The Last Chance Of Freedom

It's becoming increasingly difficult to discern fact from fiction, and unfortunately the media has a strong bias. They spin stories to make conservatives look bad and will go to great lengths to avoid reporting on the good that comes from conservative policies. There are a few shining lights in the media landscape-brave conservative outlets that report the truth and offer a different perspective. We must support conservative outlets like this one and ensure that our voices are heard.

Friday, November 30, 2012

Citigroup sentences to Europe to faster economic death

The closer you read Willem Buiter's imperial uber-blick of the world economy, the more astonishing it becomes.
Citigroup's end of year forecast – Prospects for Economies and Financial Markets in 2013 and Beyond – is in essence a celebration of American revival and ascendancy. It sentences Europe to slow economic death.
The growth gap in 2012 between the US (+2.2) and the eurozone (-0.4) is the 2.6pc, the biggest since 1993.
Professor Buiter – Citi's chief economist – said this is not a one-off. The differential will widen to 3.4pc in 2014 and continue at extreme levels into the latter part of the decade.

Read more: http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/finance/ambroseevans-pritchard/100021573/citigroup-sentences-to-europe-to-faster-ecomic-death/#dPostComment

Greek deal frays as IMF threatens walk-out on debt buy-back impasse

The International Monetary Fund said on Thursday that it would not disburse funds under its part of the EU-IMF package unless the eurozone delivers on a bond "buy-back" scheme, which is supposed to cut Greece’s burden by 10pc of GDP and is deemed crucial for restoring long-term viability.

If the IMF withdraws, Finland and Holland will also pull out of the programme. "This has become a really big problem," said Raoul Ruparel from Open Europe.

Read more: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financialcrisis/9712612/Greek-deal-frays-as-IMF-threatens-walk-out-on-debt-buy-back-impasse.html

Navy prepares to wage cyber warfare at sea

The U.S. Navy is preparing to wage cyber warfare attacks against enemies during conflicts and must avoid strategic surprise from a future cyber attack on its networks, according to a strategy report made public Wednesday night.
“The opening salvos of the next war will likely occur in cyberspace and the Navy must be ready,” the report said. “We must organize, train, and resource a credible workforce of cyber professionals and develop forward-leaning, interoperable, and resilient cyberspace capabilities to successfully counter and defeat a determined adversary in cyberspace.”

Read more: http://freebeacon.com/cyberwar-on-the-high-seas/

Debt Limit: The Other Fiscal Cliff

[Nothing raises the ire of Republicans in Congress like the specter of Obama taking matters into his own hands. If the White House goes that route and raises the debt ceiling by executive order, Boehner and his leadership team would likely take immediate legal action to halt the debt ceiling increase, sources familiar with his thinking said.] -Snip- President Barack Obama made a demand of House Speaker John Boehner near the end of their first White House meeting on the fiscal cliff: Raise the debt limit before year’s end. Boehner responded: “There is a price for everything.”

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1112/84253.html?hp=t1

Just How Potent Are Teacher Unions?

Hostess Brands is set to liquidate its 82-year-old company because it was unable to meet the salary demands of its unionized employees. Roughly 18,500 workers will lose their jobs because 5,500 members of various bakers’ unions can’t appreciate that a tightening economy, stiffening competition, and an increasingly health-conscious America mean fewer Twinkies for all.

Hostess is doing what other private-sector organizations (such as the auto, airline, and steel industries) have done in response to fiscally unsustainable contracts with — or contract demands from — their unions: either throw in the towel and quit altogether, or use drastic measures such as bankruptcy proceedings to reboot the terms (and costs) of employment.

Read more: http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/334441/just-how-potent-are-teacher-unions-chester-e-finn-jr

Media avert eyes from Democratic campaign finance hypocrisy

If a campaign finance story is not about David Koch or Sheldon Adelson, do liberals care?
Consider the reaction to Kenneth Vogel’s important report on the winter meeting of the Democracy Alliance, the secretive organization of progressive millionaires and billionaires who finance an extraordinarily byzantine network of liberal foundations and Super PACs that operate with undisclosed “dark money.”
What reaction? Exactly. There wasn’t any.

Read more: http://freebeacon.com/see-no-evil/

Target: Old White Men

While modern society prides itself on being unbiased, it's no exception to the rule that every age has its fashionable prejudices -- and unfashionable people. Among the latter today are white men, and the closer they are to "dead white male" status, to use a favored leftist descriptive, the greater the disdain in which they're held. Thus do we see sneering at "old white men." Earlier this year, Senator Harry Reid -- one well acquainted through experience with old-white-male machinations -- complained of "angry old white men" who bankroll conservative causes. More recently, the old-white-media paper the Guardian published a...

Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/printpage/?url=http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/../2012/11/target_old_white_men.html

Five Exciting New Energy Technologies to be Backed by the US Govt

The MIT Technology Review has recently posted an interesting article looking at five of the most interesting new energy projects that will receive government funding through the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Energy (ARPA-E). In the latest announcement by ARPA-E, 66 new research projects will receive a total of $130 million.
Gas to Liquid Fuels – several projects received funding to find a method of turning natural gas into fuels that are liquid at room temperature, at a very low cost. It is hoped that this discovery will greatly decrease oil imports.

Read more: http://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/Five-Exciting-New-Energy-Technologies-to-be-Backed-by-the-US-Govt.html

U.S. Gets Court's Backing for New Gulf Drilling Ban

The Obama administration should not have been held in contempt for continuing a drilling moratorium in the Gulf of Mexico over a judge's injunction, the 5th Circuit ruled.
Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar placed the moratorium on new drilling in the Gulf one week after the April 20, 2010, explosion of the Deepwater Horizon rig, which killed 11 people and set off the worst oil spill in U.S. history.

Read more: http://www.courthousenews.com/2012/11/29/52684.htm

Obama’s 2009 stimulus chief says taxes and rules on junk food are coming

Larry Summers, chair of the White House National Economic Council when the 2009 stimulus was developed, suggested that President Obama will eventually tax and regulate junk food to drive people to eat more healthily — although he dinged First Lady Michelle Obama’s healthy foods initiative.
“I think there is no question that the way Americans eat and what Americans weigh is a big contributor to health problems and it’s a big contributor to health costs,” Summers said on Morning Joe today.It’s not the agenda now, but I think at some point you’re going to see tax measures and regulatory measures that are going to be directed at helping people be healthier. That’s just going to happen and I think it’s probably a good thing when it does.”

Read more: http://washingtonexaminer.com/obamas-2009-stimulus-chief-says-taxes-and-rules-on-junk-food-are-coming/article/2514572#.ULiZ14VTMfp

Ukraine Crushed in $1.1bn Fake Gas Deal

Certainly the folks at Gazprom are having a good snicker, reveling in the mockery that has been made of what should have been a landmark Ukraine-Spain gas deal that would have loosened Russia’s gas grip on Kiev.
Everyone wondered how Russia would respond to Ukraine’s attempt at gas independence. But this is what happens when you mess with Gazprom.
It was a horrible moment for Ukraine on Monday—all the more horrible because the whole event was televised—when the historical $1.1 billion deal it was about to sign with Spain’s Gas Natural Fenosa turned out to be fake.

Read more: http://oilprice.com/Energy/Natural-Gas/Ukraine-Crushed-in-1.1bn-Fake-Gas-Deal.html

Chinese Oil Company Drilled U.S. Investors

Top officers at China Northeast Petroleum swiped millions of dollars during and after the company's 2009 IPO, the SEC claims in Federal Court.
     The SEC sued China Northeast Petroleum Holdings, its CEO Wang Hongjun, its co-founder/Wang's mother Ju Guizhu, and Jiang Chao, a Chinese citizen who lives in New Jersey and is the company's vice president of finance.
     The agency also sued Wang's wife and Jiang's father, both of whom allegedly received money from the deals.
     China Northeast Petroleum was formed by a reverse merger, the SEC says in its 27-page complaint. It is, or was, "purportedly engaged in oil exploration, drilling, and production in the People's Republic of China," the complaint states.

Read more: http://www.courthousenews.com/2012/11/30/52696.htm

Krauthammer On Fiscal Cliff Negotiations: "Republicans Ought To Simply Walk Away"

It's not just a bad deal, this is really an insulting deal. What Geithner offered, what you showed on the screen, Robert E. Lee was offered easier terms at Appomattox, and he lost the Civil War. The Democrats won by 3% of the vote and they did not hold the House, Republicans won the house. So this is not exactly unconditional surrender, but that is what the administration is asking of the Republicans.

Read more: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2012/11/29/krauthammer_on_fiscal_cliff_negotiations_republicans_ought_to_simply_walk_away.html

Former Enemies Japan and Russia to Trade LNG?

On the surface of it, Russia, the world’s second leading hydrocarbon exporter and Japan, Asia’s second leading energy importer, seem a business arrangement made in heaven.
Except for one small historical detail – World War Two. On 8 August, two days after the U.S. dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima and the day before the U.S. dropped a second on Nagasaki, the USSR abandoned its neutrality treaty with Japan signed in April 1941, and in a lightning campaign lasting less than a month, overwhelmed Japanese Kwantung Army military forces in Manchuria and took the Kurile islands into the bargain.

Read more: http://oilprice.com/Energy/Natural-Gas/Former-Enemies-Japan-and-Russia-to-Trade-LNG.html

"Negotiating," Democrat-Style

The White House has been hyping its #My2K Twitter hashtag in an attempt to galvanize supporters to contact their Congressional representatives to demand action to avert the fiscal cliff. The administration estimates that unless Congress moves, the average family's tax bill will jump by more than $2,000, starting on the first of January. The implication, of course, is that Republicans are once again standing in the way of resolving this problem. Show of hands -- as the media breathlessly follows every minor twist and turn of these negotiations, how many of you have seen this fact reported?

Read more: http://townhall.com/tipsheet/guybenson/2012/11/29/reminder_house_gop_passed_fiscal_cliff_fix_in_august

Syrian Internet switched off as army launches offensive

Syria’s Internet was effectively cut off on Thursday, web monitoring organisations confirmed, before the regime of President Bashar al-Assad launched an offensive to retake control of the road to Damascus airport.
“From around 10 a.m. today all Syrian IP addresses went blank,” Nicolas Guillaume, of French Internet-monitoring company Cedexis told FRANCE 24. “We’ve seen traffic slowdowns in recent weeks, but this is the first time there has been a complete blackout in Syria.”

Read more: http://www.france24.com/en/20121129-syria-cuts-off-internet-mobile-communications

Are polar ice sheets shrinking? Report offers definitive answer at last.

A team of scientists has combed through 20 years of data to arrive at what it says is the first comprehensive report on how much ice Greenland and Antarctica are losing as the global climate warms – and how much this trend has contributed to sea-level rise.
Previous studies, done over certain parts of these regions and over various time periods, had led to disagreement concerning these questions. Some studies showed catastrophic ice loss, and others showed a small net gain.

Read more: http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2012/1129/Are-polar-ice-sheets-shrinking-Report-offers-definitive-answer-at-last

Gitmo North Returns: Obama's Shady Prison Deal

If you thought President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder had given up on closing Guantanamo Bay and bringing jihadists to American soil, think again. Two troubling developments on the Gitmo front should have every American on edge.
The first White House maneuver took place in October, while much of the public and the media were preoccupied with election news. On Oct. 2, Obama's cash-strapped Illinois pals announced that the federal government bought out the Thomson Correctional Center in western Illinois for $165 million. According to Watchdog.org, a recent appraisal put the value of the facility at $220 million.

Read more: http://townhall.com/columnists/michellemalkin/2012/11/30/gitmo_north_returns_obamas_shady_prison_deal

Facing Up to the Enormity of Our Problem

[George] Washington spoke truly: a democratic form of government, republican or otherwise, is only as virtuous as the citizens who form it. Institutions of liberty, equality, and mutual respect cannot be sustained in, let alone re-imposed upon, a society that has generally forsaken every single virtue named in Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, and has in turn filled the soul's moral void with hatred, envy, gluttony, sloth, covetousness, lust, and collectivism's unique license to pillage, namely its presupposition that individual men -- that is, other men -- do not really exist. The entire moral and intellectual structure of the West has rotted...

Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/2012/11/facing_up_to_the_enormity_of_our_problem.html

Greg’s Newsletter 11/28/2012

Folks, I have been a bit uneasy writing about this subject but after studying the economics behind the climate change issue, like Cap and Trade, I came across this recent video which will give you some insight into another way of making money off the weather, if you have the resources and uncaring to take advantage.

You will NEVER look at the sky and the clouds the same after you watch this video. This is one of the most important things NOT talked about but will affect you in so many ways and guess what, it's tied to money. I've been studying this for quite some time but this is the first time I am saying anything about it publicly. Please watch this video, it is more important than you realize:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=mEfJO0-cTis#!

I, as many of you thought this subject was a conspiracy or at least didn’t fully understand what was going on. After studying this subject, seeing it, video recording it for myself, and asking people who are in the know but are unwilling to talk too me about it, this is becoming much clearer when you follow the money. This is NOT a liberal or conservative issue, this is an issue of well being for all of us.

If you still think this is a conspiracy or something like that, check this out and see what the largest of the seed producers are doing to our farmers in court:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/print/2012-11-28/dupont-sends-in-former-cops-to-enforce-seed-patents-commodities.html

As we all know, food is the basic of human sustainability and these very powerful entities are doing all they can to control and profit from it. Water is in process of the same fate of control through economic these powers. If you think this is a conspiracy, as I did at one time, then PLEASE wake up and understand what is happening to all of us. We have elected officials who are still accountable to all of us and it is time to pressure them to expose and investigate what is going on.

Greg Goodwin

Feud at The Fed: "Horrific Consequences" for Unlimited Easing

The Fed's plan to purchase $40 billion in mortgage-backed securities and $45 billion in long-term US Treasuries every month for the foreseeable future is now creating internal feuds.

The Federal Reserve's latest round of quantitative easing has no timetable to end or any measurable goal. Yesterday, the Dallas Fed President said this policy without limits would result in "horrific consequences".

Read more: http://www.blacklistednews.com/Feud_at_The_Fed%3A_%22Horrific_Consequences%22_for_Unlimited_Easing/22799/0/0/0/Y/M.html

Hope and Exchange

ObamaCare is due to land in a mere 10 months—about 300 days—and the Administration is not even close to ready, so naturally the political and media classes are attacking the Governors and state legislators who decline to help out. Mostly Republicans, they're facing a torrent of abuse in Washington and pressure from health lobbies at home.
But the real story is that Democrats are reaping the GOP buy-in they earned. Liberals wanted government to re-engineer the entire health-care system and rammed the Affordable Care Act through on a party-line vote, not stopping to wonder whether it would work. Now that implementation is proving to be harder than advertised, they're blaming the states for not making their jobs easier.

Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324556304578121012109574832.html

'Fiscal cliff' talks turn sour: Are prospects for deal vanishing?

House Speaker John Boehner charges that 'no substantive progress has been made' to avoid the Dec. 31 fiscal cliff, but such comments are a part of negotiating, an expert says.

Meetings between Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and congressional leaders on Thursday marked the first post-election acrimony between the parties in their pursuit of a solution to the “fiscal cliff.”

Thursday, November 29, 2012

The Fine Print in the Government's Privacy Policy

In 1986 The American Banker defined E-mail as "a trademark of CompuServe," Computerworld noted that sending a single message required a 10-minute phone call, and InfoWorld described "a pilot scheme that will allow users of one system to send messages to mailbox holders on another." That was the year Congress enacted the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA), so it is hardly surprising that the once forward-looking law seems antiquated today.
In fact, ECPA is so out of date that it has left us vulnerable to government snooping in ways most Americans do not appreciate. With the Senate Judiciary Committee considering possible fixes this week, now is a good time to reflect on how technological advances and misguided legal reasoning have eroded the Fourth Amendment guarantee against unreasonable searches of our "papers and effects," which nowadays take forms the Framers could not have anticipated.

Read more: http://reason.com/archives/2012/11/28/the-fine-print-in-the-governments-privac

Is a Good, Old-Fashioned Purge in Order for the GOP? 

On November 19, Pravda’s Xavier Lerma wrote an article asserting that President (I use the term loosely) Barack Obama had been re-elected “by an illiterate society.” Some conservatives have been wont to dismiss and ridicule some of the dead-on assessments of the former Soviet newspaper since it was once in fact a Soviet newspaper.
Some of this dismissal and ridicule did occur relative to Lerma’s piece; I think however, that such observations made by those who have been there and done that ought to be considered, if not heeded.

Read more: http://www.canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/51380

Will the Supreme Court Kill Used Bookstores?

On October 29, the Supreme Court heard the arguments of a copyright case involving the right to resell imported goods in the United States. The goods in question were college textbooks but the outcome could affect whether copyrighted goods made overseas can be resold in the U.S. without consent from the copyright holder. Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. may focus on the five-pound appendages lugged around by undergraduates, but any product made overseas with a U.S. copyright—from shoes to laptops—could be affected. That makes Kirtsaeng potentially one of the most important decisions the Court will make this season.
Here’s the back story: Supap Kirtsaeng traveled to the U.S. from Thailand to attend Cornell and to earn a doctorate in math from University of Southern California. Along the way, Kirtsaeng set up his own business of sorts through eBay and sold $900,000 worth of books printed abroad by Wiley & Sons. He used the profits, among other things, to pay for his education.

Read more: http://reason.com/archives/2012/11/28/will-the-supreme-court-kill-used-booksto

Rice Has Up to $600K Stake in Keystone Company

Potential secretary of state candidate Susan Rice owns up to $600,000 of stock in the Canadian company pushing to build the Keystone XL Pipeline, according to her financial disclosure reports.
OneEarth reports that Rice, Obama’s preferred candidate to succeed Hillary Clinton, owns millions of dollars of stock in oil companies, including TransCanada, the company behind the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline.
TransCanada is currently awaiting approval from the State Department on whether it can build the pipeline, which would stretch from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. The project is reviled by environmentalists and would likely be Rice’s first major decision as Secretary of State, should she be confirmed.

Read more: http://freebeacon.com/rice-has-up-to-600k-stake-in-keystone-company/

Reforming Medicare

The idea behind a “grand bargain” to get the federal budget deficit under control is a simple one: Republicans agree to tax increases, and Democrats agree to spending cuts.

Yet a budget agreement could be a trap for Republicans, just as similar budget deals have been in the past.
There are two problems. First, the tax increases would hit immediately, while the spending cuts would be mainly in the future. That means future Congresses would have an opportunity to renege on the agreement before any serious spending reduction took place. Second, all the serious spending increases foreseen for future years are on health care, and health-care spending cannot be curtailed unless there is fundamental reform. Since the Democrats have signaled they won’t agree to fundamental reform, that means no deal that can be agreed to will be workable — unless even Democrats come to understand that health-care reform is in everybody’s interest.

Read more: http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/334326/reforming-medicare-john-c-goodman

An Island Adrift

DRAWN IN PALE BROWN INK on two skins of soft vellum, the Gough Map, kept in Oxford’s Bodleian Library, presents a haunting image of a Britain half-formed in the consciousness of a mid-14th-century cartographer. While a russet-robed William Langland sat nestled in the Malvern Hills, gazing eastwards and dreaming of a tower, a dungeon, and the “fair feld ful of folk” between, the Gough Map’s anonymous scribe set about delineating the bustling settlements, blessed plots, ancient highways, and riverine byways of the Scepter’d Isle. The scattered icons of the fading map still recall the social panorama included in Langland’s Piers Plowman, that great “assemblee” of Britain, with “alle manere of men, the meene and the riche, werchynge and wandrynge as the world asketh.” In the Gough Map, one can still make out the various facets of Langland’s country, from the fecund pastures to the teeming emporia, indeed all the hallmarks of a self-sufficient but outward-looking nation.

Read more: http://spectator.org/archives/2012/11/29/an-island-adrift

Stopping the Bleeding

The government is struggling to contain fraud and waste throughout the health care system and Medicare is especially vulnerable to abuse, according to a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee hearing Wednesday.
The Medicare system loses an “estimated $60 million annually” to fraud, abuse, and waste, said Health Subcommittee chairman Rep. Joe Pitts (R., Pa.) in his opening remarks.
“There’s a broad spectrum of fraud that’s committed,” testified Kathleen King, health care director for the Government Accountability Office.

Read more: http://freebeacon.com/stopping-the-bleeding/

Colleges and the Tyranny of Good Intentions

In 1902, journalist Lincoln Steffens wrote a book called The Shame of the Cities. At the time, Americans took pride in big cities, with their towering skyscrapers, productive factories, and prominent cultural institutions.

Steffens showed there were some rotten things underneath the gleaming veneers — corrupt local governments and political machines, aided and abetted by business leaders.
In recent weeks, two books have appeared about another of America’s gleaming institutions, our colleges and universities. Either of them could be subtitled “The Shame of the Universities.”

Read more: http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/334305/colleges-and-tyranny-good-intentions-michael-barone

TSA Blasted for Exposing Breasts of Texas Congressman's Teen Grandniece

The Transportation Security Administration is under heavy fire after publicly exposing the breasts of a teenage girl during its controversial “screening” procedures. TSA Blasted for Exposing Breasts of Congressman's Teen Grandniece The New American 28 November 2012 The Transportation Security Administration is under heavy fire after publicly exposing the breasts of a teenage girl during its controversial “screening” procedures. Of course, passengers routinely complain of TSA abuse and molestation — some 17,000 formal complaints have been lodged against the widely ridiculed and despised unconstitutional Homeland Security agency just since 2009, documents show.

Read more: http://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/crime/item/13763-tsa-blasted-for-exposing-breasts-of-congressman%E2%80%99s-teen-grandniece

GM purchases portion of its former auto-lending outfit

General Motors (GM) last week started buying out Ally Bank’s auto lending operations in an effort to reverse months of lagging growth.
Ally Financial Inc., formerly known as GMAC, is GM’s former auto-lending arm. Although it split from the automaker in 2006, it still garnered $17 billion in taxpayer money during the auto bailout.
GM announced on November 21 its repurchase the bank’s lending operations in Europe and Latin America at a cost of $4.2 billion. Taxpayers own about 75 percent of Ally, which has only repaid $2.5 billion of its bailout. GM still owes U.S. taxpayers nearly half of its $50 billion bailout.

Read more: http://freebeacon.com/a-european-ally/

The 1930s All Over Again?

Then, as today, societies were uncertain about which model of society to strive for and how to repair monetary systems. Societies bet on the wrong ideas; we may be committing similar mistakes now.

Many people draw parallels between today and the 1930s, labeling this the Great Recession. They note the high unemployment rate, referring not to the mismeasured, official statistic, but to the number more than double that rate, which also accounts for those who dropped out from the labor force and are no longer counted as “unemployed.” Others worry about the deflationary risk, the dollar devaluation, and the status of the U.S. dollar as reserve currency. Still others worry that the “vital few” — those with high scientific aptitudes and entrepreneurial drive — no longer come to or stay in the United States, but stay in or go back to the many countries whose Iron Curtains have been punctured since 1989.

Read more: http://www.american.com/archive/2012/november/the-1930s-all-over-again

Complaint filed against Minneapolis union

The National Labor Relations Board regional office issued a complaint against Minneapolis-based Teamsters Local 974 after the union reportedly failed to follow proper procedures regarding an employee's request to refrain from paying a portion of his union dues.
A former employee with New Brighton Ford recently requested to stop paying union dues that supported nonrepresentational activities, according to Marlin Osthus, regional director for the Minneapolis National Labor Relations Board office.

Read more: http://www.twincities.com/localnews/ci_22084183/complaint-filed-against-minneapolis-union

Michelle Obama & Madonna Among GQ's 'Least Influential People Of 2012'

GQ magazine has just announced their list of "The Least Influential People of 2012" — "a collection of people so uninspiring that we should round them all up and stick them on an iceberg." While some, like Hulk Hogan (#24), may be obvious picks, others such as Michelle Obama's exile to the iceberg came as a bit of a surprise. Below are GQ's top 15 picks, along with an explanatory line of their biting commentary: 15. Bobby Valentine: "a man whose greatest accomplishment in baseball remains wearing a fake-mustache disguise to sneak back into the dugout after getting ejected from...

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/michelle-obama-and-madonna-among-gqs-least-influential-people-of-2012-2012-11

U.N. poised to recognize Palestinian ‘state’

The United Nations is poised to officially recognize the state of Palestine, an unprecedented international endorsement that would enable the Palestinians to prosecute Israeli officials for what the Palestinians claim are war crimes.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is set today to present the U.N.’s General Assembly (G.A.) with a resolution that would enhance the Palestinians’ official status from “observers” to “non-member observer status,” a designation that would allow the so-called state of Palestine to launch formal complaints against Israel at the International Criminal Court (ICC) and other U.N legal bodies.
Critics fear this move would torpedo the peace process with Israel.

Read more: http://freebeacon.com/undue-recognition/

Energy Policy in a Renewable Future

Flood myths are common to human culture. Swollen rivers, tidal storms, and tsunamis make their appearance frequently in literature. But Hurricane Sandy, which has drawn newly etched high-water marks on the buildings of lower Manhattan (and Brooklyn), has shifted the discussion from storytelling to reality.
Volatility in climate has drawn the attention of policy makers for a decade. But as so often is the case, a dramatic event like superstorm Sandy – the largest storm to hit New York since the colonial era – has punctured the psyche of the densely populated East Coast, including the New York-Washington, DC axis where U.S. policy is made.

Read more: http://oilprice.com/Alternative-Energy/Renewable-Energy/Energy-Policy-in-a-Renewable-Future.html

Federal jobless benefits could vanish

Talk about a hard landing: About 2 million Americans, including 400,000 in California, will abruptly lose their unemployment benefits after December unless Congress votes to continue federal funding for extended benefits. ....About 2.1 million of the 5 million Americans receiving jobless benefits are on a federal extension that will end after Dec. 29, even if they have weeks remaining in their federal claim, according to Maurice Emsellem of the National Employment Law Project. "It's a hard cutoff," he said. "There is no phaseout,".... Congress has renewed extended benefits 10 times since the current round started in June 2008.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/business/networth/article/Federal-jobless-benefits-could-vanish-4075669.php

Euro-Stabilizing Treaty Gets Court's Go-Ahead

An en banc Court of Justice upheld Europe's sweeping attempts to stabilize the euro against the economic crisis gripping the region, allowing a treaty to take effect on Jan. 1 as planned.
The European Council advanced the amendment to the EU's foundational law - Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, or TFEU - in early 2011, and 17 member states approved it earlier this year.

Read more: http://www.courthousenews.com/2012/11/28/52631.htm

Oil Markets Falling off the Cliff on OECD Concerns

Oil prices declined this week following a report from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development that major world economies were expected to make an "uneven recovery" over the coming years. In early November, OPEC said ongoing concerns about the sovereign debt crisis in European economies, coupled with problems with other leading economies, would be a drag on commodity markets. In the United States, meanwhile, partisan rancor over the so-called fiscal cliff means the world economy is nowhere near a post-recession climate.

Read more: http://oilprice.com/Finance/the-Economy/Oil-Markets-Falling-off-the-Cliff-on-OECD-Concerns.html

Fast and Furious Fight With Holder Continues

It's been just over a week since Attorney General Eric Holder officially announced he would be sticking around as the head of the Justice Department for "about a year," but his planned departure hasn't made the battle for Fast and Furious documents go away and the House Oversight Committee, headed by Chairman Darrell Issa, is still embroiled in a lawsuit over President Obama's assertion of executive privilege over subpoenaed documents. Regardless, it looks like DOJ might be willing to strike some kind of deal to get the scandal to go away.
Lawyers for U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and a House committee said they will discuss settling a lawsuit to enforce congressional subpoenas probing the Justice Department’s Operation Fast and Furious.

Read more: http://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2012/11/28/fast_and_furious_fight_with_holder_continues

Militant Socialism in America

Despite his "colossal economic failures" and a national debt "above $16 trillion" Barack Obama was given a second term. It is not because the conservative message was wrong;it is because Obama is a master of marketing his message..........Which is why the 1952 piece by Elia Kazan titled "Where I Stand" needs to see the light of day again....Kazan notes that..............Why did I not tell this story sooner? I was...held back by a piece of specious reasoning ...which goes like this. 'You may hate the Communists, but you must not attack them or expose them, because if you do you are...

Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/2012/11/militant_socialism_in_america.html

US plunge off 'fiscal cliff' is likely, say debt gurus Simpson and Bowles

Fresh from a meeting with President Obama and en route to talk with House Speaker John Boehner, the former co-chairmen of the bipartisan Simpson-Bowles debt commission say it's more likely than not that the United State will fall off the "fiscal cliff" at year's end.
There's only about a one-third possibility that Congress and the White House will reach a deal to avert some $600 billion in automatic tax hikes and mandatory spending cuts over 10 years – an outcome that would be "devastating to the economy," says Erskine Bowles, the Democratic half of the Simpson-Bowles partnership, speaking to reporters at the Monitor breakfast in Washington on Nov. 28.
There's another one-third possibility that "we'll go over the cliff and people will come to their senses in the first week or so," he adds. A third prospect, that a deal takes even longer, "will lead to chaos," he predicts.

Read more: http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/monitor_breakfast/2012/1128/US-plunge-off-fiscal-cliff-is-likely-say-debt-gurus-Simpson-and-Bowles-video

President Who Once Warned Against Changing the Filibuster Now Supports Changing the Filibuster

Actually, no surprise at all. This development is as shameless as it was inevitable:

Jumping squarely into the white-hot debate currently being waged in the Senate, the White House on Wednesday said it supports Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's efforts to change the rules of the upper chamber. "The President has said many times that the American people are demanding action," White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer said in a statement to The Huffington Post. "They want to see progress, not partisan delay games. That hasn't changed, and the President supports Majority Leader Reid's efforts to reform the filibuster process." ... This endorsement of Reid's effort to reform the filibuster is the firmest White House statement to date on the matter. During last year's State of the Union address, President Barack Obama urged lawmakers to give judicial and "public service" nominees an up-or-down vote. But when Reid was contemplating a set of rules changes before the last Congress, the administration was largely ambivalent with its support and even less so with its engagement.

First Lady Unveils White House Holiday Decorations

It took 54 live Christmas trees, 175 pounds of gingerbread, and 85 volunteers from across the country to pull it off, but the holidays have finally arrived at the White House.

First lady Michelle Obama welcomed military families to the White House Wednesday for the big reveal and to show off this year’s theme of “Joy to All.”

“It celebrates the many joys of the holiday seasons: the joy of giving and service to others; the joy of sharing our blessings with one another; and, of course, the joy of welcoming our friends and families as guests into our homes over these next several weeks,” she told the crowd gathered in the East Room.

Read more: http://www.770kob.com/abc_news/article/First_Lady_Unveils_White_House_Holiday_Decorations/47E0823F39CB11E2919EFEFDADE6840A/

Sandy recovery claims mount. How much will a divided Congress pay?

The US may be perched on the edge of the “fiscal cliff,” with Republicans demanding spending cuts and Democrats clamoring for tax hikes to reduce the budget deficit.
But, one thing both parties are likely to agree on: spending billions and billions of dollars to help New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, and other states recover from superstorm Sandy.
Within the last two days, the governors of New York and New Jersey have released estimates that they will need a combined $79 billion ($42 billion for New York and $37 billion for New Jersey) to pay for repairs, restoration, and mitigation against future storms. Connecticut expects to send its request in shortly.

Read more: http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2012/1128/Sandy-recovery-claims-mount.-How-much-will-a-divided-Congress-pay

Obama says he'll do what it takes to avoid cliff

The White House and a key congressional Democrat hinted at fresh concessions on taxes and cuts to Medicare and other government benefit programs Wednesday as bargaining with Republicans lurched ahead to avoid the year-end "fiscal cliff" that threatens to send the economy into a tailspin.
Increasing numbers of rank-and-file Republicans also said they were ready to give ground, a boost for House Speaker John Boehner and other party leaders who say they will agree to higher tax revenues as part of a deal if it also curbs benefit programs as a way to rein in federal deficits.

Read more: http://townhall.com/news/politics-elections/2012/11/28/first_cracks_in_gop_resolve_on_tax_rates

Behind the Susan Rice meeting meltdown

In just two quick meetings on Capitol Hill, Susan Rice may have blown up any goodwill she had with the very senators she’ll need for confirmation if she’s ever tapped as the next secretary of state.Over the past two days, four key Republican senators have emerged from private meetings to blast the United Nations ambassador’s explanation about what happened during and after the deadly attacks on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya. It’s not clear what Rice said behind closed doors to anger all these senators, but it’s obvious the meetings went badly and this was hardly a nominee-in-waiting charm...

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1112/84326.html

Obamacare countdown: What is slated to happen over next year?

The health-care reform law, aka Obamacare, is poised to enter a crucial 12 months that includes setting up state exchanges, levying taxes on the wealthy, and preparing for the individual mandate.
Obamacare lives. That may be one of the most sweeping consequences of the 2012 presidential election. By winning a second term, President Obama has essentially ended Republican hopes of rolling back his signature Affordable Care Act before it takes full effect. Even adamant opponents of the health-care reform law in the GOP-controlled House recognize that it's pointless to continue pushing repeal legislation, at least for now.

Read more: http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2012/1128/Obamacare-countdown-What-is-slated-to-happen-over-next-year

Poll: Majority Says Federal Government Shouldn't Be Responsible for Healthcare

Since most of the data in post-election polling has offered little beyond a parade of ugly news, here's a glimmer of hope from Gallup:

For the first time in Gallup trends since 2000, a majority of Americans say it is not the federal government's responsibility to make sure all Americans have healthcare coverage. Prior to 2009, a majority always felt the government should ensure healthcare coverage for all, though Americans' views have become more divided in recent years...Republicans, including Republican-leaning independents, are mostly responsible for the drop since 2007 in Americans' support for government ensuring universal health coverage. In 2007, 38% of Republicans thought the government should do so; now, 12% do. Among Democrats and Democratic leaners there has been a much smaller drop, from 81% saying the government should make sure all Americans are covered in 2007 to 71% now.

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Wall Street adds to losses after housing data

(Reuters) - Stocks extended losses on Wednesday after data showed new single-family home sales fell slightly in October and the government revised sharply lower its estimate for the prior month's sales, denting optimism over one of the brighter sectors of the economy.
The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI dropped 104.82 points, or 0.81 percent, to 12,773.31. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index .SPX lost 12.81 points, or 0.92 percent, to 1,386.13. The Nasdaq Composite Index .IXIC fell 30.76 points, or 1.04 percent, to 2,937.03.

(Reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak; Editing by Kenneth Barry)

Watch What Warren Buffett Does, Not What He Says

In fact, as he explained in his 1986 letter to investors, changes in the 1986 tax reform act posed a specific threat to certain investment decisions:

If Berkshire, for example, were to be liquidated - which it most certainly won’t be -- shareholders would, under the new law, receive far less from the sales of our properties than they would have if the properties had been sold in the past, assuming identical prices in each sale. Though this outcome is theoretical in our case, the change in the law will very materially affect many companies. Therefore, it also affects our evaluations of prospective investments. Take, for example, producing oil and gas businesses, selected media companies, real estate companies, etc. that might wish to sell out. The values that their shareholders can realize are likely to be significantly reduced simply because the General Utilities Doctrine has been repealed - though the companies’ operating economics will not have changed adversely at all. My impression is that this important change in the law has not yet been fully comprehended by either investors or managers.

The True Federal Deficit

Ever since I wrote an article challenging the myth of the Clinton surplus, skeptics have been searching out ways to refute it. Some suggest I don't understand the difference between the debt and the deficit (I do). Others claim that I'm ignoring the CBO numbers (even though I explained that in the original article).

I then wrote a follow-up article that explained the exact accounting that allowed a real deficit to be claimed as a surplus by Clinton. That article really was the final nail in the coffin of the Myth of the Clinton Surplus. It demonstrated that even if we omit Social Security from the calculations, the remaining "surplus" only existed due to surpluses in other trust funds.

Read more: http://www.craigsteiner.us/articles/32

Report challenges key Pentagon spending assumption

As the U.S. military grappled with budget cuts over the past year, one thing Defense Secretary Leon Panetta made clear was the Pentagon must avoid reductions in training and maintenance that would lower the force's readiness to fight.
But a report released by a Washington think tank on Tuesday challenged that assumption, concluding that a short-term cut in readiness funding could free up cash to develop weapons and equipment needed to be ready in the future.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/11/28/us-usa-cliff-defense-idUSBRE8AR02P20121128

Grand Old Parties

HOW DID AMERICA'S TWO POLITICAL PARTIES get to be the way they are today? It’s a long story, for although we think of the United States as a young country, the Democratic Party, dating back to 1832, is the oldest political party in the world; the Republican Party, dating back to 1854, is the third oldest. (The second oldest is Britain’s Conservatives, if you date their beginning, as historian Robert Blake does, to the rallying of Tory opposition to the repeal of the Corn Laws by Benjamin Disraeli.) Nevertheless, over their history the two parties have retained their basic characters. The core of the Republican Party has been people who are considered by others and by themselves as typical Americans—Northern Protestants in the 19th century, married white Christians today—though they have never been by themselves a majority of the country. The Democratic Party, in contrast, has been a collection of out peoples considered by others and by themselves as not typical Americans—Southern whites and Catholic immigrants in the 19th century, blacks and gentry liberals today. Thomas Nast, the 19th-century (Republican) political cartoonist, was on to something when he depicted the parties as two different animals.

Read more: http://spectator.org/archives/2012/11/28/grand-old-parties

Obama to bypass congress to ban semiautomatic firearms, warns expert

An anti-gun owner initiative considered in Washington could lead to massive civil disobedience and a severe domestic crisis, gun law expert John M. Snyder warned on Friday.
"According to confidential information," he said, "forces linked with the administration suggest the government classify semiautomatic firearms and multiple capacity ammunition feeding devices as Title 2 National Firearms Act items under the Gun Control Act of 1968.
Americans familiar with federal gun laws understand that under this scenario, semiautomatics and high capacity magazines could be acquired only with great difficulty and at great expense by America's estimated 100 million law-abiding firearms owners, notes Snyder.

Read more: http://www.examiner.com/article/obama-to-bypass-congress-to-ban-semiautomatic-firearms-warns-expert

Democrats and the media have ignored the rest of the fiscal-cliff debate.

How many times have we heard that the only thing standing in the way of a grand bargain to reduce our growing national debt is Republican intransigence on taxes? If Republicans would only agree to dump Grover Norquist, Democrats will agree to cut spending and reform entitlements. Then, we can all join hands and sing Kumbaya as we usher in a new era of compromise and fiscal responsibility.

Except that now that Republicans have agreed to raise taxes, er, revenue, as part of an agreement to avoid the looming fiscal cliff, liberals appear to have decided that there really isn’t a need to cut spending after all.

Read more: http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/334216/all-about-taxes-michael-tanner

Risk of cronyism, corruption in fiscal cliff negotiations

Some see a danger of political cronyism and corruption arising from a back room deal as Congress negotiates with the White House to avoid the fiscal cliff.
“With any lame duck deal, you have a much higher risk of more spending and favorable tax credits, deductions preserving some for special interest groups,” said Romina Boccia, a domestic and economic policy expert at the Heritage Foundation.
Sen. Jim DeMint (R., S.C.) issued a report last week outlining the dangers of a lame duck session.

Read more: http://freebeacon.com/the-crony-cliff/

Biomass producer Big Island Carbon files Chapter 7 bankruptcy

Big Island Carbon LLC, which spent some $50 million to build a biomass plant to turn Hawaii-grown macadamia nut shells into granulated activated carbon, has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy.
The company, which has not started commercial operations at the Kawaihae plant, has laid off all 25 employees, including CEO Rick Vidgen, who was let go on Oct. 9 along with Chief Operating Officer Fred Baker and Controller Gerald Gruber, according to documents filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware, where the bankruptcy was filed on Nov. 5.
Vidgen declined to comment on the bankruptcy filing.

Read more: http://www.bizjournals.com/pacific/news/2012/11/27/biomass-producer-big-island-carbon.html

The Myth of American Meritocracy

Just before the Labor Day weekend, a front page New York Times story broke the news of the largest cheating scandal in Harvard University history, in which nearly half the students taking a Government course on the role of Congress had plagiarized or otherwise illegally collaborated on their final exam.¹ Each year, Harvard admits just 1600 freshmen while almost 125 Harvard students now face possible suspension over this single incident. A Harvard dean described the situation as “unprecedented.”

Read more: http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/the-myth-of-american-meritocracy/

Judge Pulls the Plug on Longshoremen

A federal judge has been forced to intervene in a dispute between two unions over who is in charge of plugging and unplugging refrigerated shipping containers at the Port of Portland.
Oregon district court judge Michael H. Simon ordered the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) to abandon its efforts to snatch the responsibility of manning the outlets from the rival International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW).
“[The ruling] simply means that the same people who have been doing the work since 1974 will continue to do it,” said IBEW spokesman Norman Malbin.

Read more: http://freebeacon.com/labor-love-lost/

G.O.P. Senators Not Satisfied as Rice Concedes Error on Libya

Susan E. Rice may have hoped that paying a conciliatory call on three hostile Senate Republicans on Tuesday would smooth over a festering dispute about the deadly attack on the American diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, and clear a roadblock to her nomination as secretary of state.
But the senators seemed anything but mollified, signaling instead that they would still oppose Ms. Rice, the ambassador to the United Nations, if she is nominated by President Obama, even after she conceded errors in the account of the assault she gave on Sunday morning television programs shortly after it occurred in September.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/28/us/politics/after-benghazi-meeting-3-republicans-say-concerns-grow-over-rice.html?hp&_r=0

Does Interest Rate Risk Matter If You’re the Fed?

Holding a mortgage investment portfolio bigger than Fannie Mae’s or Freddie Mac’s, along with a massively expanded government bond portfolio, puts the Federal Reserve into uncharted waters of interest rate risk.

The combined balance sheet of the Federal Reserve has $2.9 trillion in assets and $55 billion in equity, for leverage of a heady 52 times and a capital ratio of a paltry 1.9 percent. On top of this high leverage and little capital, the Fed runs massive interest rate risk, with investments in long-term mortgage-backed securities (MBS) of over $900 billion and longer-term Treasuries of $1.65 trillion.
“The huge and rising government bond holdings of Japanese banks leave them vulnerable to a spike in interest rates, the International Monetary Fund has warned,” the Financial Times reported recently. But somehow the IMF did not warn about the Fed’s huge and rising bond holdings, which leave the Fed vulnerable.

Read more: http://www.american.com/archive/2012/november/does-interest-rate-risk-matter-if-youre-the-fed

Neither Republicans nor Democrats eager to argue for extending payroll tax rate

Employee payroll taxes are scheduled to rise nearly 50 percent in 2013 absent action by lawmakers, and there is a growing sense that both parties might be willing to let that happen.
Party leaders have about five weeks to resolve a host of budget issues to avoid going over the “fiscal cliff,” the term used to describe more than $600 billion in automatic spending cuts and tax increases scheduled to occur on Jan. 1, 2013.
Much attention has been paid to the potential expiration of Bush-era tax income rates, but the looming expiration of the temporary payroll tax cut has been largely absent from those discussions.

Read more: http://freebeacon.com/the-coming-middle-class-tax-hike/

Feds believe Jesse Jackson Jr. got tip about probe into his finances

Sources with knowledge of the probe told the Chicago Sun-Times that investigators believe Jackson had learned of the federal scrutiny of his financial activity prior to his June 10 leave from Congress. The sources said it didn’t necessarily mean the tip was from an investigative source, saying it was possible the congressman received a tip from someone who was notified about the probe, possibly through a subpoena. While Jackson, a South Shore Democrat, eventually released information concerning his health, he did not publicly disclose he had knowledge of the federal probe until last Wednesday — the day he submitted a...

Read more: http://southtownstar.suntimes.com/news/16662575-418/feds-believe-jesse-jackson-jr-got-tip-about-probe-into-his-finances.html

World's Largest Solar Power Plant to be Completed by Year End

The largest concentrated solar power project in the world is set to be completed by the end of the year, and begin operation at the start of 2013.
Construction began on the 100MW Shams 1 project back in 2010, and upon completion it will provide electricity to 20,000 local homes. Shams 2 & 3 will follow shortly after.
Technically there are larger solar power projects around the world, however they are made up of several solar power plants of less than 100MW. Eg. The Solnova Solar Power Station in Spain consists of five, 50MW plants, to give an overall project size of 250MW.

Read more: http://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/Worlds-Largest-Solar-Power-Plant-to-be-Completed-by-Year-End.html

“The Unanswered Question”—On Taxes and Spending

In the debate on our fiscal crisis, one crucial question is never answered or even asked: if we’re supposed to go back to Clinton-era tax rates because they were good for America, why don’t we simultaneously return to that era’s spending rates?
In other words, what is government doing so much better today than it was then to justify vastly increased expenditures, totaling more than $1 trillion a year in inflation-adjusted dollars?

Read more: http://townhall.com/columnists/michaelmedved/2012/11/28/the_unanswered_questionon_taxes_and_spending

Democrats seek more benefits for jobless

Warning that more than 2 million Americans are poised to lose their long-term unemployment insurance, some Democrats are calling on Congress to extend the “economic lifeline” before it expires next month. Some Republicans, though, are demanding that an extension of jobless benefits—and any other form of new spending—be offset through savings or spending reductions elsewhere in the federal budget. In a letter to party leaders last week, Sen. Jeff Sessions said that extending the unemployment benefits another year carries a $26 billion price tag. Couple that with the cost of keeping the 2 percent payroll tax cut on the books...

Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/nov/26/democrats-seek-more-benefits-for-jobless/

A Chance for Peace in the Middle East?

Is there going to be calm after the storm in the Middle East? Following a tumultuous week of all-out war between Israel and Hamas, there are now good chances of peace actually catching on. However peace in the Middle East can only happen if the powers that be manage to grab the bull by the horns and build on the momentum created by the recent clashes which left 158 Palestinians and six Israelis dead.
Having agreed on a ceasefire and on indirect talks through Egyptian intermediaries, due to kick off in the Egyptian capital on Tuesday, the momentum is there. There is an undercurrent that can be pushed in the right direction, but it needs to be channeled and the antagonists need to be herded along, coaxed, caressed and yes, even bullied when needed. And this can only be accomplished by a country with the prestige and power of the United States.

Read more: http://oilprice.com/Geopolitics/Middle-East/A-Chance-for-Peace-in-the-Middle-East.html

Greg’s Newsletter 11/27/2012

Folks, it’s time for an update on the TPP (Trans Pacific Partnership). If you are new to my newsletter or don’t recall what this is, it is an international trade agreement which has been spoken about as NAFTA on steroids. The main stream media does not cover this in any detail and probably won’t until it is ratified and we the people will once again burden the cost of wealth and freedoms we use to cherish in the USA. This agreement is being drafted in secret but will hold all signing countries allowing their internal laws to be superseded by this international agreement. This is international corporate power at its worst.

Andrew Gavin Marshall is an investigative reporter based in Montreal Canada who has been following the TPP since the Bush administration and now continuing in the Obama administration. (For you who think there is a big difference in the parties when it comes to economic power, forget it!).

http://andrewgavinmarshall.com/2012/11/19/the-trans-pacific-partnership-this-is-what-corporate-governance-looks-like/

http://andrewgavinmarshall.com/2012/11/21/why-so-secretive-the-trans-pacific-partnership-as-global-corporate-coup/

http://andrewgavinmarshall.com/2012/11/26/the-trans-pacific-partnership-what-free-trade-actually-means/

Gee, here is another surprise, an ex-Goldman Sachs banker selected to be governor of the Bank of England.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/nov/26/mark-carney-appointment-bank-england

Folks, as we continue to fight over left versus right, the real power continues down their path of complete and total domination of the world’s economic systems. When the international bankers and industrialists control a nation’s wealth, they control everything.

Greg Goodwin

PRIVATE PROPERTY OWNERSHIP IS THE ONLY WAY TO ERADICATE POVERTY

Poverty. It’s the excuse for nearly every government spending program. Help the poor. Tax the Rich. Get the 1%. How dare they get so wealthy while everyone else suffers!

And what is the preferred way to eliminate poverty? Redistribution of wealth. It is the force behind the Occupy Wall Street movement; Agenda 21 and it’s Social Justice schemes; nearly every poverty program of the Federal government; and even most charitable poverty programs.

Economists, Obama administration at odds over role of mortgage debt in recovery

One year and one month before President Obama won reelection, he invited seven of the world’s top economists to a private meeting in the Oval Office to hear their advice on what do to fix the ailing economy. “I’m not asking you to consider the political feasibility of things,” he told them in the previously unreported meeting.
There was a former Federal Reserve vice chairman, a Nobel laureate, one of the world’s foremost experts on financial crises and the chief economist of the International Monetary Fund , among others. Nearly all said Obama should introduce a much bigger plan to forgive part of the mortgage debt owed by millions of homeowners who are underwater on their properties.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/economists-obama-administration-at-odds-over-role-of-mortgage-debt-in-slow-recovery/2012/11/22/dc83f25e-2e87-11e2-89d4-040c9330702a_story.html?tid=pm_business_pop

Obamacare in crisis as 2013 approaches

Two weeks ago, I tallied up the score in the state rebellion against ObamaCare. About half of the states have either forthrightly refused to set up their ObamaCare insurance exchanges, or opted for a state/federal “partnership” arrangement. Most of the 16 outright refusals have come from Republican governors, who generally cite three reasons for insisting that the federal government run its own ObamaCare exchanges in their states:
1. The governors don’t want to get saddled with the expense of setting up and running those exchanges.

Read more: http://www.humanevents.com/2012/11/26/obamacare-in-crisis-as-2013-approaches/

'Fiscal cliff': Obama, Republicans revert to campaign mode

President Obama met with small-business owners Tuesday, meets with middle-class Americans and business leaders Wednesday. Republicans, too, are orchestrating meetings, as both sides vie to win public's support for their approach to resolving the fiscal cliff crisis.

Elections have consequences, so it is important that voters who want to save our democracy, should v

Friday, November 30, 2012

House Speaker John Boehner charges that 'no substantive progress has been made' to avoid the Dec. 31 fiscal cliff, but such comments are a part of negotiating, an expert says.

Meetings between Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and congressional leaders on Thursday marked the first post-election acrimony between the parties in their pursuit of a solution to the “fiscal cliff.”

Read more: http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2012/1129/Fiscal-cliff-talks-turn-sour-Are-prospects-for-deal-vanishing

Thursday, November 29, 2012

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

President Obama met with small-business owners Tuesday, meets with middle-class Americans and business leaders Wednesday. Republicans, too, are orchestrating meetings, as both sides vie to win public's support for their approach to resolving the fiscal cliff crisis.

Read more: http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2012/1127/Fiscal-cliff-Obama-Republicans-revert-to-campaign-mode

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