http://www.boston.com/sports/football/patriots/articles/2008/05/14/arlen_specters_statement_on_patriots_videotaping_1210805084/?page=full      Yea ALL  U   football fans! ... games  aren't  RIGGED !!!   hehe      ;)            

Arlen Specter's statement on Patriots videotaping

Email|Print|Single Page| Text size – + By Globe Staff / May 14, 2008

The following is the floor statement Senator Arlen Specter entered into the Congressional Record today:

I. WHAT WE KNOW:
(1) The Patriots engaged in extensive videotaping of opponents’ offensive and defensive signals starting on August 20, 2000 and extending to September 9, 2007, when they were publicly caught videotaping the Jets.
The extent of the taping was not disclosed until the NFL was pressured to do so. Originally, Commissioner Goodell said the taping was limited to late in the 2006 season and early in the 2007 season. In his meeting with me on February 13, 2008, Goodell admitted the taping went back to 2000. Until my meeting with Matt Walsh on May 13, 2008, the only taping we knew about took place from 2000 until 2002 and during the 2006 and 2007 seasons.
That left an obvious gap between 2003 and 2005. In response to my questions, Matt Walsh stated he had season tickets in 2003, 2004 and 2005 and saw Steve Scarnecchia, his successor, videotape games during those seasons including:
The Patriots’ September 9, 2002 game against the Steelers.
The Patriots’ November 16, 2003 game against the Cowboys.
The Patriots’ September 25, 2005 game against the Steelers, which the Steelers resoundingly won 34-20.
Walsh stated he observed Scarnecchia filming additional Patriots home games, though he could not recall the specific games.
Walsh said he did not tell Goodell about the taping during 2003, 2004 and 2005 because he was not asked.
(2) The NFL confiscated the Jets tape on September 9, 2007; imposed the penalties on September 13, 2007; on September 17, 2007, viewed the tapes for the first time; and then announced they had destroyed those tapes on September 20, 2007. Commissioner Goodell made his judgment on the punishment to be levied before he had viewed the key evidence.
(3) Matt Walsh and other Patriots employees, Steve Scarnecchia, Jimmy Dee, Fernando Neto and possibly Ed Bailey were present to observe most if not all of the St. Louis Rams walk-through practice in advance of the 2002 Super Bowl, including Marshall Faulk’s unusual positioning as a punt returner.
David Halberstam's book, The Education of a Coach, documents the way Belichick spent the week before the Super Bowl obsessing about where the Rams would line up Faulk.
Walsh was asked and told Assistant Coach, Brian Daboll, about the walkthrough.
Walsh said Daboll asked him specific questions about the Rams offense and Walsh told Daboll about Faulk’s lining up as a kick returner. Walsh also told Daboll about Rams running backs “lining up in the flat.” Walsh said Daboll then drew diagrams of the formations Walsh had described.
(According to media reports, Daboll denied talking to Walsh about Faulk. We do not know what Scarnecchia, Dee, Neto or Bailey did or even if they were interviewed.)

(4) The Patriots took elaborate steps to conceal their filming of opponents’ signals.
Patriots personnel instructed Walsh to use a “cover story” if anyone questioned him about the filming.
For example, if asked why the Patriots had an extra camera filming, he was instructed to say that he was filming “tight shots” of a particular player or players or that he was filming highlights.
If asked why he was not filming the play on the field, he was instructed to say that he was filming the down marker.
The red light indicating when his camera was rolling was broken.
During at least one game, the January 27, 2002 AFC Championship game, Walsh was specifically instructed not to wear anything displaying a Patriots logo. Walsh indicated he turned the Patriots sweatshirt he was wearing at the time inside-out. Walsh was also given a generic credential instead of one that identified him as team personnel.
These efforts to conceal the filming demonstrate the Patriots knew they were violating NFL rules.
II. THE VIDEOTAPING HAD A SIGNIFICANT IMPACT ON THE GAME
(1) The filming enabled the Patriots coaching staff to anticipate the defensive plays called by the opposing team. According to Walsh, he first filmed an opponents’ signals during the August 20, 2000 pre-season game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. After Walsh filmed a game, he would provide the tape for Ernie Adams, a coaching assistant for the Patriots, who would match the signals with the plays.
Walsh was told by a former offensive player that a few days before the September 11, 2000 regular season game against Tampa Bay, he (the offensive player) was called into a meeting with Adams, Bill Belichick and Charlie Weis, then the offensive coordinator for the Patriots, during which it was explained how the Patriots would make use of the tapes. The offensive player would memorize the signals and then watch for Tampa Bay’s defensive calls during the game. He would then pass the plays along to Weis, who would give instructions to the quarterback on the field. This process enabled the Patriots to go to a “no-huddle” offensive, which would lock in the defense the opposing team had called from the sideline, preventing the defense from making any adjustments. When Walsh asked whether the tape he had filmed was helpful, the offensive player said it had enabled the team to anticipate 75 percent of the plays being called by the opposing team.
(2) Among the tapes Walsh turned over to the NFL is one of the AFC Championship game on January 27, 2002 in which the Patriots defeated the Steelers by a score of 24-17. When the Patriots played the Steelers again during their season-opener on September 9, 2002, the Patriots again won, this time by a score of 30-14.

On October 31, 2004, the Steelers beat the Patriots 34-20, forced four turnovers, including two interceptions, and sacked the quarterback four times. In the AFC Championship game on January 23, 2005, the Patriots won 41-27 and intercepted Ben Roethlisberger three times. The Steelers had no sacks that game.
With respect to the 2002 AFC Championship game, it was reported in February of this year that Hines Ward, Steelers wide receiver, said: “Oh, they know. They were calling our stuff out. They knew, especially that first championship game here at Heinz Field. They knew a lot of our calls. There’s no question some of their players were calling out some of our stuff.”
In addition, Eagles cornerback, Sheldon Brown, reportedly said earlier this year that he noticed a difference in New England’s play calling in the second quarter of the February 6, 2005 Super Bowl game.
(3) Tampa Bay won the August 20, 2000 pre-season game by a score of 31-21. According to the information provided by Matt Walsh, the Patriots used the film to their advantage when they played Tampa Bay in their first regular season game on September 3, 2000. The Patriots narrowed the spread, losing by a score of 21-16. After the game, Charlie Weis, the Patriots’ offensive coordinator, was reportedly overheard telling Tampa Bay’s defensive coordinator, Monte Kiffin, “We knew all your calls, and you still stopped us.” The tapes Walsh turned over to the NFL indicate the Patriots filmed the Dolphins during their game on September 24, 2000, a game the Patriots lost by 10-3.
According to Walsh, when the Patriots first began filming opponents, they filmed opponents they would play again during that same season. The Patriots played the Dolphins again that season on December 24, 2000; they again narrowed the spread, losing by a score of 27-24.
According to Walsh, he filmed the Patriots’ game against Buffalo on November 5, 2000, a game the Patriots lost 16-13. When the Patriots played the Bills again that season on December 17, 2000, the Patriots won by a score of 13-10.
During the following season, Walsh filmed the Patriots’ game against the Jets on September 23, 2001, a game the Patriots lost by a score of 10-3. When the Patriots played the Jets again that season on December 2, 2001, the Patriots won by a score of 17-16.
The tapes Walsh turned over to the NFL indicate the Patriots filmed the Dolphins during their game on October 7, 2001, a game the Patriots lost by 30-10. When the Patriots played the Dolphins again that season on December 22, 2001, the Patriots won by a score of 20-13.
(4) The Patriots filmed opponents offensive signals in addition to defensive signals. On April 23, 2008, the NFL issued a statement indicating that "Commissioner Goodell determined last September that the Patriots had violated league rules by videotaping opposing coaches' defensive signals during Patriots games throughout Bill Belichick's tenure as head coach.” However, the tapes turned over by Matt Walsh contain footage of offensive signals. The tapes turned over to the NFL and the information provided by Walsh proves that the Patriots also routinely filmed opponents’ offensive signals.

(5) Why the Patriots videotaped signals during games when they were not scheduled to play that opponent during the balance of the season unless they were able to utilize the videotape during the latter portion of the same game. The NFL has not addressed the question as to whether the Patriots decoded signals during the game for later use in that game.
Mark Schlereth, a former NFL offensive lineman and an ESPN football analyst, is quoted in the New York Time on May 14th:
“Then why are you doing it against teams you aren’t going to play again that season?”
Schlereth said that “the breadth of information on the tapes – mainly, the coaches’ signals and the subsequent play – would be simple for someone to analyze during a game. There are enough plays in the first quarter, he said, to glean any team’s “staples,” and a quick review of them could prove immediately helpful. I don’t see them wasting time if they weren’t using it in that game.”
III. The NFL’s Investigation was not objective, transparent or adequate
(1) Walsh said that Dan Goldberg, an attorney for the Patriots, was present at his interview and asked questions. With some experience in investigations, I have never heard of a situation where the subject of an investigation or his/her/its representative was permitted to be present during the investigation. It strains credulity that any objective investigator would countenance such a practice. During a hearing or trial, parties will be present with the right of cross-examination and confrontation but certainly not in the investigative stage.
(2) Commissioner Goodell misrepresented the extent of the taping when he said at the super Bowl press conference on February 1, 2008: “I believe there were six tapes, and I believe some were from the pre-season in 2007, and the rest were primarily in the lat 2006 season. In addition, there were notes that had been collected, that I would imagine many teams have from when they scout a team in advance, that we took, that may have been collected by using an illegal activity, according to our rules.” Later, Goodell said of the taping “[W]e think it was quite limited. It was not something that was done on a widespread basis.”
(3) Commissioner Goodell materially changed his story in his meeting with me on February 13, 2008 when he said there has been taping since 2000.
(4) There has been no plausible explanation as to why Commissioner Goodell imposed the penalty on September 13, 2007, before the NFL examined the tapes on September 17, 2007.
(5) There has been no plausible explanation as to why the NFL destroyed the tapes. Commissioner Goodell sought to explain his reason by saying during his February 1, 2008 press conference that: “We didn’t want there to be any question about whether this existed. If it shows up again, it would have to be something that came outside of our investigation and what I was told existed.”

(6) On April 23, 2008, the NFL issued a statement that the penalties imposed on the Patriots last fall were solely for filming defensive signals. “Commissioner Goodell determined last September that the Patriots had violated league rules by videotaping opposing coaches’ defensive signals during Patriots games throughout bill Belichick’s tenure as head coach.” The tapes turned over by Matt Walsh also contain footage of offensive signals.
(7) The overwhelming evidence flatly contradicts Commissioner Goodell’s assertion that there was little or no effect on the outcome of the game: during his February 1, 2008 press conference, Commissioner Goodell stated “I think it probably had a limited effect, if any effect, on the outcome on any game.” Later during the press conference, Goodell stated again “I don’t believe it affected the outcome of any games.” Commissioner Goodell’s effort to minimize the effect of the videotaping is categorically refuted by the persistent use of the sophisticated scheme which required a great deal of effort and produced remarkable results.
(8) In the absence of the notes, which the NFL destroyed, of the Steelers’ three regular season games and two post-season games, including the championship game on January 23, 2005, we do not know what effect the videotaping of the earlier games, especially the October 31, 2004 game, had on enabling the Patriots to win the AFC Championship. It is especially critical that key witnesses (coaches, players) be questioned to determine those issues.
(9) Failure to question (or at least publicly disclose the results of) key witnesses to other matters identified herein on what we do not know.
IV. An Objective, Thorough, Transparent Investigation is an Absolute Necessity
On the totality of the available evidence and the potential unknown evidence, the Commissioner’s investigation has been fatally flawed. The lack of candor, the piecemeal disclosures, the changes in position on material matters, the failure to be proactive in seeking out other key witnesses, and responding only when unavoidable when evidence is thrust upon the NFL leads to the judgment that an impartial investigation is mandatory.
There is an unmistakable atmosphere of conflict of interest or potential conflict of interest between what is in the public’s interest and what is in the NFL’s interest. The NFL has good reason to disclose as little as possible in its effort to convince the public that what was done wasn’t so bad, had no significant effect on the games and, in any event, has all been cleaned up. Enormous financial interests are involved and the owners have a mutual self-interest in sticking together. Evidence of winning by cheating would have the inevitable effect of undercutting public confidence in the game and reducing, perhaps drastically, attendance and TV revenues.
The public interest is enormous. Sports personalities are role models for all of us, especially youngsters. If the Patriots can cheat, so can the college teams, so can the high school teams, so can the 6th grader taking a math examination. The Congress has granted the NFL a most significant business advantage, an antitrust exemption, highly unusual in the commercial world. That largesse can continue only if the NFL can prove itself worthy. Beyond the issues of role models and antitrust, America has a love affair with sports. Professional football has topped all other sporting events in fan interest. Americans have a right to be guaranteed that their favorite sport is honestly competitive.
In an extraordinary time, baseball took extraordinary action in turning to a man of unimpeachable integrity – Federal Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis – to act forcefully and decisively to save professional baseball from the Black Sox scandal in 1919.
On this state of the record, an objective, thorough, transparent investigation is necessary. If the NFL does not initiate an inquiry like the investigation conducted by former Senator George Mitchell for baseball, it will be up to Congress to get the facts and take corrective action.

From Good Jobs To Bad Jobs To No Jobs - The Tragic Downfall Of The American Worker

By Michael, on December 5th, 2012

 

There was a time in America when virtually anyone that wanted a job could go out and get one and the United States boasted the largest and most prosperous middle class in the history of the world.  Sadly, those days are long gone.  Back in 1969, 95 percent of all men between the ages of 25 and 54 had a job.  But now there are millions of Americans in their prime working years that cannot find a job.  Millions of others are working low wage jobs or part-time jobs because that is all they can get.  The other day I went to a large retail store and I got into a conversation with the lady who was checking me out.  She said that she had worked professional jobs all her life, and that she had taken this job to tide her over as she searched for a new job, but now she had been there for two years with no end in sight.  I felt really bad for her, because she was obviously a sharp lady with a lot of skills.  But this is the new reality.  Good paying manufacturing and professional jobs are being replaced by low paying service jobs.  We are transitioning from an economy with plenty of good jobs to an economy with plenty of bad jobs.  The next stage in our transition will be to an economy where it seems like there are no jobs for anyone.  We are witnessing the tragic downfall of the American worker, and it is heartbreaking.
Many of our politicians insist that things are getting better for American workers, but that is simply not true.  Just look at the chart below.  Back at the start of 2008, the percentage of working age Americans with a job was sitting at about 63 percent.  Since then it has fallen below 59 percent and it has stayed there for over 3 years.  After every other recession in the post-World War II era the employment-population ratio has always bounced back.  That has not happened this time...

If this number was going to recover, it would have done so by now.  We are rapidly approaching the next major economic crisis and the percentage of working age Americans with a job is going to go even lower.
And our politicians are certainly not helping matters.  Many of the things that they have done are actually going to accelerate the loss of good jobs.  For example, as one small business owner recently pointed out, Obamacare is going to force businesses all over the United States to minimize the number of full-time workers they are using and replace them with part-time workers...

Here is what I am doing for the rest of the year -- working with every manager in my company so that as of January 1, 2013, none of our employees are working more than 28 hours a week.   I think most readers know the reason -- we have got to get our company under 50 full time employees or else I am facing a bill from Obamacare in 2014 that will be several times larger than my annual profit.  I love my workers.  They make me a success.  But most of my competitors are small businesses that are exempt from the Obamacare hammer.  To compete, I must make sure my company is exempt as well.  This means that our 400+ full time employees will have to be less than 50 in 2013, so that when the Feds look at me at the start of 2014, I am exempt.  We will have more employees working fewer hours, with more training costs, but the Obamacare bill looks like about $800,000 a year for us, at least, and I am pretty sure the cost of more training will be less than that.
This will be unpopular but tolerable to most of my employees.  The vast majority of them are retired and our company is merely an excuse to stay busy, work outdoors, and get a little extra money.
But this is going to be an ENORMOUS change in the rest of the service sector.  I have talked to a lot of owners of restaurants and restaurant chains, and the 40-hour work week is a thing of the past in that business.  One of my employees said that in Hawaii, it was all the hotel employees could talk about.   Many chains are working on mutli-team systems where two teams of people working part-time replace the former group of full-time employees.  2013 is going to see a lot of people (who are not paid very well to begin with) getting their hours and pay cut by 25%.  At the same time that they are required, likely for the first time since many are relatively young, to purchase health insurance.

How could we be so foolish?
Unfortunately, this is not something new.  Our economy has been replacing good jobs with bad jobs for quite some time.  If you can believe it, 60 percent of the jobs lost during the last recession were mid-wage jobs, but 58 percent of the jobs created since then have been low wage jobs.
Will nearly all of us eventually be working in fast food restaurants or stocking shelves at retail giants like Wal-Mart?
Amazingly, the United States actually has a higher percentage of workers doing low wage work than any other major industrialized nation does.
No wonder our middle class is being absolutely destroyed.
At this point, wages as a percentage of GDP are at an all-time low in America.  As millions more good jobs are shipped out of the country, the competition for the remaining jobs will become incredibly fierce and that number will get even lower.
Many Americans that actually do have jobs right now find that they simply don't make enough to take care of themselves and their families.  They are called "the working poor", and their ranks are growing steadily.  Today, about one out of every four workers in the United States brings home wages that are at or below the federal poverty level.
American households are getting poorer at a time when prices continue to rise.  Median household income in America has declined for four years in a row.  Overall, it has fallen by over $4000 during that time span.
But have the prices in the stores declined?
Of course not.
No wonder middle class families are feeling more financial stress than ever before.  A survey conducted by the Pew Research Center found that 85 percent of middle class Americans say that it is harder to maintain a middle class standard of living today than it was 10 years ago.
The transition from good jobs to bad jobs in our economy has been taking place for a very long time, and it is not going to be reversed overnight.  Back in 1980, less than 30% of all jobs in the United States were low income jobs.  Today, more than 40% of all jobs in the United States are low income jobs.  There are less tickets to the middle class than there used to be, but neither political party seems interested in stopping the flow of good jobs out of the country.
If we keep doing the same things that we have been doing, we will continue to get the same results.
When I was young, I was told that there would always be "good jobs" available for anyone that got a good education and that worked hard.
What a crock of baloney that turned out to be.
According to a paper that was recently released by the Center for Economic and Policy Research, only 24.6 percent of all jobs in the United States qualify as "good jobs" at this point.
In a previous article, I detailed the three criteria that they used to define what a "good job" is….

#1 The job must pay at least $18.50 an hour.  According to the authors, that is the equivalent of the median hourly pay for American workers back in 1979 after you adjust for inflation.
#2 The job must provide access to employer-sponsored health insurance, and the employer must pay at least some portion of the cost of that insurance.
#3 The job must provide access to an employer-sponsored retirement plan.

More than 75 percent of all jobs in the U.S. today are not "good jobs", and things are not looking promising for the future.
No wonder so many families are barely surviving these days.  Right now, approximately 77 percent of all Americans are living paycheck to paycheck at least some of the time.  That is a dreadful number.
But if you still do have a job, you should consider yourself to be fortunate.
There are millions upon millions of Americans out there without any job at all.
Did you know that 53 percent of all Americans with a bachelor's degree under the age of 25 were either unemployed or underemployed during 2011?
Hordes of fresh college graduates are entering the marketplace each year only to find that the good jobs that they were promised simply are not there.
And now it looks like things are getting even worse.  This week Citigroup announced that it plans to eliminate 11,000 jobs in an attempt to reduce costs.  But Citigroup is far from alone.  We have seen dozens of major layoff announcements since the election.  If you doubt this, just see this article and this article.
It is time to wake up and admit that our economy is in an advanced state of decline, that we need to quit shipping our jobs out of the country, and that what we are doing now is clearly not working.
If we are "the greatest economy on earth", then why are approximately 48 percent of all Americans either considered to be "low income" or are living in poverty?
We need to return to the principles that our Founding Fathers founded this country on or else things are going to get a lot worse and people are going to get very, very angry.
Our politicians have been pitting different groups of people against one another and many of them have been blaming the wealthy for all of our problems.  Never before in my lifetime have I seen so much anger directed toward those that have money.  This anger is even being expressed in ways that you would not normally expect.  For example, the California Federation of Teachers recently produced a video that portrays wealthy people peeing on poor people.  That shocked me.
Eventually, all of this anger is going to lead to violence if we are not careful.  When the next major wave of the economic crisis strikes and unemployment gets significantly worse, I fear for what might happen.  I believe that it is very possible that we may see mobs of struggling people storm into wealthy neighborhoods and play "Robin Hood" with their possessions.
Instead of hating one another, we need to return to the principles that once made our economy so great.  Those principles would enable everyone to prosper.
Unfortunately, this country continues to turn away from those principles and hate and anger continue to grow.
If we continue down this path, the end result is going to be a complete and total nightmare.
It is possible to turn this economy around.  But we can't do the same things that we have been doing.  We have to start making better decisions.

Police: "Enter Detroit At Your Own Risk"

By Michael, on October 7th, 2012

 

If you plan on visiting Detroit any time soon, the police have a message for you: "Enter Detroit at your own risk".  That ominous message was actually emblazoned across the top of a flyer that the Detroit Police Officer Association was passing out prior to a rally on Saturday.  The flyer pointed out that Detroit is the most violent city in the nation and that more homicides are committed in Detroit than anywhere else.  Meanwhile, the number of police officers in Detroit has been steadily decreasing.  There are more murders in Detroit today than there were a decade ago, but the number of police officers in the city has decreased by about 1,000 over that time period.  The remaining police officers are overworked and incredibly frustrated.  But Detroit is far from alone.  All over the nation there are major cities that are reporting a spike in crime even as police budgets are being slashed.  Sadly, this is just the beginning.  As the economy gets even worse, budget cuts will become even more severe and crime will become an even bigger problem.
In many areas of the country, police have become little more than report takers.  If you report a crime that is not considered "high priority", you will be lucky to get an officer to come out a few hours later to fill out a report.
In cities such as Detroit, criminals are becoming much bolder and are openly mocking the police.  For example, according to a recent WND article, one gang has literally taken over a convenience store in Detroit and the police literally seem powerless to do anything about it....

Even the old-timers in Detroit never have seen anything like this: A mob of 40 black people moved into a convenience store and will not leave.
They say they now own it. They eat. Smoke. Cuss. Threaten. Spit. Rob. Sell drugs. All on video.
Police, ministers, neighbors, the store owner and just about everyone else seems powerless to stop them.
“It’s a Bad Crew gas station,” said one of the mob to the local Fox affiliate. “If you don’t know what that is, I can’t even tell you.”
The owner calls police, but nothing happens. The police “come here and then they leave. Two minutes later they (the mob) are back.”

What in the world has happened to Detroit?
Once upon a time it was one of the greatest cities in the entire world.
Now it has become a war zone.
As I wrote about a while back, justifiable homicide in the city of Detroit rose by 79 percent in 2011, and the rate of self-defense killings in Detroit is now about 2200 percent above the national average.
But like I said, Detroit is far from alone.
In some ways, what is happening in Chicago is even more frightening.
Many areas of Chicago have essentially been completely taken over by the gangs.  Violent crime has dramatically increased in Chicago so far this year, and nobody seems to know what to do about it.
A USA Today article from last week entitled "Murders in Chicago: What can stop the bloodbath?" painted a very grim picture about what is going on in the city right now....

Driven by gangs, drugs and guns, the bloodshed in President Obama's adopted hometown has resulted in a body count that exceeds the 312 murders this year in New York and 212 in Los Angeles, cities with populations dwarfing that of the Windy City. The toll here is up 25% from 2011: 391 through Sept. 23.

CBS News reporter Walter Jacobson recently sat down with some young gang members in Chicago and asked them some direct questions.  Many of the answers that he got to those questions were quite frightening....

“There’s no solution to the violence,” one gang member tells him. “Killing, killing is the solution.”

When Jacobson asked them how they survive, the following was one of the responses that he received....

"Rob, steal and kill. That’s the only way. We didn’t grow up in Beverly Hills. We don’t get it handed to us"

But what are the police supposed to do about it?
As I noted in another article, there are approximately 200 police officers assigned to Chicago's Gang Enforcement Unit to deal with an estimated 100,000 gang members.
How would you like to be outnumbered 500 to 1?
And the number of gang members in Chicago grows with each passing day.
The violence in Chicago has gotten so bad that it is making headlines all over the globe.  For example, the following is a brief excerpt from an article about the violence in Chicago that appeared in the Telegraph....

"This is a block-to-block war here, a different dynasty on every street," said a dreadlocked young man heavily inked in gang tattoos who calls himself "Killer".
"All the black brothers just want to get rich, but we got no jobs and no hope. We want the violence to stop but you ain't safe if you ain't got your pistol with you. Too many friends, too many men are being killed. We don't even cry at funerals no -more. Nobody expects to live past 21 here."

When young people lose all hope for a better future they become very desperate.
And very desperate people are capable of just about anything.
Sadly, this is just the beginning.
The other day we learned that the number of Americans on food stamps has hit another brand new record high.
Nearly 47 million Americans are on food stamps at this point, and overall more than 100 million Americans are enrolled in at least one welfare program run by the federal government.
But what happens someday if the federal government is forced to cut back significantly on those programs or if food prices increase so much that people can't buy nearly enough food to eat with their food stamps?
When people get really hungry they will do some crazy things.
But the mayor of Costa Mesa, California says that he has an answer to this problem.  He has proposed reducing the homeless population of Costa Mesa by putting all soup kitchens in the city out of business....

The mayor of Costa Mesa proposed to get rid of soup kitchens to deal with the area’s homeless problem at a city council meeting on Tuesday.
“My belief is that if we manage to put the soup kitchen out of business that will go a long way to addressing the attractiveness in our city that’s creating a huge negative impact,” Eric Bever said.

Unfortunately, we are going to see a lot more of this kind of thing in the years ahead.  The number of people that are really hurting is going to continue to increase, and the efforts to remove them from "respectable" areas is going to become more forceful.
Already we have seen feeding the homeless being banned in major cities all over the country.
But no rules, regulations or laws are going to be able to prevent what is coming in the years ahead.  I believe that eventually we are going to see "flash mobs" of poor Americans storm into wealthy neighborhoods and take whatever they want.
Those doing the looting will justify it by saying that they are just taking from the rich and giving to the poor like "'Robin Hood" did, but most other Americans will see it as more evidence that society is breaking down.
And without a doubt our society is starting to break down.  What we are seeing in Detroit and Chicago right now is just the tip of the iceberg.
Things are going to become much, much worse.

Detroit: One Of Our Greatest Cities Has Become A Desolate Wasteland Where The Lawless Reign

By Michael, on December 5th, 2012 

Once upon a time, Detroit was one of the greatest cities in the entire world.  Today, it has become a desolate wasteland where the lawless reign.  Once upon a time, Detroit was a teeming metropolis of about 2 million people.  Today, it has become a rotting war zone with a population that is down to about 700,000.  Once upon a time, Detroit was known for good paying manufacturing jobs and it was packed with middle class homes.  Today, nearly all of the good paying manufacturing jobs are gone (many of which has been shipped overseas), and there are more than 30,000 vacant homes in Detroit.  The city was once a shining example for the rest of the world, but now it is a laughingstock for the rest of the world.  If you can believe it, more than 50 percent of all children in Detroit are living in poverty, and close to 50 percent of all adults living in the city are functionally illiterate.  The high school graduation rate in Detroit is down to about 25 percent, and the city has become a breeding ground for gangs and violence.  The number of murders in Detroit is already higher than last year, and recently groups of young men toting AK-47s have been running around robbing gas stations.  How much worse can things possibly get for Detroit?
Many of those in Detroit that are trying to live normal, honest lives find themselves living in fear.  There are not enough police officers to deal with all of the crime, and the criminals know it.  Ten years ago, there were approximately 5,000 police officers in the city of Detroit.  Today, there are less than 3,000.
As a result, many average citizens have been arming themselves so that they can defend themselves and their families.  This has led to quite a few violent confrontations with criminals.  As I discussed the other day, justifiable homicide in Detroit rose by 79 percent during 2011, and the rate of self-defense killings in Detroit is about 2200 percent above the national average.
At this point, even the police are telling people to "enter Detroit at your own risk".  The number of murders has already exceeded the total from all of last year and we still have about a month to go...

The killings were the latest in what has been a particularly violent year in Detroit. The city announced last week that homicides rose this year, reaching 354 through Thanksgiving after totaling 344 for all of 2011.

And now the criminals are becoming even bolder.  As I mentioned above, gangs of young men with AK-47s are terrorizing gas stations all over Detroit.  The following is an excerpt from a recent article by the CBS affiliate in Detroit...

Detroit police are investigating whether a group of AK-47 wielding robbers who hit two gas stations Wednesday morning are responsible for several similar crimes that have recently occurred across the city.

What would you do if you were confronted by a group of young men with AK-47s?
Police seem to think that this group of young men is responsible for a whole string of gas station robberies that have occurred in recent weeks...

Investigators are also looking into whether the two incidents are related to a string of other gas station robberies in the city, all of which are believed to have been carried out by the same group of men.
Police say those men robbed at least 11 gas stations in a two-week period. Then, just hours after police put out a public notice about the robberies, the group struck again — this time robbing six different gas stations in one hour. In every instance, police say the suspects will cover their faces, walk into a gas station armed with assault weapons and announce a hold-up.

In other instances, groups of young men have decided to "move in" and take over entire gas stations...

A Detroit man says his business is being held hostage by a group of teenagers who continually loiter inside and out of his gas station.
"There's a lot of good people around here," said the station owner, who wished to remain anonymous. But now, those good people aren't coming as often to the Marathon station along W. 7 Mile Road on the city's west side.
"This is a Bad Crew gas station," said one teen loitering out front on Tuesday. When asked what that meant, he said, "If you don't know, I can't even tell you."

When the police are called, the teens just disperse and return later.  Police say that there is nothing that they can do to keep them away permanently.
It is so sad to watch what is happening to what was once such a great city.
Detroit was once known for making the greatest cars in the world.  Now, it is known as a dumping ground for the dead...

From the street, the two decomposing bodies were nearly invisible, concealed in an overgrown lot alongside worn-out car tires and a moldy sofa. The teenagers had been shot, stripped to their underwear and left on a deserted block.
They were just the latest victims of foul play whose remains went undiscovered for days after being hidden deep inside Detroit's vast urban wilderness -- a crumbling wasteland rarely visited by outsiders and infrequently patrolled by police.

Detroit was once a symbol of everything that America was doing right.  Now it is an example of everything that America is doing wrong.  The following is what one British reporter discovered during his visit to Detroit….

Much of Detroit is horribly dangerous for its own residents, who in many cases only stay because they have nowhere else to go. Property crime is double the American average, violent crime triple. The isolated, peeling homes, the flooded roads, the clunky, rusted old cars and the neglected front yards amid trees and groin-high grassland make you think you are in rural Alabama, not in one of the greatest industrial cities that ever existed.

Most of the abandoned homes and most of the abandoned vehicles in Detroit have been looted and stripped bare.  Thieves are ripping up anything that they can and selling it off.  In Detroit today, criminals have stripped so much copper wiring out of the street lights that half of all the lights in some Detroit neighborhoods no longer work.
Things have gotten so bad that many people are afraid to drive through the city in the middle of the day.  The head of the bus drivers union, Henry Gaffney, says that his drivers are literally "scared for their lives"....

“Our drivers are scared, they’re scared for their lives. This has been an ongoing situation about security. I think yesterday kind of just topped it off, when one of my drivers was beat up by some teenagers down in the middle of Rosa Parks and it took the police almost 30 minutes to get there, in downtown Detroit,” said Gaffney.

Needless to say, many people that are able to move away are getting out while they still can.  In the worst areas of Detroit, property values have been horribly depressed.  Some homes in Detroit have even been sold for a single dollar.
So what is the answer?
Well, Detroit Councilwoman JoAnn Watson says that since citizens of Detroit overwhelmingly voted for Obama, that Obama should return the favor by sending a whole bunch of money to Detroit...

"Our people in an overwhelming way supported the re-election of this president and there ought to be a quid pro quo and you ought to exercise leadership on that," said Watson. "Of course, not just that, but why not?"
Nearly 75 percent of Wayne County voters pulled the lever for Obama in November.

What do you think?
What is the solution to Detroit's problems?
Please feel free to post a comment with your thoughts below...

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The American Medical Association Will Soon Be Able To Force People To Enter Experimental Vaccine Trials

The American Medical Association Will Soon Be Able To Force People To Enter Experimental Vaccine Trials

Oct 22nd, 2012 | By Christina England | Category: Christina England, Recent Articles, Top Stories

The American Medical Association (AMA) recently published a paper proposing the introduction of a new law to force you and your children into experimental vaccine trials against your wishes. Your only way out of this directive would be to sign an ‘opt out form.’

In January, the AMA published a paper by Susanne Sheehy, BM BCh, MRCP, DTM&H, and Joel Meyer, BM BCh, MRCP on the ‘Virtual Mentor’ website, stating that there has been a steady decline in the numbers of healthy volunteers willing to participate in clinical trials. [1]

The AMA believes that more people should want to help in the development of new vaccinations.  They stated:

“Reasons for this decline are unclear but are likely to be multifaceted. One familiar problem is the payment of volunteers. To date, the relatively meager compensation that participants often receive could be seen to belittle and undervalue the contribution of these individuals to global health.”

VOLUNTEER PARTICIPATION TO BECOME A THING OF THE PAST

Because of the decline in willing volunteers, the AMA has decided that volunteer participation in vaccination trials should become a thing of the past. They said:

“If progression of promising vaccines from the lab to the clinic is to remain unaffected and financial inducement is an ethically unacceptable solution to the recruitment shortage, other strategies need to be considered. Compulsory involvement in vaccine studies is one alternative solution that is not as outlandish as it might seem on first consideration. Many societies already mandate that citizens undertake activities for the good of society; in several European countries registration for organ-donation has switched from “opt-in” (the current U.S. system) to “opt out” systems (in which those who do not specifically register as non-donors are presumed to consent to donation, and most societies expect citizens to undertake jury service when called upon.”

That’s right; according to the AMA we should all sign ‘opt out’ forms if we do not want to participate in vaccination trials. If, for some reason, we should forget to do this, then we should automatically be classified as giving passive consent!

In my opinion, agreeing to be a guinea pig for a vaccination trial is a little different from undertaking jury service, whether it is for the good of society or not. As for organ donation, there is one small fact the AMA appears to have forgotten; when our organs are taken, we are already dead!

I say this because a paper released fresh off the press makes abundantly clear just how catastrophic mistakes can be when vaccinations are fast-tracked onto the market.

PROOF OF WHAT WE ALREADY KNEW

The paper, written by Dr. Lucija Tomljenovic and Dr. Chistopher Shaw from the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, University of British Columbia, states:

“In the past several decades, there have been numerous studies and case reports documenting neurological and autoimmune adverse reactions (ADRs) following the use of various vaccines. Arthritis, vasculitis, systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), encephalopathy, neuropathy, seizure disorders and autoimmune demyelinating disease syndromes are the most frequently reported serious adverse events.” [2]

The paper goes on to describe serious errors in the HPV vaccine Gardasil’s safety trials, which they say shows evidence of significant flaws in study design, data reporting and interpretation. They believe this has led to the death and injury of many young women.

Dr. Tomljenovic and Dr. Shaw have found the following alarming results after studying the brain samples of two young women who died shortly after they were administered with the Gardasil vaccination:

 “In both cases, the autopsy revealed no anatomical, microbiological nor toxicological findings that might have explained the death of the individuals. In contrast, our IHC analysis showed evidence of an autoimmune vasculitis potentially triggered by the cross-reactive HPV-16L1 antibodies binding to the wall of cerebral blood vessels in all examined brain samples. We also detected the presence of HPV-16L1 particles within the cerebral vasculature with some HPV-16L1 particles adhering to the blood vessel walls. HPV-18L1 antibodies did not bind to cerebral blood vessels nor any other neural tissues. IHC also showed increased T-cell signalling and marked activation of the classical antibody-dependent complement pathway in cerebral vascular tissues from both cases. This pattern of complement activation in the absence of an active brain infection indicates an abnormal triggering of the immune response in which the immune attack is directed towards self-tissue.”

Bearing this knowledge in mind makes a mockery of the AMA’s belief that we should offer ourselves willingly as guinea pigs for vaccination experiments.

THE AMA WANTS YOU … FOR DEADLY DISEASES!

If all this is a little hard to believe, the AMA goes on to state:

“Society is unlikely to accept compulsory recruitment to a trial for a vaccine against the common cold if the vaccine causes severe complications in vaccinees. Increase the severity of the disease in question, however, and compulsory recruitment becomes a more palatable option.”

Unbelievable! The AMA is actually naïve enough to believe that society will be more willing to be used as guinea pigs in their vaccination trials, if the trials are for deadly diseases!

In my opinion, members of society are highly unlikely to be too keen to offer themselves up as human sacrifices in the pharmaceutical industry’s sick experiments, whether the experiments are for deadly diseases or not. I believe that society will more likely remember past vaccine trial disasters and turn around and run in the opposite direction as fast as they can.

WHAT THE AMA FORGOT TO INCLUDE IN THEIR PAPER

In the same month that the AMA proposed compulsory involvement in experimental vaccination trials, GlaxoSmithKline Argentina Laboratories Company was fined 400,000 pesos by Judge Marcelo Aguinsky following a report issued by the National Administration of Medicine, Food and Technology (ANMAT in Spanish) for irregularities during lab vaccine trials conducted between 2007 and 2008 that allegedly killed 14 babies. [3]

Hardly a glowing recommendation, is it? The deaths of these  innocent young babies represent only a small fraction of the adverse reactions and deadly mistakes suffered by children and adults around the world who have participated in experimental vaccine trials.

EVEN MORE VACCINE TRIAL BLUNDERS

In 1991, The Chicago Tribune reported that during vaccine trials for the AIDS vaccine in Paris, at least three people died from adverse reactions out of the 19 participants that took part. [4]

According to The Tribune, these deaths were not reported to any medical journals or to the French and American authorities that sanctioned the experiments. The Tribune said:

“When the French and American scientists collaborating in the experiment published an account of their research last year, they reported that there had been no deaths among the subjects. At the time the article appeared, two of the subjects had died.

The vaccine experiment continued despite the deaths. French government records show that, nearly three months after the first volunteer died, the study was expanded to include more subjects.” 

In 2008, The Telegraph reported that three Polish doctors and six nurses were facing criminal prosecution after a number of homeless people died following medical trials for a vaccine to combat the H5N1 bird-flu virus. [5] The Telegraph reported:

“The medical staff from the northern town of Grudziadz, are being investigated over medical trials on as many as 350 homeless and poor people last year, which prosecutors say involved an untried vaccine to the highly-contagious virus.

Authorities claim that the alleged victims received £1-2 to be tested with what they thought was a conventional flu vaccine but, according to investigators, was actually an anti bird-flu drug.”

In 2011, The Independent reported that pharmaceutical industries were exploiting the illiterate, the poor and the ill by signing them up to drug trials without their consent. [6] It was alleged that between 2007 and 2010 1,730 people died in India during such trials. These trials included:

• The recruitment of hundreds of tribal girls without parental consent for an immunization study sponsored by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation on the nod of the warden of their government hostel. Several girls subsequently died. The study was later halted by the federal authorities.
• The use by drug companies of survivors of the world’s worst poisonous gas disaster in Bhopal as “guinea pigs” in at least 11 trials without proper informed consent.
• The completion by doctors at a government hospital in Indore, located in central India, of dozens of private trials that a police investigation found “violated the ethical guidelines.” The doctors who conducted the trials decided that not one of 81 cases in which a participant suffered an adverse effect was linked to the treatment. New trials were stopped while the state government investigated. A whistle-blower was fired.

ANOTHER (LIABILITY) FREE PASS FOR BIG PHARMA

Of course, it is unlikely that the pharmaceutical industries will ever be brought to justice for their crimes against society because on February 22, 2011, the U.S. Supreme Court shielded drug companies from all liability for harm caused by vaccines mandated by government when companies could have produced a safer vaccine. [7]

This basically means that any drug company selling vaccinations in America cannot be held accountable by a jury, in a court of law, if those vaccines give us brain damage but could have been made less toxic.  In other words, if you or your child becomes permanently disabled or autistic after receiving a vaccine mandated by the government you are on your own. [8]

CONCLUSION

It appears that pharmaceutical industries, medical professionals and government agencies have little regard for human life or indeed human suffering when it comes to vaccines. Their multi-billion dollar industry must go on at all costs. Whether it is the homeless, the poor or the vulnerable, they will exploit them and kill them without so much as a backwards glance.

If the AMA gets their way, then it will not be long before you or your child could be included into vaccination trials, if you have not signed an ‘opt out form.’ This means that if your child comes home with a form scrunched up at the bottom of their school bag and you do not find it, or if you forget to sign it, then the drug company will classify your absent-mindedness as passive consent and your child will be used as a pharmaceutical industry guinea pig.

References

1. Virtual Mentor Susanne Sheehy, BM BCh, MRCP, DTM&H, and Joel Meyer, BM BCh, MRCP – Should Participation in Vaccine Clinical Trials be Mandated? http://virtualmentor.ama-assn.org/2012/01/pfor1-1201.html
2. Lucija Tomljenovic and Christopher Shaw – Death After Quadrivalent Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Vaccination: Casual or Coincidental?  http://www.omicsgroup.org/journals/ArchivePROA/articleinpressPROA.php
3. Buenos Aires Herald – GSK Fined Over Vaccine Trials; 14 Babies Reported Dead http://www.buenosairesherald.com/article/88922/gsk-lab-fined-$1m-over-tests-that-killed-14–babies
4. Chicago Tribune – 3 Dead In Aids Vaccine Tests http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1991-04-14/news/9102030245_1_vaccine-experiment-vaccinia-disease-aids-vaccine-tests
5. The Telegraph – Homeless People Die After Bird Flu Vaccine Trial in Poland http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/poland/2235676/Homeless-people-die-after-bird-flu-vaccine-trial-in-Poland.html
6. The Independent – Without Consent: How Drug Companies Exploit Indian ‘Guinea Pigs’ http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/without-consent-how-drugs-companies-exploit-indian-guinea-pigs-6261919.html
7. Supreme Court of the United States. Russell Bruesewitz et al v. Wyeth et al No. 09-152. Argued October 12, 2010 – Decided February 22, 2011. http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/10pdf/09-152.pdf
8. Natural Health Strategies – No Pharma Liability for Vaccine Damages:
   Supreme Court http://www.naturalhealthstrategies.com/pharma-liability.html

Christina England

Christina England is a UK journalist and an author with a Higher National Diploma in Journalism and Media. She is studying for a BA Hons degree in English Literature and Humanities.

Besides being a regular contributor to Vactruth,com , Christina writes for the American Chronicle, the Weekly Blitz, and Namaste Publishing UK on immunization safety and efficacy.

Christina’s main area of expertise is in researching the areas surrounding false allegations of child abuse particularly where a child has suffered a vaccine injury. Her work is now read internationally and has been translated into many languages. Christina has been on many radio shows and she speaks at seminars worldwide.

Christina is the mother of two adult sons both with ASD and complex learning and behaviour problems.

She is co-author of Shaken Baby Syndrome or Vaccine Induced Encephalitis – Are Parents Being Falsely Accused?

Additionally, Christina is a contributing author in The Voices of Autism Voices of Autism: The Healing Companion: Stories for Courage, Comfort and Strength.