time*treat's Blog

Any uptick in cancer rates will be blamed on events in Japan.

Fracking*, strip-scanners, and (let's not forget) D.U. will get a pass.

*(Actually, fracking got a legal exemption)

Another person far too plain-spoken for a career in public office. Excerpt from a 2009 speech.

If you didn't understand english (or economics), you'd think he was telling the funniest jokes the audience had ever heard.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-04-16/texas-university-takes-cue-from-kyle-bass-to-hold-1-billion-in-gold-bars.html

At ~5:50, Marc Faber, on CNBC, is asked if the FedRes and ECB central bank(st)ers should have allowed "deleveraging" and its unpleasant consequences. It takes a full minute to set up the question...

I think the co-hostess did NOT like his answer.
Good thing he wasn't in-studio, 'might've got hit with a chair.

Who says financial news is boring? 

Casey's Dispatch is one of the things I read regularly.

If you find the serious stuff a bit too much, you can always skip down to the "Friday Funnies".

http://www.caseyresearch.com/cdd/tracks-mankind

http://neithercorp.us/npress/2011/04/a-day-in-the-life-of-a-%E2%80%9Chomegrown-terrorist%E2%80%9D/

By Giordano Bruno

Neithercorp Press – 4/8/2011

There was a time when having one’s name listed in the despised ranks of those villains that governments often categorize as “terrorists” involved quite a bit of leg work, as well as an ominous running resume of death, destruction, and general mean spiritedness. Of course, if one examines the history of every modern country which eventually disintegrated into despotism, the definition of who the “enemy” is tends to become rather broad rather quickly. That is to say, the more criminal the leadership of a country becomes, the easier it is for the average person to find himself labeled a criminal by that same leadership.

Today, one does not need to blow up buildings, take hostages in political motivation, send anthrax through the mail, or even wave a gun around in a public place to be considered a terrorist threat. In fact, a man could never leave his house and still find himself under suspicion as an enemy of the state. The Department of Homeland Security has released numerous standardized guidelines to law enforcement offices across the country which are meant to make it “easier” for police and others to identify a possible terrorist. If you were to take at face value such documents as the now famous MIAC Report, the Virginia Fusion Center Report, the DHS’ “see something, say something” campaign, the Enemy Belligerents Act, the post trial statements of the Department Of Justice in the Liberty Dollar case, or the wild spewing rhetoric of establishment mouthpiece organizations like the SPLC, then you would discover that a likely terrorist is:

Anyone who talks frequently about the Constitution, or ill of the government
Anyone who supports the idea of a Constitutional Militia
Anyone who fights against anti-gun legislation, or owns many guns (man do we LOVE guns)
Anyone who supports state sovereignty and 10th Amendment issues
Anyone who supports Ron Paul (the ultimate sin according to the SPLC)
Anyone who believes the private Federal Reserve is destroying our economy
Anyone who talks about the “New World Order”, or global government (does this include men like George Soros, Joseph Biden, Gordon Brown, Henry Kissinger, George Bush, Bill Clinton, Strobe Talbot, George McGovern, Mikhail Gorbachev, Richard Nixon, etc.?)
Anyone who discusses economic collapse as a reality in the U.S.
Anyone who speaks out against the IRS
Anyone who participates in “Hacktivism” (including those who leak documents embarrassing to government)
Anyone who participates in any form of activist group
Anyone who argues that the Left/Right political paradigm is a scam
Anyone who promotes Anarchist views
Anyone who distrusts FEMA (as if Katrina did not give us ample reasons)
Anyone who believes a truly independent investigation of 9/11 is rational and called for
Anyone who home schools their children
Anyone who flies a Gadsden Flag
Anyone who stores survival goods and food
Anyone who uses shortwave radios or HAMs
Anyone who watches movies like ‘Freedom to Fascism’, with anti-Fed messages
Anyone who operates private barter and trade networks
Anyone who stores gold and silver or uses them as an alternative to the dollar

Basically, ANYONE who dissents through independent political organization or protests through non-participation in the corrupt system might as well be Al Qaeda…

A Democratic (gasp!) senator is preparing to introduce legislation that aims to end the golden era of tax-free Internet shopping.

The proposal--expected to be made public soon after Tax Day--would rewrite the ground rules for Internet and mail order sales by eliminating the ability of Americans to shop at Web sites [] without paying state sales taxes.

Durbin of Illinois, the second most senior Senate Democrat, will introduce the bill after the Easter recess, a Democratic aide told CNET.

"Why should out-of-state companies that sell their products online have an unfair advantage over Main Street bricks-and-mortar businesses?" Durbin said in a speech in Collinsville, Ill., in February. "Out-of-state companies that aren't paying their fair share of taxes are sticking Illinois residents and businesses with the tab."

Read the rest of this bull$#!+ http://news.cnet.com/8301-31921_3-20052999-281.html

Hey, Turban, "out-of-state companies" are not selling to Illinois residents against their will. Let's really make it equal! Get rid of OFFLINE sales taxes, too.

http://www.lewrockwell.com/peters-e/peters-e36.1.html

... because going after real criminals can be dangerous ... and far less profitable.

Check your own state's legalized thievery grade.

http://www.ij.org/about/3179

I'll just bet.

http://www.wboc.com/story/14423646/wh-obama-regrets-vote-against-raising-debt-limit (one of many sources, just search the title phrase)

 

WASHINGTON (AP) - The White House said Monday that President Barack Obama regrets his vote as a senator in 2006 against raising the debt limit - a vote he's now pressuring Congress to take.

 

Obama "thinks it was a mistake," presidential spokesman Jay Carney told reporters. "He realizes now that raising the debt ceiling is so important to the health of this economy and the global economy that it is not a vote that, even when you are protesting an administration's policies, you can play around with."

(talk about on-the-job-training... How many other "mistakes" has he made?)

The country will reach the current debt limit of $14.3 trillion by May 16. If Congress doesn't raise it, the government would not be able to make debt payments, leading to an unprecedented default of the national debt and driving up borrowing costs for the government, U.S. companies and consumers, the Treasury Department warns.

Republicans who control the House are threatening to withhold their votes to increase the debt ceiling unless Obama agrees to major spending cuts. That's setting up a clash that could overshadow the budget fight that nearly resulted in a government shutdown before a last-minute deal was struck Friday night.

Carney said Monday that Obama wants Congress to send him a debt limit bill that doesn't include spending cuts or other budget items. But he stopped short of saying Obama would veto the legislation if Congress didn't comply.

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, has said there's no chance Republicans will agree to increase the debt limit unless the White House makes major concessions on spending at the same time.

Congress is forced to increase the debt limit every several years and it's often a political fight with members of the minority party withholding their votes to extract concessions or direct criticism at the party that controls the White House.

That was the case in 2006 when Republican George W. Bush was president and Obama, a freshman senator from Illinois, declared on the Senate floor: "The fact that we are here today to debate raising America's debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. ... Increasing America's debt weakens us domestically and internationally. Leadership means that 'the buck stops here.' Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem."

Today similar arguments are heard from Republicans. (Uh-huh.)

"The president has asked us to increase the debt limit, in other words to increase the limit on the credit card, without doing anything about the source of the problem. And we've got to deal with the source of the problem," Boehner said Monday on Fox News Channel.

Carney didn't disavow Obama's comments from 2006. But he said the president understands now that "when you're in the legislature, when you're in the Senate, you want to make clear your position if you don't agree with the policies of the administration. But there are many other ways to do it."

(In other words, complain if you must, but ultimately ... comply)

 

You'll find 100s of articles about the 2006 speech, but very few links to where you can read it for yourself. Not being one of either party's faithful cowards, I went and found the then-senator's "Sign of Leadership Failure" floor speech. The final vote is there, too.

SOURCE: Congressional Record. Starts on page 2, second column.

http://origin.www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CREC-2006-03-16/pdf/CREC-2006-03-16-pt1-PgS2236.pdf

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is considering approval of a plan designed to dramatically increase permissible radiation contamination levels in food, water and soil after radiation events, including spills and dirty bomb attacks.
The Office of Radiation and Indoor Air (ORIA), the radiation extension of the EPA, has prepared a revision to the 1992 “Protective Action Guides” (PAG) that governs radiation protection conclusions on short-term and long-term cleanup levels

Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/305386

(or maybe that should be 'evil genius')

The many faces of Linda Green

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_RF4kkYStg

T.A.R.P. was for what?

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/vote.xpd?vote=h2008-681

The absurdities are coming too fast to document them all.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEE40l9DTVo

@1:50 "Fish caught in waters south of the plant have been found with high radioactive levels of iodine.
Authorities say this doesn't pose health risk, but Japan doesn't have national standards for iodine in fish, so it's not clear whether these fish would be OK to eat. For those of us in  Japan, we just have to trust that the government and the company in charge of this nuclear plant when they say the food is unlikely to be dangerous because of current radiation leaks -- we just have to trust them." 

Executive Order 13566 of February 25, 2011
Blocking Property and Prohibiting Certain Transactions Related to Libya

http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2011-03-02/pdf/2011-4753.pdf

but ...

On March 4, 2011, OFAC issued General License No. 1A pursuant to Executive Order 13566 of February 25, 2011, "Blocking Property and Prohibiting Certain Transactions Related to Libya."  General License No. 1, which was issued on February 25, 2011, under the new Libyan sanctions program, has been replaced and superseded in its entirety by General License No. 1A, which clarifies the scope of the authorization for transactions related to third-country Libyan-owned or controlled banks.  General License No. 1A authorizes all transactions involving banks that are owned or controlled by the Government of Libya and organized under the laws of a country other than Libya, provided the transactions do not otherwise involve the Government of Libya or any person whose property and interests in property are blocked.

 

http://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/sanctions/OFAC-Enforcement/Pages/20110304.aspx

Someone "important" have transactions to complete?

Been four months of "humanitarian crisis" there. They're still waiting.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/8423651/Ivory-Coast-aid-workers-find-1000-bodies-in-Duekoue.html

Oh, wait ...

"We don’t make decisions about questions like intervention based on consistency or precedent," said Denis McDonough, the administration's deputy national security adviser, amid an off-camera gaggle of reporters. "We make them based on how we can best advance our interests in the region."

... that explains it.

SAN GABRIEL, California—The San Gabriel Neighborhood Improvement Service (NIC) and city police discovered an underground maternity (or birthing) center operated by a Chinese couple while investigating building code violation of several townhouses on South Palm Avenue on March 8. The topic of pregnant Chinese women coming to the United States to give birth is once again stirred up.

The five townhouses owned by a Chinese couple, housed 12 Chinese people of which 10 were women who have just given birth and 10 newborns, seven of whom were put in bassinets lined up in an illegally renovated kitchen.

The story was first reported by San Gabriel Valley Tribune (SGVT) on March 22. Dwight Chang, the property manager declined to talk to The Epoch Times. However, he was fined US$800 for violating building codes and operating without a business license, although he denied the charges, the SGVT report said.

Investigators said these women had paid about $35,000 to come to the United States to give birth, the report said.

On March 23, piles of Chinese-language newspapers and empty Pampers boxes could be seen outside the Townhouses.

Three Mexican workers were inside a house doing the remodeling work.  <-- Well, why not? In for a penny, in for a pound?

Say, I can think of some borders that need protecting and they're right here, not in some $#!^#*&% on the other side of the planet.

I hear we even have some roads and bridges that could stand a bit of repair -- if we can take some precious time out from digging up basketball hoops.

Here's the rest -- http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/content/view/53686/