The truth about central bankers and the Feds

It has taken me years to figure out exactly what a central bank is. And it hasn't been easy to understand. As a matter of fact, it tooks years just to figure out that I that I didn't understand the entire concept of the Feds, and how this establishment was actually detrimental to the people it claims to 'serve'.

Probably the best examination of central banking I have seen lately was presented in the movie Zeitgeist - the Addendum. I highly recommend viewing at least the first half of this movie for those who wish a crystal clear idea of what the Feds (and other central banks) do in plain no-nonsense language. The dangers of the concept of the Feds are expressed very well in the article below - exactly how do the people lose?

Truth, By George

By Rand Clifford
2/14/09
Source
Truth in our time has become so muddied, the first thing we need in any search for fundamental, unambiguous truth is a good working definition. Something to clutch as a certain cruciform against vampires…a touchstone to help us better navigate lies.

truth \’trüth\ n. : That which is true

Hhmmm….so precisely what is “true”?

Truth. Truth is true.
That Möbius strip leads nowhere. Could a better understanding of truth as an aide to our search for it be found by examining the opposite of truth—by examining untruth?

American life floods us with one particular very tried and true untruth: Everything our federal government tells us, either officially, or through mainstream corporate media. So, a reliable working definition of truth here could be: “Exactly what government does not tell”. Certainly they tell occasional superficial truths, but those always have tendrils merging into the massive and nearby body of deceit.

Let’s test drive the definition—not conventionally as one would with perhaps a list of lies, specific lies, that’d set us on another Möbius strip since ultimately it’s all the same, or has only one side, lies. No, let’s take a spin through authority, some entrenched establishment symbolism.

The Fed
What might evoke more bedrock images of federal government than the Federal Reserve (Fed), our central bank (which is not actually a bank, and has no reserves)? Simmering in its deep heritage of untruth…the Fed is in no way a part of the federal government, but is instead a private corporation. The Fed’s ultimate agenda orbits profit for a mostly foreign banking cartel. It is a private money making machine disguised as a part of “Government of the People, by the People and for the People”, creating “money” by simple data entry, then bleeding the people by loaning it to the government at interest. How in the name of government, in disgusting violation of the Constitution, did this happen? Rep. Ron Paul tells us. He introduced the Federal Reserve Board Abolition Act (HR 2755), in June 2007.

The Great Depression is a sinister example of the Fed’s untruth. One of their “duties” is to stabilize the money supply, but Sirens of personal accumulation dictate their “mission”. Leaked documents and defector testimony reveals their zeal over how many thousands of banks and farms they hoped to acquire for pennies on the dollar…. The Great Depression was a coup by the financial elite to seize more wealth for themselves at the expense of the working class—one of history’s more hideous refrains. Please note that before their coup of ‘29, these elite controlled only a majority of banks in the Northeast; afterward they dominated American capital from coast to coast. Ben Bernanke, the Fed’s current head, even admitted when squeezed: “Regarding the Great Depression. We did it. We’re sorry. We won’t do it again.”

Considering the Fed’s seamless legacy of untruth…one might suspect that they actually are doing it again—note how much of the current “bailout” money is being used for acquisition…banks swallowing other banks, trillions in debt passed to future taxpayers. Try explaining something like this to your child.

The Bushes
Shaking the Bushes is an unlikely way to flush out truth, but it seems a blue moon can make both Georges spontaneously stray into actual truth.. Is it a ploy to further confuse us, or merely a wrinkle in perception management?

One of George II’s most germane chucking of beans: “Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.”

George I once told reporter Sarah McClendon that, “If the American people really knew what we had done, we would be chased down the streets and lynched.”

Then in 1992, when asked what Iran-Contra was really all about, George I replied that it was done for “…the continuous consolidation of money and power into higher, tighter and righter hands.”

Talk about hitting pay dirt! In that simple nonchalance of George I, the fundamental truth underlying the foundational untruth of not only the Fed, but the federal government, corporate mainstream media—and owners of all of the above—the financial elite, is revealed.

Yes, the government is owned by our nemesis, the financial elite. They own our free press, they own you…they own the world. The common good is as irrelevant to our owners as the future of humanity, and what they want is all they’ve ever wanted: more. Will we simply keep swallowing their effluent until the Republic is dead?

All we really need to know, something we’ve had our noses rubbed in a very long time, is that the government deals exclusively in untruth. If it ever mattered even a little, truth has been absolutely and permanently supplanted by perception management, which, when it comes to the people, is the government’s only genuine concern (in Bush jargon, one American = OFU, or “one fodder unit”). The people have been so incredibly dumbed-down chemically and socially and every possible way in between that in the breadlines and soup kitchens, major-league baseball will probably be the hottest topic…or the Superbowl, or Brittney and Brad and Jen or the latest Superhero movie….

Perpetual Sheep, Perpetual Slaughter
A very wise woman said, “You can lead sheep to enlightenment, but you can’t make them think.”

Evolution has given women special insight to survive in a world where men dominate physically, do most of the slaughtering, and blaze where humanity would be better off not going. So what has a majority of the slaughter throughout history been motivated by? “…the continuous consolidation of money and power into higher, tighter and righter hands.” If George I spoke only two truths in his whole wretched infliction upon us, that one rules.

“…the continuous consolidation of money and power into higher, tighter and righter hands” drove the fraudulent presidential installation of George II, twice. Same thing for 9/11…for the absolutely mind-defying War on Terror! Oil wars, shock-and-awe, wanton slaughter of millions. War on the Biosphere, Great Depression redux, American concentration camps for Americans, American troops deployed against Americans on American streets, false flag terror, martial law. Suspension of the Constitution, death of the Republic…. Inhumanity American “leadership” has inflicted on the rest of the world for over half a century is now coming home.

Why?
“…the continuous consolidation of money and power into higher, tighter and righter hands.”

That’s the foundational truth everything can be distilled down to, the bottom-line truth we’ve been looking for—and what an unlikely place to find it…what eerie irony. From the forked tongue of George I.

“…the continuous consolidation of money and power into higher, tighter and righter hands.”

It’s the driving force behind everything in Planning Central, the only thing that matters. And with the face of the beast exposed…if we still have time, will we ever muster the will—and especially find the leadership—to turn back toward the humane?

Rand Clifford is a writer living in Spokane, Washington, with his wife Mary Ann, and their Chesapeake Bay retriever, Mink.. Rand’s novels CASTLING, TIMING, VOICES OF VIRES, and PRIEST LAKE CATHEDRAL are published by StarChief Press: http://www.starchiefpress.com

Posted by thomaspainescorner on February 15, 2009

For the opposing point of view click here.

News you WANT to read - Hope is free.

US intel nominee promises no unlawful surveillance

Agence France-Presse
January 22, 2009
Source
President Barack Obama's nominee to head US intelligence Thursday flatly rejected torture, promised to end special interrogation regimes and refuse the unlawful surveillance of Americans.

Retired admiral Dennis Blair indicated major changes are in store for US intelligence agencies, which have been embroiled in controversy over secret prisons, interrogation practics, and warrantless wiretapping of Americans.

"Torture is not moral, is not legal, is not effective," Blair said at his Senate confirmation hearing.

Blair told the Senate Intelligence Committee he would welcome independent monitoring of the intelligence community "to prevent abuses and protect privacy and civil liberties of Americans."

However, he refused to say waterboarding, a form of simulating drowning, is torture, because he did not want to put in legal jeopardy intelligence officers who engaged in practices authorized at the highest levels.

"I don't intend to reopen those cases of those officers," he said.

Senator Carl Levin said he was "troubled" by Blair's answer.

For the most part, however, Democratic lawmakers praised Blair's candor while some Republicans expressed skepticism about abandoning the more hardline approach of the previous administration.

Blair sketched out a heavy workload for the US intelligence community -- three ongoing wars, concerns about developments in North Korea, Iran and the Israeli-Palestinian crisis, and newer issues like global warming and energy security.

"President Obama has made it clear, made it clear to me, made it clear to the American people, that he expects independent analysis," he said.

"He wants the facts. He wants all points of view. And if confirmed, I will strive to meet his expectations."

The Senate hearing came as Obama signed a flurry of executive orders directing the closure of the US detention center at Guantanamo within a year, shutting secret CIA prisons, and placing restrictions on interrogations and the treatment of detainees.

Blair acknowledged that striking the right balance between protecting Americans and safeguarding US values and international reputation will be difficult.

The United States, he said, has not yet found "the correct way to treat this new type of campaign that we are engaged in."

"On the one hand, we have to fight it like a war and detain people and get information from them and protect our citizens.

"On the other hand, we have to maintain our stature as the country that is governed by our values and governed by ideals. We've gone back and forth in many different ways.

"These executive orders are going to give this administration a chance to look at those tough issues and come up with creative solutions for them," he said.

He said he supported uniform rules of interrogation for the military and intelligence services, but he said the rules themselves should be developed as part of a comprehensive policy review.

Official: UN may prosecute Bush administration,
regardless of US action

David Edwards
Thursday January 22, 2009
Source
The UN's special torture rapporteur called on the US Tuesday to pursue former president George W. Bush and defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld for torture and bad treatment of Guantanamo prisoners.

"Judicially speaking, the United States has a clear obligation" to bring proceedings against Bush and Rumsfeld, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture Manfred Nowak said, in remarks to be broadcast on Germany's ZDF television Tuesday evening.

He noted Washington had ratified the UN convention on torture which required "all means, particularly penal law" to be used to bring proceedings against those violating it.

"We have all these documents that are now publicly available that prove that these methods of interrogation were intentionally ordered by Rumsfeld," against detainees at the US prison facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Nowak said.

"But obviously the highest authorities in the United States were aware of this," added Nowak, who authored a UN investigation report on the Guantanamo prison.

Bush stepped down from power Tuesday, with Barack Obama becoming the 44th president of the United States.

Asked about chances to bring legal action against Bush and Rumsfeld, Nowak said: "In principle yes. I think the evidence is on the table."

At issue, however, is whether "American law will recognise these forms of torture."

A bipartisan Senate report released last month found Rumsfeld and other top administration officials responsible for abuse of Guantanamo detainees in US custody.

It said Rumsfeld authorized harsh interrogation techniques on December 2, 2002 at the Guantanamo prison, although he ruled them out a month later.

The coercive measures were based on a document signed by Bush in February, 2002.

French, German and US rights groups have previously said they wanted to bring legal action against Rumsfeld.

Go to source for video from MSNBC's Countdown, broadcast Jan. 21, 2009.

Obama Revokes Bush
Executive Order on Presidential Archives
Forces release of Bush Records!

By Hal Turner
January 21, 2009
Source
"Hal Turner Show" -- Washington, DC -- Barack Obama today revoked President George W. Bush's Executive Order which makes presidential records secret for up to 12 years after leaving office!

This would be the first logical step for his Administration to take if they were/are considering going after Bush for criminal prosecution over. . . . . the fraud he perpetrated against the nation by lying to take us to war in Iraq.

The very last section of Obama's Executive Order issued today (Here) states "Sec. 6. Revocation. Executive Order 13233 of November 1, 2001, is revoked." This puts up for public consumption, most of the records from the Bush administration and I suspect those records will provide the legal basis for criminal prosecution of Bush and Cheney.

George W. may want to jump on a plane and head to his family's 100,000 acre refuge in Paraguay so he can be safe from extradition!

Personally, I would LOVE to see Bush criminally prosecuted and, if found guilty, hung by his neck just like Saddam Hussein.
Executive Order 13233
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Executive Order 13233 limited access to the records of former United States Presidents. It was drafted by then White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales and issued by President George W. Bush on November 1, 2001. Section 13 of Order 13233 revoked Executive Order 12667 of January 18, 1989. The Order was partially struck down in October 2007, and President Barack Obama completely revoked it by executive order on January 21, 2009. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_Order_13233

Related here

News you WANT to read - Shoe parties and libraries

It's not easy to find 'News you want to read' on a wintery Monday in January. Cheap thrills are the only options.

Iraqi guards throw party for shoe-Bush-basher

Zeidi celebrates 30th birthday in jail
with two-hour visit from brother,
but concerns on his welfare remain.

By Kim Gamel
BAGHDAD
Source
The Iraqi journalist jailed since throwing his shoes at President George W. Bush got a visit from his brother Friday and a birthday party from his guards as he turned 30.

Muntadhar al-Zeidi, who has gained cult status for his bizarre protest, is in good shape but has been denied access to his lawyer, relatives said after his brother Maitham visited him for two hours in his detention cell in Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone.

Al-Zeidi has been in custody since the Dec. 14 outburst at Bush's joint news conference with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Thousands demonstrated for al-Zeidi's release and hailed his gesture.

But concern was raised about his welfare after allegations that he had been severely beaten and tortured in detention.

The case's investigating judge has said the journalist was struck about the face and eyes, apparently by security agents who wrestled him to the floor after he hurled his shoes, forcing Bush to duck for cover.

Maitham al-Zeidi was not available to comment on the visit, but another brother, Dhargham, told The Associated Press that he was told the wounds had healed.

"Muntadhar was in a good shape ... and his morale was high. Yesterday was his birthday and some patriotic officers there organized a party for him and brought birthday cake," Dhargham al-Zeidi said.

The case became a focus for Iraqis and others in the Muslim world who resent the US invasion and occupation. But it also embarrassed al-Maliki, who was standing next to Bush at the time. Neither leader was injured.

Al-Zeidi had been due to face a trial in December on a charge of assaulting a foreign leader, which his defense team said carried a maximum sentence of 15 years. But an appellate court is considering a motion to reduce the charges to simply insulting Bush.

Defense lawyer Dhia al-Saadi said it was a matter of freedom of expression.

"Al-Zeidi's act was symbolic and in no way was it a murder attempt," he said, adding that he had been allowed to meet his client only once.

"I submitted many petitions to the judge of the case and I expect to meet Muntadhar next week," he said.

Al-Zeidi's act of defiance transformed the obscure reporter from an employee of a minor TV station into a national hero to many Iraqis fed up with the nearly six-year US presence here.

But his brother said information about the international wave of support had been kept from the journalist.

"Some officers told him that half of the Iraqis were against him. But he was very happy when he heard that all the Iraqis support him. He even cried when he heard that there were demonstrations on his behalf even in the United States," Dhargham al-Zeidi said.

The brother who met with Muntadhar al-Zeidi was taken by bus to the detention center, and two army officers supervised the meeting.

The journalist is currently being held alone in a comfortable room with a bed and a TV set, his brother said. "He is being visited frequently by doctors. The food is very good," the brother added.

Al-Zeidi stood by his attack on Bush. He stressed that he meant no offense to the Iraqi prime minister but didn't want to miss his chance to send Bush a message, the brother said.

"He said he could not wait until al-Maliki left the room to throw his shoes because then Bush would also leave and that historic opportunity would be lost," he said.

Muntadhar al-Zeidi actually feared he would be killed by guards after throwing his shoes and read his last prayers before going to the news conference, his brother said.

"So for him it does not matter for how long he would be imprisoned," his brother said, "because the important thing is that he restored the honor of the Iraqi people."

The Bush Library rooms finalised

by allan on December 29, 2008
Source
The George W. Bush Presidential Library is now in the planning stages. The Library will include:

The Weapons of Mass Destruction Room which no one has yet been able to find.

The Hurricane Katrina Room which is still under construction.

The Alberto Gonzales Room where you won’t be able to remember anything.

The Texas Air National Guard Room where you don’t even have to show up.

The Walter Reed Hospital Room where they don’t let you in.

The Guantanamo Bay Room where they don’t let you out.

The National Debt Room which is huge and has no ceiling.

The Tax Cut Room with entry restricted to the wealthy.

The Economy Room which is in the toilet.

The Iraq War Room: After you complete your first tour, they make you go back for a second, third, fourth and sometimes fifth tour.

The Dick Cheney Room in the famous undisclosed location, complete with shotgun gallery.

The Environmental Conservation Room still empty, but very warm.

The Supreme Court Gift Shop where you can buy an election.

The Decider Room complete with dart board, magic 8-ball, Ouija board, dice, coins and straws.

Additionally, the museum will have a 20-electron microscope to help you locate the president’s accomplishments.

Admission: Republicans - free; Democrats - $1000 or 3 Euros

Things I read - Jan 18, 09 - Forgive, Forget, and Shhhh.

The Flight of Reason
An exceptionally well written examination of the 'big picture'. Long but very worthwhile...nice flowing style.

Amy Goodman: Nothing to fear except no health care


Forgive Bush, Forget Gaza?

The Moral Dead Zone

Forgive and Forget?
Establishment Washington unifies against prosecutions


2010 is 1984?
NSA’s Wiretapping of Americans being outsourced to Israeli Companies?!?!

Don't sleepwalk into Big Brother surveillance, schools warned
Let's get the children used to a surveillance society early.

Maryland police and their weird war on 'terror'

There are more and more of these stories cropping up.
Taken with the article above, we are going back to the future: 1984

The troopers zeroed in on Roman Catholic nuns,
human rights activists and church groups.
They monitored animal rights advocates and cyclists
pushing for more bicycle lanes. They opened a dossier on Amnesty International. (That group's crime was listed as "human rights.")
The troopers created files with titles like:
"Terrorism: Anti-War Protesters," and
"Terrorism: Anti-Govern," and
"Terrorism: Environmental Extremists," and
"Terrorism: Pro-Life."
To Maryland's finest, even Quakers, the ultimate pacifists,
constituted a "security
threat group."

For a real life forum case of surveillance click here

No smoking in most of Belmont California, not even at home
Not a joke. In Great Britain and Ireland, they were entertaining a law to prohibit smoking in a car, alone or not.

Deal to lease African farmland to rich countries collapses after backlash against 'colonialism'

Things I read - December 28, 2008

The 25% of Retailers May Go Bankrupt
This will be worldwide; it's going to be a bumpy ride.


Making His List: Presidential Pardons
and Torture

Scientists plan to ignite tiny man-made star

911 call: Woman describes Santa assailant at
home

Hospitals ill from more bad debt, credit troubles
Pity all that money spent to kill women and children half way across the world, wasn't spend on Americans eh? What will they do without hospitals now?

Watch If An Asteroid Hit Earth (VIDEO)

No Furnaces but Heat Aplenty in
‘Passive Houses’
Yes a house that uses 1/20th of the energy and costs only 5-7% more to construct than conventional houses.

The Ten Lies of Dick Cheney (Part One)
Excellent on doublespeak.

Making His List: Presidential Pardons
and Torture
Good read.

A First Hand Account of the TVA Coal Ash
Disaster in Kingston, TN
Video.

If You Were CEO Of Corporation USA,

Grandstanding by Sarkozy fails to dispel economic worries
Sarkozy agenda and Bush agenda - very close.

Prince Edward faces possible
RSPCA probe for 'beating' dogs
Why is this not surprising?


Pelted whalers
flee into NZ waters
Powder that turns to slime on the decks of whaling boats: brilliant!

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Whistleblower killed in plane crash

Insider Who Planned To Tell All
Killed In Plane Crash

12-21-2008

Source

Michael Connell, the Bush IT expert who has been directly implicated in the rigging of George Bush's 2000 and 2004 elections, was killed last night when his single engine plane crashed three miles short of the Akron airport. Velvet Revolution ("VR"), a non-profit that has been investigating Mr. Connell's activities for the past two years, can now reveal that a person close to Mr. Connell has recently been discussing with a VR investigator how he can tell all about his work for George Bush. Mr. Connell told a close associate that he was afraid that George Bush and Dick Cheney would "throw [him] under the bus."

A tipster close to the McCain campaign disclosed to VR in July that Mr. Connell's life was in jeopardy and that Karl Rove had threatened him and his wife, Heather. VR's attorney, Cliff Arnebeck, notified the United States Attorney General , Ohio law enforcement and the federal court about these threats and insisted that Mr. Connell be placed in protective custody. VR also told a close associate of Mr. Connell's not to fly his plane because of another tip that the plane could be sabotaged. Mr. Connell, a very experienced pilot, has had to abandon at least two flights in the past two months because of suspicious problems with his plane. On December 18, 2008, Mr. Connell flew to a small airport outside of Washington DC to meet some people. It was on his return flight the next day that he crashed.

On October 31, Mr. Connell appeared before a federal judge in Ohio after being subpoenaed in a federal lawsuit investigating the rigging of the 2004 election under the direction of Karl Rove. The judge ordered Mr. Connell to testify under oath at a deposition on November 3rd, the day before the presidential election. Velvet Revolution received confidential information that the White House was extremely concerned about Mr. Connell talking about his illegal work for the White House and two Bush/Cheney 04 attorneys were dispatched to represent him.

An associate of Mr. Connell's told VR that Mr. Connell was involved with the destruction of the White House emails and the setting up of the off-grid White House email system.

Mr. Connell handled all of John McCain's computer work in the recent presidential campaign. VR has received direct evidence that the McCain campaign kept abreast of the legal developments against Mr. Connell by reading the VR dedicated website, www.rovecybergate.com.

VR demands that the Ohio Attorney General and the United States Justice Department conduct a complete investigation into the activities of Mr. Connell and determine whether there was any foul play in his death. VR demands that federal law enforcement officials place the following people under protective custody pending this investigation.

• Heather Connell who is the owner of GovTech Solutions,
• Randy Cole, the former President of GovTech Solutions, and
• Jeff Averbeck, the CEO of SmartTech in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Both GovTech and SmartTech have been implicated in the rigging of the 2000 and 2004 elections and the White House email scandal. Our prior request to have Mr. Connell protected went unheeded and now he is dead.

The Bush legacy - Joke of the world

Apparently George Bush can drop bombs on anyone he likes and strut around the planet like a peacock with a hemorrhoid, but he cannot stop the whole world laughing at him. He seems to be concerned about his legacy, but we all know how King George will be remembered: as the laughing stock of the world, ducking a shoe that most people wished would have hit him.

Who would have thought that a man with a shoe could humiliate the most vulgar leader of the world, when bullets, bombs and bankruptcy could not budge his arrogance? Mr. Al Zaidi will be remembered as a hero who had the courage to do what the entire world has wanted to do, an act he will pay dearly for. But there are no heros who do not take risks for their beliefs. This simple act of defiance inspired millions as well as giving the world the best laugh it has had since King George came to power.

Laughter is a powerful weapon to use against fools as the story below details. It unifies the like minded and takes power away from bullies. Humiliation is the just desert of brutal tyrants, my only regret being that George and his ilk are too thick to understand the depth of their disgrace. Leaders are laughing at Bush from Lapland to Australia (no doubt Putin enjoyed the event tremendously).

In case, dear reader, you are wishing it was you who threw the shoe, you may still make your contribution. You can mail your shoe to the White House: or you can have a vicarious thrill here. Either way, have a good laugh about it and feel better.

Latin leaders joke about Bush shoe attack

Wed Dec 17, 2008
COSTA DO SAUIPE, Brazil
Reuters
Latin American leaders meeting in Brazil this week couldn't resist poking fun at U.S. President George W. Bush over his recent shoe-throwing incident in Iraq. "Please, nobody take off your shoes," Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva joked to reporters at the start of a news conference on Wednesday.

An Iraqi journalist had hurled his shoes at Bush at a news conference in Baghdad on Sunday, calling him a dog. "In this heat, if anybody takes off their shoes, we'll know right away because of the smell," quipped Lula, reaping laughter from reporters and politicians alike. Earlier in the day, Lula threatened to throw a shoe at Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, Bush's fiercest critic in Latin America, if the long-winded leftist leader spoke beyond his allotted time.

Officials from 33 Latin American and Caribbean countries burst into laughter at the summit meeting, which showcased the region's growing independence from Washington and welcomed Communist-run Cuba for the first time. Even Cuban President Raul Castro, on his first trip abroad since taking over from his ailing brother Fidel earlier this year, was overheard taking a stab at Bush over the shoe affair.
(Reporting by Raymond Colitt, editing by Anthony Boadle)

Bush's Final FU

Listening to Cheney and Bush's remarks on their self-satisfaction with their performance in power is a nauseating experience. As if mass murdering millions, and cannibalising their own citizens weren't enough, they now enact the most devastating legislation as they are running out the door: bills which would have hurt them politically earlier have been rushed into enactment, all of them odious insults to the planet and people of earth.

Still, noone is watching. This has become a modus operandi for the American people who are self absorbed in their own financial problems and Obama fairy tale. No doubt, later they will claim, "But we didn't know! And, anyway, what could we have done about it?". Perhaps they ought to replace the mighty symbolic eagle with a sheeple to represent their country.

Below is an article detailing some of the as yet unnoticed Bush legacy to the USA: the feint hearted or easily agitated are forewarned of its contents. The Neo-cons show their ugly faces here without a consequence or bit of shame in sight. I shall hope that those who allowed this horrific regime to prosper will not have the same privilege.

Anyone who needs a bit of bone in their spine, might get it from this little movie clip of long ago which perfectly describes today: We're mad as hell!

Detailed list of the new legislation
Read and weep.

Bush's Final F.U.

The administration is rushing to enact a host
of last-minute regulations that will
screw America for years to come

TIM DICKINSON
Posted Dec 25, 2008
Rolling Stone

With president-elect Barack Obama already taking command of the financial crisis, it's tempting to think that regime change in America is a done deal. But if George Bush has his way, the country will be ruled by his slash-and-burn ideology for a long time to come.

In its final days, the administration is rushing to implement a sweeping array of "midnight regulations" — de facto laws issued by the executive branch — designed to lock in Bush's legacy. Under the last- minute rules, which can be extremely difficult to overturn, loaded firearms would be allowed in national parks, uranium mining would be permitted near the Grand Canyon and many injured consumers would no longer be able to sue negligent manufacturers in state courts. Other rules would gut the Endangered Species Act, open millions of acres of wild lands to mining, restrict access to birth control and put local cops to work spying for the federal government.

"It's what we've seen for Bush's whole tenure, only accelerated," says Gary Bass, executive director of the nonpartisan group OMB Watch. "They're using regulation to cement their deregulatory mind-set, which puts corporate interests above public interests."

While every modern president has implemented last-minute regulations, Bush is rolling them out at a record pace — nearly twice as many as Clinton, and five times more than Reagan. "The administration is handing out final favors to its friends," says Véronique de Rugy, a scholar at George Mason University who has tracked six decades of midnight regulations. "They couldn't do it earlier — there would have been too many political repercussions. But with the Republicans having lost seats in Congress and the presidency changing parties, Bush has nothing left to lose."

The most jaw-dropping of Bush's rule changes is his effort to eviscerate the Endangered Species Act. Under a rule submitted in November, federal agencies would no longer be required to have government scientists assess the impact on imperiled species before giving the go-ahead to logging, mining, drilling, highway building or other development. The rule would also prohibit federal agencies from taking climate change into account in weighing the impact of projects that increase greenhouse emissions — effectively dooming polar bears to death-by-global-warming. According to Carl Pope, executive director of the Sierra Club, "They've taken the single biggest threat to wildlife and said, 'We're going to pretend it doesn't exist, for regulatory purposes.'"

Bush is also implementing other environmental rules that will cater to the interests of many of his biggest benefactors:

BIG COAL In early December, the administration finalized a rule that allows the industry to dump waste from mountaintop mining into neighboring streams and valleys, a practice opposed by the governors of both Tennessee and Kentucky. "This makes it legal to use the most harmful coal-mining technology available," says Allen Hershkowitz, a senior scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council. A separate rule also relaxes air-pollution standards near national parks, allowing Big Coal to build plants next to some of America's most spectacular vistas — even though nine of 10 EPA regional administrators dissented from the rule or criticized it in writing. "They're willing to sacrifice the laws that protect our national parks in order to build as many new coal plants as possible," says Mark Wenzler, director of clean-air programs for the National Parks Conservation Association. "This is the last gasp of Bush and Cheney's disastrous policy, and they've proven there's no line they won't cross."

BIG OIL In a rule that becomes effective just three days before Obama takes office, the administration has opened up nearly 2 million acres of mountainous lands in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming for the mining of oil shale — an energy-intensive process that also drains precious water resources. "The administration has admitted that it has no idea how much of Colorado's water supply would be required to develop oil shale, no idea where the power would come from and no idea whether the technology is even viable," says Sen. Ken Salazar of Colorado. What's more, Bush is slashing the royalties that Big Oil pays for oil-shale mining from 12.5 percent to five percent. "A pittance," says Salazar.

BIG AGRICULTURE Factory farms are getting two major Christmas presents from Bush this year. Circumventing the Clean Water Act, the administration has approved last-minute regulations that will allow animal waste from factory farms to seep, unmonitored, into America's waterways. The regulation leaves it up to the farms themselves to decide whether their pollution is dangerous enough to require them to apply for a permit. "It's the fox guarding the henhouse — all too literally," says Pope. The water rule goes into effect December 22nd, and a related rule in the works would exempt factory farms from reporting air pollution from animal waste.

BIG CHEMICAL In October, two weeks after consulting with industry lobbyists, the White House exempted more than 100 major polluters from monitoring their emissions of lead, a deadly neurotoxin. Seemingly hellbent on a more toxic future, the administration will also allow industry to treat 3 billion pounds of hazardous waste as "recycling" each year, and to burn another 200 million pounds of hazardous waste reclassified as "fuel," increasing cancer-causing air pollution. The rule change is a reward to unrepentant polluters: Nearly 90 percent of the factories that will be permitted to burn toxic waste have already been cited for violating existing environmental protections.

Environmental rollbacks may take center stage in Bush's final deregulatory push, but the administration is also promulgating a bevy of rules that will strip workers of labor protections, violate civil liberties, and block access to health care for women and the poor. Among the worst abuses:

LABOR Under Bush, the Labor Department issued only one major workplace-safety rule in eight years — and that was under a court order. But now the Labor Department is finalizing a rule openly opposed by Obama that would hamper the government's ability to protect workers from exposure to toxic chemicals. Bypassing federal agencies, Labor Secretary Elaine Chao developed the rule in secret, relying on a report that has been withheld from the public. Under the last-minute changes, federal agencies would be expected to gather unnecessary data on workplace exposure and jump through more bureaucratic hurdles, adding years to an already cumbersome regulatory process.

In another last-minute shift, the administration has rewritten rules to make it harder for workers to take time off for serious medical conditions under the Family and Medical Leave Act. In addition, the administration has upped the number of hours that long-haul truckers can be on the road. The new rule — nearly identical to one struck down by a federal appeals court last year — allows trucking companies to put their drivers behind the wheel for 11 hours a day, with only 34 hours of downtime between hauls. The move is virtually certain to kill more motorists: Large-truck crashes already kill 4,800 drivers and injure another 76,000 every year.

HEALTH CARE In late August, the administration proposed a new regulation ostensibly aimed at preventing pharmacy and clinic workers from being forced to participate in abortions. But the wording of the new rule is so vague as to allow providers to deny any treatment that anyone in their practice finds objectionable — including contraception, family planning and artificial insemination. Thirteen state attorneys general protested the regulation, saying it "completely obliterates the rights of patients to legal and medically necessary health care services."

In a rule that went into effect on December 8th, the administration also limited vision and dental care for more than 50 million low-income Americans who rely on Medicaid. "This means the states are going to have to pick up the tab or cut the services at a time when a majority of states are in a deficit situation," says Bass of OMB Watch. "It's a horrible time to do this." To make matters worse, the administration has also raised co-payments for Medicaid, forcing families on poverty wages to pay up to 10 percent of the cost for doctor visits and medicine. One study suggests that co-payments could cause Medicaid patients to skip nearly a fifth of all prescription-drug treatments. "People who have nothing are being asked to pay for services they rely upon to live," says Elaine Ryan, vice president of government relations for AARP. "Imposing co-pays on the poorest and sickest people in the United States is cynical and cruel."

NATIONAL SECURITY Under midnight regulations, the administration is seeking to lock in the domestic spying it began even before 9/11. One rule under consideration would roll back Watergate-era prohibitions barring state and local law enforcement from spying on Americans and sharing that information with U.S. intelligence agencies. "If the federal government announced tomorrow that it was creating a new domestic intelligence agency of more than 800,000 operatives reporting on even the most mundane everyday activities, Americans would be outraged," says Michael German, a former FBI agent who now serves as national security policy counsel for the ACLU. "This proposed rule change is the final step in creating an America we no longer recognize — an America where everyone is a suspect."

John Podesta, the transition chief for the Obama administration, has vowed that the new president will leverage his "executive authority" to fight Bush's last-minute rule changes. But according to experts who study midnight regulations, there's surprisingly little an incoming executive can do to overturn such rules. The Bush administration succeeded in repealing just three percent of the regulations finalized before Bill Clinton left office in 2001. "Midnight regulations under Bush are being executed early and with great intent," says Bass of OMB Watch. "And that intent is to lock the next administration into these regulations, making it very difficult for Obama to undo what Bush just did."

To protect the new rules against repeal, the Bush administration began amping up its last-gasp regulatory process back in May. The goal was to have all new regulations finalized by November 1st, providing enough time to accommodate the 60-day cooling-off period required before major rule changes — those that create an economic impact greater than $100 million — can be implemented.

Now, however, the administration has fallen behind schedule — so it's gaming the system to push through its rules. In several cases, the Office of Management and Budget has fudged the numbers to classify rules that could have billion-dollar consequences as "non-major" — allowing any changes made through mid-December to take effect in just 30 days, before Obama is inaugurated. The administration's determination of what constitutes a major change is not subject to review in court, and the White House knows it: Spokesman Tony Fratto crowed that the 60-day deadline is "irrelevant to our process."

Once a rule is published in the Federal Register, the Obama administration will have limited options for expunging it. It can begin the rule-making process anew, crafting Obama rules to replace the Bush rules, but that approach could take years, requiring time-consuming hearings, scientific fact-finding and inevitable legal wrangling. Or, if the new rules contain legal flaws, a judge might allow the Obama administration to revise them more quickly. Bush's push to gut the Endangered Species Act, for example, was done in laughable haste, with 15 employees given fewer than 36 hours to review and process more than 200,000 public comments. "The ESA rule is enormously vulnerable to a legal challenge on the basis that there was inadequate public notice and comment," says Pope of the Sierra Club. "The people who did that reviewing will be put on a witness stand, and it will become clear to a judge that this was a complete farce." But even that legal process will take time, during which industry will continue to operate under the Bush rules.

The best option for overturning the rules, ironically, may be a gift bestowed on Obama by Newt Gingrich. Known as the Congressional Review Act, it was passed in 1996 to give Congress the option of overriding what GOP leaders viewed at the time as excessive regulation by Bill Clinton. The CRA allows Congress to not only kill a new rule within 60 days, but to do so with a simple, filibuster-immune majority. De Rugy, the George Mason scholar, expects Democrats in the House and Senate to make "very active use of the Congressional Review Act."

But even this option, it turns out, is fraught with obstacles. First, the CRA requires a separate vote on each individual regulation. Second, the act prohibits reviving any part of a rule that has been squelched. Since Bush's rules sometimes contain useful reforms — the move to limit the Family and Medical Leave Act also extends benefits for military families — spiking the rules under the CRA would leave Obama unable to restore or augment those benefits in the future. Whatever Obama does will require him to expend considerable political capital, at a time when America faces two wars and an economic crisis of historic proportions.

"It's going to be very challenging for Obama," says Bass. "Is he going to want to look forward and begin changing the way government works? Or is he going to look back and fix the problems left by Bush? Either way, it's a tough call."

[From Issue 1068-69 — December 25, 2008 - January 8, 2009]

News you WANT to read

White House inundated with shoes
from all over the world

Washington D.C.
Sheilanagig
December 25, 2008
Christmas will be bountiful for the Bush's at the White House this year; they have received 10 million pairs of shoes sent to them from all over the world.

Many people took the time and trouble to let George Bush know exactly how much they appreciated his services to the world as president. At least one million of the shoes were children's sizes, from the families of Iraqi parents whose children were killed or maimed over the past five years.

The arrival of mountains of shoes in envelopes and boxes created a logistical nightmare for White House security and the NSA. Sixteen tandem semi-trailors were needed to move the shoes from the post office to the White House per day for the past two weeks. X-ray machines were borrowed from local hospitals to accomodate the heavy load of packages to be x-rayed and the army was called in to expedite processing of the volume.

President Bush was overwhelmed with emotion as he thanked people from all over the world who sent him farewell presents. He said he was satisfied to be able to bring democracy and freedom to so many unfortunates of the world and wished all a Merry Christmas.

Meanwhile, health officials at the White House have reported a strange odor emanating from the storage area for the shoes. President Bush is in no danger according to his personal physician and Dr. Maxwell from Department of Communicable Disease Control has confirmed the odor is just fermented fungi of the feet normally found in shoes. The National Guard will be called in to open the shoe boxes and burn those that are unsuitable for resale after Christmas.

Things I read - December 16, 2008

The Guilt Song (Fuck the poor)
Video. Have a sardonic laugh.

Bush On Al Qaeda Not Existing In Iraq Before Invasion: ‘So What?’
Video. How did this creepy clown manage to dupe a nation? Makes you wonder.

Capitalism Hits the Fan: A Marxian View
Video of a lecture.

Bush shoe-ing worst Arab insult
Send your shoe to the White House, if it makes you feel better. Really...better than a letter which won't be read. Many are doing it.















Official: Shoe-thrower in Iraqi military custody
Heros must risk the wrath of monsters.

Sarkozy comments spark Iran row
Everytime Sarkozy opens his mouth, we see new evidence that he is aligned with USA/Israel interests instead of the European Union's well being.
















Iran stays away from Paris meeting over Sarkozy's remarks
Send a shoe to Sarkozy too.

Iran summons French envoy over Sarkozy's remarks


Legal papers served via Facebook
Ah yes, must be careful on the net these days; especially if you are losing your house. (exactly where a homeless person will set up their computer is, I guess, not important)











Americans rich and poor pawn more to pay bills
Looks like Americans can live without all their 'stuff' afterall.

Another blow to NATO's supplies
Putin must have a grin ear to ear.


Cheney admits authorizing detainee's torture
The video at the bottom of this page is particularly chilling. Especially in slow motion.













Liquid electricity from the photon farm























Cheney accused of blocking Californian bid to cut car fumes


















Nanosolar: Power to the people

Cobbers
A truly fascinating look at the energy sources available to common people.

End of an era: last pre-Olympic snapshot (updated)





































The big melt: 2 trillion tons of ice gone since '03

















News 2008 in pictures

Bush On Al Qaeda Not Existing In Iraq Before Invasion: ‘So What?’

Suburban Guerrilla

Articles - December 8, 2008

The God That Failed: The 30-Year Lie of the Market Cult
It has always been all marketing. Friedman ought to be dug up and hanged by his Nobel Medal.


Angry Laid-Off Workers Occupy Factory in Chicago
And wouldn't you know it, they aren't even 'real' Americans.

OPEC: Get set for oil shock and awe

The Trojan Horses of Our Demise: Reconnecting to the Moral Sense
Married to arrogance, ignorance can kill.


US media giant considers bankruptcy
Too bad they didn't go bankrupt before they spread their poison lies to support the evil system that ate their ethics.

Chinese property hunters to raid US
Welcome to America's new landlord.

€125m of pork to be destroyed in biggest food scare since BSE
We poisoned the pigs; and now they are poisoning people - seems fair to me.

Man ordered to comply with EU rules when selling vegetable leftovers from his garden stall
Better throw away extra food;or the government will charge you.


Pakistani Security Consultant Calls Mumbai Attacks A “Botched” False Flag

Drone lands in ND in preparation for border patrol

Bush reported to be drinking heavily


General Ivashov: “International terrorism does not exist”
"...shows that terrorism contributes to a world dominance and the submissiveness of states to a global oligarchy. This means that terrorism is not something independent of world politics but simply an instrument, a means to install a unipolar world..." Good article exposing the terrorism hype and foreshadows the 'irregular war'.

Genocide in Educational Policy - For the future of Indigenous Peoples

Hopping robots display pack instinct
Stephen Hawking said this is how the human race would end; shades of the Matrix.


Tech commission suggests new cybersecurity post
Yep...O man is going to protect us from cyberspace.

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