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Date Sent: 2009-08-29
Freedom's Phoenix Global Edition for August 29, 2009, Saturday edition |
2009 bank-failure tally climbs to 84 -- Banks 'Too Big to Fail' Have Grown Bigger
Secessionist movement under way in Texas -- AZ DPS Facing $10M Cut --
HB 1388 - You Cannot Serve Two Masters -- Fingers of Instability, Part
V Economic Suicide and the ABC’s of DEPRESSION! - by Ty Andros -- Tax
Enforcers Stalk Social Networks -- More On Internment Camps - by Chuck
Baldwin -- Barack Obama Gives Kickback to George Soros -- Bernanke's
Real Legacy: Helping Goldman Sachs (GS) Fleece Us All -- Limited Free
Access to Ron Paul's New Book -- Phoenix Pirate threatens Arrest over
Vaccine = Poison Sign! -- Modern Agriculture On the Road to Extinction
-- Is The Fed Monetizing MBS Held By China? -- Gov. Richardson Probe
'Was Killed in Washington'
AZ: Arizona Breakfast Club this morning
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News Link • Federal Reserve
2009 bank-failure tally climbs to 84
08-28-2009
•
Market Watch
Three more banks were closed by regulators Friday, bringing the 2009 toll to 84.
The largest of Friday's three closures announced by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. was Affinity Bank, based in Ventura, Calif.
Affinity, which had total assets of $1 billion, deposits of $922 million and 10 branches in Northern and Southern California as of July 10, will be taken over by San Diego-based Pacific Western Bank, the FDIC announced.
The FDIC said former Affinity branch offices in San Francisco and San Mateo will be-open Saturday and the rest will re-open on Sunday.
The FDIC said it and Pacific Western entered into a loss-share transaction of approximately $934 million of Affinity Bank's assets.
The federal agency estimated the cost to the Deposit Insurance Fund at $254 million.
Earlier Friday, regulars closed Baltimore-based Bradford Bank and Forest Lake, Minn.-based Mainstreet Bank.
Bradford Bank, the second bank to fail in Maryland this year, had $452 million
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News Link • Federal Reserve
Banks 'Too Big to Fail' Have Grown Even Bigger
Behemoths Born of the Bailout Reduce Consume
08-28-2009
•
Washington Post
When the credit crisis struck last year, federal regulators pumped tens of billions of dollars into the nation's leading financial institutions because the banks were so big that officials feared their failure would ruin the entire financial system.
Today, the biggest of those banks are even bigger.
The crisis may be turning out very well for many of the behemoths that dominate U.S. finance. A series of federally arranged mergers safely landed troubled banks on the decks of more stable firms. And it allowed the survivors to emerge from the turmoil with strengthened market positions, giving them even greater control over consumer lending and more potential to profit.
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News Link • TAXES: Federal
Tax Pledge Is a Target As Deficits, Debt Grow
08-28-2009
•
Washington Post
[preparing you for...] During last year's campaign, President Obama vowed to enact a bold
agenda without raising taxes for the middle class. Since then, a severe recession, massive
deficits and a national debt that is swelling toward a 50-year high
have only made his promise harder to keep.
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Powell Gammill
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News Link • Humor
The Government CAN
08-28-2009
•
BlueLoriBlogSpot
Video Sung to the tune of Candy Man from Tim Hawkins....ENJOY!!
Hey everybody, gather round!
I'm here to give you anything you like.
Want free college? Energy? Mortgages?
Whatever you like! You have come to the right place.
Why? I'll tell you why!
Who can take your money,
With a twinkle in their eye?
Take it all away and give it to some other guy?
The Government... (The Government...)
Oh, the Government can
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News Link • Surveillance
Healthcare reform bill = loss of privacy
08-28-2009
•
One News Now
A free-market think tank is warning that the House healthcare bill could potentially give thousands of federal employees access to citizens' financial records.
The House healthcare bill, H.R. 3200, expressly gives the new Health Choices Commissioner the right to look at an individual's tax return to determine what medical benefits or subsidies that person qualifies for. Section 431 of the bill allows the new commissioner to view individuals' filing status, adjusted gross income, number of dependents, and tax credits taken.
Tom Giovanetti with the Institute for Policy Innovation says there are egregious violations of privacy in the draft legislation.
"A lot of people who are concerned about privacy, they're concerned about privacy from corporations. They're worried about things like browser cookies....And our point here is that what we really ought to be concerned about is privacy from government," he suggests. "Hewlett Packard can't kn
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News Link • Corruption
Editorialists Roast Rangel
08-28-2009
•
National Legal and Policy Center
House Ways and Means Chairman Charles Rangel (D-NY) may have gotten a fleeting break when Edward Kennedy’s death knocked reports of his newly-disclosed wealth off the front page.
But by this morning, editorial writers had caught their breath and were busy at work skewering the Chairman of the committee that writes the nation’s tax laws. And just think how much fresh meat has been left for the weekend crew.
From the New York Daily News:
There are two sets of rules for Rep. Charlie Rangel - the ones he writes for everyone else and the ones that are, or were, beneath his compliance, powerful personage that he is.
From the Wall Street Journal:
When normal people happen to "find" their own money, it might mean a twenty left in a winter coat, or discovering change beneath the sofa cushions. But if you're Charlie Rangel, it means doubling your net worth.
From the New York Post:
Rep. Charlie Rangel's multimillion-dollar "oops" this month raises
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News Link • Constitution
Secessionist movement under way in Texas
08-28-2009
•
The Examiner
Fiercely independent and thoroughly horrified at the blatantly unconstitutional explosion of federal tyranny into every aspect of our lives, Texans are set to march on the state capitol in droves on Saturday. They will be delivering a million-strong petition to their elected officials based on the 10th Amendment, demanding an immediate constitutional confrontation with Washington.
If they are turned away or their concerns inadequately addressed, organizer Gerry Donaldson says they "will be forced to call for a vote for secession." This will not be the last time a state openly defies Obama's treasonous war on the Constitution.
Donaldson, who runs his own Internet radio show, says they are "calling for an orderly process that will allow our federal government to fall back in line with the Constitution." He continued, "Either we will restore America, we will live in a Marxist dictatorship, or we will secede and start over again."
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News Link • Obama Administration
Good News for obama donors!
08-28-2009
•
BlueLoriBlogSpot
Life is Sweet for obamas pals...
Take Warren Buffet who talks out of both sides of his mouth!
Or his Move On buddy Soros!
How about HIS buds over at Government Sachs?
Or his big donors at General Electric
Funny? Video (The Daily Show)
Good News/Bad News - America's Recession
I guess it is if you are one of those Laughing all the way to the Bank!
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News Link • Corruption
Obama's labor secretary lets union officials off transparency hook
08-28-2009
•
Washington Post
Never mind about those revised union financial disclosure requirements President Obama inherited from his predecessor. Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis now says she won’t make union officials comply.
Unions officials complained for eight years that regulations issued by Elaine Chao, President George W. Bush’s Labor Secretary, were more rigorous than required by the Labor Management and Reporting Disclosure Act (LMRDA), which calls for modestly detailed annual financial reports by unions with receipts of $250,000 or more.
The Bush-Chao regulations require union officials to disclose financial information that could aid union members’ seeking information on how their union leaders are spending dues money, and to help expose “no show jobs” that put paychecks for ghost employees into union coffers.
Before Bush took office, the reports were mostly ignored by the Labor Department. Now, it’s back to business-as-usual. A notice appeared this week on the department’s web site saying the Office
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![OFFICER TO TOWN HALL PROTESTER: ‘IT AIN’T [AMERICA] NO MORE’](https://www.freedomsphoenix.com/Uploads/Pix/000/08/000-0828210731.jpg)
News Link • Free Speech
OFFICER TO TOWN HALL PROTESTER: ‘IT AIN’T [AMERICA] NO MORE’
08-28-2009
•
BlueLoriBlogSpot
DissentFromDayOne's YouTube description: This video was taken on Tuesday, August 25th, 2009 at Rep. Jim Moran's (D-VA) Town Hall meeting on Obama Deathcare held at South Lakes High School in Reston, VA. Many people were left outside when the school filled to capacity. School security officer Wesley Cheeks, Jr. did not like my anti-Obamacare poster which used one of the gone-viral "Joker" graphics. When I said to Officer Cheeks, "This used to be America!" his response was: "It ain't no more, OK?"
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News Link • TAXES: Local
It appears that the Colorado Springs Police Department has a new policy and it seems to be in confli
08-28-2009
•
https://GreenDragonTavern.com
Douglas Bruce, a long time activist in Colorado and well known tax opponent, was recently arrested for petitioning at a CostCo (contact: 591-3000) to get the issue of repealing the rain tax, the storm water tax, or any number of other things that it has been called, back on the ballot. Irrespective of the name, in this case it is a fee. (It becomes a tax if any of it is diverted to the city from the enterprise that charges it.) It was not approved by the voters and violates TABOR, if not in letter then in spirit.
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Tres Melton
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News Link • Arizona's Top News
AZ DPS Facing $10M Cut
08/28/2009
•
CameraFRAUD
The Arizona Department of Public Safety, the principal co-operator of the statewide Redflex automated ticketing scheme, may be facing over $10 million in budget cuts according to KPHO.
While the agency is facing a situation where 97 sworn officer positions remain unfilled and possible elimination of 15 civilian jobs, absolutely no mention is made of cuts regarding the disastrous and unpopular photo radar surveillance program.
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Camera FRAUD
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News Link • Government
HB 1388 - You Cannot Serve Two Masters
08-28-2009
•
T F Stern
A piece of legislation which may have slipped under the radar, HB 1388,
named the “Generations Invigorating Volunteerism and Education” bill
(GIVE), has some interesting and alarming inclusions for young people
who accept a student loan. The strings attached to such student loans
would be mandatory service for a minimum of three months in “Obama’s
Youth Brigade”.
The kind of service required brings to mind a
brown shirted youth brigade, reminiscent of Hitler’s Nazi Germany, and
has yet to face much if any public scrutiny; however, SEC. 1310 SEC
132A, which was removed and previously listed as SEC. 1304. Section
125, basically forbids church attendance in any way shape or form.
While
written in such a way as to prohibit persons from using their position
as volunteers to actively promote a specific religion, which would
violate the current interpretation of separation of church and state;
1310 SEC 132A also acts to prohibit that same volunteer from
par
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Thomas Costanzo
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Opinion • Economy - Economics USA
Tedbits
Tedbits: Fingers of Instability, Part V
Economic Suicide and the ABC’s of DEPRESSION!
08-28-2009
Ty Andros
Many analysts are calling an end to the recession. No way, we are only in a countertrend
bounce in economic activity before the next leg DOWN. One has to look no further than the
incredible bounces of 50% or more in markets halfway to the lows from 1929 to 1933, or
in post-bubble Japan since 1989 to see the parallels. The social welfare states of the G7 and
their spawn known as FIAT currency and credit financial systems have just
masked the unfolding death of their economies. As public serpents, er…servants implement
their plans for MISERY SPREAD WIDELY, also known as SOCIALISM, which forces more and more desperate voters
into their grasp.
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News Link • Healthcare Industry
Eating Healthy " A Mental Disorder
08-28-2009
•
Surviving the Middle Class Crash
Organic food enthusiasts watch out! You are mentally ill, need treatment, and should be checked into a clinic or treatment center.
I guess the docs feel that if you can afford to eat healthy, you can
afford the thousand dollars it costs for one month’s worth of therapy
to cure your obsession with wanting to be healthy.
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Barbara Peterson
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News Link • Obama Administration
Obama 'stimulus' plays favorites with earmarks
08-28-2009
•
One News Now
A tax policy expert says President Obama has reneged on his promise to keep his economic "stimulus" plan transparent and free of earmarks.
The Associated Press reports that Senators Max Baucus (D-Montana) and John Tester (D-Montana) persuaded the Obama administration to award $15 million in federal stimulus money to a Montana checkpoint along the Canadian border that serves only three people a day. A similar checkpoint in North Dakota, which serves about 73 people a day, is also getting $15 million for renovations.
Meanwhile, a border checkpoint in Laredo, Texas -- which serves more than 55,000 travelers and 4,200 trucks a day in an area that is a hotbed of illegal immigration and drug trafficking -- was passed over for stimulus money.
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News Link • Healthcare
Bran May Actually Make Irritable Bowels Worse
08-28-2009
•
red Orbit
A new study on Friday suggests that wheat bran and other fibrous foods that do not dissolve easily in water not only fail to soothe irritable bowels but may even make things worse, AFP reported.
The study found that most soluble types of bran, such as psyllium, appear to ease inflamed bowels, but the insoluble varieties people have traditionally eaten for regularity don't work as advertised.
The hard outer layer of grains is referred to as bran. Psyllium, also referred to as isphagula, is derived from the seed husks of the Plantago ovata plant, and is the chief ingredient in many over-the-counter laxatives.
Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), which affects about 10 percent of the population, causes abdominal pain and an irregular bowel habit.
Doctors all over the world recommend daily doses of fiber in th
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News Link • Legislative Mischief
Ted Kennedy's Soviet Gambit
08-28-2009
•
Forbes
Kennedy's message was simple. He proposed an unabashed quid pro quo. Kennedy would lend Andropov a hand in dealing with President Reagan. In return, the Soviet leader would lend the Democratic Party a hand in challenging Reagan in the 1984 presidential election. "The only real potential threats to Reagan are problems of war and peace and Soviet-American relations," the memorandum stated. "These issues, according to the senator, will without a doubt become the most important of the election campaign."
Kennedy made Andropov a couple of specific offers.
First he offered to visit Moscow. "The main purpose of the meeting, according to the senator, would be to arm Soviet officials with explanations regarding problems of nuclear disarmament so they may be better prepared and more convincing during appearances in the USA." Kennedy would help the Soviets deal with Reagan by telling them how to brush up their propaganda.
Then he offered to make it possi
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News Link • Obama Administration
Barack Obama Gives Kickback to George Soros
08-28-2009
•
CRIME & FEDERALISM
On August 15, 2008, Bloomberg repoted:
Billionaire investor George Soros bought an $811 million stake in Petroleo Brasileiro SA in the second quarter, making the Brazilian state-controlled oil company his investment fund's largest holding.
On August 19, 2009, the Wall Street Journal reported:
Obama Underwrites Offshore Drilling
You read that headline correctly. Unfortunately, the Obama Administration is financing oil exploration off Brazil.
The U.S. is going to lend billions of dollars to Brazil's state-owned oil company, Petrobras [which is short for Petroleo Brasileiro], to finance exploration of the huge offshore discovery in Brazil's Tupi oil field in the Santos Basin near Rio de Janeiro. Brazil's planning minister confirmed that White House National Security Adviser James Jones met this month with Brazilian officials to talk about the loan.
George Soros still has a huge position in Petroleo Brasileiro. According to most-recent filings, Petrole
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News Link • Obama Administration
Wake Up, America: Forced vaccinations, quarantine camps, health care interrogations and mandatory **
08-28-2009
•
Natural News
The United States of America is devolving into medical fascism and Massachusetts is leading the way with the passage of a new bill, the "Pandemic Response Bill" 2028, reportedly just passed by the MA state Senate and now awaiting approval in the House. This bill suspends virtually all Constitutional rights of Massachusetts citizens and forces anyone "suspected" of being infected to submit to interrogations, "decontaminations" and vaccines.
It's also sets fines up to $1,000 per day for anyone who refuses to submit to quarantines, vaccinations, decontamination efforts or to follow any other verbal order by virtually any state-licensed law enforcement or medical personnel. You can read the text yourself here: http://www.mass.gov/legis/bills/sen...
Here's some of the language contained in the bill:
(Violation of 4th Amendment: Illegal search and seizure)
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News Link • Corruption
Bernanke's Real Legacy: Helping Goldman Sachs (GS) Fleece Us All
08-28-2009
•
istockanalyst
I’ve watched with first amusement, then disgust, and ultimately outrage as various pundits proclaimed Bernanke’s efforts “saved the financialsystem” or helped the US “weather the storm.” Bernanke did NO such thing. You could train a chimpanzee to hit the “print money” button at the Fed every-time the Fed phone rings with a Wall Street number and get the same results. To date, Bernanke has spent or put the taxpayer on the hook for some $24 TRILLION in bailouts, lending windows, and off balance sheet arrangements.
AND HE’S FIXED NOTHING.
Banks remain insolvent (if you marked their assets at market value, they’d all wipe out equity in a second), mortgages remain underwater, hundreds of thousands of Americans continue to lose their jobs every month, foreign investors grow increasingly distrustful of the dollar, and the financial system continues to have multiple black swans… all of which could bring about another CRASH.
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News Link • Federal Reserve
Is The Fed Monetizing MBS Held By China?
08-28-2009
•
The Market Ticker
If we are to learn anything from this sordid episode in our nation's economic history one lesson must come through: It is the presence of these "under the covers" backstops that cause asset bubbles to be blown to the degree that we saw occur, because without them nobody in their right mind ever allows a commitment of money to dodgy assets to the degree that is necessary for a bubble of the magnitude we saw in housing to occur.
Between those "side letters" (or their moral equivalents) and accounting fraud you have a recipe for disaster. We have now seen two bubbles - The Internet and Housing - occur due almost entirely to these factors. ENRON occurred due to the ability of the firm to run off-balance sheet deals that turned out to be an outright scam, and the housing bubble occurred due to what amounted to the same thing: massive off-balance-sheet exposures and vehicles that were effectively financed the same way (that is, sans disclosure.)
We sorely need
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News Link • Corruption
Richardson Probe 'Was Killed in Washington'
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and former high
08-28-2009
•
Fox
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and former high-ranking members of his administration won't be criminally charged in a yearlong federal investigation into pay-to-play allegations involving one of the Democratic governor's large political donors, someone familiar with the case said.
The decision not to pursue indictments was made by top Justice Department officials, according to a person familiar with the investigation, who asked not to be identified because federal officials had not disclosed results of the probe.
"It's over. There's nothing. It was killed in Washington," the person told The Associated Press.
A federal grand jury began an investigation in 2008 into a possible pay-to-play scheme in which lucrative work on state bond deals went to a Richardson donor. The federal probe derailed Richardson's appointment as commerce secretary in President Barack Obama's administration
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News Link • Corruption
EXCLUSIVE: AIG CEO defends holiday, slams "lynch mob" attacks
08-28-2009
•
Reuters
"We have the ability. I know that I am telling people we are allowed to," he said. "What I don't know is if people (employees) are willing to. A lot of them feel hurt, embarrassed, a lot of people have lived in fear because of what I call lynch mobs with pitchforks."
Benmosche was referring to severe criticism of the bonuses paid to some AIG staff at the financial products unit at the center of its meltdown. The verbal assaults by politicians and in the media led to several demonstrations, including a bus tour of employee homes near the unit's Wilton, Connecticut headquarters, and threats to others.
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News Link • Obama Administration
Here's Why Krugman Should Be Worried About The Monster Deficit
08-28-2009
•
The Business Insider
Paul Krugman is trying to have it both ways when it comes to the deficit. On the one hand, he says it isn't a big problem, and that we can afford a lot more spending. On the other hand, he says if there is a problem it's all Bush's fault -- which may be true, but that doesn't change the current reality.
Either way, some are finding his reasoning to be lacking. James Hamilton at Econbrowser points to Political Math, which debunks the claim that the $9 trillion debt is okay because it's on par with where we were post WWII.
...implicit in his observation is the concept that since we did fine after WWII, we'll do fine now. But the years after WWII saw drastic reductions in the inflation-adjusted debt driven by drastic reductions in spending. Mr. Krugman points to no similar possibility in the post-Obama world.... Back in 1945, at the height of the spending that saw our national debt rise so dramatically, entitlement spending and interest on the national debt m
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