Saturday, April 30, 2011

"A Month In Perspective", April 30 2011

V - You Are The Resistance Bumper Sticker
(shop at infowars.com; bumper sticker pictured here)

Where do I begin?

I will try to be consistens with these specific "Month in Perspective" blogs.  I think it's the most important part of the site.  What better way to look at things with a new, fresh perspective than to consider everything that happens in a month's time and consider solutions to all the problems?  Even if one cannot possibly identify solutions to the colossal failures of our government, one can imagine the possibilities of fixing what isn't beyond repair.  In our current situation, we are very close to being beyond aid, but it's not to late.

There are many iminent issues most Americans are hopefully aware of: Obama's attack on the second amendment, how the FCC wants total control of the internet, how the FTC wants to tax the internet, how the FEC is attacking Campaign for Liberty and even demanding the names and other personal information of their donors, the devastating effect the REAL ID ACT will have on people, the skyrocketing prices of gas, food, clothing, bills, the dismal collapse of the US dollar, Obama's bluff, FEMA death camps, how Americans voted against the bank bailout and yet it was passed regardless, the cause and path of Japan's true devastation, TSA's abuse of power since 9/11, Texas rewriting history books, giving it a more Christian edge, how large banks control the world and where they get that control from, the housing crisis, how much of the government's secret agencies are funded by drug money, how FDA does not have the best interests in the health of the American people and how vaccinations are anything but worthwhile, how Donald Trump running for president is a joke, the current war between US and China for superpower, a broken and worsening economy while CEOs and Big Businesses continue to flourish and even claim record-breaking profits, how college - as good as an idea as it is - is a financial trap, how mother nature isnt the cause of all this crazy weather and the fact that global warming is a total scam that made Gore billions, how the first amendment is under attack by governments not just American and how they are scared to death of the 'truth movement', and how Ron Paul is our only hope in making a broken and useless government that operates beyond its means without say from the American people a government that, as the Declaration of Independence states, derives its power from the governed.

That's hardly HALF of everything going on in the world today, but these are pressing matters we face as of current.  Big Pharma claims we are a sick nation and we need them to make us better when we are nothing but lied to, overworked, incredibly underpaid (when it comes to needless debt and high bills), and being driven to madness, and yet we continue to nod our heads in obedience to Big Brother as if their medicine and their 'truth' will heal us, guide us, and care for us. 

With that said, many of us are still lying to ourselves.  We are in wars we can't afford and shouldn't be fighting, we are consumed with entertainment to keep us blind from the government's MANY wrongdoings (thank you, WikiLeaks).  While the government overtaxes the poor and middle-class and hardly taxes the rich and spends billions we dont have on things they refuse to acknowledge or go into detail on or claim is for our 'nation's safety', we struggle to make ends meet or find jobs.  They aren't struggling.  They're all rich.  They made the system the way it is.

Face it, America is inarguably facing its end.  We're hardly 200 years old and already we've allowed politics to run so free and rampant that their agendas and unquenchable thirst for power has lead to the destruction of a once great nation.  We are not free.  We are slaves.  The shackles of slavery were abandoned in exchange for a different form of slavery still in place today - the work force. The American dream is dead and this country is quickly becoming what Nazi Germany once was (go figure, the same people who funded it are behind our collapse).  It is true; history repeats itself because there are a handful of men who write history, and they make sure certain events take place.  They make sure everything that happens happens with the power they've given themselves.  In secret, and for decades, this has been the true America.  Anyone who attempts to disrupt their agenda is killed or imprisoned and considered a terrorist.  Fear is their ultimate weapon, but we must use PEACE when striking back.  There will be chaos, no doubt.  A government that consistently lies to its people and refuses to relinquish its power will no doubt do everything they can to keep their power, even if it means the deaths of millions.  The people behind the curtains will do everything they can to remain hidden, while controlling the government with their wallets.

There is a major change on the horizon.  The question remains whether that change will be in favor of rebuilding our republic into the free and prosperous nation we were, or whether we will allow the government to systematically take everything from us by force, if not by fear.

We can start with presidential hopeful Ron Paul, but until then we must stand up for ourselves and stop relying so heavily on the government.  Read the Declaration of Independence.  It really isn't that difficult.

Ron Paul to Decided on 2012 Race, April 30 2011

by Nevada News Bereau

RENO – Texas Congressman Ron Paul said today he will decide “before June” whether to make another bid for president as a Republican candidate in 2012.

Paul, 75, in an interview before a breakfast at the Washoe County Republican Party office, formed an official exploratory committee on Tuesday in advance of GOP debates set for May.

“I personally have some reservations about what is required – the money raising; is the support there; do you sound credible; do people really want me to – and that’s why I’ve been going around the country and the reception has been pretty good,” he said.

Fox News and the South Carolina Republican Party are scheduled to hold a debate May 5 in Greenville, S.C.

Paul, R-Tex., has run for president twice, first as a Libertarian candidate in 1988 and a second time as a Republican in 2008. He is one of several potential Republican candidates to visit Nevada recently, including former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty and, on Thursday, Donald Trump.

Nevada is an early caucus state for the Republican primary, with a date set for Feb. 18, 2012. It will be the third contest nationwide and the first in the West.

Asked what sets him apart from other potential candidates, Paul said: “The rule of law. That we ought to live within the confines of the Constitution. That we shouldn’t fight wars that are undeclared. We shouldn’t print money when it’s not allowed. We shouldn’t run up deficits.

“They say we’re on the fringe, but I think people who think we should have an empire, people who print money when they need it, and deficits don’t matter, I mean we’ve finally gotten to the point where everybody says, ‘hey, maybe we’ve over done it,’ ” he said. “I would say that they are the radicals and we are the moderates who just want to get back to common sense.”

Paul said it isn’t that the issues he raises are moving to the mainstream, but that “people are starting to recognize that what we are doing really doesn’t make any sense.”

Ralph McMullen, chairman of the Washoe County Republican Party, said he was pleased to have Paul visit in part to make up for the controversy at the 2008 Nevada Republican Party state convention.

The convention ended up in disarray after Paul supporters positioned themselves to win delegates to the national convention over GOP nominee John McCain. The convention ended up being shut down, and McMullen said the bad feelings from the incident likely played a role in Sue Lowden’s performance in the Republican primary in last year’s U.S. Senate race. Lowden was the GOP chairwoman at the time.

Sharron Angle ended up winning the primary but losing to Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev.

Asked about the “birther” controversy regarding President Obama’s birthplace, Paul said he would rather talk about more important issues. The release this week of Obama’s birth document should put the matter to rest, but Paul said the controversy never focused on the real issue, which is that Obama’s mother was a U.S. citizen and so his birthplace would not have mattered.

“I do think the war and the dangerous situation with the dollar and the debt, in perspective, those are much more important issues,” he said.

House of Windsor Thirst for Power, April 30 2011

http://www.prisonplanet.com/webster-tarpley-in-studio-origins-of-the-house-of-windsor-and-their-thirst-for-ulitmate-power.html

Japan Nuclear Advisor Resigns, April 30 2011

by AFP

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hWdEPbHMJXfP59yYEQ1nqFiFfDow?docId=CNG.0e07ddd149e63d7c8ba38a85ade09bce.7d1

NATO Dismisses Truce Offcer, April 30 2011

by presstv.ir

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) operating in Libya has dismissed the country’s ruler Muammar Gaddafi’s proposal of a ceasefire.

Earlier, Gaddafi asked the NATO member states involved in Libya operations to start negotiations to stop the air attacks, saying he was ready to make oil contracts with Western countries if it was the real motive behind the strikes.

Despite Gaddafi’s offer of a truce, his forces continued shelling the besieged city of Misratah, aggravating the humanitarian situation for the residents of the city.

Libyan revolutionaries say Gaddafi tanks took positions on the airport road Thursday night and shelled homes in Misratah, trying to get into the city but were kept back.

Gaddafi regime has threatened to attack any ships trying to get aid to people. Libyan government has said the only possible humanitarian route is by road and under the supervision of the army.

British Brigadier Rob Weighill, director of NATO operations in Libya, says they intercepted several Libyan boats putting anti-shipping mines outside the harbor of Misratah to cut aid route to the city. NATO said they deposed three mines early Friday.

Why Audit the Fed Failed in 2010, April 30 2011

dated July 3 2010

Ron Paul's attempt to audit the Federal Reserve, which was previously co-sponsored by 320 members of the House (HR 1207), failed by a vote of 229-198.  All Republicans voted in favor of the measure with 23 Democrats crossing the aisle to vote with Republicans.  122 co-sponsored of HR 1207, all Democrats jumped ship and voted against the measure.  Here are those flip-flop votes:

Ackerman
Adler (NJ)
Altmire

Andrews
Arcuri
Baca
Baird
Baldwin
Barrow

Bean
Becerra
Berkley
Berman
Berry
Bishop (GA)
Bishop (NY)

Blumenauer
Boccieri
Boren
Boswell
Boyd

Brady (PA)
Braley (IA)
Bright
Brown, Corrine

Butterfield
Capps
Capuano
Cardoza
Carnahan
Carson (IN)
Castor (FL)
Chandler
Chu

Clarke
Clay
Cleaver
Clyburn
Cohen
Connolly (VA)
Conyers
Cooper
Costa
Costello
Courtney
Crowley
Cuellar
Cummings
Dahlkemper
Davis (AL)
Davis (CA)
Davis (IL)
Davis (TN)
DeFazio

DeGette
Delahunt
DeLauro
Deutch
Dicks
Dingell
Doggett
Donnelly (IN)
Doyle
Driehaus
Edwards (MD)

Ellison
Ellsworth
Engel
Eshoo
Etheridge
Farr
Fattah
Filner
Foster
Frank (MA)
Fudge
Garamendi
Gonzalez
Gordon (TN)
Green, Al
Green, Gene
Grijalva
Gutierrez
Hall (NY)
Halvorson
Hare
Harman

Hastings (FL)
Heinrich
Herseth Sandlin
Higgins
Hill

Himes
Hinchey
Hinojosa
Hirono
Holden

Holt
Honda
Hoyer
Inslee
Isra-el
Jackson (IL)
Jackson Lee (TX)
Johnson (GA)
Johnson, E. B.
Kagen

Kanjorski
Kaptur
Kennedy
Kildee
Kilpatrick (MI)

Kilroy
Kind
Kissell
Klein (FL)
Kosmas
Kucinich
Langevin

Larsen (WA)
Larson (CT)
Lee (CA)
Levin
Lewis (GA)
Loebsack
Lofgren, Zoe

Lowey
Luján
Lynch
Maffei
Maloney
Markey (MA)
Marshall
Matheson
Matsui
McCarthy (NY)
McCollum
McDermott
McGovern

McMahon
Meek (FL)
Meeks (NY)
Melancon
Michaud
Miller (NC)

Miller, George
Mollohan
Moore (KS)
Moore (WI)
Moran (VA)
Murphy (CT)
Murphy (NY)
Murphy, Patrick
Nadler (NY)
Napolitano
Neal (MA)
Oberstar
Obey
Olver
Ortiz
Owens
Pallone
Pascrell
Pastor (AZ)
Payne
Perlmutter

Peters
Peterson
Pingree (ME)
Polis (CO)

Pomeroy
Price (NC)
Quigley
Rahall
Rangel
Reyes
Richardson
Rodriguez

Rothman (NJ)
Roybal-Allard
Ruppersberger
Rush
Ryan (OH)
Salazar

Sánchez, Linda T.
Sanchez, Loretta
Sarbanes
Schakowsky
Schauer
Schiff
Schrader

Schwartz
Scott (GA)
Scott (VA)
Serrano
Sestak
Shea-Porter
Sherman
Shuler

Sires
Slaughter
Smith (WA)
Snyder
Speier
Spratt
Stark

Stupak
Sutton
Tanner
Thompson (CA)
Thompson (MS)
Tierney
Tonko

Towns
Tsongas
Van Hollen
Velázquez
Visclosky
Walz

Wasserman Schultz
Waters
Watson
Watt
Waxman
Weiner
Welch

Wilson (OH)
Wu
Yarmuth


And, as if they didn't know which way to vote, here are others who didn't vote at all:

Bishop (UT)

Taylor
Wamp
Woolsey
Young (AK)

Friday, April 29, 2011

Marilyn Monroe, April 29 2011

This isnt a very important blog, but like JFK (since she was in love with him), any surfacing information is always important since the News is practically guaranteed to lie to you.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/8482373/Marilyn-Monroe-spent-last-night-alive-with-mafia-boss.html

Worst WikiLeaks Cables Yet to Come, April 29 2011

by Russia Today

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vT5gE83fkxo&feature=channel_video_title

The man behind WikiLeaks says his website’s revelations are just the tip of the iceberg. In an exclusive interview with RT, Julian Assange said it is only a matter of time before more damaging information becomes known. The publication of confidential cables proved deeply embarrassing for the US and other countries.

“If we look at our work over the last 12 moths, think about that. All these stories that have come out actually happened in the world, before 2010, but people didn’t know about it. So what is it that we don’t know about now? There’s an enormous hidden world out there that we don’t know about. It exists there right now.”

Assange claims the data released by WikiLeaks is not even the most important and calls on people not to believe that the information they receive from the media is all that is happening. “We only released secret, classified, confidential material. We didn’t have any top secret cables. The really embarrassing stuff, the really serious stuff wasn’t in our collection to release. But it is still out there.” Watch the full version of that interview with Julian Assange, on Monday on RT.

Riverside, CA Fading Away, April 29 2011

There is much talk in Washington, D.C. that the economic recovery is underway, but in some parts of the America, like in Riverside, Ca., the economy continues to take a downward spiral.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksVeWlsEdt0&feature=player_embedded

You're Distracted. WAKE UP, April 29 2011

by EndoftheAmericandream.com

Have you caught “royal wedding fever” yet?  The union of Prince William and Kate Middleton is already being called “the wedding of the century” and it will almost certainly be the most watched event in the entire world this year.  The mainstream media is spending endless hours covering every conceivable angle of this wedding.  With all of the hype surrounding this wedding, you would almost be tempted to think that America has now officially adopted British royalty as our own.  Worship and adoration of the royal family is at a fever pitch in the United States right now, which is kind of ironic considering the fact that we fought two wars against the tyranny of that monarchy.  If only George Washington and the boys could see us now.  Sadly, the American people love to be entertained and they are very easily distracted from the very real problems facing this nation.  In past years, celebrities such as OJ Simpson, Anna Nicole Smith, Michael Jackson and Britney Spears dominated the news.  Today Americans are distracted by the royal wedding, American Idol, Dancing with the Stars, Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga.  In our entertainment-addicted society, the time for average Americans to set aside the distractions and focus on real issues never seems to come.

During the decline of ancient Rome, average citizens were kept occupied with “bread and circuses”.  Today, we are kept occupied with a dizzying array of entertainment options.  Millions of Americans have become so addicted to entertainment that they literally cannot stand to be alone in their homes without some form of entertainment going on in the background.

Amazingly, the average American now watches 34 hours of television a week.  That doesn’t even count all of the hours that we spend watching DVDs or going to the movies.

When most of us get into our vehicles we immediately turn on the radio or put on a CD.  Artists such as Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga are national heroes.

In the United States today, 88 percent of all children between the ages of 8 and 18 play video games. 

Millions of them spend so many hours playing video games that they have developed very serious health and social problems.

On top of everything else, tens of millions of Americans are absolutely addicted to the Internet.  It has gotten so bad that “Internet addiction recovery programs” have started popping up all over the United States.

We love to be entertained.  We love to be distracted.  We love to have fun.

Unfortunately, what most of us don’t like is to focus on real issues.

The following are some of the ways that the American people are currently being distracted….

#1 The Royal Wedding – It is being projected that a whopping 2 billion people around the globe will watch the royal wedding.  Women all over the globe are breathlessly anticipating that first glimpse of Kate Middleton’s dress.  Isn’t she just lovely?  Don’t they make such a charming couple?  For many Americans, this will be the most important event of the year.

Meanwhile, the U.S. economy continues to bleed jobs at an absolutely astounding pace.  Millions of good jobs are being sent overseas and unemployment in the United States is rampant.  In fact, the United States has lost an average of 50,000 manufacturing jobs per month since China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001.

As a result of these ongoing changes, the U.S. economy will very soon no longer be the biggest economy in the world.  Ten years ago, the U.S. economy was three times as large as the Chinese economy, but now China will pass the United States and will become the largest economy in the world in 2016 according to the IMF.

#2 American Idol – Who is going to win American Idol this year?  Will it be country singer Scotty McCreery?  Will it be rocker James Durbin?  Will the southern charm of Lauren Alaina take her over the top?  It has been a wonderful year for American Idol and the American people can’t seem to get enough of this new crop of stars.

Meanwhile, the average American family is really struggling to deal with soaring costs for food and gas.  In a recent survey conducted by Deloitte Consulting, 74 percent of Americans said that they planned to slow down their spending in coming months due to rising prices.

#3 Dancing With The Stars – Chris Jericho got eliminated from Dancing with the Stars on Tuesday night.  He certainly gave it his best shot.  Let’s have a moment of silence as we remember his journey on the show.
Meanwhile, the U.S. housing crisis just continues to get worse.  Home prices continue to fall with no end in sight.  There just are not many qualified buyers out there right now.  During the first three months of this year, less new homes were sold in the U.S. than in any three month period ever recorded.

#4 Justin Bieber – Did you know that you can get a Justin Bieber singing toothbrush now?  It’s true!  Now you can have Justin Bieber with you even while you are brushing your teeth.  Did you also know that Justin Bieber was just named one of the top 100 most influential people by Time Magazine?  Life is really sweet right now if you are Justin Bieber.

Meanwhile, as the U.S. economy declines some of our greatest cities are being transformed into hellholes.
 
In the city of Detroit today, there are over 33,000 abandoned houses, 70 schools are being permanently closed down, the mayor wants to bulldoze one-fourth of the city and you can literally buy a house for one dollar in the worst areas.

All over the nation social services are being cut back and teachers are being fired.  Just this week, authorities in Philadelphia announced that 3,820 school employees will likely be laid off.  That number includes 12 percent of all the public school teachers in Philadelphia.  Other areas of the country are making much deeper cuts.

#5 The NFL Draft – The NFL Draft is this weekend!  Will Cam Newton be the number one overall pick?  Will the Denver Broncos trade the second pick?  Will Mel Kiper lose his temper and start yelling at the camera again?  If you love the NFL, this is a great weekend for you.

Meanwhile, the U.S. health care industry has become a giant money making scam.  The chairman of Aetna, the third largest health insurance company in the United States, brought in a staggering $68.7 million during 2010. Ron Williams exercised stock options that were worth approximately $50.3 million and he raked in an additional $18.4 million in wages and other forms of compensation.  The funny thing is that he left the company and didn’t even work the whole year.

While corporate fatcats are raking in massive amounts of money, average Americans are having a very hard time dealing with healthcare costs.  One study found that approximately 41 percent of working age Americans either have medical bill problems or are currently paying off medical debt.  Obamacare is not going to help this one bit.

#6 The Sony PlayStation Crisis – For millions of video game addicts, the biggest news in the world right now is that Sony’s PlayStation Network has been down for 11 straight days.  According to Reuters, it might cost credit card companies somewhere in the neighborhood of 300 million dollars to replace all of the credit cards that were compromised.  Many video game addicts have been traumatized as they have been forced to step away from their consoles long enough to rediscover the “real world”.

Meanwhile, the U.S. military is involved in three wars in the Middle East with no end in sight.  It is becoming extremely expensive for us to continue to be the police of the world.  The United States already accounts for 46.5% of all military spending on the globe.  China is next with only 6.6%.

#7 Lady Gaga – Lady Gaga made headlines all over the world recently when she released a song entitled “Judas” just before the recent holidays.  In the song, the phrase “I love Judas” is repeated over and over and over.  Lady Gaga also says that Judas is the “demon she clings to” in the song.  But instead of this resulting in national outrage, Lady Gaga has more fans than ever and she is considered a national hero.

Meanwhile, the Japanese nuclear crisis continues to get worse and the Japanese economy is showing signs of seriously falling apart. Radiation levels at Fukushima have now risen to the highest levels yet recorded.  Some scientists are even concerned that significant areas of northern Japan could end up uninhabitable as a result of this crisis.  At the same time, Standard and Poor’s is warning that the cost of rebuilding Japan could hit 50 trillion yen.  They have also downgraded the outlook for Japanese government debt from “stable” to “negative”.

#8 Michael Scott Leaves The Office – Are you going to watch Steve Carell’s final episode of The Office tonight?  I sure will be.  The Office is one of the last great television comedies.  It is going to be the end of an era.  Television will never be the same again.

Meanwhile, the student loan debt bubble just continues to get worse by the day.  The cost of college tuition in the United States has gone up by over 900 percent since 1978.  The total amount of student loan debt in the United States is rapidly closing in on a trillion dollars, and millions upon millions of young Americans are being absolutely crushed by devastating debt loads.

#9 The New Harry Potter Movie – Are all of you Harry Potter fans getting excited?  A new trailer and some new photos from the upcoming film have been released.  Thanks to the Harry Potter franchise, we have millions of young boys and girls that love to pretend to be witches and wizards.  More young people than ever are fascinated by “magic” and interest in witchcraft in the United States has never been higher.

Meanwhile, U.S. government debt has soared well past 14 trillion dollars and the U.S. dollar is dying.  Standard & Poor’s has altered its outlook on U.S. government debt from “stable” to “negative” and is warning that the U.S. could soon lose its AAA rating.  Millions of our young people can tell you all about Harry Potter, but very few of those same young people are able to adequately describe what the Federal Reserve is or how money is created in this country.

#10 Facebook – Today, Facebook has over 500 million users.  It has become a worldwide phenomenon.  Tens of millions of Americans are totally addicted. One study conducted by Oxygen Media and Lightspeed Research found that 39% of American adults are self-described “Facebook addicts” and that one-third of all women between the ages of 18 and 34 “check Facebook first thing in the morning, even before brushing their teeth or going to the bathroom.”

Meanwhile, the U.S. is becoming more of a “Big Brother police state” every single day.  At one public school in the Chicago area, children have been banned from bringing their lunches from home.  A former Miss America was recently reduced to tears after her private areas were repeatedly touched during one of the new “enhanced pat-downs” that the Obama administration has implemented at U.S. airports.  The sad truth is that we are no longer the land of the free and the home of the brave.

When will the American people overcome their addiction to entertainment and wake up to the horrible things that are going on all around us?

Losing Faith (In the U.S. Economy), April 29 2011

by the Economic Collapse

Are the American people losing faith in the U.S. economy?  The statistics that you are about to read might surprise you.  Not everyone believes that the U.S. economy is dying (there are still millions out there that will swallow anything that the mainstream media tells them), but the reality is that there is a growing chunk of the population that has completely lost faith in our leaders and in our economic system.  A brand new Gallup poll has found that the number of Americans that believe that we are in a “depression” is actually larger than the number of Americans that believe that the economy is “growing”.  That is absolutely shocking because according to official government figures, the U.S. economy is growing right now and virtually nobody in the mainstream media or the government has used the term “depression” to describe the economic downturn that we went through recently.  In fact, according to Gallup a total of 55% of the American people believe that we are either in a recession or a depression right now.  This is clear evidence that the American people are losing faith in U.S. government economic statistics and instead they are basing their opinions on what they see in their own communities.  Despite the pablum about an “economic recovery” constantly being spewed by Ben Bernanke and Barack Obama, faith in our economic system continues to decline.  The truth is that the American people are not stupid.  They can see what is happening to the economy.

Back when I was a teenager, one day I walked over to the local McDonald’s and filled out an application and was immediately hired.

But that is not how it works today.

Recently, McDonald’s made headlines when they held a National Hiring Day.  Some commentators pointed to that event as evidence that the economy was recovering.

Well, you know what?  McDonald’s ended up receiving approximately one million applications.

So how many of those people did McDonald’s hire?

They hired about 62,000 people.

That means that somewhere around 938,000 eager job applicants were turned away.

Just think about that.

Only about 6.2 percent of those that applied for a job at McDonald’s were accepted.

As Joe Weisenthal of Business Insider recently pointed out, that means that Harvard now has a higher acceptance rate than McDonald’s does.

Harvard accepts about 7% of those that apply to go to school there.

Who ever thought we would see the day when a higher percentage of applicants get accepted into Harvard than get hired at McDonald’s?

Sadly, the number of jobs continues to shrink.  The competition for good jobs has become absolutely crazy.

Only 66.8% of American men had a job last year.  That was the lowest level that has ever been recorded in all of U.S. history.

So why is this happening?  Well, there are a lot of reasons, but as I have written about previously, the fact that millions of our jobs are being shipped overseas is a huge factor.

Without good jobs, an increasing number of Americans are being forced to turn to government assistance in order to survive.

Today, more than 44 million Americans are on food stamps.  In addition, government transfer payments now make up 18 percent of all personal income in the United States.

That is frightening.

Things have gotten so bad that now even Wal-Mart is warning that their customers are running out of money.

A large percentage of Wal-Mart customers are just surviving month to month and Wal-Mart has been noticing a huge drop off in sales towards the end of the month when their customers run out of cash.  The following is what the CEO of Wal-Mart had to say about this phenomenon recently….
“Purchases are really dropping off by the end of the month even more than last year.”
People are starting to get desperate.  When economic times get tough, crime tends to increase.  Sadly, as a report in USA Today recently noted, thefts of gasoline are increasing all over the nation.

We never had this kind of a problem back when a gallon of gas only was about a dollar a gallon.

Do you remember those days?

They weren't that long ago.

Now it takes some people over a hundred dollars to fill up their gas tanks.

Our leaders keep promising that they know what is happening and that they are going to fix things, but most Americans are not buying it.  Many Americans are completely losing faith in the system altogether.

Our economic decline has been one of the things that has fueled the growth of the prepper movement. 

Millions of Americans have decided that they want to start becoming independent of the system.  One recent article described what some residents of Colorado are doing to prepare, but the truth is that this phenomenon is happening all over the nation….
A Black Forest resident has erected a geodesic dome on her 5-acre spread to grow vegetables, keeps horses for emergency transportation, in case she can’t get gasoline for her car, and plans to acquire chickens and goats as food sources.
A husband and wife who have a cabin on 100 acres of secluded land in Park County have weaned their property from the electric grid, acquired a three-year food supply and taken other measures to become self-sufficient.
Of course the mainstream media loves to portray preppers as “crazies”, but as the U.S. economy continues to die it would be a bit crazy not to prepare.

No job is completely safe today.  Millions of Americans that assumed that their “good jobs” would always be there have had their lives shattered over the past couple of years.

There is nothing wrong with trying to become more self-sufficient.

Everyone should be thinking about either starting up a business or developing alternative sources of income. 

Yes, it can be exhausting to work on a side business during evening and weekends, but the time for loafing is over.  Those that are going to make it through the times ahead are those that are going to be willing to work really hard.

People need to start thinking about becoming less dependent on “the system” however they can.  One way to insulate yourself against rising food prices is to learn how to grow your own food.

Even if you only have a very small amount of room you can still grow your own food.  For example, there is one family that is actually producing 6000 pounds of produce on just 1/10th of an acre right in the middle of Pasadena, California.

Just because we have lost some of the basic skills that previous generations possessed doesn’t mean that we can’t get them back.  Back during World War II, “victory gardens” enabled Americans to grow 40 percent of all the vegetables that they needed.  Those gardens greatly contributed to the war effort and helped Americans get through some very difficult times.

There are a lot of preppers out there that are totally out of debt, that own their own land, that are entirely off the electrical grid and that grow most of their own food.  Many Americans would look at such people as “crazies” but those preppers will be in a much better position than most people when the economy totally collapses.

Don’t wait until it is too late to prepare.  Millions of Americans are completely losing faith in our economic system.  People are smart.  They can see that we are living in the biggest debt bubble in the history of the world.  They can see that the guts of our economic infrastructure are being ripped out and shredded.  They can see that the number of people living in poverty continues to increase year after year.  They can see the the number of good jobs continues to decrease year after year.

When you see a horrible storm coming the rational thing to do is to prepare.  Just think about all of those tornadoes that ravaged the southeast U.S. the other day.  Most of the people directly in the path of those tornadoes did whatever they could to survive when they realized the twisters were about to hit.

Well, a horrific economic storm is coming.  Every American will be affected by this economic storm at least to some extent.  We all need to prepare while we still can.

Let's Get One Thing Straight, April 29 2011

Obama's birth certificate is NOT the issue.  As much as I would love to know the truth, this is a fog screen meant to distract the American people from real issues.

by Tony Cartalucci
prisonplanet.com

Of course, a candidate must meet legal requirements before running for public office. This is a universally agreed upon concept which has been enumerated in laws in every nation, since the beginning of human civilization. However, for those who deeply examine the United States and how it has drifted from a constitutional republic to the corporate-financier oligarchy it is today, they might realize the futility of arguing over “President” Obama’s qualifications for an office that has long been ceremonial, if not entirely theatrical.

Obamas Birth Certificate: Not the Issue  Bankers

Like it or not, your real government consists of unelected bankers and corporate special interests. The argument that Obama’ birth certificate makes-or-breaks his legitimacy pales in comparison to the realization that the entire office of the president has been usurped for at least 2 decades.

The corporate-financier agenda transcends presidencies. From Reagan to Obama, US foreign and domestic policy has moved in a continuously linear direction toward increasing corporate-financial monopolies and eroding the role and sovereignty of the US Constitution and the people who are supposed to execute it. In 1991, “Neo-Conservative” war monger Paul Wolfowitz stated that the Middle East would be turned upside down and reordered in America’s favor – ironically, this operation which has been piecemeal planned and executed year-by-year since then, is finally unfolding in its entirety under the supposedly “liberal” Obama administration.

Likewise, the seemingly “liberal” free-trade agreements pushed by Clinton, were expanded into the beginnings of the supernational Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America under the supposedly “conservative” Bush administration. Of course, theblueprints for the SPP or the geopolitical reordering of the Middle East weren’t drawn up by presidential administrations nor committees amongst America’s elected representatives, but rather by unelected corporate-funded think-tanks like the Council on Foreign Relations or the Brookings Institute. These think-tanks represent the collective interests of the largest corporations and financial institutions on earth and are the real, often obscure architects of both American and European foreign and domestic policy.

The only difference one can delineate then, is the brand of propaganda used during each supposedly ideologically differentiated political administration to sell this unipolar, unilateral, continuous agenda to the public as it creeps forward. But even upon examining each presidential administration, we are struck with names and affiliations of members who directly represent these corporate interests. To illustrate how entirely ineffectual and meaningless “Obama” is as a president, let’s examine some key members of his administration and what their affiliations are.

Timothy Geithner (Secretary of the Treasury): Group of 30Council on Foreign Relations, private Federal Reserve
Eric Holder (Attorney General): 
Covington & Burling lobbying for Merck and representingChiquita International Brands in lawsuits brought by relatives of people killed by Colombian terrorists.
Eric Shinseki (Secretary of Veteran Affairs): US Army, 
Council on Foreign Relations,Honeywell director (military contractor), Ducommun director (military contractor).
Rahm Emanuel (former Chief of Staff): 
Freddie Mac
William Daley (Chief of Staff): JP Morgan executive committee member
Susan Rice (UN Ambassador): 
McKinsey and Company, Brookings Institute, Council on Foreign Relations
Peter Orszag, (former Budget Director): 
Citi Group, Council on Foreign Relations
Paul Volcker: 
Council on Foreign Relations, private Federal Reserve, Group of 30
Ronald Kirk (US Trade Representative): lobbyist, part of Goldman Sachs, Kohlberg, Kravis, Roberts, and Texas Pacific Group partnership to buyout Energy Future Holdings.
Lawrence Summers (National Economic Council Director): 
World Bank, Council on Foreign Relations

Who amongst Obama’s administration can we honestly presume has the people’s, or even America’s best interests at heart? Goldman Sachs bankers? JP Morgan bankers? Corporate lobbyists? Indeed, these are the same banking, corporate, and political interests that guided the agenda under Bush, Clinton, Bush Sr., Regan and so on. While there is some debate over which US president was in fact the last “real” president who exercised an agenda it genuinely could claim ownership over, there is no doubt that over the last two decades the same corporate interests have been entirely steering America’s people and their destiny with but the veneer of “democracy.”

Had John McCain won the elections in 2008, you could rest assured he would have taken US policy in the exact same direction Obama is going today. In fact, McCain is one of the key players who has helped fund and organize the current unrest sweeping the Middle East, along with a myriad of other “Republicans” and “Neo-Conservatives.” The “Arab Spring” itself was planned and being staged before Obama even took office.

Ideologically, President Obama’s qualifications are important and many are right to question them.

Realistically, they are a red herring, as is his entire presidency. He is in charge of exactly nothing, most likely not even the tie he puts on in the morning and surely not the words that come out of his mouth. His entire function is to perpetuate the facade that America is still run by an elected government and not an illegitimate oligarchy of corporations and financial institutions. Arguing over his birth certificate engenders him with legitimacy in and of itself – suggesting that if he had proper qualifications he would be a “legitimate” president.

But he, like his predecessor Bush, are both entirely illegitimate, as is the system they purportedly preside over.

Recognizing this grave reality, and instead concentrating on the corporate-financier interests that have hijacked American politics is essential to restoring a true constitutional republic. For it is not whose hands we think hold the power, it is in whose hands that really hold the power that shapes US policy. Definitively, US policy does not favor the people, definitively the power is not in the people’s hands. As long as we grasp to the illusion that through the futile exercise of elections we are somehow “in control,” it will remain this way perpetually. The fact that our president is in charge of absolutely nothing and that his duties have long been shifted to an unelected corporate-financier oligarchy is the issue, not his dubious qualifications.

Obama Working to Attack Gun Rights, April 29 2011

by Paul Joseph Watson
prisonplanet.com

Administration has cited gun smuggling from U.S. to Mexico as reason to chill gun rights, despite the fact that federal government program deliberately delivered firearms to Mexican drug lords.

According to a little noticed quote in the Washington Post earlier this month which has attracted virtually no media attention, President Obama told gun control advocate Sarah Brady that his administration is working “under the radar” to sneak attack the second amendment rights of American citizens.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEYuzOHItmg&feature=player_embedded

During a March 30 meeting between Jim and Sarah Brady and White House Press Secretary Jay Carney, at which Obama “dropped in,” the president reportedly told Brady, “I just want you to know that we are working on it (gun control)….We have to go through a few processes, but under the radar.”

The quote appeared in an April 11 Washington Post story about Obama’s gun control czar Steve Croley.
“What is truly startling about this story is the way it has been totally ignored by the rest of the media,” writes Jeff Knox….”Even the folks at the Brady bunch are not spreading the news about the stunning reassurances from the president. There is nothing on their website discussing or even mentioning Obama’s chat with Jim and Sarah.”

The Obama administration has repeatedly invoked rhetoric about the flow of guns being smuggled from the U.S. into Mexico as a talking point with which to chill gun rights of American citizens.
Just months into his term in the Oval Office, Obama told Mexican President Felipe Calderon that the U.S. was to blame for much of Mexico’s drug violence because of firearms that were purchased in America.

“I will not pretend that this is Mexico’s responsibility alone. The demand for these drugs in the United States is what’s helping keep these cartels in business,” Obama told Calderon during a press conference. “This war is being waged with guns purchased not here, but in the United States. More than 90 percent of the guns recovered in Mexico come from the United States, many from gun shops that line our shared border.”

However, it was recently revealed that the U.S. government itself was responsible for smuggling guns over the border which ended up directly in the hands of Mexican drug lords. Under operation “Fast and Furious,” the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives “Sanctioned the purchase of weapons in U.S. gun shops and tracked the smuggling route to the Mexican border. Reportedly, more than 2,500 firearms were sold to straw buyers who then handed off the weapons to gunrunners under the nose of ATF.”

The ATF claimed the program was an effort to identify criminals by seeing where the guns ended up, but once across the border, “the agency seemed to lose track of the weapons,” reports Laura Carlsen. The firearms ended up in the hands of Mexico’s ruthless crime gangs and have been used to kill U.S. border agents and other innocent people.

When confronted on the issue, Obama simply denied all knowledge of the program.

In addition, as we reported earlier this week, Jesus Vicente Zambada Niebla, the “logistical coordinator” for a top Mexican drug-trafficking gang, Sinaloa, that was responsible for purchasing the CIA torture jet that crashed with four tons on cocaine on board back in 2007, also obtained guns from the U.S. that were later used to kill people in Mexico City. Niebla recently told the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois in Chicago that he has been working for the U.S. government since January 2004.

Despite these revelations, the Obama administration is still pushing ahead with a proposal to force gun dealers in Arizona, Texas, New Mexico and California to report the sales of two or more semi-automatic rifles to the same person at one time or during any five business days directly to the the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Could the plan to make gun dealers in these four states report to the government who is purchasing firearms be part of the sneak attack Obama promised Brady last month?

Obama attracted the fury of gun rights activists in 2008 when he said that Americans frustrated with the declining economy “cling to guns or religion” as a means of relieving their stress.

Protestors Beware, April 29 2011

by Cambridge News

Activist Charlie Veitch who was planning to stage an anti-state protest in London at the royal wedding was arrested by police ahead of the event.

Mr. Veitch, who lives off Midsummer Common in Cambridge, and set up a group called the Love Police, had previously told the News he and other group members planned to pull out megaphones as the royal procession approached.

Silkie Carlo, 21, a second year student at Cambridge University studying politics and psychology, said Mr. Veitch, her boyfriend, was arrested yesterday (Thursday) at 5 pm.

He was arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to cause public nuisance.

Miss Carlo added: “He was arrested as part of a political victimisation campaign.

“What he does is he is a filmmaker who uses a megaphone. He’s quite known for being harmless, peaceful and vocal.

“One of the things we specialise in is hugging police. It is fun to film. They are friends rather than enemies so this is quite unprecedented.

“This is a free speech crime but worse that that it’s a free speech pre-crime.”

Miss Carlo said: “The royal wedding itself is a public nuisance. I don’t consider a democratic protest to be a public nuisance.”

She said 20 to 30 people fathered outside Parkside police station between 930 and midnight yesterday, adding there would be a similar protest today at 3 pm.

Terry Oaks, who lives in Cambridge and attended the demonstration outside Parkside on Thursday night, said: "Cambridge residents are appalled that the Government has so little respect for the right to protest that they are arresting people across the country for even thinking about protesting at the royal wedding."

“The public is footing the £20 million bill for the wedding, but we are being denied the right to voice our opinions, just as the government has been suppressing our right to protest against the welfare cuts which are hitting the poorest the hardest."

A spokeswoman from Cambridgeshire police said: "We arrested a 30-year-old man yesterday on behalf of Met Police.  He was firstly taken to Parskide police station but the Met have since taken him down to London."

A spokesman from Met Police said: “Officers arrested a man in Cambridgeshire yesterday on suspicion of conspiracy to cause public nuisance and to prevent breach of peace. He remains in custody.”

For more information, visit: http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Royal-Wedding/Royal-Wedding-Huge-Security-Operation-Swings-Into-Action-In-Westminster/Article/201104415981730?lpos=Royal_Wedding_First_Home_Article_Teaser_Region_1&lid=ARTICLE_15981730_Royal_Wedding%3A_Huge_Security_Operation_Swings_Into_Action_In_Westminster

and http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/apr/28/bahraini-linked-to-torture-royal-wedding

Gold & Silver Craze, April 29 2011

by Gold Core

Gold rose to new record nominal highs at $1,540.85/oz in early Asian trading last night. Silver and gold remain very close to nominal highs today as the beleaguered US dollar remains under pressure due to ultra loose US monetary policies, deepening inflationary price pressures and concerns about the feeble economic recovery.

Secret Silver Buying by Russian Billionaire, Chinese Traders, and Peoples Bank of China to Lead to Comex Silver Default?
Cross Currency Table
Gold has risen 8% this month and silver 28% due to the very poor US monetary and fiscal position, the Eurozone debt crisis and in the background the Japanese nuclear crisis, and geopolitical instability in the Africa and the Middle East. This is continuing to lead to diversification into the precious metals.

COMEX Silver Default?

A number of readers contacted us yesterday to comment critically on our advice to “as ever” … “ignore the daily noise and focus on the long term and the fundamentals driving these markets.”

Secret Silver Buying by Russian Billionaire, Chinese Traders, and Peoples Bank of China to Lead to Comex Silver Default?
Comex Silver Inventory Data
They felt that it was linked to the paragraph above regarding a possible COMEX default and was suggesting that rumours of a run on COMEX depositories was “noise”.


We were not suggesting that and with hindsight the juxtaposition of this sentence in the immediate aftermath of the paragraph regarding the COMEX was unfortunate and ripe for misinterpretation.

Let us reiterate a COMEX default on delivery of precious metals and specifically of silver bullion bars is far from “noise”. It is of significant importance and that is why we have covered its possibility for some months.

A COMEX default would have massive ramifications for precious metals markets, for the wider commodity markets, for the dollar, fiat currencies and our modern financial system.

Silver surged 3.4% yesterday to settle at a 31-year nominal high, and rose by $1.55 on the day. Silver is up some 28% in April alone. The last time this happened was when Warren Buffett took a large stake in silver in 1987 and there were rumours of Buffett “cornering the market”.

Silver remains in backwardation and the possibility of a COMEX default cannot be ruled out – especially as silver bullion inventories are very small vis-a-vis possible capital allocations to silver in the coming weeks and months.

The possibility of an attempted cornering of the silver market through buying and taking delivery of physical bullion remains real and would likely lead to a massive short squeeze which could see silver surge to well over its inflation adjusted high of $140/oz.

Indeed, a recent article in the Financial Times suggested that private or state interests with very deep pockets are attempting to corner the silver market. Bizarrely, this massive story which mooted the possibility of Russian billionaires, Chinese traders and even the People’s Bank of China and other central banks secretly buying silver, has subsequently been barely reported or commented on.

There are now two “conspiracy theories”. One is the long side conspiracy theory which claims, a la the FT, that there are foreign private and state actors attempting to corner the silver market through secret buying.

The other is the more long-standing short side conspiracy theory which has gained credence in recent months due to the CFTC’s investigation into silver manipulation by Wall Street banks, such as JP Morgan, who have massive concentrated positions. This theory has been backed up by some circumstantial evidence by GATA and has recently gone “viral” through the campaign of financial journalist Max Keiser.

The theories are not mutually exclusive and may be true. Indeed, Chinese, Russian and other private interests may be cornering the physical market in an effort to end manipulation of the silver market by Wall Street banks in order to ensure the silver price rises very sharply and creates significant profits on their silver bullion holdings.

Indeed, if the People’s Bank of China is involved – profit may not be the end game, rather the positioning of the Chinese yuan as the new reserve currency through use of gold and silver bullion reserves.

Bloomberg Link Precious Metals Conference

The Bloomberg Link Precious Metals Conference heard a wide range of opinions from precious metal experts and mining executives. The vast majority believed that gold and silver’s strong fundamentals (especially due to anaemic supply and strong demand) should result in prices continuing to rise in the coming years.

The knowledge amongst the participants regarding the fundamentals is in stark contrast to many so-called financial or market experts in the press who continue to be misinformed regarding the gold and silver markets (see news).
The knowledge amongst the participants is also in stark contrast to much of the western public (particularly in European countries), many of whom continue to believe that “cash is king” and remain unaware that they are very exposed to sovereign debt default risk, currency debasement and inflation.

The one participant who was bearish on silver was William Hamelin, the president of Ames Goldsmith Corp., who forecast a drop to $35.85/oz by year-end. Hamelin’s company processes silver for use in a number of consumer products, such as electronic components, batteries and photography.

Gold in Euros to Play Catch up?

Gold’s recent rise has not been solely US dollar related as gold has risen to new record nominal highs in British pounds and yen. Gold has underperformed in euros recently and yet remains only 3.7% below the record nominal high of €1,072/oz seen four months ago in December 2010.

The euro’s strength is not due to German economic strength or due to positive fundamentals rather it is purely due to the fundamentals of the dollar, the pound, the yen and other fiat currencies being very poor. It also may be due to short covering as those short the euro are forced to buy back positions.

Secret Silver Buying by Russian Billionaire, Chinese Traders, and Peoples Bank of China to Lead to Comex Silver Default?
Gold in EUR – January 2010 to April 2011
Gold’s continuing strength in euros suggests that the recent bout of euro strength versus the dollar and other fiat currencies will be short lived and the euro will come under pressure again in the coming months.


Gold in euros has risen 2% in April. It will be interesting to see if euro gold replicates the performance of April and May last year when Eurozone sovereign debt concerns saw gold rise to €825/oz to over €1,000/oz prior to a correction. Previous resistance at €1,000/oz gold looks to be strong support for gold.

Gold
Gold is trading at $1,535.80/oz, €1,034.28/oz and £922.73/oz.
Silver
Silver is trading at $48.75/oz, €32.83/oz and £29.29/oz.
Platinum Group Metals
Platinum is trading at $1,844.00/oz, palladium at $780/oz and rhodium at $2,250/oz.

Globalists Plan to Starve Libyans, April 29 2011

Libya will soon suffer the fate of Iraq. According to the World Food Program, a United Nations outfit, the north African country will soon experience a food crisis. In a statement, the organization said the engineered armed conflict in the country is seriously undermining the supply and distribution of perishable goods.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tPhjnAvJjQ&feature=player_embedded

In 2003, the same thing happened in Iraq after the United States invaded to save the world from WMDs that did not exist, that were invented by a cabal of neocons ensconced in the Pentagon.

On March 20, 2003, the BBC reported that the country faced “the largest and most costly humanitarian crisis in history” following the U.S. invasion and the collapse of the oil-for-food program and the departure of U.N. personnel.

Iraq was dependent on globalist hand-outs after more than a decade of medieval sanctions. 500,000 children died as a result. Former Clinton Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said the engineered murder of a half million innocents was a price worth paying. Children of nations declared to be “rogue” by banksters are always the first to suffer and die.

Actually, according to UNICEF, 1,211,285 children died of embargo-related causes between August 1990 and August 1997, a number that reminds one of the toll inflicted on Cambodia by Pol Pot, a CIA asset who was allowed to conduct genocide after Kissinger and Nixon killed around 600,000 civilians and paved the way for Pol Pot’s slaughter of from 1.4 to 2.2 million out of a population of around 7 million.

Before George Bush the Elder invaded Iraq under the false pretense of protecting the former Iraqi province of Kuwait – before the Brits took over, Kuwait was the Ottoman Empire province of Basra – Iraq enjoyed 92 percent access to clean water, 93 percent access to high quality health care and high educational and nutritional standards. It was the envy of the Arab world, despite the rule of the CIA-trained thug Saddam Hussein.

Now 55 percent have no clean drinking water and 80 percent are not connected to the sewage system. Prior to Bush’s invasion to save the slant drilling monarchy in Kuwait from Saddam Hussein, illiteracy in Iraq had been all but eliminated. Now the illiteracy rate has increased to over 25 percent. In some parts of the country, it stands at 40-50 percent among women, according to the NGO Save the Children.

Now the elite are doing the same thing to Libya, a country with the highest living standard in Africa. The country ranks 53rd on the HDI index, better than all other African countries and also better than Saudi Arabia. Libya has the highest GDP at purchasing power parity per capita of all of Africa. The country has a lower percentage of people living below the poverty line than in the Netherlands.

Libya is now in the process of being decimated by Obama, Sarkozy, NATO, the United Nations and a cobbled together globalist coalition of the willing. A relatively well-off Arab country cannot be allowed to remain outside the clutches of international finance. It must be under the iron-fisted rule of a thug who takes orders from Wall Street and international finance. The Libyan people must be on the edge of starvation and under constant threat of bacterial diarrhea, hepatitis A, typhoid fever, and other preventable diseases like Iraq now is. Waterborne disease has been off the charts since the Pentagon targeted the country’s water supply system during the 1991 Gulf War.

Gaddafi is no doubt a dictator, but he is no better or worse than any number of other dictators, including Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez. In fact, prior to the engineered conflict to take out Gaddafi, the United Nations praised Libya’s human rights record. “In the course of preparation for war, the country was suddenly transformed into the most evil dictatorship. Even many war opponents accepted this characterization as their own,” writes John Catalinotto.

The World Food Program says current food stocks in Libya may last only 45 to 60 days after which many people will be forced to cut back on meals. Daly Belgasmi of the WFP told reporters in Geneva that Libya’s private economy has been hit by the exodus of foreigners who worked in food production such as bakeries.

Because Gaddafi demanded higher prices for oil and a larger percentage of profit from revenues usually siphoned off by transnational oil corporations, he was marked for removal, possibly assassination. As recently as 2009, Gaddafi threatened to nationalize Libya’s oil.

The war against Gaddafi, of course, has nothing to do with human rights, a humanitarian crisis, or democracy. It is not even specifically about oil.

It is about the dollar and its status as a reserve currency. “The fiat US dollar only survives as the world’s reserve currency because the majority of the oil producers demand payment in dollars,” writes Ron Holland.

“Remember, it’s all about the dollar being maintained for a while longer as the world reserve currency and oil resources. The establishment of democratic forms of government or whether the people will have a decision over their future in the area is immaterial to the survival of the status quo in Washington and the region.”

TSA Naked Body Scanner, April 29 2011

by Steve Watson
prisonplanet.com

Pop Culture Icon Rihanna Put Through TSA Naked Body Scanner In Show Of Power 0428 rihanna full body scan 17 480x720
The TSA’s latest headline generating act comes in the form of putting a popular music superstar through it’s radiation firing naked body scanners, in a blatant show of power that the agency knew would serve as a PR coup.

The singer Rihanna was stopped at a security checkpoint at Los Angeles International Airport on Wednesday and asked by TSA agents to walk through a full body imaging device.

The TSA maintains that air travelers are chosen completely at random to be put through the machines, yet it is difficult to believe that was so in this case.

Clearly a message is being sent here – even your pop culture icons are not untouchable, you should take a leaf out of Rihanna’s book and submit to the radiation firing naked scanners with a smile on your face.
Some of the more savoury comments on the various news reports of this incident betray exactly the message the TSA wants to get across, in effect…

“I guess they shouldn’t exclude anyone, no matter who they are.”

Though the TSA denies that the naked images produced by the scanners can be stored, transmitted or printed, documents obtained by The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), have proven that the machines are designed to do this.

Therefore it would be no great surprise to see naked scanner images of Rihanna or some other celebrity appear in the public domain at some point. Indeed, Indian film star Shahrukh Khan last year publicly stated that he had witnessed images of his own body scan printed out and circulated by airport staff at Heathrow in London.

The TSA has faced months of backlash and fierce criticism over its increasingly invasive security procedures, in particular the imaging machines and the enhanced pat-downs, which involve agents reaching inside the pants of travelers.

Even children are not exempt. Despite TSA claims that minors under 12 are not required to undergo the procedures, in recent weeks there have been numerous high profile cases of children being groped down by agents at airports around the country.

These stories have been set to a backdrop of consistent disturbing reports of TSA employees having records of sexual deviancy, including, in the latest disgusting case, the distribution of child pornography.
Earlier this week, a former miss America went public with her disgust over being intrusively handled by TSA agents in Dallas, Texas.

In the video below, the former beauty queen who held the Miss USA title in 2003, Susie Castillo, says a TSA “screener” extensively fondled her vagina during an intrusive pat-down.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmADZpqhKhQ&feature=player_embedded