Wednesday, October 03, 2012

Open Thread On Tonight's Presidential Debate

Publish your comments here tonight before, during and after the debate.

Top Tweets On The Presidential #debate

Politicians, journalists and celebrities weigh in on the first presidential debate

Go HERE

FIRST NEW STATE POLICE HELICOPTER TO BE UNVEILED

(MIDDLE RIVER, MD) – Governor Martin O’Malley and other elected officials will join Colonel Marcus Brown and representatives of Maryland’s emergency medical services system and AgustaWestland to unveil the first of the new Maryland State Police helicopters that will replace the state’s aging medevac fleet.

The new AgustaWestland AW139 will be on static display at the Maryland State Police Aviation Command headquarters at Martin State Airport. The new helicopter is the first of the ten contracted for with AgustaWestland to replace Maryland’s current fleet of 11 helicopters, ten of which are more than 20 years old. The new helicopters will enable the Maryland State Police Aviation Command to continue its unique multiple mission capability of medevac, search and rescue, law enforcement, and homeland security.

Following remarks, up-close access to the new aircraft will be given as members of the Aviation Command and officials from AgustaWestland provide information about its capabilities.

WHAT: NEW MARYLAND STATE POLICE HELICOPTER UNVEILED

WHEN: FRIDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2012 3:00 P.M.

WHERE: MARYLAND STATE POLICE AVIATION COMMAND
3023 STRAWBERRY POINT ROAD
MIDDLE RIVER, MD
410-238-5800
I-695 to Rt 702
Rt. 702 to north on Rt. 150 – Eastern Ave.
Right on Wilson Point Road at Martin State Airport
Travel along perimeter to airport to Strawberry Point Rd on left
Go through gate manned by a trooper – Follow road back to MSP hangar

Now Get This

Last week a Virginia man murdered his wife and two sons before killing himself, reportedly out of fear that President Obama might be re-elected. As a family friend told the Daily Mail, "[Albert Peterson] felt that our God-given rights were being taken away... He didn't like where the country was going." Peterson had a history of mental illness and he had been behaving erratically leading up the murders. Clearly, this is the tragic case of a very disturbed individual. But it's worth nothing that his delusional anti-Obama narrative is legitimized over the airwaves every single day at Fox so-called News and other right-wing outlets in a desperate attempt to make the President out to be a dangerous "other." Claims that Obama is a Muslim, or a socialist, or a bigger threat than Hitler have little effect on clear-minded individuals who write off such notions as absurd. But when those words fall on to the ears of the disturbed, bad things can happen.

BREAKING NEWS: Miguel Cabrera Wins Baseball's Triple Crown

Detroit Tigers' Miguel Cabrera becomes the first player in 45 years to win baseball's Triple Crown, finishing the season first in batting average, home runs and RBI .

From Fox News

Troopers Take Barricaded Subject Into Custody, Camden

Location:

Green Winged Trail, Wild Quail, Camden, DE

Date of Occurrence:

Wednesday, October 3, 2012 at 2:00 p.m.

Resume:

Camden-The Delaware State Police activity in Wild Quail has concluded. At approximately 10:10 p.m. the Delaware State Police Special Operations Response Team (SORT) made entry into the house and located the 49 year old male subject where he was taken into custody without incident.

The 49 year old male suffered undisclosed self-inflicted wounds and was treated by DSP SORT Medics and transported by ambulance to a local hospital for evaluation of non-life threatening injuries. Treatment and disposition are unknown at the time of this release.

Troopers continue to investigate this incident with charges pending the conclusion of the investigation.

The evacuated residents have been permitted to return to their houses.

This will be the final update tonight. Further information to be released tomorrow pending charges.

Be Careful What You Say In Email

Thanks to an ACLU Freedom of Information Act request, the Department of Justice handed over startling new documents showing that warrantless surveillance on Americans has increased dramatically since 9/11. What are called "pen register, and trap and trace" surveillance methods allow law enforcement to collect information on cell phone and email networks. In the old days, that required physical hardware, today it doesn't and law enforcement taking advantage of new technology without warrants and with very little oversight. This sort of surveillance on phone lines has increased 60% since 2009 – and on email it's increased by 361%. In fact, more people were subjected to this sort of surveillance in just the last two years than the entire previous decade combined. Anonymity and privacy are key ingredients for successful mass movements, and without them "we the people" will find it very difficult in the near future to participate in the activist movement politics this nation needs.

Drones

It's the drones, stupid! As the mainstream media asks silly questions about the Muslim world, like "why do they hate us?" it's becoming increasingly obvious that drone warfare is the real problem. On the heels of a new report by Stanford and New York University law professors that exposed the thousands of people killed in drone strikes in Pakistan and the link between these strikes and anti-American sentiment, a foreign leader is coming out and drawing the same conclusions. In a recent speech in New York, the Pakistani Foreign Minister blamed the drones for anti-American sentiment in her country. She said, "The use of unilateral strikes on Pakistani territory is illegal. It is illegal and it is unlawful...As the drones fly over the territory of Pakistan, it becomes an American war..." It's not difficult to understand that if you're trying to win a hearts and minds struggle in the Middle East, incessantly hovering lethal drones above those same hearts and minds is a bad idea...and a war crime, too.

Camden To Lay Off Remaining Police Officers

The police are being taken off the streets in America's most dangerous city – Camden, New Jersey. Despite murders on track to break all-time records this year, the city is moving to lay off its remaining 273 police officers to save money and instead hire non-unionized police officers to handle the streets. The police union is suing the city claiming the move will risk public safety. From schools to prisons to police forces, public unions are being decimated and our commons are being privatized. It's a race to the bottom for cheap labor and fewer public services. In the end, the millionaires, billionaires, and banksters who have bankrupted state governments with tax cuts and risky financial bets win - while the rest of us lose.

Back To $chool: College Is The Past, Prison Is The Future

It was the greatest education system the world had ever seen. They built it into the eucalyptus-dotted Berkeley hills and under the bright lights of Los Angeles, down in the valley in Fresno and in the shadows of the San Bernardino Mountains. Hundreds of college campuses, large and small, two-year and four-year, stretching from California's emerald forests in the north to the heat-scorched Inland Empire in the south. Each had its own DNA, but common to all was this: they promised a “public” education, accessible and affordable, to those with means and those without, a door with a welcome mat into the ivory tower, an invitation to a better life.

Then California bled that system dry. Over three decades, voters starved their state -- and so their colleges and universities -- of cash. Politicians siphoned away what money remained and spent it more on imprisoning people, not educating them. College administrators grappled with shriveling state support by jacking up tuitions, tacking on new fees, and so asking more each year from increasingly pinched students and families. Today, many of those students stagger under a heap of debt as they linger on waiting lists to get into the over-subscribed classes they need to graduate.

Artwork made from semen is causing a stir in Grand Rapids, Mich. after the paintings were included in a city-wide art competition — partially funded by tax dollars.

The three paintings were created using slightly more than four ounces of semen infected with HIV, according to the artist — EA Conner.

“These paintings were created as a reminder that we all come in contact with people every day who are HIV positive,” he wrote on his ArtPrize profile page. “The red spots on the Scorpion and Bio-hazard paintings are actual HIV positive semen and the gold spots on the Red Ribbon painting are HIV positive.”

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Investigation Claims Some Dental Chains Providing Unneeded Work To Milk Medicaid Cash Cow

People covered by Medicaid often complain that they are not getting the treatments that people with private health insurance receive. But a recent report claims that some high-volume dental chains are pushing their dentists to deliberately perform unnecessary procedures on Medicaid patients in order to make more money.

In a new interview with ProPublica, David Heath of the Center for Public Integrity talks about the findings of the Center’s recent investigation into these mega chains.

“We looked at two of the larger chains, and found evidence that these companies were putting pressure on their dentists to produce at certain revenue targets,” explains Heath, whose investigation was the subject of a recent Frontline (scroll down to watch the entire episode), “thus encouraging them to do procedures that may have been unnecessary.”

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L.A. City Council Votes To Repeal Ban On Medical Marijuana Dispensaries

Only a few months after enacting a ban on the hundreds of medical marijuana dispensaries in Los Angeles, the L.A. City Council voted 11-2 last night in favor of repealing the ban.

“Where does anybody go, even a councilman go, to get his medical marijuana?” asked Councilman Bill Rosendahl, who has a rare form of cancer and uses marijuana to cope with the side effects of chemotherapy.

The Council members who are still in favor of the ban say it’s pointless to keep the dispensaries open when they are being raided by federal officers and receiving shut-down notices.

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TRINITY CHURCH MEMBERS REVEAL OBAMA SHOCKER!

Ten years ago, the New York Times reported on a growing underground subculture in the black community known as Down Low, comprised largely of men who secretly engage in homosexual activity while living “straight” lives in public.

It’s within that subtext that opposition researchers for Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign began investigating rumors that Rev. Jeremiah Wright was running a “matchmaking service” for members of his Trinity United Church of Christ known as the Down Low Club, which included Barack Obama.

Over the past several months, WND investigators have interviewed a number of members of the church who claim the president benefited from Wright’s efforts to help black men who engage in homosexual activity appear respectable in black society by finding them a wife.

The number of absentee ballots requested by military members and their spouses in some of the nation’s most important swing states -- like Virginia, Ohio, and Florida -- is down considerably from 2008, and President Barack Obama’s administration’s failure to comply with the Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment (MOVE) Act, which Obama signed into law in 2009, may be partly to blame.

A new study by The Military Voter Protection Project (MVP) found the number of absentee ballots in Virginia and Ohio has dropped 70 percent since 2008.

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Study: Race-Neutral Admissions Can Work

As the Supreme Court revisits the use of race in college admissions next week, critics of affirmative action are hopeful the justices will roll back the practice. A new report out Wednesday offers a big reason for their optimism: evidence from at least some of the nine states that don't use affirmative action that leading public universities can bring meaningful diversity to their campuses through race-neutral means.

That conclusion is vigorously disputed by supporters of race-based affirmative action, including universities in states like California which cannot under state law factor race into admissions decisions. The new report, by the Richard Kahlenberg, a senior fellow at the Century Foundation and prominent advocate of class-based affirmative action, calls those states' race-neutral policies largely successful. The University of California and others call them a failure that's left their campuses inadequately representative of the states they serve.

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NANCY PELOSI SUGGESTS REPUBLICANS MAY BE TO BLAME FOR LACK OF SECURITY AT U.S. CONSULATE IN LIBYA

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on CNN Tuesday attempted to shift the blame for the disastrous handling of the deadly terrorist attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya from the Obama administration onto Republican lawmakers, arguing they withheld $300 million in funding that could have provided much-needed security at the consulate.

Appearing on Wolf Blitzer’s CNN show, Pelosi also said calls coming from the GOP to investigate the terrorist attack in Benghazi are likely politically motivated.

“So, are you saying this is political from their perspective,” Blitzer asked the congresswoman.

“One might suspect that,” she replied.

BLACK BEAR VS. ANGRY WOMAN DEFENDING HER BACK PORCH — GUESS WHO WINS

As bears are preparing for hibernation, the public is seeing them more as they might move closer to homesteads foraging for food. One bear entering a woman’s backyard though crossed the line when it stepped close to the house.

A video posted by YouTube user Nayana Grillo shows footage of a large black bear wandering into well-groomed backyard. The man filming the scene seems to be fine with the animal meandering around the yard‘s flower beds until it makes its way up the home’s back porch stairs. You can hear the man’s voice calling to a woman named Nishanto saying “the bear is here,” suggesting that they’d seen this visitor before. Nishanto was not happy to welcome him back.

Turkey Hit By Mortars From Syria-NATO Alerted

Dramatic developments are occurring in regards to the crisis and Civil War in Syria.

Earlier today, neighboring Turkey had said that mortars from Syria, which killed a mother and three children within Turkey, according to multiple reports. The situation has prompted a possible international crisis, as Turkey is a NATO member.

Now, Turkey has now retaliated directly.

Turkey Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a statement that Turkey has shelled selected targets in Syria.

"Our armed forces in the border region responded immediately to this abominable attack in line with their rules of engagement; targets were struck through artillery fire against places in Syria identified by radar," the statement said.

Another major business in Bishopville and Salisbury, Wicomico County have closed their doors. SIXTY FIVE Employees lost their jobs.

I thought Obama was going to save jobs with the ARRA Shovel Ready Projects.

Wicomico's Newest Bond Offering as provided By EMMA - Electronic Municipal Market Access

Below is a link for EMMA - Electronic Municipal Market Access

http://emma.msrb.org/IssueView/IssueDetails.aspx?id=39CB3951A8E6DBF1B038FF2E2A1276FC

There is a wealth of in-depth financial information on virtually every aspect for the municipalities seeking to issue bonds.

In fact, it even shows where the pension funds have been invested and the unfunded liabilities.

Now - I would like for you to know that Wicomico was issued new financial ratings just a few days ago as they prepare for the bond sale that is slated for October 13, 2012. The county council hearing to discuss the sale of this new issue is this tuesday night.

Fitch - (AA-)

Moody's - (Aa3)

S&P - (AA-)

The best possible rating is AAA but Wicomico still maintains the same rating as the last municipal bond release back in 2010 - for the expansion of

Fruitland's Waste Water Treatment Plant, and the renovation of a few schools. http://emma.msrb.org/IssueView/IssueDetails.aspx?id=EA339869

Now bare in mind - that all of the above noted rating agencies receive payment for their placement of ratings from the bond issuer. The only independent bond rating agency that does not get compensated by the bond issuers is Egan & Jones. You see unlike Fitch, Moody's, S&P - Egan & Jones gets compensated by the investers who will be purchasing the bonds and advancing the payments. As you already probably know - this has gotton national attention recently as Egan & Jones were the first to downgrade the US credit rating. Also - this all developed as Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac were issued a clean bill of health right up until they filed for bankruptcy.

Gov't Urges Parents to Use School Lunches As a Model for Family Dinner

Government-approved school meals as a model for the family dinner table?

Responding to concerns that students are throwing away the healthy food on their cafeteria trays, the U.S. Department of Agriculture acknowledged that adapting to the changes "may be challenging at first, as students are introduced to new flavors and foods in the cafeteria."

But the government also says parents can help school make the taste-transition easier:

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You Didn't Build That

OPINION: Being Poor Does Not Entitle You to Anything

I have spent most of my entire life “poor,” compared to the standards of many, and certainly in comparison to Barack Obama, Jesse Jackson and Nancy Pelosi – each of whom are worth millions (Sure, Romney can’t “relate” to me because he’s worth hundreds of millions of dollars, but to be honest, I can’t recall a time when a guy worth +$9 million [Obama] has ever been able to relate to me either)?

Over the past half century a disturbing transformation has occurred in America – we’ve gone from a nation that once valued hard work to a nation that now despises the very fruits of labor – more money available for withdrawal from one’s personal bank account. We’re living in a society where being rich is frowned upon and something to ashamed of. That’s pure craziness – it is my desire to one day have more than I do today and I’m not ashamed of this; it’s only natural.

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INDESCRIBABLE

Florida County To Consider Reintroducing Corporal Punishment

Local media outlets in Florida are reporting that one Marion Country school board member, Carol Ely, is asking fellow board members to consider reintroducing corporal punishment inside the classroom – and she very well may have the majority’s support.

Ely, who once served fourteen years as an elementary school principal, when corporal punishment was still practiced in Marion County, Florida, schools. “It was very effective the way we implemented it. We only did it on very small occasions… “The return rate of children for corporal punishment has been almost zero,” she said.

She says that she has seen firsthand how corporal punishment has been far more effective than all other forms of punishment – such as suspension.

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POORER AND SICKER

Americans May Be Getting Poorer, But At Least We Are Getting Fatter And Sicker

http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/americans-may-be-getting-poorer-but-at-least-we-are-getting-fatter-and-sicker

I know, there really isn’t any good news in that headline. Americans are steadily getting poorer, fatter and sicker and yet most people continue to operate under the delusion that things are somehow going to get better. Sadly, not only are we not better off than we were four years ago, the truth is that things have been getting worse for a very long time. Median household income in the United States has declined for four years in a row, and it has fallen by more than $4000 overall since Barack Obama has been in the White House. Yet the media insists that we are in the midst of an “economic recovery”. A higher percentage of Americans are obese or severely obese than ever before, and Baby Boomers are much sicker than their parents were at the same age. Yet we are supposedly a “health conscious” nation. Technology is advancing faster than we have ever seen before in human history, but the life expectancy of poor Americans has dropped significantly in recent years. So exactly what in the world is going on here?

It seems like there is a health food store or a vitamin store on almost every corner, and yet as a whole we are in much worse condition than our parents were. The following is from a recent news story by the CBS News affiliate in Washington D.C…..

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Biden Tells Audience Middle Class Has Been 'Buried' Last Four Years

Vice President Biden said Tuesday that the middle class has been “buried” for the last four years.

Biden made the remark at a campaign rally while arguing that Republicans would raise taxes on the middle class. He said the tax hike would be especially bad given what the middle class has been through over the last four years.

“This is deadly earnest, man. This is deadly earnest,” the vice president said. “How they can justify, how they can justify raising taxes on the middle class that has been buried the last four years — how in Lord's name can they justify raising their taxes with these tax cuts.”

QUOTES OF THE DAY 10-3-12

“This 56-year-old guy named Brian Doyle, the deputy press secretary of the Homeland Security Department, was arrested on 23 counts of using his government computer and cell pone to try and have sex with a 14-year-old girl. He would send these girls porno on the Web cam. Nice to see our surveillance cameras being used non-stop in the war against terror.” –Jay Leno

“A second Homeland Security official has been arrested, a 49-year-old guy named Frank Figueroa, he was caught exposing and fondling himself to a teenage girl in a shopping mall in Florida. Do you realize? If Osama bin Laden was a 14-year old girl, we would have had him by now. … Who is going to start protecting us from the Department of Homeland Security? … It kind of makes you long for the good old wholesome days of the Clinton administration.” –Jay Leno

“The White House has given permission for a company owned by the government of Dubai to run six U.S. ports, including the Port of New York. Now Dubai was accused of supporting the September 11th attacks and was one of only three countries to support the Taliban. Now they’re going to run the Port of New York. What’s next, we’ll put Mexico in charge of immigration? How about Dick Cheney in charge of gun safety? Courtney Love in charge of Olympic drug testing?” –Jay Leno

“President Bush now is apparently giving an Arab country control to American ports. Does that seem like a good idea? He’s going to give control of American ports to an Arab country. If he keeps this up, people are going to start questioning his judgment.” –David Letterman

“An Arab country in charge of ports. That’s like FEMA in charge of disaster relief. That’s like Wayne Gretzky’s wife in charge of your bank account. It’s like Michael Jackson as your nanny.” –David Letterman

“Homeland Security has warned of possible summer attacks by Al Qaeda. And it must be pretty serious because President Bush has already ignored three memos about this.” —David Letterman

Report Finds Highway Bill Funds Not Going To The Right Places

As much as $10 billion of the $105 billion transportation spending bill that took effect this week will end up being spent in the wrong place, a liberal group's analysis found Tuesday.

The Washington, D.C-based Center for American Progress said that the spending formulas of the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century (MAP-21) bill focused too heavily on equity among states, to the detriment of need.

"In response to the ‘bridge to nowhere,’ Congress eliminated the overt earmarks in the highway bill, but as this report shows, politics still trump the need for a large portion of this highway authorization bill,” CAP senior fellow Donna Cooper said in a statement about the report, titled "Highway Robbery."

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You Can't Lead A Good Life On A US Factory Job Anymore

Jim Ellis had a job with benefits but gave it up for a shot at something with a bright future, if he could just get his foot in the door.

In this part of the country, that meant he wanted to work for Caterpillar Inc., the construction equipment powerhouse. Now the Canton, Ill., resident is on the morning shift at the company's East Peoria plant, installing fenders on tractors and working on hydraulic lines, a manufacturing job description that once promised an American middle-class lifestyle.

The reality for Ellis is nothing like that.

With the new job he started in January, Ellis' pay jumped by $5, to $15.57 per hour, but he has no medical benefits for himself or his 3-year-old daughter, whom he shares custody of with his ex-girlfriend. Between rent and child support, he acknowledges falling back on his parents for support.

"If you talk to my mom and dad, they would tell you I'm an idiot because I'm barely making ends meet," Ellis, 38, said.

Spielberg To Speak at 'Gettysburg Address' Event

Director Steven Spielberg will deliver the keynote address at an observance commemorating the 149th anniversary of President Abraham Lincoln's "Gettysburg Address," officials said Tuesday.

Gettysburg National Military Park in central Pennsylvania said that Spielberg's remarks will coincide with the release of his film "Lincoln," which stars Daniel Day-Lewis in the title role.

Spielberg will speak at about 10 a.m. on Nov. 19 at the Soldiers' National Cemetery in Gettysburg, following a wreath laying. A Lincoln re-enactor will recite the famous speech, and 16 people will become naturalized citizens during a ceremony run by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

Chicago Police Blame Gangster Disciples

As Chicago struggles with its highest homicide rate in years, the role of a single street gang stands out: more than a quarter of the city's nearly 400 slaying victims through Sept. 25 were affiliated with the Gangster Disciples, according to Chicago police statistics obtained by the Tribune.

Long the city's largest gang, the Gangster Disciples have dominated significant swaths of the South Side for decades. But now authorities say the gang is eating itself from within, riven by feuding factions with names like the Killa Ward and The Hit Squad that engage in bloody conflicts over turf they once shared.

The spike in slayings this year in Chicago has drawn national attention and proven a knotty problem for Mayor Rahm Emanuel. Gang violence has played a major role in the mounting toll, and police say their job is complicated by a new generation of gangbangers more willing to strike out on their own without respect for traditional hierarchies.

Former Salisbury Zoo Director Jim Rapp has been named the new President of the Wicomico Environmental Trust organization. Jim will replace Mike Pretl.

Goose And A Scooter

Chesapeake Bay 'Pollution Diet' Heads To Court

The Chesapeake Bay and its “pollution diet” will be the center of attention in a Pennsylvania courtroom this week.

The American Farm Bureau and a half-dozen national agricultural groups have sued to block the pollution diet, the government’s latest strategy for restoring the health of the Chesapeake Bay. The National Association of Home Builders is a party to the lawsuit as well.

The farmers and home builders argue that the pollution diet was enacted without proper notice, is based on flawed computer models and isn’t allowed under the federal Clean Water Act.

The Real Reason Behind War

To mark the 11 year anniversary of the Afghanistan occupation, the death toll for the U.S. military reached two thousand [17]. The soldier who had the misfortune of both dying and becoming a stark symbol of America’s longest running war died under unusual circumstances. Instead of being killed while on patrol, the unnamed soldier was the victim of an “apparent insider attack” that was conducted by American-backed Afghan forces. This latest incident comes one week after an announcement [18] by NATO that it would scale back its operations with Afghan security forces after a spike in insider attacks. At the time of the announcement, a total of fifty one NATO troops had been killed by soldiers wearing Afghan uniforms.

This upsurge in violence committed by supposed allies remains a challenge to the U.S. military which is attempting to arm and train a suitable domestic security force to leave behind as the troop drawdown deadline of late 2014 approaches. As the Associated Press reports, the internal attacks are “undermining the mantra that both sides are fighting the Taliban “shoulder to shoulder.””

The AP comment is representative of the American public’s understanding of the so-called War on Terror. Since the attack on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2011, Americans, as well as most Westerners, are under the impression that the U.S. government and its allies are waging war with the Taliban and Al Qaeda. These radical Islamic terrorist groups are said to threaten America’s way of life. In the words [19] of former President George Bush on the evening of 9/11, “America was targeted for attack because we’re the brightest beacon for freedom and opportunity in the world.

WCSO Press Releases 10-3-12

Incident: Failure to Appear Date of Incident: 1 October 2012 Location: 4200 block of Tyaskin Road, Tyaskin, MD Suspect: Anita Lenise Brown, 29, Tyaskin, MD Narrative: On 1 October 2012 at 10:20 AM, a deputy from the Wicomico County Sheriff’s Office responded to a residence in the 4200 block of Tyaskin Road and arrested Anita Brown of that address on a District Court Bench Warrant. The warrant was issued by a District Court Judge after Brown failed to appear in a case on 20 September 2012 where she had been summonsed as a witness. The deputy transported Brown to the Detention Center where she was processed and taken in front of the District Court Commissioner. Brown was detained in the Detention Center without bond pending a bond review. Charges: Failure to Appear as a Witness Incident: Most Wanted Arrest Date of Incident: 1 October 2012 Location: 700 block of Lake Street, Salisbury, MD Suspect: William Jones Silva, 28, LKA Delmar, DE Narrative: On 1 October 2012 at 8:40 AM, a deputy from the Wicomico County Sheriff’s Office acted on information that he received regarding the whereabouts of one of the Sheriff’s Most Wanted that had recently been profiled on TV 47’s Fugitive Friday. The information provided was that Silva could be located at a residence in the 700 block of Lake Street. The deputy responded to the location and after gaining entry to the residence found Silva inside. Silva was wanted by the Wicomico County Sheriff’s Office on a Circuit Court Bench warrant that had been issued back in February 2011 in a possession of a handgun case. Silva was initially arrested by a Wicomico Sheriff’s Deputy for the initial violation on 1 October 2010. Silva was transported to the Central Booking Unit where he was processed on the Circuit Court bench Warrant. Silva was detained in the Detention Center without bond pending an appearance in front of a Circuit Court Judge. Charges: Failure to Appear Incident: Hindering and Obstructing Date of Incident: 1 October 2012 Location: 700 block of Lake Street, Salisbury, MD Suspect: Danielle C. Pollar, 28, Salisbury, MD Narrative: On 1 October 2012 at 8:40 AM, a deputy from the Wicomico County Sheriff’s Office acted on information that he received regarding the whereabouts of one of the Sheriff’s Most Wanted that had recently been profiled on TV 47’s Fugitive Friday. The information provided was that Silva could be located at a residence in the 700 block of Lake Street. Upon arrival to the residence, the deputy was greeted by a female resident, later identified as Danielle Pollar, who informed the deputy that Silva was not there. Pollar continued to be adamant that Silva wasn’t present and even added that he was in the Baltimore area and hadn’t been back in over a year. Doubting the veracity of her story, the deputy made entry into the residence and located Silva on the felony arrest warrant. The deputy placed Pollar under arrest for attempting to hide Silva and transported her to the Central Booking Unit where she was processed and taken in front of the District Court Commissioner. After an initial appearance, the Commissioner detained Silva in the Detention Center in lieu of $3,000.00 bond. Charges: Hindering and Obstructing False Statement to a Law Enforcement Officer Incident: Assault Date of Incident: 30 September 2012 Location: 2500 block of Old Ocean City Road, Salisbury, MD Suspect: 1. Julien N. Talabert, 47, Salisbury, MD 2. Marctaille N. Talabert, 21, Salisbury, MD Narrative: On 30 September 2012 at 6:31 PM, a deputy from the Wicomico County Sheriff’s Office responded to a reported altercation occurring inside a residence in the 2500 block of Old Ocean City Road. Upon arrival, the deputy met with two subjects, Julien and Marctaille Talabert, father and son, who were involved in an argument over household responsibilities when the argument turned physical. Both parties are accused of aggressively assaulting each other. The deputy saw signs of injury consistent with the allegations. The deputy placed both Julien and Marctaille under arrest and transported them to the Central Booking Unit where they were processed and taken in front of the District Court Commissioner. After an initial appearance, both were detained in the Detention Center in lieu of $15,000.00 bond each. Charges: Assault 2nd Degree

Frederica Man Arrested For Raping A Teenager

Location: 300 block of Bowers Beach Road, Frederica, DE

Date(s) of Occurrence: July 2012 – September 2012

Victim:

15 year old female

Defendant, Charges, and Bail Information:

Kenneth R. Bradley, 27, Frederica, DE (No Photo Available)

Rape 3^rd (6 counts)

Endangering the Welfare of a Child (6 counts)

Arraigned at JP2 and committed to JTVCC on $66,000.00 secured bail

Resume:

Frederica, DE- Delaware State Police Detectives have arrested a 27 year old Frederica man in connection with a sexual relationship involving a 15 year old female.

On Monday October 1, 2012, an investigation began when Detectives learned that Kenneth R. Bradley, 27, had entered into a sexual relationship involving a 15 year old female. The two had met at the Bowers Beach Road residence through a mutual friend in April of 2012. Soon after, a sexual relationship had started and continued until September of 2012.

Detectives obtained a warrant for Bradley’s arrest and he turned himself in to Troop 3 near Dover on October 1, 2012. He was charged with six counts of Rape 3^rd degree and six counts of Endangering the Welfare of a Child. He was committed to JTVCC on $66,000.00 secured bond.

Ky. Man Says VA Treatment Caused Frostbitten Penis

An Army veteran is seeking $10 million from the federal government, accusing a Veterans Administration nurse of repeatedly put ice packs on his penis after surgery, causing frostbite and gangrene and ultimately leading to the organ's partial amputation.

Michael D. Nash of Louisville filed suit Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Louisville for what he calls medical malpractice.

Nash, who served in the Army in 1968 and 1969, went to the VA hospital in Lexington for medically necessary surgery on his penis. Nash's attorney, Larry Jones of Jones Ward law firm in Louisville, said that after the procedure a nurse packed Nash's groin in ice for 19 hours.

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Middle Class 'Buried' Past Four years

While lambasting Republican nominee Mitt Romney for a plan that he said would raise taxes on most middle-class Americans, Vice President Joe Biden gaffed and said that same middle class has been "buried the last four years."

That's just about as long as President Barack Obama has been in office.

Romney and Republicans pounced immediately, gleefully saying they couldn't agree more with Biden's "stunning admission" to a North Carolina crowd. The Obama campaign, meanwhile, decried it as "another desperate and out-of-context attack."

"This is deadly earnest, man," Biden said, urging on a crowd in Charlotte. "How they can justify — how they can justify — raising taxes on the middle class that's been buried the last four years? How in Lord's name can they justify raising their taxes with these tax cuts?" he asked.

THESE PRETZELS ARE MAKING ME THIRSTY

It’s often overlooked and taken for granted, but it’s the most essential of all human resources.

Water.

We’re paying 75% more for it today than we were in the year 2000.

According to a recent study by USA Today, which looked at 100 large municipalities across the country, the price increases over the last decade are so significant that many Americans are having to cut other expenses just to keep up:

…the cost of this necessity of life has outpaced the percentage increases of some of these other utilities, carving a larger slice of household budgets in the process.

“I don’t know how they expect people to keep paying more for water with the cost of gas and day care and everything else going up,” complains Jacquelyn Moncrief, 60, a Philadelphia homeowner who says the price hikes would force her to make food-or-water decisions. She gathered signatures on a petition opposing a proposed water rate increase in her city this year.

USA Today’s study of residential water rates over the past 12 years for large and small water agencies nationwide found that monthly costs doubled for more in 29 localities. The unique look at costs for a diverse mix of water suppliers representing every state and Washington, D.C. found that a resource long taken for granted will continue to become more costly for millions of Americans. Indeed, rates haven’t crested yet because huge costs to upgrade or repair pipes, reservoirs and treatment plants loom nationwide.

In three municipalities — Atlanta, San Francisco and Wilmington, Del. — water costs tripled or more.

More

If You Prop Up An Artificial Economy Long Enough, Does It Become Real?

Does carefully nurturing a facade of health actually lead to health? No; all it does is perpetuate a destructive illusion.

The policy of the Status Quo since 2008 boils down to this assumption: if we prop up an artificial economy long enough, it will magically become real. This is an extraordinary assumption: that the process of artifice will result in artifice becoming real.

This is the equivalent of a dysfunctional family presenting an artificial facade of happiness to the external world and expecting that fraud to conjure up real happiness. We all know it doesn't work that way; rather, the dysfunctional family that expends its resources supporting a phony facade is living a lie that only increases its instability.

The U.S. economy is artificial in three important ways:

1. The Federal Reserve has distorted the market for borrowing capital by reducing interest rates to zero. Those holding capital (savings) receive essentially zero interest income while favored borrowers (banks and large corporations) can pursue marginal-return speculations for free (when measured in real terms), creating systemic moral hazard of the most pernicious sort.

2. The Federal Reserve's monetizing of Federal borrowing via the purchase of Treasury bonds has given the government a "free" hand to spend $1.3 trillion more than it collects in tax revenues, feeding inflation (The Source of High Inflation: Government Spending [17]) and the moral hazard created by having essentially free money to dispense to cronies and to buy voter complicity.

In a real market economy, the cost of Federal borrowing would rise as bondholders would demand a premium for taking on the risk that interest rates would eventually rise under the relentless accumulation of stupendous debt. That mechanism has been frozen by the Fed's monetiziation of Federal borrowing.

3. The housing market has essentially been socialized, with the taxpayers now funding the entire mortgage market (98% of mortgages are backed by Federal agencies) and endless subsidies of marginal buyers (3% down payment loans, etc.) The Federal Reserve has committed itself to taking trillions of dollars of impaired or dodgy mortgages off the balance sheets of banks and burying them in its own opaque balance sheet, while also maintaining near-zero interest rates (when adjusted for inflation) to incentivize refinancing and home buying--both of which generate billions of dollars in fat fees for banks.

Tonight's Presidential Debates means ____ to me.

Gold Is Good Money

Last year the Chairman of the Federal Reserve told me that gold is not money, a position which central banks, governments and mainstream economists have claimed is the consensus for decades. But lately there have been some high-profile defections from that consensus. As Forbes recently reported, the president of the Bundesbank (Germany's central bank) and two highly-respected analysts at Deutsche Bank have praised gold as good money.

Why is gold good money? Because it possesses all the monetary properties that the market demands: it is divisible, portable, recognizable and, most importantly, scarce − making it a stable store of value. It is all things the market needs good money to be and has been recognized as such throughout history. Gold rose to nearly $1800 an ounce after the Fed's most recent round of quantitative easing because the people know that gold is money when fiat money fails.

Central bankers recognize this, too, even if they officially deny it. Some analysts have speculated that theInternational Monetary Fund's real clout is due to its large holdings of gold. And central banks around the world have increased their gold holdings over the last year, especially in emerging market economies trying to protect themselves from the collapse of Western fiat currencies.

WICOMICO COUNTY JOINS MARYLAND RURAL COUNTIES COALITION!

Kudos to Joe Holloway, who invited County leaders from Frederick County and Allegheny County to speak at last night's Council meeting – thereby negating any effort by Rick Pollitt to oppose the recently formed coalition of Counties that are being screwed by “Plan Maryland” and its proponents led by O'Malley and Wicomico County native son, Richard Hall. Rick could only grin and bear it, and say that it’s OK with him.

Now, Wicomico is allied with seven other local jurisdictions, including Somerset County and Dorchester County, in resisting the State takeover of land use regulation and seizure of property rights. Caroline County may soon join the group.

No doubt, even before he left the meeting Rick's cell phone was vibrating with calls from the ringleaders of the Wicomico Environmental Trust (John Groutt, Karen Lukacs, Jim Rapp, Barry Johansson, etc) accusing Rick of being a turncoat – and WET's main mouthpiece and big-time O’Malley and Pollitt supporter, Michael Pretl, will be sounding off along with the local spielmeister of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, Alan Girard.

Congrats to the Council for doing the right thing to protect and preserve property rights and local authority in planning and zoning, which mean nothing to O'Malley, Hall, Girard, and Pretl and pals. Better late than never.

Today's Advertiser Of The Day 10-3-12

The Most Outrageous Way To Share A Coke

Job-Hoppers Actually Make Less Money Than Those Who Stay

Gen Y's "lack of loyalty" is a problem for employers, but it also presents a money issue for job hoppers as well.

Tim Devaney and Tom Stein write in ReadWriteWeb that job hoppers actually make less money than those who stay at a company longer, according to research conducted by Kathryn Shaw, a professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

The study included 50,000 Silicon Valley software employees and found that those with five years' experience with the same company actually received 8 percent annual raises compared to 5 percent annual raises that those who frequently changed jobs received. They are also more productive and creative than those who leave often.

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Wednesday, October 03, 2012

Politicians, journalists and celebrities weigh in on the first presidential debate

Go HERE