XIAM007

Thursday, 31 March 2011

Federal Auditor: Border Patrol Can Stop Illegal Entries Along Only 129 Miles of 1,954-Mile Mexican Border -

Richard M. Stana, director of homeland security and justice issues at the Government Accountability Office (which is responsible for “auditing agency operations to determine whether federal funds are being spent efficiently and effectively”), told the Senate Homeland Security Committee yesterday that the federal government can actually prevent or stop illegal entries into the United States along only 129 miles of the 1,954-mile-long U.S.--Mexico border.

That leaves 1,825 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border where the Border Patrol cannot prevent or stop an illegal entry.

Nonetheless, Stana told the committee, the Border Patrol itself says it has established “an acceptable level of control” along 873 miles of the 1,954-mile-long southwest border. This is because of the way the Border Patrol defines “an acceptable level of control” of the border.

“According to Border Patrol,” Stana told the committee, “an acceptable level of border control is established when it has the capability (i.e., resources) to deter or detect and apprehend incursions at the immediate border or after entry.” [Emphasis added.]

In addition to the 129 miles where the Border Patrol says it can actually “deter or detect and apprehend illegal entries” at the border itself, Stana told the committee, there are another 744 miles where the Border Patrol says it has the capability to deter or detect and apprehend illegal entrantsafter they have entered the county and penetrated U.S. territory to “distances of up to 100 miles or more away from the immediate border.”

The 3,918-mile-long northern border of the United States is virtually wide open, according to Stana’s testimony. The Border Patrol, Stana said, reports that it has established “an acceptable level of control” along only 69 miles of this border and that of those 69 miles there are only 2 miles where the Border Patrol can actually prevent or stop an illegal entry.

Along the remaining, 3,916 miles of the northern border the Border Patrol does not have the capability to deter or detect and apprehend an intruder.

“As we testified in February 2011 about our preliminary observations on this measure, Border Patrol indicated that in fiscal year 2010, 873 of the nearly 2,000 southwest border miles and 69 of the nearly 4,000 northern border miles between Washington and Maine were at an acceptable level of control,” Stana told the committee in his written testimony.

“Within this border security classification, Border Patrol further distinguished between the ability to deter or detect and apprehend illegal entries at the immediate border versus after entry—at distances of up to 100 miles or more away from the immediate border—into the United States,” Stana wrote.

“Our preliminary analysis of these Border Patrol data showed that the agency reported a capability to deter or detect and apprehend illegal entries at the immediate border across 129 of the 873 southwest border miles and 2 of the 69 northern border miles," Stana testified. "Our preliminary analysis also showed that Border Patrol reported the ability to deter or detect and apprehend illegal entries after they crossed the border for an additional 744 southwest border miles and 67 northern border miles.”

Stana said that in fiscal 2010 “about $11.9 billion [was] appropriated to secure the entire U.S. border (for personnel, infrastructure, and technology).”

Only about a third of this money was spent to secure the border in the vast territories between the official ports of entry (POE). “CBP reported that $3.6 billion was appropriated in fiscal year 2010 for border security efforts between the POEs,” Stana testified.

Overall, the federal government spent $3.72 trillion in fiscal 2010, according to the White House Office of Management and Budget. That means the $11.9 billion the government spent on securing the entire U.S. border equaled 0.3 percent of federal spending and the $3.6 billion the federal government spent on securing the border between the ports of entry equaled about 0.1 percent.

Wal-Mart CEO Bill Simon - "U.S. consumers face "serious" inflation in the months ahead for clothing, food, other products" -

U.S. consumers face "serious" inflation in the months ahead for clothing, food and other products, the head of Wal-Mart's U.S. operations warned Wednesday.

The world's largest retailer is working with suppliers to minimize the effect of cost increases and believes its low-cost business model will position it better than its competitors.

Still, inflation is "going to be serious," Wal-Mart U.S. CEO Bill Simon said during a meeting with USA TODAY's editorial board. "We're seeing cost increases starting to come through at a pretty rapid rate."

Along with steep increases in raw material costs, John Long, a retail strategist at Kurt Salmon, says labor costs in China and fuel costs for transportation are weighing heavily on retailers. He predicts prices will start increasing at all retailers in June.

"Every single retailer has and is paying more for the items they sell, and retailers will be passing some of these costs along," Long says. "Except for fuel costs, U.S. consumers haven't seen much in the way of inflation for almost a decade, so a broad-based increase in prices will be unprecedented in recent memory."

Consumer prices — or the consumer price index — rose 0.5% in February, the most since mid-2009, largely because of surging food and gasoline prices. Core inflation, which excludes volatile food and energy costs, rose a more modest 0.2%, though that still exceeded estimates.

The scenario hits Wal-Mart as it is trying to return to the low across-the-board prices it became famous for. Some prices rose as the company paid for costly store renovations.

"We're in a position to use scale to hold prices lower longer ... even in an inflationary environment," Simon says. "We will have the lowest prices in the market."

Major retailers such as Wal-Mart are the best positioned to mitigate some cost increases, Long says. Wal-Mart, for example, could have "access to any factory in any country around the globe" to mitigate the effect of inflation in the U.S., Long says.

Still, "it's certainly going to have an impact," Long says. "No retailer is going to be able to wish this new cost reality away. They're not going to be able to insulate the consumer 100%."

Wednesday, 30 March 2011

Raccoon meat at South Carolina store must go - raccoon meat in plastic bags inside one of the store's coolers -

Looking for raccoon meat? You won't find it at a country convenience store in South Carolina after state health inspectors told employees to throw out their supply.

Tipped off by a complaint, inspectors recently found the cleaned raccoon meat in plastic bags inside one of the store's coolers, along with bagged ice.

"In my 28 years with the agency, it's the first time I've heard of this," Thom Berry, spokesman for the state Department of Health and Environmental Control, said on Wednesday.

"My inspectors, they see all kinds of things, but this is something new even to them."

The Lucky 7 store -- located in Gadsden, near the state capital of Columbia -- removed the meat upon request, Berry said. But when inspectors went back several days later, they found it outside the building near some trash.

"We instructed the employees to bag it, pour bleach on it, tie it up and put it in the Dumpster," Berry said.

No law bans the sale of raccoon meat in South Carolina, but state and federal officials do not certify it as being safe for human consumption.

"It's kind of like squirrel," said Brett Witt, spokesman for the state Department of Natural Resources. "People do eat it. It's kind of on the lower end of animals. It's not as popular as deer or rabbit. There is a danger of ingesting any wild animal without proper preparation."

Buffett Heir Apparent Sokol Suddenly Resigns At Berkshire - after buying shares then repeatedly pushed Buffett to acquire -

Warren Buffett stunned investors Wednesday when he announced the sudden resignation of David Sokol, widely considered to be Buffett's heir apparent at Berkshire Hathaway.

Sokol, one of Buffett's favored lieutenants, resigned after buying shares in a company he then repeatedly pushed Buffett to acquire.

Sokol is scheduled to be interviewed live on CNBC at 7:40 am Thursday.

Sokol's resignation from his roles as chairman of MidAmerican Energy and NetJets is a stunning turn of events for Buffett, the 80-year-old "Oracle of Omaha" who recently sealed a $9 billion deal for Lubrizol [LZ 134.01 -0.01 (-0.01%) ].

Buffett said on Wednesday that Sokol bought shares of Lubrizol last December, sold them, then bought more shares in early January. He subsequently presented Buffett with the idea of buying the company.

Buffett said he was originally not in favor of the idea but warmed to it after Sokol told him of a conversation with Lubrizol's chief executive officer. He did not elaborate on the details of that conversation. Buffett said he did not feel Sokol's purchases were unlawful.

"Especially in a situation like this, the brand is everything," said William Larkin, fixed income portfolio manager at Cabot Money Management. "Often, when you violate that brand for any reason whatsoever, your goose is cooked."

Sokol's March 28 letter of resignation from his role as chairman of MidAmerican and NetJets mentioned his desire to pursue philanthropic efforts.

Buffett has regularly praised Sokol's work, and many investors have speculated that Sokol was on the short list to succeed Buffett at the Omaha, Neb.-based company.

Due to Sokol's departure, Buffett said Greg Abel, current president and CEO of MidAmerican Holding, will become its chairman; Todd Raba, president and CEO of Johns Manville, will become its chairman; and Jordan Hansell, President of NetJets, will become that unit's chairman and CEO.

Read more - http://www.cnbc.com/id/42347153

19 Reasons Why The Federal Reserve Is At The Heart Of Our Economic Problems -

Most Americans do not understand what the Federal Reserve is or why it is at the heart of our economic problems. When Americans get into discussions about the economy, most of them still blame either the Democrats or the Republicans for inflation, for the housing crash, for our rampant unemployment and for the national debt. But the truth is that the institution with the most power over our economic system is the Federal Reserve. So exactly what is the Federal Reserve? Most people would say that it is an agency of the federal government. But that is absolutely not true. In fact, the Federal Reserve itself has argued in court that it is not an agency of the federal government. Rather, the Federal Reserve is a privately-owned banking cartel that has been given a perpetual monopoly over our monetary system by the U.S. Congress. This privately-owned central bank has been destroying the value of the U.S. dollar for decades, it has run our economy into the ground and it has driven the U.S. government to the brink of bankruptcy. The Federal Reserve operates in great secrecy, it has never been subjected to a comprehensive audit and it is not accountable to the American people. Yet the decisions that the Federal Reserve makes have a dramatic impact on the lives of every single American citizen.
If you really want to understand what is causing our economic problems, it is absolutely crucial that you understand exactly what the Federal Reserve system is and how it is systematically destroying our economy. Once you understand the truth about the Federal Reserve, you will view economic issues a whole lot differently.
The following are 19 reasons why the Federal Reserve is at the very heart of our economic problems….
#1 The Federal Reserve system is a debt-based financial system.
The way our system is designed, normally no money comes into existence without more debt being created.
But this creates a huge problem, because when a new dollar is created, the interest owed to the banking system on that dollar is not also created at the same time.
Therefore, the amount money that is created is not equal to the larger amount of debt that is also created.
This is a Ponzi scheme that is designed to drain wealth from the American people and transfer it to the banking system.
Today, the amount of debt in our economic system is far, far, far greater than the total amount of money.
The only way to keep the game going is to create even more money which creates even more debt.
#2 The Federal Reserve and the bankers have a monopoly on the creation of this debt-based money.
In the United States today, the only people that can create money are the bankers.
You cannot create money.
You would go to jail if you tried.
Even the U.S. government cannot create money.
Although the U.S. Constitution specifically gives Congress the power to create money, the U.S. Congress has given that power to the Federal Reserve and to the banking system.
This gives them an enormous amount of power.
So how does money creation actually work?
Most Americans don’t understand this.
As I have written about previously, the way our system is designed is that all money is supposed to originally come into existence as government debt….

When the government wants more money, the U.S. government swaps U.S. Treasury bonds for “Federal Reserve notes”, thus creating more government debt. Usually the money isn’t even printed up – most of the time it is just electronically credited to the government. The Federal Reserve creates these “Federal Reserve notes” out of thin air. These Federal Reserve notes are backed by nothing and have no intrinsic value of their own.
The Federal Reserve then sells these U.S. Treasury bonds to investors, other nations (such as China) or sometimes they “sell” them back to themselves. In fact, the Federal Reserve has been gobbling up a whole lot of U.S. Treasuries lately. Some refer to this as “monetizing the debt”, but that is not quite an accurate statement.
When the Federal Reserve creates money this way, it does not also create the money to pay the interest on the debt that has been created. Eventually this puts pressure on the U.S. government to borrow even more money to keep the game going. So what this creates is a spiral where the U.S. government must keep borrowing increasingly larger amounts of money, where the money supply is endlessly expanding and where the value of the U.S. dollar is destined to continue going down forever.

Once “Federal Reserve Notes” are in circulation, there is another way that money is created.
It is called “fractional reserve lending”.
Once you or I deposit money into a bank, the bank is only required to keep a very small amount of it actually in the bank. The rest of it the bank can loan out to others (at interest of course). This process can be repeated over and over and over, creating more money and an even larger amount of debt.
But the important part to take away from all this is that normally money is only created when debt is created, and the amount of debt to be paid back is always larger than the amount of money created.
This entire system is designed to drain our wealth and to put it into the hands of the bankers.
#3 The power of money creation and debt creation is in the hands of private individuals – not the government.
The Federal Reserve claims that it is an “entity within the government, having both public purposes and private aspects.”
That sounds so reasonable, but the truth is that the Federal Reserve is a legalized banking cartel that is privately-owned.
In fact, the Federal Reserve is about as “federal” as Federal Express is.
In defending itself against a Bloomberg request for information under the Freedom of Information Act, the Federal Reserve objected by declaring that it was “not an agency” of the U.S. government and therefore it was not subject to the Freedom of Information Act. It is kind of funny how Fed officials are always talking about how important their “independence” is, but whenever anyone starts criticizing them for being private they start stressing their ties with the government.
So who owns the Federal Reserve?
As the Federal Reserve’s own website describes, it is the member banks that own it….

The twelve regional Federal Reserve Banks, which were established by Congress as the operating arms of the nation’s central banking system, are organized much like private corporations–possibly leading to some confusion about “ownership.” For example, the Reserve Banks issue shares of stock to member banks. However, owning Reserve Bank stock is quite different from owning stock in a private company. The Reserve Banks are not operated for profit, and ownership of a certain amount of stock is, by law, a condition of membership in the System. The stock may not be sold, traded, or pledged as security for a loan; dividends are, by law, 6 percent per year.

In particular, as we will see below, the banks of the New York Federal Reserve have the most influence over the system.
So who owns the member banks?
Well, when you trace the ownership of the member banks to the very top you find that the international banking elite are very strongly represented.
#4 The Federal Reserve itself is not much of a profit-making institution. Rather, it is a tool that enables others to make obscene amounts of money.
There are many that think of the Federal Reserve as an evil profit-making machine. But the truth is that the Fed doesn’t make that much money. Rather, the system was set up so that others could make an obscene amount of money from U.S. government debt.
Many of those opposed to the Federal Reserve point to the record $80.9 billion in profits that the Federal Reserve made last year as evidence that they are robbing the American people blind. But then those defending the Federal Reserve will point out that the Fed returned $78.4 billion to the U.S. Treasury.
In the end, those numbers are not nearly as important as the hundreds of billions of dollars in interest that are made off of U.S. government debt each year.
If the U.S. government had been issuing debt-free money all this time, the U.S. government would likely not be spending one penny on interest payments. Instead, the U.S. government spent over 413 billion dollars on interest on the national debt during fiscal 2010. This is money that belonged to U.S. taxpayers that was transferred to the U.S. government which in turn was transferred to wealthy international bankers and other foreign governments.
This is where the magic of the Federal Reserve system is. It is in getting the U.S. government enslaved to debt and using that debt to transfer hundreds of billions of dollars of our wealth into the hands of others.
As interest rates go up, this phenomenon is going to become even more brutal. Right now it is being projected that the U.S. government will be paying900 billion dollars just in interest on the national debt by the year 2019.
As you fill out your tax return this year, just keep in mind that vast quantities of our money is going to pay interest on debt that the U.S. government never needed to become enslaved to.
There are some very happy people out there that are becoming fabulously wealthy at our expense.
What a system, eh?
#5 The Federal Reserve is a perpetual debt machine.
As mentioned above, the U.S. government is enslaved to debt.
So how did it get enslaved?
Well, instead of printing up and spending the money that it needs, the U.S. government borrows it through the Federal Reserve system at interest.
In fact, as noted above, the U.S. government cannot create a single new dollar without borrowing it.
But each new dollar that the U.S. government borrows creates more than a dollar of new debt.
As a result, the government eventually has to collect more in taxes than what it has borrowed.
This phenomenon creates an endless debt spiral.
And is that not what we have in the United States today? In fact, you see this in almost every nation on earth where a similar central banking system has been established.
Did you know that the U.S. national debt is more than 5,000 times larger than it was 100 years ago?
That’s right – back in 1910, prior to the passage of the Federal Reserve Act, the national debt was only about $2.6 billion.
The only way that the U.S. government can inject more money into the economy is by going into more debt. But when new government debt is created, the amount of money to pay the interest on that debt is not also created. In this way, it was intended by the international bankers that U.S. government debt would expand indefinitely and the U.S. money supply would also expand indefinitely. In the process, the international bankers would become insanely wealthy by lending money to the U.S. government.
However, things did not have to turn out this way.
If the Federal Reserve had never been created, and the U.S. government had been issuing debt-free currency all this time, it is entirely conceivable that we would have absolutely no federal government debt at this point.
Unfortunately, we are now trapped in a debt-based system.
The U.S. national debt simply cannot ever be paid off. U.S. government debt has been mathematically designed to expand forever. It is a trap from which there is no escape.
Sadly, we have now gotten to a terminal phase of the debt spiral. The Congressional Budget Office is projecting that U.S. government debt held by the public will reach a staggering 716 percent of GDP by the year 2080. Remember when I used the term “debt spiral” earlier? This is what a debt spiral looks like….

19 Reasons Why The Federal Reserve Is At The Heart Of Our Economic Problems US National Debt Chart 2010

#6 The Federal Reserve system is designed to cause inflation.
As U.S. government debt expands at an exponential pace, it inevitably causes inflation.
Most Americans believe that inflation is a fact of life, but the truth is that the United States has only had a major, ongoing problem with inflation since the Federal Reserve was created back in 1913.
Sadly, the U.S. dollar has lost well over 95 percent of its value since the Federal Reserve was created.
If the Federal Reserve did not exist, it is theoretically conceivable that we could have an economy with little to no inflation. Of course that would greatly depend on the discipline of our government officials (which is not very great at this point), but the sad truth is that our current system is always going to produce inflation. In fact, the Federal Reserve system was originally designed to be inflationary. Just check out the inflation chart posted below. The U.S. never had massive problems with inflation before the Fed was created, but now it is just wildly out of control….

19 Reasons Why The Federal Reserve Is At The Heart Of Our Economic Problems Inflation

#7 The Federal Reserve has decided to play bizarre games with our money supply.
In a desperate attempt to revive the dying U.S. economy, the Federal Reserve has resorted to chucking gigantic quantities of cash into the financial system.
Remember how earlier I explained that normally whenever new money is created that more debt is created?
Well, lately the Fed has been resorting to a trick called “quantitative easing”. What “quantitative easing” means is that the Federal Reserve zaps massive amounts of money into existence out of thin air and starts spending it on anything that it wants to buy. Lately, this has primarily been done to buy up U.S. government debt.
But isn’t that “monetizing the debt”?
Of course it is, and it is a blatant Ponzi scheme.
However, what is even more alarming is what this is doing to our money supply.
Just look at what has happened to our monetary base since about mid-2008….

19 Reasons Why The Federal Reserve Is At The Heart Of Our Economic Problems Adjusted Monetary Base

Does anyone in their right mind believe that this is not going to cause horrible inflation?
Right now most of the new cash is tied up in the financial system, but once it gets out into the regular economy watch out!
#8 The Federal Reserve is undemocratic.
In a previous article, I asked the following question:

“So what makes the central economic planning that the Federal Reserve does different from the central economic planning that communist China does?”

In both cases, a bunch of unelected elitists run the economy and make important economic decisions for the rest of us.
So what really is the difference?
#9 The Federal Reserve runs the U.S. economy.
Most Americans want to blame Obama or Bush or the U.S. Congress for the state of the economy.
But the truth is that it is the Federal Reserve that sets interest rates, it is the Federal Reserve that determines the money supply, it is the Federal Reserve that sets the “target rate” of inflation, it is the Federal Reserve that determines if unemployment is too high or too low and it is the Federal Reserve that watches over all of our banks.
Yes, Obama, Bush and the U.S. Congress all have things to answer for as well.
But none of them have the direct power over the economy that the Federal Reserve does.
#10 The Federal Reserve favors the big banks.
Not all financial institutions are treated equally by the Fed.
The truth is that the big banks (particularly those on Wall Street) are treated with great favor by the Federal Reserve.
If the Federal Reserve did not exist, the big Wall Street banks would not have such an overwhelming advantage. Most Americans simply have no idea that over the last several years the Federal Reserve has been giving gigantic piles of nearly interest-free money to the big Wall Street banks which they turned right around and started lending to the federal government at a much higher rate of return. I don’t know about you, but if I was allowed to do that I could make a whole bunch of money very quickly. In fact, it has come out that the Federal Reserve made over $9 trillion in overnight loans to major banks, large financial institutions and other “friends” during the financial crisis of 2008 and 2009.
Wouldn’t you like to be able to zap trillions of dollars into existence and loan it out to your friends at very favorable terms?
Sadly, most of the “help” from the Federal Reserve always seems to go to the big boys.
When “small enough to fail” banks need assistance, they are usually told to go sell themselves to one of the big banks.
#11 The worse the debt problems caused by the Federal Reserve become, the more money the IRS needs to collect from the rest of us.
If the U.S. government could issue debt-free money, it is conceivable that we would not even need the IRS. You doubt this? Well, the truth is that the United States did just fine for well over a hundred years without a national income tax. But about the same time the Federal Reserve was created a national income tax was instituted as well. The whole idea was that the wealth of the American people would be transferred to the U.S. government by force and then transferred into the hands of the ultra-wealthy in the form of interest payments.
If the Federal Reserve was shut down, it is entirely possible that we would be able to shut down the IRS as well.
But the only way that the current system works is if massive amounts of wealth continue to be drained from the American people.
#12 The Federal Reserve creates artificial financial bubbles.
When you look back over the last several decades, you will find financial bubble after financial bubble.
So who created all of those bubbles?
It was the Federal Reserve.
The ridiculous policies of Greenspan and Bernanke have wrought disaster after disaster and yet most of our politicians still will not even consider major changes to the Federal Reserve.
#13 The Federal Reserve is anti-free market.
In a true free market system, the marketplace would determine what interest rates are.
In a true free market system, the marketplace would determine which financial institutions survive.
In a true free market system, artificial financial bubbles would be far less likely.
But we don’t have a true free market system.
#14 The Federal Reserve tells the rest of the our banks what to do.
Most Americans don’t understand just how much power the Federal Reserve actually has over our local banks.
For example, just last year Federal Reserve officials walked into one bank in Oklahoma and demanded that they take down all the Bible verses and all the Christmas buttons that the bank had been displaying.
#15 The people currently running the Federal Reserve pretty much have no idea what they are doing.
In case anyone has not noticed, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke hasa very long track record of incompetence. Nearly every major judgment that he has made since taking over that position has been dead wrong.
If one of us could go down the street and appoint the manager of the local Dairy Queen as the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, it is very doubtful that person would do a worse job than Bernanke has done.
#16 Even though the Federal Reserve has such extraordinary power over the financial system, the American people are not permitted to examine their books.
The Federal Reserve claims that they are regularly audited, but when some members of Congress attempted to push through a true comprehensive audit of the Fed last year Federal Reserve officials threw a hissy fit.
The truth is that the Federal Reserve has never undergone a true comprehensive audit since it was created back in 1913.
Whenever the subject of an audit comes up, Bernanke and others at the Fed keep repeating the mantra of how important “the independence of the Federal Reserve” is.
Sadly, Ron Paul’s proposal to audit the Federal Reserve last year, which had previously been co-sponsored by 320 members of the U.S. House of Representatives, ultimately failed by a vote of 229-198.
Instead, a very, very limited examination of Fed transactions that occurred during the recent financial crisis was approved.
So what did that limited examination reveal?
Well, the Federal Reserve was forced to reveal the details of 21,000 transactions stretching from December 2007 to July 2010 that combined were worth trillions of dollars. It turns out that the Federal Reserve was just handing out gigantic piles of nearly interest-free cashto their friends at the largest banks, financial institutions and corporations all over the globe.
Many members of Congress were absolutely stunned by these revelations.
So what would a more comprehensive audit reveal?
#17 The Federal Reserve has way too much power.
If the Federal Reserve did not exist, we would not have an unelected, unaccountable “fourth branch of government” running around that has gotten completely and totally out of control. Even some members of Congress are now openly complaining about how much power the Fed has. For example, Ron Paul told MSNBC last year that he believes that the Federal Reserve is now more powerful than Congress…..

“The regulations should be on the Federal Reserve. We should have transparency of the Federal Reserve. They can create trillions of dollars to bail out their friends, and we don’t even have any transparency of this. They’re more powerful than the Congress.”

#18 The Federal Reserve is dominated by Wall Street and the New York banks.
The New York representative is the only permanent member of the Federal Open Market Committee, while other regional banks rotate in 2 and 3 year intervals. The former head of the New York Fed, Timothy Geithner, is now U.S. Treasury Secretary. The truth is that the Federal Reserve Bank of New York has always been the most important of the regional Fed banks by far, and in turn the Federal Reserve Bank of New York has always been dominated by Wall Street and the major New York banks.
The cold, hard reality of the matter is that the Federal Reserve is just another one of the tools that the Wall Street banking elite use to dominate all the rest of us.
#19 The Federal Reserve has brought us to the brink of economic collapse.
If the Federal Reserve had never been created, the American people would not be so enslaved to debt. At the very core of our economic problems is debt. American consumers are swamped with debt, state and local governments are facing horrific debt problems from coast to coast and the federal government has piled up the biggest mountain of debt in the history of the world.
We are living in an absolutely massive debt bubble, and when it bursts the world is going to experience financial chaos like it has never seen before.
Things did not have to turn out this way. We did not have to adopt a debt-based financial system. We did not have to allow the bankers to enslave us with debt.
But that is what happened.
Sadly, most Americans and the vast majority of our politicians are still clueless about these issues.
In 1922, Henry Ford wrote the following….

“The people must be helped to think naturally about money. They must be told what it is, and what makes it money, and what are the possible tricks of the present system which put nations and peoples under control of the few.”

Hopefully this article will help people understand our debt-based financial system a little bit better.
Until we fundamentally change our system, many of the economic and financial problems we are currently experiencing will never go away.
Thankfully, it does appear that some Americans are waking up.
According to a recent Bloomberg National Poll, the number of Americans that would like to see the Federal Reserve held more accountable or even completely abolished is increasing….

Asked if the central bank should be more accountable to Congress, left independent or abolished entirely, 39 percent said it should be held more accountable and 16 percent that it should be abolished. Only 37 percent favor the status quo.

Those are very exciting numbers.
Hopefully we can awaken many more Americans to the dangers of a debt-based economy.
In the book of Proverbs, it tells us the following….

The rich ruleth over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender.

Well, by allowing ourselves to become enslaved to debt, we have become the servants of the international banking system.
Not only that, we have also sold our children and our grandchildren into perpetual debt slavery.
Thomas Jefferson tried to warn us about this.
He believed that when the government borrows money in one generation which must be paid back by future generations it is equivalent to stealing….

And I sincerely believe, with you, that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies; and that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale.

In fact, Thomas Jefferson said that if he could add one more amendment to the U.S. Constitution it would be a ban on all government borrowing….

I wish it were possible to obtain a single amendment to our Constitution. I would be willing to depend on that alone for the reduction of the administration of our government to the genuine principles of its Constitution; I mean an additional article, taking from the federal government the power of borrowing.

Where would we be today if we had listened to Thomas Jefferson?
The amount of government debt that we have racked up is a great evil. We have stolen the future away from our children and our grandchildren. We have put them in a position where they will spend the rest of their lives paying off our debts to the bankers.
We owe it to future generations to fix the problems that we have created.
That is why so many of us believe that it is time for the U.S. Congress to shut down the Federal Reserve. Our current financial system is a complete and utter failure and we need to start over.

Read more - http://www.blacklistednews.com/19_Reasons_Why_The_Federal_Reserve_Is_At_The_Heart_Of_Our_Economic_Problems_/13299/0/13/13/Y/M.html

Tuesday, 29 March 2011

Congress racks up $15,000 in Unpaid Parking Tickets - must pay their own tickets not permitted to use official funds -

Members of Congress have immunity from many routine parking tickets in the District of Columbia, but that doesn’t mean they can’t try to rack up fines.

According to a Roll Call survey of vehicles parked on Capitol Hill and at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, as of mid-March, lawmakers were carrying at least $15,000 in outstanding tickets — ranging from expired meters to speeding camera violations — and potentially thousands of dollars more.

Three-quarters of those tickets, worth about $11,500, were in default at the time of the survey, having gone more than 60 days, and in some cases years, without payment.

Roll Call canvassed Congressional parking facilities, as well as a special Members-only parking lot at the airport, and reviewed about 300 vehicles displaying a House- or Senate-issued Member parking tag.

Information on parking violations was obtained from the District of Columbia’s public ticket database, which is searchable by license plate and includes information on minor violations.

While many vehicles registered a single ticket, valued at as little as $20, a handful of automobiles reported several hundred to thousands of dollars in unpaid tickets.

Roll Call’s inquiry appears to have led some offenders to pay up.

Aides to Reps. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) and Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) said the lawmakers repaid their respective tickets after being contacted by Roll Call.

The District’s database showed Weiner received nearly $2,180 in tickets from 2007 to early March, including some instances in which he appears to have incurred multiple violations at the same time, such as failing to display current tags while parked in a taxi stand zone.

“All of the Congressman’s parking tickets have been paid. He is pleased to have helped decrease the D.C. budget deficit,” Weiner spokesman Dave Arnold said.

Thompson spokesman Lanier Avant likewise said the Mississippi lawmaker repaid $610 in outstanding tickets that his vehicle received from 2004 to 2010. During Roll Call’s survey, a second vehicle displaying Thompson’s Member parking permit also returned $250 in parking tickets, which Avant said were his own and were also repaid.

According to the House Administration Committee, Members must pay their own parking tickets and are not permitted to use official funds.

Mar. 29, 2011, MESSENGER captured this historic image of Mercury - first ever obtained from Mercury orbit -

First Image Ever Obtained from Mercury Orbit

At 5:20 am EDT on Mar. 29, 2011, MESSENGER captured this historic image of Mercury. This image is the first ever obtained from a spacecraft in orbit about the Solar System's innermost planet. Over the subsequent six hours, MESSENGER acquired an additional 363 images before downlinking some of the data to Earth. The MESSENGER team is currently looking over the newly returned data, whic

Read more - http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_1907.html

10 places with some of the weirdest traffic laws - plenty of weird statutes around the world -

Driving through New Brunswick? Better stay off the roads — it’s apparently against the law to drive on them.

Wait, what?

Obscure and silly road laws are nothing new. In fact, there are plenty of weird statutes around the world that continue to leave many motorists scratching their heads, even if these laws are seldom enforced or obeyed.

Below are 10 places with some of the weirdest traffic laws:

10. Montreal: If you live in Montreal, you’d better be careful about where you leave your car when you get home. It’s against the law to park your car in such a way that it is blocking your own driveway. And forget about washing your car while it’s parked on the street, that’s against the law, too. If you’re an Ontarian passing through Montreal, make sure to remember that turning right on a red light is not allowed in the city — something that is largely legal in the rest of the country. Doing so will fetch you a traffic ticket.

9. Denmark: Checking all areas of your car before hitting the road is a good rule of thumb. But in Denmark, it’s the law. Motorists are required to check all lights, brakes, steering, and honk the horn every time they get in the car. Drivers are also required by law to check underneath the car to ensure there are no sleeping children.

8. Beijing: We know smog is a problem in many parts of China, but this seems like an overkill attempt to curb idling. In Beijing, drivers are liable to receive a fine of up to five yuan (or less than a Canadian dollar) and a warning for stopping at pedestrian crossings.

7. Ontario: In Ontario, there are a few statutes that, somehow, have stood the test of time. These outdated laws might not be so relevant today, but they’re still on the books. For example, if you ever find yourself riding an open-sleigh on the highway for some inexplicable reason (hey, maybe it’s Christmas), make sure you have the right number of bells attached. Having less than two could earn you a $5 fine. And if you’re a TTC rider in Toronto, remember that it’s illegal to ride a streetcar on Sunday if you’ve been eating garlic. Weird.

6. New Jersey: Motorists used to handling the pumps at gas stations could be in for a shock when pulling in for a top-up at any station in New Jersey. That’s because it’s illegal for drivers there to pump their own gas. Only gas station employees can pump gas in the Garden State — what’s known as “full-service”. The controversial law was passed in 1949 after lawmakers felt it was too dangerous to have untrained drivers pumping their own fuel.

5. Detroit: Motor City may be known for its love of cars, but over there, it’s strictly a no-no to make love in one. Couples are banned from having sex in a vehicle unless the act takes place while the car is parked on the couple’s own property.

4. California: Forget texting and driving. In California, it's against the law to shoot at wild game from a moving vehicle. As if stating the obvious wasn't enough, the Golden State had to go and create a law to dissuade drivers with itchy trigger fingers.

3. Maryland: Watch your mouth while driving in Rockville, Maryland. It’s illegal to curse in public, and this includes inside your car. So if you mouth off in a fit of rage while stuck in traffic, and the motorist next to you complains (or is a cop), you could be fined up to $100 or receive jail time of up to 90 days.

2. Saudi Arabia: It’s fairly well-known that in Saudi Arabia, women are barred from driving cars. But many don’t know that there are two highways near the holy city of Mecca: one for Muslims that runs through the city, and another for non-Muslims that goes around it. If a Muslim is accompanied by a non-Muslim, both are required to use the alternate highway. Violators caught driving on the wrong highway could face fines.

1. Minnesota: Remember the “Keep it beautiful” adage that used to adorn Ontario licence plates? Well, in Minnetonka, Minnesota, it’s the law to keep your car clean. It’s considered a public nuisance for “a truck or other vehicle whose wheels or tires deposit mud, dirt, sticky substances, litter or other material on any street or highway.” Failure to keep your wheels spic and span here could cost you up to $2,000.