POSTS FROM COMMENTS SECTION ON TALKBACKTOGOLDTRADER SUNDAY 9/21/08

geist said... I cut and pasted this from a reply to one of elaine's articles.. Bush Asks For Another $700 Billion reply from Michael.. 2nd page of reply's.... Elaine, Believe it or not, the worst thing happening right now is NOT the "reverse Robin Hood" syndrome in which the U.S. government steals (through borrowing, whose interest must be repaid from future taxes - no principle will ever be repaid) from the poor to give to the rich. No, that has been going on ever since the 1940's, when the National Debt became permanent rather than temporary, and it has been official policy since the 1980's, when - to quote Vice President Cheney - "Reagan proved that deficits don't matter." Cheney was, by the way, referring to mattering politically (the American voter being too stupid to understand the consequences of ever-increasing government debt), not mattering economically. And, of course, the Bush tax cuts (soon to be the McCain tax cuts) did a great job of increasing borrowing to overfeed the rich. No, there's nothing new about using the Fed, Treasury, and Congress to create ever bigger debt for the purpose of redistributing wealth upward the socio-economic scale. The only real innovation happening now is the use of a FINANCIAL CRISIS mentality to rush all this bailout graft through with little or no discussion, before the election. However, THERE IS AN ABSOLUTELY DRASTIC NEW CHANGE OCCURRING UNDER THE VEIL OF THESE "FINANCIAL RESCUE OPERATIONS" THAT COMPLETELY DESTROYS OUR CONSTITUTIONAL DEMOCRACY!!! I'm frankly shocked you haven't given this political revolution the same attention that all the money-changing is getting. As you know, in 2002 the U.S. Congress absconded (GT sez: I think he means "abjure") its responsibility under Article I of the Constitution to declare war, make rules concerning capture of prisoners, and make rules controlling the military forces, by giving the Executive branch unlimited authority to do "whatever is necessary" to "combat terrorism anywhere in the world," permitting the Executive branch to attack wherever it wants, whenever it wants, at any cost (to be paid by borrowing). Our only check on total abuse of executive power has been the Supreme Court (which Congress has tried to end-run with legislation making the executive branch all-powerful in seizing, confining, and torturing people; habeus corpus is now dead, in violation of Article I, thanks to Congress). This is not really new - remember the Gulf of Tonkin mechanism that gave the same unlimited power to Johnson (and later Nixon) to play World Conquerer in Vietnam (and when they felt like it, Cambodia). All the attention - then as now - ended up on how successful the conquering was or wasn't, not on how Congress gave away it's Constitutional responsibility and authority. What is new - and devastating to our constitutional democracy - is the way that Congress, since 2000 - has absconded (GT sez: Once again, I think he means "abjure") its responsibility to borrow money on the credit of the U.S., coin money and regulate its value. Not only have the Fed and Treasury been permitted - nay requested, authorized, and gratefully thanked - to create government debt through independent action and to value and devalue the currency at will. They have been happily delegated by Congress ALL RESPONSIBILTY for the fiscal and financial present and future of the U.S. This would be bad enough - a mirror image of the Roman Senators replacing the Republic with a permanent Imperial Dictatorship by refusing to henceforth make any difficult legislative decisions regarding the Roman military and the Roman economy because that society had become too big and too complex for simple solutions to its problems. They gratefully thanked the Emperor for accepting all their traditional responsibility and authority and for letting them devolve into a purely symbolic rubber-stamping role (which still allowed them to collect graft in exchange for handing out petty sinecures). Eventually, they just declared the Emperor a god, and went home happy. I understand that our Congressmen and Congresswomen are too stupid to grasp the complexity of our own fiscal and financial messes and too cowardly to execute their proper duties regarding controlling our debts and preserving the value of our currency. But now they are COMMITTING TREASON. Part of the legislation they are getting ready to pass MAKES ANY ACTION TAKEN BY THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY IN SPENDING BORROWED MONEY ON BAILOUTS IMMUNE FROM REVIEW BY ANY COURT OF LAW IN THE COUNTRY. They are now violating Articles I, II and III of the Constitution, which gives the Judiciary power over all cases in law and equity arising under the Constitution and the laws of the United States, and gives the Legislature and the Executive NO OVERRIDING AUTHORITY to take ANY ACTION for ANY REASON that is not subject to judicial review. The atmosphere of SUPREME CRISIS generated by some greedy capitalists, the Fed, and the Treasury, regarding the taking of some big losses by said capitalists in the process of restoring equilibrium to an overleveraged economy, is now serving as cover to declare the Imperial Presidency and the Federal Reserve as Greater Powers than the Constitution itself. Before this is over, no matter what happens to our national finances, the Republic will be stone cold dead. September 20, 2008 8:04 PM *********************************** AND THIS ONE: geist said... article from culture of life news "Unelected Bernanke And Paulson Sieze Power In COUP" .....comment from GK...... 1) The key line in the proposed bill is this one: "The Secretary's authority to purchase mortgage-related assets under this Act shall be limited to 700,000,000,000 dollars outstanding at any one time" What this does is give Hank Paulson, acting as an emperor with unchecked control over the nation's treasury, a $700 billion line of credit in which he can buy up toxic debt for whatever price he'd like to pay, $700 billion at a time. In other words - he could buy trillions. Trillions and trillions and trillions. Buying and selling, buying and selling. He can sell the junk he buys from his banker friends for whatever price he wants, saddling the taxpayers with the loss. He keeps this process going, using his $700 billion credit card. Buy for 60 cents on the dollar, sell for 30 cents on the dollar. Buy for 80 cents on the dollar, sell for 5 cents on the dollar. He's in charge. $700 billion folks IS JUST THE LINE OF CREDIT. He can purchase trillions and trillions of bad debt with this credit card, as long as only $700 billion is OUTSTANDING at any one time. 2) Hank Paulson, CEO of Goldman Sachs on leave, has complete and total control over the nation's treasure. He would be unchecked by Congress, unchecked by the President. He will be king. Here's the text: "The Secretary is authorized to take such actions as the Secretary deems necessary to carry out the authorities in this Act, including, without limitation" Using this power, Hank Paulson of Goldman Sachs could pay Goldman Sachs anything he wanted for their mortgage assets. Let's say the market value was 20 cents on the dollar. Hank Paulson could pay them 100 cents on the dollar. Its his decision and his alone. No oversight. No limitations. Hank Paulson could simply give the nation's treasure to Goldman Sachs. Get it now? 3) Deputizing the banks and investment banks as "agents of the government". Seriously. Here's the text: "Designating financial institutions as financial agents of the Government, and they shall perform all such reasonable duties related to this Act as financial agents of the Government as may be required of them" 4) Have no outside control over the firesale of assets and loss to the taxpayer. Again, Hank Paulson and Hank Paulson alone shall be in control. No auditors. No oversight. No multiple bids. No nothing. Hank Paulson and Hank Paulson alone. Here you go: "Sale of Mortgage-Related Assets. The Secretary may, at any time, upon terms and conditions and at prices determined by the Secretary, sell, or enter into securities loans, repurchase transactions or other financial transactions in regard to, any mortgage-related asset purchased under this Act." 5) Hank Paulson has final say. Hank Paulson knows what's best. Hank Paulson cannot be reversed. Hank Paulson cannot be sued. Hank Paulson is king. "Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency" So, what can you do? Normally here I'd say contact your corrupt Congressman or Senator. Contact the media. But folks, Congress has been bought. The media have been bought. The American people have lost. September 21, 2008 7:22 AM