Eeyore's Important News and View

Hopefully by now you have a real idea of what Thanksgiving is about. It is to bad in our public schools they would rather teach 10 pages about Stalin and one paragraph about Thanksgiving.

Squanto--God's Special Indiana Thanksgiving Story by Dr. Ralph F. Wilson

Sailors poured onto the rocky beach as their small craft landed. Nearby cliffs echoed with a shout: "Grab that short one before he gets away!" The Indian boy felt a sailor's callused hands grasp his shoulders. Though he thrashed and jerked, Squanto (SKWAN- to) couldn't break free. As fibers from a coarse rope cut into his wrists he finally decided that struggle was useless. He was dragged into a longboat, then carried aboard a three-masted English ship anchored offshore.
Squanto had been fishing along the rugged coast when his friend had looked up and pointed, "Great boats with white wings." They had scrambled over the boulders to meet the strange white-faced intruders. Now Squanto was their captive.
Weeks later, a pale Squanto wobbled down the gangplank from that lurching deck onto firm land. He and other Indians were taken to the elaborate mansion of Sir Ferdinando Gorges who had financed many expeditions to the New World. For the next three years, the Indian youths were taught English. At first Squanto found the new tongue awkward, but eventually he surprised himself: "My name is Squanto. I have come from America."
His English host was eager for the Indians to master the language. One day Gorges called them to his quarters. "Young braves, you have studied hard. Now you will be sent as guides on new explorations of America. I will miss you."
"Another ship? How can I stand that constantly rolling deck?" Squanto thought. But in time he gained his sea legs. His knowledge of the rivers and natural harbors, of the tribes and chieftains of his homeland proved very helpful to the English explorers.
For years he had longed to see his beloved bay and village again. One day, as his ship sailed along the New England coast, he spotted it. Squanto ran to the captain. "May I go ashore, sir? That's my village. That's my home!"
"Yes, young man. You have served us well. Now you can return to your people."
As soon as he heard the pebbles crunch under the longboat's hull, Squanto jumped out and ran to embrace his parents. He was home!
But his homecoming didn't last long. Within weeks Squanto spotted new sails on the horizon. No longer afraid of English ships, he proudly led a band of young braves to greet the sailors. Armed seamen seized Squanto and nineteen other Patuxet (paw-TUX-et) Indians.
Once again he was imprisoned aboard a British merchant ship. Rats scampered across the damp hold where the Indians were chained. Scarce provisions, a stormy trip, and continual seasickness took their toll. Several Indians were buried at sea. By the time they reached the Spanish slave-port of Malaga (MA-la-ga), Squanto was very weak.
One by one the surviving braves were pushed up onto the auction block to be sold. Finally it was Squanto's turn. He could barely stand. "Senores (sen-YOR-es), what will you bid for this strong Indian?" the slave trader rasped. A brown-robed monk nodded and the auctioneer grinned. "Sold to the brothers of the monastery."
A heavy pouch of coins exchanged hands and the monk led Squanto home. At last his wrists were untied. A friar brought fresh water and plenty of food, though Squanto could only eat a little.
"Estas libre (es-TAS LEE-bray)! You are free." Squanto looked into the clear eyes of this man of God. Though he knew no Spanish, he understood. Over the next few weeks he pieced it together. Their love for Jesus had prompted these Christian brothers to buy Indian slaves and teach them the Christian faith. As the monks nursed him back to health, Squanto began to love this Jesus, too.
Yet he longed for home. The Indian used his command of English to find a fishing boat headed for London, where he rejoined his explorer friends. Again, Squanto became a guide for explorations of the New World. Years passed. The day finally came when he saw the familiar coastlands of home. Once more he was granted permission to go ashore.
No one greeted Squanto at the beach. He ran to his village. The bark-covered round-houses were empty. Not even a dog barked. Graves outside the village told the story. Samoset (SAM-o-set), his friend from a neighboring tribe, could bring little comfort. "A whiteman's sickness struck your people. One week, all dead. Many villages lie silent like Patuxet."
Squanto's emptiness overwhelmed him. Parents, brothers, sisters, forever gone. He wandered the forests for weeks in his grief. Finally he went to live with his friend Samoset.
One cold December morning, six months after he returned, Squanto watched the white sails of a ship grow on the stormy horizon. This time he hid as the men came ashore. Their clothes looked different from those worn by sailors and the fancy English officers he had seen on other ships. Broad hats and great black capes shielded them from the biting wind. He could glimpse white caps and long dresses of women aboard the ship anchored in the bay. Often he saw children playing on deck. As green leaves came to clothe barren trees, the settlers began to build houses on the very place where his village had stood. Day after day Squanto watched intently, never seen.
Samoset urged him to meet these settlers. A cry went up as the Indians strode into the settlement. Men grabbed for their muskets.
The Indians lifted their hands in greeting. "My name is Squanto. This is Samoset. We come in peace." The settlers were astounded. An Indian who spoke clear English? The Pilgrims lowered their muskets and invited the Indians to share their meager food.
The sun had set by the time Samoset got up to leave, but Squanto hesitated. Many of the settlers had already died from disease and winter's bitter cold. There was little food. Yet they weren't giving up. He thought of his old village's battle with death. "You go," Squanto told his friend in their Indian tongue, "I'm staying. This is my home, my village. These will be my new people."
Squanto turned to the leaders. "May I stay with you? I can help you. I know where you can find foods in the forest."
The white men studied the Indian carefully. Could he be trusted? Still, the struggling colony was in no position to refuse help. "Yes. Please stay."
That spring and summer Squanto proved his worth many times over. He led them to brooks alive with herring beginning their spring migration upstream. He showed the settlers how to fish with traps. He taught them where to stalk game in the forest. The children learned what berries they could pick for their families. Twenty acres of corn grew tall after Squanto showed the Pilgrims how to plant fish with the native corn seeds from a local tribe.
Once, a hostile tribe captured Squanto. "If he is killed," shouted their chief, "the English have lost their tongue." A small Pilgrim force arrived just in time, firing their muskets in the air. The terrified chief released his captive and fled. Squanto repaid the Pilgrims' favor. His bargaining skills kept neighboring tribes from attacking the small Plymouth colony.
In the fall the Pilgrims planned a feast to celebrate God's merciful help. Squanto was sent to invite friendly Chief Massasoit (MASS-a-soit) and his braves.
They gathered around tables spread with venison, roast duck and goose, turkeys, shellfish, bread, and vegetables, with woodland fruits and berries for dessert. Before they ate, the Pilgrim men removed their wide-brimmed hats and Indians stood reverently as the governor led them in solemn prayer.
"Thank You, great God, for the bounty You have supplied to us. Thank You for protecting us in hardship and meeting all our needs. . . ." Towards the end of the long prayer, Squanto was startled to hear his own name. "And thank You for bringing to us the Indian Squanto, your own special instrument to save us from hunger and help us to establish our colony in this new land." Squanto stood proudly. It was a day to remember.
Two years passed. Squanto lay mortally ill, struck by a raging fever while scouting east of Plymouth. He turned over in his mind the events of his strange life. It almost seemed that a plan had led him. The first time he was captured he learned English. The second time, he was freed by gentle Christians who taught him to trust in Jesus. And though his own people had died of sickness, God had sent him to a new people who built their colony where his old village once stood.
Pilgrim leader William Bradford knelt at his bedside. "Pray for me, Governor," the Indian whispered, "that I might go to the Englishmen's God in heaven." Squanto breathed his last November 1622, gone from the New World, but entering a heavenly one.

http://www.joyfulheart.com/thanksgiving/squanto.htm

SQUANTO'S THANKSGIVING www.joyfulheart.com/holiday/squanto_play.htm A One Act Children's Play Play Time: About 15 minutes

A THANKSGIVING DAY PRAYER

"Faith of our fathers," renew us againAnd make us a nation of God-fearing menSeeking Thy guidance, Thy love, and Thy will,For we are but pilgrims in search of Thee still...And, gathered together on Thanksgiving Day,May we lift up our hearts and our hands as we prayTo thank You for blessings we so little merit,And grant us Thy love and teach us to share it.

By Helen Steiner Rice

Farmers work to preserve ancient turkey breeds November 24, 2008 - 5:11am
By STEVE SZKOTAK Associated Press Writer
UPPERVILLE, Va. (AP) - At Ayrshire Farm, hundreds of Midget White and Bourbon Red turkeys move in a feathered, gobbling mass on a wind-swept pasture overlooking Virginia's horse country.
These birds have longer legs and narrower breasts than the beachball-shaped turkey that will end up on many Thanksgiving Day tables. What they lack in heft, however, these heritage birds make up for in flavor, proponents say.
They also make it up in price: a 20-pound certified organic turkey from Ayrshire Farm costs $180.
Heritage turkeys are at the forefront of a movement to preserve threatened breeds _ some dating to the nation's founding by Europeans and earlier _ to ensure the continuation of ancient genetic strains and, yes, to get them listed on a chic restaurant menu or in a display case of a boutique butcher shop.
"One of the things we say is you have to eat them to save them," said Marjorie Bender of the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy. "If we can give them their jobs back, then they're not museum artifacts."
The conservancy, based in Pittsboro, N.C., has been promoting the cause of threatened and neglected breeds since 1977. It has compiled a list of more than 150 breeds that reads like a passenger list on Noah's Ark, ranging from donkeys (including the Poitou, which resembles Eeyore, the forlorn donkey in "Winnie-the-Pooh") to sheep and turkeys.
Bender said the conservancy's primary goal is preserving these colorful and unusual breeds from extinction. The idea is to preserve the diversity of farm animals, as well as the history they embody.
When a breed is gone, Bender said, "The culture is being lost, the flavors are being lost, the traditions are being lost."
Some of those traditions date to the Spanish and English settlers who first arrived on our shores. They include the Pineywoods cattle, found primarily in Florida, Mississippi and Alabama; and Colonial Spanish horses, which include the Marsh Tacky. Chincoteague ponies, celebrated in the classic 1947 children's book, "Misty of Chincoteague," are a diluted link to the Colonial Spanish.
Ayrshire Farm is among the most spectacular settings for the rescue mission of breed preservationists.
Founded in Virginia's Piedmont region by Cisco Systems co-founder Sandy Lerner, its primary focus is English livestock.
The farm has a menagerie of livestock out of a children's book: Scottish Highland cattle, which resemble a woolly mammoth with their shaggy, butterscotch-colored coats and curved horns; Gloucestershire Old Spot Pigs, with ears that flop over their eyes; the Shires, 1-ton horses with feathered legs below their hocks; and many other breeds.
Ayrshire raised 412 turkeys this season, a large number considering the estimated 30,000 heritage birds used for production in the U.S.
"This farm is committed to several things," said Don Schrider, who manages large livestock at Ayrshire. "One commitment is certainly keeping these breeds from extinction."
This Thanksgiving, Americans will buy 46 million standard Broad-Breasted Whites, the big-breasted bird preferred by the majority of Americans, according to the National Turkey Foundation.
The difference between a heritage and factory bird is stark.
The standard commercial bird will be ready for the table in 18 weeks, compared with 26 weeks for the heritage bird; heritage birds forage, while the standard breed will live its short life before a feeding tray; and commercial birds cannot mate without human intervention. A market-ready industry turkey is the equivalent of an 11-year-old child weighing 300 pounds.
The conservancy, Bender said, is not opposed to agriculture on a large scale, and it recognizes that heritage breeds are not going to feed the masses.
Frank Reese comes as close as anyone to that lofty goal. His Good Shepherd Ranch about 1 hour north of Wichita, Kan., shipped out 11,000 birds this holiday season throughout the U.S. His prices were considerably lower than Ayrshire's, excluding shipping costs.
Reese has 160 acres but works with 15 other farmers in producing heritage breeds.
His favorite: the Bronze, the iconic copper-bronze bird historically associated with Thanksgiving.
___
On the Web:
Ayrshire Farm: http://www.ayrshirefarm.com/
American Livestock Breeds Conservancy: http://www.albc-usa.org/
National Turkey Federation: http://www.eatturkey.com/home.html
Good Shepherd Turkey Ranch Inc.: http://www.reeseturkeys.com/

http://wtop.com/?nid=223&sid=1524851

Thanksgiving Day Proclamation of 1789
by President George Washington

Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of
Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and
humbly to implore His protection and favor, and Whereas both Houses of
Congress have by their joint committee requested me to recommend to the
People of the United States a day of public thanks giving and prayer to be
observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many single favors of
Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to
establish a form of government for their safety and happiness.

Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th day of November
next to be devoted by the People of these States to the Service of that
great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good
that was, that is, or that will be. That we may then all unite in
rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks, for His kind care and
protection of the People of this country previous to their becoming a
Nation, for the single and manifold mercies, and the favorable
interpositions of His providence, which we experienced in the course and
conclusion of the late war, for the great degree of tranquility, union,
and plenty, which we have since enjoyed, for the peaceable and rational
manner in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of
government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national One
now lately instituted, of the civil and religious liberty with which we
are blessed, and the means we have to acquiring and diffusing useful
knowledge and in general for all the great and various favors which He
hath been pleased to confer upon us.

And also that we may then unite in most humble offering our prayers and
supplications to the Great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech Him to
pardon our national and other transgressions, to enable us all, whether in
public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties
properly and punctually, to render our national government a blessing to
all people, by constantly being a government of wise, just and
constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed, to
protect and guide all Sovereigns and nations (especially such as have
shown kindness unto us) and to bless them with good government, peace and
concord. To promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and
virtue, and the increase of science among them and us, and generally to
grant unto all Mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as He alone
know to be best.
http://buchanan.org/blog/2008/11/thanksgiving-day-proclamation-of-1789/

Please remember those less fortunate then yourself (there are many). You ought to thank God for your abundance
Food banks can't meet growing demand

By Judy Keen, USA TODAY

Donations to many of the USA's food banks are not keeping pace with growing demand as the sour economy forces more people to seek help, charitable organizations say.

"We have seen a 100% increase in demand in the last year … and food donations have dropped precipitously," says Dana Wilkie, CEO of the Community Food Bank in Fresno, Calif.

The group, which distributes food to 200 food pantries and feeding centers, is supplying cheaper chickens instead of turkeys for Thanksgiving, she says.

Nationally, donations are up about 18%, but demand has grown 25%-40%, says Vicki Escarra of Feeding America, the USA's largest hunger-relief charity. Feeding America, formerly America's Second Harvest, has a network of 206 food banks.

About 70% of new clients are making their first visit to a food bank, Escarra says.

Problems elsewhere:

•Denver: The Salvation Army food bank turned away 198 people last month, says Maj. Neal Hogan. Red kettle donations there are about the same as last year's so far, he says — not enough to offset growing needs.

•Knoxville, Tenn.: "What we're seeing now is very scary," says Elaine Streno of the Second Harvest Food Bank of East Tennessee, which supplies food to 300 agencies in 18 counties.

"Our community is very generous, but when you don't have it, you can't give it," she says.

•Manchester, N.H.: The New Hampshire Food Bank has distributed 4.6 million pounds of food to 370 agencies statewide so far this year, up from 3.7 million pounds over the same period in 2007, says development director Anne Dalton.

•Toledo, Ohio: Demand is up 12%-15% and donations are not increasing, says Jim Caldwell, president of the Toledo Northwestern Ohio Food Bank, which serves 250 agencies in eight counties. Next year "promises to be even more arduous," he says.

•Peoria, Ill.: Demand is up 50% at many of the 125 agencies in eight counties served by the Peoria Area Food Bank, says director Barb Shreves.

•Visalia, Calif.: FoodLink for Tulare County asks the community to help provide holiday meals to 5,000 of the area's neediest families. This year, 9,200 families already have applied, says executive director Sandy Beals. Food supplies are down 45% from a year ago; demand is up 30%, and people are being turned away.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-11-25-foodbanks_N.htm

People wait 5 hours for free turkey, toys

WASHINGTON (AP) - Thousands of people from around the region waited as long as five hours to get a free turkey, the trimmings and a bag of toys.

The event known as Harvest Feast featured about 30 Washington Redskins players lined up inside the main level concourse of FedEx Field to hand out the goodies. It has been held for the past six years, but Tuesday's crowd was said to be the largest.

Among those who waited in the line that stretched around the stadium, 35-year-old Tomika Carter said she has "never, ever" done anything like this. She emphasized never.

Information from: The Washington Post, http://www.washingtonpost.com

Eeyore's News and View

How the Pilgrims Got their Name by Dr. Ralph F. Wilson

It wasn't until 1840 that the term "Pilgrim" came to refer to the early Mayflower settlers.
The Pilgrims (though they weren't called that at the time) originated with the members of a Separatist congregation from Scrooby, Nottinghamshire, England, whose pastors were Richard Clifton and John Robinson.1 This congregation suffered difficult persecution in England because they dissented from the state Church of England. William Bradford, one of the original Mayflower emigrants, wrote that
"[The church members] were hunted and persecuted on every side, so as their former afflictions were as flea-bitings in comparison of these which now came upon them. For some were taken and clapt up in prison, others had their houses besett and watcht night and day, and hardly escaped their hands; and the most were faine to flie and leave their howses and habitations, and the means of their livelihood... Yet, seeing themselves thus molested, and that there was no hope of their continuance there, but a joynt consent, they resolved to goe into the Low Countries, where they heard was freedom of religion for all men...."2
The congregation moved to Holland in 1607 where religious freedom was greater. Some who were in prison, didn't get there for another year.
They settled in Amsterdam for a year, but then moved to Leiden, Holland, where they lived for a dozen years. But life was difficult for these expatriates. As foreigners they were deprived of a chance at the best jobs, and struggled to maintain even a low standard of living. Times were tough. But what caused them to move were their teenagers. They had religious freedom, but
"Many of their children … by the great licentiousness of youth in that countrie, and the manifold temptations of the place, were drawne away by evill examples into extravagante and dangerous courses."3
They were losing their young people and struggling at the bottom of the economic scale. If they returned to England they faced severe persecution and imprisonment. So in 1620 many from the congregation decided to emigrate to America, to the New World. Three groups came on the Mayflower:
Saints -- members of the Separatist Leiden congregation,
Strangers -- members of the Church of England who were emigrating for economic reasons, and
Crew Members -- seamen aboard the Mayflower, some of whom were contracted to work in the Plymouth Colony for a year or longer.
The "strangers" weren't non-Christians. They were probably members of the Church of England and would count themselves as Christians. But they didn't share the Separatists' refusal to be a part of what they considered to be the corrupt state church.
We ought to make a couple of distinctions here. Strictly speaking, Separatists were pious Christians who had given up on the Church of England and formed their own congregations. Puritans, on the other hand, were members of the Church of England who wanted to purify the Church from its worldliness and corruption. Instead of separating (in the early days), they formed religious societies within Anglican congregations. A number of these groups, like the Mayflower group, fled to Holland. They were the beginnings of the Congregationalist and Baptist churches that put down early roots in America.
Though the Plymouth Colony was the first Separatist colony in New England, the Puritan Massachusetts Bay Colony was established by royal charter in 1629. But apparently the Massachusetts Puritans had something in common with the Plymouth Separatists even before they sailed for America -- the autonomy of the local congregation and a restriction of membership to "those predestined to be God's elect."4 As time went on the churches in Plymouth and the Massachusetts Bay Colony came to resemble each other.
But the Plymouth colonists still weren't called Pilgrims, not for many years, not until 1840. At that point someone resurrected William Bradford's original phrase describing the Saints that had left Leiden to travel aboard the Mayflower to the New World. They left Leiden, he said, "that goodly & pleasante citie which had been their resting place for near 12 years; but they knew they were pilgrimes, & looked not much on those things, but lift up their eyes to ye heavens, their dearest cuntrie, and quieted their spirits."5
Since the 1840s the Mayflower settlers have been referred to as the Pilgrims, echoing the verse from the Bible that Bradford had in mind:
"These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city" (Hebrews 11:13-16, KJV).

http://www.joyfulheart.com/thanksgiving/pilgrim_name.htm

Russian analyst predicts decline and breakup of U.S.

MOSCOW, November 24 (RIA Novosti) - A leading Russian political analyst has said the economic turmoil in the United States has confirmed his long-held view that the country is heading for collapse, and will divide into separate parts.

Professor Igor Panarin said in an interview with the respected daily Izvestia published on Monday: "The dollar is not secured by anything. The country's foreign debt has grown like an avalanche, even though in the early 1980s there was no debt. By 1998, when I first made my prediction, it had exceeded $2 trillion. Now it is more than 11 trillion. This is a pyramid that can only collapse."

The paper said Panarin's dire predictions for the U.S. economy, initially made at an international conference in Australia 10 years ago at a time when the economy appeared strong, have been given more credence by this year's events.

When asked when the U.S. economy would collapse, Panarin said: "It is already collapsing. Due to the financial crisis, three of the largest and oldest five banks on Wall Street have already ceased to exist, and two are barely surviving. Their losses are the biggest in history. Now what we will see is a change in the regulatory system on a global financial scale: America will no longer be the world's financial regulator."

When asked who would replace the U.S. in regulating world markets, he said: "Two countries could assume this role: China, with its vast reserves, and Russia, which could play the role of a regulator in Eurasia."

Asked why he expected the U.S. to break up into separate parts, he said: "A whole range of reasons. Firstly, the financial problems in the U.S. will get worse. Millions of citizens there have lost their savings. Prices and unemployment are on the rise. General Motors and Ford are on the verge of collapse, and this means that whole cities will be left without work. Governors are already insistently demanding money from the federal center. Dissatisfaction is growing, and at the moment it is only being held back by the elections and the hope that Obama can work miracles. But by spring, it will be clear that there are no miracles."

He also cited the "vulnerable political setup", "lack of unified national laws", and "divisions among the elite, which have become clear in these crisis conditions."

He predicted that the U.S. will break up into six parts - the Pacific coast, with its growing Chinese population; the South, with its Hispanics; Texas, where independence movements are on the rise; the Atlantic coast, with its distinct and separate mentality; five of the poorer central states with their large Native American populations; and the northern states, where the influence from Canada is strong.

He even suggested that "we could claim Alaska - it was only granted on lease, after all."

On the fate of the U.S. dollar, he said: "In 2006 a secret agreement was reached between Canada, Mexico and the U.S. on a common Amero currency as a new monetary unit. This could signal preparations to replace the dollar. The one-hundred dollar bills that have flooded the world could be simply frozen. Under the pretext, let's say, that terrorists are forging them and they need to be checked."

When asked how Russia should react to his vision of the future, Panarin said: "Develop the ruble as a regional currency. Create a fully functioning oil exchange, trading in rubles... We must break the strings tying us to the financial Titanic, which in my view will soon sink."

Panarin, 60, is a professor at the Diplomatic Academy of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and has authored several books on information warfare.

http://en.rian.ru/world/20081124/118512713.html

Work stacking up for shoe-repair shops
By Emily Nelson, The Burlington (Vt.) Free Press
Steven Hopkins, owner of Onion River Cobbler in Winooski, Vt., fixes the stitching on a pair of sneakers recently.





By Dan McLean and Adam Silverman, USA TODAY
WINOOSKI, Vt. — There's nearly a four-week wait to get shoes resoled at Onion River Cobbler here. Normally, customers would have their footwear fixed in 10 days.
"This was the busiest summer I've ever had," says Steven Hopkins, who asks people at his 23-year-old shop to call him "The Cobbler."
If customers grumble about the long wait, he refers them to a sign hanging on the wall, which reads: "Lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on mine."
As household budgets tighten, the economy sinks and unemployment rates climb, stories like The Cobbler's are becoming increasingly common. People looking for ways to save money are turning to the shoe-repair business to help, cobblers and industry advocates say.
Cobblers at the nation's roughly 7,000 repair shops — down from more than 100,000 in the 1930s — are thriving, bordering on overwhelmed, says John McLoughlin, president of the Shoe Service Institute of America (SSIA), an industry group composed of volunteers.
"Everywhere you talk to right now, their business is just flying. They're doing absolutely fantastic. The only problem is keeping up with the work," McLoughlin says. ¶
Kelly Thorsen, 47, a secretary from Lakeland, Fla., visited a cobbler last week for the first time. "I can't go out and buy another pair of boots," she says.
So she brought her favorite footwear into McFarland's Shoe Repair in Lakeland for a $16 fix after finding $100 to $200 price tags on potential replacements. A mother of two, Thorsen says the tough times mean she can't spend that much on new shoes — plus, she gets to keep her trusty 10-year-old boots. "Not only am I going to have back my very favorite pair of shoes, … I'm saving a lot of money," she says.
Store owner Jim McFarland says he's had a lot of customers like Thorsen lately. "I've seen more shoes in here in the last 10 days than I've seen in years," says McFarland, a third-generation cobbler.
At Salzman's Shoe and Boot Repair in Greeley, Colo., owners Sally and George Salzman are growing busier — as they always do when times are tough, Sally Salzman says. "People get things fixed rather than throwing them out," she says.
Nelson Ramos, owner of Corrective Shoe Repair in Washington, D.C., added some help to keep up with demand. "I rehired one of my guys to get us through the fall and winter," Ramos says.
Cobblers know their success comes as many people, customers included, are hurting. "I have people come in here who've been laid off after 20, 30 years," says McFarland, a former SSIA board member. "My 401(k) that I've been saving for 15 years is in half, man. I want the economy to thrive. But at the same time, the shoe-repair industry is almost bulletproof. When it's really hard out there, I thank God I'm in this business, because at least I know I can pay my bills."
McLean and Silverman report for The Burlington (Vt.) Free Press.

http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/2 ... pair_N.htm

U.S. Pledges Top $7.7 Trillion to Ease Frozen Credit
By Mark Pittman and Bob Ivry
Nov. 24 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. government is prepared to provide more than $7.76 trillion on behalf of American taxpayers after guaranteeing $306 billion of Citigroup Inc. debt yesterday. The pledges, amounting to half the value of everything produced in the nation last year, are intended to rescue the financial system after the credit markets seized up 15 months ago.
The unprecedented pledge of funds includes $3.18 trillion already tapped by financial institutions in the biggest response to an economic emergency since the New Deal of the 1930s, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The commitment dwarfs the plan approved by lawmakers, the Treasury Department’s $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program. Federal Reserve lending last week was 1,900 times the weekly average for the three years before the crisis.
When Congress approved the TARP on Oct. 3, Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson acknowledged the need for transparency and oversight. Now, as regulators commit far more money while refusing to disclose loan recipients or reveal the collateral they are taking in return, some Congress members are calling for the Fed to be reined in.
“Whether it’s lending or spending, it’s tax dollars that are going out the window and we end up holding collateral we don’t know anything about,” said Congressman Scott Garrett, a New Jersey Republican who serves on the House Financial Services Committee. “The time has come that we consider what sort of limitations we should be placing on the Fed so that authority returns to elected officials as opposed to appointed ones.”
Too Big to Fail
Bloomberg News tabulated data from the Fed, Treasury and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and interviewed regulatory officials, economists and academic researchers to gauge the full extent of the government’s rescue effort.
The bailout includes a Fed program to buy as much as $2.4 trillion in short-term notes, called commercial paper, that companies use to pay bills, begun Oct. 27, and $1.4 trillion from the FDIC to guarantee bank-to-bank loans, started Oct. 14.
William Poole, former president of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, said the two programs are unlikely to lose money. The bigger risk comes from rescuing companies perceived as “too big to fail,” he said.
‘Credit Risk’
The government committed $29 billion to help engineer the takeover in March of Bear Stearns Cos. by New York-based JPMorgan Chase & Co. and $122.8 billion in addition to TARP allocations to bail out New York-based American International Group Inc., once the world’s largest insurer.
Citigroup received $306 billion of government guarantees for troubled mortgages and toxic assets. The Treasury Department also will inject $20 billion into the bank after its stock fell 60 percent last week.
“No question there is some credit risk there,” Poole said.
Congressman Darrell Issa, a California Republican on the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said risk is lurking in the programs that Poole thinks are safe.
“The thing that people don’t understand is it’s not how likely that the exposure becomes a reality, but what if it does?” Issa said. “There’s no transparency to it so who’s to say they’re right?”
The worst financial crisis in two generations has erased $23 trillion, or 38 percent, of the value of the world’s companies and brought down three of the biggest Wall Street firms.
Markets Down
The Dow Jones Industrial Average through Friday is down 38 percent since the beginning of the year and 43 percent from its peak on Oct. 9, 2007. The S&P 500 fell 45 percent from the beginning of the year through Friday and 49 percent from its peak on Oct. 9, 2007. The Nikkei 225 Index has fallen 46 percent from the beginning of the year through Friday and 57 percent from its most recent peak of 18,261.98 on July 9, 2007. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is down 78 percent, to $53.31, on Friday from its peak of $247.92 on Oct. 31, 2007, and 75 percent this year.
Regulators hope the rescue will contain the damage and keep banks providing the credit that is the lifeblood of the U.S. economy.
Most of the spending programs are run out of the New York Fed, whose president, Timothy Geithner, is said to be President- elect Barack Obama’s choice to be Treasury Secretary.
‘They Got Snookered’
The money that’s been pledged is equivalent to $24,000 for every man, woman and child in the country. It’s nine times what the U.S. has spent so far on wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to Congressional Budget Office figures. It could pay off more than half the country’s mortgages.
“It’s unprecedented,” said Bob Eisenbeis, chief monetary economist at Vineland, New Jersey-based Cumberland Advisors Inc. and an economist for the Atlanta Fed for 10 years until January. “The backlash has begun already. Congress is taking a lot of hits from their constituents because they got snookered on the TARP big time. There’s a lot of supposedly smart people who look to be totally incompetent and it’s all going to fall on the taxpayer.”
President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal of the 1930s, when almost 10,000 banks failed and there was no mechanism to bolster them with cash, is the only rival to the government’s current response. The savings and loan bailout of the 1990s cost $209.5 billion in inflation-adjusted numbers, of which $173 billion came from taxpayers, according to a July 1996 report by the U.S. General Accounting Office, now called the Government Accountability Office.
‘Worst Crisis’
The 1979 U.S. government bailout of Chrysler consisted of bond guarantees, adjusted for inflation, of $4.2 billion, according to a Heritage Foundation report.
The commitment of public money is appropriate to the peril, said Ethan Harris, co-head of U.S. economic research at Barclays Capital Inc. and a former economist at the New York Fed. U.S. financial firms have taken writedowns and losses of $666.1 billion since the beginning of 2007, according to Bloomberg data.
“This is the worst capital markets crisis in modern history,” Harris said. “So you have the biggest intervention in modern history.”
Bloomberg has requested details of Fed lending under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act and filed a federal lawsuit against the central bank Nov. 7 seeking to force disclosure of borrower banks and their collateral.
Collateral is an asset pledged to a lender in the event a loan payment isn’t made.
‘That’s Counterproductive’
“Some have asked us to reveal the names of the banks that are borrowing, how much they are borrowing, what collateral they are posting,” Bernanke said Nov. 18 to the House Financial Services Committee. “We think that’s counterproductive.”
The Fed should account for the collateral it takes in exchange for loans to banks, said Paul Kasriel, chief economist at Chicago-based Northern Trust Corp. and a former research economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.
“There is a lack of transparency here and, given that the Fed is taking on a huge amount of credit risk now, it would seem to me as a taxpayer there should be more transparency,” Kasriel said.
Bernanke’s Fed is responsible for $4.74 trillion of pledges, or 61 percent of the total commitment of $7.76 trillion, based on data compiled by Bloomberg concerning U.S. bailout steps started a year ago.
“Too often the public is focused on the wrong piece of that number, the $700 billion that Congress approved,” said J.D. Foster, a former staff member of the Council of Economic Advisers who is now a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation in Washington. “The other areas are quite a bit larger.”
Fed Rescue Efforts
The Fed’s rescue attempts began last December with the creation of the Term Auction Facility to allow lending to dealers for collateral. After Bear Stearns’s collapse in March, the central bank started making direct loans to securities firms at the same discount rate it charges commercial banks, which take customer deposits.
In the three years before the crisis, such average weekly borrowing by banks was $48 million, according to the central bank. Last week it was $91.5 billion.
The failure of a second securities firm, Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., in September, led to the creation of the Commercial Paper Funding Facility and the Money Market Investor Funding Facility, or MMIFF. The two programs, which have pledged $2.3 trillion, are designed to restore calm in the money markets, which deal in certificates of deposit, commercial paper and Treasury bills.
Lehman Failure
“Money markets seized up after Lehman failed,” said Neal Soss, chief economist at Credit Suisse Group in New York and a former aide to Fed chief Paul Volcker. “Lehman failing made a lot of subsequent actions necessary.”
The FDIC, chaired by Sheila Bair, is contributing 20 percent of total rescue commitments. The FDIC’s $1.4 trillion in guarantees will amount to a bank subsidy of as much as $54 billion over three years, or $18 billion a year, because borrowers will pay a lower interest rate than they would on the open market, according to Raghu Sundurum and Viral Acharya of New York University and the London Business School.
Congress and the Treasury have ponied up $892 billion in TARP and other funding, or 11.5 percent.
The Federal Housing Administration, overseen by Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Steven Preston, was given the authority to guarantee $300 billion of mortgages, or about 4 percent of the total commitment, with its Hope for Homeowners program, designed to keep distressed borrowers from foreclosure.
Federal Guarantees
Most of the federal guarantees reduce interest rates on loans to banks and securities firms, which would create a subsidy of at least $6.6 billion annually for the financial industry, according to data compiled by Bloomberg comparing rates charged by the Fed against market interest currently paid by banks.
Not included in the calculation of pledged funds is an FDIC proposal to prevent foreclosures by guaranteeing modifications on $444 billion in mortgages at an expected cost of $24.4 billion to be paid from the TARP, according to FDIC spokesman David Barr. The Treasury Department hasn’t approved the program.
Bernanke and Paulson, former chief executive officer of Goldman Sachs, have also promised as much as $200 billion to shore up nationalized mortgage finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, a pledge that hasn’t been allocated to any agency. The FDIC arranged for $139 billion in loan guarantees for General Electric Co.’s finance unit.
Automakers Struggle
The tally doesn’t include money to General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler LLC. Obama has said he favors financial assistance to keep them from collapse.
Paulson told the House Financial Services Committee Nov. 18 that the $250 billion already allocated to banks through the TARP is an investment, not an expenditure.
“I think it would be extraordinarily unusual if the government did not get that money back and more,” Paulson said.
In his Nov. 18 testimony, Bernanke told the House Financial Services Committee that the central bank wouldn’t lose money.
“We take collateral, we haircut it, it is a short-term loan, it is very safe, we have never lost a penny in these various lending programs,” he said.
A haircut refers to the practice of lending less money than the collateral’s current market value.
Requiring the Fed to disclose loan recipients might set off panic, said David Tobin, principal of New York-based loan-sale consultants and investment bank Mission Capital Advisors LLC.
‘Mark to Market’
“If you mark to market today, the banking system is bankrupt,” Tobin said. “So what do you do? You try to keep it going as best you can.”
“Mark to market” means adjusting the value of an asset, such as a mortgage-backed security, to reflect current prices.
Some of the bailout assistance could come from tax breaks in the future. The Treasury Department changed the tax code on Sept. 30 to allow banks to expand the deductions on the losses banks they were buying, according to Robert Willens, a former Lehman Brothers tax and accounting analyst who teaches at Columbia University Business School in New York.
Wells Fargo & Co., which is buying Charlotte, North Carolina-based Wachovia Corp., will be able to deduct $22 billion, Willens said. Adding in other banks, the code change will cost $29 billion, he said.
“The rule is now popularly known among tax lawyers as the ‘Wells Fargo Notice,’” Willens said.
The regulation was changed to make it easier for healthy banks to buy troubled ones, said Treasury Department spokesman Andrew DeSouza.
House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank said he was angry that banks used the money for acquisitions.
“The only purpose for this money is to lend,” said Frank, a Massachusetts Democrat. “It’s not for dividends, it’s not for purchases of new banks, it’s not for bonuses. There better be a showing of increased lending roughly in the amount of the capital infusions” or Congress may not approve the second half of the TARP money.
To contact the reporters on this story: Mark Pittman in New York at mpittman@bloomberg.net; Bob Ivry in New York at bivry@bloomberg.net.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid= ... refer=home

What MUST Be Done To Avoid Financial Destruction
Posted: Nov 22 2008 By: Jim Sinclair Post Edited: November 22, 2008 at 10:48 pm
Filed under: General Editorial
My Dear Extended Family,
Things are now "Out of Control."
This international financial crisis is now out of control as the world asks if the USA has two presidents, one president or no president at all.
It would appear that Paulson is in financial control with Bernanke as his second.
I warned you by personal email long before the statement was proven totally correct that “This is it.” That was followed by “This is it, and it is now.” Many people laughed it off.
This is it, and it is now.
Now it is out of control.
Now we enter the Collapse of Confidence period.
Then we begin the Weimar Experience.
It has all hit the fan, and still the absolute majority have no clue. The OTC derivative dealers broke the system into millions of pieces of glass. This broken glass cannot be put back together.
It is heart rending to see a picture of GM autoworkers holding a prayer meeting for their retirement funds. The retirement money was never funded. It is a lost hope. This is another responsibility the government has undertaken that is going to go wild.
Those of you still in freeze frame are headed for lines around your bank. Your bank will likely be acquired by another bank that also is in deep trouble.
The US dollar, like a leaderless company, will lose its respect and therefore value.
In order of importance the following MUST be done unless you want to be one of the suffering masses that will be all too visible this winter:
1. You must have your assets held anywhere they are in true custodial-ship accounts. That type of account at a bank or broker states clearly that the assets held there are not on the balance sheet of the host financial entity. Those assets are clearly segregated in your name. This must be reviewed by counsel to be sure you have what you think you have. Don’t cheap out. All you have is depending on the validity of true custodial-ship accounts.
You cannot know all the banks are broke, however I feel ALL banks are broke because finance is an intertwined system that if visible would look like a spider’s web. Problems on the top will materialize all along the web. Therefore the singular most important step you must take is the establishment of a true custodial-ship account.
Do not assume you have this type of account unless a competent attorney reviews the account papers.
2. I am extremely concerned about those of you who persist in holding certificates for gold rather than holding the actual metal either delivered to you or held for you in a true custodial-ship type account. The scams out there in gold are plentiful. The only way to avoid these scams absolutely is to have your gold in your own possession.
Every other means of holding gold is steps away from perfection. Some will be ok, but many will not.
3. Why would anyone fail to either take paper certificates or order their financial agent to make direct registration book entry at the transfer agent? In most cases you only have until year-end to accomplish this strategy.
4. Withdraw from ETFs.
5. If you carelessly keep large assets with your broker you are as mad as a hatter. The FDIC DOES NOT have the money to guarantee all they are undertaking. Withdraw excess money constantly from any net broker. If you are so stubborn that you think you can trade to insure yourself when your funds are not making money while still getting your money that counts you are nuts. Admit to yourself you are nothing more than a gambling addict in a downward spiral.
6. Leave no gold or coins with any coin dealer.
7. If you can withdraw from your corporate retirement plan do it.
8. Withdraw from credit unions.
9. Withdraw from all money market instruments.
10. This is it.
11. It is now.
12. It is out of control NOW.
The next two months are going to be shocking, but nothing compared to what you will have to experience in 2009.
Respectfully yours,
Jim
http://jsmineset.com/index.php/2008/11/ ... struction/

Solar Panels Are Vanishing, Only to Reappear on the Internet

By KATE GALBRAITH

Published: September 23, 2008

DESERT HOT SPRINGS, Calif. — Solar power, with its promise of emissions-free renewable energy, boasts a growing number of fans. Some of them, it turns out, are thieves.

Noah Berger for The New York Times

Ken Martin Jr. lost 58 panels from the roof of an office building he owns in Santa Rosa, Calif. He estimated they would cost $75,000 to replace.

J. Emilio Flores for The New York Times

Solar panels were stolen from Jim and Shayna Powell’s roof in Palm Desert, Calif.

Just ask Glenda Hoffman, whose fury has not abated since 16 solar panels vanished from her roof in this sun-baked town in three separate burglaries in May, sometimes as she slept. She is ready if the criminals turn up again.

“I have a shotgun right next to the bed and a .22 under my pillow,” Ms. Hoffman said.

Police departments in California — the biggest market for solar power, with more than 33,000 installations — are seeing a rash of such burglaries, though nobody compiles overall statistics.

Investigators do not believe the thieves are acting out of concern for their carbon footprints. Rather, authorities assume that many panels make their way to unwitting homeowners, sometimes via the Internet.

Last November, someone tried to sell solar panels stolen from a toll road in Newport Beach for $100 each on eBay. Detectives from the local police department entered the bidding and won the panels, which were worth nearly $1,500 apiece, according to Sgt. Evan Sailor, a Newport Beach police spokesman.

When Nathan Tyrone Mitchell, a resident of Santa Monica, showed up to hand over the panels, the police greeted him with handcuffs.

Mr. Mitchell, who was charged with possession of stolen property, has pleaded not guilty. His lawyer, Charles Stoddard, said that his client had bought the panels from someone on Craigslist and then tried to resell them on eBay for a profit. “Our contention is that Mr. Mitchell is just an innocent purchaser who kind of got caught up in this thing,” Mr. Stoddard said.

In Contra Costa County, detectives accustomed to handling thefts of copper began to notice solar panels going missing in the last six months, according to Jimmy Lee, a spokesman for the county sheriff’s office.

This summer, an officer on patrol became suspicious when he spotted a man trying to sell solar panels to a home builder who had advertised on Craigslist that he was seeking panels. The officer confiscated the panels and, after detectives found that they matched panels stolen from a school, a California man was charged. Mr. Lee says that law enforcement agencies are investigating about a half-dozen other solar-panel thefts in his area.

“We were surprised and kind of caught off guard” by the solar thefts, said Mr. Lee, who recommends people engrave their driver’s license numbers onto their panels for better identification.

For Tom McCalmont, president of Regrid Power, a solar installation business near San Jose, the problem hit home in late June. His own headquarters was struck by thieves, who took more than $30,000 worth of panels from the roof.

The panels were disassembled expertly, he said, leading him to suspect that someone in the solar industry had done it. He urges clients to install video cameras and alarms for their solar arrays, and likens his own revamped security system to Fort Knox.

“This is the crime of the future,” Mr. McCalmont said.

After suffering a solar theft, some victims find unusual ways to protect their property. Ms. Hoffman, of Desert Hot Springs, could not sleep for several weeks during the string of thefts from her roof.

One night, she waited beside a nearby building and watched her house in an attempt to catch the thieves, causing a suspicious neighbor to call the police. She vows that if she ever catches the culprits, “they’re not going to leave walking” — especially if she feels threatened.

So far, with the losses still modest, homeowners’ insurance is processing the claims with little resistance. Ms. Hoffman’s insurer, State Farm, is paying $95,000 to replace her entire system. She plans to install an alarm, and possibly a video camera.

Not far from Ms. Hoffman, in the town of Palm Desert, Jim and Shayna Powell were devastated after thieves took 19 of their solar panels in June, causing their electricity bill to shoot from $3 to $300 just when they needed air-conditioning the most. “Of all the times of year to steal the panels,” Mr. Powell said in frustration.

Beyond California, solar-power markets are comparatively small, so thefts are still rare — but they are spreading. In the last 18 months, Oregon’s highway department has lost a few panels used to power portable traffic message boards.

In Minnesota, the Sauk River Watershed District has lost at least eight small panels, worth $250 each, in the last few years, according to Melissa Roelike, who coordinates the water quality monitoring program there.

In response, the district has taken steps to protect the panels, including putting them in trees and atop poles. Thieves promptly stole one such panel.

“Obviously, hoisting them 20 feet in the air on a metal pipe does not work,” Ms. Roelike said.

In Europe, where the solar industry is well-established, thievery is entrenched, and measures to ward it off have become standard, including alarm systems and hard-to-unscrew panels.

But in the United States, installers are just coming to grips with the need for alarms, video cameras and indelible engraving of serial numbers. Some people fancy simpler solutions.

Ken Martin Jr. lost 58 panels, which will cost $75,000 to replace, this spring from the roof of a half-empty office building in Santa Rosa, Calif., that he owns. He is considering slapping paint on some parts of his remaining panels — bright pink paint.

“At least if someone comes across them and they’re painted, they’ll know that’s my color,” he said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/24/technology/24solar.html?_r=2

Eeyore's News and View

Pilgrim Daughter by Dr. Ralph F. Wilson

We searched for the ghost of fifteen-year-old Constance Hopkins in the bowels of the reconstructed ship "Mayflower II," rolling gently aside a pier in Plymouth harbor. Where volunteers dressed in period costume answered tourists' questions, Constance had once huddled, miserably cold and damp, as fierce storms buffeted the ship.
"According to the usuall manner," the old records relate, "many were afflicted with seasicknes." As the ship had only the crudest of conveniences and no sanitary facilities of any kind except the traditional bucket, the air in the narrow, crowded quarters below deck must have been nauseating at worst and at best simply staggering.
Constance and her younger brother were responsible to keep track of their three-year-old sister who was always scampering among the various families camped side by side in the hold's cargo compartments. It was all their mother could do, great with child, to brace herself as the "Mayflower" heaved in the heavy Atlantic storms. As Constance watched a tiny brother was born on the high seas, christened "Oceanus."
Since the "Mayflower" had left England nine weeks behind schedule, the New World's harsh weather threatened their very survival. The men went ashore in December to construct rude shelters; women and children spent the winter aboard ship anchored in the bay.
Winter took its toll. Journal entries feature the same melancholy theme week after week, for months on end:
"... Aboute noone, it began to raine ... at night, it did freeze & snow ... still the cold weather continued ... very wet and rainy, with the greatest gusts of wind ever we saw ... frost and foule weather hindered us much; this time of the yeare seldom could we worke half the week."
That winter more than half the heads of households perished. Aboard ship only five of eighteen wives lived through the ravages of scurvy, pneumonia, and tuberculosis. An entry for March 24th reads:
"Dies Elizabeth, the wife of Mr. Edward Winslow. N.B. This month thirteen of our number die. And in three months past dies halfe our company ... Of a hundred persons, scarce fifty remain, the living scarce able to bury the dead."
My daughter Annie, a descendent of Constance, tried to imagine the terrors of that winter for a young teenage girl. When not lying sick herself, she would doubtless be tending whimpering children, preparing food for their stricken mothers, and comforting the increasing number of orphans aboard the "Mayflower."
But spring finally came, and by the third week in March the weakened survivors rowed ashore in the longboat to take up residence in New Plimoth.
How could the Pilgrims talk about thanksgiving in the midst of life's most difficult trials? we wonder. Why not just curse God and die? They gave thanks for God's presence in their adversities because they knew that struggles did not have to make them bitter; struggles could make them better. These remaining Pilgrim daughters and sons, mothers and fathers, placed their trust in their God and laid the enduring foundations of a nation. Thanksgiving Day, 1621, did not just celebrate wild turkey and Indian corn; it celebrated the human spirit reaching out to God in gratitude for the blessings the Pilgrims still did possess.
"Yea, though they should lose their lives in this action," ancient documents say, "yet they might have comforte in the same ... All great & honourable actions are accompanied with great difficulties, and must be both enterprised and overcome with answerable courages."
No, the Pilgrims did not lack for courage.
Our family poked around in a windswept burying yard until we found the tombstone of Constance Hopkins Snow, age 72 years. And as my wife and daughter laid a bunch of hedge row wildflowers on her grave, we stood for a moment of silence, meditating on our brave and very personal link with that first Thanksgiving.

http://www.joyfulheart.com/thanksgiving/constanc.htm

It came from outer space: Fireball streaks across Canadian Prairie, crashes

The Canadian Prairie is still buzzing about a giant fireball that roared across the sky last night and slammed into the earth with a bright flash.

Witnesses described the fireball as red, green, white or blue.

Aliens? Not so far, anyway. Just a meteor.

"It's a massive fireball; it's one of the brightest that we've seen in the area. And it almost certainly dropped meteorites," Dr. Christopher Herd, a University of Alberta earth and atmospheric sciences professor, told CBC News. "It looks somewhere around the Alberta-Saskatchewan border."

The Edmonton Sun reports that fragments may have landed in central Saskatchewan. Scientists have begun searching and reviewing footage from Web cams

See for yourself in this video from the dashboard camera of an Edmonton, Alberta, police car:

The fireball was spotted around 5:30 p.m. MT (7:30 p.m. ET) and was seen in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, western Ontario and even North Dakota.

"It seemed like fireworks or a missile coming down. The sky lit up greenish and yellow," said Shawn Mitchler, who was pumping gas in Radisson, about 40 miles northwest of Saskatoon. "My heart just started racing because I didn't know what it was."

Despite its size and the noise it made entering the atmosphere, the meteor was probably no bigger than a grapefruit, Edmonton space educator Randy Atwood told CTV Calgary. The meteor may have broken into small pieces before hitting the ground, or it may have burned up entirely before touching down.

"It was a beautiful show, and some people might have thought it was just over the hill, and that it was the size of a house," he said.

Here's what The Edmonton Sun reported last night, along with the The Vancouver Sun and the Calgary Herald.

http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2008/11/it-came-from-ou.html (you can see video at the link)

Worst of financial crisis yet to come: IMF chief economist
The IMF's chief economist Olivier Blanchard, seen here in Ma...
The IMF's chief economist has warned that the global financial crisis is set to worsen and that the situation will not improve until 2010, a report said Saturday.
Olivier Blanchard also warned that the institution does not have the funds to solve every economic problem.
"The worst is yet to come," Blanchard said in an interview with the Finanz und Wirtschaft newspaper, adding that "a lot of time is needed before the situation becomes normal."
He said economic growth would not kick in until 2010 and it will take another year before the global financial situation became normal again.
The International Monetary Fund on Friday promised to help Latvia deal with its economic crisis after it assisted Iceland, Hungary, Ukraine, Serbia and Pakistan.
But Blanchard said the IMF was not able to solve all financial issues, in particular problems of liquidity.
Withdrawals of capital leading to problems of liquidity "can be so significant that the IMF alone cannot counter them," he said, adding that massive withdrawals of investments from emerging countries could represent "hundreds of billions of dollars.
"We do not have this money. We never had it," he said.
The IMF had spent a fifth of its 250 billion dollar (200 billion euro) fund in the last two weeks, Blanchard added.
He also urged central banks around the world to cut interest rates, after the Swiss National Bank made a surprise one percentage point rate cut Thursday.
The central banks "should lower interest rates to as close to zero as possible," he said.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=081122230427.xqkurulg&show_article=1

The Mother of all Bailouts is continues and grows, will the stupid politicians ever realize that the answer to every question is not to print more money. Money can not fix all problems.
U.S. approves plan to help Citigroup weather losses
By Eric Dash
Published: November 23, 2008
U.S. government regulators approved a radical plan to stabilize Citigroup in an arrangement in which the government could soak up tens of billions of dollars in losses at the struggling bank, the government announced late Sunday night.
The complex plan calls for the government to back about $306 billion in loans and securities and directly invest about $20 billion in the company. The plan, emerging after a harrowing week in the financial markets, is the government's third effort in three months to contain the deepening economic crisis and may set the precedent for other multibillion-dollar financial rescues.
Citigroup executives presented a plan to U.S. government officials on Friday evening after a weeklong plunge in the company's share price threatened to engulf other big banks. In tense, round-the-clock negotiations that stretched until almost midnight on Sunday, it became clear that the crisis of confidence had to be defused now or the financial markets could plunge further.
Whether this latest rescue plan will help calm the markets is uncertain, given the stress in the financial system caused by losses at Citigroup and other banks. Each previous government effort initially seemed to reassure investors, leading to optimism that the banking system had steadied. But those hopes faded as the economic outlook worsened, raising worries that more bank loans were turning sour.
President-elect Barack Obama was also working over the weekend to shore up confidence in the rapidly faltering economy. Obama signaled that he would pursue a far more ambitious plan of spending and tax cuts than he had outlined during his campaign and planned to announce his economic team on Monday. Some Democrats in Congress, meantime, were calling for the government to spend as much as $700 billion to stimulate the economy over the next two years.
Multimedia
Obama's expected choice for Treasury secretary, Timothy Geithner, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, played a crucial role in the negotiations on Friday but worked behind the scenes once news of his appointment was circulated. While the initial focus of government officials was to help the embattled company, they may also seek to draw up an industrywide plan that could help other banks.
Under the proposal, the government would shoulder losses at Citigroup if those losses exceeded certain levels.
The plan could herald another shift in the government's financial rescue. The Treasury Department first proposed buying troubled assets from banks but then reversed course and began injecting capital directly into financial institutions. Neither plan, however, restored investors' confidence for long.
"By intervening, they are giving the market some heart to temporarily stave off some fear — but you can only push that so much," said Charles Geisst, a financial historian and professor at Manhattan College.
Banking industry officials said the decision to support Citigroup, while necessary, could draw a firestorm of criticism from smaller institutions that were not big enough to be saved.
Under the agreement, Citigroup and regulators will back up to $306 billion of largely residential and commercial real estate loans and certain other assets, which will remain on the bank's balance sheet. Citigroup will shoulder losses on the first $29 billion of that portfolio.
Any remaining losses will be split between Citigroup and the government, with the bank absorbing 10 percent and the government absorbing 90 percent. The Treasury Department will use its bailout fund to assume up to $5 billion of losses. If necessary, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. will bear the next $10 billion of losses. Beyond that, the Federal Reserve will guarantee any additional losses.
In exchange, Citigroup will issue $7 billion of preferred stock to government regulators. In addition, the government is buying $20 billion of preferred stock in Citigroup. The preferred shares will pay an 8 percent dividend and will slightly erode the value of shares held by investors.
Citigroup will also agree to certain executive compensation restrictions, which will be reviewed by regulators. It will also put in place the FDIC's loan modification plan, which is similar to one it recently announced.
The government said it was taking the step to bolster the economy while protecting taxpayers. "We will continue to use all of our resources to preserve the strength of our banking institutions and promote the process of repair and recovery and to manage risks," the regulators said in a joint statement Sunday.
Inside Citigroup's Park Avenue headquarters, the mood was tense. Through the weekend, Robert Rubin, the former Treasury secretary and an influential executive and director at Citigroup, held several discussions with Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson Jr.
Vikram Pandit, Citigroup's chief executive, spoke to regulators and lawmakers. Pandit also met with Citigroup's board on Saturday, and there was no indication that they would seek to replace him.
Once the nation's largest and mightiest financial company, Citigroup lost half its value in the stock market last week as the bank confronted a crisis of confidence. Although Citigroup executives maintain the bank is sound, investors worry that its finances are deteriorating. Citigroup has suffered staggering losses for a year now, and few analysts think the pain is over. Many investors worry that it needs more capital.
With more than $2 trillion in assets and operations in more than 100 countries, Citigroup is so large and interconnected that its troubles could spill over into other institutions. Citigroup is widely viewed, both in Washington and on Wall Street, as too big to be allowed to fail.
Citigroup executives reached out to the Federal Reserve and the Treasury last week as they sought to stabilize the company's stock. All major bank stocks have been battered in recent weeks, including those of Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley.
Citigroup's shares have been hit particularly hard. A year ago they were trading at about $30; on Friday they closed at $3.77.
The plan under discussion is reminiscent of the one that Citigroup and the FDIC worked out in October with Citigroup's proposal to buy Wachovia. That deal fell through, however, when Wells Fargo swept in with a higher offer.
Under that plan, Citigroup agreed to bear a certain level of Wachovia's losses, with the U.S. government agency absorbing the rest. In exchange, Citigroup agreed to give the FDIC preferred stock.
It is also similar to an effort orchestrated by Swiss financial regulators for UBS, another big global bank. Last month, the Swiss central bank and UBS reached an agreement to transfer as much as $60 billion of troubled securities and other assets from UBS's balance sheet to a separate entity.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/11/24/business/24citibank.php

Not a bad thing, hopefully they will actually do some good books also
Random House to digitize thousands of books November 24, 2008 - 7:42am
NEW YORK (AP) - With e-book sales exploding in an otherwise sleepy market, Random House Inc. announced Monday that it was making thousands of additional books available in digital form, including novels by John Updike and Harlan Coben, as well as several volumes of the "Magic Treehouse" children's series.
Random House CEO Markus Dohle said in a statement that "more people everyday are enjoying reading in the electronic format and Random House wants to extend our reach to them with more of our books."
The publisher already has more than 8,000 books in the electronic format and will have a digital library of nearly 15,000. The new round of e-books is expected to be completed within months; excerpts can be viewed online through the publisher's Insight browsing service.
Random House's vice president for digital operations, Matt Shatz, says e-book sales have increased by triple digit percentages in 2008, thanks in part to Amazon.com's Kindle reader, but he declined to offer specific number. E-books remain a tiny part of the overall market, widely estimated in the industry at 1 percent or less.
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On the Net: http://www.randomhouse.com/

Eeyore's News and View

After yesterdays Thankful Devotional, i figured i would give everyday a part of the Thanksgiving Story. It is really America's only Holiday that is uniquely American. Going to have different stories about Thanksging right up to the day.

Indian Aid and a Blessed Thanksgiving by Dr. Ralph F. Wilson

If it weren't for Indian deaths, the Pilgrims would have been hard-pressed to settle in Plymouth that cold winter of 1620. In a brief skirmish, the Pilgrim's muskets had slain no natives, nor had any arrows struck Englishmen. Disease had been the killer. The Pilgrims discovered corn fields cleared in the forests, now deserted. What had once been a bustling village of Patuxet Indians nearby, stood empty, ravaged by disease four years earlier, leaving but a single survivor.
Survivors
The Pilgrims, themselves, lived on the edge of survival that first winter. They had begun well enough. After 66 days crossing the stormy Atlantic, 104 Pilgrims beheld the New World, including a baby boy, Oceanus, born at sea.
"Being thus arrived in a good harbor and brought safe to land," wrote Governor William Bradford, "they fell upon their knees and blessed the God of heaven, who had brought them over the vast and furious ocean, and delivered them from all the perils and miseries thereof, again to set their feet on the firm and stable earth, their proper element."
But within four months, scurvy, pneumonia, and a virulent strain of tuberculosis had cut down whole families of Pilgrims. As the sickness raged, only six or seven persons in the whole company were strong enough to tend the sick and comfort the dying.
Six died in December, then eight in January, seventeen in February. Of March, Bradford wrote, "This month thirteen of our number die ... scarce fifty remain, the living scarce able to bury the dead." Of eighteen married women, only three remained. Baby Oceanus died.
Indian Aid
But in April, when it was time to put in gardens, the Indians whom they feared came to their aid. One day, unannounced, the tall, powerful warrior Samoset strode into their camp, armed with a bow and arrows, nearly naked except for a leather string around his waist "with a fringe about a span long, or a little more," the embarrassed Bradford recorded. To the Pilgrims' surprise, Samoset greeted them with the word, "Welcome!" He had learned some English from fishermen in his native Maine. Later, he introduced the Pilgrims to Massasoit, chief of the neighboring Wampanoag tribe, and to Squanto, last known survivor of the Patuxets.
Though the Wampanoag braves towered over the short Englishmen, and outnumbered their tiny militia 60 to 20, they reached a treaty of peace that stood for forty years until Massasoit's death.
Squanto, who had been kidnapped and lived for a while in England, spoke their language, too. He taught the Pilgrims where to trap eels and how to plant corn. The Pilgrims, who had pilfered Indian corn the previous December, may not have been deserving. But this unexpected help made the difference for them between survival and starvation. Settler Edward Winslow described it thus:
"We set the last spring some twenty acres of Indian corn, and sowed some six acres of barley and peas, and according to the manner of the Indians, we manured our ground with herrings or rather shads, which we have in great abundance, and take with great ease at our doors. Our corn did prove well, and God be praised, we had a good increase of Indian corn, and our barley indifferent good, but our peas not worth the gathering, for we feared they were too late sown, they came up very well, and blossomed, but the sun parched them in the blossom."
Nevertheless, the harvest was good and the Pilgrims' food ration increased substantially. By fall, eleven houses lined the street of Plymouth Colony, seven private homes and four common buildings. The dying had stopped, and trade had begun with the Indians.
A Thanksgiving Celebration
To celebrate, the Pilgrims invited Massasoit to a harvest festival, and a hunting party shot enough waterfowl to feed the company for a week. But when Massasoit arrived, he was joined by ninety ravenous braves. For their contribution the Indians went out and returned five deer. It was a three-day feast of venison, roast duck, roast goose, clams and other shellfish, succulent eels, white bread, corn bread, leeks and watercress, with wild plums and dried berries -- all enjoyed with wine newly made from grapes that grew wild in the forest.
It was a feast of thanksgiving, of thankfulness to God. Edward Winslow wrote to friends in December, "Although it be not always so plentiful as it was at this time with us, yet by the goodness of God, we are so far from want that we often wish you partakers of our plenty."
The goodness of God was often on their minds. Though the Pilgrims had suffered great loss and hardship, they also were aware of God's great blessing: the produce of the land, peace with the natives, the joy of life, and homes snug for winter.
"Enter into his gates with thanksgiving,and into his courts with praise.Be thankful unto him, and bless his name.For the Lord is good; his mercy is everlasting;and his truth endures to all generations." (Psalm 100:4-5)

http://www.joyfulheart.com/thanksgiving/indian-thanksgiving.htm

Tin foil hat alert, here for fun is a listing from the UK of the top 30 conspiracy's, i had not heard of all of them, but had (and believe) a fair share, i guess i need to get fitted with my hat tomorrow?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/howaboutthat/3477148/The-greatest-conspiracy-theories-in-history.html?image=29

Have fun with it.

Russia is dong what the American people wanted done. Is to drill off the coast and now they will will be tapping some of the best oil and we again will have it washed up on the shore, killing our animals and we won't be getting anything from it. The irony is people will sue the government for the oil spills and get reimbused for damages that we did not cause or create. If it was so stupid it would be funny. You can not make up how stupid out government can be sometimes.

Official: Russians want to search for oil off Cuba

November 23, 2008 - 2:24pm

HAVANA (AP) - Russian oil companies could soon begin searching for oil in deep Gulf of Mexico waters off Cuba, a top diplomat said just days before Russian President Dmitry Medvedev visits the island.

Russian oil companies have "concrete projects" for drilling in Cuba's part of the gulf, said Mijail Kamynin, Russia's ambassador to Cuba, to the state-run business magazine Opciones.

Kamynin also said Russian companies would like to help build storage tanks for crude oil and to modernize Cuban pipelines, as well as play a role in Venezuelan efforts to refurbish a Soviet-era refinery in the port city of Cienfuegos, according the article published this weekend.

Medvedev comes to former Cold War ally Cuba on Thursday, part of a tour of Latin America to strengthen his country's economic and political ties in the region. Kamynin said trade between Russia and the island would top $400 million this year.

Washington's nearly 50-year-old trade embargo prohibits U.S. companies from investing on the island. But Cuba's state-run oil concern has signed joint operating agreements with companies from several countries to explore waters that Cuban scientists claim could contain reserves of up to 20 billion barrels of oil.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva visited Cuba in October for the signing of agreements allowing state-run Petroleo Brasileiro SA to invest $8 million initially for a seven-year, deep-water exploration project north of the famed beach resort of Varadero. If reserves are confirmed, Brazil would produce oil and natural gas recovered there over the next 25 years.

Opciones did not give details on what the Russian proposals would entail.

The Soviet Union was communist Cuba's chief economic benefactor until it disbanded, throwing the island's economy into disarray. Cuba-Russia relations soured after that, but warmed when President Vladimir Putin visited in 2000.

Steel has to go down, with much less building a buildings and cars, the price had to fall.

After record profits, steel shaken by sudden drop
November 23, 2008 - 4:08pm
By DANIEL LOVERING
AP Manufacturing Writer
PITTSBURGH (AP) - Just weeks after posting record profits, steel makers are facing a harsh new reality: dwindling orders, production cuts, layoffs. And tougher times lay ahead, analysts say.
The steel industry had been riding high earlier this year, as surging demand from China and other countries, coupled with soaring prices for materials used in steel making, produced the most lucrative market for the metal in more than 60 years.

But the credit crisis and global economic slowdown have undercut customers in key markets _ construction, automobiles and industrial equipment _ sending prices tumbling and prompting steel companies to slash production, scale back shipment forecasts, delay expansion plans and furlough workers.

Lower revenues and more layoffs loom in the months ahead, and production may not return to levels seen earlier in 2008 for more than two years, according to some analysts.

"The downturn has been dramatic, both in the speed and the magnitude," said Christopher Plummer, managing director of Metal Strategies Inc., a consulting firm in West Chester, Pa. "It's quite concerning and alarming."

John Anton, a steel economist with IHS Global Insight, said he expects U.S. steel production to fall next year, and that steel companies will be lucky to make about 65 percent as much as they did in 2008. Revenues could fall 35 to 40 percent, and pre-slowdown production levels may not return until 2011.

Layoffs and production cuts are inevitable, but "as long as (steel companies) saved some of the huge profits they made in 2008 ... they should survive," he said.

The U.S. steel industry has been particularly hard hit by a decline in the number of new houses being built after multiple years of excessive construction, Anton said. While little steel is used in new residences, they bring shopping centers, hospitals and schools _ buildings made from larger amounts of the metal.

"The real big drop in steel demand hasn't happened yet _ that's the decline in nonresidential construction," said Charles Bradford, an analyst with Bradford Research/Soleil Securities. "That's just beginning to show up."

Booming demand from China, particularly construction, helped revive the steel industry after a severe downturn from 1998 through 2002 caused by the Asian economic meltdown and other financial crises, as well as a strong dollar that made U.S.-produced steel more expensive on the world market.

Steel prices also got a boost from companies passing along the rising costs of raw materials and services used in steel making: iron ore, coke, metallurgical coal, ocean shipping.

Then demand suddenly began drying up in August. China's expansion waned partly due to a drop in demand for Chinese goods, while North American and European construction tailed off. U.S. auto makers reported plummeting sales and continued shifting toward smaller cars that require less steel. The dollar strengthened, dampening exports, and steel distributors liquidated their inventories.

"Best I can tell, the buyers went on strike in August and they haven't come back yet," said Bradford.

The drop in demand has pulled down prices. Scrap steel, used by steel mills, recently slid to about $90 per gross ton after trading around $550 in July. The metal, from junked cars and other refuse, is considered a market indicator.

Meanwhile, hot-rolled sheet steel, used in autos, office furniture and appliances and considered the industry's benchmark product, dropped to about $785 per ton a few weeks ago from $1,080 in July. It had reached that lofty level after surging from $570 at the end of 2007.

Lower scrap prices have helped companies such as Nucor Corp., which turns the used metal into steel in electric arc furnaces. But even the Charlotte, N.C.-based company _ which relies on so-called minimills that can be shut down and restarted quickly to adjust for demand _ has declined to forecast its future financial performance.

AK Steel Holding Corp. earlier this month said it was temporarily closing plants in Ohio and Kentucky because of sharply lower demand, laying off as many as 1,190 workers, though a small number will stay to maintain the facilities. Earlier, the West Chester, Ohio, company lowered its projected fourth-quarter steel shipments by about 14 percent.

Also this month, Pittsburgh-based United States Steel Corp., which posted record profits for the three months ended in September, said it was laying off 675 workers in the U.S. and Canada due to weaker demand amid the economic downturn.

The company said earlier it had reduced production to match declining order rates and warned of weaker results for the rest of the year due to weakening demand in North America and Europe. It also postponed plans for a $450 million plant in Alabama.

ArcelorMittal SA, the world's largest steel producer and operator of 21 plants in the United States, plans to cut output by nearly a third and has predicted tougher times ahead. It cited a need to rebalance supply and demand and put on hold an expansion plan that would have boosted steel shipments by a fifth by 2010.

In a very short period, steel went from its worst market since World War II, from 1998 to 2002, to its strongest, said Plummer, of Metal Strategies. "And now you can see we're in a significant free-fall."

U.S. steel mills are now probably operating at less than half their capacity, down from full capacity in August, said industry analyst Michelle Applebaum. That would be their lowest point since the early 1980s.

Industry analyst John Tumazos said he estimates the weekly operating rate for U.S. steel mills will not bottom out until the December holidays. "Some of the workers being furloughed may not get back soon," he said.

The domestic industry has changed drastically since the 1970s and 1980s, when it collapsed partly due to competition from imported steel and broader economic problems. U.S. mills have become consolidated among relatively few international players.

Annual global steel production last declined in 2001, said Anton, of IHS Global Insight, citing figures from the American Iron and Steel Institute. The U.S. industry has been more erratic, with a 7 percent gain in 2006 and a 1.5 percent decline last year, he said.

China, the world's biggest steel-making country, has responded to sinking demand this year by cutting output 20 percent. Over the past 12 years, China's steel industry _ once comparable to the U.S. industry's output of about 100 million metric tons per year _ has added mills that together produce more than four times the amount of steel made in the United States.

In North America, about 40 percent of steel demand comes from the devastated construction market, while 20 percent comes from hard-hit automakers and another 20 percent comes from industrial equipment makers. The rest is split among smaller markets, such as the energy sector _ which uses steel pipe _ appliances, office furniture, and food cans and other containers.

But the industry's sudden pain will be felt universally.

"Steel production is going to be bad," Anton said. "It's going to be bad everywhere in the worl

d."

http://www.wtop.com/?nid=111&sid=1524678

I guess we need to figure out a way to make a buck off of Thanksgiving.
Historic Plymouth, Mass., hopes to become movie Mecca

By Denise Lavoie, The Associated Press

PLYMOUTH, Mass. — In this place sometimes known as America's hometown, schoolchildren and tourists flock to see Plymouth Rock, a replica of the Mayflower and the place where the Pilgrims and Mashpee Wampanoags Indians shared the first Thanksgiving meal.

But the staid and historic image of Plymouth could soon be tempered by a decidedly modern attraction: a $488 million film and television studio, complete with 14 sound stages, a 10-acre back lot, a theater, a 300-room upscale hotel, a spa and 500,000 square feet of office space.

The thought of turning Plymouth into a movie Mecca has won the enthusiastic support of many residents, but some don't like the idea of adding Hollywood to their history.

"We don't need you; we've already got Plymouth Rock," says Laurien Enos, one of just three of 116 Town Meeting members who voted last month against allowing the developers to build the studio on a golf course here, about 40 miles south of Boston.

While Enos and others worry about traffic and Hollywood glamour changing their town, most residents have embraced the studio.

More than 1,100 people showed up at a recent jobs fair hosted by the project's developers.

"I think it's a great idea," said Renee Stoddard, a waitress at The All-American Diner. "It's going to bring lots of jobs and more people into Plymouth, and more business for us. It couldn't be a better time for that. We get plumbers and carpenters in here all the time and they're saying there's no work."

Even though construction isn't expected to begin until at least April once the final approvals are set — and the studio won't be ready before late 2010 or early 2011 — developers Plymouth Rock Studios LLC have pre-leased about 60% of the office space they'll need.

Led by David Kirkpatrick, a former president of Paramount Pictures, with Earl Lestz, another former Paramount executive, Plymouth Rock Studios doesn't yet have financing. And that could prove a major obstacle given the current economy.

But Joseph DiLorenzo, chief financial officer of Plymouth Rock Studios and former CFO of the NBA's Boston Celtics, is confident lenders will come through. He notes that the film industry — though faltering now — has weathered recessions before and that the project offers sound stages where filmmakers can do everything related to production, including editing and scoring.

"Now that we know we can build on it, we'll go raise money," said DiLorenzo. "We've had letters from HBO, Warner, Paramount and Fox, saying, 'If you build it, we will come."'

Big-name producers and directors will come to Massachusetts because it offers filmmakers a sales tax exemption and a 25% tax credit for payroll and production expenses, DiLorenzo said.

For its part, in addition to a zoning change, Plymouth's Town Meeting gave the developers a 75% break on the studio's real estate taxes for the first five years. The exemption will gradually decrease over 20 years.

"We want to become the alternative to Hollywood for the film industry," said DiLorenzo.

That may be a tall order, given the competition Massachusetts faces from other states that also offer financial incentives, including neighboring Connecticut, which offers a tax credit of up to 30% for in-state production expenses, and Rhode Island, which gives a 25% tax credit on production costs for movies, videos or TV shows produced primarily in the state.

New York, which is widely seen as Hollywood's closest competitor, offers a 35% tax credit. And Michigan, also considered an attractive state for filmmakers, has begun refunding studios up to 42% of their in-state production expenses.

Nicholas Paleologos, executive director of the Massachusetts Film Office, calls the Plymouth proposal "enormously ambitious" but says Plymouth could be a big draw. The number of tourists visiting Plymouth has dropped in recent years from about 1 million a year to about 750,000.

"Plymouth is already a tourist attraction, and now, if you've got a place where people can visit the sets and take a tour of the back lots, it just enhances the tourist industry that's already there," Paleologos said.

Plymouth also is just 20 miles from picturesque Cape Cod, where ferries take visitors to the islands of Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard, popular vacation spots for celebrities.

Since the first version of the incentive law went into effect in 2006, the state has seen a dramatic jump in the number of movies made here and the amount of money spent in the state by those productions.

The film industry spent about $6 million in Massachusetts in 2005 and $60 million in 2006. Direct spending more than doubled to $125 million in 2007, on eight major films, including: "The Women," starring Julia Roberts and Meg Ryan, and "Pink Panther 2," starring Steve Martin. Direct spending is expected to double again this year to $350 million to $400 million on 10 films, Paleologos said.

DiLorenzo said the developers expect the project to create about 1,000 construction jobs and another 2,000 permanent jobs at the studio, which is to be built on the Waverly Oaks Golf Course in a rural residential neighborhood in South Plymouth. The group secured the rights to the name "Hollywood East" from the Hollywood, Calif., Chamber of Commerce.

Even people who work at the historic sites in Plymouth like the thought of a movie studio in town.

Ann Young, the director of visitor services at Pilgrim Hall Museum, which houses the largest collection of Pilgrim artifacts in the world, said she isn't worried the glitz of a movie studio could taint Plymouth.

"We're all thrilled about it," Young said. "I think that (the developers) are trying to do something new. They are like pilgrims coming to Plymouth to start something new."

But some think the town has rushed, blinded by the thought of movie stars walking down the street.

Ann Marie Flanagan, a Town Meeting member who voted against the proposal, said the developers have not answered key questions, such as how they are going to finance the project and how much they hope the town will contribute in infrastructure improvements.

"People are just mesmerized," Flanagan said. "They're dropping names like Julia Roberts, and saying you're all going to have jobs."

DiLorenzo said the development group couldn't seek funding until Town Meeting approved the zoning change. The project also needs to get a state environmental permit and state approval for an access road.

The developers have pledged to provide buses to take tourists from the historic sites in Plymouth to the studio.

"We think people will come here for the tax credits and for the location," DiLorenzo said. "You have the ocean, the hills, foliage, the city — it's all here."

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-11-23-plymouth-goes-hollywood_N.htm