Wally Hilliard Lent Jerry Falwell $1 Million
May 20th, 2007Via: Mad Cow Productions:
At the same time the Rev. Jerry Falwell was accusing pagans, abortionists, feminists, gays, lesbians, the ACLU and People For the American Way of sharing responsibility for the 9/11 attack the televangelist owed over one million dollars in unpaid loans to the owner of the terror flight school in Florida which trained Mohamed Atta and Marwan Al-Shehhi, the MadCowMorningNews has learned.
Real Estate: It’s Not That Bad, It’s Worse
May 19th, 2007Via: Big Picture:
Closing Data: Sales have actually fallen 22% year-over-year, based on comparing trailing 12 month periods. If you compare year over year sales, the decline is even more severe.
Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) Data: MBA Seasonally Adjusted Purchase Application Index is down 18% from its peak in September 2005.
Builder Data: D.R. Horton and Lennar have reported that orders have declined 27% to 37%, year-over-year — even as they have dropped prices significantly. These are the nation’s two largest homebuilders.
Realogy Corporation Data: In 2006, there was a year-over-year decline of 18% in brokerage related transactions at Realogy owned firms (Century 21, Coldwell Banker, and ERA)
2005-2006 National Association of Realtors State Data: The NAR is showing some very sharp year-over-year corrections: Florida down 28%; California down 24%; Arizona off 28%. However, the NAR data may actually be understating the falloff. John’s data the more likely actual sales decrease to be closer to 34%, 27% and 38%, respectively. Prior to 2005, John’s data tracked very closely with the NAR, so this deviation is worth further investigation.
Cryptogon Reader Signs Up for Hosting with BlueHost
May 19th, 2007Thanks to the reader who decided to host movequiet.com with BlueHost. Cryptogon receives $65!
U.S. Military Begins Planning for Avian Flu Pandemic
May 18th, 2007I don’t offer much advice on here, but I will now, as it appears that time is running out: Do not allow yourself to be taken alive.
I know. Even now, a few of you still don’t get it. You’re thinking, “It’s not going to come to that,” and maybe there’s more time for politics and debate and protests. You need to manage your 401k and take the kids to dance class and get the oil changed in the minivan…
When that soldier stands before you with that needle, you better be damn clear about what needs to happen next.
Via: Yahoo / AFP:
The Defense Department’s “Implementation Plan for Pandemic Influenza,” which was posted Wednesday on a Pentagon website, lays out guidelines and planning assumptions for US military services and combatant commands.
Possible scenarios include US troops being called in to put down riots, guard pharmaceutical plants and shipments, and help restrict the movement of people inside the country and across its borders.
The plan envisions fast moving, catastrophic waves of disease that would overwhelm health facilities and cripple the ability of state and local authorities to provide even basic commodities or services.
“A pandemic in the United States could result in 20-35 percent of the population becoming ill, three percent being hospitalized, and a fatality rate of one percent,” the document said in a section on “planning assumptions.”
A human-to-human outbreak of avian flu was most likely to occur outside the United States and may not be contained effectively, it said.
“A pandemic outbreak will last between 6-12 weeks and multiple pandemic waves will follow,” it said.
If a pandemic influenza starts outside the United States, it will enter the US at multiple locations and spread quickly to other parts of the country, according to the report.
A vaccine for the specific strain of flu would not be available for distribution for a minimum of six to nine months after a human-to-human outbreak had been clinically confirmed, it said.
Transportation within states or internationally will be restricted to contain the spread of the virus, and communities may voluntarily close schools and limit public gatherings.
“Quarantine and other movement restrictions, especially if the restrictions are involuntary, will have minimal effect on the spread of the disease due to a very short incubation period and the ability of asymptomatic individuals to shed the virus,” the document said.
“Military and civilian medical treatment facilities will be overwhelmed,” it said.
It said the military will be called on to evacuate non-infected people from areas abroad that are having problems, and to help allies.
But the guidance said the US military’s top priority would be to preserve the operational effectiveness of the Defense Department and its forces around the world.
Additionally, the Defense Department will develop a plan to ensure the continuity of operations of the US government and be prepared to support civilian authorities with medical supplies, airlift and security forces.
A key military role will be to distribute medical supplies and medications and provide security for the production and shipment of vaccines on orders of the president.
“When directed by the president, DoD will provide support to civil authorities in the event of a civil disturbance,” the document said. “DoD will augment civilian law enforcement efforts to restore and maintain order in accordance with existing statutes.”
The military also may assist civil authorities in “isolating and/or quarantining groups of people in order to minimize the spread of disease during an influenza pandemic,” it said.
Related: The New PSYOP Payload: Bird Flu and the Collapse of the Internet
Related: Bird Flu “Pandemic” Antidote: Wash Hands
Related: Spanish Agriculture Minister: Bird Flu Sparking Human Epidemic Is “Science Fiction”
Related: STRATFOR on Bird Flu: Calm Down
Related: Flu Pandemic: New Zealand’s Martial Law Contingency Plan
Russian Authorities Sue Bank of New York for $22.5 Billion
May 18th, 2007How many corpses will be hitting the deck over this?
Via: International Herald Tribune:
The Russian Federal Customs Service is seeking $22.5 billion in damages from the Bank of New York, which it accuses of money laundering in the 1990s.
The bank “committed violations of Russian law that resulted in damages of $22.5 billion to the state” between 1996 and 1999, Maxim Smal, a lawyer for the service, said after filing the suit Thursday in the Moscow Arbitration Court.
Smal said the suit was “almost entirely based” on a U.S. government investigation that ended in 2005 with the bank’s agreeing to pay $38 million and admit it had failed to report $7 billion in suspicious Russian transactions to the authorities. The U.S. investigation “uncovered very serious violations,” Smal said, declining to elaborate, saying that more details would be disclosed at a news conference scheduled for Friday.
The Bank of New York sold its branch network in October and agreed two months later to merge with Mellon Financial to create the world’s largest custodian of investor assets. It has a market value of $31 billion and is the depositary for more than 1,250 U.S. and global depositary receipt programs, including VTB Group, the state-run Russian bank that raised $8 billion last week in an initial public offering.
The bank, which said it had not received official notice of the suit, called it “totally without merit.” Lawyers representing the agency had approached it and offered to settle out of court for a “tiny fraction of the amount now claimed,” the bank said in a statement.
Housing Glut: From Bad to Worse
May 18th, 2007Nice!
Via: CNN:
The number of homes for sale in major markets ballooned in April, according to a new industry report, adding further evidence that the U.S. housing slump is still trying to find a bottom.
In April, there were 743,367 existing house and condo properties listed for sale in the 18 major metro areas tracked by ZipRealty, a California-based real estate broker.
That was up 33 percent from a year earlier and 7.2 percent higher than in March.
Some of the markets ZipRealty covers suffered far bigger inventory expansions than the total jump. Los Angeles reported a 39.7 percent leap since April of 2006, Miami climbed 53.9 percent and Seattle soared 63.2 percent.
I’m Nibbling at Some Gold in Here
May 18th, 2007WARNING: This is not a recommendation to buy, sell or hold any financial instrument.
Gold got slammed. Why?
Let me consult my Magic 8-Ball…
Sure, there’s dollar rebound news, but my guess is that guys needed to buy oil, and since it gapped up, they had to swap some paper gold for black gold.
I see the sharp divergence of gold and oil right here as a bit of a glitch in the Matrix. This is very volatile in here. House to house and close quarters battle. Not for the faint of heart, or risk averse.
That said, I’m picking up a few apples that have been shaken loose in here, just off the session low of 653.30, with that $650 support intact. They might even run the stops a bit below $650, for the fun of it. Be careful going long here, this is known as trying to catch a falling knife.
I’m just looking for opportunities to acquire a little pot of gold as a hedge against our cash savings.
Note: I use BullionVault to do this. It’s excellent.
Buy Companies with High Customer Satisfaction Scores?
May 18th, 2007WARNING: This is not a recommendation to buy, sell or hold any financial instrument.
As you know, I don’t hold any stocks or paper based investments of any kind (outside of cash, which is a gamble). I realize, however, that many of you feel as though you must continue to play these paper games for various reasons.
While I am in no way suggesting that you should follow the advice presented in this article, it seems interesting, even to me. (It may or may not be better than anything I ever came up with on my own.) If you read what follows, along with the advice given to roomfuls of Google millionaires, and allocate some percentage of your treasure to both methods (this is where your Magic 8-Ball comes in really handy) it’s tough to know how you could improve on risk of ruin paper games in the global ponzi scheme casino.
Don’t you love my attitude toward stock market investing?
Via: Consumerist:
Using a back-tested paper portfolio and an actual case, the authors of a study published in the Journal of Marketing found that companies at the top 20% of the the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) greatly outperformed the the stock market, generating a 40% return.
From 1996-2003, the portfolio outperformed the Dow Jones Industrial Average by 93%, the S&P 500 by 201%, and NASDAQ by 335%.
Past performance doesn’t indicate future results. ACSI only goes back to 1994. However, these startling findings help vindicate one of our central claims: investing in customer service and satisfaction is good for your bottom line.
“Cost-cutting” and “profit-enhancing” measures like outsourcing all your tech support to India, creating a byzantine apparatus for warranty repairs, and using rebate systems designed to trip up your customers will only hurt you in the long run.
Research Credit: BoingBoing
Scientists Cast Doubt on Kennedy Bullet Analysis
May 17th, 2007Watch out! Red flag!
Excuse me for not having more optimism about this… But I find it interesting and ominous that this story is breaking within days of E. Howard Hunt’s death bed confession that, YES, They did it.
Where was that story in the mainstream press?
Why doesn’t this bullet fragment story mention Hunt’s recent confession?
Never mind the Oklahoma City bombing and TWA Flight 800 coverups that the lead investigator/propagandist was associated with.
Maybe They can get the crackpot jet fuel World Trade Center collapse / 47 steel core column disappearance / magic passport theorists in on the JFK bullet fragment study!
Wouldn’t that be special?
Via: MSNBC:
In a collision of 21st-century science and decades-old conspiracy theories, a research team that includes a former top FBI scientist is challenging the bullet analysis used by the government to conclude that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in assassinating President John F. Kennedy in 1963.
The “evidence used to rule out a second assassin is fundamentally flawed,” concludes a new article in the Annals of Applied Statistics written by former FBI lab metallurgist William A. Tobin and Texas A&M University researchers Cliff Spiegelman and William D. James.
The researchers’ re-analysis involved new statistical calculations and a modern chemical analysis of bullets from the same batch Oswald is purported to have used. They reached no conclusion about whether more than one gunman was involved, but urged that authorities conduct a new and complete forensic re-analysis of the five bullet fragments left from the assassination 44 years ago.
“Given the significance and impact of the JFK assassination, it is scientifically desirable for the evidentiary fragments to be re-analyzed,” the researchers said.
Tobin was the FBI lab’s chief metallurgy expert for more than two decades. He analyzed metal evidence in major cases that included the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing and the 1996 explosion of TWA Flight 800 off Long Island.
In Ashcroft’s Darkened Hospital Room…
May 17th, 2007Like they’ve never soared before!
Via: NPR:
One senator called it some of the most dramatic testimony he’s heard in 25 years as a legislator.
Comey was the only witness at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, where for the first time, he publicly told the story of a dramatic confrontation at a hospital bedside between some of the most powerful men in Washington.
“I thought I had just witnessed an effort to take advantage of a very sick man, who did not have the powers of the attorney general because they had been transferred to me,” Comey testified.
The sick man was John Ashcroft, who was in the hospital with acute pancreatitis. Hours before his hospitalization, Ashcroft and Comey had decided not to reauthorize the president’s secret, controversial, domestic-surveillance program.
The night after the Justice Department told the White House, Comey received a phone call. The president’s chief of staff, Andy Card, and then-White House counsel Alberto Gonzales were on their way to Ashcroft’s hospital room.
“I told my security detail that I needed to get to George Washington Hospital immediately,” Comey testified. “They turned on the emergency equipment and drove very quickly to the hospital. I got out of the car and literally ran up the stairs.”
The room was dark. Mrs. Ashcroft was standing by the bed. Comey said that Ashcroft, in his sixth day in intensive care, was not in good shape. He was unfocused, disoriented.
“And it was only a matter of minutes that the door opened and in walked Mr. Gonzales, carrying an envelope, and Mr. Card,” Comey said. “They came over and stood by the bed, greeted the attorney general very briefly, and then Mr. Gonzales began to discuss why they were there — to seek his approval for a matter.”
Then, Ashcroft did something that stunned Comey. He lifted his head off the pillow and explained in strong, detailed terms why he would not sign the paper.
“And as he laid back down, he said, ‘But that doesn’t matter because I’m not the attorney general. There is the attorney general.’ And he pointed to me,” Comey testified. “I was just to his left. The two men did not acknowledge me. They turned and walked from the room.”
Research Credit: KL
