Dispatches From The Far Gone World

Card Check And How It Could Ruin Your Life

2009-03-22T13:21:00.000-07:00

Card Check And How It Could Ruin Your Life

The bodies are buried shallow.
Read More Here

If you resist, they aim to hurt you.
Read More Here

The people who killed the auto industry. Take a good look.
Read More Here

Coming to a workplace near you.
Read More Here

Who says that a "Secret Ballot" is a hallmark of Democracy?
Read More Here

Oppose the Union, get a nice pine box.
Read More Here

Oppose the Union, wake up and find a nice surprise on your car.
Read More Here

Obsolete your job, organize a union.
Read More Here

Employee Free Choice Act, Otherwise Known as "Card Check", Shaping Up to Be Big Fight
The EFCA Bill, otherwise known as "Card Check", has impassioned supporters and detractors, and pressure is coming down on Congress from both sides of the spectrum. Who will be the winners and losers if it gets passed?
Read More Here

Hyperinflation Threatens To Make America Into Weimar 2!

2009-03-21T12:37:00.000-07:00

Hyperinflation Threatens To Make America Into Weimar Republic 2!

Wow! Who would have guessed that President Obama, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chris Dodd, former Presidential Candidate John McCain, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (former Senator from NY) would be the biggest recipients of AIG campaign contributions (bribes by another name)? Remember Enron?
Read More Here

Read More Here

Oh my god! This one speaks for itself. And this is just what we can track. All the secret new conduits the Federal Reserve and Treasury Department are using are completely hidden.
Read More Here

"To be honest, I don't know what the chances are for the Federal Reserve's actions to achieve the desired results. But I believe that we are more concerned with deflation rather than inflation at this time."
Read More Here

Just since Helicopter Ben Bernanke's latest helicopter drop of $1 Trillion into the economy, look at the slips in the US dollar. No concern for inflation there, huh Helicopter Ben?
Read More Here

"See, the plan, in a nutshell, is to grab the economy and choke it back to life. The way we'll know we've succeeded is when it stops moving entirely."
Read More Here

If China and Japan begin to draw down the American Debt they own, economic chaos will quickly ensue.
Read More Here

Joseph Cassano, the former leader of the AIG Financial Products Division, is the guy who singlehandedly fucked the world. Not surprisingly, Michael Milken--of the 1980's S&L scandals--was his mentor. His division made a reported $5.0 Billion dollars in revenue while paying out $5.5 Billion in salaries. I'm not an economist, but I am a thinker, and that looks like Half-A-Billion in losses before the meltdown even began. Don't worry though, Cassano got a sweet $1 Million-a-month-for-life severance package from AIG, and made over $280 Million during his tenure at the company. Thanks Big Guy!
Read More Here

America, losing it's position as the world's leading Reserve Currency while the Euro steadily gains. The G20 meeting in April could be the tipping point.
Read More Here

"Bye bye America."

Is America on the Path to Becoming the Second Weimar Germany?
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernancke's latest "Helicopter Drop" of $1 Trillion new U.S. dollars into the economy presents the latest risk to a hyperinflationary environment.
Read More Here

Where Would We Be Without Chinese Soverign Treasury Investment?

2009-03-20T09:50:00.000-07:00

Where Would We Be Without Chinese Soverign Treasury Investment?

China's Wall Street
Read More Here

"It's so nice to be seeing you again..."
Read More Here

"Now, Gentlemen, I just want to tell you--Imminent Domain is not currently on the table for negotiation..."
Read More Here

The Danger of Chinese Wavering
China is the single biggest holder of US Treasury Bonds. What would be the ramifications if they were to reverse course and start dumping?
Read More Here

Coal Ash Spills Not The Only Problem At The Tennessee Valley Authority

2009-03-19T17:22:00.000-07:00

Coal Ash Spills Not The Only Problem At The Tennessee Valley Authority

Good Job TVA.
Read More Here

Agreed.
Read More Here

"Well, looks good guys. Lets knock off and get some beer. Put it on your TVA credit cards."
Read More Here

The good sign is that these people aren't wearing biological suits. Or maybe they should be.

Millions of Dollars Embezzeled from the Tennessee Valley Authority
The TVA, The United States largest public utility, has found that rampant credit card abuse has permeated the organization.
Read More Here

Hypocrite Congressman Goes After Corrupt NASA Official

2009-03-18T16:41:00.000-07:00

Hypocrite Congressman Goes After Corrupt NASA Official

"I mean, how many shuttles need to blow up on his watch before we dump this guy?"
Read More Here

"Sure I travel around on the taxpayers dime. Isn't that one of the perks of my job?"
Read More Here

Cobb is under investigation by an administration integrity committee after being accused of repeatedly quashing cases and retaliating against those who resisted.
Read More Here

It's Moose Hunting Season in Washington D.C. again.

Congressman Bart Gordon Calls Out NASA Investigator General, but What About His Excesses?
Congressman Bart Gordon of Tennessee calls out Robert "Moose" Cobb, Investigator General of NASA, but what about the congressman's own recent junket on taxpayer dollars?
Read More Here

Congressional Trips On Taxpayer Dime!

2009-03-17T16:06:00.000-07:00

Congressional Trips On Taxpayer Dime!

John Tanner disclosed 11 trips at a cost of $43,272 to taxpayers in 2005 alone. Good work big guy! His buddy Bart Gordon disclosed two trips at a cost of $21,446. Bart's going to have to work a lot harder then THAT!
Read More Here

Pelosi and 15 of her best friends went to Rome at taxpayer's expense in February, just to see her get a medal. Congrats Madame Speaker! I know why you need a bigger plane now! Can't leave the entourage at home.
Read More Here

You know a lot of Government Work got done here.
Read More Here

"Hey, when is our next Congressional ski trip? Boy! I can't wait for Deep-Sea Fishing season to get here!"

Congressman Accused of Badly Managing at Least $7,000 in Taxpayer Money
Dave Evans issued a statement demanding that Congressman Bart Gordon repay taxpayers $7,250 for federal funds spent last month on the Congressman's personal European vacation.
Read More Here

President Obama, What Economy Are You Talking About?

2009-03-16T12:09:00.000-07:00

President Obama, What Economy Are You Talking About?

On September 15 2008, then-Candidate Obama asked, "Senator McCain, what economy are you talking about?" after McCain stated "Our economy I think, still, the fundamentals of our economy are strong, but these are very, very difficult times."
Read More Here

Read More Here

So Which Is It? Doom and Gloom Or Fundamentally Strong?
Read More Here

Change of Tone: Obama Administration Changes Rhetoric on Economy Again
President Obama and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner announced plans to aide small business and to increase oversight of TARP management after more revelations cause outrage.
Read More Here

Gitmo Detainees Get Name Change

2009-03-15T12:19:00.000-07:00

Gitmo Detainees Get Name Change

"It's more important that we treat former Jihaadists with respect then actually try and defeat them in war. Duh!"
Read More Here

"I can't wait to get out and kill more Americans and innocent civilians. This Club Fed has been such a drag on my murderous hobbies.
Read More Here

Aww, these poor babies. I bet they think twice about being an enemy of the United States of America ever again.
Read More Here

Obama Running in Place on Gitmo Issue
The release of the Guantanamo Bay Detainees issue spins 'round and 'round, but is President Obama going to do anything at all? Changing the name of something does not change what it is....
Read More Here

President Obama's Cabinet is An Earmarking Posse

2009-03-14T13:41:00.000-07:00

President Obama's Cabinet is An Earmarking Posse

President Barack Obama. $7.7million in earmarks in Omnibus Spending Bill (HR 1105)
Read More Here

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. $31.2million in earmarks in Omnibus Spending Bill (HR 1105)
Read More Here

Labor Secretary Hilda Solis. $38.4 million in earmarks in Omnibus Spending Bill (HR 1105)
Read More Here

Vice President Joe Biden. $94.9 million in earmarks in Omnibus Spending Bill (HR 1105)
Read More Here

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar. $227.4 million in earmarks in Omnibus Spending Bill (HR 1105)
Read More Here

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. $109 million in earmarks in Omnibus Spending Bill (HR 1105)
Read More Here

White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. $4.7 million in earmarks in Omnibus Spending Bill (HR 1105)

Obama's "No Earmarks" Promise Broken
Those Who Voted For Him Will Not Notice The Deception
Read More Here

Geithner And Obama Team Up With Wall Street Fat Cats Who Caused The Collapse

2009-03-13T16:58:00.000-07:00

Geithner And Obama Team Up With Wall Street Fat Cats Who Caused The Collapse

"I know it looks bad. The stock market I hear is plummeting, although I don't follow it on a daily basis because it is too reminiscent of political polls and unlike everyone else in America I couldn't give two shits about what's happening in the stock markets. Instead of creating or saving 4 million jobs like I promised we have lost over 1.5 million in the last two months. Our printing presses can't keep up with the demand for new money. I just got done approving more in federal spending than every President before me added together. But I didn't create this mess, I inherited it, so it's not my fault."
Read More Here

Since President Obama's inauguration the Dow Jones has shed 20%--so despite the often repeated "mess we inherited" rhetoric, President Obama has now created his very own Bear Market Drop by definition.
Read More Here

"I don't know about you guys, but I gotta get drunk before lunch just to keep myself going..."
Read More Here

Add another 15.7% on the tanking market since Jan '09 to the end of this graph and you have a picture of how bad it really is.
Read More Here

How Obama Won
Read More Here

How America Loses

It's Official: Privatized Gains, Socialized Losses
President Obama and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner announce plan to forge alliance with hedge funds and private equity firms to attack the Housing and Credit Crisis.
Read More Here

Obama: Arrogant Narcissist?

2009-03-12T23:41:00.000-07:00

Obama: Arrogant Narcissist?

"I wonder if those people are talking about me."
Read More Here

"It feels good to be the most important person in the world."
Read More Here

"I am The United States of America!"
Read More Here

"I don't know, I can't see the teleprompter..."

Is President Obama a Narcissist?
Dr. Sam Vaknin, an expert on narcissism, has put together a rather shocking report on President Obama. What insight does this give us into the unfolding of events in Washington D.C.?
Read More Here

Violent Protests Around The World Increase

2009-03-11T12:26:00.000-07:00

Violent Protests Around The World Increase

Read More Here

Read More Here

Read More Here

Read More Here

Read More Here

Read More Here

Read More Here

Read More Here

Read More Here

Read More Here

Read More Here

Read More Here

Read More Here

Read More Here

Is the World Spiraling Out of Control?
Spontaneously growing social movements are sprouting up around the world, and civil unrest is threatening to crumble the foundations of civilization as we know it.
Read More Here

CIA Culture Of Corruption To Be Probed By Congress

2009-03-10T10:02:00.000-07:00

CIA Culture Of Corruption To Be Probed By Congress

"Yeah, It's going to be real tough to combat the culture of corruption at the CIA. And to do that while steering sweetheart deals to my pals at The Carlyle Group, BP, Fleishman- Hillard, and the Pacific Maritime Association is going to be a challenge."
Read More Here

Ex-CIA 3rd in command Dusty Foggo is under investigation by the FBI, IRS, CIA, Defense Department, and US Justice Department for accepting prostitutes as bribes in exchange for awarding a CIA contract to a company run by his friend Brent Wilkes.
Read More Here

"Hello--Dusty? Yeah I left that broad at your hotel room so I expect to see that contract on my desk by this time tomorrow..."
Read More Here

The players in the Dusty Foggo/Duke Cunningham network.
Read More Here

The Good Ol' Boys, back in better times, when things were so much easier.

CIA Rocked by Recent Scandals
The Senate Intelligence Committee is nearing a hearing on the recent abuses and excesses of the CIA--they are much more likely to be along the lines of the 1970's Church Committee rather than any recent CIA investigations.
Read More Here

A Look At PMA Group And Buying Favor In Washington D.C.

2009-03-09T08:20:00.000-07:00

A Look At PMA Group And Buying Favor In Washington D.C.

Rod Blagojevich would be proud.
Read More Here

"I don't even get out of bed unless I'm getting $10,000."
Read More Here

This guy, Paul Magliocchetti, was an aide to Rep. John Murtha for ten years before going on to found PMA Group, a lobbying firm that until recently "payed to play" with over 1/4 of the members of the House of Representatives.
Read More Here

"Look here Police Chiefs. If you want something, you pay a lobbyist, who in turn pays me. That's how the system works so you need to get on board."
Read More Here

"Ummm, oh, you know, I ahh........ummm.......Congratulations...."

Pay to Play: More Revelations Regarding the Connection Between Lobbyists and Lawmakers
A lobbyist group with ties to over 1/4th of the House of Representative is being investigated by the Justice Department for corruption. "Pay to Play" is one thing that can be bi-partisan.
Read More Here

Octomom Nadya Suleman's Hopes Collapsing

2009-03-08T12:58:00.000-07:00

Octomom Nadya Suleman's Hopes Collapsing

"God I hate spending my money on kid shit....I wish more people would donate to my website, I want to get a new video game..."
Read More Here

I wonder if Nadya Suleman was a reject from that MTV show "I Want A Famous Face".
Read More Here

"I've finally gotten the American Dream. Fame and 14 kids. Hopefully fortune and a TV show to follow...."
Read More Here

Octomom, way back when she didn't look like a freak.
Read More Here

"There there little cashcow, my fingernails are a deadly danger to you but at least they look good in pictures."
Read More Here

You'd never know that Octomom used to look like a decently cute woman looking at her freakshow face now. Too bad she had that hack-job plastic surgery.
Read More Here

Octomom Nadya Suleman's smug smile each time she tries to evade the paparazzi is one of her more annoying personality traits.
Read More Here
"Oh shit, you're going to use this picture aren't you?"
Read More Here

Nadya Suleman, Octomom, Empire Crumbling Quick
After making a fool of herself with Dr. Phil, refusing 24 hour help from Angels in Waiting, being rebuked by TLC, and the defection of her second publicist Victor Munoz--how many more options does Octomom have?
Read More Here

Is President Obama Bleeding The Country On Purpose?

2009-03-07T19:54:00.001-08:00

Is President Obama Bleeding The Country On Purpose?

"God I'm tired...I'm gonna go take a nap guys."
Read More Here

Some allege this photo is proof of President Obama's homosexual trysts.
Read More Here

S0me of President Obama's Chicago Cronies
Read More Here

A book full of exaggeration and distortions of truth.
Read More Here

Obama: A master of relationships built on self-interest.
Read More Here

Robert McCrary, now general manager of a contract sewing company, describes Obama in his youth: "He definitely had a cocky, sometimes arrogant way about him. ... He was not open to others."
Read More Here

"Here sign this lady....I'm the most important community organizer this town has ever known."
Read More Here

"How can I make this crisis work for me?"

The Ploy of Inaction
While some observers are starting to question President Obama's stamina, there may be more to the lack of clear direction on the Bank Rescue Plan.
Read More Here

Obama And Geithner Try To Team Up With Their Enemies

2009-03-06T20:23:00.000-08:00

Obama And Geithner Try To Team Up With Their Enemies

"My plan is so complicated and above your pay grade I don't even have words to explain it in a way you can understand."
Read More Here

"Come on Helicopter Ben--we'll just use a bunch of jargon and hopefully these idiots will fall asleep."
Read More Here

"What time is it? I've got a reservation at the Cafe Promenade."
Read More Here

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Hedge Funds

The Obama administration has announced a plan to join forces with private equity firms and hedge funds to forge public-private partnerships to reverse the housing and credit crisis. This comes after weeks of threatening the rich with income and capital gains taxes, calls for a "redistribution of wealth" and pushing for a "cram down" on home mortgages. Something doesn't seem right.

Read More Here

Enough Band-Aides To Stop The Bleeding?

2009-03-05T13:38:00.000-08:00

Enough Band-Aides To Stop The Bleeding?

Athens, Greece. March 5, 2009
Read More Here

Phoenix, Arizona, February 28, 2009
Read More Here

Bogota, Colombia, March 4, 2009
Read More Here

Bangkok, Thailand, February 24, 2009
Read More Here

Antananarivo, Madagascar, February 19, 2009
Read More Here

Khartoum, Sudan, March 5, 2009
Read More Here

Lahore, Pakistan, March 2, 2009
Read More Here

Port-au-Prince, Haiti, March 3, 2009
Read More Here

Is 2009 the New 1848?

While the Senate debates the Omnibus Spending Bill (HR 1105) on the heels of the $787 billion American Reinvestment and Recovery Act, the restructured $350 billion TARP and the $75 billion plan to prevent millions of home foreclosures, civil unrest is growing across the globe and economic woes are spilling into the streets.

Alabama's Earmark Superhero--Senator Richard "Porky Dick" Shelby

2009-03-05T00:21:00.000-08:00

Alabama's Earmark Superhero--Senator Richard "Porky Dick" Shelby

"Tell me people of Alabama--who do you love?"
Read More Here

"All politics are local. As in, I'm taking $219 million back to Alabama this year. Who do you think has the easiest re-election campaign in the country in 2010?"
Read More Here

"Hmmm....I wonder....How can I demonize excessive spending by Democrats and still get more appropriations for the great people of Alabama? I dunno yet but I'll work on it...."
Read More Here

"hahaha....You are a funny guy Seenatour Sheelby. I'm going to keep my eye on you--you are going places."

Bringing Home the Bacon: Senator Shelby Gets Massive Amount of Money for Alabama
Senator Richard Shelby is bringing almost $220,000,000 back home to Alabama in total Earmarks in the Omnibus (HR 1105) Spending Bill.
Read More Here

The Illusion Of Saving GM and Chrysler

2009-03-04T13:05:00.000-08:00

The Illusion Of Saving GM and Chrysler

Is this guy's job or family more important than yours? Then why are we as taxpayers going to subsidize his right to earn a total of $74 an hour in total compensation?
Read Full Article Here

"Look, we're too big to fail. They've got to give us whatever we ask for without asking any questions. Don't worry about a thing Wagoneer."
Read Full Article Here

These people are celebrating ripping us off. Wouldn't you?
Read Full Article Here

Good job guys. If you would have went into bankruptcy I might have thought you were in FINANCIAL TROUBLE and not bought a car from you. But given that you only need a $20,000,000,ooo (billion) taxpayer infusion every 3 months I consider you as strong and viable as any company in the world right now.

General Motors and Chrysler Restructuring Still in Limbo
The government expected GM and Chrysler to have their restructuring plans and major concessions complete by February 17th. The Automakers and UAW did not get to work until a few days before the deadline. Little has been accomplished before or since.
Read Full Article Here

Judd Gregg--Crooked Senator!

2009-03-03T12:52:00.000-08:00

Judd Gregg--Crooked Senator!

"What's wrong with steering taxpayer money to enrich myself, my family members, and my inner circle of cronies? That's what this whole damn thing is all about!"
Read Full Article Here

"Look, the new ethics rules are just that. New. I've been doing this longer than I can remember. This is how my family has always worked."
Read Full Article Here

Senator Judd Gregg is thinking really hard whether he should try and sneak in some more earmarks into the Omnibus, or let the situation die down for a little while.
Read Full Article Here

"If you people don't like what I'm doing with your money then you get elected to government, do totally illegal and unethical things, and see how easy it is to get away with. It takes talent. It takes orchestration. But most of all, it takes money."

Did Senator Judd Gregg Make Unethical Profits from Pease AFB Revitalization?
Many have stated that the congressional earmark and fund appropriation system is broken. Is Senator Judd Gregg's investments at the former Pease AFB the latest example?
Read Full Article Here

Mercenary King Erik Prince Leaving Blackwater

2009-03-02T12:37:00.000-08:00

Mercenary King Erik Prince Leaving Blackwater

This was the only picture existant of Erik Prince for over five years, until the Congressional Hearings....
Read Full Article Here

"Still, Mr. Senator, I don't know what you think we did wrong?"
Read Full Article Here

"Don't forget, I paid to get you elected."
Read Full Article Here

"You see what it says right here? You guys pay me to kill the enemy. That's my job and that's what I do."

Billionaire Erik Prince Steps Down as CEO of Xe, Otherwise Known as "Blackwater"
Reclusive and Secretive CEO of Xe (formerly known as Blackwater) unexpectedly steps down today to pursue other ventures.
Read Full Article Here

Take From The Rich, Give To Everyone Else

2009-03-01T12:29:00.000-08:00

Take From The Rich, Give To Everyone Else

Read Full Story Here

Read Full Story Here

Read Full Story Here

Rebalancing the Tax Code so that the Wealthiest Pay More
Questions about the morality and feasibility of redistributing the American tax burden in novel ways have many up in arms on both sides.
Read Full Story Here

Pot Clinics Safe And Marijuana Legal In California Again!

2009-02-28T12:03:00.000-08:00

Pot Clinics Safe And Marijuana Legal In California Again!

Read Full Story Here

Read Full Story Here

Read Full Story Here

This is a real thing, seriously. A Pot Vending Machine. Nice!
Read Full Story Here

Read Full Story Here

Light Up! Pot Raids on Clinics to End
Smoke 'em if you got 'em. President Obama makes good on campaign pledge.
Read Full Story Here

Obama Caught Red Handed Lying About Earmarks

2009-02-27T14:48:00.000-08:00

Obama Caught Red Handed Lying About Earmarks

President Obama personally responsible for an earmark setting aside $7.7 million dollars for a Vocational Education program.
Read More Here

What, Me Earmark?
Read More Here

Omnibus Spending Bill An Earmark Extravaganza
Read More Here

"Look. The point is to get Government Spending up to as near 100% of GDP as possible. The free market has failed. The only people we can trust with The Economy is government."
Read More Here

"I’m proud that we passed the recovery plan free of earmarks"--President Barack Obama, February 24, 2009.
Of course that was a lie. Earmarks in the Stimulus Bill included:
$4.19 BILLION for ACORN
$1.2 billion for "youth activities" (for "youth" up to 24 years old)
$1 BILLION for 500 salmon in California
$1 BILLION for the Community Oriented Policing Services program
$60 million for a mob museum in Las Vegas
$650 million for digital TV converter box coupons
$400 million for STD Prevention
$150 million for honeybee insurance
$40 million for "national treasures"
$25 million for ATV trails
$20 million for fish barriers
$10 million for urban canals
Read More Here

Despite Obama's campaign pledge to refrain from earmarking, he was caught red handed in the Omnibus Spending Bill. Not that any of the morons who voted for him know what that means or care.
Read More Here

Israel Satisfied With Cycle Of Violence

2009-02-26T10:25:00.000-08:00

Israel Satisfied With Cycle Of Violence

Which ones do you think are the oppressors and which ones the innocent victims?
(Step One In How To Create A Terrorist--beat them like dogs and treat them lower than shit)
Read More Here

The Israeli Government finds that it's easier to kill entire neighborhoods of Palestinians than to actually listen to their political and economic plight.
(Step Two--Destroy Their Homes)
Read More Here

"The Holy Land....ha....if this is what Heaven is like I'd rather just skip it."
(Step Three--Leave Them Abject And Pitiful)
Read More Here

"I never would have thought to become a terrorist if the Israeli's hadn't killed my father, brother, husband, son, sister and daughter. What have I got left to lose?"
(Step Four--Give Them A Gun)

Cycle of Violence in Israel and Gaza Enabled by $900 Million Bailout
A "Donor's Conference" is converging in Egypt to attempt to raise as much as $2 Billion dollars for the rebuilding of Gaza following the Israeli incursion that ended just weeks ago.
Read More Here

Nadya Suleman May Have Octuplets Taken Away

2009-02-25T08:18:00.000-08:00

Nadya Suleman May Have Octuplets Taken Away

"I have found the gravyest train in the world. All I gotta do is keep popping kids out and the state keeps sending me money. I haven't worked since 1999, and blew all my fraudulently obtained disability money on plastic surgery so I could look more like Angelina Jolie. If I'm lucky more of my kids will turn out retarded or something--cha CHING!"
Read More Here

"Hey! Has anyone checked to see if we've gotten some donations today? I wanted to get that new Leonardo DiCaprio DVD on the way home....Which kid is this again?"
Read More Here

"You ruined my life. That's why I want to ruin 14 other lives. I can never fill the void of my dysfunctional childhood without ruining other people's childhoods. I don't know why you can't understand that!"
Read More Here

"There there little cashcow...I need you to grow up big and needy, photogenic and crippled if possible."
Read More Here

"Well, if there is anything to be gotten, I want some too...."
Read More Here

"How is my little cashcow doing today?"
Read More Here

"I hate my life and want to die. I'd rather go back to Iraq then deal with this freakshow."

OctoMom, Nadya Suleman, Versus the World
Round Two--Fight!
Read More Here

Taxpayers Strike Back--New American Tea Party Standing Up To Pork-Bellied Politics

2009-02-25T07:22:00.000-08:00

Taxpayers Strike Back--New American Tea Party Standing Up To Pork-Bellied Politics

New American Tea Party Stands Up for Responsible Americans Against Looters and Moochers
Read Article Here

The New American Tea Party may have sprung spontaneously from the mouth of Rick Santelli last week live on CNBC while an angered mass of traders on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange joined in uproarious agreement.
Read Article Here

"Obama, wont you buy me a Mercedes Benz?"
Read Article Here

"It's bacon!"
Read Article Here

ACORN: "We are willing to go to any means necessary"

2009-02-24T10:20:00.000-08:00

ACORN: "We are willing to go to any means necessary"

"We a jus gonna take thisa free houz muthafuka!"
Read Full Article Here

A really easy way to prevent foreclosures is to pay your mortgages.
Read Full Article Here

This woman, Donna A. Hanks formerly of 315 South Ellwood Ave. Baltimore, MD, has been in foreclosure once before in 2006, filed bankruptcy, had garnishments taken from her paychecks, still got behind again, and had her house taken away finally, after two years of not paying her MORTGAGE, but amazingly, collecting rent from the basement apartment.
Read Full Article Here

The Joke Is On Us.

"This is Our House Now": ACORN Home Defenders Campaign Sees First Arrest in Baltimore
Protesters Break Into And Seize Already Foreclosed Home
Read Full Article Here

Summer Of Rage May Spill Into Worldwide Revolt

2009-02-23T19:45:00.000-08:00

Summer Of Rage May Spill Into Worldwide Revolt

If there is only one thing the French People have a knack at, it is violent protest.
Read Full Story

Unless conditions in the United States improve quickly, a worldwide protest movement may find fertile ground for growth domestically.
Read Full Story

Right on there big guy!

Street Fighting Professional Protesters Ramping Up for "Summer of Rage"
Could The London G20 Summit Be Kick Off Of Worldwide Violent Protests?
Read Full Story

Military-Industrial Complex And Gunrunners Caught In Marine One Debacle

2009-02-21T20:00:00.000-08:00

Military-Industrial Complex And Gunrunners Caught In Marine One Debacle

One of the current fleet of 19 Marine One's.
Read Full Article

Each one of the contracted 28 new VH-71's could cost $400Million--more than the two Air Force One's and the hanger they reside in at Andrews Air Force Base.
Read Full Article

Gunrunner former-Representative Curt Weldon. Right after Finmeccanica won the Marine One contract, Kim Weldon, the daughter of Weldon, landed a full-time job with the company. Previously she'd been a social worker. Finmeccanica also paid consulting money to Weldon's real estate agent, who subsequently pled guilty for attempting to destroy bribery evidence sought by the FBI. Weldon's chief of staff, his wife and other Weldon aides were given free trips to Italy. The chief of staff subsequently pled guilty for failing to disclose income funneled to his wife.

Marine One Scandal May Unravel Military-Industrial Complex
Lobbyists And Arms Manufacturers All Tied Into Sinister Plot
Read Full Article

GM and Chrysler Increase The Stakes On Their Extortion Of The US Taxpayer

2009-02-20T12:56:00.000-08:00

GM and Chrysler Increase The Stakes On Their Extortion Of The US Taxpayer

The most important thing in the world is to ensure via taxpayer funded government bailouts that this guy continues to make $74 an hour in total compensation.
Read Full Story Here

"Look, I don't know what's so hard for you people to understand. We are the biggest and most politically connected Union in The World. We are 100% confident that our friends in Congress and The White House won't forget us in our time of greed. Besides, GM and Chrysler can't go into bankruptcy, are you a moron? If they went into bankruptcy the American Public might begin to suspect them of being in FINANCIAL TROUBLE. No one would buy a car from them if they thought that they were in FINANCIAL TROUBLE."
Read Full Story Here

Yes, it is a bailout. A loan would imply that your struggling Titans of Industry are ever going to be profitable again, which does not look promising as long as the UAW exists.

GM and Chrysler Double the Amount They Claim to Need
Taxpayers Embark On Never-ending Paper Chase
Read Full Story Here

Super-Moocher Baby Factory To Get Million Dollar Free House

2009-02-19T10:06:00.000-08:00

Super-Moocher Baby Factory To Get Million Dollar Free House

"I'm fucking over every single one of you. It makes me happier than anything in the world that you can't do a thing about it. hahahahahahahahaha!"
Read Full Story Here

"Yeah she's crazy. She's an irresponsible mess! Do you think I want to go back to Iraq?"
Read Full Story Here

This $1.2million home is going to be part of the haul for Suleman's soon to be announced multi-million dollar media deal.
Read Full Story Here

Dr. Michael Kamrava, the sicko doctor who hooked Suleman up with her super-mooching big payday, has another woman on bedrest in an LA area hospital. This woman is nearly 50 years old and is pregnant with quadruplets. Don't worry, though, she is also unemployed and has no insurance, so your tax dollars will go to supporting her brood of rats too.

OctoMom Nadya Suleman to Purchase $1.2million House
Some Big As Yet Unannounced Deal Looms For Batty Moocher
Read Full Story Here

The Thongs Are Made In The USA (New Items In Store!)

2009-02-18T07:43:00.000-08:00

Hello Everyone!

I have appropriated, thanks to a little help from my buddy C.K., the Stephen Fairey "Hope" painting style, and in true Fairey fashion, have redesigned and massively expanded the MAYA inspired clothing line.

So much for "Consumer Culture Must Die A Violent Death" huh?

Well, I figured if ripping off other artists and then stamping the design on anything sellable is enough to get Fairey (whose last entirely original artwork was finished in the early 1980's) to be regarded as "The most important artist since Picasso" (I didn't say that, by the way, some other retard did), then it would certainly work for me too.

Lots of cute stuff along the lines of the Che Guevera shirts I used to wear all the time.

The Thongs are made in the USA, by the way.

http://www. cafepress. com/phoenixfire2008

mB

Pink Flowerburst, Michael J. Bernard, 2008
Fine Art Photography, comes with black/plexiglass frame that measures 19x15.

Obama Moves To Influence Events In Ivory Coast

2009-02-17T11:22:00.000-08:00

Obama Moves To Influence Events In Ivory Coast

Who would have thought that the people of Ivory Coast would have supported Obama?
Read Full Story Here

"With a black man as President of The World what have I got to worry about?"
Read Full Story Here

Outside observers have still not been able to figure out what the sides are fighting for in Ivory Coast's ongoing civil war. One thing is certain, however--it has been a bonanza for gunrunners worldwide since 2002.

Barack Obama's Secret War in Cote D'Ivoire
Expansion Of Sanctions Against Certain Citizens Of War Torn Country May Be Part Of Obama's "Africa Plan"
View Full Story Here

ACORN Plans To Ratchet Up Free House Movement

2009-02-17T10:27:00.000-08:00

ACORN Plans To Ratchet Up Free House Movement

"With Obama as President I don't have to worry about paying my mortgage or filling up my car's gas tank for the next four years!"
Read Full Story Here

These people probably feel stupid now that they could have banded together with ACORN to violently repel the Sheriff when he came to evict them.
Read Full Story Here

"We want our Free Houses!"
Read Full Story Here

Or Does it Explode? Inside the Home Foreclosure Crisis
Some Say Give Free Houses, Some Say Foreclose And Bankrupt Everyone
Read Full Article Here

Pink Flowerburst

2009-02-17T06:55:00.000-08:00

Pink Flowerburst, Michael J. Bernard, 2008

Fine Art Photography, comes with black/plexiglass frame that measures 19x15.

America Over The Barrel--Second Round Of Auto Bailout Coming

2009-02-16T04:46:00.000-08:00

"Our boy Obama won. We don't have to do a damn thing. We sit here. We wait. The government will bail us out. We vote DEMOCRAT."
View Full Story Here

"We don't know what we're doing....We just know that if you don't give us The Money, our companies, which are Red White and Blue American, with 3 million jobs and all sorts of political clout, Unionized, will cause devastating repurcussions for every single person in the USA, living, dead, and not even born yet. All we have figured out since December is not how to make a better company, or even a better car, but a better argument for help. Don't forget, we vote DEMOCRAT."
View Full Story Herel

Don't worry guys, you won't have anything to strike against soon enough. You people have no one to blame but yourselves for your upcoming joblessness.

We Take Nothing by Conquest--Automakers Ready for Second Round of Begging Uncle Sam
United Auto Workers Have Hampered Progress For Big 3 Restructuring. So What Else Is New?
View Full Story Here

Looters And Moochers Assault Government For Handouts

2009-02-15T23:40:00.000-08:00

Looters And Moochers Assault Government For Handouts

"Hey, don't forget Henrietta, if you were WHITE, I wouldn't give a flying fuck about you being homeless.....but you are BLACK, so I will make sure you have your own kitchen and bathroom by this time tomorrow. Don't worry, you and your computer programmer son will never have to work again!"
Read Article Now

Mary MacElveen, pictured above, gave Henrietta Hughes her "Founding Fathers" award since Henrietta Hughes is the biggest mooching loser this country has put forth thus far in the US Financial Collapse. The fact that her "plight" began in robust economic times, involved mooching taxpayers and faith-based charity in at least two states, allowed for an almost $50,000 profit from a real estate deal in 2005, her 37 year old son still owning two vacant lots in Fort Myers, and people like Henrietta Hughes being the entire reason the worldwide economy collapsed. The Founding Fathers would be proud.
Read Article Now

"Pleasa helpa me Masa Obama....Mysa people was slaves like 5000 yearsa go or somptin like that...."

Where is My Free House?
President Obama Giving Away Free Houses To His Media Shills
Read Article Now

Exhausted Obama Takes $68,000 An Hour Vacation For Valentines Day

2009-02-14T01:13:00.000-08:00

Exhausted Obama Takes $68,000 An Hour Vacation For Valentines Day

"It's not like we go places that have dress codes a lot----it's 'casual saturday' right now at the White House, but spending Valentine's Day in that dump would be unthinkable. I'm President of the United States of America. Do you think I have to settle for The White House? Jesus. You people don't know anything about wealth and luxury."
Read Full Article Here

Ironically, Obama and his cronies are misbehaving in all the ways they have assailed their enemies on Wall Street for.
Read Full Article Here

"Shut the fuck up America. Do you think I have time to let you understand what I am trying to do, or reading our legislation that we are passing? I only have time to give away free houses to deadbeats, steal trillions of dollars from taxpayers, and go on Vacation every 3 weeks. Now if you'll excuse me, Michelle and I are gonna go join the Mile-High-Club, again."

Less Than a Month in Office, America's First Black President Takes Expensive Vacation While Rest of Country Teeters on Economic Collapse

Stimulus Bill Magic Bullet Awaits Lazy President's Return From Holiday For Signing

Read Full Article Here

The Generational Theft Act of 2009

2009-02-07T06:41:00.000-08:00

The Generational Theft Act of 2009

"I will get out there and fire 5-million people myself personally if you people don't pass this bill exactly the way that our Party Donors, the Labor Unions, Liberal Special Interests, and Democratic Leadership tells you to. I won! I won! I own this shit now! I call the shots! I don't want you forgetting that for even a second. Remember, you are all replaceable. I'm the only person in this whole god-damned game that's job is guaranteed for the next 4 years."
Read Full Article Here

"Hell, I don't know...It could work, it could not work, who really knows anything? At least I know enough to know I don't know JACK SHIT."
Read Full Article Here

"The Congressional Conference on this bill is going to be hell on earth for these senators who think they can go around and debate the things I personally put in the bill. This isn't open for debate. Do you know what debate is? It's questioning. I don't like questioning. I'm third in line to be President. Do you know what that means? I'm a big shot now and you have to do what I say or I will bring the Violence Of The Future to bear on all you lowly senators."
Read Full Article Here

"Don't worry folks, I have made sure and reminded our friends, The Democrats, that when we give them campaign contributions and we organize people to elect them, these actions come with a price! It's time to pay the bill!"
View Full Article Here

"We strongly urge your opposition to the Nelson-Collins amendment to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act that would cut funding allocated for education. Votes associated with this issue will be included in the NEA Legislative Report Card for the 111th Congress," wrote NEA execs Diane Shust and Randall Moody, 2/5/2009. The 3.2-million-member National Education Association, one of the biggest union backers of Democrats, has sent a letter to Senate Democrats threatening to lower their rating with the group if they vote against the original level of school aid funding.

Nothing to Hope but Fear Itself
The "American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009" Should be Called The "Generational Theft Act of 2009"
View Full Article Here

Demogauges On Attack!

2009-02-05T21:55:00.000-08:00

Demogauges On Attack!

"We're coming for you Wall Street Fat Cats--trust me! All your Ass are belong to us!"
Read Full Story Here

"Any Chance that Geithner was talking about me too? I wouldn't mind that, you know..."
Read Full Story Here

"If we don't scare the hell out of the American People they might continue to ask rational questions I have no interest in answering. Flowery prose that means nothing is so much more effective then answers."

Pork by Other Name is Still Stimulus (An Ode to Highway Robbery)
Earmarks Abound In Democratic Backed $1Trillion+ Stimulus Bill
Read Full Story Here

More Tax Cheats And Unregistered Lobbyists In Obama Cabinet

2009-02-05T20:09:00.000-08:00

More Tax Cheats And Unregistered Lobbyists In Obama Cabinet

"The Goal is to get us to the Federal Deficit Promised Land as quickly as possible! If we can't bankrupt the world, what the hell is the point of getting up in the morning?"
Read Full Story Here

"Now, don't get me wrong, economics is a complicated science, but TurboTax is on a whole fucking other level."
Read Full Story Here

"The important thing is to get my Cabinet Post so that I can Unionize every single profession in America. Do you know how much DUES that would be on a weekly and monthly basis? They--being the Workers and American Voters--could never vote us out of office if we took all of their dues involuntarily, kind of like Social Security or FICA, but different, because this would go directly into our political coffers and sometimes to our Organized Crime friends."
Read Full Story Now

"I am sick and tired of all of you people questioning my cabinet picks and acting like it's not a well-known fact everyone in Washington D.C. has numerous conflicts of interest and no one I'm friends with has paid any taxes they didn't have to pay since we showed up in this town. Look. We are all on The Take. We all Pay-to-Play. We all leave office and become Unregistered Lobbyists. I don't understand why all of a sudden people are looking for a higher standard than anything they've ever wanted before."

Now It's BiPartisan, More Nominee Problems Surface
Hilda Solis's Husband A Tax Cheat and Judd Gregg Staffer Involved In Pay-For-Play Probe
Read Full Story Now

Despite Great Hopes, Obama's Appointments Tainted In Hypocrisy

2009-02-03T22:59:00.000-08:00

Despite Great Hopes, Obama's Appointments Tainted In Hypocrisy

"Don't worry about me guys--I'll just go straight back to unregistered lobbying. You didn't think I was going to go back to South Dakota and drive that piece of shit old Pontiac of mine around anymore did you? Hell, I was going to be taking a hit on my earnings, anyways, and having to pay taxes on them to boot. Who is the sucker? Me, or you?"

View Full Story Here

Ironically, the Tax Issue that clobbered Killefer's future as the first "Performance Czar" was a comparatively miniscule $946.69 Tax Lien in 2005, and that she resolved it five months later, unlike Geithner and Daschle, whose apparent Tax Evasions were many years old and, in Geithner's case, amounted to as much as $43,200 and Daschle's over $128,000.

View Full Story Here

"I so badly want to become the Director of the CIA....How else can I have my fingers in every Arms Deal Pie in the world? I've gotta do my inside-man work for Carlyle Group and Booz Allen Hamilton Inc."

Daschle Out, Panetta In, the Revolving Door Spins Again
Despite Promises To Reduce Lobbyist Revolving Door,
Obama Administration Full Of Them

View Full Story Here

“Make no mistake, tax cheaters cheat us all, and the IRS should enforce our laws to the letter.” — Sen. Tom Daschle, Congressional Record, May 7, 1998, p. S4507."

Octuplet Mother Nadya Suleman Robs The US Taxpayer Of More Than $1million

2009-02-03T19:11:00.000-08:00

Octuplet Mother Nadya Suleman Robs The US Taxpayer of More Than $1million

This tiny house will soon house 14 kids and two adult women while the grandfather goes back to Iraq in hopes of earning enough money to keep them all fed. The grandparents filed for bankruptcy last year with over $1million in liabilities. It is estimated that Nadya Suleman, the octuplet mother, will bilk Californian taxpayers of more than a $1million before her brood exits the hospital. She is, however, in negotiation with Oprah Winfrey, among others, to pay more than $2million for her first interview and hopefully jump start her "reality tv" career. Do you think the taxpayers will see a dime of that $1million returned? Oh yeah, and Suleman abandoned a home last year, which means she was one of the millions who helped collapse our economy. Thanks scumbag!

Nadya Suleman, Octuplet Mother, Seeking to Bank in on Social Irresponsibility

Pleads To Oprah and Diane Sawyer To Kick Off Her Reality Television Superstardom For $2million

Read Full Story Here

Super Fakers--Faith Hill and Jennifer Hudson

2009-02-03T19:03:00.000-08:00

Super Fakers--Faith Hill and Jennifer Hudson

What emotion! What Strength! What a "stirring rendition"! ALL FAKE!

Jennifer Hudson (who?) and Faith Hill and the Super Frauds They Are!

At least I never cared about Jennifer Who?

Read Story Here

What, No Sunlight Period?

2009-01-30T13:51:00.000-08:00

What, No Sunlight Period?

"Look, seriously, it's not about keeping promises when you are already president. It's about making as many ridiculous promises as possible to all of these idiot voters who never watch the news, can't read a newspaper, and do not even know that CSPAN exists. Whatever it takes to get elected. The morons who voted for me are not sophisticated enough to know when I purposefully deceived them."

One of President Barack Hussein Obama's most enduring campaign promises was the "Sunlight Period" that he would impose, stating that no bill would be rushed through Congress and signed before the American Public had five-days to review The Bill and comment on the White House website.

Not surprisingly, this promise was quick to disappear, almost immediately upon President Obama and his folk taking over the reigns of government.

The first law passed and signed in the Obama presidency was the "Lilly Ledbetter Law", which repealed restrictions on when an employee could sue employers over pay discrimination--and it was signed by our president without the five-day waiting period, or the ability to publicly comment on the bill on the White House website.

Ironically both of them work cheaper than their white male counterparts.

After Obama signed the law into being the law was posted for the first time on the White House website, where it was available for public comment--after the fact.

Obama promised the end to the Government-to-Lobbyist revolving door and in his first Executive Order signed into being a sweeping change to the rules that would prevent anyone from working in the Obama Administration in any capacity for which they had previously lobbyied within the previous two years, and prevent them from lobbying for two years after leaving public service.

But wait--exclusions. Former Senator Daschele, Timothy Geitner, and William J. Lynn, have all been excluded from such rules. Daschele, the nominee for Heath and Human Services Secretary, has earned over $5 million in the last few years lobbying for the Health Industry since being defeated in a close election and losing his Senate Seat. William Corr, another Obama appointee, has previously worked as a lobbyists for anti-smoking organizations on Captiol Hill. Lynn, the appointee for Deputy Director at The Pentagon, has ties with the Arms Industry and has worked as a lobbyist since the end of the Clinton Administration.

William J. Lynn, former Raytheon-employed Lobbyist, and newest Gunrunner over at The Pentagon. Welcome Aboard!

Official Announcement---FETCH To Be Released December 2, 2008

2008-11-15T19:55:00.000-08:00

My newest book, FETCH, a story of Rivalry and Ghosts, is going to be released December 2, 2008 by Phoenix Fire Multimedia, a division of the Image, Vehicle & Yeild family of endeavors.

The story follows the disintegration of the life of a talented young corporate worker whose new office-mate is ruining him. Dramatic motif's include Rivalry, Secrecy, Deception, Madness, Heartbreak and The Supernatural.

The action takes place at a car dealership, with all the mischeviousness and moral depravity that the car business lends itself to.

MAYA, my first book, a 50/50 split of poetry and literary non-fiction, will go briefly out of print for a time, so if you had designs on getting it for yourself or as a gift for the holidays, 14 days are left to purchase it directly from the printer. After that they will only be available second hand until the second printing comes out sometime next year.

Obviously this means that someday there will be a premium for the FIRST EDITIONS, so get yours now
http://www.cafepress.com/phoenixfire2008.260912526

Thank you to everyone with their words of encouragement and help in recent days.

Maya, Phoenix Fire Multimedia, 2002, Released March 14, 2008.

Prelude to The Fall

2008-11-13T23:26:00.001-08:00

(Paris in response to The Judgement, his choice in Aphrodite, Hera, or Athena)

I have no time for troubles
tales told as such
Love has its own sinews
poisen sickness lust
time, distance
can we master these?
life degrades
this place is falling faster
memories receed
what does this mean to me?

ACORN Accused of Nationwide Industrial Voter Fraud

2008-10-14T11:23:00.000-07:00

ACORN Accused of Nationwide Industrial Voter Fraud for 24-Hours of Propaganda

"As long as they vote Democrat, I don't care who all the fake people vote for."

ACORN signed up 1.3-million voters nationwide and about 152,000 in Florida, mostly in Orange, Broward and Miami-Dade counties. ACORN estimates it flagged 2 percent of its Florida registrations as problematic because they were incomplete, duplicates or just plain bogus.

Acorn uses various affiliated groups to agitate for "a living wage," for "affordable housing," for "tax justice" and union and environmental goals, as well as against school choice and welfare reform. It was a major contributor to the subprime meltdown by pushing lenders to make home loans on easy terms, conducting "strikes" against banks so they'd lower credit standards.

Mickey Mouse tried to register to vote in Florida this summer. Orange County elections officials rejected his application, which was stamped with the ACORN logo.

Investigators probing ACORN have learned that an Ohio man registered to vote several times and cast a bogus ballot with a fake address, officials said, as they revealed that nearly 4,000 registration applications supplied by the left-leaning activist group were suspect. The vote of Darnell Nash, one of four people subpoenaed in a Cuyahoga County probe of ACORN's voter-registration activities, was canceled and his case was turned over to local prosecutors and law enforcement, Board of Elections officials said. Nash had registered to vote repeatedly from an address that belonged to a legitimately registered voter.

Teenager Freddie Johnson, another of the Cuyahoga County 4, said he was offered smokes and dollar bills to fill out voter registration cards.

"They'd come up with a sob story why they needed the signature," said Johnson.

ACORN leaders have acknowledged that workers paid by the hour were given quotas to fill.

According to a 2006 report from the Employment Policies Institute (EPI), Acorn has been on the federal take since 1977. For instance, Acorn's American Institute for Social Justice claimed $240,000 in tax money between fiscal years 2002 and 2003. Its American Environmental Justice Project received 100% of its revenue from government grants in the same years. EPI estimates the Acorn Housing Corporation alone received some $16 million in federal dollars from 1997-2007. Only recently, Democrats tried and failed to stuff an "affordable housing" provision into the $700 billion bank rescue package that would have let politicians give even more to Acorn.

The Michigan Secretary of State told the press in September that Acorn had submitted "a sizeable number of duplicate and fraudulent applications." Earlier this month, Nevada's Democratic Secretary of State Ross Miller requested a raid on Acorn's offices, following complaints of false names and fictional addresses (including the starting lineup of the Dallas Cowboys). Nevada's Clark County Registrar of Voters Larry Lomax said he saw rampant fraud in 2,000 to 3,000 applications Acorn submitted weekly. Lake County, Indiana, which has already found more than 2,100 bogus applications among the 5,000 Acorn dumped right before the deadline. "All the signatures looked exactly the same," said Ruthann Hoagland, of the county election board. Bridgeport, Connecticut estimates about 20% of Acorn's registrations were faulty. As of July, the city of Houston had rejected or put on hold about 40% of the 27,000 registration cards submitted by Acorn.

Obama, who got his start as a Chicago "community organizer" at Acorn's side. In 1992 he led voter registration efforts as the director of Project Vote, which included Acorn. This past November, he lauded Acorn's leaders for being "smack dab in the middle" of that effort. Mr. Obama also served as a lawyer for Acorn in 1995, in a case against Illinois to increase access to the polls.

During his tenure on the board of Chicago's Woods Fund, that body funneled more than $200,000 to Acorn. More recently, the Obama campaign paid $832,000 to an Acorn affiliate. The campaign initially told the Federal Election Commission this money was for "staging, sound, lighting." It later admitted the cash was to get out the vote.

The Obama campaign is now distancing itself from Acorn, claiming Obama never organized with it and has nothing to do with illegal voter registration. Yet it's disingenuous to channel cash into an operation with a history of fraud and then claim you're shocked to discover reports of fraud. As with Rev. Jeremiah Wright and William Ayers, Obama was happy to associate with Acorn when it suited his purposes. But now that he's on the brink of the Presidency, he wants to disavow his ties.

"The Micky Mouse Vote is one of my biggest constituencies..."

Tommy Bowden Gives Up On Clemson

2008-10-14T06:51:00.000-07:00

Tommy Bowden Gives Up On Clemson
for The Bleacher Report

Remember that feeling...That's how you will be remembered.

Starting the season with the widely regarded best talent in the ACC with a devastating loss to an unranked team was probably not the best idea if Tommy Bowden had designs on remaining the head coach of the Clemson Tigers past this year.

And as it turns out, it wasn't even a good recipe to survive the season.

In a meeting monday morning, Tommy Bowden offered to walk away midseason, telling the Atheletic Director that he would step aside for "the good of the program".

Clemson quarterback Cullen Harper agreed with the decision, “It’s what he deserved,” Harper said. “Dabo Swinney is a fine man and will do an excellent job.” Harper later expanded on his comments, explaining that Bowden “tried to motivate us, but guys were off the bandwagon. There were things I disagreed with and that my teammates disagreed with. I didn’t appreciate it when he would say some off-the-wall things about me to the media. I guess one thing I can say is he gave me an opportunity to come to Clemson and play.”

Bowden will be paid through the end of the season, then get $3.5 million as a buyout negotiated in the contract extension both sides agreed to last December.

Recent losses to Maryland and Wake Forest raised calls again for Bowden’s ouster despite the contract extension that tied him to the school through 2014.

“I appreciate the opportunity Clemson University gave me and the support of the administration while I was here,” Bowden said in a statement released by the school.

A Bowden could always replace Tommy Tuberville in Auburn, who was brought in to replace a similarly failed Bowden.

Tony Franklin and His Undefeatable Patented Offensive System© Sent Packing

2008-10-08T14:42:00.000-07:00

Tony Franklin and His Undefeatable Patented Offensive System© Sent Packing
for The Bleacher Report

"I could always write a tell-all book about the 7 games and 10 months I spent collecting dirt on Auburn and it's employees."

"I think Tony's done a good job of adjusting," Tuberville told ESPN's Chris Low just days ago, "I don't know whether we've done a good job of adjusting to what we've gone to. But he's our offensive coordinator. He's worked as hard as anybody here, and he's as disappointed as anybody here. We've got to find some answers. He knows he's the guy who needs to find those answers, and he's looking hard ... along with the other coaches."

Then the answer was: "It's no time to panic".

Apparently Tommy "The Riverboat Gambler" Tuberville and Auburn University officials reversed course, and are now panicking, releasing a press release at 3:44pm this afternoon that Tony Franklin had been fired.

Franklin quickly cleared out his office and departed in his Hyundai Veranza after reporters refused to help him stuff boxes into his automobile.

"After evaluating where we are at this point of the season offensively, I felt it was in the best interest of the Auburn football program to make this change," Tuberville said in the official press release. "I'm not satisfied with where we are and I am personally going to take a larger role with the offense the remainder of the season. We are going to work harder than ever to make sure we consistently improve as we move forward."

Tony Franklin had been under intense fire following Auburn's poor showing against a surging Vanderbilt team this past Saturday.

Tony Franklin's Undefeatable Patented Offensive System© never truly found a home at Auburn--a traditional power running school--and even Tuberville previously admitted that giving in to "The Spread" was as much a recruiting tool as a revamping of Auburn's offense.

Auburn's offense is near or at the bottom in most offensive categories in the SEC and the country. Auburn ranks 104th in total offense (309.2 yards per game), 105th in pass efficiency (104.98), tied for 111th in red zone offense (65 percent) and 112th in third-down conversions (29.7 percent).

Tommy Tuberville has gone through 12 offensive and defensive coordinators in 10 years, and his 4-2 Tigers are next visited by Arkansas.

"It's either him or me?... Him!! Him, damn it, HIM!"

Kimbo Gets Sliced by Smoothie King

2008-10-06T05:02:00.000-07:00

Kimbo Gets Sliced by Smoothie King
for The Bleacher Report

A few heartbeats before Glory.

Seth Petruzelli woke up Saturday expecting to fight in a never-to-be-seen untelevised undercard fight with Aaron Rosa. He had only fought 4 times since 2004, having gone 2-2, and although still under contract with UFC for additional fights, had back in September decided to fight in the EliteXC. Petruzelli's most recent accomplishment was the sale of his interest in ATT Orlando, a gym he had been invested in, and the purchase of his first Smoothie King franchise with his girlfriend.

The showdown between Ken "World's Most Dangerous Man" Shamrock and Kevin "Kimbo Slice" Ferguson had been hyped by CBS and EliteXC for months as the next step in the unfolding legend of Kimbo. Set to take place just outside Kimbo's hometown of Miami in Sunrise, FL, the expectation surrounding this fight was that Shamrock would be a terrific challenge that Kimbo would easily clobber, possibly annihilate.

Shamrock, once one of the most feared men in the sport of Mixed Martial Arts, had not won a fight in over four years.

Seth Petruzelli was considered a has-been as well--He had been a contestant in the second season of The Ultimate Fighter but had lost in the semi-finals to Brad Imes, and had lost his next two UFC fights. He was known to have talent, however, and his 90% knockout percentage was nothing to sneeze at.

Elsewhere Saturday morning, Ken Shamrock was cut above his eye by an accidental head butt in a light training session and was deemed unfit to fight by state officials. EliteXC rushed to replace him, considering first turning to his brother Frank who was not allowed to participate either by state officials or CBS.

Through the power of the Internet, Kimbo Slice went from being an anonymous backyard brawler to being a multi-media superstar almost seemingly overnight. He first appeared in several filmed underground fights made and promoted through his personal association with RK Netmedia, better known as "Reality Kings", the purveyors of a number of popular adult subscription websites, such as MILF Hunter, and Captain Stabbin.

While on the scales for Friday's "EliteXC: Heat" weigh-ins with a pink streak running through his hair and striking a gorilla pose, 28-year-old Seth Petruzelli (then 10-4) was standing on the verge of instant stardom.

Critics have long held the belief that Kimbo Slice's popularity is the result of his internet presence, and the need of EliteXC to have a mainstream talent to rival the names of their direct competitor, the UFC.

Kimbo's sole loss had been to a Boston police officer named Sean Gannon, in a fight that Kimbo's camp alledges broke one of the few rules that governed his street brawls. Gannon is quoted as saying, "It's not my fault Kimbo's crew is ignorant of MMA techniques and styles."

Many of MMA's purists have a negative view on EliteXC, believing that it's promotion is largely centered on the "entertainment" aspect of MMA, as opposed to the actual fight product. The upstart EliteXC has had few mainstream talents defect from the UFC, although Tito Ortiz was in attendance Saturday night.

"EliteXC has few name fighters and the conundrum of Slice." Dan Wetzel analyzed pre-fight "He’s the most famous and popular fighter in the world yet he may not be a top 50 heavyweight. He’s fought professionally just three times and it’s unlikely he’d make it out of the first round with anyone in the UFC."

While it is unclear whether EliteXC attempted to first arrange a fight between Kimbo and Aaron Rosa, by 8:30pm it had been agreed that Kimbo would face Petruzelli, and that an undisclosed sum of money would go to Kimbo's purse for the last-minute change in fighter.

The tale of the tape was stacked largely in Kimbo's favor--a heavy weight fighting at 240 pounds and two inchs taller than Petruzelli, most observers thought Petruzelli, fighting at 205, would be an easy meal for Kimbo.

Instead the match lasted mere seconds as Kimbo rushed at Petruzelli, who backed up and attempted two karate-style front kicks. The first was ineffective, and the second halted Kimbo just enough for Petruzelli to glace a punch above Kimbo's eye, stunning him and laying him onto the canvas, at which point Petruzelli attacked with a flurry of punches that the referee quickly ended as Kimbo was obviously not defending himself.

"I kind of have a different style than most stand-up fighters," Petruzelli said in the evening's post-fight press conference. "I'm a stand-up fighter myself, but my traditional karate background kind of throws people's boxing styles off. I knew [Slice's] style was real straight-forward boxing, and I do well against boxers that I train with."

"It definitely hasn't set in yet," Petruzelli said. "It feels like a dream sequence for me. I'm not used to all the attention. I mean I was getting a little bit of attention after 'The Ultimate Fighter,' but this is just 10-fold now."

EliteXC has been counting on Kimbo Slice's fame as their prime investment.

Earlier this year, before Kimbo's fight with James "Colossus" Thompson, ESPN The Magazine surmised that Kimbo and MMA have a lot in common despite the MMA Elitists and Establishment that is very outspokenly against him.

"Besides, Kimbo's and MMA's stories are exactly the same. Up from the gutter. Secretly popular. Misunderstood. Violent. Criticized. Dangerous. Fun. Cool. Bloody. Viral. And now, finally, mainstream. Think about all the sports and leagues that aren't as popular in the U.S. despite huge financial backing: soccer, the WNBA, maybe even the NHL. MMA popped up because we demanded it, stepping over protests and outrage. It mixes football's violence with pro wrestling's entertainment and more sciences than boxing. Kimbo combines Mike Tyson's mystique and Mr. T's personality."

“I got my first black eye,” Kimbo laughed at the post-bout press conference. He later turned to Petruzelli and joked, “You knocked me out in front of my family; that’s fucked up.”

Tito Ortiz named his dog "Kimbo Slice".

It’ll never be the same, not for the fighter and not, perhaps, for the entire EliteXC promotion that just lost its signature star on top of the $58 million it’s burned the past two years.

Afterward, EliteXC execs tried to paint a bright future but admitted they needed a drink. Lower-level employees used gallows humor about finding new jobs.

Following the bout, EliteXC Vice Preident Jared Shaw said, "[Petruzelli] is now the modern-day 'Rocky Balboa...Movies are real. When opportunity knocks, you answer it. And when you open the door, there may just be a pot of gold on the other side. For Seth Petruzelli, he's now a star."

Petruzelli largely downplayed the post-fight praise. "It's humbling...It kind of secures the feelings that I had going through -- it sounds kind of corny -- but through childhood because that's how I felt growing up, that I wanted to be that person. I wanted to rise above the challenges. It was really cool. It meant a lot actually."

"I guess you could say I'm a part-time fighter," Petruzelli said. "[This win] does make me re-evaluate. I think I should concentrate more on fighting.I was fighting every six months. I think I'll be fighting every couple of months now."

Yeah, that's the whole fight.

Tony Franklin's Undefeatable Patented Offensive System© Under Extreme Fire

2008-10-05T16:15:00.000-07:00

Tony Franklin's Undefeatable Patented Offensive System© Under Extreme Fire
for The Bleacher Report

Vanderbilt, which does NOT run Tony Franklin's Undefeatable Patented Offensive System©, remained undefeated by beating Auburn 14-13.

“We don’t run Tony Franklin’s spread offense,” Tuberville said. “This is Auburn’s offense. It’s like our defense. We’re going to run what works and what we’re going to match up better with the other team. Everybody has to do that. You can’t put a square peg in a round hole. Why would you do that?”

"It takes 100 percent commitment to run the spread offense because you have to practice it daily plus run it in your offense. We have been doing this for years," Said Coach Hortmann, whose high school team runs the spread offense, "let Franklin run the offense or get yourself another Offensive Coordinator. Let Franklin go elsewhere where the spread is appreciated."

"I live in Alabama and I attended the game between Auburn and Tennessee. I also am a OC for a high school football team that runs the system." Said another coach, "From what I have seen this year from Auburn, this is not the system. It seems to me that Franklin is getting told what to run on offense. Tuberville wants to run the ball to set up the pass and Franklin likes to set up the run with the pass. I never saw any hurry up offense from Auburn at this weeks game. I saw the freeze quite a bit, but they never got into a hurry up mode. Franklin has said that to be sucessful in this offense you must be good at the screens, and get a lot of snaps (maybe like 80) on offense. I dont think I have seen but maybe 4 screens all year and I don't think they are close to getting 80 snaps.At the high school level we have been getting 70 snaps. That is with us slowing down in the 4th so we dont run up the score."

Kodi "Blunt" Burns Career Stats: 20 completions out of 50 attempts for 224 yards, 2 touchdowns and 2 interceptions.

"We've got to figure something out," Burns said. "This … man, I don't know. This isn't the Auburn I saw when I was recruited. This isn't the Auburn I saw last year. I don't what's going on."

"This is a tough loss," receiver Rod Smith said. "Everybody's hurt right now. Just to come out and play so well on offense and drive down the field and put up points and then just watch it disappear like that, it's hurting us right now."

"We've got to turn it around," Tuberville said. "We'll go back and we'll look at it and see who's healthy."

"I don't know what we are right now: spread, old Auburn offense," Smith said. "I'm just really confused right now. Everybody's confused. Everybody's hurting and speechless and confused. We just have to go back to work (today) and whatever changes coach Tuberville makes, we just have to go with that."

"Guys are confused because this isn't Auburn — just watching on the sideline and seeing this offense put up 13 points," Burns said. "We're capable of putting up 35 or 40 a game. That's why guys are confused. We're not producing like we should be. A lot of guys are confused. We are a team. We're looking out for each other. Nobody is pointing fingers, but a lot of us are talking about how we've got to figure something out. We can't keep going out like this."

"A lot of guys are upset because we should be putting up more points than this," Burns said. "This is unacceptable. You can't play in the SEC and put up 13 points and expect to win. All we can do is get better. We can't really take a step back from this point. I guess that's the good thing. All we can do is improve."

You're not going to sneak up on people by being a "spread" team. It just doesn't happen anymore. People have seen it, kids have played against it for years, and there's not going to be a scheme advantage. So the learning curve is steep since it involves learning the system and getting the players, like anything else. So the spread is in a tough bind, because it gets sold as a quick fix, but it's not. It's just another offense you can run, and it needs to be well coached and you need players. There's at least fifty major college teams running some a good deal of spread, if not more. How different is it then to be spread?

When asked if the changes would be drastic, Smith said it would "probably will be drastic changes.” We need to get back to old Auburn football,'" said Smith.

ESPN reported that Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville told his team following Saturday's loss to Vanderbilt that changes were coming on offense. How in the name of Toomer's Corner did the Tigers get to this point after being such a successful tailback-oriented, power football team under Tuberville the last few years? The spread is clearly not the answer, at least not the version of the spread the Tigers have tried to run under first-year coordinator Tony Franklin.

Chris Todd Career Stats: 83 completions out of 146 attempts for 885 yards, 5 touchdowns and 5 interceptions.

Franklin was not allowed to speak with reporters following the loss to Vanderbilt, nor was defensive coordinator Paul Rhoads.

"How do we continue this downward spiral without making some drastic changes? What are the real problems with this Auburn football team? Can the Auburn men and women continue to trust Coach Tuberville? Is Tuberville only a one hit wonder with the remarkable 2004 team?" Asks The Bleacher Report's Deric Winslett. "There are too many questions to answer. We the fans have zero power to do anything about it. What—start-up a Fire Tuberville.com website? The Auburn players should not be blamed. This season’s failures thus far fall squarely on the coaches. Every coach on the sideline bares responsibility for the loss to Vanderbilt. With some last minute hope to salvage what is left of this terrible first half of the 2008 season, some changes may be on the way and I mean soon."

"These guys are professionals," Tuberville said. "They're all in it together."

Tuberville said Sunday that changes to the offensive staff were "not even talked about."

He said Franklin works harder and is more disappointed than anyone about the offense's poor performance.

"He takes probably more blame than he should," Tuberville said.

Tuberville said adjustments to the Tony Franklin System have not been foisted upon the coordinator: "It's all him. He's the one making the changes."

Welcome to The Hot Seat, Tubby.

Johnny Majors: "I wouldn’t put myself in comparison with Phillip Fulmer on anything."

2008-10-04T11:42:00.000-07:00

Johnny Majors: "I wouldn’t put myself in comparison with Phillip Fulmer on anything."
for The Bleacher Report

Johnny Majors at one point had three assistants on his staff who went on to become Head Coaches. Fulmer has had none that were not hired first by Majors.

Speaking to the Huntsville (Ala.) Quarterback Club on September 30th, Johnny Majors did his best to not mention Tennessee Head Coach Fat Phillip Fulmer--his successor 16 long years ago--by name, in spite of all the striking simularities between Fulmer's season of failure and that fateful autumn in 1992.

"What’s happening there now I’m not going to get into." Majors told the crowd of over 200. "I wouldn’t put myself in comparison with Phillip Fulmer on anything. I’m above that."

This was somewhat of a departure for Majors, who has, for years, taken his shots at Fat Phil whenever possible.

"I don't pull against those players up there but I don't have any regard for Judas Brutus, who's coaching up there." Majors said in 2005.

The animosity largely stems from 1992, when health problems prevented Johnny Majors from coaching at the start of the season. Fulmer was made acting head coach. The players loved his kinder, gentler approach to coaching, and won the first 4 games, including convincing wins over Georgia & Florida. Majors then returned, and UT lost to South Carolina & Arkansas. That was the end of Johnny Majors, an ending that humiliated and embittered Majors until this very day.

Majors discussed a broad array of topics, including his childhood in Lynchberg, Tennessee, and the National Championship he won at Pittsburgh and being the youngest head coach in the country when he took the Iowa State job in the mid-1960s at the age of 32.

"I am walking over hot coals suspended over a deep pit at the bottom of which are a large number of vipers baring their fangs."

He also stated that Tony Dorsett, his Heisman Trophy running back at Pittsburgh, was the best four-year player he ever coached and that former UT quarterback Tony Robinson was “the most outstanding talent I ever coached at quarterback.”

Majors even talked about losing the 1956 Heisman Trophy to Paul Hornung by the narrowest margin (at that time) in history, a defeat that has been questioned for year for the simple reason that Notre Dame — Hornung's team — finished 2-8 while UT went 10-0. Hornung is the only player to have ever won the Heisman on a losing team.

"Back in 1979, when Notre Dame came to Knoxville," Majors said, "Paul was doing radio and television work for the Irish and he wanted to interview me for a segment. At the end of interview he said he wanted me to say something to all the thousands of people who thought I should have won the Heisman instead of him. “I said, 'No, Paul, I thought Jim Brown (who finished fourth) should have won it.'"

But every now and then Majors brought up his 16 years in Knoxville, where he again resides.

"We moved back 13 months ago,” he said. “Moved back to the same neighborhood. In fact, we moved right across the street from where we lived before."

Fat Phillip Fulmer and the state of Alabama have never gotten along well, going as far back as the mid-1990's when evidence provided by Fulmer resulted in Alabama being placed on sanctions by the NCAA.

Lightening struck twice, and this happened again in 2000.

Fat Phil was on the verge of being fired last year had Tennessee lost to South Carolina.

Alabama is now entering it's first period of sustained success since the devastating sanctions, and Fulmer is evidently in a sharp decline. Fulmer has won 52 games in the six seasons before this one, and enters Saturday's game with Northern Illinois 1-3. Majors won 53 games in his final 6 seasons.

When asked about the simularities of the two seasons and situations, Majors replied, "You mean the season of my ignominious demise? The season when, while I was recovering from my heart surgery, a few people whom I won’t name were operating on my back."

"I'm not going to say what I hear," Majors said. "I'm not going to get into that. I have nothing to offer. I’m not in a supervisory position. But they (Fulmer’s staff) had success early because of the program we left them."

"That was, by far, the most traumatic thing that ever happened to me in my professional life," he said. "It was a complete shock. I was promised a new seven-year contract. I was lied to. Frankly, I think (defensive coordinator) John Chavis has saved his job for 10 years."

The only thing that keeps Fat Phil going in these rough times. No, he is not sharing with ANYONE.

Same Old Pork While Nation Languishes

2008-10-04T03:54:00.000-07:00

Same Old Pork While Nation Languishes
for 24-Hours of Propaganda

"Now, we've got money for everyone in here, right? We didn't leave anyone out, right?"

Congressional deal-brookers slopped a mess of pork into the $700 billion financial rescue bill passed by the House today - including a tax break for makers of kids' wooden arrows - in a bid to lure reluctant lawmakers into voting for the package

Stuffed into the 451- page bill are more than $1.7 billion worth of targeted tax breaks to be doled out for a sty full of eyebrow-raising purposes over the next decade.

The $700 billion package was sailing into a stiff political wind. Constituent opposition to any sort of rescue has been strong and vocal - and lawmakers have been running scared while shocking extremes in stock trading has wiped out many American's investment portfolios.

"This is how Washington works," said Keith Ashdown of Taxpayers for Common Sense, a Washington research group. "A big pot of pork is their recipe for final passage."

The special provisions include tax breaks for Manufacturers of kids' wooden arrows ($6 million), Puerto Rican and Virgin Islands rum producers($192 million), Wool research, Auto-racing tracks ($128 million), Corporations operating in American Samoa ($33 million), and perhaps most surprisingly Small- to medium-budget film and television productions ($10 million)

Another measure inserted into the bill appears to be a bald-faced bid aimed at winning the support of Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska), who voted against the original version when it went down in flames in the House on Monday.

That provision - a $223 million package of tax benefits for fishermen and others whose livelihoods suffered as a result of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill - has been the subject of fervent lobbying by Alaska's congressional delegation.

"The most important thing is that we need to bail out our friends on Wall Street and in banking and the insurance business. Normal, every day American's will feel the effect of the rich getting richer again soon enough."

Some of the pork-barrel measures buried in the financial rescue package had been contained in a bill that previously passed the Senate, but died in the House.

The Congressional Budget Office said the package of breaks - including obvious pork and some more defensible tax-relief measures - will add about $112 billion to budget deficits over the next five years because the bill doesn't contain enough offsetting revenue hikes to keep the budget balanced.

The legislative lard annoyed Tom Schatz, president of the watchdog group Citizens Against Government Waste.

"There's always something that goes on at the end where the last dozen members are trying to get something for themselves or for a special interest rather than what might be good for the country," Schatz said.

Some of the other measures added to win approval include a $3.8 billion health-care provision that forces insurance companies to provide coverage for mental-health treatment equivalent to the coverage they provide for physical illness.

Other add-ons will increase individual tax credits and help shield some Americans from the painful alternative minimum tax, and offer breaks for businesses that invest in alternative fuels.

Also, several federal income-tax breaks due to expire will now be extended through 2009.

"We all know that we are in the midst of a financial crisis," House Republican Leader John Boehner of Ohio, said shortly before casting his vote for government intervention in private capital markets that was unthinkable only a month ago.

"And we know that if we do nothing, this crisis is likely to worsen and to put us into an economic slump like most of us have never seen."

Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said the bill was needed to "Begin to shape the financial stability of our country and the economic security of our people."

Stocks were up on Wall Street, where there was a lot of anticipation of the vote but where investors also were buffeted by a bad report on the job market. The Labor Department said employers slashed 159,000 jobs in September, the largest cut in five years and further evidence of a sinking economy.

Even before the measure cleared Congress, the White House sought to dampen optimism of its immediate impact on the economy. "This legislation is to fix a problem in our financial markets," said spokesman Tony Fratto. "It's not sold as giving a boost to the economy, but rather preventing a crisis in our economy... If it works as we hope it will, credit will be able to begin flowing again."

The House vote marked a sharp change from Monday, when an earlier measure was sent down to defeat, largely at the hands of angry conservative Republicans.

"It will take time for this bill to have an impact," President George W. Bush said in a speech outside the Oval Office, "it will be done as expeditiously as possible, but it won't be overnight."

"If we don't give $192 million to the Puerto Rican Rum Manufacturers they will surely succomb to the market. We can't let that happen! Capitolism has become the race to save your friends and cronies, not the survival of the fittest all you dumb citizens thought."

Obama's Poker Buddy Raided by FBI

2008-10-03T11:18:00.000-07:00

Obama's Poker Buddy Raided by FBI
for 24-Hours of Propaganda

Larry Walsh: Corn Farmer. Poker Player. Crooked Politician.

The FBI on Wednesday raided the county offices of a former Illinois state senator who is a poker-playing buddy of Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama.

According to Chicago authorities, the FBI visited the offices in Joliet, Ill., of Will County executive Larry Walsh, a longtime friend of Obama's, and his chief of staff Matt Ryan.

"Don't Forget, you still owe me that $20."

Walsh, who served in the Illinois Senate from 1997 to 2005, was endorsed by Obama in his county executive election bid. With the support of some of Obama's U.S. Senate volunteers, he easily defeated incumbent Republican Joseph Mikan.

Will County auditor Steve Weber confirmed that his office had been asked by the FBI to assist in an investigation, but he did not elaborate on the specifics.

In 2006, Obama requested that Will County receive $1.3 million to support its Flood Studies for Unincorporated Will County.

In 2006, Obama requested $800,000 for the Will County Sheriff’s Office Wireless Communications Technology Upgrades.

In 2006, Obama requested $1,953,331 for Will County’s Ridgewood Water and Sewage Project.

In 2005, Obama requested $2 million for the Lewis University in Romeoville, Illinois, to establish a Center for Academic and Community Learning, which is designed to address the significant educational needs of the less advantaged in the Will County region by providing academic assistance not only for students on campus but also for residents of the surrounding communities.

"I'm just writing some crooked legislation for a special interest. You know, a regular day at the office."

Two FBI agents out of Chicago reportedly spent more than an hour in the Will County offices on Wednesday morning.

According to sources, the Walsh investigation may be tied to lobbying firm Smith Dawson and Andrews, which was hired in 2006 for $10,000 per month to help Will County acquire federal grants.

"See, what we are going to do is push legislation to mandate a certain amount of biofuels being used by government vehicles. Why? Because I am a corn farmer."

The firm, which is registered with the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, assists clients with communications and legislative strategies that better their public policy agendas, according to its Web site. Last month, Walsh announced that Will County was the recipient of a $750,000 federal government grant that would allow law enforcement and prosecutors to fight against domestic violence.

One of the firm's partners, James P. Smith, contributed $2,000 to help Walsh's county executive election bid.

A corn farmer from Joliet, Walsh has supported his friend's presidential bid, and campaigned for him in rural and farming areas of the state.

Larry Walsh and his poker whore.

The two men became very close friends during their tenure in the Illinois Senate and bonded over games of poker. According to a report in Time magazine, Walsh lost to Obama once with what he thought was a winning hand, and then slammed down his cards and said: "Doggone it, Barack, if you were more liberal in your card-playing and more conservative in your politics, you and I would get along much better."

If this is another indication of the sort of acorns around the base Obama's tree, America may want to devote some more effort to unearthing Obama's volumnuous past.

"Sir, ACORN called. They want more money. And they said something about some 'free houses' or something like that. I don't know. It was hard to understand them threw the bullhorn and all."

Fatter Bailout Bill Will Increase National Debt to $11.3 Trillion

2008-10-02T10:39:00.000-07:00

Fatter Bailout Bill Will Increase National Debt to $11.3 Trillion
for 24-Hours of Propaganda

"I'm so excited! My $700 Billion Spending Spree is about to begin!"

After one devastating and spectacular failure, the $700 billion financial industry bailout found a second life Wednesday, speeding toward passage in the Senate and gaining ground in the House where conservative opposition seemed to soften.

Senators loaded the economic rescue bill with tax breaks and other sweeteners for the right and left, hoping to secure approval in the House by Friday, just days after lawmakers there stunningly rejected an earlier version and sent markets plunging around the globe.

Both presidential candidates, Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama, were making rare appearances to vote their support. That would send the package back to the House, where passage would require a turnaround of 12 votes from Monday's 228-205 defeat.

"See, what we are going to do is take $2400 from each and every human being in the United States, and use that money to give free houses to all the subprime deadbeats who never should have had a house in the first place."

Leaders in both parties, as well as private economic chiefs everywhere, said Congress must quickly approve some version of the measure to start loans flowing and stave off a potential national economic catastrophe.

"Inaction is not an option," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada said a few hours before the Senate was to vote. "This is not a bailout for Wall Street. It's a bailout for our country."

President Bush said, "It's very important for members to take this bill very seriously."

Congressional leaders targeted the 133 House Republicans who voted against the bill Monday.

"Just because people can't read a contract, or understand the terms 'variable' and 'adjustable', or go to work and pay their bills, doesn't mean we should take away their homes. Foreclosures need to stop! Free houses for everyone!"

Senator Chris Dodd, Chairman of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, said after the Senate passed the Bailout Bill, " The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act will not only provide stability and confidence to our financial markets, but also will help American families who are struggling to make ends meet. The legislation gives the Treasury Secretary the authority to respond quickly and forcibly to the current crisis, while creating strong protections for American taxpayers, helping to preserve the American dream of homeownership, and cracking down on excessive compensation for corporate executives who made bad decisions."

“Many Americans are confused and angry about this crisis – and rightfully so. They are concerned about whether this solution is best for their families and the nation. I want to assure the American people that this legislation was created for the families who are worried about their home values, their retirement savings, and how they are going to afford groceries, medicine, and gas. These bipartisan efforts weren’t about the storm that hit Wall Street – they were about the gathering storm on Main Street. Tonight, the Senate acted decisively and responsibly – not for the benefit of a chosen few, but for all Americans.”

Dodd also announced the enactment of the HOPE for Homeowners program, a voluntary initiative to help distressed borrowers refinance their mortgages. “Each day, more and more American families and communities are forced to cope with the devastating effects of foreclosure. Starting today, many Americans who are struggling to keep their homes will have a new tool at their disposal – HOPE for Homeowners. This program will enable hundreds of thousands of American families who are trapped in bad loans – often the result of predatory lending practices – to convert their mortgages into new, affordable loans. With mortgages they can afford, homeowners will be better equipped to keep their homes and stave off foreclosure."

“HOPE for Homeowners is a major step forward in our efforts to address the root cause of our economic crisis – the foreclosure crisis. I will continue to monitor very closely the effectiveness of this program in preserving homeownership. When Congress passed the Housing and Economic Recovery Act, we sent a message to Americans that help was on the way. For hundreds of thousands of American families, today’s enactment of HOPE for Homeowners means that help has finally arrived.”

Constituent feedback changing dramatically since Monday's House defeat and the corresponding market plunge, allowing lawmakers' comfort level with the package to increase markedly.

"We Want Our Free Houses!"

Most American's are still unclear exactly what the Bailout will consist of, and who it will help.

Despite the common misperception, those who have seen their retirement accounts, stock portfolios, and other related investments plunge and/or lose their entire value will not be compensated in any sort of direct fashion. There is no forthcoming second round of "Economic Stimulus" checks coming.

What will happen is perhaps thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands, of subprime borrowers who have defaulted on their homes--which is where the financial crisis originally took root--will get their homes virtually for free, punishing all of the hard-working American's who have borrowed and spent responsibly.

SUMMARY OF THE “EMERGENCY ECONOMIC STABILIZATION ACT OF 2008”

I. Stabilizing the Economy
The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 (EESA) provides up to $700 billion to the
Secretary of the Treasury to buy mortgages and other assets that are clogging the balance sheets of financial institutions and making it difficult for working families, small businesses, and other companies to access credit, which is vital to a strong and stable economy. EESA also establishes a program that would allow companies to insure their troubled assets.

II. Homeownership Preservation
EESA requires the Treasury to modify troubled loans – many the result of predatory lending
practices – wherever possible to help American families keep their homes. It also directs other
federal agencies to modify loans that they own or control. Finally, it improves the HOPE for
Homeowners program by expanding eligibility and increasing the tools available to the
Department of Housing and Urban Development to help more families keep their homes.

III. Taxpayer Protection
Taxpayers should not be expected to pay for Wall Street’s mistakes. The legislation requires
companies that sell some of their bad assets to the government to provide warrants so that
taxpayers will benefit from any future growth these companies may experience as a result of
participation in this program. The legislation also requires the President to submit legislation
that would cover any losses to taxpayers resulting from this program from financial institutions.

IV. No Windfalls for Executives
Executives who made bad decisions should not be allowed to dump their bad assets on the
government, and then walk away with millions of dollars in bonuses. In order to participate in
this program, companies will lose certain tax benefits and, in some cases, must limit executive
pay. In addition, the bill limits “golden parachutes” and requires that unearned bonuses be
returned.

V. Strong Oversight
Rather than giving the Treasury all the funds at once, the legislation gives the Treasury $250
billion immediately, then requires the President to certify that additional funds are needed ($100 billion, then $350 billion subject to Congressional disapproval). The Treasury must report on the use of the funds and the progress in addressing the crisis. EESA also establishes an Oversight Board so that the Treasury cannot act in an arbitrary manner. It also establishes a special inspector general to protect against waste, fraud and abuse.

Obama's ACORN Falls Right Next To Tree

2008-10-01T14:18:00.000-07:00

Obama's ACORN Falls Right Next To Tree
for 24-Hours of Propaganda

Deadbeat Borrowers: America's #1 Economy Wrecker

What if Barack Obama’s most important radical connection has been hiding in plain sight all along?

Obama has had an intimate and long-term association with the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (Acorn), the largest radical group in America. Acorn is at least as radical as MoveOn.org or Code Pink, arguably more so. Yet because Acorn works locally, in carefully selected urban areas, its national profile is lower. Acorn likes it that way. And so does Barack Obama.

This is a story that has been largely missed. While Obama’s Acorn connection has not gone entirely unreported, its depth, extent, and significance have been poorly understood. Typically, media background pieces note that, on behalf of Acorn, Obama and a team of Chicago attorneys won a 1995 suit forcing the state of Illinois to implement the federal “motor-voter” bill. In fact, Obama’s Acorn connection is far more extensive. In the few stories where Obama’s role as an Acorn “leadership trainer” is noted, or his seats on the boards of foundations that may have supported Acorn are discussed, there is little follow-up. Even these more extensive reports miss many aspects of Obama’s ties to Acorn.

Michelle Malkin characterizes ACORN's social work as using billions in government subsidies "to organize for the purpose of registering dead people to vote, shaking down corporations and using the race card as a bludgeon."

"Looking for my free house!"

Anti-Capitolist Radicals

Walk through just about any of the nation’s inner cities, and you’re likely to find an office of ACORN, bustling with young people working 12-hour days to “organize the poor” and bring about “social change.” The largest radical group in the country, ACORN has 120,000 dues-paying members, chapters in 700 poor neighborhoods in 50 cities, and 30 years’ experience. It boasts two radio stations, a housing corporation, a law office, and affiliate relationships with a host of trade-union locals. Not only big, it is effective, with some remarkable successes in getting municipalities and state legislatures to enact its radical policy goals into law.

Community organizing among the urban poor has been an honorable American tradition since Jane Addams’s famous Hull House dramatically uplifted the late-nineteenth-century Chicago slums, but ACORN and Addams are on different planets philosophically. Hull House and its many successors emphasized self-empowerment: the poor, they thought, could take control of their lives and communities through education, hard work, and personal responsibility. Not ACORN. It promotes a 1960s-bred agenda of anti-capitalism, central planning, victimology, and government handouts to the poor. As a result, not only does it harm the poor it claims to serve; it is also a serious threat to the urban future.

ARC's 2 Demands: 1. Pay Your Rent 2. Cut Your Grass.

It is no surprise that ACORN preaches a New Left–inspired gospel, since it grew out of one of the New Left’s silliest and most destructive groups, the National Welfare Rights Organization. In the mid-sixties, founder George Wiley forged an army of tens of thousands of single minority mothers, whom he sent out to disrupt welfare offices through sit-ins and demonstrations demanding an end to the “oppressive” eligibility restrictions that kept down the welfare rolls. His aim: to flood the welfare system with so many clients that it would burst, creating a crisis that, he believed, would force a radical restructuring of America’s unjust capitalist economy. The flooding succeeded beyond Wiley’s wildest dreams. From 1965 to 1974, the number of single-parent households on welfare soared from 4.3 million to 10.8 million, despite mostly flush economic times. By the early 1970s, one person was on the welfare rolls in New York City for every two working in the city’s private economy. Yet far from sparking a restructuring of American capitalism, this explosion of the welfare rolls only helped to create a culture of family disintegration and dependency in inner-city neighborhoods, with rampant illegitimacy, crime, school failure, drug abuse, non-work, and poverty among a fast-growing underclass.

Even Wiley came to see that cramming millions more single mothers and their kids onto the welfare rolls would not produce the desired socialist utopia. Seeking new worlds to conquer, he sent one of his young lieutenants, Wade Rathke, to Little Rock, Arkansas, to launch a new community-organizing group: ACORN. The new group was to build a broad constituency of low-income and working-class people to agitate for social change.

The little ACORN that Wiley planted in the Arkansas soil flourished. As Rathke expanded it into a national organization, the “A” in its name—Arkansas Community Organizations for Reform Now—came to stand for “Association of” instead of “Arkansas.” And as it grew, it retained the core assumptions of the old New Left but radically transformed the New Left’s methods to produce something truly original.

You will be seeing a lot of this soon.

ACORN’s bedrock assumption remains the ultra-Left’s familiar anti-capitalist redistributionism. “We are the majority, forged from all the minorities,” reads the group’s “People’s Platform,” whose prose Orwell would have derided as pure commissar-speak. “We will continue our fight . . . until we have shared the wealth, until we have won our freedom . . . . We have nothing to show for the work of our hand, the tax of our labor”—claptrap that not only falsifies the relative comfort of the poor in America but that also is a classic example of chutzpah, given ACORN’s origins in a movement that undermined the work ethic of the poor. But never mind—ACORN claims that it “stands virtually alone in its dedication to organizing the poor and powerless.” It organizes them to push for ever more government control of the economy, as if it had learned no lessons about the free-market magic that made American cities unexampled engines of job creation for more than a century, proliferating opportunity and catapulting millions out of misery.

But look beyond the stale rhetoric, and you’ll see that what is new in ACORN’s approach is its focus on the local rather than the national or the global. It is an ingenious approach, for the political culture of cities tends to be further to the left than the nation’s, making them less resistant to ACORN’s worldview. City legislators and local reporters are often less sophisticated than their national counterparts and have been slow to grasp how radical ACORN’s positions really are. Local urban business communities tend to be disorganized, their members focused on world or national affairs rather than what they take to be the grubby and trivial details of local politics. As a result, ACORN has managed to get enacted into law in city councils proposals that the U.S. Congress would laugh off the stage. ACORN’s strategy seems to be that if, working from the grass roots up, it can persuade enough localities from coast to coast to adopt its programs, the result will add up, in effect, to a national policy.

"We the People Want Our Free Houses."

ACORN has perfected an in-your-face strategy that works effectively at capturing public attention and winning adherents in cities. ACORN’s revival of its Baltimore chapter is a textbook example of this style. Several years ago, a top ACORN organizer, Mitch Klein, injected a new aggressiveness into the Baltimore chapter. Underlings piled garbage in front of City Hall to protest lack of services in poor neighborhoods, wielded huge inflated rubber sharks to disrupt a bankers’ dinner, and—most controversially—staged a profanity-laced protest in front of Mayor Martin O’Malley’s home. “They unloaded a busload of people shouting pretty ugly things and scared the daylights out of my wife and kids,” an angry O’Malley complained. “I thought it was a pretty cruddy thing to do.” Baltimore city council member Lisa Joi Stancil sympathizes with ACORN’s political agenda but is uncomfortable with the group’s aggressive approach. “There are boundaries,” she told the Baltimore Sun, “and they don’t seem to have a problem crossing them.” But ACORN is unapologetic about its tactics. “We’re up in their face,” an ACORN representative enthused. (Despite—or perhaps because of—the intimidation, ACORN still gets $50,000 a year from the city of Baltimore to provide housing counseling to the poor.)

The notoriety ACORN gained from its belligerence boosted donations and swelled its local membership to today’s 2,200. Now the group aims to use this new clout to change the political calculus in Baltimore: it has successfully fought for a change in the city charter, rejiggering city council districts in ways that ACORN activists believe will make it easier for them to gain more control over the body.

ACORN has followed a similar script in Sacramento. The wide publicity it sparked when it took up the cause of hundreds of working-class tenants threatened with eviction by a Japanese real-estate company that sought to sell their apartment buildings brought donations flooding in, enabling ACORN to expand. Now wielding a $300,000 annual budget, it has become a force in the California state capital, where it recently pushed through legislation that makes it more difficult for landlords to evict tenants, for example.

In cities where ACORN has been entrenched for years, its relentless campaigns have forced local policies to the left. In Chicago, for instance, ACORN took on the administration of Mayor Richard Daley over a law to raise the pay of employees in firms doing business with the city. Although the advocacy group initially failed to win approval for its wage bill, which Daley strongly opposed, ACORN pursued the mayor tenaciously, picketing him as he welcomed delegates to the 1996 Democratic national convention and bursting into a closed city council meeting to garner publicity for itself. After three years, it won the bill it sought. ACORN used that victory as a catalyst in Chicago, which has become one of the organization’s most effective chapters. Last year, it successfully expanded the wage law in the city.

But in cities where the political culture already tilts way to the left, ACORN has scored its biggest victories. The group provides public officials in those places with a ready-made agenda and legislation that city councils can use right out of the box, so to speak. In Los Angeles, for instance, ACORN helped write and pass wage legislation just like the measure it imposed upon Chicago, and it succeeded in watering down welfare reform. In New York, when a term-limits law swept into power a new city council, ACORN was ready with a host of bills—from its trademark wage legislation to an anti-predatory-lending measure—that willing council members rushed into law.

As these examples make clear, there’s one further crucial respect in which ACORN departs from the old New Left’s playbook. Instead of trying to overturn “the system”—to blow it up, as George Wiley wanted to do—ACORN burrows deep within the system, taking over its power and using its institutions for its own purposes. Not only has ACORN worked to influence existing city councils and state legislatures; it has also thrown itself into municipal and state elections, claiming to have registered 500,000 new voters in low-income communities around the country. With the labor-union allies it has cultivated, it has even helped create new parties that have scored real successes. Chicago’s ACORN leader, for instance, won a seat on the Board of Aldermen as candidate of the leftist New Party. Similarly, in Little Rock, several ACORN members, including the group’s state chairman, have won election to the Board of Directors (as the city council is called) as members of the New Party, which shares ACORN’s member list, as well as its mantra of “Think locally, act locally,” the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports.

"Why should we pay rent? We are organized!"

New York houses the most successful of these parties, the Working Families Party, launched and co-chaired by local ACORN chief Bertha Lewis. The far-left party won 80,000 votes statewide in the last presidential election and 100,000 in the last U.S. Senate race—the strongest showing of any third party except for the Conservative Party. Working Families played a key role, too, in the unsuccessful recent Democratic campaigns of Carl McCall for governor and Mark Green for Gotham mayor, with Bertha Lewis organizing Green’s post-primary victory party. One-third of Gotham’s new city councillors ran with Working Families’ endorsement.

As part of its readiness to work within the system, ACORN makes use of the most establishment of mainstream private institutions as allies—everything from leftist charitable foundations, including the Abell and Tides Foundations, which shower it with grants, to mainstream churches and synagogues. For example, during a successful campaign in Los Angeles for its trademark wage legislation, ACORN helped organize Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice (CLUE), a coalition of city congregations whose spiritual leaders tended to see “social justice” as religion’s central message. CLUE promoted the measure among congregants, sent religious delegations to the city council to push for the law, and cast opponents as Egyptians holding the chosen people in bondage. ACORN’s detailed and effective manual for organizers points out that mobilizing the religious community imparts the odor of sanctity to a left-wing social agenda. “Religious involvement highlighted the moral and theological reasons for a Living Wage,” the manual observes. Oppose the agenda, and you seem like part of an unholy alliance.

There’s nothing mainstream about that agenda, of course. ACORN’s specific policy prescriptions offer a job-killing recipe for urban blight and decline. Take, above all, ACORN’s signature “living-wage” legislation, which fully 80 cities have now adopted. This legislation requires that companies doing business with the city must pay their employees a minimum wage that is higher than the national minimum—often as much as one-third higher. The earlier versions of this law embraced only a handful of workers, while the later have included larger and larger numbers, ending with Santa Fe’s ordinance, passed just weeks ago, that covers all workers within the city and will hike the pay of a quarter of the private workforce. Clearly, unlike the old New Left, ACORN is patient, willing to achieve its goals by a thousand modest increments.

You can understand how living-wage legislation might seem reasonable to local legislators, so many of whom have never worked in the private economy. It puts money into the pockets of hardworking low-wage employees at no cost to the city treasury. To oppose it would make you seem like a fat-cat, top-hatted robber baron who relishes the oppression of starving workers. On the other side of the equation, how many city councilmen would understand the thick pile of studies from liberal as well as conservative economists showing conclusively that big hikes in the minimum wage ultimately kill low-wage jobs, as employers replace now-expensive receptionists with newly cost-effective voice-mail systems, say, or pile more duties onto experienced employees instead of hiring additional low-wage beginners? And how many councilmen would understand that increasing the costs of city contractors today will require them to raise the prices they charge the city tomorrow, requiring eventual tax hikes that will drive employers—and jobs—out of town to cheaper locales, isolating the poor who are left behind?

"We want our Exit Visa Extortion Money!"

ACORN clearly grasps that reality, however. Accordingly, the group wants to make it much harder for firms and middle-class taxpayers to escape the urban central planner’s grasp. ACORN promotes ideas like “sustainable development,” which would limit the growth of suburbs—so businesses and individuals can’t flee just beyond the city limits so easily—and “regional government,” which would force suburbs to share their tax revenues with cities, so that overburdened middle-class taxpayers can’t vote with their feet against the cities’ ever expanding social-democratic mini-welfare states.

At times, ACORN opts for undisguised authoritarian socialism, as when it proposes that “large companies which desire to leave the community” be forced to obtain “an exit visa from the community board signifying that the company has adequately compensated all its employees and the community at large for losses due to relocation.” How much longer before ACORN calls for exit visas for wealthy or middle-class individuals before they can leave a city? This is the road to serfdom indeed, even though it begins with little steps. The proposal gives a glimpse of the vastness of ACORN’s ambition, despite the seeming modesty of its individual programs. Understanding that ambition, seven state legislatures have passed laws to block municipalities from setting their own minimum wages.

Save Your Home --> Pay Your Mortgage!

As the living-wage movement demonstrates, the mere fact that a policy initiative claims to be “progressive” doesn’t mean that it actually helps the poor. ACORN’s current stand on welfare reform is almost as dramatic an illustration of that truth as founder George Wiley’s 1960s welfare-rights movement, which so grievously damaged its supposed beneficiaries. The 1996 welfare reform act, with its emphasis on personal responsibility and work, is one of the great social policy successes of recent decades. By bringing hundreds of thousands of former welfare clients into the mainstream economy, it has given them brighter prospects and new self-respect. With the national welfare rolls down by nearly 50 percent, child poverty has also declined, from 20.8 percent to 16.3 percent—rather than risen, as critics had darkly prophesied—and the anxiety levels of the teen children of working ex-welfare mothers have also diminished. You’d think that anyone dedicated to the genuine welfare of the poor would cheer.

Not ACORN. “There’s an emerging consensus that for those who can work, it should be encouraged,” ACORN’s national executive director Steven Kest conceeds, but work “should come with adequate supports, such as day care and transportation, to get people out of poverty.” He Continues: “We also still believe that, for a lot of people, it’s not right to force them to work. There should be some type of income support for those who still won’t be able to join the work force.” In other words: perpetual dependency.

The biggest “but” of all has been ACORN’s effort to unionize “workfare” workers—welfare recipients who, under the terms of welfare reform, must put in a certain number of hours of work at city agencies in exchange for their benefits. Though it hasn’t gotten everything it wanted, ACORN has successfully agitated for the creation of workfare grievance processes in Los Angeles and New York, and it seeks to expand rights and entitlements on all workfare jobs. All these efforts are subversive of reform: they send exactly the wrong message to welfare recipients, who aren’t really workers bargaining with their employers, after all, but recipients of charity. Encouraging them to resist and resent those who seek to help them, to file grievances against them and to feel victimized by them, undermines workfare’s purpose of teaching discipline and good work habits to people often deficient in such skills, without which it is hard to take advantage of the abundant opportunity that American society offers. There is nothing progressive about such “help.”

But with workfare, as with all aspects of welfare dependency, ACORN has never learned the most important lesson from the failures of 1960s radicalism—that there is a tight connection between irresponsible personal behavior and poverty. One can read hundreds of pages of ACORN pronouncements on the problems of inner-city neighborhoods without finding a word about how single-parent households have helped cause and perpetuate them.

“We are more focused on irresponsible behavior in the corporate sector,” executive director Kest has said. “I don’t think [illegitimacy] comes anywhere close to the irresponsible behavior of people running the largest businesses in this country”—as if the oppressiveness of “crime in the suites,” as Jesse Jackson likes to put it, causes, and thus excuses, self-destructive behavior in the streets.

ACORN’s anti-capitalism leads it to deep distrust of capitalism’s central instruments—the banks and other financial institutions that ACORN would class high among those “irresponsible . . . largest businesses.” ACORN loudly campaigns against “predatory lending,” “redlining,” and other forms of presumed abuse by financial institutions that supposedly hinder the minority poor from getting the capital needed for home buying and business start-ups. As an antidote, ACORN has latched on to a 1977 federal law, the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA), which was aimed at ensuring that banks do not discriminate against poor minority communities. Under its rules, banks must go through a costly process of reporting where and to whom they lend money, to show that they don’t discriminate. There are no official penalties for banks that get less than satisfactory ratings from the regulators on this issue. But when banks need approval for mergers or acquisitions, the CRA gives “community groups” the opportunity to lodge complaints against them, alleging suspect lending practices. If there’s even the appearance of discrimination, the regulators may put the bank’s deal on hold.

But if the CRA is now unnecessary, ACORN has found a use for it beyond wielding it as a propaganda tool to suggest that “redlining” still exists. ACORN has developed a lucrative niche as an “advisor” to banks seeking regulatory approvals. Thus we have J. P. Morgan & Company, the legatee of the man who once symbolized for many all that was supposedly evil about American capitalism, suddenly donating hundreds of thousands of dollars to ACORN. This act of generosity and civic-mindedness came, interestingly, just as Morgan was asking bank regulators for approval of a merger with Chase Manhattan. Not to be outdone, Chase also decided to grant more than $200,000 to ACORN.

The banks that ACORN has shaken down refuse to discuss their contributions to a political organization that, to put it mildly, is hostile to free enterprise. But one prominent consultant to the financial industry, who preferred to remain anonymous, admits: “The banks know they are being held up, but they are not going to fight over this. They look at it as a cost of doing business.” Some of ACORN’s fellow community activists are even blunter. “ACORN knows that corporate America has no starch in their shorts and, therefore, what they try to do is buy peace from groups that agitate against them,” says Robert L. Woodson, president of the National Center for Neighborhood Enterprise, a community-action group that stresses moral regeneration and individual responsibility rather than government handouts. “The same corporations that pay ransom to Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton pay ransom to ACORN.”

Such opportunism fits an ACORN pattern. The group regularly takes actions that appear blatantly self-interested or hypocritical, as if their pure motives and laudable ends might justify less than elevated means. For example, even while pushing for living-wage legislation in California, ACORN was paying its workers less than the existing minimum wage—and arguing when the state sued it that the minimum-wage law infringed its First Amendment free-speech right, since paying workers more would hinder it in spreading its message. So, too, many of the living-wage laws it pushes exempt unionized companies from the legislation—a powerful tool for union-organizing efforts and a valuable gift to the unions that are ACORN’s biggest allies. A similar gift is ACORN’s effort to unionize workfare recipients and thus swell union membership rolls.

“Look, I got two daughters — 9 years old and 6 years old...I am going to teach them first about values and morals, but if they make a mistake, I don’t want them punished with a baby.”

What has Barack Obama got to do with all this? Plenty. Let’s begin with Obama’s pre-law school days as a community organizer in Chicago. Few people have a clear idea of just what a “community organizer” does. A Los Angeles Times piece on Obama’s early Chicago days opens with the touching story of his efforts to build a partnership with Chicago’s “Friends of the Parks,” so that parents in a blighted neighborhood could have an inviting spot for their kids to play. This is the image of Obama’s organizing we’re supposed to hold. It’s far from the whole story, however. As the L. A. Times puts it, “Obama’s task was to help far South Side residents press for improvement” in their communities. Part of Obama’s work, it would appear, was to organize demonstrations, much in the mold of radical groups like ACORN.

Although the L. A. Times piece is generally positive, it does press Obama’s organizing tales on certain points. Some claim that Obama’s book, Dreams from My Father, exaggerates his accomplishments in spearheading an asbestos cleanup at a low-income housing project. Obama, these critics say, denies due credit to Hazel Johnson, an activist who claims she was the one who actually discovered the asbestos problem and led the efforts to resolve it.

Speaking up in defense of Obama on the asbestos issue is Madeleine Talbot, who at the time was a leader at Chicago ACORN. Talbot, we learn, was so impressed by Obama’s organizing skills that she invited him to help train her own staff.

And what exactly was Talbot’s work with ACORN? Talbot turns out to have been a key leader of that attempt by ACORN to storm the Chicago City Council (during a living-wage debate). On July 31, 1997, six people were arrested as 200 ACORN protesters tried to storm the Chicago City Council session. According to the Chicago Daily Herald, ACORN demonstrators pushed over the metal detector and table used to screen visitors, backed police against the doors to the council chamber, and blocked late-arriving aldermen and city staff from entering the session.

Reading the Herald article, you might think ACORN’s demonstrators had simply lost patience after being denied entry to the gallery at a packed meeting. Yet the full story points in a different direction. This was not an overreaction by frustrated followers who couldn’t get into a meeting (there were plenty of protestors already in the gallery), but almost certainly a deliberate bit of what radicals call “direct action,” orchestrated by ACORN’s Madeleine Talbot. As Talbot was led away handcuffed, charged with mob action and disorderly conduct, she explicitly justified her actions in storming the meeting. This was the woman who first drew Obama into his alliance with ACORN, and whose staff Obama helped train.

These people definitely want to take stuff away from you and keep it for themselves.

The extent of Obama’s ties to Acorn has not been recognized. We find some important details in an article in the journal Social Policy entitled, “Case Study: Chicago — The Barack Obama Campaign,” by Toni Foulkes, a Chicago ACORN leader and a member of ACORN’s National Association Board. The odd thing about this article is that Foulkes is forced to protect the technically “non-partisan” status of ACORN’s get-out-the-vote campaigns, even as he does everything in his power to give ACORN credit for helping its favorite son win the critical 2004 primary that secured Obama the Democratic nomination to the U.S. Senate.

Before giving us a tour of ACORN’s pro-Obama but somehow “non-partisan” election activities, Foulks treats us to a brief history of Obama’s ties to ACORN. Foulkes claims that ACORN specifically sought out Obama’s representation in the "motor voter" case, remembering Obama from the days when he worked with Talbot. And while many reports speak of Obama’s post-law school role organizing “Project VOTE” in 1992, Foulkes makes it clear that this project was undertaken in direct partnership with ACORN. Foulkes then stresses Obama’s yearly service as a key figure in ACORN’s leadership-training seminars.

At least a few news reports have briefly mentioned Obama’s role in training ACORN’s leaders, but none have said what Foulkes reports next: that Obama’s long service with ACORN led many members to serve as the volunteer shock troops of Obama’s early political campaigns — his initial 1996 State Senate campaign, and his failed bid for Congress in 2000 (Foulkes confuses the dates of these two campaigns.) With Obama having personally helped train a new cadre of Chicago ACORN leaders, by the time of Obama’s 2004 U.S. Senate campaign, Obama and ACORN were “old friends,” says Foulkes.

So along with the reservoir of political support that came to Obama through his close ties with Jeremiah Wright, Father Michael Pfleger, and other Chicago black churches, Chicago ACORN appears to have played a major role in Obama’s political advance. Sure enough, a bit of digging into Obama’s years in the Illinois State Senate indicates strong concern with ACORN’s signature issues, as well as meetings with ACORN and the introduction by Obama of ACORN-friendly legislation on the living wage and banking practices. You begin to wonder whether, in his Springfield days, Obama might have best been characterized as “the Senator from ACORN.”

“The government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three-strike law and then wants us to sing ‘God Bless America.’ No, no, no, God damn America!" --Pastor Jeremiah Wright, who married Barack and his wife Michelle. He baptized Barack’s two daughters and has been Obama’s pastor for more than twenty years.

More attention needs to be paid to possible links between Obama and ACORN during the period of Obama’s service on the boards of two charitable foundations, the Woods Fund and the Joyce Foundation.

According to the New York Times, Obama’s memberships on those foundation boards, “allowed him to help direct tens of millions of dollars in grants” to various liberal organizations, including Chicago ACORN, “whose endorsement Obama sought and won in his State Senate race.” ACORN maintains both political and “non-partisan” arms. Obama not only sought and received the endorsement of ACORN’s political arm in his local campaigns, he recently accepted Acorn’s endorsement for the presidency, in pursuit of which he reminded ACORN officials of his long-standing ties to the group.

Supposedly, ACORN’s political arm is segregated from its “non-partisan” registration and get-out-the-vote efforts, but this non-partisanship is exceedingly difficult to discern. It would be illegal for Obama to sit on a foundation board and direct money to an organization that openly served as his key get-out-the-vote volunteers on Election Day.

Obama’s ties to ACORN — arguably the most politically radical large-scale activist group in the country — are wide, deep, and longstanding. If ACORN is adept at creating a non-partisan, inside-game veneer for what is in fact an intensely radical, leftist, and politically partisan reality, so is Obama himself. This is hardly a coincidence: Obama helped train ACORN’s leaders in how to play this game. For the most part, Obama seems to have favored the political-insider strategy, yet it’s clear that he knew how to play the in-your-face “direct action” game as well. And surely during his many years of close association with ACORN, Obama had to know what the group was all about.

Don't Worry Kid, ACORN will never let you get a school voucher. The Street will always be there for you.

Gwen Ifill Biased?

2008-10-01T13:44:00.000-07:00

Gwen Ifill Biased?
for 24-Hours of Propaganda

The Goal--Destroy Palin!

PBS journalist Gwen Ifill, moderator of the upcoming vice presidential debate, dismissed questions about her impartiality because she is writing a book that is largely on Barack Obama. The book is titled "The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama," and is to be published by Doubleday on Jan. 20, 2009, the day a new president is inaugurated.

Ifill said addressing the criticism,"The proof is in the pudding. They can watch the debate tomorrow night and make their own decisions about whether or not I've done my job."

The trouble is, as this is the only Vice-Presidential Debate, a poor job by Ifill cannot be countered with a future event.

Two days ago columnist Michelle Malkin wrote in the New York Post about Ifill's book, saying "she's so far in the tank for the Democratic presidential candidate, her oxygen delivery line is running out."

"I can count on you to help me out, right? You know what I'm talking about..."

In its online description of the book, Doubleday says that Ifill "surveys the American political landscape, shedding new light on the impact of Barack Obama's stunning presidential campaign and introducing the emerging young African American politicians forging a bold new path to political power."

The McCain campaign found out about Ifill's book in the last day or so, a spokesman said.

“Frankly, I wish they had picked a moderator that isn’t writing a book favorable to Barack Obama — let's face it," McCain said on "Fox & Friends." "But I have to have confidence that Gwen Ifill will handle this as the professional journalist that she is."

"I think that Gwen Ifill is a professional, and I think that she will do a totally objective job because she is a highly respected professional. Does this help that if she has written a book that is favorable to Senator Obama? Probably not, but I have confidence that Gwen Ifill will do a professional job. And I have that confidence."

Ifill said the book discusses how politics in the black community have changed since the civil rights era. Among those subjects is Colin Powell, secretary of state in the Bush administration.

The host of PBS'"Washington Week" and senior correspondent on "The NewsHour" said she did not tell the Commission on Presidential Debates about the book.

Ifill's resume includes jobs at The New York Times, the Washington Post and NBC News. She moderated the 2004 vice presidential debate between Dick Cheney and John Edwards.

Palin's thoughts on Ifill, "You know, I'm not going to let it be a concern. Let me just tell you that John McCain has been in an underdog position before, and this ticket, I think it is safe to say, is in an underdog position. But that's what makes us work harder. It makes us want to communicate more clearly and profoundly with the electorate, letting them know what the contrasts are between these two tickets, It's motivating to me, even, to hear Gwen's comments there because, again, it makes us work that much harder, and it provides even more fairness and objectivity and choices for the voters on Nov. 4, if we try that much harder."

Ifill said it was the publisher, not herself, who set the Inauguration Day release date. It will be released then whether Obama wins or loses.

Ifill questions why people assume that her book will be favorable toward Obama.

Asked if there were racial motives at play, she said, "I don't know what it is. I find it curious."

Not surprisingly, Gwen Ifill has already written about the Obama's before, for Essence Magazine, back in July.

The Obamas: Portrait of an American Family
Gwen Ifill

Soon we will vote for our next president, and for the first time in history, one of the two candidates is a Black man. For a year, Essence pursued an interview with the entire Obama family‹to no avail. Finally, this summer ESSENCE became the only Black media outlet allowed a glimpse into the lives of Barack, Michelle and their two girls, Malia and Sasha, when we were invited to their South Side Chicago home. Weeks later, veteran political journalist Gwen Ifill was with the family as they campaigned in a small mostly White western town, and she flew with them to a Black church in the urban Midwest.

Barack Obama is sitting in the back of his rented luxury campaign bus with its granite counters and two flat-screen TVs. The Illinois senator's arms are wrapped around his wife, Michelle, whom he doesn't get to see much these days. At this very moment he is, of all things, singing.
I've just asked them how their lives have changed since he won the Democratic presidential nomination. There have definitely been changes, especially for Michelle Obama, who used to pride herself on campaigning by day and rushing home to her daughters each night. Now she is spending more of her days and nights on the road, but seldom in the same place as her husband. And when their daughters‹Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7 get to see their dad, they likely have to share him with thousands of adoring strangers. "Daddy's gone a lot," Sasha notes. "We don't see him that much."

But on this Fourth of July, everyone is together. Even though there are at least a half-dozen aides and family members on the bus with us, it feels intimate back here. Michelle and Barack are curled up on the beige couch, while the children are reading and coloring a few feet away. Michelle folds her long legs to her chin and leans into her husband as he explains the reality of their lives. When he pauses, she finishes his sentences.

Their ease with each other recalls the day several weeks earlier when ESSENCE arrived to photograph the Obamas at their large Georgian Revivial home on Chicago's South Side. Barack stood on the lawn playfully teasing his wife as she posed for our cameras. Now, as then, his customary public caution melts away when he is with his family. Under relentless media scrutiny, Barack Obama says his family is going the extra mile to "maintain this little island of normalcy in the midst of all this swirl of activity."

But family snapshots of this sort are rare, as are moments when the Obamas can just chill. "Michelle has done a heroic job of managing the house, the family and still finding time to campaign and be out on the road," he says, after directing staff members to turn off the television, which was tuned to Fox News Channel. "I'm always marveling at everything that she can do."

And then he sings.

"I'm every woman," he croons. She cringes. He laughs. "That's Michelle. It's like, Chaka Khan! Chaka Khan!"

"Don't worry, if racial cronyism has got us this far, who knows how much farther it can take us."

Obama to Nation: "Pay Up!"

2008-09-30T18:36:00.000-07:00

Obama to Nation: "Pay Up!"
for 24-Hours of Propaganda

"Just give me, Wall Street, and the US Government all of your money and you can trust us not to spend it on ourselves...I promise."

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is calling for Americans to get behind attempts to salvage a $700 billion rescue plan for the financial sector.

Obama told a crowd at the University of Nevada at Reno that if Wall Street fails, ordinary people will be hurt, too. Harkening back to his days as the right-hand man for a slumlord, Obama urged the American public that it would be better to pay up now as opposed to him having to come back and ask again.

The Illinois Democrat warned that if Congress doesn't take action, people will find it tougher to get a mortgage for a home, a loan for college or a loan to buy a car. Fear mongering is obviously the way to trick American's into backing a measure that anyone with good sense would give the "smell test" and reject.

Obama is proposing that the limit on federal deposit insurance for bank accounts be raised from $100,000 to $250,000. Increasing that limit, he says, would help small-business owners and reassure nervous Americans as well as help shore up the economy. How exactly this would have a direct effect on small-business owners, or reassure nervous American's with less than $250,000, was not fully explained.

“It’s the American economy that needs this rescue plan,” Obama told the assembled score of students, explicitly hitching his ongoing argument about social change to the financial crisis, arguing that the nation must transcend its differences and unite behind the bailout.

“This country and the dream it represents are being tested in a way that we haven’t seen in nearly a century. And future generations will judge ours by how we respond to this test,” he said. “Will they say that this was a time when America lost its way and its purpose? When we allowed our own petty differences and broken politics to plunge this country into a dark and painful recession? Or will they say that this was another one of those moments when America overcame? When we battled back from adversity by recognizing that common stake that we have in each other’s success?”

By now, such rhetoric is familiar to the public: Obama’s knack for fusing the language of (progressive) movement organizing with (conservative) American exceptionalism. Today, he took a risk by wrapping it around a deeply unpopular and complex measure that is widely seen as a sop for reckless elites.

“I believe that this is one of those moments. I know that many of you are anxious about your future and the future of this country,” Obama continued. “Despite all of this, I ask you to believe – believe in this country and your ability to change it. I ask you what has been asked of the American people in times of trial and turmoil throughout our history – what was asked at the beginning of the greatest financial crisis this nation has ever endured. In his first fireside chat, Franklin Roosevelt told his fellow Americans that “..there is an element in the readjustment of our financial system more important than currency, more important than gold, and that is the confidence of the people themselves. Confidence and courage are the essentials of success in carrying out our plan. Let us unite in banishing fear. Together, we cannot fail.”

Obama channeled The New Deal era — the fear of depression and the promise of a populist agenda — to recast the bailout as a working-class imperative:

“America, together, we cannot fail. Not now. Not when we have a crisis to solve and an economy to save. Not when there are so many Americans without jobs and without homes. Not when there are families who can’t afford to see a doctor, or send their child to college, or pay their bills at the end of the month. Not when there is a generation that is counting on us to give them the same opportunities and the same chances that we had for ourselves...Now is the time to make them proud of what we did here. Let’s give our children the future they deserve, and let’s act with confidence and courage to show the world that at this moment, in this election, the United States of America is still the last, best hope of Earth.”

Obama and his mentor, the slumlord Antoin Rezko, who taught Obama everything he knows about pumping the poor for more money.

Congress to Wall Street: "Drop Dead!"

2008-09-30T08:34:00.000-07:00

Congress to Wall Street: "Drop Dead!"
for 24-Hours of Propaganda

Wall Steet waits in anticipation for the Bail-Out that the US Government promised them.

With many congressional members facing tough re-election bids, especially now during what may prove to be the worst Economic Crisis in History, the much ballyhooed $700 Billion Bailout Package for Wall Street failed to pass, even with bi-partisian support.

“This bill failed because Barack Obama and the Democrats put politics ahead of country,” said a statement from Douglas Holtz-Eakin, McCain’s top economic adviser, who had represented McCain on Capitol Hill over the last several days.

Instead of a Bail-Out For Wall Street, How About Kicking All the Deadbeats out of the houses they never should have had?

McCain suspended his campaign Thursday morning to return to Washington to try and get a deal done. Soon after his arrival, though, an agreement that appeared to be coming together fell apart–a situation that Democrats pinned on McCain. Over the next few days, McCain’s campaign took credit for bringing House Republicans, who were reluctant to support the bailout, to the negotiating table. Late Saturday night, the House GOP leadership signed off on a deal. But the majority of the caucus still opposed it when the vote was called Monday.

“From the minute John McCain suspended his campaign and arrived in Washington to address this crisis, he was attacked by the Democratic leadership: Senators Barack Obama and Harry Reid, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and others. Their partisan attacks were an effort to gain political advantage during a national economic crisis. By doing so, they put at risk the homes, livelihoods and savings of millions of American families,” Holtz-Eakin said in his statement. He also blamed Pelosi for delivering a “strongly worded partisan speech” before the vote was called.

A Road That Should Be More Taken

Others were also blaming Pelosi's pre-vote speech. House Minority Leader John Boehner said that Pelosi’s speech “poisoned” the Republican caucus and “caused a number of members we thought we could get to go south.”

In one fell swoop, the House of Representatives applied a sledgehammer to the American economy. The staggering plunge in the value of publicly quoted stocks in the US - a $1.2 trillion fall - shows clearly just how much Wall Street had been holding out for a financial bail-out. Corporate America lost, in one day, a chunk of its value the size of the Indian economy.

Obama took a more hands-off approach to the legislative process, encouraging it along but not trying to intervene directly.

The current mess would never have occurred in the absence of ill-conceived federal policies. The federal government chartered Fannie Mae in 1938 and Freddie Mac in 1970; these two mortgage lending institutions are at the center of the crisis. The government implicitly promised these institutions that it would make good on their debts, so Fannie and Freddie took on huge amounts of excessive risk.

Worse, beginning in 1977 and even more in the 1990s and the early part of this century, Congress pushed mortgage lenders and Fannie/Freddie to expand subprime lending. The industry was happy to oblige, given the implicit promise of federal backing, and subprime lending soared.

This subprime lending was more than a minor relaxation of existing credit guidelines. This lending was a wholesale abandonment of reasonable lending practices in which borrowers with poor credit characteristics got mortgages they were ill-equipped to handle.

Once housing prices declined and economic conditions worsened, defaults and delinquencies soared, leaving the industry holding large amounts of severely depreciated mortgage assets.

So, in the end, not only was it Wall Street "Fat Cats" who brought us to the prespice of collapse, but it was the Federal Government, and in the end, consumers who took on financial obligations they were ill-equipped to handle.

The blame goes all the way around.

The blame does rest at the feet of the very same American Citizens who are decrying "predatory lending" practices and "Wall Street Greed" as the cause of the Financial Crisis.

Every person who took out a loan and did not repay it is to blame. Every single person who believes the US Government should intervene to stop their own foreclosure, readjust their mortgage, or give them their house for free is to blame.

Those who have been responsible with their money--who did not take out second and third mortgages and/or buy houses that were way out of their means--are the only innocent parties in this economic collapse.

"Fuck America! Get Your Free House!"

Hugo Chavez Calls for New US Constitution

2008-09-29T16:39:00.000-07:00

Hugo Chavez Calls for New US Constitution
for 24-Hours of Propaganda

"We must confront the privileged elite who have destroyed a large part of the world.”

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez said it was the capitalist system that caused the financial crisis in the United States and the country should come up with a new constitution.

Speaking to reporters in Lisbon on the last leg of a tour that included visits to Cuba, China, Russia and France, he said: "I think the United States should start a constituent process to create a constituent assembly, a new truly democratic model."

A constituent assembly is a body elected to draft and sometimes adopt a new constitution.

"I hereby accuse the North American empire of being the biggest menace to our planet.”

"It was capitalism that caused the ruin" in the United States, said Chavez, who is one of Washington's fiercest critics, calling the financial crunch "the worst financial crisis in history".

"Let the U.S. empire end and let a great nation and great republic rise from the ruin ... It's time to shout 'Liberty!' again in the United States," Chavez said, calling for a new government to be free of the "dictatorship of the elite" such as big banks and corporations.

Chavez, who has signed various deals from weapons to energy this week in China and Russia also signed an agreement with Portugal's Socialist government on Saturday to buy 1 million ultra-cheap laptops for schools and 50,000 pre-fabricated houses in deals worth $3 billion.

“I have said it already, I am convinced that the way to build a new and better world is not capitalism. Capitalism leads us straight to hell.”

They also signed a draft deal between Energias do Portugal and Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA for the development of a liquefied natural gas project from the Blanquilla Este reserve in northern Venezuela.

The computers, which the government started distributing in Portuguese primary schools this week at a subsidised price of 50 euros , will be delivered to Venezuela from December. They cost 285 euros in stores in Portugal.

The laptop is based on Intel Corp's lassmate PC, a cheap computer that has been adopted in various formats in countries such as Brazil and Indonesia.

Pirates and Gunrunners in Confrontation off Somali Coast

2008-09-29T14:55:00.000-07:00

Pirates and Gunrunners in Confrontation off Somali Coast
for 24-Hours of Propaganda

The Arleigh Burke-class destroyer USS Howard (DDG 83) steams through the Pacific Ocean.

A rag-tag band of pirates has succeeded in crippiling the Kenyan military, hijacking 33 of its tanks and an assortment of other weapons, ammunition and material said to be valued at $30 million.

The ship was apparently hijacked before it was scheduled to rendezvous with the Kenya Navy, for the purpose of being escorted to port. The pirates who have seized the Ukrainian ship off the coast of Somalia have warned against any attempt to rescue the vessel's crew or cargo.

U.S. naval ships also were in the area Friday and "monitoring the situation,“ but there has been no decision about intercepting the vessel. A U.S. Defense Department official said Washington was concerned about the attack.

"I think we’re looking at the full range of options here,“ U.S. Defense Department spokesman Bryan Whitman said.

Agence France-Presse reports that the pirates, despite being surrounded by the USS Howard and two other foreign warships, have demanded a ransom of U.S. $20 million.

Speaking by satellite phone to AFP, Sugule Ali said the pirates were not afraid of the warships: "That will not make us to abandon the ship or to refrain from asking (for) the money. There is no shortage of food supply and all the crew members are healthy and well including ours."

One of the pirates, Sugule Ali, claiming to be speaking on their behalf, later told reporters via satellite phone that they wanted a ransom and "nothing else".

"We need $20 million for the safe release of the ship and the crew," he told reporters. "If we are attacked, we will defend ourselves until the last one of us dies."

It was unclear whether the pirates who seized the 530-foot-long cargo ship Faina on Thursday knew what it carried. Still, analysts said it would be extremely difficult to sell such high-profile weaponry like Russian tanks.

The hijacking, with worldwide pirate attacks surging this year, could help rally stronger international support behind France, which has pushed aggressively for decisive action against Somali pirates.

San Diego-based destroyer USS Howard (DDG 83) is on station and is in visual range of MV Faina, which is anchored off the Somalia coast near the harbor city of Hobyo.

"Howard is on-station," said Cmdr. Curtis Goodnight, Howard commanding officer. "My crew is actively monitoring the situation, keeping constant watch on the vessel and the waters in the immediate vicinity."

Two other pirated vessels, MV Capt Stefanos and MV Centauri, are also anchored at this location near the Somali harbour city of Hobyo. Pirates have seized dozens of ships near Somalia's coast in recent months.

"Piracy has become big business and there seems to be no concerted response to the problem," said Mr Chitiyo, from the London-based Royal United Services Institute. Authorities in Somalia's semi-autonomous region of Puntland say they are powerless to confront the pirates, who regularly hold ships for ransom at the port of Eyl.

This incident highlights the complexity of the situation in the region. MV Faina is owned and operated by "Kaalybe Shipping Ukraine" and is carrying a cargo of T-72 tanks and related equipment. Its crew is comprised of citizens from Ukraine, Russia and Latvia. There is no indication that the ship had a security team aboard.

The USS Howard is part of the Ronald Reagan Carrier Strike Group, which is deployed to the U.S. 5th Fleet area of operations to conduct Maritime Security Operations.

Somali pirates in small boats sail close to the MV Faina

Ukrainian officials and an anti-piracy watchdog said 21 crew members were aboard the seized ship, including three Russians. Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko ordered unspecified measures to free the crew, which had been sailing towards the Kenyan port of Mombasa.

A Kenyan government spokesman, Alfred Mutua, confirmed the East African nation’s military had ordered the tanks and spare parts. The tanks are part of a two-year rearmament program.

"The government is in contact with international maritime agencies and other security partners in an endeavor to secure the ship and cargo,“ Mutua said in a statement. "The government is actively monitoring the situation.“

Ukrainian state-controlled arms dealer Ukrspetsexport brokered the sale. It was unclear where the shipment originated, though Ukrainian news agencies identified the ship operator as a company called Tomex Team based in the Black Sea port of Odessa.

"A ship carrying cargo of that nature being hijacked off the coast of Somalia is something that should concern us, and it does concern us. And we are monitoring the situation and taking a look at what the options might be,“ Whitman said.

The Navy says the 5th Fleet includes the USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier and several support ships, which "deter destabilizing activities and ensure a lawful maritime order in the Arabian (Persian) Gulf, Arabian Sea, Gulf of Oman and Gulf of Aden.“

Pirate attacks worldwide have surged this year and Africa remains the world’s top piracy hotspot, with 24 reported attacks in Somalia and 18 in Nigeria this year, according to the International Maritime Bureau’s piracy reporting center.

The issue burst into international view September 15 when Somali pirates took two French citizens captive aboard a luxury yacht and helicopter-borne French commandos then swooped in to rescue them.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy this month called on other nations to move boldly against pirates, calling the phenomenon "a genuine industry of crime.“

In June, the U.N. Security Council – pushed by France and the United States – unanimously adopted a resolution allowing ships of foreign nations that cooperate with the Somali government to enter their territorial waters "for the purpose of repressing acts of piracy and armed robbery at sea.“

33 T-72 armored tanks were aboard the MV Faina bound for Kenya that was seized by the Somalia Youth Coastguard.

All branches of the Kenyan Armed Forces were on full alert on Sunday night and heading for a showdown with the pirates who seized the Faina

The Navy put to sea and was racing to take up position in a joint operation to recover the hijacked Ukrainian cargo vessel, which was also carrying arms and ammunition.

"All branches of the military are working with partners to solve the problem," said a senior government official.

For as well as the 33 T-72 tanks, the Faina was carrying huge quantities of ammunition and grenade launchers for the Kenyan forces, making it a floating ammunition dump.

Any firefight could result in a massive explosion that would blow the freighter out of the water, killing the very people they were trying to rescue.

And if Russian commandos attempted to storm the Faina -- a Ukrainian ship sailing under a Belize flag -- it was feared the pirates would use the crew as human shields.

It was believed as many as 100 pirates from the self-styled Somalia Youth Coastguard were in control of the Faina.

They struck 200 miles off the Somalia coast in three speedboats launched from a mother ship, on Thursday.

Racing to incept the seized vessel, the Neustrashimy (Dauntless ) is armed with surface-to-air missiles, 100-millimeter guns and anti-submarine torpedoes.

A Somalia Ministry of Foreign Affairs official Faysal Ahmed told the Sunday Nation that he suspected that the hijackers were working in concert with Al Shabaab, a terrorist group that has been linked with Al Qaeda.

"I have heard a spokesman for the hijackers on BBC Somalia service say that if they don't get the $35 million ransom they are demanding, they will release the tanks and the retain the guns and ammunition," Ahmed said. "If they get the weapons, they will be very dangerous not only for Somalia but for the whole East African region."

Ahmed said the Somalia government had not capacity to stop the pirates and had frequently requested help from other governments and the UN Security Council and obtained promises on help with policing the Somalia coastline waters but no action.

The Kenya Navy was ordered into action by Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka, who acts as commander in chief in the absence of President Kibaki, who is currently in New York.

In Nairobi, Musyoka described as "disastrous" and "unimaginable" the extent of damage that could be caused by the seized arsenal should it fall into terrorist hands.

Russian missile frigate Neustrashimy has been sent to deal with the Pirates.

America Nears Catastrophic Economic Collapse

2008-09-29T00:26:00.000-07:00

America Nears Catastrophic Economic Collapse
for 24-Hours of Propaganda

"This isn't a crisis so much as it is a bonanza for state-sponsored enterprise."

The US stock market could suffer a devastating crash with shares losing a third of their value this week if Hank Paulson’s financial bailout plan fails, US Treasury officials have warned.

The financial system could face a meltdown of 1929 proportions unless US politicians succeed in their efforts for a $700bn rescue scheme, experts added.

The warning came as Republicans and Democrats met in Washington for a rare weekend debating session to attempt to seal agreement on the contentious plan, aimed at preventing a long-lasting recession in the US.

You will be seeing a lot of these now that the US Mint is ready to print off $900 Billion extra dollars.

Officials are privately painting a far bleaker portrait of the fragility of the global economy than that advanced by President George W Bush in his televised address last week.

One Republican said that the message from government officials is that “the economy is dropping into the john.” He added: “We could see falls of 3,000 or 4,000 points on the Dow [the New York market that currently trades at around 11,000]. That could happen in just a couple of days. What’s being put around behind the scenes is that we’re looking at 1930s stuff. We’re looking at catastrophe, huge, amazing catastrophe. Everybody is extraordinarily scared. It’s going to be really, really nasty.”

Peter Spencer, economic adviser to the Ernst & Young Item Club, said: “This is the time you have to bail people out and ask questions later. It is very difficult to see how the US banking system would survive without that.This has the potential to make 1929 look like a walk in the park.”

Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, said: “We hope sometime [Sunday] evening we can announce some kind of agreement in principle. We may not have another day.”

Rebel Republicans - who see Paulson’s proposals as socialism by the back door - were warned they will be responsible for causing an “amazing catastrophe” if they continue to oppose the plans, which would see taxpayers buy up the bad debts of failing banks. Instead they want an insurance scheme for banks, which would spread the cost to private enterprise.

WaMu couldn't hold on long enough for their piece of the $900 Billion Dollar Pie.

In what is by far the largest bank failure in U.S. history, federal regulators seized Washington Mutual and struck a deal to sell the bulk of its operations to J.P. Morgan.

The collapse of the Seattle banking giant, which was triggered by a wave of deposit withdrawals, marks a new low point in the country's financial crisis. But the deal, as constructed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., could hold some glimmers of hope for the beleaguered banking system because it averts any hit to the bank-insurance fund.

Instead, J.P. Morgan agreed to pay $1.9 billion to the government for WaMu's banking operations and will assume the loan portfolio, which has $307 billion in assets. The full cost to J.P. Morgan will be much higher, because it plans to write down about $31 billion of the bad loans and raise $8 billion in new capital. All WaMu depositors will have access to their cash, but holders of more than $30 billion in debt and preferred stock will likely see little if any recovery.

The deal will vault J.P. Morgan into first place in nationwide deposits and greatly expand its franchise.

The seizure was another watershed event in a frenetic period for the U.S. banking system, and came while members of Congress wrangled over the Bush administration's proposed $700 billion bailout package. The tally of U.S. financial giants that have either been seized by the government or sold themselves off to stronger firms in recent weeks includes mortgage titans Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, insurer AIG, and Wall Street firms Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch. The US Senate also approved $25 billion dollars in loan guarantees for the financially strapped US auto industry, intended to spark a wave of automotive innovation.

The failure of WaMu eclipsed what had long been America's largest bank bust on record, the 1984 collapse of Continental Illinois, which had $40 billion in assets.

The fact that no bank was willing to buy WaMu until it failed shows how badly confidence has eroded in a banking system awash with record profits just a few years ago. Faced with deepening losses on mortgages, credit cards and other loans, big and small banks across the country are struggling with what many bank executives say is a crisis far deeper than the savings-and-loan debacle.

Before the deal, J.P. Morgan ranked as the fourth-largest bank as measured by branches, ranking below Bank of America, Wachovia and Wells Fargo. Its network of more than 3,100 branches stretches across 17 states with deep penetration in New York, Illinois, Texas, Michigan and Ohio. The deal will expand J.P. Morgan's footprint westward and into the South. Most importantly, it will give J.P. Morgan an instant presence in two states where it is now virtually non-existent: California and Florida.

WaMu letting TPG Capital (which led a $7 billion cash infusion in the bank this spring and has now lost it all) know what they can go do to themselves.

The downfall of WaMu has been widely anticipated for some time because of the company's heavy mortgage-related losses. As investors grew nervous about the bank's health, its stock price plummeted 95 percent from a 52-week high of $36.47 to its close of $1.69 Thursday. On Wednesday, it suffered a ratings downgrade by Standard & Poor's that put it in danger of collapse.

Wachovia has begun preliminary talks with Citigroup about a potential merger, while also contacting Wells Fargo and Spain's Banco Santander. A week and a half ago, Wachovia began deal talks with Morgan Stanley, negotiations set against the backdrop of Lehman Brothers’s collapse. But nothing has resulted from those discussions.

Wachovia's current problems stem largely from its acquisition of mortgage lender Golden West Financial Corp. in 2006 for roughly $25 billion at the height of the nation's housing boom. With that purchase, Wachovia inherited a deteriorating $122 billion portfolio of Pick-A-Payment loans, Golden West's specialty, which let borrowers skip some payments.

All the idiots that lost literally trillions in investors--and now taxpayers--money do want charity. To the tune of about $900 billion.

America's Axis of Enemies Show a United Front in Face of World Economic Meltdown

2008-09-28T13:08:00.000-07:00

America's Axis of Enemies Show a United Front in Face of World Economic Meltdown
for 24-Hours of Propaganda

Venezuela

Hugo Chavez, Venezuela's dictator, faces "re-election" in November.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin vowed Thursday to make relations with Latin America a top foreign policy priority, a pledge backed by the first Russian naval deployment to the Caribbean since the Cold War.

Putin greeted Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, on his second trip to Russia in just over two months, with offers to discuss further arms sales to Venezuela and possibly helping it to develop nuclear energy.

Chavez's visit takes place as a Russian naval squadron sails to Venezuela, a in a pointed response to what the Kremlin has cast as threatening U.S. encroachment near its own borders.

The Kremlin dispatched its nuclear-powered warship Peter the Great and a submarine destroyer, Admiral Chabanenko, from the Arctic base of Severomorsk to Venezuela, across the Caribbean Sea, for military exercises in what is traditionally America’s backyard.

Russia President Dmitry Medvedev said that the joint naval exercises between Russia and Venezuela would demonstrate “the strategic nature of our relations”.

The Russian naval deployment follows a week long visit to Venezuela by a pair of Russian strategic bombers. On his Sunday TV and radio program, Chavez joked that he would be making his international tour aboard the "super-bombers that Medvedev loaned me.", and described their visit as a warning to the US.

Both men suggested their countries are working to decrease U.S. global influence.

Chavez said South America was growing in importance for Moscow.

"Latin America is becoming a noticeable link in the chain of the multi-polar world that is forming," Putin said at his suburban residence at the start of his talks with Chavez. "We will pay more and more attention to this vector of our economic and foreign policy."

Putin did not mention any specifics of potential Russian-Venezuelan military cooperation in his opening remarks, but Russian news reports said that Venezuela could buy Russian air defense missiles and more Sukhoi fighter jets.

A Kremlin official who spoke on customary condition of anonymity said that Russia would grant Venezuela a $1 billion credit for the purchase of Russian weaponry in an effort to help Venezuela revamp its military forces.

Chavez has already struck deals worth $4.4 billion since 2005 to buy jet fighters, tanks and 100,000 Kalashnikov assault rifles. The two countries also edged closer in energy relations after Russia’s Gazprom and Venezuela’s state-run oil company struck a deal to create an “oil and gas consortium”.

Russia's Kommersant daily reported that Venezuela was planning to purchase anti-aircraft systems, armoured personnel carriers and more combat aircraft.

Venezuela is the ninth largest oil producer in the world and a major supplier to the US, while Russia is the second largest oil exporter and has a quarter of global gas reserves. Chavez said that the joint venture would be “the biggest oil consortium on the planet”.

Russia also openly declared its ambition to rival the US in Latin America as Putin promised to sell nuclear technology to Venezuela.

“We are ready to consider opportunities for cooperating on the use of atomic energy,” Putin told Chavez during talks in Moscow. Russia is aggressively promoting itself as a builder of nuclear power plants and supplier of fuel to nations seeking nuclear energy.

Venezuela’s fiercely anti-American leader has long coveted his own nuclear energy programme, but insists that he has no desire to build an atomic bomb.

The announcement of atomic assistance is certain to alarm Washington. Moscow has already angered the West by delivering enriched uranium to Iran for its Russian-built power station, amid fears that Tehran is secretly building a nuclear bomb.

The countries have boosted ties in recent weeks following sharp US criticism of Russia's incursion into Georgia, with Moscow dispatching long-range bombers and warships to Venezuela for exercises near US waters. During that war, Washington angered Moscow by holding naval exercises near its Black Sea coast. And when the war ended, the United States used warships to deliver humanitarian aid to Georgia-- a conflict where Chavez was one of the few world leaders to support Moscow.

Putin made the nuclear offer after Russia this week delayed talks with the United States and other powers on fears Iran is developing nuclear weapons, concerns critics say have been exacerbated by civilian nuclear technology provided by Moscow.

Chavez, who addressed Putin as "my dear friend Vladimir," said that stronger ties with Russia would help build a multi-polar world—a term Russia and Venezuela use to describe their shared opposition to the perceived U.S. global domination.

He lavished praise on Putin during his second visit to Russia in as many months. "I think that today more than ever before what you have said about a multi-polar world is becoming reality," Chavez told Putin. He said he brought greetings from Cuban leader Fidel Castro, another staunch U.S. enemy.

Both men like Calamari, ironically.

Both leaders have used criticism of the U.S. to boost their popularity at home and advance foreign policy objectives.

Russia is the latest leg in a tour taking Chavez to a number of nations whose governments are eager to counter U.S. global clout. He stopped briefly in Cuba on his way to China, where he touted agreements to increase oil exports and purchase military jets.

In an interview broadcast on Russian television before the visit, Chavez said that Venezuela and Latin America as a whole need "friends like Russia" to help them shed U.S. "domination" and ensure peace.

Russia has ramped up its cooperation with Caracas further since last month's war with Georgia, which has badly damaged Moscow's already strained ties with the West and particularly the United States.

Chavez has also talked about creating "a new strategic energy alliance" with between the oil-rich nations.

After visiting Venezuela this month, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin said five major Russian oil companies are looking to form a consortium to increase Latin American operations and to build a $6.5 billion refinery to process Venezuelan crude.

Putin said that Russia's Gazprom state natural gas giant will launch its first drilling rig next month to tap Venezuela's offshore gas reserves.

"Fuck you America--I hate you!"

Chavez made a his next punch at his arch foe the United States on Friday, saying Washington was unable to handle the financial crisis and wanted to use a worthless dollar to own the world.

Chavez had just met French President Nicolas Sarkozy on a visit that had most recently taken him to Russia. "The Americans harass us and attack us... (they) want to buy the world with paper that does not have any value," Chavez told reporters in the courtyard of the presidential palace. Washington expected to remedy the current crisis "by running the money printer, and I strongly doubt we'll be able to resolve the crisis that way," he said.

An official from Sarkozy's office who spoke on condition of anonymity said the French president had urged Chavez to think ahead to the next U.S. administration and not give his adversaries a pretext to "caricaturize" him. The official added that France was eager to help Venezuela diversify its economy and was ready to transfer technology in the transport and energy sectors, as well as in defense to help fight illegal trafficking in the Caribbean.

Chavez said the activities of French oil companies Total and Perenco came up in his talks with Sarkozy, as well as projects involving the auto industry and underground trains in Caracas.

Further talks would be held at a meeting on October 2-3, he added.

U.S. oil companies Exxon and ConocoPhillips quit Venezuela after Chavez launched nationalisation programmes last year, while Total and Norway's StatoilHydro reduced their holdings and received around $1 billion in compensation.

Russia

"I am going to rule the world."

Russia is to build new space and missile defence shields and put its armed forces on permanent combat alert, President Medvedev announced last week.

In a sharp escalation of military rhetoric, Medvedev ordered a wholesale renovation of Russia’s nuclear deterrence and told military chiefs to draw up plans to reorganise the armed forces by December.

He said that Russia must modernise its nuclear defenses within eight years, including the creation of a “system of air and space defense”.

When the Soviet Union fell, Putin's first dream was to become a Calvin Klein model

The announcement puts Russia in a new arms race with the United States, which has infuriated the Kremlin by seeking to establish an anti-missile shield in eastern Europe. The US argues that the shield is aimed at rogue states such as Iran, but Russia is convinced that its own security is threatened.

Putin, getting ready to invade your house.

Medvedev told military commanders that “all combat formations must be upgraded to the permanent readiness category” by 2020. He added that Russia would begin “mass production of warships, primarily nuclear cruisers carrying cruise missiles and multi-purpose submarines”.

“A guaranteed nuclear deterrent system for various military and political circumstances must be provided by 2020,” he said after attending military exercises in the southern Urals region of Orenburg.

Tensions with the West have soared to new levels since Russia’s war with Georgia last month. Mr Medvedev told army chiefs that the conflict showed that “a war can flare up suddenly and can be absolutely real”.

Putin has personally killed more people than you have ever had sex with.

The military build-up was announced as Russia wages a struggle to prevent Georgia and Ukraine from entering NATO. The military alliance is due to consider fresh applications from the two former Soviet satellites in December.

Iran

Iranians chanted "Death to Israel" on Friday as Islamist students unveiled a book mocking the Holocaust in an Al-Quds (Jerusalem) Day annual parade to show solidarity with the Palestinians.
"I look forward to a world without the U.S.A and Israel."

And in Gaza City, the Islamist Hamas movement that has ruled the impoverished Palestinian territory since June 2007 marked the day by calling for more suicide attacks on Israel.

The book "Holocaust," published by members of Iran's Islamist Basij militia, features dozens of cartoons and sarcastic commentary.

Education Minister Alireza Ali-Ahmadi attended the official launch of the book in Tehran's Palestine Square.

The cover shows a Jew with a crooked nose and dressed in traditional garb drawing outlines of dead bodies on the ground.

Inside, bearded Jews are shown leaving and re-entering a gas chamber with a counter that reads the number 5,999,999.

You have a better than 50% shot at guessing which one is Admadinejad.

Another illustration depicts Jewish prisoners entering a furnace in a Nazi extermination camp and leaving from the other side as gun-wielding "terrorists."

Yet another shows a patient draped in an Israeli flag and on life support breathing Zyklon-B, the poisonous gas used in the extermination chambers.

Iran does not recognise the Jewish state, and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has attracted international condemnation by repeatedly predicting Israel is doomed to disappear and branding the Holocaust a "myth."
Ahmadinejad, treating an Israeli Olypian to a nice walk.

The commentary inside the book includes anti-Semitic stereotypes and revisionist arguments, casting doubt that the massacre of Jews took place and mocking Holocaust survivors who claimed reparations after World War II.

One comment, in a question-and-answer format, reads: "How did the Germans emit gas into chambers while there were no holes on the ceiling?" Answer: "Shut up, you criminal anti-Semite. How dare you ask this question?"

In 2006, the Islamic republic hosted a conference of Holocaust deniers and revisionists and a mass-circulation Iranian newspaper held a cartoon competition on the subject.

On Friday, tens of thousands of Iranians marched in Tehran, chanting "Death to Israel," declaring solidarity with the Palestinians and calling for Jerusalem and Israel to be handed to the Palestinians.

Demonstrators carried placards bearing slogans including "Israel will be destroyed, Palestine is Victorious" and "Holy war until victory," and they also torched American and Israeli flags.
In Gaza, a Hamas parliamentarian called for more suicide attacks against Israel as thousands of Palestinians marched to mark Al-Quds Day.

"We call on all the factions to undertake efforts to contain the enemy and halt its aggression by planning martyrdom operations," Ahmed Abu Helbiya told a crowd of more than 2,000 protesters.

Friday's Iran protest follows a fresh verbal attack on Israel by Ahmadinejad.

In an address to the UN General Assembly in New York on Tuesday, he said "the Zionist regime is on a definite slope to collapse and there is no way for it to get out of the cesspool created by itself and its supporters."

Quds Day was started by the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, founder of the Islamic republic, who called on the world's Muslims to show solidarity with Palestinians on the last Friday of the fasting month of Ramadan.

The demonstration was held under an official slogan: "The Islamic world will not recognise the fake Zionist regime under any circumstances and believes that this cancerous tumour will one day be wiped off the face of the earth."
"You know, you hug harder than Castro."

Meanwhile, Russia and the United States have reached a deal to seek a new U.N. resolution on Iran.

Ambassador John Sawers spoke before heading into a high-level meeting at U.N. headquarters of nations concerned with events in Pakistan.

After the meeting, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said the resolution will be introduced in the Security Council on Friday.

Western diplomats said the resolution would reaffirm three rounds of earlier U.N. sanctions to make clear that the process has not been dropped and that the council wants Iran to comply.
The diplomats spoke on condition of anonymity because details have not been made public.

The United States, Britain and France have been pressing for a new round of sanctions to step up pressure against Iran for its continuing refusal to suspend uranium enrichment as a prelude to talks on its nuclear program. But Russia and China objected to new sanctions.

The proposed new resolution appears to be a compromise—no new sanctions but a tough statement to Iran that Security Council resolutions are legally binding and must be carried out.

Russia on Tuesday had scuttled high-level talks on imposing new sanctions on Iran that had been set for Thursday between the foreign ministers of the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and Germany, the key players in seeking an agreement with Iran. Even sanctions opponent China had agreed to the meeting.

U.S. officials, including Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, sought to downplay the move, saying the time wasn't right for the session. But they had previously said such a gathering would be useful and necessary to get a fourth Security Council sanctions resolution on Iran.

Iran insists its nuclear program is purely peaceful and designed to produce nuclear energy, but the U.S. and Europeans suspect Tehran is pursuing nuclear weapons.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Thursday that Tehran needs the ability to produce nuclear fuel because it cannot rely on other nations to supply enriched uranium to the Islamic regime's planned reactors.

Also, it recently became clear that Israel gave serious thought this spring to launching a military strike on Iran's nuclear sites but was told by President George W Bush that he would not support it and did not expect to revise that view for the rest of his presidency, senior European diplomatic sources have told the Guardian.

The then prime minister, Ehud Olmert, used the occasion of Bush's trip to Israel for the 60th anniversary of the state's founding to raise the issue in a one-on-one meeting on May 14, the sources said. "He took it [the refusal of a US green light] as where they were at the moment, and that the US position was unlikely to change as long as Bush was in office", they added.

The sources work for a European head of government who met the Israeli leader some time after the Bush visit. Their talks were so sensitive that no note-takers attended, but the European leader subsequently divulged to his officials the highly sensitive contents of what Olmert had told him of Bush's position.

Bush's decision to refuse to offer any support for a strike on Iran appeared to be based on two factors, the sources said. One was US concern over Iran's likely retaliation, which would probably include a wave of attacks on US military and other personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as on shipping in the Persian Gulf.

The other was US anxiety that Israel would not succeed in disabling Iran's nuclear facilities in a single assault even with the use of dozens of aircraft. It could not mount a series of attacks over several days without risking full-scale war. So the benefits would not outweigh the costs.
Iran has repeatedly said it would react with force to any attack. Some western government analysts believe this could include asking Lebanon's Shia movement Hizbollah to strike at the US.

"It's over ten years since Hizbollah's last terror strike outside Israel, when it hit an Argentine-Israel association building in Buenos Aires [killing 85 people]", said one official. "There is a large Lebanese diaspora in Canada which must include some Hizbollah supporters. They could slip into the United States and take action".

Even if Israel were to launch an attack on Iran without US approval its planes could not reach their targets without the US becoming aware of their flightpath and having time to ask them to abandon their mission.

"The shortest route to Natanz lies across Iraq and the US has total control of Iraqi airspace", the official said. Natanz, about 100 miles north of Isfahan, is the site of an uranium enrichment plant.
In this context Iran would be bound to assume Bush had approved it, even if the White House denied fore-knowledge, raising the prospect of an attack against the US. Several high-level Israeli officials have hinted over the last two years that Israel might strike Iran's nuclear facilities to prevent them being developed to provide sufficient weapons-grade uranium to make a nuclear bomb. Iran has always denied having such plans.

Olmert himself raised the possibility of an attack at a press conference during a visit to London last November, when he said sanctions were not enough to block Iran's nuclear programme.
"Economic sanctions are effective. They have an important impact already, but they are not sufficient. So there should be more. Up to where? Up until Iran will stop its nuclear program," he said.

The revelation that Olmert was not merely sabre-rattling to try to frighten Iran but considered the option seriously enough to discuss it with Bush shows how concerned Israeli officials had become.

Bush's refusal to support an attack, and the strong suggestion he would not change his mind, is likely to end speculation that Washington might be preparing an "October surprise" before the US presidential election. Some analysts have argued that Bush would back an Israeli attack in an effort to help John McCain's campaign by creating an eve-of-poll security crisis.

Others have said that in the case of an Obama victory, the vice-president, Dick Cheney, the main White House hawk, would want to cripple Iran's nuclear program in the dying weeks of Bush's term.

During Saddam Hussein's rule in 1981, Israeli aircraft successfully destroyed Iraq's nuclear reactor at Osirak shortly before it was due to start operating.

Last September they knocked out a buildings complex in northern Syria, which US officials later said had been a partly constructed nuclear reactor based on a North Korean design. Syria said the building was a military complex but had no links to a nuclear programme.

In contrast, Iran's nuclear facilities, which are officially described as intended only for civilian purposes, are dispersed around the country and some are in fortified bunkers underground.
In public, Bush gave no hint of his view that the military option had to be excluded. In a speech to the Knesset the following day he confined himself to telling Israel's parliament: "America stands with you in firmly opposing Iran's nuclear weapons ambitions. Permitting the world's leading sponsor of terror to possess the world's deadliest weapon would be an unforgivable betrayal of future generations. For the sake of peace, the world must not allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon.''

Mark Regev, Olmert's spokesman, tonight reacted to the Guardian's story saying: "The need to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons is raised at every meeting between the prime minister and foreign leaders. Israel prefers a diplomatic solution to this issue but all options must remain on the table. Your unnamed European source attributed words to the prime minister that were not spoken in any working meeting with foreign guests".

Three weeks after Bush's red light, on June 2, Israel mounted a massive air exercise covering several hundred miles in the eastern Mediterranean. It involved dozens of warplanes, including F-15s, F-16s and aerial refueling tankers.

The size and scope of the exercise ensured that the US and other nations in the region saw it, said a US official, who estimated the distance was about the same as from Israel to Natanz.

A few days later, Israel's deputy prime minister, Shaul Mofaz, told the paper Yediot Ahronot: "If Iran continues its programme to develop nuclear weapons, we will attack it. The window of opportunity has closed. The sanctions are not effective. There will be no alternative but to attack Iran in order to stop the Iranian nuclear programme."

The exercise and Mofaz's comments may have been designed to boost the Israeli government and military's own morale as well, perhaps, to persuade Bush to reconsider his veto. Last week Mofaz narrowly lost a primary within the ruling Kadima party to become Israel's next prime minister. Tzipi Livni, who won the contest, takes a less hawkish position.

The US announced two weeks ago that it would sell Israel 1,000 bunker-busting bombs. The move was interpreted by some analysts as a consolation prize for Israel after Bush told Olmert of his opposition to an attack on Iran. But it could also enhance Israel's attack options in case the next US president revives the military option.

The guided bomb unit-39 (GBU-39) has a penetration capacity equivalent to a one-tonne bomb. Israel already has some bunker-busters.

God of War, Bruce Lemkin, has been frustrated by his inability to land Hugo Chavez as a customer.

Germany

The US will lose its role as a global financial “superpower” in the wake of the financial crisis, Peer Steinbrück, the German finance minister, said on Thursday, blaming Washington for failing to take the regulatory steps that might have averted the crisis.

“The US will lose its status as the superpower of the world financial system. This world will become multipolar” with the emergence of stronger, better capitalised centres in Asia and Europe, Steinbrück told the German parliament. “The world will never be the same again.”

Bruce Lemkin, God of War, displaying the "sales face" that has sealed over $32.4 Billion in Arms Deals this year alone.

His were the most outspoken comments by a senior European government figure since Wall Street fell into chaos two weeks ago.

He later told journalists: “When we look back 10 years from now, we will see 2008 as a fundamental rupture. I am not saying the dollar will lose its reserve currency status, but it will become relative.”

The minister, who has spearheaded German efforts to rein in financial markets in the past two years, attacked the US government for opposing stricter regulations even after the subprime crisis had broken out last summer.

The US notion that markets should remain as free as possible from regulatory shackles “was as simplistic as it was dangerous”, he said.

But Steinbrück had warm words for the US’s crisis management in the past fortnight, including the government’s planned $700bn rescue package for the financial sector. Washington, he said, had earned credit for acting not just in the US interest but also in the interest of other nations.

Yet he repeated Germany’s refusal to mount a similar rescue operation using taxpayers’ money to acquire toxic assets. “This crisis originated in the US and is mainly hitting the US,” he said. In Europe and Germany, such a package would be “neither sensible nor necessary”.

The US, Steinbrück said, had failed in its oversight of investment banks, adding that the crisis was an indictment of the US two-tier banking system and its “weak, divided financial oversight”.

He blamed Washington for refusing to consider proposals Berlin had made as it chaired the Group of Eight industrial nations last year. These proposals, he said, “elicited mockery at best or were seen as a typical example of Germans’ penchant for over-regulation”.

His comments followed calls this week by Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president and current holder of the European Union presidency, for an emergency G8 meeting on the crisis.

Steinbrück’s proposals include a ban on “purely speculative short selling”; a crackdown on variable pay for bank managers, which had encouraged reckless risk-taking; a ban on banks securitising more than 80 per cent of the debt they hold; international standards making bank managers personally responsible for the consequences of their trades; and increased co-operation between European supervisors.

Following a meeting with Christine Lagarde, his French counterpart, in Berlin, he said France and Germany would set up a working group of treasury, central bank and supervisory authority officials that would consider tougher regulation of short selling.

"Now look guys, it might get ugly out there, but we are gonna have to sell every single one of these planes today." Bruce Lemkin, God of War, tells his sales people before an expected big sales day.

Paul Newman Dies of Cancer

2008-09-27T07:14:00.000-07:00

Paul Newman Dies of Cancer
for 24-Hours of Propaganda

"I think transitions are never that noticeable, but they are always on their way. It has to do with distance and accessibility. People call it mellowing, but I think it's how available you are toward other people, or how much you distance yourself."

Paul Newman, known for his piercing blue eyes, boyish good looks and stellar performances in scores of hit Hollywood movies, has died, his foundation said Saturday. He was 83.

"It seems to me that the older I get, the more running around I do with less satisfaction, just spinning my wheels..."

Newman, who had been battling cancer, passed away on Friday, Newman's Own Foundation said in a statement from Westport, Connecticut.

"Paul Newman's craft was acting. His passion was racing. His love was his family and friends. And his heart and soul were dedicated to helping make the world a better place for all," Foundation Vice-Chairman Robert Forrester said.

"I begin to understand the romance of business.. the allure of being the biggest fish in the pond and the juice you get from beating out your competitors..."

Newman played youthful rebels, charming rogues, golden-hearted drunks and amoral opportunists in a career that encompassed more than 50 movies. He was one of the most popular and consistently bankable Hollywood stars in the second half of the 20th century.

"I am confounded at the stinginess of some institutions and some people. I'm bewildered by it. You can only put away so much stuff in your closet."

If Marlon Brando and James Dean defined the defiant American male as a sullen rebel, Paul Newman recreated him as a likable renegade, a strikingly handsome figure of animal high spirits and blue-eyed candor whose magnetism was almost impossible to resist.

"I have taken roads that I wished I had not traveled on. And I'm traveling on some pretty exciting ones, too."

Two of his most popular movies included "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" (1969) and "The Sting" (1973), in which he co-starred with an equally popular and handsome actor, Robert Redford.

"Whenever I'm in the dumps, I come up here and it reaffirms everything that I think is really good and generous about this country."

Newman was also a philanthropist, a health food mogul -- he once quipped that his salad dressing was making more money than his movies -- a race car enthusiast and a leftist political activist.

"Why not, really, go to the fullest length, and the silliest length, in exploiting yourself and turn the proceeds back to the community?"

Many however will remember him for his good looks: in 1990 People Magazine chose him as one of the 50 Most Beautiful People in the World, and in 1995 Britain's Empire Magazine picked him as one of the 100 sexiest stars in film history.

"I respect generosity in people, and I respect it in companies too, I don’t look at it as philanthropy; I see it as an investment in the community."

He earned nine Oscar nominations for acting and won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1987, late in his career, for his role as a pool shark named 'Fast Eddie' in "The Color of Money," co-starring with Tom Cruise. Many critics at the time said he was really being awarded the Oscar belatedly for his original performance of the same smarmy character in the 1961 movie "The Hustler."

"Money won is twice as sweet as money earned.”

“When a role is right for him, he’s peerless,” film critic Pauline Kael wrote in 1977. “Newman is most comfortable in a role when it isn’t scaled heroically; even when he plays a bastard, he’s not a big bastard — only a callow, selfish one, like Hud. He can play what he’s not — a dumb lout. But you don’t believe it when he plays someone perverse or vicious, and the older he gets and the better you know him, the less you believe it. His likableness is infectious; nobody should ever be asked not to like Paul Newman.”

"If you don't have enemies, you don't have character.”

Born Paul Leonard Newman on January 26, 1925 in Shaker Heights, Ohio into a well-off middle class family -- his father ran a successful sporting goods chain -- Newman acted in school plays as a youth.

"If you're playing a poker game and you look around the table and and can't tell who the sucker is, it's you.”

He joined the navy in World War II wanting to be a pilot, but tests showed that he was colorblind. Instead he served as a rear-seat radioman and tail gunner aboard Avenger torpedo bombers in the Pacific theater.

"You only grow when you are alone.”

After the war, he went to Kenyon College in Ohio on a football scholarship but took up acting after being cut from the team because of a barroom brawl. He enrolled in the Yale drama school, and moved to New York where he acted in plays. That job eventually landed him television roles, and then in the movies.

Newman's film career almost ended with his first movie -- he considered his performance in the sword-and-sandal 1954 drama "The Chalice" so mediocre he paid for a page-size ad in a Hollywood trade publication to apologize.

Newman redeemed himself in his next movie, "Somebody Up There Likes Me" (1956), a portrayal of boxer Rocky Graziano, and by 1958 was nominated for an Oscar as an alcoholic ex-football player in "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof," starring alongside Elizabeth Taylor.

Hit movies rolled on from there, including "Exodus" (1960), "The Hustler" (1961), "Hud" (1963), "Cool Hand Luke" (1967), "The Towering Inferno" (1974) and "Slap Shot" (1977).

A committed liberal , Newman openly campaigned for several Democratic Party candidates -- which got him onto Republican president Richard Nixon's famous list of enemies in the 1970s. Newman was a Eugene McCarthy delegate to the 1968 Democratic convention and appointed by President Jimmy Carter to a United Nations General Assembly session on disarmament.

"Being on president Nixon's enemies list was the highest single honor I've ever received," Newman said in a 2006 interview. "Who knows who's listening to me now and what government list I'm on?"

In the 1980s Newman participated in televised debates with conservative Charlton Heston on nuclear issues, and contributed money and an occasional article to The Nation, a prominent leftist magazine.

Later Newman film roles include "Fort Apache, the Bronx" (1981), "The Verdict" (1982), "Nobody's Fool" (1994), "The Road to Perdition" (2002), and as the voice of a vintage Hudson in the animated "Cars" (2006).

"People stay married because they want to, not because the doors are locked.”

Newman had six children, three from an early marriage that ended in divorce and three with actress Joanne Woodward, whom he married in 1958. He had five daughters and one son, Scott, who died of a drug overdose in 1978.

What was the secret to his long marriage? That question was repeated so often that in one interview he simply responded: "I don't know what she puts in my food."

To supermarket shoppers, Newman may be better known as the smiling face on the successful "Newman's Own" brand of salad dressings and organic food.

"It's all been a bad joke that just ran out of control," Newman said in a 2003 interview. "I got into food for fun but the business got a mind of its own." The "Newman's Own Foundation," takes profits from that company and sponsored numerous charitable organizations.

Newman also founded his "Hole in the Wall" Camps, which provided fun summer breaks for children around the world suffering from life-threatening illnesses.

Newman became interested in auto racing while filming the movie "Winning" in 1968, and quickly became a race car enthusiast. Over the years he won four Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) championships, won the GTS class in the 1995 24 hour race at Daytona, and sponsored race teams.

"Show me a good loser and I will show you a loser.”

In January 2005 Newman, then 79, escaped from his burning race car after it spun on track at the Daytona Beach circuit. He was not injured in the accident.

"You can't be as old as I am without waking up with a surprised look on your face every morning: 'Holy Christ, whaddya know - I'm still around!' It's absolutely amazing that I survived all the booze and smoking and the cars and the career.”

Newman retired from movie acting in 2007, at the age of 82. Mr. Newman’s last screen credit was as the narrator of Bill Haney’s documentary “The Price of Sugar,” released this year. By then he had all but announced that he was through with acting. "You start to lose your memory, you start to lose your confidence, you start to lose your invention. So I think that's pretty much a closed book for me," Newman said in an interview.

“We are such spendthrifts with our lives,” Mr. Newman once told a reporter. “The trick of living is to slip on and off the planet with the least fuss you can muster. I’m not running for sainthood. I just happen to think that in life we need to be a little like the farmer, who puts back into the soil what he takes out.”

"To be an actor you have to be a child”

Obama Calls for Strikes Against Pakistan, Talks with Iran

2008-09-26T23:30:00.000-07:00

Obama Calls for Strikes Against Pakistan, Talks with Iran
for 24-Hours of Propaganda

Political Pundits Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert on the cover of Entertainment Weekly.

The first presidential debate was held as scheduled at the University of Mississippi Friday and it was a very close contest. The debate was to focus on foreign policy, but due to the national news this week, the first thirty-five minutes dealt with the economy and specifically the Wall Street bailout currently being crafted in Washington. Sen. McCain managed to score some good points on Obama's earmark requests and out of control government spending. McCain jabbed at Obama, who he said has requested millions of dollars in pork barrel spending, including some after he began running for president. As he does frequently, the Republican vowed to veto any lawmaker's pork barrel project that reaches his desk in the White House.

John McCain portrayed himself as a battle-tested elder running against a naive rookie.

From there, however, the debate turned to the promised subject of foreign policy, and the tide of the evening clearly turned to McCain. McCain repeatedly sounded his theme that Obama "doesn't understand," the implications of his positions while Obama tried to counter that McCain was a clone of President George W. Bush.

But Obama's barbs did not stick to McCain, who has a long history of opposing his party on any number of issues. One particularly effective way McCain demonstrated this was when he rattled off a list of U.S. military actions and explained why he either supported them or opposed them. Another tactic McCain used effectively was to point out that he has traveled to many of the world's hot spots, like Georgia, Pakistan's frontier, Afghanistan, and Iraq, and has seen first hand the security challenges each poses to the United States. McCain demonstrated a depth of knowledge of world affairs that Obama, however well studied and prepped he may be, cannot possibly match.

McCain also succeeded in getting under Obama's skin with his criticism of Obama's understanding of world affairs. That led to Obama interrupting, protesting, and attempting to correct the record while McCain was speaking.

"If we have actionable intelligence about high-value terrorist targets and President Musharraf won't act, we will," Obama said.

“You don’t say that aloud. If you have to do things, you have to do things, and you work with the Pakistani government,” McCain countered.

Stylistic mistakes like this often overshadow substance, as Vice-President Al Gore learned in 2000 when he beat George W. Bush in the first presidential debate, yet was viewed as the loser because of his persistent sighing throughout the debate. Obama's interruptions are a tell for when he feels that he has been hurt by something McCain has said.

McCain, on the other hand, was cool and calm throughout, except for one time when, appearing exasperated, he cut into an Obama answer on meeting with Iranian President Ahmadinejad. But that was an effective moment for McCain, as he made the point that Obama's desire to talk to the Iranians is naive and showed some emotion in doing so.

"This is dangerous. It isn't just naive; it's dangerous," McCain said.

McCain gets points for his vastly greater knowledge and experience in dealing with foreign policy issues and for taking Obama off his game and making him play defense. Stylistically, McCain wins again for frustrating Obama into losing his poise a little.

The Real Obama's.

Tony Blankley explained in the Washington Times Wednesday, "The mainstream media have gone over the line and are now straight out propagandists for the Obama campaign. While they have been liberal and blinkered in their worldview for decades, in 2007-08 for the first time, the major media are consciously covering for one candidate for president and consciously knifing the other. This is no longer journalism — it is simply propaganda. The image of Sen. Obama that the press has presented is not a fair approximation of the real man. They have consciously ignored whole years in his life, and showed a lack of curiosity about such gaps that bespeaks a lack of journalistic instinct. Thus, the public image of Mr. Obama is of a "Man who never was."

"The mainstream media ruthlessly and endlessly repeats any McCain gaffes, while ignoring Obama gaffes. You have to go to weird little Internet sites to see all the stammering and stuttering that Mr. Obama needs before getting out a sentence fragment or two. But all you see on the networks is an eventual one or two clear sentences from Mr. Obama. Nor do you see Mr. Obama's ludicrous gaffe that Iran is a tiny country and no threat to us. Nor his 57 American states gaffe. Nor his forgetting, if he ever knew, that Russia has a veto in the United Nations. Nor his whining and puerile "come on" when he is being challenged. This is the kind of editing one would expect from Goebbels' disciples, not Cronkite's.

"More appalling, NBC's "Saturday Night Live" suggested that Gov. Sarah Palin's husband had sex with his own daughters. That scene was written with the assistance of Al Franken, Democratic Party candidate for Senate in Minnesota. Talk about incest.

"But worse than all the unfair and distorted reporting and image projecting, is the shocking gaps in Mr. Obama's life that are not reported at all. The major media simply has not reported on Mr. Obama's two years at Columbia University in New York, where, among other things, he lived a mere quarter mile from former terrorist Bill Ayers— after which they both ended up as neighbors and associates in Chicago. Mr. Obama denies more than a passing relationship with Mr. Ayers. Should the media be curious? In only two weeks the media has focused on all the colleges Mrs. Palin has attended, her husband's driving habits 20 years ago and the close criticism of Mrs. Palin's mayoral political opponents. But in two years they haven't bothered to see how close Mr. Obama was with the terrorist Ayers.

"Nor have the media paid any serious attention to Mr. Obama's rise in Chicago politics — how did honest Obama rise in the famously sordid Chicago political machine with the full support of Boss Daley? Despite the great — and unflattering details on Mr. Obama's Chicago years presented in David Freddoso's new book, the mainstream media continues to ignore both the facts and the book. It took a British publication, the Economist, to give Mr. Freddoso's book a review with fair comment.

"The public image of Mr. Obama as an idealistic, post-race, post-partisan, well-spoken and honest young man with the wisdom and courage befitting a great national leader is a confection spun by a willing conspiracy of Mr. Obama, his publicist David Axelrod and most of the senior editors, producers and reporters of the national media."

The Earmark King, Barack Obama, and one of his "pet projects" in Illinois that simply lined the pockets of campaign donors and volunteers--past and present.

A $100,000 state grant for a botanic garden in Englewood, IL, that then-state Sen. Barack Obama awarded in 2001 to a group headed by a onetime campaign volunteer is now under investigation by the Illinois attorney general amid new questions about whether the money might have been misspent. The garden was never built. And now state records show $65,000 of the grant money went to the wife of Kenny B. Smith, the Obama 2000 congressional campaign volunteer who heads the Chicago Better Housing Association, which was in charge of the project for the blighted South Side neighborhood. Smith wrote another $20,000 in grant-related checks to K.D. Contractors, a construction company that his wife, Karen D. Smith, created five months after work on the garden was supposed to have begun, records show. K.D. is no longer in business.

Clinton, doing what he does best.

On Wednesday, the former president fired . “Well, if you look at the speech I gave in Denver and the speech Hillary gave, I think it would be hard to question the depth of our feeling and the fact that we gave good reasons for why we were supporting Senator Obama and Senator Biden,” he told King, then explained the thinking by some Democratic critics who’ve questioned his level of support for Obama, and have called on him to attack John McCain. "I personally think that is not a good strategy to win this election,” he said. “That is, everybody wants Hillary or me or, for that matter, Senator Obama or Senator Biden just to say bad things about Senator McCain or Governor Palin. I just don't believe that getting up here and hyperventilating about Gov. Palin, or Sen. McCain for that matter, is a productive use of a former president's time and is not a vote-getter."

Clinton explained to King his October Campaign schedule, which is expected to include Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Nevada, “at a minimum" in October, “after the Jewish holidays are over...I think it would be — if we're trying to win in Florida, it may be that — you know, they think that because of who I am and where my political base has traditionally been, they may want me to go sort of hustle up what Lawton Chiles used to call the 'cracker vote' there. But Senator Obama also has a big stake in doing well in the Jewish community in Florida, where Hillary did very well and where I did very well. And I just think respecting the holidays is a good thing to do."

New Hampshire is probably the state most likely to flip from Democratic to Republican, given McCain's special bond with the state's independent voters who twice helped him win GOP primaries. Indicating Obama's concern, he's running TV ads in the pricey Boston media market; McCain is not. Of McCain's top two targets, Pennsylvania has tightened somewhat in the past month to slide from leaning-Obama into the tossup category. Wisconsin remains tantalizing close as it does about this time every four years before voting Democratic.

With the exception of Virginia, the tossups look remarkably similar to those of the most recent elections, despite Obama's efforts to try to pick off traditional Republican bastions. McCain, meanwhile, has an edge in Bush-held bellwether Missouri, though it continues to be hard-fought by both candidates.

Elsewhere, Obama recently abandoned efforts in the home state of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, McCain's running mate, as well as in Georgia. North Dakota workers for Obama also are being dispatched elsewhere, and ads for that state are slated to stop airing next week. Montana, too, has largely fallen off the playing field. Surveys show McCain with comfortable leads in all four.

McCain after his most recent bout with melanoma over 7 years ago.

Two liberal groups – one of them directed by a brother of the Democratic Party chairman Howard Dean – began running a graphic attack advertisement Thursday morning raising questions about Senator John McCain’s health. Showing vivid and unflattering images of the fresh scar that appeared on Senator McCain’s face immediately after his last operation for melanoma skin cancer eight years ago, the commercial ends with a screen headline that reads, “Why won’t John McCain release his medical records?” The commercial is among the harshest to run against Mr. McCain yet, seeking to exploit the sensitive issues of health and age. Officials with the groups running the ad, Brave New PAC and Democracy for America, said they were only showing the spot initially on MSNBC over the next few days, a limited run intended to draw news media attention on a network that has increasingly catered to liberal tastes.

If military experience was the only thing that McCain had that Obama didn't, it would be enough when we are embroilled in at least 3 armed conflicts all around the globe.

Stranger With Candy Invades Wisconsin High School Cheerleading Team

2008-09-25T23:44:00.000-07:00

Stranger With Candy Invades Wisconsin High School Cheerleading Team
for 24-Hours of Propaganda

33-Year old High School Cheerleader Wendy Brown.

A 33-year-old woman is accused of stealing her daughter's identity to attend high school and join the cheerleading squad.

Wendy Brown is charged with felony identity theft after enrolling in Ashwaubenon High School, near Greenbay, Wisconsin, as her daughter. The criminal complaint says Brown admitted to telling school officials she was 15 because she wanted to get her high school diploma and join the cheerleading squad.

She allegedly attended practices, received a cheerleader's locker and went to a pool party at the coach's house. She was given a cheerleader locker and paid for her uniform with a check that later bounced.

A high school employee, Kim Demeny, told authorities that Brown seemed very timid, told her she was not good in math and even cried when she talked about moving from Pahrump Valley High School in Pahrump, Nev.

Although she looked older than a student, Demeny said, she believed her demeanor was consistent with that of a high school girl.

A school liaison officer started investigating when Brown failed to show up for school for four consecutive days and the check for her cheerleader uniform bounced.

The complaint says Brown has a history of identity theft.

Her daughter lives in Nevada with Brown's mother.

According to court documents, Brown enrolled using her daughter's official transcript, Social Security card, birth certificate and other personal identification.

In the criminal complaint, school officials and teachers said the student appeared older but had a teenage-like demeanor. Brown had told teachers and some school officials that she and her mother had to leave Nevada to get away from her father.

"In school you see a lot of children who look older and dress older," said Don Penza, liaison officer."At what point do you say, 'You're lying.'"