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Friday 08.31.2012

The Gold Standard Goes Mainstream
[Google the title for FREE Article Pass]
In the ferment within today's Republican Party, there's a growing realization that America's system of fiat money is part of the economic problem.
WSJ.com - $$
By SETH LIPSKY
An under-reported development of this campaign season is the Republican Party's decision this week to send Gov. Mitt Romney into the presidential race on a platform effectively calling for a new gold commission. The realization that America's system of fiat money is part of its economic problem is moving from the fringes of political discussion to the center.
This is a sharp contrast from the last time a gold commission was convened, in 1981, a decade after President Nixon abandoned the Bretton Woods system and opened the era of a fiat dollar. The 1981 commission recommended against restoring a gold basis to the dollar. But two members—Congressman Ron Paul and businessman-scholar Lewis Lehrman—dissented and outlined the case for gold.

Gold Option Traders Most Bullish
Since Bottom In October 2008
Submitted by Tyler Durden - ZeroHedge.com
A new and important bullish indicator for the gold market is that gold calls are at highs not seen since the October 2008 low as option traders go long gold in the belief that it will go higher. It suggests that option traders believe that U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke will hint at or announce additional money printing and monetary easing at the Jackson Hole, Wyoming, symposium. Alternatively, it suggests that they are bullish on gold due to the risks posed to the dollar and the risk of inflation taking off. The ratio of outstanding calls to buy the SPDR Gold Trust versus puts to sell jumped to 2.69 to 1 on August 24th and reached 2.76 earlier this month, the highest level since October 2008, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Ownership of calls is up 26% since the July 20th options expiry. Ten of the most owned actively owned ETF option contracts are bullish. Option traders are regarded as savvier and tend to be more sophisticated then the more speculative futures traders.

By Focusing on the Economy,
We Are Ignoring Much Bigger Problems
By Joan Fischer - PatriotPost.us
Think back on the way the early Americans lived. Consider the quality of life, if you will, of the early pioneers who crossed the country in small covered wagons, who staked a claim to a small piece of land somewhere in the midwest or west, and who spent the next many years living off the land, growing their own food, hunting for meat, caring for sick family members, often without the aid of doctors or other medical practitioners.
These were our forebears. They didn't have the luxury of concerning themselves with those things that today's Americans place at the top of their list of concerns: the job market, affordable medical coverage, the unemployment rate, and the like. Those who came before us were busy doing what they had to do to simply survive from day to day, defending their freedoms, staking out and protecting what was theirs, and defining and facing down enemies.

The Fed's Radical QE Policy Is on the Chopping Block
BY GARY DORSCH - FinancialSense.com
Politicians running for the US Presidency, and their surrogates, are fond of saying "that this election is the most important of our lifetime." They invoke this cliché so reflexively and so often that it no longer has any meaning. The reason they say this election is so important is because they want listeners to believe, for whatever reason, that it pits two deeply contrasting visions for America against one another, with only one vision capable of winning.
At their core, US-elections are simply fought over the competing interests of just two political parties, - the Democrats and Republicans that control the political system, with a seemingly unbreakable monopoly. Each side wants to tinker with regulations, spending, and taxes to influence the economy; and pay rewards to their constituents. But the truth is, politicians of both parties are corrupted by financial contributions to their election campaigns. It leads to an unfair playing field, in which big Business gets even bigger, through mergers and acquisitions, and overseas operations, and leaves US-consumers at their mercy. Today, only half of US-households are paying taxes, and the other half is receiving entitlements. The US-economy is at the tipping point of collapse, similar to bankrupted states such as Greece and Spain.

Why the Jackson Hole Fed Meeting Will Look Familiar
By Jonathan Yates, Contributing Writer - MoneyMorning.com
U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke will take the podium this Friday at the economic policy summit in Jackson Hole, WY, as traders hang on every word hoping he'll deliver a clear signal of central bank action in 2012.
They have good reason to think the Jackson Hole Fed meeting can move markets. It was at this summit two years ago in August 2010 that Bernanke announced an economic stimulus program that came to be known as Quantitative Easing 2.
QE2 consisted of the Federal Reserve inflating its balance sheet to purchase $700 billion in U.S. Treasury bonds from November 2010 to June 2011. This was necessitated as no investors, either foreign or domestic, could be found to purchase U.S. Treasury bonds at such low interest rates.

A "close call" on more Fed easing
By Jonathan Spicer
Thu Aug 30, 2012 5:40pm EDT
(Reuters) - When Federal Reserve policymakers meet next month to decide whether to take action to boost the economy, it will be a "close call," a top Fed official said on Thursday on the eve of a speech by Chairman Ben Bernanke that has global markets on tenterhooks.
Atlanta Fed President Dennis Lockhart, a centrist voter on U.S. monetary policy, said further stimulus would have some positive effect on the U.S. economic recovery, but cautioned that the costs of such action are not altogether clear.

What no-stimulus speech by Ben Bernanke can mean
By Rakesh Neelakandan - CommodityOnline.com
Even as pure play investors and investment companies look forward to Jackson Hole speech, what does it mean if Bernanke says there is no stimulus?
"It could mean two things. Either the Fed reading the writing on the wall is positive about growth prospects of US economy, or it is trying hard to hide something." said Martin Patrick, a Kochi based economist from South India.
The Federal Reserve, by postponing a stimulus, would be feeling comfortable about the recent data. He added.

Monsters With Ominous Acronyms:
From A Nation of Investors To A Nation of Fed Watchers
By Wolf Richter - ZeroHedge.com
People are holding their breath. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke is to speak in Jackson Hole on Friday. QE3 or not to be, that's the question. There isn't a soul in the markets that can shrug off even a single syllable of what he'll say. And if his answer isn't a clear and solidyes—with details on how much, by what mechanisms, and until when—market participants, analysts, bloggers, and TV economists will parse his speech down to the last iota and look for commas that they haven't seen before, and they'll interpret it and reinterpret it ad infinitum until the desired outcome has been established, namely more QE—regardless of what he says. Headlines have been stirring the excitement. My blood pressure is up, my nails are bitten down to the quick. I haven't slept in days. I'm ready. Oh dear Ben, I'm praying, let us have more QE.

Keiser Report: Fat Gorillas vs Middle-Class Monkeys (E333)
In this episode, Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert discuss the sound of one monkey-hand clapping as Alan Greenspan finger-painted the markets and grand heists ensued. In the second half of the show, Max Keiser talks to a former senior corporate and banking executive, David Smith, about Switzerland wearing concrete boots as it tries to maintain a currency peg to the euro with its only exit strategy being the Iraq one -- that is, they have no plan at all. They also discuss how HSBC might have missed the 7,000 suitcases of cash that would have been needed to launder $7 billion in drug cartel money.

Is Cashin Cashin' In On Obama?
Submitted by Tyler Durden - ZeroHedges.com
The Chairman of the fermentation committee, Art Cashin, usually keeps a very apolitical, sober (metaphorically speaking at least) and cool head on, as all veteran traders should. Which is why we were quite stunned to notice that even the NYSE floor veteran may have finally crossed the Rubicon in his political observations. And if Art feels this way, one wonders just how the other Wall Street players, whose voices have far less need to be moderate, really feel...

China's fears grow over eurozone crisis
China has expressed deep alarm at the escalating crisis in Europe and warned against austerity overkill as Europe's crumbling demand sends shock waves through Asia.
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard - Telegraph.co.uk
Premier Wen Jiabao told German Chancellor Angela Merkel that Europe must "strike a balance" between fiscal tightening and measures to promote growth. "Europe's debt crisis has continued to worsen, giving rise to serious concerns in the international community. Frankly, I am also worried," he said.
His comments mark a shift in Chinese policy. Beijing has until now backed austerity across Euroland, but the severity of China's own downturn has begun to rattle policymakers.

Germany Calls for New EU Treaty
Chancellor Merkel wants EU leaders to hold a convention to forge a new treaty that binds Europe yet closer together.
theTrumpet.com
Germany wants the European Union to hold a convention to create a new treaty to tie Europe closer together by the end of the year, Spiegel Onlinereported August 25. German Chancellor Angela Merkel's EU policy adviser Nikolaus Meyer-Landrut has discussed the idea with "high-level EU officials," Spiegelwrote.
Merkel would like the treaty to change the EU into a political union, with the power to intervene in the taxation and spending policies of individual nations. For example, Germany wants the European Court of Justice to be able to punish nations who borrow too much money.

Spanish Bonds Slump Most In A Month As Europe Turns Red
Submitted by Tyler Durden - ZeroHedge.com
The fulcrum security is bleeding; 10Y Spanish government bond spreads jumped 19bps today, the largest gain in almost a month, and are trading back above 525bps over Bunds (the worst in over three weeks). Even the front-end of the Spanish and Italian bond curves lost ground today - as the game of chicken between Rajoy and Draghi continues - with the ridiculous brinksmanship highlighting the entirely dysfunctional dis-union that really exists behind the scenes. European equity markets drifted lower all day, slammed lower after the US opened (with Germany's DAX underperforming - thanks to weak Autos - no surprise there for us), but bounced a little into the European close. EURUSD slumped 70 pips from its post-US-open intraday highs today - ending at 1.2500. Europe's VIX jumped back above 28% (from 21% just 10 days ago) - its highest in a month. Credit widened on the day, financials underperformed, and notably credit did not jump into the close like stocks did.

How Algorithms Came to Rule the World
How the Nasdaq Got Hacked
By Christopher Steiner - Forbes.com
ON A DAY IN EARLY 1987, a man who worked for the Nasdaq stock market—let's call him Jones—showed up in the lobby of the World Trade Center. He found the appropriate elevator bank for his floor and pressed the up button. He was making a routine visit to one of the Nasdaq's fastest-growing
customers.
A receptionist greeted him and retreated to another room to fetch his host. When she returned, a short, dapper man with a full head of silvering hair accompanied her. Thomas Peterffy's blues eyes warmly greeted Jones. He spoke with an accent.

Java zero-day exploit goes mainstream,
100+ sites serve malware
Blackhole exploit toolkit adds attack code
that leverages unpatched bugs
By Gregg Keizer
Computerworld - Attackers using two recently-uncovered Java unpatched vulnerabilities, or "zero-days," have quickly expanded their reach by going mainstream, security experts said today.
And on Tuesday, Mozilla, maker of Firefox, joined the chorus of advice that users should disable the current version of Oracle's Java. The company is also ready to automatically block the plug-in from running in its browser, although it has not yet pulled the trigger.

Watch Your Back, Hasbro, 3D-Printed Games Have Arrived
BY JOSEPH FLAHERTY - Wired.com
3D printers are sometimes called Santa Claus machines because, like Santa, they can create anything imaginable. When used to make actual toys and games, this is especially fitting. The team at Ill Gotten Games is doing just that by creating Pocket Tactics, the first open source miniatures game designed to be manufactured on a 3D printer.

Microsoft, Atari Bring Arcade Classics to the Web
By Scott Gilbertson - WebMonkey.com
Microsoft's Internet Explorer team has partnered with Atari to re-imagine classic Atari games for the modern web. That's right, Centipede, Asteroids, Missile Command and half a dozen more all re-written using HTML5 and JavaScript.
If you'd like to play, point your browser to the new Atari Arcade and enjoy the glory of Pong, Super Breakout and the rest of the Atari back catalog.

Atari Arcade - Behind the Scenes
In this video, get a glimpse at some of the work that went behind the scenes in the development of Atari Arcade, brought to you by Internet Explorer, Atari, and GSkinner.com

New Flat Lens Could Revolutionize Cameras as We Know Them
BY JAKOB SCHILLER - Wired.com
Camera lenses might look radically different in a couple years thanks to a new technology developed by a group of physicists at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS).
Using a very thin wafer of silicon the scientists have created a flat lens that is only 60 nanometers thick and does away with the normal curved glass we're used to seeing on most cameras.

Apple will give you up to $345 for your iPhone
By Salvador Rodriguez - LATimes.com
If you're looking to sell your iPhone in anticipation of the iPhone 5, Apple's Reuse and Recycling Program could give you up to $345 for your device.
The program will take your old iPhone and mail you back a gift card that can be used at an Apple retail or online store. How much credit you get is determined by the model and quality of your device.
If you have a 64-gigabyte iPhone 4S in top-notch condition along with its charger, you could receive a gift card worth $345. If the device has scratches, the credit falls to $295; if it's cracked or has other type of damage, the payback plummets to $50.

Why Are the Big Banks Suddenly Afraid?
By Simon Johnson, Economix.Blogs.NYTimes.com
Top executives from global megabanks are usually very careful about how they defend both the continued existence, at current scale, of their organizations and the implicit subsidies they receive. They are willing to appear on television shows – and did so earlier this summer, pushing back against Sanford I. Weill, the former chief executive of Citigroup, after he said big banks should be broken up.
Typically, however, since the financial crisis of 2008 the heavyweights of the banking industry have stayed relatively silent on the key issue of whether there should be a hard cap on bank size.
This pattern has shifted in recent weeks, with moves on at least three fronts.

'Real' Homeownership Rate at Nearly 50-Year Low
By Peter Coy - BusinessWeek.com
So much for President George W. Bush's "ownership society." The real rate of homeownership—subtracting people who are about to be ejected for not paying their mortgage—has fallen to lows not seen since the mid-1960s, according to a new analysis.
The decline in the Census Bureau's official measure of homeownership is bad enough. It slid to 65 percent this year from 69 percent in 2005 and 2006, at the peak of the housing bubble, when buying a home was universally considered a sensible way to secure one's fortune. But things look even worse when you strip out homeowners whose homes are in foreclosure or who are headed for foreclosure because they are 90 days or more delinquent on mortgage payments.

'The Economy Stole My Retirement'
Retirements in Peril for Entrepreneurs in Their 60s and 70s
Who Can't Sell Their Companies
By SARAH E. NEEDLEMAN And EMILY MALTBY - WSJ.com
Danny Sullivan dreams of gardening and spending time with his grandchildren, but that's just a fantasy. Retirement is out of his reach, at least for the foreseeable future.
The 62-year-old founder of a small catering company spends his days helping stock bars with beer and ice, wooing potential new clients and juggling the 20 to 30 different events his firm handles daily.
"I am so tired," he says. "I don't know that I'll ever be able to retire."

Top 3 Small Business Struggles
By Amy Payne - Heritage.org
Small businesses are getting a lot of focus from politicians, because they are a key engine of job creation—which has stalled in the U.S. economy. A Republican National Convention theme of "We Built It" continued the political debate over the economy yesterday.
A survey by the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) in July revealed that small businesses' top three concerns were taxes, regulations, and poor sales. A quick look at these top three small business struggles shows they have every reason to be demoralized.

Illinois Credit Rating Cut Over Pensions
Posted by Robert Morley - theTrumpet.com
Standard & Poor's lowered Illinois credit rating over underfunded pensions, theChicago Tribune reported yesterday. The real headline should have been: Illinois and other states are set to see cut after cut until you think the bleeding will go on forever. The Tribune wrote:
Standard & Poor's downgraded the credit of the state of Illinois on Wednesday because of its weak funding levels for pensions, a move that could make it more expensive for the state to borrow money.
S&P lowered its rating on Illinois to A from A-plus and said its outlook is "negative."

Why Aren't Candidates Talking More About Housing?
By: Diana Olick - CNBC.com
There has been plenty of political talk about the economy this week, but precious few words about one of the biggest drags on the economy: housing.
Despite recent signs that the housing market is improving, it is far from healthy.
Home prices are still down 31 percent from their 2006 peak according to the latest S&P/Case-Shiller home price report, and nearly 12 percent of all mortgages are either delinquent or in the foreclosure process, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

How Obamacare Robs Medicare and Hurts Seniors
By Amy Payne - Heritage.org
The rhetorical Medicare wars have heated up this week, after President Obama declared in his Saturday radio address that his proposed reforms "won't touch your guaranteed Medicare benefits. Not by a single dime."
This is incorrect. Obamacare cuts $716 billion from Medicare over the next 10 years, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), and uses these "savings" from Medicare to fund other entitlement expansions mandated by Obamacare. Medicare becomes a cash cow for Obamacare, and the Medicare "savings" from payment cuts are not put back into making Medicare solvent. Such massive payment cuts do impact Medicare benefits, as well as seniors' access to those benefits.

Gun ID legislation may trigger exodus
of gunmakers Remington, Colt
By Joshua Rhett Miller - FOXNews.com
Two venerable American gun manufacturers — Remington and Colt — could head for the West their weapons helped win if New York and Connecticut force them to implement microstamping technology.
Microstamping, or ballistic imprinting, is a patented process that uses laser technology to engrave a tiny marking of the make, model and serial number on the tip of a gun's firing pin to allow an imprint of that information on spent cartridge cases. Supporters of the technology say it will be a "game changer," allowing authorities to quickly identify the registered guns used in crimes. Opponents claim the process is costly, unreliable and may ultimately impact the local economies that heavily depend on the gun industry, including Ilion, N.Y., where Remington Arms maintains a factory, and Hartford, Conn., where Colt's manufacturing is headquartered.

other viewpoints...
CrossTalk: New World Disorder
What has changed since the end of the Cold War? Does the world today match what was envisioned decades ago by some prominent Western leaders? Have we reached the 'end of history?' Will borders remain untouched as sectarianism and nationalism take root across the world? Or are we living through a paradigm shift, where the status quo is unlikely to prevail? And how painful will this shift be until a new order is established? CrossTalking with George Szamuely, Alan Kuperman and Ryan Mauro.

What do the Russians know that American public doesn't?
Russia is disengaging from Syria:
Arms shipments stopped, warships exit Tartus
DEBKAfile
Russian naval vessels have unexpectedly departed the Syrian Mediterranean port of Tartus and Russian arms shipments to Syria have been suddenly discontinued. DEBKAfile's military sources reveal that those and other steps indicate that the Russians are rapidly drawing away from the Syrian arena to avoid getting caught up in the escalating hostilities expected to arise from military intervention by the US, Europe and a number of Arab states. Russian intelligence appears to have decided that this outside intervention is imminent and Moscow looks anxious to keep its distance for now.

UN, Iran leaders duel over nuclear issue
by Staff Writers, Tehran (AFP)
UN chief Ban Ki-moon and Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, sparred in an unusually frank verbal duel on Wednesday over Tehran's disputed nuclear programme, betraying high tensions on the issue.
Ban told Khamenei and, separately, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to take "concrete" steps to fix the worsening international showdown over their atomic activities, according to his spokesman.
But Khamenei, according to his official website, shot back by saying the "defective" United Nations was in thrall to the United States, and accusing the UN nuclear watchdog of "sabotaging" Iran's nuclear progress.

Carrier strike group rushes to PersianGulf
by Staff Writers - Washington (UPI)
The U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis is being rushed to the Persian Gulf as tensions between Israel and Iran edge closer to the boiling point.
The Nimitz class carrier, with an air wing of about 90 aircraft, sets sail Monday on an eight-month deployment to the region -- four months ahead of schedule.
In the gulf it will join the USS Enterprise Strike Group, giving the United States a powerful deterrent to any Iranian attack on commercialoil tankers in the Persian Gulf and Strait of Hormuz or a counterpunch to Iranian military action against U.S. military facilities in the region or those of its allies.

TacSat-4 Participates
in US Navy Fleet Experiment Trident Warrior
by Staff Writers, Washington DC (SPX)
U.S. Naval ResearchLaboratory's Tactical Satellite-4 successfully completes three weeks of intense testing, June 28, as part of the Navy's annual Trident Warrior Experiment 2012 (TW12). TacSat-4 is a Navy-led Joint mission that provides Ultra High Frequency (UHF) satellite communications (SATCOM).
Sponsored by Navy Warfare Development Command, Trident Warrior is an annual fleet experiment focused on gaining valuable insights to improve future capabilityinvestments. This year's agenda included at-sea experimentation of critical maritime initiatives, and developing or improving tactics, techniques and procedures to aid maritime forces.

US-China missile race
by Staff Writers, Moscow, Russia (Voice of Russia)
The United States says it's planning to build new missile defence in Asia. White House officials say early warning radar systems could be placed on a remote Japanese island and possibly in the Philippines. They say the proposed systems are in response to the development of new Chinese missiles, which the Pentagon says could be used to target the American Pacific Fleet. The US plans come in the wake of a diplomatic fall-out with Russia over similar systems in Eastern Europe.
VOR's Tom Hedegard spoke to Alexander Neal, an Asia expert at the Royal United Services Institute, and asked him what the US is trying to achieve in the region.

US pushes for a new phase of arms race
by Staff Writers, Moscow, Russia (Voice of Russia)
After Russia refused to support the UN Security Council resolution on Syria the US Congress forbade Pentagon to deal with Russia's arms export monopoly Rosoboronexport until Moscow stops supplying weapons to Damask. Russia was quickly tagged as a country which supplies weapons to evil dictatorial regimes. In reality, however, it's the United States that is the largest supplier of weapons on the global marketplace, including countries with authoritarian rule. Of course, some of the deliveries are made indirectly, through a large network of intermediaries.

Staged crisis leading to suspended elections
could happen on our watch
By Judi McLeod - CanadaFreePress.com
The closer America gets to Election Day, the more some worry about the possibility of there not being one.
Obama is smiling all the way through the polls, and it may not merely be whistling past the cemetery this time.
The fear of Obama suspending elections came long before the presidential election campaign officially began. It was almost one year ago when North CarolinaGovernor Bev Perdue made suspended elections an idea whose time has come.

Clinton staying as far away
from Charlotte as physically possible
Posted By Josh Rogin - TheCable.ForeignPolicy.com
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, as a sitting administration official, does not have any role at the Democratic National Convention next week in Charlotte. But she seems to gone out of her way to avoid the festivities, as she is traveling this week and next to the Cook Islands, Indonesia, China, Timor-Leste, Brunei, and Russia.

Warm-up act needed a script but crowd loved him
Clint Eastwood's rambling RNC speech
Politico.com
TAMPA, Fla. — Clint Eastwood delivered a rambling performance at the Republican National Convention on Thursday night in a speech that included the Hollywood legend speaking to an empty stool and telling an imaginary President Barack Obama "I'm not going to shut up" and calling the president "absolutely crazy."
The Romney campaign defended Eastwood's performance, saying, "His ad-libbing was a break from all the political speeches and the crowd enjoyed it."

RNC 2012: Mitt Romney speech to GOP convention (Full Text)
Full text of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney's remarks to the Republican National Convention on Aug. 30 in Tampa , as prepared for delivery. -- WashingtonPost.com

Mitt Romney appeals to America's optimism in RNC speech
GOP presidential nominee makes his case to the country
BY DAVID LIGHTMAN,
MCCLATCHY NEWS SERVICE - MiamiHerald.com
TAMPA -- Mitt Romney presented the first crucial chapter Thursday of his bid to become the country's 45th president, accepting the Republican nomination and urging the nation to look closely at his résumé, his vision and his remedies for the ailing economy."I wish President Obama had succeeded because I want America to succeed. But his promises gave way to disappointment and division," Romney said. "This isn't something we have to accept. Now is the moment when we can do something. With your help we will do something."

Romney makes appeal
to Americans disillusioned with Obama
By John Whitesides and Steve Holland
TAMPA, Florida | Thu Aug 30, 2012 11:10pm EDT
(Reuters) - Republican Mitt Romney urged voters on Thursday to help him rebuild the U.S. economy and create millions of new jobs, asking them to overcome their disappointment in President Barack Obama and join him in restoring the promise of America.
In a high-stakes speech accepting the Republican presidential nomination, Romney said he would work to unify a divided country that believed Obama's lofty campaign promises but had lost hope they would be fulfilled.

The Election: It's The Food-Stamps, Stupid!
Submitted by Tyler Durden - ZeroHedge.com
In November 2008, President Barack Obama won the popular election for President by 9.5 million votes. A burgeoning financial crisis and weakening economy helped his candidacy at the time, but four years on the sluggish pace of economic recovery is a headwind to his re-election. Consider, for example, that there are currently 12.8 million people unemployed in the U.S., or that an estimated 8 million adults entered the SNAP (Food Stamp) program since November 2008 (total increase in enrollment: 15.6 million). Presidential elections are won in the Electoral College, of course, so in today's note ConvergEx's Nick Colas parses out this employment/food security economic stress for the key "Battleground" states.

Romney: Election about jobs, Obama failures;
will promise to help families
By Stephen Dinan-The Washington Times
TAMPA, Fla. — Mitt Romney will accept the Republican presidential nomination Thursday night, will tell a national audience to take a harder look at the last four years under President Obama, and said he and his fellow Republicans offer voters the chance to make a dramatic course-change.
"I wish President Obama had succeeded because I want America to succeed. But his promises gave way to disappointment and division," Mr. Romney will say, according to excerpts of his remarks provided by his campaign. "This isn't something we have to accept. Now is the moment when we can do something. With your help we will do something."

Voters, Are You Bluffing?
By George Will - PatriotPost.us
WASHINGTON -- Now begins the final phase of this cognitive dissonance campaign. America's 57th presidential election is the first devoted to calling the nation's bluff. When Mitt Romney selected Paul Ryan, Republicans undertook the perilous but commendable project of forcing voters to face the fact that they fervently hold flatly incompatible beliefs.
Twice as many Americans identify themselves as conservative as opposed to liberal. Nov. 6 we will know if they mean it. If they are ideologically conservative but operationally liberal. If they talk like Jeffersonians but want to be governed by Hamiltonians. If their commitment to limited government is rhetorical or actual. If it is, as Daniel Patrick Moynihan suspected, a "civic religion, avowed but not constraining."

Barack Obama, Global Has-Been
[Google the title for FREE Article Pass]
The president would rather be loved than feared. He is neither.
By Bret Stephens - WSJ.com $$
A few days ago there occurred one of those telling little episodes that captures the essence and folly of the Obama administration's approach to foreign policy. The meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement is being hosted this week in Iran, and the administration had urged United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon not to attend as a signal of displeasure at Tehran's serial violations of U.N. Security Council resolutions.
Of course Mr. Ban is going.
The administration's response to Mr. Ban's decision was "muted," according to the New York Times, evidently out of sympathy for his delicate position: Most U.N. member states are also members of the Non-Aligned Movement, and it's customary for U.N. secretaries-general to attend the meetings. There's also hope Mr. Ban will make a public stink in Iran about its leaders' nuclear bid or their calls to wipe out Israel. And maybe he will.

Dinesh D'Souza Obama 2016 YouTube
Film encourages the audience to consider where our country will be in 2016 if Barack Hussein Obama is re-elected.

Obama's America: 2012
The Roots of Obama's Radicalism
By Mark Alexander - PatriotPost.us

"The republican is the only form of government which is not eternally at open or secret war with the rights of mankind." --Thomas Jefferson (1790)

Timed for theatrical release in advance of theRepublican National Convention to nominate the Romney-Ryan ticket, Dinesh D'Souza's much-anticipated film "Obama's America: 2016" is earning great reviews and already ranks among the top-grossing political documentaries of all time. The film encourages the audience to consider where our country will be in 2016 if Barack Hussein Obama is re-elected.
Frankly, it's a great leap of faith to believe there will be an "America" in 2016 if Obama is re-elected -- at least one that we recognize. One need look no further than Obama's America in 2012 to see that most of what was left of our Republican government when he was elected in 2008 has been scheduled for demolition. As I've noted in previous columns,Obama's strategy is to irrevocably shatter free enterprise with a debt bomb shockwave.

Gerald Celente - Mitch Henck:
News Talk Radio WIBA Madison - August 29, 2012
on the election - RNC... the great SHOW

How Obama Succeeds By Failing
Ryan on the American Tipping Point: it's the socialism, stupid.
By JEFFREY LORD - The American Spectator.org
"Perhaps you and I have lived with this miracle too long to be properly appreciative. Freedom is a fragile thing and is never more than one generation away from extinction. It is not ours by inheritance; it must be fought for and defended constantly by each generation, for it comes only once to a people. Those who have known freedom and then lost it have never known it again." --Ronald Reagan, January 1967
Why did Obama fail?
Or has Obama actually succeeded?
The debt soars to $16 trillion. Millions are out of work to the tune of an 8.3% unemployment rate, with the CBO predicting it will keep on climbing to 9% by 2013 -- now only five short months away. One could go on, yipping and yapping about everything from the price of a gallon of gas (already headed north to four bucks a gallon, itspiked again Wednesday from a nickel to as much as 14 cents in the wake of Hurricane Isaac) to the crony capitalism of Solyndra.
So the question isn't "has Obama failed"? No, the real question is:
Why did Obama fail? And in the world of socialists and progressives, isn't this failure a success?

What Now for Ron Paul Libertarians?
Matt Welch: Ron Paul supporters sidelined at convention as differences with Romney foreign policy are profound

How Europe sees US...
The World from Berlin:
'Romney Message Too Closely Tailored to White Men'
Wither the Republicans? The party's national convention this week has revealed a GOP that seems unconcerned about alienating minority voters. Despite poor economic data, German commentators on Thursday argue that candidate Mitt Romney will have trouble getting elected as a result.
Spiegel.de
Republican Party faithful have turned out in Tampa this week to cheer on their presidential and vice presidential choices for the Nov. 6 national election. Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan made his plea on Wednesday night. When former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney takes the stage Thursday night he will make his own attempt to win over voters in a nationally televised speech.
The official convention theme is "We Believe in America," and the gathering has taken aim at President Barack Obama's handling of the nation's economy. The pair's fiscally conservative policies call for lowering corporate and personal tax rates, eliminating several tax loopholes and rules out tax increases. They have called for cutting government spending on social transfers and for slimming down government regulation, while maintaining defense spending.

America, the Insecure
Hey, America: You're good enough, you're smart enough, and doggone it, people like you. Thoughts from across the pond on the U.S. obsession with exceptionalism.
BY ALEX MASSIE - ForeignPolicy.com
LONDON — We hold these truths to be self-evident: The United States is the world's original and still-greatest political experiment, founded upon a creed of liberty for all in a land of unprecedented, unparalleled opportunity. This land's manifest destiny is to be a shining city on a hill, a light by which the rest of the world may see the glories of a new and better world. If the journey, approved by Providence, has been long and hard, it is all the more noble for being so. This is, was, and always shall be an exceptional nation, the envy and wonder of the world. America is, like, awesome.

Ryan Rocks Republicans
He was so good last night [Wednesday]
he'll be an impossible act to follow.
By ROSS KAMINSKY - The American Spectator.org
As Congressman Paul Ryan (R-WI) closed out the second night of the 2012 Republican Convention in the biggest speech of his life, he at first seemed slightly (and understandably) nervous. That lasted about sixty seconds, as the vice-president-in-waiting delivered remarks that became steadily more forceful and confident and left my wife, a relatively new citizen of the United States, saying "this guy should be running for president."
....Ryan's 35-minute remarks, which ended with Republicans rowdily cheering the party's leading "rock star" (in a party demonstrably brimming with young talent), spoke of optimism for the future (calling on the memory of happy warrior Jack Kemp), of the damage to the economy and the fundamental nature of our republic caused by Barack Obama, of entitlement reform, of his family and upbringing, and (briefly) of faith and religion, all while conveying a combination of youth and earnestness that the Obama/Biden team cannot hope to match.

Ryan Pledges GOP Rebirth
By PATRICK O'CONNOR And JOHN D. McKINNON - WSJ.com
TAMPA, Fla.—Rep. Paul Ryan took the national political stage Wednesday as the Republican Party's vice presidential candidate, giving a televised speech that laid out one of the GOP's sharpest cases yet against a second term for President Barack Obama, and for Republicans as the party of small government.
Mr. Ryan's address to the Republican convention was his introduction to a national audience only now beginning to take his measure as one of the GOP's leading figures and the partner of presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

Paul Ryan's Night
By Rich Galen - PatriotPost.us
Fifteen thousand reporters are here all watching the same thing, writing about the same thing, and Tweeting the same thing.
Walking through the huge Tampa Convention Center (where THE Convention is not being held; that is in a nearby building called the Tampa Times Forum) which houses most of those reporters you could see room after room filled with row after row of reporter after reporter trying to tease out the hidden meaning of how long it took for New Jersey Governor Chris Christie to mention Mitt Romney's name in his keynote address on Tuesday night.
I watched Ann Romney's and Governor Christie's speeches from the set of Bloomberg TV a block or so away from the Forum.

Paul Ryan Speech
at the Republican National Convention RNC - 1/3

Paul Ryan Speech
at the Republican National Convention RNC - 2/3

Paul Ryan Speech
at the Republican National Convention RNC - 3/3

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