, As fiscal cliff nears Panetta warns of furloughs

With the real possibility of massive military budget cuts just days away, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta on Thursday told defense employees that staffing and program cuts will be considered if Congress can’t agree on alternative budget plans.

In a department-wide memo, Panetta wrote that he does not expect any immediate disruptions to military operations on Jan. 2 – the day the budget cuts are set to trigger – but warned that “should we have to operate under reduced funding levels for an extended period of time, we may have to consider furloughs or other actions in the future.”

Military pay and staffing are exempt from the cuts, and Panetta promised to provide “requisite advance notice” before any civilian employee actions.

“We will carefully examine other options to reduce costs within the agency before taking such action,” he wrote.

It’s the first formal warning to defense employees that their jobs could be lost to the two-year fight in Congress over the national debt, and a sign of how poorly last-minute negotiations between the White House and Republican leaders have gone.

On Thursday, the House abruptly adjourned for Christmas after failing to pass viable plans to avoid the so-called “fiscal cliff” – tax increases and $1 trillion in automatic spending reductions set to go into effect the first week in January.

House Speaker John Boehner, who has been sparring with the president behind the scenes over details of a compromise measure, also failed to get his caucus to adopt a “Plan B” which would have allowed tax breaks for millionaires to expire in exchange for cuts in entitlement programs.

The measure wasn’t expected to advance in the Senate, but was expected to provide some political cover in the event of a financial meltdown. Instead, it prompted questions about how deep the political divisions on Capitol Hill run, and whether any deal can possibly be reached in coming days. stripes.com

FACTS & FIGURES

Critics of American spending for military power often make three arguments: The U.S. spends more than a combination of the military budgets of the next 12, 15 or 17 nations, depending on who is counting and what is included; military spending drains funds from welfare, health care, education and other domestic programs; and, military spending is rife with fraud, waste and abuse, and should be rigorously scrutinized and scrubbed. scmp.com

The Pentagon’s budget accounts for about half of the government’s discretionary expenditure – spending that is not mandated under fixed government programs. As a result, defense budgets are set to fall 9.1 per cent next year, across all programs, if the automatic spending cuts come into force. ft.com

http://banoosh.com/2012/12/22/as-fiscal-cliff-nears-panetta-warns-of-furloughs/

Stories of heroism amid US school shooting tragedy

By Arun Kumar | IANS – Sat, Dec 15, 2012

Reuters/Reuters - Balloons hang from the Sandy Hook School sign in Sandy Hook, Connecticut December 15, 2012. Residents of the small Connecticut community of Newtown were reeling on Saturday from one of the …more 

Washington, Dec 15 (IANS) As US authorities began piecing together the mass shooting at an elementary school in Connecticut - the state neighbouring New York - that left 27, including 20 children dead, stories of heroism and quick thinking began emerging from the terrible tragedy.

Among them was Sandy Hook Elementary School's Principal Dawn Hochsprung, who was emerging from a meeting. She apparently saw the gunman and warned several colleagues who were about to step into the hallway behind her - and into the shooter's direct line of fire.

The last thing one witness cited by local Newtown Bee recalled was her turning back and yelling a warning to lock the door as she apparently confronted the gunman. A few moments later she was shot.

Then there was the school custodian, bleary-eyed and shaking off expressions of thanks and praise, who as shots were ringing out, reportedly ran through the school halls making sure classroom doors were locked from the inside, local media said.

There were the library staffers who heard commotion on the school's public address system and learned there was a gunman in the building.

After rushing a number of students into a storage closet and barricading it with file cabinets, they initially would not even open the door for police who were standing outside until they were called by emergency operators and convinced it was safe to exit with the children, the Newton Bee reported.

Two cafeteria workers dropped to the ground on hearing shots and crawled into a utility closet and locked themselves in until help arrived. The school nurse, who fought the urge to run toward the commotion to help and took cover under her desk per her training, said she saw the boots of the gunman as he entered her office.

The gunman stood there for a few moments and then moved on down the hallway firing more shots. That's what saved her.

(Arun Kumar can be contacted at arun.kumar@ians.in)

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Children in Connecticut rampage, all 6 and 7, shot repeatedly

NEWTOWN, Connecticut (Reuters) - Twelve girls and eight boys. One had celebrated her seventh birthday just four days before her death. They included Charlotte and Jack, Noah and Grace.

Dressed in "cute kid stuff," all 20 died when a heavily armed 20-year-old gunman forced his way into their school, Sandy Hook Elementary, and shot them and six women in an act of violence that has shattered their once-tranquil suburban town.

"They were first-graders," said Connecticut Chief Medical Examiner Dr. H. Wayne Carver II, before releasing the names of all the victims of the school shootings on Saturday.

Asked to describe the attack, Carver, who oversaw the autopsies of all the victims and conducted many himself, called it "the worst I have seen."

The shooter, identified by law enforcement officials as Adam Lanza, killed his mother Nancy on Friday, then drove to the school where he gunned down another 26 people before taking his own life in one of the deadliest mass shootings in U.S. history.

He fired a rifle, shooting his victims multiple times. Parents identified their children through pictures, a process intended to minimize their shock, Carver said.

Members of the close-knit community went into public mourning on Saturday as the depth of the tragedy became clear.

" I don't know how to get through something like this," said Robbie Parker, a 30-year-old physician's assistant whose 6-year-old daughter Emilie was among the dead.

"My wife and I don't understand how to process this and how to get our lives going," Parker told reporters. The oldest of his three kids, Emilie, "could just light up a room," he said.

Police did not officially identify Lanza or his mother, but his father on Saturday issued a statement saying he too was struggling to understand his son's actions.

"No words can truly express how heartbroken we are," Peter Lanza said. "We are in a state of disbelief and trying to find whatever answers we can."

While Americans have seen many mass shootings in the past decades, the victims have rarely been so young. On Saturday, some Democratic lawmakers called for sweeping new gun-control measures, a move certain to run up against stiff opposition from the nation's powerful pro-gun lobby.

President Barack Obama plans to travel to the affluent suburb of 27,000 people about 80 miles (130 km) from New York City on Sunday to meet with victims' families and speak at a vigil at 7 p.m. local time (0000 GMT), the White House said.

In a nod to the sensitivities of the situation, the Fox TV network said late Saturday it would pull part of its regularly scheduled Sunday night block of animated shows - including a new episode of "American Dad" that featured in part a demon that punishes misbehaving children.

MISSING FROM THE NATIVITY

On Saturday night, the pews at Newtown's St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church were packed with parishioners attending a service that preceded an outdoor Nativity concert.

There was a live cow, a donkey and a camel. But at least one person was missing - 6-year-old Olivia Engel.

"She was supposed to be an angel in the play," said Reverend Robert Weiss. "Now she's an angel up in heaven."

Town fire officials set up 26 Christmas trees, decorated with stuffed animals, near the school as a memorial to the victims - many of whom were children who may have been hoping for such toys as their own holiday presents.

One of the victims, Josephine Gay, had celebrated her seventh birthday on Tuesday.

Rabbi Shaul Praver said he had spent time with Veronika Pozner, whose 6-year-old son Noah was among the victims.

"We encouraged her to focus on her other four children that need her and not to try to plan out the rest of her life," Praver said.

The adult victims, some of whom died defending the students, ranged in age from 27 to 56. Carver, the medical examiner, said all the bodies had examined had been shot with a rifle. He said he and his staff had not yet examined the shooter or his mother.

School officials said late Saturday they would keep all district schools closed Monday so staff could prepare for a Tuesday reopening. The one exception was Sandy Hook itself.

"We are very close to finalizing a plan that will allow Sandy Hook students to resume classes," school superintendent Janet Robinson said in a letter to the community. "We will communicate those details as soon as we can."

MOTIVES EMERGING

Police earlier said they had assembled "some very good evidence" on the killer's motives.

"Our investigators at the crime scene ... did produce some very good evidence in this investigation that our investigators will be able to use in, hopefully, painting the complete picture as to how - and more importantly why - this occurred," Connecticut State Police Lieutenant Paul Vance told reporters.

Lanza had struggled to fit in his suburban community and his mother Nancy pulled him out of school for several years to home-school him, said Louise Tambascio, the owner of My Place Restaurant, where his mother was a long-time patron.

Nancy Lanza legally owned a Sig Sauer and a Glock, both handguns commonly used by police, and a military-style Bushmaster .223 M4 carbine, according to law enforcement officials, who also said they believed Adam Lanza used at least some of those weapons.

But the details of why Lanza acted will be of little comfort to parents who will have to bury children at what should be one of the most festive times of the year.

"I looked underneath my Christmas tree and there's presents for my kids. How many others aren't able to give their kids presents? These people are going to be affected. Every time Christmas comes," said Benjamin Torres, 44, the owner of a roofing company in nearby Danbury who stopped in a local diner for breakfast Saturday.

The death toll exceeded that of one of the most notorious U.S. school shootings, the 1999 rampage at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, where two teenagers killed 13 students and staff before fatally shooting themselves.

At Virginia Tech, a Blacksburg, Virginia university where in 2007 a gunman killed 32 people in the deadliest school shooting in U.S. history, an announcer extended sympathies to the residents of Newtown before a basketball game.

"This campus ... shares a deep sense of grief," the announcer said. "We open our hearts to that community."

(Additional reporting by Dan Burns, Edward Krudy, Edith Honan, Chris Kaufman, Dave Gregorio, Colleen Jenkins, Chris Francescani and Alex Dobuzinskis; Writing by Scott Malone, Daniel Trotta and Ben Berkowitz; Editing by Will Dunham and Eric Walsh)
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Gun Control Is A Parenting Issue

More than a dozen children went to elementary school this morning and were dead before lunch.

White House spokesman Jay Carney says today is not the day to talk about gun control.

I disagree. That's all we should talk about today.

We are heartbroken, yes. But saying that will fix nothing. It won't bring anyone back, and it won't keep this from happening again. And of course we know the parents of Newtown could have been any one of us. That's important to remember, but it isn't enough, because the knowing doesn't change the fact that we could still be next.

So we can't just do as we did after Columbine, after Virginia Tech, after Aurora. We can't just grieve and hold our children close. We have to demand that our country earn the right to call itself a civilized nation. We need to do this because our central job as parents -- maybe our only job, really -- is to keep our children safe so they can grow up. Easy access to guns keeps us from doing that job.

A study in the Journal of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery found that the gun murder rate in the U.S. is almost 20 times higher than the next 22 richest and most populous nations combined. Every one of those nations has stricter gun control laws.

And then there's this fact: add together all the gun deaths in the 23 wealthiest countries in the world and 80 percent of those are American deaths. Of all the children killed by guns in those nations, 87 percent are American kids.

Please don't tell me that if only the staff at Sandy Hook Elementary School were also armed that this would have ended well. It might have ended differently, but concealed weapons in the teachers lounge is not the way we want to raise our kids.

Jose Luis Nunez had a handgun in order to protect his son. The 4-year-old accidentally shot himself in the face with it in Houston on Tuesday. Joseph V. Loughrey had one for the same reason. His 7-year-old son Craig died on Saturday outside of Pittsburgh when that handgun accidentally went off while the boy was getting into his safety seat in front of a gun store.

And that was just this week. The same week that the NRA proudly tweeted it had reached 1.7 million "likes" on Facebook.

We cherish individuality in America. We see raising children as no one else's business, and we have never managed to band together as a "parenting" bloc. It is time. Guns are a parenting issue and we need to control them in the name of the children who died this morning. Even more, we need to do it in the name of their mothers and fathers.

So cry today. Comfort your kids. Curse, and pray. Then pick up the phone, a pen, a keyboard, or your checkbook and make your demands heard. All day and every day. But most especially today.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lisa-belkin/newtown-gun-control-parenting-issue_b_2302526.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000003

27 reported killed in Newtown, Conn., school shooting

Gary Stoller and Gary Strauss, USA TODAY1:37p.m. EST December 14, 2012

556 CommentsShare

The incident is the latest in a series of mass shootings in the United States this year.

(Photo: Shannon Hicks, AP)

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Terrifying morning shootings made students scramble for their lives
• Two 9mm handguns recovered from scene; gunman dead
• Some relieved parents reunited with kids

NEWTOWN, Conn. — A lone gunman killed 26 people at an elementary school here, including 18 children, in a terrifying early Friday morning shooting spree.

The Associated Press and local media reported the shooter, an unidentified adult male, was also dead at Sandy Hook Elementary School. A second person was in custody. Two handguns were recovered at the scene. Mayor Mark Boughton said several victims had been taken to local hospitals.

Groups of students — some crying, some holding hands — were being escorted away from the school by their teachers. Some witnesses reported up to 100 shots.

The incident is the latest in a series of mass shootings in the U.S. this year, including Tuesday's assault by a lone gunman at a Portland, Ore., shopping mall that left two dead and one wounded.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said Homeland Security adviser John Brennan informed President Obama of the shooting at 10:30 a.m. "The president is receiving regular updates as more information becomes available," Carney said. Carney said Obama would comment when more details were known.

Sandy Hook is in a residential, wooded neighborhood about 60 miles northeast of New York City. It has 39 teachers and about 650 students. A reverse 911 call went out to parents warning of an incident. Parents were being reunited with children. But, NBC Connecticut reported, police were searching the area behind the school with guns drawn.

Terese Lestik was relieved to find her 5-year-old daughter, Eva, unharmed.

"I heard a boom-boom,'' Eva said of the gunshots she heard earlier.

"I'm horrified,'' said Terese Lestik. "I just pray for whoever is hurt."

Alexis Wasik, a third-grader at the school, said police were checking everybody inside the school before they were escorted to the firehouse. She said she heard shots and saw her former nursery school teacher being taken out of the building on a stretcher, but didn't know if the woman had been shot.

"We had to walk with a partner," said Wasik, 8. One child leaving the school said that there was shattered glass everywhere. A police officer ran into the classroom and told them to run outside and keep going until the reach the firehouse, The Hartford Courantreported.

Dozens of state troopers were on the scene assisting local police. Heavily armed police gathered in front of the school around 10:45 a.m., and a number of stretchers were set up.

Location of Conn. school shooting

The school superintendent's office says the district had locked down schools as a preventive measure to ensure the safety of students and staff. State police spokesman Lt. Paul Vance says they have a number of personnel on the scene to assist.

A 1 p.m. press conference has been scheduled.

Contributing: Donna Leinwand Leger, Associated Press

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2012/12/14/school-shooting-connecticut/1769367/

Ho, Ho, Ho! 9/11 Was An Inside Job!

BY SANTA CLAUS 
DECEMBER 12, 2012 | ISSUE 48•50 | MORE COMMENTARY

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Seasons greeting from your old friend Santa! My, my, Christmas is just two short weeks away, and everyone here at the North Pole can't wait to deliver presents to all you nice boys and girls this year. Yes, Jolly ol' St. Nicholas hopes you're all being as good as can be!

But today, Santa would like to tell you all about something very naughty, something very, very naughty indeed. Dear children, have you not heard? Why, 9/11 was an inside job! Oh, ho, ho, my, yes it was!

I mean, look at the facts, boys and girls! We already know the Bush administration was itching to go to war in Iraq, now, don't we? Yes, indeed we do, my darling ones! The Downing Street memo proves that beyond a shadow of a doubt. Then you look at the Presidential Daily Briefing of Aug. 6, 2001, the one headlined "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S." Ignored! Why, children, they threw that briefing aside like used wrapping paper on Christmas morning, didn't they?

And remember, sweet little ones, Bin Laden never claimed responsibility for the attacks until 2004. Do you know how many years that is, boys and girls? Something was up the government's sleeve, and I'll let you in on a little secret: It wasn't sugar plums, oh, no! No, it was the ties between the bin Laden and Bush families. They've been under the mistletoe for decades, if you catch your old pal Kris Kringle's meaning! I've checked my list twice, and it seems Arbusto Energy, a Bush business, had financial connections to Salem bin Laden, half-brother of Osama. The CIA actually helped create and fund al-Qaeda right around the time Bush Senior was the agency’s director—ho, ho, ho, ol' H.W. stuffed their pockets as fat as a Christmas goose!

Now, as for the towers themselves: The type of steel they used melts at a temperature of about 2,700 degrees Fahrenheit, and as I'm sure all you smart little boys and girls know, jet fuel burns at 1,500 degrees, tops. My darlings, you'd need quite a Yule log to create that extra 1,200 degrees, wouldn't you? Oh, what a glorious sight it would be!

Of course, you do know what they found in the Ground Zero debris, don't you? Would you like St. Nicholas to tell you? Well, then, hop up on his lap and I'll whisper it in your ear: traces of nano-thermite. Does that jingle any bells upstairs? Nano-thermite is an explosive compound, children, capable of making the biggest Christmas cracker you ever saw! So what in the name of Donner and Blitzen was it doing in the world's largest banking complex? Was Lehman Brothers or one of the insurance companies stockpiling explosives? No, children. You find nano-thermite where there's been a controlled demolition. Ever see a controlled demolition, little ones? That's where the whole building plummets straight downward like a plumb bob and every floor is destroyed. Even if the building is struck in the middle.

Oh, dear, perhaps ol' Santa has just gone a little nutty in the head, like dear Mrs. Claus repeatedly likes to claim! Perhaps, much like Mrs. Claus, Santa would be better off pretending the facts don't exist. But you believe, don't you, children? You believe in Santa's theory.

Now, I'm not saying the hijackers weren't naughty. They were very, very naughty indeed. But if you want to really talk naughty, there's not enough coal in Santa's sack for a government that throws its own citizens under the sleigh just to gain political power.

Ho, ho, ho, so many questions dance through Santa's head! What about the six eyewitnesses who saw a low-flying jet immediately after Flight 93 crashed in Shanksville, children? Why was debris from the flight found miles away from the crash site? And why did the BBC incorrectly report that 7 World Trade Center had collapsed moments before it actually did? Talk about a snow job, eh, young ones? Why, it's a veritable winter wonderland!

Perhaps this Christmas, Santa will bring some of you very well-behaved—and discreet—young children some nice, shiny new computers to play with, so you can go to 911truth.org, watch "Loose Change" on YouTube, and see for yourselves. Because if you ask Santa, the truth needs to come out in order to properly honor the memory of the victims and awaken a duped populace, slumbering away in their cozy beds, living in dreamland. We can close our eyes and drink the government eggnog, or we can raise our voices and demand to know what really happened. Isn't that right, boys and girls?

Well, I've still got a lot of toys to build before Christmas Eve, my little ones, but I'll be visiting you all very soon—ho, ho, ho, that is if I'm not jailed as an enemy combatant for asking simple questions!

Because that's what they fucking do, you know.

http://www.theonion.com/articles/ho-ho-ho-911-was-an-inside-job,30705/?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=SocialMarketing&utm_campaign=standard-post%3Aquote%3Adefault

End Of Nations : Free iPhone 5

The world doesn't revolve around you...realize that.

WARNING TO ALL AMERICANS

Dear Fellow American Patriot:

How Long Will It Take Before The Military Is Called In?

Hi, my name is Rod Davidson.

I’ve spent over a decade preparing. Thanks to my personal experiences, I am an expert on survival training and preserving social order in post-catastrophic environments.

You and I both know that other parts of the world have gone hungry.

You and I both know that there have been food riots in other countries like Haiti, Senegal, Algeria and India.

But what I know that you may not know is that these things are going to happen here, too.

People will fight each other over food and water.

People will kill each other for food and water.

They will fight for their own survival. They will kill for the sake of their families.

Blood will literally flow in the streets.

It will happen in these United States. It is not a matter of if… it’s a matter of when.

So let me ask you a direct question. There’s no time to beat around the bush.

ARE YOU READY FOR THE COMING FOOD CRISIS — AND THE DEADLY RIOTS OVER FOOD, WATER AND VITAL SUPPLIES THAT THEY WILL BRING?

Sorry, Folks, Hurricane Katrina Was Just the Warm-Up!

Hurricane Katrina decimated the south with very little warning. If something like this happened in your town or city today – would you and your family be prepared?

In the United States, the 2005 Hurricane Katrina destroyed New Orleans.

It was the most expensive natural disaster in American history.
Property damage was $81 billion. Thousands of people died.
But people were not just starving and dying. They were stealing and looting, too.

The failure of FEMA to provide any kind of help is as massive and disturbing in its own way as the hurricane it was trying to remedy. FEMA’s failure was a dim-witted display of national disasterUNpreparedness.

What is the message loud and clear?
When the stuff hits the fan, you can forget about getting ANY help from our government!

It’s easy to think that the looting and violence was an isolated incident.

But it wasn’t.

When their lives are threatened because there is no more food or water, Americans can turn into dangerous wild beasts just like the desperate impoverished citizens of some tiny dirty no name Third World country. Our smooth veneer of civilization is way thinner than we think.

Empty Shelves Are Coming to Your Town, USA. Don’t Believe Me? You Didn’t Hear about the 2010 Weston, Mass. Mayhem!

Riot Police will be called in to try and stop the mayhem.

Here’s what happened in May, 2010 in Weston, a small town just 15 miles outside of Boston, Massachusetts. The shocking mayhem in Weston was all but ignored on the national news.

The national media suppressed the Weston story but here are the amazing and very scary facts.

A big water pipe broke. There was not going to be any water for days. In just a few hours ALL of the local stores were out of bottled water. ALL of them! In just a few HOURS!

But that’s not the big deal. The big deal is that people, good church-going God-fearing Americans like you and me, were fighting like wild animals in the stores over the few remaining bottles of water. The crisis was so out of control they had to call in the National Guard!

THE BANKRUPTCY OF THE UNITED STATES

The fact of the matter is, the United States did go "Bankrupt" in 1933 and was declared so by President Roosevelt by Executive Orders 6073, 6102, 6111 and by Executive Order 6260 on March 9, 1933, under the "Trading With The Enemy Act" of October 6, 1917, AS AMENDED by the Emergency Banking Relief Act, 48 Stat 1, Public Law No. 1, which is presently codified at 12 USCA 95a and confirmed at 95b. You can confirm this for yourself by reading it on FindLaw. Thereafter, Congress confirmed the bankruptcy on June 5, 1933, and thereupon impaired the obligations and considerations of contracts through the "Joint Resolution To Suspend The Gold Standard And Abrogate The Gold clause, June 5, 1933" (See: HJR-192, 73rd Congress, 1st Session). When the Courts were called upon to rule on various of the provisions designed to implement and compliment FDR's Emergency BANKING Relief Act of March 9, 1933, they were all found unconstitutional, so what FDR did was simply stack the "Court's" with HIS chosen obsequious members of the bench/bar and then sent many of the cases back through and REVERSED the rulings.

House Joint Resolution 192 (HJR-192), 48 Stat. 112, was passed by Congress on June 5, 1933. The 'Act' impaired the obligations and considerations of contacts and declared that the notes of the Federal Reserve banks were "legal tender" for the payment of both public and private debts, and that payment in gold Coin was against "public policy". (In effect, FDR and Congress, under executive orders and legislative fiat, nationalized the people's money, i.e., their gold Coin. Nationalization is a violation of the Law of Nations and existing public policy of Congress. See: Hilton vs. Guyot, 159 U.S. 113 (1895). The gold Coin that was confiscated (nationalized) was later used to purchase voting stockholder shares in The Bank and The Fund at $35 per ounce.) At this point in time, "Fair Market Value", i.e., a willing seller and buyer, without compulsion, lost any substantial meaning.

Moreover, all of the Governor's of the several States of the Union, who were summoned to and were in Washington, D.C. during the several days of this pre-planned economic "Emergency" (the first phase of which was to nationalize and expropriate the people's Money, i.e., their gold Coin on deposit in the banks), pledged the full faith and credit thereof to the aid of the National Government, and formed various socialist committees, such as the "Council of State Governments", "Social Security Administration", etc., to purportedly deal with the economic "Emergency." The Council of State Governments has been absorbed into such things as the National Conference Of Commissioners On Uniform State Laws, whose headquarters is located in Chicago, Illinois, and "all" being "members of the Bar", and operating under a different "Constitution and By-Laws", far distant from the depositories of the public records, and it is this organization that has promulgated, lobbied for, passed, adjudicated and ordered the implementation and execution of their purported "Uniform" and "Model" Acts and pretended statutory provisions, in order to "help implement international treaties of the United States or where world uniformity would be desirable." (1990/91 Reference Book, NCCUSL). These organizations operate under the "Declaration of INTERdependence" of January 22, 1937, and published some of their activities in "The Book Of The States." The 1937 Edition openly declares that the people engaged in such activities as the Farming/Husbandry Industry had been reduced to mere feudal "Tenants" on the Land they supposedly owned.

On April 25, 1938, the supreme Court overturned the standing precedents of the prior 150 years concerning "common law," in the federal government.

"THERE IS NO FEDERAL COMMON LAW, and CONGRESS HAS NO POWER TO DECLARE SUBSTANTIVE RULES OF COMMON LAW applicable IN A STATE, WHETHER they be LOCAL or GENERAL in their nature, be they COMMERCIAL LAW OR a part of the LAW OF TORTS." -- Erie Railroad Co. vs. Tompkins, 304 U.S. 64, 82 L.Ed. 1188.

You must realize that the Common Law is the fountain source of Substantive and Remedial Rights, if not our very Liberties.

https://www.facebook.com/notes/dan-asmussen/the-bankruptcy-of-the-united-states/10151376726250432

Egypt's opposition calls for more protests

Aljazeera – 10 hours ago

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  Egypt's opposition calls for more protests

Egypt's opposition has called for more protests against President Mohamed Morsi after rejecting his plans for a constitutional referendum later this week on a disputed draft constitution.

"The National Salvation Front announces its total rejection of the referendum and will not legitimise this referendum which will definitely lead to more strife," Sameh Ashour, who spoke on behalf of the coalition of opposition parties, said on Sunday.

"The Front invites Egypt's great people to protest peacefully in various liberation squares in the capital this coming Tuesday to show dissatisfaction at the president's disregard of the people's demands and in refusal of the constitution that infringes on rights and freedoms."

Morsi's decision on Saturday to retract a decree awarding himself wide powers failed to placate opponents who accused him of plunging Egypt deeper into crisis by refusing to postpone the vote on the constitution scheduled for November 15..

"We are against this process from start to finish," Hussein Abdel Ghani, spokesman of the National Salvation Front, said.

The Egyptian president insists on holding the referendum on schedule.

The opposition has repeatedly said that the constitution, drafted by a Muslim Brotherhood-led constituent assembly, disregards the rights of women and ignores personal freedoms.

"I cannot imagine that after all this they want to pass a constitution that does not represent all Egyptians," Ahmed Said, another member of the National Salvation Front coalition and the head of the liberal Free Egyptians Party, said.

The referendum has deeply polarised Egypt and sparked some of the bloodiest clashes between Morsi supporters and opponents since he came to power in June.

The Egyptian president has ordered the military to maintain security and protect state institutions until the results of the referendum are announced.

"Holding a referendum now in the absence of security reflects haste and an absence of a sense of responsibility on the part of the regime, which risks pushing the country towards violent confrontation," a statement from the Front said.

Rival protest

The Muslim Brotherhood and its political wing Freedom and Justice party, as well as Salafist political parties, have urged the opposition to accept the referendum's verdict.

Mahmud Ghozlan, a Brotherhood spokesman, said a coalition called the Alliance of Islamist Forces have also called for a demonstration on Tuesday under the slogan "Yes to legitimacy" in support of the referendum.

The rival rallies in the capital Cairo raise the potential for clashes such as those that erupted last Wednesday, killing seven people and wounding hundreds.

The current turmoil started after Morsi’s November 22 decree and then hastily approving the constitution that was opposed by liberals, including minority Christians.