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Florida's Forgotten Victims Of Foreclosure: Tenants

MIAMI -- Sergio Palacios doesn't have the typical South Florida foreclosure story.

He doesn't live in a McMansion in some suburban subdivision. He wasn't tricked into a mortgage he couldn't afford. In fact, he doesn't own a home at all. He's a tenant. But for the last five months and counting, Palacios, an unemployed construction worker, has lived in his Liberty City apartment without running water.

Deutsche Bank filed a foreclosure suit against the property's owners in April. As Palacios and his roommate suffered through illness and joblessness, they have slipped out to friends' houses to drink and bathe when they could, and did without when they couldn't.

On Tuesday, in a hearing that lasted less than nine minutes, Florida Eleventh Judicial Circuit Judge Gladys Perez ordered his water turned back on.

"Why are we here if we know the tenants are there?" she asked, a hint of irritation in her voice. Florida law prohibits landlords from simply cutting off utilities, a point which a lawyer for the apartment's owners, Joseph Dolsan and Jean Mervoir, did not dispute.

"Let's do it," Perez continued, "let's get the water back on."

Palacios's saga won't end there. Dolsan and Mervoir have vowed to evict him. But his hearing on Tuesday illustrates one of the hidden undercurrents of the foreclosure crisis: tenants, many who have little or no income, caught in the middle of battles between banks and property owners. The Census's American Community Survey estimates that 345,000 housing units in Miami-Dade County are renter-occupied -- 42 percent of the area's total. An unknown number of those units have been caught up in the area's housing crash.

Some 40 percent of the families nationwide facing eviction due to foreclosure are renters, according to National Low Income Housing Coalition estimates. Many of those foreclosures happen in low-income, non-white communities, where the tenants affected are the least likely to seek legal help or know their rights.

Federal law passed in 2009 creates some protections for tenants, but only once the properties they live in have been formally foreclosed upon. That a process that can often drag out over months.

Palacios's lawyer at Florida Legal Services, Purvi Shah, said she has handled about a dozen similar instances of landlords in foreclosure cutting off utilities in the past year. While statistics about the problem seem to be scarce, she estimates that foreclosure means "dozens if not hundreds of families are living without running water in South Florida."

By and large, she said, her clients live in duplexes, triplexes or other small multi-family residences. They are often properties that "investors purchased at the height of the bubble, thinking they were going to have a good investment property, or that they would be able to flip the property, then got caught in the crash."

"You've got landlords who are living in the middle of foreclosure," Shah said, "allowing their properties to run into the ground."

Foreclosures are often see as two-sided conflicts between banks and mortgagees, leaving tenants forgotten. Shah would like to see more responsibility for maintaining rental properties placed on lenders like Deutsche Bank, but for now there is little legal basis in Florida for actions like that.

Legislation passed in 2009 grants renters the right to stay in their properties for 90 days after a foreclosure has been finalized or throughout the term of their lease, whichever is longer.

"Before, banks always thought that we don't want to be landlords, and nobody can make us landlords," said Kent Qian, a staff attorney at the National Housing Law Project. Generally, he said, some banks don't see the value in collecting rent from only a few tenants when they have to go through the hassle of maintaining properties for them -- "but the federal law makes it clear."

"When you look back at all the federal requirements, who's been required to do what, I'd say that banks with regard to homeowner were required to do little" since the housing crash, said Linda Couch, the National Low Income Housing Coaltion's senior vice president for policy and research. "This is one area where Congress said wait a minute, we truly have a blameless victim here."

Since the foreclosure on his building is still dragging on, Palacio filed a lawsuit against Dolsan and Mervoir to keep the water running.Florida law mandates that tenants' utilities stay connected and residences remain habitable.

"There is no federal legislation that addresses that," said Qian. "So a lot of problems can happen during the foreclosure process, especially when the former landlord, who's not making their payments, skips out on all the other checks as well."

Even when tenants are able to make payments on utilities themselves, they are often confronted with a messy legal and logistical tangle of utility bills and inconsistent laws.

In many states it is difficult for tenants to take over utility payments when their landlords fail to uphold their obligations. Shah, Palacios's lawyer, said a recently passed ordinance should make it easier for Miami tenants to step in -- but that the high deposit fees required will make it difficult for many of her clients to pay up.

Shah would like to see the county step up its code enforcement. She would also like to see more cities and towns "look at this and see what's happening to our communities wholesale."

"Our multifamily properties," Shah said, "are either languishing or no longer serving as healthy safety property."

In the case of Palacios's residence -- a duplex on the county's property register that Shah claimed was illegally subdivided into three units -- everyone seems to agree that the property is languishing. Palacios is withholding his rent over the generally shabby upkeep of his home.

Marlie Condon, the landlords' lawyer, said she would be starting the eviction process almost at the same time as the water was restored.

"We have to," Condon said. "There's not supposed to be anyone in there now. There's problems with the building."

That response, Shah said, would be a "retaliatory eviction" -- which Shah said she'd fight it in court.

Speaking through a court interpreter on Tuesday, Palacios said he was pleased with his incremental victory. "Yes, yes, yes," he said, "very happy."

Around the Web: Renters in Foreclosure: What Are Their Rights? | Nolo.com Is Your Landlord Going Through Foreclosure? What a Tenant Needs ... Tenants and Foreclosure Tenants Facing Foreclosure - MassLegalHelp From Foreclosure to Occupation: Tenants Organize To Beat Evictions RiverWalk Crossing tenants counter foreclosure stigma Fannie Mae, banks halt foreclosures for the holidays Renters rights strengthened in Merced Read more at www.huffingtonpost.com

 

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Massachusetts AG Lawsuit: Five Major U.S. Banks Accused Of Deceptive Foreclosure Practices

WASHINGTON -- Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley is suing five of the nation's biggest banks for deceptive foreclosure and mortgage modification practices, her office announced Thursday. Coakley's suit signals her formal departure from ongoing settlement negotiations between those banks, the Obama administration and a coalition of other state AGs over faulty foreclosure procedures.

"The single most important thing we can do to return to a healthy economy is to address this foreclosure crisis," Coakley said in a statement Thursday. "Our suit alleges that the banks have charted a destructive path by cutting corners and rushing to foreclose on homeowners without following the rule of law. Our action today seeks real accountability for the banks illegal behavior and real relief for homeowners."

The lawsuit, filed against Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Citibank, Ally Financial and the Mortgage Electronic Registration System in Suffolk Superior Court, targets banks' using fraudulent paperwork in the foreclosure process, foreclosing without actually holding the mortgage, corrupting the local land recording system and failing to uphold promises of loan modifications.

Until now, Coakley had participated in settlement negotiations led by Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller and the Obama administration. The talks kicked off last fall when it came to light banks were using phony documents and forged signatures -- a process dubbed "robo-signing" -- to foreclose on thousands of borrowers.

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden became outspoken critics of the talks this summer, insisting Miller sought too narrow a settlement that would release the banks from liability for too much wrongdoing. Miller's focus has been robo-signing and mistreatment of struggling homeowners seeking modifications, but not potential fraud in the way loans were given to borrowers or sold to investors, or in the way banks use MERS to shuffle mortgage documents. The settlement would not encompass the 50 percent of all home mortgages owned by government-backed mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, according to sources close to the talks.

The deal sought by Miller would force the five banks to reform the way the service mortgages and to fork over $25 billion worth of help for homeowners, mostly in the form of principal reductions and modifications. Some who already lost their homes would be eligible for small restitution payments.

Coakley said in a Thursday conference call with reporters that Miller could still reach an agreement, "but it's taken too long and the signals we have received are that we won't get relief that we seek."

In a Thursday statement, Miller said Coakley had told him of her decision. "She also indicated that she'll evaluate the joint state-federal settlement we're negotiating, which we hope to reach soon," Miller said. "Attorney General Coakley indicates that she is open to joining our settlement effort if the terms adequately address the needs of the people of Massachusetts. We're optimistic that we'll settle on terms that will be in the interests of Massachusetts."

Danny Kanner, a spokesman for Schneiderman, praised Coakley in a statement. "Attorney General Schneiderman is encouraged by Attorney General Coakley's action today, and looks forward to their continued work to hold those responsible for the mortgage crisis accountable and provide meaningful relief to struggling homeowners."

Attorneys general in California and Nevada have also distanced themselves from the settlement talks in recent months. In August sources said Coakley was among the AGs pushing for tougher treatment of the banks.

"The lawsuit follows more than a year of negotiations with the banks over a 50-state settlement focused around the issues of fraudulent documents, including 'robo-signing,'" Coakley's office said in its release. "AG Coakley had made clear that she would not sign on to an agreement with the banks if it included broad liability release regarding MERS and other issues or if she did not believe the banks had come to the table with an offer in the best interest of Massachusetts."

Around the Web: Massachusetts AG Readies Foreclosure Suits Against Major Servicers Martha Coakley, Massachusetts Attorney General, Proceeding With ... Massachusetts AG Preparing Litigation Against Major Banks Over ... Massachusetts AG prepares litigation against mortgage servicers ... Coakley may sue lenders for foreclosure abuses - Boston.com Mass AG loses confidence in foreclosure talks - Yahoo! Finance Mass. AG Coakley launches probe of foreclosure mess ... Read more at www.huffingtonpost.com

 

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ARE YOU A BAPTISED PAGAN?

‘Tis the Season - Baptised Paganism

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‘Tis the Season

Baptised Paganism

By Benjamin Mengali

Many superstitions and pagan philosophies have been baptised into the church and occupy a prominent place in modern theology; pagan traditions, practices, and symbols that can all be traced back to idolatrous Babylon, have crept into the church and have been concealed by new names. But let’s go back even farther than ancient Babylon in tracing this apostasy.

“And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, and prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven.” Revelation 12:7,8.

Here we are told of Satan’s rebellion in heaven and his consequent defeat He was defeated and cast to this earth and through the centuries has succeeded in deceiving the whole world. Satan’s name used to be Lucifer, which means day star (Isaiah 14:12, margin). How many stars can you see in the daytime? There is just one. It is that great luminous body called the sun. It is the day star of this earth. Since Satan does not appear in person, he has turned men’s attention to the worship of the sun, the greatest, the most powerful, luminous body in the visible universe. Therefore, sun worship forms a part of most heathen religions. The devil has worked through the great isms of our world to deceive millions. One of those isms is heathenism. In fact, Satan holds more captives in heathenism than in any other ism to day. An inherent desire to worship God was instilled in man at creation. But Satan has perverted this desire and has led man to worship the sun instead of the God who created it. Well-Meaning Christians

No doubt there are many well-meaning Christian people, who have been taught, and therefore believe, that Easter, Christmas, and Sunday are biblical institutions, established by Christ, and kept by the apostles, and hence are very sacred. It is not our intention in this article to unsettle any of God’s children on what is truth or bring undue unhappiness to such who are enjoying their religious belief; but as true happiness only comes to “the man whom God correcteth,” and who does not “weary of his correction”; therefore, let us ever be ready to receive correction, “for whom the Lord loveth he correcteth.” Job 5:17; Proverbs 3:11,12.

Nimrod

Heathen philosophy claims that when Nimrod, the great-grandson of Noah, died, he was immortalized and his spirit took possession of the sun, where he is dwelling as the sun god. The initial” t” for Tammuz was always considered the symbol of sun worship.

Semiramis

Semiramis, the wife of Nimrod, became a great queen; and in order that the people would love her, she told them that she would take possession of the moon after she died, just as her husband Nimrod had taken possession of the sun Semiramis never remarried after the death of Nimrod, but a few years later, she gave birth to a son, Tammuz, on the 25th day of December. This great queen claimed that this son was miraculously conceived by the spirit of her dead husband Nimrod. After the death of Semiramis she was revered by the pagans as the Mother of God and the Queen of Heaven. Her son “Tammuz” was called the Son of God, and worshipped in different lands under various names. He was commonly called Zoroaster, meaning the seed of the woman. You can see how the devil was counterfeiting the Trinity, and counterfeiting the birth of Christ, counterfeiting the miraculous conception of Jesus by producing a false god and a false mother and son combination.

Tammuz

Tammuz was considered the “son of the sun. The first letter of his name T was ever afterwards considered the symbol of sun worship. Sun worshippers offered to their sun god human sacrifice, which was upon a wooden cross-the initial T of the name Tammuz.

Sun Worship

The origin and character of sun worship was, and always will be, pagan. By whatever name or whatever form the son was worshipped, there was always a female divinity associated with it. As the sun was the great god, the supreme lord, and as he exerted his mortal glorious powers of production, it was held to be the most acceptable worship for his devotees to employ themselves and their power.

When God established His worship with the children of Israel in the very midst of the sun-worshipping nations surrounding them, He required His people to make the door of the tabernacle (or temple) always toward the east, in order that all who worship the Lord would in so doing turn their backs upon the rising sun and its worship; and that whosoever joined in the worship of the sun had first to turn his back upon the Lord. But even though the Lord was so careful in His dealing with His children, yet Israel did apostatise from Him, turned their backs towards the temple of the Lord and their faces toward the east and worshipped the sun toward the east (Ezekiel 8:16). Sunday came from this sun worship and was dedicated to the sun god. It was on this day that the worst sun-worship features were practiced. The origin and character of Sunday, like sun worship, was, is, and always will be pagan. No matter how this child of paganism is dressed up so as to make it look like a Christian festival, it is pagan in both origin and character. Sunday is the wild, solar holiday of all pagan times. But on contrary, the Lord has given His children a rest day He furnished the earth with the fullness thereof, and made the Sabbath rest for His children. Which will we observe? The child of paganism or God’s seventh day Sabbath?

Christmas

Christmas, or Christ-Mass, has become one of the leading holy days in the world today. But the 25th of December is not the birthday of Jesus – it is the birthday of Tammuz The Bible says that the shepherds were with their flocks; and shepherds were never with their sheep on the hills in the winter Jesus must have been born at a warmer season Nobody really knows when he>us was born. The Bible does not reveal the date of His birth. Rather, it was the birthday of the pagan sun god; hut the Church of Rome started calling it the birthday of Christ, the Son of the true God People have been taught to trample on God’s holy day, the Seventh-day Sabbath, but at the same time to reverence a day that is totally pagan in origin.

We have now traced the origin of heathen customs that have crept into Christianity (such as the worship on Sunday, in reverence to the Sun-god, and also Christmas, worship of the birthday of Tammuz who was the sup-posed reincarnation of Nimrod-the Sun-god). In the early centuries, Christianity tried to win the pagans over to their religion. But, instead of revealing to them the power of the Gospel as the Apostles did, they just baptised the pagans together with their false worship and incorporated their festivals into Christianity. Let us now take a brief look at Lent and Faster.

Lent and Easter

Tammuz, the supposed son of Nimrod, was also a great hunter. But while yet quite a young man, he was killed by a wild boar, in the spring of the year. This caused much weeping throughout the whole kingdom. The forty days before the time of the celebration for the moon were set apart as the days for weeping. Especially did the women take a lead in this weeping for Tammuz. We would be amazed if we knew of all the traditions that have been handed down from paganism and have been baptised into the Christian Church. Lent, which was a season of weeping forty days for Tammuz, is one of those traditions that have been handed down to Christianity today.

Dr. Hislop says: “The forty days’ abstinence of Lent was directly borrowed from the worshippers of a Babylonian goddess. Such a lent of forty days, in the spring of the year, is still observed by Yezidis or Pagan Devil-worshippers of Koordistan. Such a lent of forty days was held in spring by the Pagan Mexicans. Such a lent of forty days was ob-served in Egypt.”-The Two BabyIons, pp.104,105. In Christian churches to-day, solemn services are conducted during this forty-day period, climaxing on Easter Sunday.

Semiramis was also worshipped under the names of Ashtaroth, Ishtar, Astarte and was also associated with the worship of Dianna of the Ephesians. It is from the names Ishtar or Astarte that our modern name of Faster is derived. How was the date of the feast of Astarte, or Semiramis, determined? Counting back nine months from the 25th of December, or the birthday of Tammuz, brings us to the month of March. In order to make this feast always occur on a Sunday, or the sun’s day, it was decided that Tammuz (the in-carnation credited to Nimrod the sun-god) was conceived the first Sunday after the first full moon after the first day of Spring. And friends, that is exactly how the date for Easter Sunday is still determined today. It has nothing to do with the actual crucifixion date of Jesus. Originally, this was the day that was set apart in honour of Semiramis, as Astarte; and it became a festival of great licentiousness, the most acceptable offering being virginity. Yes, this is the origin of our Easter Sunday. Many do not realise that the Bible mentions these pagan customs. Ezekiel tells of Israel, the people of God, weeping for Tammuz.

“Then said he unto me, Son of man, hast thou seen what the ancients of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in. the chambers of his imagery? for they say, The Lord seeth us not; the Lord hath forsaken the earth. He said also unto me, Turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations that they do. Then he brought me to the door of the gate of the Lord’s house which was toward the north; and behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz. Then said he unto me, Hast thou seen this, 0 son of man? turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations than these. And he brought me into the inner court of the Lord’s house, and, behold, at the door of the temple of the Lord, between the porch and the altar, were about five and twenty men, with their backs toward the temple of the Lord, and their faces toward the east; and they worshipped the sun toward the east. Then he said unto me, Hast thou seen this, 0 son of man? Is it a light thing to the house of Judah that they commit the abominations, which they commit here? for they have filled the land with violence, and have re-turned to provoke me to anger: and, lo, they put the branch to their nose. Therefore will I also deal in fury: mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity: and though they cry in mine ears with a loud voice, yet will I not hear them.” 8:12-18

“The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead their dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto other gods, that they may provoke me to anger.” Jeremiah 7:18

Here they are making cakes or buns to the Queen of Heaven. This practice continues down to our day, for at Easter time, all the world makes and eats buns commonly called Hot Cross Buns.

The Third Angel’s Message

The warning of the third angel is against the worship of the beast and his image. All such as give homage or reverence unto the mandates of this beast or his image shall drink of the wrath of God, which we find to be the seven last plagues. To give homage or reverence unto the mandates of the beast is the very worship against which we are warned in this message. No man can claim he is worshipping God while he himself is still hanging in the balance concerning the mandates of the beast and his image. No church can claim to be giving the third angel’s message while the leaders and laity are trying to bolster up any of the mandates of the beast and his image.

Amen.

Further reading:  http://sabbathsermons.com/2010/08/30/birthdays-and-modern-baal-worship-2/

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Pastor Trading Bed In For Box

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'UFOs' Disrupting Search for 'God Particle'

Natalie Wolchover, Life's Little Mysteries Staff Writer

A simulation of a particle collision inside the Large Hadron Collider, the world's largest particle accelerator near Geneva, Switzerland. When two protons collide inside the machine, they create an energetic explosion that gives rise to new and exotic particles. CREDIT: CERN View full size image

Physicists working at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), a particle accelerator at CERN Laboratory in Switzerland, are trying to slam particles together hard enough to break them into never-before-seen pieces, which could solve some of the biggest puzzles in nature.

But UFOs — unidentified falling objects, that is — keep getting in their way.

The LHC is a 17-mile (27-km) circular tunnel lined with powerful magnets, which accelerate protons (particles in the nuclei of atoms) to 99.9999991 percent the speed of light. Beams of these super-brisk protons are accelerated clockwise around the ring and collide with beams traveling counter-clockwise, and, like a well-struck piñata, a dead-on hit produces a thrilling outburst of subatomic goodies. When they turn the proton beams up to full power, the physicists hope to find the Higgs boson, also known as the "God particle," which is believed to create the drag that gives everything else mass, among the collision debris. They'll also look for dark matter, the invisible substance that permeates the outskirts of galaxies.

However, since last year, something has been fluttering in the way of the proton beams and dampening the force of their blows, the physicists say. These "UFOs" aren't from outer space — they're probably microscopic dust particles of unknown origin — but they're still mysterious, and while they're around, the prize goodies will likely remain stashed. [LHC On Hold Until 2012]

UFOs are "one of the major known limitations for the performance of the Large Hadron Collider," wrote Tobias Baer, a physicist working at the LHC, and colleagues in a paper for the recent IPAC2011 conference in San Sebastián, Spain. The researchers have spent the past few months trying to characterize the UFOs, and are devising strategies to get rid of them.

More than 10,000 possible UFO events — occasions when there were proton-beam losses thought to result from UFOs blocking the protons — were observed between April and August, some so significant that they triggered "beam dumps," where the beam automatically shut down. Many of these events occurred in the electric arc that produces the beam of protons, the researchers wrote. Because the events became more frequent as the intensity of the proton beam increased, they "are expected to be very critical for LHC operation at higher energies."

Even more UFO events, and resulting beam dumps, happened at a point in the beam just past objects called injector kicker magnets (MKIs), suggesting that these magnets are a major source of the mystery objects. The large impact of these UFOs implied that they were being accelerated toward the proton beam by the magnets, which could only happen if the UFO particles were charged.

"Many additional studies are ongoing to gain a more profound knowledge about the behavior, impact and production mechanism of UFOs," Baer et al. wrote.

This story was provided by Life's Little Mysteries, sister site to SPACE.com. Follow Natalie Wolchover on Twitter @nattyover. Follow Life's Little Mysteries on Twitter @llmysteries, then join us on Facebook. Read more at www.space.com

 

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Newt Gingrich's contradictory views on "climate change"

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Gingrich's contradictions on 'climate change' run deep

Calls global warming ad 'mistake,' but see what else politician peddled

By Aaron Klein

Nancy Pelosi and Newt Gingrich in 2008 TV commercial affirming humans cause climate change

Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich has recently offered seemingly contradictory views on "climate change," claiming to oppose climate taxation while partnering with a group that promotes such legislation.

The former House speaker earlier this week called his partnering with Nancy Pelosi on an environmental mission a "mistake." However, last year he not only defended the move but said he would have done it again.

In a Fox News interview with Bill O'Reilly earlier this week, Gingrich was asked about a 2008 commercial starring himself and Pelosi in which the duo urged "action" to address "climate change."

"We do agree, our country must take action to address climate change," says Gingrich in the commercial, sitting on a couch next to Pelosi.

"We need cleaner forms of energy, and we need them fast," Pelosi chimes in.

"If enough of us demand action from our leaders, we can spark the innovation we need," continues Gingrich.

Speaking to O'Reilly, Gingrich called the 31-second spot the "one of the dumbest things I've done in recent years."

"It was an effort in my part to say that conservatives are concerned about the environment. … But the commercial is just a mistake," he told O'Reilly.

However, in a video interview with Human Events magazine in May 2010, the former speaker not only defended his commercial with Pelosi, but he said he would do it again even after the 2009 email hacking scandal raised serious questions about the science behind so-called global warming.

"If they offer the chance to, then sure," Gingrich replied, when asked if he would do the commercial again despite the climate science controversy.

"I would do a commercial with Al Gore," he further stated.

The Pelosi commercial was for a Gore initiative. It promoted the Gore-founded website and project, We Can Solve It.org.

In the 2008 ad, Pelosi states alongside Gingrich, "Go to We Can Solve It dot org. Together we can do this."

In both his Human Events and O'Reilly interviews, Gingrich stated he was against "climate change" legislation.

"I actively opposed cap and trade. I testified against it the same day Al Gore testified for it," he told O'Reilly.

Speaking to Human Events, Gingrich stated, "I deeply oppose giant tax increases. I oppose centralized bureaucracy."

However, Gore's We Can Solve It project that Gingrich promoted hawked carbon taxation and other U.S. and global climate legislation.

The group's mission statement read, "The goal is to build a movement that creates the political will to solve the climate crisis – in part through repowering America with 100 percent of its electricity from clean energy sources within 10 years."

The list of actions from We Can Solve It's website in 2008 included: "Signing the petition for a global treaty on climate change. Urging the press to ask about global warming. Asking lenders to consider climate impact when funding new coal plants."

We Can Solve It changed it name to The Climate Reality Project, a group still directed by Gore. The group states on its website it seeks to oppose "manmade climate change."

Just like We Can Solve It, Gore's Reality Project is partnered with Earth Day.org, which promotes climate-change legislation. It boasts how it helped create the environment for the passage of the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, Endangered Species Act and many other environmental laws.

Just last month, the Reality Project hailed the Australian Senate's passage of a carbon tax for the country's largest polluters.

Maggie L. Fox, president and CEO of the Climate Reality Project, issued the following statement when the tax was approved:

With this legislation, Australia will reduce carbon pollution, produce more energy from renewable sources and stand up to the reality of climate change. Today, Australia joined leading countries around the world that recognize climate change is real, humans are causing it and we must act now."

Gingrich's own writings and activism, meanwhile, evidence environmental activism.

At a 2007 debate with Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., Gingrich dubbed himself a "green conservative," saying Republicans shouldn't argue that global warming is a myth but should offer market-based solutions to the problem.

Gingrich co-authored the 2008 book "A Contract with the Earth" in which he expressed his support for reducing carbon in the atmosphere, developing new technologies and creating incentives and rewards for "green" companies.

The theme of the book was that conservative views are compatible with environmentalism.

In a 2008 piece in Issues in Science and Technology Magazine, Gingrich called for "a new, bipartisan environmental movement" meant to "create pathways for every American, indeed every nation, to cooperate and collaborate on achievable solutions to restore, revitalize, and renew the Earth."

With additional research by Brenda J. Elliott Read more at www.wnd.com

 

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Japan: Fukushima Dai-ichi Meltdown Deeper Than Previously Thought

In this Nov. 12, 2011 file photo, workers in protective suits and masks wait to enter the emergency operation center at the crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power station in Okuma, Japan. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder, Pool, File)

MARI YAMAGUCHI

TOKYO — Radioactive debris from melted fuel rods may have seeped deeper into the floor of a Japan's tsunami-hit nuclear reactor than previously thought, to within a foot from breaching the crucial steel barrier, a new simulation showed Wednesday.

The findings will not change the ongoing efforts to stabilize the reactors more than eight months after the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant was disabled, but they harshly depict the meltdowns that occurred and conditions within the reactors, which will be off-limits for years.

The plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. said its latest simulation showed fuel at the No. 1 reactor may have eroded part of the primary containment vessel's thick concrete floor. The vessel is a beaker-shaped steel container, set into the floor. A concrete foundation below that is the last manmade barrier before earth.

The fuel came within a foot of the container's steel bottom in the worst-case scenario but has been somewhat cooled, TEPCO's nuclear safety official Yoshihiro Oyama said at a government workshop. He said fuel rods in the No. 1 reactor were the worst damaged because it lost cooling capacity before the other two reactors, leaving its rods dry and overheated for hours before water was pumped in.

The nuclear crisis following the March 11 earthquake and tsunami caused massive radiation leaks and the relocation of some 100,000 people.

Another simulation on the structure released by the government-funded Japan Nuclear Energy Safety Organization, or JNES, said the erosion of the concrete could be deeper and the possibility of structural damage to the reactor's foundation needs to be studied.

JNES official Masanori Naito said the melting fuel rods lost their shape as they collapsed to the bottom of the vessel, then deteriorated into drops when water pumping resumed, and the fuel drops spattered and smashed against the concrete as they fell, Naito said.

TEPCO and government officials are aiming to achieve "cold shutdown" by the end of the year – a first step toward creating a stable enough environment for work to proceed on removing the reactors' nuclear fuel and closing the plant altogether.

The government estimates it will take 30 years or more to safely decommission Fukushima Dai-ichi.

Wednesday's simulations depict what happened early in the crisis and do not mean a recent deterioration of the No. 1 reactor. Oyama said, however, the results are based only on available data and may not match the actual conditions inside the reactors, which cannot be opened for years.

Some experts have raised questions about achieving the "cold shutdown," which means bringing the temperature of the pressure vessel containing healthy fuel rods to way below the benchmark 100 Celsius (212 Fahrenheit). They say the fuel is no longer there and measuring the temperature of empty cores is meaningless, while nobody knows where and how hot the melted fuel really is.

Kiyoharu Abe, a nuclear expert at JNES, said it's too early to make a conclusion and more simulations should be done to get accurate estimates.

"I don't think the simulation today was wrong, but we should look at this from various viewpoints rather than making a conclusion from one simulation," Abe said. "It's just the beginning of a long process."

Around the Web: Japan, Fukushima Daiichi Meltdown, and Nuclear Power : The New ... Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Japanese scientist: Fukushima meltdown occurred within hours of ... BBC News - Japan earthquake: Meltdown alert at Fukushima reactor The explosive truth behind Fukushima's meltdown - Asia - World ... Study Shows Deeper Meltdown at Japan Nuke Reactor Read more at www.huffingtonpost.com

 

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Public Advocate: Are our children safe?

Our fight is the single most important struggle our nation has ever faced.



If you and I fail, the twisted 2% will impose their perverted lifestyles on us all.



They will eagerly pollute the sacred institution of Marriage.



To them, anyone and anything can be married just because they say so.



And they will brainwash our children into their disgusting ideology.



The radical Homosexual Agenda is nothing less than the complete and absolute corruption of everything you and I hold dear.



And their front lines are advancing.



The number of atrocities that have come to light in the last few months have left me shaken.



Within just the TSA, you and I have learned about so many horrible crimes.



There was the TSA agent who molested a pre-teen girl over the course of years.



And another who was arrested for his vast collection of child pornography.



And just recently yet another TSA agent was arrested for sexually assaulting a woman.



And these people are in charge of same-sex pat-downs and body scans!



But the worst of all is the tragic tale of what Penn State coach Jerry Sandusky has been doing to young boys for decades.



I don’t know if I will ever be the same after hearing the details of this disgusting crime.



You see, so many people suspected what he was up to, but they were told to stay quiet.



He was even caught by another coach, but was never reported.



This man was allowed to molest pre-teen boys over and over again.



And there are groups in our country that claim his behavior is normal and healthy!  They believe that Sandusky is being discriminated against.



Is it any coincidence that only just this year, radical members of the mental health field started a campaign to have pedophilia removed from the list of mental diseases, just as they did with homosexuals?



The radical deviant coalition in our country has been working non-stop for decades to erode the moral fiber of our nation and these are the fruits of their labor.



They teach that if it feels good, do it.



And they have scared so many into thinking that it is wrong to speak out against perversion.



You and I have to draw a line in the sand and say “No More!”



We have to wake our country up to the danger facing it.



There is no other group out there fighting for families and morality, and even for the sanctity of young children.



Even the Republican Party has turned its back on this plight.



I’m afraid that Public Advocate is alone in this fight, but that does not mean we can’t win!



So today I am simply asking that you take a long look at the world around us, and if you see the danger that I do, please make a decision to support Public Advocate as we fight for our future!



For the Family,





Eugene Delgaudio

President, Public Advocate of the United States

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