Company ‘gives away’ Southwest to Mexico. Vodka ad shows ‘Absolut world’ in which California, Arizona, others secede. A new ad for Absolut vodka reconfigures North America according to the aspirations of many Mexicans, who believe the U.S. Southwest was stolen and should be returned. Over a redrawn map of the U.S., the ad by the Swedish Absolut Spirits Co. declares, “In an Absolut World,” noted columnist and blogger Michelle Malkin. Major Hispanic civil rights groups in the U.S., such as the National Council of La Raza, are tied to movements advocating a “reconquista,” or reconquest, of territory lost when Mexico signed the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo at the end of the Mexican-American War. Malkin points out the Mexico City-based firm that created the ad, Teran, says its philosophy is advocating “disruption” as a “tool for change” and “agent of growth.” The firm encourages “overturning assumptions and prejudices that get in the way of imagining new possibilities and visionary ideas that help create a larger share of the future.” As WND reported in 2006, Rep. Charles Norwood, R-Ga., called on La Raza to renounce its support of the Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan – which sees “The Race” as part of an ethnic group that one day will reclaim Aztlan, the mythical birthplace of the Aztecs. In Chicano folklore, Aztlan includes California, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico and parts of Colorado and Texas. In 2002, a prominent Chicano activist and University of California at Riverside professor, Armando Navarro, told WND he believed secession is inevitable if demographic and social trends continue. “If in 50 years most of our people are subordinated, powerless, exploited and impoverished, then I will say to you that there are all kinds of possibilities for movements to develop like the ones that we’ve witnessed in the last few years all over the world, from Yugoslavia to Chechnya,” Navarro said. “A secessionist movement is not something that you can put away and say it is never going to happen in the United States,” he contended. “Time and history change.” Navarro said one could argue “that while Mexico lost the war in 1848, it will probably win it in the 21st century, in terms of the numbers,” “But that is not a reality based on what Mexico does, it’s based on what this country does,” he insisted. In a 1995 speech to Chicano activists, Navarro said demographic trends are leading to “a transfer of power” to the ethnic Mexican community in the Southwest. He notes that most studies show that within the next 20 to 30 years Latinos will comprise more than 50 percent of the population of California. This fact, and other cultural and social developments, are opening the door for “self-determination” and even “the idea of an Aztlan,” he said in his speech.

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=60642

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has reduced the key federal funds rate six times in as many months — reducing the cost for major borrowers significantly. This combines with providing $270 million in funding, plus $30 billion in additional guarantees, for JP Morgan Chase to buy Bear Stearns Cos. “Helicopter Ben” is living up to the nickname he earned after he remarked in a 2002 speech that he would stave off a recession even if he had to drop money from helicopters to do it. The results of these policies have been destructive. The dollar is collapsing not only against foreign currencies — we’re now at par with the Canadian dollar and rocketing toward a 2-1 deficit against the Euro — but also against commodities. Gold was passing the $1,000-an-ounce landmark, silver $20. Even industrial metals like copper and zinc are fetching record prices. Now, a spike in a particular commodity — say, for instance, $100-per-barrel oil — can be attributed to a shortage. But when they all move dramatically and simultaneously, it’s the purchasing power of our money that has gone down. In fact, the increasing cost of even the base metals recently prompted Edmund Moy, director of the United States Mint, to propose further debasing the copper and nickel-plated, zinc slugs we call coins by substituting color-coated steel. “Never before in our nation’s history has the government spent more money to mint and issue a coin than the coin’s legal tender value,” he claimed in testimony at a recent hearing before the House Financial Services Committee’s panel on monetary policy. But the U.S. mint continues to issue 1-ounce Gold Eagle coins currently worth about 18 times their $50 legal tender value. The beginning of the end for money “as sound as a dollar” was the creation of the Federal Reserve less than a century ago. The final blow came during the Nixon administration when our money’s last tie to anything of intrinsic worth was severed with the decree that even Silver Certificate currency would no long be redeemable in specie. Why would Bernanke, Moy, et al., want to degrade our money? Who benefits? The answer is: those who are at the head of the line. Creating an additional $270 million in U.S. currency to give JP Morgan Chase provided that company the means to acquire Bear Stearns. Then the owners of Bear Stearns spend the money on something else, albeit at slightly reduced purchasing-power value. The effects will continue to ripple outward, gradually diminishing. The amount of goods and services that can be bought with that $270 million must inevitably decline until the nominal value of the currency reaches equilibrium with the actual wealth available in the economy to purchase. And who will pay? You will — in the future when you go to draw out the money you put into your 401(k) in today’s dollars. Your investment won’t be worth as much as it should. What is amazing is that the public has acquiesced in this money-debasing. It ought to be self-evident that it is impossible to create wealth by making entries in a computer. One Nevada businessman may have found a way to bring the system crashing down — he has begun paying employees in those $50 Gold Eagle coins, making their annual salaries well below the threshold for even having to file tax returns. So far, the IRS is helpless to stop it.

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080404/OPINION01/804040313/1007/OPINION

Kontroversy *We will cross that bridge when we get to it*

Kontentious *The bridge may not be there when we arrive*

http://humanities.byu.edu/elc/student/idioms/proverbs/dont_cross_your_bridges.html

In employment data that would seem worthy of the name recession, the government reported Friday the steepest monthly job losses in five years as well as a spike in the unemployment rate for March. The report confirms widespread pessimism about the near-term economic outlook. Nonfarm payrolls fell by an estimated 80,000 in March, the Labor Department said. It marked the largest decline seen since March 2003, underscoring how reluctant employers remain to committing to making new hires. Private-sector payrolls have now declined for four consecutive months, the data showed. Read full survey. The nation’s unemployment rate surged to 5.1% last month, the highest since September 2005. The decline in payrolls was steeper than the 60,000 decrease that had been expected by Wall Street economists surveyed by MarketWatch. See Economic Calendar. Adding to the sense of weakness in employment, payrolls in January and February were revised lower by a cumulative 67,000. Job losses thus have totaled 232,000 so far this year, an average of 77,000 lost jobs per month. The government’s separate household survey showed a decline in employment of 24,000 in March, and a 434,000 rise in unemployment. As a result, the unemployment rate rose. The job report should add to the growing sense that the Federal Reserve will cut the federal funds target interest rate again at its next meeting on April 29-30. The report suggests that businesses are growing increasingly cautious about hiring in the wake of the credit crunch and financial markets’ recent turmoil. Earlier this week, Fed chief Ben Bernanke said a recession was possible in the first six months of the year. But, in testimony before Congress, Bernanke stressed that the economy is still expected to turn around some time this summer. See full story. March’s data’s details. The weakness in last month’s nonfarm payroll growth was widespread. Only education, government, mining and food services added workers in the month. One factor depressing jobs was the ongoing strike by the United Auto Workers against American Axle & Manufacturing Holdings Inc. Manufacturing jobs declined by 48,000, the biggest drop since July 2003. Construction jobs fell by 51,000. Jobs in services increased a slim 13,000, but retail jobs fell 12,000. Governments added 18,000 jobs. The health-care sector added 42,000 jobs, while leisure businesses added 18,000. But the number of temporary workers, considered a bellwether sector, dropped 42,000 in March. Meanwhile, the average hourly wage for March increased 5 cents, or 0.3%, to $17.86, in line with expectations. Hourly wages are up 3.6% in the past year. The average workweek rose six minutes to stand at 33.8 hours. Total hours worked in the economy rose 0.2% Average hours worked in manufacturing and factory overtime rose six minutes for March.

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/payrolls-contract-80000-jobless-rate/story.aspx?guid=%7B205C6DC6%2D40DA%2D4BBE%2D8AE4%2DE656839AD1E0%7D

.. ..Americans are more dissatisfied with the country’s direction than at any time since the New York Times/CBS News poll began asking about the subject in the early 1990s, according to the latest poll.. ..But the issues have switched places in just a few months’ time. In the latest poll, 17 percent named terrorism or the war, while 37 percent named the economy or the job market. When looking at the current state of their own finances, Americans remain relatively sanguine.. ..Democrats have asserted recently that the lack of wage growth has made people more open to government intervention in the economy than in the past, and the poll found mixed results on this score.. ..In the poll, 81 percent of respondents said they believed “things have pretty seriously gotten off on the wrong track,” up from 69 percent a year ago and 35 percent in early 2002.. ..Only 21 percent of respondents said the overall economy was in good condition, the lowest such number since late 1992, when the recession that began in the summer of 1990 had already been over for more than a year. In the latest poll, two in three people said they believed the economy was in recession today.. ..Respondents were more pessimistic when asked in general terms about the next generation, with only a third saying it would live better than people do today. (Polls usually find people more upbeat about their personal situation than about the state of society, but the gap is now larger than usual).. ..The poll found that Americans blame government officials for the crisis more than banks or home buyers and other borrowers. Forty percent of respondents said regulators were mostly to blame, while 28 percent named lenders and 14 percent named borrowers.. ..When the presidential campaign began last year, the war in Iraq and terrorism easily topped Americans’ list of concerns. Almost 30 percent of people in a December poll said that one of those issues was the country’s most pressing problem. About half as many named the economy or jobs.. ..

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/04/us/04poll.html?ei=5065&en=701f7a0c0a5d183c&ex=1207972800&adxnnl=1&partner=MYWAY&pagewanted=print&adxnnlx=1207310831-lEFJAyE0ER+h7EMbIZDnDw

A little noticed remark in the press is generating heat for McCain’s presidential campaign. On Wednesday, McCain’s campaign told CNN that the Arizona senator’s medical file would be produced May 15. Trouble is, they previously said they’d be released April 15, and they’ve refused to turn the records over to the New York Times on at least three occasions. This has led some on the left to question, “What’s he hiding?” — as is the banner headline on the politics section of liberal blog, The Huffington Post. “Mr. McCain has yet to make his full medical records or his physicians available to reporters,” the Times veteran medical correspondent Dr. Lawrence Altman penned in March. “At least three times since March 2007, campaign officials have told The New York Times that they would provide the detailed information about his current state of health, but they have not done so. The campaign now says it expects to release the information in April.” McCain’s previous encounter with skin cancer: The Times has taken issue with McCain’s health before. In early March of this year, the paper ran a Sunday splash titled “On the Campaign Trail, Few Mentions of McCain’s Bout With Melanoma.” “Along with his signature bright white hair, the most striking aspects of Senator John McCain’s physical appearance are his puffy left cheek and the scar that runs down the back of his neck,” Altman wrote. “The marks are cosmetic reminders of the melanoma surgery he underwent in August 2000. Mr. McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, sometimes tells audiences that he has ‘more scars than Frankenstein.’” The recent ducking of questions on his medical history stands in contrast to his release of detailed files in 1999, “In 1999, during Mr. McCain’s first race for president, he gave the public an extraordinary look at his medical history — 1,500 pages of medical and psychiatric records that were amassed as part of a United States Navy project to gauge the health of former prisoners of war,” Altman wrote in March. “This reporter, who is a physician, interviewed the senator’s doctors in 1999 with his permission.” The CNN report was featured in a blog post on their political ticker Wednesday. It was not picked up by news agencies or even the subject of a CNN report. The Carpetbagger blog, however, caught the CNN blog post and raised a storm. McCain said he’d release files on 60 Minutes. The Times report “was the standard line in early March. McCain sat down for an interview with Scott Pelley on 60 Minutes, and was asked about his health. McCain said it’s ‘excellent’ (three times), and said his campaign would be ‘doing the medical records thing’ soon,” Carpetbagger’s Steve Bennen wrote. “Pelley followed up, “There has been some criticism that you have not released your medical records. You’re saying in this interview that you’re about to do that. McCain replied, ‘Oh, yeah, we’ll do it in the next month or so, yeah.’” “For a candidate who has nothing to hide, he’s acting like he has something to hide,” he continued later. “And given that McCain is running to be the oldest president ever elected, and he has a history of medical problems including melanoma, this is a little unsettling. “If McCain had a history of secrecy,” he added, “it’d be easier to just chalk this up to a character flaw. But his previous disclosures actually make the problem worse. He was an open book during his first campaign, and now he can’t even explain the delays in releasing his records. “As I said,” he concluded. “There’s probably nothing to this. But the campaign’s conduct on the issue raises questions, doesn’t it?”

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/McCain_delays_releasing_medical_records_again_0404.html

http://www.johnmccain.com/

For anyone hoping to buy a home, sell one or hold onto the one they have, the $15 billion housing bill unveiled in the Senate yesterday may mean nothing more than a bit of extra cash in the pocket. The housing bill, hastily cobbled together by Republican and Democratic leaders, would allow state and local property tax deductions this year of up to $1,000 for families and $500 for individuals who now can’t deduct that money. It also aims to spur demand for homes by providing a $7,000 tax break, split over two years, to anyone who buys a foreclosed home within a year of the bill’s enactment. But many consumer advocates say the Senate’s “Foreclosure Prevention Act” does not live up to its name. They say it fails to deliver swift help to the most distressed homeowners and is of limited use to borrowers who may soon be in trouble. “Anybody who gets money in their hands out of this bill will be happy, but that does not mean it will solve the larger social problem or larger economic problem,” said Peter Morici, economist and business school professor at the University of Maryland. Those who stand to benefit the most are home builders and businesses hit by the economic downturn. Through 2010, the entire tax package would cost about $28.8 billion, of which $25.5 billion would go to money-losing businesses in the form of tax rebates. They would give up other tax breaks, reducing the cost of the entire housing bill to $15 billion by 2018. The House plans to offer its own version of the legislation, and Democratic leaders said they would focus on different priorities. “Hopefully, the balance will swing to be in favor of the families who are in danger of losing their homes,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said. For consumer groups, the biggest setback was the Senate’s decision to strip the bill of a provision that would have allowed bankruptcy court judges to rewrite the terms of troubled loans for people who filed for personal bankruptcy. The Senate yesterday killed an effort to restore the measure. The measure could have saved more than half a million borrowers from foreclosure through 2009, according to its supporters, by allowing judges to lower the interest rates of mortgages, extend the life of the loans or forgive part of the debts. Of all the legislative proposals aimed at helping homeowners, consumer advocates said this one offered the most relief. But the lending industry lobbied against it, saying it would increase borrowing costs and encourage some to use bankruptcy as a cheap alternative to refinancing. Without the provision, “there’s no guarantee of any help whatsoever for many of the clients I work with,” said Nancy Ryan, a bankruptcy lawyer in Fairfax.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/03/AR2008040304030.html