Oregon Woman Told by 911 ‘There are no cops available…Just ask him to go away’ Right Before Sexual Assault

Kimberly Paxton

The saying goes, “When seconds count, the police are only minutes away.”

If you live in Josephine County, Oregon, apparently they’re only minutes away on weekdays. Budget cuts have reduced department coverage to only 5 days per week.

An unidentified woman was physically and sexually assaulted by her ex-boyfriend, Michael Bellah, after calling 911, only to be told that it was “unfortunate” that there were no officers to help her that day.

“Uh, I don’t have anybody to send out there,” the 911 dispatcher told the woman. “You know, obviously, if he comes inside the residence and assaults you, can you ask him to go away? Do you know if he’s intoxicated or anything?” 

The woman told the dispatcher that Bellah previously attacked her and left her hospitalized a few weeks prior to the latest incident. The dispatcher stayed on the phone with the woman for more than 10 minutes before the sexual assault took place. 

Slashing Local Food, Rural Development, Child Nutrition, and Conservation

WIki Image

Taylor Reid
BeginningFarmers

House Republicans Propose Slashing Local Food, Rural Development, Child Nutrition, and Conservation Programs

On May 31st 2011 the House Appropriations Committee approved its fiscal year 2012 Agricultural Appropriations bill (to read the full text of the bill CLICK HERE) with major cuts in agricultural program spending – a 13.4% reduction in from fiscal year 2011. What is most worrisome is where the cuts have come. While the proposed bill actually increases Commodity Crop Payments by $150 million, it seems to take specific aim at much smaller programs funding local food, rural development, child nutrution, conservation, sustainable agriculture (SARE) and fair competition rules for meat producers.

An Attack on Local Food Systems

The House Appropriations Committee Report suggests that efforts to promote local and regional food systems are unnecessary and wasteful in a number of ways. In reality, local food systems have the potential to dramatically increase farmers share of the food dollar, and stimulate economic development and job creation by encouraging local reinvestment rather than corporate profit. The House Committee’s explicit attack on local and regional food systems is one of the most striking elements of the bill’s text, and that of the Committee Report.

US lawmakers cut Homeland Security funding

© AFP/File Paul J. Richards

AFP

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The US House of Representatives has voted to shave more than a billion dollars from next year's Department of Homeland Security budget as part of its deficit reduction plan.

The Republican-held House voted 231 to 188 to cut the fiscal 2012 budget by $1.1 billion to $40.6 billion for the agency charged with fighting terror and guarding US borders.

The budget, whose fiscal year begins on October 1, is $3 billion, or seven percent less than President Barack Obama's request.

"Providing for critical national security measures is a funding priority, and I'm pleased we've done so expediently while still cutting spending to more sustainable levels," said Kentucky Republican Hal Rogers, who chairs the committee that oversees the agency's budget.

The New Enemy of Economic Recovery: Austerity Protesters

George Osborne image

Eric Blair
Activist Post

As the United States surpasses the debt ceiling today, and Obama and Boehner play "let's make a deal" for deep cuts to the budget, citizens must prepare for austerity measures of higher taxes and less benefits.  These cutbacks won't necessarily be as evident as European austerity, because Americans scarcely get anything tangible from their tax dollars.  However, cutbacks will likely bring similar hardship and protest.

The increasingly ferocious protests over public service cuts and asset looting in the Euro-zone hints at what may be in store for America. Over the weekend a Washington Post article described the escalating unrest in Greece over punishing austerity measures.  However, the thrust of the article was to create the new enemy of the economy recovery: austerity "anarchists":

Key US lawmakers warn Palestinians of aid cuts

Palestinian security forces training in the
West Bank city of Jenin
© AFP Saif Dahlah

AFP 

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States will "reexamine" its aid to the Palestinians in the event of a power-sharing deal that includes the Islamist Hamas movement, a key US lawmaker warned Thursday.

"If a power-sharing agreement with a terrorist organization becomes a reality in the Palestinian territories, the US will be forced to reexamine our aid to the Palestinian Authority," said Republican Representative Kay Granger.

Granger, who chairs the House of Representatives subcommittee that controls US foreign aid, issued the statement through her office while on a trip to the Middle East for talks with Israeli and Egyptian officials.

How I would cut federal spending, or: We should have insisted they shut the federal government down

Dees Illustration

Marti Oakley, Contributing Writer
Activist Post

The waste, fraud and corruption in our federal government established over decades via career politicians and faux political party’s has brought our country to the brink of disaster.  The recent threat of a government shutdown over contrived budget differences was a golden opportunity to stop the corporately controlled machine that is killing us.  This should not have been a matter of preventing a shutdown . . . we should have insisted they shut down.  And then we should have stepped up, cleaned house (and senate) and used this opportunity to rid ourselves of these prevaricator’s, thieves, charlatans . . . corporate lackey’s all of them, and started over.

After viewing the political trickery sold to the public as “spending cuts of historic proportions”, I decided to write my own list of REAL spending cuts that would benefit us all.  I believe I can save the country more than a measly 78 or 84 billion in pretended cuts put out by the Republi-crats.

This is my seven step plan that would save us billions just this year and help stem the flow of the surveillance state being planned for us by the Repuli-crats.  It would also be the beginning of defunding of federal corporate agencies which are a threat to our nation.

US budget cuts mean no more ET monitoring

SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Institute
© SETI Institute

AFP 

WASHINGTON (AFP) - A monitoring system for potential extraterrestrial communication has been shelved due to budget cuts, one of its partners said Tuesday.

With funding dried up, the SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) established in 1984, had to put the Allen Telescope Array (ATA) on an indefinite pause, the institute said in a letter.

The telescopes, at the Hat Creek Radio Observatory north of San Francisco, California, had been monitoring for potential messages beyond our planet.

"Effective this week, the ATA has been placed in hibernation due to funding shortfalls for operations of the Hat Creek Radio Observatory where the ATA is located," said a letter from Tom Pierson, CEO of SETI Institute.

Funding for HCRO had been cut to one tenth its former level, he said, noting that partners were being sought.

© AFP -- Published at Activist Post with license

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'War lobby won $700 billion budget boost, wants MORE as collapse looms' (Video)

RT


RELATED ARTICLE:
10 Signs America is Becoming a Third World Country

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Obama's Deficit Plan will Impoverish Main Street America

Global Research-President Obama announced the outlines of his deficit plan, leaving a lot up for negotiation. He planted his poll at the center right and where he ends up, with his history of compromising to bring right wing Republicans and Democratic corporatists together, can only be worse.


I was pleasantly surprised to see groups that usually side with Obama even criticizing him.  True Majority/US Action wrote “Obama wants to cut $4 trillion, but not $1 from the Pentagon,” in their headline.  They go on to point out that “President Obama today proposed reducing the deficit through almost $800 billion in cuts.”  They correctly point out that the country needs jobs not deficit cuts, and if cuts are going to be made they should not be made in domestic programs where funds are needed but in the military writing: “Over half of the money Congress makes decisions on goes directly into the Pentagon’s pocket, and that doesn't count the money for actual wars. But instead of cutting the Pentagon budget, Obama is proposing over $700 billion in cuts to programs that benefit the poor, seniors and children, while only trying to save $400 billion on war and weapons.”

Republicans will make US a 'Third World' country: Obama

© AFP/Getty Images Scott Olson

AFP

CHICAGO (AFP) - US President Barack Obama accused his Republican foes of wanting to turn the United States into a "Third World" country Thursday as he rallied support for his reelection campaign.

The attack came a day after Obama savaged Republican budget plans and unveiled his $4 trillion deficit reduction drive that aims to raise taxes on the wealthiest Americans in order to preserve key social services.

The debate over fiscal policy will prove critical to the 2012 campaign, and Obama sought to frame it as a "stark choice" between investing in the future or watching the country fall apart.

Get Ready for Federal Budget Gridlock

Greg Hunter
USA Watchdog

This week, President Obama gave a speech outlining his plan for long term deficit reduction.  He invited the Republican leadership for what many thought would be some sort of bi-partisan federal budget 2011 solution.  In reality, it was kind of a St. Valentine’s Day massacre because right off the bat, Mr. Obama pulled out the Presidential tommy-gun and started shooting. He said, “This debate over budgets and deficits is about more than just numbers on a page, more than just cutting and spending.  It’s about the kind of future we want.  It’s about the kind of country we believe in.” 

Surprise, surprise.  The kind of country President Obama “believes in” is a lot different than the Republicans.  The President said the Republican plan “ends Medicare as we know it.” Sounds to me the President will play the class warfare card during the 2012 election season because he went on to say, “The top 1% saw their income rise by an average of more than a quarter of a million dollars each.  And that’s who needs to pay less taxes?”  (Click here to read the entire text of the President’s deficit speech.) I can see why the President is playing to lower income people.  Recently, a poll revealed a majority of the poorest Americans no longer support Obama.  CNSNews.com reports, “President Barack Obama’s approval among the poorest Americans dropped to an all-time low of 48 percent last week, according to the Gallup poll, leaving the president with less-than-majority approval among all income brackets reported in Gallup’s presidential approval surveys.” (Click here to read the complete CNSNews.com story.)

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Cornel West "Barack Obama Is The Black Mascot Of The Wall Street Oligarchs" (Video)

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IMF urges US to address debt now

Debt clock/Wikimedia image

AFP

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The International Monetary Fund on Monday urged the US to begin addressing its yawning budget deficit this year rather than putting off the pain and missing G20 fiscal targets.

In its semi-annual measure of global economic health, the IMF said the US will likely grow more slowly than originally forecast in January -- 2.75 percent instead of 3.0 percent.

It said that slack domestic demand, high unemployment and still-depressed housing prices will continue to dog the world's largest economy, and that the huge government deficit will limit its ability to address those problems.

Washington mayor arrested in protest

The Mayor of the District of Columbia Vincent Gray
© AFP/File Kimihiro Hoshino

AFP

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Vincent Gray, the mayor of the US capital city of Washington, was arrested during a protest over the budget deal struck to avoid a federal government shutdown, local media reported.

Some 41 of the roughly 150 demonstrators protesting details of the deal which involve how the District of Columbia government can spend its money were arrested, Gray among them, NBC television reported.

The demonstrators also are outraged that the federal capital city was used as a political chip in the budget deal struck Friday between President Barack Obama's fellow Democrats in Congress and rival Republicans.

Under terms of the deal, it appears that local tax money will not be able to be spent on abortions for low-income women, NBC reported citing city leaders.

Washington is still regrouping from the political tug-of-war that led to the near shutdown of the federal government at the weekend, but looming on the horizon are bigger battles over the debt ceiling and the 2012 federal budget.

© AFP -- Published at Activist Post with license

RELATED ARTICLE:
Obama's 6 Hypocritical Guidelines For Peaceful Protest 

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Despite deal, US budget woes far from over

The next fiscal showdown is likely to be
over the US's debt ceiling
© AFP/File image Shawn Thew

AFP

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The last-minute budget agreement that Republicans and Democrats reached may have averted a Saturday US government shutdown, but it's a mere skirmish in a looming war over the debt ceiling and the 2012 federal budget.

The agreement, reached after weeks of hard bargaining just before midnight Friday, funds the government for the rest of the fiscal year ending September 30, while making what President Barack Obama described as the deepest annual spending cuts in US history.

"This is not basically the last fight here," Republican Representative Adam Kinzinger told Fox News, some 12 hours after the 11th-hour vote. "This is the first opening salvo in a real attempt to bring back the size of government and start living within our means."

US lawmakers reach deal to avert govt shutdown

The agreement included some $38.5 billion
dollars of extra spending cuts
© AFP/File Jewel Samad

AFP

WASHINGTON (AFP) - A dramatic 11th-hour deal slashing spending has staved off a US government shutdown, ending a rancorous budget row between President Barack Obama and his newly empowered Republican foes.

Party leaders clinched the agreement, including some $38.5 billion dollars of extra spending cuts, after intense bargaining, barely an hour before the federal government effectively ran out of money at midnight Friday.

The showdown was just the first bruising engagement in a string of likely clashes between Obama and Republicans boosted by a new crop of conservative Tea Party lawmakers, as the president fires up his 2012 reelection bid.

Debt Jumped $54.1 Billion in 8 Days Preceding Obama-Boehner Deal to Cut $38.5 Billion for Rest of Year

wiki

Terrence P. Jeffrey 
CNS News

The federal debt increased $54.1 billion in the eight days preceding the deal made by President Barack Obama, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D.-Nev.) and House Speaker John Boehner (R.-Ohio) to cut $38.5 billion in federal spending for the remainder of fiscal year 2011, which runs through September.

The debt was $14.2101 trillion on March 30, according to the Bureau of the Public Debt, and $14.2642 on April 7.

Since the beginning of the fiscal year on Oct. 1, 2010, the national debt has increase by $653.4 billion.

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Don't Believe the False Budget Arguments (Video)

Youtube

http://www.wideawakenews.com/
http://www.moneynews.com/StreetTalk/Laurence-Kotlikoff-Fiscal-Meltdown/2011/0...
http://www.usatoday.com/money/companies/management/2011-03-31-ceo-pay-2010.htm

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Ratigan to Ron Paul: 'Don't You Have an Obligation to Run for President?' (Video)

Activist Post

Ron Paul appears with Dylan Ratigan on April 5th, 2011 to discuss the budget cut debate and foreign policy.  Paul says the budget debate is a joke and "nothing compared to the calamity that we face."  Ratigan, as if pleading with Paul at the end of the interview, asks "Don't you have an obligation to run for President?

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US Republicans vow steep long-term spending cuts

Editor's Note: "Ryan's plan would privatize the Medicare health program for older Americans, giving beneficiaries vouchers to pay for care." Of course it will.  Using a "crisis" to transfer more taxpayer funds to private cartels.

Republican Representative Paul Ryan
© AFP/File Jim Watson

AFP

WASHINGTON (AFP) - President Barack Obama's Republican foes, warning the debt-heavy US economy is headed for collapse, unveiled a plan on Tuesday to slash government spending by $6 trillion over the next decade.

Republican Representative Paul Ryan, the chairman of the House of Representatives' Budget Committee, showcased the party's "Path to Prosperity" as a direct rebuke to what he denounced as Obama's free-spending ways.

"The United States is heading toward a debt crisis," Ryan said in a slickly produced video on his committee web site. "We face a crushing burden of debt, which will take down our economy, and will lower our living standards."