An American Armageddon

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Jack D. Douglas
Chuck Baldwin's excellent essay below gives some more details on recent moves by the Obama forces to seize direct control over U.S. police, quasi-private military forces, and to create new forces under control of the Party.

Bill Marina and I paid a great deal of detailed attention to Bush's explosive use of the Blackwater, etc., private armies in Iraq, Afghanistan and beyond. There are now a few good books on them. In general, these mercenaries – highly paid, mostly former Special Forces from the U.S., Israel, South Africa, etc. – outnumber the regular military personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan and beyond. The statement that the U.S. forces in Afghanistan are 65,000 is a preposterous Big Lie to hide the reality and the vast costs. These forces are the ones that use hollow point sniper bullets for long-range murders of civilians, etc. They probably use other war crimes materials like white phosphorus against personnel, depleted uranium shells in Iraq, etc.

There is a long history of their use by the U.S. – going back certainly to the Privateers; but those operated under prize-taking rules that were international and provided incentives to minimize death and destruction, not maximize them. The U.S. Navy started a few decades ago using private, contracted ships working with the Navy ships to carry fuel, food, etc., to keep the official number of ships down, so the public would not know how huge the Navy really was when the contract ships were counted. [I started seeing gray painted ships in the San Diego harbor with colored stripes along their sides and found out from Navy men they were the contract ships. They looked like regular Navy ships except for the colored stripe, which was small and could only be seen up close.]

Bush started using secret Special Ops masquerading as employees of Big Corps., notably Halliburton's KBR, very early in Afghanistan, as we learned from a very close professional friend and co-worker of a very old friend of mine. He was a great sniper who was called up overnight and sent off to shoot peasants in Afghanistan suspected of being Taliban, etc. [The U.S. mercenaries guard Karzai in depth and are everywhere in Afghanistan and I expect are now used in Pakistan.]

Blackwater tried a few years ago to build a huge international training camp for their mercenaries in San Diego County. That led to a huge outcry and struggle. As far as I know, it remains on ice. The details of that are in The San Diego Union-Tribune archives.

I believe the crucial, secret part of McChrystal's New Plan is to vastly increase the use of drone Hellfires, Special Ops air strikes, and secret sniper murders in Afghanistan and Pakistan against suspected al-Queda and Taliban forces and sympathizers. McChrystal was the head of U.S. Special Ops "black ops" [murder squads of snipers, etc.] when Obama appointed him to be the head of all U.S. forces in Afpak. I believe Obama appointed him for the purpose of increasing the Murder Squad programs and this has led to an explosion of Afpak support for the guerillas and rage against Karzai and the U.S. Pakistan is fiercely resisting this, but that just means the U.S. has to vastly increase the bribes.

I just got an e-mail in response to one of my Afpak essays Lew Rockwell posted in which the writer says he is SF [Special Forces] and has worked in eleven countries propping up dictators for the U.S. [He objects to my calling these "black ops programs" of the Special Ops "Death Squads" – which has never been any official term used by anyone but is the unofficial term used since Vietnam, the CIA's vast Phoenix Program, John Kerry's "fast boats" running agents up the Mekong, etc.] I think most of these former SF mercenaries are totally cynical like mercenaries throughout history. They know it's all Big Lies and BS, but they get paid vast sums to sign up, reenlist, annual salaries, bonuses, expenses....

They are like the Condotierri in the Italian City States, totally mercenary and very dangerous.

The SF guy who wrote me was morally outraged that I oppose the SF executions by snipers. He insists that this is better than bombing the whole house or village but will not consider the possibility it might be best to work morally and legally to root out murderers on all sides. I told him about the U.S. military commander in San Francisco in 1906 who moved his 1,700 troops into the streets after the earthquake to maintain law and order, pushing aside the police trained to do these things. Some of his men wound up executing supposed looters and then doing the looting themselves.

I certainly think Obama's Civilian Defense Force is intended to be an auxiliary Party force, very similar to the Sturmabteilung [the infamous SA] of the Nazi's that grew out of the Freikorps and became the Party's private army, as Trotsky's Red Army was the private army of the Bolsheviki, not of the state. Hitler was himself eventually threatened by the SA and killed off the leaders and folded the troops into the new SS, which became the private army of Hitler, swearing allegiance to him personally in the Nuremberg Sportsplatz ceremonies, rather than being subject to the orders of the German General Staff, the Wehrmacht. The Soviet Party always maintained heavily armed special forces around Moscow responsible to the Party. They also had their own more loyal Spetznetz forces, very much like the US Special Forces, and the Party-controlled Cheka-NKVD-KGB, GRU, and MVD. Putin came from the KGB but controlled all of them in the new regime. [He still does informally.] The US Imperial President controls the 19 [plus secret-secret units] secret police from the FBI and CIA to DEA and BATF, but they do not have heavy weapons. They have more direct control of some of the Special Forces for that but I do not know the details of such secret matters.

The U.S. Constitution provides for the state-controlled reserves, national guards for emergencies, etc. The federal government is moving to take control of the state military forces upon command of the President.

Obama's military and secret police forces are moving very fast and across the entire spectrum of forces to get direct control of all major forces in the U.S. and around the world and to create new ones under direct control from the beginning of the Party. Hitler had to move slowly over several years because the General Staff hated him. The Obama police and military czars are moving extremely fast and across the whole spectrum of forces. They are running great risks of a catastrophic showdown with Iran and Pakistan and other nations to build their military image as Winners. Iran alone can shut down the Persian Gulf oil and cripple the U.S. economy already in Depression II. They have also seized control of all of the top of the vast U.S. financial system, plan to impose the Fed as a totalitarian czar over finance permanently, have seized the biggest insurer – AIG, the biggest manufacturer – GM, and are planning to seize the vast power industry, health care, education, the internet ["in times of emergency declared by Obama"], and no doubt any other great concentrations of power. All U.S. concentrations of power will be under the direct control of Obama through the Party political commissars, popularly known as "Czars" because they have under the Emperor totalitarian powers. Ravenwood may be fictional. These are brutal facts.

I assume Obama and The Party have only the "best of intentions." They apparently want to save us from all the agonies of real freedom and leave us only with the mundane choices among tooth paste brands manufactured by Big Corps. working under the direct Consumer Protection Czar in the White House.

Being an unregenerate, old-fashioned American I fear that all of their best intentions will not save us in the short run from the agonies of Imperial and bureaucratic tyranny and that in the long run they will discover as the Soviets did that central-planning does not work. Their goal, like that of Lenin, is Utopia Today, but I fear they will produce very soon the awful reality of Systemic Implosion and an American Armageddon. The Soviets had the U.S. and the Europeans to hold them up while they divested themselves of the most awful concentrations of central planning power, but the U.S. is too big to be held up. We will implode.

Job Competetion reaches record - six for one job

Hashem Rouhani

The number of job seekers competing for each opening has reached the highest point since the recession began. According to a Labor Department report released Friday there are about 6 unemployed workers competing for each job opening.

That's the most since the department began tracking job openings nine years ago. Employers have cut a total of 7.2 million jobs during the downturn.

Over the 12 months, ending in August, the job openings rate decreased for private and government industries in all regions.

Many economists expect the jobless recovery to be slow. While layoffs are slowing, hiring has yet to begin. Economists fear the job market will take years to recover.

The department's Job Openings and Labor Turnover survey found less than 2.4 million openings in August 2009. Down from 3.7 million all most two years at its peak in June 2007.

To read full summary of report

Ten Thousand Apply for 90 Jobs in Louisville

By Hiram Lee
10 October 2009
Reflecting the increasingly desperate economic situation faced by millions, this week 10,000 unemployed workers applied for 90 jobs at a Louisville, Kentucky, General Electric (GE) plant.

The enormous response came within the space of just three days. GE had announced its intentions to add a second shift to its plant manufacturing washing machines in Appliance Park last Friday and began accepting applications on Monday. An earlier announcement by the GE plant calling for 13 maintenance workers who would receive $23 per hour drew 700 applicants.

The GE jobs promised a mere $13 per hour, plus benefits including dental coverage and eye care. The same jobs had previously paid $19 per hour until the decision by the IUE-CWA Local 761 to accept concessions in May, which included cutting wages for new workers and future hires.

Unemployment in Kentucky reached 11.1 percent in August. A total of 3,200 manufacturing jobs were lost in the state in the same month. Over the year ending in August, some 35,300 manufacturing jobs were lost in Kentucky.

Dr. Justine Detzel, the chief labor market analyst for Kentucky’s Office of Unemployment and Training, commented after the release of these numbers, “This marks the 14th time in the last 15 months industrial employment has fallen. Job losses were concentrated in the durable goods subsector, reflecting layoffs at a number of automobile parts manufacturers, the closing of another automobile parts producer, and the start of a lengthy temporary shutdown of a durable goods plant.”

The loss of better-paying manufacturing jobs will have a sharp impact on poverty in the state, which already stood at 17.3 percent for 2008. According to the latest Census Bureau figures, one in eight families and one in four children live in poverty. Foreclosures, particularly in Louisville, continue to rise due to a spike in unemployment.

A testament to the destruction of the manufacturing sector, no less than 80 percent of the workers applying for the 90 GE jobs were able to claim factory experience on their applications.

The response of the Kentucky state government to widespread unemployment and a major crisis within the state budget has been entirely reckless and shortsighted. Social programs, made all the more necessary by the economic crisis, have been slashed. Upon entering office in 2007, Governor Steve Beshear, a Democrat, almost immediately began a fight to bring casino gambling to the state, a mercenary industry that would only prey on the poor and working class population. Short-term attempts to increase tax revenue include hosting the 2010 World Equestrian Games in the state, as well as a major Nascar racing event.

As federal stimulus funds will have run out by 2012, the governor is preparing the state for further hardships in the future. Hinting at further cuts to social programs, he spoke before a Downtown Rotary Club in Louisville in September, saying the budget crises yet to be faced will “make us decide what we consider sacred and what is expendable.”

The rush by 10,000 unemployed workers to claim the small number of jobs offered by GE is a phenomenon not unique to Kentucky. All over the country, workers are desperately trying to find jobs or secure assistance under conditions in which available jobs and resources are completely inadequate.

Thousands have flocked to free, temporary clinics set up in Texas and California in search of health care they could not otherwise afford. In Detroit this week, 50,000 residents sought housing aid, of which there was only enough to assist some 3,400 people in need.

These and similar incidents around the country have made clear the inability of the capitalist system to meet the most basic social needs of masses of people.

At a time when trillions of dollars are available to bail out the banks, workers are told there is no money to provide even the most elementary necessities of life.

Microchip Implant to Link Health Records, Credit History, Social Security

By Jim Edwards
Novartis and Proteus Biomedical are not the only companies hoping to implant microchips into patients so that their pill-popping habits can be monitored. VeriChip of Delray Beach, Fl., has an even bolder idea: an implanted chip that links to an online database containing all your medical records, credit history and your social security ID.

As this presentation to investors makes clear, the chip and its database could form the basis of a new national identity database lined to Social Security and NationalCreditReport.com. The VeriMed Health Link homepage describes the chip:

… a tiny, passive microchip (the nation’s first and only microchip cleared for patient identification by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration) and a secure, private online database that links you to your personal health record. Your Health Link is always with you and cannot be lost or stolen.

That database can be accessed by doctors and nurses:

About the size of a grain of rice, the microchip is inserted just under the skin and contains only a unique, 16-digit identifier. The microchip itself does not contain any other data other than this unique electronic ID, nor does it contain any Global Positioning System (GPS) tracking capabilities. And unlike conventional forms of identification, the Health Link cannot be lost, stolen, misplaced, or counterfeited. It is safe, secure, reversible, and always with you.

But VeriChip’s ambitions don’t end there, as this diagram indicates:

Yes, it shows your Health Link chip linked to Google, Microsoft, employers and insurers. The company also sees the VeriMed Health Link linked to your “identity security services,” through a separate VeriChip product, PositiveID. This slide show states:

PositiveID puts people in control of their personal health records and financial information, bridging the gap between secure medical records and identity security

PositiveID dovetails with Health Link:

Cross marketing opportunities: cross-sell the NationalCreditReport.com customer base the Health Link personal health record and vice-versa

Differentiates PositiveID as the only personal health record that offers identity theft protection

It’s a future in which your doctor tags you like a dog with a microchip that allows anyone with the right privileges to look at your medical records, credit history, social security number (see slide 6), and anything else that stems from that.

Suddenly, storing medical records on paper in locked cabinets inside a single doctor’s office starts to look like something we may not want to rush to give up.

Number One Field Skill

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Survival Guru

On a physical level, firemaking--and the ability to make it under any conditions--is the hallmark skill of a competent wilderness traveler. You should be skilled at creating fire in the rain, deep snow, at night, with one hand, and so on. Your life, or the lives of your party (or clients), may one day depend on how well you have mastered this critical area of survival.

Now, I am not talking about the art of rubbing two-sticks together or fire-by-friction. This is an advanced bushcraft skill and not something you want to rely on if you are truly lost and hypothermic. I am referring to modern firemaking using a spark-rod, lighter, and matches along with a quality tinder like cottonballs smeared with Vaseline.

Practice making fire regularly with the above items on your family camping trips, backyard barbecues, and wilderness outings as such skills are perishable. Remember you will perform in the wilds under actual duress the way that you have trained, so ingrain the skills in your head and hands before you need them in a true survival situation.

On a mental level, the number one skill is mindfulness, or situational awareness. Be aware of your surroundings on a constant basis, and don't forget to look over your shoulder at the landmarks as you hike along. These landmarks, such as boulders, hilltops, canyons, power lines, etc… will be your reference points upon returning along that same trail later. Most people stare at the heels of the hiker in front of them and forget to look around. Pay attention to the natural world unfolding around you!

Violent implosion of large swathe of the working classes

Posted by: Felix Salmon

Jake is on fire with employment charts this morning in the wake of the atrocious payrolls report. This one in particular is new to me, and extremely sobering:

Even at the worst points of the worst recessions of the 1970s and 1980s, never has the number of hours worked per US person been lower than it is now. And this isn’t happy productive people taking time off because they don’t need to work as hard any more: this is unhappy unemployed people who desperately want and need to earn money but can’t.

What we’re seeing in this graph is, I think, the violent implosion of a large swathe of the working classes. Many of those jobs — the ones which, in the boom, were in or connected to the housing or auto industries in particular — will never come back; if they’re replaced at all it will be with lower-wage, lower-skill service-industry jobs. That bodes very ill for the US economy as a whole, and reinforces my notion that the best-case scenario right now, economically speaking, is essentially a square-root-shaped recession where we rebound from the lows but then fail to grow over the medium or long term.

That said, previous plunges in this graph have been followed by relatively sharp rebounds, so maybe we’ll see the same thing happen again. I just can’t work out what the driver of all that new employment will be.

Working Class Americans Panhandling for Gas

Working Class Americans Panhandling for Gas

U.S. airports to quarantine passengers who look like they have H1N1 virus

CBS news reports new government guidelines designed to help keep passengers healthy will permit airport staff across the nation to screen passengers who just look like they may have the H1N1 virus. The government warns that some passengers may be asked to pass through a screening device, have their temperatures taken, answer questions about their health, and even be quarantined if someone on the flight shows symptoms of H1N1.

US Banks Steal $24 Billion from Customers in Extortion Racket

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These banks wouldn't even exist unless we bailed them out. These people are low-life felons and crooks who steal in broad daylight with impunity as Barney Frank wags his fat, stubby little finger at them as if they were his unruly children. Despicable.

Raw Story reports US banks billed their customers 24 billion dollars in penalty fees for overdrawing their accounts last year, a 35 percent increase over the previous year, a study has found.

Rather than deny payment, most banks in the United States routinely approve transactions not covered by funds but charge customers an average fee of 34 dollars each time.

Fees are charged whether the overdraft is for five dollars or 50 dollars, under overdraft protection programs in which customers are automatically enrolled, the study found.

"Overdraft fees are most typically triggered not by checks, but by debit card transactions and ATM withdrawals that could easily be denied for no fee," said the study by the Center for Responsible Lending.

"These practices are especially alarming given that institutions automatically enroll consumers into this type of program, even when lower-cost forms of overdraft protection -- such as a formal overdraft line of credit or a link to a savings account -- are usually available," it said.

Some 51 million account holders have been billed for overdrafts at least once a year, and 27 million of them have been hit with the fees at least five times in a year, the study.

In 2009, experts expect fees to grow to 27 billion dollars.

Lawmakers have introduced a bill in Congress that would require banks to change their policies to allow consumers to decide whether or not to enroll in overdraft protection programs.

Thousands Mob Detroit Center, Hope for Free Cash

Scuffles erupted as several thousand Detroit residents jockeyed, pushed and shoved Wednesday to get free money being offered to only 3,500 of the city's recently or soon to be homeless.

Celente The Dollar is Finished

Celente on the dead Dollar. It's finished.

Wells Fargo Sticks it to Card Holders Who Bailed Them Out

Boston Globe:
Wells Fargo raises credit card rates
Wells Fargo & Co. plans to raise interest rates on a majority of credit card customers by 3 percentage points before new rules limiting such increases take effect, a company executive said. “This is something we’ve been contemplating for quite a period of time,’’ Kevin Rhein, group head of card services, said yesterday.

Wells Fargo began advising customers this week that the change takes effect Nov. 30. That’s one day before the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, Massachusetts Democrat Barney Frank, wants curbs on rates and fees under a new US credit card law to take effect. He plans a hearing today on moving up the date to Dec. 1, from February, to head off increases by card issuers.

Rhein did not comment on whether Frank’s bill had any bearing on Wells Fargo’s decision. The bank is also eliminating over-limit fees, which are imposed when customers exceed their credit limits, he said.

Wells Fargo, the eighth-biggest US card lender, accepted $25 billion from the federal bank bailout program.

Bank of America Corp., the second-biggest US credit card lender, has said it won’t raise rates and fees on customers in good standing before the effective dates of the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act, which takes effect in stages.


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Is it any wonder then that Ann Minch staged a DEBTOR'S REVOLT! last month in protest after the interest rate on her credit card was jacked up by 30% even though she made all the payments on time?

Message to Bank of America: I've decided to it's time to take a stand against the banksters' usury and greed! If our founding fathers were willing to sacrifice their LIVES for our FREEDOM, then I can certainly sacrifice my credit score and be willing to be sued. I'm staging a DEBTOR'S REVOLT!
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Max Keiser US Dollar is Finished

Max Keiser stating the Dollar will collapse and US cannot do anything about it.

Gold Is Its Own Currency

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"While no major currency is likely to replace the dollar any time soon, the need for an alternative is clear, and growing...That gold has a currency aspect without being tied to any country is key to enhancing its value as an asset"

Chikako Mogi
Reuters
TOKYO -- As the dollar's dominance fades with the emergence of a multipolar world, gold may stand to gain the most of all assets, thanks to an unlikely quality -- neutrality.

While no major currency is likely to replace the dollar any time soon, the need for an alternative is clear, and growing. China among others is considering how to diversify its more than $2 trillion in foreign exchange reserves, and talk of using other currencies to trade oil or commodities continues to circulate.

Supply constraints mean there is no chance of a full revival of the gold standard era, when currencies were pegged directly to gold, but investors say gold's duel role as both currency and asset make it an almost irresistible buy for years to come as financial geopolitics add risk into global markets.

"That gold has a currency aspect without being tied to any country is key to enhancing its value as an asset," said Koichiro Kamei, managing director at financial research firm Market Strategy Institute. "The realization that gold can be turned into anything spread quickly and widely as people used it to raise dollars last year when they were short of dollars."

Gold plunged almost 20 percent in October 2008, taking a hit when investors dumped assets across the curve for cash as liquidity dried during the height of the credit crunch.

But in comparison to other asset classes gold did well, with broader commodities and equities hitting multi-year lows in the unwinding of complex positions built over the past several years.

"Globally, gold has been bought as it is re-evaluated as a stable currency," said Osamu Ikeda, general manager at Tanaka Kikinzoku Kogyo, Japan's biggest bullion retailer.

It is also seen as a simpler investment after huge losses on sophisticated financial products endangered the global financial system and plunged the world deep into recession.

After the October 2008 plunge, gold returned to the upward momentum that had carried it to a record high in March 2008, defying the downtrend in most other assets.

The Reuters-Jefferies CRB Index, a global commodities benchmark, fell to a seven-year low earlier this year just as gold was again trying the $1,000 mark.

A big part of gold's gains have been attributed to the declining dollar. The dollar index, a measure against six major currencies, fell about 14 percent since March this year while gold rose about 13 percent during the same period.

"What has been a textbook reference of gold as a currency has been given life, especially after the Lehman shock. And that has concurrently highlighted its character as an asset that performs differently from other assets," said Shuji Sugata, a manager at Mitsubishi Corp. Futures & Securities.

"Given its price movements against other assets and the declining confidence in the dollar, more funds have begun to include gold in their asset portfolios," he said.

The launch of gold-backed exchange-traded funds has also altered the way gold is viewed.

Such ETFs grew explosively over the past year after the financial crisis as retail investors entered the market, giving significant support to gold prices.

"Prior to ETFs, it was supply/demand balances and currency, gold's inverse relationship with the dollar. The launch of ETFs was an additional supportive factor for gold just as scepticism was growing about the dollar's dominance," Sugata said.

The world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, the SPDR Gold Trust, saw its holdings rise to a record 1,134.03 tonnes on June 1, a 44 percent rise on the year that contributed to gold's 16 percent rise in the same period.

The growing number of investors means price action could also add to gold's volatility.

"I think the moves to the upside will be far quicker in their velocity, hitting $1,100 very shortly and then far higher over the next few years," said Peter McGuire, managing director Commodity Warrants Australia.

More US Govt Idiocy - $500 for Every Newborn

Kimberly Palmer
Coming Soon: $500 for Every Newborn?
Imagine a world where every baby received a trust fund at birth. It might sound like a fairy tale, but being born into money--or at least into a $500 savings account--could soon become reality for all children born in the United States. Lawmakers are considering a bill that would give each newborn just that, with the goal of promoting savings that would later be used for education, a first home, or retirement. Here's what you should know about the ASPIRE ("America Saving for Personal Investment, Retirement, and Education") Act:

How would this program work?

The ASPIRE Act would give each child born in the United States a $500 savings account. Recipients could then use that money once they were older to pay for education, a first home, or retirement. Low-income children would receive additional funding, and all participants could add to their accounts over time.

Would it really help people save more money? Five hundred dollars isn't much.

The purpose of the accounts, says Reid Cramer, director of the Asset Building Program at the New America Foundation, is to get people invested in their future. "Having an asset has the potential to change the way people think and plan for their future, and sometimes those effects can be generated just from small asset holdings," he says, adding that it's possible for people to build up significant savings over time. The ASPIRE Act also pairs the creation of the accounts with financial literacy programs in schools.

Indeed, pioneering research by University of Michigan professor Michael Sherraden suggests starting individual savings accounts for lower-income people can lead them to feel more confident about the future. Recipients of such accounts also report feeling that they have greater control over their lives, including the ability to plan for education and retirement costs. Further studies have shown that owning assets is associated with greater empowerment and civic participation, increased income, and positive educational outcomes.

Why not just give the money to low-income people who really need it?

Entitlement programs that benefit everyone, such as Social Security and Medicare, tend to enjoy more widespread support and therefore last longer. Programs aimed exclusively at lower-income groups, such as welfare programs, often attract more controversy and receive less political support.

"The important thing is that everybody gets an account," says Cramer, and that it's opened automatically so families don't need to take much action. It would still be a progressive program, he adds, because as the ASPIRE Act is currently written, poorer families would receive additional funding.

Don't we already have a lot of policies in place that encourage savings?

Yes, but they tend to mainly help people with higher incomes. According to Sherraden, two thirds of retirement tax benefits go to households that earn incomes of $100,000 and higher. Policies that encourage homeownership, such as tax deductions on interest payments, similarly benefit those who can already afford to purchase homes. Other savings systems, such as 529 accounts for college savings, depend on parents opening the accounts and making deposits. The ASPIRE Act is different because each child would have an account and receive an initial deposit.

Has this been tried anywhere before?

Yes--in Great Britain. Since September 2002, children born in the United Kingdom have received a $500 savings account, just as the ASPIRE Act would provide in the United States. Recipients can withdraw the money after the age of 18; unlike in the proposed U.S. version, there are no restrictions on how they can spend the money. About one quarter of the recipients add extra money to the account, and, according to calculations by Cramer, most of the accounts go up in value so they are worth over $600. (The money is invested in a diversified portfolio of stocks, much like college savings, or 529, accounts in the United States.) Since the program's first enrollees are now only 7 years old, it's too early to say how they will spend the money once they turn 18.

Could this really become law in the United States sometime soon?

Lawmakers are expected to reintroduce the ASPIRE Act before the end of the year, and it already enjoys bipartisan support. The main challenge for supporters will most likely be over how to justify the cost at a time of great budget deficits and competing demands for federal dollars. Critics argue that the program would simply create another costly entitlement program. Writing for the Portland-based think tank Cascade Policy Institute, policy analyst Sreya Sarkar says the program would provide benefits to one generation by taxing another.

How would this program be paid for?

Over the first decade of its life, the program would cost around $37.5 billion, and would start at around $3.25 billion per year. Cramer argues that because the money would be invested through the savings account, it would help spur economic growth. Lawmakers sponsoring the bill have said they would pay for it by making other cuts, but the bill doesn't specify what those cuts would be.

Strengthening yuan, not oil trading, will dethrone dollar

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China Calls Time on Dollar Hegemony

By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
The Telegraph, London
Tuesday, October 6, 2009

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/china-business/6266790/China-calls-ti...

You can date the end of dollar hegemony from China's decision last month to sell its first batch of sovereign bonds in Chinese yuan to foreigners.

Beijing does not need to raise money abroad, since it has $2 trillion in reserves. The sole purpose is to prepare the way for the emergence of the yuan as a full-fledged global currency.

"It's the tolling of the bell," said Michael Power from Investec Asset Management. "We are only beginning to grasp the enormity and historical significance of what has happened."

It is this shift in China and other parts of rising Asia and Latin America that threatens dollar domination, not the pricing of oil contracts. The markets were rattled yesterday by reports -- since denied -- that China, France, Japan, Russia, and Gulf states were plotting to replace the greenback as the currency for commodity sales, but it makes little difference whether crude is sold in dollars, euros, or Venetian Ducats.

What matters is where OPEC oil producers and rising export powers choose to invest their surpluses. If they cease to rotate this wealth into US Treasuries, mortgage bonds, and other US assets, the dollar must weaken over time.

"Everybody in the world is massively overweight the US dollar," said David Bloom, currency chief at HSBC. "As they invest a little here and little there in other currencies, or gold, it slowly erodes the dollar. It is like sterling after World War I. Everybody can see it's happening."

"In the US they have near zero rates, external deficits, and public debt skyrocketing to 100 percent of GDP, and on top of that they are printing money. It is the perfect storm for the dollar," he said.

"The dollar rallied last year because we had a global liquidity crisis, but we think the rules have changed and that it will be very different this time" if there is another market selloff, he said.

The self-correcting mechanism in the global currency system has been jammed until now because China and other Asian powers have been holding down their currencies to promote exports. The Gulf oil states are mostly pegged to the dollar, for different reasons.

This strategy has become untenable. It is causing them to import a US monetary policy that is too loose for their economies and likely to fuel unstable bubbles as the global economy recovers.

Lorenzo Bini Smaghi, a board member of the European Central Bank, said China for one needs to bite bullet. "I think the best way is that China starts adopting its own monetary policy and detaches itself from the Fed's policy."

Beijing has been schizophrenic, grumbling about the eroding value of its estimated $1.6 trillion of reserves held in dollar assets while perpetuating the structure that causes them to accumulate US assets in the first place -- that is to say, by refusing to let the yuan rise at any more than a glacial pace.

For all its talk, China bought a further $25 billion of US Treasuries in June and $25 billion in July. The weak yuan has helped to keep China's factories open -- and to preserve social order -- during the economic crisis, though exports were still down 23 percent in August. But this policy is on borrowed time. Reformers in Beijing are already orchestrating a profound shift in China's economy from export reliance (38 percent of GDP) to domestic demand, and they know that keeping the dollar peg too long will ultimately cause them to lose export edge anyway -- via the more damaging route of inflation.

For the time being, Europe is bearing the full brunt of Asia's currency policy. The dollar peg has caused the yuan to slide against the euro, even as China's trade surplus with the EU grows. It reached E169 billion (L156 billion) last year. This is starting to provoke protectionist rumblings in Europe, where unemployment is nearing double digits.

ECB governor Guy Quaden said patience is running thin. "The problem is not the exchange rate of the dollar against the euro but rather the relationship between the dollar and certain Asian currencies -- to mention one, the Chinese yuan. I say no more."

France's finance minister, Christine Lagarde, said at the G7 meeting that the euro had been pushed too high. "We need a rebalancing so that one currency doesn't take the flak for the others."

Clearly this is more than a dollar problem. It is a mismatch between the old guard -- US, Europe, Japan -- and the new powers that require stronger currencies to reflect their dynamism and growing wealth. The longer this goes on, the more havoc it will cause to the global economy.

The new order may look like the 1920s, with four or five global currencies as regional anchors -- the yuan, rupee, euro, real -- and the dollar first among equals but not hegemon. The US will be better for it.

United States Mint Cancells Gold and Silver Eagles

Image via Wikipedia

Mint News Blog
Yesterday at Noon, the United States Mint issued a press release with some shocking and disappointing news. The collectible 2009 Proof and Uncirculated Gold and Silver Eagles will not be offered this year. As partial consolation, the press release also announced plans to offer the 2009 Proof Gold Buffalo, the 2009 Proof Platinum Eagle, and fractional weight Gold Eagle bullion coins.

As it now stands, the following collector coins are now canceled:

- 2009 Proof Silver Eagle
- 2009-W Uncirculated Silver Eagle
- 2009 Annual Uncirculated Dollar Coin Set
- 2009 Proof $50 Gold Eagle (one ounce)
- 2009 Proof $25 Gold Eagle (one-half ounce)
- 2009 Proof $10 Gold Eagle (one-quarter ounce)
- 2009 Proof $5 Gold Eagle (one-tenth ounce)
- 2009 Proof Gold Eagle 4 Coin Set

This is in addition to many other collector gold and platinum coins that had previously been announced as discontinued.

On the bullion front, the US Mint has canceled all 2009 American Platinum Eagle bullion coins. These coins are typically available in one ounce, one-half ounce, one-quarter ounce, and one-tenth ounce sizes.

The following collector coins will be offered:

- 2009 Proof $50 Gold Buffalo (release date October 29)
- 2009 Proof $100 Platinum Eagle (release date December 3)

The reason cited for the canceled products is a familiar one: "the unprecedented demand for American Eagle Gold and Silver Bullion Coins." This reason has been cited on numerous occasions over the past two years to explain bullion coin rationing, bullion and collector coin suspensions, and bullion and collector coin cancellations.

Under law, the United States Mint is required to produce Gold and Silver Eagle bullion coins in quantities sufficient to meet public demand. Accordingly, the US Mint has been using all 22-karat gold and silver blanks to produce bullion coins, in lieu of collector coins, which they are not legally required to produce.

The status of this year's collectible Gold Eagles, Platinum Eagles, Silver Eagles, and Gold Buffaloes has been a topic of constant discussion and speculation. Way back in January, I had mentioned the possibility that these coins might not be issued in 2009. My reasoning was validated a few months later when the US Mint finally announced that the products were suspended (see posts here and here). In mid-June, there was a brief revival of hope for the collector coins when the US Mint finally ended bullion allocation programs, but apparently this was to no avail.

This is clearly an unhappy resolution to the situation for collectors. I will have further thoughts on this situation in the coming days.

The plan to de-dollarise oil denied by the usual suspects

Fisk Image by Marjorie Lipan via Flickr

Robert Fisk
A financial revolution with profound political implications
The plan to de-dollarise the oil market, discussed both in public and in secret for at least two years and widely denied yesterday by the usual suspects – Saudi Arabia being, as expected, the first among them – reflects a growing resentment in the Middle East, Europe and in China at America's decades-long political as well as economic world dominance.

Nowhere has this more symbolic importance than in the Middle East, where the United Arab Emirates alone holds $900bn (£566bn) of dollar reserves and where Saudi Arabia has been quietly co-ordinating its defence, armaments and oil policies with the Russians since 2007.

This does not indicate a trade war with America – not yet – but Arab Gulf regimes have been growing increasingly restive at their economic as well as political dependence on Washington for many years. Of the $7.2 trillion in international reserves, $2.1trn is held by Arab countries – China holds about $2.3trn – and the nations interested in moving away from dollar-trading in oil are believed to hold over 80 per cent of international dollar reserves.

Saudi Arabia's denials of any such ambitions were regarded by Arab bankers as a normal part of Gulf politics. The Saudis, of course, managed to deny that Iraq had invaded Kuwait in 1990 – even when Saddam Hussein's legions stood along the Saudi frontier, until the US broadcast the news of Iraq's aggression to the world.

Saudi bankers are well aware that in nine years' time – the current timeframe for a transition away from the dollar in oil trading to Japanese and Chinese currencies, the euro, gold and a possible new Gulf currency – China will have doubled its national income to $10trn (assuming a growth rate of 7 per cent), at which point the US might hold no more than 20 per cent of the world's gross income.

Such massive financial movements, encouraged by the de-dollarisation of oil, will have enormous political effects in the Middle East, especially if economic superpower rivalry between America and China comes to dominate the Arab world. Will American economic support for Israel remain as loyal in nine years' time if China and the Arabs are setting the pace in global financial markets? Indeed – perhaps with this in mind – some Israeli financiers have been expressing interest over the past two years in non-dollar Arab bank investments. Whenever a change of this magnitude takes place over a number of years, it has to be commenced in secrecy.

Nor can it be denied that the very project to take oil trading away from the dollar market has deep political roots. The collapse of the Soviet Union has allowed the US to dominate the Middle East more than any other world region, and the Arabs – who can no longer contemplate an oil boycott of the kind they imposed on the West after the 1973 Middle East war – are still anxious to prove that they can flex their economic power to bring about change.

Saudi Arabia's pan-Arab offer to recognise Israel and its security in return for an Israeli withdrawal from occupied Arab land is not – according to the Saudis themselves – indefinite. If they are ignored or rebuffed, then they can search for other allies through new financial institutions to force a new Middle East peace. China will be happy to help.

U.S. Office Vacancies Reach Five-Year High

Hui-yong Yu with Bloomberg reports U.S. office vacancies rose to a five- year high in the third quarter, as job losses deepened and employers abandoned space in the recession, property research firm Reis Inc. said.

Vacancies climbed to 16.5 percent from 13.7 percent in the year since Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. filed for bankruptcy, New York-based Reis said in a report. Effective rents, the amount actually paid by tenants, fell 8.5 percent, the biggest year-over-year drop since 1995.

“The decline in effective rents really accelerated after the fall of Lehman Brothers,” Victor Calanog, director of research at Reis, said in a statement. “Tenants will continue shedding occupied space as jobs are lost.”

Financial firms cut more than 180,000 jobs in the Americas in the credit crisis that brought down or forced the sales of Bear Stearns Cos., Washington Mutual Inc., Merrill Lynch & Co. and Lehman Brothers.

The three months ended Sept. 30 marked the seventh straight quarter in which landlords reported a net loss in the amount of space occupied by tenants. About 19.6 million more square feet were vacant than in the previous quarter, Reis said.

The U.S. is on pace for its second-worst year in terms of net office absorption since at least 1980, the beginning of Reis’s records, Calanog said.

The national vacancy rate was 15.9 percent in the second quarter.

New York vacancies jumped to 11.4 percent in the third quarter from 6.6 percent a year earlier, and the city’s effective rents tumbled 18.5 percent, Reis said.

The drop in rents is about twice the decline New York experienced in 2002, following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Rents fell 9.3 percent that year, Calanog said.

Twitter Crackdown: NYC Activist Arrested for Using Social Networking Site during G-20 Protest in Pittsburgh

Democracy Now
Elliot Madison was arrested last month during the G-20 protests in Pittsburgh when police raided his hotel room. Police say Madison and a co-defendant used computers and a radio scanner to track police movements and then passed on that information to protesters using cell phones and the social networking site Twitter. Madison is being charged with hindering apprehension or prosecution, criminal use of a communication facility, and possession of instruments of crime. Exactly one week later, Madison’s New York home was raided by FBI agents, who conducted a sixteen-hour search. We speak to Elliot Madison and his attorney, Martin Stolar.

Guests:

Elliot Madison, New York-based social worker and member of the Tin Can Comms Collective. He was arrested and later had his home raided for using Twitter to spread information about police actions during the recent G-20 protests in Pittsburgh.

Martin Stolar, attorney for Elliot Madison

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: For our first segment, we turn to a case of a New York activist who’s believed to be among the first to face criminal charges for communicating electronically with protesters about police actions. Elliot Madison was arrested last month during the G-20 protests in Pittsburgh when police raided his hotel room. Police say Madison and a co-defendant used computers and a radio scanner to track police movements and then passed on that information to protesters using cell phones and the social networking site Twitter. Madison is being charged with hindering apprehension or prosecution, criminal use of a communication facility, and possession of instruments of crime.

Exactly one week later, Madison’s New York home was raided by FBI agents, who conducted a sixteen-hour search. The agents seized items including computers, clothing, books and the records of Madison’s clients in his job as a social worker. Madison has since won a temporary order barring agents from examining his seized property.

For more, Elliot Madison joins us here in the firehouse studio. We’re also joined by his attorney, Martin Stolar.

We welcome you both to Democracy Now!

ELLIOT MADISON: Thank you.

MARTIN STOLAR: Thank you, Sharif.

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: Elliot, let’s begin with you. Begin by describing exactly what you were doing in Pittsburgh during the G-20 and your subsequent arrest.

ELLIOT MADISON: Well, there were protests during the G-20, and a group of people came together called the Tin Can Comm—Communications—Collective. And they were putting up basically message boards. There was a message board for food. There was a message board for legal. There was a general message board. There was a message board just for announcements.

And how Twitter works is, traditionally people can text one—instead of just texting from me to you, I could text everyone that chose to follow me, OK? So, the only difference in this setup is that we allowed points to go to everybody in the group. So, if Martin wanted to text you and me, he could. If I wanted to text the two of you, I could. So it was a point of access issue. So it changed Twitter and made it more decentralized, so people could carry on a conversation knowing that people were spread out throughout the city. Sometimes it gets loud and noisy, and it was a way for people to communicate, not substantially different than the way the three of us are talking now.

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: And what exactly—what kind of messages were people putting out on this site?

ELLIOT MADISON: All sorts of messages. We put on the—about different trainings. There was a Know Your Rights training. We talked about the—there were messages I received about the raid on the Just Seeds food bus. There was information about where meet-ups were for different marches, like the students’ march. To be honest, I didn’t see most of the messages, because I was arrested very early on Thursday.

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: That’s the first day of the G-20.

ELLIOT MADISON: The first day. So, before the first day, there weren’t many messages, because there were just a few announcements about, you know, different meetings and things like that.

And the thing to remember is this was a public site. I mean, the AP articles with the lieutenant detective of operations says he was on our LISTSERV. CNN said they were on our LISTSERV. I mean, a whole variety of journalists, New York Times journalists, joined. Anybody could join. It was a public number. We don’t know who joined. It wasn’t important. And anybody could send information to the group, and it would be sent out to everybody.

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: And so, you were sitting in your hotel room, and the police came in. Describe what happened.

ELLIOT MADISON: Where there was a—door was flung open. I assume they had a key.

Just to be clear, the hotel room was under our names. Our car was parked right out front. We weren’t doing anything clandestine, weren’t expecting the police to come in.

A number of agents from the state police came in and—you know, with guns drawn, and held us for about an hour in handcuffs, though we weren’t arrested at that time, and told us we were free to go. But we decided to stay and watch them and wait for the warrant. We weren’t presented a warrant right away. A warrant finally came, but it’s a sealed warrant, so we only got to see the face sheet of it. We don’t know why—we know what they were looking for, but we don’t know the—how they got the information, because it’s sealed. According to the face sheet, it’s eighteen pages long.

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: And Martin Stolar, explain the charges. They include charged with hindering apprehension or prosecution, criminal use of a communication facility, and possession of instruments of crime. What does that mean?

MARTIN STOLAR: Essentially, what Elliot is charged with is using the computer or the cell phone to put up an announcement that said that the police had issued an order to disperse. Having done that and having informed people that the police had issued the order, then it is claimed that that announcement hindered prosecution somehow by, I guess, having people avoid being arrested. It would seem to me that that is something that provides some benefit to the police department, in terms of saving them the expenditure of resources in processing people. But they’ve decided to criminalize that communication, or at least in their complaint that’s what they say, that the communication that said, “Hey, there’s been a dispersal order; everybody be aware of it,” somehow turns into a crime of hindering prosecution. The communication facility then, the cell phone or the computer that was used to post that message, becomes an instrument of the crime, and the use of that mass communication facility becomes, they claim under Pennsylvania law, a third crime.

This is just unbelievable. It is the thinnest, silliest case that I’ve ever seen. It tends to criminalize support services for people who are involved in lawful protest activity. And it’s just shocking that somebody could be arrested for essentially walking next to somebody and saying, “Hey, don’t go down that street, because the police have issued an order to disperse. Stay away from there.” All of a sudden, essentially, that becomes the crime that Elliot and his co-defendant are charged with.

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: And they may be the first to be charged criminally with sending information electronically to protesters about the police. What’s the significance of this in terms of First Amendment rights?

MARTIN STOLAR: It—

ELLIOT MADISON: Can I just clarify it?

MARTIN STOLAR: Sure.

ELLIOT MADISON: We’re not—we’re not the first. We’re the first in this country. During the Twitter revolution going on in Iran, in Moldova, in Guatemala, in the earlier newscast about Honduras, in all those cases, repressive governments have arrested folks for using Twitter. The only difference is, in all those cases the State Department, the US State Department, has condemned the arrest of these Twitter activists and had gone so far in the Iranian situation, the State Department, according to an article, asked Twitter to postpone its regular maintenance so as not to interfere with Iranian protesters to be able to send out their tweets. So the only difference is we’re the first arrested here. But this is a—over the past two years, repressive governments have been arresting people. The only difference is, the State Department has supported—I’m expecting the State Department will come out and support us also.

MARTIN STOLAR: Oh, you think so, do you?

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: Well—

MARTIN STOLAR: I mean, it is shocking. This is really the first case, and my preliminary research has found that this is the only case where people involved in protest activity have been arrested for using or for passing out information. Essentially, this country has the First Amendment. The First Amendment protects speech, and it protects protest activity. And what Elliot and his co-defendant are accused of doing tends to support speech and protest activity itself. It is speech that goes out. Putting something up on Twitter is a form of speech. And we have some serious First Amendment problems in connection with the prosecution in Pennsylvania.

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: And I want to say, we did contact Twitter and the FBI to invite them on the program. They both declined our request. Twitter didn’t respond. But to what extent did Twitter cooperate with the police?

MARTIN STOLAR: We don’t know.

ELLIOT MADISON: We don’t know.

MARTIN STOLAR: We don’t know. We don’t know if Twitter is cooperating with the police. We don’t know if Twitter has been asked to cooperate with the police. Twitter essentially is neutral here. The police could have logged onto Twitter and seen whatever was being posted, in the same way that individuals can log onto the police radio bands and emergency service responders, all of which is up on the internet. If Elliot is receiving from the internet notice that an order to disperse has been issued at a particular location and passes that public information on to other members of the public, that’s protected speech. It is inconceivable that that could be a crime. But that’s what he’s charged with.

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: So, a week later after your arrest, the FBI raids your home in Queens. What happened?

ELLIOT MADISON: About 6:00 in the morning, the FBI, on a Thursday, broke into the door—we don’t know if there was a knock or not, because we were asleep—stormed up with guns—it was about twenty or so agents with Joint Terrorist Task Force; it was a combination of FBI and NYPD—and handcuffed me and my housemates, held us for a few hours, two or three hours, in handcuffs, wouldn’t let us talk, wouldn’t let us make phone calls, wouldn’t let us get dressed, because we were all asleep. And eventually, sometime after that point, they showed us a warrant. They wouldn’t let us read the warrant; they just showed it to us. Our hands were cuffed behind our back. And for sixteen hours, proceeded to take everything, from plush toys to kitchen magnets and lots of books.

I’m an author. I’ve written fiction. I’ve written lots of nonfiction. I’m an anarchist, so I’ve written lots of political works. So they not only grabbed all of my works, and they grabbed anything that they felt like grabbing from our pretty large library.

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: And they apparently took photos, as well, posters—

ELLIOT MADISON: Yeah.

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: —from the walls, one of Lenin and one of Curious George, apparently?

ELLIOT MADISON: Yes, yes, and they took Curious George stuffed animals. They took magnets from the refrigerator. They took a needlepoint of Lenin that my wife’s grandmother had made, a whole variety of bizarre things that they’ve taken. We don’t know everything they took, because the voucher we received is fairly vague. It will say something like “documents.” So, since the house was tossed, it’s hard to tell if the documents are just lost or if they’re, you know, seized at this point.

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: Martin Stolar?

MARTIN STOLAR: Well, I mean, the search was just extensive. And the problem with the search warrant, which actually asked for evidence that indicated that potentially there were violations of federal rioting laws, this is the same law that was used to prosecute the Chicago Eight following the Republican Convention in Chicago in 1968. Well, what would be evidence of violations of federal rioting laws is open to question. Anarchist literature? Fiction writings that Elliot has written? Pictures of Lenin? It’s completely vague.

And so, they rambled around and searched and pulled things. They’re not only from Elliot and his wife Elena’s property, but also there were other residents of the house who are living there who had their private property taken and swept up in this, including computers and discs of somebody who’s making a film, computers and discs of somebody who produced a weekly radio show, a computer that actually belonged to the United States government. One of the residents of the house was a contract employee for one of the federal agencies, and that computer was also taken.

So, in response to that, we immediately went to federal court to say, “Hey, wait a minute. You can’t take all this stuff. This is all sorts of private property that has nothing to do with the violation of federal rioting laws, and we want it back.” And we got a federal judge to say, “Maybe you have a point there. FBI, don’t examine the boxes that you seized. Hold on, until I can examine this and issue a further order of the court.” And so, that’s what she did. She stopped them from going through the boxes, stopped them from going through and indexing, cataloging and analyzing what had been seized at the house. And that’s on hold, pending further briefing in court and pending further order of the court, which will happen a week from Friday.

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: And Elliot, you spoke about how—the so-called Twitter revolution in Iran and how that was portrayed and condemned by the State Department in this country. I just want to go back to those days during the so-called green revolution in Iran and how the media in this country, the corporate media, the news networks, covered the use of Twitter in the protest. Let’s go to a clip of them.

FOX 11 ANCHOR: Iranians are turning to social media websites like Twitter and Facebook to tell their stories.


UNIDENTIFIED: Twitter.


MARTIN SAVIDGE: Twitter.


UNIDENTIFIED: Twitter.


HOWARD KURTZ: Has Twitter become the CNN of the masses?


KIRAN CHETRY: Here’s what some people have been tweeting about.


SCOTT HURLEY: Just type in “#iranelection.”


The US State Department actually asked the website to put off scheduled computer maintenance.


IAN KELLY: This is about the Iranian people. This is about the—getting their voices a chance to be heard.


ISHA SESAY: More and more tweets were appearing.


UNIDENTIFIED: Twitter.


KEITH OLBERMANN: A Twitter revolution.


BRIAN WILLIAMS: Is this the first true internet uprising?


RACHEL MADDOW: This revolution might not be televised, but it is definitely being tweeted.

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: Elliot Madison, some of the coverage back in summer of the Iranian uprising following the elections. Everyone’s supporting Twitter, the State Department actually asking Twitter not to—not to do an update. And now you’re being arrested for using Twitter. We’re not seeing the same kind of coverage. Your thoughts?

ELLIOT MADISON: Yeah, I think it’s a clear case where, you know, the government authorities act like government authorities in Moldova and China and Iran, where they like it when people have access to information, be it radio stations, newspapers, free press, in other countries, but they’re uncomfortable with it in their own country. And in this case, they decided to try to criminalize it.

And I think what’s very interesting in all these stories about me is that the Tin Can Communications Collective was one Twitter feed. I have found that there were at least twenty-four Twitter feeds going on, everywhere from the police to the G-20 to Ron Paul supporters. Everybody had their own Twitter feeds going on. They decided to criminalize me, I think, because of the fact that we were in solidarity with the protesters.

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: Well, Elliot Madison and Martin Stolar, I want to thank you very much for joining us. We’ll continue to follow this story.

American Gulag - Criminalizing Everyone

Image via Wikipedia

The U.S. Government is totally and completely out of control.

Brian W. Walsh
Washington Times
Criminalizing Everyone

"You don't need to know. You can't know." That's what Kathy Norris, a 60-year-old grandmother of eight, was told when she tried to ask court officials why, the day before, federal agents had subjected her home to a furious search.

The agents who spent half a day ransacking Mrs. Norris' longtime home in Spring, Texas, answered no questions while they emptied file cabinets, pulled books off shelves, rifled through drawers and closets, and threw the contents on the floor.

The six agents, wearing SWAT gear and carrying weapons, were with - get this- the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Kathy and George Norris lived under the specter of a covert government investigation for almost six months before the government unsealed a secret indictment and revealed why the Fish and Wildlife Service had treated their family home as if it were a training base for suspected terrorists. Orchids.

That's right. Orchids.

By March 2004, federal prosecutors were well on their way to turning 66-year-old retiree George Norris into an inmate in a federal penitentiary - based on his home-based business of cultivating, importing and selling orchids.

Mrs. Norris testified before the House Judiciary subcommittee on crime this summer. The hearing's topic: the rapid and dangerous expansion of federal criminal law, an expansion that is often unprincipled and highly partisan.

Chairman Robert C. Scott, Virginia Democrat, and ranking member Louie Gohmert, Texas Republican, conducted a truly bipartisan hearing (a D.C. rarity this year).

These two leaders have begun giving voice to the increasing number of experts who worry about "overcriminalization." Astronomical numbers of federal criminal laws lack specifics, can apply to almost anyone and fail to protect innocents by requiring substantial proof that an accused person acted with actual criminal intent.

Mr. Norris ended up spending almost two years in prison because he didn't have the proper paperwork for some of the many orchids he imported. The orchids were all legal - but Mr. Norris and the overseas shippers who had packaged the flowers had failed to properly navigate the many, often irrational, paperwork requirements the U.S. imposed when it implemented an arcane international treaty's new restrictions on trade in flowers and other flora.

The judge who sentenced Mr. Norris had some advice for him and his wife: "Life sometimes presents us with lemons." Their job was, yes, to "turn lemons into lemonade."

The judge apparently failed to appreciate how difficult it is to run a successful lemonade stand when you're an elderly diabetic with coronary complications, arthritis and Parkinson's disease serving time in a federal penitentiary. If only Mr. Norris had been a Libyan terrorist, maybe some European official at least would have weighed in on his behalf to secure a health-based mercy release.

Krister Evertson, another victim of overcriminalization, told Congress, "What I have experienced in these past years is something that should scare you and all Americans." He's right. Evertson, a small-time entrepreneur and inventor, faced two separate federal prosecutions stemming from his work trying to develop clean-energy fuel cells.

The feds prosecuted Mr. Evertson the first time for failing to put a federally mandated sticker on an otherwise lawful UPS package in which he shipped some of his supplies. A jury acquitted him, so the feds brought new charges. This time they claimed he technically had "abandoned" his fuel-cell materials - something he had no intention of doing - while defending himself against the first charges. Mr. Evertson, too, spent almost two years in federal prison.

As George Washington University law professor Stephen Saltzburg testified at the House hearing, cases like these "illustrate about as well as you can illustrate the overreach of federal criminal law." The Cato Institute's Timothy Lynch, an expert on overcriminalization, called for "a clean line between lawful conduct and unlawful conduct." A person should not be deemed a criminal unless that person "crossed over that line knowing what he or she was doing." Seems like common sense, but apparently it isn't to some federal officials.

Former U.S. Attorney General Richard Thornburgh's testimony captured the essence of the problems that worry so many criminal-law experts. "Those of us concerned about this subject," he testified, "share a common goal - to have criminal statutes that punish actual criminal acts and [that] do not seek to criminalize conduct that is better dealt with by the seeking of regulatory and civil remedies." Only when the conduct is sufficiently wrongful and severe, Mr. Thornburgh said, does it warrant the "stigma, public condemnation and potential deprivation of liberty that go along with [the criminal] sanction."

The Norrises' nightmare began with the search in October 2003. It didn't end until Mr. Norris was released from federal supervision in December 2008. His wife testified, however, that even after he came home, the man she had married was still gone. He was by then 71 years old. Unsurprisingly, serving two years as a federal convict - in addition to the years it took to defend unsuccessfully against the charges - had taken a severe toll on him mentally, emotionally and physically.

These are repressive consequences for an elderly man who made mistakes in a small business. The feds should be ashamed, and Mr. Evertson is right that everyone else should be scared. Far too many federal laws are far too broad.

Mr. Scott and Mr. Gohmert have set the stage for more hearings on why this places far too many Americans at risk of unjust punishment. Members of both parties in Congress should follow their lead.

Brian W. Walsh is senior legal research fellow in the Center for Legal and Judicial Studies at the Heritage Foundation.

http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/oct/05/criminalizing-everyone/

The Obama Effect - Americans Hoard Ammo

Image by mr.smashy via

Americans aren't just hoarding Ammo because they fear a Democratic crackdown on the 2nd Amendment. Americans clearly see that a total economic collapse in the U.S. is dead ahead.


Lewis Page
Ammo rationing at Wal-Mart as panic buying sweeps US

The USA is suffering the most severe ammunition famine in living memory. Gun fanciers, fearing a Democrat crackdown on every American's right to pack heat, are clearing shelves at ammo shops and hoarding cartridges.

AP reports that the Remington Arms Company's factory in North Carolina is now working around the clock trying to supply insatiable demand for rifle, pistol and shotgun cartridges.

"We've had to add a fourth shift and go 24-7," Remington spokesman Al Russo told the news wire. "It's a phenomenon that I have not seen before in my 30 years in the business."

The shortages are so bad that retail globocorp Wal-Mart has been forced to introduce rationing at the ammo counter in many of its stores. Depending on calibre, customers may be limited to purchases of just 50 rounds at a time. Apparently, classic .45 ACP pistol ammunition is especially scarce - a fairly good indication that it is in fact conservative Middle America rather than, say, inner-city criminals buying up all the ammo*.

According to the National Rifle Association, America's pro-guns lobby, the people of the USA normally buy about 7 billion cartridges a year (an average of 23 rounds per head). The past year has seen that figure jump to 9 billion. The FBI reports a 25 per cent climb in background checks made prior to gun sales.

The ammo rush has been dubbed the "Obama effect" by gun-industry people, but in fact there is no sign at present of any particularly aggressive move towards stricter federal gun laws.

Marc Faber – U S Dollars Will Be Worthless

Rupert Murdoch Declares War on Free Internet

Image via CrunchBase

Michael Wolff
It hasn’t been a good year for Murdoch—the largest publisher of newspapers in the worst year in newspaper history. His purchase of The Wall Street Journal is widely seen as one of the worst moves of his career—News Corp. has already taken a $3 billion write-down on the purchase. His beloved New York Post, always a money loser for him, is now suffering such great losses that Murdoch is considering a partnership with or even sale to the Daily News, the Post’s arch-enemy. His once highly profitable newspaper groups in the U.K. and Australia are faltering. News Corp.’s share price has been among the hardest hit of any major media company.

And yet, Murdoch, at 78, would double-down in a heartbeat: he strategizes constantly about how he might buy The New York Times. But first he might have to save the newspaper business itself. As it happens, he, unlike almost everyone else in the business, believes newspapers are suffering not at the hands of technological forces beyond their control but at the hands of proprietors who are weaker than he is.

After fulminating for a year about how people on the Internet should pay for news, he made it official. Announcing in August the biggest losses his company has ever sustained, he added that he’d had enough and if people wanted to read his newspapers they could bloody well pay for them.

I should say I am not a neutral party here. Two years ago, I helped found Newser, a news aggregator that summarizes the stories of other news providers, which, along with the Huffington Post, the Daily Beast, and Google News, has become a focus of the print world’s antipathy. (When I tried to explain Newser to Murdoch, he said, “So you steal from me.”)
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Saudis, Russians Deny Secret Dollar Move

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The story being denied entitled "The demise of the dollar" is by Robert Fisk in today's (UK) Independent, who refers to "plans, confirmed to The Independent by both Gulf Arab and Chinese banking sources in Hong Kong." It claims that, "in a graphic illustration of the new world order, Arab states have launched secret moves with China, Russia and France to stop using the US currency for oil trading."

The Independent also publishes a leading editorial today:
The end of the dollar spells the rise of a new order

Tuesday, 6 October 2009
Last autumn's global financial crisis set off an economic earthquake. And we are still feeling the tremors. The latest sign of the ground shifting beneath our feet is our report today of plans by Gulf states, China, Russia, France and Japan to end their practice of conducting oil deals in US dollars, switching instead to a diverse basket of currencies.

It is not hard to see the motivation for oil exporters to move away from the dollar. The value of the US currency has fallen sharply since last year's meltdown. And fears are growing, in the light of a spiralling US government deficit, that a further depreciation is likely. They do not want to sell their wares in return for a currency with an uncertain future.

Denials

Saudi central bank: report on replacing dollar is wrong
October 6, 2009
Reuters - A newspaper report that Gulf Arab states are in secret talks to replace the U.S. dollar in the trading of oil is wrong, Saudi Arabia's central bank chief said on Tuesday. Asked by reporters about the story in Britain's The Independent, Muhammad al-Jasser said: "Absolutely incorrect." Asked whether Saudi Arabia was in such talks, he replied: "Absolutely not." Asked whether Saudi Arabia was committed to the dollar, he said: "You asked the question, I answered it. You asked about the story."

Russia: hasn't discussed changing dollar role in oil
Tue Oct 6, 2009
Reuters - Russia has not discussed changing the dollar's role in the global trade of oil, deputy Russian finance minister Dmitry Pankin said on Tuesday. "We did not discuss this at all," he told reporters. Pankin was asked by reporters about a story in Britain's The Independent newspaper, which quoted unidentified sources as saying Gulf Arab states were in secret talks with Russia, China, Japan and France to replace the U.S. dollar with a basket of currencies in the trading of oil.
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"These plans will change the face of international financial transactions," one Chinese banker said. "America and Britain must be very worried. You will know how worried by the thunder of denials this news will generate." --From Robert Fisk's original story in the Independent

Obscene Homeless dolls sell for $95 each - hairstyling extra

The literal spoils of a growing class war. It doesn't get much more Freudian than this. The children of those who "have" play with hundred dollar homeless dolls representing those who have nothing. How much more alienated can you get to the plight of the homeless?

Andrea Peyser with the NYPost reports:

Meet Gwen Thompson, the newest addition to the American Girl canon of dolls -- the wildly successful, extremely expensive brand of faux children that are sold out of a four-story town house in the heart of Fifth Avenue.

Little children as young as 4 are addicted to these pricey little monsters. It's like middle-American crack. You have an African-American doll, an American Indian doll. A Jewish one. A doll who "lived" during the Great Depression, and one from the Roaring '20s. And while you were snoozing, the creators of American Girl, which is sold by Mattel, got bold. They engaged in all-out political indoctrination.

Snuck into the collection is a doll that comes with a biography that is weird and potentially offensive enough to keep Mom running to the Maalox. Gwen, you see, is harboring a terrible secret.

She is homeless. A homeless doll.

In the history books that come with every American Girl doll -- bringing to life these little monsters until impressionable little ones believe they are actual people -- you learn that Gwen's father walked out on the family. Her mother lost her job. As the little kiddies learn to read about this doll as if she's a human being, one learns that, as fall turned into winter, Gwen's mom lost her grip.

Mother and daughter started bedding down in a car. For $95 -- more than your average homeless person would dream of spending on a rather mediocre baby substitute -- Gwen Thompson can be yours. A mixed message if ever there was one....you can have your doll's hair done for $20!

TARP Tracker Barofsky Sees Danger Ahead

Neil Barofsky is the man who tracks the historic bailout known as the Troubled Asset Relief Program or TARP. Named in December, the 39-year-old special inspector general monitors a dozen separate bailout-related programs, which now account for nearly $3 trillion in financial commitments.

Barofsky has subpoena power and, as a former federal prosecutor who successfully pursued white-collar crime, he has wasted no time in demanding details from institutions rescued by TARP. From a floor of office on L Street, the man known as SIGTARP has launched about two dozen investigations.

In an audit released in July, Barofsky made clear that he was intent on demanding transparency from all quarters - including the U.S. Treasury. His next audit is due in October. In a half-hour interview with the Investigative Fund, Barofsky lays out the breadth of his work and is blunt in his assessment about whether the financial system, now with fewer and bigger banks, is yet safe. "I think we may be in a far more dangerous place today than we were a year ago," he said.

Mysterious Private Security Firm Saga Continues

Channel 8 in Billings, Montana, reports:
On Sunday morning, there were some visible changes to California-based security company American Police Force's website. What previously read "American Police Force" now uses the company's formal name "American Private Police Force."

Another notable change is the company's crest. The previous crest was a near copy of the Serbian Coat of Arms. On Friday, KULR-8 news first reported the Serbian government was looking into possible legal action against APF for using the crest.

The group's leader, Capt. Michael Hilton said the crest was a family emblem and he used it to honor his grandfather. APF Spokeswoman Becky Shay said she is not aware of any lawsuit from the consulate and Hilton made the change as, "the quickest thing he could to diffuse tension" with the old logo. She would not elaborate on exactly what those tensions were.

Along with changes to the company's image come changes to the potential contract with Hardin's economic development group Two Rivers Authority. Spokesman Al Peterson said board members will meet Monday afternoon to discuss the contract, which was recently looked over by an independent tax expert. Peterson said some of the language has been changed to ensure the bond, held by U.S. Bank, remains tax exempt.

If TRA board members approve the contract, it will still need to be approved by APF and U.S. Bank. Peterson added that the bond is a revenue bond; meaning residents of Hardin will never be responsible for paying it back. It can only be paid for by income from the Hardin Jail itself.

Monday's meeting will be open to the public, but it is up to the group's president to determine if there will be a public comment period. The meeting will start at 3:00 p.m. It is held at Hardin's City Hall. Shay said if TRA approves the contract, APF will move quickly to sign off as well.

On September 30, Justin Elliott with TPMMuckraker reported:

Mysterious Private Security Firm Gets Control Of Empty Jail In Small Montana Town

A shadowy private security company that has no known clients but claims to have helped foreign governments combat terrorism and will protect anything from cruise ships to Pakistani convoys has taken over a jail in a small Montana town, with plans to build a law enforcement training facility on the property.

The state legislature is looking into the matter and residents of Hardin, MT, were alarmed last week when executives from the firm, American Police Force, showed up in the town, which does not have its own police department, with Mercedes SUVs bearing "City Of Hardin Police Department" decals.

And the town has had to tamp down reports on conspiracy Web sites that APF plans to impose experimental H1N1 vaccines on residents under threat of quarantine in the jail.

Under a lease signed with Hardin, APF, based in Santa Ana, California, and incorporated just six months ago, is now in control of a 400-bed detention facility the town built a few years ago but never used, a town official confirmed to TPMmuckraker today. The town reportedly stands to make over $2 million per year.

Just what American Police Force plans to do with the detention facility, which comes with 50 acres of land in the small south-central Montana town, is unclear. Also not clear is who, if anyone, APF plans to put in the jail. (Watch a video tour of the jail here.)

Hardin, which is in default on the bonds it used to build the jail, recently undertook an unsuccessful campaign to make the jail a new home for Gitmo detainees. When that failed, the town turned to APF

The 10-year contract that is now awaiting final approval of lawyers gives APF the option of building a training facility, said Al Peterson, spokesman for the Hardin economic development authority. APF has said it plans to invest $30 million in the site, including $17M in the training facility, where law enforcement will get sniper training and learn "DNA analysis" skills.

And where is American Police Force getting the money for this venture? Company spokeswoman Becky Shay -- until about a week ago the Billings Gazette reporter covering APF -- says they are no plans to answer that question. She did not respond to a request for comment.

The matter has attracted the attention of the Montana state legislature, which is seeking more information about the arrangement between Hardin and APF. The committee that deals with legal matters will send a letter to Hardin officials to get more details on the deal, Representative Bob Ebinger (D) tells TPMmuckraker.

"Because of the apparent secretiveness of this, it gives the far right and far left to come up with all kinds of ideas. That's why I'd like to see some clarification," Ebinger says.

Peterson, the Hardin official, says the controversy sparked last week when APF executives appeared in black SUVs marked "City Of Hardin Police Department" was a misunderstanding of an act of goodwill by the company. The decals were taken off within the day, he says.

Peterson hopes lawyers will approve the contract by next week, and at that point, a press conference is planned and the contract will be made available. Asked if he knew about the background of APF and what they do, Peterson replied: "No comment."

Visitors to APF's Blackwater-esque Web site listen to Ravel's Boléro and peruse a menu of services that include: harbor patrol threat interdiction, interdicting terror activity, interdicting weapons of mass destruction, international airline security, cheating spouse investigations, polygraph testing, kidnapping response, weapons sales including "Nuclear/Biological/Chemical (WMD)," and, finally, private investigative services that draw on "vast global network of highly ranked officers and government officials."

APF's double-headed eagle coat of arms appears to be the same as Serbia's Prince Aleksandar Karageorgevich, Raw Story points out. And the AP reported that a lawyer for APF describes the firm as "a fledgling spin-off of a major security firm founded in 1984."

Late Update: Yet another strange development: This page on APF's Web site brags about "our extensive tactical firearms training facility, the U.S. Training Center." But the U.S. Training Center is part of Xe, nee Blackwater. And Xe spokeswoman Stacy DeLuke told us there is no affiliation between Xe and APF.