16 Statistics Which Show That The Number Of Americans Dependent On The Government Is At An All-Time High
posted 01/28/2012, 2:31 AM (The Economic Collapse) [Category: Economy] A higher percentage of the American population is receiving government benefits than ever before. Yes, there have always been poor people that have needed our assistance, but what does it say about our economy that the number of Americans dependent on the government is at an all-time high? Every night on the evening news we are told that the economy is improving, and Barack Obama is endlessly giving speeches about the "economic recovery" that is supposedly underway. But that is not the reality on the ground for those on the bottom rungs of the income ladder in America. People are really hurting out there, and the number of Americans that are turning to the government for financial assistance just continues to increase. Yes, we should always have a "safety net", but right now our "safety net" is becoming massively overloaded as millions more Americans jump on to it every single year. What all of these impoverished Americans really need are jobs, but the U.S. Congress and the past several administrations have been systematically killing job growth in America. So unfortunately the number of poor Americans is going to continue to rise, and that is really bad news for a nation that is already drowning in debt.
Some people out there want to blame the poor for the statistics that you are about to read, but that is a mistake. Yes, there are a lot of people out there that are abusing the system, and that needs to be stopped.
But many Americans that are dependent on the government are in that situation because there simply are not enough jobs in this country.
And unfortunately, the Obama administration and the U.S. Congress continue to pursue the same job-killing policies that have gotten us into this mess in the first place. So millions of Americans that hav... (more)
Conning the Poor
posted 01/28/2012, 2:31 AM (Jacob G. Hornberger) [Category: Economy] The biggest con in history — bigger even than Social Security — might well be the one in which statists have conned the poor into believing that the welfare state helps them. If those at the bottom of the economic ladder were ever to realize how badly they’ve been conned, that could spell the end of the welfare-state way of life.
The welfare state is obviously a seductive notion, one that makes the poor especially susceptible to the con. The government offers free money (or othe... (more)
Zero Percent Uber Alles
posted 01/28/2012, 2:31 AM (Jeffrey Tucker) [Category: Economy] We are getting a sense of what life is like with the new Fed policy of openness. It means that the chairman tries to beat the world record for the longest, most-boring press conference in modern history. Ben Bernanke is getting even better at that crucial skill of repeatedly saying nothing at great length. The better he gets at this, the longer he is willing to entertain questions from reporters.
They all ask some version of the same question, in any case. It's the cocktail-hour q... (more)
Waist Deep in the Big Muddy
posted 01/28/2012, 2:31 AM (Peter Schiff) [Category: Economy] With its announcement this week that it will keep interest rates near zero until at least late 2014, the Federal Reserve has put another large crack into the foundations underlying the US dollar. In a misguided attempt to provide clarity and transparency, Ben Bernanke has instead laid out a simple road map for economists and investors to follow. The signposts are easily understood: the Fed will stop at nothing in pursuing its goals of creating phantom GDP growth, holding down unemployment, propp... (more)
“I did not get in law enforcement to destroy a person’s future because that person had marijuana or a pill in their pocket,” the officer explained. “Why would you want to destroy that person’s future and cause them great harm because of that? It’s not worth it.”
Like many Americans, the reality of the d... (more)
"...the officer said that the American public would be much better off if the government would 'regulate drugs and keep the control out of the hands of the black market criminals.'"
So take it out of the hands of one group of criminals and give it to another! ;) - Chris
So many are its lies, that narrowing them down to three of the most important is a demanding task. But our current crisis has been chiefly enabled by monetary policy, fiscal policy, and the global military empire. So I have chosen to focus on lies about each: the Federal Reserve, the orchestrator of monetary policy; the U.S. budget, the accounting of government fiscal policy; and a few of the Empire’s war lies. I am sharing just a smatte... (more)
Every year the porn industry rakes in $14 billion. A majority of porn is shot in the Los Angeles area, but now new regulations are jeopardizing the industry. Many feel this will be a blow to the profitable business and many believe the government should keep out of the industries rights to not use condoms in its films. Chanel Preston, adult film actress, joins us for m
What humors me about this law is it was supposedly initially in response to an unnamed actor testing positive for HIV a few months back, it turns out that test was wrong and the person was not HIV positive. Nonetheless, they drummed up this legislation and passed it despite the justification for it ceasing to exist. - Chris
Geriatric Prison Nation
posted 01/28/2012, 2:31 AM (Doug French) [Category: Tyranny/Police State] Who hasn't seen "The Shawshank Redemption" featuring aging convicts Red Redding (Morgan Freeman) and Brooks Hatlen (James Whitmore)? The movie was set in the 1940s when most prisoners were young tough guys and of course in this case the cerebral Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins). Redding and Hatlen were finally set free after spending 40 and 50 years behind bars, respectively.
If Shawshank were to be remade today, a good share of the inmate population would have gray hair and be suff... (more)
[W]e need to change our tax code so that people like me, and an awful lot of Members of Congress, pay our fair share of taxes. Tax reform should follow the Buffett rule: If you make more than $1 million a year,
The state would charge a 6 percent sales tax on virtually every downloaded product under an obscure provision in Gov. Martin O'Malley's proposed budget.
In other words, that 99-cent downloaded song from iTunes would cost $1.06, and smartphone apps, e-books for your Kindle, ringtones, chat discussions and other digital products would get ... (more)
ACTA - the latest threat to internet freedom, just signed by the EU
posted 01/28/2012, 2:25 AM (Pirate Party UK) [Category: Big Brother/Orwellian] Yesterday the European Union, the UK and over 20 other countries signed the controversial Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA). ACTA is an international treaty, disguised as a trade agreement, whose purpose is to increase and harmonise copyright and trademark enforcement. Many of the goals of ACTA are similar to SOPA and PIPA - proposed laws which the US congress recently abandoned following a huge outcry. ACTA is, if anything, even more objectionable.
Copyright Industry Calls For Broad Search Engine Censorship
posted 01/28/2012, 2:25 AM (TorrentFreak) [Category: Big Brother/Orwellian] At a behind-closed-doors meeting facilitated by the UK Department for Culture, Media and Sport, copyright holders have handed out a list of demands to Google, Bing and Yahoo. To curb the growing piracy problem, Hollywood and the major music labels want the search engines to de-list popular filesharing sites such as The Pirate Bay, and give higher ranking to authorized sites.... (more)
Wildlife officials told The Associated Press that they were alerted to the practice after finding two elephants slaughtered last month in a national park in western Thailand.
"The poachers took away the elephants' sex organs and trunks ... for human consumption," Damrong Phidet, director-g... (more)
Are cows and chickens going to go extinct? The animals people eat, because there is huge demand for them, are farmed en masse. If these animals go extinct, it's entirely due to the government's restrictions on their ownership. - Chris
Study of freakish mystery illness finds no cause
posted 01/28/2012, 2:24 AM (Associated Press) [Category: Health] ATLANTA (AP) — Imagine having the feeling that tiny bugs are crawling on your body, that you have oozing sores and mysterious fibers sprouting from your skin. Sound like a horror movie? Well, at one point several years ago, government doctors were getting up to 20 calls a day from people saying they had such symptoms.
Many of these people were in California and one of that state's U.S. senators, Dianne Feinstein, asked for a scientific study. In 2008, federal health officials bega... (more)
After being briefly detained by police officers on Monday, Paul appears to be getting some vindication in the form of a security camera’s video. Although police described him as “being irate” in an incident report, footage published Thursday shows Paul sitting calmly inside an airport checkpoint, and occasionally picking up his phone.
... (more)
The legislation appears to have been inspired by this Web site attacking Hawaii Rep. Kym Pine. It was created by her ex-Web designer after a billing dispute.
Its House of Representatives has scheduled a hearing this morning on a new bill (PDF) requiring the creation of virtual... (more)
Officer Ghayth Abdul-Mughnee, on the force for four years, was arrested Wednesday on a warrant charging him with theft by taking, possession of marijuana and violation of his oath of office. He was taken to DeKalb police headquarters in handcuffs.
[...]Police said Abdul-Mughnee would bring items home from work that bel... (more)
The Alleged Serving Size Scandal
posted 01/27/2012, 12:04 AM (Jeffrey Tucker) [Category: Commentary] When you eat Oreo cookies, if you do eat Oreo cookies, how many do you eat? Three sounds sort of reasonable to me. Surely, after three, you have been "served." If I were a guest at someone's house and ate more than that, I would try to do it surreptitiously.
But of course, this is all subjective. Maybe you think one Oreo constitutes a serving, especially if eaten with the proper care and technique we all perfected in third grade. Or you could be like a typical teen and think that ... (more)
Profits Are Socially Responsible
posted 01/27/2012, 12:03 AM (Doug French) [Category: Economy] Back in 1997 Gregory Bresiger penned a piece for the Free Market tearing apart the notion of "socially responsible investing" (SRI). Managers focused on social issues instead of profits will perform poorly as resources are diverted to unproductive uses. Bresiger looked to close the argument with this seemingly absurd proposition:
But SRI funds do point the way to solving a myriad of political debates in
Federal Mortgage Insurer Headed Toward Collapse
posted 01/27/2012, 12:03 AM (Epoch Times) [Category: Economy] The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) is deeply insolvent and headed toward a financial crash like that of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae in 2008, according to analysis from the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) released last week.
“We are watching—in not-so-slow motion—the same gradual descent into insolvency that occurred with Fannie and Freddie a little more than three years ago,” reads the outlook for FHA authored by Edward Pinto, an executive vice president and chief credit ... (more)
There's a ton of debate all over the interwebs over this police shooting at a Carl's Jr. in Monterey Park, California.
The suspect was smashing the windows at the store with a crowbar before the police shot him. “I had heard that he had gotten into an argument with his teacher about a bad grade. People are saying that midterms are on right now,” one w... (more)
"The draft search warrants are particularly interesting because they show the full extent of data the government regularly requests on a person it’s investigating. This includes not just your full profile information but also who you “poke” (and presumably who “pokes” you), who rejects your friend requests, which apps you use, what music you listen to, your privacy settings, all photos you upload as well as any photos you’re tagged in (whether or not you upload them), who’s in each of your Facebook groups, and IP logs that can show if and when you viewed a specific profile and from what IP address you did so."
Earlier this month, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta said:
Are they [the Iranians] trying to develop a nuclear weapon? No. But we know that they’re trying to develop a nuclear capability. And that’s what concerns us.
Director of National Intelligence James Clappe... (more)
The Statist of the Union
posted 01/25/2012, 11:58 PM (Anthony Gregory) [Category: Commentary] Unsurprisingly, President Obama’s campaign speech masquerading as the routine address to Congress, spelled out in the Constitution and known as the State of the Union, was saturated with every prevalent form of modern American statism--protectionism, corporate-liberal socialism, nationalism, and militarism. In a couple areas, however, he was particularly bold in his statist proposals.
Obama blamed “jobs and manufacturing . . . leaving our shores” for the poor economy, and promised... (more)
Limbaugh was commenting on the incident involving Congressman Paul’s son, Senator Rand Paul, who was detained by the TSA in Nashville after refusing to submit to an enhanced pat-down.
Limbaugh exclaimed that Rand Paul had “sent his dad a note about it and it’s become a big story out there.”
Drowning In Hypocrisy
posted 01/25/2012, 11:56 PM (Paul Craig Roberts) [Category: Commentary] The US government is so full of self-righteousness that it has become a caricature of hypocrisy. Leon Panetta, a former congressman who Obama appointed CIA director and now head of the Pentagon, just told the sailors on the USS Enterprise, an aircraft carrier, that the US is maintaining a fleet of 11 aircraft carriers in order to project sea power against Iran and to convince Iran that “it’s better for them to try to deal with us through diplomacy.”
Staff Sergeant Frank Wuterich, who led an eight-man squad whose other members have all been let off, was sentenced to 90 days confinement but he will not serve them under a deal with prosecutors.
The 31-year-old admitted one count of negligent dereliction of duty Monday, but charges of manslaughter o... (more)
The Invisible Economy
posted 01/25/2012, 11:53 PM (Jeff Riggenbach) [Category: Commentary] Robert Neuwirth is a journalist who is preoccupied with this question: What do people do when the state has made satisfaction of their wants, their natural desire to improve their lives, almost impossible?
Neuwirth would almost certainly not pose the question in quite these terms. On the one hand, he understands quite clearly that this is precisely what is going on — that it is the state that has put people in the position he describes so well. In his first book, Shadow Cities:... (more)
George Soros on the Coming U.S. Class War
posted 01/25/2012, 11:53 PM (The Daily Beast) [Category: Economy] ...For the first time in his 60-year career, Soros, now 81, admits he is not sure what to do. “It’s very hard to know how you can be right, given the damage that was done during the boom years,” Soros says. He won’t discuss his portfolio, lest anyone think he’s talking things down to make a buck. But people who know him well say he advocates making long-term stock picks with solid companies, avoiding gold—“the ultimate bubble”—and, mainly, holding cash.... (more)
Stephen Slevin was arrested in August of 2005 for driving while intoxicated, according to NBC station KOB.com. He said he never got a trial and spent the entire time languishing in solitary, even pulling his own tooth when he was denied dental care.
"'[Prison officials were] walking by me ever... (more)
Los Angeles mayor signs porn star condom requirement
posted 01/25/2012, 11:53 PM (Reuters) [Category: Big Brother/Orwellian] LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Porn actors in Los Angeles will have to use condoms on the set as a condition of obtaining a film permit under a first-in-the-nation requirement quietly signed into law by the mayor, and a nearby community was considering a similar rule.
Officials in Simi Valley said on Tuesday they were mulling their own condom ordinance out of a concern adult film producers could move shop to their more suburban community, fleeing the condom requirement that Los An... (more)
"We will tell you what you can and cannot put on your penis citizen!!!"
President Obama's YouTube Forum deems marijuana legalization questions "inappropriate"
posted 01/25/2012, 11:50 PM (NORML.org) [Category: Politics/Corruption] As of 7pm Pacific, I checked the YouTube.com/WhiteHouse page to see how many votes our question received in President Obama’s latest YouTube Forum. The good news? Our question, “With over 850,000 Americans arrested in 2010, for marijuana charges alone, and tens of billions of tax dollars being spent locking up non-violent marijuana users, isn’t it time we regulate and tax marijuana?” received 4,023 votes, making it one of the most popular submissions to the forum.
Gold Proves Safest as Goldman Forecasts Record: Riskless Return
posted 01/25/2012, 11:50 PM (Bloomberg) [Category: Economy] Gold provided the best returns of all commodities in the past five years when adjusted for volatility, and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. says the rally will continue as options traders signal no change in the metal’s relatively low risk.
The BLOOMBERG RISKLESS RETURN RANKING shows the Standard & Poor’s GSCI Gold Total Return Index produced a 6.5 percent risk- adjusted return in the five years ended yesterday, the highest among 24 commodities tracked by S&P, data compiled by Bloomberg s... (more)
The confrontation occurred after a crowd gathered two days ago near the Chengguan Police Station, Xinhua said yesterday, citing an unidentified police officer. The crowd refused to disperse and then stormed the station with knives, gasoline bottles and stones, according to the report.... (more)
Hrm, the way the headline is written is rather deceptive, is this the US trying to meddle in China's affairs? - Chris
MegaUpload Founder Again Denied Bail, High Court Appeal Launched
posted 01/25/2012, 11:48 PM (TorrentFreak) [Category: Big Brother/Orwellian] During an appearance in court today, his third in less than a week, Kim Dotcom was informed that bail had been denied. The judge rejected the MegaUpload founder’s bid for freedom while he awaits extradition to the US and remanded him in custody until late February. Three other alleged co-conspirators will learn of their fate tomorrow.... (more)
RT's getting a new talk show - and world media's already in a spin over its host. It's the man who's exposed wrongs at the highest levels of government and military - the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said the Federal Reserve is considering additional asset purchases to boost growth after extending its pledge to keep interest rates low through at least late 2014.
Policy makers are “prepared to provide further monetary accommodation if employment is not making sufficient progress
It's Treason to Disagree
posted 01/24/2012, 11:59 PM (Jeffrey Tucker) [Category: Commentary] A horrifying aspect of modern life is how nearly daily threats to fundamental freedoms and human rights require that citizens become politically aware and active.
Here we are struggling to put food on the table, cultivate a civilized private life, support things we care about, manage our households and otherwise meet all the challenges of modern life and then some jerk politician pushes some dangerous legislation that poses an all-out attack on everything we take for granted. ... (more)
In a glowing review of the rising prevalence of high-tech big brother surveillance gadgets in police force use, the Associated Press reports that East Orange, New Jersey plans to cut crime by highlighting suspects with a red-beamed spotlight– before any crime is com... (more)
Rules of American justice: a tale of three cases
posted 01/24/2012, 11:58 PM (Glenn Greenwald) [Category: Commentary] Developments in three legal cases, just from the last 24 hours, potently illuminate the Rules of American Justice. First, the Justice Department yesterday charged a former CIA agent, John Kiriakou, with four felony counts for having allegedly disclosed classified information to reporters about the CIA’s interrogation program. Included among those charges are two counts under the Espionage Act of 1917, based on the allegati... (more)
Soros Mouthpiece Calls On Google To Police “Conspiracy Theories”
posted 01/24/2012, 11:58 PM (Infowars) [Category: Big Brother/Orwellian] Former fellow of George Soros’ Open Society and current Stanford University scholar Evgeny Morozov has called on Google and other search engines to become thought crime enforcers, by providing warnings about websites that contain “conspiracy theories” such as the belief, held by a majority of Americans, that global warming is not primarily man-made.
Morozov, whose biography confirms him as a well-connected insider, decries in a Slate piece how the Internet is a usef... (more)
The board would consist of three members, appointed by the President of the United States to three-year terms, and would be responsible for determining when oil comp... (more)
Tax Evaders Renounce U.S. Citizenship
posted 01/24/2012, 11:58 PM (AllGov) [Category: Economy] Rather than deal with the complexities of U.S. tax law, Americans living overseas are increasingly renouncing their citizenship in order to avoid paying their income taxes.
According to National Taxpayer Advocate Nina E. Olson, approximately 4,000 people gave up their citizenship from fiscal year 2005 to FY 2010. Renunciations increased sharply within the past three years, from 146 in FY 2008 to 1,534 in FY 2010. And during the first two quarters of FY 2011 alone, 1,024 Americans... (more)
[...]Although it is unclear whether a court could force a sitting president to appear in a court case, Georgia Deputy Chief Judge Michael Malihi has denied a motion by the president's lawyer to quash a subpoena that requires Obama to show up.... (more)
Cyber-transparency activist Julian Assange says he’s launching a career in television, hosting what he’s billing as a new brand of talk show built around the theme of “the world tomorrow.”... (more)
The Century of the Self: The Untold History of Controlling the Masses Through the Manipulation of Unconscious Desires
Operation Gladio: The Hidden History of U.S. Sponsored False Flag Terrorism in Europe
The New American Century: The Untold History of The Project for the New American Century
A higher percentage of the American population is receiving government benefits than ever before. Yes, there have always been poor people that have needed our assistance, but what does it say about our economy that the number of Americans dependent on the government is at an all-time high? Every night on the evening news we are told that the 
The biggest con in history — bigger even than Social Security — might well be the one in which statists have conned the poor into believing that the welfare state helps them. If those at the bottom of the economic ladder were ever to realize how badly they’ve been conned, that could spell the end of the welfare-state way of life. 
We are getting a sense of what life is like with the new Fed policy of openness. It means that the chairman tries to beat the world record for the longest, most-boring press conference in modern history. Ben Bernanke is getting even better at that crucial skill of repeatedly saying nothing at great length. The better he gets at this, the longer he is willing to entertain questions from reporters.
This is interesting. Kader Arif, the "rapporteur" for ACTA, 
Last year, the New York Police Dept. was caught in an ugly scandal when the Village Voice reported it showed a 
Robert Neuwirth is a journalist who is preoccupied with this question: What do people do when the state has made satisfaction of their wants, their natural desire to improve their lives, almost impossible?
A horrifying aspect of modern life is how nearly daily threats to fundamental freedoms and human rights require that citizens become politically aware and active.
The Missing Lesson From Norway: Never Trust a Man in Uniform
"They're Only Out To Make Cold Hard American Cash"; Park Police Crack Down on Bicycle Cabs in DC
18 Signs That Life In U.S. Public Schools Is Now Essentially Equivalent To Life In U.S. Prisons
Eighth Grader Executed for Scaring a Cop
Feds Drop All Charges Against 27 Head-Shop Owners They Falsely Accused of Being Terrorist Drug Dealers
Straight-A College Student Faces 125 Years In Jail For Producing Fake IDs
Texas Cops Ticket Thousands of Schoolchildren to Raise Revenue, Some as Young as 6-Yrs-Old
Houston Police Chief: Videotaping or Criticizing Police May be Sign You're a Cop-Killer
Federal Judge Known for Stiff Drug Sentences Caught Buying Drugs for Prostitute