"What is a Dollar?" RonPaul at Dr Thomas Hoenig July 27, 2011

Where America Stands

Should The Government Stop Dumping Money Into A Giant Hole?

WI Voter ID Denied at the DMV?

Unfortunately I haven't had enough time to dig into this one, so take it with a grain of salt until we know the whole of the matter.

DoD Spends Spends Trillions On Waste

Remember the trillions that disappeared? We'll here's more - (Posted for those that think we have to Increase Military SPENDING!!!)

$644.75 for a small gear smaller than a dime that sells for $12.51: more than a 5,100 percent increase in price. $1,678.61 for another tiny part, also smaller than a dime, that could have been bought within DoD for $7.71: a 21,000 percent increase. $71.01 for a straight, thin metal pin that DoD had on hand, unused by the tens of thousands, for 4 cents: an increase of over 177,000 percent.

Taxpayers were massively overcharged in dozens of transactions between the Army and Boeing for helicopter spare parts, according to a full, unredacted Department of Defense Office of Inspector General (DoD OIG) audit that POGO is making public for the first time. The overcharges range from 33.3 percent to 177,475 percent for mundane parts, resulting in millions of dollars in overspending.

The Real Effect
See what happens when we dig? We come away with complete garbage expenditures. I would imagine the thinking goes something like this -

Gee, this Defense contractor builds important stuff for our military, so if they just so happen to get paid a little more, it's ok.

This leads to -

These are good jobs and vital for the national economy.

Which leads to -

Well, we know they're taking most of the money, but what would we do without them?

This is the place that we find ourselves in today. All of these expenditures become necessary. Much like a household budget run wild, the only place for this craziness to go now is for these necessary expenditures to begin canabilizing each other. Look for feuds to build as contractor conflicts with contractor who conflicts with healthcare who conflicts with.........

This is exactly why the first thing I always ask someone with big eyes 'How are you going to pay for that?' Resolve that issue specifically and the rest takes care of itself.

Greece Gets Downgraded, Again

Amazing what a difference one year can make -

On July 27, 2011, Standard & Poor's Ratings Services lowered its long-term sovereign credit rating on the Hellenic Republic to 'CC' from 'CCC'. At the same time we affirmed the short-term rating at 'C'. The outlook is negative. Our recovery rating of '4' for Greece remains unchanged, indicating an estimated 30%-50% recovery of principal by bondholders, including on those bonds subject to a 20% reduction in net present value (NPV) as estimated under the Institute for International Finance (IIF) proposal.

The Real Effect
From 2009 -

Think of it as a game of musical chairs where there are 300 million players and only a million chairs and the leader is reaching for the volume knob and if you lose, you lose everything you own.

Well, well. This statement was made before the Greece situation even hit and let's look at the preliminary fallout - "...indicating an estimated 30%-50% recovery of principal by bondholders". Of course, certain institutions will argue that they, the elite, cannot possibly take a haircut because they are far to large and important to face the ramifications of their financial decisions. And the bribed politicians will naturally agree with their inescapable logic. So the natural conclusion is certain parties will take minimal to no haircut at all, while other parties "do their duty to country" and eat junk bond cake to the tune of 80-100% losses.

Naturally, your resistance to such brilliance will be portrayed as "unpatriotic" and "unreasonable". Eventually this will be viewed as outright terrorism as people refuse to take one on the chin for the upper class. Such is the nature of globalism. It destroys because it is a failed ideology and its adherents do not take no for an answer.

Oslo Bombing - A Bridgeway to Libya?

An interesting turn of events has occurred in Norway -

Norway's peace was shattered twice Friday when a bomb ripped open buildings in the heart of its government and a man dressed as a police officer gunned down youths at a summer camp. Police linked one Norwegian to both attacks, which killed a total of at least 16 people in nation's worst violence since World War II.

Police said they did not know the motive or whether the attacks were the work of one person or a terrorist group, but Justice Minister Knut Storberget said the man who opened fire at the youth camp is Norwegian.

In Oslo, the capital and the city where the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded, the bombing left a square covered in twisted metal, shattered glass, documents expelled from surrounding buildings and a dust-fogged scene that reminded one visitor from New York of Sept. 11.

Perhaps a follow up on another dry run -

Oslo police were conducting a bombing exercise at a location near the Oslo Opera House just 48 hours before a terrorist blast hit a government building in the Norwegian capital.

According to the translated version of an Aftenposten report, “Anti-terror police fired explosive charges at a training center in Oslo, two hundred meters from the Opera, but forgot to notify the public.”

The exercise occurred on Wednesday and revolved around anti-terror units attacking a disused building at the edge of Bjørvika pier with bombs and firearms.

“The men lowered themselves down from the roof and in through the window that had just been blown out, while they fired hand their weapons,” states the report, noting that the exercise was “dramatic,” produced “violent bangs,” and was watched by spectators at the nearby Opera House.

and

Later at Utoya island, some 60 miles (100 kilometers) northwest, hundreds of youths at a camp where the prime minister had been scheduled to speak Saturday ran in terror and even tried swimming to safety as the gunman fired.

The Real Effect
Some interesting points to consider:

• Norway was going to pull out of the Libya bombing campaign in August. Why would al-Qaeda attack a country that is beginning to go the way you would like politically.
• Norway was going to recognize Palestine as a state.
• Norway pension fund was divesting it's Israeli shares.
• An individual dressed as a police officer timed an attack to coincide with the bombing. Shot teenagers in an attempt to shock the nation. (Coincidentally, this an excellent illustration as to why police should have to present warrants, badges and other forms of ID.)
• Bombed a building on a holiday. Either this was meant to be a political statement or the bombers are inept.
• A group of "analysts" are reporting that a  "a previously unknown group, Ansar al-Jihad al-Alami, or the Helpers of the Global Jihad, claimed responsibility for the attacks". Why do we accept these versions of fact as unfettered truth? Who is this group, what is their history? Who came up with this terrible name? Perhaps this might shed some light on things - "In the immediate aftermath of recent terrorist attacks, jihadi forums are often filled with claims and counterclaims that are impossible to independently confirm. "
• Why would this man do this - 
  
  The gunman appeared “tall, blond and [of] Nordic looks” according to reports.

Since this occurred, the focus has shifted from the bombing to the mass shooting on the island. One thing is for certain, this thing stinks massively.

An Economy Destroyed: The Enemy Is Washington

Dr. Paul Craig Roberts
Prisonplanet.com
July 22, 2011


Recently, the bond rating agencies that gave junk derivatives triple-A ratings threatened to downgrade US Treasury bonds if the White House and Congress did not reach a deficit reduction deal and debt ceiling increase. The downgrade threat is not credible, and neither is the default threat. Both are make-believe crises that are being hyped in order to force cutbacks in Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security.

If the rating agencies downgraded Treasuries, the company executives would be arrested for the fraudulent ratings that they gave to the junk that Wall Street peddled to the rest of the world. The companies would be destroyed and their ratings discredited. The US government will never default on its bonds, because the bonds, unlike those of Greece, Spain, and Ireland, are payable in its own currency. Regardless of whether the debt ceiling is raised, the Federal Reserve will continue to purchase the Treasury’s debt. If Goldman Sachs is too big to fail, then so is the US government.

There is no budget focus on the illegal wars and military occupations that the US government has underway in at least six countries or the 66-year old US occupations of Japan and Germany and the ring of military bases being constructed around Russia.

The total military/security budget is in the vicinity of $1.1-$1.2 trillion, or 70% -75% of the federal budget deficit.

In contrast, Social Security is solvent. Medicare expenditures are coming close to exceeding the 2.3% payroll tax that funds Medicare, but it is dishonest for politicians and pundits to blame the US budget deficit on “entitlement programs.”

Entitlements are funded with a payroll tax. Wars are not funded. The criminal Bush regime lied to Americans and claimed that the Iraq war would only cost $70 billion at the most and would be paid for with Iraq oil revenues. When Bush’s chief economic advisor, Larry Lindsay, said the Iraq invasion would cost $200 billion, the White House Moron fired him. In fact, Lindsay was off by a factor of 20. Economic and budget experts have calculated that the Iraq and Afghanistan wars have consumed $4,000 billion in out-of-pocket and already incurred future costs. In other words, the ongoing wars and occupations have already eaten up the $4 trillion by which Obama hopes to cut federal spending over the next ten years. Bomb now, pay later.

As taxing the rich is not part of the political solution, the focus is on rewarding the insurance companies by privatizing Medicare at some future date with government subsidized insurance premiums, by capping Medicaid, and by loading the diminishing middle class with additional Social Security tax.



Washington’s priorities and those of its presstitutes could not be clearer. President Obama, like George W. Bush before him, both parties in Congress, the print and TV media, and National Public Radio have made it clear that war is a far more important priority than health care and old age pensions for Americans.

The American people and their wants and needs are not represented in Washington. Washington serves powerful interest groups, such as the military/security complex, Wall Street and the banksters, agribusiness, the oil companies, the insurance companies, pharmaceuticals, and the mining and timber industries. Washington endows these interests with excess profits by committing war crimes and terrorizing foreign populations with bombs, drones, and invasions, by deregulating the financial sector and bailing it out of its greed-driven mistakes after it has stolen Americans’ pensions, homes, and jobs, by refusing to protect the land, air, water, oceans and wildlife from polluters and despoilers, and by constructing a health care system with the highest costs and highest profits in the world.

The way to reduce health care costs is to take out gobs of costs and profits with a single payer system. A private health care system can continue to operate alongside for those who can afford it.

The way to get the budget under control is to stop the gratuitous hegemonic wars, wars that will end in a nuclear confrontation.

The US economy is in a deepening recession from which recovery is not possible, because American middle class jobs in manufacturing and professional services have been offshored and given to foreigners. US GDP, consumer purchasing power, and tax base have been handed over to China, India, and Indonesia in order that Wall Street, shareholders, and corporate CEOs can earn more.

When the goods and services produced offshore come back into America, they arrive as imports. The trade balance worsens, the US dollar declines further in exchange value, and prices rise for Americans, whose incomes are stagnant or falling.

This is economic destruction. It always occurs when an oligarchy seizes control of a government. The short-run profits of the powerful are maximized at the expense of the viability of the economy.

The US economy is driven by consumer demand, but with 22.3% unemployment, stagnant and declining wages and salaries, and consumer debt burdens so high that consumers cannot borrow to spend, there is nothing to drive the economy.

Washington’s response to this dilemma is to increase the austerity! Cutting back Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security, forcing down wages by destroying unions and offshoring jobs (which results in a labor surplus and lower wages), and driving up the prices of food and energy by depreciating the dollar further erodes consumer purchasing power. The Federal Reserve can print money to rescue the crooked financial institutions, but it cannot rescue the American consumer.

As a final point, confront the fact that you are even lied to about “deficit reduction.” Even if Obama gets his $4 trillion “deficit reduction” over the next decade, it does not mean that the current national debt will be $4 trillion less than it currently is. The “reduction” merely means that the growth in the national debt will be $4 trillion less than otherwise. Regardless of any “deficit reduction,” the national debt ten years from now will be much higher than it presently is.

Paul Craig Roberts, a former Assistant Secretary of the US Treasury and former associate editor of the Wall Street Journal, has been reporting shocking cases of prosecutorial abuse for two decades. A new edition of his book, The Tyranny of Good Intentions, co-authored with Lawrence Stratton, a documented account of how Americans lost the protection of law, has been released by Random House.

Israel Sets It's Sights On Iran - September is Pulling Into View

Israel finds herself being endlessly defended by Christians who mindlessly "bless" Israel -

Over 5000 Christians, mainly Evangelicals, gathered this week at the Convention Center in Washington for the annual conference of the organization CUFI, Christians United For Israel.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the Christian Zionist conference via satellite, telling them, "When you support Israel, you don’t have to choose between your interests and your values; you get both."

The prime minister encouraged the conference attendees to not only think of Israel as an ally of the Unites States, but as indistinguishable from it. "Our enemies think that we are you, and that you are us," added Netanyahu. "And you know something? They are absolutely right." 

...and let's see...who else was there?

News commentator Glenn Beck worked the audience into a frenzy, decrying the historical persecution of Jews, insisting that Israel cannot cede control over territories it controls, and calling upon the conference attendees to declare that they, too, are Jewish.

"Jews have been chased out of every corner of this planet," said Beck. "Enough is enough." Beck said that new states can be established, but not at the expense of other states, and that Israel is historically the 'Land of the Jews', implying that Israel should not relinquish control over the West Bank in order to create a State of Palestine.

Beck repeated a refrain that Netanyahu had introduced earlier, appealing to audience members to self-identify as Israelis and Jews themselves. He exhorted, "When we see Israelis not as part of us, but as us, we can move to the next level as human beings," adding, "Let us declare 'I am a Jew,' they cannot kill all of us".

The Real Effect
Ah, it appears that good 'ole Beck has been promoted to fan the flames of fear again. Now what did I say at the beginning of this year??

After a massive downturn over the last 5 years, the remnants of much of the "religious right" get fed up with the left's "societal engineering".  This leads to the following -

• Nationalistic denominationalism - The Christians return to the forefront with a vengeance as the Glenn Beck rally/Palin crowd embrace "Americana" nationalism and go after the infidels.

Not only did I get the group right, I got the principal actor right as well. Roger Houston, that would be a bulls-eye.

Now why do you suppose this would be happening, what could Israel possibly want that they would go so far as to invoke the 'If you're not for us, you're against us.' line? Do you think it has anything to do with a report of Israel picking a fight with Iran at the same time that we go after Libya in September?

Well, let's ask the attendees -

“Iran will soon become nuclear. Our President is waiting for Iran to extend a friendly hand, and it’s not going to happen," Hagee added. "Mister Ahmadinejad, don’t threaten Israel. What you do to the Jewish people, history proves, will be done to you.”

Oh my. Yeah, I'm sure that spy plane that was shot down was just asking for directions to Germany.

For more on the subject, please review the Religious War series, Iran and WWIII.

Alex Jones offers insight of Bohemian Grove 2011

Fascists Attempt to Take Over Local Governments

Gould, Arkansas struggles with keeping citizen control -

As Fox 16 news reports, in Gould, Arkansas, the City Council has moved to ban all gatherings and groups, no matter how small from discussing city matters without prior permission from the authorities.

A proposed ordinance would even extend to residents’ own homes and is so broad in its reach that it covers boy scout groups and book clubs. Even dinner table conversations about the local community would technically be outlawed.

“You can’t just come in here, get with four people and decide to start an organization,” Gould City Councilor Sonja Farley told the reporters, adding, “You will go through your city council with legal documentation and get approval.”

The Real Effect 
This is par for the course in many ways.

Freedom begets prosperity as people seek to better themselves. Prosperity gives rise to complacency as many forget about that which gained their prosperity and instead place their "tribe" or institution in the place of freedom. ("California is better than Florida") It is at this point that institutions are honored as the guarantor of freedom while lip service is paid to freedom. Next, progressives seek to remove the vestiges of any restraints on evil in order to further freedom and progress. Ultimately, the golden goose is consumed by those in power as they defend the institution as the giver and guarantor of not only prosperity, but freedom itself. Inevitably the power structure collapses, overrun by those that are being consumed by it in an act of rebellion against the gradual coup.

It is of supreme importance that we recognize this cycle and where we are in it as it is indicative of two important points.

1. That the system is, in fact, collapsing.
2. That those in power are not only worried, they are terrified of what you will do if you organize.

Of further importance is the often lost fact - The council derives their power from the consent of the governed. If the council has power, it is derived from the governed and to try to subvert that consent not only enslaves the governed, it seeks to undermine the very act that provides legitimacy to the council itself. Not that I blame power hungry dictators for acting as they are, rather it is critical that we recognize them for what they are.

If I Only Had a Bank | How to Make California Prosper - California Public Bank

Property tax resister's case raises questions about "best resistance method"

Red Alert - S&P Downgrade of Rating Is Coming

From Denninger -

09:39 15Jul11 RTRS-S&P SAYS COULD LOWER U.S. RATINGS WITHIN 3 MONTHS

The Real Effect
Now my belief is that this is being strung out for a longer period of time to put maximum psychological impact on the end of 2012. I believe that the script is being written that -

'The world was supposed to end on 12/21/2012, but gee gosh golly, we really dodged a bullet there. We had better be more responsible (read as global) in the future. We need some sort of ruling class to teach us about the evils of democracy.'

I absolutely understand that these problems are real and need to be dealt with, but don't you find it curious that the aristocrats of our day and age seem hell-bent on wrecking this country? Doesn't it seem odd to you that we have not a real snap back to some form of non-debt laden prosperity?

The people are being goaded via artificial austerity to compensate a predatory banking class. This in turn is stoking class warfare and resentment at all who "posses". Then, when the proper time comes, the elite point their primed classes at one another and presto you have warfare-in-a-can. 

Any way you slice it, it's getting quite real out there.

WHO'S RESPONSIBLE FOR THE NATIONAL DEBT?

By Michael Rivero

Let us imagine for a moment that you go to a restaurant, and you place an order for a hamburger. The proprietor of the restaurant tells you the cost is $10 for the hamburger, and you pay $10 for the hamburger. You get your food. No problems. Well worth the money you paid for it. No complaints.

Then when you are done eating, the owner of the restaurant shows up at your table, apologizes profusely, explains that he underestimated the real cost of providing you with the hamburger he agreed to serve you and hands you a bill for an additional sum he had to borrow in order to provide the meal plus interest since the start of your meal. Do you pay it? Of course not. You, the customer, entered into a verbal contract with the proprietor of the restaurant to provide you with your meal at the price agreed to by all parties prior to the transaction.

If the proprietor of the restaurant has miscalculated the cost of meeting his agreed-to obligation to the customer, is the customer obligated to cover the shortfall? No. The proprietor of the restaurant is responsible for the error, and if he cannot meet his agreed-to obligations for the agreed-upon price, he should declare bankruptcy, go out of business, and make way for a new restaurant with better fiscal sense.


Simple common sense.

Let us imagine for a moment that you live in a nation, and you request some benefits. The government tells you the cost is $1000 for the benefits, and you pay $1000 in taxes for the benefits. You get your benefits. No problems. Well worth the money you paid for them. No complaints.


Then when you have your benefits, the government shows up at your door, apologizes profusely, explains that it underestimated the real cost of providing you with the benefits it agreed to provide and hands you a bill for an additional sum it had to borrow in order to provide the services, plus interest since the start of your use of the benefits. Do you pay it? Of course not. You, the citizen, entered into a verbal contract with the government to provide you with your benefits at the taxes agreed to by all parties prior to the transaction.

If the government has miscalculated the cost of meeting the agreed-to obligation to the citizen, is the citizen obligated to cover the shortfall? No. The government is responsible for the error, and if it cannot meet it's agreed-to obligations for the agreed-upon price, it should declare bankruptcy, go out of business, and make way for a new government with better fiscal sense.

Simple common sense.

The claim is constantly made that "we" (meaning the citizens) have already spent the almost 30 trillion dollars that the Federal Government owes and that therefore "we" (meaning the citizens) must repay it.* This is nonsense. No taxpayer alive now ever voted or otherwise agreed to allow the government to borrow money on their behalf and agreed to underwrite the resultant ruinous interest obligation. No citizen spent that money. The government spent it, to keep promises it had no business making in the first place.

The Federal Reserve Act (Otherwise known as the currency act) was voted into law December 23, 1913. The people who voted in that law are all dead.

No taxpayer alive today had anything to say about repaying any money the government borrowed to keep it's promises. We did not have any choice in the matter. We did not choose to accept this obligation. It has been forced on us. It was manufactured for us by a government that spends the peoples' money not on the people,. but on wars of conquest, gifts to Israel, and endless bailouts for Wall Street and European bankers.

Certainly the young people who are becoming voters and taxpayers this year have had no say at all about the almost 30 trillion dollar debt that our government hands to them and says, "This thou shalt pay". To so encumber our children without their permission is at best indentured servitude; at the worst outright slavery. It is time for the slaves to rebel.

We The People didn't borrow that 30 trillion dollars. We The People, those of us alive today, paying taxes today, have never had the opportunity to decide whether or not we are obligated to cover the bad debts of a government that gets elected by selling $10 dollar hamburgers, only to tell us after election day that they really cost $15 and we are now obligated for that additional $5.

Every man, woman, retired senior citizen and even the tiniest newborn baby are being told that they owe a hundred thousand dollars extra for services that were bought and paid for by an agreed-to tax rate.

Are those tiny newborn babies really obligated for $100,000 because of a law passed 84 years before they were born?
.
Are those tiny newborn babies really obligated for $100,000 because our government makes promises it cannot keep?

Or is it time for the Federal Government to declare bankruptcy and make way for something better?

Why Housing Prices Keep Falling

Come on people, this isn't that hard to figure out -

A lead foreclosure fraud investigator for the state said she and a colleague were forced to resign from the Florida attorney general's office, unexpectedly ending their nearly yearlong pursuit to hold law firms and banks accountable.

Former Assistant Attorney General Theresa Edwards and colleague June Clarkson had been investigating the state's so-called "foreclosure mills," uncovering evidence of legal malpractice that also implicated banks and loan serv­icers.

Despite positive performance evaluations, Edwards said the two were told during a meeting with their supervisor in late May to give up their jobs voluntarily or be let go.

The Real Effect
Do we really believe for a moment that the group that thinks that limits on it's excesses are a sin would voluntarily cut it's own bureaucracy to save money or discipline bad workers? No? Good, now that we got that garbage out of the way we can view this for what this is. Here is a quick, simple explanation -

• Banks control the money
• Politicians want money, banks want less competition
• Politicians write the rules that banks want
• Banks fund politicians
• Politicians ignore banks extracting wealth out of the "commoners"

 How do we get out? Repudiate the debt.

News Corps Makes Corporate Welfare a Sport

Get your brain around this one -

Call it the gift that keeps on giving (if one is a corporation that is): the US Tax system, so effective at extracting income tax from America's working class, is just as "effective" at redistributing said income tax at the corporate level. Case in point: News Corp, which after generating $10.4 billion in profits over the past 4 years, and which would have been expected to pay the IRS $3.6 billion at the statutory corporate tax rate, instead received $4.6 billion back from Uncle Sam. Bottom line: Murdoch's corporation had a cash paid tax rate of -46% between 2007 and 2010. The culrpit: two little somethings called Deferred Tax Assets and Net Operating Loss Carry-forwards.

The Real Effect
Now, I don't blame News Corps for gaming working the system to their advantage, but can we please stop with the double standards in this country?

To start, funds are fungible. How does one prove that one dollar went here and then went there? Quite a difficult thing to prove at times. As a matter of fact, 'money laundering' becomes a way to 'game' the system and get what you want, somewhat legally. But should we be surprised at such behavior? If something is not illegal, it is legal and yet our laws become more and more obtuse, enforceable on the whims of a despotic madman who feels that we've taken more then our share because we spent the money on something he disagrees with. Isn't this the point of free-market capitalism? That an individual is free from intervention and able to use his resources as he sees fit?

Yet, if an individual receives money from the government, who coincidentally seems to be the only one with money left, we are told that we must comply with hundreds of thousands of bureaucratic regulations and dictates. If  we deliberately chose something else, let alone slip up, we risk imprisonment. But we are not able to dictate to our captors how they get that money in the first place, else once again we risk imprisonment.

Do a little experiment once and compare that to the budget authority for the SNAP program. (Food stamps). The profits of one company equal a significant percentage (in the neighborhood of 5%) of the budget for food for 1/7 of the ENTIRE NATION.

The problem then becomes that neither side wants to part with their blood money. The left cannot fathom allowing individuals to make stupid choices themselves so they attempt to force the correct ones. The right having joined the party is simply blind to the fact that this is not business in this country but in truth oligarchical fascism a-la Coca-Cola.

The solution? End the fascism. Bring the money back to the earners. Allow them to experience the pain AND the pleasure of their choices.

Greece a Dress Rehearsal for United States

"Republicans will point at Democrats and Democrats will blame Republicans"

Does everyone remember Mad Libs? 'It's not _____ fault that the economy sucks and we spend so much money -

So the fondest Washington hopes for a grand debt-limit deal have broken down over taxes. House Speaker John Boehner said late Saturday that he couldn't move ahead with a $4 trillion deal because President Obama was insisting on a $1 trillion tax increase, and the White House quickly denounced House Republicans for scuttling debt reduction and preventing "the very wealthiest and special interests from paying their fair share."

The Real Effect
I don't seem to remember non-Democrats or Republicans getting the helm in the Federal Government for the last, oh 100 years.Let's see, Democrats are at the helm now and the situation hasn't improved and Republicans were in charge when this whole thing started and they both make for larger governments, I see a bit of a trend forming here...

Let us now step into our time machine and wisk back, almost 5 years ago, to that great bastion of freedom, one George W. Bush's take on how to deal with our issues. From his 2007 State of the Union we get these gems -

• "First, we must balance the federal budget." "What we need to do is impose spending discipline in Washington, D.C." (Oh my, how did that work for you?)
• "Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid are commitments of conscience, so it is our duty to keep them permanently sound. " 
• "We must increase funds for students who struggle"  
• "A future of hope and opportunity requires that all our citizens have affordable and available health care. When it comes to health care, government has an obligation to care for the elderly, the disabled, and poor children."
•  "I have asked the Secretary of Health and Human Services to work with Congress to take existing federal funds and use them to create “Affordable Choices” grants." 
• "I ask Congress to double the current capacity of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve."

Seeing as how the Republican leader at the time was advocating the same fiscal policies that the Democrats are, there may be difference in some rhetoric but little difference in the ways of substance. To get a little further up to speed, let's see what Boehner had to say about Rep. Ron Paul half a year ago -

Five GOP leadership aides, speaking anonymously because a decision isn't final, say incoming House Speaker John Boehner has discussed ways to prevent Paul from becoming chairman or to keep him on a tight leash if he does. If Boehner, who will help determine who gets to chair subcommittees as early as Dec. 8, rejects Paul, he may have to contend with thousands of grassroots supporters and dozens of younger lawmakers who see Paul as a hero.

 Now, let's pretend for a moment that there was a man, who warned you that a barbarian horde was knocking on your city gates and was about to destroy you and your city. Yet this man is minimized and openly mocked as some sort of naysayer by your current counsel. Fast forwards three years and the hordes have you backed into the castle keep and you, like a fool, are still listening to the counsel that advised you to ignore the warnings of this man.

At this point, you deserve several things:

1. To be run out of power. You have done nothing to avoid this situation and your judgment is at best seriously questionable.
2. To be tried and possibly executed for dereliction of duty. It was your job that you campaigned for that you whored yourself out for the highest bidder. This is called treason.
3. To have your decisions reversed and your ill-gotten resources confiscated.
4. To have any of your progeny or disciples barred from serving for at least one generation.

Despite these realities, here we stand today twiddling our thumbs talking about peas and adults while the country is being economically savaged by blood-thirsty barbarians ransacking and looting. Yet we are openly discussing 'letting the horde take just a bit more money as long as we kick them out in the future' with the very party that LET THE HORDE IN!?!

There is but one word for this - MADNESS.

Update: Boehner certainly doesn't disappoint, well the big spenders at least -

House Speaker John Boehner said he agrees that the U.S. debt limit must be raised and the government can’t be allowed to default on its debts, but he also said Democrats are not serious enough about trimming entitlement programs.

I Pledge Allegiance To America's Debt, And To The Chinese Government That Lends Us Money (Video)

Armed Americans Confront Police Checkpoint in California July 5, 2011

Italy Implodes as the Eurozone Breaks Down

Zero Hedge speaks to the next major catastrophe brewing -

Remember Italy? That country we have been warning will be the next casualty as Europe's implosion tsunami sweeps everything in its path? Well, UniCredit is now down over 8%, well beyond the price it was halted at and falling. UCG Sr CDS 250/260; Subs are 458/478. ASSGEN next.

Elsewhere, Banco Populare was just halted and unhalted and is now down 6%.

 The Real Effect
Let's review, from February 2010 -

 I do know that Greece's woes are going to blow out into the eurozone specifically Spain, Portugal, Italy and Ireland as they are all big holders of Greek bonds. This in turn will cause their economies to suffer as the fallout becomes contagious. Yet America plugs along, content to repeat these mistakes as we "integrate" and "harmonize" our way into oblivion.

Let's see Greece is a full fledged nightmare, check. Spain is now rioting, check, Portugal is right behind them, check. Ireland blew up, check. Oh and here's Italy, right on cue. And all of this was predicted before Greece became a household name. Niiiice.

This is part of long-reaching, globalist plan. Take a look -

• 1957 Establishment of the European Economic Community (EEC) with Germany, France, Italy and the Benelux countries.
• 1967 Creation of the European Community (EC).
• 1987 The "Single European Act" provides for the creation of the Single European Market from 1993 and establishes the goal of a Monetary Union.
• 1990 Start of stage one of European Monetary Union (EMU) with the full liberalization of capital movements.
• 1991 Conclusion of the "Maastricht Treaty" on European Union (EU), establishment of the timetable for Monetary Union.
• 1993 Start of the Single Market permitting the free movement of people, goods, capital and services.
• 1994 Start of stage two of EMU. The European Monetary Institute (EMI) is established.
• 1998 Decision on EMU participants, confirmation of the starting date; establishment of the ECB. 1999 Start of the Monetary Union with the fixing of exchange rates; the ECB assumes responsibility for monetary policy and operates in euro; start of the currency changeover in the financial sector.
• 2002 Euro notes and coins replace the national currencies.

Did we mention that  Peter D. Sutherland, (Chairman, Goldman Sachs International) and Franco Bernabè (CEO, Telecom Italia SpA) were at this year's Bilderberg conference? I'm sure they were playing checkers and not throttling maids in their hotel rooms.

Sept. 15, 2010, House VA Committee hearing: Sergeant Chuck Luther describes how he was tortured by U.S. Army officials

The Revolution Has Begun In Europe

NATO Dumps Depleted Uranium on Libya - This is What Freedom Looks Like

Like there was any doubt from the beginning. Explain to me again how this is a humanitarian mission -

Bombed sites in Libya have been visited by professional scientists working in the Surveying and Collecting Specimens and Laboratory Measuring Group. The scientists and trained experts have conducted field surveys looking for radioactive isotopes (radioisotopes) at bombed sites. The samples from these sites were then scientifically analyzed at the laboratories of the Nuclear Energy Institution of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya.

Analysis in Libya through inductively coupled plasma has shown that several sites contain even higher than expected doses of uranium. Holes caused by NATO missiles also have high radioactive measurements, as do the fragments of NATO ordinance. Sites analyzed by the teams of scientists include Bab Al-Azizia and Souk Al-Ahad.

The Real Effect
It is mildly amusing to watch individuals discuss this war. On the one hand, you have clueless Democrats describing the dropping of bombs on a sovereign country under the auspices of NATO as not a war, but a kinetic military action. As if the label changes the act. They have not declared war, they are in violation of the War Powers Act much more so the Constitution. Yet, insanity is not the exclusive domain of the left. We also have war hungry Republicans which have yet to meet a war they didn't love. It seems their love for forcibly "exportin' freedom!" and their fear of anything nuclear is enough to get them to violate their own precepts as they spray half the world with radioactive material. At least they're savin' childrun.

US Propaganda - Watch Out

The inevitable starts crashing down -

The U.S. Military hired a California company to create software that allows one person to control up to 10 different and sophisticated fake online personas.

The Guardian reported today that United States Central Command (Centcom) doesn't plan to use the program domestically. Instead, the paper reports quoting Bill Speaks, Centcom spokesman, the military wants to use it in the Middle East and Asia to "counter violent extremist and enemy propaganda outside the US."

The Real Effect
While nothing overtly new, the information is raised to the reader to illustrate several key points.

• Define propaganda. 
• Is a difference in opinion being treated as propaganda by establishment?
• How do we know that these false profiles are not being used to vote in online polls in order to justify or even determine "public policy"?

 We are in dangerous territory now. The truth died long ago, but now what we have is no longer a corpse masquerading as truth, but a full fledged zombie-informational nightmare. How can the people honestly make true decisions when they are being lied to by their employee-representatives? They have a word for that in the legal word. It's called, um...wait, I got it...oh yeah... FRAUD.

Thorium Revolt: Mineral to replace uranium as nuclear power source?

The Lords are Building Castles

I love stories like this -

Despite the objections of his neighbors, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has ordered city officials to proceed with a plan to erect a six-foot wall around the mayor’s mansion.

The wall — which would flank the sides of Getty House in Hancock Park — recently drew the ire of local residents in February when Villaraigosa filed a request for a local variance that prohibits any fencing that exceeds 42 inches in height.

A proposed design for the wall includes “embedded” security features that the mayor’s office said will save trim the costs of security staffing.

Villaraigosa has deflected much of the public criticism aimed at the structure towards federal officials.

The Los Angeles Police Department reportedly proposed the idea after the Department of Homeland Security found that the home could be breached.

The Real Effect
Wow, what to say. Let's look at some of the issues -

• This is hardly accessible government. Building a wall makes it more difficult to gain access to an official. If the Mayor has issues with lynch mobs, perhaps he should stop governing in the fashion to which he is accustomed.
• If his neighbors wanted a wall, they couldn't have one. But if you're important, you get one. This is exactly the opposite of what a lawful Republic is supposed to be.
• "Embedded" features? Cameras? Gatling guns?
• Even the Feds via the DHS are involved in this.
• I'm guessing that public funds are being used to build this wall.

Once again, we have public officials ignoring their constituents wishes and doing what's best for themselves. If these laws are so bad that we need constant variances, perhaps we should REPEAL THE LAW.