Forgetting The True Purpose of Serving The American People.

"Many conspiracy theories can best be refuted by simply recognizing the complacency and incompetence of an organization/government ran by arrogant and hedonistic individuals... Sometimes major organizations fail big because they didn't care enough to take initiative regarding the warnings prior to the incident (housing crises). Sometimes governments fail because they cared more about what the people wanted, instead of considering what would be best for the people in the near future, and what would save lives (911)."

                                                                                                                             ~Nicholas Moore~

                                

A new study finds that an alarming number of homeowners — 800,000 — would not have faced foreclosure had the banks taken full advantage of the government's Home Affordable Modification Program to assist distressed mortgage-holders following the financial meltdown. The study, conducted by a group of scholars and government officials and coming to us via ProPublica, found that while some banks were well-staffed and trained to modify mortgages, most were not. The program gives eligible home owners a way to alter the terms of their mortgage — lower interest rates, longer repayment periods, or even the principal — so that they can lower their monthly payments. It was targeted at the sub-prime mortgages where often payments increased radically after a "teaser" period with a low interest rate. When the mortgage market collapsed, homeowners could not refinance, and the borrowers faced monthly payments they could not afford, leading the banks to foreclose. The theory behind HAMP was that it would be better for the financial system if those people paid their debts more slowly rather than not at all. But in the end, HAMP has resulted in the modification of just 1.2 million home loans, well short of the 3 to 4 million modification goal set by President Obama. ProPublica's Paul Kiel writes of the new study:

What they found was that certain banks were far better at modifying loans than others. The reasons for the difference, they established, were pretty predictable: The banks that were better at helping homeowners avoid foreclosure had staff who were both more numerous and better trained.

Unfortunately for homeowners, most mortgages are handled by banks that haven't been properly staffed and thus have modified far fewer loans. If these worse-performing banks had simply modified loans at the same pace as their better performing peers, then HAMP would have produced about 800,000 more modifications. Instead of about 1.2 million modifications by the end of this year, HAMP would have resulted in about 2 million.

Now, of course, 2 million wouldn't have met Obama's goal either. But Kiel argues that the failure of HAMP to prevent foreclosures after home values plummeted is part of the reason that "in the sixth year of the foreclosure crisis, the country remains saddled with an extraordinarily high number of loans in foreclosure — about 2 million. That backlog hasn't improved much in the last couple years, meaning it's still hard to forecast when the foreclosure rate will return to a normal level."

By Esther Zuckerman | The Atlantic Wire

http://news.yahoo.com/800-000-americans-could-avoided-foreclosure-213401800.html

Wealthiest Americans Have 288 Times Net Worth of Typical Family.

                              How Can Something Not be Wrong with The Present System?

 

 

 

 The wealth gap between the richest Americans and the typical family more than doubled over the past 50 years.In 1962, the top 1% had 125 times the net worth of the median household. That shot up to 288 times by 2010, according to a new report by the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute.That trend is happening for two reasons: Not only are the rich getting richer, but the middle class is also getting poorer.

Most Americans below the upper echelon have suffered a decline in wealth in recent decades. The median household saw its net worth drop to $57,000 in 2010, down from $73,000 in 1983. It would have been $119,000 had wealth grown equally across households.

The top 1%, on the other hand, saw their average wealth grow to $16.4 million, up from $9.6 million in 1983. This is due in large part to the growing income inequality divide, as well as the sharp rise in value of stocks over the period.Net worth counts all assets including real estate holdings, minus debts."

The distribution of wealth is way more unequal than the super-unequal distribution of income and wages," said Heidi Shierholz, an economist with the institute.The biannual report, entitled The State of Working America, looks at the changes in income, jobs, mobility, poverty, wealth and other areas in recent decades, as well as during the Great Recession.


  The effects of the Great Recession


 While the wealth and income gaps have been expanding for decades, the report shows that the trend was accelerated during the Great Recession. Median family income was 6% lower in 2010 than a decade earlier.

As for wealth, while the housing bust and the spike in unemployment hurt people at all levels of the spectrum, it affected middle-class and lower-income Americans to a greater degree.
The average wealth of the top 1% dropped just 15.6% between 2007 and 2010, while the median net worth of American households sank 47.1% That large decline in median wealth is largely responsible for driving the gap to such heights

.Homeowners at the bottom of the wealth distribution were, on average, underwater, meaning they had no equity in their homes because their mortgages were more than the property's value.The Great Recession hit black and Latino households particularly hard. It wiped out half the wealth of a typical black household, leaving them with a median net worth of $4,900. And the median wealth of Latino families plummeted 86.3% to $1,300.

This compares to $97,000 for white households.Part of the reason for the eye-popping statistics is because blacks and Latinos had a relatively small amount of net worth so the drop is larger in percentage terms. Also, their homeownership rates grew faster than whites' during the housing boom, but fell further when it collapsed.The typical black and Latino households don't own any stocks, and the typical black family has no home equity.

Overall, the widening of the wealth gap in recent decades is due to two things, Shierholz said. The increase in income inequality means the wealthy have more to save and invest every year. Furthermore, the growth of Wall Street means that the rich, who are much more likely to own stocks, accumulated wealth even faster.

"The growth in wealth we did see got funneled to the top and it didn't spur faster growth in the middle," Shierholz said.


 By Tami Luhby | CNNMoney.com

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/wealthiest-americans-288-times-net-093200831.html

Documents Disclose 9/11 Warnings. Seriously, is this a revelation to most?

                           

 

Documents show the U.S. was given more warnings about potential terrorist attacks in the weeks leading up to 9/11, writes Vanity Fair contributing editor Kurt Eichenwald in a New York Times op-ed.

 

The documents predate the presidential daily briefing on Aug. 6, 2001, which said, “Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.”

“The administration’s reaction to what Mr. Bush was told in the weeks before that infamous briefing reflected significantly more negligence than has been disclosed,” he wrote. “In other words, the Aug. 6 document, for all of the controversy it provoked, is not nearly as shocking as the briefs that came before it.”

The direct warnings to Bush, he writes, date back to the spring of 2001. On May 1, the CIA told the White House that there was “a group presently in the United States” that was planning an attack. On June 22, a daily briefing described the attack as "imminent." Administration officials, however, dismissed the warnings, saying that Osama bin Laden was merely feigning an attack to distract the U.S. from efforts against Saddam Hussein in Iraq.

“Intelligence officials, these sources said, protested that the idea of Bin Laden, an Islamic fundamentalist, conspiring with Mr. Hussein, an Iraqi secularist, was ridiculous, but the neoconservatives’ suspicions were nevertheless carrying the day,” Eichenwald wrote. “In response, the CIA prepared an analysis that all but pleaded with the White House to accept that the danger from Bin Laden was real.”

Briefings on June 29, July 1, and July 24 carried similar warnings. On July 9, Eichenwald writes, one official suggested staff members of the CIA Counterterrorism Center “put in for a transfer so that somebody else would be responsible when the attack took place.”

“[The Bush administration] got this information and they weren't looking at it in the context of here's this huge threat that's developed,” Eichenwald said on MSNBC’s Morning Joe. “Look at what the Pentagon said, ‘What's the nation state that's backing them? Oh, we think it's Iraq.’ And so, it was a frame of mind that was not unreasonable for them to have because they hadn't been getting the intelligence until very recently about the evolution and change of al-Qaida.”

Eichenwald, however, was criticized by former New York Gov. George Pataki, a Republican, for writing the piece.

“I think this is incredibly unfortunate,” he said on Morning Joe, adding that, "I think is incredibly unfair and a disservice to history.”

Eichenwald wrote a book, “500 Days: Secrets and Lies in the Terror Wars,” describing the intelligence briefings and actions taken by the Bush administration before and after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

By Matt Vasilogambros | National Journal

http://news.yahoo.com/report-documents-disclose-9-11-warnings-081156564--politics.html

Yemen Says Key Al-Qaeda Chief Said Al-Shihri Killed

                                           

 

 

Said al-Shihri, described as the second-in-command of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), has been killed in an operation in southern Yemen, government officials say.

Al-Shihri was reportedly killed with six others in the Hadramawt area.

Some reports say Yemeni troops were involved, others that it was an air strike, possibly a US drone attack.

Al-Shihri, a Saudi national, was released by the US from detention in Guantanamo Bay in 2007.

Yemen has previously announced it had killed al-Shihri and his death this time has not been confirmed.

The Yemeni army has been fighting Islamist militants in the south of the country for months.


Drone attack?

The Yemeni ministry of defence website said al-Shihri was killed along with six other militants in an operation, but gave few details.

Official sources in Yemen told the BBC the death occurred in an air raid in the Wadi Ain area of Hadramawt.

Military sources, however, said they had no information on the death and refused to confirm it. But the sources did confirm the area was subject to air raids.

---

It is not the first time that Said al-Shihri has been reported killed, but if confirmed it would be an important scalp for the Yemeni government in its US-backed campaign against al-Qaeda.

Since Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi became president in February, that fight has intensified - with major gains made in driving al-Qaeda and Islamic extremists linked to the group out of towns they had seized in southern Yemen.

Al-Shihri himself is a well-known figure. He was detained in Guantanamo Bay for many years after being captured in fighting in Afghanistan. But he was released back to his native Saudi Arabia in 2007. He went through a Saudi rehabilitation programme for Islamic militants.

But his decision two years later to go to Yemen to join al-Qaeda's jihadist fight raised questions in the US about the risks of releasing prisoners from Guantanamo back to their home countries. Since then, al-Shihri is reported to have been involved in the kidnapping of foreigners in Yemen.

Separate Yemeni sources said another Saudi and an Iraqi national were among the other people killed in the operation, which took place last Wednesday.

Yemeni defence ministry officials told Associated Press that the militants killed were travelling in a car and that it was hit by a missile believed to have been fired by a US drone, although this has not been confirmed.

Other reports say the operation was carried out by the Yemeni military.

US cables released by the Wikileaks website last December suggested that Yemen had allowed secret US air strikes against suspected al-Qaeda militants.

Then-President Ali Abdullah Saleh claimed the raids were conducted by Yemen's military when they were in fact carried out by the US, according to the cables.

AP quoted a senior official at President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi's office as saying that DNA tests had not yet confirmed al-Shihri's identity.

Al-Shihri was said to have escaped a US drone attack on 20 September last year on the village of al-Mahfad in Abyan province.

He was released from Guantanamo Bay in 2007 and had been sent to Saudi Arabia for rehabilitation.

The US has labelled AQAP the most dangerous branch of al-Qaeda.

Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula

• Formed in January 2009 by a merger between al-Qaeda in Saudi Arabia and Yemen
• Based in eastern Yemen
• Led by Nasser al-Wuhayshi, a Yemeni former aide to Osama Bin Laden
• Aims to topple Saudi monarchy and Yemeni government, and establish an Islamic caliphate
• Came to prominence with Riyadh bombings in 2003, and 2008 attack on US embassy in Sanaa
• Says it was behind an attempt to blow up US passenger jet in December 2009

AQAP was formed in January 2009 by a merger between two regional offshoots of the international Islamist militant network in Yemen and Saudi Arabia.

It is now led by Nasser Abdul Karim al-Wuhayshi, a former personal assistant to Osama Bin Laden in Afghanistan.

Al-Wuhayshi took over after two earlier leaders, Khaled Ali Hajj and Abdul Aziz al-Muqrin, were killed by Saudi security forces.

The group has claimed responsibility for a number of attacks and has been blamed by US President Barack Obama for attempting to blow up a US passenger jet as it flew into Detroit in December 2009.

In October 2010, the group was accused of sending bombs hidden in two packages addressed to synagogues in the US city of Chicago which were found on planes in Dubai and the UK.

Southern Yemen has been the scene of major clashes between militants and government forces.

The militants took advantage of the uprising that ousted President Saleh in February to take control of large parts of the area.

Sebastian Usher BBC Arab affairs analyst

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-19547768

Afghan Actress' Murder Forces Others Into Hiding

                       



On Aug. 20, sisters Areza and Tamana and their friend Benafsha were minutes away from moving out of their conservative Kabul neighborhood when the neighbors attacked.

The three women tried to flee, the Guardian reports, and while the sisters succeeded, Benefsha was not so lucky; the 22-year-old actress was stabbed to death on the steps of a mosque.

According to Russia Today, Benafsha had been threatened before as some considered the roles she played to be against Islamic values.

All three of the girls were used to "taunts, threats" and criticism of their outfits, the Guardian writes. But still, said Areza, they weren't expecting the mob.

The police made some arrests, but it weren't the knife-wielding neighbors who were taken into custody. Instead, after a few hours in the hospital, Areza and Tamana were arrested for "moral crimes," subjected to intrusive "virginity tests" and learned they might face years in prison, according to the Guardian.

Benafsha's violent death has had a chilling effect on other Afghan actresses, the Khaama Press reports.

After the murder, Sahar Parniyan, a prominent Afghan actress and colleague of Benefsha and Areza, said she began receiving threats, Russia Today writes. Parniyan, in fear for her life, called the Kabul police and reported the death threats, but her fears were met with contempt and neglect, KabulPress reports.

Parniyan has since abandoned her home and now conceals her address. She has, however, declared her intent to write an open letter to the Ministry of the Interior, condemning Benefsha's killing and Areza and Tamana's arrests and demanding the government take seriously the job of protecting women in the public sphere, Kabul Press adds.

But Afghan police and prosecutors maintain that Benefsha's murder and the attack on the sisters had nothing to do with their profession.

"The result of our investigation is that she was not killed because they work in television, the six people who killed her were threatening the group one or two days before with the aim of getting them to agree to illegal relations," Ghulam Dastegi Hedayat, the women's prosecutor, told the Guardian on Thursday.

The attacks come at the end of a summer that also saw the death of Hanifa Safi, head of women's affairs in Laghman Province, a woman "known locally for going out without her head covered," according to the BBC.


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/07/afghan-actress-murder-for_n_1865329.html

Pakistan Christian Girl Accused of Blasphemy Released

     

 

On Friday a judge ordered her release and set bail at about $10,500 (£6,200).

The girl, thought to be 14 years old but with a younger mental age, was arrested last month after a mob accused her of burning pages of the Koran.

Last week an imam was remanded in custody, accused of planting burned pages of the Koran in the girl's bag.

The case against the girl, known as Rishma, has sparked international alarm and has been condemned by human rights groups.

Blasphemy is not a bailable offence but her lawyers pleaded that she was a juvenile.


Met family

The girl's lawyer said she had been released after two guarantors posted a bond against assurances that she would reappear in court, the AFP news agency said.

Pakistan's minister for national harmony said the girl was transported by helicopter to a safe location where she was met by her family.

Her father had previously said he feared for his daughter's life and for the safety of his family.

Rimsha's parents were taken into protective custody at an undisclosed location following threats. Many other Christian families fled the neighbourhood after her arrest.

Rights activists have long urged Pakistan to reform its blasphemy laws, under which a person can be jailed for life for desecrating the Koran.

In March 2011 Shahbaz Bhatti, the minister for minority affairs, was killed after calling for the repeal of the blasphemy law.

His death came just two months after the murder of Punjab Governor Salman Taseer, who also spoke out about the issue.

Blasphemy is a highly sensitive issue in Pakistan, where 97% of the population are Muslim.

In the past accusations of blasphemy have led to vigilante killings by mobs.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-19530813

US to Designate Haqqani Network As Terror Group

                                      


The US is to designate the Pakistan-based militant Haqqani network as a terrorist organisation, subjecting it to sanctions.


US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she had sent a report to Congress saying the network met the criteria as a terror group.

She said the US would continue "diplomatic, military and intelligence pressure on the network".

The US has long described the Haqqani group as a major threat.

The network - which has links to al-Qaeda and the Taliban - has carried out a series of high-profile attacks against foreign troops in Afghanistan.

The designation will ban companies and individuals in the US from supporting the group and freeze any US assets it may have.

State department officials said the formal designation would be made in the coming days.

"Today, I have sent a report to Congress saying that the Haqqani network meets the statutory criteria of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) for designation as a Foreign Terrorist Organisation (FTO)," said Mrs Clinton, who is currently attending an Apec (Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation) summit in Vladivostok, Russia.

"We also continue our robust campaign of diplomatic, military and intelligence pressure on the network, demonstrating the United States's resolve to degrade the organisation's ability to execute violent attacks."

Mrs Clinton added that she was taking the action "in the context of our overall strategy in Afghanistan" following policy laid out by US President Barack Obama when he visited Afghanistan in May.

The Pentagon said the Haqqani network "represents a significant threat to US national security and we will continue our aggressive military action against this threat".

"These new group designations will build on our efforts to degrade the network's capacity to carry out attacks, including affecting fundraising abilities, targeting them with our military and intelligence resources, and pressing Pakistan to take action," said George Little, the acting Assistant Secretary of Defence for Public Affairs.


Hostage fears

In response to the US move, senior commanders of the Haqqani network told Reuters news agency that the decision showed the US was not sincere about peace efforts in Afghanistan.

They also said the move would "bring hardship" for US army sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, 25, who has been held prisoner for more than three years.

The Haqqanis also hold numerous Western, Pakistani and Afghan hostages as well as kidnap-for-ransom victims.

The US has been putting pressure on Pakistan to launch a ground offensive in North Waziristan, where the Haqqanis are based, but Pakistan is reluctant.

The BBC's Jill McGivering says that any such offensive would probably be focused on disrupting the Pakistani Taliban - an internal threat - and not on attacking the Haqqanis, whose battleground is Afghanistan.

The US fears that Islamabad sees the Haqqanis as potential allies after Nato's withdrawal from Afghanistan, she says.

Last year, US Admiral Mike Mullen, former head of the US military, said the Haqqani network had become a "veritable arm" of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency.

Analysts say this prompted suggestions that a designation against the Haqqanis would indirectly be branding Pakistan a terrorist state.

In Washington, the White House has also been under political pressure from Congress to add the Haqqanis to the country's terrorist blacklist.

Congress had set Mrs Clinton a deadline of this weekend to deliver her report.

Meanwhile, the US has been disrupting the group, targeting leaders in drone attacks.

Last month, an air strike in North Waziristan was reported to have killed a key Haqqani commander, Badruddin Haqqani.

He had been described as a senior operational commander, masterminding and directing attacks on high-profile targets.

Correspondents say he was also responsible for training camps and for extorting funds from contractors.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-19521773

Top Haqqani network militant 'killed in Pakistan'

                                                      

 

 

A key commander in the Pakistan-based militant Haqqani network has been killed in a US drone strike, according to a family member and local sources.

Badruddin Haqqani died last Tuesday in North Waziristan, a relative said.

The death has not been confirmed by US or Pakistani officials.

The Haqqani network has carried out high-profile attacks against foreign troops in Afghanistan. If confirmed, the death would be a major victory for US forces, correspondents say.

In a separate development, Nato air strikes killed a regional commander of the Pakistani Taliban on Friday inside Afghanistan, officials said.

Mullah Dadullah was killed along with a dozen of his fighters in Afghanistan's eastern Kunar province. He had taken over as leader of the Taliban in Pakistan's Bajaur tribal area earlier this year.

                                                    

'Haven'


Badruddin Haqqani has been described as a senior operational commander with the Haqqani network - masterminding and directing ambitious attacks on high-profile targets.

He was also responsible for training camps, and for extorting funds from contractors, the BBC's Orla Guerin in Islamabad says.

Tribesmen in North Waziristan and sources in the local administration told the BBC he is now dead and buried.

Local sources also told the BBC that his replacement had already been named. But experts think the death would affect operations by the Haqqani network, our correspondent says.

North Waziristan - where the group is based - is seen as a haven for Taliban and al-Qaeda militants.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-19378474
 

Legatum by L.L Brunk

http://www.amazon.com/Legatum-L-Brunk/dp/1616671408

Excruciating pain is something Nicholas must daily endure while resisting his desires, through constant exercise of self control. The suffering he could cause others would be substantially worse if he were to ever lose his tenacity to resist. His temptations have grown significantly worse after an encounter with a starved and obsessed Succubus named Delilah. Nicholas has now become her most sought after conquest; and she will not cease her intent in capturing his heart and devotion. Nicholas embarks on a journey, ignited by what he feels is the necessity to flee from Delilah's grasp, in his fear for the safety of others. He discovers an unusual world during his journey, far stranger than he could have ever imagined. A world where the unanswered questions he's always longed for, start to unveil more than just who and what he really is. Nicholas is no longer a day dreaming child full of delusions, but he is a man embarking on his own Odyssey and ready to discover his purpose. He wasn't just simply running away as far as he could from Delilah, the truth was far more complicated. He sees the opportunity to get to what he believed to be the source of all his suffering, the place where the story of what he was began; The Cradle of Life. You are invited to take a journey into this literary world that will steadily become clearer to you the deeper you dive, and if you pay attention you'll discover answers to some of the philosophical questions we have in our own world today.

Between Shadow & Light (Revised & Expanded Edition)

The Amazon Kindle Edition of "Between Shadow & Light" is now available for only a $1.99.

"A fictional tale about the Devil’s justification for his hatred towards Mankind, and his anger towards God. The Devil is the protagonist of the story. He is the one we are trying to understand, we’re hearing his side, and in a sense he’s the hero for his cause. The story is a rational view on why there is love and hate, and the answer to the Devil’s true purpose is revealed."



http://www.amazon.com/Between-Revised-Expanded-Edition-ebook/dp/B0093044DW/ref=dp_kinw_strp_1