Now, we learn the details of a connection of Rahm Emanuel, the Chicago mayoral wannabe, current Obama chief of staff, ex-representative, ex-Clinton money man and ex-Windy City political machine go-fer.
Shortly after Obama’s happy inaugural, eyebrows rose slightly upon word that, as a House member, Emanuel had lived the last five years rent-free in a D.C. apartment of Democratic colleague Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut and her husband, Stanley Greenberg.
For an ordinary American, that would likely raise some obvious tax liability questions. But like Emanuel, the guy overseeing the IRS now is another Obama insider, Tim Geithner, who had his own outstanding tax problems but skated through confirmation anyway by the Democratic-controlled Congress. …
Greenberg’s consulting firm was a prime architect of BP’s recent rebranding drive as a green petroleum company, down to green signs and the slogan “Beyond Petroleum.”
Greenberg’s company is also closely tied to a sister Democratic outfit — GCS, named for the last initials of Greenberg, James Carville, another Clinton advisor, and Bob Shrum, John Kerry’s 2004 campaign manager.
According to published reports, GCS received hundreds of thousands of dollars in political polling contracts in recent years from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
Probably just a crazy coincidence. But you’ll never guess who was the chairman of that Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee dispensing those huge polling contracts to his kindly rent-free landlord.
Mili Note: How can you read this article with a straight face? The sad part is that the people who made this ridiculous law are actually serious about it. I think when they try to bring in the militia, the local left-wing protest group, or whatever, they’re going to be in for a rude awakening. Make it against the law and people will stop being anti-government. Right?
Five-dollar registration fee for persons planning to overthrow US government
Terrorists who want to overthrow the United States government must now register with South Carolina’s Secretary of State and declare their intentions — or face a $25,000 fine and up to 10 years in prison.
The state’s “Subversive Activities Registration Act,” passed last year and now officially on the books, states that “every member of a subversive organization, or an organization subject to foreign control, every foreign agent and every person who advocates, teaches, advises or practices the duty, necessity or propriety of controlling, conducting, seizing or overthrowing the government of the United States … shall register with the Secretary of State.”
There’s even a $5 filing fee.
By “subversive organization,” the law means “every corporation, society, association, camp, group, bund, political party, assembly, body or organization, composed of two or more persons, which directly or indirectly advocates, advises, teaches or practices the duty, necessity or propriety of controlling, conducting, seizing or overthrowing the government of the United States [or] of this State.”
A PDF of the registration form can be found here, courtesy of FitsNews.
The law also gives subversive organizations “subject to foreign control” 30 days to register with the state after setting up shop in South Carolina.
While the intention of the law is apparently aimed at Islamic terrorists, it’s unclear in the law’s wording whether it can be applied to right-wing militias, some of whom have reputedly called for the overthrow of the US government. The law states that “fraternal” and “patriotic” groups are exempt from the law, but only if they don’t “contemplate the overthrow of the government.”
While the law is clearly redundant — there are plenty of statutes at the state and federal level through which terrorists can be prosecuted — it reflects a not-uncommon pattern in some states of “doubling down” against particular crimes.
For instance, South Carolina is among those states which require drug dealers to declare their illegal income, or face additional criminal penalties on top of the already established penalties for buying, possessing and selling drugs.
The South Carolina blog FitsNews describes the new law as “bureaucracy for terrorists.”
“In the long and storied history of utterly retarded legislation in South Carolina, we may have finally found the legal statute that takes the cake for sheer stupidity, which we think you’ll agree is saying something,” the unsigned blog posting scathingly commented.
In Patrick Henry’s immortal “Give Me Liberty Or Give Me Death” speech, he said, “[I]t is natural to man to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth.” Never have Henry’s words been truer than they are today. For too long, good men have turned a blind eye to the obvious reality that America’s Ship of State has swerved significantly off course. In fact, it is no hyperbole to say that America’s Ship of State is completely rudderless and, absent a speedy course correction, seems destined to crash against the rocks of oppression and economic ruin in the very near future. For anyone willing to open their eyes, the manifestations of America’s almost-certain collision with history are everywhere.
America’s Liberty Ship is dependent upon the twin mainsails of Morality and Constitutional Government to stay on course. It is an irrefutable and irreversible law that these twin sails are indissolubly linked. We cannot have one without the other. America’s founders clearly understood this.
For example, our second President, John Adams, said, “We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
Samuel Adams (called the “Father of the American Revolution”) said, “He therefore is the truest friend to the liberty of this country who tries most to promote its virtue, and who, so far as his power and influence extend, will not suffer a man to be chosen into any office of power and trust who is not a wise and virtuous man . . . The sum of all is, if we would most truly enjoy this gift of Heaven, let us become a virtuous people.”
Thomas Jefferson (the author of the Declaration of Independence and our third President) said, “Self-love . . . is the sole antagonist of virtue, leading us constantly by our propensities to self-gratification in violation of our moral duties to others.”
Jefferson also said, “[If a] people [are] so demoralized and depraved as to be incapable of exercising a wholesome control, their reformation [must] be taken up ab incunabulis [from the beginning]. Their minds [must] be informed by education what is right and what wrong, [must] be encouraged in habits of virtue and deterred from those of vice by the dread of punishments, proportioned indeed, but irremissible; in all cases, to follow truth as the only safe guide, and to eschew error, which bewilders us in one false consequence after another in endless succession. These are the inculcations necessary to render the people a sure basis for the structure of order and good government.”
Our first President, George Washington (called the “Father of his Country”), said, “Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, Religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of Patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great Pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of Men and Citizens.”
And to quote Patrick Henry again, “Bad men cannot make good citizens . . . A vitiated state of morals, a corrupted public conscience, is incompatible with freedom.”
Yet, what do we see taking place all over America–including in the halls of government, the boardrooms of business, and the sanctuaries of churches? An almost complete and total breakdown of morality. And by a breakdown of morality, I am referring to much more than sexual immorality.
Morality demands honesty and equity in judgment. Morality is selfless. Morality is humble. Morality is jealous over truth and justice. Morality would never jeopardize the future on the altar of the present. Morality does not place personal advancement above principle. Morality respects its heritage and honors its ancestors. And Morality gladly submits to lawful authority, especially divine authority.
But compare basic morality to the modus operandi of today’s governments, businesses, and churches. Instead of truth and moral principles, we find people who are almost totally absorbed by a culture of deceit, selfishness, ambition, and greed. Rightly does the Scripture say, “The love of money is the root of all evil.” (I Timothy 6:10) Of more than one church or nonprofit ministry leader could it be said, “He doesn’t let his Christianity get in the way of his business.” Ditto for many so-called Christian businessmen and politicians. In fact, a good many religious leaders and churchmen today would not take a backseat to the most greedy, corrupt politician, or shady businessman that could be found.
Sunday-by-Sunday, pastors prostitute themselves to wealthy contributors, community leaders, or politicians. Day-by-day, unscrupulous bankers and businessmen give the shaft to honest, hardworking Americans. And almost hour-by-hour, politicians sell their souls to the highest bidder–even if that bidder represents values and principles that would destroy freedom and liberty in our land.
How is it that pastors are unwilling to educate themselves (and their congregants) about the dangers and pitfalls to which America’s leaders are subjecting us? How is it that businessmen will smugly look the other way as their practices advance the causes of our enemies and weaken our own country? How is it that politicians will allow themselves to be corrupted, not only by evil forces from within America, but also by devilish forces from alien powers?
As a result of this total breakdown of basic morality in virtually every distinguished element within the American framework, constitutional governance is also virtually nonexistent. Adams was right: “Our Constitution was made only for a moral . . . people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
America’s political officeholders routinely ignore their oaths to preserve, protect, and defend the US Constitution. Routinely! Many have never read the Constitution, or if they have, they desire neither to understand nor to obey it. And even worse is the fact that most Americans (including America’s spiritual leaders) seem totally unbothered by it all. As long as their favorite politician, political party, or personal cause benefits, they could not care less whether the Constitution is followed or not. More than 50 years of moral relativism has now reached almost total and complete social saturation.
If I’m a Republican, it doesn’t matter if the Constitution is followed as long as Republicans win elections. And Democrats behave the same way. “As long as my party wins, who cares about the Constitution, honesty, or truth?” is the attitude of many politically involved Americans–including many Christian Americans.
Democrats don’t care if Bill Clinton or Barack Obama lies, and Republicans don’t care if George H. W. Bush or George W. Bush lies. The only time we care about someone lying is when it’s the person from the “other” party. If the “other” party promotes evil, we are enraged, but when “our” party promotes evil, we sit on our anatomical posteriors in complete silence and with full approbation.
And this is the bottom line: because We the People have lost our morality and fidelity to constitutional government, we have countless conscienceless criminals located at virtually every level in and out of the federal government (political party notwithstanding) that are up to their necks in total and absolute EVIL! I mean down-in-the-gutter, Genghis Khan-type evil. I’m talking about drug running, kidnappings, sexual exploitations, assassinations, family ruinations, illegal imprisonments, torture, and mass murder. If they desire it, they do it (or hire/order it done). Because there is no moral compass guiding our churches and businesses, there is no moral compass guiding those Machiavellians in Washington, D.C. After all, where do all these politicians, bureaucrats, blood-merchants, and mercenaries come from, if not from within our own social and religious establishments?
Until we wake up to the fact that our country, our Constitution, our liberties, and our future are up against evil–PURE, UNADULTERATED EVIL–we are never going to be able to muster the dedication and resolve required to turn this Ship of State around. Until we get our heads out of the sand and start seeing things as they are (and not as the national news media wants us to see them), until we are willing to stop indulging in the illusions of hope, and until we stop shutting our eyes against a painful truth, it will not matter to a tinker’s dam who we elect or which party is in power. Folks, wake up to it: WE ARE FIGHTING AN EVIL SYSTEM!! And there is nothing that the people who are caught up in this evil system will not do. Nothing! They will steal; they will lie; they will cheat; they will kill; they will rape; they will pillage; they will plunder; they will do ANYTHING they think is necessary to fulfill their evil machinations.
Setting our Ship of State aright starts with We the People returning to the basic, moral laws of right and wrong. Whether it is business, religion, or politics, right is right and wrong is wrong! (And one does not have to be a born-again Christian to know right from wrong: anyone who understands and respects the principles of Natural Law can and will be an ally in the fight for right. In fact, sometimes our enemies come from within our family–even the family of faith. See Matthew 10:36.) It means to stop covering for evildoers, whether that person belongs to our own political party or even our own family. It means to stop living for personal gain and advancement. It means being honest and demanding honesty in others. It means elevating truth to a position above expediency. It means acknowledging that there is a Supreme Authority to which all men must submit–and I’m not referring to the US Supreme Court.
America’s Ship of State is currently rudderless. And as long as we are expecting someone in Washington, D.C., to fix the problem, we will continue to be lost–adrift in a sea of evil and criminality. To get America’s Ship of State back on course, you and I must get back on course. And it starts by being willing to OPEN OUR EYES TO PAINFUL TRUTH.
After years of writing about how governments abuse, murder, and imprison innocent people and destroy life around the world, I find that I have been wrong, really wrong. All this time, I wrongfully tried to convince readers that terrible things are done in the name of“good government,”and now I have to apologize to them.
Why this turnaround? I have seen the light.Government is good, yes, very, very good. How do I know this? WhyDouglas J. Amy, a professor of politics atMount Holyoke Collegein Massachusetts (an island of True Political Correctness in America’s Most Politically-Correct State) has opened a world of Truth and Beauty to me with his website,Government Is Good.
You see, until I read this wonderful site praising the Great Accomplishments and Missions of Government (or at least government when run by the Democratic Party), I had no idea that government constantly did wonderful things for me. I was ungrateful, but no more!
For example, did you know that if it were not for government, your house would burn down if you turned on the lights, as those wicked, profit-seeking homebuilders and electricians would wire your house in a sloppy manner that immediately would start a conflagration that would kill you and your family? (As I read this site, I realize that the world is divided into two kinds of people. The first category includes those who run private businesses in order to cheat and kill you, and the second category includes those selfless government workers who tirelessly labor to keep those other evil people from harming you.)
Now, let me deal with one of the complaints that libertarians falsely have made against the wonders and greatness of government: the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is heavy-handed and abusive. Why, even as I write this article (on Saturday, November 14), I see that there isa terrible piece on this website that dares questionour government masters who simply are protecting us from the predations of private enterprise.
If it were not for those wonderful TSA people, airlines would practically invite terrorists onto passenger aircraft and all of our cities would lay in ruins as plane after plane would be crashing into them, BECAUSE THIS IS THE GOAL OF THE PRIVATE AIRLINES: KILL ALL THEIR PASSENGERS. How do I know this is true? Professor Amy has told me.
Now, wait a minute, you say. What about our rights? Doesn’t the Declaration of Independence say that the role of government is toprotectthose rightsthat we already own by virtue of our human existence?Oh, silly you. Professor Amy ismuch more on target:
We often make the mistake of seeing our rights and civil liberties as merely theabsenceof some kind of governmental action. We believe that we have free speech or freedom of religion when the government does nothing to impede those freedoms. But in reality, our rights depend heavily onactivegovernment – onpositivegovernment actions. In fact, the very existence of rights depends on government. Rights and civil liberties are actually political constructs – creations of government. Rights do not exist until they are created by law or established in a constitution. We only have the right of free speech because it is guaranteed in our constitution.If we didn’t have our constitution, or if we didn’t have government, our civil liberties would literally not exist.(Emphasis mine) In the preamble of the Constitution, the founding fathers did not say that in order to“secure liberty for ourselves and our posterity”they were going toabolishgovernment; they said that they were going to“ordain and establish”a democratic constitutional government to do so. They knew, as Benjamin Barber has explained, that“in democracies, representative institutions do not steal our liberties from us, they are the precious medium through which we secure our liberties.”
Yes, before the establishment of the U.S. Constitution in 1787,no one had rights.Furthermore, those colonials who believed in things like liberty and the absence of tyranny were all wet. They didn’t have any rights becausegovernment had not established them.So THERE, readers of this page! Bet you have not even thought of this timeless truth!
As I read through this wonderful website, I find it is a treasure trove of Truth and Beauty, as I go through declaration after declaration in which we are told that taxes are what secure our freedom, that high taxes are preferable to low taxes, and bureaucracy is pure (when Democrats run it) and much more freedom-loving than those old private companies.
Professor Amy gives many wonderful examples that we should heed, and I will present a few. The first deals with the present economic crisis that occurred because private enterprise – working withoutanygovernment regulatory oversight – created this recession that never would have happened had government been fully in charge of our economy. You see, the Federal Reserve System operates toprotectthe rest of us from the ravages of private enterprise, and when the government forced lending institutions to reduce their underwriting standards, government was not being foolish and reckless; oh, no, it wasprotectingits citizens from those mean and nasty arbitrary standards that those wicked people in private enterprise lay upon us.
(You see, companies only profit when they kill or maim their customers, or put prices so high that they cannot sell many of their goods. It is government that provides our goods for free because government is so far-seeing and so wise that it knows how to take scarce goods the turn them intofreegoods without causing any economic dislocations. After all, everyone who believes in the wonder and goodness of governmentknowsthat the Law of Scarcity was made up by evil people who think government is bad.)
This past week, people celebrated the 20th anniversary of the end of the Berlin Wall. Yet, few people know the truth as towhycommunism, and especially the Soviet Union, collapsed. That is why you, dear reader, must read Government Is Good, for Professor Amy has the answer to that question, too.
…our rights depend heavily on an active and well-funded government. When governments find themselves in a position where they can’t effectively tax and spend as has sometimes been the case in countries in the former Soviet Union citizen rights and liberties become unenforceable and largely non-existent.
I had no idea that the real reason that Stalin murdered millions of people and enslaved hundreds of millions more was because he and his minions could not“effectively tax and spend.”Oh, if only, IF ONLY the leadership of the Soviet government could have found this website or hired this great professor as a consultant, THE U.S.S.R. COULD HAVE BEEN SAVED, AND IT WOULD HAVE BEEN A BEACON OF GOOD GOVERNMENT AND LIBERTY FOR THE ENTIRE WORLD. Hooda thunkit?
Therefore, dear readers, you must abandon this antiquated notion that the state is the enemy of liberty. Indeed, those who heap calumny upon the agents of the state are guilty of promoting false and evil doctrines. Thus, to gain a true education, you must read, nayabsorb,Government Is Good.
As you read through this site (which, admittedly, takes a long, long time, as Professor Amy is quite prolific in his writings that lay praise upon praise upon the state) you will find many wonderful truths. You will discover that Ludwig von Mises was absolutely wrong in his views on bureaucracy because Professor Amy knows that bureaucracy is an efficient and compassionate servant of a mostly-ungrateful populace. You also will discover that you need to pay more taxes – lest our fate be that of the U.S.S.R.
Furthermore, you will find that one of the Great Prophets of our time isPaul Krugman. (He does not mention Ron Paul, but I am sure that the Good Professor believes that Rep. Paul is a very bad man who is harming the Cause of Good Government because, as we already know, Government Is Good.)
Should you continue to explore this wonderful site, you will find thatcapitalism itself“needs government.”If you read this section, you will find that the reason serfdom existed in the Middle Ages was because there was not enough government. You also will find that private enterprise cannot survive without government because government money is sound and wonderful, not like that dishonest private money that used to exist.
(The one thing that puzzles me, however, is why the Good Professor does not deal with what seems to be the obvious question: If government is so good and so efficient and so kind and gentle, then why do we need private enterprise and private property at all? I’m not sure as to why he has failed to make the obvious connection, but maybe he wants to humor us or let us go slowly into socialism so that when we finally discover the error of our ways, we won’t be in despair because we had wasted so much of our lives.)
I could go on and on, but I won’t. My article, unfortunately, will not convince many readers of this blog and other libertarians to change their evil ways and embrace the state. No, they will continue to believe the falsehood that the U.S.S.R. collapsed because economic calculation under socialism is impossible and not the truth, according to the Good Professor, that the Land of Lenin and Stalin could not“effectively tax and spend.”
So, there you have it. Government Is Good, and if you don’t believe it, then perhaps you need to face the same fate as befell David Koresh and Vickie Weaver, who got what was coming to them because they didn’t believe that Government Is Good.
(NaturalNews) The US government has issued a new report that recommends blocking access to popular websites during a pandemic outbreak in order to preserve internet bandwidth for investors, day traders and securities clearing house operations. The concern is that a pandemic would cause too many people to stay at home and download YouTube videos and porn, hogging all the internet bandwidth and blocking throughput for investment activities, thereby causing a stock market meltdown.
This isn’t an April Fool’s joke. It’s all based on a public report issued by the Government Accounting Office (GAO), available from their website athttp://www.gao.gov/new.items/d108.pdf
In this article, I’m going to explain how apandemicoutbreak could theoretically bring downWall Street. But to get to that, you’ll first need to find out what the GAO said in its curious report (see below). Parts of this article are presented as satire, but the underlying facts quoted here are all true and verifiable (links are provided to all sources).
This report in question is entitled, “GAOReport to Congressional Requesters, INFLUENZA PANDEMIC” and includes this subtitle:Key Securities Market Participants Are Making Progress, but Agencies Could Do More to Address Potential Internet Congestion and Encourage Readiness.
As the report explains:
In a severe pandemic, governments may close schools, shut down public transportation systems, and ban public gatherings such as concerts or sporting events. In such scenarios, many more people than usual may be at home during the day, and Internet use in residential neighborhoods could increase significantly as a result of people seeking news, entertainment, or social contact from homecomputers. Concerns have been raised that this additionaltrafficcould lead to congestion on the Internet that would significantly affect businesses in local neighborhoods, such as small doctors’ offices or businessemployeesattempting to telework by connecting to their employers’ enterprise networks.
Can Hulu, Twitter and porn destroy Wall Street?
To translate this concern of the GAO, what they’re saying is that if too many people stay home and usethe internet, Wall Street might not be able to function smoothly. Therefore, in order to protect Wall Street (because as you know, our government does everything possible to bail out Wall Street), the feds might need to shut down some popularwebsites.
But where, exactly, is all the bandwidth usage really coming from? Twitter uses virtually no bandwidth, given that it’s a short, text-based messaging service. Text articles also don’t use up much bandwidth. In terms of clogging the internet’s “series of tubes” (to use a hilarious term coined by a U.S. Senator), the real culprits arevideos. While a Twitter text message might be less than 1k in size, a typical video is 350MB, or roughly350,000 times largerthan a Twitter message.
So where, exactly, are people getting video downloads? The most popular non-porn video destinations today are MySpaceTV.com, YouTube.com, LiveLeak.com, Yahoo Video and Hulu.com. But as it turns out, even these highly popular websites may not account for mostinternettraffic.
P2P traffic uses the most bandwidth
According to this TechRepublic post (http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/t…), the majority of internet traffic is actuallyP2P traffic. Anywhere from 49 to 89 percent of all internet traffic reportedly falls into this category.
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