Jindal Says Congress Should Work Part-Time

Every once in a while a politician comes along who actually makes some sense. Thanks Bobby Jindal for your wisdom!

Gov. Bobby Jindal says the United States would be better off if members of Congress spent less time in Washington.

In an interview this week with Human Events, the Louisiana Republican, a potential 2012 presidential candidate, said U.S. lawmakers should work part-time, be term-limited and not allowed to become lobbyists once they leave Congress.

"When they live under the same rules and laws they passed for the rest of us, maybe you'd see some more common sense coming out of Washington, D.C." he told the conservative publication. "Instead, you got a permanent governing political class."

Jindal, who once served as a congressman, cited Mark Twain in his proposal.

"We used to pay farmers not to grow crops, let's pay congressmen to stay out of Washington, D.C.," he said. "Mark Twain said that our liberty, our wallets were safest when the legislature's not in session." 

It turns out members of Congress aren't spending that much time in Washington anyway. Lawmakers work 128 days or less per year and an average of 7.4 hours per day. 

Rank-and-file members of the House and Senate make $174,000 per year. Based on the average American 52-week year, that amounts to $669 per day but calculated on Congress' 128-day year, lawmakers are taking home twice the daily pay -- $1,359 per day - for about half the working time.

Based on a normal 40-hour workweek, lawmakers make $84 per hour. But figuring on their actual 37-hour workweek, they make $90 per hour.

Jindal's proposal may not be so far-fetched given the rising cost of running Congress -- more than $5 billion for the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, according to Legistorm, a website that tracks congressional salaries and staffing.

Operating costs have soared 89 percent over the past decade, rising three times faster than the rate for national inflation, according to the Capitol News Connection based on data from Legistorm. The publication found that congressional salaries grew 39 percent from 2001 to 2009 and security expenses for the Capitol Police increased 860 percent in the past 10 years.

And there are plenty of part-time state legislatures that could provide a business model. In 17 states, including Utah, New Hampshire, North Dakota and South Dakota, lawmakers work part-time, making an average of $16,000 and relying on other sources of income for a living, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

In 23 other states, including Alaska, Connecticut, Texas and South Carolina, lawmakers say they spend more than two-thirds of a full-time job legislating, but only make an average of $35,300, forcing them to find other sources of income, the group said. 

In the other 10 states, including California, New York, Pennsylvania and Florida, lawmakers work full-time or close to it and make an average of $68,600, or enough money without relying on outside income, the group said.

Source: FoxNews

Marine Sings 4th Verse of Star Spangled Banner at Tea Party Rally (Video)

How many Americans are even aware that there are 4 verses to our National Anthem? At a recent Tea Party rally, a United States Marine Veteran stood up and sang the 4th verse bringing the crowd to their feet and some to tears. 

The words he sang so eloquently should ring in the hearts of all Americans, as do the words of the 1st verse we are all familiar with. 

God Bless America. In God Is Our Trust.


The Star Spangled Banner Lyrics
By Francis Scott Key 1814
 



Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars thru the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:
'Tis the star-spangled banner! Oh long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion,
A home and a country should leave us no more!
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

Man Makes Ridiculously Complicated Chart To Find Out Who Owns His Mortgage (CHART)

We all know the mortgage securitization process is complicated.

But just how complicated? The chart below from Zero Hedge shows the convoluted journey a mortgage takes as it morphs into a security.

Dan Edstrom, of DTC Systems, who performs securitization audits, and who is giving a seminar in California next month, spent a year putting together a diagram that traces the path of his own house's mortgage. "Just When You Thought You Knew Something About Mortgage Securitizations," says Zero Hedge, you are presented with this almost hilariously complicated chart.

A controversy of allegedly shoddy paperwork has raised doubts about the legitimacy of foreclosures nationwide (a crisis illustrated here and here), eliciting complaints from homeowners and investors alike.

The Congressional Oversight Panel, a bailout watchdog, released a statement Tuesday that says the scandal over alleged "robo-signers," foreclosure processors who approve documents without reading them, "may have concealed much deeper problems" in the mortgage industry, HuffPost's Shahien Nasiripour reports. (See the most shocking robo-signer statements.)

Regulators will have their hands full. "Decide how long you think it will take for Barney Frank and Eric Holder to sort everything out," Zero Hedge says.

Article by William Alden, Huffington Post

Quantitative Easing Explained (Video)

If this video wasn't so funny it should have made you sick to your stomach.

America...I hope you are paying attention!!

China Fired Missile Seen In Southern California

Pentagon and Its Embedded Media Covering Up Chinese Show of Force off Los Angeles

China flexed its military muscle Monday evening in the skies west of Los Angeles when a Chinese Navy Jin class ballistic missile nuclear submarine, deployed secretly from its underground home base on the south coast of Hainan island, launched an intercontinental ballistic missile from international waters off the southern California coast. WMR’s intelligence sources in Asia, including Japan, say the belief by the military commands in Asia and the intelligence services is that the Chinese decided to demonstrate to the United States its capabilities on the eve of the G-20 Summit in Seoul and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Tokyo, where President Obama is scheduled to attend during his ten-day trip to Asia.

The reported Chinese missile test off Los Angeles came as a double blow to Obama. The day after the missile firing, China’s leading credit rating agency, Dagong Global Credit Rating, downgraded sovereign debt rating of the United States to A-plus from AA. The missile demonstration coupled with the downgrading of the United States financial grade represents a military and financial show of force by Beijing to Washington.

The Pentagon spin machine, backed by the media reporters who regularly cover the Defense Department, as well as officials of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), and the U.S. Northern Command, is now spinning various conspiracy theories, including describing the missile plume videotaped by KCBS news helicopter cameraman Gil Leyvas at around 5:00 pm Pacific Standard Time, during the height of evening rush hour, as the condensation trail from a jet aircraft. Other Pentagon-inspired cover stories are that the missile was actually an amateur rocket or an optical illusion.

Experts agree that this was a ballistic missile being fired off of Los Angeles. Pentagon insists it was a jet aircraft or model rocket.

There are no records of a plane in the area having taken off from Los Angeles International Airport or from  other airports in the region. The Navy and Air Force have said that they were not conducting any missile tests from submarines, ships, or Vandenberg Air Force Base. The Navy has also ruled out an accidental firing from one of its own submarines.

Missile experts, including those from Jane’s in London, say the plume was definitely from a missile, possibly launched from a submarine. WMR has learned that the missile was likely a  JL-2 ICBM, which has a range of 7,000 miles, and was fired in a northwesterly direction over the Pacific and away from U.S. territory from a Jin class submarine. The Jin class can carry up to twelve such missiles.

Navy sources have revealed that the missile may have impacted on Chinese territory and that the National Security Agency (NSA) likely possesses intercepts of Chinese telemetry signals during the missile firing and subsequent testing operations.

Japanese and other Asian intelligence agencies believe that a Chinese Jin-class SSBN submarine conducted missile “show of force” in skies west of Los Angeles.

Asian intelligence sources believe the submarine transited from its base on Hainan through South Pacific waters, where U.S. anti-submarine warfare detection capabilities are not as effective as they are in the northern and mid-Pacific, and then transited north to waters off of Los Angeles. The Pentagon, which has spent billions on ballistic missile defense systems, a pet project of former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, is clearly embarrassed over the Chinese show of strength.

Likely route of Jin-class submarine from Hainan base.

The White House also wants to donwplay the missile story before Presidnet Obama meets with his Chinese counterpart in Seoul and Tokyo. According to Japanese intelligence sources, Beijing has been angry over United States and allied naval exercises in the South China and Yellow Seas, in what China considers its sphere of influence, and the missile firing within the view of people in Southern California was a demonstration that China’s navy can also play in waters off the American coast.

For the U.S. Navy, the Chinese show of force is a huge embarassment, especially for the Navy’s Pacific Command in Pearl Harbor, where Japan’s December 7, 1941 attack on the fleet at Pearl Harbor remains a sore subject.

In 2002, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice reportedly scolded visiting Chinese General Xiong Guankai, the deputy chief of staff for intelligence of the People’s Liberation Army, for remarks he allegedly made in 1995 that China would use nuclear weapons on Los Angeles. Xiong denied he made any such comments but the “spin” on the story helped convince Congress to sink billions of additional dollars into  ballistic missile defense, sometimes referred to at “Star Wars II.”

Article by Wayne Madsen, Madsen Report

RUSSIAN NAVY CAPTURES SOMALI PIRATES AND SHOWS NO MERCY (VIDEO)

This videotape shows Russian Navy commandos on a Somalian pirate ship shortly after the pirates had captured a Russian oil tanker.

The wimpy Euro-Union navy that patrols those waters would not interfere because they feared there could be casualties.

So Russia sent in her own soldiers to free their compatriots and the tanker. The Russian Navy Commandos moved the pirates back to their own pirate ship, searched the pirate ship for weapons and explosives, and then they left the ship and exploded it with all remaining pirates hand-cuffed to it.

The commandos sank the pirate ship along with the pirates and without any court proceedings, lawyers etc. That is, they used the anti-piracy laws of the 18th and 19th centuries where the captain of the rescuing ship has the right to decide what to do with the pirates. Usually, they were hanged.

How soon will it be before those Somali bastards target another Russian ship? If this country's bleeding heart Liberals hadn't castrated America's will, we would be doing the same thing to those damned pirates.. 

Where's the nearest yard arm, matey? Aaarghhhh!

US-China Currency Rap Battle. China's In The House! (Video)

Great animated video explaining the effects of the currency valuation dispute between the US and China

Rich Vail Fund Manager Hits Cyclist And Runs, Gets Off Because Charges Might "Jeopardize His Job"

Still Think Rich Wall Street Bankers Aren't Just About Getting Away With Murder? Think Again!

The rich are different from you and me; they get to hit and run, almost killing a cyclist, but get off without serious charges because it is hard to be money manager for Smith Barney if you have a record. District Attorney Mark Hurlbert is not charging Martin Joel Erzinger with a felony, because 

"Felony convictions have some pretty serious job implications for someone in Mr. Erzinger's profession," which is managing billions for rich people.

Dr. Steven Milo, the victim, is not impressed.

"Mr. Erzinger struck me, fled and left me for dead on the highway," Milo wrote. "Neither his financial prominence nor my financial situation should be factors in your prosecution of this case."

Dr Milo's lawyer notes that the accident had some pretty serious job implications for his client:

"He will have lifetime pain,' his lawyer Harold Haddon told the court. His ability to deal with the physical challenges of his profession - liver transplant surgery - has been seriously jeopardized.'

According to the Vail Daily story,

Milo was bicycling eastbound on Highway 6 just east of Miller Ranch Road, when Erzinger allegedly hit him with the black 2010 Mercedes Benz sedan he was driving. Erzinger fled the scene and was arrested later, police say. Erzinger allegedly veered onto the side of the road and hit Milo from behind. Milo was thrown to the pavement, while Erzinger struck a culvert and kept driving, according to court documents.
Erzinger drove all the way through Avon, the town's roundabouts, under I-70 and stopped in the Pizza Hut parking lot where he called the Mercedes auto assistance service to report damage to his vehicle, and asked that his car be towed, records show. He did not ask for law enforcement assistance, according to court records.

At Cyclelicious, Richard Masoner is organizing a boycott of a race in Vail next August.

At Change.org, a petition has been started, asking DA Hurlburt "Don't drop felony charges against hit-and-run wealth manager."

Traffic laws exist to motivate all drivers to act in a manner that is safe for other users of the road, including pedestrians, cyclists, and other drivers. To those of us who rely on bicycles for transportation and recreation, enforcement of laws that ensure our safety on the road is vital.

The enforcement of traffic laws should not differ depending on a driver's ability to write a check, but rather on the ability of the law to motivate drivers to drive safely. What Martin Joel Erzinger is accused of doing is clearly criminal, but dropping felony charges will set a message to drivers that the penalties for neglecting the welfare of others on the road, causing life-altering injury, and showing no concern for the victim might not be as serious as the law indicates.

Read the petition here.

A hundred years ago, Author Anatole France wrote that "The law, in its majestic equality, forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal their bread." The rich have always been treated differently in the courts. But this is just so blatant; you or I would not have "job implications" taken into account if we did a hit and run.

In the New York Times today, Nicolas Kristof says that America is turning into a banana republic with its extremes of distribution of wealth. Now it also appears to have become a kangaroo court for the same reason.

Article by Lloyd Alter, TreeHugger.com

Dr. Janda Explains Healthcare Rationing Under Obamacare (Video)

Dr. David Janda from Ann Arbor is a nationally known health care expert who spoke on Sunday, Oct. 10th in Saline, Michigan. 

Dr. Janda, as he states in the video, testified before congress and relates what he was told. This is what is going to happen in this country if Obamacare is not repealed. A very frightening scenario indeed. 

Wake up America!

The Fate of America? (Video)

Wake Up Americans or You Will Find Yourself Kow-Towing To a New Master!

Mom Upset Over Son's Assignment to Recite Pledge of Allegiance in Spanish

Melissa Taggart says she was delighted that her son was learning a foreign language in the eighth grade -- until she learned he was expected to recite the Pledge of Allegiance in Spanish. 

And that he'd receive a zero if he didn't!

Taggart, of Edmond, Okla., said the Pledge should be recited in English -- and English only.

“English is our language…and I just feel it’s wrong that he would have to say the Pledge of Allegiance to the United States of America in Spanish. It’s just wrong,” a frustrated Taggart told KFOR.

She said she couldn't begin to understand why her son's teacher would choose the Pledge for her class. And she was upset that her son was told he would receive a zero if he did not complete the assignment.

"There are poems, lyrics, and great writes that she could have chosen that emphasize the Spanish culture and to teach our children," Taggart said. "Why the Pledge of Allegiance?"
 

She said she and her husband were appalled by the assignment and that they “don't believe in it, and I do not want my child doing it."

"I just feel that it's wrong," she told KFOR, "that he'll have to say the Pledge of Allegiance to the United States of America in Spanish. That's not how it should be taught. That has nothing to do with the Spanish language."

But Brenda Lyons, associate superintendent and public information officer for the Edmond School District, defended the class assignment, saying the school's language curriculum calls for students to translate and recite something that they are familiar with.

“The Pledge assignment has been in place for years.” Lyons told FoxNews.com. “It is written in the curriculum for Spanish that students need to learn something they are familiar with, like short phrases in the foreign language.”

She said students and parents were made aware of the assignment at the beginning of the school year, and added: “If a parent has an issue with an assignment and calls in advance of that assignment being given, then the student can be given an alternative assignment.”  

Lyons said the Taggarts did not call the school to complain prior to the assignment, “so her son was given a zero for a test grade because he failed to complete the Pledge of Allegiance in Spanish.”

But after hearing Taggart's complaint, the school is bending a bit in this case. The boy's teacher, after giving him a zero, is now allowing him to complete another assignment to replace the Pledge.

Courtesy of FoxNews

Hail Hail The Wicked Witch (Pelosi) is "Dead"! (Video)

 
Let this be a lesson to future "Witches" and "Warlocks" who dare to oppose the will of the American People

Bank Fraud: The Perfect No-Prosecution Crime

   

US: State Attorney Generals are investigating 'Foreclosuregate' but no prosecutions for wrongdoing are being considered. The focus, instead, is on how to keep homeowners in their homes and how to keep the banks in business.  

In the aftermath of the S&L fraud of the 1980s, there were over a thousand felony convictions. The recent mortgage fraud is 40 times greater but NO convictions, not even investigations. The above cartoon explains it all.

Did you know that in the aftermath of the Savings and Loan (Thrifts) scandal there were more than a thousand felony convictions of financial elites?  The cost of the wrongdoing associated with the rip-off and closure of nearly 800 Thrifts cost taxpayers more than $160 billion.  

The current sub-prime/mortgage-backed security scandal is 40 times bigger according to Economics professor William Black.  That means the size of the crime is $6.4 trillion by my calculation.  Can you guess how many indictments there have been on financial elites who created this enormous mortgage crisis mess?  Zero, none, nada, zip.  Yes, not one single prosecution or conviction has been started of achieved.

That is simply outrageous considering the width and breadth of the many crimes committed.  There was “rampant” mortgage fraud in the loan application process according to the FBI as far back as 2004.  (Click here to see one of many stories of the FBI warning of mortgage fraud) is being used to wrongfully remove homeowners from their property.  That is foreclosure fraud. 

There was real estate document fraud when the original Promissory Notes and loan documents were “lost.”  The Promissory Notes were required to create tens of thousands of mortgage-backed securities (MBS).  No “note,” no security.  That is security fraud.  No security means the special IRS tax treatments for the MBS’s were fraudulently obtained.  That is IRS tax fraud.  Because there were no documents, the rating agencies fraudulently made up triple “A” ratings for the securities.  When the whole mess blew up, big banks hired foreclosure mill law firms to create forged documents. That phony paperwork was and is being used to wrongfully remove homeowners from their property.  That is foreclosure fraud.

It appears the entire mortgage/securitization industry is one giant criminal enterprise.  And yet, last Wednesday, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan said, “We have not found any evidence at this point of systemic issues in the underlying legal or other documents that have been reviewed.”  

What!  Well, look a little harder Mr. HUD Secretary.  (Click here for the complete Reuters story with Donovan’s quote.) Donovan did say the foreclosure fiasco is “shameful,” but that is not the same as a criminal prosecution now is it?  Where is U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder in all of this?  

I guess he’s busy planning a lawsuit to stop California from making pot smoking a misdemeanor.  Holder is probably also very busy with continuing legal actions against Arizona’s immigration law.  I guess trillions of dollars in mortgage and securities fraud is just not enough of a legal priority for America!

All 50 State Attorneys General are looking into what is now being called “Foreclosuregate.”  Iowa AG, Tom Miller, is leading the investigation for the 50 states.  His focus, according to a recent Washington Post story, is “preventable foreclosures“–ones in which small changes might keep the homeowners in their home – benefits all parties involved. The borrower keeps the house. The servicer continues to collect fees, and the investors receive more income than a foreclosure would bring. The community has one less deserted home.” Miller’s office also says, “This is a public policy issue.”  (Click here to see the complete Wa Po story.)

When did State AG’s become public policy negotiators for the banks?  Where are the criminal prosecutions?  This is a sham and an outrage perpetrated by state governments.  Who are they protecting?  I say it’s really the banks’ and investors’ income stream.

It sure doesn’t look like the FBI is going to prosecute any of the “rampant” mortgage fraud any time soon, according to Professor Black.  At the end of September on the Dylan Ratigan Show, he said, “We know that the FBI has formed what it calls a partnership with the Mortgage Bankers Association.  Now, that’s a trade association of the perps, and guess what the trade association said: ‘Hey we’re the victims.  You know none of the bad stuff happened because the lenders wanted to engage in this fraud,’ and the FBI believed them if you can believe that!”

Black is not just some angry academic.  Besides being a Professor of Economics at the University of Missouri KC, he is also a former bank regulator and an expert in crimes committed by CEO’s.  He thinks Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and Attorney General Eric Holder should be fired so real regulators can get to work on prosecutions of crime throughout the entire industry.  And get this, just last week, Black adamantly claimed that “major frauds continue,” at all the big banks.  

Again, Black said, “80% of the loans were fraudulent.” He also said in this segment (but wasn’t included in the clip) that, “securitized mortgage instruments are all fraudulent.” That means trillions of dollars in MBS’s are worthless!  Foreclosuregate is a gargantuan financial mess, and federal and state regulators have not found a single crime in all of this to prosecute?  Clearly, the U.S. government and both political parties are shielding the perpetrators.  

Oh wait!  The SEC did fine Angelo Mozilo, the former head of Countrywide Financial Corp., $67.5 million in penalties to settle civil fraud and insider-trading charges.  Mozilo ripped-off hundreds of millions of dollars, and he pays a fine that amounts to a parking ticket for a man of his wealth?   Is that the same as a criminal prosecution?  I don’t think so!!  (Click here for more on the Mozilo story from The WSJ.)

So, if you are or have been committing document, tax, security, rating or foreclosure fraud, you don’t have a thing to worry about.  Keep doing what you’ve been doing because you are committing “the perfect no prosecution crime.”  

According to the financial elites, these crimes are essential to keep the American economy running smoothly. 

Courtesy of USAWatchdog.com