Monthly Archives: October 2012

News

California Muni Bankruptcies, A Spreading ‘Disease’

“In California, we have a disease, and the disease is spreading,” spoken by David Kotok, the chief investment officer with Cumberland Advisors at the State & Municipal Finance Conference which was hosted by Bloomberg Link in New York.

Kotok is referring to municipal bankruptcies in California.  Three cities have filed and a fourth city, Atwater, is preparing a vote on whether or not to declare a fiscal emergency.  That would allow bankruptcy to follow.  They would join other California cities such as Stockton, San Bernardino and Mammoth Lakes who have already filed for bankruptcy.

In August, Moody’s Investor Service indicated that cities in California may be looking at “across-the-board rating revisions”.

According to David Crane who is a public policy speaker with Stanford University and a prior special advisor to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, these bankruptcies are “largely a self-inflicted wound… Nobody forced legislators and council members to make promises — unfunded promises amounting to hundreds of billions of dollars — to their benefit, to their political benefit.”

Businessweek.com

News

Iran’s Currency Crashing

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Signs of public dissatisfaction are appearing in Iran with protests in central Tehran today.  Iran’s currency has lost more than 50% of its value in the last week.

Police in the hundreds with anti-riot gear swarmed the capital around the currency exchange district looking for illegal money changers and closing other legally operating venues down, according to witnesses reporting to AFP (Agence France-Presse).

According to the witnesses, many were arrested, smoke was seen in at least two places and stones where being thrown at police.

Ahmadinejad however, blames the sanctions imposed by the USA and European Union for the freefall of their currency but remains defiant and committed to Iran’s nuclear program “We are not a people to retreat on the nuclear issue… If somebody thinks they can pressure Iran, they are certainly wrong and they must correct their behaviour,”.

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News

Anti ‘Gay Conversion Therapy’ Backers Seek More Regions

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Gay rights advocates in San Francisco are regrouping to broaden their fight.  They seek to ban therapy, focused on converting teens with feelings of gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender issues to straight feelings, into other regions and States.

California is the first State in the nation to sign this kind of bill into law.  California Governor Jerry Brown has labelled this kind of therapy as “quackery” with “no basis in science or medicine”.

Currently this ban applies only to therapists who are licensed and not to ministers or other lay people.

Some Christian legal groups are planning on fighting this in federal court.

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News

Justice Department Electronic Monitoring Rises

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Phone calls, emails and social networks have all been places where the government, or the Justice Department have been monitoring with increasing frequency.

These instances are occurring without a warrant and have been increasing over the last 4 years according to the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union).

ACLU’s data shows that government tracking from 2009 to 2011 increased surveillance of phone calls by 60% and emails or other electronic computer related communications by a whopping 361%.

According to the Justice Department, these occurrences have been authorized by a federal judge on “every instance”.

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News

California outlaws gay-to-straight therapies

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California Governor Jerry Brown has signed into law a ban on gay-to-straight therapy which focuses on minors.

This therapy is also called “conversion therapy” which seeks to change a person’s feelings away from an LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) orientation.

The American Psychiatric Association says that these types of therapies do more harm than good and cite their research showing those who have been subjected to it have an increased risk of suicide, anxiety, depression and other self-destructive type behaviors.

In signing the law Governor Brown stated “This bill bans nonscientific ‘therapies’ that have driven young people to depression and suicide,”.

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News

Are North and South Korea on the brink of nuclear war?

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At a meeting at the UN in New York, a senior North Korean diplomat has said relations between North and South Korea are “totally bankrupt”, adding “a spark of fire could set off a thermonuclear war”.

His was the first public address to the UN since Kim Jong Un took power in North Korea, after the death of his father last December. Since that time relations between North and South have been tense. Earlier this year the US and South Korea conducted naval exercises off the coast of South Korea, a move seen as highly provocative by Pyongyang.

Pak Kil-yon, Pyongyang’s vice-foreign minster, was responding to the UN Security Council’s condemnation of North Korea’s failed ballistic missile launch in March, saying, that the excerise was a “legitimate and peaceful”, attempt to launch a satellite into space.

Pak, further attacked the US, saying, “Today, due to the continued US hostile policy towards the DPRK, the vicious cycle of confrontation and aggravation of tensions is an ongoing phenomenon on the Korean Peninsula, which has become the world’s most dangerous hot spot and where a spark of fire could set off a thermonuclear war,”

Reports from South Korea suggest the North is increasing military operations across the border, whilst the South is responding by sending more submarines to sea and is preparing for more large scale military operations.

Via The Telegraph

News

2012 Presidential Debate Schedule « 2012 Election Central

October 3, 2012
Topic: Domestic policy
Air Time: 9:00-10:30 p.m. Eastern Time
Location: University of Denver in Denver, Colorado (Tickets)
Sponsor: Commission on Presidential Debates
Participants: President Barack Obama and Governor Mitt Romney
Moderator: Jim Lehrer (Host of NewsHour on PBS)

The debate will focus on domestic policy and be divided into six time segments of approximately 15 minutes each on topics to be selected by the moderator and announced several weeks before the debate.

The moderator will open each segment with a question, after which each candidate will have two minutes to respond. The moderator will use the balance of the time in the segment for a discussion of the topic.

October 11, 2012
Vice Presidential
Topic: Foreign and domestic policy
Air Time: 9:00-10:30 p.m. Eastern Time
Location: Centre College in Danville, Kentucky (Tickets)
Sponsor: Commission on Presidential Debates
Participants: Vice President Joe Biden and Congressman Paul Ryan
Moderator: Martha Raddatz (ABC News Chief Foreign Correspondent)

The debate will cover both foreign and domestic topics and be divided into nine time segments of approximately 10 minutes each. The moderator will ask an opening question, after which each candidate will have two minutes to respond. The moderator will use the balance of the time in the segment for a discussion of the question.

October 16, 2012
Topic: Town meeting format including foreign and domestic policy
Air Time: 9:00-10:30 p.m. Eastern Time
Location: Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York (Tickets)
Sponsor: Commission on Presidential Debates
Participants: President Barack Obama and Governor Mitt Romney
Moderator: Candy Crowley (CNN Chief Political Correspondent)

The second presidential debate will take the form of a town meeting, in which citizens will ask questions of the candidates on foreign and domestic issues. Candidates each will have two minutes to respond, and an additional minute for the moderator to facilitate a discussion. The town meeting participants will be undecided voters selected by the Gallup Organization.

October 22, 2012
Topic: Foreign policy
Air Time: 9:00-10:30 p.m. Eastern Time
Location: Lynn University in Boca Raton, Florida (Tickets)
Sponsor: Commission on Presidential Debates
Participants: President Barack Obama and Governor Mitt Romney
Moderator: Bob Schieffer (Host of Face the Nation on CBS)

The format for the debate will be identical to the first presidential debate and will focus on foreign policy.

More Info

 

News

Convicted TSA Officer Reveals Secrets of Thefts at Airports – ABC News

By MEGAN CHUCHMACH (@megcourtney) , RANDY KREIDER and BRIAN ROSS (@brianross)

Sept. 28, 2012

A convicted TSA security officer says he was part of a “culture” of indifference that allowed corrupt employees to prey on passengers’ luggage and personal belongings with impunity, thanks to lax oversight and tip-offs from TSA colleagues.

“It was very commonplace, very,” said Pythias Brown, a former TSA officer at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey who admits he stole more than $800,000 worth of items from luggage and security checkpoints over a four-year period.

“It was very convenient to steal,” he said.

We want to hear from you. Tell us about your experience with the TSA by joining the conversation on Facebook.

Speaking publicly for the first time after being released from prison, Brown told ABC News his four-year-long crime spree came to an end only because he tried to sell a camera he stole from the luggage of a CNN producer on E-bay but forgot to remove all of the news networks’ identifying stickers.

“It became so easy, I got complacent,” Brown said.

READ: ABC News Tracks Missing iPad to Florida Home of TSA Officer

Brown is one of almost 400 TSA officers who have been fired for stealing from passengers in the past decade. According to the TSA, 381 TSA officers have been fired for theft between 2003 and 2012, including 11 so far in this year.

via Convicted TSA Officer Reveals Secrets of Thefts at Airports – ABC News.

News

PIMCO: America could resemble Greece before 2020 – Telegraph

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PIMCO (the world’s largest bond fund) chief, Mr Gross, said that the United States must cut spending or raise taxes by 11pc of gross domestic product GDP over the next five to ten years, in order to preserve it’s role as a financial safe haven.

If we continue to close our eyes to existing 8pc of GDP deficits, which when including Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare liabilities compose an average estimated 11pc annual ‘fiscal gap,’ then we will begin to resemble Greece before the turn of the next decade,”

The warning comes after Moody’s has also warned the US that if it fails to control debt, then it will loose it’s AAA rating.

via PIMCO: America could resemble Greece before 2020 – Telegraph.

News

Obama is winning the money race | Washington Free Beacon

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BY: Matthew Continetti

September 28, 2012

 

For months now I’ve been receiving fundraising emails from the Obama campaign, the Democratic National Committee, the various Democratic congressional committees, and the occasional Democratic campaign. The apocalyptic message of these emails has been mind-numbingly repetitive: A cabal of superrich businessmen is out to deny Barack Obama reelection and install as president Mitt Romney, who will line their pockets in return. Nothing less than the future of democracy is at risk. Donate now—before it’s too late. Recently, though, the emails have been less apocalyptic. And this is why:  The Democrats’ hysterical solicitations have worked. Not only did Obama outraise Romney in the month of August, he has outraised and out-spent Romney altogether. Listen to Ken Vogel and Dave Levinthal of Politico: “Through the end of August, Romney’s campaign and the party committees and Super PAC supporting it had raised $736 million, compared to $774 million raised by Obama’s campaign and its party and Super PAC allies.” So forget about the Koch brothers and Sheldon Adelson. If you want to know how to buy an election, ask the Democrats. The saga of Obama and campaign finance is a case study in cynicism. Throughout his career, Obama has portrayed himself as an opponent of money in politics, even as he has exploited the system at every turn. He said in 2008 that he would take public financing, but then became the first nominee in history to opt out. He said in this cycle that he would not allow his associates to fundraise for a Super PAC, but then changed his mind. He has attacked anonymous political giving, but dispatched Joe Biden to appeal to the shadowy Democracy Alliance last November. He pays no price when he makes such reversals. He and his supporters meekly lament that he is a victim of circumstance. The press nods….. to read the rest of this article click on the link below:

via Obama is winning the money race | Washington Free Beacon.