Atlas Shrugs Back

The second installment of what will—Rand willing—become an epic trilogy based on the objectivist ur-text Atlas Shrugged is even more implausible than the first. By the conventional economics of the film industry “Atlas Shrugged Part II,” which opens to around 500 theaters this October, should never have been made.
Unless the movie in question involves simply tacking another numeral on to a field-tested franchise like “Scary Movie” or “Final Destination,” universal derision from critics and a box office loss are usually enough to count a sequel out. And yet here’s the next installment of “Atlas Shrugged” anyway, not limping straight to DVD but doubling the size of its theatrical release, having added $20 million to its budget, 20 minutes to its run-time, and a new cast.
To be sure, “Atlas Shrugged” is no mere movie. Its success or failure had very little to do with the script or acting and everything to do with the totemic power of Ayn Rand to the movement right. When I asked producers Harmon Kaslow and John Aglialoro about the poor ticket sales and bad reviews, they pointed out its respectable DVD sales and slow-burning success among grassroots activists, for whom the movie represents a concise but powerful defense of capitalism. Playing to their strengths for the release of Part II, they’ve marketed the film through policy groups like the Heritage Foundation and the Cato Institute. With cameos from Sean Hannity and Grover Norquist, and Teller (a libertarian, some might be surprised to know), “Atlas Shrugged” must be the first Hollywood franchise to be marketed primarily to the Citizens United audience.

Read more: http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/atlas-shrugs-back/

GOVERNOR ANDREW COUMO TO IMPLEMENT UNITED NATIONS’ AGENDA 21 IN NEW YORK STATE VIA REGIONAL PLANNING GROUPS

I am sure that most Americans, including many residents of New York’s Capital Region (where I live) and other rural areas of America, have never heard of a United Nations’ program called ‘Agenda 21.’ Even if they have heard the name, they are most likely unaware that Agenda 21 poses one of the greatest threats to their individual liberty, freedoms, property rights and even their country’s sovereignty.

The Agenda 21 movement started on the international level more than 20 years ago as various international non-governmental organizations (NGO’s) combined their global plans for a new world order with their counterparts in the worldwide “green movement” to thoroughly outline an agenda that would completely change and curtail human activity on the planet. Most prominent in these plans was one written and delivered by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to the UN-sponsored Earth Summit back in 1992. It was called Agenda 21. Proponents of the ideas outlined in the original Agenda 21 plan said it was just a suggestion with no teeth for enforcement in the United States.

However, since 1992, there has been a definite correlation between the ideas set forth in Agenda 21 and a massive growth of American government under the policy of “Sustainable Development” – the exact policy outlined in Agenda 21. According to its authors, the objective of sustainable development is to integrate economic, social, and environmental policies in order to achieve reduced consumption, social justice, and the preservation and restoration of biodiversity. The danger is in how that is to be accomplished in the United States.

The main action arm of Agenda 21 was founded in 1990 and was called the 'International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives’ or ICLEI. It is now called ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability. According to its website, ICLEI now has over 1,220 local government members who are committed to sustainable development, in 70 different countries representing over a half a billion people. There are over 600 cities, town, counties and states in the USA listed as participants of Agenda 21 on the ICLEI. If you want to know why Agenda 21 poses such a threat to our way of life in America, and who is behind it, below are quotes from three of the founders and original planners of Agenda 21:


Read more: http://www.libertynewsonline.com/article_301_32309.php

Federal Reserve Reveals Names of Banks That Sought Its Help

Bank borrowing from the Federal Reserve’s discount window declined in the months after the passage of the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reform law, possibly reflecting concerns over new disclosure requirements under the law as well as improving economic conditions, Fed officials said on Friday.
Typically, use of the window is a last resort for cash-strapped banks, which seek help from loans directly from the Fed. But there is a cost: A stigma has long been associated with use of the window. The central bank typically keeps interest rates on these loans higher than the federal funds rate, or the rate banks charge each other to borrow overnight, in order to encourage banks to first borrow from their peers. The federal funds rate, the Fed's traditional policy lever for influencing the economy through changes in short-term interest rates, has been kept at rock-bottom levels since December 2008 in an effort to spur a faster pace of growth.
The Dodd-Frank law requires disclosure of the banks that use the discount window with a two-year lag. On Friday, the Fed released the first batch of borrower names, those who used the window between July 22, 2010—a day after the law’s passage—and Sept. 30, 2010. The largest loans, $70 million and $60 million, were taken out by Gorham Savings Bank of Gorham, Maine, and Commerce Bank of Kansas City, Mo., respectively.
It’s not the first time the names of discount-window borrowers have been released. In March 2011, the names of banks that used the discount window from August 2007 through March 2010 were made public following Freedom of Information Act requests from Bloomberg News and the Fox Business Network. And all the banks that used the Fed’s Term Auction Facility, which the central bank created during the financial crisis to make it easier for sound banks to borrow, were disclosed on Dec. 1, 2010. But Friday’s announcement marks a new era in which names will be made public regularly, each quarter.

Read more: http://nationaljournal.com/economy/federal-reserve-reveals-names-of-banks-that-sought-its-help-20120928

TSA Can Withhold Watch List Inclusion Process

An American who says he was busted on a bogus marijuana charge during a trip to Egypt won't be able to get his hands on TSA records that might reveal how he made it onto the agency's watch list, a federal judge ruled.
     U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan ruled that the Department of Homeland Security and its Transportation Security Administration won't have to give up the information under exemption three of the Freedom of Information Act, which allows the government to withhold information protected by federal statute.
     Ryan Skurow sued Homeland Security and the TSA in 2011 for denying his FOIA request. Skurow says he traveled to Israel in 1998 as a tourist with friends, but the group was busted for marijuana possession by Egyptian police during an excursion trip to the Sinai Peninsula. He and his friends were tried without counsel, fined $200 and returned to Israel, but since then Skurow says he's been detained multiple times in American airports. On one occasion, he was told by a customs officer that his name is on a watch list as a result of his 1998 arrest.

Read more: http://www.courthousenews.com/2012/09/28/50756.htm

Elizabeth Warren practiced law in Massachusetts federal court without law license

A prominent defender of Elizabeth Warren's legal work while on the Harvard faculty has been presented with new facts and conceded that she is in heap big trouble. I wrote about Mark Thompson's defense of her right to file briefs in federal court three days ago. But the remarkable William Jacobson of Legal Insurrection has now discovered that Warren represented a Massachusetts client in Massachusetts, and Thompson has conceded the case.

Professor Jacobson has uncovered this morning a case in which Elizabeth Warren entered an appearance in a federal appellate court as a representative of a Massachusetts client in a case that appears to have clearly implicated Massachusetts law.  Although this is still a federal appellate court, because we're dealing with a Massachusetts client and issues of Massachusetts law, this looks really, really bad for Professor Warren.  With this bombshell, I would no longer view the case against her as weak.

For the moment, this imbroglio may be confined to the conservative blogosphere, with the legal and media establishments playing defense for Warren (read Prof. Jacobson's discussion of the extraordinary "'personal' commentary offered by Michael Fredrickson, the General Counsel of the Massachusetts Board of Bar Overseers" made in defense of Warren. But this is serious, and has legal consequences for Warren.

Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2012/09/gamechanger_elizabeth_warren_practiced_law_in_massachusetts_court_without_law_license.html#ixzz27r6xvqCv

U.S. states struggle with water woes amid drought

he worst drought in more than half a century baked more than two thirds of the continental United States this summer and its harsh effects continue to plague the parched cities and towns of the Great Plains.
Ask the 94,000 people of San Angelo, Texas who are running out of water. Fast.
The city -- once known as "the oasis" of dry west Texas -- now says it only has enough water supplies to last one more year. On October 16, it will enforce its highest level of emergency measures to save its water supply.
That first-ever "Drought Level III" declaration will ban any watering of lawns, golf courses and gardens, forbid fresh water use for swimming pools and close commercial car washes.
The city will also push up usage fees aiming to cut water use by at least 30 percent as it awaits a new water pipeline now under construction. The pipeline will not be available for use until mid-2013 or later.
Protests from local businesses has prompted the city to consider some exceptions but those may be temporary, officials say.
"We need to get back to meeting just basic needs," said Will Wilde, water utilities director for San Angelo. "We don't want to put people out of business. It may come to that if conditions get extreme in the future. Do you want to keep a green lawn or do you want water to drink?"

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/09/27/us-usa-drought-shortages-idUSBRE88Q1A820120927

The Japanese Have Grown Dramatically Poorer

“Pauperization,” the word, became infamous when three executives of huge consumer products companies voiced it as the new challenge in Europe.
To market their products successfully, they changed their commercial strategies and applied what worked in poor countries [The “Pauperization of Europe"].
In Japan, a similar process has hounded the economy, but for much longer. And nothing shows this better than the plight of the ubiquitous but hapless “salaryman.”
He is a cultural phenomenon. He enters the formidable corporate hierarchy upon graduation and struggles within it till retirement. Most of the time, the career trajectory flattens sooner or later. Often enough the aging salaryman is shuffled aside to a “window job” where he might not even have the tools to work, such as a phone.
His life is defined by commutes in packed trains and long hours at work. After work, at restaurants and bars, the informal part of work begins with clients or coworkers to hash out inter-office issues, price differences, design problems, or product failures under the influence of alcohol—the official excuse to be direct in a culture that prizes vagueness.
In return for his labors, the salaryman hands his paycheck to his wife. She manages the household budget, pays the bills, buys what is needed, and makes investment decisions. Stories abound of the Japanese housewife who blew the couple’s lifesavings on leveraged investments that no one understood. And she’s known for her impeccably wrong timing [The Japanese Are Dumping Their Gold].

Read more: http://www.testosteronepit.com/home/2012/9/28/the-pauperization-of-japan.html#ixzz27r66LImn