Financial Rescue Approaches GDP as U.S. Pledges $12.8 Trillion

Financial Rescue Approaches GDP as U.S. Pledges $12.8 Trillion - Bloomberg.com

The "stimulus" is the same as GDP now. At this level, it would pay for every single mortgage in the U.S. How "stimulating" would an extra $500-$2500/month for all those households in America be? Ask the average American if they'd be willing to deal with the "volatility" Bernanke et al. are protecting us from, caused by letting AIG collapse, if their mortgage was paid for. But, they aren't doing that with the money, are they? They're giving it to a select few of their banking buddies, that took 30-300x leverage bets and lost.

Peering into the Abyss

"Printing money is merely taxation in another form. Rather than robbing citizens of their money, government robs their money of its purchasing power."

Peering into the Abyss by Peter Schiff

Memorize that line above. That is how they are fooling us. That is how they are getting away with absolute treasonous amounts of graft. It is unethical what we are doing to our children.

Jim Webb's courage v. the "pragmatism" excuse for politicians

“There are few things rarer than a major politician doing something that is genuinely courageous and principled, but Jim Webb’s impassioned commitment to fundamental prison reform is exactly that. Webb’s interest in the issue was prompted by his work as a journalist in 1984, when he wrote about an American citizen who was locked away in a Japanese prison for two years under extremely harsh conditions for nothing more than marijuana possession. After decades of mindless ‘tough-on-crime’ hysteria, an increasingly irrational ‘drug war,’ and a sprawling, privatized prison state as brutal as it is counter-productive, America has easily surpassed Japan — and virtually every other country in the world — to become what Brown University Professor Glenn Loury recently described as a ‘a nation of jailers’ whose ‘prison system has grown into a leviathan unmatched in human history.’ What’s most notable about Webb’s decision to champion this cause is how honest his advocacy is. He isn’t just attempting to chip away at the safe edges of America’s oppressive prison state. His critique of what we’re doing is fundamental, not incremental.”

Jim Webb's courage v. the "pragmatism" excuse for politicians - Glenn Greenwald - Salon.com

A Terrorist-Producing Machine

"With the possible exception of the war on drugs, it would be difficult to find a greater terrorist-producing machine than the U.S. government’s occupation of Afghanistan. Think about it: For almost 8 years, they’ve been killing terrorists in that country, fulltime. Yet, today there are more terrorists than ever before. From the standpoint of a lover of big government, this is a dream come true. They kill one terrorist, they get 10 more, which means ever-increasing federal power and budgets. "

A Terrorist-Producing Machine - The Future of Freedom Foundation

What the Drug Warriors Have Given Us

“Does anyone still think the ‘war on drugs’ is a good idea? That may strike some people as an odd question under the circumstances, so let’s take it from another direction. Have you seen the news stories about the violence on the border being perpetrated by the Mexican whiskey and cigarette cartels? No? That’s probably because there was no such violence and are no such cartels.”

What the Drug Warriors Have Given Us | Foundation for Economic Education

FDIC Criticizes Massachusetts Bank With No Bad Loans for Being Too Cautious

"Massachusetts' East Bridgewater Savings Bank claims to have no bad loans on its books. Bank officers say that's because they have very high lending standards. Those standards are too high, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. The agency rapped the bank for not lending more and slapped it with a "needs to improve" rating under the Community Reinvestment Act."

FOXNews.com - FDIC Criticizes Massachusetts Bank With No Bad Loans for Being Too Cautious - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News

If you had any questions about who is to blame for the fragility of the banking "system," look no further than this article...

YouTube star summoned to White House?

"Bob Basso, who posts videos under the name funbobbasso on YouTube, has created videos in which he portrays Thomas Paine, author of the "Common Sense" pamphlet that made the case for independence during the American Revolution. "

YouTube star summoned to White House?

Intimidation?

Citibank fell for Nigerian scam

Citibank fell for Nigerian scam // Current

By all means, let's bailout this linchpin to our economy.

Nader: Seven Steps the Obama Admin is NOT Taking to Fix the Banking Crash, Why Not?

Nader: Seven Steps the Obama Admin is NOT Taking to Fix the Banking Crash, Why Not?

Goldman Bailed Out 2 Executives

Goldman Spent Millions to Bail Out 2 Executives - NYTimes.com

We bail out Goldman, they use the funds to bailout their execs to keep their million-dollar lifestyles...

U.S. Ranked 36th Freest Press in the World

"It is not economic prosperity but peace that guarantees press freedom. That is the main lesson to be drawn from the world press freedom index that Reporters Without Borders compiles every year and from the 2008 edition."

U.S. Ranked 36th Freest Press in the World

5 Ways To Scam The New Bailout

5 Ways To Scam The New Bailout

There's always a loophole when the gov't plans something...

Lord Myners hid his money in tax haven

"LORD MYNERS, the minister in charge of the government’s assault on tax havens, has used a blind trust to conceal £250,000 of his own money in an offshore shelter. "

Lord Myners hid his money in tax haven - Times Online

Those laws are for you, not for us.

Major cyber spy network uncovered

BBC NEWS | Americas | Major cyber spy network uncovered

Judge OKs probe of torture complaint against Bush officials

"A senior Spanish judge has ordered prosecutors to investigate whether key Bush aides should be charged with crimes over the Guantanamo Bay detention center, a lawyer said Sunday."

Judge OKs probe of torture complaint against Bush officials - CNN.com

Pulitzer winner Seymour Hersh reveals Cheney's assassination ring, gets no press

National Intelligence Examiner: Pulitzer winner Seymour Hersh reveals Cheney's assassination ring, gets no press

Countdown: Seymour Hersh's Claim of Cheney Covert Assassination Ring

Russia backs return to Gold Standard to solve financial crisis

Russia backs return to Gold Standard to solve financial crisis - Telegraph

Maybe the Ruble will become the world's new reserve currency. A currency managed in a way the world can trust won't be inflated into oblivion.

Hermann Goering (Nazi Leader) Quote

"...the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country."

The virtues of public anger and the need for more

"With lightning speed and lockstep unanimity, opinion-making elites jointly embraced and are now delivering the same message about the public rage triggered this week by the AIG bonus scandal:   This scandal is insignificant.  It's just a distraction.  And, most important of all, public anger is unhelpful and must be contained or, failing that, ignored.

This anti-anger consensus among our political elites is exactly wrong.  The public rage we're finally seeing is long, long overdue, and appears to be the only force with both the ability and will to impose meaningful checks on continued kleptocratic pillaging and deep-seated corruption in virtually every branch of our establishment institutions."

The virtues of public anger and the need for more - Glenn Greenwald - Salon.com

Yes, get angry.

Holbrooke Lied, He DID Offer Deal to Karadzic

"The official, Richard C. Holbrooke, now a special envoy on Afghanistan and Pakistan for the Obama administration, has repeatedly denied promising Mr. Karadzic immunity from prosecution in exchange for abandoning power after the Bosnian war.

“Holbrooke was angry; he was ranting,” the American recalled. He quoted Mr. Holbrooke as saying: “That son of a bitch Karadzic. I made a deal with him that if he’d pull out of politics, we wouldn’t go after him. He’s broken that deal and now we’re going to get him.”"

Study Backs Bosnian Serb’s Claim of Immunity - NYTimes.com

Head of San Francisco Fed Bank: We Don't Know What We're Doing, So We'll Do More of It

"The head of the Fed bank in San Francisco, Janet Yellen, has more or less admitted that the Fed has no idea what it is doing, but that such ignorance only argues for taking more aggressively action:

Yellen said that the wisdom of the Fed's approach is now the subject of "considerable debate." ...

Yellen admitted that it was hard to prove that the new programs were working.

"We simply don't have the experience needed to pin down the magnitude of the impacts," Yellen said.

But this was just another argument in favor of a broad, aggressive, approach, she said."

Washington's Blog

Monsanto's Many Attempts to Destroy All Seeds but Their Own

Monsanto's Many Attempts to Destroy All Seeds but Their Own - articles -

Follow the Bailout Cash

"There was plenty of outrage on Capitol Hill last week over the executive bonuses paid out by AIG after getting federal bailout money. But another money trail could make voters just as angry: the campaign dollars to members of Congress from banks and firms that have received billions via the Troubled Asset Relief Program."

TARP Funds Get Recycled as Political Contributions | Newsweek Periscope | Newsweek.com

Donations + Lobbyists = Write Your Own Laws

Fed Running Out of Ammo

"The Fed’s decision to purchase $300 billion of long-term treasury bonds is indicative of two things: 1) The U.S. government has lost all sense of value relative to its currency, and 2) The U.S. Federal Reserve is getting desperate and is running out of options.

Far from giving the economy any kind of boost, these tactics are essentially more of the same, which has already proven futile in terms of getting the economy moving again. Major financial institutions are not lending or borrowing much more than they were when the crisis began, and all the Fed is doing is undermining what little value is left in the U.S. Dollar."

Midas Letter - Fed Running Out of Ammo

They are telling us the main purpose of the bailout to free up the credit market. This makes us feel like the bailout is ultimately for us. This is a lie. Lack of credit isn't the problem, the problem is that there is simply too much debt and leverage. Those who took on too much risk and too much debt need to suffer their consequences. Isn't that natural, just, and logical? Why should those of us who were prudent pay for their foolishness?

TARP Was Supposed To Buy Toxic Assets Last Year

Toxic Asset Plan Foresees Big Subsidies for Investors - NYTimes.com

Back in September, TARP was sold to us all for $750 billion as a plan to buy up the toxic assets. Here we are an estimated $11 trillion later and it still has not happened??!!

And now that they are finally "getting around to it", they are planning to buy the toxic assets with low interest loans to get private investors to do what the government claimed it was doing with taxpayer money! So where is that money?

Geithner Aides Worked With AIG for Months on Bonuses

Geithner Aides Worked With AIG for Months on Bonuses - WSJ.com

They put those bonus clauses in there on purpose.

The New National Security Council advisor Jones: “I take my daily orders from Dr. Kissinger”

"Thank you for that wonderful tribute to Henry Kissinger yesterday. Congratulations. As the most recent National Security Advisor of the United States, I take my daily orders from Dr. Kissinger, filtered down through Generaal (sic) Brent Scowcroft and Sandy Berger, who is also here. We have a chain of command in the National Security Council that exists today."

NSC advisor Jones: “I take my daily orders from Dr. Kissinger”

Torture! Americans' interrogation methods have probably destroyed the nation's reputation

"The Red Cross report concluded: "The allegations of ill-treatment of the detainees indicate that, in many cases, the ill-treatment to which they were subjected while held in the CIA program, either singly or in combination, constituted torture."

TheRecord.com - Opinions - Torture! by Helen Thomas

Death squad leader ‘was top CIA agent’

"THE LATE President Milosevic's secret police chief and organiser of Serb death squads during the genocidal ethnic cleansing of disintegrating Yugoslavia was the United States' top CIA agent in Belgrade, according to the independent Belgrade Radio B92.

The claim that from 1992 until the end of the decade, Jovica Stanisic, head of Serbia's murderous DB Secret Police, was regularly informing his CIA handlers of the thinking in Milosevic's inner circle has shocked the region.

Stanisic is said to have loyally served his two masters for eight years. He is facing war crimes charges at the International Criminal Court at The Hague.

advertisement

In the terrifying years of Yugoslavia's internecine wars, he acted as the willing "muscle" behind Milosevic's genocidal campaigns in Croatia, Kosovo and Bosnia, including Sebrenica."

Death Squad Leader Was Top Cia Agent (from Sunday Herald)

The CIA is doing really, really important work for America! They are totally worth every penny, and there is no backlash to their actions whatsoever! (end sarcasm)

U.N. panel says world should ditch dollar

U.N. panel says world should ditch dollar | U.S. | Reuters

Federal Reserve is now playing a high-risk game with inflation

Federal Reserve is now playing a high-risk game with inflation - Telegraph

$20 trillion deficit coming?

Shelby: $20 trillion deficit coming

China calls for end to dollar's reign as global reserve currency

Replace dollar as global reserve currency, says China | Business | guardian.co.uk

China weighs paper gold against dollar as reserve currency

Paper gold: nice idea, shame about the politics - Telegraph

If the U.S. is going to squander its economic reputation and standing as the trustworthy place to place your capital, there are plenty out there who are ready and willing to step up and take its place. And that reputation doesn't come back overnight...if ever.

Obama and Geithner gambling with their country's financial reputations

"Having seen the worst elements of casino capitalism ruin Wall Street and generate billions in losses, the pair have stepped back to the roulette table and plan to place up to $1 trillion (£690bn) on black to try to win back the banks' losses and restore America's financial credibility. All they can do is hope the spin doesn't end in the red. "

Obama and Geithner gambling with their country's financial reputations - Telegraph

Sign Up to Receive a Free Quotation on Liberty Each Day in your Inbox!

"Force always attracts men of low morality. "
-- Albert Einstein
(1879-1955) Physicist and Professor, Nobel Prize 1921

Famous Quotes / Quotations about Liberty - Liberty-Tree.ca

S&P Earnings Back to 1955 Level

"It's no secret that it's bad out there. Today's chart helps provide some perspective as to the magnitude of the current economic decline. Today's chart illustrates that 12-month, as-reported S&P 500 earnings have declined over 80% over the past 18 months, making this by far the largest decline on record (the data goes back to 1936). In fact, real earnings have dropped to a level not seen since the 1930s and 40s – the back end of the Great Depression. While earnings have been struggling since Q3 2007, it was the latest quarter (Q4 2008 the first full quarter following the financial meltdown), where the real damage was done. During Q4 2008, the S&P 500 came in with its first negative earnings quarter ever and the amount lost during the quarter was more than the index has ever earned during a single quarter."

Chart of the Day

US Mint Suspends Production of More Gold and Silver Coins

US Mint Suspends Production of More Gold and Silver Coins | Gold and Silver Blog

Glenn Beck Shows Us What a Trillion Dollars Looks Like

Glenn Beck - Current Events & Politics - Glenn Beck: Last Line of Defense

US calls on Sweden's "Mr Fix It" Bo Lundgren

"The Swedish financial chief known as "Mr Fix It" has been summoned to Washington to advise on how Sweden's model might avert a global banking meltdown."

US calls on "Mr Fix It" - Telegraph

Translation: $11 trillion of YOUR dollars have been poured onto the corporations that created this mess, and now they admit they don't know what they have been doing all this time, and haven't made any progress toward fixing it.

The Economy is Sooooo Bad That....

Congress says they are looking into this Bernard Madoff scandal. So, the guy that made $50 billion disappear is being investigated by the people who made $750 billion disappear.

The economy is so bad:
CEO’s are now playing miniature golf.

Even people who have nothing to do with the Obama administration aren’t paying their taxes.

Hotwheels and Matchbox stocks are trading higher than GM.

Obama met with small businesses to discuss the Stimulus Package: GE, Pfeizer and Citigroup.

PETA serves chicken wings at their meetings

McDonalds is selling the 1/4- ouncer.

People in Beverly Hills fired their nannies and learned their children’s
names.

A truck of Americans got caught sneaking into Mexico ..

The most highly-paid job is now jury duty.

Dick Cheney took his stockbroker hunting.

People in Africa are donating money to Americans.

Mothers in Ethiopia are telling their kids, “finish your plate, do you know how many kids are starving in the US ?”

Motel Six wont leave the light on.

The Mafia is laying off judges.

THE ECONOMY IS SOOOOOOOOOOO BAD THAT….. « Desertpeace

Kentucky Election Officials Arrested, Charged With 'Changing Votes at E-Voting Machines'

The BRAD BLOG : KY Election Officials Arrested, Charged With 'Changing Votes at E-Voting Machines'

Get rid of the electronic machines. They can be manipulated too easily. There should always be a paper trail.

Who Owns the Rainwater that Falls on Your Property?

"Every time it rains here, Kris Holstrom knowingly breaks the law.

Holstrom's violation is the fancifully painted 55-gallon buckets underneath the gutters of her farmhouse on a mesa 15 miles from the resort town of Telluride. The barrels catch rain and snowmelt, which Holstrom uses to irrigate the small vegetable garden she and her husband maintain."

Who owns Colorado's rainwater? - Los Angeles Times

What Happened in 1980?

Drug Abuse Prevention, Treatment and, Rehabilitation Act (1980)

Since most (50%+) of people are currently in jail for nonviolent drug offenses, the birth of the "drug war" probably more than doubled the number of "criminals".

Coincidentally, a major piece of antidrug legislation was introduced in 1980: [the] Drug Abuse Prevention, Treatment and, Rehabilitation Act [of 1980]

Just Say "NO" to Drugs!

Freedom!!!!

A Free-Market Solution to Litter

"A Gloucestershire shopkeeper has cut litter in her village by 40% by writing children's names on their sweet wrappers."

Ananova - Shopkeeper takes on litter louts

Russian planes again fly over U.S. Navy ships

Russian planes again fly over U.S. Navy ships - CNN.com

"Russian military aircraft flew just 500 feet over two U.S. Navy ships this week as the ships participated in a joint military exercise with South Korea in the Sea of Japan, according to U.S. military officials."

Many Iraqis held by US to go free

"Thousands of Iraqis held without charge by the United States on suspicion of links to insurgents or militants are being freed by this summer because there is little or no evidence against them."

La Crosse Tribune - 7.0

Leading by example.  If no evidence and no charges, you are free.

Holder rescinds Ashcroft-era FOIA guidelines

"A presumption of openness," is now supposed to guide federal agencies' responses to Freedom of Information Act requests.

Attorney General Eric Holder today sent a memo to agency heads that reverses FOIA guidelines that have been in place since Oct. 12, 2001. The Bush-era presumption, established by then-attorney general John Ashcroft, was that agencies should first assume that information should not be released -- and put most of the burden on the requester to prove otherwise.

Holder rescinds Ashcroft-era FOIA guidelines - The Oval: Tracking the Obama presidency

What a refreshing concept! An open government! Sunlight disinfects!

Colin Powell’s former chief of staff: Cheney is ‘evil,’ his fearmongering is ‘assisting’ al Qaeda.

Think Progress » Colin Powell’s former chief of staff: Cheney is ‘evil,’ his fearmongering is ‘assisting’ al Qaeda.

Cheney Worried About Obama Expanding Gov't, But Felt That He Was Justified in Ignoring Most of the Constitution

In an interview with CNN, Dick Cheney says,
"I worry a lot," he told King, "that they're using the current set of economic difficulties to try to justify a massive expansion in the government, and much more authority for the government over the private sector. I don't think that's good. I don't think that's going to solve the problem."

Yet...
"According to recently released legal memos from the Bush-Cheney administration, the former vice president believes that the federal government can ignore the First Amendment and suppress free speech and freedom of the press as part of its "war on terror.""

Former Vice President Cheney also believes, according to these same memos, that the federal government can send troops to burst into the homes of American citizens without a search warrant, despite the Fourth Amendment's protection against such unreasonable searches. He believes that the federal government has the right to arrest an American citizen on American soil and hold him in prison without charges. He believes that the federal government can listen in on your phone conversations without a court order.

Cheney believes that the federal government can ignore the Geneva Conventions, binding treaties largely written by the United States, signed by the president and ratified by the Senate. He believes that the federal government can commit torture, despite laws and treaties making torture a crime.

As the Washington Post reported, "Starting in January, 2002, Cheney turned his attention to the practical business of crushing a captive's will to resist. The vice president's office played a central role in shattering limits on coercion of prisoners in U.S. custody, commissioning and defending legal opinions that the Bush administration has since portrayed as the initiatives, months later, of lower-ranking officials."

Commentary: Cheney says U.S. can torture but can't heal - CNN.com