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The Department of Agriculture is considering requiring an extensive environmental review before issuing mortgages to people who have leased their land for oil and gas drilling.

From the BBC: The Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper, quoting a senior official of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan, said the US made the offer immediately after the disaster damaged Fukushima No 1 nuclear plant. According to the unnamed senior official, US support was based on dismantling the troubled reactors run by Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) some 250 km (155 miles) northeast of Tokyo. However, the government and TEPCO thought the cooling system could be restored by themselves, the report said. (Another source: http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/Asia/Story/STIStory_646444.html) Am I reading this right? Our government demanded that the Japanese dismantle - that is, permanently remove...

Washington is ignoring the mandate of voters, and sneaking through pork, as the media avert their eyes. On Wednesday, the still-Democrat-controlled House approved a $1.1 trillion spending bill to fund the government through September 30, 2011, or until the new Congress can produce a budget. According to The Hill, this Continuing Resolution was needed "because Congress failed to pass any of the 12 regular appropriations bills for 2011, in addition to failing to pass a budget resolution at all for the first time since 1974." The federal budget is supposed to be finished by October 1, the start of the...

Janet Napolitano said last month that we should expect to soon see tighter restrictions at bus, train, and marine transportation centers, too. Here's a report about TSA, Border Patrol, and local police setting up a checkpoint at a Greyhound station in Tampa. Note how quickly preventing a possible terrorist attack expands to include catching illegal immigrants, and preventing drug and what sounds like "cash smuggling." (It's hard to tell from the audio.) Note also the complete and utter reverence the local news report bestows on these government agencies, who after all are merely "teaming up to keep your family safe."

This Appears To Be Worthy of JAIL - RIGHT NOW You have to be kidding me... Shortly after Labor Day, as polls continued to sink, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) realized it needed a cash infusion for the upcoming midterm elections. Its chairman, former Virginia Governor Tim Kaine, turned to the Bank of America to secure a $15 million revolving credit line. Then, in the middle of this month, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) got another loan from BofA for an additional $17 million. Problem: Was the loan adequately collateralized - that is, truly "arms length"? Worse: Two days...

Well well well... Lookie what we have here folks... Is this why they tried to sneak through H.R. 3808? (just kidding) Just like we have been saying all along, this is so much bigger than "affidavits." Here is another piece of the puzzle, without bringing up the REMIC issues... Now that YOU are effected personally in this, Mr. President, what are you going to do about it? Let's get off the whole CNN Axelrod signals White House opposition to foreclosure moratorium BS... "The Obama administration opposes a moratorium on home foreclosures, but wants problems involving improper paperwork resolved as quickly...

US Preparing to Join The Alliance Of Civilizations May 13, 2010 Associated Press is reporting that the Obama administration is preparing to join the Alliance of Civilizations (AOC), a group which is represented in the US and Europe by individuals sympathetic to the global Muslim Brotherhood. According to the AP report http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/arti.... : U.S. officials say the Obama administration is preparing to join an international advisory group that the United States has largely shunned over fears it would adopt anti-Israeli and anti-Western stances. The officials say the administration plans to announce soon it will begin a formal relationship with the...

CHARLESTON, W.Va., April 2 – CHARLESTON, W.Va., April 2 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Thursday mandated a totally new and virtually unattainable water quality standard for all coal mining permits across Appalachia in a move that threatens thousands of jobs and the economic future of mining communities. The announcement comes days after the EPA began the veto process for an already approved permit for the Spruce No.1 mine in Logan County, WV. The EPA has only used this veto authority 12 times since 1972, and has never used its authority to veto an existing permit. "Thursday's EPA...

Lots of Dallas Tea Party members have been asking if we're going to hold a protest for those of us not able to go to Washington, DC tomorrow (Saturday). The answer is YES! We will once again go back to the site of the first tea party in Dallas.... Victory Plaza (on the south side of the American Airlines Center in Downtown Dallas) Time: Noon Bring signs and lots of energy to show our brothers and sisters in Washington we're keeping the spirit back home! We will need to keep our protest to the sidewalk and steps of Victory Plaza....

This morning on Fox Sunday with Chris Wallace, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) conceded that Republican senators won’t be able to stop Democratic health care reform legislation from passing the Senate before Christmas. “We will fight until the last vote,” McCain told Chris Wallace. “We owe that to our constituents, because we must do everything—we must look back and say we did everything to prevent this terrible mistake from taking place.” I beg to differ with Senator John McCain… (which is nothing new) Another useless NAY vote is NOT everything they can do! In the final hours of American freedom, liberty...

The followng is posted in "Rumors" at the tickerforum: DRAFT 271109 Decision 1/CP.15 (Decision 1/CMP.5 in separate document) Adoption of The Copenhagen Agreement Under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change The Conference of the Parties, Pursuant to the Bali Road Map adopted by the Conference of the Parties at its thirteenth session, Acknowledging and building on the work by the Ad Hoc Working Group on Long-Term Cooperative Action under the Convention and the Ad Hoc Working Group on Further Commitments for Annex I Parties under the Kyoto Protocol, Sharing a commitment to take immediate and enhanced national action...

TOOK ANOTHER STATE POSITION, BUT NO ONE IS CLEAR ON WHAT ONE (Nov. 16, 2009: 7:30 PM ET) — The Director of the Office of Information Practices (OIP) in Hawaii resigned quietly from his position on Nov. 6th and where he went is unclear, according to Hawaii government personnel. The OIP is charged with receiving UIPA requests or complaints, from citizens who have requested publically available documents in accord with Hawaiian Statutes, when the State department or agency from which these were requested, has not responded or refused to disclose them. The OIP office entered the national spotlight in September...

WASHINGTON — In 2006 and 2007, Goldman Sachs Group peddled more than $40 billion in securities backed by at least 200,000 risky home mortgages, but never told the buyers it was secretly betting that a sharp drop in U.S. housing prices would send the value of those securities plummeting. Goldman's sales and its clandestine wagers, completed at the brink of the housing market meltdown, enabled the nation's premier investment bank to pass most of its potential losses to others before a flood of mortgage defaults staggered the U.S. and global economies. Only later did investors discover that what Goldman had...

Recently, Zero Hedge presented a snapshot analysis of the various securities that made up the triparty repo agreement involving JPM, Lehman and the Fed. We uncovered numerous bankrupt companies' equities that were being pledged as collateral for what ultimately was taxpayer exposure. To our surprise, this discovery is not an exception... (snip) On two occasions last year: on March 16, 2008, and subsequently on September 14, 2008, the Federal Reserve first established what is known as the Primary Dealer Credit Facility (PDCF), and subsequently amended it, so that the Fed, in becoming the lender of last resort, would allow any...

The Math Manifests Itself in the Charts… Sorry, but the American capital system is dead. Not dying, dead… sorry, it’s all over, the only part of it left is watching the show land on the rocks. How did it get that way? Did you view FRONTLINE: The Warning? Bad math that was created and supported by fraud and deception in the shadow banking world. That world is still being hidden and supported today in an attempt to breathe never ending life into an impossible math situation. It was allowed to happen because those creating the false money were, and are,...

Washington D.C. October 20, 2009 -Today, Senators Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and Bob Corker (R-TN) introduced the Federal Reserve Accountability Act, an attempted compromise on the issue of transparency for America's secretive central bank. The bill would permit an audit of the Fed's actions in the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) and similar high profile bailouts, but would not allow Congress to review the Fed's inflation of the money supply or the its agreements with foreign central banks. Legislation that would bring a full audit of the Fed, Congressman Ron Paul's H.R. 1207 and its Senate companion S. 604, has gained...

With everyone lately focused on China's foreign reserve position, analysts have forgotten that America also has an International Reserve account consisting of foreign currency positions, as well as gold reserves and equivalents. And while the total combined holdings as of the most recently reported period are a joke compared to China's $2+ trillion, the most recent number of $133.6 billion does raise red flags, particularly when one traces this number's level throughout the year. We present a graphic representation of the US International Reserve Position over the past year:

The Hawaii Department of Health has reversed course. They now admit that they do - in fact – make some vital records information available to the public. This admission reverses their prior response pattern indicating that “no information” could be released.

"Quotable" September 24, 2009 - Sen. Max Baucus (D-Montana) “We’re doing this all on the fly, so it’s a little bit, makes me a little bit nervous.” — (September 23, 2009 at Senate Finance Committee hearing) Tags: baucus, health care reform, Senate Finance Committee

President Obama Speaks - And Lies (Again) President Obama stood in New York at "high noon" and talked about how we must have "change", and that we have "helped homeowners avoid foreclosures", how "we must put in place reforms" and that "we have helped come back from the brink" and "an irresponsible period of crisis." In fact, in his speech he said: So I want to urge you to demonstrate that you take this obligation to heart. To put greater effort into helping families who need their mortgages modified under my administration's homeownership plan. To help small business owners who...