No Fly Zone Succeeds: Libyan Rebels To Sell First Oil Cargo

And so the real goal of the Libyan "No Fly Zone" succeeds: Reuters reports that the Libyan rebel alliance, which already has its own central bank and supposedly fiat printing machines, is about to sell its first oil cargo in the coming week."The agency said Liberian-registered tanker Equator was due to arrive in the rebel-held eastern Libyan port of Tobruk on Monday to load a cargo of Serir/Mesla blend crude oil. The agency quoted Wahid Bougaighis, head of the newly established oil company, as saying: "They are coming for sure because there was a contract signed already."" It remains to be seen how K-Daf feels about honoring contracts signed by insurgents. In the meantime, the chocolate lovers lobby is finally stirring about imposing a comparable No Fly Zone in Ivory Coast. You know, for human rights violations.

From Reuters:

Libyan rebels will this week load the first tanker with crude since an uprising against leader Muammar Gaddafi fully suspended exports from the North African country, Platts news agency reported on Monday.

The agency said Liberian-registered tanker Equator was due to arrive in the rebel-held eastern Libyan port of Tobruk on Monday to load a cargo of Serir/Mesla blend crude oil.

The agency quoted Wahid Bougaighis, head of the newly established oil company, as saying: "They are coming for sure because there was a contract signed already."

He gave no other details. Reuters could not reach Bougaighis for comment.

The rebel-led government has said it has concluded a deal with Qatar to market crude oil

The rebel movement has also said it is discussing plans to exempt its oil exports from sanctions and has also raised the issue with a U.N. envoy.

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Gerald Celente : the beginning of the first great war of the 21st century

Gerald Celente with Brian Sussman, KFSO 30 March 2011 Gerald Celente : you go to the airport you know how you will be harassed , you want a lousy day go to the TSA , they do want they want we are their servants , they are better than we are ....regarding the situation in the middle east and particularly Libya food price are at all time high corruption is everywhere and you got mass unemployment ,

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Gerald Celente : the beginning of the first great war of the 21st century

Gerald Celente with Brian Sussman, KFSO 30 March 2011 Gerald Celente : you go to the airport you know how you will be harassed , you want a lousy day go to the TSA , they do want they want we are their servants , they are better than we are ....regarding the situation in the middle east and particularly Libya food price are at all time high corruption is everywhere and you got mass unemployment ,

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for the full story www.Trends2012.co.cc ]]

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Gerald Celente : the beginning of the first great war of the 21st century

Gerald Celente with Brian Sussman, KFSO 30 March 2011 Gerald Celente : you go to the airport you know how you will be harassed , you want a lousy day go to the TSA , they do want they want we are their servants , they are better than we are ....regarding the situation in the middle east and particularly Libya food price are at all time high corruption is everywhere and you got mass unemployment ,

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for the full story www.Trends2012.co.cc ]]

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A First Person's Narrative 'I Was Inside Fukushima Nuclear Plant When The Quake Hit'

The BBC has released a dramatic recollection of events at ground zero when the Japanese earthquake and tsunami hit on March 11. The source is an unnamed maintenance worker who witnessed and experienced events in real time. Below is his story.

When the massive earthquake occurred it was a little before three o'clock in the afternoon.

The 31-year-old, who runs a turbine maintenance company subcontracted to work at the plant, was doing a regular check-up of the turbine in the No 5 reactor when the quake hit.

"Heavy machinery, cranes were shaking above our heads. After about three minutes all the electricity went out," he told the BBC World Service.

"The shaking went on for about five minutes, and it was very strong.

"I shouted out my colleagues' names and used a torch to try and check that everyone was okay."

The earth started shaking again and they all ran outside.

When it was confirmed that everyone was safe, workers were given permission to go back home to their families.

He got in his car and drove away as quickly as he could.

"I knew there was a tsunami coming," he said. "I saw the warning on the TV in my car, about 20 minutes after the first quake."

However, he said, the scale of it was totally unexpected.

"Although the shaking was very strong, I did not predict the scale of the tsunami, I didn't imagine the power station would be damaged in the way it was."

The man says workers were well aware that the plant, commissioned in the 1970s, was relatively old.

"But even knowing that I did not think the plant would fall into a situation like this.

"If it was only the quake, I think the situation would not so bad. But because of the tsunami, things like the emergency switches were destroyed."

Once he realised that the nuclear plant had been damaged, the worker says his first priority was to warn his family and friends.

"I knew that radiation affected people's health badly, and as soon as I knew that the radiation was leaking, I told my family and friends to escape immediately, as far away as possible," he said.

But, he said, he would go back to work at the plant if he could.

"If it was possible, I would go back and work there. But we cannot do anything. The people working at the site now are expert workers from Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco)," he said.

"We want to go back and help the people working to manage the situation, to stop it getting worse. We cannot go back no matter how much we want to. It's frustrating, but we just cannot help them."

Highly polluted

He says he is aware there are health risks for those working inside the plant.

"The situation is changing day by day. If they asked me to go back now, I realise there is a degree of risk."

The worker says although he is prepared to go back inside the plant, he would not let his employees work there.

"I am a boss of a company, and I cannot send in my workers knowing that the site is highly polluted."

Despite the disaster unfolding at the plant, he says he doesn't blame Tepco, the company that runs it.

"Although the situation is not good, they are working really hard to minimise the damage. It's nobody's fault, it's not Tepco's fault. They are doing their best to minimise the damage."

Although he is currently staying with friends in Chiba prefecture, well beyond the current 20km exclusion zone, his house is only 3km from the reactor.

He says he wants to go back home.

"If possible I want to go back. There are a lot of memories there. I guess it's a common feeling for all people, to feel sad when you cannot go back to the home where you grew up.

"I think if this disaster happened in another country, people would feel the same as we do."

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A First Person's Narrative 'I Was Inside Fukushima Nuclear Plant When The Quake Hit'

The BBC has released a dramatic recollection of events at ground zero when the Japanese earthquake and tsunami hit on March 11. The source is an unnamed maintenance worker who witnessed and experienced events in real time. Below is his story.

When the massive earthquake occurred it was a little before three o'clock in the afternoon.

The 31-year-old, who runs a turbine maintenance company subcontracted to work at the plant, was doing a regular check-up of the turbine in the No 5 reactor when the quake hit.

"Heavy machinery, cranes were shaking above our heads. After about three minutes all the electricity went out," he told the BBC World Service.

"The shaking went on for about five minutes, and it was very strong.

"I shouted out my colleagues' names and used a torch to try and check that everyone was okay."

The earth started shaking again and they all ran outside.

When it was confirmed that everyone was safe, workers were given permission to go back home to their families.

He got in his car and drove away as quickly as he could.

"I knew there was a tsunami coming," he said. "I saw the warning on the TV in my car, about 20 minutes after the first quake."

However, he said, the scale of it was totally unexpected.

"Although the shaking was very strong, I did not predict the scale of the tsunami, I didn't imagine the power station would be damaged in the way it was."

The man says workers were well aware that the plant, commissioned in the 1970s, was relatively old.

"But even knowing that I did not think the plant would fall into a situation like this.

"If it was only the quake, I think the situation would not so bad. But because of the tsunami, things like the emergency switches were destroyed."

Once he realised that the nuclear plant had been damaged, the worker says his first priority was to warn his family and friends.

"I knew that radiation affected people's health badly, and as soon as I knew that the radiation was leaking, I told my family and friends to escape immediately, as far away as possible," he said.

But, he said, he would go back to work at the plant if he could.

"If it was possible, I would go back and work there. But we cannot do anything. The people working at the site now are expert workers from Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco)," he said.

"We want to go back and help the people working to manage the situation, to stop it getting worse. We cannot go back no matter how much we want to. It's frustrating, but we just cannot help them."

Highly polluted

He says he is aware there are health risks for those working inside the plant.

"The situation is changing day by day. If they asked me to go back now, I realise there is a degree of risk."

The worker says although he is prepared to go back inside the plant, he would not let his employees work there.

"I am a boss of a company, and I cannot send in my workers knowing that the site is highly polluted."

Despite the disaster unfolding at the plant, he says he doesn't blame Tepco, the company that runs it.

"Although the situation is not good, they are working really hard to minimise the damage. It's nobody's fault, it's not Tepco's fault. They are doing their best to minimise the damage."

Although he is currently staying with friends in Chiba prefecture, well beyond the current 20km exclusion zone, his house is only 3km from the reactor.

He says he wants to go back home.

"If possible I want to go back. There are a lot of memories there. I guess it's a common feeling for all people, to feel sad when you cannot go back to the home where you grew up.

"I think if this disaster happened in another country, people would feel the same as we do."

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Radiation At Fukushima Water Jumps To Over 1 Sievert, 10 Million Times Higher Than "Normal", Plutonium Tests Ordered For The First Time

And the hits just keep on coming. Earlier today, TEPCO announced that the radiation in the water pool of reactor #2 had been measured at 1,000 millisieverts/h (1 sievert/h) - the highest reading so far recorded since the Fukushima disaster started. As a reminder, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says a single dose of 1,000 millisieverts is enough to cause haemorrhaging, which a ten hour exposure to this dose is enough to result in death. "The situation is serious. They have to pump away this water on the floor, get rid of it to lower the radiation," said Robert Finck, radiation protection specialist at the Swedish Radiation Safety Authority, speaking before the operator expressed doubt about the high reading. "It's virtually impossible to work, you can only be there for a few minutes. It's impossible to say how long it will take before they can gradually take control." From Kyodo: "Plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. said the concentration of radioactive substances of the puddle was 10 million times higher than that seen usually in water in a reactor core, but later decided to reanalyze the data because it found some errors." And keep in mind this is the idiocy that is resulting after last week the brilliant geniuses at TECPO came up with the plan to water each and every reactor: now it's time to remove the water, but the water just happens to be so radioactive, nobody can remove it. In the meantime the leak into the ocean keeps getting worse: "Radioactive iodine-131 at a concentration 1,850.5 times the legal limit was detected in a seawater sample taken around 330 meters south of the plant, near a drainage outlet of the four troubled reactors, compared with 1,250.8 times the limit found Friday, the agency said." And while Zero Hedge has long believed that the only possible outcome here is the Plan Z concrete entombment, which will guarantee an 80 km non-inhabitable radius around Fukushima in perpetuity, finally the "experts" are warming up to this idea: per Reuters: "Experts say there is still too much heat in the reactor cores and spent fuel at the Fukushima plant for a similar last-ditch solution to be considered yet."

LEVELS 10 MILLION TIMES ABOVE NORMAL

The latest scare came as engineers were trying to pump radioactive water out of a turbine unit after it was found in buildings housing three of the reactors.

Officials at first said the water in No. 2 was found to contain 10 million times the amount of radioactive iodine that is normal in the reactor, but noted the substance had a half-life of under an hour, meaning it would disappear within a day.

Later they said the element that gave the reading may have been cobalt 56, which has a half life of 77 days, and if this was the case the level of radioactivity would have been far lower.

Radiation levels in the sea off the plant rose on Sunday to 1,850 times normal, from 1,250 on Saturday, Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said.

"Ocean currents will disperse radiation particles and so it will be very diluted by the time it gets consumed by fish and seaweed," said Hidehiko Nishiyama, a senior agency official.

TOKYO RADIATION LEVELS NORMAL

The elevated radiation detected on Sunday was confined to the reactor, and radioactivity in the air beyond the evacuation zone around the plant remained in normal ranges.

In downtown Tokyo, a Reuters reading on Sunday afternoon showed ambient radiation of 0.16 microsieverts per hour, below the global average of naturally occurring background radiation of 0.17-0.39 microsieverts per hour.

Several countries have banned produce and milk from Japan's nuclear crisis zone and are monitoring Japanese seafood because of fears of radioactive contamination.

Kyodo news agency said Japan would call on World Trade Organisation members at a meeting this week not to overreact to the radiation scare and abide by rules that ban import restrictions not based on scientific grounds.

The accident has also triggered concern around the globe about the safety of nuclear power generation. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said it was time to reassess the international atomic safety regime.

The crisis looked set to claim its first, and unlikely, political casualty. In Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel's party faced defeat in a key state on Sunday, largely because of her U-turn on nuclear power.

OVERSHADOWING RELIEF EFFORT

The drama at the plant has overshadowed a relief and recovery effort from the magnitude 9.0 quake and the huge tsunami it triggered that left more than 27,100 people dead or missing in northeast Japan.

In Otsu, 70 km (42 miles) south of the stricken nuclear facility, the townsfolk are faced with livelihoods derailed by the natural disaster and now the fear of radiation in the air.

Ninety-three-year-old Kou Murata sat cross-legged on the floor of a school classroom, her home for the past fortnight. Surrounded by piles of quilts and blankets, she fretted over what was to become of her in the twilight of her life.

"I am afraid because people are leaving, and we are alone," she said, looking small and frail in a jacket decorated with snowmen.

Murata's daughter, Hisae, said the government had not helped them.

"I want to go back home, but the situation is impossible," she said. "I applied to the government to get a temporary house, but we need a certificate to say the house was destroyed. Now all the temporary houses have been taken. We thought the government would come to us, but we need to go to them."

The first opinion poll to be taken since the disaster showed the approval rating for Prime Minister Naoto Kan had edged higher, to 28.3 percent, but more than half disapproved of how the nuclear crisis had been handled.

Making things much worse is that, apparently for the first time, TEPCO has ordered tests for highly toxic and extremely lethal plutonium on the site:

As the worst atomic accident since Chernobyl entered its third week, the government said soil near the Fukushima plant would be tested for plutonium contamination. The radioactive metal was used in one of the reactors and its presence outside the plant would suggest the fuel rods were damaged.

 “I’ve said the situation won’t immediately improve, and high radiation water is one of the unexpected things that I had said might occur,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said at a briefing in Tokyo today. “We want to continue cooling, and establish a direction toward ending the situation.”

Soil samples have been taken and will be tested for plutonium, Edano told reporters.

Radiation leaks have contaminated vegetables in regions around the plant and sparked scares over tap water in Tokyo, 227 kilometers (140 miles) southwest of the Tokyo Electric Power Co. Dai-Ichi power station.

Which of course means that up until now nobody had been measuring for plutonium fall out. Brilliant.

And while nobody really knows anything that is happening at the plant, one thing we can be sure of is that the latest surge in radiation by 10E6, will cause Joe LaVorgna to hike his GDP forecast for Japan by a comparable amount.

In other news, radiation burns suffered by three TEPCO workers while puddling along reactor 2 was just due to unfortunate combination of too much sun and little to no tanning lotion. We are confident repair on Reactor 2 will proceed immediately...by mutant 3 eyed ill-tempered seabass. Or was the seawater radioactivity count faulty too?

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Gerald Celente : The First Great war of the 21st century has begun

Gerald Celente with Michael Harris, on CFRA March 24th 2011 :The difference between the democrats and the republicans is like the difference between the Bananos and the Gambinos says Trends master Gerald Celente , Obama actually out-bushed Bush , the hypocrisy continues from non closing Guantanamo bay to the now the war on Libya , it is same old same old...Gerald Celente believes that what we

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Britain’s first town with nowhere to hide

The town of Royston in Hertfordshire is to become Britain’s first ‘ring of steel’ town, with hidden Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras installed on every single road in and out of the town by next month. Town bosses rolled out the usual platitudes to explain the introduction of this nefarious system: “…make Royston the safest town in Hertfordshire” “They give the police hard evidence as they track known villains.” “It will make us the safest town in Hertfordshire and you won’t be able to drive in or out of the town without being clocked.” “We will be the only...

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Scientists complete first phase of Alpine Fault drilling project

Note the Google Science Fair ad.  Does it remind you of anything?

NZHerald A New Zealand-led team of international scientists has successfully drilled through the alpine fault in the western South Island, the first phase of a project to learn about earthquake mechanisms on the fault.

The scientists drilled adjacent boreholes to depths of 101m and 152m on river terraces next to Gaunt Creek, near Whataroa 140km south of Greymouth on the West Coast, early last month.

They collected rock cores and made geophysical scans of the borehole walls, project co-leader Rupert Sutherland of GNS Science said today.

“They installed permanent monitoring instruments to record temperatures, pressures, and seismic activity inside the boreholes before back-filling both holes,” he said.

“We were astonished that we managed to collect such high-quality rock cores across a zone that has been smashed by literally thousands of magnitude 8 earthquake movements over millions of years.”

For more go here:  http://www.nzherald.co.nz/science/news/article.cfm?c_id=82&objectid=10712830&ref=rss

I wrote for Investigate Magazine from 2000-2005, then decided to invest my energy in the alternative media, when I became aware of the rise of fascism that was being concealed from the public under the guise of hoaxes, such as the "war on terror," by the mainstream media.

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First articles online at the new “Nature Climate Change”

Well, at least they established a standard early on…

Lest you think you have to drill down to find this, here’s the front page:

link: http://www.nature.com/nclimate/index.html

h/t to Dr. Leif Svalgaard

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A First Person Account From Japan's Ground Zero

Jason Kelly, a financial writer living in Sano, Japan, shares his first person experience of the stunning events from the past several days.

The ground here in Sano, Japan is still shaking as I write at noon on Saturday, March 12, 2011, the day after the largest earthquake in the nation’s history. It struck 21.5 hours ago.

I was working at my desk as usual when my shoji — sliding doors of translucent veneer in the case of my office, though covered in white paper in most cases — began rattling on their rails. They’re the best early warning system I’ve found, so I knew an earthquake was arriving but had no idea how big it would be.

The early tremors that shook my shoji were nothing. The roar of the earth that followed is what really tipped me off that this was no ordinary wineglass rattler. Imagine a wind you might have heard high on a mountain sweeping down toward you. That’s scary enough. Now imagine that wind not being made of air overhead, but of earth underfoot, barreling up at you.

I shot from my chair to secure the office. I covered the computer, put my expensive vase on the floor, unplugged equipment, and was just heading for the kitchen when the quake slammed the building. The neighborhood surfed on dirt. The lights swung from the ceiling, then blinked out. For a second I thought they were smart earthquake lights that sensed the tremors and turned themselves off to avoid sparking a fire, but then I noticed that all the power was out.

From inside every cabinet came a delightful tinkling of glass as if a small party had broken out to toast the arrival of spring, then the party turned horrible in a fight between stemware and cookware in the kitchen, books and printer paper in the office, with a great attempt on all fronts to pour forth in a tidal wave of debris across the floor. The quake-resistant, spring-secured kitchen and office cabinet doors held fast, though, and no tidal wave appeared — at least not in my building. Farther north, a tidal wave of the real variety gathered strength to devastate the coastline with such fury that Hollywood special effects departments are going to need to rethink the way they’ve depicted such events. They’re even worse than portrayed.

Once the initial slam subsided, people rushed into the streets. The elderly, who are legion in Japan and prepared for anything, arrived in white hard hats. One of them asked me if that wasn’t an incredible quake, and I tried to lighten the mood by pretending I hadn’t noticed.

“Quake?” I replied. “Nothing happened here,” I said, gesturing to my place.

She looked confused, then turned toward her home. “This house has always given me trouble,” she began, and started to describe how it had shaken the dickens out of her. I felt bad and cut in.

“I was just joking,” I told her. “I felt it, too.” I thought for sure she would have known I was kidding. Pretending not to notice that quake was like pretending not to notice daylight. She looked at me without smiling, then said sternly, “This is no time for telling lies, Mr. Kelly.”

That’s what the Japanese call jokes like the one I’d just attempted, lies, and she was right. It was no time for that. I got caught up in the thrill of danger and my sense of humor is what I use to deal with such moments, but I cast it aside in a hurry and joined in conversations about who needed what, when the next wave of the quake crashed upon us. Then the next. Then the next.

So it went. Wave after wave coursed through the land, sending power lines swinging and roofs crashing and the ocean surging. The trains stopped. The emergency announcement system blared that the power had gone out due to the quake.

As darkness descended and still the power stayed out, people lit candles in their homes. I moved around the city to see how it coped with the situation, even as the tremors continued. Traffic lights didn’t work, so cars edged their way cautiously into big intersections until the police showed up later to direct. Islands of light betrayed where emergency power had kicked in: the hospital standing tall and staying busy, a home for the elderly that was a type of hospital itself, vending machines that apparently contain batteries to keep selling drinks through any crisis.

A few convenience stores had power, but quickly no food except the dried, instant variety, and then even that was gone. People bought magazines, which I thought odd until I saw by the looks on their faces that what they sought was a part of normal life that had seemed so banal half a day earlier. In a snap, anything that symbolized that placid pace through a typical day became valuable, so off the shelves it flew.

Darkness fell, really fell when no man-made glows pushed against it in a million domes of modernity. The stars came out. I noticed them with joy because they were much brighter in the purer darkness. They made me think of soldier stories where men noticed something beautiful in nature as they fought, like a flower on the edge of a foxhole or a red-winged bird singing on a branch shot through with holes. I observed the world through no such dire circumstance, but the post-quake landscape gave me enough of a nudge in that direction to better understand my fellow man under duress.

I climbed a hill at the edge of town to look down on the sea of darkness. It was creepy. Where usually an endless field of lights extends to Tokyo, only a few areas of light appeared. Directly below the hill, eerie pools of headlights moved slowly around, many looking for missing family members who were unable to take the trains home. There were no city lights around the cars, just the headlight pools drifting along invisible grids like ghosts shaken from their graves.

With most people early in bed, the shaking continued. Isolated reports from community leaders holding radios on the streets informed me on the way home that northern Japan lay in ruin. The voices came leaden, delivering facts so directly that their effort to suppress emotion was in a way more emotional than if they’d cried out their sadness at each collapsed school or deluged farmhouse.

The chain of facts overwhelmed me. There was no break, no “In other news” transition to a different grim event, much less a weekend human interest sideshow. One statistic after another emanated from the radios in a legato of misfortune.

Eventually I reached a saturation point. There’s a limit to how much disaster I’m capable of processing. The adjectives peter out somewhere beyond tragic and catastrophic and devastating, and then those once horrible emotionless facts become welcome as a way to make sense of the event and form a plan for moving ahead. Let’s reduce that number of missing people. Let’s get the lights back on. Let’s make toilets flush again. How about some real food on shelves? The disaster list turns into a checklist. That’s the human spirit, alright. Let’s crawl up out of this hole!

Through the night we huddled in our capsules atop the rumbling island. When the first photon of sunlight touched the Land of the Rising Sun, we became the land of the rising determined and got straight to work on our checklists. One day, they’ll be complete and life will become a boring string of daily predictability again, within which some kid is bound to complain, “Nothing interesting ever happens to me.”

To be so lucky, young one.

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2011 currency collapse first EU then USD once New World Oil currency is accepted

2011 currency collapse first EU then USD once New World Oil currency is accepted mart money has been jumping into silver bullion. The first two weeks of January set new all time sales records in fact even beating the Top 9 months in 2010 !! DON'T HESITATE...BUY SOME PHYSICAL SILVER NOW...BEFORE THE PRICE TAKES OFF AGAIN

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The First Runner-Up in This Year’s Daily Reckoning Dodo Derby

03/10/11 Buenos Aires, Argentina – Population: 37.5 million.
Unemployed: 2.2 million.
Food stamp recipients: 3.7 million.
Total debt: $367 billion.
Debt/GDP ratio: 18.80%…

And, finally…

Total state debt per man, woman and child – working or not: $9,835!

Ladies and gentleman, Fellow Reckoners, people who enjoy overly dramatic, entirely non-scientific countdowns…

The First Runner-Up in this year’s newly-renamed Daily Reckoning Dodo Derby is…

The Golden State of California. Congratulations!

Now, before we get all carried away with the celebrations, a couple of quick words…

Your editor happens to enjoy a few drinks with a couple of California locals when he visits that paradisiacal stretch of coastline from time to time. One such local happens to be his senior editor, Eric Fry, who resides in Laguna Beach, home of the ever-vigilant Tsunami watchmen. As such, we feel it would be somewhat unbecoming of us to launch into a crassly gratuitous, politico-bashing tirade about a state in which our good friend happens to reside – and in which we do not.

So, we’re going to let our Fellow Reckoners do it for us; Fellow Reckoners who, mind you, also happen to live in California and, therefore, should know better than us about the goings on there.

First up, from Reckoner Dimitri:

“The LA Times ran an investigative series last week showing how billions were mismanaged and squandered in an inept and failed attempt to upgrade the Los Angeles Community College campus. Why the perpetrators of this disaster haven’t been fired is beyond me – it unfortunately highlights the entrenched and increasingly incompetent infrastructure we are hopelessly saddled with. Yes, hopelessly – the chances of removing the incompetents is slim and none, but worse, I don’t see a cadre of competents around to take their places.”

Then there’s this, from another Golden State Reckoner, one who wishes to remain anonymous…

“There are over 600,000 California state workers getting fat pensions and health care and other retirement benefits. With benefits like [theirs] there is no hope of ever balancing the budget. We already have the highest State Income Tax, Gasoline Tax, Sales Tax and property tax. The only hope is to declare bankruptcy and let all benefits be scaled down by the legal system.”

And this, from Reckoner Peterson…

“California has a gigantic hole in this year’s budget [$24.5 billion; the largest state budget shortfall for 2012 in the entire country]. This is illegal, as the California Constitution insists the budget be balanced. Governor Schwarzenegger recalled the legislature to a special session to deal with the crisis last Fall, just before he left office.

“However, he could not get the legislature together. Many of the legislators were in Maui. As in, Hawaii. They were there to discuss green energy and who knows what else. The trip was paid for by California interest groups including the California Prison Guards union. What does the California prison guards union care about green energy, you ask? Absolutely nothing, of course. But, they care a great deal, and are willing to pay handsomely for, legislators’ votes on their pay and benefits.

“Thus, when new (old) Governor Jerry Brown took office, he was forced to propose a draconian budget that cuts all kinds of state services, including funding for education, medical care for children, and assistance to local governments. There were however no proposed cuts to the pay or benefits of the public service unions, including the California Prison Guards Union.”

Chimed Reckoner Edwardo…

“Greetings from California, the most over-governed state in the USA. A crazy place where prison guards earn 3x the rate for starting schoolteachers, and enjoy fabulous retirement benefits. The whole public sector is out-of-control, bleeding the private sector dry. Prison overcrowding has put the State under severe federal pressure.

“We have a whole government agency trying to collect sales taxes on out-of state purchases by Californians – which I would guess has a negative financial benefit to the state when all salaries, benefits, occupancy and other expenses are computed. The lunatics are running the asylum.”

And finally, we couldn’t resist printing this last email, in full. It’s a bit longer but, after having read through the entire mailbag from peeved California residents, we think it deserves a run…

“What is generally not covered in most any press is the government tyranny at the local level.

“5.3 (five point 3) YEARS ago I started the process to build a new home on a 50-acre parcel in Santa Clara County. Still no permit. The tyranny of ‘Planning’ is documented in a CATO report, showing how it created a CA real estate bubble.

“Besides being incompetent and lazy, the planners outright lie to the citizens. Not once in the 5 years did they meet the 30-day CA STATE LAW response time for filings. The top elected officials (Board of Supervisors) admit they are unable to fix the indolence, incompetency, and aggressive adversarial positions taken against the citizens.

“Since they have unchecked and unaccountable monopoly power, Planning has done what any good monopoly does when demand goes down – they have exorbitantly raised prices! Now, nearly triple the permits vs. 5 years ago are needed for – you name it!

“No matter how surly, insulting, or capricious a county employee may be, one must remember to always Kiss Their A** or they will get even. Don’t even think of escalating to a supervisor.

“At one time in the past, taxes paid for government and citizens had some control. Now, the bureaucracies do as they wish, and fee us to death, and we have no recourse.

“TO THE BARRICADES, I say!

“A. Reckoner and former CA resident

“P.S. Although I’m liquidating all CA real estate, please don’t use my name or there will be retribution by County employees.”

Tomorrow: The Daily Reckoning Dodo Derby winner. Stay tuned…

Joel Bowman
for The Daily Reckoning

Joel Bowman is managing editor of The Daily Reckoning. After completing his degree in media communications and journalism in his home country of Australia, Joel moved to Baltimore to join the Agora Financial team. His keen interest in travel and macroeconomics first took him to New York where he regularly reported from Wall Street, and he now writes from and lives all over the world.

View articles by Joel Bowman

The articles and commentary featured on the Daily Reckoning are presented by Agora Financial.

Sign Up for The Daily Reckoning e-letter and receive a copy of our newest report How to Survive the Fall of Social Security… at NO CHARGE.

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The First Runner-Up in This Year’s Daily Reckoning Financial Darwin Awards

03/10/11 Buenos Aires, Argentina – Population: 37.5 million.
Unemployed: 2.2 million.
Food stamp recipients: 3.7 million.
Total debt: $367 billion.
Debt/GDP ratio: 18.80%…!

And, finally…

Total state debt per man, woman and child – working or not: $9,835.

Ladies and gentleman, Fellow Reckoners, people who enjoy overly dramatic, entirely non-scientific countdowns…

The First Runner-Up in this year’s Daily Reckoning Financial Darwin Awards: The State Edition is…

The Golden State: California! Congratulations!

Now, before we get all carried away with the celebrations, a couple of words…

Your editor happens to enjoy a few drinks with a couple of California locals when he visits that paradisiacal stretch of coastline from time to time. One such local happens to be his senior editor, Eric Fry, who resides in Laguna Beach. So, instead of launching into some kind of gratuitous, politico-bashing tirade about a state in which our good friend happens to reside – and in which we do not…

…we’re going to let our Fellow Reckoners do it for us; Fellow Reckoners who, mind you, also happen to live on California and, therefore, should know better than us the goings on there.

First up, from Reckoner Dimitri:

“The LA Times ran an investigative series last week showing how billions were mismanaged and squandered in an inept and failed attempt to upgrade the Los Angeles Community College campus. Why the perpetrators of this disaster haven’t been fired is beyond me – it unfortunately highlights the entrenched and increasingly incompetent infrastructure we are hopelessly saddled with. Yes, hopelessly – the chances of removing the incompetents is slim and none, but worse, I don’t see a cadre of competents around to take their places.”

Then there’s this, from another Golden State Reckoner, one who wishes to remain anonymous…

“There are over 600,000 California state workers getting fat pensions and health care and other retirement benefits. With benefits like [theirs] there is no hope of ever balancing the budget. We already have the highest State Income Tax, Gasoline Tax, Sales Tax and property tax. The only hope is to declare bankruptcy and let all benefits be scaled down by the legal system.”

And this, from Reckoner Peterson…

“California has a gigantic hole in this year’s budget [$24.5 billion; the largest state budget shortfall for 2012 in the entire country]. This is illegal, as the California Constitution insists the budget be balanced. Governor Schwarzenegger recalled the legislature to a special session to deal with the crisis last Fall, just before he left office.

“However, he could not get the legislature together. Many of the legislators were in Maui. As in, Hawaii. They were there to discuss green energy and who knows what else. The trip was paid for by California interest groups including the California Prison Guards union. What does the California prison guards union care about green energy, you ask? Absolutely nothing, of course. But, they care a great deal, and are willing to pay handsomely for, legislators’ votes on their pay and benefits.

“Thus, when new (old) Governor Jerry Brown took office, he was forced to propose a draconian budget that cuts all kinds of state services, including funding for education, medical care for children, and assistance to local governments. There were however no proposed cuts to the pay or benefits of the public service unions, including the California Prison Guards Union.”

Chimed Reckoner Edwardo…

“Greetings from California, the most over-governed state in the USA. A crazy place where prison guards earn 3x the rate for starting schoolteachers, and enjoy fabulous retirement benefits. The whole public sector is out-of-control, bleeding the private sector dry. Prison overcrowding has put the State under severe federal pressure.

“We have a whole government agency trying to collect sales taxes on out-of state purchases by Californians – which I would guess has a negative financial benefit to the state when all salaries, benefits, occupancy and other expenses are computed. The lunatics are running the asylum.”

And finally, we couldn’t resist printing this last email, in full. It’s a bit longer but, after having read through the entire mailbag from peeved California residents, we think it deserves a run…

“What is generally not covered in most any press is the government tyranny at the local level.

“5.3 (five point 3) YEARS ago I started the process to build a new home on a 50-acre parcel in Santa Clara County. Still no permit. The tyranny of ‘Planning’ is documented in a CATO report, showing how it created a CA real estate bubble.

“Besides being incompetent and lazy, the planners outright lie to the citizens. Not once in the 5 years did they meet the 30-day CA STATE LAW response time for filings. The top elected officials (Board of Supervisors) admit they are unable to fix the indolence, incompetency, and aggressive adversarial positions taken against the citizens.

“Since they have unchecked and unaccountable monopoly power, Planning has done what any good monopoly does when demand goes down – they have exorbitantly raised prices! Now, nearly triple the permits vs. 5 years ago are needed for – you name it!

“No matter how surly, insulting, or capricious a county employee may be, one must remember to always Kiss Their A** or they will get even. Don’t even think of escalating to a supervisor.

“At one time in the past, taxes paid for government and citizens had some control. Now, the bureaucracies do as they wish, and fee us to death, and we have no recourse.

“TO THE BARRICADES, I say!

“A. Reckoner and former CA resident

“P.S. Although I’m liquidating all CA real estate, please don’t use my name or there will be retribution by County employees.”

Tomorrow: The Daily Reckoning Financial Darwin Award winner. Stay tuned…

Joel Bowman
for The Daily Reckoning

Joel Bowman is managing editor of The Daily Reckoning. After completing his degree in media communications and journalism in his home country of Australia, Joel moved to Baltimore to join the Agora Financial team. His keen interest in travel and macroeconomics first took him to New York where he regularly reported from Wall Street, and he now writes from and lives all over the world.

View articles by Joel Bowman

The articles and commentary featured on the Daily Reckoning are presented by Agora Financial.

Sign Up for The Daily Reckoning e-letter and receive a copy of our newest report How to Survive the Fall of Social Security… at NO CHARGE.

We Will Not Share Your Email.
We Value Your Privacy.

View the original article here

Gerald Celente : prepare for the first big war of the 21st century

Gerald Celente on Coast To Coast AM 8 3 2011 :Gerald Celente :"....this is not just about the middle east and north Africa this is one domino falling after another for real and we are looking at the whole economic system has been pumped up by those digital dollars not worth the paper they were not printed on " the market is a whole rigged job and big Ponzi scheme " we are looking at the first

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for the full story www.Trends2012.co.cc ]]

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