The Sunday 'Report;' 07/31/2011

What The National Pamphleteers Don't Report:
*SMOKING GUN VIDEO* Obama Orders Launched ‘Fast And Furious’

Jul 10, 2011
Posted by darcprynce
    Project Gunrunner (Fast and Furious) was launched under the orders of President Barack Obama with the knowledge of Attorney General Eric Holder. Deputy Attorney General David Ogden announced the Obama Administration’s new and aggressive ‘comprehensive plan’ on March, 24, 2009. The plan was aimed at disrupting gun trafficking between the United States and Mexico.[....]
http://thedaleygator.wordpress.com/2011/07/10/smoking-gun-video-obama-orders-launched-fast-and-furious/

20 Worst Foods in America: 2011

    You'd think by now restaurants would start getting the message—healthier options, fresher ingredients, more transparency—but that just doesn't seem to be the case. Sure, some of 2010's worst offenders have vanished, but the abundance of replacements for 2011 is frightening. In an effort to outdo each other, restaurants and fast-food chains are ratcheting up their efforts to create the craziest, most calorically damaging menu items we've ever seen. And succeed they are. The battle of the bulge [....]
http://eatthis.menshealth.com/slideshow/20-worst-foods-america?cm_mmc=Yahoo-_-ETNT-_-20_Habits_that_Make_You_Fat-_-20_Worst_Foods

Red Tape Rising: A 2011 Mid-Year Report
Published on July 25, 2011
by James Gattuso and Diane Katz
(Backgrounder #2586) 

Abstract: Following a record year of rulemaking, the Obama Administration is continuing to unleash more costly red tape. In the first six months of the 2011 fiscal year, 15 major regulations were issued, with annual costs exceeding $5.8 billion and one-time implementation costs approaching $6.5 billion. No major rulemaking actions were taken to reduce regulatory burdens during this period. Overall, the Obama Administration imposed 75 new major regulations from January 2009 to mid-FY 2011, with annual costs of $38 billion. There were only six major deregulatory actions during that time, with reported savings of just $1.5 billion. This flood of red tape will undoubtedly persist, as hundreds of new regulations stemming from the vast Dodd–Frank financial regulation law, Obamacare, and the EPA’s global warming crusade advance [....]
http://www.heritage.org/Research/Reports/2011/07/Red-Tape-Rising-A-2011-Mid-Year-Report

OPEC Takes Aim At America

America is hostage to its need for oil.
July 27, 2011
by John Myers
    Only once have I looked down the barrel of a gun. I can tell you it was damn disconcerting. It happened 25 years ago. The automatic rifles that were drawn on me then are pointed at America today. Yet President Barack Obama refuses to acknowledge that America is facing Middle Eastern guns.  In 1986, I traveled to Geneva to attend an emergency OPEC meeting. My father Vernon was in his early 70s but had lost none of the drive that shaped his youth as a reporter, which led him to found Oil Week Magazine and Myers Finance & Energy (MFE).
Vern was old school. While he had not changed from his reporting days, the world had. I got a sense of that when we pulled up to the hotel decked with machine gun-toting policemen.  My dad either didn’t [....]
http://www.personalliberty.com/conservative-politics/government/opec-takes-aim-at-america/?eiid=&rmid=2011_07_27_PLA_[P11425551]&rrid=387432349

U.S. officials believe al-Qaeda on brink of collapse

For almost a decade, U.S. intelligence officials were stymied by Osama bin Laden.
    That is until CIA analysts at Langley changed their focus to the al-Qaeda leader's secret courier network.   U.S. counterterrorism officials are increasingly convinced that the killing of Osama bin Laden and the toll of seven years of CIA drone strikes have pushed al­Qaeda to the brink of collapse.  The assessment reflects a widespread view at the CIA and other agencies that a relatively small number of additional blows could effectively extinguish the Pakistan-based organization that carried out the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks — an outcome that was seen as a distant prospect for much of the past decade.   The long-hunted al-Qaeda leader and chief architect of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States was killed by U.S. forces May 1 in a surgical raid.  The Pentagon released several videos without audio of Osama bin Laden found in his hideout, including one of bin Laden watching himself on the news. (May 7)  U.S. officials said that al-Qaeda might yet rally and that even its demise would not end the terrorist threat, which is [....]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/al-qaeda-could-collapse-us-officials-say/2011/07/21/gIQAFu2pbI_story.html?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Heritage%2BHotsheet&wpisrc=al_national 


Grill Your Gut Away
July 26, 2011
    Did you know that cooking on your grill could eliminate nearly a third of the fat in a typical piece of meat? It’s true. Unfortunately the rule doesn’t hold at restaurants. Instead of setting steaks and chops against... [....]
http://eatthis.menshealth.com/home

Government by Coup de Theatre or the Constitution?

By Tony Blankley
July 27, 2011
How have we arrived at this place where the fate of our federal budget -- our economy, indeed our capacity to have a functioning federal government -- seems to depend on what two men (the speaker of the House and the president) may or may not be secretly talking about in an interior room in the White House?   Meanwhile, elected representatives and senators, kept ignorant of those life-and-death discussions, are forced to wait. When the two men are finished -- doubtlessly mere hours before "the world will end" -- our elected representatives and senators will be stampeded to vote yes for a deal about which [....]
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/political_commentary/commentary_by_tony_blankley/government_by_coup_de_theatre_or_the_constitution

Obama Following In Hitler’s Footsteps

July 26, 2011
by Robert Ringer
    Barack Obama wants to do what is right for America, but his vision of “right” is wealth redistribution on a massive scale carried out by an all-powerful Federal government.  Watching the nonstop commentaries on television about the debt ceiling debate only reinforces the reality that most people — including many perceived conservatives — still don’t get it. If they did, they would not allow themselves to be diverted by a political circus.
It amazes me how the vast majority of conservatives — both inside and outside of the media — still take Barack Obama seriously and believe he is desperately trying to save the United States from economic disaster. Don’t get me wrong. Obama wants to do what is right for America, but his vision of “right” is wealth redistribution on a massive scale carried out by an all-powerful Federal government.  As Obama continues to toy with Republicans over raising the debt ceiling, he is well aware that the continuation of his policies will destroy the U.S. economy beyond repair. I believe his strategy from the outset has been to follow the Saul Alinsky model: [....]
http://www.personalliberty.com/conservative-politics/government/obama-following-in-hitlers-footsteps/?eiid=&rmid=2011_07_26_PLA_[P11509999]&rrid=387432349

U.S. trucking funds reach Taliban, military-led investigation concludes

A year-long military-led investigation has concluded that U.S. taxpayer money has been indirectly funneled to the Taliban under a $2.16 billion transportation contract that the United States has funded in part to promote Afghan businesses.  The unreleased investigation provides seemingly definitive evidence that corruption puts U.S. transportation money into enemy hands, a finding consistent with previous inquiries carried out by Congress, other federal agencies and the military. Yet U.S. and Afghan efforts to address the problem have been slow and ineffective, and all eight of the trucking firms involved in the work remain on U.S. payroll. In March, the Pentagon extended the contract for six months.  According to a summary of the investigation results, [....]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-trucking-funds-reach-taliban-military-led-investigation-concludes/2011/07/22/gIQAmMDUXI_story.html?wpisrc=al_national

State-Local Tax Burdens Fall in 2009 as Tax Revenues Shrink Faster than Income

New Jersey’s Citizens Pay the Most, Alaska’s Least
Key Findings
• Taxpayers pay taxes not only to the state and local governments where they reside but also to out-of-state governments, both naturally and by design. Nationwide, over a quarter of all state and local taxes are collected from non-residents, and a true measure of the tax burden on the residents of any state must take this into account. This paper attempts to quantify the tax shifting across states and how it affects the distribution of state and local tax burdens.
• During fiscal year 2009, in the midst of a national recession, both income and taxes shrank, but taxes fell faster than incomes. The result was that tax burdens decreased from 9.9 percent in 2008 to 9.8 percent in 2009.
• In 2009, the residents of New Jersey, New York and Connecticut paid the highest state-local tax burdens in the nation. They’re the only three states where taxpayers give up 12 percent or more of their income in state-local taxes, a full percentage point above the next highest state, Wisconsin.
• Alaskans, consistently the least taxed in the nation, again paid the least in 2009, just 6.3 percent. The next lowest state, over a full percentage point higher, is Nevada at 7.5 percent.
Introduction
For nearly two decades the Tax Foundation has published an estimate of the combined state-local tax burden shouldered by the residents of each of the 50 states. For each state, we calculate the total amount paid by the residents in taxes, then divide those taxes by the state’s total income to compute a “tax burden.” We make this calculation not only for the most recent year but also for earlier years because tax and income data are revised periodically by government agencies.  The goal is to focus not on the tax collectors but on the taxpayers. That is, we answer the question: What percentage of their income are the residents of this state paying in state and local taxes? We are not trying to answer the question: How much money have state and local governments collected? The Census Bureau publishes the definitive comparative data answering  [....]
http://taxfoundation.org/files/sr189.pdf

Texas grid operator fears electricity shortage under new EPA rule

By Asher Price
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
July 19, 2011
    Texas could face a shortage of electrical generation within a few years if the federal government moves forward with a new rule meant to cut down on power plant smokestack emissions, the chief executive of the state's grid operator warned on Tuesday.  "We believe it is our role to voice our concern that Texas could face a shortage of generation necessary to keep the lights on in Texas within a few years" if the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency moves forward, said H.B. "Trip" Doggett , president and CEO of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas.  The Cross-State Air Pollution Rule will force [....]
http://www.statesman.com/news/texas/texas-grid-operator-fears-electricity-shortage-under-new-1625503.html

How We Eliminated $46,000 in Debt in 10 Months

by Ryan Hawkins,
July 28, 2011
Warning: These steps take full commitment from both spouses if you are married. Some spouses will want to commit to this in writing simply to strengthen their resolve. (I'm not suggesting a signed agreement that can be enforced in court. I'm suggesting a signed agreement in case you need to hang it on the mirror as a daily reminder of your commitment to get out of debt, because these steps take discipline from both spouses.)
Here's where my wife and I were when we started.
Debts:
Car loan No. 1 - Balance owed: $18,879 ($464 monthly payment)
Car loan No. 2 - Balance owed: $8,997 ($306 monthly payment)
Student loan - Balance owed: $6,406 ($108 monthly payment)
Property loan - Balance owed: $12,156 ($406 monthly payment)
Total: $46,438 ($1,284 monthly payment)
Luckily, we have been [....]
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/First-Person-How-I-Eliminated-ac-2349389766.html?x=0

Knights Templar Invoked by Norway Suspect, Mexican Cartel to 'Cloak Horror,' Historian Says
By Joshua Rhett Miller
July 27, 2011,
FoxNews.com
July 14: A soldier holds a code-of-conduct booklet, allegedly made by the Knights Templar drug cartel, that was seized when a training camp was discovered after a firefight between Mexican army soldiers and gunmen in the woods near the town of Santa Gertrudis, Mexico. The "Knights Templar of Michoacan," a new drug cartel that was created after it splintered from the La Familia cartel last March, has issued a code-of-conduct booklet for members saying it is fighting a war against tyranny and injustice.  A group of medieval knights created nine centuries ago to protect Christian pilgrims in the Holy Land are now being referenced by a Mexican drug cartel and the self-confessed mass murderer of last week's terror attacks in Norway to "cloak the horror" of their own deeds, a medieval historian told FoxNews.com. 

The Knights Templar were created in 1120 by roughly a dozen knights following the First Crusade, which left the area now known as Israel quite hazardous for Christians who fought [....]
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/07/27/knights-templar-invoked-by-norway-suspect-to-cloak-horror-historian-says/'%20rel='nofollow

The no-kids-allowed movement is spreading.

by Piper Weiss,
Shine Staff,
Jul 26, 2011    What's the matter with kids today and why doesn't anyone want them around? In June, Malaysia Airlines banned babies from many of their first class cabins, prompting other major airlines to consider similar policies.  Lately, complaints about screaming kids are being taken seriously, not only by airlines, but by hotels, movie theaters, restaurants, and even grocery stores.  Earlier this month, McDain's, a Pittsburgh area restaurant that banned kids under 6 became a mascot for the no-kids-zone movement.  According to a Pittsburgh local news poll, more than [....]
http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/parenting/the-no-kids-allowed-movement-is-spreading-2516110/

Video: Josh Beckett’s gift brings young fan to tears
By 'Duk
July 29, 2011
Last week, we had not one, but two blog posts in which a young fan got emotional after not retrieving a ball thrown or hit into the stands.  This video is the exact opposite of both. Watch what happens as Boston Red Sox pitcher Josh Beckett(notes) finishes his warmup tosses before Thursday's game against the Kansas City Royals and presents a baseball to a young fan who's taking a picture of him. 
Wow, what a great shot of pure emotion. Joyous much, young fella? 
The feel-good clip zoomed around the Internet so quickly on Thursday afternoon that NESN quickly invited the boy [....]
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/blog/big_league_stew/post/Video-Josh-Beckett-8217-s-gift-brings-young-fa?urn=mlb-wp14224

No More Privacy:
Smart Meters Are Surveillance Devices That Monitor The Behavior In Your Home Every Single Minute Of Every Single Day

July 7, 2011
Have you heard about the new "smart meters" that are being installed in homes all across America? Under the guise of "reducing greenhouse gas emissions" and "reducing energy bills", utility companies all over the United States are forcing tens of millions of American families to accept sophisticated surveillance devices in their homes. Currently, approximately 9 percent of all electric meters in the U.S. have been converted over to smart meters. It is being projected that by 2012, the number of smart meters in use will rise to 52 million, and the federal government is spending a lot of money to help get these installed everywhere. Eventually the goal is to have these smart meters in all of our homes and if that ever happened there would essentially be no more privacy. Once installed, a smart meter monitors your [....]
http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/no-more-privacy-smart-meters-are-surveillance-devices-that-monitor-the-behavior-in-your-home-every-single-minute-of-every-single-day
 

Here is a copy of the non-consent letter Jerry mentions in his video.

FROM: Certified U.S. Postal Mail #….
Energy Customer’s Name
Street Address
City State Zip


TO:
Energy Provider
Street Address
City State Zip
Date of letter


NOTICE OF NO CONSENT TO TRESPASS AND SURVEILLANCE, NOTICE OF LIABILITY

Dear (Energy Provider) and all agents, officers, employees, contractors and interested parties,
    If you intend to install a “Smart Meter” or any activity monitoring device at the above address, you and all other parties are hereby denied consent for installation and use of all such device on the above property and installation and use of any activity monitoring device is hereby refused and prohibited. Informed consent is legally required for installation of any surveillance device and any device that will collect and transmit private and personal data to undisclosed and unauthorized parties for undisclosed and unauthorized purposes.
    Authorization for sharing of personal and private information may only be given by the originator and subject of that information. That authorization is hereby denied and refused with regard to the above property and all its occupants. “Smart Meters” violate the law and cause endangerment to residents by the following factors:
1. They individually identify electrical devices inside the home and record when they are operated causing invasion of privacy.
2. They monitor household activity and occupancy in violation of rights and domestic security.
3. They transmit wireless signals which may be intercepted by unauthorized and unknown parties. Those signals can be used to monitor behavior and occupancy and they can be used by criminals to aid criminal activity against the occupants.
4. Data about occupant’s daily habits and activities are collected, recorded and stored in permanent databases which are accessed by parties not authorized or invited to know and share that private data.
5. Those with access to the smart meter databases can review a permanent history of household activities complete with calendar and time-of-day metrics to gain a highly invasive and detailed view of the lives of the occupants.
6. Those databases may be shared with, or fall into the hands of criminals, blackmailers, law enforcement, private hackers of wireless transmissions, power company employees, and other unidentified parties who may act against the interests of the occupants under metered surveillance.
7. “Smart Meters” are, by definition, surveillance devices which violate Federal and State wiretapping laws by recording and storing databases of private and personal activities and behaviors without the consent or knowledge of those people who are monitored.
8. It is possible for example, with analysis of certain “Smart Meter” data, for unauthorized and distant parties to determine medical conditions, sexual activities, physical locations of persons within the home, vacancy patterns and personal information and habits of the occupants.
9. Your company has not adequately disclosed the particular recording and transmission capabilities of the smart meter, or the extent of the data that will be recorded, stored and shared, or the purposes to which the data will and will not be put.
    I forbid, refuse and deny consent of any installation and use of any monitoring, eavesdropping, and surveillance devices on my property, my place of residence and my place of occupancy. That applies to and includes “Smart Meters” and activity monitoring devices of any and all kinds. Any attempt to install any such device directed at me, other inhabitants, guests, my property or residence will constitute trespass, stalking, wiretapping and unlawful surveillance, all prohibited and punishable by law through criminal and civil complaints. All persons, government agencies and private organizations responsible for installing or operating monitoring devices directed at or recording my activities, which I have not specifically authorized in writing, will be fully liable for any violations, intrusions, harm or negative consequences caused or made possible by those devices whether those negative consequences are justified by “law” or not..
    This is legal notice. After this delivery the liabilities listed above may not be denied or avoided by parties named and implied in this notice.  Notice to principal is notice to agent and notice to agent is notice to principal. All rights reserved.


Signature
Name of energy user and/or customer [....]
http://thedaleygator.wordpress.com/2011/07/10/video-jerry-day-explains-what-smart-meters-are-and-what-you-can-do-to-stop-them/
(For warning stickers, see below URL)
http://smartmeterstickers.com/page6.html

Bush explains slow reaction to September 11 attacks

Jill Serjeant, Reuters
July 29, 2011
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Former President George W. Bush says his apparent lack of reaction to the first news of the September 11 2001 attacks was a conscious decision to project an aura of calm in a crisis.  In a rare interview with the National Geographic Channel, Bush reflects on what was going through his mind at the most dramatic moment of his presidency when he was informed that a second passenger jet had hit New York's World Trade Center.  Bush was visiting a Florida classroom and the incident, which was caught on TV film, and has often been used by critics to ridicule his apparently blank face.  "My first reaction was anger. Who the hell would do that to America? Then I immediately focused on the children, and the contrast between the attack and the innocence of children," Bush says in an excerpt of the interview shown to television writers on Thursday.  Bush said he could see the news media at the back of the classroom getting the news on their own cellphones "and it was like watching a silent movie."  Bush said he quickly realized [....]
http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/sns-rt-us-sept11-bushtre76r7yj-20110728,0,6121326.story

Joe Pesci sues

I GOT FAT AND SCREWED BY "GOTTI" EXECS
    Joe Pesci is suing the producers of "Gotti: In the Shadow of My Father," claiming his deal was so iron-clad, he gained 30 pounds for his role, only to be told he wasn't wanted anymore.  In the lawsuit, Pesci claims reps from Fiore Films offered him the critical role of Angelo Ruggiero, Gotti's close friend and enforcer. Pesci says he made a deal for $3 million.  But Pesci says after he was lured into making public statements about how happy he was to appear in the movie -- which stars John Travolta as John Gotti, Jr. -- the producers pulled the deal, claiming Pesci breached the deal by trying to back out.  Pesci claims [....]
http://www.tmz.com/2011/07/27/joe-pesci-sues-lawsuit-john-gotti-film-movie-fiore-films-angelo-ruggiero-john-travolta-mafia/
Until Next Sunday....