UPRISING! Packs of Packers fans packing the capitol building so it's totally packed.
No, it's not yet another middle east protest against some rancid rat like Hoser Muby or Kadhafi Duck - this gathering is right here in the American heartland of Wisconsin. Sure, they just won the Super Bowl, but now they want to win something else - a way to keep their union bargaining rights unfettered by greedy corporations. Recall/Impeach Governor Scotty "Scumbag" Walker! And tax the rich! Take it away, CNN!
By the CNN Wire Staff
Madison, Wisconsin (CNN) -- The Wisconsin state Assembly passed a Republican bill Friday that would strip most state workers of the bulk of their collective bargaining rights.
Among other things, the measure would require workers -- with the exception of police and firefighters -- to cover more of their health care premiums and pension contributions.
Collective bargaining would be limited to wages, though any pay increases beyond the inflation rate would be subject to voter approval.
The fight over the bill appears far from over. It still must clear the Wisconsin Senate, a step which is likely to prove far more contentious.
Fourteen Democratic Senators have fled to neighboring Illinois to prevent a quorum from voting on the issue and they remained absent early Friday.
"The vote we took wasn't the easy thing to do, but it was the right thing to do," said Assembly Majority Leader Scott Suder early Friday. "I continue to urge my Democrat colleagues in the Senate to come back to Madison so that they can debate this bill and do their job for the taxpayers of Wisconsin."
Thousand have protested the bill in recent days.
On Thursday, Republican Gov. Scott Walker also called on Democrats to come back to Madison "and do their job."
At a Thursday night news conference, Walker warned that if the Wisconsin legislature does not pass his budget bill, state aid to local governments could be cut by $1 billion. He also discounted critics who said the legislation will destroy public employee unions in the state.
"Wisconsin state employees have the strongest civil protections in the country. That's not going to change in this bill," Walker said. "It's not about the union boss coming in from other parts of the country. It's about whether we protect the taxpayers and the workers."
One of the lawmakers who left the state, Senate Minority Leader Mark Miller, said in a response from Rockford, Illinois, that Walker should "recognize that he got what he wants" in concessions on pension and health insurance contributions and relent on curbing collective-bargaining rights.
The confrontation reached a fever pitch after Walker was recorded during a prank phone call discussing the idea of duping absentee Democrats by luring them back to the assembly to "talk, not negotiate," allow them to recess, and then have the 19 Republican senators declare a quorum.
The Republican-led Senate would then, presumably, be able to move forward on the controversial legislation.
The state faces a Friday deadline to balance the budget. Wisconsin is confronted with a $137 million budget shortfall by June 30 and a $3.6 billion gap by 2013.
In related news, a blogger recently imitated the voice of one of the Koch brothers (who donated to Walker's campaign and other funds that Walker drew from while running for Governor), fooled Walker by phone into admitting that he had "thought about" hiring "provocatures" (mercenary thugs) to disrupt the protesting crowd.
* * *
CNN's Alan Silverleib also contributed to this report. The original story ran on 2/25/11 with the headline "Gov. Scott Walker: 'About the future'"
Why should corporations lobby politicians, when now they can just openly buy them off? Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, bought and paid for by the Koch brothers and other union-busters. They're starting politi-crooks really young, these days, huh? This dopey little guy looks like he's barely out of his diapers!
UPDATE 1: 3/11/11 - MADISON, Wisconsin — Today Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker signed into law the controversial bill that eliminates most union rights for public employees, delivering a major defeat to the U.S. labor movement.
The measure had passed the state's Assembly the day before on Thursday, following more than three weeks of protests that drew tens of thousands of people to the Capitol in opposition. The measure passed both chambers of the Republican-led state Legislature earlier this week. The Senate cleared the way for passage with a surprise move Wednesday that allowed lawmakers to approve the bill without any Democratic senators present. The state's Assembly followed suit Thursday.
In addition to ending collective bargaining, the law forces state workers to pay more for their pensions and health care benefits — changes that will cost those workers an estimated $30 million. The higher payments for state workers will become effective over the next few weeks.
UPDATE 2: 3/16/11 - The legal challenge to the new Wisconsin law that curbs the union rights of public workers moved forward today with the filing of a formal complaint against the Republican lawmakers who steered the bill through the legislature.
The court action filed in the state capital of Madison, just five days after Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker signed it into law, claims that a key meeting of top Republican lawmakers from the Assembly and Senate prior to the bill's passage last week violated Wisconsin's open meetings law.
During that meeting of the so-called joint conference committee, the Republicans, who supported the anti-union measure, separated it from the budget repair bill it had been attached to. That maneuver allowed the Republican-majority Senate, which had been stymied for weeks after its 14 Democratic members fled to Illinois to delay action on the measure, to quickly pass it without a quorum.
That joint conference committee meeting also took place with less than two hours notice, in clear violation of state law and also the legislature's own rules. The court action seeks to have the state court declare the anti-union measure the two houses subsequently passed, and that Republican Gov. Scott Walker signed into law, as being null and void.
UPDATE 3: 5/26/11 - Wisconsin's law taking away nearly all collective bargaining rights from most public workers was struck down today by a circuit court judge. The state Supreme Court has scheduled arguments for June 6 to decide whether it will take the case. Governor Walker may try again to pass the law, but this time he must do so with an open meeting first, so he's screwed.
Read more at: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/05/26/politics/main20066446.shtml#ixzz1NTN6I5oG
GREENBACK GURU: This guy might give even Criswell a run for his money.
By Ed Gauthier Wildcat Editor
(CNS) TEXAS - - Political insider Lindsey Williams, during one of his semi-regular call-ins Tuesday from Arizona to the Alex Jones radio show and internet podcast in Austin, Texas, provided a rare glimpse into the workings of the globalists who steer America's shadow government, as well as a hopeful outlook for the year 2013, despite some tough times in late 2012.
In a media exclusive, Williams revealed that the New World Order will target Iran and Saudi Arabia next. Oil will hit $200 a barrel. Williams revealed new groundbreaking information about the plans of the global elite. Because of the executive status accorded to him as Chaplain of an Alaskan pipeline company, Williams has been privy to the plans of the elite for many years.
It is due to this particular background that Williams insists he merely tries to provide an accurate as possible reflection of what his globalist contacts have let him know every once in awhile. He further stipulates that he is therefore also not a stock broker, personal planning advisor, or a person claiming to have any psychic powers - although many people have attempted to give him such titles over the years.
Williams said that the Elite Globalists are going to double-cross the Arabs by declaring null and void all the T-bills and other US investments made by the Arabs since the 1970s. It was then that a US-Arab deal was conducted with then Secretary of State Henry Kissinger that if the middle east powers started buying US T-bills, the US would ban most oil drilling on domestic lands.
Such US land areas include Alaska, Colorado, Utah, the Dakotas and Texas. (Texas was one of the few to opt out and continue drilling, however they have only a fraction of oil compared to places like Alaska.)
In late 2012, finding that those US T-bills are worthless, the Arabs will become enraged and cut off oil to the US, Williams said. And will be when the US will then open up their own oil fields, both the known ones and some which have been kept secret for up to 50 years.
In Alaska, for example, where one or two pipelines sit, a dozen could be pumping, but they're currently capped shut. Elsewhwere in Alaska, another fertile area is Gull Island, which will also be opened up. Another is the huge Bakken Reserve. Also in the Rocky Mountain area, notably the Stanbury section, there is an estimated two trillion barrels of oil.
The above scenario is familiar to many who have studied the massive African diamond glut, and the way De beers and other companies have kept a tight lid on it in order to artificially manipulate all prices upwards.
Williams also said to any Arabs listening that before the world was buying their oil they were riding around on camels, and that they will be back doing that again. He also said the value of the US dollar as we know it will be totally destroyed by the end of 2012.
At that point, said Williams, the US will adopt a new world currency, which will lead the following year to a re-birth of the U.S. in 2013, after the initial collapse. Only then will the U.S. rebuild and pick up economically. He also told the US oil industry that they should get their drills ready, because there will soon be a big boom in their business, due to all those formerly covered US oil areas being opened.
Williams estimated that just measuring the currently available "ready to go" light crude under the earth of the US, that we already have enough oil to keep us going for the next 30 years, to 2041. But of course the currently undeveloped crude has a far greater potential, which some say could last for over two thousand years.
Many have also predicted that the same kind of thing might happen in nations using the Euro even before then, perhaps even in late 2011. They also wonder about the biggest elephant in the room - China. According to Williams, China will have no problem because they're in on an exclusive oil deal with Russia. In fact, Russia will be selling so much to China that they won't have enough for any other country, causing the US to finally tap their old hidden reserves, since it will already be cut off by the Arabs.
(BTW, oil is abiotic, automatically regenerating, meaning that all old oil fields in America, or anywhere similar on Earth that were once "emptied out," have now filled up again after a period of disuse.)
Williams did caution, however, that this whole scenario was being created by the global elite because they want to get into position with an even stronger control of the oil empire than they already have. He specified that at the outset, while theoretically domestic production of oil would drop the price of gas at the pumps down to 60 to 70 cents, the globalists would be hiking that up to 6 to 7 dollars. After that, things will level out to less.
Exactly how much less? That remains to be seen.
* * *
That concludes the gist of the remarks made by Williams. Worth adding is the fact that another oil-related hotspot which is positive for America is in its also large shale reserves. If regular oil prices go too high, shale will soon become economical. Some countries are already starting to extract it, for example in Brazil, China and Estonia. Now let's look at how much shale the US has:
According to the Bureau of Land Management, the United States has the largest known deposits of oil shale in the world, and holds an estimated 2,175 gigabarrels of potentially recoverable oil.
IN CHICAGO, THEY VOTE EARLY AND OFTEN: And whether they're dead or alive.
By Ed Gauthier Chi Town Stoolie
(CNS) CHICAGO - - Rahm Emanuel blew into the windy city recently, and won yesterday's mayoral election, becoming Chicago's 55th mayor.
"Thank you, Chicago, for this humbling victory," Emanuel said, acting like he was talking to the city as if it were a single person, like Will Ferrel did in the comedy hit "Anchorman." Thankfully he hasn't said, "Stay classy, Chicago"... yet.
"All I can say is, you sure know how to make a guy feel at home," Emanuel added, making a reference to the residency challenge that at one time threatened to derail his candidacy.
Former White House senior adviser David Axelrod, a longtime Emanuel friend, was at the victory celebration, saying, "This is a pretty tremendous win."
This election marked a milestone to many, in that Emanuel is Chi town's first Jewish mayor, and represents the end of the long Daley era in Chicago. The mayoral election season started with a bang on Sept. 7, 2011, when Mayor Richard M. Daley made the surprising announcement that he would not seek a seventh term. Daley said, "The truth is, I have been thinking about this for the past several months. In the end, this is a personal decision, no more, no less."
From his perch in the West Wing, Emanuel, who had been coy publicly about his interest in the mayor's job, immediately started to prepare for a run, staying out of the spotlight until he was ready to quit as chief of staff and return to Chicago. Emanuel departed the White House on Oct. 1 in a lavish East Room ceremony hosted by the president and orchestrated by Emanuel.
It was attended by Cabinet members and top Obama administration staffers. Obama spoke warmly about his chief of staff, and Emanuel made radio and television commercials from the event. While Obama never officially made an endorsement, giving Emanuel permission to make extensive use of the material amounted to a defacto endorsement.
Daley, the city's 54th mayor, first ran for the job in 1983, but lost the Democratic primary to Harold Washington, who went on to become the city's first black mayor. Daley, then the Cook County State's Attorney, tried again and won, taking office on April 24, 1989. Emanuel helped him raise millions of dollars for that campaign. Daley had been reelected ever since, presiding over an increasingly complacent 50-member City Council.
In May, Daley finally steps down as the city's longest-serving mayor, ruling Chicago from his fifth-floor City Hall office even longer than his father Richard J. Daley.
"HOT, HOT, HOT!" - BUSTER POINDEXTER. That's not global warming, Mr. Gore. THIS is global warming!
OR SUNNY WITH A CHANCE OF FRYING
How's your disposition this week, folks? Take it away, AFP!
(AFP) Washington - - A geomagnetic space storm sparked by a solar eruption like the one that flared toward Earth last Tuesday is bound to strike again and could wreak havoc across the gadget-happy modern world, experts say.
Contemporary society is increasingly vulnerable to space weather because of our dependence on satellite systems for synchronizing computers, navigational systems, telecommunications networks and other electronic devices.
A potent solar storm could disrupt these technologies, scorch satellites, crash stock markets and cause power outages that last weeks or months, experts said on Saturday at the American Association for the Advancement of Science's annual meeting.
The situation will only get more dire because the solar cycle is heading into a period of more intense activity in the coming 11 years.
"This is not a matter of if, it is simply a matter of when and how big," said National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration administrator Jane Lubchenco.
"The last time we had a maximum in the solar cycle, about 10 years ago, the world was a very different place. Cellphones are now ubiquitous; they were certainly around (before) but we didn't rely on them for so many different things," she said.
"Many things that we take for granted today are so much more prone to the process of space weather than was the case in the last solar maximum."
'Don't panic'
The experts admitted that currently, little can be done to predict such a storm, much less shield the world's electrical grid by doing anything other than shutting off power to some of the vulnerable areas until the danger passes.
"Please don't panic," said Stephan Lechner, director of the European Commission Joint Research Centre, drawing laughter from the scientists and journalists in the audience. "Over-reaction will make the situation worse."
The root of the world's vulnerability in the modern age is global positioning systems, or GPS devices, that provide navigational help but also serve as time synchronizers for computer networks and electronic equipment, he said.
"GPS helped and created a new dependency," said Lechner, noting that the technology's influence extends to aerospace and defense, digital broadcast, financial services and government agencies.
In Europe alone, there are 200 separate telecommunication operators, and "nothing is standardized," he said.
"We are far from understanding all the implications here," he said.
No prediction
World governments are hurrying to work on strategies for co-operation and information sharing ahead of the next anticipated storm, though forecasters admit they are not sure when that may occur.
"Actually we cannot tell if there is going to be a big storm six months from now, but we can tell when conditions are ripe for a storm to take place," said the European Space Agency's Juha-Pekka Luntama.
On Tuesday at 01:56 GMT, a huge solar eruption, the strongest in about five years, sent a torrent of charged plasma particles hurtling toward the Earth at a speed of 900km per second.
The force of the Class X flash, the most powerful of all solar events, lit up auroras and disrupted some radio communications, but the effects were largely confined to the northern latitudes.
"Actually it turned out that we were well protected this time. The magnetic fields were aligned parallel, so not much happened," said Luntama.
"In another case things might have been different."
UPDATE: Unfortunately, it did indeed happen. Solar blast, resulting earthquake, tsunami, nuke meltdown, you name it. The country chosen by fate was Japan, and the date was March 11. (See related story on this site regarding the whole radiation-riddled mess.)
DERR DUCKMAN IN FULL RUBE REGALIA: Hey, Dhafi! Michael Jackson called from the grave - he wants his totally asinine fake soldier uniform back.
By Ed Gauthier Cartoon Dictator Derider
Well, it looks like old Muammar Kadhafi "Duck" just pulled a Muby (that Egypt pyramid puke), by quitting and running away like a stinking coward.
Yes, the folks in Libya took a tip from those in Egypt, and started protesting last week.
Of course, because the kooky Colonel has always been a frightened little baby, he ordered his military thugs to fire into the crowd of peaceful protesters. So now the streets of the Libyan capital Tripoli are littered with bodies, after "security forces" loyal to leader Kadhafi did their thing to the crowds, activists claimed today.
Scores of corpses have not been cleared away because residents have been warned anyone seen outside will be shot, said Mohammed Ali of the Libyan Salvation Front. He said eyewitnesses saw forces loyal to Kadhafi shot at ambulances and some protesters were left bleeding to death.
The report adds to the mounting evidence of Kadhafi's brutal crackdown as his as his bloody 41-year grip on power appeared to be nearing its end. It was reported that he fled Tripoli and ran off to Venezuela.
Kadhafi had appeared on Libyan TV last night to insist he is still in the country, while Tripoli blazed and his troops were allegedly shooting, bombing and strafing civilian demonstrators. But there was no proof that it was in Libya, since it could have been live via satellite from Venuzuela, or even via a tape or disc recording sent from Venuzuela. (Or from wherever else he might be hiding out.)
The navy was said to be shelling the city alongside indiscriminate bombing runs by fighter jets as Kadhafi ordered a vicious assault against his own people. Wow, he's a real Muby fan, alright, even down to copying their mutual idol Sodom Insane!
As the fighting intensified in Libya, cracks appeared among Kadhafi's supporters, with some ambassadors resigning and calling for his removal.
At times like these, it becomes more and more of a heroic (and well-publicized) gesture that Jimmy Carter's brother Billy whizzed all over the tarmac of Libya's airport in the '70s, thus insulting the entire "royal family" of Libya, including a much younger Kadhafi.
Amid those reports that he had fled to Venezuela, the klutzy colonel appeared on state TV, to insist: "I am in Tripoli and not in Venezuela. Do not believe the channels belonging to stray dogs!"
So Kadhafi - you say there are channels owned by yo mama and daddy? How 'bout dat!
I MARRIED A 79.9% APR CREDIT CARD: Little did the trusting lady imagine the abject horror that lurked in her personal bank records.
By Blake Ellis Staff Reporter
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) - - Toni Riss had a credit card with a 79.9% interest rate.
The 58-year-old woman from Texas thought she struck gold when she found the First Premier card, which is aimed specifically at consumers with poor credit.
"I had an accident on a motorcycle, went through bankruptcy to pay for medical expenses and my credit went to hell in a hand basket, so I was looking for credit cards for people with bad credit" Riss said.
They granted her a card with a $300 limit -- typical for new customers -- and a starting rate of 29.9%, which Riss said she considered decent given her credit score.
But about six months after opening the card -- at the end of 2009 -- she received an unwelcome surprise in the mail.
"I about had a heart attack when I got a disclosure notice saying that my starting rate of 29.9% was going up to 79.9%," said Riss. "It was ludicrous. Talk about a highway robbery."
At that same time, First Premier Bank launched a new credit card with the sky-high 79.9% rate.
The card proved popular with consumers, said First Premier Bankcard CEO Miles Beacom, but the performance was bad: "A lot of the people ran up the card, defaulted and went directly to charge off."
As a result, they dropped the rate to 59.9%. "We also tested it at 23%, 33%, 45%, but 59.9% is the one that shows the best performance and where the organization can market the product," he said.
Since then, nearly 700,000 people have signed up for the 59.9% card -- and more than half of them carry a monthly balance, Beacom said. (The company later clarified that 280,000 people have an active 59.9% card -- 700,000 have applied for First Premier prodcuts since late 2009.)
And yes, that rate is completely legal. The Card Act, which was passed in late 2009 to protect consumers from predatory lenders, only prevents issuers from raising rates retroactively. Credit card issuers are free to charge whatever rate they want at the front end.
Beacom, however, denied that Riss would have had her rate jacked up. He said they only issued new cards at that APR.
Still, Riss insisted that she was offered the 79.9% rate, and that when she tried to cancel the card, it took nearly six months. And, she said, First Premier charged fees the entire time and then put her in collections when she didn't pay. Amex offered my 3-year-old a card
Beacom didn't deny that First Premier has high fees. In fact, he said that before the Card Act capped the charges at 25% of the credit line, First Premier relied on them to offset the risk of its customers.
"Before the new regulations we had the ability to hold specific individuals accountable for their own actions by charging these fees," he said. "Now we must spread this risk out among all our customers through higher APRs."
First Premier charges a total of $135 per year in fees. It starts with a $45 processing fee to open the account. Then there's an annual fee of $30 for the first year -- $45 for every subsequent year. Plus, there's a monthly servicing fee of $6.25 (or $75 a year).
Cash advances will cost you $5 or 3%, whichever is greater; late payments ring up at $35. The bank will also charge you $35 if a payment on your account is returned due to insufficient funds or any other reason. 0:00 /1:47Increase your credit limit
But Beacom said the bank used to charge $175 for just the processing fee and annual fee alone.
And yet the customers keep coming. The company said it serves nearly 3 million customers nationwide and receives anywhere from 200,000 to 300,000 applications a month.
There is a huge -- and growing -- need for cards serving customers with "less than perfect credit," Beacom said. However, he added, the company is now more cautious due to the Card Act, so it is only opening about 50,000 accounts a month.
The company said this has forced it to cut its workforce by more than 20% last year, and it will reduce its headcount by another 400 to 500 people this year.
In an attempt to find a new product that will bring in fees and customers without being as risky, First Premier plans to start testing a card with a $700 limit and a 25% interest rate.
"The approach is much like high-risk auto insurance," Beacom said. "If you have a bad driving record, you have to pay more and once your driving record has improved, your premiums will come down When the cardholder's credit score improves, they may start to qualify for more traditional types of credit card offers with better rates and less fees."
That's what Riss has done, but no thanks to First Premier. She said she has slowly built up her credit since ditching the card and eventually qualified for a card with a much lower interest rate and fewer fees.
"I eventually picked myself up and re-established myself, but I want to be a warning to people who would ever think this is a good deal," said Riss.
HOME SWEET HOME IS BACK, AND THIS TIME IT'S PERSONAL: Happy Valentine's Day, Mrs. Cleaver - your foreclosure was a fraud!
Excerpted from an article this week at Bloomberg:
MERSCORP LACKS RIGHT TO TRANSFER MORTGAGES, JUDGE SAYS
By Thom Weidlich
Merscorp Inc., operator of the electronic-registration system that contains about half of all U.S. home mortgages, has no right to transfer the mortgages under its membership rules, a judge said.
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert E. Grossman in Central Islip, New York, in a decision he said he knew would have a “significant impact,” wrote that the membership rules of the company’s Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, or MERS, don’t make it an agent of the banks that own the mortgages.
“MERS’s theory that it can act as a ‘common agent’ for undisclosed principals is not supported by the law,” Grossman wrote in a Feb. 10 opinion. “MERS did not have authority, as ‘nominee’ or agent, to assign the mortgage absent a showing that it was given specific written directions by its principal.”
“MERS and its partners made the decision to create and operate under a business model that was designed in large part to avoid the requirements of the traditional mortgage-recording process,” Grossman wrote. “The court does not accept the argument that because MERS may be involved with 50 percent of all residential mortgages in the country, that is reason enough for this court to turn a blind eye to the fact that this process does not comply with the law.
“An adverse ruling regarding MERS’s authority to assign mortgages or act on behalf of its member/lenders could have a significant impact on MERS and upon the lenders which do business with MERS throughout the United States,” Grossman wrote. “It is up to the legislative branch, if it chooses, to amend the current statutes to confer upon MERS the requisite authority to assign mortgages under its current business practices.”
“Without more, this court finds that MERS’s ‘nominee’ status and the rights bestowed upon MERS within the mortgage itself, are insufficient to empower MERS to effectuate a valid assignment of mortgage,” the judge wrote. “MERS’s position that it can be both the mortgagee and an agent of the mortgagee is absurd, at best.”
CAREER ON THE SKIDS: "So I'm kicked to the curb, huh? Can I at least still wear my ugly 1970s east coast Mafia jogging sweats? No? Aw, nuts!"
By Ed Gauthier Staff Egyptologist Apologist
CAIRO, EGYPT - - - (CNS) Well, it looks like a certain thorn in the side of the Egyptian people isn't walking like an Egyptian anymore.
Because, you see, he's gone from the jewel of the nile to exile.
And he wants his mummy!
Okay, now that those clunky cliches have been exhausted, yes - after 18 days of peaceful pro-democracy protests - Egypt's President/Dictator Hosni "The Hoser" Mubarak finally surrendered power to the military today, ending three dirty decades of his asinine authoritarian rule.
A joyful Abdul-Rahman Ayyash, born eight years after Mubarak took over, hugged fellow protesters in Tahrir Square, saying, "I'm 21 years old and this is the first time in my life I feel free."
Hopefully now they won't let Muby sneak out the back door with the estimated 40 to 70 billion dollars in gold that he stole from the country's citizens. This has happened in other recent government topplings, so don't allow that to repeat itself over there, Egypt dudes, okay?
That kinda dough can buy a whole lot of pyramid polish!
OBAMA SLAMA: You can't blame this one on Bush Jr. - or even Murdoch.
Ed sez: I'm gonna let the Alex Jones people fill you in here, since they're the current Big Brother experts.
By Kurt Nimmo Infowars.com
Even the Washington Post describes it like something out of Orwell’s 1984. The FCC has approved a presidential alert system. Obama may soon appear on your television or call your cell phone to warn you about the next specious al-Qaeda underwear bombing event.
Commissioners voted last week to require television and radio stations, cable systems and satellite TV providers to participate in a test that would have them receive and transmit a live code that includes an alert message issued by the president. No date has been set for the test, according to the Post.
Once again, the government has imposed an unreasonable and absurd mandate on business and the American people.
“The Federal Communications Commission today took action to help pave the way for the first-ever Presidential alert to be aired across the United States on the Nation’s Emergency Alert System (EAS),” the FCC announced on February 3 in a press release. “The national test will help determine the reliability of the EAS system and its effectiveness in notifying the public of emergencies and potential danger nationwide and regionally.”
As Next Generation EAS systems become operational over the next few years, they will complement other public alert and warning systems now being developed, including FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS) and the Commercial Mobile Alert System that will enable consumers to receive alerts through a variety of multi-media platforms on their smart-phones, blackberries and other mobile broadband devices.
If implemented, the president will be able to commandeer your smart phone any time he wants and for any reason the government deems necessary.
In November, communications company Alcatel-Lucent announced that it’s creating aBroadcast Message Center that will allow government agencies to send cell phone users specific information in the event of a local, state or national emergency, including those now ubiquitous government warnings about fantastic terror plots that invariably fizzle out or are run by FBI informants and agents provocateurs. It seems not a week or two passes that somegullible Muslim is duped by the agency into a fantastic terror plot (for instance, blowing up Christmas trees).
The Broadcast Message Center is designed to force mobile phone manufacturers to adopt the Federal Communication Commission’s Commercial Mobile Alert System. Under the new system, all phones would receive emergency alerts directly from government bureaucrats.
Former DHS boss Tom Ridge has admitted that the government exploits terror alerts for political gain. Ridge said he “was pushed to raise the security alert on the eve of President Bush’s re-election, something he saw as politically motivated and worth resigning over.” A specific al-Qaeda terror alert hyped up prior to the election was downgraded by the DHS after Bush beat fellow bonesman Kerry in the election.
Obama’s warnings about a supposed al-Qaeda attack on targets in Europe was exaggerated for political purposes, Pakistani diplomat Shamsul Hasan said in October. “I will not deny the fact that there may be internal political dynamics, including the forthcoming midterm American elections. If the Americans have definite information about terrorists and al-Qaida people, we should be provided [with] that and we could go after them ourselves,” Hasan said.
No terror event occurred. “It was nothing specific, nothing very new,” said Swedish Justice Minister Beatrice Ask after the official warning. “We agree that there is no indication of concrete targets, concrete dates and concrete terror groups,” added German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere.
In addition to your cell phone, the government wants to take control of your internet broadband in the event another phony terror attack threatens the homeland.
Lisa Fowlkes, deputy chief of the Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau of the FCC, told FederalNewsRadio on Monday that the FCC is looking at how wireless broadband could also enhance the EAS as part of a recommendation that was in the FCC’s National Broadband Plan from last year. The idea is to hijack broadband and the internet for emergency alerting propaganda with the “Commercial Mobile Alert System (CMAS) being developed by FEMA and the wireless industry,” according to Fowlkes.
The system would break into your computer or wireless device and broadcast presidential propaganda announcements, FEMA reports, so-called “Imminent Threat Alerts,” and AMBER Alerts.
Government has devised other creative ways to disseminate propaganda. For instance,California introduced a bill last year to commission a study on emerging electronic license plate technology and examine ways that it could introduce new ad revenue streams. In addition to ads, the technology would flash Amber Alerts and other information.
Earlier this month, DHS unveiled a new terror alert system that will hijack social networking sites as one way of informing people of terrorist threat updates. “The new, two-tiered system will provide alerts that are more specific to the threat and even recommend certain actions or suggest that people look for specific suspicious behavior, she said. They also may be limited to a particular audience — such as law enforcement — rather than broadcast to the general public, and also will have a specified end date,” reported Information Week Government.
In December, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced the expansion of the Department’s national “If You See Something, Say Something” campaign to hundreds of Walmart stores across the country — launching a new partnership between DHS and Walmart to help the American public play an active role in informing on each other. Thousands of Wamart stores will have telescreens pumping out government propaganda.
FEMA is also working on a new system that would send emergency alerts as text messages to wireless phone users. The system is still about two years away from full implementation, according to the agency.
MORE GUNS DON'T EQUAL LESS MURDER: This time that loser Lott was finally caught flat-footed and without his usual script of pre-prepared slanted statistics. Oops!
By Ed Gauthier Pal Of Gin Jacobs, Anti-Gun Activist
Congrats to Thom Hartmann on an internet broadcast feed of Detour Talk Radio today (around 9:20 AM pacific time), for totally owning longtime gun-nut idiot John Lott, pro-gun author of More Guns, Less Crime.
Lott, a lying, NRA-funded statistics-twisting twit, has been a thorn in the side of anti-guns since at least the 1990s. One of his usual crooked routines, which many other gun-nuts have copied, is to switch the subject of all main gun-murder statistics to far more minor non-murder gun crime stats instead. That way, his side can squawk, "Look - they got rid of guns in this area, and crime went up!" (Meanwhile, gun murders dropped to almost zero.)
Anyway, it was great to hear Thom making the excellent point that the current Egypt situation is a textbook example of an unarmed populace getting far more done than any mere bunch of gun-toting losers. Lott could only stutter, babble, and claim there were too many points to cover, all the while covering exactly NONE.
His weak answer was always the same: "...uh, it's too hard to tell for sure." And one of his biggest whoppers had to be in trying to ignore actual printed government records on registered guns, claiming that such things relied only on mere "surveys." - Huh? Not really!
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