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Tis the season . . .

Looking for someone to blame? Congress is a good place to start!

By Charley Reese

(This column originally ran in the Orlando Sentinel on March 7, 1995. Former columnist Charley Reese retired from the Sentinel 10 years ago. His final column ran on July 29, 2001.)

Politicians, as I have often said, are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them.

Everything on the Republican contract is a problem created by Congress. Too much bureaucracy? Blame Congress. Too many rules? Blame Congress. Unjust tax laws? Congress wrote them. Out-of-control bureaucracy? Congress authorizes everything bureaucracies do. Americans dying in Third World rat holes on stupid U.N. missions? Congress allows it. The annual deficits? Congress votes for them. The $4 trillion plus debt? Congress created it.

To put it into perspective just remember that 100 percent of the power of the federal government comes from the U.S. Constitution. If it's not in the Constitution, it's not authorized.

Then read your Constitution. All 100 percent of the power of the federal government is invested solely in 545 individual human beings. That's all. Of 260 million Americans, only 545 of them wield 100 percent of the power of the federal government.

That's 435 members of the U.S. House, 100 senators, one president and nine Supreme Court justices. Anything involving government that is wrong is 100 percent their fault.

I exclude the vice president because constitutionally he has no power except to preside over the Senate and to vote only in the case of a tie. I exclude the Federal Reserve because Congress created it and all its power is power Congress delegated to it and could withdraw anytime it chooses to do so. In fact, all the power exercised by the 3 million or so other federal employees is power delegated from the 545.

All bureaucracies are created by Congress or by executive order of the president. All are financed and staffed by Congress. All enforce laws passed by Congress. All operate under procedures authorized by Congress. That's why all complaints and protests should be properly directed at Congress, not at the individual agencies.

You don't like the IRS? Go see Congress. You think the Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms agency is running amok? Go see Congress. Congress is the originator of all government problems and is also the only remedy available. That's why, of course, politicians go to such extraordinary lengths and employ world-class sophistry to make you think they are not responsible. Anytime a congressman pretends to be outraged by something a federal bureaucrat does, he is in fact engaging in one big massive con job. No federal employee can act at all except to enforce laws passed by Congress and to employ procedures authorized by Congress either explicitly or implicitly.

Partisans on both sides like to blame presidents for deficits, but all deficits are congressional deficits. The president may, by custom, recommend a budget, but it carries no legal weight. Only Congress is authorized by the Constitution to authorize and appropriate and to levy taxes. That's what the federal budget consists of: expenditures authorized, funds appropriated and taxes levied.

Both Democrats and Republicans mislead the public. For 40 years Democrats had majorities and could have at any time balanced the budget if they had chosen to do so. Republicans now have majorities and could, if they choose, pass a balanced budget this year. Every president, Democrat or Republican, could have vetoed appropriations bills that did not make up a balanced budget. Every president could have recommended a balanced budget. None has done either.

We have annual deficits and a huge federal debt because that's what majorities in Congress and presidents in the White House wanted. We have troops in various Third World rat holes because Congress and the president want them there.

Don't be conned. Don't let them escape responsibility. We simply have to sort through 260 million people until we find 545 who will act responsibly.


Reposted from http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2011-07-11/news/os-ed-charley-reese-545-column-07111120110711_1_congress-votes-deficits-bureaucracy

Save Yourselves by theozarker

Look away! Look away! (Photo credit: Norm Walsh)

August 25, 2012

This week, in politics here, President Obama has apparently put pressure on the Eurozone not to boot Greece out before the November elections, lest the effect on our markets make the prez look bad and hurt his chances of reelection.  http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/obama-asks-eurozone-to-keep-greece-in-until-after-election-day-8076852.html

And as Obama and David Cameron warned Syria of interventions if they brought out the chemical weapons in their civil war, Vladamir Putin warned them, again, not to interfere in Syria.

While all of this smacks of the political gamesmanship and hubris typical of imperial leaders and will probably be about as effective in actually changing anything for the better as King Canute commanding the tides not to rise, for sheer unadulterated crazy, the Republicans won hands down this week.

In Texas an elected Republican judge of Lubbock county worried on a local radio interview that if Obama was reelected we might have civil war.

"He’s going to try to hand over the sovereignty of the United States to the U.N., and what is going to happen when that happens?"[ Judge] Head said. "I’m thinking the worst. Civil unrest, civil disobedience, civil war maybe. And we’re not just talking a few riots here and demonstrations. We’re talking Lexington, Concord, take up arms and get rid of the guy."

"Now what’s going to happen if we do that, if the public decides to do that? He’s going to send in U.N. troops. I don’t want ’em in Lubbock County. OK. So I’m going to stand in front of their armored personnel carrier and say, 'You’re not coming in here'." http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/08/24/13458896-weird-week-in-lubbock-judges-civil-war-comments-make-republicans-cringe?lite

Meanwhile, here in Missouri, our own Republican crazy, Todd Akin, is still hopping around on one foot trying to get the other foot out of his mouth, after his insulting and inaccurate remarks about women who have been “legitimately” raped being able to shut down their bodies to prevent pregnancy.  (Yes, I know, all you dear fundamentalist Christians who still support him, the man merely misspoke and has asked our forgiveness. I don’t care.  He’s still an idiot.)

And the RNC is looking forward to a great convention in Tampa next week in spite of the fact that the convention center where it will be held is right on the gulf only six feet above sea level and tropical storm Issac is expected to turn into a category one hurricane before hitting Tampa either full on or with a hefty glancing blow. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/23/republican-convention-hurricane-preparation_n_1826533.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular

“[Republican Governor Rick]Scott partially activated the state Emergency Operations Center. “Obviously, we are hoping Isaac doesn’t hit Florida, but we must take every precaution,” Scott said in a statement Thursday evening. “That’s what we’re doing on a state level, and it’s what everyone should be doing on a family and personal level. If you haven’t already, get prepared and get a plan.”

The warnings offer little comfort to the more than 50,000 visitors expected in Tampa beginning Sunday for the four-day convention, which runs from Monday to Thursday.

"Monday are Tuesday are definitely in jeopardy," said meteorologist Bill Karins on MSNBC Thursday. "I don't see any way possible that Tampa's going to be completely missed at this point."”

So, there you are.  To which I say, “Go ahead on, you crazy bastards.  There’s nothing to perk up a slow news day like the image of some nutty politician being flattened by a UN personnel carrier, an irate rape victim or a hurricane.”

Yes, I’m tired to death of all the slick, sick politicians with their imperial schemes and crazy ideological fantasies.  Not a one of them has the intestinal fortitude to tell the American people that the American Dream they prattle on about is deader than the proverbial doornail.  We have allowed them to murder it with ideology, cronyism and greed and we, like the unlucky Floridians in Tampa, are facing a hurricane – this one of our own making.

The global economies, including our own, continue to wobble and weave as the whole system slides toward a new, lower energy state.  The financial world bobs up and down, grabbing onto every word from our own Fed and the other central banks like the kitten in the “hang in there, baby” poster. Our bought politicians promise us energy independence and a return to greatness, knowing full well that all of the oil and oil precursors that we can scavenge from the last places on earth will leave us nowhere near the energy levels we had at our own peak back in the early seventies.  And that,  as energy demand rises yearly in the developing world while the giant oil fields level out and decline, not even our “one hundred years” of gas and coal will save us.

All the while, the glaciers and ice sheets melt, our coastal sea levels rise, our forests and grasses burn and our bread basket and those around the world crumble to dust under increasingly harsh droughts.  Food prices are rising, leaving  billions around the world at the mercy of commodities traders who don’t give a damn whether those billions starve or not as long as they make money.

Apparently, the only man in America with the guts to tell the truth, this week, was the psychopath in charge of agriculture commodities trading at Glencore, the world’s largest commodities trader.http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/politics/well-make-a-killing-out-of-food-crisis-glencore-trading-boss-chris-mahoney-boasts-8073806.html

Glencore's director of agriculture trading, Chris Mahoney, sparked the controversy when he said: "The environment is a good one. High prices, lots of volatility, a lot of dislocation, tightness, a lot of arbitrage opportunities.

"We will be able to provide the world with solutions... and that should also be good for Glencore."

Read between the lines, folks.  Whoever wins the election in November, whatever they promise, do you honestly believe that, when our turn comes to pay to play, these people will worry about saving us over saving themselves?

The main purpose of this blog has been to let people know that we are already on the path of the next leg down on our long descent toward collapse and to urge people to prepare every way you can for that.  The window for preparing is closing.

Our political system has been corrupted beyond repair by both parties.  Our courts have sold our political system to the highest bidders.  The corporate and financial PACS and the politicians they have bought will tell you the most outrageous things, promise you the most outrageous things and do the most outrageous things – not for our benefit, but for theirs – in their drive to get or retain power.

They will not only stand by and watch the world burn, drown or starve to keep their power, they will do anything to profit from those atrocities to maintain the wealth that buys that power and tell you it is necessary in a “free market” system.

Do not let the politicians hornswoggle you.  Whoever gains power this November, we are on our own.  Whatever they do to address the problems we face will be the minimum they have to do to maintain their power and status and will be at a price – financial, political or military – most of us would not be willing to pay.

We must get prepared - personally, locally and regionally - and stand together however much they try to drive us apart.  If you are not prepared, read through the sections at the top of this blog.  Read through the blogs at the blog rolls to see how others are doing it. Look at your own lives, your families, your neighbors; be honest about both the strengths and weaknesses.  Use the strengths and work at the weaknesses, but get prepared, now.

The plotters and their manipulations get more desperate; the loonies get more strident; the black swans circle the lake for a landing.  Now is the time.  SAVE YOURSELVES.

 

theozarker | August 25, 2012 at 1:28 pm | Tags: Climate change, collapse, current events, Peak oil, Politics, self sufficiency, the financial system, World economy | Categories: Uncategorized | URL: http://wp.me/pUh1L-GY

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Help the Lakota Sioux Save Their Sacred Black Hills Land! -- TAKE ACTION!!

Why this is important

Pe' Sla is an area in the Black Hills of South Dakota (just west of Rapid City, South Dakota, United States) that is considered by the Lakota Sioux people to be the Center and heart of everything that is. It is part of our creation story, a sacred place. We perform certain ceremonies at Pe' Sla which sustain the Lakota way of life and keep the universe in harmony. But almost 2,000 acres of Pe' Sla is privately owned and could be auctioned off on August 25, 2012 to the highest bidder.

The seven bands of the Lakota/Dakota/Nakota Oyate (people) aka Oceti Sakowin (Great Sioux Nation) have a collective effort to buy as much of Pe'Sla as we can at this auction (although we also believe that the land cannot be owned and that our sacred places were illegally taken by the United States). Yet we are trying to work within the current U.S. laws to regain custody of our sacred sites and prevent future road and industrial development.

Our sacred ways must be protected and passed on to our future generations so that our children may live. This area of the Paha Sapa (Black Hills) is also home to many plants and animals who should also be protected. In fact, many consider that the area should possibly be a historical site, which would also assist in protecting it from future development as well. As Lakota people, our ancestors prayed here, at Pe' Sla, at certain times of year, when the stars aligned. We cannot go elsewhere to pray. We were meant to pray here.

We have a group of young professional Native people that are dedicated to the promotion of education, health, leadership, and sovereignity among our indigenous Nations. Our goal is to assist in any way possible the purchase of Pe' Sla by a collective effort of the seven bands of the Oceti Sakowin (Great Sioux Nation) - the Lakota/Dakota/Nakota people. All proceeds from this campaign will go towards that effort. This area would be open to tribal nations for ceremonial purposes. The plants, animals, water, and air in the area would be respected and honored.

For more information please visit:

http://www.indiegogo.com/PeSla-LakotaHeartland

http://www.lastrealindians.com/2012/08/10/for-immediate-release-pe-sla-the-heart-of-all-that-is-help-save-the-lakota-heart-land/

We are hoping to buy as much of the land that is being put up for auction as possible. The total amount of land is 1,942.66 acres which is in 5 tracts (300 - 440 acres each). It is diffcult to say how much this land would be sold for as developers may increase the true western "value". The Rosebud Sioux Tribe has designated $50,000 for the purpose of purchasing Pe' Sla land. By contributing to the effort of all the Sioux Tribes, we aim to purchase at least some of the tracts, if not all. Many of the Sioux Tribes continue to exist in poverty and do not have a thriving casino-based economy as the media may have portrayed. Yet we continue to fight for what is sacred, because it matters!

"Let us put our minds together and see what life we can make for our children." Chief Sitting Bull, 1877

PLEASE SIGN HERE!

This is my body (Not yours)!

A video originally posted on Vimeo shows several women speaking on behalf of their bodies and their lives. The campaign is asking other women to contribute their own monologues. Each women declares, in turn "This is my body, not yours," as they speak out against measures being taken to strip women of basic human rights. The video portrays women of all colors and backgrounds, each speaking about their control of their own lives and bodies . . .

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/ThisIsMyBody

My Finances

July 10, 2012

An Explanation from Mitt Romney

NEW YORK (The Borowitz Report) – Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney today released this letter to the American people:

Dear American Person:

As many of you know, in recent days my opponent has spread the rumors that 1.) I have refused to make my tax returns public and 2.) I have hidden my money in bank accounts in Switzerland and the Caymans.  These two rumors, while true, have made me look very bad.  So I thought I would take this opportunity to explain my finances in terms even a poor person could understand.

Let’s say you met the love of your life, and you wrote her a series of passionate love letters.  In these letters, you told her how you intended to protect her, cherish her, and always keep her safe.  And then let’s say somebody went and told you that you had to make those love letters available for the world to see.  If you’re even half the man I am, you’d say, “Heck no.”

Well, in my case, the love of my life is my money.  (If you don't believe me, ask Ann.)  And my tax returns are like my love letters to my money, detailing the lengths to which I’ll go to keep my precious money from being taken away from me.  If you think I should make those love letters public, then I’m sorry, my friend, but you don’t believe in love.

Now, let’s say you asked the love of your life to marry you, and you’re fortunate enough that she said “yes.”  Should someone be able to force you to spend your honeymoon in a ratty room at some Motel 6, where God knows what crackheads and whores slept before you?  Or should you be allowed to take your bride to a five-star Swiss chateau, perhaps, or an exclusive beach on Grand Cayman?  I think you can see where I’m going with this.

In conclusion: if refusing to release my tax returns and having foreign bank accounts is wrong, I don’t want to be right.  I did it all for love.  And as your President, I promise I will never, ever come between you and the thing you love.  Unless you’re gay.  (Laughing Out Loud.)

Vote for Me,

Mitt Romney

Get a free subscription to the Borowitz Report here.

Our War Dead and the Dead of Our Wars

 

May 26, 2012

This is Memorial Day weekend, a time when we Americans remember our dead – especially our war dead. And in this decade-plus of perpetual war, which started with a terrorist act (not an act of war) that killed nearly 3,000 civilians here, another 6,500 American military personnel have died in our two wars. Add to that the journalists, NGOs and other American civilians who have died in Afghanistan and Iraq, we have lost around 10,000 Americans to these wars. That’s a lot of deaths to remember this Memorial Day.

However, that is not the extent of the dead of our wars. Although we do not remember the deaths of enemy military on our memorial day, we might do well to at least remember the civilian deaths, since it was our own civilian deaths on 9/11 that were used to justified the two wars we were in for most of this decade. Estimates on Iraqi civilian deaths range from 68,000 to 100,000; add to that an estimated 4,000 civilian deaths in Afghanistan and, with our drone campaigns, in Pakistan and Yemen. These may not be “our” war dead, but they are most certainly the dead of our wars. And, like our own civilians on 9/11, they did not ask for what happened to them; they were ordinary mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers and children living ordinary lives when they were attacked. We do not know the exact numbers of these dead (as we do our own) for they are the collateral damage – the two most disgusting words in the English language, as far as I’m concerned – about whom General Tommy Franks famously said, “We don’t do body counts.” Yet their loss has caused the same anguish to their loved ones and friends that our dead have caused us.

So, why would I feel it important to remember these dead of our wars on our day of remembrance for our war dead? 

First, because they are fellow human beings and there is a grave danger to our own humanity when we dismiss them, as our government would, as collateral damage. I’m convinced that a good part of our own internal strife over these wars comes from our unwillingness to come to grips with this. Look deeply into the eyes of our returning combat veterans and you will see this same strife, even in those who deeply believed in these wars. This is the human cost of war – not only to our “enemies”, but to ourselves.

Second, even as we remember our own dead from these wars, the Empire is fully ready to go on to the next war with Iran. We have surrounded that unlucky country with military bases over the last few years, filled the Arabian Gulf with warships and shipped billions of dollars of new arms to Israel even though Iran has not attacked us, does not have one single nuclear bomb and does not have the means to deliver it, if they were capable of building one in the next few years. Yet, with all our angst about being “dragged” into war once again, we ordinary Americans never stop to ask ourselves how it is, that an Empire that is truly unwilling could be dragged anywhere.

Why? Because we cannot, will not, see these dead of our wars in the same way we see our war dead – fellow human beings, brothers, sisters, family. And until we do, we will be constantly propagandized to send our own into the meat grinder of the dying Empire’s wars. The toll of our war dead will go ever higher, as will the dead of our wars across the world. The human cost of war will continue to rise as the financial costs mount until –perhaps with this next war – the Empire  finally collapses and we, too,  have become the dead of our wars. Who will be left to mourn our war dead, then?

[Reposted from original article:  Our War Dead and the Dead of Our Wars]

 

Save the Internet - the pressure is working!

Update: 22 January 2012

US Senate leaders are backing away from a vote this week! But they're refusing to kill the bill, hoping our pressure will die down. Let's show them they're wrong.

Posted: 18 January 2012
Today could be the day we save the free Internet.

The US Congress was poised to pass a law allowing the US to censor access to any website around the world. But after we delivered our 1.25 million strong petition to the White House, it came out against the bill and with public pressure at boiling point even some bill backers are switching sides. Now, the Wikipedia led blackout protest has rocketed the public campaign to the top of the news.

We are turning the tide. But the dark forces of censorship are trying to revive the bill right now. Let’s bury it for good today. Sign this emergency petition to save the Internet now and if you've signed already, scroll down to contact politicians and companies pushing for censorship and tell them to drop the bill. Then send this to everyone.

Let’s tell the bill's supporters to kill the bill!

Stop Internet Censorship -- TAKE ACTION!

Stop internet censorship!

CREDO is joining hundreds of organizations in a one-day strike against internet censorship. We're doing this because the Senate is poised to vote on a bill that would end the internet as we know it.

If it passes, the "Protect IP Act" (and its companion bill in the House, "SOPA") could put people in jail for uploading a video to YouTube and would severely limit our right to free speech.

This bill has been rushed through Congress because big corporate interests like Comcast, Pfizer, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce have spent millions of dollars lobbying for this censoring legislation.¹

This legislation gives corporations and the government the ability to determine what information you can consume on the internet -- a dangerous practice which, when committed by the Chinese and Iranian governments, is denounced by the American people and almost all of our elected representatives.

Internet companies including Google, Mozilla, Facebook, and Twitter, say that "the bills as drafted would expose law-abiding U.S. internet and technology companies to new uncertain liabilities, private rights of action, and technology mandates that would require monitoring of web sites."²

Right now, only a small number of Democratic senators are standing up to corporate interests and voicing opposition to the bill. And the only way we can stop this outright attack on the free internet is to have more senators commit to vote against the legislation. No matter whether your senators are Republicans or Democrats, it is important that you urge them to take a stand for internet freedom.

We need your senators to come out in opposition to this bill and vote against internet censorship.

Tell your senators to protect our free and open internet and oppose the Protect IP Act.

1."Five things to know about SOPA," The Washington Post, 11-16-2011.
2. "Mozilla Fights for the Internet's Future," Mozilla Blog, 11-15-2011.