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Saturday, August 25, 2012

Salisbury News Gives Huge Props To Mr. Doug Marshall


I have known Doug for a good 12 years now. When I first met this young man I thought to myself, this guy is going places. I met Doug at an auction he held in Ocean City and ultimately bought our Delmar home from Doug years later.

I have watched Doug grow his business, sell one off and start another. He has always kept a level head and tonight's decision to call off the Kellie Pickler Concert had to be one of the toughest decisions he's probably made in his entire career.

Knowing Doug, he thought of the safety of those in the concert as well as those wanting to see the show. Some might have pushed to move ahead but as I said, he's level headed, mature beyond his years.

The new development in Delmar was yet another HUGE stepping stone for Doug. Think about it. When every one else is filing bankruptcy, Doug had a vision for an outdoor arena for entertainment. He's building homes in that development to fulfill his commitment to the Town of Delmar and ultimately he and his investors will deliver a destination location smaller but similar to others seen on the East Coast.

I can see Bike Week coming there and all kinds of incredible activities for kids. There's talk of soccer fields and even an indoor center similar to the Crown in Fruitland.

While some may find it easy to give Doug a hard time because of their disappointment in tonight's end result, I personally think Doug is one of the biggest up and coming businessmen the Eastern Shore has ever seen.

Doug, thank you for sticking your neck out. Thank you for investing and keeping it local when others wouldn't or couldn't. The man deserves props, I hope you agree.

Obama Has Millions Of Fake Twitter Followers

President Obama's Twitter account has 18.8 million followers -- but more than half of them really don't exist, according to reports.

A new Web tool has determined that 70% of Obama's crowd includes "fake followers," The New York Times reports in a story about how Twitter followers can be purchased.

"The practice has become so widespread that StatusPeople, a social media management company in London, released a Web tool last month called the Fake Follower Check that it says can ascertain how many fake followers you and your friends have," the Times reports.

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$22.7M in projects to help restore Chesapeake

Federal officials plan to announce $22.7 million in funding for Chesapeake Bay restoration projects.
 
Maryland Sen. Ben Cardin says the 41 projects will reduce runoff of sediment as well as sewage, fertilizer and other pollution that feeds harmful algae blooms in the bay. The projects are located across the bay's six-state watershed, which runs from Virginia to New York and also includes West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland.
 

Mass. College Creates Scholarship Fund For Illegal Immigrants

A small private liberal arts college in western Massachusetts has announced the establishment of a scholarship fund dedicated to helping illegal immigrants get degrees.
The scholarship will provide more than $25,000 each year to help an illegal immigrant pay for the $43,000-plus tuition at Hampshire College in Amherst. At current funding levels, the endowment will help support one student's studies at the college every four years, said college spokeswoman Elaine Thomas.
A professor was inspired to create the fund following a student's senior project on the Development, Relief, Education for Alien Minors act, which would allow some illegal immigrants to achieve U.S. citizenship by getting college degrees or by serving in the military. The legislation has yet to pass in Congress.

Update On Fire In West Nithsdale



John and Phyllis Killian experienced severe damage to their home this evening on Loch Ness Terrace in West Nithsdale.

Lightening struck their home hitting the garage and spread to the main part of the home on the 3rd floor attic.

Please keep this Family in your thoughts and prayers. Fortunately no one was hurt. We're told 6 Fire Trucks came to the scene and put the fire out.

The Kellie Pickler Show Has Been Cancelled


Unfortunately due to severe weather the concert has been cancelled. Too much water on the site.

"At this time we are sorry to announce that do to this huge amount of rain, and continued lightening we will be cancelling tonights show. We will update you just as soon as we can about handling refunds."

Salisbury News Already Breaks Record For A Saturday: Update On Pickler Concert


Call it a rainy day, or whatever you want, Salisbury News has already broken a record for a Saturday and it isn't even 5:00. Our numbers will easily surpass a normal week day by the end of tonight.

Not sure yet why the numbers are soaring but I'd guess it has something to do with the Obama 2016 information as well as people wondering if the Kellie Pickler Concert will still go on tonight.

When I spoke with Doug Marshall yesterday he said RAIN OR SHINE, THE CONCERT WILL GO ON. I don't care about getting a little wet, do you? I'm going and that's all there is to it.

UPDATE: I'm on the phone right now with Doug.
Please do not access the property prior to 6pm. Show is still on. Keep checking for updates! http://www.facebook.com/HeronPondsLive

Right now Doug is asking no one access the property until they make an announcement. The concert could be delayed at least 1 to 2 hours at this time. The next 90 minutes is critical. This update is being posted at 4:59 PM. We will sit tight until Doug calls me back. Salisbury News is on top of it Ladies & Gentlemen.

UPDATE #2: I have not spoken with Doug but the storm has passed and the sun is coming out from Nithsdale to Delmar. It looks like it will be a go. I'll keep you updated. NOTE: WE NEED TO HEAR FROM DOUG MARSHALL IF ITS A GO OR NOT, SO STAND BY.

UPDATE #3: It should be noted, the final decision is up the the representatives of Kelie Pickler. If they feel it's too dangerous to go on with all the lightening, the show will get cancelled. We should have a final say in about 10 minutes.

SHOW CANCELLED. SEE UPDATED POST.

Ty Warner, Beanie Baby Billionaire, Gives A $20,000 Tip To Jennifer Vasilakos For Driving Directions

Who says men don't listen to directions?
Ty Warner, the Beanie Babies billionaire of Ty Inc., found himself lost in Santa Barbara, Calif. this summer and pulled into a parking lot to ask someone for directions.
At the time, resident Jennifer Vasilakos was in the lot raising money for a stem cell treatment she needed, and the two got to chatting about her health condition. Vasilakos' kidneys failed in 2011, and she had been rejected for a kidney transplant because of a previous bout with skin cancer.
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Flood Update



Naylor Mill beside Toys R Us is closed due to flooding.

BREAKING NEWS: RNC Officials Mull Delay Of Convention, GOP Officials Say

RNC officials mull delay of convention due to Tropical Storm Isaac, GOP officials tell Fox News.

1.3 Million Got Disability for ‘Mood Disorders’—Including 33% of Beneficiaries in Puerto Rico

The Social Security Administration released its annual statistical report on federal disability insurance last month, revealing that at the end of 2011 there was a then-record of 8,575,544 workers collecting federal disability benefits and among them were 1,304,851 doing so because they suffered from “mood disorders.”
The incidence of “mood disorders” among disability beneficiaries was not proportionately distributed among the states and territories, according to the official SSA statistics. Some locations had much higher percentages of disability beneficiaries diagnosed with mood disorders than other locations.
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Major House Fire In West Nithsdale


Fire crews on scene. 2 story house fire in West Nithsdale. Major flooding all around Salisbury. We're told the water is up to the bumper on cars. More to come.

OBAMA'S IMPOVERISHED BROTHER 'ASHAMED' OF NAME

In an exclusive interview with the Blaze, author Dinesh D’souza ("Obama’s America: Unmaking The American Dream”) spoke about the shame felt by the president’s impoverished relatives and how hypocritical the tense situation is for the left.

D‘souza made national attention this summer for bringing the plight of the president’s brother to light. George Obama lives in a tiny shack in a Nairobi slum and gets by on just a few dollars a month. ... D’souza juxtaposes the abject poverty and condition of a number of Obama’s direct relatives, including his aunt that sells coal on the street in Kenya, with Obama’s life. And it’s humiliating.

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Lost Dog

Joe:

My sister-in-law's dog got out of her backyard last night. The dog's name is Lucy and she weighs about 85 lbs she is white with 1 brown ear and some brown spots. Friendly and afraid of storms. Lost near Coulbourne Mill Rd. She is microchipped . Call 443-735-6145 or 410-430-6113. Thanks for all you do to help reunite families and their pets.

Apple Wins Blockbuster Lawsuit Against Samsung

Jury rules for Apple in its huge smartphone patent infringement case involving Samsung.

Mexican Navy: Police Fired on US Gov't Vehicle

MEXICO CITY (AP) - Mexican federal police fired on a U.S. Embassy vehicle and wounded two U.S. government employees Friday after their vehicle drove into a rural, mountainous area outside the capital where the officers were looking for criminals, Mexican and U.S. officials said.

The two embassy employees were hospitalized, one with a leg wound and the other hit in the stomach and hand, according to a government official who spoke on condition of anonymity. Hospital officials in Cuernavaca, the nearest city, said they were taken in the afternoon to Mexico City for treatment. The U.S. Embassy said in a statement they were in stable condition.

OCPD INVESTIGATING FATAL COLLISION INVOLVING A BICYCLE AND A MUNICIPAL BUS

On August 24, 2012, at approximately 8:38 p.m. Ocean City Police and Paramedics responded to the north bound lanes of 132nd Street and Coastal Highway, in reference to vehicle collision involving an Ocean City Municipal bus and a bicycle.

Emergency personnel arrived at the scene and determined that a bicycle being operated by an adult male impacted a city bus that was travelling in the north bound bus lane, in the area of 132th Street and Coastal Highway.

The operator of the bicycle was seriously injured and treated at the scene by OC EMS. The cyclist was taken by ambulance to Atlantic General Hospital and then transferred to Peninsula Regional Medical Center where he later died. The deceased has been identified as: Patrick Michael McCusker, 49, of Cockeysville, Maryland.

Ocean City Police are investigating this fatal collision. The identity of the municipal bus driver involved in this collision is not being released at this time.

Anyone with any information regarding this incident is asked to contact the OCPD, SGT R. Townsend at: 410-520-5357.

BREAKING NEWS: Astronaut Neil Armstrong Dies At 82

Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon, dies at age 82

From Fox News

D‘SOUZA’S ANTI-OBAMA DOCUMENTARY NO.1 AT BOX OFFICE FRIDAY

Dinesh D‘Souza’s anti-Obama documentary, “2016: Obama’s America” began playing in 1,090 North American theaters on Friday and is opening as the number one movie at the domestic box office today, Deadline   reports.
Playing in a third of the theaters as some big-budget Hollywood blockbusters like “The Expendables 2” (3,335 theaters), D‘Souza’s intriguing look into the life of President Obama is showing incredible promise. Rocky Mountain Pictures is releasing the documentary.

REPORT: AL QAEDA-LINKED SITES POST NAME & PHOTO OF EX-SEAL AUTHOR, CALL FOR HIS ‘DESTRUCTION’

Users on several Al-Qaeda-linked websites have posted the name and photo of the former Navy SEAL identified as the author of the forthcoming book about the raid that killed Osama bin Laden and are calling for his “destruction,” NBC News reported.
According to NBC, one website that featured revenge death threats was “Al-Fidda,” which Al-Qaeda uses to distribute messages to the media.
The photo appears to show a special operations soldier holding an automatic rifle during a training exercise, NBC reported. It was not clear where the photo came from.

REPORT: INCOMES DROPPED MORE DURING OBAMA 'RECOVERY' THAN RECESSION

More "dutiful  " reporting from the media that puts them on record covering something they're really not covering because Romney's tax returns….

American incomes declined more in the three-year expansion that started in June 2009 than during the longest recession since the Great Depression, according an analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data by Sentier Research LLC.

Facility Services Wraps Up Summer Of School Projects Throughout Wicomico

Facility Services staff of Wicomico County Public Schools have been working hard this summer on a long list of projects to improve school facilities prior to the start of the 2012-13 school year in late August.

“Summer means time off for our students, but it’s a critically important time “on” for Facility Services, which maintains over 2 million square feet of building space throughout Wicomico County,” said Brian Foret, Director of Facility Services. “Those few weeks over the summer are vital to us. We need the time to catch up on our operational housekeeping duties and roll out projects we just can’t get to during the school year. It gives us a window to do things like roofing and parking lot projects, move classrooms, painting, upgrade security features, resurface floors, replace equipment and make other major repairs and/or replacements required to maintain or will improve the facilities in which our students and staff work.”

Facility Services projects are being done at every school in Wicomico County this summer. Among the biggest and most visible projects:

• Fruitland Intermediate roof replacement and improvements to vehicular access
• Charles H. Chipman Elementary roof replacement
• Secure access entryways for Glen Avenue Elementary, Bennett Middle, Parkside High
• Modular classroom building relocated to Pittsville Elementary and Middle in preparation for a major HVAC project
• Auditorium sound and lighting upgrades for Parkside High and Wicomico High

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FAKE HOUSING RECOVERY SUBSIDIZED BY YOU

All praise to the new subprime – 1 out of 6 FHA insured loans is now delinquent. Offering 30x leverage with FHA loans.
Perfectly timed, the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) is starting to see significant delinquencies at a time when the housing market nationwide is appearing to recover. If you define “subprime” as the lowest quality mortgages on a totem pole, FHA insured loans now take that place. It should not come as a surprise given the FHA is insuring an insane 30x leverage market with many that are diving in with only 3.5 percent down. This is no surprise and even this summer, the FHA to assist in shoring up their dwindling capital base jacked up their mortgage insurance premiums. The FHA has completely deviated from their mission and is simply another method of over extending debt strapped and income restricted Americans into homes that they clearly cannot afford. What was once a tiny echo is now becoming a larger siren of impending financial issues. The FHA is heading directly into a bailout scenario.


FHA is the new subprime

Some astounding information is coming out regarding the deterioration of FHA insured loans:

“(Reuters)- Fitch Ratings sees a growing divergence between 90-day past due delinquency patterns for guaranteed and nonguaranteed loans as a potentially troubling signal of future losses. This may eventually force the FHA to look for opportunities to put back some defaulted loans to the banks, particularly if the agency’s funding status worsens and U.S. home prices fail to rebound quickly.”

What stood out in the report is that eight of the largest US banks now have $79.4 billion in delinquent FHA insured loans. Of this, 83 percent represent government-guaranteed mortgages. If you need additional proof of this maximum leverage nonsense and that banks are willing to give loans out to a homeless person if they could offload the risk to the American taxpayer, read this:

“While delinquency rates for nonguaranteed loans have been improving

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Ocean Health Index: Another Tool Aiding Elitist Domination, not Conservation

Sea Change: A New Tool for Measuring Ocean Health ... I spent late July alongside the Bay of Fundy, marveling at the world's most spectacular tides. But the power of the sea can be misleading. The world's oceans may look omnipotent, but they are all too vulnerable to the short-sighted actions of mankind. As I wrote last summer from Norway's Lofoten Islands, the oceans are in deep crisis, thanks to rampant overfishing, calamitous pollution, and unprecedented acifidication induced by climate change. Fortunately, a new tool has emerged to help us better understand the degradation of the world's oceans and their immense importance to all species—not least Homo sapiens. The just-released Ocean Health Index analyzes how well countries are managing their coastal seas, measuring their performance across ten widely held public goals for healthy oceans. – Council on Foreign Relations blog/P. Stewart

Dominant Social Theme: Here is a very useful tool to help mankind protect its oceans.

Free-Market Analysis: There is a new tool to calibrate the health of the oceans, and it's been written about by Stewart M. Patrick in his blog over at the Council on Foreign Relations entitled, "The Internationalist."

The article itself is titled, "Sea Change: A New Tool for Measuring Ocean Health" and apparently was posted August 20, 2012. In the article, Patrick – a Rhodes Scholar and former US State Department official – explains that while the world's oceans may look omnipotent, they are actually "vulnerable to the short-sighted actions of mankind."

Patrick's view of the ocean goes far beyond that however. The oceans, he writes, "are in deep crisis, thanks to rampant overfishing, calamitous pollution, and unprecedented acifidication induced by climate change."

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Everyone Should Stop And Think About The NY Times Roster Of The Dead

Walter Reed was where soldiers got sent to die or go home, and for someone like me, with a trivial but serious injury, it was a spectacular glimpse into what The New York Times missed with their Roster.

I'd written the Post in 2005 — along with several other media outlets. It was hard not to with what I saw every day, and how we were treated. Priest's piece was great, but it only scratched the surface and came too late to stop the commanding general from deleting my medical records for trying to get the word out.

The Times Roster too just touches the surface: The thing is, not everyone dies.

The Walter Reed 'ortho' ward was worse than dying. It's where everyone got sent when their bones need attention. When they got blown up.

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QUOTES OF THE DAY 8-25-12

What I object to the current government intervention in so-called ‘solving the crisis’, they haven’t solved anything. They’ve just postponed it.

Marc Faber

If you print money like in Zimbabwe… the purchasing power of money goes down, and the standards of living go down, and eventually, you have a civil war.

Marc Faber

“Twenty years ago, … [a family] spent its income on housing, clothing, food appliances, cars, a radio and a TV. Today, it will spend additional money on a DVD player, computers, fax machines, printers, several cellular phones and a whole host of other new electronic gadgets…modern society requires people to continuously enlarge the ‘basket of goods’ that are considered necessary to lead a ‘good life.’”

Marc Faber

“In the developed world we have huge debt to GDP, in terms of government debt to GDP and unfunded liabilities that will come due, and these unfunded liabilities are so huge that eventually these governments will all have to print money before they default.”

Marc Faber

WILL SELL-OFF BEGIN IN DAYS?

Back in April, he laid out a roadmap for stocks, which assumed a mid-year rally before a major collapse.

In his July note, he reminded us that his call was unfolding. And he does so again in his note today:

“In terms of markets, the route map I set out in early April and which I affirmed in early June continues to play out extremely well. After correctly calling the late March/early April 1420 high in the S&P500, and also the early June (1270) low, we have also now fully captured the risk-on rally in stocks and credit that began in early June…”

So, what’s next?

Well, this is when things start to get ugly.

“I now think the correct thing to do – as I also said in April and June – is to prepare for a serious risk-off phase between August and November,” he reiterated. “Over the August to November period I am looking for the S&P500 to trade off down from around 1400…by 20% to 25%…to trade at or below the lows of 2011.”

He argues that the key drivers of this sell-off will be disappointment at next week’s Federal Reserve Jackson Hole speech and realization that the ECB won’t be be able to deliver on their promises.

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Rise In Deaths Indicates Afghan War Is Evolving

His war was almost over. Or so Marina Buckley thought when her son Lance Cpl. Gregory T. Buckley Jr. told her he would be returning from southern Afghanistan to his Marine Corps base in Hawaii in late August, three months early.

Instead, Buckley became the 1,990th U.S. service member to die in the war when, on Aug. 10, he and two other Marines were shot inside their base in Helmand province by a man who appears to have been a member of the Afghan forces they were training.

A week later, with the death of Spc. James A. Justice of the Army in a military hospital in Germany, the U.S. military reached 2,000 dead in the nearly 11-year-old conflict, based on a New York Times analysis of Department of Defense records. The calculation by The Times includes deaths not only in Afghanistan, but also in Pakistan and other nations where U.S. forces are directly involved in aiding the war.

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See What Iconic Black-And-White Images Look Like In Color

Swedish artist Sanna Dullaway meticulously adds color to black-and-white images.

She posted a collection of her work to Reddit. Some of the works include portraits of Abraham Lincoln and Einstein and the soldier kissing the nurse after World War II.

Check it out:

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No Recession Now - But When?

There have been a few calls as of late (Hussman, ECRI, Shilling) stating that we are currently in the next recession. Then there is everyone else. While the "optimistic" outlook is always more enjoyable to listen to - the problem is that the current "no recession" view is primarily predicated on current quarter growth rates looked at in isolation. These data points are then extrapolated into continuous future economic expansion. For example, in the 2013 CBO Budget the average economic growth rate used is 5.28% which is substantially higher than the 2% growth rate currently projected by the Federal Reserve. More importantly, neither the Fed, or the CBO, have forecasted a recession in future years. All assumptions are based on the expectations that somehow recessions have been repealed. This is hardly the case.

However, the no-recession camp is currently correct. The domestic economy is not currently in a "technical recession," as measured by Gross Domestic Product, as the economy is growing at a 1.5% annualized rate in the second quarter. However, there is a mistake being made by many of the no-recession calls. Most of the assumptions are based on looking at the individual current data points of consumption, incomes, employment and production. The assumption is that since the data is not currently negative then a recession is not imminent. However, as investors, we should not be concerned with what is happening "imminently" but rather what the macro environment will look like six months from now. As we have often stated, it is not the individual data points that are important - but the trends of the data that tell the real story. Economic change happens at the margins.

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SILVER BELLS


So you don’t believe the silver market is being manipulated by JP Morgan? How do you explain this chart? In what non-manipulated world does demand exceed supply by 37% and the price of the product stays flat?

“Silver demand/production faces an annual shortfall of some 8,678 tonnes in 2011. On a silver ounces basis this translates into a deficit of 115 million ounces.”

Source

Real Reason they Arrested Raub: Strip Him Of His Right To Bear Arms

Attention U.S. Military: You are Being Demonized. This is an Extremely Important Article ... It's now becoming overt. The meme emanating rapidly from the mainstream media is that the U.S. military is a threat to the nation! It sounds very 1984 and backwards, but what isn't these days. What really captured my attention is a very clever and dangerous article published by Reuters titled "U.S. Army battling racists within its own ranks." It sounds benign enough at first and as you continue to read it all seems pretty reasonable. Who wants crazy racists running around the armed forces? Nobody. That said, there is a tone throughout that clearly attempts to make the sheeple public suspicious about returning veterans, which is bothersome in its own right considering these young men and women are being sacrificed daily by the elite power structure that would never dip their dainty little toes anywhere near any action. – libertyblitzkrieg.com

Dominant Social Theme: Champions of free speech, anti-tax promotions and the right to keep and bear arms are closet white supremacist Neo-Nazis. Watch out!

Free-Market Analysis: The real reason why they arrested former US Marine Brandon Raub and then confined him to a psychiatric ward is now emerging.

It may be part of a deliberate Pentagon policy to declare people who are vets and concerned about eroding freedoms – as Raub obviously was – to be emotionally disturbed and thus ineligible to carry or use weapons.

It seems to have something to do with a new demonization of US military personnel, as Michael Krieger over at libertyblitzkrieg.com suggests.

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The New Jersey Jobs Neutron Bomb


And the payroll propaganda was going so well until... New Jersey happened. As the chart below shows, in the month of July the state, arguably the Tristate area's most employer friendly, saw a sequential drop of 12,000 jobs, which was the largest one month drop since June 2009. Outlier? Or the harbinger of things to come at the national level? We will likely not now for sure until after the presidential election at which point the endless data fudging and manipulation finally ends.

Source

Shrink YOUR Government

The debate about shrinking government is mostly wishful thinking ... With the selection of Paul Ryan as the Republican vice-presidential candidate, it is clear both political parties agree that the central issue in the coming presidential election will be the scale and scope of government involvement in the U.S. economy. There will be disagreement over what constituted "normal" levels of spending in the past and indeed over what constitutes "spending." But there is a widespread view in both parties that it is feasible and desirable that in the future the federal government will be no larger as a share of the overall economy than it has been historically. Unfortunately, this aspiration is unlikely to be achieved. Even preserving the amount of government functions the U.S. had before the financial crisis will require substantial increases in the share of the economy devoted to the public sector. This is the case for several structural reasons. – Reuters/Lawrence H. Summers

Dominant Social Theme: The path we are on toward larger government and more federal expenditures in the US (and the West) is an inevitable one. We have no choice other than to live this way and discuss what (helpful) services we will disallow.

Free-Market Analysis: Here comes Lawrence H. Summers to tell us that shrinking the US federal Leviathan is at least improbable. Summers is very good at this kind of thing. After Milton Friedman passed away, he wrote an article entitled, "We're all Friedmanites Now."

Of course, who really would want to be a "Friedmanite," the man most responsible for the US graduated income tax, who believed in steady state monopoly central banking, who campaigned against the draft but ended up giving the US its all-volunteer army?

With this statement as in so many other ways, Summers provides us a head-fake in one direction – toward free markets – while listing evermore leftward. This is, of course, the ambit of his career. He's very good at it.

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Educational Lunacy

If I were a Klansman, wanting to sabotage black education, I couldn't find better allies than education establishment liberals and officials in the Obama administration, especially Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, who in March 2010 announced that his department was "going to reinvigorate civil rights enforcement."

For Duncan, the civil rights issue was that black elementary and high school students are disciplined at a higher rate than whites. His evidence for discrimination is that blacks are three and a half times more likely to be suspended or expelled than their white peers. Duncan and his Obama administration supporters conveniently ignored school "racial discrimination" against whites, who are more than two times as likely to be suspended as Asians and Pacific Islanders.

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Syria And Iran Dominos Lead To World War

Almost three years ago I wrote an analytical piece on the concept of deliberately engineering wars, big and small, by elitists to distract the masses away from particular global developments that work to the benefit of the establishment power structure. That article was entitled ‘Will The Globalists Trigger Yet Another World War?’:

http://www.alt-market.com/neithercorp/press/2010/01/will-globalists-trigger-yet-another-world-war

In that analysis, I concluded that since at least 2008, the power’s that be (whether posing as Republicans or Democrats) had set in a motion a series of events that revolved around Iran, and most disturbingly, Syria, which could be used to trigger a vast global war scenario. Today, unfortunately, it seems my concerns were more than valid, and circumstances evolving in that particular region are dire indeed.

Now, some may argue that circumstances in the Middle East have always been “dire” and that it does not take much to predict a renewal of chaos. Admittedly, for the past six years alone the American public has been treated to one propaganda campaign after the other testing the social waters to see if a sizable majority of the citizenry could be convinced to support strikes against Iran. The U.S. and Israeli governments have come very close on several occasions in rhetoric and in the build up of arms, to just such an event. However, I would submit that the previous threats of war that came and went are absolutely nothing in comparison to the danger today.

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Class Warfare In 2012. Ho, Ho, Ho

The media are filled with stories claiming that the Obama vs. Romney race is all about class warfare. I have my doubts. Here is why.


Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, in their then-anonymous tract, The Manifesto of the Communist Party (1848), began chapter 1 with these words: "The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles."

You would be hard-pressed to find any theory of history more wrong-headed than this one.

To prove their case, they should have defined "class." They never did. In the unpublished third volume of Das Kapital, Marx wrote this: "The first question to he answered is this: What constitutes a class?" – I see. The first question. This appears in Chapter 52. Three paragraphs later, the manuscript broke off.

This was written around 1865. He died in 1883. He never wrote another book. It appeared in 1895. Engels edited it. It would have helped if Marx had told us what a class is. In The Manifesto, he followed sentence one with this:

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Surprised? News Corp. Donates More To Democrats Than Republicans

Not news: Reading that major media outlets donate more to Democrat candidates than Republican candidates.

News: Learning Media tycoon Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation (which owns The Wall Street Journal, The New York Post, the 20th Century Fox studios, and Fox News) donates much more to Democrats than Republicans.

Really?

“All the major media companies, driven largely by their Hollywood film and television businesses, have made larger contributions to President Obama than to his rival, former Gov. Mitt Romney,” The New York Times reports, citing the nonprofit Center for Responsive Politics.

“The center’s numbers represent donations by a company’s PAC and any employees who listed that company as their employer,” the report adds.

But Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp.?

“In 2008, News Corporation contributed $380,558 to Mr. Obama’s campaign, compared with $32,740 to the Republican nominee John McCain [emphasis added],” according to the report.

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Are People Being Thrown Into Psychiatric Wards For Their Political Views?

Mental Health Diagnoses Are Sometimes Politically-Motivated


Many psychologists and psychiatrists are good people, who are only trying to help their patients.
But the Nazi government substantially supported psychologists … many of whom, in turn, espoused extermination of the people they considered to be “racially and cognitively compromised”.


Soviet psychiatrists famously aided Stalin in applying fake insanity diagnoses to political dissenters. The official explanation was that no sane person would declaim the Soviet government and Communism.


American psychologists created the American program of torture which was specially-crafted to produce false confessions to justify U.S. military policy. And see this.


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TSA Rifles Through Bags, Conducts Pat Downs At Paul Ryan Event

For some time we have been warning that the TSA is systematically moving beyond the nation’s airports and conducting operations on the streets of America.

The latest example of this kind of activity occurred at an event organized by Mitt Romney’s GOP running mate Paul Ryan this past weekend in The Villages, Florida.

The Shark Tank blog reports that TSA officers showed up alongside Secret Service and the local Sumter County Sheriff’s Office, and proceeded to do what they do like no one else does.

“A big WTF is in order here.” the blog notes, adding “We heard that the TSA was going to expand its ummm, ‘reach,’ but to assist in political campaigns is quite the jump in broadening their ‘transportation security horizons.’”

“I counted no less than (6) TSA agents alongside the usual uniformed Secret Service detail-not to be confused with the ‘Men In Black’ looking agents.” blogger Javier Manjarres notes, with a picture of the agents in action (below).

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Politico Caught With Pants Down Over GOP Skinny-Dipping Story

It's just a fact that after the Ryan pick, Team Romney broke a six-week losing streak and then entered a week-long winning streak that moved the polls in the right direction both nationally and in the swing states.
Obviously, this means that hopelessly corrupt media outlets like Politico start to panic, and what better way to freeze the race and stop Romney's momentum than with a big, fat, bright and shiny distraction like a Sunday night breaking news drop about a year-old incident involving Republican Congressmen skinny-dipping in the holy Sea of Galilee?

And since that alone isn't quite sexy enough, why not toss in an F.B.I. investigation into the mix?

Except, whoops, Politico implying the F.B.I. was investigating skinny dipping isn't even close to the truth.

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IMF Favors Giving Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood Billions

The International Monetary Fund, which has been in business since 1945, when it was formed to help the defeated Axis countries and some others to keep their currencies lined up with the dollar but has more recently been in the business of offering bailouts, is now considering loaning $4.8 billion to Egypt’s new government. Why? Because, as the fund puts it, the loan would be “ a reflection of the IMF’s continuous commitment to support Egypt and its people during this historic period of transition.”

Fitch Ratings, in a characteristically amoral statement, said that the decisions of Egypt’s president, Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohammed Morsi, to dismiss Egypt’s two top generals and reserve legislative and executive power for himself, were “potentially positive developments.” The stalled negotiations between the IMF and Morsi had been “symptomatic of the impact of political uncertainty on policymaking.”

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HISTORICAL COMMENTS BY GEORGE CHEVALLIER 8-25-12

The 3 Eras of W. Main Street

Main Street in Salisbury can be broken down into three separate and distinct eras.

The first era was when it was known as Bridge Street. This was a dirt street with businesses and residences on both sides of the street. Most of the buildings were owned by whoever had their business on the first floor. The two upper floors were occupied by the family of the business owner. There were also some with accommodations in the rear for the family horse and buggy.

The buildings were built out of brick or stone due to a city ordinance after the Great Fire of 1886 leveled 22 acres of mostly wooden buildings. Since there was no stone on the Eastern Shore and we were right in the middle of many pine trees, it was only natural that they would incorporate the readily available material in their building ventures. This is what happened after the Fire of 1860 that leveled Salisbury. In fact, during the Civil War, the population was less than that of Camp Upton, a Union Camp situated where the Daily Times building is now.

During this first era, Salisbury came up to speed with the rest of world in acquiring such amenities as underground sewers, electricity and gas, telephones and automobiles. It was during this period, in 1904, that Salisbury got its first paved road. This was of yellow brick and ran from the bridge to Division Street where it turned left. It continued on to Church Street, turning right out to the old N.Y.P & N. railroad depot, which was 200 yards south of where the Union is now. They thought this would give Salisbury an air of modern improvement. Many of the original stores on Main Street plodded through the difficult times and one even survives to this day. That store is Kuhn’s Jewelers, which can date itself back to 1853 when Amos Woodcock started his jewelry business across Main Street near where WMDT now stands.

The second era was the heyday of Main Street. When someone wanted anything, they went on Main Street and it could be found. Clothes, jewelry and gifts were readily available from ladies stores such as Hess, Benjamin’s and R.E. Powell. The men could be similarly accommodated from Lee Johnson’s and Ralph & Gaskill’s. There were three predominant banks. Although other smaller banks made brief appearances, the big three of Union Trust, Maryland National and County Trust Company dominated the banking scene. They are all still in Salisbury but doing business under different names. There were also drug stores, stationery stores, shoe stores, 5 & 10 cents stores such as Woolworth’s, McCrory’s and J.J. Newberry along with a selection of specialty stores. One of the busiest was the famous Watson’s Smoke House. Along with a great selection of tobacco products, they sold records. In those days, you could ask for a 45 RPM record and take it to one of the “listening booths” before plunking down your 89 cents (plus tax) to take it home to be shared with all your teenage friends.

We are now experiencing the last phase of Main Street. The only store remaining from happier times is Kuhn’s. Now there are more lawyers than retailers represented along a street that was once truly “The Hub of Delmarva”.

(To the commenter who inquired last week about where he can get a book on local history, the Wicomico Historical Society has copies of George Corddry’s book on Wicomico County History. It is only $6 (2/$10) and it is one I frequently reference. Call me at (410) 749-1021 if you want one. I think this is a very good reference for anyone wanting to learn more about local history.) The other books I use are old directories and phone books. Many are one of a kind and not to be found anywhere. That’s why I feel obligated to share this information through this column.

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In Case I'm Gone Tomorrow!

One day a woman's husband died, and on that clear, cold morning, in the warmth of their bedroom, the wife was struck with the pain of learning that sometimes there isn't "any more".

No more hugs, no more special moments to celebrate together, no more phone calls just to chat, no more "just one minute."

Sometimes, what we care about the most gets all used up and goes away, never to return before we can say good-bye, say "I love you."

So while we have it, it's best we love it, care for it, fix it when it's broken and heal it when it's sick.

This is true for marriage.....And old cars... And children with bad report cards, and dogs with bad hips, and aging parents and grandparents. We keep them because they are worth it, because we are worth it.

Some things we keep -- like a best friend who moved away or a sister-in-law after divorce. There are just some things that make us happy, no matter what.

Life is important, like people we know who are special.. And so, we keep them close!

Suppose one morning you never wake up, do all your friends know you love them? Important thing is to let every one of your friends know you love them, even if you think they don't love you back.

And just in case I'm gone tomorrow, whatever you do, vote against Obama!

Resurrection

Last night on a plane returning home, I was sitting with a friend I've known for many years, talking about church and a whole lot of political things. Being a US Congressman, he visits a lot of different churches in the area throughout the year and he told me of what happened in a local church on this past Easter that made me roll with laughter, to the point of tears.

The pastor of this Baptist church had called all of the little children to the front of the church, dressed in their cute Easter outfits and had them sit around him.

He said "Today is Easter and you all look so handsome and beautiful. Today we're going to talk about the resurrection. Does anyone know what the resurrection is?"

One little boy raised his hand, and the pastor said "Please tell us what the resurrection is."

The boy, proud that he knew the answer, said in a clear loud voice "When you get one lasting more than four hours, you gotta call a doctor!"

It took a solid 10 minutes before the pastor could speak and there was so much laughter going on that his sermon was probably forgotten - but that boy's voice won't be.

Week 8 Results For Checkpoint Strikeforce

Twenty one (21) people were arrested for Driving Under the Influence (DUI) of alcohol and/or drugs during the eighth weekend of the 2012 Checkpoint Strikeforce DUI prevention campaign. This brings the total DUI arrests made as part of the campaign to 107. Statewide, there have been over 3,100 DUI arrests made in Delaware this year.

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