2011 Apr 25 - Headline News

(NaturalNews) In a new video posted today (link below), I argue that using police officers to enforce a Big Pharma medication agenda is not merely a violation of civil rights, but a crime against human rights. It is a grave misuse of state power and a waste of law enforcement resources that are already stretched thin across the country.

The full video is available at:
http://naturalnews.tv/v.asp?v=97774…

The video concerns the case of Maryanne Godboldo, the Detroit mom who was raided at gunpoint after refusing to allow Child Protective Services to kidnap her daughter. What was Maryanne’s supposed “failure” at parenting? She refused to give her daughter a psychiatric medication prescribed by her doctor — a medication that even the state now admits the daughter didn’t need.

[more...]
http://wichitaobserver.com/using-police-to-enforce-a-big-pharma-medication-agenda-is-a-violation-of-civil-rights-and-a-waste-of-good-cops.html

If you want to know why the price of oil is soaring it is certainly not demand, and blaming this on "speculators" is just a diversion. Place the blame squarely on the Obama administration's domestic fiscal and monetary policy where it belongs.

If you overlay the dollar index and oil price on a time cure it is easy to see that rise in the price of oil can be at least 2/3 attributable to the dollar decline.

Add the anti-oil stance of the Obama administration, the blocking of off shore exploration and drilling, and a good deal of what you pay at the pump. The remainder is probably attributable to geo-political instability and related issues.

[more...]
http://www.highplainspundit.com/2011/04/higher-gas-prices-promise-obama-has.html

The Federal Reserve has been over-printing dollars. It's called an easy-money, weak-dollar policy. It's driven by the false belief that a weak dollar will improve the U.S. balance of trade. It only erodes the value of the dollar.

Think of it this way, the number of dollars printed in a year should be roughly equivalent to the value that an economy creates in that year--let's call it the sum of all profits in all companies. If you print more dollars than that, you aren't creating more value, just more currency.

That excess currency has consequences, including that it is used to purchase goods. Since the value created--the true purchasing power--is less than the currency created, something has to give. Prices go up, meaning that the value of the dollar goes down; inflation, in other words.

This excess currency is also invested.

Since interest rates are low in the United States, the excess dollars have been flowing overseas seeking higher returns. That has caused inflation in food and oil, which are traded in dollars, and caused unrest across the world. That's why some countries are raising interest rates and restricting inflows of currency. The IMF has just backed such a policy, for the first time, because of the Fed's profligacy.

The dollar also is subject to a separate set of effects due to its status as the major international trading and reserve currency.

Investors buy it for safety and also to balance trades they make in other asset classes like commodities. They also trade currencies against each other, betting on which ones will go up and which will go down.

[more....]
http://www.highplainspundit.com/2011/04/decline-of-american-dollar.html

Senator Tom Coburn gives a sobering critique of the pesidents debt reduction plan.

http://disruptthenarrative.wordpress.com/2011/04/17/%E2%80%9Cunfortunately-the-president-failed-to-put-a-serious-proposal-on-the-table-%E2%80%9D-%E2%80%93-senator-tom-coburn/

Douglas Holtz-Eakin, American Action Forum, President gives his opinion on President Obama’s and House Republicans’ budget proposals. as well as the political and economic realities in the debate over spending reduction. Holtz-Eakin was a former Director for the Congressional Budget Office from 2003-05. Holtz-Eakin appeared on Cspan Washington Journal on 4/14.

Here Holtz-Eakin discusses the Ryan Plan.

http://disruptthenarrative.wordpress.com/2011/04/19/compare-and-contrast-former-cbo-head-analyzes-ryan-plan-vs-obama-non-plan/

More Steve Wynn on Cavuto last night.

http://disruptthenarrative.wordpress.com/2011/04/20/disingenuous-is-a-fancy-word-for-lying/

The College Republican National Committee (CRNC) is launching a television ad in Iowa this week with the goal of energizing young voters to get involved in the political process in a state that will host the first electoral contest of the presidential primary season.

Unlike typical political ads, the CRNC spot features pop culture references and an upbeat tempo with young people asking viewers about the $5 trillion per decade interest on the national debt. It calls on Iowa’s college students to ask presidential candidates, who will be courting their state’s voters over the coming months, what their plan is to fix the deficit?

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2011/04/25/college-republicans-ramp-up-youth-voter-targeting-efforts-with-new-ad-in-iowa/#ixzz1KaESnNBb

Times/USC Dornsife poll: California voters want public employees to help ease state's financial troubles

A cap on pensions and a later retirement age - even for current public employees - are supported by the poll's respondents.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-poll-pensions-20110425,0,2397255.story

Despite increasing signs of a stabilizing U.S. economy, 19 percent of Americans -- including 17 percent of full-time workers -- have been compelled to take money from their retirement savings in the last year to cover urgent financial needs, the Financial Security Index found.

Though 80 percent of full-time workers didn't dip into retirement funds, far too many consumers are ill-prepared for emergencies, says Kim McGrigg, manager of community and media relations at Money Management International, a credit counseling agency.

http://lauraingraham.com/b/Obamanomics:-More-Americans-raiding-their-retirement-funds/551739095420948497.html

What’s wrong with this picture? We can’t drill for offshore oil in the United States, but we can give billions of dollars to Brazil so they can build one. We haven’t built a refinery in the United States since 1976, but we can give Colombia $2.84 billion so they can build one.

CSN News reports the completely inexplicable details of the pissing away of another few billion of your tax dollars:

The U.S. Export-Import Bank, an independent agency of the federal government, is now planning a $2.84-billion loan for a massive project to expand and upgrade an oil refinery–in Cartagena, Colombia.

The money would go to Reficar, a wholly owned subsidiary of Ecopetrol, the Colombian national oil company.

“This is part of a $5.18 billion refinery and upgrade project in Cartagena, Colombia supplying petroleum products to the domestic and export markets,” the Export-Import Bank said in a statement.

The U.S. government-controlled bank says the $2.84-billion in financing it plans to undertake will be the second largest project it has ever done. The largest was $3 billion in financing for a liquid natural gas project in Papua New Guinea.

[more....]
http://www.ihatethemedia.com/were-giving-columbia-2-84-billion-for-oil-refinery

Paul Krugman’s “Sickening” Attempt to Ration Health Care

t’s been far too long since I’ve had a good Krugman-bashing column. For those of you who don’t read regularly enough to understand that first sentence, first off, why not!?!?, and secondly, it’s become a mini-hobby of ours to read and dispel the myths that uber-liberal economist and columnist Paul Krugman attempts to pass off as fact. Just how long has it been? Well, if our count is right then it’s been since October and a lot has happened since then. Republicans took the House, protesters shook the Middle East, Prince William and Kate Middleton reigned the tabloids, and Rebecca Black was the bane of the internet.

In other words, we’re due for another Krugman-centric column. Fortunately, the Nobel-winner turned fallacy-spinner always provides some sort of ridiculousness deserving of our attention. This week’s “it-would-be-funny-if-liberals-didn’t-take-him-deathly-serious” comment by Krugman was this:

Here’s my question: How did it become normal, or for that matter even acceptable, to refer to medical patients as “consumers”? The relationship between patient and doctor used to be considered something special, almost sacred. Now politicians and supposed reformers talk about the act of receiving care as if it were no different from a commercial transaction, like buying a car — and their only complaint is that it isn’t commercial enough.

What has gone wrong with us?

[more....]
http://speakout.crnc.org/blog/2011/04/24/paul-krugmans-sickening-attempt-to-ration-health-care/

Atlas Productions, a motion picture studio, announced this week that "Atlas Shrugged: Part I," the first ever big screen adaptation of Ayn Rand's epic novel, will be expanding from 300 to nearly 1,000 theaters nationwide.

See where the film is playing near you>> http://7.send-list.com/click/member/1195/5/

Although almost universally dismissed by Hollywood critics, "Atlas Shrugged: Part I" was the top-grossing limited release of the weekend, earning an average $5,600 per screen, according to BoxOfficeMojo.com, which compiles theater revenue figures. Compared with other opening weekends, "Atlas Shrugged: Part I" was second in total per screen sales behind "Rio."

"The film performed in line with our expectations, but we were surprised by the ovations to the movie that we've been hearing about. Our fans are embracing the message and responding to the cinematic experience," said Harmon Kaslow, a producer of the film. "Despite the continued attacks from the mainstream, our audience is on fire for this movie and will not be deterred."

This Day in History:

Apr 25, 1947:
Truman inaugurates White House bowling alley

President Harry S. Truman officially opens the first White House bowling alley on this day in 1947. The two-lane bowling alley, situated in the West Wing, had been constructed earlier that year.

According to Smithsonian Magazine, a group of Truman's fellow Missourians funded the construction of the bowling alley in honor of the president. They had intended to open the alley as part of Truman's 63rd birthday celebration on May 8, but construction was completed ahead of schedule. Truman's favorite pastime was poker and although he had not bowled since he was a teenager, he gamely hoisted the first ball, knocking down 7 out of 10 pins. One of the pins is now on display at the Smithsonian Institution.

Truman did not use the alley much himself, but supported a group of White House employees in forming a White House Bowling League in 1950. Teams included Secret Service agents, household staff, secretaries, switchboard operators and groundskeepers. The teams competed in tournaments across the country; many opponents were surprised to discover that the players were from the real White House.

Eisenhower closed the alley in 1955 and turned it into a mimeograph room. Later, another alley was opened next door in the Old Executive Office Building (now the Eisenhower Building), which President Johnson and his wife Lady Bird used frequently. Nixon used that second bowling alley until he had an additional one-lane alley installed underground directly beneath the North Portico entrance of the White House.

Bowling is just one of the many recreational facilities presidents have enjoyed the use of at the White House--over the years, the presidential residence has also been outfitted with putting greens, swimming pools, a jogging track, a tennis court and a pool table.

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/truman-inaugurates-white-house-bowling-alley