Interests:-I am a conservative, but I hate war.
-I love Jesus, but I hate religion, and find a lot of Christians to be misled and/or ignorant.
-I am a capitalist and entrepreneur, but I despise the corporate structure and global economy.
-I am not a conspiracy theorist, but believe those people are much closer to the truth than the AOL, Disney, General Electric Media Outlets
-I feel actual, physical pain when encountering ignorance. Nothing will accelerate the death of Western Civilization more rapidly than the ignorance of the people. And now I feel sad….
Message:message me Website:visit my website Jabber:www.myspace.com/thiswakinglife Member Since:10/9/2006
Congressman Ron Paul has issued a stinging address concerning the
financial crisis in which he outlines how the current economic
problems, created via malinvestment and shift to a debt based economy,
are now being mismanaged by private interests in secret.
What’s more he says he is not sure the Federal Reserve
has any idea what to do next and that the Congress is totally oblivious
to the whole sorry state of affairs - a cocktail of elements he warns
puts the middle class of America in serious jeopardy.
“Today we had a lot of financial fireworks in the
markets, a lot of things are going on, and I think we are in the middle
of something very big.” the Congressman stated.
Speaking on the recent collapse and government bailout of several big financial institutions he warned:
“We’re talking about big bucks, we’re not talking about
hundreds of millions or even hundreds of billions, we’re talking about
trillions of dollars, the obligation is immeasurable.”
“The interesting thing is that they (the financial
institutions) don’t come to the Congress, I mean the Federal Reserve
buys them out, they own it. We as tax payers now own Fannie Mae and
Freddie Mac and know one knows how much that will cost. They don’t come
to the Congress, we don’t have appropriations, it’s done by secret
government, private individuals behind the scenes maneuvering and
manipulating and trying to patch things up. While in the meantime, I’m
sure there’s a few people making a couple of bucks out of this whole
thing.”
The Congressman highlighted how an economy structured on debt and
credit and a financial system based on interventionism and self serving
moral hazard has led to gross devaluation of the dollar and ultimately lies at the root of the current financial meltdown.
“Our problems come first of all from the Federal Reserve. It is a
monopoly and it controls interest rates artificially low, causes people
to make mistakes, that’s the basic source. But then on top of that in
the Housing market we had the community reinvestment act which told
investors that they had to loan to risky borrowers, and that was a
risky complication. HUD contributes to this, FDIC contributes, it’s
called moral hazard, everything that we have done over here creates
moral hazard, that is we assure people or assume that we will take care
of everybody, just go out and create the risk, it is the opposite of
the market place.” Paul stated.
“You can’t create money like we’re doing in order to support the
dollar, because ultimately it hurts the dollar and everything we do in
Washington today whether its on the appropriations side, whether it’s
what the Fed is doing, buying up America, it’s all putting pressure on
the dollar. One of these days we’re just going to have to wake up and
say that we need to liquidate debt. This is malinvestment.” he urged.
The Congressman then slammed those who have blamed the crisis on failures of the free market:
“And then they have people come along and say ’see, this is the
failure of capitalism’, this has nothing to do with capitalism, this is
something that started off as interventionism and us being too involved
in the economy for the benefit of special interests. But now it is
being socialized out in the open.”
“The end of this comes when people reject the dollar and I think
we’re getting awfully close to this.” Paul stated echoing comments from
leading investors such as Jim Rogers, who predicted Monday that the dollar would soon lose its world reserve status.
“When you see the movement in the markets that we have today, you
know that there are serious problems out there and Congress basically
are oblivious, they have no idea what’s going on.” Paul continued.
“As a matter of fact I’m not even sure the Federal Reserve has any
idea what to do about this. They’ve been manipulating and maneuvering
for their own benefit over the years but eventually the market wins
out.”
The Congressman’s comments were echoed today by reports indicating that the Congress cannot agree on any form of action and is likely to simply adjourn and “get out of the way”.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid told reporters that “no one knows what to do”.
In a stark warning, Ron Paul stressed that the longer the value of
the dollar is allowed to depreciate, the greater the risk becomes for
the majority of Americans:
“The reason this is so important is that if you care about people in
a humanitarian sense, what you want to do is protect the value of the
money. Just think of the third world nations when they have total run
away inflation, the middle class gets wiped out. And what we are seeing
today is the middle class being jeopardized by this type of system that
we have, unlimited spending, unlimited debt, unlimited creation of new
credit.”
“So it’s time that we wake up… The answers are in the free market, sound money and our Constitution.” Paul concluded.
Watch the full address by the Congressman:
Don't ever forget how Congressman Paul described the near
future of the economy back in January, and he was consistently
ridiculed by the other candidates, and even booed by the fascist crowds
at the Republican debates. The only man speaking the truth
and refusing to offer pre-packaged, pandering garbage for answers,
and he became somewhat of a laughingstock in the soundbite
media.
"Those who foresee calamity are forced to
suffer through it twice" --Lavater
I had never seen this documentary before. I'm sure that most of the smart people who visit this site have already seen it and/or already knew a lot of it. I don't agree with everything in it but it has a ton of great content and some pretty big names as well as news and talk show clips that don't exactly end up played and replayed in the Hannity, DailyKos, Beck, Michael Moore, Limbaugh and Colmes soundbite world.
I have said for a long time that the "war on terrorism" would eventually be internalized and the focus would eventually point at Americans, and this surveilance society, dehumanization of "terrorists", war worship, and Sean Hannity's "do whatever it takes to get information" torture, will somehow be twisted into scaring people into a 1984 type of snitch society in which all people will be convinced that they must help root out "threats" to the government's control in order to be safe. Of course governments are responsible for the most murders in the history of humanity, especially the religion/government union. Maybe you spent money on one of Rush Limbaugh's "Club Gitmo" t-shirts -- good for you.
If your a "good Christian" who supports torture, and cheers the mind-boggling death totals as we hunt the enemy, be careful what you wish for. Is it really outlandish to think that this war on terrorism and the media brainwashing propagandists could paint an entire group or religion as enemies of the government and turn this from an external experiment on 'preventative war' and Nation Building (****see below) into an internal manhunt? All it would take is some senseless acts of violence by some shady lowlifes with any traceable tie to any group. Maybe I'm just being an alarmist. Lets see what FOX News has to say about it:
Horowitz states, "I think it's very significant he (Ron Paul) chose Guy Fawkes as an image."
This in itself is a complete lie - the Ron Paul campaign did not create the November 5th donation drive, it was created by one individual and the November 5th motif was merely a gimmick to make people remember to donate. To suggest it was a thinly veiled expression of sympathy with a 17th century terrorist is manifestly ridiculous. The date and the symbolism are an allusion to the movie "V for Vendetta" which is fresh on many people's minds. The history of Guy Fawkes is not exactly common knowledge, but many people have seen the movie and that is their only exposure to anything regarding British Parliament and November 5th.
Horowitz then claims, "There are plenty, unfortunately, libertarian websites which are indistinguishable from the anti-American left these days - LewRockwell.com and others like that - they are totally in bed with the Islamofascists and have turned against this country."
****
"I think what we need to do is convince people who live in the lands they live in to build the nations. Maybe I'm missing something here. I mean we're going to have kind of a nation-building corps from America. Absolutely not. Our military is meant to fight and win war. That's what it's meant to do and when it gets overextended, morale drops. He [Gore] believes in nation building. I would be very careful ..." Oct. 4, 2000 George W. Bush
We have an amazing military, thank God, but are we sure we should destroy, then rebuild countries in our own image? Supposed conservatives who believe we should take a page out of Glenn Beck's book and turn the military into a KGB style secret police? Domestic threats??!? We are indeed doomed.
Advice is seldom welcome. Those who need it most, like it least. -- Johnson
The educated American is profoundly skeptical, and yet naively trustful about political platitudes or philosophical half-truths. -- Lord Eustace Percy
Examine what is said, not him who speaks. -- Arabian proverb
Mankind in the gross, is a gaping monster, that loves to be deceived, and has seldom been disappointed. -- Mackenzie
Doubt is an incentive to search for truth, and patient inquiry leads the way to it. -- G Bailey
Who overcomes by force hath overcome but half his foe. -- Milton
All our freedoms are a single bundle: all must be secure if any is to be preserved. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
Out of rubble heaps, willing hands can rebuild a better city; but out of freedom lost can stem only generations of hate and bitter struggle and brutal oppression. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
Any frontal attack on ignorance is bound to fail because the masses are always ready to defend their most precious possession -- their (blissful) ignorance. -- Hendrick VanLoon
It is error only, and not truth, that shrinks from inquiry. -- Thomas Paine
Let not the freedom of inquiry be shackled. If it multiplies contentions among the wise and virtuous, it exercises the charity of those who contend. If it shakes for a time the belief that is rested only on prejudice, it finally settles (if intellectual honesty prevails) on the broader and more solid basis of conviction. -- H.K. White
In the same proportion that ignorance and vice prevail in a republic, will the government partake of despotism. -- Sprague
It never troubles the wolf to face multitudes of sheep. -- Virgil
He knows very little of mankind, who expects, by any facts or reasoning, to convince a determined political party supporter. -- Lavater
Dear fake conservatives and liberal Bush globalist Republicans who are currently running the country into the ground. Please align your beliefs with these true conservatives and explain your current stance on the current geo-political landscape -- Me
EISENHOWER
May we never confuse honest dissent with disloyal subversion
If you want total security, go to prison. There you're fed, clothed, given medical care and so on. The only thing lacking... is freedom.
I like to believe that people in the long run are going to do more to promote peace than our governments. Indeed, I think that people want peace so much that one of these days governments had better get out of the way and let them have it.
This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience…we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.
A preventative war, to my mind, is an impossibility. I don't believe there is such a thing, and frankly I wouldn't even listen to anyone seriously that came in and talked about such a thing.
This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron.
When people speak to you about a preventative war, you tell them to go and fight it. After my experience, I have come to hate war. ... War settles nothing.
I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its stupidity.
REAGAN If you analyze it I believe the very heart and soul of conservatism is libertarianism. I think conservatism is really a misnomer just as liberalism is a misnomer for the liberals -- if we were back in the days of the Revolution, so-called conservatives today would be the Liberals and the liberals would be the Tories. The basis of conservatism is a desire for less government interference or less centralized authority or more individual freedom and this is a pretty general description also of what libertarianism is.
There are those in America today who have come to depend absolutely on government for their security. And when government fails they seek to rectify that failure in the form of granting government more power. So, as government has failed to control crime and violence (and terrorism) with the means given it by the Constitution, they seek to give it more power at the expense of the Constitution. But in doing so, in their willingness to give up their arms in the name of safety, they are really giving up their protection from what has always been the chief source of despotism—government. Lord Acton said power corrupts. Surely then, if this is true, the more power we give the government the more corrupt it will become. And if we give it the power to confiscate our arms we also give up the ultimate means to combat that corrupt power. In doing so we can only assure that we will eventually be totally subject to it. When dictators come to power, the first thing they do is take away the people's weapons. It makes it so much easier for the secret police to operate, it makes it so much easier to force the will of the ruler upon the ruled.
You and I are told increasingly that we have to choose between a left or right, but I would like to suggest that there is no such thing as a left or right. There is only an up or down— up to a man's age-old dream; the ultimate in individual freedom consistent with law and order— or down to the ant heap totalitarianism, and regardless of their sincerity, their humanitarian motives, those who would trade our freedom for security have embarked on this downward course.
The defense policy of the United States is based on a simple premise: The United States does not start fights. We will never be an aggressor. We maintain our strength in order to deter and defend against aggression -- to preserve freedom and peace.
History teaches that wars begin when governments believe the price of aggression is cheap.
Government is not the solution to our problem. Government is the problem
Cannot swords be turned to plowshares? Can we and all nations not live in peace? In our obsession with antagonisms of the moment, we often forget how much unites all the members of humanity. Perhaps we need some outside, universal threat to make us recognize this common bond. I occasionally think how quickly our differences worldwide would vanish if we were facing an alien threat from outside this world. And yet, I ask you, is not an alien force already among us? What could be more alien to the universal aspirations of our peoples than war and the threat of war?
I hope we once again have reminded people that man is not free unless government is limited. There's a clear cause and effect here that is as neat and predictable as a law of physics: As government expands, liberty contracts.
Whatever else history may say about me when I’m gone, I hope it will record that I appealed to your best hopes, not your worst fears; to your confidence rather than your doubts. My dream is that you will travel the road ahead with liberty’s lamp guiding your steps and opportunity’s arm steadying your way.
That person who agrees with you 80 percent of the time is a friend and an ally; NOT a 20 percent enemy.
MACARTHUR
Could I have but a line a century hence crediting a contribution to the advance of peace, I would gladly yield every honor which has been accorded me in war.
I know war as few other men now living know it, and nothing to me is more revolting. I have long advocated its complete abolition, as its very destructiveness on both friend and foe has rendered it useless as a means of settling international disputes. ... But once war is forced upon us, there is no other alternative than to apply every available means to bring it to a swift end.
It is part of the general pattern of misguided policy that our country is now geared to an arms economy which was bred in an artificially induced psychosis of war hysteria and nurtured upon an incessant propaganda of fear.
