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Marcelo Munoz (MarceloMunoz) [Message] Interim state coordinator 5509 Surrey Lane Birmingham, AL 35242

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The TARP That Had No End Posted by Gary Howard

Posted 12/10/09 Last updated 12/10/09

Despite the lack of oversight at its inception, and the corruption that likely continued through its distribution, the federal TARP-Troubled Assets Relief Program has had its life extended by the Obama administration.

The $700-billion bailout fund, which was set to expire at year's end, will now end in October. The news comes as a government audit finds the program lost $41.4 billion in the last fiscal year. More...

We are just now beginning to get a clearer picture of the waste, fraud, and abuse that has already occurred in the program with the help of an independent audit investigation.

This brings to mind the Federal Reserve. The TARP program has only existed for one year, and under extreme circumstances. After nearly a century of secrecy and no accountability, who knows what will be uncovered when there finally is a complete audit of the Fed. We need to Audit the Fed now!

Why? Posted by MarceloMunoz

Posted 12/04/09

Nov. 22 marked the 46th anniversary of John F. Kennedy's assassination. Before his death he signed executive order 11110 to unburden Americans from relying on the Federal Reserve System to print our dollars. This order returned our money to a stable silver-based standard. Only a few billion of the new silver certificates were ever released before President Johnson stopped the issuance.

Since then, politicians have been able to bilk Americans because of an unending piggy bank at the Federal Reserve. Our government Treasury prints bonds, which it sends to the privately owned Federal Reserve System. The private Federal Reserve System issues dollar bills, which are debts that have interest payable by Americans. The compound interest on these bills was so destructive that it bankrupted our country with a Great Depression.

The Federal Reserve is once again bankrupting our country. Fortunately, U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, and his supporters have managed to gather more than 310 congressmen to fully audit the Federal Reserve System for the first time in its existence. Over 30 U.S. Senators have signed on in support of S604 as well. Unfortunately, Senators Shelby and Sessions are not among them. Why?

More Federal "Stimulus" Hocus Pocus Posted by BAMAToNE

Posted 11/22/09 Last updated 11/22/09

This was just too good not to post.

Part of the stimulus package passed in February included a massive purchase of fleet vehicles for use by the Federal government.

Well, it turns out that General Motors fudged the numbers significantly when it reported on the impact of that purchase:

In its report, GM initially said the $88 million it had received to date for 5,279 vehicles shipped was responsible for creating or retaining more than 105 jobs.

But the company told the Free Press last week that, as was the case with the other automakers, employment actually “remained static” and the order was incorporated into regular production.

“The government asked us to attach a number of employees to fulfill the order,” said GM spokesman Greg Martin.

Translation: No jobs created.

Which is just a drop in the "phantom jobs" bucket. It's funny how the Obama administration says the federal stimulus bill has created or saved 640,329 jobs so far, yet unemployment continues to rise (10.2% reported in October). Read more about phantom jobs here if you like.

Edit: Hey, look! Phantom jobs in Alabama, too!

Alabama Campaign for Liberty Gubernatorial Forum a Success! Posted by MarceloMunoz

Posted 11/20/09 Last updated 11/19/09

Birmingham, AL (November 17, 2009)
Over 250 people showed up Tuesday, November 10 for the Alabama Campaign for Liberty Straw Poll and Gubernatorial Forum, co-sponsored by the 10,000 member strong Rainy Day Patriots. The event was held at Matthew's Manor in Springville, Alabama, home of the Conservative Patriots Club, and who assisted with the event. The number of attendees was spectacular considering that Tropical Storm Ida was directly overhead at forum start time. Since the forum was broadcast live on WAPI 1070 AM to the Greater Birmingham area, many chose to listen from home instead of attending.

The event was a very enlightening evening which was not without some controversy. One of the candidates in the race, Mr. Bradley Byrne, cancelled his appearance on Friday, November 6, a mere five days before he was scheduled to appear. His campaign indicated that they had a conflict in schedules. The controversy arose from the fact that their campaign had committed to attend a month earlier, was in constant communication with the organizers, and even confirmed their appearance less than 24 hrs before cancelling. We must note that Mr. Byrne was scheduled to be in the Birmingham area throughout the week at other events. Mr. Byrne also cancelled his interview with Matt Murphy of the Matt Murphy Show on 1070AM scheduled for Wednesday morning. The expected topic was the prior night's forum. To date the only explanation he has given is that he was at a "private event."

This perceived slight did not go unnoticed by those in attendance and the listening audience who flooded WAPI's phone lines with complaints and less than kind words for Mr. Byrne and his campaign. The political turmoil this created was such that Mr. Byrne appeared on Matt's show on Thursday morning to, among other things, explain his absence from the forum to incensed voters.

The gubernatorial candidates that did participate were Dr. Robert Bentley (R), Tim James (R), and Bill Johnson (R). Prior to and after the event, the candidates made themselves available for a meet and greet with supporters and the general public.

A special thanks go to Matt Murphy for his excellent moderation of this event. The panel that consisted of Zan Green (President of the Rainy Day Patriots), Marcelo Munoz (Campaign for Liberty) and Matt Murphy (1070AM) posed their questions to the candidates, which covered the Constitution, state rights and other important issues for the State of Alabama. The audience was also given the opportunity to submit questions. Some of the issues covered were home schooling, abortion, gambling, and stimulus money. After the debate, a gubernatorial preference straw poll was conducted with the candidates obtaining the following results:

Tim James 75%
Robert Bentley 14%
Bill Johnson 7%
Bradley Byrne 4%

This was a great forum for getting to know the candidates and make an informed decision in the upcoming very important 2010 Gubernatorial election. The candidates were so pleased that all three committed to attend other Campaign for Liberty events in the upcoming months in cities such as Tuscaloosa, Mobile, Montgomery, Decatur and Huntsville.

By all accounts, the event was a huge success. Thanks to Kristin Brantley, Linda and Mack Gowder, The Rainy Day Patriots and all of the many volunteers who gave up their time to help in making this a very successful event!! Thanks also go to Mr. Matthews and the Conservative Patriots Club for allowing us to have this event at Matthews Manor.

Below is a video link to part 1 of 17 of the Forum.

http://www.youtube.com/ConservativePatriots#p/u/16/HgMmp1PJye0

Below is a link to a picasa album of the event<
br />http://picasaweb.google.com/rainydaypatriots/RainyDayPatriotsGubernatorialForumS
pringvilleALNov102009?feat=content_notification#

Reported by Marcelo D. Muñoz, Alabama Campaign for Liberty Interim State Coordinator. Deanna Frankowski of the Rainy Day Patriots contributed to this report.

National Guard in JeffCo?! Posted by ecomeaux

Posted 08/20/09

Thank goodness Gov. Riley didn't call a state of emergency, but sending in the National Guard to perform police functions?! What is the state gonna do about the man-made crisis that is Jefferson County?

Guard troops may be needed in troubled Ala. County

By Jay Reeves

Aug 4, 2009

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090804/ap_on_re_us/us_alabama_county_crisis_1

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - The sheriff in Alabama's most populous county may call for the National Guard to help maintain order, a spokesman said Tuesday, after a judge cleared the way for cuts in the sheriff's budget and hopes dimmed for a quick end to a budget crisis.

Circuit Judge Joseph L. Boohaker ruled that leaders in Jefferson County - now trying to head off a municipal bankruptcy filing of historic proportions - could go ahead with plans to slash $4.1 million from the budget of Sheriff Mike Hale, who had filed a lawsuit that temporarily blocked spending cuts for his office.

About 1,000 county workers already are on unpaid leave because courts threw out a key county tax, and Hale has warned that reductions to his budget would mean fewer patrols by deputies and decreased courthouse security.

A spokesman for Hale, Randy Christian, said the sheriff told Gov. Bob Riley after the ruling that state assistance may be needed to perform basic law enforcement tasks once the department's current funding is exhausted in early September.

"We will certainly be looking at calling in the National Guard," said Christian.

Hale may have to cut as many as 188 deputies and almost 300 civilian workers out of more than 700 employees total because of Boohaker's ruling, Christian said. That would leave just enough workers to staff the county's two jails, which hold about 1,000 prisoners on average.

Christian said the department couldn't close either jail or release inmates, but it would send as many prisoners as possible to the state prison system, which already is badly overcrowded.

Riley previously refused to declare a state of emergency in Jefferson County, which has about 640,000 residents and includes the state's largest city, Birmingham. But he hasn't ruled out sending in Guard members or state troopers if needed.

Members of the county's legislative delegation scheduled a meeting to consider a replacement for the defunct occupational tax. However, Jefferson County Commission president Bettye Fine Collins said she doubted the commission would approve the plan since lawyers already have questioned its constitutionality.

"It wouldn't make sense to support it since we would likely be right back where we are now," Collins said in an interview.

The crisis followed court rulings that blocked Jefferson County from using money from an occupational tax that provided some $75 million annually, or about one-third of its budget.

Riley has promised to call a special session as soon as the county's legislative delegation can agree on a new tax, but prospects for passage are in doubt if Collins and other county commissioners don't go along.

The budget crisis comes as the county seeks to avoid filing what would be the largest municipal bankruptcy ever over some $3.9 billion in sewer bonds it can no longer afford to repay. As with the tax problem, elected leaders can't agree on a solution.

The sewer system is still operating normally, but the county has closed four satellite courthouses because of the loss of the revenue from the occupational tax. Residents are standing in line for hours at the main courthouse to do routine business like renewing car tags.