Apple Macbook & Macbook Pro video October 2008
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Saturday, October 11, 2008
asking VAMPIRES to donate BLOOD
wakeupfromyourslumber
Does the proposition sound absurd to you? It does to me. But, it happens everyday, all over the world.
When governments ask central bankers to bail their nations out of debt by auctioning new bonds at interest, it's like asking vampires to donate blood to their victims. And this is no exaggeration.
fact, the American revolution came about precisely because the colonies
witnessed how the Bank of England's unwarranted demands on them
immediately destroyed their prosperity.
here we are, over 200 years later, ruled by a man who goes by the same
name and bankers that play the same game. How did this happen? Didn't
history teach us ANYTHING?
indeed, that's exactly what happened. Lend, inflate, deflate,
repossess. Lend, inflate, deflate, repossess. And so on, and so forth
until all our essential industries became theirs (steel, wheat, dairy,
energy, telecommunications, publishing, defense, healthcare,
insurance), along with most of our land.
They invaded and
corrupted our institutions, erasing any trace of our past that might
awaken us to the calamity of our condition and molded our minds to suit
the roles they set out for us.
So, what do we do?
many of you, like me, want to avoid armed struggle, if at all possible
(especially since we're the ones who are unarmed!).
But, you can start by telling moneylenders to take their blood money and shove it. Then raise your voice as loud and as often as you can against this unjust system of fraud and oppression.
Our monetary system is broken and it will not fix itself. If we don't act now, they will extinguish what's left of our freedom.
Does the proposition sound absurd to you? It does to me. But, it happens everyday, all over the world.
When governments ask central bankers to bail their nations out of debt by auctioning new bonds at interest, it's like asking vampires to donate blood to their victims. And this is no exaggeration.
"You are a den of vipers.In
I intend to rout you out and by the Eternal God I will rout you out. If
the people only understood the rank injustice of our money and banking
system, there would be a revolution before morning."
--Andrew Jackson, 1828 (to a group of investment bankers trying to persuade him to renew their charter)
fact, the American revolution came about precisely because the colonies
witnessed how the Bank of England's unwarranted demands on them
immediately destroyed their prosperity.
"[The Colonists] would have gladly borne the little tax on tea and other matters, if it had not been that they took from us our money —And
which created great unemployment and dissatisfaction. Within a year,
the poor houses were filled. The hungry and homeless walked the streets
everywhere."
"[T]he inability of the Colonists to get the power to issue their own money, permanently out of the hands of King George III and the international bankers, was the prime reason for the Revolutionary War.”
--Benjamin Franklin
here we are, over 200 years later, ruled by a man who goes by the same
name and bankers that play the same game. How did this happen? Didn't
history teach us ANYTHING?
If the American PeopleAnd
ever allow private banks to control the issue of their money, first by
inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will
grow up around (the banks), will deprive the people of their property
until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their
fathers conquered . . .
I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous
to our liberties than standing armies. Already they have raised up a
moneyed aristocracy that has set the government in defiance.
--Thomas Jefferson
indeed, that's exactly what happened. Lend, inflate, deflate,
repossess. Lend, inflate, deflate, repossess. And so on, and so forth
until all our essential industries became theirs (steel, wheat, dairy,
energy, telecommunications, publishing, defense, healthcare,
insurance), along with most of our land.
They invaded and
corrupted our institutions, erasing any trace of our past that might
awaken us to the calamity of our condition and molded our minds to suit
the roles they set out for us.
So, what do we do?
The issuing power should be taken from the banks, and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs. --Thomas JeffersonBut, freedom has a price.
“Is life so dear,Are you willing to sacrifice to win back your freedom?
or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and
slavery? Forbid it Almighty God! I know not what course others may
take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!”
--Patrick Henry
“If ye love wealthI know
greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude greater than the
animating contest for freedom, go home from us in peace. We seek not
your counsel nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds
you; May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget
that ye were our countrymen.”
--Samuel Adams
many of you, like me, want to avoid armed struggle, if at all possible
(especially since we're the ones who are unarmed!).
But, you can start by telling moneylenders to take their blood money and shove it. Then raise your voice as loud and as often as you can against this unjust system of fraud and oppression.
Our monetary system is broken and it will not fix itself. If we don't act now, they will extinguish what's left of our freedom.
Black Friday?
There’s a way forward but it will take a lot of digging out
and a vision of the future that doesn’t center on Wall Street.
Mike Whitney
Infowars
October 10, 2008
Panic has spread to stock markets around the world. A massive sell-off, which began when Henry Paulson announced a $700 billion bailout for the banking system, has turned into a global stampede. Shares fell sharply across Europe and Asia for fifth straight day following a 679 drop on the Dow Jones. Nearly $900 billion was wiped off the value of U.S. equities in just one trading day. The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index, the “fear index”, soared to a record 64. Credit markets remain frozen. Libor, London interbank offered rate, nudged up slightly on Thursday night, signaling even greater resistance to lending between the banks. Until there is relief in the credit markets, stocks will continue to slide. But trust has vanished. The 50 basis points rate cut that was coordinated with foreign central banks has had no effect. The market is being driven by fear and pessimism. Friday is shaping up to be a bloodbath on Wall Street.
White House press secretary, Dana Perino said yesterday that President Bush will address the country on Friday morning:
“He will assure the American people that they should be confident that economic officials are aggressively taking every action to stabilize our financial system. The Treasury Department is moving quickly to use new tools to improve liquidity, which is the root cause of this problem.”
Bush still believes that the problem is “liquidity” rather than “insolvency”. When liabilities vastly exceed assets, liquidity does not help. The bad banks need to be closed so the good ones can be strengthened with capital injections.
New York Times columnist Paul Krugman said, “Last month, when the U.S. Treasury Department allowed Lehman Brothers to fail, I wrote that Henry Paulson, the Treasury Secretary, was playing financial Russian roulette. Sure enough, there was a bullet in that chamber: Lehman’s failure caused the world financial crisis, already severe, to get much, much worse.”
Lehman’s credit default swaps, (the derivatives which Warren Buffett calls “financial weapons of mass destruction”) will be “unwound” on Friday. It could be a “non event” or it could trigger another sell off; it is impossible to know. If tens of billions of dollars are drained from already weakened balance sheets in counterparty deals that have turned sour, the market will react violently. Wall Street is on tenterhooks waiting for the news from Lehman.
There is general agreement among economists about what needs to be done to stabilize the financial system. The banks have to be recapitalized, deposits have to be guaranteed (beyond the $100,000 FDIC limit) and additional stimulus has to be provided to increase consumer demand. Otherwise the United States will face another Great Depression. Too much time has been wasted on Paulson’s failed bailout for G-Sax and his friends on Wall Street. Buying the bad assets of underwater banks does not fix the problem. The banks need capital so they can resume lending and transmit credit to consumers and businesses.
Former head of the FDIC, William Isaac summed it up like this:
“I was opposed to the bailout bill, mostly because I don’t think it will work. The banks — taking $700 billion of bad loans out of the banks doesn’t help get banks lending again. It just solves some problems in some banks. And it doesn’t have any leverage to it. If the Treasury were to put that same $700 billion and used that to invest in bank capital, the banks can loan $10 for every dollar of capital, roughly, which means that the Treasury would be creating $7 trillion of new lending capacity in the banks. And that is vastly superior to buying $700 billion of problem loans. It just — it will really give some punch to the economy. It will get banks back into the lending business….. And to do that we need to get some capital back in there.”
Isaac added: “The other major thing they really need to do… They really need to have the FDIC declare that there is a financial emergency. And when the FDIC does that, the FDIC should announce that during this period of crisis, all general creditors, all depositors, insured and uninsured, bondholders in our banking system, will be protected if a bank fails. And that, I think, will get the inter — the financial markets working again and get banks willing to loan to each other again.”
Nearly one third of all deposits ($2.5 trillion) are not insured under present FDIC guidelines. If these deposits are not insured, as Isaac says, there will continue to be a slow run on the banks which is why the credit markets are paralyzed.
Much of this week’s volatility in the market is the result of program trading (many sell orders were automatically executed when the Dow hit 9,000) and massive deleveraging in the hedge funds, the secretive $1.7 trillion industry. As credit gets tighter, the funds are unable to roll over their short term debt and have been forced to dump their assets in an illiquid market at firesale prices. This explains the recent see-saw motion in the stock market; the huge 2 to 3 percent intraday swings (positive/negative) This has added to the fear of smaller investors who have left the market in droves for the safety of US Treasuries or cash. That’s why the dollar has strengthened even though the Federal Reserve is printing money at a furious pace. The inflationary effects will not be apparent until the destruction of credit abates.
The biggest danger we face in the short term, is a run on the financial system. Calm must be restored if we want to avoid another depression. Investors have already pulled a record $72 billion from stock and mutual funds, and put the money in US Treasurys and government-insured bank deposits. If the trend continues, the financial system will collapse. This is where leadership and credibility really matter. The Bush administration’s record on these issues is dismal. If the government overreacts and limits bank withdrawals or closes the stock market; the sense of desperation and panic will only grow. That increases the likelihood of rioting and violence, which is what took place in China just this week.
The falling stock market reflects the mood of the country as a whole. Confidence in the system is at an all-time low. The government has lost the moral authority to rule. People have lost faith in everything. Bush has created a tinder box which could explode in flames at any time. It is a dangerous situation.
BLACK FRIDAY: False alarm or Armageddon?
The econo-blogs were abuzz all night Thursday. The prevailing feeling is that Wall Street will suffer historic losses on Friday and that this will mark the end of America’s dominance as the lone superpower. As always, economist Nouriel Roubini provided a chilling analysis of the present financial malaise:
Nouriel Roubini: “The US and advanced economies’ financial system is now headed towards a near-term systemic financial meltdown as day after day stock markets are in free fall, money markets have shut down while their spreads are skyrocketing, and credit spreads are surging through the roof. There is now the beginning of a generalized run on the banking system of these economies; a collapse of the shadow banking system… and now a roll-off of the short term liabilities of the corporate sectors that may lead to widespread bankruptcies of solvent but illiquid financial and non-financial firms.
At this point the risk of an imminent stock market crash – like the one-day collapse of 20% plus in US stock prices in 1987 – cannot be ruled out as the financial system is breaking down, panic and lack of confidence in any counterparty is sharply rising and the investors have totally lost faith in the ability of policy authorities to control this meltdown….
When… even the most radical policy actions don’t provide rallies or relief to market participants, you know that you are one step away from a market crack and a systemic financial sector and corporate sector collapse. A vicious circle of deleveraging, asset collapses, margin calls, cascading falls in asset prices well below falling fundamentals and panic is now underway.” (Nouriel Roubini’s Global EconoMonitor)
There’s a way forward but it will take a lot of digging out and a vision of the future that doesn’t center on Wall Street.
 |
“Drop Guns” Coming to America?
Infowars
October 10, 2008
In this video, former U.S. soldiers explain how they were told to carry “drop guns” to cover up the murder of Iraqi citizens. According to the soldiers, this is an informal military policy.
Is it possible this policy will be used in America now that martial law appears imminent? As Wayne Madsen writes, sources inside FEMA indicate “that the Bush administration is putting the final touches on a plan that would see martial law declared in the United States with various scenarios anticipated as triggers. The triggers include a continuing economic collapse with massive social unrest, bank closures resulting in violence against financial institutions, and another fraudulent presidential election that would result in rioting in major cities and campuses around the country.” (See FEMA sources confirm coming martial law in previous post.)
If we use history as an indicator, the imposition of martial law will result in not only the mass round-up of the opposition, but death squads against its leadership as well. “Drop guns” fit right into this scenario. "Drop Guns in Iraq"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLUCiKcLlMo
FEMA Sources Confirm Martial Law Coming!
Bladerunner - Film, Literature and the New World Order
Bladerunner is a dystopic vision of a nightmarish future where the masses live in squalid conditions and dream of getting off world. Little do they know their masters are engaged in a plan to engineer them into more perfect slaves. This is a plan which is often called the New World Order.
Bladerunner - Film, Literature and the New World Order
Bladerunner - Film, Literature and the New World Order
FEMA sources confirm coming martial law
Wayne Madsen
WMR
October 8, 2008
WMR has learned from knowledgeable Federal Emergency Management
Agency (FEMA) sources that the Bush administration is putting the final
touches on a plan that would see martial law declared in the United
States with various scenarios anticipated as triggers. The triggers
include a continuing economic collapse with massive social unrest, bank
closures resulting in violence against financial institutions, and
another fraudulent presidential election that would result in rioting
in major cities and campuses around the country.
In addition, Army Corps of Engineer sources report that the
assignment of the 3rd Infantry Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team (BCT)
to the Northern Command’s U.S. Army North is to augment FEMA and
federal law enforcement in the imposition of traffic controls, crowd
control, curfews, enhanced border and port security, and neighborhood
patrols in the event a national emergency being declared. The BCT was
assigned to duties in Iraq before being assigned to the Northern
Command.
On April 3, 2008, WMR reported on a highly-classified document regarding the martial law scenario: WMR
has learned from knowledgeable sources within the US financial
community that an alarming confidential and limited distribution
document is circulating among senior members of Congress and their
senior staff members that is warning of a bleak future for the United
States if it does not quickly get its financial house in order. House
Speaker Nancy Pelosi is among those who have reportedly read the
document. The document is being called the "C & R" document because
it reportedly states that if the United States defaults on loans and
debt underwriting from China, Japan, and Russia, all of which are
propping up the United States government financially, and the United
States unilaterally cancels the debts, America can expect a war that
will have disastrous results for the United States and the world.
"Conflict" is the "C word" in the document. The other scenario is that
the federal government will be forced to drastically raise taxes in
order to pay off debts to foreign countries to the point that the
American people will react with a popular revolution against the
government. "Revolution" is the document’s "R word.
Thursday, October 09, 2008
Wednesday, October 08, 2008
What a dolt! He's running for president?
McCain: Vladimir Putin is the President of Germany?
McCain: Vladimir Putin is the President of Germany?
Ron Paul: Bailout Unconstitutional, Special Interests Forced Bill Through Congres
Going Down fast!
Ron Paul - On Passage of the Bailout
Ron Paul - On Passage of the Bailout
Ron Paul: Bailout Unconstitutional, Special Interests Forced Bill Through Congres
Going Down fast!
Ron Paul - On Passage of the Bailout
Ron Paul - On Passage of the Bailout
Tuesday, October 07, 2008
Monday, October 06, 2008
9/11 1st Responder Anthony Cipriani on the emotional pain
9/11 1st Responder Anthony Cipriani on the emotional pain
9/11 1st Responder Anthony Cipriani on the emotional pain
PLEASE MAKE JOHN FEAL AND THE FEALGOOD FOUNDATION
PART OF YOUR CHRISTMAS LIST THIS YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thank you Anthony!
9/11 1st Responder Anthony Cipriani on the emotional pain
Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth Reaches 500
Congratulations to AE911Truth and the 9/11 Truth movement for gathering over 500 signatures from the AE community. Well done!
Onward to 1000! Please visit:
Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth!
Mission Statement:To research and to disseminate the truth of the 9/11 “collapses” of all 3 WTC high-rise buildings to every architect and engineer.
Naomi Wolf - "Americans are facing a coup as of this morning. It's happened."
Just remember, its always darkest before dawn.
October 5, 2008
Interview - Naomi Wolf - Give Me Liberty
October 5, 2008
Interview - Naomi Wolf - Give Me Liberty
There's No Difference Between Martial Law and the Threat of Martial Law:
georgewashington2.blogspot.com
If a bully threatens to beat up a skinny kid if he doesn't give him his lunch money, and the bully doesn't have to follow through because the kid does fork it over, does that mean that the aggressive kid isn't a bully?
Of course not. He's a bully because he threatened to beat up the skinny kid and used coercion to get his way.
Well, Congressman Sherman said that congress was threatened with martial law this week. Specifically, he says that Congress was told martial law would be imposed if they didn't pass the Paulson bailout proposal.
http://www.youtube.com/v/HaG9d_4zij8
Martial law means that the separation of powers which the Founding Fathers enshrined in the Constitution are destroyed, and an all-powerful executive branch calls the shots.Is the threat of imposing martial law any different than actually imposing it?No. Congress is just like the skinny kid.
Just because it forked over $700 billion or more in our lunch money based upon coercion by the thugs in the executive branch doesn't mean that the thugs are still following the separation of powers or anything else in the Constitution.
Remember that, for years, Congress has operated under "martial law" provisions which force Congress members to vote on legislation without having time to adequately read and review it
Remember also that the U.S. has been in a declared state of national emergency for 7 years, and normal constitutional provisions were probably long ago superseded.
As University of California Berkeley Professor Emeritus Peter Dale Scott has warned:
And remember that U.S. troops are being stationed inside the U.S. to suppress "civil unrest".
Whether or not there is martial law in name, there is martial law in fact.
If a bully threatens to beat up a skinny kid if he doesn't give him his lunch money, and the bully doesn't have to follow through because the kid does fork it over, does that mean that the aggressive kid isn't a bully?
Of course not. He's a bully because he threatened to beat up the skinny kid and used coercion to get his way.
Well, Congressman Sherman said that congress was threatened with martial law this week. Specifically, he says that Congress was told martial law would be imposed if they didn't pass the Paulson bailout proposal.
http://www.youtube.com/v/HaG9d_4zij8
Martial law means that the separation of powers which the Founding Fathers enshrined in the Constitution are destroyed, and an all-powerful executive branch calls the shots.Is the threat of imposing martial law any different than actually imposing it?No. Congress is just like the skinny kid.
Just because it forked over $700 billion or more in our lunch money based upon coercion by the thugs in the executive branch doesn't mean that the thugs are still following the separation of powers or anything else in the Constitution.
Remember that, for years, Congress has operated under "martial law" provisions which force Congress members to vote on legislation without having time to adequately read and review it
Remember also that the U.S. has been in a declared state of national emergency for 7 years, and normal constitutional provisions were probably long ago superseded.
As University of California Berkeley Professor Emeritus Peter Dale Scott has warned:
"The systems of checks and balances established by the U.S. Constitution would seem to be failing.
To put it another way, if the White House is successful in frustrating [Congress' requests], then [the declared state of emergency] has arguably already superseded the Constitution as a higher authority."
And remember that U.S. troops are being stationed inside the U.S. to suppress "civil unrest".
Whether or not there is martial law in name, there is martial law in fact.
Sunday, October 05, 2008
US loads $700bn bailout bill with 'pork barrel' tax breaks
Your CONgresscritters are whores.
From The Times
October 3, 2008
Tim Reid in Washington
The fate of America's $700 billion financial rescue package, and the health of the global economy, may hinge on a 39-cent tax break for an Oregon firm that makes children's wooden arrows — although, if today's vote is close, the Alaskan fishermen who were affected by the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster, and who stand to gain $223 million in tax breaks if the Bill passes, might also end up playing a pivotal role.
As the White House and leaders from both parties conducted a final push to convert enough rebels to salvage the rescue plan from its stunning defeat in the House on Monday, an array of "pork barrel" projects have been inserted to soften up waverers.
They are aimed at peeling away a handful of naysayers with the promise that if they vote yes this time their pet projects will see the light of day. More importantly, the sweeteners are intended to gain the support of ordinary Americans on Main Street who see the Bill as a bailout of Wall Street.
It is an extraordinary sub-plot in the scramble to save the US financial sector from collapse. Inserted into the modified Bill by two Oregon senators on Wednesday night was a provision repealing a 39-cent excise tax on children's wooden arrows, which would save Rose City Archery, a company in Myrtle Point, Oregon, that makes the toys. Three House members from the state voted against the Bill on Monday, but the new clause could change their minds.
Also in the revised Bill is $128 million of tax relief for the manufacturers of car racing tracks, aimed at congressmen in Nascar states, such as Virginia and North Carolina. A provision to give $10 million in tax breaks to small television and film producers could convert a congressman from Los Angeles. The help for Alaskan fishermen is aimed at swaying Don Young, a Republican from the state.
Republican and Democratic leaders were cautiously optimistic that the amended Bill would pass the House, as it is stuffed with more than $100 billion worth of tax cuts to attract Republicans. Perhaps more importantly, it heads for a re-vote amid a growing realisation among voters and congressmen that the plan is not simply a Wall Street bailout but is urgently needed to avoid a disintegration of the US economy.
Yet after Monday's calamitous defeat, and with still staunch opposition to the Bill by many conservative Republicans and liberal Democrats, the leaders remained deeply wary of saying that they had enough votes. Last night there was even talk of delaying it before they could be sure they had the support to pass it.
The revised Bill, which started life nearly two weeks ago as a three-page proposal from Henry Paulson, the Treasury Secretary, now stretches to more than 450 pages. It arrives in the House with renewed momentum after a huge bipartisan majority passed it in the Senate by 74 to 25 on Wednesday.
The modified plan not only contains big tax-cut provisions, but also an increase of insurance for deposit accounts from $100,000 to $250,000. It is aimed primarily at attracting enough of the 133 Republicans who rejected the Bill on Monday to change course. Another provision aimed at the Democratic African-American caucus — most of whom voted against the plan on Monday — was also inserted: a property tax deduction that they have been demanding.
Just 12 congressmen need to reverse their positions to overcome the plan's 228 to 205 defeat on Monday, which triggered the Dow's biggest one-day points drop in history, wiping out $1.2 trillion in the value of shares — a chastening plunge for some members who rejected the plan.
Yet the revised Bill also risks pushing away fiscally conservative "Blue Dog" Democrats who object to tax cuts that are not paid for elsewhere. Steny Hoyer, the centrist Democratic House Majority Leader, said he was angry about the tax provisions, but called on the Blue Dogs to see the bigger picture of the US economy and back the Bill.
Roy Blunt, the Republican whip, said that a fundamental change from Monday was the number of constituents now calling Congress demanding that the Bill be passed.
Yet nerves will be jangling when the vote begins today.
John Shadegg, an influential Arizona Republican who voted against the Bill on Monday, said that he found it materially better and was "inclined to hold my nose and vote 'yes' ".
But many conservatives remained opposed. Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic Speaker of the House, said that she and her whips were still working to see if any of the Democrats who voted yes on Monday have defected. "We're not going to take a Bill to the floor that doesn't have the votes," she said.
From The Times
October 3, 2008
Tim Reid in Washington
The fate of America's $700 billion financial rescue package, and the health of the global economy, may hinge on a 39-cent tax break for an Oregon firm that makes children's wooden arrows — although, if today's vote is close, the Alaskan fishermen who were affected by the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster, and who stand to gain $223 million in tax breaks if the Bill passes, might also end up playing a pivotal role.
As the White House and leaders from both parties conducted a final push to convert enough rebels to salvage the rescue plan from its stunning defeat in the House on Monday, an array of "pork barrel" projects have been inserted to soften up waverers.
They are aimed at peeling away a handful of naysayers with the promise that if they vote yes this time their pet projects will see the light of day. More importantly, the sweeteners are intended to gain the support of ordinary Americans on Main Street who see the Bill as a bailout of Wall Street.
It is an extraordinary sub-plot in the scramble to save the US financial sector from collapse. Inserted into the modified Bill by two Oregon senators on Wednesday night was a provision repealing a 39-cent excise tax on children's wooden arrows, which would save Rose City Archery, a company in Myrtle Point, Oregon, that makes the toys. Three House members from the state voted against the Bill on Monday, but the new clause could change their minds.
Also in the revised Bill is $128 million of tax relief for the manufacturers of car racing tracks, aimed at congressmen in Nascar states, such as Virginia and North Carolina. A provision to give $10 million in tax breaks to small television and film producers could convert a congressman from Los Angeles. The help for Alaskan fishermen is aimed at swaying Don Young, a Republican from the state.
Republican and Democratic leaders were cautiously optimistic that the amended Bill would pass the House, as it is stuffed with more than $100 billion worth of tax cuts to attract Republicans. Perhaps more importantly, it heads for a re-vote amid a growing realisation among voters and congressmen that the plan is not simply a Wall Street bailout but is urgently needed to avoid a disintegration of the US economy.
Yet after Monday's calamitous defeat, and with still staunch opposition to the Bill by many conservative Republicans and liberal Democrats, the leaders remained deeply wary of saying that they had enough votes. Last night there was even talk of delaying it before they could be sure they had the support to pass it.
The revised Bill, which started life nearly two weeks ago as a three-page proposal from Henry Paulson, the Treasury Secretary, now stretches to more than 450 pages. It arrives in the House with renewed momentum after a huge bipartisan majority passed it in the Senate by 74 to 25 on Wednesday.
The modified plan not only contains big tax-cut provisions, but also an increase of insurance for deposit accounts from $100,000 to $250,000. It is aimed primarily at attracting enough of the 133 Republicans who rejected the Bill on Monday to change course. Another provision aimed at the Democratic African-American caucus — most of whom voted against the plan on Monday — was also inserted: a property tax deduction that they have been demanding.
Just 12 congressmen need to reverse their positions to overcome the plan's 228 to 205 defeat on Monday, which triggered the Dow's biggest one-day points drop in history, wiping out $1.2 trillion in the value of shares — a chastening plunge for some members who rejected the plan.
Yet the revised Bill also risks pushing away fiscally conservative "Blue Dog" Democrats who object to tax cuts that are not paid for elsewhere. Steny Hoyer, the centrist Democratic House Majority Leader, said he was angry about the tax provisions, but called on the Blue Dogs to see the bigger picture of the US economy and back the Bill.
Roy Blunt, the Republican whip, said that a fundamental change from Monday was the number of constituents now calling Congress demanding that the Bill be passed.
Yet nerves will be jangling when the vote begins today.
John Shadegg, an influential Arizona Republican who voted against the Bill on Monday, said that he found it materially better and was "inclined to hold my nose and vote 'yes' ".
But many conservatives remained opposed. Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic Speaker of the House, said that she and her whips were still working to see if any of the Democrats who voted yes on Monday have defected. "We're not going to take a Bill to the floor that doesn't have the votes," she said.
Saturday, October 04, 2008
Shock and Awe:
Bipartisan Beltway Terrorists Launch Economic 9/11 on the American People
by Chris Floyd
You've seen the news. You know the score. The House of Representatives has now completed the economic terrorist attack inflicted on the American people by the nation's elite.
The bailout bill -- or as Arthur Silber more rightly terms it, the "Extortion Bill" -- is already law, thanks to the Democrats in Congress, and to Barack Obama, who spent the day working the phones and twisting arms to make sure the $700 billion bonanza for the filthy rich passed without any more of the hiccups that held it up earlier this week.
The plan that Obama made his own -- despite its origins in the poison kitchen of the Bush White House -- is far worse than the version voted down on Monday. Every reputable economic expert says that the plan is unworkable; it will not solve the problems at the root of the current economic crisis, but will only make them worse. It entrenches many of the fraudulent practices that led to the meltdown in the first place, and rewards the perpetrators for their misdeeds with a gargantuan amount of public money, which they can now use to carry on largely as before, albeit with a few new toothless "oversight" mechanisms operated by their own Wall Street cronies, and their bribed-and-bought hirelings on Capitol Hill.
There were many viable, reasonable, eminently centrist alternatives to the radical, plutocratic Bush-Obama scam -- alternatives which would have been politically palatable to a broad spectrum of the electorate. One of the best ones of this ilk that I've seen was outlined in the eminently mainstream Washington Post earlier this week by two eminently respectable Yale economists. (You can find it here.) There were many other such practical and effective plans offered by reputable experts, any one of which could have gone a long way toward protecting ordinary citizens now exposed by the meltdown, supporting the banks, and stabilizing the markets -- all without effecting one of the largest single redistributions of wealth since the Bolsheviks seized power in Russia in 1917.
None of these plans were considered or debated or even mentioned, not even for a single moment, by the Democratic leadership in the House and Senate. Instead, they joined the Republican leadership and the Bush Administration in repeating, over and over, the Big Lie that there was NO OTHER CHOICE but some basic version of the unworkable Bush plan. The Democrats -- led by Barack Obama -- not only threw a political lifeline to the most despised president in American history (in the middle of an election year!), they deliberately took ownership of a measure widely rejected by the American public -- a class war weapon of mass destruction whose malign effects will reverberate through American society for years, perhaps generations to come.
Why have they done this? Why would they do such a thing? Why would they commit such an egregious offense against their own people, when they could have very easily NOT done it, and had the near-unanimous support of the American electorate in standing up to the Bush plan and choosing some other completely mainstream alternative?
You already know the answer. It's because they do not serve the American people. They serve a very small yet brutally powerful ruling class. And this elite wanted the Bush-Obama extortion plan, and no other, to make sure their power and privilege were not unduly threatened by the debacle that their own monstrous greed and fraud have made.
II.
Let's go back to Arthur Silber on this, as we have done so often during the financial crisis. As always, he goes behind the heated headlines to see the deeper threads of connection knitting the bipartisan economic-domestic Terror War with the bipartisan foreign policy Terror War that is now wrapping the world in flames. And he traces one of the prime roots of this sinister web: the American elite's belief that whatever they do to maintain their primacy -- however many people they kill, how much destruction and suffering and degradation they cause, at home and abroad -- it is all reasonable, rational and right...because they are doing it. Here is Silber in "Terrorist State, At Home and Abroad." [And again, you should read the whole thing, with the many links that broaden and deepen the scope of the argument.].
First, he quotes William Pfaff on the U.S. government's "aggressive, neverending global interventionism":
Now Silber:
It will also be cast as a "favor" to the victims, as Silber notes:
Now comes the turn to the domestic scene:
In a later piece, written as the House was passing the bailout, Silber hammered home to the grim implications of the key role played by Barack Obama in its passage. [Again, see the original for copious links]:
Remember: there were viable alternatives to the Bush-Obama scam. It did not have to go down this way. It happened because the bipartisan political elite WANTED it to happen. And they wanted it to happen because those who have bought and paid for them wanted it to happen. As the old saying goes, you dance with the one that brung you.
But an even more apt quote, perhaps, is one we have used here many times, referring to the remark that the Emperor Tiberius once made when a groveling Roman Senate gave in once more to his authoritarian dictates: "Men fit to be slaves."
by Chris Floyd
You've seen the news. You know the score. The House of Representatives has now completed the economic terrorist attack inflicted on the American people by the nation's elite.
The bailout bill -- or as Arthur Silber more rightly terms it, the "Extortion Bill" -- is already law, thanks to the Democrats in Congress, and to Barack Obama, who spent the day working the phones and twisting arms to make sure the $700 billion bonanza for the filthy rich passed without any more of the hiccups that held it up earlier this week.
The plan that Obama made his own -- despite its origins in the poison kitchen of the Bush White House -- is far worse than the version voted down on Monday. Every reputable economic expert says that the plan is unworkable; it will not solve the problems at the root of the current economic crisis, but will only make them worse. It entrenches many of the fraudulent practices that led to the meltdown in the first place, and rewards the perpetrators for their misdeeds with a gargantuan amount of public money, which they can now use to carry on largely as before, albeit with a few new toothless "oversight" mechanisms operated by their own Wall Street cronies, and their bribed-and-bought hirelings on Capitol Hill.
There were many viable, reasonable, eminently centrist alternatives to the radical, plutocratic Bush-Obama scam -- alternatives which would have been politically palatable to a broad spectrum of the electorate. One of the best ones of this ilk that I've seen was outlined in the eminently mainstream Washington Post earlier this week by two eminently respectable Yale economists. (You can find it here.) There were many other such practical and effective plans offered by reputable experts, any one of which could have gone a long way toward protecting ordinary citizens now exposed by the meltdown, supporting the banks, and stabilizing the markets -- all without effecting one of the largest single redistributions of wealth since the Bolsheviks seized power in Russia in 1917.
None of these plans were considered or debated or even mentioned, not even for a single moment, by the Democratic leadership in the House and Senate. Instead, they joined the Republican leadership and the Bush Administration in repeating, over and over, the Big Lie that there was NO OTHER CHOICE but some basic version of the unworkable Bush plan. The Democrats -- led by Barack Obama -- not only threw a political lifeline to the most despised president in American history (in the middle of an election year!), they deliberately took ownership of a measure widely rejected by the American public -- a class war weapon of mass destruction whose malign effects will reverberate through American society for years, perhaps generations to come.
Why have they done this? Why would they do such a thing? Why would they commit such an egregious offense against their own people, when they could have very easily NOT done it, and had the near-unanimous support of the American electorate in standing up to the Bush plan and choosing some other completely mainstream alternative?
You already know the answer. It's because they do not serve the American people. They serve a very small yet brutally powerful ruling class. And this elite wanted the Bush-Obama extortion plan, and no other, to make sure their power and privilege were not unduly threatened by the debacle that their own monstrous greed and fraud have made.
II.
Let's go back to Arthur Silber on this, as we have done so often during the financial crisis. As always, he goes behind the heated headlines to see the deeper threads of connection knitting the bipartisan economic-domestic Terror War with the bipartisan foreign policy Terror War that is now wrapping the world in flames. And he traces one of the prime roots of this sinister web: the American elite's belief that whatever they do to maintain their primacy -- however many people they kill, how much destruction and suffering and degradation they cause, at home and abroad -- it is all reasonable, rational and right...because they are doing it. Here is Silber in "Terrorist State, At Home and Abroad." [And again, you should read the whole thing, with the many links that broaden and deepen the scope of the argument.].
First, he quotes William Pfaff on the U.S. government's "aggressive, neverending global interventionism":
Militarized or otherwise, American policy remains under the influence of an unacknowledged and unjustified utopianism. This is the unanalyzed background to the work of all Washington's foreign policy agencies. It permeates the rhetoric and thinking of Republicans and Democrats alike. It is the reason Americans can think that history has an ultimate solution, and that the United States is meant to provide it.
Now Silber:
It has long been apparent to an honest observer that "utopianism" of this kind is immensely and unforgivably destructive, just as it is obvious that the belief that one person or one nation has the "ultimate solution" constitutes murderous arrogance of the kind we properly associate with the greatest monsters in history. One of the most deeply pathetic aspects of the tragedy of Iraq is that not a single element of this belief system has been dislodged in even the smallest degree. Thus, we continue to hear Obama, along with every other prominent national leader, proclaim: "The American moment has not passed. The American moment is here. And like generations before us, we will seize that moment, and begin the world anew."
Where it matters, on the ground, the American drive to world hegemony translates into brute force used to make others behave in the manner the U.S. government demands. Such force will often be deployed in the form of economic assistance, but offered only on certain conditions, which therefore more accurately means economic intimidation. On other occasions, the interference becomes harsher, while it is still kept under wraps to some extent: thus, we have numerous covert operations, sometimes used to engineer the overthrow of duly constituted governments. When all else fails, military force will be employed openly and with carefully crafted righteous anger.
It will also be cast as a "favor" to the victims, as Silber notes:
...just as the genocide unleashed by the U.S. government in Iraq constituted a benevolent, disinterested gift to more than a million slaughtered Iraqis, and to many more millions made homeless refugees. "Freedom isn't free," our viciously stupid propagandists announced to the dead, maimed and displaced Iraqis, neglecting to note that it was beneath our lofty status to inquire whether the gift was desired in the smallest degree, especially when acquired by these methods and with the associated costs. (This assumes that "freedom" was, in fact, the goal, which of course it was not. All of this is propaganda, remember.)
The fundamental lesson is unmistakable, and unmistakably evil in intent and execution (a word made horribly appropriate in more than one sense by our government's actions): you will do exactly as we say -- or else.
Now comes the turn to the domestic scene:
Just as it is not possible for an individual to restrict what constitutes a fundamental psychological methodology to only one area of his life, so a ruling class will not employ one approach in foreign policy while dealing with matters of domestic politics in a radically different manner. In any case, the U.S. ruling class never had such a desire: in one way or another, other nations would be made to submit to the demands of the U.S. government -- and the same is true for U.S. citizens. The citizens of America will do exactly as the ruling class demands -- or else. As far as the ruling class is concerned, you have as little reason to complain as the murdered Iraqis do: the ruling class only wishes to improve your life. The ruling class acts only on your behalf, and "for your own good."
You now witness these tactics of intimidation and of the most transparently, viciously manipulative fear-mongering deployed by almost every member of the ruling class in connection with the bailout bill....I have several other news articles offering comments from other members of the ruling class, and I could easily find many, many more, all to the same general effect: be terrified and do what they say. Or else. If you don't understand the urgency and necessity of doing exactly what they say, you're just stupid. In that case, you should obviously turn your life and your money over to your betters. Let them dispose of all of it as they see fit. That's why they're your rulers, isn't it? They know what's best for you.
...The system is now set up so that when the ruling class is particularly intent upon a certain objective, even your obedience isn't required any longer. After all, what are you going to do? Move to another country? Not vote for any of these bastards in November?
Most Americans won't do that. They protest now; once the deed is done, they'll go back to their lives, such as they will be at that point, and devote themselves to making the ruling class more wealthy and more powerful.
To a terrorist government, you're irrelevant, as irrelevant as a slaughtered five-year-old Iraqi girl. But they'll continue to try to scare you to death. You're easier to rule that way.
I suggest you get used to it. This is your future...
In a later piece, written as the House was passing the bailout, Silber hammered home to the grim implications of the key role played by Barack Obama in its passage. [Again, see the original for copious links]:
First, Obama and the Democrats fully own the extortion bill. Obama and the Democrats, as much as the Republicans, are nothing but whores for the sickeningly corrupt financial and corporate interests that control the U.S. government. I've been pointing this out about Obama for some time. Furthermore, in their determination to make certain that the ruling class's affluence and power are maintained with the work, blood and lives of "ordinary" Americans for generations to come, both Republicans and Democrats have turned their terrorist tactics on Americans with close to full force. All that is missing are the bullets -- but they may not be long in coming as conditions deteriorate. It should be illuminating (read: nauseating) to see most of those who would condemn brutal police state actions when ordered by Republicans watch identical events in total silence -- and in this context, silence means consent -- because a Democrat orders them.
Second, and see an earlier essay for much more on this subject, Obama's election will ensure the death of significant political opposition in this country for the foreseeable future as much as any single development can....
To sum up: the triumph of the ruling class, again, the destruction of the present and future for all other Americans, and the annihilation of political opposition, all within a matter of months.
Remember: there were viable alternatives to the Bush-Obama scam. It did not have to go down this way. It happened because the bipartisan political elite WANTED it to happen. And they wanted it to happen because those who have bought and paid for them wanted it to happen. As the old saying goes, you dance with the one that brung you.
But an even more apt quote, perhaps, is one we have used here many times, referring to the remark that the Emperor Tiberius once made when a groveling Roman Senate gave in once more to his authoritarian dictates: "Men fit to be slaves."
The Bailout in Plain English
Speaking in the Tongues of Brokers
October 02, 2008
By Joe Bageant
October 02, 2008
By Joe Bageant
Any number of cultural historians have noted the American belief that success is a sign of God's favor. And over the past couple of decades he has had a downright love fest with the already-rich. So much so that the richest 400 Americans now have more money stashed away that the combined bottom 150 million Americans. Some $1.6 trillion bucks.
This was accomplished by selling off or shipping out ever available asset, from jobs to seaports, smashing usury and anti-monopoly laws, raiding the public coffers and manipulating the medium of exchange and blackmailing the peasantry regarding common needs such as heath care and energy to keep their asses warm -- to name a few. The ultimate coup was to convince the entire nation that the well being of the rich, meaning the well being of Wall Street, was indeed the common man's well being.
All went well for a while. People went into credit card hock up to their noses in order to provide 26% credit card interest to Wall Street, etc. And when that became untenable, flimsy mortgages were cranked out by the millions ensuring that every American who could hold a crayon could sign to purchase a home. To facilitate this all sorts of shaky 'mortgage instruments' were created -- balloon, (sign here Jeeter, you're gonna flip it in a year and make a hundred K on this house trailer) interest only, and finally negative balance mortgages where you only paid part of the interest and the rest was rolled back into the principal balance. And joy of joys you could refinance a couple of times while the inflated value of these houses was on the way up. Life was good for everybody.
The bill was never gonna come due because, god in his wisdom, had deemed that capitalism would defy the second law of thermodynamics and expand forever. So every time a bank made a mortgage loan of say, $400,000, even though the debtor had never even made a payment yet, the loan was declared a bank asset and another $400,000 was loaned against it. Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve Bank yelled whoopee and printed another $800,000 in currency. Of course at some point the country had to run out of customers, so the loans got easier and easier. No matter that debt is not wealth. Wink and call it that and most folks won't even look up from their new big screen high resolution digital TVs.
Problem was that all the jobs to pay for this stuff were stampeding off toward places in China with names containing a lot Xs, Zs and praying for a vowel. It was becoming clear that the entire economy was running on fumes. In fact less than fumes. It was running on the odor of paper. Mountains of the stuff. Bundles of mortgages and very strange securities and derivatives of unknown origin and value. Paper that stated its own worth and signed by some mystic hand no one could quite identify though the blurry signatures looked to read Greenspan, Paulson and Bernanke.
But there was a rub. Things reached the point where there simply was not anything left to defraud the public out of, nothing left to steal from the nation's productive capability, no matter how much paper Jeeter and Maggie signed for that trailer house, no matter how secure Brian and Jennifer out there in Arlington, Virginia and Davis, California thought they were. So the only thing left to do was steal from future generations of Americans and accept an I.O.U. which the government would happily sign on behalf of the people and enforce. By the wildest coincidence, under the Bush administration this I.O.U. happened to tally up to about $700 billion.
Seeing the oncoming train of financial disaster, the financiers just about wet their pants, and screamed "We want it all now! And if we don't get it the 'economy' will lock its brakes and crash. Remember, we control the medium of exchange. Nobody gets a paycheck if we don't. Remember that it's lines of credit from us that backs every working man's and woman's paycheck in the country. So pay the hell up."
Folks, they've got us all by the nuts and nipples. McCain knows that. Obama knows that. In the end, regardless of the so-called dissenters in the House and the Senate, we will pay up. It s election season and the dissent is for show. So it looks like we will get some "concession." For example, we will get shares in these "toxic assets" that are stinking up the joint. The rich need to dump them and dump them fast. In another magnanimous concession, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation will raise the insurance on "our savings" to $250,000 (how many readers have 250 K in the bank?). But it will be redeemable in even more inflated currency amid an inflationary environment. And, in case you didn't know, the FDIC has up to ten years to pay up on that insurance. So don't get any ideas about running off to Mexico, to which by the way, we are a net debtor nation.
We will pay. We will pay because the European banks holding all that bad paper we wrote demand that we make good on it so even more of their banks will not fail. We will pay because the Chinese, the Japs and everyone else will cut off the loan tap with which we pay the interest (not the principal) on our exploding super nova of national debt. We will pay because God loves the rich. We will pay because we will not be offered any other choice. We will pay because George Bush worked hard for all those Ds in school and became the first MBA president. We will pay because our media has internalized the capitalist system so thoroughly they can only talk in Wall Speak. We will pay because the only language we have to describe our world is that of our oppressors because we have been taught to think in Wall Speak. We will pay because we hitched our wagon to last stage capitalism and even though the wagon has now two wheels over the cliff and roars forward, we don't know where the brake handle is located. And because we don't know any better or understand any possible resistance to the system because we have been kept like worms in a jar and fed horse shit.
And as we all know, worms do not rise up in revolt.
That takes a backbone.
Populists Back Ron Paul’s Plan To Kill the Fed
americanfreepress.net
The
trillion-dollar Wall Street bailout plan negotiated by the White House
and Congress has reinvigorated the debate about Texas Republican Rep.
Ron Paul’s Federal Reserve Board Abolition Act (HR 2755), which
was introduced into Congress in June 2007.
In the halls of
Congress, legislators have yet to bring Paul’s bill to the floor.
It is currently languishing in the House Committee on Financial
Services.
However, there has been a great deal of discussion
about this landmark legislation on the Internet and in the alternative
press. Constitution Party presidential candidate Chuck Baldwin has even
made abolishing the Fed one of the top planks in his platform.
Paul’s
measure, as it is now, would kill the Federal Reserve Act and would
then phase out the Federal Reserve one year after the bill becomes law.
The Federal Reserve Act, passed by Congress in 1913, laid the
foundation for the creation of a privately owned and controlled central
bank and gave private bankers the power to control the nation’s
money supply.
Nearly 100 years later, the role the central bank
has played in the financial scandal has been widely reported in the
mainstream. Former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan, once
heralded as “the maestro,” has been feeling the heat for
supporting the deregulation of financial institutions and flooding
markets with cheap dollars.
U.S. News & World Report
had a recent commentary titled “From Enron to the Financial
Crisis, With Alan Greenspan in Between” excoriating Greenspan,
who as the nation’s top banker, repeatedly downplayed the risks
associated with derivatives even after the collapse of Enron in 2002.
On September 27, The New York Times
also hit Greenspan for his failure to watch over and regulate greedy
banks. To its credit, the Times also blasted Congress for dismantling
important safeguards, including the Glass-Steagall Act, which kept
commercial and investment banks at a safe distance.
“Now we know that an entire ‘shadow banking system’ has grown up,” wrote the Times, “without rules or transparency, but with the ability to topple the financial system itself.”
Even
the cable news shows are getting in on the game. NBC’s cable news
show interviewed well-known investor Jim Rogers, who made a fortune
betting on commodities markets.
“How much money does the
Federal Reserve have?” asked Rogers. “I know they can run
their printing presses forever, but that is not good for the world.
Inflation is not good for the world. A collapsing currency is not good
for the world. It means worse recession in the end. . . . I would
abolish the Federal Reserve.”
Neo-conservative talk show
host Glenn Beck has also assailed the Federal Reserve for its role in
the financial crisis. On September 15, Beck had a lively debate about
who exactly owns the Federal Reserve.
“The Federal Reserve
has nothing to do with the government,” said Beck.
“It’s a separate, global banking system. . . . And when
everyone was meeting with our Secretary of Treasury Henry Paulson, I
thought to myself: ‘Who the hell is representing us, the American
people?”
Ron Paul financial advisor Paul Schiff responded:
“The Fed got us into this mess. It drives me crazy to see Alan
Greenspan on television talking about this ‘100 year
flood,’ like the events that are taking place today are random
and have nothing to do with his monetary policy. He blew up the bubble,
and now it’s burst.”
Wall Street Journal editorial writer Steven Moore added: “And by the way, who elected Ben Bernanke? Who elected Alan Greenspan?”
Now
is the time for Americans to fan the flames. Call your congressman and
two senators and ask them to support Paul’s bill, which would
abolish the Fed. There can be no end to these manufactured financial
crises until the government gets rid of the Fed and replaces it with
honest, debt-free money.
The
trillion-dollar Wall Street bailout plan negotiated by the White House
and Congress has reinvigorated the debate about Texas Republican Rep.
Ron Paul’s Federal Reserve Board Abolition Act (HR 2755), which
was introduced into Congress in June 2007.
In the halls of
Congress, legislators have yet to bring Paul’s bill to the floor.
It is currently languishing in the House Committee on Financial
Services.
However, there has been a great deal of discussion
about this landmark legislation on the Internet and in the alternative
press. Constitution Party presidential candidate Chuck Baldwin has even
made abolishing the Fed one of the top planks in his platform.
Paul’s
measure, as it is now, would kill the Federal Reserve Act and would
then phase out the Federal Reserve one year after the bill becomes law.
The Federal Reserve Act, passed by Congress in 1913, laid the
foundation for the creation of a privately owned and controlled central
bank and gave private bankers the power to control the nation’s
money supply.
Nearly 100 years later, the role the central bank
has played in the financial scandal has been widely reported in the
mainstream. Former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan, once
heralded as “the maestro,” has been feeling the heat for
supporting the deregulation of financial institutions and flooding
markets with cheap dollars.
U.S. News & World Report
had a recent commentary titled “From Enron to the Financial
Crisis, With Alan Greenspan in Between” excoriating Greenspan,
who as the nation’s top banker, repeatedly downplayed the risks
associated with derivatives even after the collapse of Enron in 2002.
On September 27, The New York Times
also hit Greenspan for his failure to watch over and regulate greedy
banks. To its credit, the Times also blasted Congress for dismantling
important safeguards, including the Glass-Steagall Act, which kept
commercial and investment banks at a safe distance.
“Now we know that an entire ‘shadow banking system’ has grown up,” wrote the Times, “without rules or transparency, but with the ability to topple the financial system itself.”
Even
the cable news shows are getting in on the game. NBC’s cable news
show interviewed well-known investor Jim Rogers, who made a fortune
betting on commodities markets.
“How much money does the
Federal Reserve have?” asked Rogers. “I know they can run
their printing presses forever, but that is not good for the world.
Inflation is not good for the world. A collapsing currency is not good
for the world. It means worse recession in the end. . . . I would
abolish the Federal Reserve.”
Neo-conservative talk show
host Glenn Beck has also assailed the Federal Reserve for its role in
the financial crisis. On September 15, Beck had a lively debate about
who exactly owns the Federal Reserve.
“The Federal Reserve
has nothing to do with the government,” said Beck.
“It’s a separate, global banking system. . . . And when
everyone was meeting with our Secretary of Treasury Henry Paulson, I
thought to myself: ‘Who the hell is representing us, the American
people?”
Ron Paul financial advisor Paul Schiff responded:
“The Fed got us into this mess. It drives me crazy to see Alan
Greenspan on television talking about this ‘100 year
flood,’ like the events that are taking place today are random
and have nothing to do with his monetary policy. He blew up the bubble,
and now it’s burst.”
Wall Street Journal editorial writer Steven Moore added: “And by the way, who elected Ben Bernanke? Who elected Alan Greenspan?”
Now
is the time for Americans to fan the flames. Call your congressman and
two senators and ask them to support Paul’s bill, which would
abolish the Fed. There can be no end to these manufactured financial
crises until the government gets rid of the Fed and replaces it with
honest, debt-free money.
Congressional Leaders Stunned by Warnings
The New York Times wants you to know that your elected representatives and unelected bureaucrats think you are too stupid to understand the details of this meeting.
What likely transpired is that those attending the meeting were told that they would be shot if the bloatout bill didn't pass.
By DAVID M. HERSZENHORN
WASHINGTON — It was a room full of people who rarely hold their tongues. But as the Fed chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, laid out the potentially devastating ramifications of the financial crisis before congressional leaders on Thursday night, there was a stunned silence at first.
Mr. Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. had made an urgent and unusual evening visit to Capitol Hill, and they were gathered around a conference table in the offices of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
“When you listened to him describe it you gulped," said Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York.
As Senator Christopher J. Dodd, Democrat of Connecticut and chairman of the Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, put it Friday morning on the ABC program “Good Morning America,” the congressional leaders were told “that we’re literally maybe days away from a complete meltdown of our financial system, with all the implications here at home and globally.”
Mr. Schumer added, “History was sort of hanging over it, like this was a moment.”
When Mr. Schumer described the meeting as “somber,” Mr. Dodd cut in. “Somber doesn’t begin to justify the words,” he said. “We have never heard language like this.”
“What you heard last evening,” he added, “is one of those rare moments, certainly rare in my experience here, is Democrats and Republicans deciding we need to work together quickly.”
Although Mr. Schumer, Mr. Dodd and other participants declined to repeat precisely what they were told by Mr. Bernanke and Mr. Paulson, they said the two men described the financial system as effectively bound in a knot that was being pulled tighter and tighter by the day.
“You have the credit lines in America, which are the lifeblood of the economy, frozen.” Mr. Schumer said. “That hasn’t happened before. It’s a brave new world. You are in uncharted territory, but the one thing you do know is you can’t leave them frozen or the economy will just head south at a rapid rate.”
As he spoke, Mr. Schumer swooped his hand, to make the gesture of a plummeting bird. “You know we’d be lucky ...” he said as his voice trailed off. “Well, I’ll leave it at that.”
As officials at the Treasury Department raced on Friday to draft legislative language for an ambitious plan for the government to buy billions of dollars of illiquid debt from ailing American financial institutions, legislators on Capitol Hill said they planned to work through the weekend reviewing the proposal and making efforts to bring a package of measures to the floor of the House and Senate by the end of next week.
Lawmakers in both parties described the meeting in Ms. Pelosi’s office on Thursday night with Mr. Paulson and Mr. Bernanke as collaborative, and that they were prepared to put politics aside to address the needs of the American people.
While Democrats initially said after the meeting that they planned to use the administration’s proposal of a huge rescue effort to win support for an economic stimulus package, they pulled back slightly on Friday morning, saying that their top priority was to help put together the bailout package and stabilize the economy.
But it was clear they continued to examine ways to make clear that the government was stepping up not just to help the major financial firms but also to protect the interests of American taxpayers and families by safeguarding their pensions and college savings, and by preventing any further drying up of consumer credit.
In addition to potential stimulus measures, which could include an extension of unemployment benefits and spending on public infrastructure projects, Democrats said they intended to consider measures to help stem home foreclosures and stabilize real estate values.
Among the potential steps Congress can take include approving legislation to allow bankruptcy judges to modify the terms of primary mortgages — authority that the bankruptcy laws do not currently allow and that the banking industry has strenuously opposed.
But the Democrats said it was too soon to discuss such details, and that they were awaiting a draft of the proposal from the Treasury Department.
“We have got to deal with the foreclosure issue,” Mr. Dodd said. “You have got to stop that hemorrhaging..If you don’t, the problem doesn’t go away. Ben Bernanke has said it over and over again. Hank Paulson recognizes it. This problem began with bad lending practices. Those are his words, not mine, and so this plan must address that or I’ll be back here in front of a bank of microphones at some point explaining the next failure.”
Even before the drafting of the plan was complete, the Bush administration and the Fed began efforts to sell the idea of a huge rescue to potentially skeptical rank-and-file members of Congress. Mr. Paulson and Mr. Bernanke held a conference call with House Republicans to explain their thinking.
Senator Richard C. Shelby of Alabama, the senior Republican on the Senate banking committee, said in a television interview that cost to the government of purchasing bad debt could run to $1 trillion — a potential warning sign since Mr. Shelby is a longtime skeptic of government intervention in the private market.
Until Mr. Shelby was interviewed on Friday morning, officials on Capitol Hill had been careful not to discuss specific figures, though the rescue envisioned by the Treasury Department clearly entails a government appropriation of hundreds of billions of dollars.
What likely transpired is that those attending the meeting were told that they would be shot if the bloatout bill didn't pass.
By DAVID M. HERSZENHORN
WASHINGTON — It was a room full of people who rarely hold their tongues. But as the Fed chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, laid out the potentially devastating ramifications of the financial crisis before congressional leaders on Thursday night, there was a stunned silence at first.
Mr. Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. had made an urgent and unusual evening visit to Capitol Hill, and they were gathered around a conference table in the offices of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
“When you listened to him describe it you gulped," said Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York.
As Senator Christopher J. Dodd, Democrat of Connecticut and chairman of the Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, put it Friday morning on the ABC program “Good Morning America,” the congressional leaders were told “that we’re literally maybe days away from a complete meltdown of our financial system, with all the implications here at home and globally.”
Mr. Schumer added, “History was sort of hanging over it, like this was a moment.”
When Mr. Schumer described the meeting as “somber,” Mr. Dodd cut in. “Somber doesn’t begin to justify the words,” he said. “We have never heard language like this.”
“What you heard last evening,” he added, “is one of those rare moments, certainly rare in my experience here, is Democrats and Republicans deciding we need to work together quickly.”
Although Mr. Schumer, Mr. Dodd and other participants declined to repeat precisely what they were told by Mr. Bernanke and Mr. Paulson, they said the two men described the financial system as effectively bound in a knot that was being pulled tighter and tighter by the day.
“You have the credit lines in America, which are the lifeblood of the economy, frozen.” Mr. Schumer said. “That hasn’t happened before. It’s a brave new world. You are in uncharted territory, but the one thing you do know is you can’t leave them frozen or the economy will just head south at a rapid rate.”
As he spoke, Mr. Schumer swooped his hand, to make the gesture of a plummeting bird. “You know we’d be lucky ...” he said as his voice trailed off. “Well, I’ll leave it at that.”
As officials at the Treasury Department raced on Friday to draft legislative language for an ambitious plan for the government to buy billions of dollars of illiquid debt from ailing American financial institutions, legislators on Capitol Hill said they planned to work through the weekend reviewing the proposal and making efforts to bring a package of measures to the floor of the House and Senate by the end of next week.
Lawmakers in both parties described the meeting in Ms. Pelosi’s office on Thursday night with Mr. Paulson and Mr. Bernanke as collaborative, and that they were prepared to put politics aside to address the needs of the American people.
While Democrats initially said after the meeting that they planned to use the administration’s proposal of a huge rescue effort to win support for an economic stimulus package, they pulled back slightly on Friday morning, saying that their top priority was to help put together the bailout package and stabilize the economy.
But it was clear they continued to examine ways to make clear that the government was stepping up not just to help the major financial firms but also to protect the interests of American taxpayers and families by safeguarding their pensions and college savings, and by preventing any further drying up of consumer credit.
In addition to potential stimulus measures, which could include an extension of unemployment benefits and spending on public infrastructure projects, Democrats said they intended to consider measures to help stem home foreclosures and stabilize real estate values.
Among the potential steps Congress can take include approving legislation to allow bankruptcy judges to modify the terms of primary mortgages — authority that the bankruptcy laws do not currently allow and that the banking industry has strenuously opposed.
But the Democrats said it was too soon to discuss such details, and that they were awaiting a draft of the proposal from the Treasury Department.
“We have got to deal with the foreclosure issue,” Mr. Dodd said. “You have got to stop that hemorrhaging..If you don’t, the problem doesn’t go away. Ben Bernanke has said it over and over again. Hank Paulson recognizes it. This problem began with bad lending practices. Those are his words, not mine, and so this plan must address that or I’ll be back here in front of a bank of microphones at some point explaining the next failure.”
Even before the drafting of the plan was complete, the Bush administration and the Fed began efforts to sell the idea of a huge rescue to potentially skeptical rank-and-file members of Congress. Mr. Paulson and Mr. Bernanke held a conference call with House Republicans to explain their thinking.
Senator Richard C. Shelby of Alabama, the senior Republican on the Senate banking committee, said in a television interview that cost to the government of purchasing bad debt could run to $1 trillion — a potential warning sign since Mr. Shelby is a longtime skeptic of government intervention in the private market.
Until Mr. Shelby was interviewed on Friday morning, officials on Capitol Hill had been careful not to discuss specific figures, though the rescue envisioned by the Treasury Department clearly entails a government appropriation of hundreds of billions of dollars.
It didn't take as long as predicted
We have swiftly moved beyond a facist dictatorship to a full-blown Idiocracy.
No Bailout ! "They Will Kill You !
Lyndon LaRouche's warning to CONgress
They failed to take heed. The numbers of pesky peasants multiplies further still.
They failed to take heed. The numbers of pesky peasants multiplies further still.
Goldman Sachs Bribed Senate To Pass Bailout Bill
The US Government; the finest government money can buy!
THIS IS A MUST-WATCH!
THIS IS A MUST-WATCH!
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