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Monday, February 27, 2012

Non-Compliance In Action: Bar Patrons Ignore Armed Robber Until He Goes Away

Chris | InformationLiberation

Here's a good demonstration of the power of non-compliance. A gun-wielding armed robber (symbolizing the government) attempts to rob some bar patrons (tax slaves) and they simply ignore him until he goes away.

Here's the full story from Gizmodo:

This is hilariously pitiful. An armed robber stormed a bar and demanded everyone give him their money. Usually, everyone freaks out and hands over everything they have. Not in this case. At this bar in Rotterdam, everyone ignored the robber and kept drinking.

Wait... what? Yes! Even when the robber waved his gun in their faces, everyone just went about their business of getting drunk. When the robber realized he couldn't get money, he lowered his demands to just a pack of cigarettes. He couldn't even get that. The barkeep just told him to get the hell out. The man with a gun was told to shut up. Just priceless. Realizing defeat, the robber finally left the bar.

BUT IT GETS BETTER.

As he leaves, the entire bar decides to chase him down. Yes, they're chasing a man down who's armed with a gun. The bar patrons finally catch up to the woeful robber and nab him a mile away from the bar. The police is called, the robber is arrested and the weakest robbery attempt in robbing history has been put on the Internet. At least be good at being bad, guy.

Now, if only people would do the same with the state!

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And this happened in The Netherlands !
Where you are absolutely NOT allowed to 'bear arms' !
In most of Europe only two kinds of people are armed :
Cops and criminals !!
I'm pretty impressed about how cool the bar-guests are, they hardly even pay any attention to the idiot !

Similar episodes have occurred in Denmark, several 'armed bank-robbers'
have found that people did not consider them a credible threat and told them to get lost .

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U.S. media takes the lead on Iran

BY GLENN GREENWALD

Many have compared the coordinated propaganda campaign now being disseminated about The Iranian Threat to that which preceded the Iraq War, but there is one notable difference. Whereas the American media in 2002 followed the lead of the U.S. government in beating the war drums against Saddam, they now seem even more eager for war against Iran than the U.S. government itself, which actually appears somewhat reluctant. Consider this highly illustrative, one-minute report yesterday?from the nightly broadcast of?NBC News with Brian Williams, by the network?s Chief Pentagon Correspondent Jim ?Mik? Miklaszewski,?which packs multiple misleading narratives into one short package:

We?re told that if the U.S. ends up in a war with Iran, then ?the U.S. Navy?s Fifth Fleet would be the world?s first line of defense?: because Iran is threatening the entire world, and the U.S. would be defending ?the world? from this grave Persian menace. Then there?s the ominous claim that ?Iranian leaders have threatened all-out war?: but that?s ?if Israel launches air strikes against Iran?s nuclear program,? which would already itself be ?all-out war.? The NBC?story ? which begins with video shots of Iranians in lab coats lurking around complex, James-Bond-villain-like nuclear-ish machines ? ends with twenty seconds of scary video footage of Iranian missiles being launched, accompanied with this narration: ?U.S. officials warn that Iran?s massive stockpile of ballistic missiles is the more serious threat?; after all, ?within just the past few days, Iranian leaders [cue video of a scary, ranting Ahmedinijad] have threatened that if attacked, they would launch those missiles at U.S. targets.?

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Obama: Not Raising Taxes Is a Form of Government Spending

By Fred Lucas

Announcing his budget plans for fiscal year 2013 in an address at Northern Virginia Community College in Annandale, Va., President Barack Obama characterized the current income tax rates--signed into law by President Bush a decade ago--as a form of government spending.

Essentially, the president said that the federal government "spends" when it does not raise taxes.

?Right now, we?re scheduled to spend more than $1 trillion more on what was intended to be a temporary tax cut for the wealthiest two percent of Americans,? Obama said. ?We?ve already spent about that much. Now we?re expected to spend another $1 trillion. Keep in mind, a quarter of all millionaires pay lower tax rates than millions of middle class households. You?ve heard me say it: Warren Buffett pays a lower tax rate than his secretary.?

Despite the bankruptcies of three green energy companies that received heavy doses of federal tax dollars, Obama also pledged Monday to ?double down on clean energy.?

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TSA Forces Woman To Use Naked Body Scanner Three Times Because of "Cute" Figure

New legislation will force TSA to install ?passenger advocates? at every airport
Paul Joseph Watson


Female passengers say they are being targeted by TSA screeners for sexual harassment, with one Texas woman being forced to pass through a naked body scanner three times so chuckling male TSA workers in a back room could get a good look at her ?cute? figure.

The incident occurred at DFW International Airport earlier this month. Wife and mother Ellen Terrell was asked by a female TSA screener ?Do you play tennis?? When Terrell asked why, the screener responded, ?You just have such a cute figure.?

Terrell was then told to go through the naked body scanner not once but a second time. She then heard the TSA screener talking into her microphone saying, ?Come on guys, alright, alright, one more time.?

After Terrell was forced to undergo a third blast of radiation from the body scanner, the male TSA agents in the back room who were obviously enjoying the show tried to send her through yet again to see more images of her naked body.

?Guys, it is not blurry, I'm letting her go. Come on out,? the female TSA screener said, finally ending the ordeal.

"I feel like I was totally exposed," Terrell told CBS 11. "They wanted a nice good look."

An investigation by CBS 11 News has prompted New York Senator Charles Schumer to introduce legislation that will mandate the TSA provide ?passenger advocates? who will be on duty at all times to respond to complaints at every airport in the country.

The investigation found that female travelers are victims of a ?peep show? by TSA workers who are using naked body scanners to target attractive women.

?CBS 11 News dug through more than 500 records of TSA complaints and found a pattern of women who believe that there was nothing random about the way they were selected for extra screening,? states the report, which lists numerous examples of men forcing women to pass through the scanners in a clear pattern of sexual harassment.

"Going through security at our nations airports should not be a humiliating or degrading experience,? remarked Schumer after hearing about the investigation. ?Because the TSA has refused to put passenger advocates at our nation's airports, today I'm introducing legislation that would force them to do so."

However, critics argue that the position would just be filled by another TSA worker, and that such a program will only be worthwhile if the advocate is independent.

A far better solution would be for airports to take advantage of a newly passed law that enables airports to apply to have TSA screeners evicted altogether.

As we have exhaustively documented, TSA workers tasked with operating naked body scanners have found themselves embroiled in an epidemic of criminality, abuses of power, and sexual perversion, with new cases appearing on an almost daily basis.

These people are the least suitable candidates to be providing security at America?s airports, which makes threats by Democrats and people like Joe Lieberman that a ?new 9/11? will occur if the TSA is marginalized all the more asinine.
__
Paul Joseph Watson is the editor and writer for Prison Planet.com. He is the author of Order Out Of Chaos. Watson is also a regular fill-in host for The Alex Jones Show and Infowars Nightly News.


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the government hypocrites strike again. create an ''advocate'' to moderate an abusive regime THEY created in the first place. get rid of it all together not moderate it!! folks who fly today WANT to be abused. they are not ignorant about what is coming to them and they walk down the tsa lanes like cattle in feed lot. they are getting what they asked for. C'mon folks lighten up.

We all know those TSA perverts are not-a-little-slow in the gray matter. The victim should be grateful they didn't dial the power all the way up and microwave her until she glowed in the dark. What can she expect trying to go thru screening with a "hot" body like that?

Wanna bet there's semen stains all over the security monitors and consoles? I got $50 bucks says so.....

TSA / Government Expansion of Scanning / Radiating Citizens

NEXT: Could Outspoken Americans, e.g. writers and Bloggers, Americans that defend the Constitution be deemed ?Belligerents? by U.S. Government?(repeatedly) stopped at Check-Points; searched, questioned, without probable cause or warrants?Indefinitely Detained?

TSA is establishing thousands of national Checkpoints at surface transportation locations. One can?t help recall the Nazi Military and Police established similar checkpoints?harassed, searched and delayed German travelers and repeatedly targeted persons deemed politically undesirable at roadway checkpoints, boarding and riding trains and bus stops: many targeted Citizens were intentionally delayed by Nazi authorities so they would be late or miss work; many lost their jobs.

Germans without probable cause were put on (Nazi Government do not hire lists). Could today?s outspoken Americans e.g. Bloggers that defend the Constitution later be deemed ?Belligerents? by U.S. Government?put on no hire lists; repeatedly stopped, searched and interrogated without probable cause; forced to submit to X-ray scans damaging their health?or Indefinitely Detained?

Had the Nazi Military / Police or Gestapo had X-ray scanners, no doubt the Nazis would have manufactured any reason or no reason to repeatedly x-ray at checkpoints, anywhere?persons the Reich deemed politically or socially undesirable, until either a targeted person was too ill to travel or dead.

One can only guess how much radiation is covertly transmitted into the bodies of Americans by U.S. Government and Police repeated scanning of private homes without warrants; Americans walking on the street; driving vehicles and ?Persons of Interests??potentially damaging their health.

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State Agent Replaces Preschooler*s "Unhealthy" Homemade Lunch With Cafeteria "Nuggets"

State agent inspects sack lunches, forces preschoolers to purchase cafeteria food instead
By Sara Burrows


RAEFORD ? A preschooler at West Hoke Elementary School ate three chicken nuggets for lunch Jan. 30 because a state employee told her the lunch her mother packed was not nutritious.

The girl?s turkey and cheese sandwich, banana, potato chips, and apple juice did not meet U.S. Department of Agriculture guidelines, according to the interpretation of the agent who was inspecting all lunch boxes in her More at Four classroom that day.

The Division of Child Development and Early Education at the Department of Health and Human Services requires all lunches served in pre-kindergarten programs ? including in-home day care centers ? to meet USDA guidelines. That means lunches must consist of one serving of meat, one serving of milk, one serving of grain, and two servings of fruit or vegetables, even if the lunches are brought from home.

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"the agent who was inspecting all lunch boxes"

So, there's also a LBA ?
I'd love to see their badge !
Or Jon Stewart explaining how THIS is not a little nazi power-grab ..

Besides, that sounds like a nice lunch box, wish my mom had made something like that for me .. I don't see how it doesn't comply with the Guidelines, bread is grain, cheese is milk, apple and banana are fruit/vegetables . Maybe turkey isn't meat or something ?
I'm pretty sure those McNuggets shouldn't qualify as 'meat' anywhere !

"We're the Lunch Box Agents and we're here to help."

Jeez...

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Sunday, February 26, 2012

'Crystal clear' evidence that MTA worker didn*t try to run down cop

Lawyer says video footage shows John Hockenjos was wrongly arrested by NYPD
BY OREN YANIV / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS


A police officer's claim that a Brooklyn man nearly ran him over is undercut by video footage that?s ?crystal clear? proof of a false arrest, a defense lawyer charged Friday.

MTA engineer John Hockenjos was collared and charged with a felony Sunday after Officer Diego Palacios claimed in a court document that the suspect's car almost smacked into him.

"Defendant did drive a four-door sedan at a high rate of speed into a driveway" causing the cop "to jump out of the way to avoid being hit by defendant's vehicle," according to the sworn criminal complaint.

But a night-vision surveillance camera that captured the incident - which happened at Hockenjos's Sheepshead Bay driveway - shows the car slowly pulls up near the officer, who does not move an inch.

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Afghan Heroin Production Up 61% in the Past Year Alone

By Michael Suede

The Daily Mail reports:

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon admitted today heroin production in Afghanistan has risen 61 per cent in the past year despite billions of pounds being spent by Britain and others to crack down on the Taliban.
I?m not sure why they are surprised by this. ?The entire point of invading Afghanistan was to turn the opium production back on because the major international banks require the black market reserve capital from the drug trade to keep their heads above water. ?In 2001, the Taliban had SUCCESSFULLY SHUT DOWN ALL OPIUM PRODUCTION IN AFGHANISTAN.

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Did Maine GOP Blatantly Cheat Ron Paul out of a Victory?

Yes.

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The issue isn't vote fixing. That's been going on for years. The issue is whethere the central bankers who control governments worldwide will allow their positions to be elected positions, voted on by the people, and without corporate or media interference.

Or are they in it because they have a love affair with power.

That is the question.

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Dawn of the Drones: The Realization of the Total Surveillance State

By John W. Whitehead

?To be governed is to be watched, inspected, spied upon, directed, law-driven, numbered, regulated, enrolled, indoctrinated, preached at, controlled, checked, estimated, valued, censured, commanded, by creatures who have neither the right nor the wisdom nor the virtue to do so. It is, under pretext of public utility, and in the name of the general interest, to be placed under contribution, drilled, fleeced, exploited, monopolized, extorted from, squeezed, hoaxed, robbed; then, at the slightest resistance, the first word of complaint, to be repressed, fined, vilified, harassed, hunted down, abused, clubbed, disarmed, bound, choked, imprisoned, judged, condemned, shot, deported, sacrificed, sold, betrayed; and to crown all, mocked, ridiculed, derided, outraged, dishonoured. That is government; that is it's justice; that is it's morality.? ? Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, 19th century French philosopher
Imagine a robot hovering overhead as you go about your day, driving to and from work, heading to the grocery store, or stopping by a friend?s house. The robot records your every movement with a surveillance camera and streams the information to a government command center. If you make a wrong move, or even appear to be doing something suspicious, the police will respond quickly and you?ll soon be under arrest. Even if you don?t do anything suspicious, the information of your whereabouts, including what stores and offices you visit, what political rallies you attend, and what people you meet will be recorded, saved and easily accessed at a later date. It is a frightening thought, but you don?t have to imagine this scenario. We are only a few years away from the realization of this total surveillance society.

Congress has just passed a bill, the FAA Reauthorization Act, mandating that the Federal Aviation Administration create a comprehensive program for the integration of drone technology into the national air space by 2015. The FAA predicts that there will be 30,000 drones crisscrossing the skies of America by 2020, all part of an industry that could be worth hundreds of millions of dollars per year. This mandate is yet another example of the political power of the military-industrial complex, Congress? disdain for the privacy of American citizens, and the rampant growth of government. With this single piece of legislation, Congress is opening the floodgates to an entirely new era of surveillance, one in which no person is safe from the prying eyes of the government. This may prove to be the final nail in the Fourth Amendment?s coffin.

Attempts to integrate drone technology into the national air space were underway long before Congress put its stamp of approval on the FAA Reauthorization Act. In fact, the FAA authorized 313 certificates for drone operation in 2011, 295 of which were still active at the end of the year, although the agency refuses to say which organizations received the certificates and for what purposes they were used. However, we do know that the FAA had already approved drones for use by the Department of Homeland Security, US Customs and Border Patrol (which uses the drones to conduct surveillance and counternarcotics missions), and certain state and local law enforcement operations. For example, in June 2011, a family of cattle farmers accused of stealing some cows were spied on with a Predator drone before being apprehended by police.

The fact that drones?pilotless, remote controlled aircraft that have been used extensively in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan to assassinate suspected terrorists, as well as innocent civilians?are coming home to roost (and fly) in domestic airspace should come as no surprise to those who have been paying attention. The US government has a history of commandeering military technology for use against Americans. We saw this happen with tear gas, tasers, sound cannons and assault vehicles, all of which were first used on the battlefield before being deployed against civilians at home.

Thus, while 83% of Americans approve of the use of drones abroad, and 65% approve of using drones to assassinate suspected terrorists abroad, even if they are American citizens, it remains to be seen how those same Americans will feel when they are the ones in the sights of the drones. Needless to say, they won?t have to wait too long to find out.

While there are undoubtedly legitimate uses for drone technology, such as locating missing persons, there is no legitimate reason for the government to collect a constant stream of information on the whereabouts of Americans. However, if this drone program is implemented in the way that Congress intends, we will have drones armed with ?less-lethal? weaponry, including bean bag guns and tasers, flying over political demonstrations, sporting events, and concert arenas. Eventually, these drones will be armed with the lethal weaponry that is currently being used overseas in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The power of these machines is not to be underestimated. Many are equipped with cameras that provide a live video feed, as well as heat sensors and radar. Some are capable of peering at figures from 20,000 feet up and 25 miles away. They can also keep track of 65 persons of interest at once. Some drones are capable of hijacking Wi-Fi networks and intercepting electronic communications such as text messages. The Army is currently developing drones with facial recognition software, as well as drones that can complete a target-and-kill mission without any human instruction or interaction. They are the ultimate killing and spying machines.

In addition to the privacy concerns, the safety of drone technology has been called into question. There have been a handful of high-profile crashes involving American drones abroad, including in Iran, the island nation of Seychelles, and most recently in Somalia. The Iranian government claimed they brought down the drone flying in their territory via a computer hack. This is two years after Iraqis were able to hack into the live feed of a few drones using ?$26 off-the-shelf software.? Mind you, back in October 2011, the US military admitted that their drone fleet had been infected by a ?mysterious virus.? The faultiness of the drone technology and the fact that amateur hackers can access the controls and camera feeds are reason enough to ground these devices indefinitely.

Unfortunately, with the wars abroad winding down, America has become the new battleground in the war on terror, to the delight and profit of the military-industrial complex. In fact, with companies like Boeing and Lockheed Martin making their influence felt among members of Congress (Boeing spent over $12 million lobbying in 2011, and Lockheed spent over $11 million), you can be sure that their technologies will continue to be purchased by the government, even when there is no need for them. Thus, in the same way that our domestic police forces are now armed with mini-tanks and grenade launchers taken from the military?s armory, it was simply a matter of time before drone technology made its way back home.

While most Americans are unaware of the electronic concentration camp which is slowly enveloping our society, a select few groups are working to push back against government control. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has filed a lawsuit against the FAA, demanding the records of the drone certificates which the FAA has issued to various agencies, but it is unlikely that the implementation of this technology can be stopped. Based upon the government?s positions on wiretapping, GPS tracking devices, and Internet tracking technologies, it is also unlikely that our elected officials will do anything to protect the American people from the prying eye of the American government.

We can sit around waiting for some member of Congress with a conscience or some judge concerned about the coming tyranny to push back against the drone empire from within. However, until the American people succeed in raising their collective voices against this technological tyranny, the powers that be will continue on the path to total control, and the condition of our civil liberties will become more dire with every passing day.
__
Constitutional attorney and author John W. Whitehead is founder and president of The Rutherford Institute. He is the author of The Change Manifesto (Sourcebooks).


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Next The Arrests: Your Future?
Most Americans haven?t awaken to the fact they are subject to an array of recently passed Fascist Laws including The National Defense Authorization Act and perhaps soon?the Enemy Expatriation Act that U.S. Government can unleash against the public. Congress gave U.S. Government the power to arrest and indefinitely detain Americans without probable cause or bringing charges. Detained U.S. Citizens now have no right to an attorney or trial or right to learn the charges against them?if any. If that isn?t Fascism what is?

Each day it is increasingly clear U.S. Government will in the future, use (vague) new Police State laws?to arrest and indefinitely detain lawful Americans that exercise 1st Amendment and other Constitutional Rights e.g. on mere suspicion of supporting or being involved in terrorism or being a belligerent?to shutdown public dissent. Soon there will be 30,000 drones in U.S. air space photographing Citizens? movements, recording what Americans say on the street, inside their home: facilitating the arrest of Americans on suspicion because of what someone said?and or forfeit their home and other assets under Patriot Act Section 806.

Americans appear powerless to Stop their government turning into a Police /Surveillance State. If U.S. Government Americans tomorrow there would be no Congressional Elections, what could they do? Without elections how could U.S. Citizens elect new representatives to change a ?Police State Government?? U.S. Government is now on the threshold of having surveillance cameras and drones most everywhere; and TSA Checkpoints in addition to airports?on highways, at bus and train stops and ports. Government intends to monitor without warrants?journalists, U.S. Citizens? emails, phone calls, Internet Activity, and faxes. Soon Americans won?t be able to arrange a 1st Amendment meeting, business or doctor?s appointment or other activity without government knowing about it in advance. It is foreseeable Americans under constant police / government surveillance may be afraid to attend peaceful protests and political meetings out of fear they might be arrested or lose their job, especially if they work for a government agency or contractor. That happened in Nazi Germany.

Considering the Fascist direction U.S. Government appears headed, it won?t be a surprise in the future to learn Americans have been arrested for posting an opinion or article on the Internet or verbally expressed an opinion against an entity of U.S. Government or coalition partner?arrested under the Patriot Act or Defense Authorization Act?or deemed by U.S. Government (someone likely to engage in, support or provoke violent acts or threaten National Security) to justify incarceration of American writers, publishers and ordinary Citizens.

Americans should ask who are the players behind getting passed the Patriot Act, The National Defense Authorization Act; that caused Introduction of the Enemy Expatriation Act and similar recently passed legislation that brought America to the edge of Fascism.

FBI Wasting No Time Building National Network of INFORMANTS

A New FBI Flyer is being distributed to U.S. merchants that says Paying For A Cup Of Coffee With Cash is potential terrorist activity and urges Coffee Chop Owners to report customers.

Ridiculous? Since the real estate crash, the ascendancy of the ?Lesser Depression? and near record unemployment, millions of Americans no longer have credit cards, bank accounts or debit cards to pay for their coffee and other inexpensive items. Are these millions of Americans to be considered potential terrorists according to the FBI because they paid cash for a cup of coffee or cheap store item? On the surface the new FBI merchant Flyer appears absurd: if one in 50 coffee shops reported a customer paying cash for a cup of coffee, an already under staffed FBI would be crushed responding to calls. The new FBI Flyer provided merchants fails as a propaganda vehicle because it is absurd to think in this economy small business owners are going to report customers paying cash for inexpensive items??as potential terrorists.? However looking below the surface, the FBI has done something "brilliant" here that even the East German Secret Stasi never thought of to develop an army of national informants. It took the Stasi two decades to build an army of neighborhood and other informants to spy for the communist government. The FBI flyers that ask merchants and businesses to inform, to report customers paying cash for something so small as a cup of coffee will (definitely attract Americans) that want to be government informants; the FBI won?t have to spend years like the Stasi Police coercing Citizens, shaking the bushes to find informants to build its U.S. network of American informants. The Stasi developed an army of several hundred thousand informants; neighbors spying on neighbors, workers reporting workers. It got to the point East German married couples were afraid to discuss things inside their home and would leave the house to talk. Is this the direction America is headed?

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View the original article here

Amerika: Land of The Snitch [Comedy Sketch by AJ]

Alex Jones does an hilarious parody sketch mocking the FBI memos saying people who pay with cash and care about privacy are terrorists.

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Saturday, February 25, 2012

Seattle Police Vindictively Take Dash-Cam Video Of Man's Traffic Infraction & Show It To Man's Boss

Chris | InformationLiberation

When a Seattle attorney recently made a public records request for two dash-cam videos which involved clients he was representing, the Seattle police astonishingly filed a lawsuit against him to prevent the dash-cam videos from being released.

Despite taking that stance, SPD officers in this case took dash-cam video of a man being harassed over a minor traffic infraction and showed the video to the man's boss in a vindictive attempt to get him fired.

KOMO News reports:

SEATTLE -- For the past year the KOMO 4 Problem Solvers have uncovered case after case of questionable conduct by Seattle Police Officers caught on tape. Now we've found a chilling case that started as a simple traffic stop that could happen to any one of us. Only this time the dash cam video of the incident was shown to a man's boss, jeopardizing his very livelihood.

Most people who know Keiwuan Miller see him as either the assistant high school basketball coach or as a security officer at a local public high school. But on an April day in 2010, drivers could have seen him along the side of a city street, stopped by Seattle police for allegedly not wearing his seat belt.

Miller, who has absolutely no criminal history, says he's been stopped by police time and time again simply because of the color of his skin. And every time he's stopped, "it brings back the first time, the second time, when I was a teenager, when I was 22, It brings all those times back."

Read their full story here.

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Where are all those Second Amendment-fanatics, supposed to protect you from tyranny ? If you have nothing to hide and don't do anything wrong, you have nothing to worry about. Just do what you are told when an officer asks you to do something. She wanted him to lose his job. He wasn't out of control and I can understand the frustration of being stopped for a revenue-generating stupid seatbelt ticket. Nothing has done more to erode respect for the police than their role as basically another taxing agency. If their role is to further impoverish Americans than let some of them go and keep just enough for the purpose of protecting the public. Better yet have them arrest the crooked politicians. LOL @ 67171... from experience, I can assure you that even if you comply and remain polite, you can't be sure that there are reasons to worry! "Under common law, I do not consent and I waive the benefits. Officer, am I free to go?"

...Wait 10 seconds...

"Officer, am I free to go?"

...Wait 10 seconds...

"Officer, if you do no answer in the negative, I will assume I am free to go. Am I free to go, officer?"

When you speak like that to an officer you treat them as a peace officer and you as a citizen. Never answer their questions. Two sentences in and you've verbally contracted to "understand" them, or, more clearly put "stand under their authority". When that happens you become a corporate citizen and they are the agent of the United States Federal Corporation and the subcorps, the states.

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Canadian minister accuses surveillance bill's opponents of siding with child pornographers

The Canadian Press

OTTAWA?The government says anyone who opposes federal plans to make electronic surveillance easier for police and spies is siding with child pornographers.

It?s the first salvo in a battle that will resume Tuesday when the government reintroduces legislation that would expand online monitoring powers.

The issue pits the desire of intelligence and law-enforcement officials to have easier access to information about Internet users against the individual?s right to privacy.

Asked Monday in the House of Commons about the coming bill, Public Safety Minister Vic Toews told a Liberal MP he could either stand with the government or ?with the child pornographers? prowling online.

Read More


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EXPECT MORE GOVERNMENT / POLICE CORRUPTION WITH NO-WARRANT SEARCHES

Note: Canada will have the same loss of electronic privacy and civil liberties that the Obama Government recently proposed?below. Canada has signed with the U.S. reciprocal asset forfeiture sharing agreements that allow the U.S. and Canadian Police to seize assets from Canadian Citizens based on a Canadian?s electronic communications. But now Canadian police want the power to search Canadian?s electronic communications without a warrants.

The U.S. Government wants the power without a warrant, to introduce as evidence in criminal prosecutions and government civil trials, any phone call record, email or Internet activity. That would open the door for Police to take out of context, any innocent?hastily written email, fax or phone call record to allege a crime or violation was committed to cause a person?s arrest, fines and or civil asset forfeiture of their property. There are more than 350 laws and violations that can subject property to government asset forfeiture. Government civil asset forfeiture requires only a civil preponderance of evidence for police to forfeit property, little more than hearsay.

If the Justice Department has its way, any information the FBI derives from circumventing the Fourth Amendment, i.e. (no warrant searches) of Web Server Records; a Citizen?s Internet Activity, personal emails; fax / phone calls may be used by the FBI for (fishing expeditions; to issue subpoenas in hopes of finding evidence or to prosecute Citizens for any alleged crime or violation. Consider that neither Congress nor the courts?determined what Bush II NSA electronic surveillance, perhaps illegal could be used by police or introduced into court by government to prosecute Americans criminally or civilly. If U.S. Justice Department is permitted (No-Warrant) surveillance of all electronic communications, it is problematic state and local law enforcement agencies and private government contractors will want access to prior Bush II /NSA and other government illegally obtained electronic records not limited to Americans? Internet activity; private emails, faxes and phone calls to secure evidence to arrest Americans, assess fines and or civilly forfeit their homes, businesses and other assets under Title 18USC and other laws. Of obvious concern, what happens to fair justice in America if police become dependent on ?Asset Forfeiture? to help pay their salaries and budget operating costs?

The ?Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform Act of 2000? (effectively eliminated) the ?five year statue of limitations? for Government Civil Asset Forfeiture: the statute now runs five years (from the date) police allege they ?learned? an asset became subject to forfeiture. It is foreseeable should (no warrant) government electronic surveillance be approved; police will relentlessly sift through Citizen and businesses? (government retained Internet data), emails and phone communications to discover possible crimes or civil violations. A corrupt despot U.S. Government too easily can use no-warrant-(seized emails, Internet data and phone call information) to blackmail Americans, corporations and others in the same manner Hitler utilized his police state passed laws to extort support for the Nazi fascist government, including getting parliament to pass Hitler?s 1933 Discriminatory Decrees that suspended the Constitutional Freedoms of German Citizens. A Nazi Government threat of ?Property Seizure? Asset Forfeiture of an individual or corporation?s assets was usually sufficient to ensure Nazi support.

Under U.S. federal civil forfeiture laws, a person or business need not be charged with a crime for government to forfeit their property. Most U.S. Citizens, property and business owners that defend their assets against Government Civil Asset Forfeiture claim an ?innocent owner defense.? This defense can become a ?Catch 22? a criminal prosecution trap for both guilty and innocent property owners. Any fresh denial of guilt made to government when questioned about committing a crime ?even when you did not do the crime? may (involuntarily waive) a defendant?s right to assert in their defense?the ?Criminal Statute of Limitations? past for prosecution; any fresh denial of guilt even 30 years after a crime was committed may allow Government prosecutors to use old and new evidence, including information discovered during a Civil Asset Forfeiture Proceeding to launch a criminal prosecution. For that reason many innocent Americans, property and business owners are reluctant to defend their property and businesses against Government Civil Asset Forfeiture.

Re: waiving Criminal Statute of Limitations: see USC18, Sec.1001, James Brogan V. United States. N0.96-1579. U.S. See paragraph (6) at:
http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/96-1579.ZC1.html

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Flying the Fascist Skies

By Anthony Gregory

Boy, I miss the days when the future depicted in Terminator appeared ridiculously dystopian. The Washington Times reports:

The legislation would order the?FAA, before the end of the year, to expedite the process through which it authorizes the use of drones by federal, state and local police and other agencies. The?FAA?currently issues certificates, which can cover multiple flights by more than one aircraft in a particular area, on a case-by-case basis.
Drones have been used as surveillance but also as killing devices, particularly in Afghanistan and Pakistan, in the war on terrorism. Hundreds, almost surely, have been snuffed out by these machines, which kill reportedly kill far more civilians than targeted militants. Credible reports indicate that the CIA has a favorite practice of targeting rescuers who show up to help others hurt by these strikes. From the New York Times:
The report, by the?London-based Bureau of Investigative Journalism, found that at least 50 civilians had been killed in follow-up strikes after they rushed to help those hit by a drone-fired missile. The bureau counted more than 20 other civilians killed in strikes on funerals. The findings were published on the bureau's Web site and in The Sunday Times of London. . . .

The bureau counted 260 strikes by Predator and Reaper drones since President Obama took office, and it said that 282 to 535 civilians had been "credibly reported" killed in those attacks, including more than 60 children.
To be clear, I am not suggesting that American politicians and law enforcers will soon be blowing up Americans on American soil with these drones. But we can nevertheless draw some troubling conclusions:

1) High officials of the US government see nothing wrong with having drones fly over the nation spying on the people--and surely no relevant implications for the Fourth Amendment or American liberty.

2) High officials do not foresee any massive public relations fallout from unleashing such surveillance drones when the very government they work for has killed many civilians in its drone warfare abroad.

3) High officials are likely correct about the latter, as the public appears relatively accustomed to significant assaults on their privacy, particularly since 9/11, and seem to trust the government to wage war at home and abroad. Significant precedents in detention policy, spying without warrants, and targeting individuals at home and abroad for torture, imprisonment, and even executive killing--including even American citizens--have been set in the last decade, precedents that in some cases would have appeared completely paranoid to predict even thirty years ago in the twilight of the Cold War.

4) Neither political party is led by or represents Americans strongly opposed to either civilian-killing drones flying over other countries, or domestic surveillance drones.

5) The tolerance the American people have toward various government measures that would have likely been regarded as obscene and totalitarian only a few years ago appears to have grown.

6) Domestic law enforcement has taken on an increasingly militaristic flavor in recent decades, thanks to the wars on drugs, crime, and terrorism. SWAT teams used to be unusual and now occur dozens of times a day.?Nearly every city and town has a police force associated with the federal government and employing increasingly formidable military hardware and tactics in its enforcement of the law.

7) While it might be hard to imagine Americans tolerating drones being used to target and even kill suspects on American soil in the next year or so, it no longer seems crazy to expect such practices would be tolerated, even cheered, within a generation, given the steady decline in American concern for civil liberties and the frightening trajectory of domestic law enforcement and military policy.

8) It would indeed be preferable for most of us to live in a country where the latter point would sound completely absurd.

9) If we ever lived in such a country we do not now.

10) Americans by the tens of millions have to snap out of it, wake up and smell the not-so-slowly creeping fascism, or else we will all likely wake up to find ourselves in a country completely unrecognizable as being remotely free.


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Next The Arrests: Your Future?
Most Americans haven?t awaken to the fact they are subject to an array of recently passed Fascist Laws including The National Defense Authorization Act and perhaps soon?the Enemy Expatriation Act that U.S. Government can unleash against the public. Congress gave U.S. Government the power to arrest and indefinitely detain Americans without probable cause or bringing charges. Detained U.S. Citizens now have no right to an attorney or trial or right to learn the charges against them?if any. If that isn?t Fascism what is?

Each day it is increasingly clear U.S. Government will in the future, use (vague) new Police State laws?to arrest and indefinitely detain lawful Americans that exercise 1st Amendment and other Constitutional Rights e.g. on mere suspicion of supporting or being involved in terrorism or being a belligerent?to shutdown public dissent. Soon there will be 30,000 drones in U.S. air space photographing Citizens? movements, recording what Americans say on the street, inside their home: facilitating the arrest of Americans on suspicion because of what someone said?and or forfeit their home and other assets under Patriot Act Section 806.

Americans appear powerless to Stop their government turning into a Police /Surveillance State. If U.S. Government Americans tomorrow there would be no Congressional Elections, what could they do? Without elections how could U.S. Citizens elect new representatives to change a ?Police State Government?? U.S. Government is now on the threshold of having surveillance cameras and drones most everywhere; and TSA Checkpoints in addition to airports?on highways, at bus and train stops and ports. Government intends to monitor without warrants?journalists, U.S. Citizens? emails, phone calls, Internet Activity, and faxes. Soon Americans won?t be able to arrange a 1st Amendment meeting, business or doctor?s appointment or other activity without government knowing about it in advance. It is foreseeable Americans under constant police / government surveillance may be afraid to attend peaceful protests and political meetings out of fear they might be arrested or lose their job, especially if they work for a government agency or contractor. That happened in Nazi Germany.

Considering the Fascist direction U.S. Government appears headed, it won?t be a surprise in the future to learn Americans have been arrested for posting an opinion or article on the Internet or verbally expressed an opinion against an entity of U.S. Government or coalition partner?arrested under the Patriot Act or Defense Authorization Act?or deemed by U.S. Government (someone likely to engage in, support or provoke violent acts or threaten National Security) to justify incarceration of American writers, publishers and ordinary Citizens.

Americans should ask who are the players behind getting passed the Patriot Act, The National Defense Authorization Act; that caused Introduction of the Enemy Expatriation Act and similar recently passed legislation that brought America to the edge of Fascism.

FBI Wasting No Time Building National Network of INFORMANTS

A New FBI Flyer is being distributed to U.S. merchants that says Paying For A Cup Of Coffee With Cash is potential terrorist activity and urges Coffee Chop Owners to report customers.

Ridiculous? Since the real estate crash, the ascendancy of the ?Lesser Depression? and near record unemployment, millions of Americans no longer have credit cards, bank accounts or debit cards to pay for their coffee and other inexpensive items. Are these millions of Americans to be considered potential terrorists according to the FBI because they paid cash for a cup of coffee or cheap store item? On the surface the new FBI merchant Flyer appears absurd: if one in 50 coffee shops reported a customer paying cash for a cup of coffee, an already under staffed FBI would be crushed responding to calls. The new FBI Flyer provided merchants fails as a propaganda vehicle because it is absurd to think in this economy small business owners are going to report customers paying cash for inexpensive items??as potential terrorists.? However looking below the surface, the FBI has done something "brilliant" here that even the East German Secret Stasi never thought of to develop an army of national informants. It took the Stasi two decades to build an army of neighborhood and other informants to spy for the communist government. The FBI flyers that ask merchants and businesses to inform, to report customers paying cash for something so small as a cup of coffee will (definitely attract Americans) that want to be government informants; the FBI won?t have to spend years like the Stasi Police coercing Citizens, shaking the bushes to find informants to build its U.S. network of American informants. The Stasi developed an army of several hundred thousand informants; neighbors spying on neighbors, workers reporting workers. It got to the point East German married couples were afraid to discuss things inside their home and would leave the house to talk. Is this the direction America is headed?

This site contains copyrighted material the use of which in some cases has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Such material is made available for the purposes of news reporting, education, research, comment, and criticism, which constitutes a 'fair use' of such copyrighted material in accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. It is our policy to respond to notices of alleged infringement that comply with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (found at the U.S. Copyright Office) and other applicable intellectual property laws. It is our policy to remove material from public view that we believe in good faith to be copyrighted material that has been illegally copied and distributed by any of our members or users.
About Us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy
"Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened..." - Winston Churchill


View the original article here

Caught On Tape: Officer Threatens to Make Up Evidence After Arrest of Innocent Men

By Tracy Vedder

SEATTLE -- A Seattle police officer has been caught on tape talking about "making up" evidence while two wrongly arrested men sit in jail. It's the latest shocker uncovered by a KOMO 4 Problem Solver investigation into the Seattle Police Department's vanishing dashcam videos.

Josh Lawson and Christopher Franklin filed a claim against the city Monday for excessive force and wrongful arrest.

The two were arrested at gunpoint on November 16, 2010 and said the incident changed their lives forever.

"I thought I was gonna die," Lawson said about that night.

Franklin said it was "the most terrifying thing I've ever experienced."

Both men said they suffered facial bruises and swelling after one was kicked and the other man-handled into the pavement while being arrested. But then listen to what an officer says on an audio recording after he takes the two to holding cells: "Well, you're going to jail for robbery that's all."

You then hear Franklin ask, "for robbery?" And the officer responds, "Yeah, I'm gonna make stuff up."

Franklin believed him.

"He showed me that he has the power to do whatever he wanted that night," he said. "He has a badge, and all we can do is nothing."

Read More


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The officer should have been fired, no just reprimanded. They were exonerated, meaning they did nothing wrong. The Sargent also needs to be fired. They are CLEARLY NOT PUBLIC SERVANTS any longer!!!! Fear fear fear. Obey obey obey.

This site contains copyrighted material the use of which in some cases has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Such material is made available for the purposes of news reporting, education, research, comment, and criticism, which constitutes a 'fair use' of such copyrighted material in accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. It is our policy to respond to notices of alleged infringement that comply with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (found at the U.S. Copyright Office) and other applicable intellectual property laws. It is our policy to remove material from public view that we believe in good faith to be copyrighted material that has been illegally copied and distributed by any of our members or users.
About Us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy
"Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened..." - Winston Churchill


View the original article here

Degenerates Rule America

by Scott Lazarowitz

We now live in extraordinarily dangerous times in America. A majority of primary voters support three out of the four remaining Republican candidates for President who believe that the U.S. government may commit acts of aggression and start wars against foreign peoples who were of no threat to us, and who want to use the power of government and police to impose various social views onto others. Only Ron Paul wants to legalize freedom in America, and wants to end our government's aggressions abroad.

In a recent article on LewRockwell.com, human rights advocate William Grigg highlighted an Iraq War veteran who can't comprehend that people in foreign countries don't like invaders and occupiers on their lands, and why they try to defend themselves, their families and their territories from the U.S. military aggressors.

This veteran is like most Americans, apparently, who believe in American "exceptionalism," in which our government may commit aggressions and trespass on foreign territories, including placing its military bases there despite the objections of the actual people living there, but foreign governments may not trespass on American lands.

For a century the ruling regime in Washington has abandoned the rule of law, and has acted aggressively overseas and provoked foreigners and murdered countless innocents. They have gotten away with their crimes via rationalization and manipulative, emotionalistic propaganda. Currently, Washington's degenerate rulers are claiming, falsely, that Iran is a "threat," despite Iran being surrounded on all sides.

But Americans have naively believed the propaganda, as they did with Iraq.

The professional career politicians and bureaucrats have thus been making Americans less safe and more vulnerable because of the blowback of their government's own aggressions.

Such a narcissistic attitude of the aforementioned exceptionalist-minded veteran is contrary to the American Declaration of Independence. The Declaration asserts "that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

By "men," the Declaration is really referring to all of humankind, and that all human beings are created equal, and have an inherent right as human beings to life, liberty and the right to sustain and protect their lives.

I think the narcissistic exceptionalists want to suggest that only Americans have a right to life and liberty, but not foreigners. Many people are just incapable of seeing a situation from the point of view of those outside their own personal territories. Believe it or not, the millions of people of Iraq and Afghanistan -- the civilians who are just trying to live their lives and who have nothing to do with terrorism -- see our government as an invading aggressor (which it is) and for the past ten years they have been trying to defend their lives, families, homes, businesses and sovereignty.

A comparison regarding the self-centered exceptionalists can be made with an entirely unrelated subject, the same-sex marriage issue, which has been in the news again. It is hypocritical of the Republicans and conservatives to object to President Obama's forbidding private institutions from opting out of the birth control/abortion mandate, while those same opponents support governmental forbiddances of private marital contracts to occur.

Now, if you believe that you own your own life (as opposed to your neighbors? or the State owning your life), and that you have a right to establish voluntary contracts with anyone else who is also doing so voluntarily, then you have a right to have a marital contract with whomever you want, as long as it's voluntary, and it's nobody else's business.

If it's none of your neighbors' business, then it's none of the government's business, I like to say.

But if you believe that the State owns you or that your neighbors own you, then you agree with regressive neanderthals that the neighbors and/or the State should have the power to control your private contract-making decisions, and your private relationships and associations. And thus they should dictate to you whom you may or may not marry.

Selfish collectivists and communitarian reactionaries believe in the latter example of collective/State ownership of the individual and one's private relationships and contracts.

And the same goes for the exceptionalists who believe that they have a right to seize ownership of the lives and property of innocent human beings in Iraq or Iran who have harmed no one. Selfish, narcissistic exceptionalists believe that they have a right to break into the private homes and businesses of foreigners, search and ransack them, and assault, beat, torture and murder their people and get away with it.

That is the primitivism to which America has sunk over the past century, thanks to criminal politicians from Wilson and FDR to Bush and Obama, and the dumbed-down, submissive, gullible and subservient sheeple who support them.

America is characterized now by a severe moral decay and massive, widespread corruption, from banksters and foreclosure fraudsters, to drug-warrior police Nazis on the take, college and high school students and teachers in widespread cheating scandals, FDA and Big Pharma corruption, and TSA perverts and child molesters.

And now, Obama has encouraged local police departments to hire Iraq and Afghanistan War veterans to continue the growing militarization of the police. (It is reassuring that many police departments are only hiring those of lower intelligence levels!) They need their degenerate neanderthal S.W.A.T raids to further terrorize, assault and murder innocent civilians, in order to enforce laws by the nanny State which dictate to private individuals what chemicals they may or may not consume into their own bodies (which the State owns, of course).

And thank goodness Obama has signed into law the National Defense Authorization Act that now includes giving the military (and probably any armed agent of government, including local police) the power to arrest and detain indefinitely any civilian American for any reason according to what the President says, without charges, without evidence brought forward against the accused. (I feel safer now.)

It looks like Dick Cheney and Barack Obama have taken some lessons from the new Sharia-ruling Iraqi regime, as well as the repressive Iranian government, on how to treat their own people. But make sure everyone marries only those the government permits you to marry, and make sure that everyone must support and pay for someone else's abortion.

Degenerates rule America. (Is there any way to correct this situation?)


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Justice Department Wants $5 Million To Bolster Its Efforts As Hollywood's Private Police Force

by Mike Masnick

While the proposed Obama 2013 budget for the federal government is supposed to be about cutting extraneous expenditures, one area where it's seeking more money is to expand the Justice Department's copyright enforcement efforts. You see, this is what happens when you hand the Justice Department over to the RIAA and MPAA. DOJ is seeking an extra $5 million to focus on these kinds of efforts, to hire 14 new employees, including nine lawyers, claiming that it's "had an increase in the number of cases that we're dealing with in IP." Oh really? You mean like the case of Dajaz1? The site that the DOJ illegally held and censored for over a year? Perhaps if they had a few more lawyers on staff, someone would have taken the time to realize that they were supposed to give the domain back within a specified time frame. Or perhaps they could have used those people to realize that the site was posting music sent by the copyright holders. Of course, that's not what would happen. Instead, they'd just focus on seizing more sites and creating more collateral damage. The real question, of course, should be why are we allowing the government to be Hollywood's private police force?

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Friday, February 24, 2012

Keynesians Jump The Gun on Inflation

by Peter Schiff

Advocates of government stimulus are running victory laps on recent developments that appear to vindicate their strategy. In particular, Paul Krugman compares the sluggish growth in Europe to the somewhat-less-sluggish growth in the US to prove that stimulus was more effective than austerity. Other economists are using government inflation measures to defend Fed Chairman Bernanke's easy-money policy. The only problem is, they're calling the race before the finish line is even in sight.

As usual, Paul Krugman overlooks basic economics (which, despite his Nobel Prize, is a science about which Mr. Krugman really knows very little). The reason stimulus is so politically popular is that it appears to work in the short-term. However, appearances can often be deceiving, as they are right now in the US. Stimulus merely numbs the pain of economic contraction, as the underlying trauma gets worse. Austerity might slow an economy down, but at least the wounds are able to heal. America has chosen the former and Europe the latter, albeit not quite as large a dose as needed. The fact that in the short-run Europe is suffering more than the US does not vindicate Washington's approach. On the contrary, this is exactly what is to be expected.

What we're seeing is like a race where each runner has a broken ankle. One has a coach who tells him to pace himself and not worry so much about winning this one, while the other coach gives his runner a shot of painkillers and tells him to give it all he's got. Of course, early in the race, the doped-up runner is going to be flying down the track like nothing's wrong, while the other runner might be limping at half his normal speed. However, when the drugs wear off, the sprinter is liable to collapse from pain, leaving the better-coached runner to limp across the finish line.

The true test is not the immediate effects of stimulus or austerity, but the long-term results. For that reason, Krugman?s conclusions are meaningless. The apparent success of stimulus simply results from spending more borrowed money on government programs and consumption. But don't we all agree now that this is exactly what caused the financial crisis in the first place?

As far as inflation is concerned, a vindication of Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is equally premature. First of all, it?s not that Quantitative Easing will lead to inflation; it?s that QE is inflation. Secondly, there is a lag between QE and rising consumer prices, so the jury is still out as to how high consumer prices will ultimately rise as a result of current and past Fed policy mistakes.

But even more fundamentally, it is absurd to look solely at government price measures, which are built to understate inflation, and conclude that QE has not already produced an elevated cost-of-living. For example, the 2.4% rise in the Personal Consumption Expenditure (PCE) Index in 2011 is more of an indictment of the accuracy of the index than a vindication of Bernanke. In fact, of all the ways the government purports to measure inflation, the PCE is perhaps the most meaningless, as it relies on built-in mechanisms like goods substitution to hide a lower standard of living. As an example of how this works, imagine you are used to eating farm-fresh butter but have to switch to cheaper but also less-healthy margarine from a factory; the PCE would say you are no worse off. That's exactly why the Fed chooses to use this uncommon metric.

Mark Gertler, an economics professor at New York University, argues that even the Consumer Price Index, which rose at a more vigorous 3.2% in 2011, proves Bernanke?s critics wrong. According to Gertler, the CPI has risen at an average annual rate of 2.4% thus far under Bernanke?s tenure, significantly less than the 3.1% average under Alan Greenspan, and the 6.3% under Paul Volcker. However, Gertler overlooks two key points. First, the methodology used to calculate the CPI was much different during the Volcker era. If we still calculated the CPI the way we did then, the numbers would be much higher for both Greenspan and Bernanke. Second, given the huge economic contraction that has taken place under Bernanke, consumer prices should have fallen ? significantly. The fact that they rose anyway indicates tremendous inflation.

Of course, the Fed?s ability to stimulate the economy with inflation only works as long as bondholders remain ignorant of its plan. For now, the seemingly hopeful news reports are giving the Fed cover to keep stimulating. As long as the market remains convinced there is no inflation, the Fed can continue to create it. However, once the effects are so pronounced that even the PCE can no longer hide them, the Fed will be in a real bind.

Think of our two runners again. Even after the race is over, the fellow who chose to dope up likely injured himself even further. He might have even ended his career. So, the early dash and the cheer of the crowd in that one race was clearly not worth the many years of misery he would incur in the future.

Regardless of what the triumphant Keynesians would have you believe, my analysis continues to be that the current combination of monetary and fiscal stimulus is driving us toward disaster. Instead of a real recovery, the US will experience an inflationary depression. Europe, on the other hand, will suffer much less, precisely because it was not seduced by the short-term appeal of stimulus.
__
Peter Schiff is president of Euro Pacific Capital and author of The Little Book of Bull Moves in Bear Markets and Crash Proof: How to Profit from the Coming Economic Collapse. His latest book is How an Economy Grows and Why It Crashes.


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Fed Should Heed Lessons of 1920 Recession Response, Grant Says

By Cordell Eddings and Tom Keene

The U.S. has been ?overmedicated? by public policy and should consider the government?s 1920?s response to recession, said James Grant, editor of Grant?s Interest Rate Observer.

Responding to a severe economic downturn from 1920 to 1921, the Federal Reserve increased interest rates and the national budget was balanced, moves that kept the painful recession short, New York-based Grant said. In contrast, he said U.S. policy makers are prolonging the pain of the so-called Great Recession by intervening in markets and running unprecedented federal budget deficits.

?The Fed is not content to let interest rates find their levels, they must repress them, and they are not content to let housing prices find their levels, they seek to intervene to prop them up,? Grant said in a radio interview on ?Bloomberg Surveillance? with Ken Prewitt and Tom Keene. ?The results of all this intervention is not to cure what ails us, but prolongs the symptoms of what distresses us.?

In January, the Fed extended its pledge to keep the target rate for overnight loan between banks near zero, as more than two years of economic growth have failed to push unemployment below 8.3 percent.

?Economic conditions -- including low rates of resource utilization and a subdued outlook for inflation over the medium run -- are likely to warrant exceptionally low levels for the federal funds rate at least through late 2014,? the Federal Open Market Committee said in a statement on Jan. 25.

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No One Should Be Forced to Act Against His Conscience

by Sheldon Richman

A question arises from the recent controversy between President Obama and the Catholic Church that aches for an answer: If Catholic institutions have a right to abstain from paying for what morally offends them, why don?t the rest of us?

The initial Obamacare rule held that all employers, in fulfilling their new legal requirement to provide health insurance to their employees, must include contraception (and other ?preventive? health services) in the coverage at no cost. The Catholic Church teaches that contraception is sinful. The Department of Health and Human services was willing to exempt churches but not church-operated institutions that pursue a broader mission than religious teaching, such as colleges, hospitals, and charities. This brought protests from Catholic officials, who claim that their religious freedom would be infringed by a mandate that they buy services that they teach are morally abhorrent.

As the political controversy mounted, the Obama administration devised an ?accommodation?: those institutions would not have to pay for birth-control coverage; however, their insurers would still have to offer free contraception.

Many objections can be raised against this policy. In a society that thinks itself free, how dare the government force employers to provide health insurance? How dare it mandate that coverage include contraception ? or any particular service? How dare it mandate that any coverage be free? (It can?t really be free; the coverage necessarily reduces employees? cash wages.) How can contraception use be insurable when it is a chosen act, not the kind of low-probability, high-cost event that insurance was designed to protect against? Is there really a moral difference between forcing a Catholic institution to pay for employee contraception and forcing it to arrange a match between its employees and an insurer that will provide the contraception?

These questions are daggers at the heart of Obamacare. But let?s leave them aside. What has gone largely unnoticed is that the principle invoked by the Catholic Church and largely endorsed by the public ? that freedom of religion, as enshrined in the U.S. Constitution?s First Amendment, rules out forcing a church to pay for what it regards as morally abhorrent ? applies beyond this instance. If a Catholic institution should not be forced to pay for contraception because it regards birth control as morally repugnant, why should anyone be forced to pay for what he or she finds morally repugnant?

It does no good to say that the First Amendment is about religion. The Constitution and Bill of Rights did not create rights; they acknowledged preexisting rights. Moreover, we are entitled to make reasonable inferences from the framers? language, because they could hardly have created an exhaustive list of implications. For example, by specifying the free exercise of religion, the framers can?t be construed as intending to exclude atheists from the protection of freedom of conscience.

Logic drives us to conclude that government should never compel anyone to act against his or her moral convictions. The good sense of this becomes clear when we get down to particulars. If a Catholic may not be forced to pay for birth control in violation of conscience, why should that Catholic ? or anyone else ? be compelled to finance mass murder in violation of conscience? No one can reasonably insist that personal convictions should be disregarded in the case of mass murder.

This is no hypothetical speculation. Americans have been forced, without their consultation ? much less permission ? to finance mass murder. It?s called war, invasion, occupation, and special operations. U.S. military missions in Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia, and elsewhere have directly or indirectly killed over a million people who never threatened Americans at home. Those missions have ruined the lives of hundreds of thousands more through injury and the destruction of their homes and societies.

The president of the United States refuses to take war with Iran off ?the table? ostensibly because the Islamic republic won?t end its nuclear-enrichment program ? although the International Atomic Energy Agency says no weapons are being produced, and U.S. and Israeli officials say no decision to build a weapon has been made. War against Iran would constitute mass murder.

The U.S. government should be stopped from engaging in such brutality. But short of that, those with a conscientious objection should be free to opt out of financing these crimes.
_
Sheldon Richman is senior fellow at The Future of Freedom Foundation in Fairfax, Va., author of Tethered Citizens: Time to Repeal the Welfare State, and editor of The Freeman magazine. Visit his blog Free Association at www.sheldonrichman.com. Send him email.


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So, The Catholic Church is against health-care for everybody because it would 'force' them to pay to something that they find 'morally abhorrent' ?

We ARE talking about the same Catholic Church that has payed HUNDREDS of millions in 'compensation' to the victims of their Gay-paedophile-Priests, right ??

I'll say it again : Fundamentalist Libertarians are exactly as blind and dangerous as Fundamentalist Socialists, Commies, nazies, fascists,
Flat-Earthers and what not ..
Ideology is for people who can't cope with reality !

The ACLU and others who scream "Separation of church and state!" seem to be MIA on this. What hypocrites. They don't want the church involved in the government's business, but don't mind if the government gets involved in the church's business. Hey--to force ANYONE to purchase health insurance--and at whatever cost the genocidal insurance companies want to charge, for health care that is also genocidal (just ask Michael Jackson, Whitney et al) IS MORALLY ABHORRENT JUST LIKE UNPROVOKED WARS TO BENEFIT THE SAME LIZARD BANKSTERS--i say we need some et's to come down and SHRINK these bankster lizards and their minions down to the size of 3-4 inches and set them loose in the garden to keep the bug population down---that way, they can stalk, f---k, eat, and kill their prey and at the same time be doing a public service for all...HOW'S THAT FOR A SOLUTION??? peace out--

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