Donald Trump may have mastered the art of the real-estate deal, but when it comes to debates, he’s still an apprentice -

Donald Trump may have mastered the art of the real-estate deal, but when it comes to debates, he’s still an apprentice - 

The celebrity businessman is having difficulty securing commitments from Republican presidential candidates for a Dec. 27 debate that he’s planning to moderate in Des Moines, Iowa.

Mitt Romney became the latest big-name candidate to send his regrets, telling Fox News’ Neil Cavuto that he informed Trump earlier on Tuesday that he would be too busy to appear. Romney noted that he already is planning to participate in two previously scheduled debates in Iowa this month.

"I understand why Governor Romney decided not to do it," Trump told ABC News. He declined to elaborate further.

Other candidates who have declined: Rep. Ron Paul and former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman. In an interview on Monday with CNBC’s Larry Kudlow, Huntsman dismissed the Trump debate as a publicity stunt.

Running for president "isn't about ratings for Donald Trump; this is about jobs for the American people," Huntsman told Kudlow.

Newly minted front-runner Newt Gingrich has announced he will attend the Trump debate, as has former Sen. Rick Santorum.  

Texas Gov. Rick Perry and Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., remain uncommitted, but on the CBS Early Show on Tuesday Bachmann told Erica Hill and Chris Wragge that she is concerned about Trump's objectivity, because "he said he's already leaning towards a candidate."

Read more -

http://www.nationaljournal.com/2012-presidential-campaign/romney-becomes-latest-gop-candidate-to-decline-trump-s-debate-invite-20111206

Governments around the world are having to resort to desperate measures to get the masses to buy government debt -

Governments around the world are having to resort to desperate measures   
to get the masses to buy government debt - 




Say what you want about him, but Bernie Madoff was a guy who knew how to keep the party going. For years, he ran one of the largest private-sector Ponzi schemes in history and always heeded the golden rule of financial scams: make sure your inflows are greater than your outflows.


He was finally done in when redemptions exceeded new investments. He didn’t have enough cash to pay out investors, and he wasn’t able to scam more people into paying in to the scheme. As a result, Madoff finally had to admit that the whole thing was a total fraud.


Governments around the world are in similar situations right now with their own public sector Ponzi schemes. Faced with failed auctions, declining demand, and rising yields, politicians are having to resort to desperate measures.


Like any good scam artist, they’re appealing to the masses first; all over Europe, governments are sponsoring new marketing campaigns suggesting that it’s people’s patriotic duty to buy government debt.


In Spain, they’re actually issuing instruments called ‘Bonos Patrioticos,’ or ‘patriotic bonds’. Ad campaigns say that the bonds are “good for you, good for the future.”


In Ireland, they’ve issued “Prize Bonds” which carry a 0% interest rate; instead of receiving interest, bondholders are entered into a weekly lottery contest.  Naturally, lottery winnings are only possible as long as people keep buying the bonds… pretty much the definition of a Ponzi scheme!


In Italy, they’re rolling out the country’s sports celebrities to encourage everyone to buy Italian sovereign debt.


What’s ironic is that Italy’s dismal balance sheet is almost universally acknowledged. It’s as if everyone knows the country has almost no chance of making good on its obligations, but they still feel the need to willingly throw away their hard earned savings for the greater good of political incompetence.


Thing is, it’s not the millionaire sports stars, wealthy business leaders, or political elite who are buying these bonds… at least, not in anything beyond a token, symbolic amount. It’s the average guy on the street who really stands to get hurt when the government finally capitulates.


This is a truly despicable act and amounts to theft, plain and simple.


The United Kingdom, which is rapidly reaching this banana republic sovereign debt status itself, has unveiled a plan to issue roughly $50 billion in infrastructure bonds. This would be the equivalent of issuing $300 billion in the US– not exactly chump change.


Given Britain’s already colossal debt level, private investors aren’t exact diving in head first to loan the government even more money.


Undeterred, British Chancellor George Osborne plans to ‘highly encourage’ UK pension funds to mop up about 60% of the total amount. “We have got to make sure that British savings in things like pension funds are employed here and British taxpayers’ money is well used,” he said.


In other words, ‘we are going to make sure that British people buy our junk, one way or another.’


The last year has seen numerous pension funds around the world, from the United States to Argentina to Hungary, be raided for the sake of keeping these Ponzi scheme going.  The UK is already lining up to be the next.


It’s one of the last acts of a truly desperate government to begin directing public and private savings into their Ponzi schemes.


Fast-forward a few downgrades and you can plan on seeing the exact same thing in the United States– appealing to people’s patriotism to loan their hard-earned savings (if they even have any) to the Federal government at a rate of interest that fails to keep up with inflation.


It’s nothing more than a very clever (and subtle) form of theft.


Read more -
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/guest-post-very-subtle-form-theft

The United States is fighting terrorism - one snow cone at a time, County received a $900 Arctic Blast Sno-Cone machine -

The United States is fighting terrorism - one snow cone at a time, County received a $900 Arctic Blast Sno-Cone machine - 


The United States is fighting terrorism - one snow cone at a time.


Montcalm County recently received a $900 Arctic Blast Sno-Cone machine.


The West Michigan Shoreline Regional Development Commission (WMSRDC) is a federal- and state-designated agency responsible for managing and administrating the homeland security program in Montcalm County and 12 other counties.


The WMSRDC recently purchased and transferred homeland security equipment to these counties - including 13 snow cone machines at a total cost of $11,700.


Read more - 
http://www.wzzm13.com/news/article/188877/14/Montcalm-County-gets-homeland-security-snow-cone-machine

Library of Congress to receive entire Twitter archive - billions and billions of tweets -

Library of Congress to receive entire Twitter archive - billions and billions of tweets - 


Tweets, emails and other electronic communications can be considered "government documents" and must be preserved. The National Archives handles official government materials, while the Library of Congress' mandate is to deal with anything that may have long-term historical interest.


"We're basically in the same situation as the National Archives, only on a much larger scale," said Bill Lefurgy, digital initiatives program manager at the Library of Congress national digital information infrastructure and preservation program. "We tend to have a much larger perspective in terms of what we collect." He joined the Federal Drive with Tom Temin and Amy Morris Tuesday morning to talk about the library's digital mission.


But how much digital information are we talking about? How about all of the tweets from Twitter's archives?


"We have an agreement with Twitter where they have a bunch of servers with their historic archive of tweets, everything that was sent out and declared to be public," Lefurgy said. The archives don't contain tweets that users have protected, but everything else — billions and billions of tweets — are there."


Using new technical processes it has developed, Twitter is moving a large quantity of electronic data from one electronic source to another. "They've had to do some pretty nifty experimentation and invention to develop the tools and a process to be able to move all of that data over to us," Lefurgy said.


The Library of Congress has long been the repository of important, historical documents and the Twitter library, as a whole, is something historic in itself.


"We were excited to be involved with acquiring the Twitter archives because it's a unique record of our time," Lefurgy said. "It's also a unique way of communication. It's not so much that people are going to be interested in what you or I had for lunch, which some people like to say on Twitter."


Read more - 
http://www.federalnewsradio.com/?nid=247&sid=2658996