Allison Bricker

The impetus behind our founders warning government to keep its hands off the press comes not from a love of newspapers per se, but rather the necessity of free and uncensored mass communication. Newspapers just happened to be the only form of mass communication at the time.

Prior to the American Revolution, journalists who dissented against the royal governments, its decrees or public office holders often found themselves imprisoned and their equipment destroyed. One of the most famous trials of a journalist falsely charged is that of John Peter Zenger.

Mr. Zenger published criticisms of New York’s “Royal” Governor, William Crosby. Shortly thereafter, Mr. Zenger found himself imprisoned and charged with libel. His attorney, Philadelphia lawyer, Andrew Hamilton successfully argued that one could not commit libel merely by publishing opinion or fact.¹

It is my opinion that the The first Amendment to our Federal Constitution is too narrowly interpreted. Thus, had the internet, television, or radio, been present during the drafting of our Constitution, it is clear that the Founding Fathers would have extended government prohibitions on censorship to these mediums as well. However, the FEC has already attempted to sidestep the 1st Amendment and censor blogs under the auspices of McCain-Feingold.² Now the FCC is set to rule on the creation of a free nationwide filtered internet under the guise of “protecting the children”.³

It is also obvious by a candid reading of the uncensored historical record, that the plutocrats made massive inroads in their attempt to centralize Federal power from the beginning of the 20th Century. After the passage of the 16th and 17th Amendments, we then see a massive encroachment upon our unalienable rights with the passage of the “Espionage Act of 1917″⁴ and “The Sedition Act of 1918″⁵. The Espionage Act was passed at the urging of President Woodrow Wilson who felt that dissent during war could jeopardize our potential for victory. His flawed logic still exists today and is echoed by hacks like Senator Joe Lieberman (D-CT). This belief is a stark contrast to the Founding Fathers who were all too familiar with the oppressive hand of government censorship.

The best known victim of prosecution under the “Espionage Act of 1917″ is Eugene Debs. Mr. Debs had previously run for President as the Socialist Party’s candidate and publicly denounced the U.S. involvement in World War I. He was charged with “obstructing military recruiting” after a speech in 1918. Mr. Debs was found guilty of sedition and sentenced to 10 years in prison. After serving three years, he was pardoned by President Harding and released.⁶ It is immaterial to me that I would vehemently debate and ultimately disagree with Mr. Deb’s socialist philosophy. His imprisonment merely demonstrates the lengths politicians will go to in order to silence opposition.

We the People, have failed to be vigilant as the guardians of our own liberties and we must bear some of the burden. In addition to the Espionage and Sedition Acts, by allowing the FCC to declare the airwaves publicly owned and therefore subject to regulation we do ourselves a massive disservice in pursuit of the truth. The consequences of this massive failure, was to allow the creation of broadcast licensing. By allowing the dissemination of information to be controlled by an ever decreasing amount of individual corporations via licensing we lose our ability to make proper judgments on matters of national importance, such as the invasion of Iraq or the disgusting pursuit of legalized torture by the Executive Branch.

Tyrants and their sycophant sympathizers love to claim that the FCC grants licenses to those who “serve the public interest”. However, the historical record contradicts this altruistic pursuit and in the end it merely grants licenses to those who serve to swell the bank accounts of both the bureaucrats and politicians.⁷

Fellow readers, the internet has allowed for the greatest expanse of news, opinions, and knowledge humanity has ever known. Abuse by some in the form of unsourced or libelous news reports does not justify statements by the traitor to the Constitution known as Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman, who in a letter to Google regarding YouTube videos wrote:

“In other words, Islamist terrorist organizations use YouTube to disseminate their propaganda, enlist followers, and provide weapons training – activities that are all essential to terrorist activity. According to testimony received by our Committee, the online content produced by al-Qaeda and other Islamist terrorist organizations can play a significant role in the process of radicalization, the end point of which is the planning and execution of a terrorist attack.”⁸

There is indeed great danger in the notion that a hack Senator and two-time loser such as Joe Lieberman should be telling a private corporation what should be censored for the sake of national security. The biggest dangers to national security are the power-hungry ambitions of terrorist politicians like Joe Lieberman and his insurgent bureaucratic operatives who seek to wage their personal jihad on the 1st Amendment and our inherent liberties.

Further, President-Elect Obama has selected Eric Holder as Attorney General. The Plutocratic fundamentalist, Eric Holder has also spoken publicly about his desire to censor the internet and further erode the 1st Amendment via his interpretation of “reasonable regulation”.

The time is now upon us, to beat back the ever encroaching hand of government and amend the Constitution to expand the scope of the 1st Amendment, thus ensuring all forms of communication both current and those not yet fathomed are protected from those who seek to stifle the free exchange of ideas and expression.

In closing, my only regret is that I have but one life to blog for my Republic.
Don’t Tread on Me!

Source(s): ¹University of Missouri Kansas City School of Law • ² FEC Agenda Document Number 05-16 • ³ CNET – “FCC Cancels Meeting for Free Interent Vote” • ⁴ Espionage Act of 1917 • ⁵ Sedition Act of 1918 • ⁶ DEBS v UNITED STATES of AMERICA No. 714 • ⁷ McCain Denies Pushing FCC on Paxson Behalf • ⁸ Dialogue with Senator Lieberman on Terrorism Videos

Joseph Marohl

Lately a number of standup comedians have lamented that President-elect Barack Obama does not appear to promise much fodder for ridicule—no funny mannerisms, no scandals, no serious known breaches in integrity. Plus, he’s our first black President—and that fact in itself poses problems of decorum in a nation still sensitive about race and racism.

By comparison, President George W. Bush has provided a goldmine for satirists and impressionists—only recently upstaged by Sarah Palin.

Today, though, Bush is being credited with preserving “the honor and the dignity of his office” as U.S. President … by the Bush White House.

“Titled ‘Speech Topper on the Bush Record,’ the talking points [in a two-page memo sent to Bush Cabinet members] state that Bush ‘kept the American people safe’ after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, lifted the economy after 2001 through tax cuts, curbed AIDS in Africa and maintained ‘the honor and the dignity of his office.’” (1)

I wonder whether the Orwellian war-is-peace newspeak will stop here or whether Bush will copyright the words “honor and dignity” the way Fox News once claimed “fair and balanced” as its own (and then tried to sue Al Franken for using the phrase in the subtitle of a book in 2003—subsequently it dropped the suit).

After all, Bush is all about “ownership”—though that’s a tune he’s been playing seldom in these past 60 days of foreclosures, buyouts, and bailouts. Ditto “bring it on”—in fact, Bush preserves a great amount of the Presidency’s dignity by simply asserting obviously fallacious recollections as true history and trusting in the American people’s short memory.

Don’t you love the bit about lifting the economy? Clever people must realize that “lift” means “revoke” and “pilfer,” among other things. I, for one, have totally forgotten that Bush entered office with a surplus—which he spent in part on $300 and $600 handouts to the American people, purportedly because the money was theirs, but more likely because he wanted to shut down talk about the dubious facts of his 2000 election.

One might further suppose curbing AIDS means, in part, letting lots of people in Africa die … of famine, genocide, and AIDS … thus, in fact, setting definite limits to the numbers of Africans suffering with AIDS. But, in truth, Bush may have done some good here. The White House reports that $148 billion has gone to AIDS relief worldwide since Bush assumed office in 2001, and, to be fair, his plan for providing emergency AIDS relief to sub-Saharan Africa, while greatly benefiting Big Pharma, has also expanded care to the sick apparently by 40 times over the past five years. (2)

As for keeping Americans safe, it’s easy to say that there were some 3,000 Americans not kept safe on September 11, 2001, under his watch. Of course, it’s unacceptable to lay the blame entirely on Bush for those horrific events, but I’m not sure he’s to be credited for the fact that a highly unusual and unprecedented event has not yet repeated itself. Perhaps he can take credit for no new attacks on Pearl Harbor as well. Or perhaps we can thank Bush and Cheney that a major earthquake has not leveled San Francisco lately.

In my lifetime, the honor and the dignity of the Presidency have suffered horribly—the most honorable and dignified being Eisenhower, under whose aegis I was born (though I would say that the prize goes to Carter for establishing the honor and dignity of the post-Presidency).

In my memory, no President has been worse or as bad as Bush. Whether writing his own valedictory blurbs will affect the public’s memory of his two terms in office remains to be seen. I suspect that Americans will (as Americans tend to) forget, if not forgive. Perhaps he will write his memoirs (though I’ve heard that publishers aren’t really interested in them at the moment). A bestseller followed by a film adaptation could substantially erase memory of the last eight years. Perhaps he will reinvent himself as a spokesman for a cause. Or retire to a secluded compound as Nixon did, back when disgrace was not yet synonymous with honor and dignity.

Or perhaps he’ll do standup.

***

(1) Nicholas, Peter. “For Bush’s staff, upbeat talking points on his tenure.” Los Angeles Times 9 Dec. 2008 http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/washingtondc/la-na-bush9-2008dec09,0,4145069.story

(2) United States. White House. Office of National AIDS Policy. President’s HIV/AIDS Initiatives. http://www.whitehouse.gov/infocus/hivaids/

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