Welcome to the New World Order
With the withdrawal of the last fighting battalion from Iraq and finally the oil plugged safely in the Gulf of Mexico now might be a good time to check our baggage and try to assess WTF happened. Is it that we’re witness to the ends of time or so it may seem. While all this was in the spotlight (somewhat reminiscent of 911)… Our congress passed a new law – officially known as the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. From what President Obama has touted as the most significant financial reform since the great depression we get.
Matt Taibbi writes in the latest edition of Rolling Stone Magazine
All of this is great, but taken together, these reforms fail to address even a tenth of the real problem. Worse: They fail to even define what the real problem is. Over a long year of feverish lobbying and brutally intense back-room negotiations, a group of D.C. insiders fought over a single question: Just how much of the truth about the financial crisis should we share with the public? Do we admit that control over the economy in the past decade was ceded to a small group of rapacious criminals who to this day are engaged in a mind-numbing campaign of theft on a global scale? Or do we pretend that, minus a few bumps in the road that have mostly been smoothed out, the clean-hands capitalism of Adam Smith still rules the day in America? In other words, do people need to know the real version, in all its majestic whorebotchery, or can we get away with some bullshit cover story?
The real problem it seems to be jobs or rather the lack there of. But when you see President Obama touting the Dodd-Frank reform bill as the greatest piece of legislative reform since the great depression… Its like who zooming who? With the two major pieces of reforms (The Volcker and the Lincoln reforms) safely gutted from the bill the dinner table is set for the hogs to feast again from the taxpayers pockets… Its a shame and disgrace to the buzzards. Its in that spirit that we at PNN have decided to affiliate ourselves with a new political party… Who’s first order of business will be to seek an indictment on those responsible for getting us into this mess. Secondly its not important that everyone who lives in this country speak English just the people working in your customer service departments. Wonder if people working in AT&T Bannanstain ever buy an American phone much less pay an American phone bill? That’s why we should tell AT&T if they expect people in this country to pay their phone bill they should support the American people and our constitution (also take off that “For English press 1″ crapola!). If they don’t speak English allow them to figure it out on their own. That goes for the Newspapers like the Chicago Tribune that shop their entire graphics department over to someplace in Bannanastain… Wonder how many of those over in bowels of the third world actually subscribe to the Tribune… Not many is a good bet. Actually the only people we should be supporting are those people who support American Jobs! Here is a link and maybe a good place to start.
The Americans for Job Security Check it out.
BTW Just so that everyone is clear on this one point… Just because we have just experienced the warmest summer since modern science invented the thermometer and been keeping historical records on this sort of thing please do not rush to judgment as it is on the utmost authority that… THIS IS NOT EVIDENCE OF GLOBAL WARMING!
Climate ‘CSI’ Team Takes on Russian Heat
By ANDREW C. REVKIN
The team concluded that western Russia’s blast-furnace conditions were created by a combination of a drought followed by an extreme instance of blocking, a garden-variety atmospheric condition that causes long strings of cloudless, windless days. The scientists found no significant relationship to global warming (there’s no trend at all in such blocking events in that region, for instance).
But the team did conclude that warming surface temperatures, combined with future rare meteorological moments of this sort, will “produce heat waves materially more severe than the 2010 event.” If that sounds familiar, it should. This is precisely how climatologists have described the significance of the building greenhouse effect for decades.
Hello!
wELCOME tO tHE nEW wORLD oRDER
Update dateline September 2nd 2010
The Huffington Post Reports Greenland Iceberg Four Times Bigger Than Manhattan Breaks Off Glacier
WASHINGTON — A giant ice island has broken off the Petermann Glacier in northern Greenland.
A University of Delaware researcher says the floating ice sheet covers 100 square miles – more than four times the size of New York’s Manhattan Island.
Andreas Muenchow, who is studying the Nares Strait between Greenland and Canada, said the ice sheet broke off early Thursday. He says the new ice island was discovered by Trudy Wohlleben of the Canadian Ice Service.
Maybe now is a good time to just give all the climate skeptics an island ice nation of their very own where they can live and play in an ice palace forever lost in a winter wonderland of denial and ridicule.
Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea
Looking over the series of events of the past year and last few months if one were to say, after 9/11, that things could get a lot worse, one would be hard pressed to point out how that could possibly happen… Yet aside from the bloody deaths and morbid body count, now we see. The loss in magnitude of the marine life while tragic beyond the pale is matched in some respects by the irreparable bereavement of the most beautiful pristine beach front property in North America cast in the shadow of catastrophic destruction. Already our once envy of the world magnificent economic engine confronts a cloudy and gray dismal future as it limps along on borrowed time producing jobs at an anemic stimulus census pace. All these events from the volcanic earthquakes to the man made economic collapse as well as perhaps the worst environmental disaster in the history of civilization happened in but a mere blink of an eye.
The loss of The Polar Ice sets in motion a series of unintended consequences
What are we to do but cast blame and point fingers. What could we have done… Hard to say but from the perspective of time, seeing the consequences unfold in a myriad bits of a million nightmares, it might have been better to take our chances with the radiation released from a small nuclear blast that would have certainly sealed the gush of untold black death into our seas and upon our shores. Of course there would have been the consequence of a small amount of radiation but from a small device under a mountain and mile of ocean, no more than once might expect from living next door to a nuclear generator with its deadly radioactive core covered in but a few feet of water, concrete and steel.
The economic failure was certainly a product of our own making and made worse, in many ways, by decisions made by our congress in darkness and in fear. It is now only in conservative conjecture that Adam Smith’s “Invisible Hand” can hypothetically play itself out… Where upon those whom were responsible for their bad decisions should reasonably be held accountable for their consequences. In another day in time when Tom Foolery stole a horse the local law didn’t hang Farmer Jones… Wow how things have changed.
Sunset at the North Pole with the moon at its closest point.
As far as the violent volcanic temper of mother nature spews mountains of angry ash into the stratosphere of planetary tremors of clashing tectonic terror shifts the earth from benith our feet… One is but left in sublime stunned wonder as the mighty ice sheet of the northern tundra slips into oblivion benith the arctic ocean’s cold watery grave. Who is to blame? What could we have done? As it is we who remain with those yet unnamed, unborn, and unforgiven stripped bare-naked from almighty grace that are left to stand between the devil and the deep blue sea.
President Obama Visits The Biltmore Estate
The Washington Post reports on President Obama visit to the world famous Biltmore and then publishes the story with a picture of the Grove Park Inn. Just would like to make a little correction for the record… As it is an understandable mistake since we are certainly twice blessed.
Obamas take a tour of famous Biltmore estate
ASHEVILLE, N.C. — President Barack Obama and his friends are touring a famous estate during their Blue Ridge getaway.
The president and first lady Michelle Obama visited the Vanderbilt’s Biltmore Estate briefly Saturday evening. The first family stopped by the massive estate on their way to dinner with friends. The Obamas are spending the weekend in western North Carolina. Obama played golf before rain rolled into the Blue Ridge Mountains. Mrs. Obama played tennis.
Now for just a bit of clarification… Here is a snapshot from over 900 yards to give you some idea of the splendor of this American Palace.
Biltmore The American Palace
It’s understandable because both the Grove Park Inn and The Biltmore Estate are Palatial on a grand scale that are the rival to the finest palaces of Europe and second to none. From the sound of it President had to rush through his trip because other duties. Actually though the Grove Park Inn may have more bathrooms, but the extensive Biltmore Estate with its combination of French Architecture landscaped and English gardens with both a commercial diary/winery and the adjacent Pisgah National Forest…
Biltmore Estate's Rolling Hills Viewed best from horseback
The Biltmore Estate demands time to cover the 8,000 acres best viewed from horseback.
Looking up at the Biltmore Front Portico
In fact just walking up to the front door and looking up is quite the experience. On the morning news they were talking about jumping off the top of one of the Las Vegas skyscrapers. I must say the walk up to the top of this turn of the century jewel from the Gilded Age leaves one quite breathless.
Biltmore Reflection Pool Side
Now we still have not even entered into the Biltmore Estate’s Arboretum (Not to be confused with the North Carolina Arboretum also located in Asheville NC).
Enter The Biltmore Arborretum
The Biltmore Arboretum
Cello for the flowers
You can tell the music makes for a happy garden
Its a bit difficult to comprehend, even for some of the local area residents, the measure of this bejeweled priceless treasure of the Western Carolina Mountains.
Grove Park Inn Spring
Some find its combination of mountain beauty back drop, layered upon the 5 star dining, along with one of the top spas on the planet beyond compare. The restorative powers of simple romance defy description. If ever there was a place designed for lovers…
Sunday Morning Brunch
Yes you might choose to leave the kids at home for this one. Allow them the pleasure of their own discovery one day when they’ve found that special someone and allowed them to claim their love as their own as it creates memories that will last forever.
Reflections from the Blue Ridge Room
It is the magic of Romance that rides upon the cool mountain breeze that warms the heart and restores the garden soul.
Spring time Garden
A few pictures of a Western Carolina Magical Mystery Tour… No pictures were taken inside the dining room or inside the spa so as not to, in a theatrical manner, give away the ending of that experience that you’ll treasure for the rest of your life.
Looking up from the Spa at the Water Fall at the Grove Park Inn
Spectacular Terraced Garden Walk
The Grove Park Inn Spa listed among the top 7
Have a wonderful stay Mr. President Obama and First Lady Michelle… You all come on back soon… In the Autumn when the mountain is on fire is exceptionally exquisite.
Beautiful Places Smiling Faces
Ominous Signs Twitter Towards Global Weird
Looking over the blogsphere there have been quakes of late besides those that emanate from the earth. With first Google trying to oppose Chinese censorship and then back stepping after it became apparent that they were going to loose a bundle to people being jailed in this country for blogging over Home Security invoking the Patriot Act… To just plain jerking down of sites in this country and around the world, most notably Italy (under some trumped up copyright guise), The web seems full of holes. Now we have new laws pending in Washington over broadband regulations.
Not convinced that this is all due to Global Weirdness but its as strange as at least the El Nino and almost as odd as the number of earthquakes we seems to have been plagued with as of late. In the moment and whole of it all does appears as a somewhat systematic assault on the proponents of civil freedoms. Whether lead by China or simply orchestrated by the multi-national corporate structure, which in either case, cannot be good for the individual citizens of this nation or the world. Its appears we are witness to the fragmentation of the world wide web which once considered impervious to a nuclear attack but apparently not to the forces of political expediency. Rush Linbugh 400 million dollar contract for one year…
“The Drudge Report is reporting that the contract will pay him in excess of a whopping $400 million!
Earnings now pace him ahead of the annual salaries for network news anchors: Katie Couric, Brian Williams, Charlie Gibson and Diane Sawyer – combined!
How this will effect the stock of Clear Channel (NYSE: CCU) who, along with Premier radio syndicate Limbaugh’s show, is anyone’s guess. My hunch, though, is that it will do just fine. Clearly, for Clear Channel Rush is a money making machine. His popularity continues to surge, so it seems that while they are spending a whole lot of money, they will more than make it up in revenue that the show produces.”
Almost as outrageous as the 100 million dollar bonuses paid out to those most directly connected to the collapse of our economic system. Indeed there is a method to their madness and the morons have made a marvelous mess in their malicious mischief focused towards our nations Constitution… Course they have all the money so who are the morons now?
As P. T Barnum, or some other snake oil salesman, once said… You can never underestimate the intelligence of the American population…
There is no policy of energy independence from those nations that do truly wish us harm and, at the same time, there is no determined leadership to remove this nation from this insane path of destruction… The key factor in Hitler’s success was economic failure of capitalism that lead directly to the Great Depression. But here is an interesting perspective by Ms. Naomi Wolf. You may also notice that its from a Russian media source carried on YouTube… Never thought Americans would live to see the day when they had to go to foreign sources (FROM RUSSIA FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!) in order to get the truth. But its clear to see that they have all sold out (the once venerable American press) or waiting their turn in line.
Update
Ok could not let this slide by
Could not have said it any better myself.
A Tale of Two Theme Parks
Halloween at Universal
Is a weekend of horror worth a trip to Universal Studio “Fright Night(s)!”… If you have your flight booked well in advance, money to burn, and the stamina to stand in line in sweltering mid summer heat suffered in mid October in Central Florida. Is it worth standing in line almost two hours to grab a10 minute glimpse of Chucky , ax in hand, as he lays in wait to leap a heap of horror on some unsuspecting child or woman stricken by paralyzing terror…
The Chucky Halloween Horror at Universtal Studio
Maybe depending on ones streak of sadistic twist The grand entrance, into a psychedelic vortex that sets into motion the pandemonium of ones psychic vertigo… really a nice touch but less the extortion of the excessive price of the general admission of the ticket plus the the hours in line suffering with the huddled masses for 5 minutes of Chucky… Perhaps not the best choice for a football Saturday night.
Fall football in Death Valley
Fine dining sure thing! Perhaps some Pizza…Sure they had it on hand at the “Muster Cafe”… But the real horror might be getting the tab for a few slices of breaded tomato sauce and chicken wings would have been better spent at Tony Romo’s Steakhouse with a couple of friends… Or save by booking flight and renting a convertible for a lovely drive from Asheville down to Tryon’s famous “Side Street Pizza”… You can thank me later and save a bundle of booty to boot.
BTW However should you still feel the need for canned horror Universal style you”ll need to brush up on your Spanish as from the parking garage to the top of the ticket gate and everyone in line and in between spoke the Latino lingo…. Okay I know its Hispanic month but this is just crazy! Everyone was speaking Spanish… Really if they tried to deport the illegal immigrant population half of Florida would vanish over night.
Not saying that Fright Nights over at the Universal Studios is not something of a once in a lifetime experience, but never did it occur that one might be transported into a foreign country altogether. Still the 30 minute wait (unless you purchase their limited number of express tickets (39.00) (actually it ended up being 60 so if your time is limited or your night does not included an additional 50 hours for line time then its not a bad deal) but not nearly the ordeal offered up by Chuck. The walk around the Park was truly amazing and fun… Lovely stroll.
Chainsaw Charlie
That is If you enjoy watching people getting scared out of their wits The “War of the Living Dead” is the place to hang out or maybe “lights Camera action!” is sure to provide some great shots, shouts and screams.
Still there is the other theme in the parks and mountains that nature provides. Now really tore between that theme which nature provides in the mountain beauty… Autumn dressed in a blaze of fire and colour, The trees and cool breeze the scent of a woman’s Chanel No.5 upon the smoking leaves amber in the fresh mountain air.
Nothing to compare Fall from the Top of Piney
The perfect way to enjoy a beautiful fall day is a front row seat in convertible of your choice. (municipals and convertible bonds nice but not included in this mix). Add a little music throw in a tailgate a from a college football game… Add a few candles, choose from a little Italian menu (or maybe just select the finest pizza on this part of the planet and you’ve got the perfect romantic interlude. No ride is more thrilling or thoughts more horrific than in missing a moment of a majestic Carolina magic mountain spellbinder… Disney eat your heart out!
Looking out from Piney over to Melrose Mt
Back to the Moon in Goldman Sachs Super Bubble Machine… What a time to Leave US Walter!
Looks like the world has gone completely nuts… If ANYONE has watched Hank Paulson testify before congress you have to have come away with picking your jaw off the ground. The audacity and the duplicity are a wonder to behold… Even more remarkable is the fact that this was the largest bank heist in the history of the universe and it appears that his crew have successfully pulled it off because there is no one to stop them… Why would anyone believe them in the first place… Suppose we had no one to trust… Walter was old and now he’s gone. But its just as incredible to believe eveyone got suckered by these guys. Came across this clip on Bill Moyer’s Journal “The Best Way to Rob a Bank is to Own One.”
Bail-out is the biggest bank heist ever | Opinion | The First Post
By Philip Delves Broughton
FIRST POSTED NOVEMBER 6, 2008With every passing day of economic woe, the scale of the heist just perpetrated against America’s taxpayers by the country’s largest banks becomes more apparent.
In the shadow of the presidential election, the nine biggest banks were given $125bn of taxpayer money with the understanding they would send this fresh capital coursing into the economy in the form of loans. It was a plan inspired by Gordon Brown’s decision to recapitalise Britain’s main banks.
Unfortunately, the US government forgot to get the lending requirement in writing. Instead, the banks are sitting on the money, earning interest and mulling mergers and acquisitions and replenishing bonus pools for their employees.
A stinging letter from Leo Gerard, the president of the United Steelworkers and a bullhorn from traditional American industry, to Hank Paulson, the Goldman Sachs banker-turned-Treasury Secretary, is now in wide circulation and its contents should have Wall Street barricading its doors.
Hank Paulson spent $10bn on a stake in Goldman Sachs worth only $5bnGerard makes several devastating points. The first is that the Treasury grossly overpaid for the stakes it has taken in these nine major banks. Twenty days before Paulson invested $10bn in Goldman Sachs, the investor Warren Buffett invested $5bn for a stake of equal value. Thus Paulson paid twice as much as he should have to his old employer.
This pattern, Gerard argues, was repeated across the board. Again and again the Treasury paid double what it should have, giving away half of its investment as a gift to shareholders. “This is no different than if you paid me $10,000 for a car for which no one else would pay more than $5,000,” Gerard wrote. “If this deal is the model for how you intend to spend the whole $700bn that you got from Congress, then it would appear that you intend to reward the institutions that have driven our nation, and now it appears the whole world, into its most serious economic crisis in 75 years, with a gift of $350bn from the American taxpayers, who have watched 760,000 of their jobs disappear over just the past nine months.”
The word is spreading, and Paulson did not help himself with beads of sweat on his forehead one is transported back to a much more innocent time but then Nixon just bugged the Democratic Headquarters… Not like he walked away with Fort Knox. These guys wired tapped every phone on the planet and walked away with a booty tens times that of the Federal Gold Repository. Interesting piece in the Rolling Stone on just how they did it!
The Great American Bubble Machine | Corrente
* goldman sachs
From Matt Taibbi’s “The Great American Bubble Machine” in Rolling Stone Issue 1082-83.
Fri, 06/26/2009 – 10:53pm — lambert[Goldman Sachs fans might also like today's post on how 32 megs of Goldman Sachs proprietary trade code got uploaded to a German server. Researchers should also note the links at the bottom of this post, which lead to a table of contents that organizes all our contemporaneous posts on The Big FAIL (the current financial crisis) as it unfolded, going back to pre-TARP days. Note also the Goldman Sachs tag above. --lambert]
Here’s the Matt Taibbi’s article on how Goldman-Sachs helped bring about and profit from our current financial crisis, “The Big FAIL”, found at Something Awful (via LOLfed). Despite the weapons-grade snark in the first paragraph, which I underlined, it’s a Big Picture post, very analytical, and has a hypothesis of what is to come that we can test for. So I recommend you read the whole thing, even though it is quite long.
Inside The Great American Bubble Machine : Rolling Stone
In Rolling Stone Issue 1082-83, Matt Taibbi takes on “the Wall Street Bubble Mafia” — investment bank Goldman Sachs (click here to read the whole story). The piece has generated controversy, with Goldman Sachs firing back that Taibbi’s piece is “an hysterical compilation of conspiracy theories” and a spokesman adding, “We reject the assertion that we are inflators of bubbles and profiteers in busts, and we are painfully conscious of the importance in being a force for good.” Taibbi shot back: “Goldman has its alumni pushing its views from the pulpit of the U.S. Treasury, the NYSE, the World Bank, and numerous other important posts; it also has former players fronting major TV shows. They have the ear of the president if they want it.” Here, now, are excerpts from Matt Taibbi’s piece and video of Taibbi exploring the key issues.
Matt Taibbi On Goldman Sachs’ Big Scam
From Matt Taibbi’s “The Great American Bubble Machine” in Rolling Stone Issue 1082-83.
The first thing you need to know about Goldman Sachs is that it’s everywhere. The world’s most powerful investment bank is a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money.
Any attempt to construct a narrative around all the former Goldmanites in influential positions quickly becomes an absurd and pointless exercise, like trying to make a list of everything. What you need to know is the big picture: If America is circling the drain, Goldman Sachs has found a way to be that drain — an extremely unfortunate loophole in the system of Western democratic capitalism, which never foresaw that in a society governed passively by free markets and free elections, organized greed always defeats disorganized democracy.
As we stand upon the 40th anniversary of what is perhaps mankind’s greatest adventure its good and fitting to remember Walter Cronkite was there then and that’s the way it was. God speed! Looking back its hard to believe we came this far to fall in a black hole as deep as the moon courtesy of the supercollider Goldman Sachs Super Bubble Machine. Smells like burnt toast.
The Wacko Jacko World AIG Doubles Down on Stupid
Let’s just try speaking a little truth to power… Not in this for what they say or think, really could care less. But its just crazy, the world stops for MJ… In California they pull 3000 police officers to duty so they can do crowd control for 600 people (why didn’t they just deputize the crowd??? Would have saved themselves a ton of money). In the meantime, of MJ’s 500 million half goes to pay off debts, and the rest is split between his mother, kids, and charity… While in court Hank Greenburg former CEO over at AIG walks away with a cool 4.5 billion… (that 4,500 million or about 8 times the ENTIRE Michael Jackson estate ) Sooooo lets just all double down on stupid…. Cause that’s just the way we roll now days. I’m sure now we are not about the money but having Smoky Robertson and Mariah Carey on the same stage live, its not going to hurt your rating card and besides you have the media trumping its own horn… Brooke Shields and the Queen Latifah giving their own emotional send off.
Michael Jackson’s Memorial: Hollywood’s A-List Celebs Brooke Shields, Jennifer Hudson, John Mayer, Al Sharpton – ABC News
At his public memorial service today in Los Angeles, the King of Pop, Michael Jackson finally got his wish: to be treated like royalty.
Pop star sings the Jackson 5′s 1970s hit.Celebrities from around the world descended on Los Angeles’ Staples Center to pay tribute to Jackson. Kobe Bryant, Wesley Snipes, Spike Lee and Smokey Robinson were among the first stars to arrive. Robinson started off the ceremony by reading condolences from friends including former South African president Nelson Mandela, Kobe Bryant, Wesley Snipes, Spike Lee and Smokey Robinson and soul legend Diana Ross.
Seriously if the people in control over at AIG wanted to save the company, it might make sense to put the man who built the company (Hank Greenburg) back at the helm (Worked with Steve Jobs Apple doing better than ever)… Instead they had rather sue Hank and gives themselves another hundred million dollars in bonuses, (talk about your rocket scientist)… So let’s see what these geniuses have done (besides buying off congress and sticking to Joe taxpayer) Maybe losing a multi-billion lawsuit and trying to sue their former founder or maybe just driving the company a hundred billion dollars into debt, or perhaps the idea of selling some of the most prime prized real estate in the world at near or at record low levels (Wonder how these guys do it!) … Wow we really need to hang on to talent like that. But seriously they are not in it to save the company, why? Of course they are too big to fail… Only people who gets screwed in this deal is the American TAXPAYER. So why not give them those big bonus checks… Let’s all just double down on stupid, makes perfect sense in this Wacko Jacko world in which everything is upside down and backwards so it must be right. Michael was not really nuts just the perfect reflection of “We are the World” weird as ever.
Still there is no accounting for any of how these billions of dollars in monies are spent. There is an extremely difficult effort in the works to make some of this information available to the general public at large on how public officials soak the public coffers.
Sunshine for Senate | GoUpstate.com | Spartanburg Herald-Journal | Spartanburg SC
If you want to see how our congressional representatives and senators are handling their budgets for staff salaries, travel and office expenses, you can. It’s public knowledge. All you have to do is travel to Washington, D.C., go to a Capitol office building and peruse one of the printed volumes of expenses, or order one of the tomes for yourself.
The information is public, it’s just not accessible, and for most of us that means it’s not truly available at all.
That’s wrong and, hopefully, changing.
Last month, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi ordered the House’s chief administrative officer to post House members’ expense reports online as soon as possible. The information is currently expected to be released on the Internet no later than Aug. 31.
Now, the Senate is also planning to begin posting the information online. The change is being pushed by Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., who said taxpayers should be able to see how lawmakers allocate their budgets, and hold their feet to the fire when appropriate.
Still this is just a small step in addition to what is truly needed is an overhaul of the entire mess… The Psychic News cam across this letter from, perhaps, one of the most important congressional districts in the country. Florida’s 18th Congressional District is not only important because of its wealth but its poised upon the critical issues of our time, climate change, our national parks (our national treasures) and the health care future of the large immigration population areas of our nation … When Rep.Ileana Ros-Lehtinen writes a letter you better believe I listen and think you should too
With Power Comes Responsibility, Why We Must Audit the Fed
Dear Friends:
I have joined a majority of the House, 245 of 435 members in co-sponsoring the Federal Reserve Transparency Act. It directs the independent Comptroller General to complete, before the end of 2010, an audit of the Federal Reserve System and of the federal reserve banks, followed by a detailed report to Congress.
Over the last year, the Federal Reserve has taken on the major role in dealing with our nation’s unusual and overwhelming financial squeeze. For the first time in over 50 years, the Federal Reserve expanded its lending to non-bank financial firms. As a result of the Fed’s new lending its balance sheet increased significantly, from $874 billion on August 1, 2007, a date shortly before the financial system first experienced turmoil, to $2.312 billion at its peak on December 17, 2008, an increase of 165%.
Among this new lending was the Fed’s $29 billion loan to have JP Morgan buy the assets of Bear Stearns, a $120 billion bailout of the American Insurance Group, a guarantee of $306 billion in assets of Citigroup, and a similar guarantee on $118 billion in Bank of America assets. In all of these agreements, the Fed and the American taxpayer has been exposed to a greatly increased financial risk if the assets purchased or guaranteed fall in value.
This incredible $1.5 trillion increase in lending by the Federal Reserve is backed by you the American taxpayer. This huge amount of spending gives the Fed, an unelected appointed institution, a tremendous amount of power to influence your family, job and financial security far beyond what most had ever thought possible. With this power must come more responsibility, accountability and transparency by the Fed to you and the other taxpayers.
If the Fed is going to print over one trillion dollars that the US taxpayer can’t afford, I think we have a right to know exactly who they are giving this money to and how much. It’s time for the Fed to open up its books to an independent audit conducted by Congress’s budget watchdog, the Comptroller General.
Sincerely,
Ileana Ros-Lehtinen
Member of Congress
Amen Give them hell Ileana or at least let them know what to expect when they get there! Still what lies ahead is not easy… We have a long road to recovery but we can make it if we try. Came across this clip the other day, it captures something of the human spirit that is incredibly powerful…
In a bit of a side note in memory of a local hero
Articles
Lymphoma claims giant in Spartanburg cycling
Founder of Assault on Mt. Mitchell stayed humble, helped others reach goals
John Bryan brought thousands of people to Spartanburg by organizing and promoting the Assault on Mt. Mitchell.By Dudley Brown
dudley.brown@shj.comThe patriarch of Spartanburg’s cycling community has died.
More Photos:* Bike pioneer John Bryan
John Bryan, founder of the annual Assault on Mt. Mitchell, died Saturday after a seven year bout with lymphoma. He was 74.
“He was a gentle man and cared about all cyclists and all aspects of cycling,” said Marly Divver, a cyclist and friend of Bryan’s family.
Thousands of people have come to Spartanburg over the past 30 years to ride what cycling magazines consider one of the 10 toughest rides in the United States. People from the Philippines, Great Britain and locations around the globe have ridden 102 miles en route to, at 6,684 feet, the highest peak east of the Mississippi River.
I’m sure the Governor does not need Doctor Buzzard’s or anyone else’s help on this but know South Carolina politics can be exceptionally vicious… Christian Sunday morning during the day and a bloody blind knife fight in the dark of night… Hillbilly bumpkins maybe but will as soon pike a head as not. Ben Laden’s cut throats have nothing on these buba rattlers. It all just so hypocritical.
Woman Linked to Sanford Comments on E-Mail – NYTimes.com
BUENOS AIRES — Maria Belen Chapur, the Argentine woman linked to South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, said Sunday that she had a “firm suspicion” who hacked into an e-mail account of hers that discussed her intimate relationship with the governor, but she declined to name the person, according to a statement read on the Argentine television station CN5.
Still all this in the media seems to be a bit over blown… But when then President Clinton had his troubles, figured a lot of this would come back to bite a few on the assets. Its not like someone just invented sex… Its been around for a while. Just now its more open and in a Facebook near you. Perhaps, if the Governor had found a new religion in some same sex shevestite bizarro world the media would just say it was part of some very slick political calculus and the story would have never seen the light of day. This is a Woman! OMG, how sick is that??? Very attractive, not exactly a pigeon toed Disestablishmentarian… But has anyone asked? Of course not its all about trash and the Governor at this point the paparazzi is stretched thin with Micheal Jackson, Ed MCMahon, Fararah Fawcett, and now pitchman Billy Mays all going the way of General Motors. Hard to get at the real story but some kind of Paradigm Shift is taking place… All of a sudden the world has changed. Hopefully for the better. Still this story is going to have legs because there is much more behind the scenes. Some have a spiritual take on this entire business…
AP Exclusive: Spiritual adviser says womanizing ‘not in Sanford’s DNA’; affair 1-time deal – Los Angeles TimesCOLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Each Sunday afternoon in May, Gov. Mark Sanford and his wife hosted five other couples at the executive mansion for a spiritual “boot camp.” Topics discussed during the hour-and-a-half-long sessions included forgiveness and “not loving your wife as Christ loved the church.”
Group leader Warren “Cubby” Culbertson did not tell the other four couples what he and his wife, Susan, had known for months: The governor was having an affair with a woman in Argentina
But looks like this maybe the real reason behind Gov. Sanford’s trip to Argentia
Argentina’s Economic Collapse
You Tube
Thursday, April 9, 2009Documentary on the events that led to the economic collapse of Argentina in 2001 which wiped out the middle class and raised the level of poverty to 57.5%. Central to the collapse was the implementation of neo-liberal policies which enabled the swindle of billions of dollars by foreign banks and corporations. Many of Argentina’s assets and resources were shamefully plundered. Its financial system was even used for money laundering by Citibank, Credit Suisse, and JP Morgan. The net result was massive wealth transfers and the impoverishment of society which culminated in many deaths due to oppression and malnutrition. Official name: Memoria del Saqueo by Fernando Solanas 2003.
Might just turn out that Governor Sanford is more hero than media hype scumbag type
Watching Phil Mickelson play the US Open at Bethpage Black and see that sea of pink on Fathers Day, all reminded of mother, wife, sister, friend and women that we adore more than anything in life… An so upon this Solstice of Summer and Father’s Day, it is good and fitting that we dedicated our day, everyday, to the cause and cure for the women in our life… Redouble our efforts and do everything humanly possible to protect them and help claim victory over this terrible disease. To this end the Southeastern Writers Association joins with the Royal Opera House and the US Open to find a cure.
Annual writers conference presented by Southeastern Writers Association
Annual writers conference presented by Southeastern Writers Association
SWA sponsors a week-long writers conference in June every year on St. Simons Island. Workshop leaders are second to none.
Writers Workshop |Southeastern Writers Association34th Annual Writers Workshop
“Writers Helping Writers”Online Registration Here ~ Mail-in Registration Here
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Learn from stellar faculty like Steve Berry, NY Times Best Selling Author.
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Get up to three manuscript evaluations in personal conferences with instructors.
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Enter up to 14 Contests in Fiction, Poetry, Non-fiction, Inspiration, Humor, Romance, Science Fiction & Fantasy.
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Get to know our agents, editors and instructors on a personal level.
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Learn how to market yourself and your book online.
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Sell your books at our bookstore.
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Sign your books at our autograph party.
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Read what others are saying about SWA’s Writers Workshop.
o I’m a novelist with a little help from my friends
o Kindred Spirits at SWA
o SWA Opportunities and Friendships
o The SWA Writing Workshop – Heart to Heart
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(Save Someone You may know and love)
BannerOpera buffs: The classical performers stripping naked to be calendar girls | Mail Online
We’re more used to the idea of getting dressed up to go to the opera – so it comes as quite a surprise to see the stage at the distinguished Royal Opera House populated by men and women in the buff.
Male and female artists as well as backstage staff at the opera house have stripped naked to pose for a calendar to raise money for Macmillan Cancer Support.
The calendar gives its stars the opportunity to “lay bare more than their artistic soul”, say the Royal Opera House, adding that while it retains the Opera House’s elegant style, there’s more than a “hint of cheek”
For Phil Mickelson’s Amy and all the Armies of Amy’s that are out there and those yet to be… Join together in a single fight.
Emotional About Wife’s Illness, Mickelson Rejoins Tour – NYTimes.com
“I’m not playing just to play,” Mickelson said, whose white cap featured a patch in the shape of a pink ribbon, the symbol of breast cancer awareness. “Bethpage is a golf course that suits my game. I love that course. Obviously, I’m playing because I believe I can win. That’s the goal.”
Update… Local legend of Hampton High makes good… Just something in the air but at least if Phil Mickelson can’t win its nice to see a favorite son have his dream come true
Player Bio: Lucas Glover – CLEMSON OFFICIAL ATHLETIC SITE
In High School: Three-time Rolex High School All-American, one of the few high school players in the 1990s to do that…won the South Carolina State High School championship as a freshman and sophomore, he finished second as a junior and senior…played in the Cannon Cup for two seasons…earned spot in the final 16 of the United States Junior tournament…all-state all four years of high school…won the South Carolina Golf Association Junior tournament in 1996…Personal: born November 12, 1979…played at Wade Hampton High School in Greenville, SC…grandson of former Clemson football and baseball star Dick Hendley, who is a member of the Clemson Athletic Hall of Fame. …majoring in speech communication.
Lucas Glover came through as others came up short – Los Angeles Times
By Mike James
8:20 PM PDT, June 22, 2009
How it all came together . . . and apartA look at how Lucas Glover held on to win the U.S. Open on Monday . . . and what Phil Mickelson, David Duval and Ricky Barnes did to finish in a three-way tie for second, two shots behind the champion.
