To Hell In A Hand Basket!

[sometimeman]

What happens if it don't pass?
you don't want to know!

AP
Congress Asked to Lift Debt Ceiling
Wednesday September 19, 11:28 am ET
By Martin Crutsinger, AP Economics Writer

Paulson Tells Congress the Current Debt Ceiling Will Be Hit on Oct. 1
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson told Congress on Wednesday that the federal government will hit the current debt ceiling on Oct. 1.

He urged quick action to increase the limit, saying it was essential to protect the "full faith and credit" of the country, especially at a time of financial market turmoil.

The current debt limit is $8.965 trillion. Unless Congress votes to raise that ceiling, the country would be unable to borrow more money to keep the government operating and to pay debt obligations coming due. The United States has never defaulted on a debt payment but the decision on whether to raise the debt ceiling often sparks a prolonged political battle in Congress.

In his letter to congressional leaders, Paulson said that according to data now available, the Treasury expects to hit the current debt ceiling on Oct. 1 -- the first day of the new federal budget year. However, that projection does not take into account maneuvers the government often has to employ of withdrawing investments from certain trust funds to create room for extra borrowing until Congress finally approves a debt increase.

"The full faith and credit of the United States, to which we all remain committed, is a national asset and a cornerstone of the global financial system," Paulson said in his letter. "In light of current developments in financial markets, which would be exacerbated by uncertainty in the Treasuries market, I urge the Senate to pass the legislation reported by the Finance Committee to increase the debt limit as soon as possible."

The Senate Finance Committee earlier this month approved increasing the limit on the national debt to $9.82 trillion. That boost of $850 billion would be the fifth increase in the government's borrowing limit since President Bush took office in 2001.

The national debt is the total accumulation of annual budget deficits, which must be financed with borrowed money.

Democrats blame Bush's tax cuts and the war in Iraq for pushing the debt to record levels. Republicans defend the tax cuts, saying the deficit is now on a downward trajectory in part because of the economic stimulus provided by the tax cuts.
The House approved an increase in the debt limit in May when it adopted the annual congressional budget resolution, but the full Senate has yet to act to raise the limi

[sometimeman]

The Lie mars of this world have screwed us!

Greg Zanetti’s weekly market report

Poor Tiawanese.
My brother got his feet frozen at the chiozon reservoir in Korea for this!!!


Greg Zanetti is a Financial Advisor with Financial Network. He has been helping people with their investments since 1986. Zanetti is a graduate of Valley High School and the United states Military Academy at West Point. He continues to serve as a Brigadier General in the N.M. National Guard.

Let me tell you about 124 Lilac Lane in Decatur, GA. It is a one story brick home… 3 bed, 2 bath on a nice street. And it is in foreclosure. Possums live in the back yard. A few windows are now broken. Neighbors are complaining as it deteriorates.

Meanwhile, across the Pacific, the Chinese are complaining about it as well. Here is why. First, it is no secret that home prices nationwide are heading south while defaults and foreclosures are heading north.

We also know the housing crunch is adversely affecting big banks, brokerages, and mortgage companies. (By the way, it is a bankrupt hedge fund at Bear Stearns that technically owns 124 Lilac Lane.)

We also know that Congress and the President are falling all over each other with bail-out plans… and that the Federal Reserve is pumping money into the situation and lowered interest rates again on Tuesday.

Well, the Chinese are concerned because all of this is leading to a decline in the value of the dollar. And while Americans pay for that decline via higher prices on imports like oil (which hit an all-time high Monday), the Chinese pay via the decline in the value of the $1.3 trillion of dollar denominated assets they hold.

Thus, if the dollar falls 20 percent, the Chinese take a financial haircut of hundreds of billions of dollars. And this is why the Chinese take offense when we accuse them of unfair trade practices when they send us shoddy and unsafe goods. To them, it is the pot calling the kettle black.

Thus, tensions are rising and everyone knows the imbalances that currently exist cannot go on forever.

So what is the end game? Well, there is now conjecture that China may willingly take the huge financial hit from the falling dollar… provided we don’t interfere with their claims to Taiwan.

Their argument would be they acquired Hong Kong peacefully and that the envelopment of Taiwan would just be the finale of a 70 year civil war.

Their gamble would be that Americans would not fall on their swords for Taiwan. Of course, if we agree to such a deal we have (for all intents and purposes) ceded regional hegemony to China. They would be considered the Asian power and we would begin our retreat as a global power.

Whether any of that conjecture is true, I do not know. I do know, however, that we don’t need any more 124 Lilac Lanes gumming up the works.

kob.com/article/stories/S198834.shtml?cat=500

[sometimeman]

WND Exclusive PREMEDITATED MERGER
WND banned from secret meeting on selling U.S. assets
Posted: September 19, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern


© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com

EuroMoney PLC, the UK-based company that arranges dozens of financial conferences around the world each year, has refused to allow WND staff reporter Jerome Corsi to attend next week's "North American PPP (Public-Private Partnership) & Infrastructure Finance Conference" in New York, even though WND offered to pay the $1,999 conference fee required to attend.

"When government officials want to go behind closed doors with investment bankers and lawyers to discuss selling our public infrastructure to foreign investment leaders, investigative reporters need to be there to tell the public what is really going on," Corsi said.

"Why is it that all these PPP and SPP (Security and Prosperity Partnership) meetings are behind closed doors," Corsi asked, "and government officials and their supporters think that's normal? But when investigative reporters want to attend and report on what is being said, we are the ones who get accused of being the conspiracy theorists?"

"By refusing to allow WND to attend as a paying customer," Corsi argued, "EuroMoney is telling the American public that they intend to conduct a secret meeting designed to teach government officials how to sell out U.S. public infrastructure to foreign investment concerns.

"I'm sure we will all be told that EuroMoney seminars and PPP structures are really for our 'security and prosperity,' just as President Bush asserts for the SPP itself," Corsi continued. "Evidently we are just supposed to close our eyes and trust government officials, investment bankers and international lawyers, putting aside national security concerns and other economic issues which we believe may be of concern to our readers."

According to the conference brochure, the purpose of the EuroMoney seminar is to teach state and local government officials in the U.S. how to lease a wide range of public assets to international and foreign private investment groups.

"Your online news service is known for its political rather than business content," EuroMoney's Joanna Johnson explained yesterday to WND in an e-mail, while refusing to allow Corsi permission to attend the conference. "We don't feel it's appropriate for a business conference."

In an Aug. 29 e-mail, Johnson told WND the seminar was "only open to those who are internal to EuroMoney or those with whom we have a media partnership. In this instance I am unable to extend a press pass to your organization."

WND then offered to pay the full registration fee for Corsi, the author of "The Late, Great USA" which uses government documents to outline plans for a continental merger, to attend.

In response, Johnson sent a second Aug. 29 e-mail asking WND for payment details and confirming Corsi could attend, provided WND paid the full registration fee as offered.

Yesterday's e-mail shutting the door to Corsi came after WND pressed EuroMoney to send an invoice.

"So, EuroMoney made a political decision to keep me out of their private meeting," Corsi commented, "but WND is the one EuroMoney objects to as being too political. Seems to me like a case of guilty conscience where EuroMoney is accusing WND of a fault EuroMoney knows itself to be committing."

Public-private partnerships, or PPPs, were authorized by Executive Order No. 12803 President George H.W. Bush signed April 30, 1992, clearing federal barriers for cities and states to lease public works infrastructures to private investors.

Writing in WND, Corsi has repeatedly exposed the PPP structure the Texas Department of Transportation has used to allow Cintra Concesiones de Infraestructuras de Transporte, a foreign investment consortium in Spain, to finance the Trans-Texas Corridor, retaining for Cintra resulting rights to operate and receive tolls from TTC superhighways for 50 years after completion.

Corsi first exposed the EuroMoney seminar agenda in an article published in WND on Jan. 5, discussing an earlier EuroMoney seminar on PPP financing of public infrastructure projects scheduled for Miami in March, entitled "PPP: The North American Private Partnerships Intensive Seminar."

"This is an outrageous affront to freedom of the press," Corsi said, "but it affirms the government officials and investment bankers who are pushing PPP structures have something to hide."

The EuroMoney brochure for next week's seminar in New York indicates that attendees will include officials from the state departments of transportation in Virginia, Wisconsin, Louisiana, Texas, Delaware, Colorado and Washington, D.C.

Other attendees will be investment bankers, including managing directors from the Carlyle Group, Nuveen Asset Management, Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse, AIG Highstar, Allstate Investments and Morgan Stanley.

The brochure names David Narefsky as the workshop leader.

Narefsky is listed as a partner in the Government Practice Group of the law firm Mayer, Brown, Row, and Maw, an international law firm that "has been counsel in the major privatizing transactions that have been completed or are now under way in the United States, including the Chicago Skyway, the Indiana Toll Road and Chicago-Midway Airport."

The brochure further notes that Narefsky has played "a leading role in these transactions," crediting Narefsky as being "actively involved in the drafting and analysis of PPP legislation for various state and local jurisdictions."

In the Jan. 5 WND article, Corsi reported a spokesman for EuroMoney in the UK told WND the target office was government employees at the state and local level who want to learn the "how-to" of putting deals together such as the one by Cintra Concesiones de Infraestructuras de Transporte to finance the Trans-Texas Corridor.

The EuroMoney seminar brochure notes a director of Cintra from Spain is scheduled to attend the conference and speak to the attendees.

Panels at the New York seminar are scheduled to discuss the Trans-Texas Corridor, taking up such topics as "Is the politics a knee-jerk or a ground swell?" "Reviewing current activity in the state legislature," "What will the effect be on different states and the industry in general?" "Will Texas deals get through the instability?" and "What does this mean for equity partners?”

WND has reported Texas Gov. Rick Perry has vetoed a series of laws passed overwhelming by the Texas legislature with the intent of blocking TTC superhighway construction altogether, or at a minimum placing a two-year moratorium on the project.

The 300 senior decision-makers from state government, investment banking, and legal counsel that Money expects to attend the New York meeting will hear seminars instructing them how to create private finance deals on public infrastructure projects including toll roads, water treatment and waste management facilities, port infrastructure, state lotteries, airports, municipal parking, and military housing developments.

"The complex nature of politics in North America has led to challenges for financiers, investors and contractors in convincing all from local to national levels that PPP is an accountable and credible form of public finance," the EuroMoney conference brochure notes. "Moreover, on an electoral level, those in the public sector that have pushed for such solutions have often had to fight hard to gain public acceptance. What is clear is that to push projects through, strong leadership is needed, along with effective communication and an increasingly credible history of procurement success."

The conference chairman is scheduled to be Tom Nelthorpe, the editor of Project Finance Magazine, a EuroMoney publication promoting private investment structures in public infrastructure deals.

[sometimeman]

These people are Europeans who try to demonstrate in remembrance of 9-11.

This is what George Bush wants for Americans

www.brusselsjournal.com/node/2442

[shortcircuit]

It's already happening sometimeman, every time GW speaks in public he has "no protest zones" set up to keep people from protesting anywhere near him. So much for freedom of speech huh? It's not a republican vs. democrat thing either, Bill Clinton had ways of silencing his critics also.

[sometimeman]

Thank you for saying that Short. I voted for the man. I made a mistake.
Having said that, I can't stand Al Gore!

[sometimeman]

Federal Workers Owe Billions in Unpaid Taxes
January 17, 2007 - 10:26am
Mark Segraves, WTOP Radio

WASHINGTON - As the 2006 tax season approaches, the federal government is still trying to recover nearly $3 billion from its own employees who failed to file income tax returns for 2005.

More than 450,000 active and retired federal employees did not voluntarily comply with federal income tax requirements for the 2005 tax year, according to documents obtained by WTOP through the Freedom of Information Act. (See Excel spreadsheets in the Related Links below.)

The total balance owed is $2,799,950,165.

The documents show that every federal agency has employees who failed to comply with federal tax laws.

Seventy-one employees in the Executive Office of the President, which includes the White House, owe $664,527 in taxes for 2005. About 20 of those employees have entered into an IRS payment plan, bringing the EOP balance down to $455,881owed by 50 employees.

The White House did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

In fact, about one third of the delinquent employees, or 149,500, entered into a payment plan, but the total owed is still more than $2 billion.

At the IRS, employees can be fired for failure to pay federal income taxes. But an IRS spokesperson tells WTOP it's no easier to collect from federal employees than it is to collect from the general public.

In the past, IRS officials have been quick to compare the federal workers' rate of compliance with the general public's. But this year, the IRS is not able to track the compliance rate for the general public. The percentage of federal employees who still owe back taxes for the 2005 year is 3.3 percent of the workforce including retirees.

The federal agency with the highest number of delinquent taxpayers is the United States Postal Service, where 56,652 employees owe more than $320 million. So far, about 22,000 of those employees have agreed to a payment plan.

A spokesperson for the Postal Service says the agency hopes all of its employees follow the law, but will leave enforcement to the IRS.

The agency with the best compliance rate is the Department of Treasury, which includes the IRS. Fewer than 2 percent of Treasury employees failed to pay their taxes. About 3,000 Treasury employees owed $13,489,683 -- 1,437 of those feds also have made payment plans.

The IRS tracks the compliance rate of federal employees each year in an effort to increase compliance. Agency directors are made aware of their department's compliance rate and then memos are sent to staff encouraging them to file their taxes.

(Copyright 2007 by WTOP Radio. All Rights Reserved.)
Mark Segraves, WTOP Radio

WASHINGTON - As the 2006 tax season approaches, the federal government is still trying to recover nearly $3 billion from its own employees who failed to file income tax returns for 2005.

More than 450,000 active and retired federal employees did not voluntarily comply with federal income tax requirements for the 2005 tax year, according to documents obtained by WTOP through the Freedom of Information Act. (See Excel spreadsheets in the Related Links below.)

The total balance owed is $2,799,950,165.

The documents show that every federal agency has employees who failed to comply with federal tax laws.

Seventy-one employees in the Executive Office of the President, which includes the White House, owe $664,527 in taxes for 2005. About 20 of those employees have entered into an IRS payment plan, bringing the EOP balance down to $455,881owed by 50 employees.

The White House did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

In fact, about one third of the delinquent employees, or 149,500, entered into a payment plan, but the total owed is still more than $2 billion.

At the IRS, employees can be fired for failure to pay federal income taxes. But an IRS spokesperson tells WTOP it's no easier to collect from federal employees than it is to collect from the general public.

In the past, IRS officials have been quick to compare the federal workers' rate of compliance with the general public's. But this year, the IRS is not able to track the compliance rate for the general public. The percentage of federal employees who still owe back taxes for the 2005 year is 3.3 percent of the workforce including retirees.

The federal agency with the highest number of delinquent taxpayers is the United States Postal Service, where 56,652 employees owe more than $320 million. So far, about 22,000 of those employees have agreed to a payment plan.

A spokesperson for the Postal Service says the agency hopes all of its employees follow the law, but will leave enforcement to the IRS.

The agency with the best compliance rate is the Department of Treasury, which includes the IRS. Fewer than 2 percent of Treasury employees failed to pay their taxes. About 3,000 Treasury employees owed $13,489,683 -- 1,437 of those feds also have made payment plans.

The IRS tracks the compliance rate of federal employees each year in an effort to increase compliance. Agency directors are made aware of their department's compliance rate and then memos are sent to staff encouraging them to file their taxes.
www.wtop.com/?nid=428&sid=1034585

[sometimeman]

Who's in charge - Bush, Cheney, or israel?

EDITORIAL

Who’s in charge of managing the Iraq war -- Cheney or the zio-cons? Do they work together, or is one of them on top?

Greg Palast’s book Armed Madhouse suggests they’re BOTH in charge. Sometimes the oil companies and the zionists cooperate. Sometimes they compete.

The oil companies did not write the "Project for a New American Century.” Indeed they checkmated part of the neocons’ plans. Palast says the oil companies wanted to work with OPEC to hold down production and boost prices so they could all get richer.

By contrast, the zio-cons wanted to break up OPEC and use Iraq’s oil to topple Arabia so they could begin their “war of civilizations.”

Consider this: we know that Saddam got into trouble because he switched to euros. However, Saddam also got into trouble because one moment he would cut oil production to support the Palestinians, and the next moment he would pump the maximum allowed. Saddam was messing with the oil companies’ plan to hold down production and ratchet up oil prices. Even OPEC did not like this, since up and down movements in prices destabilize the oil industry. Greg Palast’s Armed Madhouse says a Council on Foreign Relations report concludes: Saddam is a "destabilizing influence to the flow of oil to international markets from the Middle East."

Cheney wanted a war to remove Saddam, and to control oil production. He wanted the U.S. and OPEC economies to remain pegged to each another.

The zio-cons wanted a war because love to see the Goyim fight.

"Christian" evangelicals wanted a war because they are insane.

The oil companies are forced to work with zionists because zionists control most of the USA, and have their claws in the central banks. What a mess.

Some Jews blame the oil companies, since Jews are always "victims." Alan Greenspan in his memoirs says the war is about oil, not WMDs.

Chomsky, an admitted zionist, blames everything on U.S. corporate imperialism. He says U.S. oil companies and weapons makers run the Iraq war. He says the israel lobby is not important. He fears an anti-zionist backlash that will "victimize" Jews. He ignores the fact that the israel lobby is insane (although he sometimes criticizes israel itself).

Thus, I see Bush sitting between the two forces. On one side are oil companies, which don’t want to attack Iran, because they don’t want to destabilize oil profits.

On the other side are zionists and their “Christian” evangelical stooges, who insist on attacking Iran so they can trigger a world war.

Bush is the empty space between them all. One day he pleases the zionists and “Christian” warmongers by threatening Iran. The next day he pleases the oil companies by merely talking about sanctions. He grovels at AIPAC functions, but he also has Cheney on his shoulder, plus “Christian” warmongers scurrying around the room, talking of "Christ's love" and howling for murder.

Anti-zionists ignore the role of corporatism and the oil companies. The anti-war crowd ignores the role of the zionists. “Evangelicals” ignore the role of their own evil and stupidity. All of them ignore the role of private central banks.

Yow!

In one sense the central banks are above them all. In another sense, the banks are dependent on them all, since nothing happens without human energy.

Meanwhile the rug has been pulled out from under all of them. The catastrophic race to the bottom (off-shoring and the quest for ever-cheaper labor) has caused a trade deficit that is destroying the dollar’s value and its reserve currency status.

No country that offshores its own production can have balanced trade. Americans have survived this long because the dollar has been the world’s reserve currency. To buy and sell oil, one must have dollars. But now Arabia has disconnected. Petrodollar hegemony is disappearing. Even with control of oil, the dollar's reserve currency status is eroded by trade deficits and budget deficits. Plus, we have endlessly mounting war debts.

Babylon is dying. Shorn of industry, dependent on offshored manufactured goods and services, and deprived of the dollar as reserve currency, the US will quickly become a “third world country.” Already, college graduates must drive cabs and flip burgers.

Even if the government magically woke up, it could not re-acquire the manufacturing capability it has given away to other countries. (But I still think we’d survive if we ended the war and took control of our banking and currency.)

As the dollar loses its reserve currency status, the Fed will have to “magically” move from an $800 billion trade deficit to a trade surplus, so the US can earn enough Euros to pay for its continued imports of oil and goods. That is, the central banks will play games to buy us a little more time, but this will be a temporary fix at best.

Meanwhile there’s the ever-rising mountain of consumer debt.

The way I see it, the USA will have to go to war no matter what. War will stimulate the economy and buy more time, but it too is a temporary fix.

The “North American Union” already exists (as Claymoremind notes, Canada’s dollar is now worth the same as the U.S. dollar). How can a “North American Union” address our trade deficit,our budget deficits, and our overall debt to the banks? How can it save us from zionist Jews? How can it get rid of israel, so we can work with Muslims?

The first thing we must do, no matter what, is end the war. That would leave the oil companies in charge, and we would have high fuel prices, but it would buy us some time, and the oil companies would cooperate with OPEC. Also the oil companies won't crash the US economy, since they need Americans to buy oil.

Finally, I'm curious to see what will happen to israel when the USA dies.

Will the USA be like ancient Rome, which finally had to destroy Judea?

That’s a scary question.

If the USA threatens to cut israel loose, israel will nuke the USA (false flag) in order to trigger a war. It’s part of their “Samson option.” Even if the israeli public and government opposed a nuclear strike, there are plenty of factions in israel that are insane. And if they don’t do it, the neocons in the USA will. And if the neocons don’t do it, “Christian evangelicals” will perpetrate a false flag. Our asylum is well-stocked with lunatics of all stripes.

Or how about this…suppose we get into a world war and we LOSE (which is quite possible, given our weakness).

Would it be our worst nightmare?

Or would it be the best thing that could happen to us?

[sometimeman]

BUSH PARDONS HIMSELF

Lie mar must'a told him how to do it!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBUkxvfL_eE

[AskTheWiseOldMan]

Sometimer, who do you mean by Zionists?

[sometimeman]

"zio-cons" These folks are neocons who believe Israel can do no wrong.

[sometimeman]

When a Jew don't want you dollar you know it truly an't worth a dam!

Israel asks U.S. foreign aid be paid in EUROS

FYI - the Euro is now worth about 1.4 US Dollars.

Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni

Secretary of State Rice has acknowledged a communique from Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Levni which requests that all foreign aid payments and loans from the United States be made in Euros rather than in Dollars. Foreign Minister Levni cited the rapidly declining dollar and it's disfavor as a world currency as reasons for the request.

"In the spirit of Yom Kippur, the United States will not hold Israel to any agreements obligating them to accept Dollars as payment for their foreigh aid. We will translate our obligations into Euros or whatever currency that best fits Israel's needs" Secretary RIce said in the Friday, Sept 21 announcement.

"We need to place our Israeli obligations at the top of our national prioriy list. Israel should not suffer any inconvenience due to currency fluctuations" said Rice before heading off to Camp David.

A similar request from Egypt was declined last week.

[sometimeman]

Dear USA, please turn off your TV, please get mad. While we were distracted a bunch of criminals of the lowest caliber have stolen our country6

mparent7777-2.blogspot.com/2007/09/dear-usa-please-turn-off-your-tv-please.html

[AskTheWiseOldMan]

Sometimeman, that reply #13 really is a long but interesting read.

the reason I asked about "Zionists" is that the term usually means America too, at least in the way the Skinheads, Klan-like creatures and NeoNazi's use it.

Its also interesting that Ahmadenijad's speeches today say basically the same thing.

[sometimeman]

Thank you Wiseoldman for your comments and reading the long article. Thats about half, the rest is at the included web link. Yes many Conservative Christians are Zionists. I think Caiaphas was a Zionist.

I didn't hear Ahmadenijad's speech.