Liberal Democrats: "Legalize all drugs"



Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg.



The Liberal Democrats are to call for the decriminalization of all drugs, including heroin and cocaine, to be considered urgently by the Coalition Government in an effort to cut levels of addiction.

The party's conference is preparing to back demands for Britain's "harmful" and "ineffective" drug laws dating back 40 years to be swept away and replaced with an entirely new strategy for tackling drug use says the UK Independent.

Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister, who has previously supported drug decriminalization, is understood to be relaxed about his party committing itself to such a contentious policy proposal.

But it would be bound to provoke tensions with the party's Conservative coalition partners, who strongly oppose reform of drugs laws.

The Liberal Democrats look certain to call for the immediate establishment of an expert panel to draw up plans to decriminalize all illicit substances.

The proposed reform is based on legislation in Portugal, where the personal use of any controlled drug is no longer a criminal offence.

Although its possession will still be illegal, users would no longer face a jail sentence or fine, but would instead be required to undergo treatment or counseling for their habit. The current penalties for dealing would remain.

A motion to be debated by the conference says: "Individuals, especially young people, can be damaged both by the imposition of criminal records and by a drug habit. The priority for those addicted to all substances must be healthcare, education and rehabilitation, not punishment."

It argues: "Those countries and states that have decriminalized possession of some or all drugs have not seen increased use." The motion adds that "heroin maintenance clinics" set up in Switzerland and the Netherlands as an alternative to jail for addicts have had great success in reducing crime and the prevalence of hard drugs.

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Foods Stamps are good at Pizza Hut



"Do you want fries with your Food Stamps?"
Under Republican leadership starting in 2004 the People's Republic of California allows welfare
recipients to use plastic EBT food stamp debit cards at fast food restaurants.

From each according to their ability . . . and a side of fries please


Pizza, Taco Bell, Whoppers, or the Colonel can all be yours in the People's Republic of California. 

Best of all it is FREE OF CHARGE.  Just swipe your plastic food stamp state debit card and chow down on an extra large pepperoni pizza.  Since the taxpayers will pick up the tab why not add desert too?

God Bless America!

But watching helplessly as insanity unfolds before your very eyes is nothing new to the few sane people left in California.  See this article from The Federalist - The People's Republic of California.

At least 141,000 people in Los Angeles County eligible to use their food stamps at local restaurants under a program offered by the People's Republic.

The Restaurant Meals Program was started in 2004 under Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.  Like all good Marxist, feel good, wealth re-distribution programs they are bi-partisan.  Both Republicans and Democrats like to brag to the voters at election time how they helped this group or that one with somebody else's money.

Nearly 94% of participating restaurants in the state are fast-food establishments reports the Los Angeles Times.

Besides L.A., only a few California counties offer the Restaurant Meals Program — among them San Francisco, Santa Clara and Sacramento. Of the 3.7 million food-stamp recipients in California, at this point only a portion of those collecting welfare are eligible for the restaurant benefits. About 66,000 people used those benefits in May, the most recent month for which figures are available.  But the sky is the limit and millions could be added to the program.

Officials at the Los Angeles County of Department of Public Social Services, which has the largest Restaurants Meals Program in the state, acknowledged that there are many fast food restaurants on their list of participants.

A Times examination of that list found that large chains such as Jack in the Box, Pizza Hut and Kentucky Fried Chicken account for 83% of the vendors.

Business wants to cash in.  It has always been an fairy tale, a myth, that business was against Big Government.  If a business can increase their sales by 10% or 20% by getting in bed with government they will always jump at the opportunity.

At a Downey KFC, assistant manager Sam Chavez said a drop in business partly spurred the restaurant's recent decision to accept public assistance benefits. A large poster hangs in the windows announcing, "We welcome EBT," referring to the food-stamp debit cards dispersed to recipients.

"Business was down everywhere, and I think this will boost our sales," Chavez said.

Interest in the Restaurant Meals Program has increased substantially in the last two years, since the economy took a dive, and the county has capped the program at 1,200 restaurants.

Spokesman Oscar Ramirez said the California Department of Social Services is working with counties and the the state health department to develop a brochure to educate food-stamp recipients.


Anna Harrald, 46, uses her plastic food stamp debit card to eat at El Pollo Loco.
Yummy taxpayer paid for food is just a swipe away. 

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Socialism fails in Zimbabwe

From each according to his ability.  To each according to his needs.
Marxists will never learn. 

• Food production dropped 70% in former British colony
• President Robert Mugabe's family now controls 39 seized farms

The Marxist policy of the re-distribution of wealth has failed in every nation it has ever been tried in.  Seeing the failure first hand, Communists from Romania to Russia to China have adopted forms of capitalism.  But that does not stop the Socialist dictators of the world from trying it again and again with the same results. 

Zimbabwe's policy of seizing white-owned farms and handing them over to black workers has cost the country £7billion in lost production over the past decade, it has been claimed.

The extent of the agricultural collapse in the former British colony - once famed as the 'bread-basket of Africa' - emerged hours after the UN said it needs half a billion dollars in humanitarian aid this year, reports the UK Mail.

Zimbabwe's president, Robert Mugabe, and his family now own 39 farms which had been seized from their white former owners, said the Commercial Farmers' Union in Harare, the country's capital.

Hundreds more have been 'stolen' from experienced white farmers and given to black workers and veterans of the war of independence - many of whom have little knowledge of farming.

Union chief Deon Theron said food production had slumped by 70 per cent in Zimbabwe since President Mugabe began his policy of seizing white-owned farms in 2000.
Mr Theron blamed the land seizures for food shortages and the collapse of Zimbabwe's economy over the past decade, saying it had destroyed the country's tax base.


Displaced: This 2002 photo shows a group of Zimbabwe white commercial farmers having their group photograph taken at the Mutorashanga Country Club, before meeting a government deadline to vacate their farms


'If the aim of the land reform was to evict whites and replace them with blacks, then it can be deemed a success,' Mr Theron said.

Zimbabwe used to produce enough to feed itself and even to export but this was no longer the case, according to Mr Theron.

He estimated that production of maize, a staple food largely grown by small-scale black farmers - the people supposed to gain most from land reform - is this year estimated to be just 50 per cent of 2000 levels.

Cotton, seen as a cash crop for small-scale farmers, has fallen by 45 per cent, said Mr Theron, while tobacco, one of the country's main export earners and previously dominated by large-scale white farmers, has declined by 50 percent.

Wheat, beef and dairy production had effectively collapsed, he added.

Mr Theron said land had become a tool for dispensing political patronage and named five other close allies of Mr Mugabe whose families have taken control of at least five farms each.

After years of economic meltdown, Zimbabwe abandoned its currency in 2009 and now uses the US and South African money.

Breadbasket to Basketcase

• Maize - 2000: 2m tons; ---------------------  2010: 819,000
• Tobacco - 2000: 244,000 tons; -------------  2010: 123,000
• Cotton - 2000: 353,000 tons; ---------------  2010: 200,000
• Groundnuts - 2000: 191,000 tons; ---------- 2010: 51,000
• Sugar - 2000: 538,000 tons; ----------------  2010: 300,000
• Dairy - 2000: 187,000 tons; ----------------  2010: 31,000
• Beef - 2000: 605,000 animals slaughtered; ----   2010: 230,000

Source: CFU

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Dancing with the Devil



The Republicans think they can dance with the Marxist Devil and
not get burned.  They are fools.


"People are scared that the government doesn't know what the fuck it's doing."  - - - Greek Investment Banker


The Republicans are dancing with the Marxist Devil, Comrade Obama.  The Socialist Beltway Elites are doing everything in their power to destroy this Republic and keep power in their hands.

On one hand, the debt ceiling deal is phony, cutting no spending and ringing up trillions in new debt.  Then the new plan also undermines the Constitution of the United States and sets up a totally un-democratic "Super Congress" that is hand picked by the Socialist Beltway Elite leadership of both parties.

We are moving at warp speed into a Greek bankruptcy while simultaneously abolishing the Constitution.

Panic in Greece . . . Coming soon to America

Worried about whether the banks will stay in business, Greeks have been taking their life savings out of accounts and sticking them in metal slits in basement vaults, reports the UK Guardian.

The boxes are so popular that the bank has doubled the rent on them in the past year – and still every day between five and 10 customers request one. This bank ran out of spares months ago. The clerk leans over: "I've been working in a bank for 31 years, and I've never seen a panic like this."

In May alone, almost €5bn (£4.4bn) was pulled out of Greek deposits, as part of what analysts describe as a "silent bank run". This version is also disorderly and jittery, just not as obvious. Customers do not form long queues outside branches, they simply squirrel out as much as they can.

"Every time the markets move, I get phone calls," says an Athens-based fund manager. "They're from investors asking: 'How can I get my money out of the country?' "

One senior investment banker is more blunt: "People are scared that the government doesn't know what the fuck it's doing."

The other big problem is in the private sector, with few industries that are able to pay their way in the world. Jason Manolopolous, who is author of a new book called Greece's 'Odious' Debt, says that for years Greece was buying more from the rest of the world than it was selling. "We were buying BMWs from the Germans and selling them tomatoes."
__________________________________________

But there are a small number of brave people willing to speak the truth and refusing to kiss the ass of the Socialist Beltway Elite.  Here are their thoughts about the phony debt ceiling bill.

DR. MICHAEL SAVAGE:   "If the left is telling you it's a victory for the tea party, then you know it's a lie."

"You're being hoodwinked again."   

"Lenin thought that a nation could only grow more prosperous when a nation is controlled by a vanguard and elite – a people who know better than you what to do with your property.  The Leninist elite would lead people to a world free of pain and poverty.


Dr. Michael Savage


There would be no more haves and have-nots or private property. Just boundless prosperity. All a nation had to do was transfer its entire wealth to Lenin's vanguard."

"America's rich will be poorer, America's poor will be poorer, America's middle class will be wiped out.  But America's government will be more powerful than ever, as will the elected officials and their corrupt bureaucrats.

"Over the past three decades, this government has been taking wealth from the producers, the job creators, the savers and the innovators.

"The productive class is already picking up a disproportionate share of our government's tab, and still, things seem to be getting worse.

"We have a government running record deficits, we have millions upon millions who are underemployed or, worse, unemployed; we have a socialized medical plan called Medicare Part A that will go bust in 2017; the United States has at least $50 trillion in unfunded obligations – all on account of policy makers like Obama who think that the redistribution of wealth makes a nation richer not poorer."


RON PAUL:   "To balance the 2012 budget, Congress simply needs to adopt 2004 spending levels.  Was the federal government really too small just 8 years ago?

Dr. Ron Paul



Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of this deal is the “Super Congress” provision.  This is nothing more than a way to disenfranchise the majority of Congress by denying them the chance for meaningful participation in the crucial areas of entitlement and tax reform.  It cedes power to draft legislation to a special commission, hand-picked by the House and Senate leadership. 

The legislation produced by this commission will be fast-tracked, and Members will not have the opportunity to offer amendments. Approval of the recommendations of the “Super Congress” is tied to yet another debt ceiling increase. This guarantees that Members will face tremendous pressure to vote for whatever comes out of this commission-- even if it includes tax increases.  This provision is an excellent way to keep spending decisions out of the reach of members who are not on board with the leadership's agenda."

RUSH LIMBAUGH:   "Vladimir Putin, he's out hunting. He says the United States is "a parasite on the world economy." A parasite, meaning our growth is all phony.

It's all based on borrowing, it isn't real, and we are gobbling up all the resources around the world just to sustain our spending. We're really not the rich country that we are is what Putin means. It's all borrowed, it's all fake, it's all phony. We're parasites.


Rush Limbaugh


All the numbers in this deal are just government math.

Government math's even crazier than Farrakhan's Million Man Math Made Easy. Rand Paul has an open letter on his website: To paraphrase Senator Jim DeMint: When you're speeding toward the edge of a cliff, you don't set the cruise control. You stop the car. The current deal to raise the debt ceiling doesn't stop us from going over the fiscal cliff.

"At best, it slows us from going over it at 80 mph to going over it at 60 mph. This plan never balances. The President called for a 'balanced approach.' But the American people are calling for a balanced budget. This deal does nothing to fix the overreaches of both parties over the past few years: Obamacare, TARP, trillion-dollar wars, runaway entitlement spending. They are all cemented into place with this deal, and their legacy will be trillions of dollars in new debt. The deal that is pending before us now," get this, "Adds at least $7 trillion to our debt over the next 10 years." Not $2.4 trillion; $7 trillion. "The deal purports to 'cut' $2.1 trillion, but the 'cut' is from a baseline that adds $10 trillion to the debt."

Now this national debt is $14.3 trillion plus the $2.4 trillion that's gonna be added, so we're just under $17 trillion, and another $10 trillion's gonna be added in ten years, maybe as much as the number 13.

We could be looking at a $27 trillion national debt.


The Republicans are dancing with the Devil in the pale moon light.

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Brazil strikes back against China

Brazil is taking action to protect themselves from China dumping products
and gutting industry in the nation.

Brazil is acting to protect their industries and jobs from attacks by China . . . will America also act?

Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff has unveiled plans to help her country be more competitive.  The measures include tax breaks for Brazilian-made products and anti-dumping measures on cheaper imports mostly from China.

China is destroying Brazilian jobs.  See The Federalist - China is screwing Brazil.      .

Brazil's booming economy has pushed the value of its currency, the real, higher making its exports more expensive.

The president said it was "imperative" to protect Brazilian industry and jobs from unfair competition.

Dilma Rousseff unveils her 'Bigger Brazil plans for industry


'Bigger Brazil'

Brazil's manufacturing industry has been suffering because of a surge in foreign imports, mainly from China, and industrial production has been falling in recent months.

This has happened despite the fact that Brazil's economy is one of the world's fastest growing.

Brazil has accused the US and China of lowering the value of their currencies, driving up the real, which has gained 6% against the US dollar this year.

Called "Bigger Brazil" the long-awaited plans include tax breaks and export incentives for local producers, as well as tougher controls on the importation of foreign goods.

Speaking at the unveiling of the plans, Finance Minister Guido Mantega said Brazil was operating on "a predatory, competitive world stage" and promised rigorous regulation of imports.

Brazil's government believes that many countries try to bypass import controls by routing goods through a third country.

Brazil has already enacted a series of anti-dumping measures aimed at Chinese-made goods.

- - - BBC

SHOCK: Congress is run by idiots

"What is the point of getting elected and re-elected unless you stand for something?"

- - - - President Grover Cleveland




"Default is coming. The only argument that's going on now is how to default, not send the checks out or just print the money. In all countries our size, they always print the money.

They're going to raise the debt limit, and then they're going to print the money, and then they'll default by inflation, and that's much more dangerous than facing up to the facts of what's happening today."

- - - - Congressman Ron Paul


"They (Americans) are living beyond their means and shifting a part of the weight of their problems to the world economy.  They are living like parasites off the global economy and their monopoly of the dollar."

- - - - Vladimir Putin,  Prime Minister of Russia

_______________________________________________________________________


Hey Republicans  -  where is the money coming from?


By Gary;

Vladimir Putin and Ron Paul.

Now there is something you don't see everyday  -  the former head of the Soviet KGB and the former Libertarian Party nominee for President agreeing with each other.

We are entering the Twilight Zone folks.



Socialist Republicans, like Democrats, live in a
never-neverland of endless spending.

 
Let's see . . . we don't have the money to pay our bills.  What to do?  I know, let's borrow $2.4 trillion to temporarily get enough money to pay the bills.

Add in almost no spending cuts till 2014 and everyone avoiding doing their jobs by appointing a Super-dooper Committee to "study" the problem and you get a nation run by idiots.

Also consider Congress is living in a fantasy world of "magic" money that appears on command.

They just raised the debt ceiling by some $2.4 trillion, the largest increase in our debt in history.  Congressmen are just waving a magic wand and believe the money will just appear so it can be spent to buy votes in 2012.

I guess when you do not believe in anything it is easier to destroy the nation.

But no one is asking:  where is this magic $2.4 trillion going to come from?

Her are our top four foreign creditors:

CHINA:   currently holds nearly $1.2 trillion of our debt.  Yes China is doing well, but it is also going through a real estate melt down.  China is also feeling their own domestic credit crunch from racking up massive local government debt.  The well may be dry.

JAPAN:   our #2 creditor holds $912 billion of our debt.  Just in case no one noticed, Japan was underwater and experienced a nuke meltdown.  They may have plans for their money that do not include us.

UNITED KINGDOM:   holds $346 billion of our debt.  All of Europe is in a debt crisis of Biblical proportions.  I suspect the UK and anyone in Europe with money will be working on their own problems to prevent a complete meltdown of the Euro.

BRAZIL:   our #4 creditor with $211 billion of our debt.  Brazil is making great strides in building a modern nation.  But give me a break.  The United States going hat-in-hand to Brazil to beg for trillions in money!  It is a total joke.  They do not have that kind of money, and if I was them I would not loan any more to deadbeats like us.

So you deadbeat Congressmen, with the top four nations out what do you do?  Are you going to take a tin cup and roam the earth begging Poland, Turkey, South Africa and Iran for money so the Welfare State can be funded and Americans do not have to work for a living? 

This is getting to the stupid stage.

Do you borrow trillions from Americans?  Sorry, it is not there.  We are flat broke.  Busted.  Out of luck.  But if any money was available the Fed would act like a giant vacuum cleaner sucking away funds that could be used to grow businesses and create jobs.

Print the money!  Looks like Ron Paul was right.  If you don't have it, then print it.

Printing money.  What could possibly go wrong?

Yep, Congress is run by idiots. . . . . . better learn to speak Greek in your spare time.


Not worth a Continental
At the founding of our Republic the Congress also created money out of thin air to
pay their bills.  Hell, need $65 dollars?  Just print all the $65 dollar bills that you need.  What could go wrong?


First Report on Public Credit (1790)


Our Federalist Founding Fathers took the helm of a country with a near worthless paper currency, a huge national debt and a new nation that was not respected in the world.  Through sound money policies they solved their debt and currency crisis.

When George Washington became the first President of the United States in 1790, he selected Alexander Hamilton to be his first Secretary of the Treasury. Although Hamilton served in Washington's cabinet for only five years, many historians regard him as the greatest and most influential Secretary of the Treasury in U.S. history.

As the founder of the Federalist Party, Secretary Hamilton wrote five key reports that established American economic policy. 


Federalist Founding Father Alexander Hamilton faced
a brand new nation that was bankrupt.  Rather than
ignoring the problem, he used sound fiscal policies
to strengthen the credit of the nation. 

 
The first and last of these reports were his Reports on the Public Credit in which Hamilton argued that the United States government should assume the debts of all the state governments. Hamilton also encouraged Congress to pay the interest on the debts the country owed, not just the principle. He believed that these measures would give credibility and stability to the American economic system.

Specifically, Hamilton argued for full funding of the national debt (approximately $11 million) and assumption of state debts incurred during the War of Independence (approximately $40 million).
 
The US national debt in 1790 was $54 million which would be comparable to a US national debt of $4.1 trillion in 2009 by relative share of GDP.
 
Some interest groups had recommended repudiation of the debt and others partial repudiation, but Hamilton argued that the young nation's good credit could be assured only by proper treatment of all creditors. The issue was especially critical in the South: State governments there had worked hard to begin paying off their obligations, but Hamilton’s plan pledged them to assist other states that had let their debts languish.
 
A compromise was finally achieved in which the South reluctantly accepted Hamilton’s financial plans in return for Northern support of the eventual establishment of a permanent capital on the Potomac.

Hamilton's initial program was an immediate success. It established excellent credit for the Federal government, proved the government could handle its affairs, and inaugurated an era of wide prosperity. When Jefferson transacted the Louisiana Purchase, credit and funding were available because of Hamilton's debt assumption plan.

Hamilton also wrote a report to convince Congress to establish a national bank to control the country's finances, and followed this up with a report encouraging Congress to draft a Mint Act to create a national mint and stable national currency.

South Korea buys 25 tons of gold

The Bank of Korea is stocking up on gold.



We just bought 25 tons of gold . . . but everything is fine, nothing to worry about . . .  move along, nothing to see here.

South Korea's central bank said Tuesday it bought gold for the first time in 13 years, diversifying its foreign exchange reserves away from the dollar.

The Bank of Korea said in a statement it bought 25 tons of gold from the global market between June and July, bringing its total gold reserves to 39.4 tonnes as of the end of July.

A brittle global economic recovery and precarious debt situations in the United States and Europe have boosted the safe-haven appeal of gold, lifting bullion to a series of record highs in July, as investors and central banks chased prices higher.

The central bank of Asia's fourth-largest economy said that, with prices hovering near historic highs, gold looked less lucrative as an investment but it was the right time to buy gold because its foreign reserves had risen above $300 billion.

"The gold purchase, as a safety net, will help us cope with volatile global financial markets and enhance investor confidence in Korea in times of crises," Hong Taeg-Ki, head of the bank's reserve management group, told Dow Jones Newswires.

The Bank of Korea just purchased 25 tons of gold.  But
they aren't worried.  Everything is just fine.

"Any news about central banks buying gold reassures consumers and other major players who are already looking at gold as an investment," said Jeffrey Pritchard, analyst at California-based commodities futures and options brokerage Altavest Worldwide Trading.

The Bank of Korea said in a statement its latest gold purchase was valued at $1.24 billion. It did not say whether it had bought gold bullion or funds.

At 25 tons of gold, equivalent to 803,769 ounces, the average price paid comes to $1,543 an ounce, based on Reuters calculations.

A Bank of Korea official said it was the bank's first gold purchase since at least the 1997-1998 Asian financial crisis.

They had no comment on whether there would be more purchases.

It was the first time the bank has bought gold since it purchased the precious metal from Koreans during the 1997-1998 East Asian financial crisis.

Individuals at that time collected gold from their homes to help their country overcome the crisis.

Since the 2008 financial meltdown, gold has become increasingly attractive to central banks worldwide, and prices have risen sharply.

The central bank's total reserves were at a record high of $311.03 billion at the end of July.

For more on this story

Obama-ville tent city in New Jersey

Destitute: Charlie Errickson, 54, sat eating his lunch outside his shelter as he struggles to survive

Obama-ville tent city in the forests of New Jersey


In scenes reminiscent of the Great Depression these are the ramshackle homes of the desperate and destitute U.S. families who have set up their own 'Tent City' only an hour from Manhattan.

More than 50 homeless people have joined the community within New Jersey's forests as the economic crisis has wrecked their American dream reports the UK Mail.

And as politicians in Washington trade blows over their country's £8.8 trillion debt, the prospect of more souls joining this rag tag group grows by the day.

Building their own tarpaulin tents, Native American teepees and makeshift balsa wood homes, every one of the Tent City residents has lost their job.

These people have been reduced to living on handouts from the local church and friendly restaurants and the community is a sad look at troubles caused as the world's most powerful country struggles with its finances.

'We have been in and out of the camp for a year,' said ex-hotel worker Burt Haut, 43, who lives with his wife, ex-teacher Barbara, 48 in a tent styled like a teepee from the Old West.

'Our financial difficulties since the credit crisis three years ago have caused us to camp on public ground, at the back of churches and down the backs of closed down stores.

'We have had help from our friends and family, but we have run that well dry.

Welcome to Tent City: The community where ever person has lost their job and

home because of the U.S. financial crisis

'We are trying to get back on our feet and with help from the camp leadership we hope to get back onto a social security scheme or help with some assisted housing.'

Ravaged by the loss of their jobs and their homes, the residents of Tent City struggle to get by without day-to-day luxuries that we take for granted such as food on the table and a roof over their heads.

Ex-minister Steve Brigham, 50, runs Tent City, which consists of a dirt road running through a two-acre encampment which has flowerpots laid out front of proud tents and homes.

Functioning as near to a normal town as possible, Tent City is governed by democratic rules agreed by all the residents.

They all must agree to no fighting, to clean the camp, to volunteer their time when they have it, and to most importantly keep the noise down after 10pm.

The camp is currently involved in a legal battle with local Ocean County authorities which wants to remove the camp and the case has gone all the way to New Jersey Superior Court.

Steve and the community of Tent City want Ocean County to provide a purpose built shelter for the homeless and are working with a local lawyer working who works for free.

'This is a place to recover, to dry out, to get back on your feet to help to re-enter the world,' said minister Steve who was ordained eight years ago but has given up all his possessions to live in poverty with the growing community in Tent City.

'We have a petrol-powered generator that heats up the water for the shower and lets us wash up dishes after donated meals.

'We have pet chickens which are not for eggs, they are to eat the ticks that could make us feel very ill with Lyme disease or a blood infection.

'It is a racially diverse community with Mexicans, Polish, Irish, African American and white people.

'There are eight women living here too, which was a problem in the past, but has now made the camp more calm by their presence.

'The struggle for every day existence here makes us realise how lucky we are when we have our homes and our lives all in front of us with our televisions and microwave meals.'

Getting by: Elwood Hires, 39, and Cynthia Berlinger, 33, inside their recently
completed makeshift shelter in the woods

Even though the camp has relied heavily on the ingenuity of Steve and his able helpers, keeping hope alive in Tent City is his toughest task.

'We have a working chapel here that is built out of recovered wood and a tarpaulin roof,' explained Steve.

'In summer we perform the service outside in a circle laid out with chopped tree bases as seats.

'It is not a requirement to come to a service, but spirituality and hope can help these people who have hit their darkest hours.'

One couple who have lived for over a year in the camp are Elwood and Cynthia, who have both built there own cabin complete with functioning door and even have got themselves a sofa.

'We have upgraded from our tarpaulin tent to a balsa wood one, which should help us in the winter in case the snow weighs down our roof,' Elwood said.

'Hopefully in the summer too the temperature wont be so hot as well.

'Every help we get from Steve puts us that bit further on the path to a social security cheque or a government assisted housing scheme.

'I used to work cleaning for a local restaurant and Cynthia used to be a waitress.'

For Burt and Barbara the care that they receive here is preferable to living on benefits provided by the Government.


Ramshackle: This home looks barely able to stand up but still houses a homeless person,

who has also brought their car to the community


'The care and community offered by the Tent City is wonderful,' said Burt.

'It is just like getting back to nature and it makes you realise that all our wonderful appliances like microwaves, telephones and even cars are not essential.

'Food, shelter and water is what you need and is what we get here.'

One member of the motley crew who lives in Tent City claims to be the nephew of country great Johnny Cash.

'I used to be a guitarist and played at BB Kings' club in New York City,' said Mark.

'But my girlfriend left me, I lost my home and I travelled round Toms River near here sleeping rough.

'I was told about Tent City and minister Steve by a fellow homeless person and I walked down here and approached him for a space in his camp.

'It is like a family here and he helped me get set up with a camping tent and now I have friends and people to talk to, which I have not had since my life collapsed.

'My family can't seem to help me no more and I have accepted that every time that they have tried to I have let them down and failed to sort my life out.

'I don't know what I would do if I didn't have this place to live in.'

Nowhere to go: Homeless Burt Haut, 43 and his wife Barbara Haut, 48 outside their makeshift

shelter in the tent city in the woods in Lakewood, New Jersey

This is shower room that serves the tent city that the homeless people have made by drilling to

the natural water table and then pumping it up to the heater so the residents can wash in the woods

For more on this story

Putin and Medvedev square off for coming elections

Elections are coming to Russia later this year.



A Dictator in Fancy Dress
Czar Alexander II


Editor's note:   The study of human government is fascinating.  The people of the earth have been ruled by a bewildering variety of leaders calling themselves:  Pharaohs, Shahs, Presidents-for-Life, Caesars, Prime Ministers, Kings, Fuhrers, Sultans, tribal chiefs, Emperors, Presidents, Czars, Emirs or Lord Protectors.  Some thought they were anointed by God to rule.  Some felt they were Gods.  Most ruled like a God.

Ask for some freedom and almost all of them would have handed you your head.  In the history of the human race no matter what title the leader goes by he is usually little more than a common thug in fancy dress backed by armed bands of fellow thugs willing to kill to protect their leader's right to loot the wealth of the nation on behalf of his backers.

Russian democracy is an interesting case to watch.  Russia is more free today than under either the Czars or the Communists.  Russia is an authoritarian state with elections.  In time the nation could move toward more democracy or backwards to dictatorship. 
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Russian President Dmitry Medvedev appears to be interested in a second term in office. But he first needs the blessing of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin -- who is considering a return to the Kremlin himself.

In the summer heat, politics come to a standstill in Moscow even more than they do in Western capitals. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin leave for the Black Sea, while senior Kremlin and ministry officials bask in the sun at their dachas along the Moskva River or at luxury resorts on the Côte d'Azur. They are usually able to relax in the sure knowledge that, once their vacations are over, they will return to the corridors of power reports Spiegel Online.

But, this year, everything is different. Russia's elites are afraid -- not for the fatherland, but for themselves. "Everyone is living with the feeling that the end of the world is near," says Dmitry Muratov, editor in chief of Novaya Gazeta, a newspaper known for its critical stance toward the Moscow regime. "Careers and livelihoods are at stake."

The problem is simple: Ministers, governors and other high-ranking officials can't decide whose side to take -- Putin's or Medvedev's.

Parliamentary elections will be held in December, and the presidential election three months later. Medvedev has indicated that he'd like to stay in the Kremlin, but Putin's intentions are unclear. Worried about their jobs and benefits, his former KGB comrades and associates from his days as deputy mayor of St. Petersburg are urging Putin, their frontman, to return to the Kremlin.

'Bulldogs Fighting under a Carpet'

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin (L) and
President Dmitry Medvedev

This isn't open political competition. Instead, the issue of who will ascend to the most powerful position in Russia will be determined by Byzantine, behind-the-scenes intrigues. Indeed, little has changed since Winston Churchill compared Stalin-era power struggles to bulldogs fighting under a carpet: "An outsider only hears the growling," he said, "and when he sees the bones fly out from beneath, it is obvious who won."

The courtiers are watching with growing concern the trench warfare between Medvedev's and Putin's camps. Ministers on their way to Putin's office are ordered back to the Kremlin by Medvedev's people to meet with the president. In a morning speech to workers at a nuclear missile factory, Putin sharply criticizes NATO's attacks on Libya as "calls to a crusade." In the afternoon, Medvedev condemns Putin's remarks as "unacceptable."

The heads of the state-owned television stations are tearing their hair out over questions such as: Whom should we follow? What message should we deliver? And what programs should we broadcast to avoid making any missteps?

There is also little enthusiasm to see more of the Putin-Medvedev partnership. In fact, just the thought of it distresses top officials accustomed to bowing to authority. Russia has never been a country with two leaders at the top; it has no tradition of power-sharing. The czars saw themselves as absolute rulers designated by God. Vladislav Surkov, the Kremlin's chief ideologue, made Putin part of this same tradition last week when he described the Kremlin's strongman as "sent from God."

Putin appeals to the conservative, nationalist majority that yearns for a strong leader, while Medvedev, the constantly smiling, iPad-toting president, speaks to the Internet-savvy part of the younger generation and the pro-West wing of the intelligentsia.

But now the two have maneuvered themselves into a trap. Since Medvedev constantly talks about the need for extensive reforms and sounds like a member of the opposition when he gives his keynote speeches, Russians are growing increasingly impatient with the openly criticized conditions in the country.

While not in any way perfect, the Russians are having
elections that could flower into a full democracy.  Currently
there are four political parties in Parliament.

Putin's Russia

In the Soviet era, those new to the power elite were always sure to get rid of its old members, often physically. The czar's family was murdered under Lenin, while Stalin had his adversaries killed or hauled off to labor camps. Even today, 20 years after the demise of the Soviet Union, Russia's political culture is based on subjugation rather than compromise. Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the oil tycoon who was Russia's richest man a decade ago, is now in a prison camp. Dozens of major business owners have fled abroad because they fear being brought to trial on either real or trumped-up charges.

If Putin does return to the Kremlin, he will have to explain to both the West and his own people why Medvedev should no longer be president -- despite not having made any serious mistakes and having guided Russia through the years of the economic crisis relatively well.

In fact, if Putin regains the presidency, it would seem like he had pushed Medvedev into the Kremlin as a placeholder from the very start just because Russia's constitution doesn't allow three consecutive terms.
In Moscow's corridors of power, perplexed officials are turning to sarcasm for comfort. They say that rapprochement with the West is progressing very rapidly, and that the scope of democracy and freedom of opinion has doubled in Russia. "Now it isn't just Putin who can express his opinion freely," they say. "Now Medvedev can, too."

Translated from the German by Christopher Sultan

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Civil War Veteran's tax is still being collected

Confederate veteran reunion, Washington, 1917.   The vets of the Civil War are long dead,
but the taxes on the people to support them are still in place.

Taxes are still on the books supporting Confederate Vets


EDITOR'S DISCLOSURE:   My family fought for the Union.  If it had been up to my ancestors there would have been a lot more hangings of traitors and so a lot less need for taxes to support rebel vets in their old age.  But that is all water under the bridge as they say . . . except the great sucking sound of taxes keeps going on and on.
 

The last of the more than 60,000 Confederate veterans who came home to Alabama after the Civil War died generations ago, yet residents are still paying a tax that supported the neediest among them.

Despite fire-and-brimstone opposition to taxes among many in a state that still has "Heart of Dixie" on its license plates, officials never stopped collecting a property tax that once funded the Alabama Confederate Soldiers' Home, which closed 72 years ago. The tax now pays for Confederate Memorial Park, which sits on the same 102-acre tract where elderly veterans used to stroll reports NPR.

The tax once brought in millions for Confederate pensions, but lawmakers sliced up the levy and sent money elsewhere as the men and their wives died. No one has seriously challenged the continued use of the money for a memorial to the "Lost Cause," in part because few realize it exists; one long-serving black legislator who thought the tax had been done away with said he wants to eliminate state funding for the park.

These days, 150 years after the Civil War started, officials say the old tax typically brings in more than $400,000 annually for the park, where Confederate flags flapped on a recent steamy afternoon. That's not much compared to Alabama's total operating budget of $1.8 billion, but it's sufficient to give the park plenty of money to operate and even enough for investments, all at a time when other historic sites are struggling just to keep the grass cut for lack of state funding.


Despite fire-and-brimstone opposition to taxes in

the state, officials never stopped collecting

a property tax.


"It's a beautifully maintained park. It's one of the best because of the funding source," said Clara Nobles of the Alabama Historical Commission, which oversees Confederate Memorial Park.

Longtime park director Bill Rambo is more succinct.

"Everyone is jealous of us," he said.

Tax experts say they know of no other state that still collects a tax so directly connected to the Civil War, although some federal excise taxes on tobacco and alcohol first were enacted during the war to help fund the Union.

"Broadly speaking, almost all taxes have their start in a war of some sort," said Joseph J. Thorndike, director of a tax history project at Tax Analysts, a nonprofit organization that studies taxation.

Alabama's tax structure was enshrined in its 1901 Constitution, passed after Reconstruction at a time when historians say state legislators' main goal was to keep power in the hands of wealthy white landowners by disenfranchising blacks and poor whites.

The Constitution allowed a state property tax of up to 6.5 mills, which now amounts to $39 annually on a home worth $100,000. Of that tax, 3 mills went to schools; 2.5 mills went to the operating budget; and 1 mill went to pensions for Confederate veterans and widows.

The state used the pension tax to fund the veterans home once it assumed control of the operation in 1903. The last Confederate veteran living at the home died in 1934, and its hospital was converted into apartments for widows. It closed in 1939, and the five women who lived there were moved to Montgomery.

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