Federal Debt and the Risk of a Financial Crisis

In fiscal crises in a number of countries around the world, investors have lost confidence in governments’ abilities to manage their budgets, and those governments have lost their ability to borrow at affordable rates. With U.S. government debt already at a level that is high by historical standards, and the prospect that, under current policies, federal debt would continue to grow, it is possible that interest rates might rise gradually as investors’ confidence in the U.S. government’s finances declined, giving legislators sufficient time to make policy choices that could avert a crisis. It is also possible, however, that investors would lose confidence abruptly and interest rates on government debt would rise sharply, as evidenced by the experiences of other countries.

Unfortunately, there is no way to predict with any confidence whether and when such a crisis might occur in the United States. In a brief released today, CBO notes that there is no identifiable “tipping point” of debt relative to the nation’s output (gross domestic product, or GDP) that would indicate that such a crisis is likely or imminent. However, in the United States, the ratio of federal debt to GDP is climbing into unfamiliar territory—and all else being equal, the higher the debt, the greater the risk of such a crisis. Read more »

Is it me or do those elected not realize what they say is recorded for posterity? As we have seen with the Connecticut Attorney General who has LIED about his service IN Vietnam. Not that he served DURING Vietnam, but actually served there. As he continues to say that these were “a few words misspoken”, I continue to wave the BS flag! Read more »

RALEIGH — A 47-year-old North Carolina man says that when he was 13 years old State Sen. R. C. Soles Jr. of Tabor City lured him to his secluded lakeside home, plied him with alcohol, and sexually assaulted him.

The man said Soles, 74, a 40-year veteran of the North Carolina General Assembly and chairman of the Senate Democratic Caucus, threatened him and his family to gain his silence.

“He told me if I ever told anyone he would make life hell for me and my parents,” he told Carolina Journal in an interview videotaped the week of Oct. 19. The man, who did not want his real name used or his face shown on camera, will be called Jay in this story.

Jay said the first incident occurred after Soles, a prominent lawyer and legislator, offered him a ride and the two ended up at Soles’ lakefront home. The 4,000-square-foot home, built in 1968, sits on a secluded two-acre site just outside the city limits.

Soles served him beer and mixed drinks, Jay said. He said he passed out from the alcohol and awoke to find Soles performing oral sex on him. He then was raped, he said. He described the event in graphic terms that CJ has chosen not to use in this publication.

Jay said there were many other sexual encounters with Soles over a period of approximately six months. He said the relationship ended when he left town to stay with other relatives. He did not tell his parents about his encounters with Soles. Jay returned to Tabor City when he was 18 years old, saying it was his impression that Soles preferred relationships with minor teens and he no longer had to fear him. Jay no longer lives in Tabor City.

WWAY-TV in Wilmington has reported that, over a period of years, the Tabor City 911 dispatcher has received numerous calls regarding violent encounters between Soles and young men, either at his law office or his home.

Soles placed some of the calls, sometimes bypassing the 911 system altogether and calling the mobile phones of Tabor City police officers. The News & Observer of Raleigh reported in October that during one two-week period in 2008, police went to Soles’ home seven times.

Credible allegations

Wilmington psychologist Dr. S. Michael Plaut, who was on the faculty at the School of Psychiatry at the University of Maryland for 35 years, and who is past president of the Society of Sex Therapy and Research, is an expert on professional-client boundaries and sexual exploitation.

Plaut reviewed CJ’s videotaped interview with Jay and said he also has reviewed a videotaped interview Jay did with WWAY, which had yet to be aired at press time.

“To me it sounded very credible,” Plaut told CJ at his office Oct. 24. “It is very unfortunate what allegedly happened to him. But what he says is consistent with what I have heard in other cases of a similar nature which I have been involved in over the last 25 years or so.”

Coming forward

Jay told CJ that he decided to come forward recently after seeing several news stories about Soles’ interactions with young men. A report that Soles had shot a man at his house in August led Jay to fear that Soles was becoming unstable and could bring harm to Jay or others. In that incident, Soles shot 22-year-old Thomas Kyle Blackburn in the leg when Blackburn and B.J. Wright, 23, both clients of Soles, were allegedly trying to break down the front door of his home.

In addition to the CJ and WWAY interviews, Jay said he also has spoken with agents from the State Bureau of Investigation.

Jay said he also has talked by phone with Soles’ attorney, Joe Cheshire of Raleigh, to inform him about the interview with WWAY. Jay told CJ that he is not seeking money by coming forward, but thinks Soles should be in prison for what he has done to him and others.

Cheshire and Soles did not respond to requests for an interview about these allegations.

The SBI is part of the N. C. Department of Justice and is under the authority of Attorney General Roy Cooper. Before being elected attorney general in 2000, Cooper served in the N. C. Senate with Soles for 10 years. Justice Department spokeswoman Noelle Talley confirmed to CJ in an e-mail that the SBI is investigating the shooting incident and allegations made by another Soles legal client, Stacey Scott, who said that more than a decade ago, when he was 15, Soles tried to molest him.

In August, WWAY reported that Scott, now around 27, said Soles once gave him $35,000 in cash. Scott later changed his story about the molestation attempt, claiming he was high on drugs when he gave the interview, but not before District Attorney Rex Gore and Tabor City Police Chief Donald Dowless asked the SBI to investigate Scott’s claims.

Recent incidents

Wright received $8,000 from Soles while serving time in prison, WWAY reported. Both Blackburn and Wright have been in prison and were legal clients of Soles.

Also in August, Allen Strickland, 17, another client of Soles, was arrested for allegedly burning down a house that Soles bought for him. Soles also bought Strickland a Corvette, even though Strickland does not have a driver’s license.

Strickland recently wrecked the car. Strickland, who appeared in Columbus County District Court Oct. 23 for previous traffic violations, told CJ he did not have an attorney for the arson case.

While Soles was not Jay’s attorney at the time the incidents allegedly occurred, Plaut said a power relationship existed without an attorney-client arrangement.

“There is a power differential between the two people. So whether he was acting as his attorney at the time may not be fully relevant. He was a powerful, wealthy figure in the community,” Plaut said.

WWAY also has reported that subpoenas and interviews with some of the young men confirm that a federal grand jury is investigating Soles. CJ has confirmed there is some type of federal inquiry of Soles.

Carolina Journal Exclusives Man Alleges Sexual Assault By Soles
Says he was 13 when Soles lured him to his home

By Don Carrington on October 28, 2009
Don Carrington is executive editor of Carolina Journal

http://theblacksphere.net/obama-nobel-farce/
Obama’s Nobel Farce

If you like what I do, please consider buying my Amazon Best Seller, The BIG Black Lie. It is the only political book on Amazon that is a 5-star!

Apparently Obama’s consolation prize for losing the Olympics is a Nobel Peace Prize. I would say that the Norwegians have lost their minds, if this award actually meant something these days. Nevertheless, I still suspect that ACORN International might have had a hand in Obama’s win…for nostalgia’s sake.

This much coveted [cough] award has been won by such notables as Al Gore, Yassir Arafat, Kofi Annan, and Jimmy Carter, to name a few. With a list like this, the Nobel Prize is a not a prize at all, and I would say is more like a punishment. It is an award to be avoided, like a Darwin Award or Blackwell’s Worst Dressed.

Presuming this award had any real significance, as it did in the far too distant past, why would the Nobel committee decide that Obama should be the winner in the “Peace” area this year? I have my theories.

First, Obama can run a decent campaign. His most recent “coup-paign” was so good in fact that he had dead people and Disney characters voting for him. That’s an accomplishment that would have any Liberal or Democrat anointing you “god,” and it certainly would have made Joe Kennedy proud.

Another potential reason for the Obama win is his prowess with the teleprompter. The Nobel committee likely adores that smug look Obama gives, chin up, head askew, as he reads his pretty words from left to right.

Now they say that Obama was awarded the prize for “extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.” After all, Obama has talked of a world without nuclear weapons, as he did in this CNN piece:

“Nuclear weapons are the most dangerous legacies of the Cold War,” Obama said in a speech in front of a huge crowd outside the medieval Prague Castle in the Czech Republic. “The U.S. will take concrete steps. … We will begin the work of reducing our arsenals and stockpiles.”

And our latest Nobel laureate had this to say according to CNN for those who don’t heed his warning:

“The president said that the solutions will include preventing the production of more nuclear weapons, negotiating a new international treaty and strengthening the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. He warned that countries that break the rules will face immediate consequences, including automatic referral to the U.N. Security Council.”

One can only imagine what Ahmadinejad is thinking about this, as Iran continues working on their nuclear program. I’m sure he’s concerned that his hatred of Jews and stated goal of their obliteration, compounded with his need to destroy all Infidels might mire Obama’s award just a smidge?

The fact that Obama is currently fighting two wars, one of which he said he was ending apparently has no bearing on an award for “peace?”

His postponed meeting with the most peaceful man in the world, the Dalai Lama, could have reflected negatively on the award. Adding to the irony is the fact that Obama publicly executed a fly, something the Dali Lama is religiously forbidden to do, yet Obama gets a “peace” award.

Before we get too critical about all this, remember that Obama did free prisoners from GITMO, which had to weigh heavily in the decision to give him the award. He instituted “Lattes not Lashes,” as he eliminated “torture” of “enemy combatants.”

Why the Nobel committee didn’t just make it a “two-fer” and award Obama the Nobel Prize for Physics is beyond me. Obama has re-proven gravity with the American economy. His non-stimulating stimulus package proved that what was once UP can definitely come DOWN. Obama’s novel and clever use of the stock market to validate gravity was certainly worthy of the Physics prize, though I would have just sent him a package of Fig Newtons and call it a day!

Here’s the wrap:

The Nobel committee is very hush-hush about the selection process, releasing nominees’ name 50 years after the awards are made. So we are privvy to nominees who didn’t quite get the win. Here are a few notables: Adolf Hitler, Soviet Union leader Joseph Stalin and Italian Prime Minister Benito Mussolini.

It appears that the Nobel committee has decided with the Obama win to right the wrongs of all these years, and finally include a Marxist communist fascist winner! Touché for them to come around to such “progressive” thinking! I can only imagine who’s next? Paris Hilton, Janeane Garofalo…Nancy Pelosi?!

Since people are determined to give Obama awards and accolades for things he hasn’t done, let’s just go all the way. Let’s give him a Cy Young for that sissy pitch he made to open a St. Louis Cardinals game. How about a Superbowl ring, since he once hosted a White House party for the Pittsburgh Steelers! And hat tip to Linda for pointing out that Obama should receive three Oscars:

Best Comedy “Biggest Joke Ever Played On American People”

Best Docudrama “All About Me”

Best Drama “Narcissism….A Love Story”
That’s my rant!
© 2009 Kevin Jackson – The Black Sphere All Rights Reserved