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Date Sent: 2009-08-06
Freedom's Phoenix Global Edition for Thursday, August 6, 2009 AM edition |
Half of US mortgages seen underwater by 2011 -- 'Pain Ray' First Commercial Sale Looms
US "clunker" sales top 180,000 -- Ark. crowd mocks lawmakers over Obama health plan -- Appeals court clarifies tribal police jurisdiction on state highways -- Two Florida men face prison for flashing gang signs on Myspace -- 'CIA and Mossad paying $1,000 to Christian converts in northern Iraq' -- Obama passing new law to allow searching of PC's, Laptops, and media devices -- House Orders Up Three Elite Jets
-- US Marines Corps bans Facebook, Twitter -- KBR awarded Homeland
Security contract worth up to $385M -- Max Keiser: Banking oligarchy
bailouts vs auto workers pounding sand -- Negative Equity: 16 Million
Homeowners Underwater -- Photo Radar Exec Invokes 9/11 to Justify Surveillance --
Treasuries turn lower as economic outlook reevaluated Government to
sell record $75 billion in debt -- AIG Breakup Is Fee Bonanza --
Ex-Congressman Jefferson Convicted In 11 Count Bribery Scheme -- Larry Summers Protects Goldman Sachs; Forces Out Cybersecurity Czar Melissa Hathaway --
Murdoch vows to charge for all online content -- Depopulation by
Inoculation (Part 1): Motive and Intent - by Dave Hodges -- U.S.
government queries Goldman about compensation -- A US Drug War with Mexican Consequences
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News Link • Economy - Economics USA
About half of U.S. mortgages seen underwater by 2011
08/05/2009
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Reuters
Never saw that coming (extreme sarc)
The percentage of U.S. homeowners who owe more than their house is worth will nearly double to 48 percent in 2011 from 26 percent at the end of March, portending another blow to the housing market, Deutsche Bank said on Wednesday.
Home price declines will have their biggest impact on prime "conforming" loans that meet underwriting and size guidelines of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the bank said in a report. Prime conforming loans make up two-thirds of mortgages, and are typically less risky because of stringent requirements.
"We project the next phase of the housing decline will have a far greater impact on prime borrowers," Deutsche analysts Karen Weaver and Ying Shen said in the report.
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Reported by:
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News Link • World News
‘Pain Ray’ First Commercial Sale Looms
08-05-2009
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Wired Magazine
The military isn’t about to deploy
its pain ray to the battlefield. But someone in the commercial sector
is about to one. We don’t know who. The sale is mentioned in a presentation by Raytheon, who built the microwave weapon for the Defense Department.
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Reported by:
Jim Stachowiak
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News Link • Revolutions, Rebellions & Uprisings
The Leaderless Revolution
8/04/09
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Networked Blogs
A revolution is taking place in America. It’s as intangible as the whispering wind. Yet as ineluctable as mounting gale. To the politicians, it’s still but a passing breeze rustling the hair at the nape of the neck. To the grassroots masses, it’s rushing torrent destined to sweep the elite from the Halls of Power....
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Reported by:
Anonymous Watchman
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News Link • TAXES: Federal
U.S. "clunker" sales top 180,000: officials
08-06-2009
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Reuters
Sales under the U.S. government's "cash for clunkers" auto
incentive topped 180,000 with Toyota Motor Corp overtaking Ford Motor
Co with the top-selling vehicle, officials said.
Separately, a Senate vote on a $2 billion proposal to extend the
popular program was set for Thursday after Democrats and Republicans
agreed to consider seven possible amendments.
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Reported by:
Powell Gammill
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News Link • Activism
Ark. crowd mocks lawmakers over Obama health plan
08-05-2009
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AP
An unruly Little Rock crowd heckled and
shouted at two Arkansas Democratic congressmen, accusing them
of supporting a government-backed health plan that would take away
Americans' personal choice and freedom.
Read Full Story
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Reported by:
Powell Gammill
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News Link • Corruption
Air Force asks for one corporate jet -- Congress orders three
08-05-2009
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Rawstory.com
Last month, Congressional appropriators ordered three $65 million corporate jets (at a total cost of nearly $200 million), just a year after calling out Detroit executives for taking their own planes to testify on the health of the auto industry.
But wait -- it gets better.
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Reported by:
Jack Gregson
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News Link • Foreign Policy
Russian PM Vladimir Putin Plays Macho Man in Siberia
08-05-2009
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Spiegel.de/international/
Even the prime minister of the largest country in the world needs a little time off. And for Vladimir Putin, this involves a testosterone-fuelled, adventure-holiday in the south of Siberia, including everything from campfires to boat excursions. Apparently Russia's best known action-man is even spending his nights this week in a tent.
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Reported by:
Jack Gregson
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News Link • Police State
“Be all that you can be…”
08-05-2009
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Lew Rockwell blog
…as a United States Army Internment/Resettlement Specialist.
The United States Army is now running a classified ad on its website for qualified people interested in becoming Internment/Resettlement (I/R) Specialists.
Two excerpts from the ad:
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Reported by:
Powell Gammill
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News Link • Law Enforcers or Peace Officers
Appeals court clarifies tribal police jurisdiction on state highways
08-05-2009
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Arizona Daily Star
Tribal police officers do not have the same authority to stop and
question non-Indians traveling on state roads within the reservation as
they do tribal members, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled
Tuesday. The judges said roadblocks set up on state roads are permissible "
but only to the extent the stop is limited to determine if the person
is an Indian.
Read Full Story
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Reported by:
Terry Bressi
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News Link • Law Enforcers or Peace Officers
Two Florida men face prison for flashing gang signs on Myspace
08-05-2009
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Photography Is Not A Crime
In what will be a test for the future of First Amendment rights on the
internet, two alleged gang members are facing five years in a Florida
prison for flashing gang signs on Myspace...
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Reported by:
Terry Bressi
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News Link • Welfare: Corporate
Goldman Wives Acting Like Goldman Husbands Try to Front Run the Crowd
08/05/2009
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Economic Policy Journal
May sound like a joke but it is not.
We all know that Goldman Sachs has been cashing in to the tune of billions, partly by getting in front of other traders. This apparently is now a family thing.
Despite chairman Lloyd Blankfein's warning to lay low and not cause money scenes, Blankfein's wife did not get the memo, or really doesn't pay attention to Lloyd memos, since she put on an attmpted front ruinning scene that will certainly be the envy of every geek front running computer programming writer, ever.
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Reported by:
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News Link • Religion: Believers
'CIA and Mossad paying $1,000 to Christian converts in northern Iraq'
08/04/2009
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Jerusalem Post
Iran's Fars news agency claimed Tuesday that the CIA and the Mossad were actively promoting Christianity in the Kurdish region of northern Iraq.
Read Full Story
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Reported by:
Lola Flores
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News Link • Obama Administration
Obama passing new law to allow searching of PC's, Laptops, and media devices
8/05/09
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Atlas Shrugs
"In extreme secrecy from the public, the Obama administration is hammering out an international treaty with other several other countries and the EU ......under ACTA, the government will get sweeping new powers to search and seize material thought to be in breach of copyright. But why all the secrecy? What it will do on a larger scale is let big brother watch you; however, this time on a completely different level." see video
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Reported by:
Anonymous Watchman
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News Link • Government
House Orders Up Three Elite Jets
08/05/2009
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rollcall.org
Last year, lawmakers excoriated the CEOs of the Big Three automakers for traveling to Washington, D.C., by private jet to attend a hearing about a possible bailout of their companies.
But apparently Congress is not philosophically averse to private air travel: At the end of July, the House approved nearly $200 million for the Air Force to buy three elite Gulfstream jets for ferrying top government officials and Members of Congress.
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Reported by:
Lola Flores
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News Link • Government
US Marines Corps bans Facebook, Twitter
08/05/2009
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PressTV
The US Marine Corps has issued an order banning the use of social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace and Twitter on its network for one year.
Read Full Story
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Reported by:
Lola Flores
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News Link • Government
KBR awarded Homeland Security contract worth up to $385M
02/24/2006
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WSJ
And old contract worth looking at with a new eye.
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Reported by:
Lola Flores
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News Link • New World Order
Max Keiser: Banking oligarchy bailouts vs auto workers pounding sand
08-05-2009
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Maxkeiser.com/2009/
"To avoid being enslaved by these corporations and banks you've got to push back, unfortunately the time has come to push back or just admit that your going to be living as an impoverished indentured servant to the banking class, and you have no hope of escaping penury or debt slavery because that is the goal of Goldman Sachs." Max Keiser
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Reported by:
Jack Gregson
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News Link • Housing
Negative Equity: 16 Million Homeowners Underwater
08-05-2009
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CalculatedRiskblog.com
Overall, 16 million homeowners are “upside-down” on their mortgages, up from 10 million, or 15% of owner-occupied homes, one year ago.
Nearly 10% of owner-occupied homes now have mortgage debt with loan-to-value ratios of at least 125%, and roughly half of those homes have mortgage debt with loan-to-value ratios of 150% or more.
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Reported by:
Jack Gregson
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News Link • Housing
A Few Pictures Are Worth A Thousand Mortgage Mods
08-05-2009
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ZeroHedge.com
Deutsche Bank - "By Q1, 2011 a projected 48% of total mortgage borrowers will have negative equity."
Nuff said.
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Reported by:
Jack Gregson
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News Link • Men trying to be our God
Photo Radar Exec Invokes 9/11
08/05/2009
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CameraFRAUD
Andrew Noble, president of photo radar manufacturer Gatso USA, recently invoked 9/11 as a reason he believes the public is becoming "more accepting" to surveillance:
"9/11 had a big impact on that and the idea that to some extent safety does come with increased security surveillance."
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Reported by:
Camera FRAUD
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News Link • Federal Reserve
Treasurys turn lower as economic outlook reevaluated
Government to sell record $75 billion in debt
08/05/2009
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Market Watch
Be wary of what you read in the main stream news what good job news?
Treasury prices turned lower Wednesday, pushing yields to the highest level since June in volatile trading, after one of the biggest bond-trading firms raised its outlook for U.S. growth and economic reports showed improvements in employment and factories.
Goldman Sachs (GS 168.19, -0.45, -0.27%) raised its forecast for economic growth in the second half of 2009 to an annual rate of 3% from 1%. The firm, one of the 18 primary U.S. government security dealers, expects a return to below-trend growth in 2010.
"That could be taking steam out of Treasurys," said Thomas Di Galoma, head of U.S. rates trading at brokerage Guggenheim Capital Markets.
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News Link • Bailouts
AIG Breakup Is Fee Bonanza
08/06/2009
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WSJ
Wall Street banks and lawyers could collect nearly $1 billion in fees from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and American International Group Inc. to help manage and break apart the insurer, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis.
That would represent one of Wall Street's biggest paydays -- four times the fees paid to break up AT&T Corp. in 1996, and nearly double those paid for Visa USA's 2008 initial public offering, the largest U.S. IPO ever.
The federal government's bailout of AIG has left it with a nearly 80% ownership stake. The government has a multiyear plan to recoup the more than $100 billion in taxpayer money it put at risk in the rescue.
Among the biggest beneficiaries is Morgan Stanley, which has earned about $10 million assisting the Fed, but could collect as much as $250 million from various AIG-related deals, according to some banking experts and documents released by the New York Fed. Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Bank of America Corp. and J.P. M
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News Link • Corruption
Jefferson Convicted In Bribery Scheme
Ex-Congressman Guilty of 11 Counts
08/05/2009
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WSJ
Former Louisiana Congressman William Jefferson was convicted Wednesday for bribery schemes aimed at enriching him and his family.
Former Louisiana Rep. William Jefferson and his wife, Andrea, leave federal court in Alexandria, Va., on Aug. 5.
A federal jury in Alexandria, Va., convicted him on 11 of 16 counts.
Prosecutors had said Mr. Jefferson was driven by greed, using his political post to carry out business deals that financially benefitted his family. The most notorious scheme involved $100,000 cash that they said Mr. Jefferson intended to deliver to the vice president of Nigeria to grease a telecom deal that would have been lucrative for him as well as family members. Most of that cash was found wrapped in foil and tucked inside veggie burger containers in his freezer after an FBI sting.
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Reported by:
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News Link • Entertainment: Games
How Is America Going To End?
Slate's "Choose Your Own Apocalypse" lets you map it out
08/05/2009
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Slate
If and when America expires, we probably won't agree on the cause of death. For proof that autopsies of empires are inconclusive, consider the case of Alexander Demandt, the German historian who set out in the 1980s to collect every theory ever given for why Rome fell. The final tally: 210, including attacks by nomads on horseback, blood poisoning, decline of Nordic character, homosexuality, outflow of gold, and vaingloriousness.
Scroll through the list of theories for America's demise, then select up to five that you find most persuasive. (If you'd prefer, you can also read all 144 end-of-America scenarios on a single page.) As you're making your picks, you'll get real-time updates on the apocalypse you've chosen"our Apocalypse Matrix reveals if your American end times will be bloodless or violent, and whether you blame man or nature for the country's downfall. You can also compare your choices with those of the average Slate reader. And check back on Fr
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News Link • Obama Administration
Larry Summers Protects Goldman Sachs; Forces Out Cybersecurity Czar Melissa Hathaway
08/05/2009
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CRIME & FEDERALISM
Cybersecurity Czar Melissa Hathaway has resigned for "personal reasons." The real story is much more interesting. Siobhan Gorman of the Wall Street Journal reports:
People familiar with the matter said Ms. Hathaway has been "spinning her wheels" in the White House, where the president's economic advisers sought to marginalize her politically.
Ms. Hathaway had initially been considered a leading contender to fill the cyber post permanently. She lost favor with the president's economic team after she said it should consider options for regulating some private-sector entities to ensure they secure their networks, said cybersecurity specialists familiar with the discussions.
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Reported by:
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News Link • Depression
Good news! The recession has ended! Bad news… we’re in the early stages of a depression
08/05/2009
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Flopping Aces
Eric Sprott is the Canadian business guru who predicted the banking collapse last year, and is #4 in Canada’s top successful investors. He’s one of the few who’s “…net worth went up over the past five months, thanks to the 30% increase of the value of his controlling stake in mutual fund firm Sprott Inc., parent of Sprott Asset Management.” You’ll find more of his insight with other articles here.
So without further adieu, I present to you a more informed perspective, complete with charts, graphs and some real data “tough love” on what’s coming our way. Below is the embed TOCdoc format. However if you prefer, here’s a PDF version to download, save… or just for easier viewing.
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Reported by:
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News Link • Food Recipes - Long Term Storage Foods
Store More Food
08-04-2009
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LewRockwell.com
It seems the media has become fascinated with people practicing the modern survival philosophy. Indeed I would say that disaster prep has become one of the topics de jour at the moment. As always though mainstream media is myopic and focused on one and only one segment of modern survivalism and for now it seems to be those who store food.
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Reported by:
Jack Gregson
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News Link • Media: Internet
Murdoch vows to charge for all online content ( Doooomed :)
08-05-2009
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Financial Times
Rupert Murdoch has vowed to charge for all the online content of his
newspapers and television news channels, going well beyond his
prediction in May that the company would test pay models on one of its
stronger papers within the year.
The comments by News Corp's
chairman came as he predicted a "high single digit" rebound in the
group's operating profits next year. The worst of the media sector
slump might be behind the company, he said, as he reported "some good
signs of life" in advertising.
Newspaper and television revenues
would be down "very low double digits" next year, but growth in cable
properties such as Fox News would leave advertising revenues flat and
total revenue up 4 per cent.
News Corp put the seal on a brutal
fiscal year with a fourth- quarter net loss of $203m (£119m), dragged
down by $680m in impairment and restructuring charges at Fox
Interactive Media, whose MySpace social networking s
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Reported by:
Ernest Hancock
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News Link • Constitution
Gun Sales Booming
08/05/2009
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Z100
From my area news say what you want but us folks in the Mid-West feed you and we get it.
So far this year handgun sales in Wisconsin area up 40% compared to last year at this time. David Madis at Greater Midwest Mercantile in Eau Claire says a lot of people want to buy guns now because they're concerned their right to buy guns will be cut off in the future. Madis says the poor economy has also increased sales, as people prepare to protect themselves from potential crime.
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News Link • Bailouts
U.S. government queries Goldman about compensation
08/05/2009
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Forbes
Government also asks about credit derivative instruments
* Firm says it is cooperating with requests
Goldman set aside $6.65 billion in the quarter for compensation expenses, setting off a firestorm of criticism about pay practices.
According to the filing, Goldman's board has received several letters from shareholders regarding compensation. It said shareholders have demanded the board investigate compensation in recent years, begin recouping so-called excessive compensation, and consider reforming its pay practices.
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Reported by:
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News Link • Drug War
A U.S. War with Mexican Consequences
08-05-2009
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CATO
American drug policy has been a central component of U.S."Mexican
relations, and of Mexican drug policy, at least since 1969, when
Richard Nixon unleashed Operation Intercept at the San Ysidro-Tijuana
border, inspecting every vehicle that crossed the border with the hope,
not of finding any drugs, but of pressuring the government of
then-President Gustavo Díaz Ordáz to expand Mexican drug enforcement.
Since that time at least, the United States has followed a policy of
criminalization, interdiction, and de facto drug-consumption
acceptance, given that American society has been reluctant to pay the
price of a full-fledged attempt at zero tolerance. This has transferred
a significant share of the burden of drug enforcement to the supply
side of the equation, and in consequence, to the foreign policy domain.
Read Full Story
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Reported by:
Ernest Hancock
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News Link • Climate Change
Global Warming My Ass!!!
08-05-2009
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Speak Truth 2 Power
The bottom line is how much money can the crooks in charge extract out of the people for bogus programs built on government lies before they wake up and CEASE TO COMPLY?
Read Full Story
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Reported by:
Barbara Peterson
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| Tags: freedoms, phoenix, archives, politics, libertarian, alternative, government, freedom |
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Opinion • 
