Allison Bricker

NOTE: This is the first part in a 4 part series. Your questions and commentary are both welcomed and appreciated.

• Part 1 – How to Save the Republic
• Part 2 – Abolish the Income Tax
• Part 3 – Repeal the Direct Election of Senators
• Part 4 – Similarities Between the Great Depression and Our Current Crisis

Albert Einstein once quipped that the definition of ‘insanity’ is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. This then begs the question; why do so many of our fellow citizens think government intervention into our economy will stave off the coming economic depression? We need only look back to the last group of supreme central planners, ergo Herbert Hoover and Franklin Delano Roosevelt & Company to see that government intervention/interference is both the root cause and sustaining force of large economic recessions and depressions.¹

It is imperative that we look to the not so distant past, educate ourselves to the actual history, and begin a candid discussion of the facts with our friends, neighbors, and fellow citizens. If we fail or refuse this effort, it is my analysis that the consequences which will reveal themselves in short, will be more disastrous than those of the 1930′s. However, where some predict and hope for the fracturing of our union, I see opportunity, regardless of the pending collapse or fracturing. It is my fervent belief that there are many amongst us who will not stand idly by and watch the greatest experiment in human liberty perish from this Earth.

While it most certainly will be an uphill battle, success in our endeavor will secure the blessing of debt free liberty to ourselves and our posterity. Furthermore, the path to reclaiming our Republic from the jaws of the central planners is illuminated before us; if we only take the time to look upon the lessons of history. It is my estimation that three crucial steps are needed in order to right the course of the Republic back onto its Constitutional governance and towards the path of a “more perfect Union”.

The first among these three steps is to seek the complete abolition of the 3rd Central Bank of the United States, better known as the FEDERAL RESERVE. Moreover, we must seek an amendment to our federal Constitution which prohibits the establishment of any future central banking schemes and requires the federal government only produce sound money backed either by silver, gold, or platinum; produced solely by the United States Department of the Treasury.

It is important to note that the three steps will not happen in rapid succession, as it would be naive to entertain such a notion. Instead, with each corrective action we will gain both time as well as more stability in which to continue the restoration of the Republic. It is inevitable that this deleveraging and short run into the FEDERAL RESERVE NOTE Dollar will cease. The FEDERAL RESERVE whether it knows it or not has sealed its fate, a “poison pill” due to its ability to print an endless supply of FEDERAL RESERVE NOTES. There is a reason that every “fiat” currency throughout history has collapsed onto itself.² Thus, it is my analysis that by the Spring of 2009, hyper-inflation will begin to set in and this will allow for the movement to abolish the FEDERAL RESERVE to begin in earnest.

In addition to abolishing the FEDERAL RESERVE and preventing a subsequent reincarnation, we will also examine why we need to repeal the 16th amendment, Income Tax, and the 17th Amendment, The Direct Election of Senators, steps two and three respectively. Finally, this series of posts will conclude with an examination of the parallels of government interference during the Great Depression, and our current economic crisis.

It is my hope that readers of this post will ask questions via the comment section, on their blogs, forums, etcetera. Through an honest and open dialog whereby the free exchange of ideas can take place, we just as those who came before us will see our Republic safely to the other side of this crisis.

Long Live the American Republic!

Source(s): ¹FDR’s Folly – How Roosevelt and His New Deal Prolonged the Great Depression • ² The Financial Organization of Society, by Harold Glenn Moulton-1925, pg93, University of Chicago Press

Allison Bricker

Secretary Henry Paulson took to the podium this morning to announce that the government has decided not to offer homeowners facing foreclosure any assistance and will instead just use the taxpayer bailout money, via the T.A.R.P (Troubled Asset Relief Program) program exclusively to purchase stocks in ailing banks in order to bolster their cash liquidity.¹ This is in stark contrast to what Secretary of Paulson said was the biggest threat at the time the legislation passed, homes in foreclosure.

Meanwhile,investment banks like Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are still paying out bonuses to their bankers totaling $6.8 Billion and $6.4 Billion respectively.² Additionally, as Secretary Paulson effectively moved the goal posts regarding T.A.R.P., credit-card giant American Express gained approval from the Federal Reserve to become a “commercial-bank” thus opening the door for the credit giant access to bailout money.³

Fellow readers the snowball effect of moral hazard has indeed begun to gather critical mass. As predicted other struggling industries from a lobbyist group representing Hispanic Plumbers and Heating specialists⁴ desiring to be hired by treasury to maintain the purchased foreclosed homes to the faltering American auto industry, the leeches now have their smarmy hands out begging to be recipients of our hard earned tax dollars.

Finally, while this blogger never supported the bailout; partly due to my philosophy and partly based on my ingrained cynicism, this action by former Goldman Sachs employee, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, is dispicable and wholly indefensible.

How dare this plutocrat testify before Congress begging for speedy Congressional approval of the bailout bill based on the lie of helping down on their luck homeowners, when in fact it was destined for fellow plutocratic investment bankers. Shame on Congress for not seeing through this transparent scheme to secure the fortunes of Paulson’s fellow plutocrats. Shame on Senator McCain and President-Elect Obama for their lack of principles, vision, or judgement which could have wholly halted this hastily arranged scheme.

Fellow readers, we must, for the sake of our Republic, remove the private bankers from their throne of power over the American economy. If we do not, they will continue to wholly plunder and bankrupt our Treasury with their crafty corrupt schemes. The time is now upon us, to take a stand and begin the process to End the FED and break the bailout.

Source(s): ¹ CBS MarketWatch – “Text of Paulson’s Remarks on TARP • ² CBS News – “Hard Times, But Big Wall Street Bonuses • ³ The Press Association – “American Express to become bank” • ⁴ New York TImes “Lobbyists Swarm the Treasury for Piece of Bailout Pie”

Allison Bricker

During the campaign, President-Elect Obama promised voters that if elected, he would get right to work on getting government to “fix” the environment.¹ You know, much in the same way that the government has “fixed” education, retirement, poverty, drug use, housing, etcetera. However, as they say, the devil is in the details.

In 1998, when President-Elect Obama was in the Illinois Senate, he voted ‘aye’ for a bill condemning “The Kyoto Treaty”, explaining in a campaign statement, [Kyoto] did not have “meaningful and achievable emissions targets.”² Additionally, President-Elect Obama routinely took electric utility and coal industry money during the campaign totaling $539,597. Previously, during his run for United States Senate in 2004, he was flanked by Illinois coal workers proclaiming “there’s always going to be a role for coal”. Even as recently as the West Virginia Primary, Illinois Representative Dan Reitz, original sponsor of the Illinois Anti-Kyoto bill stated:

“He [Obama] understands how important coal is to the state of Illinois and to the Midwest,”²

However after receiving the Democrat party nomination, President-Elect Obama stated in his election manifesto that he would set a goal of reducing US emissions to 1990 levels by 2020 and by 80 percent by 2050, using a cap-and-trade system scheme and a 10-year program worth $150 billion Dollars in renewable energy research and development.³

This scheme when implemented, sets a ceiling on the total amount of gases allowed to escape into the atmosphere via assigned industry credits. If the industry goes over their allotment they are forced to purchase “credits” from a direct or indirect competitor which has not gone over their allotment. The end result, higher energy costs for Americans as the companies pass these “credit purchase” costs down onto the consumer. One then wonders exactly how he plans to “fix” the economy, when by proxy the government will help to increase American’s energy bills. As if the rising cost of groceries and durable goods was not enough, now we can look forward to Uncle Sam raising our energy bills.

Let us also not forget that once this “scheme” is in place, there will be an influx of speculators into the market, where just like with oil prices, the price of energy “credits” will swing wildly further destabilizing an already volitile market.

However, the saddest part of all this hot air (CO²) being expelled from King Obama, is the fact that while he is so concerned with pointing the finger at “we the people”, we have yet to hear him indicate his plans for tackling the biggest polluter of all. Yes fellow readers, the same group of scoundrels put in charge of “protecting the environment”, the United States Government⁴. From the gallons of jet and rocket fuel dumped into the Atlantic and Pacific oceans by NASA, the Air Force and Navy, to the radioactive waste shipped cross country, the American government continues to escape the line of sight, while they target us, for “environmentally conscious behavior modification”.

Finally, President-Elect Obama will send transition team members to the upcoming United Nations Climate Summit, December 1st through 12th in Poznan, Poland. While we will likely glean some insight into King Obama’s policies; whether he wishes to completely hand over American environmental sovereignty will have to wait until just before the Copenhagen talks begin in 2009. It is my opinion that he will indeed seek to erode American sovereignty further via either an expanded Kyoto type treaty or global version of the “North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation”⁵. Neither of which will help protect the environment and instead will only line the pockets of professional environmentalist robber barons.

Source(s): ¹Bloomberg.com WorldWide • ² USA Today via GreenChange “Obama embraced coal industry, condemned Kyoto treaty” by: Ken Dilanian • ³ AFP – “Climate talks: Obama victory offers hope, but Congress is key” • ⁴ CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-Extensions of Remarks October 28, 2000 • ⁵Commission for Environmental Cooperation

Allison Bricker

President-Elect Obama’s transition website “change.gov”¹ has now retracted and revised the page regarding mandatory civil service for American youth. The original page at the time of my initial post stated the following:

“Obama will call on citizens of all ages to serve America, by developing a plan to require 50 hours of community service in middle school and high school and 100 hours of community service in college every year,”

However after quickly receiving mass criticism all over the blogosphere the website has altered the copy to read:

Obama will call on citizens of all ages to serve America, by setting a goal that all middle school and high school students do 50 hours of community service a year and by developing a plan so that all college students who conduct 100 hours of community service receive a universal and fully refundable tax credit ensuring that the first $4,000 of their college education is completely free.

Yes fellow readers, the Obama Administration is already trying to cover and spin their true intent by removing the word ‘require’ and thus replacing it with a $4,000.00 Dollar bribe. Regardless, we as Americans were given a brief insight to the true nature of this statist’s definition of “CHANGE”.

Mark my words fellow readers, neither King Obama, Rahm Emanuel, nor their “Civilian National Security Force” will get their hands on our two boys, so as to indoctrinate them into the centralized state’s definition of “community service”. Teaching our boys a sense of responsibility is our job, not the nanny state’s. The federal government has already demonstrated its inability to educate the public through their state run government schools; we will not be fooled again.

Finally, let us not forget the “Obama Youth – Junior Fraternity Regiment” video that made its way around YouTube featuring a group of brainwashed students conducted at the request of a Kansas City middle-school teacher. The students march in military garb chanting “Alpha-Omega” and “Yes we can”. History has shown that such blind allegiance is both dangerous and destructive to liberty.

Source(s):¹http://change.gov/americaserves/

Kelly

With the transition process from George W, Bush to Barack Obama already in high gear, liberals everywhere are filled with a tenacious hope that this moment in time is the beginning of a new era, a new dawn. If you voted for Barack Obama, then greatness is upon us, or in the very least, the need to believe that greatness is upon us is still fresh in the hearts of the Obama supporters. I cannot blame them. When people so fervently believe in something as broadly defined as ‘change’, and then put a man at the forefront of responsibility to create that ‘change’, it becomes increasingly difficult to be critical of their well-oiled, well-groomed, hypnotic leader; in much the same way that Christians are not particularly inclined to be critical of their leaders or beliefs.

Barack Obama has become a brand name, packaged and sold to the masses. There were promises made, like so many before, of a better, more efficient government that would end ‘politics as usual.’ The leading product, ‘Change,’ sold because we were told that we ‘could believe in it.’ Though, there is little doubt that the Bush Administration laid the groundwork, brick by brick, for change to become the word so desperately sought. It seems the time was never more ripe, the stars never so well aligned.

The Bush Administration led an invasion of Iraq with promises of “cake-walk” that quickly went from ridding America of the threat known as WMD’s to a war campaign based on Iraqi freedom and the deliverance of democracy to the Middle-East. And lest we forget the atrocities that followed; numerous Executive Orders, the warrant-less searches and wire-tapping (only to be feared if you’re not doing anything wrong), the private security forces of Blackwater, Walter Reed Hospital, Katrina, FEMA, Guantanamo, water-boarding, Attorney General Gonzales, and the more recent mess on Wall Street- the Bailout. ‘Tis no wonder Barack Obama is now our President-Elect.

The so-called value-voters were outnumbered this November 4th, at least as it pertains to the Presidential election, since the moral high ground seems to have gained something in all of this as the gays went from wedge issue to bargaining chip (California, Florida, Arizona, and Arkansas.)

In 2004, moral values outnumbered the Iraq war as Americans stood at the ballot box. In 2008, it was ‘the economy, stupid.’ Focus on the Family was won out by Focus on the Globe, as President Elect Obama is promising to change the world (Civilian National Security Force, anyone?) Though, I suppose it’s fair to say that every administration has changed the world in one form or another, whether it has been for better or worse is completely subjective.

Clearly, eight years under neo-conservatism was enough. But, where will we go from here? The American citizens were seeking change, and with good reason. But, is another stimulus check the only thing on the minds of a shrinking and sinking middle class? If so, then one could only conclude that the ‘hope’ that backed the 2008 election is an empty idea at best and by this time next year ‘hope’ will surely return to the apathy from whence it came. Or, are the Obama-ites truly enticed by the farce of a luscious utopia, sprouting with entitlement and more government powers, sprinkled with redistribution of wealth and the consequential loss of liberties? I’m afraid that too many believe that they can have their cake and eat it too, but one can hope that a return to apathy is just around the bend.

Allison Bricker

Editor’s Note: This article has been linked to by a white supremacist website known as the “Vanguard News Network”. We the staff of “The Smoking Argus”, wish to ensure our readers that we in no way agree or support their collectivist philosophy based on uneducated fear. The Smoking Argus believes the only criteria worthy of judging an individual is the content of their character.

It is my hope that perhaps by reading our site, members of this group will see that Tyranny calls no one group of people home; that a loss of liberty for one individual, is a loss of liberty for all. All peoples on our little blue marble have been subject to the thumb of oppressive despotism at one time or another.

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As previously reported, then Democratic Presidential candidate, Barack Obama while speaking in Colorado this past July, stated:

“We cannot continue to rely only on our military in order to achieve the national security objective that we’ve set. We’ve gotta have a “Civilian National Security Force” that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well funded.”

Unfortunately, President-Elect Barack Obama has yet to expound upon exactly what he means by such a statement. However, even prior to this mock election, media reports began circulating that candidate Obama had already extended an invitation to Rahm Emanuel to be his White House Chief of Staff. Representative Emanual (D-IL) having served in the Clinton Administration, is well groomed to help speed up the new King’s transition to power.

Moreover, it appears that Representative Emanuel (D-IL) who is also head of the the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, may be the best person to shed some light on the aforementioned ominous sounding statements. In “The Plan: Big Ideas for America“, co-authored by Representative Emanuel and Bruce Reed, the two lay out their vision of the “Homeland’s” new compulsory civilian service, writing:

“It’s time for a real Patriot Act that brings out the patriot in all of us. We propose universal [mandatory] civilian service for every young American. Under this plan, All Americans between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five will be asked to serve their country by going through three months of basic training, civil defense preparation and community service.”

If the arrogance alone in such sentiments bothers you not, the two “centralized planners” go on to say:

“Republicans will squeal about individual freedom,”

Such blatant disdain for individual liberty is a sentiment only of tyrants. We have seen this ruse perpetrated on us for the last eight years as it relates to the false justification for preemptive war. Let us not now be chastised away from our liberty based upon a centralized planner’s definition of patriotism. The definition of Patriotism to these scoundrels is loyalty to the power of the ‘state’, their false notions of nobility, their blood soaked seats of power, not to our Republic, not to our Constitution, not to humanity’s inherent liberties.

Fellow readers, my political philosophy is far from what is espoused by the “Republicrat Party Platform”, however the thought of our children being indoctrinated into a 3 month “boot camp” and “civil disaster preparedness” reeks of statism. A search of history will turn up various reincarnations of these types of “community service” programs. Regardless of the slick glossy packaging and repackaging, the motivation and end is always the same, oppresion, tyranny, and despotism.

For those of you whom support President-Elect Obama, consider that even if he were to be pure in his intent, would you have wanted your children to have been forced to work under a Bush Presidency?

We know not what type of President we may have in the future, and this my fellow readers is why we should not allow this current President to obtain mandatory legal guardianship over our youth now or ever. The temptation of power is inevitable.

Note: there is an update to this post