It seems that food prices are going up. I spotted this blog posting over at HotAir.com; which is, a Neo-Conservative Blog. Anyhow, Ed Morrissey points out that food prices are going up. Ed points to this story by the AP:
WASHINGTON (AP) — Wholesale prices jumped last month by the most in nearly two years due to higher energy costs and the steepest rise in food prices in 36 years. Excluding those volatile categories, inflation was tame.
The Labor Department said Wednesday that the Producer Price Index rose a seasonally adjusted 1.6 percent in February — double the 0.8 percent rise in the previous month. Outside of food and energy costs, the core index ticked up 0.2 percent, less than January’s 0.5 percent rise.
Food prices soared 3.9 percent last month, the biggest gain since November 1974. Most of that increase was due to a sharp rise in vegetable costs, which increased nearly 50 percent. That was the most in almost a year. Meat and dairy products also rose.
Energy prices rose 3.3 percent last month, led by a 3.7 percent increase in gasoline costs.
Separately, the Commerce Department said home construction plunged to a seasonally adjusted 479,000 homes last month, down 22.5 percent from the previous month. It was lowest level since April 2009, and the second-lowest on records dating back more than a half-century.
The building pace is far below the 1.2 million units a year that economists consider healthy.
There was little sign of inflationary pressures outside of food and energy. Core prices have increased 1.8 percent in the past 12 months.
Still consumers are paying more for the basic necessities.
Why is it that prices are going up? Well, I can tell you why…. It’s called inflation. Something this guy here has been talking about for years:
Of course, Ed Morrissey, tries to credit the shrieking harpy and two bit phony Sarah Palin for this; but we thinking Americans know better. Sarah Palin most likely cannot even program her own VCR, much less understand the workings of the Federal Reserve. Ron Paul was saying this sort of stuff, when Sarah Palin was still playing with dolls and dreaming of being someone in politics as a child.
Scott Johnson over at Powerline, smartly and very accurately points to the federal reserve bank for this rise in food costs, he also points to a Wall Street Journal Op-Ed that warned of this sort of a thing happening. Yes, I know, Powerline Blog is decidedly Neo-Conservative; but when it comes to this sort of stuff, those guys are in the right frame of mind. I just wish I could convince them that imperialism is a sad mistake —- As are unconstitutionally declared wars.
It also turns out, that the Federal Reserve Bank is not the only part of the Federal Government that is a danger to it’s citizens. There is also other things that we should be, as citizens, worried about; like the ill-conceived and improperly named “Patriot Act.” As this video shows, that act is being used against citizens in a very bad way: (H/T RTR.Org)
The part about the raid on Walter Reddy, the founder of the modern Committees of Safety is in this video. I do encourage you all to watch it. If this man’s story is true. If someone does not like you; they can go to your local police department and makes up actual lies about you and cause the police to conduct a raid on your home. That my friends, is insanity.
As you might expect, I post this video with a disclaimer; Just because I post this, does not mean that endorse the products being sold or the overall conspiratorial tone of the video. I simply post this for informational purposes only.
Update: Mark this on your calendars; this one of the rare times, when I actually agree with Lew Rockwell.
DENVER — A Colorado man can sue two Secret Service agents who arrested him after he touched former Vice President Dick Cheney on the arm in 2006 and told him his Iraq War policies were “disgusting,” a federal appeals court ruled Monday.The ruling means Steven Howards can try to subpoena Cheney to testify about the incident, said David Lane, Howards’ attorney.”I fully intend on deposing the former vice president,” Lane told The Associated Press.Lane has been trying for years to subpoena Cheney, but his motion has been delayed as judges weighed the question of whether the Secret Service agents were immune in the case. He has said he wants to subpoena the former vice president because he’s “the best eyewitness to the case.”
This is why this strikes me as incredibly stupid; for one, this man made a choice to break the law and try to grab the former Vice President — to make a political statement. For two; now he is trying to capitalize on this incident and sue the Secret Service and the Government by proxy. In short; the man is nothing more than some leech, who wants to make a quick buck on the backs of the American people. Not to mention make a stupid political point.
Either way, I hope like hell that the courts toss this idiot’s case out. Because he does not deserve anything at all. Except maybe a swift kick in the butt. 😡
So, the next time some idiot liberal Democrat tries to tell you how horrible we Capitalist Conservative Christians are; show ’em this, please. I mean, I would rather be some money grubbing capitalist, than to be trying to make a quick buck on the back of the American people; and for what? To make a rather idiotic political point? How stupid. 🙄
….and I say this, as someone who was not too keen on Bush and Co’s polices either…..
JERUSALEM – Two members of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ official security forces were arrested in conjunction with this past weekend’s bloody massacre in which five family members were brutally stabbed to death inside their home in the Jewish village of Itamar, WND has learned.The names of the apprehended suspects will be released to the Israeli media within hours but were revealed to WND by security officials working on the murder.Two cousins are now in Israeli custody and are suspected in the slayings. Ahmed Awad is an officer in Abbas’ Preventative Security Services in the northern West Bank city of Nablis. Iyad Awad is an officer in Abbas’ General Intelligence services in Ramallah.Both the Preventative and General Intelligence services of Fatah are armed, trained and funded by the U.S.The duo did not personally carry out the murders, but rather they assisting in the planning and logistics, informed security sources told WND.Since the late 1990s, the U.S. has run training bases for PA militias. The U.S. also has provided hundreds of millions of dollars in financial aid and weapons to build up the PA militias. Since 2007, the U.S. has stepped up its efforts at training the PA, including a new, advanced program for Palestinian police to train 500 to 600 cadets at a time at the American bases. The U.S. currently operates training bases for the PA police and other militias, such as Force 17 and the Preventative Security Services in the West Bank city of Jericho and the Jordanian village of Giftlik.
Like I wrote yesterday; this murder is the continuation of a very long war, that dates back to Biblical times. However, the very idea that our Armed Forces trained these people; changes the ballgame. I wonder what President Obama would think about such things? Of course, based upon what I have been reading; he really does not care about Israel (or anything else for that matter, including America) at all.
Update: Thanks to the people at Rotter.net for linking in! (Hebrew to English Machine translation here.) If anyone happens to have an account there and can speak Hebrew; please let them know that I cannot Independently verify the claims made by WND in that story above, thanks!
What I am talking about? This: (Warning! This video is graphic! If you have a weak stomach, don’t watch!)
Basically, what happened here; was this, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade — an arm of Fatah, of which Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas is a member — came into a house, around 10:00 or 10:30 P.M. and killed this family, while they slept.
The real kicker is this; according to this report, Arabs took to the streets and celebrated. They also handed out Candy:
Gaza residents from the southern city of Rafah hit the streets Saturday to celebrate the terror attack in the West Bank settlement of Itamar where five family members were murdered in their sleep, including three children.
Residents handed out candy and sweets, one resident saying the joy “is a natural response to the harm settlers inflict on the Palestinian residents in the West Bank.”
Meanwhile, Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said he “clearly and firmly denounces the terror attack, just as I have denounced crimes against Palestinians.
“We are against all types of violence,” Fayyad said during a tour in Bethlehem. “Our position has not changed. As we have said many times before, we categorically oppose violence and terror, regardless of the identity of the victims or the perpetrators.”
In Palestinian Authority newspapers and on the social network pages of private citizens, denunciations of the murder could be found alongside condemnations of Israel’s approval of the construction of 400 new homes in the settlement blocs. Many writers compared the murders to the actions of the settlers themselves.
“I don’t believe that the incident in Itamar is an act of resistance, but rather an act by individuals whom we condemn, in the event it was carried out by Palestinians. Stabbing children in their sleep is not a heroic act but rather that of the heartless, like some of the occupation soldiers and settlers, who murder children,” Hafez Barghouti, editor-in-chief of Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, wrote on Sunday.
He added that the “real murderers in Itamar are the zealous settlers and anyone who burned a tree, vandalized the cemetery in Awarta, forced out the residents of Khirbet Yanun, took control of a plot of land or robbed an olive harvest …. The act at Itamar was a message to the occupation and to the world … whose meaning is clear – the occupation must go.”
In his regular column in the same newspaper, Adli Sadek wrote: “Without considering the fact that war criminals wearing the uniform of an army that belongs to a UN member state have killed and continue to kill Palestinians … such an action must be condemned unequivocally and in the harshest language. This is not only because this is a crime that harms us politically and public-relations-wise and helps the extremist government cast aspersions on all of us, but also because the humanitarian character of a nation that receives aid and support from all freedom-lovers of all religions, races and nationalities does not accept such a heinous murder.”
According to Sadek, “It bears repeating that the murder of children, if carried out by Palestinian hands, must not be part of the national struggle, which has generally sought … to engage with the soldiers of the occupation and not hurt Israeli children.”
Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki, however, was one of a number of senior PA officials who continued to imply that the Fogels were not murdered for nationalist reasons. “People and an infant were butchered in a way no Palestinian has ever done … raising questions about Israel’s rush to accuse the Palestinians,” he says.
Meanwhile, a Ramallah man said on his Facebook page: “I condemn the attack in the illegal settlement of Itamar. We need to find the criminal who killed a 3-month-old baby and bring him to trial in Palestine …. I also wish the Israeli electorate would hold their government accountable for bringing their citizens to occupied territories instead of justifying collective punishments against Nablus and the surrounding villages.”
Ed Morrissey, of whom I have had disagreements with in the past; writes:
Both Philip and Jeff include this video (via Big Peace), set aptly to music from Schindler’s List, that gives graphic accounts of the slaughter of the Fogels, including the infant Hadas. When I say “graphic,” I mean it, so don’t play this if you’re at all squeamish. It will likely enrage you — or at least it will make you question what kind of people would celebrate this by eating candy in the streets. Answer: The same kind of people who celebrated the massacre of 3,000 people in the US on 9/11, and the very same people that the US insists should have their own independent state. See if this video convinces you of that wisdom.
Ed is spot on. As much as I know that this entire situation is an extension of an Religious War that dates back to the time of the Bible and that the belligerents both are enamored in their own Religious and Political and even philosophical views; it has become very apparent to me that the Arab Palestinians do not want peace. But simply want to rid the region of the Jews and the Jewish State.
This is not to state that I believe Israel’s hands are clean; because they are not and yes, they have committed acts of aggression against the Palestinians themselves. However, this sort of barbaric action is inexcusable and should be condemned by our main stream media here in America; not to mention the White House. However, when you have a President in America, who obviously has a soft spot for the Arab people and those whom we refer to as Terrorists, one can expect so much.
In a sane world; the President of Israel, would consider this an act of aggression and declare war on Palestine and begin carpet bombing operations. However, I sometimes have to wonder about Benjamin Netanyahu and Shimon Peres priorities; are they for the people of Israel or are they for their own political careers? That is the question I want answered.
Of course, as a Christian and a believer in the Holy Bible, I do know when this conflict will be solved:
And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself. And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God. And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS. And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God; That ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great. And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army. And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone. And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh. (Revelation 19:11-21 KJV)
For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together. Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. (Matthew 24:27-31 KJV)
“And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.” (Isa. 2:2-4 KJV)
“And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.” (Rev 11:15 KJV)
That, and only that is when the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will be solved.
Japanese police say 200 to 300 bodies have been found in a northeastern coastal area where a massive earthquake spawned a ferocious tsunami Friday that swept away boats, cars and homes.
The magnitude 8.9 offshore quake — the largest in Japan’s history — unleashed a 23-foot (7-meter) tsunami and was followed by more than 50 aftershocks for hours, many of them of more than magnitude 6.0.
The bodies found were in Sendai city, the closest major city to the epicenter, Japanese police said. Earlier, police confirmed at least 60 people had been killed and 56 were missing. The death toll was likely to continue climbing given the scale of Friday’s disaster.
Tsunami waves generated by the massive quake hit Hawaii early Friday morning. The first waves crashed into the island of Kauai at 3:13 a.m. local time. Officials predicted they would experience waves up to 6 feet (2 meters).
Alaska Emergency Management also reported a 5.1-foot wave at Shemya, 1.5-foot at Adak, and 1.6-foot at Dutch Harbor in the Aleutian Islands. Shemya is 1,200 miles southwest of Anchorage.
If you are reading this blog; and you happen to be in the area that these waves are expected to hit. GET THE HECK OUT OF THAT AREA NOW! Nothing is worth your life, nothing.
TOKYO — Japan ordered thousands of residents near a northeastern nuclear power plant to evacuate on Friday following a massive earthquake that caused a problem in the plant’s cooling system.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said the Fukushima No. 1 power plant was not leaking radiation. The plant is in Onahama city, about 170 miles (270 kilometers) northeast of Tokyo.
Japan’s nuclear safety agency said the evacuation, ordered by the local government of Fukushima, affects at least 2,800 people. It comes after the government declared a state of emergency at the plant.
The quake triggered a power outage and when a backup generator also failed, the cooling system was unable to supply water to cool the reactor. The reactor core remains hot even after a shutdown.
Edano said residents were told to stay at least two miles (three kilometers) from the plant and to stay inside buildings.
TOKYO — A Japanese coast guard official says a search is under way for a ship carrying 80 dock workers that was swept away when a tsunami struck the northeastern coast.
The vessel was washed away from a shipbuilding site in Miyagi prefecture (state). That’s the area most affected by a massive offshore earthquake on Friday. The quake triggered the tsunami.
Needless to day, this is not going to be a good day in Japan.
Update #7; This via Twitter: Clallam, Jefferson and Grays harbor counties now under tsunami “watch”, not “warning” per NOAA (I assume this is in Washington State???? -Pat)
Update #10: This is via Breakingnews on Twitter: BREAKING NEWS – Tsunami warning sirens are blaring in Honolulu. The first wave is expected to hit around 2:59am HT (7:59am EST)
Update #11: This is via Tammy Bruce on Twitter: Out of abundance of caution, friends of mine are leaving their beach homes in South Bay area of Los Angeles
It also looks like I’ll be up the night. Wonderful,. anyone got coffee? 😉 😛 😀
Update #12: This comes via Michael van Poppel on Twitter: BREAKING — Tsunami watch now issued for California, Oregon, Washington, B.C. and Alaska
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http://RTR.org | http://RealityReport.TV | This is one report you do not want to miss. Americans are being detained for using cash! Gary Franchi presents the investigation into the Florida Department of Transportation. Filmmaker and radio host Jason Bermas joins the cast for his new segment called Punk Rock Politics. Also this week we present the special report on Project Gunrunner, how the BATF facilitated ‘straw purchase’ firearm sales that resulted in the death of one of our own. We’ll also present a viral video explains Goldman Sachs is getting double dip profits off the Tax Payer’s backs. Nina returns to present the top stories of the week and as always, we dip into the mailbag, present last week’s poll results and brand another enemy of the state.
It’s heartbreaking, if you’ve spent a lot of time and energy over years of your life, figuring out how to deal with the local village elders and try and start development projects and improve governance and send Afghan girls to school, to realize that the institutions that one believes one has started and got off the ground are far more likely to blow away like a Potemkin village. You have these hard-won skills and these small, on the ground achievements, and it looks like maybe you’ve started something that might someday bear fruit. You’ve actually done remarkable things, by any ordinary measure. But then it doesn’t bear fruit, because it isn’t rooted, not culturally or institutionally, and the belief that it will have a life after your funding is gone is illusion.
But it’s not an unusual story, if one looks beyond Afghanistan and indeed beyond war. It’s actually the oldest story in the world in development work. In development, we believe we need to develop institutional governance capacities so that the efforts that shelter and take root under those institutions will not be in vain. No doubt that’s true. But unfortunately we don’t have a clue how to do that — and even less of a clue how to do that in war.
I highly recommend that you go read that whole quote. Because if this is broadening feeling among Conservatives; we could be looking at a total change in attitude among the right.
Before I got into the Derb/Andy discussion, I was reading an obituary in The Daily Telegraph of Anthony Brooke, former Rajah Muda of Sarawak, whose family reigned over much of the Borneo jungle for over a century until 1946, when the kingdom lost its independence and was formally incorporated into the British Empire. As often with flotsam and jetsam (Flintstone and Jetson?) from the imperial byways, you’re struck by how much London accomplished with so little. By contrast, we’ve spent a fortune in Afghanistan and have nothing to show for it.
I think the difference is this: When America goes into Afghanistan, it doesn’t think it’s prosecuting American interests. Quite the opposite: Regardless of whether it’s officially UN- or Nato-sanctioned, America goes in as the expeditionary force of “world opinion” or “the global commons”. It doesn’t believe it has a national interest in Afghanistan, and indeed assumes that it would be a kind of transnational faux pas to be seen to have one, so it’s hardly surprising that the “nation” it winds up “building” doesn’t look much like anywhere any American would want to have anything to do with. Even nation-building requires the builder to build it in what he perceives as his national interest – as the British did in India and the Americans in post-war Japan. If you have disinterested, transnational nation-building, you wind up as we have in Kabul.
To go back to Sarawak, it was ceded to His Britannic Majesty in 1946 and became independent in 1963, when it joined the new Federation of Malaysia: Seventeen years from colony to statehood – versus a decade spent presiding over Take Your Catamite To Work Day in Kandahar. And, as a New Jersey reader wrote to me the other day, “Does anybody really think we’re leaving anytime soon?” In Afghanistan and elsewhere, transnational nation-building is like a mangled Hotel California: We never seriously check in, and yet we never leave.
Now, if I were a rabid Ron Paul or Pat Buchanan type; I would say something to the effect of, “See? Now that the Neo-Conservatives are not controlling the war, they want to stop it!” Well, rest assured I am not a rabid anything at all. I think that it is encouraging to see that the Conservative Blogosphere is finally starting to figure out, what the rest of the America already knows; that we went into Afghanistan to hunt down, and capture or kill Osama Bin Laden and destroy Al-Qaeda. Now that has become like the secondary mission and defeating the Taliban and setting up Government there is now this goal, which is essentially “Nation Building.” Something that never works, ever. Especially in the middle east, where some, if not all, of the Governments are inherently corrupt.
Either way, it is good to now see writers question the very thing, that back in 2003, they were mindlessly cheerleading.
Next time some stupid moron Neo-Conservative tells you that Bush brought Democracy to Iraq, by invading it — show ’em this:
BAGHDAD – Among the revolts sweeping the Middle East and North Africa, Iraq’s has been an exception: Here, protesters are seeking to reform a democratically elected government, not to topple an autocrat.But protesters, human rights workers and security officials say the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has responded to Iraq’s demonstrations in much the same way as many of its more authoritarian neighbors: with force.Witnesses in Baghdad and as far north as Kirkuk described watching last week as security forces in black uniforms, tracksuits and T-shirts roared up in trucks and Humvees, attacked protesters, rounded up others from cafes and homes and hauled them off, blindfolded, to army detention centers.Entire neighborhoods – primarily Sunni areas where residents are generally opposed to Maliki – were blockaded to prevent residents from joining the demonstrations. Journalists were beaten.In most cases, regular soldiers and police officers simply stood aside, with one saying the matter was “beyond us.” In all, 29 people were killed.”Maliki is starting to act like Saddam Hussein, to use the same fear, to plant it inside Iraqis who criticize him,” said Salam Mohammed al-Segar, a human rights activist who was among those beaten during a sit-in. “The U.S. must feel embarrassed right now – it is they who promised a modern state, a democratic state. But in reality?”He shook his head.Last Friday, the U.S. Embassy here issued a statement saying that security forces appeared to have followed Maliki’s directive to allow peaceful protests. As reports emerged Saturday of the beaten journalists, the White House issued a statement saying that U.S. officials were “deeply troubled.” The U.S. Embassy has declined to comment further.
So much for that little pipe dream, eh? Iraq is no more a damned Democracy than North Korea. The elections over there were nothing more than a smoke screen to fool the American people into believing that the invasion in Iraq in 2003 was justified. Which thinking Conservatives, like me, knew was a pack of damned lies. As was the whole WMD story.
Nice work Dubya! 🙄
Conservatives of all stripes should really be following this coming 2012 election. If whomever the Republican Party chooses to be our next President; starts talking about “exporting Democracy” to foriegn lands, that Conservative should not vote or vote for a third party. Forget the Democrats, they do the same stuff as Neo-Conservatives. Vote different, because America cannot afford no more General’s wars. Just that simple. Exporting Democracy does not work people and this story here is living proof of that.
Fixed rather funny typo. I meant WMD’s, not WND’s… More coffee!
Construction sites are buzzing with work across the Persian Gulf sheikdom of Dubai more than two years after the financial crisis set off a real estate slump that caused values to fall by more than 60 percent. In the next two years, tens of thousands of new properties will come onto a market where about 40 percent of homes and offices are already empty.Some developers have chosen to complete projects started before Dubai’s property market collapsed instead of canceling them and facing a legal obligation to return all advance payments to customers. Falling construction costs and low interest rates also provide an incentive to build now rather than wait for property values to increase. As many as 48,000 homes will be completed in the next two years, increasing supply by 12 percent, real estate broker Landmark Advisory estimates. “The cost of walking away from these projects is much higher than completing them,” says Ahmed Badr, head of Middle East real estate research at Credit Suisse CS.
(***)
The bottom line: The cost of canceling projects in Dubai has builders continuing to work even in the face of a residential and commercial property glut.
Western banks once saw Russia as a huge undeveloped market. Now some foreign lenders are changing their minds. In the past year, at least six European and U.S. banks have announced plans to cut back or close operations in the country. Morgan Stanley MS sold its local mortgage unit last year, and Spain’s Banco Santander STD exited from consumer banking in December. The U.K.’s Barclays BCS announced in mid-February that it will divest the Russian retail unit it acquired for $745 million in 2008. “Subscale businesses don’t belong in our portfolio,” says Hans-Jörg Rudloff, chairman of Barclays’s investment banking arm.Only 24 percent of households in Russia have bank accounts, according to Credit Suisse CS. While older Russians who saw their savings wiped out in the 1998 crash remain wary of banks, a younger generation is eager for consumer credit to finance purchases of everything from cars to appliances. Russia’s mortgage industry is in its infancy, and the government’s new privatization push will give investment banking a lift.
(***)
Sberbank and VTB, both state-run and Russia’s top two banks by assets, are gaining clout. Sberbank has almost 20,000 retail branches and is plotting a move into investment banking. VTB, once the Soviet foreign trade bank, has more than 530 branches nationwide, and its investment banking unit is the biggest underwriter of bond and equity sales. On Feb. 22, VTB agreed to buy the Moscow government’s shares in Bank of Moscow for $3.5 billion—the biggest acquisition by a lender in the country.
(***)
The bottom line: Russia’s state-owned banks are bulking up, causing bantamweight foreign players to flee the market.
Whenever the Government squeezes out the private market; Business suffer and usually end up leaving or closing up shop. You’d think the Russians would have learned this under Communism. I guess they did not learn their lesson. It is also a lesson that we are learning here in America, when the Government gets involved in private industry, bad things happen. Too bad nobody has showed Obama that; but then again, Obama will not even release his Birth records to the American people — what more can we expect?
The reason why I am posting this, is because I feel it needs to be shown. Andrew Sullivan and Digby the owner of the progressive blog Hullabaloo say this is hate and by definition, yes it is. However, I think more broadly, it is simply blowback; which is an C.I.A. term, from what happened on 9/11. Not only that, these people are simply fed up, with all the recent acts of terrorism happening in America and elsewhere, people are just simply fed up to their wits end.
Again, I do not justify these actions, at all. I simply think progressive liberals need to understand, that people are just fed up.
More than anything else, this just gets up my libertarian nose a bit. What if those were blacks? Ya know? I’m just sayin’
I ask that you forgive me for my extended silence today. I really do not like to write, when I am uninspired. However, I believe that I now have found a reason to put forth words. I have been grappling with the feeling, that Islam is a threat to American Democracy and an Enemy of freedom. However, being the measured person that I am, I do not like to case forth judgments, because I am not much interested in being painted by the left, as being a reactionary. However, I will fully concede that there are times when my emotions get the best of me and I do lash out in print.
Islam, the very name conjures up images in the recesses of my rather mid-aged mind. Some good and some that are horrifying. At some point, one becomes numb to the constant news of terror attacks; in fact, there was one again today —in Germany, of all places. It is the usual affair, man reaches into a bag, gets a gun and screams, “God is Great!” and proceeds to inflict carnage upon those around him. However, one cannot think that all Muslims are murders, that is reactionary thinking, that is what the terrorists want me to believe, so that I can hate all Muslims. At least that is what they tell me and I keep telling myself repeatedly. Therefore, I have to remember that, I cannot allow myself to be sucked into that extremist mindset.
Shahbaz Bhatti was Arab man from Pakistan, he was not a Muslim, — he was a Roman Catholic. Today Shahbaz Bhatti was killed —- well, actually the man was killed brutally and viciously by Muslims. Extremists, so they say. This seems to be the argument coming from the likes of the Center for Islamic and American Relations.
The Corner, a Blog over at the National Review Remembers the man:
He had waged a strong campaign — inside the government as a minister and outside it in cooperation with human-rights groups — for the repeal of the country’s draconian blasphemy law, which mandates the death penalty for insulting Islam. The 42-year-old was a Roman Catholic, the government’s only Christian minister, and the longtime head of the All Pakistan Minorities Alliance, a non-governmental organization promoting national unity, interfaith harmony, social justice, and human equality…
Death threats were a constant in Bhatti’s life for many years. He once told me that he had never married because he did not think it would be fair to a wife and children to subject them to this concern. His work was his life: At the end of each day, he left his government Cabinet office and headed over to his office at the All Pakistan Minorities Alliance, where he continued to help Pakistan’s persecuted minorities until late into the night.
“I personally stand for religious freedom, even if I will pay the price of my life,” he had said when he received the USCIRF award. “I live for this principle and I want to die for this principle.
I ask humbly that you watch this video where Mr. Bhatti speaks of the threats against his life. I also ask to look at this video to see what these —- animals did to this servant of the Lord. Horrifying and disgusting to most sane rational people.
Now back to my original thought. I keep hearing this same line from the majority of America that not all Muslims are terrorists and that we need to co-exist and accept them as normal people. The problem is, that the reality of what is going on here in America and around the world; the noise of that, is making it harder and harder to ignore the reality and remember what one is told.
BAGHDAD – Thousands marched on government buildings and clashed with security forces in cities across Iraq on Friday, in the largest and most violent anti-government protests here since political unrest began spreading in the Arab world several weeks ago.
In two northern Iraqi cities, security forces trying to push back crowds opened fire, killing six demonstrators. In the capital of Baghdad, demonstrators knocked down blast walls, threw rocks and scuffled with club-wielding troops.
The protests, billed as a “Day of Rage, were fueled by anger over corruption, chronic unemployment and shoddy public services.
“We want a good life like human beings, not like animals,” said Khalil Ibrahim, 44, one of about 3,000 protesters in the capital Baghdad.
Like many Iraqis, he railed against a government that locks itself in the highly fortified Green Zone, home to the parliament and the U.S. Embassy, and is viewed by most of its citizens as more interested in personal gain than public service.
Oh, it gets worse too:
Demonstrators trying to get across a bridge going from the square to the Green Zone clashed with security forces. The demonstrators knocked down some of the concrete blast walls that were put up Thursday night and threw rocks at troops who beat them back with batons. Six riot police and 12 demonstrators were wounded in the melee, said police and hospital officials.
The protests stretched from the northern city of Mosul to the southern city of Basra, reflecting the widespread anger many Iraqis feel at the government’s seeming inability to improve their lives.
A crowd of angry marchers in the northern city of Hawija, 150 miles (240 kilometers) north of Baghdad, tried to break into the city’s municipal building, said the head of the local city council, Ali Hussein Salih.
Security forces trying to block the crow opened fire, killing three demonstrators and wounding 15, local officials said. The Iraqi Army was eventually called in to restore order.
In Mosul, also in northern Iraq, hundreds of protesters gathered in front of the provincial council building, demanding jobs and better services, when guards opened fire, according to a police official. A police and hospital official said three protesters were killed and 15 people wounded. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to brief the media.
Black smoke could later be seen billowing from the building.
In the south, about 4,000 people demonstrated in front of the office of Gov. Sheltagh Aboud al-Mayahi in the port city of Basra, Iraq’s second-largest city, 340 miles (550 kilometers) southeast of Baghdad. They knocked over one of the concrete barriers and demanded his resignation, saying he’d done nothing to improve city services.
They appeared to get their wish when the commander of Basra military operations, Maj. Gen. Mohammad Jawad Hawaidi, told the crowd that the governor had resigned in response to the demonstrations. Iraqi state TV announced that the prime minister had asked the governor to step down but did not mention the protests.
Around 1,000 demonstrators also clashed with police in the western city of Fallujah 40 miles (65 kilometers) west of Baghdad clashed with authorities, witnesses said. And in the southern city of Karbala, about 1,000 protesters rallied for better services.
The reason I say gulp is because, what happens if this goes totally out of control and we end up with another civil war in Iraq? Somehow, I do not see President Obama doing anything about it. if anything, he will just end up pulling our forces out of there; and by rights, he most likely should. We did our jobs, we did defeat Al-Qaeda and stopped the insurgency. So, why should we put more people into Iraq and risk more lives? It just would not make any sense.
Either way, it just does not look good for our guys on the ground there.
At Rep. Paul Broun’s town hall meeting on Tuesday, the Athens congressman asked who had driven the farthest to be there and let the winner ask the first question.
We couldn’t hear the question in the back of the packed Oglethorpe County Commission chamber, but whatever it was, it got a big laugh. According to an outraged commenter on the article, the question was, when is someone going to shoot Obama?
I’ve asked Team Broun whether that was indeed the question and haven’t gotten an answer. The commenter accurately described the questioner and the circumstances, and no one has disputed his account.
Update: Broun’s press secretary, Jessica Morris, confirmed that the question was indeed, who is going to shoot Obama? “Obviously, the question was inappropriate, so Congressman Broun moved on,” she said.
Here was Broun’s response:
The thing is, I know there’s a lot of frustration with this president. We’re going to have an election next year. Hopefully, we’ll elect somebody that’s going to be a conservative, limited-government president that will take a smaller, who will sign a bill to repeal and replace Obamacare.
All Americans should condemn assassination speech, but especially if you’re a member of congress. What an epic shame. What a blight these people are on our government.
Um, Mr. Willis, Where were you, when these people were walking around with signs like this? (H/T NewsBusters)
Where were you Oliver, when these things was being paraded in the streets?
Oh, I know where you were Mr. Willis; you were out there helping CARRYING these signs and things around, weren’t you?
How is it, when a White Conservative Republican is in the White House and liberals threaten to kill him —- it is perfectly fine. But you let a socialist Negro in the damned White House and just because someone dares to verbalize what many in the silent majority are thinking; that is some sort of a fucking federal crime? Tell me that! By the way, I call him a socialist Negro, because that is what the hell he is, I do not believe in Political Correctness on this blog. I call it like I see it.
UPDATE, 11:50 a.m.: In a new statement Rep Paul Broun appears to admit he should have condemned his constituent:
Tuesday night at a town hall meeting in Oglethorpe County, Georgia an elderly man asked the abhorrent question, “Who’s going to shoot Obama?” I was stunned by the question and chose not to dignify it with a response; therefore, at that moment I moved on to the next person with a question. After the event, my office took action with the appropriate authorities.
I deeply regret that this incident happened at all. Furthermore, I condemn all statements — made in sincerity or jest — that threaten or suggest the use of violence against the President of the United States or any other public official. Such rhetoric cannot and will not be tolerated.
“In this case this was poor taste,” the source says. “The person realized that.”
Now there’s the small matter of whether Broun regrets not condemning the comment. My understanding is more will be forthcoming from his office on this soon, so stay tuned.
Happy now crybabies? 🙄
Anyhow, yeah, it was stupid; I will admit that, but where was all of that outrage, when the liberals were wanting Bush dead? Fucking hypocrites, the damned whole lot of them. 😡
Note: I just noticed the silly typo in the headline. Hug ordeal? Good Lord. 🙄 I fixed it.
UPDATE: Tikkum olam is a rabbinical concept that might properly be translated as “for the public good,” but which in the modern era has been politicized by many on the Left, so that it is indistinguishable in their interpretation from “social justice.” Most famously, Michael Lerner — a 1960s anti-war radical who once led an SDS splinter group called the Seattle Liberation Front — named his magazine Tikkun.
I am assuming that Ben Howe is Jewish; That is a new one on me. and This ugly leftist must be Jewish too, she certainly ugly enough to be one. (D’oh! I am so bad… 😛 )
So, does this make this little incident, Jew Vs Jew, you know; kinda like Spy Vs Spy?
Note: Sorry about that misspelling in the headline. I just woke up here, due some awful heartburn. I love ya Mexico, but your food plays hell on my tummy! 🙁 I know, I know, go from picking on Jews to Mexicans; Hey, at least I am fair and…slightly balanced. 😀
I post this, with the usual disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this video are not necessarily those of the owner of this Blog.
This blog does not advocate any sort of violence towards anyone in Government at all. We have a system of redress of grievances in this Country. It is called the ballot box.
However, there are some legitimate points and stories that are included in this report; which is why I post them.
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Synopsis:
This week we bring big brother to the spot light. Hillary’s security muffling protest and remote controlled birds are spying on us, people losing their cars to corrupt city laws. Fox admits to their "screw up" with egg on their face after Ron Paul pulls in over 700,000 dollars to his cause and another Paul gets drafted for the Senate. Libya is figures it's time for a change as they start their own anti government riots. Oathkeeper Stuwart Rhodes sits down with Sheriff Mack to discuss a possible 2012 Senate bid. Federal spending bill is doomed to failed after Obama promises to veto. Hold tight, it’s the Reality Report!
In this space, before I post this video; I usually post a disclaimer, because usually, I do not agree with some of the content and ideas presented in this Video report. However, this week, I am going to forgo the disclaimer. Because a good ninety percent of what is presented here, I absolutely agree with and besides, nothing gives me more joy, than to watch freedom-loving Americans making Neo-Conservative fascists look like the damn fools that they are. Yes, it warms the cackles of my stone cold heart to see those who wish to sell our freedoms out to the altar of “Security” made to look like buffoons.
Very well done gents, very, very, well done. 😀
Having said all that —- here is the synopsis and Video….
Synopsis: In this special CPAC expanded edition of the Reality Report, we go face to face with Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney and Newt Gingrich and present the highlights (and lowlights)! ; Gary Franchi runs into former Saturday Night Live star, Victoria Jackson, and interviews CPAC Chair David Keene about the Defender of the Constitution Award. Gary also meets with Jesse Benton, Ron Paul’s Communications Director, to give you the inside scoop on the Ron Paul 2012 Presidential campaign. Jeff Frazee from Young Americans for Liberty joins the show to tell us how he got turned on to Ron Paul’s message. We meet with Congresswoman Nan Hayworth from New York’s 19th district to ask her about her vote for the Patriot Act. We also ask Ron Paul supporters what it is about his message that inspires them. We also take you to the Jordan Page after party for the release of his new album titled “Liberty”. Angie returns to deliver the headlines with a special report on the Young Americans for Freedom and Truth Squad.TV’s confrontation. We’ll read your email, review last week’s poll results and brand a new enemy of the state.
We were warned that this sort of a thing was going to happen, Glenn Beck said it long ago…:
NEW YORK — Clothing prices have dropped for a decade as tame inflation and cheap overseas labor helped hold down costs. Retailers and clothing makers cut frills and experimented with fabric blends to cut prices during the recession.
But as the world economy recovers and demand for goods rises, a surge in labor and raw materials costs is squeezing retailers and manufacturers who have run out of ways to pare costs.
Cotton has more than doubled in price over the last year, hitting all-time highs. The price of synthetic fabrics has jumped roughly 50% as demand for alternatives and blends has risen.
Clothing prices are expected to rise about 10% in coming months, with the biggest increases coming in the second half of the year, said Burt Flickinger III, president of Strategic Resource Group.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has chosen a new special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, after months of delay and disagreements between the White House and the State Department over the parameters of the job that became vacant with the December death of Richard C. Holbrooke, senior officials said.
Retired diplomat Marc Grossman is expected to take over as the administration is facing a crucial year for its war strategy in Afghanistan, where it plans to begin U.S. troop withdrawals this summer and to move toward a political settlement including negotiations with the Taliban before the end of 2011.
In Pakistan, a key partner in the strategy, the situation has become even more fraught with peril, as U.S.-Pakistani relations have plummeted to their lowest point in years over Pakistan’s rejection of U.S. demands to grant diplomatic immunity to a U.S. official accused of murder there.
The administration has suspended high-level official contacts with the Pakistanis, and senior members of Congress have warned Islamabad that it risks a cutoff of U.S. aid.
Wow, I was not aware of all these problems. Looks like Hillary Clinton has her work cut out for her. Two things that stand out here:
Why do we keep sending over retired people to handle these situations? Cannot Hillary Clinton or President Obama find anyone who is not at retirement age to handle this problem? Just a thought there, not trying to criticize it; because I doubt John McCain would be able to handle this any better.
This situation with the murder charge just looks bad all around and will most likely hamper our efforts to combat the war on terror and will hinder us from capturing or killing Osama Bin Ladin. Because you cannot capture the bad guys; if you cannot get along with the people where they are hiding.
Again, I have said this a million times here, and I will say it again. Bush handled this whole thing wrong after 9/11. Bush should have went after the Countries that financed the attacks on 9/11. Instead he went after their training grounds, with the assumption that it would be a cakewalk to catch them; and then he went into Iraq, on what we now now to be bad intelligence and also assumed that would be cake walk too — and Afghanistan was left to neglect. As of a result that poor leadership, we now have this mess to contend with. I pity Hillary and even President Obama to a point, they inherited this awful mess and now, they have to make gold, out of a steaming bag of crap. What a mess! I would not want to be in their shoes at all. 🙁
But, that is what happens, when you elect Neo-Conservatives who are on a so-called “Mission from God.” Let this be a lesson to America and to the Republican Party and all who supported and voted for the man. Say what you want, but between the bailouts and his poorly planned war on terror — we find ourselves in a awful mess; both with debt and with foriegn diplomacy.
Egypt’s banned Muslim Brotherhood will apply to become a political party, it announced Tuesday.
The Brotherhood “envisions the establishment of a democratic, civil state that draws on universal measures of freedom and justice, with central Islamic values serving all Egyptians regardless of colour, creed, political trend or religion,” it said in the statement.
Although officially illegal, the Muslim Brotherhood is regarded as one of the most organized groups in Egypt.
As Jim Hoft does rightly point out; The Muslim Brotherhood does want Sharia Law in Egypt and everywhere else in the World. The question is, will they get it? Some say that it is highly doubtful this would actually happen, and some say yes, it could in fact happen. The truth is, nobody really knows; which has Conservatives and the truth be told; everyone in the Pentagon, The White House, and in many Governments in the Arabian peninsula — not to mention Israel.
More than four years after leaving public life, former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld continues to believe the war in Iraq was worth the effort, and has no apologies for his decision-making in leading the campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq.
In an exclusive interview with ABC’s Diane Sawyer, Rumsfeld concedes that “it’s possible” that decisions on how many troops to send into Iraq marked the biggest mistake of the war.
“In a war, many things cost lives,” Rumsfeld told Sawyer.
Pressed on the fact that President Bush has written that cutting troop levels in Iraq was “the most important failure in the execution of the war,” Rumsfeld called that “interesting.”
I do not much care for the man. He is, in my humble opinion, an ignoramus. But he does have his opinions and he is a human being.
Get the Book:
I also highly recommend George W. Bush’s book as well:
