UK Telegraph: "Cancun climate change summit: scientists call for rationing in developed world"

Remember the "global warming" disaster in Copenhagen last year?

So-called scientists, politicians, and representatives from big business who are very keen on profiting from the "global warming" to the tune of $12 trillion dollars are flying in on their fancy jets to Cancun, Mexico, to hold another "climate" conference in a super-fancy resort built on a strip of land that used to be a ecologically sensitive mangrove swamp with pristine beaches and rainforests.

These so-called scientists are already lecturing us that the developed countries like UK should be put on a rationing system just like during the World War II and halt any growth for 20 years to save the planet from the "global warming".

Talk about hypocricy.

And PR disaster.

UK's Telegraph reports:

In a series of papers published by the Royal Society, physicists and chemists from some of world’s most respected scientific institutions, including Oxford University and the Met Office, agreed that current plans to tackle global warming are not enough.

Unless emissions are reduced dramatically in the next ten years the world is set to see temperatures rise by more than 4C (7.2F) by as early as the 2060s, causing floods, droughts and mass migration.

As the world meets in Cancun, Mexico for the latest round of United Nations talks on climate change, the influential academics called for much tougher measures to cut carbon emissions.

In one paper Professor Kevin Anderson, Director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, said the only way to reduce global emissions enough, while allowing the poor nations to continue to grow, is to halt economic growth in the rich world over the next twenty years.

This would mean a drastic change in lifestyles for many people in countries like Britain as everyone will have to buy less ‘carbon intensive’ goods and services such as long haul flights and fuel hungry cars.

Prof Anderson admitted it “would not be easy” to persuade people to reduce their consumption of goods

He said politicians should consider a rationing system similar to the one introduced during the last “time of crisis” in the 1930s and 40s.

This could mean a limit on electricity so people are forced to turn the heating down, turn off the lights and replace old electrical goods like huge fridges with more efficient models. Food that has travelled from abroad may be limited and goods that require a lot of energy to manufacture.

...Prof Anderson insisted that halting growth in the rich world does not necessarily mean a recession or a worse lifestyle, it just means making adjustments in everyday life such as using public transport and wearing a sweater rather than turning on the heating.

Sure, sure. I'm sure he will be delivering his excellent paper in a super-fancy resort in Cancun, if he can take the time off from his golf on a course designed by Jack Nicklaus or relaxing in a jaccuzzi eating shrimp.

By the way, Cancun means "a nest of serpents". Indeed.

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UK MEP Nigel Farage Tells European Parliament: Just Who the Hell Do You Think You Are?

Nigel Farage, UK Independent Party (UKIP) Leader and a Member of the European Parliament, told the chamber who sat in disbelief - "Euro game is up."

In their desperation to preserve their dream, they want to remove any remaining traces of democracy from the system. And it's pretty clear that none of you have learned anything...

Just who the hell do you think you people are? You are very, very dangerous people indeed. Your obsession with creating this Euro state means that you are happy to destroy democracy, you appear to be happy for millions and millions of people to be unemployed and to be poor. Untold millions must suffer so that your Euro dream can continue. Well it won't work!

Watch the reaction of his fellow Members of European Parliament...

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WikiLeaks Strikes Again, and It's A Quarter-Million Confidential State Department Documents

According to New York Times, which is one of the three papers in the world that have received the WikiLeaks' leaks (the other two being The Guardian of UK and Der Spiegel of Germany),

WASHINGTON — A cache of a quarter-million confidential American diplomatic cables, most of them from the past three years, provides an unprecedented look at back-room bargaining by embassies around the world, brutally candid views of foreign leaders and frank assessments of nuclear and terrorist threats.

Some of the cables, made available to The New York Times and several other news organizations, were written as recently as late February, revealing the Obama administration’s exchanges over crises and conflicts. The material was originally obtained by WikiLeaks, an organization devoted to revealing secret documents. WikiLeaks posted the first installment of the archive on its Web site on Sunday.

What's amusing to me is the bit of information about how the State Department tried to "make a deal" with foreign countries. The "deal" offered by the US was either bribery using aid money or bribery using Obama as an "incentive":

Bargaining to empty the Guantánamo Bay prison: When American diplomats pressed other countries to resettle detainees, they became reluctant players in a State Department version of “Let’s Make a Deal.” Slovenia was told to take a prisoner if it wanted to meet with President Obama, while the island nation of Kiribati was offered incentives worth millions of dollars to take in Chinese Muslim detainees, cables from diplomats recounted. The Americans, meanwhile, suggested that accepting more prisoners would be “a low-cost way for Belgium to attain prominence in Europe.”

Neocon Senators like Claire "I love TSA love pats" McCaskill (D) and Lindsey "Let's attack Iran" Graham (R) are of course squawking again about prosecuting the leakers. I'd say let's arrest all these bungling, clueless US government officials squandering a huge wad of money and goodwill across the globe.

I wonder if Slovenia agreed... (I'm sure these girls want to meet Obama...)

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Janet Napolitano Bans Parcels from Japan in Response to the Ink Cartridge Bomb from Yemen

This is beyond absurd.

The ink cartridge bomb was allegedly shipped from Yemen. And what does Janet Napolitano do, in addition to having the TSA sexually harass and molest air travelers in the US?

She bans non-commercial parcels from Japan sent via Japan Post.

Mr. Ken Adachi at Educate-Yourself says Janet Napolitano has quietly set up a new regulation on November 17 that:

blocks the shipping of any NON COMMERCIAL parcel into the United States that weighs more than 0.9 pounds (under 16 ounces) without first supplying the Social Security number (or taxpayer ID number) of the RECEPIENT of the package (and it's likely that the new DHS shipping restriction will soon also apply to detailed ID requirements on the part of the person sending the package as well).

The non-bomb in the ink cartridge was from Yemen, and Napolitano goes and stops parcels sent from friends and relatives in Japan to their fiends and relatives in the US. How is that going to stop "terrorism"?

I checked the Japan Post website, but the announcement says nothing about supplying the Social Security number of the recipient. Instead, it says any item mailed by air that weighs more than 16 ounces will be suspended for shipment until further notice:

November 12, 2010

Japan Post Service Company (Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo-to, Representative Director: Shinichi Nabekura) has announced that, due to the elimination of air flights for the delivery of postal items over 453 grams (16 ounces) in weight following the recent anti-terrorism airport security enforcement on the part of the USA, these postal items will be suspended for shipment for the time being starting from November 17, 2010.

We will make a relevant announcement once the situation changes.

There goes my end-of-the-year package I've been waiting for from my relatives in Japan.

This new harassment from the DHS applies to air parcels from other countries, not just Japan. What's really irritating about it is that it targets ordinary people by restricting the application of the rule to non-commercial shipment.

Well, what else could we expect from the corporatist administration like this one?

There are alternatives, albeit more expensive than Japan Post. So far, Fedex and UPS are not stopping the shipment from Japan, and Fedex doesn't require the Social Security number of the recipient as long as the package is a gift and that the declared value of the content is less than $100.

Kuroneko Yamato, DHL Japan require the Social Security number of the recipient, but they are not stopping the shipment.

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"Feminists" on TV in Full Support of TSA, Denounce Critics as "Terrorists"

In the incredible, ongoing TSA saga, I've been waiting to hear from two particular entities on the left side of the political spectrum: one is Glenn Greenwald at Salon.com, a constitutional attorney who in the past never failed to defend the rights of individuals against the tyranny of the state; the other is the feminists.

Glenn Greenwald finally spoke out against two despicable writers at The Nation magazine, in the article titled "Anatomy of a journalistic smear".

And I finally heard from the other entity, feminists, or at least I think that what they want to pass themselves as such. Their view is fully expressed in the video clip below, which I found in the post by Thomas DiLorenzo at LRC Blog. This particular group of middle-aged women as you see in the clip below includes several who walked out of the TV set over the Muslim terrorist remark by Bill O'Reilly.

Do they defend women and men who suffered sexual abuse in the past and who refuse naked scanning and highly intrusive patdowns? Hell no.

Are they indignant that the TSA had a woman scanned and then patted down in the groin because she had a sanitary napkin on? Hell no.

Instead, they loudly pronounce people who refuse the scan and end up in the heavy patdown as terrorists! Why? In their feminine logic (oxymoron, I know), these people, by refusing the scan, are tying up the valuable TSA resource by forcing the TSA to individually pat them down, while some real terrorists may snuck by them unnoticed.

What's the big deal, they all say.

It is by far the most disgusting video I've seen so far on the topic.

If it is the Democratic government doing the molestation, particularly under the charming (to them at least) black president, it's all fine and dandy to them. This particular feminist lawyer who claims to fight "on behalf of victims whose rights have been violated" announced she thoroughly enjoyed the heavy patdown.

Do you see the message they are sending to the rest of us? If we are as sophisticated, educated as they are, we should be enjoying the sexual abuse. Just enjoy the occasion.

Much like we've been pushed to appreciate abstract paintings (now we know the CIA was behind the promotion), twelve-tone and atonal music ("because all notes are created equal"; and this was another CIA job), which to many unsophisticated people including myself look and sound like a crap.

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GM's Union Making Out Much Better than US Taxpayers on GM Stock Sale

No surprise here. It really pays to have their best friend at the White House.

From The Washington Times on November 25, 2010 [Emphasis is mine]:

General Motors Co.'s recent stock offering was staged to start paying back the government for its $50 billion bailout, but one group made out much better than the taxpayers or other investors: the company's union.

Thanks to a generous share of GM stock obtained in the company's 2009 bankruptcy settlement, the United Auto Workers is well on its way to recouping the billions of dollars GM owed it — putting it far ahead of taxpayers who have recouped only about 30 percent of their investment and further still ahead of investors in the old GM who have received nothing.

The boon for the union fits the pattern established when the White House pushed GM into bankruptcy and steered it through the courts in a way that consistently put the interests of the union ahead of many suppliers, dealers and investors — stakeholders that ordinarily would have fared as well or better under the bankruptcy laws.

"Priority one was serving the interests of the UAW" when the White House's auto task force engineered the bankruptcy, said Glenn Reynolds, an analyst at CreditSights. The stock offering served to show once again how the White House has handsomely rewarded its political allies, he said.

The union's health care and pension trust fund earned $3.4 billion through the sale of one-third of its shares in GM last week. Analysts estimate that it would break even if it sells the remaining two-thirds of its shares at an average price of $36 — close to where the stock traded shortly after the offering hit the market. GM shares closed at $33.45 on Wednesday.

For taxpayers to break even, by contrast, the stock would have to rise to at least $52 and by some estimates as high as $103 — levels that would take years to achieve.

In any event, after selling one-third of its shares last week, the U.S. Treasury has agreed not to sell any more of its GM stock for another six months, while the union fund is free to keep selling its shares.

For the full article, follow the link.

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Hilarity of the Day: China Telling US to Sell Gold To Balance Budget and Reduce Trade Deficit. Hahahahahaha...

Saw the link at Mish Shedlock's blogsite. The linked article (at Bloomberg) says:

The U.S. should cut its government spending and sell some gold reserves to balance its budget and fund its recovery, the People’s Daily overseas edition reported, citing Xia Bin, an adviser to the People’s Bank of China.

The U.S. has to resolve its “twin deficits” in the government budget and the current account, Xia was quoted as saying. Three ways that may help the U.S. achieve that target include reducing military expenses, selling part of its gold reserves and relaxing some export limits on technology, he said.

“The U.S. has more than 8,000 tons of gold reserves; why can’t it sell some of it since the country wants to raise funds for economic recovery but doesn’t want to add more burden to the fiscal deficit,” Xia told the newspaper. He didn’t mention whether China would be willing to purchase any gold from the U.S.

Well let's see.

The US is supposed to have 8,000 tons of gold.

1 ton equals 32,150 troy ounces.

8,000 tons equal 257,200,000 troy ounces.

With gold price at $1,360, that would be worth $349,792,000,000.

About $350 billion.

Do you know the budget deficit of the Obama government this year alone?

$1.3 trillion.

Do you know the national debt amount?

It is fast approaching $14 trillion, and that doesn't even count the unfunded obligations.

I don't think so, Mr. Xia. Selling gold wouldn't do a batsh-t to deficit reduction. As to the current account deficit, I know a good way to erase that deficit, and that is for the US to stop buying junks from your country.

Well, looking at the mob scenes on this Black Friday, I guess I'm just kidding myself...

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Thanksgiving Thoughts: Pilgrims Were Forced to Be Socialists By a Group of Wealthy English Investors!

That's a bit of info I picked up on the Thanksgiving Day this year.

I was going to re-post the last year's Thanksgiving Day post, about how the Pilgrims finally ditched "socialism" and embraced capitalism, to the benefit of all. The article cited in that post, "Great Thanksgiving Hoax", was from Ludwig von Mises Institute, and was written by Richard J. Maybury in 1985.

And no, Ms. Kate Zernike of New York Times, it is not the tea party propaganda. But she seems to like to reduce everything down to a right-wing propaganda or left-wing propaganda, a very cynical approach befitting certain Gen-Xer writers. (For more about her, here's what Andrew Breitbart had to say about her back in February this year.)

The Pilgrims became "socialists" not by choice but under the contract with big investors.

From Politizoid:

You might be surprised to know that the Pilgrims attempted to implement socialism. Of all the people in the world, it should have worked with them. They were a small, close-knit community united by a common religious and philosophical foundation as evidence by the Mayflower Compact, and yet their “communal service” experiment failed as all forms of socialism have done throughout history.

To be fair to the Pilgrims, it was not exactly their plan. Funded by a group of investors, they were contractually obligated to follow their benefactors’ blueprint for the settlement which included holding all things in common and sharing equally in the proceeds of their labor.

William Bradford, the second governor of the Plymouth Colony, describes this economic plan as a complete disaster in his History of the Plymouth Settlement. All produce was taken into a common storehouse where food rations were based on what people truly needed. At the same time, everyone was expected to work hard.

One minor problem, there was no motivation to work.

... The harvest of 1621 produced enough food to host the first Thanksgiving, but food soon became scare again. The 1622 harvest was even more disappointing, and starvation became the norm.

After three years of failure, they were forced to abandon their investors’ communal plan. It was a matter of life and death. There simply was not enough food to survive. The colony leaders finally decided to assign each family a plot of land and allowed every man to plant corn for his own household. ...

And America never looked back. Soon, the harvest was so plentiful that they started to export. No one went hungry.

Here's the link to my 2009 Thanksgiving post.

Happy Thanksgiving, and please remember never to follow, ever, the direction given by the big business or the big government. The pilgrims tried to adhere to their contractual obligations almost to their ruin and death. They finally realized enough was enough, and ditched the contract. Don't believe people in power who claim to know what's good for the rest of us.

(Hmmm. It sounds familiar... Underwater homeowners trying to keep paying the mortgages to the banks who ripped them off by inflating the property value and snared them with loose underwriting and then allegedly sold the mortgages to tax-shelter trusts to issue mortgage-backed securities to dupe investors like pension funds, although more evidence has begun to surface that these mortgage-backed securities have no mortgages that back them, because the banks didn't actually transferred the mortgages to the trust. The homeowners act like a responsible citizen who feels bound by the contract, while the banks have no problem ignoring the contract. When will be the "enough is enough" moment? Ever?)

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The Day the Dollar Died

December 19, 2012. 8:00 AM, New York Stock Exchange. It's a cold breezy day on Wall Street, as markets await the Federal Reserve's announcement for QE4...

8:19 AM, Beijing. Chinese officials announce that they can no longer allow Washington to devalue their holdings. "China has no choice but to stop purchasing US Treasuries..."

A futuristic, depressingly realistic video by National Inflation Association.

(S&P500 Index should be 2530, instead of 1530... Gotcha.)

The most depressing scene in the video is Obama making a press conference as the President of the United States as of December 19, 2012. I hope NIA is wrong about this.

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Japanese TV Does TSA

From Karl Denninger's Market Ticker.

We are the butt joke of Japanese television.

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SEC Probe on Insider Trading Is Getting Interesting

At first I thought it was nothing more than a "wag the dog" operation by the SEC to divert public attention from a much bigger mess (mortgage/foreclosure fraud), but it may get traction as more prominent hedge funds get subpoenaed.

First, it was these smallish three on Monday:

Diamondback Capital Management ($5.8 billion assets in management)
Level Global Investors
Loch Capital Management ($2 billion assets in management)

Then today, much bigger funds got ensnared:

Janus Capital Group Inc. ($161 billion assets in management)
Wellington Management ($598 billion assets in management)
SAC Capital Advisers
Citadel Asset Management

Why is the SEC going after hedge funds? Fines of few million dollars? Peanuts. Or is the SEC using these funds as bait to catch much bigger fish on Wall Street?

Now, Zero Hedge's Tyler Durden, citing FOX's Gasparino, says Goldman Sachs may get roped into the insider trading probe, via Diamondback. Now we are talkin'....

However, as soon as the investigation gets close enough to Goldman Sachs, it will be inexplicably shut down, if the past is any indication, and we are supposed to forget anything about insider trading. By that time, the foreclosure fraud, securitization fraud, and mortgage fraud will be all forgotten. Oh, so it IS a "wag the dog" operation after all...

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Ron Paul on TSA Sexual Abuse: Stand Up and Resist

“If we tolerate this,” Paul said, “there’s something wrong with us.” He added that the American people deserve to be humiliated and demeaned by the government if they refuse to stand up and resist."

With TSA agents putting their hands under the passengers' pants, under their underwear, zipping down the kid's trousers, groping the baby's crotch, people are finally waking up (maybe, I hope) to the monstrocity that was created after 9/11 and has been nurtured by the government under Bush and Obama. It is Obama who has blown it out of proportion for some unexplicable reason, and here we are, being treated worse than terrorists in a procedure that purportedly helps us from terrorists. (I don't think TSA or anyone wants to molest Taliban or Al-Qaeda fighters in the crotch.)

Congressman Ron Paul sure hopes so too, that people are waking up. In his interview with Alex Jones, he said:

Paul said due to pervasive coverage of TSA abuses by the corporate media, the American people are now beginning to ask serious questions about government conduct.

“I think it’s a healthy wake-up call to a lot of Americans,” Paul told Jones. “I just hope they can work that in to the whole concept of what’s been going on with our country for a long time – the government is too big and intrusive and abuses our rights and they do the things the shouldn’t be doing and they forget about the things they were instructed to do.”

Paul said he has been subjected to the enhanced pat down, aka sexual assault, because he has metal on his knees. I wonder if TSA has the list of people to conduct this sexual assault on - anyone who's critical of the government in any way.

For the entire article at Infowars.com, click here.

I am still waiting for any feminist group to speak out against TSA's nude scanners and sexual assaults at the nation's airports. I am also waiting for the very first TSA employee to say no to molesting the total strangers.

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North Korea Says South Korea Fired First

Well, well.

South Korea was conducting the military exercise in the area when the shelling started. Obama has just returned from Asia; Korea was the second to last stop, for G20. The Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was in Asia for a very long time; she left the US before the November election.

(What were they doing, particularly Hillary Clinton?)

The South Korean president Lee Myung-bak is in need of a boost to his popularity which has been flagging.

(BTW, Lee was born in Japan of Korean parents. Looking at his picture, he looks more North Korean than South Korean...)

From Reuters:

Nov 23 (Reuters) - South Korea said it was conducting regular military drills off the west coast before North Korea started firing dozens of shells, but that its firing exercises did not aim to the North.

"We were conducting usual military drills and our test shots were aimed toward the west, not the north," a South Korean military official said.

North Korea said on Tuesday that Seoul had initiated firing of shells, prompting it to take an instant military action.

Are we about to see a proxy war on Korean Peninsula again? North Korea/China vs South Korea/US?

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ALERT: North Korea Artillery Fire Hits South Korean Island

(UPDATE) Japan's Nikkei Shinbun reports that North Korea fired more than 200 artillery shells, and in response South Korea fired back about 80.

---------------------------

From Reuters, on Tue Nov 23, 2010 1:22am EST:

North Korea on Tuesday fired dozens of artillery shells at a South Korean island, setting buildings on fire and prompting a return fire by the South, Seoul's military and media reports said.

Seoul's YTN television quoted a witness as saying 60 to 70 houses were on fire after the shelling.

The military confirmed the exchange of firing, without providing more details.

According to Japan's Yomiuri Shinbun, the attack happened around 2:30 PM local time on November 23 (9:30 PM PST, November 22, or 12:30 AM EST, November 23).

Asian stock markets have dropped on the news. US stock futures have done the same. Dow futures down 75, S&P500 futures down 9.30, Nasdaq 100 futures down 13.50.

US dollar is rising sharply against Japanese yen, and gold has reversed the decline.

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Matt Taibbi on Foreclosuregate: MSNBC Interview

"Bernie Madoff went to jail because he ripped off rich people..."

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TSA Horror Stories Mount

TSA Groping Leaves Bladder Cancer Survivor Humiliated and Covered In Urine

San Diego man arrested after refusing TSA's naked scan and pat-downs and taking off his clothes except his briefs

An elementary school teacher was scanned AND patted down heavily because of a tissue and a hair band in her pocket.

I should say we are finally starting to hear about them now, though they've been out there for us to see if we wanted to ever since TSA came into existence in 2001.

This young mother had her toddler son taken away by the TSA agent in Atlanta to be searched, because his pacifier set off the alarm.

I already posted the Prez reaction to TSA sex crime. He says he "understands", and he says he already "told the U.S. Transportation Security Administration: "You have to constantly refine and measure whether what we're doing is the only way to assure the American people's safety. And you also have to think through, are there ways of doing it that are less intrusive."

And he's happy with the TSA's answer that there are no such ways. So he lectured and asked questions. Oh how professor-like, or attorney-like... Oh wait, he was.

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Chris Whalen: California Will Default

Chris Whalen, a financial industry analyst and Managing Director of Institutional Risk Analytics, tells Henry Blodget in Yahoo Tech Ticker that California, and other heavily indebted states like Illinois and New York, will default on their debt, rather than accepting the federal bailout and losing their sovereignty.

And he thinks it will be a good thing. So do I.

But I don't think that will happen. These states happen to be the "Blue states" - will they care more about maintaining sovereignty? I think they would rather receive the federal bailout so that they can continue to pay to their public union workers and retirees.

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Thanksgiving Present from TSA to Small People

who can't afford a private jet and who are not the member of Congress.

TSA will be happy to mete out $11,000 fine, interrogation by the local police and TSA, and possible arrest anyone who refuses to go through the naked body scanner or "love pats" aka sexual assault by the TSA thugs.

From Sun Sentinel:

If you don't want to pass through an airport scanner that allows security agents to see an image of your naked body or to undergo the alternative, a thorough manual search, you may have to find another way to travel this holiday season.

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is warning that any would-be commercial airline passenger who enters an airport checkpoint and then refuses to undergo the method of inspection designated by TSA will not be allowed to fly and also will not be permitted to simply leave the airport.

That person will have to remain on the premises to be questioned by the TSA and possibly by local law enforcement. Anyone refusing faces fines up to $11,000 and possible arrest.

"Once a person submits to the screening process, they can not just decide to leave that process," says Sari Koshetz, regional TSA spokesperson, based in Miami.

Koshetz said such passengers would be questioned "until it is determined that they don't pose a threat" to the public.

Palm Beach Sheriff's Office spokesperson Teri Barbera said PBSO deputies stationed at the airport would become involved when requested by the TSA.

So, if you refuse to be seen virtually naked, or if you refuse to be molested by a total stranger in a blue uniform, you are a terrorist.

An amazing number of Liberals and Neocons are in total support of this public molestation. They either hope to be molested by a cute TSA girl, or they want to put on some nice music to get in the "mood". I just wonder how they are going to persuade their children.

And this clueless, tone-deaf head of the state says he "understands".

Understand what?

That his thugs at TSA following his order are in violation of the 4th Amendment?

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Wired: Web Censorship Bill (SB 3804) Sails Through Senate Committee

Republicans took back the House in the November election, but is anything going to be different? So far, the answer is absolutely not. Democratic leaders are more than ever determined to push through their pet legislations as quickly as possible during the lame duck session.

This particular bill, however, apparently has the bipartisan support, and is sailing through the Senate. It will give the Attorney General the right to shut down websites without due process.

The government is happily doing the bidding of the influential industry, again, as it has done for the pharmaceutical industry and insurance industry in the health care 'reform' bill, as it has done for the financial industry in the financial 'reform' bill, and as it will certainly do for the ag industry in the food bill (ex-Monsanto food czar will make sure of it).

Web Censorship Bill Sails Through Senate Committee
(Sam Gustin, 11/18/2010 Wired)

Who says Congress never gets anything done?

On Thursday, the Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously approved a bill that would give the Attorney General the right to shut down websites with a court order if copyright infringement is deemed “central to the activity” of the site — regardless if the website has actually committed a crime. The Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act (COICA) is among the most draconian laws ever considered to combat digital piracy, and contains what some have called the “nuclear option,” which would essentially allow the Attorney General to turn suspected websites “off.”

COICA is the latest effort by Hollywood, the recording industry and the big media companies to stem the tidal wave of internet file sharing that has upended those industries and, they claim, cost them tens of billions of dollars over the last decade.

The content companies have tried suing college students. They’ve tried suing internet startups. Now they want the federal government to act as their private security agents, policing the internet for suspected pirates before making them walk the digital plank.

Many people opposed to the bill agree in principle with its aims: Illegal music piracy is, well, illegal, and should be stopped. Musicians, artists and content creators should be compensated for their work. But the law’s critics do not believe that giving the federal government the right to shut down websites at will based upon a vague and arbitrary standard of evidence, even if no law-breaking has been proved, is a particularly good idea. COICA must still be approved by the full House and Senate before becoming law. A vote is unlikely before the new year.

Among the sites that could go dark if the law passes: Dropbox, RapidShare, SoundCloud, Hype Machine and any other site for which the Attorney General deems copyright infringement to be “central to the activity” of the site, according to Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights group that opposes the bill. There need not even be illegal content on a site — links alone will qualify a site for digital death. Websites at risk could also theoretically include p2pnet and pirate-party.us or any other website that advocates for peer-to-peer file sharing or rejects copyright law, according to the group.

In short, COICA would allow the federal government to censor the internet without due process.

Read the full article at the link above.

The article says "a vote is unlikely before the new year", but don't count on it. Nancy and Harry want to move as fast as they can and pass as many bills as possible during the lame duck session. The lineup should be very disheartening for those who thought the November election signaled a major change in the government.

Nothing has changed. Dems are doubling down, Republicans are letting it slide, and Obama is outside the country since the election.

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Max Keiser: Crash J.P.Morgan Buy Silver

The irreverent Max Keiser is calling for $500 silver (it is $27 today). How is he proposing to achieve that? Everyone go out and buy silver coins.

From Maxkeiser.com:

The Crash JP Morgan Buy Silver Manifesto or: How to Get Hedge Funds To Do Your Dirty Work For You And Drive the Price of Silver to $500

1 – JP Morgan has a huge short position in Silver – estimated to be 3.3 billion ounces – tied to an enormous, extremely precarious derivatives position.

2 – Various exchanges around the world have been caught manipulating the price of Silver using ‘naked’ short sales i.e., counterfeiting.

3 – Of all the actively traded commodities traded around the world, Silver is one of the least plentiful and its supply is shrinking, but its industrial uses are multiplying. The ‘networked’ age of global communications is built with Silver.

4 – Hedge funds are taking physical delivery of Silver – adding substantial demand as well as exposing these exchange’s naked short positions – who are already scrambling to deliver – jacking prices up to multi-decade highs – and inspiring these predatory funds to buy more Silver.

5 – There are billions of people around the world who are aware that banks have been committing fraud and embezzlement who are upset that their politicians seem only interested in helping the banks commit more fraud – who are looking for a cheap way to non-aggressively fight back and decapitalize these banks.

6 – Many of these people have the access and wherewithal to purchase 1 ounce of Silver – thus removing hundreds of millions of ounces of Silver from the ‘paper’ market – forcing additional scrambling by dealers to fill orders by buying back short positions – inspiring the funds to buy and take physical delivery of even more Silver – creating a colossal short squeeze – in which JP Morgan stands to be the biggest loser.

7 – Buying Silver is how the world is monetizing its anger at the banks who stole their wealth.

8 – Crash JP Morgan Buy Silver

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