Allison Bricker

During a press conference with Iraqi Prime Minister al-Malaki in Baghdad, an Iraqi journalist throws his shoes at the President.

Sherri Davis

Are we at all surprised that Illinois Governor Rod Blagoevich was arrested this morning at his home on the northside of Chicago? It happened to take place near my neighborhood. I wish I was one of the neighbors, so I could have seen it for myself.

According to today’s edition of the Chicago Tribune, Blago was arrested in, “Political Corruption Crime Spree”. It goes back to the blog I recently wrote on, “The Definition of a Politician” and how the very definition wreaks of corruption.

It has been on every news channel today. The Chicago Tribune states, “U.S. Atty. Patrick Fitzgerald says secret tape recordings show the governor was attempting “to sell the U.S. Senate seat” that President-elect Obama recently vacated. “

Are you kidding me, Rod? Do you really think that our lives are just a game…a ticket to be sold to the highest bidder? This is so disappointing and I hope it opens the eyes of the other corrupt politicians that they will, in time, “get busted out”.

Allison Bricker

“Change” was the cornerstone of President-Elect Obama’s campaign. Often spoken and vaguely defined, his hypnotic lip service to a nation weary of the “Bush Years” was enough to sweep him from the well of the Senate straight into the White House. The problem here is that as the days since the election become weeks, the individuals President-Elect Obama is selecting to fill out his staff and cabinet are more of the same old career politicians who have spent their lives sucking from the public trough. As the chart below illustrates, these are the same scoundrels which through their love of central nanny state planning, helped ensure the current economic crisis and erosion of inherent liberties.

This list reads like a veritable “Who’s Who” of beltway Washington Aristocrats, and these are just the sourced appointments to the Obama White House. Unconfirmed reports are also circulating that James Steinberg former Clinton Administration deputy national security adviser is on the short list to be President-Elect Obama’s choice for National Security Adviser.¹ How is someone to believe that President Elect Obama will help fix an imploding economy and divided nation when the same people who helped cause the mess are elevated yet again to positions of power?

The answer of course is that they will not. Moreover, a closer inspection of these filthy power hungry individuals yields even less hope for rolling back the massive unconstitutional powers decreed to the Executive Branch under President Bush. The truth is, the face of the puppet may have changed from bumbling dote to articulate persuasive figurehead, but outside of that it is business as usual.

If we look at the public statements and actions of those listed above, we see that their motivation comes solely from attaining more for themselves while throwing scraps to “we the people”. Eric Holder, who is on pace to be the next Attorney General for example, said in a 1999 interview:

“The court has really struck down every government effort to try to regulate it. We tried with regard to pornography. It is gonna be a difficult thing, but it seems to me that if we can come up with reasonable restrictions, reasonable regulations in how people interact on the Internet, that is something that the Supreme Court and the courts ought to favorably look at.”²

As we reported weeks ago, it is almost a certainty that an Obama Administration will seek to end the free flow of ideas exchanged across the internet vis-a-vi the “Fairness Doctrine 2.0″. Do we as Americans need the government to tell us what is “reasonable” or”safe” to listen to, read, or view? The Founders knew that allowing government to dictate what was “reasonable” was guaranteed to lead to one thing and one thing only, censorship.

Further complimenting President-Elect Obama’s socialist plans for our healthcare industry, are his picks for Chief of Staff and Secretary of State, Rahm Emanuel and Hilary Clinton respectively. Both were lead architects of the failed “Hilary Care” during the Clinton Administration.³ Rahm Emanuel as we reported is also the architect and ferverent supporter of forced unpaid labor via his “Compulsory Civil Service” program. Between Hillary Clinton and Rahm Emanuel they have received over $15.9 million in campaign contributions from healthcare industries, central bankers, criminal financiers, and bailout recipients.⁴ Care to guess which healthcare companies/individuals will receive government certification to administer and oversee the universal healthcare program?

Next, continuing President-Elect Obama’s perverse definition of “change” is his choice for Secretary of the Treasury, Timothy Geithner. Mr. Geithner is currently the President of the New York branch of the Federal Reserve. This guarantees that an Obama Administration will continue this debt based fiat currency system that is to the sole benefit of the private Central Bankers who own the Federal Reserve. The obvious conflict of interest in having a Federal Reserve branch President in charge of the U.S. Treasury, relying on his fellow Federal Reserve Central Bankers to loan the government money via Reserve Notes, should go without saying, and most likely will thanks to a mainstream media intoxicated by President-Elect Obama.

Additionally, many of us would love to be a fly on the wall during the times when Lawrence Summers, former Secretary of the Treasury under the Clinton Administration and Hillary Clinton are in the same room. It would be most interesting to see how Hillary Clinton interacts with Mr. Summers, the former President of Harvard who resigned in disgrace in 2006 after remarking that “issues of intrinsic aptitude” could explain underrepresentation of women in the fields of science and engineering.⁵ Nice to know “Change” in Obama’s mind means appointing a misogynist who feels women are just too stupid in comparison to men.

In conclusion, during the next four years we will see campaign promises fall by the way side, massive government programs designed to fix the last batch of failed government programs, central planning and intervention into our economy which will exacerbate and prolong the coming depression; while benefiting central bankers, as well as a further shredding and trampling of our liberties and Constitution.

It is my opinion, President-Elect Obama’s definition of “Change” reeks of 1984 “doublespeak”.

Source(s): ¹Business Day - “Contenders for Key Posts in New Cabinet” • ² May 28, 1999 NPR Morning Edition • ³ Slate - “Obama’s Muscle” • ⁴ OpenSecrets.org - Hillary Clinton Record/Rahm Emanuel Record • ⁵ The Economic Times - “Lawrence Summer to become Obama’s Top Economic Adviser”

Sherri Davis

Autism affects numerous children and families, including my younger brother. This article is from the Chicago Tribune print edition by Monique Garcia and Ray Long. It immediately caught my attention. http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/clout_st/2008/11/autism-bill-goe.html

According to this article, the Autism bill anticipated will be passed by Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich. It is an ample bill with some serious repercussions. Illinois has about 4,500 families that would qualify. Each family would be eligible for benefits up to $36,000 per year up to the age of 21. This money would cover the early interventions, like speech and behavior therapy, that have resulted in improvements in children with Autism. (I’m not sure if this would cover the families with more than one child with Autism.)

Although I think this is a bill worth consideration, the article also mentions the strain on employers, especially those who are self-insured. I did the math on the approximate cost over 21 years for the estimated 4,500 families in Illinois and the cost runs about 3.4 Trillion dollars! Illinois is already in a budget deficit as is the rest of America.

While I am all for remedying this situation, I think this bill needs more consideration. I wonder what other families with children that have disabilities think? Will people take advantage? Will the insurance companies drop people or take advantage of the bill? Let me know what you think.

Allison Bricker

In an interview with Pat Campbell of KFAQ out of Tulsa, Oklahoma, Senator Inhofe (R-OK) revealed Secretary of the Treasury, Hank Paulson as the person who was feeding Congress threats of Martial Law in America if the bailout failed to pass. This also sheds new light on Representative Brad Sherman’s (D-CA) comments on the house floor.

During the KFAQ radio interview, Pat Campbell said:

“Somebody in D.C. was feeding you guys quite a story prior to the bailout, a story that if we didn’t do this we were going to see something on the scale of the depression, there were people talking about martial law being instituted, civil unrest….who was feeding you guys this stuff?,”

Senator Inhofe responded saying:

“That’s Henry Paulson, we had a conference call early on, it was on a Friday I think – a week and half before the vote on Oct. 1. So it would have been the middle … what was it – the 19th of September, we had a conference call. In this conference call – and I guess there’s no reason for me not to repeat what he said, but he said – he painted this picture you just described. He said, ‘This is serious. This is the most serious thing that we faced.’”

Audio Clip of interview of Senator Inhofe (R-OK):

Source(s): KFAQ 1170 am • C-Span

Allison Bricker

Finance Ministers and Central Bankers from twenty advanced and emerging nations continue to fly into Washington D.C. to join President Bush and President-Elect Obama for tomorrow’s “Emergency Economic Summit”¹. As the global financial meltdown continues to worsen, the architects of the crisis are ready to heave upon us the next step in their scheme to monopolize monetary policy into one global central bank. As we have watched these preceding weeks, these criminal financiers and bankers have already advanced their agenda by nationalizing banks, flooding the market with an endless supply of new fiat bank notes, and continuing to artificially control the value of these currencies via adjustment of interest rates.

While their filthy blood soaked hands continue to manipulate their faux capitalist market; a power struggle for which currency will become the global currency is emerging. This most certainly will be issue number one when the “Emergency Economic Summit” is called to order.

Fellow readers, it is necessity to plainly articulate the ruse in progress now being perpetrated upon us. Most people give not a penny’s thought to the structure of a Central Bank, but we must first realize its structure to comprehend the sinister nature of their manipulation.

Central Banks are those banks in charge of issuing currency in the name of a government. However, these Central Banks are not government owned, they are confederations of private banks which then lend debt instruments in the form of “Reserve Notes” for use in the markets.

The banks that own the FEDERAL RESERVE hold shares of stock in the corporation that is the FEDERAL RESERVE. However, “we the people” cannot own these “private” shares of stock, they are reserved solely for bankers.²

As the Central Banks loan “Reserve Notes”, the owners of these banks fraudulently amass obscene amounts of wealth for themselves. We are not talking about the “Upper Class”, these criminal bankers make up a fraction of 1% of the Globe’s population, a separate wholly exclusive “Banker class”. As we are distracted by “middle class” and “upper class” fighting over “tax-breaks for the wealthy”, the “Banker class” gets government to use their currency first loaned to us then taken from us via taxation to purchase assets for these Central Bankers vis-a-vi “The Wall Street Bailout”.

Chase Bank, the 3rd largest bank in the world for example, (also one of the member banks which owns part of the FEDERAL RESERVE), used a portion of the taxpayer bailout funds to buy up the assets of “Washington Mutual Bank”. Just recently, the FEDERAL RESERVE poured another $125,000,000,000 Billion into nine banks in exchange for partial ownership. The FEDERAL RESERVE is now refusing to identify the banks and other recipients of these funds, as another $125,000,000,000 Billion sits ready to acquire additional assets at a moments notice.³

So why is all this important to the aforementioned “G20 Emergency Economic Summit”? Because European Central Bankers see the mismanagement of our economy by our Central Bank, the FEDERAL RESERVE, as an opportunity to make the “Euro” and the European Central Bank the world’s currency and Global Central Bank respectively.

Gordon Brown, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom has referred to this meeting as “Bretton Woods II” stating:

“Stage two is to make sure problem that developed in the financial system, problems we know started in America, do not happen again.”⁴

Bretton Woods was the international monetary policy agreement that shaped the financial order following World War II. At the time, one of the chief architects of the Bretton Woods Policy, John Maynard Keynes called for the creation of a World Central Bank and currency called the “Bancor”.⁵ The United States refused to go along and instead the U.S. Dollar became the defacto currency of choice. However, the EU and many others are convinced that now is the time to knock us from our perch. The International Herald Tribune reports:

PARIS: French President Nicolas Sarkozy says the U.S. dollar should no longer be seen as “the only global currency” that it has been since World War II.

The French leader says he will deliver that message to leaders of the Group of 20 major world economies at a summit in Washington this weekend to discuss the global financial crisis.⁶

While our Central Bank is most certainly responsible for the mismanagement of their centralized banking scheme, do not expect the FEDERAL RESERVE to go down without a fight. In order to buttress our negotiating strength, the FEDERAL RESERVE has agreed to bribe the Central Banks of Brazil, Mexico, and South Korea⁷ (all attending this weekend’s summit⁸) with the issuance of $30,000,000,000 Billion Dollars in currency swaps each. A currency swap is where we agree to take a Central Bank’s currency such as the Mexican Peso, loan their Central Bank a line of our currency, hold it for a time up to 30 years or when volatility in a market has passed and then swap back the currency for an additional fee.

Fellow readers, regardless of what new schemes emerge from this “Emergency Economic Summit” of corrupt Central Bankers. Regardless of whether the Dollar loses its status as preferred currency now or later is immaterial. We the People, just as Americans did twice before in our history, must call for an end to the 3rd Central Bank of America. We must End the FEDERAL RESERVE, return to sound money owned wholly by our U.S. Treasury, or risk becoming subservient within a decade, by my estimation, to a Global Central Bank.

The opportunity is indeed upon us to take the first step in the long journey towards Reclaiming the Republic and Restoring America’s financial Independence. To re-secure the blessings of debt free liberty to ourselves and our posterity, we must not bury our heads and refuse to acknowledge the crisis; that through candid observation of the facts, can no longer be denied. If we refuse, or shrink from our responsibility, let it be clear that further erosion of liberty and independence will become all the more difficult to regain. If like me, you wish not to pass on this perpetual cycle of debt and its inherent bondage, then please consider joining me on November 22nd to work towards ending the Federal Reserve’s corrupt tenure.

God’s Speed and Long Live the American Republic!

Source(s): ¹National Interest Online - “Bretton Woods Redux” • ² Woodward, G. Thomas (1996), “Money and the Federal Reserve System: Myth and Reality,” Congressional Research Service. • ³Bloomberg - “Bank Bonds Rise May Ease Pain of Refinancing $89 Billion Deb” • ⁴ Politics.co.UK “Brown Launches ‘Bretton Woods Two’ “ • ⁵ BBC - “How Bretton Woods Reshaped the World” • ⁶ International Herald Tribune - France’s Sarkozy questions dollar’s supremacy • ⁷Bloomberg - “Fed Opens Swaps With South Korea, Brazil, Mexico” •⁸ G20 Website, “About-Us” #3 Membership

Allison Bricker

Originally posted on WIRED:

CIA-linked private military contractor Evergreen Defense & Security Services offered to post sentries at Oregon election offices on Tuesday, “detaining troublemakers” and making sure voters “do not get out of control.”

In an e-mail to local election supervisors, obtained by the McMinnville, Oregon News Register, Evergreen president Tom Wiggins said he “recognized the potential conflict” that could occur on November 4th. “Never has there been a more heated battle in the race for president.”

The company, he said, ‘proposes to post sentries at each voting center on November 4th to assure that disputes amongst citizens do not get out of control. All guards will be unarmed, but capable of stopping any violence that may occur and detaining troublemakers until law enforcement arrives.’

Evergreen’s website describes its security arm as having “nearly five decades of experience working with the U.S. Armed Forces, the Department of Defense, the Department of Interior, the United Nations, NASA, and the U.S. Air Mobility Command. Many of our contracts include highly sensitive work-scope, and take place in locations ranging from the deserts of the Middle East to the jungles of South America to the highest peaks of Mt. McKinley in Alaska.”

Full story at:

http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/11/spooky-defense.html

Kelly

Fortunately, I don’t live in China and therefore I do not have to worry that the Chinese Government will kill my family for writing this post. Instead, I have to worry that the Chinese Government and United States Government together will kill my family because of their complete failure to ensure the safety of the food supply coming into this country.

It all starts with a chemical known as melamine. The same chemical used in plastics, heat/flame resistant materials, and filters. Melamine is in our counter-tops, the upholstry of our furniture, and apparently it is what makes Mr. Clean’s Magic Eraser work so well on those scuff marks.¹ However, melamine is also known to be the culprit of the contaminated pet food that sickened and killed thousands of dogs and cats beginning in early spring of 2007. Nearly one hundred brands of dog and cat food were affected and recalled. But, the use of melamine by the Chinese manufacturers has not stopped and our government has continued to accept shipments of tainted food into this country.

You see, melamine is added to a powder, be it milk, wheat, or soy powder, ”because it can make diluted or poor quality material appear to be higher in protein content by elevating the total nitrogen content detected by some simple protein tests.”² We have seen the recent effects of this manipulation of “protein tests” via the tainted baby formula that made over 50,000 infants critically ill in China just last month.³

Recent reports indicate that adding so-called melamine scrap has been the standard practice for Chinese food suppliers for the past five years.

Chemical plants used to pay companies to treat and dispose of melamine scrap, but about five years ago began selling it to manufacturers who repackaged it as “protein powder,” the Nanfang Daily reported, citing an unidentified chemical industry expert.

The inexpensive powder was first used to give the impression of higher protein levels in aquatic feed, then later in feed for livestock and poultry, the report said.

“The effect far more exceeds the milk powder scandal,” the newspaper said.⁴

And, just this week, several more reports on the discovery of melamine in several more food products, ranging from a variety of candy(some of which has already been found to be in the United States and Canada), to animal feed that is distributed worldwide by China. The FDA has yet to alert you or I as consumers that melamine tainted candy sits on our store shelves, but was kind enough to issue a letter to food manufacturers.

The FDA’s letter indicated that seven Asian countries plus Australia and Canada report they have found melamine in a variety of products including candy, flavored milks and cakes. A variety of candies including Cadbury, Snickers, Kit Kat, M&M’s and Dove have been recalled from China, Hong Kong, Australia, Taiwan, South Korea and the United States.

Additionally, the letter indicates an extensive list of products that could potentially contain melamine: “Milk and milk products that could originate from China include condensed, dried and non-fat milk, condensed and dried whey, lactose powder, permeate powder, demineralized and partially demineralized whey powders, caseins, yogurt, ice cream, cheese, whey protein concentrate and milk protein concentrate.”

The letter, which is directed at food manufacturers not consumers, went on to explain there are many unknown factors the FDA has discovered in attempting to understand the extent of the contamination. For example, soy-based products may also be tainted with melamine.

“In addition, it would be useful for manufacturers to be alert to the possibility that non-milk-derived ingredients from China that are or may be sold on the basis of protein content, such as soy protein, also could be contaminated with melamine,” the FDA said.⁵

This is unacceptable. Very few American newspapers are reporting this story. It seems the election between ‘Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dumber’ alongside ‘Joe the Plumber’ and the Dow Jones have kept the news media much too busy to inform the American people that there is a seemingly strong possibility that any products containing ‘milk powder’ and made in China could be tainted with melamine.

Attempting to rid our cabinets of food containing milk powder made in China is no easy task, it seems most food labels only specify who the distributor is and not who the actual ‘maker’ of the product is. But, bear in mind that researching food brands on the internet or simply calling a distributor is of the utmost importance when feeding your family. The FDA continues to refuse to test our food supply for melamine since small doses are not lethal, though the ridiculousness of this speaks for itself, as I cannot find anyone who would actually eat melamine in any dose. It is not meant to be consumed regardless of parts per million. I urge all of you to pay attention to the food you buy and if at all possible, boycott all food made in China. I also urge you to link to this blog or re-post this blog on Digg, MySpace, orStumbleUpon.

Lastly, below you will find the video that has sparked much of this conversation. As Americans we do ourselves a disservice of serious consequence when we sit back and expect that the government will keep us safe. It is our duty to keep each other informed.

Source(s): ¹WiseGeek • ² The European Agency for the Evaluation of Medicinal Products • ³ World Health Organization • ⁴ The Houston Chronicle, “China’s animal feed tainted with melamine” by Anita Chang • ⁵ The Bulletin

Rob Obringer

As a lifelong political junkie I’m a little surprised at myself that during the homestretch of this Presidential election I’m getting fatigued of it all. Sure, it’s gone on forever, a good year and a half now. There was a lengthy primary battle which was interesting, but then it lasted until June so we didn’t really get a break before the general election shenanigans started. And now, 8 days away, I’m dreaming of watching the news or reading the paper without seeing one of the candidates at a podium spewing the same old lines we’ve heard already.

I’m even sick of the comedy shows. I used to live for Saturday Night Live, and the skits skewering each of the candidates. But I’ve seen it, and am now done with it.  Even Tina Fey, she’s great as Sarah Palin, but I’m done.

Anderson Cooper 360, Larry King, Hardball, Keith Olberman…Blah Blah Blah. Done with them all.

Something needs to be done about the elections for our politicians in this country. It’s too long of a process. It’s too much money. It’s too much time. Some politicians, like our House Representatives, are constantly running for office because their terms are only two years.  I don’t even remember Senator Obama being my Senator, he’s been running for office for so long. John McCain has been running for the last decade, and he looks a little too comfortable doing it.

The length of this election has turned excitement into apathy for me. It’s turned promise into bitterness. The excess of this election as our country suffers an economic collapse makes me sick. Hopefully I will be able to walk to my voting place and cast my vote on November 4th. It won’t be the pundits, the attacks, and the unending election season that gets me there. In many ways I will be voting to end the election cycle, so we can move on.

Allison Bricker

In yet another nightmarish “can’t happen here” scenario, American citizens are being stopped as far as 100 miles in from the border, being forced into warrantless searches, forced to present their government identification for inspection and recorded for 15 years.¹ The Customs and Border Protection may stop Americans for any reason at the sole discretion of DHS agents. Resistance will most likely end up with you being added to yet another vague boogey-man watch list.

This power originally granted decades ago went largely unused, until we entered the soundbite forever burned into our generation’s mind; “a post 9/11 world”. After September 11th and upon the creation of Department of Homeland Security, DHS split the now defunct Immigration and Naturalization Service into two agencies: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).²

This border zone is actually a 100 mile swath, legislatively defined, that wraps our entire country. According to the most recent data from Government Accountability Office³, CBP utilizes 33 permanent checkpoints supplemented by an undisclosed number of “tactical mobile” checkpoints.

Harassment of average American citizens has become so wide spread in the Southwest quadrant that attorneys of the ACLU are currently preparing lawsuits demanding a restoration of our inherent rights as enshrined into the Constitution and an end to warrantless searches.⁴

Furthermore, using 2007 Census Bureau numbers the ACLU has calculated that nearly 2 in 3 Americans live within this 100 mile swath. Below is a map illustrating the “Constitution Free Zone”.⁵

Click to Enlarge

EDITORIAL: It does seem important to this blogger that “We the People” remember the rights in our Constitution and Bill of Rights are ours simply by our birth; ours merely by taking our first breath on this little blue marble. They are not a negotiated benefit from government. If we are not persistently purposeful in reminding both ourselves and government to this fact, they will continue to attempt to undermine our liberty at an ever increasing rate.

I know not what choice others may make, but I would rather die on my feet than live on my knees.

Respectfully Yours in Liberty,

Alli

Source(s): ¹Washington Post - “Citizens’ U.S. Border Crossings Tracked” • ² Miami Herald - “INS Down to Last Hours” • ³July 2005 GAO - Available Data on Interior Checkpoints Suggest Differences in Sector Performance • ⁴The Raw Story - “ACLU highlights ‘Constitution-Free Zone’ 100 miles from border” • ⁵ ACLU Website