TSA Xrays Fail

The TSA xray machines don't work for security, and they are implementing untested radiation exposure to travelers. The person was able to consistently go through the scanners without detection.

TSA Source: Armed Agent Slips Past DFW Body Scanner

An undercover TSA agent was able to get through security at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport with a handgun during testing of the enhanced-imaging body scanners, according to a high-ranking, inside source at the Transportation Security Administration.

The source said the undercover agent carried a pistol in her undergarments when she put the body scanners to the test. The officer successfully made it through the airport's body scanners every time she tried, the source said.

Bald Faced Larceny

Bloomberg reported on egregious bailouts to AIG:

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York, then led by Timothy Geithner, told American International Group Inc. to withhold details from the public about the bailed-out insurer’s payments to banks during the depths of the financial crisis, e-mails between the company and its regulator show.

AIG said in a draft of a regulatory filing that the insurer paid banks, which included Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Societe Generale SA, 100 cents on the dollar for credit-default swaps they bought from the firm. ...

The decision to pay the banks in full may have cost AIG, and thus taxpayers, at least $13 billion, based on the discount the insurer was seeking.

Obama Joins Republicans

Obama is no different than Bush. They both believe in endless war.

They confront an even stranger coalition that opposes a quick pullout: President Obama and most of the 87 newly elected House Republicans, many of whom are backed by the Tea Party.

US Military Manipulates Politics

Is anyone surprised the military runs psyops against politicians?
While this is illegal, military people who resisted the program were railroaded by the military.

The Hatch Act of 1939 is a United States federal law whose main provision is to prohibit federal employees (civil servants) from engaging in partisan political activity.


The Rolling Stone article:
Another Runaway General: Army Deploys Psy-Ops on U.S. Senators

The U.S. Army illegally ordered a team of soldiers specializing in "psychological operations" to manipulate visiting American senators into providing more troops and funding for the war ...

Food Riots Spread

Last week the food riots were in the Middle East and Northern Africa. This week the food riots are in India:

Thousands of people have gathered in the Indian capital, Delhi, to take part in a rally to protest against rising food prices and unemployment.

Food inflation and commodity inflation is a direct response of the Federal Reserve creating money out of thin air to monetize government debt and to provide loans to help bail out the Fed's banker buddies.  The Fed's money printing is pushing a wave of money into commodities, which is causing people to go hungry.  When people are hungry, they go to the streets and riot.

Coffee & Politics

This interesting article compares coffee consumption and politics in several countries.

In a top-to-down coffee evolution prevailing in many emerging markets, it is elite group and foreigners who initiates the coffee promotion, just like what happen to their political and economic system. The opening up to the world is forced upon by external force instead of indigenous and grass-roots movement.

Medical Over-Diagnosis

Medical companies make money by running tests, and usually the money is paid by an insurer and not directly paid by the consumer. This results in over-diagnosis, over-treatment, and unnecessary suffering by the over-diagnosed patient.

Consumers: even if the medical test is "free", do you really want it?



PSA test leading to 'overtreatment' of prostate disease

Earlier this year, the man who invented the PSA - or prostate screening antigen – test, Dr Richard Ablin said that the test’s use in the USA had become a ‘hugely expensive public health disaster’.

There is even a book. Overdiagnosed

And a NPR podcast. A person on the podcast noted that a diagnosis, even if the condition is left untreated, would likely deny the person from contracting for insurance.

Financial Crimes Not Prosecuted - Mozilo Walks

If someone forges a check they are arrested criminally.  When financiers steal, they get a fine with no criminal indictment.  We have two tiers of justice in America: the working class; the elite.

Mozilo, part of the elite financiers who financially raped and pillaged, is not criminally prosecuted.

Case on Mortgage Official Is Said to Be Dropped

Federal prosecutors in Los Angeles have dropped their criminal investigation into Angelo R. Mozilo, the former chief executive of Countrywide Financial, once the nation’s largest mortgage lender, according to a person with direct knowledge of the investigation. 

 

...

 

Without admitting or denying wrongdoing, Mr. Mozilo agreed to be banned from serving as an officer or a director of a public company.

The conclusion by prosecutors that Mr. Mozilo, 72, did not engage in criminal conduct while directing Countrywide will likely fuel broad concerns that few high-level executives of financial companies are being held accountable for the actions that led to the financial crisis of 2008.

 

Obama And GMO: More Of The Same

More of the same is not change.  Obama follows Bush in more of the same.

Feds on GMO Labeling: Don't Tell, Don't Ask

If you were hoping there might be some change in the U.S. government's official position on genetically modified and genetically engineered (GM/GE) foods under the Obama administration, tough luck.

Last month there was the appointment of big-time GM/GE advocate (and former Monsanto lobbyist) Islam Siddiqui to Office of the United States Trade Representative as the country's chief agricultural negotiator . Now comes a position paper from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that opposes labeling for genetically modified food.

The Miracle Of Cheap Energy

Ode Magazine ran an article, The Miracle of Milk, about the greatness of milk.  The author was Roland Duong.  The article text is not available online at the Ode website.

The author Roland Duong first praises the enzyme-destroying process of pasteurization, "... milk was the biggest source of tuberculosis infection.  Then, thanks to pasteurization, ..."

"The supermarket saves us an enormous amount of time."
I will fix some of Roland's article:
"Cheap energy saves us an enormous amount of time."

Roland makes a nonsense attack on the religious who pray before eating:
"It isn't so strange that people once prayed before eating ..."
With GMO "food", soy, and high fructose corn syrup, people should be buying life insurance before they eat modern "food".

When author resorts to name calling, they lose credibility.
"Despite the alleged decline and malaise with the food industry, the sorry snivelers ..."

Back to cheap energy:
"Nowadays, green beans from Kenya are flown in for the masses."

Roland makes another attack on those who pray:
"Praying for food has become hopelessly old-fashioned.  We should be pleased we are no longer at the mercy of capricious gods for our food supply."

Now we are at the mercy of those who manipulate commodity prices in the financial prices.  Cotton is breaking price records from the Civil War.  Sugar and wheat prices have doubled and tripled in less than a year.  The banking masters and the private central bank known as the Federal Reserve now set the prices.

People in Egypt and Libya can't afford to eat and are rioting.  When people can't afford to eat, they go to the streets and riot.  Americans, 40 million of whom are on food stamps, are too fat from high fructose corn syrup "food" to turn off the TV and revolt.  People in Egypt and Libya have lost everything.  As Gerald Celente has said, "When people lose everything, they lose it."

Iceland: Tell Them No

Iceland voters get another chance to tell the bankers to pound sand.

Iceland's Voters Get Final Say on Repaying British, Dutch Depositor Debt

Iceland’s President Olafur R. Grimsson will give his country’s voters the final say on repaying about $5 billion in debts owed to the U.K. and the Netherlands to cover depositor claims.  

...

Yesterday’s announcement marks the second time Grimsson has rejected an agreement designed to compensate the U.K. and Netherlands for depositor losses stemming from the October 2008 failure of Landsbanki Islands hf. His Jan. 5, 2010, refusal to sign a prior accord prompted Fitch Ratings to cut Iceland’s credit grade to junk. Moody’s Investors Service and Standard & Poor’s give Iceland’s debt the lowest investment grade.

There was a period of economic dislocation with some pain.  Since then, Iceland's economy is recovering and a burden of banker debt is not hung around the people's necks.
Ireland could take a similar route and free their people from debt slavery by the banks.  Will the Irish people stand up like the Icelandic people?

Anti-Gunner Shoots Intruder

Anti-Gun Senator Shoots Intruder

State Senator R.C. Soles (D - NC) Long time Anti-Gun Advocate State Senator R.C. Soles, 74, shot one of two intruders at his home just outside Tabor City, N.C. about 5 p.m. Sunday, the prosecutor for the politician's home county said.

Why They're Called Pigs

Another innocent victim of the war on drugs.

Castro Pot Bust Goes Awry and a Law Professor Threatens to Sue
... despite Freshman's insistence that they had the wrong place and were breaking the law. "I told them to call the judge and get their warrant updated," he says. "They just laughed at me — I guess that's why they're called pigs."
...
"I've been on the fence for years about the legalization of drugs ... and now I'm a victim of this crazy war on drugs," says Freshman, who pledged to sue until "I see [the agents'] houses sold at auction ...

Winning The War On ... Innocent Websites

The war on terror has taken more casualties, in the form of innocuous websites.  The Department of Fatherland Security is out of control:

The Department of Justice and Homeland Security’s ICE office proudly announced that they had seized domains related to counterfeit goods and child pornography. What they failed to mention, however, is that one of the targeted domains belongs to a free DNS provider, and that 84,000 websites were wrongfully accused of links to child pornography crimes. 

Shutting down websites for fake products is a job for a company civil attorney, not a job for the government.

Another Record

We're #1!
We're #1!
We're #1!


Federal deficit on track for a record this fiscal year

President Obama‘s budget, released Monday, was conceived as a blueprint for future spending, but it also paints the bleakest picture yet of the current fiscal year, which is on track for a record federal deficit and will see the government’s overall debt surpass the size of the total U.S. economy.

Mr. Obama‘s budget projects that 2011 will see the biggest one-year debt jump in history, or nearly $2 trillion ...

Banker Criminals To Get Slap On Wrist

Civil action will have these bad actors give back the gains, maybe even settling without admitting guilt.
Where are the criminal indictments?



SEC Charges Former Mortgage Lending Executives With Securities Fraud

The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged three former senior executives at IndyMac Bancorp with securities fraud for misleading investors about the mortgage lender’s deteriorating financial condition.

The SEC alleges that former CEO Michael W. Perry and former CFOs A. Scott Keys and S. Blair Abernathy participated in the filing of false and misleading disclosures about the financial stability of IndyMac ...

...

Abernathy agreed to settle the SEC’s charges without admitting or denying the allegations.

Bush Afraid To Visit Switzerland

George W. Bush might be arrested for war crimes if he visits Switzerland:

Bush was to be the keynote speaker at Keren Hayesod's annual dinner on February 12 in Geneva. But pressure has been building on the Swiss government to arrest him and open a criminal investigation if he enters the Alpine country.

Lack Of Food Is Riot Trigger

The turmoil in Tunisia and Egypt were caused by sharp food price rises. When people can't feed their families they feel like they have nothing to lose by rioting in the streets.

In order to appease the people and keep them from rioting, Kuwait gives away free food:

Kuwait's Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah on Monday ordered the distribution of $4 billion and free food for 14 months to citizens as the oil-rich emirate prepares to mark national occasions.
Each of the 1.12 million native citizens will get 1,000 dinars ($3,572) in cash as well as free essential food items until March 31, 2012 ...

It's not just third world countries or Middle Eastern countries that give away food and money to appease the people. Over 43 million Americans receive free food from the government.

Goldman Sachs Thief

Goldman Sachs helped the Greek hide Greece's poor finances so the country would qualify for EU membership:

One deal created by Goldman Sachs helped obscure billions in debt from the budget overseers in Brussels.

Goldman Sach's financial engineering inevitably blew up, causing an economic mess for Greece and the EU.  Now Goldman Sachs, which was instrumental in creating the mess, is calling for the EU to bail out Greece:

The German boss of the top US investment bank Goldman Sachs called on Friday for Greece’s debt to be partially forgiven in order to save the ailing Mediterranean nation from possible bankruptcy.

Instead of the EU providing further bailouts to Greece, the EU should investigate Goldman Sachs for fraud and ban Goldman Sachs from operating within the EU.

Germans Think For Themselves

For decades Germany had more secure infrastructure and transportation, particularly in air terminals.  The German government is thinking for itself and reducing anti-terrorism police:

The strengthened police presence at German transport hubs and public buildings owing to terrorism fears will be scaled back, Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière said Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Americans are being subjected to ever-increasing police presence and unreasonable searches by TSA employees.

U.S. Government In Contempt Of Court

Over the past decade the Presidency has been made into a King.  Now the King and his bureaucratic minions have defied a judge's order.

U.S. Adminstration In Contempt Over Gulf Drilling Moratorium, Judge Rules

The Obama Administration acted in contempt by continuing its deepwater-drilling moratorium after the policy was struck down, a New Orleans judge ruled.

Interior Department regulators acted with “determined disregard” by lifting and reinstituting a series of policy changes that restricted offshore drilling, following the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history, U.S. District Judge, Martin Feldman of New Orleans ruled yesterday.

 

Indian Stock Market Closes

Take note of an important phrase that is not good for the governments: "angry investors took to the street in the capital"

Bangladesh Stock Market Closed Again After Collapse

»The benchmark Dhaka Stock Exchange general index (DGEN) fell 243 points, or 3.3 percent during the day, ending 1:40.

»This follows a close down in January 10, when the DGEN registered the biggest fall in its 55-year history of 9.26 percent and angry investors took to the street in the capital.

Meanwhile, the violence continues in Egypt largely stems from rising commodity prices.  If people in other developing countries become unable to buy food, expect more people in the streets.

Zeitgeist: Moving Forward

Interesting discussion of DNA, nurture vs. nature, environment, addiction, violent crime, money, etc.

The movie Zeitgeist: Moving Forward is available on at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Z9WVZddH9w