 |
REAL TIME SPOT PRICES
Bitcoin Average: $95036.1
Gold: $3239.6 Change: $0.3
Silver: $31.96 Change: $(0.43)
|
|
|
ARCHIVED NEWSLETTER |
|
Sign up
to receive the Freedom's Phoenix Headlines by Email. |
|
HELP FUND FREEDOM'S PHOENIX!
Make a one-time or periodic contribution.
Use your credit card or PayPal account. |
|
Join us on our
Social Networks |
Share this page with your friends
on your favorite social network:
|
 |
|
|
|
Date Sent: 2009-09-01
Freedom's Phoenix Global Edition for Tuesday, September 1, 2009 PM edition |
Pentagon worried about Obama's commitment to Afghanistan -- Record U.S. deaths in Afghanistan
Health-Care Anger Has Deeper Roots -- Schools Ban Touching To Fight H1N1 -- Tax junk food, drinks to fight child obesity -- Table tennis star finally old enough to be allowed a girlfriend at 25 -- Federal Reserve to Appeal Disclosure Ruling -- Investors flee financial stocks; AIG slips 20% -- VA won't pay benefits to Marine whose injuries came from vaccine -- ACORN quick to collect from feds, but slow to pay taxes -- Mexico and Argentina move towards decriminalizing drugs -- A New Model for the World Economy - by Bill Bonner -- Dollar Is Funny Money in Push for World Currency: Kevin Hassett
|
News Link • WAR: About that War
Pentagon worried about Obama's commitment to Afghanistan
09-01-2009
•
McClatchy News
The prospect that U.S. Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal may ask for as
many as 45,000 additional American troops in Afghanistan is fueling
growing tension within President Barack Obama's administration over the
U.S. commitment to the war there.
On Monday, McChrystal
sent his assessment of the situation in Afghanistan to the Pentagon,
the U.S. Central Command, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and NATO. Although
the assessment didn't include any request for more troops, senior
military officials said they expect McChrystal later in September to
seek between 21,000 and 45,000 more troops. There currently are 62,000
American troops in Afghanistan.
Read Full Story
Make a Comment
•
Email this News Link
•
Send Letter to Editor
|
|
Reported by:
Powell Gammill
|
News Link • WAR: About that War
U.S. deaths in Afghanistan headed for another record
09-01-2009
•
McClatchy News
With the deaths of 4 U.S. soldiers Tuesday, the U.S.-led NATO
coalition in Afghanistan now has lost more troops this year than in all
of 2008, and August is on track to be the deadliest month for American
troops there since U.S. operations began 8 years ago.
Just as Army Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the U.S.
commander in Afghanistan, is considering asking for more U.S. troops
even as opinion polls show that a majority of Americans think the war
in Afghanistan isn't worth the cost.
Read Full Story
Make a Comment
•
Email this News Link
•
Send Letter to Editor
|
|
Reported by:
Powell Gammill
|
News Link • Healthcare
Health-Care Anger Has Deeper Roots
09-01-2009
•
Wall Street Journal
"A lot of the anxiety we face here has less to do with health care
and everything to do with the overall state of the economy and
government," said Rep. Anthony Weiner, a New York Democrat.
"I have seen a level of dissatisfaction and even anger that I
haven't experienced in the years that I've been a member of Congress,"
Sen. John McCain, an Arizona Republican, told an audience at a
health-care meeting in Kansas City on Monday.
Read Full Story
Make a Comment
•
Email this News Link
•
Send Letter to Editor
|
|
Reported by:
Powell Gammill
|
News Link • Education: Government Schools
Schools Ban Touching To Fight H1N1
09-01-2009
•
CBS News
Chest bumps. High fives. Hugs and handshakes. Glen Cove Middle School
students Ali Slaughter and Hannah Seltzer say that's what friends do on
the first day of school. But when students in the Nassau community
return to school next week, the superintendent will be urging
abstinence. Everyone from the tiniest tots to the biggest high school
football players will be asked to limit skin-on-skin contact in an
attempt to prevent the spread of swine flu when it re-emerges this
fall.
Read Full Story
Make a Comment
•
Email this News Link
•
Send Letter to Editor
|
|
Reported by:
Powell Gammill
|
News Link • Healthcare
"Nazi vs Communism"
Education 101 for Mental Republican's
09-01-09
•
The System Has NO SOUL
It finally has come down to bringing in a mental to explain to the other "mental Republicans and nay sayers" who are against Obama's healthcare.Explaining "dead enders school yard antics and name calling" has no merit on the intellectual side of things,highly recommended for the un-educated of what really is accurate.
Read Full Story
Make a Comment
•
Email this News Link
•
Send Letter to Editor
|
|
Reported by:
Max Woody Media-ocre Mogul
|
News Link • Internet
Azerbaijani bloggers facing jail after donkey video
09-01-2009
•
AFP
Two Azerbaijani bloggers face up to 5 years jail for posting a video
of a donkey giving a press conference, the latest crackdown on the
vibrant Internet of the ex-Soviet Union.
Adnan Hajizade, 26, and Emin Milli, 29, posted the satirical video on
www.YouTube this summer, in a send-up of the Azerbaijan government and
media.
Surrounded by gravely nodding journalists, the donkey (one of the
bloggers in an oversized grey suit) extols the virtues of life in Azerbaijan and praises the government for its fair treatment of the four-legged beasts.
Read Full Story
Make a Comment
•
Email this News Link
•
Send Letter to Editor
|
|
Reported by:
Powell Gammill
|
News Link • TAXES: Federal
Tax junk food, drinks to fight child obesity-report
09-01-2009
•
Reuters
A strongly worded report on child obesity released recommends state and local governments tax junk food and soft
drinks, give tax breaks to grocery stores that open in blighted
neighborhoods and build bike trails.
Also
suggests that governments limit television and video games in
after-school programs, require restaurants to list calorie counts on
their menus and open school playgrounds and athletic fields to
communities.
Read Full Story
Make a Comment
•
Email this News Link
•
Send Letter to Editor
|
|
Reported by:
Powell Gammill
|
News Link • China
Table tennis star finally old enough to be allowed a girlfriend at 25
09-01-2009
•
Reuters
[who owns you?] China's 25-year-old world number one Wang Hao has finally been
deemed old enough to have a girlfriend by Chinese table tennis
officials.
The men's singles world champion fell foul of the administration's
rules on romantic liaisons 5 years ago when he started going out
with fellow national team player Fan Ying.
Read Full Story
Make a Comment
•
Email this News Link
•
Send Letter to Editor
|
|
Reported by:
Powell Gammill
|
News Link • Federal Reserve
Federal Reserve to Appeal Disclosure Ruling
09-01-2009
•
Economic Policy Journal
The Federal Reserve argued yesterday that identifying the financial institutions that benefited from its emergency loans would harm the companies and render the central bank’s planned appeal of a court ruling moot, according to Bloomberg.
The Fed’s board of governors asked Manhattan Chief U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska to delay enforcement of her Aug. 24 decision that the identities of borrowers in 11 lending programs must be made public by Aug. 31. The central bank wants Preska to stay her order until the U.S. Court of Appeals in New York can hear the case.
Plus, it might take them a long time to find the records anyway:
Fed lawyer Kit Wheatley told Preska in a conference call today that she did not know how long it would take for the Fed board to search the New York Fed for records.
“We really don’t know what’s in New York,” Wheatley said. “We don’t control the system of record-keeping in New York.
Oh yeah, I can see the problem. Billions to banks, why that must be m
Read Full Story
Make a Comment
•
Email this News Link
•
Send Letter to Editor
|
|
Reported by:
|
News Link • Obama Administration
EXCLUSIVE: Obama's lobbyist curbs are political, watchdog told
Just an empty Obama pledge, ex
09-01-2009
•
Washington Times
A former Treasury official has told the watchdog for the $700 billion Wall Street bailout program that President Obama's promise to restrict lobbyist access to the bailout was made purely for political reasons.
Months after the administration's pledge, the lobbyist rules haven't been implemented and Neel Kashkari, the one-time czar of the agency's Troubled Asset Relief Program, told the office of the special inspector general for TARP that the pledge to craft safeguards against lobbyist influence was a defensive move.
"Mr. Kashkari believed that this statement was purely for political reasons with Obama's new entering administration, and that there was no substantive reason for this announcement," the office wrote in a document obtained by The Washington Times in which the inspector general recounted Mr. Kashkari's April 30 interview with the auditors.
"He noted that, at that time, there had been headlines in the press regarding lobbyists
Read Full Story
Make a Comment
•
Email this News Link
•
Send Letter to Editor
|
|
Reported by:
|
News Link • Economy - Economics USA
Investors flee financial stocks; AIG slips 20%
09-01-2009
•
Market Watch
Keep in mind WE own AIG because of the bailouts so now this signals what that investors are even worried hmmm. The story
BOSTON (MarketWatch) -- The U.S. financial sector was sharply lower on the first day of September as investors nervous about the summer run-up and the new month's bearish reputation fueled the selling momentum.
Shares of bailed-out insurance giant American International Group Inc. (AIG 37.52, -7.81, -17.23%) took a major hit for the second straight session after their recent surge.
AIG more than tripled in August as traders bid up other so-called high-beta financial stocks such as Citigroup Inc. (C 4.66, -0.34, -6.84%) , Bank of America Corp. (BAC 16.87, -0.72, -4.09%) , Fannie Mae (FNM 1.69, -0.24, -12.47%) and Freddie Mac (FRE 2.01, -0.28, -12.23%) .
Markets are concerned about a potential pullback in highflying bank stocks in September after the summer rally. An exchange-traded fund tracking the financial stocks in the S&P 500 Index (SPX 1,002
Read Full Story
Make a Comment
•
Email this News Link
•
Send Letter to Editor
|
|
Reported by:
|
News Link • Healthcare
VA won't pay benefits to Marine whose injuries came from vaccine
09-01-2009
•
McClatchy News
[wanna bet?] It wasn't a bullet or roadside bomb that felled Lance Cpl. Josef Lopez 3 years ago after 9 days in Iraq.
It was an injection into his arm before his unit left the states.
The
then 20-year-old Marine from Springfield, Mo., suffered a rare adverse
reaction to the smallpox vaccine. While the vaccine isn't mandatory,
the military strongly encourages troops to take it.
Read Full Story
Make a Comment
•
Email this News Link
•
Send Letter to Editor
|
|
Reported by:
Powell Gammill
|
News Link • Economy - Economics USA
The Tsunami Is Curling Over: CRE
09-01-2009
•
The Market Ticker
The Journal calls this "relaxed accounting standards." That's a polite way of saying that the government has made legal accounting fraud and willful disregard of the impairments that are embedded in these loans - impairments that with any proper regulatory system would have been forced to be recognized as they occurred.
Still, most of the $6.7 trillion in commercial real estate is privately owned. Also, it is unlikely commercial real estate will benefit much from an early stage of an economic recovery. What landlords need is occupancy and rents to rise, and that means employers have to start hiring and consumers need to shop more. So far, there are few signs this is happening.
Got it? $7 trillion of exposure that had its "value" set during the era of fraudulent lending and accounting, where rents and occupancies rise to the sky, growing literally all the way to the sun. Such magical thinking - the belief that compound (exponential) earnings growth can b
Read Full Story
Make a Comment
•
Email this News Link
•
Send Letter to Editor
|
|
Reported by:
|
News Link • TAXES: Federal
ACORN quick to collect from feds, but slow to pay taxes
09-01-2009
•
The Examiner
The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) is perhaps best known for its volunteers' habit of signing up fake voters. This has resulted in numerous state investigations and convictions of ACORN members for voter fraud activities.
But the group is also a tax scofflaw to the tune of more than $1 million, according to documents unearthed by another Louisiana-based non-profit, the Pelican Institute.
Pelican researcher Steve Beatty has come across dozens of outstanding and released tax liens against ACORN and ACORN affiliates, headquartered at two addresses in New Orleans. Although some of the liens have been paid, Beatty found that several are still outstanding, including a $547,000 lien by the federal government against ACORN itself.
ACORN, a non-profit, must pay federal Social Security and Medicare taxes for its employees, as well as state unemployment taxes.
Even as it keeps Uncle Sam waiting for tax payments, ACORN's cup runneth over with f
Read Full Story
Make a Comment
•
Email this News Link
•
Send Letter to Editor
|
|
Reported by:
|
News Link • Drug War
Mexico and Argentina move towards decriminalising drugs
In a backlash against the US 'war on dr
09-01-2009
•
Current/Guardian
Argentina and Mexico have taken significant steps towards decriminalising drugs amid a growing Latin American backlash against the US-sponsored "war on drugs".
Argentina's supreme court has ruled it unconstitutional to punish people for using marijuana for personal consumption, an eagerly awaited judgment that gave the government the green light to push for further liberalisation.
It followed Mexico's decision to stop prosecuting people for possession of relatively small quantities of marijuana, cocaine, heroin and other drugs. Instead, they will be referred to clinics and treated as patients, not criminals.
Brazil and Ecuador are also considering partial decriminalisation as part of a regional swing away from a decades-old policy of crackdowns still favoured by Washington.
"The tide is clearly turning. The 'war on drugs' strategy has failed," Fernando Henrique Cardoso, a former Brazilian president, told the Guardian. Earlier this year, h
Read Full Story
Make a Comment
•
Email this News Link
•
Send Letter to Editor
|
|
Reported by:
|
Feature Article • Economy - Economics USA
A New Model for the World Economy
Bill Bonner
Summer is over. It’s back to work…12 hours a day…just like we’ve worked for the past 39 years. When we were in college we had no money. In the summer we had to
work two jobs to try to save enough cash to continue. One summer, we
worked in a boatyard in Annapolis early in the morning…then, we did an
evening shift painting television towers. Painting the towers was such
dangerous work our poor mother begged us to quit. But the money was
good �" $5.25 an hour �" so we had to keep at it. More about that in a
minute…
Make a Comment
•
Email this
Article
•
Send Letter to Editor
|
News Link • Men trying to be our God
Constitutional Rights or Dead Women & Children?
09/01/2009
•
CameraFRAUD
That seems to be the question photo radar peddler Redflex is asking while conducting questionable push-polling in Louisiana:
"...the question as asked: “Some people say the state Legislature should outlaw the use of traffic cameras because they are a violation of a person’s constitutional right. Other people say that we need to allow the use of traffic cameras because women and children are being killed by people who speed and run red lights and the use of cameras will save lives. Which do you agree with more?”
One might question the lack of concern in that question for the lives of men, but the words “women and children” seem to roll off the tongue nicely when laying out the dire consequences of traffic scofflaws. [...]"
Read Full Story
Make a Comment
•
Email this News Link
•
Send Letter to Editor
|
|
Reported by:
Camera FRAUD
|
News Link • New World Order
Dollar Is Funny Money in Push for World Currency: Kevin Hassett
08-31-2009
•
Bloomberg
Like the Chinese, the folks at Disney World peg their currency to the dollar. Hand them $1 U.S. and you receive one Disney dollar, complete with a picture of Mickey Mouse or his friends, plus the signature of Disney’s official treasurer, Scrooge McDuck.
That transaction now seems superfluous. The U.S. dollar is rapidly transforming into a Mickey Mouse currency. This has led to a rising call for the creation of an alternative to the dollar in the form of a new world currency. It would be an enormous mistake to discount these calls as a sideshow. The odds of a world currency emerging have never been higher.
The calls are coming from many corners. Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz chaired a United Nations panel that recommended the creation of a global reserve currency. Zhou Xiaochuan, governor of the People’s Bank of China, proposed that the International Monetary Fund take over the global leadership role traditionally ceded to the U.S. And Russian President Dmitry Medv
Read Full Story
Make a Comment
•
Email this News Link
•
Send Letter to Editor
|
|
Reported by:
|
Feature Article • Federal Reserve
The Fed's Interesting Week - by Ron Paul
Powell Gammill
Bernanke seems to be popular with the
administration and with Wall Street, and with good reason. His lending
policies have left big banks flush with newly created cash that covers
up old mistakes and allows for new ones. By
buying up mountains of Treasury debt he has also enabled spending to
soar to ridiculous levels that should startle any responsible
economist, and scare any American concerned about the value of the
dollar. However, these highly sensitive decisions about our money are
not made by economists, they are made by politicians. Bernanke, like
most of his predecessors, is the politician’s best friend.
Make a Comment
•
Email this
Article
•
Send Letter to Editor
|
News Link • Philosophy of Liberty
Soulful Freedom "Re-discovered" 40 years of taking Time to become Timeless.
08-31-09
•
MediaOcre Media Moguls
A you-nique approach to dis-engage from the "System Kaos" to cleanse the soul. Ageless is timeless, it's only aquired thru time. It takes time to become timeless"....these are the words that I channeled thru an interview with Lilly "G"
Read Full Story
Make a Comment
•
Email this News Link
•
Send Letter to Editor
|
|
Reported by:
Max Woody Media-ocre Mogul
|
News Link • Corruption
Ex-Countrywide Execs’ Firm Modifies Bad Loans for Taxpayer Cash
08-31-2009
•
ProPublica
Sweet Friends of Angelo gave dirty dodd, townend and bo special loans look how it is paying off!
The company, whose top management consists mostly of former Countrywide executives, now stands to receive up to $6.2 million in taxpayer money to modify those loans, through the Making Home Affordable program. The government’s incentive payments go primarily to the participating servicer, but some of the money could also go to borrowers and investors.
But PennyMac may have a hard time leaving behind its ties to the scandal-ridden Countrywide. PennyMac’s founder and CEO, Stanford Kurland, is facing a civil suit (PDF) brought by the New York state comptroller and New York City pension funds, blaming him for helping push Countrywide into risky lending practices and lax underwriting standards as president. Kurland admitted to the Times that he had advocated a foray into higher-risk lending but said that the riskiest practices occurred after he left the company, in September 2006. Kurland
Read Full Story
Make a Comment
•
Email this News Link
•
Send Letter to Editor
|
|
Reported by:
|
News Link • Energy
As hybrid cars gobble rare metals, shortage looms
08-31-2009
•
www.reuters.com
Worldwide demand for rare earths, covering 15 entries on the periodic table of elements, is expected to exceed supply by some 40,000 tonnes annually in several years unless major new production sources are developed. One promising U.S. source is a rare earths mine slated to reopen in California by 2012.
Read Full Story
Make a Comment
•
Email this News Link
•
Send Letter to Editor
|
|
Reported by:
Chip Saunders
|
| Tags: freedoms, phoenix, archives, politics, libertarian, alternative, government, freedom |
|
|
News Link • 
News Link • 
News Link • 
News Link • 
Opinion • 
