BuelahMan's Revolt

A Redneck's Guide To Reversing The Corptocracy Brainwashing

Archive for August, 2009

Shakespeare Toked

Posted by BuelahMan on August 7, 2009

Great Post by Jonathon Turley:

The Bawdy Bard and “The Noted Weed”: Researchers Find Traces of Cannabis and Cocaine in Pipes at Shakespeare’s Homes

A study of pipe stems and bowls from the homes of William Shakespeare by the South African Police Services Forensic Science Laboratory in Pretoria has made an interesting discovery: traces of cannabis and possibly cocaine. The report by the South African Journal of Science suggest that Shakespeare might have tripped the light fantastic like a seventeenth century Hunter S. Thompson.

Is that what made the guy write so funny-like? Damned Ole Dope Heads.

Posted in B'Man's Marijuana Watch, Hemp/Cannabis Reform, Jonathon Turley | 1 Comment »

Fight Back Against Health Insurance Lies

Posted by BuelahMan on August 6, 2009

Robert Greenwald’s new endeavor illuminating the gross excess that the sick end up paying for. From his email:

Join the fight: http://sickforprofit.com

What does UnitedHealthcare CEO Stephen Hemsley have to lose if Congress passes real healthcare reform this year? Well, for starters, his nearly three quarters of a billion dollars in unexercised stock options might lose a few pennies on the dollar.

What does Isabella, a four year-old girl in Wisconsin who is physically incapable of eating and has had to be tube fed her entire life, have to gain from healthcare reform? The treatment she needs to live a normal life.

Brave New Films is launching a major new campaign to reveal the truth about the health insurance industry, and we need your help to do it. Contribute $25 today so we can create more campaigns exposing the obscene wealth of the CEOs of Aetna, CIGNA, Humana and WellPoint and the policyholders they’ve abandoned for profit.

Posted in Big Insurance, Big Money, Cheats and Scoundrels, Health Insurance, Not-For-Profit Healthcare, Video | Tagged: | 1 Comment »

WTF Thursday: Here Comes The Guard

Posted by BuelahMan on August 6, 2009

What happens when funds for the Sheriff’s Department is used up? Send in the Guard, instead of sending in the money. And the Sheriff is in acceptance, like a good little Sheople:

Its coming, folks.

H/t matrixxx123456789 & PrisonPlanet

Posted in Alabama, Economy, Fascism, Police State, Prison Planet, REAL State of the Union, Video, WTF Thursday | 1 Comment »

Countdown With Keith Olbermann Special Comment: Legislators for sale

Posted by BuelahMan on August 5, 2009

In follow up to Lynda’s post yesterday, I gotta admit, Keith freaking lets them have it. He didn’t avoid calling the Dems out, either. Good on ya, Keith. Good on ya.

more about “Countdown:Olbermann: Legislators for …“, posted with vodpod

Posted in Big Meds, Big Money, Dissent, Health Insurance, Lynda, Not-For-Profit Healthcare, Single Payer, Universal Healthcare, Video | 4 Comments »

The Economy Is In The Crapper

Posted by BuelahMan on August 5, 2009

Ed at Not Another CONspiracy posted a Mike Whitney article that should be read in full at Ed’s place. But I did want to highlight just a small portion that I have been harping on in my own way for quite some time now:

Zero Hedge:

“From the end of 2007 through Q1 of 2009, household equity has declined by 94%. Is it surprising that today’s GDP number would have been a complete debacle if the consumer had been left alone to prop the U.S. economy, on whom 70% of the economy is reliant? Obama pulled a Hail Mary with the stimulus: without it there would be no debate America is in a depression right now.” (http://www.zerohedge.com/article/money-sidelines-fallacy)

What does all this mean?

It means the consumer is down-for-the-count. His credit lines have been cut, his home equity eviscerated, and his checking account swimming in red ink. That spells trouble for an economy that’s 70% dependent on consumer spending for growth….which brings us to another interesting point. The uptick in GDP last quarter was almost entirely the result of the surge in government spending; ie “fiscal and monetary stimulus”. How long can that go on?

Face it; the economy is in the crapper and Bernanke’s trickery hasn’t done a lick of good.

It’s been two years since the crisis began and nothing… NOTHING has been done to fix the banking system or force the banks to write-down their shi**y assets to market. But the losses are real and no amount of Congressionally approved accounting hanky-panky (like suspending mark-to-market) will change a bloody thing.

So, how bad will it get?

Well, it depends on whether the FDIC decides to continue to allow financial institutions like Corus and Guaranty Banks to operate with “negative Tier 1 ratio” hoping that all the green shoots happy talk can turn insolvent institutions into thriving mega-banks. “Abrakadabra”.

Karl Denninger explains this latest hoax in a recent entry on his site Market Ticker:

“So what’s going on here?

Simple: An enormous number of banks are holding loans at or close to “par” that really aren’t. They’re holding mortgages at massively-inflated values, even on defaulted properties, and this is why you are not seeing more foreclosure sales – that is, why inventory is being held back. If they sell it the accountants will force recognition of the loss, which will render them instantly insolvent, but so long as they “extend and pretend” they are marking these loans way, way above recovery value. The upshot of this is that these firms’ balance sheet claims on asset values are massively inflated, regulators know it, and they’re intentionally ignoring it.”

Bingo! It’s all 100% fakery conducted right under the nose of the Fed, the Treasury and the FDIC.

How many hundreds of banks are being kept on life-support because the FDIC is down to its last few farthings and doesn’t want to ignite a panic?

Stay tuned.

The banking system is insolvent and the fact that the politically-connected big banks talked their their friends at the Fed into pumping liquidity into equities so they could access the capital markets, doesn’t change matters for the hundreds of local and regional banks that will be caught in next year’s downdraft. Prepare for massive consolidation with G-Sax and JPM left to pick up former competitors for pennies on the dollar.

I have recently pondered what would happen when the Fiscal year ends and the books are opened (if they get opened) for scrutiny. How will they continue to convince the Chinese to keep up the purchases? Its like going to the market and seeing stacks of cow shit and someone selling them as pancakes.

What happens when it all becomes apparent that this country is so far in debt that it will be time for Guido to come a calling.

Posted in Big Banking, Big Money, Cheats and Scoundrels, Economy, Job Losses, REAL State of the Union | Leave a Comment »

Question…

Posted by Lynda on August 5, 2009

Watching TV this morning, there was a scroll-blurp stating “Pentagon to review policy on social networking sites on net”
WHAT is that about????

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »

Living In The USA: The Make-Believe World

Posted by BuelahMan on August 4, 2009

I sat thru a presentation yesterday in which the PMI and state of manufacturing in the USA was shown us. It was at a 48.9 level (50 is breaking even) after a long sustained period of in the 30′s.

This is interesting in a number of ways, but one is that many people use this data to plan for future (as does the company I was visiting). Now, it is apparent that there has been some strides in the economy, but it is more in finance and banking. Manufacturing is still down and still contracting, but not as slowly. But we are hearing “The recession Is Over!”… well, tell that to my next door neighbor who was just laid off his job after 8 years.

There is some pent up demand to buy equipment and that is what I do, sell that equipment. But, people are still saving and cutting back on employees, instead of buying the equipment they need.

As usual, methinks some folks are playing games with the numbers, when the feet (my feet) on the street are telling me a whole different story.

George Washington puts it nicely:

In the real economy, unemployment is at Depression-era levels (see this, this and this).

In the real economy, bank loan loss rates will be higher than the Depression.

In the real economy, government revenue is at its lowest level since the Depression, and most states are on the verge of bankruptcy.

In the real economy, the world economy is crashing faster than during the Depression (and see this).

But in the make-believe world of the government and the financial giants, the recession is over.

How do they do it?

Well, as I noted a couple of days ago, the boys use:

  • High-frequency trading, program trading-based frontrunning, and other computer-based manipulation of the markets
  • Creation and manipulation of bubbles
  • The Plunge Protection Team
  • Intervention in the gold, currency markets, and bond markets

Bear raids, naked short selling, and credit default swap holders driving companies into bankruptcy

Read the rest at his blog.

There are people behind the curtain who manipulate and lie. I hope that we can come back, in spite of the sleight of hand.

Let me quote a bit from Tarheel88′s piece at The Heroes of America:

The “Four Horsemen”: Obama, Summers, Geithner, and Greenspan, ride into battle against the American people.

Well, it was a big weekend media blitz for “The Government of Sachs”.

With unemployment figures due out today (or soon thereafter), our evil Wall Street and Mega Bank overlords once again prepared to do battle. They sent forth their “Four Horsemen” onto the corporate airwaves: President Obama, presidential economic adviser Larry Summers, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, and former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan, to prepare for the final assault against the American people – the laying waste to the last vestiges of the New Deal and Great Society; Social Security and Medicare.

Relying on a report from the Commerce Dept. showing that the GDP “only” fell 1% in the second quarter, instead of the predicted 1.5%, the corporate media rag Newsweek shouted from its front page, “The Recession is Over!” (tell that to the 16.5% unemployed). Of course, any moron understands that negative numbers are NOT a recovery, just that the corpses weren’t piling up quite as rapidly as in January. In other words, “we are dying, just not quite as fast”, means “recovery” to these assholes.

Please visit the site to read the rest of the article which addresses the latest media blitz pulled of by the Obama Administration and why…

Posted in Big Banking, Big Insurance, Big Military, Big Money, Big Oil, Economy, Job Losses, The Heroes of America, Washington's Blog | 1 Comment »

Aug 4th 2009 TV ‘must watch’

Posted by Lynda on August 4, 2009

Just received an advance transcript of tonight’s Special Comment by Keith Olbermann on his MSNBC show. It is nothing short of brilliant — and if all of America were to hear what he is going to reveal tonight, we are certain the vast majority of Americans would be on the phone to their elected representative immediately, calling for an end to the private, for-profit, rip-off health insurance companies who have wrecked our country.

Here’s a brief section of Keith’s editorial tonight:

“Congressman Mike Ross of Arkansas. Leader of the Blue Dogs in the House. You’re the guy demanding a guarantee that Reform won’t add to the deficit. I’m guessing you forgot to demand that about, say, Iraq. You’re a Democrat, you say, Congressman?

“You saw what Sandy Barham said? Sandy Barham is 62 years old, she’s got a bad heart, and she’s hoping her valves will hold together for three more years until Medicaid kicks in, because she can’t afford insurance. Not just for herself, mind you. For her employees. She needs the public option. So do those six people who work at that restaurant of hers, Congressman Ross.

“And why should you give a crap? Because Sandy Barham’s restaurant is the Broadway Railroad Café, and it is at 123 West First Street North in Prescott, Arkansas. Prescott, Arkansas, Congressman Ross. Your home town. You are Sandy Barham’s congressman. Hers, Sir. Not Blue Cross’s and Blue Shield’s, even if they do insure 75 percent of the state and they own you.”

And here’s what Keith has to say about Senator Thune:

“Senator John Thune of South Dakota? You gave the Republican rebuttal to the President’s weekly address day before yesterday. You said the Democrats’ plan was for ‘… government run health care that would disrupt our current system, and force millions of Americans who currently enjoy their employer-based coverage into a new health care plan run by government bureaucrats.’

“That’s a bald-faced lie, Senator. And you’re a bald-faced liar, whose bald face is covered by… your own health care plan run by government bureaucrats.”

Don’t miss his show, live at 8pm ET. Rebroadcast at 10pm and 1am.

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »

Terrorist Attacks Made By Terminally Ill Patients

Posted by BuelahMan on August 4, 2009

Davis Fleetwood had a little help today from The Punk Patriot:

After a hearing in which health insurance CEOs stated that they would not consider changing their rescinding policies, that- in fact- health insurance workers who rescinded the policies of individuals of expensive and/ or terminal illness were given performance bonuses- terminally ill patients whose policies have been rescinded by health insurance companies have organized into a terrorist organization.
They are calling themselves the living dead.
Todays episode was guest scripted by The Punk Patriot. Say hello to him here: http://www.youtube.com/trichenosis

Twitter: http://twitter.com/DavisFleetwoodFACEBOOK: http://www.facebook.com/DavisFleetwood

Got an Itch? Join here for the operation.

Posted in Accountability, Responsibility & Answerability, Big Insurance, Big Money, Cheats and Scoundrels, Davis Fleetwood, Friendly fascism, Health, Health Insurance, Society, This Day In The USA, Video | 2 Comments »

The Anti-Birthers Asked For A Birth Certificate

Posted by BuelahMan on August 3, 2009

Obama Birth Certificate

Take Your Pick

obama-birth-certificate1I’m Just Sayin’…

I don’t know one way or the other, but Obama’s Kenyan  grandmother, half-brother and half-sister both claimed that Barack Obama was born in Kenya. His grandmother bragged that her grandson would be President of the United States and she was so proud because she was present, in the delivery room, as he was born.

Will it make any difference? Not likely. But, as I have noted several times and have added commentary at other places, it is quite easy to get the paperwork to say things that are not true, as I have been able to do myself after I was adopted. And I sure as hell ain’t no President. It basically depends on how much influence his Maternal Grandparents had in Hawaii.

This should be interesting, anyway.

h/t DeProgram

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

Got To Get You Into My Life

Posted by BuelahMan on August 2, 2009

Many_Years_from_Now

Paul McCartney knows what he is talking about (via Wikipedia):

Although many believed it was a love song that Paul was writing for a girl, he later disclosed the song was about marijuana in Barry Miles‘ book Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now. Many lyrics from the song suggested this – “I took a ride I didn’t know what I would find there / Another road where maybe I could see some other kind of mind there.”, “What can I do, what can I be when I’m with you I want to stay there / If I am true I will never leave and if I do I know the way there.”

As much as I love the Beatles and Paul McCartney, this particular Earth, Wind and Fire version tugs my memories because of the horns. I played lead trumpet on this in high school and college.

I can’t help it. I love the horns…

I would also say that if people knew and understood what I know and understand about marijuana, you’d be getting her into your life, as well.

(h/t Neatorama)

Posted in Hemp/Cannabis Reform, Music, RE-Legalization Rationale, Video | 1 Comment »

Marijuana Doesn’t Affect Brain Function AND Gets Rid Of Cancer: Vile Weed

Posted by BuelahMan on August 2, 2009

marijuana-not-just-for-hippiesI will wait with anticipation for a quick MSM report (crickets chirping).

NORML tells us that cannabis does not impact brain function. Hell, I’m walking proof of this. I once wrote about how, when in college, I began a daily regimen and my grades skyrocketed: holding a 4.0 for 3 semesters straight (President’s List) and The Dean’s list every other semester. I am living proof that it not only doesn’t minimize brain function, it enhanced mine.

I also wrote in that same article about how I think it may have helped a friend of mine (Dog) who died very early from lung cancer (he smoked but also worked at Intex Plastics, which was called “The Cancer Factory”, by many people I know). He stopped using marijuana and quickly faded and died (and I miss him dearly). But now my “hunches” and “personal testimony” have some real science behind them. Both articles below penned by Paul Armentano, NORML Deputy Director (pay very close attention to that last sentence he wrote about how long our government has known about these benefits). One could conclude that they are criminals… but, hell, everyone knows that already, right?

Marijuana’s Impact On Brain Function “Minimal,” New Study Says

The consumption of cannabis, even long-term, has a “minimal” impact on brain function, according to a systematic literature review just published online by the journal Psychological Medicine.

An international team of investigators from the United Kingdom, Spain, Brazil, Australia, and Switzerland conducted a systematic review of the effects of cannabis on brain structure and function.

Authors wrote, “We reviewed literature reporting neuroimaging studies of chronic or acute cannabis use published up until January 2009. … Sixty-six studies were identified, of which 41 met the inclusion criteria. Thirty-three were functional (SPECT/PET/fMRI) and eight structural (volumetric/DTI) imaging studies. … Only three of the structural imaging studies found differences between users and controls.”

Investigators concluded, “Minimal evidence of major effects of cannabis on brain structure has been reported,” noting that marijuana users and controls perform similarly on cognitive tasks.

According to a 2001 study published in the journal Archives of General Psychiatry, long-term cannabis smokers who abstained from pot for one week “showed virtually no significant differences from control subjects (those who had smoked marijuana less than 50 times in their lives) on a battery of 10 neuropsychological tests.” Investigators added, “Former heavy users, who had consumed little or no cannabis in the three months before testing, [also] showed no significant differences from control subjects on any of these tests on any of the testing days.”

medical-marijuana

Marijuana Use Associated With a “Significantly Reduced Risk” of Head and Neck Cancers — Will The Mainstream Media Care?

Yet to date, virtually no investigators have taken the time to assess marijuana’s potential anti-cancer effects in humans — until now.

In a clinical abstract just published online on the Cancer Prevention Research website, a team of U.S. investigators report that marijuana use, even long-term, is associated with a “significantly reduced risk” of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.

A Population-Based Case-Control Study of Marijuana Use and Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma
via nih.gov

Cannabinoids, constituents of marijuana smoke, have been recognized to have potential anti-tumor properties. However, the epidemiologic evidence addressing the relationship between marijuana use and the induction of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) is inconsistent and conflicting. Cases (n = 434) were patients with incident HNSCC disease from nine medical facilities in the Greater Boston, MA area between December 1999 and December 2003. Controls (n = 547) were frequency matched to cases on age (+/-3 years), gender, and town of residence, randomly selected from Massachusetts town books.

… After adjusting for potential confounders (including smoking and alcohol drinking), 10 to 20 years of marijuana use was associated with a significantly reduced risk of HNSCC [odds ratio (OR)(10-<20 years versus never users), 0.38; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.22-0.67]. Among marijuana users moderate weekly use was associated with reduced risk (OR(0.5-<1.5 times versus <0.5 time), 0.52; 95% CI, 0.32-0.85). The magnitude of reduced risk was more pronounced for those who started use at an older age (OR(15-<20 years versus never users), 0.53; 95% CI, 0.30-0.95; OR(>/=20 years versus never users), 0.39; 95% CI, 0.17-0.90; P(trend) < 0.001).

Our study suggests that moderate marijuana use is associated with reduced risk of HNSCC.

I’ve said this before but it bears repeating. What possible advancements in the treatment of cancer could have been achieved over the past 35 years had U.S. government officials, or for that matter members of the mainstream media, chosen to advance — rather than to suppress — clinical research into the anti-cancer effects of cannabis? It’s a shame we have to speculate; it’s even more tragic that tens of thousands of families must needlessly suffer while we do.

For some 35 years the United States federal government has been well aware that cannabis possesses potent anti-cancer and anti-tumor properties. And for the past three years, government-funded researchers have speculated that these qualities may offer “protective” effects against the onset of various types of cancer in humans, including lung cancer.

So let’s get this straight: It doesn’t cause all the brain damage that they have been warning us against. And, not only does it NOT cause cancer, it is preventative and offers protection against cancers, especially lung cancer (something I have pondered several times at this blog already). Again, shall we hear the rave reviews from the MSM? Of course not: pot prohibition is Big Money and they will not upset that cash cow, even to save lives.

wag3420They Lie, as usual.

Posted in B'Man's Marijuana Watch, Big Meds, Big Money, Big Oil, Big Prison, Drug War, Hemp/Cannabis Reform, RE-Legalization Rationale | Tagged: | 6 Comments »

Cash For Clunkers OR How The Ignorant Fall For The Same Old BS

Posted by BuelahMan on August 1, 2009

Cash-For-Clunkers

Did you trade in your car yet for the new one? Really good incentives are there for you (excuse me, were there, since the project is on hold because it ran out of YOUR TAX DOLLARS funding it). But, never fear, those glorious elected officials (yes, those that YOU voted in) came to the rescue with just a little more of YOUR TAX DOLLARS to the tune of $2Billion.

The first thing I thought when I heard about this “program” was, “Can Americans be stupid enough to fall for it?” Can’t you see that the only ones really “recovering” are the Big Money and that does NOT include you.

Why, Yes We Can, be so stupid! Go Ahead: Take on even more debt. Don’t worry about savings or the future. Forget about how this credit based economy got us into this mess. Forget about the fact that savings is so 1950′s. Forget that you lost your good job and now juggle two or three shitty jobs for a fraction of the income. Forget that we will have even more people out of work in the upcoming several months, as noted by Tom Eley at the World Socialist Website (h/t DeProgram). Why, because those in the know have told us, The Recession Is Over (Hooray):

The Recession Is Over

The Recession Is Over

US job cuts, foreclosures mount

By Tom Eley
31 July 2009

This week brought new indications that any economic “recovery” in the US will not be shared by the working class. Telecommunications giant Verizon announced that it would eliminate 8,000 jobs by the end of the year, new data showed that the foreclosure crisis is continuing to mount, and weekly initial jobless benefit claims rose.

What is emerging is a protracted period of extremely high unemployment and growing social misery, which will be used to further slash wages, increase productivity and lower the standard of living and social position of the working class.

Verizon will reduce its workforce by 8,000 for the second year in a row, after announcing a 21 percent decline in quarterly profits. The staff reductions will come largely through attrition, the company said, and will be focused on its land-line traditional phone service, which a growing number of consumers are abandoning.

Among other layoff announcements, some 1,000 workers will be dismissed from Ormet Aluminum in Monroe County, Ohio on September 1. Only 15,000 people live in the county, which is located close to the border with West Virginia.

The motorcycle manufacturer Harley-Davidson will lay off 398 workers in Milwaukee at the end of September.

The small business web site firm, Intuit, is carrying forward plans to lay off 120 workers nationwide. And Yahoo! CEO Carol Bartz has confirmed that her company’s new search engine venture with Microsoft will lead to an as yet unknown number of redundancies.

More widespread job losses appear imminent. Bank of America CEO Kenneth Lewis said this week he intends to close over 600 branches. No time frame was given for the closures, which could affect thousands of workers.

It is anticipated that the other embattled financial giant, Citigroup, will follow suit. As the on-line business analysis journal 24/7 Wall Street reported, “[T]he financial industry is not done pruning jobs, not by a long shot.”

The United States Postal Service (USPS) has said that it is considering shutting down a sizable majority, 3,105 of 4,851, of its post office branches and stations. Citing a growing operating deficit, USPS said the closures would target metropolitan areas.

It is not clear how many layoffs might result, but last year USPS said that 16,000 workers with fewer than six years experience—and hence unprotected by union seniority rules—could face layoffs. If carried forward, this would mark the first mass layoff in the history of the US postal system. Last year USPS reduced its workforce by 41,000 through attrition and a hiring freeze.

A number of industries are likely to pile on further layoffs in the coming months. The biggest blow could come from the retail sector, which continues to be punished by low levels of consumer confidence, which is, in turn, driven by layoffs and the threat of more to come. The Conference Board announced this week that its consumer confidence index fell to 46.6 in July. The fall was more than economists had expected, and marked the second straight monthly decline.

New US Labor Department data show that unemployment increased from May to June in 348 of 370 major metropolitan areas. The Detroit area saw the largest increase, 2.2 percent to 17.1 percent. In Monroe, Michigan, unemployment matched Detroit at 17.1 percent, after the city experienced the third-sharpest increase in the country. One exception was El Centro, California, where unemployment fell by 1.2 percent to 27.5 percent—still the highest rate in the country.

This week’s Labor Department number of initial jobless benefit claims, 584,000, exceeded economists’ projections and far surpassed the 300,000 to 350,000 threshold required to maintain steady national employment levels. At the same time, the number of people receiving unemployment insurance decreased for the third consecutive week. This is largely attributable to a growing number of workers exhausting their benefits.

While economists anticipate that the rapidity of layoffs will decrease, they agree that a wave of hiring is unlikely. There is a consensus that the official unemployment rate will rise past 10 percent by the beginning of 2010—pushing the real unemployment rate toward 20 percent—and that high unemployment will characterize the US economy for years to come.

Bill Gross, founder of the world’s largest bond fund manager, Pacific Investment Management Co. (PIMCO), wrote in a recent newsletter that nominal gross domestic product must grow at an annualized rate of 5 percent to avoid permanent high unemployment. If not, “employment levels become unsustainable, retail shopping centers unserviceable, automobile production facilities unprofitable, and the economy itself heads toward a new normal where unemployment averages 8 percent instead of 5 percent, housing starts total 1.5 instead of 2 million, and domestic auto sales 12, instead of 16 million annual units,” he said.

Foreclosures continue to mount, no longer driven by the subprime mortgage market, but by layoffs and wage cuts to homeowners with prime loans. RealtyTrac Inc., which monitors US foreclosure activity, said that foreclosure activity rose to a record level in the first half of the year, when over 1.5 million homeowners received a default or auction notice or had their homes appropriated by lenders.

Obama’s plan to reduce foreclosures, the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP), aimed to encourage banks to modify loans for a small section of qualified buyers by offering servicers and banks incentives. HAMP offered nothing for millions of homeowners substantially “under water”—those owing more than 105 percent of market value on their mortgages—and it did nothing to reduce principal on loans.

Even its modest aims have failed. This is because banks and mortgage service companies, which process and manage mortgages on behalf of investors, find the delinquency and foreclosure process lucrative due to various fees they exact from homeowners.

Economists have been cheered by some data that suggests the housing market may have hit bottom. Home prices leveled off in May, with the S&P/Case-Shiller index increasing by 0.5 percent. Newly constructed home sales increased by 11 percent in June, according to data from the Commerce Department, while existing home sales increased for the third consecutive month.

Still, the S&P/Case-Shiller index reveals that the year-over-year decline of home values in 20 major metropolitan areas for May was 17.1 percent, and analysts have pointed out that a significant share of the increased home sales were comprised of foreclosed homes bought by speculators.

“If you want a truer picture of the economy’s health, you should trust the [declining] consumer confidence figure rather than the new homes sales data,” TheStreet.com concluded. “New homes that are being sold are not being bought by you and me; they are being bought by investors because prices are rock-bottom and interest rates are still low.”

Speaking Wednesday at a town hall meeting in North Carolina, where the official unemployment rate is over 11 percent, President Obama said that the US “may be seeing the beginning of the end of the recession.”

Obama was basing himself on two new reports issued earlier in the day. A Commerce Department durable goods report suggested business spending on investment may have hit bottom. “Big-ticket” durable goods orders fell by 2.5 percent in May. However, excluding transportation orders such as aircraft, durable goods orders rose by 1.1 percent. This, economists believe, signifies a leveling-off in the collapse of manufacturing and may indicate a growth in GDP for the second half of the year.

The second was the Federal Reserve’s “beige book,” which is based on economic conditions analyzed by its twelve district banks. However, the report was hardly cheering for workers. As the Wall Street Journal’s “Real Time Economics” noted, “[t]he tone of the beige book was more upbeat this month, unless, of course, you’re looking for a job, a raise or a loan.”

The Fed beige book, for example, explained that “weakness of labor markets has nearly eliminated wage pressure and wages [and] compensation are steady or falling in most districts.”

The Fed cited a range of methods firms are using to limit compensation, including “cutting or freezing wages or benefit contributions, deferral of future salary increases, trimming bonuses and travel allowances, reducing hours, temporary shutdowns, periodic furloughs, and unpaid vacations.” In all twelve districts “labor markets remain slack, with most sectors either reducing jobs or holding them steady and aggregate employment continuing to decline.”

The banks, which have been awarded trillions in cash infusions and guarantees from the Obama administration, continue to hoard cash through “ongoing tightening in credit standards,” the Fed report concludes. This confirmed a Wall Street Journal analysis published earlier in the week, which found that lending at top banks had contracted by 2.8 percent in the second quarter.

The Fed survey also found that freight and shipping volumes had declined further. Commercial real estate was described as weak in all 12 districts.

“There are a number of factors which suggest that the pace of recovery will be considerably slower than usual,” Bill Dudley, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, said in a speech before the Fed release, citing pressures on household incomes and wealth.

Overall, the new data reveals an economy deep in recession with little prospect of a return to normal for a protracted period. The pace of decline has slowed, but this is not unusual in a serious recession or even depression, and the stabilizing tendencies are very fragile.

Nothing has been done or is being done to address the underlying problems in the US and world economy that produced the crash of 2008. The current crisis is an expression not merely of conjunctural tendencies, but rather of a systemic crisis of the world capitalist system.

Meanwhile, the recession is being used to drive down the living standards of the broad mass of the population and effect a vast redistribution of wealth to the financial elite. No one is even suggesting that wages and living standards will return to pre-crisis levels in the so-called “recovery” that Obama and others are touting.

When Obama and the media speak of recovery, they are referring to the profit margins of the big banks and the share values of the financial elite. The S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average have each risen 12 percent since July 10, spurred by rising profit margins of major corporations. These profits are based largely on various cost-cutting measures, chief among them layoffs and wage cuts.

The Recession Is Over!

The Recession Is Over!

Virtually everything in the storyline is bogus. Green shoots? Yeah, right. The Green shoots are nothing more than the sleight of hand tricks that mesmerize the population. The fact is that we are simply not falling into oblivion quite as fast we were just a month or two ago, but we ARE still falling. As Peter Schiff puts it, (h/t Prison Planet) we are only in the eye of the storm and when the eye passes, the back side of the storm will be even worse. Say, maybe Sept or Oct, you will see what I’m talking about. Its too late to plant your garden, but if you have any sanity, you will stockpile some dried beans and put some shit in the freezer, if you intend to weather the storm.

Happy Days Aren’t Here Again

Peter Schiff
Lew Rockwell.com
Saturday, August 1, 2009

Have you heard the great news? The recession is over! It’s true; I saw it on TV. Why fret about growing unemployment lines when banks are paying big-time bonuses again?

Proof of the turn was apparently revealed by the 2nd quarter GDP figures that showed that the economy declined by only 1%. After four consecutive quarters of negative GDP, the green shoots now assure that growth will resume over the summer. But before we pop the corks, it may be worthwhile to ask, “what really has changed, and what is responsible for our new lease on life?”

In truth, because of the continued profligacy of the government and Federal Reserve, the imbalances that caused the current recession have actually worsened. We are now in an even deeper hole than when the crisis began. Rather than wrapping up a recession, we are actually sinking into a depression. If things look better now, it’s just because we are in the eye of the storm.

We must remember that recessions inevitably follow periods of artificial growth. During these booms, malinvestments are made which ultimately must be liquidated during the ensuing busts. In short, mistakes made during booms are corrected during busts – and in the recent boom we made some real whoppers. We borrowed and spent too much money, bought goods we couldn’t afford, built houses we couldn’t carry, and developed a service sector economy completely dependent on consumer credit and rising asset prices. All the while, we allowed our industrial base to crumble and our infrastructure to decay.

In order to lay the foundation for real and lasting recovery, market forces must be allowed to repair the damage. However, current policy is counterproductive to this end. Trillions in stimulus dollars have kept the party going, but now what? How does deficit spending by the government address the problems that brought about the crash? It doesn’t; it just delays and worsens the hangover – and we have to hope we don’t die of alcohol poisoning.

By interfering with the unpleasant forces of the recession, we simply trade short-term gain for long-term pain. By propping up inefficient companies that should fail, we deprive more effective companies of the capital they need to grow. By holding up over-valued asset prices, we prevent the prudent or less well-off from snatching them up and, in doing so, creating a new price equilibrium based upon reality. By maintaining artificially low interest rates, we discourage the very savings that are so critical to capital formation and future economic growth. In addition, the false economic signals the Fed sends the market prevent a more efficient re-allocation of resources from taking place and leads to even more bad economic decision being made. By running such huge deficits, we further crowd-out private enterprise by making it harder for businesses to invest or hire.

The recently passed “cash for clunkers” program (currently on-hold, as it ran out of funding in one week) is a perfect example of how government policy can make the economy worse. By incentivizing Americans to destroy fully paid-for cars so they can go deeper into debt buying brand new ones, the government weakens an already crippled economy. The last thing we want to do is subsidize Americans to go deeper into debt by buying more stuff. Don’t they realize that is precisely the behavior that got us into this mess?

Think about it this way. If your friend were in trouble because he had too much debt, would you encourage him to take on even more? Wouldn’t a real sign of progress be a reduction of debt, even if he had to cut back on his everyday expenses? What is true for an individual is also true for a collection of individuals, even if they call themselves a “government.” If, as a country, we are even deeper into debt now than we were before, we are worse off. Period. The fact that the additional debt enabled better short-term GDP numbers is a long-term negative.

Since we have learned nothing from past mistakes, we are condemned to repeat them. As if we have not already suffered enough as a consequence of the Bush/Greenspan stimulus, Obama/Bernanke are giving ever-larger doses, which will prove lethal to any recovery. The recession is over; long live the depression!

Grow Your Own Or Get In Line

Grow Your Own Or Get In Line

Posted in Big Banking, Big Money, Corruption, Economy, Job Losses, Prison Planet, Unemployment Rate | Tagged: , , | 5 Comments »

B’Man’s Patriot Watch: Sibel Edmunds

Posted by BuelahMan on August 1, 2009

Sibel Edmunds

Sibel Edmunds

Of course I know that 9/11 was an inside job, no matter what some of your favorite “progressive” or “liberals” say to the contrary (Matt Taibbi, Bill Maher and a whole host of your favorite TV talent). As far back as 2006, polls were saying the same. A New York Times/CBS News Poll conducted showed that only 16% polled believe the “official” storylie.

Do you think members of the Bush Administration are telling the truth, are mostly telling the truth but hiding something, or are they mostly lying?

Telling the truth 16%

Hiding something 53%

Mostly lying 28%

Not sure 3%”

A 2004 CNN Poll had the number up to 89% believing that the American government was lying and covering something up.

There have been many polls all over the world since and depending on the poll there are varied results. Within these very polls, one can see that many Americans, even as late as 2007, still believed that Saddam Hussein had something to do with it. I wonder if it was the same White Republicans (are there any others) who denied the president’s complicity 7 to 1 in this Rasmussen Poll:

Democrats in America are evenly divided on the question of whether George W. Bush knew about the 9/11 terrorist attacks in advance. Thirty-five percent (35%) of Democrats believe he did know, 39% say he did not know, and 26% are not sure.

Republicans reject that view and, by a 7-to-1 margin, say the President did not know in advance about the attacks. Among those not affiliated with either major party, 18% believe the President knew and 57% take the opposite view.

Overall, 22% of all voters believe the President knew about the attacks in advance. A slightly larger number, 29%, believe the CIA knew about the attacks in advance. White Americans are less likely than others to believe that either the President or the CIA knew about the attacks in advance. Young Americans are more likely than their elders to believe the President or the CIA knew about the attacks in advance.

The reason I know it is that the evidence available (meaning, the evidence that wasn’t quickly taken away without investigation) shows that it is evidently buildingsOsama Bin Laden

that are imploding within their own footprints and that weapons-grade nano-particle thermitic material is found in the pulverized dust (dust that will not occur in a simple collapse) and that they have admitted that WTC7 was intentionally brought down, but never mentioned in the government’s offical report. All of this is covered well by Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth. Highly recommended reading.

But now things are getting even more interesting with Sibel coming out, as it were. Tengrain contributed a link to The Political Carnival for me to review (I had seen some articles surrounding this, but hadn’t the time to listen until early this morning). The original audio interview with Sibel Edmunds is found at The Brad Blog, at the Political Carnival link  or for your convenience, listen below:

Mike Malloy Show Brad Friedman Interviews Sibel Edwards

Her segment begins at 6:20 as Brad introduces her. The 14 minute mark is when Brad actually brings her on. The interview concludes in the second part below:

Mike Malloy Show Brad Friedman Interviews Sibel Edwards Hour 2

Partial Transcript below from Global Research:

Caller: … What are Sibel’s thoughts about 9/11 possibly being an inside job?

Sibel Edmonds: As I have done for the past 7 or 8 years, I have basically stuck with what I know, first-hand, directly, my own knowledge, based on my own experience, based on what I obtained, which is not a lot, but it is extremely important.

And to answer a question like “Was it an inside job?” would be, first of all, preposterous for me to make that call. But what I can tell you is, based on what we know already – and these are the confirmed cases, like Colleen Rowley – look at her and her case – and look at the Phoenix Memo with the other FBI agents in the Phoenix field office, and then look at FBI agent Wright in Chicago, look at that case…

And if you read James Bamford’s latest book, what the NSA obtained from Yemen before September 11, because we were following two of these hijackers in Yemen… Well, if you put all those things, all this information that has come from various agencies, in one place, and you look at it, and you say “Wow!”

You know, it is very easy to write off things when you have one or two slip-ups, and you attribute certain things to bureaucratic bungling – but it goes beyond that… Now, what is that? As I said, I wont be able to answer the question, but what I can answer is, yes, we had this 911 Commission that was formed (laughs) and first we had Henry Kissinger appointed to be the Chairman, this tells you what kind of Commission they had in mind, which was going to be cosmetic. It was pretty obvious. Then we had the final Commission, with a bunch of people with conflicts of interest, and we didn’t get anything.

As you see, people have been gagged, a lot of things have been classified… And you think ‘Why would they go so far to cover up bureaucratic bungling?’ Again, that doesn’t mean that this was an inside job, but what it tells you is that there are a lot of things that we don’t know, there are a lot of things that our government doesn’t want us to know.

I mean, the recent thing just came out a few days ago with the case against Saudi Arabia, with the 9/11 family members. Well yesterday it made it to the front page of the New York Times with Eric Lichtblau, OK. So now the Justice Department under Obama is saying ‘No you can’t get this information because we want to protect Saudi Arabia.’ Well, protect them against what? So those are the questions that have not been answered. And those questions that have been answered, nothing has been done about it, and no explanation has been given to us. So we have all these issues, and there is no simple answer, but one simple answer is that, yes, we are facing a lot of cover-up. And I want to know why, and I’m sure you want to know why too.

Brad Friedman: Nah, I don’t want to know (laughs). So it’s fair to say in your case then that you don’t necessarily have information that you haven’t been able to disclose that reveals that 9/11 was an inside job, you just have, like I do, concerns about the information that we have, the bad information that we have…

Sibel Edmonds: (interrupts) I have to jump in here and say that I have information about things that our government has lied to us about. I know. For example, to say that since the fall of the Soviet Union we ceased all of our intimate relationship with Bin Laden and the Taliban – those things can be proven as lies, very easily, based on the information they classified in my case, because we did carry very intimate relationship with these people, and it involves Central Asia, all the way up to September 11.

I know you are going to say ‘Oh my God, we went there and bombed the medical factory in the 1990s during Clinton, we declared him Most Wanted’ and what I’m telling you is, with those groups, we had operations in Central Asia, and that relationship – using them as we did during the Afghan and Soviet conflict – we used them all the way until September 11.

Brad Friedman: Are you able to speak in more detail about that material that was classified?

Sibel Edmonds: People have written about it, based on the interviews conducted, and based on other people talking about it. And you know what, it’s not very difficult to put two and two together on this. There is so much information that of course our Mainstream Media has not reported, but there have been some good books written on the topic, and that is: What we have been doing, what we were doing in those years, all the way, all the way until that day of September 11, in Central Asia, in what they call East Turkistan where we are talking about the Uighurs, and with Bin Laden, via Turkey.

And these are the Turkish actors because Central Asian countries are Turkic-speaking, they have the same heritage as the Republic of Turkey, the share the same language, the same culture. And we, as a country, the United States, used Turkey, along with actors from Pakistan, and Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia to carry out a lot of operations.

The Russians have talked about it, because they have been screaming about it, again those things have not been reported, but what we have on that has been classified. They have been using ‘sensitive diplomatic relations,’ protecting Turkey, protecting Israel, protecting Pakistan, protecting Saudi Arabia…

Well, that does not say that 9/11 was an inside job, but that tells people, it would tell people, the information that they have gagged, they have classified, a lot of things that would maybe bring us closer to the answer, and why our government has been lying about it.

Global Research also covered this in more detail and has this to say:

Former FBI translator Sibel Edmonds dropped a bombshell on the Mike Malloy radio show, guest-hosted by Brad Friedman (audio, partial transcript). In the interview, Sibel says that the US maintained ‘intimate relations’ with Bin Laden, and the Taliban, “all the way until that day of September 11.”

These ‘intimate relations’ included using Bin Laden for ‘operations’ in Central Asia, including Xinjiang, China. These ‘operations’ involved using al Qaeda and the Taliban in the same manner “as we did during the Afghan and Soviet conflict,” that is, fighting ‘enemies’ via proxies.

As Sibel has previously described, and as she reiterates in this latest interview, this process involved using Turkey (with assistance from ‘actors from Pakistan, and Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia’) as a proxy, which in turn used Bin Laden and the Taliban and others as a proxy terrorist army.

Control of Central Asia

The goals of the American ‘statesmen’ directing these activities included control of Central Asia’s vast energy supplies and new markets for military products.

The Americans had a problem, though. They needed to keep their fingerprints off these operations to avoid a) popular revolt in Central Asia (Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan), and b) serious repercussions from China and Russia. They found an ingenious solution: Use their puppet-state Turkey as a proxy, and appeal to both pan-Turkic and pan-Islam sensibilities.

Turkey, a NATO ally, has a lot more credibility in the region than the US and, with the history of the Ottoman Empire, could appeal to pan-Turkic dreams of a wider sphere of influence. The majority of the Central Asian population shares the same heritage, language and religion as the Turks.

In turn, the Turks used the Taliban and al Qaeda, appealing to their dreams of a pan-Islamic caliphate (Presumably. Or maybe the Turks/US just paid very well.)

Accordingto Sibel:

This started more than a decade-long illegal, covert operation in Central Asia by a small group in the US intent on furthering the oil industry and the Military Industrial Complex, using Turkish operatives, Saudi partners and Pakistani allies, furthering this objective in the name of Islam.

Uighurs

Sibel was recently asked to write about the recent situation with the Uighurs in Xinjiang, but she declined, apart from saying that “our fingerprint is all over it.”

Of course, Sibel isn’t the first or only person to recognize any of this. Eric Margolis, one of the best reporters in the West on matters of Central Asia, stated that the Uighurs in the training camps in Afghanistan up to 2001:

“were being trained by Bin Laden to go and fight the communist Chinese in Xinjiang, and this was not only with the knowledge, but with the support of the CIA, because they thought they might use them if war ever broke out with China.”

And also that:

“Afghanistan was not a hotbed of terrorism, these were commando groups, guerrilla groups, being trained for specific purposes in Central Asia.”

In a separate interview, Margolis said:

“That illustrates Henry Kissinger’s bon mot that the only thing more dangerous than being America’s enemy is being an ally, because these people were paid by the CIA, they were armed by the US, these Chinese Muslims from Xinjiang, the most-Western province.

The CIA was going to use them in the event of a war with China, or just to raise hell there, and they were trained and supported out of Afghanistan, some of them with Osama Bin Laden’s collaboration. The Americans were up to their ears with this.”

Rogues Gallery

Last year, Sibel came up with a brilliant idea to expose some of the criminal activity that she is forbidden to speak about: she publishedeighteen photos, titled “Sibel Edmonds� State Secrets Privilege Gallery,” of people involved the operations that she has been trying to expose. One of those people is Anwar Yusuf Turani, the so-called ‘President-in-exile’ of East Turkistan (Xinjiang). This so-called ‘government-in-exile’ was ‘established‘ on Capitol Hill in September, 2004, drawing a sharp rebuke from China.

Also featured in Sibel’s Rogues Gallery was ‘former’ spook Graham Fuller, who was instrumental in the establishment of Turani’s ‘government-in-exile’ of  East Turkistan. Fuller has written extensively on Xinjiang, and his “Xinjiang Project” for Rand Corp is apparentlythe blueprint for Turani’s government-in-exile. Sibel has openly statedher contempt for Mr. Fuller.

Susurluk

The Turkish establishment has a long history of mingling matters of state with terrorism, drug trafficking and other criminal activity, best exemplified by the 1996 Susurluk incident which exposed the so-called Deep State.

Sibel states that “a few main Susurluk actors also ended up in Chicago where they centered ‘certain’ aspects of their operations (Especially East Turkistan-Uighurs).”

One of the main Deep State actors, Mehmet Eymur, former Chiefof Counter-Terrorism for Turkey’s intelligence agency, the MIT, features in Sibel’s Rogues Gallery. Eymur was given exile in the US. Another member of Sibel’s gallery, Marc Grossman was Ambassador to Turkey at the time that the Susurluk incident exposed the Deep State. He was recalled shortly after, prior to the end of his assignment, as was Grossman’s underling, Major Douglas Dickerson, who later tried to recruit Sibel into the spying ring.

The modus operandi of the Susurluk gang is the same as the activities that Sibel describes as taking place in Central Asia, the only difference is that this activity was exposed in Turkey a decade ago, whereas the organs of the state in the US, including the corporate media, have successfully suppressed this story.

Chechnya, Albania & Kosovo

Central Asia is not the only place where American foreign policy makers have shared interests with Bin Laden. Consider the war in Chechnya. As I documented here, Richard Perle and Stephen Solarz (both in Sibel’s gallery) joined other leading neocon luminaries such as Elliott Abrams, Kenneth Adelman, Frank Gaffney, Michael Ledeen, James Woolsey, and Morton Abramowitz in a group called the American Committee for Peace in Chechnya (ACPC). For his part, Bin Laden donated$25 million to the cause, as well as numerous fighters, and technical expertise, establishing training camps.

US interests also convergedwith those of al-Qaeda in Kosovo and Albania.

Of course, it is not uncommon for circumstances to arise where ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend.’ On the other hand, in a transparent democracy, we expect a full accounting of the circumstances leading up to a tragic event like 9/11. The 9/11 Commission was supposed to provide exactly that.

State Secrets

Sibel has famously been dubbed the most gagged woman in America, having the State Secrets Privilege imposed on her twice. Her 3.5 hour testimony to the 9/11 Commission has been entirely suppressed, reduced to a single footnote which refers readers to her classified testimony. In the interview, she says that the information that was classified in her case specifically identifies that the US was using Bin Laden and the Taliban in Central Asia, including Xinjiang. In the interview, Sibel reiterates that when invoking the gag orders, the US government claims that it is protecting ” ‘sensitive diplomatic relations,’ protecting Turkey, protecting Israel, protecting Pakistan, protecting Saudi Arabia…” This is no doubt partially true, but it is also true that they are protecting themselves too, and it is a crime in the US to use classification and secrecy to cover up crimes.

As Sibel says in the interview:

I have information about things that our government has lied to us about… those things can be proven as lies, very easily, based on the information they classified in my case, because we did carry very intimate relationship with these people, and it involves Central Asia, all the way up to September 11.

Summary

The bombshell here is obviously that certain people in the US were using Bin Laden up to September 11, 2001.

It is important to understand why: the US outsourced terror operations to al Qaeda and the Taliban for many years, promoting the Islamization of Central Asia in an attempt to personally profit off military sales as well as oil and gas concessions.

The silence by the US government on these matters is deafening. So, too, is the blowback.

911column

Did George Bush push the plunger, like Chris Matthews laughed about? Of course not. Let’s just laugh this off, ok. Let us just disregard the obviousness of complicity of someone in the country. Let us disregard the evidence, like that very precise 45 degree angle above. Let us follow George W Bush’s warnings that we not even think about conspiracy theories, when their every action causes any thinking person to question complicity. And we all know what a truthful bastard W is, right?

Let me put it this way, if, at this point, you don’t suspect something afoul, then you are not thinking clearly. If that is you, then just turn your TV back on and suck up the propaganda that you feed on as a gullible and ignorant Sheople. For if you are still in total belief of the “Official Story”, you need help: psychiatric help. And please give up on your dream Investigator’s job. You suck.

Posted in 911, Al-Qaeda, Dissent, Global Research, Imperialism, InfoWars, Iraq War, Mock Paper Scissors, Prison Planet, REAL State of the Union, Sibel Edmunds | Tagged: , , | 1 Comment »

 
Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 43 other followers