In case you were concerned, with Paulson leaving, that Goldman Sachs would be insufficiently represented in the Obama regime, have no fear. Robert Rubin, another ex-CEO of GS, is picking Obama's economic commissars. This is the same Rubin, by the way, who bailed out GS as treasury secretary under Clinton (they called it a bailout of Mexico, but that was a smear). In recent days, Rubin has been helping run Citibank. What a guy.
Jacob Hornberger explains the Bailout Robbery in a recent blog post:
The U.S. government does not have a giant pool of self-produced wealth that it has at its disposal to dispense to private companies. The bailouts entail government's use of force to take money from people to whom it rightfully belongs and giving it to people to whom it does not belong. That robbery might be legal, but it's certainly not moral.
A fun post by Steve Masty at LewRockwell.com yesterday on what might be someday...
Thanksgiving Friday, 2108 - Will America survive economic meltdown? To find out, we took our time machine 100 years into the future to Auburn, Alabama, home of The Ludwig von Mises Institute and the new national shrine.
"Bush and Obama," said Rockwell. "They thought they could cure everything by massive government spending."
"They squandered 25 trillion before the whole charade collapsed. Then came more private sector contraction, evaporating credit, plummeting tax revenues, monstrous inflation through government printing money, no possibility for funding the bloated welfare state - and no cash for American imperialism, invasion and occupation. Big, bullying, manipulative and costly government ran out of fuel and stopped - and guess what? People slowly grew happier, more free and productive without it."
During the 1979 Bailout of New York City, a co-worker of mine had several discussions about the bailout because his father was a City worker for NYC. He told me that his father usually got to work around 10 AM every day, usually left at 2PM and usually skipped at least 1 day per week - and frequently two.
According to my friend, his attendance for the city was typical. His father made $55,000 (remember that this was in 1979) and here my friend and I were bailing out the city through our tax dollars. This is happening all over again in this year's bailouts.
As Ron Paul mentioned "Some citizens just seem to be more equal than others" Does anyone other than a few of us find it unethical and immoral that the "little people", the 90% have to bail out the rich and influential 10%?
Here's Ron Paul's speech efore the U.S. House of Representatives, November 21, 1979
Although I was not in Congress when either the Lockheed or the New York City bailouts were enacted, I would have opposed both of those actions, as well as the proposed action regarding Chrysler, for many of the same reasons. Let me explain those reasons.
In a nation that is sinking in a sea of debt, it is irresponsible for this Congress to be considering a measure that would add billions to that debt. The expansion of credit is one of the primary forms of inflation. It is not merely inflationary in its effects; it is inflation itself. If this $1.5 billion is created by the federal government, it will ripple and percolate through our banking system, and because of our fractional reserve system, the ultimate growth in the money supply will be far more than $1.5 billion. The standard multiplier is six; that means an infusion of $1.5 billion will eventually result in a $9 billion increase in the money supply. In his testimony before the House Banking Committee, the former Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, Alan Greenspan, stated that
Loan guarantees, insofar as the issue of inflation is concerned, are virtually indistinguishable from on-budget financing, and that the major cause of inflation into this country has been an excessive amount of credit preemption, largely in the area of guarantees, which . . . has created excessive monetary growth and is the base of inflation in the system.
A vote for the Chrysler bailout is, simply put, a vote for further inflation.
Some may argue that the inflation is necessary in order to avoid unemployment, echoing the now repudiated idea of A.W. Phillips, that less inflation means more unemployment and vice versa. The past few years of our experience with inflation and unemployment should convince everyone that high inflation and high unemployment can exist side-by-side. I believe the connection is even closer: Inflation causes unemployment - perhaps not immediately, but in the longer run - and we are now in the longer run of our past inflationary policies. It follows that a vote for aid to Chrysler, because it is a vote for inflation, is also a vote for more unemployment.
Why is it, those with all the money Are, in the front of the first line With their hand out for a bailout From us poor Folks, all the time?
It's not just car makers and brokers Most all big companies are the same When things don't go how they want It's, We, the People, get the blame.
They fly all around in private jets Stocked with fine wines and caviar Ride limos to and from the airport While we can't buy gas for our car.
Most of them pay little in taxes Through, their loopholes and breaks Paying less, the more they earn While we can't make, what it takes.
They will send our jobs overseas They don't want to pay the cost To have it, "Made in the USA" Maybe, pride of that, forever lost.
They import goods with lead paint And poisoned foods to make us sick They don't care if some of us die To get our money, (they're that slick).
They break our laws all the time And don't fear, if they are caught A slap on the wrist, rarely, "time" While, we can go to jail, for naught.
Millions are paid to so-called bosses To bring any company's, ruination While stockholders, hire those CEOs They want to blame it on the Nation.
With perks and golden parachutes And bonuses, far beyond absurd Defended by the dumbest reasons That, anyone has ever heard.
We all really need a wake-up call And all of us will pay the price Maybe, for all the lessons learned We won't let this happen, twice.
Maybe we should, let them go bankrupt And let the chips fall, where they may With the hope, borne from those ashes The common Folks, might have, their day.
No, I don't mean that Great Depression. I'm talking about the inevitable moment - maybe next week, maybe next year - when the Kool Aid wears off and the Obamatrons wake up to realize their hero offers nothing even approximating hope or change.
The carefully calculated speeches - which have always been filled with empty, hollow phrases - will no longer soothe a battered and desperate populace and the Obamabots will suddenly recognize that the Pope of Hope has never been anything more than a human marketing strategy, a product. This year's iPhone.
"Yes we can"? Merely the first three words of a longer phrase: "Yes we can continue to work, consume, and obey authority without question."
A great depression, so to speak, will set in. According to Depression.com, some people say this condition feels "like a black curtain of despair . Many people feel like they have no energy and can't concentrate. Others feel irritable all the time." Other common symptoms include "empty" feelings and a sense of hopelessness.
Hopelessness: how frighteningly appropriate for the inescapable post-Obama comedown. Change we can bereave in.
Yes, a great and unpreventable depression will set in.but, you betcha, the damage is already done.
As for that other Great Depression looming on the horizon, well, here's my short-term economic recovery plan:
Cut the military budget by 75%
Eliminate corporate welfare
Return the corporate tax rate back to where it was in the 1950s
Congressman Paul gives his thoughts on the testimony of Paulson and Bernanke, the failure of the dollar standard, gold and where the global economy could go from here.
I think very soon you will see a national tax revolt. Now, I wish that it would happen as a result of millions of people finding out they don't actually OWE federal income taxes. I'd settle for some philosophical-based revolt, like the American Revolution, where they oppose being robbed on principle. But I'm afraid it will be simpler even than that: people will be running out of money (or what passes for money these days), and the government will be too stupid to reduce its extortionist practices -- in fact, it will try to steal much MORE from people (especially with Barack Ostalin in office), because "government" never thinks that it should do with less.
And then good old-fashioned desperation will kick in, and people will decide that buying food is more important than sending money to the IRS. And non-compliance -- or at least, what people THINK is non-compliance (since they don't owe all the taxes they think they do) -- has a self-accelerating effect. If a million people do it, and ten million other people HEAR about it, then 11 million people will be doing it, and so on.
There is safety in numbers, especially when it comes to disobeying tyrants. As the level of disobedience rises, the probability of any given person getting into trouble for it drops. The feds know this, which is why they have desperately tried to keep secret the falling enforcement statistics of the IRS (as the Syracuse TRAC studies show), while proclaiming from the rooftops what thuggery they do manage to pull off. They are desperate to keep everyone scared, and to a large extent, they have succeeded. But when people really start to feel the hurt of the coming economic collapse, they won't really care what the IRS threatens to do any more.
Again, this isn't even how I wished things would go. I'd rather people knew the truth, legal and philosophical, and opposed the federal extortion racket on those grounds. But they'll probably just do it out of simple necessity. However, one bright side might be that more people might be open to HEARING about the federal "income tax" fraud, once they really start feeling the pain of it. And I'm betting when April 15th rolls around, there will be plenty of financial pain to go around.
In the classic 1989 film, Road House, thespian Patrick Swayze inhabits the role of James Dalton, head bouncer at a seedy establishment called the Double Deuce Club. Dalton is armed with a PhD in philosophy from New York University and his three rules of bouncing:
1. Never underestimate your opponent
2. Take it outside
3. Be nice until it's time to not be nice
Note to those striving for enduring social change: It's time to not be nice.
Being nice got us a nation that pats itself on the back for its freedom and democracy while relegating most of its citizenry to a life of debt, a life without sufficient health insurance, a life of wiretapping and color-coded terror warnings, a life of undrinkable water, polluted air, and inedible food (sic), etc.
Being nice means the US constitutes less than 5% of the world's human population but is home to 25% of the world's prison population. Being nice means US women are paid 77 cents for every dollar a man makes. Being nice got us believing that coal is clean, nukes are green, and we must vote for Barack ?cause the Republicans are mean.
Yeah, being nice resulted in the Legend of Barack Obama? - the most remarkable example of programming and conditioning since the yellow ribbon sticker - while those who refused to guzzle the Obama Kool Aid? are shoved off to the far corners of Left World.
But, rest assured, as Swayze promises: "Nobody puts Baby in the corner."
Your government does not want what you want. That which you will not resist and mobilize to stop, you will learn, or be forced, to accept. What is needed is not a minor course correction or meaningless "change" we are allowed to believe in.
What we need is a radical change in direction brought about by people acting outside the strangling confines of official politics. Look at what official politics has given us!
We believe that people of conscience must take responsibility for what their own governments do.
We call on all people living in the United States to RESIST the trajectory of wars, reaction and repression that has been loosed on the world by the Bush Regime and a complicit Congress. We choose to make common cause with the people of the world by extending a hand to those suffering from these policies and by showing our solidarity in word and deed. Join with us.
We Will Not Accept The Bush Program - No Matter Who Is President!
Ron Paul, just before this passed weekend's economic summit on the status of the US Dollar. Here's an excerpt:
Throwing more money (at the problem) won't help it.
This is what we have to understand. This is the end of a major monetary system that has existed for at least 30 years...and it will not be changed easily.
As you know, the Empire has selected a new emperor. The Mafia has chosen a new don. The corporation has hired a new CEO. Are you brimming with hope yet? Read on.
According to Reuters, (Nov. 11, 2008), President-Elect Barack Obama has urged President-Select George W. Bush to take "measures to help the ailing (automobile) industry on top of a $25 billion loan packaged approved in September."
I could easily discuss - yet again - the unspoken reality that America's version of capitalism relies entirely on socialized costs and privatized profits and all those who righteously decry Big Government are choosing to ignore the massive state subsidies that created and maintain Corporate America and "our way of life."
But Earth's problems are far worse than state capitalism wearing a transparent free market mask. The auto industry Mister Barack and his merry band of Democratic comrades so desperately want to bailout and revive is and has been one the primary causes for our planet's environmental and social degradation.
Does the Chairman of Change know or care that during the last century, an area equal to all the arable land in Ohio, Indiana, and Pennsylvania was paved in the U.S.? This area requires maintenance costing over $200 million a day and the surreptitious cost of the car culture totals nearly $500 billion a year in the U.S. alone, much of that going to the sustentation of a military presence in the Persian Gulf.
An Obama aide said Mr. "Yes We Can" has suggested "accelerating implementation" of the current auto industry loan package and "exploring avenues that exist under current law."
Does Bilkin' Barry the Baby Boomer ever think about how cars create 7 billion pounds of un-recycled scrap and waste annually? With approximately one billion discarded tires littering our increasingly paved landscape, let his loyal Obamatrons meditate upon this: Every tire loses one pound of rubber per year, spewing minute grains of rubber into the stratosphere and then back down to find a new home in our water and/or our lungs. Has anyone told the Pope of Hope about the innumerable eco-systems exterminated in order to make way for highways, off-ramps, parking lots, strip malls, and other auto-centric structures?
I could go on (and on) while BHO begs GWB to identify "someone in charge of the auto issue who would have authority to bring about reforms that would lead to a viable auto industry."
Here's the equation: A viable auto industry = a non-viable global eco-system.
Along those lines, there was other news on November 11.but it did not make the Reuters wire. The North American Earth Liberation Front (ELF) Press Office announced: "We have one message for the incoming Obama Administration: act to protect the environment or the ELF will."
The questions now being asked are: Where to go from here and who's to blame for the downfall of the Republican Party?
Too bad the concern for the future of the Republican Party had not been seriously addressed in the year 2000 when the Republicans gained control of the House, Senate, and the Presidency.
Now, in light of the election, many are asking: What is the future of the Republican Party?
But that is the wrong question. The proper question should be: Where is our country heading? There's no doubt that a large majority of Americans believe we're on the wrong track. That's why the candidate demanding "change" won the election. It mattered not that the change offered was no change at all, only a change in the engineer of a runaway train.
Once it's figured out what is fundamentally wrong with our political and economic system, solutions can be offered. If the Republican Party can grasp hold of the policy changes needed, then the party can be rebuilt.
In the rise and fall of the recent Republican reign of power these past decades, the goal of the party had grown to be only that of gaining and maintaining power - with total sacrifice of the original Republican belief in shrinking the size of government.
Most Republicans endorsed this view in order to achieve victories at the polls. Limiting government power and size with less spending and a balanced budget as the goal used to be a "traditional" Republican value. This is what Goldwater and Reagan talked about. That is what the Contract with America stood for.
Paul Craig Roberts' recent essay is a must-read for all of the true believers in the Democratic Party that voted for Obama in the hope he will bring about real change in Washington, D.C.
This paragraph is particularly enlightening:
Obama's victory speech was magnificent. The TV cameras scanning faces in the audience showed the hope and belief that propelled Obama into the presidency. But Obama cannot bring change to Washington. There is no one in the Washington crowd that he can appoint who is capable of bringing change. If Obama were to reach outside the usual crowd, anyone suspected of being a bringer of change could not get confirmed by the Senate. Powerful interest groups--AIPAC, the military-security complex, Wall Street--use their political influence to block unacceptable appointments.
The key words are the second and third sentences:
There is no one in the Washington crowd that he can appoint who is capable of bringing change. If Obama were to reach outside the usual crowd, anyone suspected of being a bringer of change could not get confirmed by the Senate.
Bottom line: The pro-fascist factions in both major political parties can and will stop, dead in its tracks, any serious attempt at meaningful reform that will adversely affect their de facto fascist state, and/or its ability to defend the current power structure.
Excuse me for a moment while I vent about the mind-boggling stupidity of the autocratic, bureaucratic, right-wing, Neanderthal numskulls who keep pushing an insane, inane, and inhumane holy war against marijuana -- which is, after all, a weed.
The holy warriors have become more fanatical and thuggish than ever. A marijuana arrest is made every 41 seconds in America -- nine out of 10 of them for mere possession. In 2004, 772,000 Americans were arrested on marijuana charges -- more than for all violent crimes combined.
People voted for Obama because they're sick and tired of eight years of the Bush regime, and they want change. Yet the change they hope for will not come from this president, or any other politician for that matter. It is more vital than ever that we stand up for the real change we want, and not settle for saying, "wait and see what Obama will do."
Listen to what Obama is saying. He plans to send 10,000 more troops for the illegal, unjust war in Afghanistan (no, this is not the "good war"!). He wants to keep 50-80,000 more troops in Iraq, not including all the private mercenary forces like Blackwater. Obama wants to increase the U.S. military by 92,000 more troops (which means more military recruiting in the inner city schools).
He promises more pre-emptive attacks on the (sovereign country of) Pakistan and he has threatened war against Iran. Obama voted for FISA (illegal government spying), the Patriot Act, and as for torture - Obama refused to filibuster the Military Commissions Act which legalized torture, and he has said no war criminals responsible for the torture will face prosecution during his first term.
Clearly, this is not the time to "wait and see" if Obama's gonna stop the war(s) and end the torture. If we want this endless war for empire to stop, it's gonna be up to us. What are YOU willing to do???
Now is the day that we remember Our dead, the wars, each falling ember. Veterans, Poppy clad, march in sadness and pride, Ever mindful of the dwindling companies they once marched beside. Men, long turned grey, who remember the youth and strength Bourne by them into war, adventure, endless length, Ever yearning, at last, for home, for hearth, for peace, Remembering all their lives the horrors that wars release.
Eleven, eleven, the day the guns fell still, Leaving only the stench of gas, and bodies, and graves to fill. Eleven, eleven and the "war to end all wars," had ceased. Vengeance and madness! Again, the dogs of war unleashed! Ever rending a new generation to feed their maw. Now, war follows war, each more cruel, more raw, Tears the fabric of life, slays man, woman, child; death in the rough. Heaven itself must cry in pain, "For the love of God! Enough! Enough!"
People are dancing with joy to see Republicans voted out after the 8 miserable years under the Bush regime. Many are placing huge hope in Obama's election.
But, based on what president-elect Obama says, and who he has already chosen for his team, he will preside over changes we don't want and shouldn't get sucked into supporting.
Some hard facts & questions:
What is there to celebrate in an Obama presidency? Making us feel good about the country again when Obama is trying to unite us to behind what he calls "the good war" in Afghanistan? While people in the US were lining up to vote, a US air strike on an Afghan wedding party killed 34 civilians. Another strike killed 7 more yesterday.
Obama, the "anti-war" candidate, wants to leave 50 to 80,000 troops in Iraq, and move more combat brigades to Afghanistan. He promises to increase the US military by 92,000, ready to project American empire further on the lives of kids in high school now. Obama proposed sending drones and special forces into Pakistan - a sovereign country - and the Bush regime secretly began attacks on Pakistan in July, which have killed scores of civilians, as part of the Bush doctrine of pre-emptive war.
How could we celebrate "national unity" when Obama's vote for the FISA law opens the way for unprecedented political repression and spying on the people? People expected Obama, who taught Constitutional law, to protect their rights, but Obama went out of his way to make an unpopular vote to bolster the "war on terror" and set the basis for expanded political repression. He voted for an amended USA PATRIOT Act that had more draconian curbs on political protest than the 2001 version.
How can we feel Obama is "for the people" when he put all his backing behind the bailout of Wall Street banks, but tells the people only to have faith in their leaders? When he supports the notoriously racist death penalty, and blames Black people themselves for the huge prison population? When he finds "common ground" with the most rabid Christian fundamentalist plans to do away with abortion and gay marriage? The ban on gay marriage passed in California, benefiting from Obama's expressed opposition to gay marriage.
In the face of huge crimes perpetrated by the Bush regime,.Obama said, "I think you reserve impeachment for grave, grave breaches, and intentional breaches of the president's authority."
There is a responsibility and a way for us to act:
This is not the time to "wait and see" what Obama will do after January 20, or after 6 months or a year...or never, because if he does what's in the peoples' interests he won't be re-elected? He's telling us what he will do, and the worst thing would be to get passive in the face of more crimes being done in our name.
There is a force to join with that will firmly oppose this program. World Can't Wait will be here, organizing a movement of resistance with a realistic aim -- to bring these crimes and this whole direction to a stop. If you don't want to join us now, remember what we're saying, and when it does become clear to you that the crimes of your government - not matter who is president -- have to be stopped, join with the kind of movement that CAN make that happen.
Only the independent action of the people can create the conditions where those in power can be forced to act in accordance with our demands. This is the change we can believe in.
Stop thinking like an American, and start thinking like someone who cares for the whole planet.
Join the World Can't Wait.
Support the "We Are Not Your Soldiers" tour of high schools in opposing military recruiters.
Join the demand to end torture and dismiss, disbar and prosecute John Yoo and other high Bush administration officials for war crimes.
It is beginning to look like another uphill battle for We the People to get our nation back. This is worth reading. To me, it looks like payback time has already begun.
The political battles to come - which will have an enormous impact on our lives and the lives of people around the world - will not be easy. Having a president in the White House who is demonstrably intelligent and reasonable could be a good thing.
But let's not pretend that, because Barack Obama has been elected, our battles are won.
Obama's choices of advisers and Cabinet members says a lot about how he'll govern. The early signs are not very hopeful, at least for those of us who aren't DLC "centrists."
If we are going to get control of our country back, we are going to have to ride this new crew like an unruly bronc.
In "Common Sense Revisited" the author describes the difference between surrogate power and indigenous power. Very briefly defined as follows, Indigenous power is the power we have from our creator; it is the only true source of power on earth. It cannot be taken away from us. We can, however, voluntarily give up some of our power to surrogates like corporations, governments, unions, partnerships, etc. These surrogate entities only have power that can be taken back at any time by individuals that the surrogates serve.
These entities do things for us, they are our servants. As long as they follow the contracts, constitutions, by-laws, or partnership agreements we put in place than everything is fine. However, the people who have been running our surrogates seem to have a natural tendency to assume more power than expressed in the original written agreements. That is why problems have arisen.
The philosophy of collectivism in all of its forms; communism, fascism, socialism, etc. is based on a falsehood. All forms of collectivism use propaganda, fear, greed, force, intimidation, and all forms of deceit to make the people believe that the state has indigenous power when it does not, and never can have, indigenous power.
When people are awake, educated, and fully conscious and empowered than they do not allow this illusory power to control them. The author of this article below entitled "This too shall pass" does a great job of explaining the current state of affairs. I suggest keeping this concept of indigenous vs. surrogate power in mind while reading this article. The best solutions to all problems in society always come from a bottom up structure where the individuals have the maximum amount of individual freedom. This kind of structure is diametrically opposed to all forms of collectivism.
Is the government we have today what the founders had in mind?
Everyone in government takes an oath to uphold the Constitution, but few do so. Beginning with John Adams, and proceeding to Abraham Lincoln, Woodrow Wilson, and George W. Bush, congress has enacted and the President has signed laws that have criminalized political speech, suspended Habeas Corpus, compelled support for war, forbade the freedom of contract, allowed the government to spy on Americans without a search warrant, and use tax payer dollars to shore up failing private banks.
All of this legislation is so obviously in conflict with the plain words of the Constitution, that one wonders how Congress gets away with it.
Just this week, I was telling a business friend of mine about how current events and history could be changed by propaganda. The example I used was the integration of Little Rock Central in 1957.
Orval Faubus ran on a plank and was elected to be Governor of Arkansas to peacefully integrate all the schools in Arkansas. The people of Arkansas elected to accomplish this. A plan of integration was submitted to the Justice Department and it was approved. All schools in Arkansas were to be totally integrated by 1963. Ironically Central high was scheduled to be integrated in the fall of 1957.
The first school in the old Confederacy was integrated in Arkansas in 1954 in Charleston, Arkansas. The tipping point came when Congress passed a law allowing those who brought integration suits to avoid court costs and expenses if they lost their suit. Some bright lawyers saw the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Suits began to flood the courts. Civil Rights lawyers made out like bandits. One of the suits brought was against the approved Arkansas plan.
So the forceful integration of Little Rock Central was started in 1957 , the timetable for the integration had the suit not been brought. Faubus resisted the change since as late as July of 1957 the original plan had been upheld by the U S Courts.
This year, after billions have been spent on integration, remember under the plan to have been completed 45 years ago, these lawyers and their descendants are still slopping at the trough.
What? A nationwide effort, beginning November 2008, to reach high school students with the truth about military recruiters and the wars that they are recruiting for, and give them the arguments and tools to talk to their peers. We are looking for teachers and students to help arrange classroom presentations and school assemblies which include:
a short presentation by a World Can't Wait youth organizer and either an Iraq/Afghanistan war veteran or a military family member;
an open discussion;
a 10-minute video clip of testimony by Iraq veterans from the March 2008 Winter Soldier hearings about what they witnessed and perpetrated.
footage of high school students protesting military recruiters.
a short survey that students would take to give us all a sense of what they think.
Why? Over 1 million Iraqis have been killed, according to John Hopkins University, 2006 and over 4 million have been forced to flee their homes. Almost 5,000 US military have been killed in combat; with tens of thousands of grave injuries. Both presidential candidates are promising to escalate the war in Afghanistan, and US Special Forces have recently killed civilians in Pakistan and Syria. Iran and other countries are projected targets of the global War on Terror begun by the Bush administration. The war crime of torture is being carried out by U.S. forces under the direction of the highest levels of government.
Both Senators McCain and Obama promised to increase active duty US military by around 90,000 troops. Where are they going to get these troops to fight all this? They are in high school now.
Parents and students tell us that in high schools across the U.S. military recruiters are given free reign to prey on the youth. They pull up in their hummers, walk right into classrooms and give presentations that make war seem like a video game. They stalk students at school and at home, making false promises and even (as has been documented recently on Democracy Now!) threatening students with jail time if they decide not to enlist. In particular they target poor and rural youth, inner city youth of color and immigrant youth (with promises of citizenship). In fact, all this is mandated by the No Child Left Behind Act which requires high schools to give students' personal information over to the military.
People recruited into the U.S. military know about the lies recruiters told them about the job skills training and education benefits that enlistees will never receive. Recruiters don't tell youth about the one third of female GI's that report being raped while in the service, or the post-traumatic stress disorder and suicide rates of the returning veterans. The U.S. armed services will spend over $5 billion dollars in 2008 for recruiting. According to the ACLU, "The U.S. military's recruitment policies, practices, and strategies explicitly target students under 17 for recruitment activities on high school campuses."
But what this tour aims to expose is even bigger. What are youth being recruiting to do? Is the U.S. military of 2008 spreading freedom and democracy? What does it mean to be "patriotic" and "support the troops"? How can you prioritize the lives of people in one country, or the world? Is the military the place to be if you're looking to "have an experience," "get some discipline and structure," "give your life a purpose,"? Or is joining the military harmful to oneself and to people throughout the world?
These are the questions the tour will explore with high school students. We want to learn from the students and we know we will have many different points of view in the audience. We look forward to stirring up some debate which all too often gets doesn't happen, in the name of being "balanced" and avoiding controversy.
If you find this situation unacceptable and think that schools should be places of learning and not cheap labor depots for the U.S. military, then help bring this tour to your school! Help bring this tour to your campus and be part of awakening the consciousness and activism of a new generation struggling to figure out what to do with their lives.
For more info or to set up a classroom presentation, school assembly, or debate at your school, contact us at:
Here's a worthwhile read. That way, you won't be surprised
Since 2003, various procedures have been adopted regarding the enactment of Martial Law in the case of a so-called "National Catastrophic Emergency".
Under martial law, the military would take over several functions of civilian government including justice and law enforcement.
Initiatives in the area of Homeland Security outlined the precise circumstances under which martial law could be declared in the case of a second 9/11.
The critical problem we face today is the same one all mankind has faced: the state, those monopolists who claim the right to break the laws that they make and enforce. How to restrain them is the critical problem of all sound political thinking. Making matters worse, this gang now has a monopoly on the money and the ability to print it, and they are abusing that power at our expense.
How does voting change the situation? Neither of the candidates for president wants to do anything about the problem. On the contrary, they want to make it worse. This is for a reason. The state owns the "democratic process" as surely as it owns the Departments of Labor and Defense and uses it in ways that benefit the state and no one else.
On the other hand, we do have the freedom not to vote. No one has yet drafted us into the voting booth. I suggest that we exercise this right not to participate. It is one of the few rights we have left. Nonparticipation sends a message that we no longer believe in the racket they have cooked up for us, and we want no part of it.
You might say that this is ineffective. But what effect does voting have? It gives them what they need most: a mandate. Nonparticipation helps deny that to them. It makes them, just on the margin, a bit more fearful that they are ruling us without our consent. This is all to the good. The government should fear the people. Not voting is a good beginning toward instilling that fear.
This year especially there is no lesser of two evils. There is socialism or fascism. The true American spirit should guide every voter to have no part of either.
No presidential candidate has ever used massive amounts of money to so effectively stalk voters. You cannot escape the Obama sales pitch wherever you are, whatever you watch, whatever you read. His campaign will go down in American history as the most successful advertising and marketing effort to sell a product.
While people on the left love to talk and bitch about Republicans stealing elections, what should worry people is how a candidate can buy the presidency, because they have conned millions of people to donate money while at the same time using those smaller campaign contributions to block the truth that a huge fraction of all the money has come from the same corporate, business and wealthy fat cats that have always funded both Republicans and Democrats. This ensures that Obama will never, ever take any action to remove the tyranny of the status quo two-party plutocracy.
It certainly helps that John McCain does not deserve the vote of any halfway intelligent person. Indeed, this election is like a national IQ test. There will surely be tens of millions of voters that go for McCain. They are overwhelmingly the least smart, least informed, and most delusional Americans that have actually fallen for McCain's lies, distortions, terrible judgments, and imbecilic arguments.
This was the year that Americans should have overwhelmingly seen that BOTH Democrats and Republicans have brought this once great nation to its knees and rejected BOTH major candidates. But, alas, I fear that third-party presidential candidates will end up getting just about what they have always received: no nationally significant percentage of votes.
In this delusional democracy voters overwhelmingly delude themselves about whoever they vote for, except those that have the courage and true patriotism to vote their conscience and vote against the two-party plutocracy. Worst of all are those who consider themselves "progressives" but who will enthusiastically, once again, go the lesser-evil, delusional route and eagerly vote for Obama. When Obama fails to keep nearly all of his campaign promises and fills the Executive Branch with crowds of loyal Democrats (not true independent thinking progressives that are not registered Democrats) all those Obamatons will probably keep deluding themselves and come up with rationalizations why Obama had no other choice. And they will keep fantasizing that eventually Obama will show himself to be the political messiah that they think he is.
All that will be proven with the Obama presidency is that you can have a very intelligent person in the White House and not just an idiot like George W. Bush who ends up preserving and encouraging the two-party plutocracy that keeps the Upper Class and corporate state safe from attack while letting the middle class continue to slide down into a larger Lower Class. I would rather have had the first truly independent president elected than the first African-American one, someone like Ralph Nader.
Here is what really irks this writer: the hours that early voters will stand on a line to cast a vote. Why, you ask, isn't it great that these folks are so dedicated that they will stand in line for hours? Yes, of course it is an admirable trait. However, let us examine those standing on long lines who agree with this writer.
They agree that this (so called) War in Iraq was illegal and immoral and a waste of both precious American and Iraqi lives... And of our treasury. They are incensed, and have been since the invasion. Many even agree that the whole Bush crew should be either impeached or indicted.
Question is: where the hell were these folks when small groups of us stood in peaceful protest for just one hour each week on street corners throughout America? Why, for years, did they refuse to join the street corner protests?
And to those who now stand on line for McCain: Why have you all not stood even 10 minutes a week to support the Bush policies that McCain now parrots? Did you have those same priorities that Dick Cheney had on 6 separate occasions during the Vietnam War, when he was a chicken hawk hypocrite?
Methinks if the majority of voting Americans...No, take that back...The majority of eligible voters, could hear the platforms of the 3rd party candidates, the lines for early voting would be even longer! Not just the usual 'Red State vs. Blue State' con job.
No, many many more voters choosing the Libertarian or the Green or the Constitution party candidates.... Or of course, the irrepressible Ralph Nader. Of course, we all know that either Obama or McCain will be the next president, as will one of the Jackass or White Elephant candidates in 2012.
However, if many of you who stand for hours on early voting lines do begin to stand even for one hour a week in peaceful protest on key issues...These two parties will start taking notice...And perhaps offer us real change......or they'll lose power.
Stop being a jackass or a white elephant...Start becoming a lion!
I was walking down the street when I noticed a man sitting behind the wheel of a car, cursing and angry. His face was a mask of rage. I stopped and contemplated the source of his fury and assumed it was the election. Clearly, this man was fed up with the two-party farce, the barring of non-corporate candidates from public debates, the lies, the corruption, and the fact that a vote for either McCain or Obama is a vote for the same gluttonous, murderous culture.
Then I got a little closer and realized the man was upset because someone had beaten him to a parking spot.
A few steps away, I spied a woman talking on a cell phone - looking rather glum. Her face was a mask of distress. I stopped and contemplated the source of her sorrow and assumed it was the war in Iraq. Clearly, this woman was overcome with angst when contemplating the countless dead, the 50-60% employment rate, the 4.7 million refugees, the depleted uranium, and the fact that much of the country was still without electricity.
Then I got a little closer and overheard her phone conversation. I realized the woman was upset because she thought her jeans made her look fat.
On the next block, I passed another woman who appeared to be consumed with frustration. I stopped and contemplated the source of her exasperation and assumed it was the meat-based diet. Clearly, this woman was overcome with irritation when contemplating the factory farms, the veal calves, the battery hens, the human health holocaust, and the fact that rearing cattle produces more greenhouse gases than driving cars.
Then I got a little closer and she looked at me sheepishly. I realized the woman was upset because she had forgotten to charge her iPod.
I was almost home when I saw a man who appeared to be overwhelmed with melancholy. I stopped and contemplated the source of his despondency and assumed it was, well, everything. Clearly, this man was overcome with depression when contemplating global poverty, mass animal and plant extinctions, widespread slavery, gender inequality, and the fact that somewhere on planet Earth a human being starves to death every two seconds.
Then I got a little closer and saw he was reading the sports pages. I realized the man was bummed because his favorite football team had lost the day before.
On behalf of every American, I plead with you as the Speaker of the House to recognize the facts cited in the attached letter to the editor.
Please begin healing this nation through a meaningful and viable Economic Recovery Program built on sound economic principles.
Be realistic!! There is no amount of stimulus packages, bank bailouts, or infusion of more debt by any means that can put America's economy back on a solid footing. Simply put, debt cannot be used to pay debt!
I suspect every fifth grade student could be taught that a principal (P) cannot be made to equal itself plus a rate of interest (R) times time (T). i.e. one cannot make P = P+PRT. Why this fact is beyond the ability of politicians to understand is truly an unsolved mystery; unless of course their motive is to place their fellow Americans in a state of perpetual economic bondage. Is this your goal?
Certainly, the first step toward correcting our planned economic 'crisis' could be another "stimulus" program IF the stimulus is in the form of a non interest bearing medium of exchange meeting the spirit and intent of Article 1, Sec. 8:5 of our Constitution; i.e., United States Notes.
If it's the desire and intent of Congress and the Administration to keep "we the people" beholden to the bankers by assuring the privately owned, deceitfully named bank called the Federal Reserve System will eventually hold title to all real wealth of its choice, a mortgage on the remainder, and a claim on all future production, then just continue to pursue today's voo doo economics.
We are presently witnessing one of the greatest transfers of wealth in the history of the world. From a mathematical viewpoint, the rate of transfer can only increase under current monetary policy as the rate of increase in our debts is an exponential function. It is rapidly becoming asymptotic to the ordinate.
For Congress to intentionally continue down this road to a total economic meltdown is insane; insanity being to repeat a process over and over and yet expect a different outcome.
Your actions over the next few months will clearly establish your motive.
