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The solar wind doubled in speed over the last two days. It is now up to about 52o km/sec, delivering a geomagnetic storm to the planet; the strongest since 2004. Sunspot AR1429 has unleashed another strong flare, an M6-class eruption on March 9th at 0358 UT. The blast hurled a coronal mass ejection almost directly toward Earth. According to analysts at the Goddard Space Weather Lab, the CME will arrive on March 11 th …today. M-class flares are a wavelength that can cause highly charged particles to be absorbed by metal such as wire. The same eruption that hurled the CME toward Earth also produced a monsterous tsunami of plasma on the sun. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded the shadowy but powerful wave rippling away from the blast site. The tsumani was about 100,000 km high and raced outward at 250 km/s with a total energy of about 2 teratons of TNT. Such waves often underlie CMEs like the one en route to Earth now. At first, the widely -reported CME impact of March 8th produced little in the way of Earth effects. Eventually, however, a geomagnetic storm did develop as Earth passed through the wake of the CME. Mild to strong geomagnetic storms are underway around the Arctic Circle. Solar storm headed toward Earth may disrupt power By SETH BORENSTEIN | Associated Press – 2 hrs 15 mins ago WASHINGTON (AP) — The largest solar storm in five years is racing toward Earth, threatening to unleash a torrent of charged particles that could disrupt power grids, GPS and airplane flights. The sun erupted Tuesday evening, and the effects should start smacking Earth between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m. EST Thursday (0600 GMT and 1000 GMT), according to forecasters at the U.S. government's Space Weather Prediction Center. They say the storm, which started with a massive solar flare, is growing as it speeds outward from the sun. "It's hitting us right in the nose," said Joe Kunches, a scientist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. He called it the sun's version of "Super Tuesday." Scientists say the sun has been relatively quiet for some time. And this storm, while strong, may seem fiercer because Earth has been lulled by several years of weak solar activity. "This is a good-size event, but not the extreme type," said Bill Murtagh, program coordinator for the space weather center. The solar storm is likely to last through Friday morning, but the region that erupted can still send more blasts our way, Kunches said. He said another set of active sunspots is ready to aim at Earth right after this.

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Page 1: €¦  · Web view11/3/2012  · NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded the shadowy but powerful wave rippling away from the blast site. The tsumani was about 100,000 km high

The solar wind doubled in speed over the last two days. It is now up to about 52o km/sec, delivering a geomagnetic storm to the planet; the strongest since 2004. Sunspot AR1429 has unleashed another strong flare, an M6-class eruption on March 9th at 0358 UT. The blast hurled a coronal mass ejection almost directly toward Earth. According to analysts at the Goddard Space Weather Lab, the CME will arrive on March 11th…today. M-class flares are a wavelength that can cause highly charged particles to be absorbed by metal such as wire. The same eruption that hurled the CME toward Earth also produced a monsterous tsunami of plasma on the sun. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded the shadowy but powerful wave rippling away from the blast site. The tsumani was about 100,000 km high and raced outward at 250 km/s with a total energy of about 2 teratons of TNT. Such waves often underlie CMEs like the one en route to Earth now. At first, the widely-reported CME impact of March 8th produced little in the way of Earth effects. Eventually, however, a geomagnetic storm did develop as Earth passed through the wake of the CME. Mild to strong geomagnetic storms are underway around the Arctic Circle.

Solar storm headed toward Earth may disrupt power

By SETH BORENSTEIN | Associated Press – 2 hrs 15 mins agoWASHINGTON (AP) — The largest solar storm in five years is racing toward Earth, threatening to unleash a torrent of charged particles that could disrupt power grids, GPS and airplane flights.The sun erupted Tuesday evening, and the effects should start smacking Earth between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m. EST Thursday (0600 GMT and 1000 GMT), according to forecasters at the U.S. government's Space Weather Prediction Center. They say the storm, which started with a massive solar flare, is growing as it speeds outward from the sun."It's hitting us right in the nose," said Joe Kunches, a scientist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. He called it the sun's version of "Super Tuesday."Scientists say the sun has been relatively quiet for some time. And this storm, while strong, may seem fiercer because Earth has been lulled by several years of weak solar activity."This is a good-size event, but not the extreme type," said Bill Murtagh, program coordinator for the space weather center.The solar storm is likely to last through Friday morning, but the region that erupted can still send more blasts our way, Kunches said. He said another set of active sunspots is ready to aim at Earth right after this.But for now, scientists are waiting to see what happens Thursday when the charged particles hit Earth at 4 million mph (6.4 million kph). That should have eben a solar wind speed of around 1,100 km/second, which would have been the highest I have ever seen by far.

The actual solar wind speed made it to around 585 km/sec which is strong, but not the strongest I have seen in the past four years. The magnetic part of the storm has the potential to trip electrical power grids. Kunches said utility companies around the world have been alerted. The timing and speed of the storm determines whether it knocks off power grids, he said.In 1989, a strong solar storm knocked out the power grid in Quebec, causing 6 million people to lose power.Solar storms can also make global positioning systems less accurate, which is mostly a problem for precision drilling and other technologies, Kunches said. There also could be GPS outages.The storm also can cause communication problems and added radiation around the north and south poles, which will probably force airlines to reroute flights. Some already have done so, Kunches said.Satellites could be affected, too. NASA spokesman Rob Navias said the space agency isn't taking any extra precautions to protect astronauts on the International Space Station from added radiation.

Boom-Era Property Speculators to Get Foreclosure AidBy Prashant Gopal - Mar 5, 2012 12:00 AM ETMon Mar 05 05:00:01 GMT 2012Q

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The Obama administration will extend mortgage assistance for the first time to investors who bought multiple homes before the market imploded, helping some speculators who drove up prices and inflated the housing bubble.

Landlords can qualify for up to four federally-subsidized loan workouts starting around May, as long as they rent out each house or have plans to fill them, under the revamped Home Affordable Modification Program, also known as HAMP, according to Timothy Massad, the Treasury’s assistant secretary for financial stability. For those of you who don’t know who this is, Timothy G. Massad was confirmed June 30, 2011 by the United States Senate to serve as the Department of the Treasury’s Assistant Secretary for Financial Stability. In this role, Massad is responsible for overseeing the implementation and wind down of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP).

Massad previously served as the Acting Assistant Secretary for Financial Stability. He joined Treasury in May 2009 as the Chief Counsel for the Office of Financial Stability (OFS). He also later became the Chief Reporting Officer for OFS.

Prior to joining Treasury, Massad was a partner with the law firm of Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP in New York. He had a diverse corporate practice, with an emphasis on corporate finance, international transactions and representation of some of the firm’s corporate clients. From 1998 to 2002, he was the co-manager of the firm’s Hong Kong office, where he was involved in transactions throughout Asia, including in particular India and China. He also worked in the firm’s London office. He is intimately involved with foreign finance, valuation, and collateralization.

The program pays banks to reduce monthly payments by cutting interest rates, stretching terms, and forgiving principal. At no time in history has the principal for home owners, private or otherwise, been forgiven by the banks, and it is not being forgiven here. Taxpayers are picking up the bill.

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Investors are central to the federal government’s strategy for reviving real estate with home prices down 34 percent since July 2006 and as foreclosures deplete the pool of buyers who can qualify for a mortgage. These investors are the most plentiful of the upper-middle class and make up the bulk of millionaires in America. These Investors are central to the federal government’s strategy for reviving real estate with home prices down 34 percent since July 2006 and as foreclosures deplete the pool of buyers who can qualify for a mortgage. They are also key to the administration’s reelection effort, and these individuals are heavy contributors to political campaigns and occupy most of the local government and bank board positions.

The government’s need to protect neighborhoods from blight and renters from eviction by keeping the current owners in place is outweighing concern that taxpayers will end up bailing out real-estate investors. The program is being enlarged after less than 1 million borrowers modified loans through HAMP, compared with the administration’s stated goal in 2009 of helping 3 million to 4 million homeowners. The regulations and guidelines were so complicated that virtually no one accessed the program. Less than 3% of banks even knew about the program.

“When we started the program we focused on owner-occupied houses because the need was so great and we wanted to target the efforts to that group,” said Massad. “Given where we are today, more and more people recognize that vacant properties are a problem no matter how they became vacant.”

Homeownership Rate

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Investors are central to the federal government’s strategy for reviving real estate with home prices down 34 percent since July 2006 and as foreclosures deplete the pool of buyers who can qualify for a mortgage. Does this sound like the American dream? Does it sound like the government forced banks into these deals, and the people bought more home than they could afford, and it is the taxpayer’s fault? People always buy more home than they can presently afford, and then they grow their earning power to accommodate the home they own. It has been the American way since the founding of the colonies.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke told homebuilders in Orlando, Florida last month that the U.S. economic recovery has been “frustratingly slow,” in part because weak housing markets are holding back consumer spending. This is utter and complete nonsense, and shows that Mr. Bernake has no clue how economics work. People are holding back their spending, because the agency-driven government is holding back their ability to earn a living. Hundreds of regulations per day are leaving small businesses behind in the learning curve. Do you know that single-location businesses are at an all time high and growing every day? This is not driven by innovation, my friends. It is driven by the American drive to provide for ourselves. These people cannot find a job, so they create a job; one for themselves. It’s not an investment per se, it is a job that earns enough to pay the bills and raise kids. There is no 40-hour week any more for these people. There is no family vacation. There is no new home being built by these people. There is only work and fear that the government will come in and take everything they have and then bail out the bank that repossessed it from them after the owner had built up the equity by making payments for years.

The proof is in the numbers, and there is no one to blame except the agency-driven government. The homeownership rate, which peaked at 69.2 percent in June 2004, fell to 66 percent in the fourth quarter of 2011, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. A new Fannie Mae program designed to reduce the overhang of foreclosed homes is encouraging potential buyers, including private-equity firms, to purchase properties in bulk and convert them to rentals. Almost one in four home purchases in January was made by an investor, according to the National Association of Realtors. And investment and vacation properties made up 21 percent of houses in the foreclosure process in January, according to Irvine, California-based RealtyTrac Inc.

‘Huge Change’ The Obama administration announced last month that it would triple incentives to owners of mortgages that reduce home-loan debt and expand eligibility to borrowers struggling under the weight of other liabilities, such as medical bills. The extension will apply to all loans, including those held by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored mortgage financiers. About 700,000 landlords will be eligible under the revisions to HAMP, which has been plagued by consumer complaints about lost paperwork, servicer delays and restrictive eligibility requirements. “This is a huge change,” said Dan Immergluck, a housing policy professor at Georgia Institute of Technology. “The excessive concern to make sure nobody who played any role in creating the problem gets any benefit has paralyzed the response.” And how did they determine who had a role in creating the problem? Who gets the blame? That’s right. The banks get the blame and they get the money. The Real Estate Broker’s Association gets the blame for over-appraising homes to get the loans bought from the banks, and they got the commissions without penalty. The government got the tax money and wrote the regulations forcing the sub-prime credit onto the market, and then incentivized the entire program by promising to bail out the banks when the loans predictably went under water when the appraisal inflation bubble burst. The sale of homes has not been driven by demand for 30 years. It has been driven by the difference between the appraised value and the loaned value. It’s called Loan-to-Value. When it is high, homes sell like mad, because the loan is collateralized. When the value is low, they do not qualify for loans without huge down payments.

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The danger of blight to communities from foreclosed, vacant properties is still pervasive six years into the slump. Empty houses push down a neighborhood’s property values, according to a 2009 report by the Center for Responsible Lending, which said foreclosures will affect 91.5 million nearby homes through 2012. That is not one home per person. There are an average of 3.2 people per home in America. That means there are nearly 300 million Americans who have been affected by a foreclosure. Either they have lost a home, or the value of their home has been diminished by a sale of a foreclosure near them. That will reduce property values by $20,300 for each household, according to the group, which seeks to protect homeownership and family wealth. Yeah, they can seek all they want, but there is a real value that is set not by the bricks and nails it took to build the home, but by the ever-inflating appraisal game played by the real estate brokers association. By the way, most Real Estate Brokers are also builders, officials in the American Homebuilder’s Association and they sit on the boards of banks all over America. Now do you see the picture? These are the very same high net worth individuals who buy politicians and elections.

Buy-And-Flip Investors The game is fueld only when comparable sales are registered at the courthouse. Each increase in sale price allows the appraised value to be inflated for the next home to sell. By widening the agency-driven government program, the plan will inevitably offer aid to buy-and-flip investors who pushed prices higher during the boom by taking out mortgages with little or no down payment. Speculators accelerated the crash because they were quick to default when prices fell, according to a September report from Andrew Haughwout, Donghoon Lee, Joseph Tracy, and Wilbert van der Klaauw of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Don’t be too quick to judge them. Speculators are not the right word here. Income-producing property owners are the right term. They owned more than one home or unit, and they rented it out. When unemployment goes up, people cannot pay their rent. When they cannot pay their rent, the owners cannot pay their mortgages. That’s how it happens. Property owners cannot print money to pay their mortgages, and if they had significant equity, the banks are lightning fast at snatching those properties and selling them.

At the peak of the boom in 2006, more than a third of home purchase loans were made to borrowers who already owned at least one house, according to the study. In California, Florida,Nevada, and Arizona, which had the most pronounced bubbles, investors accounted for 45 percent of the mortgages. These were not the bubbles, and they know it. There are more millionaires in American from real estate than any other form of business. It comes from the best collateral in history; single family dwellings. Not everyone can qualify for a home loan, so investors buy homes and feed the demand for rental homes. If it wasn’t for their entrepreneurial risk taking, America would be just like Europe. They would be living apartments.

While survivors of the property bust are now long-term investors, some of them may have started out as flippers, Haughwout said.

Taxpayer Dollars While speculators are “no one’s first priority for receiving taxpayer dollars,” providing assistance to a large class of multiple property owners and “blanket modifications offered regardless of occupancy” would be more efficient than restrictive programs, the Fed said in the September report. Chandrajit Bhattacharya, an analyst at Credit Suisse Group AG in New York, said that the HAMP changes will result in about 200,000 modifications for investors. While it won’t keep bondholders “up at night,” it will probably slow the process of liquidating foreclosed homes.

Bhattacharya said he doesn’t understand why the government should be subsidizing workouts for property investors who are in the business of making money on their purchases. Vacancies are unlikely to increase if the houses go into foreclosure and are purchased by owner-occupants or new investors who fill

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them with tenants, he said. I personally met a man who owned more than 760 apartments in Houston, Texas. They are only 35% occupied, and he is looking for federal relief so he won’t lose his investment.

‘Ridiculous’ Policy

John Burns, an Irvine, California-based real estate consultant, said it’s “ridiculous” for taxpayers to come to the aid of individuals who made bad bets. The bubble was not created by the person who ended up with the home. It was created by the appraiser who certified the value of the home. There is only so much wood and concrete in any home. A home built with $120,000 in wood, bricks, and paint simply cannot bear the value of $1 million like you will find in California or Boston or Franklin, Tennessee.

“What kind of precedent are you going to set?,” Burns said. “Are you going to refund people who lost money on the stock market too?” He is exactly right. Who in the agency can set a formula for the equity offset? I guarantee you this. Whatever the number, the smart investor and his consultants will get in first, figure out a way to cheat the system, and bankrupt the fund for everyone else without the slightest bit of remorse.

Government help to homeowners comes after President George W. Bush’s administration rescued banks with the Troubled Asset Relief Program in 2008, when the housing crash sparked the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. Wall Street benefited from Federal Reserve emergency programs to keep credit flowing, while Bush and President Barack Obama directed federal money to save companies including General Motors Co. (GM) and Chrysler Group LLC. The Obama administration then pursued a series of programs meant to reduce foreclosures. Keep in mind that the only loser in these home foreclosures was the taxpayer. The bank cannot ever lose a penny. They hold the deed to the property as collateral. The value of the home is the value of the asset. Any action that takes place to reduce the length of that mortgage earns the bank more yield, not less. The appraised value of the home may be low now, but real estate always comes back, even if it takes ten years because the appraisers must increase the value steadily in order for their industry to survive.

The bank is completely insulated against loss because it and it alone holds all the assets. Banks only lose money through investments securities and money market losses; exactly the way it was in 1928, when Hoover became president. The cover, earth explorers, is not for the home foreclosures. The cover of for the losses from cash trading and securities investments the bank makes with your money when the bank closes each evening. The bank earns no money on its own. It uses your money to trade in currencies, called the money market, and through the margin on securities. This is also called shorting. I’ll tell you more on this in a moment.

John Russell, 61, of Northville, Michigan, said he was never a speculator seeking to flip houses. He bought four rental properties in neighborhoods in the state more than 10 years ago and said he planned to keep them for decades more. Now the houses are worth far less than he owes, his rents have tumbled, and he has to spend about $20,000 a year to keep them operating. It was never part of the plan to absorb more than a 10% vacancy rate.

Chrysler Bankruptcy Russell, a retired Chrysler executive whose pension was cut during the automaker’s 2009 bankruptcy, said two houses are in foreclosure and he can’t afford to keep them without the federal government’s help. Banks have repeatedly rejected him for a modification because they aren’t primary residences, he said. Russell said he simply wants his mortgage bills to be brought in line with the rents. “I guess what you’re always asking yourself is the market going to come back?,” Russell said. “As an investor you want to think that someday the house will be worth more than it is today.”

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Moose Scheib, chief executive officer of LoanMod.com, a Dearborn, Michigan-based (MBASMI) firm that advises homeowners facing foreclosure, said many of the investors who hung on through housing bust are “mom and pop” property owners who bought real estate as a source of retirement income. Russell is one of his clients. “Our economy is in trouble, housing is in trouble, ”Scheib said. “Whether you’re fixing it on behalf of investors or homeowners, it benefits everybody to do that.”

Also, you need to know that Chrysler went to Obama and told him they were going bankrupt, and requested help in the restructuring process. Obama appointed Steven Rattner as the Car Czar.

Stand by. You have never heard this, and it will tell you what really went on with the Chrysler Bankruptcy.

Steven L. Rattner is a financier who led the Obama administration's efforts to restructure the auto industry. He stepped down from that post in July 2009 as he became embroiled in a scandal involving New York State's pension fund.In November 2010, Mr. Rattner agreed to pay $6.2 million in repayments and penalties to settle a suit brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission; the settlement also banned him from "associating with any investment advisor or broker dealer'' for two years.On Dec. 30, Mr. Rattner reached a settlement with Andrew M. Cuomo, two days before Mr. Cuomo shifted from being New York's attorney general to its governor. Mr. Cuomo had filed two suits against him, seeking at least $26 million from Mr. Rattner and a lifetime ban from the securities industry in New York. The suits charged that the Quadrangle Group, the private equity firm formerly headed by Mr. Rattner, paid kickbacks to win lucrative contracts managing assets of the pension fund.In the settlement of the New York suits, Mr. Rattner agreed to pay $10 million.Quadrangle also struck a deal with both Mr. Cuomo and the S.E.C., paying $12 million to end its role in the case. The firm acknowledged paying more than $1 million in fees to a political consultant, Hank Morris, in exchange for his help in landing a state investment contract. Mr. Morris pleaded guilty to security fraud.The battle between Mr. Rattner and Mr. Cuomo, two of New York's most powerful Democrats, grew intense before the settlement was reached. Mr. Cuomo considered perjury charges against Mr. Rattner, and Mr. Rattner called Mr. Cuomo’s behavior “close to extortion.”Reporting by The New York Times revealed a previously undisclosed 2007 meeting in which Mr. Rattner first provided his account to Mr. Cuomo’s investigators about how the Quadrangle Group had obtained a $150 million investment from the pension fund. That account, investigators said, was later undercut by Mr. Rattner’s own e-mails, enraging Mr. Cuomo, who had extended Mr. Rattner deference and immunity from criminal prosecution.Mr. Rattner, a longtime Wall Street deal maker, now works at Willett Advisors, the personal money-management arm of his close friend Michael R. Bloomberg, the billionaire mayor of New York. The attorney general’s settlement will no have no effect on Mr. Rattner’s current work. The S.E.C.’s two-year ban currently prohibits him from being paid by Willett and participating in some investment activities at the firm.Mr. Rattner — whose net worth was $188 million to $608 million, according to a 2009 disclosure filing — spent much of late 2010 promoting his book on the restructuring of General Motors and Chrysler.Read More...

For Mr. Cuomo, the settlement let him avoid having a motivated enemy in Mr. Rattner, who, despite being brought low by his involvement in the scandal, continues to hold influence in New York’s financial, political, and media circles.Dealmaker

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For years, Mr. Rattner has cultivated a reputation as a major player in New York's political and charity circles, though he is less known in Washington and Detroit. Mr. Rattner was a financial reporter for The New York Times who entered investment banking in the 1980s, becoming a deal maker in the media and communications sectors for the likes of Lehman Brothers, Morgan Stanley and Lazard.In 2000, he co-founded Quadrangle, a media-focused private equity firm. In January 2008, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg chose the firm to manage the investments of his multibillion-dollar fortune.Mr. Rattner has long harbored political ambitions. A longtime Democratic contributor, he backed Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential campaign, and some speculated that he sought the Treasury secretary post in a Clinton administration. His wife, Maureen White, was Mrs. Clinton's finance co-chairwoman.In 2009, Mr. Rattner counseled Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner and Lawrence H. Summers, the director of the National Economic Council, on reorganization efforts by General Motors and Chrysler, two carmakers receiving federal bailout money.Mr. Rattner was one of 14 people on a committee orchestrating the rescue of the giant automakers. Still, he played a central role, advising the White House on which companies seemed salvageable and how.

This could be a scandal of epic proportions and one that makes Nixon's Watergate or Clinton 's Monica Lewinsky affair pale by comparison. Why was there neither rhyme nor reason as to which dealerships of the Chrysler Corporation were to be closed? Roll the clock back to the weeks just before Chrysler declared bankruptcy. Chrysler, like GM, was in dire financial straits and federal government "graciously" offered to "buy the company" and keep them out of bankruptcy and "save jobs." Chrysler was, in the words of Obama and his administration, "Too big to fail," same story with GM.The feds organized their "Automotive Task Force" to fix Chrysler and GM. Obama, in an act that is 100% unconstitutional, appointed a guy named Steve Rattner to be the White House's official Car Czar- literally - that's what his title is. Rattner is the liaison between Obama, Chrysler, and GM.Initially, the national media reported that Chrysler had made this list of dealerships. That is not true. The Washington Examiner, Newsmax, Fox New and a host of other news agencies discovered that the list of dealerships was put together by the "Automotive Task Force" headed by no one other than Mr. Steve Rattner. Now the plot thickens. Remember earlier we said that there was neither rhyme nor reason why certain dealerships were closed? Actually there's a very interesting pattern as to who was closed down. Again, on May 27, 2009, The Washington Examiner and Newsmax exposed the connection. Amazingly, of the 789 dealerships closed by the federal government, 788 had donated money, exclusively to Republican political causes, while contributing nothing to Democratic political causes. The only "Democratic" dealership on the list was found to have donated $7,700 to Hillary's campaign, and a bit over $2,000 to John Edwards. This same dealership, reportedly, also gave $200.00 to Obama's campaign. Does that seem a little odd to you?Steve Rattner is the guy who put the list together. Well he happens to be married to a Maureen White. Maureen happens to be the former national finance chairman of the Democratic National Committee. As such, she has access to campaign donation records from everyone in the nation, Republican or Democrat. But of course, this is just a wacky "coincidence," we're certain.Then comes another really wacky "coincidence." On that list of dealerships being closed down, a weird thing happened in Arkansas , North Louisiana, and Southern Missouri . It seems that Bill Clinton's former White House Chief of Staff, Mack McClarty, owns a chain of dealership in that region, partnered with a fellow by the name of Robert Johnson. Johnson happens to be founder of Black Entertainment Television and was a huge Obama supporter and financier. These guys own a half dozen Chrysler stores under the company title of RLJ-McClarty-Landers. Interestingly, none of their dealerships were ordered closed - not one- while all of their competing Chrysler/Dodge and Jeep dealership were! Eight dealerships located near the dealerships owned by McClarty and Johnson were ordered shut down. Thus by pure luck, these two major Obama supporters now have virtual monopoly on Chrysler sales in their zone. Isn't that

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amazing? Go look in The Washington Examiner, the story's there, and it's in a dozen or so other web-based news organizations; this isn't being made up.Now if you thought Chrysler was owned by Fiat, you are mistaken. Under the federal court ruling, 65% of Chrysler is now owned by the federal government and the United Auto Worker's union- Fiat owns 20%. The other 15% is still privately owned and presumably will be traded on the stock market. Obama smiles and says he doesn't want to run the auto industry.As horrifying as this is to comprehend, and being as how this used to be the United States of America , it would appear that the president has the power to destroy private businesses and eliminate upwards of 100,000 jobs just because they don't agree with his political agenda. This is Nazi Germany stuff, and it's happening right here, right now, in our back yard. There are voices in Washington demanding an explanation, but the "Automotive Task Force" has released no information to the public or to any of the senators demanding answers for what has been done.

Obama has 32 personally appointed "czars" who answer to no one but him, all of whom are acting without any Constitutional authority. But hey, we're sure they all have "unique skills," as Tim Geithner likes to say!

In a Related Story…Banks are foreclosing on ChurchesBanks are foreclosing on America's churches in record numbers as lenders increasingly lose patience with religious facilities that have defaulted on their mortgages, according to new data.The surge in church foreclosures represents a new wave of distressed property seizures triggered by the 2008 financial crash, analysts say, with many banks no longer willing to grant struggling religious organizations forbearance.Since 2010, 270 churches have been sold after defaulting on their loans, with 90 percent of those sales coming after a lender-triggered foreclosure, according to the real estate information company CoStar Group.In 2011, 138 churches were sold by banks, an annual record, with no sign that these religious foreclosures are abating, according to CoStar. That compares to just 24 sales in 2008 and only a handful in the decade before.

The church foreclosures have hit all denominations across America, black and white, but with small to medium size houses of worship the worst. Most of these institutions have ended up being purchased by other churches.The highest percentage have occurred in some of the states hardest hit by the home foreclosure crisis: California, Georgia, Florida and Michigan."Churches are among the final institutions to get foreclosed upon because banks have not wanted to look like they are being heavy handed with the churches," said Scott Rolfs, managing director of Religious and Education finance at the investment bank Ziegler.Church defaults differ from residential foreclosures. Most of the loans in question are not 30-year mortgages but rather commercial loans that typically mature after just five years when the full balance becomes due immediately.Its common practice for banks to refinance such loans when they come due. But banks have become increasingly reluctant to do that because of pressure from regulators to clean up their balance sheets, said Rolfs. The problem is not so much the church building value, as this has been cyclic for over 100 years.

The problem is twofold. First, banks are in financial trouble. Hundreds of smaller banks have been closed since 2008. While their marketable paper is bought up at face value, the commercial notes are heavily discounted. The larger banks who are scooping up these often premium properties—large lots in high value districts—at pennies on the dollar, while the taxpayer picks up the charge-off. Quite the scam, don’t you think? The second problem is that tax law for charitable donations, closing the loophole for many lower and middle class families. When people cannot deduct the church donation from their taxes

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—and it’s getting worse with each new Congress—the donations begin to fall off. This chokes the revenue for the church off, making it impossible for them to operate. It is now illegal for churches to charge for anything, even a pot-luck fundraising dinner or a car wash. They risk losing their “tax-exempt” status if they do. The Party-war on religion has a broad front that makes it impossible for churches to flank the fed.

Oh yeah, one more thing. A tactic invented by Abraham Lincoln in 1861 has slowly been rearing its unconstitutional head. In 1861, Lincoln signed into law what was termed the Anti-Polygamy Act. Although it sounds like a good title, it enabled the federal government to limit church estates to $50,000. Churches properties other than the actual chapel building were seized by the Federal government. Their banks accounts were seized, and all the valuables in the buildings they seized were confiscated. The Mormons sued and won in court, but never received their money or valuables back.

This federal action was not alone. Land Reform is an act of governments to seize property for what they determine may be a higher use. Land reform is a deeply political process[13] and therefore many arguments for and against it have emerged. These arguments vary tremendously over time and place. For example, in the twentieth century, many land reforms emerged from a particular political ideology, such as communism or socialism. Imminent Domain is an act of seizure by government for property that it needs for “municipal improvements,” such as rights of way or industrial purposes. Thousands upon thousands of farms have been taken from families by towns, States, and the federal government without properly compensating those owners. Or, as can be seen in the 19th century in colonized states, a colonial government may have changed the laws dictating land ownership to better consolidate political power or to support its colonial economy.[14] In more recent times, electoral mobilization and the use of land as a patronage resource have been proposed as possible motivations for land reform efforts, such as the extensive redistributive land reforms of Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe.[ In point of fact, American property ownership is under a steady assault by Congress, as its thirst for more money grows.

Regional or local churches are low hanging fruit, especially since Congress is slowly cutting off their revenue stream. Churches are often on premium properties in high-rent districts since they were the original founding structures for nearly every American town. Cutting off the people’s ability to meet and discuss the issues of the day is also one of the ancillary benefits to Congress. Political speech is not protected in Churches, if they want to maintain their tax-exempt status.

Now you know the long-term game plan that is swiftly being executed by the banks. After all, the taxpayer is picking up the bill. Are you starting to feel a little better about your new banking fees? Hum? Perhaps not.

DARPA 'Cheetah' Robot Can Run Faster Than YouUpdated: Tuesday, 06 Mar 2012, 11:32 AM ESTPublished : Tuesday, 06 Mar 2012, 10:27 AM EST(EndPlay Staff Reports) - Looking like a four-legged "Star Wars" creature, the Pentagon's "Cheetah" robot can gallop up to 18 mph, a land speed record for legged robots.The robot is the product of the Defense Department's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)."The robot's movements are patterned after those of fast-running animals in nature," stated a news release on DARPA's website . "The robot increases its stride and running speed by flexing and un-flexing its back on each step, much as an actual cheetah does."These early models are hydraulic, but the military plans to test a free-running prototype later this year. The newer models will literally run using high-gain electromagnetic linear motors.

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The robot's high speed of 18 mph might not sound all that impressive, but it is nearly five mph faster than the previous record of 13.1 mph, set in 1989. Also, 18 mph is much faster than the average human jogger, according to Wired.com . Larger models with IR-guided small caliber weapons should be able to run about 80 miles an hour within the decade. Solar-recharged mechanimals can lie in remote areas or hidden from site for months, waiting for orders to strike. Their style of movement makes them virtually impossible to stop with hand-held weapons.

By the way, just to put this in perspective, Usain Bolt is the human world-record holder, clocked at 28 mph during the 100-meter sprint in 2009. Humans are the fastest accelerating animals on Earth for 40 meters. Mechanimals can reach full speed in less than three seconds, and with gyro-stabilization (cats use their tails for this function) they may be able to leap 100 feet or more under certain conditions.

Boston Dynamics—can you say Cyberdyne Systems?—the company behind the mechano-Cheetah would like the robot to sprint as fast as 60 mph or 70 mph – the speed of a real cheetah, according to Wired.com. A Cheetah can maintain top speed for about 10 to 15 seconds. Depending upon battery storage, the mechanimal can maintain top speed for about 10 minutes, covering about 10-12 miles over any terrain.

The website reported that DARPA has not yet revealed what the robot will be used for. Along with its eventual high speeds, the device could be designed so it can zigzag to chase and evade. It could be used for emergency response, firefighting, advanced agriculture and vehicular travel. Let’s not rule out warfare and crowd control.

Bin Laden WAS NOT buried at sea, but flown to the U.S. for cremation at secret location, claims intelligence boss in leaked email

Emails purported to be obtained by hacker group Anonymous dispute White House version of terror leader's final resting place

Believed to be part of 2.7million emails obtained from intelligence analysis group Stratfor and shared with WikiLeaks

Stratfor calls hackers 'thieves' and says some emails may have been forged or altered Revelations come as FBI arrests key members of hacking group LulzSec, an offshoot of

AnonymousBy Thomas DuranteLast updated at 6:11 PM on 6th March 2012The fate of Osama bin Laden's remains have been called into question after emails leaked from an intelligence analysis firm say the body of the terror leader was actually sent to the U.S. for cremation.

Terrorist: Osama bin Laden was killed on May 1, 2011 in the now-famous raid by Navy SEAL Team Six at his secret Pakistan compound

According to the emails, the Al Qaeda boss was shot and killed during the famous Navy SEAL Team Six raid on his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, was transported back to the U.S. and cremated.The emails were allegedly obtained by the hacker group Anonymous from Stratfor, an organisation dealing with analysis of intelligence and geopolitical analysis.It's also known as the 'Shadow CIA'.

Last week, Anonymous announced that it had gotten access to 2.7 million of the firm’s confidential correspondences, and said they could provide 'the smoking gun for a number of crimes'.The hackers said Stratfor, based in Austin, Texas, were 'clueless' when it came to database security.After bin Laden was killed in the famous raid in Pakistan on May 2 2011, the Obama administration said his body was buried at sea off the USS Carl Vinson - in accordance with Islamic tradition.

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But in a particular set of emails given to WikiLeaks, the firm’s vice president for intelligence, Fred Burton, says he doubts the official White House version of what happened to bin Laden's body.Stratfor’s vice-president for intelligence, Fred Burton, says the body was 'bound for Dover, [Delaware] on [a] CIA plane' and 'onward to the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology in Bethesda [Maryland]'.

The claims are sure to stoke conspiracy theorists, especially since the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology that Burton refers to closed its doors on September 15, 2011, four months after bin Laden's death. I have stated on this program that nothing makes sense about the Bin Laden raid.

1. Highly trained ,armed and body-armored Navy Seals raid the man’s home, neutralize all resistance—you fill in the blanks there for yourself—and corner an old man and his wife unarmed in his pajamas. Unless he was an extremely powerful marshal artist, like we see in movies, the Seals are unthreatened in any way.

2. They cannot capture him. They shoot the wife in the leg, and shoot the old man in the face.

3. The Seals haul the old man into the helicopter and take him out over the ocean and dump his body.

None of this made any sense. The Seals had in their hands the single most valuable intelligence target since Adolph Hitler, and they shot him in the face. Obvious to the most casual observer, due to these actions, are the following:

Bin Laden was not there. He had been dead for a long time, but the withholding of that information made it impossible to simply end the prolonged and expensive conflict in Afghanistan. The Administration needed an event to justify withdrawal plans, so they staged the execution.

Bin Laden was there, but since he was a CIA funded and trained asset, his testimony could not be allowed. He was silenced to prevent anyone, including the Seals, from hearing any of his revelations.

Bin Laden’s body was not handled the way the Administration disclosed to the public. It appears from the facts that all of this is on the table.

In another email, Burton said: 'If body dumped at sea, which I doubt, the touch is very Adolph Eichman like. The Tribe did the same thing with the Nazi's ashes'.

'Eichmann was seen alive for many months on trial before being sentenced to death and executed. No one wanted a monument to him so they cremated him.'WHO IS ADOLPH EICHMANN?

Emails purportedly leaked from the intelligence analysis firm Stratfor make mention of Adolph Eichmann, a Nazi lieutenant and a major figure of World War II.Eichmann, pictured above, is known as a major architect of the Holocaust. After World War II ended in 1945, he was caught by U.S. forces, and escaped custody after he gave them a phony name.

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Eichmann fled to Italy, where he was able to obtain a humanitarian passport.By 1950, he was in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he lived for years until he was captured by the Israeli spy agency the Mossad in 1960.War crimes and crimes against humanity were among the charges he faced when he was found guilty in an Israeli court in 1962.He was hanged, cremated, and his ashes were spread over the Mediterranean Sea. Stratfor CEO George Friedman responded: ‘But i dont know anyone who claimed he wasnt eicjhman [sic]. No comparison with suddenly burying him at sea without any chance to view him which i doubt happened [sic]'. In a February 27 statement, Stratfor said: In December, thieves compromised Stratfor's data systems and stole a large number of company emails, along with other private information of Stratfor readers, subscribers and employees. Those stolen emails apparently will be published by Wikileaks. This is a deplorable, unfortunate - and illegal - breach of privacy.'Some of the emails may be forged or altered to include inaccuracies; some may be authentic. We will not validate either. Nor will we explain the thinking that went into them. Having had our property stolen, we will not be victimized twice by submitting to questioning about them.'Stratfor, which is not affiliated with the U.S. government, would not comment further.The emails were revealed as it was reported that a members of LulzSec an offshoot of Anonymous, were arrested by the FBI.An agency official told Fox News that the arrests were 'devastating' blow to the organisation, saying: 'We’re chopping off the head of LulzSec.'

The 'Adolph Eichman' referred to by Burton was a Nazi lieutenant and a major architect of the Holocaust.

After World War II ended in 1945, he was caught by U.S. forces, and he slipped through America's fingers when he gave them a phony name.He wound up in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he lived for years until he was captured by the Israeli spy agency the Mossad in 1960.War crimes and crimes against humanity were among the charges he faced when he was found guilty in an Israeli court in 1962.He was hanged, cremated, and his ashes were later spread over the Mediterranean Sea.

Born in the U.S.A.The truth about Obama's birth certificate.Posted on August 21, 2008 , Updated on November 1, 2008; April 27, 2011

SummaryIn June, the Obama campaign released a digitally scanned image of his birth certificate to quell speculative charges that he might not be a natural-born citizen. But the image prompted more blog-based skepticism about the document’s authenticity. And recently, author Jerome Corsi, whose book attacks Obama, said in a TV interview that the birth certificate the campaign has is "fake."We beg to differ. FactCheck.org staffers have now seen, touched, examined and photographed the original birth certificate. We conclude that it meets all of the requirements from the State Department for proving U.S. citizenship. Claims that the document lacks a raised seal or a signature are false. We have posted high-resolution photographs of the document as "supporting documents" to this article. Our conclusion: Obama was born in the U.S.A. just as he has always said.Update, Nov. 1: The director of Hawaii’s Department of Health confirmed Oct. 31 that Obama was born in Honolulu.Analysis

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Update Nov. 1: The Associated Press quoted Chiyome Fukino as saying that both she and the registrar of vital statistics, Alvin Onaka, have personally verified that the health department holds Obama’s original birth certificate.Fukino also was quoted by several other news organizations. The Honolulu Advertiser quoted Fukino as saying the agency had been bombarded by requests, and that the registrar of statistics had even been called in at home in the middle of the night.Honolulu Advertiser, Nov. 1 2008: "This has gotten ridiculous," state health director Dr. Chiyome Fukino said yesterday. "There are plenty of other, important things to focus on, like the economy, taxes, energy." . . . Will this be enough to quiet the doubters? "I hope so," Fukino said. "We need to get some work done."Fukino said she has “personally seen and verified that the Hawaii State Department of Health has Sen. Obama’s original birth certificate on record in accordance with state policies and procedures." Update, April 27, 2011: The White House released the long-form version of President Barack Obama’s birth certificate, confirming (yet again) that he was born in the United States. The Hawaii Department of Health made an exception in Obama’s case and issued copies of the "Certificate of Live Birth."Since we first wrote about Obama’s birth certificate on June 16, speculation on his citizenship has continued apace. Some claim that Obama posted a fake birth certificate to his Web page. That charge leaped from the blogosphere to the mainstream media earlier this week when Jerome Corsi, author of a book attacking Obama, repeated the claim in an Aug. 15 interview with Steve Doocy on Fox News.Corsi: Well, what would be really helpful is if Senator Obama would release primary documents like his birth certificate. The campaign has a false, fake birth certificate posted on their website. How is anybody supposed to really piece together his life?Doocy: What do you mean they have a "false birth certificate" on their Web site?Corsi: The original birth certificate of Obama has never been released, and the campaign refuses to release it.Doocy: Well, couldn’t it just be a State of Hawaii-produced duplicate?Corsi: No, it’s a — there’s been good analysis of it on the Internet, and it’s been shown to have watermarks from Photoshop. It’s a fake document that’s on the Web site right now, and the original birth certificate the campaign refuses to produce.Corsi isn’t the only skeptic claiming that the document is a forgery. Among the most frequent objections we saw on forums, blogs and e-mails are:

The birth certificate doesn’t have a raised seal. It isn’t signed. No creases from folding are evident in the scanned version. In the zoomed-in view, there’s a strange halo around the letters. The certificate number is blacked out. The date bleeding through from the back seems to say "2007," but the document wasn’t released

until 2008. The document is a "certification of birth," not a "certificate of birth."

Recently FactCheck representatives got a chance to spend some time with the birth certificate, and we can attest to the fact that it is real and three-dimensional and resides at the Obama headquarters in Chicago. We can assure readers that the certificate does bear a raised seal, and that it’s stamped on the back by Hawaii state registrar Alvin T. Onaka (who uses a signature stamp rather than signing individual birth certificates). We even brought home a few photographs.

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The raised seal

Blowup of textYou can click on the photos to get full-size versions, which haven’t been edited in any way, except that some have been rotated 90 degrees for viewing purposes.The certificate has all the elements the State Department requires for proving citizenship to obtain a U.S. passport: "your full name, the full name of your parent(s), date and place of birth, sex, date the birth record was filed, and the seal or other certification of the official custodian of such records." The names, date and place of birth, and filing date are all evident on the scanned version, and you can see the seal above.The document is a "certification of birth," also known as a short-form birth certificate. The long form is drawn up by the hospital and includes additional information such as birth weight and parents’ hometowns. The short form is printed by the state and draws from a database with fewer details. The Hawaii Department of Health’s birth record request form does not give the option to request a photocopy of your long-form birth certificate, but their short form has enough information to be acceptable to the State Department. We tried to ask the Hawaii DOH why they only offer the short form, among other questions, but they have not given a response.The scan released by the campaign shows halos around the black text, making it look (to some) as though the text might have been pasted on top of an image of security paper. But the document itself has no such halos, nor do the close-up photos we took of it. We conclude that the halo seen in the image produced by the campaign is a digital artifact from the scanning process.We asked the Obama campaign about the date stamp and the blacked-out certificate number. The certificate is stamped June 2007, because that’s when Hawaii officials produced it for the campaign, which requested that document and "all the records we could get our hands on" according to spokesperson Shauna Daly. The campaign didn’t release its copy until 2008, after speculation began to appear on the Internet questioning Obama’s citizenship. The campaign then rushed to release the document, and the rush is responsible for the blacked-out certificate number. Says Shauna: "[We] couldn’t get someone on the phone in Hawaii to tell us whether the number represented some secret information, and we erred on

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the side of blacking it out. Since then we’ve found out it’s pretty irrelevant for the outside world." The document we looked at did have a certificate number; it is 151 1961 – 010641.

Blowup of certificate numberSome of the conspiracy theories that have circulated about Obama are quite imaginative. One conservative blogger suggested that the campaign might have obtained a valid Hawaii birth certificate, soaked it in solvent, then reprinted it with Obama’s information. Of course, this anonymous blogger didn’t have access to the actual document and presents this as just one possible "scenario" without any evidence that such a thing actually happened or is even feasible.We also note that so far none of those questioning the authenticity of the document have produced a shred of evidence that the information on it is incorrect. Instead, some speculate that somehow, maybe, he was born in another country and doesn’t meet the Constitution’s requirement that the president be a "natural-born citizen."We think our colleagues at PolitiFact.com, who also dug into some of these loopy theories put it pretty well: "It is possible that Obama conspired his way to the precipice of the world’s biggest job, involving a vast network of people and government agencies over decades of lies. Anything’s possible. But step back and look at the overwhelming evidence to the contrary and your sense of what’s reasonable has to take over."In fact, the conspiracy would need to be even deeper than our colleagues realized. In late July, a researcher looking to dig up dirt on Obama instead found a birth announcement that had been published in the Honolulu Advertiser on Sunday, Aug. 13, 1961:

Obama’s birth announcementThe announcement was posted by a pro-Hillary Clinton blogger who grudgingly concluded that Obama "likely" was born Aug. 4, 1961 in Honolulu.Of course, it’s distantly possible that Obama’s grandparents may have planted the announcement just in case their grandson needed to prove his U.S. citizenship in order to run for president someday. We suggest that those who choose to go down that path should first equip themselves with a high-quality tinfoil hat. The evidence is clear: Barack Obama was born in the U.S.A.Update, August 26: We received responses to some of our questions from the Hawaii Department of Health. They couldn’t tell us anything about their security paper, but they did answer another frequently-raised question: why is Obama’s father’s race listed as "African"? Kurt Tsue at the DOH told us that father’s race and mother’s race are supplied by the parents, and that "we accept what the parents self

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identify themselves to be." We consider it reasonable to believe that Barack Obama, Sr., would have thought of and reported himself as "African." It’s certainly not the slam dunk some readers have made it out to be.When we asked about the security borders, which look different from some other examples of Hawaii certifications of live birth, Kurt said "The borders are generated each time a certified copy is printed. A citation located on the bottom left hand corner of the certificate indicates which date the form was revised." He also confirmed that the information in the short form birth certificate is sufficient to prove citizenship for "all reasonable purposes."

The Big Fix: How Elections can be stolen with no fingerprints

About three months ago, we broke the story to you that SCYTL is the global leader in online voting solutions with a presence in over twenty countries -- SOE Software is the leading software company for election management solutions in the United States -- The combination of the two companies creates the industry leader in election software with a strong market presence worldwide SCYTL, the global leader in secure electronic voting technologies, announced today the acquisition of 100% of SOE Software, the leading software provider of election management solutions in the United States. The integration of these two software companies creates the industry leader in the election software market with a full range of solutions covering from Internet voting to election night reporting and online pollworker training, and a strong market presence worldwide. SCYTL is currently the worldwide leader in the Internet voting space and the acquisition of SOE Software, with its Clarity election management software suite, significantly expands SCYTL's product portfolio beyond electronic voting. Furthermore, SOE Software's strong US presence with 900 jurisdictions as customers in 26 states, including 14 state-wide customers, complements very effectively SCYTL's customer base in the United States and internationally with customers in over 20 different countries across 5 continents, including France, Spain, Canada, Norway, Switzerland, South Africa, United Arab Emirates, Mexico, India and Australia.

We have now learned through legal testimony before Congress that voting flipping code has been entered into vote tallying software. There are some key things that place doubt as to whether electronic vote tallying can ever be reliable. This is a NASA and DOT programmer who is testifying before a Congressional inquiry about the integrity of vote tallying software.

PROGRAMMER TESTIMONY

Now, besides the Speaker of the House in Florida asking about the creation of a hack, did you hear the part about the Chinese contractor that was given a wire-tap hack that copies him on all emails from NASA? Well it gets worse. I will bring you more as I get to the source information. I will try to never bring you a non-accredited source of information, and I will do my best to get the full context in which the information is provided. I do not do conspiracy theories, but I will inform you of anything concrete I discover.

In any case in any case, the only true and irrefutable vote is the personal face-to-face vote that is live. Our election process of a Republican candidate is being manipulated every way possible. Counties with very large voting blocks are being disqualified. Votes are reported late in a blatant attempt to influence the next primary or caucus. And no one really knows how the primary will come out. Why? Well I have a Reality Check clip that will explain it better than I can in less time.

REALITY CHECK CLIP

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Lunar lander firing up for touchdownby Staff WritersParis (ESA) Mar 07, 2012Sounds like 1969 all over again, but this time the USA is left out in the cold. Europe's ambition of touching down at the Moon's south pole by 2018 has been boosted by recent test firings of the craft's thrusters. The robot lander will prove new techniques for sending humans to the Moon and assess lunar hazards. With no atmosphere on the Moon, Lunar Lander cannot rely on parachutes to slow its descent. Instead, the craft will need to fire its engines in a rather unconventional way. One of these thrusters was recently put through its paces at Astrium's specialised facility in Lampoldshausen, Germany. The test chamber was configured to reproduce the vacuum and temperatures that Lunar Lander will face on its way down to the Moon's surface. A complete descent and touchdown was simulated, with the thruster firing in a series of short bursts, reaching a white-hot 1100 degrees C. According to ESA's Berengere Houdou, the results are positive: "The thruster operations were smooth and stable, with great performance, even under the stress of Lunar Lander's operating conditions." To save the cost of developing a new engine, ESA engineers looked to the tried-and-tested thrusters of Europe's proven Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) space ferry. ATV has already completed two fully automated missions to the International Space Station, delivering supplies and boosting the complex to a higher orbit. The third ATV is set for launch this month. But landing on the Moon is very different from docking with a space station. Before these tests, it was unclear whether the thrusters would be suitable for a lunar voyage. Ahead of landing, the craft will orbit the Moon some 100 km above the surface. To descend to the Moon's southern pole, central engines will fire for 10 minutes as the ATV thrusters steer the spacecraft to a safe landing. There is no GPS for the Moon, so Lunar Lander will navigate by digitally imaging the surface and recognising features. A laser will complete the picture to avoid hazards such as boulders and craters at the target site. Lunar Lander's powerful processor will make intelligent decisions to search for a safe area and touch down without human help. European technology will be used throughout.

My Question is WHY IS THE USA COMING IN LAST IN THE TECH RACE?

There is a huge sucking sound. The brains of America are being sucked out of the country like factories were in 1993 after the signing of the NAFTA. Except that now it isn’t cheap labor that is the main attraction. It is better technology. Are they just stealing the technology that we have here? Hardly. The truth is that America has a secret weapon that has kept it at the technology front for many decades, and not because of the superior cranial capabilities of American kids.

Here to discuss this is media spokes-scientist, Michio Kaku in a panel discussion that is not so friendly. Get ready for this:

ESA's Lunar Lander on its approach to the lunar south pole. The larger exhaust flames visible in blue are from the central engines that provide most of the braking. The smaller, outer exhaust flames are generated by modified engines used on ESA's Automated Transfer Vehicle (right image). Each providing 220 N of thrust, they will steer Lunar Lander to a safe landing site as well as contributing to the braking. Credits: ESA.

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MICHIO KAU TESTIMONY

The new Fisker electric vehicle is being built in Finland with a nearly $500 million loan guarantee provided by the American taxpayer. The conservatives are outraged, says the press. But the truth is that Mr. Fisker is no loser. He is smart and aggressive and has gone to dozens of contract manufacturers in America in an attempt to get his electric car built and to market. He even agreed to buy the old GM plant from the bankruptcy court to appease Vice-President Joe Biden’s district so he could get the loan guarantee. Well, the union plant in Wilmington, Delaware was no where nearly efficient enough to build this vehicle, and Mr. Fisker couldn’t get the tech support he needed without huge tariffs and delays from US Customs and Border Protection, so he left town. The brains and technology were in Finland, and the car is now in production. Mr. Fisker will do one thing no car company has ever done before. Pay back his loans.

This is why our space program is in China and Europe. This is why virtually all drugs, computer programs, architectural advances, geological and physics breakthroughs, and the brains for our professors and scientists come from outside the US. What is America doing wrong?

Well, it isn’t the American local school system that is at fault. It is the Department of Education that is at fault. School choice is not allowed in 99% of the country. School curricula is now programmed to fit the federal tests, which are written or vetted by a presidential task force headed up by union officials. The entire US government educational system, which means your K-12 schools, are geared toward producing workers, not thinkers. President Clinton’s education edge, which was a goals 2000 program, was designed to shift the schools away from teaching kids how to learn, and toward teaching them how to work in teams and get a job.

Every attempt by parents who see what is happening to their schools to produce a superior educational opportunity has been blocked or sued into oblivion. School voucher programs are working, and have proven that students who can choose their school with a voucher make a better school just out of the competitive market forces at work. The best teachers are sought after to make the best schools. The Teacher’s Union is against anything close to performance-based measurement of teachers. The Teacher’s Union is a strong financial supporter of Democrats and has a revolving door with the leadership positions of the US Department of Education.

I support Ron Paul and Newt Gingrich who have openly promised they will close the Department within 12 months of their inauguration.

Panetta’s New War Powers Act

Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Martin Dempsey testified at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing Wednesday that the Obama administration would seek "international permission" before intervening military in Syria's civil war. Both men left open, however, the question of whether the approval of Congress would be either sought or required. Senator Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) pressed Panetta repeatedly on that question, but failed to get a definitive answer."We're worried about international legal basis, but no one's worried about the fundamental constitutional legal basis that this Congress has over war," Sessions protested. Referring to the last year's bombing raids by the United States and United Nations allies in Libya, Sessions said: "We were not asked, stunningly, in direct violation of the War Powers Act, whether or not you believe it's constitutional, [the Libyan raids] certainly didn't comply with it. We spent our time worrying about the UN, the Arab League, NATO, and too little time worrying about the elected representatives of the United States," Sessions said. "Do you

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think you can act without Congress and initiate a No Fly Zone in Syria, without congressional approval?" he asked Panetta."Again, our goal would be to seek international permission and we would come to the Congress and inform you and determine how best to approach this," Panetta replied. "Whether or not we would want to get permission from the Congress, I think those are issues I think we would have to discuss as we decide what to do here." Sessions made it clear he was not pleased with what he heard. "Well, I'm almost breathless about that," the Alabama lawmaker replied. "Because what I heard you say is, we are going to seek international approval and then we'll come and tell the Congress what we might do, and we might seek Congressional approval. I want to say to you, that's a big deal, wouldn't you agree? You served in the Congress," he reminded Panetta, a U.S. representative from California from 1977-1993. "Wouldn't you agree that would be pretty breathtaking for the average American? So would you like to clarify that?"" I've also served with Republican Presidents and Democratic Presidents who have always reserved the right to defend this country if necessary," replied the former CIA director, who succeeded Robert Gates as Defense Secretary in 2011. Panetta did not explain how last year's bombing in Libya was, or a potential military intervention in Syria might be, a defense of the United States. "But before you do this you would seek permission of the international authorities?" Sessions asked."If we are working with an international coalition and we're working with NATO we would want to be able to get appropriate permissions in order to be able to do that. That's something that all of these countries would want to have — some kind of legal basis on which to act.""What kind of legal basis are you looking for? What entity?" asked Sessions."If NATO made the decision to go in, that would be one," said Panetta. "If we developed an international coalition beyond NATO then some kind of U.N. Security Resolution...""So you are saying NATO would give you a legal basis ... and an ad hoc coalition of the United Nations would provide a legal basis?" Sessions asked. "Well who are you asking for the legal basis from?""If the UN passed a Security Resolution as it did with Libya, we would do that," the Defense Secretary answered. "If NATO came together as it did in Bosnia, we would rely on that, so we have options here if we want to build the kind of international approach dealing with the situation.""I'm all for having international support," Sessions conceded, "but I'm really baffled by the idea that somehow an international assembly provides a legal basis for the United States military to be deployed in combat. I don't believe it is close to being correct. They provide no legal authority. The only legal authority that is required to deploy the United States military is the Congress and the President and the law and the Constitution." Panetta's response was interesting more for what it did not say than for what he said."Let me for the record be clear again," he replied. "When it comes to the national defense of this country, the President of the United States has the authority under the Constitution to act to defend this country and we will." The Secretary neatly sidestepped the Senator's point about the power and responsibility of Congress under the Constitution to decide whether and when to wage war. Panetta's response suggests the President can unilaterally commit the nation to war, even in the in the absence of an actual or imminent attack upon the United States. That runs counter to both the text and history of the Constitution, which names the President as commander in chief of the armed forces, but delegates to Congress the power to declare war. According to Madison's notes at the Constitutional Convention, the word "declare" was substituted for wording giving Congress the power to "make war," because the delegates did not want to deny to the President the duty and power to use military force to repel a sudden attack. Had the intention been merely to give Congress the role of announcing to the world that the President has decided to attack another country, that role could hardly be considered among the "powers" delegated to the Congress. It would more resemble a task for the President's press secretary.The War Powers Resolution referenced by Sessions was passed by Congress in 1973 after President Nixon had been waging secret wars in Laos and Cambodia. It forbids sending U.S, forces into military action abroad without authorization of Congress except in case of "a national emergency created by an attack on the United States, its territories or possessions or its armed forces." It further requires the

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President to notify the Congress within 48 hours of deploying troops in such an emergency and requires the troops to be removed within 60 to 90 days of their deployment unless there is an authorization of the use of military force or declaration of war by Congress. The joint resolution was passed by a two-thirds vote of Congress over President Nixon's veto and has been ignored ever since, most notably during President Clinton's bombing of Bosnia in 1999 and by President Obama's air war in Libya in 2011.In his testimony Wednesday, Panetta stressed the importance of getting international "permission" for taking military action, relegating the approval of Congress, should it be sought at all, to the status of a national afterthought."If it comes to an operation where we are trying to build a coalition of nations to work together to go in and operate as we did in Libya or Bosnia, for that matter Afghanistan, we want to do it with permissions either by NATO or by the international community," he said. Sessions also questioned the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs about the legal basis for military action. General Dempsey listed three criteria: the United States would be "invited in" by a government under attack, would be acting in self-defense or would be operating "with some kind of international legal basis; an UNSCR [United Nations Security Resolution]....""Wait a minute, let's talk about an international legal basis," Sessions replied. "You answer under the Constitution to the United States government, do you not? And you don't need any international support before you would carry out a military operation authorized by the commander-in-chief...""No of course not," Dempsey answered. "That's the second one I mentioned.""I just want to know, because there's a lot of reference here to international matters before we make a decision," Sessions said. "And I want to be sure that the United States military understands, and I know you do, that we're not dependent on a NATO resolution or a U.N. resolution to execute policies consistent with the national security of the United States."

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