leon
Junior Member
Posts: 38
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Post by leon on Oct 21, 2005 19:16:50 GMT 4
When it comes to who done it. human nature speaks loudly, follow the money, take a look here very well researched article. Links to quotes and all stated facts will cure any suspicions you may of had of am I just a slave to the state. Money Masters and Enslaved Taxpayers: the greatest fraud in history Do you know that the Federal Reserve is privately owned? Do you know that the Fed isn't neither Federal nor it hasn't any reserve? The major shareholders of the Fed are the following private banks: - Rothschild Bank of London - Warburg Bank of Hamburg - Rothschild Bank of Berlin - Lehman Brothers of New York - Lazard Brothers of Paris - Kuhn Loeb Bank of New York - Israel Moses Seif Banks of Italy - Goldman, Sachs of New York - Warburg Bank of Amsterdam - Chase Manhattan Bank of New York For further details, read MONEY MASTERS AND ENSLAVED TAXPAYERS In a few words, a very secretive elite of international bankers manipulate financial markets and control politicians and world politics. Does it seem a conspiracy? Let famous men analyze this issue... starting with the Founder Fathers. - Thomas Jefferson, 3th US President, said: "If the American people ever allow the banks to control issuance of their currency, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers occupied." "The eyes of our citizens are not sufficiently open to the true cause of our distress. They ascribe them to everything but their true cause, the banking system; a system which if it could do good in any form is yet so certain of leading to abuse as to be utterly incompatible with the public safety and prosperity. The Central Bank is an institution of the most deadly hostility existing against the principles and form of our Constitution." (Letter to the Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin and later published in The Debate Over The Recharter Of The Bank Bill ) faketerror.blogspot.com/2005/05/money-masters-and-enslaved_111679179706661129.htmlfixed link.10/23
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Post by jay paulson on Oct 22, 2005 0:13:31 GMT 4
21 Oct
Yes, there are some very greedy people in the world, and some of them have a lot of power. And they apparently make much use of that power.
I checked out the website. Nice bunch of quotations.
But I confess to being turned off by the motto at the beginning of the article:
"YOUR DAILY TWO MINUTES OF HATE“
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Post by surfin on Oct 22, 2005 4:12:37 GMT 4
Good stuff, well researched and documented definitely presents a solid case for what is the foundation for all criminal investagations who stands to gain. The blog 'Your Daily Two Minutes Of Hate' indeed is an informative site, lots to ponder, the name however is.. um
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DT1
Moderator
You know, it's not like I wanted to be right about all of this...
Posts: 428
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Post by DT1 on Oct 30, 2005 18:21:14 GMT 4
House panel votes $844 mln cut in food stamps By Charles Abbott Fri Oct 28, 5:17 PM ET WASHINGTON ( Reuters.com) - On a party-line vote, a Republican-run U.S. House of Representatives committee voted to cut food stamps by $844 million on Friday, just hours after a new government report showed more Americans are struggling to put food on the table. About 300,000 Americans would lose benefits due to tighter eligibility rules for food stamps, the major U.S. antihunger program, under the House plan. The cuts would be part of $3.7 billion pared from Agriculture Department programs over five years as part of government-wide spending reductions. Agriculture Committee chairman Bob Goodlatte defended the decision, saying only a sliver of food stamp spending was affected and, for the most part, the cuts would eliminate people not truly eligible. "This is not a giveaway program that results in windfall profits," said North Carolina Democrat G.K. Butterfield in opposing the cuts. "That is not moral. That is not American." Antihunger activists said hunger rates were up for the fifth year in a row, so the cuts were a mistake. "It is hard to imagine any congressional action that is more detached from reality," said James Weill of the Food Research and Action Center. "Cutting food stamps now is a scandal," said David Beckman of Bread for the World, pointing to losses from hurricanes. Approved 25-20, the committee package now will become part of an omnibus budget-cutting bill The House plan would also cut U.S. crop supports by $1 billion, land stewardship by $760 million, research by $620 million and rural development by $446 million. The Senate's budget reduction plan would not touch food stamps, but would cut $3 billion from other USDA programs. On food stamps, the House committee agreed to require immigrants to wait seven years, instead of the current five, to apply for aid. That would affect an estimated 70,000 people. It also would deny food stamps to people who automatically get food stamps because they receive help through other welfare programs but whose income is above food stamp levels. About 225,000 people fall in that category. North Dakota Democrat Earl Pomeroy complained that 40,000 children would lose free meals at school because of that provision. "You have not even come clean that kids are going to lose school breakfast and school lunch under this," he said. Goodlatte, a Virginia Republican, said states unfairly "have taken the opportunity to expand food stamp eligibility" beyond what the federal government intended. Democrat John Barrow of Georgia said Goodlatte was punishing states for using welfare reform laws to respond to local needs. A new Agriculture Department report found 38.2 million Americans "were food insecure" in 2004, an increase of nearly 2 million from the previous year. Tufts University food economist Parke Wilde food insecurity "now equals the worst levels" since recordkeeping began a decade ago. USDA said 11.9 percent of households, "at some time during the year, had difficulty providing enough food for all their members due to a lack of resources." Food stamps help poor Americans buy food. About 25 million people get food stamps monthly. The USDA had an overall budget of about $85 billion in fiscal 2005. Food stamps and other nutrition programs for the poor accounted for about $51 billion, with the remainder going to crop subsidies for farmers, food aid to foreign countries, farmland conservation, meat plant inspections and other farm-related programs. Please allow this moderator to furnish a bit of cantrast: We are pouring one thousand dollars per second on this immoral,illegal,failed war. Two hundred and ten billion dollars and counting. NEW YORK ( Reuters.com) - Exxon Mobil Corp. posted a quarterly profit of $9.9 billion Thursday, the largest in U.S. corporate history. Dick Cheney's net worth is estimated to be $100 million, far surpassing his"boss"- Bush is only worth about $10 million. Estimated value of Halliburton's contracts:$14 billion.
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cmr
Junior Member
Posts: 25
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Post by cmr on Oct 31, 2005 23:00:19 GMT 4
quote from DT1 aboveNEW YORK ( Reuters.com) Exxon Mobil Corp. posted a quarterly profit of $9.9 billion Thursday, the largest in U.S. corporate history.Dick Cheney's net worth is estimated to be $100 million, far surpassing his"boss"- Bush is only worth about $10 million. Estimated value of Halliburton's contracts:$14 billion. _____________________________________________ What part of 'This war is not for oil' do the flag waving patriots that support this war administration not understand. Please, these pro war patriots are the tru terrorists by proxy, are they just to blind to see it, or in an attempt to justify their own materialism with out remorse by buying into this hypocrisy, what is wrong with these people?
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michelle
Administrator
I have broken any attachments I had to the Ascended Masters and their teachings; drains your chi!
Posts: 2,100
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Post by michelle on Feb 20, 2006 14:30:48 GMT 4
Rebecca Solnit on Wal-Mart ArtAs many of you read this, I'll be on a plane from San Diego back to New York City, flying over more Wal-Marts than I care to imagine. If you were to line up the approximately 3,700 giant, windowless Wal-Marts in the United States, you would undoubtedly have one of those Believe-It-Or-Not facts. The resulting giant Wal might be the only human-made structure visible from the moon -- it's an urban legend that you can see the Great Wall of China from there -- or maybe even from Mars. Add in the 1,500 Wal-Marts overseas, including the almost 700 in Mexico (even the Aztecs would be envious), and probably no alien civilization in the Milky Way could miss them. Rebecca Solnit must have been flying over the country too, because she noticed that Wal-Mart money, generated in part by paving Mexico, was now heading out of those cubes and into the rarified atmosphere of the finest of arts. What does it mean, she wonders, when the heiress to a fortune earned savaging local cultures and one-of-a-kind arts and crafts purchases a one-of-a-kind object for the one-of-a-kind museum of American art she is building in Bentonville, Arkansas? Her exploration of Wal-Mart art, in her usual striking style, is worth the price of admission -- even if, at Tomdispatch, that price is free. Solnit's Hope in the Dark, the first Tomdispatch-generated book, has just come out in a new, updated -- partially thanks to a couple of her more recent Tomdispatches -- edition. In its explanation of how history works (like a crab scuttling sideways), it remains a beacon for all of us in our moment of murk. If you despair, rush to your nearest independent bookstore and pick up a copy, then consider what a Wal-Mart biennale might really be like. Tom The Wal-Mart BiennaleBy Rebecca Solnit It isn't that, when Wal-Mart heiress Alice Walton purchased Asher B. Durand's 1849 painting Kindred Spirits last year, she got the state of Arkansas to pass legislation specifically to save her taxes -- in this case, about $3 million on a purchase price of $35 million. It isn't that the world's second richest woman and ninth richest person (according to a Forbes magazine 2005 estimate) scooped the painting out from under the National Gallery and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which had banded together to try to keep it in a public collection when the New York Public Library decided to sell it off. It isn't that Walton will eventually stick this talisman of New England cultural life and a lot of other old American paintings in the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, the Walton family museum she's building in Bentonville, Arkansas, the site of Wal-Mart's corporate headquarters -- after all people in the middle of the country should get to see some good art too. It might not even be, as Wal-MartWatch.com points out, that the price of the painting equals what the state of Arkansas spends every two years providing for Wal-Mart's 3,971 employees on public assistance; or that the average Wal-Mart cashier makes $7.92 an hour and, since Wal Mart likes to keep people on less than full-time schedules, works only 29 hours a week for an annual income of $11,948--so a Wal-Mart cashier would have to work a little under 3,000 years to earn the price of the painting without taking any salary out for food, housing, or other expenses (and a few hundred more years to pay the taxes, if the state legislature didn't exempt our semi-immortal worker). The trouble lies in what the painting means and what Alice Walton and her $18 billion mean. Art patronage has always been a kind of money-laundering, a pretty public face for fortunes made in uglier ways. The superb Rockefeller folk art collections in several American museums don't include paintings of the 1914 Ludlow Massacre of miners in Colorado, carried out by Rockefeller goons, and the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles doesn't say a thing about oil. But something about Wal-Mart and Kindred Spirits is more peculiar than all the robber barons and their chapels, galleries, and collections ever were, perhaps because, more than most works of art, Durand's painting is a touchstone for a set of American ideals that Wal-Mart has been savaging. It may be true that, in an era when oil companies regularly take out advertisements proclaiming their commitment to environmentalism, halting global warming, promoting petroleum alternatives, and conservation measures, while many of them also fund arguments against climate change's very existence, nothing is too contrary to embrace. But Kindred Spirits is older, more idealistic, and more openly at odds with this age than most hostages to multinational image-making. Kindred Spirits portrays Durand's friend, the great American landscape painter Thomas Cole, with his friend, the poet and editor William Cullen Bryant. The two stand on a projecting rock above a cataract in the Catskills, bathed like all the trees and air around them in golden light. The painting is about friendship freely given, including a sense of friendship, even passion, for the American landscape itself. In the work of Cole, Durand, and Bryant, as in the writing of Henry David Thoreau and Walt Whitman, you can see an emerging belief that the love of nature, beauty, truth, and freedom are naturally allied, a romantic vision that still lingers as one of the most idealistic versions of what it might mean to be an American. Cole was almost the first American painter to see the possibilities in American landscapes, to see that meaning could grow rather than lessen in a place not yet full of ruins and historical associations, and so he became an advocate for wilderness nearly half a century before California rhapsodist and eventual Sierra Club cofounder John Muir took up the calling. Bryant had gained a reputation as a poet before he became editor-in-chief of the New York Evening Post and thereby a pivotal figure in the culture of the day. He defended a group of striking tailors in 1836, long before there was a union movement, and was ever after a champion of freedom and human rights, turning his newspaper into an antislavery mouthpiece and eventually becoming a founder of the Republican Party (back when that was the more progressive and less beholden of the two parties). He was an early supporter of Abraham Lincoln and of the projects that resulted in New York's Central Park and the Metropolitan Museum -- of a democratic urban culture that believed in the uplifting power of nature and of free access. Maybe the mutation of the Republican Party from Bryant's to Walton's time is measure enough of American weirdness; or maybe the details matter, of what the painting is and what Wal-Mart and its heiress are. Kindred Spirits was commissioned by the wealthy dry-goods merchant Jonathan Sturges as a gift for Bryant in commemoration of his beautiful eulogy for Cole, who died suddenly in 1848. Bryant left it to his daughter Julia, who gave it in 1904 to what became the New York Public Library. It was never a commodity exchanged between strangers until the Library, claiming financial need, put it and other works of art up for sale. So now a portrait of antislavery and wilderness advocates belongs to a woman whose profits came from degrading working conditions in the U.S. and abroad and from ravaging the North American landscape. Maybe the problem is that the Crystal Bridges museum seems like a false front for Wal-Mart, a made-in-America handicrafted artifact of idealism for a corporation that is none of the above. The museum will, as such institutions do, attempt to associate the Wal-Mart billionaires with high culture, American history, beautifully crafted objects -- a host of ideals and pleasures a long way from what you find inside the blank, slabby box of a Wal-Mart. One of the privileges of wealth is buying yourself out of the situation you help to make, so that the wealthy, who advocate for deregulation, install water purifiers and stock up on cases of Perrier, or advocate for small government and then hire their own security forces and educators. Walton, it seems safe to assume, lives surrounded by nicer objects, likely made under nicer conditions, than she sells the rest of us. I have always believed that museums love artists the way taxidermists love deer. Perhaps Alice Walton is, in some sense, stuffing and mounting what is best about American culture -- best and fading. Perhaps Crystal Bridges will become one of the places we can go to revisit the long history that precedes industrialization and globalization, when creation and execution were not so savagely sundered, when you might know the maker of your everyday goods, and making was a skilled and meaningful act. One of the pleasures of most visual art is exactly that linkage between mind and hand, lost elsewhere as acts of making are divided among many and broken down into multiple repetitive tasks. Perhaps she could build us the Museum of When Americans Made Stuff Locally by Hand for People They Knew or perhaps that's what Crystal Bridges, along with the rest of such institutions, will become. Or Walton could just plan to open the Museum of When Americans Made Stuff at some more distant date, though less than half of what's in Wal-Mart, sources inform me, is still actually made here -- for now. The world's richest woman, however, seems more interested in archaic images of America than in the artisanry behind them. Walton has already scooped up a portrait of George Washington by Charles Wilson Peale and paintings by Winslow Homer and Edward Hopper for her museum. That museum, reports say, will feature many, many nineteenth-century portraits of Native Americans -- but it would be hard to see her as a champion of the indigenous history of the Americas. The Wal-Mart that opened last November in Teotihuacan, near Mexico City, is built so close to the Aztec's Pyramid of the Sun that many consider the site desecrated. The Wal-Mart parking lot actually eradicated the site of a smaller temple. "This is the flag of conquest by global interests, the symbol of the destruction of our culture," said a local schoolteacher. Thanks to free-trade measures like NAFTA, Wal-Mart has become Mexico's biggest retailer and private-sector employer. Imagine if Walton were more like Sturges, supporting the art of her time. Imagine if she were supporting artists who actually had something to say about Wal-Mart and America (and Mexico, and China). Imagine if, in the mode of the Venice Biennale or the Sao Paolo Biennale, there was a Wal-Mart biennale. After all, Wal-Mart is itself China's seventh-largest trading partner, ahead of Germany and Russia and Italy; if it were a nation, it would be the world's nineteenth biggest economy. If it's on the same scale as those countries, why shouldn't it have its own contemporary art shows? But what would the Wal-Mart nation and its artists look like? Rather than the open, luminous, intelligent architecture Moshe Safde will probably bestow on Bentonville, Arkansas, imagine a shuttered Wal-Mart big box (of which there are so many, often shut down simply to stop employees from unionizing) turned into a MOCA, a museum of contemporary art, or better yet a MOCWA, a Museum of Contemporary Wal-Mart Art. Or Wal-Art. After all, Los Angeles's MOCA was originally sited in a defunct warehouse. You could set the artists free to make art entirely out of materials available at Wal-Mart, or to make art about the global politics of Wal-Mart in our time -- poverty, consumerism, sprawl, racism, gender discrimination, exploitation of undocumented workers. Imagine a contemporary artist, maybe with Adobe Photoshop, reworking Kindred Spirits again and again. Imagine that Cole and Bryant are, this time, standing not on a rocky outcropping but in, say, one of the puzzle and art-supply aisles of a Wal-Mart somewhere in the Catskills, dazed and depressed. Or imagine instead that it's some sweatshop workers, a little hunched and hungry, on that magnificent perch amid the foliage and the golden light, invited at last into some sense of democratic community. Imagine paintings of Edward Hopper's old downtowns, boarded up because all the sad and lonely people are shopping at Wal-Mart and even having their coffee and hot dogs there. Imagine video-portraits of the people who actually make the stuff you can buy at Wal-Mart, or of the African-American truck-drivers suing the corporation for racism or of the women who are lead plaintiffs in the nation's largest class-action suit for discrimination. Against Wal-Mart, naturally. Imagine if Alice Walton decided to follow the route of Target with architect Michael Graves and commissioned some cutting-edge contemporary art about these issues: videos and DVDs you could buy, prints for your walls, performance art in the aisles, art that maybe even her workers could afford. Imagine if Wal-Mart would acknowledge what Wal-Mart is rather than turning hallowed American art into a fig leaf to paste over naked greed and raw exploitation. But really, it's up to the rest of us to make the Museum of Wal-Mart, one way or another, in our heads, on our websites, or in our reading of everyday life everywhere. Rebecca Solnit's Tomdispatch-generated Hope in the Dark: Untold Histories, Wild Possibilities is out in a new and expanded edition. Her other recent books include A Field Guide to Getting Lost and, with Mark Klett and Byron Wolfe, Yosemite in Time: Ice Ages, Tree Clocks, Ghost Rivers. Copyright 2005 Rebecca Solnit www.tomdispatch.com/index.mhtml?emx=x&pid=60904
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michelle
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I have broken any attachments I had to the Ascended Masters and their teachings; drains your chi!
Posts: 2,100
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Post by michelle on Feb 25, 2006 11:20:10 GMT 4
WEEKEND READING: DOLLAR IMPERIALISM AND OTHER WRITINGS ON THE WALLThere's much information listed below. The first article is the background, the following articles and speeches [from Representative Ron Paul], all recent, are must reads to see and understand exactly what's behind the administration's aggressive measures throughout the world......Michelle Dollar ImperialismQUICK SUMMARY, VERY EXTENSIVE ARTICLE; A MUST READ FOR AMERICANS AND THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY HERE: An imperialistic regime extends its power and dominion over other nations through military, economic, and cultural means. This involves the military acquisition of territory, gaining control over the political and economic life of subject groups, and imposing its money system on conquered nations. Two cabal extortion schemes--Eurodollars and Petrodollars--continue to impose the American dollar on the world, forcing other nations to trade in the U.S. currency and support the dollar by buying American treasury bonds. After World War II, the dollar became the only global reserve currency. This meant that other nations' central banks had to hold dollars in reserve to guarantee against currency crises, to back their export trade, and to finance imports of oil and other goods and services. Today, some 67% of all central bank reserves are in dollars, with only about 15% in Euros. Until the creation of the Euro, there had not even been a theoretical rival to the dollar reserve currency role. Dollar imperialism is based on global extortion: you either use dollars and follow cabal directives or your economy goes into the toilet and you're branded a terrorist nation. With nothing to control the cabal's creation of U.S. dollars, it prints more bills than the American economy justifies. It buys foreign goods and services with dollars that cost almost nothing to print. When the US was still on the Bretton Woods gold standard, between 1945 and 1965, total supply of dollars increased only some 55%. The world experienced low inflation and stable growth. After Nixon's break with gold, dollars expanded by more than 2,000% between 1970 and 2001! Within the last fifteen years, dollar imperialism has faced new challenges and dangers. The cabal's impoverishment and devastation of Third World states through its international financial institutions (IFI) such as the World Bank (WB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has drained the wealth of local economies. The IFI structural adjustment policies, free trade doctrines and privatization directives fragment and weaken the client states, causing widespread corruption as politicians and private sector elites, such as Enron, pillage the treasuries of the victim nations. This crisis situation now requires a "new imperialism," as journalist Martin Wolf made clear in an October 10, 2001 propaganda piece in the Financial Times. Wolf argued that bombs and marines must supplement IMF and WB functionaries [debt-masters] in "restructuring" economies and ensuring the subordination of Third World States. He asserted: "To tackle the challenge of the failed [pillaged and depleted] state what is needed is not pious aspirations but an honest and organized coercive force." In other words, dollar imperialist wars throughout the world, which have left nations in debt-slavery to the IMF, must now be supplemented by new military conquests such as those in Afghanistan and Iraq. Recolonization through pre-emptive invasion of "bad countries" is the new dollar imperialism strategy, a process already underway in the Middle East and Latin America. And watch for the next attack against Iran at a theater of operation near you. While on the surface the U.S. and China seem to be trading politely--Americans buy cheap Chinese goods, the Chinese invest their earnings in U.S. Treasury Bills to enable Americans to purchase even more Chinese imports--beneath the surface both are angling for a superior position in the ongoing dollar imperialism conflict. If China were to decide to declare open war against the dollar imperialists, it would sell off its dollar holdings, tie its currency to the Euro, cooperate with the other countries in forming a coalition to oppose the dollar imperialists, and the American economy might be destroyed, with America landing on the ash heap of failed empires. However, to maintain control of global resource flows, the dollar imperialists have clearly demonstrated that they're willing to play their most monstrous card--their spectacularly lethal weapons of mass death and destruction. Dollar imperialist hired gun Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice now has the job of going around the world threatening other nations with first-strike, unprovoked retaliation against their going up against the Bush junta in competing for oil and gas reserves or in trying to use any other currency than the American dollar. In March, 2005, Condy tried to intimidate Indian Foreign Minister Natwar Singh in New Delhi to back away from India's plan to import natural gas by pipeline from Iran, claiming that any such endeavor would frustrate U.S. efforts to isolate the hard-line clerical regime in Tehran. Indian leaders let it be known that their desire for additional energy supplies trumped Washington's ideological opposition to the Iranian regime. Declaring that the proposed pipeline will be necessary to meet India's soaring energy needs, Foreign Minister Singh told reporters, "We have no problem of any kind with Iran." Following her attempt at extortion in New Delhi, Rice flew to Moscow and demanded of President Vladimir Putin that he cease his crackdown on the privately-owned energy giant, Yukos, and allow increased investment by American firms in Russia's energy industry. She threatened that the Bush junta would stop "collaborating" in the development of Russia's vast oil reserves. While embracing Rice's call for enhanced U.S.-Russian relations, Putin showed no inclination to back away from his plans to increase state control over Russian energy companies and to use this authority to advance Moscow's geopolitical objectives. Condi's animosity toward Putin really stems from the fact that he's been moving against the handful of billionaire plutocrats in Russia (many of whom also hold Israeli citizenship) who grabbed control of the Russian economy with the open connivance of then-Russian leader Boris Yeltsin, following the collapse of the old Soviet Union. In this essay, I'm exposing the imperialistic machinations of the demonic cabal in the sphere of currency warfare. The dollar imperialistic cabal perpetually struggles against enemy regimes. But, even more importantly, dollar imperialism involves the cabal's continual warfare against the interests of American workers--and working people throughout the world. As Americans, we must be aware of what the junta that seized control over our country is doing to us and to others throughout the world. They're exposing Americans to extreme danger from other nations because of their militaristic, economic despotism. Americans are placed in a terrible bind in which we have to dissent from the thugs who run our government, while at the same time try to preserve our nation's heritage. The best way to be loyal to our American values is to struggle against the un-American, extremist junta trying to destroy our nation. In our discussion of dollar imperialism, it's incorrect to say that the United States or America is attacking the world economically. It is not the U.S. as a nation that is perpetrating these imperialistic horrors, but the demonic cabal that controls the American federal government. The American people are not at war economically with the rest of the world, only the international cabal and its puppet figures such as the Bush junta and Tony Blair's administration. The common people in all nations must jointly rise up against this international demonic cabal and take back our rights and liberties--our countries. TAKE SOME TIME AND READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE:www.hermes-press.com/dollar_imperialism.htmSyria switches to euro amid confrontation with US (Feb 13) DAMASCUS (Reuters) - Syria has switched all of the state's foreign currency transactions to euros from dollars amid a political confrontation with the United States, the head of state-owned Commercial Bank of Syria said on Monday. "This is a precaution. We are talking about billions of dollars," Duraid Durgham told Reuters. The bank, which still dominates the Syrian market although private banks have been allowed to set up in the last few years, has also stopped dealing with dollars in the international foreign exchange flows of private clients. The United States has been at the forefront of international pressure on Syria for its alleged role in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri a year ago. Damascus denies involvement in the killing. "It looks like a kind of pre-emptive action aimed at making their foreign assets safer, preventing them from getting frozen in case of any conflict," said a Middle East economist who requested anonymity. today.reuters.com/news/newsarticle.aspx?type=politicsNews&storyid=2006-02-13T153028Z_01_L13432231_RTRUKOC_0_US-SYRIA-US-FOREX.xml&rpc=22The End Of Dollar Hegemony by the Hon. Ron Paul of Texas, February 15, 2006 Before The U.S. House of Representatives SNIP:A hundred years ago it was called "dollar diplomacy." After World War II, and especially after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1989, that policy evolved into "dollar hegemony." But after all these many years of great success, our dollar dominance is coming to an end. The artificial demand for our dollar, along with our military might, places us in the unique position to "rule" the world without productive work or savings, and without limits on consumer spending or deficits. The problem is, it can't last. (...) Price inflation is raising its ugly head, and the NASDAQ bubble-- generated by easy money-- has burst. The housing bubble likewise created is deflating. Gold prices have doubled, and federal spending is out of sight with zero political will to rein it in. The trade deficit last year was over $728 billion. A $2 trillion war is raging, and plans are being laid to expand the war into Iran and possibly Syria. www.house.gov/paul/congrec/congrec2006/cr021506.htmRon Paul: Searching for a New DirectionSNIP:(...) During this administration the dollar has suffered severely as a consequence of the policy of inflating the currency to pay our bills. The dollar price of gold has more than doubled ($252 to $560 per ounce, a 122 % increase). This means the dollar has depreciated in terms of gold, the time-honored and reliable measurement of a nation’s currency, by an astounding 55%. The long-term economic health of the nation is measured by the soundness of its currency. Once Rome converted from a republic to an empire, she depreciated her currency to pay the bills. This eventually led to Rome’s downfall. That is exactly what America is facing unless we change our ways. (...) A free nation, as it moves toward authoritarianism, tolerates and hides a lot of abuse in the system. The human impulse for wealth creation is hard to destroy. But in the end it will happen here, if true reform of our economic, monetary, and political system is not accomplished. Whether government programs are promoted for “good” causes (helping the poor), or bad causes (permitting a military-industrial complex to capitalize on war profits), the principles of the market are undermined. www.house.gov/paul/congrec/congrec2006/cr011806.htmChavez Threatens to Cut Off Oil to US If It Goes Too Far (February 18, 2006)SNIP:Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez has warned he was taking potential steps to cut off oil shipments to the United States, in the event Washington goes too far campaigning against his elected leftist rule. "The US government must know that if it crosses the line, it won't be getting Venezuelan oil," the leftist leader cautioned late Friday, repeating threats he has made in his long, simmering dispute with the United States. Chavez, who did not clarify how Washington might incur such a sanction, apparently was reacting to Thursday's call by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice for an international "united front" against Venezuela. (...) www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0218-04.htmWhile the mainstream media sleeps: Iran/Venezuela declares economic war on the U.S. (February 15, 2006)SNIP:During a recent visit to Caracas, Venezuela, Iranian parliamentary speaker Gholam Ali Hadad Adel said U.S. opposition to Iran's nuclear program was "only a pretext." "They are worried that we want to be independent," Hadad Adel said through an interpreter.[1] Adel was kind to use the word “pretext”. A more direct statement by Adel would have been to say that U.S. opposition to Iran’s nuclear program is more of the same hardliner propaganda coming out of the Bush Administration, meant to drum up public support for additional Bush Administration sponsored, pre-emptive strikes against nations that dare to abandon the U.S. dollar in favor of the euro or any other foreign currency. Why else would Adel say that the U.S. opposition to Iran’s nuclear program was “only a pretext” if he didn’t possess full knowledge of what he believed to be the real reason why the Bush Administration and its supporters in the U.S. Congress have suddenly gotten themselves all hot and bothered over a nuclear program that has been in play for decades and is by many accounts, at least ten more years away from being able to produce even a single nuclear weapon? What did Adel mean when he said that “they are worried that we want to be independent” when Iran is already an independent country? No foreign army is presently occupying Iran. It holds elections. In 2000, the U.S. applauded when the Iranian people elected reformists to the Iranian Parliament. In 2004, the Bush Administration, the spread democracy by spraying bullets administration, frowned when those same Iranian voters elected the resurgent conservatives into power once again. The point here is that Iran is already independent by all accounts, so what did Adel mean when he said that the Bush Administration and its NEO-CON supporters are worried that Iran wants to be independent? When mining alternative media sources (the mainstream media in the United States is not and will not report this information) to catch a glimpse of what Iran is attempting to become independent of, the only plausible explanation to be uncovered suggests that Iran wants to become independent of the U.S. dollar. It is of great importance to understand that only those countries that are adversarial to the U.S. dollar have earned the scorn of Bush’s Global, Big Brother Machine. www.teamliberty.net/id223.htmlBEATING AROUND THE BUSH BY THE BOURSE Here's how the Neocons hoodwinked and swindled the worldSNIP:"Oil can be bought from OPEC only if you have dollars. Non-oil producing countries, such as most underdeveloped countries and Japan, first have to sell their goods to earn dollars with which they can purchase oil. If they cannot earn enough dollars, then they have to borrow dollars from the WB/IMF, which have to be paid back, with interest, in dollars. This creates a great demand for dollars outside the U.S. In contrast, the U.S. only has to print dollar bills in exchange for goods. Even for its own oil imports, the U.S. can print dollar bills without exporting or selling its goods. www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11704.htmCHINA'S STRANGLEHOLD ON THE DOLLARSNIP:On Thursday, The People's Republic of China fired off the first volley in what could turn out to be economic Armageddon. China announced that it would begin to diversify its foreign-exchange reserves away from US dollar. Gulp! The only thing keeping the dollar atop its fragile perch is the fact that other countries have been willing to lap up the $600 billion of American red ink every year via the trade deficit. That amounts to roughly $2 billion per day or nearly 7% GDP. tinyurl.com/dcofjUS GOVERNMENT WARNS IT'S RUNNING OUT OF CASH (December 31, 2005)SNIP:WASHINGTON - Treasury Secretary John Snow has warned that unless Congress raises the national debt limit, the US government will run out of cash to finance its daily work in two months. In a letter to Senate leaders Thursday, Snow said the statutory debt limit imposed by Congress of 8.184 trillion dollars would be reached in mid-February and the government would then lose its borrowing power." At that time, unless the debt limit is raised or the Treasury Department takes authorized extraordinary actions, we will be unable to continue to finance government operations," said the letter, seen by AFP. Snow warned that even if the Treasury took "all available prudent and legal actions" to avoid breaching the ceiling, "we anticipate that we can finance government operations no longer than mid-March". www.afp.com/english/news/stories/051230161316.ohxvd1c3.html
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michelle
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Post by michelle on Feb 28, 2006 10:03:09 GMT 4
WHAT'S UP WITH THE FEDERAL RESERVE? [linked info at reply # 6 above] Federal Reserve will NO LONGER publish M3 data! The date is 3 days after the Iranian Oil Bourse becomes a reality. Is there a connection? Is this meant to try and prevent a collapse of the dollar in the days following the switch to the euro as Iran's oil currency? The timing is more then just coincidental.....Michelle Discontinuance of M3 On March 23, 2006, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System will cease publication of the M3 monetary aggregate. The Board will also cease publishing the following components: large-denomination time deposits, repurchase agreements (RPs), and Eurodollars. The Board will continue to publish institutional money market mutual funds as a memorandum item in this release. Measures of large-denomination time deposits will continue to be published by the Board in the Flow of Funds Accounts (Z.1 release) on a quarterly basis and in the H.8 release on a weekly basis (for commercial banks). www.federalreserve.gov/releases/h6/discm3.htmFederal Reserve will NO LONGER publish M3 data!As to M1, M2, M3: M1: Technically defined this is the sum of: the tender that is held outside banks, travelers checks, checking accounts (but not demand deposits), minus the amount of money in the Federal Reserve float. M2: The sum of: M1, savings deposits (this would include money market accounts from which no checks can be written), small denomination time deposits (where small is less than $100,000), retirement accounts. M3: M2 plus the large time deposits (for any of you with more than $100,000 deposits you add to this...). Eurodollar deposits, dollars held at foreign offices of U.S. banks, and institutional money market funds. M1, M2, and M3 are measures of the quantity of money, in this case dollars. The measures each include different categories of money. M1 is the most restrictive; M3 is the most inclusive. M3 includes offshore dollar deposits (AKA eurodollars). Petrodollars are just eurodollars held by oil producers. There are two definitions for inflation. The one the layman is most familiar with is an increase in prices. Another definition is an increase in the money supply in excess of the real increase in the size of the economy (which tends to raise prices, either of assets such as real estate or of consumer goods). Hyperinflation is just when inflation spirals out of control, like in Germany in the 1920s, when housewives pushed shopping carts full of paper money to the bakery to buy a loaf of bread. The idea here is that the Federal Reserve Bank is suppressing the M3 measure of money because they want to conceal sharp changes in the number of dollars held overseas, for example if foreign central banks start dumping their dollar reserves, which they might do as a result of the following developments, among others: 1) The US economy slides into recession by spring of 2006, the Fed lowers interest rates sharply, and the value of the dollar drops sharply against other currencies (since people are holding dollars mainly because they can get a better interest rate in the US than in most other countries with apparently sound banking systems). 2) Iran opens its oil bourse, where people can buy and sell gold in euros, and it is such a success that foreign central banks no longer see a need to hold dollars to safeguard their ability to import oil. The combination of 1) and 2) would be particularly disastrous for the dollar. The result would be sharply rising import prices in the US (sharply rising prices in general) and probably recession. The likely Fed response would be to print money in an attempt to push the US out of recession. This, however, would be likely only to make matters worse and could lead to hyperinflation. Or, the Fed foresees recession and plans to print money by buying US government debt (Treasury notes), which would force down interest rates in an effort to get US consumers to take on more debt. This would sustain the consumption of imports and the trade deficit, which would send MORE dollars overseas, dramatically increasing M3. This outcome would also mean inflation, but it would manifest itself mainly in further asset bubbles (a revival of the real estate and stock market bubbles, mainly). I believe that this strategy would fail either because consumers will no longer be solvent and able to take on more debt after this winter's shocks to their budgets, or, if enough do remain solvent, because this strategy will boost economic activity in both the US and the many countries that export to the US, which will again push up the price of oil to the point where US consumers are no longer solvent. However, the bankers at the Fed seem to be masters of wishful thinking, and they figure that if they can keep the public from knowing about alarming developments in the money supply, they will be able to keep the party going at least long enough for the big players to buy up gold or other real assets, leaving ordinary consumers, and probably countries that rely on the US consumer market (e.g. China), to deal with the wreckage. FROM: www.peakoil.com/fortopic14770.htmlHow can the Dollar Collapse in Iran?The Iranian Oil Bourse threatens the historic role of the US dollar as the world's reserve currency.By Rudo de Ruijter Feb. 15, 2006 SNIP:In 2002, most journalists did not see what was behind the accusations that Iraq had WMDs. Today, most people do not know what is behind the accusations that Iran has plans for nuclear weapons. Iran's threat is not nuclear, but far more dangerous to the US. If Iran can open its upcoming euro-based Oil Bourse in Tehran on March 20th 2006, Iran will threaten the US dollar. READ ENTIRE ARTICLE: www.raisethehammer.org/index.asp?id=252The Cab-Driving Economist The Daily Reckoning Ouzilly, France Resistance...denial...debt. We Americans are a people in revolt against fate. Wealth and power are migrating from West to East...our empire is peaking out...our dollar is doomed - if only we could take it more gracefully. Instead, politicians, central bankers and ordinary consumers want to dispute it, as if they could stop the tides of history, like Xerxes’ troops doing battle with the waves. Just listen to the mindless rants coming from Congress: The Arabs want to take over our ports; the Chinese are taking over our oil companies! What do they think this is...a free country? Last year, 96 American companies were bought by firms from emerging markets. Those transactions were worth about $14 billion and were hardly noticed. But when a big offer makes the headlines, you can count on resistance, indignation, and dissembling. Who do these Chinese think they are? How dare they try to stabilize their economy by tying their currency to that of their largest trading partner? Don’t they know they’re supposed to let their paper money rise so ours can fall? Meanwhile, the Financial Times reports on “How China is Winning the Resources and the Loyalties of Africa.” China needs resources; Africa has a lot of them. So far, they seem to be going after them honestly - with smiles and cash, both of which they have in abundance. Back in the homeland, consumers spend more than they earn, borrowing the shortfall from Asia. And why not? They deny that there is any problem at all. If there is a problem, they’re sure it can be solved with more debt. Have real hourly wages gone down? They don’t seem to have noticed. Don’t they already owe a lot of money to a lot of people? It doesn’t seem to bother them. And, isn’t most of the growth since 2001 simply a by-product of a booming housing market? It never seems to occur to them that there is anything wrong with it. Investors, too, deny that there is a problem. They buy stocks at an average of 20 times earnings - with a dividend yield below 2%. How do they expect to make any money? And over in the bond market, at current yields, after taxes and inflation, an investor is practically guaranteed to lose money. How could he miss it? The math is so simple: a 4.5% yield...less inflation of 4% (being optimistic about it)...leaves only half a percentage point to pay taxes. There is no way that will work. But, Americans have been told that they have the world’s most dynamic and flexible economy, and they believe it. What they really have is a mature, shopworn economy struggling to appear young. What can it do but dye its hair, pin back its face, and lie? Around the world, people are beginning to notice the signs. While no maturing economy can avoid some sag, bulges and lines, it is the resistance, denial and debt that produce the real problems. The Russian newspaper, Pravda, reports: “The United States is heading to financial crisis at top speed. That is correct, America will default on its foreign debt sooner or later if the actual trends remain unchanged. Consequently, the whole dollar-based world (including savings in U.S. currency) may crumble. The picture looks pretty grim this time around. Several factors will have an extremely detrimental effect on the dollar, according to U.S. Secretary of the Treasury John Snow who forwarded a letter full of ominous predictions to 21 members of U.S. Congress. The letter was made public after the markets had been closed for Christmas and New Year's holidays – a rather appropriate precautionary move in terms of the international foreign exchange market, which is extremely sensitive to any sound produced by U.S. bureaucrats. “Besides, the U.S. Federal Reserve is going to stop publishing the so-called ‘M 3 aggregate’ reports i.e. data on increase rates in money supply. Given the New Year's predictions by John Snow, the Fed's intentions look pretty suspicious. In other words, the international community will have no tool for measuring a real value of the dollar... “The Fed is going to pull the plug on the data in March this year. Several events should occur in different countries more or less at the same time and thus damage credibility of the U.S. securities. Risk-averse investors get rid of speculative securities e.g. the dollar securities under the circumstances. “All in all, the situation is quite alarming though it looks like a play being staged on purpose.” What purpose? Peter Schiff: “The Feb distracts the audience with short-term rate hikes, while behind its back it monetizes long-term government bonds. It creates the illusion of its being an inflation fighter, while in reality it is an inflation creator. No wonder it wants to further cover its tracks by no longer reporting M3! “My guess is that the Fed’s goal is to keep long-term interest rates low long enough to allow millions of homeowners to refinance their adjustable rate mortgages into 40 or 50 year fixed-rate loans, and to create enough inflation to cause nominal incomes to rise sufficiently in order to enable homeowners to make higher debt payments and prevent nominal home prices from collapsing.” [Ed. Note: Right now, the number of homes on the market in the United States is 528,000 - the largest supply of homes in nine years! What happened to all the buyers? “The growth in inventories and the slower pace of sales and price appreciation are factors suggesting the booming housing market of the past four years is losing steam as mortgage rates rise and affordability falls,” says MarketWatch. Hmmm – it might be a good idea to have a plan in place to protect yourself when the bottom falls out of the housing market – sending ripples throughout the economy: A Gut-Punch to Every Homeowner www1.youreletters.com/t/339476/1466280/783270/0/ More news from our currency counselor... CONTINUED:www.howestreet.com/articles/index.php/daily?article_id=2101HOW DOES THE FED CREATE MONEY?Friday, February 24, 2006 - FreeMarketNews.com LINKED NEWS ANALYSIS: All About Money by Fred Cederholm I 've been thinking about the US dollar, the M3 money supply, reserve currencies, OPEC, Saddam, and petrodollars. There is so much more to the story behind our money than what bucks we each have, what bucks we spend, what bucks are out there, and how those bucks are used/valued by the global financial community. Our currency is "created" through the Federal Reserve Banking System of the United States. The Fed does this both by actually printing paper bills, and through manipulation of monetary policy--the expansion and contraction of credit/lending requirements. It also increases the money supply--putting more money in the hands of the "public"--by buying government securities in the market. As strange as it sounds, the Federal Reserve pays for these by virtually creating the money out of thin air and transferring it to those people/entities selling the securities! There is no longer anything tangible behind the Federal Reserve Note--no links to gold or silver since 1971--only the full faith and "credit" of the United States of America. Money supply is defined in terms of "M's." The M1 refers to the printed currency and all deposits in checking accounts (demand deposits), and unredeemed/outstanding travelers checks. The M2 picks up the M1 components plus all time-related deposits--savings deposits, small CD's and non-institutional money market funds. The M3 picks up the M2 components plus all large time deposits, institutional money-market funds, short-term repurchase agreements, along with eurodollar holdings. In January 2001, the M3 stood at $7,249,900,000,000; at the end of June 2004 the M3 stood at $9,283,700,000,000. By printing currency, loosening credit, and "buying" government securities, the Fed has "created" $2,033,800,000,000 additional dollars for Uncle $ugar--in three and a half years! This doesn't mean that Americans (or American businesses) have that much more money in their mattresses, bank accounts, or billfolds. The bulk of that whopping increase was added to outstanding reserve currencies. A reserve currency is one that is held by other governments and institutions as part of their foreign exchange reserves. They've accumulated that much because this nation buys so many more goods/products/services than we sell; and consumes so much more capital than we generate--an infusion of ONE AND ONE HALF BILLION dollars a day is presently required. The US dollar is the "official" currency of OPEC. If you are a nation who needs OPEC oil, those purchases are priced/denominated in dollars. You are forced to pay in dollars, or in your currency's spot dollar valuation at the closing. Think of this as a US dollar monopoly within the OPEC oil cartel--hence, more and more dollars accumulate in the oil producing nations' treasuries. In November 2000, Saddam Hussein broke that US dollar monopoly by denominating Iraqi oil pricing/sales in Euros. Saddam was even lobbying other OPEC members to do likewise. While this made the French, the Germans and other members of the European Union very happy; it made Washington D.C most unhappy. The implications to the dollar as the world's reserve currency, the US deficits (both trade and capital), the outstanding debt and its essential foreign rollovers and the US stock markets were tremendous--and all implications were negative. The Saddam regime is now history. The evil dictator was preemptively/presumedly ousted because of his WMD's and his ties to terrorism, and the US dollar is back as "OPEC's currency." The trillions of petrodollars (US dollars earned from the sale of oil) give oil-producing nations the ability to do serious shopping in these United States--stocks, bonds, real estate, corporations, partnerships, government securities, etc. We can only hope and pray that politicians are never offered for sale on the internet's sales portals. I'm Fred Cederholm and I've been thinking. You should be thinking, too. February 24, 2006 This column originally appeared at the Baltimore Chronicle online on August 20th, 2004. www.strike-the-root.com/61/cederholm/cederholm1.html
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michelle
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Post by michelle on Mar 8, 2006 20:23:50 GMT 4
Loot Dick, Loot!Great article; lots of links to back up data. Dahr Jamail: See Dick Lootwww.truthout.org/docs_2006/030806Z.shtmlDahr Jamail writes: It is, of course, no coincidence that the man sitting as vice president played a key role with his influence in obtaining the lion's share of contracts in Iraq for the company he was CEO of prior to his self-appointed position. The ties that bind Cheney to Halliburton also link him to groups with even broader interests in the Middle East, which are causing civilians on the ground there, as well as in the US, to pay the price.
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michelle
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I have broken any attachments I had to the Ascended Masters and their teachings; drains your chi!
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Post by michelle on Mar 28, 2006 14:53:08 GMT 4
Federal Reserve The Biggest Scam In History Just in case you didn't know the Federal Reserve is a private company of bankers with twelve branch banks that confiscate our money and they have been doing this for almost a hundred years,--- this time!! They are not part of the United States Government. Yet today they collect hundreds of billions of dollars from American taxpayers every year. Pay Attention now, you're about to read about the biggest and most successful scam in History. www.wtv-zone.com/Mary/FEDERALRESERVE.HTML
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michelle
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I have broken any attachments I had to the Ascended Masters and their teachings; drains your chi!
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Post by michelle on Mar 29, 2006 20:15:53 GMT 4
Corruption Exposed At World Bank March 27, 2006 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEContact: Dylan Blaylock, Communications Director Phone: 202.408.0034 ext. 137, cell 202.236.3733 Email: dylanb@whistleblower.org Corruption Exposed At World Bank GAP Again Calls for Adoption of Internal World Bank Whistleblower Plan After Four-Month US News & World Report Investigation Exposes Widespread WrongdoingWashington, DC – Today, the Government Accountability Project (GAP) hailed a 10-page investigative report focusing on corruption at the World Bank. The article in the April 3 edition of US News & World Report, which hit newsstands today, focuses on extensive internal problems at the bank including how “kickbacks, payoffs, bribery, embezzlement, and collusive bidding plague bank-funded projects around the world.” The report estimates that more than 20 percent of the loans distributed by the World Bank, or $4 billion annually, are associated with corrupt practices. In the wake of these findings, GAP again calls upon the World Bank to implement its own “Vaughn Report,” which the bank has had for nearly one year, but has not released. The report provides a blueprint for modernizing that institution’s inadequate whistleblower protections. If the Vaughn proposal had been in place at the World Bank during the article’s examples of corruption, many of the issues detailed by this groundbreaking report would have been brought to light sooner, and the resulting damage might never have occurred. The thorough investigative report details numerous problems at the World Bank. These include the following (with GAP commentary italicized): • Staffers have traditionally been professionally rewarded for ensuring that projects go through as planned, but not for reporting corrupt practices. GAP has information that whistleblowers who report corruption are often punished for doing so. • The bank’s Department of Institutional Integrity (INT) currently has a backlog of over 250 complaints, with only 22 investigators working on them. However, GAP has information that not all these complaints are legitimate, but are instead spurious efforts intended to victimize whistleblowers for reporting corruption. The INT is not independent of the World Bank. The Vaughn Report recommends that conflict-of-interest protocols be put in place to create greater independence. • One $600 million bank program was alleged to be corrupt as early as 1995, but it took two years for the bank to look into the issue at all, and another four years for the bank to officially open an investigation. The bank found indications of widespread theft involved with the program. • Last year, the then-INT director imposed a freeze on investigator travel – a “critical element in unearthing corruption” according to both the article and GAP. Along with independence, an effective INT must also have adequate resources and high-quality investigator training. The Vaughn Report, released publicly by GAP last month, contains the full recommendations of noted whistleblower law scholar Robert Vaughn of American University Law School. The report, commissioned by the World Bank but kept hidden from outside view, incorporates “best practices,” many of which have already been adopted by the United Nations. These practices have been approved by the Organization of American States to implement its Inter-American Convention Against Corruption, and were also enacted by Congress last fall as U.S. policy to strengthen anti-corruption efforts at all multilateral development banks (MDBs). The full report can be viewed on GAP’s Web site, at: www.whistleblower.org/doc/Vaughn%20Report.pdf. GAP’s International Reform program has focused on the failure of accountability for the $222 billion dollar development organization. These new examples of fraud reinforce the need for dramatic reform of the culture of corruption that exists within the global body. Congress has repeatedly directed the Treasury Department to institute safe channels for reporting corruption, fraud, and abuse to protect America’s $32 billion investment in the World Bank and ensure that communities in poor countries are appropriately served. The bank’s staff has been increasingly frustrated by the lack of leadership under President Paul Wolfowitz, specifically in his failure to institute transparent and impartial procedures to protect staff from reprisal for coming forward to tell of misconduct. “The Bank is uniquely placed to set the highest standards for accountability worldwide,” said GAP’s International Program Director Melanie Beth Oliviero. “Management can no longer point the finger at borrowing countries with lax protections as the source of the devastating cost of corruption. The World Bank itself fosters fraud and abuse within its own organization by silencing many responsible staff members and shielding those who abuse the system.” The Senate Foreign Relations Committee continues to focus its attention on the need for dramatically improved accountability at all five multilateral development banks. Tomorrow, March 28, the Committee will again hold a hearing with high level Treasury officials and the Executive Directors they appoint to the governing boards of these banks. These witnesses must explain why proven practices of legal protections for whistleblowing, enacted by Congress as recently as last November’s Foreign Operations appropriations law and recommended in the Vaughn Report, continue to be rejected. The United Nations has already instituted many of these best practices. Since that body’s new anti-retaliation policy, which GAP consulted on, went into effect on January 1, witnesses to corruption have come forward to help the world peacekeeping body catch wrongdoing before it becomes a major scandal or undermines the overall mission. “The World Bank should follow the example of the United Nations” noted Oliviero. “Fighting corruption requires genuine commitment to transparency. The World Bank should immediately engage its own front-line defenders against wrongdoing – its staff. The World Bank should publicly share the roadmap for a safe, early warning system provided by Prof. Vaughn with staff and other overseers like Congress and watchdog groups. During the upcoming annual board meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund in April, GAP will join other international non-governmental organizations to coordinate campaigns that demand bank accountability and an end to policies that allow billions of dollars to be stolen from deserving impoverished people. The early warning of corruption provided by whistleblowers is a proven antidote – the World Bank has the ability to enact this reform easily and its staff is pleading for this action to be taken. For further information on the Vaughn Report, please see GAP’s press advisory regarding it at www.whistleblower.org/content/press_detail.cfm?press_id=358. For media inquiries, please contact GAP Communications Director Dylan Blaylock at 202.408.0034 ext. 137, 202.236.3733 (cell), or dylanb@whistleblower.org. Government Accountability Project The Government Accountability Project is the nation’s leading whistleblower protection organization. Through litigating whistleblower cases, publicizing concerns and developing legal reforms, GAP’s mission is to protect the public interest by promoting government and corporate accountability. Founded in 1977, GAP is a non-profit, non-partisan advocacy organization with offices in Washington, D.C. and Seattle, WA. SOURCE: tinyurl.com/h46qv
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michelle
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Post by michelle on Mar 31, 2006 16:58:06 GMT 4
Capitalism under fire William Pfaff THURSDAY, MARCH 30, 2006 PARIS The demonstrations by French students, workers and would- be workers, with unions and the French left riding on their bandwagon, have amounted to a spontaneous revolt in France against something that I suspect few of the participants fully appreciate. The protests' ostensible purpose is to force withdrawal of a minor change in this French government's employment policy, but they have taken on a radically different significance. The crowds in the street contest a certain form of capitalist economy that a large part, if not the majority, of French society regards as a danger to national standards of justice and, above all, to "equality" - that radical notion of which France is nearly alone in proclaiming as a national cause, the central value in its republican motto of "liberty, equality, fraternity." Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin undoubtedly had little notion of the consequences when he launched what seemed to him a small but constructive employment initiative, intended to loosen current structural inhibitions to job-creation. He inadvertently opened what many of the French see as a central question to their national future, just as two years ago they saw in the European constitutional referendum disturbing questions about the future nature of the European Union and about the model of capitalism that would prevail in Europe's future. They are not alone in this concern. A kindred debate about "models" of capitalism has been a persistent factor in Germany, now suffering labor unrest, and in the European Commission itself, which since EU expansion to 25 members, has tipped away from the traditional European "social" model. Even in Britain last Tuesday there was the biggest strike since the 1920s, on the question of pensions. The French, of course, have been against "capitalisme sauvage" ever since that rough beast loomed amid the satanic mills of Britain in the 19th century, subsequently making its trans-Atlantic journey to establish another lair. A recent international opinion poll on the free-enterprise and free-market system, found that 74 percent of the Chinese say they think it the best system of all, compared to only 36 percent of the French. (The Germans were not far off the French.) The essential question is, what capitalism are we talking about? Since the 1970s, two fundamental changes have been made in the leading (American) model of capitalism. The first is that the "stakeholder," post-New Deal reformed version of capitalism (in America) that prevailed in the West after World War II was replaced by a new model of corporate purpose and responsibility. The earlier model said that corporations had a duty to ensure the well- being of employees, and an obligation to the community (chiefly but not exclusively fulfilled through corporate tax payments). That model has been replaced by one in which corporation managers are responsible for creating short-term "value" for owners, as measured by stock valuation and quarterly dividends. The practical result has been constant pressure to reduce wages and worker benefits (leading in some cases to theft of pensions and other crimes), and political lobbying and public persuasion to lower the corporate tax contribution to government finance and the public interest. In short, the system in the advanced countries has been rejigged since the 1960s to take wealth from workers, and from the funding of government, and transfer it to stockholders and corporate executives. While that may seem an incendiary comment, it seems to me a simple factual observation. The criticism currently made of Europeans who resist "reform" is that their policies block managers from downsizing and outsourcing jobs, in order to add "value" to the corporation. (A recent headline in the International Herald Tribune read: "AT&T- BellSouth deal gets Wall St. applause. Merger would lead to 10,000 job cuts.") I once called this "CEO capitalism," since corporate chiefs today effectively control their boards of directors and are also the biggest benefactors of the system, subject only to critical attention from investment-fund managers, themselves interested in maximizing dividends, not in defending workers or the public interest. (The well-known American fund manager, John Bogle, now retired, has taken up my argument and advances it in his recent book, "The Battle for the Soul of Capitalism.") The second change that has taken place is globalization. The crucial effect of this for society in the advanced countries is that it puts labor into competition with the poorest countries on earth. We need go no further with what I realize is a very complex matter, other than to note the classical economist David Ricardo's "iron law of wages," which says that in conditions of wage competition and unlimited labor supply, wages will fall to just above subsistence. There never before has been unlimited labor. There is now, thanks to globalization - and the process has only begun. It seems to me that this European unrest signals a serious gap in political and corporate understanding of the human consequences of a capitalist model that considers labor a commodity and extends price competition for that commodity to the entire world. In the longer term, there may be more serious political implications in this than even France's politicized students suspect. What seems the reactionary or even Luddite position might prove prophetic. Source: www.iht.com/articles/2006/03/29/news/edpfaff.php
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michelle
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Post by michelle on Apr 2, 2006 19:48:38 GMT 4
The Ascendancy of Finance Capital: Record Profits and Rising AuthoritarianismBy James Petras Mar 30, 2006, 08:19 No sector of the US economy, in recent years, can match the rate and size of profit which have accrued to the biggest financial institutions. For the first quarter of February 2006, Goldman Sachs (GS) broke Wall Street records by reporting new profits of $2.48 billion dollars (annualized at over $10 billion dollars). Earnings were up 64% over the same period last year (which was also a very lucrative year). Return on equity rose to 38.8%, topping the record for a top investment house. Total revenues rose $10.3 billion dollars. GS has had record earnings in five of the past nine quarters (Financial Times (FT) 3/15/2006, p 1). Morgan Stanley reported a 17% increase in net income to $1.64 billion dollars for its first quarter in February 2006. Revenues rose by 24% compared to 19.7% last year. Lehman Brothers reported a 24% increase in profits in the first quarter to Feb. 2006 to a record $1.1 billion dollars. Revenues increased 17% to $4.5 billion dollars. Bear Stearns (BS) joined the dance of the billions of Wall Street, reporting first quarter profits of $514 million dollars; earnings were up 34% from the year earlier. BS new revenues grew 19% to $2.3 billion, while return on stockholders equity rose 20.1% in the first quarter of 2006. The combined profits of these 4 banks total $5.73 billion dollars for the quarter November 2005 – February 2006, or $22.9 billion annually – and that does not include the profits for three of the top 5 banks (Citigroup, JP Morgan and Merrill Lynch) whose quarter runs January to March 2006, which are expected to have equally high returns, doubling the new profits to over $12 billion dollars for the first quarter and increasing profits to nearly $50 billion for 2006. No other sector of the economy can boast such high rates of return, nor can any top seven enterprises even approach the record profits. The banks draw their biggest profits in facilitating the concentration and centralization of capital (dubbed “mergers and acquisitions”), charging lucrative fees for “advising” and underwriting bonds to fund the mergers and acquisitions. The second source of profits is speculating, including debt trading, betting on global equity markets – especially in energy where Goldman and Morgan “have been making a fortune in recent quarters”. While US consumers, demagogic politicians and anti-war activists have blamed the oil producing countries, they have entirely overlooked the big speculative banks in pushing up the price of oil. The key political point is that the driving force of the most important economic sector – services – in the US is the financial sector, the one least engaged in productive activity, meaning production of goods and services for the population. Moreover its high profits, the astronomical bonuses and income of its leading elites, and its role in promoting the concentration of capital play a major role in increasing income inequalities. The costs they impose on enterprises for their “services” contribute to indebtedness which in turn leads to massive layoffs, reduction in health and pension benefits, as part of the “advisory” messages of the implicated banks. In addition to their speculative activity, the banks have become significant equity holders in non-banking sectors. They play a major role in cutting labor costs as a route for maximizing short-term profits as the expense of long-term investments in research and technology. Finally the most lucrative and dynamic source of speculative profits is in overseas expansion, particularly in Europe and especially in Asia. For example, Lehman Brothers announced in mid-March 2006 an “aggressive expansion in Asia. While overall revenues were up 17%, overseas revenues rose 30%, while Asian revenues rose by 67%. David Goldfarb, Chief Administrative Officer stated that Asian expansion was Lehman’s “number one priority”. All the major banks have or are in the process of securing beachheads in the banking sectors of China and India Financial imperialism is becoming a major vehicle for market-driven empire building in the 21st Century. Finance Capital: Political Power and Economic Policy Financial capital wields enormous power over government economic policy through its direct representation in the controlling body of US monetary policy via the President and Executive Board of the Federal Reserve. The key explicit criteria for the appointment of the President of the Federal Reserve is the “confidence”, close ties and solid relations which the candidate has with Wall Street. The same criteria are applied to all the key economic appointees, including Treasury, Commerce, World Bank and International Monetary Fund. Long time Federal Reserve President Greenspan was highly respected and lauded not for his abysmal economic performance but for his favorable policies to Wall Street Bankers. Under Greenspan’s Presidency, the US economy de-industrialized, accumulated huge trade and budget deficits and went through two speculative bubbles (information technology and savings and loans). He presided over an economy which reached unprecedented levels of public debt – doubling in five years. Greenspan’s backing of Bush’s tax cuts for the rich (income, capital gains etc) contributed to the huge budget deficit and widening inequalities. His policy of low interest rates fueled the speculative bubbles at the expense of productive investments. His backing for unregulated capital (dubbed “globalization”) led to the re-location of US multi-nationals abroad (many of whom export to the US and led to huge trade and balance of payment deficits. Yet all these policies which led to the disastrous state of the national economy, created extraordinarily favorable conditions for the domestic and international expansion of finance capital, as well as the concentration and centralization of banks into ten controlling units. Wall Street’s impact on the economy and social structure can be best illustrated by examining New York City – its center of operation. The distribution of assets in New York City is among the most unequal in the world. Slightly over 1% of the population control over 80% of the assets – comparable to land inequalities in Guatemala and Brazil . Secondly, Wall Street is closely tied to real estate capital in New York , and both were instrumental in raising property values and rents, leading to the destruction of over 500,000 manufacturing jobs over the past three decades. Most of the former industrial properties were “redeveloped” to provide office space for finance related activities and high end housing for wealthy financiers. New York Senator Schumer, a notorious backer of Wall Street, leads the US in scapegoating China for the loss of manufacturing jobs, ignoring the essential role of finance – real estate in deliberately destroying the manufacturing sector in New York City . Of course, the demise of manufacturers in New York city was not only due to finance capital; the local garment capitalists and the trade unions were also partly responsible. The former relied on low-wage labor to compete – a losing proposition against China – instead of upgrading its technology, computerizing design and production and specializing in high-end products. The trade unions (International Ladies Garment Workers Union – ILGWU, later re-named UNITE) reinforced the failed cheap labor strategy of garment bosses, by discretely allowing de facto wages to fall below the minimum wage and what was stipulated in collective bargaining contracts. No doubt the ethnic-class differences between the six-figure salaried Jewish labor bosses and the low-paid Asian and Latino workers and the common class-ethnic positions of the labor bosses and the manufacturers facilitated these failed policies: loss of manufacturing competitiveness and loss of jobs for workers. Finance Capital and the War in the Middle East Finance capital was until recently predominantly made up of white Protestants and Jews. In the most recent period, Wall Street’s ethnic and religious base has broadened as corporate capital has taken over from family-owned banks. Nevertheless among the new generation of upwardly mobile speculators, there is a pronounced disproportion of individuals of Jewish origin, who are not necessarily religious or involved in Jewish or Israeli communal activities, fund raising or politics. Nevertheless a significant affluent minority of prominent Jewish banking and real estate millionaires are active in financing and promoting Israeli policy either directly or through the key pro-Israel lobbies like AIPAC and the President of the Major Jewish Organizations. These lobbies have been in the forefront of promoting the Iraq War, a boycott or military attack on Iran and the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. The political muscle of this minority of Israel-First wealthy Jewish financiers is not countered by any countervailing organization by other Jewish financial bankers or for that matter by Gentile, Muslim or Hindu financial tycoons. Through the political use of their wealth, strategic location and high status, this minority of politically active financiers is in a position to establish the parameters and policies of Middle East policies vie their dominant role in funding political parties (especially the Democratic Party), candidates and congressional representative. The Jewish and Gentile critics of the war deliberately exclude the role of the minority of wealthy Jews and their political lobbies in shaping US policy in the Middle East by focusing on the US and overseas oil companies (“No blood for oil!”). There is an abundance of evidence for the past 15 years that: 1.2.3.4. A thorough search through the publications and lobbying activities of the oil industry and the pro-Israel lobbies over the past decade reveals an overwhelming amount of documentation demonstrating that the Jewish lobbies were far more pro-war than the oil industry. Moreover the public records of the oil industry demonstrate a high level of economic co-operation with all the Arab states and increasing market integration. In contrast the public pronouncements, publications and activities of the most economically powerful and influential pro-Israel Jewish lobbies were directed toward increasing US government hostility to the Arab countries, including maximum pressure in favor of the war in Iraq, a boycott or military attack on Iran and US backing for Israeli assassination and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. The most striking illustration of Jewish power in shaping US policy in the Middle East against the interest of Big Oil is demonstrated in US-Iran policy. As the Financial Times notes: “International oil companies are putting multi-billion dollar projects in Iran on hold, concerned about the diplomatic standoff (sic – US economic-military threats) over the country’s nuclear programme” (FT March 18/19, 2006 p.1). Despite the fact that billions of dollars in oil, gas and petro-chemical contracts are in play, the pro-Israel lobby has influenced Congress to bar all major US oil companies from investing in Iran . Through its all out campaign in the US Congress and Administration, the US-Jewish-Israeli lobby has created a war-like climate which now goes counter to the interests of all the world’s major oil companies including BP, the UK-based gas company, SASOL (South Africa, Royal Dutch Shell, Total of France and others. The myth of “war for oil” is circulated by almost all the major progressive Jewish intellectuals and parroted by their Gentile followers, who are in word and deed prohibited from mentioning the AIPAC word in any public meetings or manifestos. The power of the minority of politically active Jewish financiers in the pro-Israel lobby is spreading far beyond the area of US foreign policy into the cultural, academic and economic life of the US . Three major events immediately come to mind. In New York City , a major theater production of the life of Rachael Corrie, an American humanitarian volunteer murdered in the Occupied Territories by an Israeli Defense Force soldier driving a bulldozer, was cancelled because of Jewish pressure and financial threats. The theater admitted that the cancellation had to do with the “sensitivities” (and pocket book) of the issue to Israel-Firsters. The pro-Israel lobby’s defense and support of a minority opinion in favor of Middle East aggression is now extending its authoritarian reach into undermining the basic freedoms of American to free and open expression. The second example of the growing tyranny of the pro-Israel minority over our civil liberties is the virulent campaign waged by all the major Jewish publications and pro-Israel organizations against a well-documented essay written by Professor Walt of Harvard and Professor Mearsheimer of University of Chicago critical of the lobby’s influence on US Middle East policy. From the ultra-rightwing Orthodox Jewish Press (which claims to be the largest “independent” Jewish newspaper in the US), to the formerly Social Democratic Forward, to the Jewish Weekly , all have launched together with all the major Jewish organizations, a propaganda campaign of defamation (“the new Protocols of Zion”, “anti-Semitic”, “sources from Neo-Nazi websites…”) and pressure for their purge from academia. The Jewish authoritartians have already partially succeeded. Their press releases have been published by the mass media without allowing for rebuttal by the academics under attack. Harvard University has demanded the identification of the Harvard Kennedy School be removed from the paper. The financier of the professorial chair (in his name) which Professor Walt, as academic dean, occupies at the Harvard Kennedy School, is no longer mentioned it in his publication. Ultra-Zionist Professor Dershowitz and his fellow Harvard zealots call into question their moral and academic qualification to teach. Both in the United States and France , legislation is being prepared to equate anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism and to criminalize as a ‘hate crime’ the free expression of outrage over Israeli atrocities and any criticism of the Lobby’s control of US Middle East policy. In the US , the proposed legislation would take the form of withdrawing federal funding from any academic institution where the policies of Israel are criticized. As yet there is no organized opposition in the US by Jewish or Gentile academics or journalists to this erosion of free expression or a defense of the integrity of the two critics of the Lobby. There is no group of Jewish investors or financiers willing to fund a civil rights campaign in defense of free speech, academic and artistic freedom, to counter the minority Zionist financial elite. It is business as usual. Some Myths and a Few Insights: Capitalism and WarIn addition to the myth of the “war for oil” there are several facile misconceptions: Myth 1) - the dominance of financial capital leads to war: There is no evidence that financial capital performs better under war time conditions than in peace. In fact recent history demonstrates that ‘crisis’ provokes market volatility and sudden disruption which prejudices important financial ‘bets’ even as other benefits. Most of financial profits accrue from mergers and acquisitions with tend to increase due to competitive market conditions – not wars. The financiers who support war do so for their own personal-ideological reasons, ethnic identification and usually do so via ethnic-affiliated organizations not through financial associations. Thus the big contributions by a minority of Jewish financiers to the pro-war Zionist lobbies have less to do with their class affiliation and more to do with their identification with Israel First organizations. Myth 2) – While financiers are a major funding source for the bellicose pro-Israel lobbies and their congressional spokespeople, they are a minority among Jewish investment bankers, whose prime concern is maximizing the earnings of their banks and hence their incomes, and engaging in many non-Jewish social cultural and professional activities. Over half do not even marry within the Jewish community. Myth 3) - Many writers cite polls which suggest that most Jews, like other Americans now oppose the Iraq war. The fact remains however that they are not willing to criticize the pro-war Jewish lobby or to mention Israel ’s involvement in precipitating the war through its occupation of Palestine . Myth 4)– The pro-Israel lobby is just like many other lobbies. The Jewish pro-Israel lobby is uniquely powerful because it commands a vast network of grass roots organizations,150 full-time functionaries in Washington operating under discipline and commitment to a foreign power, Israel . Moreover the lobby is financed by wealthy individuals in highly lucrative growth sectors (such as in the banking sector). Thirdly its long established reputation of threats and rewards to recalcitrant and to loyal Congress people, executives and opinion makers makes it an extraordinary and dangerous lobby. Conclusion The ascendancy of finance capital and its influence over US economic policy has had major, largely negative, consequences for the US economy, especially our living standards, external accounts and budget. The deregulated financial markets have led to record profits for Wall Street but it has also led to a series of speculative bubbles, which have bankrupted millions of retail investors. The loss of US industrial competitiveness is largely the result of the transfer of capital from productive innovations which increase competitiveness to speculative activity several times removed from the actual production of goods and services. “Derivative” and “Hedge funds” now equal the size of the US economy at $12 trillion dollars…a financial collapse waiting to happen. Financial capital in its most advanced stage of derivatives is based on bets on bets on bets…which has vastly increased the likelihood of economic collapse even as it widens the chasm between bankers and wage earners. The political power of finance capital has been exercised in the realm of economic policy and executive appointments; it has not been directly involved in formulating or benefiting from the war policies. However it has been compatible, supportive and benefited from its close ties and relations with the militarist policy elite in Congress and the Executive. The relation is mutually supportive. The Executive deregulates financial markets, lowers taxes, cuts social spending, appoints Wall Street friendly Federal Reserve Presidents, and in exchange Wall Street supports the imperial war ministers in the Cabinet and in Congress. Investment banks have been deeply involved in recycling Arab petroleum funds and engaging in large-scale mergers and acquisitions in the Middle East, while a minority but deeply engaged Jewish financiers have funded the pro-Israel lobbies pushing for a more bellicose US policy toward the Arab and Islamic world. Wall Street’s position on the erosion of democratic freedoms has ranged from ambiguous to authoritarian. While backing the Administration’s Patriot Act, they opposed the blocking of Dubai ’s purchase of US port terminal management. While an active minority backed the banning of the Rachael Corrie theater production and funds pro-Israel organizations attempting to purge academics critical of Israel , the majority look on with indifference. Rising authoritarianism and lucrative financial profiteering are compatible with the ascendancy of finance capital. © Copyright 2006 by AxisofLogic.com SOURCE: www.axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/article_21579.shtml
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michelle
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I have broken any attachments I had to the Ascended Masters and their teachings; drains your chi!
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Post by michelle on Apr 5, 2006 7:08:31 GMT 4
Last Waltz The lights are getting low and the dance is just about over By John Kaminski skylax@comcast.net 4-01-06 It has been a pleasure sharing this dance with you? Now, as the lights burn low in the evening of humanity, when madness has spread its poison over most of the globe and throughout most of our bodies, I just want to say thanks for a lovely evening and I'm sorry the way things turned out. What exactly is your plan as system failure approaches, if I may ask? Personally, I don't have one. As a result of publishing delays, news overload, and general confusion, I appear to find myself at the end of my current publishing career, beset by financial woes from which I likely will not recover. Even though I have a new book coming out and another in the works, my efficacy as an Internet essayist appears to be at and end, owing to the choices I have made that have resulted in my exclusion from virtually all established Internet news venues, at least the ones I liked. An array to supposedly sincere voices have turned against me. I leave it to you to determine the validity of their assertions. But what was the bomb I threw that made so many turn away in reflexive fear? ••• I hit a nerve. What was the nerve I hit? What has caused the widespread banning of my essays at supposedly hip, progressively political sites across the Internet? What boundary in the enforced silence of government censorship did I cross? I ID'd the perps, is what. And gave everyone a glimpse into some serious gatekeeper behavior on the Net. Did you ever ask who the gatekeepers protect?Jewish bankers. For 250 years, at least. War after war. Just check who's financing the ones we have now. Israeli financiers, who profited from advance knowledge of 9/11 stock trades and reaped insurance dividends as well, control all of American politics through influence in government (Kissinger, Perle, Wolfowitz), media (Hollywood and networks), and money (Rothschild, Rockefeller and their numerous clones). Sure there are other dupes involved who profess different creeds and lineages. But always look at who’s handling the money. This is the secret government. It's not-so-secret if you have the money to buy into the great scam producer, that churns money out of blood. But if you're an ordinary wage-earner, you're stuck in the dreary sitcom of partisan party politics where all the characters say only what they are allowed to say by the cash-bloated puppeteers who control them. That you can't say the word Jew in connection with 9/11, the Iraq war, or the outright purchase of the American Congress, are more than clear indicators of the full spectrum dominance of Jewish influence in American culture, resulting in approval of the same kind of torture they routinely use in Israel, is all frighteningly similar to what it was in Germany before Hitler took power. Full spectrum dominance. Endless war. Needlessly killed people. Will you be one of them? ••• Hundreds of essays on hundreds of websites around the world, hundreds of radio interviews, a few on TV or video, thousands of e-mail exchanges that expanded my mind to the point where I had to burst out with what I knew. It was the reason for all this needless conflict. How much good my telling you about it remains to be seen. I only know my words spread and people react, to the point where there are active efforts to link me to intelligence agencies, or ban me outright, or accuse me of being duped or handled .... that I may have been set up on occasion appears now likely, and casts doubt on my ability to discern what’s really going on. I only know treason, mass murder, and obstruction of justice I see it, and I have seen plenty of it in these past few turbulent years. If someone wants to confuse me with labels, that’s not that hard to do. But ever since I saw that all the misleading labels — Frankists, Illuminati, New World Order — were only synonyms for the same group, I don’t pay much attention to labels. They’re really only for smearing someone. Better to use the actual word. The very word that’s forbidden. I have pushed that envelope as far as I can and have been banned, ridiculed, proscribed and prevented from publishing what are obvious truths that everyone on this planet needs to know. Our lives depend on it. Especially mine. If you feel that information I have provided has been worthwhile, please take the time — but only if you are able — to support my writing. Buy a book at www.johnkaminski.com/ or make a donation in support my efforts on what I hope has been your behalf through www.paypal.com/ Orders and contributions may also be mailed to 850 Hudson Ave., Sarasota FL 34236. If fate so decrees and I am no longer able to continue producing stories in this series, it has been a pleasure to have had this last dance with you. In any case, thanks for your kind attention and your desire to know what’s really happening in our world. www.warfolly.com/kaminski/lastwaltz.htmlThe New Iron Curtain
What’s that shadow in your mind, and how long has it been there?By John Kaminski skylax@comcast.net 3-21-06 The Iron Curtain was a phrase commonly used in the 1950s to describe the post-World War Two partitioning of Europe. The sinister label was used to convey the lockstep conformity of thought and action demanded by the old Soviet Union of the hapless Eastern European nations it controlled. Today, the Iron Curtain is electronic, and engulfs the whole world. Its totalitarian terror apparatus is entirely conceptual, and has been implanted in the minds of every person on this planet by what at first seems to be a totally by chance arrangement of a seemingly infinite variety of commercial media. But upon deeper inspection, a chilling pattern emerges, that is perhaps best reflected by the overall loss of intellectual capacity in the United States during the past half century. Once a vibrant and intelligent society, the USA is now a lockstep fascist state that justifies torture and preemptive war because it inadvertently robotized itself using the combination of political manipulation backed by the raw power of movies, television and newspapers. The unending search for profit at any cost turned the beacon of liberty into the mad master of horror in search of a twisted comfort it can never achieve, and as a consequence, America continues to turn the world into rubble on a daily basis. But perhaps the robotizing has not been inadvertent. In the bevy of recent media revelations from Harvard about Israel’s control of the U.S. as well as an increased mainstream media presence about the obvious inside job crimes connected to 9/11, the majority of the American people continue to prove they will willingly ignore the horrible crimes being committed by their so-called leaders at the expense of not only the rest of the world — but also themselves. And for what? Security? All honest and decent humans have always known you can't have real security without faith in some higher hope. Yet the men who control these activities in today's world do not lead us toward real security. They lead us toward false hope and terrible deeds questing for plunder and power. Some may say this is the way it has always been, but the healthier among us — who are all currently running for our lives — know that the way to permanent peace lies through an understanding of the other, and that security has never been established through the use of raw power, but only through mutual understanding and empathy. The actual use of raw power guarantees only hatred and incessant revolution to follow. We may not live this life for ourselves. Both Jesus and Milton Friedman have uttered these words. It is obvious to real human beings. But it is not obvious to mass media, nor to neocon politicians, who play on our fears and reward us with graft. And blood. Lots of blood. It is a profitable substance. Just ask the pharmaceutical industry. And while you're at it, before you slip into that final coma from which you may not emerge, ask yourself what impact the stuff doctors are putting into your veins has had on your life, the disintegration of your formerly happy country, and the condition of the whole world. A lot like the impact mass media have had, wouldn't you say? Then other pieces of the puzzle begin to coalesce. 1. The Soviet Union and its horrific gulags (60 million dead) were originally a Jewish enterprise, funded by bankers from New York and executed by Jews from Brooklyn. Somewhere there's a famous quote that "Communism is Judaism." 2. The creation of the so-called Jewish homeland in Israel was a subtext (if not the real reason) of both World Wars One and Two. The USA was taken over by international Jewish financiers in 1913, and has not regained its financial freedom since. The Balfour Declaration during WW1 committed Britain to the establishment of a Jewish Palestine. The state of Israel was formed out of the rubble of WW2, although the actual Jewish Holocaust religion would not be established until the middle-1960s, after the Kennedy assassination was engineered by a Jewish mobster working closely with the Mossad. 3. The ideological guides for the current Bush adminstration, Perle and Wolfowitz, who wrote PNAC, are high-level Israeli agents. So is U.S. Homeland Security Director Michael Chertoff. As was Pentagon finance chief Rabbi Dov Zakheim. I trust I do not need to go on to you about principal 9/11 players, from Larry Silverstein to Tommy Franks, who are also Jewish. 4. The foundation of Western capitalism, ostensibly when William Paterson founded the Bank of England in 1694, rests on the abilities and formulas of Jewish bankers from Holland. The actual rise of the worldwide British Empire coincides with when Jews took over the finances and made the City of London the power center of the world. Rothschild banks have handled the coffers of the Catholic church for many years. The flag of Israel, as you may now, is based on the Rothschild model. A story is circulating that the mother of a recent former pope, the Polish one, was Jewish. 5. Media ownership in the United States and throughout the Western corporatized world are EXCLUSIVELY Jewish. And so with the the biggest media power center of all, Hollywood. The impact of movies on the world throughout the 20th century has defined the social aspects of ALL of human civilization. People you thought were good Americans, like Judy Garland and Billy Graham, were Jewish. And participating in something so huge, some experiment so audacious, that I won’t even attempt to explain to you because you wouldn’t believe it if you heard it. Anyway, these are just five things. Try to compile a list of shadowy traits to match this for any other group. Then explain to me how a certain people can cohere for 5,000 years without their own state, yet survive and prosper century after century while the countries they live in decay and die. Explain that to me, please. You won’t be able to, of course. One of the reasons you can’t is because you were brought up in an educational system that concealed these facts, that presented you with a history of the world that doesn’t talk about these things, that doesn’t give you the real history. Try to understand what’s going on through psychiatry, and you will discover it is a Jewish science. The National Education Association, to which all public school teachers must belong, is a Jewish organization. WW1 President Woodrow Wilson’s involvement in the robbery of Germany and creation of a two-tiered educational system in the United States, one for the privileged rich, and the other for us worker bees, for example. And people wonder how today’s torture-happy USA rooters devolved into lesser beings from their formerly happy pioneer spirit? Wilson’s top advisor, Colonel House, was Jewish. WW2 President Roosevelt’s top advisor, Bernard Baruch, was Jewish. Currently, the Jewish state known as Israel gets $3 billion per year it has never been required to repay (although $15 billion including commercial tangents is more accurate) from U.S. citizens. This is both robbery and slavery. Israel is putting up a wall around its enslaved indiginents and calling them terrorists. The practice seems destined for the United States as well. As one commentator described it: “Israel is not a country. Israel is the crime syndicate for the people who run the world.” A life built on blood inevitably means a horribly bloody death awaits those who choose to travel that path. And this is the current fate all Americans face, provided to us not so free of charge by that same shadowy, no longer hard to identify group that has done the same things to other people in other countries in other times. See the shadow in the sky sometime soon before you die. Identify it clearly before it’s too late. It is the only hope any of us has. It’s the new Iron Curtain. www.warfolly.com/kaminski/newironcurtain.htmlJohn Kaminski is a writer who lives on the Gulf Coast of Florida whose Internet essays are seen on hundreds of websites around the world. He is the author of “America’s Autopsy Report,” “The Perfect Enemy,” and “The Day America Died: Why You Shouldn’t Believe the Official Story of What Happened on September 11, 2001. His latest collection is "Recipe For Extinction.” www.johnkaminski.com/Note from Michelle. Take heart, folks; all is not lost to a few!A Greeting From 1513 A.D.:I salute you. I am your friend and my love for you goes deep. There is nothing I can give you which you have not got; but there is much, very much, that, while I cannot give it, you can take...No heaven can come to us unless our hearts find rest in today. Take heaven! No peace lies in the future which is not hidden in this present little instant. Take Peace! The gloom of the world is but a shadow. Behind it, yet within our reach is joy. There is radiance and glory in the darkness, could we but see, and to see we have only to look. I beseech you to look. Life is so generous a giver, but we judging its gifts by their covering, cast them away as ugly or heavy or hard. Remove the covering and you will find beneath it a living splendour, woven of love, by wisdom, with power. Welcome it, grasp it, and you touch the angel's hand that brings it to you. Everything we call a trial, a sorrow, or a duty, believe me, that angel's hand is there; the gift is there, and the wonder of an over-shadowing Presence. Our joys too: be not content with them as joys. They too, conceal diviner gifts. Life is so full of meaning and purpose, so full of beauty, beneath its covering, that you will find earth but cloaks your heaven. Courage then to claim it: that is all! But courage you have, and the knowledge that we are pilgrims together, wending through an unknown country, home. And so, at this time, I greet you. Not quite as the world sends greetings, but with profound esteem and with the prayer that for you, now and forever, the day breaks, and the shadows flee away. Fra Giovanni 1513 A. D.
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michelle
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I have broken any attachments I had to the Ascended Masters and their teachings; drains your chi!
Posts: 2,100
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Post by michelle on Apr 9, 2006 8:13:18 GMT 4
AMERICA FROM FREEDOM TO FASCISMIT'S TAX TIME! This week many Americans will be scrambling to get their income tax forms in the mail before the April 17th deadline [extention due to the weekend]. What if taxes on the American public's labor was illegal? You say it can't be so? Oh really? Want a revolution in this country? The power lies in WE THE PEOPLE, WAKE UP! MichelleThere is a new feature film/documentary titled “America...From Freedom To Fascism”. The film is an expose of the Internal Revenue Service, and proves conclusively there is no law requiring an American citizen to pay a direct unapportioned Tax on their labor. The film is very provocative and is receiving standing ovations at its previews. FILM REVIEWS: IMDB: Well, the title as it is, I saw the film "America: From Freedom to Fascism" tonight in Tucson, Arizona. From the moment it begins it is gripping, informative and down right scary! The viewer comes away with an understanding that as good as we might be in our day to day lives, we are all targets of a runaway government, intent on exerting it's power and expressing it's will - despite the law. Particularly chilling is the interview with a Virginia Beach, VA family whose homes and business were raided by the IRS on mere unsubstantiated accusations; the victims of Police State authoritarians. Another interview with a former IRS Commissioner who, now a high-powered D.C. attorney, can't seem to make the connection between Supreme Court decisions on the Constitutionality of the Income Tax and how the IRS regards 'voluntary compliance' with a law he's unable to articulate. Flustered, the commissioner ends the interview abruptly and asks Russo to leave. Russo is a bulldog as he prowls halls of government trying to get someone to just show him the Law that says a working citizen in the United States owes an Income Tax, or just to acknowledge prior Supreme Court rulings on the subject. Clips of press conferences and television interviews and news cuttings reveal obfuscation, saber rattling and threats but not one answer that clearly defines the Law, the statutes or the Tax obligations of American citizens. Aaron Russo has created a compelling and troubling documentary that indeed gives the impression that America has already moved from Freedom to Fascism (and defines the terms so the viewer can decide for themselves). The film is in the final stages of post-production and upon completion will be entered at Cannes in May. It is sure to make the headlines there and open more than a few eyes. This film will make an impact on the viewer - It's up to the viewer to then make an impact on the state of affairs in American government. Mark Yannone: I went to see the prescreening of Aaron Russo's latest movie, America: From Freedom to Fascism, at the Hilton Phoenix Airport last night. It was a powerful and engaging film that received a well-deserved standing ovation from the group of about 120 adults in attendance, most of who were over 30. The two major topics were the federal income tax and the Federal Reserve. Minor topics were the New World Order, vote fraud, education, government lies, and the police state. The ending contained a call to action that Russo promised will be significantly enhanced in the final edition. A couple of members of the audience mentioned in the subsequent Q&A session that they were not aware of most of what was presented. An Arizona State University teacher said her students were largely unaware also. The good news is that everyone in the room was apparently persuaded by the testimony given by the members of the Tax Honesty Movement and good folks like G Edward Griffin. The scenes with Irwin Schiff, Joe Banister, John Turner, Sherry Jackson Peel, Larken Rose, Charlie Beale, Bob Schulz , Dave Champion, Vernie Kuglin, and others were particularly powerful and persuasive. Bottom line: Aaron Russo has earned his place in the preferred section of Heaven with this film, and the nation owes him a large debt of gratitude for having produced it. Eliciting cheers and tears from the audience, America: From Freedom to Fascism is incredibly moving and effective We should expect to find America: From Freedom to Fascism in theaters this summer. For anyone over the age of reason, including the 67 million Americans who no longer file federal income tax returns, missing this movie will be a costly mistake. Watch for it. Blogger: Well, the title as it is, I saw the film "America: From Freedom to Fascism" tonight in Tucson, Arizona. From the moment it begins it is gripping, informative and down right scary! The viewer comes away with an understanding that as good as we might be in our day to day lives, we are all targets of a runaway government, intent on exerting it's power and expressing it's will - despite the law. Particularly chilling is the interview with a Virginia Beach, VA family whose homes and business were raided by the IRS on mere unsubstantiated accusations; the victims of Police State authoritarians. Another interview with a former IRS Commissioner who, now a high-powered D.C. attorney, can't seem to make the connection between Supreme Court decisions on the Constitutionality of the Income Tax and how the IRS regards 'voluntary compliance' with a law he's unable to articulate. Flustered, the commissioner ends the interview abruptly and asks Russo to leave. Russo is a bulldog as he prowls halls of government trying to get someone to just show him the Law that says a working citizen in the United States owes an Income Tax, or just to acknowledge prior Supreme Court rulings on the subject. Clips of press conferences and television interviews and news cuttings reveal obfuscation, saber rattling and threats but not one answer that clearly defines the Law, the statutes or the Tax obligations of American citizens. Aaron Russo has created a compelling and troubling documentary that indeed gives the impression that America has already moved from Freedom to Fascism (and defines the terms so the viewer can decide for themselves). The film is in the final stages of post-production and upon completion will be entered at Cannes in May. It is sure to make the headlines there and open more than a few eyes. This film will make an impact on the viewer - It's up to the viewer to then make an impact on the state of affairs in American government.Aaron Russo Bio: Born in Brooklyn and raised on Long Island, producer Aaron Russo began promoting rock and roll shows at local theaters while still a high school student. He then worked for his family’s undergarment business, where in 1963, he designed the first ladies bikini under wear. Five years later the twenty four year old entrepreneur opened his own nightclub in Chicago called the Kinetic Playground which became a driving force in the music business, where Aaron helped create the careers of many legendary performers, such as Led Zeppelin. Aaron was responsible for bringing them to America for the first time. He also promoted some of the 60's most successful rock acts, including The Who, Janis Joplin, The Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane. In 1972, Russo began his seven year partnership with Bette Midler, who became a superstar during his management of her career. In 1975 he produced the Tony award- winning "Clams on the Half-Shell Revue," which starred Bette Midler and Lionel Hampton. At the time it was the most successful ten-week broadway revue in history, grossing more than $1.8 million. While serving as Midler's manager, Russo created and managed the Manhattan Transfer. Later his roster would include such personalities as David Keith, Frederic Forest, Susan Sarandon and other notable clients. When Russo turned to producing feature films, his production of “The Rose”, introduced Bette Midler to motion picture audiences. Midler received an Academy Award nomination as best actress. “The Rose” is considered by many to be the classic rock n’ roll film. Russo also produced "Trading Places," starring Eddie Murphy and Dan Aykroyd, which has become a Christmas classic, and "Teachers," starring Nick Nolte, Morgan Freeman, and Ralph Macchio. Over the past years, Russo has received numerous awards for his achievements. They include a Grammy, a Tony, an Emmy for producing the best television special of the year "OL' Red Hair is Back," starring Dustin Hoffman and Bette Midler, plus many gold and platinum records. To date his films have been nominated for six Academy Awards, as well as seven Golden Globes. His films have won three Golden Globes, as well as the Image Award. He is now writing, producing, and directing a new feature film/documentary titled “America...From Freedom To Fascism”. The film is an expose of the Internal Revenue Service, and proves conclusively there is no law requiring an American citizen to pay a direct unapportioned Tax on their labor. The film is very provocative and is receiving standing ovations at its previews. In 1996 Russo made a political video entitled "Aaron Russo's Mad as Hell", which was a hit throughout America. He was asked by the people of Nevada to run for governor and he made the decision to do so. The powers that be in Nevada scoffed at his decision to run for governor but were very surprised when he finished second with nearly thirty percent of the vote, beating the sitting lieutenant governor. In January of 2004, he declared his candidacy for the Libertarian Party's nomination for President of the Untied States. At the Convention in May, Russo won the first two ballots, but not a majority. He was defeated on the third and final ballot. He then channelled his energy into writing/directing America: From Freedom to Fascism. VIEW THE TRAILER: www.freedomtofascism.com/
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