NEW MADRID MEDIA WAKE UP CALL

Perhaps the media in America has been in a long slumber or something but the coast-to-coast headline today about the 5.4 earthquake in Illinois should be no surprise to the informed media. New Madrid just south of St. Louis in the midwest has had three or four of the strongest earthquakes to ever hit the continental United States.

Over a three month period starting in December 1811 there were at least three quakes all nearly a magnitude 8 that destroyed this area ringing church bells from Montreal to New Orleans and felt over nearly the entire eastern half of the United States. Only the San Francisco quake of 1906 comes close.

The New Madrid quakes were so strong that an eyewitness account said the Mississippi River, the largest in the USA and one of the most powerful in the world, actually collapsed causing the river to run backwards and a 50 foot waterfall appeared out of nowhere.

California gets all the attention but New Madrid is the real danger to America. Oh yes, in a normal year there is just one 8 magnitude earthquake in the ENTIRE WORLD.

Histories Mysteries - The Miracle of St. Clement's Island

The citizens of Coltons Point, St. Mary’s County, the State of Maryland and the United States have a rare opportunity to correct an oversight of history and help celebrate one of the greatest events in the history of Christianity. After acknowledgement of the role of St. Clements Island in the history of the Roman Catholic Church and all of Christianity during the Mass with Pope Benedict XVI in our nation’s capitol the time has come to recognize the historic events.

St. Clements should have a Shrine built to honor the series of events and miracles that surrounded the 1634 landing and sainthood should be granted for the work of Father Andrew White, the first Jesuit priest in English speaking America, the first priest to conduct a Mass with the Eucharist, the first to consecrate America to the Holy Mother Mary and the Will of God and the first to bring a relic of the True Cross of Jesus to America, a relic that saved the son of the Native American Emperor and led to the conversion to Catholicism of the Emperor and his family along with many other Native Americans.



In 1930 North America got our first canonized martyrs, the North American Jesuit Martyrs who were murdered in Canada and New York around 1646. Father White’s historic achievements 12 years earlier made the martyrs achievement possible. While these Jesuits were being killed Father White had been captured and taken back to England where he was tried for conducting a public Mass in the colonies, a crime punishable by death. If anyone deserves to be the first saint from North America it was Father White.

In 1634 when the Ark and the Dove landed at St. Clements Island just off Coltons Point it was a far more historic moment than you might realize. Not only did the first Catholic settlers arrive in the colonies on the ships, so did the first Jesuit priest, Father Andrew White. Father White was responsible for the first charter in the world guaranteeing religious freedom. He carried a relic of the True Cross of Jesus with him when the boats miraculously survived storms at sea and Father White healed the dying son of a Native American Emperor with the relic.


Father Andrew White, who helped George Calvert put together the migration of Catholics to America, led a life worthy of a major motion picture. He grew up in England in a time when the Catholics were being driven out of the country. Shortly after secretly becoming a priest he was discovered and banished to Spain. After six years in Spain he heard his friend Calvert back in England was putting together a group to settle lands in America left to Calvert, lands Calvert intended to use to achieve religious tolerance in the colonies and for the first Catholic settlement in America.

White snuck back into England and helped Calvert gather the necessary people to make the treacherous journey and Calvert also agreed to set aside large tracts of his American land grant for the Catholic church and for the Jesuits in hopes they would use the land to become self-sufficient in the new World and survive.

Father White’s journals during the trip are the most significant description of settling the New World in existence. His account of the pilgrims' voyage and landing, Relatio Itineris in Marylandiam, recounts the colonists' heroic and miraculous sojourn to freedom. Among other details he told of two hurricane-type storms the ship encountered on the foreboding winter Atlantic seas. The passengers and crew said only a miracle saved them from drowning.

In his possession Father White carried with him a relic of the True Cross of Jesus, the very Cross that was used for the crucifixion. It had been given to Father White by English nobility to protect him on his journey. This was the first relic of such significance to reach America and few knew he even possessed it. Perhaps it had something to do with the miracles that saved the ships during the storms?


In Father White’s own words he described the first landing at St. Clements Island: “On the day of the annunciation of the Holy Virgin Mary, on the 25th of March, in the year 1634, we offered in this island, for the first time, the sacrifice of the mass: in this region of the world it had never been celebrated before. Sacrifice being ended, having taken up on our shoulders the great cross which we had hewn from a tree, and going in procession to the place that had been designated, the Governor, com missioners, and other Catholics participating in the ceremony, we erected it as a trophy to Christ the Savior, while the litany of the holy cross was chanted humbly on the bended knees, with great emotion of soul.”
The web site The Cross and the Veil tells more of the story. American Catholics have a treasury of faith now all but forgotten and hidden away in the countryside of Southern Maryland. "Mary's Land" was the third English-speaking colony of America and the first colony founded by a charter guaranteeing freedom of religion. St. Clements Island, located in the Potomac River in St. Mary's County, Maryland, is the birthplace of both religious toleration and Catholicism in the English-speaking colonies of America. Father White celebrated the first Eucharist on that same day for the many Catholic pilgrims. Later Father White was to be the first to break the Native American Piscataway language barrier with a grammar and catechism.

The events leading up to the voyage weave a rich historical tapestry. Since the English "Reformation", Catholics had suffered and died for their faith in England. George Calvert, a well-known Anglican statesman, saw the rights of Catholics ever more abased in England in the early 1630's and chose that time to publicly announce his conversion to Catholicism and intention to found a colony based on religious toleration. It was Father Andrew White who wrote a widely published defense of the founding of a colony based on a charter guaranteeing religious freedom. It was this charter that was later to become the blueprint for the Maryland Bill of Rights and also an inspiration for the U.S. Bill of Rights.

The fledgling colony of Maryland with its General Assembly composed of both Protestants and Catholics was soon under attack by Puritans who ruled but a few brief years. The colony was restored shortly thereafter only to fall yet again in the mid-1640's under the tyrannical rule of the Church-State of England. Father White was captured and returned to England in chains 11 years after his arrival to await trial for openly celebrating Mass, a crime punishable by death in England. A good attorney convinced the court of his innocence and Father White was banished to Belgium.

Returning to England as an old man, Father White spent three years in prison and later lived in a private home where he prophesied the date of his death far in advance to be the Feast of St. John The Evangelist. Sitting down in a chair at sunset on that very day, he closed his eyes and died. This brilliant academician, political theorist, activist, and missionary had inconspicuously taken up the cross past middle age to help found a colony devoted to the ideal of the separation of church and state and the idea of religious toleration. In his account of the journey, Father White relates that he consecrated the land to Mary and to the will of God.

For over 80 years, from the late 1600's until shortly after the Declaration of Independence, Maryland Catholics were cruelly persecuted under the rule of the Church-State of England. The laws rightfully established by the diverse members of the Maryland General Assembly were repealed and the colony was divided into parishes ruled by rectors appointed by the governor. Catholics were heavily taxed, prohibited from holding office or sending their children to school. Protestant widows who married Catholics had their children legally taken from them. Priests disguised themselves as traveling salesmen whose ringing bells could be disassembled to become what were called "saddle chalices" for the celebration of the Eucharist in house chapels.

During this time of persecution, the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus was spread via a French prayer book for men. The devotion spread like fire through the colony. At the same time, the Great Awakening was taking place in Protestant assemblies who also suffered under the rule of the Church of England. Even under terrible restraints, conversions to Catholicism were many. One historian postulates that it was the solidarity between the various denominations as well as their righteous anger that was the true catalyst for the American Revolution. It was the knowledge of their persecution that caused French Canada to join America in its fight for liberty. Without French Canada's help, American independence would have been but a dream.

Now, as the world faces ever-increasing religious intolerance and bigotry toward people of faith, Catholics can return to the roots of their own faith to learn about the sanctity of religious freedom, the heroic sacrifices of our ancestors and the preciousness of our Catholic faith and culture. Modern day democracy was first given birth at the foot of a cross, planted on a tiny island in Southern Maryland on the little celebrated feast of the conception of the Child, Jesus.

It is about time that the Church and the nation that benefited from the events 374 years ago recognize the historic occasion and the pioneering Jesuit who made it possible.

FOX 5 BLOWS AWAY COMPETITION WITH POPE

Fox Network affiliate Fox 5 in Washington, D.C., the home of American Idol and shows like House, provided Emmy quality reporting on the Mass by Pope Benedict XVI with 46,000 people in our nation’s capitol. Competitive commercial networks paled in comparison to Fox in their commitment and coverage. Unlike other networks Fox remained silent letting the Mass and the Pope speak for himself for the entire 2 hour service.

Prior to the Mass Fox provided almost 5 hours of continuous coverage with a full team of reporters with respect, dignity and class, while still managing to work in the Fox trademarks of high energy and fun. While acknowledging that many reporters were not Catholics they excelled in educating the public and covering all aspects of the historic visit by the Pope.

STEPHANOPOULOS AGAIN PROVES LOYALTY TO CLINTONS IN FINAL DEMOCRATIC DEBATE

Last night the Democrats had their last presidential debate in Philadelphia as ABC News man-child and political correspondent George Stephanopoulos co-hosted the event with the ABC Evening News Anchor Charles Gibson.

Georgie, the spokesperson and chief defender for President Bill Clinton during the Whitewater and Monica Lewinski scandals continued to be the loyal Clinton supporter as he valiantly tried to tie Barach Obama to a host of unsavory characters from the ancient Weatherman days of 40 years ago to Reverend Big Mouth of modern times.

ABC, short for A Bunch of Crap, seems intent on taking the crown from CBS for offering the most slanted news coverage possible. With such trustworthy news people as Diane Sawyer available it seems strange that a former Clinton insider would be doing the questioning for the network but when Disney owns you even the news has a fantasy spin.

We were hoping Obama would walk over and slap little Georgie for his mean-spirited questions but alas he was too much the gentleman. Hillary, clinging to a razor-thin lead in the Pennsylvania polls for the primary next Tuesday was unusually smug as she kept saying such tactics should be kept out of politics while throwing one barb after another in the typical Bill Clinton fashion.

It looked like a tag team affair between Georgie and Hillary as they once again worked to distract the media and public like they did so well during the Whitewater and Lewinski scandals. Hillary says she is experienced in the demands on the chief executive but I am not sure her experiences are what the public is seeking.

If experience is all it is about then McCain and Clinton, the only two candidates eligible for membership in the AARP, have a lot of explaining to do for all those years in public service. It is not experience that counts but what you learned from the experience. There is a real difference between working up a head of steam and being caught in a fog. Let’s hope the Clinton Steam Team can get a chance to focus on issues.

February 2, 1998

Starr Subpoenas Stephanopulous
Source says Clinton did not flatly deny December meeting with Lewinsky


WASHINGTON (AllPolitics Feb. 1) -- Former White House aide George Stephanopoulos has been subpoenaed by Independent Counsel Ken Starr to appear before the grand jury in Washington, CNN learned Monday.

BULLETIN - LIGHTHOUSE WORK CREW STUNNED BY NESSIE SIGHTING

As the work crew was hard at work putting the finishing touches on the restored Coltons Point Lighthouse there was a sighting from an observation boat certain to change the perception of Coltons Point as a sleepy little hideway safely tucked along the Potomac.

The following view of the Lighthouse and Cross towering in the background on St. Clements Island just off Coltons Point captured the first confirmed sighting of the Coltons Point Nessie casually sauntering past the Island.



Rumors of the existence of such a monster have circulated for 300 years but until this week it has never been captured on film. Unlike the Nessie of Loch Ness fame in Scotland, the Coltons Point Nessie exposed much more of its massive size to the camera.

Media and photographers are expected to be lining the beaches and seawalls of the Point in the weeks to come to confirm the sighting and be the first to sell pictures to National Enquirer and other media outlets while here at the Point we wonder just what is really in the waters of the Potomac to cause such a critter to appear.

Please submit pictures and reports of your close encounters with Nessie so we can update the files and watch for the Coltons Point Nessie tee shirts to appear in the museum soon. Also you should report any missing people so a determination can be made on whether they are worth a massive sea search.

THOUSANDS OF KIDS MAY BE VICTIMS OF CULT CRIMES

America discovered just how weak our law enforcement system might be with the recent raid of the FLDS headquarters in El Dorado, Texas. The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS Church) is one of the largest polygamist denominations and one of America's largest practitioners of plural marriage. Founded in 1930 and led by a self-proclaimed prophet, Warren Steed Jeffs, currently in jail for being an accomplice in rape there are about 10,000 members of this religious cult.

The church currently practices the law of placing, whereby a young woman of marriageable age is assigned a husband by revelation from God to the leader of the church, who is regarded as a prophet. The prophet elects to take and give wives to and from men according to their worthiness. Wives may be taken from one man and reassigned to men that are more worthy.

Originally established in the border towns of Colorado City, Arizona and Hildale, Utah there are also isolated FLDS groups in Bountiful, British Columbia, Canada, Mesquite, NV, Pringle, SD, and the new headquarters at El Dorado, TX. The colony of about 1,000 FLDS members living in Bountiful, British Columbia are almost all descendents of six men.

Reported criminal activity in the cult indicates a pattern of child marriage, sexual abuse and trafficking, in which girls from the ages of 13 to 16 have been married to older men and girls are being trafficked to Canada for marriage to polygamous men in British Columbia. Adult women have also described battering, intimidation and sexual abuse within polygamous families. Young women inside these communities are vulnerable to coercion by family members and religious leaders to enter polygamous marriages. Trained to obey religious teachings and denied any other education, they may see no real alternative.

The Colorado City/Hildale area has the world's highest incidence of fumarase deficiency, an extremely rare genetic condition which causes severe mental retardation. Geneticists attribute this to the prevalence of cousin marriage between descendants of two of the town's founders, Joseph Smith Jessup and John Yeates Barlow; one local historian reports that 75–80 percent of the double-communities' roughly 10,000 inhabitants are descended from one or both of these men.

The courage of a 16 year old girl, already a mother and pregnant again broke open the case against the FLDS when she called a hotline in town for help from beatings, rape and a forced marriage. Although the Texas sheriff had an insider at the cult reporting on their illegal activity it was not until the call from the girl that law enforcement could take action and what they discovered was bizzare as over 400 children were recovered from the one compound.

One 16 year old found in the compound had 4 children. Stories of the bizzare and immoral behaviour of the sect leaders abound including the fact over 400 young teenage males were banished from the cult in the past few years because of a shortage of girls for assigned marriages as each husband must have at least 3 wives. Perhaps this shortage is what caused 13 year olds to be married.

Now what is going to happen in the other compounds where this activity has been taking place for years? Can law enforcement officials in Arizona, Utah, Nevada, South Dakota, and Canada show the same agressiveness as Texas authorities in bringing this deplorable practice to an end? We shall see.

Coltons Point Times Catches Fire

So maybe the headline is a bit of a stretch but the truth is there has been a dramatic increase in the readers of the Coltons Point Times and we would like to thank those new readers for checking us out. Unlike most newspapers the CPT remains committed to not charging for subscriptions, not collecting names for resale to so-called marketers, and not allowing any advertising on the web site.

The driving force behind the dramatic surge in readers were stories about international finances and the presidential election with the JP Morgan Chase – Bear Stearns story “A Trillionaires Delight” leading the way. It has reached the number one most popular story on etradewire and efinancewire websites in the past 30 days and it appears on dozens of diverse sites around the world.

Tracking data indicates nearly 1,100 registered journalists have accessed stories in the Coltons Point Times the past two weeks and reprints are posted around the world. One day a Google search of JP Morgan, Bear Stearns and Trillionaire articles showed our story was in every one of the top ten Google searches.

With our readership now established at about 20 times the entire population of Coltons Point we seem to be doing something right. However, although I mentioned that we do not charge, sell mailing lists or allow advertising, we do feel justified in asking that you refer the Coltons Point Times to anyone you think may need our particular brand of enlightenment. All you have to do is tell them to check out the following web site that you can cut and paste.

http://www.coltonspointtimes.blogspot.com/

It is important that the masses of humanity are exposed to the quirky and unique world of the Pointer People if there is to be any chance for the preservation of mankind. Your help in sharing our story will be most appreciated and may even help the real estate values bounce back.

Oprah Makes Pregnant Man Profitable

Thanks to the enormous ego and dedication of Oprah to bringing us the most important stories in America we now know all about the world’s first pregnant man although such a claim seems to fall on deaf ears since the man was a woman and the man kept all the women’s sexual organs.

If anything the guy/girl is the first medical miracle mutation where steroids, genetic manipulation and not sex change but the addition of male sex organs has resulted in a freak of nature who will be well rewarded for his/her efforts thanks to Oprah, People Magazine, genetic scientists and Good Morning America among others who seem to think playing God is cool.

Since Oprah insists on having her name on everything she does don’t be surprised if the kid is named Oprah if a girl, Opy if a boy, and Oopsie if a combination of the two like her mother/father or father/mother. Now is it really necessary to dominate the TV airways and magazines with such stories when so much truth is out there and needs our attention?

According to an article in The New Yorker Magazine titled Oprah’s World, Spreading the gospel of giving by Nancy Franklin I am not the only one to notice her obsession with putting her name on everything. Nancy wrote the following excerpt from the story.

“Among the possessive trademarks that Winfrey controls are Oprah & Friends, Oprah’s Angel Network, Oprah’s Book Club, Wildest Dreams with Oprah, The Oprah Store, Oprah Boutique, and Oprah’s Favorite Things. The design of the letter “O” used in the title of her magazines, O, The Oprah Magazine and O at Home, is trademarked. Leave it to Winfrey to have a trademark on the letter that’s the symbol for the element oxygen; it’s as if she owned the very air we breathe—not to mention that she was a co-founder of the TV network Oxygen, and that, it was announced two months ago, she is starting up a new venture called the Oprah Winfrey Network, whose acronym is OWN. Snap! Go to Oprah.com and sign up to join “Oprah’s world,” and stay on top of all her activities, which are taking place everywhere, all the time: on TV (her talk show is seen in more than a hundred countries), on the Internet, in movies, in bookstores, on Broadway, on newsstands, in South Africa at her school for young girls, in New Orleans reporting on Hurricane Katrina’s devastation, in Des Moines endorsing Barack Obama.”

PIGS, PORK, PROMISES AND POLITICIANS – ELECTION 2008

Was it just 16 months ago that Nancy Pelosi, newly elected Speaker of the House and leader of the Democratic majority that took over the House and Senate declared that: "The election of 2006 was a call to change — not merely to change the control of Congress, but for a new direction for our country. Nowhere were the American people more clear about the need for a new direction than in Iraq. The American people rejected an open-ended obligation to a war without end.”

Pelosi, third in line to be president, the first woman to ever get that close, promised to spend the first 100 hours in control of Congress to begin to "drain the swamp" after more than a decade of Republican rule. A legislative package was included in the 100-hour promise along with the Iraq war promise and even a major cutback in pork barrel spending by congress.

As the deadlines came and went and congress still sputtered under new management about the only thing that changed was the approval rating for congress as it went into a freefall and plunged to the lowest levels in polling history, reaching around 13%, compared to the highly unfavorable president they were after whose rating also plunged to around 30%, still almost triple that of congress.

Her agenda for change was swept under the carpet along with all the campaign promises and the longer the Democratic contenders for president battle it out no one will notice how the new Democratic leadership failed to deliver on all their promises. And now Pelosi wants Bush to boycott the Olympic Opening ceremonies in China, yet another misguided effort that will only snub the USA Olympic team whose entire lives have been dedicated to representing us in China.

Concerning pork barrel spending, Nancy promised to reduce the spending by 50%. Every year since he became president Bush tried to eliminate the spending altogether but to no avail. So with a new House Speaker and a promise for reform things looked up and the first year the pork barrel did drop from $29 billion in 2006 to $13.2 billion in 2007 for 2,668 projects although the Bush vetoes had a lot to do with it.

Now we are in the second year of Pelosi rule and lo and behold, the pork barrel spigot seems to have been turned back on with expenditures rising to $18.3 billion for 12,881 pet projects. In just one year we went from a 60% reduction in spending to a 40% increase in spending, what a stunning turnaround. I guess Nancy forgot to mention she was only going to stop pork barrel for one year. And who is the national leader in pork barrel projects, why Hillary Clinton of course. Now just how are things changing for the better?

ONLY FOOLS ARE FOOLED APRIL 1ST

April Fools has come and passed,
and we are still the biggest a--!

This is great. On April 1st, April Fools Day, weird things really started to happen. More depressing news about the multi-billion dollar sub prime mortgage losses by the big investment houses and international banks, so the next day the stock market goes up about 400 points. Since when did bad news cause market gains? Until today it didn’t matter what kind of news, good or bad, you could count on the market going down.

I mean the economics experts and media mouthpieces declared and demanded that we were in a recession. Only bad stuff happens in recessions. The market can’t go up like that, not after all we did to bring it down. Then two of the most popular arthritis prescriptions were discovered to not work, after years of use and millions of users. Still the market went up.

Follow that with the opening of major league baseball and the Yankees got rained out. For the first time in history there are four number 1 teams in the NCAA March Madness semi-finals. Just 1,500 more commercials and we can crown the national champion. John McCain is wandering around America trying to rediscover his roots and remind us he is still alive and running for president. He best be careful, no telling how many wild oats he sowed in his youth that he doesn’t remember. Still the market went up.

Speaking of sowing wild oats, how many of your kids would have the slightest idea what you were talking about if you told them to go sow their wild oats? Maybe you don’t know either? People have sure left behind a lot of rich culture that was traded in for such modern riches as microwave radiation and mauling of the English language. I think people raised in America who can’t speak proper English should be fined. Assault and battery on the spoken word should be the charge.

Back to now, we also were told cell phone radiation will cause more cases of cancer and brain tumors and more people will die from microwave radiation poisoning than from lung cancer. They still don’t know the effect of point blank microwave radiation on the electrical circuitry of the brain over extended periods of time. Kids could be frying their brain cells. I have an English study over 10 years old that said the same thing. We didn’t listen then, why should we listen now? Still the market went up.

And what in the world do you think the long-term effect of Viagra on our old geysers might be? Extended life or early death, are possible. You know ever since they added that line to the Viagra ad, under the warning part, that said “if your erection lasts longer than four hours consult your doctor immediately,” sales have increased tenfold. I’m sure men would not want to risk using it if they thought they might have an erection for over four hours. Maybe when they reach four hours someone should first check them for rigormortis, might be a better explanation.

Today we also learned that over 50% of all the public school students in our 17 largest cities drop out of high school. Well that sure explains why our test scores are going up. Get rid of the losers and the average grade of the rest goes up. Didn’t the president start an education program called No One Left Behind or something like that? I see all that money had a real positive effect on our children. Why are per pupil costs increasing when the number of pupils is decreasing by over 1.2 million a year? Still the market went up.

A lot of other strange stuff happened as well. The presidents of the oil companies talked to Congress today. The congressmen bitched, the oil men said they needed the billions of dollars in profits to protect their companies from future problems, and they still had their billions in tax benefits when they left along with the billions in profits. Don’t know about you but to me having a three-ring circus in congress and calling it a hearing to investigate the oil companies is the height of conceit or the pinnacle of hypocrisy.

I’m a bit more concerned about the amount of money these same people have invested in our politicians this year. For all federal races this year, meaning president, house and senate races, the Lawyers and Law Firms have given $159 millions, Securities and Investment firms have given $104.5 millions, Commercial Banks have given $24.1 millions, Oil & Gas companies have given $14.2 millions, and Pharmaceutical firms have given $13.6 millions. That means those five industries alone have invested over $315.4 millions to see that the “right” politician wins.

Keep your eyes open my friends. See if anything really does change. There will be a lot of new faces, no question. Truth is there should have been a lot more getting tossed out but people haven’t seen the light yet. At least 80% of the incumbents will get elected yet again thanks to all that special interest money they received. The same people who passed the budgets, approved the wars and passed the laws for the last eight years will be back and as long as they are there Barack, Hillary or John may be president but congress will still control the agenda. Who will control congress?

What a shame everything I just reported on is true and not an April 1st prank.

REMEMBER YOUR VOW TO US!

Well all three remaining presidential candidates have promised not to take special interest money and not to be influenced by special interests. So as of April 1 here is what they have not done. A special thanks to the opensecrets.org group and their Center for Responsive Government for posting the federal campaign reports of the candidates.

Barack Obama Total Raised $193,600,733 Total Spent $154,767,643 Cash on Hand $38,833,089 Debts $625,058.

Hillary Clinton Total Raised $169,003,120 Total Spent $135,828,257 Cash on Hand $33.174,862 Debts $8,733,609.

John McCain Total Raised $64,654,539 Total Spent $56,657,944 Cash on Hand $7,996,595 Debts $4,340,981.
BARACK OBAMA (D)

Top Industries
1 Lawyers/Law Firms $13,341,673
2 Misc Business $10,261,541
3 Retired $9,058,652
4 Securities & Investment $6,715,680
5 Education $5,069,186
6 Real Estate $3,429,506
7 Business Services $2,942,591
8 TV/Movies/Music $2,938,164
9 Misc Finance $2,241,483
10 Health Professionals $2,229,996
11 Computers/Internet $2,188,950
12 Civil Servants/Public Officials $1,819,978
13 Commercial Banks $1,366,708
14 Printing & Publishing $1,339,692
15 Non-Profit Institutions $782,689
16 Hospitals/Nursing Homes $732,557
17 Other $699,717
18 Insurance $695,587
19 Construction Services $607,996
20 Retail Sales $558,015

BARACK OBAMA (D)

Top Contributors
Goldman Sachs $522,228
UBS AG $327,302
JP Morgan Chase & Co. $316,892
Lehman Brothers $302,697
National Amusements Inc $293,022
Citigroup, Inc. $290,146
University of California $275,046
Sidley Austin LLP $271,857
Harvard University $264,941
Google Inc $259,010
Skadden, Arps et al $248,743
Exelon Corp $227,661
Morgan Stanley $225,976
Time Warner $221,878
Jones Day $212,525
Latham & Watkins $187,208
Kirkland & Ellis $181,976
University of Chicago $179,147
Citadel Investment Group $175,900
Micrcosoft Corp $167,990

HILLARY CLINTON (D)

Top Industries
1 Lawyers/Law Firms $14,528,397
2 Misc Business $7,049,878
3 Retired $6,797,545
4 Securities & Investment $6,595,700
5 Real Estate $5,708,664
6 Business Services $3,678,060
7 Education $3,259,386
8 TV/Movies/Music $2,940,867
9 Health Professionals $2,613,779
10 Misc Finance $2,331,271
11 Computers/Internet $1,701,717
12 Civil Servants/Public Officials $1,637,316
13 Commercial Banks $1,367,684
14 Printing & Publishing $1,167,628
15 Misc Manufacturing & Distributing $1,000,738
16 Accountants $966,834
17 Insurance $911,256
18 Lobbyists $880,790
19 Retail Sales $870,848
20 Non-Profit Institutions $858,852

HILLARY CLINTON (D)

Top Contributors
DLA Piper $495,550
Goldman Sachs $440,300
Morgan Stanley $385,420
Citigroup, Inc $383,852
EMILY's List $323,242
Lehman Brothers $264,610
JP Morgan Chase & Co. $258,120
National Amusements Inc $227,800
Skadden, Arps et al $218,485
Greenberg Traurig LLP $191,100
Kirkland & Ellis $186,551
Pricewaterhouse Coopers $185,000
University of California $184,617
Time Warner $182,150
Microsoft Corp $175,419
Merrill Lynch $172,900
Ernest & Young $157,575
Latham & Watkins $155,088
Bear Stearns $152,090
Cablevision Systems $148,263

JOHN MCCAIN (R) At present John is so far behind we will give him a chance to catch up. Of course he also has similar contributors so he better keep his pledge as well. Keep an eye on the campaign debts with both Hillary and John in the millions of dollars. Also keep an eye on the incredible amount of contributions from the financial sector including investment banks, commercial banks, etc., the same groups now being investigated by Congress and the Justice Department.

TAKING BACK AMERICA – THIS IS MY COUNTRY!

Yes it is time for change!

If the people of America want to get control of their country now is the time but it can only happen if they take responsibility for what happens in their country. You see, people seem to have forgotten the rest of the story when it comes to our Bill of Rights. When they published the full title of the Amendments to the Constitution the editors left out part of the title. It should have read the Bill of Rights and Responsibilities.

There is no better generation to fix that problem than the battle tested, Cold War conditioned, oil shortage hardened Baby Boomers who are the only generation of the past century to understand the price of freedom and the dangers of democracy. I think every person who cares and wants things better should wear a tee shirt and paste bumper stickers that proclaim, “This is My Country!”

We can start by telling the politicians who want to be president that we the people will tell them what we need and what to do. Last time I checked they work for us. So the true Agenda for Change will be presented in this series of articles on Taking Back America. The pollsters, political advisors and advertising agencies that put words or sound bytes into the mouths of politicians have it all wrong. They are the very people who got us into this mess.

No we need to give government back to the people, give God back to the government and give meaning back to our Declaration and Constitution. We need to provide what people need, stop promoting what we don’t need, and start seeing government act like our friend and protector rather than a front for greed and power hungry individuals or corporations.

America must be wealthy, not the rulers who try and run or own America. Don’t you think those who claim to know have victimized us for long enough? We want a nation where housing laws protect the homeowners not the mortgage and financial institutions. We want banking laws that protect the citizens not the credit card companies, debt collectors, lawyers and hidden fees.

Our government licenses telephone companies, television and radio stations, banks, mortgage companies, investment banks, doctors and stock brokers among many others, while we regulate the stock market, commodity market (including the price of oil and food), energy companies, interstate commerce, foreign aid and practically every other aspect of our lives. Do you feel protected?

We spend more money protecting oil producing nations, arms dealers, drug companies, banks and investment houses than we do protecting people and that has simply got to change. Look at the cost, $500 billion and 4,000 American lives in Iraq to protect the Arab nations from Arab terrorists, or is it the Arab oil producers from disruption? What do we get? Record oil prices, no effort by OPEC to increase production and lower prices, and the scorn of the world.

Or how about our Afghanistan experience? We spend billions to chase the terrorists out of Afghanistan into hiding in Pakistan, a nation where we spend billions more to protect the military and government that gives the terrorists safe haven. We have no viable foreign policy, we just support the arms dealers of the world who make sure there is always civil unrest, genocide and demigods running amok where we can spend billions more defending people. If America stopped financing war directly and indirectly do you think the arms dealers would spend their own money to cause wars?

Back in the good old USA we have more than enough wars of our own to fight against the destruction of our immune systems by the pharmaceutical companies, the addictions imposed on us by television, video games, hospitals and doctors, the health care industry, the wellness industry, the physical education industry, and all those who think the only way to good health is through the pocketbook.

Then there are the phone companies, banks and credit card companies with their incredible hidden fees and confusing billings, insurance companies that increase rates for reasons having nothing to do with their insurance coverage, the media whose message is always influenced by the advertising dollars it might generate, and the government who works for everyone but the people it is supposed to represent.



Oh it is time for change all right, and the change we need must be cataclysmic to do any good. All the shadowy figures that profit from our difficulties, steal from our treasury and attempt to influence our minds and destroy our wills are counting on us being too weak, too self-centered and too preoccupied to bring about change but I say they are wrong. Once again the bad guys have underestimated the power of freedom and the will of the people.

Proudly display your sign This is My Country and then do what they don’t expect, show you care. Help establish the Agenda for Change that we need, not the one politicians say we need. Start out by making a concerted effort to send a message to the oil profiteers by joining in a national effort to stay at home from Memorial Day until the Fourth of July, Independence Day, and reduce oil and gas consumption as much as possible.

Spend weekends with your family, seeing what you missed in your community, state and surrounding areas. Enjoy the local festivals and events. Turn off television and limit your time on the Internet and we can start to get back our nation. Asking you to save money does not sound like too much to ask. Please share this article with anyone and everyone you can by directing them to: http://coltonspointtimes.blogspot.com/.

Comments and suggestions are welcome.

What are the targets for change?

1. Money Mongers of the Financial Institutions

Who are these people and what threat do they represent? Well, the intricate web of interlocking ownership, access to media, control of pricing in stocks, currency, commodities and bonds, and insulation from scrutiny probably make this the single most powerful force on Earth, capable of controlling governments and destroying opposition without ever getting their own hands dirty. You see they are invisible to the general public.

Financial institutions control the world simply put and they do not serve the world in the process, as serving is not a good return on investment. They set up mutual funds to consolidate investment power and get government to create more sources of funds and turn them over to the financiers to manage such as pension funds, 401K funds, IRAs and many others.

They create financial “experts” to tell us what is happening to our investment markets and how to invest what money we do control completely ignoring the conflicts of interest when the greatest beneficiaries of the advice are the market makers, the very financial institutions whose experts are giving supposedly objective market advice.

What does that mean? The media takes the advice of industry experts and tells us the price of oil is going up because of the potential for a hurricane in the gulf that may or may not disrupt supply lines and drilling operations. A suicide bombing in Iraq shows that the crude oil supply from that country is not stable so a shortage of future oil may result if a bombing of the oil pipelines is successful. Cold weather in American means there will be a shortage of heating oil no matter that there are sufficient inventories already in the country. So the price of oil goes up, and up and up.

Who benefits? The owners of the crude oil, the companies that pay them for the crude, the banks that finance the companies, the stockholders that own shares of the companies, the IRAs, 401Ks, pension funds and mutual funds that pump money into the companies, the companies selling and buying their stocks, or the companies setting market prices? Guess what, all of them could be part of the financial institutions benefiting from the market manipulations caused by the speculative reports on the industry by the media.

So why does the Federal Trade Commission and Securities and Exchange Commission let them do this? The FTC and SEC are supposed to be our government watchdogs protecting the public from unscrupulous financial manipulators. For two years the same financial sector was behind the unethical, immoral and often-illegal manipulation of the sub-prime mortgage markets as well which nearly sent the USA into recession and certainly left millions of homeowners in foreclosure. Where were the federal regulators?

2. Mortgage Lenders – Vampires of the Golden Dream

Even though mortgage lenders can be owned, controlled or manipulated by the financial sector and banking institutions they are often set up independently until they finish preying on an unsuspecting public, having got caught using questionable practices (sub-prime loans for example), using heavy handed tactics, misleading consumers and initiating mortgage foreclosures.

When this happens the lenders now approaching bankruptcy get bought out by the financial and banking sectors that are seeking to acquire real estate property at far below the loan value. So losses are written off, property is acquired far below the loan value, new mortgages are written to resell or refinance the property, a few million people lose their homes due to foreclosures, and the financial institutions now have a new division with secure assets and credit worthy clients.

Of course we then lose sight of the fact illegal mortgages and unethical selling practices caused the bail out cycle to take place. Or that mortgage lenders, sales people, lawyers and credit rating firms were all players in this billion-dollar scam. That closing fees, collection fees and late fees have made someone millions of dollars at the expense of the hapless homeowners.

Finally even the government backed mortgage programs like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, (what great names for federal backed mortgage players), not to mention the long list of programs such as VA, Indian, Rural, Low Income and other federal mortgage and housing programs must be ever more vigilant to root out corruption, contract fixing, slipshod construction and repair work, inefficient heating and utilities and other problems that beset our federal and state housing efforts.

3. Credit Card Industry Standards, Fees and Collection Methods

Now this is an area of regulatory meltdown and benign neglect involving federal and state agencies ranging from the FTC to Congress, from the SEC to Justice Department. There is a body of law at both the state and federal levels that regulates these practices but no one seems to pay attention.

The issuance of credit cards through the mail and Internet and the proliferation of offers from credit card companies are astounding. The never-ending changes in interest rates charged, the justification for such changes, the explanation of such practices and the downright deception in consumer information is appalling and predatory.

Fees change constantly for ATM charges, handling, processing, vendor, fraud, security, and any other excuse to stick it to the consumer. Credit rating companies feed information to credit card companies and collection companies making the whole business of debt collection a financial windfall to lawyers, collection agencies, process servers and even the courts. Lies regarding the rights of the cardholder are overwhelming to most people, threatening to them and their credit, and fraught with heavy-handed tactics.

Simply stated there is no protection for people from getting the cards, understanding the changing fees, and especially getting caught in the late payment and collection process. Debts are written off yet collection efforts go full steam. When debts should be forgiven efforts are still made to scare the consumers into making payments. If we allow a credit card company to write off the bad debt, then why is the collection industry pursuing the poor consumer with no money? Why are the bad debts written off years before the debt is forgiven to the consumer?

4. Health Care Industry Cost, Insurance and Unnecessary Treatment

Just look at the facts and there is no doubt this system is broken. In 2006 we spent $2.1 trillion on health care, over $7,026 for every person in the USA, and it took over 16% of our Gross Domestic Product. That is 4.3 times more money than we spent on defense. The cost of health care increases at more than double the inflation rate annually.

At 16% of GDP we have the highest health care costs of any developed nation with the next highest being Switzerland 10.9%, Germany 10.7%, Canada 9.7% and France 9.5%. Americans spent one third more on health care than any of these nations, and while 50 million Americans do not have health insurance all of the citizens in the other nations mentioned receive health care. At our current pace we will be spending $4 trillion on health care in just 7 years, by 2015.

With the war in Iraq one might expect the cost of health care for veterans to be substantial as treatment in the war zone is far improved from earlier wars and for every death of a soldier there are 9 wounded soldiers that return home. Yet the cost of veteran’s health care drops to $5,000 per person, $2,000 less per year than civilians.

What is causing these statistical aberrations? Are we much sicker than citizens of the other nations? Is there a greater medical risk to civilians in America than our soldiers in Iraq? Why are 50 million Americans uninsured when all of the citizens of other nations receive health care?

According to the latest statistics employer paid health insurance premiums in the USA were $11,500 for families and about $4,200 for individuals. That means annual health insurance premiums account for a substantial portion of health care costs. Something is very wrong with the system.

So what is the average educational debt for new doctors coming into the market? According to the Association of American Medical Colleges, the average educational debt of indebted graduates of the class of 2006 (including pre-med borrowing) is $130,571. The average debt of graduating medical students increased in 2006 by 8.5 percent over the previous year. 72 percent of graduates have debt of at least $100,000. 86.6 percent of graduating medical students carry outstanding loans. 40.2 percent of 2006 graduates have non-educational debt, averaging $16,689. Source: AAMC 2006 Graduation Questionnaires.

So how much do they make when they graduate? Cardiologists were the most sought-after specialists last year, fetching salaries ranging from $234,000 to $525,000 and averaging $320,000 a year, according to surveys. Close behind cardiologists are radiologists and orthopedic surgeons. Now why do we loan med students the money when bank financing would be readily available in light of their low risk?

5. Pharmaceutical Industry Proliferation of Prescription Drugs

This can be short and sweet. In 2002 we spent $162 billion on prescription drugs and in 2006 we spent $217 billion on prescription drugs. One out of every five Americans takes 5 or more prescriptions per day. All Americans average 2.9 prescriptions per day. Our senior citizens, who are increasing very rapidly with the aging of the Baby Boomers, averaged $559 for prescriptions in 1992, $1,205 for prescriptions in 2000, and $1,912 in 2005 with spending expected to reach $2,805 in 2010.

Every day it seems the health authorities announce yet another prescription drug that does not work, or whose long-term effects are determined to be more dangerous than expected. Yet every day it seems there are new prescriptions for new diseases. We live longer but spend far more. Kids are over-prescribed with Ritalin and other drugs. They are addicted to drugs they don’t even take raiding medicine cabinets for the new drug culture.

6. FDA (Food and Drug Administration) Drug Approval Process

If drug prices in America have been rising almost five times as fast as inflation then the FDA must assume some of the responsibility as they are the regulatory agency charged with overseeing the over-the-counter and prescription drugs so abundant in our society.

The FDA new drug approval process with layers of clinical animal and human trials is the most costly, most lengthy and often most bizarre in terms of protocols and criteria for approval in the world. It is a process designed for the benefit of wealthy pharmaceutical companies, not for the small and independent research companies and laboratories.

Major pharmaceutical firms have managed to negotiate with FDA for new drug approval even if the drug extends the life expectancy of the patient by just 30 days. Yet when these products are sold to the public no one seems to mention they might only be good for 30 days at a cost of thousands of dollars

Things have gotten so ridiculous in the approval process that television ads for the drug Celebrex contain so many warnings of side effects and drug interactions that the ad actually states “the FDA says the benefits may outweigh the risks” when taking it. Are they crazy? It might be safe to take it?

Human trials approved by FDA require a protocol where half of the patients are given a placebo rather than the drug so results taking the drug can be measured against a control group not taking the drug. Not a bad practice unless the drug is experimental and the disease is going to kill the patient.

For example, stage 3 cancer patients have weeks or months to live. At stage 3 any normal and extremely expensive treatment like chemo, radiation or surgery has already failed. When they are offered a chance to participate in an experiment that might save their life and the option is certain death you might think they would jump at the chance, but that is not the case.

Why would they sign up when only half the people will even receive the treatment, with the other half getting meaningless placebos? If they are in the half that gets the candy and not the drug they die. If they get the drug there is a chance they might live. When you are facing death there should not be a 50-50 chance you won’t get the treatment.

Other problems with the industry include their price gouging, opposition to generic drugs selling for much less, opposition to foreign drugs also selling for much less, payments to doctors for prescribing their drugs, and unsubstantiated claims regarding over-the-counter drugs like cough syrup which has been proven to do no good.

7. Agriculture – Food Testing, Ingredients and Source

You go to the grocery store, check the fresh meat, see something that looks nice and red and fresh and buy it. Or maybe you buy the chicken to fry up for dinner. Then again you might buy pet food for your favorite dog or cat. Now did anyone tell you fresh meat like beef should not be red? Did they tell you color dyes and carbon monoxide are used to give the cuts of meat that color and they are injected in the butcher shop?

Did they tell you the chicken was raised in a hen house and pumped with hormones, steroids and God knows what else to fatten it up for the slaughter? Did they tell you about everything you just bought included rendered animal parts?

Did they mention rendering plants use raw product including thousands of dead dogs and cats; heads and hooves from cattle, sheep, pigs and horses; whole skunks; rats and raccoons? Did they mention the millions of maggots swarming over the carcasses? Did they tell you the carcasses would be ground up and cooked to create batches of yellow grease, meal and bone meal, and that the meat and bone meal would be used as a source of protein and other nutrients in poultry, swine and pet foods?

That the animal fat is used as an “energy source” and millions of tons will be trucked to poultry ranches, cattle feed-lots, dairy and hog farms, fish-feed plants and pet-food manufacturers where it is mixed with other ingredients to feed the billions of animals that meat-eating humans, in turn, will eat.

When you look at the ingredient label and it says the meat included protein it sounds good but is that protein from the rendered carcasses and what are the health consequences of eating a standard diet of rendered byproduct? The deadly Mad Cow disease was caused by feeding rendered products to cattle.

8. Campaign Reform – Empty Promises and Empty Wallets

For the first time in our history the presidential campaign alone in 2008 is expected to cost over one billion dollars. Now that is a whole lot of money being spent to win a job that pays $400,000 a year and only lasts four years. One billion dollars spent to make $1,600,000. If that is the result of capitalism then we might have a problem.

Campaign reform has been talked about more and acted upon less than any other issue facing congress and the president. Political advertising costs are criminal. Some campaigns spend more money raising money than they do getting elected. Special interest groups give to candidates, give more to national political parties, more to state political parties and then spend money themselves to influence elections.

Over $1 billion will be spent running for president and that can be changed if the president and congress have the guts. Paid ads can be stopped, special interest funding can be stopped, and a logical schedule for primaries can be held. Candidates can receive free media time since all the airways are government regulated. Voter registration can be increased.

There are about 226 million people eligible to vote in the USA and about 142 million are registered to vote. In 2004 about 121 million did vote for president. That means about 53% of the eligible voters participated in the last presidential election, a pretty weak total for the citadel of democracy in the world. That needs to be fixed. Require automatic voter registration with social security cards or drivers licenses if need be but get people back involved in the process. We can’t make people vote but we can make sure they have the opportunity to vote.

9. Immigration Reform – The Slumbering Social Issue of the Day

So far the candidates have done a masterful job of avoiding the issue of Immigration reform although before the campaign heated up they had a variety of ideas to offer. Now it seems the ideas have been taken off the table in hopes no one noticed they flip flopped on an issue.

There are a few areas of agreement. For one everyone agrees we need to strengthen border security on both the Canadian and Mexican borders. We also acknowledge that there are millions of Mexican workers illegally in the USA gainfully employed at jobs typically not wanted by Americans. What to do about them is a huge problem.

Since there is widespread opposition to any kind of amnesty program allowing them to remain without consequence perhaps a better alternative would be to allow those illegal immigrants and their families to remain with a permanent work visa if they are gainfully employed and have paid taxes in the United States.

They are here and they pay our income and sales taxes. They have cars and drivers licenses. They are making a substantial contribution to Social Security even though they cannot draw benefits. What amnesty are we giving them? If we throw them out don’t we owe them back their income, sales and social security payments? I say they have paid enough already for a permanent visa and they should be welcomed if they complete our citizenship requirements.

If the illegal immigrants that are gainfully employed and contributing to our tax and social security system are granted permanent work visas, overnight we will reduce the border security issues saving substantial money and improving relations between our two countries. This will free up resources to pursue the criminal elements from foreign countries that come illegally for far more sinister reasons.

Not only do millions of illegal immigrants pay taxes and provide services we would not otherwise have but they are also victims to hordes of unscrupulous people involved in car sales and repair, medical treatment, legal assistance, and many other areas because they have no way to protect themselves. They cannot go to law enforcement agencies for help, as they would be prosecuted. The simple act of granting well-earned permanent work visas would stop predators from taking advantage of their status.

For more go to: http://www.coltonspointtimes.blogspot.com/

SLICKER THAN AN OIL SPILL

Oil Price Catastrophe

Why has our resident oil expert in the Bush administration, Vice President Cheney, been absolutely silent about the world wide oil scam resulting in higher prices when all economic statistics say the price should be going down? His old oil company Halliburton has moved their headquarters from America to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. Is Cheney fleeing the country too when he is out of office and moving to the safety of the Arab world to rejoin the company?

Maybe that is why he is in the Middle East right now, looking for a house when he retires in 11 months. Right now someone is making billions of dollars in blood profits and someone in Washington, D.C. better pay attention. Our crooked financial institutions are reaping millions of dollars in oil profits to offset the millions of dollars in mortgage losses. Giant oil companies refuse to build more refinery capacity to keep the supply low and profits up yet they benefit from billions in tax shelters.

When the financial institutions get caught cheating which is about once a month now they are rewarded with minimum fines, no jail time, they still get their million dollar salaries and bonuses, and as if that is not enough, they get a tax deduction on their fines. What has happened to our world?

Bush says everything will be okay. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson can’t even tell us if we are in a recession. And our oil expert is dead silent on oil. Maybe these are signs the lame duck is lamer than we think? You don't think Henry Paulsen is related to Pat Paulsen do you?

J.P. Morgan Chase buyout of Bear Stearns – A Trillionaires Delight

Somewhere in the trillionaires room of Heaven three old codgers are sitting around a table smoking cigars and chuckling over the J. P Morgan Chase & Company buyout of Bear Stearns for a paltry $2.00 a share. Not so much because the price had been over $130 a share a few weeks earlier but because the Federal Reserve Board put up $30 billion of the government’s money to guarantee the sale.

Yes, Mayer Amschel Rothschild, J. P. Morgan and John D. Rockefeller, patriarchs of three of the most powerful family fortunes in history have waited nearly two centuries to see their dreams fulfilled. Perhaps such patience is why their families have remained successful by steadfastly maintaining the rules of the game as set down by their founders.

It was 248 years ago, in 1760 that Mayer Amschel Rothschild created the House of Rothschild that was to pave the way for international banking and control of the world’s resources on a scale unparalleled and somewhat mysterious to this date. He disbursed his five sons to set up banking operations throughout Europe and the various European empires.

"Give me control of a nation's money and I care not who makes the laws."
Mayer Amschel Rothschild

In time the House of Rothschild was able to take control of the Bank of France and Bank of England and relentlessly pursued an effort over two centuries to control a national bank in the USA. By 1850 it was said the Rothschild family was worth over $6 billion and owned one half of the world’s wealth.

From oil (Shell) to diamonds (DeBeers) to gold (from 1919 until 2004 a Rothschild was permanent Chairman of the London Gold Fixing committee which met twice a day in the Rothschild offices in London) the Rothschild’s quietly accumulated a foothold in critical industries and commodities throughout the world.

A master at building impenetrable walls around his family assets the current value of the Rothschild holdings are estimated to be between $100 and $300 trillion, yes that is trillion dollars! Now for a point of reference the current United States National Debt is $9.4 trillion.

J. P. Morgan began as the New York agent for his father’s business in London in 1860 and by 1877 was floating $260 million in US Bonds to save the government from an economic collapse. In 1890 he inherited the business and in 1895 bought $200 million in US Bonds with gold to again save the US economy.

“If you have to ask how much it costs, you can't afford it.”
J. P. Morgan

By 1912 he controlled $22 billion and had started companies such as US Steel and General Electric while he owned several railroads. Morgan was also an American agent for the House of Rothschild in London and used the Rothschild resources to help people like John D. Rockefeller.

Rockefeller, who started Standard Oil in 1863 with the help of Morgan, grew his company into the largest oil company in the world and by 1916 Rockefeller was the first billionaire in American history. In 1909 he had set up the Rockefeller Foundation with $225 million and donated nearly a billion more dollars to various causes. The Rockefeller family fortune is estimated to be around $11 trillion today.

“The way to make money is to buy when blood is running in the streets.”
John D. Rockefeller

So what did they have in common these extraordinary capitalists? They all were dedicated to owning a national bank in America so they could determine the fiscal policies of the nation and earn interest on the debt of the nation.

Rothschild agents in 1791 formed the First Bank of the United States but intense opposition to foreign ownership by President Jefferson and others helped kill it by 1811. A Second Bank of the United States was formed in 1816 once again by Rothschild agents and this time they secured a 20-year charter. However, President Andrew Jackson was also opposed to foreign ownership and withdrew the federal deposits in 1832 as part of his plan to kill the bank charter in 1836.

An attempt to assassinate Jackson in 1834 left him wounded but more determined than ever to stop the central bank. Thirty years later President Lincoln refused to pay international bankers extremely high interest rates during the Civil War and ordered the printing of government bonds. With the help of Russian Czar Alexander II who also blocked a similar national bank from being set up in Russia by the international bankers they were able to survive the economic squeeze.

Lincoln said, "The money powers prey upon the nation in times of peace and conspire against it in times of adversity. The banking powers are more despotic than a monarchy, more insolent than autocracy, more selfish than bureaucracy. They denounce as public enemies all who question their methods or throw light upon their crimes. I have two great enemies, the Southern Army in front of me and the bankers in the rear. Of the two, the one at my rear is my greatest foe. Corporations have been enthroned, and an era of corruption in high places will follow. The money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until the wealth is aggregated in the hands of a few, and the Republic is destroyed."

Both Lincoln and Alexander II were assassinated. In 1881 James Garfield became president and he was dedicated to restoring the right of the federal government to issue money like Lincoln did in the Civil War and he was also assassinated.

Finally along came 1913 and the US was again suffering from a weak economy and there was a threat of another costly war, a world war this time, and business tycoons J.P. Morgan, John D. Rockefeller and E.H. Harriman were part of a group that got Woodrow Wilson to sign into law the Federal Reserve Act creating a network of 12 privately owned banks as part of a new Federal Reserve network.

One of the largest stockholders in the new Federal Reserve was the House of Rothschild through their direct and indirect holdings. A few years later it was disclosed that the Rothschilds also owned about 20% of J. P. Morgan. In time Morgan would merge with the Chase Manhattan Bank of the Rockefellers.

Years later John F. Kennedy opposed a private national bank and was assassinated in 1963 and Ronald Reagan opposed a private national bank and in 1981 an attempt was made to assassinate him. Coincidence or not the opposition to a privately owned national bank was a common characteristic to all these successful assassinations and assassination attempts.

Which brings us full circle to the present bailout of Bear Stearns by J.P. Morgan Chase & Company and we find the Rothschild, Morgan and Rockefeller families are all conveniently part of the same group benefiting from the bailout and the $30 billion guarantee by the Federal Reserve. This is the third time the J. P. Morgan Company has come to the rescue of the American banking system and economy.

FERRARO – A BLAST FROM THE PAST

Geraldine Ferraro, in a blast from the past, became the latest Clinton campaign official to shoot off their mouth about Barack Obama and then desperately attempt to deflect the underlying intent of her remarks by reinforcing the very thing she said she didn’t do. Sound complicated, well it is.

Remember Ferraro, the VP candidate with running mate Walter Mondale who lost every state but Mondale's home in Minnesota in a landslide when running against Ronald Reagan in 1984? Mrs. Ferraro made it a point to point out to Diane Sawyer in a Good Morning America interview today that she is now a highly successful person and paid to give speeches, yes paid to give speeches.

Do we really care? Does that mean she did or didn’t mean what she said, just because she got paid? According to the International Speakers.com Ferraro gets paid between $20,000-30,000 for speeches like this. Perhaps the Obama controversy was a way to hype the speech coverage to justify the cost? Ferraro was appointed ambassador to the United Nations Committee on Human Rights during the Clinton administration thus her loyalty to the Clintons.

On Good Morning America she apologized again this morning to those who thought it racially insensitive for her to suggest that Barack Obama wouldn't be the Democratic front-runner if he were not black. But she also declared: "It wasn't a racist comment. It was a statement of fact."

During a hostile and aggressive interview with Sawyer she also bashed the Obama campaign for criticizing her, saying that "every time" someone makes a negative comment about Obama, they are accused of racism.

Last Tuesday night she had even stronger words for the Daily Breeze, the newspaper in Torrance, Calif., whose interview with her last Friday started the whole mess. "Racism works in two different directions," she said. "I really think they're attacking me because I'm white. How's that?"

The Obama campaign has called on Clinton, who has distanced herself from Ferraro's comments, to remove her from her finance committee. But that hasn't happened yet. A defiant Ferraro said today she would step down from the committee if asked, but would not stop raising money for Clinton.

Her exact words in the original Daily Breeze article dated 3/7/2008:

Geraldine Ferraro lets her emotions do the talking
By Jim Farber Staff Writer

When the subject turned to Obama, Clinton's rival for the Democratic Party nomination, Ferraro's comments took on a decidedly bitter edge.

"I think what America feels about a woman becoming president takes a very secondary place to Obama's campaign - to a kind of campaign that it would be hard for anyone to run against," she said. "For one thing, you have the press, which has been uniquely hard on her. It's been a very sexist media. Some just don't like her. The others have gotten caught up in the Obama campaign.

"If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position," she continued. "And if he was a woman (of any color) he would not be in this position. He happens to be very lucky to be who he is. And the country is caught up in the concept." Ferraro does not buy the notion of Obama as the great reconciler.

"I was reading an article that said young Republicans are out there campaigning for Obama because they believe he's going to be able to put an end to partisanship," Ferraro said, clearly annoyed. "Dear God! Anyone that has worked in the Congress knows that for over 200 years this country has had partisanship - that's the way our country is."

As our conversation came to an end, Ferraro said of her upcoming talk in Torrance, "It's going to be very up to date. It's going to be my version of the inside story."

Ferraro aside, it is a good thing perceptions aren't implied by pictures alone in this Democratic slugfest. Pictures can be misleading. Oh my gosh, is that Bill and Hillary dressed as African Americans?

You don't suppose they are Muslim too?

IS OIL BAILING OUT THE SUB-PRIME MORTGAGE MESS?

The Big Fix?

We all know how the investment banks, financial institutions and brokers tried to manipulate the American mortgage market and in their greed lost site of good business practices and created a stock scam called sub-prime mortgages which were then packaged and sold by Wall Street. With the feeding frenzy created by this illusion of housing prices raising ad infinitum the greed moguls and the greed mongers accepted millions of mortgages from people with no ability to pay them.

Stock was sold over and over again until the very citadels of our financial sector, the very banks and investment houses we rely on to protect our savings, protect our retirement and manage our economy were inundated with high risk holdings. Then a very unusual thing happened, truth prevailed. Housing prices stopped increasing because they were already way beyond the real value of the property.

Suddenly our trusted money managers were left holding billions and billions of dollars in inflated adjustable rate mortgages, and the home purchasers had no chance to make the escalating monthly payments. Mortgage defaults by the millions were set in motion and the money managers, also entrusted with our hard earned savings, retirement funds and stock holdings, lost billions and billions of real dollars, a total estimated at over $215 billion on mortgages alone.

Then the stock market prices collapsed as the backbone of our financial sector was swamped in losses and unable to explain how greed overshadowed laws and how they were willing to sacrifice the financial well-being of their clients to protect their own jobs, bonuses and buys out to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars. So where do the pillars of finance stand today?

To avoid bankruptcy and avoid sending the world into economic crises they secured massive amounts of money from China, other Asian countries and the oil rich Arab world. So what is the price they paid to be bailed out by foreign money? Better still, what is the price we paid for our financial citadels to be bailed out by foreign money?

Today we see the same laundry list of financial powerhouses trying to regain their strength and stability in the market and lo and behold what happens to the market? First the oil prices defy every law and principle of accounting and keep skyrocketing at a pace never seen before. Second, virtually all other sectors of the market with the exception of gold collapse, almost as if being forced down so SOMEONE can step in and buy stock at depressed prices to salvage their balance sheets.

If this were a thoroughbred race, yet another industry being taken over by the Arab oil money, one would say the big fix is on. Something very crooked is being done to make someone an awful lot of money and they are playing with grey areas of the law to make it happen.

Well Congress and the presidential candidates should ask who is benefiting from the spiraling oil and gold prices and the collapse of the stock market. Then Congress and the candidates should do something we haven’t seen in many years. Do something about it! If the financial institutions that lost $200 billion of our dollars, not theirs, have decided to artificially maintain high oil and gold prices and low stock prices so they can regain their credibility and stave off any investigations by a gutless congress and the more gutless international group called the World Bank then maybe it is time to repopulate the jails with people who deserve to be there.

Every financial institution in the world should be investigated to determine if they are profiting from the rigged oil prices of today. Expose their layers of hidden equity to see if they are owners of oil related companies or markets responsible for setting the oil and gold prices. See if they invested in such companies for themselves or if they allowed their little investors to benefit by including them in the holdings.

See if there is collusion between the oil producers, futures markets and banks and investment houses to prop up the oil price in order to offset the billions in sub-prime mortgage losses. And when you find the evidence, then do something about it. Oh yes, and while you are at it you better stop taking the millions of dollars in campaign contributions being thrown at you by these blood-sucking profit rich companies or you are also part of the corruption that has cast a dark shadow over the lands.

Public enemy number one in the oil crisis are the energy analysts and while there used to be just a conflict of interest involved because some analysts work for companies with major oil holdings, recently the government analysts like the U.S. Department of Energy have further fueled the oil price spiral with dismal forecasts for summer prices.

These analysts cannot explain what is happening in economic terms, as there is no justification for the profit gouging. So why are they not probing into the financial collusion that may exist and may be driving the prices up? If an analyst cannot tell us what is going on in the market then they have no business speculating on the future prices.

If there is market manipulation to virtually guarantee excessive profits then why is the U.S. Justice Department silent? What about the Federal Trade Commission or the Securities and Exchange Commission or the Interstate Commerce Commission or all the committees in the House and Senate looking out for our interests? Don’t any of them see that their continued silence is allowing the worst-case scenario to happen?

In the end, no matter what government action does or does not take place, every member of the House and Senate that ignored the public during this time of crisis should be thrown out of office for benign neglect of the public interest and if they accepted campaign contributions from these industries and they are proven guilty of price manipulations then the members of Congress should be impeached.