The words “in some circumstances” do not appear in the Constitution.
Demonstrations: Egypt's generals demonstrated their contempt for even the pretense of democracy and an open society by sending their security forces into 17 NGO offices, confiscating paperwork and computers and hauling off some of the workers – all in the name of stemming criticism of the corruption, abuse and torture routinely practiced by the military. The West has dutifully wrung its hands and said tsk, tsk.
Plain Plan: Let's all agree that the federal budget with deficits as far as the eye can see is unsustainable. Let's agree: Something Must Be Done. Start with 1) Temporarily – a couple of years - undertake massive deficit spending on infrastructure projects, putting America back to work. 2) Cut spending on the War Machine. 3) Terminate the Bush tax cuts and raise taxes on all income – including capital gains and interest and dividends. 4) Accept that for-profit medicine is non-affordable and act accordingly. And remember there is little or no correspondence between your household budget and those of the government unless you have a printing press in the basement...
Clarification: The IMF and EU say that Hungary's new banking law will compromise the central bank's independence from politics. Hungary says that's the whole point. S&P has downgraded Hungarian debt to junk levels. The government, too, has reached junk level.
If I Tell You, Then It's Not Secret: The administration continues to refuse to tell Congress about the clandestine undeclared wars it is carrying on with drones, nor the extent of the drone warfare being carried out in Pakistan and Yemen. It especially does not want to talk about using drones to assassinate Americans. Congress, after all, long since gave up its right to declare war and oversee the President's use of deadly force.
Camping In: About 40% of homeowners in serious default on their loans - that means not making their payments - have been living rent free for at least two years. Why more folks who are woefully underwater on their loans do not default-in-place is a mystery. Many feel their house is the exception, that it has held its price or will soon rebound. A very large percent think that not paying when you can afford to - even though it is throwing money away - is simply immoral. It is not. Just ask American Airlines – or the example set by the Mortgage Bankers Association.
Yes, Mother... It's simple. You are not saving enough. You need to set aside 15% of your pay. That's the minimum. A house is a place to live, it is not an investment. We're running out of greater fools. Make saving a priority. Pay yourself first. If you want to “invest” do it out of what's left after savings, after living expenses, after everything else.
End Run: A federal appeals court has ruled that private parties can do things that the government is constitutionally prevented from doing, and that the private parties may do so at the request of the government without fear of retribution from those whose rights get trampled.
Porn O'Graph: Bushwhacked
1 comment:
This is in regards to the 17 NGOS raided in Egypt:
Like everything else in our Society today, things may not be exactly as they appear. This applies to NGOS, a misnomer by itself since many of these receive and would not exist without Government involvement and subsidy. This should be a tipoff by itself when the language is corrupted to mean something it does not. Here is one article from the Economist calling attention to many problems with NGOS.
http://www.civilsocietyinternational.org/resource/sins.htm
The first thing I would ask about any NGOS, involved in Egypt or elsewhere would be: where does the funding come from, who controls the NGO?
Another similar legal structure is the so-called, Non-Profit organizaiton. Again, a misnomer. Many of these have large revenue streams and financial resources and are extremely profitable for those who manage them, work at them and supply them. Wouldn't anyone, for instance, like to have the office supply contract for the United Way in NYC? Again, where does the funding come from, who controls the Non-Profit?
As far as Egypt and these NGOS, I would wonder who controls the NGOS and immediately suspect that at least a few of them are US influenced at a minimum. Which then raises the question: what would be the US reaction to a foreign based and influenced NGO, say by Venezuela, set up to actively create protest in Washington DC?
Do your research before donating any money to so-called charitable, social organizations or supporting them in any way.
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