[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dpSjjqpHsA]
Author: Jeff Fenske
From: Funny Money Report
At this point it seems pretty certain that we are facing an inflationary depression. What’s awful is that much of this is being done by design. The Federal Reserve would prefer to save the banking cartel instead of doing what’s best for the American people. A stable U.S. Dollar would be what’s best for the American people but of course they aren’t moving in that direction. It is likely that we are seeing the start of a domino collapse in the U.S. financial system and it’s going to get ugly.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXUU_lyb0Lc]
From: Democracy Now
US veterans gathered in Maryland this past weekend to testify at Winter Soldier, an eyewitness indictment of atrocities committed by US troops during the ongoing occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Soldiers spoke of free-fire zones, the shootings and beatings of innocent civilians, racism at the highest levels of the military, sexual harassment and assault within the military, and the torturing of prisoners. While the corporate media ignored the story, we broadcast their voices. [includes rush transcript]
From: ProLibertate, by William N. Grigg
A few nights ago, at the end of a day devoted to productive and pacific pursuits, after you had surrendered to a few hours of well-earned sleep, the people who presume to rule us raided your bank accounts.
No, I’m not referring to the Regime’s ability to monitor your financial transactions, a power displayed to dramatic effect in the prostitution sting that ended Eliot Spitzer’s lamentable career. Yes, you’ve probably been subject to totalitarian scrutiny of that sort at some point as well, but that’s a topic for another occasion.
Right now, I’m talking about the Federal Reserve’s most recent wealth redistribution plan, through which hundreds of billions of “dollars” will be created in an effort to stave off bank failures — an effort that will not succeed.
To create this so-called “money,” the Fed has to steal the value of what each of us has earned, saved, or invested.
From: Nolan Chart
Saxo Bank experts believe that oil prices will hit the level of 175 dollars per barrel in 2008, whereas grain prices will double. The U.S. and the Chinese markets will collapse by 25 and 40 percent respectively by the end of the summer of 2008. Every third of ten U.S. large building companies will go bankrupt. The British economy will also start declining.
The bank has its forecast on the new U.S. president too.
From: www.house.gov/Paul, April 25, 2006
What the Price of Gold is Telling Us
[…]
Since 2001 the dollar has been devalued by 60%.
In 1934 FDR devalued the dollar by 41%.
In 1971 Nixon devalued the dollar by 7.9%.
In 1973 Nixon devalued the dollar by 10%.
These were momentous monetary events, and every knowledgeable person worldwide paid close attention. Major changes were endured in 1979 and 1980 to save the dollar from disintegration. This involved a severe recession, interest rates over 21%, and general price inflation of 15%.
Today we face a 60% devaluation and counting, yet no one seems to care. It’s of greater significance than the three events mentioned above. And yet the one measurement that best reflects the degree of inflation, the Fed and our government deny us. Since March, M3 reporting has been discontinued.
For starters, I’d like to see Congress demand that this report be resumed. I fully believe the American people and Congress are entitled to this information. Will we one day complain about false intelligence, as we have with the Iraq war? Will we complain about not having enough information to address monetary policy after it’s too late?
From: AP News
VATICAN CITY (AP) – Pope Benedict XVI issued one of his strongest appeals for peace in Iraq on Sunday, days after the body of the kidnapped Chaldean Catholic archbishop was found near the northern city of Mosul.
The pope also denounced the 5-year-long Iraq war, saying it had provoked the complete breakup of Iraqi civilian life.
“Enough with the slaughters. Enough with the violence. Enough with the hatred in Iraq!” Benedict said to applause at the end of his Palm Sunday Mass in St. Peter’s Square.
From: Natural News
If you are among those calorie-conscious consumers who opt for diet sodas or other diet products, you may actually ruin your health and become fat, according to several new studies.
A Purdue University study published 10 February 2008 in the journal Behavioral Neuroscience reported that rats on diets containing the artificial sweetener saccharin gained more weight than rats given sugary food, casting doubt on the benefits of low-calorie sweeteners.
During an interview, ABC News’ medical contributor Dr. Marie Savard stated that “there is something about diet foods that changes your metabolic limit, your brain chemistry.” Savard said another recent study, which included more than 18,000 people, found healthy adults who consumed one diet drink a day could increase their risk of health problems and metabolic disorders by a whooping 30 to 40 percent.
From: WWW.House.Gov/Paul | Speeches And Statements
Living by the Sword
Ron Paul, M.D.
13 March 2008
It has been said that “he who lives by the sword shall die by the sword.” And in the case of Eliot Spitzer this couldn’t be more true. In his case it’s the political sword, as his enemies rejoice in his downfall. Most people, it seems, believe he got exactly what he deserved.
The illegal tools of the state brought Spitzer down, but think of all the harm done by Spitzer in using the same tools against so many other innocent people. He practiced what could be termed “economic McCarthyism,” using illegitimate government power to build his political career on the ruined lives of others.
No matter how morally justified his comeuppance may be, his downfall demonstrates the worst of our society. The possibility of uncovering personal moral wrongdoing is never a justification for the government to spy on our every move and to participate in sting operations.
For government to entice a citizen to break a law with a sting operation – that is, engaging in activities that a private citizen is prohibited by law from doing — is unconscionable and should clearly be illegal.
Though Spitzer used the same tools to destroy individuals charged with economic crimes that ended up being used against him, gloating over his downfall should not divert our attention from the fact that the government spying on American citizens is unworthy of a country claiming respect for liberty and the fourth amendment.
Two wrongs do not make a right. Two wrongs make it doubly wrong.
Sacrifice of our personal privacy has been ongoing for decades, but has rapidly accelerated since 9/11. Before 9/11 the unstated goal of collecting revenue was the real reason for the erosion of our financial privacy. When nineteen suicidal maniacs attacked us on 9/11, our country became convinced that further sacrifice of personal and financial privacy was required for our security.
The driving force behind this ongoing sacrifice of our privacy has been fear and the emotional effect of war rhetoric – war on drugs, war against terrorism, and the war against third world nations in the Middle East who are claimed to be the equivalent to Hitler and Nazi Germany.
But the real reason for all this surveillance is to build the power of the state. It arises from a virulent dislike of free people running their own lives and spending their own money. Statists always demand control of the people and their money.
Recently we’ve been told that this increase in the already intolerable invasion of our privacy was justified because the purpose was to apprehend terrorists. We were told that the massive amounts of information being collected on Americans would only be used to root out terrorists. But as we can see today, this monitoring of private activities can also be used for political reasons. We should always be concerned when the government accumulates information on innocent citizens.
Spitzer was brought down because he legally withdrew cash from a bank – not because he committed a crime. This should prompt us to reassess and hopefully reverse this trend of pervasive government intrusion in our private lives.
We need no more Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act!
No more Violent Radicalization & Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Acts!
No more torture!
No more Military Commissions Act!
No more secret prisons and extraordinary rendition!
No more abuse of habeas corpus!
No more PATRIOT Acts!
What we need is more government transparency and more privacy for the individual!
From: vdare.com
I’ve been watching the dollar die all my life. I sometimes think I will outlast it.
When I was a young man, gold was $35 an ounce. Today one ounce gold bullion coins, such as the Canadian Maple Leaf, cost more than $1,000.
Our coinage was silver. Our dimes, quarters, and half dollars had purchasing power. Even the nickel could purchase a candy bar, ice cream cone or soft drink, and a penny could purchase bubble gum or hard candy. If a kid could collect 5 discarded soft drink bottles from a construction site, the 2 cents deposit on the returnable bottles was enough for the Saturday afternoon movie. Gasoline was 32 cents a gallon. A dollar’s worth was enough for a Saturday night date. …
The US inflation rate is about twice as high as the government’s inflation measures report. In order to hold down Social Security payments, the government changed the way it measures inflation. In the old measure, inflation measured the nominal cost of a defined standard of living. If the price of steak rose, up went the inflation rate. Today if the price of steak rises, the government assumes that people switch to hamburger. Inflation doesn’t go up. Instead, the standard of living it measures goes down.
World Affairs Brief, March 14, 2008. Commentary and Insights on a Troubled World.
Copyright Joel Skousen. Partial quotations with attribution permitted. Cite source as Joel Skousen’s World Affairs Brief.
SACRIFICING THE DOLLAR TO SAVE THE BANKS
We hear a phrase all too often nowadays: “The dollar sank to a new record low this week.” Get used to it. It’s going to continue its steady decline as the Fed continues to bailout the major banks and financial institutions whose solvency depends on a package of paper assets that no longer has a verifiable value. As currency traders react to each new injection of liquidity and the lowering of US interest rates, the dollar keeps losing value. It lost 1% this past week compared to the Euro. It has gone down 6% in the past month, 17% in the last year, and a whopping 31% since late 2005. The debasement of our currency is even worse than that, however. The markets are comparing the dollar to the Euro, or the Yen, or the British Pound. Each of those currencies is also being debased, but not quite as much as the dollar. Real inflation of the money supply is higher than the percentage fall of the dollar since all comparative currencies are moving downward as well. This week we’ll talk about who are the winners and who will be the losers in this frantic game of maintaining US buying power.
Even the markets are having trouble figuring out what are the effects of this bailout fever. As the Baltimore Sun noted, “Wall Street’s euphoria over a $200 billion plan from the Federal Reserve [resulting in an unwise gain of 416 points] turned to caution yesterday, leading stocks to retreat a day after their biggest rally in more than five years. Volatile energy prices added to the market’s anxiety. Oil prices initially fell after the Energy Department said crude and gasoline supplies rose by unexpectedly large amounts last week, but then they returned on their record-setting streak to briefly surpass $110 a barrel.”
The primary reason why oil is rising despite increasing supply is that it has become a store of value for currency traders trying to hedge against a falling dollar–following the pattern of gold and silver. In other words, speculators are joining in with oil traders to find a place to park their excess dollars, causing the price to rise unrelated to actual supply and demand of the raw product.
Major financial institutions are collapsing even though only a few, like Countrywide, have reached the state of publicly admitting default. This week another huge insider-connected fund is going under. Carlyle Capital Corp. has not been able to reach an agreement with Deutsche Bank and J.P. Morgan Chase to refinance Carlyle’s highly leveraged debt of some $21B. Carlyle’s creditors have made margin calls against Carlyle’s highly leveraged positions and are now seizing Carlyle’s collateralized assets (subprime debt) for auction. The Carlyle Fund is owned by the powerful insider-connected Carlyle Group (that owns or controls many dark side mercenary operations on behalf of the US government). If even the insiders can’t save their own, you know it’s really bad. The Carlyle Group itself is somewhat immune from financial liability since it, like other major insiders, switched corporate registry offshore (Guernsey Islands, U.K.) And their stock trades in Amsterdam.
From News with Views
Despite what the political parties would like you to believe, the problem in America is not the politicians, it is the pulpits. I hate to break the news to you, but most of America’s pulpits are filled with cowardly men. They are a shame to the Christ they claim to serve.
From: News with Views
While Americans are being bombarded with large doses of presidential primary news coverage, the US entered into an agreement with its northern neighbor that may have an impact on future internal military action.
In a political move that received little if any attention by the American news media, the United States and Canada entered into a military agreement on February 14, 2008, allowing the armed forces from one nation to support the armed forces of the other nation during a domestic civil emergency, even one that does not involve a cross-border crisis, according to a police commander involved in homeland security planning and implementation.
It is an initiative of the Bi-National Planning Group whose final report, issued in June 2006, called for the creation of a “Comprehensive Defense and Security Agreement,” or a “continental approach” to Canada-US defense and security.
The law enforcement executive told Newswithviews.com that the agreement — defined as a Civil Assistance Plan — was not submitted to Congress for debate and approval, nor did Congress pass any law or treaty specifically authorizing this military agreement to combine the operations of the armed forces of the United States and Canada in the event of domestic civil disturbances ranging from violent storms, to health epidemics, to civil riots or terrorist attacks.
“This is a military plan that’s designed to bypass the Posse Comitatus Act that traditionally prohibited the US military from operating within the borders of the United States. Not only will American soldiers be deployed at the discretion of whomever is sitting in the Oval Office, but foreign soldiers will also be deployed in American cities,” warns Lt. Steven Rodgers, commander of the Nutley, NJ Police Department’s detective bureau.
From: News With Views
… The beginning of the end came when Christian conservatives began idolizing President George W. Bush. They have done this to the point that they have come to accept just about any and all abuses against the Constitution, Bill of Rights, Declaration principles, and even our very way of life. Furthermore, they have become robotic foot soldiers for universal and everlasting war. At the same time, however, they see no harm in the decimation of individual liberties, as long as it is a Republican who is stealing them. But these same Christians will cry and wail–to the point of almost cutting themselves–against the thought of a Democrat doing the same thing. But, pray tell me, since when does it matter what the brand name is on the tyrant’s sword? Are not our liberties just as dead? …
National Right to Life even had the gall to say that it is “grateful” for John McCain’s “strong pro-life” record. What balderdash! McCain has repeatedly voted to spend Title X tax dollars to underwrite the nation’s largest abortion provider, Planned Parenthood. He publicly supports killing unborn babies conceived via rape or incest. And he continues to lie to the American people about killing babies “to save the life of the mother,” which almost any OB/GYN doctor will tell you almost NEVER occurs. According to the OB/GYN physicians that I have spoken to, the only pregnancies that pose a legitimate health risk to the mother are those where the unborn baby has already perished. …
The closest movement to reclaiming America’s freedom and independence was the recent Presidential campaign of Congressman Ron Paul. With Congressman Paul effectively neutered and neutralized (by a hostile media and mercenary Republican hierarchy), the only hope is in America’s churches and a burgeoning independent movement.
I only wish I could expect today’s pastors and churches to stand in the gap for our nation. They have the power to thwart the forces of globalism, corporatism, elitism, and liberalism that are destroying America. So far, however, this has been nothing but wishful fantasy. Most of our beloved Christian leaders are as beholden to the same Republican donors as are the previously mentioned conservative organizations. And just as impotent.
From: Business Week
Boeing’s Audacious Allies
Supporters of the planemaker cry foul when it loses a U.S. military contract to a foreign rival, but 70% of its commercial Dreamliner is made overseas
When is globalization a bad word? To Boeing (BA) backers, it’s when the competition—a consortium led by European Aeronautic Defence & Space (EADS) and Northrop Grumman (NOC)—wins the battle for a lucrative U.S. Air Force contract for airborne-refueling planes. Ever since the Air Force announced its decision on Feb. 29, Americans from Seattle to Capitol Hill have railed about lost jobs and the risks of foreign-made military assets.
But what about when Boeing wins a big contract? You don’t hear many complaints then, despite the fact that large portions of the parts and labor in its commercial planes come from overseas—70% of Boeing’s new 787 Dreamliner and 60% of other models are made outside the U.S. Even many of Boeing’s military planes have many foreign parts in them.
From: U.S. News & World Report
TUESDAY, March 11 (HealthDay News) — More than 3 million teenaged girls have at least one sexually transmitted disease (STD), a new government study suggests.
The most severely affected are African-American teens. In fact, 48 percent of African-American teenaged girls have an STD, compared with 20 percent of white teenaged girls.
“What we found is alarming,” Dr. Sara Forhan, from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said during a teleconference Tuesday. “One in four female adolescents in the U.S. has at least one of the four most common STDs that affects women.”
“It is in the quiet crucible of our personal private sufferings
that our noblest dreams are born and Gods greatest gifts are given,
and often given in compensation for what we’ve been through.”
– Wintley Phipps
Transcribed by Jeff Fenske from
The 700 Club, 2/28/08
From: AOL News
(March 9) – A vast array of pharmaceuticals — including antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers and sex hormones — have been found in the drinking water supplies of at least 41 million Americans, an Associated Press investigation shows.
From: Kevin Kelly Cool Tools
I wanted to try roasting my own coffee but was reluctant to plunk down $100 just to try it. The solution: a hot-air popcorn popper. Sweet Maria’s web site has detailed instructions on how to use a popcorn popper to dry roast coffee beans. I already had a popper (a $3 “Presto” I got at a thrift store), so I ordered a pound of green beans. Turns out it’s very easy. No tinkering, hacking or rewiring necessary.
At ground zero, steel was still found in liquid form weeks after 9/11.
Yet sooty, black burning jet fuel (basically diesel) cannot melt any kind of steel, especially fire resistant, structural steel.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afZaK8zVbUw]
Firefighter: “You’d get down below and see molten steel—molten steel running down the channel rails, like you’re in a foundery…like lava.”
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4p6UuGE0plk]
6 weeks after 9/11
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cx33GuVsUtE]
Molten Steel discovered 8 weeks after 9/11
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbzdO0EPOGg]
Frame by frame stabilization of WTC South Tower molten metal, by JKeogh of ae911truth.org
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KglmMbprfkw]
Extreme temperatures of the WTC rubble. How was this created; fire, jet fuel, friction?