Thursday, June 23, 2011

ADRA Confronts Crisis of Confidence - Apr 4



Submitted Apr 4, 2011

Reported by Edwin A. Schwisow

A bulwark of confidence and hope for millions, Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) now appears to be suffering its own internal meltdown of confidence and morale, in the wake of termination several weeks ago of more than a dozen key mid- and high-level administrative personnel.

Last month, ADRA administration announced the terminations—effective immediately in early March—and cited economic reasons for the cutbacks. Several of those affected were reportedly career, or near-career employees of the organization, which has assets and ongoing projects valued in the millions of dollars.

"The firings sent a wave of uncertainty and distress throughout the world, as project managers and employees began to question the economic viability of their parent organization," a highly placed former ADRA employee and contract worker with a wide network of ADRA contacts has told Adventist Today, on condition of anonymity.

"ADRA is one of the largest U.S.-based non-government organizations (NGOs), and its excellent track record through the years has instilled a great degree of confidence, among the nations of the world and among ADRA employees," the source told AT.

"While it had been generally known among ADRA employees that the number of projects being administered had declined during the worldwide economic downturn, there had been no direct indication that the organization was in financial straits. The termination of key personnel who had been the most successful in negotiating past projects sent a tremor through the organization—raising the question of whether ADRA could recover."

The terminations came only five months after the replacement of long-time ADRA president Charles Sandefur by Rudi Maier, an experienced NGO consultant and a professor at Andrews University. The transition of chief executives, though not widely expected, followed regular channels and did not noticeably traumatize the inner workings of the organization, according to AT's source—and if it did, the effect was of a far lesser magnitude than the recent terminations.

"One of the serious problems with the recent terminations is that they came without apparent full board authorization," says AT's source. "The firings were abrupt and were apparently instigated by the [ADRA] president. In light of the tremendous waves created by the actions, the ADRA board will be convened [April 6] to review the decisions. There are also reports that the economic condition of ADRA is better than some had been led to believe, last month."

Other knowledgeable sources have speculated that, beginning with the replacement of Sandefur in October 2010, a plan from the highest levels of General Conference administration was being enacted to seriously alter the ADRA philosophy and organizational structure, which has generally been held in high esteem by Adventist church members as well as organizations and nations that donate large sums for relief and development throughout the world. If such a plan existed at any time, current distress within the organization itself now appears to overshadow such concerns.

"A disruption of confidence in an organization of this sensitivity, with so many employees and so much responsibility, is very serious," noted AT's source. "We are hoping that this crisis will pass quickly."

"Adventist Today (AT)is dedicated to pursuing this story and learning more about the momentous events leading up to the current crisis at ADRA. AT intends to provide added information and context for this ongoing story, as facts become available," said Clive Holland, Adventist Today Foundation chairman and chief executive officer.
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Blasphemy of a Different Kind



June 15, 2011


Things have gone from bad to weird at La Sierra University.

The university, which is affiliated with the Seventh-day Adventist Church, has been dealing in recent months with a controversy over the teaching of evolution that has its Adventist benefactors threatening to withdraw its religious accreditation — and the $4 million per annum that comes with it. Now the university faces a scandal in which a trustee, a vice president, a dean, and an adjunct professor were asked to resign over a recording made, purportedly by accident, of the four men talking informally about the church and university leadership.The president of La Sierra’s board of trustees on Friday asked for the resignations of Jeff Kaatz, the vice president for university advancement; Jim Beach, the dean of arts and sciences; Lenny Darnell, a trustee; and Gary Bradley, an adjunct professor of biology, according to a campuswide note from the administration.

In recent years, La Sierra has been at the center of an imbroglio over the teaching of human origins that was sparked when a website published e-mails between a biology student and Bradley, the adjunct caught up in the current debacle.

Bradley had rejected a student paper for failing to demonstrate an adequate understanding of mainstream evolutionary theory before advocating for a creationist alternative. That led to an investigation by the board into the biology curriculum. In April, the Seventh-day Adventist Church North American Division voted to extend La Sierra’s religious accreditation by a single year and advised the university to rededicate itself to Adventist principles. (One of the church's "fundamental beliefs" is that God created all human things in six days, as described in the Bible.)

In a note to the campus on Monday, the university’s public relations office said that “these resignations have no connection to the biology controversy.” But according to an account published Tuesday in Spectrum, an Adventist publication, the recording that prompted the resignations was made following a meeting between the Adventist accreditors and the La Sierra faculty.

Darnell, the La Sierra trustee, was present at the meeting and decided to record the proceedings using an application on his smartphone.

According to the Spectrum article, Darnell met up afterward with Beach, Bradley, and Kaatz at a private home, where they watched a National Basketball Association playoff game and discussed the meeting. The recorder kept running, unbeknownst to the four men. It captured “foul language, references to alcohol consumption and unflattering comments being made about board members, administrators, and church leaders,” according to the article. Darnell then sent the recording to a number of key members of the Adventist community, including The Spectrum, reportedly without knowing that it contained more than just the audio of the meeting. Eventually, the recording made its way to Ricardo Graham, chair of the board of trustees.

La Sierra has declined to offer its own version of events. But Larry Becker, a spokesman for the university, confirmed the basic details of this narrative to Inside Higher Ed. He could not confirm the content of the recording, however, because, he said, he has not personally listened to it. Neither Kaatz, nor Beach, nor Darnell, nor Bradley responded to messages from Inside Higher Ed.

In an e-mail to colleagues, Bradley confirmed that he had admitted on the recording that he drank “a small glass of an alcoholic beverage during this conversation” — a fireable offense for faculty members at La Sierra, which has a strict temperance policy. Bradley also said the recording was made by accident, despite speculation that he was the target of sabotage based on his role in the evolution controversy. “It was more ‘Three Stooges’ than ‘James Bond,’ ” he wrote in an addendum to the e-mail.

In a statement on Tuesday, the university reiterated its stance that the situation has nothing to do with the conflict over the biology curriculum.

“Because La Sierra University has been the center of the biology debate in the Church for several years, it is also easy for people who do not know the facts to jump to the conclusion that these resignations must be related to that issue,” it said. “Some have taken it further, blaming the Church for carrying out a biology-related ‘witch hunt’ by asking these individuals to resign. This is simply not true. The ‘convenient’ explanation is sometimes the wrong one.”

Bradley, the biology adjunct, said in his e-mail that he was devastated by the turn of events that has led to his resignation, though he gave no explicit indication that he plans to fight the termination on legal grounds. “I’m not ready to quit…. I have many important projects underway here now and many other people will be inconvenienced by my sudden departure,” he wrote.

“If you are among those who welcome this transition, I request that you celebrate with dignity,” Bradley added. “If you are among those who find this transition upsetting, I ask that you not turn it into a war.”

For the latest technology news and opinion from Inside Higher Ed, follow @IHEtech on Twitter.

— Steve Kolowich


Source
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Spectrum Magazine article named above:

On the La Sierra Resignations: The Privacy Issue (i)
James Coffin



On April 20, 2011, a member of the La Sierra University Board of Trustees uses his cell phone to record a highly important faculty meeting. He then forgets to turn off the recording device, meaning that later in a private home he inadvertently appends to the initial recording an extended conversation that includes himself, two university administrators and a university professor.

Read More
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Obama touts efforts to advance gay rights


President Barack Obama (L) is introduced by former U.S. army captain Jonathan Hopkins at a gala fundraiser for the homosexual community in New York City June 23, 2011. Hopkins was discharged in 2010 More...
Credit: REUTERS/Jason Reed


By Laura MacInnis

NEW YORK Thu Jun 23, 2011 10:20pm EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - President Barack Obama on Thursday touted his efforts to advance gay rights and promised further progress, but stopped short of declaring his support for legalizing same-sex marriage.

Obama received an enthusiastic reception from gay, lesbian and bisexual supporters at a New York fundraiser, but a few dozen gay rights protesters outside the hotel and a handful of hecklers inside the ballroom where he spoke served as reminders of frustration that he has not done more for their cause.

"I believe that gay couples deserve the same legal rights as any other couple in this country," Obama said to applause from a crowd of 600 at the "Gala with the Gay Community" event hosted by actor Neil Patrick Harris, where tickets started at $1,250 a plate.

Obama's speech reflected his desire to shore up his support among gay and lesbian voters, a constituency that supported him strongly in the 2008 presidential vote, as he revs up his 2012 re-election bid.

But as he seeks to broaden his appeal to a wide base of independent voters, the president is not expected to push any new gay rights initiatives that could alienate social conservatives over the next year.

Obama stressed his record on gay issues, including winning repeal of the ban on gays serving openly in the military, his order for the Justice Department to stop defending the law that prohibits federal recognition of same-sex unions and expansion of benefits for same-sex partners of federal employees.

But Obama, who said in December his views on marriage for gay couples were "constantly evolving," held to a cautious line on the issue, saying only that it was a matter that should be decided by the states, not the federal government.

'OBAMA, LET MAMA MARRY MAMA'

Obama's visit came as lawmakers in the New York state capital, Albany, deliberated on whether to join Washington, D.C., and five states where gay marriage is legal.

Several people briefly heckled the president's speech, screaming, "Marriage!" and "Say yes to marriage!" when he described his initiatives on gay rights.

About 30 protesters gathered outside the hotel, chanting: "Obama, Obama, let mama marry mama."

Louis Flores, 38, said he was "angry and disappointed" that Obama had not done more on gay marriage. "We should all be holding the president to his campaign promise."

The U.S. public is nearly evenly split over whether gays and lesbians should be able to marry legally, with 45 percent in favor and 46 percent opposed, according to a Pew Research poll released last month.

Younger voters, an important demographic for Obama, are particularly accepting of homosexuality and could react well to initiatives on gay causes.

A CNN exit poll showed 4 percent of voters were gay, lesbian or bisexual, and 70 percent of them voted for Obama. Other estimates put gays at 7 percent of overall voters.

The gay community is also seen as an influential group in media and Hollywood, and as an important fundraising bloc.

Later on Friday, Obama attended an intimate fundraiser for Wall Street and other supporters who paid $35,800 each at a small Upper East Side restaurant, and then spoke to an audience at a screening of the Broadway show "Sister Act," who paid $100 and up to attend the event with actor Whoopi Goldberg.

At the restaurant fundraiser, Obama acknowledged he may have a tougher time garnering enthusiasm about his candidacy in 2012 than he did in 2008, joking that his graying hair had made him seem less fresh-faced than the last time around.

"Now I'm sort of old news. But the vision hasn't changed, and my enthusiasm and my commitments haven't changed. And I hope yours haven't changed either, because if we're able to work just as hard as we did in 2008, then I think we're going to get through this very difficult time," he said.

(Writing by Laura MacInnis and Matt Spetalnick; Additional reporting by Kim Dixon, Paula Rogo, Mark Egan and Michelle Nichols; Editing by Anthony Boadle)


Source
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Obama speaking at gay fundraiser in NYC as state Legislature deliberates gay marriage


(Pablo Martinez Monsivais, Pool/Associated Press) - President Barack Obama delivers a televised address from the East Room of the White House in Washington, Wednesday, June 22, 2011 on his plan to drawdown U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

By Associated Press, Updated: Thursday, June 23, 3:19 AM


WASHINGTON — Talk about timing. President Barack Obama is about to hold a gala fundraiser in New York City on Thursday for gay supporters — his first as president — just as the New York state Legislature stands on the brink of legalizing gay marriage.

The coincidence of timing and place will inevitably spotlight the piece of Obama’s record that causes greatest consternation for the gay community: his failure to endorse gay marriage.

After getting off to what gay activists viewed as a slow start on their issues, Obama won over many by repealing the ban on gays serving openly in the military and by instructing the Justice Department to stop defending in court a federal law defining marriage as between a man and a woman.

On gay marriage, though, the president has disappointed gay supporters. He endorses civil unions but not marriages for gay and lesbian couples, although he’s also said his views on the issue are evolving — as are the country’s as a whole.

It doesn’t appear, however, that the president’s views will evolve fast enough for him to use Thursday night’s campaign fundraiser as an opportunity to embrace gay marriage. White House officials say not to expect any new stance from Obama at the event, a star-studded gala with as many as 600 guests paying up to $35,800 each at the Sheraton New York Hotel and Towers.

Given the setting, though, the president will have little choice but to address the action by the New York Legislature in some way, and his words are certain to be carefully parsed, given the evolution and nuances of his stance. He’ll be addressing a roomful of supporters described by the Democratic National Committee as “allies of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community” — his first fundraiser geared specifically toward the gay community.

Activists hope that the prospect of momentous action by the Legislature to make New York the sixth and by far largest state to legalize same-sex marriage will create enough pressure to move the president closer to an endorsement of gay marriage.

“I do not think that he is going to articulate a new position on Thursday, but I do think that the timing of what we think will be a big win in New York ... does up the pressure on him to do something and might just create enough of a political magic moment to bring about a surprise,” said Richard Socarides, head of the advocacy group EqualityMatters and a longtime gay rights advocate who advised President Bill Clinton.

If Obama were to endorse gay marriage, it would give a jolt of enthusiasm to his progressive base and perhaps unlock additional fundraising dollars from the well-heeled gay community. It’s not clear it would get him too many additional votes in 2012, though, since the Republican field’s general opposition to gay rights gives activists no alternative to Obama.

At the same time, supporting gay marriage could alienate some religious voters the politically cautious White House might still hope to win over for Obama’s re-election campaign.

The White House, though, says the only question is the president’s own evolution on the issue, the timing and pace of which are known only to him.


Read more

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Earnestness Is Necessary


In this age, just prior to the second coming of Christ in the clouds of heaven, the Lord calls for men who will be earnest and prepare a people to stand in the great day of the Lord. The men who have spent long terms in the study of books are not revealing in their lives that earnest ministry which is essential for this last time. They do not bear a simple, straightforward testimony. Among ministers and students there is need of the infusion of the Spirit of God. The prayerful, earnest appeals that come from the heart of a whole-souled messenger will create convictions. It will not need the learned men to do this; for they depend more on their learning from books than upon their knowledge of God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent. All who know the only true and living God will know Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, and will preach Jesus Christ and Him crucified. . . .

Does anyone suppose that the messages of warning will not come to those whom God reproves? The ones reproved may rise up in indignation and seek to bring the law to bear upon God's messenger, but in doing this, they are not bringing the law upon the messenger, but upon Christ, who gave the reproof and the warning. When men endanger the work and cause of God by their own wrong course of action, shall they hear no voice of reproof? If the wrongdoer only were concerned, and the work reached no farther than him, he alone should have the words of warning; but when his course of action is doing positive harm to the cause of truth, and souls are imperiled, God requires that the warning be as broad as the injury done. The testimonies will not be hindered. The words of rebuke and warning, the plain "Thus saith the Lord," will come from God's appointed agencies; for the words do not originate with the human instrument; they are from God, who appointed them their work. If a suit is instituted in earthly tribunals, and God suffers it to come to trial, it is that His own name may be glorified. But a woe will be upon the man who gives himself to do this work. God reads the motives, whatever they may be. I pray that the Lord will teach our brethren to be straightforward, and make no compromise in the matter. The cause of God has been bruised and wounded by any such men connecting with it, and the sooner they are separated from it, the better. . . .

God calls for men of decided fidelity. He has no use in an emergency for two-sided men. He wants men who will lay their hand upon a wrong work and say, "This is not according to the will of God."--Letter 19 1/2, 1897.


Selected Messages Book II, pp.152-153.
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Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Disrupt, Dismantle, and Defeat.












Photo (Courtesy) http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/03/27/obama-calls-new-strategy-dismantle-al-qaeda-afghanistan-pakistan/




Uploaded by Naskeleng on May 4, 2011


Many people in the United States -- and many in partner countries that have sacrificed so much -- have a simple question: What is our purpose in Afghanistan? After so many years, they ask, why do our men and women still fight and die there? And they deserve a straightforward answer.

So let me be clear: Al Qaeda and its allies -- the terrorists who planned and supported the 9/11 attacks -- are in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Multiple intelligence estimates have warned that al Qaeda is actively planning attacks on the United States homeland from its safe haven in Pakistan. And if the Afghan government falls to the Taliban -- or allows al Qaeda to go unchallenged -- that country will again be a base for terrorists who want to kill as many of our people as they possibly can.
The future of Afghanistan is inextricably linked to the future of its neighbor, Pakistan. In the nearly eight years since 9/11, al Qaeda and its extremist allies have moved across the border to the remote areas of the Pakistani frontier. This almost certainly includes al Qaeda's leadership: Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri.

....

I want the American people to understand that we have a clear and focused goal: to disrupt, dismantle and defeat al Qaeda in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and to prevent their return to either country in the future. That's the goal that must be achieved. That is a cause that could not be more just. And to the terrorists who oppose us, my message is the same: We will defeat you.

Full speech: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Remarks-by-the-President-on-a-New-...

Where is Cindy Sheehan when you need her?


...When the surge has escalated to a full-blown Middle East multiple theater Crusadel.

Now it's no longer Afghanistan and Iraq; But, also Libya, Yemen, Syria, and who knows who's next.

Yes, Where's Cindy Sheehan? The anti-war activist (her son was killed in combat in Iraq) that would camp-out outside of President G. W. Bush's ranch home in Crawford Texas, and would hold press conferences outside the White House to protest the occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan.

Don't the current incursions into Northern Africa warrant her protests?

Doesn't the secret drone bombings in Yemen on the Arabian Peninsula catch Ms. Sheehan's attention?

Do the recent collateral damage killings in Libya arouse her attention?

Does not the escalation in hostilities against sovereign Muslim Arab nations like Syria draw her anger?

Does all the strife and chaos called The Arab Spring that the United States and NATO have willingly fed into not cause her distress?

Isn't it strange Ms. Cindy Sheehan has disappeared from the scene when the situation has become much worse than it ever was during Bush 43's administration. Has the reason for the protests, the vigils, and the peaceful disobedience, diminished? What happened to her concerns? They were only to be demonstrated while Bush was President, and not meant for Obama because he's a Democrat.

Oh, now I understand!

Arsenio.

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Related

http://www.pineisland-eagle.com/page/content.detail/id/513861/Where-are-the-war-protesters-now-.html?nav=5049
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Beware of Strange Email sent to you!

Notice: Someone has hacked my MSN Email Account, and has sent out a number of Emails. I don't know who or why this was done; However, I recommend that nobody opens any links or downloads files contained in any of these mysterious Emails. Again, I did not by any means generate and send these messages. There is no equivocation in this matter, I don't know how this happened. (Perhaps, this was intended to intimidate?) The messages were supposedly sent at 2:31 AM this morning WED 06/22/2011; I was not awake at that hour.


Very IMPORTANT

If you receive an Email from me that fits this description, do not open any links or files...Very IMPORTANT. Even I received one of these messages, and my security anti-virus software advise (stopped me from opening) me of the danger of the links included in the strange Email. I don't know what the reason was for this breach of my Email account, but, I have taken measures to ensure that this doesn't occur again.

Please accept my apology in advance for any inconvenience this may cause anyone.


Below is a facsimile of the addresses to which the bogus Emails were sent to:


sierva-de-dios44; tadesea2005; wendynu22; ypadilla23

(No Subject)‏

2:31 AM

orlandom101; queenselassie@; eternalgospel; reneaspeklein; nduluspeaks; no-reply@nireblog.com

Re: +‏

2:31 AM


perrinechipi; jennifer55j; jonatanlazaro2506; joralagos; jvcamino; jbatcha@; kaywhydee@

Re: Aloha State,‏

2:30 AM


primo_jitano; ajafeja; wendynu22; gomezg; gospel_ministries_international; haydeehuerta08


Re: y‏

2:30 AM

ajgm31; jayr0327; aaalembertjr; aalembertjr; ortizaurelio38; weekly-spin; sandylucashale

(No Subject)‏

2:30 AM


colegadecristo; aalembertjr; uzias; alfemo52; laverdadpresente4; toniagodwin; ajafeja


(No Subject)

NOTE: I OMITTED THE LATTER PART OF THE EMAIL ADDRESSES ABOVE TO PROTECT PRIVACY.

Arsenio.
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Tuesday, June 21, 2011

A Jesuit Penal Colony





Recently, while listening to an evening radio program I heard the host, Jerry Doyle say that he went to school at "A Jesuit Penal Colony at 16th and 3rd".




Now, what in heaven's name was this radio show host referring to? Is this a type of a Freudian Slip, or just gratuitous babble?


Or, might this be another case of "for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh".


A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that
which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth
forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth
speaketh
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.......Luke 6:45

It never ceases to amaze me; the things you hear, if you just listen?


The propaganda is steadily increasing ...



Arsenio.



P.S.

I looked up Catholic High Schools in downtown Manhattan (New York), and I found Xavier High School @ 30 West 16th Street, New York, NY 10011 ... Definitely Jesuit...


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How much damage did ATF's ill-fated gun-running sting do to war on drugs?

Fast and Furious, the Mexico gun-running sting gone bad, may cost the ATF's acting chief his job. A larger concern is that it may undermine efforts to stop the flow of US guns south.


ATF Acting Director Kenneth Melson may have to resign over his role in a gun-running sting that has armed Mexican drug cartels.
Javier Lira/Newscom


By Howard LaFranchi, Staff writer / June 21, 2011

Washington

Fast and Furious – not the movie franchise, but the US government’s ill-fated undercover gun-running operation targeting Mexican drug cartels – ended up putting more guns in the hands of criminals on both sides of the US-Mexico border.

It deepened a rift between the US and Mexico over weapons flowing south, caused a major scandal in the Justice Department’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), which hatched the operation in 2009, and appears to have played a role in the murder of a US Border Patrol agent in 2010.

Now Fast and Furious is about to claim another victim. As the Obama administration seeks to stanch the embarrassment and controversy flowing from investigations into the operation, speculation is growing in Washington that the ATF’s acting director will be fired in the coming days.

With evidence mounting – particularly in recent congressional hearings – that ATF Acting Director Kenneth Melson was deeply involved in managing a sting operation gone seriously bad, the administration has little choice but to remove him, many government-operations experts say.

But beyond the fate of a government official, the saga of Fast and Furious has underscored a number of troubling trends on the US-Mexico border:

• The role US borderland gun shops play in feeding the region’s drug-related violence.

• How Mexico’s ruthless crime gangs use the weakly regulated US market to arm themselves.

• How the American gun lobby’s opposition to regulation has stifled government efforts to plug the flow of arms into Mexico.

Undercover operations called vital

At the same time, undercover operations and investigations will be critical if the US is to get a handle on gun-smuggling operations, say some US-Mexico experts, who worry that the debacle of Fast and Furious will put a devastating chill on that kind of initiative.

“The only way to stop, or more realistically slow down, the weapons trafficking will be through enhanced intelligence and undercover operations, and increased cross-border cooperation,” says Eric Olson, a senior associate at the Woodrow Wilson Center’s Mexico Institute in Washington. “But if the result of this scandal is to pull back on all of that,” he adds, “the problem will continue to grow.”

Reached by telephone in Mexico City, Mr. Olson says Fast and Furious has already heightened suspicion in Mexico toward the US, with some analysts equating the operation to a “declaration of war.”

The Fast and Furious operation, launched out of the ATF’s Phoenix office, sought to determine the role of US gun dealers in arming Mexican drug cartels by tracking weapons sold out of border gun shops. More than 2,500 high-powered weapons were let loose through the program, but the agency lost track of hundreds of AK-47s and other arms that filtered across the border in Mexico – and into the hands of Mexico’s violent drug gangs, according even to some ATF officials.

ATF agents sounded the alarm

Indeed, it was ATF agents dismayed at the undercover operation’s disarray and consequences who blew its cover. Both Attorney General Eric Holder and congressional committees launched investigations.

At a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing last week, committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R) of California disclosed e-mails that reveal ATF Acting Director Melson’s close oversight of Fast and Furious. The committee’s investigation has focused on the fact that weapons sold under Fast and Furious were found at the scene of a Border Patrol agent’s murder in Arizona in December (though the actual murder weapon has not been traced to the program).

Melson has been acting ATF director, pending action on Obama’s nomination of Andrew Traver as the agency’s director. Mr. Traver, who heads ATF’s Chicago office, was nominated in November but was soon engulfed in accusations from pro-gun groups that he is not a staunch supporter of gun-owner rights.

Traver was scheduled to meet in Washington Tuesday with Attorney General Holder.

Documenting role of US arms

In the meantime, three Democratic senators have released a report finding that an overwhelming majority of the firearms used in crimes in Mexico originated in the US.

According to the report, released last week by Sens. Dianne Feinstein of California, Charles Schumer of New York, and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, an ATF study of 2009 and 2010 crimes in Mexico involving firearms found that 70 percent of the traced weapons have a US source.

“Congress has been virtually moribund while powerful Mexican drug trafficking organizations continue to gain unfettered access to military-style firearms coming from the US,” Senator Feinstein said, releasing the report.

The senators’ report includes a number of recommendations to Congress, including that licensed gun sellers report all multiple firearms sales.

The Wilson Center’s Olson says the tragedy of Fast and Furious is that it, too, was aimed at addressing a problem that until a few years ago received little attention.

“All of a sudden a few years ago there was a lot of attention to this problem of straw purchasers, the people with clean records that the traffickers send into the gun stores to make their purchases,” he says.

“The intent of Fast and Furious was to get at that problem, and beyond that to try to somehow get at the network of traffickers,” Olson says. “The intent at least was a noble one, but according to all the reports it got way out of hand.”


Source
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All Confused On the Western Front: NATO and Libya's Rebels Don't Jibe

By Steven Sotloff / Misratah Tuesday, June 21, 2011


A heavily damaged street in the rebel-held city of Misrata, Libya on June 13, 2011.
Paul Jeffrey / AFP / Getty Images



"Where is NATO?" the rebel asks, with no small amount of frustration. It is just after midnight, Friday, June 17, and he is holed up in Dafniyah, a hamlet west of the revolutionary enclave of Misratah on the coast of western Libya. Like all the fighters in the dry fields outside the rebel city, Ashrf Ali, 30, had anticipated that the military alliance would launch a bombing campaign in the early hours of the morning last Friday, hitting Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's troops to allow the rebels to push further inland. Instead, NATO planes have merely buzzed the sky in routine reconnaissance and patrol sorties, leaving Ali and his fellow fighters unable to advance.

Throughout parts of Libya under rebel control, people are frustrated with NATO. Between its slow pace of attacks and the errant strikes that have killed rebel fighters, the speculation now is that the Western coalition lacks the resources and resolve to help the rebels topple Gaddafi.

The chief problem plaguing both NATO and the rebels is lack of coordination. Rebel leaders complain that they must jump through hoops to reach NATO officials. Field commanders requesting air strikes and relaying troop movements have no direct communication with the alliance's military command in the region, much less headquarters in Brussels, which must issue the ultimate orders. Instead, they call their senior officers via satellite phone at a rebel command center in Benghazi. The officers then relay the information to NATO officials in the same building, who only then contact Brussels. The byzantine process squanders valuable time in a war where seconds are precious.
(See a setback for NATO.)

Unable to order airstrikes, rebels in the field are forced to wait for unannounced NATO bombings before they can advance. "I never know what to tell my fighters," says Sa'adun Zuwayhli, 29, a field commander in Dafniyah, which is how far the rebels have advanced out of Misratah in their excruciatingly slow advance toward Gaddafi's capital Tripoli. "Advance, retreat, hold — they are all guesses until we see the bombs from NATO," he laments.

The rebels never know when NATO will fly in to their rescue. During a fierce offensive by Gaddafi's forces between June 7 and June 10, one that left more than 70 rebel dead under a barrage of long-range Grad rockets, the soldiers of "Free Libya" waited for a NATO counterattack that never materialized. The coalition's failure to defend the rebels angered their commanders. "NATO is to be blamed for Friday's deaths," Misratah's military council spokesman Ibrahim Bayt al-Mal told journalists. The alliance's officials have responded to such comments in the past by noting that their mandate extends only to protecting civilians, not toppling Gaddafi.

The lack of direct communication between the two sides has left NATO unable to differentiate between Gaddafi's forces and rebel fighters, leading to friendly fire incidents in which rebels were attacked. In April, two errant bombings in the rebel-held areas killed at least 20. Last Saturday, NATO mistakenly targeted a rebel convoy in which at least four were injured. The coalition immediately released a statement explaining that "a particularly complex and fluid battle scenario" led it to believe that the rebel column was a Gaddafi battalion because his forces "had recently been operating" in the area. All three attacks occurred in the area between the cities of Ajdabiyah and Brega in eastern Libya.
(Photos: See Libya's Roman Ruins.)

NATO's explanation, though, did not satisfy rebel leaders. "We are upset when civilians die," explained the rebel's military spokesman in Benghazi Ahmad Bani. Libyans in Misratah were even blunter. "We are fighting against a dictator with advanced weapons. We can't be fighting NATO as well," says Khalid Elaas, 39. "They need to figure out how to run this campaign or the people will be burning pictures of NATO leaders next to those of Gaddafi's."

NATO's actions have left Misratah's rebels not only angry, but puzzled as well. After the military alliance introduced helicopters last week for the first time, it dropped illustrated Arabic leaflets declaring, "NATO forces will take all the steps necessary to destroy the war instruments that threaten civilians." But instead of reaching their intended targets, the leaflets landed in rebel held positions, leaving the fighters there perplexed.

Confusion is the least of the rebels' worries. By the time the sun rises on Friday, Ashrf Ali is exasperated, having waited all night for an offensive that never materialized. "If NATO does not get its act together, this war is never going to end," he complains, as he heads for a nearby canvas tent to get some sleep.

Source: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2078831,00.html#ixzz1PvB7R2d0
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Why Summer Begins Tuesday

Published June 21, 2011
| LiveScience


Reuters
June 21, 2010: Some 20,000 revellers gathered at Stonehenge in England to watch dawn break and celebrate the summer solstice, the longest day of the year in the northern hemisphere.
The steamy temperatures would make it seem summer had already begun, but according to the astronomical calendar summer officially begins Tuesday.

The summer solstice occurs at 1:16 p.m. EDT (17:16 UTC), when the sun will be as high in the sky as possible, and it will be up a fraction of a second longer than the day prior or the day after. Though it's the longest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere, the length of the full day, including night, doesn't change, of course.

Here's how it works: Earth is tilted on its axis 23.5 degrees, so it leans one way as it spins around its axis while orbiting the sun. On June 21 this year (some years it's June 20), the North Pole is pointing toward the sun as much as is possible. (The winter solstice occurs when the top half of our planet, everything north of the equator, faces directly away from the sun, leaving the North Pole in complete darkness.)

Tuesday may mark the sun's peak, but it doesn't typically mark summer's peak heat. That's because the oceans take time to heat up (or cool down). By mid-June the oceans of the Northern Hemisphere are still cool from winter's chill, delaying the peak air temperatures by a month and a half, according to NASA. [Image Gallery: Sunrise and Sunsets]

Earth is actually farther away from the sun during the summer than it is during the winter months, because our planet's orbit is elliptical, a squished circle of sorts. The difference is about 3 million miles (5 million kilometers), and it makes a difference in radiant heat received by the entire Earth of nearly 7 percent. But the difference is more than made up for by the longer days in the Northern Hemisphere summer with the sun higher in the sky.

If you're a night owl, not to worry. Days may be longest during the summer, but nights aren’t at their shortest. Before sunrise and after sunset some light gets scattered over the horizon by the atmosphere. This light, called twilight, lasts longest during this time of year.

There are three types of twilight:

Civil twilight is the time when the sun is less than six degrees below the horizon (about half an hour before sunrise or after sunset at mid-latitudes).


Nautical twilight occurs when the sun is six to 12 degrees below the horizon, and when the horizon can still be used for navigation.


Astronomical twilight happens when the sun is 12 to 18 degrees below the horizon.
And once the sun is more than 18 degrees below the horizon, the sky is dark enough to view the stars. Some places at high altitude don't experience all flavors of twilight. Saint Petersburg, Russia, is famous for its "white nights," when civil twilight reigns over the summer.

Source: http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/06/21/why-summer-begins-tuesday/#ixzz1Pv9jFn3G
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God's Law Made Void in America



It is time for thee, Lord, to work: for they have made void thy law. Ps. 119:126.


A time is coming when the law of God is, in a special sense, to be made void in our land [the United States]. The rulers of our nation will, by legislative enactments, enforce the Sunday law, and thus God's people will be brought into great peril. When our nation, in its legislative councils, shall enact laws to bind the consciences of men in regard to their religious privileges, enforcing Sunday observance, and bringing oppressive power to bear against those who keep the seventh-day Sabbath, the law of God will, to all intents and purposes, be made void in our land.

When the land which the Lord provided as an asylum for His people, that they might worship Him according to the dictates of their own consciences, the land over which for long years the shield of Omnipotence has been spread, the land which God has favoured by making it the depository of the pure religion of Christ--when that land shall, through its legislators, abjure the principles of Protestantism, and give countenance to Romish apostasy in tampering with God's law--it is then that the final work of the man of sin will be revealed. Protestants will throw their whole influence and strength on the side of the Papacy; by a national act enforcing the false sabbath, they will give life and vigour to the corrupt faith of Rome, reviving her tyranny and oppression of conscience. Then it will be time for God to work in mighty power for the vindication of His truth.

The prophet says: "I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory. And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen. . . . And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities." When do her sins reach unto heaven? When the law of God is finally made void by legislation. Then the extremity of God's people is His opportunity to show who is the governor of heaven and earth. As a Satanic power is stirring up the elements from beneath, God will send light and power to His people, that the message of truth may be proclaimed to all the world.
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Maranatha, EGW, p.179.

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Monday, June 20, 2011

Bishop objects to anti-Catholic insert in newspaper


Sunday 19 June 2011


by by PETER GRACE AUCKLAND - Thousands of words attacking the papacy and Catholicism appeared in an Auckland community newspaper in late May.

The North Shore Times, owned by Fairfax Media, carried an insert called The South Pacific Signs of the Times.

The text refers consistently to "popery". It shows a text-number matrix that claims to show the name Vicarius Filii Dei (Vicar of the Son of God) produces the number 666 (the mark of the beast). It also attacks other churches and the Jewish community.

The editor of the North Shore Times, Peter Eley, told NZ Catholic that he could not say much as his general manager, David Penny, had said he would deal with it.

"I'm not going to run away from this," Mr Eley said. "I am going to apologise, as it was a disgraceful piece."

Mr Eley said he didn't know about the insert before the paper was distributed.

The Head of Content for Suburban Newspapers, Matthew Gray, said in a statement that, "This insert was provided to us at our printing plant, pre-printed and bundled by the organisation that produced it, Hope International. The content does not reflect the views of the North Shore Times and we regret any offence it may have caused. The paper has changed its procedures with inserted material received from third parties, to ensure this does not happen again."

The Bishop of Auckland, Bishop Patrick Dunn, had earlier written to the newspaper expressing his concern.

"I am very surprised that an insert of this nature, with its offensive comments . . . managed to find its way into the North Shore Times.

"Your paper has a long history of service to the community. . . . I feel sure that you would not want to align yourselves with the kind of distasteful and scaremongering material in this tabloid insert."

Bishop Dunn said it would be appreciated if the paper publicly disassociated itself from any endorsement of the derogatory comments in the insert.

The insert fails to say who produced it. However, an imprint on the last page refers to Patriotic Christian Distributors (PCD). An online search brings up websites describing PCD as a Seventh Day Adventist company in Christchurch.

A browse of the site of one advertiser in the insert, Hope International, reveals more anti-Catholic statements.


Source

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The organization Caritas Internationalis called to order by the Vatican

06-11-2011


Lesley Anne Knight (in the middle).


The Frenchman Michel Roy, until now director of Plaidoyer international du Secours Catholique [International Advocacy for Catholic Aid], was appointed secretary general of Caritas Internationalis on May 26, 2011. He replaced the Englishwoman Lesley-Anne Knight, who had held the position for 4 years but had not received official Vatican approval to finagle a second term. The reason is reportedly her excessively independent attitude toward the Magisterium of the Church. It is said that the authorities frowned on her conspicuous support for Development and Peace (see the article, “Quebec: Association financed by donations from Catholics suspected of promoting abortion”) and, more generally, criticized her vision of humanitarian action, which was too far removed from Catholic perspectives.

While celebrating the opening Mass for the General Assembly of Caritas Internationalis on May 22, 2011, in Rome, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone exhorted the charitable organization not to lose its “Christian identity”. The Secretary of State of the Holy See insisted several times on the “ecclesial character of the association”, on its “indispensable communion with the hierarchy of the Church”, its “renewed relations with the organs of the Holy See” as well as on the “real meaning of the Church’s charitable activities”.

“The Church must not only practice charity; she must practice charity as Christ. Before fostering belief in a paradise on earth or defending and promoting the rights of the poorest of the poor, even in contacts with international authorities, the primordial role of Caritas is to commit itself responsibly to the service of our brethren,” he declared.

Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga, on the other hand, was confirmed in his position as president. In his speech he saluted the professionalism, the deep faith and the commitment of Lesley-Anne Knight, regretting her dismissal by the Vatican, while calling on members of the organization to avoid internal divisions…. The Archbishop of Tegucigalpa in Honduras explained that “service to the poorest of the poor will be at the heart of (his) new term.”

Caritas Internationalis, which celebrates its 60th anniversary this year, held its general assembly in Rome from May 22 to 27. More than 300 delegates from the 165 branches of Caritas that make up this confederation debated the topic, “One human family, zero poverty”. (Sources: apic/imedia – DICI no. 236 dated June 11, 2011)

Source

TOWARDS AN “INCULTURATION” OF ISLAM

Bishop Maroun Lahham, Archbishop of Tunis.

Photo (Courtesy)
http://www.dici.org/en/news/italy-in-favor-of-the-inculturation-of-islam-by-the-bishops-of-europe/

2nd meeting of Bishops’ Conference delegates for relations with Muslims in Europe - Turin, Italy, 31 May – 2 June 2011

At the end of their meeting, the delegates from the Bishops’ Conferences noted particularly the process underway in Europe which can encourage the birth of an Islam more purely and typically religious than political; they expressed their sympathy for the desire for democracy and freedom of many peoples from different Arab nations, hoping that this wind of change may also lead to the realisation of true religious freedom in these countries; and, finally, expressing a critical assessment of the term “Islamophobia”, they exhorted Muslims to develop positive and sincere relations in the various contexts in which they find themselves in Europe.

The interest with which the Catholic Church is following the dynamics of the inclusion of residents and citizens of the Muslim religion into the European context, both at individual and community levels, was confirmed during the meeting of delegates for relations with Islam from the European Bishops’ Conferences. It is a complex process not lacking in ambiguities, from which emerges the challenge – which becomes reality – of the gradual inculturation of Islam in Europe, with the subsequent manifestation of its more truly religious and moral dimension, rather than its political one. All the cultural and theological initiatives which are an expression of what is described as “theology of inculturation”, are followed with great interest since they open and strengthen processes of positive participation in European social and cultural life, in a pluralist context, open to inter-religious and inter-cultural dialogue.

In such a framework, the Church follows with interest the expectations and initiatives arising within the heart of the Muslim communities aimed at providing their own religious leaders – imams, teachers – with an appropriate theological and cultural formation to carry out their religious role effectively in a European context; the Church hopes that such initiatives – including the establishment of Chairs of Islamic Theology in public Universities in countries where theology is a discipline present in the university system – can be organised, with the right adaptations, according to the legal framework of the relations existing between State and Church. In this perspective the Church views positively that denominational religious education in the state school can include other religious traditions as well, including Islam, holding to the requirements provided for in the different States for the pursuit of such a purpose.

Widening the horizon to the Mediterranean area, the Bishops’ Conference delegates are sympathetic to the expressions of a desire for democracy, freedom, and the appeal for respect for the dignity of the human person of which young people have been the protagonists in various Arab countries in these recent months of great political change; and they hope that the process underway can lead to the full acquisition of the right of freedom of religion in such countries, in such a way that Arab Christians, too, can enjoy such freedom in a substantial manner in the framework of a true egalitarian citizenship.

The delegates then offered a critical assessment of the term “Islamophobia”, used to interpret the reactions of hostility towards Islam present in European society, preferring to use rather the categories “fear” and “hostility”. While confirming the Church’s commitment to overcoming such reactions which lead to intolerance, they exhort Muslims to develop positive and sincere relations in the different contexts so as to rebut such interpretations.

Finally, the delegates confirmed the conviction of the Catholic Church in Europe in pursuing with renewed commitment the dialogue with Muslims according to the school of the Second Vatican Council and the teaching of Pope Benedict XVI, a dialogue in which Christians and Muslims are called to take on three challenges: the challenge of identity (to know and accept who and what we are); the challenge of otherness (our differences must not lead to hatred, but should be considered a source of mutual enrichment); the challenge of sincerity, which implies manifesting one’s own faith without imposing it in a pluralist context and in a perspective of dialogue.

The work, guided by the Archbishop of Bordeaux and CCEE Vice-president, Cardinal Jean-Pierre Ricard, also saw the participation of the President of the Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue, Cardinal Jean Louis Tauran.

At the end of the meeting, the delegates from the Bishops’ Conferences thanked the Archbishop of Turin, Mgr Cesare Nosiglia, for his hospitality; Don Andrea Pacini, for organising the meeting; and the Cenacle Sisters for their warm welcome. The meeting progressed in a warm and friendly atmosphere, enriched by moments of prayer and the daily celebration of Mass.

For further information:
Thierry Bonaventura
CCEE Media officer
+41788 516040
thierry.bonaventuraccee.ch

The Council of the Bishops’ Conferences of Europe (CCEE) gathers the Presidents of the current 33 European Bishops’ Conferences of this Continent, represented by their Presidents, and the Archbishops of Luxembourg and of the Principality of Monaco, the Maronite Archbishop of Cyprus, as well as the Bishop of Chişinău (Moldavia). The President is Cardinal Péter Erdő, Archbishop of Esztergom-Budapest, Primate of Hungary; the Vice-Presidents are Cardinal Josip Bosanić, Archbishop of Zagreb, and Cardinal Jean-Pierre Ricard, Archbishop of Bordeaux. The General Secretary of CCEE is Mgr Duarte da Cunha. The headquarters of the Secretariat is in St Gallen (Switzerland).

03.06.2011


Source

Sunday, June 19, 2011

US-NATO are Planning a Ground War in Libya, Military Intervention in Syria

Bilderberg intended to launch new war in the Middle East, with Syria being its prime target


by Bob Chapman



Global Research, June 18, 2011

Even as the Obama administration prepares to launch a full ground war in Libya while expanding its drone attacks inside Yemen and Pakistan, US warships are being moved towards the Mediterrenean coast of Syria, precisely in line with forecasts that the Bilderberg Group intended to launch a massive new war in the Middle East, with Syria being its prime target.

In addition to information received by Infowars from military sources at Ft. Hood who tell us that troops are being readied for a full-scale U.S.-led ground invasion of Libya by October, the Obama administration is simultaneously considering opening up yet another front, by moving the USS Bataan amphibian air carrier strike vessel, along with 2,000 marines, 6 war planes, and 15 attack helicopters to a location just off the Syrian coast.

“This huge concentration of naval missile interceptor units looks like preparations by Washington for the contingency of Iran, Syria and Hizballah letting loose with surface missiles against US and Israeli targets in the event of US military intervention to stop the anti-opposition slaughter underway in Syria,” reports DebkaFile.

Another indication that the US is planning an intervention in Syria is the fact that Hizballah has moved its rockets from northern Lebanon to areas in the center of the country, acting on a warning from Iranian intelligence to move the weaponry “out of range of a possible American operation in Syria”.

Veteran reporter Jim Tucker’s warning, provided to him by his routinely accurate inside sources, that the powerful Bilderberg Group was planning a gargantuan new war in the Middle East to outstrip anything taking place in Libya, is now moving forward.

On Monday, journalist Adrian Salbuchi also told Russia Today that Bilderberg’s “hidden agenda” towards Syria would make itself visible after the conclusion of the elitist confab in St. Moritz, Switzerland, a forecast already coming to fruition.

Syrian rights organizations say that around 1,300 civilians have been killed since the start of the uprising in March against President Bashar Assad. Around 300 soldiers and police have also been killed. Thousands of Syrians fled the town of Maarat al-Numaan yesterday as government troops and tanks moved north.

The US military-industrial complex has been very choosy about who it targets for regime change under the umbrella of “humanitarian intervention”. Despite the fact that protesters in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia have been the victims of similarly brutal government crackdowns, the US has turned a blind eye.

Quite how the Obama administration believes the United States can afford to prosecute yet another war while it is still engaged in two major occupations and a number of other regional conflicts, and as top ratings agencies warn the country is about to lose its triple A credit status due to insurmountable debt problems, is a mystery.

Bob Chapman is a frequent contributor to Global Research.


Source


Gunman Kills 4 in L.I. Pharmacy; One Victim Is a 17-Year-Old Girl

By ELIZABETH A. HARRIS
Published: June 19, 2011


Four people were shot and killed at a pharmacy in Medford, N.Y., on Sunday morning in what appeared to be an attempted robbery, the Suffolk County police said. One of the victims was a senior at a local high school who was to graduate this week.

At about 10 a.m., not long after the pharmacy, Haven Drugs, opened for the day, a single gunman entered and, at some point, opened fire. The police would not say whether anything had been stolen, and by early Sunday night no arrest had been made.

The police said that two of the victims, Raymond Ferguson, 45, of Centereach and Jennifer Mejia, 17, of East Patchogue, worked at the drug store.

The other two victims, Bryon Sheffield, 71, of Medford and Jamie Taccetta, 33, of Farmingville, were customers.

Ms. Mejia, a senior at Bellport High School, lived with her family on a cul-de-sac in East Patchogue.

A priest stood in back of the Mejias’ home Sunday evening saying prayers with the family. An uncle of Jennifer’s, Antonio Mejia, said that Jennifer’s mother had refused to leave her room.

By late Sunday afternoon, a community page had sprung up on Facebook to memorialize the teenager. Photographs showed her in class and with friends. Dozens of comments quickly appeared, offering thoughts and prayers for her family.

Haven Drugs is a small local pharmacy that sits next to a medical office building, on a commercial strip in Medford, a hamlet on Long Island about 60 miles east of New York City.

“It’s not like a CVS,” said Stacy Gallagher, a regular customer who lives in Medford. “It’s a very homey environment.”

Witnesses said the pharmacy’s owner, Vinoda Kudchadkar, collapsed near his store after he learned of what happened Sunday morning.

Angela Macropoulos contributed reporting.

A version of this article appeared in print on June 20, 2011, on page A23 of the New York edition with the headline: Gunman Kills 4 in L.I. Pharmacy; One Victim Is a 17-Year-Old Girl..
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Source
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Many Americans cannot save for a rainy day fund

By GREGORY BRESIGER

Last Updated: 3:45 AM, June 19, 2011

Posted: 10:21 PM, June 18, 2011





What happens to the US economy if the middle doesn't hold?

That's the worry behind new data showing that middle-class families are living paycheck to paycheck and that discretionary spending is nonexistent, according to two recent reports by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) and the latest monthly Discover US Spending Monitor.

"We find widespread financial weakness in America: One quarter of Americans report they certainly could not come up with [$2,000] to cope with a financial shock within 30 days," according to the NBER report.


Getty Images
Wallet fatigue: Middle-class consumers’ spending constraints may be the leading cause for plunging retail sales.


Another 19 percent of respondents say they could raise the $2,000 but would be forced to sell a possession or take a payday loan because they don't have the cash, NBER says.

NBER officials said similar surveys are coming to the same conclusion. Two years ago, the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press found 42 percent of respondents saying they agree or mostly agree with the statement that they "often don't have enough money to make ends met."

Running out of cash is also a theme of the May Discover US Spending Monitor. In its latest monthly survey, it found 42.4 percent of respondents say they are running out of money when they pay monthly bills. That's a jump of 2.5 percent from the previous month and the highest rate this year, according to the Discover Monitor.

The middle class and upper-middle class are looking at falling home prices, income raises that fall short of the inflation rate, an unemployment rate that barely moves and a reluctance to dip into savings after the recession, according to respondents.

"The durability of the spending of this very important group is a key factor in judging whether the economy has transitioned from a government-aided recovery into a self-sustaining expansion," said Robert Dye, a senior economist at PNC Financial Services Group.

The NBER report argues that the problem of the cash-poor American is spreading. "We examine the cross-sectional distribution of financial fragility and we show it is not a poor person's problem," according to the report.

That's because the average American's ability to cope with a financial shock is limited, NBER said, and even the seemingly rich are affected.

"It seems somewhat unbelievable that nearly a quarter of households making between $100,000 and $150,000 claim not to be able to raise $2,000 in a month," NBER said. "But this fact may be less shocking when one considers costs of living in urban areas, costs of housing and child care, substantial debt service and other factors."

NBER warns that there is also "a sizeable fraction" of people who have made high salaries, but are nearing retirement without any substantial assets.

Wallet fatigue

General merchandise sales decline from previous month

March: -1.2%
April: -0.6%
May: -3%

Source: US Census Bureau


Source: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/not_this_week_1nbBH4qHTgrHjHopaZmqIO#ixzz1PmUscxZF

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EU Bans Your Right to Natural Health

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itaMSyFWo9I&feature=player_embedded

HumanSayNo 13.02.2011

This broadcast starts with the typical BBC propaganda, “Leading pharmacists are warning that new licences being granted to herbal remedies, could mislead customers into believing that they work”. Well thank you for the warning from the biggest killers in history, the pharmaceutical industry. Im sure they genuinely are concerned about us using these hazardous herbs.

If word got out that ambulatory medicine was a racket, and every illness known to man can be cured with natural, un-patentable herbs & remedies that grow in the garden, it would be a serious hazard to the pharmaceutical industries profit margin.

Anyway, where do these bureaucrats think they get the authority to grant a licence for a natural, God given plant? If I want to eat a bunch of nettles to cure whatever, there is no human being on this planet that has the authority to tell me I can't do it.

Of course the pharmacists are going to tell us natural herbs are dangerous. What they are not telling us is that nearly all pharmaceutical drugs are artificially copied from the very natural herbs, plants, roots, nuts and seeds they are trying to ban now. And what about the hundreds of thousands of people who die every year, as a side effect of their medically sanctioned toxins? No mention of that from the concerned pharmacists.

Are we really to believe that all natural herbs and remedies do not work and are dangerous? Even with a 5000yr proven safety record? This is modern eugenics!

This is no new scheme. This is the work of Codex Alimentarius, look it up!



Recorded from BBC Weekend Breakfast, 12 February 2011.
Thanx to liarpoliticians: http://www.youtube.com/user/liarpoliticians

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Nouriel Roubini: This "Perfect Storm" Of Threats Could Slam The Economy By 2013


Gregory White
Jun. 13, 2011, 7:19 AM
Image: US Air Force


There's a "perfect storm" of threats brewing, and it could slam the global economy as soon as 2013, according to Nouriel Roubini.

Roubini believes that a slowdown in China, the damage done to Japan, the current debt crisis in Europe, and the emerging one in the U.S. have a one third chance of damaging the global economy.

Roubini, from Reuters:

“There are already elements of fragility,” he said. “Everybody’s kicking the can down the road of too much public and private debt. The can is becoming heavier and heavier, and bigger on debt, and all these problems may come to a head by 2013 at the latest.”

Roubini still believes we may escape the worst of this scenario, with the global economy bumping along, with weak growth.

One of the big threats Roubini believes the world is facing is a hard landing in China. He sees that country's non-performing loan problem expanding, if it does not quickly reshape its economy around domestic demand.

Combining that with the situation in Europe, and the U.S. failing to get its debt situation under control, and the world economy may have the right mixture for another dark period as early as 2013.


Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/noriel-roubini-perfect-storm-economy-2013-2016#ixzz1PlxGFJmK
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Saturday, June 18, 2011

Clarence Thomas’s Friendship With Magnate Puts Focus on Ethics

A multimillion-dollar project to preserve a seafood cannery in Pin Point, Ga., highlights an unusual, and ethically sensitive, friendship between the Supreme Court justice, Clarence Thomas, and Harlan Crow, a Dallas real estate magnate and a major contributor to conservative causes. Since the two men met, Mr. Crow has done many favors for the justice and his wife, Virginia. In several instances, reports of Mr. Crow’s largess has provoked controversy and questions, adding fuel to a debate about Supreme Court ethics. But Mr. Crow’s financing of the cannery museum, his largest and previously unreported act of generosity, raises the sharpest questions yet — both about Justice Thomas’s extrajudicial activities and about the extent to which the justices should remain exempt from the code of conduct.
Although the Supreme Court is not bound by the code, justices have said they adhere to it. Justice Thomas, through a spokeswoman, declined to comment. Mr. Crow also would not comment.

Read More:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/19/us/politics/19thomas.html?emc=na

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This Week's Solar Flare Illuminates the Grid's Vulnerability




By PETER BEHR of ClimateWire
Published: June 9, 2011


A massive burst of solar wind that erupted from the sun Tuesday is expected to deliver only a "glancing blow" to the Earth's vulnerable magnetic field, NASA officials said yesterday. But it will preview what some experts call a potentially existential threat to the power grids of the United States and other nations, and the populations that depend on them.

Antti Pulkkinen, who leads NASA's "Solar Shield" satellite-based detection system at the Goddard Space Flight Center, said the cloud of ionized particles from Tuesday's violent "coronal mass ejection" will largely miss Earth, giving some North American residents a glimpse of the aurora borealis, or northern lights, this weekend. "It will not be a major event [for] the power grid," he said.

However, NASA spacecraft detected a much larger eruption last weekend on the backside of the sun headed away from Earth, generating a much faster-moving cloud.

"If this event was on a collision course with the U.S., we would have had a major space weather event," Pulkkinen said. "In this regard, we got lucky."

The next peak cycle of sunspot activity is predicted for 2012-2014, bringing with it a greater risk of large geomagnetic storms that can generate powerful rogue currents in transmission lines, potentially damaging or destroying the large transformers that manage power flow over high-voltage networks.

"Geomagnetically-induced currents on system infrastructure have the potential to result in widespread tripping of key transmission lines and irreversible physical damage to large transformers," a 2009 report (pdf) by the North American Electric Reliability Corp. (NERC) and the Energy Department says.

Agreement on the seriousness of the threat, but not the solution

In the worst-case scenario, the stockpile of spare transformers would fall far short of replacement needs. Urban centers across the continent would be without power for many months or even years, until new transformers could be manufactured and delivered from Asia. The transformers are not made in the United States.

"If the solar storm of 1921, which has been termed a one-in-100-year event, were to occur today, well over 300 extra-high-voltage transformers could be damaged or destroyed, thereby interrupting power to 130 million people for a period of years," Joseph McClelland, director of the Office of Electric Reliability at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, said at a May 31 House Energy subcommittee hearing on the issue.

"The U.S. society and economy are so critically dependent upon the availability of electricity that a significant collapse of the grid precipitated by a major natural or man-made EMP [electro-magnetic pulse] event could result in catastrophic civilian casualties," Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.) said at the same hearing.

The U.S. grid currently relies for its defense on warnings from NASA that would alert U.S. utilities to take actions to protect their systems. Tuesday's storm did not require a response, NERC said.

But the alerts have the effect of advice and there are no mandatory, enforceable procedures or emergency actions, NERC officials say. No comprehensive plan exists to retrofit the transmission grid with protective devices, although the Electric Power Research Institute, the industry's primary research and development organization, is developing a range of technical responses.

The threat is a top priority for FERC and NERC, their officials say, but the two organizations have sparred over the reach of new federal authority that could be created to upgrade the grid's protective equipment and defensive plans.

While the House last year passed the "GRID Act," addressing vulnerabilities of the bulk power sector to natural threats and cyber attacks, action in the Senate is tied up by conflicting bids for jurisdiction by five different committees.

Learning from a 1989 solar storm

Pulkkinen said that NASA's satellite and computer systems provide a vital early warning capability. The solar eruptions can be detected several days before the space weather strikes the Earth, and more detailed threat analysis can be generated 24 hours before an event begins, he said.

The warnings weren't available during the last major solar storm that began on March 13, 1989.

That massive impulse blacked out the entire power grid in Quebec in 92 seconds, giving operators "no time to even assess what was happening to the power system, let alone provide any meaningful human intervention," said John Kappenman, author of a January 2010 report (pdf) by Metatech Corp. prepared for Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

More than 80 percent of Quebec's system was back up within 11 hours, Kappenman said. But he and other experts say the challenge to the U.S. grid is more serious for several reasons.

The Hydro-Québec power system draws almost entirely on hydroelectric generation, which permits a relatively simple and rapid restoration, he said. In contrast, the U.S. grid relies predominantly on steam electric generation, making restoration much more difficult, and a recovery as fast as Quebec's "is highly unlikely."

High-voltage lines act as antennae, attracting geomagnetic disturbances from the sun, and the larger and longer the lines, the greater the effect. The total length of U.S. high-voltage lines has increased nearly tenfold since the 1960s, Kappenman reported. The average length of the highest-capacity U.S. lines currently is four times greater than the smaller lines used more than a generation ago.

"Today's sprawling high-voltage power grids are more susceptible to space weather impacts than ever before," Kappenman said.

Designing defenses against space weather

Utilities have spent several billion dollars installing equipment to protect their transmission networks from lightning strikes, Kappenman added, but installations to defend against space weather are lagging. In part, that's because the research on the threat and the best countermeasures has not been completed. The transmission networks are so interconnected and interdependent that one company's investment in protective equipment could be nullified if a neighboring utility did nothing.

But some available defenses are also not being used, Kappenman said. He cited devices called "series capacitors" that can block the flow of geomagnetic currents on transmission lines. In the western section of the U.S. grid, many are in place. In the entire eastern grid, however, only two lines have this protection.

In the Quebec event, grid devices called compensators that were essential to counteract the rogue currents' effects tripped off to protect themselves. That "pulled the legs out" from under the province's grid, precipitating a rapid collapse of voltage, Kappenman said. This illustrates the need for complex modeling of the grid's vulnerabilities, he added.

The 1989 disturbance, which was felt by power systems deep into the United States and damaged a transformer at a nuclear plant, is far from the maximum. A report in the spring issue of the EPRI Journal notes that the 1921 storm was 10 times stronger (but it hit a far less developed and exposed grid network). The strongest solar storm on record hit in 1859, battering the U.S. telegraph system in places, EPRI said. That event may have been 50 percent more powerful than the 1921 storm, it reported.

Recent storms "do not represent the most severe storm events that are plausible," Kappenman said.

Richard Lordan, a senior technical executive at EPRI's Palo Alto, Calif., office, said his organization is researching a range of defensive strategies. The amount of long-distance power transfers can be reduced as much as possible, and generators close to population centers can be brought online.

"As a final resort, you can consider removing transformers from service," he said -- deliberately blacking out parts of the grid. EPRI has developed sensors that could detect high geomagnetic currents in transformers that would alert operators that the equipment had to be taken offline.

"If the storm is severe enough, operators have ways of islanding the system," he added, just as rolling blackouts have been used in extreme power emergencies like the Texas winter storm during this year's Super Bowl week. "It's preferable to take the system out and protect the equipment. It's a last-resort step.

"There are other [protective] devices under development," he said. "But the industry wants to be sure these devices don't impact the reliability of the system."

Critics call security process 'too slow'

The Department of Homeland Security has funded EPRI's design of a modular replacement transformer that is now being tested. It can be adapted to the range of substation configurations around the grid, and shipped in three pieces by truck to wherever it was needed. It will be installed for field testing in 2012.

But there are a host of unanswered policy questions before the replacement transformers could provide effective backup, he said, beginning with how they would be paid for.

"What would be the appropriate deployment strategy? How many are needed? Who owns them? Who maintains them? And who determines when an event is severe enough to warrant deployment?" he said. "These conversations are going on."

FERC and NERC agree that mandatory authority is needed to deal with solar weather emergencies that are days or hours away. NERC President Gerald Cauley says his organization "should be given authority under FERC oversight to address grid security vulnerabilities by enforceable means other than standards."

But they aren't in accord over whether the federal government can step in and direct a transformer replacement program. Cauley told the House hearing last month that NERC's current "bottoms-up" process for developing grid security standards that begins with its power company stakeholders is the right approach in this case.

The provisions in the House-passed GRID Act spelling out FERC's authority to order a transformer replacement program are not needed, Cauley said. "FERC already has the authority to order us to address these topics today," he said.

McClelland responded, "the commission has said on numerous occasions that when it comes to national security, the process -- the standards development process is too slow. It's too open, and it's too unpredictable."




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HOW RELIGIOUS AWAKENINGS PRESAGE RADICAL REFORMS


(July/August 2010 GroundSwell)


By Dr. Mason Gaffney, Riverside, CA


[Originally for presentation at Annual Meetings, History of Economics Society, Syracuse, July 2010]


Before there were a U.S.A. and a 1st Amendment, church and state were intertwined in western Europe, whence came most of our traditions. Kings and Cardinals vied for primacy, but joined in overawing and dominating others. Both royalists and clerics were major landowners, at the tip of "The Geocracy". They worked together to rationalize and sanctify landownership based on conquest, chicane, fraud, slavery, debt slavery, prison labor, male chauvinism, imprisonment, ethnic bias, genocide, murder by burning, drowning, torture and other barbaric acts, witch-hunting, primogeniture, entail, confiscation, exile, etc. Missionaries supported imperialists abroad, and shared in their power and wealth, even owning slaves. Centuries of struggle against Islam shaped fanaticism especially in Spain, Austria and Russia, and less extremely in all the Crusading states.

At home, however, heretics were more dangerous than infidels. Ruling Geocrats feared and persecuted egalitarian heretics like Anabaptists, Diggers, Levelers, Lollards, Hussites and Taborites, Albigensians, Waldensians (Vaudois), Bogomils, Cathari, Donatists and Circumcellians, Humiliati, Poor Men of Lyons, Calvinists, Puritans, et al. Rome coopted successive new grassroots monastic orders into acting as Roman agents: Cluniacs, Cistercians, Benedictines, Carthusians, Franciscans, Dominicans, Jesuits, et al., went through somewhat parallel evolutions from their ascetic, abnegant, pietistic origins in protest against clerical ritualism, hierarchy, luxury and wealth. Troubadors and Minnesingers could distract and bypass censors with tales of romance and scandal and tragedy, arts that flourish today, but fail to prepare the ground for practical reforms. Jews, carriers of the parent religion with its egalitarianism, wrapped in its own language and mysteries, made a special and important case, too complex to sum up fairly in a few words. The Crusades bred Chivalric Orders, some of which went into banking and grew too rich and powerful for their own survival.

On the good side, churches tempered the harshness of class exploitation with charity, welfare, and education. Cynically, however, one might see it as a "good cop, bad cop" act. The "education" inherently entailed self-enhancement and associated brainwashing. Churches sought a monopoly of this, as the Vatican did more recently under its 1933 Concordat with Hitler. Currently in Alabama many conservative Southern Baptist Churches are at war with Christian tax reformer Susan Pace Hamill who would make State taxes less regressive, in ways that churches could not control and cap as they can their voluntary "charity". A Federal counterpart is former President George H.W. Bush with his "thousand points of light" to displace Social Security and other Federal welfare programs.

Again on the good side, church texts (to the extent laymen can and will read them) abound with egalitarian and distributive sentiments, as in Exodus and Leviticus; as in The Prophets, especially Amos and Isaiah; and as in the Gospels of Jesus. There have been dozens of Utopian colonies with some such religious basis, from the smallest sects up to regional powers like Puritan New England, Quaker Pennsylvania, and the Mormon State of Deseret. Religious blacks have likened themselves to Hebrew slaves fleeing Pharaoh. There were, of course, currents and countercurrents, rebellions and repressions, reforms and reactions, filling many tomes. Struggles inside and among churches mirrored class struggles in politics, a series of long and fascinating stories.


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African bishops delegation in Europe to discuss Millenium Development Goals




2010-09-10

AFRICA - African bishops delegation in Europe to discuss Millenium Development Goals

Rome (Agenzia Fides) – On the occasion of the Summit for review of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to be held in New York, September 20 to 22, a delegation of SECAM (Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar) is in Europe to meet with European political leaders and to discuss efforts to improve the welfare of African communities, the obstacles blocking the development of society, and the priorities for change. The delegation, which consists of African bishops and development experts, will be divided into two groups that will travel to Austria, France, Italy, Switzerland, and Germany. The two groups will meet in Brussels to meet with representatives of the European Union.

“We the Bishops of SECAM call for a new approach in implementing the MDGs that is not limited in time and space but which focuses on a progressive transition to the integral development of Africa based on the principles of morals and ethics, Economic growth, Subsidiarity, common Good and Benefits accruing from resources,” says the “Position Paper” of SECAM sent to Fides.

The Church in Africa, often the only subject of civil society capable of reaching remote communities, provides services that compensate for the shortcomings of the state. Among the testimonies given by the delegation is that of Bishop Francisco Joao Siloti of Chimoio (Mozambique) and Vice-President of SECAM, who has worked for peace across all of Africa and Bishop Louis Portella Mbuyu, Bishop of Kinkala (Congo-Brazzaville), who, despite three attempts on his life, continues to strongly support democratization and transparency in managing oil revenues.

The delegation's mission is organized by SECAM with the support of CIDSE, an international alliance of Catholic development agencies, and Caritas Europa. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 09/10/2010)


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