TO ALL MILITARY RETIREES

(Analyst's note:   Earliest possible action is absolutely required on this one.)


This is true. It is on pages 77, 172, 218, and 434. You have to dig to see the charges. We (retirees) would lose the Medicare for life benefit and would have to pay. We would lose TRICARE as a total care package. We would not be allowed to keep TRICARE so when Obama stands and says if you like what you have you can keep it, he lies.

             This is a "Heads Up" on a battle we are facing now and down the road with the new Administration. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has already drafted proposed legislation that would basically reduce our TRICARE for Life benefits to a system whereby we pay deductibles and co-pays up to $6,301 the first year for you and your spouse, with future years being indexed to increase with inflation. What can we do?  The article below, obtained from an Air Force Association and written by BG Bob Clements, best describes what we can do.  Please read it and check the links for CBO language and do what Bob says-Send this email to every Military Retiree you know and write and email your Congressman often. For those of you that might have voted for "Change", you should do it more than often!

             

             TRICARE FOR LIFE'S FUTURE . . .

             TRICARE For Life was instituted to correct the broken promise that military retirees would receive free healthcare coverage for life and it covers the Medicare co-pay. Now a heavy assault has begun on Veterans'/Retirees' benefits to pay for other programs our President promised during the campaign. And it is a high priority of his administration. The one item of most interest to Retired Military is in Article 189. If approved by Congress the first assault wave would hit in 11 and would hit hard. It would initiate cost sharing to require retirees to pay the first $525 of medical cost and 50% of the next $4,725 for a first year cost of $2,888 per person.  It would be indexed to increase with inflation A reason given for this action (for PR effect) is "overuse" by Retirees

             For those of you who are covered by TFL you will want to pay attention (Below) to what BG Bob Clements has surfaced about the future of TFL. In any case, on page 189 of the Congressional Budget Office report, see the note below on how to get to that spot, there is a strong recommendation to eventually eliminate the program as it is too expensive. Just another move to slight those of us who dedicated much of our adult lives to the defense of our country.

      

             Strongly recommend that you contact your elected officials and register your strong opposition to the elimination of the TFL program. Heads-up from BG Bob Clements, USAF Ret (P38 Bob)

                 The following has been added to the Congressional Budget Office Web Sitewww.cbo.gov/   a. Budget, Options, Volume 1: Health Care

www.cbo.gov/doc.cfm?index=9925

                 For those who have never opened one of these web sites from OMB :

                 1. double click on the above URL

                 2. click on PDF

                 3. click on the binoculars

                 4. do a search for TFL

                 Now here it is folks and I will guarantee if you sit around on your behind and do nothing about it as they bring these options forward this coming year, you will lose one of the best healthcare benefits that the Medicare eligible retired military have. It   is short of the promises made that we fought so hard for back in the late 90s and early 00s but it is still the best healthcare program that anyone in the United States has, bar none.

                People who are professionals always look for the channel of least resistance when it comes to cutting money out of the Federal and DOD budget. I can tell you this straight on, military retirees are one of those channels of least resistance noted for sitting around, doing nothing, and waiting for ole Joe to do it for them. You had better wake up Your medical benefits are prime target. If you lose them, you have nobody to blame but yourself. Let me repeat that . . . you have nobody to blame but yourself.

                 The way to secure your benefits is to write to your members of Congress and to keep writing and writing and writing. ONCE IS NOT ENOUGH!! Keep repeating the above statement until you are blue in the face.

                 Now I'm going to make one more statement to all of you younger people out there who are not yet eligible for TRICARE for Life. HEALTH CARE WILL EVENTUALLY BECOME THE DOMINATING FACTOR IN YOUR LIFE. Remember that . . . it will impact you big time with the utmost in cruelty unless you are fortunate enough to die from a heart attack or get run over by a truck.

                 The service organizations will put up a fight, but, they will need your help and can't do it by themselves. I hope this makes it clear as to what you can expect if you do nothing.

                 To show you how stupid these professionals can be at times just read the data on the noted sites closely. You will see that in spite of the MTFs (Military Treatment Facility) need to get patients back to keep their doctors busy and the hospitals from going to clinic status, these people from OMB would employ a means to keep retirees from using MTF facilities by charging them a fee for services. How dumb can you get.

                 Even if you are an Obama fan, and believe that changeth cometh, TFL option from OMB will not go away. They need the money they spend on you for other programs for people who produce nothing but vote to keep their boss in office. If you know of anyone who is Retired Military, please forward this on to them.

             Remember- TFL is an "Earned Benefit" that's been granted by a previous Congress.

CHAPTER NINE BUDGET OPTIONS, VOLUME 1: HEALTH CARE 175

9

Option 96

Introduce Minimum Out-of-Pocket Requirements Under TRICARE For Life

TRICARE For Life (TFL) was introduced in 2002 as a

supplement to Medicare for military retirees and their

family members who are eligible for Medicare. The program

pays nearly all medical costs not covered by Medicare

and requires few out-of-pocket fees. Because the

Department of Defense (DoD) is a passive payer in the

program—it neither manages care nor provides incentives

for the cost-conscious use of services—it has virtually no

means of controlling the program’s costs. In 2008, DoD

spent about $8 billion on TFL-eligible beneficiaries in addition

to amounts spent for those individuals by Medicare.

This option would help reduce the costs of TFL, as well

as costs for Medicare, by introducing minimum out-of pocket

requirements for beneficiaries. Under this option,

TFL would not cover any of the first $525 of an enrollee’s

cost-sharing liabilities for calendar year 2011 and would

limit coverage to 50 percent of the next $4,725 in Medicare

cost sharing that the beneficiary incurred. (Because

all further cost sharing would be covered by TFL, enrollees

could not pay more than $2,888 in cost sharing in

that year. Those dollar limits would be indexed to growth

in average Medicare costs for later years.) The true out of-

pocket provisions in Medicare’s prescription drug program,

or Part D, are an example of how this option could

work in practice. Under that program, any amounts paid

by Medicare or by any other insurer are not included

when calculating whether a beneficiary has reached the

level of eligibility for catastrophic coverage.

Currently, military treatment facilities (MTFs) do not

charge eligible individuals copayments for medical services

or pharmaceuticals. In order to reduce beneficiaries’

incentive to switch to MTFs and avoid the minimum

out-of-pocket requirements that are central to this

option, DoD would need to establish procedures for collecting

payments from TFL beneficiaries seeking care

from MTFs.

If the savings that would accrue from reduced spending

for Medicare were included, the introduction of cost

sharing under this option would reduce the federal

spending devoted to TFL beneficiaries by about $14 billion

through 2014 and by about $40 billion through

2019. Approximately 22 percent of those savings would

come from a reduced demand for medical services rather

than from a transfer of spending from the government to

military retirees and their families.

An advantage of this option is that greater cost sharing

would increase TFL beneficiaries’ awareness of the cost of

health care and promote a corresponding restraint in

their use of medical services. Research has generally

shown that introducing modest cost sharing can substantially

reduce medical expenditures without causing measurable

increases in adverse health outcomes.

Among its disadvantages, this option could discourage

some patients (particularly low-income patients) from

seeking preventive medical care or from managing their

chronic conditions under close medical supervision,

which might negatively affect their health.

«CBO»

Option 97

Increase Medical Cost Sharing for Military Retirees Who Are Not Yet

Eligible for Medicare

a. Some of those estimated revenues would come from Social Security payroll taxes and so would be classified as off-budget.

b. Estimates exclude the potential effect of changes in discretionary spending.

In the mid-1990s, the Department of Defense (DoD)

instituted a plan called TRICARE to provide health care

for members of the military and their dependents, as well

as for eligible military retirees and their families.

TRICARE comprises three different options: an option

similar to a health maintenance organization (HMO),

called TRICARE Prime; an option with a preferred-provider

network, called TRICARE Extra; and a traditional

fee-for-service plan, called TRICARE Standard. When

most military personnel enter the armed forces, they are

between 18 and 22 years of age, and they are able to retire

after serving 20 years. Military retirees who are not yet

eligible for Medicare (generally those ages 38 to 65) may

enroll in TRICARE Prime by paying an annual enrollment

fee of $230 (for single coverage) or $460 (for family

coverage). In addition, those Prime enrollees make a

$12 copayment for each outpatient visit to a civilian physician

or other civilian health care provider (visits to military

providers are free). Those who do not enroll in

TRICARE Prime may receive benefits under TRICARE

Extra or Standard. Beneficiaries who use either one of

those two plans must pay an annual deductible of $150

(single coverage) or $300 (family coverage) before typical

cost-sharing rates apply. The TRICARE enrollment fees,

copayments, and deductibles have remained unchanged

since 1995.

Military retirees enrolled in TRICARE Prime bear

smaller costs than would be owed under typical civilian

plans. DoD has estimated that a typical military retiree

and his family who enrolled in the Prime plan faced

about $780 in annual out-of-pocket costs (that is, TRICARE

copayments and the enrollment fee) in 2007,

whereas a comparable family enrolled in an HMO

through a civilian employment-based plan paid $3,950

(as the employee’s share of the premium plus copayments).

TRICARE Prime beneficiaries also use the system

more than comparable civilian beneficiaries do: DoD

estimates that the rate of utilization of inpatient services

is 58 percent higher and the outpatient utilization rate

39 percent higher for Prime enrollees than for civilian

HMO enrollees.1

This option would raise the enrollment fees, copayments,

and deductibles for younger military retirees who wished

to use TRICARE. Single beneficiaries could enroll in

TRICARE Prime by paying a $550 annual fee, and families

could enroll for $1,100 annually. The family enrollment

fee of $1,100 per year is approximately equivalent

to the $460 fee first instituted in 1995, after an adjustment

for the nationwide growth in health care spending

per capita. Under this option, each medical visit to a civilian

Prime provider would entail a copayment of $28,

which, again, is approximately equivalent to the amount

that was established in 1995. Copayments for mental

health visits and inpatient care would also be adjusted

accordingly. Single retirees (or their surviving spouses)

who used TRICARE Standard or Extra would face an

annual deductible of $350; the deductible for families

would be $700. Those increases would also be consistent

with the nationwide growth in per capita health care

spending. In addition, and for the first time, users of

TRICARE Standard or Extra would be required to enroll

and pay a $50 annual fee for single coverage and a $100

annual fee for family coverage. For people currently serving

in the military and for their families, enrollment fees,

copayments, and deductibles in the three plans would

remain at their current levels.

The option would reduce DoD’s outlays in three ways.

First, the increased fees would be used to directly offset

the costs of treating military retirees. Second, the higher

out-of-pocket costs would induce some retirees who

would otherwise have used TRICARE to enroll in a civilian

health plan instead. Third, the higher copayments

and deductibles would reduce the use of health care services

by military retirees who remained in TRICARE.

DoD’s precise cost savings under the option are difficult

to predict because they would depend on how strongly

people responded to the new fee structure. The net effect

on the federal budget is also difficult to predict because

increased fees may cause eligible retirees to switch to

other federal programs, such as Medicaid (if an individual

has low income), the Federal Employees Health Benefit

(FEHB) program (if a person is employed as a civilian by

the federal government), or the Veterans Health

Administration. An estimate of the effects of increasing

TRICARE fees, copayments, and deductibles is that

discretionary outlays would be reduced, on net, by

about $25 billion over the 2010–2019 period, under the

assumption that appropriations were reduced

accordingly. This option would increase mandatory

spending for Medicaid and for FEHB annuitants by

$1 billion over the same period, and it would reduce revenues

by $4 billion. The drop in revenues would occur

because some of the retirees who left TRICARE would

switch to employment-based health benefits, leading to a

shift in compensation from taxable wages to nontaxable

fringe benefits.

The increased fees for retirees would not affect service

members currently on active duty or in the reserves. In

fact, only about 15 percent of enlisted service members

and approximately 50 percent of officers remain for an

entire career and qualify for retiree health benefits.

Much of the estimated savings under this option stems

from increasing the enrollment fees charged for TRICARE

Prime, with the expectation that some current

users would leave the system and some potential users

would seek care elsewhere. Although researchers have

found that increasing cost sharing can reduce medical

expenditures without adversely affecting the health of the

average person, an argument against implementing the

higher fees set out in this option is that they could discourage

some people from seeking health care or treating

their illnesses in a timely manner.

«CBO»

RELATED CBO PUBLICATIONS: Evaluating Military Compensation, June 2007; Military Compensation: Balancing Cash and Noncash Benefits,

Issue Brief, January 16, 2004; and Growth in Medical Spending by the Department of Defense, September 2003

Total

(MILLIONS OF DOLLARS) 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2010-2014 2010-2019

Change in Mandatory Spending 10 30 50 70 80 240 1,040

Change in Revenuesa -40 -130 -260 -300 -350 -1,080 -4,000

Net Effect on the Deficitb 50 160 310 370 430 1,320 5,040

Change in Discretionary Spending

Budget authority -200 -1,400 -2,000 -2,200 -2,500 -8,300 -26,000

Outlays -200 -1,200 -1,800 -2,100 -2,400 -7,700 -24,800

1. Department of Defense, Evaluation of the TRICARE Program:

FY2008 Report to Congress (February 29, 2008).

Option 98

Require Copayments for Medical Care Provided by the Department of Veterans

Affairs to Enrollees Without a Service-Connected Disability

Note: Discretionary savings accrue to the Department of Veterans Affairs; increases in mandatory outlays are projected for the

Medicare and Medicaid programs.

In 2008, just over 5 million veterans received medical

care from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). All

VA patients are enrolled in one of eight priority care

groups, determined on the basis of income, disability status,

and other factors. Currently, veterans in Priority

Groups 6 to 8, the lower-priority groups, are charged

copayments (and the health plans of any who have private

insurance may be billed) for treatment of nonservice-

connected conditions.

This option would increase out-of-pocket costs for veterans

in Priority Group 5—those who do not have serviceconnected

disabilities and whose income is below a VAdefined

threshold. The option is targeted toward the largest

priority group (31 percent of VA enrollees) that consumes

the greatest share (33 percent) of VA’s medical

resources each year. Currently, those patients pay no fees

for inpatient or outpatient medical care, although veterans

in this group who earn more than the VA pension

level ($11,000 or more per year, depending on whether

the veteran has a spouse or dependents) pay $8 per prescription,

up to an annual cap of $960. This option

would maintain that prescription copayment for higherincome

enrollees but also institute copayments of $1 for

prescriptions that the lowest-income enrollees fill at VA

facilities and copayments of between $1 and $2 for each

health care encounter that veterans in Priority Group 5

have with the VA medical system. Such increased cost

sharing for Priority Group 5 veterans would reduce discretionary

spending for VA medical services by about

$3 billion over the five-year period from 2010 through

2014. Although VA-provided medical care would remain

less expensive than alternative care for many veterans,

some of those for whom VA facilities were less convenient

might switch to civilian providers and services funded

under Medicare or Medicaid, and mandatory spending

for those programs would increase by $200 million for

that same period. From 2010 through 2019, this option

would reduce discretionary outlays by $7 billion but

would increase mandatory outlays by $420 million.

A rationale for this option is that increased cost sharing

for veterans in Priority Group 5 could reduce VA’s spending

by making those veterans more cost-conscious in

their demand for health care services. An argument

against the option is that it focuses on one of the poorest

groups of veterans and leaves unchanged the out-ofpocket

expense of those in lower-priority groups. Veterans

in Priority Groups 6 to 8—a population that is

expected to equal 33 percent of VA enrollees and consume

15 percent of VA’s medical resources in 2009—

make copayments, and their insurance plans (if any) are

billed; however, the resulting revenue covers about a fifth

of the cost of their care. (Net of copayments, those veterans

are expected to consume 13 percent of VA’s medical

resources.) Veterans in Groups 6 to 8 have more income

than veterans in Group 5, lending support to the argument

that VA should concentrate first on recovering

additional costs from those lower-priority groups through

higher copayments and improved billing practices. However,

such changes are unlikely to substantially reduce the

growth in VA’s medical spending.

«CBO»

Total

(MILLIONS OF DOLLARS) 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2010-2014 2010-2019

Change in Mandatory Spending 40 40 40 40 40 200 420

Change in Discretionary Spending

Budget authority -580 -630 -650 -670 -700 -3,230 -7,060

Outlays -540 -620 -640 -670 -690 -3,160 -6,970

RELATED CBO PUBLICATIONS: Statement of Allison Percy, Principal Analyst, Congressional Budget Office, Future Medical Spending by the

Department of Veterans Affairs, before the House Subcommittee on Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies, Committee on

Appropriations, February 15, 2007; Potential Growth Paths for Medical Spending by the Department of Veterans Affairs, Letter to the

Honorable Larry E. Craig, July 14, 2006; and The Potential Cost of Meeting Demand for Veterans’ Health Care, March 2005     

How stable is the Dollar?

(Analyst's note:  Must read.)

from Glenn Beck

.... GLENN: We have, let's see, Germany number 10. Do we get in ‑‑ are we number 15? Finland is number 11. France is number 12. Malaysia, 13. Mexico ‑‑

PAT: You've got to be kidding me.

GLENN: Financial stability, top 20 economies, financial stability, Mexico 14. 15 Brazil. 16, Czech Republic. The Czech Republic. United Arab Emirates. Sweden, number 18. 19, Denmark. The Slovak Republic is number 20. Here we go. Overall financial stability for the United States of America, overall financial stability placing now number 38. Currency stability, the United States places now 50th.

PAT: We're last.

GLENN: 50th. Banking stability, number 36. Our currency is the fifth ‑‑ we are the global currency, the global world standard and we are now ranked at number 50, five‑zero. And you expect that to last? Who are you kidding? Now, when the movers and shakers see the world economic forum come out with a report that says our currency is number five‑zero in the world, 50th in the world, if you hold a lot of dollars, what do you think you're going to do with them? If you see that our overall financial stability is 38, what are you going to do? If you think our banking stability is now, you see that the world economic forum places it at 36th, what do you think you're going to do? Don't you see what's happening? And at the same time all of these cases from these global organizations are moving in the opposite direction and saying bad America, bad America. What is our Nobel Prize winner doing? Our Nobel Prize winner is learning to spend even more money. They are now looking at a second stimulus package... for what? Well, one of the things they would like to look at is they would like to look at, you know, being able, being able to go back and look at the last five years or maybe seven years for companies that have been struggling and been losing money, give them a tax break for those companies that have been losing money. Let them say, "Well, I've got to claim, you know, the losses that I had six years ago." Here's an idea. What do you say that we start giving tax breaks to producers? What do you say we start giving tax breaks to people who are actually making a difference and hiring people? What do you say we give a tax break to, oh, I don't know, everybody, and stop spending money? Stop printing money. Stop spending money. Yes, I know what that means. There are people right now in their car who are financial quote/unquote geniuses who are still telling everybody to stay in the market when it was at 13,000, stay in the market when it was at 12,000, stay in the market when it was 10,000, all the way down to 7500: Stay in the market, stay in the market, stay in the market. Yeah, well, thank you for your help, genius.

Now, these same geniuses are telling you don't worry about the economic stability of the United States of America; it will turn around, don't worry about the stability of the dollar; it will turn around. It will not turn around.   ....

Islamic Death Bounties in the U.S.A.

(Analyst's note:  A troubling report.)

by Jamie Glazov


Frontpage Interview’s guest today is Dave Gaubatz, the first U.S. civilian (1811) Federal Agent deployed to Iraq in 2003. He is the owner of DG Counter-terrorism Publishing. He is currently conducting a 50 State Counter-terrorism Research Tour (CTRT).


.... FP: Provide us with a book widely used by Islamic leaders to explain the teachings of Islam.

Gaubatz: First I should mention the majority of mosques in America are predominately Sunni, and therefore the manuals/books being used are in accordance with this sect of Muslim people. There are five primary manuals used by the Sunni people to help them better understand ‘Pure Islam’. All are very clear in one aspect. They promote hatred of Jews, Christians, and Muslims who do not adhere to ‘all’ aspects of Sharia law. These manuals are:

1. Tafsir Ibn Kathir
2.  Fiqh Us Sunnah
3. Sahih Ul Muslim
4. Sahih al-Bukharii
5. Reliance of the Traveler

I highly encourage readers, specifically our elected officials and law enforcement to review these Islamic materials. After reading the entire manuals, readers will be more educated about Islam, but more importantly they will understand Islamic leaders in America are putting a ‘sheet over the eyes of non-Muslims’ in order to hide their true objectives; which are to spread Islam across the world, under Sharia (Islamic law), and through violence when required.  CAIR leaders promote and advocate the teachings of a prominent terrorist leader, Abul Maududi. Maududi describes the goals and objectives of Islam best through his many writings and specific statements: ....

Could Wii Balance Board Prevent Terror Attack?

from National Terror Alert

The Department of Homeland Security is investigating whether the use of Wii Fit Balance Boards might be a good tool for detecting signs of tension or unease in airport security lines.

As somewhere over 20 million Wii Fit owners know, the Balance Board can detect your precise balance point, making it a perfect keep-fit tool — but the Future Attribute Screening

Technology project hopes detecting physiological signs — including rapid shifts in balance — will help identify passengers who may have hostile intentions.

“Researchers took a Wii balance board…and altered it to show how someone’s weight shifts. Studies are now under way to determine whether there is a level of fidgeting that would suggest the need for secondary screening,” CNN said.

The Balance Board is just one of a suite of sensors the Boston-based project is trialing; others include eye trackers and devices that record respiratory and heart rates. Researchers say their goal is to have a system ready for field tests in 2011.

via Read Full Article.

Weapons failing U.S. troops in heat of battle

(Associated Press) WASHINGTON (AP) - In the chaos of an early morning assault on a remote U.S. outpost in eastern Afghanistan, Staff Sgt. Erich Phillips' M4 carbine quit firing as militant forces surrounded the base. The machine gun he grabbed after tossing the rifle aside didn't work either. .... U.S. special operations forces, with their own acquisition budget and the latitude to buy gear the other military branches can't, already are replacing their M4s with a new rifle. ....

Clinton downplays threat to Pakistan nuke arsenal

BELFAST, Northern Ireland — U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Sunday the Taliban siege of Pakistan's army headquarters showed extremists are a growing threat in the nuclear-armed American ally, but she contended they don't pose a risk to the country's atomic arsenal.

Most National Christian Leaders Declare War on Unemployed in Their Pews -- and on the street

(Analyst's note:  Extremely troubling.)


By Roy Beck

With only one major exception, virtually all the Christian denominations now have national leadership calling for more foreign workers in the U.S. -- even though their members in the pews are suffering in a jobs depression. 

In this blog, I will list the types of Americans who are suffering the most under the immigration advocacy of these denominational leaders.

At the bottom, I will list the denominational leaders who favor more foreign workers over unemployed  Americans and over the legal immigrants already here.

DENOMINATIONAL LEADERS TALK OF LABOR SHORTAGES AMIDST 'U-6' UNEMPLOYMENT RATE OF 17%

Now -- except for the Southern Baptist Convention -- all the country's larger Mainline Protestant, Catholic and Evangelical denominations are endorsing huge new increases in permanent work permits for foreign workers. (Read my blog on the National Association of Evangelicals' latest dive into the pro-amnesty coalition.) 

A common thread in the arguments of all the denominational leaderships is that illegal immigration is caused because the feds are issuing TOO FEW work permits to foreign workers.   The recent level of new permanent and temporary work permits each month has been around 160,000!   Too low? 

Do we need 160, let alone 160,000 a month?

 Certainly not, based on  the federal "U-6 Unemployment Rate."   Accepted by progressives and conservatives alike as the best measure of suffering, the U-6 Unemployment Rate for everybody in the U.S. had risen to 17% by mid-summer! It counts not only those actively looking for a job but discouraged workers who have recently given up looking as well as people involuntarily forced into part-time work.
(All percentages in this blog are from government statistics the end of June. Most rates appear to have gotten worse since then.) ....

Concern Grows Over Threatened Terror Attack on Germany

from National Terror Alert

Concern over a possible al Qaeda terror attack in Germany is being fueled by buzz on a number of Jihadi web forums. Last week MEMRI reported that a message released on the Al-Falluja jihadist forum warned of an al Qaeda terror attack against Germany, to be carried out on an apparently ‘random’ Sunday during the month of October. Heading into another weekend, the increased chatter is obviously making many a bit nervous.

From CBS News
Jihadi Web forums have been abuzz with anticipation over the likelihood of an al Qaeda attack against Germany, with jihadi supporters speculating eagerly over potential targets, dates, timings, and even casualty numbers.

A blogger going by the name “Yaman Mokhaddab” posted what he claimed was “Western intelligence” giving 13 hints about the upcoming attacks, warning that they would be much worse than 9/11.

On the popular al-Fallojah forums, “Mohami al-Dawla” speculated Thursday about how many would be killed and the economic damage that would be inflicted. He speculated confidently that we are likely to witness the first WMD attack in the history of modern Jihad.

via Source.

Muslim engineer at European Organization for Nuclear Research "expressed a desire to carry out attacks"

from Jihad Watch

An engineer on a prestigious and high-profile project: another strike against the "poverty causes terrorism" claim. Which excuse will this guy trot out in court? More on this story. "Man held in France over 'Qaeda links' released: official," from Agence France-Presse, October 10 (thanks to all who sent this in):

The younger of two brothers arrested in France on suspicion of links to the Al-Qaeda militant network was released on Saturday without charge, a judicial official said.

The detention of the elder brother, a 32-year-old engineer at the CERN nuclear research lab, was extended, the source said.

He may be handed over by Monday to authorities in Paris who deal with anti-terrorist matters.

The younger brother, aged 25, was released late Saturday after being held for more than 48 hours. No charges were brought against him, the source said.

The elder brother, who worked at the European Organisation for Nuclear Research on the Franco-Swiss border just outside Geneva, had been planning to commit at least one attack, according to sources close to the case.

CERN has said the man arrested had been working with the high-profile Large Hadron Collider experiment, which aimed to investigate how the Universe formed after the "Big Bang".

Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux said Friday that investigators were trying to establish which targets in "France or elsewhere" the suspect was hoping to strike.

The pair was arrested in Vienne on Thursday, a town on the Rhone river some 100 kilometres (65 miles) southwest of the Alpine lab, by officers from France's security service acting on a warrant from an anti-terrorist magistrate.

According to officials, the engineer had made contact over the Internet with Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, a North African offshoot of Osama bin Laden's loosely organised global Islamist militant movement.

He had expressed a desire to carry out attacks, but had "not got to the stage of carrying out material acts of preparation", one said.

The two brothers, both French nationals, were transferred early Friday to the Hauts-de-Seine area, just outside Paris.

According to a report on the newspaper Le Figaro's website, the elder brother is a Frenchman of Algerian origin who had been the subject of a police inquiry for a year-and-a-half.

Judicial sources told AFP that investigators had come upon the pair while monitoring the Internet as part of a separate inquiry into the recruitment of would-be jihadists to send to Afghanistan as guerrillas.

CERN confirmed on Friday that a physicist working at the site had been arrested over alleged terrorist links but added that "his work did not bring him into contact with anything that could be used for terrorism".

Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb was born in 2007 when a largely Algerian militant group, the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, swore allegiance to Bin Laden and rebranded itself as his organisation's local franchise.

Intelligence officials consider it one of the most serious threats to France, which has a large North African population.

Hire Americans First!

by Patrick J. Buchanan

September's unemployment figures were not only disappointing -- they were grim. For the 21st straight month, Americans lost jobs. Fifteen million are out of work -- 5 million for more than six months.


But as The Washington Times asserts, "America's jobless crisis is much worse than the 9.8 percent unemployment rate."

The U.S. economy actually lost 785,000 jobs in September, which should have pushed the 9.7 percent August unemployment figure far higher than just 0.1 percent to 9.8 percent.
 
What kept the increase to 0.1 percent?



Over 800,000 people quit the labor force in September. They packed it in. They stopped looking for work. That is six times the number who quit looking in August and five times the monthly average of those who have given up the search for work in the year since Lehman Brothers died.

Adding to the near 15 million unemployed those who have given up looking for work and those who have taken low-paying part-time jobs, the Times estimates the true employment rate at 17 percent. We used to call that a depression.

Yet, with nearly 25 million Americans unemployed, or no longer looking for work, or in low-wage part-time jobs, 8.5 million U.S. jobs are believed to be held by illegal aliens who broke into the country or overstayed their visas.

Why is this not a matter of national outrage?

For every job opening in the country, there are six unemployed Americans. With this surplus of idle labor and shortage of jobs, the men who do the hiring are in the catbird's seat. They can cut wages in the knowledge that desperate Americans will have to accept what is offered.

Comes the rote response: Immigrants and illegal aliens only take jobs Americans do not want and will not do. But, last month, a front-page article in USA Today demolished that argument.

When a 2006 raid on six Swift & Co. meatpacking plants rounded up 1,200 illegal aliens, 10 percent of the workforce, Swift was up and running at full staff within months. How? Native-born Americans in the hundreds came out and took the jobs.

Video: Michelle Malkin vs. Lanny Davis on Obama’s indecision

Demand the Media "Tell the Truth!" About Government-Run Health Care

Senator Tom Carper on the Senate health care bill: "I don't expect to actually read  the legislative language."

(Analyst's note:  Troubling.)

by David Martin, Media Research Center

Stop the lies and half-truths in the liberal media …

Once again, the Obama administration has manufactured a “crisis” to justify another government power grab, and their friends in the media are doing everything they can to help.

From ABC’s “Prescription for America” town hall meeting that unabashedly attempted to peddle President Obama’s proposed government takeover of our personal health decisions, to subsequent glaring omissions and bias about the details of this plan and its true cost to all Americans, the liberal media are doing our nation a grave disservice by not reporting the truth on this life or death issue.

Your Immediate Help Needed!

To expose and combat the media’s effort, the Media Research Center has launched a national petition "Demanding The Media 'Tell The Truth!' About Government-Run Health Care." Even though polls indicate 84% of Americans are satisfied with their current health care, Obama is pushing hard to pass his plan before anyone has had time to read or understand it.

The MRC is moving just as quickly to rally 200,000 citizens who are raising their voices to hold the media accountable on health care—demanding to know the real truth and the real unintended consequences of the government’s proposed health care takeover.

Americans deserve the truth. We deserve a media that are committed to honesty and providing the information we need to make informed decisions. The only way to bring about this kind of change is for grassroots Americans to mobilize and demand the media tell the truth!

TAKE ACTION by signing our petition.

Thank you for taking immediate action with the MRC for truth in the media.

Muslim Demographics

(Analyst's note:  More than a little troubling.)

Obama Birth Certificate Lawsuit Trial Date Set

by Jacob5742 of AR

There are been several lawsuits filed in an attempt to get Dictator Obama to prove that he is a Natural Born Citizen - a Constitutional requirement to be President. Up until now they have all been dismissed before a trial date was even set because no one who had brought a lawsuit was found by the courts to have legal standing. Basically, the plaintiff must be able to prove that they are (or imminently will be) harmed to prove standing. Although I believe that all the citizens are being harmed by this man being in office the court has not seen it this way. Now, with a different combination of plaintiffs, including former Presidential candidate Alan Keyes standing appears to be within their grasp.

There is a lawsuit in the district court in California challenging the President's citizenship. A copy of a Kenyan Birth Certificate, proported to be Obama's, has been submitted to the court as evidence. Judge Carter has ruled that a trial on the merits is set to begin January 26, 2010. This is the first time in any of these lawsuits that a date has been set to hear the merits of the case. This is a major legal victory. Plaintiff's attorney is Dr. Orly Taitz.

There is another motion to dismiss set to be ruled upon on October 5th, along with discovery motions. If the motion to dismiss is denied we should see a trial in the new year. No wonder Obama is trying to hurry along the Universal Health Care vote. His time in office may be quite limited.

If Obama was born in the US and has nothing to hide then why is he wasting taxpayer money by having the Department of Justice defend him in these lawsuits instead of paying $12 for the long form birth certificate? It doesn't make sense.

Will you do whatever it takes to get Obama to present his real and Kenyan-related birth certificate so we can fix our country, including our checks and balances system that is broken in 2008?

Senate 2010: Most endangered seats

(Politico) The 2010 Senate landscape is almost evenly split down the middle: Republicans will be defending 18 seats, while the Democrats will be defending 19 seats ...

Tancredo questions illegals' 'sweetheart deals' 'How many times have ICE staff assisted in the obstruction of deportation laws?'

(Analyst's note:   Extremely troubling.  Only the American people can stop this growing corruption.)

from WorldNetDaily

A five-term congressman whose outspoken advocacy for secure national borders made him a target during his tenure in the U.S. House is charging that the government agency that is supposed to enforce the nation's immigration laws has been working to subvert them.

In a new column in WND today, former Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., cites what he calls the "persecution" of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement Agency Cory Voorhis, who was put on trial – and acquitted of charges – for revealing that Colorado

Gov. Bill Ritter, while a prosecutor, cut dozens, probably hundreds, of "sweetheart deals" for illegal immigrants.

"Voorhis went public in September 2006 with the facts about the plea bargaining practices of former Denver District Attorney Bill Ritter, who happened to also be a candidate for governor of Colorado," Tancredo wrote.

"During Ritter's tenure as Denver DA, 241 illegal aliens were given sweetheart deals for the explicit purpose of helping them minimize the risk of deportation. Some of them went on to commit other, more serious crimes, and when one of those cases was made public with Voorhis' help, he was targeted for criminal investigation at the behest of the Ritter for Governor campaign," Tancredo said. ....

2012 forecast: Food riots, ghost malls, mob rule, terror Trends chief says people should brace for 'the greatest depression'

(Analyst's note:  Read and draw you're own conclusions.  This is a must read and consider item).


By Bob Unruh


A trends forecaster says the current economic "rebound" from last winter's Wall Street collapse of banks, insurance companies and automobile manufacturers is an artificial blip created by 'phantom money printed out of thin air backed by nothing."

And Gerald Celente of TrendsResearch.com, says people right now should be bracing for "the greatest recession" which will hit worldwide and will mark the "decline of empire America." Crop failures could be among the minor concerns.

"Here we are in 2012. Food riots, tax protests, farmer rebellions, student revolts, squatter diggins, homeless uprisings, tent cities, ghost malls, general strikes, bossnappings, kidnappings, industrial saboteurs, gang warfare, mob rule, terror," he writes for a quarterly publication that is available through subscription on his website.

He also talked about his forecasts with Greg Corombos of Radio America/WND in an interview that has been posted online.

The recent surge in Wall Street indexes back to near the 10,000 level, still far below the 14,000 prior to the crash, should be no reassurance for anyone, he said.

"There's no recovery. This is merely a cover-up," he said. "The market crashed in March of 2009 and around the world they papered over the damage from the collapse with phantom money printed out of thin air backed by nothing," he said.

This is "much bigger" than an economic collapse, he said. "This is the decline of empire America."

Find out what you can do to be more prepared

"Look what's happened to the dollar," he warned. "Gold prices are surging forward. That's the evidence.

The rest that's coming from Washington and Wall Street is rhetoric."

"This is the beginning of the greatest depression. We're telling our readers to take pro-active measures in anticipation of much worse to come," he said.

USA Today says Celente "has a knack for getting the zeitgeist right," and CNBC says, "The man knows what he's talking about."

The Wall Street Jounral has said, "Those who take their predictions seriously … consider the Trends Research Institute."

He said during the Radio America/WND interview that retail sales this coming Christmas season will be the "real nail in the economic coffin."

"The second American revolution has already begun; it just hasn't been announced yet by the mainstream media," he said. "Anybody waiting for hope to show up at the door with a big bag full of money is going to be in for a shock."

Tim Barello in the Examiner noted that since 1980 Celente has made at least 40 accurate predictions about major world events, such as the 1987 stock market crash.

"Throughout the 1990's, many other forecasts came true, including the collapse of the Soviet Union, surges in global terrorism, the popularity of spiritual and new age philosophies, public backlash against globalization, upsurges in online shopping, and the 1997 Asian financial crisis, to name a select few," he wrote.

Now comes his forecast for a global depression and for the United States, "Obamageddon."

"We want to make it very clear that the policies leading to the decline of 'Empire America' have been long in the making," Celente told Barello. "What has happened in the Obama administration is that they have taken policies far beyond even what Bush took with the TARP program; for example, with his stimulus package, with the buyouts, with the bailouts, the rescue packages, these are unprecedented in American history.

"Never before has so much phantom money been printed out of thin air, backed by nothing, producing practically nothing," Celente continued. "You don't even have to be a student of history to know the outcome of this. All you have to do is have your eyes open, and start thinking for yourself."
In his conversation with the Examiner, Celente warned with the "bubble" bursts, U.S. taxpayers will be slammed because, unlike during the dot-com bubble, the stock market bubble and the real estate bubble, they are stockholders in a long list of major companies.

He forecasts the possibility of a civil war, and says if people want to see what Main Street America will look like, they should "drive around Detroit. Look at all the blown out houses and empty neighborhoods. Look at the violence that's increasing. … Look at the types of heinous crimes being committed by people – some blowing their whole families away…"

Iran: Israel's threats inexplicable

Iran's ambassador to UN demands Security Council take steps against comments made by Ephraim Sneh, who said Israel would attack Iran if sanctions weren't in place by Christmas ....

Muslim Congressman Ellison's trip to Mecca cost $13,350 -- paid for by the Muslim Brotherhood

(Analyst's note:  Absolutely must read.  More clear evidence of the Islamist jihadist enemy within our government.)

 

by Robert Spencer

$13,350 from the group that wants to destroy the West from within

As I noted last December, when it was first revealed that Ellison's Hajj was paid for by the Muslim American Society:

The Muslim Brotherhood "must understand that their work in America is a kind of grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and "sabotaging" its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and God's religion is made victorious over all other religions." -- "An Explanatory Memorandum on the General Strategic Goal for the Brotherhood in North America," by Mohamed Akram, May 19, 1991.

What does that have to do with Congressman Ellison? Everything. The Muslim American Society paid for his Hajj. And what is the Muslim American Society? The Muslim Brotherhood.

"In recent years, the U.S. Brotherhood operated under the name Muslim American Society, according to documents and interviews. One of the nation's major Islamic groups, it was incorporated in Illinois in 1993 after a contentious debate among Brotherhood members." -- Chicago Tribune, 2004.

Imagine if a conservative Congressman had taken a trip that had been paid for by a Christian group that was, according to one of its own documents, dedicated to "eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and 'sabotaging' its miserable house" so that Christian law would replace the U.S. Constitution. I expect we would hear more of an outcry than we are hearing about this.

But in this Star Tribune article, the controversy is all about the cost and Ellison's reporting. No one seems concerned about the nature of the Muslim American Society.

"Ellison reveals cost of trip to Mecca: $13.5K," by Kevin Diaz for the Star Tribune, October 8 (thanks to Paul):

WASHINGTON - After a months-long review by a U.S. House ethics panel, Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., has disclosed the amount of his privately-paid trip to Mecca in December.

The trip, paid for by the Muslim American Society of Minnesota, cost $13,350, Ellison said Thursday.

The two-week trip to Saudi Arabia, which Ellison described as a personal religious pilgrimage, or Hajj, prompted little discussion until June when Ellison filed financial travel reports that failed to disclose the amount the Muslim group had paid for his travel.

In releasing the amount on Thursday, Ellison held to his previous assertion that he was following the instructions of the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct, commonly known as the ethics committee.

"I never had a moral objection to giving the number out," said Ellison, the first Muslim elected to Congress. "But the rules said I didn't have to, so I didn't.  Now I am."...