"I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them."
January 5, 2009 Is The Party Over? Ron Paul stated: "The bailout is not just economically foolish. It is downright sinister. It makes a mockery of our Constitution, which our leaders should never again bother pretending is still in effect. You can't stop a problem of too much spending and too much deficits and too much monetary inflation with more of it. So I'm positively opposed to the bailout and believe it will just delay the correction that is required." Paul goes on to say: "We are in the middle of something very big. We're not talking about trillions of dollars, the obligation is immeasurable. An economy structured on debt and credit lies at the root of the current financial meltdown. The end comes when the people reject the dollar and I think we're getting awfully close to this. The answers are in the free market, sound money and our Constitution."
- by Derry Brownfield / NewsWithViews
Fed Officials Endorse 'Big Stimulus' to Battle U.S. Recession Federal Reserve officials, after taking the historic step of cutting the benchmark interest rate to as low as zero, are calling for greater government spending to help revive the U.S. economy. San Francisco Fed President Janet Yellen said yesterday at an economics conference in San Francisco that "it's worth pulling out all the stops" with an economic recovery package. Charles Evans, president of the Chicago Fed, told the same gathering he believes a "big stimulus is appropriate."
- by Scott Lanman & Vivien Lou Chen / Bloomberg
Governors Push $1 Trillion Stimulus Package for States A group of influential Democratic governors that includes Deval Patrick is pressing the federal government for a $1 trillion stimulus package for the states over the next two years that would contain $250 billion for education in an effort to avoid inflicting irreversible damage to schools during a fiscal crisis.
The proposal would also allocate $350 billion for an array of infrastructure projects, including road and bridge construction; extending the reach of Internet broadband; digitizing medical records; affordable housing; and energy efficiency initiatives.
- by Matt Viser and Andrew Ryan / The Boston Globe
"Painful crisis also provides us with an opportunity to transform our economy to improve the lives of ordinary people," Obama said.
His designated chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, is more direct: "You never want a serious crisis to go to waste."
So they will "transform our economy." Obama's nearly trillion-dollar plan will not merely repair bridges, fill potholes and fix up schools; it will also impose a utopian vision based on the belief that an economy is a thing to be planned from above. But this is an arrogant conceit. No one can possibly know enough to redesign something as complex as "an economy," which really is people engaging in exchanges to achieve their goals. Planning it means planning them.
- by John Stossell / Constitution Party
Fed Has Abandoned Monetary Policy, Critic Says The Federal Reserve has embarked on a campaign of unsupervised industrial policy to end the country's financial crisis, a move that could undermine its independence, a former top U.S. official said on Saturday.
John Taylor, who was under secretary of treasury for international affairs from 2001 to 2005, said the explosive growth of the Fed's balance sheet since September was "unbelievable."
- by Reuters
2008 saw the greatest financial losses in generations, as $6.9 trillion poured from investors' coffers in the worst series of cascading disasters since the Great Depression.
The resulting panic was met with equally drastic action by the US Treasury and Federal Reserve bank. As pillars of the US economy toppled, the Fed government created an additional $8.5 trillion in currency liquidity and began handing out massive, low interest loans in hopes of stopping a chain reaction of failures.
This massive economic bloodletting threatens to rival the United States' GDP: a now-seemingly hapless $14 trillion.
- by Stephen C. Webster, The Raw Story / Freedom's Phoenix
Obama Wants 600,000 New Government Employees In a radio address, Obama uses some new language when discussing what he wants the stimulus package to achieve in terms of jobs. First off, he has a name for the package -- the "American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan." Obama says he wants to "create three million new jobs" -- this is a change from a few weeks ago, when he said he wanted the plan to create OR SAVE two million jobs. He says the "No. 1 goal of my plan ... is to create three million new jobs, more than 80 percent of them in the private sector." If you do the math: 20 percent of three million means 600,000 new government employees.
- by Jake Tapper / ABC News.com
Obama's Plan for The Draft- MANDATORY SERVICE everyone 18-25
War Vet, 50, Stunned By New Deployment A veteran who has been out of the military for 15 years and recently received his AARP card was stunned when he received notice he will be deployed to Iraq.
The last time Paul Bandel, 50, saw combat was in the early 1990s during the Gulf War.
"(I was) kind of shocked, not understanding what I was getting into," said Bandel, who lives in the Nashville, Tenn., area.
In 1993, Bandel took the option of leaving the Army without retirement and never thought he would be called back to action.
"Here he's 50 years old, getting his AARP card, and here he's being redeployed with all these 18-year-olds," said Paul's wife, Linda Bandel.
- by Jeremy Finley / WFTV.com
What's Happening in Gaza There are two completely different versions of what is currently happening in Gaza. In the Israeli and North American press version, Hamas -- "Islamic terrorists" backed by Iran -- have in an unprovoked attack fired deadly rockets on innocent Israel with the intent of destroying the Jewish state.
- by Eric Margolis / LewRockwell.com
Amnesty Calls on Rice to Drop 'Lopsided' Gaza Stance The U.S. section of Amnesty International sent an "urgent" letter Friday to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, calling on her to end what it called Washington's "lopsided response" to the ongoing Israeli air strikes on Gaza that have reportedly killed more than 400 Palestinians, including scores of unarmed civilians.
While the letter also expressed concern about the rocket fire by Palestinian groups that has taken four Israeli lives in urban areas more than 30 kilometres from Gaza during the past week, it called Israel's campaign air campaign "disproportionate" and accused the Jewish state of violating international law.
- by Jim Lobe / Inter Press Service
Gaza Protesters Gather Near Obama's Home Obama was at his transition office in the Loop during the demonstration. He has avoided an official position on Israel's bombing of Gaza or the Palestinian rocket attacks against Israel in the past week.
"This is not about sending a message to Obama," said protester Hank Brown, a South Side resident. "This is about sending a message to the American people, telling them not to be complacent about what's happening in Gaza."
More than 460 people had died and 1,700 had been wounded in the conflict before the ground invasion began Saturday. As the death toll climbs, Palestinian supporters have criticized the president-elect for remaining silent.
- by Stacy St. Clair / Chicago Breaking News
Depleted Uranium Found in Gaza Victims Medics tell Press TV they have found traces of depleted uranium in some Gaza residents wounded in Israel's ground offensive on the strip.
Norwegian medics told Press TV correspondent Akram al-Sattari that some of the victims who have been wounded since Israel began its attacks on the Gaza Strip on December 27 have traces of depleted uranium in their bodies.
- by Press TV
Is Israeli Policy Crazy? The "Israeli model" has long been held up by hawks in the United States as the gold standard for dealing with adversarial nation-states, guerrillas, and terrorists. The storyline goes that Israel is a small country surrounded by aggressive enemies that use unfair measures (including terrorism) to try to wipe it off the face of the map. Therefore, the thinking in Israel is that to survive, the Israelis must use disproportionate tactics to show how tough they are to instill fear in their vicious enemies. This paradigm, practiced by Israel since its inception in 1948, has been tactically sound and strategically disastrous.
- by Ivan Eland / Antiwar.com
More Oddities in the U.S. "Debate" Over Israel/Gaza This Rasmussen Reports poll -- the first to survey American public opinion specifically regarding the Israeli attack on Gaza -- strongly bolsters the severe disconnect I documented the other day between (a) American public opinion on U.S. policy towards Israel and (b) the consensus views expressed by America's political leadership. Not only does Rasmussen find that Americans generally "are closely divided over whether the Jewish state should be taking military action against militants in the Gaza Strip" (44-41%, with 15% undecided), but Democratic voters overwhelmingly oppose the Israeli offensive -- by a 24-point margin (31-55%). By stark constrast, Republicans, as one would expect (in light of their history of supporting virtually any proposed attack on Arabs and Muslims), overwhelmingly support the Israeli bombing campaign (62-27%).
- by Glenn Greenwald / Salon
What Became of Western Morality? The extent of Americans’ ignorance is breathtaking. Israel has the Palestinians jammed into tightly controlled ghettos known as Gaza and the West Bank. With Egypt's help, Israel controls the inflows of food, medicines, water, and energy into Gaza. Palestinians in Gaza are not permitted to enter Israel or Egypt. Last week a humanitarian ship bringing food and medicine was rammed by Israeli gunboats and turned away.
It fools Americans, but it doesn't fool Israelis. The Israelis have always known that "self-defense" is a cloak for a Zionist policy of territorial expansion. The policy is controversial within Israel. Many Israelis object, just as many Americans object to President Bush's illegal wars and violations of US civil liberties. Many Israelis give voice to their moral conscience, but they are overwhelmed by vested interests.
- by Paul Craig Roberts / Information Clearing House
Dr. Paul on the Travesty in Gaza Dr. Paul discusses the invasion of Gaza on January 3, 2009 and its implications for America.
Opportunities for Peace and Nonintervention We should follow the foreign policy advice of the Founders – friendship and commerce with all nations. One positive step would be to end our destructive embargo of Cuba, which deprives our farmers of a market just 90 miles from US shores while strengthening the Communist regime. We've seen 50 years of statist restrictions not accomplish anything. A change is needed. Other countries should decide how to govern themselves. Even if we don't necessarily approve, it's none of our business. If other people foolishly choose to live under statist experimental regimes, they need to fail in their own right, and not have us as a scapegoat. We need to focus on our own affairs.
However, the pressures exerted on our leadership from the military industrial complex and big business is not in favor of peace or freedom, or especially nonintervention. Intervention is big business. Defense contracts topped $300 billion last year, and total spending on war and our overseas empire is up to $1 trillion per year. That represents a lot of people earning a living off of war and conquest. But rather than adding to our economy, all of this money is taken from the economy in order to wage war and destruction. Imagine if those resources were put to creative, productive use here at home!
- by Ron Paul / Texas Straight Talk
A Conservative Foreign Policy As a co-founder of The Heritage Foundation, the late Paul Weyrich (1942-2008) was an influential and prominent figure in the modern conservative movement. Written in 2006, Weyrich's call for a truly conservative foreign policy still rings true today:
"In 1951, one of America's true conservatives, Senator Robert A. Taft, published a book titled A Foreign Policy for Americans. I think what Senator Taft wrote then applies to our own time as well.
In discussing the purposes of American foreign policy, he said:
- by Campaign For Liberty
Both Political Parties Brought Police State To America Elected officials know that as members of the controlling elite that masquerades as two separate and opposing factions, they will not be deposed. The vast majority will be easily re-elected despite their opposition to the majority of Americans on such issues as illegal immigration, secure borders, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the "Bailout."
Unless Americans make a determined move to unseat incumbents for these and other assaults against the Constitution, we can expect nothing more than a shallacking by those now controlling our government in both "Big Box" parties.
- by Mary Starrett / NewsWithViews
Ignoring The Solutions Won't Fix The Problems Record numbers of Americans are finally coming to the conclusion that this country is in big trouble. I've been writing for well over a decade that it was just a matter of time until all the programs were implemented and the economy crashes that the shadow government will finally make their move. The house of fiat currency would finally burn itself out and you and I would be left holding the smoking ruins while the banker barons end up with the fruits of our labor. Barack Hussein Obama is the chosen one to head up the final phase to reduce all but the richest into abject poverty, nationalize industries and use the iron fist of totalitarian government to keep the rest of us in line.
- by Devvy Kidd / NewsWithViews.com
Why Freedom Won't Die in the 21st Century Now, hundreds of groups have taken up the challenge to "advance the principles of freedom in the 21st century," by educating their neighbors and their local elected officials, and showing how federal and state mandated sustainable development policies are destroying private property rights and transforming the function of local government into what the U.N. calls "governance."
Freedom21 does not have the power of government behind it, as does Agenda 21. It does, however, have the power of people who are devoted to the principles of freedom. These are the people who have always defended freedom, despite government's tireless efforts to destroy it. These are the people who won't let freedom die.
- by Henry Lamb / WorldNetDaily
January 2, 2009 The Enoch Syndrome vs. Noah's Paradigm It seems as if since the foundation of the nation of Israel in 1947 certain Christian groups have hailed it as a sign of the imminent return of Our Lord. They have written books, preached sermons, taught Sunday school lessons and much more predicting Jesus second return over and over again, only to be disappointed.
- by David Paul / The Covenant News
The Left, The Right, and The State In American political culture, and world political culture too, the divide concerns in what way the state's power should be expanded. The left has a laundry list and the right does too. Both represent a grave threat to the only political position that is truly beneficial to the world and its inhabitants: liberty. What is the state? It is the group within society that claims for itself the exclusive right to rule everyone under a special set of laws that permit it to do to others what everyone else is rightly prohibited from doing, namely aggressing against person and property.
- by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr. / LewRockwell.com
There is something approaching a consensus that the Paulson Plan -- also known as the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP -- was a boondoggle of an intervention that's flailed from one approach to the next, with little oversight and less effect on the financial meltdown.
But perhaps even more troubling than the ad hoc nature of its implementation is the suspicion that has recently emerged that TARP -- hundreds of billions of dollars worth so far -- was sold to Congress and the public based on a Big Lie.
- by Joshua Holland, AlterNet / Truthout
These private banks purchase paper notes from the U.S. mint for printing cost or simply enter digital money into their computer then lend back the money plus interest to the people through member banks. The profits go into the share holders of the bank's pocket's, the U.S. public receives no benefit.
- by FolsomTelegraph.com
The euro was poised for its best year against the British pound since its 1999 debut on speculation the Bank of England will keep its main lending rate lower than that of the European Central Bank. The Australian and New Zealand dollars had record slides versus the U.S. currency and the yen as a global economic slump dragged down prices of commodities the nations export and curbed demand for higher-yielding assets.
- by Ron Harui / Bloomberg.com
RNC Draft Pips Bush's Bailouts Republican Party officials say they will try next month to pass a resolution accusing President Bush and congressional Republican leaders of embracing "socialism," underscoring deep dissension within the party at the end of Mr. Bush's administration.
Those pushing the resolution, which will come before the Republican National Committee at its January meeting, say elected leaders need to be reminded of core principles. They said the RNC must take the dramatic step of wading into policy debates, which traditionally have been left to lawmakers.
- by Ralph Z. Hallow / The Washington Post
The GOP Must Reject Big Government Whether we win or lose, future generations will celebrate us as those who fought for freedom at a crucial time in our nation's history. No one can guarantee victory. But if we do not fight, we guarantee defeat.
If we give up our most cherished principle to attain political office, what do we gain? Who will trust us? Who will turn to us when, once again, Big Government collapses in failure?
When our country is at stake, some of us come to grips with reality. And some of us change reality.
- by Richard A. Viguerie / The Los Angeles Times
Who Will Stand Up For The U.S. Constitution? Every U.S. Senator and Representative has taken an oath of office to uphold and defend the U.S. Constitution. In consideration of the above undisputed facts and the failure of any body, agency, or office so tasked or so authorized, to vet Obama’s eligibility to the office of president; every U.S. Senator and Representative has a sworn duty to write, sign and file an objection in accordance with 3 USC, Title 3, Chapter 1, Section 15.
- by Lynn Stuter / NewsWithViews
Anyone who dares to question the citizenship of Barack Obama is treated as a lone crazy by the controlled press. Yet when the people are able to voice their opinion on whether or not Barack Obama is a natural born U.S. citizen more than half the country and the majority of citizens in 47 states would like to see Barack Obama's college records and the actual birth certificate (As opposed to the certificate of live birth posted above.) he claims to posses but refuses to show anyone.
Interestingly enough the only state(s) to not be concerned about this critical Constitutional question are Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York and the city state of Washington D. C.
- by Daily Newscaster / Freedom's Phoenix
Exactly What IS a Natural Born Citizen?
U.S. Troops Under Iraq's Authority for First Time The U.S. military in Iraq falls under Iraqi authority on Thursday for the first time since the U.S.-led invasion ousted Saddam Hussein in 2003, a milestone in the war-weary country's path to restoring sovereignty.
The U.S. force in Iraq, now more than 140,000 strong, has operated since 2003 under a U.N. Security Council resolution which expired at midnight on New Year's Eve.
Starting January 1, troops will operate under the authority of the Iraqi government, according to a pact signed earlier this year by Washington and Baghdad.
- by Tim Cocks, Reuters / Yahoo News
Israel's Constant Crisis Because Israel is almost entirely dependent on international support – and especially American support – for its very survival, without U.S. public opinion behind it the Jewish state would soon wither on the vine. What this means, in practice, is that a constant stream of pro-Israel propaganda must be directed at the American people in order to justify the high levels of financial and military aid that keep Israel afloat. What's more, the Israelis must constantly generate the urgency and immediacy of the need to support their country. They have succeeded in doing this by projecting a sense of continuing crisis. The idea that Israel is in danger, that unless we ship billions more in taxpayer dollars the Israeli state will sink beneath the waves of an unrelenting Arab assault, is constantly being pushed – and we wonder why the "peace process" is perpetually stalled.
- by Justin Raimondo / Antiwar.com
McKinney Relief Boat Hit by Israeli Ship Former Georgia Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, standing beside a damaged yacht, Tuesday accused the Israeli navy of ramming the vessel to halt the delivery of medical supplies to the embattled Gaza Strip.
"Our mission was a peaceful mission," McKinney told CNN after she and 15 others aboard the boat made it safely to the harbor in the Lebanese seaport of Tyre.
- by Julia Malone, Bob Deans / The Atlanta-Journal Constitution
Cynthia McKinney SLAMS Israeli Navy
George Washington's Warnings and U.S. Policy Towards Israel In a democracy, one could expect that politicians would be afraid to express a view that 70% of the citizens oppose. Yet here we have the exact opposite situation: no mainstream politician would dare express the view that 70% of Americans support; instead, the universal piety is the one that only a small minority accept. Isn't that fairly compelling evidence of the complete disconnect between our political elites and the people they purportedly represent?
Americans shouldn't be in the position of endlessly debating Israel's security situation and its endless religious and territorial conflicts with its neighbors. That should be for Israeli citizens to do, not for Americans. But that distinction -- between the U.S. and Israel -- barely exists because our political leaders have all but eliminated it, and have thus imposed on U.S. citizens responsibility for the acts of Israel.
In doing so, they have systematically ignored the unbelievably prescient warnings issued by George Washington in his 1796 Farewell Address, and have thereby provoked exactly the dangers he decried:
- by Glenn Greenwald / Salon
US Military Aid Underpins Gaza Offensive Israel receives billions of dollars in military aid from the US each year, much of it spent on American weaponry which US law says must only be used in self-defence. But experts say there is little chance of cuts in aid to Israel despite its military operation in Gaza.
- by Information Clearing House
The Truth About Those Hamas Rockets Five years ago, the Bush administration lied about weapons of mass destruction to dupe us into supporting an illegal, immoral invasion of Iraq.
A few days ago, Israel trotted out only an infinitesimally more credible excuse -- the Hamas rockets case -- as justification for its own murderous shock and awe in Gaza, a long-planned campaign perniciously aimed at ousting a "regime" that came to power via popular, democratic vote.
Yes, such rockets exist, but they're little more than slingshots against Israel's incredible military might, and they’re used out of desperation by Palestinians who've never been accorded the democratic space within which to gain redress of their eminently just grievances.
- by Dennis Rahkonen / Online Journal
Iran on Full Alert in Wake of Israeli Raids Iran's Air Force is on alert after the country's president envisaged major regional developments in the wake of the Israeli raids on Gaza.
The chief Iranian Air Force Commander Brigadier General Hassan Shah-Safi said on Wednesday that the ongoing critical situation in the Middle East has prompted the Iranian military to take necessary measures to ensure readiness in the event of the country becoming the target of an offensive.
- by Press TV
The Lie That Justifies Mass Murder: "Hamas Hit Us First" The White House's press release is exactly the same as the Zionist Israel position, blaming the victims. It is imperative that we know why. Here is the official Israeli line, coming to us directly from Washington:
"It was "completely unacceptable" for Hamas, which controls Gaza, to launch attacks on Israel after a truce lasting several months, said Gordon Johndroe, a spokesman for the National Security Council. "These people are nothing but thugs, so Israel is going to defend its people against terrorists like Hamas that indiscriminately kill their own people."
The reason the Administration parrots Zionist Israel's story is a common agenda calling for more war in the Middle East. As we have written for some years, ours is a war-based economy, and Israel play a large part in it because our targeted enemy is Islam. War to the USA is not about religion, but is vehicles to force economic growth. We Hold These Truths opposes this policy, which will end only when citizens demand it.
- by Charles E. Carlson / We Hold These Truths
No Economic Recovery Without Downsizing the Military Barack Obama is being coy, as usual, artfully cultivating media speculation over the scope of his economic "recovery" plan. To put it more bluntly, Obama is a tease, a media flirt who knows that the shallow corporate press become hopelessly fixated on that which is withheld from them. How big will Obama's stimulus be? 850 billion? A trillion? As long as media attention revolves around the elusive figure, few journalists will pose the more fundamental question: How can the nation muster the resources to save itself from economic ruin, while continuing to feed the dogs of war?
The disappearance of trillions in notional and actual dollars has so dazzled the public, some seem to have forgotten about the Trillion Dollar War on Terror. That's the figure Time magazine places on George Bush's military adventures since 9/11. Others put the figure much higher. Former Clinton economic advisor Joseph Stiglitz and co-author Linda Bilmes' best-selling book calls Iraq a "Three Trillion Dollar War," when all costs are factored in.
- by Glen Ford / Atheo News
The Economist: U.S. In Depression, Not Recession Renowned financial publication The Economist reports that, based on the characteristics of the current financial crisis, the U.S. is in a depression, not a recession.
The admission marks the first time that a major international financial news outlet has acknowledged that the scale of the economic mess is unlike anything seen in recent decades.
Under the headline, Diagnosing depression, the article asks, "What is the difference between a recession and a depression?"
A depression is characterized by "falling asset prices, a credit crunch and deflation," according to the article, all factors that we see unfolding in the current crisis.
- by Paul Joseph Watson / Prison Planet.com
"It's feast or famine in any kind of construction," he says.
So he's trying something new: working for a homeowner who won't pay him a dime.
"He may not be paying cash, but I am able to get things I wouldn't buy," he says.
Moonie bartered with James and Rhonda Parivechio. He gets a used dirt bike and all-terrain vehicle. They get new hardwood floors.
"We figured the fair market value was worth what he was doing for me," James says.
In a down economy, bartering is way up -- 98 percent from a year ago on Craig'sList, the online giant for classified ads. More people are finding something to swap.
- by Mark Strassmann / CBS News
An Unhappy New Year Another forgotten anniversary that haunts the nation is the re-establishment of the gold standard in the United States by the Roosevelt administration on January 1, 1934. What? -- you may ask incredulously. Roosevelt re-introducing the gold standard in the United States? You had better believe it. That's exactly what he did. He fixed the statutory price of gold at $35 per ounce 75 years ago. This price was observed until 1971 as it was also incorporated in several international treaties, and confirmed by the solemn promises of several presidents following Roosevelt. It is a great pity that Roosevelt-worshippers frown upon the idea of following the leader. They should demand a return to the gold standard now, 75 years after Roosevelt showed the way out from the economic quagmire.
To be sure, this is an unhappy anniversary. Roosevelt's gold standard was bad. He discriminated against American citizens so outrageously that the evil dictators of the day dismissed the idea of duplicating Roosevelt's measures in their own fiefdoms. Roosevelt's gold standard denied Americans the right to demand gold at the statutory price in exchange for Federal Reserve notes. Worse still, criminalization of the ownership of gold stayed on the books. At the same time, under Roosevelt's gold standard, the Swiss, for example, could routinely take Federal Reserve notes to a Swiss bank and exchange it for gold at the statutory price (even though, after 1936, they could no longer get gold for their own paper currency at the statutory price!) Surely this was a national dishonor: the American government discriminating against its own citizens, giving monetary rights to foreign nationals that were denied to Americans, in clear violation of the letter and the spirit of the Gold Standard Act of 1900, let alone the American Constitution.
- by Antal E. Fekete / Financial Sense
December 30, 2008 Transition and Hope As another year draws to a close, there are some important transitions ahead of us. Not just transitions to a new administration, but also economically, politically and culturally.
Many hoped that the changes would signify overwhelming positive steps for our country, and that we would enter a new era, as promised during the campaign. I would like for this to be true, but based on the continuity so far, I would not be surprised to see America stay on the same course of failed monetary and economic policies. The course has been set for several decades, and in reality there is little the new administration could do to fix things without actually making them worse. But I expect them to try. The only real solutions involve allowing the market to liquidate the debt and malinvestment. The political reality is that this is not going to happen.
- by Ron Paul / Texas Straight Talk
Who Controls the Money? In their attempts to halt credit deflation, the government and the Fed are unleashing a torrent of corruption, inefficiency, misuse of funds, and fraud. If a bank is too big to fail and the government and/or the Fed make sure that it survives, despite the past mis-behaviors of its officers, then they invite those officers to misuse the funds that they infuse.
- by Michael S. Rozeff / LewRockwell.com
GOP Warns Against Stimulus Rush Congressional Republicans on Monday criticized a $1 trillion stimulus as wasteful spending and signaled they will oppose having the bill ready by President-elect Obama's inauguration on Jan. 20.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) demanded hearings and at least a week to review the bill to prevent wasteful spending and fraud. In a statement, he said he understood Democrats wanted to move the bill in the two weeks Congress is in session before Obama's inauguration, but warned he would not agree to rush the bill through the Senate.
- by Michael O'Brien / The Hill
"A Relentless Urge to Approve Any Loan" Last September, Seattle-based lender Washington Mutual became the largest bank failure in American history and was purchased by JP Morgan Chase for $1.9 billion.
A new article by the International Herald Tribune takes a look at business practices behind the scenes at WaMu, and exposes the depth of corruption and shady dealings that epitomize the subprime mortgage crisis.
JP Morgan Chase, by the way, received billions of taxpayer funds as a result of the TARP bailout.
- by Matt Hawes / Campaign For Liberty
Schiff: Government Interference Only Makes The Problem Worse - Pt 2
America Needs Period of Pain The Fed's recent slashing of U.S. interest rates to zero is a sign of utter desperation and an act of folly. Once investors realize that Europe, Canada and Asia are far safer investments than the U.S., watch for the U.S. dollar to nosedive -- as it should.
The remedy for America's economic ills is not more money but patience.
Americans must relearn the old verity that one must save for purchases and rainy days; that gambling with your home is idiotic; that there is no substitute for hard work or manufacturing; and that it's always very risky to trust politicians or financial "professionals" with your money.
- by Eric Margolis / The Toronto Sun
U.S. Throws GMAC $6 Billion Lifeline Treasury injects $5B into finance firm key to General Motors' survival, while automaker gets $1B loan to make its own investment in GMAC.
In yet another move to prop up the crumbling U.S. auto industry, the government announced Monday that it will pump $6 billion into GMAC Financial Services, a financing company critical to the survival of General Motors.
- by Tami Luhby / CNNMoney.com
Fair-Weather Friends of the Market It's hardly a news flash that many people who are widely regarded as lions of the pro-market side have gone over to the dark side in recent months. I am not going to name any names; if you are one of the guilty parties, you know who you are; and the rest of us know, too, owing to your public expressions of anti-market sentiment in newspapers and on the World Wide Web. Why have so many notable economists and others jumped ship?
- by Robert Higgs / LewRockwell.com
Fallout Begins After Dismal Holiday Season The fallout from the horrific holiday season for retailers has begun, with the operator of an online toy seller filing for bankruptcy protection and more stores expected to do the same - meaning more empty storefronts and fewer brands on store shelves.
A rash of store closings, which some experts predict will be the most in 35 years, is likely to cut across areas from electronics to apparel, shrinking the industry and leading to fewer niche players and suppliers.
- by Anne D'Innocenzio, Associated Press / Macon.com
The Battle To Save The Fiat Money System Has Begun The disinformation by the global financial dailies in the last twelve months as to the cause of the global financial tsunami, serve the same purpose as the global mass media when they perpetuated the lies that lulled the people to support the war criminals Bush, Blair and Howard to launch the barbaric war against Iraq and Afghanistan which resulted in the genocide of millions, the mutilation of hundreds of thousands, physically and psychologically, and the devastation of an entire nation.
The wars unleashed thus far, specifically the "War on Terror" was launched to preserve the shadow money-lenders’ political and military power.
This War on Terror is the greatest military sideshow that distracted the great American people from the financial rape and plunder of their economy and the destruction of their Constitution.
- by Matthias Chang / GlobalResearch.ca
Take Your Money Back
Where Have All the Neocons Gone? But the notion that Obama will seek to roll back the American empire is a pipedream. It wasn’t McCain but Obama who declared on the campaign trail that America has to "lead the world in battling immediate evils and promoting the ultimate good."
This won't prevent the unrepentant rump faction of the neocons from denouncing Obama as an appeaser, while looking to either Sarah Palin or Newt Gingrich as possible standard-bearers. But for now, the neocons touting a reversion to the movement's original, more liberal precepts seem intent on creating a new chapter in the saga of a movement that has been repeatedly written off as dead. Perhaps reaching out to the Obama administration will help rejuvenate neoconservatism. It could prove to be a more comfortable fit than either side might anticipate
- by Jacob Heilbrunn / The American Conservative
Neocons, NYT Demand More War, Torture The neoconservatives are drifting back into the Democratic Party fold from whence they came, attempting to limit the terms of the discourse on foreign and security policy so there will be no surprises from the new administration. Media neocons like Bill Kristol and David Brooks are jumping on the Hillary bandwagon, convinced that she will, if anything, prove to be more hawkish than her predecessor, Condoleezza Rice.
The mainstream media is also doing its bit. The New York Times leads the way in stifling any real debate, recently featuring on its opinion pages a "Transitions" series that incorporates the views of designated "experts." The choice of contributors, including Madeleine Albright, William Cohen, and Peter Bergen, has guaranteed a consensus that America's use of its military might in the international arena is a force for good.
- by Philip Giraldi / Antiwar.com
Israel Air Strikes Spark Protests Worldwide Demonstrators in cities around the world are gathering to protest against the Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip that have killed more than 300 people in the Palestinian territory.
British police made 10 arrests as a demonstration outside the Israeli embassy in London turned violent on Sunday. Riot police moved in after people tore down the barriers keeping them back from the embassy.
Earlier, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband called for an "urgent ceasefire and immediate halt to all violence" in Gaza.
A call to "urgently halt" the military action also came from Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov who spoke to his Israeli counterpart Tzipi Livni.
- by Agence France-Presse / Google News
IAF Uses New US-Supplied Smart Bomb The Israel Air Force used a new bunker-buster missile that it received recently from the United States in strikes against Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip on Saturday, The Jerusalem Post learned on Sunday.
The missile, called GBU-39, was developed in recent years by the US as a small-diameter bomb for low-cost, high-precision and low collateral damage strikes.
- by Yaakov Katz / The Jerusalem Post
Bush, Obama, and
the Gaza Blitz Unwilling to control its fighters, who fired scores of missiles into Israel at the end of their six-month cease-fire, Hamas gave Israel the provocation it needed to deliver a savage blow to the Palestinian enclave in Gaza.
Saturday was the bloodiest day in the history of the Palestinian people since being driven from their homes in the war of 1948. One thousand were killed or wounded, as the Israeli air force conducted over a hundred strikes – on graduation ceremonies for Hamas fighters, police stations, and storage sites for rockets.
About Israel's right and duty to defend its border towns, there is no dispute. When Hamas permits Gaza to be used as a launch pad for rockets, it must expect retaliation. Nor can Hamas claim some right to dictate the limits of that retaliation.
Yet the wisdom of so savage a retribution for rockets that killed not one Israeli is open to question. And crass Israeli politics seems to be behind this premeditated and planned blitz.
- by Patrick J. Buchanan / WorldNetDaily
Paul: No Such Thing as an Independent Israel The following is an exclusive Press TV interview with US congressman Ron Paul, a unique conservative politician who wants an end to US military presence on foreign soil, advocates US withdrawal from the UN, NATO and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and opposes the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
Ron Paul, House representative of the 14th district of Texas, believes that US foreign policy must be reformed to avoid conflicts around the world.
The interview was conducted outside the Foreign Relations Committee.
- by Jihan Hafiz / Press TV
Israeli Attack Seen as Complicating Obama's Plans Israel's massive three-day aerial assault on Gaza is likely to complicate President-elect Barack Obama's hopes of aggressively pursuing Israeli- Palestinian peace negotiations, and risk inflicting greater damage to Washington’s standing in the Arab world, according to most analysts here.
Indeed, if the current campaign goes on much longer and the Israelis launch a major ground invasion of Gaza as they now appear to be preparing to do, Obama could face a major international crisis -- comparable to Israel's failed 2006 war against Lebanon's Hezbollah -- just as he takes office in three weeks' time.
- by Jim Lobe / Inter Press Service
May We No Longer Be Silent The title of my article comes from the sermon of the Episcopal Bishop of Washington DC, John Bryson Chane, delivered on October 5, 2008, at St. Columba Church. [PDF]The bishop's eyes were opened to Israel's persecution of Palestinians by his recent trip to Palestine. In his sermon he called on "politicians seeking the highest office in [our] land" to find the courage to "speak out and condemn violations of human rights and religious freedom denied to Palestinian Christians and Muslims" by the state of Israel.
Bishop Chane's courage was to no avail. As Justin Raimondo reported (Antiwar.com, 27 December), when America's new leader of "change" was informed of Israel's massive air attack on the Gaza Ghetto, an area of 139 square miles where Israel confines 1.4 million Arabs and tightly controls the inflow of all resources—food, medicine, water, energy—America's president-elect Obama had "no comment."
- by Paul Craig Roberts / VDare.com
Marked Changes in World's Political, Economic Landscape The world has undergone remarkable changes this year, but international security situation on the whole remained stable with "peace" and "development" prevailing as the themes of the times.
In 2008, the world has continued moving toward multi-polarization, resulting in a distinctive shift of international forces. Globalization is developing in depth and regional cooperation is gathering momentum.
The world has been confronted with one hotspot issue after another and non-traditional threats are increasing. The world economic growth took a turn for the worse due to the outbreak of the global financial crisis.
- by Sun Ruijun and Bao Erwen / Xinhuanet.com
Russian Professor Predicts End of U.S. For a decade, Russian academic Igor Panarin has been predicting the U.S. will fall apart in 2010. For most of that time, he admits, few took his argument -- that an economic and moral collapse will trigger a civil war and the eventual breakup of the U.S. -- very seriously. Now he's found an eager audience: Russian state media.
Prof. Panarin, 50 years old, is not a fringe figure. A former KGB analyst, he is dean of the Russian Foreign Ministry's academy for future diplomats. He is invited to Kremlin receptions, lectures students, publishes books, and appears in the media as an expert on U.S.-Russia relations.
But it's his bleak forecast for the U.S. that is music to the ears of the Kremlin, which in recent years has blamed Washington for everything from instability in the Middle East to the global financial crisis.
- by Andrew Osborne / The Wall Street Journal
Change In The Nick Of Time A militarized police state is coming to this country--into your own neighborhood, and with you and your family as its targets--unless you start, right now, to enforce the Constitution, as is your right and your duty. In addition to their long-standing strategy of "federalizing" and para-militarizing State and Local police departments under the General Government's Department of Homeland Security, the big brains in the Disgrace of Columbia have two additional schemes openly in the works: (i) the overtly military, which depends upon the deployment of the Armed Forces as domestic police; and (ii) the covertly military, which depends upon the creation of SOME new, ostensibly civilian, "national-security force."
- by Dr. Edwin Vieira, Jr. / NewsWithViews.com
Boston Tea Party 08 Highlights from the BostonTeaParty08 historic event. Go to www.BostonTeaParty08.com to order this special 2-disk set.
Preamble to Social Mayhem The glory years of Pax Romana can rightly be set as that period in Roman history from the beginning of Augustus’ reign in 27 BC to the end of stoic Emperor Marcus Aurelius’ reign in 180 AD.
The Christian apologist Tertullian (200 AD) gives us an excellent example for how Rome was viewed during this period: "Surely a glance at the world shows that it is daily being more cultivated and better peopled than before. All places are now accessible, well known, open to commerce. Delightful farms have now blotted out every trace of the dreadful wastes; cultivated fields have supplanted woods; flocks and herds have driven out wild beasts; sandy spots are sown; rocks and stones have been cleared away; bogs have been drained. Large towns now occupy lands hardly tenanted before by cottages. Islands are no longer dreaded [as the abode of pirates]; houses, people, civil rule, civilization are everywhere."
However, even as the ancient world basked in the glory of the Roman civilization its very foundation was decaying. The causes for this decay and the eventual collapse of the Roman Empire have long been debated by historians and are generally attributed to one or more of the following:
- by Tim Case / LewRockwell.com
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