Egypt Rising

Why are the United States biggest "allies" also the the biggest violators of human rights?  Need we look further than China and Egypt or Saudi Arabia?  We push for democracy and human rights, but then for decade after decade support leaders, dictators ruling in other countries. In many cases the US plays or played a role in setting up these regimes that are later accused of the atrocities. In the case of Egypt we see Mubarak has been in power for almost thirty years. Where is the democracy there? Are we looking for "allies" "good Guys" or are we looking for control and the best rates on commodities? Which is more important Money or the quality of human life?

 On the news everyone from  Secretary of state Clinton and up or down pussy foots  around about  Mubarak> Enough already> I am SOOOOOOO tired of hearing what an ally he has been> Hello what kind of democracy is that? The guy has been in for thirty years> Tell him to GO. He is either good or bad> It should not be based upon what WE can get out of him. Reports are so cautious to say nothing "supporting" him, but yet they say nothing AGAINST him either.
Because you are neither hot nor cold I spit you from my mouth.
Make a decision and stick with it, get off the fence and pick the ass kissing splinters out and lets see what's right for PEOPLE being done, not what's right for those with money and those in power.

Coptic MP Georgette Sobhi exchanged her signature on a petition calling for Ayman Nour’s release for the Mubarak regime’s support of a ban of the book and movie versions of The DaVinci Code.

On the day of Nour's guilty verdict and sentencing, the White House Press Secretary released the following statement denouncing the government's action:^[6]

The United States is deeply troubled by the conviction today of Egyptian politician Ayman Nour by an Egyptian court. The conviction of Mr. Nour, the runner-up in Egypt's 2005 presidential elections, calls into question Egypt's commitment to democracy, freedom, and the rule of law. We are also disturbed by reports that Mr. Nour's health has seriously declined due to the hunger strike on which he has embarked in protest of the conditions of his trial and detention. The United States calls upon the Egyptian government to act under the laws of Egypt in the spirit of its professed desire for increased political openness and dialogue within Egyptian society, and out of humanitarian concern, to release Mr. Nour from detention.

In February 2006, Rice visited Hosni Mubarak yet never spoke Nour's name publicly. When asked about him at a news conference, she referred to his situation as one of Egypt's setbacks. Days later, Mubarak told a government newspaper that Rice "didn't bring up difficult issues or ask to change anything." From prison, Nour stated "I pay the price when [Rice] speaks [of me], and I pay the price when she doesn't," Nour said. "But what's happening to me now is a message to everybody."^[7]
In June 2007 President Bush, speaking at a conference of dissidents in the Czech Republic, revisited the issue of Ayman Nour, saying:^[8]

There are many dissidents who couldn't join us because they are being unjustly imprisoned or held under house arrest. I look forward to the day when a conference like this one include Alexander Kozulin of Belarus, Aung San Suu Kyi of Burma, Oscar Elias Biscet of Cuba, Father Nguyen Van Ly of Vietnam, Ayman Nour of Egypt. (Applause.) The daughter of one of these political prisoners is in this room. I would like to say to her, and all the families: I thank you for your courage. I pray for your comfort and strength. And I call for the immediate and unconditional release of your loved ones. ... I have asked Secretary Rice to send a directive to every U.S. ambassador in an un-free nation: Seek out and meet with activists for democracy. Seek out those who demand human rights.

Nour was released on health grounds on 18 February 2009.^[1] He was injured in the Egyptian protests of January 28 2011, where he received a stone in the head. He is being currently treated in a hospital in Agouza.

We need to look out for each other as people, humans, not commodities. I am not a commodity I am a human.
I hope Ayman Nour is recovering and will return to the fray, he seems to have the right ideals.

My Babies Kiss the Matt KO and Shugah Ray

'Wait and See' from Brandon Heath

Wait and see ... he's not finished with me yet

Well I have just returned from my appointment in Atlanta to get the results on my scans and bloodwork, whew what a long day lol and it's only 2:30:)
Hi everyone, Just updating latest trip to see my cancer docs. I even ran in to Dr. B my radiology onc and got to give him a hug:)
Todays appointment was with my chemo doc, he said he will be my oncologist for the next five years. Anyway he said the scans look good, But, there is an area of congested edema that has been persistent and he wants me to make an appointment with my ENT, just so they can take a look with a scope and "visualize" and make sure everything's okay. He said blood work was great, TSH levels while still high coming down, he wasn't concerned with the WBC , sodium and chloride levels being a little low, they have been, but the Alkaline phosphate levels being up from prior tests is probably why he wants to get a visual in my throat. Either way, I'm okay:) Oh and we upped my levothyroxin too. Gotta run, bunches to do but I will try to get back on later.
Peace Out all:)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJgTv_yalfw

Social Security Is in Far Worse Shape Than You Think

By CHARLES HUGH SMITH Posted 6:30 AM 01/19/11 Retirement, Economy, Taxes

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For years, politicians and policymakers have reassured the American public that the Social Security system, which sends monthly checks out to 53 million beneficiaries, is safely solvent -- and will be for decades to come. But federal spending and income data from the Treasury Department reveal that the Social Security program is already deep in the red, with outlays exceeding payroll tax revenues by $76 billion in 2010 alone.

This stunning shortfall calls into question the rosy fiscal forecasts made by the Social Security Administration (SSA) about the program's future solvency.

The annual report of the Social Security Trustees, published in August 2010, forecast that the primary Social Security program, the Old Age and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund (OASI), would not exceed its tax receipts until 2018. Unfortunately, it happened in fiscal 2010, which ended in October. That year's outlays for the OASI fund were about $580 billion, while receipts came to only $540 billion -- a whopping $40 billion shortfall.

Add in the deficit from the second Social Security fund, Disability Insurance (DI), and the gap between total SSA outlays ($707 billion in 2010, according to the Treasury) and tax receipts ($631 billion) grows to $76 billion -- more than 10% of the program's expenses.

Short-Term Estimates Were Way Off the Mark

The SSA trustees had estimated a $41 billion deficit (excluding interest income), but the final deficit came to $76 billion -- almost twice what they had guessed. Just as troubling, their estimate for total SSA income in 2010 (which included both Social Security payroll taxes and interest paid by the Treasury on the Social Security Trust Funds) was $791 billion -- a number that overshot the actual total income of $741 billion (tax receipts of $631 billion plus interest income of about $110 billion) by $50 billion.

That the trustees could miss estimates only a few months into the future by such huge margins calls into question the accuracy of their long-term projections, which are stated in the report:

"Social Security expenditures are expected to exceed tax receipts this year for the first time since 1983. The projected deficit of $41 billion this year (excluding interest income) is attributable to the recession. This deficit is expected to shrink substantially for 2011 and to return to small surpluses for years 2012-2014 due to the improving economy. After 2014 deficits are expected to grow rapidly as the baby boom generation's retirement causes the number of beneficiaries to grow substantially more rapidly than the number of covered workers. The annual deficits will be made up by redeeming trust fund assets in amounts less than interest earnings through 2024, and then by redeeming trust fund assets until reserves are exhausted in 2037."

SSA's estimate for total income in 2011 is $855 billion -- fully $114 billion more than the program's actual income in 2010 ($741 billion). With employment stagnant, is a 15% jump in payroll taxes remotely plausible?

Payroll Taxes Won't Bounce Back That Fast

For context, let's look at what happened to Social Security receipts in 2009, a recession year, and 2010, a year of modest economic recovery.

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According to the SSA, the system's income for 2009 was $807 billion ($698.2 billion in the OASI and $109.3 billion in the DI). Income in 2010 was $741 billion -- a massive one-year decline of $66 billion.

Given the magnitude of this recessionary drop in income, it's difficult to place much faith in the trustees' extremely optimistic forecast of double-digit payroll tax increases in 2011. As I reported on DailyFinance in December, job gains have been exceedingly modest in the 154 million-worker U.S. economy, and many of those jobs were temporary or part-time. Factor in lower incomes for the self-employed, and it's little wonder that payroll tax receipts have been flat.

The trustees' forecast of Social Security's outlays in 2010 were much more accurate than their estimates of income: The report anticipated outlays of $714 billion, and the final total came in at $707 billion. The report's estimate of 2011 outlays is $742 billion, an increase of $35 billion, which is higher than the 3.5% ($23.8 billion) jump in 2010 costs over 2009 outlays.

That $742 billion estimate for 2011 costs is almost exactly equal to 2010 income of $741 billion. That means if outlays were to rise even a bit more than expected, or income were to decline from 2010 totals, Social Security would hit a deficit that the trustees aren't expecting to occur until 2025. Given that shortfalls have already reached levels the SSA hadn't expected until 2018, it's not that big a leap to conclude that the system's projections are woefully out of alignment with the nation's new realities.

Retiring on Borrowed Time

What do these potentially large, structural deficits in Social Security mean? It's simple: The Treasury will have to borrow more money on the global bond market to fill the gap, increasing pressure on an already unprecedented federal deficit.

Given the above data, it's unsurprising to find that the Treasury needed to borrow money to pay Social Security benefits in 15 out of the last 25 months. When the cost of monthly benefit payments exceeds the Social Security tax revenues, then the Treasury has to fill the gap with borrowed money.

Policymakers and citizens alike will need to have a realistic grasp of these Social Security deficits if they're to make the tough decisions about taxes and spending that lie ahead.

Tagged: bond market, bonds, borrowing, deficits, disa

See full article from DailyFinance: http://srph.it/fshjjp

In 15 of Last 25 Months, Treasury Needed to Borrow Money to Pay Social Security Benefits | CNSnews.com

In 15 of Last 25 Months, Treasury Needed to Borrow Money to Pay Social Security Benefits | CNSnews.com

In 15 of Last 25 Months, Treasury Needed to Borrow Money to Pay Social Security Benefits

Wednesday, October 20, 2010
By Chris Johnson

Retired beer truck driver Frank Ferrira, 90, talks about social security on Thursday, Oct. 15, 2009 at a senior center in Pembroke Pines, Fla. (AP Photo/J Pat Carter)

(CNSNews.com) - The U.S. Treasury has needed to borrow money to pay Social Security benefits in 15 out of the last 25 months on record because the Social Security system was in deficit in those months, with the cost of monthly benefit payments exceeding the Social Security tax revenues flowing into the Old Age, Survivors and Disability Insurance "trust funds," according to data published by the Social Security Administration.
Because the overall federal budget was in deficit during this entire period, the surplus revenues Social Security earned in the remaining 10 months of the last 25 was used during those months to pay ongoing general government expenses and was not saved to pay future Social Security benefits.
The government gave the Social Security trust funds IOUs for this money.
Prior to August 2008, the Social Security system usually—but not always—ran monthly surpluses, and surplus Social Security taxes were always used by the government to cover deficits in the general federal budget with a promise by the Treasury to eventually pay the money back to the Social Security trust fund when the funds were needed to cover anticipated shortfalls in Social Security revenue. Surplus Social Security tax revenue was never actually set aside to cover these anticipated deficits in Social Security. It was always immediately spent.
In August, the latest month on record, the Social Security system was $8.621 billion in the red, according to the Social Security Administration. That was the fifteenth month since August 2008 in which the system posted a monthly deficit. Back in August 2008, the Social Security system dipped into deficit by $118 million.
For more than decade prior to August 2008, however, the Social Security system ran up an unbroken string of monthly surpluses. The last time before August 2008 that the system posted a deficit in any given month was November 1997, when it ran a $154 million deficit. November was the only month in 1997 that the Social Security system ran a deficit.
In the 259 months from January 1987 to August 2010, according to data published by the Social Security Adminisrtation, Social Security ran deficits in 22 months, or about 8 percent of the time. In the 25 months since August 2008, Social Security has run deficits 60 percent of the time.
In a summary of their annual report released in August, the Social Security trustees predicted that the Social Security system would run an annual deficit in 2010 for the first time since 1983, and that it would also run an annual deficit in 2011. After that, the trustees predicted, Social Security would run “small surpluses” in 2012, 2013 and 2014, and then, barring changes in the system, lurch permanently into the red as the bulk of the Baby Boom moved into retirement and began collecting benefits.
“Social Security expenditures are expected to exceed tax receipts this year for the first time since 1983,” said the trustees.
“The projected deficit of $41 billion this year (excluding interest income) is attributable to the recession and to an expected $25 billion downward adjustment to 2010 income that corrects for excess payroll tax revenue credited to the trust funds in earlier years," the trustees said. "This deficit is expected to shrink substantially for 2011 and to return to small surpluses for years 2012-2014 due to the improving economy. After 2014 deficits are expected to grow rapidly as the baby boom generation’s retirement causes the number of beneficiaries to grow substantially more rapidly than the number of covered workers.”
Mark Lassiter, a spokesman for the Social Security Administration, told CNSNews.com that the recent shortfall was “due, in part, to more beneficiaries coming onto the rolls than originally anticipated due to the economic downturn.”
“There is no significant distinction between OASI and DI in terms of the additional beneficiaries. But the bigger impact is less revenue coming into the system than anticipated due to unemployment,” he said.
Here are the monthly deficits and surpluses for the Social Security system since August 2008, in millions of dollars. Deficits are shown in (parentheses):
2008
August                          (118)
September                    3,182
October                       (320)
November                    (413)
December                    53,110
2009
January                       16,589
February                      (1,255)
March                          2,772
April                             20,548
May                             (1,755)
June                             58,657
July                              (523)
August                          (5,761)
September                    (4,319)
October                       (4,763)
November                    (5,707)
December                    47,206
2010
January                        13,159
February                      (7,570)
March                          (6,746)
April                             17,725
May                             (5,088)
June                             52,597
July                              (3,362)
August                          (8,261)

FOOD STAMPS PROFITS : how JP Morgan gets rich with increased poverty

Made It to A New Year:)

Goodness gracious where does the time go? I have been sooooooo busy over the past few weeks. I have neglected my writing completely. There have been no blog entries and editing my book has been halted at chapter seven for 2 weeks, and more importantly I have not even  posted updates to my friends. Between surgeries (shoulder for myself and nasal for my husband), Holidays and welcomed holiday visitors, and physical therapy sessions there just has not been enough hours in the day lately. But, The New Year has begun, and this is the first official Monday of 2011 and I say lets start it off right. Here's to 2011 being the year that all of your hopes, dreams and wishes come true.

For me what really bites the most, and I hope is going to change soon are my sleep patterns. For the past 3-4 weeks now I have not been able to sleep at night. I cannot even remember my last good nights sleep. It doesn't matter if I try to lay down at 8 p.m. or 3 a.m. It is toss and turn all night long. Snatching bits and pieces of sleep here and there, waking up every time I do fall asleep at all. The clock ticks away in 1 1/2 to 2 hour increments, all night long. Every night. Quite frustrating, and it is really beginning to wear me down. Just ask Kevin, he'll tell you how crabby I have been:)

Hopefully it has just  been the excitement of the season, and this phase will pass now that all of the decorations are put away, the tree has been tossed out, and I can try to slide back in to my daily routine ( a routine I have been trying to establish), with less interruptions and distractions. I know I will still have the physical therapy and doctors appointments to work in, but I need some kind of routine, I need to find my normal.

The shoulder surgery really took a lot more out of me than I was expecting to be honest. At this point I am still thinking I wish I never did it, but we'll see if this opinion changes in the near future. I had no idea this was going to be so painful, and therapy is an absolutely excruciating, tear jerking misery for a few of the many exercises. For those who I have failed to fill in the doctor shaved down the bone for my shoulder socket where there were some large calcium deposit like bone spur things, and then he spent almost two hours cutting back a large segment of tendon. He said it took 4 attempts before he was satisfied it had the best chance to reattach. He also mentioned the tendon itself was oddly discolored. I am his first post radiation cancer patient, and the surgical area was part of the targetted region during treatment, because the radiation was also directed at certain lymph nodes, distant from my throat. It is possibly the radiation treatments  are what is slowing the shoulder surgery recovery. I also had quite a lot of trouble with my neck from the nerve block they used, and unfortunately will probably be returning to physical therapy for my neck, as it has gotten quite bad again. My one year anniversary for completing all chemo and radiation treatments will be January 21st, so I guess I would recommend to anyone considering surgery in a location that was within the field of radiation treatments to wait as long as possible, because it does seem to slow recovery time somewhat.

Other than that though, I am really doing quite good. As I have mentioned before I can taste a lot of different foods now, and being able to taste and smell works wonders for the appetite:) I am still not crazy about anything with a lot of sugar, but that's OK. And on a good note all of the preparation and cleaning for company during the holiday season has allowed me to begin the fresh new year with a nice clean house. Believe me, I had a lot of catching up to do after the past year and a half of cancer treatment and recovery. I am still not "caught up", but, I am satisfied with how far I got. We are also FINALLY in the process of putting down the new tile floor in what will be the old living room, which is going to become the new dining room, and the computer room is going to become the living room, and one of the empty bedrooms (Tennille's old room) will become my private computer room. With a door I can close. LOL. Gee I guess we are still pretty busy:)

I will try to respond promptly to any posts, lol, I do get on and check my email (Usually) at least once a day, and will of course as always happily reply to any newly diagnosed cancer patients with questions,  friends old and new, and family.
Again
HAPPY NEW YEAR