Saturday, October 31, 2009

The Origins of the US Dollar.

Philosopher Ayn Rand once pointed out that it was Americans who coined the phrase “to make money.” Rather than seeing wealth as something looted or distributed, Rand conceived of it as being earned and produced. In America, the embodiment of financial wealth is the US dollar, also known as ‘the buck’ and ‘the greenback’. It seems fitting, then, to reflect on the origins of the dollar – both where it came from and how it evolved into the fiat currency that it is today...Link

Elderly Couple Fight Two Crazy Girls - Watch more Funny Videos

Friday, October 30, 2009

Gutted.

Oct. 30 (Bloomberg) -- Representative Ron Paul, the Texas Republican who has called for an end to the Federal Reserve, said legislation he introduced to audit monetary policy has been “gutted” while moving toward a possible vote in the Democratic-controlled House. The bill, with 308 co-sponsors, has been stripped of provisions that would remove Fed exemptions from audits of transactions with foreign central banks, monetary policy deliberations, transactions made under the direction of the Federal Open Market Committee and communications between the Board, the reserve banks and staff, Paul said today...Link

FOX helps recruit for the empire.


The Military can help you with Stress reduction.

Ron Paul: Let the dollar prove itself..........

Washington, D.C. (CNN) -- A growing number of Americans are becoming aware of the Federal Reserve System, what it is, how it has precipitated our financial crisis, and how it continues to pursue policies that delay economic recovery and weaken the dollar. The Fed's actions, combined with the federal government's bailout bills and stimulus packages, have struck a nerve in the American people. Recent polls have shown that more than 75 percent of Americans support efforts to audit the Fed, something which my bill, HR 1207, the Federal Reserve Transparency Act, aims to do. HR 1207 has the support of 304 members of Congress, and the Senate version of the bill, S. 604, is supported by 31 U.S. senators...Link

Thursday, October 29, 2009

so 1996............

Poker Face.................

Update - HR 1207 - 308 Co-sponsors!.........

Title: To amend title 31, United States Code, to reform the manner in which the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System is audited by the Comptroller General of the United States and the manner in which such audits are reported, and for other purposes.

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Uncle Ned..........................

Fed Up..................................

Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas), the libertarian-leaning congressman and failed 2008 GOP presidential candidate, has been suspicious of the Federal Reserve since before first entering Congress in 1976. In a 1981 article that mentioned the then-obscure legislator, United Press International reported that Paul “has proposed abolishing the Federal Reserve, repealing laws which make the dollar legal tender, and switching to currency issued by banks, 100 percent backed by gold.”...Link

Ron Paul in the L.A. Times...............

The man's got a following, that's for sure. Tuesday it was announced that Texas Republican Ron Paul, who wowed the Libertarian crowd during the 2008 election with his call for limited government, is set to deliver an address at the University of South Carolina on Nov. 9 about the “future of individual liberty and the importance of the U.S. Constitution.” As if that were not enough, the following week he's scheduled to speak in Iowa, that pivotal early caucus state, with stops in Ames and Des Moines. By this morning speculation was rife that South Carolina, which holds one of the early primaries in the presidential calendar, could be the launching pad for a new Ron Paul bid. As CNN's Political Ticker put it, "Will Ron Paul give it another go in 2012?"..Link

8 U.S. soldiers killed in Afghanistan..........

Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) -- The U.S. military suffered another day of heavy losses in Afghanistan on Tuesday as roadside bombs killed eight soldiers, two military officials told CNN. An Afghan civilian working with NATO troops also was killed in the attacks in southern Afghanistan, the military said. The officials said that, according to initial reports, one blast took place just outside Kandahar and the other was in neighboring Zabul province...Link

Net Neutrality: Follow the Money...........

It’s been framed as a fight for freedom but Net Neutrality is really a battle of business models. The outcome will almost certainly affect We The People’s wallets or/and Internet experience so we’d best keep a wary eye on everyone who is trying to “help” us. The latest skirmish began last Thursday when the Federal Communications Commission voted unanimously to begin work on formalizing a set of rules that would, among other things, bar (PDF link) Internet service providers from blocking legal content or altering the delivery speed of content based on who owns it, who created it or who wants to access it. The FCC has stated that Thursday’s vote simply opens the subject for official discussion, with the goal of codifying principles that have been applied on a case by case basis over recent years. Many, many months of discussion are expected before anything becomes law. But the battle lines have been drawn...Link

Overturned Fuel Truck Explodes - Watch more Funny Videos

Tuesday, October 27, 2009


Skater Escapes Near Death - Watch more Funny Videos

US diplomat resigns over Afghan war......

A State Department diplomat disillusioned with US involvement in Afghanistan has become the first US official known to resign in protest over the eight-year war, The Washington Post said Tuesday. Matthew Hoh, 36, was the senior State Department official in Afghanistan's Zabul province, a hotbed for Taliban militants, until he resigned last month. His background in both civil and military fields may have seemed the perfect fit for President Barack Obama's administration as it steps up its counterinsurgency efforts in the war-torn country. But in a September 10 letter to the State Department's personnel chief, Hoh wrote: "I have lost understanding of and confidence in the strategic purposes of the United States' presence in Afghanistan...Link

Largest Iraq bombing in two years............

Sunday's twin suicide bombings in Baghdad that killed at least 155 people and wounded 500 others may have had help from within Iraq's security apparatus, MSNBC's Rachel Maddow reported Monday. "This was a really well coordinated attack on an area in Baghdad that's supposed to be well protected," Maddow told viewers. "In order to reach their targets, the bombers driving these truck bombs had to pass through several checkpoints that were guarded by security forces and those security forces were supposed to be using hand-held devices designed to detect explosives."...Link

Monday, October 26, 2009

Full Disclosure.....................

Last week a new bill was introduced in the Senate to audit the Federal Reserve. Some backers of my bill HR1207 and the existing Senate companion bill S.604 were a little miffed at this, but depending on how you think about it, this new legislation poses no great threat to our efforts. With the economy in shambles, people are looking for answers - not just because of lost savings on Wall Street, but because of lost houses on Main Street. Because of the many problems we face, the Federal Reserve and its powers over the economy have come under scrutiny. This translates into a lot of political pressure on Congress. With all the House Republicans signed on as co-sponsors and over half of the Democrats, HR 1207 has enormous bipartisan support. It would be disingenuous for Washington not to embrace the principles behind this bill after all the promises for transparency. How can one credibly argue for more transparency in government in one breath and defend the secrecy of the Federal Reserve in the next?...Link

Sunday, October 25, 2009

Swine flu a national emergency..........

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama declared the swine flu outbreak a national emergency, giving his health chief the power to let hospitals move emergency rooms offsite to speed treatment and protect noninfected patients. The declaration, signed Friday night and announced Saturday, comes with the disease more prevalent than ever in the country and production delays undercutting the government's initial, optimistic estimates that as many as 120 million doses of the vaccine could be available by mid-October...Link

Update - HR 1207 - 307 Co-sponsors!.........

Title: To amend title 31, United States Code, to reform the manner in which the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System is audited by the Comptroller General of the United States and the manner in which such audits are reported, and for other purposes.

Saturday, October 24, 2009

Obama presses banks on small business loans.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama urged banks on Saturday to make more loans to small businesses and said his administration would do everything it can to push them to do so. "It's time for those banks to fulfill their responsibility to help ensure a wider recovery, a more secure system, and more broadly shared prosperity," Obama said in his weekly radio address, his latest plea for banks to do more for the larger economy. "And we're going to take every appropriate step to encourage them to meet those responsibilities."...Link

Spread the word..........




Link

Friday, October 23, 2009

HR 1207 - 306 Co-sponsors!

Title: To amend title 31, United States Code, to reform the manner in which the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System is audited by the Comptroller General of the United States and the manner in which such audits are reported, and for other purposes.

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Update - HR 1207 - 304 Co-sponsors!........

Title: To amend title 31, United States Code, to reform the manner in which the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System is audited by the Comptroller General of the United States and the manner in which such audits are reported, and for other purposes.

Falling With Style - Watch more Funny Videos

College tuition is up sharply amid recession.

With the economy struggling, parents and students dared to hope this year might offer a break from rising college costs. Instead, they got another sharp increase. Average tuition at four-year public colleges in the U.S. climbed 6.5 percent, or $429, to $7,020 this fall as schools apologetically passed on much of their own financial problems, according to an annual report from the College Board, released Tuesday. At private colleges, tuition rose 4.4 percent, or $1,096, to $26,273. "Every sector of the American economy is under stress and higher education is no exception," said Terry Hartle, senior vice president of the American Council on Education. "It's regrettable, and it's yet another piece of disappointing economic news that affects families."..Link

Clutch.

View more news videos at: http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/video.

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Friday, October 16, 2009

The annual budget deficit reached $1.4 trillion.

WASHINGTON – The federal government's budget gap is huge — but by some measures, it's been bigger in the past. The annual budget deficit reached $1.4 trillion in fiscal year 2009, the Obama administration said Friday, a record sum by far in dollar terms. It's the result of both a huge jump in spending and a sharp drop in tax revenue. In effect, the federal government went on a spending binge at the same time it received a sharp pay cut. And if, like an overextended consumer, Washington doesn't mend its ways, it will pay more and more in interest. Interest payments could balloon to $799 billion in 2019 from $191 billion in 2009, according to an estimate by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office...Link

US pays $400 per gallon for gas in Afghanistan.

Last year, the price of gasoline in the United States topped the $4 per gallon mark. This year in Afghanistan, the price has topped $400. The stunning revelation emerged Thursday in a report from the Pentagon to House officials. The information conveyed offers new insight into a recent report by the Congressional Research Service, which found that the US spends $1 million per year for each servicemember on the ground in Afghanistan...Link

Rand Paul Outraises Grayson.........

Despite the fact that he’s not the establishment choice in Kentucky’s GOP Senate primary, anti-tax activist Rand Paul outraised Kentucky Secretary of State Trey Grayson by more than $350,000 during the third quarter. Grayson announced Thursday that he brought in about $643,000 from July through September and ended the quarter with $1.1 million cash on hand...Link

Holy Shit this is nuts.......

Butter's Bottom Bitch.




Link

Lawyer Passes Out During Interview - Watch more Funny Videos

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Ending the Bush-era first-strike doctrine.

The most important and most controversial element of the "Bush Doctrine" on foreign policy is being reassessed by the Pentagon. A news report Thursday states the Department of Defense is reviewing the policy of preemptive war, the notion that the United States can and should attack countries it believes will pose a threat in the future...Link

U.S. Foreclosure Filings Jump 23%..........

Oct. 15 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. foreclosure filings climbed to a record in the third quarter as lenders seized more properties from delinquent borrowers, according to RealtyTrac Inc. A total of 937,840 homes received a default or auction notice or were repossessed by banks, a 23 percent increase from a year earlier, the Irvine, California-based seller of default data said today in a report. One out of every 136 U.S. households received a filing, the highest quarterly rate in records dating to January 2005...Link

Bans photos of war dead..............

In the wake of controversy surrounding the release in early September of a photograph of a mortally wounded soldier, the US military in eastern Afghanistan has issued new guidelines forbidding embedded media from photographing troops killed in action. A military spokesperson described the change as a "clarification rather than a new rule," even though the media were previously allowed to cover casualties as long as certain conditions were met, such as not releasing the photo before the family was notified. NATO forces in Afghanistan and Multi National forces in Iraq still allow photos of those killed in action...Link

Up to 45,000 more troops to Afghanistan.

President Barack Obama's administration is understood to have told the British government that it could announce, as early as next week, the substantial increase to its 65,000 troops already serving there. The decision from Mr Obama comes after he considered a request from General Stanley McChrystal, the US commander in Afghanistan, to send tens of thousands of extra American troops to the country. Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup, the Chief of the Defence Staff, said: "I don't want to put words in the mouths of the Americans but I am fairly confident of the way it is going to come out." An announcement next week could coincide with a meeting of NATO defence ministers in Bratislava, Slovakia, due next Thursday and Friday...Link

More Beer Please...........


Drunkest Guy Ever Goes for More Beer - Watch more Funny Videos

Wednesday, October 14, 2009


Ellis mATE...........

Update - HR 1207 - 303 Co-sponsors!........

Title: To amend title 31, United States Code, to reform the manner in which the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System is audited by the Comptroller General of the United States and the manner in which such audits are reported, and for other purposes.

World's Largest Firework - Watch more Funny Videos

Mars had Lots of Water.........

This time we've seen shorelines for sure: early reports of Red planet irrigation might have been greatly overstated, created by optical illusions and an intense desire for neighbors, but we're working with much better equipment and we can now absolutely say that Mars had water. Loads of it. That noise you hear is the "Looking for Martian Life" group having an awesome party...Link

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Sports Videos, News, Blogs

Goldman Sachs bonuses to double.........

Yesterday, we brought you the insurance company that wouldn't insure a 17-pound infant because he was too heavy. Today, we bring you the investment bank that manages to double its bonuses during the worst recession since the Great Depression. On Thursday, Goldman Sachs will announce the firm's bonus payments for 2009. Analysts expect the bonus pool to mushroom to $23 billion -- double the bonus pool paid to employees in 2008. Earlier this year, Goldman Sachs said that it had put aside $11.4 billion for bonuses during the first half of the year...Link

Dollar loses reserve status to yen & euro...

Ben Bernanke's dollar crisis went into a wider mode yesterday as the greenback was shockingly upstaged by the euro and yen, both of which can lay claim to the world title as the currency favored by central banks as their reserve currency. Over the last three months, banks put 63 percent of their new cash into euros and yen -- not the greenbacks -- a nearly complete reversal of the dollar's onetime dominance for reserves, according to Barclays Capital. The dollar's share of new cash in the central banks was down to 37 percent -- compared with two-thirds a decade ago...Link

Saving Face in Afghanistan...................

This past week there has been a lot of discussion and debate on the continuing war in Afghanistan. Lasting twice as long as World War II and with no end in sight, the war in Afghanistan has been one of the longest conflicts in which our country has ever been involved. The situation has only gotten worse with recent escalations. The current debate is focused entirely on the question of troop levels. How many more troops should be sent over in order to pursue the war? The administration has already approved an additional 21,000 American service men and women to be deployed by November, which will increase our troop levels to 68,000. Will another 40,000 do the job? Or should we eventually build up the levels to 100,000 in addition to that? Why not 500,000 – just to be “safe”? And how will public support be brought back around to supporting this war again when 58 percent are now against it?...Link

More Ski >>

Monday, October 12, 2009

Quietly approved and deployed.......

President Obama announced in March that he would be sending 21,000 additional troops to Afghanistan. But in an unannounced move, the White House has also authorized -- and the Pentagon is deploying -- at least 13,000 troops beyond that number, according to defense officials. The additional troops are primarily support forces, including engineers, medical personnel, intelligence experts and military police. Their deployment has received little mention by officials at the Pentagon and the White House, who have spoken more publicly about the combat troops who have been sent to Afghanistan. The deployment of the support troops to Afghanistan brings the total increase approved by Obama to 34,000. The buildup has raised the number of U.S. troops deployed to the war zones of Iraq and Afghanistan above the peak during the Iraq "surge" that President George W. Bush ordered, officials said...Link

George Shultz on the Drug War..........

When George P. Shultz took office as Ronald Reagan's secretary of state in 1982, his first trip out of the country was to Canada. His second was to Mexico. "Foreign policy starts with your neighborhood," he told me in an interview here in the Canadian capital last week. "I have always believed that and Ronald Reagan believed that very firmly. In many ways he had [the 1993 North American Free Trade Agreement] in his mind. He paid a lot of attention to both Mexico and Canada, as I did." Mr. Shultz, now a co-chair of the North American Forum—which pulls together members of the business and government community for an annual pow-wow—is still paying a lot of attention to the American neighborhood...Link

Ecstasy research looks for benefits.......

An article in Monday's editions of The Sun on a study of the potential therapeutic benefits of the illegal drug Ecstasy cited the views of Harvard psychiatrist John Halpern. Dr. Halpern says he is a proponent of research into the drug's medicinal properties but does not favor its widespread use in psychiatry. The government-authorized study in Charleston, S.C. is trying to determine whether Ecstasy can help trauma victims heal their emotional wounds...Link

The horns of a dilemma...................

A new poll shows a substantial majority of Americans have resigned themselves to the reality of our nation's perpetual foreign wars. They don't like it, but they see it happening and know there is nothing they can do about it. The poll, conducted by Clarus Research Group, showed that 68 percent of us agree with idea that we won't either win or lose the war in Afghanistan, now eight years long, but will instead just remain there. The image of flies and flypaper again swirls in my head, just as it did at the time of the invasion of Iraq. We invaded these places and now we're stuck there, and President Barack Obama is likewise stuck, not on flypaper, but on the horns of a dilemma: Does he send tens of thousands of additional troops to Afghanistan, as his area commander, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, has publicly demanded, or does he change strategies a la Joe Biden and rely more on special ops and drones to harass the Taliban and kill whatever members of al-Qaeda we can find?...Link

I won Nobel for not being Bush.

NBC's Saturday Night Live spoofed President Barack Obama for the second week in a row on Saturday, declaring in a sketch that the president won the Nobel Peace Prize for not being George W. Bush...Link

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Barack Obama ready to pay Afghan fighters...

The Obama administration is considering outbidding the Taliban to persuade Afghan villagers to lay down arms as it struggles to find a new approach to a war that is fast losing public and congressional support. Despite five war councils in two weeks, President Barack Obama has so far failed to come up with a strategy for the conflict that may define his presidency. Fierce infighting continues between his own generals and advisers. Obama has been handed three options by General Stanley McChrystal, commander of the US forces in Afghanistan. These range from 20,000 to 60,000 more troops, which would almost double the US military presence. McChrystal is said to favour an increase of 40,000 men, without which he warns the mission will fail...Link

Obama, Congress prepare to thwart ACLU.

In the continuing legal battle over 21 photographs showing terror war prisoner abuse, the U.S. government has not seen much success arguing for nondisclosure in federal court. So, the Obama administration -- which once promised to make public this shameful chapter of the Bush administration -- has hatched a new strategy to keep the scenes of torture from being released. "The Obama administration believes giving the imminent grant of authority over the release of such pictures to the defense secretary would short-circuit a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union under the Freedom of Information Act,"...Link

Friday, October 9, 2009

Capitalism is not the problem...........

UNITED STATES ARMED FORCES ABROAD.

The following list reviews hundreds of instances in which the United States has utilized military forces abroad in situations of military conflict or potential conflict to protect US citizens or promote US interests. The list does not include covert actions or numerous instances in which US forces have been stationed abroad since World War II in occupation forces or for participation in mutual security organizations, base agreements, or routine military assistance or training operations. Because of differing judgments over the actions to be included, other lists may include more or fewer instances...Link

Pot legalization gains momentum in California.

SAN FRANCISCO — Marijuana advocates are gathering signatures to get at least three pot-legalization measures on the ballot in 2010 in California, setting up what could be a groundbreaking clash with the federal government over U.S. drug policy. At least one poll shows voters would support lifting the pot prohibition, which would make the state of 40 million the first in the nation to legalize marijuana. Such action would also send the state into a headlong conflict with the U.S. government while raising questions about how federal law enforcement could enforce its drug laws in the face of a massive government-sanctioned pot industry...Link

Thursday, October 8, 2009

Cartels Face an Economic Battle.......

ARCATA, Calif. -- Stiff competition from thousands of mom-and-pop marijuana farmers in the United States threatens the bottom line for powerful Mexican drug organizations in a way that decades of arrests and seizures have not, according to law enforcement officials and pot growers in the United States and Mexico...Link

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Ron Paul Calls for Delay.................

In a letter they will send to Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd this afternoon, Reps. Ron Paul (R., Tex.) and Alan Grayson (D., Fla.) will ask that the Senate hold off on Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s confirmation hearing until the central bank releases more information about its rescues...Link

Electrical Wire Tears Apart Tree - Watch more Funny Videos

Gold sets record high above $1,040 per ounce.

TOKYO (Reuters) - Gold eased from record highs on Wednesday as investors took profits, but sentiment remained bullish and a fresh record was within sight as the dollar's weakness and inflation concerns reinforced bullion's appeal as a hedge. Both spot gold and U.S. gold futures have benefited from factors including technical buying, growing talk of countries diversifying foreign reserves or settlement currencies away from the dollar, and inflation concerns fueled by current massive fiscal stimulus measures and aggressive monetary easing...Link

House cuts workweek to 2 1/2 days..........

In theory, the best job in American politics is the President of the United States. But the president's now got some competition: House Representative. The Democratic-led House -- in the middle of the biggest healthcare fight in a generation -- has now trimmed their workweek to just two and a half days, leaving members of Congress plenty of time to ski or play golf. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) promised after the Democrats won the House in 2006 and then after Obama's election this year that the House would hold longer workweeks. But as the fall of 2009 wanes, the House has taken to starting on Tuesdays at 6:30 pm and adjourning "before the sun goes down" on Thursdays...Link

Time to Declaw PATRIOT Act............

You remember the USA PATRIOT Act, don’t you? It was that 342-page bill that sped through a supplicant Congress within weeks of 9/11, dismantling our privacy rights like a castoff Hollywood set. A reauthorization in 2006 made some things better and some worse, but mostly the law stayed the same – really bad for American freedom. Well, it is time to revisit this act of congressional cowardice that vastly expanded the ability of the government to unjustly intrude on our private lives. Three provisions will expire by the end of the year, which means Congress will have to act...Link

Update - HR 1207 - 301 Co-sponsors!...

Title: To amend title 31, United States Code, to reform the manner in which the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System is audited by the Comptroller General of the United States and the manner in which such audits are reported, and for other purposes.

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Fed stay in bailout disclosure case.....

WASHINGTON, Oct 6 (Reuters) - A U.S. appeals court on Tuesday granted the Federal Reserve's request for a stay of a ruling that would have forced the U.S. central bank to release the names of banks that participated in its emergency lending programs. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit granted the stay of a lower court ruling in August that ordered the release of the data sought by Bloomberg News under a Freedom of Information Act request, according to Justice Department spokesman Charles Miller...Link

Capitalism: A Love Story.....a review.

It is ironic that Michael Moore’s latest movie, Capitalism: A Love Story features two appearances by writer and comedic actor Wallace Shawn. There is even a clip of Shawn exclaiming “Inconceivable!” in his hilarious turn as Vezzini in The Princess Bride. However, the most appropriate clip from that movie would have been Inigo Montoya uttering the words quoted in the prologue of this article. Using one of Moore’s staple filmmaking techniques, he could have cut to the clip immediately after one of his own pronouncements about capitalism. For although Moore says the word over and over throughout the movie, it is apparent that it “doesn’t mean what he thinks it means.”..Link

Remember November the 5th.........

Link

Monday, October 5, 2009

Update - HR 1207 - 300 Co-sponsors!...

Title: To amend title 31, United States Code, to reform the manner in which the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System is audited by the Comptroller General of the United States and the manner in which such audits are reported, and for other purposes.

Seasonal-flu shots halted in Canada.........

A "perplexing" Canadian study linking the H1N1 virus to seasonal-flu shots is throwing the nation's influenza plans into disarray and straining public faith in the government agencies responsible for protecting Canada's health. Distributed for peer review last week, the study confounded infectious-disease experts in suggesting that people vaccinated against seasonal flu are twice as likely to catch swine flu. With the paper under review, its lead researchers must stay mum until it's published. So far, the study's impact is confined to Canada. Researchers in the United States, Britain and Australia have not reported the same phenomenon...Link

300 Members Support Audit the Fed.........

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Today, the number of cosponsors in the U.S. House of Representatives for HR 1207, the Federal Reserve Transparency Act, climbed to 299. Including Congressman Ron Paul, the bill’s author, 300 members of the House of Representatives now support an audit of the Federal Reserve. S 604, the Senate companion bill, currently has 30 cosponsors. HR 1207 would open up the Fed’s funding facilities, such as the Primary Dealer Credit Facility, Term Securities Lending Facility, and Term Asset-Backed Securities Lending Facility to Congressional oversight and an audit by the non-partisan Government Accountability Office. Additionally, audits would include discount window operations, open market operations, and agreements with foreign central banks, such as ongoing dollar swap operations with European central banks...Link

Most Painful Backflop Dive Ever - Watch more Funny Videos
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U.S. Postal Service = failure.

Since the late 19th century, the unofficial slogan of the U.S. Postal Service (it doesn't have an official one) has been guaranteed delivery through rain, sleet, or snow. Nowhere mentioned in that motto is a crippling economy or revenue and budget shortfalls. The government-subsidized service faces a nearly $7 billion net loss by year's end, landing it on the government list of federal programs at “high risk” of collapse, right up there with Medicare and the 2010 census. President Obama even piled on, remarking this summer that America's postal agency looked pretty dismal compared with private competitors like FedEx and UPS...Link