April 30, 2009

Bankrupting the Common People

Housing Bubble Smackdown: Bigger Crash Ahead

Only 30 Percent of Foreclosures Have Been Relisted; 600,000 Foreclosed Homes have Disappeared

April 21, 2009

Global Research - Due to the lifting of the foreclosure moratorium at the end of March, the downward slide in housing is gaining speed. The moratorium was initiated in January to give Obama’s anti-foreclosure program—which is a combination of mortgage modifications and refinancing—a chance to succeed. The goal of the plan was to keep up to 9 million struggling homeowners in their homes, but it’s clear now that the program will fall well-short of its objective.

Another 20 percent carved off the aggregate value of US housing means another $4 trillion loss to homeowners.

In March, housing prices accelerated on the downside indicating bigger adjustments dead-ahead. Trend-lines are steeper now than ever before–nearly perpendicular. Housing prices are not falling, they’re crashing and crashing hard.

Now that the foreclosure moratorium has ended, Notices of Default (NOD) have spiked to an all-time high. These Notices will turn into foreclosures in 4 to 5 months time creating another cascade of foreclosures. Market analysts predict there will be 5 MILLION MORE FORECLOSURES BETWEEN NOW AND 2011. It’s a disaster bigger than Katrina.

Soaring unemployment and rising foreclosures ensure that hundreds of banks and financial institutions will be forced into bankruptcy. Forty percent of delinquent homeowners have already vacated their homes. There’s nothing Obama can do to make them stay.

Worse still, only 30 percent of foreclosures have been relisted for sale suggesting more hanky-panky at the banks. Where have the houses gone? Have they simply vanished?

600,000 "DISAPPEARED HOMES?"

Here’s a excerpt from the SF Gate explaining the mystery:
"Lenders nationwide are sitting on hundreds of thousands of foreclosed homes that they have not resold or listed for sale, according to numerous data sources. And foreclosures, which banks unload at fire-sale prices, are a major factor driving home values down.

"We believe there are in the neighborhood of 600,000 properties nationwide that banks have repossessed but not put on the market," said Rick Sharga, vice president of RealtyTrac, which compiles nationwide statistics on foreclosures. "California probably represents 80,000 of those homes. It could be disastrous if the banks suddenly flooded the market with those distressed properties. You’d have further depreciation and carnage."
In a recent study, RealtyTrac compared its database of bank-repossessed homes to MLS listings of for-sale homes in four states, including California. It found a significant disparity—only 30 percent of the foreclosures were listed for sale in the Multiple Listing Service. The remainder is known in the industry as "shadow inventory." ("Banks aren’t Selling Many Foreclosed Homes" SF Gate)

If regulators were deployed to the banks that are keeping foreclosed homes off the market, they would probably find that the banks are actually servicing the mortgages on a monthly basis to conceal the extent of their losses. They’d also find that the banks are trying to keep housing prices artificially high to avoid heftier losses that would put them out of business. One thing is certain, 600,000 "disappeared" homes means that housing prices have a lot farther to fall and that an even larger segment of the banking system is underwater.

Here is more on the story from Mr. Mortgage "California Foreclosures About to Soar… Again:"
"Are you ready to see the future? Tens of thousands of foreclosures are only 1-5 months away from hitting that will take total foreclosure counts back to all-time highs. This will flood an already beaten-bloody real estate market with even more supply just in time for the Spring/Summer home selling season… Foreclosure start (NOD) and Trustee Sale (NTS) notices are going out at levels not seen since mid 2008. Once an NTS goes out, the property is taken to the courthouse and auctioned within 21-45 days… The bottom line is that there is a massive wave of actual foreclosures that will hit beginning in April that can’t be stopped without a national moratorium."
JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo and Fannie Mae have all stepped up their foreclosure activity in recent weeks. Delinquencies have skyrocketed foreshadowing more price-slashing into the foreseeable future. According to the Wall Street Journal:
"Ronald Temple, co-director of research at Lazard Asset Management, expects home prices to fall 22% to 27% from their January levels. More than 2.1 million homes will be lost this year because borrowers can’t meet their loan payments, up from about 1.7 million in 2008." (Ruth Simon, "The housing crisis is about to take center stage once again," Wall Street Journal)
Another 20 percent carved off the aggregate value of US housing means another $4 trillion loss to homeowners. That means smaller retirement savings, less discretionary spending, and lower living standards.

The next leg down in housing will be excruciating; every sector will feel the pain.
Obama’s $75 billion mortgage rescue plan is a mere pittance; it won’t reduce the principle on mortgages and it won’t stop the bleeding.

Policymakers have decided they’ve done enough and are refusing to help. They don’t see the tsunami looming in front of them plain as day. The housing market is going under and it’s going to drag a good part of the broader economy along with it. Stocks, too.

VIDEO: Sacramento Tent City Homeless Get Vacate Notices

April 13, 2009

iCare America - “What you do to the least of those, you do to me.” iCare America videotapes the police passing out vacate notices to the homeless people living at Tent City in Sacramento, CA. The loss of self-esteem these people experience is magnified by the stigma of violating “laws” because of where they rest their heads. Imagine laying down each night in fear that you will be arrested and knowing there is no safe place to go. Its not right and we will do whatever it takes to bring integrity to this travesty - Val Jon Farris

Increase in First-Time Delinquent Income Taxpayers

April 14, 2009

Reuters - As a deep recession strips Americans of their jobs, homes and investments, the 2009 U.S. tax season promises to see a large uptick in first-time delinquent income taxpayers.

“Our calls are up 280 percent,” said Richard Boggs, founder and chief executive of Los Angeles-based Nationwide Tax Relief, a firm that helps delinquent taxpayers resolve tax issues. “We’ve seen a huge rise in what we call the rookie delinquent taxpayer,” he said. “They are incredibly scared, and they have no idea what’s going to happen to them because, God bless them, they’ve never owed before.”

As the weak economy puts job security and a steady flow of income on a slippery slope, many are wary of the U.S. tax man, tax consultants say. With household balance sheets under pressure, more U.S. households are having trouble keeping up with their day-to-day bills and struggling to pay their taxes.

Riskiest Places For U.S. Homeowners

April 12, 2009

Forbes - The recession may have spread across the global economy, but recovery efforts haven't taken the edge off the mortgage meltdown that helped start it all. In fact, many American real estate markets may be at risk of even worse declines.

While the president's Homeowner Stabilization Initiative, announced on Feb. 18, offers loan modifications for homeowners already in negative-equity situations and the stimulus package offers an $8,000 tax credit for first-time buyers, there are several places where such efforts are likely to have little effect.

Specifically, you don't want to be a homeowner in several parts of California, Florida and the upper Midwest. Detroit, Mich., Miami, Fla., and Merced, Calif., are among the top five riskiest spots for homeowners, ranking second, third and fifth, respectively. California and Florida areas dominate the list, taking up almost three-quarters of the 25 spots.

One thing all the spots on our list have in common, though, is they're only going to get worse. As foreclosures rise and home prices plummet (27% since their 2006 peak, but more than one-third in many other places), the ability of many borrowers to make payments becomes more difficult as unemployment rises.

The national foreclosure average is now 3%, but the average for subprime loans--a disproportionate share of mortgages in high-stress markets--is 13.9%. That number could rise even after the recession ends because solid economic growth can't bring back housing prices that fell so far so fast after the boom.

"We had a housing decline in Massachusetts in the 1990s with no recession," says Mark Fleming, chief economist of real estate analytics firm First American CoreLogic, "and a recession in 2001 within the middle of the housing boom."

In other words, home prices and lending rates rising right along with the economy was never good for borrowers...

U.S. Home Price Drops Set Records in January

April 4, 2009

AP - Home prices sank by the sharpest annual rate on record in January, and the pace continues to accelerate, but there were a handful of battered metro areas where price declines slowed, according to data released Tuesday.

The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller index of home prices in 20 major cities tumbled by a record 19 percent from January 2008. It was the largest decline since the index started in 2000. The 10-city index dropped 19.4 percent, also a new record.

All 20 cities in the report showed monthly and annual price declines, with 13 posting new annual records. Prices dropped by more than 10 percent in 14 cities. Faring better were Dallas, Denver and Cleveland, with annual price declines of around 5 percent.

"There are very few bright spots that one can see in the data," David Blitzer, chairman of S&P's index committee, said in a prepared statement. "Most of the nation appears to remain on a downward path."

In the Cleveland, Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Washington D.C. metro areas—all ravaged by foreclosures—annual price declines eased somewhat. Meanwhile, six cities, including Minneapolis, Charlotte, Seattle and New York, showed smaller price declines in January compared with December...

One in Every 10 Americans is Receiving Food Stamps

April 2, 2009

Reuters - A record 32.2 million people -- one in every 10 Americans -- received food stamps at latest count, the government said on Thursday, a reflection of the recession now in its 16th month.

Food stamps are the major U.S. antihunger program and help poor people buy groceries. The average benefit was $112.82 per person in January. The January figure marks the third time in five months that enrollment set a record...

Flint, MI, Considers Shutting Down Quadrants of City

April 1, 2009

Flint Journal (Flint, Michigan) - Property abandonment is getting so bad in Flint that some in government are talking about an extreme measure that was once unthinkable — shutting down portions of the city, officially abandoning them and cutting off police and fire service.

Temporary Mayor Michael Brown made the off-the-cuff suggestion Friday in response to a question at a Rotary Club of Flint luncheon about the thousands of empty houses in Flint.

Brown said that as more people abandon homes, eating away at the city’s tax base and creating more blight, the city might need to examine “shutting down quadrants of the city where we (wouldn’t) provide services...”

U.S. Private Sector Axes 742,000 Jobs in March

April 1, 2009

Reuters - Job losses in the U.S. private sector accelerated in March, more than economists’ expectations, according to a report by ADP Employer Services...

Pension Insurer Shifted to Stocks Just Months Before Collapse

March 30, 2009

Boston Globe - Just months before the start of last year's stock market collapse, the federal agency that insures the retirement funds of 44 million Americans departed from its conservative investment strategy and decided to put much of its $64 billion insurance fund into stocks.

Switching from a heavy reliance on bonds, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation decided to pour billions of dollars into speculative investments such as stocks in emerging foreign markets, real estate, and private equity funds...

Nonetheless, analysts expressed concern that large portions of the trust fund might have been lost at a time when many private pension plans are suffering major losses. The guarantee fund would be the only way to cover the plans if their companies go into bankruptcy.

"The truth is, this could be huge," said Zvi Bodie, a Boston University finance professor who in 2002 advised the agency to rely almost entirely on bonds. "This has the potential to be another several hundred billion dollars. If the auto companies go under, they have huge unfunded liabilities" in pension plans that would be passed on to the agency...

The Pension Benefit Guaranty scandal that isn't (at least not yet)

The Collapse of the U.S. Economy and Government Finances

White House Pushing GM Toward Bankruptcy

April 14, 2009

World Socialist Web Site - The White House is laying the groundwork for General Motors to declare bankruptcy by June 1. Obama wants to dump the company’s health care and pension obligations in order to create a “good,” more profitable GM...

Obama to Push to Make 12 Million Illegal Immigrants Legal

April 12, 2009

New York Times - Republicans say they will seek to mobilize popular outrage against any effort to legalize unauthorized immigrant workers while so many Americans are out of jobs...

Financial Rescue Nears GDP as Pledges Top $12.8 Trillion

April 1, 2009

Bloomberg - The U.S. government and the Federal Reserve have spent, lent or committed $12.8 trillion, an amount that approaches the value of everything produced in the country last year.

AIG Crisis Could Be the Tip of an Insurance Iceberg

April 1, 2009

Los Angeles Times AIG’s problems extend across most of its business lines, including its massive life insurance and retirement services operations, which reported a staggering $18-billion quarterly loss this month...

April 28, 2009

Vehicle Mileage Tax

Mileage Tax Is Alive and Well and Living in Congress

April 28, 2009

The Infrastructurist - Just two months ago, the idea of taxing motorists on the basis of how many miles they drive seemed to be dead as a doornail. After being floated by the new transportation secretary as a way to fund our highways, his boss — the guy everyone calls “Mr President” — shot it down remorselessly.

Usually, when a Mr President shoots something down, it stays dead. [Insert own Dick Cheney hunting joke here.] But not in this case. Today, James Oberstar, the head of the House transportation committee, said he wants a mileage tax. And not only does he want one, he wants it to happen in as little as two years — not the decade or more that many advocates have been talking about.

The Associated Press reports:

Oberstar said he believes the technology exists to implement a mileage tax. He said he sees no point in waiting years for the results of pilot programs since such a tax system is inevitable as federal gasoline tax revenues decline.

“Why do we need a pilot program? Why don’t we just phase it in?” said Oberstar, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee chairman. Oberstar is drafting a six-year transportation bill to fund highway and transit programs that is expected to total around a half trillion dollars.

Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., [...] said public acceptance, not technology, is the main obstacle to a mileage-based tax. [...]

Oberstar shrugged off that concern.

“I’m at a point of impatience with more studies,” Oberstar said. He suggested that Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., chairman of the highways and transit subcommittee, set up a meeting of transportation experts and members of Congress to figure out how it could be done.

The tax would entail equipping vehicles with GPS technology to determine how many miles a car has been driven and whether on interstate highways or secondary roads. The devices would also calculate the amount of tax owed.

“At this point there are a lot of things that are under consideration and there is also a strong need to find revenue,” Oberstar spokesman Jim Berard said. “A vehicle miles-traveled tax is a logical complement, and perhaps a future replacement, for fuel taxes.”
Gas tax revenues — the primary source of federal funding for highway programs — have dropped dramatically in the last two years, first because gas prices were high and later because of the economic downturn. They are forecast to continue going down as drivers switch to fuel efficient and alternative fuel vehicles.This is probably something Secretary LaHood was well aware of.
In the video we posted yesterday, he seemed almost to stifle a smile when asked about the mileage tax. He said–wink, wink–that the question was entirely in the hands of Congress. Given that Oberstar is the guy responsible for writing the first draft of next transportation bill (which could be signed into law later this year), it seems quite likely that there will be provisions for a mileage tax in it.

NY Times: Mileage Tax Would ‘Track Where Motorists Have Been’

March 9, 2008

Prison Planet - A New York Times article about the different test studies being conducted as a precursor to the introduction of a CO2 or mileage tax admits that cars will contain tracking devices that will record where motorists have been.

Obama’s transportation secretary Ray LaHood recently caused controversy when he let slip that the administration was considering a “vehicles miles traveled” tax to replace the federal fuel tax. Press secretary Robert Gibbs hastily moved to offset concerns by claiming that such a tax “is not and will not be the policy of the Obama administration.”

However, as the New York Times reported in its Sunday edition, a number of different large scale beta-testing programs are currently underway to trial that exact scheme. The largest is the $16.5 million federal Road User Study, under which thousands of volunteers in Austin, Tex.; Baltimore; Boise, Idaho; Raleigh and Durham, N.C.; San Diego; and the Quad Cities region of Iowa are driving cars equipped with tracking devices that catalogue their every movement.

For such a program to achieve its objective of taxing people by the mile, one would think that the only information the tracking device would need to measure is how many miles the vehicle has traveled. However, the true purpose of the technology is revealed when we learn that the system will also “record where motorists have been...”

Government Prepares the Public for Cradle to Grave Surveillance

CFR member and current DHS boss Janet Napolitano rolled out the idea of “enhanced driver’s licenses,” that is to say RFID national ID cards.

February 28, 2009

Infowars - Last week Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood floated the idea of a mileage tax.
“The idea — which involves tracking drivers through Global Positioning System (GPS) units in their cars — is gaining support in some states as a way of making up for a shortfall in highway funding,” reports CNN.
It didn’t take long for Obama to reject the idea — at least for now. The National Surface Transportation Infrastructure Financing Commission report rolling out the mileage tax is designed not to foist this intrusive technology on the American people in the short term, but rather get them acclimated to the idea of being tracked and taxed...

CFR Corporate Members Get Lion's Share of Bailout Funds

CFR Corporate Members Get Lion's Share of Bailout Funds

April 25, 2009

New American - Newspapers are fixated upon $160 million in bonuses given to American International Group (AIG) executives. And it’s nice to know where the millions are going (note: the bonuses could have been cancelled had the federal government let the company go bankrupt, as officials should have). But where are the trillions in TARP, TALC and Federal Reserve Bank bailout funds going?

The man in charge of administering the bailouts is Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, who served as a staff member of the New York City-based Council on Foreign Relations before being hired in 2003 to head the New York City branch of the Federal Reserve Bank (Fed).

As the vice chairman of the Fed’s Open Market Committee, Geithner is probably a poor choice to get the nation out of its current economic mess. He served as Alan Greenspan’s number two man at the Fed, so Geithner is as responsible as anyone for facilitating the severity of the real estate and financial bubble and its subsequent collapse. After all, the Fed was the driving force behind the asset bubble, inflating the bubble larger and larger through artificially low interest rates and an inflationary easy-money policy.

Under Geithner and his predecessor (former Goldman Sachs CEO Henry “Hank” Paulson), the majority of bailout funds have been awarded to high-level donors to Geithner's former employer: the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). Here’s a survey of TARP bailout awards to the CFR’s corporate members (there are a total of only a little more than 200 corporate members at all levels):

Among the “Founders” (those who give $100,000 or more to CFR) can be found:
  • American Express Company: $3.39 billion TARP
  • Goldman Sachs: $10 billion TARP, plus a separate Federal Reserve bailout and more than $13 billion of the allotment to AIG (below)
  • Merrill Lynch: $45 billion through its corporate parent, Bank of America, which is also a CFR Premium corporate member, plus $6.8 billion of AIG’s bailout funds
“President’s Circle” members (those who give $60,000 - $99,999 to CFR) received the following bailout funds:
  • American International Group (AIG): $182 billion in total TARP/TALF funds to date
  • Citibank: $50 billion TARP
  • Morgan Stanley: $10 billion TARP
“Premium” members (those who give $30,000 - $59,999 to CFR):
  • Bank of New York/Mellon Corporation: $3 billion TARP
  • Freddie Mac: Sharing with Fannie Mae $1.25 trillion (that’s $1,250 billion in mortgage securities being purchased from the Federal Reserve Bank)
  • Chrysler: $4 billion TARP, plus $1.5 billion TARP for Chrysler Financial
  • JP Morgan Chase: $25 billion TARP
  • CIT Group: $2.33 billion TARP
That’s a total of more than $1 trillion in bailout funds for CFR corporate members, easily the lion’s share of the total bailout funds awarded to date. CFR membership seems to have its benefits, and then some.

So why is no one asking questions about why most of the funds are going to the former employers of our Treasury secretaries? Perhaps because many of the entities who should ask "why" are also CFR corporate members. Among the financial press, the CFR counts among its members Bloomberg, General Electric (NBC, CNBC, MSNBC), News Corporation (Fox, Fox Business), Standard and Poor's, ABC News, Time Warner (CNN, Time magazine, etc.), Moody's, and McGraw Hill (book publishers).

Somebody should ask the question why the same people who brought us this financial crisis are now bringing us the "cure," and why that cure necessarily involves financing former employers of the people making the decisions.

Credit Card Defaults Could Be the Next Financial Storm

April 23, 2009

Politico - ...Consumer outrage about credit cards is at an all-time high. So are delinquencies, which hit 5.56 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008. That’s a 60 percent jump since 2005, according to the Federal Reserve.

And then there are the fears that credit card defaults could be the next financial storm to hit already struggling consumers. Even some of the industry’s longtime allies on Capitol Hill admit that change is coming. “Most of the banks realize that some of what they’ve done before — the processes being followed — don’t really look very good in the light of day,” said Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.), whose state is home base for a large number of credit card firms.

What remains unclear is whether Obama will throw enough political capital behind the issue to get a bill passed into law...

The House Financial Services Committee approved credit card reform legislation Wednesday, and the bill is expected to pass the House easily as early as next week.

The House would largely codify into law new rules authored by Rep. Carolyn Maloney and approved by the Federal Reserve last year but not scheduled to take effect until July 2010. The House bill wouldn’t kick in much sooner, but Maloney won an amendment that speeds up the start date for a provision requiring card companies to provide consumers with a 45-day notice before they hike interest rates. Under Maloney’s amendment, the companies would be required to give 90 days’ notice...

Dems: Freeze rate hikes on credit cards
Dealing with the Next Crisis: Credit Cards

Geithner Defends Bank Rescue Program Amid Warnings

April 21, 2009

AP - Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner defended the bank rescue program devised by the Obama administration Tuesday as the International Monetary Fund predicted U.S. financial institutions could lose $2.7 trillion from the global credit crisis.

Geithner testifying before the rescue plan's Congressional Oversight Panel (and expressing concern over "the capital needs of the 19 largest banks in the country"), faced several questions about how Treasury is using the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program and how it intends to help rid financial institutions of their bad loans and securities.

His testimony came in the wake of a watchdog agency report that warned Obama administration initiatives could increasingly expose taxpayers to losses and make the government more vulnerable to fraud.

A special inspector general assigned to the bailout program concluded in a 250-page quarterly report to Congress that a private-public partnership designed to buy up bad assets is tilted in favor of private investors and creates "potential unfairness to the taxpayer."

Geithner said the new plan "strikes the right balance" by letting taxpayers share the risk with the private sector while at the same time letting private industry use competition to set market prices for the assets.

"If the government alone purchased these legacy assets from banks, it would assume the entire share of the losses and risk overpaying," Geithner said in his remarks. "Alternatively, if we simply hoped that banks would work off these assets over time, we would be prolonging the economic crisis, which in turn would cost more to the taxpayer over time."

Geithner said "the vast majority of banks" have more capital than they need to be considered well-capitalized. But he said the economic crisis and the bad assets have created uncertainty about the health of individual banks and reduced lending across the system.

"For every dollar that banks are short of the capital they need, they will be forced to shrink their lending by $8 to $12," he said.

While credit conditions have improved in the past few months, "reports on bank lending show significant declines in consumer loans, including credit card loans, and commercial and industrial loans," Geithner said.

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In a letter Tuesday to oversight panel chairwoman Elizabeth Warren, Geithner said that $109.6 billion in resources remain in the rescue fund. But officials expect the fund will be boosted over the next year by about $25 billion as some institutions pay back money they have received.

But under questioning from panel members, Geithner said that even if banks want to pay back the money, that doesn't mean the government would necessarily accept the payment.

"Ultimately we have to look at two things, one is do the institutions themselves have enough capital to be able to lend and does the system as a whole, is it working for the American people for recovery," Geithner said.

The government's effort to stabilize the financial sector and unclog the credit markets has come under heavy scrutiny. Treasury officials say the Obama administration has been holding participants more accountable. Geithner sent key members of Congress six-page letters last week spelling out his department's measures.

Still, Inspector General Neil Barofksy, using blunt language, offered a series of recommendations to protect the public and took the Treasury to task for not implementing previous advice.

Overall, the report said the public-private partnership — using Treasury, Federal Reserve and private investor money — could total $2 trillion. "The sheer size of the program ... is so large and the leverage being provided to the private equity participants so beneficial, that the taxpayer risk is many times that of the private parties, thereby potentially skewing the economic incentives," the report stated.

In particular, the report cited funds that would be used to purchase troubled real estate-related securities from financial institutions. Under plans unveiled by Treasury, for every $1 of private investment, Treasury would invest $1 and could provide another dollar in a nonrecourse loan. That money could then leverage a loan from another government fund backed mostly by the Federal Reserve, a step that Barofsky said would dilute the incentive for private fund managers to exercise due diligence.

Barofsky recommended that Treasury not allow the use of Fed loans "unless significant mitigating measures are included to address these dangers."

Among Barofsky's recommendations:
  • Treasury should set tough conflict of interest rules on public-private fund managers to prevent investment decisions that benefit them at taxpayer expense.
  • Treasury should disclose the owners of all private equity stakes in a public-private fund.
  • Fund managers should have "investor-screening" procedures to prevent asset purchase transactions from being used for money laundering.

Bank of America: It May Take a While to Payback $45 Billion to U.S. Taxpayers

April 2, 2009

Reuters - Bank of America Corp (BAC.N) Chairman and Chief Executive Kenneth Lewis said it may take several quarters for the bank to repay its $45 billion of federal bailout money, although he believes the U.S. economy may bottom out in the second half of this year... Bank of America took $25 billion from the federal Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) last year and another $20 billion in January to absorb losses at Merrill. Lewis said he regretted taking that much and said the bank would not need more aid...

Report: B of A CEO says he was told to be quiet on Merrill

April 27, 2009

The Right to Keep and Bear Arms

Obama Pushing Treaty To Ban Reloading

April 27, 2009

Gun Owners of America - Reloading ammunition — or putting together a lawful firearm from a kit — is clearly “illicit manufacturing” under proposed treaty...

California Gun Decision Muddies 2nd Amendment Waters

Bob Barr - We’re witnessing confusion being sown involving the scope of the 2nd Amendment and of the extent to which it may permissibly be limited...

Ten Years After Columbine, It's Easier to Bear Arms


April 20, 2009

Time - Monday April 20 marks 10 years since Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold permanently etched the words Columbine High School into this nation's collective memory. What happened that day in 1999 also seemed to wake America up to the reality that it had become a nation of gun owners - and too often a nation of shooters.

The carnage in Littleton, Colorado - 12 classmates and a teacher before the killers offed themselves - and the ease with which the teenagers acquired their weapons (two sawed-off shotguns, a 9-mm semiautomatic carbine and a TEC-9 handgun) seemed to usher in a new era of, well if not gun control, then at least gun awareness.

In the decade since, massacres perpetrated by deranged gunmen have continued - including the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre in which Cho Seung-Hui killed 32 people and wounded many others. But something odd has occurred. Whatever momentum the Columbine killings gave to gun control has long since petered out.

This spring, for example, Texas lawmakers are mulling a new law that would allow college students to carry firearms to campus (Utah already makes this legal)... But efforts like Woods' are up against powerful headwinds - and not just because of the powerful gun lobby that often strangles gun-control laws. Americans in general have cooled significantly to the idea of restricting gun rights. A poll released last week by CNN showed that support for stricter gun laws was at an all-time low, with just 39% of respondents in favor. Eight years ago that number was 54%...'

Since 2003, at least eight states have either passed new laws giving most residents the right to carry concealed handguns or changed existing laws to make it harder for state officials to deny those permits, according to a 2008 study in the Yale Law & Policy Review. In the past couple of years, another trend has taken root, too: the expansion of the so-called Castle Doctrine, a legal theory enshrined in common law. It is used to justify deadly force in the defense of one's home, although it's usually interpreted to include a duty to try to avoid confrontation if one can. But in the past three years, the National Rifle Association has encouraged states to write the doctrine into statute, without imposing the attendant obligation to flee for safety. Many have done so, including Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi and South Dakota. In 2007, Texas took things a step farther, and expanded its law to protect shooters who act in self-defense or act to stop certain crimes anywhere the shooter has a legal right to be — such as at work, in his car or the like...

The biggest change of all came last year at the Supreme Court, when the justices struck down what had been the strictest gun-control ordinance in the country — the ban on handguns in murder-plagued Washington, D.C. Taking only its second gun-rights case in 70 years, the court established for the first time that the Second Amendment, like the First, enshrines fundamental rights that belong to each citizen, not just the community as a whole. The implications for state and local gun-control laws haven't yet been fully understood — and probably won't for years to come as lower-court cases work out how to interpret the ruling.

Obama Laments Not Being Able to Ban Assault Weapons

April 18, 2009

The Examiner - We’ve all seen the news stories about how retail sales of firearms have been at record levels ever since Barack Obama won the election. Two primary reasons have been cited for this spike in ownership, uncertainty about the economy leading to fears of increased crime and the concern that the Obama administration will move to reinstate the "Assault Weapons Ban" which expired in 2004.

Many of those stories have quoted anti-gun pundits as saying gun owners are being paranoid and that the new government isn’t out to ban guns. This claim was repeated when U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said, "as President Obama indicated during the campaign, there are just a few gun-related changes that we would like to make, and among them would be to reinstate the ban on the sale of assault weapons."

About a month later, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton echoed that claim when she opined, "I think these assault weapons, these military style weapons, don’t belong on anyone’s street." She also noted, "We’re going to talk to the Congress, I’m not going to sugarcoat it. It’s a very heavy lift." It’s a heavy lift because the People don’t want more of their rights taken away.

Now, after letting his administration hammer away at the issue, President Obama let his true feelings be known during a press conference yesterday.

"I continue to believe that we can respect and honor the Second Amendment right in our Constitution — the rights of sportsmen and hunters and homeowners that want to keep their families safe — to lawfully bear arms, while dealing with assault weapons that, as we know here in Mexico, are used to fuel violence," Obama said.

The last president to lie to the American people was impeached. Obama must have been directing this particular lie to Mexican citizens. It is a lie because in the United States, gun that were covered by the expired AWB accounted for a very small percentage of all gun related crimes, hardly qualifying them to "fuel violence." It is also a lie because his administration continues to perpetuate the myth that 90% of all weapons used in the Mexican Drug Wars come from the United States. All people have to do is watch news footage or read articles showing automatic rifles, grenades, explosives, and RPGs being used, none of which are readily available in the U.S...

Obama Gun Ban: Not If We Can Help It!

April 16, 2009

American Daily Review - According to George Mason, father of the Bill of Rights, we are about to be enslaved, as he said, "What is the militia? It is the whole person. To disarm the people is the best and most effectual way to enslave them. According to Soviet Communist Revolutionary Vladimir Lenin 'one person with a gun can control one hundred without one.'"

The writing has been on the wall and hard-working, law-abiding Americans are MUCH less inclined to tolerate the diabolical legislation and hypocritical statements pouring out of the White House in record numbers. We’re lectured constantly about accountability and 'reform' from people who refuse to be accountable and have offered nothing except for out of control government spending, huge ridiculous programs for people who don’t contribute a dime, weak foreign policy, and shady cabinet appointments.

These same individuals have been seeking excuses, reasons and methods in which to strip us of our constitutional rights, including those encapsulated by the Second Amendment: the right to bear arms!

Why?

Because if the people have no access to guns, they have no way to fight the Federal Government when it decides to strip any or all of the people’s rights afforded by the First Amendment. Those being the right to freedom of the press, free speech, freedom of religion, the right to assemble, and the right to redress grievances.

Anyone capable of reading understands that throughout history whenever economies suffer, crime rises. This, coupled with the crisis along the Mexican/U.S. Border, has easily exacerbated the current argument into a full blown push for gun control; i.e., the false claim that 90% of weapons used to commit crimes in Mexico come from the U.S. The fact is, the statistic isn’t 90%- it’s much closer to 17% of guns used in Mexican crimes were traced to the United States. Liberals don’t want to talk about this; it doesn’t serve their purpose.

Brad O’Leary, author of the best seller “The Audacity of Deceit, Barack Obama’s War on American Values” predicted word for word, line for line the sequence that Barack Obama would follow to ban the private ownership of weapons as much as possible in the hope of the eventual abolishment of the Second Amendment completely. The entire second chapter is devoted to the subject and includes Barack Obama’s “yes” answers regarding questions about the ban of handguns, assault weapons, and mandatory background checks before anyone can purchase any kind of a gun. Let’s not forget that Obama was also on the board of The Joyce Foundation, another George Soros sponsored Socialist entity which is involved in the lobbying for ridiculous standards on environmental, educational and, of course, gun ownership issues.

Since the election, the Obama Administration has jumped right onto the gun control bandwagon, demanding reform, putting an end to unregistered gun sales at gun shows, requiring huge million dollar insurance policies on the owners for weapons, stricter oversights and the labeling of bullets, and even the suggestion that the U.S. adopt U.N. hand gun regulations, including a potential ban.

In short, the former Senator, who could only be bothered to show up to vote ‘present’ more than any other in history (when he showed up or wasn’t too late to vote at all), is going to try to make it nearly impossible to afford gun ownership in America.

Don’t believe it? Read the proposed, over-reaching, and Second Amendment-violating legislation proposed in H.R. 45, otherwise known as Blair Holt’s Firearm Licensing and Record of Sale Act of 2009...

Secret DHS Doc Predicts Violence in Response to New Gun Restrictions

April 13, 2009

Infowars - In the wake of the MIAC report and the Virginia Terrorism Threat Assessment, another document issued by the Department of Homeland Security “for official use only” covering so-called “rightwing extremism” has surfaced. The document warns federal and local officials to expect “terrorism” in response to planned firearm restrictions...

Internet Censorship

Federal Authority Over the Internet? The Cybersecurity Act of 2009

April 15, 2009

The Electronic Frontier Foundation - There’s a new bill working its way through Congress that is cause for some alarm: the Cybersecurity Act of 2009 ( PDF summary here), introduced by Senators Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) and Olympia Snowe (R-ME). The bill as it exists now risks giving the federal government unprecedented power over the Internet without necessarily improving security in the ways that matter most. It should be opposed or radically amended.

Essentially, the Act would federalize critical infrastructure security. Since many of our critical infrastructure systems (banks, telecommunications, energy) are in the hands of the private sector, the bill would create a major shift of power away from users and companies to the federal government. This is a potentially dangerous approach that favors the dramatic over the sober response.

One proposed provision, which gives the President unfettered authority to shut down Internet traffic in an emergency and disconnect critical infrastructure systems on national security, grounds goes too far. Certainly there are times when a network owner must block harmful traffic, but the bill gives no guidance on when or how the President could responsibly pull the kill switch on privately-owned and operated networks...

Feds Plan to Take Over Cybersecurity, Enforce Regulations on Private Industry

April 1, 2009

Washington Post - The proposals, in Senate legislation that could be introduced as early as today, would broaden the focus of the government’s cybersecurity efforts to include not only military networks but also private systems that control essentials such as electricity and water distribution...

Cybersecurity Act of 2009

April 6, 2009

Infowars - ...Obama’s internet agenda is an extension of his effort to impose government control over the private sector. Republicans call this socialism. In a way it is socialism, but not the kind you were told about in high school—it is a socialism devised by the Trilateralists and Council on Foreign Relations. It is a system of control that will be imposed by the bankers, and it has nothing to do with equality for all individuals or a fair or egalitarian method of compensation for workers. Banker socialism is about serfdom and poverty.

It should be obvious what is going on here. Not 'if' but 'when' the next false flag attack occurs here in America, the elite will turn off the internet in order to control the flow of information. They will tell us they were forced to do this in order to deny terrorists in caves or driving around with Ron Paul bumper stickers on their cars the ability to sabotage the power grid and banks...

Blitz of “Cyber Attacks” as Rockefeller Bill Approaches

International Copyright Law to Attack PC Privacy

March 26, 2009

Russia Today - The personal computer may soon be not-so-private, with the U.S. and some European nations working on laws allowing them access to search the content held on a person’s hard drive....

Rockefeller: Internet is 'Number One National Hazard'

March 23, 2009

Infowars - According to the great-grandson of John D. Rockefeller, nephew of banker David Rockefeller, and former Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, the internet represents a serious threat to national security. Rockefeller is not alone in this assessment. His belief that the internet is the “number one national hazard” to national security is shared by the former Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell and Obama’s current director Admiral Dennis C. Blair...

However, the real threat to internet freedom is currently posed by IT and ISP corporations, not the government. As Alex Jones explained last June, large corporate ISPs are now in the process of imposing bandwidth caps and routing traffic over their networks and blocking certain targeted websites...

VIDEO: Rockefeller Pontificates on the National Security Threat Posed by the Internet
VIDEO: Alex Jones Show on 'the Death of the Internet'
One in Four UK Government Websites are Illegal

In Australia, Banned Hyperlinks Could Cost You $11,000 a Day

March 17, 2009

Sydney Morning Herald - The Australian communications regulator says it will fine people who hyperlink to sites on its blacklist, which has been further expanded to include several pages on the anonymous whistleblower site Wikileaks.

Cybersecurity Chief Resigns

March 11, 2009

Wall Street Journal - The government's coordinator for cybersecurity programs, Rod Beckstrom, has quit, criticizing what he described as the National Security Agency's grip on cybersecurity. Mr. Beckstrom's National Cybersecurity Center, created last March to coordinate all government cybersecurity efforts, answers to the secretary of Homeland Security.

In reality, "NSA currently dominates most national cyber efforts," Mr. Beckstrom wrote to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano on Thursday. "While acknowledging the critical importance of NSA to our intelligence efforts, I believe this is a bad strategy on multiple grounds."

He added that "the threats to our democratic processes are significant if all top level government network security and monitoring are handled by any one organization (either directly or indirectly)." That echoed the view of some privacy advocates who worry about a government agency having too much information on individuals...

New York Times Calls for Internet 2

February 16, 2009

Infowars Editor’s Note: According to Markoff, the internet is so flawed and clogged with viruses, the only solution is to scrap it and start over. He suggests a “gated community” where users give up their anonymity and freedom in return for safety. Sounds like the same version of the internet our rulers have in mind.

April 26, 2009

The Final Push for World Government

Marines and Multinational Forces Train in Florida

April 26, 2009

The Florida Times-Union - During the past week, the troops - Marines from the U.S. and six countries in Central and South America, as well as soldiers from Canada - worked together at Camp Blanding, fast-roping out of helicopters, firing weapons and sharing tactics.

They jelled quickly. “The only difference in identity” said Lt. Col. Jorge Garcia of Colombia, “is in the color of the uniforms. We have the same objectives.”

The Tower of Basel: Secretive Plans for the Issuing of a Global Currency

April 19, 2009

Global Research - Do we really want the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) issuing our global currency? In an April 7 article in the London Daily Telegraph titled “The G20 Moves the World a Step Closer to a Global Currency,” Ambrose Evans-Pritchard wrote:
“A single clause in Point 19 of the communiquĂ© issued by the G20 leaders amounts to revolution in the global financial order.

“We have agreed to support a general SDR allocation which will inject $250bn (£170bn) into the world economy and increase global liquidity,’ it said. SDRs are Special Drawing Rights, a synthetic paper currency issued by the International Monetary Fund that has lain dormant for half a century.

“In effect, the G20 leaders have activated the IMF’s power to create money and begin global ‘quantitative easing’. In doing so, they are putting a de facto world currency into play. It is outside the control of any sovereign body. Conspiracy theorists will love it.”
BIS, founded in Basel, Switzerland, in 1930, it has been scandal-ridden from its beginnings. According to Charles Higham in his book Trading with the Enemy, by the late 1930s the BIS had assumed an openly pro-Nazi bias.

Indeed they will. The article is subtitled, “The world is a step closer to a global currency, backed by a global central bank, running monetary policy for all humanity.” Which naturally raises the question, who or what will serve as this global central bank, cloaked with the power to issue the global currency and police monetary policy for all humanity? When the world’s central bankers met in Washington last September, they discussed what body might be in a position to serve in that awesome and fearful role. A former governor of the Bank of England stated:

“The answer might already be staring us in the face, in the form of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS)… The IMF tends to couch its warnings about economic problems in very diplomatic language, but the BIS is more independent and much better placed to deal with this if it is given the power to do so...”

Gaddafi Outlines African Vision

April 15, 2009

BBC - Libyan leader and current African Union chairman Muammar Gaddafi has spelled out his plans to create a United States of Africa. At an AU Executive Council session in Tripoli, he called on the continent to speed up the integration process. His vision of a pan-African government was at the heart of disputes at February’s AU summit in Ethiopia.

He said an African Union Authority would replace all other organs and be run by three co-ordinators. The BBC’s Rana Jawad in Tripoli says the establishment of an AU Authority is meant to be the starting point for the envisioned United States of Africa.

More than 60 AU ministers and delegates gathered for a one-day meeting in the Libyan capital to hear Col Gaddafi outline in detail for the first time how his plan would work...

Obama Seeks $83.4 Billion to Continue U.S. Wars

April 11, 2009

World Socialist Web Site - With his request for $83.4 billion in “emergency” funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Obama is ensuring their continuation and escalation, as well as the extension of U.S. military aggression...

Green Stimulus Money Costs More Jobs Than It Creates, Study Shows

April 13, 2009

CNSNews Every “green job” created with government money in Spain over the last eight years came at the cost of 2.2 regular jobs...

Obama Hails the New World Order

April 3, 2009

The Independent - Gordon Brown declared that a $1 trillion package to stimulate economic growth agreed at yesterday’s G20 summit in London will ensure that the world pulls out of recession more quickly. Speaking after the one-day summit of the world’s richest nations in the Docklands, the Prime Minister said there were “no quick fixes,” adding: “Today’s decisions will not immediately solve the crisis. But we have begun the process by which it will be solved.”
He said: “This is the day that the world came together to fight back against the global recession, not with words, but with a plan for global recovery and for reform and with a clear timetable for its delivery.”
The US President Barack Obama played a key role in brokering the agreement, resolving tensions between China and France on tax havens.

The $1trn will be made available to countries that run into trouble via the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank and World Trade Organisation, which will all be beefed up. Half the money will come from IMF loans, with $250bn to finance trade deals and a further $250bn from the IMF’s currency reserve.

Mr Brown and President Obama originally wanted the G20 summit to call for higher government spending and tax cuts, but they ran into opposition from European nations, led by Germany and France. However, the summit kept open the option of such action in 2010 if the $5trn fiscal stimulus scheme does not work. The IMF will have a new role in monitoring whether countries are doing enough to help the world economy grow at about 4 per cent a year.

G20 leaders will meet again to review progress, probably in New York in September, to coincide with the annual meeting of the United Nations General Assembly.

Last night British ministers said the real significance of yesterday’s agreement was not the $1trn package but the enhanced role it gave to world institutions like the IMF, whose budget will triple to $750bn.
“A new world financial order has been born, almost by accident, because of this crisis,” one cabinet minister said. “These bodies have been revamped; now they need to raise their game.”
The IMF will no longer be regarded as a last-resort option for nations facing bankruptcy, but will instead take preventative action. Many nations have been reluctant to turn to the fund because the stigma of doing so sends bad signals to the financial markets...

Venezuelan President Seeks Arab Support for New Oil-backed Currency

March 31, 2009

AP - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez tried Tuesday to court Arab support for another swipe at America as its economy stumbles: a proposal for a new, oil-backed currency to challenge the global prominence of the dollar.

The idea never reached the full agenda of a summit of leaders from South America and the Arab League—and has little hope of gaining any momentum among the U.S. allies in the Middle East. But it managed to reflect broader sentiments at the gathering: that Western financial leadership has been deeply eroded by the economic meltdown.

Chavez set the tone moments after arriving in Qatar, proposing a "petro-currency" that would have the backing of oil-rich nations such as Venezuela and its Arab partners in OPEC. Chavez has tried before, with little success, to undercut the dollar's role as the world's leading commercial currency.

The dollar, however, is facing real pressures elsewhere.

China has struck deals—most recently this week with Argentina—to conduct trade in currencies other than the dollar, and Beijing's central bank governor has proposed creating a new "reserve currency" comprising a basket of global currencies controlled by the International Monetary Fund. Iran has proposed replacing the dollar with the euro or other currencies to set worldwide oil prices, and other nations are swapping some foreign currency reserves in favor of the euro. "Venezuela supports... efforts to find an alternative reserve currency," Chavez told the summit.

Chavez plans stops in both Iran and China—in addition to Japan— after the one-day gathering, which focused heavily on trade issues but also touched on Arab worries about rival Iran's growing influence in Latin America.

"The global economic crisis erupted outside our regions, but nevertheless effect our economies," said a statement by business envoys from the two regions, who called for a "new international financial system" that includes greater influence from outside the West...

Arab Parliament Approves Yemeni Initiative to Develop Arab Joint Work

March 22, 2009

Yemen News Agency (Saba) - The Arab Parliament approved on Sunday a Yemeni initiative of developing Arab joint work. In its round held in Damascus capital of Syria, the parliament considered the initiative of Yemen as serious and typical step to enhance national security of the Arab nation and Arab-Arab ties. It thanked Yemen for the initiative, asking the speaker of the parliament to raise it to the secretary general of the Arab league to be presented then to the coming Arab summit.

Meanwhile, the parliament agreed to form a committee of solidarity with Sudan headed by the deputy speaker of the parliament Mansor al-Zandani. Al-Zandani told Saba that the initiative comes within concern of the Yemen represented by President Ali Abdullah Saleh to boost the joint Arab work to serve issues of the Arab nation.

Next Round of Talks on Russia-EU Deal To Be Held in June

April 3, 2009

RIA Novosti - The next round of talks on a comprehensive Russia-EU partnership deal will be held in June, Russia's EU envoy Vladimir Chizhov said on Friday.

Moscow hosted on Friday the fourth round of negotiations on a new cooperation agreement between Russia and the 27-nation bloc, set to replace the 1997 Partnership and Cooperation Agreement, which was extended after its expiry in December 2007...

The G-20 Summit: Neoliberal Agenda Untouched; Next Phase of the Crisis is Looming

April 2, 2009

Global Research - The G20 strategy is to put a fresh coat of paint on a world which is collapsing. Only a strong popular mobilization will make it possible to lay solid foundations to build another world in which finance is at the service of people, and not the other way round. The 28 and 30 March demos were big ones: 40,000 people in London, thousands and thousands in Vienna, Berlin, Stuttgart, Madrid, Brasilia, Rome, etc. with the common motto “Let the rich pay the crisis!”

The week of global action called for by the social movements from all over the world at the WSF at Belém last January thus had a gigantic echo. Those who had announced the end of the movement for another globalization were wrong. It has proved that it is able to bring large crowds together, and this is only the beginning. The success of the mobilizations in France on 29 January and 19 March (three million demonstrators were in the streets) is evidence that the workers, the unemployed and young people all want other solutions to the crisis than those which consist in bailing out bankers and imposing restrictions on the lower classes...

Brown: London Can Lead the New Order

April 1, 2009

This is London - London’s beleaguered bankers can lead the world to future prosperity by embracing reforms being unveiled at the G20 summit, Gordon Brown declared today.

Writing exclusively in the Evening Standard, the Prime Minister called on the City to adopt his agenda of better regulation and closer supervision, setting new standards for the world to follow.

“It is fitting that we are seeking to agree new rules for global financial markets here in London,” he wrote...

World Bank President Admits Agenda For Global Government

April 1, 2009

Prison Planet - World Bank President and Bilderberg elitist Robert Zoellick openly admitted the plan to eliminate national sovereignty and impose a global government during a speech on the eve of the G20 summit.

Speaking about the agenda to increase not just funding but power for international organizations on the back of the financial crisis, Zoellick stated, “If leaders are serious about creating new global responsibilities or governance, let them start by modernising multilateralism to empower the WTO, the IMF, and the World Bank Group to monitor national policies.”

In other words, give global institutions the power to regulate national policy as part of the creation of global government...

April 17, 2009

Jesus Missing from Obama's Georgetown Speech

Jesus Missing from Obama's Georgetown Speech

A symbol of Jesus was apparently blacked out behind President Barack Obama during his Georgetown speech; White House asked university to cover symbol

April 17, 2009

NBC Washington - Amidst all of the American flags and presidential seals, there was something missing when President Barack Obama gave an economic speech at Georgetown University this week -- Jesus.

The White House asked Georgetown to cover a monogram symbolizing Jesus' name in Gaston Hall, which Obama used for his speech, according to CNSNews.com.

The gold "IHS" monogram inscribed on a pediment in the hall was covered over by a piece of black-painted plywood, and remained covered over the next day, CNSNews.com reported.

The Washington Times' Belief Blog asked the university about the presidential request:

Julie Bataille from the university's press office e-mailed me that the White House had asked that all university signage and symbols behind the stage in Gaston Hall be covered.

"The White House wanted a simple backdrop of flags and pipe and drape for the speech, consistent with what they've done for other policy speeches," she wrote. "Frankly, the pipe and drape wasn't high enough by itself to fully cover the IHS and cross above the GU seal and it seemed most respectful to have them covered so as not to be seen out of context."

While the "IHS" directly behind where Obama spoke was covered over, CNSNews.com said the monogram was still visible in 26 other places in the hall during his speech. Those areas just weren't as prominent.

The Belief Blog talked with the Rev. Thomas Reese, a senior fellow at the Woodstock Institute at Georgetown University, who said he didn't think "this is motivated by theology, but by communications strategy."

The blog also talked with Catholic University spokesman Victor Nakas, who felt a bit more strongly on the subject:

"I can’t imagine, as the bishops’ university and the national university of the Catholic Church, that we would ever cover up our religious art or signage for any reason," Mr. Nakas wrote. "Our Catholic faith is integral to our identity as an institution of higher education."

April 16, 2009

The Criminalization of Everyday Life

Child Protection Services Cannot Be Trusted



Mom Handcuffed and Cited by Fireman for Using Profanity

Total Criminal Defense - The long arm of the law reached a Texas Wal-Mart on August 4, 2008 when a 28-year-old single mother was handcuffed and ticketed for dropping the f-bomb, according to a Houston Chronicle article.

It all started out innocently enough as Kathryn "Kristi" Fridge, her mother and her 2-year-old daughter stopped in a La Marque, Texas Wal-Mart to grab last-minute emergency supplies in preparation for the approaching Tropical Storm Edouard.

When Fridge recognized the store was out of batteries, she vocalized her irritation to her mother. "I was like, 'Dang.' I looked at my mom and said, 'They're all ----ing gone," Fridge told the reporter.

Capt. Alfred Decker, the town's assistant fire marshal, who was dressed in a fire department uniform at the time, confronted Fridge on her choice of words, reportedly saying she needed to "watch her mouth."

Fridge offered an unenthusiastic apology to the man who seemed to have come from nowhere and figured that was the end of the conversation.

As she walked away, the man demanded she come back to him. Confused by his demonstration of authority - she only saw a fire department badge - she protested and told him to mind his own business.

After refusing further similar orders and reportedly angering him by signing her name in sign language when he asked her to identify herself, he handcuffed her and escorted her outside to issue a citation.

Fridge eventually complied with the fire marshal, but also admitted to the reporter that she yelled to onlookers, "Can you believe this? He's ----ing arresting me for saying ----!"

Fridge and her mother deny that she cursed at the fire marshal, saying she only cursed in a casual, personal conversation. The La Marque's fire chief defends the action, saying Fridge disrupted the peace and the fire marshal had to be concerned for his own safety.

In the end, Fridge was released and ticketed for disorderly conduct, a misdemeanor. Texas' 2007-2008 penal code defines the charge as a person using "abusive, indecent, profane or vulgar language in a public place, and the language by its very utterance tends to incite an immediate breach of the peace."

Fridge can opt to pay a fine or to appear in court and contest the citation. She is planning to contact a criminal defense attorney to fight the ticket.



Who Has the Authority to Handcuff People?

It appears that the Wal-Mart incident may have escalated due to confusion surrounding who has authority to enforce laws. Each state has different rules on who has the legal authority to arrest and/or detain people suspected of breaking the law. Below is a list of some of the people who have the authority to arrest and/or detain suspects in most states.

Local and State Police
Members of the Fire Department
Jail Authorities
Security Guards
Certain Military Personnel
You.
Most states allow a citizen to detain - and handcuff - a suspect if he/she witnesses the person committing a felony or if police ask the person to assist in detaining a suspect. Note that this may be risky - citizens don't have the same legal protections as police and they can be held liable for, among other things, infringing on another citizen's rights.

The Criminalization of Everyday Life

March 23, 2009

Robert Neuwirth, City Limits - Are anyone’s days entirely free of “offenses” that can get you arrested?

I spent 24 hours in the slammer the other day. My crime? Well, the police couldn’t tell me when they locked me up. The prosecutor and judge couldn’t either, when I was arraigned the following day. I found out for myself when I researched the matter a few days after being released: I had been cited for walking my dog off the leash – once, six years ago.

Welcome to the ugly underside of the zero-tolerance era, where insignificant rule violations get inflated into criminal infractions.

Here’s how it worked with me: a gaggle of transit cops stopped me after they saw me walk between two subway cars on my way to work. This, they told me, was against the rules. They asked for ID and typed my name into a hand-held computer. Up came that old citation that I didn’t know about and they couldn’t tell me about. I was immediately handcuffed and brought to the precinct. There, I waited in a holding cell, then was fingerprinted (post-CSI memo: they now take the fingers, the thumbs, the palms, and the sides of both hands) and had the contents of my shoulder bag inventoried. I could hardly believe it: I was being arrested without ever having committed a crime.

I was held overnight in the Midtown North Precinct lock-up (shoelaces and belt confiscated, meals courtesy of the McDonald’s dollar menu). In the morning, my fellow convicts and I were led, chain-gang style, to the Manhattan Community Court next door. The judge there dismissed the charge against me – because no one ever does time for that kind of crime. A few days later, at Brooklyn’s central court, my warrant was lifted for “time served” – again because no one is ever locked up for breaking the leash law.

If the cops had simply written me a ticket, I would have paid it, and I would have also had to pay to vacate my outstanding warrant. But by cuffing me and holding me overnight, the city spent quite a bit of money (it took two police officers approximately six hours each just to arrest and process me), while the fines assessed against me were rescinded...

Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009 Will Drive Many Small Farms and Restaurants Out of Business

Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009

March 11, 2009

Care2 - The Congressional war against small business continues. The Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009 (H.R. 875) will create a new food safety bureaucracy and require a "traceability" program for "food production facilities and food establishments."

These new regulations will drive many small farms and restaurants out of business. Big Business can afford the compliance costs and will benefit from the reduced competition as smaller firms go bankrupt. Consumers will face fewer choices and higher prices, but will we really get safer food in return, and will it really be worth the cost?

Congress would have to know a lot of things that probably can't be known in order to evaluate this question, but they're charging ahead anyway, re-engineering society on the backs of small business owners.

Part of the bill's intent is to absorb already-existing food-tracking programs. Section 210(d) says the new food-tracking system must be "consistent with existing statutes and regulations that require record-keeping or labeling for identifying the origin or history of food or food animals," including "the National Animal Identification System (NAIS) as authorized by the Animal Health Protection Act of 2002 (AHPA)."

The contention that NAIS was authorized by the AHPA is wrong. NAIS implementation has never been authorized by any Congressional legislation. It's a bureaucratic initiative. This false assumption gives NAIS the aura of Congressional approval.

This is another step on the road to converting NAIS from a "voluntary" program to a mandatory one. This is exactly what we predicted three years ago when we launched our anti-NAIS campaign.

H.R. 875 is a de facto "authorization" of NAIS. It makes the penalties laid out in the AHPA applicable to participants of NAIS. It also presumes that NAIS can be "required" or made mandatory for all owners of livestock and poultry - even exotic pets.

Up until now Congress has largely ignored NAIS, but Rep. David Obey, who introduced the Omnibus Appropriations Act, included $14.5 million for additional NAIS funding and has specifically expressed his intent that the money will be used to implement NAIS aggressively [according to the USDA's September 2008 Business Plan (written by bureaucrats as well)].

This plan includes:
  • Forcing cattle owners to use NAIS "840" RFID (radio frequency identification) tags when they participate in vaccination programs
  • Increasing compliance in the sheep and goat industries through new regulations and "increased emphasis on enforcement"
  • Requiring premise registration for horse owners who must submit their horses for EIA testing
  • 98% compliance by July 2009 for poultry and swine
  • 90% compliance by July 2009 for horses, sheep, and goats
  • 60% compliance by Oct 2010 for cattle
These figures reflect the USDA's goal of near-total control of every aspect of the livestock industry. Such control isn't possible without aggressive, heavy-handed means. There's already enough opposition to NAIS to make those targets impossible. That means farmers that don't comply will be run out of business. Many who do comply will lose their businesses because of the compliance cost...

April 14, 2009

Banking Crisis: Money-Spinning Scam for the Financial Giants

Homeowners’ Hard Times Are Good for the Foreclosure Business

April 5, 2009

The New York Times — The celebration started early Saturday, with poolside music and drinks, as partygoers passed around business cards and compared notes on successful techniques for evicting residents who try to stay in bank-owned property, a process they call “cash for keys.”

One woman in a T-shirt walked around with a hand-written sign that read “Bank Property” affixed prominently to her chest.

Welcome to the spring 2009 Reomac conference, which has attracted nearly 3,000 real estate agents and property managers to this lush desert resort. The crowd brimmed with a gusto that is hard to find in this recessionary era. The hotel bar did more business on Saturday night than it did on New Year’s Eve. Small wonder: These are the people cashing in on the boom in foreclosed properties.

R.E.O. is industry lingo for “Real Estate Owned,” the term that bankers assign to homes they have taken in a foreclosure. Reomac is the industry group that serves the mortgage default trade, specializing in selling the busted-up American dream.
“Things are going tremendously,” said Darren Johnson, an R.E.O. agent from the Detroit area, who has handled about 180 bank property sales in the last year. “It has never been this good.”
The conference this year is centered on the “R.E.O. tsunami,” referring not to any natural disaster but to the one caused by the flood of as many as 700,000 bank properties now on the market nationwide. There were just 100,000 in 2006.

The tsunami has leveled off a bit in recent months, because of foreclosure moratoriums imposed by major banks and the Obama administration. But the real estate agents here were told not to worry — the flood will continue for several more years, and probably has not peaked yet.

In February, nearly 45 percent of the home sales nationwide were R.E.O. or so-called short sales, in which homeowners, under duress, sell a property for less than their mortgage, according to the National Association of Realtors. The sales have intensified a nationwide decline in home values. R.E.O. homes typically sell at a 20 percent discount.

The convention at the Desert Springs J. W. Marriott formally began on Sunday, with a golf tournament, featuring a “19th hole” bash cosponsored by Coldwell Banker, the giant real estate firm. Other convention-goers were at the resort spa, getting top-priced treatments, like the protein-rich caviar scrub for $185.
“What we have seen so far is just a hint of what is coming down the pike in the next three years,” Marty Higgins, a San Francisco real estate broker who specializes in apartment buildings, said as he stepped off his golf cart, smoking a cigar.
For real estate industry service providers, like title insurance companies, the R.E.O. market has become essential if they want to remain in business, which explains why executives like Ron Jones, from a California title company, was walking around offering to send wine to one important Arizona agent.
“Buyers now have tunnel vision,” Mr. Jones said. “R.E.O. is all they want.”
The convention’s biggest party was the so-called Tsunami Club event on Sunday night, at an 18,000-square-foot stone house in Rancho Mirage. In the grand foyer, two young women in leather boots, black bustiers and shorts danced atop platforms to a D.J.’s club music, while waiters in white shirts buzzed around with trays filled with hors d’oeuvres and drinks. Beyond was a row of craps and blackjack tables and a pool surrounded by palm trees, with a view of a desert mountain range.
“Everyone wins but the loser,” one man yelled at a blackjack table, when the cards turned against him.
The event also included a selection of hand-rolled cigars, a special Scotch lounge and a patio set aside just for networking.

Educational seminars take place on Monday and Tuesday, where the convention-goers can learn about how a giant wave of foreclosed commercial properties is expected to come in behind the flood of bank-owned homes.

They will also learn how to deal with challenges associated with handling vacant properties, like pools the color of pea soup (the color they turn as algae takes over a pool that has not been maintained), as well as what to do when they find a vacant home with abandoned pets...

Collapse of the Global Economy

Ireland: Government Unveils Major Budget Cuts

April 14, 2009

World Socialist Web Site - The Irish government outlined its emergency budget in response to the country’s deepening economic and financial crisis on April 7. It involves a major assault on the living standards of wide layers of working people, including the poorest.

Finance Minister Brian Lenihan also signalled that more could follow, warning that he anticipated the Irish economy would contract by 8 percent in 2009—one of the sharpest predicted contractions in the euro-zone.

The budget, the fourth emergency financial package since July 2008, also created a state-run “bad bank” into which all the toxic assets of the financial system can be dumped and thereby offloaded into the public purse. The Fianna Fail/Green coalition government’s intention is to transfer the huge cost of the financial debacle onto the working class, all the while claiming the entire exercise is a “fair” response to a national crisis...

G20 Strikes Trillion-dollar Crisis Plan

April 2, 2009

Reuters - G20 leaders agreed to pump a trillion dollars into the troubled global economy through more funding for groups like the International Monetary Fund, part of a stimulus package that will total $5 trillion by 2010...