Call your Representative to show your support for HR 1207. Call the switchboard at 1-877-851-6437, and tell the operator your 9 digit zip-code. Proposition 1207 will allow congress to audit the Federal Reserve. It's about time. Ron Paul will tell you all about it here. Watch the video. It is real simple.

With just a couple minutes of your time you can make sure your Represenative at least thinks about it. Ask them why the Federal Reserve shouldn't be audited if they do not support 1207. Thank them if they do.

Bush kept this country safe?

I’ve heard this a time or two and I have to ask when and how? Was it when he prevented the attacks of 9/11? Or was it that time he caught Osama Bin Laden? Or that time he prevented the floods in New Orleans? Ok, I do not blame him for New Orleans poor placement, and their inability to prepare for what they knew to prepare for, but he didn’t keep any of them safe. 

Now the biggest attack happens while Bush was president, and somehow he kept us safe? If you think about that for just a minute the light should come on. How did he keep us safe if the biggest attack happened while he was president? He didn’t prevent it. No one was kept safe. Here comes Cheney. Haven’t heard anything out of him nearly the whole time he was Vice President, and now we see him more than ever. He too is peddling this “kept us safe” line. Biggest attack happened while he was in office. Does he believe it actually never happened? Does he believe the Bush administration prevented it? Cheney can’t keep his friend safe on a hunting trip, but he and Bush kept the country safe.

Most of us are not trying to blow up major buildings, or gatherings. There is a mall, stadium or school near all of us. We could all wreak havoc if we wished, but we don’t and it is not because of any presidential administration. It’s because most of us are decent. Most of us work with the golden rule or karma or some understanding of themselves as connected at least to all people, if not all things.  However, it doesn’t serve political agendas to say relax most of you will be fine, and we couldn’t stop anything anyway.

Consider if a guy decides he wants to shoot someone, what could stop him? Well if he was not fully into it he might not “intend” his shooting very well. Maybe he only injures them, or he runs into the cops along the way, or he hesitates before shooting. The types of things that happen to people when they don’t “intend” what they want to happen. Or he really means it and he shoots someone. That’s it. Nothing to do with law enforcement or politicians can stop a person with a plan. If his plan is thought out he may get away with it. Nothing can be done after the person is shot to protect them. You can use the previous person having been shot as a means to scare people but you can’t really stop people from being shot. One can make decisions for themselves that keep them in situations they prefer (not hanging around murderers, not being in dark alleys, being polite, etc.). Anything that limits your ability to decide for yourself is contrary to your survival. Waiting for a third party to come along and protect you, does not protect you. Protection is an illusion. Pimps, Mobsters and our Government are selling it. Don’t buy it.

In September of ’08, Americans were told that we were in an economic crisis. We were also told that the only way to weather this economic crisis was to bail out the financial institutions that were likely to fail as a result. Then Treasury Secretary, Henry Merritt Paulson, who proposed the bailout, stated that this crisis was a result of “bad lending” and “bad borrowing” among other things.  I didn’t believe them at all. I had no proof of course, but they sure were in a hurry to pass the legislation, and they do not hurry for anything humanitarian, so it couldn’t be of any help to “We the People”. I also thought Bush looked quite guilty, like the money was already in his pocket and he was ready to run at any moment.

See if you can catch him trying to conceal his glee at 8:47 to 8:49, and watch his right eye at 9:20 to 9:22 http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4039014977037664357&ei=tJ8DSvedFY_UrQKt8JGECQ&q=Bush+on+bailout&hl=en&emb=1.

 There were a lot of people scared on command by what they were hearing. There were plenty of mouth pieces (mostly stockholders I imagine) agreeing with the Paulson plan. Another thought I remember having, as it was all happening, was if they were predicting economic catastrophe, where were these predictive abilities leading up to that point. Little did I know at the time, but Paulson did have the ability to predict this long before it happened. Can you guess why he didn’t say anything?

Henry Paulson completed his masters at Harvard Business in 1970 and then entered the Nixon administration as a Staff Assistant to the Assistant Secretary of Defense. In 1972, he worked as Office Assistant to John Ehrlichman, who resigned in 1973 prior to his conviction in 1975, for his involvement in the Watergate Scandal. Avoiding the Watergate fallout himself, in 1974, Paulson went to work for Goldman Sachs in Illinois. Rising (or lowering) through the ranks, in 1982 he became a partner, then in 1990, the Co-Head of Investment Banking. By 1994, he was their Chief Operating Officer until 1998, when he forced out Jon Corzine, only to take over as Goldman Sachs new CEO.  Paulson was early to realize much more profits would come as a result of betting with their own capital, rather than being the go between for others and carried on as such. Goldman Sachs, under the guidance of Paulson, was as active in sub-prime lending as their competitors until the summer of ’06. It was on May 30, 2006 that President Bush announced Paulson as his pick for Treasury Secretary and the Goldman Sachs gravy train kept going after he left.

Our government has had a long history of bringing in people from Goldman Sachs, especially into the Treasury Department. Goldman Sachs seems to be the one consistency through changing administrations. The Goldman Sachs infiltration of our government could be another article in itself and in fact some have already done this in these two articles:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/19/business/19gold.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0820-06.htm

 A very important thing to remember is that we didn’t vote for these people. They were appointed, and find their way in, regardless of the administration. Can you figure out how and why?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcI3aAMnwPk&feature=PlayList&p=EAB54F473B0585F7&index=1&playnext=2&playnext_from=PL (Paulson justifying bailing out of financial institutions)

When the bailout was proposed then rushed in during the last few months of the Bush Administration, Paulson told Bush he had no prior knowledge of the financial crisis. Paulson was also in close contact with Goldman Sachs employees in the Treasury, along with the Goldman Sachs alumni he turned to for managing the bailout. Interestingly enough, the group at Goldman Sachs had enough prior knowledge of the predicament to make $3 billion by short selling sub-prime debt. Short selling is when someone sells a financial instrument they do not have, at current market value, and then purchases it when the price drops. This works great if you anticipate a drop in the value of a financial instrument. Goldman Sachs did, in fact, anticipate such a drop in the value of sub-prime mortgages. Being the prudent financial institution, they set themselves up to get their $3 billion payday, thus benefiting from the collapse of sub-prime values that led to the housing crisis. Goldman Sachs knew enough to prepare for the inevitable catastrophe, even profiting from it. Paulson has an estimated net-worth of over $700 million, and he was the former CEO of Goldman Sachs. He knows his finances just like his buddies at Goldman Sachs. It may be possible that working for the government stupefies people, but he had only been the Treasury Secretary about 1 ½ years. Did he really lose that much intelligence? If so, when Paulson called his buddies from Goldman Sachs, could they even stand his company with him being a dummy? Or was this the plan the whole time?

While Paulson was treasury secretary he saw to the end of 3 Goldman Sachs rivals. He arranged the sale of Bear Stearns to JP Morgan Chase, allowed Lehman Brothers to crumble while bullying Bank of America into absorbing Merrill Lynch. Also in the months leading up to the bailout Paulson proposed using $70 billion to fix Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac’s insolvency, which is the inability to pay one’s debt (the vocabulary is always nicer when you are rich). After that proposal failed, Paulson arranged for the takeover of the companies at a cost of $200 billion (it would have been cheaper to let him run amuck the way he wanted the first time) while making the U.S. liable for hundreds of billions more in bad debt. He also organized the federal purchase of AIG for $85 billion.

Neel Kashkari, another Goldman Sachs alumni, was handed the reins of the bailout by Paulson after they scored $700 billion (Paulson and Bush break through defensive Congress then pass it too Kashkari for a touchdown. The crowd goes wild!! Actually, the crowd was clueless. They were busy working to pay off the debt).  An article in the Wall Street Journal reported a tape, available on YouTube, of the Treasury Department in a conference call telling around 800 Wall Street leaders that the stipulations being put on the bailout would not be enforceable. This was long before any feigned surprise from Capitol Hill on the issue of golden parachutes and bonuses. It seems that after the report from the Wall Street Journal, the YouTube video had been removed.

The Young Turks talk about the WSJ report…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QauoTWE5XzM&feature=PlayList&p=096A14F873322E6D&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=37)  

In doing this research, I found another article that mentioned the YouTube video being removed, but offered a link to another poorer quality of the video…

 http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2008/10/tape-blows-cover-on-true-treasury.html

 This was a great article on the subject but when I clicked on the link, it went to a YouTube page that said “this video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association” or SIFMA. You can at least see this on YouTube by clicking the link that says “Part 3” in the previous link. I wonder how they obtained the copyright to any information on our public officials. I bet there are quite a few citizens in prison who wish they could buy up the rights to their incriminating evidence.

I’m just your average under-informed citizen. If only I could see the light Bush and Paulson could see, I would know they were acting in our best interests and the rush on passing the legislation was the only thing that could be done. Wait, who is that I hear in the background? Why it must be former BB&T CEO, John Allison. BB&T was one of the banks to make a profit while other banks where collapsing.  Mr. Allison recommended purchasing foreclosed homes, rather than securities backed by foreclosed mortgages. That would have meant a purchase of assets, or reality, rather than a purchase of debt, or illusion.  Mr. Allison says the primary beneficiaries are Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. He also goes on to state that the Treasury Department is dominated by Wall Street investment bankers and that the discussion is being shaped by the same institutions that made the poor decisions in the first place. He also believes Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are the most responsible for this crisis. Well, maybe I’m not too far off then.  See everything he had to say here:

 http://www.fundmymutualfund.com/2008/09/bb-bbt-ceo-slams-bailout.html

I was striving to keep this article about the first bailout. Upon doing some research, I found that it gets so thick that the problem is not the individual issues we notice, like the lies with the first bailout. These individual causes are a result of a systemic problem. Going about fixing these things in their channels will never really fix anything. We need to abolish their channels.  Do something different.  It’s obvious that if there were any real merit to what they were doing on Capitol Hill they wouldn’t have rushed this legislation. They wouldn’t have increased the authority of an official who was never elected. But they did. To this day, the Treasury Department continues to lie and withhold information. How many times have you heard Timothy Geithner decline to comment on something he could have well commented on? Don’t forget how information on our government officials can be copyrighted then bought. If someone has another explanation for how this happened I’d love to hear it. SIFMA hasn’t emailed me back.

Housing values dropping is not a housing crisis. It a may be a financial crisis for individuals who had the idea that values could not drop, but where did they get that idea? If the value drops, then that is the new current value, easy right? The issue would have corrected itself, but people in control didn’t like the reality of it correcting itself. A lot of people did not like the idea their property was no longer a goldmine. The raised property values came at the expense of the lower income, and now the bailout comes at their expense as well. Imagine a lower income family trying to get one home with people buying multiple properties (to rent, or resale for profit). The inflated value would have made it quite hard for them but the Treasury Department never stepped in and said “Hey, all these people who don’t have homes can’t compete with people buying multiple properties, we are in a housing crisis” but doesn’t that sound more like a housing crisis? In comparison, this is a “Monopoly Crisis” but that would have been a harder sale. The approach was to help banks, of course, in a “Housing Crisis” who else but banks would you help?  It was not until it affected those with enough capital, that they considered anything a crisis, though people had been suffering long before the banks.

Now consider who is riding you as it is. Generations of controlling politicians and bankers have been living off your work rather comfortably for a long, long time. How much of your money goes to pay the debt of people who aren’t even alive to thank you for your troubles? So these same people put the pressure on you with these inflated housing values, and at the threat of a necessary correction in the values, they need to be bailed out by you. The same people who would have made you a bad loan for an overpriced house, or denied you credit for your own mismanagement of money, now need your help. But they don’t have to ask you, they just have to tug on our politicians strings and it all happens like it or not. I will say it again, there is no way to fix these problems in their system. We have politicians who are not elected, and the ones who are elected were bought by someone who was able to buy power over you. If you’re not infuriated it’s because you are asleep. You should wake up.

Look at the fields, buildings, stores and streets around you. Are people still wearing clothes? Are meats, and vegetables, still produced and available? All over the world in fact there is not one animal that consumes money (if there is some funny mite that does in fact eat money, then good), nor do plants to my knowledge grow out of money or grow by consuming it. No, I believe everything can grow toward the sun just fine without your green paper.  All over the world people are suffering but the chickens have been raised! The plants have been harvested! So how is anyone suffering? The food is right there! I see it. You see it. For some people there comes this time when it seems they can’t have it, but it is right there! If the store was locally run, and we did in fact trade real things for other real things, anyone in the community could trade their skill, connections, or service for anything the store sold. Unfortunately your local grocery store is owned by a man who lives states away. You can’t do him any favors. This is not about the out of state grocer who is taking care of his family, and legacy. It’s about the system that made that the way we do things. This system that has no direct connection to foods, structures, and clothing is causing suffering all over the world.

Some have a term they use, “Money Illusion,” referring to the tendency to think of money in terms of its numerical value (how many and what numbers are on my ATM receipt), rather than its real value (how many chickens it can buy). If “Money Illusion” is the consideration of numbers over value what is money but paper with a number on it? Furthermore, what is really happening when money is transferred from one account to another?  It’s just numbers going up and down. Now you can’t just write numbers down and show the clerk (she smiles and giggles “oh that’s a big number you’ve written”). You have to bring in your green air deeds. But when the account shows the money is available, the money never made it to that bank. The numbers just went up and someone can now come withdraw from that account, but nothing except “Money Illusion” happened. The real value is the chicken. Not the money that buys it. This is why all money is an illusion. Food is not. We are letting many illusions control our reality, and if money isn’t the most damaging illusion it is a contender.

Most of us, who are sapped by the governments assumed authority to collect taxes, were born in debt. They keep collecting and they still can’t keep from going more and more in debt? Having most of the world born servants is a brilliant way to reintroduce slavery. They still have the nerve to call this the land of the free. If you think this is a free country try leaving without a passport. You start to look more and more like property.

In short, people all over the world are suffering from an illusion. We are no more involved in this than what we agree to. We can end it now.  

Thank you.

    On April 1,2009 President Obama approved raising the taxes on a pack of cigarettes from $.39 to $1.01. Claiming the tax increase will be used to pay for children’s healthcare.

"Let's give America's families the support they need to weather this crisis," says Obama.

Almost as if the extra dollars were coming out of his pocket. Its interesting how a tax from the government can be them giving something.  If anything, it’s the smokers who are giving the families this support our government is claiming to provide. So if you have children, especially receiving healthcare from tobacco sales, be sure to also tell them about the patriotic smoker who made it all possible. No more dirty looks from families and their children. Praise alone they should have for these great Americans. 

Such a tax has been allowed due to the demonization of smoking and this claim that taxing will or may reduce smoking. This is also what some politicians call a “voluntary tax”, which they expect will raise $33 billion over the next 4 ½ years. Expecting a lot of volunteers are we? So which is it really? Our government attacks and benefits from the tobacco at the very same time. Do they want to reduce smoking, do they want to provide children with healthcare, or do they just want to tax somebody?  What about those who want to see smoking banned everywhere? What do they have against children’s healthcare? That is the formula our government created (on April Fool’s day no less).  Smokers smoke and pay for healthcare. If a smoker doesn’t smoke, healthcare doesn’t receive this money. But this tax has been justified because of the claim that taxes can discourage consumption. So it can discourage consumption and raise revenue from the same consumption it discouraged? This is astounding sorcery. I’d have to be American to believe it.

They know people are going to keep smoking. When these children receiving healthcare turn about 16 years old some are going to start smoking, but good thing because they’ll probably start having children who need healthcare. They made sure to let you know of all the horrors of smoking, but nothing about how anyone profiting from it is just as responsible. Not only are crooked politicians involved. Thanks to this legislation now families and their children who receive care are responsible.  You can’t tell me selling and using a substance is bad, and then profit from it. Our government thinks it can however, and sadly they seem to be getting away with it.  

Why would a program like children’s healthcare be what smoking pays for anyway? Why not cancer treatment for smokers? Ridiculous yes, but its more sensible than what we get from our elected officials. Can we tax fast food to pay for my gym membership? No? Oh well, maybe obese people will be the scapegoat when smokers are extinct. Which I guess is what is supposed to happen the day after they spend their 33 billion tax dollars smoking. Until then, thank every smoker you meet for their patriotism knows no end.

I hate that the best article (with some numbers and stuff) that I could find came from fox news. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,298663,00.html 
but here it is. Also for some decent takes on taxes and how they should go about them check out http://www.taxfoundation.org/ .

Come meet the Mountain
Crazy Mountain

    While most of us rebel against the idea of absolute power, we rarely question the unlimited amount of power our politicians have in this country. Power is a corrosive substance; it is the steel wool that erodes equality. The more power is shared by all of us, the more equality is enjoyed amongst all of us. Think about this. What kind of a person would desire, and even embrace, an unlimited power? I say the same type of person who would abuse such a power.
 
    It is my concrete belief that there needs to be an immediate age restriction placed on all members of both houses of congress. Although I am encouraged that fifteen states have recently approved such amendments; I am disappointed the federal government continues to police everyone except itself. In the U.S. Senate, the average age of a senator is 62 years old, and out of 99 serving members, only nine members are in their 40's. 

    When I think about these aging relics in congress, I can't help but draw upon Jurassic metaphors. They are preying on an easily assailable populous, positioned high atop the food chain, growing fat from lack of opposition or challenge.

                      

                       Two pictures, one question. "Is it Byrd or reptilian?" 

    First, let us evaluate a question that I have always found to be bothersome. Why do we always claim to want change but keep reelecting the same burnout politicians? Is it convenience? Just plain laziness? No. Those are not reasons, more like, symptoms, of what I call "The Semi-Social-Satisfaction-Strategy." This term refers to style of governing, in which the government, and individual politicians within that government, purposefully strive to minimize the satisfaction of its citizens basic needs in order to preserve control and power. This tactic accomplishes several tasks for the government or politician. Task one, it ensures the mass of their constituency feels as if "they have something to lose." Without this, fear tactics would be seen in the true tangential light they are always basking in. Task two, it allows the perpetuated lie that the government is actually protecting us to spread and infect others.Yes, they keep us "safe," but only so they can control us. That doesn't make me feel very "safe" at all. What about you? Protection is just an illusion, people. It is nothing more than smoke and mirrors. Ask yourself, has the government ever saved you? It has NEVER been my salvation.

    Further, it occurs to me that if you want old ideas, the best place to look is in the minds of old men. I have nothing against the elderly, and I do not intend to sound obtuse, but is anybody out there screaming for more old ideas? I sure don't hear them. It's illogical to let those who will soon be leaving this world make all the decisions for those who will still have to live in it when they are gone. We can't move forward by looking back. It's common sense. If you disagree, try this experiment. Try turning your neck around 180 degrees and then try running. *Please don't hurt yourself*

SUGGESTION: We need to start voting in an independent, open-minded fashion, or not voting at all. Regardless of political demagoguery, if you don't vote, it does not make you an evildoer. Not voting is still voting; it is equal to casting a vote of no confidence. My idea of participation is being alive.

Do you feel the same and want to know how you can get involved? Please visit www.termlimits.org, an excellent website devoted to changing U.S. Term Limit laws. There, you can make a donation to the cause, sign The U.S. Term Limits Term Limits Petition, or view a list of the fifteen states who have term limits for their state legislature. To those who will see . . .

Anthony Barrett

 

 

I’ve been an angel

I’ve been a demon

I’ve been a saint

I’ve been a heathen

I’ve searched for truth

And woven lies

I’ve been the source

Of a million cries

I have owned so much

And so much have I been owned

I’ve been loved by many

And I’ve been so very alone


By: Crazy Mountain