The rich get richer off of govt. subsidies
A new report from Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) says millionaires have received $9.5 billion in government benefits since 2003.
Play CBS News Video
(CBS News) The U.S. may technically be deep in debt, but that hasn't stopped billions of your tax dollars from going to the wealthy.
CBS News investigative correspondent Sharyl Attkisson reports the first-ever compilation of how millionaires are using the social safety net comes from fiscal conservative Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla). He's looked at tax breaks, government loans and other benefits showing that, in recent years, more than $9 billion has gone to those who are far from needy.
From tax write-offs for gambling losses, vacation homes and luxury yachts to subsidies for ranches and estates, billions of your tax dollars are supporting the lifestyles of the rich and famous. The new report from Coburn counts the ways.
Entitled "Subsidies of the Rich and Famous," it says millionaires have received $74 million in unemployment checks in recent years, $316 million in farm subsidies, $9 billion in retirement checks, and taken out $16 million in government-backed education loans for college.
Some big celebrities are among the beneficiaries: taxpayer-funded farm subsidies for NBA star Scottie Pippen and billionaire media titan Ted Turner.
Superstar Jon Bon Jovi paid only $100 in property taxes last year on his extensive N.J. real estate holdings because he "raises bees" on it and gets farm subsidies.
Pictures: Jon Bon Jovi
Bruce "the Boss" Springsteen gets farm subsidies for leasing property to an organic farmer and Quincy Jones, who produced the top-selling album of all time, Michael Jackson's "Thriller," got a $25,000 award from the taxpayer-funded National Endowment for the Arts for his contribution to music.
Pictures: Bruce Springsteen
Coburn says an award of "prestige" can be given to honor and recognize such megastars, but insists monetary payment is unnecessary -- and now unaffordable.
Taxpayer watchdog Leslie Paige works with Citizens Against Government Waste, a private, non-partisan, non-profit organization. She told CBS News, "Some of these programs are written so badly that, in fact, everybody's eligible for them, and the question has to be, and the taxpayers have to answer it -- are we OK with that? Are we OK with millionaires getting this money?"
Even millionaires who are out of work don't have to spend down their savings as fast as they might. They can collect unemployment on the shoulders of taxpayers. The IRS reports that 2,362 millionaires collected $20,799,000 in jobless benefits in 2009.
On "The Early Show," Attkisson added, "None of the celebrities mentioned answered requests for comment. And if there ever was a climate ripe for change, this could be the closest we've come. Facing a $15 trillion dollar debt, Congress is considering bills that would deny unemployment benefits to millionaires and cut farm subsidies for the wealthy. They're also talking about limiting Medicare and other entitlements for the rich."
Most Americans are fools, and Congress and the 1% just laughs at you sheep for being so dumb and complacent. Well, the truth is you deserve what you get because you let it happen and finance it as well !!!
Americans have allowed your government to sell you out for too long. It's time for you to take back Congress and restore legislation that protects yourselves, your environment, the creatures that share this planet with, and your posterity.
If you each do not do your part and take action now, the greed of big business and your lawmakers who suck up to them WILL at the very least destroy all quality of life.
This is no fiction as you have all the evidence you need to know the outcome of our present course. Environmental disasters, species on the brink of extinction and those already extinct, contaminated food and water, drugs that are as harmful as supposedly beneficial, out of control costs of living, famine, wars..... the list goes on and on.
None of these things will get better, only worse and history confirms this.
The People must act now. You must each do something if you are going to avoid the collapse of civilization as you know it and avoid creating a world of conflict, disease, and famine.
The most effective means of action are by the same means these calamities all occur; a complete disregard for the consequences of maximizing financial gain from private business ventures.
Here in the US, Congress supports such business ventures by making their schemes to maximize profits legal. Why ??? Because these business in turn donate vast sums of money to their political campaigns and graft. The irony is these vast amounts of funds come from the people, the majority, because they are just added into the cost of goods and services these companies peddle.
This is insane. To abolish this corruption you need to take away all political financial gain from Congress. The petitions below are a beginning to do just that.
Sign them if you agree, tell others and leave a legacy for your children and grandchildren.
Petition for full disclosure of Congressional Request for Taxpayer Funds
https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions/!/petition/require-federal-agencies-reveal-special-funding-requests-members-congress-making-these-public-real/Sv4WRnHl
Petition to Abolish Special Interest Campaign Financing
http://http://www.getmoneyout.com/
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Let a Thousand 'Rogue' Grand Juries Bloom! by William Norman Grigg
Let a Thousand 'Rogue' Grand Juries Bloom! by William Norman Grigg
Amanda Culbertson has a conscience, which is another way of saying that she wasn't well-suited to government "work." Until recently she was employed by the Houston Police Department as a crime lab supervisor. In 2009, she became aware of serious problems with the reliability of the department's roadside blood alcohol testing vehicles, more commonly known as BAT vans.
Over the past decade, hundreds of police departments nation-wide have purchased the vehicles with the help of federal grants. The testing device deployed in them, the Intoxilyzer, is considered infallible by law enforcement agencies and most trial judges. However, the Kentucky-based company that manufactures the the Intoxilyzer has refused to disclose its source code. Without access to the source code, the device's findings are unverifiable. As one defendant points out, the machine could simply be a gimmicky random number generator, rather than a finely calibrated scientific instrument.
In 2008, it was discovered that a supervisor for the Houston Police Department had falsified BAT van inspection records for at least the previous eighteen months, thereby calling into question test results in at least 2,600 cases. When Culbertson was appointed to supervise the inspections, she learned that indifferently trained police officers allowed the units to overheat, which would skew test results. In addition, a glitch in the system caused the much-heralded Intoxilyzer to reset every time the air conditioner was turned on.
Over the course of several months, Culbertson tried to get officials in the police department and the Harris County DA's office to address her concerns. None of them was interested in disturbing what had become a very profitable scam.
In June, Culbertson and two of her colleagues quit their jobswith the HPD. "We could no longer choose between a paycheck and our integrity," Culbertson explained. Not surprisingly, she was called to testify by attorneys representing some of the hundreds of people facing DUI charges as a result of BAT van tests.
In professional terms, Culbertson landed on her feet: She was hired by a laboratory at Lone Star College that had a contract to conduct breathalyzer analysis for the Harris County Sheriff's Office. Shortly thereafter, the Harris County Commission – at the initiative of DA Pat Lykos – ended its contract with the Lone Star College lab. In effect, Lykos – in an act of vulgar retaliation – arranged for Culbertson to be fired.
Harris County's 185th criminal court grand jury, which had been investigating problems with the BAT vans, called Culbertson to testify, along with former Harris County Prosecutor Brent Mayr. Lykos dispatched two members of her flying monkey corps – assistant DAs Carl Hobbs and Steve Morris – to "monitor" the grand jury testimony.
Since Lykos and her office were suspected of covering up the use of tainted evidence and retaliating against a whistleblower, the DA and her underlings were barred from being present in any capacity other than as sworn witnesses. Accordingly, when Lykos's minions materialized during Culbertson's testimony, the Grand Jury Foreman ordered them to leave. When that directive was ignored, the Foreman instructed the Baliff to remove them or place them under arrest.
Lykos unsuccessfully sought a court order compelling the grand jury to grant access to her underlings. When that effort failed, the DA's office exploited a back-channel to obtain official transcripts of the grand jury testimony. That led to a summons from Judge Susan Brown to Hobbs and Morris, along with court reporters Javier Leal and Katherine Chagaris, who face the possibility of contempt citations and the prospect of six months in jail.
The Harris County grand jury's insurrection caused consternation in the DA's office, and astonishment in the local media. "All too often in the past, Harris County grand juries have functioned as rubber stamps providing prosecutors with indictments without impartial scrutiny of their substance," notes the Houston Chronicle. Of course, this is true of practically every grand jury since the enactment of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure in 1946.
The Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure were created by committee to be an instrument of what the German National Socialists called Gleichschaltung – the "synchronization" of legal (as well as political and cultural) institutions with the dictates of the central government. Germany had been a federated constitutional republic prior to 1933, when Gleichschaltung got underway. Five years later, the FDR regime's Advisory Committee on the Rules of Criminal Procedure – invoking the supposed need for "simplicity" and "efficiency" – began the same process in the United States.
The Advisory Committee had no legislative authority or popular mandate; it was a pure creation of the prosecutorial class. Thus it's hardly surprising that one of its most urgent priorities was to transform the grand jury from a citizen's assembly into an instrument of the prosecution. This meant "rectifying" – in the Orwellian sense – the Fifth Amendment by effectively removing the troublesome word "presentment."
The Fifth Amendment specifies that "No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury...." A "presentment" is essentially a proprio motu indictment delivered by a grand jury without approval of a government prosecutor.
Presentments were often filed by grand juries investigating official corruption – such as the grand jury in Minneapolis that forced the resignation of the mayor and police chief in 1902, or the one that dislodged Boss Tweed and his politically sheltered cronies thirty years earlier.
This was an entirely appropriate function of the grand jury. The "grand jury in its primal, plenary sense ... was a group of men who stood as a check on government, often in direct opposition to the desires of those in power," points out constitutional scholar Roger Roots. Rather than being an instrument of the political class, Roots continues, "American grand juries initiated prosecutions against corrupt agents of the government, often in response to complaints from individuals." It also served as "a people's watchdog against arbitrary and malevolent prosecutions."
For most of America's history, "the evil that the grand jury sought to address was the exercise of distant power locally," wrote Kevin K. Washburn in an article for the Fordham Law Review. "Indeed, the grand jury came to us as an institution that was respected for its profound ability to protect local communities – indeed, possibly rebellious ones – from central government authority. It was, in essence, a local check on Crown authority."
In 1734, grand juries twice refused to indict John Peter Zenger for "seditious libel." New York's Royal Governor William Cosby bypassed the grand jury by filing a "criminal information" against Zenger – only to see the trial jury nullify the sedition law and acquit the newspaper publisher. During the 1760s, Crown prosecutors in Massachusetts were constantly stymied by grand juries that refused to indict colonists accused of violating the Stamp Act and other impositions.
Both before and after American Independence, "the grand jury's primary method for exercising its power was not rigorous review of facts, but nullification of validly enacted laws," Washburn observes. They didn't dispute the prosecutor's presentation of the facts, but rather "the legislator's right to impose such laws, or at least the prosecutor's decision to enforce them in a given context."
Obviously, this kind of power simply couldn't be left in the hands of mere Mundanes. Accordingly, the term "presentment" was conspicuously absent from Rule 6 of the original Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, which dealt with the role of the grand jury. Lester B Orfield, who served on the Advisory Committee, later explained that retaining the term "might encourage the use of the `run-away' grand jury as the grand jury could act from their own knowledge or observation and not only from charges made by the United States attorney."
"Today, the grand jury is the total captive of the prosecutor, who, if he is candid, will concede that he can indict anybody, at any time, for almost anything, before any grand jury," wrote federal District Judge William J. Campbell in a 1973 law journal article calling for formal abolition of the institution on the grounds of redundancy. This isn't to say that the grand jury is considered useless by the prosecutorial caste: It helps maintain the pretense that prosecutors are servants of the public will.
What is happening in Harris County is not an example of a grand jury going "rogue," but rather one behaving exactly as it should. It is interposing itself on behalf of the public by investigating a federally subsidized revenue-collection racket, and the abusive prosecutor who presides over it. Hopefully its example will prove to be contagious.
Amanda Culbertson has a conscience, which is another way of saying that she wasn't well-suited to government "work." Until recently she was employed by the Houston Police Department as a crime lab supervisor. In 2009, she became aware of serious problems with the reliability of the department's roadside blood alcohol testing vehicles, more commonly known as BAT vans.
Over the past decade, hundreds of police departments nation-wide have purchased the vehicles with the help of federal grants. The testing device deployed in them, the Intoxilyzer, is considered infallible by law enforcement agencies and most trial judges. However, the Kentucky-based company that manufactures the the Intoxilyzer has refused to disclose its source code. Without access to the source code, the device's findings are unverifiable. As one defendant points out, the machine could simply be a gimmicky random number generator, rather than a finely calibrated scientific instrument.
In 2008, it was discovered that a supervisor for the Houston Police Department had falsified BAT van inspection records for at least the previous eighteen months, thereby calling into question test results in at least 2,600 cases. When Culbertson was appointed to supervise the inspections, she learned that indifferently trained police officers allowed the units to overheat, which would skew test results. In addition, a glitch in the system caused the much-heralded Intoxilyzer to reset every time the air conditioner was turned on.
Over the course of several months, Culbertson tried to get officials in the police department and the Harris County DA's office to address her concerns. None of them was interested in disturbing what had become a very profitable scam.
In June, Culbertson and two of her colleagues quit their jobswith the HPD. "We could no longer choose between a paycheck and our integrity," Culbertson explained. Not surprisingly, she was called to testify by attorneys representing some of the hundreds of people facing DUI charges as a result of BAT van tests.
In professional terms, Culbertson landed on her feet: She was hired by a laboratory at Lone Star College that had a contract to conduct breathalyzer analysis for the Harris County Sheriff's Office. Shortly thereafter, the Harris County Commission – at the initiative of DA Pat Lykos – ended its contract with the Lone Star College lab. In effect, Lykos – in an act of vulgar retaliation – arranged for Culbertson to be fired.
Harris County's 185th criminal court grand jury, which had been investigating problems with the BAT vans, called Culbertson to testify, along with former Harris County Prosecutor Brent Mayr. Lykos dispatched two members of her flying monkey corps – assistant DAs Carl Hobbs and Steve Morris – to "monitor" the grand jury testimony.
Since Lykos and her office were suspected of covering up the use of tainted evidence and retaliating against a whistleblower, the DA and her underlings were barred from being present in any capacity other than as sworn witnesses. Accordingly, when Lykos's minions materialized during Culbertson's testimony, the Grand Jury Foreman ordered them to leave. When that directive was ignored, the Foreman instructed the Baliff to remove them or place them under arrest.
Lykos unsuccessfully sought a court order compelling the grand jury to grant access to her underlings. When that effort failed, the DA's office exploited a back-channel to obtain official transcripts of the grand jury testimony. That led to a summons from Judge Susan Brown to Hobbs and Morris, along with court reporters Javier Leal and Katherine Chagaris, who face the possibility of contempt citations and the prospect of six months in jail.
The Harris County grand jury's insurrection caused consternation in the DA's office, and astonishment in the local media. "All too often in the past, Harris County grand juries have functioned as rubber stamps providing prosecutors with indictments without impartial scrutiny of their substance," notes the Houston Chronicle. Of course, this is true of practically every grand jury since the enactment of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure in 1946.
The Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure were created by committee to be an instrument of what the German National Socialists called Gleichschaltung – the "synchronization" of legal (as well as political and cultural) institutions with the dictates of the central government. Germany had been a federated constitutional republic prior to 1933, when Gleichschaltung got underway. Five years later, the FDR regime's Advisory Committee on the Rules of Criminal Procedure – invoking the supposed need for "simplicity" and "efficiency" – began the same process in the United States.
The Advisory Committee had no legislative authority or popular mandate; it was a pure creation of the prosecutorial class. Thus it's hardly surprising that one of its most urgent priorities was to transform the grand jury from a citizen's assembly into an instrument of the prosecution. This meant "rectifying" – in the Orwellian sense – the Fifth Amendment by effectively removing the troublesome word "presentment."
The Fifth Amendment specifies that "No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury...." A "presentment" is essentially a proprio motu indictment delivered by a grand jury without approval of a government prosecutor.
Presentments were often filed by grand juries investigating official corruption – such as the grand jury in Minneapolis that forced the resignation of the mayor and police chief in 1902, or the one that dislodged Boss Tweed and his politically sheltered cronies thirty years earlier.
This was an entirely appropriate function of the grand jury. The "grand jury in its primal, plenary sense ... was a group of men who stood as a check on government, often in direct opposition to the desires of those in power," points out constitutional scholar Roger Roots. Rather than being an instrument of the political class, Roots continues, "American grand juries initiated prosecutions against corrupt agents of the government, often in response to complaints from individuals." It also served as "a people's watchdog against arbitrary and malevolent prosecutions."
For most of America's history, "the evil that the grand jury sought to address was the exercise of distant power locally," wrote Kevin K. Washburn in an article for the Fordham Law Review. "Indeed, the grand jury came to us as an institution that was respected for its profound ability to protect local communities – indeed, possibly rebellious ones – from central government authority. It was, in essence, a local check on Crown authority."
In 1734, grand juries twice refused to indict John Peter Zenger for "seditious libel." New York's Royal Governor William Cosby bypassed the grand jury by filing a "criminal information" against Zenger – only to see the trial jury nullify the sedition law and acquit the newspaper publisher. During the 1760s, Crown prosecutors in Massachusetts were constantly stymied by grand juries that refused to indict colonists accused of violating the Stamp Act and other impositions.
Both before and after American Independence, "the grand jury's primary method for exercising its power was not rigorous review of facts, but nullification of validly enacted laws," Washburn observes. They didn't dispute the prosecutor's presentation of the facts, but rather "the legislator's right to impose such laws, or at least the prosecutor's decision to enforce them in a given context."
Obviously, this kind of power simply couldn't be left in the hands of mere Mundanes. Accordingly, the term "presentment" was conspicuously absent from Rule 6 of the original Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, which dealt with the role of the grand jury. Lester B Orfield, who served on the Advisory Committee, later explained that retaining the term "might encourage the use of the `run-away' grand jury as the grand jury could act from their own knowledge or observation and not only from charges made by the United States attorney."
"Today, the grand jury is the total captive of the prosecutor, who, if he is candid, will concede that he can indict anybody, at any time, for almost anything, before any grand jury," wrote federal District Judge William J. Campbell in a 1973 law journal article calling for formal abolition of the institution on the grounds of redundancy. This isn't to say that the grand jury is considered useless by the prosecutorial caste: It helps maintain the pretense that prosecutors are servants of the public will.
What is happening in Harris County is not an example of a grand jury going "rogue," but rather one behaving exactly as it should. It is interposing itself on behalf of the public by investigating a federally subsidized revenue-collection racket, and the abusive prosecutor who presides over it. Hopefully its example will prove to be contagious.
Saturday, November 5, 2011
" IT IS SPREADING THIS IS JUST THE START " SAYS G. K. TEMUJIN
It’s called thinking. Try it sometime rather then moving lock step to either end of the political spectrum. Americans are a bunch of stupid SHEEP { sorry sheep } easy to manipulate and subdue.
" Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. "
Approximately one out of every seven Americans is on food stamps. Poverty is rapidly spreading and large numbers of families have lost everything. People want answers, and it is understandable why so many are joining these protest movements.
Just a reminder friends Ranks of the “ Poorest Poor ” Reach New High, and Poverty Spreads to the Suburbs.
Today the AP reports on new census data showing that a record number of Americans 1 in 15 are now counted among the ranks of the “poorest poor,” or those who live on less than $5,570 annually for an individual or $11,157 for a family of four.
Let those numbers sink in for a moment. $5,570 to live on. For a year. In America. And 1 in 15 Americans is doing just that.
America must have higher taxes for the wealthy. They were higher in the 1960s and the economy rocked. Regarding how fair it is look at it like this.
A great part of government spending is defense , war and maintaining an overseas Empire.
What is unfair is someone making $60,000 paying a higher tax rate then someone making a million or even a billion.
The nonsense of “they invest in their business” is truly nonsense. We all know money invested back in a business is a write off and would remain as such. We’re talking taxable income here. The statement of “The rich create jobs in the US” is nonsense too. They created jobs when the US made the things they bought. Back to that old manufacturing again. The middle class buys things too and at one time they made what they bought. There is a self sustaining system that worked.
Remember when industrial labor unions were powerful and manufacturing was everywhere. It’s called “The Good Old Days”.
According to a recent poll, 83 percent of all Americans believe that the economy is in "very poor" shape. Millions of Americans have lost their jobs, millions of Americans have lost their homes and tens of millions of Americans have been sickened by what they have seen happen on Wall Street over the last ten years. It is easy to understand why people are frustrated, marching in the streets and anger grows each day.
As the economy continues to get worse, the protests will grow and unfortunately so will the violence. You can preach the benefits of non-violence all day long to some people but they just will not get it. America has reached a turning point, and what you are seeing now is only just the beginning of the madness. In the years ahead you are going to see rioting that is going to be absolutely unprecedented and violent. Heaven help us all if it gets out of hand.
In Oakland, windows were smashed, graffiti was sprayed on buildings and senseless acts of vandalism were committed. There were also quite a few intense confrontations with police and dozens of protesters ended up getting arrested.
Sadly friends America has become a powder keg, and it is going to be very difficult for anyone to control what is going on.
But Oakland was not the only city where protesters were becoming more aggressive.
In Seattle, protesters surrounded a Sheraton hotel where JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon was giving a speech. According to some media reports, some of the protesters were actually planning to make a "citizen's arrest".
Their plans were cancelled, however, when police dispersed them with a shower of pepper spray.
In New York City, a different kind of confrontation took place. Approximately 100 military vets showed up in uniform and marched over to the New York Stock Exchange. Once they arrived, they stopped directly in front of the building which was protected by a line of heavily armed NYPD officers. It was a tense moment, but fortunately there was no violence.
This kind of "stare down" cannot be a sign of good things to come. What would have happened if even a single person had lost their cool ???
While standing in formation in front of the New York Stock Exchange, the vets were heard chanting the following slogans....
"We are veterans! We are the 99 percent!"
"Corporate profits on the rise, soldiers have to bleed and die!"
Things are certainly getting very, very interesting.
The Occupy Wall Street protests started off very peacefully, but sadly there is no guarantee that the violence we are seeing now is not going to escalate even further.
One recent survey found that 69 percent of those involved with the Occupy Wall Street protests "would support violence to advance their agenda".
That is a frightening statistic.
Hopefully everyone will calm down and the protesters will realize that they will get much farther ahead by non-violent means.
But once again, anger and frustration are difficult to predict or control. The more angry and frustrated that the American people get, the more chaotic the streets of our cities are going to become.
While the vast majority of Americans agree that we have major problems, there is tremendous disagreement about what the solutions are. There are some good ideas floating around out there, but there are also some groups that are promoting some very, very stupid , bad and insane ideas.
when Republicans defend the abuses of the big banks and the big corporations they are wrong to do so.
When Democrats defend big government and advocate even more big government as the answer, they are also very wrong.
The truth is that neither side is correct.
The USA needs to dramatically reduce the size of government and needs to dramatically reduce the size and the power of the big corporations.
That would mean a lot more liberty and freedom for not just America but the world, and it would empower individuals and small businesses.
But most people don not understand this. Most people think that they have to either take the side of the big corporations or the side of big government. Most people do not think most people are stupid sheep. Most people do not care.
The cold, hard truth is that most of the time big government and the big corporations are working together, and it is not for your benefit.
Most people feel a sense of powerlessness these days. Most people feel like things never seem to change no matter who they vote for. Once again sad but true.
Truth hurts my friends .
People want things to change, but they don't feel as though they have a way of bringing that change about.
This is not just happening in the United States. As the global economy has faltered, anger and frustration have been growing all over the planet.
In fact, the International Labor Organization is warning that civil unrest could erupt all over the globe if the current economic crisis gets even worse.
But the warning signs are here.
Pressure just keeps building and building and building. The bubble is going to pop.
According to a recent Fox News poll, 76 percent of all Americans are "dissatisfied with how things are going in the country". At the beginning of this year, that number was only at 61 percent.
at some point another major financial crisis is going to erupt and the economy is going to get even worse.
So what will this country look like when that happens ???
The root cause of these problems is that a corrupt government has created rules, regulations, laws and unfunded entitlement programs that have created this situation. They have eroded the education system, taken over the money system, taken over the media, instilled a police state, institutionalized war and overwhelmed society with illegal aliens. That is what a third world country is . The feds are taking you there at the speed of light now.
The American People have some legitimate grievances. Things are quickly spiraling out of control and they are being left out of the conversation.
They knew many opposed the bailout by more than 90% but they did them anyway. They know they are opposed to the Patriot Act and the TSA but you do not see any of that going away.
You are in the first stage of the last superpower financial collapse. This stage began in September 2008.
You are still positioned in the middle of this first stage. The financial collapse may soon end when the US debt rating is cut again , government shutdown follows, US currency is devalued by the US Treasury and the global financial markets all crash in tandem [ LET'S HOPE IT DOES NOT GET THAT FAR ].
That’s when the real shit hits the fan: food riots, looting, arson, widescale economic displacement and unemployment, which leads to death, disease and starvation for those that had depended all this time on a check from the government or their employer to survive, and were caught unprepared !!!
To much vast Wealth of the power elite is treacherous, and the arrogant greedy are never at rest. They open their mouths as wide as the grave, and like death, they are never satisfied.In their greed they have gathered up many nations and swallowed many peoples are destroyed.
“ But soon their captives will taunt them.
They will mock them, saying,
‘What sorrow awaits you thieves!
Now you will get what you deserve!
You’ve become rich by extortion,
but how much longer can this go on?’"
Suddenly, your debtors will take action.
They will turn on you and take all you have,
while you stand trembling and helpless.Because you have plundered many nations;now all the survivors will plunder you.Power elite ou committed murder throughout the countryside and filled the cities , towns and villages with violence.
“What sorrow awaits you who build wealth with money gained dishonestly !
You believe your wealth will buy security,
putting your family’s nest beyond the reach of danger.
But by the murders you committed,
you have shamed your name and forfeited your lives. "
The very stones in the walls cry out against you power elite,
and the beams in the ceilings echo the complaint.
“What sorrow awaits you power elite who build cities with money gained through dishonesty , thievery murder and corruption !!
The Walton empire is not a good example of Capitalism in action and has not been for many years now; it is a good example of Capitalism corrupted by greed.
Henry Ford was a Capitalist; he believed in making money, but also in paying his employees well enough that they could afford to buy the cars they were making. He knew that happy employees are productive employees, and that it is hard to be happy if you can’t afford to make at least a modest living.
The Walton / Walmart / Sam's Club empire has become all about taking in as much wealth as possible and paying out as little as possible, which is a corruption of the Capitalist aim. Those low prices aren’t just generosity, they are the result of buying cheap products (often from China), using strongarm tactics to get suppliers to charge nearly suicidal rates for their products, and paying very low wages to staff who are frequently overworked.
When folks get desperate, they do desperate things.
The world is moving into unprecedented times.
Nobody is quite sure what is going to happen next.
" Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. "
Approximately one out of every seven Americans is on food stamps. Poverty is rapidly spreading and large numbers of families have lost everything. People want answers, and it is understandable why so many are joining these protest movements.
Just a reminder friends Ranks of the “ Poorest Poor ” Reach New High, and Poverty Spreads to the Suburbs.
Today the AP reports on new census data showing that a record number of Americans 1 in 15 are now counted among the ranks of the “poorest poor,” or those who live on less than $5,570 annually for an individual or $11,157 for a family of four.
Let those numbers sink in for a moment. $5,570 to live on. For a year. In America. And 1 in 15 Americans is doing just that.
America must have higher taxes for the wealthy. They were higher in the 1960s and the economy rocked. Regarding how fair it is look at it like this.
A great part of government spending is defense , war and maintaining an overseas Empire.
What is unfair is someone making $60,000 paying a higher tax rate then someone making a million or even a billion.
The nonsense of “they invest in their business” is truly nonsense. We all know money invested back in a business is a write off and would remain as such. We’re talking taxable income here. The statement of “The rich create jobs in the US” is nonsense too. They created jobs when the US made the things they bought. Back to that old manufacturing again. The middle class buys things too and at one time they made what they bought. There is a self sustaining system that worked.
Remember when industrial labor unions were powerful and manufacturing was everywhere. It’s called “The Good Old Days”.
According to a recent poll, 83 percent of all Americans believe that the economy is in "very poor" shape. Millions of Americans have lost their jobs, millions of Americans have lost their homes and tens of millions of Americans have been sickened by what they have seen happen on Wall Street over the last ten years. It is easy to understand why people are frustrated, marching in the streets and anger grows each day.
As the economy continues to get worse, the protests will grow and unfortunately so will the violence. You can preach the benefits of non-violence all day long to some people but they just will not get it. America has reached a turning point, and what you are seeing now is only just the beginning of the madness. In the years ahead you are going to see rioting that is going to be absolutely unprecedented and violent. Heaven help us all if it gets out of hand.
In Oakland, windows were smashed, graffiti was sprayed on buildings and senseless acts of vandalism were committed. There were also quite a few intense confrontations with police and dozens of protesters ended up getting arrested.
Sadly friends America has become a powder keg, and it is going to be very difficult for anyone to control what is going on.
But Oakland was not the only city where protesters were becoming more aggressive.
In Seattle, protesters surrounded a Sheraton hotel where JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon was giving a speech. According to some media reports, some of the protesters were actually planning to make a "citizen's arrest".
Their plans were cancelled, however, when police dispersed them with a shower of pepper spray.
In New York City, a different kind of confrontation took place. Approximately 100 military vets showed up in uniform and marched over to the New York Stock Exchange. Once they arrived, they stopped directly in front of the building which was protected by a line of heavily armed NYPD officers. It was a tense moment, but fortunately there was no violence.
This kind of "stare down" cannot be a sign of good things to come. What would have happened if even a single person had lost their cool ???
While standing in formation in front of the New York Stock Exchange, the vets were heard chanting the following slogans....
"We are veterans! We are the 99 percent!"
"Corporate profits on the rise, soldiers have to bleed and die!"
Things are certainly getting very, very interesting.
The Occupy Wall Street protests started off very peacefully, but sadly there is no guarantee that the violence we are seeing now is not going to escalate even further.
One recent survey found that 69 percent of those involved with the Occupy Wall Street protests "would support violence to advance their agenda".
That is a frightening statistic.
Hopefully everyone will calm down and the protesters will realize that they will get much farther ahead by non-violent means.
But once again, anger and frustration are difficult to predict or control. The more angry and frustrated that the American people get, the more chaotic the streets of our cities are going to become.
While the vast majority of Americans agree that we have major problems, there is tremendous disagreement about what the solutions are. There are some good ideas floating around out there, but there are also some groups that are promoting some very, very stupid , bad and insane ideas.
when Republicans defend the abuses of the big banks and the big corporations they are wrong to do so.
When Democrats defend big government and advocate even more big government as the answer, they are also very wrong.
The truth is that neither side is correct.
The USA needs to dramatically reduce the size of government and needs to dramatically reduce the size and the power of the big corporations.
That would mean a lot more liberty and freedom for not just America but the world, and it would empower individuals and small businesses.
But most people don not understand this. Most people think that they have to either take the side of the big corporations or the side of big government. Most people do not think most people are stupid sheep. Most people do not care.
The cold, hard truth is that most of the time big government and the big corporations are working together, and it is not for your benefit.
Most people feel a sense of powerlessness these days. Most people feel like things never seem to change no matter who they vote for. Once again sad but true.
Truth hurts my friends .
People want things to change, but they don't feel as though they have a way of bringing that change about.
This is not just happening in the United States. As the global economy has faltered, anger and frustration have been growing all over the planet.
In fact, the International Labor Organization is warning that civil unrest could erupt all over the globe if the current economic crisis gets even worse.
But the warning signs are here.
Pressure just keeps building and building and building. The bubble is going to pop.
According to a recent Fox News poll, 76 percent of all Americans are "dissatisfied with how things are going in the country". At the beginning of this year, that number was only at 61 percent.
at some point another major financial crisis is going to erupt and the economy is going to get even worse.
So what will this country look like when that happens ???
The root cause of these problems is that a corrupt government has created rules, regulations, laws and unfunded entitlement programs that have created this situation. They have eroded the education system, taken over the money system, taken over the media, instilled a police state, institutionalized war and overwhelmed society with illegal aliens. That is what a third world country is . The feds are taking you there at the speed of light now.
The American People have some legitimate grievances. Things are quickly spiraling out of control and they are being left out of the conversation.
They knew many opposed the bailout by more than 90% but they did them anyway. They know they are opposed to the Patriot Act and the TSA but you do not see any of that going away.
You are in the first stage of the last superpower financial collapse. This stage began in September 2008.
You are still positioned in the middle of this first stage. The financial collapse may soon end when the US debt rating is cut again , government shutdown follows, US currency is devalued by the US Treasury and the global financial markets all crash in tandem [ LET'S HOPE IT DOES NOT GET THAT FAR ].
That’s when the real shit hits the fan: food riots, looting, arson, widescale economic displacement and unemployment, which leads to death, disease and starvation for those that had depended all this time on a check from the government or their employer to survive, and were caught unprepared !!!
To much vast Wealth of the power elite is treacherous, and the arrogant greedy are never at rest. They open their mouths as wide as the grave, and like death, they are never satisfied.In their greed they have gathered up many nations and swallowed many peoples are destroyed.
“ But soon their captives will taunt them.
They will mock them, saying,
‘What sorrow awaits you thieves!
Now you will get what you deserve!
You’ve become rich by extortion,
but how much longer can this go on?’"
Suddenly, your debtors will take action.
They will turn on you and take all you have,
while you stand trembling and helpless.Because you have plundered many nations;now all the survivors will plunder you.Power elite ou committed murder throughout the countryside and filled the cities , towns and villages with violence.
“What sorrow awaits you who build wealth with money gained dishonestly !
You believe your wealth will buy security,
putting your family’s nest beyond the reach of danger.
But by the murders you committed,
you have shamed your name and forfeited your lives. "
The very stones in the walls cry out against you power elite,
and the beams in the ceilings echo the complaint.
“What sorrow awaits you power elite who build cities with money gained through dishonesty , thievery murder and corruption !!
The Walton empire is not a good example of Capitalism in action and has not been for many years now; it is a good example of Capitalism corrupted by greed.
Henry Ford was a Capitalist; he believed in making money, but also in paying his employees well enough that they could afford to buy the cars they were making. He knew that happy employees are productive employees, and that it is hard to be happy if you can’t afford to make at least a modest living.
The Walton / Walmart / Sam's Club empire has become all about taking in as much wealth as possible and paying out as little as possible, which is a corruption of the Capitalist aim. Those low prices aren’t just generosity, they are the result of buying cheap products (often from China), using strongarm tactics to get suppliers to charge nearly suicidal rates for their products, and paying very low wages to staff who are frequently overworked.
When folks get desperate, they do desperate things.
The world is moving into unprecedented times.
Nobody is quite sure what is going to happen next.
Friday, November 4, 2011
Western Democracy: A Farce and a Sham by Paul Craig Roberts
Western Democracy: A Farce and a Sham by Paul Craig Roberts
Every day that passes adds to the fraudulent image of what is called Western democracy.
Consider that the entire Western world is outraged that the Greek prime minister announced that he is going to permit the Greek people to decide their own fate instead of having it decided for them by a handful of banksters, politicians, and bureaucrats living it up at taxpayer expense at "talks" in the French resort of Cannes on the Mediterranean.
The Greek economy is facing its fourth year of decline and lacks the revenues to service its national debt held by private European banks. The banks don’t want to lose any money, so a handful of power brokers reached an agreement with representatives of the Greek government to write off some of the debt in exchange for EU capital subsidies to be financed by inflicting severe austerity on the Greek population. Wages, salaries, pensions and medical care are being cut while the rate of unemployment rises to depression levels. Government employees are laid off. Valuable public properties are to be sold to private parties for pennies on the dollar. In short, Greece is to be looted.
Large numbers of Greeks have been in the streets protesting the austerity policy and have reached the point of anger of throwing Molotov cocktails at the police. Greece is disintegrating politically. The Greek people sense that the EU "bailout" is not bailing out Greece. It is bailing out the French, Dutch, and German banks at the expense of the Greek people.
The Greek prime minister, watching his party’s support and power crumble, announced that he would let the people decide in a referendum. After all, allegedly that’s what democracies do. But it turns out that "we have freedom and democracy" is not supposed to be taken literally. It is merely a propagandistic slogan behind which people are ruled through back-room deals decided by powerful private interests.
The Greek prime minister’s announcement that he would put the back-room bailout deal to a referendum shocked the EU hierarchy, Washington, and investors. Who does this Greek guy think he is permitting the people, who bear the cost of the deal, to have a say in it? Who let this Greek guy out of his cage? This is not the way democracies are ruled.
The EU power brokers are outraged over the Greek prime minister’s departure from normal procedure. But the Greek PM is relying on the Greek people to approve the deal, and not without reason.
The Greek people have been brainwashed for decades as to the importance of "being part of Europe." That means being a member of the European Union. When the Greeks realize that voting down the bailout of the banksters means being thrown out of the European Union, which is what they will learn between now and the referendum, they will vote for the back room deal.
Polls already indicate this. A poll for a Greek newspaper indicates that whereas 46% oppose the bailout, 70% favor staying in the EU, which the Greeks see as a life or death issue.
If this poll is a reliable indicator, the Greek PM has made a brilliant political decision. The Greek people will vote in favor of what they have been protesting violently in the streets. As the Greek people will do themselves in, the politicians are off the hook. This is the bet that the Greek PM has placed.
Whatever the outcome, keep in mind that the entire Western political and investor world was shocked that a politician, instead of simply imposing a back room deal, said he would let the people decide. Letting the people decide is a no-no in Western democracies.
If you need more evidence of this mythical creature called "Western democracy," consider that Western governments are no longer accountable to law. Contrast, for example, the sexual harassment charges that are plaguing US presidential candidate Herman Cain’s campaign with the pass given to high government officials who clearly violated statutory law.
What follows is not a defense of Cain. I take no position on the charges. The real point is different. In America the only thing that can ruin a politician is his interest in sex. A politician, for example, George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, B. Omama, cannot be ruined by violating United States and international law or by treating the US Constitution as a "mere scrap of paper." Bush and Cheney can take America to wars based entirely on lies and orchestrated deceptions. They can commit war crimes, murdering large numbers of civilians in the cause of "the war on terror," itself a hoax. They can violate US and international laws against torture simply "because the president said so." They can throw away habeas corpus, the constitutional requirement that a person cannot be imprisoned without evidence presented to a court. They can deny the right to an attorney. They can violate the law and spy on Americans without obtaining warrants. They can send due process to hell. In fact, they can do whatever they want just like Hitler’s Gestapo and Stalin’s secret police. But if they show undue interest in a woman or proposition a woman, they are dead meat.
Very few commentators have said a word about this. The House of Representatives did not impeach President Bill Clinton for his war crimes against Serbia. They impeached him for lying about a sexual affair with a White House intern. The US Senate, which had too many sexual affairs of its own to defend, didn’t bother to try to convict.
This is Amerika today. A president without any authority whatsoever, not in law and certainly not in the Constitution, can assassinate US citizens based on nothing except an assertion that they are a "threat." No evidence is required. No conviction. No presentation of evidence in any court. Just a murder. That is now permissible to the Amerikan president. But let him try to get a woman who is not his wife into bed, and he is a cooked goose.
In Amerika there is no such thing any longer as torture; there is only "enhanced interrogation." A mere word change has eliminated the crime. So torture is permissible.
In Amerika today, or in the UK and the EU, anyone who tells the truth is a "threat." Julian Assange of Wikileaks, who made public information leaked to him by US government sources horrified by the criminal actions of the United States government, is now, as a result of Amerikan pressure on UK courts, being turned over to Sweden, which, for favors from the "world’s only superpower," will turn him over to the US regardless of law to be prosecuted on trumped-up charges.
Western "civilization" is totally corrupted by American money. There is no integrity anywhere. For a decade Washington has been murdering women, children, village elders, and journalists in the name of the hoax "war on terror."
What terror does the world actually see? The world sees the terror that Israel, protected by Washington, inflicts on the Palestinians. The world sees the terror that the US inflicts on Serbia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, Libya, Latin America and now Africa, with Syria, Lebanon, and Iran waiting in the wings. The "war on terror" is nothing but an orchestrated invented excuse for Amerika-Israel to achieve hegemony while enriching their armaments industries.
In Greece, at least the PM committed to giving the people a say in their fate. In America the people have no voice whatsoever. The sheeple are content to be protected by "security," porno-scanners, warrantless wiretapping, indefinite detention, and sexual groping. To carry on the hoax "war on terror," the US government has elevated itself above the law.
The American effort to achieve accountability to law, the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement, if not shut down by cold weather, ice, and snow, is likely to be shut down by police violence. One riot begun by provocateurs is all it takes to transform protesters into "domestic extremists," the number one concern of Homeland Security. The presstitute media will make the case against the rioters, and the sheeple will buy it.
The police have been militarized by Washington. Community police forces no
longer represent the local public that pays their salaries. Local police represent Washington’s war against America.
American citizens are all suspects. Anyone who goes through airport security knows this. The only law that the US government obeys is not even a law. It is a bureaucratic regulation that prevents, even in dire wartime, any profiling of suspects by
ethnicity or country of origin.
Consequently, all native born, flag-waving, American super-patriots are suspects when they board commercial airliners. Americans who have a life time of security clearances are subject to being porno-scanned or sexually groped. Airport Security cannot tell a "terrorist" from a CIA analyst, a Marine general or a US Senator.
Well-connected members of the ruling elite, such as Michael Chertoff, can become rich from selling the porno-scanners to taxpayers in order "to protect the public from terrorists."
The only terrorists Americans will ever experience are those funded by their own tax dollars within their "own" government. A people incapable of perceiving its real peril has no chance of surviving. America might be a military superpower, but it no longer exists as a free country with accountable government and a rule of law.
November 4, 2011
Every day that passes adds to the fraudulent image of what is called Western democracy.
Consider that the entire Western world is outraged that the Greek prime minister announced that he is going to permit the Greek people to decide their own fate instead of having it decided for them by a handful of banksters, politicians, and bureaucrats living it up at taxpayer expense at "talks" in the French resort of Cannes on the Mediterranean.
The Greek economy is facing its fourth year of decline and lacks the revenues to service its national debt held by private European banks. The banks don’t want to lose any money, so a handful of power brokers reached an agreement with representatives of the Greek government to write off some of the debt in exchange for EU capital subsidies to be financed by inflicting severe austerity on the Greek population. Wages, salaries, pensions and medical care are being cut while the rate of unemployment rises to depression levels. Government employees are laid off. Valuable public properties are to be sold to private parties for pennies on the dollar. In short, Greece is to be looted.
Large numbers of Greeks have been in the streets protesting the austerity policy and have reached the point of anger of throwing Molotov cocktails at the police. Greece is disintegrating politically. The Greek people sense that the EU "bailout" is not bailing out Greece. It is bailing out the French, Dutch, and German banks at the expense of the Greek people.
The Greek prime minister, watching his party’s support and power crumble, announced that he would let the people decide in a referendum. After all, allegedly that’s what democracies do. But it turns out that "we have freedom and democracy" is not supposed to be taken literally. It is merely a propagandistic slogan behind which people are ruled through back-room deals decided by powerful private interests.
The Greek prime minister’s announcement that he would put the back-room bailout deal to a referendum shocked the EU hierarchy, Washington, and investors. Who does this Greek guy think he is permitting the people, who bear the cost of the deal, to have a say in it? Who let this Greek guy out of his cage? This is not the way democracies are ruled.
The EU power brokers are outraged over the Greek prime minister’s departure from normal procedure. But the Greek PM is relying on the Greek people to approve the deal, and not without reason.
The Greek people have been brainwashed for decades as to the importance of "being part of Europe." That means being a member of the European Union. When the Greeks realize that voting down the bailout of the banksters means being thrown out of the European Union, which is what they will learn between now and the referendum, they will vote for the back room deal.
Polls already indicate this. A poll for a Greek newspaper indicates that whereas 46% oppose the bailout, 70% favor staying in the EU, which the Greeks see as a life or death issue.
If this poll is a reliable indicator, the Greek PM has made a brilliant political decision. The Greek people will vote in favor of what they have been protesting violently in the streets. As the Greek people will do themselves in, the politicians are off the hook. This is the bet that the Greek PM has placed.
Whatever the outcome, keep in mind that the entire Western political and investor world was shocked that a politician, instead of simply imposing a back room deal, said he would let the people decide. Letting the people decide is a no-no in Western democracies.
If you need more evidence of this mythical creature called "Western democracy," consider that Western governments are no longer accountable to law. Contrast, for example, the sexual harassment charges that are plaguing US presidential candidate Herman Cain’s campaign with the pass given to high government officials who clearly violated statutory law.
What follows is not a defense of Cain. I take no position on the charges. The real point is different. In America the only thing that can ruin a politician is his interest in sex. A politician, for example, George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, B. Omama, cannot be ruined by violating United States and international law or by treating the US Constitution as a "mere scrap of paper." Bush and Cheney can take America to wars based entirely on lies and orchestrated deceptions. They can commit war crimes, murdering large numbers of civilians in the cause of "the war on terror," itself a hoax. They can violate US and international laws against torture simply "because the president said so." They can throw away habeas corpus, the constitutional requirement that a person cannot be imprisoned without evidence presented to a court. They can deny the right to an attorney. They can violate the law and spy on Americans without obtaining warrants. They can send due process to hell. In fact, they can do whatever they want just like Hitler’s Gestapo and Stalin’s secret police. But if they show undue interest in a woman or proposition a woman, they are dead meat.
Very few commentators have said a word about this. The House of Representatives did not impeach President Bill Clinton for his war crimes against Serbia. They impeached him for lying about a sexual affair with a White House intern. The US Senate, which had too many sexual affairs of its own to defend, didn’t bother to try to convict.
This is Amerika today. A president without any authority whatsoever, not in law and certainly not in the Constitution, can assassinate US citizens based on nothing except an assertion that they are a "threat." No evidence is required. No conviction. No presentation of evidence in any court. Just a murder. That is now permissible to the Amerikan president. But let him try to get a woman who is not his wife into bed, and he is a cooked goose.
In Amerika there is no such thing any longer as torture; there is only "enhanced interrogation." A mere word change has eliminated the crime. So torture is permissible.
In Amerika today, or in the UK and the EU, anyone who tells the truth is a "threat." Julian Assange of Wikileaks, who made public information leaked to him by US government sources horrified by the criminal actions of the United States government, is now, as a result of Amerikan pressure on UK courts, being turned over to Sweden, which, for favors from the "world’s only superpower," will turn him over to the US regardless of law to be prosecuted on trumped-up charges.
Western "civilization" is totally corrupted by American money. There is no integrity anywhere. For a decade Washington has been murdering women, children, village elders, and journalists in the name of the hoax "war on terror."
What terror does the world actually see? The world sees the terror that Israel, protected by Washington, inflicts on the Palestinians. The world sees the terror that the US inflicts on Serbia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, Libya, Latin America and now Africa, with Syria, Lebanon, and Iran waiting in the wings. The "war on terror" is nothing but an orchestrated invented excuse for Amerika-Israel to achieve hegemony while enriching their armaments industries.
In Greece, at least the PM committed to giving the people a say in their fate. In America the people have no voice whatsoever. The sheeple are content to be protected by "security," porno-scanners, warrantless wiretapping, indefinite detention, and sexual groping. To carry on the hoax "war on terror," the US government has elevated itself above the law.
The American effort to achieve accountability to law, the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement, if not shut down by cold weather, ice, and snow, is likely to be shut down by police violence. One riot begun by provocateurs is all it takes to transform protesters into "domestic extremists," the number one concern of Homeland Security. The presstitute media will make the case against the rioters, and the sheeple will buy it.
The police have been militarized by Washington. Community police forces no
longer represent the local public that pays their salaries. Local police represent Washington’s war against America.
American citizens are all suspects. Anyone who goes through airport security knows this. The only law that the US government obeys is not even a law. It is a bureaucratic regulation that prevents, even in dire wartime, any profiling of suspects by
ethnicity or country of origin.
Consequently, all native born, flag-waving, American super-patriots are suspects when they board commercial airliners. Americans who have a life time of security clearances are subject to being porno-scanned or sexually groped. Airport Security cannot tell a "terrorist" from a CIA analyst, a Marine general or a US Senator.
Well-connected members of the ruling elite, such as Michael Chertoff, can become rich from selling the porno-scanners to taxpayers in order "to protect the public from terrorists."
The only terrorists Americans will ever experience are those funded by their own tax dollars within their "own" government. A people incapable of perceiving its real peril has no chance of surviving. America might be a military superpower, but it no longer exists as a free country with accountable government and a rule of law.
November 4, 2011
Monday, October 31, 2011
Mitt Romney will do or say anything to become President
Beware of Mitt [ What do the polls say I should say ] Romney who will do or say anything to become President.
The definition of a politician is someone who is
more concerned about his next election than what is best for the country.
Mitt fits that definition !!!
George Will’s stinging take down of Mitt [ I will do or say anything to get elected ] Romney and conservatives who support him coupled with Chris Wallace’s observation that Mitt [ I stick my finger in the air how the political winds blowing ] Romney won’t come on the Sunday shows to be asked tough questions.
Very few conservatives dislike Mitt [ flip flop ] Romney. The problem, as George Will alludes to, is that few actually trust him. .
“After studying Presidential nominations for 30 years, I’ve never seen somebody who has so completely renounced his past record when he decided to run for President, said Northeaster University Professor William Mayer to the Chicago Tribune’s Jill Zuckman on May 22, 2007. That’s how page 168 in the McCain opposition book began. The heading on that page is “Flip-Flops”. The next ten pages contain every reason why conservatives are suspicious of Romney.
“Romney Was Pro-Choice, Then Not Pro-Choice, Then Pro-Choice Again, Then Pro-Life,” blares the first subheading in this section. There are ample newspaper quotes citing Mitt Romney’s conversions back and forth.
“Romney supports a federal health care plan option that includes abortion services, would vote for a law codifying the 1972 Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion and backs federal funding for abortions as long as states can decide if they want the money, [a spokesman] said.” (Ed Hayward, “Anti-Abortion Group Endorses Romney Bid,” Boston Herald, 9/8/94)
“Romney supports a federal health care plan option that includes abortion services, would vote for a law codifying the 1972 Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion and backs federal funding for abortions as long as states can decide if they want the money, [a spokesman] said.” (Ed Hayward, “Anti-Abortion Group Endorses Romney Bid,” Boston Herald, 9/8/94)
“[Massachusetts Citizens for Life] considers Romney to be an abortion-rights supporter, as do national antiabortion groups such as the Family Research Council. … [Romney aide Eric] Fehrnstrom said the governor’s position has not changed on either sex education or abortion.” (Scott S. Greenberger, “Roe V. Wade Omitted From Proclamation,” The Boston Globe, 3/25/05)
“I am firmly pro-life … I was always for life.” (Jim Davenport, “Romney Affirms Abortion Opposition During Stop In SC,” The Associated Press, 2/8/07)
But it was not just abortion.
In 2006, Mitt Romney said illegal immigrants should have a path to citizen. In a Lowell Sun article on March 30, 2006, Evan Lehmann quoted Mitt Romney saying “I don’t believe in rounding up 11 million people and forcing them at gunpoint from our country … With these 11 million people, let’s have them registered, know who they are. Those who’ve been arrested or convicted of crimes shouldn’t be here; those that are here paying taxes and not taking government benefits should begin a process towards application for citizenship, as they would from their home country.”
Romney went on to support John McCain’s immigration plan, denying it was amnesty. In March of 2007, Mitt Romney spoke “approvingly of efforts by McCain and Bush to solve the nation’s immigration crisis,” according to Scott Helman’s Boston Globe article. By May of that same year, Romney had begun attacking McCain’s plan as amnesty and told CNN’s “The Situation Room” that he opposed a path to citizenship for illegal aliens.
He refused to support George Bush’s tax cuts in 2004, but in 2007 claimed he had always supported them. In 2002, Romney refused to sign the Americans for Tax Reform pledge, but in 2007, Romney signed it.
In 2002, Mitt Romney wanted heaving federal regulations on campaign finances. Back in 1994, Romney even wanted a cap on congressional election spending and wanted to ban political action committees. By 2007, Romney was attacking McCain-Feingold, which did much of what he previously had wanted.
In the 1992 Presidential Primary in Massachusetts, Mitt Romney voted for Paul Tsongas. He contributed to numerous Democrats and, in 1994 while running as a Republican, praised Bill Clinton as doing “a lot of things that make sense.”
More troubling, in 1994 Mitt Romney campaigned against the Contract With America calling it “too partisan.” He also insisted he was an independent during Ronald Reagan’s years in office, balking at Ted Kennedy’s attempts to connect Romney to Ronald Reagan. By 2005, Mitt Romney claimed Ronald Reagan was his political hero.
On the second amendment, Mitt Romney supported the Brady Bill and Assault Weapons ban in 1994, but by 2007, Mitt Romney opposed gun control measures. At one point in 2007, Mitt Romney claimed he owned a gun and then admitted he did not.
The list goes on and on from gays in the military to gay marriage to stem cell research to global warming. Romney has shown himself to be not a principled conservative, but, as Jon Huntsman described him, a well lubricated weather vane.
Real Tea Partiers just don’t trust him. His record is the very reason why. On every significant issue of the past decade, Mitt Romney has managed to be on every side of each issue except one — he has consistently been in favor of big government dictated and big government managed healthcare.
Better to lose than win with weather vane status quo Mitt.
The definition of a politician is someone who is
more concerned about his next election than what is best for the country.
Mitt fits that definition !!!
George Will’s stinging take down of Mitt [ I will do or say anything to get elected ] Romney and conservatives who support him coupled with Chris Wallace’s observation that Mitt [ I stick my finger in the air how the political winds blowing ] Romney won’t come on the Sunday shows to be asked tough questions.
Very few conservatives dislike Mitt [ flip flop ] Romney. The problem, as George Will alludes to, is that few actually trust him. .
“After studying Presidential nominations for 30 years, I’ve never seen somebody who has so completely renounced his past record when he decided to run for President, said Northeaster University Professor William Mayer to the Chicago Tribune’s Jill Zuckman on May 22, 2007. That’s how page 168 in the McCain opposition book began. The heading on that page is “Flip-Flops”. The next ten pages contain every reason why conservatives are suspicious of Romney.
“Romney Was Pro-Choice, Then Not Pro-Choice, Then Pro-Choice Again, Then Pro-Life,” blares the first subheading in this section. There are ample newspaper quotes citing Mitt Romney’s conversions back and forth.
“Romney supports a federal health care plan option that includes abortion services, would vote for a law codifying the 1972 Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion and backs federal funding for abortions as long as states can decide if they want the money, [a spokesman] said.” (Ed Hayward, “Anti-Abortion Group Endorses Romney Bid,” Boston Herald, 9/8/94)
“Romney supports a federal health care plan option that includes abortion services, would vote for a law codifying the 1972 Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion and backs federal funding for abortions as long as states can decide if they want the money, [a spokesman] said.” (Ed Hayward, “Anti-Abortion Group Endorses Romney Bid,” Boston Herald, 9/8/94)
“[Massachusetts Citizens for Life] considers Romney to be an abortion-rights supporter, as do national antiabortion groups such as the Family Research Council. … [Romney aide Eric] Fehrnstrom said the governor’s position has not changed on either sex education or abortion.” (Scott S. Greenberger, “Roe V. Wade Omitted From Proclamation,” The Boston Globe, 3/25/05)
“I am firmly pro-life … I was always for life.” (Jim Davenport, “Romney Affirms Abortion Opposition During Stop In SC,” The Associated Press, 2/8/07)
But it was not just abortion.
In 2006, Mitt Romney said illegal immigrants should have a path to citizen. In a Lowell Sun article on March 30, 2006, Evan Lehmann quoted Mitt Romney saying “I don’t believe in rounding up 11 million people and forcing them at gunpoint from our country … With these 11 million people, let’s have them registered, know who they are. Those who’ve been arrested or convicted of crimes shouldn’t be here; those that are here paying taxes and not taking government benefits should begin a process towards application for citizenship, as they would from their home country.”
Romney went on to support John McCain’s immigration plan, denying it was amnesty. In March of 2007, Mitt Romney spoke “approvingly of efforts by McCain and Bush to solve the nation’s immigration crisis,” according to Scott Helman’s Boston Globe article. By May of that same year, Romney had begun attacking McCain’s plan as amnesty and told CNN’s “The Situation Room” that he opposed a path to citizenship for illegal aliens.
He refused to support George Bush’s tax cuts in 2004, but in 2007 claimed he had always supported them. In 2002, Romney refused to sign the Americans for Tax Reform pledge, but in 2007, Romney signed it.
In 2002, Mitt Romney wanted heaving federal regulations on campaign finances. Back in 1994, Romney even wanted a cap on congressional election spending and wanted to ban political action committees. By 2007, Romney was attacking McCain-Feingold, which did much of what he previously had wanted.
In the 1992 Presidential Primary in Massachusetts, Mitt Romney voted for Paul Tsongas. He contributed to numerous Democrats and, in 1994 while running as a Republican, praised Bill Clinton as doing “a lot of things that make sense.”
More troubling, in 1994 Mitt Romney campaigned against the Contract With America calling it “too partisan.” He also insisted he was an independent during Ronald Reagan’s years in office, balking at Ted Kennedy’s attempts to connect Romney to Ronald Reagan. By 2005, Mitt Romney claimed Ronald Reagan was his political hero.
On the second amendment, Mitt Romney supported the Brady Bill and Assault Weapons ban in 1994, but by 2007, Mitt Romney opposed gun control measures. At one point in 2007, Mitt Romney claimed he owned a gun and then admitted he did not.
The list goes on and on from gays in the military to gay marriage to stem cell research to global warming. Romney has shown himself to be not a principled conservative, but, as Jon Huntsman described him, a well lubricated weather vane.
Real Tea Partiers just don’t trust him. His record is the very reason why. On every significant issue of the past decade, Mitt Romney has managed to be on every side of each issue except one — he has consistently been in favor of big government dictated and big government managed healthcare.
Better to lose than win with weather vane status quo Mitt.
Happy Holloween WALL STREET By GK TEMUJIN AMERICA'S #1 REBEL
" Nothing in all the World is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity " – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 1963.
GK TEMUJIN SAYS :
" The issue is that I oppose Wall Street !!!
That's the greed & corruption of the money lending class elite and big business.
That's how it is perceived still by most Americans who think.
Ask yourself why is all this vitrol about the protestors instead of the Wall Street Banker crimminals.
I don't support every protestor, obviously, or everything that every protestor might also support or say.
But the idea of opposing the Wall Street Banksters.
Of course I support that.
And that is the underlying message here.
Not the dynamics of who or what is on the ground.
That is the message that we all should be behind rather than spewing vitrol at the people protesting against the corrupt banksters.
Again I don't care what ghost or gobblin scares those thieves on wall street . I just happy they are out there manning the barricades. Listen the more public outcry over wallstreet threatens the evil monopoly that those who control wallstreet have over all of us.
I would not care what wolfman , vampire , zombie or muumy were out there protesting Wallstreet, as long as it calls attention to the devious business practices and corrupt politics of Wallstreet
Don't let the media manipulate you friends !!!
The problem is not the occupy wall street protestors.
The problem is the power elite Matrix of which a critical component is Wall Street Banks and the evil world nexus of economic thievery that it represents.
" OWS's Beef: Wall Street Isn't Winning It's Cheating ... All weekend I was thinking about this "jealousy" question, and I just kept coming back to all the different ways the game is rigged. "Dude," I said. "These people aren't protesting money. They're not protesting banking. They're protesting corruption on Wall Street." ... When you take into consideration all the theft and fraud and market manipulation and other evil stuff Wall Street bankers have been guilty of in the last at least fifteen years, you have to have balls like church bells to trot out a propaganda line that says the protesters are just jealous of their hard-earned money. People aren't jealous and they don't want privileges. They just want a level playing field, and they want Wall Street to give up its cheat codes. " – Rolling Stone/Matt Taibbi
Occupy Wall Street is a revolutionary force sweeping the country, tearing down whatever is unjust and replacing it with fairness.
Deal with it Occupy Wall Street is a populist movement, not a radical one. The elite powers that be are trying their best to position it this way in opposition to the anti-government Tea Party.
This has significant ramifications not only for the movement but for the US economy and for the West in general.
Matt Taibbi's perspective as explained in this post (excerpted above) at RollingStone.com provides you with this insight regarding populism, one G. K. Temujin have mentioned numerous times over the years. Taibbi has created an upswell of indignation against Wall Street similar to that which occurred back in the 1930s. By focusing larger issues such as central banking and the forgetting about the mainstream media's [ fox news , cbs , abc , nbc , msnbc and cnn ] fixation with retribution and money envy.
OWS is a diverse movement and one that is becoming increasingly factionalized. Stand together we win seperated we lose !!!
If popular anger is properly controlled and channeled then the impact of the Internet itself and the emergent clarity of its truth-telling can be mitigated, or that is the hope of the elites encouraging such populism. Change can be absorbed and the system can continue on as it is.
The goal in GK Temujin's view is corrupt world governance, an evil 1984 Orwellian system run by a handful of greedy self proclaimed experts also known " as the wisem men " reporting to the great central banking families , their enablers and associates.
The Internet, however, has put world government at risk and likely changed the plans of the Anglosphere elites behind the move. They have begun to be far more aggressive in terms of domestic policing and military activity. What cannot be gained via the elite's endless fear-based promotions is apparently to be won by force.
The elites, of course, will not give up on their control. These tools frighten the sheep of middle class into giving up power and wealth to carefully crafted and manipulated globalist solutions. They are not working nearly as well in the 21st century as they did all thru out the 20th.
You can see first in the Tea Party movement and now in OWS that there is genuine anger out there and skepticism about the current Western promotion of so-called civil society. Europe is suffering from the same sort of conditions, with many of Europe's tribes like the Greeks beginning to rebel against the inefficient and exploitative euro as Temujin previously predicted.
For the world elites, the necessity is to control this growing anger by any means possible. In the US, this means recasting it within the mold of the right-left conflict. This is an old elitist trick and is carried out to ensure that radical sentiments are properly managed.
First, one manipulates a popular movement in a particular direction. Then one sets up a controlled opposition.
The anti-government Tea Party and anti-business Wall Street will be set upon each other by the mainstream media. Angry people will be invited to take sides.
What will occur is inevitably a compromise whereby government shall be made more efficient or seemingly so and business Wall Street shall be increasingly regulated to stop abuses. This is an old an very clever trick !!!
How is it a trick? Because it leaves the modern capitalist system IN EXACTLY THE SAME PLACE as it is now. A massive government (reformed) is supervising a massive (mercantilist) financial industry (also reformed). The net result of the next umpteen weeks, months, years, etc. will be exactly nothing.
Of course, as Temujin pointed out, this old evil trick may be less effective this time around.
People are genuinely angry and the Internet Reformation is rapidly spreading the reality of that frustration. What starts as controlled rebellion can easily spread into something far more unmanageable that gives rise to genuine French , Russian or even American revolution change.
True the goog ol' USA has a massive police force in America that outside of lower Manhattan prosecutes crime and imprisons citizens with record setting, factory level efficiency, eclipsing the incarceration rates of most of history's more notorious police states and communist countries.
But the greedy evil bankers on Wall Street don't live in that heavily policed corrupt country.
There are maybe 1000 SEC agents policing that sector of the economy, plus a handful of FBI agents. There are nearly that many police officers stationed around the polite crowd at Zucotti park. These inequities are what drive the OWS protests.
People don't want handouts. It's not a class uprising and they don't want civil war they want just the opposite. They want everyone to live in the same country, and live by the same rules. It's amazing that some people think that that's asking a lot.
Join the movement friends today. Get involved. Speak out where ever you can. Speak up join this chourus of unrest. Enough is Enough you are slaves , but free men. Continue to try to push for real reforms of the system in another way using your bull horn or write the local newspaper or call the local radio station get your voice heard today.
There will be, eventually, significant unrest in the US, as elsewhere in the world. But if Temujin is correct in his analysis, much of this unrest may escape the control of the elites evidently and obviously behind OWS. This is their attempt at creating controlled social upheaval. The real thing may be yet to come
Change is a coming. Change is in wind !!!
PREPARED SPREAD THE WORD !!!
HAPPY HOLLOWEEN .
TRICK OR TREAT !!!
GK TEMUJIN SAYS :
" The issue is that I oppose Wall Street !!!
That's the greed & corruption of the money lending class elite and big business.
That's how it is perceived still by most Americans who think.
Ask yourself why is all this vitrol about the protestors instead of the Wall Street Banker crimminals.
I don't support every protestor, obviously, or everything that every protestor might also support or say.
But the idea of opposing the Wall Street Banksters.
Of course I support that.
And that is the underlying message here.
Not the dynamics of who or what is on the ground.
That is the message that we all should be behind rather than spewing vitrol at the people protesting against the corrupt banksters.
Again I don't care what ghost or gobblin scares those thieves on wall street . I just happy they are out there manning the barricades. Listen the more public outcry over wallstreet threatens the evil monopoly that those who control wallstreet have over all of us.
I would not care what wolfman , vampire , zombie or muumy were out there protesting Wallstreet, as long as it calls attention to the devious business practices and corrupt politics of Wallstreet
Don't let the media manipulate you friends !!!
The problem is not the occupy wall street protestors.
The problem is the power elite Matrix of which a critical component is Wall Street Banks and the evil world nexus of economic thievery that it represents.
" OWS's Beef: Wall Street Isn't Winning It's Cheating ... All weekend I was thinking about this "jealousy" question, and I just kept coming back to all the different ways the game is rigged. "Dude," I said. "These people aren't protesting money. They're not protesting banking. They're protesting corruption on Wall Street." ... When you take into consideration all the theft and fraud and market manipulation and other evil stuff Wall Street bankers have been guilty of in the last at least fifteen years, you have to have balls like church bells to trot out a propaganda line that says the protesters are just jealous of their hard-earned money. People aren't jealous and they don't want privileges. They just want a level playing field, and they want Wall Street to give up its cheat codes. " – Rolling Stone/Matt Taibbi
Occupy Wall Street is a revolutionary force sweeping the country, tearing down whatever is unjust and replacing it with fairness.
Deal with it Occupy Wall Street is a populist movement, not a radical one. The elite powers that be are trying their best to position it this way in opposition to the anti-government Tea Party.
This has significant ramifications not only for the movement but for the US economy and for the West in general.
Matt Taibbi's perspective as explained in this post (excerpted above) at RollingStone.com provides you with this insight regarding populism, one G. K. Temujin have mentioned numerous times over the years. Taibbi has created an upswell of indignation against Wall Street similar to that which occurred back in the 1930s. By focusing larger issues such as central banking and the forgetting about the mainstream media's [ fox news , cbs , abc , nbc , msnbc and cnn ] fixation with retribution and money envy.
OWS is a diverse movement and one that is becoming increasingly factionalized. Stand together we win seperated we lose !!!
If popular anger is properly controlled and channeled then the impact of the Internet itself and the emergent clarity of its truth-telling can be mitigated, or that is the hope of the elites encouraging such populism. Change can be absorbed and the system can continue on as it is.
The goal in GK Temujin's view is corrupt world governance, an evil 1984 Orwellian system run by a handful of greedy self proclaimed experts also known " as the wisem men " reporting to the great central banking families , their enablers and associates.
The Internet, however, has put world government at risk and likely changed the plans of the Anglosphere elites behind the move. They have begun to be far more aggressive in terms of domestic policing and military activity. What cannot be gained via the elite's endless fear-based promotions is apparently to be won by force.
The elites, of course, will not give up on their control. These tools frighten the sheep of middle class into giving up power and wealth to carefully crafted and manipulated globalist solutions. They are not working nearly as well in the 21st century as they did all thru out the 20th.
You can see first in the Tea Party movement and now in OWS that there is genuine anger out there and skepticism about the current Western promotion of so-called civil society. Europe is suffering from the same sort of conditions, with many of Europe's tribes like the Greeks beginning to rebel against the inefficient and exploitative euro as Temujin previously predicted.
For the world elites, the necessity is to control this growing anger by any means possible. In the US, this means recasting it within the mold of the right-left conflict. This is an old elitist trick and is carried out to ensure that radical sentiments are properly managed.
First, one manipulates a popular movement in a particular direction. Then one sets up a controlled opposition.
The anti-government Tea Party and anti-business Wall Street will be set upon each other by the mainstream media. Angry people will be invited to take sides.
What will occur is inevitably a compromise whereby government shall be made more efficient or seemingly so and business Wall Street shall be increasingly regulated to stop abuses. This is an old an very clever trick !!!
How is it a trick? Because it leaves the modern capitalist system IN EXACTLY THE SAME PLACE as it is now. A massive government (reformed) is supervising a massive (mercantilist) financial industry (also reformed). The net result of the next umpteen weeks, months, years, etc. will be exactly nothing.
Of course, as Temujin pointed out, this old evil trick may be less effective this time around.
People are genuinely angry and the Internet Reformation is rapidly spreading the reality of that frustration. What starts as controlled rebellion can easily spread into something far more unmanageable that gives rise to genuine French , Russian or even American revolution change.
True the goog ol' USA has a massive police force in America that outside of lower Manhattan prosecutes crime and imprisons citizens with record setting, factory level efficiency, eclipsing the incarceration rates of most of history's more notorious police states and communist countries.
But the greedy evil bankers on Wall Street don't live in that heavily policed corrupt country.
There are maybe 1000 SEC agents policing that sector of the economy, plus a handful of FBI agents. There are nearly that many police officers stationed around the polite crowd at Zucotti park. These inequities are what drive the OWS protests.
People don't want handouts. It's not a class uprising and they don't want civil war they want just the opposite. They want everyone to live in the same country, and live by the same rules. It's amazing that some people think that that's asking a lot.
Join the movement friends today. Get involved. Speak out where ever you can. Speak up join this chourus of unrest. Enough is Enough you are slaves , but free men. Continue to try to push for real reforms of the system in another way using your bull horn or write the local newspaper or call the local radio station get your voice heard today.
There will be, eventually, significant unrest in the US, as elsewhere in the world. But if Temujin is correct in his analysis, much of this unrest may escape the control of the elites evidently and obviously behind OWS. This is their attempt at creating controlled social upheaval. The real thing may be yet to come
Change is a coming. Change is in wind !!!
PREPARED SPREAD THE WORD !!!
HAPPY HOLLOWEEN .
TRICK OR TREAT !!!
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
JAY SILVERHEELS SHOULD HAVE WON AN OSCAR BROKEN ARROW
JAY SILVERHEELS AT HIS BEST. HE SHOULD HAVE WON A BEST SUPPORTING OSCAR FOR THIS PERFORMANCE !!!
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