Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Gallup: Romney, Gingrich Beat Obama in 12 Swing States
President Barack Obama is in big trouble, with both Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich leading him in a dozen key swing states, according to a new USA Today/Gallup poll.
Former Massachusetts Gov. Romney leads Obama among registered voters, 48 percent to 43 percent, in the 12 states the survey covers. And former House Speaker Gingrich leads the president, 48 percent to 45 percent. Nationwide, Obama leads Gingrich, 50 percent to 44 percent, and Romney, 47 percent to 46 percent, according to the poll.
The 12 states are Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Wisconsin. Obama won all of them in 2008. Each could go either way next year, and Obama needs to win half of their electoral votes to gain a second term, according to USA Today.
The portion of voters in those states who identify themselves as Democratic or Democratic-leaning has dropped 4 percentage points since 2008, while the portion of Republicans has risen 5 points.
In 2008, when Obama won those states by 8 percentage points, Democrats led Republicans in party identification by a whopping 11 points. Now, the Democrats’ edge is a statistically insignificant 2 points.
Former Massachusetts Gov. Romney leads Obama among registered voters, 48 percent to 43 percent, in the 12 states the survey covers. And former House Speaker Gingrich leads the president, 48 percent to 45 percent. Nationwide, Obama leads Gingrich, 50 percent to 44 percent, and Romney, 47 percent to 46 percent, according to the poll.
The 12 states are Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Wisconsin. Obama won all of them in 2008. Each could go either way next year, and Obama needs to win half of their electoral votes to gain a second term, according to USA Today.
The portion of voters in those states who identify themselves as Democratic or Democratic-leaning has dropped 4 percentage points since 2008, while the portion of Republicans has risen 5 points.
In 2008, when Obama won those states by 8 percentage points, Democrats led Republicans in party identification by a whopping 11 points. Now, the Democrats’ edge is a statistically insignificant 2 points.
Overstated Home Sales Data & Mortgage Fraud
The Market Ticker
Verbatim Post
Verbatim Post
Data on sales of previously owned U.S. homes from 2007 through October this year will be revised down next week because of double counting, indicating a much weaker housing market than previously thought.
Oh I see. Remember, this first came up in February and I wrote about it at the time. Let's ask a simple question: How do you miscount an actual sale? A sale is a sale is a sale, right? NAR gets its data from the various MLS systems and of course we the general public should trust the professionals and their data, yes?
In point of fact I was called all sorts of names by some of those professionals when I ran down a report sent to me in the fall of 2010 claiming that the MLS data was incorrect on sold price -- a key element used when performing market analysis for clients who are interested in both buying and selling. At the time I made the audacious recommendation that nobody should trust Realtor data and should instead insist on a pull of the public records at the County level before performing any real estate transaction.
There was plenty of controversy at the time over the original claim and I spent a lot of time running down the facts, including calls to county tax authorities -- and later posted a follow-up later to the original Ticker.
This issue of bad counts of sold homes is, in my opinion, much-more serious, as it's damn hard to claim this is a result of misunderstanding between an industry professional and a naive client.
Let's face reality here folks: Counting how many things sold is pretty simple if there's any sort of verification and integrity in the process, especially when ownership changes are filed with county authorities in public records and thus a spot check should catch any material error almost instantly!
So I must ask -- why now, some eight months after Corelogic first raised the issue? Did it really take eight months to actually.... well..... count? How many fingers do these people have again?
And again I have to ask - why is it that it always seems these errors in important economic statistics are in the same direction?
Cue rabid defenses from the industry (despite the fact that it might have led people to overpay, perhaps materially so) in 5......4......
=========
Via The California Tree of Liberty
“The FBI Estimates That 80 Percent Of All Mortgage Fraud Involves Collaboration Or Collusion By Industry Insiders”
Fraud By The Big Banks – More Than Anything Done By The Little Guy – Caused The Financial Crisis
The U.S. Treasury’s Office of Thrift Supervision noted last year (page 7):
The FBI estimates that 80 percent of all mortgage fraud involves collaboration
or collusion by industry insiders.
This confirms what one of the country’s top fraud experts has said for years: that it was fraud by the big banks – more than anything done by the little guy – which caused the financial crisis:
Doofus Bloomberg calls for more gun control
Via The California Tree of Liberty
“These guns are used to kill people,” he said.
All guns are capable of killing people, so are knives, baseball bats and hands.
“These guns are used to kill people,” he said.
Romney: My views are progressive
His views "are progressive". That is straight from the man's mouth. Seriously, even in the eye of the economic hurricane, this is the man that the Republican establishment genuinely prefers to Ron Paul... which should tell you everything you need to know about the Republican Party. If they nominate Newt Romney, there is absolutely no way that any self-respecting conservative or libertarian can belong to or support the party.
Will Nickels and Pennies Soon Disappear?
Back in December 2006, the US Mint, in yet another power grab over economic life, made it illegal to melt pennies and nickels in addition to exporting large quantities of either. Though the Mint admitted there was no evidence coin melting was occurring, this was the government's attempt at being proactive to prevent the destruction of its legally imposed currency.
So why the concern over people melting down coinage that supposedly belongs to them?
Back when the ban was implemented, the high price of copper was responsible for driving up the price of individual nickels and pennies in terms of metal content. Due to their copper content (nickels minted between 1946 and 2011 are composed of 75 percent copper and pennies minted between 1909 and 1982 are composed of 95 percent copper), both coins have a higher value as metal than as legal tender.
So why the concern over people melting down coinage that supposedly belongs to them?
Back when the ban was implemented, the high price of copper was responsible for driving up the price of individual nickels and pennies in terms of metal content. Due to their copper content (nickels minted between 1946 and 2011 are composed of 75 percent copper and pennies minted between 1909 and 1982 are composed of 95 percent copper), both coins have a higher value as metal than as legal tender.
America’s Tebows await their start
Via Sad Hill News
Back in September when President Obama was arguing for his third stimulus, he pronounced America soft and said we lacked a competitive edge. At the same time, the NFL cognoscenti were declaring Tim Tebow an NFL bust despite being a first-round draft pick. Remarkably, Tim Tebow and the U.S. economy are showing signs of resurgence.
The news that the U.S. unemployment rate fell from 9.0 to 8.6 percent in November (though due largely to job seekers exiting the market) is as surprising as Tebow’s 7-1 record since becoming the Broncos’ starting quarterback. Tebow’s late-fourth-quarter magic and five come-from-behind victories (three in overtime) have rocketed the Broncos from worst to first in their division, earning Tebow the confidence of coaches and teammates, and the adoration of fans.
If only America’s private-sector “quarterbacks” were liberated to call their own plays and scramble like an unleashed Tebow, America could win the economic equivalent of the Super Bowl — GDP growth of 4.5 percent and unemployment of 6 percent.
If politicians were as wise as Tebow’s coach, they’d formulate strategies to get business owners off the sidelines. They could start by reducing excessive regulations that, according to the Small Business Administration, cost the economy $1.75 trillion in 2008, more than individual and corporate income taxes combined — and that’s more than 11,000 regulations ago. In stronger economies, businesses are better equipped to tackle runaway regulators, who often view them as the opponent. Now, the 22.9 million Americans who are unemployed, underemployed or too discouraged to look for employment are consigned to the injured reserve list.
As politicians play political football with our fate, they demonstrate greater concern for the next election than for the next generation.Terror Attack in Liège
A gunman named Norodine Amrani staged a terror attack in the center of Liège today, killing four people (one of them himself) and wounding at least 75 others. According to Reuters, the attacker used a Kalashnikov and a revolver, and also threw grenades.
See RT for photos and video.
Did the incident have anything to do with Islam or terrorism? Not according to the Belgian government:
Well, I can explain why he thought that. He thought that because he was told to think it by his superiors in Belgium, the EU, and all the way up to the OIC. The Muslim Brotherhood issues the talking points, and their dhimmi servants in Europe dutifully repeat them.
Interestingly enough, although the mainstream outlets seem to be avoiding discussing competing versions of the story, reports on forums and other internet sites say that there were actually three attackers, and at least one was heard to shout “Allahu Akhbar!” during his rampage.
The latest report from the AP:
See RT for photos and video.
Did the incident have anything to do with Islam or terrorism? Not according to the Belgian government:
“Interior Ministry official Peter Mertens said the attack did not involve terrorism but did not explain why he thought that.”
Well, I can explain why he thought that. He thought that because he was told to think it by his superiors in Belgium, the EU, and all the way up to the OIC. The Muslim Brotherhood issues the talking points, and their dhimmi servants in Europe dutifully repeat them.
Interestingly enough, although the mainstream outlets seem to be avoiding discussing competing versions of the story, reports on forums and other internet sites say that there were actually three attackers, and at least one was heard to shout “Allahu Akhbar!” during his rampage.
The latest report from the AP:
The Sick Truth About 401ks Finally Sinks In
Via Western Rifle Shooter's Association
Possession is nine-tenths of the law.
Possession is nine-tenths of the law.
Judging from my email inbox, many of you are realizing EXACTLY what that old adage means right about now. Many of you have requested to liquidate your 401k accounts, and your employers won’t let you do it. I had no problem doing it because I am self-employed and thus I was my own “plan administrator”.
So, this nasty business brings us around to a very nasty, but inevitable question. Was that money ever yours, or has the entire 401k fiasco been nothing more than an underhanded, stealth confiscatory tax for the vast majority of folks who have participated in it over the years? I’d have to say, “affirmative” to the latter. If you are denied access to “your money”, then honey, it ain’t “your money” and never was. Many of you have been conned into working for a salary that was x percent less than what you were told, with “x” being the percent “contributed” to “your” 401k account. That "x percent" should be added to your marginal tax rate, because it is probably going to end up in the coffers of the United States Treasury by way of J.P. Morgan, Goldman Sachs, or HSBC, or one of the other big crypto-fascist banks, by way of London, just like the MF Global money.
If you're wondering to yourself who EXACTLY is going to "bail out Europe", or at least make a pathetic attempt at the mathematically impossible so that your friendly neighborhood American oligarchs have enough time to get themselves pre-positioned for the collapse, YOU ARE, MY LITTLE CHICKADEES.
If you are one of the many, many people, or as TPTB call you, "bourgeois, bitterly clinging trash", stuck in this con, the only things you can do are:
A.) CEASE ALL NEW CONTRIBUTIONS IMMEDIATELY.
B.) If there is a loan option attached to your 401k program, take out the maximum possible loan and set up the SLOWEST possible repayment schedule.
C.) Never again enter into an arrangement wherein “your money” is unavailable to you and is anything less than completely liquid.
Possession truly is nine-tenths of the law, and under a lawless Marxist-Communist-Fascist government where the rule of law no longer exists (such as we are in now), possession is closer to ten-tenths of the law.
How to Get Expelled From School
Moonbattery
Verbatim Post
Verbatim Post
Envirocommies target children with their cuddly polar bears and Captain Planet propaganda; finally countermoonbats are fighting back:
Former Prime Minister John Howard has launched a controversial book teaching students to be climate change sceptics.
Climate change sceptic Ian Plimer’s book “How to Get Expelled from School: A Guide to Climate Change for Pupils, Parents and Punters” arms children with 101 questions to challenge their teachers.
It has been billed as an “anti-warmist manual for the younger reader”.
Mr Howard attacked the one-sided teaching of climate change in schools.
“People ought to be worried about what their children are being taught at school,” he said.
“It’s a matter of real concern”.
Prof Plimer said said he had a lot of parents write to him about this topic.
“They were saying that their kids are being fed environmental activism at school, rather than the basics of science, which gives them the ability to analyse activist arguments,” he said.
The 250-page book includes a list of questions intended to embarrass poorly prepared teachers.
Questions include: “Is climate change normal?” and “In the last 100 years, has there been global warming and global cooling?”
By asking relevant questions instead of wallowing in make-believe, Plimer’s primer should avoid the fate of Al Gore’s infamous A Convenient Untruth, which cannot be fed to children by public schools in Britain without a disclaimer acknowledging that it consists of lies.
Fearfully, the US Treasury's Secret, 75-Year-Old Fund and Its Dark History Has Been Exposed? ...
After months of work, the video series on the Treasury's Exchange Stabilization Fund is finally finished! Why you should watch these five videos: It is impossible to understand the world today without knowing what the ESF is and what it has been doing. Officially in charge of defending the dollar, the ESF is the government agency which controls the New York Fed, runs the CIA's black budget, and is the architect of the world's monetary system (IMF, World Bank, etc). ESF financing (through the OSS and then the CIA) built up the worldwide propaganda network which has so badly distorted history today (including erasing awareness of its existence from popular consciousness). It has been directly involved in virtually every major US fraud/scandal since its creation in 1934: the London gold pool, the Kennedy assassinations, Iran-Contra, CIA drug trafficking, HIV, and worse ... " – Market Skeptics
Dominant Social Theme: The US Government has taken over the world and the ESF has been its weapon of choice.
Free-Market Analysis: We're not sure who Eric deCarbonnel is, but he has posted five YouTube videos that contain extraordinary allegations about the US Government's Exchange Stabilization Fund. In aggregate, the series is called, "What I have been afraid to blog about: THE ESF AND ITS HISTORY."
We were made aware of the series just last night by a considerate feedbacker who was puzzled by them. We used Google to find out about Mr. deCarbonnel, whose ESF thesis has been covered by GATA, where he contributes. He also contributes to some other alternative media websites and has received coverage there and elsewhere.
The videos don't seem to have made a wide stir as of yet (not that we could tell, anyhow). But they are certainly interesting. Having listened to all five presentations, we will try to provide an analysis of what we might call "holistic" journalism, where someone tries to put a lot of different facts together to create a scenario not previously well known.
You might call him a practitioner of conspiratorial or directed history. Perhaps that's why we're drawn to it. Many of the problems of the modern world can be traced to the ESF, according to Mr. deCarbonnel. He proceeds to make the case for his argument in over an hour of insights and detail.
Icky History Curricula
My daughter attends the honors college at ASU. I was predictably thrilled, when she informed me of her intention to enroll in HST 109, for the spring semester. HST 109, is entitled The United States to 1865. The description: “Growth of the Republic from colonial times through the Civil War period.” Eons ago, I believe I took this course, or perhaps the one after it. Anyway, I was pretty excited that she’d be taking a course we could talk about. I mean, maybe she’d even get some interesting text books and things to review for WWTFT. My imagination went wild with the possibilities.
And then, my wife interjected with a cold dose of reality. She began looking at the reading list for the course. Remember, this is a 100-level course, designed to fulfill a “historical awareness” credit. A semester is a pretty short period of time in which to cover a couple hundred years of history, after all.
Here is the list of books stipulated to cover this time period:
Dark Arts for Good Guys: The Right to Knife
Via GunRights4US
To what extent are you willing...and capable of saving your life? If no gun were available could you ...would you...are readily capable of doing so with a knife.
Would you slit an attacker's throat?
Could you use a knife to filet three inches of forearm off of a rapist, a serial killer?
Can you descend to that primal place of fight at bad breath distance and prevail? In a very real world people are attacked inside of elevators and the ability to escape may not occur until the word “Lobby” is back-lit. Mothers are forced to the floor boards of vehicles and raped in front of the children, adventure seeking teenagers are found beaten and tortured to death with their heads found in creek beds. Grown men are jumped and beaten by teenagers on subway platforms left mangled and crippled for life.
And this happens every-single-day.
The Rebel General Jackson
One of our greatest American generals and most comparable to Napoleon was Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson. Driven by an intense energy to defeat the enemies of their country, Jackson and his barefoot men were defending their farms, homes and families -- and fighting invading armies motivated by loot and conquest.
Bernhard Thuersam, Chairman
North Carolina War Between the States Sesquicentennial Commission
www.ncwbts150.com
"The Official Website of the North Carolina WBTS Sesquicentennial"
“The Rebel General Jackson”:
“AS a soldier [Stonewall] Jackson was famous for the rapidity of his movements. In the spring of 1862, when [Northern] General Banks, supposing that he was far from the [Shenandoah] Valley, sent a column of his army to attack the flank of General [Joseph E.] Johnston, then falling back from Manassas, and started himself to report to Washington -- Jackson suddenly wheeled, marched twenty-six miles the first day, and eighteen by ten o’clock the next morning, and struck at Kernstown a blow which brought back the column moving on Johnston’s flank and disconcerted McClellan’s whole plan of campaign.
A few weeks later, just as Banks had telegraphed Washington that the “rebel General Jackson was in full retreat on Gordonsville,” he appeared at McDowell, defeated Fremont’s advance under Milroy, joined [General Richard] Ewell at New Market, captured Front Royal, marched all night, and captured Winchester early next morning, and drove the remnants of Banks army across the Potomac before the Northern people were aware he was north of Staunton.
Learning that [Northern commanders] Shields and Fremont were endeavoring to form a junction in his rear, he marched his already broken-down troops thirty miles a day till he passed the point of danger, and then moved quietly up the Valley until at Cross Keys and Port Republic he suffered himself to be “caught,” and defeated in detail the two armies sent to “crush” him.
One of his biographers well puts it: “In thirty-two days he had marched nearly four hundred miles, skirmishing almost daily, fought five battles, defeated three armies, two of which were completely routed, captured about twenty pieces of artillery, some four thousand prisoners, and immense quantities of stores of all kinds, and had done all this with a loss of less than one thousand men, killed, wounded and missing.”
In his celebrated march to the rear of the braggart [General] Pope (who “knew no lines of retreat”) he made sixty miles in two days, and on various other occasions he made as good time. His mean rejoiced in the sobriquet of “Jackson’s foot cavalry,” and it was a glorious sight to witness the cheerful alacrity with which they responded to every call of their chief.”
(Stonewall Jackson, A Military Biography, John Esten Cooke, D. Appleton & Company, 1876, page 490)
The Rebel General Jackson
Bernhard Thuersam, Chairman
North Carolina War Between the States Sesquicentennial Commission
www.ncwbts150.com
"The Official Website of the North Carolina WBTS Sesquicentennial"
“The Rebel General Jackson”:
“AS a soldier [Stonewall] Jackson was famous for the rapidity of his movements. In the spring of 1862, when [Northern] General Banks, supposing that he was far from the [Shenandoah] Valley, sent a column of his army to attack the flank of General [Joseph E.] Johnston, then falling back from Manassas, and started himself to report to Washington -- Jackson suddenly wheeled, marched twenty-six miles the first day, and eighteen by ten o’clock the next morning, and struck at Kernstown a blow which brought back the column moving on Johnston’s flank and disconcerted McClellan’s whole plan of campaign.
A few weeks later, just as Banks had telegraphed Washington that the “rebel General Jackson was in full retreat on Gordonsville,” he appeared at McDowell, defeated Fremont’s advance under Milroy, joined [General Richard] Ewell at New Market, captured Front Royal, marched all night, and captured Winchester early next morning, and drove the remnants of Banks army across the Potomac before the Northern people were aware he was north of Staunton.
Learning that [Northern commanders] Shields and Fremont were endeavoring to form a junction in his rear, he marched his already broken-down troops thirty miles a day till he passed the point of danger, and then moved quietly up the Valley until at Cross Keys and Port Republic he suffered himself to be “caught,” and defeated in detail the two armies sent to “crush” him.
One of his biographers well puts it: “In thirty-two days he had marched nearly four hundred miles, skirmishing almost daily, fought five battles, defeated three armies, two of which were completely routed, captured about twenty pieces of artillery, some four thousand prisoners, and immense quantities of stores of all kinds, and had done all this with a loss of less than one thousand men, killed, wounded and missing.”
In his celebrated march to the rear of the braggart [General] Pope (who “knew no lines of retreat”) he made sixty miles in two days, and on various other occasions he made as good time. His mean rejoiced in the sobriquet of “Jackson’s foot cavalry,” and it was a glorious sight to witness the cheerful alacrity with which they responded to every call of their chief.”
(Stonewall Jackson, A Military Biography, John Esten Cooke, D. Appleton & Company, 1876, page 490)
The Rebel General Jackson
Patriot's Dilemma
Via Billy
Jack Bull Chiles: [scoffs] No, I reckon not Mr. Evans. I don't believe I'd be too welcome in Lawrence.
Mr. Evans: I didn't think so. Before this war began, my business took me there often. As I saw those northerners build that town, I witnessed the seeds of our destruction being sown.
Jack Bull Chiles: The foundin' of that town was truly the beginnin' of the Yankee invasion.
Mr. Evans: I'm not speakin' of numbers, nor even abolitionist trouble makin'. It was the schoolhouse. Before they built their church, even, they built that schoolhouse. And they let in every tailor's son... and every farmer's daughter in that country.
Jack Bull Chiles: Spellin' won't help you hold a plow any firmer. Or a gun either.
Mr. Evans: No, it won't Mr. Chiles. But my point is merely that they rounded every pup up into that schoolhouse because they fancied that everyone should think and talk the same free-thinkin' way they do with no regard to station, custom, propriety. And that is why they will win. Because they believe everyone should live and think just like them. And we shall lose because we don't care one way or another how they live. We just worry about ourselves.
Jack Bull Chiles: Are you sayin', sir, that we fight for nothin'?
Since the execution of Lincoln, a well orchestrated campaign to successfully teach "bad" or inaccurate history has been the agenda of the government controlled public school system. All these generations have been taught, in essence, that "white is black" and they in turn perpetuate the same myths and propaganda they were taught.
Here is a perfect example - the most important dialogue (my opinion) from the movie "Ride with the Devil" that best explains our current situation.
Mr. Evans: You ever been to Lawrence KS young man?
Here is a perfect example - the most important dialogue (my opinion) from the movie "Ride with the Devil" that best explains our current situation.
Mr. Evans: You ever been to Lawrence KS young man?
Jack Bull Chiles: [scoffs] No, I reckon not Mr. Evans. I don't believe I'd be too welcome in Lawrence.
Mr. Evans: I didn't think so. Before this war began, my business took me there often. As I saw those northerners build that town, I witnessed the seeds of our destruction being sown.
Jack Bull Chiles: The foundin' of that town was truly the beginnin' of the Yankee invasion.
Mr. Evans: I'm not speakin' of numbers, nor even abolitionist trouble makin'. It was the schoolhouse. Before they built their church, even, they built that schoolhouse. And they let in every tailor's son... and every farmer's daughter in that country.
Jack Bull Chiles: Spellin' won't help you hold a plow any firmer. Or a gun either.
Mr. Evans: No, it won't Mr. Chiles. But my point is merely that they rounded every pup up into that schoolhouse because they fancied that everyone should think and talk the same free-thinkin' way they do with no regard to station, custom, propriety. And that is why they will win. Because they believe everyone should live and think just like them. And we shall lose because we don't care one way or another how they live. We just worry about ourselves.
Jack Bull Chiles: Are you sayin', sir, that we fight for nothin'?
Mr. Evans: Far from it, Mr. Chiles. You fight for everything that we ever had, as did my son. It's just that... we don't have it anymore.
Philippines: Mindanao: American Teen, 14, Escapes Captors, Wanders Barefoot in Jungle
A 14-year-old American teen, abducted in Mindanao five months ago by a terrorist group close to Abu Sayyaf, was able to escape from his captives. After two days wandering in the jungle without shoes, hungry and in shock, Kevin Lunsmann was found by residents of a village in Basilan province. After giving him something to eat, they handed him to Filipino authorities who flew him to Manila where he was turned over to US officials.
According to police, the youth was able to escape after he told his captors that he would take a bath in a stream. From there, he made a dash for freedom and followed a river down a mountain for two days.
According to police, the youth was able to escape after he told his captors that he would take a bath in a stream. From there, he made a dash for freedom and followed a river down a mountain for two days.