DEDICATED TO EXPOSING DISINFORMATION AND PROPAGANDA AND TO PROMOTING UNIVERSAL HUMAN RIGHTS - WITH SHARP ANALYSIS AND BLUNT COMMENTARY. NO ADS. NO TIP-JAR. JUST THE TRUTH.
Bolivian President Evo Morales has ordered the nationalisation of four private electricity companies.
Police moved into the offices of Corani, Valle Hermoso and Guaracachi firms, following Mr Morales' decree.
Corani is half owned by a subsidiary of France's GDF Suez. Guaracachi's main partner is Britain's Rurelec, while ELFEC and Valle Hermoso are local.
President Morales said that the government now controlled 80% of electricity generation in the country.
Last year, Mr Morales announced the takeover of a subsidiary of British oil company BP, which supplied jet fuel across the Andean nation.
He has recently nationalised oil and gas reserves to redistribute wealth to Bolivia's indigenous majority.
The four companies seized on Saturday account for more than half of Bolivia's electricity market.
They emerged following the privatisation of the state National Electricity Company in the 1990s.
President Morales nationalised the gas and oil industry in 2006 and the national telephone company in 2008.
Both those announcements also came on May Day, says the BBC's Andres Schipani in Bolivia.
THIS WILL END BADLY FOR BOLIVIANS, AS IT HAS FOR CUBANS AND VENEZUELANS AND NORTH KOREANS AND ZIMBABAWEANS. CHINA GOT AWAY FROM IT - AS DID RUSSIA AND INDIA.
SIGH.
WHEN WILL THEY EVER LEARN!? WHEN WILL THEY EVER LEARN!?
ADDENDUM: A PREVIOUS POST EXPLAINS WHY NATIONALIZATION FAILS:
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
WHAT IS THE THE PRIMARY DEFECT OF LEFTIST THINKING?
It is this:The idea that the government can provide you with a better service or good than a private business - because the private business makes a profit at your expense.In fact, the profit motive and competition are what make the private business a better provider.
Competition for your business forces them to continuously improve the good or service, and profit is their incentive.
Profit is "the good guy" - yet the left persistently attacks private enterprise for this very reason.
We heard it from Obama and Reid and Pelosi and Waxman and Hoyer over and over again: the insurance companies were the bad guys. Or Big Oil is the bad guy. Or Big Pharma. And so on.
If government was better at providing goods and services than the USSR would still be in business, we'd be driving Yugo's, Chinese wouldn't have opened up, and North Korea would be a better place to live than South Korea.
This irrational hatred of profit-seeking enterprises is the core defect of leftist thinking.
They call it GREED. They feel it's evil.
Well, as far as I know, no corporation ever committed genocide or forced people to live in a gulag.
Government is the problem, not the solution.
In 2008, more than 230,000 native-born Mexicans were naturalized as American citizens, the most from any nation in the world and a number greater than the combined total from the next four countries on the list. In 2009, more than a million people became legal permanent residents; 15 percent were Mexican, the only country in double digits percentage-wise. Not everyone jumps the line
@gpollowitz wouldn't it be funny if arizona police asked everyone for their papers at the big ariz immigration rally? 4/30 1:53 P.M. -
JUST THREATENING TO WOULD CUT THE SIZE OF THE RALLY BY 50%!
OBAMA:When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.
That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.
Jefferson's version helped give rise to the greatest democracy and most prosperous nation the world has ever known.When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one multicultural society to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another society, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station, then public relations demands that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all people are equal, that they are endowed by the State with certain - but mutable rights, and that among these are health-care, food, shelter, clothing, a living wage that's within tolerable limits set by the State.
That to secure these rights, factions and parties and unions are instituted among the people, deriving their powers from their ability to intimidate other groups.
That whenever any group of people become destructive to these ends, it is the right of the factions and parties and unions to attack and belittle them, and to institute new laws, laying its strategy on anything that shall to the coalition seem most likely to effect their ability to hold power and dole out patronage to factions and parties and unions in the coalition.
'Guardian' says US official assured Abbas Washington could consider allowing such measures to pass if there's provocative settlement activity.)WE PREDICTED THIS DURING THE 2008 CAMPAIGN.
In an attempt to launch indirect proximity talks between Israel and the Palestinians, the US has given private assurances that it would consider not using its veto power against UN Security Council condemnations of any significant new settlement activity, the Guardian reported.
A Palestinian source quoted by the UK paper said David Hale, a deputy of US Middle East envoy George Mitchell, told Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas last week that if there was "significantly provocative settlement activity," including in east Jerusalem, Washington may consider allowing UNSC resolutions censuring Israel to pass. According to the paper, the source said "it was understood that meant the US would abstain from voting on a resolution rather than use its veto."
Jordan’s King Abdullah on Thursday reiterated his warning to Israel over its policies in east Jerusalem and the West Bank.
“Israel is playing with fire concerning Jerusalem and it must stop all unilateral moves in the occupied territories,” said the Jordanian monarch.
Barack Obama: des rumeurs d'infidélité pour le déstabiliser?
Elle - 1 hour ago Pis, même Michelle Obama « avait rapidement soupçonné Vera Baker d'exercer un charme dangereux sur son mari », affirme le magazine. Six ans après les faits, ...Scandale : Barack Obama au coeur de méchantes rumeurs d'adultère... - Pure People
Une maîtresse mise sur le dos d'Obama - 20 minutes.ch
Barack Obama infidèle ? - Entrevue.fr
testimony of a former driver, Barack bright, very ambitious, so race and in 2004 for the Senate seat in Illinois (he was elected in November of that year), have maintained an extramarital affair with Vera Baker, 29 years, he has known for many years.The driver told reporters escorted to have an evening after a campaign rally at the George Washington near the Capitol, said that Ms. Baker had asked him not to wait.
He does not, however, if Miss Baker had planned to spend the night in this hotel, as is customary when colleagues are away ...
However the paper goes further and asserts the existence of a video surveillance rather damaging for the 44th president of the United States.
Worse, he suggests that software engineers would be on a serious lead on the exchange of e-mails with pretty unequivocal Vera Baker.
STAY TUNED . . .
Data compiled by the Commerce Department's Bureau of Economic Analysis reveals the extent of the pay gap between federal and private workers.
As of 2008, the average federal salary was $119,982, compared with $59,909 for the average private sector employee.
In other words, the average federal bureaucrat makes twice as much as the average working taxpayer.
Add the value of benefits like health care and pensions, and the gap grows even bigger. The average federal employee's benefits add $40,785 to his annual total compensation, whereas the average working taxpayer's benefits increase his total compensation by only $9,881.
In other words, federal workers are paid on average salaries that are twice as generous as those in the private sector, and they receive benefits that are four times greater.
In papers sent to UVA April 23, Cuccinelli’s office commands the university to produce a sweeping swath of documents relating to Mann’s receipt of nearly half a million dollars in state grant-funded climate research conducted while Mann— now director of the Earth System Science Center at Penn State— was at UVA between 1999 and 2005.
If Cuccinelli succeeds in finding a smoking gun like the purloined emails that led to the international scandal dubbed Climategate, Cuccinelli could seek the return of all the research money, legal fees, and trebled damages.
“Since it’s public money, there’s enough controversy to look in to the possible manipulation of data,” says Dr. Charles Battig, president of the nonprofit Piedmont Chapter Virginia Scientists and Engineers for Energy and Environment, a group that doubts the underpinnings of climate change theory.
… The Attorney General has the right to make such demands for documents under the Fraud Against Taxpayers Act, a 2002 law designed to keep government workers honest.
AWESOME!
The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion; and on Application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened) against domestic Violence.OBAMA HAS REFUSED TO SECURE OUR BORDERS WITH MEXICO.
Europe Moves Swiftly on Long-Delayed Greek Rescue Plan
Lebanon's foreign ministry and the militant Hezbollah group have criticized a visit by a U.S. security team to the Lebanese-Syrian border.GOV:The American Embassy says Wednesday's visit was planned months ago and took place in coordination with authorities here.
The visit comes days after Israel accused Syria of providing Hezbollah with Scud missiles. Syria has denied the allegations, as has Lebanon's Western-backed prime minister.
... Lebanon's Foreign Ministry said in a statement Thursday it was not informed in advance about the visit by the U.S. team to al-Masnaa border crossing.
A Lebanese correspondent for Tundra Tabloids has filed a report that discusses the imminence of a war between Hizbullah and Israel, as well as a possible civil war between an alliance of Christian groups and Hizbullah within Lebanon:RTWT.
Below are some excerpts from the report by “The Patron of Beirut”:The situation in Lebanon so far doesn’t look so good. There is tension in the air due to the municipality elections taking place next Sunday. There is a threat for the Christians in the region, if a war breaks out between Hizbollah and Israel, the Shiia, the Hizbollah will take over the Christian areas in Beirut and in the South.
I have received messages from two sources with close contacts with the Christian parties, the Christian military forces there, that they are preparing for a war between them, (if Hizbollah starts a war with Israel) if Hizbollah starts to act against the Christian forces in the area, if they try to take over the mountain areas overlooking Beirut. They’re saying that Hizbollah will start the war by doing some kind of military operation in the south.
IOW: AGW = BS.NANSEN is reporting that both Arctic Sea Ice area and extent are above the normal line. Usually we don’t see both in this mode. Here’s area:
And here is extent:
Source: http://arctic-roos.org/observations/satellite-data/sea-ice/ice-area-and-extent-in-arctic
First, all five of these areas are valleys. The cities all nestle up against mountains. Los Angeles' valley opens up onto the sea, but the Hollywood hills make it a real valley. In other words, there is nowhere for air to escape to but upward.The metro areas with the nation's poorest air quality
President Obama's recent proposal to open some areas along the eastern Gulf of Mexico, the Atlantic coastline and the north coast of Alaska to oil and natural gas drilling elicited praise from drilling advocates and oil companies as well as sharp criticism from environmental groups and citizens near the areas that might be affected.
The environmental impacts from doing so won't be felt for some time. What's affecting Americans today? Poor air quality. This matter often gets buried under more high-profile concerns like climate change, but it is particularly important as summer approaches because sunlight is a key ingredient in making harmful ozone, a ground level gas that contributes to urban smog and inflames the lungs, causing shortness of breath, wheezing and throat irritation.
Sunny areas like Los Angeles face the harmful effects of ozone year-round. In fact, the Los Angeles metro is named the country's worst for ozone by the American Lung Association's State of the Air 2010 report, released Wednesday. The ranking is worrisome for the city's residents because inhaling ozone is akin to "getting a sunburn on your airways," says Dr. Norman H. Edelman, the ALA's chief medical officer.
Other California metros didn't fare much better: Bakersfield, Visalia, Fresno and Sacramento round out the five worst regions for ozone. The problem is statewide because of both California's exposure to sunlight and a natural geography that allows pollution to hover rather than diffuse to other areas, says Janice Nolen, the ALA's assistant vice president for policy and advocacy.
The State of the Air report also ranks cities based on short-term and year-round particle pollution, which are caused by emissions of sulfur dioxide, carbon and nitrogen oxides. The short-term measure ranks metros by periodic spikes in airborne particles, and Bakersfield, Calif.; Fresno, Calif.; Pittsburgh; Los Angeles; and Birmingham, Ala., were, by this measure, found to have the country's five worst.
Some of these cities also show up in the rankings for year-round particle pollution, which measures the daily average level of airborne particles. The five worst areas are: Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, Ariz.; Bakersfield, Calif.; Los Angeles; Visalia, Calif.; and Pittsburgh.
Behind The Numbers
State of the Air 2010 ranks metropolitan statistical areas and combined statistical areas based on data collected by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) between 2006 and 2008. Both the ozone and short-term particle pollution rankings are based on spikes in their daily measurements and were calculated using weighted averages; each level of the Air Quality index was given a numerical weight, and these values were then multiplied by the number of days each metro reached them. Contrarily, the year-round particle pollution rankings are based on the average daily airborne particle levels during the three years studied.
The ALA found that over 175 million Americans, or 58% of the population, live in counties with unhealthy levels of either ozone or particle pollution. Worse, almost 24 million people live in counties with unhealthy levels of ozone and both short-term and year-round particle pollution.
Poorer populations are especially vulnerable. "People in poverty often live near major highways, near sources of pollution," Nolen says.
5 Worst Cities For Ozone Pollution
1. Los Angeles-Long Beach-Riverside, Calif.
Total Population: 17,786,419
Pediatric Asthma: 442,040
Adult Asthma: 1,094,827
Chronic Bronchitis: 556,68
Emphysema: 200,3382. Bakersfield, Calif.
Total Population: 800,458
Pediatric Asthma: 22,479
Adult Asthma: 46,597
Chronic Bronchitis: 23,265
Emphysema: 7,7903. Visalia-Porterville, Calif.
Total Population: 426,276
Pediatric Asthma: 12,749
Adult Asthma: 24,202
Chronic Bronchitis: 12,169
Emphysema: 4,2494. Fresno-Madera, Calif.
Total Population: 1,057,486
Pediatric Asthma: 29,351
Adult Asthma: 62,100
Chronic Bronchitis: 31,280
Emphysema: 10,9655. Sacramento--Arden-Arcade--Yuba City, Calif.-NV
Total Population: 2,417,404
Pediatric Asthma: 55,670
Adult Asthma: 153,359
Chronic Bronchitis: 78,640
Emphysema: 29,653
Strong sunlight and hot weather cause ground-level ozone to form in harmful concentrations in the air.So, we see that, if four of the five most polluted cities in the United States are mostly rural farm communities, and all five are valleys in the sun, then sunlight, and the warmth it provides must be the main culprit in "air pollution".
A Muslim man has confessed to kill[ing] his wife and three others in Chicago this month because she refused to wear Muslim garb and adopt his new-found faith. He is one of many to have converted to Islam in American prisons.Here's a complete article from Homeland Security US by Douglas Haggman about this serious case. What's also potentially troubling here is that his wife may have been 19 years old. Surely, if and when he married her, he wasn't violating the law by exploiting a minor? The age factor makes me wonder this.
The confessed murderer is James A. Larry, 31, who confessed to the crime and expressed no remorse. During his most recent prison term, between 2002 and 2007, he began receiving visits by imams through the Islamic prison outreach program. “He became increasingly radicalized with orthodox Islamic beliefs," a detective on the case said, "ultimately demanding compliance to fundamentalist Islam by his wife and family. He [allegedly] killed his wife because she would not wear Muslim attire, and would not follow his beliefs. It was an honor killing, pure and simple…”
In addition to shooting his 19-year-old pregnant wife to death, Larry also stands accused of murdering three other relatives, all aged 16 and under, as well as injuring his mother and nephew and shooting at his niece.
"Prisons are Recruiting Grounds for Islamic Fundamentalism"
“This didn’t have to happen,” the detective said. “But it did, and it will probably happen again in another community, to another family. The reason it happened here and the reason it will happen again is that we’ve allowed our prisons to become recruiting grounds for Islamic fundamentalism that teaches this twisted [expletive deleted]. And our system has become too lenient, too ‘PC,’ and too afraid to confront this problem, so now we have nearly an entire family murdered by a guy quoting Allah and the Qur’an.”
Via News Alert and Breitbart TV, consider this Share the Wealth 2010. Barack Obama went off the TelePrompter in his speech to a Quincy, Illinois audience about Wall Street reform. After saying that Democrats don’t begrudge success that’s “fairly earned,” Obama then ad-libs — and reveals more about himself than he probably wanted:
We’re not, we’re not trying to push financial reform because we begrudge success that’s fairly earned. I mean, I do think at a certain point you’ve made enough money. But, you know, part of the American way is, you know, you can just keep on making it if you’re providing a good product or providing good service. We don’t want people to stop, ah, fulfilling the core responsibilities of the financial system to help grow our economy.
Compare that to his remarks as prepared for delivery:
Now, we’re not doing this to punish these firms or begrudge success that’s fairly earned. We don’t want to stop them from fulfilling their responsibility to help grow our economy.
He should have stuck with the TelePrompter. The President doesn’t get to decide when people have “made enough money.” In fact, as the radio host notes, that’s a statist point of view. Furthermore, the responsibility of an entrepreneur isn’t to “grow our economy,” core or otherwise. It’s to grow his own economy. In a properly regulated capitalist system, the natural tension of self-interests create economic growth through innovation and efficient use of capital and resources.
Put simply, a free people work for themselves, not for the government. Barack Obama seems to have a problem understanding that.
Protest organizers said on Wednesday outrage over the Arizona law --
which seeks to drive illegal immigrants out of the state bordering Mexico --
has galvanized Latinos and would translate into a higher turnout
for May Day rallies in more than 70 U.S. cities.
"The marches and demonstrations are going to be far more massive than they otherwise would have been," said Juan Jose Gutierrez, a Los Angeles rally organizer who runs an immigration assistance company.
WHAT'S AT STAKE?
THE RULE OF LAW.
Amanda Lee Myers / Associated Press:
Illegal immigrants plan to leave over Ariz. law — PHOENIX (AP) — Many of the cars that once stopped in the Home Depot parking lot to pick up day laborers to hang drywall or do landscaping now just drive on by. — Arizona's sweeping immigration bill allows police to arrest illegal immigrant …
I HAVE ALREADY SEEN AN INFLUX OF NEWBIES INTO THE NY METROPOLITAN AREA...
Marks 1st time country has prosecuted members of the guerrilla group.NYT:
An Egyptian court on Wednesday convicted 26 men of spying for Hizbullah and plotting attacks in Egypt, and gave them prison sentences ranging from six months to life.
Three of the defendants, including the group's Lebanese leader, Mohammad Qiblan, were convicted in abstenia and received life sentences. The rest of the group — including Egyptians, a Sudanese, West Bank Palestinians and Lebanese nationals — was handed sentences ranging from six months and 15 years.
The verdict cannot be appealed.
The group was charged with planning attacks on tourists and shipping in the Suez Canal, and sending operatives and explosives to Gaza to aid terrorists there.
The courtroom erupted with cries of shock at the sentences and chanting when Judge Adel Abdelsalam Gomaa pronounced the verdicts at Cairo's emergency court.
The trial, which started in August 2009, is the first time Egypt has prosecuted Hizbullah members. In April of that year, Egyptian security officials said they had uncovered a Hizbullah cell plotting to destabilize the country.
Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah has admitted to sending an agent to supervise weapons shipments to Hamas in Gaza, but he has denied seeking to undermine Egypt's security.
The decision not to issue death sentences was seen as a calculated effort by Egypt to avoid inflaming relations with Syria, a prime sponsor of Hezbollah, a militant, social and political organization in Lebanon, regional experts said. Egypt and Syria have been at odds for several years over the handling of the crisis and over Syria’s relations with Iran.
“This is a sign of an Egypt that is interested in de-escalating and finding moderate solutions for an issue that loomed very big in the background in its relations with Syria and Lebanon,” said Amr Hamzawy, regional director for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Beirut.
As the verdict was read in a packed Egyptian courtroom, 22 defendants sat behind bars in the prison dock. They shouted “Allahu Akbar,” or God is great, when the verdicts were read.
The other four defendants, including the leader of the cell, Mohammed Qublan, were tried in absentia. Mr. Qublan and two others who were on the run were given life sentences.
The case against the group arose as relations between Egypt and the Hezbollah chief, , grew extremely heated. Mr. Nasrallah had publicly criticized President , saying that Egypt was not doing enough to aid the Palestinians during the Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip in late 2008. Mr. Nasrallah effectively called for a popular uprising against the president, while Egypt accused Hezbollah of being a proxy for Iran.
OBVIOUSLY, EGYPT AND ISRAEL BOTH WANT IRAN WHACKED. SO DO THE SAUDIS.
WHAT'S STOPPING THIS FROM HAPPENING, THEN!?!?!
OBAMA.
WHY?
CUI BONO?
THE FAKE-ISTINIANS. THE LONGER WE WAIT THE STRONGER IRAN GETS - AND THE STRONGER THEIR STOOGES: SYRIAN HAMAS AND HIZBALLAH. THESE ARE ISRAEL'S WORST FOES RIGHT NOW.
IOW: I THINK OBAMA IS MOTIVATED BY A DEEPLY HELD ANTI-ZIONISM.
Contrasting strategiesTHE DEMOCRAT PARTY IS NOW DOMINATED BY LEFTISTS WHO ARE BASICALLY HOSTILE TO THE VERY CONCEPT OF PROFIT AND HATE THE PROFIT MOTIVE AS IF IT WAS AN EVIL SIN THAT MIGHT SOME DASY BE VANQUISED BY PROGRESSIVISM.
April 29th, 2010 The Washington Post’s editorial on the Goldman hearings makes an interesting point about what it says were the contrasting strategies of that firm and Citigroup:the broader implication raised by senators at Tuesday’s hearing — that Goldman somehow rigged the market in subprime mortgages, and that this led to the meltdown — does not strike us as a terribly useful or even accurate analysis of the crisis. Yes, in its capacity as a market-maker, the firm sold complex derivatives to market players who wanted to bet on a rosy view of housing long after Goldman had turned more pessimistic…
these were large, sophisticated institutional investors who had the opportunity to conduct the same analysis of economic data that Goldman did. They knew that there was someone on the short side of every trade. And Goldman had no legal obligation to trade in the same direction as these clients did.
Indeed, if it had, then Goldman could not have started hedging its own bets on housing early, as it did. The firm would have lost billions, and it might have wound up needing an even bigger bailout by U.S. taxpayers than it actually got.
It could have ended up like Citigroup, which tried to ride the bubble until it was too late and had to be propped up with hundreds of billions of dollars in federal cash and credit guarantees.
As a Hollywood ensemble cast tries to mainstream Kevorkian, this comes from the Daily Mail:
Scores of urns containing human ashes have been found dumped in a lake near the Swiss suicide clinic Dignitas.
One estimate puts the number discovered 30ft down on the bed of Lake Zurich at 300 or more.
The urns bear the logo of a cremation service thought to be used by Dignitas, the controversial organisation where more than 100 Britons have ended their lives.
Hezbollah 'has improved missiles'
The US defence secretary has warned that Hezbollah now has more rockets and missiles than most governments.
Robert Gates accused Syria and Iran of supplying weapons of "ever-increasing capability" to the military wing of the Lebanese Shia Islamist movement.
"This is obviously destabilising for the whole region," he said following talks with his Israeli counterpart.
But Mr Gates did not say if Syria was supplying Hezbollah with Scud ballistic missiles, as Israel has alleged.
Hezbollah fought a 34-day conflict with Israel in 2006 during which more than 1,200 Lebanese people, mostly civilians, were killed. Some 160 Israeli people, most of whom were soldiers, also died.
United Nations Security Council resolution 1701, which ended the conflict, included an arms embargo on Lebanon, except for transfers authorised by the Lebanese government or UN.
'Delicate balance'
After meeting Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak in Washington on Tuesday, Mr Gates said Syria and Iran was "providing Hezbollah with rockets and missiles of ever-increasing capability".
WHAT SHOULD WE DO?
TREAT THIS AS SERIOUSLY AS WE TREATED THE CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS.
SEND THE SIXTH FLEET.
NEVER BEFORE HAVE SO MANY IN CONGRESSOver 550 employees of Goldman Sachs contributed enough to one or more of the 2008 presidential candidates to show up on the Federal Election Commission’s data base — 388 contributed over $814,000 to Democrats while only 163 favored the GOP, dropping a more modest $258,000 into their coffers.REGISTERED DEMOCRATS WHO THINK THEY BELONG TO A PARTY FOR THE WORKING MAN SHOULD THINK TWICE BEFORE EVER VOTING FOR ANOTHER DEMOCRAT.
· At Lehman Brothers 310 employees voted Democratic with their contributions, to the tune of $642,000; meanwhile, 154 cut checks to Republicans totaling about $262,000.
· Nearly 500 Morgan Stanley employees sent over $834,000 to the Democrats while 247 of their colleagues deposited less than half that amount (under $400,000) in Republican campaign accounts.
· Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac employees favored the Democrats by a 6 to 1 margin, sending $220,000 to the Democrats and only $37,500 to the GOP.
The Democrats cleaned up in similarly spectacular fashion at other big banks and financial firms, including Bank of America, Bear Stearns, UBS, Wells Fargo, Barclay’s Capital, and Citibank/Citigroup. (Merrill Lynch employees were the sole exception to this rule.)
While these searches are limited (I only searched for the biggest and best known firms), they are nevertheless revealing. Over 3,550 employees of these firms voted for the Democrats with their pocketbooks, sending them over $5 million; fewer than half that number (1,620) sided with the Republicans, whose take was approximately $2.25 million.
DEMOCRATS ARE HE PARTY OF ELITES AND CRONY CAPITALISM.
THE DEMOCRAT PARTY IS THE PARTY OF UNION BOSSES AND ELITIST POLITBUROS.
THE DEMOCRAT PARTY IS MORE AND MORE LIKE BREZHNEV'S PARTY EVERYDAY.
A OLD JOKE ABOUT BREZHNEV WILL ILLUSTRATE THIS:
AFTER BECOMING PARTY CHAIRMAN LEONID BREZHNEV TOOK HIS OLD MOTHER ON A TOUR OF HIS HUGE APARTMENTS IN MOSCOW, AND SHOWED HER HIS OFFICE AND ART COLLECTION AND WINE CELLAR AND DROVE HER IN HIS CHAUFFEURED LIMOUSINE TO HIS GORGEOUS DACHA OUTSIDE MOSCOW.
HE ASKED HER, "SO WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOU LITTLE BOY LEONID, MAMA?"
SHE SAID, "IT'S GREAT LEONID. BUT WHAT IF THE REDS COME BACK!"
OBAMA AND THE CHICAGO MACHINE ARE JUST AS CORRUPT AND ALMOST AS RED.
WE CAN VOTE THEM ALL OUT THIS NOVEMBER.
TRYING TO DO WHAT THE USSR FAILED TO DO.Support for David Cameron's party rises four points to 36 per cent in latest Populus poll.
Latest poll (Populus/Times) Conservatives 36 seats short of a majority.
The Conservatives are still likely to emerge as the single largest party after the election, according to a new opinion poll which puts support for the party at its highest level since the first leaders' debate.
The latest Populus survey for the Times put the Tories up four points to 36 per cent, the Liberal Democrats down three to 28 per cent and Labour down one to 27 per cent. If repeated at the election on a uniform swing, the figures would leave David Cameron 36 seats short of a majority in a hung parliament.
CAMERON MUST MAKE THE ELECTORATE REALIZE THAT THE CHOICE IS HIM OR A HUNG PARLIAMENT WHICH JUST MEANS MORE LABOUR.
THEY WILL, MORE & MORE, CHOOSE HIM - AND IT SHOULD SNOW-BALL FROM HERE ON OUT.
Before you get too nuts, let's review a few core concepts about capital markets. There's nothing wrong or illegal about taking the other side of a client's position. Even within firms, there can be conflicting views about the direction of a given asset class.CAVEAT EMPTOR.
Back in 2007, there were going to be Goldman clients that thought the housing market would continue to rise and those that thought it was destined to fall. Not even the SEC's allegation of fraud against Goldman is centered on taking the other side of a trade; rather it's about disclosure and materiality. Yes, synthetic CDOs exist purely for the betting purposes, but they aren't illegal. And, the transactions that Levin is likely to highlight weren't with retail investors, they were with sophisticated investors who held a contrary view to the one that Goldman held. (Those poor German bankers!)
WHY DO I POST A PAINTSHOP OF OBAMA AS A MUHAMED CARTOON?
During an interview on “Fox & Friends,” the Democratic governor asserted that the tea party movement has been successful because “the mainstream media, the media all over the country, has given them too much credit.”
“They're really sort of following the anger rather than creating the movement,” he said.
... “You guys deserve more credit for marshalling that anger than the tea partiers do,” he said. “I’m being serious. And I think it’s your right to do so.”
... “But…the anger is real,” he explained. “It’s palpable. You can sense it out there, and it’s a manifestation of a tough, tough, bad economy.”
Europe at that time was no more or less savage than the savages they encountered they just wore knee britches & silks rather than feathers & animal skins.This is pure postmodern rubbish.
Yes the Aztecs practiced human sacrifice, as opposed to the various European empires that just warred on endlessly over land over succession over religion, burning heretics and witches.
Remember later Isabel & Ferdinand would force the Jews and Moors of Spain to convert, leave or die.
This is not propaganda this is history.
Henningsen-Contreras statistics for the period 1540-1700IN SUMMARY: OVER 160 YEARS, THE AWFUL HORRIBLE HORRIFYING SPANISH INQUISITION KILLED... ABOUT 1110 PEOPLE.
Tribunal
Number of preserved relaciones de causas from the period 1540-1700[79]
Number of trials in causa fidei reported in the preserved relaciones de causas[80]
Estimated number of all cases in the period 1540-1700[81]
Executions in persona reported in the preserved relaciones de causas[82]
The actual number of executions in persona in the period 1540-1700[83]
Total
1531
44674
~87000
826
At least 1080
SO DON'T TELL ME THAT WESTERN CIVILIZATION OR EUROPEAN COLONIAL POWERS WERE JUST AS BAD AS THE AZTECS.Estimates of the scope of the sacrifices
For the re-consecration of Great Pyramid of Tenochtitlan in 1487, the Aztecs reported that they sacrificed about 80,400 prisoners over the course of four days, though there were probably far fewer sacrifices. According to Ross Hassig, author of Aztec Warfare, "between 10,000 and 80,400 persons" were sacrificed in the ceremony.[32] The higher estimate would average 14 sacrifices per minute during the four-day consecration. As a comparison, the Auschwitz concentration camp, working 24 hours a day with modern technology, approached but did not equal this pace: it executed about 19,200 a day at its peak. (Note: the limiting factor for the Nazis was not killing people, but efficient disposal (cremation) of the bodies.[33] Four tables were arranged at the top so that the victims could be jettisoned down the sides of the temple.[34] Nonetheless, according to Codex Telleriano-Remensis, old Aztecs who talked with the missionaries told about a much lower figure for the reconsecration of the temple, approximately 4,000 victims in total.
Michael Harner, in his 1977 article The Enigma of Aztec Sacrifice, estimates the number of persons sacrificed in central Mexico in the 15th century as high as 250,000 per year. Fernando de Alva Cortés Ixtlilxochitl, a Mexica descendant and the author of Codex Ixtlilxochitl, estimated that one in five children of the Mexica subjects was killed annually. Victor Davis Hanson argues that a claim by Don Carlos Zumárraga of 20,000 per annum is "more plausible."[35]
According to The New York Times, "he [Saddam] murdered as many as a million of his people, many with poison gas. He tortured, maimed and imprisoned countless more. His unprovoked invasion of Iran is estimated to have left another million people dead. His seizure of Kuwait threw the Middle East into crisis. More insidious, arguably, was the psychological damage he inflicted on his own land. Hussein created a nation of informants — friends on friends, circles within circles — making an entire population complicit in his rule".[7] Estimates for the number of dead in the Iran-Iraq war vary from 500,000[8] to 1.5 million.[9] Others have estimated 800,000 deaths caused by Saddam not counting the Iran-Iraq war.[10]WELL, ER UM... FROM 1865 TO 1965, THE KKK LYNCHED AND MURDERED 7900 BLACKS - A HORRIBLE AMOUNT, BUT NOT 1% OF WHAT SADDAM DID IN ONE TENTH THE TIME.
