Philosophilia

Economics in One Lesson

2009-02-06T13:09:00.000-08:00

Most of the economic information which we have been bombarded with daily on the radio and television for over sixty years is composed of nothing more than rehash after rehash of the same fundamental fallacy - The Broken Window Fallacy. Once we understand this fallacy and what it means for public policy decisions, we begin to see the ill effects of many well-intentioned, yet misguided, policies.

Therefore, in the interest of dispelling this illusion, I am giving a link to what is quite possibly the best introductory book on economics ever written (if you know a better one, by all means please leave a comment). The book was published in 1946 by Henry Hazlitt.

Economics in One Lesson (Online Version)

I have also taken the time to make a video playlist on Youtube of discussions on this book from economists at the Ludwig von Mises Institute. I was quite impressed with many of their discussions on the sound economics principles described in this amazing book.

Discussions on Economics in One Lesson (Video Playlist)

The Philosophy of Liberty

2009-01-07T18:35:00.000-08:00

I recently found a video on youtube which amazed me.

I have never seen the Philosophy of Liberty explained so clearly and so succinctly. Watching the words fly by on the screen, I was struck with the poignant realization of how far the United States has fallen from Liberty since the adoption of the Constitution in September 17, 1787. The men and women whose labors and sacrifices made the Republic which laid the foundation for our present prosperity would look at the government now with disdain.

"Government is not reason; it is not eloquence. It is force. And force, like fire, is a dangerous servant and a fearful master."
George Washington

"Any people that would give up liberty for a little temporary safety deserves neither liberty nor safety and will lose both."
Benjamin Franklin

"The Tenth Amendment is the foundation of the Constitution."
Thomas Jefferson

"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote."
Benjamin Franklin

Without further ado, here is the Philosophy of Liberty!

Peter Schiff Predicts Crash of Housing Market

2008-10-20T16:04:00.000-07:00

Is it amazing to believe that back in 2006, someone knew that the housing bubble was about to burst and that the US economy was headed for a serious recession?

Many people probably had inklings of the coming storm, but here is a talk by Peter Schiff in 2006 putting his reputation on the line to unequivocally expound on the coming crash and what investors can do to protect themselves.

Nov 2006 Peter Schiff Mortgage Bankers Speech Part 1 of 8

Nov 2006 Peter Schiff Mortgage Bankers Speech Part 2 of 8

Nov 2006 Peter Schiff Mortgage Bankers Speech Part 3 of 8

Nov 2006 Peter Schiff Mortgage Bankers Speech Part 4 of 8

Nov 2006 Peter Schiff Mortgage Bankers Speech Part 5 of 8

Nov 2006 Peter Schiff Mortgage Bankers Speech Part 6 of 8

Nov 2006 Peter Schiff Mortgage Bankers Speech Part 7 of 8

Nov 2006 Peter Schiff Mortgage Bankers Speech Part 8 of 8

When a person is as dead-on as he is, it pays to start listening to him.

For more information about Peter Schiff, check out his Wikipedia page.

Freedom to Fascism?

2008-01-23T11:58:00.000-08:00

Below is an interesting documentary by Aaron Russo. He begins by investigating whether there is a law requiring the average US citizen to pay the federal income tax and he concludes with a dark vision of the future of our world. It is very disturbing and I am very interested in continuing my investigation of this. I hope to God it is not true, but I also must acknowledge that what I hope has nothing to do with reality.

America: Freedom to Fascism

A few nice quotes from this video:

"Give me control of a nation's money supply, and I care not who make its laws."
- Mayer Rothschild, Founder of the Rothschild family banking empire

"I am a most unhappy man. I have unwittingly ruined my country. A great industrial nation is now controlled by its system of credit. We are not longer a government by free opinion, no longer a government by conviction and the vote of the majority, but a government by the opinion and duress of a small group of dominant men."
- Woodrow Wilson, the President who signed the Federal Reserve Act of 1913

"The power to tax is the power to destroy."
- Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall

"None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free."
- Goethe

MLK Jr. on Vietnam

2008-01-21T17:37:00.000-08:00

Since it is Martin Luther King Jr. Day today, I thought that I would post a few videos of famous speeches by Dr. King. Below is his speech about the Vietnam War:

Martin Luther King, "Why I Am Opposed to the War in Vietnam"

And of course, Dr. King's most famous and celebrated speech, "I Have a Dream":

Martin Luther King "I have a dream"

The Truth About Fiat Money

2008-01-16T09:31:00.000-08:00

I found another great video giving a negative view of fiat currency.

FIAT EMPIRE - Why the Federal Reserve Violates the U.S. Constitution

Who Really Runs the Fed?

2008-01-15T08:59:00.000-08:00

I'm back again for another installment in the discussion of the Federal Reserve and central banking system. For over 90 years, the Federal Reserve has been praised as providing for economic stability in the face of the rising and falling economic cycles. I am now providing two videos which claim that the Federal Reserve actually causes the rising and falling economic cycles purposefully for the benefit of the rich international banking interests known as 'the money changers'.

Money, Banking and the Federal Reserve

The Money Masters - How International Bankers Gained Control of America

Very interestingly, the previous video does not recommend moving back to a gold standard, which Nixon departed our nation from in the 70's, but simply replacing the debt-based money issued by the Fed with debt-free money issued by our own sovereign government.

A few quotes from this video:

"I can tell you right now that there is going to be a crash of unprecedented proportions. A crash like we have never seen before in this country. The greatest shock of this decade is that more people are about to lose more money than at any time before in our history. But the second greatest shock will be the incredible amount of money that just a relatively small group of people will make at the exact same time. You see, in periods of economic upheaval and economic crisis, wealth is not destroyed. It is merely transferred."
- Larry Bates, Economist and Author of "The New Economic Disorder"

I strongly urge any who are trying to understand the factors behind why our currency has been steadily losing its value over the last 90 years to watch these movies. The videos are very informative about general economic and banking ideas such as inflation, fractional reserve banking, depressions, et cetera.

Who Control's the Federal Reserve Bank?

2007-12-09T00:03:00.000-08:00

I have posted a few conspiracy theory videos making some pretty ballsy assumptions about the Federal Reserve being run by a cartel of crafty international bankers. In the spirit of seeking truth, I would like to post an article which alleges to debunk this conspiracy theory. Very interesting article actually.

Myth #5. The Federal Reserve is owned and controlled by foreigners.

I haven't investigated any of the sources yet, so use your standard level of skepticism.

Here is a link to the mission statement and core values of the think tank which published the above article. Below is an excerpt:

"Why We Focus on the Right

While attacks on civil liberties can come from any direction, the political and Christian Right use skillful marketing that exploits the public’s desire for quick solutions and capitalizes on today’s hectic information flow. With clever slogans that oversimplify complex public policy issues, the Right routinely scapegoats others in pursuit of their agenda.

PRA responds with fair and accurate analysis, looking beneath the sound-bites and slogans of the Right, exposing the true goals and agendas of specific leaders, organizations and movements. We then present our analysis in ways that can help the media, advocates and educators understand and challenge the Right"

MIT Professor on WTC Collapse

2007-12-06T21:08:00.000-08:00

Interesting video of a presentation by an MIT professor, Jeff King, about why the WTC collapse was due to controlled demolition.

MIT Engineer Breaks Down WTC Controlled Demolition

Improbable Collapse

2007-12-06T13:42:00.001-08:00

The following video, Improbable Collapse, provides an excellent, scientifically factual look at the collapse of the three World Trade Center buildings on 9/11. Yes, there were actually three buildings. Another building, not hit by any plane, collapsed as well, officially due to fire. It is clear that the investigation into the 9/11 tragedy has at best grossly overlooked and ignored many key findings. At worst, the investigation has actively covered up a dark conspiracy. I certainly hope there was no conspiracy, but if we choose not to entertain such possibilities and instead dismiss them as "crazy talk", then we create fertile ground upon which conspiracies could easily occur.

As Dr. Steven Jones eloquently explains in this video, the official explanation claiming that the WTC buildings collapsed due to fire just does not appear to stand up to scientific scrutiny. An alternate, reasonable hypothesis with supporting evidence exists suggesting that the buildings collapsed as a result of a controlled demolition. The truly disturbing question is, "Why is this hypothesis not being investigated?"

Improbable Collapse: The Demolition of our Republic
Produced by Michael Berger

Zeitgeist: The Movie

2007-12-04T22:10:00.000-08:00

Below is a link to a three part movie, Zeitgeist: The Movie. It starts off by talking about a reduction of most major religions to the ages-old pagan worship of the Sun. The second part discusses many interesting questions that remain unanswered regarding the US government's prior knowledge and/or involvement in 9/11. Finally, it wraps up by talking about the Federal Reserve system and the Federal Income Tax.

Be warned that the views in this video are presented in such a way to convince the viewer of a general global conspiracy to keep the masses uneducated, unquestioning, and generally preoccupied while their freedoms are slowly corroded. It is my personal feeling that such possibilities should at least be considered. Show me a society where conspiracy theories are denounced as "radical" or "wastes of time" and I will show you fertile ground for them to occur.

"Zeitgeist, produced by Peter Joseph, was created as a nonprofit filmiac expression to inspire people to start looking at the world from a more critical perspective and to understand that very often things are not what the population at large think they are. The information in Zeitgeist was established over a year long period of research and the current Source page on this site lists the basic sources used / referenced and the Interactive Transcript includes exact source references and further information."

Zeitgeist: The Movie
by Peter Joseph

Ten Steps to Toppling a Democracy

2007-12-04T08:37:00.000-08:00

Imagine that you live in an open, free society and that you are a member of an elite group of people who wish to transition your society to a authoritarian state where you and your group have absolute power. What steps would be necessary to bring about such a transformation? It's not really that difficult. It's not quantum physics; just adhere to the ten steps provided in the article below, and any free society can be transformed into a fascist state.

"If you look at history, you can see that there is essentially a blueprint for turning an open society into a dictatorship. That blueprint has been used again and again in more and less bloody, more and less terrifying ways. But it is always effective."

In the article below, Naomi Wolf provides such a blue print, with examples of how each step has been executed in the past. She also provides many interesting examples of how each of the steps are currently being implemented by the Bush administration.

Ten Steps to Close Down an Open Society
by Naomi Wolf

"The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny."
- James Madison, in The Federalist #47

What Ron Paul Stands For

2007-11-25T21:30:00.000-08:00

This is an excellent video of Ron Paul giving and interview with a group of people asking very pointed questions.

Bruce Fein on Impeaching Cheney

2007-11-13T11:27:00.001-08:00

Below is a transcription that I have taken the time to do of an interview with Bruce Fein on The Real News about House Resolution 333, legislation introduced by Representative Dennis Kucinich to impeach Vice President Cheney for high crimes and misdemeanors.

I enjoyed Bruce Fein's strong voice in support of what is the Constitutional obligation of Congress so much that I transcribed it completely below for those not able to stream video. Please let me know if there are any errors and I will correct them. Click the link below if you would like to watch the interview.

Interview on with Bruce Fein about House Resolution 333
The Real News
November 11, 2007

PAUL JAY: On Tuesday, Nov. 6, Congressman Dennis Kucinich introduced the resolution to impeach Vice President Dick Cheney. Today we're joined by Attorney Bruce Fein, a Republican pundit who supports Cheney's impeachment. Fein is the former Associate Deputy Attorney-General for the Reagan administration. Currently, he's working as an advisor to the Ron Paul Presidential campaign. Bruce, you're a long-time Republican. But, you're supporting the bid to impeach Vice President Dick Cheney. Why?

BRUCE FEIN: Because I am a lifelong Republican and believe in Republican conservative values, which the Vice President has abandoned and endorsed unchecked power, the idea that "trust me" should be the measure of civil liberties. Those are the themes that would have been abhorrent to any Republican twenty to thirty years ago and certainly to our Founding Fathers.

PAUL JAY: There were three parts to the Kucinich resolution - one about manipulating intelligence pre-Iraq War, two about manipulating intelligence about Saddam and the al Qaeda connection, and three threatening war against Iran. Did you support this resolution that Kucinich put forward?

BRUCE FEIN: Well I would have indicted the Vice President for other reasons that more distorted and warped the checks and balances system of the Constituion. I would blame Congress as much as the President for continuing our quagmire tarbaby in Iraq, because Congress has voted 800 billion dollars to support President Bush's invasion and aftermath of Saddam. Congress can hardly claim innocence with all that money being appropriated month after month after month, whether the Congress had been controlled by Democrats or Republicans. And, simply with regard to threatening Iran, the fact is Congress could prevent any kind of incursion into Iran by a simple appropriations bill saying, "No monies of the United States shall be spent to employ military force in Iran." Now that's a Democratic-controlled Congress that refuses to do that. It seems to me difficult to impeach the Vice President or President for things that Congress is complicit in. After all, Congress is the accuser here and if you are looking at the warping of the Constitution, it's every bit as much these matters in the hands of Congress as the Executive.

PAUL JAY: I think the leadership of the Democratic party might agree with this analysis, seeing as they've done everything they can to bury the impeachment resolution. But if it was up to you, what would be the three outstanding reasons for the impeachment of Vice President Dick Cheney?

BRUCE FEIN: First, he is the "champion" of the so-called Warantless Surveillance program that constituted criminal violations of the statutes regulating the gathering of foreign intelligence to ensure that a judge decides whether the privacy interests of an American shall be invaded or not. And claiming that the President has power to torture, assassinate, kidnap or otherwise to gather foreign intelligence without any ability of Congress to regulate the gathering whatsoever. The second, these claims of Executive privilege, namely the authority of the Vice President and President to run a secret government and be unresponsive to the Congressional requests for information regarding spying programs, the legal rationale for the programs, the reasons for firing US attorneys or otherwise. Government secrecy is an invitation to abuses and lawlessness. And the third area is his use of military commissions and enemy combatant detainees at Guantanamo Bay that are held solely, I mean totally, outside the legal system. These are practices that are abhorrent to any civilized system of judging, of law that recognizes the need for independent judges to determine whether the Executive branch has correctly or improperly detained any individual and deprived them of their liberty for life.

PAUL JAY: Now you worked in the Justice department during the Reagan administration. Is what's happening now really so different than then? I mean many people accused the Reagan administration of certainly violating international law and some American law, Iran-Contra Gate and other kinds of activities in the CIA. Have things really changed all that much?

BRUCE FEIN: Yes. Everything in life is matters of degree, and certainly that comes as well with regard to high crimes and misdemeanors and the danger to the Constitution. One violation of the Constitution every 500 years is not a problem; when it comes every five seconds its a problem. So it's matters of degree, and the Reagan administration certainly was one [?] Iran-Contra. President Reagan ordered his national security advisors to testify before Congressional committees, I was right in the room then. He insisted on the need for full disclosure in order to reassure the American people that he was not engaging in any kind of criminal cover-up. And even though there were these allegations of violating the so-called Boleman (?) Ammendment that restricted aid to the Nicaraguan resistance, there never was any court decision that ever concluded there was any violation of law. And moreover, the Congressional oversight authority functioned as it was intended, with questioning, hearings, and ability to ask national security advisors, Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense the reasons for the sale of arms to Iran, the diversion of funds, or otherwise. There was an independent council who investigated criminal wrong-doing, and did find some cases of misleading Congress. That's totally different than President Bush, who's operated in complete secrecy since 9/11, and we don't know the scope of the alleged or suspected crimes because Congress has not insisted on ascertaining what the President or the Vice President have done in the name of national security.

PAUL JAY: Most of the Republican party [?], the Republicans at least that are visible, that adopt a position similar to yours, in the Presidential candidate line up only Ron Paul I would think, what's happened to the rest of the Republican party? And not just the rest of the Republican party, I think one could say most of corporate America has kind of stood by this last almost eight years, and...at the very least has seen one of the worst strategic disasters to face US foreign policy in Iraq. A centralization of power as you describe, not seen before since perhaps World War II. Why has most of the Republican party and corporate America been so quiet?

BRUCE FEIN: Well I think you're a little exclusionary there. I'd put the Democratic party in. Remember, it was Nancy Pelosi, the House Speaker of the Democratic icon, who said "Impeachment's off the table." This was last November. No matter what this President will do, impeachment will never be on the table again. The Democrats are as complicit as the Republicans and corporate America, and largely so is the decay of the political culture. People grow up not knowing what the Consitution means, not recognizing the sacrifice that Valley Forge, Cemetary Ridge, Omaha Beach, that have kept check and balances intact. Freedom of speech and our liberties, while maintaining our national sovereignty. They know nothing of our history and the nobility of government by the consent of the governed, and so they are largely indifferent to the crumbling of our Constitution and the deterioration of the checks that keep our liberties intact. And we are on a trajectory that mimics that of the decline and fall of Rome, chronicled by Edward Gibbon. And when you find a country whose moral decay has set in as pronounced as this one is, you should see how easy it is for one leader to usurp power, relatively with impunity, even with disasters like Iraq, which is a failure by anyone's standards. We have a President who's popularity is at Nixon-like levels before his resignation, and still he dictates everything, and Congress capitulates, yields, and follows like they're sheep. So that's the basic reason is that we have lost our moral fiber and devotion to the Constitutional philosophy that gave the nation its birth.

PAUL JAY: I know you're working with Ron Paul on his campaign. A few days ago, to everyone's, I shouldn't say everyone's, to the media's surprise, I don't think to those on the Internet, but to the media's surprise, Ron Paul raised millions of dollars in a short time. What effect is his candidacy having inside the Republican party? Is he getting people to actually talk about these questions?

BRUCE FEIN: Not withing the Republican party or the Democratic party either. Just like Kucinich on the Democratic side, sort of like the flip-side of Ron Paul on these issues, only a Democrat, [?] pushed Hillary Clinton to raise these issues or others. No, in large measure, the members in Congress, the aspirants for the Presidency covet what President Bush and Cheney have done because they desire to exercise the same powers that these two have done. The fact is that this is not something that can be blamed on one or two individuals, one or two parties. It affects the entire country, which makes it far more worrisome, because its not gonna go away when Cheney and Bush leave the White House, at least as early as 2009 when we have the next inauguration. Now some have speculated, "Are we gonna have President Musharraf push of a declaration of emergency?" No, that's not going to happen here. But the fact is, the slow appreciation of power in the Executive branch will continue, because the members of Congress don't take themselves seriously. They actually think all the serious decision-making should be in the President, because they really don't have any convictions about what their obligations are to check and oversee the executive branch.

PAUL JAY: Some people of the Democratic party leadership, certainly the leadership of the Republican party, are saying the campaign to impeach Cheney is either a diversion, a waste of time, and so on. But do you see that impeachment process as a constructive process?

BRUCE FEIN: Of course it is! It's not only constructive, it's obligatory. You'll notice that everyone in the Congress of the United States, every officer of the United States, under Article VI of our Constitution, takes an oath, an oath, "to defend and protected the Constitution of the United States", which includes a clause that says, "The President and Vice President shall be removed from office for high crimes and misdemeanors." Impeachable offenses. The Constitution says nothing about loyalty to the Democratic party, like worrying about the Democratic retention of power in Congress. The Constitution is silent. There is no obligation, and certainly no unflagging obligation, to subordinate the Constitution to these other more parochial objectives. And the idea that the Constitutional enforcement and protection and defense of the document is a diversion is preposterous on its face! Without the Constitution, all these other issues would be meaningless. We wouldn't have a rule of law. We would be returning to a monarch-like Executive branch of government by executive edict. And these comments and slighting of impeachment show how far we've gone in our Constitutional ignorance and failure to recognize what keeps a country strong, free and democratic.

The Media and Ron Paul

2007-11-07T19:42:00.001-08:00

This has indeed been a busy day of posting for me. A friend of mine just sent me this excellent article suggesting a vision for the future of Ron Paul and the 2008 Presidential election. It is an article with 60+ years of American political trend backing it up. I liked the article so much, I will post it here in its entirety.

It is evident that the American Republic is decaying into a military dictatorship. The only question left to ponder is will you do something about it? Will you sit by idly while your nation is destroyed from within? Is inaction and a lost Republic the legacy you wish to leave for your children?

The Media’s Plan to Ambush Ron Paul

By Mike Whitney

“The American Republic is in remnant status. The stage is set for our country to devolve into a military dictatorship, and few seem to care.”
- Rep. Ron Paul

11/07/07 "ICH" --- - First we stop the killing, and then we restore the Constitution. These are our two main priorities. And that’s why I’m voting for Ron Paul. He is the only candidate (with a chance to win) who’s promising to do either. And he’ll keep his word. That makes him the only truly American candidate running for president.

Paul is serious about withdrawing US troops from Iraq. He knows that the war was a mistake and believes that the American occupation must end. He has promised to stop the ongoing slaughter of Iraqi civilians. That should be the primary moral consideration for anyone casting a ballot on November 3.

Will you vote to stop the killing or not? It’s as simple as that.

Paul has also promised to restore the rule of law---to repeal the Patriot Act and the Military Commissions Act; to reinstate Posse Comitatus, due process, habeas corpus, and the “presumption of innocence”. He’ll make sure that US prisoners—whether they are American citizens or foreign nationals---are treated in way that complies with our treaty obligations, the Geneva Conventions, the Bill of Rights, and the basic tenets of human decency.

Under Paul, the torture will stop. Period.

What other candidate will stop the torture of US prisoners? What other candidate will stop the government’s spying on the American people? What other candidate will challenge Bush’s claim that the president can arbitrarily cast an American citizen in prison and keep him there as long as he chooses without charging him with a crime?

Bush has abolished the basic safeguards which protect the citizen from the long-arm of the state. The legal system needs be purged of his executive signing statements and presidential decrees. Only Paul promises to restore the Constitution. There is no second choice.

Paul is the only candidate who grasps the economic problems facing the nation from our massive deficit spending, the destruction of our manufacturing base, and the falling dollar. He may not be able to pull us back from the brink, but he will rebuild confidence in our currency, our markets, and our trade policies. That’s the best we can hope for given the mess that Bush has created.

On November 5, Guy Fawkes Day, the Paul campaign raised over $4.07 million in one day mostly from private citizens. He surpassed all the other candidates except Hilary Clinton and has raised more than $6.84 million in the first five weeks of this quarter alone. Paul’s “purely” grassroots movement is energized by working class Americans who see his candidacy as a last-ditch effort to end the war in Iraq, reestablish fiscal sanity, and restore civil liberties.

Despite the fact that Paul has a strong personal approval ratings and polls well against his competitors; the media has deliberately---and very successfully---kept him out of the public eye. That will be more difficult to do now that his campaign war-chest is packed with contributions and his base of support is expanding across the country.

We expect the media to ditch its failed strategy of simply ignoring Paul and take the more aggressive approach of attacking him outright. Now that Paul has established himself as a credible threat to the warmongering, autocratic corporate elite; he will have to be discredited through a coordinated media-blitz which will target his voting record, his character, and any other trivial foible which may incite public scorn.

He’s got a bull’s-eye on his back.

We’ve seen it all before, haven’t we? The politics of personal destruction organized and directed from the penthouse suites of the media’s corporate offices?

Perhaps, it will be a repeat of the “Dean Scream”, where the voice of antiwar candidate Howard Dean was isolated from the crowd noise-- and played on the mainstream media over 900 times in 48 hours---making Dean look like a maniac and torpedoing whatever chance he may have had of winning the Democratic nomination.

Or maybe it will be like John McCain’s “rumored” out-of-wedlock black baby in the North Carolina primary? Or the “Swift-boating” of John Kerry in the 2004 election? Or the attacks on Dan Rather following his report that the president was a slacker who vamoosed from the “Champagne Unit” of the Texas National Guardduring wartime?

Whatever the plan may be, we should know by now that the media will continue to act as the chief adversary of the American people and the cause of freedom. That won’t change until the 5 corporate media-giants are brought to account and busted up into a thousand little pieces.

But don’t expect the Paul supporters to throw in the towel like the weak-kneed Dean throng. These guys are stubborn and resolute. And they won’t budge on matters of principle. They’re not taken in by the media’s cheesy smear-campaigns and they won’t jump off the bandwagon at the first sign of trouble.

The Paul crowd has some heavy artillery of their own, too---and they’re wheeling it into place right now. Their ranks are gradually swelling, the money is pouring in, and they are not going to give up their country without a fight.

This election is shaping up to be a clash of ideals between the people who still believe in freedom and those who don’t. It’s going hand-to-hand combat and it’ll probably crack the country in two.

Good. Let the battle begin. As Thomas Jefferson said, “Every generation needs a new revolution.”

"On the altar of God I pledge undying hostility to any government restriction on the free minds of the People."
- Thomas Jefferson

House Resolution 333 to Impeach Cheney

2007-11-07T16:38:00.000-08:00

In the words of a good friend of mine, "'nuff said."

House Representative Dennis Kucinich Moves for Cheney Impeachment

Also, you can check the Wikipedia article about House Resolution 333.

US House Resolution 333 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ron Paul on the Federal Reserve

2007-11-07T14:56:00.000-08:00

Here is a video of Ron Paul speaking on the problems inherent in the Federal Reserve.

Ron Paul on the Federal Reserve and Sound Monetary Policy

Proof that White Guys Can Dance

2007-10-15T08:18:00.001-07:00

This has absolutely nothing to do with politics. I was amazed when I saw this:

Liquid Dancing

Noam Chomsky on the Iraq War

2007-10-12T09:49:00.000-07:00

Noam Chomsky eloquently describes the gradual process through which our freedoms are being eroded by Bush et al and our interventionist foreign policy.

Noam Chomsky on the Iraq War

The video is a good hour long, but Dr. Chomsky hits on many interesting points. For those of you not familiar with Noam Chomsky, check out his page on Wikipedia. Quite an amazing and interesting guy.

A couple nice quotes I like from Noam Chomsky:

"Either you repeat the same conventional doctrines everybody is saying, or else you say something true, and it will sound like it's from Neptune."
- Noam Chomsky

"Everybody's worried about stopping terrorism. Well, there's a really easy way: stop participating in it."
- Noam Chomsky

"All over the place, from the popular culture to the propaganda system, there is constant pressure to make people feel that they are helpless, that the only role they can have is to ratify decisions and to consume."
- Noam Chomsky

US Media...At It Again!

2007-10-12T07:13:00.000-07:00

Welcome back to another edition of "Trick the American Public!", this time aired on CNBC. I'm not trying to talk only about Ron Paul these days, but it just always seems like he is getting shafted one time after another.

Ron Paul Supporters Prove CNBC's Ratings Stink

Wow...reading that article makes you really question any polls you read coming from our media. Ron Paul doesn't have a chance? Yeah, I'll believe that when I see it in the real polls. In the meantime, vote for who you believe in, not who you think has a chance to win.

"A self-fulfilling prophecy is an assumption or prediction that, purely as a result of having been made, cause the expected or predicted event to occur and thus confirms its own 'accuracy.'"
- Paul Watzlawick

Ron Paul Rap

2007-10-05T18:52:00.001-07:00

I had to laugh when I saw this video:

Ron Paul for the Long Haul

A rap about Ron Paul. Brilliant, simply brilliant!

Does Ron Paul Have a Chance?

2007-10-05T13:19:00.000-07:00

I get a lot of people telling me, "Well, Ron Paul doesn't seem to have a chance, does he? Everyone's saying he's a long-shot." My response is typically, "Have you ever heard of a self-fulfilled prophecy?" Saying such a thing about any political candidate easily becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, especially when the media is encouraged to spread that prophecy! Also, consider the people who are saying these kinds of things. Think about the people who do not want a candidate who consistently defends the Constitution (and therefore champions the Rights of the People) to win the Presidency:

1) Big business
2) The American media (largely sold-out to certain political interests)
3) Neo-Conservatives (Bush, Cheney, Wolfowitz, etc.)
4) War-profiteers (Haliburton, Blackwater, etc.)

RON PAUL The Very Best of Ron Paul - part 1

RON PAUL The Very Best of Ron Paul - part 2

RON PAUL The Very Best of Ron Paul - part 3

RON PAUL The Very Best of Ron Paul - part 4

In the end, you either agree with Ron Paul's message or you don't. If you agree with the message, then you owe it to yourself to stand up and defend it.

"The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. If you think that the United States is in trouble, and you go back to vote, and you vote Democrat or Republican, just like you've always done, thinking that you're gonna fix it, you are insane....If you want things to be different, you have to do something different."
- Michael Badnarik

"Betrayal of the self is the worst betrayal of all."

Ron Paul @ Google

2007-09-25T00:31:00.000-07:00

An interview with Ron Paul at Google, Inc.

Candidates@Google: Ron Paul
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCM_wQy4YVg

Just a few quotes that I enjoyed and feel sum up Ron Paul's key positions very well:

"The American empire is going to fail, it is in the process of failing. And I just want to get out of that empire-building smoothly, rather than waiting for a catastrophic event like a bankruptcy of this country."
- Ron Paul, Presidential Candidate in 2008

"We don't have to have this dictator-type person running the world. I want to be President, not because I want to run your lives. I don't want to be President to run your economy. And I don't want to be President to run the world. I want to be President to restore Liberty. I want a government that protects your privacy and exposes government's secrecy. Its the reverse of what we're getting."
- Ron Paul

Incidentally, Ron Paul's online fund-raising efforts are gaining serious momentum. Check out the fund-raising meter on his campaign website. It has real-time updates every time a donation is mad.! Want to know how real-time? I made a donation and 3 seconds later my name appeared on the website!!

The Constitution Class

2007-09-24T16:59:00.000-07:00

Wow, my good friend Jim Slattery introduced me to another great video series. In this series the instructor, Michael Badnarik, teaches us about our Constitution. It is amazing that in 8 hours he can cover so much useful material! If you are a true Patriot, you had better watch this series and start protecting your Rights. Arm yourself with the knowledge that most Americans are never taught (at least not well) in public education. These are facts about your Rights that the government does not want you to understand.

Constitution Class 1 of 7, for Patriots of USA Republic
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8321747074978323622

Constitution Class 2 of 7, for Patriots of America
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4870224407360952135

Constitution Class 3 of 7. for Patriots of America
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8018874590848634400

Constitution Class 4 of 7 , for Patriots of America
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1980674934527237459

Constitution Class 5 of 7, for Real Patriots
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5509747643152392910

Constitution Class 6 of 7, for Real Patriots
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3601271545224839349

Constitution Class 7of 7, for Patriots
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5824859883322263421

"Those who sacrifice liberty for security deserve neither."
- Incorrectly attributed to Benjamin Franklin

"You only have the Rights that you are willing to fight and die for."
- Thomas Jefferson

"I apprehend no danger to our country from a foreign foe. Our destruction, should it come at all, will be from another quarter. From the inattention of the people to the concerns of their government. From their carelessness and negligence I must confess that I do apprehend some danger. I fear they may place too implicit a confidence in their public servants and fail properly to scrutinize their conduct. That, in this way, they may be made the dupes of designing men and become the instruments of their own undoing. Make them intelligent, and they will be vigilant. Give them the means of detecting the wrong, and they will apply the remedy."
- Daniel Webster

"Education is favorable to liberty. Freedom can only exist in a society of knowledge. Without learning, men are incapable of knowing their rights. And where learning is confined to a few people, liberty can neither be equal nor universal."
- Dr. Benjamin Rush (1786)

Hijacking Catastrophe

2007-09-23T21:47:00.000-07:00

Not a lot of time here, but I just wanted to post a link to a movie that is worth checking out.

This is THE BEST VIDEO I HAVE SEEN thus far on the developing political situation in the US.

Hijacking Catastrophe: 9/11, Fear & the Selling of American Empire

One nice quote was:

"Good societies have cultivated fearlessness and hope among their citizens. Good politics has always been about real courage, real fearlessness. Take Gandhi, whose ultimate weapon was fearlessness against one of the worst empires of our time. And the very notion of not cooperating with that empire was based on fearlessness. When Martin Luther King walked in the Gandhian tradition, he walked in fearlessness. Every leader worth their name promotes fearlessness."
- Vandana Shiva

Another quote I especially liked so much I will transcribe it all was:

"And that's [the Neo-Conservatives'] project, to make us scared and stupid. And...see...my problem is, I've been to Washington D.C. and stood in the middle of the night out in the Jefferson Memorial and read the inscriptions of Jefferson's quotes that are hammered into the marble. And you look up inside the rotunda, the favored quote at the highest point inside the building. You have to turned around backwards to read it. He says, 'On the altar of God I pledge undying hostility to any government restriction on the free minds of the People.' We were the first nation state to establish the principle that sovereignty, ultimate political power, resides in the People. That's a fundamentally radical concept. And these guys don't like the implications of it for their maintenance of minority wealth and power. And they are out to destroy that. But they will fail. I guarantee you they will fail."
- Kevin Danaher, co-founder of Global Exchange

Investing and the Economy

2007-09-07T09:16:00.000-07:00

I feel I'm getting a little side-tracked here from my original mission for this blog, but I wanted to make a post with links to some interesting articles:

Why frugality is your best investment

Central banks are stealing from the average citizen

"The problem with debt is that it artificially increases our standard of living. But when we pay it off, especially with interest, it reduces our standard of living in a very real way."
- Doug Casey

The Greater Depression

2007-09-06T10:49:00.001-07:00

With the United States mounting trillions of dollars in debt, escalating its interventionist foreign policy, and requesting the Federal Reserve Bank to print money out of thin air to fund these policies, some economists are warning of an impending depression coming our way. In fact, some such as Doug Casey warn of a "Greater Depression" coming, an economic depression worse than seen previously during the Great Depression of 1929.

The Greater Depression
by Doug Casey

In this article, Casey defines a depression as both "a period when most people's standard of living drops significantly" and "a period when distortions in the economy and misallocations of capital are liquidated." In any real-world system, it is common sense that excess wastes and misallocations of resources invariably correct themselves. When money is wastefully consumed and excessive debt accrued by an individual, he or she begins defaulting on loans and assets are seized to cover those loans. The result is a depression on the scale of a single person. When a corporation behaves in the same manner, it files loss for many consecutive quarters and is forced to use layoffs, cost-reduction policies, and various other means to recover. Again, a depression, but this time on the order of a corporation.

So, what does logic tell us will happen to a nation which accrues excessive debt, engages in unsound monetary policy which devalues its currency, and does not maintain good public confidence? Depression.

To respond to this, some people such as Doug Casey are suggesting to put your money in investments which retain their value. One particularly stable investment is gold, which is so stable that it is often called "sound money". Gold is subject to supply and demand as are other things of value, but since the gold supply is increasing at a only about 1.7% a year, its price is mainly influenced by demand. And the demand is likely to get much higher which is good news for those who can invest early in gold.

For more information about gold, read this article:

8 Things Everyone Should Know About Gold
by James Turk

"The problem with debt is that it artificially increases our standard of living. But when we pay it off, especially with interest, it reduces our standard of living in a very real way."
- Doug Casey

Fox News

2007-09-05T18:40:00.000-07:00

Here are just a few videos showing how Fox news purposefully skews public opinion. Please do not watch Fox news anymore! (unless you want to make a video exposing the biased coverage. :) If we Americans make bad journalism unprofitable, then the result will be better journalism.

Post GOP Debate coverage "Fox News Style" - Ron Paul

Fox News Edits a Democrat to Make Him Look Worse

Fox News Bias against Palestinians

Keith Olberman on Fox News Bias

Fox News Admits Bias ol Rupert at it again

Impeach Bush

2007-09-05T01:05:00.001-07:00

It appears there is quite a movement to impeach George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Condaleeza Rice, Donald Rumsfeld and Anthony Gonzales. Some of them have already resigned, but legal action could still be taken against them.

WMD LIES
A clip compiled by someone on Google Video

Wow...talk about a bunch of big, fat liars. If you are interested, check out this website with a petition to impeach the above named.

http://www.impeachbush.org/

Also, it appears there is going to be a rally in Washington on Sept. 15, 2007 calling for impeachment. Check it out! I hope the US news actually covers it.

And I have heard people say that no one could have forseen the difficulties we would be having in Iraq. My only response is to say that the Bush administration knew exactly what they were getting into. Just listen to this eloquent description by Cheney in '94 of what a "quagmire" it would have been if we had gone after Saddam during the first Iraq war. He sounds like he is describing our present Iraq war.

"They must find it difficult...Those who have taken authority as the truth, rather than Truth as the authority."
- Gerald Massey

The Secret Government

2007-09-04T15:56:00.000-07:00

Check this out. It was released over 20 years ago! It is amazing to me that the truth about what really threatens our nation and freedom was being communicated so clearly, even back in the 80's. Wake up America!

The Secret Government: The Constitution in Crisis
by Bill Moyers

Abstract:

"This is the full length 90 min. version of Bill Moyer's 1987 scathing critique of the criminal subterfuge carried out by the Executive Branch of the United States Government to carry out operations which are clearly contrary to the wishes and values of the American people. The ability to exercise this power with impunity is facilitated by the National Security Act of 1947. The thrust of the exposé is the Iran-Contra arms and drug-running operations which flooded the streets of our nation with crack cocaine. The significance of the documentary is probably greater today in 2007 than it was when it was made. We now have a situation in which these same forces have committed the most egregious terrorist attack on US soil and have declared a fraudulent so-called "War on Terror". The ruling regime in the US who have conducted the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, are now banging the war drum against Iran. We have the PATRIOT act which has stripped us of many of our basic civil rights justified by the terror of 9/11 which is their own doing."

The War on...Iran?

2007-09-04T09:31:00.000-07:00

Once again, my good friend Jim Slattery has passed on a very interesting article by yet another well-known political thinker, Noam Chomsky. Chomsky is an American linguist, philosopher, political activist, author, and lecturer. Check out his page on Wikipedia for more information about him.

Cold War II
by Noam Chomsky

This article basically states that we are in a second Cold War right now, in terms of fear being used to drive Washington politics. However, unlike the previous Cold War with the Soviet Union, the enemy of this Cold War is amorphous and ever-changing. Chomsky makes the convincing case that Iran is likely to be our next target on our leadership's global rampage of freedom and democracy. If Washington bureaucrats and their betrothed military contractors are allowed to run amok in Iran, we are looking at a high possibility of World War III.

A quote from the article which left me laughing at its sheer idiocy is a satirical proof constructed by Noam for supporting our actions in the Middle East:

"Unlike German and Russian occupiers, American forces are in Iraq by right, on the principle, too obvious even to enunciate, that the US owns the world. Therefore, as a matter of elementary logic, the US cannot invade and occupy another country. The US can only defend and liberate others. No other category exists. Predecessors, including the most monstrous, have commonly sworn by the same principle, but again there is an obvious difference: they were Wrong, and we are Right. QED."

Another interesting excerpt focuses on Washington's ambitions to create a missile "defense" system in Europe, under the pretense of protecting European countries from Iranian agression.

"Of course, Russian planners are gravely upset by the shield proposal. We can imagine how the US would respond if a Russian anti-missile system were erected in Canada. The Russians have good reason to regard an anti-missile system as part of a first-strike weapon against them. It is generally understood that such a system could never block a first strike, but it could conceivably impede a retaliatory strike. On all sides, “missile defense” is therefore understood to be a first-strike weapon, eliminating a deterrent to attack. And a small initial installation in Eastern Europe could easily be a base for later expansion. Even more obviously, the only military function of such a system with regard to Iran, the declared aim, would be to bar an Iranian deterrent to US or Israel aggression."

Please read this article and do what you can to voice opposition to any efforts to take the fighting to Iran. No more fear-mongering to push misguided political agendas in Washington. No more lies of imminent dangers to trick us into giving up our freedoms. Fool us once, shame on you. Fool us twice, shame on us!

Sure, bad things happen, that is life. What matters is how we react to those tragedies. Do we have the presence of mind to proactively address the root causes of those problems so they do not arise again or instead panic and get caught up in the reactive pattern of dealing only with the symptoms. The difference is night and day - long-term solutions versus short-term hack fixes.

"For every thousand hacking at the leaves of evil, there is one hacking at the root."
- Henry David Thoreau

Who is Ron Paul?

2007-09-03T14:42:00.000-07:00

Here is a link to the campaign page of Ron Paul, a candidate for the President of the United States in 2008. He currently campaigning to run for the Republican party, although his political views are quite different from the rest of the folks running. He seems to be the only one speaking out against a war which our Congress never declared. (If you believe otherwise, consider looking deeper. Congress merely authorized the use of military force on Iraq. Here is a link to a comment by Ron Paul about why Congress won't declare war.)

So far, the only Presidential candidate that I trust to do what he says and feel could honestly help our nation return to the Constitutional republic it once was. If not being the global police force sounds like a good idea to you, then I strongly urge you to watch as many videos as you can find on youtube.com or other Internet resources and learn more about what Ron Paul has to say. You certainly will not learn the truth about him from our media. See for yourself.

www.ronpaul2008.com

"How did [the Republican party] win the election in the year 2000? We talked about a humble foreign policy: No nation-building; don't police the world. That's conservative, it's Republican, it's pro-American - it follows the founding fathers. And, besides, it follows the Constitution."
- Ron Paul

The Power of Nightmares

2007-08-29T14:29:00.000-07:00

I recently discovered an excellent TV series which aired on the BBC in 2004. It eloquently describes the incredible foreign policy debacles that have led us to where we are today. Such failures in foreign policy are bound to happen as long as we meddle in the affairs of other governments. I have found no other source which better describes the history and the reasons why our leaders are leading today through giving us nightmares. I highly recommend this to all. This 3-part series also looks into the Neoconservative movement and development of the Islamic radical ideology.

The Power of Nightmares (Trailer)

Full series (3 parts):
The Power of Nightmares (Part 1)
The Power of Nightmares (Part 2)
The Power of Nightmares (Part 3)

We must stop allowing panic and fear to drive our decisions. Bad things happen, this is a fact of life. As long as we allow people to make us afraid of nightmarish futures, we will be making decisions no better than drunk people. For indeed, we are drunk, not on alcohol, but fear. I think the unfortunate events since 9/11 are a point-in-case for the old adage, "We have nothing to fear, but fear itself."

War-profiteering in Iraq

2007-08-29T11:51:00.000-07:00

The Great Iraq Swindle: How Bush Allowed an Army of For-Profit Contractors to Invade the U.S. Treasury
Rolling Stone Magazine

I recently talked with a good friend of mine, First Lieutenant Alexander Raggio of the US Army, who is a graduate of West Point and is serving over in Iraq. When I asked him about the concerns Americans are having about how the contractors in Iraq are using American tax dollars, he very succinctly responded, "America needs to dust off its war-profiteering laws."

After reading this article I certainly agree. Of course, it is highly editorialized, so try to look beyond the sensational, story-telling style to the actual instances of fund misuse. What needs to be done to bring accountability back to our government and those who work for it? There is not a CEO in the world that could run a corporation's budget into the ground as George W. Bush has done with our national budget. In the end, who is accountable for the $1,000,000,000's wasted on such unscrupulous "cost-plus" contracts? We might as well empower the contractors to burn 97% of the money they receive from the US government and keep the rest! Or better yet, to borrow something from Chalmers Johnson's NIE on the US, ask them to bury the money and then dig it up. How much is it to ask that correct documents be maintained detailing expenses and that independent auditing be done of those expenditures?

President Franklin D. Roosevelt was quoted as saying, "Taxes, after all, are dues that we pay for the privileges of membership in an organized society." What is at all organized about the way American tax dollars are being used in Iraq? On the contrary, it almost appears to be deliberately disorganized. Do we as Americans care so little about the use of our tax dollars that we will toss 30% or more of our wages into such an abyss and voice so few complaints? I hope not. I think it is time that Americans got angry about this and asked for accountability.

As a final note, I am looking forward to reading the new book that the author Pratap Chatterjee (mentioned in this article) will be releasing soon on Iraq contracts.

"When war becomes the most profitable course of action, we can certainly expect more of it."
- Chalmers Johnson

Republic or Empire?

2007-08-28T12:46:00.000-07:00

Republic or empire: A National Intelligence Estimate on the United States
by Chalmers Johnson

The above is an interesting article assigned to me as required reading by a good friend of mine. It is written in the style used by the CIA for their National Intelligence Estimates (NIEs), reports which are supposed to represent the current intelligence gathered by the CIA on a country and how that intelligence affects the United States. What is particularly interesting is that members of the CIA are prohibited from writing an NIE on the United States itself. So Chalmers Johnson, an author and professor emeritus at the University of California at Berkeley, decided to write one on the United States. It is also worth noting that Chalmers spent about 6 years as a consultant for the CIA. At the CIA, Chalmers "largely dealt with issues involving communist China and Maoism." (1)

There are many interesting ideas presented in this article, but before I jump into discussing them, I would like to first investigate a question of my own. Why is the CIA prohibited from compiling an NIE on the United States? This appears to be due to the line drawn when defining the responsibilities of the CIA. The CIA is unable to write an NIE on the US because "the law limits its activities to foreign countries; it is prohibited from gathering intelligence on U.S. soil, which is a responsibility of the Federal Bureau of Investigation." (2)

I think Chalmers eloquently describes many of the dangers facing our country due to our current unstable domestic and particularly foreign governmental policies. The dangers that Chalmers warns about in this article are:

The policy of deploying the military world-wide and taking on national debt to sustain the economy (what Chalmers calls "military Keynesianism")
The ever-increasing consolidation of power in the Presidency
The inability of the legislative and judicial branches of the government to restrain the executive branch
The effect of wasteful war spending and the sky-rocketing national debt

Chalmers does not paint a bright future for America if our government does not take steps to correct these problems. In particular, Chalmers warns America against trying to be a republic at home and an empire abroad, citing the historical examples of Rome and England as two instances of the same which were eventually forced to choose one form of government. Rome gave up its republic and England gave up its empire. One very troubling quote from the closing section of the article stuck me particularly hard:

"It appears for the moment, however, that the people of the United States prefer the Roman approach and so will abet their government in maintaining a facade of constitutional democracy until the nation drifts into bankruptcy."

All in all, I was pleased with the points, although troubling, discussed in this article. As always, comments?

Citations

(1) "Chalmers Johnson." Wikipedia. Wikipedia, 2007. Answers.com 28 Aug. 2007. http://www.answers.com/topic/chalmers-johnson

(2) "Central Intelligence Agency." Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 2006. Answers.com 28 Aug. 2007. http://www.answers.com/topic/central-intelligence-agency

Awakening of a Political Mind

2007-08-26T22:09:00.001-07:00

Hello World.

I am a 25-year-old, middle-class, white US citizen from Indiana, a not-often-mentioned state in the United States of America. My name is Justin Gaylor. This post signifies the first real step that I have taken to increase my awareness of the current political situation in my nation. I have been greatly discouraged by the things that I am hearing about war-profiteering and the true political and economical motivations for declaring the "War on Terror" and invading Iraq. After so many lies and misinformation from the current US leadership, I am determined to dig and dig and dig until I can arrive at some truth about the situation. In the very least, I will learn more about what is going on than I would if I watched the US news stations.

As a scientist, skepticism and questioning things is something I wish to encourage to all who read this blog. I'm not perfect. I can make mistakes. I do not claim to be an expert on politics, history or economics by any means. Indeed, I am a computer scientist by trade. But my lack of knowledge is exactly the reason that I feel compelled to begin actively researching into the Iraq tragedy and how it was enabled. I feel that it is my duty as a citizen who has received the benefits of this country to arm myself with the knowledge necessary to make an informed choice when I go to vote. In addition, I hope this serves as a useful place for other Americans to find information our media may not be providing to us, due to the extreme degree to which it is consolidated in the hands of a few powerful people.

If you are interested in exploring the current political situation facing the United States and its place in the world, I encourage you to subscribe to this blog's RSS feed (click here for a nice intro to what RSS feeds are), and I will do what I can to regularly post interesting articles that I find accompanied by my comments. Feel free to write comments on any of my posts. While I will not actively censor comments, I will delete those which I feel are inappropriate (e.g. posts that are excessively vulgar or demeaning to others).

That said, lets begin exploring what the hell is going on in the world right now...

“Believe nothing merely because you have been told it. Do not believe what your teacher tells you merely out of respect for the teacher. But whatsoever, after due examination and analysis, you find to be kind, conducive to the good, the benefit, the welfare of all beings - that doctrine believe and cling to, and take it as your guide.”
- Siddartha Gautama