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Archive for June, 2008

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Climate concern ripped as ‘religion’

Posted by Charlie Kilo on June 30th, 2008

I think I like this guy:

Environmentalism, says Czech President Vaclav Klaus, is the new communism, a system of elite command-and-control that kills prosperity and should similarly be condemned to the ash heap of history.

The provocative Mr. Klaus, an economist by training and former prime minister, said in an interview that today’s global warming activists are the direct descendants of the old Marxists who trampled on individual freedoms and undermined free markets in pursuit of a greater good.

“I understand that global warming is a religion conceived to suppress human freedom,” he told editors and reporters at The Washington Times. “It is used to justify an enormous scope for government intervention vis-a-vis the markets and personal freedom.”

The 66-year-old Mr. Klaus was in Washington this week for talks with senior U.S. officials, including Vice President Dick Cheney, and to tout his new book, “Blue Planet in Green Shackles,” about the dangers to life, liberty and prosperity posed by the modern environmental movement.

U.S. Escalating Covert Operations Against Iran

Posted by patriot on June 29th, 2008

55 years later, we’re at it again…

U.S. congressional leaders agreed late last year to President George W. Bush’s funding request for a major escalation of covert operations against Iran aimed at destabilizing its leadership, according to a report in The New Yorker magazine published online on Sunday.

The article by reporter Seymour Hersh, from the magazine’s July 7 and 14 issue, centers on a highly classified Presidential Finding signed by Bush which by U.S. law must be made known to Democratic and Republican House and Senate leaders and ranking members of the intelligence committees.

“The Finding was focused on undermining Iran’s nuclear ambitions and trying to undermine the government through regime change,” the article cited a person familiar with its contents as saying, and involved “working with opposition groups and passing money.”

Hersh has written previously about possible administration plans to go to war to stop Tehran from obtaining nuclear weapons, including an April 2006 article in the New Yorker that suggested regime change in Iran, whether by diplomatic or military means, was Bush’s ultimate goal.

Funding for the covert escalation, for which Bush requested up to $400 million, was approved by congressional leaders, according to the article, citing current and former military, intelligence and congressional sources.

Clandestine operations against Iran are not new. U.S. Special Operations Forces have been conducting crossborder operations from southern Iraq since last year, the article said.

Let Big Brokers Fail; Buy Gold Not Oil: Marc Faber

Posted by Charlie Kilo on June 28th, 2008

This is right on:

The Federal Reserve should let the big investment banks go bust if they made unwise investment decisions, and investors should take refuge in gold, because the central bank has been “misleading” the markets, Marc Faber, editor and publisher of “The Gloom, Boom & Doom Report,” told “Worldwide Exchange.”

Fears that another major investment bank may get into trouble have hammered stocks recently but some analysts have said the major Wall Street banks were safe as the Fed cannot afford to let them fail.

“I think there’s a good chance that the Fed itself will fail one day if they say ‘We’re not going to let you fail,’ and the government will have to bail out the entire system,” Faber said.

“If I’m a bad businessman and I go out of business, who’s gong to help me?” he said. “But Bear Stearns and the Wall Street elite, because they are tied into the Treasury and the Federal Reserve and they have lunch together, it’s a club and so forth, they’re bailed out. It’s a joke!”

‘Prolonged Slowdown’ Coming: BoNY Mellon President

Posted by Charlie Kilo on June 28th, 2008

Via Continual Never-ending Bad Crap (CNBC):

The global economy will struggle more than people now think, as the credit crunch spreads beyond housing and financials, Gerald Hassell, Bank of New York Mellon president, told “Squawk Box Europe” Friday.

“We’re seeing the early signs of the traditional downturn,” Hassell said. “I do think it’s going to be a very tough environment for all of us here.”

Initially, the credit crunch had hit only the real estate sector, but now it is spreading, affecting credit cards and the consumer in general. Meanwhile the high price of oil and food is squeezing other areas such as clothing and autos, he said.

“I’m fairly pessimistic … we’re in a prolonged period of slowdown here,” Hassell said, adding that it is impossible to forecast when the economy will start to pick up.

The gun-rights fight isn’t over

Posted by Charlie Kilo on June 28th, 2008

Victory?

Leading gun-control advocates, such as the Brady Center, are already spinning Heller as a victory: They claim the gun-rights lobby’s strength is based on stoking the public’s slippery-slope fears that any gun regulation is a forerunner to a total ban. With that ban now impossible, gun-control advocates believe they’ll have more ability to restrict sales, possession and carrying in ways short of prohibition.

Credit-Card Debt Snaring More High-Income People

Posted by Charlie Kilo on June 27th, 2008

More “no duh” news from CNBC:

An attorney with a six-figure salary, Will Chen thought credit card debt was something that only affected people with low-paying jobs. But when the lavish spending inspired by his new job outpaced his paychecks, he quickly fell $100,000 into debt.

Credit-card debt is becoming even more prominent in the struggling state of the economy. The average amount per consumer rose to $6,900 in the last year, a 21 percent increase, according to Experian, a global information services company. The average number of past-due accounts also increased to exceed more than one per consumer.

And it’s not just those with low salaries who are susceptible.

Supreme Court says Americans have right to own guns

Posted by Charlie Kilo on June 26th, 2008

I publicly want to thank the Supreme Court for giving me the right to bear arms - a right I have actually been afforded by the Constitution since the second amendment was ratified in 1791:

The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that Americans have a right to own guns for self-defense in their homes, the justices’ first major pronouncement on gun rights in U.S. history.

The court’s 5-4 ruling struck down the District of Columbia’s 32-year-old ban on handguns as incompatible with gun rights under the Second Amendment.

And get this line:

The decision went further than even the Bush administration wanted, but probably leaves most firearms restrictions intact.

Translation: Even the right wing freaks in the Bush administration think this went too far. At least we still have most of the other unconstitutional gun laws on the books!

I would look at this ruling as a win in the battle but certainly not the end of the war.

Police Report: Mexican Army Members Busted for Home Invasion and Murder

Posted by Charlie Kilo on June 26th, 2008

Probing exercise?

Police reports show that three men arrested in a Phoenix home invasion and homicide Monday may have been active members of the Mexican Army.

While on the J.D. Hayworth show, Phoenix Law Enforcement Association President Mark Spencer said that the men involved were hired by drug cartels to perform home invasions and assassinations.

The Monday morning incident at 8329 W. Cypress St. resulted in the death of the homeowner.  Between 50 and 100 rounds were fired at the house.

Spencer said a police officer told him that one of the men captured said they were completely prepared to ambush Phoenix police, but ran out of ammunition.

He added that all were all dressed in military tactical gear and were armed with AR-15 assault rifles.  Three other men involved in the invasion escaped.

At Last, Some Truth About Iraq and Afghanistan

Posted by patriot on June 25th, 2008

No, it’s not about oil! They hate us because we’re free, right? Or so I’ve been told…

After a sea of lies and a tsunami of propaganda, the ugly truth behind the Iraq and Afghanistan wars finally emerged into full view this week.

Four major western oil companies, Exxon, Mobil, Shell, BP and Total, are about to sign US-brokered no-bid contracts with the US-installed Baghdad regime to begin exploiting Iraq’s oil fields. Saddam Hussein had kicked these firms out three decades ago when he nationalized Iraq’s foreign-owned oil industry for the benefit of Iraq’s national development. The Baghdad regime is turning back the clock.

This agreement comes as talks are continuing between the Washington and its Baghdad client regime over future US basing rights in Iraq. After some face-saving Iraqi objections, it is expected that Baghdad will sign a compact with Washington giving US forces control of Iraq and its air space in a manner very similar to Great Britain’s colonial arrangement with Iraq.

Interestingly, the same oil companies that used to exploit Iraq when it was a British colony are now returning. As former US Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan recently admitted, the Iraq war was all about oil. VP Dick Cheney stated in 2003 that the invasion of Iraq was about oil, and for the sake of Israel.

Cramer: Banking Doom Is Upon Us

Posted by Charlie Kilo on June 25th, 2008

Jim Cramer says the banks and the automakers are the stocks that could sink this market:

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