Monthly Archives: July 2013

Another Assault on America’s Children—Electroshocking kids promoted as “safe & effective”

"Despite a 1979 federal law requiring makers of ECT devices to prove to the Food and Drug Administration, FDA, that the machines are safe and effective, to date, none of the manufacturers have complied with the law. 100,000 Americans yearly are subjected to an ECT device that forces up to 480 volts of electricity through the brain, putting patients at risk of irreparable damage to the brain and other body systems and the FDA, which is tasked with insuring the safety of these devices, cannot assure the public that the ECT procedure is either safe or effective, simply because it refuses to enforce the law." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingAnother Assault on America’s Children—Electroshocking kids promoted as “safe & effective”

Jury Nullification Panel @ PorcFest 2013

"The American criminal 'justice' system incarcerates 743 of every 100,000 people, the highest rate of imprisonment in the world. While New Hampshire has one the lowest rates of incarceration in the country, between 1982 and 2007, there was a 564% increase. The jury Nullification panel will discuss efforts of New Hampshire citizens to reverse this trend." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingJury Nullification Panel @ PorcFest 2013

Detroit Cancels City Blight Tour for Creditors

"Creditors of the city of Detroit aren't interested in the city blight, they want their money. Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr's office announced Tuesday afternoon that a bus tour of Detroit planned for 25 creditors who are being asked to forgive the city's debt has been cancelled, reports AllMichigan.com. Orr has been trying to get city creditors, who are owed billions, to accept massive concessions in order to prevent bankruptcy. And don't think Detroit is anomaly, crises are developing in other cities and some states." Continue reading →

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Bernanke backpedals, says Federal Reserve stimulus still needed

"Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said Wednesday that the Fed’s easy-money policy is still necessary, throwing cold water on fresh market expectations that the Fed’s stimulus would soon be ended. Bernanke told an audience of economists in Cambridge, Massachusetts, that the jobs market remains too weak and inflation remains too low for comfort. He also warned that the full impact of steep government spending cuts initiated in March was yet to be seen. Together, the evidence underscored the need for the Fed to keep in place its highly accommodative monetary policy, he said." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingBernanke backpedals, says Federal Reserve stimulus still needed

Italy’s Credit Rating Cut to BBB by S&P; Outlook Stays Negative

"The outlook on the rating, reduced from BBB+, remains negative, the New York-based ratings company said in a statement late yesterday. S&P analysts said that, even with unprecedented easing by the European Central Bank, real interest rates for non-financial companies in Italy exceed the level before the financial crisis. Austerity measures, while enabling Italy to reduce its deficit to within European Union limits, deepened the nation’s slump. With the economy headed for its eighth quarter of contraction and joblessness at its highest since at least 1977, Prime Minister Enrico Letta in the last two months postponed a sales-tax increase and suspended a property tax payment." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingItaly’s Credit Rating Cut to BBB by S&P; Outlook Stays Negative

Portugal Throws Open Europe’s Them-And-Us Austerity Divide

"Half way through his four-year term, Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho is trying to curb popular resentment over what opponents say is a widening gulf between private employees and about 600,000 public workers who have mostly stayed immune to mass job cuts. What’s bothering the Portuguese isn’t just that austerity helped prolong a recession and sent unemployment to a record 18 percent, it’s also that the government used taxation more than those in Greece and Ireland to try to narrow the budget deficit. Some workers on the state payrolls are perceived to have escaped the deterioration in living standards being felt by others." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingPortugal Throws Open Europe’s Them-And-Us Austerity Divide

Euro Zone Grants Multibillion Euro Lifeline for Greece

"Greece secured a 6.8 billion euro ($8.7 billion) lifeline from the euro zone but was told it must keep its promises on cutting public sector jobs and other reforms in order to get all the cash, officials said Monday. The deal, which spares Greece defaulting on debt that falls due in August, will see Athens drip-fed support under close watch from its international creditors to drive through unpopular reforms. Central banks in the Eurosystem will contribute 1.5 billion euros in July and 500 million euros in October, the officials said. The International Monetary Fund will give 1.8 billion euros in August." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingEuro Zone Grants Multibillion Euro Lifeline for Greece

House votes to uphold increased spending on ‘unneeded and unwanted’ nuclear bombs

"The DOE requested about $537 million for the B61 Life Extension Programs, but the GOP-led House Appropriations Committee provided $23.7 million more than the department asked for. In a report, the committee explained the nuclear program had its funding boosted because it had a 'troubling history of insufficiently planning for its ongoing production requirements.' Polis noted that the Air Force had recently doubted the effectiveness of the B61 nuclear bomb. A former vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said the bomb was virtually useless, Polis explained. In addition, some European allies no longer wanted the bomb deployed in their country." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingHouse votes to uphold increased spending on ‘unneeded and unwanted’ nuclear bombs

UK ministers to seize back 100 powers from Brussels

"In the first part of efforts to renegotiate Britain’s relationship with the European Union, ministers will announce plans to claw back the powers. Theresa May, the Home Secretary, will give MPs details of proposals to opt out of 133 EU measures covering justice, home affairs and the police by next spring. Some of the measures that are seen to be in the national interest will then be opted back into, in a complex process, but 'more than two thirds' will disappear permanently from British law. The move follows last week’s unanimous Commons vote in favour of moves to hold an 'in-out' referendum on Britain’s membership of the EU by 2017." Continue reading →

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British UKIP Convulsion Significant Threat to Tories

"One can make a case that both UKIP and the US Tea Party movement are the 'managed opposition,' at this point any way. But at the same time, their emergence obviously indicates that there is a larger social movement that has taken shape. If one feels the need to 'manage' something – as those at the top of society evidently and obviously do – it is because there is something that has emerged to begin with. And that something is obviously a deep dissatisfaction with many of the building blocks of modern society, from its military-industrial complex to its central banking economy and the regulatory democracy that flows out of vast government spending." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingBritish UKIP Convulsion Significant Threat to Tories