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Video: Matt Damon Condemns Sarah Palin ,

f-dem - Sun, 2008-09-21 14:50

Can it be that Sarah Palin is not qualified enough for running for VP? Just a guess...

Video: Matt Damon Condemns Sarah Palin

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anxkrm9uEJk&eurl=[/youtube]

Categories: forums

GATA (Gold Anti Trust Action Commitee) Movie: Gold Rush 21: Everybody should see, one of the main reason for worldwide economic ,

f-dem - Sun, 2008-09-21 12:12

Could the Gold issue be the reason of worldwide economic meltdown?

 GATA (Gold Anti Trust Action Commitee) Movie: Gold Rush 21: Everybody should see, one of the main reason for worldwide economic meltdown

The most important money in the world, in a world at risk.leading commentators and economists reveal facts and evidenceof one of the most important and dramatic issues today...the global manipulation of the gold market.The Gold Rush 21 conference DVD records the proceedings of the Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee's Gold Rush 21 Conference held August 7-9 2005, in Dawson City, Yukon, Canada. This historic conference exposed the manipulation of the gold market by central banks and concluded with the adoption of the Dawson Declaration, an appeal for the liberation of the precious metals markets as a matter of international human rights.The Gold Rush 21 DVD set includes a 25 minute introduction summarizing the event, and eight hours of speaker presentation.Featuring:John BrimelowJeffrey P. DahlJohn EmbryAntal E. FeketeAlf FieldCatherine Austin FittsAdam FlemingPeter GeorgeReginald H. HoweRobert K. LandisFerdinand LipsJ.K. MortensenBill MurphyChris PowellHugo Salinas PriceJ.P. SchumacherJames TurkWatch the movie here: http://www.GATA.org/goldrush21

Categories: forums

Breaking: Evidence photos for US sabotage training of Georgian peacekeepers,

f-dem - Sat, 2008-09-20 17:44

Breaking: Evidence photos for US sabotage training of Georgian peacekeepersRussia sets international organizations evidence of the practice of deliberate sabotage of the Georgian peacekeepers before. It said the Russian chief military prosecutor, Sergei Fridinski, before journalists on Wednesday.http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fde.rian.ru%2Fphotolents%2F20080911%2F116703396.html&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&sl=de&tl=en

Categories: forums

America Is Bankrupt ,

f-dem - Sat, 2008-09-20 17:04

Is America really bankrupt?

 

America Is Bankrupt by Mike (in Tokyo) Rogers A recent trip to the United States – after a three-year absence – showed me how far the country and its people have deteriorated in a short period of time. Americans are bankrupt. They are bankrupt at every possible level: spiritually, morally, educationally. The country’s economy has deteriorated to the level of a Philippines or a Thailand (and I mean no disrespect to the Philippines or Thailand – I love those places). Human-to-human communication in the United States has also faltered greatly. People who would rank as the vilest of trolls on any Internet chat room are now on the air as TV and radio hosts, spewing forth hatred and even barefaced lies. These talking heads do this, of course, to make money, but the effect it has on the average listener is nothing short of devastating. It is devastating to a population not educated to think analytically; it is devastating to a people who – above all – need to open up communication with each other, not close it. Intelligent discussion on American TV and radio has now taken a back seat to a sort of childish one-upmanship. It’s no longer a question of who can thrust and parry their opponent into a corner through the use of beautiful English phrasing and logic; it’s now a question of who can belittle the other with snappy (but rude) one-liners. This has affected the mainstream population in its daily affairs, in that the ordinary people come to believe that this is the way to win an argument. Substance and logic all take a back seat to name-calling. The worst culprits are the talk radio show hosts. Average America doesn’t know what is involved in becoming a talk show host, but trust me, just about all of these people are no more or less intelligent than you or I. Of course, they keep up on current events better than you or I could: It’s their job. While we are putting in a good eight or ten hours of work each day, these guys are brushing up on current affairs. As a result, it is very difficult to challenge and defeat them in an on-air discussion – especially when they have control of what goes on air. So to call up a talk show host and try to argue a point and win is akin to pushing water up a hill: It can’t be done. I know. I worked as a talk show host for many years. By the way, another part of the job of being an on-air talent is to keep yourself looking good and in decent physical shape. Guys like Rush Limbaugh are grossly overweight because they are, and have been, abusing drugs or alcohol. There are many examples to prove my point. John Belushi is an easy example that comes to mind. Thus, in modern America, talk show radio and TV is not about debating the issues of the day. It is a forum for a megalomaniac to make himself or herself look better to an audience that doesn't know any better, and to belittle opponents in front of other people. This never happens in Japan. It doesn’t happen because the structure of the Japanese language does not lend itself well to interruption when someone is speaking, and also because the Japanese are polite. But I suspect that it never happens in any other country excepting the United States. This childish behavior is especially damaging to the psyche of the American male – although women seem to be affected by it also (witness so-called "soccer moms"). It seems that winning is everything. Whatever happened to the saying, "It’s not whether you win or lose, but how you play the game"? I know that this phrase does not apply to today’s American male. The verbal one-upmanship is insidious as it begins to creep into other areas of the American psyche. It becomes contagious and is damaging to civil discourse and civil behavior all around. Infantile machismo is a definitive trait of today’s American. During my recent visit I witnessed a TV commercial for some sports car. The sales point of the commercial boiled down to this: If you buy this car, then that tells your friends, ‘I’m just a little better than you are.’ How childish American men have become. What kind of man needs to show off his car, and to feel superior to his friends? Imagine a guy with an average vocabulary and no gift for repartee. What does he do when he has been belittled in public for no real reason? He probably holds it in, until one day when he raises his fists. In Japan, I have never seen a sports game – especially so-called "pick-up games" – break down into fisticuffs. Have I seen this in America? Have you folks in America seen this? Yes, far too many times (do I even need to ask?). The last time I witnessed it was in California, when a so-called friendly basketball game turned into a hockey game and a bunch of guys started punching it out over some foul. You would have thought their lives depended on the outcome of that game. It was embarrassing. I was out on the court to get some exercise. I didn’t care if we won or lost. I certainly wasn’t interested in getting hurt, or injured, or hit. I walked off. Americans today have become some of the most childish, self-centered adults I have ever seen. A recent trip to Crawford, to visit Camp Casey before it really got into full swing, allowed me to see for myself another slice of American life. I had brought my video camera and eight hours of tape. I was going to make a documentary to try to explain to the Japanese public what was going on there in Texas. (Japanese news will rarely show anything critical of a foreign government – especially the government of the United States). I wanted to capture the sights and sounds; the atmosphere of a real American-style anti-war demonstration. I had really hoped that I could make a documentary that would show the Japanese just what the average American is thinking. When I came back to Japan, I transferred the video tapes to the editing machine and I watched in increasing despair. I’m sure I can get the average Japanese to understand what Americans are all about and what they are thinking. I’m sure that if I ever do finish this documentary (and I’m wondering now if I want to), the Japanese will understand more than they want to understand about America. They will watch it and think: "Americans have gone completely nuts." I would have to agree. Cindy Sheehan and her movement are quite understandable. Cindy seems like a level-headed woman with plenty of common sense. It’s the others who have jumped on the bandwagon who seem crazy. Not all of them, of course, but it did seem a bit like a circus full of freaks. And those freaks were fully represented on both sides of the fence. Even worse than (some of) the anti-war group were the pro-war people – they seemed like they were really crazy. (I only saw six at most – even though the next day’s newspaper reported 250.) I talked to one woman who claimed to have "just arrived from Baghdad." She was lying. I could pick that out in a second of talking to her. Her English level was that of someone who had been in the United States for ten years. Yet there she was, claiming to have "just arrived." (Well, okay, I suppose everything is relative, especially in a country where it is now acceptable to out-and-out lie to get what you want.) There was another guy playing a guitar – or trying to – and singing, "How many ghosts did you make today? Aiding and abetting the enemy, how many ghosts did you make today?" (Bet you a donut he hasn’t a clue as to the meaning of the word ‘abetting’). I suppose a few off-key choruses of this song wouldn’t have been so bad, but this guy went on to play straight for at least six hours in the blazing sun without a break. Perhaps that would explain his behavior – he’s suffering from cooking his brain in the hot sun for too long. The entire scene, from the anti-war group to the pro-war group to George W. Bush taking a helicopter to avoid those groups to visit a little league game, seemed like a Lewis Carroll story. And I was standing there watching Alice, the Mad Hatter, the Red Queen (played by George) and the rest of them scurrying about their business but actually going nowhere. On top of all that, throw in the local TV news reporters with their perfect teeth, slicked-back blonde hair and make-up caked on thick to cover their wrinkles, who think they are all hot stuff because they report for some local in-the-sticks TV station, and you have a real life horror-show on the Comedy Channel. But the real-life horrors in today’s America don’t end there. Today’s American is poor, both monetarily and in common sense. In many ways, these two are related. The Japanese save money. Americans don’t. Of course it is common sense to save money. The Japanese save for all the right reasons, but they also save money for special reasons. It’s those special, just-in-case reasons for which the Japanese would always have a nest egg saved. When I went to the United States this time, I visited a good friend. I’d consider him one of my best friends. I am glad I could visit his place because then I could truly see for myself just how far America has gone downhill. Even though he had little, he was gracious enough to let me stay with him. I was thankful for this as, without his help, I had no way to get around and knew no one else who could help me to do so. But within two minutes of entering his abode, I could see just how poor Middle America has become. My friend had no money – none. He asked me for twenty dollars for gas. I gave him a hundred. He was happy. I was greatly disappointed, for many reasons. First off, I’m sorry America, but $100 is not that much money to most of the Western world (or China, or Japan). I was disappointed that he would ask me for money. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t blame him. He has lived all his life in America; he was brought up there. He has been taught that this is now acceptable behavior. But I remember a time when it wasn’t. It is unheard of in Japan (and, I suspect, in all Asian societies). In Japan, a guest is a guest. A guest in your home – especially one from far away – is to be treated with reverence. It would be completely unthinkable to ask a guest for money (although it is also common sense, in Japan, for the guest to offer to pay – an offer which will certainly be refused). I know it used to be this way in America. In Japan, honor and respect are much more valuable than money. If you had a guest come to stay in your house in Japan and you had no money, you would borrow money – you would do something – in order to treat your guest with the utmost respect. It is absolutely unheard of to ask a guest for money. It reminds me of that Chevy Chase movie Vegas Vacation where he and his family visit his wife’s broke family and the brother-in-law says to Chevy, "Would you like a cold one?" Chevy answers, "Sure!" To which the brother-in-law replies, "Me too. Got any money?" That was a joke in a movie released in 1997. It’s not a joke any more in today’s America. From what I’ve seen, the average 30-year-old college-educated guy in America today is getting paid less than I was paid in 1975 as a part-time commission salesman at Sears Roebuck department store. I have friends who tell me that they are getting six or eight dollars an hour right now. At 40 hours a week, that works out to about $320, less taxes. In 1975 I was getting paid over $1,000 per month after taxes – and those were 1975 dollars. I’m no economist, but it sure comes as no surprise that today’s young American has no money left to save after receiving this paltry income. When my friend took me around, driving through the city and out to Camp Casey, we stopped at a gasoline stand. Of course I volunteered to pay. He was complaining about the sudden rise in the price of gasoline. Here was where I witnessed just another small item that made me sure that America is headed for third world status, if it is not already there. He was complaining about gasoline at $3 a gallon. I hear that in Atlanta, after Hurricane Katrina, it hit $6 a gallon. I shook my head and thought, When are these crazy people going to wake up? Apparently it’s good that the USA invaded Iraq to secure oil. Japan has no natural resources. America does. America even has its own oil. Guess what? About seven years ago, the price for a liter of gasoline in Japan was 100 yen (3.78 liters per gallon). The price today is about 125 yen per liter. That means today’s price for a gallon of gasoline in Japan, a nation that produces no oil, is about $4.58 – an increase of 25% over the last seven years. Now, it doesn’t take much of a math whiz to figure out that if the prices at the pumps in America – a nation that produces oil – have doubled in the last few years, there’s something strange going on. How is it possible that Japan’s gasoline prices have just barely inched up over these past few years, at about 3% per year, while USA prices have doubled or more? Is it just the Iraq war? Or is it the decline of the dollar? Probably a bit of both, but you can definitely be sure of one thing, it is the US government taking advantage of you – regardless of whether you are a Democrat or Republican. And the average American still cheers on the federal monster. After filling up, we headed back onto the freeway. I looked at the scenery and had a feeling of déjà vu. I thought to myself, Hey! I’ve seen this before. Now where did I see it? Then it came back to me: The road leading to Crawford looked an awful lot like the road leading from Phuket International Airport towards Patong Beach – a nice place, but definitely not a road leading through a world power. Every once in a while we would pass through some small town – the buildings decayed and shuttered, a shadow of what it once was. And besides the rundown buildings and the empty streets, there was the filth. It was everywhere – everything seemed broken down. Public restrooms reeked as if they’d never been cleaned. Every once in a while I would see a solitary homeless figure – dazed and disheveled – walking by the side of the road. It looked just like some third world nation. You’d never see such poverty in Japan. But that’s today’s United States. Americans are always boasting about how they are the richest and the freest, etc., etc. But from the eyes of this American son, America’s twilight has fallen. It is getting dark. I cannot see any way out of the disaster you folks are headed for. The problems are too numerous, the needed debate unheard, and the psyche already destroyed. Mike (in Tokyo) Rogers [send him mail] was born and raised in the USA and moved to Japan in 1984. He has the distinction of being fired from every FM radio station in Tokyo – one of them three times. His first book, Schizophrenic in Japan, is now on sale. Source: http://www.lewrockwell.com/rogers/rogers171.html

Categories: forums

Dillon, Read & Co. Inc. and the Aristocracy of Stock Profits ,

f-dem - Sat, 2008-09-20 15:29

Very good article, about the World of Finance.

Dillon, Read & Co. Inc. and the Aristocracy of Stock Profits 

by Catherine Austin Fitts 

This is a historic documentation about the current international economic melt down, coup organisation, Identities, tricks and timelines of the international elite. It's long and complete - save it to disc. It speaks about who is profiting from drugs and the privatisation of prisons and follows the $highway all the way. 

http://www.dunwalke.com/

Categories: forums

Dodd: US financial system near meltdown ,

f-dem - Sat, 2008-09-20 11:43

Is it really so bad for the US economy now? Is the financial system meltdown just right around the corner? Any idea?

 Dodd: US financial system near meltdown

Sat, 20 Sep 2008 09:24:42 GMT Christopher Dodd, Chairman of the US Banking CommitteeThe US may be days away from a complete catastrophic meltdown of its financial system, says Senate Banking Committee chairman Chris Dodd. "I've been here 28 years. To listen to the language of last evening, we maybe days away from a complete meltdown of our financial system," AFP quoted Dodd as saying while referring to the late Thursday meeting of the US Congressional leaders with the US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and the Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke. Senator Dodd noted it was "one of the rare moments, certainly rare in my experience here, that Democrats and Republicans decided we needed to work together, quickly." "We're talking hundreds of billions," Paulson said ahead of talks with Congress on details of the massive rescue effort, unveiled initially late Thursday. Stunned by the depth of the economic meltdown of the US financial institutions, Congressional leaders pledged a quick vote on the rescue plan. "I figure it will be at least half a trillion," Richard Shelby, the Ranking member of the Banking Committee, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, told ABC news network. "But if you look at what the Fed has already done, and the extension of power to Treasury to deal with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, I believe we're talking about a trillion dollars," he added. US President George W. Bush has admitted confidence in the US economy has been shaken as he promised more tax dollars to save Wall Street from bad debt. "Confidence in our financial system and in its institutions is essential to the smooth operation of our economy, and recently that confidence has been shaken," he said The government plan provides an immediate $50 billion to shore up strained financial markets. A state-sponsored organization will then be given hundreds of billions more in government money to buy up bad debt accumulated over years of unregulated lending by the US financial services sector. The Fed has spent hundreds of billions of dollars in the past year to stabilize the financial markets, including $180 billion swap lines extended Thursday to five other major central banks. Early September, the Treasury Secretary announced that the government was seizing control of ailing mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that supply almost half of all mortgages in America to prevent a collapse that would have seriously damaged the world economy. Last year these two mortgage companies' sustained losses of more than $14 billion, as so called 'sub-prime' homeowners defaulted on their mortgage repayments. The bailout of these two financial institutions could cost up to $200 billion. MMM/CW/DT http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=70011&sectionid=3510203

Categories: forums

Amazing: 12 yr old invents 3D solar cell!!!,

f-dem - Sat, 2008-09-20 08:18

Genius Chinese-American boy invents 3D solar cell, how beautiful!!!

12 yr old invents 3D solar cell!!!

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDEWTCvU878&eurl= 

Categories: forums

Joseph E. Stiglitz: How to prevent the next Wall Street crisis,

f-dem - Sat, 2008-09-20 06:54

Read how Joseph E. Stiglitz, Economics Nobel Prize Awardee, would solve the current financial crisis. Very interesting and impressive true!

 Joseph E. Stiglitz: How to prevent the next Wall Street crisis

STORY HIGHLIGHTS- Joseph Stiglitz: Fed pumped too much money, aiding housing bubble- New-fangled instruments hid overuse of borrowing, Stiglitz says- Executives followed short-term interests and magnified risks, he says- Stiglitz: Widespread changes needed to prevent future crisesBy Joseph StiglitzSpecial to CNNEditor's note: Joseph E. Stiglitz, professor at Columbia University, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2001 for his work on the economics of information and was on the climate change panel that shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 2008. Stiglitz, a supporter of Barack Obama, was a member and later chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers during the Clinton administration before joining the World Bank as chief economist and senior vice president. He is the co-author with Linda Bilmes of the "Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Costs of the Iraq Conflict."Economist Joseph Stiglitz says federal regulators and executives helped create the Wall Street crisis.NEW YORK (CNN) -- Many seem taken aback by the depth and severity of the current financial turmoil. I was among several economists who saw it coming and warned about the risks.There is ample blame to be shared; but the purpose of parsing out blame is to figure out how to make a recurrence less likely.President Bush famously said, a little while ago, that the problem is simple: Too many houses were built. Yes, but the answer is too simplistic: Why did that happen?One can say the Fed failed twice, both as a regulator and in the conduct of monetary policy. Its flood of liquidity (money made available to borrow at low interest rates) and lax regulations led to a housing bubble. When the bubble broke, the excessively leveraged loans made on the basis of overvalued assets went sour.For all the new-fangled financial instruments, this was just another one of those financial crises based on excess leverage, or borrowing, and a pyramid scheme.The new "innovations" simply hid the extent of systemic leverage and made the risks less transparent; it is these innovations that have made this collapse so much more dramatic than earlier financial crises. But one needs to push further: Why did the Fed fail?First, key regulators like Alan Greenspan didn't really believe in regulation; when the excesses of the financial system were noted, they called for self-regulation -- an oxymoron.Second, the macro-economy was in bad shape with the collapse of the tech bubble. The tax cut of 2001 was not designed to stimulate the economy but to give a largesse to the wealthy -- the group that had been doing so well over the last quarter-century.The coup d'grace was the Iraq War, which contributed to soaring oil prices. Money that used to be spent on American goods now got diverted abroad. The Fed took seriously its responsibility to keep the economy going.It did this by replacing the tech bubble with a new bubble, a housing bubble. Household savings plummeted to zero, to the lowest level since the Great Depression. It managed to sustain the economy, but the way it did it was shortsighted: America was living on borrowed money and borrowed time.Finally, at the center of blame must be the financial institutions themselves. They -- and even more their executives -- had incentives that were not well aligned with the needs of our economy and our society.They were amply rewarded, presumably for managing risk and allocating capital, which was supposed to improve the efficiency of the economy so much that it justified their generous compensation. But they misallocated capital; they mismanaged risk -- they created risk.They did what their incentive structures were designed to do: focusing on short-term profits and encouraging excessive risk-taking.This is not the first crisis in our financial system, not the first time that those who believe in free and unregulated markets have come running to the government for bail-outs. There is a pattern here, one that suggests deep systemic problems -- and a variety of solutions:1. We need first to correct incentives for executives, reducing the scope for conflicts of interest and improving shareholder information about dilution in share value as a result of stock options. We should mitigate the incentives for excessive risk-taking and the short-term focus that has so long prevailed, for instance, by requiring bonuses to be paid on the basis of, say, five-year returns, rather than annual returns.2. Secondly, we need to create a financial product safety commission, to make sure that products bought and sold by banks, pension funds, etc. are safe for "human consumption." Consenting adults should be given great freedom to do whatever they want, but that does not mean they should gamble with other people's money. Some may worry that this may stifle innovation. But that may be a good thing considering the kind of innovation we had -- attempting to subvert accounting and regulations. What we need is more innovation addressing the needs of ordinary Americans, so they can stay in their homes when economic conditions change.3. We need to create a financial systems stability commission to take an overview of the entire financial system, recognizing the interrelations among the various parts, and to prevent the excessive systemic leveraging that we have just experienced.4. We need to impose other regulations to improve the safety and soundness of our financial system, such as "speed bumps" to limit borrowing. Historically, rapid expansion of lending has been responsible for a large fraction of crises and this crisis is no exception.5. We need better consumer protection laws, including laws that prevent predatory lending.6. We need better competition laws. The financial institutions have been able to prey on consumers through credit cards partly because of the absence of competition. But even more importantly, we should not be in situations where a firm is "too big to fail." If it is that big, it should be broken up.These reforms will not guarantee that we will not have another crisis. The ingenuity of those in the financial markets is impressive. Eventually, they will figure out how to circumvent whatever regulations are imposed. But these reforms will make another crisis of this kind less likely, and, should it occur, make it less severe than it otherwise would be.http://edition.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/09/17/stiglitz.crisis/index.html

Categories: forums

Israeli fruit now contaminated with depleted uranium - Thousands of Israelis are now preparing to leave the Jewish State,

f-confl - Fri, 2008-09-19 11:35

Israeli fruit now contaminated with depleted uranium - Thousands of Israelis are now preparing to leave the Jewish StateNot just oranges, but figs, grapes, avocados ... everything in the food chain is now contaminated by DU oxide particles blowing in from Iraq. One alpha particle in your gut or lungs is equivalent to having an X-ray every 15 minutes ... cancer and other diseases follow quickly.This comes to me direct from an Israeli teacher friend who has just returned to Holland. She also told me that thousands of families in Israel are now preparing to leave Israel, with many in contact with the diaspoara in America, Europe, Canada and Australia.It looks like the end of the road for Israel, folks. Let's welcome the Jews back to Holland, America or wherever, and hope none of them bring any DU with them. At least we have the hospitals with good anti-cancer facilities.http://www.godlikeproductions.com/forum1/message273841/pg1

Categories: forums

Video: Ron Paul Blasts “Secret Government” Running Economy,

f-dem - Fri, 2008-09-19 11:21

Please watch the following video, Congressman Ron Paul explains the financial crisis, simple and easy to understand...

 

Ron Paul Blasts “Secret Government” Running EconomyCongressman warns middle class in danger of being wiped out, says Congress is oblivious and Fed has no clueSteve Watson, Infowars.net, Thursday, Sept 18, 2008Congressman Ron Paul has issued a stinging address concerning the financial crisis in which he outlines how the current economic problems, created via malinvestment and shift to a debt based economy, are now being mismanaged by private interests in secret.What’s more he says he is not sure the Federal Reserve has any idea what to do next and that the Congress is totally oblivious to the whole sorry state of affairs - a cocktail of elements he warns puts the middle class of America in serious jeopardy.“Today we had a lot of financial fireworks in the markets, a lot of things are going on, and I think we are in the middle of something very big.” the Congressman stated.Speaking on the recent collapse and government bailout of several big financial institutions he warned:“We’re talking about big bucks, we’re not talking about hundreds of millions or even hundreds of billions, we’re talking about trillions of dollars, the obligation is immeasurable.”“The interesting thing is that they (the financial institutions) don’t come to the Congress, I mean the Federal Reserve buys them out, they own it. We as tax payers now own Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and know one knows how much that will cost. They don’t come to the Congress, we don’t have appropriations, it’s done by secret government, private individuals behind the scenes maneuvering and manipulating and trying to patch things up. While in the meantime, I’m sure there’s a few people making a couple of bucks out of this whole thing.”The Congressman highlighted how an economy structured on debt and credit and a financial system based on interventionism and self serving moral hazard has led to gross devaluation of the dollar and ultimately lies at the root of the current financial meltdown.“Our problems come first of all from the Federal Reserve. It is a monopoly and it controls interest rates artificially low, causes people to make mistakes, that’s the basic source. But then on top of that in the Housing market we had the community reinvestment act which told investors that they had to loan to risky borrowers, and that was a risky complication. HUD contributes to this, FDIC contributes, it’s called moral hazard, everything that we have done over here creates moral hazard, that is we assure people or assume that we will take care of everybody, just go out and create the risk, it is the opposite of the market place.” Paul stated.“You can’t create money like we’re doing in order to support the dollar, because ultimately it hurts the dollar and everything we do in Washington today whether its on the appropriations side, whether it’s what the Fed is doing, buying up America, it’s all putting pressure on the dollar. One of these days we’re just going to have to wake up and say that we need to liquidate debt. This is malinvestment.” he urged.The Congressman then slammed those who have blamed the crisis on failures of the free market:“And then they have people come along and say ’see, this is the failure of capitalism’, this has nothing to do with capitalism, this is something that started off as interventionism and us being too involved in the economy for the benefit of special interests. But now it is being socialized out in the open.”Continue to read:http://www.prisonplanet.com/ron-paul-blasts-secret-government-running-economy.htmlWatch the video here:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KX9r-L1gKQc&eurl=

Categories: forums

God or UFO,

f-dem - Thu, 2008-09-18 23:31

Since we have been discussing Inteligent Design may be we should consider teaching kids in school classes about UFOs. 

 Is it possible that what people from the past perceived as  God's Creation would actually become  the UFOs Intelligent Design?

Check this out:

http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/index.php?rn=222561&cl=9765833&ch=222562

 

Categories: forums

An ancient Arab proverb,

f-confl - Thu, 2008-09-18 16:47

The "gains" in Iraq are "fragile and reversible". But ".... Afghanistan may now come to overshadow even that bitter and costly conflict,"  is how Paul Rogers ends one of his articles on Afghanistan.

Over 1000 years ago, for some centuries, the Arabs were militarily invincible. In any war or battle between them and any European power, it was a forgone conclusion that the Arabs would win. At that time there appeared a saying which has persisted to this day: "La'dat al tho'ban - wala harb al Afghan." 

Translation: "Better the bite of a venomous snake, than an Afghan war."

In spite of Western superior chnology and self-agrandizement, I have seen nothing that contradicts this wisdom after seven years of war.

  

Categories: forums

Financial crises: Cause and cure,

f-mon - Wed, 2008-09-17 21:35

The deregulated financial system was a neo-conservative accident
waiting to happen, a 21st century version of the South Sea Bubble. The
last 2 decades have been boom times, when banksters, (a neologism to
cover banks and other lending institutions) were making aggressive
loans to everyone, because loans meant interest meant profit. Drunk
with greed, they loaned without making sound judgments about the
ability of the debtor to pay, and without regard for the amounts of
capital their company actually held. Obscure high falutin financial
instruments were created, essentially bets on future prices. Little
criticism came from the media, mainly because nobody understood what
was happening, although Warren Buffet, who did, said "Derivatives are
financial weapons of mass destruction". Treasury Ministers should have
taken notice.

OK, it takes two to tango. People wanted fat cars and went asking for a loan. People wanted to buy a house (especially since they were going up in value so rapidly) so they took out a mortgage. But the banksters were undoubtedly aggressive in their offers of loans, because the profit in banking comes from making loans, not in accepting deposits. 

So we are now facing a financial implosion, a bursting of the easy
credit bubble. It is likely to be a mother, because of globalisation of
the financial markets, because of recent rises in oil and food prices,
because of climate change (the cost of hurricanes come back to the
insurance market, and UK plc is heavily into insurance) because of Peak
Oil, and because of Cilmate change.

So this is unlikely to be a little 2-year blip.

Luckily we have the Green New Deal to offer as a remedy for the desperate situation of unemployment, poverty and financial paralysis that is likely to ensue.

The Green Wage Subsidy should form a part of this Green Keynesianism.

Local groups can form Time Bank (LETS) groups.

So there is a way out of this mess. But it is going to take a revolution in our thinkingConfused? Things will get clearer as the recession gets worse.

Categories: forums

Creationism and Public Schools,

f-dem - Tue, 2008-09-16 20:51

Quote:
General Rule: Evolution must only be taught as scientific fact. Creationism may not be taught as science under any circumstances.

May a public school science teacher's right to teach evolution be restricted?
No. The United States Supreme Court has determined that it is unconstitutional to restrict an educator's right to teach evolution.

May a science teacher who teaches evolution also teach creationism? No. Educators may not teach, as fact, the theory that humankind was created by a divine being. In science classes, educators must present only scientific explanations for life on earth and scientific critiques of evolution. Furthermore, schools may not refuse to teach evolution in an effort to avoid offending religious individuals. The United States Supreme Court has held that it is unconstitutional to require educators who teach evolution also to teach creationism.

In addition, disclaimers regarding the theory of evolution as the only explanation for the development of humankind have been found to be unconstitutional. In Freiler v. Tangipahoa Parish Board of Education, 185 F. 3d 337 (5th Cir 1999), cert. denied, 530 U. S. 1251 (2000), the court struck down a school board rule requiring teachers to read a disclaimer that said that the teaching of evolution is "not intended to influence or dissuade the Biblical version of Creation or any other concept."

May creationism ever be discussed in the public schools? Yes. Creationism may be included in classes on comparative religion as an example of how some religious groups believe human life began. However, creationism may never be taught as scientific fact.

Do scientific integrity and equity require that we teach a competing theory of human origins? Some have argued that equity, intellectual honesty and scientific integrity require the teaching of creationism as a differing and alternative point of view. However, creationism may not be taught as a response to the theory of evolution. Indeed, creationism (or "creation science") does not meet the tenets of science as scientists use the term. Moreover, it is not a matter of equity to teach a religious point of view in a public school classroom with taxpayer dollars.

Additionally, there is a growing movement promoting the teaching of "intelligent design theory" which asserts that the only reasonable explanation for the very complexity of the world and development of humans is the existence of God. This "theory," often couched in scientific terminology, is just another species of creationism, and thus also must not be taught in the classroom as scientific fact.

http://www.adl.org/religion_ps_2004/evolution.asp

Categories: forums

George Carlin - The American Dream ,

f-dem - Tue, 2008-09-16 10:48

George Carlin - The funny prophet, told us long time ago, where America is leading to... has the American soul the power to turn for good?  I say, yes 

George Carlin - The American Dream 1 of 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMoFrBXxsSI

 

George Carlin - The American Dream 2 of 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WWYHAEpNG4&feature=related

Categories: forums
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