2012 , it's here!

We might be all idiots in 2012 . The future is here , and nothing else.

We are finally here. We all somewhat seen the aftermath of K2 disaster  ( nothing happens as usual.the computer grid did not crash ) , that was predicted to happen in 2000 . The procrastinators did not clearly foresee September 11th , 2001 .Now we just have to brace the 2012 phenomenon with the Maya dooms day in waiting . The Maya are described as being obsessed with Time , they had three calenders as we know of . **President Hinckley of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints curiously enough made somewhat of 'prediction' back in 1997 of which it is said that he said : "7 years of plenty and 7 years of famine and the year 2012. He alludes that the year 2012 will be the year the famine begins" . I be believe ( with an ire of sceptically ) it all began in 9-11 , may not be the end of the world , but for sure our nations cycle is up .   Our nation can't get it's act together on anything , the two party system might be showing signs of collapse . 2012 is just part of that hype , we are in the future . The last decade we seen all those science fiction films that have belated us with a hypothetical picture of the future . It’s true, things have gotten infinitely worse in the last few years, but it does say in the Bible that things are going to get a lot harder in the end days along with earthquakes, famines and other tragedies. I look at all the earthquakes reported in the news and the tsunamis and I go “wow” because there weren’t so many of this kind of thing, so frequently reported all over the earth, and then 2001 hits and then a few years later (now), so many earthquakes and tsunamis hit! It’s like it’s serving as a warning to people to be ready not for famine, necessarily, but for a sign from God that HE has not forgotten about his coming back to rapture the christians, but we should pay more attention to the signs leading up to that point. I don’t think we’ll ever see a 7 year peace treaty signed in Israel by any anti christ because I believe that christians will be raptured before all the nightmares and tortures on earth to do with the antichrist even begins, in fact – I believe that christians might not even know who will rise to BE the antichrist at all, we’ll just be raptured entirely. Ok, so I know I’ve gone off on another thing, but I guess what I’m saying is… unless there’s a real prophet from God, and I know for a fact that he’s not false, looking me in the face and telling me that there’s going to be some sort of horrid tragedy happen in 2012, then I’m not going to worry, I have a future right now, and for all I know I’m going to graduate from college and get married someday…and for all we know, if something huge is going to happen in 2012, it could be the rapture itself. And a calendar..is just a calendar, and when you think of it, the traditional calendar we have today is going to have to keep going – rapture or not – until the end of the world itself, or until people just stop keeping up with the day and focusing on the times that lay ahead lol….

NOTES & COMMENTS:

 This he said back in 1997 , for sure it seems what he said came true in regards to the economic mess of 2008 & 2011. Funny he refers to Banks, and bad loans . We had 30 years notice , but no one heeded any warnings!
**President Hinckley quoted as said  :

Now, brethren, I want to make it very clear that I am not prophesying, that I am not predicting years of famine in the future. But I am suggesting that the time has come to get our houses in order.So many of our people are living on the very edge of their incomes. In fact, some are living on borrowings.We have witnessed in recent weeks wide and fearsome swings in the markets of the world. The economy is a fragile thing. A stumble in the economy in Jakarta or Moscow can immediately affect the entire world. It can eventually reach down to each of us as individuals. There is a portent of stormy weather ahead to which we had better give heed.I hope with all my heart that we shall never slip into a depression. I am a child of the Great Depression of the thirties.In December of 1997, 55 to 60 million households in the United States carried credit card balances. These balances averaged more than $7,000 and cost $1,000 per year in interest and fees. Consumer debt as a percentage of disposable income rose from 16.3 percent in 1993 to 19.3 percent in 1996.Everyone knows that every dollar borrowed carries with it the penalty of paying interest. When money cannot be repaid, then bankruptcy follows. There were1,350,118 bankruptcies in the United States last year. This represented a 50 percent increase from 1992. In the second quarter of this year, nearly 362,000 persons filed for bankruptcy, a record number for a three-month period.We are beguiled by seductive advertising. Television carries the enticing invitation to borrow up to 125 percent of the value of one’s home. But no mention is made of interest.

See URL : http://lds.org/general-conference/1998/10/to-the-boys-and-to-the-men?lang=eng:

 

The TAXMAN cometh.............

He's got a lot on his mind . It's Higher Taxes , are You willing to pay them?

Brace yourselves for higher TAXES . I can't believe that Gov. Jerry Brown is using the oldest ploy for voter sympathy : Education to raise your  TAXES - Introducing a measure of optimism into the state's dire fiscal situation, Gov. Jerry Brown said Tuesday that his 2012-13 budget would increase education funding and that the outlook for schools would remain strong — if voters pass his initiative to raise taxes.. It seems to me that the Educational system is held hostage by overspending by the state , and lack thereof funds . We were all told that education lost billions of the last decade, but it all seems strange that Prop 98 funding levels have been increasing over the years  giving K-12 funding between 56 billion and 62 billion a year while our Community Collages are faced with increasing fees and much less money than the state pays for k-12 funding . For a state like California that is so hard pressed to have a good educational system , it's bankrolling Collage education by having less graduates than any state.California used to be a State of wealth creation, but now is a State of wealth consumption. This results in such illustrious distinctions as having over 30% of ALL welfare cases and 10% of the total population.California now faces a $13-billion budget deficit. But December revenues were strong enough that the state dodged automatic cuts that could have trimmed a week from the K-12 school year.Education is the biggest item in the state budget, and the spending plan the governor will release next month assumes billions in additional revenues from passage of his tax initiative.If the measure fails, Brown said, more drastic cuts would be needed to state programs.
The governor said that along with education, water policy would be at the top of his priority list in the new year. To that end, he said, he was open to moving a $12-billion water bond off the November 2012 ballotThe governor also lamented that he had been unable to get the four GOP votes necessary to present voters this year with his plan to extend higher sales, vehicle and income taxes."I did think asking voters to vote on a tax was profoundly different than raising a tax," Brown said. "It turned out that those two notions are conflated in the Republican mind.".

Laws are a waste . Bags, and bits.

 As the year ends I like to reflect upon some laws that have taken effect and will take effect . In California there are more laws made thatare useless & wasteful. .The State of California has many new laws for 2012. Handgun open-carry, LGBT rights, online privacy, child abuse, social media, identity theft, criminal records, Internet sales tax, employment credit checks, human trafficking and slavery are all in the mix of 2012 California laws.What are the most controversial new California laws that everyone's buzzing about?  Let's look at some of the things Californians can and cannot do in 2012. Most of all every year we all get a set of laws that hardly anyone knows about , what flying in my face now is the new law on January 1st that you can't get anymore plastic bags from your grocery store , yes they want to do away with plastic bags all in the name of environmentalism & least of all any practicality on the consumer . Hardly enough it sounds to me like a money making scam on part city to charge for the bags , I don't think that 10 to 25 Cents is going over with anyone for a paper bag  . I do  agree that there is a littering problem , but to single out plastic bags alone to wipe them out is outrageous and blind sided , if bags are littering the streets , highways . Why can't the city get to work and clean up the streets , and highways full of litter? The city wastefully solves the problem by BANNING ! . A few years back we had the SPARE THE AIR laws that took effect that prohibited wood burning , while that law says that it's up to you to comply , they can't enforce the law, and there are no air police on patrol . So the average citizen has to report his or her neighbors who might get a hefty fine . The same law on plastic bags fines retailers in the same way .

Here is a POLL on the Plastic Bag issue that will surprise YOU.

A large majority of American consumers opposes efforts by big-government bureaucrats to regulate the type of bags they use to carry groceries home. These poll numbers arrive at a critical time when cash-strapped states and municipalities are trying to plug budget holes with burdensome plastic-bag taxes.

According to the poll conducted by Opinion Research Corporation in early March, more than 65% of Americans “oppose proposals that seek to ban or place a tax on plastic bags.” Specifically, the poll reveals:

93% of Americans report that they already reuse their regular plastic bags for household tasks such as lining trash cans, cleaning up after pets, and carrying lunches.
 

85% of Americans agree that “consumers should have the choice of what kind of bag they would like to use.”
 

67% of Americans oppose a five-cent tax on plastic grocery bags.
 

65% oppose a complete ban on plastic bags that would push consumers to purchase canvas or plastic, fabric-like reusable bags.

“Consumers should be free to carry home their groceries in whatever bags they choose, without being forced to pay a hefty tax,” we told the media Tuesday. “Instead of banning or taxing plastic bags, lawmakers should do a better job educating the general public about recycling their plastic bags.”

Some lawmakers have cloaked their revenue-generating schemes under the guise of going green. Ironically, such efforts to reduce ecological harm might actually trade one environmental threat for another.

Our January report showed that eco-chic reusable bags often contain excessive levels of lead, which can be toxic to the environment (and to your family). Even more troubling, our December 2010 polling found that 56% of Americans say they “are not at all aware that their reusable grocery bags may contain lead and bacteria.”

“Forcing [consumers] to use lead-laden bags potentially harboring bacteria will never be popular public policy,” we are warning lawmakers tempted to side with special interests over their own constituents who have made their concerns clear. “Consumers don’t want to be told how they should take their groceries home.

NOTES & COMMENTS:

Congress was busy all year with horrible laws . Here is a list of them for your enjoyment!

Most Bizarre (HR 2112)
One of Congress’ strangest moves was to pass an agricultural spending bill containing a provision to lift the ban on the horse-slaughter industry. The ban had been imposed in 2006 when Congress defunded the government’s ability to inspect plants that butchered horses for consumption. Without inspections, the meat wasn’t sold, the industry withered, and many U.S. horse meat processors moved their operations to Mexico and Canada. Supporters claimed lifting the ban would curb cases of animal neglect and create much-needed U.S. jobs. Apparently, the ban led many struggling owners to abandon their horses and let them starve. As cruel as that is, reviving the horse-slaughter industry doesn’t sound a whole lot better. Overall, a pretty wacky way to create jobs.
 
Most Third-World (HR 2112)
Not only were horses slaughtered by the new agricultural spending law. The same law cut $685 million from the Women, Infants, and Children program (WIC), which provides food aid to low-income women and young children at risk for malnutrition. The cuts basically kicked out 475,000 eligible mothers, infants, and children from a successful national program. As Rep. Stephen Cohen (D-TN) put it: “If we get rid of tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires for one week, we could pay for the entire WIC program for a year.” Instead, thousands of children will suffer from malnutrition.
 
Most Senseless (HR 674) 
During the same year Congress slashed funding for low-income children, it spent billions protecting government contractors. You may have heard about the “Hire a Veteran” law, which provides tax credits to corporations that hire unemployed vets. While that’s commendable, the same law also contains a provision repealing a 3 percent withholding requirement made against vendors’ income taxes. The original law, which had yet to take effect, was intended to discourage tax evasion by government contractors. Repealing the requirement will reduce revenues by an estimated $11.2 billion over the 2012-2021 period, according to the Congressional Budget Office. One has to ask why our Congressional leaders would do such a thing – and why now, given their supposed concerns about the national debt.
 
Most Intrusive (S 990)
Speaking of bad judgment, of all the bad laws passed in 2011, one of the worst was the four-year extension of The Patriot Act. The law was passed just before the midnight expiration of the existing law, after proposed revisions aimed at protecting individual liberties were shot down. Roving wiretaps. Court-ordered searches of business records. Surveillance of non-American “lone wolf” suspects without confirmed ties to terrorist groups. Whatever happened to laws protecting our individual privacy? Sounds pretty unpatriotic to me.
 
Most Anti-American (HR 3078, HR 3079, HR 3080)
While thousands of Occupy Wall Street protesters took to the streets to protest the lack of jobs, Congress was busy passing three free-trade agreements with South Korea, Colombia and Panama. Although proponents say these deals will increase foreign sales of American goods and services, many trade unions opposed the legislation, fearing the loss of more jobs to foreign competition. Indeed, the U.S. International Trade Commission said these deals could eliminate some manufacturing jobs, especially those in the textile industry. But, hey, if you’re a textile worker that’s nothing new to worry about. With all those “Made in China” labels peeking out of people’s sweaters, chances are you’ve already been laid off.
 
Most Confusing (HR 1249)
The “most confusing law” award goes to the America Invents Act. The so-called patent-reform legislation essentially switches the patent application process from the current “first to invent” system to a “first to file” system. In so doing, we’re to believe the approval process will be stepped up so American entrepreneurs can bring their inventions to market more quickly. The problem is that the language in the law is so confusing, even patent lawyers have trouble interpreting it. As one patent attorney blogger wrote: “The Act is dense, language choices from section to section in some places change and in other places remains the same, making you suspect that different terms must mean different things but the same term in different places has to mean the same thing, right?” The blogger recommended that patent attorneys read through the legislation about 10 times to fully understand it. Wow!
 
Most Environmentally Damaging (HR 1473)
You may remember the budget standoff that nearly forced a government shutdown back in April. After all the drama, Congress ended up passing HR 1473, which funded the federal government through fiscal year 2011. The spending bill slashed nearly $40 billion in domestic programs, the largest non-defense funding cut in our nation’s history.  Many of the programs cut were designed to protect the environment and reduce our dependence on foreign oil. For example, the bill sliced the Environmental Protection Agency budget by 17 percent, hampering efforts to protect our air and water. It also cut energy efficiency and renewable energy programs, climate-change funding, and the green jobs innovation fund. The message to Americans: pollute all you want.
 
Most Short-Sighted (HR 1473)
Not only did Congress stick it to the environment; students were shafted, too. Despite soaring national dropout rates, Congress cut or eliminated numerous education programs, including those seeking to boost literacy, offer support for the gifted and talented, and prepare students for technical careers. It also slashed financial aid for low-income college students attending summer sessions, as well as state job-training grants for adults, youth, and dislocated workers. Think higher unemployment and a less competitive workforce. Nice job, Congress.
 
The Worst of the Worst (S 365)
Now for the worst of the worst. In previous years, no matter who was in control of the House or the Senate, Congress always voted to increase the debt limit. Why? Because most economists agree that defaulting on our debt would create an economic catastrophe. Not this year. Instead, the Republicans refused to agree to raise the debt limit unless the Democrats agreed to deep spending cuts. And guess what? They got their way.
 
The Budget Control Act of 2011 raised the U.S. debt limit by $2.4 trillion through 2012, cut more than $900 billion from social programs and military spending without specifying which programs would be cut, and created a bi-partisan commission – the so-called Super Committee – to propose an additional $1.5 trillion in budgetary savings. Well, we all heard about the Super Committee’s super failure. The committee’s deadline came and went without agreement. So what looms ahead? Without changes to the existing law, expect $1.2 trillion in cuts to be automatically enacted. Brace yourselves; the giant axe is about to fall.
 

2011 bits & review 2.

The Stock Market shot up and down , and up again pleasing the White House . While all the bets were cast on the European Market as a sure  'sign' of the major collapse . The American Market remained solid for the 1% big top earners . While the rest , the jobless stayed 9.0 percent . There is more to the PROBLEM , as I ponder . President Obama sure enough took the gains Market value as his own achievement of his Presidency. Obama score card towards the end of 2011 is a failure  , and it's all about hits and misses . Sure no bulls-eye . The President for the last 6 months has not been at Washington D.C. he's been on the campaign trail raising nearly a Billion dollars , and taking donations mostly from those of the 1% , the "super Rich" who can afford 30, 000 dollars to sit and eat with him . Sadly he left the nation's Capital to swoon in bickering , gridlock trying to pass a budget that is a wast of time as far as extending the 'Tax break' for 2 months more for every American. Last December, a deficit-reduction commission appointed by President Obama recommended a combination of revenue increases by closing loopholes and tax exemptions, spending cuts and health care reforms that ostensibly would have cut deficits by $4 trillion over the coming decade. Those reductions alone would not eliminate the nation's red ink, but were significant enough to begin to set the U.S. on a sustainable, fiscally responsible path. The plan got 11 votes in favor, seven against — three votes short of what was needed to send a formal deficit-reduction blueprint to Congress. But it had bipartisan support from pragmatists such as Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., who conceded the need to rein in programs dear to Democrats, and realists such as Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., whose support could have given cover to Republicans who had signed pledges not to raise taxes.

NOTES & COMMENTS:

This would have been news last year. Now it's just a tragedy. Obama has contributed more to the debt than all previous presidents combined. Ron Paul is an easy good guy to find in the deficit debate...that wasn't so hard was it?

2011 bits & review.

With the year nearly over . 2012 is going to carry a lot of heavy baggage from 2011. 

 I  for one have seen it all since September 11th , 2001. How the country some how slowly crept into a mess that it is in right now. You might say that 2011 is the climax of a ten year decline in American power .The framework for the year was set in November 2010, when the mid-term elections saw control of the House of Representatives pass to the Republicans, who also made gains in the Senate. This meant that from the start of the new term in January, Mr Obama and the Democrats – who had already lost their filibuster-proof Senate “supermajority” in the by-election for the late Ted Kennedy's Massachusetts seat earlier in 2010 – would lose the ability to push legislation through Congress.This was to cause impasse after impasse throughout 2011, as the House of Representatives, many of whose newcomers had been elected thanks to the rise of the Tea Party, blocked Mr Obama's agenda. By the end of the year, public approval for Congress stood at a record low of just nine per cent. The year began violently when Gabrielle Giffords, a Democratic Arizona congresswoman, was shot through the head in her Tucson constituency. Six people were killed and 13 injured after Jared Loughner, a 22-year-old drop-out, opened fire at a meet-the-voters event in a supermarket carpark. Some were quick to blame the fiery rhetoric of the Tea Party, after it emerged that Miss Giffords had been one of 20 Democrats represented by crosshairs on a US map used by Sarah Palin, the former Republican Vice-presidential candidate, to instruct activists where to target their efforts
The plaudits he received for the speech were rare during a year in which his approval rating tumbled to 43 per cent – lower than Jimmy Carter's as he prepared for his doomed re-election campaign in 1979. Several economic indicators were so bad as to require Mr Obama to break post-war precedent if he were to manage to be re-elected.
Unemployment remained around nine per cent throughout the year, meaning joblessness had not been so high for so long since the Great Depression. The poverty rate climbed to its highest rate since 1983 and growth remained sluggish as fears of a double-dip recession persisted.
It was in this context that the Occupy Wall Street movement, which gave voice to millions disgruntled with the economic status quo, was born in September. it soon spread across the US and the rest of the world. Aides to Mr Obama indicated that he would seek to style himself as the candidate of the “99 per cent” in 2012.
But while he achieved a string of triumphs in foreign affairs – having the al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and one of his senior disciples, Anwar al-Awlaki, assassinated and helping to oust Muammar Gaddafi from Libya – the president was repeatedly frustrated on economic and domestic policy.
A shutdown of the federal government was narrowly avoided in April after Mr Obama was forced to accept a $40 billion cut in public spending. A stalemate in December had been averted only after Mr Obama agreed to extend George W. Bush's ruinous tax cuts for another two years.
At the end of July, the US came close to defaulting on its debt when the two parties could not strike a deal to raise the $14 trillion debt ceiling – the limit on what the government can borrow – before the Democrats agreed to $2 trillion in spending cuts.
But in keeping with the year, a “super-committee” of senior congressmen, convened under the terms of the deal to come up with a plan for how the cuts should be made, failed to strike any deal whatsoever, meaning deep cuts to treasured areas including defence should be automatically triggered.
Yet another impasse looked likely at year's end, with Mr Obama threatening to make Congress stay at work through their Christmas holiday until an agreement could be made on extending a cut to the payroll tax, the US equivalent of national security, which he says would benefit middle earners.
Civil and labour rights returned to the agenda, with New York becoming the sixth and largest state to allow gay marriage and battles being fought in Wisconsin and Ohio over the power of trade unions. Candidates for the Republican presidential nomination promised to crack down on both.
Their campaigns, which were approaching their first test in the Iowa caucus as the year ended, dominated the last few months of the year, as one by one the candidates on the Right of the party enjoyed a spell as the leading contender to Mitt Romney, the former Governor of Massachusetts, and the party's heir apparent after losing in his bid for the nomination in 2008.
But the surges in support for Rick Perry, the Governor of Texas, Michele Bachmann, a Minnesota congresswoman, and Herman Cain, a former pizza restaurant tycoon from Georgia, eventually subsided, with the latter forced to withdraw following accusations of infidelity and sexual harassment.By the end of the year it was the unlikely figure of Newt Gingrich, the foil to President Bill Clinton as Speaker of the House of Representatives in the 1990s, who managed to secure – and then maintain – polling leads over Mr Romney in three of the four states due to vote on the contest in January.Admitting that he faced a tough re-election campaign in key states such as Florida and Ohio, Mr Obama told supporters in December: “We're going to win this thing”. As they prepared to have their say on a candidate to face him, millions of Republican activists ended 2011 determined that this would not be so.

NOTES & COMMENTS:

Read my next post . I give a critique of President Obama . I score him as failing . Not that I believe  don't that his original true intentions was not  getting America back to stability , and undoing President Bush's 8 years  . The Health Care  issue was a waste , it should not have been Obama's first term fix for the nation . The first duty was to create jobs ,the stimulus money that was flooded toward the public sector only benefited 1 % of the population saving the Banks , the Auto industry , and cash for clunkers ! . If Obama makes back to a second term in office , I hope that he will focus on 'US' rather than giving speeches , and flooding money to corporations and such.

GOP side SHOW Predictions.

Either Newt or Romney will face each other in the process of elimination , one of them will pick the other for Vice- President . 

Like the TEN LITTLE INDIANS that eliminated themselves one by one till only three were left. The Contenders to the White House will only narrowed down to three , and two . Finally after the freak show is over. One of three will be nominated and picked for Vice -President of the United States.With the Iowa caucuses around the corner and the GOP field still unsettled, here are my predictions for how Republican candidates will fare in the first caucuses/primaries of the 2012 GOP presidential contest.The predictions are based on the candidates’ current standing in the polls as well as their respective momentums, fundraising, and campaign strategies going into the home stretch of a dysfunctional race that, due to its twists and turns, has become the year’s most entertaining reality television event.Round One: The Iowa caucuses (January 3)Winner:Ron PaulEliminated: Rick Santorum .Paul’s principled conservatism and passionate following will deliver him a razor thin edge on a three-way tie with Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich, who will slow each other’s momentums with mutual accusations of being wealthy flip floppers. The media will accordingly disregard Paul’s victory as they focus on Gingrich’s apparent inability to capitalize on his national lead, Romney’s “comeback” leading to New Hampshire, and perennial “values” candidate Rick Santorum’s humiliating showing in the Hawkeye state. Round Two: The New Hampshire primary (January 10)Winner: Mitt RomneyEliminated: Jon HuntsmanRomney will deploy his arsenal of cash and political endorsements to win a surprisingly closer-than-expected state. The big surprise will be Paul, who will take second place after riding his Iowa momentum on the back of Gingrich’s latest atomic gaffe. Rick Perry and Michele Bachmann will look to South Carolina’s religious voters, hoping to revive their fading campaigns, as Jon Huntsman’s worse-than-expected showing will end his. Round Three: The South Carolina primary (January 21)Winner: Newt Gingrich Eliminated: Michele BachmannGingrich will take South Carolina after waging a negative, yet effective line of attack on Romney’s religion, pushing him to a not-so-close second place and threatening with prolonging an already bruising primary battle beyond Super Tuesday. Paul’s surprisingly strong third place continues lending momentum to his campaign while setting Bachmann free to start writing books about her failed presidential bid. Perry will stubbornly remain in the race by blowing television ad money all the way to Florida. Round Four: The Florida primary (January 31)Winner: Newt GingrichEliminated: Rick PerryGingrich narrowly defeats Romney, bringing back the narrative of the former governor of Massachusetts’ lack of traction, and splitting the soul of the GOP between an establishment drawn to Romney’s general election appeal and a reluctant conservative base of voters still not convinced by the credentials of the author of RomneyCare. Paul’s momentum will slow down compared to his previous showings, and Perry will finally end America’s most expensive failing presidential campaign to date.  Round Five: The Nevada Primary (February 4)Winner: Mitt RomneyEliminated: Ron Paul. Romney will narrowly defeat Gingrich in Nevada, despite the former speaker of the house’s inferior organization and gaffe-prone demeanor, further exacerbating the Republican establishment’s anxieties about Romney. At this point, the Republican Party’s behind-the-scenes activity will intensify with all the remaining actors assessing their clout and possibilities while listening to what the power breakers have to offer going into Super Tuesday when, following Republican’s order of succession, Romney should be crowned.Paul will brave the headwinds from both the party’s establishment and the mainstream media to modest showings in Colorado, Minnesota, Missouri, Arizona, Michigan and Washington, only to honorably bow out of the race somewhere around Super Tuesday without endorsing any of the remaining candidates (who he believes are not that different from President Barack Obama) and ready for 2016 when he’ll wage another painfully honest, bravely quixotic and sadly utopic presidential run.

NOTES & COMMENTS:

Corporate owners of the Republican Party will never allow ANYBODY but Romney (of those left) to win the nomination. Obama will win 2012 because with "war" no longer "IN" Republicans have NO populist appeal whatever. Freedom? Truth is, for seniors like me who always vote? Freedom is having Medicare.

Mitt Romney has 23 days to confront any political damage from what may become the most memorable moment of Saturday night’s debate — the image of him offering to wager $10,000 to settle a bet with Rick Perry over the contents of Mr. Romney’s latest book.

Mr. Romney heads to New Hampshire Sunday evening and will campaign there, in Iowa and in South Carolina in the coming week as he battles Newt Gingrich and his other rivals before voting begins on Jan. 3. The seven remaining candidates will face each other one more time before then during a debate in western Iowa on Thursday night.

The rapidly closing window for campaigning puts new pressure on the candidates and their campaigns to respond quickly and aggressively to offer defenses against bad debate moments — or to take maximum advantage of good ones.

 Though Gingrich still leads Romney in many national polls, the former Massachusetts governor has gained significant new support in two early-voting states - one reason, perhaps, why he dealt gently with his Republican rivals. He landed the endorsement of the influential Des Moines Register on Saturday, a day after winning the backing of South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, and former Republican nominee Bob Dole endorsed him Sunday in an open letter to Iowans.

 

The Missing Billion (s) .

John Corzine and Solyandra are Obama's biggest problems if re-elected .

Storming the Bastille is the next great big thing in American politics . When a huge amount of money goes missing there is always MF Global's former executives, the CFO and the COO, along with Jon Corzine, the former CEO, testified before the senate agriculture committee. They told the committee that they don't know how an estimated 1.2 billion dollars in customer funds went missing.Unfortunately, all three of them could not offer an explanation, with both Henri Steenkamp and Bradley Abelow saying that they have no idea where the money is. Jon Corzine, former CEO of Goldman Sachs, danced around the question. If you feel like you've heard this before, that's because you have. You heard it last week when former MF Global CEO Jon Corzine testified on the hill -- before the house agriculture committee. Remember, this is the former CEO of Goldman Sachs, the former governor of new jersey and a former united states senator. He was at the helm of MF Global when it disclosed a more than 6 billion dollar bet on european sovereign debt that was part of an entire portfolio that counter parties started to run from in droves as the firm headed towards illiquidity and bankruptcy. How does all this sit with MF Global customers? Well, we speak with one of those customers, Gerald Celente, who was stopped out of his gold futures positions because he was unlucky enough to be a customer with MF Global. He had a segregated account, but apparently, that was no viewed as sacrosanct by Jon Corzine et al. .

NOTES & COMMENTS:

Check out Wall Street and Goldman Sachs as they created the mess and have the money! The people of America have been robbed. Their own leaders ensured that it would be possible.
Be prepared for the collapse. The tsunami is coming soon .Both - corruption in doing the deal and incompetence for not arrainging to hide it properly. HA! Although if we had transparency - something that will never be found in politics, then this whole administration would be out the door and a few would be impeached and or fired, and in jail. .After the collapse, Jon Corzine, the former CEO opf MF Global, immediately went into self imposed exile.  Like the money, he simply vanished.  No one questioned his disappearance or silence.  Not the media, politicians, or the various organizations who normally loudly and publicly protest. Unlike others, who were denigrated, disgraced, and dehumanized, Jon Corzine is getting a free pass.  From everyone.  The president on down.

 

Cleaning out Congress

 Congress resembles a hierarchy with the vary wealthy in control while the people on the bottom struggle. Our Nation has 'evolved' into this less than 50 years.

In Greek mythology, one of the labors required of Hercules was to clean out the Augean stables. These stables, which belonged to Augeas, one of the Argonauts, had housed over a thousand cattle for over thirty years without ever being cleaned. The task of cleaning them in one day, which Hercules had promised, was thought to be impossible. But by using his wits, Hercules succeeded at the task by rerouting two rivers to wash out the filth .Where is our modern day Hercules when we need him? We have some "stables" in our nation’s capital that have become filthy over the past thirty years. Perhaps our Hercules could clean out those stables by rerouting the Potomac RiverSeems lately we hear over and over again how it would be a great idea to “clean out the Congress.” It’s so very easy to agree with that but there’s a vicious problem with that crusade. We’re a nation owned and operated by BIG corporations and their bed fellows BIG government politicians that call themselves progressives and or conservatives, Democrats and or Republicans, better defined as the “Duopoly.” This nation is operated on greed, extortion and bribery. The duopoly owns and operates the media, ballot access and the national debate forum.

So, having recognized those facts as the facts they are we minions are availed with only one possible winner in the political scenery and that’s an assured member of the BIG government duopoly. They capture all of the BIG money from the BIG money folks, they own the ballot access formula, the media and the national debate system. Thus, cleaning out Congress of BIG government Democrats only assures that Congress is refilled with BIG government Republicans. So, the only change we’ll ever get is the faces and party labels on the congressional replacements. Whoever they are individually, they’ll waste our money, overload us and our children with debt, kill off our youth in unconstitutional foreign wars and diminish our individual liberties.

So, go ahead and replace Congress. Been there, done that and it gets worse with every change. All you’ll do is continue the musical chairs stupidity..

 

.

Bailing Out CALIFORNIA.

Jerry Brown's slow  plan  means BIG TAXES on us all

You are all going to bail out CALIFORNIA with superficial taxation that will never solve the states budget problems . Remember  Indian Gaming how  Gov. Schwarzenegger in his first term  went  after revenues from Tribal groups having casinos , money was squeezed from the native Americans .  Since 2003 taxes in California have crept up , since many voters were pressured into approving "bonds" to pay off deficit after deficit .But faced with the prospect of withering budget cuts and deficits that stretch through at least the middle of the decade, that may be about to change.A near glut of initiatives that would raise taxes are being aimed at the November 2012 ballot. A group of Republican and Democratic business leaders and former state officials calling itself the Think Long Committee for California is drafting an initiative to raise $10 billion by expanding the sales tax to services, while reducing personal and corporate taxes. Gov. Jerry Brown, a Democrat, and legislators are negotiating the details of an income tax surcharge on the state’s top earners and for a sales tax increase that in its latest form would raise $6 billionIn addition, labor unions want voters to approve even bigger sales and income tax increases, and environmental groups last week proposed an initiative to close a business tax loophole that they said would produce $1.2 billion for education and energy projects.
There are so many plans out there that some Democrats are warning about tax initiative gridlock on the ballot.
It is highly unlikely that all these initiatives will qualify for the ballot, and Democrats say they are working to make sure that not all of them do. Not incidentally, California’s formidable network of antitax groups is not about to be caught off guard and is confident about beating back the efforts at the polls.

NOTES & COMMENTS:

And yet they’re willing to spend 18 million dollars on tuition so illegals can have in-state status.  Absurd.18 million, the state budget office has just said it will cost 65 miilion and will continue to go up.  But he wants more taxes so he can spend it on the illegals, who don’t pay taxes no matter what anyone says California is facing a projected $13 billion shortfall over the next 18 months. With tax revenue running behind projections, the budget passed last summer calls for automatic spending cuts after the first of the new year to higher education, public schools and some social services.“The combination of income and sales tax hikes would raise about $7 billion and expire in 2016.”In a state that is almost $30 billion in debt, the only thing the Democrats can suggest is raising taxes on the “wealthy” and then raising sales taxes on everyone.  But they never want to address the problem of overspending which has caused their financial mess.Why is it that the only solution for the Democrats seems to always be raise taxes?

 GOP lawmaker tears up Jerry Brown Budget.

Newt 's Revenge .

 Newt has served many years . Now it's his time to give the GOP contenders a Payback, Sure enough it's Newt's Revenge 

Sharks are swimming around Obama . One of  them isGingrich probably has at least as good a chance of getting a pass on his various transgressions in 2012 as Reagan, Schwarzenegger, and Clinton did. If 2012 were an ordinary election year, Gingrich would be doomed by his gaffes, three marriages, and fleeting alliances with Hillary Clinton on health care and Nancy Pelosi on global warming. But 2012 is different. Republicans are fixated on defeating President Obama. They’re obsessed. They think about little else. And if that means choosing a candidate with a lurid past and a penchant for self-destruction to beat Obama, Republicans are likely to swallow hard and nominate Gingrich Republicans have always wanted a candidate who is bold and tough, and Gingrich is. Recent polls have shown Gingrich at or near the top of the Republican field, along with Mitt Romney. With a little less than six weeks to go until the Iowa caucuses, people are listening to the former Georgia congressman.They’re not sure about Mitt Romney, who is cautious, conventional, and sounds more conciliatory than Gingrich. There’s a reason Romney’s support has been stuck for months at roughly a quarter of the Republican electorate. His blandness explains it. Gingrich is anything but bland.To rally behind Gingrich, Repub-licans wouldn’t have to forgive his past sins, just treat them as irrelevant. They already talk about how sweet it would be to see Gingrich crush Obama in presidential debates. They don’t see Romney that way.But Romney has two important traits Gingrich lacks: carefulness and self-discipline. He doesn’t shoot off his mouth recklessly, as Gingrich often has. In May, the former House speaker practically blew up his campaign by attacking Representative Paul Ryan’s Medicare reform plan as “right-wing social engineering.” He later apologized.Yet in all this, the media didn’t begin to push back until Gingrich started rising in the polls. It was too late. Gingrich had already reaped accolades from Republicans and conservatives for standing up to the media. The irony is that Gingrich, more than any other candidate, is indebted to the media. Without the debates, he’d be a hopeless also-ran. Last June, his campaign was at death’s door. It was heavily in debt. Most of Gingrich’s advisers had quit. Only his strong performance in the debates saved him from humiliation and defeat Gingrich turns out to be a shrewd analyst of himself and his prospects. He has told friends he’s like Richard Nixon, not particularly likable and hated by the press and the left.And far from a stumble, Tuesday night's remarks seemed a calculated tactic to draw a contrast with Romney, whom he now sees as his chief rival to the party nomination and who has had his own trouble with conservatives, largely because of the health care overhaul law he pushed through as governor of Massachusetts.

But Romney has been tough on undocumented immigration while running for president. He said Tuesday night that what Gingrich was proposing would act as a magnet for foreigners to enter the country without documents.He’s hardly a perfect candidate, but against a weak field, he can win the nomination and beat Obama in a tight race. And by the way, he’s the best of the bunch in connecting with the populist yearnings and resentments of average Americans..

NOTES AND COMMENTS:.

No matter which party decides to tackle this issue, they have to realize that deporting illegal immigrants will cost LOTS of money, money we don't have. Hotheaded approaches to this issue have done nothing to solve it.

Newt is soliciting a PRAGMATIC approach, and the right will simply have to adjust it's temparment on their hardline view. His is the best approach based on the reality on the ground.

Many of the immigrants that are of the group he indentfied

­, have been productive and law abiding citizens who have already been here long enough to have become 'natuarliz­ed.'

I think once the conservati­ve base realizes that America can't just uproot these entire families and toss them out, they'll come around to Newt's way of thinking. What's to lose.nothi­ng has worked, because everyone is too unreasonab­le about a path forward on the issue.

under the influence: No matter which party decides to tackle this issue, theyt is a sad commentary on the state of the nation, that bottom-fee

­ders like Newt Gingrich get in trouble for the only DECENT things they say. Pandering to birthers, appealing to the basest of instincts, booing gay soldiers, all these things are fine with the base.

Saying that people who have lived here for 25 years should not be deported or that it is in the best interests of the country to educate the children of illegal immigrants­? Throw the bum out. Sigh...

The supercommmittee failure = Higher Taxes.

The supercommittee's inability to reach a deal on the deficit this week is a multi-dimensional failure. Your Taxes are going up!

If you're most concerned about the deficit, you'll care most that the supercommittee failed to reduce the deficit. If you're most concerned about taxes, you'll care most that they've punted the punt on tax reform. If you're most concerned about growth, as I am, you'll care most that we've missed an opportunity to expand and extend stimulus measures like the payroll tax cut and unemployment benefits. And if you're most concerned about the optics of Congress doing its job, you'll care most that our leaders don't seem to care much at all. STRANGELY this failure of Congress is linked to the  RAISING  of your TAXES. Don't be fooled , I am telling you all NOW it's a RIGGED CONGRESS . With the National Debt at 15 trillion , the government can't cut , so they play out some game called impasse would you know . So their failure means BIG BUCKS out of your wallet and into the federal reserves . No tax extensions, we all heard Obama whimpering at a press conference  . Yes he's on your side no  and fooling.  This debacle is going to cost the average tax payer at least 1000 dollars a year more starting January 1 , 2012.These four failures are all good reasons to be angry, dispirited, or simply exhausted by Congress's bipartisan re-failure. Now would be a responsible time to reduce the deficit. Now would be a fine time to trade in our ridiculous clown car of a tax code -- too crowded to be ideal, too small to be practical. Now would be a perfect time for Congress to buck its critics by reaching an agreement that reformed entitlements, raised taxes, and extended stimulus.But the failure you should care about the most is the failure that we'll feel first. And that's the failure to address the growth crisis.The U.S. government has vast needs. We need to put more people to work. We need to keep money in families' pockets. We need to build roads and pipes. We need help local and state governments. With all of these needs, you'd probably hope for some free money. That's funny, because, as Ezra Klein wrote this morning, the U.S. government can borrow money at rates as close to "free" as we've ever seen. "As of Friday, the federal government could borrow for five years at a real interest rate of -0.7 percent," he wrote. That means that "that once inflation is taken into account, the bank is paying you to borrow money. That just doesn't happen. But right now, it's happening for the United States government."

 NOTES & COMMENTS:

The sad part of this story is that they are not even trying to cut spending, politicians are the only group that considers a 5% decrease of a 20% increase as a spending cut and they cannot even agree not to increase spending. Freeze the budget at the current level until a comprehensive review and reform can take place with no more pushing the decision to the next president or future congress. As a proud member of the “1% “club I will declare it is not the tax rate that has me upset but the rate of spending. God knows that the current and past administrations and congress has cost ten times more in lost equity in our homes, IRAs, and other investments from lack of leadership then if they had increased everyone’s taxes significantly. If the so called Bush Tax Cuts are the reason for the country's economic problems then repeal it completely and take everyone back to the grand old days of the Clinton balanced budget and let the public see just who benefited the most over the past 12 years. Under the current logic if everyone contributed fairly the problems would be solved. Since 2008 we have personally reduced our debt by more than 80% and thankfully in six more months we will be debt free, it is amazing how much can be saved without high interest rates and other unnecessary spending, this administration and congress should for once quit the political posturing and try the same.

Just because the failure was bipartisan doesn't mean each party shares equally in the blame. The standard line is that, while deficit reduction requires both revenue and entitlement reform, Republicans won't do revenue and Democrats won't do entitlement reform. But this report from the New York Times suggests that Democrats offered a proposal to reduce deficits by $3 trillion over 10 years with $1.3 trillion of new revenue and the beginnings of entitlement reform.

The Democratic proposal included as much as $500 billion of savings in health care programs, higher Medicare premiums for high-income beneficiaries and use of a less generous measure of inflation that would reduce annual cost-of-living adjustments in Social Security benefits.
A day later Republicans on the committee rejected the Democratic offer and came back with a proposal that would reduce deficits by $2.2 trillion and that included $640 billion of nontax revenue that Democrats said was too modest.

If true, these reports suggest that Democrats offered Republicans not only a fair deal, but a center-right deal in line with the Bowles-Simpson plan that received votes from multiple sitting Republican senators.

Consider the following: Their deal would have raised taxes by 43 cents for every dollar saved. By comparison, in the five grand bargains of the 1980s and early 1990s, tax increases accounted for 61 cents of every dollar saved, Catherine Rampell wrote for the New York Times. "In President Reagan's 1982 and 1984 budget-trimming deals, more than 80 percent of deficit reductions came from tax increases," she said.

You might say that Democrats didn't go far enough on entitlement reform. But they went just as far as Bowles-Simpson and the Bipartisan Policy Center's deficit plans. Both of those panels found about 15% of their savings in health care and Social Security savings. The Democrats' found about 16%.

The GOP's excuse for rejecting the Democrats' offer is that "now is not the time to raise taxes." This is a nifty juke for two reasons. First, there is no such thing as "the time to raise taxes" for Republicans. Second, "now" isn't the time most Democrats wants to raise taxes, anyway. The White House is still pushing for an extension for the payroll tax cut, which would keep effective tax rates at 50-year lows for most families. The supercommittee could have easily voted to schedule tax increases to begin in 2013 on the most wealthy and creep into the upper-middle class over the course of the decade as the economy moves to full strength.

This is your upshot. The supercommmittee has failed not because Democrats wouldn't touch entitlements, but because Republicans can't bring themselves to meaningfully raise taxes.

Super Committee kryptonite.

Super Sub Committee is facing Kryptonite for it's deadline , where's Obama?

Regardless, one would think that the expression of outrage and revulsion from the public in response to the shenanigans during the debt ceiling crisis would have been enough for our political leaders to cautiously avoid backing themselves into another such scenario. But not so. Along with new rules for student loans and forcing a vote on a constitutional amendment that everyone knows has no chance of passing, and oh-by-the-way raising the debt limit, Congress included in the Budget Control Act of 2011 a few time bombs .There's a subtle divide between what some Super Committee members are saying publicly and what's going on behind closed doors as the deadline looms to trim the federal deficit by $1.2 trillion in the next nine days. In rare television appearances, Super Committee Republicans Jeb Hensarling and Patrick Toomey spoke on CNN's State of the Union and Fox News Sunday respectively, telegraphing serious doubts on the likelihood of an agreement and opening the door to deferring powers away from the committee or even scrapping the trigger designed to automatically-impose budget cuts. All the while, various reports from inside the Super Committee show some broad outlines of a deal between Democrats and Republicans emerging, though still far from certain

Seems to me the media have been perfectly sanguine about the complete failure of the federal government to pass a budget in how many years? As far as I am concerned that's an abdication of their constitutional duty. But if that has been okey-dokey since the present administration came into power, why should anyone be that the Super Committee is merely a stall. Lots of sound and fury, as someone said.The Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, a.k.a. Supercommitte, whose 12 members were picked by congressional leaders in the House and Senate, and who are split evenly between Democrats and Republicans, and who for some reason we prefer to call 'Super' and not 'Ultra' or 'Mega' or 'New and Improved', have until November 23 to agree on deficit reduction legislation and report back to both houses of Congress. If the Supercommittee is unable to arrive at an agreement and detonates the first time bomb on November 23, the special provisions that would allow for a simple majority up or down vote in both houses of Congress will expire (sec. 402 (g)). What is so significant about November 23, 2011? As far as I can tell it is either 1) completely arbitrary or 2) part of a plot to ruin Thanksgiving. Otherwise, I'm not sure what reason there could be for setting a three month deadline on a proposal regarding debt that will be incurred over the next ten years.Once the proposal is in Congress, provisions written into the Budget Control Act limits debate in both houses, forbids amendments in both houses, and forbids filibusters in the Senate. Both the House and Senate must pass the bill by December 23rd to avoid the second time bomb, again the penalty being that the special debate limits on the bill will expire. And what is so significant about December 23, 2011? As far as I can tell it is either 1) completely arbitrary or 2) part of a plot to ruin Christmas .Can the two sides breach the gap? As the Nov. 23 deadline looms, we'll find out soon enough..

NOTES & COMMENTS:

If both of the above artificial deadlines are missed, it is still possible for Congress to avoid the final ultimate artificial deadline of January 15, 2012 (sec. 302 (a)) by passing any joint committee bill that reduces the deficit by $1.2 trillion. And what is so significant about January 15, 2012? As far as I can tell it is either 1) completely arbitrary or 2) part of a plot to ruin MLK day. If the last time bomb goes off on January 15, cuts will occur through a process called sequestration, which sounds like something the Humane Society might do to a stray dog, but actually means “sequestering” funds above a certain cap, even if those funds had been previously allocated.

Sequestration would not affect the budget across-the-board, as certain entitlement programs are exempt. I've seen reported various lists of items that would not be touched by these automatic cuts, all of which seem include to Medicaid. But first hand information has been difficult for me to come by, as many of the provisions in the Budget Control Act of 2011 are amendments to the Budget Control Act of 1985 (known as Gramm-Rudman) and amendments to the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974, neither of which I have been able to find online.

Discretionary spending caps can be found in Section 302 of this years bill for years 2013-2021, divided between security and non-security categories.

To summarize, a deadline regarding debt, whether real or imagined, made fools of us all earlier in the year and resulted in our nation's first ever credit downgrade. So Congress decided it would be a great idea to schedule a few more of these embarrassing episodes over the next five months and relegated much of it's legislative responsibility to a Supercommittee.

And if the Supercommitte doesn't work out, maybe Congress will consider seeking assistance from Batman. It makes at least as much sense as anything they've done so far regarding this issue.

California woes,

 

California

still facing problems with it's budget , like a wave . How it compares with other states ?

In 2002 California was notoriously famous as the STATE with the LATE budget , some times the budget would be a half a year late , and people took it to be the NORM and paid no attention to it.  SUDDENLY the state had out of the blue a 21billion dollar deficit  ( previously California  had a 21 billion dollar surplus? )  Regardless , there had been excuses for the budgetary shortfalls without any kinda of investigation . California has one of the highest taxes in any part of the country . Some pundits blame PROP 13 . I don't blame Prop 13 as the cause of the budget shortfalls , since Prop 13  Californians have been paying much higher taxes almost on anything including Capital Gains Tax has tripled for those who sell and buy homes . Property Tax rates have been substantially higher since . As much as I care to say if you add all the tax that we pay to the STATE and FEDERAL governments there should be NO billion  dollar deficits at all. So what is wrong here?Why aren't our legislators held accountable for this rampant overspending? It's all well and good to have public service programs, but NOT if we cannot sustain them. Those of us with jobs (and we are becoming fewer and fewer) are continuously "asked" to support these freebie programs to a majority of people who are either too lazy or stoned to get up off their duffs and support themselves! California has fallen prey to an entitlement mentality and the word is out. Our government is the Mother Teat to anyone wanting to come nurse.California's nonpartisan fiscal analyst projected the state to have a $13 billion budget shortfall over the next 18 months. That likely means Gov. Jerry Brown and state lawmakers will have to make another round of spending cuts. A shortfall of that large would trigger cuts to public schools, higher education, services for seniors and health care programs for the needy, under the budge passed during the summer.A series of automatic cuts, called triggers, will take effect based on revenue reports from the Legislative Analyst's Office and the governor's Department of Finance.Under the budget deal Gov. Jerry Brown signed in June, the state will automatically cut a variety of programs depending on how deep budget analysts determine the revenue shortfall will be. If the state falls between $1 billion and $2 billion short, the budget calls for cuts in higher education, social services and public safety. If the state falls more than $2 billion short, the state will cut K-12 schools and community colleges. More on this here

NOTES & COMMENTS:

BUDGET IMPASSE .

The federal deficit was a major talking point in the 2010 elections, with Republican candidates in particular touting the virtues of "fiscal responsibility" and the need for cutting spending. Indeed, the federal deficit has grown at breakneck pace: since the surpluses of the late 1990s and early 2000s, the deficit has swollen considerably, exceeding $1 trillion every year since fiscal year 2009. Yet despite receiving less national attention, state budget deficits are also creating precarious fiscal situations nationwide. Falling tax revenue and the end of federal Recovery Act assistance may make the coming fiscal year the most difficult yet for many U.S. states. In Illinois, which is facing some of the worst fiscal troubles in the nation, Democratic Gov. Patrick Quinn on Thursday approved tax hikes to fight the red ink, increasing personal income tax rates from 3 to 5 percent, and business income taxes from 7.3 to 9.5 percent.

Before they pass budgets, states project their revenues and outlays for the coming fiscal year. Every state except Vermont has a balanced budget law in one form or another, so legislators must close any gap between revenues and outlays before they can pass a formal budget. Cumulatively, those state budget gaps have grown to staggering levels during the current recession. Fiscal year 2010 saw the largest state deficit total ever, with $191 billion. Such figures tower over state deficit figures from previous recession years. During the recession of the early 2000s, the largest cumulative state budget deficit was $80 billion, in 2004. According to a recent report from the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, the total deficit projection for the current fiscal year is $160 billion. In FY 2012, which in most states will begin on July 1, 2011, that projection is slightly lower, at $140 billion. However, federal stimulus funds, which offset more than one-third of total budget shortfalls in 2010 and 2011, will run out in 2012, leaving states to handle their sizable budget gaps largely alone.

Phil Oliff, a policy analyst at the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, says that states will have to undertake a number of measures to bring their budgets out of the red. "States are facing a very significant fiscal problem," he says. "The problem states are facing is really too big for any single solution." Those solutions include tactics like raising taxes, cutting spending, and drawing on reserves—all of which are potentially risky and could further threaten recovery.

Below are the 10 states that are projecting the largest shortfalls for FY 2012.

State	Projected FY 2012 shortfall (in millions of dollars)
California	$21,300
Illinois	17,000
New Jersey	10,500
Texas	10,000
New York	8,200
Connecticut	3,800
Minnesota	3,800
North Carolina	3,000
Ohio	3,000
Florida (tie)	2,500
Oregon (tie)	2,500

When viewed as a percentage of the full state budget, the task of closing these budget gaps can appear even more daunting. In Illinois, for example, the $17 billion 2012 shortfall is more than half the size of the 2011 state budget. Altogether, 40 states project shortfalls for their 2012 budgets, with a total that equals 19 percent—nearly one-fifth—of their 2011 budgets. Below are the ten states with the largest projected 2012 shortfalls, relative to their most recent budgets.

State	Projected FY 2012 shortfall (in millions of dollars)	Shortfall as Percentage of FY 2011 Budget
Illinois	$17,000	52.3
New Jersey	10,500	37.5
Nevada	1,300	36.7
Mississippi	1,200	27.6
South Carolina	1,300	26.1
California	21,300	25.7
Minnesota	3,800	25
Texas	10,000	22.3
Connecticut	3,800	21.6
Louisiana	1,700	21.2

Forget Iran , think Pakistan ,and India.

America needs to rethink a lot of things , while the nation is focused on Iran . A whole lot has slipped.

WHEN it comes to nuclear danger, North Korea and Iran grab everyone’s attention.The 'heat' is on to disarm Iran . Has the United States been hypocritical? On May 28, 1998, when the jubilant masses poured to the streets to cheer Pakistan's string of nuclear tests, they shouted "Allah Akbar!". They paraded, and celebrated around, models of the Hatf - Pakistan's tactical nuclear missile - marked "Islamic bomb". In Friday prayers, Mullahs stressed that the tests are a "triumph for Islam." Completely ignored were President Nawaz Sharief's explanations that these nuclear tests were Pakistan's reaction to the Indian threat. And herein - in the stark difference between action and the politicians' rhetoric - the quandary lies.Pakistan would be an obvious place for a jihadist organization to seek a nuclear weapon or fissile material: it is the only Muslim-majority state, out of the 50 or so in the world, to have successfully developed nuclear weapons; its central government is of limited competence and has serious trouble projecting its authority into many corners of its territory (on occasion it has difficulty maintaining order even in the country’s largest city, Karachi); Pakistan’s military and security services are infiltrated by an unknown number of jihadist sympathizers; and many jihadist organizations are headquartered there already. Picking on Israel makes the silence—and hypocrisy—that surrounds nuclear-armed India and Pakistan all the stranger. Like Israel, neither joined the NPT so their bomb-building did not break its rules. Yet their rivalry is fuelling the fastest, most dangerous build-up of bomb-usable plutonium and uranium anywhere. And a proposed sale by China of two civilian nuclear reactors to proliferation-prone, unstable Pakistan points to a further distinction. Although much of the world has co-operated over North Korea and Iran, everyone is competing over India and Pakistan to make things worse .India was jubilant in 2008 when America strong-armed an exemption from this no-trade rule past the NSG. India was fast running out of domestic uranium to keep building bombs as well as lighting homes. Now uniquely exempted from the NSG trade ban, India has various deals pending with Russia, France, Britain, South Korea and other NSG members that involve supplying reactor fuel too. So India is now freer to use more of its own uranium for bombs.Barack Obama did not like the India deal struck by his predecessor, George Bush. Helping India’s nuclear ambitions clashes particularly badly with Mr Obama’s promise to seek “the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons”. In weighing those fine promises against America’s relations with India, however, Mr Obama has chosen not to offend India by helping Pakistan too. So Pakistan turned to China.

NOTES & COMMENTS:

"So Obama, since he is clearly unhappy with what Bush did, is seeking to "re-contain" Iran? LOL!"
The way things are going Obama seems to be one confused guy LOLZ! I think he will most likely be a one time Prez so who cares? We will see! Reminds me of "Second Coming" by Yeats:
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the wors
Are full of passionate intensity.

Where's the TEA PARTY?

Just where is the Tea Party in times like this?

With all the ruckus regarding the Occupy Wall Street people . Just where is the counter Tea Party rallies ? Let me clue you all in my Talking points . The Tea Party merged with the Occupy Wall Street group .But the biggest difference between the Tea Party and Occupy Wall street... Where was Occupy Wall Street when the bailouts were being handed out? . Why do I say that? Here is my break down of the two most influential groups . Here is how similar they are, and some differences ? You and me are my guess . The Tea Party mania may have evolved into the Occupier movement . I like what Dick Morris said : "similarities between Occupy Wall Street and the Tea Party. Disliking the bigness of Wall Street or its combination's with big government to hurt small business is not a left or a right issue. It’s a concern of both! "

• Both are frustrated with a government and institutions who are seen as overstepping their bounds, driven by self-interest and no longer serving the "American people."
• Both have leveraged the energy into large gatherings of people in order to be  a visible and passionate expression of that frustration.
• Both are claiming to speak on behalf of a large sector of the United States who share their frustration.
• Both have been targets of media and political sensationalism and labeled, "anarchist" "fringe" or "radical" and have had "bad apples" used as sources for broad sweeping characterizations.
• Both have individuals -- the aforementioned "bad apples" -- who act in ways that do not represent the core values of the movement.
• Both have had politicians, entertainers, organizations and religious leaders pledge their support.
• Both illicit strong emotional responses from those who see themselves as part of the ideological opposition.

NOTES & COMMENTS:


The descriptions on Occupy Wall Street broke down into several, sometimes somewhat conflicting categories:

They are really mad at President Obama. "The community is organizing against the community organizer," cracked Andrew Breitbart.
They were inspired by Obama and other Democrats, so anything they do can be blamed on Obama and his party. "They would not be organizing if they were not blessed by Nancy Pelosi and organized by Obama," said Breitbart. "Occupy Wall Street is the direct result of Barack Obama's relentless class warfare that he's been practicing since he was a candidate," said Rudy Giuliani. "I believe that Barack Obama owns the Occupy Wall Street movement. It would not have happened but for his class warfare. He praised it, supported it, agrees with it, sympathized with it. As it gets worse and worse it will be the millstone that takes his presidency down."
They are a bunch of lazy hippies. "I'm happier than a hippie in Zuccotti Park on free hash brownie day," joked Jonah Goldberg, who apparently moonlights as a Borscht Belt comedian. "How about you occupy a job?" Giuliani rhetorically asked the protesters. "How about working? I know that's tough. Woodstock is more fun. How about proceeding with your education? Nah, they'd rather do Woodstock in Manhattan, which is what it's turned into."
(Giuliani must be unaware of the widely reported fact that many of the protesters hold a bachelor's or even master's degrees, and it is because they cannot find work to pay off their student loans that they are protesting.)

 The New Yorker reported last week that some Occupy Wall Street activists think the Tea Party is as legitimate a movement as their own, and one they should seek to work with. The feeling is not mutual.