Prepare: Making Your Family Tough

by Skip Coryell

In the opening article of this series I painted the following picture:

Close your eyes and imagine a world without electricity:  no Fox News, no facebook, no email, no Blackberry, no cold drinks, no heat in the winter, no automobiles, no food and no way to cook it even if you had it. It’s the end of the world as we know it (TEOTWAWKI) and you and your family are going to die.

That’s a pretty bleak picture. But I left you with a little hope.

I clarified it by saying:  “Unless, of course, you are prepared.”

Through all my research on preparing for societal collapse, I found a dearth of information on preparing the family’s mind and relationship for hard times. So that’s what I want to focus on today, because if your family doesn’t have the will to live, it won’t matter how much “stuff” you have stored in your basement. You’re going to die.

Think of it in terms of self defense. You can be carrying the largest handgun in the world, but if you don’t have the balls to use it, then you’re going to die. So let’s start out by talking about mental toughness. I was introduced to mental toughness in the Marine Corps many years ago. They drove it into me, honed me, tore me apart and built me back into a man who could handle some stress. When I think of military training, I’m reminded of a Bible verse:
Proverbs 27:17:

As iron sharpens iron,
So one person sharpens another.

In the Marine Corps I learned about teamwork, loyalty, and honor. I learned that if one team member is weak, the whole team suffers. Now, as a husband and father, I’ve learned that my family is a team; it has weak links, and it’s only as strong as its weakest team member. Those of you with family know this to be true. For example, if one family member is addicted to drugs, making bad decisions, then the whole family pays the price. That’s just the way it is.
Surviving a societal collapse as a lone wolf will be nearly impossible. You’ll need people around you who are trustworthy and loyal and prepared. That’s where the family comes in. Think of yourselves as a military unit. Depending on your size, you could be a fire team or an entire squad. If you live near extended family, you could be talking about an entire platoon!

The family, even in the best of times, can be an asset or a liability. I have two teenagers at home, and, as much as I love them, they can be a real pain in the butt! I try to prepare them for hard times, but sometimes I just don’t know if they’re getting it. At times they seem spoiled, lacking in perspective and common sense. As a matter of routine, I give them an hour of chores per day. They complain, whine and moan as if they’re being marched off to the gallows. In today’s world, their undisciplined, disrespectful behavior is a nuisance that causes me stress. After societal collapse, their immaturity could well mean the death of a loved one. No, I’m not being overly dramatic. Today I ask them to wash the dishes, but after society collapses, I’ll hand them a gun and send them up on the roof as a sentry from midnight to 2AM. If they shirk their duty, the whole family could be slaughtered in its sleep.

Why am saying this? Because there are things you can be doing right now to prepare the minds of your spouse and kids. Share your concerns about society’s downward spiral. Don’t shatter their hope for the future, just plant the seed, and let them know we must hope for the best, but prepare for the worst. Many kids today have little sense of family loyalty and responsibility. Drill that into them now while you still can. Once the crap hits the fan, it’s too late.

How can you do this? Strengthen your family unit by spending time together. Train together, work together, and play together. I know what you’re thinking “But I can’t afford the time!”

Correction:  “You can’t afford not to spend the time!” Do you really want that rebellious, undisciplined teenager up on your roof with a shotgun, knowing full well that he may fall asleep an hour into his watch? Teach your kids they are a part of something greater than themselves. Teach them when they’re young that the family needs them. It will strengthen the unit and give them self esteem in the process.

This aspect of preparedness is the most important, but also the most difficult to attain, because it depends on the cooperation of others. Anyone can buy a case of beans and bullets, but that doesn’t make them a survivalist any more than owning a rifle makes them a marksman. Listen to this next statement and take it to heart:

“After societal collapse, you must place your life in the hands of your children.”

Think about it. You can’t survive alone. The most obvious people to hinder or help will be your own family. After all, what are you going to do – kick your daughter out of the house because she’s a wimp? You won’t be able to do it. So train her now.

Military veterans, look back on your time in service. The people I went through boot camp with are like brothers to me. I ate with them, slept with them, and marched with them. And when one of us screwed up we all did bends and thrusts with our collective face in the dirt! But after 11 weeks we were close enough to die for one another. Can you say that about your family? Would your son or daughter die for you? That’s what it will take for a family to survive after a societal collapse.

Now don’t get me wrong. Don’t go home and act like a drill instructor to your spouse and kids. I’ve tried it and you won’t like it! If your family isn’t already close, then start out light. Start out by playing together. Build some rapport. Do fun things. Children (especially teenagers) don’t obey their parents unless they feel loved. Once you build the rapport you can insert valuable life-skill training into your fun time. You can take them shooting, hunting, camping or even to a colonial village where they can be introduced to life back in 1794.  You are limited only by your determination and your imagination.

Another thing you can do is encourage your kids to engage in mind-toughening exercises. My daughter runs cross country. My son, who is not athletic, loves to shoot and play chess. Both have found a means to an end, building mental toughness.

But enough about kids. Let’s talk about husbands and wives now. Men, if you have a lousy relationship with your wife now, it’s going to get worse when society goes south. You won’t be able to bully her into submission. I read someplace that many a husband was poisoned by his wife back in the frontier days. Think about it. There was very little in the way of forensics and law enforcement, so the wife just fed him some poison berries and buried the abusive jerk out back and no one was the wiser.

Now, wives, before you start chuckling over that, think about what happened to that same frontier woman. After societal collapse, the world will revert to its natural state, which is law of the jungle. Those who rule will do so with tooth, fang and claw. In times like that it sure would be nice to have a man standing beside you, a strong man who was prepared to die protecting you.

My point is the two of you have to be a team. You have to be willing and able to share command, to make sound decisions on who hunts, who cooks, who gardens and who stands watch. You two are the officers, and no unit runs smoothly and effectively when command is in disarray. So do whatever it takes to improve your relationship with your spouse, whether it’s counseling, anger management classes, parenting classes, or just plain old fashioned “Making up and making love!”

In many cases, just getting on the same page in regards to preparing for societal collapse can improve your relationship. It takes a long time and a lot of hard work to make all the preparations necessary, but, after a while, you might even start having fun. Case in point, my wife and I once went on a date to a militia meeting. We had a good time and met a lot of nice people.

Preparing your family for the end of the world doesn’t have to be work. If you’re patient, determined, and wise, you might even survive your “preparations” for the end of the world as we know it long enough to survive the actual event. Strengthen your family, and you strengthen your chances of surviving in a world where the strong kill the weak and the evil murder the good. Because together, with a lot of effort, your family can become both strong and good.
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7 Shocking Points From Wikileaks Embassy Cable Release

1. We’ve been secretly bombing Yemen.

2. U.S. uses diplomats as spies.

3. U.S. uses Guantanamo Bay prisoners as bargaining chips

4. China’s been hacking our systems since 2002.

5. Afghanistan is corruption Disneyland.

6. Iran might have long-range missiles.

7. Putin and Berlusconi’s close relationship causes alarm.

Read More Detail On These Bullet Points Here

The Food Wars Are ON!

Saturday, November 27, 2010

Many predict WikiLeaks release may strain US-UK ties

As governments across the world braced for the release of millions of documents by WikiLeaks, reports said that US diplomats had described Britain’s former prime minister Gordon Brown and his government as weak and unstable in secret briefings to US President Barack Obama .

According to the Daily Express Sunday, the imminent release of diplomatic files by the whistle blowing website WikiLeaks would prove “highly embarrassing” to Brown, quoting “sources” in Downing Street. Reports said that the three million documents include “no-holds-barred” private cables to the White House from many US embassies, and reportedly mention South African president Nelson Mandela, Afghanistan’s Hamid Karzai and Libya’s Colonel Gaddafi.

Around three million secret US diplomatic messages obtained by WikiLeaks would expose the “no-holds-barred” private cables to the White House from scores of US embassies, the Daily Mail said. The files reportedly contain damaging assessments of Brown’s character and leadership skills and of the stability of the government he led, but a 10, Downing Street spokesman declined to discuss the nature of any confidentialcommunications. He said: “Obviously, the government has been briefed by US officials, by the US ambassador, as to the likely content of these leaks. I don’t want to speculate about precisely what is going to be leaked before it is leaked.” US ambassador Louis Susman has spoken to British officials about the likely contents of the files that date from 2008 until early this year.

The explosive files are also said to contain thoughts about both David Cameron and Nick Clegg while they were opposition leaders. Downing Street sources are quoted as saying: “We don’t think there will be much about the coalition government. There might be some slightly embarrassing things about David Cameron’s time in opposition but it will be nothing compared with what was said about Brown. The diplomatic cables were more about Labour. Brown was seen as paranoid and weak and unstable. These files are going to be embarrassing for him.” US State Department officials are concerned that the release of such sensitive files could damage relations with their allies, the media report said.

The British government is so worried that Friday night it issued a D-Notice, warning that publishing the secrets could compromise national security. Crowley said: “These revelations are harmful to the US and our interests. They are going to create tension in relationships between our diplomats and our friends around the world.”

Besides Britain and India, the US has warned the governments of Australia, Canada, Denmark, Norway and Israel in advance of the release. It is likely that a backlash by countries upset over the leaks may lead to US diplomats being expelled.
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Are We Killing Ourselves With Cleanliness?

Too small to see, they’re swigged in cups of tasteless, odorless clear liquid. Once swallowed, they lodge in the gut and produce larvae. They’re parasites, known clinically as Trichuris suis. Are they the next big thing in allergy relief?

Pathologist Marie-Helene Jouvin, who launched this study at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center with allergist/immunologist Mariana Castells, hopes they are — and the sooner the better, as America’s allergy rate is soaring. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the number of young Americans with food allergies soared nearly 20 percent in the last decade. Eight percent of children under six now have food allergies. The number of adults with allergies has risen too.

The Boston worm study stems from a scientific hot potato called the hygiene hypothesis, which holds that growing up in developed nations enfeebles our immune systems. When it’s not constantly battling dangerous bacteria, “the immune system doesn’t know what to fight against,” Jouvin says, “so it fights against stuff that isn’t supposed to be dangerous, like food.

“As the human immune system matures, normally it learns how to differentiate what is not dangerous from what is dangerous. If you raise children in too clean of an environment, this distinction is missing.”

In other words, we’re killing ourselves with cleanliness.

Allergies are far more common in rich nations than in poor ones. Hygiene hypothesists believe that’s because people in poor countries are riddled with parasites.

Studies in Africa and South America have tested groups of parasite-infected people and found them to have few or no allergies. These people were then treated with vermifuges. Once they became parasite-free, they developed allergies, Jouvin says.

“We don’t know precisely how it works, but parasites have developed this very fine mechanism that allows them to survive in a host’s body without killing the host and without the host killing them. The presence of parasites in the body acts on the immune system and somehow avoids an allergic reaction.”

Because Trichuris suis flourishes in pigs’ bodies but not human ones, the larvae that hatch after the eggs are ingested never fully mature in human subjects, who thus never become infected. The Boston study won’t be completed for another few years; if it succeeds, FDA approval would be sought for Trichuris suis ova, aka TSO.

“The eggs are the medicine,” Jouvin says. “It’s very easy, a clear liquid. You just drink it.”

“This idea that you can infect yourself with these things so that your immune system gets too tied up with parasites to worry about allergens” is gaining traction, “but it’s very radical,” says allergist Andrew Engler, director of the Allergy and Asthma Clinic in San Mateo, California.

It’s not as radical as the remedy that integrative-medicine guru Andrew Weil aired at the Psychedelic Science in the 21st Century conference in San Jose last April. Having been terribly allergic to cats all his life, Weil took LSD one day at age 28. While he was tripping, a cat jumped into his lap. For a split second, Weil froze. Just being near cats had always made his eyes itch and his nose run. If cats licked him, he’d always broken out in painful hives. But not this time: “I started petting the cat. I began playing with the cat. The cat licked me. I had no reaction to the cat. I have never had a reaction to a cat since — and that was almost 40 years ago. Now, that’s pretty special. As a physician, I would love to know what happened there, and I would love to know how to make that happen for other people.”

The medical community isn’t investing tons of time or money in the wider applications of LSD. Nor does it consider acid — or anything else — an allergy cure. Symptom-soothers flood the market. Desensitization studies involving peanuts and insect venom offer hope, but nothing has yet been clinically proven to render once-allergic human bodies no longer allergic.

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Europeans Oppose NATO & U.S. Policies

As leaders of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization met in Lisbon, thousands met in the streets to protest their policies and very existence. At the root of many activists complaints – US policies.

While NATO leaders attempted to answer the question of why the Cold War alliance needs to exist in the 21st century, thousands of protesters took to the streets to make their response clear.

“I think there is no place for NATO,” said Reiner Braun, a German organizer of the anti-NATO protest organizer. “I think there is no place for military alliances any longer in the world because you can’t solve any of the global problems with military, none.”

NATO members still trying to show they believe they can, introduced a “new” strategic concept for the first time this century, and rolled out a carpet for its one-time foe, Russia, in order to seek its help and try to put a new foot forward.

“Together we’ve worked hard to reset the relationship between the US and Russia, which has led to concrete benefits,” said US President Barack Obama. “Now we are also resetting the NATO -Russia relationship. We see Russia as a partner not an adversary.”

Yet all of this talk does little to change the criticism of a military bloc, whose effectiveness and power has been challenged by a near decade long war in Afghanistan, that seems to only be getting worse.

“Now in Afghanistan and other places in the world we are seeing the consequences of the lack of NATO’s ability to transform and adapt,” argued Dmitry Suslov, a political analyst with the Council for Foreign and Defense Policy.

Perhaps there is no better example of the international discontent over NATO and its policies than seen on the streets of Lisbon, where citizens came from all over Europe to protest the alliance and the goals being set at its summit.

“We don’t want it, we don’t think it’s necessary,” said a protester of NATO. “[Portugal] is a country in crisis spending so much money, and it’s for war. It’s supporting war.”

“What we’re calling for is withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan and end to nuclear rearmament of Europe, and getting involved in a process of nuclear disarmament to bring about a more peaceful world,” said protester Jeremy Corbyn, also a member of the British Parliament.

When protesters talk about those tactical Cold War nukes in Europe, those belong to the US. When they talk about that mission in Afghanistan, that’s led by the US. And when they protest NATO, they’re protesting an organization led by the heavy hand of one member.

“The US is trying to use NATO directly and indirectly,” said Suslov. “Directly in Afghanistan to fulfill American missions.”

“It enables the us to do two things,” said Lawrence Korb, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress in Washington DC. “One to assure American people that threats they’re dealing with for example in Afghanistan are not just against the us, and that the US, while it’s still world’s greatest power is no longer a power that can do everything by itself.”

And while the US uses NATO for its purposes, so too do activists for their complaints.

“I don’t want see a military alliance that will kill more soldiers, civilians and lead to a divided world,” said Corbyn.

But behind their protests are US policies. US policies brought to light in Portugal as much through am American President’s attendance, as through protest.

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Obama is “Extraordinarily Proud” of Healthcare

Somali Born teen plans car bombing at tree lighting ceremony in Oregon

A Somali-born teenager plotted to carry out a car bomb attack at a crowded Christmas tree lighting ceremony in downtown Portland on Friday, but the bomb turned out to be a dud supplied by undercover agents as part of a sting, federal prosecutors said.

Mohamed Osman Mohamud, 19, was arrested at 5:40 p.m. just after he dialed a cell phone that he thought would blow up a van laden with explosives but instead brought federal agents and Portland police swooping in to take him into custody.

Mohamud yelled “Allahu Akhkbar” and tried to kick agents and police as the arrest came, according to prosecutors.

He was charged with attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction.

U.S. Attorney Dwight Holton released federal court documents Friday that show the sting operation began in June after an undercover agent learned that Mohamud had been in contact with an “unindicted associate” in Pakistan’s Northwest Frontier region.

Mohamud is a naturalized U.S. citizen who has been living in Corvallis.

According to a federal complaint, Mohamud was in regular email contact with the “unindicted associate’ in Pakistan’s Northwest Frontier starting in August 2009.

The complaint states that in December 2009 Mohamud and the “unindicted associate” used coded language in an email in which the FBI believes Mohamud discussed traveling to Pakistan to prepare for “violent jihad.”

The document says in the months that followed Mohamud made ‘multiple efforts” to contact another “undicted associate” to arrange travel to Pakistan but had a faulty email address for that person.

Last June an FBI agent contacted Mohamud “under the guise of being affiliated with the first associate.”

Mohamud and the undercover agent agreed to meet in Portland on July 30. At that meeting, the undercover agent and Mohamud “discussed violent jihad,” according to the court document.

Mohamud told the agent he wanted to set off explosives at the annual Christmas tree lighting ceremony in Portland’s Pioneer Courthouse Square, an event that occurred on Friday.

On Friday, an undercover agent and Mohamud drove to downtown Portland in a white van that carried six 55-gallon drums with detonation cords and plastic caps, but all of them were inert, the complaint states.

They got out of the van and walked to meet another undercover agent, who drove to Union Station, the Portland train station, where Mohamud was given a cell phone that he thought would blow up the van, according to the complaint.

Mohamud dialed the phone agents had given him, and was told the bomb did not detonate. The undercover agents suggested he get out of the car and try again to improve the signal, when he did, he was arrested, the complaint said.

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Senators Who Were Bribed To Support S.510 Food Safety Modernization Act?

HAVE SOME SENATORS BEEN PAID OFF TO SUPPORT S.510 – THE ‘FOOD SAFETY MODERNIZATION ACT’?

The following is a list of U.S Senators and the Bribes (I mean campaign contributions) that these Senators received from Special Interest Groups to either support or oppose S.510 – The FDA Food Safety and Modernization Act. I have listed the names of the Senators, the Party and State, and the amount of Special Interest Bribes (I mean campaign contributions) that they received:

Name of Senator – Party & State – Bribe For S.510 or Bribe Against S.510

Daniel Akaka – D HI – Bribe For: $27,690 – Against: $700

Lamar Alexander – R TN – Bribe For: $190,421 – Against: $4,850

John Barrasso – R WY – Bribe For: $31,350 – Against: $27,500

Max Baucus – D MT – Bribe for: $123,803 – Against: $55,980

Evan Bayh – D IN – Bribe For: $45,200 – Against: $8,250

Mark Begich – D AK – Bribe For: $23,050 – Against: $2,000

Michael Bennet – D CO – Bribe For: $38,509 – Against: $22,050

Robert Bennett – R UT – Bribe For: $105,530 – Against: $10,000

Jeff Bingaman – D NM – Bribe For: $31,498 – Against: $8,450

Christopher Bond – R MO – Bribe For: $49,550 – Against: $5,200

Barbara Boxer – D CA – Bribe For: $120,000 – Against: $13,650

Sherrod Brown – D OH – Bribe For: $57,800 – Against: $6,600

Samuel Brownback – R KS – Bribe For: $20,950 – Against: $13,500

Jim Bunning – R KY – Brobe For: $20,700 – Against: $2,000

Richard Burr – R NC – Bribe For: $328,086 – Against: $32,292

Roland Burris – D IL – Bribe For: $0 – Against: $0

Maria Cantwell – D WA – Bribe For: $93,541 – Against: $2,750

Benjamin Cardin – D MD – Bribe For: $72,200 – Against: $0

Thomas Carper – D DE – Bribe For: $83,150 – Against: $0

Robert Casey – D PA – Bribe For: $80,576 – Against: $4,600

Saxby Chambliss – R GA – Bribe For: $557,694 – Against: $108,041

Thomas Coburn R OK – Bribe For: $64,400 – Against: $14,200

Thad Cochran – R MS – Bribe For: $50,144 – Against: $22,000

Susan Collins – R ME – Bribe For: $157,438 – Against: $7,800

Kent Conrad – D ND – Bribe For: $41,650 – Against: $29,612

Bob Corker – R TN – Bribe For: $298,639 – Against: $8,850

John Cornyn – R TX – Bribe For: $286,648 – Against: $254,730

Michael Crapo – R ID – Bribe For: $64,199 – Against: $14,350

Jim DeMint – R SC – Bribe For: $149,935 – Against: $5,000

Christopher Dodd – D CT – Bribe For: $36,400 – Against: $4,500

Byron Dorgan – D ND – Bribe For: $28,200 – Against: $6,000

Richard Durbin – D IL – Bribe For: $151,050 – Against: $19,000

John Ensign – R NV – Bribe For: $76,297 – Against: $10,500

Michael Enzi – R WY – Bribe For: $87,394 – Against: $21,450

Russell Feingold – D WI – Bribe For: $53,854 – Against: $2,200

Dianne Feinstein – D CA – Bribe For: $168,189 – Against: 25,314

Kirsten Gillibrand – D NY – Bribe For: $98,210 – Against: $10,650

Lindsey Graham – R SC – Bribe For: $101,272 – Against: $5,700

Charles Grassley – R IA – Bribe For: $112,150 – Against: $25,500

Judd Gregg – R NH – Bribe For: $26,000 – Against: $0

Kay Hagan – D NC – Bribe For: $36,250 – Against: $3,500

Thomas Harkin – D IA – Bribe For: $138,135 – Against: $40,600

Orrin Hatch – R UT – Bribe For: $102,215 – Against: $11,600
(See comment received from Senator Hatch’s Office below)

Kay Hutchison – R TX – Bribe For: $127,811 – Against: $103,386

James Inhofe – R OK – Bribe For: $66,744 – Against: $36,430

Daniel Inouye – D HI – Bribe For: $26,350 – Against: $11,200

John Isakson – R GA – Bribe For: $280,995 – Against: $10,100

Mike Johanns – R NE – Bribe For: $159,259 – Against: $59,785

Tim Johnson – D SD – Bribe For: $26,850 – Against: $15,000

Edward Kaufman – D DE – Bribe For: $0 – Against: $0

John Kerry – D MA – Bribe For: $14,406 – Against: $250

Amy Klobuchar – D MN – Bribe For: $149,778 – Against: $16,250

Herbert Kohl – D WI – Bribe For: $300 – Against: $0

Jon Kyl – R AZ – Bribe For: $363,660 – Against: $58,906

Mary Landrieu – D LA – Bribe For: $73,622 – Against: $2,250

Frank Lautenberg – D NJ – Bribe For: $37,883 – Agqinst: $3,550

Patrick Leahy – D VT – Bribe For: $13,800 – Against: $2,750

Carl Levin – D MI – Bribe For: $49,900 – Against: $2,000

Joseph Lieberman – I CT – Bribe For: $121,075 – Against: $0

Blanche Lincoln – D AR – Bribe For: $347,526 – Against: $125,297

Richard Lugar – R IN – Bribe For: $153,579 – Against: $21,000

John McCain – R AZ – Bribe For: $118,070 – Against: $21,525

Claire McCaskill – D MO – Bribe For: $48,950 – Against: $7,650

Mitch McConnell – R KY – Bribe For: $439,593 – Against: $42,244

Robert Menéndez – D NJ – Bribe For: $183,850 – Against: $250

Jeff Merkley – D OR – Bribe For: $27,350 – Against; $3,300

Barbara Mikulski – D MD – Bribe For: $52,165 – Against: $1,000

Lisa Murkowski – R AK – Bribe For: $164,713 – Against: $5,800

Patty Murray – D WA – Bribe For: $136,500 – Against: $3,150

Ben Nelson – D NE – Bribe For: $254,906 – Against: $44,950

Bill Nelson – D FL – Bribe For: $205,471 – Against: $35,748

Mark Pryor – D AR – Bribe For: $115,550 – Against: $16,565

John Reed – D RI – Bribe For: $29,350 – Against: $0

Harry Reid – D NV – Bribe For: $133,985 – Against: $10,000

James Risch – R ID – Bribe For: $56,750 – Against; $36,050

Pat Roberts – R KS – Bribe For: $167,294 – Against: $65,186

John Rockefeller – D WV – Bribe For: $21,250 – Against: $1,000

Bernard Sanders – I VT – Bribe For: $7,800 – Against: $4,200

Charles Schumer – D NY – Bribe For: $175,185 – Against: $14,200

Jefferson Sessions – R AL – Bribe For: $65,303 – Against: $16,800

Jeanne Shaheen – D NH – Bribe For: $17,090 – Against: $7,300

Richard Shelby – R AL – Bribe For: $73,616 – Against: $10,000

Olympia Snowe – R ME – Bribe For: $78,136 – Against: $2,000

Arlen Specter – D PA – Bribe For: $209,124 – Against: $9,400

Debbie Ann Stabenow – D MI – Bribe For: $84,941 – Against: $14,482

Jon Tester – D MT – Bribe For: $21,250 – Against: $61,550

John Thune – R SD – Bribe For: $218,900 – Against: $55,625

Mark Udall – D CO – Bribe For: $34,435 – Against: $45,050

Tom Udall – D NM – Bribe For: $27,102 – Against: $51,900

David Vitter – R LA – Bribe For: $188,225 – Against: $8,500

George Voinovich – R OH – Bribe For: $103,850 – Against: $185

Mark Warner – D VA – Bribe For: $116,450 – Against: $8,600

Jim Webb – D VA – Bribe For: $25,300 – Against: $7,700

Sheldon Whitehouse- D RI – Bribe For: $27,025 – Against: $1,500

Roger Wicker – R MS – Bribe For: $147,650 – Against: $16,250

Ron Wyden – D OR – Bribe For: $58,700 – Against: $4,900

Here’s a list of the Special Interest Groups that support S.510 and how much they bribed (I mean donated) to Senators:

Restaurants & drinking establishments $3,217,767
Food and kindred products manufacturing $1,753,503
Milk & dairy producers $1,717,687
Food stores $1,473,532
Beverages (non-alcoholic) $744,551
Vegetables, fruits and tree nut $709,238
American Veterinarian Medical Association $551,750
Beverage bottling & distribution $289,725
Food wholesalers $284,900
Food & Beverage Products and Services $281,137
Fishing $277,984
Chambers of commerce $219,234
Manufacturing $207,740
Food catering & food services $171,835
Confectionery processors & manufacturers $96,438
Consumer groups $6,100
Farm bureaus $0

Here’s a list of Here’s a list of the Special Interest Groups that opposed S.510 and how much they bribed (I mean donated) to Senators:

Milk & dairy producers $1,717,687
Livestock $1,561,207
Farm organizations & cooperatives $412,976
Consumer groups $6,100
Farmers, crop unspecified $0

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Federal Reserve — Unemployment To Remain High Through 2012 Elections

The Federal Reserve has lowered the expectations for economic growth and is not expecting any significant change in the unemployment rate for the next couple of years:

Unemployment is set to remain higher for longer than previously thought, according to new projections from the Federal Reserve that would mean more than 10 million Americans remain jobless through the 2012 elections – even as a separate report shows corporate profits reaching their highest levels ever.

Top Federal Reserve officials project that the unemployment rate, now 9.6 percent, will fall only to about 9 percent at the end of 2011 and about 8 percent when the next presidential election arrives, in late 2012. The central bankers had envisioned a more rapid decline in joblessness in their previous forecasts, prepared in June.

Amazingly, there is no congressional response to the extended unemployment crisis in the works, and in fact it looks as if Congress is on the verge of ending what limited unemployment assistance they have in place currently.

On November 30th, insurance benefits for the long-terms unemployed will expire because of congressional gridlock, and even if Congress does eventually find a way to extend them, it will probably be for only three months. That would keep the program alive just until the Republicans, who have routinely tried to block the Democrats from extending benefits in the past, will be in control of the House and yield more influence in the Senate.

As the Fed projections reconfirm, the job market is in a long-term contraction (4+ years above 8% unemployment), which means that millions of people are being squeezed out the workforce with no chance of being reabsorbed. Based on the facts, one might expect Congress to be looking at something like S.3706, which would let unemployed people collect insurance benefits for a longer period, or some other approach to help the people who are most in need. But they’re not, and homelessness, hunger and suicide rates across the country are rising as a result.

Most of the commentary today on the new Fed projections is about what the unemployment crisis means for Obama’s re-election chances in 2012. But, the fact is, Obama, Congress and most of the people writing about the politics of this will be fine. Let’s consider what this means for the people who are suffering and start getting serious about a national response

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