Retired Marine Sergeant R. Lee Ermey Tells It Like It Is (Video)

On the last day of 2010 let's throw out the old and bring in the new. Retired Marine Sergeant R. Lee Ermey does not mince any words on what needs throwing out in this country. You tell 'em Sarge! Oooooooo Raaaaahhhhhh!!

Retired drill instructor R. Lee Ermey took an opportunity to rail against the Obama administration during an appearance at a live broadcast to benefit the USO.

The retired Marine vet stressed that the Marines’ Toys 4 Tots program was working through the struggling economy to bring holiday cheer to young boys and girls, but also delivered a political punch to the Obama administration which he claimed was trying to destroy the country by imposing socialism. 

God Bless The United States Marine Corps, Sgt. Ermey, and God Bless America!!

Here's Wishing For A Happy New Year Full of Hope and Change (Not The Obama Kind Either!)

The Scary Actual U.S. Government Debt - The US is Bankrupt!

Boston University economist Laurence Kotlikoff says U.S. government debt is not $13.5-trillion (U.S.), which is 60 per cent of current gross domestic product, as global investors and American taxpayers think, but rather 14-fold higher: $200-trillion – 840 per cent of current GDP. “Let’s get real,” Prof. Kotlikoff says. “The U.S. is bankrupt.”

Writing in the September issue of Finance and Development, a journal of the International Monetary Fund, Prof. Kotlikoff says the IMF itself has quietly confirmed that the U.S. is in terrible fiscal trouble – far worse than the Washington-based lender of last resort has previously acknowledged. “The U.S. fiscal gap is huge,” the IMF asserted in a June report. 

“Closing the fiscal gap requires a permanent annual fiscal adjustment equal to about 14 per cent of U.S. GDP.”

This sum is equal to all current U.S. federal taxes combined. The consequences of the IMF’s fiscal fix, a doubling of federal taxes in perpetuity, would be appalling – and possibly worse than appalling.

Prof. Kotlikoff says: “The IMF is saying that, to close this fiscal gap [by taxation], would require an immediate and permanent doubling of our personal income taxes, our corporate taxes and all other federal taxes.

“America’s fiscal gap is enormous – so massive that closing it appears impossible without immediate and radical reforms to its health care, tax and Social Security systems – as well as military and other discretionary spending cuts.”

He cites earlier calculations by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) that concluded that the United States would need to increase tax revenue by 12 percentage points of GDP to bring revenue into line with spending commitments. 

But the CBO calculations assumed that the growth of government programs (including Medicare) would be cut by one-third in the short term and by two-thirds in the long term.
This assumption, Prof. Kotlikoff notes, is politically implausible – if not politically impossible.

One way or another, the fiscal gap must be closed. If not, the country’s spending will forever exceed its revenue growth, and no one’s real debt can increase faster than his real income forever.

Prof. Kotlikoff uses “fiscal gap,” not the accumulation of deficits, to define public debt. The fiscal gap is the difference between a government’s projected revenue (expressed in today’s dollar value) and its projected spending (also expressed in today’s dollar value). By this measure, the United States is in worse shape than Greece.

Prof. Kotlikoff is a noted economist. He is a research associate at the U.S. National Bureau of Economic Research. He is a former senior economist with then-president Ronald Reagan’s Council of Economic Advisers. He has served as a consultant with governments around the world. He is the author (or co-author) of 14 books: Jimmy Stewart Is Dead (2010), his most recent book, explains his recommendations for reform.

He says the U.S. cannot end its fiscal crisis by increasing taxes. He opposes further stimulus spending because it will simply increase the debt. But he does suggest reforms that would help – most of which would require a significant withering away of the state. He proposes that the government give every person an annual voucher for health care, provided that the total cost not exceed 10 per cent of GDP. (U.S. health care now consumes 16 per cent of GDP.) He suggests the replacement of all current federal taxes with a single consumption tax of 18 per cent. He calls for government-sponsored personal retirement accounts, with the government making contributions only for the poor, the unemployed and people with disabilities.

Without drastic reform, Prof. Kotlikoff says, the only alternative would be a massive printing of money by the U.S. Treasury – and hyperinflation.

As former president Bill Clinton once prematurely said, the era of big government is over. In the coming years, the U.S. will almost certainly be compelled to deconstruct its welfare state.

Prof. Kotlikoff doesn’t trust government accounting, or government regulation. The official vocabulary (deficit, debt, transfer payment, tax, borrowing), he says, is vulnerable to official manipulation and off-the-books deceit. He calls it “Enron accounting.” He also calls it a lie. Here is an economist who speaks plainly, as the legendary straight-shooting film star Jimmy Stewart did for an earlier generation.

But Prof. Kotlikoff’s economic genre isn’t the Western. It’s the horror story – “and scarier,” one reviewer of his book suggests, than Stephen King.

Article by Neil Reynolds, The Globe and Mail

Want To Get Away With Murder? Become a Bank! (Video)

As the US economy continues to struggle, it seems Wall Street and big banks are doing better than ever. The income disparity gap in the United States is the largest of all the developed industrial nations. The Trends Research Institute Director Gerald Celente says the American Empire is collapsing and the banks have committed the greatest bank robbery in the history of the world.

Want to get away with murder? Become a bank!

The companies that helped create the financial meltdown that touched off the Great Recession have found yet another way to undermine the public's faith in capitalism: The Foreclosure Fiasco

GMAC and Bank of America have now resumed foreclosures in some states. By the time you see this, J.P. Morgan may have done so too.

The biggest danger to the U.S. capitalist system doesn't come from communists or community activists or left-wing academics. It comes from some of the nation's biggest financial institutions. These companies, which helped create the financial meltdown that touched off the Great Recession, have now found yet another way to undermine the public's faith in capitalism and markets: the foreclosure fiasco.

Even before the foreclosure problem appeared, the level of public distrust of our financial and political systems was approaching the pathological. It's going to get even worse when the true lesson of this episode sinks in. To wit: If you screw up big-time when you deal with a giant bank, you're toast. If the giant bank screws up when it deals with you, it gets a do-over.

Article by Allan Sloan, Fortune

Read the full story here.

Muslim Brotherhood Front Group Trains Airport Screeners

Talk about letting the foxes guard the hen house! WTF are those lunatics in Washington thinking??

The Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) has completed training for 2,200 Transportation Safety Officers (TSOs) at the Los Angeles International Airport according to a press release found on the MPAC website.

Article courtesy of WesternJournalism.com

The MPAC release notes that the two-month training course informed officers of “the diversity of Muslims around the world from cultural dress to language to tenets. The four trainers taught the TSOs how to properly handle a Quran and discussed the different ways Muslim women and men choose to cover or dress. For example, the TSOs learned if a woman wears hijab and needs a secondary screening she should be screened in a private area by a female TSO officer.”

In 1986, MPAC was formed as a political action arm of one of the largest Wahhabi mosques in America, the Islamic Center for Southern California.

As the Center for Security Policy’s Team B II report entitled “Sharia: The Threat to America” notes, “The founders of the Islamic Center for Southern California are Hassan Hathout and his brother Maher Hathout. The late Hassan Hathout was a senior member of the Muslim Brotherhood Movement. The two brothers Maher spent time in an Egyptian prison during the early days of the Muslim Brotherhood’s activities there, led by the Brotherhood’s founder Hassan Al Banna. MPAC’s own publication, The Minaret, has proudly called Hassan a ‘companion of’ and Maher ‘a close disciple of’ Brotherhood founder Hassan al Banna.”

Maher Hathout also founded and is currently a senior advisor for MPAC. He and others at MPAC also currently work for and maintain a close relationship with the Islamic Center of Southern California.

A Different Christmas Poem (Video)

A beautiful Christmas poem written by one of our men in uniform serving his country.

Whether you support US foreign policy or not, there is no excuse for not supporting our troops. 

God Bless Our Troops. God Bless Our Country

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

Buffalo, N.Y. Teachers Spend $9M in Taxpayer Cash in '09 on Cosmetic Surgery

Another reason to banish unions in America. Have these people no shame?

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Buffalo teachers left taxpayers on the hook for nearly $9 million worth of cosmetic surgery last year, according to the state-appointed authority overseeing public school finances.

The Buffalo Fiscal Stability Authority found that last year's costs for elective procedures such as chemical peels and other skin treatments were up $8 million over 2004's $1 million tab for cosmetic surgery.

The procedures, provided under the teachers' union contract, accounted for 9 percent of the district's total spending on health benefits for employees and retirees, The Buffalo News reported Thursday.

About 10,000 school employees are eligible for the benefit. District officials said teachers or their dependents accounted for 90 percent of the approximately 500 people who received cosmetic surgery last year.

Barbara J. Smith, the district's chief financial officer, said those 500 people represent less than 2 percent of those covered by health insurance through the district -- a figure she estimated works out to an average of nearly $18,000 in elective procedures last year per employee who used the benefit.

The president of the Buffalo Teachers Federation said the union has agreed to give up the benefit in the next contract and said teachers may be simply rushing to use the benefit while they can.

"We've already told them we're going to give [it] up in these negotiations," Philip Rumore, president of the teacher union, told the newspaper. "We've told everybody it's going to be gone in the next contract."

Board of Education member Christopher Jacobs said the cost increase "smacks of abuse" and is asking the district and the city comptroller to investigate.

Smith told the newspaper that the issue of the rider came up during the district's budget talks last spring.

"We asked the unions to forgo the cosmetic surgery rider for one year, so we could use the money to reduce the number of layoffs," she told the newspaper. "They weren't interested."

Rumore said the benefit is a negotiated item -- one that his union is willing to give up only as part of contract negotiations, which he expects to begin by the end of the year.

Article courtesy of AP

NSA’s Newest Recruiters: Cartoon-Leopard Twins

National Security Administration uses cartoon propaganda to manipulate young children into spying on each other for the government.

Dudes and dudettes: You know what’s totally radical? Reading your neighbors’ e-mail! So don’t you wanna be a junior National Security Agency deputy?

If so, the surveillance and cryptology crew at NSA has the right online companions for you: Cy and Cyndi, a pair of anthropomorphic snow leopards now kickin’ it with the CryptoKids, the Puzzle Palace’s team of cartoon animal hackers. Known as the CyberTwins and unveiled by NSA yesterday, Cy and Cyndi wear gaming headgear, talk into their hands-free mobile devices, and teach youths about proper online hygiene, all on the NSA website’s kids page, which actually exists.

Arriving in time for (the second half of) National Cybersecurity Awareness Month, the CyberTwins have a backstory to appeal to military kids: Their mom is a government engineer, their dad is an Army computer scientist, and they “love to talk with other kids who love computers and cyber space as much as they do.”

That fits them right in with the other CryptoKids — a goateed turtle named T-Top whose uncle works for a computer manufacturer, Sergeant Sam the eagle who joined the military out of high school — who guide real-live youth through online crypto-themed puzzles and brainteasers. (Only one thing’s missing from the CryptoTwins’ rollout: cybersecurity tips for the underage.)

All this is a reminder that the most informative element of any spy agency’s website is its Kiddie Korner, where spycraft meets the schoolyard for an awkward, barely appropriate encounter. The CIA offers a world-explorer videogame starring Carmen Sandiego–esque junior officer Ava Shoephone, a trenchcoated operative who throws out trivia questions from the agency’s World Factbook.

The National Counterterrorism Center introduces you to “your NCTC friends,” Becker the Eagle and Little Lady Liberty. And the FBI has games — represented by an icon of the old Nintendo cartridges — like Special Agent Undercover, in which grade-school kids disguise themselves with mustaches to fool people.

As Noah Shachtman wrote a couple of years ago, only the government knows how earnest or how absurd these sites are intended to be. They do, however, inculcate the message that a career in spycraft is totally extreme. “Cryptology is making and breaking codes. It’s so cool,” NSA’s kids page explains. “You might be part of the next generation of America’s codemakers and codebreakers.” 

Then again, is a kid precocious enough to spend time on a surveillance and crypto agency’s website really going to be impressed by a snow leopard with a BlueTooth in her ear?

Hot off the press! Updated image shows real names of CryptoKids

Article by Spencer Ackerman, Courtesy of Wired.com

League of Women Voters Gets Schooled by True Americans (Video)

Some Americans are tired of being told that God and Patriotism have no place in this country. At a recent debate between left wing Rep. Melissa Bean and her GOP challenger Joe Walsh, the League of Women Voters didn’t want to begin the proceedings with the Pledge of Allegiance. The audience had a different view of things. 

If you think something is not brewing in America, you can't smell the coffee!

Colgate Accused of Stealing Thousand-Year-Old Toothpaste

Another case of Big Business squeezing profits from the pockets of the disadvantaged. Thankfully the truth is out on this one and Colgate Palmolive will not be able to put the toothpaste back into the tube.

 

 A legal dispute between the U.S. and India over a herbal toothpaste was leaving a bitter aftertaste between the two countries Thursday, with Colgate Palmolive accused of filing a bogus patent.

Colgate, the world’s largest producer of toothpaste, patented a toothcleaning powder in the hope that it would take the multibillion-dollar Indian oral hygiene market by storm.

However, Indian activists claim that the patent is bogus because the ingredients -- including clove oil, camphor, black pepper and spearmint -- have been used for the same purpose for hundreds, “if not thousands,” of years on the subcontinent.

The dispute is likely to become a test case for who owns India’s folk medicines -- a repository potentially worth billions.

The American household goods giant was granted the patent in the U.S. in June for what it claimed was a groundbreaking “red herbal dentifrice.” The patent, the Indian activists allege, is the latest act of “biopiracy” - whereby Western corporations plunder techniques, plants or genes used in the emerging world for centuries, for commercial profit.

“This toothpowder is classical in origin,” said Devender Triguna, the president of the Association of Manufactures of Ayurvedic Medicines, an Indian body that promotes traditional remedies. It is demanding that the Indian government take legal action against Colgate.

“The ingredients date back to antiquity. They have been used by the common Indian man for thousands of years. So how can it possibly be patented?” Triguna asked.

Colgate did not respond to a request for comment. However, its patent filing argues that the use of red iron oxide, which is less abrasive than ingredients in traditional toothpaste, is new.

The case is the latest to anger India as it becomes increasingly vocal over the alleged pillaging of its ancient knowledge for commercial gain. It is one of 17 nations to form the Group of Like-Minded Megadiverse Countries, an alliance that has accused richer countries of tapping the emerging world’s natural resources for medicines and cosmetics without paying royalties.

India is in the process of creating 34 million webpages to document its ancient medicinal techniques to stop them from being claimed by foreign profiteers.

Article courtesy of MyFox

BOONDOGGLE IN THE MOTOR CITY - DETROIT'S TRAIN TO NOWHERE (Video)

Once again corrupt politicians are directing taxpayer's dollars to their pet projects instead of for the overall good of the people. This latest "pig in a poke" is a $500 million light rail project for the nearly abandoned city of Detroit. What's next you ask? A bridge to Hawaii? Don't bet against it..

Detroit has become a place Hollywood directors come for great wreckage shots. One quarter of the city's 140 square miles are deserted. Detroit public school students boast the nation’s worst reading scores, the products of a corruption-ridden school system that recently flirted with bankruptcy. 

Detroit bested Baltimore in 2009 to take the dreaded “murder capital” title. It may also be the worst place in the country to have a heart attack: prepare to wait half an hour for an ambulance.

In a town lacking essential services, what do local leaders and federal politicians have in mind for helping the city? What's needed to hoist Detroit back to its 1950 heyday, when it was America's fourth largest city, with more than double its current population?

Why...light rail, of course!

The Motor City is moving ahead with a plan to build a 9.3-mile light rail line that will run from downtown Detroit to the edge of the suburbs. It’ll cost an estimated $500 million. Three-quarters of the bill will be paid by federal taxpayers, with the rest picked up by a consortium of foundations and businesses.

If built, the project will end up on the Mackinac Center's list of government-subsidized white elephants touted as “crucial to Detroit’s comeback,” its “rebirth,” and pivotal to “turning things around." In reality, it’ll just be another train to nowhere, much like Detroit’s existing light rail line, the unfortunately named "People Mover,” which operates at 2.5% of capacity.

For more on Detroit’s light rail folly, check out Reason Foundation’s Adrian Moore and Shikha Dalmia's rebuttal to PBS’s recent documentary, “Beyond the Motor City,” which laid out the case that light rail can, yes, "revive" Detroit. 

Courtesy of ReasonTV