and hence the ECB, is on the horizon. This could easily spiral out of control.”

The ECB is seen as the only institution with the firepower to rescue Italy, because the EU lacks the resources to bail out such a large economy. Ben May, of Capital Economics, said Italy would need a €650bn bailout to keep it out of financial markets for the next three years or so. “The European Financial Stability Facility will not be able to provide a bailout of this size,” he said.

Officials in Brussels insisted on Wednesday there would be no rescue package for Rome, saying, “financial assistance is not on the cards”. A key test will come on Thursday morning when Italy has to raise €5bn from investors on the bond market.

Economic and monetary affairs commissioner Olli Rehn ratcheted up the political pressure on Italy with a strongly-worded letter to finance minister Giulio Tremonti. In it, Rehn demanded concrete written details of how Italy will implement each of the 39 separate reform measures it has promised to undertake.

In Rome the head of state, Giorgio Napolitano, insisted that Berlusconi would be leaving office soon, and that his departure would not be the prelude to a lengthy period of political instability.

His intervention came after hurried consultations with the speakers of both houses of parliament to ensure the speediest possible approval for a package of economic reform and austerity measures agreed with the European institutions. On Tuesday evening, after losing his majority in the chamber of deputies, Berlusconi told Napolitano he would resign.

But, to prevent the economic measures being blocked by the fall of his government, he said he would only go once the package had been approved.

As concern grew that he might delay the passage of the legislation, which has become a litmus test of Italy’s credibility in the markets, Berlusconi said he would insist on holding new elections and one of his ministers speculated that could be next February.

After the yield on Italy’s benchmark bonds soared above 7%, taking interest rates to a level beyond which previous euro zone debt crisis victims have sought a bail-out, the president issued a statement to say the new economic measures would be “approved in the space of a few days” and that there was “no uncertainty over the prime minister’s decision to resign”.

Napolitano, who cannot begin consultations with party leaders until Berlusconi leaves office, said that either a new government would be formed “to take every necessary decision” or an election would be held “within the shortest time”.

That would still mean a vote was not held until January. But a source close to the president stressed to the Guardian that “early elections are not a foregone conclusion.”

11.9.2011

OSAKA: Chicago Delegation Returns from Osaka Social
Service Exchange

The Osaka Committee of Chicago Sister Cities
International is excited to welcome the Chicago delegation back from their
inaugural Osaka Social Service Exchange, October 1-9, 2011.

Nine interdisciplinary social service
professionals from Chicago traveled to Osaka to dialogue with Japanese
professionals about their culture and best practices in the areas of child
welfare, elderly care, disabilities both mental and physical, and other social
challenges.

During the first week of October, a group of
nine delegates from Chicago traveled to our Sister City of Osaka, Japan. The
interdisciplinary delegation hailed from a variety of backgrounds, including
professionals who work in the court system, non-profits, education and mental
healthcare.

For the first two days, the delegates traveled
together and visited a daycare center, hospital, nursing home, senior center,
university, business that sponsored the Social Service Exchange and the City of
Osaka Government office. They were also treated to a dinner at a hotel with
breathtaking views of the city.

During the following days, the group split
into their separate tracks (i.e., child welfare, elderly care, and mental and
physical abilities) and visited organizations that were relevant to their work
in Chicago. They would meet up each night as a group and share their unique
experiences with other delegates. At the end of the trip, city officials and
organization heads graciously hosted them for a special Tatami Mat dinner. The
food was so delicious and beautiful during the trip that one might have
presumed the delegates were on a food tour instead of a Social Service
Exchange!

Overall, the experience taught the group
invaluable lessons and created friendships within the delegation and with those
they met in Osaka. They can’t wait to meet the delegates from Japan who will be
coming to Chicago in 2012!

Make sure to check back on our website for
their full report.  On Chicago Sister Cities Website.

By RACHEL ZOLL
AP
Religion Writer

BALTIMORE (AP) — U.S. Roman Catholic bishops vowed Monday
to defend their religious liberty in the face of growing acceptance of gay
marriage and what they called attempts by secularists to marginalize faith.

Bishop William Lori, leader of a new national religious
liberty committee, condemned federal and state policies that he said interfered
with the church’s ability to provide social services, from health care to
immigrant support to international aid.

In Illinois, government officials stopped working with
Catholic Charities on adoptions and foster-care placements after 40 years
because the agency refused to recognize a new civil union law. Illinois bishops
had sued the state but on Monday said they would stop the legal fight and no
longer provide state-funded services.

In New York, the bishops, along with Orthodox Jewish leaders
and others, have complained that the religious exception in this year’s law
allowing gay marriage is too weak to be effective.

On the federal level, the bishops have been pressing the
Health and Human Services Department during its public comment period for a
broader religious exception to part of President Barack Obama’s health care
overhaul that mandates private insurers pay for contraception.

“We should not be obliged to provide services or other
initiatives that are contrary to our conscience,” said Lori, bishop of
Bridgeport, Conn. “We don’t need the government forcing our hand.”

Archbishop Timothy Dolan, president of the U.S. Conference
of Catholic Bishops, said the bishops are not just reacting to Obama’s policies,
but to a broader society in a “drive to neuter religion” and “push religion back
into the sacristy.”

“That’s a cultural issue that the church has been concerned
about forever, not just in the United States,” Dolan said.

But Dolan said he discussed the church’s concerns with Obama
when the two men met last week in the Oval Office. The archbishop said Obama was
“extraordinarily friendly” and “very ardent” in reassuring Dolan that the
administration would look into the problems.

“I left there feeling a bit more at peace with this issue
than when I entered,” Dolan said.

Religious freedom was the main focus at the fall meeting of
the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which has public sessions through
Tuesday.

The new religious liberty committee that church leaders
formed met for the first time. Anthony Picarello, general counsel for the
conference, will oversee that work, which will include hiring a lobbyist and
another attorney.

Picarello had worked for seven years at the Becket Fund for
Religious Liberty, a public-interest law firm based in Washington, and also
served on an advisory committee for Obama’s Office of Faith-Based and
Neighborhood Partnerships.

Bishops hope to persuade federal lawmakers to retain the
Defense of Marriage Act, which passed in 1996, and launched a new website called
Marriageuniqueforareason.org. Obama has said his administration would no longer
defend the law, calling it “counter to the Constitution.” Bishops said it was
wrong to describe their religious convictions as discrimination.

“The church has nothing against compromise, but we can’t
compromise principle,” Dolan said.

The bishops are confronting the Health and Human Services
Department on another front. The government agency recently decided not to renew
a contract held since 2006 by the bishops’ refugee services office to help
victims of human trafficking.

The American Civil Liberties Union is suing to stop the
agency from making grants to groups who “impose religiously based restrictions
on reproductive health services” for human trafficking victims. The women are
often raped and forced into prostitution by their captors.

The bishops’ conference has called the decision biased
against Catholic beliefs. Agency officials vehemently deny any bias and say the
sole criteria for evaluating potential grantees was which group could best serve
the victims. Administration officials note that the vast network of Catholic
social service nonprofits, including the bishops’ conference, receives hundreds
of millions of dollars in government funding in amounts that have increased in
the last couple of years.

“We should not be at a disadvantage competing for contracts
because we bring certain convictions to the table,” Lori said.

—

AP writer Sophia Tareen in Chicago contributed to this
report.

© 2011 The Associated
Press. All rights reserved.

Older, Suburban and Struggling, ‘Near Poor’ Startle the Census

Doug Mills/The New York Times

Belinda Sheppard and two adult children live above the poverty line, and barely cover their bills.

By JASON DePARLE, ROBERT GEBELOFF and SABRINA TAVERNISE

Published: November 18, 2011

Graphic

Bordering on Poverty

Down but not quite out, these Americans form a diverse group sometimes called “near poor” and sometimes simply overlooked — and a new count suggests they are far more numerous than previously understood.

WHAT WOULD JESUS BUY? (WWJB?) 

I have an idea. Howabout we Catholics
and Protestants reclaim the religious heritage of our nation’s sacred days for
ourselves and boycott what encroaches upon them? Why not, for example, make All
Saints Day bigger and more noticeable than it is now? Howabout placing saint
lanterns on our doorsteps on All Hallow’s Eve, while boycotting the
particularly gruesome Spirit Halloween stores, which litter the landscape every
October? (I’m recalling standing in line with my seven-year-old, trying to
distract him from the life-size phantom next to us, holding a bloody axe and
chanting with a sinister voice, “I’m going to cut your neck to the
bone!”) Howabout making or buying products that tell the real story of
Easter, as we share the true tale at home through our prayer, words, and home decorations?
Easter in America has been subsumed under a big bunny and hard boiled eggs. I
didn’t even know, until I was sixteen years old, that Easter Sunday had any
relation with religion, much less Jesus.

Our purchasing power can help evangelize the culture. The only thing that will
sway corporations is money, not morals, so why not speak to them in the only
way they know how to listen? If we don’t buy it. They won’t make it. If we buy
it, they will make more of it. This Christmas you can boycott Santa and his elves,
and anything else you wish. Instead, you can support Christ’s work on earth by
purchasing religious items, which celebrate the Real Christmas Story, and by
giving Fair Trade gifts.

Fair trade helps the poor help themselves. Small-scale artisans and farmers
receive all the benefits of eco-friendly fair trade items–a fair price,
long-term trading relationships, safe and healthy work places, and a social
premium to be invested in their community project. Through Catholic Relief
Services, in particular, Fair Trade funds are also recycled into grants to
assist more small-scale producers overseas and grow the marketplace in the
United States. Click here for an online catalogue of products, and click here
to purchase chocolate or coffee.

You may also wish to join a national boycott of companies that donate to
Planned Parenthood, the leading abortion provider in the United States. I was
shocked to find out that my bank, my credit card, my favorite airline, even my
jeans were implicated in this. Click on these sites to read past lists of
donors, and boycott away! (Newsinfaith.com,Lifenews.com
and an older and
informative list from an opposing viewpoint.) It curls the stomach to think
that companies such as Johnson & Johnson made the list. Everything from
Wheaties to Windex seems to be there. Do you like Coca Cola, but are willing to
switch to Pepsi? Nice try! Both were on the list.

An official current list of Planned Parenthood donors, which changes each year,
can be purchased through Life Decisions International. (Click here to order, and click here to read about LDI.) By ordering this list, you support
their ongoing research and efforts of exposing which companies support the
abortion industry. LDI estimates that the boycott has cost Planned Parenthood
more than $40 million since the Corporate Funding Project began nearly 18 years
ago. Since then over 256 corporations have stopped funding Planned parenthood.
Boycotting can make a difference for God!

BY CHRISTINE WATKINS

“sometimes,
life doesn’t always go to plan,”

There is one thing I have learned in my 13 years at
Company  : sometimes, life doesn’t always go to plan, no matter how many goals
you make.   I think that might be the hardest thing for us to grasp at
Company – basically learning from an unexpected event.   Believe it
or not, those unexpected events, became some of my best coaching moments.

I am sure you all have heard of the  7 stages of
grief?   Well sometimes I believe that there are stages of learning
from an unexpected event.   One has to learn from an unexpected even
in order to a) grow and b) move to your new goals.  This can happen in
your personal and /or your professional life. Also note, the 7 stages of grief
do not go in order! Sometimes we get so goal orientated we want each step to
move in order – but unfortunately – grief – and learning from an unexpected
event – likes to take it’s time.

So here are just  four of my personal coaching
“mantras” with dealing with unexpected events or next chapters if you will:

1.      Keep your commitments – Life has to move on. Two months
before I married, my Dad died unexpectedly.  I was going to postpone the
wedding(basically stop everything and lie in a fetal position)  but my
very wise sister said – “You know? You have to keep to your commitments.
Life has to move on. Anyways, Dad will be there!”
So I went about keeping my commitments. Getting the wedding in gear
even though I felt like I rather just not.  I was married in February and
it started to snow on my wedding day. I thought, oh great.  For a Bride,
this could be a tragedy. But I said – you know what? I had two months of
keeping to wedding commitments, a little “snow” was not going to deter
me!  During the wedding, when our vows were being exchanged the sunlight
suddenly burst through the windows of the church.  To this day I believe
that sunshine was my Dad rewarding me. Maybe it is a coping mechanism – but you
know?  That sun melted all the snow and we had a lovely day.  I
learned that keeping commitments even though you’d  rather not, will be rewarding, even if you
don’t see it at that time.

2.      First day of change is the hardest. Every day after that, it does get
a little  bit better. Flash forward to 2004/2005. I swear this was a
horrid year for me. I had the trifecta of bad stuff happen to me(hubby passed
away/I survived a nasty condition/loss of beloved pet).  Yes. That year
was hell.  Believe me, I didn’t want to make my commitments. The change
was so fast and furious, I did want to roll up in a ball.  But I recalled
my sisters consul: keep your commitments, life has to move on.
Everything you lost will be there, but you have to go forward. I learned
something new after struggling to make my first commitment post my husband’s
death: The first day of the bad news is the hardest day. HOWEVER every day
after that gets a little bit better.   And it did. Believe it or not.

3.      Cake or Death.  I am sure you all know who Eddie Izzard is?  I know he is not the
most politically correct  comedian and my reference to this skit may not
be what he meant, but this is what I gleaned from it:  YOU do have choices
even in the face of an unexpected event. Sometimes we think that there is only
one answer, really there are many. Knowing that you have a choice, is sometimes
a comfort.

4.      Making Lemons into Lemonade.  Okay, so maybe the choices are
not the most ideal. You could go straight to the fetal position but you have to
move through it. This is where strategy comes in. How do you make the
lemons into something you can live with?  This is where I brainstorm on a
piece of paper and put it down for a bit and then revisit it. Sometimes you may
not know how to make the lemons into lemonade so you have to let it sit.
At this time, I also reach out to mentors and people wiser than me to ask
for their opinion and feedback.

5.     Ferris Bueller was right.: “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop
and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”    That
is so true. Life is way to short. You have to make your life fulfilled. That
means you have to force yourself to have a work life balance.  I do this
by scheduling in time for my hobbies and family and focusing on them 100%. It
is like my brain has gone on a mini vacation.  I am more refreshed when I
get back to work and focused on Monday.  Heck. I never knew my hobby could
get me into CNN, BBC and USA Today. If I didn’t force myself to have that work
life balance? I wouldn’t have had the year that I have had.

Life changes on a daily basis. So learning
how to work through the “unexpected” or next chapters of our lives both personally
and professionally will  become second
nature to you all.  Please know this is not a “look at me!” type of
coaching moment, I just want to relate some advice that was provided to me to
help you all work through any changes or unexpected events that comes your way.

Nancy Beyer
11/20/11

Spiritual leader Dr. Ahmed al-Tayeb charged in his speech that to this day Jews  everywhere in the world are seeking to prevent Islamic and Egyptian unity.

“In order to build Egypt, we must be one. Politics is insufficient.
Faith in Allah is the basis for everything,” he said. “The al-Aqsa Mosque is
currently under an offensive by the Jews…we shall not allow the Zionists to
Judaize al-Quds (Jerusalem.) We are telling Israel and Europe that we shall not
allow even one stone to be moved there.”

‘We have different mentality’

Muslim Brotherhood spokesmen, as well as Palestinian guest speakers, made explicit calls for Jihad
and for liberating the whole of Palestine. Time and again, a Koran quote vowing  that “one day we shall kill all the Jews” was uttered at the site. Meanwhile, businessmen in the crowd were urged to invest funds in Jerusalem in order to prevent the acquisition of land and homes by Jews.

Throughout the
event, Muslim Brotherhood activists chanted: “Tel Aviv, Tel Aviv, judgment day
has come.”

Speaking to Ynet outside the mosque following the prayer, elementary
school teacher Ala al-Din said that “all Egyptian Muslims are willing to embark
on Jihad for the sake of Palestine.”

“Why is the US losing in Afghanistan? Because the other side is willing
and wants to die. We have a different mentality than that of the Americans and
Jews,” he said.

Rest in peace Maggie, you will be missed.

Former Chicago first lady Maggie Daley dies at 68 after her bout with breast cancer. Maggie Daley, the wife of former Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley and a gracious promoter of the city’s cultural and educational programs, died last night, her family announced. She was 68. The former Chicago first lady was surrounded by her husband and children when she died just after 6 p.m. When she first learned she had breast cancer in June 2002, Daley said she was shocked. “But you pick up and you move on. … I’m not alone here. There are a lot of people who have experienced this.” Full story.

Associated Press

PARIS (AP) — France’s Foreign Ministry says the
country is recalling its ambassador to Iran for consultations after an attack on
the British Embassy in
Tehran.

The ministry says in a statement that France
was moved to act “in the face of this flagrant and unacceptable violation of the
Vienna Convention on diplomatic relations and the gravity of the violence.”

A ministry spokesman said earlier Wednesday
that France had summoned Iran’s ambassador to Paris to express French concerns
over the attack.

The French government’s spokeswoman said
earlier that President Nicolas Sarkozy had told ministers that the international
community “must heavily sanction Iran” for the attack — such as

through a possible embargo on oil exports or the freeze of Iranian central bank
holdings.

NEW YORK (AP) — Blending governing with re-election
politics, President Barack Obama roused a cheering northeast Pennsylvania crowd
Wednesday as he warned of a “massive blow to the economy” if Republicans block a
payroll tax extension.

But hours later, addressing donors in New York, he toned his
rhetoric down and declared progress was possible.

Obama took to the road with a dual pitch for money,
campaigning for more cash in the pockets of U.S. workers – and for his campaign
treasury as well.

He pressed his case at a campaign-style rally in
working-class Scranton, Pa., where he said Republicans had to choose between
lower taxes for the wealthy, or a payroll tax cut that would help working
Americans. Republicans say they would support extending the payroll tax cut, but
reject new taxes to offset the costs.

“Are you going to cut taxes for the middle class and those
who are trying to get into the middle class, or are you going to protect massive
tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires?” he said. “Are you going to ask a
few hundred thousand people who have done very, very well to do their fair share
or are you going to raise taxes for hundreds of millions of people across the
country?”

Later, in donor-rich New York City where he was raising money for his already flush re-election bid,
he took a more conciliatory tone, acknowledging that Republicans such as House
Speaker John Boehner of Ohio and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of
Kentucky were also willing to extend the payroll tax, though not with a tax
increase on millionaires.

“For the last couple of days Mr. Boehner and Mr. McConnell
have both indicated that it probably does make sense not to have taxes go up for
middle class families, particularly since they’ve all taken an oath not to raise
taxes,” Obama told about 50 donors at a Greenwich Village restaurant. “And so
it’s possible we’ll see some additional progress in the next couple of weeks
that can continue to help strengthen the economy.”

The populist pitch in Scranton and the fundraisers in New
York served as political bookends for the president and illustrated the dual
policy and political demands on him as the 2012 campaign season nears.

He first rallied the type of working-class crowd that would
benefit from the tax cuts and then appealed for campaign contributions from
donors, many of whom would be the ones to shoulder the tax increases Obama
supports.

Obama told one group of donors that he still needs to make
sure that key aspects of the health care law get implemented in 2014, that
banking regulations are enacted and that energy policies are updated.

“I’m going to need another term to finish the job,” he
said.

European leaders, with the exception of the UK, have
backed a tax and budget pact aimed at solving the eurozone debt crisis and
preventing the implosion of the single currency. This graphic helps to explain
what could unfold next in a crisis that French President Nicolas Sarkozy has
warned risks “disintegration” of the eurozone.

Did Nicolas Sarkozy snub David Cameron’s handshake at EU treaty summit?

The body language between the David Cameron and French President Nicolas   Sarkozy was tense today after talks ended this morning with Britain opting   out a Franco-German proposal for an intergovernmental European treaty.  At a second gathering of European Union leaders today, Nicolas Sarkozy can be   seen walking towards David Cameron with his hand out. The Prime Minister   raises his hand as if in greeting but as the French President walks on by,   pats him on the shoulder.

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa – Mitt Romney today said he believes that Newt Gingrich, with “no question in my mind,” would be the easier candidate for President Obama to beat in the general election, hinting that he and the former House speaker would bump heads at Saturday night’s debate to define their differences.

In an exclusive sit-down interview with ABC News anchor David Muir this afternoon in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Romney shied away from attacking Gingrich outright but suggested that a more pointed exchange between him and Gingrich will happen as soon as the next debate.

“Well, we’ll be talking about issues, of course, and we have differing views on some issues and we’ll be talking about those differences,” he said. “That’s, after all, the nature of a debate.”

Pressed on whether he’d be willing to mix it up with Gingrich on stage, Romney didn’t explicitly rule it out.

“I’d expect Newt Gingrich and I will have some differences and we’ll be able to discuss those as well,” Romney said.

After 24 hours of scathing attacks directed at Gingrich from Romney surrogates, with several people associated with the campaign using words such as “untrustworthy” and “unreliable” to describe Gingrich, Romney was asked whether he, too, believes Gingrich is untrustworthy.

“Well [there are] a lot of people that worked with Speaker Gingrich in the past and they’re going to say whatever they will,” Romney said. “Heaven knows I can’t write a script for all the people that support me.”

Questioned specifically about the television ad, “Leader,” which touts

50,000 rally against Russian polls, Putin               

DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano announced the rollout of a new Spanish language campaign encouraging Hispanics to report suspicious threats to the United States Government.

“Si ve algo, diga algo,” warns the new TV spot. (Spanish for “If you see something, say something.”)

“Homeland security is a shared responsibility and every citizen plays a critical role in identifying and reporting suspicious activities and threats,” said Napolitano today. “The new ‘If You See Something, Say Something™” Spanish-language public service announcements encourage citizens across the county to work together to build a strong foundation for a more secure and resilient homeland.”

LONDON — Prime Minister David Cameron on Monday vigorously defended his decision to veto the proposed European Union treaty changes at last week’s summit meeting, telling Parliament that he had acted to protect Britain’s interests and that, contrary to criticism, he had not consigned the country to the sidelines of Europe.

By Robin Rieger

PITMAN, N.J. (CBS) – Some residents of a South Jersey town are calling a Knights of Columbus banner that hangs over Broadway in Pitman, a sign of the season.

It reads “Keep Christ in Christmas.”

“I think it’s wonderful, Christ is Christmas,” said Maria Marandino of Vineland.

Some unnamed residents who live in Pitman and who believe the sign that hangs across Main Street violates the Constitution, contacted the Freedom from Religion Foundation in Wisconsin that promotes separation of church and state. The group’s consultant told Eyewitness News by phone that they’ve asked the town to remove the sign.

“It’s a group endorsing religion over a public right of way,” said Andrew Seidel, the group’s constitutional consultant.

The town’s mayor says the sign is attached to private property and hanging over a county road.

“I think it’s a sad state of affairs that our country, we kowtow to the minority and not the majority of people who like that sort of thing to stay,” said Mayor Michael Batten.

Some residents say a nativity scene was removed from a Christmas display because the park it was displayed in is Pitman’s property.

The Freedom from Religion Foundation says they will look for private property in Pitman now to hang their sign, which reads:

“At this season of the Winter Solstice, may reason prevail. There are no gods, no devils, no angels, no heaven or hell. There is only our natural world. Religion is but myth and superstition that hardens hearts and enslaves minds,” said Seidel.

Anna Dora Shipley said the sign has been hung every Christmas in the 45 years she’s been here. She doesn’t like the Foundation’s sign but says they have a right to put it up.

“Just don’t take mine down,” said Shipley.

Christine Lagarde says no country in the world is immune from the crisis and all must take steps to boost growth, with risks of inaction including “isolation and other elements reminiscent of the 1930s depression” Photo: Reuters

She is an exceptional woman.    …..No country or region is immune. All countries and regions must take action to   boost growth. Work must start in the eurozone countries and must continue   relentlessly. The risks of inaction include protectionism, isolation and   other elements reminiscent of the 1930s

Christmas Cookie Rules…

Borrowed from Kristine Walsh

1. If you eat a Christmas cookie fresh out of the oven, it has no

calories because everyone knows that the first cookie is the test and

thus calorie free.

2. If you drink a diet soda after eating your second cookie, it also has no calories because the diet soda cancels out the cookie calories.

3. If a friend comes over while you’re making your Christmas cookies

and needs to sample, you must sample with your friend.. Because your

friend’s first cookie is calorie free, (rule #1) yours is also. It

would be rude to let your friend sample alone and, being the friend

that you are, that makes your cookie calorie free.

4. Any cookie calories consumed while walking around will fall to your

feet and eventually fall off as you move. This is due to gravity and

the density of the caloric mass.

5. Any calories consumed during the frosting of the Christmas cookies

will be used up because it takes many calories to lick excess frosting

from a knife without cutting your tongue.

6. Cookies colored red or green have very few calories. Red ones have

three and green ones have five – one calorie for each letter. Make

more red ones!

7. Cookies eaten while watching “Miracle on 34th Street” have no

calories because they are part of the entertainment package and not

part of one’s personal fuel.

8. As always, cookie pieces contain no calories because the process of

breaking causes calorie leakage.

9. Any cookies consumed from someone else’s plate have no calories

since the calories Rightfully belong to the other person and will

cling to their plate. We all know how calories like to CLING!

10. Any cookies consumed while feeling stressed have no calories

because cookies used for medicinal purposes NEVER have calories. It’s

a rule!

So, go out and enjoy those Christmas Cookies – we only get them this

time of year!

AP Interview: CEO says oil pipeline opposition won’t end even after Neb. approves new route

TransCanada CEO Russ Girling said the proposed 1,700-mile Keystone XL pipeline has become mired in debates over topics ranging from global warming to U.S. presidential politics. The U.S. State Department delayed the $7 billion project last month largely because of concerns about its route, particularly though environmentally sensitive areas in Nebraska.

It’s mushroomed into this debate about all these social issues, which I don’t deny we have to address,” Girling said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press from his office in Calgary.

“We’re obviously in a migration from fossil fuels to alternative energy, which is why we’ve invested in the largest wind farm in Canada and one of the largest wind farms in Maine,” he said, referring to a 132-megawatt wind farm in Maine with the capacity to serve about 50,000 homes and two similar projects in Canada. “But it’s not going to occur tomorrow. It’s going to take decades.”

Environmental groups have argued that tapping the vast tar sands in Alberta would lead to a vast increase in the burning of carbon-intensive fossil fuels at a time when it should be trying to reduce the release of gases that contribute to global warming.

“The one thing that has nagged me is how this debate has gone off on tangents,” Girling said. “Those aren’t the questions that need to be asked here. We should be asking, ‘Is the United States going to need fossil fuels for decades to come? Do you want to get it from Venezuela?’”

Members of Congress, especially Republicans, and GOP presidential candidates have criticized President Barack Obama for his administration’s decision to delay the project for a year. They argue that the pipeline would produce thousands of jobs and lessen the nation’s dependence on oil produced in nations that are often hostile to the United States.

Some also accused of Obama of intentionally delaying the project until after the 2012 elections.

The pipeline would pass through Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas.

Officials in most states support the project, but the pipeline ran into intense opposition in Nebraska from environmentalists, landowners, lawmakers and others who were worried because the pipeline would cross the Sandhills region. The expanse of sandy-soil hills sits atop the massive Ogallala aquifer, a major irrigation water source that sits beneath parts of eight states.

Girling predicted that resistance to the Keystone XL would ease once Nebraska approves a new route that avoids the Sandhills region, but he said some opponents would never be satisfied.

“Our intent is to work on alleviating those issues that were of primary concern to Nebraskans,” Girling said. “I do believe the opposition could dissipate. That said, there are going to be those opposed to the burning of fossil fuels who will continue to oppose the project on that basis. I would hope that opposition would dissipate as well, but I’m not hopeful.”

The Des Moines Register officially endorsed Mitt Romney’s bid for the Republican presidential nomination Saturday, handing the former Massachusetts governor an influential show of support ahead of January’s Iowa caucuses.

In backing Romney, the paper’s editorial board praised the candidate’s “sobriety, wisdom and judgment” and said he offers the best qualities and experience of anyone in the Republican field.

“He stands out especially among candidates now in the top tier,” the paper said of Romney in an endorsement published online Saturday. “Newt Gingrich is an undisciplined partisan who would alienate, not unite, if he reverts to mean-spirited attacks on display as House speaker. Ron Paul’s libertarian ideology would lead to economic chaos and isolationism, neither of which this nation can afford.”

Romney, the paper wrote, has an “ability to see the merits of tough issues from something other than a knee-jerk ideological perspective” suggesting Romney “would be willing to bridge the political divide in Washington.”

“His record of ignoring partisan labels to pass important legislation when he was governor of Massachusetts suggests he is capable to making that happen,” the Register wrote.

While Romney is sure to be thrilled by the endorsement, the paper’s framing of its decision might not help his cause with some Republicans, who have questioned the ex-governor’s conservative credentials.

The Register mentions Romney’s “nuanced” positions on abortion and notes that he’s defended a health care law he passed as governor of Massachusetts that bears more than a striking similarity to President Obama’s health care legislation.

“Voters will have to decide for themselves whether such subtly nuanced statements express Romney’s true beliefs or if he’s trying to have it both ways,” the Register wrote.

It’s unclear if the paper’s endorsement will be enough to help Romney’s bid to do well in Iowa. After months of laying low in the state, Romney has only recently started to invest serious time and money into doing well in the Jan. 3rd caucuses.

While Gingrich has led most polls in the state in recent weeks, there are hints Romney may be gaining some momentum. A Rasmussen Reports survey released Thursday found Romney leading Gingrich by 3 points—a result within the poll’s margin of error.

But Romney still faces an uphill battle when it comes to wooing the state’s base of evangelical voters, an influential voting bloc that has been openly skeptical about Romney’s views on social issues.

The paper hasn’t always backed the eventual winner of the Iowa caucuses. Four years ago, the Register overlooked Romney and Mike Huckabee, who were in a fierce competition for Republican support in the state, and instead backed the party’s eventual nominee John McCain, who had barely campaigned in the state.

The Register is the second major early state newspaper endorsement to come out ahead of next month’s voting. Last month, the New Hampshire Union Leader backed Gingrich in that state’s GOP primary.

December 21st, 2011

Matt Damon rips President Obama in Elle magazine, blasting his leadership qualities and saying he’d prefer “a one-term president with some balls who actually got stuff done.”

The actor, a longtime supporter of the Democratic Party and onetime Obama advocate, reveals frustration with the administration in his wide-ranging interview.

The Jewish festival of light, an eight-day commemoration of the Jewish uprising in the second century B.C. against the Greek-Syrian kingdom, which had tried to put statues of Greek gods in the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem, started Tuesday.

France makes it harder to become French

          France will be making it harder for foreigners to seek French citizenship as of January. Critics say the new requirements, which include tough language tests and allegiance to “French values”, are an electoral ploy that panders to the far right.

dallaire slams ‘Hotel Rwanda’ film as revisionist ‘junk’

By The Huffington Post

It looks like Mitt  Romney‘s been keeping up with the Kardashians.

The notoriously buttoned-up GOP candidate lightened up on Sunday, taking a  dig at President  Obama by comparing him to Kim  Kardashian and her 72-day marriage.

“I’ve been looking at some video clips on YouTube of President Obama, then  candidate Obama, going through Iowa making promises,” Romney told  a crowd at a campaign stop in Council Bluffs.

“I think the gap between his promises and his performance is the largest I’ve  seen, well, since the Kardashian wedding and the promise of ‘til death do we  part.”

ON  THE GROUND IN IOWA: LIVE UPDATES FROM THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL

Not known for his sense of humor, Romney did manage to get a loud laugh from  the crowd with the line, which one Fox News correspondent noted was only “the  second joke he’s made” on the campaign trail.

Less than 36 hours from the Iowa caucuses Tuesday night, Romney remains at  the front of the pack, locked in a virtual dead heat against Ron Paul and Rick Santorum,  according to the latest polls.

But if he really wants to get a rise out of Obama, Romney may have to pick  another pop culture reference – the President told Jay  Leno in October that he has never seen an episode of the Kardashians’ many  reality TV franchises.

“I have not seen the show,” Obama said at the time. “I am probably a little  biased against reality TV, partly because there’s this program on C-Span called  ‘Congress.’ I have not seen the show… I think the girls have seen it.”

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/mitt-romney-obama-promises-kim-kardashian-failed-wedding-vows-article-1.999775#ixzz1iJsDaeJY

Subject: Secret Service Views of Presidents and First Ladies

Here’s the full text of Mitch Daniels’s response to the State of the Union, as prepared for delivery:

“The status of ‘loyal opposition’ imposes on those out of power some serious responsibilities: to show respect for the Presidency and its occupant, to express agreement where it exists.  Republicans tonight salute our President, for instance, for his aggressive pursuit of the murderers of 9/11, and for bravely backing long overdue changes in public education.  I personally would add to that list admiration for the strong family commitment that he and the First Lady have displayed to a nation sorely needing such examples.

“On these evenings, Presidents naturally seek to find the sunny side of our national condition.  But when President Obama claims that the state of our union is anything but grave, he must know in his heart that this is not true.

“The President did not cause the economic and fiscal crises that continue in America tonight.  But he was elected on a promise to fix them, and he cannot claim that the last three years have made things anything but worse: the percentage of Americans with a job is at the lowest in decades.  One in five men of prime working age, and nearly half of all persons under 30, did not go to work today.

“In three short years, an unprecedented explosion of spending, with borrowed money, has added trillions to an already unaffordable national debt.  And yet, the President has put us on a course to make it radically worse in the years ahead.  The federal government now spends one of every four dollars in the entire economy; it borrows one of every three dollars it spends.  No nation, no entity, large or small, public or private, can thrive, or survive intact, with debts as huge as ours.

“The President’s grand experiment in trickle-down government has held back rather than sped economic recovery.  He seems to sincerely believe we can build a middle class out of government jobs paid for with borrowed dollars.  In fact, it works the other way: a government as big and bossy as this one is maintained on the backs of the middle class, and those who hope to join it.

“Those punished most by the wrong turns of the last three years are those unemployed or underemployed tonight, and those so discouraged that they have abandoned the search for work altogether.  And no one has been more tragically harmed than the young people of this country, the first generation in memory to face a future less promising than their parents did.

“As Republicans our first concern is for those waiting tonight to begin or resume the climb up life’s ladder.  We do not accept that ours will ever be a nation of haves and have nots; we must always be a nation of haves and soon to haves.

“In our economic stagnation and indebtedness, we are only a short distance behind Greece, Spain, and other European countries now facing economic catastrophe.  But ours is a fortunate land.   Because the world uses our dollar for trade, we have a short grace period to deal with our dangers.  But time is running out, if we are to avoid the fate of Europe, and those once-great nations of history that fell from the position of world leadership.

“So 2012 is a year of true opportunity, maybe our last, to restore an America of hope and upward mobility, and greater equality.  The challenges aren’t matters of ideology, or party preference; the problems are simply mathematical, and the answers are purely practical.

“An opposition that would earn its way back to leadership must offer not just criticism of failures that anyone can see, but a positive and credible plan to make life better, particularly for those aspiring to make a better life for themselves.  Republicans accept this duty, gratefully.

“The routes back to an America of promise, and to a solvent America that can pay its bills and protect its vulnerable, start in the same place.  The only way up for those suffering tonight, and the only way out of the dead end of debt into which we have driven, is a private economy that begins to grow and create jobs, real jobs, at a much faster rate than today.

“Contrary to the President’s constant disparagement of people in business, it’s one of the noblest of human pursuits.  The late Steve Jobs – what a fitting name he had – created more of them than all those stimulus dollars the President borrowed and blew.  Out here in Indiana, when a businessperson asks me what he can do for our state, I say ‘First, make money.  Be successful.  If you make a profit, you’ll have something left to hire someone else, and some to donate to the good causes we love.’

“The extremism that stifles the development of homegrown energy, or cancels a perfectly safe pipeline that would employ tens of thousands, or jacks up consumer utility bills for no improvement in either human health or world temperature, is a pro-poverty policy.  It must be replaced by a passionate pro-growth approach that breaks all ties and calls all close ones in favor of private sector jobs that restore opportunity for all and generate the public revenues to pay our bills.

“That means a dramatically simpler tax system of fewer loopholes and lower rates.  A pause in the mindless piling on of expensive new regulations that devour dollars that otherwise could be used to hire somebody.  It means maximizing on the new domestic energy technologies that are the best break our economy has gotten in years.

“There is a second item on our national must-do list: we must unite to save the safety net. Medicare and Social Security have served us well, and that must continue.  But after half and three quarters of a century respectively, it’s not surprising that they need some repairs.   We can preserve them unchanged and untouched for those now in or near retirement, but we must fashion a new, affordable safety net so future Americans are protected, too.

SEE FULL TEXT AT THE WEEKLY STANDARD

Solar storm’s effects to lash Earth until Wednesday

By Paul Rincon Science editor, BBC News website

Our planet is being bombarded by high-energy particles unleashed by the strongest solar storm since 2005, scientists say.

The charged particles are mostly a concern for satellites – which they can disrupt – and astronauts.

But they can also cause communication problems for aircraft travelling near the poles.

The geomagnetic storm has been caused by a potent flare that erupted from the Sun at 0400 GMT on Monday.

The effects are likely to be felt on Earth throughout Wednesday.

A more benign effect of the outpouring of particles is the ability to see aurorae, or “Northern lights”, farther south than is usually possible.

A spokesman for US space agency Nasa said that flight surgeons and solar scientists have modelled the flare’s predicted effects.

They decided that the six astronauts on the International Space Station do not have to take any action to protect themselves from the incoming stream of particles.

Solar flares are caused by the sudden release of magnetic energy stored in the Sun’s atmosphere.

In an event called a coronal mass ejection (CME), bursts of charged particles are released into space.

Nasa’s Goddard Space Weather Center predicted that the coronal mass ejection was moving at almost 2,200 km/s when it was due to reach Earth’s magnetosphere – the magnetic envelope that surrounds our planet – on Tuesday at 1400 GMT (plus or minus 7 hours).

This can interfere with technology on Earth, such as electrical power grids, communications systems and satellites – including satellite navigation (or sat-nav) signals.

In 1972, a geomagnetic storm provoked by a solar flare knocked out long-distance telephone communication across the US state of Illinois.

And in 1989, another storm plunged six million people into darkness across the Canadian province of Quebec.

But a spokesman for the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (Noaa) Space Weather Prediction Center said the effects of this solar eruption seem likely to be moderate

Who’s On Unemployment      or Who’s on first!!!

By Bob Beauprez

1/26/2012

Barack Obama spent considerable time during the State of the Union address on jobs and the economy – both of which are in a sorry state.

As a result of the smoke-and-mirrors Obama-spin, the following little exercise might be a good review.  Credit is due to Barry Levinson, the famed Academy Award winning director, screenwriter, and producer who created and first published this two months ago in the Huffington Post.

Enjoy!

COSTELLO: I want to talk about the unemployment rate in America.

ABBOTT:  Good Subject. Terrible Times. It’s 9%.

COSTELLO:  That many people are out of work?

ABBOTT:  No, that’s 16%.

COSTELLO:  You just said 9%.

ABBOTT:  9% Unemployed.

COSTELLO:  Right 9% out of work.

ABBOTT:  No, that’s 16%.

COSTELLO:  Okay, so it’s 16% unemployed.

ABBOTT:  No, that’s 9%…

COSTELLO:  WAIT A MINUTE. Is it 9% or 16%?

ABBOTT:  9% are unemployed. 16% are out of work.

COSTELLO:  IF you are out of work you are unemployed.

ABBOTT:  No, you can’t count the “Out of Work” as the unemployed. You have to look for work to be unemployed.

COSTELLO:  BUT THEY ARE OUT OF WORK!!!

ABBOTT:  No, you miss my point.

COSTELLO:  What point?

ABBOTT:  Someone who doesn’t look for work, can’t be counted with those who look for work. It wouldn’t be fair.

COSTELLO:  To who?

ABBOTT:  The unemployed.

COSTELLO:  But they are ALL out of work.

ABBOTT:  No, the unemployed are actively looking for work…

Those who are out of work stopped looking.

They gave up.

And, if you give up, you are no longer in the ranks of the unemployed.

COSTELLO:  So if you’re off the unemployment roles, that would count as less unemployment?

ABBOTT:  Unemployment would go down. Absolutely!

COSTELLO:  The unemployment just goes down because you don’t look for work?

ABBOTT:  Absolutely it goes down. That’s how you get to 9%. Otherwise it would be 16%. You don’t want to read about 16% unemployment do ya?

COSTELLO:  That would be frightening.

ABBOTT:  Absolutely.

COSTELLO:  Wait, I got a question for you. That means they’re two ways to bring down the unemployment number?

ABBOTT:  Two ways is correct.

COSTELLO:  Unemployment can go down if someone gets a job?

ABBOTT:  Correct.

COSTELLO:  And unemployment can also go down if you stop looking for a job?

ABBOTT:  Bingo.

COSTELLO:  So there are two ways to bring unemployment down, and the easier of the two is to just stop looking for work.

ABBOTT:  Now you’re thinking like an economist.

COSTELLO:  I don’t even know what the hell I just said!

Now you know why Obama’s unemployment figures are improving, and you should be understand the State of the Union.

Bob Beauprez

Bob Beauprez is a former Member of Congress and is currently the editor-in-chief of A Line of Sight, an online policy resource. Prior to serving in Congress, Mr. Beauprez was a dairy farmer and community banker. He and his wife Claudia reside in Lafayette, Colorado. You may contact him at: http://bobbeauprez.com/contact/

Nothing is easier than spending the public money. It does not appear to belong to anybody. The temptation is overwhelming to bestow it on somebody.”    -Calvin Coolidge

HURT: ‘Islamist Firster’ president not what he claimed

ANALYSIS/OPINION:

GOLAN HEIGHTS — Surveying the live minefields, cratered roads and mortar-pocked concrete buildings along the border here between Syria and Israel, it is hard not to be reminded of the historic and monumental disappointment President Obama has been.

When he was campaigning to become the most powerful man in the last standing superpower on Earth, he spoke passionately about changing the world, restoring America’s greatness and bringing more peace and fairness to everyone.

In both foreign and domestic matters, Mr. Obama had unique credibility to change things as few presidents ever had.

Despite his background as a liberal street organizer, he campaigned on tax cuts and personal responsibility and preached that the government simply cannot be the answer to every problem. Republicans would have no choice but to go along with an agenda to shrink the tax burden and get the federal government out of our everyday lives.

Instead, Mr. Obama has devoted his administration to raising taxes, adding to the byzantine structure of the federal government, and has created a whole new massive bureaucracy he claims really will cure our every little boo-boo.

As for the rest of the world, Mr. Obama promised to devote himself to healing the grave injustices and halting the atrocities that have afflicted the world since the rise of radical, violent jihadism. With his Muslim roots, Mr. Obama was positioned better than any leader on the global stage to speak with authority to radical Islamists and finally bring about permanent peace.

Instead, Mr. Obama chose to unilaterally alienate perhaps our most strategically important ally in the world and do all he can to cozy up to the very people who are dedicated to destroying not only Israel, but America as well.

Leading Democrats have been in the news lately sliming Americans who stick up for Israel as being “Israel Firsters.” Well, Mr. Obama has become an “Islamist Firster.”

Since becoming president, he has not once visited our greatest ally in the region. Rather, he has gone to places like Cairo to tell the Muslim world how much he likes it. He also stunningly trashed the oath of office he took by saying it is “part of my responsibility as president of the United States to fight against negative stereotypes of Islam wherever they appear.”

And, of course, he apologized for the “sexuality” and “mindless violence” from the West permeating the Internet. But Internet porn and creepy videos are little match for virginity tests, stoning women and beheading Jews — all for the fun of it.

When Mr. Obama finally addressed Israel, he shockingly said the tiny country should further retrench so its well-armed enemies can retake high ground from which to fire rockets at Israelis and move closer so they can hit major population centers such as Tel Aviv.

Such a twisted and half-baked view of justice is bad enough in a president. But things are about to get much more terrifying when Iran finally gets its hands on a nuclear warhead, which appears likely to happen in a matter of months.

It will be a very complicated situation because the most powerful man in the last remaining superpower on the planet is an Islamist Firster.

• Charles Hurt may be reached at charleshurt@live.com

Catholic League Poised To Go To War With Obama at Over Mandatory Birth Control Payments

Donohue Says 70 Million Of His Voters Ready To Alter Presidential Election

February 6, 2012 11:00 PM

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — Catholic leaders upped the ante Monday, threatening to challenge the Obama administration over a provision of the new health care law that would require all employers, including religious institutions, to pay for birth control.

As CBS 2’s Marcia Kramer reports, it could affect the presidential elections.

Catholic leaders are furious and determined to harness the voting power of the nation’s 70 million Catholic voters to stop a provision of President Barack Obama’s new heath car reform bill that will force Catholic schools, hospitals and charities to buy birth control pills, abortion-producing drugs and sterilization coverage for their employees.

“Never before, unprecedented in American history, for the federal government to line up against the Roman Catholic Church,” said Catholic League head Bill Donohue.

Already Archbishop Timothy Dolan has spoken out against the law and priests around the country have mobilized, reading letters  from the pulpit. Donohue said Catholic officials will stop at nothing to put a stop to it.

“This is going to be fought out with lawsuits, with court decisions, and, dare I say it, maybe even in the streets,” Donohue said.

But pro-choice groups said they will fight the church and fight for the right of employees of Catholic institutions to have birth control and other services paid for.

“The Catholic hierarchy seems to be playing a cynical game of chicken and they don’t seem to care that the health and well being of millions of American woman are what’s at stake here,” National Abortion Rights Action League President Andrea Miller said.

Catholic leaders hope they will have more sway with the White House than usual because it is a presidential election year, hoping that if even a small percentage of Catholics back Obama’s opponent it could cost him the election.

When asked if this issue would affect who he would vote for in November, Wilton, Conn., resident Peter Taylor said, “Potentially, yes. I think it is a very serious issue, very meaningful.”

But not everyone views the situation as dire.

“I would certainly vote for Obama anyway. The church has to get up to date,” Manhattan resident Sue Thomas said.

Sources told Kramer that American bishops are contemplating a massive march on Washington, using people and school kids bused in from all over to protest the law.