Laid_Back_Farmer's Blog

The fact that these two stories appear in the same news source on the same day just shows how dumbed down the American people really have become! People should be outraged that the American government is using the same oppressive tactics that the Communist Chinese government uses! The sheeple are blinded by the fear the neocons have pumped into them, and will just stand there and let their rights be trampled on!

You should be very afraid when your government that is supposed to be "Of the People, by the People, for the People" uses the same oppressive tactics as a communist regime!

What China is accused of:

Yahoo accused of misleading Congress about Chinese journalist

CNN) -- Yahoo misled Congress regarding information the Internet company gave to Chinese authorities about the journalist Shi Tao, Democratic Rep. Tom Lantos said Tuesday.

Lantos, a California representative and chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, asked Yahoo Inc. officials to testify about the company's role in a case that sent Chinese newspaper writer and editor Shi to prison on a 10-year sentence.

Lantos asked Yahoo Chief Executive Officer Jerry Yang and Senior Vice President and General Counsel Michael Callahan to appear November 6.

"Our committee has established that Yahoo provided false information to Congress in early 2006," Lantos said in a written statement. "We want to clarify how that happened, and to hold the company to account for its actions both before and after its testimony proved untrue. And we want to examine what steps the company has taken since then to protect the privacy rights of its users in China."

The newspaper reporter had posted information under a pseudonym on an overseas Web site called Democracy Forum about a government crackdown on media and democracy activists, Lantos said.

Shi was later arrested in his home in Beijing after Yahoo gave Chinese authorities information about his e-mail account, his computer address, his log-on history and the contents of several weeks of his e-mail, Lantos said.

 

 

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/10/16/yahoo.congress/ind
ex.html

 What America is accused of:

Verizon offers details on records releases

 

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Verizon Communications says it has provided federal, state and local law enforcement agencies tens of thousands of communication and business records relating to customers based on emergency requests without a court order or administrative subpoena.

In an October 12 letter to members of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, a senior Verizon official says that from 2005 through this September there were 63,700 such requests, and of those, 720 came from federal authorities.

The company refused to discuss the content of those requests outside the several examples provided in the letter.

The letter came in response to a request from the panel seeking information from telecommunication firms about the extent of their cooperation with government entities, especially concerning the National Security Agency's warrantless wiretapping program that started weeks after the September 11, 2001, attacks.

"There is an atmosphere of ambiguity which clouds this entire area," Rep. Edward Markey, D-Massachusetts, said in an interview with CNN. "Congress needs to know. The American people need to know what the Bush administration is doing in the name of the American people to its own citizens. And right now we don't know the answers."

AT&T and Qwest Communications International also submitted information to the committee, but Verizon's response was the most detailed. It said that from 2005 through September it received almost 240,000 requests from government agencies...

 

Verizon, which has about 30 million phone and 70 million wireless subscribers, also disclosed it had received subpoenas for more detailed information about whom a person under investigation had called.

Not only had authorities sought information about the person called but wanted to know whom, in turn, that person then communicated with -- a "calling circle" or "community of interest."

The company said it did not provide that information because it doesn't keep such records. Government officials have said there was a standard that had to be met before making that type of request.

However, in light of an ongoing Justice Department audit concerning abuses by the FBI of administrative subpoenas and misreporting of their use, the bureau has said it has temporarily stopped asking for "community of interest" data.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/10/16/verizon.reco
rds/index.html

 

Can someone tell me what the difference is?

Yes...all is well with the fine statesmen we have running this country! Just look how skilled at diplomacy they are!

 

Tony Halpin in Moscow

 

President Putin forged an alliance with Iran yesterday against any military action by the West and pledged to complete the controversial Iranian nuclear power plant at Bushehr.

A summit of Caspian Sea nations in Tehran agreed to bar foreign states from using their territory for military strikes against a member country. Mr Putin, the first Kremlin leader to visit Iran since the Second World War, insisted that the use of force was unacceptable.

“It is important . . . that we not only not use any kind of force but also do not even think about the possibility of using force,” he told the leaders of Iran, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan.

The declaration of the five states did not specify a particular threat. Rumours have long circulated, however, that the US is seeking Azerbaijan’s permission to use airfields for possible military action to stop Iran from developing a nuclear bomb.

 

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_
east/article2673546.ece

The neocons are losing face around the globe! Instead of making friends, they are making enemies from our allies who fear the motives behind the neocons plans! Just another mess that will be left for Hillary to clean up when she takes office! She is going to be a busy women cleaning up all the messes "dumbya" and company are leaving for her!

 

From The Times October 17, 2007

Phone call derails controversial deal to attract India into nuclear fold

Jeremy Page in Delhi

India has officially informed the United States that it has frozen a nuclear deal that was supposed to herald a strategic alliance between the biggest democracy in the world and the richest.

Manmohan Singh, the Prime Minister, telephoned President Bush on Monday night to tell him that the deal had run into difficulties because of opposition from his communist allies. “The Prime Minister explained to President Bush that difficulties have arisen with respect to operationalisation of the India-US civil nuclear co-operation agreement,” the Indian Government said.

The Americans said that they would continue to work on the deal but analysts and diplomats said it would not be ready for approval by the US Congress before the end of the Bush Administration. “It’s over. The Americans are distraught,” one Western diplomat told The Times. “The embassy has been working on little else for two years.” The deal’s failure is a huge embarrassment for Mr Singh, who gave it his personal backing, and for Mr Bush, who was hoping it would be a foreign policy success.

 

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article
2670051.ece

Bernanke: Housing Woes to Slow Growth

"A deepening housing slump probably will be a "significant drag" on economic growth into next year and it will take time for Wall Street to fully recover from a painful credit crisis, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke warned Monday."

One US dollar will get you 0.9767 Canadian dollars...that is sad! The neocons have destroyed this once great country to satisfy their greed!

The sheeple, especially the pot head stoners, have no idea of the magnitude of the financial crisis that is looming on the horizon! A year from now those peddling mortgages will be lucky if they'll be able to ask..."Would you like fries with that?"

 

Gold hits 28-year high...

Mon Oct 15, 2007 4:22 PM BST

By Veronica Brown

LONDON, Oct 15 (Reuters) - Gold struck a 28-year high on Monday, with the metal's appeal polished by a weak dollar, record high oil prices and geo-political tensions, while continued supply worries swept platinum to lifetime peaks.

Other precious metals were swept along by buoyant sentiment in gold and plantinum, with silver hitting its highest since the end of April.

 

Momentum has gathered on bullion as the U.S. currency's recent falls to successive record lows versus the euro made the dollar-priced metal cheaper for holders of other currencies and raised its profile as a portfolio diversification tool.

"In the case of gold it's overwhelmingly related to the dollar, which is right back on the defensive again. It's very hard for gold not to rally in a case where the dollar is broadly moving backwards," HSBC analyst James Steel said.

 

"The credit bubble is just starting to unwind, a credit-derivative insider says. And while U.S. borrowers are being blamed for the mess, they were really just pawns in a global game."

"Here's how it worked: In olden days, like 10 years ago, banks wrote and funded their own loans. In the new game, Das points out, banks "originate" loans, "warehouse" them on their balance sheet for a brief time, then "distribute" them to investors by packaging them into derivatives called collateralized debt obligations, or CDOs, and similar instruments. In this scheme, banks don't need to tie up as much capital, so they can put more money out on loan.

The more loans that were sold, the more they could use as collateral for more loans, so credit standards were lowered to get more paper out the door -- a task that was accelerated in recent years via fly-by-night brokers now accused of predatory lending practices.

Buyers of these credit risks in CDO form were insurance companies, pension funds and hedge-fund managers from Bonn to Beijing. Because money was readily available at low interest rates in Japan and the United States, these managers leveraged up their bets by buying the CDOs with borrowed funds.

So if you follow the bouncing ball, borrowed money bought borrowed money. And then because they had the blessing of credit-ratings agencies relying on mathematical models suggesting that they would rarely default, these CDOs were in turn used as collateral to do more borrowing.

In this way, Das points out, credit risk moved from banks, where it was regulated and observable, to places where it was less regulated and difficult to identify."

Complete article at:

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/Supe
rModels/AreWeHeadedForAnEpicBearMarket.aspx?page=1<
/p>

...."Everything seemed to work in Moscow's favor when on June 23 a memorandum was signed in Rome between Gazprom and Italy's ENI on a 900-kilometer pipeline project across the Black Sea from Russia to Bulgaria with an annual capacity of about 30bcm. The undersea pipeline, on reaching Bulgaria, would have two options for the Bulgaria-Italy route. A southwestern option would be through Greece and the Adriatic seabed in the Otranto Strait to southern Italy, while a northwestern route would run from Bulgaria via Romania, Hungary and Slovenia (and possibly Austria) to northern Italy. Bulgaria and Greece promptly announced their intention to join the project, known as the South Stream project. The Wall Street Journal aptly described it as a "pipeline into the heart of Europe".

The upstream source for the South Stream project would be largely Central Asian and Siberian gas. Russia's game plan was obvious: maximize its control of the export routes for Central Asian gas. Russia signaled that it was outstripping the US both in regard of the upstream race for Central Asian gas as well as in the race for control of transit and downstream activity.

Alarm bells began ringing in Washington. On May 30, Vice President Dick Cheney's deputy assistant for national security affairs, Joseph Wood, rushed to Baku, Azerbaijan. He had a single message: Washington intended to meet the Russian challenge head-on and would persist with the policy of opening direct access to Central Asian oil and gas through Azerbaijan and Georgia, bypassing Russian territory and Russian pipelines. He stressed the US would push ahead with the Nabucco and Turkey-Greece-Italy gas transport projects. He told the Azerbaijani leadership that it should take the initiative to sort out Azerbaijan's bilateral disputes with Turkmenistan so that the latter could be drawn into the proposed gas projects.

Simultaneously, on June 1, Steven Mann, US principal deputy assistant secretary of state, held talks with Berdimukhamedov in Ashgabat. Mann strongly pitched for the trans-Caspian gas pipeline project (Turkmenistan to Azerbaijan to Georgia to Turkey to Europe). He conveyed Washington's keen interest that Turkmenistan should sell its gas to the European market directly, without the Russian intermediary.

Other senior US officials began fanning out to the Caspian region carrying similar messages that it would be far more advantageous for the Central Asian gas- and oil-producing countries to deal with European buyers directly. Thus US assistant secretary of state Richard Boucher visited Kazakhstan and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Matthew Bryza visited Azerbaijan in the first week of June. Washington also began pressuring the European Union to display a sense of urgency in forestalling the looming Russian monopoly over Central Asia's gas exports.

Washington's primary intent was to sow seeds of doubt in the Turkmen mind regarding the wisdom of putting all its eggs in the Russian basket. On June 21, Washington upped the ante when Admiral William Fallon, commander of the US Central Command, arrived in Ashgabat and was received by Berdimukhamedov. Fallon carried a brief on energy cooperation. The consultation was evidently productive. On June 27, when Evan Feigenbaum, US deputy assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asian affairs, arrived in Ashgabat with a delegation of American oil majors, he heard good news. "The president [Berdimukhamedov] stated publicly, very clearly, that Turkmenistan remains interested in the trans-Caspian pipeline," Feigenbaum later told the media. "

continued at:

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/II29Ag01.
html

Without resources and without a manufacturing economy, how long can the "once great" US of A continue to borrow so that it can spend like a drunken sailor? Do you truly believe a service economy will be able to pay off this stagering debt? Note that the debt ceiling has been raised 5 times since dumbya was appointed President!

"This month, the Senate Finance Committee approved increasing the limit on the debt to $9.82 trillion. That boost of $850 billion would be the fifth since President Bush took office in 2001."

"The U.S. recorded four straight years of surpluses ending in 2001, Bush's first year. After that, deficits returned including a record imbalance in dollar terms of $413 billion set in 2004. The deficit has declined since. The administration sent Congress a budget in February that projects eliminating the deficit by 2012 while at the same time making Bush's first term tax cuts permanent.

Republicans campaigning to succeed Bush in the White House support his drive to make the tax cuts permanent. Democratic candidates have pledged to roll back the tax cuts received by upper-income families while offering tax relief to lower-income people.

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said in his memoirs published this week that Bush and Republicans had abandoned the GOP's conservative principles of favoring small government by failing to fight against rising government spending."

 Raise debt ceiling, Paulson tells Congress

WASHINGTON (AP) — Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson told Congress on Wednesday the government will hit the current debt ceiling on Oct. 1.

He sought quick action to increase the limit, saying it was essential to protect the "full faith and credit" of the country, especially at a time of financial market turmoil.

The limit is $8.965 trillion. Unless Congress votes to raise it, the country would be unable to borrow more money to keep the government operating and to pay debt obligations coming due.

The United States has never defaulted on a debt payment but the decision on whether to raise the debt ceiling often means a prolonged battle in Congress.

Paulson wrote congressional leaders that according to data now available, the Treasury expects to reach the ceiling on Oct. 1 — the first day of the new budget year.

 

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-09-19-deb
t-ceiling_N.htm

 

The reckless are getting relief from Bernanke while the prudent are paying the price, argues Fortune's Allan Sloan.

 By Allan Sloan, Fortune senior-editor-at-large

September 28 2007: 2:27 PM EDT

(Fortune Magazine) -- One of the core principles of the U.S. medical profession is the Hippocratic oath, the most famous part of which is "Do no harm." It's too bad that the governors of the Federal Reserve Board don't have to take such a pledge when they assume office, because their recent interest rate cut has done a lot of harm to those of us who've managed our finances prudently.

Even though the Fed's stated reason for cutting short-term interest rates by half a point was to help keep the economy from falling into recession, anyone who's been paying attention knows that a major motivation - if not the major motivation - was to try to calm the turbulence that has been roiling the markets since August.

The players in the biggest trouble, of course, were the ones who'd taken the biggest fliers in junk mortgages, ultra-risky leveraged buyouts, and other financial esoterica that proved to be malignant.

The stock market, which had been begging for a bailout and hasn't ever seen an interest rate cut that it didn't like, responded to the Fed's half-pointer by running prices up. Ben Bernanke, the Street decided, is just what the doctor ordered.

Did the Fed go too far?

However, if you look at the financial markets' overall reaction to the Fed move - not at just the stock market's reaction - you realize that as a result of the cut, those of us who keep score in dollars and didn't need to be bailed out are less wealthy than we were in terms of anything other than our home currency.

Why? Because the rate cut contributed heavily to the dollar's recent sharp drop in the currency markets - parity with the Canadian dollar, for God's sake! - and to the price spike in hard assets like gold, silver, copper, and oil. So our wealth, relative to these other things, has diminished.

And wait, there's more. Even though the Fed has cut short-term rates, long-term rates, which it doesn't control, have risen in reaction to the cut. So whatever economic benefits may flow from lower shortterm rates will be partly offset by the rise in long rates, which are at least as important to the economy as short rates.

Finally, consider this. Even though Bernanke's cut may mean that some junk mortgages will reset at lower rates, the cost of large, high-quality fixed-rate mortgages, which are tied to long rates, will be higher than they'd otherwise be. (Yeah, penalize the people who are prudent - way to go!)

When I talk about prudent people being penalized, I don't mean just the decline in their wealth in terms of anything other than the dollar. I'm also talking about the price paid by investors who wouldn't play the subprime mortgage game and thus got lower returns than players who took bigger risks.

The folks who didn't get carried away (and avoided huge losses) look smart today - but they looked prudish and foolish until the housing bubble finally popped.

Welcome to Bailout City!

Look, as I've said before - and will probably say again - the Fed's job is to protect the financial system. It doesn't dare let a giant financial institution fail, lest it drag down other big players and trigger cascading failures.

continued at:

http://money.cnn.com/2007/09/28/news/economy/sloan_
bernanke.fortune/index.htm?cnn=yes

This is the effect that the bailout of the rich has had on the American public. They have devalued the US dollar to the point that the Canadian Loonie is now worth more than the US dollar with the Euro and GB Pound reaching new record highs against the US dollar. That is effectively a tax on every citizen of the US as goods and services now cost more as the US dollar is now worth less. Reckless spending by this administration will only cause more economic hardship as interest rates that the average citizen pays will not follow the cuts that the banks get from the fed cut as the government still continues to require infusion of cash from outside foriegn sources who will demand a higher rate of return for taking the risk of loaning the US the funds to cover the huge debt burden it faces. The US government is becoming a "subprime borrower" which will demand higher rates from the lenders. What we have facing this once great nation is a devauled currency with higher interest rates on the horizon, coupled with inflation...Yes folks it's "That 70's Economy" all over again thanks to the dumbarse in the Whitehouse and the idiots that have surrounded him giving him advice!

 

Loonie closes above parity

"The Canadian dollar closed above parity Friday for the first time in almost 31 years, as the U.S. greenback continued its dramatic fall against major world currencies.

According to Bank of Canada data, the loonie closed at $1.0052 US, up two-thirds of a cent from Thursday's close.

Expressed another way, it means that a U.S. dollar is now worth a little less than 99.5 cents in Canadian money.

The loonie had reached parity with the U.S. currency on Sept. 20 — the first time since November 1976 — but had failed to close at or above that level.

The loonie's rise came in spite of a weaker-than-expected GDP reading for July. Statistics Canada said the economy grew by 0.2 per cent that month, while economists were forecasting growth of 0.3 to 0.4 per cent.

Higher gold prices also lent support to the dollar, analysts said. Gold futures jumped more than $10 US an ounce to above $750 US an ounce, a new 27-year high."

Gold's rise was due in large part to the weakness of the U.S. greenback, as investors jumped into bullion as an alternative to assets denominated in U.S. dollars.   

In Friday trading, the greenback fell to another record low against the euro for the seventh consecutive day. Traders are expecting the U.S. Federal Reserve will cut lending rates further to help ward off a recession.

That expectation got a boost from the release Friday of core inflation figures that showed inflation running at its lowest level in almost four years.

Bloomberg reported that the Canadian dollar rose 6.2 per cent against the greenback in September — its biggest monthly rise since the financial data provider began tracking the data in early 1971.

Since the start of the year, the loonie has gained 17 per cent against the U.S. dollar — more than any other major currency. The euro, for instance, has risen seven per cent against the greenback year-to-date, while the British pound and Japanese yen are both up about three per cent."

 http://www.cbc.ca/money/story/2007/09/28/loonie
.html

The CIA is in the business of funding a Hedge Fund as is depicted in the following article. But did you know they are investing your tax dollars overseas now? That bodes well for the American employment base... Help grow overseas companies so that their economy can add jobs and profit off the American taxpayer!

*With the CIA being an ultra-secret orginization, do you really believe this is the first overseas investment they are making, or is this just the first one they are telling us about?

*Where in the constitution does it allow the government spy agency to take the tax dollars paid by the citizens of the USA and gamble it in investments...overseas investments to boot?

*Who audits the investment fund that the CIA is running?

*Who makes the decesion on where the American taxpayers money is invested?

*Have they made or lost money on their investments?

*Are there outside investors in the fund? If so, who are they? Can anyone invest in this fund, or do you have to be connected to those in power to share in the profits?

*Is there political connections or favors being done in return for the CIA investments in these companies?

*Would the money be better invested in American companies to allow them to grow and add more jobs for Americans since it is the American publics money to begin with?

*Does the CIA spy on competetors of the businesses it invests in to insure positive returns on it's investments?

 

CIA squirrels cash into British radio software

 

Matthew Goodman

AN investment fund launched by the CIA, the US intelligence service, has made its first investment outside North America, with a stake in a British software firm.

In-Q-Tel, a fund which specialises in investing in technologies that can be adopted by the security and intelligence communities, has taken part in a £2.25m fundraising by Etherstack, a developer of software used in two-way radios employed by the military and the police.

The deal values the business at £20m.

Founded five years ago by David Deacon, an Australian, Etherstack is expected to generate sales this year of between $6m (£2.9m) and $7m.

Although it is based in London, the company is doing an increasing amount of business in the US, and the fresh funding is designed to help boost its presence on the other side of the Atlantic. Existing clients include Lockheed Martin, Ray-theon and Cisco.

Etherstack plans to list on AIM within two years, and is likely to appoint advisers to work on a float in 2008.

In-Q-Tel was set up in 1999 at the behest of the CIA. Although it is not owned by the agency and is independently run, the fund invests in technologies exclusively for the CIA and the American intelligence community. The aim is for it to buy into businesses that can assist the agency in its work.

So far, In-Q-Tel has invested in more than 100 different companies. It is a not-for-profit organisation and says its success is gauged by how well its investments are adopted by the intelligence services.

Other companies in which In-Q-Tel has bought stakes include Keyhole, which creates 3-D mapping software. That business was subsequently acquired by Google, the search-engine giant.

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/busine
ss/industry_sectors/technology/article2557240.ece

None Dare Call It Genocide

Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr., Arab News

 

How comfy we are all in the United States, as we engage in living-room debates about the US occupation of Iraq, whether “we” are bringing them freedom and whether their freedom is really worth the sacrifice of so many of our men and women. We talk about whether war aims have really been achieved, how to exit gracefully, or whether we need a hyper-surge to finish this whole business once and for all.

But there’s one thing Americans don’t talk about: The lives of Iraqis, or, rather, the deaths of Iraqis. It’s interesting because we live in an age of extreme multiculturalism and global concern. We adore international aid workers, go on mission trips abroad, weep for the plight of those suffering from hunger and disease, volunteer in efforts to bring plumbing to Ecuador, mosquito nets to Rwanda, clean water to Malawi, human rights to Togo, and medicine to Bangladesh.

But when “we” cause the calamity, suddenly there is silence. There is something odd, suspicious, even disloyal about a person who would harp on the deaths of Iraqis since the US invasion in 2003. Maybe a person who would weep for Iraq is really a terrorist sympathizer. After all, most of the deaths resulted from “sectarian violence,” and who can stop crazed Islamic sects from killing each other. Better each other than us, right?

Well, it’s about time that we think about the numbers, even though the US military has decided that body counts are not worth their time. Opinion Research Business, a highly reputable polling firm in the UK, has just completed a detailed and rigorous survey of Iraqis. In the past, the company’s results have been touted by the Bush administration whenever the data looks favorable to the US cause. But their latest report received virtually no attention in the US.

Here is the grisly bottom line: More than one million people have been murdered in Iraq since the US invasion, according to the ORB. Yes, other estimates are lower, but you have to be impressed by what they have found. It seems very credible.

In Baghdad, where the US presence is most pronounced, nearly half of households report having lost a family member to a killing of some sort. Half the deaths are from gunshot wounds, one-fifth from car bombs, and one-tenth from aerial bombs. The total number of dead exceeds the hugely well-publicized Rwandan genocide in 1994.

You are welcome to inspect the detailed data.

Aside from the astonishing detail, what jumps out at me is the number of dead who are neither Sunni nor Shiite. It is also striking how the further geographically you move from US troop activity, the more peaceful the area is. Americans think they are bringing freedom to Iraq, but the data indicate that we are only bringing suffering and death.

If you have ever lost a family member, you know that life is never the same again. It causes every manner of religious, social, and marital trauma. It’s bad enough to lose a family member to some disease. But to a cold-blooded killing or a car bomb or an airplane bomb? That instills a sense of fury and motivation to retribution.

So we are speaking of some 1.2 million people who have been killed in this way, and that does not count the numbers that were killed during the invasion itself for the crime of having attempted to oppose invading foreign troops, or the 500,000 children and old people killed by the US-UN anti-civilian sanctions in the 10 previous years.

And let’s not flatter ourselves into thinking that these are nothing but ragheads killing each other for no good reason. Just this past weekend, there is an example in point. Some of the legendary contractors for the State Department were driving through the Sunni neighborhood of Mansour in Baghdad. They were driving their SUVs when witnesses reported an explosion of fire that lasted 20 minutes. The SUVs drove off, leaving at least nine people dead on the road.

Why? No one knows. Sure there will be investigations. There have already been apologies. The company in question has had its license to practice occupation revoked by the Iraqi government. For how long, no one knows. But these are merely symbolic gestures. There will be no justice, and no forgetting.

To the extent anyone pays attention to this stuff, they only hear the words of the State Department spokesman: “The bottom line is that the secretary wants to make sure that we do everything we possibly can to avoid the loss of innocent life.”

In light of the one million plus figure, such statements come off as evil jokes. The US has unleashed bloodshed in Iraq that is rarely known even in countries we think of as violent and torn by civil strife. It is amazing to think that this has occurred in what was only recently a liberal and civilized country by the region’s standards. This was a country that had a problem with immigration, particularly among the well-educated and talented classes. They went to Iraq because it was the closest Arab proxy to Western-style society that one could find in the area.

It was the US that turned this country into a killing field. Why won’t we face this? Why won’t we take responsibility? The reason has to do with this mysterious thing called nationalism, which makes an ideological religion of the nation’s wars. We are God-like liberators. They are devil-like terrorists. No amount of data or contrary information seems to make a dent in this irreligious faith. So it is in every country and in all times. Here is the intellectual blindness that war generates.

Such blindness is always inexcusable, but perhaps more understandable in a time when information was severely restricted, when technological limits actually prohibited us from knowing the whole truth at the time. What excuse do we have today? Our blindness is not technological but ideological. We are the good guys, right? Every nation believes that about itself, but freedom is well served by the few who dare to think critically.

An essential postulate of the Western idea, or so we tell ourselves, is the universal and ultimate value of human life. And indeed it is true. No person or group of people is without value — not even those whom our own government chooses to label the enemy.

— Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr. is president of the Ludwig von Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama, editor of LewRockwell.com, and author of Speaking of Liberty.

(lewockwell@mac.com)

 

http://www.arabnews.com/?page=7&section=0&article=1
01673&d=25&m=9&y=2007

Today the Federal Reserve, the "Private Institution" that is in charge of maintaining a stable economy and keeping inflation under control here in the US, lowered both the federal funds rate, and the discount rate by 0.50%. This cut is viewed by many including myself as a "bailout" of the rich who encouraged risky lending and are now seeing their bond portfolios get hit by big losses because there was so much worthless credit paper in the debt instruments they were pawning off onto the world, that "banks would not even loan overnight to other banks to allow for balancing of the reserve requirements, and mortgage lenders could not sell the mortgages they originated to free up funds to write more mortgages".

What the fed did today by lowering the interest rates is put a tax on every individual that buys goods that are valued in US dollars as the US dollar lost a little over 1% of it's value today after the fed announced the rate cuts, Oil and Gold shot up in price, with Gold hitting a 27 year high. Going forward the US dollar will continue losing value not only against other major currencies of the world, but also against the commodities that trade in dollars....Think OIL, which converts to gasoline, electric, plastics, etc.  By 3:00 PM EST today, the green paper in your wallet, checking account and savings account was worth 1% less than it was at 2:00 PM EST...and it's gonna keep on getting less valuable.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601012&sid
=aPUFfDsoBB7w&refer=commodities

A prime example of a fat cat that was bailed out today is CountryWide CEO Angelo Mozilo. Good ole Mr. Suntan himself pumped and dumped CFC stock to a tune of  over 200 million US dollars since January while CFC stock went from $42.11 on January 3, 2007 to $19.88 today, hitting a low of $15.00 on August 16, 2007. Along the way, there was the Bank of America buyout rumor that rallied the stock to $45, then there was the clown Cramer on CNBC trying to predict a buyout by Merril Lynch which sent the stock rallying yet again earning Mr. Suntan, Angelo Mozilo even more profits on the shares he was dumping! http://www.thestreet.com/_yahoo/funds/stoptrading/1035
1554.html?cm_ven=YAHOO&cm_cat=FREE&cm_ite=NA These calls by Cramer and the rest of the talking heads was nothing more than a pump up of the stock price so that their friends with big money invested could sell their stock!  Look at the charts for the dates these statements were made and the stock price action after these calls. http://www.thestreet.com/_yahoo/funds/stoptrading/1033
7828.html?cm_ven=YAHOO&amp;cm_cat=FREE&amp;cm_ite=NA>

Look at Mr. Suntan sell: http://finance.yahoo.com/q/it?s=CFC

(as the stock drops...here's the chart:  http://www.StockSharePublishing.com/ChartLib/CFC_09_1
8_20_37_1190162250.png )

Now Mr Suntan is griping that the fed needs to cut rates even more so that he can keep his ponzi scam going longer and make more fees off of refinancing people out of the interest only, Alt-A, No Doc and ARM's that he and others like him sold them which they shouldn't have qualified for in the first place...but in order for him to do that, he needs the housing bubble reinflated so that the people don't owe more than their house is worth. Thus, in rides Uncle Ben today with a fed rescue for the rich, a tax on the ordinary citizen by devaluing the dollar, and guranteed inflation on the horizon!

By Christmas you will realize that good ole Uncle Ben is truly the Grinch that will have stolen Christmas...unless you're Mr. Suntan or one of his rich buddies that needed a fed bailout so you could go on fleecing the sheeple with their own money! In that case, it was Christmas in September!

As for me...I rode CFC down since February playing the ABC structure that unfolded along the way, with it having surpassed my ABC expectations, and rode the Hommies (Home Builders) , SPF, TOL, CTX, BZH, KBH down since the Toll CEO, Robert Toll's hommie pumping comment; "We're dancing on the bottom or just above!" back in December of 2006, which was followed by BAC and C upgrading the hommies. Of course Robert Toll as well as other execs at the hommies were in the midsts of selling off their stock at the time of those comments and upgrades like Mr. Suntan and not unlike the Enron execs just before its collapse. 

Went long Gold when the arseclown Kudlow and Steve Forbes tried to jawbone the price of Gold down on August 27, 2007 as I outlined in this e-mail to some of my investment friends:

----------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------
--------------

Sent: Monday, August 27, 2007 7:16 PM

Subject: It's Official...The Buy Signal On Gold Has Been Given!

 

 

 

 

 

On my way home this evening I was listening to the old has been neo-con PR man, Larry Kudlow, on my Sirius radio…He was bashing Gold with Steve Forbes and other guests trying to give the argument that when the fed lowers interest rates, the dollar will get stronger and the price of Gold will go down! They are trying too hard to jawbone the price of Gold down…that tells me they are afraid that once the Jeannie is outta the bottle, there is no putting it back in! The derivative contracts on the big institutional Gold shorters is about to blow up in their face, and they are throwing everything at it, including an “old has been” to try and keep the price suppressed!

 

 

 

 

As most of you know, I prefer the South African miners over the others and am going long HMY, GFI and DROOY…Watch the breakout in the Gold equities unfold before your eyes over the next 4 weeks! Might be time to unbury some and cash it in on this next top.

 

 

 

 

Warmest regards,

 

 

 

 

Tim

 

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---------------------------------------------

In a closing note, don't take these events lightly as they effect you more than you can imagine. Alan Greenspan made some very valid points concerning the deficit the present administration has allowed to occur. Someone will have to pay for that sooner or later, and it will be you and I as well as our children and grandchildren, and possibly their grandchildren. Stay in the know on what is going on, so when you are being fleeced, at least you'll know you are being fleeced! A good reference site for how the US dollar is doing and how bad you are being taxed by it's depreciation is www.kitco.com . Sgroll down to the bottom of the page there to see the up to date exchange rates.

Kind regards,

Laid Back

PS: I only wish Dr. Ron Paul had a chance to win...he is what we need to get back on the right track!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is how bad it has become in this country under the neocons attempts to strip the public of their rights as they attempt to grab power. This student was asking a Presidential candidate a series of questions when the goon squad moves in. Events like these should open the eyes of all to how far from the "For The People, By The People" we have drifted under the neocons power grab. This is a disgrace, and something that you would expect to occur in Russia, China or North Korea. Is this what the young men and women of the armed services are in foriegn lands fighting for...the survival of the elite police state? (And for you neocons, Kerry wanted to answer the students questions, so don't try to put it off as a Kerry blunder!)

Student Tasered at campus forum for Kerry

GAINESVILLE, Florida (AP) -- A University of Florida student was Tasered and arrested after trying to ask U.S. Senator John Kerry about the 2004 election and other subjects during a campus forum.

Videos of the incident posted on several Web sites show officers pulling Andrew Meyer, 21, away from the microphone after he asks Kerry about impeaching President Bush and whether he and Bush were both members of the secret society Skull and Bones at Yale University.

"He apparently asked several questions -- he went on for quite awhile -- then he was asked to stop," university spokesman Steve Orlando said. "He had used his allotted time. His microphone was cut off, then he became upset."

As two officers take Meyer by the arms, Kerry, D-Massachusetts, is heard to say, "That's alright, let me answer his question." Audience members applaud, and Meyer struggles to escape for several seconds as up to four officers try to remove him from the room.

The rest of the article: http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/09/18/student.tasered.ap/in
dex.html#cnnSTCText

The video: http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/09/18/student.tasered.ap/in
dex.html#cnnSTCVideo

This is about as sick as it gets! This poor excuse for a human belongs with the other waste of a human life Coey! May they both rot in Hell! Actually, since he held a position of "public trust" he should receive 5 times the punishment that others would get for the same crime!

Federal Prosecutor Arrested In Child Sex Sting

 

POSTED: 2:04 pm EDT September 17, 2007 UPDATED: 6:43 pm EDT September 17, 2007 DETROIT -- A U.S. Justice Department official has been arrested on suspicion of traveling to Detroit over the weekend to have sex with a minor.

 

John David R. Atchison, 53, an assistant U.S. attorney from the northern district of Florida, was arraigned in U.S. District Court in Detroit Monday afternoon.

 

An undercover officer posed as a mother offering her child to Atchison for sex, according to police. Prosecutors said Atchison flew from Pensacola, Fla., to Detroit on Sunday intending to have sex with the 5-year-old girl.

 

He was arrested at Detroit Metropolitan Airport.

 

He is charged with enticement of a minor to engage in sexual activity.

 

According to authorities, Atchison made contact with a detective working undercover for the Macomb County Sheriff's department's.

 

The detective, acting as the child's mother, allegedly arranged a sexual encounter between Atchison and her 5-year-old daughter, police said. http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/14132485/detail.htm
l

September 16, 2007
Alan Greenspan claims Iraq war was really for oil

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article246
1214.ece

“I am saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows: the Iraq war is largely about oil,” he says.

Hawkeye, and the rest of you neocon sheeple...take your head outta the sand and realize that you have been lead to slaughter by your blind passion to follow the right, not unlike how the Nazi masses followed Hitler.

Greenspan also had other kind things to say about "dumbya" and company!:

Greenspan has harsh words for Bush on fiscal role

"In the 500-page book, "The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World," Greenspan describes the Bush administration as so captive to its own political operation that it paid little attention to fiscal discipline, and he described Bush's first two Treasury secretaries, Paul O'Neill and John Snow, as essentially powerless.

Bush, he writes, was never willing to contain spending or veto bills that drove the country into deeper and deeper deficits, as Congress abandoned rules that required that the cost of tax cuts be offset by savings elsewhere. "The Republicans in Congress lost their way," wrote Greenspan, a self-described "libertarian Republican."

"They swapped principle for power. They ended up with neither. They deserved to lose" in the 2006 election, when they lost control of the House and Senate.

As officials leave the Bush administration, there is no shortage of criticism of this White House. Disenchanted hawks are writing that Bush has abandoned the certainties of the first term and taken too soft a line on North Korea and Iran. From the other side of the spectrum, former officials are telling tales about how the administration bent rules on torture or domestic spying."

"Of the presidents he worked with, Greenspan reserves his highest praise for Bill Clinton, whom he described in his book as a sponge for economic data who maintained "a consistent, disciplined focus on long-term economic growth.""

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/09/16/business/gr
eenspan.1-134422.php

In his book to be released tomorrow September 17, 2007 alan Greenspan states the following: