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Your government at work

What I keep sayin' ..... still

Submitted by Roanman on Thu, 11/03/2011 - 07:40

 

The following is taken directly from the Resource Center at the Treasury Department.

 

Who/What is the Treasury Borrowing Advisory Committee (TBAC)?

 

The Treasury Borrowing Advisory Committee ("Borrowing Committee”) of The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) is an advisory committee governed by federal statute that meets quarterly with the Treasury Department. The Borrowing Committee’s membership is comprised of senior representatives from investment funds and banks. The Borrowing Committee presents their observations to the Treasury Department on the overall strength of the U.S. economy as well as providing recommendations on a variety of technical debt management issues. The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association does not participate in the deliberations of the Borrowing Committee.

 

Treasury Borrowing Advisory Committee Members

CHAIRMAN

Matthew E. Zames
Managing Director
JP Morgan Chase
383 Madison Avenue
New York, NY 10179

VICE CHAIRMAN

Ashok Varadhan
Managing Director
Goldman, Sachs & Co.
200 West Street
New York, NY 10282

 

Curtis Arledge
Vice Chairman, CEO, Asset Mgmt.
BNY Mellon
One Wall Street
New York, NY 10286

Richard A. Axilrod
Managing Director
Moore Capital Management, Inc.
1251 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10020

Ian G. Banwell
CEO & CIO
Round Table IMC
214 North Tryon Street
Charlotte, NC 28202

Jason Cummins
Managing Director
Brevan Howard
1776 I Street NW
Washington, DC 20006

Dana Emery
Executive Vice President
Dodge & Cox
555 California Street
San Francisco, CA 94104

Paul Tudor Jones II
Co-Chairman & CIO
Tudor
1275 King Street
Greenwich, CT 06831

Walter J. Muller III
Chief Investment Officer
Bank of America
600 Peachtree Street
Atlanta, GA 30308

Jeffrey S. Phlegar
President
Alliance Bernstein
1345 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10105

Ruth Porat
Executive VP, CFO
Morgan Stanley
1585 Broadway
New York, NY 10036

Stephen Rodosky
Managing Director
PIMCO
840 Newport Center Drive
Newport Beach, CA 92660

Stuart Spodek
Managing Director
BlackRock
55 East 52nd Street
New York, NY 10055

Richard Tang
Head of Fixed Income Sales, Americas
RBS
600 Washington Boulevard
Stamford, CT 06901

Stephen A. Walsh
Chief Investment Officer
Western Asset Mgmt. Co.
385 East Colorado Blvd.
Pasadena, CA 91101

 

Now, here's the question you gotta ask yourself.

Who's interests are being discussed when the Treasury Borrowing Advisory Committee meets with the Borrowing Committee.

 

 

Which of course, is what I keep sayin' ..... still.

If anyone can figure out the signature on the cartoon, I'd like to link it to the source.

 

 

It's getting interestinger and interestinger ..... still.

Submitted by Roanman on Thu, 10/27/2011 - 07:25

 

From both Business Insider and Zero Hedge which is fascinating in and of itself.

The following video shows Oakland police deliberately firing teargas cannisters and/or flash grenades into a crowd of people seeking to help a seriously injured protester.

 

 

The following quote comes from a timeline published by the Oakland Tribune via Mercury Press.

 

6:25 a.m. 'Stupid people who were provoking the cops'

Michael Porter, 24, works full time selling DirectTV, has camped at the Occupy Oakland site for the last 8 days.

He was disheartened to see everyone disperse last night-- down to 30 people after 3 a.m.

"We lost a lot of them because of the tear gas. And it was because of stupid people who were provoking the cops. It's random people who see a big group and are like, 'let's start a riot.'
All it takes is one thing and it's like let's gas everyone.
And I kind of understand where the cops are coming from as far as responding to signs of aggression. That's why we've got to keep those people out."

He's hanging around hoping to educate newcomers this morning about not provoking the police. Then he's going to sleep in his own bed for the first time in a week and then, he says, come back down.

Why? "I've always been told to be the change you want to see; I want to see more people come out"

Up to a dozen protesters, all men right now.

A plate window across the street shattered around what looks like a rubber bullet hole. Protesters telling police one of them owes someone a new window.

Finally from Colorlines.com, click on the photo for a short and well done piece from Robert Levato concerning recent issues with Oakland's police department and the resultant election of Oakland's first Asian mayor and her subsequently appointed Black police chief.

It seems post racial America has truly arrived.

 

 

Apologies if the formating is strange on your screen.

Try as I might, I couldn't lose the box around the above quote.

 

Your Government at Work

Submitted by Roanman on Fri, 10/21/2011 - 15:45

 

Anyone paying attention has probably figured out that we really like music around here.

And in the interest of full disclosure we're hacks on a guitar, but if given the choice of one and only one tone to bash away at, we're picking up that Gibson Les Paul Standard with a pair of Pearly Gates pups.

Think Tush.

You may have heard that the federal government has now twice raided the Gibson Guitar Company, confiscated their property and has subsequently refused to charge them with any crime.

On that third item, the United States government has actually fought Gibson in court in order to avoid charging them with a crime or even disclose what federal crime they are under suspicion of having committed.

Here is Henry Juzskiewicz, Chairman and Ceo of the Gibson Guitar Corp making his case.

 

         

 

The photo of the 1959 Gibson Les Paul Standard reissue above will link you up to Gibson's site where you can check out some beautiful American made guitars and hear some more regarding Gibson's side of this story.

The photo in the upper right hand corner of this post is that of the one and only Gibson 1959 Les Paul Standard # 9 1171, Pearly Gates herself, Billy Gibbons' favorite axe and the guitar with which he recorded Tush.

Click on that photo for a nice Billy Gibbons interview in which he discusses how he came to own what is likely the most famous guitar in the history of Rock and Roll.

 

To quote Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce tribe

Submitted by Roanman on Wed, 10/05/2011 - 07:20

 

On October 5, 1877 after what is widely acknowledged as one of the greatest strategic retreats in all of military history, Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce people of the Wallawa Valley of what is now Northwest Oregon spoke the following words and surrendered his tribe to the United States government.

 

 

The following history lesson was taken entirely from PBS’ fine series New Perspectives on the West.

 

Chief Joseph’s father Joseph the Elder was one of the first Nez Percé converts to Christianity and an active supporter of the tribe's longstanding peace with whites. In 1855 he even helped Washington's territorial governor set up a Nez Percé reservation that stretched from Oregon into Idaho. But in 1863, following a gold rush into Nez Percé territory, the federal government took back almost six million acres of this land, restricting the Nez Percé to a reservation in Idaho that was only one tenth its prior size. Feeling himself betrayed, Joseph the Elder denounced the United States, destroyed his American flag and his Bible, and refused to move his band from the Wallowa Valley or sign the treaty that would make the new reservation boundaries official.

When his father died in 1871, Joseph was elected to succeed him. He inherited not only a name but a situation made increasingly volatile as white settlers continued to arrive in the Wallowa Valley. Joseph staunchly resisted all efforts to force his band onto the small Idaho reservation, and in 1873 a federal order to remove white settlers and let his people remain in the Wallowa Valley made it appear that he might be successful. But the federal government soon reversed itself, and in 1877 General Oliver Otis Howard threatened a cavalry attack to force Joseph's band and other hold-outs onto the reservation. Believing military resistance futile, Joseph reluctantly led his people toward Idaho.

Unfortunately, they never got there. About twenty young Nez Percé warriors, enraged at the loss of their homeland, staged a raid on nearby settlements and killed several whites. Immediately, the army began to pursue Joseph's band and the others who had not moved onto the reservation. Although he had opposed war, Joseph cast his lot with the war leaders.

What followed was one of the most brilliant military retreats in American history. Even the unsympathetic General William Tecumseh Sherman could not help but be impressed with the 1,400 mile march, stating that "the Indians throughout displayed a courage and skill that elicited universal praise... [they] fought with almost scientific skill, using advance and rear guards, skirmish lines, and field fortifications." In over three months, the band of about 700, fewer than 200 of whom were warriors, fought 2,000 U.S. soldiers and Indian auxiliaries in four major battles and numerous skirmishes.

By the time he formally surrendered on October 5, 1877, Joseph was widely referred to in the American press as "the Red Napoleon." It is unlikely, however, that he played as critical a role in the Nez Percé's military feat as his legend suggests. He was never considered a war chief by his people, and even within the Wallowa band, it was Joseph's younger brother, Olikut, who led the warriors, while Joseph was responsible for guarding the camp. It appears, in fact, that Joseph opposed the decision to flee into Montana and seek aid from the Crows and that other chiefs -- Looking Glass and some who had been killed before the surrender -- were the true strategists of the campaign. Nevertheless, Joseph's widely reprinted surrender speech has immortalized him as a military leader in American popular culture:

"I am tired of fighting. Our chiefs are killed. Looking Glass is dead. Toohoolhoolzote is dead. The old men are all dead. It is the young men who say, "Yes" or "No." He who led the young men [Olikut] is dead. It is cold, and we have no blankets. The little children are freezing to death. My people, some of them, have run away to the hills, and have no blankets, no food. No one knows where they are -- perhaps freezing to death. I want to have time to look for my children, and see how many of them I can find. Maybe I shall find them among the dead. Hear me, my chiefs! I am tired. My heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands I will fight no more forever."

 

Government Golf Gobbles Up Lansing City Budget

Submitted by Roanman on Tue, 08/30/2011 - 19:37

 

From Michigan Capital Confidential the news service from the Michigan Libertarian think tank, The Mackinaw Center for Public Policy

 

Government Golf Gobbles Up Lansing City Budget

By TOM GANTERT | Aug. 29, 2011

 

 

At a time when the city of Lansing is laying off police officers and contemplating raising taxes, it is losing about $400,000 a year on city-owned golf facilities. Lansing lost $431,073 in fiscal 2007-08 and another $398,452 in fiscal 2008-09 on its golf facilities, according to Angela Bennett, the city’s deputy finance director. The city also had to cover another $431,073 from golf facility deficits from prior years, Bennett wrote in an email.

The city budgets for 18-hole and 9-hole golf courses and a driving range/learning center. The city covered these expenses by taking money from its general fund and parks millage.

 

To Quote Presidential Candidate, Congressman Dr. Ron Paul

Submitted by Roanman on Fri, 08/12/2011 - 17:25

 

“Believe me, the next step is a currency crisis because there will be a rejection of the dollar, the rejection of the dollar is a big, big event, and then your personal liberties are going to be severely threatened...

It is true that liberty is not free, nor is it easy.

But tyranny – even varying degrees of it – is much more difficult, and much more expensive.

The time has come to rein in the federal government, put it on a crash diet, and let the people keep their money and their liberty...

When the federal government spends more each year than it collects in tax revenues, it has three choices: It can raise taxes, print money, or borrow money.

While these actions may benefit politicians, all three options are bad for average Americans...we cannot stand against big government at home while supporting it abroad.

We cannot talk about fiscal responsibility while spending trillions on occupying and bullying the rest of the world.

We cannot talk about the budget deficit and spiraling domestic spending without looking at the costs of maintaining an American empire of more than 700 military bases in more than 120 foreign countries.

We cannot pat ourselves on the back for cutting a few thousand dollars from a nature preserve or an inner-city swimming pool at home while turning a blind eye to a Pentagon budget that nearly equals those of the rest of the world combined.”

 

Don't be evil

Submitted by Roanman on Mon, 07/18/2011 - 07:11

 

From WND

Click on the gears down the line for some wishful analysis from Wired

 

 

Does Google spy on you for NSA? Judge says, 'None of your business'

'Court is not to conduct detailed inquiry to decide whether it agrees with agency'

Posted: July 15, 2011By Bob Unruh

 

 

A federal judge has ordered that whether Google is spying for National Security Agency or not, you have no right to know.

"The NSA need not disclose 'the organization or any function of the National Security Agency, [or] any information with respect to the activities thereof,'" U.S. District Judged Richard Leon has ordered.

"Once the agency, through affidavits, has created 'as complete a public record as is possible' and explained 'in as much detail as is possible the basis for its claim,' … 'the court is not to conduct a detailed inquiry to decide whether it agrees with the agency's opinions'" he said.

 

As always you can count on The Onion for the clearest analysis of Governments relationship with "Social Media".

 

 

Remembering, as always.

 

 

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