Posted by Matt Holdridge on 03/10/10

Robert Auerbach, a professor of public affairs at the University of Texas at Austin and author of the book "Deception and Abuse at the Fed" recently wrote an article on the Huffington Post outlining The Federal Open Market Committee at the Fed and their ability to destroy source records. 

In the article:

Should the policymaking committee of the most powerful peacetime entity in the United States government be allowed to destroy their source records? The Federal Open Market Committee of the nation's central bank, an intricate part of the United States government may be continuing to destroy its source records, a policy it began in 1995 with an unrecorded vote -no fingerprints - conducted by then Chairman Alan Greenspan.

...The FOMC controls the nation's money supply, targets short term interest rates and since 1962 took it upon themselves to bypass the Congressional appropriations process and loan money to foreign governments. I have described [in Deception and Abuse at the Fed] how the FOMC mislead the Congress in 1962 when they began this activity...

Read the rest here.

Posted 03/10/10 HazBalls4RP Champaign, IL

This is precisely why we must END the FED; a simple audit will not reveal evidence that has magically burned or evaporated. The cartel will have brushed it all under the carpet.

Posted 03/10/10 BruceKoerber Cedar Rapids, IA

Otherwise (without destruction of the records), with the aid of the regression theorem of intervention, the criminals who are responsible for the FED misdeeds could be held specifically accountable. We don't even need the specifics at this point. It is plenty well known enough that the counterfeiting operation of the unConstitutional coup is the enabling power for its economic terrorism. END THE FED.

Posted by Matt Holdridge on 03/09/10

From the Atlantic:

Why is the national security community treating the "Enemy Belligerent, Interrogation, Detention, and Prosecution Act of 2010," introduced by Sens. John McCain and Joseph Lieberman on Thursday as a standard proposal, as a simple response to the administration's choices in the aftermath of the Christmas Day bombing attempt? A close reading of the bill suggests it would allow the U.S. military to detain U.S. citizens without trial indefinitely in the U.S. based on suspected activity. Read the bill here, and then read the summarized points after the jump.

According to the summary, the bill sets out a comprehensive policy for the detention, interrogation and trial of suspected enemy belligerents who are believed to have engaged in hostilities against the United States by requiring these individuals to be held in military custody, interrogated for their intelligence value and not provided with a Miranda warning.

The post goes on.

There is no distinction between U.S. persons--visa holders or citizens--and non-U.S. persons.)

It would require these "belligerents" to be coded as "high-value detainee[s]" to be held in military custody and interrogated for their intelligence value by a High-Value Detainee Interrogation Team established by the president. (The H.I.G., of course, was established to bring a sophisticated interrogation capacity to the federal justice system.) 

This begs the question, what is a "belligerent" and how loose will this definition become with time? 

Posted 03/09/10 BruceKoerber Cedar Rapids, IA

The dishonorable are the ones proposing what should be done. Let's all hope the forces of economic equilibrium come sooner rather than later!

Posted 03/09/10 justinb Oklahoma City, OK

Surprised you didn't highlight this piece of the legislation (page 9, starting line 13): An individual, including a citizen of the United 13 States, determined to be an unprivileged enemy belligerent 14 under section 3(c)(2) in a manner which satisfies Article 15 5 of the Geneva Convention Relative to the Treatment of 16 Prisoners of War may be detained without criminal 17 charges and without trial for the duration of hostilities 18 against the United States or its coalition partners in which 19 the individual has engaged

Posted 03/09/10 justinb Oklahoma City, OK

There is already 9 co-sponsors to this bill. Please write your represenative if they're here: Sen Brown, Scott Sen Chambliss, Saxby Sen Inhofe, James M. Sen LeMieux, George S. Sen Lieberman, Joseph I. Sen Sessions, Jeff Sen Thune, John Sen Vitter, David Sen Wicker, Roger http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/D?d111:1:./temp/~bdeUjm:@@@P|/bss /111search.html

Posted 03/10/10 ifc69 Midland, MI

I see Scott Brown is working out well. Or not.

Posted by Matt Holdridge on 03/08/10

From the Philadelphia Daily News

IT WAS ELIOT NESS and the Untouchables, as played by the Keystone Kops.

More than a dozen armed State Police officers conducted simultaneous raids last week on three popular Philadelphia bars known for their wide beer selections. The cops confiscated hundreds of bottles of expensive ales and lagers, now in State Police custody at an undisclosed location.

The alleged offense: Although the bar owners had bought the beer legally from licensed Pennsylvania distributors and had paid all the necessary taxes, the police claimed that nobody had registered the precise names of the beers with the state Liquor Control Board - a process that requires the brewers or their importers to pay a $75 registration fee for each product they want to sell in Pennsylvania.

Ironically, one of the "unregistered" beers was called Pliny the Younger, which is named after ancient Rome's arguably most famous public charge, or what we would likely call a bureaucrat.

Posted 03/08/10 Phil Giraldi Purcellville, VA

Yes, Pliny did serve in a number of government positions, including imperial governor, but he was generally regarded as an honest man who rendered fair judgments and did not take bribes. As I recall, he wrote to the Emperor Trajan about what to do about Christians and Trajan told him that if they did not make trouble do no harm to them. This earned Trajan a place in the level reserved for righteous pagans in Dante's Divine Comedy. Pliny clearly was far too honest to feel comfortable in the US Congress, though if he were there he would likely be a friend of Ron Paul.

Posted 03/08/10 Matt Holdridge Arlington, VA

Agreed. Not all public servants are bad guys. Just those that confiscate people's beer ;)

Posted 03/08/10 Isomies Mechanicsville, VA

It's good to know that we live in the land of the free and don't have to worry about thugs with guns crashing our doors down at the whim of politicians. Oh wait.

Posted 03/08/10 Ken from CT Milford, CT

Was this action really necessary? Who it the person or persons that approved of this? Seriously! armed raids because they allegedly failed to pay a $75 tax! Just how much time, taxpayers money and productivity was wasted to raid a couple bars and confiscate $7000 worth of beer? You would think maybe a phone call and a letter may have been a better solution to this? This is absolutely insane. Good Grief!

Posted 03/08/10 Anthony Gregory Berkeley, CA

This is just so utterly ridiculous, this petty totalitarianism.

Posted 03/08/10 flaunt Duluth, GA

Lol and don't you love the part about the "simultaneous raids?" You know, just in case one of these outlaw bars decided to alert the others that a raid was on... As Ken from CT said, "Good grief!"

Posted 03/08/10 AuthenticAuthor Canutillo, TX

"Francesca Chapman, a PLCB spokeswoman, said that the registration requirement helps the state assure payment of state beer taxes and helps prosecutors identify alcoholic beverages in drunk-driving cases or any other type of prosecution." Yeeeaaaah. I somehow doubt identifying the particular kind of beer in a drunk strengthens the case for a prosecutor...unless he is hoping to double-whammy him with ANOTHER victimless-crime charge and stupify the jury like many prosecutors do. And get paid to do it too.

Posted 03/08/10 Clairion Arlington, IA

I wonder what Samuel Adams would have done if this scenerio occured at his Boston tavern/brewery when King George of England ruled the colonies. I suspect it would have been a bloody mess. At the time, Samuel Adams was considered the #1 enemy of the Crown. Why? I won't spell it out for you, but I will give you a couple hints. First, not giving back to the Empire your hard earned wealth and property. Second, telling the Empire to go screw itself and the horse that the Monarch rides.

Posted 03/09/10 MountainDoc Lewisburg, WV

Fark.com got a hold of this one and redid the headline as, "Then they came for BEER and I wasn't...wait, WHAT? Oh heck no! WOLVERINES!

Posted 03/09/10 Rob Vollat Randleman, NC

Those in charge of this decision should be fired and publicly ridiculed. Those who carried out these raids should have the courage to say no. Both are to blame.

Posted by Matt Holdridge on 03/05/10

More news from Bonnie Kristian at YAL regarding Indiana University and Tom Woods.

I've posted here before about Indiana University-Bloomington's ridiculous rejection of Dr. Tom Woods on the excuse that he lacked "sufficient academic credibility" -- despite his degrees from Harvard and Columbia, authorship of NYTbestsellers, and position as a senior scholar at the Mises Institute.

Since then, YAL at IU-B has been working hard to raise the funds necessary to bring Woods to campus on their own.  For a while, it looked as if the university might be backing down.  Not anymore.  As the club's president, Sam Spaiser, now explains, the lectures board denied a second request on the grounds that the club was "too prepared":

"The fact that we came prepared, had already contacted Woods and secured a date, proposed a schedule for the event, and selected (although not booked) a room, this caused the Lectures Committee to feel left out of the process."

Read more here.

Posted 03/06/10 redshirt Philadelphia, PA

Organize as many students as possible and apply to another school. They don't deserve your money. Do it quietly though. Universities these days do not believe in free speech. They are on the dole for ka-billions from the government so their judgment is suspect.

Posted 03/06/10 MichaelBarry Sebring, FL

The Universities of our day have embraced a new scholasticism in which one is only free to express the 'right' ideas.

Posted 03/07/10 BrendonDeMeo North Chelmsford, MA

Keep fighting them, you're obviously winning. Keep it up! They're starting to look like complete fools!

Posted by Matt Holdridge on 03/05/10
Last updated 03/05/10

From USA Today:

Federal employees earn higher average salaries than private-sector workers in more than eight out of 10 occupations, a USA TODAY analysis of federal data finds.

Accountants, nurses, chemists, surveyors, cooks, clerks and janitors are among the wide range of jobs that get paid more on average in the federal government than in the private sector.

Overall, federal workers earned an average salary of $67,691 in 2008 for occupations that exist both in government and the private sector, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data. The average pay for the same mix of jobs in the private sector was $60,046 in 2008, the most recent data available.

Who knew that being a "public servant" was so profitable? I was personally blown away by how much the average "federal clergyman" makes in comparison to those ministering to the conventional flock; nearly $31,213 more.

How do you compare to your federal counterpart? See the Federal salaries compared to private-sector chart. 

Posted 03/05/10 mahynes Charlestown, MA

Not surprising, who would want to work for that beast? People have to be coerced somehow. I can't think of a better way than money... other than acting morally.

Posted 03/05/10 larry101 New York, NY

This is a silly article. Federal employees on average are 10 to 15 years older than their private counterparts. They are at the tail end of their careers, and have little to no career upside. The private sector as entry and level workers in their figures, so it's clearly not an apples to apples comparison. And federal offices are concentrated in high cost of living areas, like NY, SF, and DC. So there's about 2M federal employees, who are mostly in the later parts of their careers, living in high end areas of the country…can't imagine why the average salary is higher. Oh, and the president makes about $500K a year including perks and benefits..the average CEO of Fortune 500 company….$11.5M. Sounds like the president is under paid….

Posted 03/05/10 sweetliberty San Rafael, CA

Larry101: The President isn't underpaid. Not this one, anyway. ;) Those are good points. But still -- there are some incredible discrepancies.

Posted 03/05/10 spongessuck Glen Mills, PA

The president is overpaid if anything. A CEO of a profitable company produces wealth. The president consumes it.

Posted 03/05/10 spongessuck Glen Mills, PA

Of course PR managers and broadcast techs have the highest difference compared to private companies. The government needs to make sure their propaganda machine is well-oiled.

Posted 03/05/10 VictimOfFeds San Clemente, CA

I'm sure this doesn't take into account the life long pensions, cadillac health policies, the ridiculous amount of days off, and the guarantee to not be fired/laid off so long as you show up. @larry101 - Why are you here? That $500k/per year salary doesn't take into account living in the White House for free, having Air Force One at your disposal, many other perks, the million dollar speeches he'll get after his presidency, oh...and let's not forget the ability to sign into law spending $787 billion on erroneous purchases.

Posted 03/05/10 VictimOfFeds San Clemente, CA

"Federal accountants, for example, perform work that has more complexity and requires more skill than accounting work in the private sector, she says." She forgets to mention it's unnecessarily complex. Why should someone be rewarded for doing a job in an inefficient manner? They should be demoted. Furthermore, it's probably more complex because it's fraudulent. Since it appears that one example(that doesn't even prove the point) is good enough for a federal official to justify all actions, let's talk about software. wellsfargo.com -----PRIVATE Time Spent Paying Bills per YEAR - about 1 hour since they're all on auto-pay. Ability to Navigate the website - Exceptionally easy. Each section is well communicated. Use of their product - Exceptionally useful. irs.gov -------PUBLIC Time Spent Doing Taxes Each Year - 40 hours. Ability to navigate the site - POOR. The links are HORRIBLY communicated. Often times there are circular links. If you are lucky enough, you may land on a .PDF(how pathetic) that you have to print out and SNAIL MAIL in. This defeats the purpose of the computer. Usefulness of their product - Less than USELESS! Since getting rid of them and that horrendous site would make everyone else more productive.

Posted 03/05/10 libertyaboveall Evansville, IN

The average annual federal workers compensation in 2008, including pay plus benefits, was $119,982 compared to just $59,909 for the private sector according to the United States Bureau of Economic Analysis.