I don't know ...therefore ass probers or NAZI's

you look me in the eyes & tell me ..he hasn't been "probed"  LMMFAO (laughing my motherfucking ass off ) or maybe it's just our good ole friends ? 

Hitler Gets Fired from McDonald's

Hitler's Facebook Account Is Deleted

JUDGE V.S. JUDGE CIVIL LIBERTIES V.S. POLICE STATE

• Posted on December 27, 2013
• by Clyde Lewis
• in Articles

JUDGE V.S. JUDGE
CIVIL LIBERTIES V.S. POLICE STATE

Looking back over the year it can be said that if there was ever a year of disillusionment 2013 would be a record year for it. The unfortunate part is that the disillusionment has been carried over from previous years and that the tolerance level has reached its nadir.
It is also unfortunate that whenever an honest American wants to talk about this disillusionment they are often canned up and labeled like a can of beans. The disillusionment is not just the product of dare we say a “right wing conspiracy” it is most certainly the result of years of persecution and being ignored by a government that has promised that it is looking out for its citizenry.
The 13 years that have been fraught with lunacy, oversensitivity, hatred, polarization, and conflict are about to become more heated in the year to come as the evidence continues to mount that we have chosen a police state lifestyle and a nation that has now become a war state.
The Obama Administration has consistently justified its broad exercise of military powers by pointing out that it is executing what Congress has authorized it to do. We all know that laid the groundwork for a police state during the Bush administration.
The dialogue that was raised about the Patriot Act I and II and the Project for the New American century’s section 5 was completely ignored because the nation was still trying to recuperate from its trauma after the September 11th, 2001 attacks.
Most of these provisions were supposed to have an expiration date, however now we realize that they have outlived their shelf life and President Obama has allowed for the loose interpretation of constitutional law, and the American people are slowly losing their grip on what citizens are entitled to under the constitution.
The mainstream media still has its grip on American opinion and as they move into the new year, they still do not have the ability to be cynical and skeptical about political moves in this country. It can be a liberal media that praises the left or a Conservative media that praises the right and still the American people are given nothing but platitudes that supply their already rigid thinking about that issues served up like bad school lunch.
It might as well be food for thought scraped from the dumpster because as the media is still caught up in the Duck Dynasty fiasco, constitutional freedoms and the American way of life is being brought down in a controlled demolition.
The liberties and freedoms that our forefathers have died for are being mocked and destroyed and it is becoming clear that the attitudes of most Americans is that we had this coming, or that it is not surprising and cannot be stopped.
As I have said many times, criminality immediately severs all ties to political party, religious affiliation and citizenship.
If you are a criminal you lose all of those affiliations, because of what they represent.
Good Christians, Muslims and Jews are not criminals. Great leaders no matter what party they are from lose their label of “great” when they commit a crime against humanity. If you are an American and you commit a crime against the constitution you are a traitor. You are no longer a true American and your loyalties are not to be trusted.
It appears that what we once called honorable men and women, are more than likely lying to you, stealing from you, and making a list of enemies that they can see eliminated if they pose a threat to their power.
This year we have debated as to whether or not Edward Snowden is a traitor or a hero. I often cringe when I hear people publicly state that he is a traitor when he pointed out the obvious truth about the American evolution into a police state.
Snowden told us the obvious and it is baffling to hear people defend the new cybernetic panopticon that is growing unabated.
Today I awakened with the radio on. A special news bulletin that was read made me jump out of bed enraged. The headline read was “Federal Judge now says NSA spying is Constitutional.
That ruling came courtesy of US District Judge William Pauley, who decided in favor of the NSA and the American government. This was in response to a case filed by the American Civil Liberties Union.
Reuters reported that Judge Pauley admitted in a decision penned in the Southern District of New York court that the NSA “vacuums up information about virtually every telephone call to, from, or within the United States,” but that no evidence exists that the spy agency abuses this program to spy on people without terroristic ties.”
Pauley also made the insipid statement that if the NSA wiretapping existed prior to 2001 the government could have predicted the 9/11 attacks.
These statements should be publicly shamed because those who know better would point out that a memo that was declassified in 2007 stated that as far back as 1997, Osama Bin Laden was already making waves as a CIA blow back, plotting an attack on U.S. soil. In 1998 his attacks on Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania had already sent a signal that he was becoming a formidable enemy of the United States and its interests.

It can also be noted that in 1996 that there was concern that terrorist operatives were planning an attack on the Atlanta Olympics. In fact at one high-level planning meeting before the Olympics in 1996, White House Counter-terrorism Richard Clarke had even theorized that terrorists might hijack a 747 and crash it into Olympic stadium.
So, does Judge Pauley really stand by his ignorance with this unconstitutional decision? Has the mainstream corporate media taken the time to point out that his statements are ludicrous? Absolutely not, we are still trying to ascertain the intent of Phil Robertson the so called “duck commander” with is statements in GQ magazine and why Jesse Jackson has been thrown into the circus.
This alone should convince you that there is a conspiracy to selectively present information in order to sway the public towards a police state agenda. What we are not told is what really can hurt us in the New Year.
In the battle for your liberty you must know who your enemies are and how they are fooling you into thinking that just because they hold lofty positions in the community that they can avoid being on wanted posters or have their mug shots posted on the internet.
There are other enemies that I encourage you not to tolerate and that is the pandering politicians who sound the desperation alarms by declaring that these unconstitutional moves are needed for security, when it is obvious that the security they speak of is their own, because they know the tolerance level is about to give and that when the dragnet goes out and citizens demand accountability they will be indicted on charges that demonstrate utter contempt for constitutional law.
Also be warned of trolls that linger in Social networks that use malicious attacks to try and discredit independent reporters. They are all quick to take reporters out of context, and label anyone they see as a threat to their “party” as an “agent” or a “gate keeper.”
It is appropriate to point out that many of these trolls call themselves “activists” that come on the scene to tell the world that they are here to destroy “hate speech” when what they are really doing is destroying any and all contrarian stance against what they feel is important for their political agenda.
If you don’t speak enough of the alleged Jewish Banking Conspiracy, you are an agent. If you speak against the Illuminati, you are an agent. If you do not talk about Obama’s illegitimacy as president you are an agent. If you don’t support prayer in the public schools or the Ten Commandments in court houses you are an agent.
I suggest that these trolls are agents. That they use push button “crisis” like the media does in order to inflict a credibility conundrum. It is time to declare that petty little agendas get in the way of true crime and constitutional negation that will thrust America into full on martial law in 2014.
I never have understood how this type of nonsense gets heard, and why so many people do not realize that there will be a time when independent thought will considered precedent for pre-crime by the government.
You can’t tell me that if Edward Snowden or Glenn Greenwald were to just show up one day in the United States appearing on TMZ or Good Morning America, that they would not be hauled away and put in a prison without a trial. That is just how bad we have become in this country with regard to the sickness of knee jerk and bumper sticker patriotism.
There are plenty of people out there that would demand an execution in the public square for any and all that expose these ignorant and unconstitutional decisions because the media has not discouraged these judges and politicos from spreading disinformation.
America will return the day we can tune into the nightly news and hear the talking heads declare that there are people in power that have abused their positions. That they have revoked the public trust, and have conducted themselves like mobsters.
If they could just say the truth about how we are seeing before us a small group of men that are leading through intimidation and coercion. These so called leaders are banking on the ignorance of the American people and making decisions that become bulletins without consequence or challenge.
There are Americans today that have a default setting of hate for anyone who does not necessarily agree with them politically or religiously. However there must be an agreement where people can set aside their programming in order to acknowledge that powerful men and women conspire. They do so in order to retain their power and keep their bulging paychecks.
Anymore, we see that there are people on the internet that try to sound the alarm and are met with mobs of people who are more than likely capable of meaningful dialogue on an issue kill it with a joke, or pretend like that they are in some half baked reality show.
The truth is we can make amusing comments and pretend it is alright, or claim that all people who believe that the government is corrupt are conspiracy nutcases, but the truth is that the idea of police state has now trickled into the television format of C-span.
On December 26th, 2013 C-span opened their phone lines and asked the provocative question “Is the United States a Police State?” The overwhelming majority said yes.
I don’t know what is worse, admitting to it, or doing nothing about it.

Is Fukushima Radiation Decimating Wildlife in the Western Portion of North America?

Seals, Sea Lions, Polar Bears, Bald Eagles, Sea Stars, Turtles, King and Sockeye Salmon, Herring, Anchovies and Sardines All Suffering Mysterious Diseases

By Washington's Blog

Global Research, December 31, 2013

Washington's Blog

Region: Asia, Canada, USA

Theme: Environment

We’ve previous documented that seals, sea lions, polar bears, sea stars, turtles, sockeye salmon, herring, anchovies and sardines on the West Coast of North America are all suffering mysterious diseases … which are killing many.
We’ve asked whether this is related to massive releases of radiation from Fukushima. Update.
Sadly, we can now add other wildlife to the list.
EneNews reports:

Los Angeles Times, Dec. 29, 2013: Bald eagles are dying in Utah — 20 in the past few weeks alone — and nobody can figure out why. [...] Many suffered from seizures, head tremors and paralysis [...] Many of the eagles were brought to the mammoth Wildlife Rehabilitation Center of Northern Utah [...] Within 48 hours, most were dead. [...] State wildlife specialists are baffled. For weeks, officials have sent birds for necropsies [...] At first, the agency’s disease scientists guessed the illness could be encephalitis, which is caused by the West Nile virus, but later ruled out that possibility. [...] Officials suggest the die-off is possibly connected to the deaths of thousands of eared grebes that began in Utah in November. [...] Officials still don’t know why the shore birds became sick. [...] Officials at the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center have their own theories. Some point to radiation from Japan after the 2011 meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. [...] A call from Idaho shed new light: A wildlife official said bald eagles there were also getting sick, suggesting the birds were arriving in Utah already in bad health.
Buz Marthaler, Wildlife Rehabilitation Center of Northern Utah co-founder: “It’s just hard to have your national bird in your arms, going through seizures in a way it can’t control — when you can see it’s pain but don’t know what’s happening to it. As a human being, you just have problems with that. And when you lose one, it just grabs your heart. [...] In an average year, we might get one or two, but we’ve received nine so far, and five of those have died. The other four are still in our care. [...] We aren’t ruling out anything.”
***
Washington Post, Dec. 30, 2013: [...] “This is really concerning to us,” says [Leslie McFarlane, the wildlife disease program coordinator for the state’s Division of Wildlife Resources]. She has been program coordinator for 10 years and describes the recent deaths as “very unusual.” [...] The symptoms noted in the recent spate of deaths—and the broad geographical area in which they have cropped up—are what has officials concerned.
Listen to the public news service report here

In a second article, EneNews notes:

Juneau Empire, Dec. 29, 2013: [...] the king [chinook] salmon — has fallen from its throne. [...] Alaska has seen unprecedented declines in recent years [...] scientists like Joe Orsi and Jim Murphy, both fisheries research biologists with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, are digging deeper into [...] the cause of the startling downward trend. [...] When asked about the potential impact Fukushima may be having on king salmon stocks in the Gulf of Alaska and elsewhere in the state, Orsi would not comment. “I’ve been told to refer you to the (Environmental Protection Agency),” he said, “Because I’m not an expert on the topic.” Calls and emails to the EPA were not returned in time and digging on the federal agency’s site revealed no current information on radiation from the Fukushima disaster. The last posted monitoring results occurred in June of 2011.

Unfortunately, the American and Japanese governments are doing everything they can to cover up the severity of the Fukushima disaster.  Indeed, anytime government or big corporations screw up, the government works to cover it up … instead of actually fixing the problem. And see this.
EneNews continues:

Bellingham Herald, Dec. 5, 2013: “[...] we see from test fisheries that the Chinook numbers returning to the Fraser River system were at a record low,” explained Ken Balcomb, executive director and principal investigator for The Center for Research and a science advisor to the whale watch association. [...] [An] alarming decrease of an important identified food resource [...]
Islander Sound, Dec. 25, 2013: [A] dismal return of Chinook salmon to the Fraser River.
Salmon Fishing in British Columbia, Canada: There are two major salmon runs of Chinook that are targeted by anglers; the Fraser river [and] Harrison River.
December 2013: Previously unpublished map from gov’t scientists shows Fukushima plume already at Alaska coast (PHOTO)
November 2013: CBC Headline: Radiation from Fukushima arrives on Alaska coast — University scientists concerned — “Is the food supply safe?… I don’t think anyone can really answer that”
September 2013: US Gov’t: Alaska island “appears to show impacts from Fukushima” — “Significant cesium isotope signature” detected — Scientists anticipate more marine life to be impacted as ocean plume arrives (VIDEO)

The Greatest Response To A Cease And Desist Letter, Probably Written While Drunk

from the cc:-mr.-bucks dept

Cross-posted from

This year certainly had its share of ups and downs in terms of lawyerly antics, but in our minds, 2013 shall forever be known as the year of the snarky cease and desist response letter. Back in June, we broke the news of the now famous response to a cease and desist letter received from the Town of West Orange, New Jersey, which went viral worldwide thanks to the power of sarcasm. A few months later, we wrote about an equally entertaining response to a cease and desist letter received from the American Bankers Association, rife with Spice Girls lyrics and Valley girl lingo.
It’s been a while since we wrote about one of these treasures, so we figured we’d close the year out with a bang. We discovered yet another amazing response to a cease and desist letter, and this one may be the greatest of them all — if only because we think its author might have been drunk while writing it….
Jeff Britton, the owner of Exit 6 Pub and Brewery in Cotteville, Missouri, received a cease and desist letter from none other than Starbucks, specifically from Anessa Owen Kramer of Honigman Miller Schwartz and Cohn, over a beer named “Frappicino.” As the world knows, the lords of coffee sell a frozen drink (a coffee Slurpee?) by the name of “Frappuccino.” Yes, the names are similar, but to be confused enough to think you could order the nectar of mall-hopping teenage girls at a bar, you’d have to be pretty drunk.
Rather than cower in fear over the legal consequences threatened by America’s coffee monarch, Britton decided it would be in his best interests to write a response on his own, without the assistance of legal counsel, because he didn’t need no stinkin’ lawyer. Here’s what he posted on the Exit 6 Facebook page:

So quick little story. Last week I received a cease and desist letter from the attorneys at Starbucks. Apparently there was a beer on Untappd that someone named “Frappicino”. 3 people had checked into said beer. 3. Starbucks [didn't] like that. So I got a letter. They wanted me to remove the beer and promise never to use their names again. They also wanted my written response and guarantee. Here is their letter. And also my response.

Needless to say, Britton’s response is amazing — he even threw in some legalese, despite the fact that he’s not a lawyer (oh yeah, heretofore, baby). Here are some highlights from his letter (all errors included in the original). You’d have to be drunk to write something like this, right? Who cares, it’s freakin’ awesome:

Exit 6 has proudly sold at least 38 drinks in Cottleville MO and has a strong presence in St Charles county, a suburb 40 miles outside the St Louis metropolis. It has recently come to Exit 6 Pub and Brewerys attention that there were 3 check ins to the beer with a very similar name to the “F Word”. Unfortunately it was only similar to the F Word because we meant to call it the same thing. Lucky for us, we’re poor spelers.
I would like for both Ms Owen Kramer and Mr Bucks to rest assured we meant no deception, confusion, or mistaking in the naming of the beer F Word. We never thought that our beer drinking customers would have thought that the alcoholic beverage coming out of the tap would have actually been coffee from one of the many, many, many stores located a few blocks away. I guess that with there being a Starbucks on every corner of every block in every city that some people may think they could get a Starbucks at a local bar. So that was our mistake.

Mr. Bucks isn’t Ms. Owen Kramer’s co-counsel; no, this “poor speler” is addressing Mr. Star Bucks himself, as if he were an actual human being. We imagine Britton was at least six Frapps in at this point.
We haven’t even gotten to the best part yet. To show Mr. Bucks just how sorry he really was, Britton enclosed a check in the amount of Exit 6′s profits made from its “Frappicino” beer to be applied to Ms. Owen Kramer’s legal fees, which he admits were “probably … more than Exit 6 made last year.” Here it is:
Behold: the legal equivalent of a mic drop. Cheers to you, Jeff Britton! We raise a glass in your honor.

Video – DARPA and Google: ‘Wearing electronic tattoos for is cool’

we got an whole gen of kooks /nuts ..can't wait to get "hooked", turned into 1/2 Human ,1/2 Machine  ?  got it ALL figured out ?      'cept  the "EVIL"   angle ... lol there is no God ?     until fucking satan starts snap~in at yer ass  & than it's oh please God save  me !  lol  & um not talk`in bout the relig  kooks & "their" books /"end times" bull shit  ... any of em !   funny how all these smart fucks  ... just can't figure out ...evil  lol .. until it's  latched on to their asses    & than "they" become ....believers   Oops hehe

truther December 31, 2013

21st Century Wire says…

There is a mental illness which has infected technophiles who work in the Silicon Valley and for MIT, and DARPA labs. They have run out of real creative and human ideas, and are now convinced that total tracking and control of the human population is the end all and be all.

This sad cadre of degenerate individuals working for the likes of Google and DARPA are overpaid – and over-valued by their globalist benefactors in government and Wall Street – all of whom seek to profit off of the dehumanisation of 21st century society. They are calling it “BEAST TECH”.

“DARPA and Google want to convince young people that wearing electronic tattoos and ingesting daily digital ID tokens for “authentication” is cool.”

They’re serious…

“It’s cool to wear the Mark of the Beast”

Former DARPA director on research into Beast Tech

Brasscheck TV

Hey kids, wear electronic tattoos. Take ingestible “authentication” tokens. Isn’t it cool? Cleared by the FDA. “You can take 30 per day for the rest of your life.”

I’m trying to come up with commentary on this that doesn’t include four letter words.

For the moment, I’m failing other than to repeat: “These people are sick.”

Video: Clear Evidence The Pentagon Exist Solely To WAR PROFITEER Off The American Taxpayers

truther December 31, 2013 ... until you wake up to the fact that the ENTIRE U.S. FED GOV.  is a "FRONT" for the hidden finance "system"  for the BREAKAWAY CIV.    you wont/can't grasp the FRAUD going on !!!   on THIS Planet & soon! VERY SOON  ..."off planet" ??  yea that's  just fucking ET ....flying  ALL over the fucking place ..right ;O   READ ,READ ! just fucking read Ben Rich's "statement's "    before he died ?? yup ET yep !

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBiNswwNZ7c

There are no parties in America. They are invented by the 0.1% to make sure they get richer and tax payers pay the bills.

BitTorrent Piracy Doesn’t Affect US Box Office Returns, Study Finds

• Ernesto
• February 10, 2012
• box office,
  piracy

A new academic paper by researchers from the University of Minnesota and Wellesley College has examined the link between BitTorrent downloads and box office returns. Contrary to what’s often claimed by the movie industry, the researchers conclude that there is no evidence that BitTorrent piracy hurts US box office returns. Internationally, there is a link between downloads and revenues, which the researchers attribute to long release windows.
With their unconditional support for SOPA, PIPA and ACTA, Hollywood is pressing hard for new legislation to curb piracy. The studios want ‘rogue’ websites to be censored and are calling on Google and Internet providers to take responsibility.
However, a new study reveals that movie industry itself has the key to decreasing piracy, without passing any news laws.
In a paper titled ‘Reel Piracy: The Effect of Online Film Piracy on International Box Office Sales’ researchers from the University of Minnesota and Wellesley College examine the link between BitTorrent piracy and box office returns. As hypothesized, they find that international movie piracy losses are directly linked to the delay between US and foreign premieres.
In other words, the longer it takes before a movie is released internationally, the more box office revenues are impacted through piracy.
“We find that longer release windows are associated with decreased box office returns, even after controlling for film and country fixed effects. This relationship is much stronger in contexts where piracy is more prevalent: after BitTorrent’s adoption and in heavily pirated genres,” they write.
“Our findings indicate that, as a lower bound, international box office returns in our sample were at least 7% lower than they would have been in the absence of pre-release piracy.”
Aside from their conclusion that a lack of availability is fueling piracy, the researchers report a perhaps even more interesting result. Contrary to what the MPAA and other lobby groups claim, the study doesn’t find a negative effect of BitTorrent piracy on US box office revenues.
“We do not see evidence of elevated sales displacement in US box office revenue following the adoption of BitTorrent, and we suggest that delayed legal availability of the content abroad may drive the losses to piracy,” the researchers write.
The above means that movie pirates in the US wouldn’t have bought a ticket at the box office if file-sharing was nonexistent. Only international box office sales see a piracy related decline in revenue, which is attributed to long release windows, something the industry itself can address.
Yet, the movie industry lobbyists keep hammering on about eliminating pirate sites, while ignoring the fact that the industry itself can make important steps to decrease international piracy as well. Governments around the world are not blind to this double standard, as both the Netherlands and Switzerland chose to keep unauthorized movie downloading legal until the industry improves the availability of legitimate content.
Of course the study is far from perfect as there are many more factors that influence box office returns. However, the findings clearly suggest that the movie industry itself can take the biggest step towards eliminating piracy “losses,” not lawmakers.

Traffic Safety Administration Takes Its Blood And Saliva 'Survey' To Pennsylvania, With Predictable Results

from the this-isn't-over-yet dept

It appears the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (in conjunction with the White House Office of National Drug Policy) isn't done turning American citizens against their local police departments with its quest to determine what percentage of drivers are hitting the road while under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

The police department of Ft. Worth, Texas, didn't seem to enjoy the extra attention its assistance of the NHTSA at "voluntary" checkpoints brought with it. After first defending his officers' actions during the saliva/blood/oxygen draws, the chief later backtracked, offering a sincere apology that actually apologized for his department's participation rather than simply leaving any contrition left unsaid. ("We apologize if any drivers were offended…" Seriously?)

The claims made by both the NHTSA and Ft. Worth PD about this "survey" didn't add up. It was supposedly both "voluntary" and "anonymous." But drivers who refused to participate had their breath surreptitiously "tested" by Passive Alcohol Detectors, which means at least one aspect wasn't "voluntary." And those that did agree to give blood or saliva had to sign a release form, which knocks a pretty big hole in the "anonymity" side of it. Furthermore, having law enforcement officers ask nicely for cooperation tends to make "voluntary" experiences feel more "mandatory." A sign posted before the checkpoint could have pointed out the survey was voluntary, but one would imagine this sort of notification would have eliminated the desired "randomness" the NHTSA was seeking.

I assume we'll be hearing more about this in the next few days, but it appears the NHTSA Blood n' Spit Road Show has moved on to Reading, Pennsylvania.

Police there joined forces with the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation — a company hired by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy — to conduct the road stops.

This doesn't seem to have made some locals very happy.

[E]ven though the drivers were told their provision of DNA was purely voluntary, many complained about the insistent quizzing and overall feeling of pressure — and that they were pulled to the side of the road in the first place for a research project, the Reading Eagle reported.

“I feel this incident is a gross abuse of power on many levels,” said Reading resident Ricardo Nieves, in a complaint to the town’s City Council earlier this week, Fox News reported.

But it appears as though the Reading police chief won't be apologizing any time soon for lending out his officers (and their perceived authority).

Reading Police Chief William Heim said to the Reading Eagle that federal authorities are only trying to determine the extent of drunken and drugged driving statistics as part of an overall fight to lower road crashes and driving-related injuries. And he said the cheek swab requests weren’t aimed at collecting DNA but rather checking for the presence of prescription drugs, Fox News said. Moreover, he claimed police only served as security and weren’t actually pulling drivers to the side or asking questions.

This survey may not be aimed at collecting DNA, but it's not as though it's not being collected along with the blood and saliva. Other than protecting the cash box (donors are awarded $10-50, depending on which fluid is volunteered), it would seem a truly voluntary survey wouldn't need much in terms of "security." What sending police officers does do, whether intentionally or not, is provide the surveyors with more participants by lightly applying the color of authority. Chief Heim, however, seems either blissfully ignorant or deliberately ignorant of the effect adding a "police presence" has on a situation.

Asked about Nieves' statement that the private firm wanted police there for intimidation, Heim responded: "People are not pressured by police presence to do something they don't want to.

Only a cop could give that answer with a straight face and only a cop would. Every single day people are pressured to do things they don't want to -- or things they don't feel they should need to -- by people in positions of authority. A uniform and an imbalance of power go a long way towards eliminating the resistance shown by average citizens. Only the tenacious escape the hundreds of purely voluntary situations ("would you mind popping the trunk for me?" "would you mind pulling ahead to the inspection area?") that arise everyday. Most people simply give these officers what they want, even when the officers themselves know they have no right to ask for it.

There will be more fallout from the NHTSA's latest bodily fluid "survey" stop. There will be more in the future as it continues around the country. And accompanying it all will be the assertion that adding police officers into the mix has zero effect on the public's perception of these "voluntary" surveys.

Steamy Love Aff…

April 9, 2012 by economicwarrior Steamy Love Affair: Mitt Romney, Wall Street Finance and Wealthy Politicians Affair with For-Profit Education Student Loan Academic-Industrial-Complex

Hampton, NH (April 9, 2012) Best-selling NH author  Barry James Dyke reports that Mitt Romney, Wall Street finance and wealthy politicians have a steamy love affair with the for-profit education  student loan academic-industrial-complex. In his new book, The Pirates of Manhattan II: Highway to Serfdom www.thepiratesofmanhattan.com the author documents the oncoming $1 trillion student loan tsunami in both for-profit and not-for-profit schools.  Dyke unveils the incestuous interconnection of Wall Street private equity firms in monster “club deals” which include Mitt Romney’s Bain Capital, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, KKR, Carlyle and Providence Equity.

The author states, “For profit-education companies revenue stream is almost entirely dependent on the federal government funded student loans. For profit school enrollment has gone from 385,000 in 2000 to 1.8 million in 2010.  The Government Accounting Office (GAO), in a scathing 2010 report found that for-profit colleges engaged in deceptive practices, encouraged fraud to enroll students, saddled them with large debts and offered few solid job prospects to pay back loans.  For-profit schools enroll 10% of the people into colleges, used up 25% of government financial aid and account for 44% of student loan defaults” The author continues, “to make matters worse, much of for-profit education student loan academic complex capital/equity  base is supplied by mutual funds, which get their funding from Main Street America’s 401(k)s. It’s another showcase for Wall Street greed, and when it implodes, the taxpayer will hold the bag.”

Mitt Romney’s Florida primary fundraising chairman was James “Bill” Heavener, the CEO of Full Sail University, a for-profit college. Heavener contributed $85 thousand to a super PAC (Political Action Committee) Restore Our Future—supporting Romney which is run by former Romney aides. [To see Romney’s endorsement of Full Sail and other for-profit schools, see this YouTube.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wF_9r6-DLTw (Mitt Romney Endorses Scam For-Profit Colleges)].

TA Associates, a Boston based private equity firm is an investor in Full Sail University. C. Kevin Landry, an executive with TA donated $120 thousand to Romney’s super PAC. TA acquired for-profit The Rocky Mountain School of Design in Denver in 2011 and The Los Angeles Film School in Los Angeles. TA Associates owned another for profit educator, Florida Career College but sold the school to two other private equity firms, Greenhill Capital and Abrams Capital. Romney’s son Tagg runs a Boston based fund-of-funds private equity firm Solamere Capital where Mitt invested about $10 million. Solamere invested in TA Associates, which in turn acquired Vatterott Educational Centers, Inc. in 2009 from private equity firm Wellspring Capital Management.

The Apollo Group (NASDAQ:APOL) the country’s largest for-profit educator which owns the University of Phoenix, donated $75 thousand to Romney’s super PAC. In 2004, The Apollo Group settled with the Department of Education for nearly $10 million for its strong arm recruiting practices. In 2009, Apollo settled again for an additional $78.5 million for similar discretions. In 2009, The Carlyle Group, the private equity giant, teamed up with Apollo Group to acquire BPP Holdings PLC, a large British for-profit education concern for $607 million. CEO for Apollo was Todd Nelson. Now he is CEO of Education Management Corporation.

Maine U.S. Senator Olympia Snow’s husband John ‘Jock’ McKernan, a former governor of Maine has been a corporate officer of Education Management Corporation (NASDAQ: EDMC) since 1999. Majority owners of EDMC are private equity firms Goldman Sachs (43%) and Providence Equity Partners (32%). Education Management, which enrolls about 150,000 students, is embroiled in an $11 billion lawsuit with the U.S. Department of Justice over its alleged cutthroat sales practices to enroll students while loading them up with student loans. EDMC CEO Todd Nelson [prior Apollo CEO] and his wife Amy, donated nearly $5000 to Mitt Romney’s campaign. Amy Nelson, using a post office box in Utah, donated $50 thousand to Romney’s super PAC.

Goldman Sachs employees are Mitt Romney’s largest supporters. Romney with his wife Ann have millions invested with Goldman Sachs funds. Goldman Sachs Capital Partners invested $192 million in First Marblehead (NYSE: FMD) a student loan company in 2007 at $15.30 a share. By April 4, 2012, FMD was trading at $1.18. 
Romney gets contributions from all areas of predatory finance.  Bloomberg reported in April 2012, that payday lenders and auto-title lenders contributed $427,500 to Restore Our Future in 2012. Bain Capital is hard-wired into Wall Street finance and revealed in The Pirates of Manhattan II: Highway to Serfdom.

Blum Capital Partners, the private equity firm run by California’s U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein’s husband Richard C. Blum, is a major owner in Career Education (NASAQ: CECO) and ITT Educational Services (NYSE: ESI). Blum Capital which manages $2.7 billion gets about $600 million in funds California’s pensions, CalPERS, CalSTRS and the Los Angeles County Retirement System, and additional funds from the State of New York Pension.

Bridgepoint Education (NYSE: BPI) is 65% owned by the private equity firm Warburg Pincus. NCO Group, a worldwide mercenary debt collector of student and other loans is owned by One Equity Partners, the private equity arm of JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM). NCO was a $1.26 billion 2006 leveraged buyout engineered by JPMorgan Chase/One Equity Partners. Lauriat Education in 2007 did a $3.8 billion management/leveraged buyout with KKR and Citigroup Private Equity. Former president Bill Clinton is an Honorary Chancellor of Lauriat International Universities, and was the keynote speaker at Walden University’s commencement in July 2011. Not to be outdone, former President George W. Bush will speak in Las Vegas on June 22, 2012 at the annual meeting of APSCU, the leading association for-profit colleges at the Mandalay Bay Hotel & Casino where Bush gets $100 thousand or more per speech. For further information about The Pirates of Manhattan II: Highway to Serfdom contact the author at castleassetmgmt@comcast.net