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When Debt Securitization Blew Up So Did the Economy 2009 Mar 04, 2009 Mike_Whitney /snip One thing is certain, this isn't a normal recession. In a normal recession aggregate demand declines, economic activity slows, and GDP shrinks. While those things are taking place now, the reasons are quite different. The present slump wasn't brought on by a downturn in the business cycle or a mismatch in supply and demand. It was caused by a meltdown in the credit system's central core. That's the main difference. Wall Street's credit-generating mechanism, securitization, has broken down cutting off roughly 40 percent of the...

Here is video from the Houston "Tea Party" that was held this past weekend to protest the Obama Stimulus Package. It is great to hear the voices of average Americans and how they feel about the out-of-control government spending: Taxpayers from the Greater Houston region gather to protest massive government spending. Listen to their thoughts and opinions - get inspired and get involved to overturn out of control government spending. . . . . (Watch Video)

U.S. oil and natural gas producing companies should not receive federal subsidies in the form of tax breaks because their businesses contribute to global warming, U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told Congress on Wednesday. It was one of the sharpest attacks yet on the oil and gas industry by a top Obama administration official, reinforcing the White House stance that new U.S. energy policy will focus on promoting renewable energy sources like wind and solar power and rely less on traditional fossil fuels like oil as America tackles climate change. "We don't believe it makes sense to significantly subsidize the...

Kids Party in Foreclosed Homes, Leave Wake of VandalismParty-Throwing Minors, Criminals Make Themselves at Home in Vacant Houses By RUSSELL GOLDMAN March 4, 2009 By the time the cops arrived, the house was in total shambles. Windows were smashed, beer cans were strewn across the lawn, light fixtures were pulled out of the ceiling, the drywall was kicked out exposing the studs in the walls, and on nearly every available surface, spray paint indicated what that section of the house was to be used for, from the "liquor wall" to the "sex room." The Ft. Myers, Fla., party ended late...

Four months after he lost his bid for the White House, no one in the Senate really knows what to make of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). This week McCain tried to strip most of the earmarks from a pending $410 billion omnibus spending bill. The effort failed. While the former GOP presidential candidate managed to rally 30 of his Republican colleagues behind his amendment, once it was struck down, 27 of them were happy to abandon the stand and accept their millions of dollars in earmarks, now secure in the bill. The moment seemed to answer a question raised immediately...

150 Years Later, Fossils Still Don't Help Darwin by Brian Thomas, M.S.* “Creationists claim there are no transitional fossils, aka missing links. Biologists and paleontologists, among others, know this claim is false,” according to a recent LiveScience article that then describes what it claims are 12 specific transitional form fossils.1 But do these examples really confirm Darwinism?Charles Darwin raised a lack of transitional fossils as a possible objection to his own theory: “Why, if species have descended from other species by fine gradations, do we not everywhere see innumerable transitional forms?”2 Later in this chapter of his landmark book, he...

Middle class, typically defined as from $30K and 100K mean household income. I am sure they will seek the input of the real middle class, the ones paying along with the rich for the fiscal fiasco unfolding ..

'Israel seriously considering military action against Iran' WASHINGTON - Israel is seriously considering taking unilateral military action to stop Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, according to a report by top US political figures and experts released Wednesday. The report, "Preventing a Cascade of Instability," was put out by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP). It also argues that international sanctions against Iran need to be intensified urgently for the engagement the Obama administration is planning with Teheran to be effective. An early draft of the report was endorsed by Dennis Ross before he withdrew upon joining the Obama...

On 24 February 2009, President Barack Obama said during his speech: “The United States of America Does Not Torture.” The President’s words were cast LIVE, around the globe, and I was literally on the other side of the world, a dozen time zones away watching it on CNN. I made a small entry on the website with a few thoughts, unleashing a torrent of criticism, which was expected; I don’t write to please, but in an attempt to deliver truth about the war.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) - Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, President Barack Obama's choice to head the Health and Human Services Department, is facing questions about increased state payments to a social services group whose board includes the chairman of the state Democratic Party. Last fall, Sebelius' secretary of social and rehabilitation services, Don Jordan, approved an increased rate for Community Living Opportunities, a nonprofit group that provides services to the developmentally disabled, that amounted to $713,000. The group's board of directors included Larry Gates, a Sebelius friend who has served as state Democratic chairman for six years; Dan Biles, a Gates...

Why couldn't President Obama have put on more of a show for his British guests? He looked like he simply couldn't be bothered. Number 10 may be content that they just about got away with the visit to the Oval Office yesterday, as Andrew Porter reports from Washington. But on this side of the Atlantic the whole business looked pretty demeaning. The morning papers and TV last night featured plenty of comment focused on the White House's very odd and, frankly, exceptionally rude treatment of a British PM. Squeezing in a meeting, denying him a full press conference with flags...

First daughters Malia and Sasha Obama got a big surprise after school Wednesday: a brand-new swing set. They squealed with delight upon seeing it, a spokeswoman for the first lady said. President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, went to work while the girls were at school, having the set installed on the south grounds of the White House within sight of the Oval Office, where their father spends plenty of time. Late last year as the couple planned the family's move to Washington, they had discussed with the chief usher at the White House ways to make the historic...

ICE Trust Receives Approval From Federal Reserve to Clear Credit Default Swaps --ICE Expects to Complete TCC Acquisition within Week; Clearing of Existing North American CDS Indexes to Begin Thereafter NEW YORK, March 4, 2009 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX News Network/ -- IntercontinentalExchange(R) (NYSE: ICE), a leading operator of regulated global futures exchanges and over-the-counter (OTC) markets, today announced that ICE US Trust, LLC (ICE Trust), a New York limited liability trust company, has received regulatory approval from the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System to become a member of the Federal Reserve System and to serve as a...

Mr. Pitt is going Washington. Nancy Pelosi's office says Brad Pitt is set to meet with the Speaker of the House on Thursday to discuss the 45-year-old actor's charity efforts in New Orleans. Pitt founded "Make It Right" in 2007 to help build environmentally sustainable housing for low-income residents in New Orleans who lost their homes during Hurricane Katrina. He was nominated for a best-actor Oscar for "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button."

Cypriot asparagus harvesters are fuming over a U.N.-brokered peace settlement which has created a buffer zone between the Greek and Turkish sides of the island. The U.N. is preventing the harvesters from entering the zone to pick up wild asparagus as they have done for years:"This is unacceptable behaviour and I have demanded that action is taken," said Nicos Kotziambashis, leader of the Greek Cypriot village of Mammari which has been particularly hit by the U.N. ban. "The situation is explosive.""It is not something we particularly like to do but unfortunately if the asparagus is found in the buffer zone...

saw this elsewhere (not at freerepublic) so most of you have probably seen this: Let's see...within a couple of months of her husband being sworn in as junior Senator of IL, she is promoted to a brand new VP position with a tripled salary (http://campaignspot.nationalreview.com/post/?q=OGRiMWFhNWY4MTgzMjI3NjEzNGQwMWFiMTlhYmRhN2Y=). Later, her husband requests a million dollar earmark for her employer, to which I'm sure another Dem. Senator pulled him aside and chuckled, "Easy there young fella, it's a little to obvious and too soon for this." Promptly, the earmark was removed from the final bill. Fast forward a couple years when her husband becomes...

After detailed maps of local military operations and anti-government slogans were found in a south Minneapolis apartment, federal authorities are now involved in the investigation. The three tenants were evicted from the property this weekend, but what they left behind has caught the interest of the FBI and Homeland Security. A cleaning crew made the discovery shortly before 12 p.m. on Tuesday. One of the workers told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS they noticed maps on the walls with government chains and commands. Inside a closet, they found numerous rolls of maps. Authorities said the details are disturbing. "We ran into a...

MSNBC's Chris Matthews slammed Barack Obama tonight for his hypocrisy on earmarks. Matthews is uncharacteristically hard on Obama here, which makes you wonder if even he is seeing that the "Hope and Change" Obama promised not reality. He references John McCain as winning this argument. The two guests were Obama apologists, saying this is "small potatoes" compared to the big issues on Obama's plate. Integrity and keeping your word are just "small potatoes" to this President and administration. . . . . . (Watch Video)

Former state Senate leader Don Perata and his attorney have mounted a furious campaign against a decision by Sacramento federal prosecutors to review corruption allegations that San Francisco federal prosecutors declined to pursue. The Sacramento review violates a deal, called a tolling agreement, between defense attorneys and the U. S. attorney's office in San Francisco that stopped the clock on the statute of limitations while the parties discussed the matter, the defense attorneys insist. That agreement does not extend to the Sacramento U. S. attorney's office and the statute of limitations now precludes prosecution, the attorneys claim.

First Draft of the Neandertal Genome Sequence Released by Jeffrey Tomkins, Ph.D.* The highly anticipated initial draft assembly of the Neandertal genome was announced at the Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in the United States and at a European press conference.1 This genomic milestone involves approximately 3 billion bases of ancient human (Neandertal) DNA sequenced so far, which is the same amount of DNA contained in one set of human chromosomes or a single genome coverage. This is a major event in the booming scientific field referred to as “paleogenomics,” a discipline that...