A Snaphsot of Heaven

THUNDER LIKE BOOMS CONTINUE IN COLUMBIA COUNTY

Bernanke throws the dollar over the Currency Cliff in operation screw us

MAGNITUDE 6.4 EARTHQUAKE STRIKES OFF CALIFORNIA/MEX

Unions Prepare for ‘Civil War’.....‘There will be blood´

Top Teamsters goon James R. Hoffa is threatening to bring “civil war” to Michigan in order to roll back the state’s new right to work law.

After Gov. Rick Snyder (R) signed legislation aimed at breaking the labor movement’s death grip on Michigan’s near-comatose economy, Hoffa took to CNN Tuesday to declare, “This is just the first round of a battle that’s going to divide this state.” He added, “We’re going to have a civil war in this state.”

Hoffa also flippantly compared the enactment of the legislation to the attack on Pearl Harbor 71 years ago in which more than 3,000 Americans died.

While the Michigan House of Representatives debated the worker freedom bill on Tuesday, state lawmaker Douglas Geiss (D) took to the floor.

“There will be blood,” he said. “I really wish we had not gone here … I do not see solace, I do not see peace.”

In fact blood has already been spilled. While he was trying to interview right to work opponents outside the legislature in Lansing two days ago, conservative comedian-activist Steven Crowder was beaten up by union members. Apparently the perpetrators were upset that Crowder was asking questions and trying to prevent them from demolishing a temporary shelter that the good government group Americans for Prosperity had erected at the site. Crowder suffered a chipped tooth in the attack.

The new Michigan law strikes a powerful blow for freedom of association in the Wolverine State. Right to work laws weaken unions’ monopolistic control of local labor markets and protect workers’ ability to control their own destinies, free from pressure applied by union bosses. Such legislation allows employees to work without being forced to pay union dues which are often funneled to Democratic candidates and various radical causes. Michigan is now the 24th state to enact right to work legislation.

The state’s new right to work law will benefit the 576,000 Michigan workers who are currently forced to pay union dues as a condition of employment, according to the National Right to Work Committee. “Study after study shows that the 23 states that have passed Right to Work laws have a huge advantage in creating jobs and expanding their economies,” the group said before Snyder signed right to work into law in his state.

Organized labor has been taking it on the chin lately in the Great Lakes region, the cradle of the labor movement. After Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker asked government union members last year to contribute a small percentage towards the costs of their pension plans and health care benefits, the Left falsely portrayed him as an enemy of democracy. The unions’ thuggish tactics failed to move lawmakers who approved the budget-balancing plan and Walker easily beat back a union-initiated recall election in June this year.

Front Page Mag

US to send Patriot missiles, 400 troops to Turkey

INCIRLIK AIR BASE, Turkey (AP) — The Pentagon says it will send Patriot air defense missiles and 400 troops to Turkey as part of a NATO force meant to protect Turkish territory from potential Syrian missile attack.

Pentagon press secretary George Little said Defense Secretary Leon Panetta signed a deployment order Friday en route to Turkey from Afghanistan.

The order calls for 400 US soldiers to operate two batteries of Patriots at undisclosed locations in Turkey, Little told reporters flying with Panetta.

Turkey is a founding member of NATO and requested that the alliance provide Patriots. They will be sent by NATO members Germany and the Netherlands as well as the US for an undetermined period.

During a brief stop at Incirlik Air Base, Panetta told US troops that Turkey might need the Patriots, which are capable of shooting down shorter-range ballistic missiles as well as aircraft.

He said he approved the deployment “so that we can help Turkey have the kind of missile defense it may very well need to deal with the threats coming out of Syria,” he said.

Panetta did not mention how soon the two Patriot batteries will head to Turkey or how long they might stay.

Incirlik is about 60 miles from the Syrian border.
Times of Israel

Russia to Develop Precision Conventional ICBM

MOSCOW, December 14 (RIA Novosti) - Russia may develop a non-nuclear precision-guided payload capability for its new hundred-ton class liquid-fueled ICBM if need be, Strategic Missile Forces (RSVN) Commander Col. Gen. Sergei Karakayev said on Friday.

"The availability of a powerful liquid-fueled ICBM allows us the capability of creating a strategic high-accuracy weapons system with a conventional payload with practically global range, if the US does not pull back from its program for creating such missile systems," he said.

The new liquid-fuel ICBM will be able to penetrate any missile defense system likely to emerge in the near future, he said.

"The higher energy provided by liquid fuels gives it more varied and effective methods of countermeasures against global missile defense screens including space-based elements of those systems," he said.

Analysts say arming ICBMs with conventional warheads for long-range attack might produce problems as well as solutions.

"A conventionally-armed ICBM was one option considered as part of Washington’s Prompt Global Strike studies," said Douglas Barrie, air warfare analyst at the London-based International Institute of Strategic Studies. "The advantages of reach and speed are self-apparent, however, the issue of differentiating between a nuclear and a conventional warhead once the system was launched but prior to impact raises a concern of how those targeted might respond," he added.

Russia is developing a solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) to replace all its current "fifth-generation" long-range missile systems including the Yars and Topol M, Karakayev said.

The RSVN has carried out a small number of test-firings of a prototype of the new missile, the last of which was carried out from the Kapustin Yar range on October 24 from a mobile launcher.

"This missile was built with maximal use of technologies developed in the course of producing fifth-generation systems in order to get it into service more quickly and reduce costs," he said.

Karakayev said it was too early to discuss details of such work for "cleary obvious reasons" but added "the results of the launches show that the makers of this missile technology are clearly on the right track."

It is the first formal announcement from the RSVN command that the fifth-generation solid-fueled ICBM would be deployed; but previously unnamed sources had said it would be deployed by 2014.

RIA Novosti

Financal Apocalypse

Chinese airplane enters Japanese airspace over Senkakus

A Chinese government airplane entered Japanese airspace over the disputed Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea on Thursday in the first such airspace intrusion in Japan, prompting an immediate protest from the Japanese government.

The Air Self-Defense Force scrambled F-15 fighter jets to the area after one of China's State Oceanic Administration airplanes was spotted at 11:06 a.m. about 15 kilometers south of Uotsuri Island, one of the Japanese-administered Senkakus claimed by China, Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura told reporters.

It is the first-ever intrusion by China into Japanese airspace since Tokyo started tallying the number of such intrusions in 1958, according to the Defense Ministry.

Four Chinese maritime surveillance vessels entered Japanese waters around the disputed islands in Okinawa Prefecture in the morning, marking the third straight day Chinese government ships have entered the waters, the Japan Coast Guard said.

Tokyo immediately filed a protest with Beijing after the airspace intrusion, Fujimura said, adding that it is "extremely deplorable" that the incident occurred on top of the intrusion by the Chinese ships, which lasted about six hours.

"We are determined to deal firmly with action that violates our country's sovereignty in accordance with domestic laws and regulations," the top government spokesman added.

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda instructed relevant government offices to take further caution in warning and surveillance activities, he said.

In a stump speech in Sagamihara, Kanagawa Prefecture, Noda said, "I pledge to protect the nation and its people by practicing a thorough crisis management to protect our territorial land, sea, sovereignty and national interests."

The State Oceanic Administration of China, for its part, said its aircraft conducted a patrol mission with the four ships after reaching Chinese airspace over the disputed islands, which China calls Diaoyu.

Earlier in the morning, a coast guard patrol vessel that spotted the Chinese airplane radioed the aircraft, saying that it must leave Japanese airspace, but the plane replied that it was in Chinese airspace, according to the coast guard.

To respond to the airspace violation, the ASDF scrambled six F-15s from a base on the main Okinawa island and routed two more that had already been airborne. But the Chinese aircraft had already left the airspace when the fighter jets got there.

Radar operated by the Self-Defense Forces did not pick up the aircraft, according to the SDF.

Vice Foreign Minister Chikao Kawai summoned acting Chinese Ambassador to Japan Han Zhiqiang to the Foreign Ministry in the early afternoon to lodge a protest, calling for the prevention of any similar case in the future and for Chinese ships still inside the waters to swiftly leave the area.

Han asserted that the islands belong to China and declined to accept the protest, yet indicated he would convey the protest to his home government. The diplomat noted that China hopes to resolve the dispute in a peaceful manner through communication between the two countries, according to the ministry.

The Chinese aircraft in question is used in oceanic surveys and missions to monitor fishing activities, according to the Defense Ministry.

The airspace over the Senkaku Islands had been violated twice before -- by a Soviet bomber in 1979 and a Taiwanese civilian aircraft in 1994.

Kyodo

Iranians thinks US, Israel not as powerful as they claim'

South Korea says North Korea rocket appears to be orbiting Earth

South Korea said Thursday a rocket successfully launched into orbit by North Korea appears to be orbiting the Earth normally, but the country says it does not know whether the rocket is functioning properly.

South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok told reporters that the satellite is orbiting at a speed of 4.7 miles per second but it's not known what mission it is performing. He says it takes two weeks to determine whether a satellite works successfully after liftoff.

The news comes after a defiant North Korea released images and control room footage of the feat, which the U.S. and other nations have labeled a "provocative" act.

The rogue regime fired the long-range rocket into space Wednesday, defying international warnings and taking a major step forward in its quest to develop a nuclear missile. While the stated purpose was to put a weather satellite into orbit, the three-stage rocket's deployment also demonstrates the nation's ability to send a nuclear warhead as far as California, and raises the stakes in the international standoff over North Korea's expanding atomic arsenal.

"The satellite has entered the planned orbit," a North Korean television news reader announced, after which the station played patriotic songs with the lyrics "Chosun (Korea) does what it says."

The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) later confirmed that the nation had "deployed an object that appeared to achieve orbit."

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/12/13/south-korea-says-north-korea-rocket-appears-to-be-orbiting-earth-as-north/?test=latestnews#ixzz2F1kmb0Tq

Media screw ups 2012

In the UK rents to rise faster than house prices in 2013

Surveyors are predicting that the cost of renting a home will rise by 4% in 2013, double the predicted rate of UK house price growth.

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics) said that a slight improvement in the UK economy would be reflected in the property price change.

But many potential first-time buyers would be squeezed and see rents rise.

Lenders have predicted that prices will stay relatively stagnant next year and sales remain well below their peak.'Tentative signs of recovery'

Simon Rubinsohn, chief economist at Rics, said that mortgage lenders would continue to demand high deposits, and first-time buyers would continue to struggle to secure a mortgage.

This would add to demand for rental properties, and so raise rental costs.

He said that the group expected property sales in general to hit their highest level since 2007, although this would still be 40% lower than at the start of the credit crunch.

This increase would be assisted by the Funding for Lending scheme, which sees cheap funds supplied to banks by the Bank of England for them to pass on to small businesses and household borrowers.

He suggested the rise in activity would be seen in some of London, as well as the south-east of England and the north-east of England.

"These tentative signs of recovery in the sales market should not blind us to the very real problems that still exist," he said.

"Even with the Funding for Lending scheme and some other government policies beginning to be felt in the mortgage market, many first-time buyers will continue to find it difficult to secure a sufficiently large loan to take an initial step on the housing market.

"Meanwhile, the alternative of renting is becoming more and more costly with a further increase in rents likely in 2013."

He called for the government to put the conditions in place for house building to increase.

BBC

Japan survey shows business sentiment worsening

Sentiment among Japanese businesses worsened in the three months to December, the Bank of Japan's Tankan survey has indicated, underlining the weakness in the country's economy.

The survey's large manufacturers' index deteriorated to minus 12, from minus three in the previous quarter.

Japanese manufacturers have been hurt by slowing export demand, a strong yen and subdued domestic consumption.

The index plays a role in driving the central bank's monetary policy.

"We can see sentiment is worsening across the board, whether in manufacturing or services," said Hiroshi Miyazaki, chief economist at Shinkin Asset Management in Tokyo.

"There are not any signs that sentiment will recover quickly," he added.

Stimulus boost?
The index, which measures sentiment among large manufacturers, has remained negative for five successive quarters.

The latest number comes after revised growth figures earlier this week suggested the world's third-largest economy was in recession.

Japan said its economy shrank by 0.9% between July and September.

At the same time, the April to June quarter was revised from 0.1% growth to show a contraction of 0.03%, making it two successive quarters of contraction, or a technical recession.

A shrinking economy, slowing demand for exports and sluggish domestic consumption have all contributed to calls for policymakers to implement new measures to help revive growth.

Japan has unveiled some initiatives, including a stimulus boost worth 880bn yen ($10.7bn; £6.7bn), announced last month, to create employment and support small businesses.

However, there have been calls for the central bank to ease its policies further. Analysts said given the sharp decline in sentiment, the bank may announce some measures soon.

"If the Bank of Japan was leaning toward easing policy, this Tankan survey will give them a nudge in that direction," said Mr Miyazaki.
BBC