alienlovechild

Why is there no disapproval and censure of these people in the USA ? They are as anti- christian and anti-American as they can possibly be - and yet claim to be committed examples of both.

Surely this thinking is totally opposed to every thought of the founding fathers and the constitution and the law of the land and the flag which represents all those things

They have the right to say it and you have the right to disagree. There are plenty of people who'll express their disapproval as this is probably one of the more diverse nations on the planet. The founding fathers never had an immigration policy to contend with.

You label actions as anti-Christian, anti-patriotic and anti-American as if you had a corner of the market. There's always some pushback to diversity especially during hard economic times but this country isn't responsible to absorb the rest of world's surplus population.

No, the stigma is arises from the perception that blacks are responsible for most crimes.

You mean disproportionally responsible with their numbers compared to the general population.

You mean that isn't so and we're locking up jaywalkers and white guys with better lawyers?

On the other hand, this might just be the kind of correction that has to occur before there can be any real and sustainable recovery.

Exactly. There are too many holding on to the notion they'll somehow reap the the same peak price for their home they might have gotten in 2006. That won't happen for a while as, on average homes now fetch what they did in the pre-bubble of 2000. All bubbles are unrealistic and unsustainable over time.

A lot of people lost money on their other investments but there's too much attachment to their houses when they stay on like they're on the deck of sinking ship. Home prices won't hit zero as they do have value and people will buy them but the prices are still inflated by the market standards.

I'm not denying the events, only their use by a number of posters to further a blatant, broadly anti-muslim agenda.

Could you give us a list of posters and the topics they shouldn't discuss so peace among us can reign again?

It's disrespectful not to capitalize the name of a religion or its adherents. I just wanted to show my sensitive side, too.

The drumbeat of bad news grows louder. Sales of existing homes fell more than expected in October, down 2.2 percent to an annual rate of 4.43 million, the lowest level in more than a decade, according to the National Association of Realtors. After rising in the second quarter, Standard & Poor’s Case-Schiller home price index fell 2 percent in the third quarter.

Mr. Roubini said he was particularly focused on a recent study by Laurie Goodman, a senior managing director of Amherst Securities and a former co-head of fixed income research for UBS. In her October report, “The Housing Crisis — Sizing the Problem, Proposing Solutions,” Ms. Goodman comes to the dark conclusion that more than 11 million borrowers are in danger of losing their homes, or roughly one out of five borrowers.

Given the severity of the mortgage problems, Mr. Roubini said investors should brace for another wave of housing-related losses. Building off estimates that 11 million borrowers will lose their homes, Mr. Roubini thinks the financial industry faces $1 trillion in additional losses, assuming firms can recover 50 cents on the dollar and the average cost of a home loan is $200,000.

Obama already solved the housing problem and moved on. He gave some tax breaks out and had a mortgage mitigation program. Healthcare reform was the most important issue facing America and we should be also be grateful the economy is growing.

If you don't have a job or a home you can console yourself with the new and improved healthcare and probably more unemployment compensation.

Will you lot stop this? Its old, tired and it's irrelevant.

Stop using other people's suffering for your own entertainment

Why stop there? Let's not discuss war, crime, disease, the economy or disasters because there are all old news and people suffered as a result.

In this case, unfortunately, human rights abuses don't happen according to your timetable.

China and 18 other countries have declined invitations to Friday's Nobel peace prize ceremony, organisers said today, as Beijing launched a fresh attack on the decision to honour the jailed dissident Liu Xiaobo.

Beijing has urged diplomats in Oslo to stay away from the event, warning of "consequences" if they do not do so.

Several of those who have turned down invitations are long-term allies or trade partners. The full list comprises Pakistan, Iran, Sudan, Russia, Kazakhstan, Colombia, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Iraq, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Venezuela, the Philippines, Egypt, Ukraine, Cuba and Morocco.

Another 44 are attending, while Algeria and Sri Lanka have not replied to their invitations.

The Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said: "As far as I know, at present, more than 100 countries and organisations have expressed explicit support for China opposing the Nobel peace prize, which fully shows that the international community does not accept the decision of the Nobel committee."

She declined to list those who would not attend, but added: "After the ceremony, you can see that the vast majority of the international community will not attend."

Geir Lundestad, the committee's executive secretary, said that was "a very curious way of stating things", because only the 65 countries with embassies in Norway were invited.

But he acknowledged: "One of the reasons [for states not attending] is undoubtedly China."

A spokesman for the US state department said: "Our ambassador will be there. Our actions speak for themselves."

Sam Zarifi, Amnesty International's director for the Asia-Pacific region, said: "There are a couple of disappointments, but it's effectively a club of countries with relatively bad human rights records."

He said China had persuaded only a small minority to snub the event despite "arm-twisting ... using a combination of political pressure and economic blackmail".

According to the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten, all invited countries sent representatives last year, when Barack Obama won. The previous year, about 10 countries did not attend the ceremony for Martti Ahtisaari, the former Finnish prime minister.

The Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman described supporters of the award as clowns orchestrating a farce. Jiang said they were fundamentally opposed to China's development and wanted to interfere in the country's politics and legal system.

She added: "All policies in China are for the interests of the majority of the Chinese people. We will not change ... because of the interference of some clowns who are anti-China."

Beijing was furious at the decision to recognise Liu, who is serving an 11-year sentence for incitement to subvert state power after co-authoring Charter 08, a call for democratic reforms.

The authorities have placed his wife, Liu Xia, and other supporters under house arrest and have barred other activists and dissidents from leaving the country, apparently for fear they will attend the event.

The event would normally be marked by the handover of the Nobel gold medal, a diploma and prize money worth 10m kronor (£1m), but organisers say that will not happen this year because only close family can collect on a winner's behalf. China is unlikely to let Liu's relatives attend.

It will be the first time the prize has not been handed over since Nazi Germany barred the pacifist Carl von Ossietzky from attending in 1936.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/07/china-nobel-peace-prize-clowns

Well, there you have it. The GOP wins the majority in the House and job creation slows down. You may call that coincidence...

So if the new GOP congressmen aren't even seated it affects the economy. . .

But the Democrats running everything for two years (plus if you count the 2006 House win) and still can't assess the impact of their policies and we need to give them more time?

Deep down I know most Democrats wish Obama had lost so they could blame the GOP for everything but that train left the station and derailed. Just as the weak economy killed McCain's chances, the economy in 2012 will finish off Obama unless something more important than the economy becomes THE issue.

How did he come by all this information.

A PFC in the airforce has access to this?

I am missing something

The intelligence agencies decided to "connect the dots" of data into one database to overcome the fragmentation of sources that up to 9/11. Supposedly, around 600,000 people had access to this info but that PFC wanted to be famous. He should have been careful what he wished for. He's going to be jail for a long time while Assange goes on the lecture circuit.

Security by obscurity doesn't work. The companies and installations in question must be protected; keeping the list "secret" isn't going to accomplish that.

Security by telling them where we are vulnerable isn't smart. You're assuming the enemy already knows all this but I doubt it. Consider, by comparison, that during Pearl Harbor the Japanese didn't attack vital oil supplies on Hawaii because they wrongly assumed the Americans would easily just ship more oil to Hawaii.

"The document was drawn up after the State Department asked diplomats in February 2009 to identify "systems and assets, whether physical or virtual, so vital to the United States the incapacitation or destruction of such systems and assets would have a debilitating impact on security, national economic security, national public health or safety, or any combination of those matters."

And yet for you they lose even when they win..

Who said that?

Why not bring back gladiatorial games for convicted criminals and televise it so the pro death penalty sickos can get their freak on.

We have that now only it's not televised and we call it the U.S. penal system. Much more civilized to want criminals tear each other apart behind bars then release them for a sequel.

PS: This is the picture a certain member likes to point to demonstrating that there is a huge bias in the media and that, yada yada:

Terrorist Attacks on U.S. Soil by Group, From 1980 to 2005, According to FBI Database

http://www.loonwatch...ts-are-muslims/

Latinos and far left nuts are comprise the biggest terror threat? Why isn't the FBI warning us if that's really the case?

They must be incredibly incompetent terrorists if they can't get the word out.

8.33.

Some of the questions are a little ungeneral. For instance, although two of my grandparents are deceased, none of them would be 80 right now because none of them were born 80 years ago. On the other hand, the number of years I have lived alone since 25 is of course 0 since I'm 23 (I'm also not living alone but it's still misleading to answer 0). They need to consider some of these potentialities.

I'm twice your age and got a 8.43. That seems hard to believe but I'll take it.

Says who? Don't just make such claims without factual data to back it up.

Amazing how many kids get free or reduced lunches in some areas. If you live in an area that is that bad off, your kids are probably screwed long after they eat their last lunch.

Top 10: School Districts with highest percentage of students that are free and reduced price lunch recipients in 2009

School District, State Percentage Receiving Free/Reduce Lunch

Forrest City SD, AR 99.59%

Gadsen Elementary District, AZ 99.54%

North Forest ISD, TX 99.54%

Claiborne County SD, MS 99.49%

Durant Public SD, MS 99.48%

West Memphis SD, AR 99.40%

Blytheville SD, AR 99.33%

Helena-West Helena SD, AR 99.33%

Woodville Elementary, CA 99.33%

http://www.policymap.com/blog/2010/11/top-10-school-districts-with-highest-percentage-of-students-that-are-free-and-reduced-price-lunch-recipients-in-2009/

The National School Lunch Program (NSLP) is the Nation's second largest food and nutrition assistance program. In 2009, it operated in over 96,000 public and nonprofit private schools (grades K-12) and provided low-cost or free lunches to over 31 million children daily.

•Free lunches are available to children in households with incomes at or below 130 percent of poverty

•Reduced-price lunches are available to children in households with incomes between 130 and 185 percent of poverty.

To receive reimbursement, schools must serve lunches that meet minimum nutritional guidelines of one-third of the Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) of protein, calcium, iron, and vitamins A and C. No more than 30 percent of the meal’s calories can come from fat, and no more than 10 percent can come from saturated fat.

•Meals must meet nutritional standards and stay within budgetary constraints, but at the same time, meals must be appealing so that children will actually eat what is served.

•Calories must be adequate to meet nutritional needs, but school meals should not add to the problem of rising childhood obesity.

A recent ERS-sponsored study found that NSLP participants had lower intakes of sugar-sweetened beverages than did similar nonparticipants. NSLP participation did not affect the likelihood of being overweight.

http://www.ers.usda.gov/Briefing/ChildNutrition/lunch.htm

Without a Middle East crisis, however, we would have no terrorism, and without terrorism, we wouldn't have a reason to engage in wars. Without US corporations like Haliburton making insane money in warfare, we wouldn't have the insane campaign contributions that got our politicians elected.

The Middle East crisis predates terrorism so your theory is bunk for most part. Israel didn't directly fight the PLO until Lebanon in 1982.

Plenty of wars even in the modern Middle East had nothing to do with terrorism but you wouldn't know anything about that would you?

It's spelled "Halliburton" and they made insane money in peacetime. Lastly, if you think donors drive policy, you really should find out who the really heavy hitters are.

1 AT&T Inc $45,728,859

2 ActBlue $44,681,701

3 American Fedn of State, County & Municipal Employees $43,028,411

4 National Assn of Realtors $37,629,299

5 Goldman Sachs $33,035,202

6 Intl Brotherhood of Electrical Workers $32,686,566

7 American Assn for Justice $32,685,029

8 National Education Assn $31,127,590

9 Laborers Union $29,834,300

10 Carpenters & Joiners Union $28,945,308

http://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/list.php?type=A

Where's Halliburton?

Stock market roars. . . the unemployment rate soars. . .and the public snores.

Amazing how a single day's economic news can undercut yesterday's boast.

It's a step in the right direction.

The tone in Washington has gone from how any spending is going drive the economy to making some hard choices to make improve the economy.

Happy Hanukkah to one and all, may your candles burn brightly, may your latkes be crispy and sweet and hot, may your family be gathered close around you. :dance:

Doesn't Hanukkah have any catchy holiday tunes?

Good visual to slam the notion on how bad the world is now compared to "the good old days".

But you know how you can tell that your argument makes no sense whatsoever? By looking up the recent history of recessions and recoveries and then overlay that with who controlled the House during the recovery phase. There were strong recoveries coming out of the early 80's and early 90's recessions. And in both cases did the country overall look better at the next peak than it did at the previous one. Both of those recoveries happened while - you guessed it - the Democrats held the House.

And you know what happened with the recovery coming out of the early 2000's recession? It sucked. In fact, we are looking back at a lost decade following that recovery. A first in US post-war history. Job growth? Nope. Usually, we are looking at a 20% job growth in a decade. The aughts? Zippo. Middle-income household income in 2008 compared to 1999? Down - another first in US postwar history. Median income? Down. Net worth of American households? Down. Another first on record. Now who shepherded the economy out of the early 2000's recession? Yes, the GOP. And that approach has produced a lost decade.

I'm not wild about the prospect of another GOP led lost decade. We should try to make some gains once again.

Unemployment wasn't high under 8 years of Bush so no increase in net jobs was never a issue even for the Democrats until 2008. Pretty sure the median income hasn't gone up much if at all under Obama.

Based on your pattern, you're claiming there's no recovery because the GOP will control the House or it will set the stage to worsen even Obama's weak economic performance?

Considering the duration of the recession now is worse than in the 1980s, without a sustained reduction in the unemployment numbers, underemployment and discouraged workers is at a post WW-II high and unemployment benefits were extended throughout Obama's term. There's little for the Democrats to crow about.

Of course, ADP is clearly off on this number since - as we've learned - no business will hire facing the possibility of tax increases come Jan 1. In fact, businesses must by now have started slashing jobs given all the uncertainty...

The uncertainty factor for business went the way of the Democrats in Congress, especially in the House. You can say that's merely coincidence but everyone knew long before the last quarter that the midterm election would bring some measure of sanity back to DC.

The high unemployment figures continue drive down home prices. People lose houses and others still can't afford (still) inflated prices. The banks are still holding a large number of homes off the market for fear of driving down prices further.

If you don't think that there are hate groups within the anti-gay marriage movement, then you are simply delusional.

Must be all those voters who voted against same sex marriage.

It's fund raising tactic for the most part as there's no huge boogey man group running around after selective groups of people. Individual acts of violence a la any Muslim terrorist act doesn't mean you can demonize the whole group.

NEW YORK (AP) - More than 8 million consumers stopped using credit cards over the past year. The decline stems from a combination of consumer choices and bank actions.

An analysis by credit reporting agency TransUnion found that use of general purpose credit cards bearing MasterCard or Visa logos, or issued by Discover or American Express, fell more than 11 percent in the third quarter, compared with the July to September period last year.

About 62 million people now have an active card, compared with 70 million a year ago.

The Chicago company found that consumers in the subprime category, or those with low credit ratings, were believed to be without cards mostly because they were shut down by banks after payments fell behind or balances were written off.

"One can quite reasonably infer that's not voluntary," said Ezra Becker, vice president of research and consulting in TransUnion's financial services business unit. Banks have written off record amounts of credit card balances in recent years.

But a significant portion of the decrease in card usage reflects decisions by cardholders to stop using credit, Becker said. "They're simply either not purchasing as much or paying down balances."

Many of these individuals may have shifted to using debit cards. In the past several years the use of debit cards has grown steadily and now surpasses credit card use in both the number of transactions and dollar volume. Interest rate increases by credit card companies and reduced credit lines have contributed to that trend.

Still that doesn't mean consumers are shunning credit altogether. The average card balance stood at $4,964 in the quarter. That represented a slight increase from $4,951 at the end of the second quarter, and the first quarter-over-quarter increase in a more than a year.

Yet it also reflects a 13 percent drop from $5,612 at the end of Sept. 2009.

Becker said the balance increase from the second quarter is mostly an indication that consumers are still under stress. Prior to the recession, he said, carrying a credit card balance was more of a lifestyle decision reflecting spending choices. "Now it's out of necessity," he said. "In times of financial distress, nobody wants to carry a balance. Where people can afford to pay things down, they do."

Unlike mortgages, credit card delinquencies are in a normal range. The rate of late payments continued to fall in the third quarter. Just 0.83 percent of payments were past due by 90 days or more, compared with 0.92 percent in the prior year period.

The third-quarter delinquency rate was highest in Nevada, at 1.28 percent, and Florida, at 1.09 percent. These two states have also been among the hardest hit by the housing crash and foreclosure crisis. Late payments were lowest in North Dakota, at 0.48 percent and South Dakota, at 0.53 percent.

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9JQ36200&show_article=1