Glenn Beck Calls for Theocracy in U.S.

Glenn Beck Leads Religious Rally at Lincoln Memorial - NYTimes.com

An enormous and impassioned crowd rallied at the steps of the Lincoln Memorial this weekend, summoned by Glenn Beck, a conservative broadcaster who called for a religious rebirth in America at the site where the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech exactly 47 years earlier.

Glenn Beck and other conservatives want U.S. government power used to further their holy war goals.

Colorado Using Iris Scan Technology Right Out of Minority Report

FOX News Tries to Demonize NYC Mosque Funders...Turns Out It's Same Guy That Owns Good Chunk of FOX News

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
The Parent Company Trap
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Tea Party

Why do people watch that channel? Can it be any more clear that its simply propaganda?

MUST READ: America's Top Military Chief: Debt is Main Threat to U.S. National Security ... Pentagon Must Cut Spending

Washington's Blog

The national debt is the single biggest threat to national security, according to Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Tax payers will be paying around $600 billion in interest on the national debt by 2012, the chairman told students and local leaders in Detroit.

For how long have I been preaching this now? Believe me yet, or do you need a more credible source than the head of the military saying we're spending too much on the military?

"Enron Accounting" Has Bankrupted America: U.S. Deficit Really $202 Trillion, Kotlikoff Says

"Enron Accounting" Has Bankrupted America: U.S. Deficit Really $202 Trillion, Kotlikoff Says: Tech Ticker, Yahoo! Finance

But the situation is actually much, much worse, according to Boston University economics professor Laurence Kotlikoff.

“Forget the official debt,” he tells Aaron in this clip. The “real” deficit - including non-budgetary items like unfunded liabilities of Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and the defense budget - is actually $202 trillion, the professor and author calculates; or 15 times the “official" numbers.

Uhhh....do you take credit cards?

Full-Body Scan Technology Deployed In Street-Roving Vans

Full-Body Scan Technology Deployed In Street-Roving Vans - Andy Greenberg - The Firewall - Forbes

As the privacy controversy around full-body security scans begins to simmer, it’s worth noting that courthouses and airport security checkpoints aren’t the only places where backscatter x-ray vision is being deployed. The same technology, capable of seeing through clothes and walls, has also been rolling out on U.S. streets.

How about this?  You feel they've crossed the line yet?

Cash For Clunkers Pushes Used Car Prices Up As Much as 30%

WIOD NewsRadio 610 - News | Traffic | Weather - 24

If buying a used car is among your cost-cutting measures...be prepared to pay up to 30-percent more than you did last year.  It is a simple case of supply and demand.  Trouble is...there are fewer used cars.  The cash-for-clunkers program took a bunch off the market.

Government intervention only temporarily changes the market. It doesn't solve problems. The distortions confuse consumers and unfairly distribute benefits.

'Pain Beam' to Be Installed in LA Jail

'Pain Beam' to Be Installed in Los Angeles Jail - AOL News

An invisible heat-beam weapon developed in secrecy by the military is set for use in a U.S. jail.

Law enforcement officials recently revealed plans to use the nonlethal device at the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department's Pitchess Detention Center, according to the Los Angeles Daily News. The weapon, which shoots an invisible beam of energy, would be used in the prisoners' dormitory to stop an assault or break up a fight.

How about torture devices in our prisons? Does that convince you that we've gone too far? Does that get you mad enough?

The Government Can Use GPS to Track Your Moves

The Government's New Right to Track Your Every Move With GPS - TIME

Government agents can sneak onto your property in the middle of the night, put a GPS device on the bottom of your car and keep track of everywhere you go. This doesn't violate your Fourth Amendment rights, because you do not have any reasonable expectation of privacy in your own driveway — and no reasonable expectation that the government isn't tracking your movements.

That is the bizarre — and scary — rule that now applies in California and eight other Western states. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which covers this vast jurisdiction, recently decided the government can monitor you in this way virtually anytime it wants — with no need for a search warrant.

Are you mad yet? No? Seriously, what does it take for you?

Cutbacks Force Police to Curtail Calls for Fraud, Burglary, and Theft

Cutbacks force police to curtail calls for some crimes - USATODAY.com

Budget cuts are forcing police around the country to stop responding to fraud, burglary and theft calls as officers focus limited resources on violent crime.

...and the majority of that violent crime is drug-related. Let's let cops get back to doing their jobs. If you want to argue that people don't need guns, then you better make sure cops are going to burglary calls.

Can Government Affect Manufacturing Employment?

CHART OF THE DAY: Here's The Trend Obama Is Fighting, If He Wants To Save American Manufacturing

The economy goes in and out, and from time to time the US manufacturing sector booms. But this chart, put together by Paul Kedrosky, makes it pretty clear: as a share of total non-farm payrolls, manufacturing jobs are only going in one direction (down).

This just shows you that as much as you all think government can "save" jobs, and keep manufacturing jobs in the U.S., it cannot. There are other, larger forces at work (like huge hourly wage discrepancies between countries that the market naturally wants to even out) that simply are too powerful. All the power and money you give to the government, and it cannot provide what it tells you it can. Aren't you starting to feel foolish?

MSNBC Gets All Gushy Over Ron Paul's Mosque Stance

When I watch this, it makes me think mainstream media people don't understand the concept of freedom. They're stuck in the false left/right, Repub/Dem dynamic, and they get confused when they see Dr. Paul speak on these issues. "Whoa! A Republican that supports civil rights! What a scoop!"

Why can't Dems and Repubs see that their segmented freedom concept is silly? Why freedom here and not there? The same concepts underlie civil as well as economic freedom. How are they able to separate it in their heads?

230 cases of wrong convictions in US

[redacted] news: 230 cases of wrong convictions in US

An inquiry in the US has revealed that corrupt officials in North Carolina have deliberately withheld or distorted evidence in over two hundred judicial cases.

"Corrupt officials." What corrupted them? Were they born that way? Or was it the power given them that did it? The unnatural power to control people's lives, corrupts the soul. Want to save some souls, take that power away.

Combat brigades in Iraq under different name

Combat brigades in Iraq under different name - Army News

So while the “last full U.S. combat brigade” have left Iraq, just under 50,000 soldiers from specially trained heavy, infantry and Stryker brigades will stay, as well as two combat aviation brigades.

So, while the news hyped combat forces leaving Iraq, all that really happened was they changed the name of the brigades.  Welcome to propaganda.

MUST SEE VIDEO: Former Fed Governor Gets Caught Lying on His Resume

Watch Former Fed Governor Fred "Napoleon Dynamite" Mishkin In Dire Need Of A Diaper Change | zero hedge

...once again confirms that not only is the Fed populated by the most intellectually incapable and corrupt people, but that anything coming out of Columbia University (and the Ivy League in general) is not worth the paper it is printed on. Watch the attached clip to see a former Fed director go from comfortable, to fidgety, to stuttering, to thoroughly discredited, to in dire need of diaper change, in under 2 minutes. Last but not least, here is the soundbite of the year: "You have faith in the central bank." No further comment necessary.

What a great video!  For all of you that have great faith in the Federal Reserve because you assume they know better than the rest of us, or better than the market, or can predict or regulate with some effectiveness, please watch this clip closely.  The guy has no clue.  He wrote a paper months before Iceland collapsed saying it was sound!  He says be based HIS opinion on "trust" of ICELAND'S central bankers!

Come on.  Do you really need more proof than this that the Fed is total bullshit?  A corrupt ruse to make you think they are providing a benefit to the system.  Apparently, it's a clip from an upcoming documentary by Charles Ferguson, called Inside Job. 

Former FBI Agent Divulges New Info on Kennedy Assassination

U.S. to spend $100 million on Afghan bases

U.S. to spend $100 million on Afghan bases :: www.uruknet.info

KABUL, Afghanistan, Aug. 22 (UPI) -- The Pentagon says it plans to spend $100 million on air base expansions in Afghanistan with construction efforts continuing into at least 2011.

While roads, bridges, and dams are falling apart here.

Water supplied in Gaza unfit for drinking; Israel prevents entry of materials needed to repair system

Water supplied in Gaza unfit for drinking; Israel prevents entry of materials needed to repair system :: www.uruknet.info

Almost 95 percent of the water pumped in the Gaza Strip is polluted and unfit for drinking. This warning was recently issued by the UN Environment Programme, the Palestinian Water Authority, the Coastal Municipalities Water Utility, and international aid organizations.

Sure, the blockade is just for protection...

Silent Star Wars

Taliban takes hold in once-peaceful northern Afghanistan

Taliban takes hold in once-peaceful northern Afghanistan

In squads of roaring dirt bikes and armed to the teeth, Taliban fighters are spreading like a brush fire into remote and defenseless villages across northern Afghanistan.

The fighters swarm into town, assemble the villagers and announce Taliban control, often at night and without any resistance.

According to Petraeus, everything is going just fine.

Pentagon Going into Afghan Carpet Business...Seriously

U.S. set to award $1 million contract to expand the market for Afghan carpets

Now, U.S. officials, hoping to stem what they see as a huge loss of potential income and jobs for Afghans, are getting into the rug business.

The Pentagon is poised to award a one-year, no-bid contract worth about $1 million to Tremayne Consulting to expand the market for Afghan carpets, a senior defense official said, speaking anonymously under rules set by the Pentagon.

Your tax dollars setting up an Afghan carpet business. Just think about the justice of that when you're cashing your unemployment check.

Big Brother: Obama Demands Access to Internet Records, in Secret, and Without Court Review

Big Brother: Obama Demands Access to Internet Records, in Secret, and Without Court Review

The Obama administration is seeking authority from Congress that would compel internet service providers (ISPs) to turn over records of an individual's internet activity for use in secretive FBI probes.

In another instance where Americans are urged to trust their political minders, The Washington Post reported last month that "the administration wants to add just four words--'electronic communication transactional records'--to a list of items that the law says the FBI may demand without a judge's approval."

Wait a second, aren't liberals supposed to be champions of privacy rights? Hmmm...So, if Dems and Repubs aren't for privacy. And if liberals nor conservatives are for those rights. Then who's left? Answer: libertarians.

Harvard University Endowment Fund Sells All Israel Holdings

Harvard University fund sells all Israel holdings | My Catbird Seat

In another blow to Israeli shares, the Harvard Management Company notified the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Friday that it had sold all its holdings in Israeli companies during the second quarter of 2010. No reason for the sale was mentioned. The Harvard Management Company manages Harvard University’s endowment.

Boycotts are an effective libertarian way to encourage change. Good for Harvard!

The World's Greatest Spy Capers

The World's Greatest Spy Capers - Newsweek

Still, it got NEWSWEEK all nostalgic for the glory days of the CIA and KGB, when every covert rendezvous in a faraway capital might be blown up by an exploding cigar. Even then, some of the cleverest, sneakiest, and strangest operations were undone—by small mistakes, good counterintelligence, or dumb luck. To put the current caper in context, here are some of our favorite real-life episodes of espionage (the ones we know about, anyway).

OK, so here we have:
- U.S. spying on U.N. ambassadors
- U.S. starts coup in Iran in 1952
- false-flag operation by Israel firebombing civilians to try and make it look like it was a terrorist group
- A CIA-supported coup of democratically-elected Congo prime minister
- U.S.-supported killing of Moroccan dissident
- Eight assassination attempts on Castro by CIA

So, why is it so hard for Americans to filter today's news through a skeptical filter? This stuff happens. It only seems reasonable to second-guess certain political game-changing events. But, when I do it, I'm called a conspiracy theorist. I don't think everything that happens is a CIA plot, but taking all news stories at face value seems even more foolish to me.

We're Not The First Empire To Have A Serious Currency Problem

CHART OF THE DAY: We're Not The First Empire To Have A Serious Currency Problem

The U.S. government's current debt problem is perceived to be a once in a life time event by some, but governments have long been suffering from debt worries.

Take the Roman Empire which, in 55 BC, was already concerned about its public debt and the devaluing of its currency against silver. Note complaints about "public assistance" even back then.

It had a great many more years of decline before its demise, but the devaluation of the Roman currency seems to have played some part in the collapse of the period's largest empire.

Learn from history, or be forced to repeat it.

How Leveraged Are We?

CHART OF THE DAY: The 60-Year-Old World Credit Bubble That Could Be Deflating Right Now - Business Insider

Christopher Laird explains this chart as follows:

The point of emphasizing it's from the end of WW2 is that we are not talking merely about a banking crisis, or whatever. We are talking about the deleveraging of the greatest economic/finance bubble in history. Once the level of leverage reached 60 to 1, it becomes impossible to stay ahead of the deleveraging, even for central banks. The implications are staggering. Every major economy in the world is involved. The outcomes of deleveraging this monster bubble, represented by the green oval, will be what I term Credit Crisis II. At 60 to 1 leverage, a loss of 1 to 2% wipes out the capital.

In other words, the system keeps paying for their bills with more and more credit. There is an endgame to this behavior, and eventually the debt collector will come. The worse the debt, the more the pain.

Credit Card Companies Rigging the System Against You

Another Senate Charade -- RollingStone.com

In Washington, of course, it's another story. Finance/Credit companies spent well over $30 million in lobbying in each of the last two years. If you take a look at contributions to Banking Committee members, you always find Finance and Credit companies at or near the top of the list. The credit card companies' dominance of congress was never more apparent than in the Bankruptcy Bill back in 2005, which essentially made it impossible for people with credit card debt to file for bankruptcy to keep their houses.

Do not underestimate the importance of the Bankruptcy Bill. In essence, the credit card companies convinced Congress to alter a private contract between you and them. The contract used to be that the 20% rate they charged was acceptable because when you went bankrupt, they got nothing. Now, they changed it. Now you can't. Loans like this pay a much different rate in a free market, more like 4%. But, because you wanted to give lots of power to do "good" things, they have just enslaved a whole boatload of poor people to debt enslavement for decades.

Here's America's Nightmare Austerity Scenario

CHART OF THE DAY: Here's America's Nightmare Austerity Scenario - Business Insider

The Congressional Budget Office has released their report on the threat of a fiscal crisis in the U.S. and it makes for informative reading. Most interesting would be the CBO's two conflicting visions for where the country's debt levels are headed, and what actions will need to be taken to prevent a fiscal crisis in either outcome.

According to the CBO, if the government follows its baseline scenario for spending, there will need to be additional cuts to spending of 1% of GDP to prevent an increase in the U.S. debt to GDP ratio in the next 25 years. In the alternative scenario, the government would need to make cuts equal to 5% of GDP.

The baseline scenario is spending under current law. The alternative scenario includes changes to law that are anticipated by the CBO (this includes the extension of the Bush tax cuts and increased Medicare spending).

How do you feel about all those "necessary" spending programs now?

Economy Recovers Slower in Recent Decades

Chart of the Day - Time for Unemployment to Drop below Recession-end Level

For some perspective on the current state of the labor market, today's chart illustrates the amount of time it took for the unemployment rate to ultimately dip below (and stay below) its recession-end level for each recession since the late 1940s. For example, at the end of the recession that ended in November 1982, the unemployment rate stood at 10.8%. As the chart illustrates, it took two months for the unemployment rate to drop below (and stay below) the recession-end level of 10.8%. It is noteworthy that, over the past two decades, it has taken significantly longer (on average) for the unemployment rate to drop below its recession-end level. The reasons for this increased time for the unemployment rate to turn around varies. However, one explanation has it that following World War II, the US found itself in a strong/dominant economic position. It took time, but eventually many of the remaining world economies began to recover and we are currently witnessing increased competition as a result of the rise of the rest.

The U.S. has more competition. The U.S. has more debt. These things mean that the assumptions you are making about the U.S.'s ability to recover may be faulty, based on backward-looking analysis.

University of South Florida Says Government Tried to Squelch Their Oil Plume Findings

USF says government tried to squelch their oil plume findings - St. Petersburg Times

A month after the Deepwater Horizon disaster began, scientists from the University of South Florida made a startling announcement. They had found signs that the oil spewing from the well had formed a 6-mile-wide plume snaking along in the deepest recesses of the gulf.

The reaction that USF announcement received from the Coast Guard and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the federal agencies that sponsored their research:

Shut up.

"I got lambasted by the Coast Guard and NOAA when we said there was undersea oil," USF marine sciences dean William Hogarth said. Some officials even told him to retract USF's public announcement, he said, comparing it to being "beat up" by federal officials.

So, you assume the Feds are working for YOU, huh?

A Really Long View Of Inflation Shows That It's All The Fed's Fault

CHART OF THE DAY: A Really Long View Of Inflation Shows That It's All The Fed's Fault - Business Insider

In its latest investor letter, Matterhorn Asset Management warns of a hyperinflationary depression worse than Japan's, as piles and piles of worthless paper collapse in on themselves.

Who do they blame for this predicament? The Fed, of course.

In this chart, they claim to back-measure the CPI going to 1800, and the point to take away is that while there were inflationary spells in the past, what really got the ball rolling was the creation of The Federal Reserve and the dissolution of the gold standard.

You see where on the chart the Fed was created, right?

U.S. soldiers surrounded by enemies as locals throw rocks, curse troops in Afghanistan

U.S. soldiers surrounded by enemies as locals throw rocks, curse troops in Afghanistan

The children of Kandahar don't greet U.S. and NATO trucks with flowers. They often hurl rocks in the crumbling mud-brick neighborhoods where the U.S. aims to crush the insurgency by year's end.

Winning hearts and minds.

USA criminalises giving humanitarian aid to Gaza

Crony Capitalism

Notice how debt is used to control.

Legalise heroin and cocaine to cut crime and improve health, top doctor says

Prof Ian Gilmore: Legalise heroin and cocaine to cut crime and improve health | Mail Online

Personal drug use should be legalised to cut crime and improve health, a top doctor has said.

Professor Sir Ian Gilmore, the outgoing president of the Royal College of Physicians, suggested that relaxing the law on possessing substances such as heroin, cocaine and cannabis would not increase the number of addicts.

This could save vast amounts of taxpayers' money, he suggests.

Judge Orders Gitmo Detainee Released, Citing Lack of Evidence

Judge Orders Gitmo Detainee Released, Citing Lack of Evidence -- News from Antiwar.com

In a “secret ruling” by Federal Judge Henry Kennedy which was issued in July but released to the public today, the judge ordered Adnan Farhan Abd Al Latif released after ruling that not only did the government have no evidence of wrongdoing by Latif, but that he provided “a plausible alternative story to explain his travel.”
...
Latif was reportedly abused for years while in custody at Guantanamo
Bay, and his judge had to file an “emergency motion” to require that
prison officials provide him with a mattress and blanket. A second
motion was then made to try to get him a pillow, but this was denied.

Nine years, folks. Nine years. We tortured him with no evidence.

Karzai wants private security firms out of Afghanistan

Karzai wants private security firms out of Afghanistan

American officials were stunned Monday by a surprise announcement from President Hamid Karzai's spokesman calling for the dissolution within four months of the private security companies that foreign armies and aid organizations in Afghanistan rely on to do their daily work.

Interesting. Just as the U.S. media is hyping the "combat" forces exiting Iraq, leaving behind a ton of hundreds of thousands of private security people, Karzai is demanding they leave.

By the way, the "embassy" in Iraq is larger than Vatican City. Do you really think the U.S. is "leaving" Iraq?

George Soros slashes exposure to US equities

George Soros slashes exposure to US equities - Telegraph

The legendary investor's Soros Fund Management – which has approximately $25bn (£16bn) under management – reduced its equity investments by 42pc to $5.1bn by the end of June, down from $8.8bn at the end of March.

What have you got in your 401k?

CDC Says Seafood from Gulf Is Safe, But Is It?

Washington's Blog

The Centers of Disease Control (CDC) just announced:

For the seafood to pose a health risk, the food would have to be heavily contaminated with oil, and would therefore have a strong odor and taste of oil.

That is patently untrue.

As I pointed out in June:

Crude oil contains such powerful cancer-causing chemicals as benzene, toluene, heavy metals and arsenic.

***

As Bloomberg notes:

“Oil is a complex mixture containing substances like benzene, heavy metals, arsenic, and polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons -- all known to cause human health problems such as cancer, birth defects or miscarriages,” said Kenneth Olden, founding dean of New York’s CUNY School of Public Health at Hunter College, who is monitoring a panel on possible delayed effects.

Corexit breaks oil down into its constituent chemicals. So there could easily be toxic levels in the compounds that don't smell anything like oil.

For example, arsenic is odorless. So fish contaminated with arsenic will not smell or taste like oil.

Long-Form Census Asks Disturbingly Personal Questions (video)

- What time do you leave for work?
- Is there anyone with emotional disorders in the home?

Link