United States: Blood for Money Scheme

17 December 2009
by HRM Deborah

US Federal officials visited the Thomson Correctional Center in Thomson, Illinois, about 150 miles (240 kilometers) west of Chicago on the 16 November 2009. The Obama administration officials are considering the now minimum security Illinois prison as a possible location to house alleged foreign terrorism suspects moved from the Guantanamo Bay Concentration Camp in Cuba.

The plan being considered for the Thomson Correctional Center, pitched by Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn in a recent meeting with US President Barack Obama, calls for the Federal Bureau of Prisons to operate it as a maximum-security “prison” and lease a portion to the US Defense Department to house an estimated 200 Guantanamo detainees. The plans could include a purchase of the facility by the federal government, Quinn said.

Which this comes at a time when the small economic depressed town of about 600 people seems excited towards a minute opportunity to work at the facility if it does comes into reality for the contention that the US military as in Guantanamo Bay will still be the overseers, which such as this on US soil brings once again into International legal focus of not just an actual populated concentration camp there and not a normal prison setting; but the continued noncompliance of the majority of innocent political hostages being held not just currently on Cuban soil; but now possibly within the US itself.

It also stands into question of the same practices of torture, religious discrimination, murder and other human rights violations will be initiated at Thompson and when will the US Concentration Camp system cease.

Obamanomics: 1 in 6 Americans live in poverty, revised estimates say

20 October 2009
By Hope Yen

The level of poverty in America is even worse than first believed.

A revised formula for calculating medical costs and geographic variations show that approximately 47.4 million Americans last year lived in poverty, 7 million more than the government's official figure.

The disparity occurs because of differing formulas the Census Bureau and the National Academy of Science use for calculating the poverty rate. The NAS formula shows the poverty rate to be at 15.8 percent, or nearly 1 in 6 Americans, according to calculations released this week. That's higher than the 13.2 percent, or 39.8 million, figure made available recently under the original government formula.

That measure, created in 1955, does not factor in rising medical care, transportation, child care or geographical variations in living costs. Nor does it consider non-cash government aid when calculating income. As a result, official figures released last month by Census may have overlooked millions of poor people, many of them 65 and older.

According to the revised NAS formula:

--About 18.7 percent of Americans 65 and older, or nearly 7.1 million, are in poverty compared to 9.7 percent, or 3.7 million, under the traditional measure. That's due to out-of-pocket expenses from rising Medicare premiums, deductibles and a coverage gap in the prescription drug benefit.

--About 14.3 percent of people 18 to 64, or 27 million, are in poverty, compared to 11.7 percent under the traditional measure. Many of the additional poor are low-income, working people with transportation and child-care costs.

--Child poverty is lower, at about 17.9 percent, or roughly 13.3 million, compared to 19 percent under the traditional measure. That's because single mothers and their children disproportionately receive non-cash aid such as food stamps.

--Poverty rates were higher for non-Hispanic whites (11 percent), Asians (17 percent) and Hispanics (29 percent) when compared to the traditional measure. For blacks, poverty remained flat at 24.7 percent, due to the cushioning effect of non-cash aid.

--The Northeast and West saw bigger jumps in poverty, due largely to cities with higher costs of living such as New York, Boston, Los Angeles and San Francisco.

The Census Bureau said it expedited release of the alternative numbers for this month because of the interest expressed by lawmakers and the Obama administration in seeing a fuller range of numbers. Legislation pending in Congress would mandate a switch to the revised formula, although the White House could choose to act on its own.

Arloc Sherman, a senior researcher at the nonprofit Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, said that because the revised formula factors in non-cash government aid, the amount of increase in poverty from 2007 to 2008 was generally smaller compared to the current measure.

"Food stamp participation rose during the first year of recession and appears to have softened what could have been an even greater increase in financial hardship," he said.

Sherman said the revised formula could take on greater importance in measuring poverty for 2009 as more Americans take advantage of tax credits and food stamps under the federal stimulus program. Food stamp assistance currently is at an all-time high of about 36 million.

Obamanomics: Social Security Freeze Means Seniors Must Scrimp

Retired US truck driver Frank Ferrira, 90, talks about social security Thursday, 15 October 2009 at the Pembroke Pines, Fla. Southwest Focal Senior Center. There will be no cost-of-living increase for more than 50 million Social Security recipients next year, the first year without a raise since automatic adjustments were adopted in 1975.


16 October 2009
By MATT SEDENSKY

PEMBROKE PINES, Fla. – If her check were bigger, 76-year-old Agnes Conti might be able to spring for a better cut of meat for her pot roast. She could afford to send her nine grandchildren more than $20 for their birthdays and Christmas. She'd be able to buy some nice new clothes, like she sees on QVC, not what she settles for at Walmart.

If only. The government has said the Social Security checks Conti and tens of millions of other seniors rely on as their primary source of income will not increase next year as consumer prices have fallen overall. And while the retired hospital clerk will get by, she'll be watching her spending even closer, knowing she can't expect the annual raise she's been accustomed to.

"We were good citizens all our lives. We went to work, we lived by the book, we weren't on welfare, we didn't ask the city for anything," Conti said while taking a break from crafts at a senior center here. "And what do we get?"

At the Southwest Focal Point Senior Center in this Fort Lauderdale suburb, seniors lamented the cost-of-living freeze and praised a White House plan for $250 checks to soften the blow. But they took all of the news in stride, saying they've had a lifetime of experience living on a fixed income and would manage with the money they currently receive.

Frank Ferreira sits in the center's lobby, near a decorative fireplace and an autumn centerpiece. The 90-year-old retired truck driver loves to sing, even practicing on a karaoke machine at home, and loves to dance even more. He gets about $890 a month from Social Security, most of which he hands over to his daughter to help pay his share of the bills.

The money isn't the biggest issue, Ferreira said. It's the message the government is sending about caring for seniors.

"I could use a little more, but that's all right, I get along," he said. "But I think that we deserve it, the elderly. You can't just discard them. You've got to help them."

Nearby, 89-year-old Miriam Danzinger is shuffling along with a walker. She gets about $1,300 monthly in Social Security, and after rent and other expenses, including a MediGap plan, she has little to spare. Her daughter helps pay her bills.

When her Chevrolet Cavalier broke down a few months back, Danzinger was forced to give it up. When she goes to the store, she's thrifty, having learned how to cut grocery costs when she ran a coffee shop. She lives as simply as possible.

"Listen, there's no money. People are going hungry," she said. "But what can I say? I'm only a little ant."

The freeze in next year's checks is the first since automatic Social Security cost-of-living increases were adopted in 1975, and follows a 5.8 percent increase in January, the largest since 1982. By law, the adjustments are pegged to inflation, which is negative this year because of lower energy costs.

The Obama administration plan to send $250 stimulus payments to about 57 million seniors, veterans, retired railroad workers and people with disabilities, would amount to a roughly 2 percent raise for the average Social Security recipient. If approved, the checks would cost about $13 billion, though there is no plan yet how to finance them.

While seniors here have grown used to the annual raises, many of them said they're willing to cut the government some slack given the recession and the federal deficit.

"When they have the money, they give us the raise. If they don't have it, they don't have it," said Lucy Polieto, a retired waitress who lives in Southwest Ranches. She wears a glittery gold sweater and chains around her neck, and walks with a spry bounce that belies her 94 years. "Sometimes, I'm so surprised when I look at the check and I get a raise."

The news this week that checks would be stagnant is buffered by some positives: Seniors won't be getting any less than they already do, most recipients' Medicare part B premiums will freeze as well, and the president's plan could soften the blow. But because the one-time stimulus payments won't be a lifetime raise, it means many seniors will never see what amounts to thousands of dollars.

For those in poverty, the raise could have made a huge difference. But for the average senior simply living on a fixed income, it is seen less in dollars and cents, and more in the tangible costs they might be more careful with.

Polieto cooks eggplant, chicken cacciatori and pasta fazool. A raise could have given her more leeway with her grocery bill.

"Then I could buy some steaks, maybe," she said. "But I'd rather have a pork chop."

Everybody Knew His Name, Teddy

This file photo shows the Kennedy brothers, John F. Kennedy, left, Robert Kennedy, and Ted Kennedy, right, in Hyannis Port, Mass.

On 18 July 1969, Edward Moore (Nicknames: "Ted" or "Teddy") Kennedy in an attempt to shut up an affair and remove a problem that was felt would harm his political career with this pregnant young unmarried woman, who was carrying Ted Kennedy’s unborn child; while in the early evening, not the late hour originally claimed by Kennedy of 11:15 p.m. Kennedy drove with intent, his 1967 Oldsmobile Delmont 88 off a Chappaquiddick (Martha's Vineyard, Mass.) bridge and it overturned in the water, where Kennedy left the submerged car leaving intentionally because he never planned on helping the woman, left a very pregnant Mary Jo Kopechne to drown.

As stated by sources, Kennedy contacted his brother’s Robert and John Kennedy on what to do about Mary Jo after he had fled the crime scene; but intentionally failed to report the incident to the authorities until the car and Kopechne's body were discovered the next morning.

From President Kennedy's birthday gala where Marilyn Monroe sang the famous televised "Happy Birthday, Mr. President;" which some biographer’s claimed Marilyn was intoxicated while singing.

Earlier in the evening of the previous day, their had been numerous bouts of drinking and allegations of illegal drugs consumed. Which over the course of Kennedy’s life, he would have numerous affairs or classified a womanizer like his brothers Robert and John ( who's famous "embarrassing" affair with Marilyn Monroe, who many has classified her death as murder on 5 August 1962); but also Kennedy's severe bouts of obsessive drinking over the years.

While Kennedy was never charged with homicide, but rather went by the public view of the time, as being swept under the carpet; too many people that lived during this time still have felt that Kennedy was guilty of two counts of homicide.

1962 college yearbook portrait of Mary Jo Kopechne

What is ironic, a funeral for Mary Jo Kopechne was held on 22 July 1969, at St. Vincent's Roman Catholic Church in Plymouth, Pennsylvania, which was attended by Kennedy, who was also Roman Catholic. She is buried in the parish cemetery on the side of Larksville Mountain. Mary Jo, was only 28 years-old.

This is the legacy, that Ted Kennedy is actually most known for by many from that time, which has actually overshadowed his political career; until the day he died 25 August 2009, at 77 years-old.

I have always remembered this homicide case, due not just to the fact in was a premeditated homicide; but the horror of purposely letting a young woman, with an unborn baby drown to death. -HRM Deborah

Carter the International Grifter

Former US President Jimmy Carter gives the old 'Grifter' signal as he is leaving by the back door of the White House after a morning meeting with current US President Barack Obama in Washington on 18 March 2009.

Since that day, Carter has made his share of trips to the Middle East; especially Israel with the US unscrupulous foreign policies tacked as grib notes to the loop of his belt; instead of the US making their peace with the Muslim and Jews throughout the world and even going so far now to focus or attack Muslim and Jewish youth with this unacceptable behavior.

Doesn’t the US think 109 years of this unscrupulous shady behavior of war, lies and death is enough; apparently, not or did they ever here the phrase, ‘Conquest is futile?”

To yet, the idea, that the Middle East is wise, to a bad US con job and even we know a good Grifter wears a suit.

But as to Carter’s variety of ‘shell game,’ he is an ‘enforce intimidator;’ if something is not going in the direction the US wishes for instance of forcing US democracy ideals on a country that doesn’t wish this form of political system or cram the US brand of Middle East policies down the throat; send Carter.

Crime Actually Doesn't Pay

The Bonnie (Parker) and Clyde (Barrow) car riddled with bullet holes after the ambush on 23 May 1934 on a highway near Sailes, Louisiana by US law enforcement officers; as bank robbers, even they knew they would be eventually caught one day or killed; but they where bent to defy US federal laws and the crime statistics of the 1930’s.

Also, in US history of the 1930’s Great Depression, the ‘Grifter’ was a dime a dozen, from every type of con, bank robbery to racketeering one could imagine, to even by some be romanticized in ‘Americana’ and while this has not actually diminished so much since that time; with the current US financial crisis this type of criminal activity is hitting the status of vogue within the American society once again as it did in the 1930's; which must be keeping the 'bunko' section of the police department, it is assured very busy.

Who's Got the Tar?

There is also a time in US and European history where a person who was very unacceptable would be tar and feathered upon the majority of the person; to be further, either ridden out on a 'rail' (railroad rail) or just forced out of town in this condition, usually by an angry mob. A very unpleasant way of saying, one was not only a criminal or extremely immoral; but tremendously unacceptable or unwelcome in a particular town, city or in Carter‘s case; country.

As to how to apply, the rather warm tar was usually applied first, so the feather's (a lot of chicken feathers were used) would adhere to the person in question. As to the removal, it was very difficult and uncomfortable.

As to where crime leads a person as far as Paradise (Heavens) is concerned, they do not even reach the 'heavily guarded front gate' of the firmament; but yet, the gates to hell is assured to be open and waiting.

Islamophobia Vandalism Hits Southern French City

A policewoman takes pictures of graffiti on the wall of a Muslim prayer room in Toul, eastern France, on 19 August 2009.

Vandals hung a pig's head from the door of a Muslim prayer room in eastern France, daubing the building top to bottom with swastikas and anti-Islamic graffiti, police said today.

A passer-by alerted police Wednesday morning after discovering the pig's head hung from the door and trotters from the shutters of the prayer centre, part of a north African community center on the outskirts of the town of Toul.

The graffiti read : "France to French people, Here is Nazi."

Police and residents stand in front of a Muslim prayer room in Toul, eastern France.

A Muslim resident looks at graffiti on the wall of a Muslim prayer room in Toul, eastern France.

What find’s situations such as this and other forms of intolerance in the last few years one of questions, is due to historically; France did not have such as this within their country, but quite the contrary with such an example of Monarchal alliances made between France and the Middle East. For centuries, there was warm friendliness, between these two parts of the world.

As to the graffiti shown on the building, I can still remember reading of the French underground fighting the Germans during World War 2; to free France from occupation.-HRM Deborah

Nippon Lantern’s of Remembrance

A Nipponese (Japanese) girl prepares to release a paper lantern on the Motoyasu river in remembrance of atomic bomb victims on the 64th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima 6 August 2009. Seen in the background is the gutted A-bomb dome.

The dropping of the first atomic bomb was severely condemned by Pakistani Sunni Muslims yesterday, by the United States for committing such horrendous act upon the people of Nippon (Japan); while something of this nature should not be forgotten, it still should be remember that the only atomic bomb’s ever dropped was only by the United States and no such event has occurred since.

Even in an age, when allegedly there is many of these similar devices; while an initial bombing is devastating, the fall-out half-life causes health effects and other problems for generations; which is still being seen in not just Hiroshima, but also in Nagasaki. Nagasaki was bombed by the United States on 9 August 1945, just three days after Hiroshima.

Previous to these events and ensued into war, the United States had imposed what some had considered as life threatening sanctions upon Nippon (Japan) and afterward an oppressive occupation, which the United States at the time, was calling ‘the rebuilding of Japan.’

Pakistani Sunni Condemns US for First Atomic Bomb

Activists of Pakistan's hardline Sunni party Jamaat-e-Islami shout slogans at a rally in Karachi on 6 August 2009 condemning the United States for dropping the world's first atomic bomb on Hiroshima 64 years ago.

Japan marked 64 years on 6 August, since Hiroshima was hit with the world's first atomic bomb attack; with a questionable call for a nuclear-weapons free world, by the current US President Barack Obama.

A second atomic bomb was dropped by the United States on 9 August on Nagasaki, which the death toll of these two attacks is estimated at 220,000 dead and the effects are still causing health issues to people in Japan.

Their has not been one atomic bomb attack since, what the US did to the people of Japan.

Pakistani Shia Muslims Stand for Human Rights

Pakistani Shia Muslims gather during a demonstration in front of parliament house in Islamabad on 2 August 2009.

The protest was held against the killing of Shia Muslims in tribal areas and to protest US drone attacks upon these civilians.

Pakistani Shia Muslim women gather during the demonstration.

US Child Prostitution Epidemic

Child Prostitution has became a rising epidemic in the US, the program NOW on PBS visits Atlanta, Georgia to see how one American city is handling the tragic phenomenon of child prostitution. It is one of 27 American cities where the problem seems to be spinning out of control.

This is not just girls on the street, but is a growing Internet business; is just one of the many growing immoral aspects occurring within the US.

While any type of relations with a child is a felony in the US, it has fallen to the wayside as immorality continues to grow beyond what is acceptable within any society; which also alcoholism and the rampant drug industry are still in runaway proportions, inter mixed with the prostitution problem.

"[The child prostitutes are] ten or 11 years old, and the age is getting lower. We're not talking about 17 and 18 and 19 year old's, although we could," Atlanta's Mayor Franklin says.

From billboards, adult bookstores, to every facet form of advertising is being promoted that this type of behavior is being perpetrated that any type of illicit immorality is acceptable and while women are usually targeted with this type of situation; children are now the growing targets, which previously within some US court cases of men molesting babies, who later many died.

Not just Child Prostitution, but the whole foundation of morality has crumbled and immoralty within the US is spinning out of control.