The Lawyer
Freedom Lawyers of America
A site that will chronical the dark side of the news to show what happens when freedom is dying and to sell his books SHELLY WAXMAN'S BOOKS. We also foster and certify the proper use of independent contractors. http:independentcontractor.info CHECK OUR WEBSITE http://thelawyer.info WHERE YOU CAN ALSO ACCESS OUR FREEDOM LAWYERS YAHOO GROUPMonday, April 28, 2003
ALCOHOL IS BAD, LET'S BAN IT--------------JUST KIDDING
Due to increasing products liability litigation, American liquor
manufacturers have accepted the FDA's suggestion that the following warning
labels be placed immediately on all varieties of alcohol containers:
_____
WARNING: The consumption of alcohol may leave you wondering what the hell
happened to your bra and panties.
_____
WARNING: The consumption of alcohol may make you think you are whispering
when you are not.
_____
WARNING: The consumption of alcohol is a major factor in dancing like a
retard.
_____
WARNING: The consumption of alcohol may cause you to tell your friends over
and over again that you love them.
_____
WARNING: The consumption of alcohol may cause you to think you can sing.
_____
WARNING: The consumption of alcohol may lead you to believe that ex-lovers
are dying for you to telephone them at four in the morning.
_____
WARNING: The consumption of alcohol may make you think you can logically
converse with other members of the opposite sex without spitting.
_____
WARNING: The consumption of alcohol is the leading cause of inexplicable
rug burns on the forehead, knees and lower back.
_____
WARNING: The consumption of alcohol may create the illusion that you are
tougher, smarter, faster and better looking than most people.
_____
WARNING: The consumption of alcohol may lead you to think people are
laughing WITH you.
_____
WARNING: The consumption of alcohol may cause pregnancy.
_____
WARNING: the crumsumpten of alcahol may Mack you tink you kan tipe reel goood.
manufacturers have accepted the FDA's suggestion that the following warning
labels be placed immediately on all varieties of alcohol containers:
_____
WARNING: The consumption of alcohol may leave you wondering what the hell
happened to your bra and panties.
_____
WARNING: The consumption of alcohol may make you think you are whispering
when you are not.
_____
WARNING: The consumption of alcohol is a major factor in dancing like a
retard.
_____
WARNING: The consumption of alcohol may cause you to tell your friends over
and over again that you love them.
_____
WARNING: The consumption of alcohol may cause you to think you can sing.
_____
WARNING: The consumption of alcohol may lead you to believe that ex-lovers
are dying for you to telephone them at four in the morning.
_____
WARNING: The consumption of alcohol may make you think you can logically
converse with other members of the opposite sex without spitting.
_____
WARNING: The consumption of alcohol is the leading cause of inexplicable
rug burns on the forehead, knees and lower back.
_____
WARNING: The consumption of alcohol may create the illusion that you are
tougher, smarter, faster and better looking than most people.
_____
WARNING: The consumption of alcohol may lead you to think people are
laughing WITH you.
_____
WARNING: The consumption of alcohol may cause pregnancy.
_____
WARNING: the crumsumpten of alcahol may Mack you tink you kan tipe reel goood.
Thursday, April 24, 2003
WOW, THIS IS AN INTERESTING CASE--ARE THINGS A CHANGIN??
By Charles Lane
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, April 24, 2003; Page A06
The Supreme Court yesterday unanimously upheld the right of a Nevada man to sue California tax collection officials for alleged violations of Nevada law in Nevada's courts, a decision that illustrated the limits to the court's recent drive to enhance states' rights.
In a series of cases, the court has enshrined the states' sovereign immunity against lawsuits under federal law, either in federal court or in a state's own courts.
But in this case, a state or its officials were sued in another state under the second state's law. About 35 states and two territories had filed a friend-of-the-court brief urging the justices to rule that states may assert sovereign immunity against such lawsuits in "core" state functions, such as tax collection.
Citing states' need to secure the resources they are owed, they suggested that the court revisit a 1979 ruling that the Constitution does not bar suits against one state in the courts of another. That argument was pitched to the court's five-member conservative majority, which includes Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist -- who, as an associate justice, had vigorously dissented from the 1979 decision.
However, the states' suggestion was brushed aside in an 11-page opinion by Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, a strong supporter of the court's decisions on states' rights.
"We are not presented here with a case in which a State has exhibited a . . . policy of hostility to the public acts of a sister State," O'Connor wrote.
The case involved a suit by Gilbert Hyatt, a millionaire former California resident who was the subject of an aggressive effort by California officials to recoup taxes he allegedly owed.
Hyatt accused the tax collectors of invasion of privacy and fraud, but California argued that they were immune from suit under its law, and demanded that Nevada apply that rule in its courts under the constitutional provision requiring states to give "full faith and credit" to one another's laws.
The case is Franchise Tax Board of California v. Hyatt, No. 02-42.
� 2003 The Washington Post Company
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, April 24, 2003; Page A06
The Supreme Court yesterday unanimously upheld the right of a Nevada man to sue California tax collection officials for alleged violations of Nevada law in Nevada's courts, a decision that illustrated the limits to the court's recent drive to enhance states' rights.
In a series of cases, the court has enshrined the states' sovereign immunity against lawsuits under federal law, either in federal court or in a state's own courts.
But in this case, a state or its officials were sued in another state under the second state's law. About 35 states and two territories had filed a friend-of-the-court brief urging the justices to rule that states may assert sovereign immunity against such lawsuits in "core" state functions, such as tax collection.
Citing states' need to secure the resources they are owed, they suggested that the court revisit a 1979 ruling that the Constitution does not bar suits against one state in the courts of another. That argument was pitched to the court's five-member conservative majority, which includes Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist -- who, as an associate justice, had vigorously dissented from the 1979 decision.
However, the states' suggestion was brushed aside in an 11-page opinion by Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, a strong supporter of the court's decisions on states' rights.
"We are not presented here with a case in which a State has exhibited a . . . policy of hostility to the public acts of a sister State," O'Connor wrote.
The case involved a suit by Gilbert Hyatt, a millionaire former California resident who was the subject of an aggressive effort by California officials to recoup taxes he allegedly owed.
Hyatt accused the tax collectors of invasion of privacy and fraud, but California argued that they were immune from suit under its law, and demanded that Nevada apply that rule in its courts under the constitutional provision requiring states to give "full faith and credit" to one another's laws.
The case is Franchise Tax Board of California v. Hyatt, No. 02-42.
� 2003 The Washington Post Company
Monday, April 21, 2003
BAD NEWS FOR THE TAX PROTESTERS
by Roger Russell
Internal Revenue Service compliance efforts, on the back burner for a while following charges of intrusiveness and misconduct during congressional hearings several years ago, are once again moving to the fore.
Last year, IRS compliance efforts reached more than 11 million contacts with taxpayers. And incoming IRS Commissioner Mark Everson said at his nomination hearings that curbing tax evasion would be among his priorities.
An important area of focus, he said, "will be to strengthen the integrity of the tax system through enhanced enforcement activities. The IRS must deter those who might be inclined to evade their legal tax obligations, and appropriately pursue those who actually do so."
Part of the process will be closer work with practitioners, according to Everson. "Attorneys and accountants should be pillars of our system of taxation, not the architects of its circumvention," he said.
Acting Commissioner Bob Wenzel said that, in terms of compliance results, fiscal 2002 revenue from IRS collection activity increased to more than $32 billion, reaching the highest level in eight years - a $371 million increase from the previous year.
According to Wenzel, compliance activities increased in a number of areas over the past fiscal year:
* The number of levies issued by the IRS increased by nearly 50 percent.
* The number of liens filed increased by nearly 15 percent.
* Audits of the returns of high-income taxpayers - those earning $100,000 and more - increased by 22.
* Overall individual audits of taxpayers stayed about even, while audits of taxpayers earning less than $100,000 declined slightly.
* The number of math error notices mailed to taxpayers increased to 8.3 million.
* As part of the document-matching effort, the IRS contacted more than 3.4 million taxpayers in fiscal 2002 through the under-reporter and non-filer programs, an increase of 36 percent from 2.5 million contacts in fiscal 2001.
In addition, the IRS is resuming matching information from Schedule K-1s filed by partnerships, S corporations and trusts to the tax returns of individual partners, shareholders and beneficiaries. Where there is a mismatch of information, taxpayers involved will receive notices.
Wenzel said that the National Research Program, launched last November, will help ensure that the right tax returns are selected for review.
Charles Bennett, senior analyst at the National Research Program, said that the old measurement process - the Taxpayer Compliance Measurement Program - selected returns at random and required complicated line-by-line audits, with taxpayers required to verify each line with extensive documentation.
The new program "is a result of going for many years without much of the data that we previously obtained through TCMP," he said. "This will provide us with the data that we used to get with TCMP, plus a lot more."
Among the differences in the NRP compared to TCMP, according to Bennett, is the size of the sample. The NRP sample is smaller, with about 47,000 returns targeted. Under the NRP, rather than require line-by-line audits, the IRS will do preparatory work or "case building" before documentation is submitted to examiners.
The examiner has the ability to expand the scope of the exam without the approval of the audit group manager, but "in doing so, it is expected that the examiner will be consulting with the group manager on the identification and development of issues, not necessarily for permission purposes, but to get input and suggestions," said Bennett.
If the practitioner feels that the examiner is unreasonably expanding the scope of the exam, he should work with the examiner to answer any questions, then notify the manager.
Examinations under the NRP began last November with a handful of returns, with the target date for completion set at March of 2004. However, it may extend beyond that date because "we were a little late in rolling out the program," said Bennett.
Of the 47,000 audits, about 7,000 returns will be checked relying solely on information already provided, and about 7,000 more will be conducted by correspondence with the taxpayer. Approximately 32,000 returns will be "limited scope" audits, no more intrusive than ordinary audits, while 2,000 audits will be line-by-line, with reasonable substantiation required.
The NRP, like the former TCMP, has elicited some skepticism from practitioners. William Stevenson, chairman of the National Society of Accountants f Federal Taxation Committee, said that the reason behind the NRP - the current audit selection system is producing too few "no change" audits - is not because current IRS data is flawed, but because of other factors, such as management pressure to close cases quickly.
"The program is not going to accomplish what they want it to. A lot of audits will simply be taken to appeals. In the past, appeals results were never considered in the TCMP data, so whatever data they acquire won't be as valid as they expect."
Stevenson noted that many small businesses don't keep good records. Tax preparers are faced with preparing returns based on prior years experience with the taxpayer, and oral testimony. The IRS is looking for information to make a part of their statistical records that just doesn't exist for the small business taxpayer - the cost of keeping the kind of records that the IRS would like to see is too great.
For example, said Stevenson, "a taxpayer may fall into the Alternative Minimum Tax because he has substantial miscellaneous deductions. If you eliminate the miscellaneous deductions, the regular tax will go up, but why should we spend the time to justify mileage and business meals if the taxpayer won't get the benefit anyway?
He added, "There's so little to attack on a tax return today. Mortgage interest is reported to the IRS by third parties, such as banks and mortgage companies, so they already have that information. High-income taxpayers lose their deductions because of the phase out, so they're left with charitable deductions and real estate taxes. The upshot is they are going to attack the low-income taxpayer who doesn't have AMT or a phase out."
Congressional leaders don't expect to see overnight success from the IRS's latest attempts at compliance. Sen. Chuck Grassley, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said at Everson's nomination hearings, "It is clear that it unfortunately will take years to get the IRS to where it provides first-rate customer service, as well as an appropriate enforcement presence that respects taxpayer rights."
Internal Revenue Service compliance efforts, on the back burner for a while following charges of intrusiveness and misconduct during congressional hearings several years ago, are once again moving to the fore.
Last year, IRS compliance efforts reached more than 11 million contacts with taxpayers. And incoming IRS Commissioner Mark Everson said at his nomination hearings that curbing tax evasion would be among his priorities.
An important area of focus, he said, "will be to strengthen the integrity of the tax system through enhanced enforcement activities. The IRS must deter those who might be inclined to evade their legal tax obligations, and appropriately pursue those who actually do so."
Part of the process will be closer work with practitioners, according to Everson. "Attorneys and accountants should be pillars of our system of taxation, not the architects of its circumvention," he said.
Acting Commissioner Bob Wenzel said that, in terms of compliance results, fiscal 2002 revenue from IRS collection activity increased to more than $32 billion, reaching the highest level in eight years - a $371 million increase from the previous year.
According to Wenzel, compliance activities increased in a number of areas over the past fiscal year:
* The number of levies issued by the IRS increased by nearly 50 percent.
* The number of liens filed increased by nearly 15 percent.
* Audits of the returns of high-income taxpayers - those earning $100,000 and more - increased by 22.
* Overall individual audits of taxpayers stayed about even, while audits of taxpayers earning less than $100,000 declined slightly.
* The number of math error notices mailed to taxpayers increased to 8.3 million.
* As part of the document-matching effort, the IRS contacted more than 3.4 million taxpayers in fiscal 2002 through the under-reporter and non-filer programs, an increase of 36 percent from 2.5 million contacts in fiscal 2001.
In addition, the IRS is resuming matching information from Schedule K-1s filed by partnerships, S corporations and trusts to the tax returns of individual partners, shareholders and beneficiaries. Where there is a mismatch of information, taxpayers involved will receive notices.
Wenzel said that the National Research Program, launched last November, will help ensure that the right tax returns are selected for review.
Charles Bennett, senior analyst at the National Research Program, said that the old measurement process - the Taxpayer Compliance Measurement Program - selected returns at random and required complicated line-by-line audits, with taxpayers required to verify each line with extensive documentation.
The new program "is a result of going for many years without much of the data that we previously obtained through TCMP," he said. "This will provide us with the data that we used to get with TCMP, plus a lot more."
Among the differences in the NRP compared to TCMP, according to Bennett, is the size of the sample. The NRP sample is smaller, with about 47,000 returns targeted. Under the NRP, rather than require line-by-line audits, the IRS will do preparatory work or "case building" before documentation is submitted to examiners.
The examiner has the ability to expand the scope of the exam without the approval of the audit group manager, but "in doing so, it is expected that the examiner will be consulting with the group manager on the identification and development of issues, not necessarily for permission purposes, but to get input and suggestions," said Bennett.
If the practitioner feels that the examiner is unreasonably expanding the scope of the exam, he should work with the examiner to answer any questions, then notify the manager.
Examinations under the NRP began last November with a handful of returns, with the target date for completion set at March of 2004. However, it may extend beyond that date because "we were a little late in rolling out the program," said Bennett.
Of the 47,000 audits, about 7,000 returns will be checked relying solely on information already provided, and about 7,000 more will be conducted by correspondence with the taxpayer. Approximately 32,000 returns will be "limited scope" audits, no more intrusive than ordinary audits, while 2,000 audits will be line-by-line, with reasonable substantiation required.
The NRP, like the former TCMP, has elicited some skepticism from practitioners. William Stevenson, chairman of the National Society of Accountants f Federal Taxation Committee, said that the reason behind the NRP - the current audit selection system is producing too few "no change" audits - is not because current IRS data is flawed, but because of other factors, such as management pressure to close cases quickly.
"The program is not going to accomplish what they want it to. A lot of audits will simply be taken to appeals. In the past, appeals results were never considered in the TCMP data, so whatever data they acquire won't be as valid as they expect."
Stevenson noted that many small businesses don't keep good records. Tax preparers are faced with preparing returns based on prior years experience with the taxpayer, and oral testimony. The IRS is looking for information to make a part of their statistical records that just doesn't exist for the small business taxpayer - the cost of keeping the kind of records that the IRS would like to see is too great.
For example, said Stevenson, "a taxpayer may fall into the Alternative Minimum Tax because he has substantial miscellaneous deductions. If you eliminate the miscellaneous deductions, the regular tax will go up, but why should we spend the time to justify mileage and business meals if the taxpayer won't get the benefit anyway?
He added, "There's so little to attack on a tax return today. Mortgage interest is reported to the IRS by third parties, such as banks and mortgage companies, so they already have that information. High-income taxpayers lose their deductions because of the phase out, so they're left with charitable deductions and real estate taxes. The upshot is they are going to attack the low-income taxpayer who doesn't have AMT or a phase out."
Congressional leaders don't expect to see overnight success from the IRS's latest attempts at compliance. Sen. Chuck Grassley, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said at Everson's nomination hearings, "It is clear that it unfortunately will take years to get the IRS to where it provides first-rate customer service, as well as an appropriate enforcement presence that respects taxpayer rights."
Saturday, April 19, 2003
INTERESTING INFO
April 17, 2003 INSIDE THIS SPECIAL ISSUE ...
==> FEDERAL RESERVE: WEALTH IS COLLAPSING ... AND THE US ECONOMY IS
SUFFOCATING ON DEBT!
==> IMF: GLOBAL ECONOMY AT RISK OF DEEP PLUNGE!
The bear market is ravaging the value of US household balance sheets.
According to the Federal Reserve's fourth quarter "Flow of Funds" report,
the value of household financial assets like stocks, bonds, and deposits
plunged an amazing $2.3 TRILLION in 2002. That's the worst annual plunge
since 1930!
On top of that, the national savings pattern is a disgrace. As a percent
of the country's gross domestic product (GDP), America is saving barely 15%
-- the lowest savings rate since the 1940s, and the lowest of all
industrialized countries.
But it's not just the bear market and low savings that are eating up
household net worth. Another huge problem is the mountain of debt families
are racking up against their homes.
According to the Federal Reserve report, in 2002, homeowners borrowed
nearly $800 billion against the equity in their homes -- the largest annual
increase in home mortgage borrowings on record. Even worse, for every $1
that real estate values increased in 2002, homeowners borrowed
65 cents. With that level of indebtedness, how vulnerable to a decline is
the real estate market? Quite literally, it's a house of cards!
Corporate sector debt is also at record high levels. According to year-end
2002 data, publicly traded corporations have hocked 76 cents of every
dollar of corporate net worth -- the worst debt-to-net worth ratio in the
history of the data.
Huge debts are now jeopardizing the corner store, too.
Privately held businesses are in debt to the tune of a record $3.1
trillion, with most of the borrowings racked up against real estate and
business assets. These businesses have hocked
56.2% of their tangible assets, their most indebted level on record.
All told, the economy is now nearly $32 TRILLION in debt -- nearly 3.1
times the nation's GDP. And that's strictly interest- bearing debt. It
doesn't include $56 trillion in derivatives (also a form of debt). Nor
does it include trillions in contingent obligations like Social Security,
Medicare, and debt guarantees by Ginnie Mae or Fannie Mae.
INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND RELEASES SOME OF THE GRAVEST WARNINGS WE'VE
EVER SEEN ...
According to its World Economic Outlook report, the IMF sees many of the
same problems the Fed does: Deflating global stock markets that are
crushing savings and net worth in virtually every country across the globe
... causing mountains of debt to pile up around the world ... and
threatening to turn that debt into trillions in losses for creditors.
But it's not just the stock markets that have the IMF worried.
The agency is also deeply concerned over three forces that put the global
economy at risk of a very deep and prolonged plunge ...
FORCE #1:
GLOBAL REAL ESTATE BUST COULD EASILY SET OFF A WORLDWIDE DEPRESSION In its
report, the IMF shows how a bursting real estate bubble can trash an
economy and send it into a recession ... and, in some cases, such as
Japan, even a profound depression.
And the IMF reached these conclusions before the latest data came out
showing that real estate prices could ALREADY be cracking, especially in
the US and Britain, the two most inflated property markets in the world.
Indeed, commercial properties in the US are already getting hit. Vacancies
are soaring around the country ... and in cities like San Francisco, New
York, Chicago, and Boston, rental rates are starting to plummet.
Residential real estate is also showing signs of cracking. In London,
prices have declined for the first time in years. Here in the US, the
high-end, million-dollar-plus homes are showing declines of as much as 20%
in the past year.
If real estate cracks wide open -- as we expect it will, and so, apparently
does the IMF -- you could be staring down the throat of a global depression.
FORCE #2:
RISING SECURITY COSTS WILL NEGATIVELY AFFECT ECONOMIES FOR DECADES As if
the lousy state of global stock markets and the looming real estate
disaster weren't enough, the IMF is also on pins and needles about high
security costs worldwide.
And it should be. The fact is that higher security costs are NOT something
that is going away, that they could continue to be a drag on the global
economy for DECADES -- shaving AT LEAST a half point annually off of any
growth.
Here's the kicker: There is probably not ONE single economist or insurance
actuary in the world today who has the faintest clue as to how much to
factor security costs and terrorism risks into their models.
It's a big, big wild card. And that fact alone -- the huge UNCERTAINTY of
it all -- is having a negative impact on business decision-making.
FORCE #3:
BUDGET DEFICITS ARE THE KISS OF DEATH The IMF's final worry is huge -- and
it's very close at hand.
According to the IMF ...
Soaring budget deficits in nearly all industrialized countries threaten to
send interest rates sharply higher, no matter what central banks do.
With the fragile shape of global economies, these budget deficits are the
last thing they need. In fact, these budget deficits are a noose hanging
around their necks, just waiting to be pulled tight.
LATEST ECONOMIC DATA PROVES FEDERAL RESERVE AND IMF'S WARNINGS ARE COMING
TRUE Almost half a million jobs vanished into thin air in the US over the
past two months. That shows just how lousy the economy's fundamentals
really are.
The job cuts aren't isolated to a particular sector. They're stretching
across the board, from services to manufacturing to transportation -- which
makes them even more damaging.
And the labor market isn't going to get better anytime soon.
For example, in spite of normal week-to-week fluctuations, unemployment
claims are still over the critical 400,000 level after eight consecutive
weeks! That means it's increasingly difficult for laid-off workers to find
work ...
(CHART NOT AVAILABLE IN TEXT FORMAT)
But that's not all. Temporary help hiring -- which is a leading indicator
of where the labor market is going -- declined for five of the last six
months. That tells us that businesses are planning for no growth or
expansion in the days and weeks ahead.
US FACTORIES ARE SLOWING TO A CRAWL!
It's not just labor that's in big trouble. The Federal Reserve just
released its March industrial production and capacity utilization figures
-- and they're downright awful. In fact, the latest results are
symptomatic of an economy that is rotting away beneath Wall Street's
feet. Take a look ...
(CHART NOT AVAILABLE IN TEXT FORMAT)
Industrial production fell by 0.5% in March -- much worse than
expected. As bad as that is, capacity utilization is worse. In March,
manufacturers used less of their available capacity (74.8%) than at any
time since mid-1983. Awful!
Now, we know you're going to hear plenty of blather about how this is all
related to Iraq. But that's a bunch of hogwash.
Corporate America built capacity during the roaring '90s to satiate huge
growth in demand -- growth that has now evaporated.
But that's not all ...
PRODUCERS' COSTS ARE SOARING!
No wonder manufacturing is headed into a ditch. Producers are getting
pummeled by enormous cost increases -- and the prices they are able to
charge are NOT keeping up ...
(CHART NOT AVAILABLE IN TEXT FORMAT)
Over the past three months, producers' core and finished prices for goods
rose at an annualized rate of 4.6% and
17.4%, respectively. At the same time, their costs skyrocketed an
astonishing 159.9%! That crushes their bottom lines.
So, is it any surprise the "war relief" rally lasted only 8 trading
days?! Soon, stocks will start careening south again. Stick to your guns
and be on the lookout for our next update.
==> FEDERAL RESERVE: WEALTH IS COLLAPSING ... AND THE US ECONOMY IS
SUFFOCATING ON DEBT!
==> IMF: GLOBAL ECONOMY AT RISK OF DEEP PLUNGE!
The bear market is ravaging the value of US household balance sheets.
According to the Federal Reserve's fourth quarter "Flow of Funds" report,
the value of household financial assets like stocks, bonds, and deposits
plunged an amazing $2.3 TRILLION in 2002. That's the worst annual plunge
since 1930!
On top of that, the national savings pattern is a disgrace. As a percent
of the country's gross domestic product (GDP), America is saving barely 15%
-- the lowest savings rate since the 1940s, and the lowest of all
industrialized countries.
But it's not just the bear market and low savings that are eating up
household net worth. Another huge problem is the mountain of debt families
are racking up against their homes.
According to the Federal Reserve report, in 2002, homeowners borrowed
nearly $800 billion against the equity in their homes -- the largest annual
increase in home mortgage borrowings on record. Even worse, for every $1
that real estate values increased in 2002, homeowners borrowed
65 cents. With that level of indebtedness, how vulnerable to a decline is
the real estate market? Quite literally, it's a house of cards!
Corporate sector debt is also at record high levels. According to year-end
2002 data, publicly traded corporations have hocked 76 cents of every
dollar of corporate net worth -- the worst debt-to-net worth ratio in the
history of the data.
Huge debts are now jeopardizing the corner store, too.
Privately held businesses are in debt to the tune of a record $3.1
trillion, with most of the borrowings racked up against real estate and
business assets. These businesses have hocked
56.2% of their tangible assets, their most indebted level on record.
All told, the economy is now nearly $32 TRILLION in debt -- nearly 3.1
times the nation's GDP. And that's strictly interest- bearing debt. It
doesn't include $56 trillion in derivatives (also a form of debt). Nor
does it include trillions in contingent obligations like Social Security,
Medicare, and debt guarantees by Ginnie Mae or Fannie Mae.
INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND RELEASES SOME OF THE GRAVEST WARNINGS WE'VE
EVER SEEN ...
According to its World Economic Outlook report, the IMF sees many of the
same problems the Fed does: Deflating global stock markets that are
crushing savings and net worth in virtually every country across the globe
... causing mountains of debt to pile up around the world ... and
threatening to turn that debt into trillions in losses for creditors.
But it's not just the stock markets that have the IMF worried.
The agency is also deeply concerned over three forces that put the global
economy at risk of a very deep and prolonged plunge ...
FORCE #1:
GLOBAL REAL ESTATE BUST COULD EASILY SET OFF A WORLDWIDE DEPRESSION In its
report, the IMF shows how a bursting real estate bubble can trash an
economy and send it into a recession ... and, in some cases, such as
Japan, even a profound depression.
And the IMF reached these conclusions before the latest data came out
showing that real estate prices could ALREADY be cracking, especially in
the US and Britain, the two most inflated property markets in the world.
Indeed, commercial properties in the US are already getting hit. Vacancies
are soaring around the country ... and in cities like San Francisco, New
York, Chicago, and Boston, rental rates are starting to plummet.
Residential real estate is also showing signs of cracking. In London,
prices have declined for the first time in years. Here in the US, the
high-end, million-dollar-plus homes are showing declines of as much as 20%
in the past year.
If real estate cracks wide open -- as we expect it will, and so, apparently
does the IMF -- you could be staring down the throat of a global depression.
FORCE #2:
RISING SECURITY COSTS WILL NEGATIVELY AFFECT ECONOMIES FOR DECADES As if
the lousy state of global stock markets and the looming real estate
disaster weren't enough, the IMF is also on pins and needles about high
security costs worldwide.
And it should be. The fact is that higher security costs are NOT something
that is going away, that they could continue to be a drag on the global
economy for DECADES -- shaving AT LEAST a half point annually off of any
growth.
Here's the kicker: There is probably not ONE single economist or insurance
actuary in the world today who has the faintest clue as to how much to
factor security costs and terrorism risks into their models.
It's a big, big wild card. And that fact alone -- the huge UNCERTAINTY of
it all -- is having a negative impact on business decision-making.
FORCE #3:
BUDGET DEFICITS ARE THE KISS OF DEATH The IMF's final worry is huge -- and
it's very close at hand.
According to the IMF ...
Soaring budget deficits in nearly all industrialized countries threaten to
send interest rates sharply higher, no matter what central banks do.
With the fragile shape of global economies, these budget deficits are the
last thing they need. In fact, these budget deficits are a noose hanging
around their necks, just waiting to be pulled tight.
LATEST ECONOMIC DATA PROVES FEDERAL RESERVE AND IMF'S WARNINGS ARE COMING
TRUE Almost half a million jobs vanished into thin air in the US over the
past two months. That shows just how lousy the economy's fundamentals
really are.
The job cuts aren't isolated to a particular sector. They're stretching
across the board, from services to manufacturing to transportation -- which
makes them even more damaging.
And the labor market isn't going to get better anytime soon.
For example, in spite of normal week-to-week fluctuations, unemployment
claims are still over the critical 400,000 level after eight consecutive
weeks! That means it's increasingly difficult for laid-off workers to find
work ...
(CHART NOT AVAILABLE IN TEXT FORMAT)
But that's not all. Temporary help hiring -- which is a leading indicator
of where the labor market is going -- declined for five of the last six
months. That tells us that businesses are planning for no growth or
expansion in the days and weeks ahead.
US FACTORIES ARE SLOWING TO A CRAWL!
It's not just labor that's in big trouble. The Federal Reserve just
released its March industrial production and capacity utilization figures
-- and they're downright awful. In fact, the latest results are
symptomatic of an economy that is rotting away beneath Wall Street's
feet. Take a look ...
(CHART NOT AVAILABLE IN TEXT FORMAT)
Industrial production fell by 0.5% in March -- much worse than
expected. As bad as that is, capacity utilization is worse. In March,
manufacturers used less of their available capacity (74.8%) than at any
time since mid-1983. Awful!
Now, we know you're going to hear plenty of blather about how this is all
related to Iraq. But that's a bunch of hogwash.
Corporate America built capacity during the roaring '90s to satiate huge
growth in demand -- growth that has now evaporated.
But that's not all ...
PRODUCERS' COSTS ARE SOARING!
No wonder manufacturing is headed into a ditch. Producers are getting
pummeled by enormous cost increases -- and the prices they are able to
charge are NOT keeping up ...
(CHART NOT AVAILABLE IN TEXT FORMAT)
Over the past three months, producers' core and finished prices for goods
rose at an annualized rate of 4.6% and
17.4%, respectively. At the same time, their costs skyrocketed an
astonishing 159.9%! That crushes their bottom lines.
So, is it any surprise the "war relief" rally lasted only 8 trading
days?! Soon, stocks will start careening south again. Stick to your guns
and be on the lookout for our next update.
Monday, April 14, 2003
THIS PLACE IS NEAR ME AND IT IS ALL TRUE
>Benton Harbor, A City Under Seige
>
>Benton Harbor is a poor, mostly African American city that is "being run like
>a plantation by the white power structure", as my activist friend said.
>The whites are mostly from the "twin" city of St. Joseph. An important book
>was written about the inequality of these two cities five or so years ago.
>70% of B.Harbor citizens live in poverty. A Kalamazoo College political
>science prof. told me he read it was the poorest community in America.
>
>Rev. Edward Pinkney of Benton Harbor (ph: 269-925-0001 - will take calls
>anytime from anybody!) is a dynamic African American man who told me on the
>phone last week that he's on a mission. He's almost single-handedly trying
>to fight the power in BH. He goes to the court house EVERY weekday, and
>pickets every Tuesday. He held a community forum on March 15 which I
>attended and listened to horror stories for 3 hours of people being framed
>and imprisoned for life, people being treated like dirt in the workplace -
>I had tears in my eyes for 3 hours and left when I couldn't take it anymore.
> It's hard to write about what I heard that day.
>
>Rev. Pinkney told me the following:
>
>1. An FBI report states that B.Harbor men aged 12-28 are fourteen times more
>likely to be killed by police than the nat'l. average.
>
>2. Recently the police have started taking the boys/men/women/girls they
>pick up directly to jail, bypassing the police station altogether.
>
>3. Police used to run the drug ring in the area and would plant drugs in
>cars to get people convicted, therefore qualifying BH for more Federal money.
> (the money goes to towns with serious drug problems.)
>
>4. Police know the judges and lawyers are all bad, so they can do whatever
>they wish.
>
>5. Judges in BH decide who the public defenders will be - this is not done
>anywhere else. It causes the defenders to keep judges happy so they can
>continue to get their $72,000 to $420,000 salaries!!
>
>6. Rev. Pinkney invited former state Atty. General , now Gov., Jennifer
>Granholm to BH a couple years ago. She vowed she'd help him. Instead, she
>sabotaged a situation he was involved in. There is no one at the state
>level who will oversee BH, help Rev. Pinkney, act as watch dog, etc. No
>one.
>
>7. The jail now has over 500 inmates. The legal limit is 373. 80% are
>black. The bonds are higher for blacks.
>
>8. Blacks always get the maximum sentence, whites always get minimum.
>
>9. Not one case has been dropped because money from court costs and fines
>is what the power structure is after.
>At the Community Forum, each time Rev. P came to the mic to introduce the
>next speaker he said some variation of this:
>
>"So, you think it won't happen to you. You think because you have a
>Bachelor's degree or maybe a Master's that it won't happen to you. You think
>that because you've saved a lot of money it won't happen to you. Well,
>you're fooling yourself. It could happen to any of us anytime."
>
>Meaning, get picked up by the police. After hearing that over and over I
>understood why, on a beautiful warm Saturday afternoon, Benton Harbor's
>streets and sidewalks were totally empty. Residents are terrified of being
picked up and railroaded through the justice system, of being
>wrongfully convicted, and of doing a long prison term.
>
>
>Rev. Pinckney told me he needs:
>
> - $16,000 to bring in a Restorative Justice program
> - money for lawyers to get to work on the currently unjustly imprisoned
>people and other projects
> - a grant writer.
> - a website
> - a bail bonds program
>He can be called anytime at 269-925-0001. He is in need of support the way
>a dying, starving man is in need of food and water. And thats not an
>exaggeration.
>
>Benton Harbor is a poor, mostly African American city that is "being run like
>a plantation by the white power structure", as my activist friend said.
>The whites are mostly from the "twin" city of St. Joseph. An important book
>was written about the inequality of these two cities five or so years ago.
>70% of B.Harbor citizens live in poverty. A Kalamazoo College political
>science prof. told me he read it was the poorest community in America.
>
>Rev. Edward Pinkney of Benton Harbor (ph: 269-925-0001 - will take calls
>anytime from anybody!) is a dynamic African American man who told me on the
>phone last week that he's on a mission. He's almost single-handedly trying
>to fight the power in BH. He goes to the court house EVERY weekday, and
>pickets every Tuesday. He held a community forum on March 15 which I
>attended and listened to horror stories for 3 hours of people being framed
>and imprisoned for life, people being treated like dirt in the workplace -
>I had tears in my eyes for 3 hours and left when I couldn't take it anymore.
> It's hard to write about what I heard that day.
>
>Rev. Pinkney told me the following:
>
>1. An FBI report states that B.Harbor men aged 12-28 are fourteen times more
>likely to be killed by police than the nat'l. average.
>
>2. Recently the police have started taking the boys/men/women/girls they
>pick up directly to jail, bypassing the police station altogether.
>
>3. Police used to run the drug ring in the area and would plant drugs in
>cars to get people convicted, therefore qualifying BH for more Federal money.
> (the money goes to towns with serious drug problems.)
>
>4. Police know the judges and lawyers are all bad, so they can do whatever
>they wish.
>
>5. Judges in BH decide who the public defenders will be - this is not done
>anywhere else. It causes the defenders to keep judges happy so they can
>continue to get their $72,000 to $420,000 salaries!!
>
>6. Rev. Pinkney invited former state Atty. General , now Gov., Jennifer
>Granholm to BH a couple years ago. She vowed she'd help him. Instead, she
>sabotaged a situation he was involved in. There is no one at the state
>level who will oversee BH, help Rev. Pinkney, act as watch dog, etc. No
>one.
>
>7. The jail now has over 500 inmates. The legal limit is 373. 80% are
>black. The bonds are higher for blacks.
>
>8. Blacks always get the maximum sentence, whites always get minimum.
>
>9. Not one case has been dropped because money from court costs and fines
>is what the power structure is after.
>At the Community Forum, each time Rev. P came to the mic to introduce the
>next speaker he said some variation of this:
>
>"So, you think it won't happen to you. You think because you have a
>Bachelor's degree or maybe a Master's that it won't happen to you. You think
>that because you've saved a lot of money it won't happen to you. Well,
>you're fooling yourself. It could happen to any of us anytime."
>
>Meaning, get picked up by the police. After hearing that over and over I
>understood why, on a beautiful warm Saturday afternoon, Benton Harbor's
>streets and sidewalks were totally empty. Residents are terrified of being
picked up and railroaded through the justice system, of being
>wrongfully convicted, and of doing a long prison term.
>
>
>Rev. Pinckney told me he needs:
>
> - $16,000 to bring in a Restorative Justice program
> - money for lawyers to get to work on the currently unjustly imprisoned
>people and other projects
> - a grant writer.
> - a website
> - a bail bonds program
>He can be called anytime at 269-925-0001. He is in need of support the way
>a dying, starving man is in need of food and water. And thats not an
>exaggeration.
IN CASE YOU DIDN'T KNOW IT, JEFFERSON IS A HERO OF MINE, ALTHOUGH I DIDN'T LIKE THE WAY HE TREATED AARON BURR.
http://www.lewrockwell.com/ocregister/civilized-libertarian.html
The civilized libertarian
By ALAN W. BOCK
Senior editorial writer
If this country ever returns to the sturdy principles of liberty and
republican virtue on which it was founded, then today, Thomas Jefferson's
birthday, should be a national holiday. I suggest this despite the fact that
when some good citizens of Boston sought to do precisely that, he refused to
tell them his birthday, saying he did not approve of "transferring the
honors and veneration for the great birthday of our Republic to any
individual."
But Tom Jefferson was eminently practical, in theory and interests if not
always in practice (he tried so hard to be scientific, but he was a terrible
farmer), and at this late hour he might see utility in such a holiday.
Perhaps it would be merely an occasion for department stores to have white
sales. But if it inspired only a few to dip into Thomas Jefferson's writings
and to ponder the legacy he strove to leave to this country, it would be
worth it.
It has been fashionable of late, beginning with Joseph Ellis, to debunk
Jefferson - thoughtfully, regretfully and with respect, of course, but with
purpose - as a hypocrite on the issue of slavery, as a politician who didn't
practice what he preached, as a clay-footed human rather than a marble
statue to be venerated. That's fine. Jefferson, although he had a personal
reserve that left a certain mystery about who he really was, is more
valuable to posterity as an imperfect human being than as a marble statue.
What rankles modern intellectuals about Jefferson is that he distrusted
concentrated power with every fiber of his being, and most modern
intellectuals worship concentrated power and seek to serve it - to make it
constructive and refined and sensitive, of course, but to celebrate
political power rather than to decimate it or even to question it.
Worse, Jefferson was no backwoods yahoo spouting this retrograde nonsense,
although he got along with yahoos and saved his scorn for those ambitious
for power. "Whenever a man has cast a longing eye on offices," he noted, "a
rottenness begins in his conduct." He was perhaps the most cultivated,
civilized American of his era, and he wrote, "I predict future happiness for
Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the
people under the pretense of taking care of them."
Of course he needs to be taken down a few pegs, lest people take his ideas
seriously again.
If only.
Jefferson thought deeply and profoundly about the role of government but put
it simply and elegantly in the Declaration of Independence. After declaring
that we are all endowed by our creator with inalienable rights, including
life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, he turns to government's
purpose. "That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men,
deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, and that
whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the
Right of the People to alter or abolish it."
The purpose of government is to secure our inalienable rights. Not to feed
us, clothe us, medicate us, control us, lead us in worship, look after our
mental health or - perish the thought! - to nibble away at our rights and
freedoms and expand its own power. The sole legitimate function of
government is to secure our rights. When it fails to do so it ceases to be
legitimate and the people have the right to take matters (back) into their
own hands.
This doctrine is profoundly revolutionary, placing the individual person at
the center with the state conceived as servant rather than master. It was
close to conventional wisdom among American colonists who had decided to
break with Great Britain. But it is difficult to imagine anyone else
phrasing it so well as Jefferson did.
That radical simplicity makes Jefferson profoundly subversive today, when
the original republic has become a megastate with imperial pretensions. I
suspect he would be quietly pleased to be seen in this light.
A nation whose dominant party wants to make the intrusive USA Patriot Act
permanent would do well to ponder this: "Rightful liberty is unobstructed
action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal
rights of others. I do not add 'within the law,' because law is often but
the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the rights of the
individual."
Jefferson despised politics yet served two terms as president, during which
he negotiated the Louisiana Purchase and sent Marines to root out the
Barbary Pirates. Inconsistent? A bit. But he also paid down most of the
national debt, cut spending, cut taxes, abolished agencies, reduced the size
of the military and eschewed patronage. "We have set a good example" was the
closest he came to boasting. It didn't take, but that would not have
surprised him.
"A government regulating itself by what is just and wise for the many,
uninfluenced by the local and selfish views of the few who direct their
affairs," he believed, "has not been seen, perhaps, on Earth. Or if it
existed for a moment at the birth of ours, it would not be easy to fix the
term of its continuance."
An idealistic realist, a paragon of taste and manners, the man who said "I
have sworn on the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of
tyranny over the mind of man" deserves to be celebrated, now more than ever.
A Thomas Jefferson primer
Born:
April 13, 1743
Died:
July 4, 1826 (same day as John Adams)
Education:
College of William and Mary
Posts:
Governor of Virginia, 1779-1781; U.S. secretary of state, 1789-1793; U.S.
president, 1801-1809
The civilized libertarian
By ALAN W. BOCK
Senior editorial writer
If this country ever returns to the sturdy principles of liberty and
republican virtue on which it was founded, then today, Thomas Jefferson's
birthday, should be a national holiday. I suggest this despite the fact that
when some good citizens of Boston sought to do precisely that, he refused to
tell them his birthday, saying he did not approve of "transferring the
honors and veneration for the great birthday of our Republic to any
individual."
But Tom Jefferson was eminently practical, in theory and interests if not
always in practice (he tried so hard to be scientific, but he was a terrible
farmer), and at this late hour he might see utility in such a holiday.
Perhaps it would be merely an occasion for department stores to have white
sales. But if it inspired only a few to dip into Thomas Jefferson's writings
and to ponder the legacy he strove to leave to this country, it would be
worth it.
It has been fashionable of late, beginning with Joseph Ellis, to debunk
Jefferson - thoughtfully, regretfully and with respect, of course, but with
purpose - as a hypocrite on the issue of slavery, as a politician who didn't
practice what he preached, as a clay-footed human rather than a marble
statue to be venerated. That's fine. Jefferson, although he had a personal
reserve that left a certain mystery about who he really was, is more
valuable to posterity as an imperfect human being than as a marble statue.
What rankles modern intellectuals about Jefferson is that he distrusted
concentrated power with every fiber of his being, and most modern
intellectuals worship concentrated power and seek to serve it - to make it
constructive and refined and sensitive, of course, but to celebrate
political power rather than to decimate it or even to question it.
Worse, Jefferson was no backwoods yahoo spouting this retrograde nonsense,
although he got along with yahoos and saved his scorn for those ambitious
for power. "Whenever a man has cast a longing eye on offices," he noted, "a
rottenness begins in his conduct." He was perhaps the most cultivated,
civilized American of his era, and he wrote, "I predict future happiness for
Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the
people under the pretense of taking care of them."
Of course he needs to be taken down a few pegs, lest people take his ideas
seriously again.
If only.
Jefferson thought deeply and profoundly about the role of government but put
it simply and elegantly in the Declaration of Independence. After declaring
that we are all endowed by our creator with inalienable rights, including
life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, he turns to government's
purpose. "That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men,
deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, and that
whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the
Right of the People to alter or abolish it."
The purpose of government is to secure our inalienable rights. Not to feed
us, clothe us, medicate us, control us, lead us in worship, look after our
mental health or - perish the thought! - to nibble away at our rights and
freedoms and expand its own power. The sole legitimate function of
government is to secure our rights. When it fails to do so it ceases to be
legitimate and the people have the right to take matters (back) into their
own hands.
This doctrine is profoundly revolutionary, placing the individual person at
the center with the state conceived as servant rather than master. It was
close to conventional wisdom among American colonists who had decided to
break with Great Britain. But it is difficult to imagine anyone else
phrasing it so well as Jefferson did.
That radical simplicity makes Jefferson profoundly subversive today, when
the original republic has become a megastate with imperial pretensions. I
suspect he would be quietly pleased to be seen in this light.
A nation whose dominant party wants to make the intrusive USA Patriot Act
permanent would do well to ponder this: "Rightful liberty is unobstructed
action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal
rights of others. I do not add 'within the law,' because law is often but
the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the rights of the
individual."
Jefferson despised politics yet served two terms as president, during which
he negotiated the Louisiana Purchase and sent Marines to root out the
Barbary Pirates. Inconsistent? A bit. But he also paid down most of the
national debt, cut spending, cut taxes, abolished agencies, reduced the size
of the military and eschewed patronage. "We have set a good example" was the
closest he came to boasting. It didn't take, but that would not have
surprised him.
"A government regulating itself by what is just and wise for the many,
uninfluenced by the local and selfish views of the few who direct their
affairs," he believed, "has not been seen, perhaps, on Earth. Or if it
existed for a moment at the birth of ours, it would not be easy to fix the
term of its continuance."
An idealistic realist, a paragon of taste and manners, the man who said "I
have sworn on the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of
tyranny over the mind of man" deserves to be celebrated, now more than ever.
A Thomas Jefferson primer
Born:
April 13, 1743
Died:
July 4, 1826 (same day as John Adams)
Education:
College of William and Mary
Posts:
Governor of Virginia, 1779-1781; U.S. secretary of state, 1789-1793; U.S.
president, 1801-1809
FUNNY
> THIS is TRUE for 6 April 2003 Copyright 2003 www.thisistrue.com
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
> DRESS CODE: Paul Cara, a London, England, social worker, lost his appeal
> to an industrial tribunal, which upheld his employer's limits on his
> work attire. The Hackney Social Services Department had allowed Cara to
> wear leggings, tights and blouses to work, but balked when he showed up
> in a skirt. "I feel oppressed," Cara said of the ruling. (Reuters)
> ...Maybe his bra is too tight.
>
> TWINS: A Lehman Brothers vice president pleaded guilty to criminal
> contempt in New York's Manhattan Criminal Court for paying his mechanic
> to serve jury duty for him. The impersonation came to light when the
> judge asked the mechanic, "Are you Andrew Levinson?" After replying
> "No, I'm not," the impostor excused himself for the rest room and never
> came back. Levinson was sentenced to 500 hours of community service.
> (AP) ...Great: I had to find the one honest mechanic in town.
>
> 1.5 WEDDINGS AND A FUNERAL: Kenneth Dunn died in 1991. His wife, Pat, and
> h s mistress, Jean Cooper, are fighting in a Birmingham, England, court
> over which one gets to be buried beside him. Dunn had two identical
> houses -- right down to identical kitchen appliances, wallpaper and
> dogs named Kim -- one for each woman, spending half his time at each
> house. According to Pat, Dunn would joke, "If I forget who I'm with, at
> least I'll get the dog's name right." (Reuters) ...With luck, the judge
> will see there are two sides.
>
> BAKER'S DOZEN: Toni Tenner argues that she was faithful to her husband.
> It was one of her other 12 personalities, Andrea, that committed
> adultery, causing the breakup of her marriage. Tenner's suit to
> increase her alimony payments has made it all the way to the Kentucky
> Supreme Court. In an earlier ruling, an appeals court judge said that
> allowing her to prevail would be "more in keeping with the psychobabble
> prevalent on television talk shows than with sound jurisprudence." Her
> attorney argues back that "The personality that considered herself
> married ... had been 100 percent faithful." (AP) ...Fine: double the
> alimony, then give Toni her 1/13th share.
>
> DROVE HIM TO IT: David Guest, 33, of London, England, just got his
> driver's license. Such is normally not news, except that Guest has been
> trying for 17 years, and always failed the test. He took 632 driving
> lessons with eight instructors, crashing five cars in the process, to
> get to this point. "When I was told I'd passed, I bent down on my knees
> and thanked God," he said. "I feel like I have died and gone to
> heaven." (Reuters) ...And now, on to his dream profession: downtown
> London cabbie.
>
> OH... MY... GOD!! "Man Goes Berserk in Car Saleroom, Many Volvos Hurt" --
> Reuters headline
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
> DRESS CODE: Paul Cara, a London, England, social worker, lost his appeal
> to an industrial tribunal, which upheld his employer's limits on his
> work attire. The Hackney Social Services Department had allowed Cara to
> wear leggings, tights and blouses to work, but balked when he showed up
> in a skirt. "I feel oppressed," Cara said of the ruling. (Reuters)
> ...Maybe his bra is too tight.
>
> TWINS: A Lehman Brothers vice president pleaded guilty to criminal
> contempt in New York's Manhattan Criminal Court for paying his mechanic
> to serve jury duty for him. The impersonation came to light when the
> judge asked the mechanic, "Are you Andrew Levinson?" After replying
> "No, I'm not," the impostor excused himself for the rest room and never
> came back. Levinson was sentenced to 500 hours of community service.
> (AP) ...Great: I had to find the one honest mechanic in town.
>
> 1.5 WEDDINGS AND A FUNERAL: Kenneth Dunn died in 1991. His wife, Pat, and
> h s mistress, Jean Cooper, are fighting in a Birmingham, England, court
> over which one gets to be buried beside him. Dunn had two identical
> houses -- right down to identical kitchen appliances, wallpaper and
> dogs named Kim -- one for each woman, spending half his time at each
> house. According to Pat, Dunn would joke, "If I forget who I'm with, at
> least I'll get the dog's name right." (Reuters) ...With luck, the judge
> will see there are two sides.
>
> BAKER'S DOZEN: Toni Tenner argues that she was faithful to her husband.
> It was one of her other 12 personalities, Andrea, that committed
> adultery, causing the breakup of her marriage. Tenner's suit to
> increase her alimony payments has made it all the way to the Kentucky
> Supreme Court. In an earlier ruling, an appeals court judge said that
> allowing her to prevail would be "more in keeping with the psychobabble
> prevalent on television talk shows than with sound jurisprudence." Her
> attorney argues back that "The personality that considered herself
> married ... had been 100 percent faithful." (AP) ...Fine: double the
> alimony, then give Toni her 1/13th share.
>
> DROVE HIM TO IT: David Guest, 33, of London, England, just got his
> driver's license. Such is normally not news, except that Guest has been
> trying for 17 years, and always failed the test. He took 632 driving
> lessons with eight instructors, crashing five cars in the process, to
> get to this point. "When I was told I'd passed, I bent down on my knees
> and thanked God," he said. "I feel like I have died and gone to
> heaven." (Reuters) ...And now, on to his dream profession: downtown
> London cabbie.
>
> OH... MY... GOD!! "Man Goes Berserk in Car Saleroom, Many Volvos Hurt" --
> Reuters headline
Sunday, April 13, 2003
GAMES
Which founding father are you?
----------
Marshmallows and Bile
Short quiz which reveals which Founding Father you most
closely resemble.
http://www.free-market.net/rd/100317150.html
For more Games, Surveys, and Tools see:
http://www.free-market.net/directorybycategory/games/
INTERESTING
Court rules Michigan welfare rules too harsh
----------
Freep
"[T]he U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals struck down a 1999
Michigan law that required parents who apply for or receive
welfare benefits to undergo drug testing." (4/11/03)
http://www.free-market.net/rd/557256316.html
Has America gone Commie?
----------
Antiwar.com
by Christopher Deliso
"In short, America's new incarnation as an empire is turning out
to be quite a lot like another, vanquished experiment of the past.
The only thing missing, it seems, is the dictator." (4/11/03)
http://www.free-market.net/rd/629369806.html
Tax freedom day UK web site
----------
ASI
Web site focusing on tax freedom day in the UK, with analyses,
past tax freedom days, taxbustin' links, and much more.
http://www.free-market.net/rd/650681025.html
----------
Freep
"[T]he U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals struck down a 1999
Michigan law that required parents who apply for or receive
welfare benefits to undergo drug testing." (4/11/03)
http://www.free-market.net/rd/557256316.html
Has America gone Commie?
----------
Antiwar.com
by Christopher Deliso
"In short, America's new incarnation as an empire is turning out
to be quite a lot like another, vanquished experiment of the past.
The only thing missing, it seems, is the dictator." (4/11/03)
http://www.free-market.net/rd/629369806.html
Tax freedom day UK web site
----------
ASI
Web site focusing on tax freedom day in the UK, with analyses,
past tax freedom days, taxbustin' links, and much more.
http://www.free-market.net/rd/650681025.html
Wednesday, April 09, 2003
SOME NEWS
by Butler Shaffer
http://www.lewrockwell.com/shaffer/shaffer40.html
Network television occasionally gets it right. On May 18th and 20th, CBS-TV will present a movie titled Hitler: The Rise of Evil. According to the April 12-18 edition of TV Guide, the filmmakers are hoping to portray Hitler�s rise to power as "a cautionary tale for contemporary America. �It basically boils down to an entire nation gripped by fear, who ultimately chose to give up their civil rights and plunged the whole world into war,� says executive producer Ed Germon. �I can�t think of a better time to examine this history than now.�"
TV Guide reported Germon�s view that "fear fueled both the Bush administration�s adoption of a preemptive-strike policy and the public�s acceptance of it: �They will stand by and let it happen because of the fear of what will happen if they don�t. . . . When an entire country becomes afraid for their sovereignty, for their safety,� he says, �they will embrace ideas and strategies and positions that they might not embrace otherwise.�"
The film�s director, Christian Duguay, added: "�The person you elect � no matter how charismatic or how much they convey security and pride for their nation, are they really doing it for their nation,� Duguay asks, or for themselves?"
I am sending a letter to CBS-TV commending them for this film. (As my wife, Jane, observed from her experiences in public relations work at the Disney Channel, networks really do pay attention to such responses.) I suspect the neocons will be doing their best to get this pulled from the schedule. After all, how else are we gonna� maintain our "enduring freedom" if people can get away with criticizing our leader??
Phelim McAleer the Financial Times correspondent for Romania reveals the truth behind the myth of sex-slave trafficking
http://www.lewrockwell.com/spectator/spec51.html
Bucharest
The reports of Eastern European women being forced into prostitution in the West are as numerous as they are horrific. They have worried the government so much that the Home Office has plans for a new scheme to provide �safe-houses� for the victims of sex trafficking. But for many who work with these �sex slaves� the women�s accounts are just that � stories. It is seldom reported, but widely known, that most women volunteer for the trip westward because of the money they can make.
The sex-slave stories are suspiciously similar. The women are usually from some deprived backwater. They have naively answered advertisements for jobs as waitresses or nannies in the West. However, when they arrived to start their new life, their documents were confiscated, they were beaten and raped into submission, and forced to become prostitutes. They then claimed to have been kept as sex slaves, sometimes chained to beds, terrified and servicing as many customers as the brothel owner demanded.
According to the International Office of Migration which rescues and shelters these women, there are an estimated 400,000 enduring this existence. But as anyone who works closely with the prostitutes and who isn�t infected with victimitis knows, the IOM version of events is nonsense.
Take Assistant Chief Constable Andy Felton, a British police officer who has been working in Romania for the past three years. Most of his time has been spent on Project Reflex, a unique Romanian/British venture to stem illegal immigration into the UK. As part of the initiative, Felton has interrogated those deported from the UK. �Some are tricked into becoming prostitutes, but the overwhelming majority of girls going to the West understand before they leave that they will be working in prostitution,� says Felton.
He has found that far from being gullible peasant girls, as portrayed by the IOM, most were seasoned prostitutes before they left. For brothel owners �experience is essential�; it makes poor business sense to trick unsuspecting girls into the trade. Those without experience but who still want to go are tried out in the nearest big city to avoid making a dud investment.
So the sad and perhaps unpalatable fact is that most Eastern European women working abroad as prostitutes do so out of choice. This choice may be dictated by appalling poverty and lack of opportunity in their home countries but it is, nonetheless, a choice.
The minimum salary in Romania is $50 a month � even less in Moldova and Ukraine. It is not surprising that many women become sex workers, if only to support their families. But if the punters are all living on tiny wages, the amount left over for prostitutes will also be small. No wonder the temptation to do the same work in the West for $100 a client proves just too tempting.
In the sex-slave myth, the recruiters scour Eastern Europe with smooth talk and big promises. These latter-day big bad wolves lure women with offers of jobs and a bright future. A frightening scenario, indeed. It just isn�t true. �There is no huge international prostitute recruiting team travelling around Central and Eastern Europe. There is no fleet of Mercs with blacked-out windows and a madam in the back luring women abroad,� says Felton.
His investigations have found that almost all the women�s westward journeys were arranged by someone they know. �This tends to be a family member, or a local person, or someone who has herself been a prostitute in the West.�
Then there are the traffickers/brothel owners: a particularly well-organised bunch � normally the Albanian mafia � we are told. Again, nice story, nice villain, but just not true. �It�s more a case of, I know someone with a bus in Timisoara and somebody else knows somebody in Italy who will meet them. It is a loose alliance of contacts. There is no huge criminal structure with a mafia godfather running it,� says Felton.
He wishes it were that simple. �One of the problems tackling these networks is that they are so loose they can easily fall apart,� he says.
Accounts of widespread cruelty by brothel owners are easy to believe, but do not stand up to scrutiny. The owners are in a business that thrives on the customer who visits regularly and very often has a �relationship� with his favourite girl. No doubt a small number of men get a kick out of seeing women chained to beds or battered and bruised, but for most it would be a turn-off. That is not to say there are not bad and crooked brothel owners. But the women come West voluntarily, and very quickly learn through word of mouth which establishments to avoid.
Despite seldom being reported, Felton�s findings are not news to his Romanian counterparts. Major Marin Banica used to be Romania�s most senior police officer investigating �women trafficking�. �Very few go abroad without knowing exactly why they are going,� he says.
However, the Eastern European prostitute as victim is a powerful image, and ever more influential NGOs are reluctant to let the truth get in the way of their story. Take the case of the Cambodia Seven. In 2001, seven Romanian �sex slaves� were found in Cambodia. Their rescuers, who included the IOM, reported how they had been offered jobs as dancers but were then forced into prostitution. Their plight received international media coverage and was mentioned by Brunson McKinney, the IOM director, at an anti-trafficking conference in Bucharest. He said it was an indication of the growing problem.
Yet, according to Banica, the full story of the Cambodia Seven was not told. Before the Romanian authorities could reach Cambodia to organise bringing the women home, one managed to slip away from her �rescuers�. Banica does not know where she ended up, but believes she returned to prostitution. Legitimate job opportunities for Romanian women in Cambodia are limited.
Banica does know what happened to the six who returned. �Within weeks three of the women had gone to work in Albania � again as prostitutes,� he says.
The sex-slave myth also portrays Eastern European women as idiots. Banica asks how hundreds of thousands of women from the same pockets of the country could have been repeatedly tricked. For this to be true, it also means no duped woman has ever come home and, if they have, they have never talked to family and friends about their experiences.
To accept the sex-slave myth, one must also accept that none of the women or their families or friends has ever read a newspaper or watched Romanian television, where the story is given widespread and often sensational coverage. Or maybe they do and that is exacerbating the problem.
A recent Romanian television public-awareness campaign shows faceless men recruiting naive women while salivating over the massive sums of money to be made. The emphasis on the huge amounts of cash available could be all the encouragement that some women need.
http://www.lewrockwell.com/shaffer/shaffer40.html
Network television occasionally gets it right. On May 18th and 20th, CBS-TV will present a movie titled Hitler: The Rise of Evil. According to the April 12-18 edition of TV Guide, the filmmakers are hoping to portray Hitler�s rise to power as "a cautionary tale for contemporary America. �It basically boils down to an entire nation gripped by fear, who ultimately chose to give up their civil rights and plunged the whole world into war,� says executive producer Ed Germon. �I can�t think of a better time to examine this history than now.�"
TV Guide reported Germon�s view that "fear fueled both the Bush administration�s adoption of a preemptive-strike policy and the public�s acceptance of it: �They will stand by and let it happen because of the fear of what will happen if they don�t. . . . When an entire country becomes afraid for their sovereignty, for their safety,� he says, �they will embrace ideas and strategies and positions that they might not embrace otherwise.�"
The film�s director, Christian Duguay, added: "�The person you elect � no matter how charismatic or how much they convey security and pride for their nation, are they really doing it for their nation,� Duguay asks, or for themselves?"
I am sending a letter to CBS-TV commending them for this film. (As my wife, Jane, observed from her experiences in public relations work at the Disney Channel, networks really do pay attention to such responses.) I suspect the neocons will be doing their best to get this pulled from the schedule. After all, how else are we gonna� maintain our "enduring freedom" if people can get away with criticizing our leader??
Phelim McAleer the Financial Times correspondent for Romania reveals the truth behind the myth of sex-slave trafficking
http://www.lewrockwell.com/spectator/spec51.html
Bucharest
The reports of Eastern European women being forced into prostitution in the West are as numerous as they are horrific. They have worried the government so much that the Home Office has plans for a new scheme to provide �safe-houses� for the victims of sex trafficking. But for many who work with these �sex slaves� the women�s accounts are just that � stories. It is seldom reported, but widely known, that most women volunteer for the trip westward because of the money they can make.
The sex-slave stories are suspiciously similar. The women are usually from some deprived backwater. They have naively answered advertisements for jobs as waitresses or nannies in the West. However, when they arrived to start their new life, their documents were confiscated, they were beaten and raped into submission, and forced to become prostitutes. They then claimed to have been kept as sex slaves, sometimes chained to beds, terrified and servicing as many customers as the brothel owner demanded.
According to the International Office of Migration which rescues and shelters these women, there are an estimated 400,000 enduring this existence. But as anyone who works closely with the prostitutes and who isn�t infected with victimitis knows, the IOM version of events is nonsense.
Take Assistant Chief Constable Andy Felton, a British police officer who has been working in Romania for the past three years. Most of his time has been spent on Project Reflex, a unique Romanian/British venture to stem illegal immigration into the UK. As part of the initiative, Felton has interrogated those deported from the UK. �Some are tricked into becoming prostitutes, but the overwhelming majority of girls going to the West understand before they leave that they will be working in prostitution,� says Felton.
He has found that far from being gullible peasant girls, as portrayed by the IOM, most were seasoned prostitutes before they left. For brothel owners �experience is essential�; it makes poor business sense to trick unsuspecting girls into the trade. Those without experience but who still want to go are tried out in the nearest big city to avoid making a dud investment.
So the sad and perhaps unpalatable fact is that most Eastern European women working abroad as prostitutes do so out of choice. This choice may be dictated by appalling poverty and lack of opportunity in their home countries but it is, nonetheless, a choice.
The minimum salary in Romania is $50 a month � even less in Moldova and Ukraine. It is not surprising that many women become sex workers, if only to support their families. But if the punters are all living on tiny wages, the amount left over for prostitutes will also be small. No wonder the temptation to do the same work in the West for $100 a client proves just too tempting.
In the sex-slave myth, the recruiters scour Eastern Europe with smooth talk and big promises. These latter-day big bad wolves lure women with offers of jobs and a bright future. A frightening scenario, indeed. It just isn�t true. �There is no huge international prostitute recruiting team travelling around Central and Eastern Europe. There is no fleet of Mercs with blacked-out windows and a madam in the back luring women abroad,� says Felton.
His investigations have found that almost all the women�s westward journeys were arranged by someone they know. �This tends to be a family member, or a local person, or someone who has herself been a prostitute in the West.�
Then there are the traffickers/brothel owners: a particularly well-organised bunch � normally the Albanian mafia � we are told. Again, nice story, nice villain, but just not true. �It�s more a case of, I know someone with a bus in Timisoara and somebody else knows somebody in Italy who will meet them. It is a loose alliance of contacts. There is no huge criminal structure with a mafia godfather running it,� says Felton.
He wishes it were that simple. �One of the problems tackling these networks is that they are so loose they can easily fall apart,� he says.
Accounts of widespread cruelty by brothel owners are easy to believe, but do not stand up to scrutiny. The owners are in a business that thrives on the customer who visits regularly and very often has a �relationship� with his favourite girl. No doubt a small number of men get a kick out of seeing women chained to beds or battered and bruised, but for most it would be a turn-off. That is not to say there are not bad and crooked brothel owners. But the women come West voluntarily, and very quickly learn through word of mouth which establishments to avoid.
Despite seldom being reported, Felton�s findings are not news to his Romanian counterparts. Major Marin Banica used to be Romania�s most senior police officer investigating �women trafficking�. �Very few go abroad without knowing exactly why they are going,� he says.
However, the Eastern European prostitute as victim is a powerful image, and ever more influential NGOs are reluctant to let the truth get in the way of their story. Take the case of the Cambodia Seven. In 2001, seven Romanian �sex slaves� were found in Cambodia. Their rescuers, who included the IOM, reported how they had been offered jobs as dancers but were then forced into prostitution. Their plight received international media coverage and was mentioned by Brunson McKinney, the IOM director, at an anti-trafficking conference in Bucharest. He said it was an indication of the growing problem.
Yet, according to Banica, the full story of the Cambodia Seven was not told. Before the Romanian authorities could reach Cambodia to organise bringing the women home, one managed to slip away from her �rescuers�. Banica does not know where she ended up, but believes she returned to prostitution. Legitimate job opportunities for Romanian women in Cambodia are limited.
Banica does know what happened to the six who returned. �Within weeks three of the women had gone to work in Albania � again as prostitutes,� he says.
The sex-slave myth also portrays Eastern European women as idiots. Banica asks how hundreds of thousands of women from the same pockets of the country could have been repeatedly tricked. For this to be true, it also means no duped woman has ever come home and, if they have, they have never talked to family and friends about their experiences.
To accept the sex-slave myth, one must also accept that none of the women or their families or friends has ever read a newspaper or watched Romanian television, where the story is given widespread and often sensational coverage. Or maybe they do and that is exacerbating the problem.
A recent Romanian television public-awareness campaign shows faceless men recruiting naive women while salivating over the massive sums of money to be made. The emphasis on the huge amounts of cash available could be all the encouragement that some women need.
Monday, April 07, 2003
WE WANT SADAAM, WE WANT SADAAM, WE WANT SADAAM!!!!!
String him up, ala Mussolini.
SO WHAT ELSE IS NEW??
U.S. prison population tops 2 million
----------
Washington Times
"The number of people in U.S. prisons and jails last year topped
2 million for the first time, driven by get-tough sentencing
policies that mandate long terms for drug offenders and
other[s] ..." (4/7/03)
http://www.free-market.net/rd/107580436.html
U.S. economic recovery now a downturn?
----------
Fox News
"The U.S. economy seems to have all but stalled out in recent
months -- or perhaps even contracted -- and a raft of gloomy data
have economists worried a revival may be difficult even if the
Iraq war ends swiftly." (4/6/03)
http://www.free-market.net/rd/113120779.html
----------
Washington Times
"The number of people in U.S. prisons and jails last year topped
2 million for the first time, driven by get-tough sentencing
policies that mandate long terms for drug offenders and
other[s] ..." (4/7/03)
http://www.free-market.net/rd/107580436.html
U.S. economic recovery now a downturn?
----------
Fox News
"The U.S. economy seems to have all but stalled out in recent
months -- or perhaps even contracted -- and a raft of gloomy data
have economists worried a revival may be difficult even if the
Iraq war ends swiftly." (4/6/03)
http://www.free-market.net/rd/113120779.html
Thursday, April 03, 2003
WHATTA YA KNOW
Ohio court says marijuana use not a reason to remove kids
----------
Cleveland Plain Dealer
"Smoking marijuana daily does not make a woman an unfit parent and
her four children should not have been removed by a county agency,
an appeals court has ruled." (4/3/03)
http://www.free-market.net/rd/699554642.html
Montana tobacco tax increase dies in House
----------
Independent Record
A House bill to raise the cigarette tax to 70 cents per pack and
smokeless tobacco tax by 50 percent failed after a requirement
that the voters decide the issue was removed. (4/3/03)
http://www.free-market.net/rd/726635919.html
----------
Cleveland Plain Dealer
"Smoking marijuana daily does not make a woman an unfit parent and
her four children should not have been removed by a county agency,
an appeals court has ruled." (4/3/03)
http://www.free-market.net/rd/699554642.html
Montana tobacco tax increase dies in House
----------
Independent Record
A House bill to raise the cigarette tax to 70 cents per pack and
smokeless tobacco tax by 50 percent failed after a requirement
that the voters decide the issue was removed. (4/3/03)
http://www.free-market.net/rd/726635919.html
WOW, THERE IS A LOT OF SHIT GOIN' ON. AREN'T YOU LUCKY YOU ARE ON THIS GROUP TO FIND IT ALL OUT--ANSWER YES
Is this a �Bush War on Terrorism� or the �Federal Reserve War on the Euro?�
Although completely suppressed by the U.S. major media and government, the answer to this enigma is simple, yet shocking -- it is an �oil currency war.� The real reason for this war is this administration's goal of preventing further Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) momentum toward the euro as an oil transaction currency standard. However, in order to pre-empt OPEC, they need to gain geo-strategic control of Afghanistan and Iraq along with its second (2nd) largest proven oil reserves. This is the macro-economics of the �petro-currency� and the unpublicized but a real threat to U.S. economic hegemony from the euro as an alternative oil transaction currency. There are some who advocate reform of the global monetary system, including a dollar/euro currency �trading band� with reserve status parity, and a dual OPEC oil transaction standard. These reforms could potentially reduce future oil currency warfare.
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, it expects what never was and never will be . . . The People cannot be safe without information. When the press is free, and every man is able to read, all is safe."
Those words by Thomas Jefferson embody the unfortunate state of affairs that have beset our nation today. As the Bush government is at war, our country seems unable to answer even the most basic questions about this conflict (war). Is the real reason for the so-called war, "terrorism" or is it the fact the Federal Reserve operating as a defacto world monetary system and has no gold to back its currency? The fact is the dollar is only backed by the full faith and value of the people and the land of the fifth (50) united States. In signing the Banking act of 1933, President Roosevelt cowered-under to the Federal Reserve Board of Directors and removed gold backing from the Dollar.
Saddam Hussain and the oil producers in Iraq, started the switch from the American Federal Reserve Dollar to the European Central Bank (ECB) Euro as the petro-currency. In the nineteen nineties (1990's), when �Daddy Bush� was president, Iraq was the first oil producer to start the switch to the Euro. The value of the Dollar versus the Euro is the real reason the war arrived in the lap of Saddam Hussain. This is the case made against the Dollar, with a strong Euro backed by gold, the European Central Bank (ECB) is pushing for the oil nations� business. Thus, the single European currency is becoming an instrument for widening the worldwide preference of the Euro. The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund are controlled by the Federal Reserve Bank Directors and they do not want competition from the European Central Bank.
QUESTION: IS THE �BUSH WAR ON TERRORISM� A DIVERSION FROM THE �WAR ON DRUGS?�
As a second thought, the Bush crime family only deals in dollars, the drug dealers, only deal in paper dollars and if the Drug Cartels� switch to paper euros, will the paper dollars� value slump to zero?
QUESTION: Should we, as thinking human beings, question �all� governments? I think so!
Borden Bob
Although completely suppressed by the U.S. major media and government, the answer to this enigma is simple, yet shocking -- it is an �oil currency war.� The real reason for this war is this administration's goal of preventing further Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) momentum toward the euro as an oil transaction currency standard. However, in order to pre-empt OPEC, they need to gain geo-strategic control of Afghanistan and Iraq along with its second (2nd) largest proven oil reserves. This is the macro-economics of the �petro-currency� and the unpublicized but a real threat to U.S. economic hegemony from the euro as an alternative oil transaction currency. There are some who advocate reform of the global monetary system, including a dollar/euro currency �trading band� with reserve status parity, and a dual OPEC oil transaction standard. These reforms could potentially reduce future oil currency warfare.
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, it expects what never was and never will be . . . The People cannot be safe without information. When the press is free, and every man is able to read, all is safe."
Those words by Thomas Jefferson embody the unfortunate state of affairs that have beset our nation today. As the Bush government is at war, our country seems unable to answer even the most basic questions about this conflict (war). Is the real reason for the so-called war, "terrorism" or is it the fact the Federal Reserve operating as a defacto world monetary system and has no gold to back its currency? The fact is the dollar is only backed by the full faith and value of the people and the land of the fifth (50) united States. In signing the Banking act of 1933, President Roosevelt cowered-under to the Federal Reserve Board of Directors and removed gold backing from the Dollar.
Saddam Hussain and the oil producers in Iraq, started the switch from the American Federal Reserve Dollar to the European Central Bank (ECB) Euro as the petro-currency. In the nineteen nineties (1990's), when �Daddy Bush� was president, Iraq was the first oil producer to start the switch to the Euro. The value of the Dollar versus the Euro is the real reason the war arrived in the lap of Saddam Hussain. This is the case made against the Dollar, with a strong Euro backed by gold, the European Central Bank (ECB) is pushing for the oil nations� business. Thus, the single European currency is becoming an instrument for widening the worldwide preference of the Euro. The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund are controlled by the Federal Reserve Bank Directors and they do not want competition from the European Central Bank.
QUESTION: IS THE �BUSH WAR ON TERRORISM� A DIVERSION FROM THE �WAR ON DRUGS?�
As a second thought, the Bush crime family only deals in dollars, the drug dealers, only deal in paper dollars and if the Drug Cartels� switch to paper euros, will the paper dollars� value slump to zero?
QUESTION: Should we, as thinking human beings, question �all� governments? I think so!
Borden Bob
WHAT'S IN A NAME
So, you know some people in showbiz have to change
their names to make it. Some celebrities want short,
catchy names that people can remember. Here are
the names of some celebrities who use names other
than their birth names:
Ed Asner - Yitzak Edward Asner
Fred Astaire - Frederick Austerlitz
Pat Benatar - Patricia Andrejewski
Tony Bennett - Anthony Dominick Benedetto
Robert Blake - Michael James Vijencio Gubitosi
Jon Bon jovi - John Francis Bongiovi
Bono - Paul Hewson
Yul Brynner - Taidje Kahn, Jr.
Charo - Maria Rosaria Pilar Martinez Molina Baeza
Chevy Chase - Cornelius Crane Chase
Chubby Checker - Ernest Evans
Cher - Cherilyn Sarkisian LaPierre
Tony Curtis - Bernard Schwartz
John Wayne - Marion Morrison
Real Names of Celebrities
http://www.angelfire.com/la/stagenames/
� A
� Alan Alda = Alphonso D'Abruzzo
� Woody Allen = Allen Konigsberg
� Julie Andrews = Julia Wells
� Fred Astaire = Frederick Austerlitz
� B
� Babyface = Kenneth Edmonds
� Lauren Bacall = Betty Joan Perske
� Anne Bancroft = Anna Maria Italiano
� Pat Benatar = Patricia Andrejewski
� Tony Bennett = Anthony Benedetto
� Jack Benny = Benjamin Kubelsky
� Robert Blake = Michael Gubitosi
� Bono = Paul Hewson
� David Bowie = David Robert Jones
� Boy George = George Alan O'Dowd
� Charles Bronson = Charles Buchinski
� Albert Brooks = Albert Einstein
� Mel Brooks = Melvin Kaminsky
� George Burns = Nathan Birnbaum
� Ellen Burstyn = Edna Gilhooley
� Richard Burton = Richard Jenkins
� C
� Nicholas Cage = Nicholas Coppola
� Michael Cain = Maurice Micklewhite
� Maria Callas = Maria Kalogeropoulos
� Vikki Carr = Florencia Casillas
� Ray Charles = Ray Charles Robinson
� Chubby Checker = Ernest Evans
� Cher = Cherilyn Sarkisian
� Patsy Cline = Virginia Patterson Hensley
� Claudette Colbert = Lily Chauchoin
� Robert Conrad = Conrad Robert Falk
� Alice Cooper = Vincent Furnier
� David Copperfield = David Kotkin
� Howard Cosell = Howard Cohen
� Elvis Costello = Declan McManus
� Lou Costello = Louis Cristillo
� Joan Crawford = Lucille Le Sueur
� Michael Crawford = Michael Dumble-Smith
� Tom Cruise = Thomas Mapother IV
� Tony Curtis = Bernard Schwartz
� D
� Rodney Dangerfield = Jacob Cohen
� Doris Day = Doris von Kappelhoff
� James Dean = James Byron
� John Denver = Henry John Deutschendorf Jr.
� Bo Derek = Mary Cathleen Collins
� Danny DeVito = Daniel Michaeli
� Angie Dickinson = Angeline Brown
� Bo Diddley = Elias Bates
� Phyllis Diller = Phyllis Driver
� Kirk Douglas = Issur Danielovitch
� Bob Dylan = Robert Zimmerman
� E
� Sheena Easton = Sheena Shirley Orr
� Elvira = Cassandra Paterson
� Enya = Eithne Ni Bhraonian
� F
� Morgan Fairchild = Patsy McClenny
� Sally Field = Sally Mahoney
� W.C. Fields = William Claude Dukenfield
� Jodie Foster = Alicia Christian Foster
� G
� Greta Garbo = Greta Gustafsson
� Judy Garland = Frances Gumm
� James Garner = James Bumgarner
� Crystal Gayle = Brenda Gayle Webb
� Kathie Lee Gifford = Kathie Epstein
� Whoopie Goldberg = Caryn Johnson
� Cary Grant = Archibald Leach
� H
� Hammer = Stanley Kirk Burrell
� Rita Hayworth = Margarita Cansino
� Pee-Wee Herman = Paul Reubenfeld
� Barbara Hershey = Barbara Herzstine
� Billie Holliday = Eleanora Fagan
� Harry Houdini = Ehrich Weiss
� Rock Hudson = Roy Scherer Jr.
� I
� Ice-T = Tracy Morrow
� Billy Idol = William Broad
� J
� Elton John = Reginald Dwight
� Don Johnson = Donald Wayne
� Al Jolson = Asa Yoelson
� Tom Jones = Thomas Woodward
� Wynonna Judd = Christina Ciminella
� K
� Boris Karloff = William Henry Pratt
� Danny Kaye = David Kaminsky
� Diane Keaton = Diane Hall
� Michael Keaton = Michael Douglas
� Chaka Khan = Yvette Stevens
� Larry King = Larry Zeigler
� Ben Kingsley = Krishna Banji
� Nastassja Kinski = Nastassja Naksyznyski
� L
� Cheryl Ladd = Cheryl Stoppelmoor
� Veronica Lake = Constance Ockleman
� Dorothy Lamour = Mary Kaumeyer
� Michael Landon = Eugene Orowitz
� Queen Latifah = Dana Owens
� Stan Laurel = Arthur Jefferson
� Steve Lawrence = Sidney Leibowitz
� Bruce Lee = Lee Yuen Kam
� Huey Lewis = Hugh Cregg
� Jerry Lewis = Joseph Levitch
� Jack Lord = John Joseph Ryan
� Sophia Loren = Sophia Scicoloni
� Peter Lorre = Laszio Lowenstein
� Bela Lugosi = Bela Ferenc Blasko
� M
� Shirley MacLaine = Shirley Beaty
� Elle MacPherson = Eleanor Gow
� Madonna = Madonna Louise Ciccone
� Lee Majors = Harvey Lee Yeary II
� Karl Malden = Mladen Sekulovich
� Barry Manilow = Barry Alan Pincus
� Jayne Mansfield = Vera Jane Palmer
� Walter Matthau = Walter Matuschanskayasky
� Dean Martin = Dino Crocetti
� Meat Loaf = Marvin Lee Aday
� Ethel Merman = Ethel Zimmerman
� George Michael = Georgios Panayiotou
� Marilyn Monroe = Norma Jean Mortenson (later Baker)
� Demi Moore = Demetria Guynes
� Rita Moreno = Rosita Alverio
� Harry Morgan = Harry Bratsburg
� N
� Chuck Norris = Carlos Ray
� Andre Norton = Mary Alice Norton
� Notorious B.I.G. = Christopher Wallace
� P
� Jack Palance = Walter Palanuik
� Bernadette Peters = Bernadette Lazzaro
� Slim Pickens = Louis Lindley
� Mary Pickford = Gladys Smith
� Stephanie Powers = Stefania Federkiewicz
� Prince = Prince Rogers Nelson
� R
� Tony Randall = Leonard Rosenberg
� Johnnie Ray = John Alvin
� Donna Reed = Donna Belle Mullenger
� Della Reese = Delloreese Patricia Early
� Joan Rivers = Joan Sandra Molinsky
� Edward G. Robinson = Emmanuel Goldenberg
� Mickey Rooney = Joe Yule Jr.
� Johnny Rotten = John Lydon
� Winona Ryder = Winona Horowitz
� S
� Susan Sarandon = Susan Tomaling
� Jane Seymour = Joyce Frankenberg
� Omar Sharif = Michael Shalhoub
� Charlie Sheen = Carlos Irwin Estevez
� Martin Sheen = Ramon Estevez
� Talia Shire = Talia Coppola
� Sinbad = David Atkins
� Slash = Saul Hudson
� Suzanne Somers = Suzanne Mahoney
� Robert Stack = Robert Modini
� Barbara Stanwyck = Ruby Stevens
� Ringo Starr = Richard Starkey
� Connie Stevens = Concetta Ingolia
� Sting = Gordon Sumner
� Donna Summer = La Donna Gaines
� T
� Mr. T = Lawrence Tero
� Danny Thomas = Muzyad Yakhoob
� Tiny Tim = Herbert Khaury
� Rip Torn = Elmore Rual Torn Jr.
� Randy Travis = Randy Traywick
� Sophie Tucker = Sophia Kalish
� Tina Turner = Annie Mae Bullock
� Twiggy = Leslie Hornby
� V
� Rudolph Valentino = Rudolpho D'Antonguolla
� Frankie Valli = Frank Castelluccio
� Sid Vicious = John Simon Ritchie
� W
� John Wayne = Marion Morrison
� Raquel Welch = Raquel Tejada
� Gene Wilder = Jerome Silberman
� Shelley Winters = Shirley Schrift
� Stevie Wonder = Stevland Morris
� Natalie Wood = Natasha Gurdin
their names to make it. Some celebrities want short,
catchy names that people can remember. Here are
the names of some celebrities who use names other
than their birth names:
Ed Asner - Yitzak Edward Asner
Fred Astaire - Frederick Austerlitz
Pat Benatar - Patricia Andrejewski
Tony Bennett - Anthony Dominick Benedetto
Robert Blake - Michael James Vijencio Gubitosi
Jon Bon jovi - John Francis Bongiovi
Bono - Paul Hewson
Yul Brynner - Taidje Kahn, Jr.
Charo - Maria Rosaria Pilar Martinez Molina Baeza
Chevy Chase - Cornelius Crane Chase
Chubby Checker - Ernest Evans
Cher - Cherilyn Sarkisian LaPierre
Tony Curtis - Bernard Schwartz
John Wayne - Marion Morrison
Real Names of Celebrities
http://www.angelfire.com/la/stagenames/
� A
� Alan Alda = Alphonso D'Abruzzo
� Woody Allen = Allen Konigsberg
� Julie Andrews = Julia Wells
� Fred Astaire = Frederick Austerlitz
� B
� Babyface = Kenneth Edmonds
� Lauren Bacall = Betty Joan Perske
� Anne Bancroft = Anna Maria Italiano
� Pat Benatar = Patricia Andrejewski
� Tony Bennett = Anthony Benedetto
� Jack Benny = Benjamin Kubelsky
� Robert Blake = Michael Gubitosi
� Bono = Paul Hewson
� David Bowie = David Robert Jones
� Boy George = George Alan O'Dowd
� Charles Bronson = Charles Buchinski
� Albert Brooks = Albert Einstein
� Mel Brooks = Melvin Kaminsky
� George Burns = Nathan Birnbaum
� Ellen Burstyn = Edna Gilhooley
� Richard Burton = Richard Jenkins
� C
� Nicholas Cage = Nicholas Coppola
� Michael Cain = Maurice Micklewhite
� Maria Callas = Maria Kalogeropoulos
� Vikki Carr = Florencia Casillas
� Ray Charles = Ray Charles Robinson
� Chubby Checker = Ernest Evans
� Cher = Cherilyn Sarkisian
� Patsy Cline = Virginia Patterson Hensley
� Claudette Colbert = Lily Chauchoin
� Robert Conrad = Conrad Robert Falk
� Alice Cooper = Vincent Furnier
� David Copperfield = David Kotkin
� Howard Cosell = Howard Cohen
� Elvis Costello = Declan McManus
� Lou Costello = Louis Cristillo
� Joan Crawford = Lucille Le Sueur
� Michael Crawford = Michael Dumble-Smith
� Tom Cruise = Thomas Mapother IV
� Tony Curtis = Bernard Schwartz
� D
� Rodney Dangerfield = Jacob Cohen
� Doris Day = Doris von Kappelhoff
� James Dean = James Byron
� John Denver = Henry John Deutschendorf Jr.
� Bo Derek = Mary Cathleen Collins
� Danny DeVito = Daniel Michaeli
� Angie Dickinson = Angeline Brown
� Bo Diddley = Elias Bates
� Phyllis Diller = Phyllis Driver
� Kirk Douglas = Issur Danielovitch
� Bob Dylan = Robert Zimmerman
� E
� Sheena Easton = Sheena Shirley Orr
� Elvira = Cassandra Paterson
� Enya = Eithne Ni Bhraonian
� F
� Morgan Fairchild = Patsy McClenny
� Sally Field = Sally Mahoney
� W.C. Fields = William Claude Dukenfield
� Jodie Foster = Alicia Christian Foster
� G
� Greta Garbo = Greta Gustafsson
� Judy Garland = Frances Gumm
� James Garner = James Bumgarner
� Crystal Gayle = Brenda Gayle Webb
� Kathie Lee Gifford = Kathie Epstein
� Whoopie Goldberg = Caryn Johnson
� Cary Grant = Archibald Leach
� H
� Hammer = Stanley Kirk Burrell
� Rita Hayworth = Margarita Cansino
� Pee-Wee Herman = Paul Reubenfeld
� Barbara Hershey = Barbara Herzstine
� Billie Holliday = Eleanora Fagan
� Harry Houdini = Ehrich Weiss
� Rock Hudson = Roy Scherer Jr.
� I
� Ice-T = Tracy Morrow
� Billy Idol = William Broad
� J
� Elton John = Reginald Dwight
� Don Johnson = Donald Wayne
� Al Jolson = Asa Yoelson
� Tom Jones = Thomas Woodward
� Wynonna Judd = Christina Ciminella
� K
� Boris Karloff = William Henry Pratt
� Danny Kaye = David Kaminsky
� Diane Keaton = Diane Hall
� Michael Keaton = Michael Douglas
� Chaka Khan = Yvette Stevens
� Larry King = Larry Zeigler
� Ben Kingsley = Krishna Banji
� Nastassja Kinski = Nastassja Naksyznyski
� L
� Cheryl Ladd = Cheryl Stoppelmoor
� Veronica Lake = Constance Ockleman
� Dorothy Lamour = Mary Kaumeyer
� Michael Landon = Eugene Orowitz
� Queen Latifah = Dana Owens
� Stan Laurel = Arthur Jefferson
� Steve Lawrence = Sidney Leibowitz
� Bruce Lee = Lee Yuen Kam
� Huey Lewis = Hugh Cregg
� Jerry Lewis = Joseph Levitch
� Jack Lord = John Joseph Ryan
� Sophia Loren = Sophia Scicoloni
� Peter Lorre = Laszio Lowenstein
� Bela Lugosi = Bela Ferenc Blasko
� M
� Shirley MacLaine = Shirley Beaty
� Elle MacPherson = Eleanor Gow
� Madonna = Madonna Louise Ciccone
� Lee Majors = Harvey Lee Yeary II
� Karl Malden = Mladen Sekulovich
� Barry Manilow = Barry Alan Pincus
� Jayne Mansfield = Vera Jane Palmer
� Walter Matthau = Walter Matuschanskayasky
� Dean Martin = Dino Crocetti
� Meat Loaf = Marvin Lee Aday
� Ethel Merman = Ethel Zimmerman
� George Michael = Georgios Panayiotou
� Marilyn Monroe = Norma Jean Mortenson (later Baker)
� Demi Moore = Demetria Guynes
� Rita Moreno = Rosita Alverio
� Harry Morgan = Harry Bratsburg
� N
� Chuck Norris = Carlos Ray
� Andre Norton = Mary Alice Norton
� Notorious B.I.G. = Christopher Wallace
� P
� Jack Palance = Walter Palanuik
� Bernadette Peters = Bernadette Lazzaro
� Slim Pickens = Louis Lindley
� Mary Pickford = Gladys Smith
� Stephanie Powers = Stefania Federkiewicz
� Prince = Prince Rogers Nelson
� R
� Tony Randall = Leonard Rosenberg
� Johnnie Ray = John Alvin
� Donna Reed = Donna Belle Mullenger
� Della Reese = Delloreese Patricia Early
� Joan Rivers = Joan Sandra Molinsky
� Edward G. Robinson = Emmanuel Goldenberg
� Mickey Rooney = Joe Yule Jr.
� Johnny Rotten = John Lydon
� Winona Ryder = Winona Horowitz
� S
� Susan Sarandon = Susan Tomaling
� Jane Seymour = Joyce Frankenberg
� Omar Sharif = Michael Shalhoub
� Charlie Sheen = Carlos Irwin Estevez
� Martin Sheen = Ramon Estevez
� Talia Shire = Talia Coppola
� Sinbad = David Atkins
� Slash = Saul Hudson
� Suzanne Somers = Suzanne Mahoney
� Robert Stack = Robert Modini
� Barbara Stanwyck = Ruby Stevens
� Ringo Starr = Richard Starkey
� Connie Stevens = Concetta Ingolia
� Sting = Gordon Sumner
� Donna Summer = La Donna Gaines
� T
� Mr. T = Lawrence Tero
� Danny Thomas = Muzyad Yakhoob
� Tiny Tim = Herbert Khaury
� Rip Torn = Elmore Rual Torn Jr.
� Randy Travis = Randy Traywick
� Sophie Tucker = Sophia Kalish
� Tina Turner = Annie Mae Bullock
� Twiggy = Leslie Hornby
� V
� Rudolph Valentino = Rudolpho D'Antonguolla
� Frankie Valli = Frank Castelluccio
� Sid Vicious = John Simon Ritchie
� W
� John Wayne = Marion Morrison
� Raquel Welch = Raquel Tejada
� Gene Wilder = Jerome Silberman
� Shelley Winters = Shirley Schrift
� Stevie Wonder = Stevland Morris
� Natalie Wood = Natasha Gurdin
Wednesday, April 02, 2003
NOBODY LIKES TO PAY TAXES, NOT EVEN COPS
Florida nonfilers indicted for tax evasion
----------
Miami Herald
"Two veteran Miami-Dade County police officers who refused to
acknowledge the authority of the Internal Revenue Service for
years were indicted Tuesday on federal tax-evasion charges."
(4/2/03)
http://www.free-market.net/rd/872121109.html
----------
Miami Herald
"Two veteran Miami-Dade County police officers who refused to
acknowledge the authority of the Internal Revenue Service for
years were indicted Tuesday on federal tax-evasion charges."
(4/2/03)
http://www.free-market.net/rd/872121109.html
Tuesday, April 01, 2003
I WAS WONDERING WHEN THEY WOULD GET AROUND TO THIS--CAN'T HAVE A FREE MARKET IN MONEY, CAN WE???
PayPal accused of violating USA Patriot Act
----------
Yahoo News
"[A] letter received Friday from the attorney's office claims
PayPal violated a part of the [USA Patriot] law that prohibits
transmission of funds known to have been derived from a criminal
offense or intended to be used to promote or support unlawful
activity." (3/31/03)
http://www.free-market.net/rd/970956055.html
----------
Yahoo News
"[A] letter received Friday from the attorney's office claims
PayPal violated a part of the [USA Patriot] law that prohibits
transmission of funds known to have been derived from a criminal
offense or intended to be used to promote or support unlawful
activity." (3/31/03)
http://www.free-market.net/rd/970956055.html
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