Russia would cross "a red line for the United States of America" if it were to base nuclear capable bombers in Cuba, a top US air force officer warned on Tuesday.
"If they did I think we should stand strong and indicate that is something that crosses a threshold, crosses a red line for the United States of America," said General Norton Schwartz, nominated to be the air force's chief of staff.
No, this isn't a statement from history, and itisnt 1962, but 2008 and maybe, just maybe the cold war is heating up a bit as Russia considers its place in the evolving world.
All this just days after Russia announced a major coup in the global powerstruggle for energy, as they come much closer to their much denounced goal of a global energy cartel, with Moscow at the helm of a China- Eropean energy market.
From the details coming out of Ashgabat in Turkmenistan and Moscow over the weekend, it is apparent that the great game over Caspian energy has taken a dramatic turn. In the geopolitics of energy security, nothing like this has happened before. The United States has suffered a huge defeat in the race for Caspian gas. The question now is how much longer Washington could afford to keep Iran out of the energy market.
The overall implications of these Russian moves are very serious for the US and EU campaign to get the Nabucco gas pipeline project going.
Friday's agreements in Ashgabat mean that Nabucco's realization will now critically depend on gas supplies from the Middle East - Iran, in particular. Turkey is pursuing the idea of Iran supplying gas to Europe and has offered to mediate in the US-Iran standoff.
A gas cartel is surely in the making. The geopolitical implications are simply profound for the US.
The mind reels at how thoroughly dazed and confused the policy makers in the US Department of Energy and the Pentagon have been to have had something like this sneak up on them, and absolutely not seen it coming. Of particular note, if you read the article, is the lack of profit motive, this is not a grab in the interest of making more money, but of solidifying a section of the world that is increasingly less reliant on US interests and increasingly unfriendly to US interference. Also of note is the Dollar per Barrel Price Russia is willing to spend, realizing of course that if international policies dont get revised, which is unlikely, the world at large with be glad to pay $240+ a barrel.
I can garantee you that they are not making this move blind, and have had their brightest economists study its implications at length, we would do well to learn from it.
With this and continued Russian investment in both China and Iran as well as a veto stamp waiting for every US proposed UN Security Council Resolution, it becomes clear that Russia is once again stretching its legs and looking to become a global superpower. The question is, do we continue to oppose and provoke them in a diplomilitary strugle over missile defence systems, only to respond by drawing a "red line" in the sand when they react to our continued threats against their economic plans? With a continued foreign policy of military opression and coercion in the international comunity, we will fail to adress issues that well may lead to the largest financial pitfalls in history and in fact force the world at large to chose a new international reserve currency to complete its transactions in its ever broadening search for energy, this new reserve currency may well be Rubles.
A bearded Tom Sawyer, nattily clad in a policeman’s tunic and blue jeans, had a run-in with authority here yesterday. Unlike his Mark Twain namesake, San Francisco’s Sawyer lost this round to a pair of policemen. Officers Tony Delzompo and Jim Bailey, in fact, found the wearing of parts of police uniforms so unamusing they arrested Sawyer. Sawyer, 23, of 1253 Willard Street in the Haight-Ashbury district, was booked on suspicion of possession of stolen property. The officers admitted that there was no report of stolen police jackets on file, but said that Sawyer’s uniform, nonetheless, might well be stolen. Sawyer, questioned at 7 p.m. at Frederick and Stanyan streets by the officers, told them he got the jacket from a friend. Perhaps an explanation for the officers’ investigative zeal could be found in Sawyer’s substitute for the police badge, a large lapel button pinned on the left side of the tunic. It read: “Overthrow the Government.”
Texas Congressman Ron Paul, in a 7 minute video message, has spilled the beans on the so called "Housing Rescue" bill just passed by the House and Senate, refered to here as the Mortgage Bailout Bill, and soon expoected to be signed into law.
The bill is some 600 pages long. Snuck into the bill is a provison that will require that all credit card transactions be reported to the IRS.
Further, the bill gives approval to increase the national debt ceiling by $800 billion. It also requires that those in the mortgage industry be fingerprinted.
Within its unread tomes, there no doubt lurks many other secret provisions and pet projects, but if you needed any further proof that this bill was not about providing homes for American Families, this is it. This bill is intended to do nothing more than to support a corrupt and dying system of taxation from its imminent demise, at the expense of the people it relies on.
When the government goes broke, it's Final Grab, and last chance, would be to drag the American people down with them by taxing the people into a hole of unpayable debt. So here begins the big squeeze. Good to the last drop, so to speak.
"People don't seem to see the relationship between the number of businesses and the crime level in a certain area, but if someone lives in one of these areas with all houses and no business, and they cant walk down to the store and buy a toaster, where do they go? their neighbors house, and they steal his."
"you have to have a balance, to pack things in that close together. Too many businesses, and no one shops at them, too many houses, and there isnt enough business to support the community."
Et Nunc Reges Intelligite Erudimini Qui Judicati Terram
Things arent looking so good, and the people are starting to notice. This picture was taken at a public bus stop not too far from my house in Tempe, AZ. Im sure it isnt the only message out there, and i hope one some people might be listening to. Id like to hear some of the solutions the people who posted this message want you to hear, and im sorry to say, i dont know. I can, however tell you what id like you to hear.
All government spending represents a tax. The government has no money of its own, none, it simply taxes citizens, and borrows against future taxes. The inflation tax, while largely ignored, hurts middle-class and low-income Americans the most. Simply put, printing money to pay for federal spending dilutes the value of the dollar, which causes higher prices for goods and services. Inflation may be an indirect tax, but it is a very real tax, as Fed chairman Bernanke admitted to Ron Paul on floor of the house last week. the The individuals who suffer most from cost of living increases certainly pay a “tax.” The reason this is only a tax on the consumer and investor is that the government holds a monopoly on the production of new money, therefor negating any real effect it has to itself, and allowing it to continue to do business even when its citizens cannot. It prints money by selling the debt of its citizens, this debt, even if it is not collected on, is paid by the falling value of the dollar, negating any financial gains that may have been made by private investors in the market, and subverting them to the government and the fed (which is still not a government institution, but a cartel under government license)
Inflation is inherent in a Fiat Currency, or type of money whose usefulness results, not from any intrinsic value or guarantee that it can be converted into gold or another currency, but only from a government's order (fiat) that it must be accepted as a means of payment, in turn this type of currencies value is decided by its Relative Scarcity in the market. Wiki
The problem with this value of relative scarcity bit is that they keep making more of it, all over the place. Not only was it printed out of air, its then given (lent at interest) to banks who opperate on a fractional reserve basis, lending out $10 for every dollar they actually have. But these loans arent just used to buy cars and homes, most of these loans are made to other Lending Institutions, who then use that same fractional reserve basis to shove out an additional $100 for every $10 they borrowed. Some banks, such as todays much talked about Fannie May and Freddy Mac, dont have the same requirements for capital, and in fact are lending out even more money for every dollar of capital they have on hand. Well, with all this credit flying around in the form of dollars lent, what just happened to our Relative Scarcity? Out the fucking window, which is about where it feels the value of those dollars have gone. Who would have thought this a good idea?
Credit isnt without its merits, it increases the free flow of money in an economy, and encourages spending in the form of active investments, which has been great to our economy as a whole. The idea is that while you are inflating the dollar, making all these prices rise in comparison to the value of your dollar, at the same time that you are dumping large amounts of future money (as debt) into your economy now, as in investment, which as technology and infrastructure is built which will improve the quality and efficiency of goods and services, simultainiously driving cost down, thereby limiting inflation. So as long as new technology is driving the real cost of goods down, the decreased value of the dollar is worth it, as overall your prices stay about the same. This balancing act has been running for generations, with only a few major mishaps
The problem today is that we have substantially more credit created than ever before, and it isnt tied up in the development of new technology, or in fact anything that might pay off and better the economy in the future thereby offsetting the inflation it causes. Nope, its tied up in houses, ordinary homes all over America bought up by an artificially induced housing bubble. 3 trillion dollars worth of debt tied to houses that in reality arent any more usefull than the ones you or your parents grew up in. So where does their real value come from, to generate such an increase in price? From the market, houses were selling so often that they were deemed more valuable as a virtue, but now that the market has chilled, where is that desirability? gone, along with any real increase in value that the house had with it. Unfortunately, the mortgage debt is still tied to the old value, and the banks, are being forced to pay for defaulted loans on houses that they couldnt sell for what is owed on them, and that no one could afford without taking out another mortgage.
The banks dont like this. They are being forced to enter into their books real debt that they owe, that has no real value attached to it. In turn they are being asked to pay debts that they formerly floated on capital from monthly payments that are no longer coming from thousands of families who no longer could afford to pay their mortgages in the face of rising (inflationary) prices for everything from food to energy and fuel. To put it simply, they are being asked to pay back money that never existed, that was lent out at a 10:1 fractional reserve and is no longer being earned and payed by interest paying Americans. As the money never existed, and banks certainly cant produce real goods of value, they are in quite a bind.
Of course they cant let that out, because then consumer confidence might plummet and there might be a "bank run" hundreds of customer who want to see if their money is among the 10% or so thats really in the bank, before its consumed by the payments these failing banks are forced to make to their Debtors. Not so funny when the foot is on the other foot, is it?
"I believe we have turned a corner and that our business is improving" - says disgraced and soon-to-be-arrested former IndyMac CEO Michael Perry, just weeks before his company collapsed and was seized by the US government, April 2008. This was the second largest bank collapse in the history of the United States, with people literally being turned away at the door when they asked where there money went.
Politicians will tell you that your money isnt at risk, that your debit cards will still work, that even if the some 300 banks that Gerard Cassidy, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets, predicts will fail in the coming months, do fail, that your money is federaly insured by the full weight of the federal government. One little problem with this though: The FDIC has $52 billion in assets, used to insure $4.4 trillion of the $6.8 trillion deposited in America's bank accounts. One more time, the FDIC only has 1%put away to back the entire thing.
In the end, after the banks fail, and the tiny little FDIC premiums are swiftly blown away, the 'insured' deposits will still be backed up by the full weight of the federal government. that same government we pointed out earlier doesnt have any money of its own. But thats ok, because you-know-who will be called upon to cut the check.
Listen to Paulson to finally admit it - "The taxpayer"
Fannie Mae may be one of the most ill-fated welfare creations, ever, on the part of the United States government. Fannie Mae (FNMA or Federal National Mortgage Association), a government-sponsored enterprise (GSE), finances one of every five home loans in the United States. In Febuary they wrote 80% of the mortgages in the United States.
In February 2004, the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Alan Greenspan, testified before the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs:
Because Fannie and Freddie can borrow at a subsidized rate, they have been able to pay higher prices to originators for their mortgages than can potential competitors and to gradually but inexorably take over the market for conforming mortgages. This process has provided Fannie and Freddie with a powerful vehicle and incentive for achieving extremely rapid growth of their balance sheets. The resultant scale gives Fannie and Freddie additional advantages that potential private-sector competitors cannot overcome. Importantly, the scale itself has reinforced investors' perceptions that, in the event of a crisis involving Fannie and Freddie, policymakers would have little alternative than to have the taxpayers explicitly stand behind the GSE debt. This view is widespread in the marketplace despite the privatization of Fannie and Freddie and their control by private shareholders, because these institutions continue to have government missions, a line of credit with the Treasury, and other government benefits, which confer upon them a special status in the eyes of many investors.
The perversion here is that the rating agencies, and the financial markets overall, have interpreted the GSE status to mean that there is an implied government backing, and thus their securities have been priced accordingly, oversold, and overextended their mortgage debt creation all over the country. With mortgage defaults on a steep rise, Fannie May doesnt have the cash on hand to cover its day to day obligations. If Fannie May would default on its obligations, not only would it collapse, withdrawing several billion dollars worth of foreign capital from the US economy (379 billion in chinese funds alone) it would force the financial institutions as a whole to write down the actual dollar amount of the debts incurred as loans on homes that no longer could acheive the full value of the loans on them in a market that no longer has the financial resources to either push out the credit to purchase these homes at their default liabilities, or the market to move these houses in a severely chilled market in which everyone is dealing with the rising (inflationary) prices of everything from food to energy to fuel.
This instant loss of value in the american economy as a whole could cause a global dollar panic as both investors abroad and at home will be able to see exactly how much this credit rush has inflated the dollar in the several years since M3 was last reported. The resulting sell off of dollars will only further the amount of dollars in open circulation (by billions, if not trillions of dollars) and only expand the inflationary crisis.
The current government solution is to prop up the institution by either garanteeing aditional credit (from the Fed, who again charges interest) or by an injection of capitol to delay the inevitable crash, to cover the day to day expenses of this failing system. A few Billion dollar injection of taxpayers money might not seem like a small price to pay, but it does not solve the problem of this artificial and expanded value to debt ratio, which does not have the value to back it up. Most likely, this injection of money (in fact the Government buying shares of its own GSE) will only be later used to convince John Q Taxpayer that aditional liability aquisition at a later date is an even better idea, as Fannie May will continue to fail to meet its expectations. A later immenent failure will be presented as "Either you can let it fail and write the entire 3,000,000,000,000 dollar Mortgage debt into the National Debt, or for a few MORE billion dollars, you can give the system the money it needs to keep functioning and in fact MAKE money" Sounds like even more reasonable measures until you realize the imposibility of the system continuing to function in the face of huge inflation and the negative value the housing market holds as a whole. In fact this will just be used to Federalize the entire Mortgage Market, and in turn roll all of it into the National Debt Obligation in whole.
Each and every man woman and child in the United States would be liable for their share of over 12,000,000,000,000 dollars, or the entire GDP of the United States as a whole.
Good Enough For Government work, eh?
Are things really this bad? Porter Stansbury had this to say when he was asked that question, and really, i couldnt agree more:
Well, let me ask you which do you think is more likely?
Scenario one: The U.S. government recognizes its severe financial mismanagement. It allows Fannie and Freddie to collapse completely and does not assume their liabilities. Mortgage investors take huge losses. Mortgage rates soar to more than 10%. Housing prices fall 75% – which makes housing affordable for millions of Americans previously priced out of the market.
In the meantime, the government cuts spending by 30% and reduces taxes radically to encourage economic growth (which, ironically, increases tax receipts, leading to a balanced budget). It restructures Social Security, moving the age of retirement to 75. And most importantly, the government gets out of health care completely, renouncing all of its Medicare obligations. Hospitals and doctors immediately drop their fees to meet the affordability requirements of a free market.
Scenario two: The U.S. government refuses to take responsibility for causing a bubble in mortgage finance. Rather than allow the bubble to deflate quickly, it bails out Fannie and Freddie. Mortgage losses build for five years, reaching more than $1 trillion. Housing prices stabilize in good neighborhoods, but risk-averse lending practices result in widespread vacancy across broad swaths of America.
Refusing to substantially raise taxes, annual deficits surpass $1 trillion in 2010. Total government debt begins to spiral out of control as our interest costs mount. Our foreign creditors lose confidence in the dollar and begin dumping it on the world market. Inflation surpasses 20% annually and prices for energy soar. Oil reaches $250 per barrel. The president alleges an international conspiracy to destroy America and threatens to attack China if it continues to sell the dollar. Price controls are instituted.
No paper currency regime has ever lasted. No government in history has ever repaid debts as large as those already assumed by our government (in terms of GDP). A default is not likely – it is inevitable.
Will Bush and Bernanke bring on global hyperinflation, collapsing the world standard currency, in a failing attempt to keep housing prices from falling as they must? What financial policy will their successors pursue? "This we know: the government with all its guns cannot repeal economic law. It can only hurt the productive even more, as in the Great Depression, which lasted 17 years in large part because of the attempts to keep prices and wages artificially high." or so states Lew Rockwell when discussing the issue a couple weeks ago.
Back then, rather than let one row of this house of cards fall, we forced a slew of financial gluedrops (all funded by taking chunks out of taxpayer cards on the bottom of the stack) to hold up a system that was not stable. We will be lucky, if this time, by taking the same approach, we dont see the entire house topple, right on top of those now weakened taxpayer cards on the bottom.
The solution? stop paying the tax, stop over extending the credit, stop hanging on to an inflating currency, and invest and trade in a stable, sound money.
Don't Buy Federal Reserve Notes.
The answer, as always, is with the power, inherent to the people. If the government wont take the action necessary, with power the people have granted them, the people must withdraw that power and use themselves, solve the the problem the only way most problems ever get solved.
From the Bottom UP.
Pecunia, si uti Scis, Ancilla est; si Nescis, Domina
The revolutionary and idealist who was personally responsible for the emancipation of South American territories from the Spanish crown was able to learn a great deal from both the success of the American Revolution from England, and the failures of the French Revolution, had this to say about the monolithic empires, in the summer of 1815:
"A state too expensive in itself, or by virtue of its dependencies, ultimately falls into decay; its free government is transformed into a tyranny; it disregards the principles which it should preserve, and finally degenerates into despotism. The distinguishing characteristic of small republics is stability: the character of large republics is mutability. "
Enjoy, and dream of ~Liberdad~
"Para el logro del triunfo siempre ha sido indispensable pasar por la senda de los sacrificios."
45superman has an excellent post at Armed and Safe on guns, civil rights, free speech, and making the white people riot. Excellent, and so well written i couldnt even find a suitable excerpt to entice you. Take my word for it, and read it here:
This year, the Cost of Government Day falls on July 16th. Americans for Tax Reform defines COGD as “the date of the calendar year on which the average American worker has earned enough gross income to pay off his or her share of spending and regulatory burdens imposed by government on the federal, state and local levels.”
They estimate that the cost of government now consumes 53.9% of national income, with the average American worker spending 83.7 days laboring to pay his “share” of federal spending. The average worker spends 50.5 days for state and local spending. Keep in mind that this is just spending, not regulation, which takes its own toll from you. Regulation requires 62.6 days, and “is estimated to cost 17.2 percent of national income.”
This is the Cost Day for the country as a whole. The date for each state varies.
You can draw your own conclusions on some of ATR’s analysis, but the figures are fascinating. Check out their report here. This would be great information to forward, as many people don’t truly understand what kind of a mess our government is in until they see cold, hard statistics, charts, and graphs.
Great Britain has been turning up in blogs a lot lately. And for good reason. The sheer jackassitude they seem to have been in command of for the past, oh, decade is absolutely mind-blowing. So much so that I think they're in need of a name change. Verbally, they shall be referred to as, "The Country Formerly Known as Great Britain;" however, they will formally be known only by the symbol:
While our author here had many great links, some of which i have been collecting myself, for a post very similar, it is not an exhaustive list, as i also remember about reading about banning palm trees, and about permits to show affection to a child.
This is just scratching the surface of an ideology that says it is not only the states responsibility to protect society from the individual, but that it is also the states duty to take all potentially harmful power away from its citizens. I would like to remind you that the very existance of liberty and freedom are power, and stand in the way of the very notion of a nanny state. This is all very real, and very may well happen here if people dont realize what I first figured out when i was a child, when I read the book Fahrenheit 451, and realized that while there is no need to unduly offend someone, if you were to ever forbid offending anyone, you would would in fact have to police everyone, and ban ALL expression. The same ballance exists when you start to decide to tell people that they cant do this, or cant do that, in the interest of public safety. You would, at the campaigns end, in order to "guarantee a safe country", police everything, outlaw everything, and bann ALL activity of any sort. Then we might be safe, maybe. Might just be me, but I really dont think thats a decent trade off. The book demonstrated that pretty easily, and if you havent read it, you might want to check it out, or buy a copy for a child you know.
To borrow from a very famous Ben Franklin quote, Those who would trade health and safety for liberty, deserve neither. In A world that still retains a 100% mortality rate, there will always be room for more and more regulation In the interest of Public Safety, ad infinitum, forever. And i dont trust any politician or policy maker that says that he has the ability to ballance that concern for public safety with "reasonable measures of control". If he has any concern it is to be able to discern between more control and thus more power, and less control, and thus less power.
While things here in Yanktown arent quite as bad as they are in the UK. (I havent seen anyone chasing eachother down the street with a hammer, as my roomate did on a recent visit to London) we do see a number of warning signs. Not only does our federal government move almost daily to more closely regulate what and how Individuals lives our lives in the interest of public safety, it also marches foreward with inteligence programs to know every detail of our actions. State and City governments install traffic and pedestrian cameras to allow police where their are none, to generate revenue, and to fight crime. Phily alone purchases $10 million in CCTV cameras this year. Here in my city, i see more traffic cameras put in almost every week. New laws are passed every day, too numerous to count, let alone to know the contents of. There's a war on drugs and a war on poverty and a war on crime, and war on obesity and now a war on terrorism (individuals).
When you look at all these wars you might start to see the real war is with an idea, the idea that you cant help yourself, that you arent responsible enough, that your personal beliefs dont matter. That your government doesnt trust you, and yet, REQUIRES you to trust it. And if that wasnt enough, we have dozens and dozens of American't activist groups lobbying for more laws, to take away more rights from decent hard working Americans. MADD says they want a total prohibition on alcohol, Brady wants to ban all firearms, Local groups campaign for more laws to prohibit everything from sex toys, to porn stores, to selling ice-cream without a permit, to selling food containing trans-fats to selling puppies near a roadway.
And then, in the interest of consolidating all power in the state, as one giant collective reasuring being, keeping the lowly citizens it feeds off of from either stepping out of line or hurting themselves, we become a joke, a mockery of every priciple this country was founded on.
Personaly, If I have to die anyways, I'd rather die with my hat on. Its the American way.
Or maybe its the Human Way, and some of us have lost that, as Virgil wrote in the Aenid, in the first century BC:
Moriamur et in Media Arma Ruamus
Una Salus Victis Nullam Sperare Salutem
let us die even as we rush into the midst of battle
for the one hope of the doomed is not to hope for safety
at the very least, if we lose, and i dont think we will, we can serve as an example, and make it that much harder for the victor to rewrite history, providing information and inspiration to those who might come after us.
Last night was just like Tom said - A magical evening, seeing Dr. Paul walk down the humid, bustling streets of Georgetown, filled with party revelers. The crowd was abuzz as we made our way through: “Hey, that guy looks just like Ron Paul!”, “I think that was Ron Paul!”, “It is! It’s Ron Paul!”
Yes, it absolutely was Ron Paul, kind, humble and patient as ever, stopping to chat, take pictures and answer a few foreign policy questions to boot. If you’re bummed that you didn’t make it out here to DC for the Revolution March and rally, the good news is that Revolution Broadcasting is carrying live coverage of the event all day. And if you haven’t done so already, I suggest you start making your plans for the Rally for the Republic in Minnesota on September 1-2. That is really going to be a big one.
RF: I realize now that i havent spoken out enough about this. For every question of responsibility i raise, for every outrage i point out, every injustice i claim must be righted, there is one member of this rapidly growing national group of action trying to force that responsibility back to a government that shirks it, tries to force the people to acknowledge that outrage and right that injustice. This group has formed out of the ashes of "freedom candidate" Ron Paul's presidential campaign, the campaign that raised more money that any other candidate, had more military support, and had more signs hanging from freeways than any other campaign. We may not have, now, a presidential candidate who believes freedom and personal responsibility are the property of the people, and not the state, to be metered out at the will of executive orders and congressional selective service acts, but those same people who rallied to support a presidential policy of a free and sovereign economy and a non terroristic foreign policy consisting of non-intervention and existing without occupation, have not given up.
They say they will not give up, and I for one will join them in saying that this Amerika is not the America of The People's will, and that the people will reshape it, or quit to support it. Americans inherit from their ancestors a glorious tradition of freedom and resistance to oppression. Our country has long been admired by the rest of the world for her great example of liberty and prosperity – a light shining in the darkness of tyranny. Today, many Americans are frustrated, bloodied by wars and made poor through the largest tax levy ever forced upon them. We must not give up that resistance to Tyranny, we Must rediscover Freedom and Liberty, for without them, we are forever lost to that dark dark world from which we may never escape without the light those two principles provide. We must turn from an autocracy in which we would be no worse off than if we didnt vote at all, and find a system where the votes of a million would be tyrants will not cancel and take away the vote or opinion, or liberty of one free man.
These good people are asking you to Rally for the Republic and to save our country from continuing down a road that as I see it can only lead to bankruptcy, an end to national sovereignty, a complete end to democratic power, never ending war, a police state with a complete end to civil liberties and the continued marginalization and possible eradication of the people, as a government runs amok, trying to save itself by standing on the bodies of its people. These may sound like dire predictions, but they reflect the many parallels in history, and many warning signs in the present.
Fortunately, we have another historical parallel we can look to, one that turned this very situation around, and created the strongest nation in the world. A nation with profound power, and profound freedom, born on the back of a Revolution. As the t-shirt reads: "The Answer to 1984 is 1776." Ron Paul thinks we can still save this country, now, with a peaceful, but dramatic revolution, a turn around, while we still have that power, while we can still organize, and while we can still be heard, one, and all. I hope he is right, and I ask you to help him, to become involved, because an America without Freedom is an America without a Soul, we must rediscover the light that once made us great. We Must Campaign For Liberty.
Thank you, and you will find a banner both to the side and at the bottom of this page, join us
"Do not try to resist; comply up to the robbers demands; carrying a gun only increase the risk of being killed; call 911 after the danger has passed"
Sounds familiar? I bet it does.
One can only wonder how this story would have turned if the father would have listened to this kind of advice offered by anti-gun liberals in pretty much every newspaper or TV news station. Thank God he had the wisdom to arm himself and be ready to protect himself and his son.
Read the rest and watch the video at Transsylvania Phoenix, This is aweful close to home for me, at least.
Self Defence is a Human Right, and for a parent, defence of a child is a duty and unshirkable responsibility.
I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God.
I guess that doesnt mean much these days.
The FISA Amendments Act of 2008, which would shield companies from lawsuits for helping the government to spy on Americans without warrants, as well as further extend the superlegal powers of the executive branch to spy, without warrant, on american citizens, has passed the Senate 69-28.
69-28
You can get a vote breakdown here. And you can find and let your Senators know what you think here. Though i think it wont be letter they will listen to, as it was not reason, nor was the aforementioned oath they heard when they raised their little raccoon hands and called Yea.
Its a long list, but if someone ever asked if you had names, at least you know where to begin.
PS: dont forget to add one more name when some certain person signs this bill of never ending power to suppress any and all political opposition
Today the Senate is voting on the FISAbill, which not only streamlines and further legalizes the electronic surveillance of every American citizen, but also provides retroactive immunity for every telecommunication company that may have broken the law by building a unilateral intelligence system that in fact copies every single packet of voice and data passed through their halls and hands that information to the government.
This is "the most sweeping change in the 30-year-old law and one that may further expand the use of evidence gathered by intelligence agencies in criminal cases.” to quote the Wall Street Journal.
Most of the FISA discussion has centered on the portion of the bill that provides for telecom immunity, which is reprehensible, but i think its even more important that we highlight the fact that many of these changes to the law will let the government, specifically the executive, seek more sweeping surveillance orders.
An expanded FISA, whose rules are more permissive than those that control domestic wiretaps, gives government prosecutors an unfair advantage. FISA surveillance warrants, which are handled in secret by an intelligence court, are different from wiretaps issued under so-called Title 3 orders. For example, targets of Title 3 wiretaps eventually are notified that they were under surveillance, at least when they are given a fair trial, and defense attorneys can seek more information underlying the cause for the wiretap. and whether that wiretap was justified. This is a measure of accountability on the part of the government, and on the part of the courts. I suspect prosecutors are using FISA to get information they otherwise would have problems getting because of Fourth Amendment search-and-seizure protections.
There is a fourth amendment for a reason, just as there is another nine in the bill of rights. To protect the liberties and freedom of every person in this country. Without privacy, any political opponent can be eliminated before they are able to organize. we live in a country where many political groups, from Grandmothers against Bush, to PETA, are all labeled as "potential terrorist threats." Anything that doesn't conform to the system is a threat to it. The argument that these FISA wiretaps will only be used to "Protect the American People" is horseshyte. The people protect themselves, and the Government protects the Government. First and Foremost the Government is in the Self Preservation business, from alphabet soup agencies, to congressmen running for re-election, every single person in Washington is working to keep their paychecks and powers, before considering ANY other issue. While its true it requires the people to exist, in the same way i need food to exist, it has never been above cracking a few bad eggs and tossing them. Privacy exists as a safeguard of the ability to organize against any government or agency that seeks to unjustly seeks to self-preserve its own tyrany. The idea that our senate is in support of whittling a giant hole in that protection, to be used as any secret committee sees fit as well as providing immunity to private entities that assist in violating your privacy against civil suit (even if there is real damage), without anyone being held accountable is irreprehensible. These people took an oath to uphold the constitution, and should be bound to do. Anything less is treasonous, and should be treated as such.
"Did you really think we want those laws observed?" said Dr. Ferris. "We want them to be broken. You'd better get it straight that it's not a bunch of boy scouts you're up against... We're after power and we mean it... There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What's there in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced or objectively interpreted – and you create a nation of law-breakers – and then you cash in on guilt. Now that's the system, Mr. Reardon, that's the game, and once you understand it, you'll be much easier to deal with." - Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged. (1957)
Watch what you say. Big Brother is Listening. Ill let you know how it goes.
Thank you, and that is all, as im headed out to Jay21's house for a good old fashioned fourth of july.
Enjoy the holiday, and dont forget why we celebrate.
Contrary to what they may tell you, it isnt the anniversary of the creation of a new republic, but the destruction of tyranny and casting away of a corrupt state. The discovery and exploration of freedom.
is a self aclaimed adventurer and poet of the revolution, while he would like to explore journalism, fiction writing, open his own business, return to painting and try his hand at pizza delivery, he has no plans for the future, and little hope that he will acomplish any of it. While he has no home he currently resides in Central Arizona, where he is constantly told to sell out and buy in, resulting in deep psycological trauma and personality seperation.
Thus, while I do still own my ideas and words, and ask that you respect that ownership, I do highly encourage to do your duty as a modern robin hood and steal a portion of that ownership back for the public good.
In the same vein, I rarely show concern over whether some tidbit i post here is properly cited and in fair use, I try and be respectful, nothing more, nothing less. I will not ask you to do anything more. If you can take anything from here, be it an idea, or a sentence, and build upon it to make something better, please do. If you think it will not detract from that idea or sentence, or whatever, you, an individual has made, please pass some credit back to me, or even post a link to the original. If however, your achievement would suffer to acknowledge its roots, do not detract from it, as the world as we know it was built not by giants, but but by many men, standing on the shoulders of other men.
If you take this as as notice of permission, you are mistaken. It is a human right to process the information we are given, and to try and improve it. A right is something you don't have to ask permission for.
If I have posted something here from someone else, not in accordance with your wishes either in citing or use, please feel free to ask me to correct it, if you show me that respect, I MAY return the respect you ask for.
No Warranty exists, either explicit or implied, results may vary, Do not eat. Not a toy, Postage will be paid by addressee. If condition persists, consult your physician. Subject to change without notice.
The solution? stop paying the tax, stop over extending the credit, stop hanging on to an inflating currency, and invest and trade in a stable, sound money. 
From 
Privacy exists as a safeguard of the ability to organize against any government or agency that seeks to unjustly seeks to self-preserve its own 
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