January 2011 – Page 11 – Infinite Unknown

US Government Spends $6.85 Million Per Minute

January 11, 2011January 10, 2011 by Infinite

Commentary:

– Geithner Warns Lawmakers That Failure to Raise US Debt Limit ‘Precipitates a Default by the United States’ With Catastrophic Economic Consequences

– US Debt Has Increased $5 Trillion Since Speaker Pelosi Vowed, ‘No New Deficit Spending’

Flashback:

‘Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren,” Obama said in a 2006 floor speech that preceded a Senate vote to extend the debt limit. “America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership.’
– Barack Obama

Exactly right! It doesn’t matter who is currently President of the US, because they are all serving only their elite masters:

– Elite Puppet President Obama Exposed (The video exposes also several other puppet US administrations.)

This really is a controlled demolition of the USA by the elitists:

“When a country embarks on deficit financing (Obamanomics) and inflationism (= quantitative easing) you wipe out the middle class and wealth is transferred from the middle class and the poor to the rich. “
– Ron Paul

It is happening right now:

“Tiffany’s, Nordstrom, and Saks Fifth Avenue are booming. Sales of Cadillac cars have jumped 35pc, while Porsche’s US sales are up 29pc.”
– Deepening crisis traps America’s have-nots (Telegraph, 09 Jan 2011)

– Quantitative Easing Explained

– Jesse Ventura Conspiracy Theory: Wall Street

This is the Greatest Depression.

(CBS NEWS) — House Republicans on Thursday trimmed about $35 million from the House’s operating budget, a move that Speaker John Boehner hailed as “a strong signal” of the new Congress’ “commitment to making the tough choices necessary to end Washington’s job-killing spending binge.”

But while $35 million is a lot of money to the average American, it’s worth thinking about just how “strong” a signal the House really sent. Consider: According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, the government’s projected spending for Fiscal Year 2010 is roughly $3.6 trillion.

That’s 3.6 trillion – one three, one six, and 11 zeros.

Let’s put that number in context. There are 365 days in a year, 24 hours in a day, and 60 minutes in an hour. That adds up to a total of 525,600 minutes. Divide that figure into the $3.6 trillion in FY2010 spending and you find that the federal government spends about $6.85 million per minute.

That’s right – the government spends, on average, nearly $7 million every minute. That means the cost-cutting measure yesterday only saved taxpayers enough to cover about five minutes worth of spending – less time than it takes to hold the average congressional vote.

Warren Buffett’s $600 Million INTEREST-FREE Loan From US Taxpayers Or How The Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves At Taxpayers Expense

January 10, 2011January 10, 2011 by Infinite

The rich, thanks to government handouts, are getting richer at everyone else’s expense. At least that’s what David Cay Johnston claims in the book Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense (and StickYou with the Bill).

“This enormous growth of incomes at the top is not the result of market forces — there’s some market forces — but it’s largely the result of all these rules nobody knows about,” he tells Dan and Aaron in this clip.

The problem starts with government subsidies, says Johnston, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist. States are spending around $70 billion on government subsidies, he estimates. That doesn’t include the hundreds of billions more doled out in federal subsidies.

“Is that capitalism?,” he complains. “Go compete in a competitive arena. Don’t go to Washington and say ‘give me money’ either by saying ‘I don’t have to pay taxes’ or forcing other people to pay taxes that go to me. Go earn your money in the marketplace.”

Czech Hospitals: Almost 4,000 Doctors Resign In Protest At Low Wages

January 10, 2011January 10, 2011 by Infinite

An ambulance toured hospitals in December advising doctors on how to quit their jobs

Dozens of Czech hospitals could find themselves struggling to provide basic care on 1 March after almost 4,000 doctors – one quarter of the total number working in the country’s hospitals – tendered their resignations in protest at low wages.

The resignations are being co-ordinated by the doctors’ union (Lok), which says successive Czech governments have done nothing to improve doctors’ salaries since the fall of communism.

Peter Papp, 31, is an oncologist working at a hospital in Usti nad Labem, an industrial city about an hour’s drive north of Prague. He spent six years at medical school followed by three years on the cancer wards of two district hospitals.

With maximum overtime, Dr Papp’s gross salary is $1,165 (£750, 880 euros) per month, well below the national average.

After tax, health and social insurance payments, he takes home around $900 dollars, less than a car mechanic or waiter.

With rent in the Usti area at around $350 per month, he is left with slightly more than $500 to feed, clothe, transport and entertain himself. After devoting the last nine years of his life to medicine, Dr Papp has had enough.

“I’m not willing to work for the salary of a McDonald’s employee,” he told me, pointing out that he had made more money teaching English to pay his way through medical school.

Applications in the post

Dr Papp is one of 3,837 Czech doctors who have submitted formal letters of resignation to their hospital managers. On 1 March, he will be unemployed.

US Census: Number of Poor People May Be Millions Higher

January 10, 2011January 10, 2011 by Infinite

– Geithner Warns Lawmakers That Failure to Raise US Debt Limit ‘Precipitates a Default by the United States’ With Catastrophic Economic Consequences

– US Consumer Bankruptcies Hit 5-year High in 2010

– Hiding The Greatest Depression: How The US Government Does It:

The real US unemployment rate is not 9.8% but between 25% and 30%. That is a depression level of job losses – so why doesn’t it look like a depression for many people? How can so large of a statistical discrepancy exist, and how is it that holiday shopping malls are so crowded in a depression?

This is the Greatest Depression.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of poor people in the U.S. is millions higher than previously known, with 1 in 6 Americans — many of them 65 and older — struggling in poverty due to rising medical care and other costs, according to preliminary census figures released Wednesday.

At the same time, government aid programs such as tax credits and food stamps kept many people out of poverty, helping to ensure the poverty rate did not balloon even higher during the recession in 2009, President Barack Obama’s first year in office.

Under a new revised census formula, overall poverty in 2009 stood at 15.7 percent, or 47.8 million people. That’s compared to the official 2009 rate of 14.3 percent, or 43.6 million, that was reported by the Census Bureau last September.

India: Food Inflation Up Over 18 Percent In Just One Year

January 9, 2011 by Infinite

Rising Food Prices: Déjà Vu All Over Again

Food inflation, according to the wholesale price index released Thursday, rose 2.5% in the week to Dec. 25 and rose 18.32% from a year ago, up from a rate of 14.44% a week before

The last time the economy was really hot – before the chill winds of the economic crisis swept across the globe – the big worry was that rising inflation, especially in food prices, would scupper the Indian miracle.

Here we are three years later, with robust growth in India and some signs that the global economy is starting to pick up a bit and what do we have: Renewed fears that high inflation, driven by soaring food prices, will undermine India’s economic promise.

As Home Minister P. Chidambaram said Wednesday, in what is being viewed as a dig at the finance minister, Pranab Mukherjee: “Inflation is the biggest tax which the people have to face.”

Have we learned nothing? Rather, if the question is: Has the government taken the necessary steps to ensure that the reasons the economic train tracks were getting hot when growth was good have been addressed? Then answer has to be no.

Food inflation, according to the wholesale price index released today, rose 2.5% in the week to Dec. 25 and rose 18.32% from a year ago, up from a rate of 14.44% a week before. It was the fifth straight week of rising food prices.

Icelandic MP Fights US Government Demand For Her Twitter Account Details

January 10, 2011January 9, 2011 by Infinite

Birgitta Jonsdottir brands efforts by US justice department to access her private information ‘completely unacceptable’

Birgitta Jonsdottir, the Icelandic MP and former WikiLeaks volunteer, who is now fighting a US justice department attempt to get hold of her private messages on Twitter Photograph: Halldor Kolbeins/AFP/Getty Images

A member of parliament in Iceland who is also a former WikiLeaks volunteer says the US justice department has ordered Twitter to hand over her private messages.

Birgitta Jonsdottir, an MP for the Movement in Iceland, said last night on Twitter that the “USA government wants to know about all my tweets and more since november 1st 2009. Do they realize I am a member of parliament in Iceland?”

She said she was starting a legal fight to stop the US getting hold of her messages, after being told by Twitter that a subpoena had been issued. She wrote: “department of justice are requesting twitter to provide the info – I got 10 days to stop it via legal process before twitter hands it over.”

She said the justice department was “just sending a message and of course they are asking for a lot more than just my tweets.”

Jonsdottir said she was demanding a meeting with the US ambassador to Iceland. “The justice department has gone completely over the top.” She added that the US authorities had requested personal information from Twitter as well as her private messages and that she was now assessing her legal position.

“It’s not just about my information. It’s a warning for anyone who had anything to do with WikiLeaks. It is completely unacceptable for the US justice department to flex its muscles like this. I am lucky, I’m a representative in parliament. But what of other people? It’s my duty to do whatever I can to stop this abuse.”

The Royal Family To Be Granted Absolute Protection From Public Scrutiny (Here are some of the stories they didn’t want us to know.)

January 9, 2011 by Infinite

History:

The British Royals since 1714 are coming from the House of Hannover and the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. The Royals are ‘really’ Germans.

The royal family’s official name, or lack thereof, became a problem during World War I, when people began to mutter that Saxe-Coburg-Gotha sounded far too German. King George V and his family needed a new English-sounding name. After considering everything from Plantagenet to Tudor-Stuart to simply England, the king and his advisors chose the name Windsor.

Special exemptions to be written into Freedom of Information Act

The Royal Family is to be granted absolute protection from public scrutiny in a controversial legal reform designed to draw a veil of secrecy over the affairs of the Queen, Prince Charles and Prince William

The Royal Family is to be granted absolute protection from public scrutiny in a controversial legal reform designed to draw a veil of secrecy over the affairs of the Queen, Prince Charles and Prince William.

Letters, emails and documents relating to the monarch, her heir and the second in line to the throne will no longer be disclosed even if they are in the public interest.

Sweeping changes to the Freedom of Information Act will reverse advances which had briefly shone a light on the royal finances – including an attempt by the Queen to use a state poverty fund to heat Buckingham Palace – and which had threatened to force the disclosure of the Prince of Wales’s prolific correspondence with ministers.

Algerian Riots Continue Over Skyrocketing Food Prices And Unemployment

January 9, 2011January 9, 2011 by Infinite

Police deployed around mosques and football matches suspended amid protests over food prices and unemployment

Protesters throw stones in the Belcour district of Algiers. Photograph: Fayez Nureldine/AFP/Getty Images

Fresh rioting broke out in Algiers today as police were deployed around mosques and football matches were suspended after protests over food prices and unemployment.

Riot police armed with teargas and batons maintained a strong presence around the Algerian capital’s main mosques. In the popular Belcourt district, rioting resumed after Friday prayers. Young protesters pelted police with stones and blocked access to the area.

The official APS news agency said protesters ransacked government buildings, bank branches and post offices in several eastern cities overnight, including Constantine, Jijel, Setif and Bouira. In Ras el Oued this morning, buildings belonging to the state-run gas utility Sonelgaz, the council and the tax authority were seriously damaged along with several schools, APS reported.

Earlier this week hundreds of youths clashed with police in several cities and ransacked stores in the capital. Police used teargas to disperse youths in the Algiers neighbourhood of Bab el-Oued, where the most violent protests occurred.

The Algerian Football Federation said today’s league fixtures would be postponed to prevent the organisation of rallies, which the country has banned under an emergency law in force since 1992.

The cost of flour and salad oil has doubled in recent months, reaching record highs. A kilogram of sugar, which a few months ago cost 70 dinars, is now 150 dinars (£1.28). Unemployment stands at about 10% percent, the government says; independent organisations put it closer to 25%. Official data put inflation at 4.2% in November.

San Francisco Police Shoot Wheelchair-Bound Man Twice In The Groin

January 9, 2011January 9, 2011 by Infinite

This video of the shooting was uploaded to YouTube Jan. 5, 2010.

This of a press conference with San Francisco Police Chief George Gascon was uploaded to YouTube Jan. 5, 2010.

A man in a wheelchair was shot twice in the groin by San Francisco police outside a mental health facility Tuesday.

A cellphone video uploaded to YouTube Wednesday showed four plainclothes and two uniformed officers surrounding the wheelchair-bound man. He was reportedly armed with a knife and a chunk of concrete.

Police said that the suspect stabbed one cop in the shoulder and slashed tires on a city vehicle.

San Francisco Police Chief George Gascon explained at a press conference Wednesday that an attempt to subdue the man with a beanbag shotgun had no effect.

In the video, the man can be seen throwing the knife aside and then being shot twice by the cops.

“What the fuck?” a witness can be heard asking. “That was unnecessary.”

Mexico: Decapitated Bodies of 15 Young Men Found in Beach Resort of Acapulco

January 9, 2011 by Infinite

The decapitated bodies of 15 young men have been found in the Mexican beach resort of Acapulco.

Police said they were discovered near a shopping centre and were all aged between 15 and 25.

They were dumped there by drug cartel members fighting over the control of the drugs business in the city.

More than 30,000 people have been killed in drug-related violence in Mexico since late 2006.

UK: Wind Farms Don’t Work In The Cold

January 9, 2011January 9, 2011 by Infinite

Britain’s wind farms almost ground to a halt during the coldest spells in December, it has emerged.

As temperatures plunged below zero and demand for electricity soared, figures reveal that most of the country’s 3,000 wind turbines were virtually still, energy experts say.

During some of the chilliest weather, they were working at less than one-hundredth of capacity, producing electricity for fewer than 30,000 homes.

The National Grid was forced to compensate for the still, cold conditions by cranking up conventional coal and gas-fired power stations.

December was the coldest month in more than a century – and yesterday, as some in northern England, the Midlands and Wales were hit with more snow, residents will have been switching on the heating again. But critics have warned that the UK is becoming too dependent on wind for power.

How the US let Al-CIAda get its hands on an Iraqi weapons factory

January 9, 2011 by Infinite

“The truth is, there is no Islamic army or terrorist group called Al Qaeda. And any informed intelligence officer knows this. But there is a propaganda campaign to make the public believe in the presence of an identified entity representing the ‘devil’ only in order to drive the TV watcher to accept a unified international leadership for a war against terrorism. The country behind this propaganda is the US.”
– Robin Cook, Former British Foreign Secretary

– Al Qaeda Doesn’t Exist or How The US Created Al Qaeda (Documentary)

From the article:

Soon even Yusuf recognised that things had gone awry. “We realised that al-Qaida hadn’t come to rescue us. They were killing all kinds of people, saying they were atheists and that they idolised statues,” he recalls.

When Haki returned from Baghdad in 2005, he found the main road into town littered with corpses, bound, tortured and shot. “We hadn’t seen anything like this before in our lives. It was like a horror film.”

In an exclusive extract from his new book, A History of the World since 9/11, Dominic Streatfeild explains how despite expert warnings, the US let al-Qaida buy an arsenal of deadly weapons – then tried to cover it up

Iraqi soldiers inspect weapons seized in Yusifiyah, 16 Nov 2008. Photograph: Khalid Mohammed/AP

Haki Mohammed and his brothers were shovelling manure on their farm in Yusifiyah in the spring of 2003 when the soldier arrived. Dishevelled and distressed, the man had run a great distance. “Please,” he entreated, “are you true Arabs?”

The Iraqis, raised in a culture of obligatory hospitality towards needy strangers, immediately understood the subtext. The man needed help. Even had he not been a soldier (Haki thought he recognised the uniform of a Special Republican Guard), they were honour-bound to offer assistance. “Of course,” Haki assured the man. “What is it you need?”

The soldier held out his AK-47. “Take it.” He indicated the webbing around his waist, stuffed full of charged magazines. “Take them all. I don’t want them. But I need a dishdasha or a robe. Anything that isn’t a uniform.” Then the soldier started to undress.

Max Keiser: Monsanto And The Seeds Of Evil – Max Calls Obama A ‘Friggin NAZI’

January 18, 2011January 9, 2011 by Infinite

Added: 4. Januar 2011

Australia: More Rain And New Storms Worsens Floods – Floods Raise Fears of Wheat Shortage

January 9, 2011January 9, 2011 by Infinite

– More rain worsens floods in Australia (AP):

BRISBANE, Australia (AP) — Almost a foot (300 millimeters) of rain in just a few hours renewed flood fears in Australia’s already waterlogged Queensland state Saturday, sending a surging river over its banks and into another large town.

Officials said about only 20 buildings in Maryborough, where about 22,000 people live, were expected to be flooded after the river burst its banks in the overnight downpour. The waters were expected to peak on Sunday.

“A number of businesses … will have floodwaters in their basements,” Mayor Mick Kruger said.

But the new flooding was a reminder that the state has almost no capacity to absorb more heavy rains after weeks of drenching tropical weather submerged an area the size of Germany and France combined.

– Australia floods: new storms hit flood region (Telegraph):

Heavy rains fell in eastern Australia on Thursday, bringing fresh misery to flood-hit communities as the mayor of the flooded city of Rockhampton warned it could take up to a year to recover from the worst flooding in decades.

– Australian floods raise fears of wheat shortage (Telegraph):

US wheat futures rose heavily yesterday as concerns grew that Australian wheat growers will be unable to deliver their harvests as a result of the devastation. Australia is the world’s fourth largest exporter of wheat after the USA, Canada and Russia.

At the Chicago Board of Trade, the price of wheat for March delivery rose over 3pc, at one point hitting $8.25 (£5.30) a bushel, the highest since last August. Warnings over impending cold weather in the US were also cited as reasons for the rise.

Obama Administration Plans Internet Identity Ecosystem to Protect Online Users Through ‘Trusted Digital Identities’

January 9, 2011January 9, 2011 by Infinite

Sure!

The goal is to enhance online security and privacy through “trusted digital identities.”

The Obama Administration announced plans to develop an internet identity ecosystem that officials claim will reduce fraud and identity theft while streamlining online transactions.

The Obama Administration is committed to reducing Internet fraud by developing a comprehensive, national online identity strategy, United State Commerce Secretary Gary Locke said on Jan. 7. Cyber-security” and digital identity was a “national top priority” issue, said Locke.

Locke was joined by Howard Schmidt, the White House Cybersecurity coordinator, at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research at Stanford University, where they outlined the framework for an “identity ecosystem” which will allow people to complete online transactions with confidence that their personal information was safe

South Korea: 1.1 Million Animals Culled To Contain Foot and Mouth Disease

January 9, 2011January 9, 2011 by Infinite

South Korea said on Friday it had culled over one million animals, mainly pigs and cattle, to contain foot-and-mouth outbreaks that are threatening to keep pushing up prices of beef and pork in Asia’s No. 4 economy.

South Korea have killed 1.1 million animals or about eight per cent of the total number of pigs and cattle in the country Photo: ALAMY

A net importer of beef, pork and chicken, South Korea is also fighting against rising cases of bird flu.

Hundreds of thousands of authorities have been working day and night to slaughter the animals, and vaccinating more than 1.2 million animals, mostly cattle, the agriculture ministry said in a statement.

The outbreaks since last November have led prices of beef and pork to climb in South Korea and might lead to more imports of beef from the United States, Australia and New Zealand.

“Beef supply is getting instable as slaughter places are shut down and transferring animals are blocked due to foot-and-mouth disease,” a separate statement from the ministry said.

“Beef prices are expected to continue rising through a high-demand season of Chinese New Year holidays,” it added, referring to the country’s biggest holidays from Feb. 2 to 6.

Retail prices of beef and pork on Thursday soared 10 and 11 per cent respectively from Wednesday, the ministry said.

Who Were The First Terrorists In The Middle East?

January 9, 2011 by Infinite

Added: 15. October 2009

US Government Child Porn Probe Leads To FBI Headquarters

January 9, 2011January 9, 2011 by Infinite

Don’t miss:

– 5200 Pentagon Employees PURCHASED Child Porn (CNN)

Target claims inquiry is just a “misunderstanding”

JANUARY 5–The government’s pursuit of suspects trafficking in child pornography recently led federal agents to a familiar address–the FBI’s Washington, D.C. headquarters, where a bureau official is the subject of an ongoing criminal probe, The Smoking Gun has learned.

The investigation by the Department of Justice’s inspector general is focusing on FBI employee Joseph Bonsuk’s receipt of nearly 80 illicit images that were e-mailed to him by an Illinois sex offender whose rap sheet includes felony convictions for bank robbery and solicitation of a minor.

In a telephone interview last night, Bonsuk, 51, acknowledged that he is under investigation, but said that the matter was a “misunderstanding” and a “mix-up.” Bonsuk, who claimed he is cooperating with probers, said that FBI officials had told him yesterday not to discuss the ongoing investigation. While adding that he was “totally innocent,” Bonsuk, pictured at right, said that he has not been told that he will avoid criminal charges.

That direction was apparently triggered by TSG inquiries to the agency’s press office about Bonsuk. Kathy Wright, an FBI spokesperson, refused to disclose Bonsuk’s job title, his responsibilities, or how long he has worked for the bureau. Claiming that FBI policy barred disclosure of such details about a public employee, Wright also declined to say whether Bonsuk’s job status has changed in light of the child porn investigation.

Bonsuk told TSG that he works as an FBI management and program analyst.

Court records reveal that Bonsuk’s name surfaced in the wake of an FBI probe of Ronald Norweathers, an Illinois felon who was arrested in December 2009 for allegedly sharing hundreds of illicit images and videos via the GigaTribe peer-to-peer network. A criminal complaint notes that Norweathers, 29, unknowingly allowed access to his child porn stash to three different undercover operatives.

Every US Taxpaying Household Contributes $260 to Lockheed Martins’s Coffers Each Year

January 9, 2011January 9, 2011 by Infinite

Too Big to Fail: Lockheed Martin’s “Got Their Fingers Everywhere”, Says Author

Too big to fail?

That’s been the key question asked of Wall Street’s biggest banks since the September 2008 collapse of Lehman Brothers, which sent shock waves through the global financial system and led to the worst recession this country has seen since the Great Depression.

But, there is another firm far from the circles of Wall Street for which that same question should be asked, says William Hartung, author of the new book Prophets of War: Lockheed Martin and the Making of the Military-Industrial Complex. The subtitle of his book says it all: Lockheed Martin and the Making of the Military-Industrial Complex.

With $40 billion in annual revenue, Lockheed Martin is the single largest recipient of U.S. tax dollars. The company receives about $36 billion in government contracts per year. In 2008, $29 billion of that was for U.S. military contracts – a dollar figure 25% higher than its competitors Boeing Co. and Northrop Grumman.

What does that mean for you, the U.S. taxpayer? According to Hartung, each taxpaying household contributes $260 to Lockheed’s coffers each year!

All evidence enough that the company is “too big to fail”, as Hartung tells Aaron in the accompanying clip.

US Air Force’s Revolutionary Airborne Surveillance System: ‘We can see everything’

January 9, 2011January 9, 2011 by Infinite

In ancient times, Gorgon was a mythical Greek creature whose unblinking eyes turned to stone those who beheld them. In modern times, Gorgon may be one of the military’s most valuable new tools.

This winter, the Air Force is set to deploy to Afghanistan what it says is a revolutionary airborne surveillance system called Gorgon Stare, which will be able to transmit live video images of physical movement across an entire town.

The system, made up of nine video cameras mounted on a remotely piloted aircraft, can transmit live images to soldiers on the ground or to analysts tracking enemy movements. It can send up to 65 different images to different users; by contrast, Air Force drones today shoot video from a single camera over a “soda straw” area the size of a building or two.

With the new tool, analysts will no longer have to guess where to point the camera, said Maj. Gen. James O. Poss, the Air Force’s assistant deputy chief of staff for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. “Gorgon Stare will be looking at a whole city, so there will be no way for the adversary to know what we’re looking at, and we can see everything.”

SarahPac Called for Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords to be ‘Targeted’

January 8, 2011January 8, 2011 by Infinite

Sarah Palin’s fundraising instrument, SarahPac, had posted an advertisement to target Democratic Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. The photo has since been removed from her website. However, CLG has obtained it and reposted it here. (Photo supplied by Bruce L.)

By Lori Price, www.legitgov.org 08 Jan 2011
Last updated: 01/08/2011 23:54:56

Source: Citizens for Legitimate Government

– Rep. Gabrielle Giffords survives Arizona shooting (USA Today)

– Arizona’s chief fed judge among shooting victims (AP)

– US congresswoman wounded, six killed in shooting (Reuters)

US: Food Stamps Used by Record 43.2 Million in October, Up 15 Percent From A Year Ago

January 8, 2011January 8, 2011 by Infinite

It’s the Greatest Depression.

Get ready for the greatest financial-economic collapse in history.

There is still some time left.

The recovery is gaining speed now …

Jan. 07 (Bloomberg) — The number of Americans receiving food stamps rose to a record 43.2 million in October as the jobless rate stayed near a 27-year high, the government said.

Recipients of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program subsidies for food purchases jumped 15 percent from a year earlier and increased 0.7 percent from September, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said today in a statement on its website. Participation has set records for 23 straight months.

An average of 43.3 million people, more than an eighth of the population, will get food stamps each month in the year that began Oct. 1, according to White House estimates.

More Animal Death Mysteries Around The World

January 8, 2011January 8, 2011 by Infinite

– Quebec bird deaths stump wildlife officials (Toronto Sun):

MONTREAL — More than 80 pigeons have keeled over and died at a farm near Quebec City for unknown reasons, the latest in a string of mysterious animal deaths around the world.

Environmental officials in the province say there’s no connection to a similar case in Arkansas, but Sylvain Turmel is wondering why he’s been picking up dead pigeons for more than two weeks on his farm in Saint-Augustine-de-Desmaures.

The first dead bird was found on Dec. 18. He’s since found more bodies on his roof and inside the barn.

“I was stunned,” he said.

“I went to see my tenant to ask whether he’d been feeding them poison. He ended helping me pick up 25 corpses. In the time it took us to collect them, five more had fallen. Authorities thought it might be gas. But that’s not possible.”

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries said tests are currently being performed at the animal pathology lab in the provincial capital.

“The cause right now isn’t known,” said Nicolas Begin. “It’s not related to what happened in the U.S. (But) we don’t see this sort of thing every day and we’re treating this as a serious matter.”

– Hundreds of Dead Snapper Fish Wash Up On New Zealand Beach

– Thousands of Birds Fall Dead Out of the Sky in SOUTH AMERICA

– US: Hundreds More Blackbirds Fall From The Sky – This Time in Louisiana

– US: Up to 5,000 Blackbirds Fall Dead Out of The Sky, Autopsies Find No Poison

– US: Up to 100,000 Fish Found Dead Along Arkansas River

(Click on image to enlarge.)

Thousands of fish found floating in Florida after cold snap
200 birds found dead on highway bridge in Texas
50 dead jackdaws found on city street in Sweden
100 tons of sardines, croaker and catfish wash up dead on Brazilian coast
Hundreds of fish dead in New Zealand
And in Britain, 40,000 devil crabs join list of casualties

More and more animals are being found dead as the mysterious spate of mass bird and fish deaths has turned into a global phenomenon.

The latest two separate incidents saw thousands of fish found floating in a creek in Florida and 200 birds found dead on a highway bridge in Texas.

Experts were yesterday carrying out tests on around 50 jackdaws found dead in a street in Falkoping, Sweden, that appear to have suffered the same fate as thousands of their cousins who fell from the sky in separate incidents in the U.S.

Swedish experts have said the shock of fireworks being let off near the city, in the south-east of the country, and difficulty finding food may have led to the deaths of the jackdaws.

Many of the birds are believed to have died from stress or as a result of being run over by vehicles while disoriented.

And scientists have also been left baffled by at least 100 tons of sardines, croaker and catfish washing up dead along the Brazil coastline near Paranaguá.

There were more fish deaths reported today in New Zealand, while in England, the carcasses of 40,000 devil crabs are strewn across a beach in Kent.

Hundreds of dead starlings and robins were found scattered in backyards in the Kentucky town of Gilbertsville while an estimated two million dead fish have washed ashore in Chesapeake Bay, Maryland.

They are the latest in a spate of incidents which are being blamed on New Year fireworks, thunderstorms, cold weather, parasites and even poisoning.

The internet has been abuzz with conspiracy theories about secret government experiments being behind the deaths, or it being a sign of a looming Armageddon at the end of the Mayan calendar next year.

The mass deaths include:

450 red-winged blackbirds, brown-headed cowbirds, grackles and starlings found littering a highway in Baton Rouge, Louisiana
3,000 blackbirds on roofs and roads in the small town of Beebe, Arkansas
Thousands of ‘devil crabs’ washed up along the Kent coast near Thanet
Thousands of drum fish washed along a 20-mile stretch of the Arkansas River
Tens of thousands of small fish in Chesapeake Bay, Maryland
Thousands of dead fish found floating in warm Florida creek
Hundreds of snapper fish found dead in New Zealand
Scores of American Coots found dead on Texas highway bridge

Tests are being carried out on the dead animals, but results are not expected for several weeks.

Thousands of Brazilian fishermen are struggling to make ends meet after the sale of seafood was temporarily suspended when masses of fish were discovered dead in Paranaguá, Antonina and Guaraqueçaba Pontal do Paraná.

Experts have speculated that cold weather or chemical leaks could be behind the deaths.

5200 Pentagon Employees PURCHASED Child Porn (CNN)

January 8, 2011 by Infinite

Add: 6. Januar 2011

UK: Sudden Death for Thousands of Trees

January 8, 2011January 8, 2011 by Infinite

A deadly disease described as the “foot and mouth” of trees is wiping out forests across the country.

Trees are under threat from the fungal disease for which there is no known cure Photo: ALAMY

Sudden oak death arrived in Britain from America, where it decimated the oak population, just under a decade ago via imported plants.

In Britain the disease, officially known as phytophthora ramorum, spared oaks and jumped to rhododendrons and Japanese larch trees. In the last year it has taken hold along the west of the country in larch plantations, including more than 120 Forestry Commission sites, 20 National Trust properties and two Woodland Trust reserves.

Already 4 million trees have been felled or marked for destruction.