Go down this list to find your city (photos)

Some photos from today here

 

posted by dubie at:  http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2195822/posts

 

 

 posted by Doctor Raoul at: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2196337/posts 

 

 

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2195649/posts
Kansas Tea Party

http://wonkette.com/406661/historic-washington-teabagging-party-there-were-poop-hats
Historic Washington Teabagging Party: There Were Poop Hats

STL

http://gatewaypundit.blogspot.com

CHICAGO

http://www.foundingbloggers.com/wordpress/2009/02/breaking-chicago-tea-party-pictures/

MICHIGAN

http://michellemalkin.com/2009/02/27/fiscal-responsibility-is-the-new-counterculture/

DENVER

http://www.peoplespresscollective.org/2009/02/denver-tea-party-pictures/

Malkin selected album:

Cities in: CA/OR/NC/OK/TN/AL/OH/IL/FL/TX/CT

http://michellemalkin.com/2009/02/27/fiscal-responsibility-is-the-new-counterculture/

http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/Hundreds-Turn-out-for-Anti-Tax-Tea-Party.html
Hundreds Turn out for Anti-Tax ‘Tea Party’

http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/Hundreds_Turn_out_for_Anti-Tax_Tea_Party_San_Diego.html

http://hotair.com/archives/2009/02/27/joe-the-plumber-at-dc-tea-party-no-one-on-the-hill-gives-a-rip-about-you/
Joe the Plumber at D.C. Tea Party: No one on the Hill gives a rip about you

http://www.cbs8.com/Global/story.asp?S=9919532
“Tea Party” Held To Protest Stimulus Bill

http://www.ajc.com/blogs/content/shared-blogs/ajc/georgia/entries/2009/02/27/protesters_hold.html
Protesters hold anti-stimulus “tea party” at the Capitol

http://lonestartimes.com/2009/02/27/houston-tea-party-2/
Houston Tea Party

http://krmg.com/localnews/2009/02/hundreds-protest-stimulus-at-t.html

http://wokv.com/localnews/2009/02/jacksonville-tea-party-protest.html

Lots of pics in this thread:    Fort Worth, Texas http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2190677/posts?q=1&;page=101 posted by penelopiesire

 

Lead Story & Photos

http://www.freep.com/article/20090227/NEWS06/90227075/Lively+crowd+protests+Obama+in+Lansing
Lively crowd protests Obama in Lansing

“A Cedar Rapids group will have to make-do with a symbolic tea-dumping into the Cedar River on Saturday because DNR officials will not let them use the real thing.

The 2 p.m. event will be held on the First Avenue bridge downtown.”

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2009902270369

http://michellemalkin.com/2009/02/26/lets-get-this-tea-party-started/  Michelle Malkin
Let’s get this Tea Party started; Update: DC Tea Party now at Lafayette Park  posted by abb

 

http://www.wowt.com/news/headlines/40425282.html
Tea Party Protest Held In Omaha    posted by abb

 

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2195576/posts

Cleveland Tea Party
Flickr ^ | 2/27/09 | Ken Soeder    Posted by Bigcat 32

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bigcat32/sets/72157614429412507/     Posted by  abb

• See all videos
• — Chanting "No more pork!" and "No more bailouts!" a few hundred "tea party" protesters stood outside a west Fort Worth sports bar for hours Friday, cheering and waving signs at passing drivers to protest the Obama administration’s economic stimulus program. http://www.star-telegram.com/804/story/1230545.html
  
• Priceless.

Posted by Freespirited

  

All above excerpted from: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2195581/posts

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Help Sink the $787B Stimulus

Outraged voters will rally in cities throughout America today to protest Uncle Sam’s $787 billion stimulus package – and offer more equitable solutions. Grizzly Groundswell has exclusive coverage of this Nationwide Tea Party.  http://www.blogtalkradio.com/search/Tea+Party

 Seen in Boston Today:

 

# 38 posted by potlatch, excepted from: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2195615/posts

Mitch McConnell Lays It On the Line at CPAC
by Jennifer Rubin

 FULL CPAC COVERAGE | WATCH LIVE
• Strategy Room: FOX Biz Hour Live Stream

• Fort Myers, FL - Feb. 27, 11:00am - 1:30pm, Bowditch Point Park
• Denver, CO - Feb. 27, 10:00am, Colorado State Capitol Building - 200 E. Colfax Ave, EAST side steps
• Saint Louis, MO - Friday, February 27th, 11:00am - 12:00pm, The Steps of the Arch on Wharf Street
• Los Angeles, CA - Saturday, July 4th, Santa Monica Pier, 7:00am-12:00pm
• Boston, MA - Saturday, July 4th, 12:00pm, Griffin Harbor
• Chicago, IL - July 4th, 7:00pm, Belmont Harbor, Lakeshore Drive
• Vancouver, WA - April 18th, Lawn of Clark County Courthouse, 11am to 1pm
• Kansas City, MO - Saturday, Feb. 28th, 10am - 2pm, J.C. Nichols Foundation, 47th and J.C. Nichols Pkwy
• Philadelphia, PA - Saturday, Feb. 28th, 12:00pm, Independence Hall
• Orlando, FL - Feb. 27th, 12:00pm-2:00pm, Lake Eola
• Cleveland, OH - February 27, 2009, 12:00pm - 1:00pm, Public Square in Downtown Cleveland
• Tulsa, OK - Feb. 27, 2009, 12:00pm - 1:00pm, Veterans Park, 21st and Boulder
• Greenville, SC - Feb. 27th, Main Street, 6:00pm
• San Diego, CA - Feb. 27th, The harbor (just north of the Star of India), 9:00am
• Pittsburgh, PA - Feb. 27th, 2009 , 12pm - 1pm, Market Square
• Fort Worth, TX - Feb. 27th, Outside stage at Cowtown Bar & Grill, 7108 Camp Bowie Blvd, 3:00pm - 7:00pm
• Houston, TX - Feb. 27th, 11:00am, Fondren Green at Discovery Green Park, (in front of the amphitheater)
• Atlanta, GA - Friday, Feb. 27th, State Capitol (Washington Street exit), 12:00pm
• Chicago, IL - Friday, Feb. 27th, 11:00am central, Daley Plaza
• Washington, DC - Friday, Feb. 27th, 12:00pm, Washington Monument
• Tampa, FL - Fri. Feb 27, Noon, Federal Courthouse, 801 N Florida Ave Tampa 33602
• Sarasota, FL - Fri. Feb. 27, noon, Sarasota Island Park and Marina, Bayfront (41) and Ringling
• Lansing, MI, Friday, February 27,  12-1 PM at the State Capital

A perfect storm of a deepening global recession and banking woes last week battered equities and supported the safe havens of the US dollar, government bonds and gold bullion.

A dismal corporate earnings outlook, fears about bank nationalizations, especially Bank of America (BAC) and Citigroup (C), and a warning by Moody’s Investors Service of possible downgrades of European banks exposed to the slumping economies of Central and Eastern Europe, stoked investors’ fears.

Few stock markets escaped the selling pressure as summarized by the week’s movements of the MSCI Global Index (-7.7%, YTD -16.0%) and the MSCI Emerging Markets Index (-9.3%, YTD -11.4%). Venezuela (+6.7%), Pakistan (+6.1%) and Morocco (+3.7%) were the top three performers, whereas potential debt defaulters - Russia (-17.1%), Ukraine (-12.5%) and Hungary (-12.4%) - occupied the bottom end of the ranking (data courtesy of Emerginvest).

The major US indices suffered their worst weekly losses this year (to record six losing weeks out of seven): Dow Jones Industrial Index -6.2% (YTD -16.1%), S&P 500 Index -6.9% (YTD -14.7%), Nasdaq Composite Index -6.1% (YTD -8.6%) and Russell 2000 Index -8.3% (YTD -17.7%).

Negative sentiment dragged the S&P 500 to seven points below its October 2002 low, whereas the Dow stopped only 80 points short of this key level. It is noteworthy that it took five years for the latter to increase from 7,286 to 14,165, but only 16 months to wipe out the entire 2002-2007 advance.

Source: StockCharts.com

With the bears prowling Wall Street, none of the main economic sectors registered positive returns on the week. Among exchange-traded funds (ETFs), the KBW Bank Index ETF (KBE) and the Financial Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLF) lost 16.6% and 15.9% respectively. However, as highlighted by John Nyaradi (Wall Street Sector Selector), inverse exchange-traded funds (ETFs) such as ProShares Short S&P 500 (SH) (+6.8%), ProShares Short Dow30 (DOG) (+5.8%) and Short QQQ ProShares (PSQ) (+5.1%) gained handsomely.

As was the case the previous week with the announcement of Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner’s financial stability plan, last week’s mortgage relief plan, designed to stem the foreclosure crisis, also made scant impression on the stock market. President Barack Obama earmarked $275 billion to help reduce mortgage payments for up to nine million struggling borrowers and enable Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to keep mortgage rates down.

Jeff Randall (Telegraph) wrote: “… we are in denial about the causes of recession and therefore cannot face up to the action required to lift us out of it. As Niall Ferguson, professor of history at Harvard University, wrote: ‘The reality being repressed is that the Western world is suffering a crisis of indebtedness.’ In which case, pumping out yet more debt will not be the answer. It is simply a short-term fix that in the long run creates an even bigger disaster, like giving a shivering alcoholic a case of Special Brew.” (Also read RGE Monitor’s recent guest post on the US’s financing needs.)

Barry Ritholtz (The Big Picture) has an interesting post up that lists the names of those favoring and opposing nationalization of the bigger US banks. Yes, I know it is a politically controversial issue, but rather get it over and done with than pussyfooting with “behind-the-curve” measures as being experimented with by the policymakers week after week. If nationalized banks are still alive once the toxic junk has been marked to market, they can start acting like banks and stake their claim to be privatized once again in the next economic upswing.

Notwithstanding supply concerns, government bond yields in the US, UK and Germany declined as investors continued their flight to safety. Yields of 10-year Treasuries, Bunds and Gilts were down by 14, 12 and 12 basis points respectively.

Increasing financial turbulence also resulted in the gold holdings of the world’s largest bullion-backed ETF jumping to a record level. “The SPDR Gold Trust (GLD) holdings have risen by 228.6 metric tons so far this year, to a record 1,008.8 metric tons late on Tuesday, absorbing in the first seven weeks of the year about 10% of the world’s annual mine gold output,” reported the Financial Times. Gold bullion breached the $1,000 level on Friday and closed the week at $1,002 (+6.4%) - within striking distance of its record of $1,031 reached in March last year.

With the yellow metal behaving like “the last man standing”, David Fuller reminded us of the quote by the English poet Lord Byron: “O gold! I still prefer thee unto paper, which makes bank credit like a bark of vapour.”

Besides precious metals shining brightly, the other commodities performed poorly, as shown in the graph below. The Reuters/Jeffries CRB Index recorded a six-and-a-half year low as global growth deteriorated.

Next, a tag cloud of my week’s reading. This is a way of visualizing word frequencies at a glance. Key words such as “banks”, “China”, “financial” and “gold” featured prominently.

As far as the outlook for stock markets is concerned, the primary bear market was reconfirmed on Thursday, at least in terms of Dow Theory. Richard Russell (Dow Theory Letters) said: “The verdict, at long last, is in. Today the DJ Industrial Average closed below its November 20 bear market low. In so doing, the Dow confirmed the prior breakdown of the Transportation Average. The two Averages jointly closed at new lows today, thereby signaling that the great bear market remains in force.

“According to Dow Theory, neither the duration nor the extent of a bear market can be predicted in advance. However there are some useful hints. Most major bear markets end with stocks at ‘great values’. This has meant in the past that price/earnings (P/E) ratios for the Dow and the S&P have fallen to single-digit numbers. It has also meant that dividend yields have moved into the 5-6% zone.”

Standard & Poor’s estimated GAAP (or “as reported”) earnings of 32.3 cents for the S&P 500 for 2009 implies a ten-month prospective P/E ratio of 23.8. Hardly “great value”.

As mentioned above, the Dow and S&P 500 are floundering around the November 20, 2008 and October 2002 lows, as shown in the columns on the right-hand side of the table below.

Stock markets remain caught between the actions of central banks frantically trying to fend off a total economic meltdown on the one hand, and a worsening economic and corporate picture on the other. The next few days will tell whether the key chart levels will arrest the indices’ declines and the three-month trading range will hold, or whether more catastrophe lies ahead.

For more discussion about the direction of stock markets, also see my recent posts “Video-o-rama: Stocks between a rock and a hard place” and “Bennet Sedacca: Free Fallin’???“. (And do make a point of listening to Donald Coxe’s weekly webcast, which can be accessed from the sidebar of the Investment Postcards site.)

Announcement
Back to Richard Russell, 84-year old writer of the Dow Theory Letters. Business partner John Mauldin (Thoughts from the Frontline) is organizing a “Richard Russell Tribute Dinner” for April 4 in San Diego. This will be a night of memories and good fun with fellow writers and long-time readers of Richard’s newsletter. I will be making the trip from Cape Town and would encourage you, if at all possible, also to attend this very special event. You can register here.

Economy
A grim picture regarding the global economic situation emerges from the latest Ifo World Economic Survey (WES), showing that the World Economic Climate has declined to a record low in the first quarter of 2009. The deterioration is affecting all major economic regions and the export and import expectations indicate a clear decline in world trade in the first half of 2009.

Source: Ifo, February 18, 2009.

Further evidence of the economic malaise is provided by the GDP-weighted graphs of the global manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index and global services PMI.

Source: Plexus Asset Management

Source: Plexus Asset Management

A snapshot of the week’s US economic data is provided below. (Click on the dates to see Northern Trust’s assessment of the various data releases.)

February 20
• CPI report - underlying trend of deflation will fade only later

February 19
• Index of Leading Indicators improved, but wait before taking a leap
• Wholesale prices moved up, but inflation is a non-issue, for now
• Jobless Claims - dismal labor market conditions persist

February 18
• Industrial Production plunges, factory operating rate at record low
• Construction of new homes at new low
• Import prices - sixth consecutive monthly decline

February 17
• Housing Market Index - showing signs of stability?
• Foreign appetite for Treasury securities remains in place for moment

Given the nature of economics reports of recent months, the minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting of January 27-28 come as no surprise. Asha Bangalore (Northern Trust) said: “The FOMC is more bearish about the economy compared with the forecast published in October 2008. The US economy is predicted to contract in 2009 (-1.3% to -0.5%) on a Q4-to-Q4 basis.

“The consensus forecast among the Blue Chip Survey participants is a 1.9% drop in real GDP on an annual average basis in 2009. We are predicting a 2.7% decline in real GDP … So, there is a general expectation of a significant weakening of business conditions during 2009.”

Week’s economic reports
Click here for the week’s economy in pictures, courtesy of Jake of EconomPic Data.

Source: Yahoo Finance, February 20, 2009.

In addition to Fed Chairman Bernanke’s semi-annual testimony on monetary policy before the US Senate Banking Committee (Tuesday, February 24), the US economic highlights for the week include the following:

Source: Northern Trust

Click here for a summary of Wachovia’s weekly economic and financial commentary.

Markets
The performance chart obtained from the Wall Street Journal Online shows how different global markets performed during the past week.

Source: Wall Street Journal Online, February 20, 2009.

“Analysts can tell you everything about the ship, the crew, the price - but they don’t let you know whether it’s in shallow water or is about to be hit by a tidal wave,” said Scott Cleland (hat tip: Charles Kirk). Hopefully the “Words from the Wise” reviews play a part in steering the portfolios of Investment Postcards‘ readers through the murky waters.

That’s the way it looks from Cape Town.

* Dr Prieur du Plessis is chairman of Plexus Asset Management and writes the Investment Postcards from Cape Town blog (www.investmentpostcards.com)

Posted on Thursday, February 26, 2009 7:41:53 AM by cc2k

For the past week, I've been posting about the "Omnibus Spending Bill" that the Dems have rammed through the congress. This $410 billion monster is for Fiscal Year 2009. They refused to do their job while Bush was in office and passed a continuing resolution last year to run the government until March 6. Now, they want big increases (even bigger than Bush would have approved), and they will get them with Obama's signature.

An early American political cartoon originally published in Benjamin Franklin's Pennsylvania Gazette newspaper.

Popular Music During The Revolutionary War

	Stony Point - 1779
	Jefferson & Liberty
	The World Turned Upside Down
	St. Clair’s Defeat
	Dying Redcoat
	Free America
	The Ballad of Major Andre
	The Congress Minuet (King George The Third’s Minuet)
	Poor Old Tory Back To The Music of Early America

• ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
• Tea Party Cities updated
  Facebook, Craigslist, Michelle Malkin, FR | February 24, 2009 by  beejaa
  

  Posted on Tuesday, February 24, 2009 1:53:37 PM

  I'm posting updated information about tea parties again for older folks
  like me who aren't quite sure how to navigate Twitter, Facebook and just
  like to see a plain list in front of them.  Some of the information is right
  here on FR, but the more the merrier, I say.  There are lots of other links
  and I would encourage you to use them. 
  
   
• http://www.pjtv.com/?cmd=page&page-id=68

http://michellemalkin.com/2009/02/23/tea-party-usa-watch-taxpayers-coming-together/

ATLANTA Tea Party
    Friday, February 27, 12 noon Georgia State Capitol Building, downtown Atlanta http://atlantateaparty.blogspot.com/2009/02/nationwide-chicago-tea-party-atlanta.html You can also send email to atlantateaparty@gmail.com or directly to southernbelleblog@gmail.com.

 

CHICAGO Tea Party 
    Friday, February 27, 11 AM Central (Chicago) Time
Start: Daley Plaza, 50 W. Washington St.
End: Michigan Ave Bridge (Tribune Tower)
speakers include Tony Peraica and more speakers TBA
http://www.resistnet.com/group/glennbecksonevoiceoneamerica/forum/topics/nationwide-chicago-teaparty
For specifics, see
http://www.officialchicagoteaparty.com/

 

CLEARWATER/TAMPA, FLA.
    Friday, February 27, 3 – 6 PM
Gulf to Bay Road @ US 19
Please bring a sign
Also protesting Charlie Crist
email: acts412@tampabay.rr.com

 

CLEVELAND Tea Party
    Friday, February 27, 12 noon – 1 PM EST
1 Public Square (just opposite Tower City), Cleveland 44113
http://clevelandteapartyprotest.blogspot.com/

 

DAVENPORT, IOWA Tea Party
    Saturday, February 28, noon – 1 PM
near Main and Locust Sts. within sight of Senator Harkin’s
Davenport Office

 

WASHINGTON DC Tea Party 
    Friday, February 27, 12 noon – 2 PM
Location: Washington Monument
See http://www.newamericanteaparty.com
email: jpeterfreire@gmail.com?

 

FAYETTEVILLE, NC - no information yet.  Anybody else know anything?

 

FORT MYERS, Southwest Florida Tea Party
    Friday, February 27, 11:30 AM – 1 PM
Bowditch Point Park, 50 Estero Blvd., Fort Myers Beach, FLA
link: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid-52447898610

 

FORT WORTH Tea Party 
    Friday, Feb. 27, 3 PM until dark at Cowtown Bar and Grill,
7108 Camp Bowie Blvd., outside stage area
information came from Craig’s list

 

HOUSTON Tea Party 
    still being planned as of message on Facebook and here on FR - permit needs to be obtained

 

JACKSON, Mississippi
    Friday, February 27th, 12 noon – 1:30 PM
steps of State Capital

 

KANSAS CITY Tea Party 
    Saturday, February 28, 10 AM
J.C. Nichols Fountain, 47th and J.C. Nichols Parkway, KC, Mo.
1 mile walk to Senator Claire McCaskill (D) K.C. Office 4141,
Pennsylvania Ave., K.C., Mo.
Email: KansasCityTeaParty@yahoo.com

 

LAFAYETTE, LA Tea Party
    Sunday, March 7, 1 – 3 PM
Veterans Park, 200 Feu Follett Road, Lafayette

 

LANSING, MICH.
    Friday, February 27, 12 noon
Michigan State Capitol, 100 North Capitol Ave.
http://michiganteaparty.blogspot.com/
email to apackof2@gmail.com

 

NASHVILLE Tea Party 
    Friday, February 27, 12 noon – 1 PM
Legislative Plaza
parking: public parking lot on the corner of Charlotte/5th-entrance to
parking lot is on Charlotte.  Not sure of cost of parking

 

OKLAHOMA CITY - no information yet

 

OMAHA, NEB. - no information yet
    

 

ORLANDO Tea Party
    Saturday, March 21, Amphitheater at Lake Eola, 12 noon until 2 PM
See http://www.orlandoteaparty.com/

 

PITTSBURGH Tea Party 
    THIS EVENT IS PENDING BECAUSE A PERMIT HAS NOT YET BEEN OBTAINED.
Friday, February 27, 12 noon – 1 PM
Point State Park
Bring your signs protesting the Stimulus.
Bring mock print outs of the Generational Theft Act
http://patcot.ning.com/events/pittsburgh-tea-party

 

PORTLAND Tea Party - no information yet

 

SACRAMENTO Tea Party
    Friday, February 27, 12 noon
Amador and El Dorado

 

ST. LOUIS Tea Party 
    Friday, February 27, 11 AM – 12 noon
at the steps of the St. Louis Gateway Arch
bill@hennessysview.com

 

SAN DIEGO Tea Party 
    Friday, February 27, 9 AM to 10 AM
San Diego Bay, about a block north of The Star of India (boat)

 

TULSA Tea Party - no information yet

 

VANCOUVER, Washington
    Saturday, April 18, 11 AM – 1 PM
Clark County Courthouse Lawn in Vancouver, WA
Facebook Page: Vancouver Washington Port Protest
See www.freedomsflame.org
Laine Johnson
President, Freedom’s Flame

 

All the above is from: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2192974/posts

________________________________________________________________________

Monday, February 23, 2009

Michigan Tea Party!!!

NATIONWIDE CHICAGO TEA PARTY



On-line conservative activists have rallied to CNBC’s Rick Santelli’s call earlier this week, backed by mortgage traders, for a
“Nationwide Chicago Tea Party” to protest the Obama Administration’s Stimulus plan.

Grass roots patriots in Michigan will join thousands across the nation in a "NATIONWIDE CHICAGO TEA PARTY" on
Friday, February, 27, 2009
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm at the State Capitol in Lansing.

"We are so excited to be joining thousands of our fellow Americans by bringing the Nationwide Tea Party to Lansing," says Joan Fabiano, event organizer, "Because, like Rick Santelli, we want to ask not only President Obama, but all of Congress, 'Are you Listening?!' This is a grass roots effort, much like the Boston Tea Party, of standing up against the oppression of big government and out-of-control spending."

Fabiano continued, "I urge the citizens of Michigan to come out and make their voices heard. This is a real opportunity for "We the People" to let "Them the Politicians" know that we are not going to take it any more. And I invite all Legislators and politicians who understand the true nature of government to come out and stand with us."

The "NATIONWIDE CHICAGO TEA PARTY" is sponsored by Top Conservatives on Twitter (TCOT), Smart Girl Politics, the #DontGo Movement, Americans for Tax Reform, the Heartland Institute, and American Spectator Magazine The tea parties will be held SIMULTANEOUSLY in Chicago, Washington DC, Atlanta, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Fort Worth, San Diego, Portland, and dozens of other locations around the United States.

For more information about the event, please contact
Joan at 517-282-2042, apackof2@gmail.com
or
Wendy at 517-652-5855, wjdayhome@sbcglobal.net.

Four addiction treatment centers offered to take one family member without charge in the hopes of ridding the family of its collective addiction to heroin; the single requirement being that each member must personally phone the treatment center to accept the offer and be on a plane within 24 hours.

The only difference between this tragic America family addicted to heroin and the nation of America now addicted to credit is that the family has said it is ready to kick its habit. America is not.

America is so hopelessly addicted to credit that unlike the family that understands its addiction to heroin has destroyed everything they once had, Americans don't even yet understand they are addicted.

Americans today view the on-going credit contraction much as heroin addicts view the disappearance of heroin-with anxiety, dread and fear. Americans are so addicted to the flow of credit from the Federal Reserve that they no longer believe they can live without it.

The business cycle is a phrase describing the cyclic but ambulatory phase of credit addiction. The phrase, business cycle, did not come into usage until the banker's credit based paper was substituted for gold and silver coinage in the 17th and 18th centuries in a monetary sleight of hand best described as the substitution of coupons for coins.

The bankers' paper money was alleged to be as good as the gold and silver coins it replaced. But if that was true, there was no reason to replace gold and silver with paper money in the first place. But, in fact, there was a reason to do so.

The substitution of paper money for gold and silver occurred because the banker's paper money allowed governments to wage war on credit and bankers to profit by collecting interest on paper money legitimized by government's fiat decree.

This collusion between bankers and government has lasted for more than three hundred years. It is now about to end as the bankers' unnatural business cycle is, at last, approaching its natural end.

The modern business cycle, i.e. economic expansion and contraction, is assumed to be as natural as the waxing and waning of the moon. But the phases of economic expansion and contraction are assumed to be natural only because the substitution of credit for money has lasted for so long.

The unnatural availability of credit causes an unnatural expansion of economic activity. This "economic expansion" is later followed by an "economic contraction" wherein the debts introduced by the unnatural availability of credit cannot be repaid. The business cycle is as unnatural as the monetary system upon which it is based.

Like a medical profession that only seeks to prolong the patients' condition, central bankers are concerned solely with maintaining the present system, not curing our ills, a system comprised of cycles of credit and debt that produces profit for bankers, power for governments and debts for the rest of us.

This is why governments have now put the well-being of bankers above the well being of the citizens they are pledged to protect. Government is concerned above all with the continuation of its own power and the basis of that power has been the constant supply of central bankers' credit whereby present citizens and future generations are indebted to pay for its expenditures.

Soon, America's addiction to credit will end. But unlike the family featured on Oprah Winfrey, the addiction will not end because of the free volition of those addicted-America's addiction to credit will end because credit will no longer be available. Banks, the intermediaries of credit between central banks and the users of credit, are now insolvent.

Modern economics is, in truth, a monetary pathology akin to a blood disease wherein the body's blood supply has been supplanted by a blood substitute for the purposes of power and profit.

Money is supposed to be a unit of value and a carrier of wealth. Instead it has been transformed by bankers into a means by which bankers' credit has been inserted into every aspect of human commerce and ambition.

Debased by bankers, money, the lifeblood of commerce, has instead become a conduit of credit and debt which like the AIDS virus over time weakens all systems and all societies. Now, we are about to pay the price for allowing bankers to issue their credit as our money. Systemic collapse is next.

The post-1980 era of well-being, circa 1980-2006, experienced primarily by Americans and those who supplied their needs, i.e. exporters of oil and manufactured goods, was in essence a time bomb that would eventually explode; a time bomb filled with increasing amounts of inevitably defaulting debt.

Once the tie between currencies and gold was severed by the US in 1971, money and credit especially in America could be created in unlimited quantities and so it was. The whipsaw of the 1970s was succeeded by the "stability and prosperity" of the 1980s where the US went on a borrowing binge, trebling the US national debt in only ten years.

But the "prosperity and stability" of the post-1980 era was but an illusion that would later be destroyed by the inevitable collapse of the extraordinary amount of credit and debt which fueled it.

Between 1980 and 2006, the debt bomb was filled with ever increasing amounts of debt. Prior to 1980, debt was looked upon as a liability to be paid off. But after 1980, debt was considered best rolled over to be paid off perhaps sometime in the future.

After 1980, a critical change occurred in how debt was viewed. In America, the Reagan anti-government (except for the military) ideology resulted in the belief that the way to destroy government was to burden it with debt, an idea akin to believing that shooting oneself in the head will eliminate a troubling headache (it will).

The result of this short-sighted idiot-ology has been the unrestrained growth of debt under previously fiscally conservative Republican administrations, debts that will in the end destroy not only the US government but America itself.

I have my own views about the boundaries of government and how to effectively limit its powers and its unconstitutional and egregious excesses which are many. There are far better ways in which to do so and the gold standard, purposefully distorted and discounted by those both on the right and left who wish to overspend and exert control for their own ends, is a far better means of so doing.

Nonetheless, the post-1980 illusory era of prosperity and stability ended in August 2007 when an "unexpected" (unexpected by whom?) credit contraction froze global credit markets and the debt-based game of musical chairs called capitalism, i.e. capital markets composed of debt-based paper based on central bank debt-based money, came to a screeching halt-and, at that very moment, the fuse on the global debt bomb was lit.

The ambulatory phase of credit addiction is now over. Those addicted have refused intervention for decades and thereby invited the inevitable consequence wherein debt unattended is like a cancer unattended. In such instances, time is not your friend, it is your enemy-the deadliest enemy you have.

Debt derivatives, e.g. CDOs, CDSs, CLOs, etc., are all IOUs, IOUs rapidly becoming ICPs-I Can't Pay-all variants and derivatives of promises to pay with paper money which is backed by nothing except the promises of governments.

We have now reached the stage where the banker's charade of paper money and debt can no longer expand fast enough to even minimally service the debts it has created. What is next has been brewing for over three hundred years.

An era is now ending as are the advantages and inequities of that age. Unnatural cycles introduced by the hand of man are inevitably subsumed in the greater cycles of life. Were it not so, we would be in far greater trouble than we are now in-and we are now in very deep trouble.

Just as those who live by the sword often die by the sword, the same is true for credit. Once the source of England and America's immense power, central bank credit, now debt, is destroying what it ...( very lengthy article is continued at http://www.gold-eagle.com/editorials_08/schoon022309.html ) 

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The move to open contacts with Hamas, which could be initiated through the US intelligence services, would represent a definitive break with the Bush ­presidency’s ostracising of the group. The state department has designated Hamas a terrorist organisation, and in 2006 ­Congress passed a law banning US financial aid to the group.