You can trust this group with SPLOST

Nice to finally know what’s going on.

It has been fascinating to watch the difference ten months can make. A majority of the Fayette County Board of Commissioners in 2012 were secretive and cantankerous.

The band, made up of Herb Frady, Robert Horgan and Lee Hearn, were combative and worked almost exclusively outside of the will of Fayette County’s citizens. The new 2013 team of commissioners have been a breath of fresh air.

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via The Citizen http://www.thecitizen.com/articles/10-29-2013/you-can-trust-group-splost

Southern Conservation Trust favors SPLOST passage

Southern Conservation Trust (SCT) urges voters to carefully consider the core stormwater infrastructure SPLOST on the November election ballot.

The SPLOST referendum would authorize funding for key projects to help preserve the natural condition of lands in Fayette County as well as help address low flow issues in the Flint River Basin.

At the heart of our SCT mission is conserving land and conserving water quality and quantity goes hand-in-hand with the mission. Ensuring each of us, as well as future generations, have affordable, clean and adequate water supplies is crucial.

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via The Citizen http://www.thecitizen.com/articles/10-29-2013/southern-conservation-trust-favors-splost-passage

Environmentalist Chase says vote no against this SPLOST

For months, I have attempted to learn just what Fayette County intends to do on each of the 181 projects on their SPLOST list.

But no matter what I have said or written, the responses have invariably been about funding those projects.

No matter how much time I have spent reviewing files or how many of the sites I have visited, I could not obtain anything near an understandable plan. I do not believe any of our commissioners know either.

If you are willing to accept unsubstantiated proclamations that they really need our money, then I guess you will vote to increase taxes.

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via The Citizen http://www.thecitizen.com/articles/10-29-2013/environmentalist-chase-says-vote-no-against-splost

Brown answers concerns about SPLOST being a double tax for cities

There is some speculation in Peachtree City lately that passage of the Core Infrastructure SPLOST means that Peachtree City taxpayers would be double-taxed for stormwater since they pay a utility fee as well. I truly appreciate my neighbors in Peachtree City contacting me and asking these types of questions.

Unfortunately, the city government has not sufficiently spread the word that the city’s portion of the sales tax proceeds is going toward road and multi-use path maintenance which they urgently need. Many thought the city’s projects were stormwater related like the county’s list.

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via The Citizen http://www.thecitizen.com/articles/10-29-2013/brown-answers-concerns-about-splost-being-double-tax-cities

Dow Hits New All-Time High On Lowest Non-Holiday Volume Day Of The Year

SSDD. Collapsing confidence, check. Housing Recovery meme toast, check. Volume at 2013 lows, check. BTFATH and send Trannies up for 13th of last 15 days (+10.4%), Dow near all-time highs again (thank you IBM buybacks), and S&P to new all-time highs… but don't tell Treasuries (which stand +/-1bps on the week). VIX wasn't drinking the kool-aid but the NASDARK session enabled futures to drag us back to higher before limping lower into the closer. The USD oscilatted around Nowotny comments and POMO ending the day up a rather notable 0.5% from Friday's close and that pressured commodities in general lower (gold hovering at $1345). The last 2 minutes saw stocks scream higher on their own as the world was terrified it would miss out on something (but no other market moved) and all the major indices managed new highs.

 

US Equity markets have only one master… JPY carry levered muppetry…

 

But bonds weren't buying the stock exuberance (or was the post-PMO rally in both bonds and stocks just more of the same Un-Taper hope?)….

 

And credit is absolutely ignoring stocks' exuberance…

 

But the straight line rise to infinity and beyond continues as the entire market finds Birinyi's ruler…

 

Homebuilders rejoin Discretionary stocks at the top of the heap post Debt-ceiling lows… (up 8.5%!)…

 

Volume continues to slump as stock prices rise…

 

VIX remains 'relatively' bid as we head into tomorrow's FOMC decision…

 

Intriguingly, shorts have actually not done so badly in the last week or so (but today saw a late day squeeze)…

 

When the Nasdaq cash indices cat is away, the futures mice will play…

 

Charts: Bloomberg

 

Bonus Chart: Let The Kool Aid Flow… (h/t @Not_Jim_Cramer)


    



via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/No-1fHwn2mk/story01.htm Tyler Durden

US Responds To France: You Were Spying On Yourself

Following the humiliation of having a US ambassador summoned so he would explain the spying conducted by the US government, in liberated Paris of all places (because while the NSA spying on your own citizens is an absolute travesty and trampling of basic human rights and smacks of Stalingrad circa 1960, spying abroad is permitted, accepted and largely forgiven by all the developed nations – after all everyone does it) the US has struck back in the most poetic way imaginable: it said that whatever phone records the NSA acquired were passed on to it by the local spy agencies of none other than France and Spain. The implication is simple: the local people understandably furious at the US and screaming blood, have just been given a far more convenient target at which to fume: their own governments.

The WSJ reports how the spy scandal tables have just turned:

The phone records collected by the Europeans—in war zones and other areas outside their borders—then were shared with the NSA, U.S. officials said, as part of efforts to help protect American and allied troops and civilians.

 

The new disclosure upends the version of events as reported in Europe in recent days, and puts a spotlight on the role of European intelligence services that work closely with the NSA, suggesting a greater level of European involvement in global surveillance.

 

The U.S. has so far been silent about the role of European partners in these collection efforts so as to protect relationships. These efforts are separate, however, from the U.S. spying programs that targeted dozens of foreign leaders, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose phones were tapped for years by the NSA.

 

The NSA declined to comment, as did the Spanish foreign ministry and a spokesman for the French Embassy in Washington. A spokesman for Spain’s intelligence service said: “Spanish law impedes us from talking about our procedures, methods and relationships with other intelligence services.”

Of course, this is a lie too:

After publication of the report in Le Monde last week, the U.S. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said that it contained “inaccurate and misleading information regarding U.S. foreign intelligence activities.”

 

He said the allegation that the NSA collected more than 70 million “recordings of French citizens’ telephone data” is false, but he provided no further explanation of what the data in the documents showed.

However, that doesn’t matter because in the New Normal globalized world everyone else is lying too, and the only prerogative is to keep the sheep happily grazing and not thinking too hard about what really goes on behind the scenes.

Officials privately have said the disclosures in the European press put the U.S. in a difficult bind.

 

The U.S. wants to correct the record about the extent of NSA spying but doing so in this case would require it to expose its allies’ intelligence operations, the officials say, which could compromise cooperation in the future as well as ongoing intelligence efforts.

And for the “greater good” this can’t possibly happen, as who knows what level of theft and criminality within the governments would be exposed. So the best option is merely to scapegoat, who else, Snowden himself, and to suggest that whatever the documents showed is not accurate and the NSA knows best.

U.S. officials said the Snowden-provided documents had been misinterpreted and actually show phone records that were collected by French and Spanish intelligence agencies, and then shared with the NSA, according to officials briefed on those discussions.

 

U.S. intelligence officials studied the document published by Le Monde earlier this month and have determined that it wasn’t assembled by the NSA.

 

Rather, the document appears to be a slide that was assembled based on NSA data received from French intelligence, a U.S. official said.

Based on an analysis of the document, the U.S. concluded that the phone records the French had collected were actually from outside of France, and then were shared with the U.S. The data don’t show that the French spied on their own people inside France.

 

U.S. intelligence officials haven’t seen the documents cited by El Mundo but the data appear to come from similar information the NSA obtained from Spanish intelligence agencies documenting their collection efforts abroad, officials said.

And because the NSA never lies, everyone must believe them…. must believe them…. must believe them…

In conclusion: “Public disclosure of European complicity in the collection efforts would likely spark domestic outrage in those countries against their own governments, and could threaten cooperation with the U.S.”

Great – more domestic outrage in countries that have 60% youth unemployment is just what the European recovery doctor ordered.


    



via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/mx6pTkmAg10/story01.htm Tyler Durden

Noel November is back for 19th year

Just like Jolly Old Saint Nick, Noel November is coming to town again for the 19th year in a row. This Celebration of Trees and Wreaths is the Fayette County Board of Realtors premiere event and delights attendees of all ages with an extravaganza of donated theme trees, wreaths, mantle arrangements, gift baskets and other auction items for the entire family. This year’s charity event will be held on Saturday, November 9th at the Flat Creek Country Club in Peachtree City.

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via The Citizen http://www.thecitizen.com/articles/10-29-2013/noel-november-back-19th-year

‘Pinocchio’ comes to Southside

Southside Theatre Guild is proud to present “Pinocchio,” a play the whole family can enjoy. The show opens Oct. 31 and runs weekends through November 17.  Opening night will feature free treats for all the children and free snacks for everyone. Also, if you bring a nonperishable food item to donate to the Fairburn Community Food Bank for any of the performances, Southside Theatre Guild will give you one free concession item. It is the theatre’s way to give back to the community that has been so supportive of community theatre the past 41 years. 

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via The Citizen http://www.thecitizen.com/articles/10-29-2013/%E2%80%98pinocchio%E2%80%99-comes-southside

Arguing views

This column originally appeared August 23, 1996.

World travelers, when their trekking days are ending, often sit and debate their favorite vistas. We too get out the picture albums once in awhile and argue the preferences they offer.
Taken together, they represent the best reason to travel: seeing something different when you open your eyes each morning.

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via The Citizen http://www.thecitizen.com/blogs/sallie-satterthwaite/10-29-2013/arguing-views