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"Dirty Secret No. 1 in Obamacare

This is one little tidbit I just became aware of.

__________

Tuesday, August 11, 2009
"Dirty Secret No. 1 in Obamacare
by Chuck Norris
Source TownHall.com

"Health care reforms are turning into health care revolts. Americans are turning up the heat on congressmen in town hall meetings across the U.S.

While watching these political hot August nights, I decided to research the reasons so many are opposed to Obamacare to separate the facts from the fantasy. What I discovered is that there are indeed dirty little secrets buried deep within the 1,000-plus page health care bill.

Dirty secret No. 1 in Obamacare is about the government's coming into homes and usurping parental rights over child care and development.

It's outlined in sections 440 and 1904 of the House bill (Page 838), under the heading "home visitation programs for families with young children and families expecting children." The programs (provided via grants to states) would educate parents on child behavior and parenting skills.

The bill says that the government agents, "well-trained and competent staff," would "provide parents with knowledge of age-appropriate child development in cognitive, language, social, emotional, and motor domains ... modeling, consulting, and coaching on parenting practices," and "skills to interact with their child to enhance age-appropriate development."

Are you kidding me?! With whose parental principles and values? Their own? Certain experts'? From what field and theory of childhood development? As if there are one-size-fits-all parenting techniques! Do we really believe they would contextualize and personalize every form of parenting in their education, or would they merely universally indoctrinate with their own?

Are we to assume the state's mediators would understand every parent's social or religious core values on parenting? Or would they teach some secular-progressive and religiously neutered version of parental values and wisdom? And if they were to consult and coach those who expect babies, would they ever decide circumstances to be not beneficial for the children and encourage abortions?

One government rebuttal is that this program would be "voluntary." Is that right? Does that imply that this agency would just sit back passively until some parent needing parenting skills said, "I don't think I'll call my parents, priest or friends or read a plethora of books, but I'll go down to the local government offices"? To the contrary, the bill points to specific targeted groups and problems, on Page 840: The state "shall identify and prioritize serving communities that are in high need of such services, especially communities with a high proportion of low-income families."

Are we further to conclude by those words that low-income families know less about parenting? Are middle- and upper-class parents really better parents? Less neglectful of their children? Less needful of parental help and training? Is this "prioritized" training not a biased, discriminatory and even prejudicial stereotype and generalization that has no place in federal government, law or practice?

Bottom line: Is all this what you want or expect in a universal health care bill being rushed through Congress? Do you want government agents coming into your home and telling you how to parent your children? When did government health care turn into government child care?

Government needs less of a role in running our children's lives and more of a role in supporting parents' decisions for their children. Children belong to their parents, not the government. And the parents ought to have the right -- and government support -- to parent them without the fed's mandates, education or intervention in our homes.

Kids are very important to my wife, Gena, and me. That's why we've spent the past 17 years developing our nonprofit KICKSTART program in public schools in Texas. It builds up their self-esteem and teaches them respect and discipline. Of course, whether or not they participate in the program is their and their parents' choice.

How contrary is Obamacare's home intrusion and indoctrination family services, in which state agents prioritize houses to enter and enforce their universal values and principles upon the hearts and minds of families across America?

Government's real motives and rationale are quite simple, though rarely, if ever, stated. If one wants to control the future ebbs and flows of a country, one must have command over future generations. That is done by seizing parental and educational power, legislating preferred educational methods and materials, and limiting private educational options. It is so simple that any socialist can understand it. As Josef Stalin once stated, "Education is a weapon whose effects depend on who holds it in his hands and at whom it is aimed."

Before so-called universal health care turns into universal hell care, write or call your representative today and protest his voting Obamacare into law. Remind him that what is needed in Washington is a truly bipartisan group that is allowed an ample amount of time to work on a compromise health care law that wouldn't raise taxes (for anyone), regulate personal medical choices, ration health care or restrict American citizens."

http://townhall.com/columnists/ChuckNorris/2009/08/11/dirty_secret_no_1_in_obamacare

Entry #1,307

"Monetization And Bernanke Perjury? - The Market Ticker

"Monetization And Bernanke Perjury?

Karl Denninger

Source MarketTicker.org

"This was apparently first broken by Brian Benton, not Chris Martenson; the original link was to a Financial Sense article (of which I was unaware.)

http://financialsense.com/fsu/editorials/2009/0804.html

All the previous comments in my other post, however, still apply - here it is in video....

There is also evidence showing up that this was not the first purchase of essentially "as-issued" bonds, especially in the 7-year duration.  I am looking into this and will attempt to quantify the percentage of "support" that is in fact monetization, irrespective of what Bernanke said in front of Congress."

http://market-ticker.org/archives/1305-Monetization-And-Bernanke-Perjury.html

Entry #1,306

"How Obama Is Pitting Americans Against Each Other

Found this commentary via another site.  Two quoted articles posted.

Amazing how the posted video seems to say sit down and shut up only I know what's best for you .... it's a done deal except for signing.

___________

"How Obama Is Pitting Americans Against Each Other

August, 8, 2009 — nicedeb

Source Nicedeb

"From page 31 of  Generating Social Capital, a scholarly  look at civil society and institutions:

Repressive governments disturb civic development in two major ways; First, they discourage spontaneous group activity, and second, they discourage trust. Even though totalitarian governments, such as communist regimes, mobilize civil society through party, and other governmental organizations, association is always state controlled, and not always voluntary. Generally, authoritarian, and totalitarian governments seem partially to build on their strength on the foundation of distrust among their citizens. A good example of this can be found in the activities of the German Democratic Republic’s state-secret police which pitted citizens against each other, and provoked tight social control of friends, neighbors, and colleagues, and even within families.

I found that by googling, “pitting citizens against each other”, not sure of what I’d find, but having a hunch, because for the first time in my life, and perhaps in our nation’s history, we have a President who is actively mobilizing certain groups of citizens (SEIU, ACORN, OFA) against certain other groups, and it’s absolutely staggering. He commanded his minions during the campaign to “get in their faces”, and now, even as President, he is still in campaign mode.

Obama sans teleprompter, obviously speaking off the cuff, because what speechwriter would write such words for a President to say?:

Here, the President of the United States is fomenting distrust amongst the citizenry. Some of us, he argues, are not worthy of being listening to. Some of us should just get out the way.

ObamaCare is opposed by a majority of Americans, now, because we know it’s not financially sustainable, it can’t be without draconian cuts in service. We know that Obama means for his plan to lead to a single payer, universal  plan, which the vast majority of Americans oppose. So the Obama administration and the Dems fight the opposition deploying classic Alinsky tactics:

RULE 5: “Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon.” There is no defense. It’s irrational. It’s infuriating. It also works as a key pressure point to force the enemy into concessions. (Call your enemies “tea baggers”, rednecks, for instance).

RULE 6: “A good tactic is one your people enjoy.” They’ll keep doing it without urging and come back to do more. They’re doing their thing, and will even suggest better ones. (Union thugs love intimidating and busting heads…)

RULE 8: “Keep the pressure on. Never let up.” Keep trying new things to keep the opposition off balance. As the opposition masters one approach, hit them from the flank with something new. (Urge fellow citizens to report “fishy” emails and websites to WH ).

RULE 9: “The threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself.” Imagination and ego can dream up many more consequences than any activist. (What might they do with those email and IP addresses? What will the union thugs do at the next town hall?)

RULE 12: Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.” Cut off the support network and isolate the target from sympathy. Go after people and not institutions; people hurt faster than institutions. ( Rush Limbaugh,   “astroturfing teabaggers”).

And the unwritten rule that all good leftists follow: Accuse the enemy of what you yourself do. 

Liberal Dems are accusing the rag tag, genuinely grassroots, and passionate conservative dissenters, the vast majority of whom have never protested anything in their lives, people who would much rather be at home with their families, of “astroturfing”. These are people who have been provoked out of their comfort zones because they see their freedom, Democracy, and the American way of life, slipping away, and they refuse to let it go without putting up a fight.

Liberal Democrats are of course, masters of astroturfing, or manufactured, fake grassroots. That’s why at their protests and rallies, you see pre-printed signs (who paid for those), and often paid for, bused in protesters/supporters, whatever the case may be.

That’s why you see Obama, the community organizer in chief sending out the bat signal via his website, Organizing for America. (Are all Presidents from now on going to have their own perpetual campaign websites? Because I’m against it, and I don’t care which party the President is from. I have a problem with a sitting President organizing American citizens to go out and fight with and get in the faces of other American citizens). There’s nothing “spontaneous” or “grassroots” about taking orders from the most powerful person in the free world.

As many of you know, David Axelrod, Obama’s senior advisor,  is credited with inventing AstroTurfing. Which sets the irony meter to its highest level, I think.

A great example of astroturfing as it is typically practiced can be found via Michelle Malkin at Looking at the Left, by ElMarco, who was at the Nancy Pelosi event in Denver, Friday, and took pictures of the the 200 or so ObamaCare dissidents, and the handful of astroturfing supporters, some of whom didn’t speak a word of English and had no idea what their signs said. His photo essay is fantastic, and well worth a look."

http://nicedeb.wordpress.com/2009/08/08/how-obama-is-pitting-americans-against-each-other/

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"Anatomy of Nancy Pelo-cchio’s Astroturf brigade

By Michelle Malkin  •  August 7, 2009 11:43 PM
Source MichelleMalkin.com

Madame Speaker Nancy Pelosi (affectionately known as Nancy Pelo-cchio among us “political terrorists” on the Right) snuck into a Denver health care clinic today, where she was greeted by 200 grass-roots protesters against socialized medicine — and a handful of Obama-bots and union members carrying identical   HCAN signs. http://michellemalkin.com/2009/08/04/flashback-who%E2%80%99s-funding-the-obamacare-astroturf-campaign/ 

I already noted this morning how one of the Obamacare activists yanked

http://michellemalkin.com/2009/08/07/i-am-the-mob/

an anti-Pelosi sign out of a protester’s hands. Brown shirt, anyone?

There’s much more.

Denver photojournalist El Marco was at the event and has an amazing pictorial essay

http://www.lookingattheleft.com/2009/08/pelosi-astroturf-healthcare/

detailing how Pelo-cchio’s Astroturf brigade had to be coached by professional organizers — including several day laborers who didn’t speak English and couldn’t tell what the signs they were holding read. And they accuse Tea Party folks of being puppets?!"

http://michellemalkin.com/2009/08/07/nancy-pelo-cchios-astroturf-brigade/

Entry #1,302

"$550 Million Slated for Purchase of Eight More Planes as Lawmakers' Travel Soars

Couple of interesting charts on this page.

"Congress Gets an Upgrade
$550 Million Slated for Purchase of Eight More Planes as Lawmakers' Travel Soars

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124960404730212955.html

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"Lawmakers' Global-Warming Trip Hit Tourist Hot Spots
Penguins, a Rocket-Propelled Airplane (and Tax Dollars) Also Involved

By BRODY MULLINS and T.W. FARNAM

"WASHINGTON -- When 10 members of Congress wanted to study climate change, they did more than just dip their toes into the subject: They went diving and snorkeling at the Great Barrier Reef. They also rode a cable car through the Australian rain forest, visited a penguin rookery and flew to the South Pole.
The 11-day trip -- with six spouses traveling along as well -- took place over New Year's 2008. Details are only now coming to light as part of a Wall Street Journal analysis piecing together the specifics of the excursion. ......"


http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124967502810515267.html
Entry #1,301

"Public is Resisting Obama's Liberal Agenda

To all those who used to rail against corporate welfare, how's it working out for you under the "Change" administration?

_____________

August 6, 2009
"Public is Resisting Obama's Liberal Agenda
By Victor Davis Hanson
Source Real Clear Politics

"Why does President Obama want to implement all at once radical changes in American foreign policy, environmental policy, education, health care and the tax code?

The answer is easy: If he does not achieve these initiatives soon, he never will.

Almost none of Obama's proposed policies any longer enjoy majority support among voters -- and many of them were not clearly outlined to voters during the campaign.

Current polls show more Americans are against than in favor of his version of health-care reform. Nearly seven in 10 are wary of government takeovers of the economy, like the bank and car bailouts. Over half do not want more borrowing and higher deficits.

In response, Obama and the technocrats around him insist they know better than the average voter what is in America's long-term environmental, health, educational and financial interests. So they're rushing to save us from ourselves by planning all sorts of legislation that would change our lifestyles.

Even without popular support for individual policy changes, a still-personally-popular Obama and the Democratic-controlled Congress hope to ram these policies through based on the president's charisma and their legislative majorities.

White House politicos hold up Franklin Delano Roosevelt as their model. He likewise came into office after economic upheaval and spoke with eloquence -- and used both to permanently move American society markedly to the left in ways undreamed of a few years earlier.

Unfortunately for Obama, there is some indication that, despite his constant TV appearances and nonstop interviews, time is running out -- and he may not remain popular long enough to push through his liberal agenda.

Why is he winded?

One, he ran on a promise not to raise taxes on 95 percent of American households. But even with his proposed new income, payroll and surcharge taxes on the so-called wealthy, his administration will run a $2 trillion annual deficit.

Even members of the Obama administration, like Timothy Geithner, the Treasury secretary, are now not ruling out some sort of new tax on everyone.

Second, Obama billed himself as a novel, transcendent candidate above partisanship, racial politics and the usual Washington sleaze.

But he has earned almost no bipartisan support for his proposed legislation. After six months in office, he still blames George Bush for much of the country's problems.

When Attorney General Eric Holder called Americans "cowards" for not discussing race honestly, when Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor claimed Latina judges would make wiser decisions than white male judges in some cases, and when the president himself said police had "stupidly" arrested his friend Henry Louis Gates, the public saw more of the old tired identity politics.

And despite promises of a new ethics in Washington, there are still tax avoiders and revolving-door lobbyists in the Obama administration just like in any other past presidency.

Third, there is a vague sense of foreboding about the future and the direction the country is going. The amount of money George Bush proposed the government borrow at the end of his presidency now looks small. "Trillion" has replaced "billion" as the common referent for deficits.

If things are tough now, what will we do when interest rates rise from their present historic lows and we must pay back the borrowing at much higher rates?

There are plenty more questions. Will gas prices climb when the economy improves? And if so, why aren't we talking more about developing more domestic oil, gas, shale, tar sands, and nuclear energy, in addition to wind and solar power?

Is it wise to alienate democratic Israel while making overtures with Iran? If apologizing abroad wins applause in the short-term, will such contrition only earn contempt and invite some hostile countries to try things they otherwise would not?

So, will Obama race through his agenda before his approval ratings drop further, and he becomes personally as unpopular as his radical initiatives?

If in the next few months, the economy surges back, if Obama and his advisers avoid any more divisive racial sermonizing, if the world abroad remains quiet, if the opposition fails to offer constructive alternatives, and if Obama does not renege on more past promises, then he may yet win his race to change America.

But right now that's a lot of ifs."

Victor Davis Hanson is a classicist and historian at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2009/08/06/obamas_great_race_to_change_america_97791.html

Entry #1,300

"Unions To Take On Conservative Groups Health Care Town Halls


Sam Stein
HuffPost Reporting
 
"Unions To Take On Conservative Groups Health Care Town Halls
Updated: 08- 6-09 12:26 PM
 
"The nation's largest federation of labor organizations has promised to directly engage with boisterous conservative protesters at Democratic town halls during the August recess.

In a memo sent out on Thursday, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney outlined the blueprint for how the union conglomerate would step up recess activities on health care reform and other topics pertinent to the labor community. The document makes clear that Obama allies view the town hall forums as ground zero of the health care debate. It also uses the specter of the infamous 2000 recount "Brooks Brothers" protest to rally its members to the administration's side.

"The principal battleground in the campaign will be town hall meetings and other gatherings with members of Congress in their home districts," reads the memo. "We want your help to organize major union participation to counter the right-wing "Tea-Party Patriots" who will try to disrupt those meetings, as they've been trying to do to meetings for the last month. ...

(Remember the hooligans - many of them Republican Congressional staff - who harassed Florida vote counters in 2000? We can't let that happen again!)."

A showdown between unions and grassroots conservative organizations could make for an August full of fireworks, with even more dysfunctional town hall meetings. The AFL-CIO is planning to target 50 "high priority districts," in addition to organizing telephone town hall gatherings.

But while the union conglomerate seems poised to flex its political muscle on Obama's behalf, it may find some friction on the policy front. Detailed in Sweeney's memo are certain legislative priorities that are clearly at odds with what seems likely to be produced in the Senate Finance Committee's compromise bill.

Sweeney describes it as a "requirement that ALL employers 'pay or play,'" that the final bill have "a robust public health insurance plan to compete with private insurers and drive down health costs," and that the legislation contain "relief for company/union funds providing pre-Medicare retiree coverage, and no taxation of health benefits!"

The AFL-CIO also promises to "Redouble our efforts on Capitol Hill against taxation of benefits OF ANY KIND, for including ALL businesses in the requirement to provide coverage, and for a robust public health insurance plan option."

According to reports on Thursday, the Senate Finance Committee is considering compromise legislation that will contain no public option for insurance and would tax health-care benefits of the most generous plans.

UPDATE: AFL-CIO Secretary Treasurer Richard Trumka sends out a scathing statement about the town halls, hitting on Sweeney's themes and calling the events corporate funded."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/06/unions-to-take-on-conserv_n_252720.html

Entry #1,299

"White House Website Asking for Informants on Anti-Healthcare Advocates

Two articles

___________

"GOP Senator: White House Encroaching on First Amendment

August 05, 2009 1:33 PM

Source blogs.abcnews.com

ABC News’ Rick Klein reports:

"A Republican senator is calling for the White House to suspend a new project that asks members of the public to flag “fishy” claims about President Obama’s health care plans, arguing that it raises privacy concerns and will serve to chill free speech.

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, is sending a letter to the White House today asking the president to “cease this program immediately” -- or to explain how Americans’ privacy will be protected if e-mails are forwarded to the White House as requested.

“I am not aware of any precedent for a President asking American citizens to report their fellow citizens to the White House for pure political speech that is deemed ‘fishy’ or otherwise inimical to the White House’s political interests,” Cornyn writes

“I can only imagine the level of justifiable outrage had your predecessor asked Americans to forward emails critical of his policies to the White House. I suspect that you would have been leading the charge in condemning such a program -- and I would have been at your side denouncing such heavy-handed government action.”

Yesterday, White House director of new media Macon Phillips wrote a blog posting urging readers to flag questionable claims about health care proposals.

“There is a lot of disinformation about health insurance reform out there, spanning from control of personal finances to end of life care.  These rumors often travel just below the surface via chain emails or through casual conversation.  Since we can’t keep track of all of them here at the White House, we’re asking for your help. If you get an email or see something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy, send it to flag@whitehouse.gov.”

Cornyn specifically asks whether those who quote the president’s past statements -- such as his 2003 statement that he was a “proponent” of single-payer care -- qualifies as “disinformation.” He also asks what actions the White House would take against those engaging in “fishy” speech."

http://blogs.abcnews.com/thenote/2009/08/gop-senator-white-house-encroaching-on-first-amendment.html

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"White House Website Asking for Informants on Anti-Healthcare Advocates

By Warner Todd Huston  Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Source Canada Free Press

"I guess it shouldn’t be surprising that the Obama White House is now asking the public to snitch on their fellow citizens by sending an email to White House staffers informing them of other Americans that oppose Obamacare. I know what you are saying. You are probably saying that I am just a rabble rousing conservative that is just trying to stir trouble. You are probably thinking that I am taking something out of context.

Well I wish I were.

An August 4 bog post on the White House website is clearly asking for Americans to snitch on their neighbors. WH staffer Linda Douglas, a former “journalist” turned political operative, is featured on a video telling tall tales about Obama’s healthcare plan and how wonderful it is for America. But here is the scary part:


There is a lot of disinformation about health insurance reform out there, spanning from control of personal finances to end of life care. These rumors often travel just below the surface via chain emails or through casual conversation. Since we can’t keep track of all of them here at the White House, we’re asking for your help. If you get an email or see something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy, send it to flag@whitehouse.gov

If that isn’t asking citizens to snitch on each other…. What is?

Of course the WH site pushes the Obama lie that we can keep our health insurance “if we like it” by pointing out that Obama has “consistently said” it. But saying a lie 100 times does not make it the truth. It is a fact that millions of Americans WILL lose their current healthcare plans if Obamacare passes in the form the president keeps advocating for.

But of the information that these American snitchers send off to the White House, who in the White House is going to get this information? What are they going to do with it? Will they create a data base of people that stand against Obama? What is to be done with such a database? Who will get visited by the FBI in the dead of night because they sent an email critical of Obama’s socialist styled healthcare policies?

A friend of mine named Bill Collier has written a great letter to the White House asking these questions and more.


A letter to President Barack Obama, sent to flag@whitehouse.gov

Greetings, sir, I pray for your health and that God may grant you peace and wisdom.

I am writing to you at this email address because of a post at the White House blog that, frankly, sir, has me a bit concerned.

I am certain that you are committed to freedom and liberty and do not intend on decreasing the level of freedom or the participation of citizens in the process of deciding public policy for our nation, even if that might mean that some of your initiatives have to be scaled back or simply abandoned.

Some might, however, question your commitment to freedom and the participation of citizens in the decision making process and this is why I am writing, respectfully, in the hope of seeing a happy resolution to what I hope is merely a poorly stated appeal for help in support of your health care initiative.

I understand you are asking people, through your staff, to email flag@whitehouse.gov to report people who oppose your health care plan, even though, Mr. President, you have NOT actually sent out a specific proposal and there are multiple different proposals.

Your appeal, which I sincerely fear is a call for informants (http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/Facts-Are-Stubborn-Things/) was cloaked in what seems to some, myself included, doublespeak, and to my mind this appeal carries the implication that the White House wants to capture the names of opponents, which has a potentially chilling effect on open debate.

As part of this appeal, you tell your readers, basically, that people who are citing video of yourself calling for a single payer system and detailing an incrementalist approach ‘liars’, something that is both impolite and, frankly, juvenile and beneath contempt. Those statements were made by you, Mr. President. If indeed you are opposed to a single payer plan and have changed your mind, it is useful to you, and citizens who may even support you but for this perception, to clear this matter up rather than blaming others for a reasonable and logical assumption based on what you actually said.

Mr. President, facts ARE stubborn things and unless or until you publicly disavow a single payer system and actually ANNOUNCE and put in print YOUR health care proposal, it is only reasonable to think that all those things you have said are still on the table and part of your overall plan. If, however, you want a single payer system, please tell us and put in writing what your plan is so that we can have a civil discourse.

Mr. President, are you willing to state what your plan is then publicly disavow any plan that involves single payer plans in any fashion?

Further, Mr. President, would you be willing to solemnly swear that the minute you propose or even SIGN any bill that includes a single player plan or a precursor thereto that you will resign your office? Are you willing, sir, to resign your office if the implementation of your plan results in anything more than a 10% decrease in the number of people enrolled in private plans within 4 years after whatever bill is passed?

Please be advised, Mr. President, I will not be monitored: I oppose what some refer to as ‘Obamacare’ on the basis of my conviction that the Federal Power has no business sticking its nose in such things, a point of view that I sincerely believe is consistent with the original intent of our Founders. I respect that you feel differently and read that differently, but to dismiss our point of view with juvenile and petty name-calling that is clearly beneath contempt and that is simply not professional is a reflection on the content of your character that will not turn Americans against those who oppose state-run or regulated and managed health care by ANY name.

I am NOT afraid to stand up for my convictions, I respect you and your office, and I rightfully and justly demand that you and your staff respect me and my office, the office of “elector”, one of your 300 million “bosses”.

I respectfully request that you stop asking people to become informants, please spend a few minutes and re-read your constitution which you swore to uphold, and which is a condition of your tenure which must be adhered to.

I am enclosing a copy of this email to my member of Congress, my Senators, and my Governor as well as any local media and asking them to investigate WHY the White House is trying to capture names of opponents and asking people to inform on opponents.

If your office is seeking to obtain names of people who oppose your plan and to engage other Americans as informants or agents I would, and I am sure many others would, consider this to be a SERIOUS offense against the Bill of Rights if indeed your objective here is to do this, so, with this in mind, sir, please cease and desist and respect even those who oppose you in a civil and fair manner.

I pray that this communication is seen as a friendly appeal for a quick and amicable resolution of my concerns or, at worse, a friendly rebuke, if you will, due to what is clearly impolite behavior that is beneath of the dignity of the Presidency or the White House.

May you continue to be in good health and good spirits as you lead our free nation of free and sovereign citizens who wish you, and America, Godspeed within the reasonable constraints of liberty, justice, and our Constitution.

Yours in service to the Republic,

Bill Collier,
By the Grace of God, Citizen and Elector, The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, The United States of America
Marysville PA

PS I have BCC’d this to other individuals and hope that they, too, stand up by name and without fear, knowing that your White House, Mr. President, would never seek to in any way censure or persecute in any manner any citizen for simply questioning your policies or conduct: I am sure you will agree with me that the best way to dispel such myths is to reply in a cordial and civil manner to such citizens, even your loyal opposition.

It appears that the White House thinks this is Orwell’s 1984. Big Brother is watching and he apparently resides in Oceania’s White House."

http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/13391

Entry #1,297

" Obama "Kenyan birth certificate" prompts call for federal grand jury probe.

The issue needs to be thoroughly investigated and settled once and for all.  Link by Andy Martin's name to his bio page listing credentials.

____________________

"CHICAGO NEWS CONFERENCE TUESDAY: Obama “Kenyan birth certificate” prompts call for federal grand jury probe.

Andy Martin  ( http://www.andymartin.com/bio.htm )
Source pr-inside.com

"2009-08-04 07:05:30 - Internet Powerhouse Andy Martin says the filing of a purported “Kenyan birth certificate” for Barack Obama with a federal court in California opens the way to an FBI/Department of Justice inquiry into the provenance of the document. Martin’s Chicago news conference Tuesday will release copies of requests to the FBI and Attorney General Eric Holder requesting an investigation of the “Kenyan” document.

Internet Powerhouse Andy Martin says a “Kenyan birth certificate” of Barack Obama is probably a forgery

Martin says the time has come to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate Obama’s “records”

Martin seeks an FBI/DOJ probe of Obama “birth” documents, says they may have been college application forgeries

(CHICAGO)(August 4, 2009) Internet Powerhouse Andy Martin, the crusading columnist and investigator who five years ago began asking tough questions about Barack Obama’s childhood religion and birth certificate, and who today is a U. S. Senate candidate from Illinois, will hold a Chicago news conference Tuesday to announce he has asked Attorney General Eric Holder to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate a purported “Kenyan birth certificate” of Barack Obama.

“In my personal opinion Martin will state, “The purported ‘Kenyan birth certificate’ KBC of Barack Obama is a forgery. But who forged it, and why? These are questions that Americans want answered.

“Over the past five years, beginning in August, 2004, I have written a number of columns and a bestselling book that Barack Obama’s operatives have attacked. But almost every allegation that I made in those columns and in my book has ultimately been proven true. Obama himself has admitted many of my claims.

“The only exception to the ‘truth’ of my factual claims is my expressed 'theory' involving Obama and Frank Marshall Davis. I labeled the Obama-Davis connection a theory, not a fact.

“I was the first, for example, to suggest Barack Obama was born with dual US/UK nationality, a claim that he later admitted.

“I filed the first, and so far only, lawsuit in Hawai’i to open to public view what I believe is now an archive of American history: Barack Obama’s original, typewritten 1961 Hawaiian birth certificate. Obama has obstructed access to that document.

“A California attorney has now filed a purported KBC with a federal forum. The Department of Justice and FBI automatically have jurisdiction to investigate matters filed in federal court.

“I want to stress that I have no connection of any sort with the KBC. And I have serious questions about its provenance. In particular, two theories interest me. First, I think there is a very real possibility that this document is a ‘smoking gun but not the smoking gun that so-called 'birthers' are seeking.

'Birthers' claim me as their Godfather, and in a sense I am; but I am not in fact a birther myself. I do not accept many of the theories that they have propounded. I continue to believe Obama was born in Hawai’i, although under suspicious circumstances. That is why Obama does not want the typewritten original document of his birth made public.

“I suspect the KBC may be a forgery that was created by Obama himself, as part of his admissions package to Occidental College. Obama forged the KBC to falsely claim Kenyan birth as part of his ‘affirmative action’ application to Occidental. That is a very real explanation for the KBC. The KBC may also explain why Obama has shrouded his college records in secrecy; he should now release all of them to the public.

“My second theory as to who forged the KBC is more sinister. But based on Mr. Taitz’ provenance, and my contacts with various intelligence agencies, I can see another potential source of the forged KBC.

“Which of these possible explanations, or some other explanation that has yet to be proffered, is the correct one to corroborate the authenticity or forgery (or “both of the KBC remains to be seen.

“Someone forged a birth document concerning the President of the United States. He may have forged it, or someone else may have forged it. The American people have a right to a thorough and impartial investigation of this matter.

“I am releasing [Tuesday] my request to the FBI and AG to open a criminal investigation of his document. It is now apparently a federal court record. Therefore, federal criminal jurisdiction indisputably exists.

“If it turns out that someone forged the KBC to obstruct justice, then that person should be criminally prosecuted. There is no place for forgery or lies on either side of the Obama birth controversy. I have consistently rejected lies as an appropriate response to Barack Obama’s own stream of distortions and fabrications.

“We need a special prosecutor, or independent counsel, who is free of entanglements with the Obama administration.

“I no longer call the national media ‘mainstream media They are 'meathead media’ in my view. Over and over again they have tried to cover up reasonable questions about Obama’s past. My book explored many of these issues up to June, 2008; and I subsequently wrote extensively on Obama's lacunae, as well as appearing on 'Hannity's America' in what became the most controversial TV program of the 2008 election [click on Part two]: www.youtube.com/watch?v=
UKSq2oJ0W1c&feature=related

“Because of my investigations, I have been the subject of political terrorism by Robert Gibbs and Obama’s henchmen. I will also be asking to appear and be sworn as a grand jury witness.

"If there is nothing wrong in all of the Obama documentation, I will be the first one to congratulate him. But if, as appears almost certain, there are forgeries and fraud somewhere, though not necessarily where the ‘birthers’ expect, then Mr. Obama must answer to the collective wrath of the American people.

“My own judgment, and this is only an honest opinion, not a statement of fact, is that Obama probably lied in his college documents, and sought special treatment as a foreign-born student. If that is the case, he had best admit the truth, and fast. The longer Obama allows this ‘birth certificate circus' to fester, the greater the ultimate damage to his administration.

“In closing, I wish to note that I bear Barack Obama no personal animus. I began my inquiries as a legitimate author and Internet columnist. I continue to pursue scholarly evidence such as original documents.

“I am completely committed to searching for the truth and finding the facts about Barack Obama. I am convinced to a moral certainty that, to date, those facts and that truth has not yet seen the light of day.

“Rightly or wrongly, tens of millions of Americans rejected the Republicans and believed the message of ‘change’ that Obama projected. If he betrayed them, a prompt confession, not endless prevarication, is the only honorable resolution.

“Eric Holder represents us; he does not represent Barack Obama. As our national lawyer-in-chief, he owes us an independent criminal investigation of the KBC.

“The meathead media can try to lie to the American people, but collectively there is a growing national consensus that something is rotten in Barack Obama’s past. The sooner Obama tells us the truth, the sooner we can move on Martin will state. “Until then, the doubts and the potential nightmare will persist"

© Copyright by Andy Martin 2009.
http://www.pr-inside.com/chicago-new...a-r1420868.htm

Entry #1,295

"Flash Trading Reversal by SEC May Hit Direct Edge, Boost NYSE

"Flash Trading Reversal by SEC May Hit Direct Edge, Boost NYSE
 

By Edgar Ortega, Jesse Westbrook and Eric Martin

 

Aug. 5 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s move to ban so-called flash orders may help NYSE Euronext take back market share of U.S. stock trading at the expense of three-year-old rival Direct Edge Holdings LLC.

Senator Charles Schumer said yesterday the SEC will seek to stop the practice in which some brokers get a split-second advantage in viewing requests to buy and sell stock, after discussing the issue with Chairman Mary Schapiro. NYSE Euronext, the only one of the top four U.S. exchanges that doesn’t use flash orders, has seen its portion of the nation’s share trading slip to 30.3 percent in the second quarter from 35.5 percent a year earlier, while Direct Edge’s doubled since November.

“The big existing exchanges are going to be benefiting because the pendulum is swinging back in that direction in the area of transparency,” said Thomas Caldwell, who manages about $1 billion, including NYSE shares, as chairman of Caldwell Financial Ltd. and president of Urbana Corp. in Toronto.

Flash orders grew to 2.4 percent of the shares traded in the U.S. in June, three years after the practice began as a way of increasing the odds an order would be filled, according to data compiled by New York brokerage Rosenblatt Securities Inc. Schumer said the delay in routing transactions to other exchanges makes it easier for brokerages with the fastest computers to get an edge calculating demand for a stock.

Boston Exchange

The SEC under Chairman William Donaldson first approved a flash-trading system in 2004 for the Boston Options Exchange. Since then, Nasdaq OMX Group Inc., Bats Global Markets and the CBOE Stock Exchange have introduced programs that hold orders before publishing them on rival platforms.

Direct Edge, based in Jersey City, New Jersey, used its early lead in flash trading to take business from rivals. The company is the fastest-growing equity market in the U.S., helped by its three-year-old Enhanced Liquidity Provider program, which handles the most flash trades.

Even excluding flash orders, Direct Edge matched 11.2 percent of U.S. stock trades in July, making it the third- largest U.S. equity market by volume, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That may help fuel growth if regulators start a broader review of off-exchange trading, Chief Executive Officer William O’Brien said in an interview yesterday.

“It’s almost impossible to assess the impact on any of us of reforms that don’t exist yet,” O’Brien said. “We feel quite optimistic that regardless of how this debate goes forward, we are in a good position to continue the market share growth that we have experienced in the last couple of years.”

Bad Policy

NYSE Spokesman Ray Pellecchia said in an interview yesterday that flash trading “is not a good policy for investors.” NYSE Euronext, operator of the biggest stock market, added 2.4 percent to $27.40 in New York yesterday. Nasdaq shares declined 0.3 percent to $21.39.

“In the short-term, most of the negative impact will fall on a player like Direct Edge,” said Sang Lee, managing partner at financial-services consultant Aite Group LLC in Boston. “If they decide to ban this altogether, there would be an impact.”

The benefit from a ban to any other exchange may be limited because the orders don’t represent a big enough slice of industry revenue, said Ed Ditmire, an analyst at Fox-Pitt Kelton Cochran Caronia Waller in New York.

“Anecdotally, the NYSE would have the most to gain if there were some market share shift due to flash orders being banned,” Ditmire said. “Keep in mind that Nasdaq and NYSE get about 10 percent of their revenue from U.S. equity trading, so even something that led to noticeable market-share shifts might not move the dial on the overall company very much.”

Trading Inequity

Schapiro said yesterday she asked her staff to draft rules that can “eliminate the inequity” that flash orders cause as part of a broader review of trading in dark pools, which are broker-owned markets that don’t display quotes to the public. Any proposal would require approval from SEC commissioners and public comment. Schumer, a New York Democrat, urged the SEC in a July 24 letter to halt flash orders, saying he would propose legislation barring them if the agency didn’t act.

The plan may be a sign regulators are moving to stricter oversight of so-called high-frequency trading, in which brokerages using advanced computers execute thousands of transactions in a second. Those strategies may account for 70 percent of share volume in the U.S., according to Patrick O’Shaughnessy, an analyst for Raymond James & Associates Inc.

While flash orders make up a small fraction of high-speed trading, they have drawn the most criticism from investors and traders. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. released a statement yesterday in light of the “complex landscape” surrounding high-frequency trading, saying the strategy accounted for less than 1 percent of its revenue and that it doesn’t use flash programs in executing client agency orders.

Other Platforms

The Nasdaq and Bats gained approval this year for flash orders after the SEC said they complied with federal rules and should be filed as so-called non-controversial proposals. The agency had until June 29 to reverse its decision for Bats as part of its normal review of the flash-order plan, regulatory filings show. The deadline for Bats passed July 28.

“When practices and rules have been legally approved for one market participant and another competitor comes in wanting to do a similar activity, we think it’s important to have a level playing field and not play favorites,” James Brigagliano, acting co-head of the SEC division responsible for oversight of exchanges, said in an interview. “That said, market developments may cause us to seek changes in the rules across all markets.”

Industrywide Ban

Bats and Nasdaq said last week they support an industrywide ban on flash orders. Bats Chief Executive Officer Joe Ratterman urged the SEC last month to review 2006 rules that require exchange to publish their best bids and offers, while Nasdaq’s Robert Greifeld called for an examination of 1998 rules governing alternative trading systems such as Direct Edge.

SEC rulemaking is usually a two-step process. The agency’s staff proposes a regulation, and commissioners vote to solicit public feedback for up to 90 days. Once the comment period ends, commissioners vote on whether to make the rule binding. The SEC can speed up the process by issuing temporary rules.

That may result in less than an outright ban of flash orders, said Jack Sylvia, the Boston-based co-chair of the Securities Litigation Practice at law firm Mintz Levin Cohn Ferris Glovsky & Popeo PC.

Plusses, Minuses

“Schapiro said she’s looking to obviate any inequities from flash trading, and I’m not sure that’s the same as saying we need to ban flash trading altogether,” Sylvia said in an interview yesterday. “If the case is made that there is nothing beneficial to market stability and efficiency from flash orders, I could see the case being made for the practice to be banned. But I suspect that there are plusses and minuses here.”

Flash systems trace their roots as far back as 1978 to efforts by exchanges to electronically replicate how a trader might yell an order to floor brokers before entering it into the system that displays all bids and offers. Markets have evolved since the days of floor brokers’ dominance, with computer algorithms now buying and selling shares 1,000 times faster than the blink of an eye.

“This is a relatively old concept. However, the electronification of it makes it more dangerous than it used to be,” said Sean O’Malley, a former lawyer at the SEC’s division of trading and markets who is now a partner at Goodwin Procter LLP in New York. “Computer-based trading is going to be able to do things in a split second that no human could have done. That’s something that the SEC probably hadn’t thought about as much until this year.”



http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aQDDFnAWMld0

Entry #1,294

"Downtown building raided by FBI Orlando FL

Found this breaking news via  " **FLASH** FBI RAID! (Colonial Bank Building, Orlando)

http://market-ticker.org/archives/1286-FLASH-FBI-RAID!-Colonial-Bank-Building,-Orlando.html

_________

Federal Agents Raid Colonial Bank In Orlando

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32271661/ns/local_news-orlando_fl/

________

 

"raided
by FBI

Updated: Monday, 03 Aug 2009, 1:27 PM EDT
Published : Monday, 03 Aug 2009, 12:07 PM EDT

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. (WOFL FOX 35) - - FBI agents from the Washington, D.C. field office have raided a building in downtown Orlando.

The building raided is the Colonial Bank building on Pine Street. The FBI is working with the Office of the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program which was established by the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008.

FOX 35 has a crew at the scene. Check back for updates."



http://www.myfoxorlando.com/dpp/news/orange_news/080309_fbi_raids_building

Entry #1,293
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