A Need for Some Soul-Searching by Jacob Hornberger

Tuesday, September 1, 2009 FROM FFF.ORG A Need for Some Soul-Searching by Jacob G. Hornberger Close your eyes, let your mind roam, and imagine the following: You are living in a country where the government has the power to round up whomever it wants, incarcerate them for as long it is wants, deny them due process and a trial, and torture them. The government is attacking and occupying other countries. It is confiscating everyone’s income and wealth and doling it out to others. The government is jailing people on a myriad of economic crimes and tax violations. Now, open your eyes. Welcome to reality. This is the America in which we now live. It is a country whose government is torturing people with impunity and is even proud of it. It is a government that has the power to actually ignore the Bill of Rights by simply labeling people terrorists. It is a country in which vast numbers of people are living off money that the IRS confiscates from others and fighting vociferously for their right to do so, no matter how much damage they are inflicting on the victims. It is country whose government is occupying two foreign countries and has military bases in more than 100 others. It is a country whose government is punishing people for economic crimes and tax crimes. What a mess this country is in. On the domestic side, you have the liberals, with their deeply engrained socialist philosophy, whose programs forcibly take money from Peter and give it to Paul, magically converting everyone into caring and compassionate saints. Never mind that they’re bankrupting America with their ever-soaring spending, taxes, and debt. On the foreign side, you have the conservatives, with their deeply engrained imperialist philosophy, whose programs entail militarism, invasions, occupations, torture, kangaroo tribunals, and destruction of civil liberties. Never mind that they’re too bankrupting America with ever-soaring spending, taxes, and debts. And then you have those multitudes of liberals and conservatives who favor both socialism and imperialism. But even those two isms are not the major threat that faces our nation. Instead, the biggest threat comes from within ourselves — the moral degeneracy that all this produces within us, a degeneracy that is reflected by increasing numbers of people who see nothing wrong with torture, political confiscation and redistribution of wealth, wars of aggression and occupations, destruction of civil liberties, and the prosecution and punishment of people committing economic crimes and tax violations. Clearly America is in desperate need of a reexamination of what this nation has become and how far it has strayed from its founding principles, principles that once made America the marvel of the world. Those principles included no income tax, no Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, bailouts, food stamps, farm subsides, and other welfare, no militarism, no wars of aggression and foreign occupations, no torture, and a deep and abiding respect for the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. But what is most needed at this point of our existence is some mighty deep soul-searching. Is this what we as a people are all about? Rather than look to themselves and to their Creator to help them get through the difficulties of life, as our American ancestors did, modern-day Americans have chosen to render unto Caesar their lives, fortunes, and well-being, the very things that should be rendered to God. And Americans are now reaping the whirlwind, as reflected by the crises, chaos, and disharmony in our daily lives. The political and economic solution to America’s woes lies in abandoning socialism and imperialism and restoring a free-market, limited-government republic to our land. More fundamentally, however, the solution involves a restoration within the American people of faith in themselves, in others, in freedom, and in God. Jacob Hornberger is founder and president of The Future of Freedom Foundation.

SINCLAIR GIVES US HIS 'ANGELS', MAGNET PRICES THAT GOLD WILL BE PULLED TO

Giving you gold price objectives has not proved in the past to be in your best interest as we are read by both sides of the gold market spectrum. However, one time ONLY, here they are: - $1000. Three tries and success. This is the third try. - $1024 - $1089 - $1156 - $1225 - $1296 - $1369 - $1444 - $1521 - $1600 - $1681 Then on to Alf’s numbers. (GT sez: These numbers are big: like $3000, $5000, $10,000 for the gold price. But it's impractical to put a time frame on them because by then, then economy will be in a state of revolution. Those kinds of numbers would represent the almost total hyper inflationary destruction of paper currency in dollars where you would be running for your life with gold coins on your person to a safer location where you would be less likely to be robbed, killed and stripped of the gold in your teeth by ravenous, starving mobs of the idiots left on earth.) Notice that Sinclair's numbers increase by approximately $75 dollars each level. They are very accurate, but not infallible numbers and only guides to where gold will run to each cycle as it moves higher in the next few months, NOT YEARS as many would like to think. TIME HAS RUN OUT FOR THE UNITED STATES CURRENCY AND ITS GOVERNMENT AND WAY OF LIFE. We will all soon be the largest group of beggars on the planet. PREPARE FOR IT!

THE FED ON THE DEFENSIVE

Gary North's REALITY CHECK Gold's price: http://www.GaryNorth.com/snip/300.htm The Federal debt: http://www.GaryNorth.com/snip/544.htm To subscribe to this letter: http://www.snipurl.com/subscribenow Issue 887 August 28, 2009 THE FED ON THE DEFENSIVE I do not recall this in my lifetime. A majority in the House of Representatives has co-signed H.R. 1207, a bill introduced by Ron Paul to have the Federal Reserve System audited by an independent government agency, the Comptroller General's office. The bill has been bottled up in committee by Barney Frank, who has insisted that he is doing this in order to better coordinate consideration of the best way to gain greater transparency from the Federal Reserve. He has not said that he favors an independent audit of the FED. http://tinyurl.com/m2ua83 It would be easy for Congressman Frank to hold hearings on the bill. This would allow Dr. Paul to bring in expert witnesses on the FED to make the case for an independent audit. It would get a lot of YouTube play. It would be the first time since the replacement of eccentric Congressman Wright Patman in 1975 as the chairman of the House Banking Committee that the FED has been exposed to anything like serious criticism in Congress. (Patman, an inflationist and a greenbacker, hated the FED. He was chairman of the House Banking Committee, 1965-75.) Congressman Frank has yet to announce hearings. There was a posting on the DailyPaul site that Frank will hold hearings soon. Someone heard it on the radio. I will believe it when I see the YouTube videos. The FED in June hired a public relations expert, Linda Robinson, to deal with Congress. She was formerly a lobbyist for Enron. (http://tinyurl.com/mu64d7) I have little doubt that it was H.R. 1207 that forced the FED into this move. Now Ron Paul's book, "End the Fed," is about to be published. It is expected to become a best-seller. Think about this. There have been books attacking the Federal Reserve System for over ninety years, but they have been written by obscure people who no one in the general public has heard of. They have not sold well. They have not been written by someone who persuaded over half of the House of Representatives to support a bill to audit the FED. They have not been written by someone who once raised over $30 million in a run for President. This is unprecedented. For the first time in the history of the Federal Reserve System, there are literally millions of people who have heard of the FED and who would like to see it shut down. There have been academic and investment critics of this or that policy of the FED, most notably Milton Friedman, who criticized the FED for not inflating enough, 1930-33. But there has never been a serious audience ready to listen to arguments on why a system of 12 private banks should oversee monetary policy, and why one of them, the New York Federal Reserve Bank, should execute this policy without having to answer to anyone. THE BLOOMBERG LAWSUIT The Bloomberg news service has sued the Board of Governors of the FED under the Freedom of Information Act. The lawsuit says that it is illegal for the Board of Governors to refuse to release information on which banks have received financial aid from the FED. The Board of Governors countered with this argument. The New York FED is a privately owned entity. It executes monetary policy. It is not subject to the Freedom of Information Act. The FED also argued that the banking system would be threatened by the release of this information. This case went to court. The judge ruled on August 24 that the Board of Governors of the FED must make this information public no later than August 31. On August 26, the FED asked the judge not to enforce her ruling. Why not? Because it would be bad for the banking system. She had heard that argument before. Well, what else? The Board of Governors' lawyer insisted that the Board has no knowledge of what the New York FED -- its legal agent -- really does. The lawyer said, "We don't control the system of record-keeping in New York." She insisted that the Board of Governors just cannot find out what the New York FED did with the money in time to meet the deadline. Apparently, the Board of Governors, a government agency, has taken seriously Jesus' words regarding charity (alms): But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth: That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly (Matthew 6:3-4). The two FEDS, the government one and the private one, were surely involved in the charity business, to the tune of a trillion dollars or so. This was a system of handouts on an unprecedented scale. The Father in Washington has surely rewarded the FED in the past. The FED expects more of the same in the future. But now this pesky lawsuit forces an opening of the books. Is the lawyer's argument credible? Perhaps the judge will not regard it as credible. So, the FED had another argument. The FED wants to her to wait until the case can be heard on appeal. But there was a hitch. The FED did not say when it intends to appeal. http://tinyurl.com/mq5hkh Here is the FED, with a court ruling against it, and with the clock ticking, admitting that it has no date set to file an appeal. Its lawyers apparently had no fall-back position. Is this credible? Of course not. Will it work? We shall see. If it does work, and if H. R. 1207 remains bottled up in committee, the growing army of people who have finally found out about the FED will have two more pieces of evidence that the U.S. government does not run the FED. If the bill passes the House and the Senate, Obama will veto it. The FED is not going to be audited by the government. That is not how the world works. The FED is only officially under government authority. Except in wartime, it has never been under government authority. It was set up to provide the illusion of government control. That illusion has worked since 1913. The FED does face a major problem. If it escapes from both the Congress and the courts, this will sell lots more copies of "End the Fed." On the other hand, if the court system finally forces the FED to reveal who got what and on what terms, then banks in the future will hesitate to go to the FED, hat in hand, because the public learn who was begging for a bailout. This is not the sort of information that big bank bankers want the financial press to discover, let alone the Internet. The handouts went to the big banks. Most banks were ignored. They were allowed to sink or swim. This has created a problem: bank bankruptcies every weekend for as far as the eye can see. 416 PROBLEM BANKS The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, flush with a $30 billion loan from Congress, has announced that its list of problem banks climbed in one month from 305 to 416. The list is secret, of course, for the same reason that the New York FED's list is secret. The FDIC does not want to cause a run on any of the 416 banks. A bank run these days takes the form of wire transfers and checks written to other banks to open an account. The money supply remains constant. Some banks lose; others win. The bad banks go bust. The FDIC then has to buy up all of their bad assets. Solvent banks then buy the good assets. The big winners are the solvent banks that buy their rivals' assets at fire-sale prices. The big losers are taxpayers and investors who believe that all of the Treasury debt that Congress must sell to cover its loan to the FDIC will be repaid in real money some day. On August 27, the FDIC announced that its member institutions lost $3.7 billion in the second quarter of 2009. In a press release that was reminiscent of "Spin City," the head of the FDIC, Sheila Bair, announced: "While challenges remain, evidence is building that the U.S. economy is starting to grow again," said FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair. "Banking industry performance is -- as always -- a lagging indicator. The banking industry, too, can look forward to better times ahead. But, for now, the difficult and necessary process of recognizing loan losses and cleaning up balance sheets continues to be reflected in the industry's bottom line." Translation: "The economy is better off than the banks are, and the economy remains in the pits. Why? Because banks are not lending. Someday, things will turn around for the banking system as a whole, but don't get your hopes up. Cleaning up bank balance sheets these days is comparable to cleaning up the Augean stables, for all you classics buffs out there." Chairman Bair went on to say, "The FDIC was created specifically for times such as these. No matter how challenging the environment, the FDIC has ample resources to continue protecting depositors as we have for the last 75 years. No insured depositor has ever lost a penny of insured deposits...and no one ever will." Translation: "Congress may have to fork over another couple of hundred bullion -- maybe $500 billion, if Senator Dodd's bill is signed into law -- but no one will ever lose a penny in an FDIC-insured bank. But taxpayers will pay a pretty penny to whoever buys all those T-bills that Congress will have to issue to keep the FDIC solvent." The press release reported the following. 1. Total assets of insured institutions declined by $238 billion. 2. The number of institutions on the FDIC's "Problem List" rose. At the end of June, there were 416 insured institutions on the "Problem List," up from 305 on March 31. 3. Total reserves of the Deposit Insurance Fund (DIF) stood at $42 billion. [No mention of the $30 billion loan from Congress to get reserves back up.] http://tinyurl.com/l3n8aa How bad is this number: 416 problem banks? Not as bad as 1882 problem banks. That is the estimate of Institutional Risk Analytics, a private research firm. The organization gave a grade of F to 1882 banks, as of June 30. This figure was up by 16.5% since late March. What about the number of A-rated banks? The number was down by 21% since late March. This list does not include the 19 big banks that went through the stress tests, which all of them passed. The stress tests assumed that big banks would have enough capital to withstand a 9% loss rate over the next two years. The problem is, according to the company's managing director, that we are already at 9% loss rates, and we are not yet at the bottom of the cycle. If the economy does not recover by the 4th quarter, banking statistics will head down in 2010. (http://tinyurl.com/nr2z67) The Federal Reserve System intervened to save the financial system in 2008. But has the system as a whole recovered? No. Has unemployment stopped rising? No. Has the economy recovered? No. GROWING HOSTILITY TO THE FED Always in the past, the Federal Reserve has remained free from serious criticism. The media are obedient lap dogs. So are the academic economists. The textbooks never point out that the FED is the enforcing arm of a huge cartel. The professors refrain from applying to the FED their analyses in their chapters on cartels. Today, for the first time, there is a growing audience of intelligent people who are being exposed to the truth about the FED. This has taken place outside Establishment channels, which includes the largest talk radio shows. The FED has had a 90-year free ride. That ride is over. The FED will never again get off scott-free. The Web is sufficient to continue to inform people regarding the economic disasters that the FED has caused by its anti- recession, big bank bailout policies. Bernanke is pursuing the same low-interest rate policy that Greenspan pursued from mid-2000 to mid-2004. A few mainstream critics of Greenspan now say that his policy failed. But they refuse to say that Bernanke's policy is the same, and that the resulting crises will be worse. The critics do not see the operations of the FED in terms of a consistent theory of monetary cause and effect. They view monetary policy as somehow based on personality of the Chairman. Before, Greenspan was "the Maestro." Bernanke is "the Professor." The policies are the same: pump and dump. The FED pumps up the money supply, and the Treasury dumps T-bills and T-bonds on the FED. The FED has promised to unwind its doubled monetary base (balance sheet) when the economy revives. In recent months, it has sold off some debt. The monetary base is down from its peak. The Treasury has been able to sell its debt to investors who still dear the economy. This cannot go on for more than a year unless the economy stays in recession. The size of the deficits will be too great. The FED really is trapped unless the economy revives, commercial bank credit to private industry revives, and price inflation remains low. But a revival of commercial bank lending will turn the FED's monetary base into spendable money. The M1 money supply will double. The M1 money multiplier will go positive. At that point, the FED will have to unwind, meaning sell off assets. To whom? At what interest rate? It will be in competition with both the Treasury and Fannie/Freddie. CONCLUSION The FED has never had to play defense. It has had a free ride. The free ride is over. The general public has still not heard of the FED. The FED still has the advantage of invisibility. But it is losing that invisibility. This is not going to change. The FED is a legitimate target for people who think the government botches the economy. It is the classic example of the much-praised government-business alliance. It is the consummate model of that alliance. When it fails to achieve its twin official goals of low unemployment and low price inflation, millions of its economic victims will figure out who the culprit is. End the Fed.

Mind blowing speech by Robert Welch in 1958 predicting Insiders plans to destroy America

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZU0c8DAIU4

AUDIT THE FED BILL NEEDS TO STAND ALONE..FROM RON PAUL'S CAMPAIGN FOR LIBERTY

August 31, 2009 Dear Friend of Liberty, Our grassroots Revolution has set its sights on restoring a sound monetary policy to our nation, and every day we are awakening more of our countrymen to the dangers of Federal Reserve secrecy and its stranglehold on our economy. A year ago, no one in the political establishment would have believed that a bill to thoroughly audit the Fed would have almost two-thirds of the House (including every Republican representative and nearly one hundred Democrats) and a quarter of the Senate on board. Certainly, no one would have bet that three-fourths of the American people would support such an audit. As many of you may have heard by now, recent statements from Representative Barney Frank, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, have indicated that the House will vote on Audit the Fed in the next few months. However, rather than voting on HR 1207 as a standalone bill, many in Congress hope to roll it into the comprehensive regulatory reform package recently proposed by the White House. This reform package grants new, more comprehensive powers to the Fed and strengthens the government's control over our economy. C4L and other friends of liberty stand in opposition to this proposal, as well as any other attempt to convert this historic movement for transparency into yet another rubber-stamping of politics as usual. It is imperative that Audit the Fed come before the House and Senate on its own merits. The American people stand behind a thorough audit of the Fed, and we should not be adding additional powers when we don't fully know what is being done with the ones they currently have. Call Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office today at (202) 225-0100 and urge her to stand with the American people by giving the Audit the Fed bill full debate and a standalone vote on the House floor. contact your representatives and senators and ask them to get behind Audit the Fed if they have not yet done so. If they have already cosponsored, tell them to push for a roll call vote on HR 1207 and S 604 on the bills' own merits.

MUST READ ARTICLE ON A SECRET NEW GUN BILL THAT COULD TAKE YOUR GUNS AND YOUR FREEDOM

FORWARDED TO ME BY GOLDMELTER PLEASE EVERYONE , PASS THIS TO EVERYONE---- AND CONTACT YOUR REP/ OR SENATOR... OBAMA AND HIS PEOPLE DO FEAR AMERICANS.. THATS WHY THEY WANT YOU DISARMED Please read below and take action with your representatives. Senate Bill SB-2099 will require us to put on our 2009 1040 federal tax form all guns that you have or own. It may require fingerprints and a tax of $50 per gun. This bill was introduced on Feb.. 24. This bill will become public knowledge 30 days after it is voted into law. This is an amendment to the Internal Revenue Act of 1986. This means that the Finance Committee can pass this without the Senate voting on it at all. The full text of the proposed amendment is on the U.S. Senate homepage,http://www.senate.gov/ You can find the bill by doing a search by the bill number, SB-2099. You know who to call; I strongly suggest you do. Please send a copy of this e-mail to every gun owner you know. http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-h45/text Congress is now starting on the firearms confiscation bill. If it passes, gun owners will become criminals if you don't fully comply. It has started. Very Important for you to be aware of a new bill HR 45 introduced into the House. This is the Blair Holt Firearm Licensing & Record of Sale Act of 2009. Even gun shop owners didn't know about this because the government is trying to fly it under the radar. To find out about this - go to any government website and type in HR 45 or Google HR 45 Blair Holt Firearm Licensing & Record of Sales Act of 2009. You will get all the information. Basically this would make it illegal to own a firearm - any rifle with a clip or ANY pistol unless: It is registered -You are fingerprinted -You supply a current Driver's License -You supply your Social Security # -You will submit to a physical & mental evaluation at any time of their choosing -Each update - change or ownership through private or public sale must be reported and costs $25 - Failure to do so you automatically lose the right to own a firearm and are subject up to a year in jail. -There is a child provision clause on page 16 section 305 stating a child-access provision. Gun must be locked and inaccessible to any child under 18. -They would have the right to come and inspect that you are storing your gun safely away from accessibility to children and fine is punishable for up to 5 yrs. in prison. If you think this is a joke - go to the website and take your pick of many options to read this. It is long and lengthy. But, more and more people are becoming aware of this. Pass the word along. Any hunters in your family pass this along. This is just a "termite" approach to complete confiscation of guns and disarming of our society to the point we have no defense - chip away a little here and there until the goal is accomplished before anyone realizes it. This is one to act on whether you own a gun or not. http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:H.R.45: http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-h45/show http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h111-45 Please.. copy and send this out to EVERYONE in the USA , whether you support the Right to Bear Arms or are for gun control. We all should have the right to choose.

GOLDMELTER FORWARDS AN EMAIL ON HOW THE OBAMA ADMIN CONTROLS OBAMA VISIT TO MONTANA

This was sent to me by a friend in Bozeman , MT who was there. Hello All, By now you have probably heard that President Obama came to Montana last Friday. However, there are many things that the major news has not covered. I feel that since Bill and I live here and we were at the airport on Friday I should share some facts with you. Whatever you decide to do with the information is up to you. If you chose to share this email with others I do ask that you DELETE my email address before you forward this on. On Wednesday, August 5th it was announced locally that the President would be coming here. There are many groups here that are against his healthcare and huge spending so those groups began talking and deciding on what they were going to do. The White House would not release ANY details other than the date. On about Tuesday Bill found out that they would be holding the "Town Hall" at the airport. (This is only because Bill knows EVERYONE at the airport) Our airport is actually located outside of Belgrade (tiny town) in a very remote location. Nothing is around there. They chose to use a hangar that is the most remotely located hangar. You could not pick a more remote location, and you can not get to it easily. It is totally secluded from the public. FYI: We have many areas in Belgrade and Bozeman which could have held a large amount of folks with sufficient parking. (gymnasiums/auditoriums). All of which have chairs and tables, and would not have to be SHIPPED IN!! $$$$$ During the week, cargo by the TONS was being shipped in constantly. Airport employees could not believe how it just kept coming. Though it was our President coming several expressed how excessive it was, especially during a recession. $$$$$ Late Tuesday/early Wednesday the 12th, they said that tickets would be handed out on Thursday 9am at two locations and the president would be arriving around 12:30 Friday. Thursday morning about 600 tickets were passed out. However, 1500 were printed at a Local printing shop per White=2 0House request. Hmmmm......900 tickets just DISAPPEARED. This same morning someone called into the radio from the local UPS branch and said that THOUSANDS of Dollars of Lobster were shipped in for Obama. Montana has some of the best beef in the nation!!! And it would have been really wonderful to help out the local economy. Anyone heard of the Recession?? Just think...with all of the traveling the White House is doing. $$$$$ One can only imagine what else we are paying for. On Friday Bill and I got out to the airport about 10:45am. The groups that wanted to protest Obama's spending and healthcare had gotten a permit to protest and that area was roped off. But that was not to be. A large bus carrying SEIU (Service Employees International Union) members drove up onto the area (illegal)and unloaded right there. It was quite a commotion and there were specifically 2 SEIU men trying to make trouble and start a fight. Police did get involved and arrested the one man but they said they did not have the manpower to remove the SEIU crowd. The SEIU crowd was very organized and young. About 99% were under the age of 30 and they were not locals! They had bullhorns and PROFESSIONALLY made signs. Some even wore preprinted T-shirts. Oh, and Planned Parenthood folks were with them.....professing abortion rights with their T-shirts and preprinted signs. (BTW, all these folks did have a permit to protest in ANOTHER area) Those against healthcare/spending moved away from the SEIU crowd to avoid confrontation. They were orderly and respectful. Even though SEIU kept coming over and walking through, continuing to be very intimidating and aggressive at the direction of the one SEIU man. So we had Montana folks from ALL OVER the state with their homemade signs and their DOGS with homemade signs. We had cowboys, nurses, doctors you name it. There was even a guy from Texas who had been driving through. He found out about the occasion, went to the store, made a sign, and came to protest. If you are wondering about the press.....Well, all of the major networks were over by that remote hangar I mentioned. They were conveniently parked on the other side of the buildings FAR away. None of these crowds were even visible to them. I have my doubts that they knew anything about the crowds. We did have some local news media around us from this state and Idaho . Speaking of the local media...they were invited. However, all questions were to be turned into the White House in advance of the event. Wouldn't want anyone to have to think off the top of their head. It was very obvious that it was meant to be totally controlled by the White House. Everything was orchestrated down to the last detail to make it appear that Montana is just crazy for Obama and government healthcare. Even those people that talked about their insurance woes........the White House called our local HRDC (Human Resource and Development Committee) and asked for names. Then the White House asked those folks to come. Smoke and mirrors...EVERYTHING was staged!!!!!!!!!!! I am very dismayed about what I learned about our current White House. The amount of control and manipulation was unbelievable. I felt I was not living in the United States of America , more like the USSR !! I was physically nauseous. Bill and I have been around when Presidents or Heads of State visit. It has NEVER been like this. I am truly very frightened for our country. America needs your prayers and your voices. If you care about our country please get involved. Know the issues. And let Congress hear your voices again and again!! If they are willing to put forth so much effort to BULLY a small town one can only imagine what is going on in Washington DC . Scary!! Kathy Bozeman , Montana

What Ted Kennedy Never Learned

http://www.fff.org/comment/com0908n.asp

ARMSTRONG ECONOMICS...A MUST READ

http://www.scribd.com/doc/19199220/Will-Gold-Reach-5000-809 WILL GOLD REACH $5000?

Bill would give president emergency control of Internet

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10320096-38.html

HAILE SELASSIE I

"that until the philosophy which holds one race superior and another inferior is finally and permanently discredited and abandoned; that until there is no longer any first-class and second-class citizens of any nation; that until the color of a man's skin is of no more significance than the color of his eyes; that until the basic human rights are equally guaranteed to all, without regard to race -- until that day, the dreams of lasting peace and world citizenship and the rule of international morality will remain but a fleeting illusion, to be pursued but never attained: Speech by H.I.M. HAILE SELASSIE I - California 28th February 1968

Ludwig von Mises

The main issue in present-day political struggles is whether society should be organized on the basis of private ownership of the means of production (capitalism, the market system) or on the basis of public control of the means of production (socialism, communism, planned economy). Capitalism means free enterprise, sovereignty of the consumers in economic matters, and sovereignty of the voters in political matters. Socialism means full government control of every sphere of the individual's life and the unrestricted supremacy of the government in its capacity as central board of production management. There is no compromise possible between these two systems. Contrary to popular fallacy there is no middle way, no third system possible as a pattern of a permanent social order. The citizens must choose between capitalism and socialism or, as many Americans say, between the American and the Russian way of life. — Ludwig von Mises, Bureaucracy [1944]

Free the Drug Users and Tax Resisters Too

Wednesday, August 26, 2009 Free the Drug Users and Tax Resisters Too by Jacob G. Hornberger If we’re going to let federal officials who have violated federal criminal statutes against torture off the hook, then why shouldn’t drug users and tax resisters be pardoned at the same time? After all, what the drug users and tax resisters have done pales in comparison to what the torturers have done. If the torturers are permitted to go scot-free, then the drug users and tax resisters deserve to be freed as well. Let’s compare the respective crimes. The torturers have initiated force against other people in violation of federal criminal statutes. That force has sometimes caused terrible damage to the victims, including physical injury, psychological disorder, and even death. There are those who say that since the torture was done to terrorists, the torturers should be let off the hook. But there are two big problems with that justification. First, while the people who have been tortured have been accused of terrorism, none of them has ever been convicted of the offense. Even the CIA and the military acknowledge that the suspected terrorists they have labeled as “enemy combatants” in the “war on terrorism” are entitled to a trial to determine whether they are in fact guilty of what they have been accused of. That’s what those kangaroo military tribunals are all about — to create the appearance that a fair trial is being held to determine the guilt or innocence of the accused. Under America’s system of justice, all people accused of a crime are presumed innocent. That presumption continues to operate continuously up to the point that a person is convicted of the crime with which he is charged. Thus, the torturers have tortured people who have never been convicted of a crime, neither in federal court nor by a kangaroo military tribunal — people whose presumed innocence has never been altered by a criminal conviction. In fact, many of those people whom the government labeled as “enemy-combatant terrorists” have been released by the government without any trial whatsoever, not even before a kangaroo military tribunal. That constitutes fairly strong circumstantial evidence that they were, in fact, innocent. So, in violating federal criminal laws against torture, the torturers have severely harmed or killed people who have never been convicted of a crime, people whom the law presumes are innocent of the crime that the CIA or the military accused them of, many of whom were ultimately released without a trial by the authorities. Second, even if a person is convicted of terrorism, whether in federal court or by a kangaroo military tribunal, where is the morality in torturing him at that point? There isn’t any. That’s in fact why our American ancestors, through the Bill of Rights, expressly prohibited federal officials from inflicting cruel and unusual punishments on people, including people who had been convicted of federal criminal offenses. Now, compare the federal crimes of drug possession and tax evasion. Many of the people who have been convicted of violating those federal criminal statutes are sitting in a federal penitentiary, possibly for the next several years or even the rest of their lives. Yet, what force did they initiate against other people? Answer: None. Unlike the torturers, they haven’t employed force that has resulted in physical or mental damage against anyone or caused the death of anyone. In fact, the only damage that drug users have caused is to themselves and possibly their families. Is that a valid reason for keeping them incarcerated? Why shouldn’t that be their personal business and the business of their families? What business does the state have punishing them for having engaging in purely self-destructive conduct? Do we permit the state to do the same with respect to alcoholics or tobacco users? In principle, it’s really no different with respect to tax resisters. They too haven’t initiated any force against other people that has resulted in mental or physical pain or death. All they’ve done is evade taxes, a purely peaceful act. Why should they be facing years in jail for that? While Switzerland treats tax fraud (e.g., false documents) as a crime, it does not treat tax evasion as a criminal offense. When people are caught evading taxes, the Swiss government’s remedy is limited to a civil proceeding in which the government seeks payment of the back taxes plus penalty and interest. Their belief is that tax evasion is not a matter for criminal penalties, only civil ones. If we’re going to let the torturers off the hook, then isn’t it only fair to let the drug users and tax resisters off the hook too? If the torturers aren’t going be punished for inflicting severe pain or even death in violation of federal criminal statutes, then the drug possessors and tax resisters, who haven’t initiated force against anyone, deserve no less.

FROM RON PAUL'S CAMPAIGN FOR LIBERTY ON HEALTHCARE

GOOGLE 'CAMPAIGN FOR LIBERTY' TO BE ABLE TO ACCESS THE LINKS FROM THIS EMAIL August 26, 2009 Dear Friend of Liberty, Make no mistake: there's a strong, unrelenting push to destroy what remains of private health care in this country. And now congressional leaders are attempting to overcome their scheme's plunging approval numbers by manipulating Ted Kennedy's death to create support for a “legacy” health care bill. Our representatives and senators are eager to get back to Washington and away from the tremendous grassroots opposition to health control. Which means it's time for us to turn up the heat. Click here to get contact information to write, call, and fax Congress to express your outrage at their plans to finish taking over what remains of private health care. And be sure to sign our "Stop the Government Health Care Scheme" petition. Health control propagandists claim that we are defending the status quo of a "failed" private sector by opposing their latest scheme. However, their bill cements the status quo in health care: continuing (and expanding) government intrusion. Protectionist regulations have decimated competition in health insurance at the local level, and the vast, complex tax code has subsidized employer-provided high cost health care. The FDA, in the name of consumer protection, has restricted the supply of drugs from home and abroad. And individuals are barred from shopping across state lines for health insurance. Watch this YouTube video (http://www.campaignforliberty.com/blog.php?view=24061) to see a ER physician describe how the government obstructs the supply of health services. Does any of that really sound like the free market at work to you? Government-manipulated health care is bankrupting this country. Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security are drowning in tens of trillions of dollars worth of unfunded liabilities and red ink, yet the response from Congress is to propose more 1,000+ page bills that will move our health care system perilously close to other nations' statist care. You know as well as I that this unfair plan is doomed to be a fiscal nightmare comparable to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and that Congress-created HMOs are notorious for denying care to control spiraling costs. Our nation has seen enough big government schemes, especially in medicine. President Obama is right about one thing: it's time to take action. It's time to let the free market work. COPY AND PASTE THIS LINK (http://www.campaignforliberty.com/campaigns/hr3200action.php) for contact information for the House and Senate in order to demand real reform. In addition to contacting your representative and senators, be sure to campaign hard for health freedom at your local townhall meeting. Urge your representative to fight to allow individuals to shop across state lines for insurance, curb the authority of the FDA to prevent Americans from going outside the country for cheaper medications, and enable individuals to purchase their own health insurance without being taxed for doing so. Tell Congress to give Americans control over their health care by giving them control over their health care dollar via tax credits and deductions similar to those outlined in Congressman Ron Paul's Comprehensive Health Care Reform Act (HR 1495). Ask your congressman to protect privacy rights by allowing patients and physicians to opt-out of any government-mandated or funded system of electronic health care records, and to repeal the federal law creating an "unique patient identifier" by adopting the policies contained in Congressman Ron Paul's Protect Patients and Physicians Privacy Act (HR 2630). In the meantime, we can push for reform of our respective state's competition-destroying mandates on private insurers. These simple, common-sense reforms would immediately alleviate the costs of health care without adding to the exploding national debt. And if you are able, please donate to Campaign for Liberty today so that we can educate Americans on a true free market health care system and defeat this latest health control scheme. Don't let the proponents of Obamacare sell you on the notion that we need the government to save us from the mess that government made. Click here to demand that Congress support legitimate health care reform! In Liberty, John Tate President P.S. Campaign for Liberty is committed to fighting this health control scheme and Congress' other attempts to further shred our Constitution, but we can't do it without your continued support. Please contribute to Campaign for Liberty today to ensure we can not only defeat big government's plans for our lives, but also champion the principles of freedom, peace, and prosperity.

Global War and Dying Democracy: The Revolution of the Elites

Five Part series of articles Go to the list of links for the five articles to start at the first one Credit to Goldmelter for the link http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=14839

Dismantle Bernanke's 'Happy Conspiracy' ... now!

Dismantle Bernanke's 'Happy Conspiracy' ... now! 6 reasons more power for the Fed will destroy capitalism and democracy http://www.marketwatch.com/story/dismantle-bernankes-happy-conspiracy-now-2009-08-25

Dismantling the Temple By William Greider

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090803/greider

Takeover Of All Food Production From Farm To Fork Almost Complete!

http://www.healthtruthrevealed.com/articles/10443121107/article

Six Important Gold Price Indicators

Recommended reading by Jim Sinclair http://seekingalpha.com/article/157195-six-important-gold-price-indicators

GARY NORTH...WHY WE LET THE STATE TAX US

Gary North's REALITY CHECK Gold's price: http://www.GaryNorth.com/snip/300.htm The Federal debt: http://www.GaryNorth.com/snip/544.htm To subscribe to this letter: http://www.snipurl.com/subscribenow Issue 885 August 21, 2009 WHO WILL INHERIT YOUR MONEY WHEN YOU DIE? "Tell me what country I will die in. I will never go there." Men do not like to think about their inheritance. That's because of the word "die." This is why they delay writing a will. A will is like a road map to the border of the final country. "I will never go there." But they will, with or without the map. Everyone knows this, but almost everyone who has not been diagnosed with a fatal disease assumes that he has at least five more years to live. For 4.9 years, this assumption is incorrect. Some men hire a lawyer to draw up a will for them (cheap or free). The lawyer names himself as the executor (retirement income). Other men hire a lawyer to draw up a living trust or revocable trust ($2,000 for computerized boilerplate). One way or another, someone will inherit. The capital will be used by someone else for his purposes. Most men think that their children will extend their posthumous legacy. Why should they believe this? Because they never ask themselves these questions. 1. Do my children think the way I do? 2. Why should they think the way I do? 3. Do I think the way my father did? 4. Do their spouses think the way I do? 5. What is the evidence that they do? 6. Are my children good with money? 7. What is the evidence that they are? 8. Are their spouses good with money? 9. What is the evidence that they are? 10. Will the money be worth anything? 11. What is the evidence that it will be? The government understands inheritance far better than most parents do. The government has determined that it will impose an inheritance tax. Rich men hire lawyers to devise ways around the inheritance tax. Less rich men think they will beat the inheritance tax altogether. That is for rich men to worry about, they think. They are wrong. So are the rich men. THE REAL INHERITANCE TAX The inheritance tax is to governments what the red cape is to a matador. It focuses the victim's attention away from the sword. The inheritance tax begins to be collected early. It is collected by a special team of tax collectors. Like all tax collectors, their salaries are paid for by the taxpayers. The government has purchased specially designed tax- collection vehicles, comparable to Brinks or Loomis armored cars. We see them on the road nine months a year. They are painted yellow. When their red lights are flashing, don't pass them. I have written about them here. http://lewrockwell.com/north/north278.html Government officials, unlike parents, understand that the secret of inheriting enormous wealth is to persuade the heirs to spend the money your way, not the deceased's way. The money is merely capital. The crucial factor is the will. Human will. This is why, in every nation, the government requires attendance at schools. It then taxes people to fund these schools. The handful of schools that it does not fund it regulates. The schools that it does not regulate are so few in number that the government ignores them. This strategy was spelled out in detail by the scholar who is sometimes called the father of American central planning: Lester Frank Ward. His 1883 book, "Dynamic Sociology," presented the program. First, destroy all private education. Second, force parents to send their children to tax-funded schools. Third, filter out all objectionable ideas in the textbooks and classrooms. Ward hated inequality. He hated inequality in intelligence. He wanted to equalize intelligence. He had a plan to do this. The system of private education, all things considered, is not only a very bad one, but, properly viewed, it is absolutely worse than none, since it tends to increase inequality in the existing intelligence, which is a worse evil than a general state of intelligence would be. (Vol. 2, p. 588) Society, through the State and through the public schools, must place teachers in charge, and these teachers must be independent of three groups: "parents, guardians, and pupils." (II, p. 590) PARENTS SURRENDER CONTROL At some point, parents surrender control over the content of their children's education. Some parents hold out longer than others. Normally this takes place when the child reaches the age of six. Compulsory attendance laws take over. The parent must either send the child to a tax-funded school that his taxes pay for, or send him to a private school, or educate the child at home. The first decision is easy and uncontroversial. The second is expensive in terms of money. The third is expensive in terms of the mother's time. If she works outside the home, she must quit in order to stay home and teach her children. The father bows out at this point. He is only rarely involved in the education of his children. Farmers were the last to surrender this freedom in the late 19th century. Only Old Order Amish fathers still teach their sons today, at least after the sons graduate from the eighth grade. The states allow them to go home at this age. It took a Supreme Court case to give the Old Order Amish this exemption. ("Wisconsin v. Yoder," 1972). The second decision -- putting the child into a private school -- is rarely resorted to. The parents assume that the school system is trustworthy, at the prevailing price. The parents at this point surrender to the New York City-based textbook publishing companies. This is where New York and Washington take control over the inheritance. The goal is simple: to shape the agenda of the children. If they can do this, they gain the inheritance. The money flows down government-approved channels. For over a century, they have gained this inheritance. This is by far the longest-term plan that the New York/Washington axis has -- the true axis of evil. In Great Britain, it is one city: London. In France, it is one: Paris. In Germany, it is one: Berlin, and in Japan it is one: Tokyo. In Russia, it is one: Moscow. This system has led to the so-far unbreakable control over the West by bureaucrats. The heirs cannot think apart from a series of slogans. These slogans place limits on the terms of political discourse. These limits channel the forces of politics down approved paths. The debates take place within a framework that does not threaten the Powers That Be. It allows different factions of these powers to gain temporary control. Let us consider a few of the more widespread slogans. These are inculcated in the textbooks, the state-accredited classrooms, and the media. 1. FDR saved capitalism from itself. 2. It is better to have a little inflation than a depression. 3. Deficits don't matter. 4. We owe it to ourselves. 5. Society's great complexity requires government planning. 6. If the government did not take action, poor people would starve. 7. Society needs a government-supplied safety net. 8. The U.S. Supreme Court has the final say. 9. The solution is more education. 10. Everybody deserves. . . . 11. Everyone should pay his fair share. 12. Criminals should pay their debt to society. 13. There oughta be a law. Not one of these is true. All are either actively promoted by the public or at least grudgingly accepted. The conservatives love this one. "Criminals should pay their debt to society." This is the first judicial step toward tyranny. It denies justice to the victim. It substitutes the State for the victim. The injured party is not the victim; rather, it is the State. The State therefore must tax the injured party to incarcerate the criminal. Think "disinheritance of the victim." What did Moses say? If a man shall steal an ox, or a sheep, and kill it, or sell it; he shall restore five oxen for an ox, and four sheep for a sheep. If a thief be found breaking up [in], and be smitten that he die, there shall no blood be shed for him. If the sun be risen upon him, there shall be blood shed for him; for he should make full restitution; if he have nothing, then he shall be sold for his theft. If the theft be certainly found in his hand alive, whether it be ox, or ass, or sheep; he shall restore double (Exodus 22:1-4). This was a system of restitution. The thief owed his victim. If he could not pay, then he was to be sold into slavery and the sale price given to the victim. This is exactly what the U.S. Constitution authorizes. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction (13th Amendment). Were you taught this in high school? For that matter, were you taught that the United States are plural Constitutionally? The text says "any place subject to their jurisdiction." Filtered? Yes. "The U.S. Supreme Court has the final say." True or false? With respect to "Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls" -- consuls? -- true. However, "In all the other Cases before mentioned, the Supreme Court shall have appellate Jurisdiction, both to Law and Fact, with such Exceptions, and under such Regulations as the Congress shall make" (Article III). Were you taught this in high school? Or was this information filtered? These judicial matters are not hidden. They are in plain sight. The Constitution is short and highly specific. These matters are right in front of our collective noses. But our collective noses no longer can conduct the famous smell test. When you walk into a stranger's house, you can smell it. When you walk into your own, you can't. The bureaucrats have employed a kind of ideological incense to keep the heirs from smelling confiscation in the air. Over time, even the parents no longer smell something fishy. This is part of the most brilliant inheritance tax scheme of all time. It is working all over the world. There is a model for it. We find it in the Bible. And the king spake unto Ashpenaz the master of his eunuchs, that he should bring certain of the children of Israel, and of the king's seed, and of the princes; Children in whom was no blemish, but well favoured, and skilful in all wisdom, and cunning in knowledge, and understanding science, and such as had ability in them to stand in the king's palace, and whom they might teach the learning and the tongue of the Chaldeans. And the king appointed them a daily provision of the king's meat, and of the wine which he drank: so nourishing them three years, that at the end thereof they might stand before the king (Daniel 1:3-5). When was the last time you heard a sermon on this passage, where the pastor identified the contemporary Babylonians and the contemporary Hebrews? As I like to say, "the one will be the first." The larger the congregation, the less likely the sermon. The Apostle Paul spoke to the king in whose court he was accused. "For the king knoweth of these things, before whom also I speak freely: for I am persuaded that none of these things are hidden from him; for this thing was not done in a corner" (Acts 26:26). The State's inheritance program is not openly revealed, but the institutional foundation of it has not been hidden in a corner. It is open. The victims defend it, for if they did not defend it, they would be faced with the personal cost of escaping from it. CONCLUSION R. J. Rushdoony had little patience with conservatives who complained about high taxes. "They have tithed their children to the State, and then they complain against how much the government is costing them." He thought all such tax protests would come to nothing. Well, not nothing, exactly. Mass inflation. We live in a world where the tax collector is a matador. "Keep your eye on the red cape." Conservatives think they are making progress when they say, "No, no; keep your eye on the red ink." Keep your eye on the yellow buses. ------------------------------------------------------ The Daily Reckoning is a free, daily e-mail service brought to you by the authors of the NY Times Business Bestseller "Financial Reckoning Day", "Demise Of Dollar", "Empire Of Debt", and "Mobs, Messiahs and Markets". To learn more or subscribe, please visit our website here: http://clicks.dailyreckoning.com//t/AQ/XA0/YOM/DMQ/AQ/AUdX+g/LF8m ------------------------------------------------------ Our writers and contributors also welcome your questions and comments. Simply reply to this e-mail with the word 'Question' or 'Comment' in the Subject of your reply ------------------------------------------------------ Are you having trouble receiving your Daily Reckoning? You can ensure its arrival in your mailbox by whitelisting The Daily Reckoning here: http://clicks.dailyreckoning.com//t/AQ/XA0/YOM/Bsw/AQ/AUdX+g/evfx