In 2009, Democrats raised the bar for fiscal incompetence - never before in the history of the world has so much money been spent with so little to show for it.
It is shameful enough that they stole our grandchildren's money to go on their fiscal binge; but it is downright embarrassing to see how ineptly they squandered over $2.6 trillion of future American prosperity. Money for nothing, indeed.
The list of blunders begins with the second installment of TARP, bringing to $850 billion the total appropriated for the expressed purpose of purchasing toxic assets from banks. How many of these toxic assets got purchased? Not a single one.
Next we spent over $40 billion for the expressed purpose of keeping GM and Chrysler from going bankrupt. And then both GM and Chrysler went bankrupt.
The $787 billion economic stimulus bill was passed with the expressed purpose of creating 3 million jobs and keep unemployment below 8%. Except that we lost 3 million more jobs, and unemployment is now over 10% and climbing.
Cash 4 Clunkers spent $4 billion for the expressed purpose of convincing people who were going to drive their old cars to buy fuel-efficient American cars instead. People who were going to buy a new car anyway bought Hondas.
And then there was the Mortgage Bailout bill - $75 billion for the expressed purpose of keeping 5 million homeowners from losing their homes. Oops - only 650,000 actually qualified, a small fraction of those were actually refinanced, and more than half of the loans refinanced went delinquent again within 3 months.
The Senate is about to pass an $871 billion health care bill whose original expressed purpose was to provide universal coverage, spending reforms, and a public option. After months of bribing votes out of individual senators, the final bill will do none of those things; instead it cuts care for seniors and raises our taxes by half a trillion dollars.
Not to be outdone by Congress, the Federal Reserve doubled the money supply (yes, doubled it) in the last quarter of 2008 for the expressed purpose of forcing banks to expand credit in 2009. Credit issuance contracted by 15%.
On the international front, Copenhagen's climate talks broke down (thankfully) with no agreement on global warming. Somehow even that no-deal left us holding the bag to pay poor countries $30 billion for doing........absolutely nothing. At least the expectations for this deal are realistic.
It would be one thing if Americans were clamoring for all of these spending initiatives. But opinion polls clearly showed each of these measures were overwhelmingly opposed, making them not merely expensive and ineffective, but also unwanted - the Trifecta of legislative absurdity. Tammy's Democrats passed them all anyway.
That is why the approval rating of Congress is at its lowest point in modern history. As it should be; those guys are really bad at this stuff. We all knew they were reluctant capitalists; but who knew they would also turn out to be such incompetent socialists?
Not that I would endorse government interference in markets, but let's put their foolishness into perspective. $2.6 trillion could have purchased 2,600 new Westinghouse AP1000 nuclear power plants; enough capacity to generate all the energy we could ever conceivably use for all purposes - for several centuries.
That's what $2.6 trillion could have bought - perpetual energy independence and zero carbon emissions forever. Instead, we got nothing, unless you count a one-year raise for some union teachers. That is truly pathetic.
We fired the big-government Republicans in 2006 because they didn't get it - they spent too much money, ran up debt, ignored the Constitution, and were drifting aimlessly in Iraq and Afghanistan. We didn't think anyone could possibly do worse in any of those four areas, let alone all four. We were wrong.
The Democrats have not just governed badly; they have trivialized the process of representative government. They have spat upon the Constitution they swore an oath to uphold; they have mortgaged our future to indulge the fantasies of their radical base; they have traded our precious sovereignty for the worthless approval of the failing socialist states in Europe. Thank God we have China to tell them to pound sand.
Liberals will look at this list of 2009's spectacular failures with pride; they consider passing any bill with a catchy title to be a great accomplishment. They are itching to spend even more of our money and shove even more of their government down our throat; we can no longer say we didn't see it coming.
In 2009 they have made their ambitions clear; in 2010 it will be our turn to make ours equally clear. Vote for Liberty. Vote Libertarian. Vote for Tim, Not Tammy.
Tim Nerenz is the Libertarian Party Candidate for U.S. House of Representatives from Wisconsin's 2nd District. To support Dr. Tim's campaign, please visit the campaign website at www.timnerenz.com.
2009 was a pretty bad year for the Constitution, but 1913 was worse: it was the year that the Federal Reserve was created and taxing income was legalized.
I don't expect "Repeal the 16th Amendment" will replace "O Sucks!" as the student section chant of choice at next year's Badger games, but it is those students and everyone in their age group who would gain the most if we would return to the principled economics of sound money and proportional taxation. They would not be facing a $225,000 per-job share of the national debt and they would earn orders of magnitude higher incomes when they graduate.
You won't find the Federal Reserve anywhere in the Constitution; it assigns Congress the sole responsibility for maintaining a sound and stable currency in Article I, section 8. In section 9, it even prohibits states from accepting fiat money (what the Fed issues) as repayment for debts. This was not a careless omission; the framers observed how the central banks of Europe oppressed the common folk and enriched the ruling elites.
The founding fathers knew that a central bank was incompatible with the ideal of limited and subservient government. For the first American century there was no central bank and we prospered as no other nation has before or since. Then, in 1913, the so-called progressives abandoned the Constitution and created the Federal Reserve, giving it complete autonomy over the money supply. Bad move.
In 1913, the first Federal Reserve Notes (the dollar) were coupons redeemable for one ounce of gold. Either one ounce of gold or one U.S. dollar could purchase a decent rifle, as was the case in 1813, a century earlier. Today, a decent rifle can still be purchased with ounce of gold, but it would take over 1,000 of those Federal Reserve notes to buy either one.
Gold and rifles cost the same, but the dollar has lost 99.9% of its value, thanks to the Federal Reserve and its inflationary issuance of fiat money - money not backed by tangible assets. We should abolish the Federal Reserve and return to the Constitutional mandate of sound money.
I personally prefer a currency tied to a BTU - unit of energy - while others prefer a return to the gold standard, and others a basket of commodities. It is not so important how our money is anchored, but that it is. We can not have a strong economy without a strong dollar, and we will never have a strong dollar while we have the Federal Reserve.
And while we are at it, we should also repeal the 16th amendment and abolish all taxes on income. Income is the product of a person's labor and no one else has a rightful claim to it. A slave is a person who has lost his right to 100% of the product of his labor; a tax-slave is a person who is 2/3 of the way there.
Before the 16th amendment changed it, the Constitution required the government to tax people, not the product of their work. And it required any form of tax to be proportional to the census, just like representation in Congress. The principle is simple: one person, one vote, one unit of tax. That is equality.
That principle held government in check for a century, with government spending below 5% of GDP. And government only spent money on things that benefited everyone, since everyone was taxed equally. During the 1800's we became the most prosperous people in the history of the world, and not by accident.
In the first American century, Americans flourished because American government was constrained. In the second, it was American government that flourished while Americans were constrained. Our government now spends nearly 50% of GDP, and with unfunded mandates on the private sector added, the total is over 60%.
And our tax system no longer taxes citizens equally; it punishes some to benefit others. Our current tax code punishes work, savings, investment, thrift, and exports. It rewards spending, debt, taxation, and imports. It is not difficult to understand why we have too little of the former and too much of the latter.
Worse yet, our tax system insures corruption of the political process - it is the mechanism by which politicians reward contributors and punish opponents. It is how votes are bought in Congress. It distorts the markets and produces economic inefficiency. It screws the little guy. The current tax system is indefensible.
We can not immediately return to a proportional tax with the size of government that we have today; the cost of citizenship would be approximately $20,000 per person, $80,000 for a family of four. Now, you might be thinking this can't possibly be right; you may not even make $80,000.
And that is precisely the point; the reason you don't make more than $80,000 is because the government has taxed it out of the economy where you could have earned it. Granted, some people would earn more of it than other people would, but that still beats Nancy Pelosi taking all of it.
This could never have happened under the original Constitutional requirement for proportional taxation, and it is why the 16th amendment needs to be repealed. It's why the 16th amendment matters to you, why the students at Camp Randall should be chanting for it to be repealed - but not at the expense of Jump Around, the greatest stadium tradition in the history of spectator sports.
But we can take an intermediate step that can put us on the path to ending confiscatory taxation, and give everyone a vested interest in reducing the size of government. We should scrap the whole system of federal taxes and replace them with one universal tax on retail consumption - the FairTax. In the process, we can dispense with the IRS, freeing up over $400 billion that is currently being spent each year on compliance with its ridiculously complex codes.
President Obama insists we need another economic stimulus because his first one didn't work. I agree with him 100%. End the Fed and abolish the IRS - that is my economic stimulus plan.
Tim Nerenz is the Libertarian Party Candidate for U.S. House of Representatives from Wisconsin's 2nd District. To support Dr. Tim's campaign, please visit the campaign website at www.timnerenz.com.
In my last post, I proposed abolishment of the Federal Reserve and the IRS; I hope I did not give anyone the impression that it was an all-inclusive list.
Democrats are a lost cause when it comes to fiscal sanity, and Republicans are math-averse - talking in platitudes about cutting taxes and reducing the deficit, but unable or unwilling to name the specific programs they would cut to get there. Libertarians are both fiscally responsible and mathematically proficient.
Let's start with the Department of Education. We send a dollar to D.C. and get 78 cents back (or less) with a boatload of stings attached. Before we federalized education we were #1 in the world; today spend twice as much per pupil and we are 17th in reading, 18th in math. Kill it before it drives us out of the top 50.
Next up, Departments of Labor and Commerce. Both exist to neutralize the power of the other - it's like suing yourself and then paying for both lawyers. Quick quiz: who is the current secretary of either department? I didn't think so. Chop, chop.
While we are at it, adios Agriculture Department. We have the internet now; we don't need the county extension agent. But wait, you say, who will divvy out the giant subsidies to the giant agri-businesses with no giant Ag Department? Bonus.
Department of Energy. Before we had a department of it, energy was cheap and plentiful and most of it was produced here. We are more dependent than ever on foreign oil while our energy costs have gone through the roof. Good riddance.
Another quick quiz: name three actual accomplishments of the United Nations - me neither. Bye. And why are we giving out foreign aid that we borrow from the Chinese? Let them go ask China for some cash and cut out the middle man.
How about the Bureau of Indian Affairs? This is 2010, not 1910. The dudes stuffing their money into the slot machines at Ho Chunk have a lot less of it than the dudes who are taking it out.
Department of Housing and Urban Development. 50 years and trillions of dollars later, has one Urb has been developed? And wasn't it government-mandated sub-prime lending that broke the world in 2008? I can't believe HUD is even still here to cut.
Department of Defense needs a 50% trimming: how can it take 600,000 civilian employees to buy bullets and beans for 1.1 million uniformed troops, and why are our troops defending Germany? Did Lichtenstein invade and are we next on the list? Back when it was called the War department, we all knew what it was supposed to be used for.
In a previous post, I laid out my proposal for converting the government pension system (social security) to a system of personal retirement savings accounts over a generation, and in another 2-part piece, laid out a comprehensive plan for real health care reform that phased out Medicare. Anyone who still talks about "saving" either hem clearly doesn't comprehend they are already broke.
TSA, NIH, FDA, EPA, SBA, INS, DEA - too many agencies, not enough space to list them all . If it has three initials or a czar running it, chances are it is 8 parts useless jobs program for unionized federal workers and 2 parts marginally useful function of government. I would make "scrap" the default setting unless someone can justify their existence who doesn't work there or get their grants from them.
Add them up, and we have just cut the size of the federal government in half, from 24% of GDP to 12%, and turned deficits into surpluses so the debt can be paid down and tax rates can be lowered. These are real and permanent cuts, not smoke and mirrors or single-year accounting gimmicks.
And government will not only be cheaper, it will be better. We will have better schools, more energy, real retirement security, health care that is better and more affordable, strong economic growth, more jobs, and higher wages. Think of it as a $1.7 trillion economic stimulus bill each and every year, only one that Jim Doyle can't get his hands on.
Think my cut list is too drastic? Look at it again, and tell me which one of these departments has fulfilled its promise. Tell me which you would even notice if no one told you it was gone. Tell me which one you are willing to pay 71% higher taxes to keep around - that what it will take from all of us to keep all of the government we have now.
My campaign cards say "Tim, Not Tammy". You have seen my list; you should ask her to show you hers. We both claim to be against deficit spending: one of us (Tim) has shown you how to stop it, and the other (Tammy) has voted for every penny of it.
Tim Nerenz is the Libertarian Party Candidate for U.S. House of Representatives from Wisconsin's 2nd District. To support Dr. Tim's campaign, please visit the campaign website at www.timnerenz.com.
2009 has been a wonderful year for me, and I hope that it's been wonderful for all of you, too. It was the year that I woke up from a politically under-informed, head-in-the-sand lifestyle, and I owe the wake-up call (and my eternal gratitude and admiration) to Dr. Ron Paul.
I had the pleasure of attending the 'Freedom Rally' in St Louis at the end of March this year, and was pleasantly surprised at the turnout. It was standing room only, and I think everyone there walked away with a newfound love of our Constitution, and a sense of faith in (at least) one politician.
Since attending the Freedom Rally, I've become a member, a local coordinator, then a county co-coordinator for C4L; I've attended meetups, sign-painting parties, protests, and townhall meetings; I've handwritten letters to my reps, called their offices, faxed, emailed, even spoken with my Congressman on the phone; I've written letters to the editor, posted blogs, and done literally hundreds and hundreds of hours of research to learn as much as I can about our government and it's policies/procedures, our Constitution, and current events as they relate to our current crises. I've been able to spot the BS the MSM is throwing at us, and have even been known to yell at the TV now and again...and I'm still left with a sense of disappointment and dissatisfaction, and a feeling of dread that I may have 'hit the snooze' one time too many.
With all of this in mind, I'd like to convey my wishes for the United States of America-2010:
I wish that when a movie such as Avatar is released, that the 'hidden political messages' were not picked apart at the micro-level...I didn't see it as a movie about how the white man swooped in and saved the day for people that were representative of the Native Americans or African Americans...the Na'vi were BLUE with BIG TAILS!! I don't think Native Americans or African Americans would've chosen giant blue people with tails to symbolize them, regardless of their feathered attire or dreadlocks. The bigger picture, as I saw it, showed that no matter how big your foe, if we as individuals come together with our sticks and stones, bows and arrows, and fight towards a common goal, (putting aside tribal affiliations), we will win.
I wish that when I went to Wal-Mart, I would see "Made in Missouri," not Made in Mexico...or "Made in Vermont," not Made in Vietnam, "Made in Chicago," not Made in China. Unfortunately, in order to see the "Made in the USA" labels, we would have to have a government that WANTS to see America realize its own potential, and NOT its demise. The government regulation against its own, and the subsidies and tax grants for foreign countries, is stifling our independance, ingenuity, creativity, and is throwing away our national sovereignty.
I wish that when I went to the ballot box, that I would have to think long and hard about who I voted for, because all of the candidates are freedom-lovers who hold the Constitution in the same esteem as they hold their Bibles...that they were all excellent choices, and not the 'lesser of two evils.' I wish that even if my last choice candidate was the winner, I would have nothing to fear.
I wish that the people that run our great country loved it even half as much as the people that are in my meetup groups, and if that were the case, again I would have nothing to fear.
I wish that my children and grandchildren had an honest chance to make career choices that won't leave them forever indebted to a government that spent their money before they've even earned it.
I wish every lobbyist had a conscience, and an explosive case of diarrhea.
I wish that public servants had to live by the same laws they make for the rest of us...tax evasion laws for Tim Geithner; bribery laws for the Senator that sold out 49 states for the special treatment of his, etc. I say 'etc' because I think there's a word limit for these blogs and if I listed every immoral, illegal, and unConstitutional thing that our current administration has/is doing, I would run out of both room and time.
I wish that personal liberty was a fact of life, and didn't require our eternal vigilance. I wish that freedom was the reward for national security, not the price. I wish that honesty and nobility were the driving forces in Washington, not power and money.
Alas, it is highly doubtful that any of my wishes will come true in 2010, and very unlikely that any will come true in my lifetime. That being said, I wish to all of you:
Excellent Health, as this is how your worth will be judged under the new healthcare plan;
A low carbon output, as you will be taxed for breathing under the Cap & Trade legislation;
Extreme Wealth, because Washington will need your money to help pay for the above;
Endless amounts of time and energy to assist in the battles we face on our homefront against unConstitutional laws;
Love for your neighbor, since you are likely to be living with them when our monetary system fails;
The ability to grow your own food as we welcome Codex Alimentarius to the USA, effective tomorrow;
and lastly, I wish you all the ability to find happiness in these most trying of times.
Charlie Reese has been a journalist for 49 years. This is what he says of our government:
Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them. Have you ever wondered, if both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, WHY do we have deficits? Have you ever wondered, if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, WHY do we have inflation and high taxes? You and I don't propose a federal budget, the president does. You and I don't have the Constitutional authority to vote on appropriations, The House of Representatives does. You and I don't write the tax code, Congress does. You and I don't set fiscal policy, Congress does. You and I don't control monetary policy, the Federal Reserve Bank does. One hundred senators, 435 congressmen, one president, and nine Supreme Court justices equates to 545 human beings out of the 300 million that are directly, legally, morally, and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague this country.
I excluded the members of the Federal Reserve Board because that problem was created by the Congress. In 1913, Congress delegated its Constitutional duty to provide a sound currency to a federally chartered, but private, central bank. I excluded all the special interests and lobbyists for a sound reason; they have no legal authority. They have no ability [authority] to coerce a senator, a congressman, or a president to do one cotton-picking thing. I don't care if they offer a politician $1 million dollars in cash. The politician has the power to accept or reject it. No matter what the lobbyist promises, it is the legislator's responsibility to determine how he votes.
These 545 human beings spend much of their energy convincing you that what they did is not their fault. They cooperate in this common con regardless of party. What separates a politician from a normal human being is an excessive amount of gall. No normal human being would have the gall of a Speaker, who stood up and criticized the President for creating deficits; the president can only propose a budget, he cannot force the Congress to accept it. The Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, gives sole responsibility to the House of Representatives for originating and approving appropriations and taxes. Who is the speaker of the House? Nancy Pelosi. She is the leader of the majority party. She and fellow House members, not the president, can approve any budget they want. If the president vetoes it, they can pass it over his veto if they agree to.
It seems inconceivable to me that a nation of 300 million can not replace 545 people who stand convicted -- by present facts -- of incompetence and irresponsibility. I can't think of a single domestic problem that is not traceable directly to those 545 people. When you fully grasp the plain truth that 545 people exercise the power of the federal government, then it must follow that what exists is what they want to exist. If the tax code is unfair, it's because they want it unfair. If the budget is in the red, it's because they want it in the red. If the Army & Marines are in IRAQ , it's because they want them in IRAQ. If they do not receive social security but are instead on an elite retirement plan not available to the people, it's because they want it that way.
There are no insoluble government problems. Do not let these 545 people shift the blame to bureaucrats, whom they hire and whose jobs they can abolish; to lobbyists, whose gifts and advice they can reject; to regulators, to whom they give the power to regulate and from whom they can take this power. Above all, do not let them con you into the belief that there exists disembodied mystical forces like "the economy," "inflation," or "politics" that prevent them from doing what they take an oath to do.
Those 545 people, and they alone, are responsible. They, and they alone, have the power. They, and they alone, should be held accountable by the people who are their bosses. Provided the voters have the gumption to manage their own employees. We should vote all of them out of office and clean up their mess!
Charlie Reese is a former columnist of the Orlando Sentinel. Newspaper.
This is probably the best e-mail I've seen in a long, long time. The following has been attributed to State Representative Mitchell Kaye from GA. This guy should run for President one day....
"We the sensible people of the United States, in an attempt to help everyone get along, restore some semblance of justice, avoid more riots, keep our nation safe, promote positive behavior, and secure the blessings of debt-free liberty to ourselves and our great-great-great-grandchildren, hereby try one more time to ordain and establish some common sense guidelines for the terminally whiny, guilt-idden, delusional, and other liberal bed-wetters. We hold these truths to be self-evident: That a whole lot of people are confused by the Bill of Rights and are so dim they require a Bill of NON-Rights."
ARTICLE I: You do not have the right to a new car, big screen TV, or any other form of wealth. More power to you if you can legally acquire them, but no one is guaranteeing anything.
ARTICLE II: You do not have the right to never be offended. This country is based on freedom, and that means freedom for everyone -- not just you! You may leave the room, turn the channel, express a different opinion, etc; but the world is full of idiots, and probably always will be.
ARTICLE III: You do not have the right to be free from harm. If you stick a screwdriver in your eye, learn to be more careful; do not expect the tool manufacturer to make you and all your relatives independently wealthy..
ARTICLE IV: You do not have the right to free food and housing. Americans are the most charitable people to be found, and will gladly help anyone in need, but we are quickly growing weary of subsidizing generation after generation of professional couch potatoes who achieve nothing more than the creation of another generation of professional couch potatoes ...
ARTICLE V:You do not have the right to free health care. That would be nice, but from the looks of public housing, we're just not interested in public health care.
ARTICLE VI:You do not have the right to physically harm other people. If you kidnap, rape, intentionally maim, or kill someone, don't be surprised if the rest of us want to see you fry in the electric chair.
ARTICLE VII: You do not have the right to the possessions of others. If you rob, cheat, or coerce away the goods or services of other citizens, don't be surprised if the rest of us get together and lock you away in a place where you still won't have the right to a big screen color TV or a life of leisure.
ARTICLE VIII: You do not have the right to a job. All of us, sure, want you to have a job, and will gladly help you along in hard times, but we expect you to take advantage of the opportunities of education and vocational training laid before you to make yourself useful. (AMEN!)
ARTICLE IX:You do not have the right to happiness. Being an American means that you have the right to PURSUE happiness, which by the way, is a lot easier if you are unencumbered by an over abundance of idiotic laws created by those of you who were confused by the Bill of Rights.
ARTICLE X: This is an English speaking country. We don't care where you are from, English is our language. Learn it or go back to wherever you came from! (Lastly....)
ARTICLE XI:You do not have the right to change our country's history or heritage. This country was founded on the belief in one true God. And yet, you are given the freedom to believe in any religion, any faith, or no faith at all; with no fear of persecution. The phrase IN GOD WE TRUST is part of our heritage and history, and if you are uncomfortable with it, TOUGH!
If you agree, share this with a friend.. No, you don't have to, and nothing tragic will befall you if you don't.
Don't worry, this is just a direct quote from the Obama administration's most recent propaganda video, and not an indication of my fall from sanity.
I think we've all come to expect a fair amount of propaganda in our lives -- the Bush administration made sure of that -- but this time around, the venom is not limited to the confines of the internet, but is spilling over directly into the classroom. An article in the Salt Lake Times at least indicates some parents remain level-headed and oppose this move.
A school principal has apologized for showing a video at an assembly that a politically conservative group leader is calling "radical, leftist propaganda."
"Showing the video in a public school is completely inappropriate," said Jennifer Cieslewicz, whose daughter is a first-grader at the school. "I don't believe a video such as this that promotes certain values should be shown to elementary students, especially without parents being aware. "
"It got to a point where [the school principal] turned to her assistant and said, 'Oops, I wish I would have seen this before. I don't think I would have shown it,' " Williams said. He said Wade could see how some adults might find the video political.
But this article misses the point by declaring this "leftist propaganda" and setting the argument on a partisan stage. The immediate Obama-supporter-knee-jerk reaction will be to counter by pointing out all of the abuses of the Bush administration, and I can't blame them for that. This video is not scary because it is "leftist" propaganda, but because it is propaganda. And like all propaganda, it brilliantly conceals itself between innocuous pledges like "smiling more" and "helping children and the elderly." No one can argue with these things, but to then insert a pledge of servitude to an individual leader of the country? Frightening.
School districts around the country, including those right here in DuPage county now have a decision to make over whether they should broadcast the president's "back-to-school" address scheduled for next Tuesday. If this video isn't a clear window into the motivation of that address, I don't know what would be. If you have children currently in school, and even if you don't, be sure to let your local district know how you feel about allowing the president to directly address this country's youth in the classroom.
I pledge to defend liberty and the Constitution of the United States of America.
I originally wrote this article on November 7th, 2007. I have updated it, but I did not have to remove one thing, only add. ---KP ---------- "When is Enough really Enough?"
What does it take? The loss of Constitutionally guaranteed Rights? The loss of Habeas Corpus? Illegal and Unconstitutional Wars? Domestic Spying? Dismissal of most of the Bill of Rights? Presidents who perjure on something far more important than their sex-lives? More than 5,000 [a 2k increase sense the first writting] of our Citizens dying after we already lost half that many in an attack?
What does it take?
I would have thought it would have already occurred. We are a People born of Revolution, we are a People who took part in the grand experiment of liberty and sovereignty. Why then, have we waited quietly, and unperturbed at these horrible assaults?
Marx was right about one thing at least, the Revolution will come; it just will not be the Revolution he thought it would be. However, history has proven him wrong on at least one other front, Marx always thought that the Revolution would come from the middle class but we have seen that instead it comes from the fringe, the poor, the peasants. The middle class has far too much to lose, whereas the working class and working-poor have nothing to lose and everything to gain. These are the dangerous men and women. And that is why a great lie was perpetrated on the American People.
As the economy continues it's ever-so-graceful swan dive, the markets are manipulated, more and more people lose their homes, the jobs, their lives; we just might find this group gets larger and larger.
This is why the Revolution is late. We bought the biggest lie; bought it hook, line, and sinker. We were told that we were the middle class. We were told that we were comfortable, and moderately well off. We were lied to. Most of us live paycheck to paycheck, never the wiser; deeper in debt; always deeper in debt. Our retirements are whisked out from under us like the proverbial rug. Corporations till our time and our productivity, the government taxes us to the hilt, so all we do is keep our heads above water. We are the working class, we are the working poor; Wake up America! If we don't, we will see that we have already lost it all. I think people are waking up to this fact, and that is a dangerous, and maybe needed, thing.
So what does it take?
A war? Wars are good for the economy, right? That's what we're told. We are in the most privatized war in history are we not? We, the People are not at war, for one Congress never declared one, the President has no authority to declare War. On top of that, ask someone who lived through one of the World Wars if we are at War.
Have you bought War bonds recently, rationed your food, donated garden produce or scrap copper and nickle to the military? Turned your yards into gardens? No? I thought not. But you might want to do this last one...
The US has a GPD of more than $13 trillion. The Iraq war has cost us less than half a trillion dollars to date. Conservative estimates place the total at $2 trillion, whilst liberal estimates at about $4 trillion. The highest of which is slightly more than one-third of one year's GPD for us. That is about 3-6 months of war-time mobilization. Imagine, if every car factory, every chemical plant, every newspaper, every job turned its efforts to War upon another nation. Imagine a full $13 trillion effort. The economy of the US is not well off; we have more mortgage foreclosures now that in the Great Depression, but we are still a force with which to be reckoned if we so chose. We are not at War. As we have given up our national sovereignty to organization like the UN. We have agreed that open war without UN sanction is in fact illegal. So we do not declare war. We disguise military action, and confuse the words by having the War on terror, or the War on Drugs, or the War on Poverty. Actual wars are unheard of, and We, the People are not at war.
Please do not misconstrue, I am not advocating the government take over of industry. I am simply pointing out that the District of Columbia is at War; We, the People are not.
So what does it take?
We must mobilize. Not to make war on another nation, but as We, the People, we must stand up and say "Enough is Enough!" Their privileges do not supersede our Rights! Enough is Enough. We must, as a People, the great revolutionary People that we are, mobilize, and take back what is ours. We must do the right thing.
Enough is enough, and we must act soon, or else it could be too late. Talk to someone. Ask if they are unhappy in their job, disenchanted with everything that is happening, politically apathetic, ready for a change. Life does not have to be like this. We can decide to make a change, make a difference. Real Change, not the hopey-changey platitude of Election Seasons. Talk to one person, and they will talk to two, and they, four, and soon, we will develop a goal, and a vision. We will see what it take to mobilize our selves, and stand up for what we know is right.
As threats mount, and the government's fear-mongering takes hold, will Swine Flue be the excuse for martial law? The WHO has already suggested forced vaccinations. Ron Paul has even mentioned this possibility, something he has not touched on before.
Just last month, August 2009, the reported number of people killed by the Swine Flue VACCINE was 25. The Obama-Care Bill has language in it authorizing 'home intervention teams.' The government will be sending people to your house to make sure you have given your children all the recommended vaccines. And, if it slipped your mind, they are even equipped to give those vaccines on the spot. This would be the same vaccines that use mercury solutions as the carrier.
This was an event, a take-over, long in the planning. If we do not Rise Up, and take back our Sovereignty and our Rights before it's too late; it will be just that, too late.
There are thing worth fighting for, things worth working for, and we need to protect and defend those things. We find ourselves ruled by an illegitimate government that does not answer to the people. We find ourselves lacking basic and human freedoms and Liberty. We find ourselves afraid of the government's inappropriate use of force.
Friends, compatriots: we must not bow to fear. Even though we are afraid, even though you may feel that we are small, they are large; we are weak, they are strong; It is not so!
Their weaknesses are our strengths. Their size is their immobility. Their tactics are not ours, their beliefs are not ours. Revolution is the rightful cause.
I made the mistake of listening to Sean Hannity for the past three days. I came away with one important thing which I noticed. Every day, more than a few times, he mentioned how we [so-called conservatives] are "the peaceful resistance [to the left]"
Why so much emphasis on peaceful? The Townhall meetings, talk radio, corporate news, all we hear are how this is a peaceful movement... Interesting.
What are they afraid of? What do they know that we do not?
Might it be that we strong, and they are weak? We are many and they are few? Our strengths are their weaknesses? Might it be that We, the People, the children of 1776, if not by blood, then by spirit; We, the People, are ready to support, protect, defend, and fight for the Constitution and for Liberty?!
It just might be.
I ask you to be ready, be vigilant. Prepare. Do not jump the gun, because early actions is just as unfavorable as late. But Be ready, Be Vigilant, and Prepare. Train, acquire, group together.
When your principles dictate Liberty, the only cause of action is clear.
So I ask you, what does it take?
It might just take you.
Keep your powder dry, In Liberty,
--- KPatrick ______________________
"History has shown us that government leaders often ignore the fundamental fact that people demand both dignity and freedom. Stripping motivated people of their dignity and rubbing their noses in it is a very bad idea."
Is it just me, or should Alan Murray, Deputy Managing Editor of Wall Street Journal, be completely ashamed of himself? It seems the toughest questions being asked of our public servants come from the citizens, rather than the journalists/reporters/editors of our entire media outlet.
I remember a time, not THAT long ago, when my siblings and I were forced to sit still and watch the evening news with our parents. I remember seeing reporters chasing people down and asking them hard-ball questions...really putting those people to task and not letting-up until there was some type of answer.
I can remember when the OJ trials were in full-swing, and the reporters were EVERYWHERE, chasing down judges, lawyers, clerks, family of the accused, family of the victims...NO ONE was safe from the media.
And none of THEM were given a list of 10 questions that they could possibly edit, have prepared answers for, or be able to yell "Cut," and have a do-over if the answer wasn't 'just so.'
Come on, MSM!!! I know more about ANY given subject in the rag-mags because THEIR reporters do their jobs!! They don't have to ask their readers/viewers to hand in questions, because they're evidently asking what people want to know.
If the MSM was as relentless with their questioning of our public servants as they are with sports stars about their steroid use, or as investigative as they are with Britney Spears and her kids, or as consumed as they are with the death of pedophile pop-stars, our country wouldn't be in the shape it is currently in!
If Alan Murray was doing his job and asking the questions that beg to be asked, the top 10 questions from the public to Timothy Geithner should've been along the lines of:
1) What's your favorite part of the job?
2) How's the wife and kids?
3) Where did you go on vacation last year?
Instead, he introduces himself and almost apologetically explains that these are not HIS questions, he's merely a "prop"--only there to read what somebody ELSE wants to know--as if people are being ridiculous, or asking stupid questions that have already been addressed.
I have to say that Tim Geithner should be ashamed of himself, as well. The very first question foretold of how the entire 'interview' would go. Ol' Tim really knows how to dance around, doesn't he?
When he stated that Congress already does extensive audits of the Fed, I almost laughed out loud....yeah, they audit what the Fed TELLS them they can audit. He stated the importance of keeping politics out of monetary policy. Wrong again, Tim--it becomes political the moment the Prez appoints the chairman.
I could pick this apart question by question, but to be honest, I think everyone here already knows that this whole 'skit' was a farce, and Tim should be in the same prison that Al Capone was put in for tax evasion.
I know I personally was sickened by the verdict at the OJ trials. It was a slap in my face that if you have enough money, you can get away with anything. That is just as true for politicians as it is with movie stars, sports players, and pedophiles.
I don't understand how there can be a citizen in this country that would not question EVERYTHING coming out of a politicians mouth. How they could support even one person in this entire administration is beyond me, with the exception of Ron Paul, of course.
A bigger group of liars, thieves, drunks, cheats, and greedy crooks will not be found outside of Washington, DC.
Needless to say, neither of the men from that interview impressed me.
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