This first video is from Fox. They fired the judge after he did this piece. Telling the truth is not an approved way to operate on television.
This is a really good piece on why the 2 party system is a joke.
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As a parent this drives me completely insane. I don't need the government telling me how to feed my children. Especially if it's the crap they call "healthy" school lunch program.
State Inspectors Searching Children’s Lunch Boxes: “This Isn’t China, Is It?”
A mother in Hoke County complains her daughter was forced to eat a school lunch because a government inspector determined her home-made lunch did not meet nutrition requirements. In fact, all of the students in the NC Pre-K program classroom at West Hoke Elementary School in Raeford had to accept a school lunch in addition to their lunches brought from home.
NC Pre-K (before this year known as More at Four) is a state-funded education program designed to “enhance school readiness” for four year-olds.
The mother, who doesn’t wish to be identified at this time, says she made her daughter a lunch that contained a turkey and cheese sandwich, a banana, apple juice and potato chips. A state inspector assessing the pre-K program at the school said the girl also needed a vegetable, so the inspector ordered a full school lunch tray for her. While the four-year-old was still allowed to eat her home lunch, the girl was forced to take a helping of chicken nuggets, milk, a fruit and a vegetable to supplement her sack lunch.
The mother says the girl was so intimidated by the inspection process that she was too scared to eat all of her homemade lunch. The girl ate only the chicken nuggets provided to her by the school, so she still didn’t eat a vegetable.
The mother says her daughter doesn’t like vegetables and – like most four year olds – will only eat them at home under close supervision.
In an interview with the Civitas Institute the mother said “I can’t put vegetables in her lunchbox. I’m not a millionaire and I’m not going to put something in there that my daughter doesn’t eat and I’ve done gone round and round with the teacher about that and I’ve told her that. I put fruit in there every day because she is a fruit eater. Vegetables, let me take care of my business at home and at night and that’s when I see she’s eating vegetables. I either have to smash it or tell her if you don’t eat your vegetables you’re going to go to bed.”
The mother added, “It’s just a headache to keep arguing and fighting. I’ve even wrote a note to her teachers and said do not give my daughter anything else unless it comes out of her lunchbox and they are still going against me and putting a milk in front of her every day.
“Friday she came home and said ‘Mom, they give me vegetable soup and a milk,’” said the mother.
“So I went to the cafeteria to make sure she had no fee and it’s not being charged to her account yet,” she continued, ” but what concerned me was that I got a letter from the principal and it says students who do not bring a healthy lunch will be offered the missing portions which may result in a fee from the cafeteria. So if I don’t stay on top of her account on a weekly basis there’s that opportunity that charges could be put on her account and then if I let it go too far then it’s like I’m going to have a big battle.”
The principal of West Hoke Elementary, Jackie Samuels, says none of the children’s parents were asked to pay for the school food. While the parents may not have to pay, it was still an expense for the school to provide the extra food. A phone call to the Hoke County Schools Superintendent to inquire as to how much additional expense this would impose on the school was not returned.
The mother, who lives in Fayetteville, sent a statement to state Rep. G.L. Pridgen (R-Robeson) detailing her complaint. Pridgen says he was shocked to hear it. Pridgen has since learned this is a nationwide practice based on federal guidelines.
An assistant to Pridgen says the girl’s grandmother was also upset and asked, “This isn’t China, is it?”
The government inspector was from the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale-Revised program at the FPG Child Development Institute at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The program gives schools a grade based on standards that include USDA meal guidelines enforced by the N.C. Division of Early Childhood Development.
The nutrition standards for pre-K lunch require milk, two servings of fruit or vegetable, bread or grains and a meat or meat alternative. The school didn’t receive a high grade from the January assessment because the home-made lunches didn’t meet those guidelines. The mother points out the only thing on that list her daughter’s home lunch didn’t have was milk, so she doesn’t understand why the girl was given a complete school meal as a supplement.
The mother says her next step is to sit down with the principal and if nothing is done then she plans to go to the school board.
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I really liked Krieger's comment for this video so I decided to just use it.
Warning, do not watch if you just ate breakfast. I mean this video is reprehensible on so many levels. I love how this globalist, immoral, bankster puppet dares to use images of Martin Luther King where in all reality what that great man stood for is in direct contrast to everything this stooge has done. Then how about some of the lines “everyone doing their fair share.” Huh? WTF does that even mean and who decides what someone’s “fair share” is. Then the “we are greater together than we can ever be on our own.” Huh? Everything that has advanced human kind in history has been done by talented individuals. Meanwhile, the biggest wars and genocide have always been created by fascist, statist, control freak thugs like this joke of human being.
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Here is just a good quote from a former President. Why is it we don't hear great things like this from any of our recent Presidents?
“Whoever controls the volume of money in our country is absolute master of all industry and commerce…and when you realize that the entire system is very easily controlled, one way or another, by few powerful men at the top, you will not have to be told how periods of inflation and depression originate.” – President James Garfield, 2 weeks before his assassination.
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The chart below says it all, and right after the biggest financial plunder in U.S. history. Why? They OWN him. From Chris Martenson’s great piece here
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$6 Gas?
Oil is plentiful as new discoveries continue to be made, natural gas exploration and production is up, the dollar has strengthened, it’s an election year, and so gasoline prices are going which direction? Down? Well, no, according to the experts, gasoline prices are rising and could top $6 per gallon by summer.
Each of the above conditions usually results in lower prices at the gas pump. If supply goes up on constant demand, then price should at least remain steady or go down. As new discoveries are made then supply goes up and at constant demand, price should go down. Even as production lags discovery, markets build in the worldwide supply figures. Natural gas production is soaring allowing for cheaper substitution for oil. When the dollar strengthens versus foreign currencies then each dollar buys more quantity of foreign oil and hence prices should go down for the same quantity. Usually election years result in government policies that are neutral for energy prices. So what is going on?
1) Iran has cut off supply to Western Europe as punishment for political stances. This has created increased demand for the remaining world supply from Europe although Iran likely will turn around and sell this supply elsewhere so perhaps this effect is temporary.
2) A possible military attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities could result in a closure of the Strait of Hormuz, the path for 20% of the world’s oil supply. This alone could result in $200 a barrel oil or about a doubling from the current prices. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta believes there is a “strong Likelihood” that military action will happen.
3) If Iran does cut off supply, Venezuela could follow and cut off their supplies to the U.S.
4) There is a shortage for U.S. east coast refinery capacity tied to the closings of several refineries.
5) While the dollar has strengthened versus the Euro, there still is concern that Federal Reserve policies and U.S. deficits will weaken the dollar. Weakness in the dollar feeds upward pressure on commodities like oil that is priced in dollars and thus is at a discount on foreign markets.
6) Storm season is coming again. Every year brings new worries about the potential impact of storms in the Gulf of Mexico on supply operations at sea and refinery operations on land.
7) Supplies from the Alberta oil sands now likely will go to Asia versus the U.S. now that the Keystone XL pipeline project has been stopped.
Last year was the highest priced year ever for gasoline and national averages for a gallon of regular are about $3.50 now. Consensus is that the current situation will result in prices over $4 by spring and any of the other possibilities, especially military action in the Middle East, could easily push gasoline prices to $6. Some people believe that rising gasoline prices are a sign that the economy is strengthening but one sure way to knock the economy back into recession is a $6 or even $4 per gallon gasoline price. And this, in turn, could have an impact on this year’s elections. Stay tuned.
– Steve Odland
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I like this story about Iceland. They fixed their banking issues.
Icelandic Anger Brings Debt Forgiveness in Best Recovery Story
By Omar R. Valdimarsson - Feb 19, 2012 7:01 PM ET
A cyclist passes an Icelandic national flag hanging in a popular shopping street in Reykjavik, Iceland. Photographer: Paul Taggart/Bloomberg
Icelanders who pelted parliament with rocks in 2009 demanding their leaders and bankers answer for the country’s economic and financial collapse are reaping the benefits of their anger.
Since the end of 2008, the island’s banks have forgiven loans equivalent to 13 percent of gross domestic product, easing the debt burdens of more than a quarter of the population, according to a report published this month by the Icelandic Financial Services Association.
“You could safely say that Iceland holds the world record in household debt relief,” said Lars Christensen, chief emerging markets economist at Danske Bank A/S in Copenhagen. “Iceland followed the textbook example of what is required in a crisis. Any economist would agree with that.”
The island’s steps to resurrect itself since 2008, when its banks defaulted on $85 billion, are proving effective. Iceland’s economy will this year outgrow the euro area and the developed world on average, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development estimates. It costs about the same to insure against an Icelandic default as it does to guard against a credit event in Belgium. Most polls now show Icelanders don’t want to join the European Union, where the debt crisis is in its third year.
The island’s households were helped by an agreement between the government and the banks, which are still partly controlled by the state, to forgive debt exceeding 110 percent of home values. On top of that, a Supreme Court ruling in June 2010 found loans indexed to foreign currencies were illegal, meaning households no longer need to cover krona losses.
Crisis Lessons
“The lesson to be learned from Iceland’s crisis is that if other countries think it’s necessary to write down debts, they should look at how successful the 110 percent agreement was here,” said Thorolfur Matthiasson, an economics professor at the University of Iceland in Reykjavik, in an interview. “It’s the broadest agreement that’s been undertaken.”
Without the relief, homeowners would have buckled under the weight of their loans after the ratio of debt to incomes surged to 240 percent in 2008, Matthiasson said.
Iceland’s $13 billion economy, which shrank 6.7 percent in 2009, grew 2.9 percent last year and will expand 2.4 percent this year and next, the Paris-based OECD estimates. The euro area will grow 0.2 percent this year and the OECD area will expand 1.6 percent, according to November estimates.
Housing, measured as a subcomponent in the consumer price index, is now only about 3 percent below values in September 2008, just before the collapse. Fitch Ratings last week raised Iceland to investment grade, with a stable outlook, and said the island’s “unorthodox crisis policy response has succeeded.”
People Vs Markets
Iceland’s approach to dealing with the meltdown has put the needs of its population ahead of the markets at every turn.
Once it became clear back in October 2008 that the island’s banks were beyond saving, the government stepped in, ring-fenced the domestic accounts, and left international creditors in the lurch. The central bank imposed capital controls to halt the ensuing sell-off of the krona and new state-controlled banks were created from the remnants of the lenders that failed.
Activists say the banks should go even further in their debt relief. Andrea J. Olafsdottir, chairman of the Icelandic Homes Coalition, said she doubts the numbers provided by the banks are reliable.
“There are indications that some of the financial institutions in question haven’t lost a penny with the measures that they’ve undertaken,” she said.
Fresh Demands
According to Kristjan Kristjansson, a spokesman for Landsbankinn hf, the amount written off by the banks is probably larger than the 196.4 billion kronur ($1.6 billion) that the Financial Services Association estimates, since that figure only includes debt relief required by the courts or the government.
“There are still a lot of people facing difficulties; at the same time there are a lot of people doing fine,” Kristjansson said. “It’s nearly impossible to say when enough is enough; alongside every measure that is taken, there are fresh demands for further action.”
As a precursor to the global Occupy Wall Street movement and austerity protests across Europe, Icelanders took to the streets after the economic collapse in 2008. Protests escalated in early 2009, forcing police to use teargas to disperse crowds throwing rocks at parliament and the offices of then Prime Minister Geir Haarde. Parliament is still deciding whether to press ahead with an indictment that was brought against him in September 2009 for his role in the crisis.
A new coalition, led by Social Democrat Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir, was voted into office in early 2009. The authorities are now investigating most of the main protagonists of the banking meltdown.
Legal Aftermath
Iceland’s special prosecutor has said it may indict as many as 90 people, while more than 200, including the former chief executives at the three biggest banks, face criminal charges.
Larus Welding, the former CEO of Glitnir Bank hf, once Iceland’s second biggest, was indicted in December for granting illegal loans and is now waiting to stand trial. The former CEO of Landsbanki Islands hf, Sigurjon Arnason, has endured stints of solitary confinement as his criminal investigation continues.
That compares with the U.S., where no top bank executives have faced criminal prosecution for their roles in the subprime mortgage meltdown. The Securities and Exchange Commission said last year it had sanctioned 39 senior officers for conduct related to the housing market meltdown.
The U.S. subprime crisis sent home prices plunging 33 percent from a 2006 peak. While households there don’t face the same degree of debt relief as that pushed through in Iceland, President Barack Obama this month proposed plans to expand loan modifications, including some principal reductions.
According to Christensen at Danske Bank, “the bottom line is that if households are insolvent, then the banks just have to go along with it, regardless of the interests of the banks.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Omar R. Valdimarsson in Reykjavik valdimarsson@bloomberg.net.
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Here is a good report on Microsoft from Stansberry Research. It's amazing that you can overlook good companies because they aren't flashy.
Today, Microsoft is a bit more popular than when I first found it and certainly more than it was last fall. Microsoft is up 31% since Thanksgiving. It's up 4%, not including a $0.20 quarterly dividend, since Porter's February 10 recommendation. We may soon see shares of this technology giant soar even higher… According to Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Holt, Microsoft insiders – including CEO Steve Ballmer and founder Bill Gates – will soon own less than 10% of the company. (Gates sells around 20 million Microsoft shares per quarter to diversify his portfolio and raise cash.)
Holt believes the index discounts Microsoft's value by 12% because of the high insider ownership. When insider ownership drops below 10%, Standard and Poor's will add more Microsoft stock to the index… And so will every index fund in the country. This isn't a reason to make a long-term investment. We've been giving you those reasons for the last six years. But if you're looking for a reason for the stock to perform well in the near term, buying by index funds might give it a lift.
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