Barely more than a year after a taxpayer bailout of major financial institutions, Bank of America and the hedge fund, Fortress Investment Group, spotted a fresh money-making opportunity - collecting the tax debts of tens of thousands of people like Walker. The bank and hedge fund can add interest charges and fees, and they bundled the debts as securities for investors.
Webmaster's Commentary:
Given that these homeowners don't have the money to pay those taxes (remember, a record-setting increase is just weeks away) plus interest plus charges, this is just another convoluted way to confiscate homes.
n case you were wondering whether pornoscanners are harder on the vast majority of innocent, non-terrorist fliers, or the minuscule minority of terrorists, wonder no more. From Leon Kaufman and Joseph W. Carlson's "An evaluation of airport x-ray backscatter units based on image characteristics," published in the Journal of Transportation Security: Webmaster's Commentary: Proof positive that the installation of these units was never about passenger safety, and everything about the boatloads of cash going to Michael Chertoff, ex-head of Homeland Security.
Dr Kelly, a world-renowned weapons inspector, is said to have killed himself after being named as the prime source of a BBC report accusing Tony Blair’s government of lying to take Britain into war. His body was found in woods close to his home in Oxfordshire on July 18 2003. Uniquely, for an unexpected death such as his, no coroner’s inquest has ever been held.
On the third Wednesday of every month, the nine members of an elite Wall Street society gather in Midtown Manhattan.The men share a common goal: to protect the interests of big banks in the vast market for derivatives, one of the most profitable — and controversial — fields in finance. They also share a common secret: The details of their meetings, even their identities, have been strictly confidential. Webmaster's Commentary: Derivatives are the one of the most dangerous, if not the most dangerous, elements in the global economy.
Israel's prime minister on Monday welcomed Washington's decision to abandon its call for an Israeli freeze on settlement construction, saying the United States now understands Israel and the Palestinians must instead address the major issues that divide them.
Webmaster's Commentary:
Meaning that the US understands Israel is fully in control of the US Government and better start attacking all those pesky countries that dared to recognize Palestine!
Stem cells can be transformed into the pancreatic cells needed to treat diabetes and into complex layers of intestinal tissue, scientists demonstrated in two experiments reported on Sunday.
Webmaster's Commentary: Please share this info with everyone you know who has a kid with type 1 diabetes; should this research move forward positively in human trials, it would absolutely change the lives of these kids, and the families who love them, forever.
The degree of indulgence and absurdity, engaged in by the self-adulating fops of the day, during their brief respite here, enjoying what they earned at some other time and traded off for something far less than what they could have gotten, is a wonder to behold. One of the key pleasures of having too much money is the ability to spend it on things that most people cannot afford. That may even be the chief pleasure. Perhaps they move from one to the other? For those who have the style-wit and capacity to appreciate having their anal ring bleached, there will always be places to go.
Michel Chossudovsky over at Global Research has put up an interesting NPR transcript with some rather revealing statements about Wikileaks that were made by the New York Times chief Washington correspondent, David Sanger. Sanger is one of the New York Times reporters who have been reading and writing about the different state department memos “leaked” by Wikileaks. He was also involved in meetings with the Obama administration and others which selected and redacted the cables that would be published.
Webmaster's Commentary:
"... involved in meetings with the Obama administration and others which selected and redacted the cables that would be published."
The former chief of US intelligence warned Sunday that South Korea has lost its patience with provocations by North Korea and "will be taking military action." Retired admiral Dennis Blair, who was director of national intelligence until May, said he did not think that hostilities would escalate into a larger war with artillery attacks on Seoul because North Korea knows it would lose.
Webmaster's Commentary: MEMO to retired Adm. Blair:
1. North Korea responded to South Korean provocation first, after the North Korean military called the South Korean Military, requesting that they not do the live fire exercise in disputed waters, stating that there would be a robust consequence to such shelling, which South Korea ignored.
2. North Korea would probably lose to South Korea on its own. However, it is as disingenuous to say that North Korea would be "on its own" as it would be to say that South Korea is "on its own" in such a potential conflict.
3. North Korea is a client state of China: South Korea is a client state of the US.
4. Due to defense treaties in place, such a conflict will almost inevitably lead to a military conflict between the US and China, both of which are nuclear armed countries.
Consider the 19 states which are recipients of the Hardest Hit Fund (HHF)—a portion of TARP money set aside to help homeowners in states struggling with the highest unemployment rates and steepest declines in the housing market. Some of those states, including Ohio, let Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner know as far back as this past spring that they wanted to use some of those funds to assist legal aid groups that help individual homeowners. Seems like a reasonable request—unlike the absurdity of handing over trillions of dollars to robo-signing, foreclosure-mad banks, no questions asked.
Helen Thomas has become the enemy of many circles of power within the government and the press because she speaks the truth about Israel. For all the talking heads reading talking points by the Anti Defamation League about Helen's harsh truthful comments. There suggestions she resign or keep quiet by the mouth pieces is a slap in the face to free speech.
If you attack Helen Thomas for her what she speaks or thinks. Then you attack you own freedom of speech.Including theirs in the media. People may love or hate Helen Thomas. She has the right to speak her mind. Just like the Dixie Chicks or Rush Limbaugh. Freedom of Speech must be protected even if it offends you.
A Swedish Armed Forces (Försvarsmakten) employee warned an acquaintance to stay clear of an area in central Stockholm on Saturday where, several hours later, two explosions went off in what is being called a terrorist attack.
"One way or another, we'll get this @#$%ing World War going, and then those stupid serfs will quit whining about how we had to take their homes to buy back those fraudulent mortgage-backed securities." -- Official White Horse Souse
Webmaster's Commentary: Funny how in all those hundreds of thousands of WikiLeaks documents, there are NONE that confirm the torture and abuse of children by US soldiers.
In a meeting with Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi warned that he believed “no one including Obama” could stop Israel from launching an attack against Israel once it had made up its mind. Berlusconi, who has publicly said previously that he absolutely believes Israel will ultimately attack Iran, was revealed in the new comments, part of a WikiLeaks cable, to be concerned that Israel was planning to use nuclear weapons in the attack.
Under the new definition of "material support," the efforts of President Jimmy Carter to monitor the elections in Lebanon and coordinate with the political parties there, including the designated FTO Hezbollah, could well be prosecuted as a crime. Similarly, the publication of op-ed articles by FTO spokesmen from Hamas or other designated groups by The New York Times or The Washington Post, or the filing of amicus briefs by human rights attorneys arguing against a group's terrorist designation or the statute itself could also now be prosecuted.
An honest American has to admit that he hates this country, not just the government. The government is a reflection of the people who pay for it. This country isn’t what you thought it was and it never has been. We’ve been conditioned to pledge allegiance to the flag and to the nation for which it stands, but what it stands for isn’t what Hollywood has had us believing since we were little kids. All leaks are good, as long as they’re the real deal, not redacted or altered to make us support Israel. The only way we can survive is to know the truth about what government and the corporations have been secretly doing to us and others. The truth may be anti-American, but that’s the way the cookie crumbles.
While it is generally clear, even to the relatively uninformed, that government and corporations have become one and the same, the extent to which this is the case is still largely unknown amongst the general public. Likewise, the extent to which this merger is affecting public health is also not widely known. In recent years (aside from their other horrific projects) government agencies, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), think tanks, and corporations have all banded together to combine two of the biggest scourges on the environment and human health -- genetic modification and vaccines -- into one entity . . .
Tough times have people in Camden living in tents. The makeshift "Tent City" has not been heard from for a while now, but it's back, and it's bigger than ever. Despite numbers showing an improving economy, homeless men and women living here say their economy has only gotten worse. Webmaster's Commentary:
The economy is great ... if you work on Wall Street!
Most current climate models don't account for green plants can be expected to grow as they find it easier to harvest carbon from the air around them using energy from the sun: thus introducing a negative feedback into the warming/carbon process, according to Bounoua. Some do, but they fail to accurately simulate the effects – they don't allow for the fact that plants in a high-CO2 atmosphere will "down-regulate" and so use water more efficiently. Webmaster's Commentary:
Remember the caller into our radio show who had been a volunteer temperature monitor for NOAA, but was told NOAA didn't need the data because they were relying on the computer models now?
Yes, in America you can, if you're a peace officer, shoot at a non-threat in a rank demonstration of reckless disregard for the safety of the public - that is, you can discharge your firearm without having acquired an actual target that would be lawful to shoot at - and you're placed on paid leave while the department "investigates." In the real world when you screw up you get fired and, if you're not a peace officer and shoot like this at a non-threat, you're placed under arrest and charged with the unlawful use of a firearm. In the world of "public employment" you get paid to screw the pooch and threaten the public's safety. We don't need police officers to defend our personal safety.
The worldwide derivatives market is based primarily on credit and it is approximately ten times larger than it was back in the late 90s. There has never been anything quite like it in the history of the world. So what in the world is going to happen when this thing implodes? Are U.S. taxpayers going to be expected to pick up the pieces once again? Is the Federal Reserve just going to zap tens of trillions or hundreds of trillions of dollars into existence to bail everyone out?
I usually add some gentle humor to these reports. Not today. Read this and weep. Notwithstanding the carefully-orchestrated propaganda to the effect that nothing much will be decided at the UN climate conference here in Cancun, the decisions to be made here this week signal nothing less than the abdication of the West. The governing class in what was once proudly known as the Free World is silently, casually letting go of liberty, prosperity, and even democracy itself. No one in the mainstream media will tell you this, not so much because they do not see as because they do not bl**dy care.
I am hearing more and more questions about how to buy gold and silver. How do you buy it? Why should I buy gold and silver? What kind of gold and silver should I buy? What is the difference between numismatic and bullion coins? Which of these should I buy? Do buyers get some kind of confirmation that what they are buying from these shops is real and certified? Will the government confiscate my gold and silver? Can the government make owning gold illegal? How do I know if my gold and silver dealer is reputable? Where can I buy gold and silver? These are just some of the questions I will try to answer in this post.
First off, why should you own precious metals? Read this:
The global corruption barometer report from Transparency International is out. The overall trends are concerning for citizens, and for the health of transparency and accountability of governance . . .
Our 'neoconservatives' are neither new nor conservative, but old as Bablyon and evil as Hell. Edward Abbey SARTRE -- BATR If you believed that the NeoCons disappeared after the 2008 election, how soon do you forget?
With the next round in the never-ending beltway two-step, the Republican leadership readies their hold of the House of Representatives agenda. The Tea Party freshmen promise to bring a breath of fresh air to a stuffy chamber. Time will tell if their pledge of hope will pan out. What is known with certainty is that the entrenched GOP leadership continues with their dedication to the policies that exemplify their NeoCon mindset. So what is a neoconservative?
Where are we now, and how did we get this far? The energy is building. Even before we have printed a single note, everywhere we go in Baltimore people have already heard of the BNote, and businesses are signing on to accept them when we launch next year . . .
It's already changed the way we live our lives, but the WikiLeaks saga shows it will also change the way governments work Paul Vallely The Independent The assault on the royal car carrying Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall last week showed that the old politics is alive and kicking – and daubing paint and smashing windows – as ever. But, threatening though it was, there was something faintly anachronistic about the preposterous cries of "off with their heads". The assault on corporate websites – in retaliation for the global establishment's attempts to shut down WikiLeaks – was, by contrast, singularly modern . . .
The EU’s Franco-German "Directoire" and the European Central Bank have between them ruled out all plausible solutions to the eurozone’s debt crisis.
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard Telegraph
There will be no Eurobond, no increases in the EU’s €440bn (£368bn) rescue fund, and no mass purchases of Spanish and Italian bonds by the ECB. Nothing . . .
WikiLeaks has given the mainstream media yet another opportunity to vilify Iran. A typical headline, from the New York Times was: "Around the world distress over Iran." And, ironically, it is true, but not in the way the headline writer meant. Around the world there is distress over Iran, distress at the way it is being cast in the role of the Evil Doer, when all but the most ignorant observers realise that it is nuclear-armed Apartheid Israel that is the real threat to world peace, not Iran.
The whole world is abuzz with discussions on flood of revelations made by WikiLeaks. Every thinking biped has got glued to the sensational leaks. Analysts are still busy drying their pens writing about the motives and the impact made on affected countries and personalities. Those who have been exposed are feeling sheepish but trying to put up a brave face and also asserting that the leaks are not authentic and are either Zionist inspired or US-Jewish motivated. Some are pretending as if nothing serious has happened and are urging the media not to exploit the issue.
Indeed, Nobel prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz noted in September that giants like Goldman are using their size to manipulate the market:
"The main problem that Goldman raises is a question of size: 'too big to fail.' In some markets, they have a significant fraction of trades. Why is that important? They trade both on their proprietary desk and on behalf of customers. When you do that and you have a significant fraction of all trades, you have a lot of information."
“Our own country [United State] is basically run by a kind of an oligarchy and this begins to explain why the media is owned by a fairly small number of corporate interests, and why irrespective of what party holds the White house, the policies always seem to be the same. They always benefit a wealth interest,” ...
"It is one hundred percent certain that 9-11 was a Mossad operation -- period." - Dr. Alan Sabrosky, former director of Strategic Studies Institute, U.S. Army War College
Ken O'Keefe grew up in California and was in the U.S. Marines in the 1991 Gulf War. He initiated P10K in 2004 to recruit international observers to live side by side with Palestinians. Humanitarian Peace Activist, Anti-War, Gulf War veteran and survivor of the Mavi Marmara massacre.
"Bank of America entities have agreed to pay a total of 137.3 million dollars in restitution to federal and state agencies for its participation in a conspiracy to rig bids in the municipal bond derivatives market," the Department of Justice said in a statement.
"Bank of America entered into agreements with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the Office of the Comptroller of Currency and 20 state attorneys general, the department said.
"The combined outcome provides for payment of restitution to the IRS and to municipalities harmed by the bank's anti-competitive conduct in the muni-bond derivatives market."
The scenes witnessed across London on Thursday transfixed the nation and scandalised many. But they also marked a raw coming-of-age – and, perhaps, a turning point in the fortunes of the three main parties
This is the story of the open murder of three dogs by a trigger happy SWAT Team.
Several topics were raised in the interview such as the fact that in some states if a police dog is killed, the suspect could serve 5 or more years in prison.
There should be a more humane way that SWAT could conduct their operations to minimize harm to innocent people and animals. One suggestion that was raised in the interview was that SWAT should maintain an animal handling professional to secure such animals as soon as the house is cleared. SWAT teams are outfitted with padding and body armor.
This certainly has the appearance of a professional hit on Maguire and his wife. It occurred just days after his name was revealed in Congressional testimony on silver market manipulation by JP Morgan, and the identity of the assailant still has not been released by London police.
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