RWC 12-15-11 “A Stanford University study pegs California state workers pensions shortfall at HALF A TRILLION DOLLARS”

· Debate Interruptus: Trump Fires Himself from NewsMax Debate.

· Iran Courts Sauds for Anti-West Pact

· SOPA Could Kill Internet Freedom of Speech

· Stunning Duplicity as US Troops From Iraq Redeploying To Jordan

· Iran To Practice Shutting Off Oil from Persian Gulf

· Russian Protests Spread To Over 50 Cities

· Hillary Email Raises Election Issues

· Documentary Names Iran, Cuba, and Venezuela in Attacks Against US

· Connecticut Dad Blast Pro Islam Bias in Textbooks

· Remnant of Pearl Harbor Survivors Association Disbands

· Bloody Battle for Charitable Dollars.

· San Fransisco Naked Santa Record

It always feels good to be part of something larger than yourself; it’s why people march in protests, attend music festivals or voluntarily watch the World Cup.

This being San Francisco, it’s also why a large group of people, all dressed in Santa hats and little else, are planning on coming together in an effort to set the world record for the largest gathering of naked Santas ever recorded.

This world record attempt, which will be fully documented for posterity by the good people at Guinness, comes as part of San Francisco’s tenth annual Santacon party/

Started in San Francisco in the mid-1990s, Santacon is an annual celebration of Santa Claus wherein hundreds of revelers dress up like Kris Kringle and commit wanton acts of intoxicated debauchery in bars and on street corners across the city.

If you’ve ever wandered past a rowdy pub on a crisp December evening and wondered why two gentlemen dressed as Santa Claus were engaged in a fistfight, Santacon was almost undoubtedly to blame.

While the attempt to break the naked Santa world record is, given San Franciscan’ penchant for public nudity, obviously a Bay Area original, Santacon has gradually become an international phenomenon with parties packed with the jolliest of old St. Nicks stretching from Beijing to Belfast. Nudity, if not lewd, is legal in San Francisco. You must sit on a towel in public seating areas like restaurants.

Time magazine’s picking “protesters” aka the George Soros sponsored Occupy Wall Street nitwits as its person of the year reminding me why I cancelled my subscription after years as a subscriber and will not renew it. Remember Time also named Hitler and the Ayotollah Khomeni too.

Debate Interruptus: Donald Trump fired himself and his hair from the proposed post Christmas NewsMax GOP Debate whjile dangling a possible third party presidential run if he dislikes the Republican nominee. Such a bid seems improbable since 65-year old’s ego would not stand the pummeling he’d received as a latter-day Ross Perot and the inevitable defeat at the polls.

In 1992 the now 81-year old Perot ran under his self styled Reform Party banner getting 19% of the popular vote anough to sink the relection bid by Reagan VP HW Bush and ensure the election of Bill Clinton/ In1996 he ran again and failed again.

Only Newt Gingrich and former Senator Samtorum agreed to debate with Trump..

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is, at last, proposing regulations to disallow broadcasters from booming commercial messages at greater volume than regular programming. For decades broadcasters and advertisers have denied the practice that anyone wit a radio or TV has long noticed.

Iranian Intelligence Minister Heidar Moslehi visited Riyadh Monday, Dec. 12 with a large delegation and a proposition for Crown Prince Nayef: For an anti-US and anti-Zionist pact on regional issues, Tehran would act to bring the Syrian opposition into government and open its nuclear program to Saudi participation. Moslehi boasted that after seizing top US secret drone technology by a successful cyber attack, Iran was unquestionably the top regional power. The Saudis moved fast to take the ayatollahs down a peg or two.

Saudi Arabia financed Pakistan’s nuclear weapons development in exchange for having access to nuclear warheads. Two are said to be warhouses adjacemt to two Saudi military aircraft and crews ready to be flown – if they have not been – to a Saudi military base. Most think that will be triggered by an Iranian nuclear weapon.

Various polls now show either Gingrich or Romney beating Obama. This is after a solid year of nonstop campaigning by Obama. Even usually favorable polls show Obama at an alltime low approval level.

What began as an attempt to restrain foreign piracy on the Internet has morphed into a domestic “kill switch” on First Amendment freedom in the fastest-growing corner of the marketplace of ideas - the internet. Many fear an Obama takeover of the internet to help his reelection by shutting down descent at a critical time claiminf nationa security.

Proposed federal legislation purporting to protect online intellectual property would also impose sweeping new government mandates on internet service providers — a positively Orwellian power grab that would permit the U.S. Justice Department to shut down any internet site it doesn’t like (and cut off its sources of income) on nothing more than a whim.

Under the so-called “Stop Online Piracy Act” (SOPA) the federal government — which is prohibited constitutionally from abridging free speech or depriving its citizens of their property without due process — would engage in both practices on an unprecedented scale. And in establishing the precursor to a taxpayer-funded “thought police,” it would dramatically curtail technology investment and innovation – wreaking havoc on our economy.

SOPA is the equivalent of curing a headache with a guillotine. It may stop piracy, but it would shut down our economy and unconstitutionally erode our most basic freedoms in the process.

The NTSB (National Traffic Safety Board) is proposing a nationwide ban of the use of all personal electronic devices while driving. It claims over 3,000 died and 500,000 were injured last year due to distracted driving Even hands free devices would be banned. There are those who would ban car radios and CD players too some say arguing while driving or even fighting with children must be banned.

What few Americans or for that matter anyone anywhere has discovered is that some of the units of US troops leaving Iraq have been diverted to positions in Jordan opposite a massive Syrian tank concentration building up across the kingdom’s northern border, The incoming US contingents are housed at the King Hussein Air Base of al-Mafraq, a smidge over 6 miles from the Syrian border. They are the first US boots to hit the ground directly opposite Assad’s army brought there by Bashar Assad’s threat to set the Middle East on fire if the pressure against him persists.

Syria’s other neighbors have taken precautions against this contingency but this is the first time US boots have hit the ground directly opposite Assad’s army.

The incoming US contingents are disclosed by sources as having been housed at the King Hussein Air Base of al-Mafraq, 10 kilometers (6 miles) from the Syrian border. US troops were sighted Monday, Dec. 12, building surveillance towers and army posts in the Jordanian villages of Albaej, Zubaydiah and al-Nahdah al-Houshah as well as near the Sarham dam of the Yarmoukh River which runs down the international border between Syria and Jordan.

Three months ago, the Syrian ruler cautioned Jordan’s King Abdullah II to stop granting asylum to Syrian military deserters and allowing his country to serve as a conduit for pumping arms to the opposition.

The king was not deterred by this threat. Seen from Damascus, Jordan would be easier to take on militarily that either Turkey or Israel. Saturday, Dec. 12, Jordanian surveillance units confirmed that Syrian armored units were gathering opposite the Jordanian town of Bura Al Hariri.

Iraqi sources report that the American units came from the big Iraqi Ain al-Assad air base in the western province of Al Anbar opposite the Jordanian border. This base is in the process of evacuation as the US military drawdown in Iraq approaches completion. Most of the troops are flown to US bases in the Persian Gulf and Europe.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, when he met Obama at the White House last Monday, approved the transfer of American contingents from Iraq to Jordan across their common border. Obama was therefore able to state after their talks: “We share the view that when the Syrian people are being killed or are unable to express themselves that’s a problem. There’s no disagreement there.”

By this comment, the White House sought to stress that the Baghdad government is not letting Tehran twist its arms on the Syrian question.

In October King Abdullah II of Jordan’s Heshimite monarch held secret talks with Obama in Washington DC aimed at breaking a deadlock in peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, and at the same time negotiated the repositioning of US troops to Jordan’s –Syrian border. A move that could results in a massive tank battle pitting U. S. arms against Russian and Chinese arms supplied to Assad through Iran.

The redeployment is a part of an anti-Assad ouster strategy. Assad promises to fight on from the Alawite Mountains in northwestern Syria should the current conflict descend intio all out civil war. This is the only densely forested region along Syria’s Mediterranean coast rsaid to be easy to defend and excellent to stage raids and guerilla warfare attacks.

Clearly Obama disagrees with Israel on the Palestinian issue and if he false steps as he did in Egypt the whole region could erupt triggering a blockade of Persian Gulf oil ruining what’s left of western economies plunging half the world into a deep depression and civil revolutions. Some believe that’s Obama’s desire.

So far the U. S. mainstream media has ignored the repositioning not even mentioning it while hysterically cheering the U. S. withdrawal from Iraq as Obama keeping his promise.

We can only see about 5% of the matter in the Universe. The rest is made up of invisible matter (called Dark Matter) and a mysterious form of energy known as Dark Energy. Both are undefined and mysterious theories.

The Higgs boson —the so-called God particle — has almost been discovered, scientists announced Tuesday. How one almost discovers a thing is just the latest twist in this mind-boggling science story.Ostensively the boson is the fundamental building block of the universe and consequently the first particle God created upon which everything is built – until something slse is theorized; imagines if you like.

No story has been more of a head-scratcher than that of the Higgs boson, the name for a theoretical particle that physicists at CERN said they have come closer to discovering.

A scientific report, “Confirmation of the Higgs boson would solve the mystery of why matter has the property that physicists call mass — the resistance to being shoved around. If the Higgs is declared non-existent, on the other hand, there would be a gaping hole in physicists’ explanation of nature’s deepest structure.”

Scientists have speculated about the particle’s existence since theorist Peter Higgs first predicted its existence in 1964, but proof has been a long time coming. The latest announcement offered hope to scientists at the announcement — who broke out into a loud and sustained applause — but the physicists working on the project said no definite conclusions could be drawn yet.

String theory is a work in progress, so trying to pin down exactly what the science is, or what its fundamental elements are, can be tricky. The key string theory features include:

· All objects in our universe are composed of vibrating filaments (strings) and membranes (branes) of energy.

· String theory attempts to reconcile general relativity (gravity) with quantum physics.

· A new connection (called supersymmetry) exists between two fundamentally different types of particles, bosons and fermions (named fo Enrico Fermi..

· Several extra (usually unobservable) dimensions to the universe must exist.

· There are also other possible string theory features, depending on what theories prove to have merit in the future. Possibilities include:

o A landscape of string theory solutions, allowing for possible parallel universes a dream of furuist scientists.

o The holographic principle, which states how information in a space can relate to information on the surface of that space.

o The anthropic principle, which states that scientists can use the fact that humanity exists as an explanation for certain physical properties of our universe.

o Our universe, some say, could be “stuck” on a brane, allowing for new interpretations of string theory.

o Other principles or features, waiting to be discovered.

Both string and membrane theory are mind numbing—I am glad not to be a degree candidate in Phjysics now.

A Silver Springs, Maryland post office official continued Washington DC’s war on Christmas by throwing carolers out of its post office saying singing it not allowed in the building. Initially the USPS backed up its employee reasoning singing ‘provocative’ songs like “Silent Night” could offend agnostics, atheist, and of course Muslims. Ironically USPS sells Christmas and religiously theme stamps. Hypocrisy.

The USPS has delayed cuts and facility closings designed to fill a multi-billion dollar gap until next Spring in the hope Obama will bail it out in exchange for contributiomns amd votes from its union.Stampswill increaseto45centsper ounceoffirstclass mail.

Herb Titus is a well known and respected Constitutional scholar. He is raising questions about Obama’s birth. He says the more important question is whether or not he is a natural born citizen because he was born in Hawaii. The conventional wisdom is, that if he could produce a birth certificate showing that he was born in Hawaii, that would make him a natural born citizen. That’s not true says Titus. That only makes him a citizen by birth.

Most people think that’s a definition of a natural born citizen, but people forget that that was put into the Constitution not for the purpose of defining what a natural born citizen is as it applies to the President of the United States, but it was placed into the Constitution for the specific purpose of declaring that people who were part of the newly freed slave class were citizens of the United States and of the state in which they resided because the United States Supreme Court had ruled in the Dred Scott case that a person who had been brought over to the United States against his will could never become a citizen of the United States much less a citizen of the state. So the place of birth that gives rise to citizenship by birth was addressed to the question of what to do with this entirely new group of people who would otherwise be stateless because they couldn’t under the Dred Scott rule become a citizen having been born in the United States.

Titus says the issue should be finally decided by SCOTUS (Supreme Court of the United States). If SCOTUS would decide against Obama many profound issues would be raised surrounding an illegitimate Presidency.

A group of college football coaches made a number of changes to the rules of the game in 1906 to decrease the incidence of serious injuries. Among these rules was the legalization of the forward pass. Initially, a forward pass could not be made within five yards of the center. To help officials keep track of this distance, the coaches specified that football fields have vertical and horizontal lines five yards apart. This created a checkerboard pattern that resembled those in gridirons, metal racks on which meat was broiled. Thus, football fields came to be nicknamed gridirons. Although the rules were changed in 1910 to eliminate the vertical lines on the field, the nickname for a football field as a gridiron lives on to this day.

California is so broke it can’t pay attention. But, unaccountable bureaucracts don’t give a tinkers damn. For instance: The city of Sacramento’s fleet of take-home vehicles for employees costs taxpayers roughly $800,000 a year in commuting costs alone, an internal audit has found.

Nearly 250 employees have take-home cars, but in some cases, privileges “were granted to individuals that are not required to provide immediate after hour response or fill an essential City need,” the audit found. Most of the cars are taken home by police officers, whose union has an “informal” agreement with the city to allow the practice.

This sad joke isthat city government and the Brown administration seem to be oblivious. Like New York’s Governor Cuomo he figures he can raise taxes to pay for such profligacy,

$100 million must be cut from education Governor Jerry “Moonbeam: Brown wants a referendum on next years ballot to dramatically raise taxes no matter how much public employees union throw at such a ballot measure it stands as much chance as a snowball in hell.

Obama’s efforts to win reelection appears more and more based on radical communist anarchist Saul Alinsky’s anti-American manifestos published as Reveille for Radicals (1946) and Rules for Radicals (1971). Essentially Alinsky preaches a divide and conquer approach by redefining and then pitting those contrived classes against each other to get what you want.

Clearly that is Obama’s strategy of class envy and why he defacto endorses the Occupy Movement to tear apart American society.

Bigheaded from capturing the US RQ-170 Sentinel stealth  drone, Tehran Monday, Dec. 12 announced plans soon for a navy drill to practice closure of the Strait of Hormuz, the most important oil transit channel in the world. Iranian lawmaker Parviz Sorouri said, “Iran will make the world unsafe if the world attacks Iran.” The drill will challenge US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta’s recent warning that Iranian disruptions of Persian Gulf free traffic would be a red line for the US.

There is increasing evidence that Russia gave Iran and wherewithal to down the RQ-170 drone.

The Strait at the end of the Persian Gulf is 173 miles long with a width is only 31 miles at its narrowest point the shipping channel is but 21 miles wide mining it could imprede sea traffic shutting down oil export and when cruise missiles are added it would likely add permanent blockage by sinking tankers and other ships. Of course that’s an act of war and harsh retaliation would be swift and devastating. Israel would likely see any such conflict as good timing to irradicate Iran’s nuclear weapons plants.

Between a third and 40% of the world’s oil production transit the Straits every day shutting that off, even temporarily, would further cripple he world’s economies.

Oil prices spiked on just the threat, a threat Iran is working to roll back now amidwidspread howls.

Romney leads Obama 45% to 42%. Gingrich leads Romney 38% to 17% according Rasmmussen polling last week.

The huge demonstrations in Moscow and up to 50 other Russia cities on December 10 protesting the corrupt December 4 parliamentary elections could mark a mass movement against Vladimir Putin and his New Russia Party. To assess the direction and implications of the Russian protests, LIGNET (Langley Intelligence Group) asked five of its distinguished experts, former CIA Director Michael Hayden, former UN Ambassador John Bolton, former House Intelligence Committee Chairman Peter Hoekstra, former CIA National Intelligence Officer Fritz Ermarth, and former National Security Council advisor and CIA senior analyst/manager Jack Caravelli for their analysis.

The consensus is that that unrest is deep seated and an endemic negative response to Putin’s manipulation of the election to ensure himself two additional 6-year terms as president. The 59-year –old Putin is a retired KGB Colonel who aspires to reunite the old Soviet Union’s empire.

The former Soviet Union covered half the land area in the northern Hemisphere Russia’s new official name is the Russian Federation and came into effect in 1991when the Soviet Union collapsed splitting into 15 geo-political parts

Voters in South Carolina and Florida and nationwide disapprove of Obama he’d likely be defeated by Republican nominees. It is probable that there will be a shift away from Obama after the Republican nominee is known, 68 year-old Newt Gingrich if elected would be one of the oldest men to be inaugurated President—Reagan was the oldest at 69. Mitt Romney would have to muss his hair to win.

A new fundraising email from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign has “revived speculation” that she is still interested in winning the White House, according to Paul Bedard of U.S. News & World Report.

“While her campaign has in the past dispatched fundraising emails in a bid to finish paying her 2008 campaign debt, the timing of the latest blast raised some eyebrows,” Bedard writes in his Washington Whispers column.

The mail comes amid denials from the Obama administration that the president is considering replacing Vice President Joe Biden with Clinton on the 2012 ticket, Bedard observes.

It also comes as a new poll by Washington Whispers shows Hillary as the clear favorite of voters seeking a third-party candidate. In the survey, 39 percent of respondents chose Clinton as their choice for an independent candidate, well ahead of Mike Huckabee at 20 percent.

The email from Clinton’s campaign reads in part:

Together, we made history in the last presidential election.

From Hillary’s speech at the Democratic National Convention, to the work and support that each of us brought to the campaign, that story lives on — in the history books, in our memories, and in the mementos that commemorate that time . . .

As we all know, campaigns are tough, but having loyal supporters like you helped make Hillary’s campaign one that will never be forgotten.

All contributions will go to paying the last of the expenses the campaign incurred while making our historic stand.

Contribute today to receive one of the last commemorative campaign DVDs or another one of our last few items.

The email was signed: “Hillary Clinton for President.”

Asked about Hillary’s political aspirations during a recent appearance on “The View,” Bill Clinton responded: “I don’t know what the future holds.”

Known as “The Father of the Navy”, John Adam was one of four presidents to live past the age of 90 (Hoover, Regan and Ford are the others)

An explosive new documentary aired on the Spanish-language network Univision divulges a plot involving Iran, Cuba, and Venezuela to attack American security facilities.

“La Amenaza Irani” (“The Iranian Threat”), which ran last Thursday night, shows the Iranian ambassador to Mexico and a Venezuelan diplomat who is reportedly still in the United States planning cyberattacks and other types of attacks. Moreover, the evidence presented directly links Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez to the plans.

The attacks were to be directed against sensitive U.S. national security facilities, along with nuclear power plants and New York’s Kennedy Airport.

The documentary also features video footage taken by extremists linked to Iran, and an interview with an undercover journalist who infiltrated clandestine military training camps in Venezuela.

“La Amenaza Irani” was narrated by award-winning Univision News co-anchor Maria Elena Salinas.

James Monroe (1817-1825) wanted to return slaves to Africa. This is why the capital of Liberia was named Monrovia.

A Connecticut dad has accused an industry giant in education, Scholastic, of delivering Occupy Wall Street propaganda to his 4th grade daughter in her school classroom.

The issue arose over the Scholastic News handout given to students and dated Dec. 5 and Dec. 12:

It favorably describes the Occupy Wall Street movement, which has been tied to professional agitators linked to groups funded by billionaire radical George Soros.

It’s also been accused of being anti-Semitic and to have been given support from Islamic groups that are strong supporters of the so-called Free Gaza Movement.

Scholastic, which declined to respond to a WND request for comment, however, said the Occupy protesters “started with about 1,000 protesters,” who mostly were “college students or recent graduates without jobs.”

The company’s website says it is pledged “to uphold the basic freedoms of all individuals” and it is opposed “to any system of government or society that denies these freedoms.”

It continues, “Good citizens may honestly differ on important public questions. We believe that all sides of the issues of our times should be fairly discussed – with deep respect for facts and logical thinking – in classroom magazines, books…”

But Scholastic’s report about Occupy said “most of their complaints are about today’s tough economic times and who should be blamed for them.” And the report said “protesters say that they make up the other 99 percent. They argue that big companies are making too much money as millions of Americans have lost their jobs or even their homes.”

It doesn’t mention the rampant crime that has been documented at various Occupy protest sites, the filthy conditions left behind by some protest groups, the violence and the incidents of intimidation against even children, as has been reported nor the millions of dollars in cost billed to taxpayers.

The father, Edward, describes his alarm from his perspective as a conservative independent.

But he said he grew up in the old Soviet Union, and recalls when an official media there would print the “news,” from only one perspective.

“When I see something like this it just boggles my mind,” he said.

He recalled pictures of government officials posted all over and his grandfather’s fear that someone would discover he was listening to Voice of America.

“I’ve seen it,” Edward says. “I don’t want to go that way again. I left the Soviet Union to come to the U.S. and then I’m seeing the Occupy Wall Street anti-Semitism. Where do I go from here?”

He said the least Scholastic should have done was to offer a fair explanation that included both sides of the arguments.

Edward’s comment to Scholastic was: “I grew up in Soviet Union and seeing your propaganda about Occupy Wall Street brings back my memories. I’m neither Republican or Democrat but I would rather see my kids hear about both sides.”

Jenifer, responding for the company, said, “I am happy to forward on your concern about providing both Democrat and Republican views.”

Several years ago the Junior Scholastic “news magazine” promoted “madrassa” school life for American children who are Muslims, much to the outrage of some parents.

“Remember way back in grade school and getting Junior Scholastic magazine in school? Well here is an example of what JS has devolved into. Force-feeding the barbaric propaganda of Islamic madrassas down the throats of my 7th and 4th graders. Disgusting,” a father wrote about the issue.

Scholastic said at that time that there are few topics the company will not cover if they are brought up in classrooms.

That particular story, “Inside a Madrasa, U.S. kids talk about their daily lives at an Islamic school in Pakistan,” was written by Cassandra Nelson in view of “helping students learn about the world they live in. That world does include religion and a variety of cultures,” a company official reported.

Sources also report now are taking part in the development and editing processes for textbooks in U.S. public schools, how some schools have required students to “become Muslim” and memorize the “Five Pillars of Islam” during their public school coursework, and how a man once arrested as a terror suspect for allegedly trying to transport $340,000 from a group tied to Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi helped write the “Religious Expression in Public Schools” guidelines issued by President Clinton during his tenure in office.

The American Textbook Council found that textbooks for children in U.S. public schools these days reflect “the interplay of determined Islamic political activists, textbook editors, and multiculturally minded social studies curriculum planners.”

It has gone so far that correcting the situation now becomes a problem, because “educational publishers and educational organizations have bought into claims propounded by Islamists – and have themselves become agents of misinformation.”

That comes from Gilbert T. Sewall, who wrote the organization’s report on Islam and textbooks. And Middle East Forum director Daniel Pipes even has repeatedly expressed concern about the “privileging of Islam in the United States” and warns the stakes go well beyond 7th grade texts. His opinion of Houghton Mifflin’s “Across the Centuries”? Full of “apologetics.”

Sewall said his study showed world history textbooks “hold Islam and other non-Western civilizations to different standards than those that apply to the West” even while “Islamic pressure groups and their allies seek to suppress the critical analysis of Islam inside and outside classrooms.

“Textbook editors seem not to recognize that a school-related Islamic agenda in the U.S. uses multiculturalism as a device to guarantee a purely favorable and uncritical view of all things Muslim. At extremes, the report suggested, multiculturalism contributes to a form of peaceable cultural jihad meant to discredit or ‘problematize’ European civilization in favor of non-Western cultures,” he wrote.

This reminiscent of the 1930s when communist tried to influence pro communism idea in public school text books and to insert sympathetic teachers into public schools.

Vodka is huge in Russia-10% of the governments income comes from the sale of vodka. Legend holds that the tenth-century Russian prince Vladimir the Great rejected Islam as a state religion for the country because of its prohibition of alcohol. Half a million alcohol related deaths a year in Russia is often cited. Joseph Stalin reestablished a state monopoly to generate revenue. Studies find that 52% of deaths of people between the ages of 15 and 54 were the result of alcohol abuse.

A new study by the Public Policy Institute of California, a non-partisan think tank, confirmed that during the 2007-09 recession, every income bracket in California lost income faster than the equivalent brackets in the rest of the United States. Even more disturbing, all but the top 25 percent of earners now make less than equivalent income classes in all other states.

Once known as a jobs magnet for its sunny climate, world-class universities and burgeoning high-tech opportunities, California has been transformed into a toxic anti-business state that works hard at drive businesses away.

From 2007, when the recession began, through 2009, family incomes across all income classes dropped by more than 5 percent.  But instead of going up in the recovery, they continued to plummet by another 6 percent in 2010.

The declines weren’t spread evenly across the income classes.  Families with incomes in the top 10 percent saw their family incomes decline 5 percent. But the bottom 10 percent of California’s poorest families saw their incomes plummet by 21 percent.

In surveys, business executives regularly call California one of the country’s most toxic business environments and one of the least likely places to open or expand a new company.  Many firms still headquartered in California consciously refuse to expand their workforce. Brutalized by the bursting of the housing bubble and currently suffering an unemployment rate of 11.7 percent, almost 3 percentage points above the national average, California family incomes continue to rapidly lose ground.

With already the lowest credit rating of any state in the nation, Controller John Chiang just released his monthly financial report covering California’s cash balance, receipts and disbursements for November. It demonstrated the state’s grim economic circumstances/

As they now say in California “you can‘t eat sunshine.” But government at all levels continues to bleed remaining taxpayers dry while enviro zealots increasingly bludgeon business.

Gov. Jerry Brown when he first was elected back in 1974. saw government’s job as restraining growth, limiting development and expanding environmental regulations.  In 1977, Time Magazine declared “the California of the 60s, a mystical land of abundance and affluence, vanished sometime in the 70s.” Arnold Schwarznegger shoveled dirt into California’s grave was an abject failure as Governor.

A Rio Grande Valley fire station burned to the ground and its equipment destroyed while most of the firefighters where 19 miles away at a Christmas party. Exactly why neighboring department were not alerted or even stationed a crew there is unclear.

On September 9^th two dozen Pearl Harbor survivors average age 91-years attempted to hold a memorial at a military cemetery near the site of the 1941 attackwhere many of their shipmates are buried but were rousted by security people from the CBS TV production crew for Hawaii 50 and forced to move over 300 yards because their praying and hymn singing was disturbing the taping.

The veterans say their memorial service would only run for a few minutes but decided to pray in silence although taps was played in as much as they have decided this 70^th Anniversary would be their last given their collective age and the frail health of the few remaining Pearl Harbor survivors

The self important Hawaii 50 staff and CBS barely mumbled about an unfortunate misunderstanding. CBS has rented part of the cemetery for is crime drama redux. Some complained about the crew tramping all over graves abd who decided to rent hallowed ground.

“It was time ti disband. Some of the requirements became a burde, says, William Muehleib, president of the Pearl Harbors Survivors Association, said after the ceremony He also cited poor health among the group’s 2,700 members, adding that most of the survivors have realized there are other things they’d like to do at their age.

Survivors will be able to attend future commemoration ceremonies on their own. About 3,000 people, including Navy Secretary Ray Mabus and military leaders, attended this year’s December 7^th anniversary at a site overlooking the sunken USS Arizona and the white memorial that straddles the battleship.

Muehleib said there are an estimated 7,000 to 8,000 Pearl Harbor survivors. Local chapters of the group will function as long as they have members and survivors can gather socially, but they will no longer have a formal, national organization.

A Stanford University study pegs California state workers pensions shortfall at HALF A TRILLION DOLLARS.

Ads lambasting the Human Society of the U. S, charge only a penny of every contributed dollar go to animal shelters and urging those who want to supportr animal shelters give directly. The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) has been a long time rival with the Humane Society for decades. It is not clear who is finacing the nationwide ad campaign o whether or not SPCA has anything to do with the attack ads. In tough time, like these, it is not uncommon for chairtable organizaiosnnto stakeout territory to protect shrivinh donor dollars.

Nationwide charitable contribtions have decline about 2% a year for at least the last four years, This ad campaign is certainl one of the most aggressive efforts yet.. Thee are those who believe charitable deductions for ontributions will be capped as part of the Obama war on he wealthy believing that making charitable contribution is somehow a tax dodge.

A secret Santa dropped $50,000 into Salvation Army Red Kettles in Joplin, Missouri, The Salvation Army says that raises secret Santa contributions to a totql of $500,000 in recent years.