Government-funded electric car company folds; more than $500,000 in taxpayer funds lost

Activist Post: Government-funded electric car company folds; more than $500,000 in taxpayer funds lost

Madison Ruppert, Contributing Writer
Activist Post

The State of California is completely overwhelmed by debt; roughly $377 billion in debt to be specific. To make matters worse, the City of Salinas and their residents are now going to have to eat over half of a million dollars in losttaxpayer dollars. Mike Ryan, President and Co-Founder of the now-defunct Green Vehicles company just added insult to injury by breaking the news to city officials via e-mail.

This represents something far too common in today’s world of bloated, incompetent government: funding of non-viable or unreliable projects with taxpayer money with no guarantees.

Green Vehicles received two loans from the government of Salinas since 2009, one for $300,000 and an additional $240,000 loan after the corporation began showing their hand as a failure.

In situations like these, the people of Salinas who are having their hard-earned money squandered by bureaucrats should be able to dictate the terms and approval of a loan. Perhaps if the local government held a town hall and/or a vote they wouldn’t be struggling to get a measly half of the lost funds returned.

'Ending wars best resolution to US debt'

PressTV - 'Ending wars best resolution to US debt'

With an August 2nd deadline for raising the debt limit nearing, a new survey shows most people believe the best way to resolve the US debt crisis is 'to end wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya.'

About 80.5 percent of the respondents to a Press TV poll believe “ending war in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya and reducing military spending” is the best way for the US to reduce its 14-trillion-dollar debt.

A total of eight percent said the best resolution was for the US to default on its debt, and 2.9 percent of the respondents believe Washington could get loans from foreign banks or governments to bailout its economy.

The US officially hit its 14.3-trillion-dollar debt ceiling on May 16, up from 10.6-trillion-dollar when Barack Obama took office in 2009.

Small Arkansas Town Wants To Ban Free Speech, No “Group” Will Be Able To Meet Without Cities Permission :

Small Arkansas Town Wants To Ban Free Speech, No “Group” Will Be Able To Meet Without Cities Permission :

The Intel Hub
By Alex Thomas
July 18, 2011

A small Arkansas town of 850 is attempting to ban groups from meeting to talk about the city without first getting permission from the city itself.

In a move reminiscent of Nazi Germany, the Gould, Arkansas City Council has moved to ban all groups from discussing the city, even in their own home!

Mayor Earnest Nas, in strong statements supporting the peoples constitutional rights, said he is willing to go to court to stop this plan.

“This is America and even though this is Gould, Arkansas, this is still part of America. And in America, you can’t just vote and violate peoples constitutional rights,” said Nash.

This ordinance would effectively ban citizens from talking about the city at the dinner table, boy scout meetings, and book clubs. In fact, the ordinance is so Orwellian that the interview that the local Fox affiliate did with the mayor would actually be considered illegal under the proposed city ordinance.

A prominent lawyer looked over the ordinance and immediately deemed it unconstitutional.

Spokane Conservative Examiner

John DiPippa, Dean of the Law School at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, expressed disbelief when he first read the proposed law.

“The truth is the city of Gould doesn’t have the authority to tell anyone that they have no right to petition them, no right to speak and no right to exist in their city,” DiPippa told Fox16.

If the precedent is set in Gould, Arkansas it is only a matter of time before it is proposed in a town near you.

If the city council of this town actually believes that they can legally stop citizens from talking about city issues in the privacy of their own home they have another thing coming. This is America not Nazi Germany.

Gould Council bans citizens group

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FDA issues raw milk warning for SC dairy

FDA issues raw milk warning for SC dairy - State & Regional - Wire - TheState.com

The Associated Press

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YORK, S.C. — A federal agency is warning people not to drink raw milk from a South Carolina dairy because of a bacterial illness but the owner of the dairy says her products are germ-free.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said in a Saturday news release that it has confirmed three North Carolina cases of campylobacteriosis associated with raw milk from the Tucker Adkins Dairy in York, S.C.

The people who became ill reported drinking milk from the dairy on June 14 and becoming sick in the middle of June. One person was hospitalized, the agency said.

Dairy owner Carolyn Adkins said that South Carolina health officials have told her that samples of her dairy's milk are free of the bacterial illness that can infect the gastrointestinal system. The infection can cause symptoms that include diarrhea, abdominal cramps and nausea.

"I hate that anybody has gotten sick," she said. "It just does not seem that it was related to our milk."

She said she plans to continue selling raw milk from her 27-cow farm because she has abided by the state's strict regulations regarding the product.

"They'll shut me down if I've violated anything," she said.

Spokesman Adam Myrick of the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control said on Saturday evening they're still waiting for lab results to come back and there have been no South Carolina cases of the infection related to the dairy.

He said although the agency believes people should drink pasteurized milk, it's legal to sell raw milk in South Carolina.

Read more: http://www.thestate.com/2011/07/16/1900886/fda-issues-raw-milk-warning-for.html#ixzz1SNXkETAr

Sunday Morning Commoncents with Jay 07/17 by Commoncents Radio | Blog Talk Radio

Sunday Morning Commoncents with Jay 07/17 by Commoncents Radio | Blog Talk Radio

Libya - The Real Truth Behind U.S / NATO War of Aggression (Must Watch)

Federal Court Rules That TSA ‘Naked Scans’ Are Constitutional

Federal Court Rules That TSA ‘Naked Scans’ Are Constitutional - Kashmir Hill - The Not-So Private Parts - Forbes

Jul. 15 2011 - 12:13 pm | 81,968 views | 0 recommendations | 87 comments

Last weekend, a Tennessee woman was arrested at the Nashville airport for disorderly conduct after she refused TSA security measures for her children. The woman didn’t want her two children to have to go through a whole-body-imaging scanner. When a Transportation Security Administration officer told her the machines were safe, she said, “I still don’t want someone to see our bodies naked.”

She won’t be pleased with a ruling then out of the D.C. Circuit today. This morning, the federal court ruled that the “naked scans” of air travelers do not violate Americans’ constitutional rights. Privacy rights group EPIC had sued the Department of Homeland Security, alleging violations of innocent passengers’ Fourth Amendment right to be free of unreasonable searches. The court says that argument doesn’t fly.

In the opinion [pdf] from the D.C. Circuit Court (the Volokh Conspiracy), Judge Douglas Ginsburg writes that the advance imaging technology is not unreasonable given the security concerns on airplanes, and that people have the option to opt out for a pleasurable patdown. The court notes that some “have complained that the resulting patdown was unnecessarily aggressive,” but the judges don’t seem overly concerned about that. Ginsburg writes:

On the other side of the balance, we must acknowledge the steps the TSA has already taken to protect passenger privacy, in particular distorting the image created using AIT and deleting it as soon as the passenger has been cleared. More telling, any passenger may opt-out of AIT screening in favor of a patdown, which allows him to decide which of the two options for detecting a concealed, nonmetallic weapon or explosive is least invasive.

Good news for body scanner manufacturers Rapiscan and L-3. Bad news for those who don’t like having to choose between digital nudity and frisking. Legal scholar Orin Kerr of the Volokh Conspiracy expresses mild surprise at how easily the court dismissed privacy concerns with the TSA screens, as he regards the court as a Fourth-Amendment-friendly one.

Photos: How To Protect Your Dignity From The TSA

There was a small rebuke in the opinion for the TSA. The judges ruled that the TSA had violated an administrative law requiring public comment before issuing a new rule making the body scanners their primary tool for airport security. It would be too disruptive to have the TSA stop using the scanners, writes Judge Ginsburg, but they do expect that the TSA will now take comments. In this case, “better late than never” doesn’t really mean much.

South Carolina beach city remembers black Civil War soldiers

South Carolina beach city remembers black Civil War soldiers - KFOR

Harriet McLeodReuters

10:54 a.m. CDT, July 16, 2011

FOLLY BEACH, South Carolina (Reuters) -- The tiny island city of Folly Beach, South Carolina, paid tribute this week to Union soldiers whose bones were found there more than a century after the Civil War ended.

Residents, visitors and Civil War re-enactors gathered at a riverside park on Friday for ceremonies that included rifle and cannon fire salutes, bagpipes and the unveiling of a historical marker to the soldiers' unit, General Edward A. Wild's "African Brigade."

The unit camped here from 1863 to 1865. It consisted of the 55th Massachusetts Regiment, free men, and the First North Carolina Infantry, former slaves.

This year, states North and South are holding commemorations of the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, the first shots of which were fired nearby in Charleston harbor. The bloodiest war in American history claimed 620,000 American lives and ended slavery in the United States.

In 1987, Civil War relic hunter Robert Bohrn was exploring a vacant lot on Folly Beach with a metal detector when he found Union uniform buttons and a skeleton. The remains of 19 soldiers ultimately were discovered in what turned out to have been the brigade cemetery.

"In a shovelful of sand, I touched a soldier," Bohrn told the crowd. "It's one thing to find artifacts, but to find the men who lost them is an honor that I just cannot describe."

Bohrn, 54, contacted the University of South Carolina's archaeology and anthropology department to tell them he'd found bones. "They said 'you sure it's not a cow?' I said 'no, I've never seen a cow wear a Yankee uniform.'"

The soldiers were reburied with full military honors at Beaufort National Cemetery in 1989, but forensic artist Roy Paschal made casts of two skulls and created bronze busts of what the soldiers probably looked like. He displayed them on Friday.

Historians have records of who was buried in the brigade cemetery but identifying the men would be difficult, Paschal said.

Retired Washington, D.C. firefighter Louis Clark said identity is what drives him to re-enact the Civil War as a soldier in the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Regiment, one of the first all-black units, whose members fought and died in this area.

"I might have an answer about my ancestors that I haven't found yet," he said." These soldiers all knew that they were going to raise their people to a higher level in life. They had the consolation of knowing that future generations were going to receive the benefit of what they did."

"The Civil War doesn't mean anything to you, not yet," re-enactor Melvin Turner, also with the 54th Massachusetts Regiment, told a group of preschoolers after the ceremonies.

"This happened 150 years ago. But this is the uniform they wore. See this medal? I'm brave."

(Editing by Jerry Norton)

Ron Paul Stop Payments To Federal Reserve

Occupy Wall Street - Tahrir Style Sep 17

Occupy Wall Street - Tahrir Style | Wake Up From Your Slumber

A worldwide shift in revolutionary tactics is underway right now that bodes well for the future. The spirit of this fresh tactic, a fusion of Tahrir with the acampadas of Spain, is captured in this quote:"The antiglobalization movement was the first step on the road. Back then our model was to attack the system like a pack of wolves. There was an alpha male, a wolf who led the pack, and those who followed behind. Now the model has evolved. Today we are one big swarm of people."

— Raimundo Viejo, Pompeu Fabra University
Barcelona, Spain

The beauty of this new formula, and what makes this novel tactic exciting, is its pragmatic simplicity: we talk to each other in various physical gatherings and virtual people's assemblies … we zero in on what our one demand will be, a demand that awakens the imagination and, if achieved, would propel us toward the radical democracy of the future … and then we go out and seize a square of singular symbolic significance and put our asses on the line to make it happen.

The time has come to deploy this emerging stratagem against the greatest corrupter of our democracy: Wall Street, the financial Gomorrah of America.

On September 17, we want to see 20,000 people flood into lower Manhattan, set up tents, kitchens, peaceful barricades and occupy Wall Street for a few months. Once there, we shall incessantly repeat one simple demand in a plurality of voices.

They hit the nail right on the head.

But it would be far more effective if Americans take to the streets of EVERY capitol or epicenter in EVERY state -- and stay there until our demands are met.

And the call of action should be to END the PRIVATE CONTROL over our MONEY system.

DEMAND PUBLICLY OWNED, NOT-FOR-PROFIT, STATE RUN BANKS IN EVERY STATE.

If North Dakota can do it and end up with the lowest unemployment in the nation and a yearly budget surplus, then every state can!

We can end their control over our government once we release their stranglehold on our economies and livelihoods.

But no matter what we ask for, we won't get squat unless we hit the streets in droves.

Our "government" MUST start listening to the people. But they won't unless and until we give them no alternative.

They say that being respectful is the most effective way to communicate and I believe that's true. But respect is a two way street and we're not getting any right now from our governments. We must demand it.

To do that we must demonstrate a colossal show of power - and all we have is our numbers. But everyone must act - or it won't work.

United we stand. Divided we fall, one by one, until there's no one left standing but the banksters.

What will it be?

Will you join us when the time comes? Or will you stand by and wait for your banking overlords to spare you and take mercy on your poor wretched little soul?

SUBMITTED BY QRSWAVE ON SAT, 2011-07-16 17:02

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Beyond absurd: Obama thinks 80% of Americans want more taxes

Beyond absurd: Obama thinks 80% of Americans want more taxes | End the Lie - Independent News

By Madison Ruppert

Editor of End the Lie

With a tanking economy and average Americans struggling to pay the bills, our so-called President is under the impression that 80% of the people of the United States seek even more taxes.

If Obama was only referring to taxing the extraordinarily wealthy, I would not have an issue with his proposal and indeed I think many Americans would agree with him.

For instance, if the top 25 highest-earning hedge fund managers paid taxes like every other working American, the deficit would instantly be reduced by roughly $44 billion.

Is this the tax increase that Obama is proposing? Is he planning on ending the billions in corporate welfare and off-shoring tax incentives?

Obama claims that the American public is sold on his hybrid approach of spending cuts and tax increases. As the Christian Science Monitor points out, Obama seems to have pulled his 80% figure out of thin air.

More at EndtheLie.com - http://EndtheLie.com/2011/07/16/beyond-absurd-obama-thinks-80-of-americans-want-more-taxes/#ixzz1SJv8UkWr