From a letter I received today from:

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

Economics and Statistics Administration

U.S. Census Bureau

Washington, DC 20233-0001

OFFICE OF THE DIRECTOR

Letter body:

Dear Resident:

About one week from now, you will receive a 2010 Census form in the mail. When you receive your form, please fill it out and mail it in promptly.

Your response is important. Results from the 2010 Census will be used to help each community to get its fair share of government funds for highways, schools, health facilities, and many other programs you and your neighbors need. Without a complete, accurate census, your community may not receive its fair share.

Thank you in advance for your help.

Sincerely,

[Signed]

Robert M. Groves

Director, U.S. Census Bureau

Go to 2010census.gov for help completing your 2010 Census form when it arrives.

This should be fun. I guess they didn’t learn their lessons the first time.

http://news.yahoo.com/

WASHINGTON (AFP) – President Barack Obama has approved the deployment of an additional 13,000 US troops to Afghanistan beyond the 21,000 he announced publicly in March, The Washington Post reported Tuesday.

The additional troops are primarily support forces — such as engineers, medical specialists, intelligence experts and military police — the paper said, bringing the total build-up approved by Obama to 34,000.

“Obama authorized the whole thing. The only thing you saw announced in a press release was the 21,000,” an unnamed defense official familiar told the paper.

The maximum number of US forces expected in Afghanistan by year’s end — 68,000 — would remain the same, the paper said.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates had said previously he would be sending more support troops or “enablers” to Afghanistan even as Obama weighs the best war strategy going forward, amid an appeal for tens of thousands of additional combat forces from the commander in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal.

The Pentagon had said at least 4,000 support troops were heading to Afghanistan, including experts to help counter the threat from improvised explosives.

The report came as Obama faces a crucial decision on McChrystal’s request for more combat, training and support troops, including one reported option of an additional 40,000 forces.

Yep.

Oh, and this (FTA):

When former president George W. Bush announced a US troop “surge” in Iraq, he only mentioned 20,000 combat troops and not the accompanying 8,000 support troops.

The troop increase approved by Obama means that there are more US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan than during the peak of the surge in Iraq in late 2007 and early 2008.

Nobel. Peace. Prize.

http://www.latimes.com/...

Reporting from Washington and Beijing – In a decision that could roil trade tensions with Beijing, President Obama agreed Friday to impose hefty tariffs on tires imported from China.

The decision came after the U.S. International Trade Commission, a federal agency, determined that a surge of Chinese-made tires had disrupted the domestic market and cost thousands of jobs in the U.S.

Within 15 days, the U.S. would add a duty of 35% in the first year, 30% in the second and 25% in the third on passenger vehicle and light-truck tires from China. That is less than the 55% tariff recommended by the trade panel, but analysts said it would still be large enough to keep most Chinese tires out of the competitive U.S. market.

“The president decided to remedy the clear disruption to the U.S. tire industry based on the facts and the law in this case,” White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said in a statement.

The decision was a victory for the United Steelworkers union, which filed the complaint in May. The union represents about half of the more than 30,000 tire production workers in the U.S.

Victory for the union… loss for everyone else. Hundreds of years of economic theory and reality showing this kind of shit is bad for everyone involved isn’t enough for Obama and friends. Selling the many down the river for a short term benefit for the few.

“Unfortunately, there are some elements here who will call this protectionism,” Shi said. “But I don’t think it will have that much of a negative impact. The volume of trade is still very large.”

Other analysts disagreed, saying Beijing would take the decision very seriously. Some in the Chinese tire industry warned of retaliation.

There’s definately a part of me that wants China to retaliate. Bring on Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act Part 2.

http://rawstory.com/…

The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development said in a report published Monday that the U.S. dollar should be replaced as the world’s standard reserve currency, giving rise to a new global currency managed by an as-yet undetermined financial regulatory organization.

The conference specifically emphasizes the enhancement of the International Monetary Fund’s “special drawing right” (SDR), which may serve as the “supranational” currency.

“There is a need to make the IMF a true representative of the world’s leading economies. It’s not there right now,” said Russian finance minister Alexei Kudrin in June, noting that China had a lower representation quota than Switzerland or Belgium.

Over the weekend, U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner argued successfully to strengthen the “Basel II” framework for international commerce, which would see all G20 member nations increase their currency liquidity and allow centralized, “global supervision” of financial industries. The Obama administration is committed to full compliance with the framework by 2011.

The Group of 20 finance ministers and central bank governors plan to meet in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on Sept. 24 and 25. Several major liberal groups are planning demonstrations, including the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition. The city has already secured a deal to use National Guard troops provide a security buffer for the world’s financial elite during their meeting.

Also on Sunday, a key Chinese official predicted that the dollar’s increasing supply, which grows with added liquidity, meant the currency could “fall hard” within “a year or two.” The official also signaled that China is moving its reserves away from the dollar and toward gold, euros and yen.

Washington has staunchly defended the dollar as the world’s reserve, with President Obama, Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner all insisting there is no need for a new global reserve currency.

The outcome will be bad but at least we can watch the elites fight between themselves till then.

http://news.yahoo.com/…

Despite their denials, influential Democratic Sens. Kent Conrad and Chris Dodd were told from the start they were getting VIP mortgage discounts from one of the nation’s largest lenders, the official who handled their loans has told Congress in secret testimony.Both senators have said that at the time the mortgages were being written they didn’t know they were getting unique deals from Countrywide Financial Corp., the company that went on to lose billions of dollars on home loans to credit-strapped borrowers. Dodd still maintains he got no preferential treatment.

Dodd got two Countrywide mortgages in 2003, refinancing his home in Connecticut and another residence in Washington. Conrad’s two Countrywide mortgages in 2004 were for a beach house in Delaware and an eight-unit apartment building in Bismarck in his home state of North Dakota.

I hope this really bites him in the ass in his 2010 re-election campaign. Anything to give Peter Schiff an advantage should he run. Hell… I’ll take whatever other random Republican or Demograt that could possible get in. Dodd is awful.

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/…

Internet reports are now circulating that Obama’s Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, John Holdren, penned a 1977 book that approved of and recommended compulsory sterilization and even abortion in some cases, as part of a government population control regime.

Given the general unreliability of Internet quotations, I wanted to go straight to this now-rare text and make sure the reports were both accurate and kept Holdren’s writings in context. Generally speaking, they are, and they do.

The Holdren book, titled Ecoscience and co-authored with Malthus enthusiasts Paul and Anne Ehrlich, weighs in at more than 1,000 pages. Of greatest importance to its discussion of how to limit the human population is its disregard for any ethical considerations.

Holdren (with the Ehrlichs) notes the existence of “moral objections to some proposals…especially to any kind of compulsion.” But his approach is completely amoral. He implies that compulsory population control is less preferable, because of some people’s objections, but he argues repeatedly that it is sometimes necessary, and necessity trumps all ethical objections.

Pretty sick. Gets better.
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