Fwd: Fw: Debt Ceiling?

 

 

 

This is the man who has been censoring media, paying off people, bankrolling the Obama campaign with bogus $25 donations x millions.

This is a man who is the the king of special interest.

If all what Obama has done or said still has had no effect on why you should not vote for him, this guy alone associated with Obama and Axelrod is your main reason to not support Obama.

 

 

 

 

On Jul 29, 2011, at 9:45 PM, Charles Bielskis wrote:

 

 

What's the hold up, and it is a hold up. Why didn't we hear more of raising the debt ceiling 18 times when president Reagan was president

? Is  it because we have a group that thinks of themselves first instead of the country? If and when this triggers the high cost of everyday life like higher coffee cost, Toilet Paper, remember that one? Interest fees on property, credit cards, you name it. Give them a chance and the cost of everything we use will cost more. Do any of these guys think they will be reelected if the USA goes down the tubes in August. If they do get elected they may find they are volunteering their time. There may not be enough money to keep the doors open.

Dear Mr. Obama, I heard you say you will not guarantee SS checks if the debt ceiling isn't raised.     Why is it the scare always has to do with SS, Medicare, & our Soldiers pay? Why not stop your pay, your staff, or Congress and the Senate to save more money for our country? Why use Seniors, Soldiers, & our Needy as examples? Take the money from those who take no risks and reap the benefits!! Repost if you agree Instead of threatening to withhold Social Security, VA and disability payments of people who really need the money.... Lets hold the paychecks of all house & senate members, then see how fast they resolve the debt ceiling crisis !!!!! If you agree repost this & keep it going across the whole USA

 

 

 

 

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Is there any comunication on this forum?

?

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Re: **JP** Mian sahib.. Please let it go

I dont think an honest Pakistani can never admire anyting in this gutttersnipe called Zardari. He and the likes of him are a disgrace to every Pakistani. On every call for appearance for hearing by the Swiss courts he had a heart attack and was unfit to walk. He even sent a false medical certificate suffering from Schizofrenia, an incurable mental disease. His associate in that corruption case was convited. Now for the last 3 years he has been running about like a horse. Where are his heart attacks now?.

 

His admirers say he was imprisoned for 8 years and nothing cud b proved against him. Can a man who has trillions to bribe can ever be convicted in this coutry? All prosecuter, all judjes, all jailers can be and were purchased by him. If you read the jail manual even a needle cannot go inside the jail to reach a prisoner, weheras, he had all the pleasures of life in his cell. He would often leave the jail at night and return in the early hours. Benazir got pregnant with him behind bars. It is only the Swiss Courts that he could not buy his way out, and that is why he is so mortally scared of them and his case would sent back over their dead bodies. That is why he was so hell bent to preven Iftikhar Ch from reaching the Supreme court; the only man who stands behind a total landslide of corruption and all of us and our country being buried under it.  

 

But he is certainly lucky. This scum of this earth still somehow unfortunately has his admirers, and we should pity him and them. 

 

Mian Sahib is neither a yardstick nor worth a mention. He, the Choudhries and the rest of them are all responsible for the filth around us. He has neither any brains, nor wit, nor political sense. The only good thing he did was restore an honest superior judiciary. Nothing more, nothing less. And what we face today is what we have deserved. We still praise and admire a man like him and when it comes to that we vote for him and make him a president.

 

Khalid Javed   

 

 

 

On Thu, Jul 28, 2011 at 4:42 PM, Syed Laiqat Ali Banori <banori@sharp-pakistan.org> wrote:

Message body

FROM:

• Liaqat Banori

TO:

• joinpakistan@googlegroups.com

Message flagged

Thursday, July 28, 2011 4:53 PM

Message body

Mian Nawaz Sahrif once a most popular leader of this country has lost all his popularity because he has only one point agenda to criticize and demand punishment for Pervez Musharraf and nothing else. Yesterday he was elected as president of his faction of Muslim league and the first resolution passed by the general council was against pervez musharraf. Pervez Musharraf is now history and he has already been punished by almighty Allah that he is now unable to come back to Pakistan which he was ruling arbitrarily for nine years. People of Pakistan have no concern with hanging of dictators because they are suffering due to many issues concerning to their survival and every day is getting crucial for average citizen of this country. We have a lot of problems and we know that present government has badly failed to meet the expectations of the public. I myself was a big supporter of Mian sahib in last elections but I could not find him with public in last three years which surely disappointed me along with the masses who were considering him as an alternate leadership. Now if he appears on surface for the coming elections, as our leadership usually does I doubt he will be getting the same  response as we all were expecting some two three years back.

The biggest crisis the nation is facing this time is the crisis of leadership. Unfortunately the nation has no sincere guiding leadership. Whatsoever we have is either not competent or lack sincerity or mostly confined to their personal interests. There is no leadership available to be trusted. Educated Pakistanis do not cast their votes and 35 percent illiterate voters select leadership for this country while the people who does not ote than criticize the government. Zardari led government has shown very  good results in Kashmir and in bye elections which were because of Nawaz Sharif who has the same stereo type demand to hang musharraf during the election campaign in Kashmir with 600 police security personnels of Punjab police with him. Mian Sahib. Let it go now please.Forget Pervez Musharraf and remember the people who have expectations from you. People want from leadership solution of their problems. People want programe from  their leaders in current law and order situation unemployment, load shedding increasing price hikes and provision of basic rights. Mian sahib has left with very short time either to become the public voice or to face the music. Zardari has proved himself a good leader and that he knows best tactices of politics by knocking out all political leadership in the name of reconciliation and peacefully completing his three years in Presidency with all allegations on his person. He is now even daring for head on collusion by defying the Supreme Court orders to take revenge from Judicary for all that humiliation which he faced in during long March forcing him restoration of judiciary. I doubt He may succeed in next elections if Mian Sahib do not start his politics and do not revive his contacts with the public.

It is my personal opinion based on my feelings as Pakistani and i would like comments of friends. 

 

Liaqat Banori

 

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Girl put some clothes on!

Girl put some clothes on! dcgere | July 29, 2011 at 10:15 pm | Tags: Walmart | Categories: Idiots In General | URL: http://wp.me/pKuKY-8o5

 

Bikini-clad woman kicked out of Walmart says she's a survivor

Via KOMO News: Sandy McMillin's story has received international attention after she said Walmart employees kicked her out for wearing a bikini. Her story has also prompted a flurry of online comments. Some viewers applauded McMillin for standing up to Walmart. Others criticized her for her choice of attire.

Sandy McMillin and her sister Karla Vogt went to Walmart (in Eugene, OR - a liberal cesspool) on Sunday to buy sour cream, chips and coffee creamer. The temperature that day hit 90 degrees, so McMillin threw on a turquoise bikini and a pair of shorts. She said five minutes into her shopping trip while in the clothing aisle, a store employee told her to put on a shirt or leave, saying the swimsuit violated health codes.

"I was horrified," McMillin told KVAL News. "I am embarrassed." McMillin said employees then escorted her and her sister out of the store. "I hadn't done anything obnoxious or outlandish," McMillin said.

Walmart spokeswoman Ashley Hardie told KVAL News that McMillin has it all wrong. Hardie said customers complained and McMillin verbally abused people in the store. But Hardie said McMillin was never escorted outside.

I don't care how hot outside it is - girl put some clothes on!

DCG

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The Largest Dead Snake ever Found. 50 Feet.

The Largest Dead Snake ever Found. 50 Feet. Steve | July 30, 2011 at 6:26 am | Categories: Animals | URL: http://wp.me/pKuKY-8oe

watch?v=Uqg3Pg2M9WU&feature=player_embedded

~Steve~        H/T Joseph

Hey blame him. :D

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Arkansas Online: 'Alpena to have 5 state legislators'

 

Can you believe this? 


http://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2011/jul/30/alpena-have-5-state-legislators-20110730/

Alpena to have 5 state legislators
Town of 392 gets 3 senators, 2 House members in redistricting
By Bill Bowden

LITTLE ROCK -- LITTLE ROCK &#151; Alpena, population 392, will have three state senators for the next decade.

The Arkansas Board of Apportionment split the Ozark mountain town among three Senate districts when it voted Friday to adopt new redistricting boundaries.

"I looked at those maps, and I can't tell diddly squat," said Alpena Mayor Bobbie Bailey. "But it looks like they're trying to put Alpena out in no man's land."

The fragmenting of Alpena was done by accident, said Matt DeCample, a spokesman for Gov. Mike Beebe.

"That was absolutely not intentional on our part," De-Cample said. "We have nothing against the good folks of Alpena. But the lines have to go somewhere. That's a unique situation for a town that small. Sometimes we're able to catch things likethat. Sometimes they slip through."

DeCample said the governor's office was unaware of the situation involving Alpena until informed of it by a reporter Friday afternoon.

"I think if we had gotten feedback from Alpena that it was something they were really worried about, [the district lines] would have been something we could have moved," he said.

Bailey, 76, said she hadn't contacted the governor's office because she couldn't tell from maps published in the Harrison Daily Times exactly where the boundary went in relation to Alpena.

When asked if she had seen the maps on the apportionment board's website, arkansasredistricting.org, Bailey said she hadn't.

"That's a bunch of nonsense," she said, referring to the Internet. "I pick up my e-mail, and I'm lucky to get that done. I don't know about [the Internet]. Maybe it's time I started knowing."

Bailey has been mayor of Alpena for 17 years.

Public meetings have been held on redistricting since May, but the nearest one to Alpena was in Fayetteville, 60 miles to the east.

The Apportionment Board adopted maps drafted by the governor's office. The board consists of Beebe, Attorney General Dustin McDaniel and Secretary of State Mark Martin. Senate and House lines are redrawn after each decennial census to take into account any population shifts.

Two of the three members on the Apportionment Board - Beebe and McDaniel - are Democrats. Martin is a Republican.

DeCample said the board followed common boundaries in drafting the maps. Those boundaries include county lines and major highways. Alpena straddles the Boone-Carroll county line and is at the intersection of two major highways, U.S. 412 and U.S. 62. The new Senate boundaries follow the county line and U.S. 62 through Alpena.

On the basis of the boundaries described to her Friday, Bailey said, Alpena has about 16 residents who live in the new Senate District 5. Another 45 Alpena residents will be in District 16 and the rest in District 17, she indicated.

At first, Bailey joked about the situation, saying she'll have three senators to help her get things done.

DeCample echoed that.

"You've got a small rural town with three state senators on call," he said.

But after Bailey thought about it, she said it would make things more difficult.

"I really do believe it would complicate matters," she said. "That means I'd have to write three different letters and ask for help from three different people. ...

"It looks like they're going to really mess us up doing this. It doesn't look like it's going to be much fun. As little as we are, my gracious."

Bailey said the population of Alpena increased from 371 to 392 over the past decade. The Census Bureau lists 392 as the 2010 population.

The new House district lines also divide Alpena, but only into two districts, 83 and 98. So five people in the Legislature will be representing Alpena.

Arkansas has 35 senators and 100 members of the House of Representatives.

David Hoover, a member of the Carroll County Election Commission and the county's Republican chairman, said he's concerned about confusion at election time. For the past 10 years, Carroll County was wholly within Senate District 2 and House District 91. Those districts also extended into Boone County, keeping Alpena whole.

For the next decade, Carroll County will be divided among two Senate districts and three House districts.

Elections will be challenging, he said. "We're going to have to really be attentive to the lines and where the lines are drawn. And we're going to have to have numerous ballot faces," he said.

Election workers may have to help voters determine which Senate and House districts they live in, he said.

"The state representative districts forked Carroll County in three ways," said state Rep. Bryan King, R-Green Forest. "I think it's a terrible thing. I think it's a slap in the face to Carroll County. They should be drawn on geographic boundaries not trying to split everything up forpolitical benefit."

King, who represents District 91, can't seek re-election to the House next year because of term limits. King said he hasn't decided if he will run for a different office.

The maps become effective Aug. 29. DeCample said there are no plans to change the maps before that date.



--------
Thanks for your interest in Arkansas Online

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New fossil deemed oldest known bird
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To the ENDS of the EARTH
http://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2011/jul/30/ends-earth-20110730/

Service held in Ark. for victims of roller rink shootings
http://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2011/jul/30/service-held-ark-victims-roller-rink-shootings/

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Well worth watching - small business owner speaks out on the debt ceiling

http://www.grouchyoldcripple.com/archives/008739.html

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Op-ed in today's Boston Globe from Bawney Fwank - unbelievable chutzpah

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2011/07/30/a_thousand_cuts/

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Nice to see the Dems are up for compromise on the debt limit - not!!

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_DEBT_SHOWDOWN?SITE=OHMOU&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

This just shows me that we need to get rid of the dem majority in the
Senate in the next election.

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Fwd: [W-H] Why do real men watch Fox News?

 

And I thought I was just getting better information!

 

 

Why do real men watch Fox News? Maybe because of: Megyn Kelly Martha Maccallum Harris Faulkner Courtney Friel Uma Pemmeraju Jane Skinner Kimberly Guillfoyle Did I mention Courtney Friel (Oops, repeat. Hope you don't mind) Lis Wiehl Rebecca Gomez Gretchen Carlson Courtney Friel (Darn repeated again. Sorry) Laurie Dhue Julie Banderas, Ainsley Earhart , Dominica Davis And there are probably some missing. Why Republican Men Are So Much Happier! ANY QUESTIONS?

 

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Jesus, Reagan and John Lennon -- What Secrets Has Yoko Ono Been Keeping From Us?

Jesus, Reagan and John Lennon -- What Secrets Has Yoko Ono Been Keeping From Us?
By Mark Joseph
Published July 24, 2011 | FoxNews.com

You'd think someone as smart as Yoko Ono who lived through Watergate would have learned the most important lesson the scandal taught all of us: the coverup is always worse than the crime. But, if several reports are to be believed, she didn't and has for years been keeping secrets from all of us about her late husband.

First, thanks to rock biographer Steve Turner in his book "The Gospel According To The Beatles," we learned several years back that Lennon was a fan of TV preachers like Pat Robertson, Oral Roberts and Billy Graham.

Acording to Turner, none of this sat well with Ono who vigorously opposed Lennon's interest in Christianity:

"Over the following months he baffled those close to him by constantly praising "the Lord," writing Christian songs with titles like "Talking with Jesus" and "Amen" (the Lord's Prayer set to music), and trying to convert nonbelievers. He also called the prayer line of "The 700 Club," Pat Robertson's program.

The change in his life perturbed Yoko, who tried to talk him out of it. She reminded him of what he'd said about his vulnerability to strong religious leaders because of his emotionally deprived background. She knew that if the press found out about it they would have a field day with another John and Jesus story.

John became antagonistic toward her, blaming her for practicing the dark arts and telling her that she couldn't see the truth because her eyes had been blinded by Satan.

Those close to the couple sensed that the real reason she was concerned was that it threatened her control over John's life. If he became a follower of Jesus he would no longer depend on her and the occultists. During long, passionate arguments she attacked the key points of his fledgling faith.

They met with a couple of Norwegian missionaries whom Yoko questioned fiercely about the divinity of Christ, knowing that this was the teaching that John had always found the most difficult to accept. Their answers didn't satisfy her, and John began to waver in his commitment."

That Lennon was seeking spiritual answers in the Japanese mountain town of Karuizawa where he and Yoko and Sean spent time was well known.

One missionary, Carol Fleenor, who claimed that the couple also once attended her church, Karuizawa Union Church, remembered her encounter:

"We talked a little more about our kids. Before I knew it, an hour had passed, and he, Yoko and Sean prepared to pedal off on their bikes," she recalled. "'It's good to talk to all of you,' John said. 'I've been looking for something this summer, something spiritual,' he continued. ''I've been speaking with a lot of the missionaries I've met here, about life and what it all means. Thank you for your words.' He waved goodbye­and I waved back as they rode off, little Sean perched on his daddy's handlebars."

More recently, reports have surfaced in a soon to be released documentary that late in life, Lennon had grown ashamed of the political naivete of his early years and though unable to vote for him because of his British citizenship, had become a supporter of Ronald Reagan during his run for the presidency in 1980.

"John, basically, made it very clear that if he were an American he would vote for Reagan because he was really sour on Jimmy Carter," Seaman told filmmaker Seth Swirsky. "He did express support for Reagan, which shocked me....I also saw John embark in some really brutal arguments with my uncle, who's an old-time communist... He enjoyed really provoking my uncle... Maybe he was being provocative... but it was pretty obvious to me he had moved away from his earlier radicalism...He was a very different person back in 1979 and '80 than he'd been when he wrote 'Imagine.' By 1979 he looked back on that guy and was embarrassed by that guy's naivete."

Finally, according to a book titled All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview of John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Lennon questioned the theory of evolution, mocking the notion that man descended from apes:

"I don't believe in the evolution of fish to monkeys to men. Why aren't monkeys changing into men now?," Lennon asked. "It's absolute garbage. It's absolutely irrational garbage, as mad as the ones who believe the world was made only four thousand years ago, the fundamentalists.... I don't buy it. I've got no basis for it and no theory to offer, I just don't buy it. Something other than that. Something simpler. I don't buy anything other than "It always was and ever shall be."

If John Lennon had become a Reagan-loving, TV-evangelist watching, evolution-mocking 40-year old, it was certainly no crime.

But if Yoko knew it and kept it from us for the last 30 years, surely that would be a crime against the truth from a woman whose family motto was: "All I want is the truth. Just give me some truth"



Mark Joseph is a film producer, author and publisher of Bullypulpit.com. His most recent books include "The Lion, The Professor & The Movies: Narnia's Journey To The Big Screen" and "Wild Card: The Promise & Peril of Sarah Palin."

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2011/07/24/jesus-reagan-and-john-lennon-what-secrets-has-yoko-ono-been-keeping-from-us/

Default Now, or Suffer a More Expensive Crisis Later

Default Now, or Suffer a More Expensive Crisis Later: Ron Paul
By Ron Paul - Jul 22, 2011

Debate over the debt ceiling has reached a fever pitch in recent weeks, with each side trying to outdo the other in a game of political chicken. If you believe some of the things that are being written, the world will come to an end if the U.S. defaults on even the tiniest portion of its debt.

In strict terms, the default being discussed will occur if the U.S. fails to meet its debt obligations, through failure to pay either interest or principal due a bondholder. Proponents of raising the debt ceiling claim that a default on Aug. 2 is unprecedented and will result in calamity (never mind that this is simply an arbitrary date, easily changed, marking a congressional recess). My expectations of such a scenario are more sanguine.

The U.S. government defaulted at least three times on its obligations during the 20th century.

-- In 1934, the government banned ownership of gold and eliminated the right to exchange gold certificates for gold coins. It then immediately revalued gold from $20.67 per troy ounce to $35, thus devaluing the dollar holdings of all Americans by 40 percent.

-- From 1934 to 1968, the federal government continued to issue and redeem silver certificates, notes that circulated as legal tender that could be redeemed for silver coins or silver bars. In 1968, Congress unilaterally reneged on this obligation, too.

-- From 1934 to 1971, foreign governments were permitted by the U.S. government to exchange their dollars for gold through the gold window. In 1971, President Richard Nixon severed this final link between the dollar and gold by closing the gold window, thus in effect defaulting once again on a debt obligation of the U.S. government.


Unlimited Spending

No longer constrained by any sort of commodity backing, the federal government was now free to engage in almost unlimited fiscal profligacy, the only check on its spending being the market's appetite for Treasury debt. Despite the defaults in 1934, 1968 and 1971, world markets have been only too willing to purchase Treasury debt and thereby fund the government's deficit spending. If these major defaults didn't result in decreased investor appetite for U.S. obligations, I see no reason why defaulting on a small amount of debt this August would cause any major changes.

The national debt now stands at just over $14 trillion, while net total liabilities are estimated at over $200 trillion. The government is insolvent, as there is no way that this massive sum of liabilities can ever be paid off. Successive Congresses and administrations have shown absolutely no restraint when it comes to the budget process, and the idea that either of the two parties is serious about getting our fiscal house in order is laughable.


Boom and Bust

The Austrian School's theory of the business cycle describes how loose central bank monetary policy causes booms and busts: It drives down interest rates below the market rate, lowering the cost of borrowing; encourages malinvestment; and causes economic miscalculation as resources are diverted from the highest value use as reflected in true consumer preferences. Loose monetary policy caused the dot-com bubble and the housing bubble, and now is causing the government debt bubble.

For far too long, the Federal Reserve's monetary policy and quantitative easing have kept interest rates artificially low, enabling the government to drastically increase its spending by funding its profligacy through new debt whose service costs were lower than they otherwise would have been.

Neither Republicans nor Democrats sought to end this gravy train, with one party prioritizing war spending and the other prioritizing welfare spending, and with both supporting both types of spending. But now, with the end of the second round of quantitative easing, the federal funds rate at the zero bound, and the debt limit maxed out, Congress finds itself in a real quandary.


Hard Decisions

It isn't too late to return to fiscal sanity. We could start by canceling out the debt held by the Federal Reserve, which would clear $1.6 trillion under the debt ceiling. Or we could cut trillions of dollars in spending by bringing our troops home from overseas, making gradual reforms to Social Security and Medicare, and bringing the federal government back within the limits envisioned by the Constitution. Yet no one is willing to step up to the plate and make the hard decisions that are necessary. Everyone wants to kick the can down the road and believe that deficit spending can continue unabated.

Unless major changes are made today, the U.S. will default on its debt sooner or later, and it is certainly preferable that it be sooner rather than later.

If the government defaults on its debt now, the consequences undoubtedly will be painful in the short term. The loss of its AAA rating will raise the cost of issuing new debt, but this is not altogether a bad thing. Higher borrowing costs will ensure that the government cannot continue the same old spending policies. Budgets will have to be brought into balance (as the cost of servicing debt will be so expensive as to preclude future debt financing of government operations), so hopefully, in the long term, the government will return to sound financial footing.


Raising the Ceiling

The alternative to defaulting now is to keep increasing the debt ceiling, keep spending like a drunken sailor, and hope that the default comes after we die. A future default won't take the form of a missed payment, but rather will come through hyperinflation. The already incestuous relationship between the Federal Reserve and the Treasury will grow even closer as the Fed begins to purchase debt directly from the Treasury and monetizes debt on a scale that makes QE2 look like a drop in the bucket. Imagine the societal breakdown of Weimar Germany, but in a country five times as large. That is what we face if we do not come to terms with our debt problem immediately.

Default will be painful, but it is all but inevitable for a country as heavily indebted as the U.S. Just as pumping money into the system to combat a recession only ensures an unsustainable economic boom and a future recession worse than the first, so too does continuously raising the debt ceiling only forestall the day of reckoning and ensure that, when it comes, it will be cataclysmic.

We have a choice: default now and take our medicine, or put it off as long as possible, when the effects will be much worse.

(Ron Paul is a Republican representative from Texas and a candidate for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination. The opinions expressed are his own.)


http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-22/default-now-or-suffer-a-more-expensive-crisis-later-ron-paul.html

Breaking News(speak)

Breaking News(speak)
written by Ilana Mercer on 07.29.11 @ 8:28 pm

Wow: Republican wizards have passed a bill in the lower chamber that will both raise the debt ceiling and slash spending! The marvels of modern semantics. Meantime, BHO is tweeting like a twit possessed, urging Americans to work their representatives over so that a deal can be struck, and a disaster averted. The disaster: a rise in the interest rates on all the stuff they have borrowed. BHO's re-election hinges on happy spenders. (Even if it's splashing out at the One Dollar Store.)

It's remarkable what politicians putting pen to paper can achieve, isn't it?

The marvels of an alternate reality notwithstanding, interest rates are long overdue for a correction. Political will is what's keeping interest rates low or at zero, the premise being that buying and consuming is what generate economic growth. Keynesian crap, if you'd pardon my language. If interest rates rise, savers will be better rewarded. Capital for future investment can be accrued.

In his wonderfully learned book , The Failure of the 'New Economics, Henry Hazlitt summed-up the essence of Keynes' General Theory: "The great virtue is Consumption, extravagance, improvidence. The great vice is Saving, thrift, 'financial prudence.'" Duly, Obama has vowed to make credit flow "the way it should." Never mind that "all credit is debt," and that, in Hazlitt's words, "proposals for an increased volume of credit are merely another name for proposals for an increased burden of debt."

The Newsspeak Via National Journal:

Nearly two hours after the House narrowly approved House Speaker John Boehner's debt-ceiling bill, the Senate voted 59-41 to reject the speaker's plan, leaving Congress no closer to reaching agreement before the August 2 default deadline.

The vote did not kill the Boehner bill itself, allowing it to be used as a vehicle for a later compromise.

But Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., appeared at an impasse late Friday on negotiations on a Senate bill to raise the debt ceiling. As a result, Reid introduced new language to tighten his original proposal in the hopes of gaining more Republican support on a cloture vote on his legislation expected early Sunday.

According to a memo from his office, Reid's latest proposal would increase the deficit reduction over 10 years from $2.2 to $2.4 trillion, with a "dollar to dollar" increase in debt ceiling based on a proposal originally authored by McConnell to fast-track resolutions of disapproval to allow the president to raise the debt ceiling with the political liability falling on Democrats.

In his defense, Harry gets his meager savings by "winding down the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan which Republicans decry as budget gimmicks."

I hope that every one of the already stale Tea-Party freshmen who refused to quit the wars to save some money is tossed out of office.

You know guys, it's "Hard out there for an Ex-Pimp."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ARG9BXUZSc&feature=player_embedded


http://barelyablog.com/?p=40278

The Essential Rules of Tyranny

The Essential Rules of Tyranny
by Brandon Smith

As we look back on the horrors of the dictatorships and autocracies of the past, one particular question consistently arises; how was it possible for the common men of these eras to NOT notice what was happening around them? How could they have stood as statues unaware or uncaring as their cultures were overrun by fascism, communism, collectivism, and elitism? Of course, we have the advantage of hindsight, and are able to research and examine the misdeeds of the past at our leisure. Unfortunately, such hindsight does not necessarily shield us from the long cast shadow of tyranny in our own day. For that, the increasingly uncommon gift of foresight is required…

At bottom, the success of despotic governments and Big Brother societies hinges upon a certain number of political, financial, and cultural developments. The first of which is an unwillingness in the general populace to secure and defend their own freedoms, making them completely reliant on corrupt establishment leadership. For totalitarianism to take hold, the masses must not only neglect the plight of their country, and the plight of others, but also be completely uninformed of the inherent indirect threats to their personal safety. They must abandon all responsibility for their destinies, and lose all respect for their own humanity. They must, indeed, become domesticated and mindless herd animals without regard for anything except their fleeting momentary desires for entertainment and short term survival. For a lumbering bloodthirsty behemoth to actually sneak up on you, you have to be pretty damnably oblivious.

The prevalence of apathy and ignorance sets the stage for the slow and highly deliberate process of centralization. Once dishonest governments accomplish an atmosphere of inaction and condition a sense of frailty within the citizenry, the sky is truly the limit. However, a murderous power-monger's day is never quite done. In my recent article 'The Essential Rules of Liberty' we explored the fundamentally unassailable actions and mental preparations required to ensure the continuance of a free society. In this article, let's examine the frequently wielded tools of tyrants in their invariably insane quests for total control…

Rule #1: Keep Them Afraid

People who are easily frightened are easily dominated. This is not just a law of political will, but a law of nature. Many wrongly assume that a tyrant's power comes purely from the application of force. In fact, despotic regimes that rely solely on extreme violence are often very unsuccessful, and easily overthrown. Brute strength is calculable. It can be analyzed, and thus, eventually confronted and defeated. Thriving tyrants instead utilize not just harm, but the imminent THREAT of harm. They instill apprehension in the public; a fear of the unknown, or a fear of the possible consequences for standing against the state. They let our imaginations run wild until we see death around every corner, whether it's actually there or not. When the masses are so blinded by the fear of reprisal that they forget their fear of slavery, and take no action whatsoever to undo it, then they have been sufficiently culled.

In other cases, our fear is evoked and directed towards engineered enemies. Another race, another religion, another political ideology, a "hidden" and ominous villain created out of thin air. Autocrats assert that we "need them" in order to remain safe and secure from these illusory monsters bent on our destruction. As always, this development is followed by the claim that all steps taken, even those that dissolve our freedoms, are "for the greater good". Frightened people tend to shirk their sense of independence and run towards the comfort of the collective, even if that collective is built on immoral and unconscionable foundations. Once a society takes on a hive-mind mentality almost any evil can be rationalized, and any injustice against the individual is simply overlooked for the sake of the group.

Rule #2: Keep Them Isolated

In the past, elitist governments would often legislate and enforce severe penalties for public gatherings, because defusing the ability of the citizenry to organize or to communicate was paramount to control. In our technological era, such isolation is still used, but in far more advanced forms. The bread and circus lifestyle of the average westerner alone is enough to distract us from connecting with each other in any meaningful fashion, but people still sometimes find ways to seek out organized forms of activism.

Through co-option, modern day tyrant's can direct and manipulate opposition movements. By creating and administrating groups which oppose each other, elites can then micromanage all aspects of a nation on the verge of revolution. These "false paradigms" give us the illusion of proactive organization, and the false hope of changing the system, while at the same time preventing us from seeking understanding in one another. All our energies are then muted and dispersed into meaningless battles over "left and right", or "Democrat versus Republican", for example. Only movements that cast aside such empty labels and concern themselves with the ultimate truth of their country, regardless of what that truth might reveal, are able to enact real solutions to the disasters wrought by tyranny.

In more advanced forms of despotism, even fake organizations are disbanded. Curfews are enforced. Normal communications are diminished or monitored. Compulsory paperwork is required. Checkpoints are instituted. Free speech is punished. Existing groups are influenced to distrust each other or to disintegrate entirely out of dread of being discovered. All of these measures are taken by tyrants primarily to prevent ANY citizens from gathering and finding mutual support. People who work together and organize of their own volition are unpredictable, and therefore, a potential risk to the state.

Rule #3: Keep Them Desperate

You'll find in nearly every instance of cultural descent into autocracy, the offending government gained favor after the onset of economic collapse. Make the necessities of root survival an uncertainty, and people without knowledge of self sustainability and without solid core principles will gladly hand over their freedom, even for mere scraps from the tables of the same men who unleashed famine upon them. Financial calamities are not dangerous because of the poverty they leave in their wake; they are dangerous because of the doors to malevolence that they leave open.

Destitution leads not just to hunger, but also to crime (private and government). Crime leads to anger, hatred, and fear. Fear leads to desperation. Desperation leads to the acceptance of anything resembling a solution, even despotism.

Autocracies pretend to cut through the dilemmas of economic dysfunction (usually while demanding liberties be relinquished), however, behind the scenes they actually seek to maintain a proscribed level of indigence and deprivation. The constant peril of homelessness and starvation keeps the masses thoroughly distracted from such things as protest or dissent, while simultaneously chaining them to the idea that their only chance is to cling to the very government out to end them.

Rule #4: Send Out The Jackboots

This is the main symptom often associated with totalitarianism. So much so that our preconceived notions of what a fascist government looks like prevent us from seeing other forms of tyranny right under our noses. Some Americans believe that if the jackbooted thugs are not knocking on every door, then we MUST still live in a free country. Obviously, this is a rather naïve position. Admittedly, though, goon squads and secret police do eventually become prominent in every failed nation, usually while the public is mesmerized by visions of war, depression, hyperinflation, terrorism, etc.

When law enforcement officials are no longer servants of the people, but agents of a government concerned only with its own supremacy, serious crises emerge. Checks and balances are removed. The guidelines that once reigned in police disappear, and suddenly, a philosophy of superiority emerges; an arrogant exclusivity that breeds separation between law enforcement and the rest of the public. Finally, police no longer see themselves as protectors of citizens, but prison guards out to keep us subdued and docile.

As tyranny grows, this behavior is encouraged. Good men are filtered out of the system, and small (minded and hearted) men are promoted.

At its pinnacle, a police state will hide the identities of most of its agents and officers, behind masks or behind red tape, because their crimes in the name of the state become so numerous and so sadistic that personal vengeance on the part of their victims will become a daily concern.

Rule #5: Blame Everything On The Truth Seekers

Tyrants are generally men who have squelched their own consciences. They have no reservations in using any means at their disposal to wipe out opposition. But, in the early stages of their ascent to power, they must give the populace a reason for their ruthlessness, or risk being exposed, and instigating even more dissent. The propaganda machine thus goes into overdrive, and any person or group that dares to question the authority or the validity of the state is demonized in the minds of the masses.

All disasters, all violent crimes, all the ills of the world, are hoisted upon the shoulders of activist groups and political rivals. They are falsely associated with fringe elements already disliked by society (racists, terrorists, etc). A bogus consensus is created through puppet media in an attempt to make the public believe that "everyone else" must have the same exact views, and those who express contrary positions must be "crazy", or "extremist". Events are even engineered by the corrupt system and pinned on those demanding transparency and liberty. The goal is to drive anti-totalitarian organizations into self censorship. That is to say, instead of silencing them directly, the state causes activists to silence themselves.

Tyrannical power structures cannot function without scapegoats. There must always be an elusive boogie man under the bed of every citizen, otherwise, those citizens may turn their attention, and their anger, towards the real culprit behind their troubles. By scapegoating stewards of the truth, such governments are able to kill two birds with one stone.

Rule #6: Encourage Citizen Spies

Ultimately, the life of a totalitarian government is not prolonged by the government itself, but by the very people it subjugates. Citizen spies are the glue of any police state, and our propensity for sticking our noses into other peoples business is highly valued by Big Brother bureaucracies around the globe.

There are a number of reasons why people participate in this repulsive activity. Some are addicted to the feeling of being a part of the collective, and "service" to this collective, sadly, is the only way they are able to give their pathetic lives meaning. Some are vindictive, cold, and soulless, and actually get enjoyment from ruining others. And still, like elites, some long for power, even petty power, and are willing to do anything to fulfill their vile need to dictate the destinies of perfect strangers.

Citizen spying is almost always branded as a civic duty; an act of heroism and bravery. Citizen spies are offered accolades and awards, and showered with praise from the upper echelons of their communities. People who lean towards citizen spying are often outwardly and inwardly unimpressive; physically and mentally inept. For the average moral and emotional weakling with persistent feelings of inadequacy, the allure of finally being given fifteen minutes of fame and a hero's status (even if that status is based on a lie) is simply too much to resist. They begin to see "extremists" and "terrorists" everywhere. Soon, people afraid of open ears everywhere start to watch what they say at the supermarket, in their own backyards, or even to family members. Free speech is effectively neutralized.

Rule #7: Make Them Accept The Unacceptable

In the end, it is not enough for a government fueled by the putrid sludge of iniquity to lord over us. At some point, it must also influence us to forsake our most valued principles. Tyrannies are less concerned with dominating how we live, so much as dominating how we think. If they can mold our very morality, they can exist unopposed indefinitely. Of course, the elements of conscience are inborn, and not subject to environmental duress as long as a man is self aware. However, conscience can be manipulated if a person has no sense of identity, and has never put in the effort to explore his own strengths and failings. There are many people like this in America today.

Lies become "necessary" in protecting the safety of the state. War becomes a tool for "peace". Torture becomes an ugly but "useful" method for gleaning important information. Police brutality is sold as a "natural reaction" to increased crime. Rendition becomes normal, but only for those labeled as "terrorists". Assassination is justified as a means for "saving lives". Genocide is done discretely, but most everyone knows it is taking place. They simply don't discuss it.

All tyrannical systems depend on the apathy and moral relativism of the inhabitants within their borders. Without the cooperation of the public, these systems cannot function. The real question is, how many of the above steps will be taken before we finally refuse to conform? At what point will each man and woman decide to break free from the dark path blazed before us and take measures to ensure their independence? Who will have the courage to develop their own communities, their own alternative economies, their own organizations for mutual defense outside of establishment constructs, and who will break under the pressure to bow like cowards? How many will hold the line, and how many will flee?

For every American, for every human being across the planet who chooses to stand immovable in the face of the very worst in mankind, we come that much closer to breathing life once again into the very best in us all.

http://www.alt-market.com/articles/198-the-essential-rules-of-tyranny

Obama v. Obama

Obama v. Obama
by Gary North

As a lawyer, Obama was trained to argue rival positions, depending on who hired him. So, what I am about to present should not be regarded as hypocrisy on his part. Yes, it is hypocrisy by the standards of any normal human being, but not for a lawyer. He is a lawyer. He does what lawyers do. He looks to see who is buttering his bread, and then he presents his case.

When we elect lawyers to political office, this sort of thing happens.

In 2006, there was a vote in the United States Senate over raising the debt ceiling. Senator Obama took the high ground. He voted against the increase. Amazingly, he violated one of his career-long principles, namely, don't leave a paper trail. This time, he rose to the occasion. He rose to speak.

We cannot be sure exactly what he said. This is because the "Congressional Record" allows every member to edit his words retroactively before the words are published. In this era of unrestricted pornography, The "Congressional Record" remains the last bastion of airbrushing.

I searched on Google to find an official version of the text of his remarks. I could find no government site that maintains this for public viewing. I came as close as I could.


DEBT AND THE LOSS OF LEADERSHIP

Senator Obama began with a description of what the U.S. government was facing in March 2006. Just for the record, it was facing this. The Congressional Research Service summarized the vote: "On March 16, the Senate passed a debt limit increase after rejecting several amendments. The President's signature on March 20, 2006, then raised the debt limit (P.L. 109-182) to $8.965 trillion." Keep this figure in mind: a little under $9 trillion. One year later, the limit was raised by $850 billion to $9.8 trillion. President Bush signed the bill into law on September 29, 2007. Three months later, the recession began, according to the retroactive declaration on the non-profit National Bureau of Economic Research.

Today, the Federal government's official, on-budget debt is about $14.4 trillion. The debt clock is here.

On March 16, 2006, the day of the vote, Senator Obama gave a speech. He began with these words:

The fact that we are here today to debate raising America's debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. It is a sign that the U.S. Government can't pay its own bills. It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our Government's reckless fiscal policies.

He was correct. The politicians had led the government into a quagmire of debt. It nevertheless pressed forward. Now, the government is in quicksand.

There was no leadership in 2006, any more than there had been leadership since 1917, when the debt ceiling was first voted into law. There was no attempt to balance expected outlays with expected income. There still isn't. The American republic remains the republic of pork.

Over the past 5 years, our federal debt has increased by $3.5 trillion to $8.6 trillion. That is "trillion" with a "T." That is money that we have borrowed from the Social Security trust fund, borrowed from China and Japan, borrowed from American taxpayers. And over the next 5 years, between now and 2011, the President's budget will increase the debt by almost another $3.5 trillion.

At least he admitted that the government has borrowed from the Social Security Trust Fund. He admitted that we are dependent on Japan and China to roll over the debt.

Today, the Trust Fund is being depleted. Social Security is running a deficit, which Washington politicians prefer not to discuss. The Trustees keep sending back the bonds to the Treasury to be paid for out of the general fund.

Obama in 2006 was off by $2 trillion. Had his forecast proven accurate, The government's debt would be around $12.4 trillion.


LESS MONEY FOR BIG GOVERNMENT

He then went on to explain why holding the line on the debt ceiling was important. He focused on rising interest payments that will be owed by the government. He did not mention this: the money going out as interest payments could have been used as tax rebates. The taxpayers could have used this money to buy whatever they wanted. This was not Obama's vision of what these interest payments would cost. They would cost more welfare state socialism.

Numbers that large are sometimes hard to understand. Some people may wonder why they matter. Here is why: This year, the Federal Government will spend $220 billion on interest. That is more money to pay interest on our national debt than we'll spend on Medicaid and the State Children's Health Insurance Program. That is more money to pay interest on our debt this year than we will spend on education, homeland security, transportation, and veterans benefits combined. It is more money in one year than we are likely to spend to rebuild the devastated gulf coast in a way that honors the best of America.

And the cost of our debt is one of the fastest growing expenses in the Federal budget. This rising debt is a hidden domestic enemy, robbing our cities and States of critical investments in infrastructure like bridges, ports, and levees; robbing our families and our children of critical investments in education and health care reform; robbing our seniors of the retirement and health security they have counted on.

Notice this language: "robbing our cities." That indicates that his goal was to rob the taxpayers so that the Federal government could send more earmarked money to fund boondoggles for the voters back home. The voters back home have a moral claim on the money extorted from people in other states. Every jurisdiction is supposed to have a net increase in pork.

"This little piggy went to market. This little piggy stayed home. And this little piggy went to the Chicago stockyards." The Senator from Illinois knew who was paying the piper.

Every dollar we pay in interest is a dollar that is not going to investment in America's priorities. Instead, interest payments are a significant tax on all Americans – a debt tax that Washington doesn't want to talk about. If Washington were serious about honest tax relief in this country, we would see an effort to reduce our national debt by returning to responsible fiscal policies.

Tax relief? What tax relief? He was agonizing over the reduction of pork.

From my perspective, it is better to pay interest to lenders than to expand the operations of the U.S. government.

One argument for raising the debt ceiling is to run up the bill for future debt service. This will keep the government from launching many new programs. It will fund the traditional boondoggles, but there will be less money for new ones.

Another argument is this: at some point, the government will default. This will cost lenders dearly. Those lenders who were stupid enough to hand over money to the clowns in Congress will find themselves holding worthless IOUs. This will stand as a lesson to future lenders: don't lend money to the Federal government. Sadly, lenders are slow learners. They will lend again to the government. But at least they will have less to lend.

But we are not doing that. Despite repeated efforts by Senators CONRAD and FEINGOLD, the Senate continues to reject a return to the commonsense Pay-go rules that used to apply. Previously, Pay-go rules applied both to increases in mandatory spending and to tax cuts. The Senate had to abide by the commonsense budgeting principle of balancing expenses and revenues. Unfortunately, the principle was abandoned, and now the demands of budget discipline apply only to spending.

What was pay-go? It was a rule that required Congress to pay for new welfare state programs by either reducing spending in other parts of the budget (politically impossible) or by raising taxes (preferable for Democrats), but still politically risky. The law did not apply to Medicare or Social Security. It lapsed in 2002. President Obama signed a new version into law in 2010. It has not reduced spending.

As a result, tax breaks have not been paid for by reductions in Federal spending, and thus the only way to pay for them has been to increase our deficit to historically high levels and borrow more and more money. Now we have to pay for those tax breaks plus the cost of borrowing for them.

This was correct. The Bush tax cuts were paid for by increased borrowing. But that tactic ended in February 2010, when pay-go was signed into law.

Instead of reducing the deficit, as some people claimed, the fiscal policies of this administration and its allies in Congress will add more than $600 million in debt for each of the next 5 years. That is why I will once again cosponsor the Pay-go amendment and continue to hope that my colleagues will return to a smart rule that has worked in the past and can work again.

He got in 2010 what he wanted in 2006: pay-go legislation. The deficit has skyrocketed.


DEPENDENCE ON FOREIGNERS

He then raised the issue of borrowing from foreign governments. Voters know who is lending: Asians. What they do not understand is that the lenders are mostly the Bank of Japan and the People's Bank of China. These central banks create fiat money and buy dollars; then they buy Treasury debt.

Our debt also matters internationally. My friend, the ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee, likes to remind us that it took 42 Presidents 224 years to run up only $1 trillion of foreign-held debt. This administration did more than that in just 5 years.

Today, the Obama administration is setting records that dwarf the records set by George W. Bush. But his point was accurate in 2006.

Then he gave us a fine example of double talk. Borrowing from abroad isn't bad, except that it's really dangerous.

Now, there is nothing wrong with borrowing from foreign countries. But we must remember that the more we depend on foreign nations to lend us money, the more our economic security is tied to the whims of foreign leaders whose interests might not be aligned with ours.

This is like saying there is nothing wrong with eating a couple of gallons of ice cream, except for the fact that you might gain weight.

Increasing America's debt weakens us domestically and internationally. Leadership means that "the buck stops here." Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better.

I therefore intend to oppose the effort to increase America's debt limit.

There they are: the children of the future. They will be burdened with a huge debt load. Oh, woe!

Oh, yeah? They will vote in a new Congress and demand that Congress cut back on pork for geezers. They will force Congress to vote for pork for themselves. Spare your tears.


"I WAS WRONG"

Lawyer Obama now has a new client: himself. Lawyers have a phrase regarding the mental capacity of a lawyer who hires himself to represent him.

Actually, Obama did not hire himself to represent him. He had his press secretary announce that the President now regrets his vote in 2006. No doubt he does. It makes him look like a hypocrite. It makes him look like a lawyer. But I repeat myself.

The President now believes that leadership is marked by voting to increase the debt ceiling. This kind of leadership is in short supply in the Congress these days. But we will see a rush of leadership when the government has to start cutting payments.

The Administration has not yet provided a list of budget cuts that will be mandatory if there is no increase in the ceiling. The President has talked about cuts in Social Security and Medicare – a warning that is supposed to put the fear of oldsters into the hearts of House Republicans. So far, they have refused to budge. They figure that other less sacred cows will be slaughtered before these two are. Discretionary spending is in the range of 37% of Federal spending. These can legally be cut. That would take care of most of the deficit. Of course, that is not going to happen.


WHO WILL BLINK FIRST?

The House plans to send another bill to the Senate. The Senate Democrats say they will vote it down if it contains tax cuts.

Senate Democrats and House Republicans do not want to be the first to blink. It will be far easier for Reid to hold his party in line than it will be for Boehner. The Democrats are not going to accept tax cuts. Some Republicans in the House will accept an increase in the ceiling without tax cuts. Whether the ceiling will be raised enough to get the government through fiscal 2012 is doubtful. So, we get to go through this again.

The public is not visibly worried about raising the debt ceiling. The debt ceiling has been raised so many times without any pain being inflicted on voters that they assume that the process can still go on. They may make noises about their concern for future generations, but they have shown little concern in the past. I see no looming crisis on the immediate horizon that will create as much fear as a fear of spending cutbacks does.

Sacred cows must be fed. Porkers must be fattened. If the government has to borrow, so what? Economists don't care. Few voters care. Politicians have not cared in the past, except in 1995, briefly.

The path of least resistance is to pass an increase in the debt ceiling.


CONCLUSION

The capital markets do not indicate any significant fear of a default. Things are calm.

The politicians in Washington are milking this for as many votes as they think they can get in a year. They are positioning themselves for the elections. They are assembling sound bytes.

The voters just want their monthly checks.

Obama in 2006 offered reasons for not raising the deficit. They were based on his commitment to expanding the welfare state. Now it appears that he is still trapped by the debt. There will be no major new programs. His goal is just to keep the train moving forward, not add more freight cars filled with voters' goodies.

This year, the Democrats are not trying to add new programs. They are refusing to cut old ones. I think this is the new normal for Washington. Washington can barely fund the fulfilment of old promises. I see no new promises in reserve. This is good news, other things remaining equal.

There will come a day when lenders will demand higher interest. That will launch the sacrifice of pork. Let us hope that this comes sooner than later.

www.garynorth.com