God bless and protect those in harms way from Sandy

If you live in this region keep in touch if you can and stay safe.

Unemployment 7.8% to 22% - Is There A Better Method?

http://www.streettalklive.com/daily-x-change/1247-unemployment-78-to-22-is-there-a-better-method.html

Recently I wrote "Why The Real Unemployment Rate Is 16.9%"which sparked quite a few e-mails revolving around the issue of the way the Bureau of Labor Statistics measures unemployment.  In that article we discussed the differences between the U-3 and the U-6 rates and showed what unemployment would look like if you included those that had been out of work longer than 52 weeks.  In reality the problem is far worse - as I stated previously:  "In reality this calculation is still not accurate, and on the low side, as there is currently no clear way to measure the millions of individuals who have disappeared into the abyss of the uncounted. Many of the 88 million individuals that are currently unemployed, and not counted by the BLS, would likely be more than happy to work given the opportunity. However, in the current economic environment, those options are not widely available which is why there is very much a silent "depression" running through the underbelly of this economy. In this depression we don't see the bread lines and soup kitchens simply because they arrive electronically and in the mail."

Correction - Unemployment Is Really 22%

In 1994, under the Clinton Administration, the Bureau Of Labor Statistics (BLS) changed the methods in which it calculated the levels of unemployment in the U.S.  While the changes appeared to be minor on the surface at the time - the impact today is likely far greater than originally imagined.  (for more detail on the changes read here) 

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) the U3 measure is described as “total unemployed, as a percent of the civilian labor force (official unemployment rate).” That rate, as of the most recent release is 7.8%.  However, if we look at the U6 measure which includes the total unemployed (U3), plus all marginally attached workers, plus total employed part time for economic reasons, as a percent of the civilian labor force plus all marginally attached workers - the unemployment rate now jumps to 14.7%.

However, while the U-6 is a more complete picture of unemployment in the U.S. it still falls short as it does not count those that are considered to be "Not In Labor Force."  These are individuals that have been unemployed for so long that they are considered to have given up looking for work.   However, while in more normal economic times this may be the case, in a "balance sheet recession" economy the actual unemployment rate becomes distorted.

The chart below shows the trend of individuals that are considered "not in labor force (NILF)" both before and after the 1994 revisions by the BLS.

You can clearly see that something has gone awry between the pre- and post-1994 calculations.  The reasoning by the BLS gives you the answer:  "(P)rior to 1994 persons were not asked whether they had searched for work recently. If they gave one of the five 'discouraged worker' reasons for not looking for work in the past 4 weeks, they were assumed to have 'given up' the search for work, although they weren’t asked when they had last looked. As a result of the greater specificity introduced in 1994, the number of discouraged workers was cut approximately in half, from about 1.1 million in 1993 to 500,000 in 1994.”

Roughly 600,000 works were wiped off the roles of the unemployed register with a simple adjustment to the calculation method.  The next chart shows you the number of individuals falling into those five "discouraged worker" categories and assuming to have "given up" looking for work.  As you can see, since 2009, that number has soared which gives rise to the concern over the current method of calculation used by the BLS.

Twinsdad's comments.... first follow the link...

Second take back the office of The President, control of The Senate and maintain control of The House!

Ford Caps Turnaround Effort

DEARBORN, Mich.—Ford Motor Co.'s F -0.29%expected sale of an auto-parts business on Monday will complete a six-year-long restructuring engineered by the executive seen as the front-runner to become its next CEO.

The sale of a small air-conditioning and heating parts plant marks the final step in a 2006 plan to slash Ford's North American workforce and sell its Visteon Corp. VC -0.16%parts plants put in place by Mark Fields, the head of Ford's North American operations. That effort helped Ford avoid the government-financed bankruptcies that befell rivals General Motors Co. GM -1.48%and Chrysler Group LLC.
Mr. Fields, 51 years old, is widely seen as the likely successor to CEO Alan Mulally, 67, who is nearing retirement. Completing the North American downsizing, which closed 16 plants and cut more than 39,000 employees, likely further enhances his candidacy.

Mr. Mulally hasn't said when he will retire but the board is preparing for his exit by the end of next year. Mr. Mulally would likely remain with the company for a period when Mr. Fields takes on added responsibilities, people familiar with the board's thinking have said.
While Mr. Mulally has been credited for Ford's financial resurgence in the past few years, Mr. Fields's role in the Visteon wind down has shown he can plan and execute, said Adam Jonas, an auto-industry analyst at Morgan Stanley MS -0.35%. "In the U.S. they battened down the hatches, they circled the wagons and they rode it out," Mr. Jonas said.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203922804578081002769428928.html?mod=WSJ_hp_LEFTWhatsNewsCollection

Twinsdads comments...

YO!!  Obama!  You reading this??  I expect you aren't and you won't because this is how the system is supposed to work, not making the taxpayers shell out money to pay union dues.

YOU'RE FIRED!  (in just a few days...)

Labor Department May Delay Jobs Report... Because of the Weather!!???

The U.S. Labor Department on Monday said it hasn’t made a decision yet on whether to delay Friday’s October jobs report, the final reading on the labor market before next week’s federal elections.
A Labor official said the agency will assess the schedule for all its data releases this week when the “weather emergency” is over.
Labor is scheduled to release the employment report on Friday, third quarter employment costs on Wednesday and weekly jobless claims on Thursday.
The U.S. Census Bureau also said it hasn’t made a decision on whether to delay economic reports it plans to release this week, including construction spending on Thursday and factory orders on Friday.

http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2012/10/29/labor-department-may-delay-jobs-report/

Twinsdad comment...

This is just another reason to dump Obama and the Dem spin machine in charge.  The US embassy attack was disgraceful, the lies being told by team Obama grow like Pinocchio's nose every day.  I want a government that plays by the rules, meets it scheduled obligations and isn't controlled by the White House, but all three, the House, the Senate and the White House.  Data is not political, facts are not items to be manipulted by politicians.  The reign of the MSM and the spin ends next week.

Trample the Weak, Hurdle the Dead!!  (in re the MSM)

SANDY, Local reports.

CNBC Exec’s Children Murdered, 1 Day After CNBC Reports $43 Trillion Bankster Lawsuit

CNBC Exec’s Children Murdered, 1 Day After CNBC Reports $43 Trillion Bankster Lawsuit By JG Vibes theintelhub.com October 27, 2012 This week financial news organization CNBC gave some mainstream attention to the largest money laundering and racketeering lawsuit in United States History, in which “Banksters” and their U.S. racketeering partners are being accused of laundering of 43 trillion dollars worth of ill gotten gains. The lawsuit is said to involve officials located in the highest offices of government and the financial sector. Since this information was surprisingly revealed by the mainstream news organization there has been a very suspicious and deadly fallout at the CNBC headquarters. Within hours the original page for the article was taken down, and CNBC senior vice president Kevin Krim received news that his children were killed under very suspicious circumstances. It seems that the murder happened first and then the page was removed later. According to mainstream accounts the children’s nanny is responsible for the murders, allegedly stabbing both children. However, those same mainstream news sources report the highly unlikely story that the nanny slit her own throat just after committing the homicides. Police have released very little information and although a wider plot has not been officially implicated, it seems very possible that these murders are a show of force against the press organization for releasing such damning information about the most powerful people in the world. Here is some more information about the lawsuit from the Wall Street Journal: “In the District Court lawsuit, Spire Law Group, LLP — on behalf of home owner across the Country and New York taxpayers, as well as under other taxpayer recompense laws — has expanded its mass tort action into federal court in Brooklyn, New York, seeking to halt all foreclosures nationwide pending the return of the $43 trillion ($43,000,000,000.00) by the “Banksters” and their co-conspirators, seeking an audit of the Fed and audits of all the “bailout programs” by an independent receiver such as Neil Barofsky, former Inspector General of the TARP program who has stated that none of the TARP money and other “bailout money” advanced from the Treasury has ever been repaid despite protestations to the contrary by the Defendants as well as similar protestations by President Obama and the Obama Administration both publicly on national television and more privately to the United States Congress. Because the Obama Administration has failed to pursue any of the “Banksters” criminally, and indeed is actively borrowing monies for Mr. Obama’s campaign from these same “Banksters” to finance its political aspirations, the national group of plaintiff home owners has been forced to now expand its lawsuit to include racketeering, money laundering and intentional violations of the Iranian Nations Sanctions and Embargo Act by the national banks included among the “Bankster” Defendants. “ Some of the alleged conspirators are: Attorney General Holder, Assistant Attorney General Tony West, the brother in law of Defendant California Attorney General Kamala Harris, Jon Corzine (former New Jersey Governor), Robert Rubin (former Treasury Secretary and Bankster), Timothy Geitner, Treasury Secretary, Vikram Pandit (recently resigned and disgraced Chairman of the Board of Citigroup), Valerie Jarrett (a Senior White House Advisor), Anita Dunn (a former “communications director” for the Obama Administration), Robert Bauer (husband of Anita Dunn and Chief Legal Counsel for the Obama Re-election Campaign), as well as the “Banksters” themselves, and their affiliates and conduits. It is expected that all news on this subject will be removed from CNBC, and that other news organizations will be discouraged from covering such information. However, screen shots of the original CNBC article were taken to verify the authenticity of this story. Assassination and brute intimidation are common strategies for the ruling class to use on people who may threaten their agenda. This is the second situation this week in which a high level executive was the victim of a suspicious attack that seemed very much like an assassination. The Intel Hub just reported that Nicholas Mockford, a 60 year old British executive for the oil company ExxonMobil was shot dead in front of his wife in an assassination-style killing in Brussels. We will be keeping a close eye on both of these stories and provide more details as they become available.

Khartoum. Things to come?

"Late on Oct. 23, an enormous explosion erupted around a government-run ammunition factory on the outskirts of Sudan’s capital, Khartoum."

" Khartoum later blamed Israel for launching the attack. “We believe that Israel is behind it,” said Information Minister Ahmed Belal Osman, adding that the planes had approached from the east."

" Although it might have only been an ammunition-storage depot, its attack could mean much more for Tel Aviv. “These kinds of attacks are always an example of one’s abilities,” says Ben-David. “If you go the same distance east, they have demonstrated their capability to reach Tehran at a crucial time.”

Read more: http://world.time.com/2012/10/25/did-israel-bomb-a-sudanese-ammunition-depot/#ixzz2APy4gip3

Who was Frank Marshall Davis?

http://www.akdart.com/obama1.html#104

Obama's Father Figure:  Frank Marshall Davis.  [Scroll down]  Another one of Barry's splendid adult role models was communist, poet, alcoholic, sexual deviant and fomenter of racial hatred, Frank Marshall Davis.  Cleverly disguised as "Frank" in Dreams [from my Father], we learn that young Barry was treated to Davis' counsel on numerous occasions.  Dear Grandpa Stanley, blessed with an inordinate amount of free time thanks to his wife's hard work, enjoyed whiling away the hours with Davis, drinking and smoking pot.  Davis was an open supporter of the Soviet Union and his influence on Obama is hard to overlook.  The poet also admitted to writing a pornographic novel under the pseudonym of Bob Greene in which the protagonist seduces a 13 year old girl.

Obama's Communist Mentor:  In his biography of Barack Obama, David Mendell writes about Obama's life as a "secret smoker" and how he "went to great lengths to conceal the habit."  But what about Obama's secret political life?  It turns out that Obama's childhood mentor, Frank Marshall Davis, was a communist.

Media's O-Colored Glasses Blank Out Leftist Truth.  [Scroll down]  At the beginning of Obama's life, for example, there was "Frank," Obama's boyhood mentor who appears in his 1995 memoir "Dreams from My Father."  Accuracy In Media's Cliff Kincaid has identified "Frank" as Frank Marshall Davis, a known Stalinist in a Soviet-sponsored communist network in Hawaii.  But Obama obscures Frank's identity in his book, even, as Sean Hannity has reported, going so far as to drop passages about "Frank" from the more recent, recorded version of the book.  Why?  The media never asked.

Barack Obama: Red Diaper Baby.  Barack Obama is a "red diaper baby" who has spent his formative years — literally from the moment of his birth — interacting with members and sympathizers of the Communist Party, USA.  His mother Stanley Ann Dunham has been described by former classmates as a "fellow traveler."  His grandfather Stanley Armour Dunham arranged Obama's mentorship by Communist Party member Frank Marshall Davis.

Obama cowers again in the Middle East. Pathetic.

So Obama scheduled anti-missile exercises with Israel as a demonstration of force against Iran and Hamas. So what happens? Hamas fires 60 missiles in to Israel. Perfect time for the US to show its might and conviction right? Obama calls off the joint military exercise. Now they are trying to figure out what to do with the Patriot missile batteries and 1000 US troops. Obama couldn't stand the humiliation of losing a soldier in Israel right before the election.

Fear and the MSM's end to controlling the masses

The end is near, the liberal press is gasping for air, fear is closing in, the fear of the rise of the Republican party.  In the next two weeks the lies will grow the hate will dominate every story and in the end all they will be left with is more hate.

Welcome to the end of Democratic rule and the return to real democracy.

A Song For Our Time

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qygtToan0Ko

The Fourth Presidential Debate, Questions from an unbiased moderator.

Clearing away the horses, bayonets, birth control pills, and various other sundry issues covered by our esteemed progressive debate moderators. What questions actually pertain to the economic morass that faces our nation?

President Obama, If elected to a second term, how would you overcome the Tea Party hurdle and find a way to compromise and finally produce a budget?

Governor Romney, If elected which of the 49 Federal job training programs would you eliminate?

President Obama, How do you propose to reduce the strain of our 16 Trillion dollar national debt from our children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren?

Governor Romney, What entitlement programs would you trim?

Foreign Policy Debate

Both Obama and Romney are being dishonest. Telling Americans what Americans want to hear. The fact is, the Middle East is going down the crapper. Also, Russia did hit the reset button back to the cold war. The US would have been better off with Mubarak as leader. He and his wife promoted women's rights. Like no child marriages, no female circumcision, education for all. Women have now lost all those rights in Egypt. As for Libya. Obama said the U.S. stopped a massacre in Benghazi. You know, where are the extremists posing as pro-Democracy supporters so they could get Western intervention. What Obama conveniently left out was that he stopped one massacre but there have been many many more. Ex Gaddafi supporters have been murdered on a daily basis. Oh and the guy who found Gaddafi? He was killed in a revenge killing. And then all of those weapons. 20,000 surface to air missiles are flooding Islamic states. Why do you think no one wants to impose a no fly zone?

News of the absurd

7 Italian scientists each sentenced to 6 years in jail for failing to predict an earthquake.

Now this is just what we need. Where were they when they were holding the elections in Venezuela?

International monitors at US polling spots draw criticism from voter fraud groups

By Alexander Bolton - 10/20/12 12:00 PM ET

United Nations-affiliated election monitors from Europe and central Asia will be at polling places around the U.S. looking for voter suppression activities by conservative groups, a concern raised by civil rights groups during a meeting this week. The intervention has drawn criticism from a prominent conservative-leaning group combating election fraud.

  The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), a United Nations partner on democratization and human rights projects, will deploy 44 observers around the country on Election Day to monitor an array of activities, including potential disputes at polling places.
Liberal-leaning civil rights groups met with representatives from the OSCE this week to raise their fears about what they say are systematic efforts to suppress minority voters likely to vote for President Obama.
The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, the NAACP and the ACLU, among other groups, warned this month in a letter to Daan Everts, a senior official with OSCE, of “a coordinated political effort to disenfranchise millions of Americans — particularly traditionally disenfranchised groups like minorities.”
The request for foreign monitoring of election sites drew a strong rebuke from Catherine Engelbrecht, founder and president of True the Vote, a conservative-leaning group seeking to crack down on election fraud.
“These activist groups sought assistance not from American sources, but from the United Nations,” she said in a statement to The Hill. “The United Nations has no jurisdiction over American elections.”
The observers, from countries such as Germany, France, Serbia, Belarus, Ukraine and Kazakhstan, will observe voting at polling places and other political activity.
“They [will] observe the overall election process, not just the ballot casting,” said Giovanna Maiola, spokeswoman for OSCE. “They are focusing on a number of areas on the state level, including the legal system, election administration, the campaign, the campaign financing [and] new voting technologies used in the different states.”
In a follow-up e-mail, Maiola noted that it is a limited election-observation mission. She said “the OSCE has regularly been invited to observe elections in the United States, in line with OSCE commitments.”
Access of international observers during voting is explicitly allowed in some states such as Missouri, South Dakota, North Dakota and New Mexico.
“State law does not generally provide for international observers,” Maiola said. “However, through our contacts at state and county level in certain states, we managed to secure invitations at local level and we have taken up the offer to observe. Where this is not possible, we will respect the state regulation on this matter and will not observe in precincts on Election Day.”
International observers will follow up on the concerns raised by civil rights groups.
“We attended their meeting, we took note of the issued they raised and we asked our observers in the field to follow up on them,” said Maiola.

---

The OSCE has 56 participating states from Europe, Central Asia and North America, including the United States and Canada. It has assessed elections in the United States since 2002.
Voting is expected to be more contentious this November than in past years because of a running battle over election law pitting conservative groups and Republican state officials against the Obama administration and liberal allies.
The Obama campaign scored a victory this week when the Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal filed by Republican officials in Ohio seeking to limit the state’s early voting program.
Last month in Wisconsin, the state Supreme Court declined to immediately review lower-court rulings invalidating a voter-identification law signed by Republican Gov. Scott Walker.
In Florida, judges stopped attempts to restrict voter-registration drives but allowed measures to reduce days of early voting and to remove non-citizens from voting rolls to stand.
Both sides expect wrangling over voter identification and eligibility to extend to polling places and are recruiting armies of volunteers for Election-Day showdowns.
True the Vote, a group with Tea Party origins, has an ambitious plan to deploy hundreds of thousands of volunteers at polling stations to monitor election fraud.
“We may surpass a million volunteers or fall short, it will be hard to know,” said Engelbrecht. “But we’re very excited about the level of enthusiasm, the number of volunteers, and the fact that we had a positive impact in bringing awareness to this important issue, of election integrity."
Democratic allies will counter with their own forces. The AFL-CIO will dispatch 300 lawyers to monitor poll workers and third-party groups challenging voter registration.
The Advancement Project, a self-described multi-racial civil rights organization, will send more than 3,000 poll watchers to battleground states.
The Election Protection coalition, which includes Democratic allies such as the Sierra Club, Service Employees International Union and People for the American Way, plans to recruit 8,000 to 10,000 volunteers to cover 80 cities and counties.
“We hope that all groups that are putting people at a polling place, that they should follow the law and they should be there to make sure that responsible Americans who wish to participate in our democracy are able to free of intimidation,” said Eric Marshall, co-leader of Election Protection.
Civil rights groups have complained about what they say are subtle efforts of intimidation. They point to a billboard campaign in swing states such as Ohio warning voter fraud is a felony punishable by up to three and a half years in prison and a $10,000 fine.
Engelbrecht of True the Vote says intimidation is not her group’s motive.
“We are not in the business of picking winners or losers, but instead, to ensure that the process is iron-clad,” she said. “Properly trained a capable poll watchers or workers should offer no indication of their partisan or ideological leanings to voters at the polls.”

Final Debate

How have we gone through 3 debates and no discussion about the Federal Reserve and Ben Bernanke. How has immigration been virtually ignored? What about Iran/Syria/Israel/Egypt? What about all of these treaties that Obama wants passed that will decrease our sovereignty? What about Obama's investments in the Caymen Islands?

Libya - Justice... or not

The man identified by witnesses as a ringleader in the attack continues to walk the streets of Libya without fear of arrest. Ahmad Abu Khattala has admitted being at the consulate during the horrific attack but has yet to be questioned by any Libyan authorities. Abu Khattala spoke to a New York Times reporter Thursday from a hotel patio as he sipped a strawberry frappe and mocked the US and Libyan governments. “These reports say that no one knows where I am and that I am hiding,” he boasted. “But here I am in the open, sitting in a hotel with you. I’m even going to pick up my sister’s kids from school soon.” http://www.nypost.com/p/news/international/us_watched_as_terror_raged_AypAEEA9OK23rPf7Z5BHWO

Vapor Trails

I am borrowing the idea of vapor trails from someone who, in my opinion, has written some of the best poetry in the 20th century.  The idea is that people in the past had been through many hardships to create the history we know and the present we experience.  History books don't recount the deeds of the vast majority of these folks.  Most of their future progeny will not know of them either.   All that is left of most of these people is the vapor trail of their flight through physical life.

We have many things in our beings that drive us to do the things that we do.  We need to survive and thus we need to compete for what seems to be limited resources.  Emotions erupt from this need to survive:  greed, lust, jealousy, and hate on one side.  Amazingly, love and altruism are also needed to complete the whole being.  As we age, we realize that the latter of these two groups becomes the most important part of our legacy on this planet.  Our vapor trail has already taken it's shape by this point, however.  Some people never do learn the truth that their physical hoardings are not the important legacy that they leave their families.                

What kind of vapor trail will you leave?

Theories on why women are turning away from Obama

1.) They realize he's not such a nice hip dude that would be fun in bed. 2.) They realize his policies are a threat to their income. college graduates are now 60% women, 40% men. They don't like redistribution of wealth when it's their blood sweat and tears. 3.) ObamaCare means rationed care. You won't get the most effective cancer treatment. 4.) Obama is a bully and his adminstration distorts the truth or outright lies. 5.) They realize the burdensome regulations and anti-capitalist policies of BO are causing our country to stagnate. 6.) 70% of single women still have the hots for Obama. So maybe married women are listening to their better halves? (ha ha just had to yank a few chains) Any other theories?

NDAA critic stranded in Hawaii after turning up on no-fly list

Wade Hicks was en route to a US Navy base in Japan to see his wife when armed military guards informed him that they had other plans. Hicks, an American citizen with no criminal record, had just been put added to a federal no-fly list. After being escorted off his plane during a routine re-fueling stop on the Pacific Island of Oahu, Hicks, 34, was left stranded in Hawaii this week. In an interview, he suggests that his opposition to a newly-created law that allows for the indefinite detention of US citizens at military prisons without charge or trial could be to blame for his mistreatment. "I was very, very vocal about the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) and I did contact my representative” about it, Hicks tells talk show host Doug Hagmann. "I do believe that this is tied in some way to my free speech and my political view." According to Hicks, he has little reason to believe otherwise. He tells Hagmann that he formerly worked as a contractor for the US Department of Defense and has undergone extensive background checks in order to obtain an enhanced license that allows him to carry a concealed firearm. Hicks says he also holds on to a special identification card issued by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), the US Homeland Security Department sub-agency that administers pat-downs and screenings at airports across the country. An investigation carried out by Hagmann has led him to locating no criminal history for the man whatsoever. In fact, the only “dirt” the host has managed to dig up on Hicks, he writes, is his occasionally vocal identification as an American patriot. Hicks, says Hagmann, “appears to be a law abiding member of society.” He adds, however, that preliminary research has led him to link the man as being “an outspoken ‘patriot’” who is “openly critical of the NDAA,” a bill US President Barack Obama signed into law on December 31 despite openly acknowledging that he had “serious reservations” about provisions that allow the military to indefinitely detain anyone on mere suspicion of ties with terrorists. Hicks also tells the radio host that he is critical of the government’s handling of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and says, “I think the evidence I've seen warrants a new investigation, and I'm very vocal about it as well," “He is a former talk-show host of a small, local radio station known for its ‘patriotic bias.’ He is a member of ‘Patriots for America’ and the Mississippi Preparedness Project. He is openly vocal about the erosion of our rights – and it certainly looks like he has been proven correct. Is that now a crime worthy of being denied the ability to travel freely within the United States?” Hagmann writes. The Mississippi Preparedness Project, according to the group’s official website, strives “to encourage and train others to prepare for any situation, whether it be political or disruptions in the infrastructure and civil structure of the communities in which we live and work.” “We intend to prepare and train for all foreseeable aspects of personal preparedness including Political, Basic and Emergency Medical, Food and Water Storage, Equipment, Local, State and Nationwide Communications, Personal, Home and Community Defense,” their mission statement continues. Hicks’ incident occurred on October 14 when a military plane Hicks had boarded to visit his wife, a lieutenant in the US Navy, stopped in Oahu to refuel. Although he had no issues with gaining admittance to the aircraft during the first leg of his trip, things went amiss in Oahu.There two heavily-armed officers entered the plane and escorted him to a small interrogation room at a military base and told him that he had showed up on the US “no-fly” list, despite having boarded a flight earlier that day in San Francisco where he had been subjected to military-sanctioned security screenings reportedly more stringent than the TSA treatment. He was hoping to visit his wife of only eight months when the mishap unraveled. "They have given me no reason. They just basically are telling me, 'You can't fly because we said so,'" Hicks tells Hagmann this week. "They didn't know how I even left Travis Air Force Base." "I said, 'If I could find a way off the island, I could leave'? They said, 'Yes, as long as you don't fly.” Hicks adds that he has since met with a Navy lawyer in Hawaii who attempted to resolve the case with so far no avail. He reports that the attorney reached out to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement hoping that the incident has been the result of a case of mistaken identity, but, "They said, 'No, we have the right person that is in our database. His social security [number] matches and his birth date matches.'" "I have no idea how long I'm going to be stranded in Hawaii or if I'm going to be able to leave out of here on an aircraft,” Hicks adds. "Try to get back from Oahu . . . It's a long swim and it's a long boat ride.” http://rt.com/usa/news/no-fly-hicks-us-military-650/

A Peaceful State

I live in a peaceful state.  This place is free of political ads and other signs of strife in this political season.

I have heard that some people live in what is called a battleground state.  It doesn't sound like their lives are at peace these days.  I have heard that many millions of dollars are being spent to buy ads to malign the character of the purchaser's opponent.  I have heard that the politicians actually make personal appearances there.  Those folks are actually forced to make a reasoned decision between 2 candidates who are working hard to differentiate themselves from the other.  I have heard that some of these folks are painstakingly working through a process to make this decision.

In ways, the fact that my state is at peace, makes my vote kind of meaningless.  In ways this allows me to be free to vote for any fringe candidate who tickles  my fancy.  I will vote for the fringe and feel good that I made a statement about the state of American politics today.  I wonder how I would vote if the circus was actually operating in my state?

Last night's "town hall meeting"-----yeah right

Neither one of the candidates for Prez answered ONE question from the voters.  They were both dismissive and rude to those voters gathered , to the moderator, and to those of us watching that debacle.  Nobody won and all voters lost.

It would have been better if the men got into a fist fight----------It would have been a lot more honest.  If they felt a fist fight was beneath them they could have sent in surrogates.

If I had a question it would have been, "Why should I spend my vote on either one of you and you have a strict limit of 2 minutes to answer--------PERIOD.  You will be in my employ and I  want you to explain WHY I should hire you--------go!

Threats to Assassinate Romney Explode After Debate

Obama supporters voice desire to kill Romney over fears food stamps will be taken away Paul Joseph Watson Infowars.com October 17, 2012 Despite numerous media outlets attempting to downplay the issue, Twitter exploded last night following the debate with new threats from Obama supporters to assassinate Mitt Romney if he defeats Obama in the presidential race. As we reported yesterday, in addition to threats by Obama supporters to riot if Romney wins, innumerable Twitter users are also making direct death threats against Romney. The primary reason given for Obama supporters wanting to see Romney dead is the fear that he will take away food stamps. If the tables were turned and conservatives were making death threats against Obama in these numbers, it would be a national news story. Indeed, the mere act of hanging empty chairs from trees as a reference to Clint Eastwood’s RNC speech was hyped by the media as a deadly sign that conservatives were out to lynch black people if Obama won. However, the major networks have remained completely silent on the disturbing trend of Obama supporters threatening to resort to violence if their candidate fails to secure a second term. Twitchy has compiled a laundry list of assassination threats by Obama supporters made during and after the debate, and more continued to flood in this morning, including the following; The death threats are being made by both black and white people, emphasizing that merely drawing attention to the issue has nothing to do with “race-baiting,” as the Obama front group Think Progress claimed yesterday. It is important to stress that these Twitter accounts are genuine, they are not fakes. Many of them have thousands of previous tweets. The following Tweets are just some of the ones compiled by Twitchy during and after the debate; - “If Romney win this election, he might as well wear a shirt that says “Assassinate Me Bitch”. - “Yall ready to assasinate romney?” - “Somebody needs to asassinate This mofo Romney.” - “Romney make me wanna hop through the tv & just assasinate his ass.” - “I aint gone lie… Food stamps the shit! I mite assasinate romney my damn self if he get elected!” - “If romney get elected i hope a nigga assasinate his bitchass. - “No birth control???? Lol rlly Romney the american population is going to overflow and then we’ll have to resort to murder and you’ll be #1.” - “At this point in time I am completely prepared to MURDER ROMNEY MYSELF!” - “If Romney win, IM GOING TO JAIL FOR MURDER cuz imma whack his bitch ass ASAP.” - “If Mitt Romney wins, which I doubt, someone should assassinate him before he ruins the lives of our generation & our children.” - “IF ROMNEY GETS ELECTED AND TAKES AWAY MY FOOD STAMPS IMA SEND SOMEONE TO MURDER HIS ASS.” It is important to emphasize that these are just a selection of scores and scores of threats to assassinate Romney that have exploded on Twitter over the last 12 hours. We didn’t even have time to check Facebook or any other social networks. As Infowars has stressed, we are non-partisan and have encouraged people to vote for neither candidate. However, the hypocrisy of leftists in trying to either downplay or deny this issue altogether is jaw-dropping given how they routinely try to portray conservatives as violent and extremist by pointing to angry comments made online.

Cubans allowed to travel freely... Sort of

Doctors, engineers, scientists, dentists, military still face restrictions. Obviously, Cuba is trying to unload its uneducated, unproductive members of society and hopes they will take up residency in the US or someplace else.

"I swear by my life, and my love of it, that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine."

John Galt

Crowley conspired with Team Obama

The most blatant was when she interjected and scolded Mitt on the Presidents comments regarding Libya. Then AMAZINGLY after the debate was over she ADMITTED on CNN that Mitt was CORRECT! Then by giving Obama several extra minuted during the debate, she didn't leave Mitt anytime to respond to Obama's zinger. That was timed PERFECTLY. Unless your definition of perfect means equal time for both candidates. Doesn't Matter. Obama is going down even with the help of that beastly moderator.

Microsoft Surface availlable for pre-order now.

$499 lowest configuration. 32GB $599 with cover 32GB $699 with cover 64GB Unless it can flip a pancake, I don't see how it can be competitive at that price. http://surface.microsoftstore.com/store/msstore/Content/pbpage.Surface?ESICaching=off&WT.mc_id=FY13WinHH

Honey BooBoo endorses Obama on Kimmel

Honey Boo Boo endorsed President Barack Obama last night on Jimmy Kimmel's TV show: Should be interesting to see what happens to her ratings.

French president pushing homework ban as part of ed reforms How do you think this would go over in the United States? French President François Hollande has said he will end homework as part of a series of reforms to overhaul the country’s education system. And the reason he wants to ban homework? He doesn’t think it is fair that some kids get help from their parents at home while children who come from disadvantaged families don’t. It’s an issue that goes well beyond France, and has been part of the reason that some Americans oppose homework too. Hollande’s reform plans include increasing the number of teachers, moving the school week from four days to 4 1/2 days, overhauling the curriculum and taking steps to cut down on absenteeism. “Education is priority,” Hollande was quoted as saying by France24.com at Paris’s Sorbonne University last week. “An education program is, by definition, a societal program. Work should be done at school, rather than at home,” as a way to ensure that students who have no help at home are not disadvantaged. Despite the four-day school week, elementary school children in France spend more hours a year in school than many other developed countries because students are there all day, starting at 8:30 a.m. and ending at 4:30 p.m., with some kids staying even later. It’s not clear where the money to hire thousands more teachers will come from, but, theAssociated Press reported, Education Minister Vincent Peillon will have to figure out how to implement the reforms. One option is to shorten summer vacation, though, such a move isn’t likely to be popular because it is practically sacrosanct in France. Whether Hollande really gets all of this done is open to question. But his homework position is not original; some school districts in the United States did the same thing going back more than a century. Early in the 1900s, the influential Ladies’ Home Journal magazine called homework “barbarous,” and school districts such as Los Angeles abolished it in kindergarten through eighth grade. In fact, some educators said it caused tuberculosis, nervous conditions and heart disease in the young and that children were better off playing outside. The American Child Health Association in the 1930s labeled homework and child labor as leading killers of children who contracted tuberculosis and heart disease. Today people who oppose homework have different objections, among them, the research that suggests it doesn’t really help young children learn. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2012/10/15/french-president-pushing-homework-ban-as-part-of-ed-reforms/

Hillary Clinton takes responsibility for Libya US deaths

 "I take responsibility," Mrs Clinton told CNN. "I'm in charge of the state department's 60,000-plus people all over the world [at] 275 posts."

" Charlene Lamb, the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for International Programs, said in her prepared testimony (.pdf) that she had a firm grasp on what happened in Benghazi, starting mere moments after the mission came under assault. ”When the attack began, a Diplomatic Security agent working in the tactical operations center immediately… alerted the annex U.S. quick reaction security team stationed nearby … and the Diplomatic Security Command Center in Washington. From that point on, I could follow what was happening in almost real-time,” Lamb explained."

I guess the smartest women in the world running for that presidential gig in 2016 is fried. Why hasn't BO fired her or Ms. Lamb for 9/11?

And why on God's earth do we need SIXTY THOUSAND people in the State Department???

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-19958739
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/10/benghazi-hearing/

Biden Voted for Something He Said Last Night ‘Has Never Been Done Before’

Often they forget.

Biden Voted for Something He Said Last Night ‘Has Never Been Done Before’

By Patrick Brennan

October 12, 2012 4:36 P.M.

Last night, Joe Biden expressed significant skepticism about the idea of Mitt Romney’s tax reform — that it was possible to lower rates, eliminate deductions, and maintain revenue levels, in addition to the specific math involved. Ryan cited the ample historical precedent that such a plan was possible:

REP. RYAN: You can cut tax rates by 20 percent and still preserve these important preferences for middle-class taxpayers —
VICE PRESIDENT BIDEN: Not mathematically possible.
REP. RYAN: It is mathematically possible. It’s been done before. It’s precisely what we’re proposing.
VICE PRESIDENT BIDEN: (Chuckles.) It has never been done before.
REP. RYAN: It’s been done a couple of times, actually.
VICE PRESIDENT BIDEN: It has never been done before.
REP. RYAN: Jack Kennedy lowered tax rates, increased growth. Ronald Reagan —
VICE PRESIDENT BIDEN: Oh, now you’re Jack Kennedy.
REP. RYAN: Ronald Reagan — (laughter) — (chuckles) — Republicans and Democrats —
VICE PRESIDENT BIDEN: This is amazing.

Amazing, in fact, might be a better description of Biden’s duplicitousness on the question of tax reform. While obviously no one has enacted a plan exactly like Romney’s before, the general principles have been applied twice, with John F. Kennedy’s proposed tax reforms that were later implemented slightly differently, and Ronald Reagan’s 1986 tax reform, both of which cut marginal rates significantly and eliminated deductions for the wealthy, while gathering essentially the same revenue (technically the ’86 bill itself cost $8.9 billion in revenue over the first two years, but overall tax revenues increased substantially in its wake). But twice Biden claims that such tax reform “has never been done before.” But he should know better — he actually voted to do it, 28 years ago. On September 27, 1986, Biden voted (along with 32 other Democrats) to enact H.R. 3838, Ronald Reagan’s tax reform, which lowered rates, eliminated deductions, and barely affected the deficit.
In fact, that bill actually lowered the top marginal tax rate to 28 percent, the top rate Romney and Ryan have proposed. Biden’s assertion that something like what Romney and Ryan are proposing “has never been done before” is, well, laughable.

If Romney wins, be prepared to head to the countryside for a while

Lot's of comments comming on twitter about people starting riots in all the major cities if Romney wins. Take this very seriously. It's not a joke.

Cutter Stands by Libya Comments, Refuses to Resign

DANVILLE, KY - Obama Deputy Campaign Manager Stephanie Cutter said she would "absolutely not" resign over comments she made earlier today on CNN, asserting that Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan are the "entire reason" the 9/11 Benghazi massacre is a national political issue. She told Townhall she stands by her remarks and referred back to an official written statement before briskly walking away and refusing to answer further questions:

Cutter is here in Danville to spin Vice President Biden's debate performance later tonight. Prior to the debate, she was laughing and socializing with Washington Post reporters in the media center.

The lies and the cover-up of Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Susan Rice, Jay Carney, Stephanie Cutter and the rest of the Barack Obama Administration liars.

Here is a timeline of the situation in Benghazi and the Terrorist attacks on the United States Embassy and the deaths of Christopher Stevens and three others.

http://thpatriots.blogspot.com/2012/10/benghazi-embassy-attack-obama-cover-up_12.html

The EU gets the Nobel Peace Prize - Say What?

Can this commission get anymore irrelevant. They've turned the Peace Prize in to a joke. First Obama, now the EU? Really? What has the EU done to promote Peace?

VP Debate - Biden will look like a jerk. Why?

Obama was passive. So Biden's orders will be "act aggresive" But when he does, Biden always looks like a JERK.

Foreclosure Stuffing

Back in November 2010, the robosigning scandal hit in which it was made clear that when it comes to keeping track of mortgage titles, nobody really knows what belongs to whom, except maybe for Linda Green. The immediate result of this was a complete collapse in the foreclosure process as banks no longer had leverage to evict those who don't pay their monthly mortgage bills, since the banks couldn't confirm they actually had rights to the underlying mortgage, and the total monthly foreclosure total dropped from a ~330,000 average houses/month to roughly 250,000. Then in February, to much administration fanfare, the banks, and the attorneys general, signed what we dubbed the Robo-settlement: an event which was supposed to be the "resolution" to the robosigning scandal, and which should once again unclog the foreclosure pipeline. This did not happen. Instead, as RealtyTrac has been diligently reporting month after month, the monthly foreclosure total has continued to decline, and in August hit a level of 193,508 total foreclosures. The immediately spin is that this was a 1% improvement from July's 191,925. The reality is that it was a drop of 15.1% from a year earlier. As the chart below shows, ever since the advent of fraudclosure, the average monthly foreclosure total has dropped from a 330K/month average to just 219K. And declining.

So why did the robosettlement not undo the robosigning foreclosure crunch? Simple - foreclosure stuffing.
What happened is that since the properties not entering the foreclosure pipeline are effectively kept out of inventory, even shadow inventory, and thus the distressed end market, the monthly drop in foreclosures has acted as a form of subsidy to the housing market, as month after month less inventory than otherwise should, enters the market.
As the chart above shows, there is now a 2.5 million "backlog" of properties that should be foreclosed upon based on historical trendlines, but which are being completely ignored by banks. A stuffed foreclosure channel, if you will.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/foreclosure-stuffing

Follow up story...

Charting The 'Housing Recovery' Subsidy: Foreclosures Slide To Five Year Lows

A month ago, when RealtyTrac posted their latest US foreclosure numbers for the month of August, we presented what we called was the "Foreclosure Stuffing" thesis, explaining the explicit subsidy by the banks for the housing market, whereby the entire foreclosure process has now ground to a halt, and in doing so removing millions in inventory flow from the distressed end market, forcing limited buyers to chase what supply there is, and in the process boosting prices of existing inventory higher. In other words a traditional inventory removal-based subsidy. It is therefore not surprising that today RealtyTrac reported the latest foreclosure data, and lo and behold, just as we expected, the great foreclosure collapse has taken another leg lower, with the total number of foreclosures for the month of September sliding to 180.4K, a decrease of 7 percent from the previous month and down 16 percent from September 2011, and the lowest in five years!

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2012-10-11/charting-housing-recovery-subsidy-foreclosures-slide-five-year-lows


Twinsdad comment:  Banks are MF's!

Gasoline prices high, why?

So, you say demand is high?
Refineries not refining?


How about the prices are high because the economy is so bad no one is going anywhere?

Why would that make prices so high?

Well if you were a refiner you have paid upwards of...(see below)   over the last year, but since the economy sucks thanks to Obama no one is driving anywhere, how do I know this?

Digest this data....

Crude Oil and Commodity Prices
October, Thursday 11 2012 - 16:53:05

WTI Crude Oil
$92.40	▲0.33		0.36%

http://www.oil-price.net/

Now digest this data....

U.S. Total Gasoline Retail Sales by Refiners (Thousand Gallons per Day)

Year	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
1983	46,218.3	48,906.1	54,111.7	49,093.7	52,021.3	52,517.2	51,898.0	51,905.6	52,676.3	50,724.3	51,150.8	51,879.1
1984	54,148.6	55,651.7	57,636.0	56,937.0	58,755.9	60,075.0	59,055.7	59,378.3	56,947.3	57,386.5	58,075.3	56,765.8
1985	54,584.3	53,829.7	57,297.6	59,075.2	57,563.7	58,832.1	58,563.3	58,096.1	56,979.0	56,949.0	58,100.7	60,295.9
1986	55,283.0	58,546.4	61,250.4	62,628.9	65,578.7	63,294.1	62,861.8	61,342.4	60,341.9	60,946.1	61,880.4	62,290.2
1987	56,488.6	60,641.1	61,627.2	61,733.5	61,750.0	64,315.2	62,404.8	62,643.9	59,339.3	60,707.9	58,877.0	61,720.2
1988	57,041.0	59,900.3	61,577.5	61,584.1	60,701.3	62,884.1	61,873.2	62,450.0	61,036.1	60,385.3	59,783.1	63,099.8
1989	55,556.8	58,492.6	60,500.1	60,242.0	62,088.7	63,521.0	62,335.0	63,362.0	61,922.8	61,973.6	61,339.0	63,182.4
1990	58,138.0	57,909.4	59,847.0	59,600.5	60,572.2	63,108.6	61,531.0	63,182.0	60,912.1	60,295.1	60,550.6	58,382.1
1991	56,924.5	59,384.5	61,553.8	61,982.0	62,244.9	63,319.4	62,600.6	62,534.0	60,346.2	61,181.3	60,442.9	61,521.7
1992	56,410.9	58,308.6	59,639.5	59,980.2	59,615.2	60,353.3	60,400.3	59,083.7	58,579.1	59,011.8	56,877.6	59,287.9
1993	53,826.6	57,305.3	57,624.8	58,138.7	57,465.8	60,391.1	58,807.7	58,453.0	57,462.3	55,432.4	55,743.5	56,074.7
1994	51,533.7	54,270.1	55,363.8	54,962.1	55,523.0	57,165.3	55,834.5	56,393.4	54,992.9	54,240.5	54,480.4	55,612.3
1995	51,200.2	54,138.2	55,592.4	55,456.8	56,242.2	58,547.4	56,944.0	58,296.8	56,580.9	55,610.5	55,907.4	56,471.5
1996	53,039.9	54,566.8	56,388.2	57,183.4	57,796.4	59,170.9	58,909.8	59,651.5	57,845.3	58,456.2	58,101.4	59,200.7
1997	54,440.6	57,313.3	58,443.8	58,854.0	57,840.1	59,820.3	65,294.2	64,803.7	63,680.2	64,355.2	62,252.8	66,017.1
1998	59,905.7	62,399.8	64,533.5	59,012.3	59,509.7	60,837.0	67,183.3	66,831.0	65,146.9	65,121.8	63,846.8	65,401.5
1999	60,254.0	62,779.7	63,320.2	63,722.4	63,464.7	64,458.4	62,669.7	61,363.0	59,265.4	60,415.4	59,078.1	62,719.0
2000	54,421.0	59,107.2	60,573.0	57,911.6	60,300.4	63,275.5	62,278.2	63,621.8	63,098.0	61,954.7	62,184.7	62,014.2
2001	58,139.5	61,731.0	62,859.5	62,301.3	62,878.9	65,417.0	62,534.2	64,390.5	62,214.2	60,864.4	60,024.8	60,793.5
2002	60,211.7	63,942.2	62,828.5	63,953.3	64,537.0	64,874.0	64,594.2	66,683.5	62,352.4	63,344.8	63,255.8	63,109.4
2003	60,247.9	60,803.4	60,815.8	61,728.4	66,315.5	66,426.5	66,803.1	66,812.7	63,949.0	64,615.5	63,778.4	63,394.5
2004	57,143.8	58,381.7	59,186.2	59,352.6	58,565.7	58,992.8	59,012.0	59,664.1	57,327.4	57,977.1	57,017.9	58,013.6
2005	54,938.7	58,368.8	58,330.0	59,093.3	59,474.5	61,731.9	61,109.4	61,220.9	57,866.5	57,075.2	59,094.7	59,426.1
2006	56,531.8	59,960.4	59,859.7	61,020.8	60,234.0	61,980.4	61,445.8	62,015.9	59,783.4	60,233.2	58,860.2	57,862.5
2007	54,698.1	56,954.9	57,278.7	57,354.7	58,719.6	60,865.7	58,806.7	60,178.5	57,912.9	57,843.2	56,579.0	54,650.0
2008	53,994.1	56,157.4	55,494.8	56,307.4	56,390.6	55,938.5	54,802.5	55,628.2	53,405.9	55,210.7	54,080.6	53,931.5
2009	51,108.7	50,968.4	51,298.4	51,215.6	50,957.0	50,419.6	49,677.9	49,966.5	48,669.6	48,461.0	47,454.3	47,441.4
2010	44,012.3	44,227.1	45,482.4	46,234.2	46,016.2	46,765.3	45,755.3	45,082.6	43,876.0	43,624.1	42,857.0	42,417.1
2011	40,331.0	40,924.9	41,608.1	41,555.0	41,172.9	42,477.2	42,448.3	42,351.8	41,972.6	32,015.0	30,971.6	30,413.9
2012	28,389.9	29,546.8	29,496.5	29,684.0	30,292.5	31,458.8	30,970.7

http://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=A103600001&f=M

Lots of data you say, focus on Jan 2009 to July 2012, notice anything?  Since Obama took over gasoline Retail Sales by Refiners has gone down 21,000 gallons!

Anyone want to explain the high prices at the pump? Ask Obama, if the economy is so great why no gas being consumed?

Back to the topic -- Gasoline prices high, why?  Because the Obama adminstration has failed so miserably that no one is willing to travel, no one is willing to do anything but the bare minimum in driving, just to buy food etc., and then go home and bar the door.  But the refiners need to show a profit to the shareholders, so they refine less and jack up the price!

Any more questions?  Ask them in the voting booth

It's what you don't hear in the news that counts.

A sharp drop in the number of weekly jobless claims filed last week was caused by the failure of one large state to report all of its claims, a Labor Department spokesman confirmed to FOX Business.
Initial jobless claims, which are a measure of the number of people recently laid off, fell by 30,000 to a seasonally adjusted 339,000, the lowest level in more than four years.

But the Labor Department spokesman said the numbers were skewed by one large state that underreported its data. The spokesman declined to identify the state, but economists believe California is the only state large enough to have such a significant impact on the overall numbers.
According to the spokesman, the reason that state’s claims numbers fell short was because the state left out a pile of unprocessed claims related to seasonal factors around the beginning of the fourth quarter, which began Oct. 1.

In a research note, Stephen Stanley of Pierpont Securities summed up the data: “In short, this reading is worthless in terms of informing on the general economy.”

It marked the second time in a week that key employment data have come under scrutiny for being possibly more encouraging than it actually is. On Friday, the Labor Department’s September jobs report said the unemployment rate had fallen to 7.8% from 8.1% a month earlier.

Coming a month ahead of the presidential election, some have suggested that the numbers are being manipulated for political purposes. Specifically, some supporters of Republican candidate Mitt Romney have accused the Obama Administration of doctoring the numbers to support President Obama’s re-election bid.

The White House and the Labor Department have denied the charges.

Read more: http://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/2012/10/11/jobless-claims-data-skewed-downward/#ixzz290pLj76B

Mother of Slain State Dept. Official Tired of Being Lied To and Stonewalled by Obama Administration

The mother of State Department official Sean Smith, who was killed September 11, 2012 in the terrorist attack on the American consulate in Benghazi, Libya, appeared on CNN this evening.

Here's the computer generated rush transcript:

ANDERSON COOPER: Good evening. We begin tonight with a mother who is asking the toughest question a mother can. Why is my son dead? That is all Pat Smith wants to know. Her son, Sean Smith one of the Americans killed in the attack in Benghazi on September 11th, a month after, she watched her son's casket come off a cargo plane, a month after she says promised her answers, she says she is still waiting to hear. Still waiting for answers. Waiting for a call. Congress held hearings today. We'll talk about that shortly, but first, my conversation with Sean Smith's mom, Pat. I appreciate you being with us. I'm so sorry for your loss. What do you want people to know about Sean?

PAT SMITH: So good. He was my only child. He was good at what did and he loved it.

COOPER: He loved working with computers?

SMITH: Computers, radios.

COOPER: Did he always do that? Was he always good with computers?

SMITH: We'll, when he was a kid, computers weren't out yet. And then they were out and I got a computer and he started showing me how you could build a flame thrower by watching a computer and that is how it started.

COOPER: He lived in the Netherlands were you able to communicate a lot. Did you all ways know where he was?

SMITH: When he told me. For example, this time he was in the Hague and that is where he was stationed. He was supposed to be there for about two years. And then he would transfer to some place else. I did not know he was going to be in Libya.

COOPER: Did he ever talk about the job? Dangers that came along with his he service in Iraq as well.

SMITH: Yes, in fact I still have it on my computer where he sent me, this thing he was in working in the palace over there.

COOPER: In Baghdad.

SMITH: Yeah, in Baghdad, and he says, got to go, and suddenly he just disappeared and I said what is happening over there. And he said listen. And suddenly I heard boom. They were shooting at him.

COOPER: You must have worried a lot.

SMITH: When that was over. I can't spend my life worrying about it. I accepted what he wanted to do.

COOPER: I want to play for our viewers what President Obama said about your son when he returned home.

BARACK OBAMA: Sean Smith it seems lived to serve. First in the Air Force and then with you in the State Department. There in Benghazi he surely thought of Heather and Samantha and Nathan and he laid down his life in service to us all. Today, Sean is home.

COOPER: he's mentioning his wife and childr. when you heard the president say that, what did you think?

SMITH: this is the first time i heard the president say that.

COOPER: it is really?

SMITH: yes, he never told me that, he knew he was in a bunch of scary places. i didn't expect him to get blown up and to die.

COOPER: do you feel that you know what happened or are you still searching for answers. have you been in contact with the state department?

SMITH: that is a funny subject. i begged them to tell me what happened. i said i want to know all the details all of the details no matter what it is and i'll make up my own mind on it. and all the big shots over there told me that they promised me that they would tell me what happened. as soon as they figure it out. no one not one person has ever, ever gotten back to me other than media people and the gaming people

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/mother-slain-state-dept-official-tired-being-lied-and-stonewalled-obama-administration_654163.html

Why won't the NY Times report on Ambassador's Stevens Rape?

http://blog.alexanderhiggins.com/2012/09/13/reports-murdered-ambassador-libya-sexually-raped-183571/

 http://www.examiner.com/article/lebanese-report-us-ambassador-raped-before-murdered

 http://www.snopes.com/politics/military/stevens.asp

Are the markets reacting to the fact Obama will lose the election?

QE3 has worn off already?!!
 Is Wall Street afraid of Romney? 
What does Obama's dismal debate effort mean to Wall Street and why?

They'd better get on the job early today. Most of the charts I've looked at today are sitting a fraction of a percent above serious supports, the kind with a lot of air below. They set this up by manipulating the markets so much that there aren't many good stopping points. Add QEternity potentially killing the Bernanke put and we may see some serious carnage if/when those supports are broken. Ben might be soiling his panties right about now.

Thoughts?

The CEO Letter Heard Around The World "Vote Obama; Lose Your Job"

Subject: Message from David Siegel
Date:Mon, 08 Oct 2012 13:58:05 -0400 (EDT)
From: [David Siegel]
To: [All employees]

To All My Valued Employees,

As most of you know our company, Westgate Resorts, has continued to succeed in spite of a very dismal economy. There is no question that the economy has changed for the worse and we have not seen any improvement over the past four years. In spite of all of the challenges we have faced, the good news is this: The economy doesn't currently pose a threat to your job. What does threaten your job however, is another 4 years of the same Presidential administration. Of course, as your employer, I can't tell you whom to vote for, and I certainly wouldn't interfere with your right to vote for whomever you choose. In fact, I encourage you to vote for whomever you think will serve your interests the best. [...]

Now, the economy is falling apart and people like me who made all the right decisions and invested in themselves are being forced to bail out all the people who didn't. The people that overspent their paychecks suddenly feel entitled to the same luxuries that I earned and sacrificed 42 years of my life for. Yes, business ownership has its benefits, but the price I've paid is steep and not without wounds. Unfortunately, the costs of running a business have gotten out of control, and let me tell you why: We are being taxed to death and the government thinks we don't pay enough. We pay state taxes, federal taxes, property taxes, sales and use taxes, payroll taxes, workers compensation taxes and unemployment taxes. I even have to hire an entire department to manage all these taxes. The question I have is this: Who is really stimulating the economy? Is it the Government that wants to take money from those who have earned it and give it to those who have not, or is it people like me who built a company out of his garage and directly employs over 7000 people and hosts over 3 million people per year with a great vacation?

Obviously, our present government believes that taking my money is the right economic stimulus for this country. The fact is, if I deducted 50% of your paycheck you'd quit and you wouldn't work here. I mean, why should you? Who wants to get rewarded only 50% of their hard work? Well, that's what happens to me. [...]

Business is at the heart of America and always has been. To restart it, you must stimulate business, not kill it. However, the power brokers in Washington believe redistributing wealth is the essential driver of the American economic engine. Nothing could be further from the truth and this is the type of change they want.

So where am I going with all this? It's quite simple. If any new taxes are levied on me, or my company, as our current President plans, I will have no choice but to reduce the size of this company. Rather than grow this company I will be forced to cut back. This means fewer jobs, less benefits and certainly less opportunity for everyone.

So, when you make your decision to vote, ask yourself, which candidate understands the economics of business ownership and who doesn't? Whose policies will endanger your job? Answer those questions and you should know who might be the one capable of protecting and saving your job. While the media wants to tell you to believe the "1 percenters" are bad, I'm telling you they are not. They create most of the jobs. If you lose your job, it won't be at the hands of the "1%"; it will be at the hands of a political hurricane that swept through this country.

You see, I can no longer support a system that penalizes the productive and gives to the unproductive. My motivation to work and to provide jobs will be destroyed, and with it, so will your opportunities. If that happens, you can find me in the Caribbean sitting on the beach, under a palm tree, retired, and with no employees to worry about.
 Signed, your boss,
 David Siegel

For those unfamiliar with Siegel, he is the founder and CEO of Westgate Resorts, a real estate and timeshare company.
He and his wife were also the subject of the recent documentary "The Queen of Versailles" about their desire to build the largest home in America.
According to Gawker, they were worth over a billion dollars in 2007, but that could be less now as a result of the real estate bust.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2012-10-10/ceo-letter-heard-around-world-vote-obama-lose-your-job

Twinsdad comments:

This is an example of a real person telling other real people the truth.

"It's quite simple. If any new taxes are levied on me, or my company, as our current President plans, I will have no choice but to reduce the size of this company."

Those on the left here need to read these words and stop using Big Bird as an election tool.

Energy Higher, Earnings Lower

Until oil no longer matters, our real earnings and our economy remain hostages to the cost of oil.

As we all know, what matters isn't our nominal earnings, it's what our earnings can buy that counts. If it takes an hour of labor to buy four gallons of gasoline, it doesn't really matter if we're paid $1.60 an hour and gasoline costs 40 cents a gallon or we're paid $16 an hour and gasoline costs $4 per gallon. Ditto $16,000 an hour and $4,000 per gallon.

What matters is if our hourly wage once bought eight gallons of gasoline and now it buys only four gallons. This is called purchasing power, and rather naturally the Status Quo has worked mightily to cloak the reality that our purchasing power of the bottom 95% of wage earners has been declining for decades. More recently, 2011, real median household income was 8.1 percent lower than in 2007.

So even as nominal earnings rise, earnings lose purchasing power. 

These charts, courtesy of our Chartist Friend from Pittsburgh, depict the dynamic of energy costs, loss of purchasing power and earnings. The first chart plots hourly earnings and energy costs.

Predictably, that rise in energy costs triggered a deep recession made even more severe by the bursting of the housing bubble. The sharp decline in oil to $35/barrel caused real earnings to spike once again, and then decline sharply as oil returned to the $100/barrel level.

Adjusted for energy CPI (consumer price index), real earnings are back to the recessionary lows of the early 1980s. How much new debt can households leverage when their real earnings are declining?

The next chart shows earnings and the entire consumer price index (CPI) that includes all components, not just energy. Once again we see a decline in the era of stagflation, high CPI and the general adjustment of the U.S. economy to global competition and diminishing returns

 

Until oil no longer matters, our real earnings and our economy remain hostages to the cost of oil.

 

http://charleshughsmith.blogspot.com/2012/10/energy-higher-earnings-lower.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+google%2FRzFQ+%28oftwominds%29

 

A blog I highly reccomend:  Of Two Minds  By Charles Hugh Smith

Voter registration.

What does it take to register to vote today?   A utility bill or bank statement?

In New York:  Fill out the form, provide one of the below.
If you do not have a DMV or social security number, you may use a valid photo ID, a current utility bill, bank statement, paycheck, government check or some other government document that shows your name and address.

In Ohio:
Current valid photo identification card, military identification, or
current (within one year) utility bill, bank statement, paycheck,
government check or government document (except board of
elections notifications) showing your name and current address.

In Colorado:

 ·   a copy of a current utility bill, bank statement, government check, paycheck, or other government document that shows the name and address of the elector.
  ·  a valid Colorado driver's license ·   a valid identification card issued by the Department of Revenue in accordance with the requirements of Part 3 of Article 2 of Title 42, C.R.S.   
 ·   a valid U.S. passport   
 ·   a valid employee identification card with a photograph of the eligible elector issued by any branch, department, agency, or entity of the United States government or of this state, or by any county, municipality, board, authority, or other political subdivision of this state   
 ·   a  valid pilot's license issued by the Federal Aviation Administration or other authorized agency of the United States
·   a valid U.S. military identification card with a photograph of the eligible elector

Brings a whole new meaning to buying an election.

As of July:

Obama + Super Pac's

Raised  $690.1m

Spent    $615.6m 

 

Romney + Super Pac's.

Raised  $633.0m

Spent    $530.7m 

 

Little different this time as the money is about equal unlike 2008.

 

 

 

Headlines 10-9-12

POLL: Romney leads in 11 swing states...
Takes lead in Ohio...
PA now in play?
SULLIVAN: SOS OBAMA

POLL: Obama loses lead on key voter issues: Economy, national security...

President releases new ad -- featuring Big Bird...

SESAME STREET: Take it down...

Obama sits for interview -- with NICKELODEON...

I'm Only Going To Win If 'Everybody Is Almost Obsessive'...

Obama campaign comes around to flip-flopping advice from Senate Dems

House Energy chief Upton: Repeal both oil, green power tax breaks

House majority leader says there's 'no question' election is about taxes

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2012/president/us/general_election_romney_vs_obama-1171.html

The Pew Poll is Devastating for Obama
Team Obama's Pathetic "Liar, Liar" Attack

Have a nice day