XIAM007

Making Unique Observations in a Very Cluttered World

Saturday 12 February 2011

THOUSANDS of British women desperate for a bigger bottom risking their lives taking pills designed to fatten up chickens -

THOUSANDS of British women desperate for a bigger bottom risking their lives taking pills designed to fatten up chickens - 




THOUSANDS of British women are so desperate for a bigger bottom they are risking their lives by taking pills designed to fatten up chickens.

The poultry tablets are packed with hormones that have been linked to breast cancer and liver problems in humans.
Originally they were used by farmers to bulk up chickens - but it was discovered that when taken by women they enhance the size of thighs, hips and bottom.
Now scores of online sites are also offering "herbal" versions of the tablets with names like Star Curves, Big Beautiful Butt Formula, and Brand New Booty pills.
They are featured on sites including Amazon, eBay and Facebook and are also advertised on reality TV star Kim Kardashian's blog.
Makers of the herbal pills claim the capsules only contain exotic plant extracts which mimic the effect of fat-building hormones.
But medical experts have warned many of the pills are unregulated and those who take them cannot be sure what they contain.
The trend for taking the tablets began in Jamaica in the 1990s.
The island's government subsequently banned them but many stores still sell them illegally.

Can Cable Block the Google TV Revolution? -

Can Cable Block the Google TV Revolution? -


Behind the scenes at the Federal Communications Commission, a quiet war is being waged over the future of television. It isn’t getting as many headlines as net neutrality or the Comcast/NBCU merger, but the debate is nearly as important. It’s about how far Google, Sony, and their allies can take their Google TV system.

In their bid to get the FCC to help Google TV and similar devices, “Sony/Google are asking the Commission to ignore copyright, patent, trademark, contract privity, licensing, and other legal rights and limitations that have been thoroughly documented,” the National Cable and Telecommunications Association (NCTA) warned last Wednesday.


What is NCTA talking about? The trade association is trying to set limits on how easy it will be for devices like Google TV to access pay TV content and reassemble it into something that will reconfigure both television and the internet.
That’s at the heart of the FCC’s proposal for an AllVid system, which Google very loudly supports. AllVid doesn’t exist yet, but the idea is to mandate an industry-wide gadget that you could plug into your broadband router and connect to your cable TV provider, then watch online video and pay channels through a variety of AllVid-friendly devices. Not surprisingly, Google and Sony love this idea, because it could transform the Google TV from just a neat product into a revolution.


Big cable hates the proposal, because that revolution could leave multi-video program distributors (MVPDs), if not in the dust, at least working in a far more competitive video environment. But the AllVid proposal faces real technical challenges that have yet to be worked out.
At present, Google TV is a suite of devices that integrate streaming IP video services like YouTube with various kinds of third-party content, all searchable on a Google TV screen. You can get in on this by buying the Google TV standalone HDTV set, or by hooking your extant screen to a Logitech Revue or Sony Internet TV Blu-ray Disc Player.
As our own Chris Foresman notes, the gear is expensive and kind of clunky, but you can also use your phone as a remote control, and voice command functionality is on the way.
The biggest challenge for Google TV has been finding pay content partners. The DISH network is accessible via the device. And Google has clinched content deals with HBO, CNBC, Turner Broadcasting and the National Basketball Association.
But other providers are loudly declining to hop on the bandwagon, most noticeably Viacom, which hasblocked full episodes of its fare from the Google TV browser (no big shocker here; the company is suingGoogle’s YouTube for $1 billion over copyright infringement claims).
So what would turn Google TV or any similar gadget into a truly revolutionary machine is an interface that easily allows any HDTV/set top box system to tap into any couch potato service, while simultaneously serving as a gateway to the Internet, with all its search, cloud, and social networking functionalities. For millions of households that still experience the ‘net as less of an imperative than television, the internet would become television.

TX Gov. Rick Perry told a major conservative gathering fed government has grown into an intrusive, overbearing “monster.” -

TX Gov. Rick Perry told a major conservative gathering fed government has grown into an intrusive, overbearing “monster.” -


Texas Gov. Rick Perry told a major conservative gathering Friday that the federal government has grown into an intrusive, overbearing “monster.”
“They call us reactionary or lacking compassion,” Perry said. “Do you agree with them that the only answer to our challenges is more taxation, more borrowing, more spending, more central control?”
The crowd of several thousand at a Washington hotel shouted no.
“Me neither,” he said.
Perry joined a parade of big-name Republicans and would-be presidents, from Mitt Romney to Ron Paul,Newt Gingrich and Donald Trump , all appearing at this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference.
He insisted ahead of his speech that he’s not interested in higher office, and he made no hints to the contrary. But he embraced the high-profile chance to push a vision of a vastly shrunken federal government and boast about Texas’ relative prosperity.
“It’s not some problem-free nirvana,” he joked, though it’s “close.”
He offered a vision of a federal government that is vastly more humble and honors the 10th Amendment — the one restricting its role. He thundered at the Environmental Protection Agency, calling it “hellbent” on replacing a highly effective Texas air pollution permit system with regulations that would kill jobs and industry.
“We ought to be getting praise from our federal government,” he said. “But we’re being threatened by a fine and a lawsuit.”
Earlier Friday, in a breakfast speech to the Texas State Society, Perry unloaded on Texas Democrats for impeding the state’s access to $830 million in federal education funds.
Last summer, Texas Democrats in the House inserted an amendment in an education law that requires Perry to promise a certain level of state education outlays in order to qualify; they accused him of hypocritically tapping $3.2 billion in emergency school funds to balance the Texas budget, and said they needed to ensure he couldn’t do that again.
Perry insists that he’s not lawfully able to make such a promise — a point he reiterated in a terse letter to Texas congressional Democrats on Friday night.
Singling out Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin, in his breakfast appearance, Perry said that “everything that he’s done on this issue is what the November elections were about — Washington, D.C., trying to micromanage the states. … That’s hurting the kids of the state of Texas.”
The political action conference Perry addressed, a major annual gathering in GOP circles, attracted about 11,000 people this year.
In both speeches, Perry described the Obama approach to health care as a costly “train wreck.” And he complained that instead of meddling in such areas, Washington should pay closer attention to true federal responsibilities it has neglected, such as security along the state’s 1,200-mile border with Mexico.
“We’re stuck in this frustrating paradox where Washington actually neglects the things they’re clearly supposed to be doing, while interfering in other areas in which they are neither welcome nor authorized,” he told the conservative gathering.
The good news, he said, is that in November, voters rejected politicians in both parties who pursued that path.
“Ladies and gentlemen who championed that big government idea of bailouts, those so-called stimulus programs, supported government giveaways — they got a pink slip,” he said. “It was awesome.”
Paul, a Texas congressman, spoke just before Perry. He offered no clues as to whether he’ll run for president again, though legions of Paulistas in the crowd would have been thrilled to hear that.
He did bask in his role as herald of the 2010 tea party surge, and father of freshman Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky.
“I’m glad to see the revolution is continuing!” Paul proclaimed, playing on his slogan from the 2008 presidential race.
After warming up the crowd with a Libertarian-tinted case to eliminate the Federal Reserve, and curtail U.S. military activity and foreign aid, he offered a caustic judgment on the ideal of bipartisanship. Too often, he said, lawmakers cross party lines to allow government to expand beyond its true mandate.

Lingering Military "Widows' Tax" Angers Wives - To collect on insurance husbands bought, they must marry another man -

Lingering Military "Widows' Tax" Angers Wives - To collect on insurance husbands bought, they must marry another man -


Tens of thousands of the nation's war widows find it perplexing and downright disrespectful to their late military husbands: In order to fully collect on insurance their husbands bought for them when alive, they must marry another man.
And to qualify, the widows must remarry when they are 57 or older. Those who remarry earlier miss out, as do widows who never remarry.
At the heart of the issue is a government policy known as the "widows' tax." It says a military spouse whose loved one dies from a service-related cause can't collect both survivor's benefits and the full annuity benefits from insurance the couple bought from the Defense Department at retirement. Instead, the amount of the annuity payment is reduced by the amount of the monthly survivor benefit.
Time after time, members of Congress have promised to help the 55,000 affected widows, but laws passed to help them have only created a more complicated system that's left many of them confused and angry.
So what's remarriage got to do with it? Very little, as it turns out. The marriage condition was stuck into the law by Congress as it attempted to help the survivors retain certain benefits if they remarried late in life, as is the case with other similar federal annuities. Because Congress hasn't been able to come up with the money to help all the widows, relief has been limited to that group. The result is an all but incomprehensible mess.

The Reason For Mubarak's Power Hand Off Delay: Plundering The Gold -

The Reason For Mubarak's Power Hand Off Delay: Plundering The Gold -



It's official: as Egypt was burning, Mubarak was stealing the gold. When we reported, presumably jokingly, two weeks ago that the Egyptian Central Bank may have been plundered, it turns out we were pretty much accurate once again. For all those wondering why Mubarak was refusing to hand over power for the past two weeks as hundreds of people were dying, we now have the answer - it was all just to make sure he transferred his assets, especially gold, to safe regimes (in the process paying tens of millions in commissions to that most noble of jobs - the banker class). The Telegraph reports: "A US official told The Sunday Telegraph: "Hosni Mubarak used the 18 days it took for protesters to topple him to shift his vast wealth into untraceable accounts overseas, Western intelligence sources have said...There's no doubt that there will have been some frantic financial activity behind the scenes. They can lose the homes and some of the bank accounts, but they will have wanted to get the gold bars and other investments to safe quarters. The Mubaraks are understood to have wanted to shift assets to Gulf states where they have considerable investments already – and, crucially, friendly relations. The United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia have frequently been mentioned as likely final destinations for Mr Mubarak and possibly his family."As usual, we remind readers that according to the World Gold Council, Egypt had 75.6 tonnes of gold at the end of 2010. Should this number not be reduced following Mubarak's plundering, we will know just how pervasive Tungsten is in the world central banking cartel.
From Telegraph:
The former Egyptian president is accused of amassing a fortune of more than £3 billion - although some suggest it could be as much as £40 billion - during his 30 years in power. It is claimed his wealth was tied up in foreign banks, investments, bullion and properties in London, New York, Paris and Beverly Hills.

In the knowledge his downfall was imminent, Mr Mubarak is understood to have attempted to place his assets out of reach of potential investigators.

On Friday night Swiss authorities announced they were freezing any assets Mubarak and his family may hold in the country's banks while pressure was growing for the UK to do the same. Mr Mubarak has strong connections to London and it is thought many millions of pounds are stashed in the UK.

But a senior Western intelligence source claimed that Mubarak had begun moving his fortune in recent weeks.

"We're aware of some urgent conversations within the Mubarak family about how to save these assets," said the source, "And we think their financial advisers have moved some of the money around. If he had real money in Zurich, it may be gone by now."
Perhaps Goldman Sachs can take a proactive PR step and disclose to the population that the flow trade-frontrunning hedge fund had nothing to do with facilitating the transfer of Mubarak's billions in stolen wealth from point A to point B. And perhaps all other banks can follow suit. Either that, or we can all just wait for Mubarak's sworn deposition when he is put on trial for crimes against the Egyptian people some time in 1-2 months. Doing text searches for "Goldman" in those thousand page PDFs will be breeze...

Advance indicator of leading conservative frontrunners for the presidency was won by Criminal Reserve archnemesis Ron Paul -

Advance indicator of leading conservative frontrunners for the presidency was won by Criminal Reserve archnemesis Ron Paul -



An important advance indicator of leading conservative frontrunners for the presidency was won by Criminal Reserve archnemesis Ron Paul. The Washington Times reports: "Texas Rep. Ron Paul  has won the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) 2012 presidential preference straw poll of 3,742 activists, the chairman of the huge annual gathering of conservative activists announced on Saturday. The Republican lawmaker, long a favorite of the party’s libertarian wing, took 30 percent of the votes cast, followed by Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney with 23 percent. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who has said he will not be a candidate in 2012, and New Mexico former Gov. Gary Johnson tied for third, with 6 percent of the vote. Former GOP House Speaker Newt Gingrich followed with 5 percent. Tied at 4 percent were Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels and former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty. Trailing them was former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who garnered just 3 percent of the vote." Now since the mere prospect of "President Paul" sends shivers of mortal terror down the spine of every self-respecting member of the criminal Wall Street syndicate, does this mean that in order to guarantee 4 more years of Teleprompting, JPM and GS will send the Russell to 36,000,000, the unemployment rate to -15%, and the labor participation rate to -100%, just to make sure that the peasantry is content enough and chooses 4 more years of unmitigated dollar debasement and what is rapidly becoming a weekly iPad cadence? With the popularity of American Idol plunging to record lows, the mission to brainwash America for 4 more years may be just that more difficult. Add 15% inflation and the vassals may actually stirs for once.
From the Wash Times:
The poll, sponsored this year for the first time by The Washington Times, is seen as one of the earliest tests of grassroots popularity among the party’s dominant conservative wing, and Mr. Paul, who ran unsuccessfully for the nomination in 2008, has traditionally done well in the CPAC voting.

Asked in the survey if they were generally happy with the field of GOP contenders lining up to challenge President Obama next year, 56 percent of CPAC voters said they were generally satisfied with the current crop of candidates, while 43 percent said they were not.

The announcement of the vote came at the end of the third and final day of the CPAC gathering in Washington.

This year’s event attracted a record attendance of over 11,000, and more than 3,700 attendees participated in this year’s straw poll — up more than 1,300 from a year ago.
One thing is certain: the only man in Washington who actually understands what is really going on, and is a firm believer in a return to the gold standard, has about a snowball's chance in a tokamak of taking over the country under the current status quo, where the corruption, the cronyism and the corporatism begin and end with the judicial, the legislative and the executive branches of government.

China Denies It Faces Half A Trillion In Fannie & Freddie Losses -

China Denies It Faces Half A Trillion In Fannie & Freddie Losses -



We were wondering how long it would take for China's State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) to come out with a report refuting yesterday's statement by Lu Zhengwei that China should immediately proceed to start selling its GSE concurrent with today's announcement by the administration that the "Fannie, Freddie model is dead", as well as the supposed upcoming end of QE2 (don't worry, it won't end) which would send fixed income prices much lower. The answer: less than 24 hours... although not really. Dow Jones reports: "China's foreign exchange regulator on Friday denied a media report that said it could face losses of up to $450 billion on its holdings of securities issued by U.S. housing-mortgage giants Fannie Mae (FNMA) and Freddie Mac (FMCC).  The State Administration of Foreign Exchange's statement didn't specify which report it was denying, but it appeared to be referring to a report on Thursday by Chinese newspaper International Finance News, which said a forthcoming plan from the Obama Administration to gradually phase out the two government-controlled companies could lead to the losses. SAFE said the report was "groundless," and that is has been receiving regular payments of interest and principle on the bonds it holds from the two companies." Well, duh. The alternative is a technical bankruptcy of the US. What, however, was not denied anywhere is that China may and will commence selling GSE notes soon. Especially since as we reported yesterday, it had already been selling out of its GSE holdings for the past two years. And if they start offloading GSEs, what happens to USTs? Although with the Fed now holding over $1.13 trillion in debt, or over 10% more than China, the answer to that question is increasingly irrelevant.
More from Dow Jones:
 At issue are three kinds of Fannie and Freddie securities. The two companies' stock prices have plunged to nearly zero, but SAFE said in its statement Friday that China has never invested in the stock of the two companies, so it hasn't been affected by the decline.

The real concern is over the debt issued by the companies, as well as asset-backed securities that the companies have packaged out of mortgages and sold to investors. However, the Obama administration has committed unlimited amounts of aid to ensure that the firms meet their obligation to holders of those bonds and securities. The commitment has cost U.S. taxpayers $134 billion so far.

Lu Zhengwei, a senior economist at China's Industrial Bank Co. said in his report on Thursday that such reassurance from the Obama administration amounts to an "empty check" without the support of the U.S. Congress.

"However, looking at the current political situation in the U.S., for the U.S. congress to give a clear guarantee on this issue is almost impossible," Lu said.
And since the estimate of China's GSE holdings is woefully old, nobody really knows what kind of market impact a possible commencement of disposition could have.
According to the U.S Treasury's report on foreign holdings of U.S. securities, China held $454 billion of long-term U.S. agency debt as of June 30, 2009. That includes $358 billion of "asset backed securities...backed primarily by home mortgages," and $96 billion of other long-term agency debt. The bulk of those holdings are likely in Fannie and Freddie bonds and securities, though it also includes debt from other U.S. government agencies such as the Government National Mortgage Association.
That said, for the Obama administration to declare the GSE model dead, and expecting a gradual wind down in Fannie and Freddie portfolios, perhaps they can clarify just who they expect on selling these hundreds of billions in annual bonds to, now that China is becoming increasingly ambivalent about holdings GSE bonds, let along buying more.

Ron Paul's Full Speech at CPAC 2011: The Brushfires of Freedom Are Burning! -

Ron Paul's Full Speech at CPAC 2011: The Brushfires of Freedom Are Burning! -

Five ways corporate scavengers are making big money off our economic pain -

Five ways corporate scavengers are making big money off our economic pain - 




Big business has found a number of ways to profit from the economic suffering on 'Main Street.'

The ruins of the American economy represent a massive crime scene. Wall Street built a house of cards on fraud and misrepresentation, it crashed, and Americans' aggregate net worth is now more than $12 trillion off of its peak. Unemployment remains sky-high and the prospects for a robust recovery anytime soon are dim.
But as Naomi Klein artfully laid out in her book, The Shock Doctrine, a catastrophe for you and I usually presents an opportunity for the Titans of capital. And the grievous economic crisis affecting so many American families is no exception -- big business has found a number of ways to profit, directly, from Main Street's economic pain. Like vultures descending on a rotting corpse, they've come up with a variety of innovative methods to pull the last scraps of meat off the bones of America's middle-class.
Here are five ways these scavengers are making coin from our economic devastation.
When Americans Go Hungry, JPMorgan Profits
It's been widely reported that 43 million Americans now require help meeting their basic nutritional needs. Less well known is that JPMorgan is the largest servicer of food-stamps in the U.S., offering benefit cards in 26 states. As Mary Bottari wrote for AlterNet, “The firm is paid per customer. This means that when the number of food stamp recipients goes up, so do JPMorgan profits.”
Perhaps that doesn't get your blood boiling. If not, Bottari adds: “JPMorgan is taking its responsibility to keep the U.S. unemployment rate high by offshoring the servicing of many of these contracts to India, according to ABC News.” Yes, they're profiting off of our pain, and offshoring the work required to do so.
JPMorgan was the recipient of $25 billion worth of taxpayer bailout, and its CEO, Jamie Dimon, took home $17 million in compensation last year – the biggest windfall on the Street.
Good Old-Fashioned Biblical Usury
When First Premier Bank first offered a credit card with a top interest rate of 79.9 percent, it evoked outrage. So they lowered it…to 59.9 percent. And, as Michael Snyder at the Economic Collapse noted, “Not only are the interest rates on those cards super high, but they also charge a whole bunch of fees on those cards as well.”
They include:
  • $45 processing fee to open the account
  • annual fee of $30 for the first year
  • $45 fee for every subsequent year
  • monthly service fee of $6.25
Some argue that anyone who would sign onto a deal like that must be "stupid." But these are cards pitched to those with bad credit – an ever larger group thanks to the recession. It's easy to scoff at such rubes until one realizes that the lion's share of these “stupid” people have no choice but to take on even very costly debt if they want to eat or pay the rent. 6.2 million Americans have been out of a job for 27 or more weeks; 3.9 million saw their benefits run out entirely last year.  
CNN reported that 700,000 people have signed up for the card, and between 200,000 and 300,000 new applications are coming in each month. That's a lot of bread for First Premier. 
Dunning the Desperate for Fun and Profit
One sector in this moribund economy is doing quite well: collection agencies. But they're not your father's collection agencies --the business is different today.
Across the country, savvy investors are buying up the debts of those who have run into difficulties for just pennies on the dollar. They then turn the screws on borrowers in order to get a return on their investments. As the Sarasota Post-Star reported, “Debt collectors often use threats and insults to intimidate consumers. But in recent years, collection has become more aggressive, more litigious and more prone to fraud.”

Ron Paul Wins Presidential Straw Poll at CPAC -- Again -

Ron Paul Wins Presidential Straw Poll at CPAC -- Again - 


For the second year in a row, Ron Paul won the presidential straw poll at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference, earning 30 percent of the vote.
The Texas congressman, known for his libertarian views, ran for president in 2008 but was never a serious contender for the GOP nomination.
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, a 2008 GOP candidate who is expected to run again, came in second place with 23 percent of the vote. Romney won the previous three presidential straw polls before Paul snapped his streak last year.
Paul's consecutive victories in the straw poll have frustrated many GOP faithful who would rather see a more credible contender win. A CPAC official told Fox News that the big story is not Paul winning again but rather the strength of Romney's second-place finish. 
Former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie came in a distant third with 6 percent of the vote, followed by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich with 5 percent. 
Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann and Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels all received 4 percent. Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin got 3 percent. Businessman Herman Cain, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum and South Dakota Sen. John Thune earned 2 percent. Former U.S. Ambassador Jon Huntsman and Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour finished with 1 percent.


Read more:  - http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/02/12/ron-paul-wins-presidential-straw-poll-cpac/#ixzz1DmtVW3EH

21 Signs That The Once Great U.S. Economy Is Being Gutted, Neutered, Defanged, Declawed And Deindustrialized -

21 Signs That The Once Great U.S. Economy Is Being Gutted, Neutered, Defanged, Declawed And Deindustrialized -


Once upon a time, the United States was the greatest industrial powerhouse that the world has ever seen.  Our immense economic machinery was the envy of the rest of the globe and it provided the foundation for the largest and most vibrant middle class in the history of the world.  But now the once great U.S. economic machine is being dismantled piece by piece.  The U.S. economy is being gutted, neutered, defanged, declawed and deindustrialized and very few of our leaders even seem to care.  It was the United States that once showed the rest of the world how to mass produce televisions and automobiles and airplanes and computers, but now our industrial base is being ripped to shreds.  Tens of thousands of our factories and millions of our jobs have been shipped overseas.  Many of our proudest manufacturing cities have been transformed into “post-industrial” hellholes that nobody wants to live in anymore.
Meanwhile, wave after wave of shiny new factories is going up in nations such as China, India and Brazil.  This is great for those countries, but for the millions of American workers that desperately needed the jobs that have been sent overseas it is not so great.
This is the legacy of globalism.  Multinational corporations now have the choice whether to hire U.S. workers or to hire workers in countries where it is legal to pay slave labor wages.  The “great sucking sound” that Ross Perot warned us about so long ago is actually happening, and it has left tens of millions of Americans without good jobs.
So what is to become of a nation that consumes more than it ever has and yet continues to produce less and less?
Well, the greatest debt binge in the history of the world has enabled us to maintain (and even increase) our standard of living for several decades, but all of that debt is starting to really catch up with us.
The American people seem to be very confused about what is happening to us because most of them thought that the party was going to last forever.  In fact, most of them still seem convinced that our brightest economic days are still ahead.
After all, every time we have had a “recession” in the past things have always turned around and we have gone on to even greater things, right?
Well, what most Americans simply fail to understand is that we are like a car that is having its insides ripped right out.  Our industrial base is being gutted right in front of our eyes.
Most Americans don’t think much about our “trade deficit”, but it is absolutely central to what is happening to our economy.  Every year, we buy far, far more from the rest of the world than they buy from us.
In 2010, the U.S. trade deficit was just a whisker under $500 billion.  This is money that we could have all spent inside the United States that would have supported thousands of American factories and millions of American jobs.
Instead, we sent all of those hundreds of billions of dollars overseas in exchange for a big pile of stuff that we greedily consumed.  Most of that stuff we probably didn’t need anyway.
Since we spent almost $500 billion more with the rest of the world than they spent with us, at the end of the year the rest of the world was $500 billion wealthier and the American people were collectively $500 billion poorer.
That means that the collective “economic pie” that we are all dividing up is now $500 billion smaller.
Are you starting to understand why times suddenly seem so “hard” in the United States?
Meanwhile, jobs and businesses continue to fly out of the United States at a blinding pace.
This is a national crisis.
We simply cannot expect to continue to have a “great economy” if we allow our economy to be deindustrialized.
A nation that consumes far more than it produces is not going to be wealthy for long.
The following are 21 signs that the once great U.S. economy is being gutted,  neutered, defanged, declawed and deindustrialized….
#1 The U.S. trade deficit with the rest of the world rose to 497.8 billion dollars in 2010.  That represented a 32.8% increase from 2009.
#2 The U.S. trade deficit with China rose to an all-time record of 273.1 billion dollars in 2010.  This is the largest trade deficit that one nation has had with another nation in the history of the world.
#3 The U.S. trade deficit with China in 2010 was 27 times larger than it was back in 1990.
#4 In the years since 1975, the United States had run a total trade deficit of 7.5 trillion dollarswith the rest of the world.
#5 The United States spends more than 4 dollars on goods and services from China for every one dollar that China spends on goods and services from the United States.
#6 In 1959, manufacturing represented 28 percent of all U.S. economic output.  In 2008, it represented only 11.5 percent and it continues to fall.
#7 The number of net jobs gained by the U.S. economy during this past decade was smaller than during any other decade since World War 2.
#8 The Bureau of Labor Statistics originally predicted that the U.S. economy would create approximately 22 million jobs during the decade of the 2000s, but it turns out that the U.S. economy only produced about 7 million jobsduring that time period.
#9 Japan now manufactures about 5 million more automobiles than the United States does.
#10 China has now become the world’s largest exporter of high technology products.
#11 Manufacturing employment in the U.S. computer industry is actually lower in 2010 than it was in 1975.
#12 The United States now has 10 percent fewer “middle class jobs” than it did just ten years ago.
#13 According to Tax Notes, between 1999 and 2008 employment at the foreign affiliates of U.S. parent companies increased an astounding 30 percent to 10.1 million. During that exact same time period, U.S. employment at American multinational corporations declined 8 percent to 21.1 million.
#14 Back in 1970, 25 percent of all jobs in the United States were manufacturing jobs. Today, only 9 percent of the jobs in the United States are manufacturing jobs.
#15 Back in 1998, the United States had 25 percent of the world’s high-tech export market and China had just 10 percent. Ten years later, the United States had less than 15 percent and China’s share had soared to 20 percent.
#16 The number of Americans that have become so discouraged that they have given up searching for work completely now stands at an all-time high.
#17 Half of all American workers now earn $505 or less per week.
#18 The United States has lost a staggering 32 percent of its manufacturing jobs since the year 2000.
#19 Since 2001, over 42,000 U.S. factories have closed down for good.
#20 In 2008, 1.2 billion cellphones were sold worldwide.  So how many of them were manufactured inside the United States?  Zero.
#21 Ten years ago, the “employment rate” in the United States was about 64%.  Since then it has been constantly declining and now the “employment rate” in the United States is only about 58%.  So where did all of those jobs go?
The world is changing.
We are bleeding national wealth at a pace that is almost unimaginable.
We are literally being drained dry.
Did you know that China now has the world’s fastest train and the world’s largest high-speed rail network?
They were able to afford those things with all of the money that we have been sending them.
How do you think all of those oil barons in the Middle East became so wealthy and could build such opulent palaces?
They got rich off of all the money that we have been sending them.
Meanwhile, once great U.S. cities such as Detroit, Michigan now look like war zones.
Back in 1985, the U.S. trade deficit with China was about 6 million dollars for the entire year.
As mentioned above, the U.S. trade deficit with China for 2010 was over 273billion dollars.
What a difference 25 years can make, eh?
What do you find when you go into a Wal-Mart, a Target or a dollar store today?
You find row after row after row of stuff made in China and in other far away countries.
It can be more than a bit difficult to find things that are actually made inside the United States anymore.  In fact, there are quite a few industries that have completely and totally left the United States.  For certain product categories it is now literally impossible to buy something made in America.
So what are we going to do with our tens of millions of blue collar workers?
Should we just tell them that their jobs are not ever coming back so they better learn phrases such as “Welcome to Wal-Mart” and “Would you like fries with that”?
For quite a few years, the gigantic debt bubble that we were living in kind of insulated us from feeling the effects of the deindustrialization of America.
But now the pain is starting to kick in.
It has now become soul-crushingly difficult to find a job in America today.
According to Gallup, the U.S. unemployment rate is currently 10.1% and when you throw in “underemployed” workers that figure rises to 19.6%.
Competition for jobs has become incredibly fierce and it is going to stay that way.
The great U.S. economic machine is being ripped apart and dismantled right in full view of us all.
This is not a “conservative” issue or a “liberal” issue.  This is an American issue.
The United States is rapidly being turned into a “post-industrial” wasteland.
It is time to wake up America.

Valentine's Day FTD bouquet would cost more if users redeemed their Groupon - users are calling the deal a scam -

Valentine's Day FTD bouquet would cost more if users redeemed their Groupon -  users are calling the deal a scam -



A day after Groupon offered $20 off of $40 worth of flowers and gifts from FTD, users are calling the deal a scam.
The coupon, which nearly 3,300 people bought, directed buyers to a special FTD website -- FTD.com/groupon -- to take advantage of the offer. The problem, users said, was that prices were higher than on the regular website, effectively diminishing the value of the deal.


In fact, it appeared that a Valentine's Day bouquet would cost more if users redeemed their Groupon.
"What a scam. The ftd groupon site has a price $10-$20 more than their own site. So basically you didn't save anything," Joann L. wrote in the comments section of Groupon's site
"Yes -- groupon, refund my money! The ftd.com/groupon site has higher prices than the regular site," echoed another user.
Disgruntled shoppers also noted that high service and shipping charges further depleted the voucher's value. Others found that bouquets would not be delivered before Feb. 15, the day after Valentines Day.
In response to the negative feedback, Groupon closed the deal a day early.
"It was way too big of a headache for our customers and that isn't how Groupon treats people," Groupon's spokeswoman Julie Mossler said in an email to CNNMoney.