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Heartland Coin Gallery is the Premier Gold, Silver, Old Coin and Currency Dealer for Kansas, Nebraska, and Oklahoma. We're always buying gold, silver, coins, jewelry and scrap precious metals in our NEW NE Wichita location. Now is an excellent time to sell your unwanted gold or silver jewelry, scrap gold or silver, stering silver pieces, and old US coins. We'll PAY you a "GAS BONUS of $10." if you sell us at least $100 worth of scrap gold or silver, so get our estimate, today!

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Read today's News (below) on a daily basis, to stay well informed. Profit from economic uncertainty by understanding the times.

HEADLINE Economic, Financial & Global News...

Thursday 06.20.2013

What Lies Ahead for Gold?
By Jeff Clark - GoldSeek.com
….The fundamental case for gold is growing, not diminishing. In spite of the downtrend in the price, the conditions that support the long-term bull market are increasing in importance. The US and Japan alone will flood the world with almost $2 trillion over the next 12 months. Europe's problems have not been solved, and the Eurozone teeters on the edge of a recession. And did you know that not one G20 country currently has a balanced budget? The current fiscal and monetary path of many major countries remains unsustainable, and no amount of selling by traders and hedge fund managers has changed that.
One might argue that these issues now have a diminished effect on the gold market. Regardless of whether that's true, the effects of these actions have not played out. There is no easy way out of the corner our political leaders have painted themselves into. In other words, the damage has already been done to our fiscal and monetary state. The endgame to our debt situation hasn't changed. When the ramifications begin setting in, it will be imperative that we all have meaningful exposure to gold.

Own Physical Gold as Governments Destroy Wealth
and Squander Tax Payers' Money
By David Levenstein - GoldSilverWorlds.com
Gold prices have failed to hold above the key resistance level of $1400 an ounce even though the fundamental driving forces behind the precious metal have not changed and as the global monetary system remains as precarious as ever.
While some investors may think they are getting wealthier because they see the value of their equity portfolio increase, others are seeing the value of their hard earned cash gradually erode due to the low interest rate environment. And, while mainstream media particularly in the USA claim that the economy is recovering due to the recent stock market rally, this rise in prices is due to an economic stimulus programme engineered by the US Federal Reserve and has nothing to do with a vibrant economy.

Silver And Gold Ratios
By Mark J Lundeen - SilverBearCafe.com
The silver to gold ratio (SGR) reached a new high of the move last Monday (June 10th) of 66.23 ounces of silver to one ounce of gold. This is a huge retracement from its low of 32.00 to an ounce of gold on 25 April 2011. Today, an ounce of gold can purchase twice as much silver as it could 26 months ago. Sounds like a good time to exchange some gold for silver.
The SGR may continue increasing for a while, but we must be near the point where it will resume its bull-market decline. It's hard to make the case that there are 60 ounces of silver available for each ounce of gold available in the global inventory.

Get Ready for Stupid Cheap Silver Prices
Interview with David H. Smith - SilverSeek.com
It's a jungle out in the silver markets. Investors are holding on for their lives as the price of metals swings to higher highs and lower lows and junior equities bounce along the bottom. In this interview with The Gold Report, David H. Smith, senior analyst at silver-investor.com's The Morgan Report, navigates the jungle by advising buying on the way down and selling on the inevitable way up.
The Gold Report: David, Silver Investor analyzes the long-term macro trends and specific stock catalysts in the silver market. What do you see as the risk/reward profile over the next 12 to 36 months in the space?
David Smith: A lot of people, including myself, are looking for a bottom. It may be in—or it may not be in. The secret is to focus on the upside, which could be 10 or 15 times higher, rather than asking if it could be two or three dollars lower. That makes it easier to buy at these prices.

Fed tapering could begin later this year
Talk of bond-purchase tapering slams financial markets
By Greg Robb, MarketWatch.com
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said on Wednesday that the central bank may start to scale back its asset purchases later this year if the economy continues to strengthen, as the central bank expects.
The Fed, which kept monetary policy on hold after a two-day meeting, signaled greater optimism about the economy, forecasting that the unemployment rate could fall to 6.5% by 2014, one year sooner than the central bank had previously estimated.

Fed Decision: Breaking Down the FOMC Forecasts
June 19 (Bloomberg) -- The Federal Reserve will keep buying bonds at a pace of $85 billion a month and said that risks to the economy have decreased. Peter Cook reports on Bloomberg Television's "Money Moves." (Source: Bloomberg)

The Chairman Just Killed The Bernanke Put:
Fed Ready To Taper QE This Year
By Agustino Fontevecchia, Forbes Staff
In his post-FOMC press conference, Fed chief Ben Bernanke unveiled to reporters his plan for tapering asset purchases, indicating they are expected to begin later this year and end at some point toward the middle of 2014, if and only if the economy accompanies the Fed's "moderately optimistic forecast." Despite his best attempts at telegraphing to the market that tapering still means increasing policy accommodation, stocks and Treauries sold off hard, with the Dow clocking in triple digit losses and the 10-year note yield jumping to 2.34%.
Bernanke delivered the show most Fed watchers expected, and came out guns blazing after the FOMC statement revealed "diminished" downside risks to the economy. If things work out as expected over the next six to twelve months, the Fed will begin to draw-down its asset purchases, currently running at a pace of $85 billion a month, and end them at some point next year, when the unemployment rate hits 7%.

Bernanke Exit Signaled by Obama Means Tapering,
Feldstein Says
By Jeanna Smialek - Bloomberg.com
PresidentBarack Obama clearly signaled this week that Federal Reserve chairman Ben S. Bernanke will be leaving the central bank when his term ends in January and that looming departure means Bernanke will want to begin tapering asset purchases this year, said Harvard University economics professor Martin Feldstein.
The Fed has been making $85 billion in monthly bond purchases in an effort to spur job growth and galvanize faster U.S. economic expansion. The policy making Federal Open Market Committee is meeting today in Washington, with four more FOMC meetings scheduled before the end of the year.

After Two Months Of Deflation,
CPI Rises On Higher Rent As Bernanke And The Taper Loom
By Agustino Fontevecchia, Forbes Staff
Ahead of one of the most important Fed meetings in recent memory, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released inflation data for May, which showed the consumer price index rising for the first time in three months. The gains were driven by the shelter component, as rents got more expensive, while the food index fell. While the Fed seems to have been focusing on labor markets to determine the extent of its program of quantitative easing and record low rates, creeping disinflation could stay Bernanke's hand. Tuesday's release, therefore, gives the Federal Reserve greater flexibility.
Headline CPI gained 0.1% in May, marking its second positive reading in at least the past seven months and coming in below expectations which called for a 0.2% print. Over the past 12 months, CPI inflation is up 1.4%, accelerating from April's 1.1% reading.

Obama 'Essentially Fired' Bernanke: Meyer
By: Bruno J. Navarro - CNBC.com
President Barack Obama "essentially fired" Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke in televised remarks this week, former Federal Reserve Governor Laurence Meyer said Tuesday.
"I almost fell off my chair when I heard the president's remarks last night," he said on CNBC's "Fast Money."
"He essentially fired Ben Bernanke on the spot and gave him a fairly tepid testimonial afterward. It's time to really now focus on who the next chairman might be."

Obama: Ben Bernanke Stayed
at Federal Reserve Longer Than He Wanted
June 18 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama speaks with Charlie Rose about Federal reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's role in the United States' recovery and his commitment to staying in office longer than he wanted to. Courtesy: Charlie Rose

Farewell Bernanke –
Thanks For Inflating The Biggest Bond Bubble
The World Has Ever Seen
By Michael Snyder - TheEconomicCollapseBlog.com
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is on the way out the door, but the consequences of the bond bubble that he has helped to create will stay with us for a very, very long time. During Bernanke's tenure, interest rates on U.S. Treasuries have fallen to record lows. This has enabled the U.S. government to pile up an extraordinary amount of debt. During his tenure we have also seen mortgage rates fall to record lows. All of this has helped to spur economic activity in the short-term, but what happens when interest rates start going back to normal? If the average rate of interest on U.S. government debt rises to just 6 percent, the U.S. government will suddenly be paying out a trillion dollars a year just in interest on the national debt. And remember, there have been times in the past when the average rate of interest on U.S. government debt has been much higher than that. In addition, when the U.S. government starts having to pay more to borrow money so will everyone else. What will that do to home sales and car sales? And of course we all remember what happened to adjustable rate mortgages when interest rates started to rise just prior to the last recession. We have gotten ourselves into a position where the U.S. economy simply cannot afford for interest rates to go up. We have become addicted to the cheap money made available by a grossly distorted financial system, and we have Ben Bernanke to thank for that. The Federal Reserve is at the very heart of the economic problems that we are facing in America, and this time is certainly no exception.

The Next Fed Chief: Who's Best to Replace Ben Bernanke?
June 19 (Bloomberg) -- Bloomberg Economics Editor Michael McKee handicaps candidates to replace Ben Bernanke when his time is done at the Federal Reserve.

Low Inflation Gives Bernanke Time
to Press on With QE: Economy
By Joshua Zumbrun & Jeff Kearns - Bloomberg.com
The lowest inflation since the brink of the Kennedy-era economic boom in the 1960s is buying time for Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke to press on with the central bank's $85 billion in monthly bond purchases.
A gauge of consumer prices excluding food and energy that is watched by the Fed rose 1.1 percent in the year through April, matching the smallest gain since records started in 1960. With inflation below the Fed's 2 percent long-run goal and the jobless rate at 7.6 percent, the Fed is falling short of its mandate to ensure stable prices and maximum employment.

Two ways to actually cure the financial crisis
By Will Bancroft - GoldSeek.com
A huge amount of air time has been given to how to fix the financial crisis. Within this we've heard lots of hot air, sound bites but few real answers. Lots of the most prominently featured recommendations come from those who, as Nasim Taleb quips, 'crashed the plane' in the first place.
There is one man who you should really listen to though. He's called Professor Kevin Dowd.
You might have come across him via his various academic seats past and present, or more likely seen his work promoted by various think tanks and financial sites.

Senator: IRS to pay $70M in employee bonuses
By STEPHEN OHLEMACHER - APNews.MyWay.com
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Internal Revenue Service is about to pay $70 million in employee bonuses despite an Obama administration directive to cancel discretionary bonuses because of automatic spending cuts enacted this year, according to a GOP senator.
Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa says his office has learned that the IRS is executing an agreement with the employees' union on Wednesday to pay the bonuses. Grassley says the bonuses should be canceled under an April directive from the White House budget office.

Volcker Challenges Bernanke On Inflation
By Christopher Whalen, Breitbart.com

"What is at issue--what is always at issue--is a matter of good judgment, leadership, and institutional backbone. A willingness to act with conviction in the face of predictable political opposition and substantive debate is, as always, a requisite part of a central bank's DNA." - Paul Volcker, Speech to the Economic Club of New York, May 29, 2013

The financial markets continue to show heightened volatility in the wake of comments by Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke about "tapering" the central bank's purchases of Treasury bonds and mortgage securities. The lack of clear direction from economic indicators like unemployment and housing only serves to magnify the uncertainty about the direction of Fed policy, this despite Chairman Bernanke's stated desire to be "open kimono."
David Kotok, CEO of Cumberland Advisors, puts it well: "In the last month, we have seen the failure of communication by the leadership of two central banks. Chairman Ben Bernanke gave a message that was obfuscated and misread by markets. His counterpart in Japan did the same. The result was turmoil in markets, increased volatility, and high uncertainty as measured by market-based indicators of risk premia. In the US, the interest rate on a home mortgage is now higher than it has been in months."

Keiser Report - Episode 459
Published on Jun 18, 2013
Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert report from Belfast on location at the G8 and anti-G8 meetings. They juxtapose the protests in China where thousands wait in line to buy gold to protect against G8-style inflationary policies to the less-effective protests in Belfast where placards are waved in 'free speech zones;' while in Westminster, secret proposals are drafted by Rothschilds to retroactively raise interest rates on $40 billion in outstanding student loan debts. The plan is suggested in order to make the debt more attractive to private investors. In the second half, Max talks to independent journalist, Luke Rudkowski, about fake shopfronts in Belfast meant to disguise the true state of the economy and about the few protesters demanding communism and socialism when that's part of the reason our financial and economic systems have collapsed.

Washington Is Insane
By Paul Craig Roberts
In the 21st century the two hundred year-old propaganda that the American people control their government has been completely shattered. Both the Bush and Obama regimes have made it unmistakenly clear that the American people don't even influence, much less control, the government. As far as Washington is concerned, the people are nothing but chaff in the wind.
Polls demonstrate that 65% of the US population opposes US intervention in Syria. Despite this clear indication of the people's will, the Obama regime is ramping up a propaganda case for more arming of Washington's mercenaries sent to overthrow the secular Syrian government and for a "no-fly zone" over Syria, which, if Libya is the example, means US or NATO aircraft attacking the Syrian army on the ground, thus serving as the air force of Washington's imported mercenaries, euphemistically called "the Syrian rebels."

* * * * *

The Regulated States of America
Tocqueville saw a nation of individuals who were defiant of authority. Today? Welcome to Planet Government.
By NIALL FERGUSON - WSJ.com
In "Democracy in America," published in 1833, Alexis de Tocqueville marveled at the way Americans preferred voluntary association to government regulation. "The inhabitant of the United States," he wrote, "has only a defiant and restive regard for social authority and he appeals to it . . . only when he cannot do without it."
Unlike Frenchmen, he continued, who instinctively looked to the state to provide economic and social order, Americans relied on their own efforts. "In the United States, they associate for the goals of public security, of commerce and industry, of morality and religion. There is nothing the human will despairs of attaining by the free action of the collective power of individuals."

Obama's Unaffordable Act
All along he intended for Obamacare costs to soar.
By PETER FERRARA - Spectator.org
When he was campaigning for President in 2008, President Obama told the American people his health reform plan would reduce family health insurance premiums by $2,500 a year. But I knew then, and now we know he did too, that just the opposite would be true.
Earlier this month, on a campaign swing through California, President Obama said regarding the insurance company premium bids that are starting to come through on the Obamacare state Exchanges for providing the required Obamacare coverage, "This is the way that the law was designed to work. But since everybody's been saying how it's not going to happen, I think it's important for us to recognize and acknowledge, this is working the way it's supposed to."
So how is Obamacare working, based on the early returns?

* * * * *

An ObamaCare Board Answerable to No One
The 'death panel' is a new beast, with god-like powers. Congress should repeal it or test its constitutionality.
By DAVID B. RIVKIN JR. And ELIZABETH P. FOLEY - WSJ.com
Signs of ObamaCare's failings mount daily, including soaring insurance costs, looming provider shortages and inadequate insurance exchanges. Yet the law's most disturbing feature may be the Independent Payment Advisory Board. The IPAB, sometimes called a "death panel," threatens both the Medicare program and the Constitution's separation of powers. At a time when many Americans have been unsettled by abuses at the Internal Revenue Service and Justice Department, the introduction of a powerful and largely unaccountable board into health care merits special scrutiny.
For a vivid illustration of the extent to which life-and-death medical decisions have already been usurped by government bureaucrats, consider the recent refusal by Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to waive the rules barring access by 10-year old Sarah Murnaghan to the adult lung-transplant list. A judge ultimately intervened and Sarah received a lifesaving transplant June 12. But the grip of the bureaucracy will clamp much harder once the Independent Payment Advisory Board gets going in the next two years.

Obamacare Implementation Hitting a Snag
GAO finds delays are a serious concern
BY: Lachlan Markay - FreeBeacon.com
A nonpartisan federal watchdog released a pair of reports on Wednesday that raise serious concerns about delays in the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare.
Congressional Republicans seized on the reports, claiming they vindicate opposition to the law and suggest that it will not operate as designed or as the administration promised.
About 85 percent of activities required to set up small business health insurance exchanges have yet to be completed, according to one report from the Government Accountability Office.

ObamaCare Trail of Tears
[Google title for free article access]
Auditors say HHS isn't close to being ready to launch in October.
Opinion - WSJ.com $$
Set aside the IRS or the National Security Agency—the most secretive part of the government is the Health and Human Services Department and the black box that is implementation of the Affordable Care Act. For years HHS has stonewalled the congressional oversight committees about its progress, and now we're starting to learn why.
On Wednesday the auditors at the Government Accountability Office released the results of two investigations and optimistically conclude that it "cannot yet be determined" if ObamaCare will be ready for enrollment a mere four months from now. The GAO's detailed portrait of blown deadlines, regulatory improvisation and general chaos explains why HHS has been anti-transparent.

Obamacare Prompting Small Business Cuts
Will Obamacare Hurt Jobs? It's Already Happening, Poll Finds
By: Dan Mangan - CNBC.com
Small business owners' fear of the effect of the new health-care reform law on their bottom line is prompting many to hold off on hiring and even to shed jobs in some cases, a recent poll found.
"We were startled because we know that employers were concerned about the Affordable Care Act and the effects it would have on their business, but we didn't realize the extent they were concerned, or that the businesses were being proactive to make sure the effects of the ACA actually were minimized," said attorney Steven Friedman of Littler Mendelson. His firm, which specializes in employment law, commissioned the Gallup poll.

Federal Health Exchanges Are Behind Schedule, GAO Finds
By Alex Nussbaum - Bloomberg.com
Computer systems to help Americans gain coverage on the Affordable Care Act's insurance exchanges may not be ready on time, and training for the people who will assist consumers is behind schedule, a government report found.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is still developing and testing computer systems meant to determine consumers' eligibility for government subsidies, the U.S. Government Accountability Office said today. Plans to train "navigators" to assist people in finding new insurance plans have been delayed by about two months past a June deadline, the GAO found. The exchanges are set to open Oct. 1.

Local Governments Reeling Under ObamaCare Costs
By JOHN MERLINE, INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY
When Regal Entertainment Group (RGC) in April blamed ObamaCare for the fact that it was cutting some of its workers' hours, backers of the law mounted a furious backlash against the theater chain, among other things filling its Facebook page with boycott threats.
"Greed and selfishness make me sick," one of them said.
Darden Restaurants (DRI) felt this intense heat last year after suggesting it might shift to more part-time work to minimize the cost of the law's mandate that companies offer coverage to all their full-time workers. CEO Clarence Otis even blamed its lowered outlook for 2013 in part on "recent negative media coverage" over "how we might accommodate health care reform."

Obama admin puts the heat on the NBA to help sell Obamacare
By Jessica Chasmar-The Washington Times
The Obama administration has reportedly tried to enlist the NBA in helping it sell Obamacare to the American people.
It's unclear whether a potential marketing partnership would put big-name players at the center of ad campaigns or if it would be as simple as putting the NBA trademark on marketing materials, Politico first reported today.
People can begin signing up for Obamacare in October, with the new insurance coverage kicking in next year. Many have speculated that the enrollment campaigns would benefit from a celebrity endorsement or partnership with a major sports league.

The Young Won't Buy ObamaCare
It makes scant financial sense for them to subsidize others' care.
By Holman W. Jenkins, Jr. - WSJ.com
Media outlets lately have emphasized the challenge of enticing healthy young adults to sign up for ObamaCare, "exactly the type of person insurance plans, states and the federal government are counting on to make health reform work," as the L.A. Times put it. These pieces are useful as far as they go, but miss a key point that Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito managed to convey in many fewer words during last year's Supreme Court argument on ObamaCare.
Mr. Alito pointed out that young, healthy adults today spend an average of $854 a year on health care. ObamaCare would require them to buy insurance policies expected to cost roughly $5,800. The law, then, isn't just asking them to pay for "the services that they are going to consume," he continued. "The mandate is forcing these people to provide a huge subsidy to the insurance companies . . . to subsidize services that will be received by somebody else."

AMA insanity… or paving way for 'fat police' paid for by ObamaCare?
AMA Says It's Time To Call Obesity A Disease
by SCOTT HENSLEY - NPR.com
While the American Medical Association may not have the clout it once did, it's still the largest single group of doctors making waves about health and the practice of medicine.
So it's not nothing when the AMA's House of Delegates approves a measure to label obesity a disease. The group's deliberative democratic body passed a measure in Chicago Tuesday that broadly, if vaguely, says obesity is a medical condition:

Disgusting… phoney food; farmers held hostage
Monsanto Executive Is Among World Food Prize Winners
By ANDREW POLLACK - NYTimes.com
For the first time in its 27-year history, a prestigious award for enhancing the global food supply has gone to a creator of genetically modified crops, a top scientist at Monsanto. The choice is likely to add more heat to an intense debate about the role biotechnology can play in combating world hunger.
Robert T. Fraley, Monsanto's executive vice president and chief technology officer, will share the $250,000 World Food Prize with two other scientists who helped devise how to insert foreign genes into plants: Marc Van Montagu of Belgium and Mary-Dell Chilton of the United States.
The announcement was made in Washington on Wednesday, accompanied by a speech from Secretary of State John Kerry.

Opponents slam Internet sales tax bill
By Tim Devaney-The Washington Times
Opponents of an Internet sales tax bill on Tuesday called it a "21st century version of taxation without representation," warning it raises the prospect of taxing online retailers in jurisdictions where the owners of those businesses cannot vote.
Strongly supported by state governments, the "Marketplace Fairness Act" sailed through the Senate last month on bipartisan support, and already has dozens of co-sponsors in the House. Backers say it will level the playing field for traditional retailers by forcing Internet rivals to also collect state sales taxes.

Never Give Stores Your Zip Code. Here's Why
By Adam Tanner, Contributor - Forbes.com
Why do merchants sometimes ask us for our ZIP code when we buy something?
I recently visited the Mob Museum in Las Vegas, an interesting addition to Sin City's attractions. I paid my admission with a credit card, prompting the museum ticket seller to ask me: "What's your ZIP code?"
When I paused for a moment, she added: "It's for marketing purposes."
As much as I had heard good things about the museum, I was unlikely to return soon as I live far from Las Vegas, so I was not anxious to receive subsequent marketing. She said it was okay not to give the ZIP code, and then addressed me by name in wishing me a good visit.

It's Time For Congress To Privatize The Welfare State
By John Goodman, Contributor - Forbes.com
Have you ever given money to the food stamp program? Do you know anyone who has?
Actually, some people do occasionally make gifts to federal entitlement programs. But gifts to the entire federal government were a paltry $241 million in 2010, the last year for which statistics are available. By contrast, Americans donated almost $300 billion last year to private sector charities in addition to volunteer time valued at $158 billion.

GOP staffer claims to live on food stamps without problems, suggests cutting more
By Caroline May - DailyCaller.com
With dozens of Democratic lawmakers struggling to live on a food stamp budget to protest GOP cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, a Republican staffer says he is living on a SNAP budget without problems.
Texas Republican Rep. Steve Stockman's communications director and agriculture policy advisor, Donny Ferguson, says he has been able to eat well on $27.58 for a week, less than the $31.50 House Democrats have limited themselves to for their "SNAP Challenge."

Working From Home? Boss May Be Peeking Over Your Shoulder
By: Allison Linn - CNBC.com
Even if you are thousands of miles away from the office and wearing your pajamas, your boss could still be watching you just as closely as if you were sitting in the next cubicle over.
Some companies are monitoring employees' every keystroke no matter where they are working, and that's leading to more than just sniffing out who is stealing company secrets. It's also giving some employers a pretty good idea of whether their remote workers are keeping as busy as the ones who are sitting in the cubicle farm.

Charter Schooling? Why Not Charter Housing?
Conservatives should create a free-market social initiative to compete with the Democratic social-welfare state.
By WAYNE WOODMAN - Spectator.org
Republican Party leaders have written much about the need for minority outreach, particularly among voters of Hispanic descent. They argue for tactical changes — for the GOP to find cosmetically attractive candidates who can connect with minorities, to adopt policy positions that align with these voters, and to put more political operatives on the ground in these communities. Each of these ideas may have merit, but all of them lack the focus of a strategic vision to provide a moral basis motivating the effort.
Do we want their votes because we want to win elections? That might work when we happen to have the right kind of candidates or properly crafted position statements, but it has a high risk of being seen as pandering at best or patronizing and paternal at worst. Or do we want to earn their support through our work to provide better alternatives than what big government can offer?

Residential Construction Recovery Has a Long Way to Go
BY SOBER LOOK - FinancialSense.com
New housing construction in the US has increased substantially since the lows of the Great Recession, but remains near pre-recession lows.
Given the population growth since the recession, improvements in household formation, cheap mortgages, and relatively high rent, one would expect construction to be significantly stronger. Even if households can't afford to buy a new home, they need a place to rent. That means someone should be building a rental unit.

US Shale Revolution, Staggering Global Potential
By Jen Alic - OilPrice.com
The US may be the only country undergoing a shale revolution, but it doesn't have the biggest shale oil and gas reserves in the world.
The global shale oil and gas potential is a staggering 345 billion barrels of oil and 7.2 quadrillion cubic feet of natural gas, according to a new report from the US Energy Information Administration (EIA).
Topping the list for shale oil is Russia, with 75 billion barrels—compared to the US' 48 billion—and China with 32 billion barrels, trailed by Argentina in third with 27 billion barrels and Libya.

Bad News for the Anti-Fracking Crowd
By Brian Westenhaus - OilPrice.com
Hydraulic fracking has been studied with a published paper showing the energy return on investment (aka EROI) with a total input energy compared with the energy in natural gas expected to be made available to end users is similar to or better than coal.
The news for the natural gas industry, consumers and landowners lucky enough to get a well on their land is tremendously helpful. It's also a huge and crushing disappointment for the anti fracking crowd. Hydraulic fracturing pays off in a very big way.

Embraer and Bombardier Orders Diverge
Smaller-Jet Firms Battle
[Google title for free access]
Contrasting Order Books for Embraer
and Bombardier Draw Attention in Paris
By ANDY PASZTOR And JON OSTROWER - WSJ.com $$
LE BOURGET, France—The battle between Boeing Co. and Airbus is often the main event at big aviation expositions like the Paris International Air Show. But this week the contrasting order books of two smaller jet makers—Embraer SAEMBR3.BR 0.00% of Brazil and Bombardier Inc. of Canada—is emerging as a main theme.
Embraer this week launched its new E2 series jetliners, allowing the company to complete contracts and move ahead with design for a line of planes—with between about 80 and 144 seats—it hopes will solidify its favored position for smaller jetliners.

South America's home of jet maker, Embraer...
Middle-Class Brazil Finds Its Voice in Protests
Demonstrations Showcase Electorate's Rising Demands;
Leader Shows Empathy
By JOHN LYONS and PAUL KIERNAN - WSJ.com
SÃO PAULO—A day after the biggest demonstrations in decades gripped Brazil, this South American nation awoke on Tuesday to a shifting political landscape, with protest leaders seeking to turn Monday's venting of national frustration into a long-term movement, and a wary political class searching for footing in a country that has voiced a powerful call for change.
Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, a former Marxist guerrilla and Brazil's first female president, sought to empathize with the protest movement, declaring that she, too, is an agent of change seeking to correct many of the long-standing injustices protesters criticize.

How the Tech Industry
Is Quietly Changing the Face of American Cities
By KELSEY CAMPBELL-DOLLAGHAN - io9.com
When Steve Jobs presented the initial design for his donut-like headquarters to the Cupertino City Council, in 2011, he described the building as a reaction against suburban office parks. "We've come up with a design that puts 12,000 people in one building; which sounds a bit odd," he said. "But we've seen these office parks with a lot of buildings, and they get pretty boring pretty fast. We'd like to do something better." The question, though, is better for whom?
It's hard to argue with Jobs' logic. And very few people did—despite some grumblings about traffic, bike lanes, and free Wi-Fi, Apple's new Foster and Partners'-designed headquarters was met with approval from the surrounding community. But from an urban perspective, the plan isn't all that different than those office parks Jobs claimed to avoid. The $3 billion building will be segregated from the community around it by wide swathes of greenery and parking. The only evidence of Apple the neighborhood is likely to see? The traffic. "It is not Apple's job to be the place-maker for Silicon Valley," said critic Lydia Lee in an op-ed. "But for such a potent champion of good design, it's disappointing that it couldn't set its sights a little higher."

Steve Jobs Presents to the Cupertino City Council (6/7/11)
Published on Jun 7, 2011
Apple Inc. CEO Steve Jobs presents his proposal for a new Apple Campus to the Cupertino City Council. This presentation was recorded Tuesday, June 7, 2011 at the Cupertino Community Hall.

A map showing the original meanings
of place names in North America
By GEORGE DVORSKY - io9.com
Now this is impressive: It's called the Atlas of True Names, and it reveals the etymological origins and translations of familiar place names whose original meanings we've mostly forgotten. Looking at it, you'd think North America was some sort of fantasy novel.
The Atlas of True Names was compiled by cartographers Stephan Hormes and Silke Peust. The duo has, in addition to the map of the United States, also produced similar maps of Canadaand the British Isles. And they're all available for purchase.

Singularity enabling technologies…
3D Printing Tiny Batteries For Tiny Robots, Medical Devices
By Jennifer Hicks, Contributor - Forbes.com
Researchers from Harvard's School of Engineering and Applied Science and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign were able to 3D print lithium-ion microbatteries – the size of a grain of sand. This will have a tremendous impact on the advancement of tiny devices in the field of robotics, medicine and communications.
This is a breakthrough for the world of 3D printing because the printed microbatteries will be able to make electricity for tiny devices which wasn't possible before. Batteries haven't been small enough to fit into the next generation of advanced super small medical devices and, at the same time, provide enough stored energy to power them.

Will congress have oversight of "The MARK of the beast"?
Slow Progress
Congressmen lament slow pace of biometric ID implementation
BY: Andrew Evans - FreeBeacon
The federal government has not created a uniform standard for biometric identification 12 years after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, a congressional oversight hearing on Wednesday morning revealed.
The 12-year delay was just one problem identified by the congressmen on the government operations subcommittee of the House Oversight Committee. There has also been limited cooperation among different federal agencies and false promises of progress by officials to Congress.
"There's enormous frustration. It's not like gazillions of dollars haven't been spent," Rep. Gerry Connolly (D., Va.) said after the hearing.

Are We Seriously Considering
the Threat of an Internet Apocalypse?
If you haven't, Newt Gingrich and friends have got you covered.
By Ben Terris - NationalJournal.com
"To start the program, don't be scared, we're going to dim the lights," said Elizabeth Kreft, an aide to Rep. Trent Franks, R-Ariz.
The lights went out in the House Judiciary subcommittee hearing room Tuesday and the crowd of congressional aides, journalists, and doomsday preppers watched as a video warned of a world without electricity. Naturally, it opened with a rotating globe that suddenly went dark. Then came the piano and synthesizer mood music, and a list of things that would cease to function (health care! finance! and, even worse, sewers!).

Google Says Secret Intelligence Court
Restricts Its Right to Free Speech
Google is demanding that a secret intelligence court allow it to share some details about surveillance requests for user data.
By Tom Simonite - TechnologyReview.com
Last week, negative press in the wake of recent leaks about NSA surveillance prompted Facebook, Google, and Microsoft to politely ask the U.S. government to be allowed to share broad statistics on their legally required role in such activities.
Google is now said by the Washington Post to be preparing legal papers that would make its request more of a demand, claiming that gag orders placed on it disclosing data requests breach the First Amendment. A statement from Google published by the Post says:
"Greater transparency is needed, so today we have petitioned the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to allow us to publish aggregate numbers of national security requests, including FISA disclosures, separately."

Immigration Reform:
How About Fairness For 'The Other 96.5%?'
By Louis Woodhill, Contributor - Forbes.com
The "Gang of Eight" immigration reform bill (S. 744) currently being debated by the Senate would squash the jobs prospects and wages of the American working class, crush our already-struggling middle class, increase inequality, and trap many of the immigrants themselves in a welfare state roach motel. Other than that, it is a great idea.
It is clear why progressives support S. 744. Their overarching goal is a bigger, more powerful government that will provide lots of prestigious, six-figure jobs for progressives. And, illegal immigrants have justly been referred to as "undocumented Democrats." But why on earth would any Republican vote for something like this?

Americans Split on Linking Border Security
and Citizenship in Immigration Reform
United Technologies/National Journal Congressional Connection Poll shows sharp demographic divisions over how secure the border is now.
By Ronald Brownstein - NationalJournal.com
Most Americans say illegal immigrants should be allowed to remain in the country, but the public divides evenly on whether citizenship should be linked to stiff progress in securing the border, as many Senate Republicans are demanding, the latest United Technologies/National Journal Congressional Connection Poll has found.
As the Senate floor debate on immigration reform intensifies, the survey found a broad agreement across racial, generational, and party lines that "immigrants who are now living in the U.S. illegally" should be permitted to remain in the U.S. But the poll found Americans split almost evenly on three other critical questions: whether those immigrants here illegally should be allowed to seek full-scale citizenship, whether citizenship should be tied to progress along the border, and whether the border today is secure.

DHS Criticized for 'Increasing Sense of Bunker Mentality' in Communicating with Americans
Agency strategy "strains the institution's credibility and makes people question the motivations of the department's leadership," says chairman.
by RODRIGO SERMEÑO - PJMedia.com
WASHINGTON – A House panel grilled DHS officials about its communication skills with the American people, especially the agency's failure to address questions and concerns on a host of issues from agency tactics to terror threats.
Since the tragic events of Sept. 11, the federal government has mounted an unprecedented domestic effort to protect the nation from terrorist threats. As part of this effort, the federal government combined more than 20 agencies into a newly created cabinet-level department – the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

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Big Sis wants to watch you, too…
DHS hopes to get same cyber-spying powers as NSA
By Josh Peterson - DailyCaller.com
Domestic spying capabilities used by the National Security Agency to collect massive amounts of data on American citizens could soon be available to the Department of Homeland Security — a bureaucracy with the power to arrest citizens that is not subject to limitations imposed on the NSA.
Unlike the DHS, the NSA is an intelligence agency, not a domestic law enforcement agency. It cannot arrest those suspected of wrongdoing. That power of the federal government lies with agencies under the jurisdiction of the Justice Department, the Treasury, Homeland Security and other law enforcement agencies.

Joe Biden concedes White House gun push has faltered
By REID J. EPSTEIN | Politico.com
Vice President Joe Biden insisted to a subdued audience Tuesday that he and President Barack Obama "haven't given up" on gun control.
But his remarks came at the first White House event since the Senate's failed April 17 background checks vote. And all that he had to show gun control supporters by way of progress was a list of completed or mostly completed executive actions — and a set of new guidebooks for churches and schools on how to deal with a mass shooting situation.

Untold Story of Four Whistleblowers Who Exposed
Corporate Corruption and Illegal Surveillance at NSA
Published on Apr 1, 2013
03/27/2013 - The case of four whistleblowers from the National Security Agency: Thomas Drake, William Binney, J. Kirk Wiebe and Edward Loomis, falsely accused of leaking in 2007, they have endured years of legal harassment for exposing the waste and fraud behind a multibillion-dollar contract for a system called Trailblazer, which was supposed to "revolutionize" the way the NSA produced signals intelligence (SIGINT) in the digital age. Instead, it was canceled in 2006 and remains one of the worst failures in US intelligence history. But the money spent on this privatization scheme, like so much at the NSA, remains a state secret.

Constitutional Amendment Would Gut Rights for Organizations
Experts: Amendment would restrict
what advocacy groups could say and do
BY: Lachlan Markay - FreeBeacon.com
Legal experts say a constitutional amendment proposed by Senate Democrats would eliminate all constitutional rights for nonprofit groups and many religious organizations.
Constitutional scholars also suggested the amendment could allow the National Security Agency—currently under fire for its controversial intelligence gathering techniques—to seize information on Americans at whim.

Why Democrats Are Already
Jumping Aboard the Hillary Clinton Bandwagon
Claire McCaskill's endorsement was a bow to reality:
Democrats don't want to challenge Clinton in 2016
By Josh Kraushaar - NationalJournal.com
Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill was no friend of Hillary Rodham Clinton's during the 2008 presidential campaign, becoming one of the first female Democratic officials to break with the sisterhood to back Barack Obama. But today, in a fundraising appeal, she's proclaiming her support for Clinton, long before the former secretary of State has made any decisions about running—at least publicly.
Her announcement is just the latest sign of the obvious: Clinton is as good as running for president in 2016. We'll be entertaining this kabuki dance for a while longer, even as Clinton supporters raise money for a future campaign through the Ready for Hillary super PAC, public officials pledge fealty to her (potential) candidacy, and top Obama officials speak warmly of her prospects. Not to mention her newly repackaged Twitter account, with an introduction as market-tested as any politician's.

Judge Jeanine - Opening Statement: Obama, Hillary Real Losers of DC, You Don't Deserve to Be Trusted

What the IRS Has Become
By Elise Cooper - AmericanThinker.com
The IRS has hypocritically ignored the Constitution, having targeted groups whose names included what America once stood for: patriotism, freedom, and the Constitution. This will be emphasized on June 20, when Judicial Watch, the people's watchdog over the government, holds a public panel discussion with some of those who were victimized. American Thinker interviewed Tom Fitton, Judicial Watch's president, and some of those who were harassed and abused by the IRS.
Fitton is not surprised by the Obama administration's actions and regards them as a continual Democratic tactic. He told American Thinker how, during the entire Clinton presidency, his group was targeted via numerous audits. He sees this latest scandal as déjà vu, since conservative groups "were put in a box by the IRS and could not do the actions they planned on doing because their activities were curtailed significantly. This is a scandal for the ages. We all saw in the last few years that the Tea Party became inactive and now we know why. All I know is, the IRS engaged in a massive suppression of perceived political opposition to the president at a time that was very important for his re-election campaign. This is government suppression and oppression. The movement was coming out, and they were stopped by this administration. This is about Obama's role as chief executive and his refusal to take responsibility."

Does This Mean the CIA
Might Soon Have Access to Your Amazon Wish List?
By Mark Thompson - Time.com
All kidding aside, this has nothing to do with government prying. It's just that the Central Intelligence Agency wants to award four-year contract worth up to $600 million "for commercial cloud services" to Amazon Web Services, part of the huge and growing Amazon.com family.
"Amazon Web Services offers a complete set of infrastructure and application services that enable you to run virtually everything in the cloud: from enterprise applications and big data projects to social games and mobile apps," its website says.
In a portent of how much things have changed, the losing bidder: IBM.

So the NSA Is 'Only' Collecting Metadata?
You Should Still Worry
BY MATT BLAZE - Wired.com
We now know that every day, U.S. phone companies quietly send the government a list of who called whom and when — "telephony metadata" — for every call made on their networks, because of a secret order by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. It turns out that this has been going on for seven years (and was even reported by USA Today then); the difference now is that the government — uncharacteristically for such a secret intelligence operation — quickly acknowledged the authenticity of the leaked order and the existence of the metadata collection program.
Should we be worried? At least "nobody is listening to our telephone calls" (so the president himselfassured us). People breathed a sigh of relief since first learning of the surveillance because surely there's nothing to worry about when it comes to such seemingly innocuous information — it's justmetadata, after all. Phew!

Edward Snowden's Friend Mavanee Anderson
Exclusive Interview w/ MSNBC's Last Word
Published on Jun 18, 2013
06/12/2013 - MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell exclusive interview with Mavanee Anderson, who was in close contact with NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden while he worked at the CIA.

Florida Congressman on Obama, Scandals:
'Liberal Groups Will Be Next'
by NICHOLAS BALLASY - PJMedia.com
Edward Snowden, who leaked classified information about the National Security Agency's surveillance program, is "not a whistleblower," Florida Republican Rep. Trey Radel told PJ Media.
He also connected the NSA leak to the IRS scandal, warning that if Congress gives the Obama administration "an inch, they'll take a mile."

Congressman: Snowden is 'not a whistleblower,'
fled to China for 'headlines'
Published on Jun 14, 2013
Edward Snowden, who leaked classified information about the National Security Agency's surveillance program, is "not a whistleblower," Florida Republican Congressman Trey Radel told PJ Media.

FBI Chief: Surveillance Drones Used in U.S.
By Devlin Barrett - WSJ.com
The head of the Federal Bureau of Investigationacknowledged Wednesday that his agency uses drones to conduct surveillance in the United States, but said it does so rarely.
Asked about drones at a Senate hearing, FBI director Robert Muellersaid the agency uses them "in a very, very minimal way, very seldom."
Federal agencies have been using drones for years to monitor the northern and southern borders of the U.S., and those drones have occasionally been deployed to help domestic law-enforcement agencies like the FBI.

FBI Admits It Surveils U.S. With Drones
BY DAVID KRAVETS - Wired.com
FBI Director Robert Mueller said today the bureau was surveilling the United States with drones.
The revelation was during an FBI oversight hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee and comes as the bureau, along with the National Security Agency, are on the defensive about revelations that they are obtaining metadata on Americans' phone records and Americans' private data from companies like Google, Facebook, Microsoft and others.
The FBI is not alone in monitoring the U.S. with drones.

James Bamford on NSA Leaks - Charlie Rose 06/13/2013
Published on Jun 17, 2013
06/13/2013 - James Bamford, bestselling author and journalist discusses the recent NSA leaks from whistleblower Edward Snowden given to Glenn Greenwald and The Guardian.

US Intelligence, Inc.
By Simon Chesterman - Project-Syndicate.org
SINGAPORE – Among the stories and rumors prompted by Edward J. Snowden's leaking of classified material – whistleblowing or treason, depending on where you stand – the revelations that may actually lead to a policy change concern the extent to which private companies now carry out intelligence gathering and analysis in the United States.
Around a third of the 1.4 million people with "top secret" US security clearances are contractors, according to the Office of the US Director of National Intelligence. We now know that this includes individuals like Snowden, whose hiring and firing by the technology consultancy Booz Allen Hamilton is itself the subject of an investigation.

Globalism vs. Jingoism
By Phillip Cowan - AmericanThinker.com
With the current National Security Agency (NSA) scandal unfolding, two new political genres seem to have emerged to compete with the liberal-versus-conservative paradigm we know. These are jingoism and globalism.
The former are American patriots sworn to defend and uphold the Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic. Theodore Roosevelt declared, "If by jingoism they mean a policy in pursuance of which Americans will with resolution and common sense insist upon our rights being respected by foreign powers, then we are 'jingoes.'" The latter are ideologues dedicated the suspension of the Constitution and the dissolution of the American republic in favor of becoming an appendage of a global government controlled by the United Nations. These globalists among us have heretofore enjoyed relative anonymity while working indefatigably in various positions of influence within government to subvert the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

Ron Paul Blasts NSA Defenders: Surveillance Destroying Constitution, You're Justifying Dictatorship
(June 10, 2013) - Former Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul appeared on CNN tonight to tell Piers Morgan why he objects to the NSA surveillance program. Morgan directly asked Paul if he would have actually ended surveillance programs if he were president. Paul said he would still want intelligence gathering, but it would be done in a more transparent way, maintaining that the current surveillance program are unquestionably unconstitutional. He directly told NSA defenders that they are simply "justifying dictatorship."
Paul dismissed the use of a FISA court as a significant enough of a check on the executive branch. He said this program is undeniably "destroying the Constitution,", and posed a question to anyone who defends the widespread surveillance.
"What should the penalty be for the people who destroy the Constitution? They're always worrying about how they're going to destroy the American citizens who tell the truth, to let us know what's going on, but we ask the question: what is the penalty for people who deliberately destroy the Constitution and rationalize and say, 'Oh, we have to do it for security.' Well, frankly, you end up losing--you lose your security and you lose your freedoms too."
He told NSA defenders that the nation is on a "very dangerous course," and when they try to say there's nothing wrong with such massive intelligence gathering, "you're justifying dictatorship!"

Barack's Brave New World Blarney
He shares his thoughts on progress with the youth of Northern Ireland.
By GEORGE NEUMAYR - Spectator.org
Obama never fails to enlist children in his secularist crusades, whether at home or abroad. Last week he trotted out two nine-year-old girls to introduce him at a White House event celebrating "LGBT Pride Month."
"We could not be prouder of Zea and Luna for the introduction," he said. "Zea and Luna are here with their moms, and also I think with Grandma and Grandpa — correct? And so feel free to congratulate them afterwards for their outstanding introduction.

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President Barack Obama Sits Down with Charlie Rose
06/17/2013 (FULL INTERVIEW)
President Barack Obama sits down with Charlie Rose for an exclusive interview at the White House. The President shares his thoughts on Iran, Syria, China. NSA leaks, and more.

Obama Doctrine: Back Middle East Radicals
Despite Ten Previous Western Failures
By Barry Rubin - PRMedia.com
There is a long history of Western powers believing that they could manipulate or work with radical Arabic-speaking states or movements to redo the regional order. All have ended badly.
– During the 1880s and 1890s, Germany became convinced that it could turn the forces of jihad against British, French, and Russian rivals. The kaiser presented himself as the Muslim world's friend, and German propaganda even hinted that their ruler had converted to Islam.

Russian marine and air power head for Syria versus Western intervention – "to defend Russian citizens," says Moscow
DEBKAfile
Just one day after the G8 Summit ended in the failure of Western leaders to overcome Russian resistance to a resolution mandating President Bashar Assad's ouster, Moscow announced Wednesday June 19, the dispatch to Syria of two warships carrying 600 Russian marines. They were coming, said the official statement, "to protect the Russian citizens there." Russian Deputy Air Force Commander Maj.-Gen. Gradusov added that an air force umbrella would be provided the Russian expeditionary force if needed.
DEBKAfile's military sources report that the pretext offered by Moscow for sending the force thinly disguised Russian President Vladimir Putin's intent to flex Russian military muscle in response to the delivery of Western heavy arms to Syrian rebels – which DEBKAfile first revealed Tuesday, June 18.

Obama Calls for Russia to Join U.S. in Nuclear Arms Cuts
By Hans Nichols & Mike Dorning - Bloomberg.com
President Barack Obama renewed his call to cut the world's nuclear arsenals, saying the U.S. can ensure its security and that of its allies with one-third fewer weapons.
Even though current threats aren't as stark as they were in past decades, democratic societies must not ignore the risk of nuclear proliferation or the economic and societal conditions that foster extremism, Obama said in an address today at Berlin's Brandenburg Gate

Obama calls for reduction in nuclear arsenals
BERLIN, June 19 (UPI) -- President Barack Obama, speaking at Berlin's symbolic Brandenburg Gate, called for a reduction of the world's nuclear stockpiles by as much as a third.
"Peace with justice means pursuing the security of a world without nuclear weapons, no matter how distant that dream may be," Obama said. "And so as president, I've strengthened our efforts to stop the spread of nuclear weapons and reduce the number and role of America's nuclear weapons. Because of the New START Treaty, we're on track to cut American and Russian deployed nuclear warheads to their lowest levels since the 1950s."

Obama's Nuclear Proffer Gets Russian Rebuff
In Berlin Speech, President Says U.S. Could Cut Deployed Arsenal by One-Third; a Call for 'Peace With Justice'
By PETER NICHOLAS and WILLIAM BOSTON - WSJ.com
BERLIN—Standing before a towering emblem of the Cold War, President Barack Obama called for steep reductions in nuclear weapons through negotiations with the Russians, as a step toward what he conceded was the "distant" goal of eliminating global arsenals.
"We may no longer live in fear of global annihilation, but so long as nuclear weapons exist, we are not safe," Mr. Obama said Wednesday in an address in front of the Brandenburg Gate in his first visit to the German capital as president. "I intend to seek negotiated cuts with Russia to move beyond Cold War nuclear postures."

Global Zero: Naive, Dangerous, and Provocative
By Sierra Rayne - AmericanThinker.com
The Global Zero movement is a multinational effort "to eliminate all nuclear weapons by 2030." This movement is surprisingly naive and dangerous, and could result in World War III by the mid-21st century. It is shocking to see the number and stature of the civilian and military leaders that have signed onto this movement.
Given that such a movement advocates for one of the most ambitious and far-reaching geopolitical and military objectives in human history, one would expect the movement to present a very detailed, well-supported, and intellectually rigorous rationalization of the plan to eliminate nuclear weapons, and how such an elimination of nuclear weapons would be a net positive benefit for humans. Instead, we find online an 11-page document with the title "Global Zero Action Plan" that contains only 8 pages of text and little -- if any -- detailed analysis (beyond what appear to be entirely arbitrary timelines and nuclear stockpile targets).

Israel honors Bill Clinton for work on 'two-state solution'
JERUSALEM, June 19 (UPI) -- Former U.S. President Bill Clinton said "there are no perfect solutions" for Middle East peace as he received Israel's highest civilian honor Wednesday.
Israeli President Shimon Peres presented Clinton the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his work in helping resolve conflicts with the Palestinians, the Jerusalem Post reported.

Running out of time on Iran, and all out of options
The Iranians will complete their nuclear program unless somebody stops them, says Richard Clarke, former White House counterterror chief. But military intervention could have 'apocalyptic' consequences
By DAVID HOROVITZ - TimesOfIsrael.com
Richard A. Clarke was the counterterrorism chief for both Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.
It was Clarke who was in the hot seat, running the White House Situation Room, on 9/11 — he it was who had overseen the efforts to prevent 9/11, and he who wrote a devastating book on 9/11, "Against All Enemies," after resigning in 2003. The book castigated George W. Bush's administration for failing to heed his warnings on al-Qaeda before 9/11, for squandering the opportunity to eliminate al-Qaeda in the wake of 9/11, and for deciding instead to go to war in Iraq.

Iran's New 'Moderate' President
Unlikely to Ease Christian Persecution
By Anugrah Kumar - Shoebat.com
Reports in Western media about the victory of a moderate cleric in Iran's presidential election have raised expectations for change in the Islamic republic, but local Christians doubt the next president, Hassan Rouhani, will be able to alleviate Christian persecution.
"In your Western media, the candidates are divided into conservatives and reformers, as if there is a choice, but let me tell you this: there is no choice. All of the candidates are from Ayatollah Khamenei's team," Open Doors ministry said in a statement, quoting an Iranian Christian believer.

Iran elects a 'good cop' who isn't good at all
The new president only wants to buy stalling time
By Reza Kahlili - WashingtonTimes.com
As soon as the results of the Iranian elections were announced, the world's media proclaimed that a "moderate and reformist" cleric, Hasan Rowhani, would become the new president of Iran.
Not so. Mr. Rowhani is every bit as brutal and deceitful as the clerical regime that has murderously cracked down on its people for decades.

New Iranian President Tied to 1994 Bombing
85 were killed in bombing of Argentinian Jewish Center
BY: Alana Goodman - FreeBeacon.com
Iranian President-elect Hassan Rowhani was on the special Iranian government committee that plotted the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, according to an indictment by the Argentine government prosecutor investigating the case.
The AMIA bombing is considered the deadliest terrorist attack in Argentina's history, killing 85 and wounding hundreds more. The Argentine government had accused the Iranian government of planning the attack and Iran's terrorist proxy Hezbollah of carrying it out. Numerous former and current Iranian officials are wanted by Interpol in connection with the bombing.

And our money is funding and arming these rebels?
Syrian Rebels Behead Christian, Feed Him to Dogs
by BRYAN PRESTON - PJMedia.com
So this was done by the people our illustrious President Barack H. Obama wants to send arms to.
Syrian rebels beheaded a Christian man and fed his body to dogs, according to a nun who says the West is ignoring atrocities committed by Islamic extremists.
The nun said taxi driver Andrei Arbashe, 38, was kidnapped after his brother was heard complaining that fighters against the ruling regime behaved like bandits.
She said his headless corpse was found by the side of the road, surrounded by hungry dogs. He had recently married and was soon to be a father.

The Great War's End in Syria
By Jaswant Singh - Project-Syndicate.org
NEW DELHI – As the West begins to gear up for the centenary of the outbreak of World War I in 1914, the Middle East is being convulsed as never before by the legacy of the Ottoman Empire's breakup. Look no farther than Syria, where one part of that legacy – the Sykes-Picot Agreement, which divided the Levant into British and French spheres of influence even while the Great War still raged – is coming to a brutally violent end.
Likewise, the current turmoil in Turkey is, at least in part, a consequence of "neo-Ottoman" overreach by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's government. In seeking to establish the type of regional influence that Turks have not had since Kemal Atatürk founded the Republic of Turkey, Erdoğan has fallen prey to some of the Ottoman regime's hubris.

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