Fallen Soldiers' Families Denied Cash as Insurers Profit | Bloomberg

The package arrived at Cindy Lohman’s home in Great Mills, Maryland, just two weeks after she learned that her son, Ryan, a 24-year-old Army sergeant, had been killed by a bomb in Afghanistan. It was a thick, 9-inch-by- 12-inch envelope from Prudential Financial Inc., which handles life insurance for the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Inside was a letter from Prudential about Ryan’s $400,000 policy. And there was something else, which looked like a checkbook. The letter told Lohman that the full amount of her payout would be placed in a convenient interest-bearing account, allowing her time to decide how to use the benefit.

“You can hold the money in the account for safekeeping for as long as you like,” the letter said. In tiny print, in a disclaimer that Lohman says she didn’t notice, Prudential disclosed that what it called its Alliance Account was not guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., Bloomberg Markets magazine reports in its September issue.

. . .

As time went on, she says, she tried to use one of the “checks” to buy a bed, and the salesman rejected it. That happened again this year, she says, when she went to a Target store to purchase a camera on Armed Forces Day, May 15.

. . .

It was being held in Prudential’s [non segregated] general corporate account, earning investment income for the insurer. Prudential paid survivors like Lohman 1 percent interest in 2008 on their Alliance Accounts, while it earned a 4.8 percent return on its corporate funds, according to regulatory filings.

“I’m shocked,” says Lohman, breaking into tears as she learns how the Alliance Account works. “It’s a betrayal. It saddens me as an American that a company would stoop so low as to make a profit on the death of a soldier. Is there anything lower than that?”

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This is a must see interview. I only agree with Democracy Now about half (maybe 2/3rds) the time, but this is well worth listening to.

http://www.democracynow.o...

Google, Inc. and the investment arm of the CIA are both backing a company called Recorded Future, that monitors the web in real time — and says it uses that information to predict the future.

The company scours websites, blogs and Twitter accounts to find the relationships between people, organizations, actions and incidents — both present and still-to-come. In a white paper, the company says its temporal analytics engine “goes beyond search” by “looking at the ‘invisible links’ between documents that talk about the same, or related, entities and events.”

Continue: http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/07/exclusive-google-cia/

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Schiff Locks Up Forbes Endorsement

MILFORD, CT - Steve Forbes, a staunch defender of the free-market and one-time Presidential candidate, today endorsed Peter Schiff's bid for U.S. Senate in Connecticut.

"I have known Peter Schiff for several years. He has a deep knowledge of finance and economics," said Steve Forbes. "He had long warned of the troubles we now face. As your citizen-Senator he will be a fierce fighter for cutting spending, cutting taxes and repealing Obamacare."

[...]

"Steve Forbes understands the massive strains the American economy is under, and to have his backing and trust means a great deal to me," said Peter Schiff. "We need to restore free-market principles, get government out of the way and put people back to work. Steve's understanding of my vision, coupled with his backing, will help me get to Washington to make sure we grow the economy, not the government."

Same speech two vids. Give em both a Bump on YouTube.

http://www.youtube.com/wa...

From CongressmanRonPaul on YouTube
Fair Sentencing Act Jul 28 2010
Floor speech in support of the Fair Sentencing Act

http://www.mcall.com/news/breaking/mc-pennsylvania-poker-fac...

Independent congressional candidate Jake Towne said Wednesday that the band Poker Face, which came under criticism from Lehigh Valley Congressman Charlie Dent who said the Anti-Defamation League labeled the group as anti-Semitic, will not play at Towne's benefit concert Friday.

The local Tea Party group on Wednesday also criticized Towne, who has supporters among the group, for inviting Poker Face to play at his benefit.

Poker Face, a local band, grabbed headlines over the weekend when incumbent Republican Dent raised the allegations about its anti-Semitic lyrics. Dent, a Republican, cited the band as one of the reasons why he didn't want to participate in any debates this fall that include Towne.

Continue:
http://www.mcall.com/news/breaking/mc-pennsylvania-poker-fac...

Jim Rickards is a frequent guest on King World News, and any interview is worth listening to. Today's, however, falls into the category of 'Must Listen.' Jim speaks with Eric King about the similarities between the fall of the Roman Empire and the American Empire from an economic perspective, in the context of the disintegration of complex societies.

Click here to listen to a mind expanding fifteen minutes:

Jim Rickards on King World News - Part I

Jim Rickards on King World News - Part II

Also check out Jim's piece on the site The Myths of August:

a non-scientific survey of many of the greatest man-made and other catastrophes of the past twenty years shows a disproportionate number of them occurring while the world is trying to enjoy a well-earned rest.

Read the whole thing here...

Here at this website - BoingBoing has a posting on Glen Beck....and his misleading scheme. (I dont know, just saw this out there)

http://www.boingboing.net/2010/07/28/glenn-becks-gold-inv.html

This is an old Technology and Pop Culture blog...so they have no reason to post political stuff.

Here is the direct link, from the Big Picture:
http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2010/07/glenn-beck-goldline/

I have no internet this summer where I'm living so that's partly why I've been away from the forums, so I'm doing this entirely at work. Screwed up on one minor thing near the end, but I just don't have the time at work to redo it. Make use of it how you guys want; I didn't see a video on the moneybomb site yet.

http://www.youtube.com/wa...

Pledge here: www.milliondollarmoneybomb.com

THURSDAY IS THE BIG DAY!

There is no shame in trying, and in giving it all you've got. That goes for every one of us here.

We're just warming up.

Thank you for your inspiration, from me, and all of us here at the Daily Paul.

Ron Paul: Why Do They Want To Kill Us? Because We Occupy Their Land!

http://www.youtube.com/wa...

Also Today From MoxNews:

Wake Up America! WikiLeaks Gave Us 92,000 Reasons To Leave Afghanistan PICK ONE! Dennis Kucinich

http://www.youtube.com/wa...

Dennis Kucinich & Ron Paul: Removal Of U.S. Forces From Pakistan Resolution

http://www.youtube.com/wa...

Ron Paul "We Give Them 2 Options! Do It Our Way Or We Bomb The Hell Out Of Them!"

http://www.youtube.com/wa...

Ron Paul: Osama Bin Laden & The Taliban Used To Be Our Best Friends!

http://www.youtube.com/wa...

Some came here because we wanted
To make rivers flow clean once again
To the oceans welcoming embrace

Planet with abused humans and animals
Part of the body of the Creator
Some call it the lowest heaven
Others name it as hell

Some came here because we cried many tears
Up above you we see what you see

Some came here because it is time
Lion will sleep with a lamb in peace

Of all songs you can sing
One does not need a word
It is a vibration of light

Our hearts shine as lanterns for many
This light within our words will stop wars

http://www.youtube.com/wa...

Vote up in REDDIT!

http://www.reddit.com/r/L...

Pledge your support for Thursday's Money Bomb: www.milliondollarmoneybomb.com

By Angelo M. Codevilla

As over-leveraged investment houses began to fail in September 2008, the leaders of the Republican and Democratic parties, of major corporations, and opinion leaders stretching from the National Review magazine (and the Wall Street Journal) on the right to the Nation magazine on the left, agreed that spending some $700 billion to buy the investors' "toxic assets" was the only alternative to the U.S. economy's "systemic collapse." In this, President George W. Bush and his would-be Republican successor John McCain agreed with the Democratic candidate, Barack Obama. Many, if not most, people around them also agreed upon the eventual commitment of some 10 trillion nonexistent dollars in ways unprecedented in America. They explained neither the difference between the assets' nominal and real values, nor precisely why letting the market find the latter would collapse America. The public objected immediately, by margins of three or four to one.

When this majority discovered that virtually no one in a position of power in either party or with a national voice would take their objections seriously, that decisions about their money were being made in bipartisan backroom deals with interested parties, and that the laws on these matters were being voted by people who had not read them, the term "political class" came into use. Then, after those in power changed their plans from buying toxic assets to buying up equity in banks and major industries but refused to explain why, when they reasserted their right to decide ad hoc on these and so many other matters, supposing them to be beyond the general public's understanding, the American people started referring to those in and around government as the "ruling class." And in fact Republican and Democratic office holders and their retinues show a similar presumption to dominate and fewer differences in tastes, habits, opinions, and sources of income among one another than between both and the rest of the country. They think, look, and act as a class.

Thanks to Trevor Lyman for tipping me off to this story, which comes from the Prospect Journal via Break the Matrix. I wasn't previously aware of the USDA Federal Subsidies-NAFTA-Illegal immigration connection.

Since the 1994 implementation of NAFTA, massive rural to urban migration took place within Mexico as agrarian farmers moved to metropolitan centers. This tri-lateral free-trade agreement between the Canada, the United States and Mexico was unprecedented, particularly the relationship between the United States and Mexico, as states with such drastically different levels of development merged their economies. This paper will examine which factors are responsible for this massive internal migration within Mexico following the integration of the North American economies. There are two highly divergent explanations for the Mexican migration and subsequent urbanization that followed the signing of NAFTA, which I will detail in the literature review. The determination of the culpable factors for this migratory flow is crucial because the accepted interpretation will significantly influence how states will approach free-trade agreements and their inclusion of rules pertaining to the trade of agricultural commodities in the future. This study is particularly pertinent as the looming Panama and Colombia free trade agreements, modeled after NAFTA, are currently being debated by the United States Congress.

The paper’s underlying hypothesis is that American corn subsidies, which led to the flooding of Mexican markets with American corn following the signing of NAFTA, is the primary factor responsible for the post-1994 internal displacement of rural farmers in Mexico. The trade agreement effectively eliminated all trade barriers and placed Mexico’s domestically produced corn in direct competition with highly subsidized corn imported from the United States. Consequently, Mexican corn farmers, who comprise the majority of the country’s agricultural sector, experienced drastic declines in the domestic price of their product and thus faced increasing difficulties to attain a sustainable living. Hence, we observe high levels of migration into Mexico’s cities in the latter half of the 1990’s, and the beginning of the 21st century, as these displaced farmers abandoned their previous livelihood in search of employment.

Accordingly, this report investigates the relationship between American corn subsidies and rural to urban migration in Mexico. Specifically, the study will evaluate the migratory population shifts in Mexico and American agricultural subsidies with respect to data on quantities of U.S. crop exports to Mexico, measures of Mexican internal crop production, levels of domestic crop prices, and rates of agricultural employment. To discern the specific impact of American corn subsidies, trends in the statistics delineated above regarding corn will be juxtaposed with avocado produce, which is contrastingly not subsidized by the American government. To preview this paper’s findings, it is evident that the subsidization of American corn drastically lowers both the price of corn and levels of employment in the agricultural sector, triggering the out-migration of rural corn farmers to Mexico’s cities. This report will commence with a literature review that situates the study’s research in context of the historical discourse between proponents of free-trade deals and critics that call for the responsible regulation of trade expansion. Next, it will describe the rationale that guides the hypothesized relationship between federal subsidies for American corn and Mexican internal displacement and further explicate methods of statistical measurement. Lastly, the paper will detail the research findings and propose additional issues for future research.

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http://www.youtube.com/wa...