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We didn't get a flying car, but it looks like they got mighty close. 
Built by the Old GM, designed by ... NASA? These look ready to launch! 
Today's tail lights don't have anywhere near this much attitude.
http://www.flickriver.com/groups/1959-cadillac/pool/interesting/
Can you even build something like this, anymore? Legally?
And today's gas costs a lot more than 31 cents per gallon.
The unbrilliant Bill-O, on sabre rattling towards Iran
Yes, that CME.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/12/us-cme-tax-idUSTRE7BB1V620111212
(from Reuters)
The legislation would give the CME an $85 million tax break from the state of Illinois, as lawmakers seek to keep the biggest U.S. futures exchange operator from leaving Chicago, its long-time home.
The bill, which was passed in an 81-28 vote, also extends a $15 million yearly tax break to retail company Sears.
The Illinois Senate, which passed similar legislation earlier this year, is due to consider the bill on Tuesday. Illinois Governor Pat Quinn has said he would sign the bill into law if it passes both bodies.
CME, which employs 2,000 people in the state, and Sears, which employs about 6,000, had threatened to leave Illinois after the cash-strapped state in January raised corporate tax rates to 7 percent from 4.8 percent, along with individual rates.
The bill allows CME to count just 27.5 percent of its transactions as Illinois revenue, exempting the majority from state taxes.
Nine Internet godfathers have taken out full-page ads in the New York Times, saying SOPA is an offer they will refuse. Founders of giants like Yahoo, eBay, Google and Netscape claim the bill will “undermine the framework” of free expression.
The bill is (allegedly 
) intended to crack down on websites operating outside the United States. If passed, the legislation would allow the US government to shut down any site illegally hosting copyrighted content. Lawmakers behind the Stop Online Piracy Act say it would deal a blow to online pirates and producers of counterfeit brand products like designer fashion items or medicine.
But the signatories, who include top men and women from services like Wikipedia, PayPal, Flickr, LinkedIn and YouTube, believe that online services would be required to monitor what users link to and upload, which would have a "chilling effect on innovation."
They also insist that the bill would give Washington Internet censorship rights similar to “China, Malaysia and Iran” and are urging Congress not to risk the “tremendous benefits the Internet has brought to hundreds of millions of Americans and people around the world.” And it seems their collective voice is being heard, as both Democrats and Republicans in the US have decided to oppose the bill. From Ron Paul to Nancy Pelosi, more and more politicians are adopting an anti-SOPA stance.
(Full article)
So, now you're not even worth bothering to send one piece of paper to?
Just give Uncle Scam your money and hope his data doesn't break or get "misplaced".
Come Jan. 1, 2012 they will no longer be sold at bank counters or through mail-order.
Instead, the U.S. Treasury Department will only offer electronic versions of Series EE and I bonds.
"The cost-cutting move is expected to save $70 million in printing, storage, mailing and processing fees over the next five years. "
http://www.silive.com/news/index.ssf/2011/11/savings_bonds_going_paperless.html
$70 MM over 5 years? 
I know where they can save a few trillion, right now. 
It's badly behaving people at the bottom that give bad intentioned people at the top political cover.
http://www.wday.com/event/article/id/11475/publisher_ID/30/
Predator Drone Was Used in Brossart Arrests (from WDAY)
Armed with a search warrant, Nelson County Sheriff Kelly Janke went looking for six missing cows on the Brossart family farm in the early evening of June 23. Three men brandishing rifles chased him off, he said.
Janke knew the gunmen could be anywhere on the 3,000-acre spread in eastern North Dakota. Fearful of an armed standoff, he called in reinforcements from the state Highway Patrol, a regional SWAT team, a bomb squad, ambulances and deputy sheriffs from three other counties.
He also called in a Predator B drone.
As the unmanned aircraft circled 2 miles overhead the next morning, sophisticated sensors under the nose helped pinpoint the three suspects and showed they were unarmed. Police rushed in and made the first known arrests of U.S. citizens with help from a Predator, the spy drone that has helped revolutionize modern warfare.
But that was just the start. Local police say they have used two unarmed Predators based at Grand Forks Air Force Base to fly at least two dozen surveillance flights since June. The FBI and Drug Enforcement Administration have used Predators for other domestic investigations, officials said.
"We don't use (drones) on every call out," said Bill Macki, head of the police SWAT team in Grand Forks. "If we have something in town like an apartment complex, we don't call them."
The drones belong to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which operates eight Predators on the country's northern and southwestern borders to search for illegal immigrants and smugglers. The previously unreported use of its drones to assist local, state and federal law enforcement has occurred without any public acknowledgment or debate.
Congress first authorized Customs and Border Protection to buy unarmed Predators in 2005. Officials in charge of the fleet cite broad authority to work with police from budget requests to Congress that cite "interior law enforcement support" as part of their mission.
In an interview, Michael C. Kostelnik, a retired Air Force general who heads the office that supervises the drones, said Predators are flown "in many areas around the country, not only for federal operators, but also for state and local law enforcement and emergency responders in times of crisis."
But former Rep. Jane Harman, D-Calif., who sat on the House homeland security intelligence subcommittee at the time and served as its chairwoman from 2007 until early this year, said no one ever discussed using Predators to help local police serve warrants or do other basic work.
Using Predators for routine law enforcement without public debate or clear legal authority is a mistake, Harman said.
"There is no question that this could become something that people will regret," said Harman, who resigned from the House in February and now heads the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, a Washington think tank.
In 2008 and 2010, Harman helped beat back efforts by Homeland Security officials to use imagery from military satellites to help domestic terrorism investigations. Congress blocked the proposal on grounds it would violate the Posse Comitatus Act, which bars the military from taking a police role on U.S. soil.
Proponents say the high-resolution cameras, heat sensors and sophisticated radar on the border protection drones can help track criminal activity in the United States, just as the CIA uses Predators and other drones to spy on militants in Pakistan, nuclear sites in Iran and other targets around the globe.
For decades, U.S. courts have allowed law enforcement to conduct aerial surveillance without a warrant. They have ruled that what a person does in the open, even behind a backyard fence, can be seen from a passing airplane and is not protected by privacy laws.
Advocates say Predators are simply more effective than other planes. Flying out of earshot and out of sight, a Predator B can watch a target for 20 hours nonstop, far longer than any police helicopter or manned aircraft.
"I am for the use of drones," said Howard Safir, former head of operations for the U.S. Marshals Service and former New York City police commissioner. He said drones could help police in manhunts, hostage situations and other difficult cases.
But privacy advocates say drones help police snoop on citizens in ways that push current law to the breaking point.
"Any time you have a tool like that in the hands of law enforcement that makes it easier to do surveillance, they will do more of it," said Ryan Calo, director for privacy and robotics at the Stanford Law School's Center for Internet and Society.
"This could be a time when people are uncomfortable, and they want to place limits on that technology," he said. "It could make us question the doctrine that you do not have privacy in public."
In North Dakota, Janke learned about the Predators last spring after local law enforcement was invited to a briefing on how two Customs and Border Protection drones based at the Grand Forks air base could assist police. He immediately saw advantages.
"We don't have to go in guns blazing," the sheriff said in a telephone interview. "We can take our time and methodically plan out what our approach should be."
Macki, head of the regional SWAT team, decided drones were ideal for spotting suspects in the vast prairie, where grassy plains stretch to the horizon except for trees planted to stem erosion from the winds.
"Anything where we need an advantage, we try to give them a call," said Macki, who declined to specify how often or where he has used the Predators.
"We are very fortunate to have them in our area willing to assist us."
The first known use was June 23 after Janke drove up to the Brossart farm with a search warrant for cattle that supposedly had strayed from a neighboring ranch. The sheriff says he was ordered off the property at gunpoint.
The six adult Brossarts allegedly belonged to the Sovereign Citizen Movement, an antigovernment group that the FBI considers extremist and violent. The family had repeated run-ins with local police, including the arrest of two family members earlier that day arising from their clash with a deputy over the cattle.
Janke requested help from the drone unit, explaining that an armed standoff was under way. A Predator was flying back from a routine 10-hour patrol along the Canadian border from North Dakota to Montana. It carried extra fuel, so a pilot sitting in a trailer in Grand Forks turned the aircraft south to fly over the farm, about 60 miles from the border.
For four hours, the Predator circled 10,000 feet above the farm. Parked on a nearby road, Janke and the other officers watched live drone video and thermal images of Alex, Thomas and Jacob Brossart - and their mother, Susan - on a hand-held device with a 4-inch screen.
The glowing green images showed people carrying what appeared to be long rifles moving behind farm equipment and other barriers.
The sheriff feared they were preparing an ambush, and he decided to withdraw until daybreak. The Predator flew back to its hangar.
At 7 a.m. the next day, the Predator launched again and flew back to the farm. The drone crew was determined to help avoid a bloody confrontation. No one wanted another Ruby Ridge, the 1992 shootout between the FBI and a family in rural Idaho that killed a 14-year-old boy, a woman and a deputy U.S. marshal.
This time, Janke watched the live Predator feed from his office computer, using a password-protected government website called Big Pipe.
Around 10 a.m., the video showed the three Brossart brothers riding all-terrain vehicles toward a decommissioned Minuteman ballistic missile site at the edge of their property.
The sensor operator in Grand Forks switched to thermal mode, and the image indicated the three men were unarmed.
Janke signaled the SWAT team to move in and make the arrests. No shots were fired.
A search of the property turned up four rifles, two shotguns, assorted bows and arrows and a samurai sword, according to court records. Police also found the six missing cows, valued at $6,000.
Rodney Brossart, his daughter Abby and his three sons face a total of 11 felony charges, including bail jumping and terrorizing a sheriff, as well as a misdemeanor count against Rodney involving the stray cattle. All have been released on bail.
Calls to Rodney Brossart were not returned Saturday. The family is believed to still be living on the farm.
If this outfit ran a golf course, the balls wouldn't fly straight. 
First, no Indy Pace Car, now this. 
At least he's kept us entertained for the year.
http://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/politics/10195-trump-cancels-debate-claiming-republicans-blackmailed-him
http://www.drudge.com/news/151359/trump-cancels-own-debate
Colbert has some fun with it.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/14/colbert-trump-debate_n_1148403.html
This article just seems odd, now.
http://www.newsmax.com/Viguerie/Ron-Paul-Trump-Debate/2011/12/07/id/420296
It's a "mistake" to decline an invitation to a party that winds up getting cancelled?
Sounds like good foresight to me.
Maybe they couldn't find any domestic videos to swap the footage on?
They do things like this way too often to call it "error" & "honest mistake", anymore.
They're not dumb, they're simply liars.
Oath Keepers has learned that federal agents recently visited a Later Day Saints (Mormon) Church food storage cannery in Tennessee, demanding customer lists, wanting to know the identity of Americans who are purchasing food storage from the Mormons.
This incident was confirmed, in person, by Oath Keepers Tennessee Chapter President, Rand Cardwell. Here is Rand’s report:
http://www.libertynewsonline.com/article_330_31328.php#
In other news:
The Metro Public Health and the Tennessee Department of Health will be using a tool designed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to go door to door and check to see how disaster ready you are.
http://www.newschannel5.com/story/15948523/door-to-door-assessment-for-disaster-preparedness
Yeah. Right. 
In the event of an actual ee-merge-gen-see, they'll know where to go to "help" ... themselves.
:taps microphone: Is this thing on?
Dec 2, 2011
The cabinet agreed to transfer the assets from four of Portugal’s biggest banks to the state balance sheet.
The assets will be used to bridge a gap needed to meet the fiscal deficit target of 5.9pc of GDP set by the terms of the country’s €78bn bail-out from around 10pc in 2010.
"This measure is more than sufficient to meet the budget deficit goal in 2011," said Helder Rosalino, secretary of state for central administration, on Friday.
Portugal said it had informed the EU and IMF and assured them it would be a “one-off”. However the 2010 budget was met by shifting three pension plans from Portugal Telecom on to the public social security system. The liabilities don’t count, yet.
There have been no complaints from Eurostat but Raoul Ruperal from Open Europe said: “This can’t be seen as a future revenue stream in any way.”
Dimon eyes clawback
Chase leads block of MF distribution
Mf Global’s burned commodity customers turned their ire from Jon Corzine to Jamie Dimon yesterday after MF’s creditor committee, led by Dimon’s JPMorgan Chase, objected to a plan to distribute $2.1 billion to customers who have seen their accounts frozen since Halloween.
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/dimon_eyes_clawback_kREEfrYWIbA84Om6j2kKmK
As Karl Denninger explains in (much more) polite (than I would use) english -- Even if it turns out that your funds as a customer were stolen through a rank violation of the segregation that is supposed to be in place, JP Morgan and Bank of America, among others, want to be able to claw back your money should their claims against the bankrupt entity prove up. http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=198641
--------------------------
Denninger continues:
I want to make absolutely sure it doesn't go over your head because if you're wrong about this you could lose everything in your bank and investment accounts -- every single dime.
FDIC / SIPC insured or not.
Recently Bank of America transferred a bunch of derivatives into their banking arm. "A bunch" means somewhere around $80 trillion worth.
Now pay very careful attention, because part of the bankruptcy "reform" law in 2005 placed derivative claims in front of depositors in a business failure - including a bank failure.
http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=198650
--------------------------
If that sounds familiar, it's because...
Bank depositors 2nd in line to their own money
https://www.lotterypost.com/blogentry/59775
Get. out. of. paper.
If you can't stand in front of it and defend it, you don't have it.
Madoff's customers/victims still have their account ... statements.
How Politicians and Their Friends Get Rich Off Insider Stock Tips, Land Deals, and Cronyism That Would Send the Rest of Us to Prison (audio interview)
Yes, he provides names.
http://www.booknotes.org/Watch/6735-1/Judy+Shelton.aspx (video interview and transcript)
Judy Shelton, author of "The Coming Soviet Crash," analyzed the condition of the Soviet economy. Due to its emphasis on military spending, the Soviets have neglected all other areas of their economic development and thus face a crisis. This crisis is so grave, Shelton said, that the collapse of the Soviet system is imminent.
She was the lone voice saying the Soviets had to be running deficits, while the "experts" were all saying "surplus". Sound familiar?
The book came out in 1989. She was mostly ignored, at first. You know the rest...
Interview runs an hour, gets really interesting between 11:00 and 21:00
Ann Barnhardt: The Entire Futures/Options Market Has Been Destroyed by the MF Global Collapse (Dec 2)
(interview, audio & text)
‘Going Galt’: Hedge Broker Shuts Down Firm With Chilling Letter About the Market (Nov 18)
