Wednesday, February 03, 2010

Debt collectors respond: What it's like for us



Jan 29th 2010 at 5:20PM


Not long ago, we shared the experiences of several Americans who had climbed their way out of deep debts. Their tales touched a nerve with readers who shared their own harrowing stories of their experiences with debt collectors. Some of these agents treated their debtors professionally; others, less so. Readers described dodging collection calls and hanging up on agents.

A few brave professionals also responded, complaining of the unfair mis-characterization of their jobs, and of them. What's it like to be on the other end of that phone, or on the other side of that doorway? Here's the consensus: Being a debt collector is a tough way to make a living.

"It was the worst, nastiest job I ever had. Every day, I would go to work stressed out," says Lisa Crowley, who handled receivables for a heavy-equipment company in Michigan in the late 1980s. Half of her job involved calling clients who hadn't settled their bills, from mom-and-pop businesses to the city of Detroit. Crowley stuck it out for a year before transferring to another department.

About 53% of the members of ACA International, the Association of Credit and Collection Professionals, stay in a collections job for three to five years, and more than two thirds of its members are women.

Andre Vaughn lasted longer than most. For more than five years in the 1980s, Vaughn used the alias Phillip Martin as a collections agent for a company specializing in delinquent medical bills. Vaughn called people who had outstanding medical bills and try to get payments: not a job for the faint of heart. "We used to take bets to see who would last. Some new people would start at 8 a.m., leave for lunch at noon, and never come back."

For those who did stay, it was a lucrative business, Vaughn says. Unlike some collectors, his firm didn't buy distressed debt but worked on commission with hospitals and other medical facilities. "Whatever the office collected, they would return 40% to the business and keep 60%," he says. A 25% commission for collection agents sometimes quadrupled Vaughn's monthly salary.

But the strain of the job eventually took its toll: Vaughn eventually left the job -- and the industry -- to work in a law office. The anything-goes mentality for getting that money was tough, he says, and sometimes agents would bend the rules. An agent who threatened to sue someone could be fired -- only the lawyers could make such claims -- but other sneaky tactics slipped through the cracks. "We'd tell them to take out a second mortgage, take out a life insurance policy, whatever it took," Vaughn says.

Although the agents knew that, at the time, the debtor could only be held legally responsible for the principal they owed and not the interest, Vaughn and his co-workers tried to get everything they could. "Getting the interest as well was pure gravy. That's how they referred to it." Also, he says, "If they were on welfare or that kind of thing, you couldn't technically call them. But we did anyway."

Despite the pressure to collect as much as possible from every debtor, Vaughn says he sometimes tried to help the most unfortunate debtors. "The other thing I did that would've gotten me fired immediately is, if I looked [at their file] and saw they had cancer or AIDS I would just cancel the debt and write it off as uncollectable." For terminal patients with no hope of recovery, Vaughn says he knew trying to collect would be a lost cause anyway, so he wrote off the debt -- and saved them the demanding phone calls in their final months.

Vaughn says he got further with most people by being professional and businesslike: explaining to debtors that they had to take care of the debt, but that he would help them find a way to pay it off within their means. "I tried to talk to the person as a person and let them know I understood their situation, but somehow we had to figure out how they're going to take care of this," he says. It was this willingness to position himself as a collaborator rather than an adversary, and an unwillingness to talk down to people who were behind on their bills, that went a lot further than heavy-handed tactics, he says.

The most common misconception about debt collection is that collectors don't want to work with consumers, says Karolyn Rubin, president of ACA International. Rubin, who has co-owned her family's Chicago debt-collection firm for 25 years, says consumers are often unwilling to explain their financial pain, whether out of embarrassment or a belief that their fortunes will suddenly improve.

"I truly believe every consumer wants to resolve every outstanding situation," she says, but to do so "is a matter of establishing firm communication and all parties trusting each other." People facing collections, she says, should explain if they've lost work or fallen ill, Rubin says: Work with the professional collector, and be forthcoming about the reason for nonpayment."

This economy makes creditors more willing to cut deals with debtors. "I've seen more creditors willing to forgive a portion of the debt," Rubin says. She advises anyone struggling with debt to talk with agents who call them. "Every collector I've come across has acted in the utmost professional and ethical manner," Rubin says. "We're bound by the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act to treat all consumers well. It's not our objective to harass, belittle, or demean them."

Readers, what do you think? We've heard some hair-raising stories of rude collection agents -- were these just a few bad apples? Tell us about your conversations with collectors, good and bad. .
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Source:http://www.walletpop.com/blog/2010/01/29/debt-collectors-respond-what-its-like-for-us/?icid=mainhtmlws-main-ndl3link3http%3A%2F%2Fwww.walletpop.com%2Fblog%2F2010%2F01%2F29%2Fdebt-collectors-respond-what-its-like-for-us%2F

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Thus saith the LORD concerning the prophets that make my people err, that bite with their teeth, and cry, Peace


Micah 3

1And I said, Hear, I pray you, O heads of Jacob, and ye princes of the house of Israel; Is it not for you to know judgment?

2Who hate the good, and love the evil; who pluck off their skin from off them, and their flesh from off their bones;

3Who also eat the flesh of my people, and flay their skin from off them; and they break their bones, and chop them in pieces, as for the pot, and as flesh within the caldron.

4Then shall they cry unto the LORD, but he will not hear them: he will even hide his face from them at that time, as they have behaved themselves ill in their doings.

5Thus saith the LORD concerning the prophets that make my people err, that bite with their teeth, and cry, Peace; and he that putteth not into their mouths, they even prepare war against him.

6Therefore night shall be unto you, that ye shall not have a vision; and it shall be dark unto you, that ye shall not divine; and the sun shall go down over the prophets, and the day shall be dark over them.

7Then shall the seers be ashamed, and the diviners confounded: yea, they shall all cover their lips; for there is no answer of God.

8But truly I am full of power by the spirit of the LORD, and of judgment, and of might, to declare unto Jacob his transgression, and to Israel his sin.

9Hear this, I pray you, ye heads of the house of Jacob, and princes of the house of Israel, that abhor judgment, and pervert all equity.

10They build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity.

11The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money: yet will they lean upon the LORD, and say, Is not the LORD among us? none evil can come upon us.

12Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of the forest.
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A "Nobel Torsion Message" Over Norway? Part III



A "Nobel Torsion Message" Over Norway?

Part III














By Richard C. Hoagland
© 2010 The Enterprise Mission




In the extended pre-dawn darkeness over Norway last December, as we have recounted in Parts I and II of this Report ... "something" truly amazing happened--

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And reaction immediately divided into two totally opposing views: Those who "bought" the official media story ... that "it was only another failed Russian missile test ..."--
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And then ... those who thought "it just might be something else this time ...."

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As we have shown previously, there can be little doubt at this point that a Russian rocket was involved.

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But--

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The conclusion that everyone has jumped to -- with the striking exception of the Russians themselves -- that, somehow, the Russians caused The Spiral--

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Well, that's a "leap too far" ....

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We can now report, based on analysis of the extensive imaging evidence reported via the Norwegian press, that The Norway Spiral was NOT primarily caused by "a failed Russian missile test ...."

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But--
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The failed Russian rocket could, in fact, have been caused by whatever forces "created the Norway Spiral ...."

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This section of our on-going analysis will describe precisely "how."


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Obama budget ends return-to-moon plan

NASA to get $6 billion more, but for space station and commercialization


By Seth Borenstein
Associated Press
updated 7:25 p.m. ET, Thurs., Jan. 28, 2010

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama is essentially grounding efforts to return astronauts to the moon and instead is sending NASA in new directions with roughly $6 billion more, according to officials familiar with the plans.

A White House official confirmed Thursday that when next week’s budget is proposed, NASA will get an additional $5.9 billion over five years, as first reported in Florida newspapers.
Some of that money would extend the life of the International Space Station to 2020. It also would be used to entice companies to build private spacecraft to ferry astronauts to the space station after the space shuttle retires, said the official, who was not authorized to speak by name.
The money in the president’s budget is not enough to follow through with NASA’s Constellation moon landing plan initiated by President George W. Bush in 2004. An aide to an elected official who was told of Obama’s plans said the president is effectively ending the return-to-the-moon effort, even though $9.1 billion has already been spent. The aide asked that his name not be used because of the sensitivity of the discussions.

It all comes down to money. When NASA costed out the moon plan in 2005, the agency came up with a total price tag of $104 billion. The plan quickly spluttered when the budget increases promised by the White House didn't materialize. Now money is a big consideration in NASA's latest shift in focus.

A new direction for NASA has been on hold for several months while an independent commission studied options and the White House weighed them. Obama’s choice will be made clear Monday when he releases his 2011 budget proposal.

“It certainly appears that the Bush moon mission is not going to be included” in future funding, said a senior NASA official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk about the plans.

‘Exploration is not dead’
Space policy scholar John Logsdon, who was on an Obama space campaign advisory committee and has served on NASA advisory panels, said the president is adopting the preferred option of a White House-appointed outside panel of experts last year. That concept includes reliance on commercial spaceships, a space station that functions for five more years than initially planned, and a “flexible path” for human space exploration.

The flexible-path option might mean trips to a nearby asteroid, a Martian moon or even lunar orbit. But it would not allow for a human moon landing by 2020, or for the construction of a moon base sometime afterward, as called for in the Bush plan. The development of landing systems and lunar settlements would have to be put off until later.

“What kills the moon mission is the decision to extend the space station to 2020,” Logsdon said. That means the Bush goal of “moon by 2020 is dead. We can’t afford using the station for five more years and going to the moon.”

While the Constellation program “is dead, exploration is not dead, and that’s really important,” Logsdon said.

Strong negative reaction
The budget numbers were first reported this week by The Orlando Sentinel and Florida Today. Already, proponents of the moon mission and thousands of workers in space centers in Florida, Alabama and Texas are upset. Congressional officials in those states have denounced such ideas, and some of them sit on key committees where they could fight Obama’s plans.

For example, Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., who went into orbit in 1986 on the space shuttle mission immediately preceding before the Challenger explosion, chairs the space subcommittee in the Senate. The chairwoman of the House space subcommittee, Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., is married to a space shuttle astronaut.

Slideshow

Month in SpaceEnjoy a cool view of the moon, planets and other celestial highlights for January 2010.Month in Space

Nelson's reaction to the reports circulating about future NASA spending was sharply negative. In a statement issued Thursday, he said administration officials would be "replacing lost shuttle jobs in Florida too slowly, risking U.S. leadership in space to China and Russia, and relying too heavily on unproven commercial companies."

“If the $6 billion in extra funding is for a commercial rocket, then the bigger rocket for human exploration will be delayed well into the next decade. That is unacceptable," Nelson said. “We need a plan that provides America with uninterrupted access to space while also funding exploration to expand the boundaries of our knowledge.”

In a statement, Rep. Suzanne Kosmas, D-Fla., said, “The president’s proposal would leave NASA with essentially no program and no timeline for exploration beyond Earth’s orbit.”

Ken Matthews, a member of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers in Huntsville, Ala., said his members worry about “jobs that won’t be there.”

If Obama does cancel the Constellation program, it “leaves NASA and the nation with no program, no plan and no commitment to any human spaceflight program beyond that of today,” former NASA Administrator Michael Griffin said in a statement.

Griffin said this would be tantamount to recommending “that the nation abandon its leadership on the space frontier.”

Questions about private ventures
Kosmas and others raised questions about the safety of switching to a privately run space travel system that NASA would pay to carry astronauts.

The companies working to develop such a system include Space Exploration Technology Corp. or SpaceX, run by PayPal founder Elon Musk. California-based SpaceX is already building a new crew capsule and rocket, known as the Dragon and the Falcon 9, for transporting crew and cargo to orbit. Another company, Virginia-based Orbital Sciences, is building the Cygnus and the Taurus 2 rocket to serve the same purpose.

SpaceX and Orbital already are receiving millions of dollars from NASA to encourage the development of their spaceships. Other companies, ranging from Boeing to Virgin Galactic, have set their sights on selling spaceflight services to NASA.

Click for related content




A recent report by NASA’s Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel warned NASA not pursue unproven technology and abandon the Ares I rocket — the first rocket in the Bush moon program and one based on the Apollo design. The report called such a path “unwise and probably not cost-effective.”

But the Obama administration official said the Bush program was so underfunded that it wouldn’t get astronauts to the moon until 2028 or 2030.

The Bush moon plan was announced after the 2003 Columbia accident that killed seven astronauts. After that disaster, in which the shuttle broke apart as it returned to Earth, a special investigative panel said NASA needed a new goal. In January 2004, Bush proposed the return to the moon. It would have involved the Ares I rocket, carrying astronauts in a capsule called Orion. Another Ares spacecraft would carry heavier cargo.

So far NASA has spent $3.5 billion on Ares I, $3.7 billion on Orion and nearly $2 billion on other moon mission work. In the mid-1990s, NASA went through a similar stutter-step that meant abandoning plans that cost billions. That involved President Ronald Reagan’s Freedom space station, which ran into trouble after costing $11 billion without building any hardware. President Bill Clinton had the space station redesigned and restarted, with Russia and other nations joining in the effort.

Associated Press writer Jay Reeves contributed from Birmingham, Ala. This report was supplemented by msnbc.com.
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Tuesday, February 02, 2010

The Signal for Fleeing (Is it time to leave the cities?)




Many people still ask if it's time to move out of the cities.

I wonder if we need any more indications from the destruction of cities we see on the daily news headlines?

What do you think?

What else are we waiting for? A memo from God?


Hey, you, it's time for you to move out!
signed God.
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I am bidden to declare the message that cities full of transgression, and sinful in the extreme, will be destroyed by earthquakes, by fire, by flood. --Evangelism, pp. 27 (April 27, 1906).
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It is no time now for God's people to be fixing their affections or laying up their treasure in the world. The time is not far distant, when, like the early disciples, we shall be forced to seek a refuge in desolate and solitary places. As the siege of Jerusalem by the Roman armies was the signal for flight to the Judean Christians, so the assumption of power on the part of our nation, in the decree enforcing the papal sabbath, will be a warning to us. It will then be time to leave the large cities, preparatory to leaving the smaller ones for retired homes in secluded places among the mountains. And now, instead of seeking expensive dwellings here, we should be preparing to move to a better country, even a heavenly. Instead of spending our means in self-gratification, we should be studying to economize.-- Testimonies, vol. 5, pp. 464, 465. (1885)

The horrible cruelties enacted in the destruction of Jerusalem are a demonstration of Satan's vindictive power over those who yield to his control.

We cannot know how much we owe to Christ for the peace and protection which we enjoy. It is the restraining power of God that prevents mankind from passing fully under the control of Satan. The disobedient and unthankful have great reason for gratitude for God's mercy and long-suffering in holding in check the cruel, malignant power of the evil one.

But when men pass the limits of divine forbearance, that restraint is removed. God does not stand toward the sinner as an executioner of the sentence against transgression; but He leaves the rejectors of His mercy to themselves, to reap that which they have sown. Every ray of light rejected, every warning despised or unheeded, every passion indulged, every transgression of the law of God, is a seed sown which yields its unfailing harvest. The Spirit of God, persistently resisted, is at last withdrawn from the sinner, and then there is left no power to control the evil passions of the soul, and no protection from the malice and enmity of Satan. The destruction of Jerusalem is a fearful and solemn warning to all who are trifling with the offers of divine grace and resisting the pleadings of divine mercy. Never was there given a more decisive testimony to God's hatred of sin and to the certain punishment that will fall upon the guilty.

The Saviour's prophecy concerning the visitation of judgments upon Jerusalem is to have another fulfillment, of which that terrible desolation was but a faint shadow. In the fate of the chosen city we may behold the doom of a world that has rejected God's mercy and trampled upon His law. Dark are the records of human misery that earth has witnessed during its long centuries of crime. The heart sickens, and the mind grows faint in contemplation. Terrible have been the results of rejecting the authority of Heaven. But a scene yet darker is presented in the revelations of the future. The records of the past,--the long procession of tumults, conflicts, and revolutions, the "battle of the warrior . . . with confused noise, and garments rolled in blood" (Isaiah 9:5),--what are these, in contrast with the terrors of that day when the restraining Spirit of God shall be wholly withdrawn from the wicked, no longer to hold in check the outburst of human passion and satanic wrath! The world will then behold, as never before, the results of Satan's rule.---The Great Controversy, pp.35-37. (1888)

When the power invested in kings is allied to goodness, it is because the one in responsibility is under the divine dictation. When power is allied with wickedness, it is allied to satanic agencies, and it will work to destroy those who are the Lord's property. The Protestant world have set up an idol sabbath in the place where God's Sabbath should be, and they are treading in the footsteps of the Papacy. For this reason I see the necessity of the people of God moving out of the cities into retired country {places}, where they may cultivate the land and raise their own produce. Thus they may bring their children up with simple, healthful habits. I see the necessity of making haste to get all things ready for the crisis.--Letter 90, 1897.{2SM 359}

The Lord desires His people to move into the country, where they can settle on the land, and raise their own fruit and vegetables, and where their children can be brought in direct contact with the works of God in nature. Take your families away from the cities is my message.

The truth must be spoken, whether men will hear, or whether men will forbear. The cities are filled with temptation. We should plan our work in such a way as to keep our young people as far as possible from this contamination.

The cities are to be worked from outposts. Said the messenger of God, "Shall not the cities be warned? Yes; not by God's people living in them, but by their visiting them, to warn them of what is coming upon the earth."-- Letter 182, 1902. {2SM 358}

But erelong there will be such strife and confusion in the cities, that those who wish to leave them will not be able. We must be preparing for these issues. This is the light that is given me.--General Conference Bulletin, April 6, 1903.{2SM 142}

I am bidden to declare the message that cities full of transgression, and sinful in the extreme, will be destroyed by earthquakes, by fire, by flood.--Evangelism, pp. 27 (April 27, 1906).

We are not to locate ourselves where we will be forced into close relations with those who do not honor God. . . . A crisis is soon to come in regard to the observance of Sunday. . . .

The Sunday party is strengthening itself in its false claims, and this will mean oppression to those who determine to keep the Sabbath of the Lord. We are to place ourselves where we can carry out the Sabbath commandment in its fullness. "Six days shalt thou labour," the Lord declares, "and do all thy work: but the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work" (Ex. 20:9, 10). And we are to be careful not to place ourselves where it will be hard for ourselves and our children to keep the Sabbath.

If in the providence of God we can secure places away from the cities, the Lord would have us do this. There are troublous times before us.--Manuscript 99, 1908. {2SM 359}

George Hunt: The Fourth World Wilderness Conference

T H E M O N E Y C H A N G E R

Vol.1, No.6, December, 1987
Information deadline December 1, 1987

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F.Sanders,S.P.,MONEYCHANGER*5705 Stage Rd., Suite 164*Memphis,TN.38134
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THE FOURTH WORLD WILDERNESS CONFERENCE:

Beware the bankers bearing gifts

An interview with Mr. George Hunt



Mr. George Hunt has been an accountant for small businesses, corpo-
rations, and partnerships for the past 18 years, specializing
in physicians and dentists. He works also with general businesses,
doing consulting, accounting, and tax work as well as
investment counselling. He kindly made time for this interview
on November 18, 1987.

MONEYCHANGER - What was the Fourth World Wilderness Congress
that took place September 11th through September 18th?

HUNT - It was billed as a world-wide meeting to address global
environmental concerns. As far as the public was concerned, it was
produced by a chap named Ian Player, a wealthy, wealthy in-
dustrialist of (I believe) English descent. I'm sure he'd be in
Who's Who and so on. As I found out it was not really produced
by him, but by the moneychangers in London and Europe.

MONEYCHANGER - That is a far-reaching charge. What basis do you
have for that?

HUNT - Well, the London banker Baron Edmund de Rothschild
was at the meeting for 6 days. Edmund de Rothschild was personally
conducting the monetary matters and creation of this World
Conservation Bank (WCB), in the company of I. Michael Sweatman
of the Royal Bank of Canada. Those 2 were like Siamese twins,
and that's why I say that it appears they were running at least
the money side of this conference, and I would say the conference
was primarily to get money. Also, David Rockefeller was there, and gave a speech on Sunday.

MONEYCHANGER - How many people were there?

HUNT - There were 1500 from 60 countries sign up at the first
meetings in Denver. That was first 3 days before it went up
into the mountains, where the shirtsleeve work was done.

MONEYCHANGER - Into the mountains where?

HUNT - We went up to Estes Park, Colorado from Monday through
Friday, after the meetings the preceding Friday through Sunday
afternoon at Currigan Hall in Denver. Rockefeller spoke that
Sunday and there were keynote addresses about how great
this whole idea was. Then we adjourned to the YMCA camp facility
in Estes Park for another 5 days of meetings.

MONEYCHANGER - What whole idea?

HUNT - Oh, conservation, ecology, the world has a chance, we're
going to beat the ozone deterioration, we're going to get
the rain forests back together again. The thing that really
set me off was Baker's talk.

MONEYCHANGER - Was he there?

HUNT - Oh yeah, he was there. He gave the keynote address.
He said that conservation requires "growth and development".
There was a HUM around the audience, because they knew that "growth
and development" are antagonistic to conservation.

MONEYCHANGER - Wait now. There are some code words passing here,
aren't there? When Baker says something like that, he's talking
in code about something else.

HUNT - Exactly. He's talking in code about the *formula*,
the "equation" of conservation and growth and development,
that is, assets equals liabilities plus net worth. There were
a lot of these *double intendres*.

MONEYCHANGER - How did you get in to these meetings?

HUNT - I was watching public television one night before the
congress. A week earlier my 21 year old son had said to me, Dad,
you know I'd like to go up to the Arctic and repair the rangers'
huts up there. They need repair and I could do it, and I'd
like to be up there alone. So I filed that away. Then as I was
watching public television they announced that the Fourth World
Wilderness Congress as coming to Denver Sept. 11th. They
showed pictures of reindeer and all that kind of stuff. I said,
Gee, that would be great, I bet I could rub elbows with the Smokies
(the U.S. Forest Service) there, which I did by the way. There
were 90 smokies there.

So I got on the phone, and because I'm a businessman and have
a sales background, too, I was able to wangle myself in, free
of charge. There was a F$650 charge for attending.

MONEYCHANGER - Wait a minute. You're telling me that all these
GREENIES who live out in the woods on berries and nuts came
up with F$650 plus travel to Denver?

HUNT - A good question. I think a lot of those Greenies were
sponsored to be there. It was a contrived conference. So I called
around and it turned out that the FINDHORN GROUP in Loveland,
CO, were the official hosts. They call themselves "The Emissaries."

MONEYCHANGER - Aren't they an occultist New Age group?

HUNT - Heavy New Age, but they were in charge of the host functions
at the Congress, and I finally wound up being interviewed
by them. I told them I was a Christian, I was transparent with
everybody. Turns out that a Christian within their group -- you
know, New Age includes Christians, too, they're just off on
a little tangent maybe -- interviewed me and I was passed
with flying colors as a good guy to meet and greet these attendees.
My job was to act as a host to the dignitaries, coming in from
various parts of the world. I loved my work, because I love people,
and I did a good job for these folks.

When my work was through, I sat in on all of the meetings that
were of a business nature. Baker got up and spouted his "conserva-
tion requires growth and development" line, and a lot of other
things. I've got a copy of his speech, and it sounded good if you
just listened to the words, but it was cloaked with a lot of
innuendos. I said to myself, this is a SCAM. Here's the 1st
speaker, and immediately I was alerted, because I know the history
of these people.

MONEYCHANGER - "These people" means bankers and money people,
or New Agers, or who?

HUNT - Bankers and money people. I've delved into conspiracy.
I don't know where you're coming from on this, but I checked
it out and researched it for 5 years and I am *convinced* there
is a conspiracy.

MONEYCHANGER - Well, at the very least some kind of Insider network
that arranges things to their own benefit.

HUNT - James Baker is the Edward Mandell House of
the U.S. Treasury Department. So I wrote an open letter
of rebuttal to distribute at the meeting the next day. I printed
700 letters. Thank God I didn't distribute them. The thing
that caused me not to distribute it, besides fear, was compassion.
When I saw Rothschild and Rockefeller sitting up in front before
Rockefeller's talk, I thought, Would you want someone to do
that to you, George, distribute a rebuttal that makes you
look silly, when you're a national figure?

As it turns out my distributing that wouldn't have any
impact *at all* on that audience because they were either ig-
norant or bought. But I went back to the pressroom after Rockefel-
ler's speech, and presented it to him -- to his bodyguard really,
his bodyguard up between me and David. He did read it, because
the next da I received a warning from Rockefeller's office
that I'd better stop politicking or I'd regret it. Which
was good for me, since it made me shut my mouth and open my
ears. I was warned by the Findhorn Group, and I complied. It
was good that I was obedient to my superiors, because
I was allowed to stay at the congress and hear a lot of interest-
ing things.

After the talks for the public and the newspapers were finished
on Sunda afternoon, we went up to the shirtsleeves sessions in
Estes Park. I had lunch with Michael Sweatman and Mr. and Mrs.
Rothschild, and I was able to ask them how this bank was going
to continue to operate***

MONEYCHANGER - By "this bank" you mean the WCB?

HUNT - Yes. I didn't see any earnings engine inside it. Where
are the earnings coming from, if all you have in it are these
wilderness lands, reindeer hides, and so on? I didn't say exactly
that, but***

MONEYCHANGER - Reindeer hides don't pay much of a dividend.

HUNT - No. They're planning on re-financing, debt swapping one trillion dollars of Third World debt into this
new World Conservation Bank. I told a high official of the
Brazilian finance ministry, Dr. Jose Pedro de Oliveira-Costa,
I don't see how this bank is going to survive. Is this really
going to benefit Brazil?

He sad, last night I could not sleep all night long. There is no
benefit that anybody's going to get from this bank. If they
give us a refinance, in the short run, yes, we will benefit.
We will get soft currency from them, we'll be able to get our
economy going again, but in the long term, he said, we won't
be able to pay those loans back. We've devalued as far as we
possibly can in our country, we're at the brink of poverty.

MONEYCHANGER - Well, how did Sweatman answer the question of
where the earnings would come from?

HUNT - He said, "We're working on that."

MONEYCHANGER - . "We're working on that"??

HUNT - "We're working on that." He's an evasive guy. In fact,
he's already lied to Senator Tim Wirth .

MONEYCHANGER - How will this World Conservation Bank scheme
work exactly?

HUNT - The WCB will be enacted by the United Nations, and will
need to be approved, I wuld think, by every country participating.
Let's assume that our senators and representatives allow
this thing to happen. Then the Bank will be endowed with 30%
of the earth's land surface.

MONEYCHANGER - Now WHO is going to do that? Governments around
the world will give title to their wilderness lands to th WCB?

HUNT - Will give title to the lands to the World Wilderness
Land Inventory Trust. It will be en-trusted. Sounds good, huh?
We know about trusts.

Then this Trust will go floating into the WCB by the unanimous
decree of the world's people, saying, God Bless you for
saving our reindeer. That kind of a mentality is where they're
coming from. Those people at the congress were ignorant. They
don't suspect anything. They're VERY naive. Not stupid, ignorant.

MONEYCHANGER - Which people do you mean?

HUNT - I'm talking about the conservationists. Conservationists
and ecologists comprised about 60% of the people there. About
30% were government, United Nations and other bureaucrats. The other
10% were world banking heavyweights who were there with axes
to grind and pencils to sharpen.

So the bank is endowed with an asset, an asset worth how many
trillions? I don't know. Their accountants are going to evaluate
this 50 million sqaure kilometer hunk of wilderness lands. then the
WCB will have the power to act as a world central bank. It can
create soft currencies, not hard currencies, at this point. Soft
currencies are used, as you probably know, for some purpose WITHIN
a country. But what I picked up on is that the soft currencies
can be spent outside of a country for environmental and ecological
equipment. Well, hello, International Harvester, Mack Truck,
etc., they're going to bring those soft currencies into the
US and we're going to have inflation.

MONEYCHANGER - That will be an international currency, in other
words. You're calling it a soft currency, but in effect it'll
be an international currency.

HUNT - It's not an international currency in the sense
of a one world currency because it's not a hard currency,
it's not legal tender for all international transactions, yet.
Now you know and I know that by currency and debt-for-equity
swaps they're going to wheel and deal it from soft into hard
somehow. These guys are smart.

MONEYCHANGER - Let me see if I understand. A World Conservation
Bank will be set up and into a trust will be vested title
to 30% of the world's land surface, 12 1/2 *billion* acres. Against
this the WCB will issue loans to various countries to buy,
what did you say, environmental***

HUNT - No, no, no, they could issue loans, but I'm talking
specifically about currencies. They can create currencies
for in-country use.

MONEYCHANGER - Well, that's issuing loans. It's the same thing.
They will loan money for certain spceified purposes to these
countries. Now am I to assume that say, for example, Brazil,
puts up the Amazon Basin, and they get credited a certain amount?
Then there's a certain amount of loans they can draw down
against that "deposit", so to speak?

HUNT - How it will work I'm not sure. They didn't get into technique,
they went into policies and enactments and resolutions. BUT,
there could be a gradual loan swap for Brazil, taking them out
of their old loans and putting them into a new WCB loan,
which will then sweeten the loan on the Chase Manhattan's balance
sheet, and will take it out of non-accrual and put it back into
the healthy loan column once again.

MONEYCHANGER - or else pay it off.

HUNT - Or they could pay it off, right. They could call it any
shot that they wanted to. They could pay them off lickety-split.

MONEYCHANGER - But what's really happened is that the Brazilians
will have given up title to millions of acres of land and in
exchange the Chase Manhattan will get its loan to Brazil
paid off by the WCB.

HUNT - You got it.

MONEYCHANGE - I got it.



HUNT - I believe that World Bank loans, as they stand now, are
not collateralized. Now they're entering into a new era of loan
collateralization. They're saying, Okay, the next step is that
we ant collateral, so that when we loan-swap this debt, and we're
going to own the Amazon if you default. Remember, as the Brazilian
Oliveira-Costa sad, they're not going to be able to pay that off.
That's why he couldn't sleep that night, because he *knew*
that they were going to loose the Amazon .

MONEYCHANGER - These are debt for equity swaps, which they've
been talking about for several years. They're going to make
their bad loans good by collateralizing them after the fact
with all of this land, and somebody, somebody, SOMEBODY is going
to end up with title to *twelve and a half billion acres*.
Is that right?

HUNT - That's right. The collateral behind whatever loans are
in the WCB at the time, if the WCB goes belly up. There's a whole
see-saw of things that are going to happen. They have multi-,
multi-trillions of dollars upon which they can create currencies
and loans, and they're going to begin to barter and counter-
trade and loan-swap against the United States.

MONEYCHANGER - Have you ever heard the name John Law?

HUNT - No.

MONEYCHANGER - Are you familiar with the French hyperinflation
during the French Revolution, 1792 - 1798?

HUNT - Oh, yeah, when they issued assignats!

MONEYCHANGER - Do you know what the assignats were? The assignats
were the ASSIGNMENTS of a mortgage on what were called the "na-
tional domains", and those were confiscated (mostly church) lands
and properties. In other words, it was a scheme to *monetize*
land. Now, what you have just described to me as the World
Conservation Bank is a scheme to monetize land.

HUNT - Very good, sir. You are right. Now I reeber John Law.
Didn't he convince the French in the 1720s to monetize land
in the Mississippi Bubble?

MONEYCHANGER - No, but he had come up with a land monetization
scheme and presented it to the Scottish parliament in about 1694,
and he was literally laughed out of the country for it.
But this is the same crooked scheme, and moreover it will
function was a world central bank, and out of that world
central bank there will grow a one-world flat currency system
at the same time. This scheme is like a box of Cracker Jacks:
it's just loaded with prizes and nuts.

How will this project be put into effect? Will it be installed
under the auspices of the United Nations?

HUNT - I think so. There was a United Nations World Commission
on Environment and Development created in 1982 that published
what's called the Brundtland Report, actually entitled
OUR COMMON FUTURE

Gro Harlem Brundtland is the prime minister
of Norway. She is the mother of four, 49 years old, and she
was at the conference. The UN said, Brundtland, Go for it! Find out
the conditions in our world. She came back with her study
and said, The conditions are *terrible*. The UN then said,
What do you recommend? And she said, I recommend a conservation
bank, dot dot dot***

Her report set the stage for unlimited enactments to take over
ecology, environmental and pollution laws throughout the world.
This includes international dictation to the US about its "smoke-
stack" industries.

So not only do we have a Bank forming as a result of the Brundtland
Report, but we also have a proposal for very harsh, quasi-spiritual
ecological laws for "Mother Earth". You're going to have a "Mother
Earth Comes First" mentality arising throughout the world
as a result of this legislation.

MONEYCHANGER - One is tempted to say a *Mother Earth cult*.

HUNT - It is already turning into a Mother Earth cult.
The Brundtland Report is the precipitating event for putting
the entire scheme into effect. Brundtland was there at the
conference on Thursday, and I saw her receive the enactments
and resolutions that they had created. I do not have a copy
of them. They went underground. Senator Wirth's office
has been looking for them. He's the only senator that has yet had
any kind of an interest in this. I kind of wonder if he's just
prying for the benefit of those others, because Timmy's been
a representative or senator since 1972, so you know he's been
pretty well processed by the one-world people. Yesterday Tim
Mahoney from Tim Wirth's office called me and said, I talked
to Michael Sweatman and Michael Sweatman sad they weren't
really there at that conference to create a World Conservation
Bank.

I said, "What??" Mahoney said, They were just there to see what
could possibly be done in that area. I said, Hey, take a look
at that copy of Baker's speech that I sent you. He told us on
the first day in his keynote address that the purpose of this
congress is to create a World Conservation Bank. You know, con-
gressmen and senators are looking for an excuse NOT to pry.
This is a hot item, they don't want to touch it.

MONEYCHANGER - How fast are they moving? When will they try to
put this WCB into action?

HUNT - As soon as they can, because as Rockefeller said in his
speech, "the good news is that collapse f the monetary system
that was predicted by some regarding each of the major borrowing
countries has been resolved 'temporarily' by extending the debt."

"Temporarily" -- that means he wants some *permanent* solutions.
"They bad news is that lower petroleum prices in 1986
caused countries to renegotiate the schedule for debt repay-
ment again. The borrowing countries are in better shape because
interest cost of servicing the nearly F$400 billion in Latin
American debt is still enormous. One-third of Latin America's
Export earnings are devoted to paying interest on this debt,
according to the Institute for International Economics in Washington.
Two-thirds of the nearly F$400 billion in debt is owed to a number
of commercial banks, including Chase Manhattan. Most are paying
only interest payments, not principal, and while economic conditions
have improved the countries still face political and structural
problems that could hamper repayment."

As you will recall I talked to Oliveira-Costa, a Brazilian finance
ministry official, and he said, There is no way that we could
pay off that debt. So the bottom line says, We're going to have
a financial collapse in our country if they DON'T get the WCB.

MONEYCHANGER - Then there's not much time. But you don't have
any idea what the actual time framework is.

HUNT - I tried to extract that. I had dinner with James MacNeill,
the Secretary General, UN Commission on Environment and Development
in Geneva. That's the commission that Gro Harlem Brundtland
headed up which will present its report to the UN in which
all of these resolutions will be contained. Nobody's been able
to find out where it is. I think they're going to pull a little
Federal Reserve trick on us, you know, present it sometime
like midnight on December 25th, when nobody's watching.

At the congress I said to Michael Sweatman, There is no earnings
engine in the balance sheet of this bank that I can see, and you're
taking in wilderness properties and trillions of dollars
in bad debts. Where are the earnings going to come from to keep
this bank afloat? He answered, We're working on that; you'll
have a chance to express your concerns and your questions in a
half and hour at our caucus.

I said Sure, you're going to call on me. This thing seems to be
contrived from the beginning to the end, frankly. He said,
No, I'll call on you. I sad, "You promise?" He said, "I promise."

He did not call on me. There was NO pro and con offered at
the caucus, it was just Baron de Rothschild spouting non-entities.
He said, Innovation is the key to the pollution problem. We need
growth and development. For instance, we have a CO2 problem.
I propose that we create large dry ice machines that will absorb
the CO2 from the atmosphere, and then take the dry ice
that we create and take it up to the polar ice cap to keep it from
melting.

MONEYCHANGER - Oh, come off it.

HUNT - I am NOT kidding. I said to myself, That guy has either
lost his mind, or***

MONEYCHANGER - (uncontrollable laughter and howling)

HUNT - ***or he is just *laughing* at us. Isn't that something?
And by the way, I've got the whole conference on tape.

At the end of the caucus, Baron Rothschild, "You have decided.
This will be a second World Marshall Plan." And I said to myself,
"Did we say *that*? Nobody said anything here." When I got home
I realized the significance of what he had said. That will be a
resolution, because he wrote it on a resolution sheet, I saw
him do it. That means that the governments are going to guarantee
the debt of thw WCB. Now Russia was a lot of the wilderness
lands, and I see that Russia is going to get a lot of the
loans. When they default, and the US is going to be the turkey
again.

MONEYCHANGER - But still, in the end, SOMEBODY is going to end
up with title to those lands, and I suggest that these somebodies
are these same moneyed interests that were so much in evidence
at this Fourth World Wilderness Conference.

HUNT - Exactly, and they're going to be in back of the bank loaning
currency and cash flow to the WCB to keep it alive, to give it
the *appearance* of profitability. The bank will be running
on an accrual basis. On paper it will be recognizing profits
received on interests, but the interests will NOT be coming in
because these countries cannot pay. So my hypothesis is that
the kings, capitalists, and moneychangers of the world will be
in the back of this bank in the position of *creditors*.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

For part 2 of this file, see OWGART1.003
--- Mike Carrillo
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Source: http://www.textfiles.com/conspiracy/owgart1.003
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The Money Changer / December 1987 TextFiles.com/

George Hunt's Video on UN UNCED Earth Summit 1992

">http://

VIDEO ABoVE:http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6642758020554799808#
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N. Carolina Commemorates 50th Anniversary of Civil Rights Sit-Ins

Human Rights and Law


Chris Simkins Greensboro, North Carolina 01 February 2010



The Woolworth department store in Greensboro, North Carolina that was the site of the famous sit-ins on 1 Feb 1960


February is Black History Month in the United States. It pays tribute to people and events that shaped the history of African Americans. A pivotal moment happened 50 years ago when four black university students in North Carolina sat down at a whites-only lunch counter to get something to eat. They were denied service, but their actions re-ignited the U.S. civil rights movement and the struggle by millions of African Americans to achieve racial equality and justice.

Hundreds of people gathered at a former Woolworth department store to pay tribute to what happened here 50 years ago. Inspired by civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., four black college students walked into a Woolworth store in Greensboro, North Carolina on February 1st, 1960. They sat down at the "whites only" lunch counter but were denied service because of their skin color.
"In our hearts we all thought that racial segregation was evil," said participant Joseph McNeil.

Joseph McNeil was just 17 years old when he and his friends refused to leave the segregated counter. At the time, they could have been arrested for breaking so called "Jim Crow" laws that were enacted to keep blacks and whites separated at public places such as theaters, hotels and restaurants.

"If we had to be arrested for a week or one day or two months or three months we felt what we were trying to do was worth it to make that statement and to defy racial segregation," he added.

Franklin McCain says he was driven to participate in the sit-ins because of the discrimination that surrounded him.

"I was quite ready to do something to seek relief, a spot of dignity, humanity and my manhood," said McCain. "And fortunately I met three other guys who felt the same way."

Jibreel Khazan from Greensboro remembers what the white waitress told them.

"'What do you boys want?' And we said we would like to be served very politely. And she said. 'You know we don't serve colored people here, there is a lunch counter over there, a stand up counter.' And we said thank you ma'am we'd rather sit here," recalled Khazan.

Days later and tired of the discriminatory practices, more blacks and even some white people got involved in the sit-in movement. Joseph McNeil says that at one point more than 500 students jammed the lunch counters at Woolworth and other stores with segregated lunch counters.

"We were doing what needed to be done," said McNeil. "Not just that, but keeping up the commitment of coming back day after day as we promised the stores what we would do if they didn't open the [lunch] counters to everyone."

Longtime civil rights activist Julian Bond says the Greensboro sit-ins changed the course of the civil rights movement during the 1960's.

"It injected a degree of activism in the civil rights movement which until then had been largely confined to activism in the courts," explained Bond. "All of a sudden, activism in the streets became part of the arena, part of the weaponry that the movement used and that just changed everything."

In July 1960, and after $200,000 in lost business, Woolworth agreed to integrate its store allowing blacks to be served at the lunch counter.

Historian Lonnie Bunch says the Greensboro campaign was not the first, but it did capture national media attention and spark hundreds of similar non-violent protests across the country.

"So celebrating the Greensboro sit-in really tells us we are celebrating the sit-ins that occurred in other parts of the south and other cities throughout the north," noted Bunch.

Jebreel Khazan says he's honored to have a place in history but gives credit to the wisdom of his ancestors.

"We just happened to be blessed to be the four that did this and it caught fire throughout the country but all things are possible if we only believe and that was what I was taught," he said.

On the 50th anniversary of the Greensboro sit-ins, a new chapter in the history of the civil rights movement has begun with a new international civil rights museum. Community leaders want it to be a lasting tribute to the sacrifices so many African Americans made for equality and social justice.
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Death by Drone




Germany Jesuit head apologises for child sex abuse

Page last updated at 13:22 GMT, Tuesday, 2 February 2010



Fr Dartmann said he was ashamed the order did not investigate




The head of a Catholic order in Germany has apologised for the systematic sex abuse apparently committed by two priests at a prestigious Berlin school.

Fr Stefan Dartmann said students at the Jesuit-run Canisius College had complained in 1981, much earlier than the order had previously admitted.

The Jesuit said he was ashamed that the college and the order had left the complaint unanswered.

The number of victims was greater than originally believed, he added.

"I apologise that those responsible at the time did not investigate and react as they should have done," said Fr Dartmann.

He said he was aware of 25 cases not just in Berlin, but at two other Catholic schools in Hamburg and in the Black Forest, where the priests had been transferred.

Most of the victims had been boys aged around 13 or 14, but young girls were also targeted for abuse.

Abuse continued?

Fr Klaus Mertes, the Canisius College's director, said last week two former teachers had repeatedly and systematically abused students in the 1970s and 80s.

The prosecutor's office is investigating the cases but experts say they can no longer be prosecuted because of Germany's statute of limitations.


The college is the alma mater of many politicians and business leaders


Both men, named in the German press as Peter R and Wolfgang S, left the Jesuit order in the 1980s.

However, there is suspicion they may have continued to abuse children at institutions in Spain, Mexico and Chile, says the BBC's Oana Lungescu in Berlin.

Last month, Wolfgang S, who lives in Chile, sent a letter of apology to some of his victims.

According to press reports, a former student tried to stab Peter R in the 1980s before taking his own life.

Founded as an all-boys school and the alma mater of many German politicians and business leaders, Canisius College turned co-educational in the late 1970s.

FROM OTHER NEWS SITES
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Melbourne Age Germany's top Jesuit says sorry for sex abuse - 14 hrs ago
MSNBC More sex abuse cases found at German school - 16 hrs ago
Deutsche Welle Jesuit leader issues apology as sex abuse scandal widens - 18 hrs ago
Reuters UK UPDATE 2-Germany prepared to pay for secret Swiss bank data - 21 hrs ago
About these results

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How excellent is thy lovingkindness, O God!


Psalm 36


1The transgression of the wicked saith within my heart, that there is no fear of God before his eyes.

2For he flattereth himself in his own eyes, until his iniquity be found to be hateful.

3The words of his mouth are iniquity and deceit: he hath left off to be wise, and to do good.

4He deviseth mischief upon his bed; he setteth himself in a way that is not good; he abhorreth not evil.

5Thy mercy, O LORD, is in the heavens; and thy faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds.

6Thy righteousness is like the great mountains; thy judgments are a great deep: O LORD, thou preservest man and beast.

7How excellent is thy lovingkindness, O God! therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings.

8They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house; and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures.

9For with thee is the fountain of life: in thy light shall we see light.

10O continue thy lovingkindness unto them that know thee; and thy righteousness to the upright in heart.

11Let not the foot of pride come against me, and let not the hand of the wicked remove me.

12There are the workers of iniquity fallen: they are cast down, and shall not be able to rise.

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Monday, February 01, 2010

Netanyahu risks Muslim wrath over Jerusalem holy site

Old City of Jerusalem(Archive)

Netanyahu risks Muslim wrath over Jerusalem holy site
By Akiva Eldar, Haaretz Correspondent


Will Netanyahu use a court decision to forgo a plan to alter the Mughrabi Gate? King Abdullah of Jordan is distancing himself from Israel's prime minister because of the violation of the status quo in East Jerusalem. The Turkish prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is waiting in the corner for the slightest provocation against Islamic holy places by the Israeli government. The only trouble Benjamin Netanyahu is still missing is that of the Mughrabi Gate, at the entrance to the Temple Mount/Noble Sanctuary compound.

Whether he likes it or not, that problem is already nearing boiling point. But two weeks ago, the Jerusalem District Court supplied him with a ladder. Now, the prime minister must decide whether he wants to use it to climb down from the ramp, or whether he prefers to climb up, and gamble with what is left of Israel's relations with the Muslim world.

Next week will mark the third anniversary of the start of the salvage dig at this sensitive site, which leads to the Al-Aqsa Mosque and overlooks the Western Wall. Back then, close to 2,000 policemen accompanied archaeologists and workers to the compound. Their assignment was to prepare for restoration work at the site, after cracks were discovered in the ramp leading to the gate in 2004.

Rumors flew through the Arab world that the Jews were trying to undermine the foundations of the mosque and prepare the area for the construction of a third Temple. The Jordanian king warned that the work would undermine the stability of the Middle East. A Hamas spokesman warned that damage to the mosque would put an end to the temporary cease-fire. A few months later, a team of experts from Turkey examined the excavations and asserted that this was an attempt to destroy cultural assets from the Islamic period.

The Western Wall Rabbi, Shmuel Rabinowitz, is a man of action: He never for a moment hid his intention of exploiting the repair of the ramp to turn the unused space below it into an extension of the women's prayer section. He would joke that the Lord had answered his prayers by putting cracks in the ramp, which would make it possible to reduce the crowding at the Western Wall Plaza. The rabbi also used his connections in earthly Jerusalem - namely, in the office of then prime minister Ehud Olmert.

Together with the Company for the Reconstruction and Development of the Jewish Quarter, Rabinowitz promoted a detailed plan for changing the face of the Mughrabi ramp. And Olmert even put himself at the head of a special ministerial committee for advancing the project. The plan went from one planning committee to another until it reached the National Planning and Building Committee.

But two weeks ago, something happened in Jerusalem that threatens to spoil the plan. The president of the Jerusalem District Court, Judge Moussia Arad, took a look at the pictures shown her by attorney Kais Nasser, who is representing Islamic historian Dr. Mahmoud Massalha in his petition against the plan. She looked, and it apparently had an effect.

According to the pictures, which were taken in 2004, the damage to the ramp is small and concentrated mainly in its northern section. An expert opinion accompanying the photographs stated that the cracks did not affect the other parts of the ramp at all, so it is possible to renovate it quickly, at a cost of no more than NIS 50,000.

Arad ordered representatives of the Prime Minister's Office to get back to her within a month about whether their boss would accept her proposal to shelve the project for expanding the women's prayer section. Meanwhile, Nasser will obtain UNESCO's opinion of the plan. The United Nations organization has been monitoring the project from its inception to ensure that the work does no harm to the site.

But Nasser's joy is mixed with skepticism. "We have proved that the fall of a few stones was exploited in order to change the appearance of a site of unparalleled sensitivity and explosiveness," the Jerusalem attorney said Monday. But he quickly added: "Unfortunately, in view of the opposition of the Western Wall lobby and its great influence, I find it difficult to believe the state will accept the court's proposal."

So what if the Turks are angry? Their ambassador has not sat on a sofa opposite Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon for a long time.

The shallow Left

Defense Minister Ehud Barak has nicknamed the Israeli Left the "Deep Left," turning this depleted camp into a strike force that threatens the peace initiative of his friend, Benjamin Netanyahu. In a new book published by Am Oved, "Malkodet Hakav Hayarok" ("The Green Line Trap"), Prof. Yehouda Shenhav joins in dancing on the grave of the Zionist Left that supports a two-state solution based on the 1967 borders.

The Tel Aviv University sociologist, one of the leaders of the Mizrahi Democratic Rainbow Coalition, puts the word "Left" in quotes and claims that it formulates its perception of the conflict out of a cultural, economic and political worldview that is essentially sectorial and conservative. In his eyes, the 1967 paradigm is the main consciousness barrier Israelis face in addressing the conflict, and he prophesies that it will collapse in favor of the 1948 paradigm.

In Shenhav's view, the liberal Left focuses on the war against the settlements in order to preserve Israel within the Green Line, and in this way sentences the refugee issue to oblivion. The return of tens of thousands of settlers to within the Green Line is, in his opinion, a fantasy of the liberal Left, which does not deal at all with the morality of such an evacuation. And as if that were not enough, he adds: "The 'moderate Left' participated actively in normalizing the moral injustices that Green-Line Israel created." Shenhav claims that the mental terror created by the demographic discourse does violence to the Palestinians and, no less so, to the Jews.

Shenhav says he does not deny the right of the Jews, as a national collective, to self-determination. But at the same time, he proposes a model that will include the return of any Palestinian refugees that so desire, so as to realize the legitimate rights of both nations in the space they share.

After being attacked by Barak from the right and by philosophers such as Shenhav from the left, it is not surprising that the peace camp is in trouble.


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Hacking for Fun and Profit in China’s Underworld

Jackson Lowen for The New York Times
The austere bedroom of a Chinese hacker. Legions of hackers are pilfering information from individuals, corporations and government.


By DAVID BARBOZA
Published: February 1, 2010


CHANGSHA, China — With a few quick keystrokes, a computer hacker who goes by the code name Majia calls up a screen displaying his latest victims.

“Here’s a list of the people who’ve been infected with my Trojan horse,” he says, working from a dingy apartment on the outskirts of this city in central China. “They don’t even know what’s happened.”

As he explains it, an online “trapdoor” he created just over a week ago has already lured 2,000 people from China and overseas — people who clicked on something they should not have, inadvertently spreading a virus that allows him to take control of their computers and steal bank account passwords.

Majia, a soft-spoken college graduate in his early 20s, is a cyberthief.

He operates secretly and illegally, as part of a community of hackers who exploit flaws in computer software to break into Web sites, steal valuable data and sell it for a profit.

Internet security experts say China has legions of hackers just like Majia, and that they are behind an escalating number of global attacks to steal credit card numbers, commit corporate espionage and even wage online warfare on other nations, which in some cases have been traced back to China.

Three weeks ago, Google blamed hackers that it connected to China for a series of sophisticated attacks that led to the theft of the company’s valuable source code. Google also said hackers had infiltrated the private Gmail accounts of human rights activists, suggesting the effort might have been more than just mischief.

In addition to independent criminals like Majia, computer security specialists say there are so-called patriotic hackers who focus their attacks on political targets. Then there are the intelligence-oriented hackers inside the People’s Liberation Army, as well as more shadowy groups that are believed to work with the state government.

Indeed, in China — as in parts of Eastern Europe and Russia — computer hacking has become something of a national sport, and a lucrative one. There are hacker conferences, hacker training academies and magazines with names like Hacker X Files and Hacker Defense, which offer tips on how to break into computers or build a Trojan horse, step by step.

For less than $6, one can even purchase the “Hacker’s Penetration Manual.” (Books on hacking are also sold, to a lesser extent, in the United States and elsewhere.)

And with 380 million Web users in China and a sizzling online gaming market, analysts say it is no wonder Chinese youths are so skilled at hacking. Many Chinese hackers interviewed over the last few weeks describe a loosely defined community of computer devotees working independently, but also selling services to corporations and even the military. Because it is difficult to trace hackers, exactly who is behind any specific attack and how and where they operate remains to a large extent a mystery, technology experts say.

And that is just the way Majia, the young Chinese hacker, wants it. On condition that he not be identified by his real name, Majia agreed two weeks ago to allow a reporter to visit his modest home in a poor town outside Changsha, and watch him work.

Slim and smartly dressed in black, Majia seemed eager to tell his story; like many hackers, he wants recognition for his hacking skills even as he prizes anonymity to avoid detection. The New York Times found him through another well-known hacker who belongs to a hacker group and vouched that Majia was skilled at what he did.

While Majia’s claims, of course, cannot be verified, he is happy to demonstrate his hacking skills. He met a journalist at a cafe one night just over a week ago, and then invited him to his home, where he showed how he hacked into the Web site of a Chinese company. Once the Web site popped up on his screen, he created additional pages and typed the word “hacked” onto one of them.

Majia says he fell in love with hacking in college, after friends showed him how to break into computer systems during his freshman year.

After earning a degree in engineering, he took a job with a government agency, largely to please his parents. But every night after work, he turns to his passion: hacking.

He is consumed by the challenges it presents. He reads hacker magazines, swaps information with a small circle of hackers and writes malicious code. He uses Trojan horses to sneak into people’s computers and infect them, so he can take control.

“Most hackers are lazy,” he says, seated in front of a computer in his spare bedroom, which overlooks a dilapidated apartment complex. “Only a few of us can actually write code. That’s the hard part.”

Computer hacking is illegal in China. Last year, Beijing revised and stiffened a law that makes hacking a crime, with punishments of up to seven years in prison. Majia seems to disregard the law, largely because it is not strictly enforced. But he does take care to cover his tracks.

Partly, he admits, the lure is money. Many hackers make a lot of money, he says, and he seems to be plotting his own path. Exactly how much he has earned, he won’t say. But he does admit to selling malicious code to others; and boasts of being able to tap into people’s bank accounts by remotely operating their computers.

Financial incentives motivate many young Chinese hackers like Majia, experts say. Scott J. Henderson, author of “The Dark Visitor: Inside the World of Chinese Hackers,” said he had spent years tracking Chinese hackers, sometimes with financial help from the United States government. One Chinese hacker who broke into a United States government site later lectured on hacking at a leading university, Mr. Henderson said, and worked for China’s security ministry. But recently, many have been seeking to profit from stealing data from big corporations, he said, or teaching others how to hijack computers.

“They make a lot of money selling viruses and Trojan horses to infect other people’s computers,” Mr. Henderson said in a telephone interview. “They also break into online gaming accounts, and sell the virtual characters. It’s big money.”

Majia lives with his parents, and his bedroom has little more than a desktop computer, a high-speed Internet connection and a large closet. The walls are bare.

Most of his socializing occurs online, where he works from about 6:30 p.m. to 12:30 a.m., starting every evening by perusing computer Web sites like cnBeta.com.

Asked why he doesn’t work for a major Chinese technology company, he sneers at the suggestion, saying that it would restrain his freedom.

He even claims to know details of the Google attack. “That Trojan horse on Google was created by a foreign hacker,” he says, indicating that the virus was then altered in China. “A few weeks before Google was hijacked, there was a similar virus. If you opened a particular page on Google, you were infected.”

Oddly, Majia said his parents did not know that he was hacking at night. But at one point, he explained the intricacies of computer hacking and stealing data while his mother stood nearby, listening silently, while offering a guest oranges and candy.

Majia and his fellow hackers keep secret their knowledge of certain so-called zero-day vulnerabilities — software flaws — for future use, he says.

“Microsoft and Adobe have a lot of zero days,” he said, while scanning Web sites at home. “But we don’t publish them. We want to save them so that some day we can use them.”

When asked whether hackers work for the government, or the military, he says “yes.”

Does he? No comment, he says.


Bao Beibei contributed research from Shanghai, and John Markoff contributed reporting from San Francisco.


Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/02/business/global/02hacker.html?ref=world&pagewanted=all
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Pope to visit Britain



ROME: Pope Benedict confirmed yesterday he will visit Britain, the first papal visit since 1982, and criticised legislation that could force Churches to hire homosexuals or transsexuals as a violation of "natural law".

In a speech to bishops from England and Wales, the Pope said he looked forward to witnessing the faith of Catholics in England and Wales during "my forthcoming Apostolic visit to Great Britain".

Source:http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/NewsDetails.aspx?storyid=269753

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Obama budget: Record spending, record deficit


(02-01) 10:33 PST WASHINGTON (AP) --

President Barack Obama unveiled a multitrillion-dollar spending plan Monday, pledging an intensified effort to combat high unemployment and asking Congress to quickly approve new job-creation efforts that would boost the deficit to a record-breaking $1.56 trillion.




Related:
2011 United States federal budget - $3.83 trillion (submitted 2010 by President Obama)
2010 United States federal budget - $3.55 trillion (submitted 2009 by President Obama)
2009 United States federal budget - $3.10 trillion (submitted 2008 by President Bush)
2008 United States federal budget - $2.90 trillion (submitted 2007 by President Bush)
2007 United States federal budget - $2.77 trillion (submitted 2006 by President Bush)
2006 United States federal budget - $2.7 trillion (submitted 2005 by President Bush)
2005 United States federal budget - $2.4 trillion (submitted 2004 by President Bush)
2004 United States federal budget - $2.3 trillion (submitted 2003 by President Bush)
2003 United States federal budget - $2.2 trillion (submitted 2002 by President Bush)
2002 United States federal budget - $2.0 trillion (submitted 2001 by President Bush)
2001 United States federal budget - $1.9 trillion (submitted 2000 by President Clinton)
2000 United States federal budget - $1.8 trillion (submitted 1999 by President Clinton)
1999 United States federal budget - $1.7 trillion (submitted 1998 by President Clinton)
1998 United States federal budget - $1.7 trillion (submitted 1997 by President Clinton)
1997 United States federal budget - $1.63 trillion (submitted 1996 by President Clinton)
1996 United States federal budget - $1.6 trillion (submitted 1995 by President Clinton)

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At Dominican Border, Parish Clinic Offers Help


Top Catholic News

At Dominican Border, Parish Clinic Offers Help
By David Agren
Source: Catholic News Service
Published: Monday, February 01, 2010

JIMANI, Dominican Republic (CNS)—Dave Innocent Lemuel, a 13-year-old Haitian, managed to crawl out of the rubble of his home, despite suffering two fractures of his left leg during the earthquake.

Finding adequate medical attention near the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince was another matter.

His father, Innocent Lemuel, said at least four hospitals turned his son away due to overwhelming patient volumes. Other facilities, meanwhile, had been destroyed.

"He couldn't see a doctor in Haiti," Lemuel told Catholic News Service. "In many of these clinics, the doctors are dead."

Dominican rescue workers rushed Dave, who speaks with an easy smile, and his parents to Jimani—a border town on the main road between Port-au-Prince and Santo Domingo— where he received treatment and is now recovering at a makeshift rehabilitation clinic for children and their families run by the local Catholic parish, St. Joseph's.

Dave was among the many Haitians who crossed the border to receive medical attention after the Jan. 12 earthquake that claimed at least 150,000 lives and left 3 million injured or homeless. He was also among the thousands receiving care from Catholic groups in the Dominican Republic, who immediately sprang into action—long before foreign aid workers and assistance arrived—to help displaced and wounded Haitians by providing food and medical attention.

Father Roselio Diaz of St. Joseph's Parish said Catholics in Jimani and other parts of the border did not think twice about responding swiftly because "we've been helping the Haitian people long before this tragedy."

The response included the establishment of the makeshift medical clinic in an existing parish-operated nutrition and training center. It also has become a recovery center for children with broken bones, such as Dave, and a place for their displaced families to stay. The clinic has served at least 175 patients since the earthquake, Father Diaz said Jan. 25.

Establishing the clinic was not easy, however. "The church is poor" in the western Dominican Republic, he said, and by the second day after the earthquake, the parish had less than a dollar and was running out of supplies.

Clinic workers reported the initial patient demand from Haitians was intense.

"We had people with broken legs, mutilated hands, mutilated feet, everything," said Blanca Iris Diaz, director of the recovery center.

Gifts from generous Dominicans have allowed the clinic to continue providing rehabilitation. Catholic groups working in other parts of the border region reported similar hardships and shortages.

"The problem is still a shortage of food (for patients and their families) and medicine," said Jesuit Father Regino Martinez, director of Border Solidarity, in the northern border town of Dajabon, Dominican Republic.

Dominican immigration authorities and the military, who normally maintain a strict presence on the border to deter undocumented crossings, also have cooperated in helping injured Haitians receive medical attention, said David Paredes, spokesman for the Dominican armed forces in Dajabon.

Paredes said in late January that immigration officials relaxed restrictions on the injured entering the country after the earthquake, but the flow across the border had slowed somewhat and that the armed forces had taken the most critically injured patients to military hospitals in Santo Domingo.

Dave's fibula and tibia snapped, but among the 17 patients that were still receiving care at the parish clinic, his story is typical, said parish workers.

His family lost their home, and his father's workplace—a call center for foreign clients—was destroyed in the earthquake; the fates of other members of his extended family are unknown. However, media reports from Port-au-Prince said some of those injured in the earthquake died from a lack of medical attention.

Dave's father acknowledged his blessings as he sat on the floor in a room full of children with multiple casts lying on mattresses.

"Without God, the country would be dead by now," he said.

But Lemuel, a member of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, also seemed to recognize the odds his family faced.

"I'd like to go back to Haiti, but the path will be very difficult," Lemuel said. "My pockets are empty. The only thing I have is my belief in God."
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