President...Where is the Growth?

 GDP Plunges to 1.9%

by Wynton Hall

On Thursday, the U.S. Department of Commerce released a report chock full of weak growth figures and worrisome economic signals.

The gross domestic product (GDP) dropped from last quarter's 3.0 percent to an anemic 1.9 percent. Over half of first-quarter growth came from automobile sales. When automobiles are removed from the calculation, the GDP grew at just 0.7 percent.
 Second-quarter growth estimates of 2.0 percent growth, therefore, may be overly optimistic.
From Reuters:

The government lowered its previous forecasts for consumer spending and export growth, suggesting the economy had a bit less momentum as it entered the second quarter than previously thought.
Consumer spending, which accounts for about 70 percent of U.S. economic activity, increased at a 2.5 percent rate in the first quarter, rather than the previously reported 2.7 percent pace.
With retail sales falling in April and May, consumer spending for the second quarter may prove softer.

The number of Americans receiving benefits under regular state programs after an initial week of aid stands at 3.3 million, a decline of just 15,000 individuals.
The U.S. Department of Commerce defines the gross domestic product as "the output of goods and services produced by labor and property located in the United States." 





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Únase a la lucha para derogar Obamacare

Dr. Edwin J. Feulner

Compatriotas americanos,

Al igual que Uds., estoy decepcionado por la decisión de la Corte Suprema sobre Obamacare. La Corte malinterpretó y reescribió la ley con el fin de salvarla. Tales contorsiones no son parte de la función propia de ser juez. La mayoría de los americanos está con Uds. y conmigo y no le gusta esta ley.
Sin embargo, creemos que este no es en absoluto el momento de la desesperación. Esta decisión dará energía a los americanos amantes de la libertad para una vez más tomar la iniciativa. Nuestra república ha sobrevivido y ha prosperado durante más de dos siglos gracias a que sus hombres y mujeres (valientes, decididos y profundamente comprometidos con la causa de la libertad) estuvieron dispuestos a mantener sus posiciones, a manifestarse y a hacer cualquier sacrificio que fuera necesario para que sus hijos conocieran las bendiciones de la libertad, la esperanza y la oportunidad que emanan de vivir en “la tierra de los libres”.
Ellos recibirán esta sentencia como un aviso de alerta para la acción. Una vez más, el pueblo se tendrá que alzar para defender un fundamental concepto americano: que el poder del gobierno sobre los individuos debe ser limitado.
En primer lugar, reconozcamos qué estuvo bien en la decisión. La Corte reconoció que existen límites a lo que el Congreso puede hacer según la Cláusula de Comercio. Las fuerzas partidarias de un gobierno grande han abusado durante demasiado tiempo de la concesión de autoridad al Congreso por parte de esta cláusula, pero la decisión de la Corte reafirma que existen límites para sus acciones.
También está el hecho de que el mandato individual de Obamacare ha adquirido el estatus constitucional oficial de “impuesto” y si en realidad se trata de un impuesto, entonces eso es incluso una razón aún mayor para que el Senado de Estados Unidos lo derogue con el margen de 51 votos disponible según el proceso de reconciliación de la ley de Presupuesto. Se trata de una disposición recaudatoria. Por tanto, no debería haber problemas con ninguna intervención filibusterista hecha con el propósito de impedir que este asunto se someta a votación ahora.
Por supuesto que denominarlo impuesto no convierte a la torpe normativa de Obamacare en algo mejor para aquellos que ahora tienen que comprar un producto que no les gusta. Y su opinión de ayer deja claro que el presidente Obama promulgó un nuevo y gigantesco impuesto sobre la clase media, rompiendo unas de sus repetidas promesas.
Debemos decidirnos a frenar esta peligrosa ampliación de poder.
El primer paso es trabajar más duro que nunca para derogar completamente Obamacare. Ahora que la Corte Suprema ha expresado su parecer, el Congreso se convierte en el campo de batalla en el que podemos luchar por el desagravio y la restitución de los límites constitucionales.
El Congreso puede y debe reafirmar su autoridad constitucional. De hecho, la Cámara de Representantes ya ha actuado. Felicitamos a la Cámara Baja por haber votado a favor de la derogación de Obamacare. Ahora es el turno del Senado para hacer lo correcto: Derogar Obamacare y obligar al presidente a firmar su derogación.
El experimento americano se basa en la idea de que el gobierno existe para servir al pueblo, que su poder deriva del pueblo y que el pueblo conserva todos los poderes que no concede específicamente al gobierno. Obamacare pone patas arriba esta idea fundamental.
El nuestro es todavía un gobierno “del pueblo”. Y el pueblo americano ha hablado claramente. De hecho, la antipatía del pueblo por esta ley sigue creciendo. Precisamente este mes, una encuesta llevada a cabo por el New York Times y CBS News halló que más de dos tercios de los americanos quería que la Corte Suprema anulara Obamacare total o parcialmente. Sólo el 24% mantendría en pie la ley. Aunque obviamente las decisiones de la Corte no se deberían guiar por las encuestas, la encuesta muestra con claridad el descontento del pueblo con la mala normativa de Obamacare.
Son tantos los aspectos atroces de Obamacare. Una vez que todas sus disposiciones se pongan en funcionamiento (de manera muy conveniente tras las elecciones de noviembre) millones de americanos se exponen a perder su actual cobertura. Pero desde ya, está suponiendo una carga para las personas y las familias mediante mayores primas, mayores costos y mayores impuestos e incluso aún mayores incrementos se atisban en el horizonte. Y ha provocado una gran cantidad de odiosos mandatos adicionales, como el mandato del Departamento de Salud y Servicios Humanos (HHS) que requiere a las organizaciones benéficas religiosas que proporcionen una cobertura que viola los principios de su fe.
Pero, ¿por qué deberíamos esperar que el gobierno respete el derecho constitucional a la libertad religiosa si permitimos que el gobierno ignore las fundamentales restricciones a su poder para regular las vidas de sus ciudadanos?
Este año marcará un punto clave en la historia americana. El pueblo americano debe ahora tomar una decisión crucial: Debemos elegir entre, por un lado, un gobierno limitado constitucionalmente y por el otro, uno arbitrario y con poder ilimitado.
Como siempre, nosotros, en la Fundación Heritage nos mantendremos firmes en defensa de los principios fundacionales de nuestra nación. Estamos impacientes por encabezar la lucha para derogar esta ley intolerable –Obamacare– y estamos agradecidos por su respaldo a nuestras iniciativas para salvar el Sueño Americano para la siguiente generación.
Únase a nuestra lucha: Forme parte de la misión para derogar Obamacare y para crear un Estados Unidos mejor.

Atentamente,



Dr. Edwin J. Feulner
Presidente de la Fundación Heritage

 

Fast and Furious: Dead Fish Stink from the Head Down

by Chris Burgard 

Back in 2009, I was in Del Rio, Texas, attending a Texas Border Sherriff’s Coaliton conference. During one particular Q and A session, the Obama liaison from the Department of Homeland Security kept focusing on stopping the southern flow of guns and money into Mexico.

That felt odd. Yes, stopping the flow of money back into Mexico would hurt the Mexican drug cartels. And yes, some weapons purchased from US gun stores were ending up in Mexico. However, hand grenades, RPGs, explosives and the vast amount of military hardware that the cartels were using were not available at Walmart, not even in Texas. The cartels have an unlimited supply of cash. They can purchase whatever they desire on the international arms black market.
The folks that didn’t have sufficient cash and resources were the good guys--the men and women in US law enforcement that are tasked with holding the line. However, the sheriffs were optimistically cautioned, there will soon be stimulus money that will be available to you... for the programs to stop southern traffic.
Now at that time, border sheriffs like Arvin West from Hudspeth County were actively petitioning the Obama administration for access to military surplus equipment, which would aid tremendously in their war with the Mexican drug cartels.
Those requests were flatly ignored. Odd, because at the same time, President Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, William Hoover, Diane Feinstein and others in the Obama administration were aggressively pushing the “90% of all guns used by the drug cartels are coming from US gun stores” mantra.
That was a joke to the sheriffs on the border, and with good reason. It was not true.
Not even close. Although the “90% of all guns” claim was effectively debunked by FOX News' William La Jeunesse; the Obama mantra continued long after anyone was even paying attention.
I don’t know, maybe it is the old adage, “If enough people repeat a lie often enough it will become accepted as the truth.”
So anyhow, then comes Operation Fast and Furious. The DOJ puts guns into the hands of Cartel assassins. Agent Brian Terry is murdered. Mexican citizens are murdered. President Obama asserts executive privilege, and Sheriff West still hasn’t received his military surplus.
Something is rotten in Denmark, and it’s not just fish.

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Is Obama out of touch?...Really?

23% of Small Business Owners Went a Year Without Pay

 

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by William Bigelow 

Barack Obama has said the private sector is doing fine.

Tell that to small business owners; a new survey by Citigroup shows that 23% of small business owners have gone more than a year without pay. The study also says that 54% of them have gone without at least one paycheck; 38% of them said their employees had worked overtime without being compensated; and 18% of them had been unable to make a paycheck for their employees at least once.
During recent years, 78% of the owners have taken less profit, 70% have been working more hours, and 69% have used their own funds in order to keep their businesses afloat.
When asked what issues have been the most problematic for them, the owners didn’t rank their access to financing in the top five, instead claiming lack of sales and consumer confidence were the most troubling factors.
Maria Veltre, Citi's managing director of small business, commented:

“Business owners are wearing more hats, working more hours and taking less profit” to keep their businesses going. They don’t sit idle, they’re asking, ‘What do I need to do to make my business grow?’ There is a level of sacrifice small business owners take for their businesses.”

The small business owners are reluctant to borrow funds because they are worried about the costs of Obamacare and the financial hit the economy will take from expiring tax cuts.



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President Obama’s Speech Gets A Thumbs Down From Political Press Corps

By Hunter Walker 

President Obama on stage in Ohio. (Photo: Getty)

Prior to President Barack Obama’s marathon 54 minute speech in Ohio today, the Obama campaign sent our several statements promising the speech would be a major address framing the campaign going forward. Despite the hype, the speech was mainly a rehash of themes and ideas from the president’s recent stump speeches and his remarks were widely panned as overly long by the political press corps.
In the speech, President Obama outlined his view that this election is a choice between “two fundamentally different views of which  direction America should take.” He characterized Mitt Romney’s vision as being the same as the “policies of the last decade,” specifically deregulation and tax cuts for the wealthy while he described his own “vision for America” as boiling down to five things: “Education.  Energy.  Innovation.  Infrastructure.  And a tax code focused on American job creation and balanced deficit reduction.” President Obama also stressed that the economic crisis began during the Bush administration and that is “started growing again” after he took office and has since “continued to grow.”
All of these points have already been featured in the president’s other recent speeches. Between the pre-speech hype from the campaign, the lack of new material and the overall length of the speech reporters were clearly dissatisfied with end result. Read on for a sampling of Tweets from the political press slamming the president’s speech.
Before the speech was over, MSNBC’s Mike O’Brien begged the president to stop.

Mike O'Brien @mpoindc

In terms of politics, this speech could have ended about 20 minutes ago. Drive your message, take your ball, go home. READ MORE

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El viraje a la izquierda de la UNASUR

 Dr. Ray Walser

En una ceremonia celebrada el 11 de junio en Bogotá, el cargo de secretario general de la UNASUR pasó de la colombiana María Emma Mejía a Alí Rodríguez, de Venezuela. Exmiembro de una guerrilla marxista, antiguo ministro de Energía, de Relaciones Exteriores y embajador en Cuba, este chavista antiamericano será el secretario general durante el próximo año.
La Unión de Naciones Sudamericanas (UNASUR) es una organización intergubernamental creada en 2008 para propiciar la unidad y la integración entre los 12 estados de América del Sur. Posee un amplio espectro de responsabilidades y $20 millones de presupuesto.
La UNASUR también estableció un consejo electoral, entre diversos grupos consultivos, con la promesa de que defenderá y fomentará la democracia. Según la UNASUR, su primera tarea es servir de testigo (“acompañar”) del proceso electoral en Venezuela. El 7 de octubre, un achacoso Hugo Chávez buscará otro mandato de seis años como presidente, un puesto que ha ocupado desde 1999.
Sin embargo, la UNASUR no tiene antecedentes en la observación electoral y seguramente, bajo la tutela de Rodríguez, buscará posicionarse como un imparcial cuerpo de observadores capacitado para legitimar lo que las fuerzas de la izquierda esperan que sea la triunfante reelección de Hugo Chávez. Al volver sus miras hacia la UNASUR en busca de cobertura, el régimen de Chávez puede distanciarse de otros grupos de observadores electorales imparciales, como el dirigido por la Organización de Estados Americanos (OEA).
El objetivo de Venezuela y sus aliados dentro de la UNASUR es poner en funcionamiento una transformación definitiva para alejarse de la actual disposición interamericana en la que aún residen, con una considerable influencia, los altos cargos independientes de la OEA, las organizaciones no gubernamentales y la sociedad civil. El cambio estaría orientado hacia un organismo regional (menos Estados Unidos y Canadá) en el que gobiernos con muchos años en el poder y con mentalidades autoritarias (como el de Chávez) y sus leales estén más capacitados para establecer agendas políticas y autolegitimar sus actos al levantar un muro contra las críticas tanto nacionales como internacionales.
El año que viene, con un líder chavista, la UNASUR se convertirá en la herramienta preferida de algunos grupos en su intento de desmantelar la OEA y de contrarrestar los intereses y la influencia de Estados Unidos en Sudamérica. Con Rodríguez, también se pueden anticipar iniciativas renovadas de incluir a la UNASUR en el conflicto, que ya dura décadas, de Colombia con las Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC) para promover “conversaciones de paz” y restituir la legitimidad perdida a una banda asesina de matones narcoterroristas.
Venezuela y Alí Rodríguez no pueden dominar todo el espectro de las relaciones sudamericanas ni actuar libremente sin el consentimiento de los miembros más democráticos dentro de UNASUR, pero hay una gran serie de ámbitos en los que causar daño. El movimiento de Sudamérica hacia una integración política y económica más cercana puede que sea inevitable. Sin embargo, poner a UNASUR en manos de un militante chavista antiamericano cuyo objetivo primordial será dirigir la UNASUR en dirección hacia la Revolución Bolivariana de Chávez es definitivamente un giro en la dirección equivocada.

The US "Real" Obama Economy

The U.S. Economy By The Numbers: 70 Facts That Barack Obama Does Not Want You To See

Michael Snyder
The Economic Collapse
Friday, June 8, 2012
Why is the economy going to collapse?  Have you ever been asked that question?  If so, what did you say?  Sometimes it is difficult to communicate dozens of complicated economic and financial concepts in a package that the average person on the street can easily digest.

It can be very frustrating to know that something is true but not be able to explain it clearly to someone else.  Hopefully many of you out there will find the list below useful.  It is a list of 70 numbers that show why we are headed for a national economic nightmare.  So why does the title of the article single out Barack Obama?  Well, it is because right now he is the biggest cheerleader for the economy.  He is attempting to convince all of us that everything is just fine and that the economy is heading in a positive direction.  Well, the truth is that everything is not fine and things are about to get a whole lot worse.  Certainly others should share in the blame as well.  Congress has been steering the economy in the wrong direction for decades, the “too big to fail” banks have turned Wall Street into a pyramid of risk, leverage and debt, and the Federal Reserve has more power over the financial system than anyone else does.  Our economy has been in decline for quite a while now, and soon we are going to smash directly into an economic brick wall.  Unfortunately, a lot of Americans are in denial about this.  A lot of people out there doubt that an economic collapse is coming.  Well, if you know someone that believes that the U.S. economy is going to be “just fine”, just show them the list below.
The following are 70 facts that Barack Obama does not want you to see….
$3.59 – When Barack Obama entered the White House, the average price of a gallon of gasoline was $1.85.  Today, it is$3.59.
22 – It is hard to believe, but today the poverty rate for children living in the United States is a whopping 22 percent.
23 – According to U.S. Representative Betty Sutton, an average of 23 manufacturing facilities permanently shut down in the United States every single day during 2010.
30 – Back in 2007, about 10 percent of all unemployed Americans had been out of work for 52 weeks or longer.  Today, that number is above 30 percent. READ MORE

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EEUU DEUDA

Fitch amenaza con bajar máxima nota a EE.UU. si no aprueba un plan fiscal creíble

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Nueva York, 7 jun (EFE).- La agencia de calificación de riesgo Fitch amenazó hoy con bajar la máxima nota que otorga a la deuda soberana de Estados Unidos, "AAA", si el país no aprueba en los próximos meses un plan fiscal creíble.
Así lo confirmó hoy a Efe un portavoz de Fitch, quien precisó que si después de las elecciones del próximo mes de noviembre el pacto fiscal continúa bloqueado en el Congreso federal, entonces la agencia podría rebajar la calificación de EE.UU., que en la actualidad es "AAA".
Fitch, que el verano pasado mantuvo la máxima nota que otorga a la deuda soberana de EE.UU., decidió a finales de noviembre ponerla en perspectiva negativa "al menos hasta finales de 2013" ante la falta de un acuerdo entre demócratas y republicanos.
Entonces, la agencia dijo que había un 50 % de probabilidades de una rebaja en los próximos años, y justificó la perspectiva negativa en la "decreciente confianza" de que se aprueben medidas fiscales para situar las finanzas públicas "en una senda sostenible".
Fitch reiteró hoy la importancia de que se apruebe un plan fiscal "creíble" para reducir el abultado déficit y dijo también que si llegaran a empeorar las perspectivas económicas y fiscales, entonces terminará rebajando la nota a EE.UU.
La Oficina de Presupuesto del Congreso dijo el mes pasado que la economía de EE.UU. entrará en recesión en la primera mitad de 2013 si no hay un acuerdo para evitar la entrada en vigor de la subida de impuestos y los recortes del gasto público pactados el pasado año.
Los expertos advierten del peligro de lo que llaman "precipicio fiscal" a partir de enero de 2013 si se suspende la prórroga fiscal para la mayoría de los estadounidenses y se aplican agudos recortes del gasto público para reducir el déficit presupuestario.
Este "precipicio fiscal" es producto del acuerdo sobre elevación del tope de deuda rubricado en último momento en agosto pasado por republicanos y demócratas para evitar la suspensión parcial de pagos del Gobierno federal.
Precisamente hoy el presidente de la Reserva Federal (Fed), Ben Bernanke, alertó una vez más de que "un severo ajuste" de la política fiscal a comienzos del próximo año podría suponer una "significativa amenaza" para la recuperación.
La deuda nacional de EE.UU. podría aumentar en los próximos 25 años si no se recorta el gasto fiscal o no se modifican las tasas impositivas, según el último informe anual de la Oficina del Presupuesto del Congreso.




 

America in Decline?

America In Decline: The Soul Crushing Despair Of Lowered Expectations

Michael Snyder
The Economic Collapse

All over America tonight there are people that believe that their lives are over.  When you do everything that you know how to do to get a job and you still can’t get one it can be absolutely soul crushing.

If you have ever been unemployed for an extended period of time you know exactly what I am talking about.  When you have been unemployed for month after month it can be very tempting to totally cut yourself off from society.  Those that are kind will look at you with pity and those that are cruel will treat you as though you are a total loser.  It doesn’t matter that America is in decline and that our economy is not producing nearly enough jobs for everyone anymore.  In our society, one of the primary things that defines our lives is what we do for a living.  Just think about it.  When you are out in a social situation, what is one of the very first things that people ask?  They want to know what you “do”.  Well, if you don’t “do” anything, then you are not part of the club.  But the worst part of being unemployed for many Americans is the relentless pressure from family and friends.  Often they have no idea how hard it is to find a job in this economy – especially if they still have jobs.  Sometimes the pressure becomes too great.  Sadly, we are seeing unemployment break up a lot of marriages in America today.  Things are really hard out there right now.  A very large number of highly educated Americans have taken very low paying service jobs in recent years just so that they can have some money coming in even as they “look for something else”.  Unfortunately, in many cases that “something else” never materializes.  In the past, America was “the land of opportunity” where anything was possible.  But today America has become “the land of lowered expectations” and the worst is yet to come.
We live during a time when “the American Dream” is literally being redefined.  In the old days, just about anyone could get a good job that would pay enough to make it possible to buy a house, buy a nice car and raise a family. READ MORE



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Left-Wing Recall Effort Fails in Wisconsin

 

 

by Breitbart News 10 hours ago 1137 post a comment

MADISON, Wis. (AP) -- Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker beat back a recall challenge Tuesday, winning both the right to finish his term and a voter endorsement of his strategy to curb state spending, which included the explosive measure that eliminated union rights for most public workers.

The rising Republican star becomes the first governor in U.S. history to survive a recall attempt by defeating Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett and the union leaders who rallied for months against his agenda.

Democrats and organized labor spent millions to oust Walker, but found themselves hopelessly outspent by Republicans from across the country who donated record-setting sums to Walker. Republicans hope the victory carries over into November and that their get-out-the-vote effort can help Mitt Romney become the first GOP nominee to carry the state since Ronald Reagan in 1984.

The recall was a rematch of the 2010 governor's race. Throughout the campaign, Walker maintained his policies set the state on the right economic track. Defeat, he said, would keep other politicians from undertaking such bold moves in the future.

"We're headed in the right direction," Walker said many times. "We're turning things around. We're moving Wisconsin forward."

Barrett repeatedly accused Walker of neglecting the needs of the state in the interests of furthering his own political career by making Wisconsin "the tea party capital of the country." He said Walker had instigated a political civil war in Wisconsin that could be quelled only by a change in leadership.

"I will end this civil war," Barrett promised in a debate. "That is something the people of this state want."

Walker ascended into the national spotlight last year when he surprised the state and unveiled plans to plug a $3.6 billion budget shortfall in part by taking away the union rights of most public workers and requiring them to pay more for their health insurance and pension benefits. It was one of his first moves in office.

Democrats and labor leaders saw it as a political tactic designed to gut the power of his political opposition. State Senate Democrats left Wisconsin for three weeks in a sort of filibuster, as tens of thousands of teachers, state workers and others rallied at the Capitol in protest. READ MORE

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A Peek Inside the Manta Ray Womb

by Helen Fields on 5 June 2012

Baby ray. Eight months before this baby manta burst forth from her mama's belly, she showed scientists how she breathes.

Credit: Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium

In November 2008, a female manta ray got stuck in a fishing net off the coast of Okinawa, Japan. The fishermen called up the local aquarium, where scientists were studying how the creatures reproduce. The researchers lucked out: The ray was pregnant. Now, by using an ultrasound machine to take a close look at her unborn offspring, the researchers have figured out how manta ray embryos get oxygen without a mammal's life-support equipment.
Like many sharks and rays, manta rays give birth to live young, but they don't have an umbilical cord or a placenta to deliver oxygen. The uterus is closed off from the outside seawater, so the embryo has to be getting oxygen somehow, but nobody knew how.
When the researchers from Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium retrieved the manta ray, they corralled her in a portable pool that was 3.7 meters across—slightly smaller than the enormous ray, who had to fold up her long fins. Then they checked to see if she was pregnant using an ultrasound machine that had been modified to keep water away from the electronics. Holding the probe on her back, aquarium veterinarian Keiichi Ueda saw what came up on the screen: an embryo in the mother's uterus. "I was very excited because we could see the baby's mouth opening and closing," he writes in an e-mail. Eight months later, the manta ray gave birth to a healthy female, 2 meters from wingtip to wingtip and weighing 50 kilograms.
Later, Taketeru Tomita, a fish biologist at Hokkaido University Museum, examined the video from that ultrasound and several preserved manta ray embryos to figure out just how the baby was getting oxygen into its mouth. He worked out that the baby ray was raising and lowering its jaw, pumping uterine fluid in through its mouth and spiracle, an opening on the back of the head. Valves keep the flow going, presumably directing it over the gills so the embryo could extract oxygen from the fluid. Tomita's ideas on manta ray breathing were based on adults, which generally run water over their gills by swimming with their mouths agape.
"I was very surprised that the manta ray baby actively pumped the liquid," he says. Other studies have suggested that embryos also drink the uterine fluid for nutrition, making the mother's watery secretions a live-in oxygenated milkshake for the growing baby. Tomita says the research will help explain how sharks and rays evolved to produce live young. Sharks and rays that develop in eggs also breathe by pumping seawater with their mouths, but as far as he knows, this is the first time that researchers have seen the behavior in a vertebrate that gives birth to live young. He plans to publish results from similar ultrasounds on two other species of sharks and rays. The study appears online today in Biology Letters.
The work is the first to show how manta ray embryos get oxygen, says John Musick, a vertebrate ecologist at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science in Gloucester Point. "To actually see these respiratory movement in these rays is really cool."


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Bilderberg...What is it?

Bilderberg: Breaking News

Infowars.com


Syria Regime Change On Bilderberg Agenda
Paul Joseph Watson | Pro-NATO intervention SNC head in attendance at elite confab.
AFP Staffer Manhandled By Police During Arrest At Bilderberg 2012
TheIntelHub.com | American Free Press staffer is manhandled by overzealous police at the Bilderberg 2012 meetings.
Elite Plan One World Bank at Bilderberg Confab
Infowars.com | Infowars Nightly News round up of protest action from Bilderberg 2012.
The Global Elite’s Death Race with Joe Banister
Infowars.com | Former special agent of the Criminal Investigation Division of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and IRS whistleblower Joe Banister joins Alex on location at the Bilderberg meeting.
Protest groups converge to denounce secretive Bilderberg conference
London Guardian | Annual off-the-record finance gathering attracts protesters from disparate groups, but they often have a similar goal in mind.
Is Bilderberg a conference on world affairs or a powerful global cabal? Depends on who you ask
Washington Post | Outside the Jersey barriers, dozens of protesters and conspiracy theorists — convinced that Bilderberg is a global cabal that runs the world — waved signs and shouted into bullhorns.
Bilderberg Protester Arrested For Crossing Street
Paul Joseph Watson| Security crackdown surrounding elite confab intensifies.
Indiana Governor On Bilderberg “Short List”
Infowars.com | Rumors have circulated that Daniels may be Romney’s VP pick.
Establishment Media Covers Bilderberg 2012
Infowars.com | Alex Jones interviewed by standard bearers of establishment propaganda.
Bilderberg 2012: Photos
Infowars.com | Photos of arriving participants and the demonstration outside the confab in Virginia.

Read More 



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Vuelve a subir el desempleo

Mike Brownfield

Aquellos que hoy esperaban buenas noticias económicas desde Washington, se encuentran con una horrible decepción. Según el más reciente informe de empleo por parte del Departamento de Trabajo, la economía creó sólo 69,000 empleos en mayo (bastante por debajo de las expectativas) a la vez que la tasa de desempleo subió hasta el 8.2% y las cifras de empleo desde marzo y abril fueron revisadas a la baja de manera significativa. Mientras tanto, un “Armagedón Fiscal” está amenazando la economía de Estados Unidos y retrasando el crecimiento, pero extrañamente, el presidente Barack Obama no está haciendo nada al respecto.

El analista de la Fundación Heritage J.D. Foster explica que aunque una segunda recesión no tiene por qué estar a la vista, la noticia no es nada de lo que la administración Obama pueda presumir:

Estas cifras de empleo son coherentes con otras noticias bastante sombrías. Por ejemplo, el crecimiento económico del primer trimestre se revisó a la baja hasta el 1.9%, mientras que un importante indicativo del rendimiento del corazón económico de Estados Unidos, el Índice de Directores de Compras de Chicago, cayó hasta su nivel más bajo desde septiembre de 2009, cerca de lo más profundo de la reciente recesión. Nada de esto apunta necesariamente a una segunda recesión, más bien el continuo enredo y el no tener una postura para resistir un impacto económico como, por ejemplo, la profunda recesión en desarrollo en Europa.

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Why We Lie

We like to believe that a few bad apples spoil the virtuous bunch. But research shows that everyone cheats a little—right up to the point where they lose their sense of integrity

By DAN ARIELY

Research shows that nearly everyone cheats a little if given the opportunity. Dan Ariely, author of the new book, "The (Honest) Truth About Dishonesty," explains why. (Photo courtesy Shutterstock)

Not too long ago, one of my students, named Peter, told me a story that captures rather nicely our society's misguided efforts to deal with dishonesty. One day, Peter locked himself out of his house. After a spell, the locksmith pulled up in his truck and picked the lock in about a minute.
"I was amazed at how quickly and easily this guy was able to open the door," Peter said. The locksmith told him that locks are on doors only to keep honest people honest. One percent of people will always be honest and never steal. Another 1% will always be dishonest and always try to pick your lock and steal your television; locks won't do much to protect you from the hardened thieves, who can get into your house if they really want to. The purpose of locks, the locksmith said, is to protect you from the 98% of mostly honest people who might be tempted to try your door if it had no lock.
We tend to think that people are either honest or dishonest. In the age of Bernie Madoff and Mark McGwire, James Frey and John Edwards, we like to believe that most people are virtuous, but a few bad apples spoil the bunch. If this were true, society might easily remedy its problems with cheating and dishonesty. Human-resources departments could screen for cheaters when hiring. Dishonest financial advisers or building contractors could be flagged quickly and shunned. Cheaters in sports and other arenas would be easy to spot before they rose to the tops of their professions.
But that is not how dishonesty works. Over the past decade or so, my colleagues and I have taken a close look at why people cheat, using a variety of experiments and looking at a panoply of unique data sets—from insurance claims to employment histories to the treatment records of doctors and dentists. What we have found, in a nutshell: Everybody has the capacity to be dishonest, and almost everybody cheats—just by a little. Except for a few outliers at the top and bottom, the behavior of almost everyone is driven by two opposing motivations. On the one hand, we want to benefit from cheating and get as much money and glory as possible; on the other hand, we want to view ourselves as honest, honorable people. Sadly, it is this kind of small-scale mass cheating, not the high-profile cases, that is most corrosive to society.


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Obama Nazi death camp gaffe 'hurt all Poles': PM

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  US President Barack Obama

Poland's prime minister said Wednesday that remarks by President Barack Obama erroneously identifying a Nazi death camp as Polish had hurt all Poles and he expected more from the US than "regret".

"I am convinced that our American friends can today allow themselves a stronger reaction than a simple expression of regret from the White House spokesman -- a reaction more inclined to eliminate once and for all these kinds of errors," Donald Tusk told reporters in Warsaw.

Obama on Tuesday mistakenly called a Nazi facility used to process Jews for execution as a "Polish death camp." The White House later said the president "misspoke" and expressed "regret".

The linguistic faux pas overshadowed his posthumous award of America's highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, to Jan Karski, a former Polish anti-Nazi underground officer who provided the Allied powers with early eyewitness accounts of the Germany's Holocaust against Jews.

Obama's words had "hurt all Poles," Tusk said Wednesday.

"Today this is a problem for the reputation of the United States. This can be an opportunity for the US administration and for President Obama to support Poland in its activity for historic truth," Tusk added.

The Polish government keenly watches the global media for descriptions of former concentration camps as "Polish" because it says the term -- even if used simply as a geographical indicator -- can give the impression that Poland bore responsibility for Nazi Germany's World War II genocide.

Although located in Poland, Nazi Germany's most notorious World War II death camp -- Auschwitz -- was set up and run entirely by German dictator Adolf Hitler's occupying forces from 1940 to 1945.

While most of the camp's 1.1 million victims were Jews deported from other German-occupied nations, the Nazis sent at least 300,000 Polish Jews there.

Polish Jews represented around half the six million killed in the Holocaust.

Until 1942, the camp was primarily a prison and killing centre for non-Jewish Poles such as resistance members. An estimated 75,000 died there, out of around 2.6 million non-Jewish Poles who perished under the Nazi German occupation of their country. Taken from

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Iran to build new nuclear plant by early 2014: TV

 

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Iran is to build a new nuclear power plant, alongside its sole existing one in the southern city of Bushehr, by early 2014, state television reported on Sunday, quoting the head of the country's Atomic Energy Organisation.

"Iran will build a 1,000-megawatt nuclear power plant in Bushehr next year," the television quoted Fereydoon Abbasi Davani as saying. He was referring to the Iranian calendar year running from March 2013 to March 2014.

The current Bushehr nuclear plant was started by German engineers in the 1970s, before Iran's Islamic revolution, and was completed by Russia, which continues to help keeping it running and provides fuel for it.

In addition, Iran has a research reactor operating in Tehran that is used to make medical isotopes for patients with cancer and other illnesses.

A new Bushehr plant would boost electricity production in Iran, which has some of the world's biggest reserves.

State television made its announcement in the wake of talks in Baghdad on Wednesday and Thursday between Iran and world powers that focused on Tehran's controversial nuclear programme.

Those talks almost collapsed because of the very different positions held by the two sides, but agreement was finally reached to hold another round in Moscow on June 18-19.

Iran insists its nuclear programme is exclusively peaceful and aimed at producing energy and medical isotopes.

The world powers -- the Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States -- suspect the programme could include work towards developing a nuclear weapons capability, and they have backed UN Security Council resolutions calling on Iran to curb its activities. From Breitbart

Constitución viviente: Los progresistas atrapados en su propia trampa

Rich Tucker



Sabemos que los “progresistas” están a favor de lo que ellos llaman “constituciones vivientes”, documentos de gobierno que se cambian fácilmente para adaptarse a los cambiantes gustos de los votantes. A veces se apoyan en los jueces para “dar vida” a la Constitución, como hizo la Corte Suprema en 1965 en el famoso caso Griswold v. Connecticut.
Sin embargo, algunos también parecen estar deseando constituciones muertas. El jueves, un entrevistador, Jeremy Hobson, de la radio pública nacional NPR tuvo una idea interesante: “Tengo que decir que cuando hablo con amigos de todo el país, miran este     sistema en California y que dicen: bueno, ¿ simplemente por qué no botan la Constitución [estatal] que exige que los votantes aprueben todo lo que hacen?”. Esa fue la pregunta de Hobson para el gobernador de California,  Jerry Brown (D).

Pero Brown pareció darse cuenta de que no le queda de otra que quedarse con el documento “perfeccionado” por sus antecesores progresistas.
“¿Por qué no botamos esta constitución y ya?”, respondió Brown. “Se ha hecho ya en varios países y se llama golpe de estado. Mire Ud., esto es una democracia, se le pueden hallar fallos pero en comparación con la parálisis en Washington, por lo menos tenemos un árbitro de última instancia, y es el pueblo mismo”.
Brown y sus colegas progresistas están viéndose obstaculizados por el sistema que ellos mismos han diseñado. Será interesante ver en qué acaba todo esto.

Que mas quisieran los Democratas!!!

The Last Sip!

25 Signs That The Smart Money Has Completely Written Off Southern Europe

Michael Snyder
The Economic Collapse

When it comes to the financial world, it is important to listen to what the “smart money” is saying, but it is much more important to watch what the “smart money” is actually doing.

The ultra-wealthy and those that run the biggest financial institutions on the planet are far more “connected” to what is really going on in financial circles behind the scenes than you and I could ever hope to be.  But if we watch their behavior we can get clues as to what they think is about to happen.  As is the case with so many other things, if you want to figure out what is really going on in Europe, just follow the money.  And right now, money is rapidly flowing out of southern Europe and into northern Europe.  In fact, some large corporations are now pulling the money that they make in Greece during the day out of the country every single night.  It is becoming increasingly clear that the upper crust of the financial world considers a Greek exit from the euro to be “inevitable” and that it also considers much of the rest of southern Europe to be a lost cause.  Unfortunately, a financial collapse across southern Europe is also likely to trigger another devastating global recession.
Even though all the warning signs were there, very few people actually expected to see the kind of financial crisis that we saw back in 2008.
But it happened.
Now very few people actually expect another “Lehman Brothers moment” to happen in Europe although the warning signs are all around us.
Sadly, most people never want to believe the truth until it is too late.
The following are 25 signs that the smart money has completely written off southern Europe….
#1 Lloyd’s of London is publicly admitting that it is rapidly making preparations for a collapse of the eurozone.
#2 According to the New York Times, top global law firms are advising their clients to withdraw all cash and all other liquid assets from Greece….

So their advice is blunt: Remove cash and other liquid assets from Greece and prepare to take a short-term hit on any other investments.
“My personal view is that it is irrational for anyone, whether a corporation or an individual, to be leaving money in Greek financial institutions, so long as there is a credible prospect of a euro zone exit,” said Ian M. Clark, a partner in London for White & Case, a global law firm that has a team of 10 lawyers focusing on the issue.

#3 According to CNBC, large numbers of wealthy Europeans have been moving their money from banks in southern Europe to banks in northern Europe….READ MORE

Flawed Pharma Study Demonizing Vitamins and Minerals Debunked

Patrick Gallagher - Infowars.com -  Monday, May 28, 2012
It seems that some people will do just about anything to get ahead, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise when a mostly falsified study is released to put down what is primarily known as a fundamentally healthy and intelligent choice.

Unfortunately, people still will try to spread discord amongst their fellow man in an apparent attempt to get ahead; sacrificing the good of the people is unfortunately a small price to pay for an insurmountably large personal gain, in many cases. This dishonest act can be seen in one such case of misinformation – a ‘study’ performed in order to bring the market for multivitamins and other very respectable health supplements down a notch.
In the article Iowa Women’s Health Study, much of the piece takes many things that are widely known as beneficial within a large number of vitamin supplements, and links some of these to various deaths in which people with diseases would essentially overdose themselves on vitamins in a desperate grab to fight off the disease. The article then discounts the fact that many people do not even use vitamins except for when they are sick, wrongfully linking an absurd amount of deaths directly to the use of vitamins and other supplements. As an example, a person was diagnosed with a life threatening disease, and in a sense of sheer panic began using as much as 40 supplements all at once, going up from using literally nothing the previous day. This example was then taken out of context and used as a source of evidence that supplements are in fact potentially deadly – a completely biased and ridiculous claim! Read More
Read: Why nearly ALL vitamin studies are worthless. 

Todavia hay personas que dudan que el regimen Cubano, como el Chino, es Comunista. 

Una fuerza en pro de la libertad desde China hasta Cuba

Mike Brownfield

 
El sábado por la noche, el activista legal chino, Chen Guancheng, ciego desde la infancia, llegó a Newark, Nueva Jersey, tras escapar a siete años de persecución en China. Con la dulce tierra de la libertad bajo sus pies, Chen respiró el aire libre y remarcó: “Deberíamos enlazar nuestros brazos para continuar en la lucha por la bondad en el mundo y para luchar contra la injusticia”. La recién encontrada libertad de Chen es un motivo de celebración, pero también es un recordatorio de que Estados Unidos debe seguir siendo una fuerza en pro de la libertad en el mundo, ya sea al otro lado del mundo o a 150 kilómetros de las costas de Florida.
Chen, abogado autodidacta de 40 años, estuvo encarcelado durante cuatro años, fue puesto bajo arresto domiciliario y sufrió palizas después de dar voz a la oposición contra la normativa de un solo hijo de la China comunista, que tiene como consecuencia abortos forzados por el gobierno, esterilizaciones bajo coacción y multas o abusos físicos contra los vecinos y familiares de las mujeres con embarazos no autorizados. El mes pasado, Chen escapó del control de las autoridades chinas y encontró refugio en la embajada de Estados Unidos. Después de una serie de negociaciones, Chen y sus familiares cercanos ganaron su libertad y ahora es un investigador de temas legales en la Escuela de Derecho de la Universidad de Nueva York.
El caso de Chen trae a la luz la realidad de la China de hoy en día: un país que ha sido transformado radicalmente durante los últimos 30 años gracias al desarrollo económico. Pero a pesar de todo lo que ha cambiado el país, muchas cosas siguen igual. El analista de la Fundación Heritage Walter Lohman explica que:

China también es un lugar que no ha cambiado desde la masacre de 1989 en la plaza de Tiananmen en lo referente al respeto por los derechos fundamentales de su pueblo. A veces esto es difícil de creer para los diplomáticos, académicos, empresarios y turistas que pasan algún tiempo allí. Asimismo, hay muchos chinos acomodados y de mundo que tampoco lo ven.
La República Popular de China es una nación autoritaria y, sí,  “comunista”. Esta China es la realidad de cada día para Chen. Y es una realidad brutal para muchos cientos de millones más. Las relaciones entre Estados Unidos y China nunca serán normales mientras el régimen chino sea como es.

Read More  Lee este Articulo en Ingles

Obama’s Ironic European Lecture

Mike Brownfield

Europe is in bad shape, there’s no doubt about it. The sovereign debt crisis continues to roil the continent, Greece may leave the euro, Spain may have to revise its budget deficit upward for the second time because of bad loans, and France has a new socialist president pledging more spending instead of austerity. So when the G8 leaders met last week, President Obama had some words of advice to offer — “Look at me and learn from my stellar example!”
OK, that’s a paraphrase, but his actual words aren’t all that much different. No joke, the president who has presided over a downgraded credit rating, three years without a budget, an exploding deficit, an entitlement system desperately in need of reform, and an unemployment rate still over 8 percent has painted himself as a model for others to follow.
Quite remarkably, the president bragged that he has worked to “bring down our deficits and debt over the longer term” while staying “focused on growing the economy and creating jobs in the immediate term.” Though he acknowledges that “Of course, we still have a lot of work to do,” he says that now there’s “room to take a balanced approach to reducing our deficit and debt, while preserving our investments in the drivers of growth and job creation over the long term — education, innovation, and infrastructure for the 21st century.”
In other words, because of his supposed successes, America can afford to spend even more money on stimulus.
It’s hard to say whether the president’s intended audience was the leaders of the G8 or the American electorate, but regardless of who it was, there’s not much for Obama to brag about.
In the past four years, unemployment has gone up, more people are unemployed longer, gas prices are higher, the cost of health care insurance has increased, the national debt is higher, federal spending has increased, more Americans are on food stamps, regulatory costs are higher, home values have declined, America’s economic recovery is historically slow, and while federal spending on education has increased, results remain flat. You can see for yourself just how bad America’s fiscal outlook is in Heritage’s 2012 edition of the Federal Budget in Pictures.
Though Europe needs solutions, they certainly shouldn’t be looking at President Obama for the answers.