Spend It Like You Stole It

"Whenever the nominal amount of available money increases faster than the real goods and services that money buys, you can expect rising prices."

April 30, 2011

By Bill Bonner
Daily Reckoning
4/29/11

From the point of view of a modern economist, nothing stimulates better than a bank robbery. The money leaves the cold embrace of a bank vault; soon every pimp and bartender has his pockets full. Hot money gets around.

An article in Rolling Stone Magazine provides an illustration. It explains how one Wall Street wife, and one Wall Street widow, formed a company specifically to take advantage of the US government’s spending spree known as TALF. You’d think the feds had already done enough for the Mack family. John Mack runs Morgan Stanley. Had it not been for the generous support of the US government and the Federal Reserve, he might be parking cars. Instead, the feds bailed out the entire financial sector. First, it bought up Wall Street’s bad bets at inflated prices and then lent banks money at artificially low interest rates; they were invited to lend the money back to the federal government for a sure profit.

Business was so good at Morgan Stanley that the distaff side of the Mack household apparently couldn’t resist. In June, 2009, with her friend Susan Christy, Mack set up an investment company and put in $15 million. Then, they borrowed $220 million from the government. A brave move on their part? If you think so, you are as naïve as a turnip. The fix was in; the two used the money to buy non-recourse loans at deep discount. If the loans increased in value, they would make a profit. If they fell, the government would take the losses. Much safer and more profitable than robbing banks. Two months later, Mr. Mack, perhaps with a little assistance from his blond helpmate, bought a limestone carriage house in Manhattan, with a 12-space garage for the getaway cars.  Read More

Obama's Real Strategy

"Right now the course of the campaign is being controlled by the Administration. The first step in wresting the initiative is to recognize their strategy."

April 28, 2011
By James V Capua

Watching the machinations of Barack Obama, it seems as though he is creating what the Marxists call "internal contradictions."

Gas prices ready to breach the $5 mark, but a relentless Administration campaign against increased domestic energy production; midterm elections soundly rejecting the President and his party's command and control initiatives, but vigorous efforts to extend them in contempt not only of electoral, but legislative and judicial checks; foreign and defense policies that have produced nothing beyond betrayal of our interests and few remaining friends, but an eager embrace of fringe notions of a utopian internationalist order and our place in that order: every day brings new movements in this symphony of dissonance.

Unfortunately, we are not simply enjoying a clarifying dialectic; we are in the middle of a high stakes race. The objective in this race is not a place; it is a date: Election Day, November 6, 2012.

As the contending parties converge on the objective, the Administration understands that the conventional electoral calculus seems irreversible -- gas prices, inflation, unemployment, and geopolitical discomfiture will be joined in 2012 by the newfound fear of deficits and the national debt, and maybe even for the fate of constitutional government. Their response to this looming threat of defeat is a version of the old Cold War communist strategy of "talk talk, fight fight."  Read More

Not So Fast, Mr. Obama: Trust But Verify

"Mr. Obama sent Lt. Col. Terry Lakin, a decorated combat-experienced Army flight surgeon, to jail because Obama refused to release his birth certificate."

April 28, 2011
By Carol A. Taber

Yesterday, President Obama released a long form birth certificate. In doing so, he lectured Americans about what was truly important in America. "We do not have time for this kind of silliness," he intoned. "We've got better stuff to do. I've got better stuff to do. We've got big problems to solve, and I'm confident we can solve them, but we're going to have to focus on them, not on this." He then promptly boarded Air Force One to solve one of those vital problems -- by flying to Chicago for another appearance on Oprah's show.

Let's focus now on one very simple question: why did he fight not to release the long form birth certificate?
Read More

2009 Report: Hawaii Health Department went paperless, discarded documents

In 2001 - the state of Hawaii Health Department went paperless

April 28, 2011
American Thinker
By Thomas Lifson

In the words of Lewis Carroll, it gets curioser and curiouser. According to this report, back when Lou Dobbs (then a CNN host) began to raise questions about Obama's birth, CNN president Jon Klein had his researchers contact the Hawaii Department of Health to inquire as to the records. TV Newser reproduced the letter in a post dated July 24, 2009:

From: Klein, Jon (CNN)

Sent: Thu Jul 23 19:00:44 2009

Subject: Important re birth certificate

I asked the political researchers to dig into the question "why couldn't Obama produce the ORIGINAL birth certificate?"

This is what they forwarded. It seems to definitively answer the question. Since the show's mission is for Lou to be the explainer and enlightener, he should be sure to cite this during your segment tonite. And then it seems this story is dead - because anyone who still is not convinced doesn't really have a legitimate beef.

Thx

*****************

*In 2001 - the state of Hawaii Health Department went paperless.*Paper documents were discarded*The official record of Obama's birth is now an official ELECTRONIC record Janice Okubo, spokeswoman for the Health Department told the Honolulu Star Bulletin, "At that time, all information for births from 1908 (on) was put into electronic files for consistent reporting," she said.

So, is the pdf document released by the White House a copy that was scanned into the Hawaii DOH files? If so, why, then, are there anomalies? (See this, this, this, and this, for instance.)

Obama’s birth certificate

Brasscheck TV
4/28/2011

Where Obama was actually born is the least of our problems.

That being said, the document on the White House web site is NOT a scan of a print document as the White House claims it is.

It’s a digital creation.

Which means – and why am I not surprised? – it’s a fraud.

Here’s the analysis.

Obama challengers: Doc proves president ineligible

April 28, 2011
By Bob Unruh
4/27/2011

They are going to have to face the music on this at some point’

The “Certificate of Live Birth” document released by the White House today, if authentic, assures Americans that their president was born in Hawaii as he has said, according to two participants in a lawsuit who challenged the president’s tenure in the Oval Office.

But they say it also proves he’s ineligible under the Constitution’s requirements to be president.

According to Mario Apuzzo, the attorney who argued the Kerchner vs. Obama case, and the lead plaintiff, retired Navy Cmdr. Charles Kerchner, the documentation reveals that Barack Obama Sr., a Kenyan national subject to the jurisdiction of the United Kingdom, was the father when Barack Obama Jr. was born.

That, they say, would disqualify Obama because of the Founders’ requirement in the Constitution that a president be a “natural born Citizen,” commonly understood during the era of the beginnings of the United States to mean a citizen offspring of two citizen parents.  Read More

‘Molested’: Former Miss USA Describes Graphic TSA Pat-Down

April 28, 2011
The Blaze
4/27/11

In 2003, Susie Castillo was selected as the most beautiful woman in the United States when she won the Miss USA competition. This week, the beauty queen recounts an alleged ugly encounter at a Dallas TSA security checkpoint. According to her, she was given a pat-down that she equated with being “molested.”

In a blog post dated Monday, April 24, Castillo recounts what happened to her at DFW airport last week after opting out of going through one of the TSA’s new x-ray scanners:  Read More


Susie's Experience with the TSA Pat Down from SusieCastillo.net on Vimeo.

Obama birth certificate is just as authentic as the money supply, the food supply and Obamacare

"It's almost like he's more qualified for the job, you see, running the fake economy with fake dollars while the mainstream media distributes all the fake news."

April 28, 2011
By Mike Adams

The Birthers just don't know when to quit, do they? Now that the White House has released President Obama's birth certificate, the case is now closed, but they just won't stop ranting about it. Why are these birthers still complaining?

They claim the birth certificate document is a fake. Why does that matter? But of course the document is a fake. It's not "merely" fake; it's so fake that the whole thing has become an IQ test for figuring out how many people can be so easily fooled by a fake. If I turned in a document like this as part of an effort to get a home loan, for example, and I assembled it layer by layer with obvious cutting and pasting of numbers from multiple sources in order to fake my reported income levels, I would be guilty of a felony crime. At the very least, I would be laughed out of the room. "Are you kidding me? This is your best attempt at falsifying an income statement?" they would say. Even a high school kid with a scanner and Photoshop knows how to make a more convincing forgery than this...

But I ask the far more important question: Does it matter that it's a fake in the first place? Given that most of the U.S. government's job statistics are fake, and that the U.S. dollar is being counterfeited on a daily basis by the Fed, and that virtually the entire U.S. economy is built on fake "abundance" that's really just more debt spending... isn't it is some way actually more authentic to have a President at the helm who faked his birth certificate?  Read More

Tornadoes devastate South, killing at least 248

Read: Yahoo News

Obama Birth Certificate “Raises As Many Questions As It Answers”

"If you thought the birther controversy was finished, you ain’t seen nothing yet"

April 27, 2011
By Paul Joseph Watson

Despite some political commentators insisting that the White House release of what it claims to be Barack Obama’s long form birth certificate represents the end of the “crazy birther fringe” movement, those who most fiercely pushed doubts surrounding the president’s eligibility are not convinced.

While presumptive Republican candidate Donald Trump welcomed the release of the document, he was quick to cast suspicion as to why it took so long and if the certificate was even genuine.

Trump said it was “amazing” that the document surfaced “all of a sudden” after he had begun asking questions about the controversy, adding that the certificate should be analyzed to determine its authenticity.

Indeed, the Smoking Gun website has already compiled a list of inconsistencies found in the document, including asking, “If the original document was in a bound volume (as reflected by the curvature of the left hand side of the certificate), how can the green patterned background of the document’s safety paper be so seamless?”

Meanwhile, World Net Daily editor Joseph Farah, who has been at the forefront of the birther movement, heavily promoting Jerome Corsi’s investigations into the matter along with his new book, Where’s The Birth Certificate?, reacted to the news by saying the birth certificate “raises as many questions as it answers”.

At the center of the storm is the argument about whether the fact that Obama’s father was born in Kenya, which is confirmed on the document released by the White House today, makes Obama ineligible to become president because he is not a “natural born citizen” of the United States.

“Some of the cases challenging Obama have explained that he was a dual citizen through his father at his birth, and they contend the framers of the Constitution excluded dual citizens from qualifying as natural born citizens,” reports WND, meaning that the document released by the White House today could even lead to proving Obama’s ineligibility.

“The news media and the political establishment were quick to rush to judgment regarding Obama’s eligibility in 2008, without any basis. It would be a big mistake for everyone to jump to a conclusion now based on the release of this document, which raises as many questions as it answers,” Farah said today.

Some political commentators have hastily insisted that the release of the document means, “The “birther” movement is now dead as a political force,” a rush to judgment given the fact that the White House’s direct involvement now means the entire controversy will only continue to generate attention.

Since the American people have been habitually lied to about everything under the sun, with trust in government at an all time low, a PDF file put out directly by the Obama administration itself isn’t going to make the furore die down at all, and will only lead to claims that the document is a carefully crafted fake.

Levin explains gravity of what Obama is destroying

April 26, 2011
The Right Scoop

Levin took a moment to reflect on the gravity of what the Obama administration is trying to destroy, the uniqueness of America and why exactly it is so exceptional: 

To Listen

Bill Whittle uncovers significant parts of Obama’s history

Bill Whittle digs deep into Obama’s past

April 26, 2011
The Right Scoop

Bill Whittle in part one his new Firewall segment, The Enigma: Strange Bedfellows, dove deep into Obama’s past in an attempt to understand his character. Because as he puts it, “policies are actaully secondary. It’s character that really counts.”

We’re told Barack Obama’s history and character are somehow off-limits. But personal history makes character, and the character of the President of the United States is something we have a right to be interested in.

In Part 1 of this meticulously researched and and sourced series, Bill examines both the Dunhams and the Obamas — each steeped in Marxism and anti-Americanism and each a long, long way away from mainstream American culture.

Bill Whittle uncovers significant parts of Obama’s history that I’ve never heard before and this is only part one!

Van Jones Helping to Push 'Human' Rights for Mother Nature

Former Obama Czar Van Jones Behind UN Push to Grant Mother Nature Same Rights as Humans…

April 26, 2011

(Fox News) — Van Jones, the Obama administration’s controversial former “green jobs czar,” has found a new calling: helping to push for a new, global architecture of environmental law that would give Mother Nature the same rights status as humans.

The new movement is almost certain to be showcased at a U.N.-sponsored global summit on “sustainable development” to take place in Rio de Janeiro in May 2012, when similar issues of “global environmental governance” are a major focus of attention.

Jones is taking up the challenge as one of the newest board members of an obscure San Francisco New Age-style organization known as the Pachamama Alliance, which has been creating a global movement to make human rights for Mother Nature an international reality — complete with enforceable laws — by 2014. The Rio summit will create an important midpoint for that campaign.

Jones joined the alliance’s board last December, shortly after the organization announced creation of the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature to carry the concept around the world—and install it not only in international law but in the statutes of communities and municipalities across the U.S.

He resigned from the administration in September 2009 after making public apologies for some of his past actions, including the signing of a 2004 petition that questioned whether the Bush administration had deliberately allowed the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to happen, and his previous affiliation with a self-described communist organization, the Standing Together to Organize a Revolutionary Movement (STORM).  Read More

Into The Economic Abyss

"We have indeed crossed the line between economic weakness and economic catastrophe. For those of you who have been asking when the final stage of the economic collapse will begin, that time has arrived."

April 25, 2011
By Brandon Smith

Over the past few years, mainstream analysts have shown a tenacious blind faith in the U.S. economy and the dollar that goes far beyond religion to the point of mindless cultism, so, when even they begin to question the future of American finance (as has been occurring more and more everyday), you know its time to worry. For those that have been following my work since 2007, the events of the past few months have not been a surprise at all, however, for those just waking up to the ongoing implosion of our fiscal infrastructure, the bubbling inflationary meltdown just over the horizon and the nightmare unfolding around our national debt is rather shocking. Living through a full spectrum catastrophe is, to say the least, confusing, especially when you have no idea where the whole thing began.

Until now, the mainstream media has provided nothing but economic fantasy for the masses. They have satiated the public with what amounts to financial toddler talk for helpless preschool minds averse to any research beyond their daily 15 minute sippy cup of New York Times, CNN, MSNBC or FOX cable news sound bites. I mean, have you ever actually stopped and read a Paul Krugman article more than once? Or listened carefully to an MSNBC economic piece? It’s like being violently accosted by a band of slobbering mental deficients with securitized ARM mortgages stuffed in their pants. Of course, fewer and fewer people are now buying what these hucksters are selling. With gasoline nearing $5 a gallon, grain prices doubling, and shelf prices beginning to skyrocket, it’s hard for even the most ignorant suburban schlep to remain oblivious to the problem anymore. We are no longer on the edge of the abyss; we have fallen into it head first…

I make this statement not for effect, not to startle people out of their apathy, not even to illustrate what “may” be coming around the bend in the near future. I make this statement as directly and sincerely as I know how; we have indeed crossed the line between economic weakness and economic catastrophe. For those of you who have been asking when the final stage of the economic collapse will begin, that time has arrived. Here is why… Read More

IMF bombshell: Age of America nears end

Commentary: China’s economy will surpass the U.S. in 2016

April 25, 2011
By Brett Arends
MarketWatch

BOSTON (MarketWatch) — The International Monetary Fund has just dropped a bombshell, and nobody noticed.

For the first time, the international organization has set a date for the moment when the “Age of America” will end and the U.S. economy will be overtaken by that of China.

And it’s a lot closer than you may think.

According to the latest IMF official forecasts, China’s economy will surpass that of America in real terms in 2016 — just five years from now.

Put that in your calendar.

It provides a painful context for the budget wrangling taking place in Washington, D.C., right now. It raises enormous questions about what the international security system is going to look like in just a handful of years. And it casts a deepening cloud over both the U.S. dollar and the giant Treasury market, which have been propped up for decades by their privileged status as the liabilities of the world’s hegemonic power.
Read More