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HEADLINE Economic, Financial & Global News...
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Friday 07.27.2012

Gold may return to trading like a safe haven asset: UBS
LONDON (Commodity Online): Gold is trading like a risk asset, but eventually investors may look to gold as a safe-haven asset again, said Union Bank of Switzerland (UBS) in a snippet.
Edel Tully, precious metals strategist at UBS stated that, "the ratings downgrade of Germany, Holland and Luxembourg "effectively reduces by 50% the global pool of sovereign bonds with AAA ratings and stable outlooks from all three major agencies."

Gold & Silver Jump to 3-Week Highs
BY ADRIAN ASH - FinancialSense.com
The wholesale-market gold price leapt more than 1% inside an hour in London trade Thursday morning, setting 3-week highs above $1620 per ounce after European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi said "The ECB is ready to do whatever it takes to preserve" the single Euro currency.
"And believe me, it will be enough."
Speaking in London one day after the gold price jumped following fresh rumors of more quantitative easing by the US Federal Reserve, Draghi did not specify plans, but did point to the high bond yields now being paid by Eurozone members such as Italy and Spain.

GATA files new gold records requests
with State, Treasury, Fed, and FOMC
Submitted by cpowell - Gata.org
Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:
Through its lawyer, William J. Olson P.C. of Vienna, Virginia (http://www.lawandfreedom.com/), GATA today filed federal Freedom of Information Act requests with the U.S. State Department, Treasury Department, Federal Reserve Board, and Federal Open Market Committee, greatly expanding upon GATA's 2009 FOIA request to the Fed, which sought access to records involving gold swaps.

Gold may stay above $1,600 on likely stimulus measures
SINGAPORE (Commodity Online): Gold stood steady above $1,600 an ounce, as investors pondered the possibility of more stimulus measures from central banks to revive a flagging global economy on Thursday after struggling to extended gains from previous session.
Boosted by expectations that the European Central Bank (ECB) will intervene to prop up the euro zone's ailing finances after an official suggested leveraging a rescue fund to increase its capacity Gold rose to a three-week high on Wednesday.

Four Reasons Why the Government Is Destroying the Dollar
BY DANIEL AMERMAN CFA - FinancialSense.com
Overview
The United States government has four interrelated motivations for destroying the value of the dollar:

1. Creating money out of thin air on a massive basis is all that stands between the current state of hidden depression, and overt depression with unemployment levels in excess of those seen in the US Great Depression of the 1930s.
2. It is the weapon of choice being used to wage currency war and reboot US economic growth.
3. It is the most effective way to meet not just current crushing debt levels, but to deal with the rapidly approaching massive generational crisis of paying for Boomer retirement promises.
4. Political survival and enhanced power for incumbent politicians.

LIBOR Fraud May Be the Mother of All Bank Scandals
By JAMES RICKARDS - USNews.com
nvestors have by now heard of the LIBOR scandal engulfing thebanking industry. LIBOR stands for the London Interbank Offered Rate. To some it may be just the latest entry on a list of bank frauds and blunders in recent years, from mortgage scams to MF Global and the London Whale.
In fact, this may be the mother of all scandals—the one that finally leads to criminal charges and the insolvency of major banks. The fraud is breathtakingly easy to understand once past a small amount of jargon. Indeed, the simplicity of the fraud is the greatest threat to the perpetrators because here at last is a fraud that is easy for juries to understand and for prosecutors to prove.

How Ben Bernanke Can Prevent the End of Civilization
By Bill Bonner - DailyReckoning.com
The Dow up 58 yesterday…nothing important there.
Gold up $31. Hmmm…what does the gold market see? More QE?
Last week, it was the IMF. It urged the Europeans to increase their money-printing efforts to avoid deflation. This week, the Financial Times tells Ben Bernanke to get off his cushy derriere and take bold, decisive action in the fight against the Great Correction.
Sebastian Mallaby, writing in the FT, says Bernanke is acting like a wimp. He needs to come up with some new weapons, new strategies, and new tactics. C'mon Ben, "show some real audacity."
Ben Bernanke, hero of '08, will not want to see himself stripped of his medals. He will not sit on his hands and watch as the US follows Japan down that long, lonely road towards stagnation. He will not want his resume blemished by a splotch of failure just when he faced his greatest challenge.
No, dear reader, he will 'do something!' — no matter how dimwitted it may be.

Keiser Report: Jellyfish Rat-Heart Robot Bankers (E319)

Central Banks Chomping At the Bit: Perpetual 'QE'
BY PATER TENEBRARUM - FinancialSense.com
In recent days, numerous central bank bureaucrats have given us hints that another round of pump priming is more or less imminent. It started with John Williams, president of the San Francisco Fed who mused about 'QE without a limit'. The FT reported:
"The US will make little progress tackling high unemployment before 2014 unless the Federal Reserve eases policy further, one of the central bank's leading officials has warned in the run-up to a meeting next week where the option of "QE3" will be on the table.

Economic outlook still gloomy
despite some good news, analysts say
By Michael A. Fletcher - WashingtonPost.com
Stock markets surged Thursday on assurances that the euro will be kept intact. Durable goods orders were up. And the number of people seeking unemployment benefits was down.
But analysts said that those bright spots were not enough to alter a gloomy economic picture marked by tepid hiring.
The federal government releases its estimate for growth in the second quarter of 2012 on Friday, and expectations are not good. Economists predict that the economy grew by a dismal annual rate of 1.4 percent between April and June.

Citigroup's ex-CEO does an about-face on big banks
By CHRISTINA REXRODE, AP Business Writer – Google.com
NEW YORK (AP) — Sandy Weill is having a change of heart.
Weill, the aggressive dealmaker who built Citigroup on the idea that in banking, bigger is better, said Wednesday that he believes big banks should be broken up.
Speaking on CNBC's "Squawk Box," the 79-year-old Weill appeared to shock the show's anchors when he said that consumer banking units should be split from riskier investment banking units.
That would mean dismembering Citigroup as well as other big U.S. banks, like JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America.

Sceptics abound as Mario Draghi's ECB bond 'bluff'
electrifies global markets
The European Central Bank has opened the door to emergency support for the Spanish and Italian bond markets, setting off a blistering rally on bourses across the world.
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard - Telegraph.co.uk
Mario Draghi, the ECB president, vowed to do "whatever it takes" to save the euro within limits of its mandate. "Believe me, it will be enough," he said in London.
Picking codewords instantly understood by traders, Mr Draghi said the violent spike in bond yields in recent days was hampering "the functioning of the monetary policy transmission channels" - the exact expression used to jusfify each of the ECB's previous market interventions.

Greece to run out of money by August 20
Greece may run out of money and go bankrupt by Aug 20, a British government analysis of the ongoing eurozone crisis has warned.
By Robert Winnett - Telegraph.co.uk
The beleaguered country will have to refinance billions of euros worth of government bonds in less than a month and requires international assistance — which may not be forthcoming — to repay the money.
International inspectors arrived back in Greece on Tuesday to assess the country's austerity programme with European officials warning that it was "hugely off track".

U.S. Cities vs. European Countries: How Do They Rank?
By Derek Thompson - TheAtlantic.com
What if Europe were the United States? is a question we've played with often on this page, at a safe distance from the crisis across the ocean. Far from a frivolous query, it helps us unpack the difference between a monetary experiment (their euro zone) and a true monetary and fiscal union (our "dollar zone"). The United States has plenty of intractable problems. Deciding whether to keep paying Medicaid for Mississippians after the state has a particularly disappointing year, or century, isn't one of them. Where we have laws and permanent transfer programs, Europe has debates over backstopping bonds and trading month-to-month bailouts for promises of fiscally ruinous austerity.

Citi sees 90 percent chance of Greece leaving the euro
(Reuters) - The chances of Greece leaving the euro in the next 12-18 months have risen to about 90 percent, U.S. bank Citi said in a report on Thursday, saying Athens was most likely to quit the single currency within the next two to three quarters.
The report, dated July 25 but distributed in an email on Thursday, said the bank expected Italy and Spain to take a formal bailout from the European Union and IMF on top of the banking aid for which Madrid has already asked.
Citi economists had previously put the chances of a Greek exit at 50 to 75 percent.

Ben Bernanke Doesn't Care
About the Price of Your Hamburger (Good!)
By Matthew O'Brien - TheAtlantic.com
Do you like food? Yes? Well, I've got some bad news. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) expects the historic drought hitting half the country to push up food inflation next year.
But it's not as bad as you might think -- the jump in food prices, that is. The drought is a once-in-a-half-century disaster amidst once-in-a-century temperatures. The chart below from the USDA puts it in perspective.

State Dept. Says It Will Fight For Internet Freedom
At U.N. Telecom Conference
By CARL FRANZEN - TalkingPointsMemo.com
The U.S. State Department will advocate on behalf of Internet freedom, and oppose proposed plans by other nations to control the flow of content or turn more control of Internet technology standards to the United Nations at an upcoming U.N. conference, U.S. ambassador Philip Verveer, told TPM in a phone interview.
"We recognize that this is a very important conference," Verveer told TPM, referring to the World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT), a summit to be held in Dubai in December that will involve all 193 member nations of the United Nations with the aim of revising global telecom regulations, last agreed to in a 1988 treaty, well before the full commercialization and adoption of the Internet.

Inside the Quest to Put the World's Libraries Online
The Digital Public Library of America wants to make millions of books, records, and images available to any American with an Internet connection. Can it succeed where others have failed?
By Esther Yi - TheAtlantic.com
In his short story "The Library of Babel," Jorge Luis Borges imagines the universe as a "total library," whose 410-page books have achieved all possible combinations of letters and punctuation. No two books are the same. Some, of course, are gibberish. But others carry the answer to life's deepest mysteries. In Borges's library can be found every thought ever had, every turn of phrase ever uttered, every masterpiece penned by Shakespeare, and even the ones that he never got to write—simply stated, everything.

A Very Mean (But Maybe Brilliant) Way to Pay Teachers
A Freakonomics author and a 'Genius Grant' winner suggest that giving teachers bonuses, then threatening to yank them away, might be the key to classroom success
By Jordan Weissmann - TheAtlantic.com
One of the great, early insights from the field of behavioral economics was that when it comes to handling money, most people are driven much more by fear than they are by greed. The concept is called "loss aversion." Faced with a financial choice -- say, whether to sell a stock or hold onto it -- the majority of us are more likely to worry about blundering away what we already have than get excited about the prospect of adding to our bank accounts. We simply feel the sting of losing a buck more strongly than we do the joy of making one.

The Attack On Chick-Fil-A
Is An Attack On The Freedom Of Speech Of Every American
By Michael Snyder - EndOfTheAmericanDream.com
If you are an American, your freedom of speech is under attack. Over the past week, remarks made by Chick-fil-A president Dan Cathy defending traditional marriage have sparked controversy all over the nation. Many Americans have expressed support for his remarks and many have expressed disdain for his remarks. And all of that is fine, because in the United States people are supposed to be able to express their opinions. But in Chicago, Boston and other U.S. cities, politicians are actually promising to keep any more Chick-fil-A stores from opening because their CEO does not support gay marriage, and that crosses the line. When politicians threaten to ban a business from their cities just because the CEO does not hold the "politically correct" position on a social issue that is an attack on the freedom of speech of every American. You see, the truth is that the enforcers of political correctness in America are very "tolerant" except when somebody disagrees with them. The politically correct control freaks that are trying to ban Chick-fil-A from their cities would try to ban Chick-fil-A from opening any more restaurants in the entire country if they had the power to do so. The goal of these politically correct control freaks is to intimidate. They want to end debate on these social issues by shutting down the free speech of the opposition. In the end, if America continues to go down this path it will end up looking just like many of the other totalitarian regimes throughout history where free speech has been banned.

Support Dan Cathy - eat at Chick-Fil-A on August 1st
Billy Graham Throws Support Behind Chick-fil-A President
By Henry J. Reske - NewsMax.com
The Rev. Billy Graham has thrown his support behind embattled Chick-fil-A President Dan Cathy and announced plans to stop by the fast food restaurant next Wednesday as part of Mike Huckabee's "Eat Mor Chikin" promotion.
Dan Cathy's recent comments supporting the "biblical definition" of marriage as between a man and a woman has led to calls by gay rights advocates to boycott the chain. The mayors of Boston and Chicago have recently promised to stop further expansion of the restaurants in their cities.

EAT MOR CHIKIN
By James Quinn - TheBurningPlatform.com
Everyone knows Chick-fil-A is run by a religious family. They sacrifice enormous potential profits by being closed on Sundays. The fact that the owner is against gay marriage is his personal view. The company does not discriminate against gay employees or gay customers. If you are so outraged by his personal view and his exercising of his right to free speech, then you have the right to boycott Chick-fil-A. The government and asshole liberal politicians like Rahm Emanuel do not have the right to stop Chick-fil-A from opening outlets because they disagree with the owners personal views. Maybe Rahm should worry about the hundreds of murders and gang wars in his fine city. Karl Denninger is absolutely correct. Teach these liberal scumbag politicians another lesson. Buy a chicken sandwich, waffle fries and a lemonade on your way home tonight at Chick-fil-A.

Rahm Emanuel, The Dictator
By Karl Denninger - Market-Ticker.org
You want to know what unconstitutional is defined by? You just found it.
The anti-gay views openly espoused by the president of a fast food chain specializing in chicken sandwiches have run afoul of Mayor Rahm Emanuel and a local alderman, who are determined to block Chick-fil-A from expanding in Chicago.
"Chick-fil-A's values are not Chicago values. They're not respectful of our residents, our neighbors and our family members. And if you're gonna be part of the Chicago community, you should reflect Chicago values," Emanuel said Wednesday.
That's illegal Rahm. It's flatly unconstitutional for government to impose a "litmus test" on the "permitting process" for a business or other entity due to the religious beliefs of the owners.

School supt.: Churches opposed to homosexuality not welcome
By Todd Starnes - SRNNews.townhall.com
Supt. Alberto Carvalho released a statement to a local television station alleging that Impact Miami's opposition to homosexuality "appears to be contrary to school board policy as well as the basic principles of humanity."
"I have asked for immediate legal review to seek the termination of the contract that is involved," he told Local10.com. "I am making this decision not on the basis of policy or politics but as a rejection of prejudice and intolerance."

US midwest drought worsens despite rains
The drought across the states that produce most of the country's corn, soybeans and livestock has intensified, a report shows
By Reuters - Guardian.co.uk
The most extensive drought in five decades intensified this week across the US midwest and plains states that produce most of the county's corn, soybeans and livestock, a report from climate experts showed on Thursday.
Almost 30% of the nine-state midwest was suffering extreme drought, nearly triple from the previous week, according to the US drought monitor for the week ending 24 July.

Republicans want to raise taxes on the poor. Why?
Posted by Ezra Klein - WashingtonPost.com
As the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, Orrin Hatch is the Republican point man on taxes in the Senate. And he's got a plan. It's called the Tax Hike Prevention Act of 2013. He's even got Mitch McConnell, the leader of the Senate Republicans, as a co-sponsor.
Hatch's plan would extend all the Bush tax cuts for another year. It would keep the alternative minimum tax in check. It would direct the Senate Finance Committee to begin working on tax reform. Just about the only thing it wouldn't do is prevent a tax hike from occurring in 2013.

Actuary: GOP Cuts To Social Security Anti-Fraud Programs
Could Cost Taxpayers $5 Billion
SAHIL KAPUR - TalkingPointsMemo.com
Cuts proposed by House Republicans to programs designed to weed out waste and abuse within Social Security could end up costing taxpayers more in the long run than the spending cuts themselves are designed to save, according to the program's chief actuary.
An appropriations bill that last week cleared a GOP-led subcommittee slashes 2013 funding for disability reviews and eligibility redeterminations, which seek to ensure that seniors and other eligible beneficiaries don't receive more funds than they are entitled to. The proposed cuts would shave this specific budget item from the $1.024 billion agreed upon in the debt limit law last year to $272 million, saving nearly $800 million.

Two apples a day keeps the cardiologist away
Just two apples a day could help protect women against heart disease by cutting their cholesterol levels, according to new research.
Telegraph.co.uk
Scientists found apples significantly lowered blood fat levels in postmenopausal women, the group most at risk of heart attacks and strokes.
Snacking on the fruit every day for six months slashed cholesterol by almost a quarter.
The biggest reduction was seen in low-density lipoprotein, the so-called 'bad' cholesterol that furs up arteries and raises the risk of a life-threatening clot forming near the heart or brain.

Walmart accused of firing union organizers
in bid to intimidate workers
Retail giant denies it planned illegal campaign to stamp out union activity but workers say firings point to emerging strategy
By Spencer Woodman - Guardian.co.uk
Walmart is facing accusations that the company is engaged in a bold and illegal campaign to stamp out union activity after firing five employees in recent months who were involved in a group organizing the company's workers.
Although the company says that the terminations are unrelated to any employees' organizing activity, OUR Walmart – which receives funding and support from the United Food and Commercial Workers Union – argues that the pattern points to an emerging strategy to break the organization's command structure and intimidate workers.

Hawker Beechcraft defends bonus plan for top execs
AP - SRNNews.townhall.com
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Hawker Beechcraft is defending its plan to pay more than $5.3 million in bonuses to eight top executives. Company officials say the executives are talented and have much work left to do before the company can emerge from bankruptcy.
The company told the bankruptcy judge in a document filed Thursday — just hours before a hearing — that its executives must continue to pursue a possible company sale to a Chinese firm and a plan for a reorganized standalone company.

Bombardier to halt production of Learjet 60 XR;
275 jobs at risk
By Molly McMillin - Wichita Eagle - Kansas.com
Bombardier Learjet is halting production of its Learjet 60 XR midsize business jet sometime this fall and evaluating the positions of the 275 people who work on the program.
If the market improves, production can be restarted, said Annie Cossette, a spokeswoman for Bombardier.
"We're monitoring the situation closely," Cossette said. "The demand in the light aircraft market is weak."
It will continue to evaluate the market.

Alcatel-Lucent to cut 5,000 jobs,
costs after reporting $308 million loss for second quarter
AP - WshingtonPost.com
PARIS — Telecoms equipment maker Alcatel-Lucent plans to eliminate 5,000 jobs in a multimillion-euro drive to cut costs announced Thursday after it reported a second-quarter net loss of €254 million ($308 million).
The Franco-American company unveiled a restructuring plan that it said would take €1.25 billion off its bottom line by next year.
Shares in the company plunged as the Paris bourse opened; by late afternoon, they were down 6.9 percent. Alcatel-Lucent had reported a second-quarter net profit of €43 million last year.

Pentagon official says civilian workforce
could get layoff notices 4 days before election
AP - WashingtonPost.com
WASHINGTON — Tens of thousands of civilian employees in the Defense Department could receive warnings about potential layoffs four days before the November election if impending spending cuts aren't averted, hitting presidential battleground states such as Virginia and Florida hard.
The alerts would come in addition to any that major defense contractors might send out at the same time to their workers under an often-overlooked law, a prospect that is unnerving the White House roughly three months before voters go to the polls.

Ten Reasons Why Fracking is Doomed
By Juan Cole - OilPrice.com
Proponents of natural gas fracturing and oil drilling are delirious with joy over the ability to recover shale gas, which has brought down world gas prices and made the US a major player again. Likewise, North Dakota wells are set to produce up to 800,000 barrels of oil a day soon. (Although, since the world uses roughly 89 million barrels a day, and the US uses a fifth of that, and demand in Asia will likely spike in coming years, the ND addition is just not that much).
Fracking is dangerous to ground water purity, and both oil and gas, as hydrocarbons, contribute to global climate change, which is a dire threat to human well-being in coming decades and centuries.

Chamber of Commerce to promote shale boom in campaign
By Ayesha Rascoe - SRNNews.Townhall.com
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Chamber of Commerce on Thursday launched its first major salvo in support of shale oil and gas development, unveiling a campaign promoting the economic benefits of the booming energy sector that is under fire from environmentalists.
The powerful business group will be running newspaper and radio ads in states such as Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia where the shale gas boom has sharply boosted drilling.

STOP ICLEI [Agenda 21 on the local level]
Why You Should Be Concerned About ICLEI
Anticlei.com
ICLEI = International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives
Taking care of our environment, developing energy independence, and planning for the future is a responsible approach to living. However, the green/environmental/sustainable movement consistently demonstrates their lack of concern for the people who live on the planet. Many green-labeled practices actually cause more damage to the environment.
Powerful environmental special interest groups prevent research, development and implementation of new technology. Free market solutions to any problem are far superior to government intrusion. There is exciting research and development being conducted by private businesses, but they cannot compete against multibillion dollar foreign nongovernmental organizations.

Richard Rothschild Battles Local Agenda 21
By Cassandra Anderson - PPJGazette
Richard Rothschild was the first county commissioner to officially oppose the United Nations' International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI), also known as Local Governments for Sustainability. In fact, Mr. Rothschild won the November 2010 election in Carroll County, Maryland based on his opposition to ICLEI, which is the local UN Agenda 21 Sustainable Development action plan that attacks property and Constitutional rights.

Richard Rothschild on Agenda 21

United Nations, Agenda 21 and the ICLEI
Hal Shurtleff gives a talk on the U.N., Agenda 21 and how to kick Agenda 21 out of your community.

Lord Christopher Monckton -
Agenda 21 and Environmental Marxism
On March 18, 2012 Lord Christopher Monckton spoke to supporters of the International Free Press Society - Canada at Windermere Manor in London, Ontario. Topics of his speech included the United Nations, environmentalism, science, reason, Agenda 21, Marxism, Islam, and abortion as a major reason for the eventual downfall of the West.

Exposing ICLEI Agenda 21 (United Nations):
Jeannie Soderman & Stan Monteith
[ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability]

ICLEI Agenda 21
Commissioner Richard Rothschild, a county level elected board member educates the public about the dangers of UN's Agenda 21 initiatives and the Sustainability Development plans by the ICLEI.

KICK ICLEI OUT: Santa Rosa CA Council Meeting
Citizens in Santa Rosa, CA spoke during public comments and urged their City Council to put its membership in ICLEI (International Council on Local Environmental Initiatives) on the council agenda so that it could be discussed and debated by the citizens. The Council's response will shock you.
Santa Rosa became a member of ICLEI in 2007 and never disclosed that to the people. ICLEI was created specifically to implement UN Agenda 21/Sustainable Development worldwide. It claims to represent over 600 million people but most of us have never heard of it, even though our towns, cities, and counties are members. There is a growing grassroots movement to KICK ICLEI OUT. Cities and counties all across the United States are cancelling their memberships and purging Sustainable Development doctrine out of their General/Comprehensive Plans. You can do it too! For more information please go to www.DemocratsAgainstUNAgenda21.com

Colorado shooting:
James Holmes claims he can't remember killings
James Holmes has reportedly claimed he does not know why he is in prison as he awaits trial accused of killing 12 people in a massacre in a Colorado theatre.
Telegraph.co.uk
The 24-year-old repeatedly asked prison guards "Why am I here?" and said he had no recollection of the killings during a midnight premiere of the new Batman film, according to the New York Daily News.
Holmes, a former neuroscience PhD student, also apparently complained about the food in the Arapahoe County Detention Centre in Colorado, where he is being held in solitary confinement to protect him from possible vigilante justice by other inmates.

Obama calls for measures against gun violence
By Dave Boyer-The Washington Times
Faced with a clamor in his party for stricter gun control in the wake of the Colorado movie-theater massacre, President Obama said Wednesday night he would "leave no stone unturned" in seeking new measures to reduce violence nationwide, including more restrictive background checks on gun purchases.
"A lot of gun owners would agree that AK-47s belong in the hands of soldiers, not in the hands of criminals," Mr. Obama said at the annualNational Urban League convention in New Orleans. "They belong on the battlefield of war, not on the streets of our cities."

Obama calls for US gun control laws
to be tightened in wake of Aurora shooting
President affirms right to bear arms but says assault rifles do not belong in the hands of citizens, drawing contrast with Romney
By Adam Gabbatt in New York - Guardizn.co.uk
Barack Obama has addressed the issue of gun control for the first time since the Colorado film premiere shootings, appealing for "a consensus around violence reduction" and suggesting assault rifles "belong on the battlefield".
The president's comments came as the Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney said the US did not need new gun laws and argued that "changing the heart of the American people" might be the way to avoid future tragedy instead.

Mayor Bloomberg Says
Cops Should Go On Strike
Until Americans Give Up Their Guns
By Mike Riggs - Reason.com
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg told CNN's Piers Morgan last night that he doesn't "understand why police officers across this country don't stand up collectively and say we're going to go on strike, we're not going to protect you unless you, the public, through your legislature, do what's required to keep us safe."
We've been hearing a lot of that recently. Earlier this year, The New York Timesreprinted a Department of Justice press release and slapped this lede on top of it: "As violent crime has decreased across the country, a disturbing trend has emerged: Rising numbers of police officers are being killed."

[How many police officers were killed in Aurora?
Oh, yeah... Zero.]

Bloomberg on a potential police strike
NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg suggests police go on strike in an effort to force more gun control

NSA whistleblowers:
Government spying on every single American
Reuters/Jason Reed - RT.com
The TSA, DHS and countless other security agencies have been established to keep America safe from terrorist attacks in post-9/11 America. How far beyond that does the feds' reach really go, though?
The attacks September 11, 2001, were instrumental in enabling the US government to establish counterterrorism agencies to prevent future tragedies. Some officials say that they haven't stopped there, though, and are spying on everyone in America — all in the name of national security.

Gun Sales Are Through the Roof
Truthdig.com
In reaction to the deadly shooting spree in Aurora, Colo., Americans are stockpiling their own arsenals. Sales are up across the land, from Georgia to California.
In Colorado, background checks were up by 25 percent this weekend and 43 percent the week before, according to The Associated Press.

Fear prompts gun sales, panic after Colo. massacre
By By MIKE BAKER and KRISTEN WYATT – Google.com
DENVER (AP) — Firearms sales are surging in the wake of the Colorado movie massacre as buyers express fears about both personal safety and lawmakers who are using the shooting to seek new weapons restrictions.
In Colorado, the site of Friday's shooting that killed 12 and injured dozens of others, gun sales jumped in the three days that followed. The state approved background checks for 2,887 people who wanted to purchase a firearm — 25 percent more than the average Friday to Sunday period in 2012 and 43 percent more than the same interval the week prior.

Pew: Some Voters Still Believe Obama Is Muslim,
Most Unconcerned With Candidates' Religions
By KYLE LEIGHTON - TalkingPointsMemo.com
More voters are "uncomfortable" with President Obama's religion than they are with presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney's Mormon faith — but that's mostly because many of the 19 percent concerned about Obama think he's Muslim.
A new study from the Pew Research Center shows that 60 percent of voters can correctly identify Romney's religion as Mormon, and of those correct responses, 13 percent are uncomfortable with it. Forty-nine percent correctly identify President Obama's religion as Christian, while 17 percent believe he is Muslim. Among those who are are "sure" they know Obama's faith, 19 percent say they are uncomfortable — but most of those who express discomfort believe Obama is Muslim.

Obama to be the next President prophecy
Trunews interview between Rick Wiles and TD Hale. Obama will be re-elected followed by riots and cities of fire. World war III China Russia submarines nuclear weapons

Iran expands ability to strike U.S. Navy in gulf
Iran bolsters retaliation capability in gulf, experts say
By Joby Warrick - WashingtonPost.com
Iran is rapidly gaining new capabilities to strike at U.S. warships in the Persian Gulf, amassing an arsenal of sophisticated anti-ship missiles while expanding its fleet of fast-attack boats and submarines, U.S. and Middle Eastern analysts say.
The new systems, many of them developed with foreign assistance, are giving Iran's commanders new confidence that they could quickly damage or destroy U.S. ships if hostilities erupt, the officials say.

Syria: Washington's Latest War Crime
By Paul Craig Roberts - PaulCraigRoberts.org
One wonders what Syrians are thinking as "rebels" vowing to "free Syria" take the country down the same road to destruction as "rebels" in Libya. Libya, under Gaddafi a well run country whose oil revenues were shared with the Libyan people instead of monopolized by a princely class as in Saudi Arabia, now has no government and is in disarray with contending factions vying for power.
Just as no one knew who the Libyan "rebels" were, with elements of al Qaeda reportedly among them, no one knows who the Syrian "rebels" are, or indeed if they are even rebels (Antiwar.com). Some "rebels" appear to be bandit groups who seize the opportunity to loot and to rape and set themselves up as the governments of villages and towns. Others appear to be al Qaeda.

Syria dispatch: Rebels forced to share guns
as Assad's tanks roll in to Aleppo
The countryside around Aleppo is a fragile haven for Syria's rebels. Makeshift battalions of local fighters have filled the vacuum left by the withdrawal of most of the regime's forces, but their gains are uncertain.
By Damien McElroy, in al-Bab, Aleppo Province - Telegraph.co.uk
The insurgents are ill-equipped to defend the area from the possible return of an army with vastly superior firepower. Al-Bab, a market town 20 miles east of Aleppo, is one of the first to fly the colours of what rebels call "Free Syria". Their green and black flag has been painted on to former police stations and government offices.
But on the outskirts of the town, an army garrison steadfastly refuses to capitulate. "We have them surrounded and we are trying to talk them into surrender," said Suleiman Nadoom, a rebel fighter. "We think they are still in touch with the army and are being promised reinforcements. The other night they shelled us. There were 40 martyrs."

The Middle East after Assad
By Joschka Fischer - Project-Syndicate.org
BERLIN – What will the Middle East look like once the Syrian civil war brings about the fall of President Bashar al-Assad, whose clan has ruled the country with an iron fist for more than 40 years? Given the recent dramatic turn of events that has pushed the battle for Syria to a new stage, this question can no longer be avoided.
The successful bomb attack on Assad's innermost circle, the spread of the fighting into the capital, Damascus (and to the borders with Turkey andIraq), and the increasing flow of heavier and more precise arms to the insurgents mark the beginning of the endgame. But no one should harbor false hopes about the coming change: Assad's regime will not be supplanted by a rule-of-law democracy. On the contrary, the post-Assad era is likely to be even more chaotic and violent, as the regime's opponents attempt to settle accounts with its supporters and conflict erupts among various clans and religious communities.

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