Feb 11, 2011 || World News

Friday, February 11, 2011

US threatens Pak of dire consequences if Davis not freed by Friday: report

US threatens Pak of dire consequences if Davis not freed by Friday: report

Posted By Agencies On 11/02/2011 (1:09 PM) In Uncategorized

Washington:The US delivered a threat to Pakistan that it must release double-murder accused US diplomat Raymond Davis by Friday or face the consequences, US media reported on Friday.

Two Pakistani officials involved in negotiations about Davis said that Donilon summoned Pakistan's Ambassador to the US, Husain Haqqani, to the White House

Donilon told him that the US will kick Haqqani out of the country, close US consulates in Pakistan and cancel Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari's upcoming visit to Washington if the detained US embassy employee is not released from custody by Friday, the officials added.A senior US official, who was not authorized to speak on the record, confirmed the outlines of the threat.

It is to mention here that a Pakistani judge on Friday (today) have sent Raymond Davis to 14-day judicial remand while a Pakistan police officer during a press conference has said that the US national did not shoot two youths in self-defence.

The police in its incomplete challan have contended that the accused brutally killed the youths.

Pakistan's Ambassador to US Husain Haqqani on twitter, a social website, has denied being given any threat by the US officials.

Article taken from The News Tribe,

latest top breaking news Pakistan, blogs, citizen journalism pakistan, South Asia, UK and Middle East -

http://www.thenewstribe.co.uk/beta

URL to article: http://www.thenewstribe.co.uk/beta/?p=9116

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Let's Play "Name That Arab Despotism"!

Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Let's Play "Name That Arab Despotism"!
William N. Grigg

There is a large and powerful Arab state ruled by a Soviet-trained military dictator. The figure he has chosen as a successor, the head of the secret police, was also trained in the Soviet Union, and the apparatus of terror and repression he supervises was created with valuable input from the KGB. Thus it's not surprising to learn that he is one of the most notorious torturers in a region where that occupation is common. During one torture session he supervised, that thug actually offered to cut off the arm of a prisoner in order to please representatives of his regime's chief foreign sponsor.

Despite the fact that this country has seen its gross domestic product grow consistently for the past thirty years, the percentage of its population in poverty has grown even faster. The entrenched socialist oligarchy devours practically all of the wealth created in the country, and is also sustained by lavish foreign subsidies.

The Dear Leader portrays himself as a humble old soldier, a self-abnegating servant of the country. It's entirely possible that he actually believes his own propaganda; this would explain why that simple son of toil has amassed a fortune estimated in the billions. Meanwhile, at least a million residents of the capital city are permanently homeless and can be found sleeping in cemeteries.

The existing economic and political cartel in the country we're discussing is quite similar to the one in charge of post-Soviet Russia. Shortly before relinquishing its monopoly on political power, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union apportioned its membership among several "contending" parties. At the same time, the Party deeded to itself everything of value in the country in anticipation of "privatizing" the economy. In this way, the Nomenklatura protected its power and perquisites against the vagaries of electoral politics.

The controlled implosion of the Soviet Communist Party in 1991 was a neat trick -- but the ruling elite of the Arab state we're discussing actually did the same thing decades earlier. In 1974, its ruling Arab Socialist Union calved off two "contending" parties -- one on the "right" and another on the "left" -- while re-naming itself the National Democratic Party (NDP) and laying claim to the "moderate center."

Until very recently, the NDP -- which remains ensconced as the ruling party -- was a member in good standing of the Socialist International, which was founded by Karl Marx.

Given the pedigree of this junta, we shouldn't be surprised to learn that it has a long and amicable relationship with the despotic dynasty ruling North Korea. Decades ago, as head of the air force, the future Arab dictator arranged for his pilots to receive training from North Korean advisers in preparation for a war against Israel. Pyongyang also supplied the country with Soviet-produced missiles and the know-how to produce its own.

We're not discussing Syria, Libya, Saudi Arabia, or Iran (which isn't an Arab country, of course). This is portrait of the Egyptian government headed by Hosni Mubarak and his hand-picked successor Omar Suleiman. That Arab socialist regime, we are insistently told by the Obama administration and various retread Cold War conservatives, is a flawed but valuable ally of the United States.

Some of those singing that refrain has been performing cadenzas of alarm over the prospect of Cairo falling into the clutches of a dreadful "Islamo-Communist" alliance bent on creating a global Caliphate. The operatic variations on that theme performed by Glenn Beck have been worthy of a coloratura soprano.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rFKCMGvwxE&feature=player_embedded

By this reading, the uprising in Cairo is not a tribute to the irrepressible human desire for freedom. Instead, the brave defiance offered by hundreds of thousands of Egyptians was orchestrated as part of an elaborate plot to undermine the "stability" provided by Mubarak's U.S.-subsidized torture state.

Difficult as it may be to believe, Glenn Beck's take on this issue qualifies only for a silver medal in the silliness sweepstakes. First place goes to this unfathomably foolish essay, with shares equally apportioned to the young man who wrote it and the purported adults on the editorial staff of the journal that published it.

Exporting repression: An American-made tear gas grenade in Cairo.

Elaborating on Beck's rococo conspiracy theory, the author insists that the uprising against Mubarak is the work of an "Islamo-Leninist" alliance that he describes as the modern successor to "the Soviet-backed Nasser."

Actually, Nasser's successor is the Soviet-trained Hosni Mubarak, who heads a party that grew directly out of Nasser's Arab Socialist Union. It should also be pointed out that the Muslim Brotherhood was a CIA-supported enemy of Nasser.

"While Hosni Mubarak may not share American hopes and conceptions of what constitutes a democratic government," the author continues, "he has been an ally of the United States and Israel, and has attempted to institute as many free-market reforms as possible...." For this reason, "our government understands the necessity of supporting Mubarak, whom even Former Vice President Dick Cheney has identified as an ally."

Oh, you mean Mubarak and his torturers have earned the Darth Cheney Seal of Approval? I guess that settles it, then.

For those who stubbornly remain unpersuaded, the writer deploys the heaviest artillery at his disposal:

It's a Communist plot! Egyptian Muslims and Christians unite against tyranny.

"Our support for Mubarak is a direct application of the Kirkpatrick Doctrine, named after Reagan advisor Jeanne Kirkpatrick, who differentiated authoritarian governments (such as Mubarak's Egypt and Pinochet's Chile) from totalitarian regimes, such as the Soviet Union or Nazi Germany, and stressed the need to support authoritarian governments as strategic partners against hostile regimes and movements, such as Islamism and Communism."

Referring to criticism of Glenn Beck by Weekly Standard publisher William Kristol, the author laments: "It is a sad and shameful day when a self-identified `conservative' betrays the Kirkpatrick Doctrine and the long-term strategic interests of the United States in favor of what most likely amounts to a desperate attempt for publicity and attention from a political movement in which he is now obsolete."

Apparently we are to believe that the Kirkpatrick Doctrine was a divinely revealed codicil to the Decalogue, or at least a secret annex to the U.S. Constitution authorizing open-ended military and economic support for any despot who is baptized a "strategic partner" by our rulers.

Actually, that doctrine was actually spawned in the Trotskyite slums of academia in the late 1960s, before being articulated by Kirkpatrick in an essay that could be considered an Ur-text of neo-con imperialism. It is treated as holy writ by those who believe America has been anointed by History to propagate democracy at gunpoint throughout the globe. Those on the receiving end of the Empire's ministrations understandable consider it to be demonic rather than divine.

The "Kirkpatrick Doctrine" as practiced in Cairo.

The Kirkpatrick Doctrine was the direct mirror image of the Brezhnev Doctrine, under which Moscow claimed the supposed right to prop up and defend its own satrapies wherever they were threatened by "instability."

During the second Reagan term, Secretary of State George Schulz pronounced a corollary to the Kirkpatrick Doctrine under which Washington would actively promote anti-Soviet insurgencies in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. In other words, the U.S. would emulate another Soviet strategy by promoting "wars of national liberation."

Among the despots supported by Washington under the Kirkpatrick Doctrine was Saddam Hussein. Among the insurgents who received American help pursuant to the Schulz Corollary were the Afghan Mujahadeen -- the direct progenitors of the Afghan insurgents currently doing battle with American occupation troops. For the past decade, U.S. foreign policy has been an exercise in dealing with Kirkpatrick Doctrine-related blowback.

Defenders of the Kirkpatrick Doctrine will indignantly insist that I am guilty of "moral equivalence" by comparing it to the Brezhnev Doctrine. A good and sufficient reply is to point out that those doctrines directly intersect in Egypt, where -- according to the author quoted above, and many others of his ilk -- America has a moral duty and strategic imperative to support the socialist torture regime of Soviet-trained, North Korean-allied Hosni Mubarak and Omar Suleiman.

http://bit.ly/gLT5G2

Obama's National Intelligence Director, James Clapper, needs to step down

Scotty Starnes | February 10, 2011 at 7:36 PM | Tags: Barack Obama, Egypt, FBI, Islam, Islamic terrorists, James Clapper, Janet Napolitano, jihad, Koran, Muslim Brotherhood, Muslims, National Intelligence Director James Clapper, Obama, President Obama, Qur'an, Robert Mueller, terrorist | Categories: Political Issues | URL: http://wp.me/pvnFC-4oH

National Intelligence Director, James Clapper, seems to lack any intelligence at all. This idiot is the same idiot who didn't know about the London terror plots, when asked by Diane Sawyer. Then Homeland Security idiot Janet Napolitano said that Clapper didn't need to know about these plots. The National Intelligence Director is the one who updates the President of the United States about what is going on around the world and what threats the U.S. faces.

Now this same idiot, James Clapper, claims the Muslim Brotherhood, in Egypt, is "largely secular." This is the same Muslim Brotherhood that claims the Qur'an is the law and jihad is its way. Their motto: "Allah is our objective. The Prophet is our leader. Qur'an is our law. Jihad is our way. Dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope."

Sounds very religious-based to me.

During this testimony the F.B.I. Director, Robert Mueller, contradicted Clapper's assessment and said the Muslim Brother has engaged in violence and has a history of violence. Again, Clapper is totally inept and clueless to handle his position as National Intelligence Director.

President Obama himself has embraced the Muslim Brotherhood and "chose the leader of a Muslim Brotherhood-linked group that had been named an unindicted co-conspirator in a Hamas terror funding case to give a prayer during his inauguration ceremonies."

America, we are in danger. We have an administration that continue to put their thumbs in the eyes of our friends while openly appeasing Muslim countries. This administration is truly clueless about where the dangers to our country is coming from. We have witnessed their ending the use of terminology such as the "war on terror" and "Islamic terrorism" to simply appease Muslims.

Our security is more important than Obama's fundamental transformation scheme. We need to start raising our voices in the hopes of protecting our country from the likes of Obama and the Muslim Brotherhood.

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talking bull

http://www.freakingnews.com/Talking-Bull-Pictures-91544.asp

JP Good Quotes

My main purpose in life is to make enough money to create ever more inventions.... The dove is my emblem.... I want to save and advance human life, not destroy it.... I am proud of the fact that I have never invented weapons to kill....

I never perfected an invention that I did not think about in terms of the service it might give others... I find out what the world needs, then I proceed to invent....

My principal business consists of giving commercial value to the brilliant, but misdirected, ideas of others.... Accordingly, I never pick up an item without thinking of how I might improve it.

I readily absorb ideas from every source, frequently starting where the last person left off.

Because ideas have to be original only with regard to their adaptation to the problem at hand, I am always extremely interested in how others have used them....

A good idea is never lost. Even though its originator or possessor may die without publicizing it, it will someday be reborn in the mind of another....

I am not overly impressed by the great names and reputations of those who might be trying to beat me to an invention.... Its their 'ideas' that appeal to me. I am quite correctly described as 'more of a sponge than an inventor....'

"Genius is one per cent inspiration and ninety-nine per cent perspiration. Accordingly, a 'genius' is often merely a talented person who has done all of his or her homework."

Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.

The first requisite for success is to develop the ability to focus and apply your mental and physical energies to the problem at hand - without growing weary. Because such thinking is often difficult, there seems to be no limit to which some people will go to avoid the effort and labor that is associated with it....
I never did anything worth doing entirely by accident.... Almost none of my inventions were derived in that manner. They were achieved by having trained myself to be analytical and to endure and tolerate hard work.
Inspiration can be found in a pile of junk. Sometimes, you can put it together with a good imagination and invent something.
Personally, I enjoy working about 18 hours a day. Besides the short catnaps I take each day, I average about four to five hours of sleep per night.
Most of the exercise I get is from standing and walking all day from one laboratory table to another. I derive more benefit and entertainment from this than some of my friends and competitors get from playing games like golf.
If we all did the things we are really capable of doing, we would literally astound ourselves....
Our schools are not teaching students to think. It is astonishing how many young people have difficulty in putting their brains definitely and systematically to work....
The three things that are most essential to achievement are common sense, hard work and stick-to-it-iv-ness.....
I have far more respect for the person with a single idea who gets there than for the person with a thousand ideas who does nothing....

Many of life's failures are experienced by people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.
Pretty much everything will come to him who hustles while he waits. I believe that restlessness is discontent, and discontent is merely the first necessity of progress. Show me a thoroughly satisfied man and I will show you a failure.
Unfortunately, there seems to be far more opportunity out there than ability.... We should remember that good fortune often happens when opportunity meets with preparation.
Just because something doesn't do what you planned it to do in the first place doesn't mean it's useless....
Results? Why, man, I have gotten lots of results! If I find 10,000 ways something won't work, I haven't failed. I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is often a step forward....
Surprises and reverses can serve as an incentive for great accomplishment. There are no rules here, we're just trying to accomplish something.
As a cure for worrying, work is far better than whiskey. I always found that, if I began to worry, the best thing I could do was focus upon doing something useful and then work very hard at it. Soon, I would forget what was troubling me.
Barring serious accidents, if you are not preoccupied with worry and you work hard, you can look forward to a reasonably lengthy existence.... Its not the hard work that kills, its the worrying that kills.
The only time I really become discouraged is when I think of all the things I would like to do and the little time I have in which to do them.
The thing I lose patience with the most is the clock. Its hands move too fast.
Time is really the only capital that any human being has and the thing that he can least afford to waste or lose...
From his neck down a man is worth a couple of dollars a day, from his neck up he is worth anything that his brain can produce.
The doctor of the future will give no medicine, but will interest his patients in the care of the human body, in diet, and in the cause and prevention of disease.
Whatever the mind of man creates, should be controlled by man's character.
I love great music and art, but I think 'cubist' songs and paintings are hideous.
Someday, man will harness the rise and fall of the tides, imprison the power of the sun, and release atomic power.
I am both pleased but astonished by the fact that mankind has not yet begun to use all the means and devices that are available for destruction. I hope that such weapons are never manufactured in quantity.
The United States, and other advanced nations, will someday be able to produce instruments of death so terrible the world will be in abject terror of itself and its ability to end civilization.... Such war-making weapons should be developed - but only for purposes of discovery and experimentation
The dove is my emblem.... I want to save and advance human life, not destroy it.... I am proud of the fact that I never invented weapons to kill...
To me, the idea and expectation that the day is slowly and surely coming when we will be able to honestly say we are our brother's keeper and not his oppressor is very beautiful .
Until man duplicates a blade of grass, nature can laugh at his so-called scientific knowledge....
Its obvious that we don't know one millionth of one percent about anything.
I believe that the science of chemistry alone almost proves the existence of an intelligent creator.
We have merely scratched the surface of the store of knowledge which will come to us. I believe that we are now, a-tremble on the verge of vast discoveries - discoveries so wondrously important they will upset the present trend of human thought and start it along completely new lines .
Be courageous! Whatever setbacks America has encountered, it has always emerged as a stronger and more prosperous nation.... Be brave as your fathers before you. Have faith and go forward!
If parents pass enthusiasm along to their children, they will leave them an estate of incalculable value....
The memory of my mother will always be a blessing to me....
Life's most soothing things are a child's goodnight and sweet music....
Great music and art are earthly wonders, but I think 'cubist' songs and paintings are hideous.
Even though I am nearly deaf, I seem to be gifted with a kind of inner hearing which enables me to detect sounds and noises that the listeners do not perceive.
Of all my inventions, I liked the phonograph best...."

ADDENDUM 1

Paraphrased Edison quote with respect to his work on perfecting the light bulb:

From "Edison The Man And His Work" by George S. Bryan 1926.

"The electric light has caused me the greatest amount of study and has required the most elaborate experiments.... Although I was never myself discouraged or hopeless of its success, I can not say the same for my associates.... Through all of the years of experimenting with it, I never once made an associated discovery. It was deductive... The results I achieved were the consequence of invention - pure and simple. I would construct and work along various lines until I found them untenable. When one theory was discarded, I developed another at once. I realized very early that this was the only possible way for me to work out all the problems.

ADDENDUM 2

"The terrible thing about interest is that those people who will not be turning a shovel full of dirt on this (Muscle Shoals Dam Project) or be contributing a pound of material towards it will collect more money from the United States than will the People who supply all the material and do all the work on it."

ADDENDUM 3

Edison's favorite piece of poetry was stanza nine from Thomas Gray's Elegy To A Country-Churchyard, which he perpetually recited within earshot of his many associates:

"The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power,
And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave,
Awaits alike the inevitable hour:
The paths of glory lead but to the grave."

If I can be of any assistance in any way, please do not hesitate to call on me.

Please accept my best wishes for your continued prosperity and good health.

Regards,

Muhammad Ahmed

Computer incharge

Nishat Group of Schools and Colleges

59.9 Percent? Americans Are Racking Up Huge Credit Card Balances Once Again and Some of the Interest Rates Are Absolutely Outrageous!

59.9 Percent? Americans Are Racking Up Huge Credit Card Balances Once Again and Some of the Interest Rates Are Absolutely Outrageous!
Economic Collapse Blog

Well, it was nice while it lasted. One of the really good things that came out of the recent economic downturn was that millions of American families decided to get out of debt. In particular, we had seen a sustained trend of reduced credit card usage in the United States. It looked like Americans had finally wised up. But we should have known that Americans would not be willing to tighten their belts forever. Unfortunately, it appears that getting out of debt is no longer so "trendy". In fact, the month of December was the third month in a row in which consumer credit grew in the United States. Prior to that, consumer credit in the United States had declined for 20 months in a row. The American people were doing so, so good. Why did they have to stop? It appears that the American people have fallen off the wagon and have gotten a taste for credit card debt once again. This time, however, the credit card companies are back with interest rates that are higher than ever. In fact, one national credit card company has hundreds of thousands of customers signed up for a card that charges interest rates of up to 59.9%.

59.9%?

You mean there are people that are stupid enough to actually sign up for a credit card that will charge them 59.9% interest?

Unfortunately the answer is yes.

In fact, the top rate was 79.9% before First Premier Bank lowered it.

These cards are targeted at Americans that have a poor credit history, and these days there are a whole lot of those.

A recent story on the website of CNN described how large numbers of U.S. consumers with poor credit are gobbling up credit cards like these. Unfortunately, many of these consumers are also not smart enough to realize what they are getting into. The CNN story contained a quote from a woman who was in complete shock when she discovered that her interest rate was going to go up by 50 percentage points....

"I about had a heart attack when I got a disclosure notice saying that my starting rate of 29.9% was going up to 79.9%."

First Premier Bank has since lowered the top rate on those cards to 59.9%, but that it still completely outrageous.

Not only are the interest rates on those cards super high, but they also charge a whole bunch of fees on those cards as well. The following are some of the fees that First Premier Bank charges....

$45 processing fee to open the account
Annual fee of $30 for the first year
$45 fee for every subsequent year
A monthly servicing fee of $6.25

So you would think that nobody in their right mind would ever sign up for such a card, right?

Wrong.

CNN is reporting that almost 700,000 Americans have signed up for the card.

Ouch.

In fact, CNN says that First Premier Bank gets between 200,000 to 300,000 new applications a month for the card, but that they only open about 50,000 new accounts each month.

Are there really this many Americans that are this gullible?

If Americans would just remember the "DBS" rule they would be so much better off.

DBS = Don't Be Stupid

Do you know how long it would take to pay off a credit card with a 59.9 percent interest rate?

Just a 20 percent interest rate is bad enough.

According to the credit card repayment calculator, if you owe $6000 on a credit card with a 20 percent interest rate and only pay the minimum payment each time, it will take you 54 years to pay off that credit card.

During that time you will pay $26,168 in interest rate charges in addition to the $6000 in principal that you are required to pay back.

Ouch!

The number one piece of financial advice that most of the "financial gurus" give is that you should get out of credit card debt - particularly credit card debt that has a high interest rate.

Unfortunately, 46% of all Americans carry a credit card balance from month to month today.

According to the United States Census Bureau, there are approximately 1.5 billion credit cards in use in the United States.

Of U.S. households that have credit card debt, the average amount owed on credit cards is $15,788.

This is how the bankers enslave us.

We end up paying them 3, 4 or even 5 times as much as we originally borrowed.

Month after month after month we slave away to make them wealthy.

So how do you stop this vicious cycle?

You quit buying stuff that you can't afford!

Unfortunately, the vast majority of Americans have never received any formal training on how to manage finances.

Most of us were never taught any of this stuff in school. Most of us were totally unprepared when the financial predators started preying on us in college. Most of us got sucked in and spent years and years trapped in credit card debt.

When you carry a balance from month to month you are willingly signing up to become a debt servant to the big banks. They get rich while you suffer.

The sad thing is that the mainstream media is pointing to increased credit card spending as a sign that the U.S. economy is getting back to normal.

But gigantic mountains of debt is what got us into all of this trouble in the first place.

Average household debt in the United States has now reached a level of 136% of average household income.

In China that figure is only 17%.

Obviously, we have a massive, massive problem with debt in this country.

Cranking the debt spiral back up is not going to cause the economy to recover.

Well, the profits of the big banks might recover, but the rest of us will suffer.

If you want to be financially free, then it is time to pay off your credit card debt and get off the debt payment treadmill for good.

The entire global economy is on the verge of collapse, so now is a great time to renounce consumerism. Instead, we need to be preparing ourselves and our families for the hard times that are coming.

Reprinted with permission from the Economic Collapse Blog.

Rage, Confusion in Egypt as Mubarak Resignation Never Happens

Rage, Confusion in Egypt as Mubarak Resignation Never Happens
Envoy Says Suleiman 'de Facto' Ruler of Egypt
by Jason Ditz, February 10, 2011

The early evening in Egypt was filled with jubilation, as the state media broadcast reports pointing to the imminent ouster of reviled President Hosni Mubarak and promised a 10:00 PM speech that everyone assumed would be a resignation speech.

10:00 PM arrived, and the state media was broadcasting sports news and tourism promos. No explanation was given, and it wasn't until 10:30 PM, fashionably late perhaps, that Hosni Mubarak finally emerged to deliver the words everyone wanted to hear. But he didn't.

Instead, Mubarak's speech was as patronizing as ever, insisting "foreign pressure" was trying to chase him out and vowing to remain in office to protect Egyptians, "his children," and oversee the transition.

He did promise to turn over more authority to Vice President and heir-apparent Omar Suleiman, who the ambassador later described as the "de facto head of state," but the speech reaction was clear, as media covered the massive crowds in Tahrir Square: confusion and disappointment, quickly turning into rage.

Mubarak's "vision" and calls to end the public protests were a slap in the face to many after weeks of rallies demanding his ouster, and were more of a call back to the "day of departure" speech, which was also expected to be the end of things, than it was anything productive.

Reports had protesters so furious that they were hoping to march on the president's residence, and Egypt's military struggled to placate the crowd with promises that " everything you want will be realized," as protesters become increasingly impatient.

Indeed, Mubarak's defiant position has gotten so absurd, and his speeches so counterproductive to his government's goal of "restoring order," that a number of people on the media began to question Mubarak's sanity, wondering if his decades of dictatorial rule have taken such a toll that he has lost all control of his senses, and whether this might be used as a justification for his ouster going forward.

Other more charitable people are trying to believe that the Egyptian dictator was hoping to placate the public by " stepping back," and turning over day to day operations of the regime to Suleiman. If this was the reasoning it seems they dramatically underestimated just how little trust there is for Suleiman and how much patience the protesters have for a Mubarak-style regime going forward.

http://news.antiwar.com/2011/02/10/rage-confusion-in-egypt-as-mubarak-resignation-never-happens/

My Associations with Liars, Bigots, and Murderers

My Associations with Liars, Bigots, and Murderers
by Thomas J. DiLorenzo

I speak of course of my recent visit to the U.S. House of Representatives to testify at Congressman Ron Paul's first hearing on the Fed as chairman of the House Financial Services Committee. The Rayburn House Office Building, like most government office buildings in Washington, D.C., is a very creepy place. Knowing that the majority of the congress critters who reside in those offices support the unnecessary wars in Iraq and Afghanistan (and worse), and all the senseless death they have been responsible for, should send chills up any decent person's spine.

As for the liars and bigots, one of the bigger ones, William Lacy Clay, a congressman from St. Louis who is (unfortunately) a member of the House Financial Services Committee, was in fine form. When he got his turn to question me he first denounced Austrian economics as some kind of fraud because it does not utilize the same positivistic methodology that, say, the Fed economists do. You know, the ones who were completely clueless about both the existence of the housing bubble and what to do once it burst. As Congressman Paul pointed out in the hearing, as late as 2008 Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke was still forecasting an increased pace of economic growth. As seen in a YouTube video entitled "Ben Bernanke was Wrong," as late as mid 2007 Bernanke was assuring the public on CNBC that there was no sub-prime mortgage problem, and that the world economy was in fine shape. "He had no idea what he was talking about," Congressman Paul correctly stated.

It was Austrian economists like Mark Thornton, on the other hand, who were warning of a housing bubble years before it burst. The Nobel Prize committee would be shocked indeed to learn that Austrian economics is fraudulent, having awarded the best-known Austrian of the twentieth century, F.A. Hayek, the Nobel Prize in Economic Science in 1974. But hey, what does a hack politician from St. Louis know about economics anyway?

Fed apologists are apparently in a state of panic over the first sighting of two economists – Richard Vedder and myself – appearing before their committee to (horrors!) criticize the Fed. Rather than ask me a single question, Congressman Clay decided to lie about my background with a libelous smear. First, some background information: About thirteen years ago three fellow academics from Emory University, the University of South Carolina, and the University of Alabama asked me if I would deliver a few lectures on the economics of the "Civil War" to a group of about twenty students at a week-long summer seminar. Two of them were historians and one was a philosopher, and they wanted to add some economics to the curriculum. They had just started something called "The League of the South Institute." Since I lecture to students all over the country, and these were three fellow professors who I respected, I enthusiastically agreed. I recall it being a very enjoyable experience, as it always is when I get to teach students who attend a summer seminar for no college credit, just for the sake of learning. Such students are always among the very best that I encounter. That is the only connection I have ever had with the League of the South, which apparently still lists the titles of those old lectures somewhere on its Web site.

Clay lied through his teeth by stating that I "work for" the League of the South, and further stating that, consequently, I must endorse everything everyone associated with that organization has said in the succeeding thirteen years since I spoke to those students about the economics of the Civil War. This makes as much sense as saying that I endorse everything Congress says and does because I gave a presentation there on February 9.

Nor am I bigoted toward the people at the League of the South either, as is Congressman Clay. The oh-so-easily-offended Congressman Clay once told a white member of Congress whose Memphis, Tennessee district is 60% black that he could not collaborate with the Congressional Black Caucus for the benefit of his black constituents "until your skin turns black." He's apparently an Obama-style "racial healer."

Having lied about my non-existent working relationship with the League of the South, making it sound like I pack my lunch and go to work there every day, Clay then declared that the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) apparently disapproves of the League of the South. What a shocker! This is the same SPLC that accused the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C. of "mainstreaming hate" by sponsoring a public debate on immigration policy. Their modus operandi is to label any individual or group that effectively criticizes their far-left, socialistic agenda as a "hater." Apparently, associating with anyone south of the Mason-Dixon line in any way qualifies one as a "hater" and potential KKK recruit in the warped minds of the hateful and libelous SPLC.

Congressman Clay was not yet finished with his lies. I sent the committee 100 copies of my testimony along with a short one-page bio, as they requested. The bio listed several of my latest books, including Hamilton's Curse and How Capitalism Saved America. The former discusses such economic topics as the origins and evolution of central banking in America, how America became a corporate welfare state, the economics of public debt, the founding of the Fed, the economic consequences of adopting the income tax, and more. How Capitalism Saved America covers such topics as the meaning of capitalism, anti-capitalism, the superiority of private versus government-operated transportation systems, the benefits to "the working class" of capitalism, the "robber barons," the history and economics of antitrust, the role of the Fed in igniting the Great Depression, how the New Deal made the Great Depression worse, and the economics of the energy crisis of the '70s, among other things. And of course The Real Lincoln tells the story of the seventy-year political war over the "American System" of protectionism, corporate welfare, and a nationalized banking system that was finally cemented into place during the Lincoln administration.

The sleazy Congressman Clay, however, claimed that his crackerjack staff informed him that I have written nothing about economics in the past 15 years. My writings are all about history, he said, oblivious to the fact that economic history is a very relevant field to the question of the performance of the Fed over the past century. Indeed, Ben Bernanke himself claims to be an economic historian, having published numerous academic journal articles on the Great Depression. Several of my books discuss the origins of the first central bank, the Bank of the United States; its (abysmal) performance; its destruction by President Andrew Jackson; its replacement by the Independent Sub-Treasury System, Abraham Lincoln's critiques of that system; the adoption of the National Currency Acts and Legal Tender Acts by the Lincoln administration; how that system performed over the next fifty years; the creation of the Fed; and its performance. Clay claims that, according to his crackerjack staff, there was nothing in all of this that would be relevant to a hearing on monetary policy.

Congressman Clay slithered out of the hearing room (shortly after the notorious Barney Frank vacated the premises) while a couple of his equally odious, far-left compatriots threw softballs at "their" witness, whose main argument was that the so-called Great Recession was caused by the bursting of the housing bubble, which in turn caused consumers to begin acting more responsibly by spending less and saving more. He didn't put it that way, of course, but instead made the age-old (and thoroughly discredited) Keynesian argument that spending, and not savings, investment, production and work, is what causes economic growth and job creation. He made no mention at all in his prepared statement of any possible cause of the housing bubble in the first place. That would have been dangerous, for everyone in the room would have pegged the Fed as the Prime Suspect. But at the very end of the hearing he did offer his theory of the boom-and-bust cycle: Prosperity comes about whenever the government hires more bureaucrats and/or gives them more responsibilities; recessions occur whenever government cuts back on the number of bureaucrats and/or their meddling in the private sector. Bursts of regulation, he said, are the cause of prosperity, whereas deregulation is the cause of recessions and depressions. The Democrats on the committee sat there smiling and nodding their heads in approval. Do I really have to comment about such an asinine theory?

http://www.lewrockwell.com/dilorenzo/dilorenzo201.html

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Protest Sign Of The Day

Protest Sign Of The Day
10 Feb 2011 07:02 pm

by Chris Bodenner

(Photo: Doctors, medical workers and students march through Cairo to join anti-government protests in Tahrir Square on February 10, 2011 in Cairo, Egypt. Thousands of workers from various unions across Egypt, including many medical workers, have gone on strike today with protestors calling for a nationwide general strike. The wave of strikes is increasing pressure on the government following more than two weeks of protests calling for the resignation of President Hosni Mubarak. By John Moore/Getty Images.)

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2011/02/protest-sign-of-the-day.html

Re: Wringing-the-Neck of Empty Ritual.

> from, my 'New Constitution of the United States of America'!

> Let's see it.

[G] I've posted perhaps 40% of my New Constitution. To see that
much, follow the threads back in time. My individual Google replies—
amounting to like 200K words—give context explanations of much that is
in the document. Because I limited the length of the New Constitution
to 10 ledger-size sheets, the functional relationships of the various
parts requires reading all of the various parts. There are, perhaps,
four to five hundred specific corrections to government, and to our
controllable capitalist system. The later must be fair to their
employees and to their customers, and considerate and protective of
our environment. No one will need to fear not getting a fair
opportunity. But socialists, and their ilk, won't be holding any sway
in this country. Bet on it! — John A. Armistead —

Like I said, let's see it. Post it. Provide it. Then ... support it.

Regard$,
--MJ

"This 'divine fact' called government is generally resident in the will and caprice of a person called a king; but it may exist under any other garb or mask. It may call itself a prince, an emperor, a czar, a shah, a mikado, a sultan, a president, a speaker of the House of Representatives. Whatever it is, and in whatever shape it comes, whether it be angel or devil, its peculiarity is that it exists and maintains itself and exercises its authority outside of and upon the people it governs.

"The theorem continues thus: Government is not of the people, but apart from them. It begins not in the hearts and hopes of them, but in its own passions and ambitions… Did space permit, I should gladly summarize the work of this monstrous thing among the nations of the earth. History is replete with the story of the abuses, cruelties, and tyrannies of the fact called government." -- John Clark Ridpath, ca. 1898:

Re: Wringing-the-Neck of Empty Ritual.

>(4.)     Our Constitution allows the House and Senate to make their own…
> rules. But the SPIRIT of the Constitution DEMANDS that its most
> fundamental objectives NOT be negated by whatever rules have been
> made! To wit: (A.) Allowing seniority to determine who has power on
> committees or in legislative processes. (B.) Allowing the majority
> party to have powerful chairmanships of committees and sub-
> committees. (C.) Allowing straw votes, or test votes, to identify
> who will need to be pressured to… pass or to defeat a bill. (D.)
> Allowing role call votes which let under-the-table deals be made while
> the votes are being cast. (F.) Allowing filibustering to give
> individuals more power than their one vote. (G.) Allowing caucuses
> of any kind for gaining unfair influence over the outcome of votes.
> (H.) Allowing disparate items to be 'attached' to bills, so that the
> passage of the desired portions must also entail the passage of the
> undesired portions. Etc., etc…
>          Heretofore, any person taking an oath to support the Constitution has
> in fact been taking an oath the support the failed TRADITIONS which
> violate the SPIRIT of the Constitution, itself!
> Again, the Constitution provides LIMITED Powers, It is usurpations
> and conditioning of the citizenry that has created the power-mongering
> and the pull-peddling. This will not go away by merely installing some
> other set of rules for the legislature.

[F]

[F]   Ha! The corruption in Washington will go away ONE day after my
New Constitution is ratified! Those working for government will be
going to prison, or to the gallows, for assenting to, then
disregarding this requirement: "Fair play and democracy shall have
supremacy in the USA!" That one sentence will assure the survival of
this country!

Your delusions notwithstanding, you keep talking about some magical,
mythical constitution that has not been seen.

History is clearly not on your side.

The Corruption exists -- as noted -- precisely because the Government
has power (usurped, primarily) over others; to take from some and give
to their favored under the guise of 'common good' and similar nonsense.

Regard$,
--MJ

Those who do not learn from the mistakes of history are doomed to
repeat them. -- George Santayana

Re: Wringing-the-Neck of Empty Ritual.

> Again, it is the Sovereign States who are party to the Constitution.
> How is it that a mob is somehow more legitimate OR better equipped?
> In the end, were the document ENFORCED as it is written ... this and
> so much would be meaningless.

[E]

[E] The original Constitution was weak. It evolved away from being
enforced, while Congress praised, but disregarded its precepts. I can
assure you that the POWER of my New Constitution will negate having
any public official ever again disregard its precepts!

<scratches head>
Automobile fenders are best fitted on a car before finalizing their assembly.

Regard$,
--MJ

No one has the right to thrust himself into the affairs ofothers in order to further their interest, and no one ought, when he has his own interests in view, to pretend that he is acting selflessly only in the interests of others.
-- Ludwig von Mises, Liberalism

Re: Wringing-the-Neck of Empty Ritual.

>(3.) Our Constitution details the procedures associated with the
> Electoral College System for APPROXIMATING the democratic votes of the
> People. In pioneer times, the Electoral College was the only workable
> way to get the votes relayed to Washington. Before there was such
> thing as even a telegraph, it was electors on horseback, or nothing.
> But the SPIRIT of the Constitution demands that when technology—such
> as we have, now—enables the accurate counting of the votes of the
> People in a single day, that both the People AND democracy are best
> served by letting the popular votes decide elections! Any President
> who takes an oath to "preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution",
> must preserve, protect, and defend the OBJECTIVES of the Constitution,
> NOT just the horse and buggy era… 'traditions' which are no longer
> serving the best interests of the People!

> There is no such thing as an 'Electoral College'. The DESIGN was for
> these various State Electors to NEVER come to a consensus, but instead
> to serve as a 'search committee' of sorts. The House of Representatives
> would then choose the president. This did not occur in practice (except
> once).

[D] Ditto the pedantry part in [C].

You are obviously confused.

Regard$,
--MJ

The art of politics, under democracy, is simply the art of ringing it. Two branches reveal themselves. There is the art of the demagogue, and there is the art of what may be called, by a shot-gun marriage of Latin and Greek, the demaslave. They are complementary, and both of them are degrading to their practitioners. The demagogue is one who preaches doctrines he knows to be untrue to men he knows to be idiots. The demaslave is one who listens to what these idiots have to say and then pretends that he believes it himself. -- H.L. Mencken

Re: Wringing-the-Neck of Empty Ritual.

>(2.) Our Constitution makes no mention of the 'acceptability' of
> allowing political parties to be CLEARINGHOUSES in determining who our
> elected officials can be. Political parities—with their unique sets
> of biases and objectives—have undercut the genuine representation, and
> the diversity that is so needed in our government officials. Though
> political parties have their own 'rules', they are the rules of quasi
> governmental bodies which run counter to the USA itself, and are thus
> unconstitutional.

> Parties, themselves, are not and cannot be 'unconstitutional' (which is a
> silly assertion). That the Party Machine(s) have subsequently used the
> Government to create advantages for themselves (ie. campaign laws) is
> indeed unconstitutional.

[C]

[C] Political parties aren't mentioned in the Constitution at all.
Those are quasi governmental bodies that usurp the power of the People
to determine who can represent them, and are thus unconstitutional.
Your hints of pedantry don't rise to the level of questioning the
functional perfection of my New Constitution.

There was no claim that political parties were mentioned in the Constitution.
It remains that political parties are not nor can they be unconstitutional.
As noted, it is their use of Government (ie. campaign laws) that is unconstitutional.

Again, I have not SEEN your Constitution. Your Constitution was not mentioned,
reviewed or otherwise.

Regard$,
--MJ

Under democracy one party always devotes its chief energies to trying to prove that the other party is unfit to rule -- and both commonly succeed, and are right... The United States has never developed an aristocracy really disinterested or an intelligentsia really intelligent. Its history is simply a record of vacillations between two gangs of frauds. -- H.L. Mencken