Saturday 09-25-10

Six arrested in Gateshead over 'Koran burning'
Six people have been arrested on suspicion of inciting racial hatred after videos emerged on the internet apparently showing copies of the Koran being burned.
(excerpt)
''The incident was recorded and a video placed on the internet.''

In a video still accessible on YouTube, six young men in hooded tops or wearing scarves over their faces can be seen pouring petrol on a book and setting it alight, before burning another.

On the video, which appeared to have been filmed behind a pub, they cheer as the first book bursts into flames.

Northumbria Police said the men were not arrested for watching or distributing the video, but on suspicion of burning the Koran.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/religion/8020296/Six-arrested-in-Gateshead-over-Koran-burning.html

Warren Buffett to CNBC: "We're Still In a Recession"
Warren Buffett tells CNBC that by his own "common sense" definition, the United States is "still in a recession."

In a taped interview with Becky Quick airing this morning on CNBC's Squawk Box, Buffett says, "I think we're in a recession until real per capita GDP gets back to where it was before."

While Buffett continues to believe the U.S. will eventually emerge from its economic downturn, "We're not gonna be out of it for awhile."

WARREN BUFFETT TO CNBC:
U.S. CAPITALISM'S 'REGENERATIVE CAPACITY' MORE IMPORTANT THAN GOVERNMENT STIMULUS
COUNTRY SHOULD GET NEEDED INCOME FROM 'PEOPLE WHO HAVE IT'
COMPLETE INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT
Buffett was responding to a question from question about the National Bureau of Economic Research's determination earlier this week that the recession 'officially' ended in June, 2009.

WARREN BUFFETT: Well, my experience is that they, they, they really, the business has reasonable equity, reasonable prospects. Now, you, if you want to start a business and have no equity, you can try and borrow the whole thing, you shouldn't get the money. I mean, it, it, so, a lot of dumb loans were made three, four, and five years ago. And not only in real estate, but, but in, commercial businesses.

But the banks I know are dying to get the money out. Right now, there's over a trillion dollars of the banks, and they only have deposits of $7 or $8 trillion, there's over a trillion dollars on deposit with the Federal Reserve, earning a quarter of one percent. You go broke with a bank earning a quarter of one percent on your money, even if it doesn't cost you anything. Your operating expenses will eat up. So, you want to get it out in loans. And, there is, there is, there is money available.

BECKY QUICK: So, how are small businesses faring right now, if you had to look overall? Obviously, everyone's in a different position. But overall, how do you think they're doing?

BUFFETT: I think they're doing about like the economy is. That they, they've been through, a terrible period. And I know some in Omaha, and Omaha hasn't been as hard hit as many others, but all businesses went through a terrible period. And, and basically, the government did the right thing in terms of getting the economy going again. It can't do it overnight or anything of the sort. I think most small businesses have come back somewhat. But they've, they, they're nowhere near their peaks.

BECKY: The NBER said this week that the recession officially ended back in June of last year.

BUFFETT: Well, they define it differently. (Laughs.) But I, I mean, I define it, I think we're in a recession until real per capita GDP gets back up to where it was before. That is not the way the National Bureau of Economic Research measures it. But I will tell you that to any, on any common sense definition, the average American is below where he was before, or his family, in terms of real income, GDP. We're still in a recession. And, and we're not gonna be out of it for awhile, but we will get out of it.

BECKY: We're not gonna be out of it for awhile meaning, you can see what? A quarter, two quarters, a year down the road? Just from your businesses are telling you?

BUFFETT: Our businesses are coming back, on average, we've got 70-some businesses. But most of them, the great majority are coming back slowly. If you take our railroad business (Burlington Northern Santa Fe), and our railroad business is typical of the other railroads in the company. If you take the peak period for shipments and then you go all the way down to the bottom, we're 61 percent of the way back up. That's better, I think, than most businesses are in the country. I don't think most businesses are 61 percent, our carpet business, our brick business, our insulation business, they're not back 61 percent, but they are moving back.

BECKY: What about from an employment perspective. We still have nine and a half percent unemployment in the country. What are your businesses doing right now in terms of hiring?

BUFFETT: Adding, very few people. But the, the, the railroad will have added a fair number of people, because if you've come back 61 percent, you've come back a fair amount unemployment. But if you take our carpet business, it fell from 13 million yards a week, we'll say, to seven million yards a week. And with that cost 6,500 jobs. We're back up to maybe nine million yards a week. But we haven't had to add yet. If we get to ten million, we'll start adding people. But it, it's lagging and it'll continue to lag.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/39320992

We have been sacked by the Humane Societyby Joe 'The Plumber' Wurzelbacher

While Americans across the country have entered the political game to save our country, moving that proverbial ball of freedom towards the end zone, we’ve been sacked. Blindsided. We’ve been so focused on legislative elections (and rightly so) that most Americans don’t even know they’ve been hit – and hit hard.

But not by some big, burly monster like voter fraud or corruption. No, we’ve been knocked flat by the ignorance of the conservative electorate and cute little puppies licking our stunned, what-the-heck-just-happened faces.

Well, I’ll tell you what just happened.

It’s called the Humane Society of the United States cowardly hiding behind animal cruelty, lying to our citizens and taking our constitutional rights away – one state at a time.

This radical animal rights organization (HSUS), who spends less than 0.5% of its $100M + budget on actually helping animals, is using the referendum process to slowly, systematically eliminate food production in the United States.


In California, HSUS has decimated the egg industry forcing chicken farmers out of business and consumers to buy imported eggs. In Florida, for all intents and purposes, HSUS eliminated the pork industry. (Wondering why pork prices are going sky high?) They’ve also crippled numerous other agribusinesses – dragging connected industries down with them.

This November, HSUS is after the dog breeding industry in Missouri calling the bill the “Puppy Cruelty Prevention Act”. Great name. I mean who wouldn’t want to keep someone from being cruel to a puppy? The problem is Missouri already HAS laws protecting animals – all animals. So what’s the real agenda?

Simply to get rid of ALL dog breeding in Missouri – the unlicensed AND licensed breeders. Missouri’s Proposition B makes it a “crime of cruelty” for a piece of dog food to be in a water bowl or for a dog breeder to treat their own pet if they become ill (even with something as simple as a cold). To add insult to injury, HSUS has exempted themselves and shelters from these same laws. Apparently, they’re allowed to be cruel, but no one else is. (No folks, I don’t make this stuff up.)

This would almost be comical if it weren’t for the OTHER, more insidious parts of this bill that hit at the very core of our liberties. This bill forces breeders to limit the number of dogs they can own – regardless of care. Think about this a minute . . . . Should the government have the right to limit the number of houses a realtor can sell? Or the number of cattle a rancher can raise?

These new regulations will put almost every breeder in Missouri out of business forcing the price of dogs to sky rocket and allowing pet ownership only for the very wealthy. But this bill is just a stepping stone. HSUS eventually wants to extend this law to ALL animals. Their idea of utopia is a United States with NO animal ownership; NO meat to eat; NO pets; NO hunting; NO fishing; NO service animals. If chicken farmers would be forced to own no more than 50 chickens they could no longer afford to stay in business. The same will hold true with hog farmers and cattle ranchers. Eventually, agri-business will be forced to go over seas, just as our manufacturing and tech industries.

But even the extinction of our food industry isn’t the scariest part of this whacko liberal agenda. A law is only as good as it’s enforced. And HSUS is happy to fill the void. HSUS has now become the self-appointed law enforcement of the animal world. In some states, HSUS employees are running around with guns and police-like badges breaking down doors, confiscating animals and business papers, and obtaining warrants with false information. Lawsuits are cropping up against HSUS, sheriffs and governments for blatant violations of the most basic of constitutional rights.

Enough is enough. We have to draw the line and hold these radical animal rights activists back. The battle this year is in Missouri. If we do not all enlist and soundly defeat this deceptive bill, you can expect your state to be next.

http://biggovernment.com/jwurzelbacher/2010/09/22/weve-been-sacked-by-the-humane-society/

Washington struggling to rein in increasing homegrown terrorism
By Jordy Yager - 09/22/10 08:05 PM ET

Washington is struggling to stymie the growing trend of terrorists radicalized on American soil, officials said Wednesday.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, testifying before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, told senators that despite a surge in homegrown terrorist activity, the department is still figuring out how best to combat it.

“We do not yet have a complete understanding of what would cause a United States person to radicalize to the extent of violence,” said Napolitano, adding that the department was aiming its efforts at the community level by sharing information about the early signs violent radicalization might take.

“There’s no one way of counter-messaging,” she said. “We’re learning a lot about counter-messaging.”

Committee Chairman Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) pointed out that at least 63 American citizens have been charged with or convicted of crimes directly related to terrorism during the past 18 months. The most widely known arrests occurred after the shooting rampage last year at Fort Hood in Texas, allegedly by a Muslim Army officer, and the failed Times Square car bombing in New York this past May.

FBI Director Robert Mueller and Napolitano warned senators that in addition to large terrorist organizations, even smaller factions that are al Qaeda affiliates have been increasing their focus on convincing Americans to carry out attacks.

“Groups affiliated with al Qaeda are now actively targeting the United States and looking to use Americans or Westerners who are able to remain undetected by heightened security measures,” said Mueller.

Michael Leiter, the head of the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC), also expressed his frustration with the growing trend of homegrown radicalization, stressing how difficult it is to combat.

“It’s a different challenge from what we see overseas because … it’s not easily isolated to a single demographic group or area,” said Leiter.

Lieberman pressed Leiter about whether his department was receiving enough funding and resources to effectively combat homegrown terrorism, but Leiter avoided the questions, saying the department was doing its best with what it had.

The committee’s ranking Republican, Sen. Susan Collins (Maine), raised additional concerns about the findings of a study by the Bipartisan Policy Center’s National Security Preparedness Group. The study states the U.S. has grown complacent in its attitude toward homegrown radicalization.

“The American ‘melting pot’ has not provided a firewall against the radicalization and recruitment of American citizens and residents, though it has arguably lulled us into a sense of complacency that homegrown terrorism couldn’t happen in the United States,” states the report.

Collins said that these findings were a call to “redouble our efforts to better anticipate, analyze and prepare.”

“We cannot afford a lapse in vigilance or foresight, nor wrap ourselves in a false security blanket,” said Collins.

She also posited that perhaps the various counterterrorism departments were having so much difficulty combating homegrown radicalization because there was no centralized agency in charge of operations.

“I can’t help but think that we have a lot of good people, a lot of good agencies [and] a lot of activity, but there still doesn’t seem to be an overall strategy nor accountability built in, nor a means of assessing the success,” said Collins. “I’m concerned that this … is too nebulous.”

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) received a great deal of criticism in the days following the failed Times Square bombing as well as the thwarted bombing of an airliner above Detroit on Christmas Day. Critics questioned how the alleged airplane bomber, a Nigerian man, made it past U.S. counterterrorism officials, especially after officials with the State Department and DHS had been alerted to his intentions.

Napolitano stressed there is a much stronger level of communication between departments, saying the use of 72 “fusion centers” is providing state and local officials with a stream of top-secret intelligence on suspicious activities while also channeling local intelligence back to analysts who have a big-picture view.

But Leiter, responding to Collins’s line of questioning, resisted accepting the argument that the NCTC was in charge of fusing U.S. counterterrorism intelligence.

“I think saying ‘in charge’ is too strong a word,” said Leiter. “[The NCTC is] who’s responsible for coordinating across multiple departments … in conjunction with the National Security Council.”

Napolitano said that perhaps in the future officials should hammer out an overarching written strategy that details a chain of command and operations.

In a simultaneous move aimed at remedying the weaknesses that the attempted Christmas Day bombing revealed in aviation security — as first reported by The Hill — Napolitano said that the U.S. would be leading the charge to establish a set of security standards for international airports at next week’s United Nations’ International Civil Aviation Organization’s general assembly.

http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/120291-washington-struggling-to-rein-in-growing-homegrown-terrorism