Joe the Poor Plumber And The Bank Rescues That Kill Him

October 21, 2008

Elaine Meinel Supkis

Last year exactly, the G7 nations were all fighting with the US to get the dollar stronger. This was their first reaction to the banking crisis that began on 7/17/7. Today, they are grimly settling in with a very fragile return to the status quo which was lost back then. So stocks go up, of course. AIG is now running in circles trying to avoid being arrested for fraud, grand larceny and treason. Send them to China to be punished! And dear readers, those of you who hate socialism, read today's posting very carefully. The Rich LOVE socialism for themselves and intend to make you all pay for all this AIG-style socialism while you get nothing in return except a lifetime of debt. This is called 'peonage' or 'serfdom', not freedom.

Culture of Life News, October 21, 2007: Greenspaniel and the G7 Dwarves Fight Over Dollar Stuff

More information is now spilling out of the cave where the G7 dwarves met. Seems, as I predicted, the dwarves are not so united after all. Indeed, they are swinging hammers and axes at each other. The bank melt down is to be blamed on the Chinese Dragon who sent some observers to this confederation meeting. Hu needs to be entertained as he whacks rivals in the shins at home. HAHAHA. Turns out, the US vetoed condemnation of the weak US dollar. HAHAHA. Everyone wants BIGGER trade surpluses with the US. And reality be damned.

From Bloomberg:

The dollar fell to an all-time low against its major trading partners after the Group of Seven failed to address the record decline following a meeting of finance officials.
The policy makers, representing the U.S., U.K., Japan, Germany, Italy, France and Canada, stuck to language in prior statements by saying ``excess volatility'' in currencies is ``undesirable'' and that currencies should trade in line with fundamentals. They also intensified calls for China to let its currency strengthen, during the Oct. 19 gathering in Washington.
``The statement gives the market a green light to sell the dollar,'' said Brian Dolan, chief currency strategist at FOREX.com, a unit of the online currency trading firm Gain Capital in Bedminster, New Jersey, which has about $250 million of funds under management. ``With no comment from the G-7 about its weakness, the dollar could decline to $1.45 per euro in a month.''

OK: no one believes me, it seems. The problem isn't the yuan. It is the yen. I can't understand why this is so hard to understand. We don't talk about the yuan 'carry trade' because there is none. China's interest rates are in line with the rest of the world. China, like the rest of the world, has inflation. China can see the value of the yuan rise if the US and Europe wish to hold Chinese yuan but we don't hold hardly ANY yuan in our own FOREX reserves.

The game is, if one wants a weak currency, they must buy the currency of their trade rivals and then hold them. Ergo: if Europe and the US want the yuan to be strong, they must ask for lots and lots of yuan and then HOLD THEM. This poker game is laughably easy to understand. But they don't want any yuan or yen. Europe and the US want the world to do the way we made Germany and Japan do it with first, the Bretton Woods II Accords and the Plaza Accords. In these cases, the US, as the world's reigning empire, ordered everyone to weaken the dollar vis a vis their currencies and so they did. the Plaza Accords caused Japan to go into this huge balloon which pretty much destroyed their domestic economy.

There is this titanic battle going on: the US Titanic is sinking. It is plainly obvious to everyone except in the US, we have to all shout in unison, 'We are NUMBER ONE', not, 'Man the lifeboats!' And the average American should wonder about all those lifeboats that are rowing off to socialist Europe. The very rich need houses in America but want houses in Paris, London or Rome. Just to give a few examples.

Last year, note how all the G7 also wanted China to make the yuan more valuable. Note that there isn't so much as a peep about that, today. The stark contrast is painfully obvious. China wants global trade to resume based on the 2000-2007 status quo. Naturally! But so does Japan. China's gambit of forcing the yen up while demanding the G7 condemn Japan has worked! All discussion about the yuan has been dropped. Not only that, China is the creditor nation, not the US. So they sit in the cat-bird seat and can call all the shots.

Another story I wrote last year on this same day: Non-G7 Nations Mock G7 Dwarves

All the non-G7 nations are mocking the IMF and the entire G7 business. Led by Russia and China, they are trying to get the US and Europe to do something about their financial problems that are threatening the world's banking and trade systems. And it is time to visit Japan yet again, this always bothers me, how the US ignores the challenges of Japan and how the West focuses only on China but can't see how this interacts with Japan and how Japan is not on our side at all. Time to visit the IMF and the CIA web sites to talk about all the numbers and facts pertaining to this matter of US/Japan trade.
*snip*
So far, China hasn't bothered with chiding the IMF. This is because the IMF is impotent due to lack of banking power. The Brazilian and Agentinian ministers are doing the slapping for China. Both go to China for funding now, not the IMF. So they are emboldened to the point of open sassy back talk. The G7 dwarves just had their meeting and ended it in the traditional way: yelling at China while Japan stands to one side, sniggering. While I was visiting the Deep Water Ports in New Jersey, I noted that the Japanese ships were cloaked in anonymity while the Chinese ships had huge names painted on their sides. I constantly harp about Japan because of this cloaking device they use.

See? Last year, it was obvious to me that China, not the US, was now calling all the shots. And Europe understood that. This story was the very last time Europe tried to get China to raise the value of the yuan against the dollar. Instead, both they and Japan switched gears. Japan, later that month of October, 2007, ran off to China and had very, very secret negotiations over the business about the relative value of the dollar and basically, China agreed to call off their campaign to raise the value of the yen vis a vis the dollar and both focused only on strengthening the dollar.

My sole interest in the relative value of all currencies in the goofy, dangerous, unstable Floating Currency Regime launched unilaterally by President Nixon is philosophical. I do not seek to make money, gambling in this very rigged game where players who are not the inside players [Goldman Sachs, for example] try to make a fortune trying to guess what manipulative games governments intend to play. It is a fool's casino, in the end. I want to bust up this game, not enable it. This game is destroying world trade, the United States and might even cause WWIII. Therefore, it is bad and I want it ended.

Evidently, Europe agrees. They lived through WWI and WWII. They caused WWI and WWII. So they have some hesitation about starting WWIII. But they still want unbalanced trade with their supposed ally, the US. And this will cause WWIII just as unbalanced lending and trade caused WWI and WWII. Most Americans are not aware that England was no longer the premier manufacturing nation in 1914. Germany reached equality with England and better for them, DESPITE BEING THE ONLY SOCIALIST NATION IN EUROPE, they had a budget surplus and became the world's creditor power back then! This stunned England and frightened France.

Let me say this as clearly as possible: nations that opt for German-style socialism [NOT Russian or Chinese communism!] always become great powers. They do NOT go bankrupt. This means strengthening the industrial base while protecting, not ravaging, the work force. National health is a key component here. The US got rich by winning WWI and WWII but did this while increasingly imitating Germany. After Reagan won, we chose to become Mexico, not Germany. So workers were wrecked, cheap foreign labor was allowed to ooze across our borders, a flood of imports from cheaper labor pools were allowed and encouraged to pour in and union strikes were basically outlawed.

So the US workforce lost power over their workplaces, their incomes began to decline, and debts rose. Joe the Plumber is this foolish young man who thinks black men are at fault for his frustrations, he thinks socialism will kill him. Yet he is drowning in debt. He keeps piling more and more debt on his home rather than pay it off like his father probably did. He has precarious or even no health insurance. He can't pay his taxes and is in arrears. I feel sorry for the poor sap.

For his power has not been sapped by socialists, it has been sapped by the ruling elites who want to drive this fool into slavery! Within the 'Civil War Recreationists' groups, the vast majority of the game players who love to recreate the past are white males dreaming of the good old South and slavery. I know them, personally, and their dreams. We have argued quite loudly in the past about this. I come from the old Norman upperclass that turned all the once-free people of Europe into our slaves. We called them 'serfs' but we OWNED them. None of them could marry without our permission. Their children couldn't leave unless we got paid. We would go tromping about on horseback, restlessly seeking other estates for extra sons. Each son in the Steele family, for example, the eldest was always named 'Henry' and the second son, 'Richard.'

The 'Richards' are more famous than the 'Henrys' because they had to do more to earn a new estate. But Henry Steele, in the US, was one of the founding members of the Skull and Bones, for example.

The Meinel side of my family came from Germany. 'If you have enough socialism, the peasants will not revolt,' is the motto. So, within the ruling class there is a split: some want all those pathetic Joe Plumbers to be serfs again. The others fear that Joe might bonk everyone on the head and go mad and start a revolution. Even riots are scary! So they support keeping these guys happy. So far, all that was needed was cheap lending below the rate of inflation. But years and years of lending cheap has depleted our entire banking system due to too few people saving money.

So it is now collapsing in a deep, dark pool of red ink. Keeping this system going is the problem for the rich. Who can't resist looting all the rescue operations despite obvious dangers.

Maureen Dowd:

London’s News of the World sent undercover reporters to hunt down the feckless financiers on their $86,000 partridge hunt as they tromped through the countryside in tweed knickers, and then later as they “slurped fine wine” and feasted on pigeon breast and halibut.

The paper reported that the A.I.G. revelers stayed at Plumber Manor — not the ancestral home of Joe the Plumber, a 17th-century country house in Dorset — and spent $17,500 for food and rooms. The private jet to get there cost another $17,500, and the limos added up to $8,000 more.

In an astonishing let-them-eat-cake moment, the A.I.G. big shot Sebastian Preil held court at the bar and told an undercover reporter, “The recession will go on until about 2011, but the shooting was great today and we are relaxing fine.”

There were at least three New Yorkers bagging birds — Jeffrey Malkovsky, a senior director at A.I.G.’s Manhattan office, Hilary James, the general manager of the Bristol Plaza Hotel, and her friend, John Roberts, an A.I.G. adviser.

Oh, how the AIG executives laughed as they gave themselves this 10% bonus for landing the Big Kahoona. This giant $700 billion fish allowed them to party like there is no tomorrow. They feared they would be arrested, not showered with gold!

The news of their wild parties are now circling the earth. Maybe poor Joe the Plumber might wake up and realize his cans of cheap beer are little compensation for him taking on the entire debt load of this bail out. But then, he is blinded to this reality. He wants more funny money, he wants to join the party. He wants to win the lottery.

Many years ago, when NY was going bankrupt, the politicians were told that if we encourage gambling, this would be a HAPPY TAX. People would voluntarily join the games if they had a very slim chance of winning something. The state then takes a huge cut of the funds raised. I voted and lobbied against this. My speeches back then were pretty simple: 'This will kill the work ethic and in addition, kill any desire to pay any taxes. This will undermine democracy and by setting up a very few winners while the rest of us have to keep playing the game, this will destroy the whole basis of democracy which doesn't survive if there is a huge split between rich and poor.'

Well, since 1974, the split between the rich and poor have grown greatly. This is killing our democracy. In elections, discontent with the poor is encouraged alongside luring voters by promising tax cuts and increases in government spending. Today, we pay for our entire, huge deficits by selling our souls to foreign powers who are seeking to turn us into peons. And this is getting worse, not better. The US cannot support ANY tax cuts for the next 100 years! This is hopelessly irresponsible. But if anyone suggests we pay taxes, they are kicked out by the US voters. Who fear socialism but don't fear bankruptcy to Saudi Arabia and China.

AIG to Halt Lobbying Efforts

American International Group Inc. said it will stop lobbying lawmakers and regulators, after coming under congressional pressure and questioning over how it is using more than $120 billion loaned by the government to keep the company afloat.

The financial-services giant has also cancelled about 160 events scheduled for coming months, that were to cost a total of $80 million, AIG spokesman Nick Ashooh said on Monday. Congressional overseers have raised questions over a series of lavish events thrown by AIG in the days after its government rescue last month, including a $440,000 weekend at a California spa for top business producers.

"We're reviewing all of our expenses and activities. As part of that we have suspended lobbying activities," Mr. Ashooh said.

Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California and Florida Republican Sen. Mel Martinez wrote to AIG Chief Executive Edward Liddy on Friday, telling him not to use its government loan to try and roll back tougher mortgage-industry licensing requirements and other controls.

Gah. Arrest everyone including everyone in Congress who has accepted a penny from AIG. Mr. Ashooh should be paraded down the Central Mall in chains. At the Lincoln Memorial, he can then offer an apology to all Americans. Then we seize everything he owns and I mean, everything. When one of my ancestors went bankrupt, he left his child with NOTHING. She was crying so the sheriff let her keep her dolly, shoes and a small suitcase. Thank you. This creepy gnome still has his many palaces, art and other goodies. This is unconscionable.

Michael Hudson is a former Wall Street economist He was Dennis Kucinich’s Chief Economic Advisor in the recent Democratic primary presidential campaign

These bailout terms suggest that what Wall Street wants is pretty much what colonialist Britain achieved for so many years in India and Africa: puppet leaders with an imperial political advisor, in America’s case a Secretary of the Treasury and a vice-regent as head of the Federal Reserve System. But what the rest of the economy needs is a genuinely free leader able to impose better and more equitable laws to write down debt, not build it up and bail out more bad loans. Within the present administration itself, Sheila Bair, head of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, complained in a Wall Street Journal interview that she didn’t understand “Why there’s been such a political focus on making sure we’re not unduly helping borrowers but then we’re providing all this massive assistance at the institutional level.” She “described painstaking efforts made by lawmakers in crafting the federal Hope for Homeowners program to make sure it limited resale profits for borrowers who received affordable home loans,” by giving the government a share of the rising sales price.

A very good analysis at Counterpunch. The US government's help for home owners is to take 50% of all profits on future sales of houses. But not 50% of all profits from AIG or Citibank or any of the pirate organizations looting America.

U.S., Cuomo Open Credit Default Swap Investigation

(Bloomberg) -- The U.S. government and New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo opened a joint investigation into the $34.8 trillion credit-default swap market, the top federal prosecutor in New York said.

The probe seeks to ``determine whether any federal laws have been violated'' in the market for the swaps, which function as a kind of insurance contract for bond losses, and will complement an earlier inquiry by Cuomo's office, U.S. Attorney Michael Garcia in Manhattan said today in a statement.

Cuomo has been probing credit-default swap manipulation by short sellers allegedly spreading false rumors about financial firms. Prosecutors are looking at whether they attempted to drive down stocks, including bankrupt Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., according to a person in Cuomo's office who declined to be identified. The U.S. is also probing Lehman's failure.

Cuomo figures he will be President some day if he gets some scalps. But then, the media will find some flaw in him and he won't win the golden crown in the end. For of course, no one will donate huge sums to him if he imprisons any of the scam artists who are looting America. On the other hand, unless he choses to be a true revolutionary and not just slightly annoy the gnomes, we won't see any change of direction. I know that people are very fearful of 'change' even though that is Obama's motto. McCain's motto is, 'More houses for me and my friends'. Which isn't changing anything at all.

Citi Squeezed in Debt Markets as Wells Grabs Deposits

(Bloomberg) -- Just when deposits became the big prize in banking, Citigroup Inc. missed the brass ring.

The bank's proposal two weeks ago to buy Wachovia Corp. would have created the biggest pool of deposits in the U.S. -- ``unassailable'' as a source of stable, cheap funding and ``well in excess of the next-largest competitor,'' Chief Financial Officer Gary Crittenden said at the time.

Instead, having lost a takeover battle with Wells Fargo & Co., New York-based Citigroup slipped to No. 4 in deposits and has to hustle for them alongside banking newcomers Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley. With debt markets in flux and terms of the government's bailout plan changing by the week, Citigroup needs more deposits to temper a surge in the cost of financing its $2.05 trillion balance sheet.

Citibank was on a pirate looting mission when along came Wells Fargo who shot them down and robbed the Brink's trucks. Now that they have the combination to the bank's safe, they can grab the money there and recapitalize themselves while the US taxpayers get stuck, paying for all the losses.

From six months ago, Greg Palast:

Now, Bush, our Debt Junkie-in-Chief, needs another fix. The US Treasury, Citibank, Merrill-Lynch and other financial desperados need another hand-out from Abdullah's stash. Abdullah, in turn, gets this financial juice by pumping it out of our pockets at nearly $100 a barrel for his crude.

Bush needs the Saudis to charge us big bucks for oil. The Saudis can't lend the US Treasury and Citibank hundreds of billions of US dollars unless they first get these US dollars from the US. The high price of oil is, in effect, a tax levied by Bush but collected by the oil industry and the Gulf kingdoms to fund our multi-trillion dollar governmental and private debt-load.

The US Treasury is not alone in its frightening dependency on Arabian loot. America's private financial institutions are also begging for foreign treasure. Yesterday, King Abdullah's nephew, Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, already the top individual owner of Citibank, joined the Kuwait government's Investment Authority and others to mainline a $12.5 billion injection of capital into the New York bank. Also this week, the Abu Dhabi government and the Saudi Olayan Group are taking a $6.6 billion chunk of Merrill-Lynch. It's no mere coincidence that Bush is in Abdullah's tent when the money-changers made the deal just outside it.

Bush is there to assure Abdullah that, unlike Dubai's ports purchase debacle, there will be no political impediment to the Saudi's buying up Citibank nor the isle of Manhattan.

This is why Citibank lost. And this is why the Saudis have to learn more harsh lessons. They will be ripped off, one way or another. The Chinese are very aware of this tendency. They have hedged things sufficiently that if we do rip them off, they can destroy us. This is why the US is very careful to not let the Chinese get too pissed off. The guys pulling these strings figure, the Saudis will still have to play with us since we protect them. We don't protect China. And Saudi Arabia has only one way out: to go to China for protection. This, they are increasingly considering.

Mortgage Bankers to Ask U.S. to Lift Fannie, Freddie Loan Limit

(Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Mortgage Bankers Association plans to ask the Federal Housing Finance Agency to increase the limit for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac purchases or guarantees of single-family mortgages to $625,500 to bolster the housing market.

The mortgage bankers' residential board of governors is scheduled to vote today on the recommendation, which would call for an increase of 50 percent above the current limit of $417,000, at the trade group's annual conference in San Francisco.

Why are they doing this? Housing prices are falling, not going up. Well, the answer is obvious: the bankers love making huge loans. But hate HOLDING them. So they need to increase the size, volume and speed of growth for Fannie Mae. So it will end up being a totally SOCIALIST program that holds ALL mortgages. 100% of all US housing loans! And then the banks can make infinite money while having $0 in capitalization. This is all part of the future 0%-0%-0% system I keep warning everyone about. This sort of socialism is EVIL. It is statism of the worst sort. Instead of providing health, safety and schooling, the government privatizes all this but nationalizes all housing debts! What a DUMB DEAL.

Note that already, the government is demanding 50% profits on any increase in value of homes being 'rescued' in this latest plan. This is forever. This kills the housing market if people figure, they will get little benefit from selling. And if they try buying a new house and all houses now cost more, they fall further behind and need more debt to do this. It is a debt trap!

Going bankrupt springs one from this trap only Congress voted to close off that option. So we go into this grinding hell where more and more people will end up in this prison where they get virtually no benefit from selling their homes anymore. Why improve it if you can't gain the profits from that? This, in turn, kills my own market: improving houses! Huge parts of the US will turn into slums.

NYT: Consensus Emerges to Let Deficit Rise

Resorting to credit has long been the American solution for dealing with expensive crises — as long as the solution has wide public support. Fighting World War II certainly had that support. Even now many Americans tolerate running up the deficit to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which cost $11 billion a month combined. And so far there is wide support for an initial outlay of at least $250 billion for a rescue of the financial system, if that will stabilize banks and prevent a calamitous recession.

“There are extreme circumstances when a larger national debt is accepted as the lesser of two evils,” said Robert J. Barbera, chief economist at the Investment Technology Group, a research and trading firm.

There are also assumptions that help to make America’s deficits tolerable, even logical.

One is that people all over the world are willing, even eager, to lend to the United States, confident that the world’s most powerful nation will always repay on time, whatever its current difficulties.

“So far the market is showing that it is quite willing to finance our needs,” said Stephen S. McMillin, deputy director of the White House Office of Management and Budget.

Here it is, yet again: smug idiots like McMillin. He is obviously the idiot in charge of figuring out the Bush budgets which were the most unbalanced in American history. So what, if we are selling 90% of these debts to the Chinese and Japanese? He doesn't bother wondering why they are buying our souls. He has no soul.

We will have no recession tomorrow but we will face total economic annihilation in 2012. What a deal! The US public has been sold this bill of goods for 8 years: deficits don't matter. They are all OFF-SHORED. Hooray for that! All my life, even as Presidents ran in the red, we were told this was bad. But now, with Bush running us into the ground, it is suddenly good or at least, the lesser of two evils. So, evil #1 is paying our own way which means we can't spend like fiends. And evil #2 is that we sell our entire nation to the Chinese and Japanese and pray they don't come over here and demand we kiss their feet and become slaves?

Good grief. TREASON, I say! Treason!

China's Central Bank Pledges to Help Fight Crisis

(Bloomberg) -- China's central bank pledged to step up cooperation with global counterparts to help combat the financial crisis that's driving down stocks worldwide and threatening to tip economies into recession.
*snip*
``Economies that are able to, such as China, Japan and the Middle East, should all participate in efforts to ease the financial crisis,'' said Xing Ziqiang, an economist at China International Capital Corp. in Beijing. ``Otherwise it will eventually be a lose-lose situation for all.''

Xing said buying Treasuries may be one way of helping the U.S. through the crisis.

China should take part in the bailout of the U.S. financial system to protect the value of dollar-denominated assets and sustain export demand, Chinese researchers wrote yesterday in the official Shanghai Securities News.

And China is going to save us. And they know what will happen next for this is part of their 50 year plan. One that I thought was thoroughly audacious back in 1986. Well, it is on track and will succeed.

China Shipping's Traffic May Plunge as Exports Slow

(Bloomberg) -- China Shipping Container Lines Co. forecast traffic will decline for the first time in at least four years as the global economic slowdown and a stronger yuan curb demand for Chinese-made toys, electronics and clothing in North America and Europe.

``Traffic will drop at least 10 percent for the full year,'' Zhang Denghui, assistant president of China Shipping (Group) Co., parent of China Shipping Lines, the country's second-largest container line, said in an interview yesterday. ``An even much larger drop is possible, as the full impact of the global economic turmoil is yet to come.''

China wants to restart the status quo. So does Japan. Odd, this article doesn't mention Japanese nor South Korean or even Taiwan shipping. All of which are in the same boat. And all of which are working with China to restart the status trade quo.

ECB's Nowotny Sees Global `Tri-Polar' Currency System Evolving

(Bloomberg) -- European Central Bank council member Ewald Nowotny said a ``tri-polar'' global currency system is developing between Asia, Europe and the U.S. and that he's skeptical the U.S. dollar's centrality can be revived.

``What I see is a system where we have more centers of gravity'' Nowotny said today in an interview with Austrian state broadcaster ORF-TV. ``I see for the future a tri-polar development, and I don't think that there will be fixed exchange rates between these poles.''

The leaders of the U.S., France and the European Commission will ask other world leaders to join in a series of summits on the global financial crisis beginning in the U.S. soon after the Nov. 4 presidential election, President George W. Bush, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and European Commission President Jose Barroso said in a joint statement yesterday.

Nowotny said he was ``skeptical'' when asked whether the Bretton Woods System of monetary policy, set up after World War II and revised in 1971, could be revived to aid global currency stability. The U.S. meeting should aim to strengthen financial regulation, define bank capital ratios and review the role of debt-rating agencies.

HAHAHA. And who will chair this? China, the US or some Europeans? If it is Europeans, they will set up which currencies to be this tripod of power? And where is the yen in all this? And how on earth can they 'set bank capital ratios' when CHINA has the highest ratios and the US and Japan have virtually none? And then global interest rates: is it going to be the high Chinese/EU rates or the 0% rates of Japan and the US? And how to hash all this out?

This conference could be like the disarmament conference run by Britain from 1912-1914. Britain wanted to freeze Germany and Japan's naval build ups, not to mention, stopping the US ships. So they agreed to reduce their navy a tad if everyone stopped competing. Then WWI broke out. And the Brits needed the US to provide them with shipping and the US took over world shipping and the global naval power by 1945. Utterly. And then lost it all from 1974-2008 to the point that we have virtually no merchant marine and a very expensive navy that is forcing us to go to the true naval powers of Asia to fund our navy via loans which we must repay them with interest!

And this is treason. We lost our merchant marine while protecting the merchant marines of the world who are flooding us with imports which our rulers want because this way, they can enslave poor little old Joe the Plumber and others who dream about being owners, not slaves. Gads. What a circle we are in.

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[Bear of Little Brain]

Newsflash (nearly): from Dow Jones Newswire at 10.10:
"WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--JP Morgan Chase & Co. will manage and sponsor a new program the Federal Reserve announced Tuesday to aid money market investors and ease the "considerable" strains weighing on the short-term debt markets, said senior Federal Reserve officials.
The program calls for the private sector to establish so-called special purpose vehicles to buy certificates of deposit and commercial paper issued by highly-rated financial institutions. Meanwhile, the Fed will back those purchases through its new credit facility, or "Money Market Investor Funding Facility."
The Fed has not announced the official start date of the program, but senior Fed officials said they plan to announce a formal start date later this week. Senior Fed officials said JP Morgan was chosen by the industry to manage and sponsor the program."

JP Morgan? What a surprise. Gold continues to fall. Hmmm.

[Steve]

Elaine, I recently looked up 'socialism' in a dictionary and got a surprise. Apparently it means "Any of various theories or systems of social organization in which the means of producing and distributing goods is owned collectively or by a centralized government that often plans and controls the economy." Wikipedia agrees with that definition. (I'd always assumed 'socialism' meant social programs/the welfare state.)

What's going on in the U.S. doesn't seem like government taking control of the means of production, and so not socialism. On the contrary they're handing money to banks without strings attached, in effect bailing out the rich without trying to impose government controls on how they spend the money. I'm not sure what I'd call that -- theft? -- but it seems different.

Loving your blog, as always.

[ziff house]

And the DOLLAR continues to rise against all common sense. happy days are here again.

[Elaine Meinel Supkis]

Socialism is all about supporting the health and welfare of the working class. This means, also the Lumpen proletariate. Namely, the teeming poor or the urban poor or poor country folk.

The US has socialism for the rich. When they stumble and fall, they get largess so they can go back to hunting pheasant, drinking expensive French wines and complaining about the lumpen proletariate and how they are a problem. And warning the workers that supporting the elderly workers, etc, is dangerous and will bankrupt the rich.

[rockpaperscizzors]

within just a few weeks of the bailout passing, our government is blacking out the parts of public contracts that explain how much taxpayer cash private contractors are going to be paid
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-sirota/treasury-blacks-out-key-p_b_136030.html

[gg battams]

i suppose if they had shot one of the beaters on the partrigde shoot they would have said pheashants or peasants whats the difference?

[Tell]

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

"After Obama is elected, expect 'privation on a global scale'?"

"Kurt Nimmo, at Infowars (Biden’s Admonition: Plebs to Suffer if Obama is Elected ), 20 October 2008, suggests what will happen after the USA has elected a new president, presumedly Obama."

"Kurt tells us:"...

http://tinyurl.com/58novz

"FIND FOREIGN AFFAIRS ON A NEWSSTAND NEAR YOU"...

http://tinyurl.com/6mmctz

[CK]

peasants have less fat on their bones.

[Tell]

"Eight Steps to a New Financial Order"

"Alan S. Blinder"...

http://tinyurl.com/5qr7dv

[Grok]

The socialist system envisioned by Marx has NEVER existed. His dream was a system of collective ownership of the means of production by all of the people of the factories, mills, mining, railroads, land and all other means of production. A system where production was to satisfy human needs...not for sale and profit. Some argue that it was attemped by Lenin but soon corrupted. An industrial society was a necessity and Russia was mostly an agricultural society in 1917. With corruption and material conditions lacking, it was doomed. Stalin completed the bastardization of Marx's dream. Mao further distorted the dream. Many of the views of socialism were born from those failures. Hence the demonization of the very word itself.

[Buffalo Ken]

some peasants are real mean, so if you miss, there can be some serious repercussions...

same for pheasants I suppose, but usually they just fly away...

[Buffalo Ken]

Furthermore, one peasant has so much more blood than one pheasant. What a mess.

Myself - I'm all for collective ownership. It makes sense individually and as a group assuming those in the group can figure out how to work together. Keeping contracts simple is probably key. If socialism means enabling everyone's basic needs (food, shelter, medicine) to be met, then I'm all for it, even if we all need to contribute. There is plenty to go around - ask one of these pirates - they'll tell ya. Tons of "gold" all over the place.

Peace,
Ken

[Tell]

"The socialist system envisioned by Marx has NEVER existed"

Grok

That should read...

The communist system envisioned by Marx has NEVER existed.

Socialism is one step away from Communism one step down the road towards Capitalism.

[Buffalo Ken]

Let me just say one other thing having nothing to do with gold which I really don't know much about.....

(although i think some composite-type materials might have some of the same attributes as gold blues...)

If I was a plumber just now, I'd be happy. Plumbers and others with skills such as this are going to be in demand in my humble opinion.

Peace,
Ken

[Buffalo Ken]

And as a simple peasant, I don't really give a crap about communism, capitalism, and all the rest of them isms as well as a whole bunch of current capitals. I'm sick of em, and seems to me a fever is spreading across the surface of the planet. This fever runs deep. Deep within the People.

Seems this way to me. I think Peace is on the way.

To be a poem or not to be....a poem.

Peace,
Ken

[Jojo]

There is a fancy term for socialism for the rich - kleptocracy - it's a word that describes the rich and powerful with kleptomania, which is a psychological syndrome that manifests as a fear of losing one's possessions and is over-compensated with ruthless and shameless acquisition-by -any-means lusts.

[CK]

Oh frabjous day oh callee oh callay; tomorrow I obtain my bandsaw. Big old ( emphasis on the OLD ) cast iron job. There will be some resawing from the old wood pile this week. ( Seriously folks resawing hardwood by hand is harder than mathematics to a Barbie ). When the work is done and the project finished I shall sell it AT A PROFIT. A HUGE profit!!! Or barter it for something even more profitable to me. That bandsaw is some more capital for my sideline. Afterall what is capital? Frozen labour mixed with natural resources and some brain power.

[CK]

JoJo I prefer to think of the USA as a functioning kakistocracy. Has been since the war of Southern Secession.

[CK]

I am reminded of a scene in Treasure of the Sierra Madre. Bandittos masquerading as state employees attempt to steal from Humphrey Bogart. Bogart asks to see their badges. We don't need no stinkin' badges is the retort of the bandittos.
It strikes me that the proper answere is: We don't need no stinking leaders, nor any sweet smelling ones either.

[Buffalo Ken]

Then why is is the government? Joe the plumber, is a plumber - he ain't no president. I don't know about his principles, but their effects are small scale relative to those politicos who currently reside in DC...

http://www.answers.com/topic/kakistocracy

[Buffalo Ken]

Then why is "this" the government?

Anyhow, a "kakistocracy" sounds to me like a failure of the People more than anything else cause when push comes to shove....the People choose. The Cheyenne considered each one of themselves "Chiefs" after their "leaders" (representatives) were colt-revolver-slaughtered at the tejas table...

At least they had representatives I suppose....all we have here seems to be plundering corporate pirates going back a few generations...

[rockpaperscizzors]

Here's an interesting read about the the Central Governments powers via taxation. Once upon a time, federal income taxation was voluntary:

"In implementing a federal income tax, government officials repeatedly increased the cost to citizens of correctly appraising and actively resisting the tax. First, it was sold to the public as a tax only on the very rich. Later, despite the government’s claim that the income tax was a “voluntary” tax system, a 1943 law required employers to take the tax money from each employee’s paycheck, before the tax was due, without the employee’s consent. This nonconsensual “withholding” of federal income taxes dramatically increased the cost to private individuals of resisting the growth of federal power. Nonpayment was no longer a feasible means of resistance to overtaxation."
http://www.independent.org/publications/article.asp?id=277

[Buffalo Ken]

Here is a possible "f-u the banks" kind of idea.

A group of individual mortgage holders on their own get together and decide to protect each other collectively. So if the bank comes for one, the bank will have to face all of them. In the end, they all get to hold onto their homes if they "play" their cards cooperatively with Mutual Aid in mind (inwit) - at least, in my humble opinion.

Just an idea.

Now, if I was part of this group, first and foremost, we would pay off debts. Then we would be free as long as ongoing maintenance expenses were paid for. As a cooperative group, we could probably reduce these maintenance expenses consideably.

Peace,
Ken

[DrKrbyLuv]

END the FED
11:22:08

On November 22, 2008 there will be protests at every Federal Reserve Bank and office in the country. Activists will demand an end to private banker control over the nation’s money supply and the return to a hard, commodity backed monetary system. The slogan is simple and direct: “End the Fed!”

The November 22 protests are intended as a kick-off to an ongoing campaign to educate and organize the public and take concerted, planned action. ONLY the conscious action of We the People can save the nation from ruin, plunder and total socialist tyranny. The time is NOW.

Protests will be held in the following 38 cities:

Boston, Philadelphia, New York City, Buffalo, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Richmond, Baltimore, Charlotte, Atlanta, Birmingham, Jacksonville, Miami, Nashville, New Orleans, Chicago, Detroit, St. Louis, Little Rock, Louisville, Memphis, Minneapolis, Helena, Kansas City, Denver, Oklahoma City, Omaha, Dallas, El Paso, Houston, San Antonio, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Portland, Salt Lake City, Seattle, Washington, D.C.

For more info and to sign-up for the protest, go to:
http://www.endthefed.us/

There will be a conference call tonight, at 9 PM Eastern if you are interested in helping or organizing.
Phone 605-475-6006 and use code 281430

[Buffalo Ken]

Start of Poem
_______

Here is another idea. Everyone with a credit card goes to Wal-Mart (or whereever) and buys some guMs. With an "M" mind ya.

Use your credit card. Go back and return.

Have a fun saturday spinning the wheels of papper.
_________
end of poem

[Buffalo Ken]

DrKrbyLuv - I hope those protest happen and get noticed.

I also want Jane Harmon (the Jane who puts the harm on i quess) and Nancy Pelosi (no speaker of mine) to know that The Homegrown Terrorist Act (or whatever it was called - it passed in the house 400-6 or something like that) was an act of terror by a government upon the People's freedoms in my opinion.

Hang tight everyone would be the only words of "wisdom" that come to mind....but what do i know....

Peace,
Ken

[Buffalo Ken]

"hang tight" is like "hang together" or "hang tough" as in:

** Remain firmly resolved... **

Per, The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms.

Peace,
Ken

[CK]

@RockPaperScizzors: I do believe that the withholding part was the brainchild of Milton Friedman.
A few points to consider:
Since the advent of printing press money, income taxes are unnecessary. It is feasible and easy to print the amount of money the government wishes to spend. The last number I saw was $2T collected in 2006, the FedRes and Treasury conspired to print that much in the last month for the various bailouts. The collecting of income tax from persons and businesses continues only because it has inertia behind it ( and a large contingent of tax collectors who would be looking for work otherwise ).
It is impossible for the totality to pay off their debts. The banks do not create enough money when they make the loans for those in debt to pay back the principal and the interest. Worse, if somehow all debts were paid back ... there would be no need for the Fed Res or the treasury. The banks do not want loans paid back, they want loans to be rolled over or expanded. Imagine a reverse run on the banks, people coming in with bundles of money and paying off debts. This is the worst imaginable possibility for the banks. They would be sitting on mountains of depreciating paper and would have no one to take it off their hands. The banks would be faced with ALL the risk of inflation, their assets deteriorating at 12% a year. When any government drone talks about the fears of deflation this is what he is fearing, a situation where the inflation risk is born by the banks. In your role as a consumer, deflation in prices is a damn good thing, your dollar goes farther. In your role as a producer, deflation is a damn good thing your raw materials cost less and if prices are the least bit sticky or your processes are better than your competitors you make more money even as your product prices fall.
In your role as a wage earner,deflation is a mixed bag, if your wages fall more slowly than your consumption expenditures you are better off, if your efficientcy increases, your wages don't fall and you are even better off, if your wages fall faster than your expenditures fall you are worse off. In your role as a banker, deflation is terrible, it allows loans to be repaid faster, it makes borrowing much less necessary, and it frees producers from the clutches of the banks. Not a good thing from the bankers pov.

[DeVaul]

Wow! Hell of a lot of "Elaine bashing" regarding Ron Paul and Socialism. I think I will defend Elaine by asking these idiots some questions:

1) Has anyone opposed to socialism asked that the world's largest and most socialist organization, the United States Army, be dismantled and forced to embrace "rugged individualism" like the rest of us?

Why should soldiers get free meals, free medical care, free housing, subsidized food and household items, free transportation of their cars and personal possessions across oceans and continents, early retirements and generous pensions all on the taxpayers' dime?

Did you know that if a soldier dies, his widow or children are paid a bounty of something like $200,000? They don't pay premiums for this insurance either, which is not available to the rest of us. If we die in a war or by an act of God, our widows get nothing.

Did you know that an air force major (like my first cousin) can retire at 45 and build their own home right on the beach in Florida with their pension? They also get to work part time as "instructors" at naval and air bases for almost as much as, or even more than, their previous salary. And -- they still get free medical and health care for the rest of their lives! That is PURE socialism!!!!

There are no rugged individuals in the army, unless they are in the brig. There are only socialist wimps who expect Uncle Sam to bail them or their family out when the shit hits the fan -- for the rest of their lives! Holy Socialist Crap, Batman!

2) Why would someone like Ron Paul, who claims or allows to be claimed in his name that he leads a revolution, continue to be a member of a known criminal syndicate that has openly looted the country and the entire populace on behalf of a small number of wealthy elites?

As for him being "slaughtered" should he leave the fold of this criminal syndicate, then obviously he has no intention of following in the footsteps of the Founding Fathers, all of whom committed High Treason so that we could be free.

Why bother to quote from men whom you have no intention of following? The Declaration of Independance came first, not the Constitution. Breaking with the idea that one is born a loyal subject to the king and owes him allegiance from birth was a revolutionary idea 200 years ago. Asking that we return to a period of time in which most Americans were second-class citizens or even slaves is not revolutionary, it is known as "restoration".

Ron Paul wants a restoration of the old order. I don't want that. No person who would be deemed a nonperson under the old constitutional republic that existed 200 years ago should want that.

The lack of support from minorities for Ron Paul is a statement that they do not want to go back in time to the "good ol' days".

Martin Luther King is a better example of a true revolutionary. He knew that he would be killed if he went against the established order, and he was. But, his ideas live on and far from fading away, have continued to inspire millions of people all over the world. Like the Founding Fathers, he and other black leaders pledged themselves to one another for the common good and not just a few favored individuals.

Ron Paul will not pledge his life or his liberty to the common good. He will remain a member of a criminal syndicate until the day he dies, and he will fade fast from the minds of all men.

That is the price one pays for security over freedom.

[Buffalo Ken]

CK goes on to say: "In your role as a wage earner, deflation is a mixed bag, if your wages fall more slowly than your consumption expenditures you are better off, if your efficientcy increases, your wages don't fall and you are even better off, if your wages fall faster than your expenditures fall you are worse off."

I agree with pretty everything you said, and from the humble peasant wage-earners perspective, the key thing is to make sure that wages don't go down, or better yet, to demand a fair wage for fair labor.

As far as the bankers are concerned, who gives a flip. Let them flop around in the big red mess they made. I didn't contribute.

Peace,
Ken

[Buffalo Ken]

DeVaul - I second that.

[CK]

By remaining within the republican party, Ron gets a lot more air than he would if he ran again on a third party. Bob Barr, Ralph Nader, Cynthia McKiney, Elaine Supkis getting any air?
Ron has called for the reduction of the military and a return to the states militia, a dismantling of our 800 bases in 170 countries and a return to diplomacy and trade with all who wish to trade and talk with the USA.

[don]

Is it any different that Joe Liberman was a
democrat now a Liberal sitting next to Mccain?
The philosophical ideology that his association
with the GOP ticket makes him a monster? Or is
every individual who runs for office is really
looking out for number one..themselves?

[PK Scott]

Hi Elaine,

I see the problem of racism more in terms of "classism." I am not arguing that racism and discrimination don't still exists, and for many reasons other than ethnicity and skin tone.

I don't think the elite give a crap what color their serfs are. Racial tensions are exploited to distract the "lower classes" from realizing that they have more in common than they are different. We are ALL ruthlessly exploited by the elites.

You could pick a group at random and give them a few more crumbs. They become vigorous supporters of the status quo to protect their "priviledge." The "have nots" are inflamed with resentment. It is HUMAN nature.

I will admit I am absolutely stunned by the blindness that people exibit to their "privilaged" status. (Based on whatever.)

I am female, a cur's mix with a big dollap of native American and Scandanavian on top. I am also middle aged and look it since I don't have the luxury of plastic surgery, personal trainers, and a bevie of stylists and cosmoloists at my beck and call. I am also smart, capable, and funny. I have been responsible for myself since I was 16 years old. I never traded on my looks (back when I had them.)

I am now virtually unemployable and pretty much invisible in the society we live in. That is the fate for many of being female and becoming middle aged in our society. DISPOSABLE. (Except to my incredible spouse.)

I'm not crying, just pointing out that there is more than one kind of priviledge and discrimination in our society. "Pretty" can be as arbitrary an attribute as skin color when the "rewards" are passed out and some are passed over. The same can be said for gender, sexual preference, and religion.

ALL of these differences are exploited to one degree or another because they can be used to divide us and controll us.

[CK]

Ron is 73. He will not be running for pres again. He might run for another term or two as a rep from his district after he wins this one unopposed. The racist canard has been tried by far more professional folks than the inhabitants of this web site for many years and has never found any traction because it is baseless. He is a polite, honourable and honest gentleman. I worked to get him elected in 1988 and again this year. I expect I will write his name in on the ballot this year as none of the other candidates are acceptable.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_Paul

[Simon]

About the German system that Elaine is so enamoured:
it did end up with 2 world wars, and untold destruction, shows what happens when the workers get a bit too confident.
The current German economy is lopsided and not free with enormous tax burdens yet still more social welfare costs.
I imagine this gets worse as the population there ages, a problem US fortunately does not have

[BORIS THE BLADE]

McCain reminds me of nursinghome patient..

[Elaine Meinel Supkis]

The clash of empires in WWI and WWII were due to Britain being grossly over-extended in the quest of dominating the entire planet.

It reached the zenith, wobbled and while falling, all other rising empires attacked. This is why JAPAN attacked all those many British colonies in China, Indochina, Burma, Sumatra, etc, etc, etc.

Weakness led to wars! And of course, since all the nations that were not European were very weak due to technological differences, this mess was a long, long period of 500 years of Europe using ships, cannons, guns and other things to decimate, or in the case of the natives of the New World and Australia, nearly annihilate the natives.

As well as literally enslaving Africans. And moving them about the planet in the most cruel fashion, in literal chains.

German socialism meant that the average German soldier was taller and healthier and BETTER EDUCATED than the poor specimens picked up in London, for example.

It took the British another 75 years to catch up with the US and Germany in size, just for one shocking example.

If we want stunted poor people, well, we can choose the 'no socialism at all' route. But then, our society will collapse. Hard to run things if mobs of desperate people are attacking everything and anything they can get their hands on.

Remember: Britain's poor were as poorly armed as Japan's poor who have no guns, too.

But America's poor can and will have firearms.

[OC]

Elaine,

'And China is going to save us. And they know what will happen next for this is part of their 50 year plan. One that I thought was thoroughly audacious back in 1986. Well, it is on track and will succeed.'
'HAHAHA. And who will chair this? China, the US or some Europeans? If it is Europeans, they will set up which currencies to be this tripod of power? And where is the yen in all this? And how on earth can they 'set bank capital ratios' when CHINA has the highest ratios and the US and Japan have virtually none? And then global interest rates: is it going to be the high Chinese/EU rates or the 0% rates of Japan and the US? And how to hash all this out?

This conference could be like the disarmament conference run by Britain from 1912-1914. Britain wanted to freeze Germany and Japan's naval build ups, not to mention, stopping the US ships. So they agreed to reduce their navy a tad if everyone stopped competing. Then WWI broke out. And the Brits needed the US to provide them with shipping and the US took over world shipping and the global naval power by 1945. Utterly. And then lost it all from 1974-2008 to the point that we have virtually no merchant marine and a very expensive navy that is forcing us to go to the true naval powers of Asia to fund our navy via loans which we must repay them with interest!'

Kinda of remind me of a Chinese fondness for lavish dinners whereby the guests are 'served' as main dish. Ha!Ha!Ha! If China doesn't get what it wants - G7 will be 'served' Ha!Ha!Ha! By the way, this tradition started after the First Emperor passed away (about 200BC) and the Empire was in the process of being divided up by 2 men. Story has it that one of the men invited the other for dinner to discuss division of the 'spoils' and the invited guest would be well 'served'. Half way through dinner, the 'guest' realized he is to be the main 'attraction' and make a quick exit.

Wonder who would be making the quick exit this time at this wonderful party thrown by G7 - China or Opec??

[Simon]

About world war I
German policy at the time was certainly not isolationist, but expansionary just like Britain.
Colonies in Africa, Asia, clashes in Egypt, the massive fleet program to catch up to the Royal Navy.
The 'socialist' industrial capability combined with aggressive foreign policy led to disaster
Both overplayed their hand, and the result is round two : WWII

[Simon]

The point of my last post
Just being socialist does not mean a nation will succeed or avoid external threats like wars, etc

[OC]

Elaine,

Perhaps things are not going according to the Chinese plans - check out this website:

http://tinyurl.com/5hbo8c

'What is also interesting is that there has been a very popular blog in China, discussing in detail a high level special interest group inside China SWF and banking system, using their relationship with top managers of Morgan Stanley and Blackstone for alleged corruptions, kickbacks, abusing power, questionable investments going sour, luxurious life style, etc. Usually Chinese government would have ordered the removal of such kind of “un-harmonized” blogs right away, but not in this case. There is wide speculation of anger by some government officials toward the China SWF fund investing in Morgan Stanley, Blackstone and all the US home mortgages and derivatives, decisions dictated by Morgan Stanley, for the purpose of nurturing their own personal relationship and self-interest but letting the whole country down. It is always a bad thing to make your investors angry by losing their money, especially this time it is their boss, the Chinese government which now realizes that they would never get any return and worse at the edge of getting wiped out on their investments.'

Wonder any of our viewers point out which blog is this?? For those of us who could read Chinese should check it out...

[Dutch Idiot]

@DeVil

1 want to cry about socialism for the military? Then JOIN! HAHAHAHA Beam me up!

2 The lack of support from minorities for Ron Paul is a statement that they do not want to go back in time to the "good ol' days".
Really? How do you know?
Beam me up!

Like the Founding Fathers, he and other black leaders pledged themselves to one another for the common good and not just a few favored individuals.
Really? HOW? Beam me Up!

If you have a problem with current US administration and want to be a "Che-Guarva 'revolutionary' then see number one!"
HAHAHA Beam me up!

[carli]

To really understand what is going on one needs to understand who and what "Chateau" is, and its dominant and encompassing role in every financial aspect of the world.

"the BIS is central bank to central banks. The BIS has greater immunity than a sovereign nation, is accountable to no one, runs global monetary affairs and is privately owned."

If anyone thinks the Fed, the City or ECB are the power, think again.
http://tinyurl.com/3xfebb

[Dutch Idiot]

The rich do not love socialism, the rich love COMMUNISM. Nice try tho. Beam me up!

[rockpaperscizzors]

"I am now virtually unemployable and pretty much invisible in the society we live in. That is the fate for many of being female and becoming middle aged in our society. DISPOSABLE." PKScott

I believe you under-estimate your societal role in the scheme of "things." 76% of the GDP is consumerism. If everyone is working who has time to shop? Middle-age/nonchild bearing women are free of family responsibilities. At this point of their lives they are focused, energized, and at the zenith of their lives ready to do extraordinary life changing deeds. Government fears the Elaine's, Cindy Sheehan's, Betty Friedan's, Eleanor Roosevelt's....Therefore they must be marginalized and NOT ALLOWED in the hallowed halls and bring forth change. Rather, they have been left the task of mall shopping for useless, trivial, and inconsequential house crapola. Why?, to support the economy and spend, spend, spend and create an avalanche of debt.

Middle-age women have enormous power through their spending habits. To change the status quo, WOMEN MUST STOP BUYING other than essentials. The message is being heard loud and clear. United the women have the power to change the economic and political structure. You have been deliberately marginalized because the powers that be fear these women as they did their mothers;-) PKScott, they greatly fear your potential to change the status quo.

[carli]

Top U.S. and Russian military officers meet in Finland
http://tinyurl.com/5o76kf

My guess is they are discussing the turnover of the US base and repatriation expense of US troops much like when the Germans paid for the Russian to go home from Eastern Europe. This after they first huddled amongst themselves (US, Britain, France, etc.) in the Adirondacks.

Conversation with Russians will go something like this, "You take base. We no money for bankrupt Finland. British will nuke them if they don't pay up, small potatoes. We no money, you pay for our trip home, okay?! Das vedanya!"

[CEO Nutcracker]

"Ron Paul will not pledge his life or his liberty to the common good. He will remain a member of a criminal syndicate until the day he dies, and he will fade fast from the minds of all men.

That is the price one pays for security over freedom."

DeVaul- Just curious. Who, currently, do you have in mind that would?

[Dutch Trader]

Assumptions are like assholes we all have one

Anonymous

[Paul S]

This just in: Al-Qaida has endorsed John McCain for US President.