Would you like to know how many people have visited this page? Or how reputable the author is? Simply
sign up for a Advocate premium membership and you'll automatically see this data on every article. Plus a lot more, too.
(9 comments) SHARE Sunday, May 3, 2009 One flu over the cuckoo's nest, or: Whatever happened to context and analysis in the news?
When it comes to reporting the "swine flu" epidemic, we confuse quantity of reporting on "news" with quality reporting and until we learn to tell the difference "they" will continue to manipulate us with scaremongering tactics and distraction. We have seen the enemy and the enemy is us.
SHARE Tuesday, April 28, 2009 Specter Gives Up the Ghost on the Republican Party
Senator Specter's change of parties may well be the breath of fresh air both parties need, but it still isn't going to be all sweetness and light.
(2 comments) SHARE Saturday, February 28, 2009 Tanking Economy Generating Worldwide Violence, Drug Abuse
Around the world, law enforcement officials and sociologists are closely watching the current economy-driven rise in crime. Domestic violence, robbery, theft and murder are rising, as people fail to cope with job loss, repossession and uncertainty.
(1 comments) SHARE Thursday, February 19, 2009 Welcome to Bailout 2.0: Are We Still Looking at Financial Catastrophe?
If the banks really have no clue as to what their exposure is; if they don't know exactly how many bad debts they hold, how can we even contemplate bailing them out, when we don't know what we are bailing them out of, what the bill is, or if we have the money to effect a realistic bailout?
(14 comments) SHARE Saturday, February 14, 2009 Birth of a Financial Engineer: Who Creates Weapons of Financial Destruction?
With some of these exotic derivatives, computer models generate the only valuation that exists. No "real world" value exists, because, these products are valued on the fly, and some haven't been valued, even though they are part of "credit default swaps" which have been bundled and sold worldwide. Who puts a value on these financial instruments?
(1 comments) SHARE Sunday, February 8, 2009 Are Food Processors Gaming the System with Lab Shopping?
We need to open our eyes and look at our real vulnerabilities. One careless or directed Typhoid Mary in our food production industry is just as dangerous as the terrorist that our "shoe police" are trying to keep out of the country. Congress needs to put teeth, personnel and passion into our food safety network.
(1 comments) SHARE Saturday, February 7, 2009 Is SEC ideology or structure at the root of the regulation fiasco?
The catastrophic meltdown that we are currently experiencing was fueled by crony capitalism in Congress, the banks, brokerage houses and regulatory agencies. Congress lit the match and the whole thing went up in flames, which now threatens economies worldwide. The question of the day is: what's going to be left when the fire burns out?
(9 comments) SHARE Monday, February 2, 2009 Europe riots, food prices rise and jobs disappear: what's next for the US?
Europe is already seeing unrest, and many European leaders are worried about the fallout from the high energy prices and skyrocketing food prices. France's Minister of Finance said as much to the BBC, noting that the world's leadership needs to send a reassuring message to their citizens.
(5 comments) SHARE Tuesday, January 27, 2009 The Looming Food Crisis
If Food Stamps, soup kitchens and food pantries are inadequate to provide food security to the nation's poor, unemployed and destitute, then we must come up with another model for food security.
SHARE Friday, January 23, 2009 Fiscal tsunami swamps economy: Green Light for "Green Economy"
Six months ago, many of the businesses and homeowners who are now sinking like a rock were creditworthy. Now, with Fortune 500 companies going down for the third time, they are taking Main Street, Wall Street and Electric Avenue with them.
(3 comments) SHARE Sunday, December 28, 2008 Regulators backdate records: What are the real numbers of the bank bailout?
A bank regulator allegedly allowed a bank to backdate information, resulting in the loss of nearly nine BILLION dollars, when the government finally assumed control. What good are regulations if the regulators are in bed with the regulated?
SHARE Tuesday, December 23, 2008 How Much of the Nation's Assets Will the Next Generation be Able to Claim?
Today, we cannot afford to depend solely on one person, company or institution for our livelihood, investments and safety. It is incumbent on us to make sure that the foxes are not in charge of protecting the hen house.
SHARE Sunday, November 23, 2008 There's much to do: let's start saving lives our ownselves
If ten people donated their month's latte or snack budget to an energy assistance agency, we could keep somebody's lights on, put some fuel in their oil tank, and, perhaps, save a few people from freezing to death.
SHARE Friday, November 14, 2008 New Shoes on Old Debt-Current economic woes have 1980's roots
Debt, debt service, and debt manipulation have often been used as political tools and economic warfare. Even now, foreclosure-generated land and wealth redistribution has the potential to restructure economies and political systems worldwide.
(1 comments) SHARE Tuesday, October 21, 2008 Breaking ranks in Bushland-insiders bailing out on Lame Duck, Inc
No one knows how much economic damage we will sustain in 2009, but one thing is for certain. We are nowhere near being prepared to ride out the storm. Some of us will drown.
SHARE Tuesday, October 21, 2008 Breaking ranks in Bushland-officials publically disagreeing on policy
As Congress wimped out and sailed into pirate waters with the latest financial Trojan horse, economic terrorists have finally unleashed a weapon of economic distraction worthy of Machiavelli at his finest. Our Mayberry Machiavellis are doing their very best to walk off with the store, while the nation's bank regulators dance around this bonfire and pay homage to the gods of financial chaos.
(7 comments) SHARE Wednesday, September 17, 2008 Political profiting from disaster capitalism: Campaign 08
Today's political candidates are trying to out do each other on how tough they would get on the financial industry, but the fact remains: anything "to be done" is merely closing the barn door after the fat cats have made out like bandits.
(3 comments) SHARE Monday, September 8, 2008 Heating, eating or sleeping: pick one
This is the beginning of an American fiscal revolution. Life as our parents knew it may well be beyond future generations for some time to come. Simply put, what was once a burgeoning real estate market, with couples purchasing "McMansions" and single men and women investing in condos and luxury living may well be fiction for future generations.
(4 comments) SHARE Thursday, May 15, 2008 Signed, sealed and delivered: the enemy within is alive and well
In a time, which may well be one of the pivotal epochs in human history, we are sitting on our collective behinds, applauding Nero as he fiddles the nation into destruction.
SHARE Sunday, February 17, 2008 For all of the talk, we know nothing of true 'free markets'-and what we know should be a caution
Now we are facing a historic transfer of wealth, as millions of property owners face foreclosure, eviction and possible homelessness. Many attribute the current mortgage crisis to deregulation, criminal conspiracy and a massive lack of financial literacy among the nation's homebuyers
(3 comments) SHARE Friday, January 25, 2008 Language obsession riles writers and fuels social engineering
Today, thousands of languages are no longer part of living memory. Many ethnic groups, most notably several Native American tribes, are seeing the last living native speakers of hundreds of languages slowly die out, taking their rich linguistic heritages to the grave with them.
(1 comments) SHARE Tuesday, January 1, 2008 2008--The Year They Killed the Golden Goose
The cost of the war, the risky derivative-based housing investments, and the weaker dollar are creating a perfect storm of financial catastrophe here and abroad. We have been playing Russian roulette with the economy and the bullet's now in the chamber. The piper will have his due-who's going to pay him, and in what currency?
(1 comments) SHARE Saturday, December 29, 2007 What's Race Got to do with It?
Across the board, from auto loans to mortgages and credit card interest rates, black consumers, along with Hispanic borrowers often are targeted for expensive, high risk loans, lesser medical care and consumer credit fraud.
(1 comments) SHARE Monday, December 17, 2007 Foreclosure, fraud and third world living-In the United States
All over the country, "Home, Sweet Home" isn't sweet any more. Through no fault of their own, thousands of people who live in apartments that are being foreclosed on, are left out in the cold. Although many have paid timely rents, owners, property managers and others have managed to keep from paying the mortgage on their property, sending apartments around the nation into foreclosure.
SHARE Tuesday, December 4, 2007 More single women buying homes-and becoming targets for real estate thieves
There are thousands of desperate single mothers out there, desperate to create a better life for themselves and their families, desperate to stop enriching greedy landlords, desperate to hold a piece of the American Dream for their own. And, in their desperation, they have become lunch meat for the predatory loan industry, even if they have "good credit."
(1 comments) SHARE Sunday, December 2, 2007 Small Pockets, Big Hearts: Making a Difference a Dollar at a Time
Good health and education are essential to raising poor people out of poverty and giving them the educational skills and the physical health to be productive, self-reliant citizens.
SHARE Sunday, December 2, 2007 Mortgage fraud: It's so bad feds just track cases over 50K
Mortgage fraud has long since left the small operator behind. These days, the meat of the fraud is generated by organized rings of specialized thieves, including bankers, real estate brokers, government loan specialists and drug king pins.
SHARE Wednesday, November 28, 2007 Legacy of the Debt Industrial Complex: Wrecked marriages, stress, suicide
The human toll of the nation's shaky loan industry has yet to be measured, but social workers and family counseling experts say family financial problems are leading to divorce, spousal and child abuse, even suicide.
(3 comments) SHARE Saturday, November 24, 2007 Suckered Again: American Public Being Played for Stooges
Many armchair pessimists continue to believe that the public is being used as puppets, in a variety of issues. Briefly put, somebody is yanking our chains and we are dancing like a herd of string puppets
(3 comments) SHARE Thursday, November 22, 2007 Kids Charged As Adults: The Death of the Infancy Defense
As the emotional throw a ways and castaways bloat our prisons at a cost of more than $20,000 a year, too many of our resources are being diverted to the Prison-Industrial-Military Complex. What will happen to the children on the edge if the economy tanks and what few resources we have devoted to juvenile mental health and education disappear?
SHARE Wednesday, November 14, 2007 Choosers of the Slain: Criminal conflicts of Interest in farm loan industry
Gary Grant is a black farmer who fully understands the challenges black farmers face in their quest for property rights and justice. Grant, founder of the Black Farmers and Agricultural Association, is locked in a legal battle with the federal government over a loan, which his father purportedly took out in 1981.
(2 comments) SHARE Tuesday, November 6, 2007 Success! Permission obtained for protest
The persistence of an 80 year old black farmer who is an alleged victim of land theft has paid off. Kentucky State University officials in Frankfort, Kentucky have changed their minds about pushing his protest to an obscure location at the football stadium.
(3 comments) SHARE Monday, November 5, 2007 Bucks, Bread and Bullets: Farming Under the Gun
In Pakistan, the situation is increasingly dire for millions of subsistence farmers and peasants. According to one source:
Most of the farmer community [in Pakistan], approximately 80%, constitute haris, or agricultural labourers, men and women, who do not own any land.
SHARE Sunday, November 4, 2007 Press Release: Black farmer getting runaround on protest permission
An 80 year old Kentucky black farmer is getting the run around in attempts to organize an informational picket coinciding with a farm conference October 15, 2007 on the Kentucky State University campus in Frankfort, Kentucky.
SHARE Monday, October 15, 2007 Black farmer takes to the streets to protest KKK activity on his farm
The President's reason for deploying hundreds of thousands of American troops to the Middle East is so we don't have to fight terrorists here. However, the rise in nativism and home-grown terrorism in the US remains a centuries' old problem at home.
SHARE Friday, August 10, 2007 Desperate Times for Black Land Crimes Victim in Texas
It's getting down to the wire and Sam Mims is getting desperate. The young black Texas rancher says he is the victim of what appears to be a long-standing conspiracy to run him off of his ranch-by any means necessary.
(1 comments) SHARE Saturday, June 2, 2007 Do Something! Stop Foamin' at the Mouth on the Lunatic Express
Today's activists are ordinary people who have risen above their human limitations--for a while. Unless we help them recharge their batteries, they get worn down, worn out and wiped out.
(1 comments) SHARE Friday, May 11, 2007 Corn Country Revolution Battle Lines Drawn Over Bio-Fuels
For all of the hype about "alternative energy," for all of the political hoopla touting gasohol as a way to wean the nation from its dangerous dependence on foreign oil, a group of activists in Southern Indiana is sounding the alarm about to the side effects of the rising corn-based ethanol industry.
(1 comments) SHARE Tuesday, May 1, 2007 Theft by Paper and Crooked Clerks
The litany of land theft victims is slowly reaching a crescendo, as more victims tell their stories. A corps of land thieves and their minions, people who are apparently flaunting Open Records Laws, run some counties in this country. Some are actually intimidating landowners from demanding access to their own land records, recorded deeds, etc.
SHARE Thursday, April 12, 2007 The 51st State in the Union: PTSD
Post Traumatic Stress is so prevalent in the US that it should be declared the 51st State in the Union.
SHARE Friday, March 30, 2007 Who's Watching the Watchers and When Will Lady Justice Remove Her Blindfold and Kick Butt!
Farm activists across the country say there is a major connection between corruption in the Department of Justice, political cronyism and the scores of allegedly illegal farm auctions in farm country. Black farmers and white farmers have joined forces in many parts of the country, having seen that the divide and conquer strategy of the "black farm settlement" put them at each other's throats while few received relief.