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Thursday, September 30, 2010

It must be due to global warming...


Back from the dead: One third of 'extinct' animals turn up again

Conservationists are overestimating the number of species that have been driven to extinction, scientists have said.

A study has found that a third of all mammal species declared extinct in the past few centuries have turned up alive and well.

Some of the more reclusive creatures managed to hide from sight for 80 years only to reappear within four years of being officially named extinct in the wild.

The shy okapi – which resembles a cross between a zebra and a giraffe – was first discovered in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1901.

After increasingly rarer sightings, it vanished from the wildlife radar for decades from 1959, prompting fears that it had died out.

But five years ago researchers working for the WWF found okapi tracks in the wild.

Other mammals ‘back from the dead’ include the rat-like Cuban solenodon, the Christmas Island shrew, the Vanikoro Flying Fox of the Solomon Islands, the Australian central rock rat and the Talaud Flying Fox of Indonesia.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1315964/One-extinct-animals-turn-again.html#ixzz114GRChjA

Watch Neil Young's video for his new album...

Sounds good to me...

Song of the day: The Beach Boys

This stuff must be good if the FTC is attacking it...


POM Wonderful under attack by FTC over truthful health claims

The FTC has never met a natural product it didn't want to destroy, it seems. They've gone after all sorts of natural foods like cherries, threatening to put companies out of business if they told the truth about the nutritional benefits of their products. They've even tried to criminalize a ministry that seeks to help its followers heal through the natural power of medicine herbs (http://www.naturalnews.com/026970_h...).

The FTC also went after Dr. Weil, threatening his company for telling the truth about his immune-boosting supplements (http://www.naturalnews.com/027303_n...). Dr. Weil's company, by the way, quickly "complied" and removed the truthful nutritional knowledge from its website to avoid being prosecuted.

Earlier this year, the FTC was defeated in court over its attempt to censor truthful health claims about selenium (http://www.naturalnews.com/028929_F...), but that was a rare victory against FTC tyranny. Usually the agency gets away with outrageous oppression and censorship, frightening companies into silence by threatening their founders with the threat of prison time and huge fines if they don't comply.

Now the FTC is going after the POM Wonderful company, claiming that the company's descriptions of the health benefits of pomegranate juice are false.

It is the FTC, however, that's actually engaged in making false and misleading statements.

Why pomegranate juice is so good for you
Pomegranate juice is medicinal. Just here on NaturalNews.com, we've reported on how pomegranates can help with:

• Digestion (http://www.naturalnews.com/029635_d...)
• Breast cancer (http://www.naturalnews.com/028830_b...)
• Prostate health (http://www.naturalnews.com/027435_c...)
• Inflammation (http://www.naturalnews.com/027411_p...)
• Sperm quality and motility (http://www.naturalnews.com/025359_s...)
• Antioxidants (http://www.naturalnews.com/024623_a...)
• Appetite suppressant (http://www.naturalnews.com/021716_p...)
• Heart disease (http://www.naturalnews.com/020810_p...)
• Diabetes (http://www.naturalnews.com/020754_p...)
• Alzheimer's disease (http://www.naturalnews.com/020631_p...)

... and that's only what we've covered! The scientific literally is chock full of thousands of reference to the health benefits of pomegranates.

The FTC, though, doesn't read the scientific literature (or doesn't care what's in it). To the FTC, it doesn't matter if what you say is true. All that matters is whether you're making health claims at all. And if you are making health claims -- even if they're 100% scientifically true and verifiable -- you might be targeted for termination by either the FTC or the FDA.

FTC brands POM Wonderful owners criminals
The FTC now says the founders of POM Wonderful are "criminals" and accuses them of "false and unsubstantiated claims" in the marketing of their pomegranate juice.

What claims, exactly, did POM Wonderful make? That pomegranate juice may help with heart disease, prostate cancer and other health problems -- statements that are scientifically true and valid. But the truth has no place at the FTC, where politics determines their choice of the next victim in the nutritional products industry.

Why doesn't the FTC go after makers of infant formula who make their products with over 50 percent sugar? (http://www.naturalnews.com/029863_S...) Why doesn't the FTC go after makers of "Slim-Fast" who position their sugared-up product as a weight loss food and market it to gullible consumers?

Or how about Coca-Cola's deceptive marketing of Vitaminwater? (http://www.naturalnews.com/029425_v...) or all the other deceptively marketed chemical products, including pharmaceuticals and toxic personal care products?

No, the FTC seems to reserve its wrath for natural products. Anything natural gets targeted while anything made with synthetic chemicals that make evil corporations rich gets utterly ignored, it seems. The FTC has made a habit of criminalizing the very people who are trying to improve the nutritional quality of our food supply while letting the real food criminals run rampant.


Link:
http://www.naturalnews.com/029901_pomegranate_juice_health_claims.html

Everything is going to be okay...


The Proof Is In The Numbers: America Is Getting Poorer

The U.S. economy is in deep, deep trouble and the proof is in the numbers. The following are 12 statistics that reveal just how far the standard of living in America is declining....

1 - According to the Census Bureau, median household income dropped in 34 U.S. states in 2009, and the only state where median household income actually increased was in North Dakota.

2 - The Census Bureau data also revealed that of the 52 largest metro areas in America, only the city of San Antonio did not see a decline in median household income in 2009.

3 - 35 percent of all U.S. households now live on $35,000 or less.

4 - According to the Census Bureau, the percentage of Americans living below the poverty line is the highest it has been in 15 years.

5 - The number of Americans enrolled in the food stamp program passed the 41 million mark for the first time ever in June.

6 - The number of Americans in the food stamp program increased a staggering 55 percent from December 2007 to June 2010.

7 - One out of every six Americans is now enrolled in at least one anti-poverty program run by the federal government.

8 - Nearly 10 million Americans now receive unemployment insurance, which is almost four times as many that were receiving it back in 2007.

9 - In 2009, U.S. consumer spending experienced the biggest decline since 1942.

10 - As millions of young Americans struggled just to survive, marriages fell to a record low in 2009. Today, only 52% of Americans 18 years or older are married.

11 - The only group that saw their household income increase in 2009 was those making $180,000 or more.

12- According to the Huffington Post, the gap between the richest and poorest Americans grew in 2009 to its largest margin ever....

The top-earning 20 percent of Americans – those making more than $100,000 each year – received 49.4 percent of all income generated in the U.S., compared with the 3.4 percent made by the bottom 20 percent of earners, those who fell below the poverty line, according to the new figures. That ratio of 14.5-to-1 was an increase from 13.6 in 2008 and nearly double a low of 7.69 in 1968.


Link:
http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/the-proof-is-in-the-numbers-america-is-getting-poorer

Oops, we made a mistake...


Ultra Elitist Environmental Group Forced To Admit Doubts On Global Warming Science

Ultra elitist environmental group The Royal Society has conceded that it has “uncertainties” over the science behind global warming, and admits that the planet is currently no longer heating up – a development that constitutes another significant blow to the idea that there is a scientific consensus on the matter.

The Royal Society’s guide, now titled ‘Climate change: a summary of the science’, has been altered following complaints from 43 of its own members that “knowledgeable people” were seeing through brazenly alarmist rhetoric.


Link:
http://www.prisonplanet.com/ultra-elitist-environmental-group-forced-to-admit-doubts-on-global-warming-science.html

You better like what our government does...or else...


Authorities Plan To Trawl Phone Calls And E Mails For Signs Of “Resentment Toward Government”

Do you resent the government for enforcing Obamacare or raising your taxes? Write about it in an email or talk about it on the phone and you could be placed under surveillance as a potential terrorist, if frightening new technology being shopped to law enforcement agencies is implemented.

Forget pre-crime and get ready for face-crime, Big Brother is set to unleash a new wave of shockingly invasive and Orwellian technology on the American people if a recent symposium in Hamburg New York is anything to go by. Federal agencies, police departments and others were all in attendance to see a demonstration of a system that trawls phone conversations, emails and instant messages to detect “resentment toward government,” alerting authorities to potential “terrorists” who are then placed under surveillance.

The technology was demonstrated to law enforcement officials, mental health professionals, and military representatives at a recent International First Responder-Military Symposium held at Hilbert College.

“A Swiss professor working with a Massachusetts Institute of Technology scientist who heads the Mind Machine Project there outlined how this program operates through computerized scanning of phone calls and electronic messages sent through e-mail and social networking mechanisms,” reports the Buffalo News.

The system works by detecting “resentment in conversations through measurements in decibels and other voice biometrics,” more specifically the emotional spikes that characterize “hatred and deep resentment toward government.”

“As for written transmissions scrutinized by the computer program, it can detect the same patterns of fixation on specified subjects,” states the report.

Once an individual has been identified as harboring “resentment toward government,” the information can be “passed along to authorities so surveillance can begin.”

Besides law enforcement applications, the program is also designed to aid mental health professionals to help “war veterans” become emotionally stable, chillingly implying that distrust or hatred of government, which was hailed by the founding fathers as a vital virtue, is now considered a mental illness.


Link:
http://www.prisonplanet.com/authorities-plan-to-trawl-phone-calls-and-e-mails-for-signs-of-resentment-toward-government.html

A sad commentary on America...

Hi, Mom!


One in 28 US kids has a parent in prison: study

The US's exceptionally high rate of incarceration is causing economic damage not only to the people behind bars but to their children and taxpayers as a whole, a new study finds.

The study (PDF) from the Pew Research Center's Economic Mobility Project, released Tuesday, reports that the US prison population has more than quadrupled since 1980, from 500,000 to 2.3 million, making the US's incarceration rate the highest in the world, beating former champions like Russia and South Africa.

This means more than one in 100 Americans is in prison, and the cost of prisons to states now exceeds $50 billion per year, or one in every 15 state dollars spent -- a figure the study describes as "staggering."

According to the authors, one in every 28 children in the US has a parent behind bars -- up from one in 125 just 25 years ago. This is significant, the study argues, because children of incarcerated parents are much likelier to struggle in life.

A family with an incarcerated parent on average earns 22 percent less the year after the incarceration than it did the year before, the study finds. And children with parents in prison are significantly likelier to be expelled from school than others; 23 percent of students with jailed parents are expelled, compared to 4 percent for the general population.


Link:
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/09/one-28-kids-parent-jail-study/

It's just Obama's health plan working at it's best...


McDonald's May Drop Health Plan

McDonald's Corp. has warned federal regulators that it could drop its health insurance plan for nearly 30,000 hourly restaurant workers unless regulators waive a new requirement of the U.S. health overhaul.

The move is one of the clearest indications that new rules may disrupt workers' health plans as the law ripples through the real world.

Trade groups representing restaurants and retailers say low-wage employers might halt their coverage if the government doesn't loosen a requirement for "mini-med" plans, which offer limited benefits to some 1.4 million Americans.

The requirement concerns the percentage of premiums that must be spent on benefits.

While many restaurants don't offer health coverage, McDonald's provides mini-med plans for workers at 10,500 U.S. locations, most of them franchised. A single worker can pay $14 a week for a plan that caps annual benefits at $2,000, or about $32 a week to get coverage up to $10,000 a year.


Link:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703431604575522413101063070.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_LEFTWhatsNewsCollection

Some UBD's will cure this...(inside teacher joke)

This will never happen in the USA....yeah, right...


DHS Aims to Establish Police State Through Terror Watchlists and Mobile Body Scanners

DHS is currently tracking and discriminating against thousands of activists. Foreign companies have actually been hired to spy on Americans throughout Pennsylvania. Janet Napolitano is attempting to push a hundred different nations into a non binding agreement to install body scanners in their airports. As more and more of our civil liberties are tramped upon, what is left of our nation will become a total police state.

It is only going to get worse. Starting November 1st, new rules will be put in place by TSA under operation “Secure Flight.”

The plan will essentially cross check 100% of passengers against terror watchlists. On first glance, a new program to check all passengers for ties to terrorism might seem like a good thing. The problem is, real terrorists have consistently gotten past these checkpoints and some have even been let through by intelligence agents.

On the other hand, activists throughout the United States have been detained and interrogated by thug TSA agents. Terrorists such as the Christmas Day Bomber have made it past security while 6 year old girls have been detained as terrorists.


Link:
http://theintelhub.com/2010/09/29/dhs-aims-to-establish-police-state-through-terror-watchlists/

The difference between Republicans and Democrats...



Link:
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2010/09/how-different-are-democrats-and.html

The real enemy facing us all...


What it Will Take to Restore America: Identify the Enemy

There is no doubt that the enemy I am referring to is totalitarian in the extreme. They are the quintessential enemies of the Republic, of the Constitution, of liberty and freedom as defined in the Constitution of these United States of America. In fact, these people are the enemies of all of mankind. Their aim is to destroy liberty, to destroy freedom, to destroy this Republic and the principles of its Bill of Rights and the Constitution that guards our liberty and freedoms. These people are the most tyrannical, the most evil humans that have ever set foot on this planet to date.

Who then am I referring too? What is their political identity? What are their goals and their ambitions? I am referring to the GLOBALISTS, a breed of human animal so vicious, so evil, so tyrannical they make Adolf Hitler look like a school boy. As a matter of fact, they funded, supported, aided and abetted Hitler’s rise to power, just as they did with Mao, Pol Pot, the Russian Bolsheviks, Kim Il Sung, Kim Jung Il, Yasser Arafat, The Muslim Brotherhood, The Shah of Iran Reza Palavi, and a host of other tin horn dictators all over Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and South America. They are in fact fascists, but a very different form of fascism than we have been taught to recognize.


Link:
http://www.activistpost.com/2010/09/what-it-will-take-to-restore-america.html

Just a communist, I mean a globalist, at heart...


White House Science Czar Advocated Worldwide Redistribution of Wealth, But Declines to Comment on It

John P. Holdren, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, said “have a nice day” and otherwise declined to comment on Tuesday when asked about a statement he made that worldwide redistribution of wealth is “absolutely essential” in order to provide all human beings with a decent life.

“Redistribution of wealth both within and among nations is absolutely essential, if a decent life is to be provided for every human being,” Holdren wrote along with Paul and Anne Ehrlich in the final chapter of Human Ecology, a book the three co-authored in 1973. Paul Ehrlich is also author of the famous 1968 bestseller, The Population Bomb. Holdren, President Obama’s top science adviser, advises the administration on issues that include health care and climate change.


Link:
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/75972

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

I don't want to keep beating a dead horse, but...


FBI agents seek the right to tap texts, emails and websites

The FBI says extremists and drug cartels are increasingly communicating online rather than using telephones, leaving US investigators struggling to keep track of them.

A new bill requesting the additional powers to investigate suspected criminals and terrorists will be presented next year. It is likely to face stiff opposition from civil liberties advocates who say the security services have historically abused extensions of power.

James Dempsey, of the pressure group Centre for Democracy and Technology, said: "They are really asking for the authority to redesign services that take advantage of the unique architecture of the internet."

The proposals are likely to require that all encrypted messaging services, such as BlackBerry, include a facility or back door, that would allow investigators to examine communications with a warrant.

Any foreign communications providers operating in America would also have to have an office in the country able to provide intercepts.

Software developers of internet communication services such as Skype, which are heavily encrypted, would be required to redesign their products to enable interception.

Valerie Caproni, the FBI's general counsel, said: "We're talking about lawfully authorised intercepts.

"We're talking about preserving our ability to execute our existing authority in order to protect the public safety and national security."

Apart from ethical objections, experts said there were significant technical hurdles.

Creating a back door to encrypted services would provide hackers with another opening, said Steven Bellovin, professor of computer science at Columbia University.

"There are lots of really sophisticated attackers out there," he said. "Do we really want to create a new area of attack? It may prevent some crimes but it could lead to new ones."


Link:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/8028789/FBI-agents-seek-the-right-to-tap-texts-emails-and-websites.html

This just in...

If anyone is in the neighborhood...

A great book that destroys any doubt as to who was behind the assassination...


James Douglass speaking tour: "JFK, Obama, and the Unspeakable"

James W. Douglass, author of "JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why It Matters" (Orbis, 2008), will be on a speaking tour in the Northeastern US, Sept 30 - Oct 6. This superbly documented book is perhaps the most important among hundreds written on the JFK assassination. Douglass is a highly esteemed and well-published author, professor, Catholic theologian, co-founder of Religious Leaders for 9/11 Truth, and a lifelong antiwar activist and nuclear disarmament advocate.

Douglass is under contract with Orbis Books (in conjunction with Simon & Schuster) for publication of a trilogy, on the political assassinations of the 1960's, including those of JFK, RFK, Malcolm X, and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

In his powerful new book, JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why It Matters, Douglass explores JFK's transformation from a conventional Cold Warrior to someone who was determined to pull the world back from the brink of apocalypse -- a transformation undertaken by JFK, Douglass writes, which then led, inexorably, to his execution, by those determined to nullify, and even exterminate his vision. Only by unmasking those forces of what is so clearly "Unspeakable," he argues, can we possibly free ourselves, and our country, so that we may yet pursue a global vision of peace, justice and meaningful democracy for all.

James and his wife Shelley were co-founders of the Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action in 1977, inspired by opposition to the Trident Nuclear Submarine Base near Seattle, Wash.; and, of Mary’s House, a Catholic Worker hospitality house in downtown Birmingham, Alabama.

Six lecture/presentations in New England, starting Thursday, Sept. 30th until Tuesday, Oct. 5th; concluding with a seventh in Philadelphia, Pa., on Wednesday, Oct. 6th:

September30 Portland, Maine
October 1 Cambridge, Massachusetts
October 2 Leverett, Massachusetts
October 3 Weston, Vermont
October 4 New Britain, Connecticut
October 5 Worcester, Massachusetts
October 6 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania


Link:
http://911blogger.com/news/2010-09-27/james-douglass-speaking-tour-jfk-obama-and-unspeakable

This is disturbing...


Assassinating Americans, Secretly

The Justice Department’s motion to dismiss the ACLU’s lawsuit in the Anwar al-Awlaki case confirms, once again, that when it comes to civil liberties, the Obama administration is no different from the Bush administration, and in fact is arguably much worse.

The al-Awlaki case involves President Obama’s order authorizing his military and paramilitary forces (i.e., the CIA) to assassinate al-Awlaki, an American citizen. The proposed assassination is being justified under the Bush-Obama “war on terrorism.”

No warrants. No grand jury indictments. No jury trials. No due process of law. Simply, assassination.

The assassination power now being wielded against al-Awlaki isn’t limited to him. The U.S. military and the CIA can now assassinate any American they want. All they need is the president’s authorization; and, according to him, he doesn’t have to answer to anyone, including Congress and the courts.

Moreover, this omnipotent power to take out Americans is not limited to Americans living overseas, as al-Awlaki is doing. Remember the point that Bush made, which Obama has enthusiastically embraced: that the entire world, including the United States, is the battlefield in the perpetual, worldwide “war on terrorism” that the U.S. Empire is waging.

That means that the president now has the power to label any American he wants right here in the United States as a terrorist and issue the order to his forces: “Take him out, now, with bullets, bombs, or drones.”


Link:
http://www.fff.org/blog/index.asp

Global warming hits China...


Early snowfalls arrive in Xinjiang

The start of winter might be several months away, but northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region has already experienced its first early snowfall of the year, with up to 10 centimeters falling across the region.

It blanketed parts of the 303 Regional Highway in the city of Hami, stranding many vehicles. The thoroughfare was temporarily closed to allow ploughs in to clear the road. The region's agricultural industry has also been affected, with 46-thousand hectares of wheat crops damaged by the snow.

The weather bureau says a cold front is forecast to sweep across northern China, causing temperatures to drop by up to 8 degrees Celsius. Temperatures, in areas like Inner Mongolia and Heilongjiang could drop by up to 10 degrees. Heavy rain has been forecast in Sichuan, Henan, and Shandong provinces.


Link:
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/video/2010-09/06/c_13480663.htm

Let's hope this isn't true. Just passing this on...

Federal Reserve Note to be Devalued in Next Few Days - Stock in Food NOW

This arrived from one my long time friends who never passes on info unless he's pretty sure it's true.

Folks,

In the last 24 hours I have had reports that the Government is about to devalue the Federal Reserve Note in the next several days. If the information I received is correct then the reduction is going to be major, approximately 10% of its present value.

If this happens there will be major increases in the cost of food, gasoline and almost everything that is real product, not paper. Therefore I recommend that you consider buying some food ahead of this change. That means that you need to do it today or at the latest tomorrow.

Obviously this could be an error, but I do know that the 82nd Airborne has been put on 18 hour alert for deployment in this country and that I have verified. The only reason I can see to do that is to help control populations in big cities where we could see major rioting. At the time I first found out about that I could not figure out why, but this currency change could be the explanation.

In any case being prepared with some additional food is wise I believe. Most of us can't do anything about the fuel cost, but we can do what we can with the other things that are going to change in price if this devaluation occurs.


Link:
http://www.rumormillnews.com/cgi-bin/forum.cgi?read=183812

Here's another one of those life on other planet stories found in the mainstream press the past few days...

Hey, it's only 20 light years away...


US scientists find potentially habitable planet near Earth

WASHINGTON (AFP) – US astronomers said Wednesday they have discovered an Earth-sized planet that they think might be habitable, orbiting a nearby star, and believe there could be many more planets like it in space.

The planet, found by astronomers at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and the Carnegie Institution of Washington, is orbiting in the middle of the "habitable zone" of the red dwarf star Gliese 581, which means it could have water on its surface.

Liquid water and an atmosphere are necessary for a planet to possibly sustain life, even it it might not be a great place to live, the scientists said.

The scientists determined that the planet, which they have called Gliese 581g, has a mass three to four times that of Earth and an orbital period of just under 37 days.

Its mass indicates that it is probably a rocky planet and has enough gravity to hold on to an atmosphere, according to Steven Vogt, professor of astronomy and astrophysics at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and one of the leaders of the team that discovered the planet.

If Gliese 581g has a rocky composition similar to Earth's, its diameter would be about 1.2 to 1.4 times that of the Earth, the researchers said.

The surface gravity would be about the same or slightly higher than Earth's, so that a person could easily walk upright on the planet, Vogt said.

Gliese 581g was discovered by scientists working on the Lick-Carnegie Exoplanet Survey, during 11 years of observing the red dwarf star Gliese 581, which is only 20 light years from Earth.


Link:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100929/sc_afp/usastronomyplanet_20100929210707

Shrinking middle class...


Plundering the middle class – 35 percent of American households live on $35,000 or less each year. Bailouts a success for the wealthiest 5 percent of Americans.


The middle class is being slowly dismantled piece by piece. New Census data released this week highlights a continuing trend that is pushing more average Americans into a perpetual struggle to stay financially afloat. New data shows that the median household income is $50,221 in 2009 which is down from $52,029 in 2008. This drop of 3.6 percent comes at a time when many U.S. households are struggling to make payments on mortgages and more importantly, find jobs. The only group that grew their household income was for those making $180,000 or more (top 5 percent). This growing inequality gap demonstrates that this recession is actually widening the chasm between the working and upper-classes of our society. I went ahead and took the data from the new Census report and created the following income distribution chart:



Link:
http://www.mybudget360.com/plundering-the-middle-class-35-percent-of-american-households-live-on-35000-or-less/

I thought it was just me...


Distrust in U.S. Media Edges Up to Record High

For the fourth straight year, the majority of Americans say they have little or no trust in the mass media to report the news fully, accurately, and fairly. The 57% who now say this is a record high by one percentage point.

Link:
http://www.gallup.com/poll/143267/Distrust-Media-Edges-Record-High.aspx

Education news...


Billionaires Unite! Against Public Education and Teachers

In less than a week two billionaires have joined the anti-teacher "Billionaires Club": a group of ultra-wealthy individuals hell-bent on destroying public education and teachers’ unions. The newest members of the club are Oprah Winfrey and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerburg.

Winfrey has used her show — twice in one week — as a platform against public education. She first hosted billionaire Bill Gates to discuss his "philanthropy" in education, as he promoted the new anti-public education propaganda film Waiting for Superman.

Waiting for Superman is a "documentary" focused on the types of anti-teacher school "reforms" desired by the Billionaires Club, who have used their tremendous wealth to blackmail school districts and states to institute their policies.

For example, the Facebook founder's donation of $100 million to the Newark, New Jersey school district will almost certainly require — according to The New York Times — that the school institute these reforms, much like Bill Gates' donation of $100 million to the Tampa Hillsborough County School District — and the $90 million to the Memphis school district — had the same types of strings attached.

What are the conditions for receiving this "charity" of billionaires? It's the same demands for receiving money from the federal government under Obama's badly-named Race to the Top program: creating more privately administered — or for profit — Charter schools; connecting teacher's pay with student test scores (merit pay); undermining the seniority of teachers; and other tricks to dis-empower teachers and public education.

Diane Ravitch, a former corporate-school reformer, has now dedicated her time to exposing the motives of the super-rich and their new-found interest in "reforming" public education. In her book The Death and Life of the Great American School System, Ravitch entitles a chapter “The Billionaires Boys Club.” On the radio show Democracy Now! Ravitch summarized the chapter:

“The Billionaires Boys Club is a discussion of how we’re in a new era of the [billionaire] foundations and their relation to education. We have never in the history of the United States had foundations with the wealth of the Gates Foundation and some of the other billionaire foundations — the Walton Family Foundation, The Broad Foundation. And these three foundations — Gates, Broad and Walton — are committed now to charter schools and to evaluating teachers by test scores. And that’s now the policy of the U.S. Department of Education. We have never seen anything like this, where foundations had the ambition to direct national educational policy, and in fact are succeeding."

There are some key motives for billionaires to jump in a coalition with this singular focus, none of them well meaning.

1) There are unknown billions in profits to be made in privatizing public education, either in the private administration of schools, curriculum companies, or wholly for-profit schools. There has been much talk in the investor world of this new "market.” In addition, the New York Daily News reported: “Wealthy investors and major banks have been making windfall profits by using a little-known federal tax break to finance new charter-school construction. The program, the New Markets Tax Credit, is so lucrative that a lender who uses it can almost double his money in seven years.” (May 5, 2010).

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/education/2010/05/07/2010-05

2) The super-rich hate taxes. They would rather not pay taxes towards public education when they could instead invest their money in private schools and reap profits.

3) Billionaires hate unions (they didn't become billionaires by paying union wages): The biggest obstacle towards privatizing public education is the powerful teachers’ unions. Teacher unions are also the strongest segment of the labor movement, and thus the most powerful grouping in the U.S. working class, able to fight back most effectively against corporate school reform— the billionaires’ natural enemies.

The super-rich attacked first in this battle between teachers and billionaires. The teachers must defend themselves. Shamefully, certain segments of the teachers’ unions are having troubles labeling their attackers as enemies.

For example, the President of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), Randy Weingarten, sent a friendly invitation to Bill Gates to address the AFT convention, where Gates was allowed to deceive the teachers about the intentions of his multi-billion dollar "investment" in "reforming" education.

Gates’ ideas about education — blaming teachers for everything — ignores what most teachers already know: the main predictor for a student’s success is social-economic background. Rich students outperform poor students for many different reasons: less stress, more resources, parental help, etc. Ignoring this obvious fact exposes the billionaires’ profit motive behind their fake charity.


Link:
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=21222

Are any of you surprised?


Crony Capitalism: Wall Street’s Favorite Politicians

A full 90 members of Congress who voted to bailout Wall Street in 2008 failed to support financial reform reining in the banks that drove our economy off a cliff. But when you examine campaign contribution data, it’s really no surprise that these particular lawmakers voted to mortgage our economic future to Big Finance: This election cycle, they’ve raked in over $48.8 million from the financial establishment. Over the course of their Congressional careers, the figure swells to a massive $176.9 million.

The complete list of these Crony Capitalists is below, along with the money they pulled in from Big Finance, according to data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics (opensecrets.org). The career data goes back to 1989. Of the 69 House members who voted with Wall Street on both the bailout and financial reform, 60 are Republicans, while nine are Democrats. All 21 Senators who voted with Wall Street on both issues are Republicans, and Republicans raked in over 90 percent of the total campaign contributions. Here’s a chart showing Wall Street’s total contributions to this crowd for the 2010 cycle, by political party:


See names and amounts here:
http://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy/2010/09/28/crony-capitalism-wall-streets-favorite-politicians/

History news: In case you were wondering...


First World War officially ends

The First World War will officially end on Sunday, 92 years after the guns fell silent, when Germany pays off the last chunk of reparations imposed on it by the Allies.


The armistice between the Allies and Germany was signed in a railway carriage in Compiègne Forest on 11 November 1918

The final payment of £59.5 million, writes off the crippling debt that was the price for one world war and laid the foundations for another.

Germany was forced to pay the reparations at the Treaty of Versailles in 1919 as compensation to the war-ravaged nations of Belgium and France and to pay the Allies some of the costs of waging what was then the bloodiest conflict in history, leaving nearly ten million soldiers dead.

The initial sum agreed upon for war damages in 1919 was 226 billion Reichsmarks, a sum later reduced to 132 billion, £22 billion at the time.

The bill would have been settled much earlier had Adolf Hitler not reneged on reparations during his reign.

Hatred of the settlement agreed at Versailles, which crippled Germany as it tried to shape itself into a democracy following armistice, was of significant importance in propelling the Nazis to power.

"On Sunday the last bill is due and the First World War finally, financially at least, terminates for Germany," said Bild, the country's biggest selling newspaper.

Fed out of control?


Is The Federal Reserve Out Of Control? Markets Across The Globe Brace For Impact As The Federal Reserve Powers Up The Printing Presses

Even though the U.S. economy is still in pretty decent shape at this point (for the moment at least), the Federal Reserve still seems obsessed with trying to stimulate it.

In the past, the Federal Reserve would just cut interest rates whenever the economy needed a bit of a boost, but at this point the Fed has cut rates to nearly zero. There just isn't any more room to cut rates.

So what else can the Federal Reserve do?

Well, it can create money out of thin air and use it to buy U.S. Treasuries, mortgage-backed securities and other assets. This is known as quantitative easing, and many analysts fear that it is quickly becoming more than just an emergency measure.

Back in March 2009, the Federal Reserve announced that it would purchase $1.7 trillion worth of U.S. Treasuries and mortgage-backed securities over the next 6 to 9 months. That was the first round of quantitative easing and Fed officials believe that it helped the U.S. economy avoid an even worse downturn.

But now Federal Reserve officials are talking about making quantitative easing a regular thing. An article in the Wall Street Journal recently described the current thinking inside the Fed....

Rather than announce massive bond purchases with a finite end, as they did in 2009 to shock the U.S. financial system back to life, Fed officials are weighing a more open-ended, smaller-scale program that they could adjust as the recovery unfolds.

Quantitative easing that is open-ended?

What kind of insanity is this?

Is quantitative easing going to become a permanent part of our financial system?

And what does "smaller-scale" actually mean?

Well, according to James Bullard, the president of the St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank, "small-scale" is actually pretty darn large. According to the Wall Street Journal, a "small-scale" quantitative easing program would be somewhere in the neighborhood of $100 billion a month....

Under a small-scale approach, Mr. Bullard says, the Fed might announce some still-undecided target for bond buying—say $100 billion or less per month. It would then make a judgment at each meeting whether continued action was needed.

If the Fed injected $100 billion a month into the economy through quantitative easing, that would mean that by the end of the year over 1 trillion dollars would have been created.

That does not sound like "small-scale" to me.

In fact, if the Federal Reserve purchased $1 trillion in U.S. Treasuries next year that would be an amount nearly equal to the total amount of new debt that the U.S. government plans to issue during the year.

Can anyone say Ponzi scheme?


Link:
http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/is-the-federal-reserve-out-of-control-markets-across-the-globe-brace-for-impact-as-the-federal-reserve-powers-up-the-printing-presses

Double digit inflation?


John Paulson's Scary Speech: Double Digit Inflation By 2012, Gold At $4,000

John Paulson scared the pants off of a packed audience at New York's University Club recently as he warned them of huge changes in the economic environment in the years to come.

Forbes' Bob Lenzer reports Paulson's saying:

“If you don’t own a home buy one."

”If you own one home, buy another one, and if you own two homes buy a third and lend your relatives the money to buy a home.”

Paulson has been bullish on housing for a while now (he runs a housing recovery fund), but this is him hitting super-bull territory. His reasoning is that home prices are great, the bond market is dead, and commodities like gold, which he also has a big prediction for, are on the rise.

According to InfoWars, he told the audience that he thinks the price of gold will hit $2400-$4000. And a whopping 80% of his assets are in gold.

Given his expectation for further money printing by the Fed – and that in 1980 the gold price rose by 100% more than the correlation implied – Paulson noted that the price of gold could hit $2,400 based only on monetary expansion, and as high as $4,000 per ounce based on a projected overshoot.

Lastly, he noted that 80% of his assets are denominated in gold.

We rarely get to hear Paulson's opinion on the market unless it's filtered through his stiffer research reports. As a result, he has never been so extreme in his predictions as he seems to be now.

Here's what Paulson sees coming:

* Low double-digit inflation by 2012, killing the bond market, and restoring strength to equities and gold.
* 2% GDP growth for 2011 and 2012
* Gold hitting $2,400 to $4,000

It's worth noting that if gold goes to $4,000, Paulson will be a top contender for the richest man in the world.



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/john-paulson-gold-at-4000-double-digit-inflation-real-estate-2010#ixzz10xZpkZOC

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Some quotes worth quoting...

Click on poster for larger image...


9/11 Related Quotes

1. “September 11, 2001 seems destined to be the watershed event of our lives and the greatest test for our democracy in our lifetimes. The evidence of government complicity in the lead-up to the events, the failure to respond during the event, and the astounding lack of any meaningful investigation afterwards, as well as the ignoring of evidence turned up by others that renders the official explanation impossible, may signal the end of the American experiment.” -- Lt. Col. Shelton F. Lankford, U.S. Marine Corps (ret) [1]

2. “I have watched the construction of many large buildings and also have personally witnessed 5 controlled demolitions in Kansas City. When I saw the towers fall on 9/11, I knew something was wrong and my first instinct was that it was impossible. When I saw building 7 fall, I knew it was a CD [controlled demolition].” -- Chester Gearhart, Civil Engineer (ret), pg.xiii in [2].

3. “It’s reminiscent of those pictures we’ve all seen too much on television where a building was deliberately destroyed by well-placed dynamite to knock it down.” -- Dan Rather, CBS News, reporting Building 7 collapse on Sept. 11, 2001

4. “This is controlled demolition ... A team of experts did this ... This is professional work, without any doubt.” -- Danny Jowenko, Controlled Demolitions Expert, viewing Building 7 collapse, @0:54:20 in [3]

5. “Faced with a court order and unyielding demands from the families of victims, the city of New York yesterday opened part of its archive of records from Sept. 11, releasing a digital avalanche of oral histories ... The oral histories were gathered in 2001 on the instructions of Thomas Von Essen, who was fire commissioner on Sept. 11. The New York Times sought copies under the freedom of information law in early 2002, but Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s administration refused, leading to litigation. Earlier this year, the state Court of Appeals ordered the release of most of the materials.” -- NY Times [4]

6. “It actually gave at a lower floor, not the floor where the plane hit, because we originally had thought there was like an internal detonation explosives because it went in succession, boom, boom, boom, boom, and then the tower came down.” -- Firefighter Ed Cachia, in oral histories, pg. 12 in [5]

7. “I thought that when I looked in the direction of the Trade Center before it came down, before Number Two came down, that I saw low-level flashes. In my conversation with Lieutenant Evangelista, never mentioning this to him, he questioned me and asked me if I saw low-level flashes in front of the building, and I agreed with him ... I saw a flash-flash-flash, and then it looked like the building came down. ... No, the lower level of the building. You know like when they demolish a building, how they blow up a building, when it falls down? That’s what I thought I saw.” -- F.D.N.Y Assistant Commissioner Stephen Gregory, in oral histories, pg. 10 in [5]

8. “We have 118 witnesses out of a pool of 503. Over 23 per cent of our group are explosion witnesses.” -- Prof. Graeme MacQueen, on the oral histories [6]

9. Question: “Why did NIST not consider a ‘controlled demolition’ hypothesis with matching computer modeling and explanation as it did for the ‘pancake theory’ hypothesis?”
NIST response: “... there is conclusive evidence that: the collapse was initiated in the impact and fire floors of the WTC towers and nowhere else, ... there was no evidence (collected by ... Fire Department of New York) of any blast or explosions in the region below the impact and fire floors ...” -- NIST in [7]

10. “Well, here’s a 3-story top-down controlled demolition. ... Here’s a 20-story middle-down controlled demolition. You can start demolitions from wherever you would like.” -- @1:15:45 in [3].

11. “Here a chunk of steel was blown 400 feet, wedging itself deep into 3 World Financial Center on Vesey Street. A FEMA photographer taking pictures of ground zero wondered why so many steel beams were jutting from neighboring buildings. ... The portions of the tower that had the greatest structural members, the sky lobbies and the mechanical floors, had the perimeter units thrown farther ... These perimeter units landed on the Winter Garden, 600 feet away.” -- @1:28:10 in [3]

12. “About a year after the official program to identify victims had ended, more human remains turned up on top of the Deutsche Bank Building, which stands about 400 feet to the south of the location of the former South Tower. According to the Associated Press, more than 300 human bone fragments were recovered from the roof of the 43-story skyscraper ... Most fragments were less than 1/16th inch in length.” -- [8]

13. “You have two 110-story office buildings. You don't find a desk. You don't find a chair. You don't find a telephone, a computer. The biggest piece of a telephone I found was half of the keypad ... The building collapsed to dust.” -- Firefighter Joe Casaliggi @1:32:35 in [3].

14. “Concrete and other building materials were literally reduced to powder before hitting the ground, which is consistent only with demolition. If a building collapses due to fire or other hazards, concrete and other heavy materials are not reduced to powder.” -- Jeff King, Engineer/Scientist, MIT, pg. 31 in [5]

15. “In no instance did NIST report that steel in the WTC towers melted due to the fires. The melting point of steel is about 1,500 degrees Celsius (2,800 degrees Fahrenheit). Normal building fires and hydrocarbon (e.g., jet fuel) fires generate temperatures up to about 1,100 degrees Celsius (2,000 degrees Fahrenheit). -- NIST in [7]

16. “You’d get down below and you’d see molten steel, molten steel, running down the channel lengths, like you’re in a foundry, like lava.” -- Firefighter Ruvolo @0:33:45 in [3]

17. “In the basements of the collapsed towers, where the 47 central support columns connected with the bedrock, hot spots of ‘literally molten steel’ were discovered more than a month after the collapse. Such persistent and intense residual heat, 70 feet below the surface, in an oxygen starved environment, could explain how these crucial structural supports failed.” -- Mark Loizeaux, Controlled Demolition Inc. @0:30:10 in [3]

18. Question: “Why did the NIST investigation not consider reports of molten steel in the wreckage from the WTC towers?”
NIST answer: “... The condition of the steel in the wreckage of the WTC towers (i.e., whether it was in a molten state or not) was irrelevant to the investigation of the collapse since it does not provide any conclusive information on the condition of the steel when the WTC towers were standing.” -- [7]

19. “The characteristics of these un-extinguishable fires have not been adequately explained as the results of a normal structure fire, even one accelerated by jet fuel. Conversely, such fires are better explained given the presence of chemical energetic materials, which provide their own fuel and oxidant and are not deterred by water, dust, or chemical suppressants.” -- Kevin Ryan, Chemist, et. al. [9]

20. “Keep your eye on that building, it’ll be coming down. ... The building is about to blow up. Move it back. ... We are walking back. ... Cause the building’s about to blow up. ... Flame and debris coming down.” -- Unidentified Ground Zero workers at Building 7, @0:56:20 in [3]


Read more:
http://911blogger.com/news/2010-09-26/911-related-quotes-ready-email-version-1

Some of the crazy 9/11 truthers...

Global warming hits England...


First snowmen of the season spotted as surprise cold snap sweeps across Britain

Britain has received its first autumn snowfalls for the year as a surprise cold snap sent millions reaching for the central heating controls this weekend.

Summer made a particularly swift exit from the Highlands as the first sprinklings of snow paid an early visit to the north of Scotland.

The last time Britain saw a September cold snap as severe as this current one was in 2003, when much of northern England was below freezing.



Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1315636/First-snowmen-2010-spotted-shivering-Scotland.html#ixzz10reS5Sao

Banksters don't lie, right?


9 Things Your Banker Won’t Tell You

1. Your whole deposit isn't available immediately

This information is somewhere in your account materials, but your banker isn't going to actually tell you this when you make your deposit. Some banks only allow you access to the first $50 or $100 of your deposit. So, if you make a $500 deposit, $400 of it may not be available until the next business day - or later. That means that you can still bounce checks or overdraw your account (and the bank can collect the fee), even though you made your deposit. Ask your banker when the full deposit will become available, since he or she is unlikely to volunteer the information.

2. A post-date on a check means nothing

If you are giving out a post-dated check, you have to trust the recipient not to cash it ahead of schedule, because the bank is likely to just run it through when it arrives without looking at the date on it. Even if the teller looks at the date, a bank has no legal obligation to honor the date on the post-dated check. The bank will accept the check and it could bounce.


Read more:
http://www.money-rates.com/news/9-things-your-banker-wont-tell-you.htm

Soon to be as worthless as Confederate money....


It Is A Race To The Bottom For Global Currencies And The Winner Will Be Gold

This is not a good time to have faith in paper currencies - particularly the U.S. dollar.

Already the dollar has been slipping substantially and the Federal Reserve has not really even cranked up the next round of quantitative easing yet.

One of the easiest things to do when there are economic problems in a nation is to pump more paper money into the economy. More paper money gives people something to spend, it spurs economic activity, it helps exports (as described above), and it helps put people back to work.

Of course it also destroys the value of the currency, but we will get to that in a minute.

With millions upon millions of Americans out of work, and with millions of homes being foreclosed, and with poverty statistics soaring into uncharted territory, it is very tempting for our politicians in Washington to borrow even more paper money and to pump it into the economy in an attempt to get things going again. But right now an election is coming up and the Tea Party has raised such a ruckus about government debt that there isn't much appetite for more "stimulus packages" right now.

Of course the truth is that "stimulus packages" never solve any of our long-term problems anyway. The reality is that they just give our economy a short-term "high" and make our long-term debt problems even worse.

Not that the U.S. government is not quietly up to some monkey business. On Friday, federal regulators announced a 30 billion dollar bailout of the nation's wholesale credit union system.

Another bailout?

Just what we need, eh?

But in general, the U.S. government is not doing a whole lot more reckless spending right now.

However, the Federal Reserve can inject more paper money into the economy without the help of Congress. Under the guise of "quantitative easing", the Federal Reserve makes up money out of thin air and pumps it into the economy by buying up U.S. Treasuries, mortgage-backed securities or anything else that they feel like buying.

So is this going to happen again any time soon?

There are all kinds of whispers on Wall Street that this is exactly what the Fed is going to do and that it is going to be massive.

And quantitative easing would probably stimulate the U.S. economy in the short-term.

However, it would also seriously damage the value of the U.S. dollar.

You see, the truth is that when more dollars are introduced into the system, the value of each existing dollar goes down.

It is called inflation, and it is a hidden tax on all of us.


Link:
http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/it-is-a-race-to-the-bottom-for-global-currencies-and-the-winner-will-be-gold

Change you can believe in...


Census finds record gap between rich and poor

The income gap between the richest and poorest Americans grew last year to its widest amount on record as young adults and children in particular struggled to stay afloat in the recession.

The top-earning 20 percent of Americans — those making more than $100,000 each year — received 49.4 percent of all income generated in the U.S., compared with the 3.4 percent earned by those below the poverty line, according to newly released census figures. That ratio of 14.5-to-1 was an increase from 13.6 in 2008 and nearly double a low of 7.69 in 1968.

A different measure, the international Gini index, found U.S. income inequality at its highest level since the Census Bureau began tracking household income in 1967. The U.S. also has the greatest disparity among Western industrialized nations.

At the top, the wealthiest 5 percent of Americans, who earn more than $180,000, added slightly to their annual incomes last year, census data show. Families at the $50,000 median level slipped lower.


Link:
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/09/census-finds-record-gap-rich-poor/

It's just those liberal Democrats protecting the internet...



After committing to ‘Net Neutrality’, Rep. Waxman pushes bill to kill it

Legislative text put forward by Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) under the banner of mandating network neutrality would instead prevent the government from requiring broadband providers to treat all Internet traffic equally.

Waxman, who has vowed that he would support the so-called 'Net Neutrality' policy proposals favored by most Democrats and progressives, has instead put forward an as-yet-unsettled legislative framework that explicitly prohibits the Federal Communications Commission from regulating broadband Internet under Title II of the Communications Act: a caveat key to implementation of what's been called the Internet's First Amendment.

Should the president sign a bill containing Waxman's language, it would effectively kill 'Net Neutrality' efforts and make key parts of a hotly contested proposal by Google and Verizon the law of the land.


Link:
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/09/committing-net-neutrality-rep-waxman-pushes-bill-kill/

Aren't we being robbed enough?


Cancel all your European travel and vacation plans – carbon trading extortion is here

This is idiotic. The EU carbon trading cabal has decided to extort the rest of the air travel world starting in 2012. In a nutshell, they’ll ban flights from landing if the airlines don’t engage in carbon trading. It’s yet another variation of the “Plane Stupid” theme.

Link:
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/09/27/cancel-all-your-european-travel-and-vacation-plans-carbon-trading-extortion-is-here/

This speaks for itself...

To see images and diagrams go to link at bottom...

US Thermometer Readings Show Cooling Since 1895 – Before Adjustments

GISS US temperature data is based on the USHCN2 historical network, which adjusts recent thermometer readings upwards by a substantial amount before releasing the data to the public. The before/after blink comparator above shows that before adjustments, most of the US has seen cooling or neutral (blue) nighttime temperatures since 1895. (Some global warming eh?) But after adjustments, more than two thirds of the US shows warming (red) nighttime temperatures.

Same thing for daytime temperatures. Before adjustments, about three quarters of the US has cooled or remained the same (blue) since 1895. After adjustments, more than half of the country has warmed (red.)


Link:
http://stevengoddard.wordpress.com/2010/09/27/us-thermometer-readings-show-cooling-since-1895-before-adjustments/

Monday, September 27, 2010

I've been saying this for years...

Your liberal and conservative heroes are bought, sold and controlled by them. Time to wake up people. They keep pushing the old paradigm to keep us divided and confused while they take control and rob us blind.


The Left Right Paradigm is Over: Its You vs. Corporations

For a long time, American politics has been defined by a Left/Right dynamic. It was Liberals versus Conservatives on a variety of issues. Pro-Life versus Pro-Choice, Tax Cuts vs. More Spending, Pro-War vs Peaceniks, Environmental Protections vs. Economic Growth, Pro-Union vs. Union-Free, Gay Marriage vs. Family Values, School Choice vs. Public Schools, Regulation vs. Free Markets.

The new dynamic, however, has moved past the old Left Right paradigm. We now live in an era defined by increasing Corporate influence and authority over the individual. These two “interest groups” – I can barely suppress snorting derisively over that phrase – have been on a headlong collision course for decades, which came to a head with the financial collapse and bailouts. Where there is massive concentrations of wealth and influence, there will be abuse of power. The Individual has been supplanted in the political process nearly entirely by corporate money, legislative influence, campaign contributions, even free speech rights.

This may not be a brilliant insight, but it is surely an overlooked one. It is now an Individual vs. Corporate debate – and the Humans are losing.

Consider:

• Many of the regulations that govern energy and banking sector were written by Corporations;

• The biggest influence on legislative votes is often Corporate Lobbying;

• Corporate ability to extend copyright far beyond what original protections amounts to a taking of public works for private corporate usage;

• PAC and campaign finance by Corporations has supplanted individual donations to elections;

• The individuals’ right to seek redress in court has been under attack for decades, limiting their options.

• DRM and content protection undercuts the individual’s ability to use purchased content as they see fit;

• Patent protections are continually weakened. Deep pocketed corporations can usurp inventions almost at will;

• The Supreme Court has ruled that Corporations have Free Speech rights equivalent to people; (So much for original intent!)

None of these are Democrat/Republican conflicts, but rather, are corporate vs. individual issues.

For those of you who are stuck in the old Left/Right debate, you are missing the bigger picture. Consider this about the Bailouts: It was a right-winger who bailed out all of the big banks, Fannie Mae, and AIG in the first place; then his left winger successor continued to pour more money into the fire pit.

What difference did the Left/Right dynamic make? Almost none whatsoever.


Link:Read more...
http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2010/09/you-vs-corporations/

You can't leave home without them...


Who Is Watching You? Nine Industries That Know Your Every Move

We examined a large number of organizations to find the most intrusive firms and industries. Here they are, ranked by the number of people they track:

1) Credit Rating Agencies
With each firm having files on over 200 million people, the three credit bureaus -- Equifax (EFX), Experian (EXPGY), and TransUnion -- know not only your credit history, but also have the data to project your credit future. The companies collect a history of all credit use by an individual, including payment of bills, mortgages, and credit cards. The agencies also track the frequency with which a person applies for credit. That information is used to determine a person's credit risk through a credit score. These scores are produced using secret algorithms, ensuring that the bureaus know much more about you than you know about them.

2) Cell Phone Service Providers
As cell phone popularity has increased and technology has evolved, cell phone companies have come to possess a wealth of information about their customers. Covering over 90% of the American population, cell phone providers can tell who you call, when you call, how often you call certain people and what you say in your text messages. With GPS, they also now know where you are whenever you have your phone. As smartphones become the equivalent of miniature computers, cellular companies can also track personal behavior, such as use of multimedia and wireless e-commerce transactions.

3) Social Media Companies
In its ascent to Internet superpower, social enterprise Facebook has amassed an enormous amount of user information. Who your friends are, what you like, and what photos you are in are all information that the company has access to. That, however, is not the full extent of it. Facebook also tracks which profiles you view, who you communicate with most often, companies and causes you support, your personal calendar, and a great deal of personal information about your friends and family. Perhaps most surprising, Facebook can access much of the information you may have deleted, including photos and status updates, from their servers.

4) Credit Card Companies
There are currently 610 million credit cards owned by U.S. consumers. In an economy dominated by credit, the amount of power held by credit card companies, such as Visa (V), MasterCard (MA) and American Express (AE), should not be surprising. They know their customers' credit scores, credit histories, what they buy, when they buy, and when they are likely to default on their payments. The interest rates charged for credit fluctuates based on their analysis of individuals' ability to pay back the debts they incur. Some of the information kept by credit card companies can help consumers, however. Algorithms that study buying patterns, for instance, are used to detect fraud.

5) Search Engines
Every search you perform on Google (GOOG) goes into the Internet giant's database, which it uses to keep a profile of your habits and interests. The search engine also keeps track of which links you click on during your search and which advertisers you visit. Google uses your interest profile and search history to place targeted ads in your browser. Perhaps most disturbingly, Google uses its Gmail service to monitor the content of your email in order to place targeted advertising in your email account. Google also keeps records of account and credit card information for everyone who uses their "Checkout" service, tracks which videos people watch on YouTube, where people are planning to visit, and what they plan to do there. Google's location-based map systems also allow the search company to know where people are in real time through the use of smartphones and other GPS-enabled devices.


Link:Read more...
http://www.dailyfinance.com/story/credit/who-is-watching-you-nine-industries-that-know-your-every-move/19629445/

Did you know this?

Double click screen for full image...