There have been rumors of manipulation of the stock markets for months now. As the economic news has worsened, people have watch in stunned amazement as the stock market has rallied. This market has rallied while “insiders” (corporate bosses who are in the know) are massively selling stocks and while capital has net flowed out of the markets for weeks on end. Today, the market was up, again, in spite of a raft of bad news (noted earlier here). Over at Zero Hedge, a possible reason for this:

…the Fed has continued to monetize Wall Street’s debts EVERY options expiration week since QE 1 ended… proving beyond a doubt that the Fed’s QE program did NOT actually end in March…

…last week Ben Bernanke pumped an additional $11.05 BILLION into the system ON TOP of the $11.15 pumped via the POMOs (the major banks who control sales of Treasuries – ed. note). In plain terms, the Fed juiced the system by $20+ billion in a single week, bringing its liquidity pumps RIGHT BACK QE 1 LEVELS.

If you want to know why stocks have rallied in the last month, this is THE reason. The economy isn’t improving and the European Crisis isn’t over. Nothing has improved. All that has happened is the Fed funneled money into the Primary Dealers who ramped the market…

The linked article has a chart which tends to confirm this assertion – that the Fed has found a means of pumping massive amounts of money in to the stock markets, thus keeping prices high and rising in spite of economic news which should have the markets in the tank. Why are they doing this? Likely because the whole purpose of TARP and “stimulus” has been to keep the largest financial institutions from going under.

There are two motivations for that action – primarily it is because Bernanke, et al are part of our failed financial system and simply won’t allow their friends to go under. Secondarily, it is because the economic theories believed in government and high finance hold that a financial crash followed by bankruptcy is the worst thing which can happen. In their understanding, that is what caused the Great Depression – that it was actually caused by a fall off in demand resultant upon the destruction of life and wealth in WWI and the “Spanish ‘flu” of 1919 entirely escapes them. In Bernanke’s mind, he’s saving us from disaster (and, as an aside, he’s doing what he can to protect the Democrats…a Dow at 5,000 wouldn’t help matters on November 2nd…and only the Democrats stand between the Banksters and complete disaster, for the Banksters).

We cannot be sure that this is happening, but the circumstantial evidence indicates that it is, indeed, the case. Our best means of finding the full truth is to audit the Fed, as some have been calling for. My preferred ultimate outcome is to abolish the Federal Reserve, entirely and leave our financial and monetary policy entirely in the hands of elected officials, who are at least vulnerable to popular discontent. Leaving it in the hands of un-elected bankers who meet in secret has proven a disaster, and is un-American, in to the bargain.

And, indeed, to the whole of the United States Congress – from the Orlando Sentinel:

In an attack ad labeling his opponent ” Taliban Dan” Webster, U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson uses Webster’s own words to prove the Republican thinks wives should be subservient to their husbands.

One problem: The Grayson campaign edited the original video, chopping it up and taking Webster’s words out of context. Webster actually was advising husbands to bypass those particular Bible passages, according a longer video clip released Monday by Webster’s campaign…

…(Webster’s) wife, Sandy, said his words were taken out of context…”Alan Grayson is a disgrace to this district.”

I won’t link to the Grayson ad because it is nauseating in its falsehood – quite honestly, he deserves to be expelled from the House, or at least censured. That won’t happen, of course, because the Democrat leadership doesn’t care how disgusting the lie is; their only concern is whether or not it will work. If Grayson manages to get re-elected, then Democrats will be fine with whatever he does.

But there is a matter of honor – and this isn’t just an over-eager mistake; this is the deliberate falsification of what a person said in order to slander him in public. It is a lie, more over, designed to provoke hatred and division.

The Democrat party will stand in disgrace just as long as Grayson is a member – and especially an elected member.

They want a big rally for DC – and to help ensure the grounds aren’t empty, they are giving away tens of thousands of free rides…kinda says it all about liberalism, doesn’t it? From Big Government:

On October 2nd, the NAACP and national labor unions will give tens of thousands of people free bus rides, free lunches, free T-shirts and free Metro farecards as inducements to attend the One Nation Working Together rally being organized by a coalition of radical leftist organizations at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.

The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) has promised to give free bus rides from major metropolitan areas within twelve hours of D.C. The United Steelworkers are also busing in demonstrators from across the Northeast. Even the Screen Actors Guild is ‘getting on the bus.’

Local NAACP chapters on the East coast are also offering free buses, as are the Communication Workers of America.

Rally co-sponsor the AFL-CIO states, “Unions are sponsoring some 1,400 buses from around the country to come to the march.”

At an average of an estimated 50 passengers per bus, that comes to about 70,000 attendees getting free rides to the rally.

They are doing this because they have to – unless you do it for a liberal, most times he won’t do it. Don’t you realize how hard it is to get a bus ticket and plan a trip all one your lonesome? There is not among the left that spirit of volunteerism there is among the right. Partially this is because of liberal servility – they always wait for orders and couldn’t imagine deciding to do something on their own – while another part of it stems from simple lack of enthusiasm.

This rally will, of course, be massively covered by the MSM and the crowd estimates will run towards 500,000, at least. But it won’t really be anything. No event which takes this much organizational prep work is other than a propaganda ploy. They’ll get their positive news cycle, and that will be the end of it.

Lots of economic news – all bad:

People are unhappy:

Mounting gloom over the outlook for jobs and wages caused American consumers to lose confidence in September, indicating spending will take time to recover…

Because they’re broke:

U.S. median household income fell 3 percent in 2009 to $50,221, the second straight annual drop, the Census Bureau said…

And their home values are dropping:

…Ten of the 20 cities in the index showed a year-over-year increase, led by an 11 percent gain in San Francisco. That left 10 cities showing a decrease, up from five in June, led by a 4.9 percent drop in Detroit…

While gloomy CEOs surely aren’t helping matters:

Chief executive officers in the U.S. turned less optimistic in the third quarter as fewer projected sales and hiring will improve, a survey showed…

Meanwhile, people are hiding ever more of their money in gold:

Gold prices continued to push higher Tuesday, reaching another record high, amid ongoing concerns about the economy…

Which, along with our absurd debt, is causing the dollar to drop:

The dollar traded at almost a five- month low against the euro after U.S. home prices rose at a slower pace in July, fueling speculation the Federal Reserve will ease monetary policy…

And that last bit about the Fed getting ready to print bags of money for the Banksters is, naturally, getting the stock market to rally – proving that no one put pure, unadulterated idiots remain in stocks.

So much for the “Recovery Summer” now – now it is the Fall of the Recovery, and Depression heads towards us like an oncoming train.

From an ABC affiliate:

Former President Jimmy Carter has been taken to the hospital after landing at Cleveland Hopkins Airport Tuesday morning.

NewsChannel5 crews at MetroHealth Medical Center said an ambulance arrived with Secret Service crews and an Ohio State Highway Patrol cruiser following it. People in the emergency room at the hospital told our crew they were kicked out because they were told “President Carter is coming.”…

Our prayers for President Carter’s health and swift recovery from whatever ails him.

Goodness, its like they have a death wish – from Indystar:

Turned down by union workers Monday, Illinois businessman Justin Norman won’t come back with a sweeter bid to buy GM’s huge Indianapolis metal plant.

“We are withdrawing from pursuing the plant any further,” JD Norman Industries announced after autoworkers voted 457-96 against a concession contract that would have cleared the way for Norman to buy the plant and cut wages by nearly half.

Although the vote marks a victory for defiant leaders of United Auto Workers Local 23 trying to resist wage cuts, it brings a quick end to attempts to spare the old riverside landmark from a shutdown that will widen the hole in the city’s industrial tax base…

Rather than take a pay cut to keep everyone working, the union decided to commit economic suicide. And not just for themselves but for their families and their local community. We’re in a deep recession and things simply cannot be as they were – the overly-generous pay and benefits packages built up by unions and complacent management over the past few decades simply cannot stand while unemployment is officially nearly 10%, and more realistically is closer to 20%.

The offer they rejected was for a base pay of $15.50 per hour, plus a bonus over the next two years of up to $35,000.00. You bring that opportunity here to Las Vegas, and you’d have 10,000 people lining up to apply. But, not good enough for the unions – rather kill the entire goose, if it can only lay silver eggs rather than golden.

A lot of people say that the decline of unions has been the cause of the decline of the middle class – not so: more accurately it has been unions which have made it progressively impossible to have a large, industrial base…not just in the absurd union contracts, but in union support for liberal Democrats who enact policies which make inhuman dictatorships like China’s appear business friendly.

We do need unions, but not the unions we have today – I hope that eventually the union workers will wake and realize that they’re being sold down the river. New unions with leadership geared towards the needs of the workers would be a boon to the United States – the current crop is part of the problem, and they must go.

HAT TIP: Mish’s

Via Powerline from Breitbart:

A small-town mayor and an aide were found stoned to death Monday in a drug-plagued western state, the fifth city leader to be slain in Mexico since mid-August.

Michoacan state Attorney General Jesus Montejano said the bodies of Tancitaro Mayor Gustavo Sanchez and city adviser Rafael Equihua were discovered in a pickup truck abandoned on a dirt road near the city of Uruapan.

Montejano’s spokesman, Jonathan Arredondo, said initially that the victims were hacked to death with a machete, but the attorney general said they were killed with stones…

Poor Mexico! I really don’t see how they get out of this – I don’t think the government has the authority or the power to really clamp down. Our problem is that the drug cartels control the border because we have abdicated our authority along the border.

It is going to get very grim, I think, for Mexico over the next couple years.

Rahmbo next to exit? From ABC News:

Although no final decision has been made because of family considerations, ABC News has learned that White House officials are preparing for Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel to announce on Friday — as Congress adjourns for recess — that he is leaving his post to explore a run for mayor of Chicago…

I really wasn’t expecting it this soon – I thought they’d start to abandon Obama in January or February. The “other shoe to drop” here would be a Hillary resignation…she does that before January, then we can put it 50/50 that she’ll be challenging Obama in 2012, unless there is a massive turn around in his fortunes.

This is what comes of nominating a nobody for President. Everyone was able to project on him whatever they pleased, and thus he got 53% or so of the vote…but the problem is in the fact that he doesn’t know anything and has no experience in running anything, let alone something as large and complex as the US government. The majority was suckered and is now getting angry over it…and the cynics who helped it along for personal gain are bailing out.

Very sorry she got caught:

Democratic Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez says she didn’t intend to offend anyone when she told a reporter that “the Vietnamese” and Republicans were trying to take her seat representing California’s Orange County.

Sanchez said Friday she “used a poor choice of words that some people have taken as offensive” in a Spanish-language interview with Jorge Ramos on Univision’s Sunday morning show, “Al Punto.” She said she apologizes if she offended anyone…

Uh, Ms. Sanchez, we didn’t “take” them as offensive – they were offensive. We’re angry that you gave offense – that you essentially called on people of one ethnic group to do battle against members of another. We’re also sick to death of the racial politics from your side of the aisle.

But what can we expect? They don’t have ideas. They don’t have a sense of honor. All they have is a sense of entitlement – they deserve power because they are such wonderful people who believe all the right things and who kowtow to all the right groups. When caught out, they simply don’t understand what happened – after all, Ms. Sanchez probably didn’t say anything her side hasn’t said a thousand times before…just a pity it was recorded and someone took the time to translate.

We do need an end to division in this nation. We are all Americans – but just as long as we have people like Ms. Sanchez in position of power and authority, so we’ll continue to have bitter, ethnic divides.

As Instapundit frequently puts it – “they told me if I voted for McCain, we’d have the FBI going after anti-war activists; and, they were right!”.

FBI agents in Chicago took a laptop and documents from the home of a Palestinian-American anti-war activist in an attempt to silence his advocacy, an attorney said Sunday.

The FBI on Friday searched eight addresses in Minneapolis and Chicago, including the home of Hatem Abudayyeh, who is the executive director of the Arab American Action Network, attorney Jim Fennerty told The Associated Press.

“The government’s trying to quiet activists,” Fennerty said. “This case is really scary.”…

Which may or may not be true – not much of a step from “anti-war” to “pro-terrorist” activism, as we on the right frequently pointed out during the previous Administration. There were these differences, however:

1. We on our side were very wary of any government action which could be construed as silencing dissent. Annoyed as we were (and remain) by the bone heads in the so-called “anti-war” movement, they have an absolute right to be as stupid as they want to be.

2. If President Bush’s FBI had done this, the Democrats and the larger political left would have exploded with indignation…bunch of crickets chirping is the response that I can see, so far.

Liberals, of course, are not interested in liberty. To them, “freedom” means “abortion” and “free access to sex and pornography”. The concept that people you disagree with should be left alone to speak their minds is alien to the left. As is, indeed, any sort of intellectual independence (one need only note that on the left it took orders from on high to try and create counter-parts to the TEA Party for proof of this). For the anti-war movement it works like this:

Orders were to be anti-war while President Bush was in office; now that Obama is in office, orders are to not be anti-war (at least not to the extent of taking to the streets about it). Thus this investigation is being passed over mostly in silence. There are no orders to be outraged, and thus no outrage.

What will become of this case remains to be seen. If these people were in cahoots with the terrorists, then they should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. If, on the other hand, they were just causing problems for the Administration, then there will have to be a high price to pay for those in the Administration who set this afoot. We will watch and wait – and we can be sure that on the right a genuine concern for liberty will be brought to bear.