The New World Order Update

Saturday, January 8, 2011

Arizona Shooter Explained Mind Control on YouTube

The gunman who shot Congresswoman Gabriella Giffords and 17 others in Arizona this morning has been identified as 22-year-old Jared Loughner. He uploaded a number of strange videos to YouTube expressing convoluted philosophical and political views. And he hates Giffords.

Here's what we know so far:

According to his YouTube page, Loughner graduated from Mountain View High School and attended Northwest Aztec Middle College and Pima Community College in Tucson, Arizona.
Catie Parker claims to have been in a band with Loughner, as well as his high school and college classmate. In a Twitter exchange with Anthony De Rosa, she said that when she knew Loughner he was a radical liberal, a "loner" and "very philosophical:
"He was a political radical and met Giffords once before in '07, asked her a question and he told me she was 'stupid and unintelligent.' He was a pot head & into rock like Hendrix, The Doors, Anti-Flag.... As I knew him he was left wing, quite liberal and oddly obsessed with the 2012 prophecy."
Parker says Loughner dropped out of school after getting alcohol poisoning in '06.
In one YouTube video, Loughner claims to be a military recruit at the Phoenix, Arizona Military Entrance Processing Station.
About those YouTube videos: They are very strange. All of Loughners videos feature only long passages of text which express quasi-political beliefs that could broadly be called anti government. He writes, "If the property owners and government officials are no longer in ownership of their land and laws from a revolution then the revolutionary's (sic) from the revolution are in control of the land and laws." Loughners main gist in his videos is that people will be freed through the development of a "new currency," whatever that is. His strange insistence on proper grammar is belied by his own horrible writing, and his one favorited video features a guy lighting an American flag.
On his now-defunct Myspace page, Loughner posted this picture of a handgun, possibly the one used in the shooting, on a copy of "united states history"
Via Hunter Walker, on March of 2010, Loughner was photographed by the Arizona Star at a book fair at Pima Community College.
[Image via Loughner's defunct MySpace page]

PressTV - Obama signs bill, stops Gitmo closure

Obama signs bill, stops Gitmo closure

US President Barack Obama has signed a major defense bill effectively preventing the closure of the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

Obama has vowed to repeal the curbs regarding the Guantanamo Bay prison, saying he was forced into signing the bill on Friday.

The new bill bars Guantanamo suspects from being brought to the United States for trial.

The US president further stated that the bill was vital for funding the country's foreign wars in 2011 and that was why he signed it into law.

"Despite my strong objection to these provisions... I have signed this Act because of the importance of authorizing appropriations for, among other things, our military activities in 2011," Obama stated.

Earlier the US chief executive had promised to close the prison, which has drawn international condemnation for its severe mistreatment of prisoners, AFP reported.

The US president also voiced his opposition to the bill without explicitly threatening the restrictions.

"Nevertheless, my administration will work with the Congress to seek repeal of these restrictions, will seek to mitigate their effects, and will oppose any attempt to extend or expand them in the future," he concluded.

The Guantanamo detention facility was established in 2002 by the Bush administration. Almost 800 detainees have been brought to the prison camp since October 7, 2001, when Washington began the war on Afghanistan.

A total of 1,100 US army and navy personnel are engaged in guarding prisoners held in nine separate camps at Guantanamo.

International Red Cross inspectors and released detainees have described acts of torture, including sleep deprivation, beatings and confinement in small, cold cells.

Human rights groups have also argued that indefinite detention constitutes torture. One of the allegations of abuse at the US camp is the abuse of the religion of the inmates.

Lenders Selling Foreclosed Homes Without Obtaining Title

Earlier this week we published a similar story that you might have missed...

Caught By Mistake In Web Of Foreclosure

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When you thought you’d seen every possible stuff-up in mortgage land, a new one comes to light. As the housing market correction started, most savvy observers pointed out that prices needed to revert to long-term relationships with rentals and income levels. And many have also pointed out that it is reasonable to expect prices to overshoot on the downside.

The powers that be have been trying to forestall the inevitable by using super low interest rates and purchases of mortgage backed securities to keep mortgage borrowing rates low, making housing more affordable. It isn’t clear how productive that massive effort has been. Not only have banks have tightened up on lending standards (which was warranted) but smart buyers might be worried about financing homes when rates are artificially low. When intervention ceases as inflation picks up and the Fed starts to mop up liquidity, the rise in mortgage rates may prove to be disproportionate to the increase in inflation, dampening appreciation.

But with these ongoing large-scale subsidies, and the almost certain prospect of banks pressing for continuing favored treatment (recall, for instance, the “securitization market is TBTF” argument by American Securitization Forum president Tom Deutsch), it’s disturbing to see members of the financial services industry continue, through incompetence and an undue focus on cost containment, take actions that are detrimental to the housing market.

Evidence of the latest self-inflicted wound comes via e-mail from Lisa Epstein of ForeclosureHamlet.org, namely that some lenders, such as Fannie Mae, had not obtained title to foreclosed properties before selling them out of foreclosures. There’s already been a hue and cry over possible clouded title due to the discovery of errors and corners-cutting, particularly the electronic mortgage registry MERS producing an inability to verify the chain of title, and MERS being so loosely run as to raise questions about the integrity of its data.

In classic 'shoot the messenger' behavior, people who have pointed out these issue have been criticized for publicizing these failings and arguably hurting the housing market. But this is tantamount to arguing that the media should hide information about serious auto defects because it might hurt GM.

While the latest fiasco has been reported in Orlando, it isn’t hard to believe that the same problems exist in other parts of the US, since Fannie, Freddie, and outsourced servicer process managers like LPS worked to implement standardized processes to the extent state real estate laws permitted.

From the Orlando Sentinel:

A funny thing happened to DeBary resident Russ Vas Dais as he was about to buy a foreclosed home: He learned the bank selling him the house didn’t actually own it.
Fannie Mae had foreclosed on the property but, in an apparent paperwork problem, never took ownership.
“It was quite shocking to learn the bank didn’t have title to it,” said Vas Dais, who had worked in the real-estate sales and appraisal business for 18 years. “I just felt that there are a lot of incompetent professionals who aren’t paying much attention. …
Another emerging obstacle that could further complicate the foreclosure process: legal appeals that can reverse judicial foreclosures and can put a property’s ownership into deeper doubt.
Christopher Hunt, senior attorney with the Orlando law firm KEL, said the firm has beefed up its appeals staff and plans to start filing 20 foreclosure appeals a week. The firm In July persuaded the 5th District Court of Appeal to overturn state Circuit Judge William Law’s foreclosure against Stephanie and John Crown of Lake County. The bank that took ownership, Chase Mortgage, never put the house on the market, and the Crowns have been able to continue living in it.
Buyers of foreclosed properties could find themselves caught up in such litigation if the foreclosure is overturned in the courts, Hunt said.
“I think that is actually going to happen,” he added. “We’re not going to be able to prevent that in every instance. When that does happen, it’s bad for everyone. It’s a disaster in the making.”
Even in commercial real estate, foreclosure sales have proven so problematic that one Orlando broker likens them to “catching a falling knife.”

And a mere two days ago, the Sun-Sentinel reported that a foreclosed home was sold twice, meaning two buyers closed on and paid for the same property.

As we’ve indicated repeatedly, foreclosure sales are final; the risk is not so much to the home buyer, as the article implies, but the lender that foreclosed. As Bob Lawless wrote:

…most every (or maybe even every–I’ll let someone else do the 50-state survey) state provides the strongest possible finality protections for deeds obtained through foreclosure sales. We also see similar rules for other judicially supervised sales in other contexts such as sales of personal property subject to a security interest or bankruptcy sales….
Suppose Henry and Helen Homeowner lost their home in foreclosure proceeding, and it has since been purchased by Bill and Betty Buyer. Now, Henry and Helen discover the affidavits in their foreclosure proceeding had some of the very same apparently fraudulent signatures reported in the media. When Henry and Helen complain to the court, the answer should be: “Your complaint is against Deutsche Bank (or whoever foreclosed) and not against Bill and Betty. You can recover damages from Deutsche Bank but not eject Henry and Helen from possession.” In turn, this will mean that that Bill and Betty (or their lender) will not have to look to the title insurer for recovery.

9/11 Firefighter Eyewitness Testimony - David Ray Griffin and Kevin Ryan

Banks Fail in Florida, Arizona

WASHINGTON (TheStreet) - State regulators shuttered two banks on Friday, for the first closures of 2011 following 157 shutdowns during 2010.

More than 300 banks have failed since the financial crisis kicked in the latter half of 2008. 2010's total, which came after 140 failures in 2009, was the largest number of failures in a single year since 1992.

Friday's combined failures cost the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s deposit insurance fund a combined $105.9 million.

Both failed banks had been previously included inTheStreet's Bank Watch List of undercapitalizedinstitutions, based on third-quarter regulatory data provided by SNL Financial.

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First Commercial Bank of Florida

The Florida Office of Financial Regulation seized First Commercial Bank of Florida of Orlando. The FDICwas appointed receiver and sold the failed bank's $598.5 million in total assets and $529.6 million in total deposits to First Southern Bank of Boca Raton, Fla.

First Commercial Bank of Florida had been operating under a Prompt Corrective Action directive handed down by the Federal Reserve on Sept. 27, under which the bank agreed to raise sufficient capital to become adequately capitalized or sell the bank within 45 days. The order followed a written agreement in March when First Commercial Bank of Florida agreed to take various actions to improve its credit quality and submit a capital plan within 60 days. The bank was negatively capitalized as of Sept. 30.

The failed bank's nine offices were scheduled to reopen Monday as First Southern Bank branches. The FDIC agreed to cover 80% of losses on $484.3 million of the assets acquired by First Southern Bank and estimated the cost to the deposit insurance fund would be $78 million.

Legacy Bank

The Arizona Department of Financial Institutions took over Legacy Bank of Scottsdale and appointed the FDIC receiver. The FDIC sold the failed bank's $125.9 million in deposits for a 1% premium to Enterprise Bank & Trust of St Louis, Mo. Enterprise Bank & Trust also agreed to assume the failed bank's total assets of $150.6 million, with the FDIC agreeing to cover losses on $119.8 million.

The acquiring bank is the main subsidiary of Enterprise Financial Services (EFSC _).

Legacy Bank had been operating under a Prompt Corrective Action Directive it entered into with the FDIC in May, under which the FDIC said the bank had been undercapitalized for nearly a year and the bank's management was required to raise enough capital through the sale of shares for the bank to become adequately capitalized or sell the bank to another institution.

As of Sept. 30, the bank remained undercapitalized and its nonperforming assets - including nonaccrual loans and repossessed real estate - made up a critically high 14.42% of total assets.

Twitter Subpoenaed by U.S. Government for Wikileaks Accounts

The U.S. government has asked Twitter to hand over private messages sent to and from WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and other WikiLeaks staffers.

In all likelihood, it’s also contacting other web services Assange may have used to get contact details and personal information about Assage’s activities and supporters.

According to a report just filed by The New York Times, Twitter has been subpoenaed by the U.S. government in connection to the ongoing WikiLeaks investigation.

Twitter, like most web companies, has a “spy guide,” documents pertaining to compliance with request from governments and law enforcement into criminal investigations. These requests are supposed to be accompanied by subpoenas or warrants.

According to Twitter’s specific guide [PDF], “In accordance with our Privacy Policy and Terms of Service, non-public information about Twitter users is not released unless we have received a subpoena, court order or other legal process document.” Such requests would only be valid if sent by law enforcement.

In this particular case, every indication would point to the speedy release of Assange’s direct messages and other data to the U.S. government.

A court order [PDF] was sent to Twitter by the Department of Justice on Decemer 14, 2010. Stating that information held by Twitter was “relevant and material” to the WikiLeaks investigation, the district court ordered the startup to hand over:

session times and connection records
telephone numbers
credit card information
e-mail and IP addresses
correspondence and notes of record

The court ordered Twitter to surrender the above information for accounts belonging to Assange, WikiLeaks, Pfc. Bradley Manning (widely suspected to be the original source responsible for transfering cables to WikiLeaks), and several WikiLeaks associates and volunteers, including Birgitta Jonsdottir, Rop Gongrijp, and San Francisco-based programmer Jacob Appelbaum.

Google and other web and social media services all have the same kinds of spy guide documents governing compliance; we’d be shocked if Twitter was the only company that got a WikiLeaks-related court order to surrender information. And we’re pretty sure other services have much more sensitive information on Assange et al.

19 Facts About The Deindustrialization Of America That Will Blow Your Mind

The United States is rapidly becoming the very first “post-industrial” nation on the globe. All great economic empires eventually become fat and lazy and squander the great wealth that their forefathers have left them, but the pace at which America is accomplishing this is absolutely amazing. It was America that was at the forefront of the industrial revolution. It was America that showed the world how to mass produce everything from automobiles to televisions to airplanes. It was the great American manufacturing base that crushed Germany and Japan in World War II. But now we are witnessing the deindustrialization of America. Tens of thousands of factories have left the United States in the past decade alone. Millions upon millions of manufacturing jobs have been lost in the same time period. The United States has become a nation that consumes everything in sight and yet produces increasingly little. Do you know what our biggest export is today? Waste paper. Yes, trash is the number one thing that we ship out to the rest of the world as we voraciously blow our money on whatever the rest of the world wants to sell to us. The United States has become bloated and spoiled and our economy is now just a shadow of what it once was. Once upon a time America could literally outproduce the rest of the world combined. Today that is no longer true, but Americans sure do consume more than anyone else in the world. If the deindustrialization of America continues at this current pace, what possible kind of a future are we going to be leaving to our children?

Any great nation throughout history has been great at making things. So if the United States continues to allow its manufacturing base to erode at a staggering pace how in the world can the U.S. continue to consider itself to be a great nation? We have created the biggest debt bubble in the history of the world in an effort to maintain a very high standard of living, but the current state of affairs is not anywhere close to sustainable. Every single month America does into more debt and every single month America gets poorer.

So what happens when the debt bubble pops?

The deindustrialization of the United States should be a top concern for every man, woman and child in the country. But sadly, most Americans do not have any idea what is going on around them.

For people like that, take this article and print it out and hand it to them. Perhaps what they will read below will shock them badly enough to awaken them from their slumber.

The following are 19 facts about the deindustrialization of America that will blow your mind….

#1 The United States has lost approximately 42,400 factories since 2001.

#2 Dell Inc., one of America’s largest manufacturers of computers, has announced plans to dramatically expand its operations in China with an investment of over $100 billion over the next decade.

#3 Dell has announced that it will be closing its last large U.S. manufacturing facility in Winston-Salem, North Carolina in November. Approximately 900 jobs will be lost.

#4 In 2008, 1.2 billion cellphones were sold worldwide. So how many of them were manufactured inside the United States? Zero.

#5 According to a new study conducted by the Economic Policy Institute, if the U.S. trade deficit with China continues to increase at its current rate, the U.S. economy will lose over half a million jobs this year alone.

#6 As of the end of July, the U.S. trade deficit with China had risen 18 percent compared to the same time period a year ago.

#7 The United States has lost a total of about 5.5 million manufacturing jobs since October 2000.

#8 According to Tax Notes, between 1999 and 2008 employment at the foreign affiliates of U.S. parent companies increased an astounding 30 percent to 10.1 million. During that exact same time period, U.S. employment at American multinational corporations declined 8 percent to 21.1 million.

#9 In 1959, manufacturing represented 28 percent of U.S. economic output. In 2008, it represented 11.5 percent.

#10 Ford Motor Company recently announced the closure of a factory that produces the Ford Ranger in St. Paul, Minnesota. Approximately 750 good paying middle class jobs are going to be lost because making Ford Rangers in Minnesota does not fit in with Ford’s new “global” manufacturing strategy.

#11 As of the end of 2009, less than 12 million Americans worked in manufacturing. The last time less than 12 million Americans were employed in manufacturing was in 1941.

#12 In the United States today, consumption accounts for 70 percent of GDP. Of this 70 percent, over half is spent on services.

#13 The United States has lost a whopping 32 percent of its manufacturing jobs since the year 2000.

#14 In 2001, the United States ranked fourth in the world in per capita broadband Internet use. Today it ranks 15th.

#15 Manufacturing employment in the U.S. computer industry is actually lower in 2010 than it was in 1975.

#16 Printed circuit boards are used in tens of thousands of different products. Asia now produces 84 percent of them worldwide.

#17 The United States spends approximately $3.90 on Chinese goods for every $1 that the Chinese spend on goods from the United States.

#18 One prominent economist is projecting that the Chinese economy will be three times larger than the U.S. economy by the year 2040.

#19 The U.S. Census Bureau says that 43.6 million Americans are now living in poverty and according to them that is the highest number of poor Americans in the 51 years that records have been kept.

So how many tens of thousands more factories do we need to lose before we do something about it?

How many millions more Americans are going to become unemployed before we all admit that we have a very, very serious problem on our hands?

How many more trillions of dollars are going to leave the country before we realize that we are losing wealth at a pace that is killing our economy?

How many once great manufacturing cities are going to become rotting war zones like Detroit before we understand that we are committing national economic suicide?

The deindustrialization of America is a national crisis. It needs to be treated like one.

If you disagree with this article, I have a direct challenge for you. If anyone can explain how a deindustrialized America has any kind of viable economic future, please do so below in the comments section.

America is in deep, deep trouble folks. It is time to wake up.

US jobs report an ‘utter mess’

By Robin Harding in Washington

Published: January 7 2011 13:57 | Last updated: January 7 2011 19:16

Markets hoped that December’s payroll report would mark a breakthrough for the US economy’s recovery, with a surge in private job creation towards 200,000 – a level that would finally put a dent in the unemployment rate.

Instead they got a murky mixture of a report, prompting one economist, Rob Carnell of ING Bank, to call it an “utter mess” and question why markets focus so much on payrolls at all.

EDITOR’S CHOICE

Editorial Comment: Something stirring in the US economy - Jan-07

Gavyn Davies: Nonfarm payrolls- Jan-07

FT Alphaville: Employment report - Jan-07

US jobless claims add to signs of recovery - Jan-06

Opinion: Now Obama needs to talk up America - Jan-05

Analysis: America – riveting prospects - Jan-06

The problem is that the monthly payrolls report contains two different measures – a survey of households and a survey of employers – and in December they pointed in different directions.

The employment survey, the normal focus of attention, showed overall growth in payrolls of only 103,000. That was well below expectations, especially after a disappointing November report and a remarkably high estimate from private- sector payroll processor ADP earlier this week.

Yet the household survey, from which the unemployment rate is calculated, sent a completely different message. It showed an extra 297,000 people in jobs and 260,000 fewer people in the labour force. The combination of the two was enough to cause a drop in the unemployment rate from 9.8 to 9.4 per cent.

The reality – taking the trend in both measures and other recent data together – is likely to be somewhere in between. Jobs growth is picking up a bit to more than 100,000 a month but still shows no sign of a dramatic acceleration.

“At the moment [both surveys] send the same message: things are doing OK but not as well as you would have hoped or expected given the apparent strength of growth,” said Paul Dales, senior US economist at Capital Economics in Toronto.

Ben Bernanke, Federal Reserve chairman,struck a similar note in testimony to Congress prepared before the release of the payrolls data. “Although recent indicators of spending and production have generally been encouraging, conditions in the labour market have improved only modestly at best,” Mr Bernanke said.

There are a few theories to explain all the moves in the data. One is seasonal adjustments, which tend to be tricky at the end of the year and may have distorted the ADP numbers.

The difference between the household and business survey data is most likely just a one-off, although there are some suggestions that the business survey may have a slight bias towards larger companies, and their hiring behaviour could be different.

Most analysts attribute the fall in labour force participation and therefore the fall in the unemployment rate, to the expiry of long-term unemployment benefits in December.

If you no longer receive unemployment benefits, the theory goes, then you no longer have any reason to tell a survey you are ac-tively looking for work. The number of “discouraged workers”, who say that they are no longer looking for a job because they do not think they can find one, was 1.3m in December.

Congress has since renewed long-term unemployment benefits. A likely consequence is that the size of the labour force will bounce back in January, reversing the fall in the unemployment rate.

A further disappointment was in the average duration of a spell of unemployment, which rose from 21.7 to 22.4 weeks, suggesting that those people who are finding jobs have not been out of work for long.

In his testimony, Mr Bernanke said “persistently high unemployment, by damping household income and confidence, could threaten the strength and sustainability of the recovery”.

He will have to wait for any real sign of momentum in the US labour market.

Friday, January 7, 2011

U.S. Officials Recommend Reduced Fluoride Levels in Water

FRIDAY, Jan. 7 (HealthDay News) -- U.S. government officials said Friday that the amount of fluoride in the nation's drinking water should now be set at the lowest recommended level.

Although fluoride is a significant help in preventing cavities and tooth decay, too much of it can cause unattractive spotting on children's teeth. About two out of five teens have white spots and streaks on their teeth due to too much fluoride, according to a recent government study.

To prevent this problem, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency are recommending that the fluoride level in drinking water be set at 0.7 milligrams per liter of water, replacing the current recommended range of 0.7 to 1.2 milligrams.

"One of water fluoridation's biggest advantages is that it benefits all residents of a community -- at home, work, school, or play," HHS Assistant Secretary for Health Dr. Howard K. Koh said in a statement. "Today's announcement is part of our ongoing support of appropriate fluoridation for community water systems, and its effectiveness in preventing tooth decay throughout one's lifetime."

One reason for the new recommendation is that over the years the sources of fluoride have increased from water to include toothpastes, mouth wash, fluoride supplements and fluoride applied by dentists, EPA and HHS officials noted.

According to the agencies, this new recommendation allows the maximum prevention of tooth decay through fluoridation, while reducing the possibility of children getting too much fluoride.

Overexposure to fluoride results in a condition known as fluorosis, which can damage children's developing teeth.

In the United States fluorosis is usually mild, seen as barely visible lacy white markings or spots on the enamel. The severe form of fluorosis, which causes staining and pitting of the tooth surface, is rare here, but is more common in places like China where the water has naturally occurring levels of fluoride.

A spokesman for the American Dental Association, Dr. Matthew Messina, said these government agencies are doing their job in recommending what community water supplies are supposed to do.

"They have just refined from a range and provided a more exact direction," Messina said. "We are excited that they continue to advocate the safety and effectiveness of fluoride and its value as a public health measure in preventing dental decay."

Messina noted that fluoride occurs naturally in water and different places have different levels of fluoride. Some towns may not have to add any fluoride and others only a little to reach the recommended level, he said.

"Fluoride is one of the best returns on investment as far as the small amount of money spent on fluoridating water relative to the tremendous reduction in the cost of having cavities," Messina said.

Dr. Leo Dorado, an assistant professor of oral surgery at the University of Miami, said that each locality needs to tailor adding fluoride to water to achieve the right level.

Dorado is concerned that too much fluoride can cause fluorosis in young children. "I don't think the standard has been enforced state by state," he said. "It's not just an easy fix. It is something that has to be regulated according to government standards, but state by state," he said.

IRS tax liens jump by 60%, but how effective are they? - USATODAY.com

IRS tax liens jump by 60%, but how effective are they?

By Kevin McCoy, USA TODAY

IRS liens filed against taxpayers jumped 60% since the start of the national recession, according to a new federal report that urges the tax agency to moderate the collection policy and study its effectiveness.

The IRS filed more than 1 million liens in federal fiscal year 2010, the highest in nearly two decades and a spike from the nearly 684,000 filed in the year ahead of the recession's December 2007 start, according to the annual report to Congress issued Wednesday by the National Taxpayer Advocate.

Although the IRS has taken some steps to aid financially struggling taxpayers, it "has continued the trend toward more lien filings despite the worst economy in at least a generation" — with serious financial impact on some of those unable to pay, the taxpayer advocate report concluded.

"Lien filings can badly damage or destroy a taxpayer's creditworthiness because they are picked up by the credit-rating agencies and retained on the taxpayer's credit reports for seven years from the date the tax liability is resolved, or longer if it is not resolved," wrote Nina Olson, who heads the Taxpayer Advocate's office.

For those with IRS liens filed against their property, that can mean it's harder to get a job, find affordable housing or buy insurance.

Despite the increase in liens, the report said IRS payment coding protocols make it impossible to determine how much revenue the collection effort generates. Since the IRS pays to process the liens and file them with local county clerks, the report said it is "questionable whether liens generate much, if any, direct revenue."

The increase in lien filings continued a longer trend in which the report said the 2010 total soared 553% higher than the number filed in fiscal year 1999. The IRS said the comparison was misleading, because the agency reduced lien filings in 1999 while making legal changes under a 1998 restructuring of the agency.

IRS spokesman Terry Lemons said it has moved to help taxpayers facing collection problems. He said the IRS is starting a procedure to ensure its liens are withdrawn after tax debts are paid. That change, Lemons said, "will help struggling taxpayers who face hardship caused by having a lien."

Olson, however, said the IRS should determine whether its lien-filing policies balance efficient tax collection "with the legitimate concern of taxpayers that any collection action be no more intrusive than necessary."

David Ray Griffin: Omissions & Distortions In The 9/11 Commission Report

Alan Watt on The Alex Jones Show "It will take martyrs saying no" 1/6/11

The Love Police: Ode to Birmingham + No One Tells the Parrot What To Do.

Housing bust creates new kind of declining city

A study says cities where home prices have fallen the most — including Riverside, San Bernardino and Fresno — could suffer long-term deterioration similar to that of the Rust Belt.

January 06, 2011|By Alejandro Lazo, Los Angeles Times

In the Inland Empire and other former home-building hot spots, the housing bust has created a new kind of declining city, different from the nation's traditional rusting centers of industry, that could languish for years.

Although the causes of the decline in these metropolitan areas are distinct from the loss of employment from shrinking manufacturing and industry in some of the nation's old industrial powerhouses, these areas could experience fates similar to places such as Cleveland and Detroit, with neighborhoods experiencing high rates of vacancies for a very long time, according to a study to be released Thursday.

China eyes state rail plan - Sacramento Politics - California Politics | Sacramento Bee

China eyes state rail plan in California

Profit and prestige are seen in building, operating the system.

By TIM SHEEHAN
The Fresno Bee

Published: Monday, Jan. 3, 2011 - 1:05 am

Last Modified: Thursday, Jan. 6, 2011 - 1:56 pm

FRESNO -- In the 19th century, laborers from China helped build railroads spanning California and linking the U.S. coasts. In the 21st century, the Chinese may be back -- not for backbreaking labor, but with financial and technological muscle.

The People's Republic of China has more miles of track for high-speed trains than any country in the world, but California has none.

The Chinese want in on the state's fledgling high-speed rail project. They're eager to help bankroll and build the system and, eventually, provide the trains to operate on the tracks.

China's not alone. Eight nations have agreements with the California High-Speed Rail Authority to share information about high-speed rail -- and each wants a piece of California's business.

"Other countries want to be a part of this because they know high-speed rail can be profitable," said Jeffrey Barker, the authority's deputy executive director. "Their ultimate interest is operating the system."

Experts suggest that China's economic might -- and government-backed companies -- give it an advantage.

"China is cash-flush, and its highly subsidized industries are bankrolled with surplus government funds," said Usha Haley, a professor of international business at Massey University in New Zealand and an expert on China's worldwide business strategies. "They're investing in infrastructure around the world ... and if they're bidding in an open-bid process, China will get that bid."

California and the United States are squarely in China's sights, said Christopher Barkan, director of the Rail Transportation and Engineering Center at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

On a tour of China's largest rail manufacturer last summer, Barkan met with a Ministry of Railways official who prominently displayed a map of the United States on his office wall.

"They are extremely interested in the U.S.," Barkan said. "We're the largest untapped market for high-speed rail in the world."

John Wheeler Murder Gets More Baffling - CBS Evening News - CBS News

John Wheeler Murder Gets More Baffling

John Wheeler III in a 2010 Sunday Morning interview.

(CBS) His body tumbled from a garbage truck into a landfill, reports CBS News chief legal correspondent Jan Crawford.

John Wheeler, the driving force behind the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and former White House and Pentagon aide, was found dead on New Year's Eve, buried in the trash.

Police say Wheeler's body was picked up from a dumpster in Newark, Delaware. But there's much they don't know about a crime that seems to get more baffling with every new clue.

In the days before his death, Wheeler seemed to come unhinged.

On Dec. 29th, he showed up at this pharmacy in New Castle, Delaware, asking for a ride. That night, Wheeler was captured on surveillance tape, stumbling through a parking garage, looking for his car -- which wasn't there.

"He didn't look good, he was really weird," said parking lot attendant Iman Goldsborough. "He had no overcoat on and one shoe in his hand."

At about 8:30 the next night, Dec. 30, Wheeler was seen at a former DuPont Company building in Wilmington, again seeming disoriented.

The next day his body was found at the landfill.

Robert Dill, a neighbor who had seen Wheeler Christmas Eve, was shocked at Wheeler's condition on the tape.

"I have never seen him like that in my life," said Dill. "I have no idea."

Wheeler, a veteran, was working in Washington for a defense contractor and was recently interviewed on CBS News Sunday Morning.

But law enforcement sources say the murder was apparently not related to his government work.

"It's got us totally confused," said Dill. "At this point I couldn't even give you a theory."

Police haven't said how Wheeler was murdered or even where he was actually killed. They are looking at a legal battle with a neighbor -- but friends say they can't imagine that dispute would have led to his death.

RealClearPoliti Afghanistan Is A "National Embarrassment"

Dem Congresswoman: Afghanistan Is A "National Embarrassment"

Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-CA) talks about the "disastrous" war that is Afghanistan. "This war represents an epic failure, a national embarrassment and a moral blight," Rep. Woolsey said.

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