Weekday NEWS to Comfort the Disturbed and Disturb the Comfortable.
Tues 02.09.2010
The Census and Despotism by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr. “There went out a decree from Caesar Augustus,” says St. Luke on why Mary and Joseph found themselves in Bethlehem, “that all the world should be taxed.” Joseph had to go to his own city because the tyrannical Roman government was conducting a census. But the information may have been used for more than just taxation. The Roman government’s local ruler later decided he wanted to find the Christ child and kill Him. Did the government make use of census data to find out where the members of the House of David were? We can’t know for sure, although a later Roman despot did. But we can know that Joseph made a huge error in obeying the census takers in the first place. They were up to no good. In fact, another group of religious Jews in Judea decided that they would not comply with the Roman government’s demand to count and tax them. The group was known as the “Zealots” (yes, that’s where the word came from). They saw complying with the census as equivalent to submitting to slavery. Many ended up paying for their principled stand with their lives.
Will Obama Play The War Card? by Patrick J. Buchanan Republicans already counting the seats they will pick up this fall should keep in mind Obama has a big card yet to play. Should the president declare he has gone the last mile for a negotiated end to Iran's nuclear program and impose the "crippling" sanctions he promised in 2008, America would be on an escalator to confrontation that could lead straight to war. And should war come, that would be the end of GOP dreams of adding three-dozen seats in the House and half a dozen in the Senate.
White House Shuns EU Ron Fraser - the Trumpet U.S. foreign policy is becoming increasingly isolationist. The gloss is rapidly fading from the image of the current U.S. administration in the eyes of the European public. Following President Obama's July 2008 euphoric greeting by Berliners, it now appears that Europe's high expectations for a rosy relationship with Washington are rapidly diffusing into extreme disappointment.
Greece? Just a Side Show if the U.K. Defaults Brian Kelly - Gold Seek In our younger years we were quite accomplished at the “Match Game” on Sesame Street – to some we have just hopelessly dated ourselves, to others we hope to have given you a nostalgic boost. Whichever group you find yourself, please indulge us as we revert to times past and play the game once again…
Greece Says Call for Aid Would Send ‘Worst Signal’ By Svenja O’Donnell and David Tweed Feb. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Greek Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou said he can’t call for outside aid as his government struggles to cut the European Union’s largest budget deficit. “The worst possible signal which we could send out is one calling for outside help,” he said in an interview with Bloomberg Television in Athens yesterday. “We will tackle the deficit,” he said, adding that tax revenues in January exceeded forecasts “by some percentage points.”
Two Giant Spanish Banks Could Tumble Hard By James Cullen - Daily Finance Last August, an article I published on DailyFinance highlighted that something seemed amiss with two international banking giants headquartered in Spain: Banco Santander and Banco Bilbao were buying up foreign banks, even as conditions in their home country worsened dramatically. Instead of buckling down to face an inevitable spike in loan losses on existing business, the banks expanded their balance sheets through acquisitions and became more leveraged. But after a string of relatively benign months for equity markets, investors have recently grown skeptical of these two companies and sent shares down sharply. Santander shares have dropped 17% since the end of August, and Banco Bilbao shares are off 26% over the same period.
Global Bear Rally Will Deflate as Japan Leads World in Sovereign Bond Crisis by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard - Lew Rockwell -- Milton Keynes will be vindicated. Lord Keynes will lose some of his new-found gloss. The Krugman doctrine that we should all spend our way back to health by pushing deficits to the brink of a debt spiral – or beyond the brink – will be seen as dangerous. The contraction of M3 money in the US and Europe over the last six months will slowly puncture economic recovery as 2010 unfolds, with the time-honoured lag of a year or so. Ben Bernanke will be caught off guard, just as he was in mid-2008 when the Fed drove straight through a red warning light with talk of imminent rate rises – the final error that triggered the implosion of Lehman, AIG, and the Western banking system.
China's debt bomb By Arthur Herman - NY Post America's No. 1 creditor holds the ultimate weapon 'He who pays the piper calls the tune": That old saying captures perfectly America's growing dependence on our No. 1 creditor in the world, Communist China. By their carelessness Congress and the Obama administration are steadily handing over control of America's economic and financial future to a handful of Chinese officials and generals in Beijing. Those who think the Chinese won't use that control if they feel they have to are ignoring history -- and the Chinese. The ancient military strategist Sun Tzu said that the best strategy was to render an opponent's army helpless even before the battle began. America may still have the biggest and best military in the world.
Middle-Class Rage Against the Government by Jack D. Douglas - Lew Rockwell The soaring, middle-class rage against government catastrophes, terrorism, and corruptions of all forms is in part due to the immense catastrophes they have seen government and Big Corporations working with government produce in front of their startled eyes over and over again. The Great Financial Crisis is certainly a colossal catastrophe they have seen crashing all around them, Government officials deny everything and try to blame it all on the local real estate guy or gal who worked with you to get a mortgage for your home, But even the terminally ignorant and dumb see that government did not prevent it and intelligent people are perfectly aware the government not only was the prime mover of it all by getting interest rates below zero in real terms and the government is now giving vast piles of their money to the Big Bank Perps, rewarding the corporate perps for the catastrophe they helped to create
Marc Faber on US Bubble, 'worthless' dollar & Gold 'the Savior' Marc Faber, author of Gloom Boom and Doom Report says many Western governments would eventually follow the US 'inevitable' default suit. Outspoken investor and writer Marc Faber doesn't give America much time before it goes bust.
Three major currencies: dollar, euro and gold By Jim Sinclair - Commodity Online New York State spending is out of control. California tried to go off the dollar but the California IOU is a total failure. There are 38 states right behind California and New York, all of which are too big to fail. The debts of the weaker European Union states are under attack by the huge short players. In time every currency will come under attack by the same ever-growing source of wealth.
The recent sell-off in gold could mean the correction is nearly complete. David Levenstein - Mineweb And, as the price of gold approaches the $1,000 we could see some renewed interest by central banks -- JOHANNESBURG - Sometimes markets seem to defy logic. Recently we have seen a "rush to safety" back into the U.S. dollar. But, what is safe about the US dollar when the national debt of the US is approaching 12 trillion, unemployment is at 9.7% and the economy is not booming. Whether or not this makes any sense, the fact remains that we have seen a strong rally in the dollar since the beginning of December 2009 and this has put pressure on the price of gold.
Gold hit hard, but bugs buoyant By Peter Brimelow, MarketWatch Some think gold will benefit after short-term panic runs its course Last Friday's down-$10.20 close at $1,052.80 in New York was the lowest since October 30th. Gold has now completely erased the spectacular November rally which carried it over $1,200. True, gold and gold shares did participate enthusiastically in the peculiar late Friday afternoon rally which brightened the general stock scene. Nyse Arca Gold Bugs and Phlx Gold Silver Index in particular both rose over 5%, far outpacing the general market. No one really knows whether to take this seriously -- gold normally barely trades late on Fridays. The possibility of window dressing is obvious. What next?
The Truth About Gold and Inflation. What Does Gold Hedge Against? Jason Ruspini - GoldSeek "Not inflation", the gold critics will shout, in one of their go-to arguments. This is what we hear from CNBC's Mark Haines at every possible chance: since 1980, gold has not kept up with the CPI and so shouldn't be used as an inflation hedge. The problem with this argument is that if you pick basically any other start date but the one corresponding to gold's 1980 peak, you see something different, even giving CPI a long head start over floating gold:
On Fear, Gold and the Dollar Frank Holmes - Financial Sense The U.S. dollar was up last week against the euro out of fear of how debt problems in Greece and elsewhere in Europe will be resolved, and as a result gold had a tough week. The dollar’s rally appears to be a short-term safe haven move, rather than a response to improving economic conditions in the U.S. In fact, Friday’s report of a net loss of 20,000 jobs in December (the expectation was for a net gain in employment) and that many thousands more would-be workers have given up looking for jobs is evidence that the economy remains somewhat weak.
Gold’s characteristics are superior to currencies Not only does Chris Potter stand by his claim that India's big gold buy late last year was a game-changer, the way he explains it in this exclusive Gold Report, interview, it's a 21st century take on the classic alchemist's quest of old—transforming lead into gold. Nowadays, the alchemists are the central bankers of the world, and they're successfully managing to turn the paper money their countries are producing (their devaluating currencies, that is) into the precious metal. Poof. There's gold in them there rupees, renminbi, pesos, yen, euros and dollars. And even if you're not a central banker, Chris shares some ideas about riding the rising tide in gold prices.
Why central banks are starting to hoard gold Porter Stansberry - Silver Bear Cafe What's the real solution to the constant boom and bust of our credit markets? Simple: a sound currency whose price (interest rates) is set by the demands of the global market, not by any government. Calling our current system "modern" is a misnomer. Our current system is barbaric. It has proven to be a failure every single time in history when it has been tried. Paper money has been used for thousands of years to steal the wealth of the middle class, impose a secret tax on the productive, and swindle, through speculation, the fortunes of those who are honest and hard working. On the other hand, only one monetary system has proven to work, every single time it has been tried – gold. And yet it is the gold system that has been labeled "barbaric" by the politicians who fear it.
For Whom the Gold Bell Tolls by Bill Baker - Conservative Economist Gold began a secular rally at the beginning of this century coincident with the primary top in the financial markets driven by the mania of internet stock investing. That mania attracted capital from around the globe into the United States, setting the dollar's value at a high that is unlikely to be seen again for some time, if ever. Consequently, the financial media has mostly attributed the overall rally in the yellow metal and its daily ups and downs to dollar weakness vis-à-vis other developed nation currencies. Traders have followed suit, betting on this correlation.
The Greatest Money War of All Time By: Martin D Weiss - Market Oracle We are caught in the grips of a great war! It is not a traditional land or sea war with tanks and battleships. Nor is it an anti-terrorist, guerilla war for hearts and minds. Rather, it is war of a third kind - pitting government bureaucrats against millions of investors … and causing massive collateral damage to innocent Americans. Battle by battle, this great war has been escalated - each time with bigger guns deployed by Washington, each time with deadlier attacks striking Wall Street or Main Street … Battle #1 began in Thailand in 1997 when global investors suddenly ran from its currency, dumped its stocks and abandoned its real estate.
A Stern Reality Check for Gold Naysayers by Jordan Roy-Byrne - Financial Sense Needless to say, Thursday was nothing short of an orgasmic day for Gold bears and Dollar bulls. The precious metals complex crumbled along with the Euro, while the greenback was higher. In fact, it was such a bad day that Gold officially lost its safe-haven status, according to CNBC 1. This was also noted by Elliot Wave2 and The Business Insider3 . All proclaimed that Gold was no safe haven. In today’s world, how can you blame them?
Inflation: Ignoring Doesn’t Make it Go Away By: Richard Daught - GoldSeek Being absolutely Frightened Out Of My Mind (FOOMM) about inflation, I am always looking at how much things cost and seeing if there is any inflation, so that the next time somebody tells me that inflation is “tame, benign, absent, nothing to worry about”, I can shake my proof in their stupid little faces and say, “Oh, yeah? Then what do you call this, ya moron?” I bring this up because I recently got a “time to re-subscribe” notice from The Wall Street Journal, which has been, over the years, consistently denying that there is any inflation in anything, and thus suggesting that – with such a benign economic milieu, which keeps interest rates down – you should run out and buy stocks and bonds right away, using, one presumes, the WSJ to keep up with the news.
More Spending is Always the Answer By: Dr. Ron Paul Last week, the House approved another increase in the national debt ceiling. This means the government can borrow $1.9 trillion more to stay afloat and avoid default. It has been little more than a year since the last debt limit increase, and graphs showing the debt limit over time show a steep, almost vertical trend. It is not likely to be very long before this new ceiling is met and the government is back on the brink between default and borrowing us further into oblivion. Congressional leaders and the administration acknowledge that the debt limit will need to be increased again next year. They are crossing their fingers that the forecasts are correct and they will not need another increase sooner, even before the 2010 midterm elections.
Keiser Report 14: Markets! Finance! Scandal! This time Max Keiser and co-host Stacy Herbert look at the scandals behind Hank Paulson's memoir allegations, Hilary Clinton's threats to cut China's energy supply, and Barack Obama's big, big budget. Keiser also talks to former economic hitman John Perkins about whether or not the United States is now being attacked by economic hitmen.
John Thain, Symbol Of Wall St Excess, Back On Top Frank James - NPR John Thain, the controversial former head of Merrill Lynch who helped make that company's acquisition by Bank of America happen but was forced out soon afterwards, has been named chief executive of CIT. Thain became a symbol of Wall Street's excesses because of his demand, later dropped, for a $10 million bonus in 2008 during a time when Merrill was imploding. Then there was his rushing through of about $4 billion in bonuses to Merrill executives before the completion Bank of America's completion of the Merrill acquisition at a time when Merrill was booking huge losses.
First Bank to sell Texas branches to Prosperity Bank St. Louis Business Journal - by Kelsey Volkmann First Banks Inc., the parent company of First Bank, has reached a deal to sell its 19 Texas branches to Prosperity Bank, a subsidiary of Prosperity Bancshares Inc. in Houston, after an earlier deal fell through. Prosperity Bank plans to assume $500 million in deposits associated with First Bank's 19 Texas retail branches, including certain commercial deposit relationships, for a premium of 5.5 percent.
Asia Sails Smoothly Through Debt Waters By VIKAS BAJAJ and KEITH BRADSHER - NY Times MUMBAI, India - While rising government debt is a growing concern in Europe and the United States, Asia's economies remain remarkably resilient, even buoyant, underscoring how economic might is shifting from West to East. China has been repaying some of what little foreign debt it owes, even as economists wonder whether Greece will require an international bailout and ask how long the United States can sustain record budget deficits. "We took a pass on the economic crisis," said Philip S. Carmichael, president of Asian operations at Haier, China's biggest appliance maker.
Fitch Says Prime Jumbo RMBS Near 10% Delinquent by Diana Golobay - HousingWire The performance of US prime jumbo loan performance within residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) slipped again in January as serious delinquencies (60+ days past due) rose for the 32nd consecutive month and edged closer to 10%, according to the latest market commentary from Fitch Ratings. Prime jumbo loan delinquencies began to rise in Q207 but accelerated since then. In 2009, the rate of delinquency nearly tripled during the year. The serious delinquencies rose to 9.6% in January from 9.2% in December.
Obama and 'Redistributive Change' Victor Davis Hanson Forget the recession and the "uninsured." Obama has bigger fish to fry. The first seven months of the Obama administration seemingly make no sense. Why squander public approval by running up astronomical deficits in a time of pre-existing staggering national debt? Why polarize opponents after promising bipartisan transcendence? Why create vast new programs when the efficacy of big government is already seen as dubious? But that is exactly the wrong way to look at these first seven months of Obamist policy-making.
Denver company, owner accused of securities violations gets cease-and-desist order DENVER - AP The state securities commissioner has entered a final cease-and-desist order against a Denver-based company and its owner for alleged violations of the Colorado Securities Act. Securities Commissioner Fred Joseph said Monday that American Imaging Solutions Inc. and its principal, John C. Walshe Jr., agreed to the order.
NYSE Technologies Selected to Build Technology Solution for ASEAN Exchange Network NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--NYSE Technologies and four leading ASEAN equities exchanges-Bursa Malaysia (BM), the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE), Singapore Exchange (SGX) and the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET)-today during the 10th ASEAN Exchanges CEO's Meeting in Manila signed a Letter of Intent that designates NYSE Technologies as the solutions provider for the ASEAN Trading Link. The award marks a significant first step towards the establishment of an integrated ASEAN Capital Market
VAT Trap: The inevitable fix for the deficit By Shawn Tull NEW YORK (Fortune) -- The gigantic deficits the Administration is projecting are appalling, and they provide a chilling look at our future: America is hurtling towards a fiscal trap that is forcing us into the only option we'll have to restore budgetary sanity: A Value-Added Tax. Unfortunately, no one really wants to address it. Nancy Pelosi has spoken admiringly of a VAT, and on the Right, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee wants the levy to replace the income tax. But so far, it's mainly a favorite of a cadre of economists at universities and think tanks. White House budget chief Peter Orszag recently dismissed it as an idea that's "popular with academics but not seriously considered by policy makers."
Dow closes below 10,000 on worries about European debt By Stephen Bernard and Tim Paradis, AP Business Writers NEW YORK — The Dow Jones industrial average closed below 10,000 for the first time in three months Monday on nagging concerns about national debt loads in Europe. Shares of big banks pulled the market lower, extending a slump that has led to four straight weekly losses.
No Exit in Sight for U.S. As Fannie, Freddie Flail By Nick Timiraos, James R. Hagerty - WSJ MCLEAN, Va.—When Charles E. Haldeman Jr. became Freddie Mac's chief executive officer in August, the ailing housing-finance giant had already consumed $51 billion of government money to stay afloat. It's likely to need even more. Freddie's federal overseers nevertheless have instructed Mr. Haldeman to focus on something that isn't likely to make the bleak balance sheet look any better: carrying out the Obama administration plan to allow defaulted borrowers to hang onto their homes.
Questions about the coming wave of second mortgage writedowns By Edward Harrison of Credit Writedowns In the lead-up to the credit crisis, I really didn’t write a considerable amount about second mortgages despite my focus on credit writedowns. At that time, I was more focused on writedowns from securitized mortgage paper (and later construction loans and commercial real estate because of the stress these loan types put on regional financials). However, second liens are a very big deal and I believe they will loom that much larger in 2010 because of the rise in strategic defaults in prime and Alt-A categories.
Money pit: When a cheap foreclosure costs much more By Les Christie NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Dusan Tatomirovic found a steal when he bought a foreclosed condo just north of Monterey, Calif., last April for $130,000. The locale is incredible, just 10 minutes from his office and close to his daughter. The weather is perpetual spring, and the California coast there is gorgeous. Plus, the three-bedroom, one-and-a-half bath had once sold for $380,000.
Judge: Pratt Can't Move Jobs out of US By Stephen Singer AP - ABC News Judge sides with union, says jet engine maker in US can't move out 1,000 jobs out A federal U.S. judge ordered jet engine maker Pratt & Whitney to halt its plans to move 1,000 jobs out of Connecticut and to Japan, Singapore and the state of Georgia. U.S. District Judge Janet C. Hall in Bridgeport issued a permanent injunction, stopping the company's plans to shift the jobs. The judge strongly criticized the subsidiary of United Technologies Corp., saying it evaded the spirit of its union contract requiring it to make every effort to keep the jobs in the state.
U.S. Wage Growth: The Downward Spiral By Chris Farrell - Business Week The outlook for worker pay remains bleak even as the U.S. recovery gathers steam It's not surprising that worker incomes have been under pressure during the Great Recession. Employers typically clamp down on wages when the economy slows, and the latest downturn was the worst since the 1930s. Most workers are well aware that employers aren't exactly going to be handing out huge wage hikes with an official unemployment rate of 9.7% and the government's broadest measure of unemployment, which includes those marginally attached to the workforce and people working part time who would like full-time employment, at 16.5%, according to the Labor Dept.'s January employment report released Feb. 5.
No Job Growth for Small Business Spurs Recovery Doubt By Michael McKee Feb. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Small businesses are becoming the Achilles heel of the U.S. recovery by limiting growth and job creation. Companies with fewer than 500 employees, such as Phoenix Technologies Ltd. and Sonic Corp., helped lead the economy out of the four recessions since 1980. This time, they continue to cut capital spending and dismiss workers, eliminating 3,000 jobs in January, according to Roseland, New Jersey-based Automatic Data Processing Inc., the world’s largest payroll processor.
Frustrated Job Seekers Deciding to Call It Quits By Christopher Leonard AP With hiring still scarce, many frustrated job seekers are deciding to call it quits Many jobless people have reached a conclusion that captures the depth of the unemployment crisis: Looking for a job is a waste of time. Many jobless people have reached a conclusion that captures the depth of the unemployment crisis: Looking for a job is a waste of time.
UPS to furlough 300 pilots Atlanta Business Chronicle United Parcel Service Inc. on Monday announced plans to furlough as many as 300 of its 2,800 pilots as it works to trim $1.4 billion in costs from the shipping business. But UPS also said it will continue negotiations with the pilots' union to avoid or lessen the layoffs. The furloughs would be phased, with the first 170 pilots getting notices in May. Atlanta-based UPS (NYSE: UPS) said it has been in ongoing talks with the Independent Pilots Association for the past year to identify ways to cut operating costs to avoid any pilot furloughs. In June 2009, IPA identified savings through voluntary programs such as pilots taking short- and long-term leaves of absence; military leaves; job sharing; reduction in flight pay guarantees; early retirement, and sick bank contributions. UPS agreed to not furlough any pilots in 2009.
Where the Jobs Are By Henry Lamb - GOP USA Everyone agrees that we should reduce our dependence on foreign oil. Everyone agrees that we need to increase American jobs. Everyone, except perhaps the President and his minions in the majority, agrees that the government cannot afford to subsidize either of these goals. Both of these goals can be achieved quite easily with no government subsidy: drill here; drill now! Congress could open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) in the twinkling of a Senate vote. This would pave the way to upwards of 10 billion barrels of new crude for America. Paving the road to this new inventory would provide employment for as many as 735,000 people -- at no cost to the government.
Where is 'tea party' heading? Leaves are unclear By Liz Sidoti - Associated Press NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- The "tea party" activists all agree: Government is too big. Spending is out of control. Individual freedom is at risk. And President Barack Obama's policies are making it all worse. But that's where the consensus ends among the diverse groups of frustrated Americans who count themselves part of this fledgling coalition. "We're afraid and we're fed up and we're angry," says Donna Henton of Blair, Neb. "But where this is going to go, we just don't know."
Did Sarah Palin Kill the Tea Party Movement? By W. James Antle, III - American Spectator A.C. Kleinheider says she did, by turning it into a partisan appendage of the GOP: Sarah Palin didn't give a tea party speech last night. She gave a partisan Republican address. It was a purely political speech designed to position her for a presidential run in 2012 or 2016. Period. She wasn't there to celebrate the organic nature of a movement she had nothing to do with creating. She was there to co-opt the name and claim the brand as hers. And she did.
Colorado Springs Derangement Syndrome By Michelle Malkin . . . . The Denver Post and the Huffington Post both recently attacked our "anti-tax bastion" as a selfish conservative "nirvana" where social services and public jobs are getting cut mercilessly. My friend, neighbor, and City Councilman Sean Paige (who also runs the Colorado blog Local Liberty Online) rebuts the anti-Springs slurs with inconvenient truths: Colorado Springs is suffering through a severe budget crunch. In that, it's no different than most American cities. The source of the problem isn't the fact that we're a bastion of Republicanism, or that we're the birthplace of the Taxpayer's Bill Of Rights (TABOR) or that we're the home town of TABOR author Douglas Bruce. Things are tight because we're a sales tax dependent city in the midst of an economic downturn. It's really that simple. The problem is falling revenue, not TABOR spending limits or the dreaded "ratchet effect."
Will Baby Boomers Bankrupt Social Security? By: Rob Reuteman, Special to CNBC.com As the record federal budget deficit draws increasing scrutiny from Washington to Wall Street to Main Street, deficit hawks may take aim at entitlement programs including Social Security. And, the nearly 80 million Baby Boomers phasing into retirement will set in motion a dynamic that—if not addressed by Congress - could result in the next generation getting fewer benefits. However, despite fears that Boomers will trigger a collapse of Social Security, experts say the system can and will survive for decades and generations to come.
Rash of retirements pushes Social Security to brink By Richard Wolf, USA TODAY WASHINGTON — Social Security's annual surplus nearly evaporated in 2009 for the first time in 25 years as the recession led hundreds of thousands of workers to retire or claim disability. The impact of the recession is likely to hit the giant retirement system even harder this year and next. The Congressional Budget Office had projected it would operate in the red in 2010 and 2011, but a deeper economic slump could make those losses larger than anticipated.
Think Government Is Corrupt? You May Face 10 Years In Jail Paul Joseph Watson - Prison Planet.com South Carolina forces "subversives" to register with the authorities or do hard time Subversives who think government is corrupt and should be controlled by the people face 10 years in prison and a $25,000 dollar fine if they fail to register with authorities in South Carolina, in another chilling example of how free speech and dissent is being criminalized in America. The state's "Subversive Activities Registration Act" is now officially on the books and mandates that "Every member of a subversive organization, or an organization subject to foreign control, every foreign agent and every person who advocates, teaches, advises or practices the duty, necessity or propriety of controlling, conducting, seizing or overthrowing the government of the United States … shall register with the Secretary of State."
Read the NC Legislation: Subversive Activities Registration Act TEA PARTY TAKEOVER.... By Steve Benen - WashingtonMonthly The inmates are eyeing new ways to seize control of the asylum. . . . . It's who these folks consider "liberals in Republican clothing" that's perhaps most striking. Today's Republican establishment is, as far as this crowd is concerned, a bunch of sellouts. Just as the Republican Party has become as far-right and stridently ideological as it's ever been, this still-fringe "movement" insists even conservatives aren't conservative enough. We're talking about a well-intentioned, passionate, and deeply confused group of people -- the folks who believe Democrats are "fascists," the president is Hitler, and programs like Social Security and Medicare are socialist, unconstitutional boondoggles that need to be abolished -- who are now intent on dragging an already far-right party over the cliff.
What Murdoch Still Doesn't Get About the Internet By Kevin Keller - Business Week Like most media giants, the boss of News Corp. doesn't grasp that content is now a service, not a product Rupert Murdoch knows who's winning the war between big media and the Internet. Unsurprisingly, it's Rupert Murdoch. "Without content, the ever-larger and flatter screens, the tablets, the e-readers, and the increasingly sophisticated mobile phones would be lifeless," he proclaimed when News Corp. posted unexpectedly strong fiscal 2010 second-quarter earnings. "Devices and platforms are proliferating, but this clever technology is merely an empty vessel without any great content. "
Frightening Taste Of Internet Censorship As Major Free Speech Websites Blocked Paul Joseph Watson - Prison Planet.com An ominous preview of what a government regulated world wide web would look like as Infowars and Prison Planet go dark in New Zealand With influential proponents recently calling for a newly regulated world wide web, we got a preview of how that might look this past weekend after both Infowars.com and Prison Planet.com were completely blocked to many Internet users in New Zealand. The block was only removed early this morning following a raft of complaints after both websites were unavailable on many ISP's since Friday. As the New Zealand based InfoNews website reported yesterday, both of Alex Jones' flagship websites were blocked by ISPs using Asia Netcom for their international internet traffic.
The Draconian Internet Takeover Alex Jones and Webster Tarpley discuss Google's announcement that it will tighten its relationship with the NSA and how this is another leap forward in the agenda to take over and regulate the free Internet under the cover of fighting foreign cyber spies in China and Russia.
Sweetened Soft Drinks Get Connected to Pancreatic Cancer By MELLY ALAZRAKI - Daily Finance Add Coke and Pepsi to the ever-expanding list of foods and drinks that could possibly increase the risk of cancer. A 14-year study of 60,500 Singaporeans found that those who drank two or more soft drinks per week had nearly double the risk of developing pancreatic cancer, a study published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention reveals. Those who drink sugar-sweetened carbonated drinks were 87% likelier to develop pancreatic cancer than those who don't.
U.S. to Form Climate-Change Agency Associated Press WASHINGTON—The Obama administration on Monday proposed a new agency to study and report on the changing climate.Also known as global warming, climate change has drawn widespread concern in recent years as temperatures around the world rise, threatening to harm crops, spread disease, increase sea levels, change storm and drought patterns and cause polar melting.
After Buying Spree, China Owns Stakes in Top U.S. Firms By David Barboza, Keith Bradsher - NY Times SHANGHAI - Flush with cash despite the global economic downturn, China's sovereign wealth fund quietly snapped up more than $9 billion worth of shares last year in some of the biggest American corporations, including Morgan Stanley, Bank of America and Citigroup. Although most of the stakes were small, China Investment Corp., the government's $300 billion investment fund, now owns stock in some of the best-known American brands, including Apple, Coca-Cola, Johnson & Johnson, Motorola and Visa.
Greek Spreads Ease; Portugal Under Pressure By Clare Connaghan - WSJ LONDON-European sovereign CDS spreads were generally tighter Monday, with the cost of insuring Greek and Spanish debt against default falling, although Portugal remained volatile with spreads widening. According to CMA DataVision, Greece's five-year sovereign credit-default swap spreads-a key measure of credit risk-moved back below 4.00 percentage points in early trading Monday to be quoted at 3.97 percentage points. That's around 0.1 percentage point tighter than Friday's close of 4.07 percentage points. That means the annual cost of insuring €10 million ($13.7 million) of Greek government debt against default for five years had fallen €10,000 to €397,000.
Iran anniversary 'punch' will stun West: Khamenei AFP - Breitbart Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Monday that Iran is set to deliver a "punch" that will stun world powers during this week's 31st anniversary of the Islamic revolution. "The Iranian nation, with its unity and God's grace, will punch the arrogance (Western powers) on the 22nd of Bahman (February 11) in a way that will leave them stunned," Khamenei, who is also Iran's commander-in-chief, told a gathering of air force personnel. The country's top cleric was marking the occasion when Iran's air force gave its support to revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, a key event which led to the toppling of the US-backed shah on February 11, 1979.
Russia in stand-by mode over US missile plans in Romania Valentina Pop - EU Observer Moscow is "concerned" and expects "proper explanations" on US plans to deploy anti-ballistic missile defence systems in Romania, but it is still interested in contributing to a "common assessment" of threats with Europe and the US, Russia's envoy to Brussels told this website. "We took note of President Basescu's statement on his agreement to host those elements. This is a serious issue which we'll be analysing when we receive all the details regarding what exact equipment is meant to be deployed there," Mr Chizhov said in a phone interview on Monday (8 February).
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