Michigan Bill Would Impose Financial Martial Law

ELECTED OFFICIALS COULD BE STRIPPED OF POWER IN TOWNS, CITIES, IN A :"FINANCIAL EMERGENCY" IN MICHIGAN -- AND AN APPOINTED REPRESENTATIVE COULD BE PUT IN CHARGE!

"...the governor could declare a “financial emergency” in towns or school districts. He could then appoint a manager to fire local elected officials, break contracts, seize and sell assets, eliminate services – and even eliminate whole cities or school districts without any public input."

Rep. John Conyers

Source: CBS News
March 14th, 2011

Michigan lawmakers are on the verge of approving a bill that would enable the governor to appoint “emergency managers” — officials with unilateral power to make sweeping changes to cities facing financial troubles.

Under the legislation, the Michigan Messenger reports, the governor could declare a “financial emergency” in towns or school districts. He could then appoint a manager to fire local elected officials, break contracts, seize and sell assets, eliminate services – and even eliminate whole cities or school districts without any public input.

==SHADES OF HITLER! NOTE THIS PAGE FROM A TEACHER'SMANUAL ABOUT HOW HITLER USED A GENERAL LAW TO THEN SPECIFICALLY TARGET JEWS (BE SURE TI SCROLL DOWN PAST THE END OF THE PAGE TO THE REST OF THIS ARTICLE):

==BACK TO THE ARTICLE:---

The measure passed in the state Senate this week; the House passed its own version earlier. The two versions of the bill are expected to be reconciled next week, and Republican Gov. Rick Snyder has said he will sign the bill the bill into law.

Democrats and their allies are decrying the legislation as a power grab and say it’s part of a wider effort taking place in several states, such as Wisconsin, to weaken labor unions.

“It takes every decision in a city or school district and puts it in the hands of the manager, from when the streets get plowed to who plows them and how much they are paid,” said Mark Gaffney, president of the Michigan State AFL-CIO. “This is a takeover by the right wing and it’s an assault on democracy like I’ve never seen.”

U.S. Rep. John Conyers, a Democrat who represents Detroit, said in a statement that in a given city, the governor’s new “financial czar” could “force a municipality into bankruptcy, a power that will surely be used to extract further concessions from hardworking public sector workers.”

==Comment: Ever since the assassination of President John F.Kennedy, which was NOT the deed of Lee Harvey Oswald, Americans have been losing their civil rights. Michigan is in the top 10 of highest property taxes of all the states. Michigan as of Jan. 4, 2010 has the 7th highest tax rate on gasoline. Michigan has the 3rd highest business tax rate and the 6th highest unemployment tax rate in the country.===

==back to the article...==Conyers went on to say...

"It takes every decision in a city or school district and puts it in the hands of the manager, from when the streets get plowed to who plows them and how much they are paid," said Mark Gaffney, president of the Michigan State AFL-CIO. "This is a takeover by the right wing and it's an assault on democracy like I've never seen."

U.S. Rep. John Conyers, a Democrat who represents Detroit, said in a statement that in a given city, the governor's new "financial czar" could "force a municipality into bankruptcy, a power that will surely be used to extract further concessions from hardworking public sector workers."

He said the legislation raises "serious constitutional concerns." On top of that, he said, allowing an "emergency manager" to dissolve locally elected bodies "implicitly targets minority communities that are disproportionately impacted by the economic downturn, without providing meaningful support for improved economic opportunity."

Republican state Sen. Jack Brandenburg said several urban areas of the state, especially Detroit, are in "bad shape" and require "financial martial law," the Daily Tribune reports.

The emergency manager, he said, "has to have the backbone, he has to have the power, to null and void a contract." In response to concerns that local leaders will have to cede control, Brandenburg said, "I'll tell you what, I think that in a lot of these places there is no control."

An emergency manager would only be put in place if several other steps to save a city's finances failed, and Snyder has said in recent weeks that removing elected officials or breaking contracts would be a last resort for an emergency manager. In addition, the legislature would have the power to remove an emergency manager.

As the "emergency manager" bill nears final passage, state lawmakers are also considering Snyder's proposed budget, which would cut spending on schools, universities, prisons and communities, according to the Detroit Free Press.

Snyder has also proposed eliminating $1.7 billion in tax breaks for individuals while cutting $1.8 billion in taxes for businesses to spur job growth. Much of the $1.7 billion in new tax revenue would be "coming from retirees, senior citizens and the working poor," the Free Press wrote in an editorial.

...I liked some of the comments that came from this article, such as:

"Stop blaming state, federal, public employees...[who want to keep unions in place] they are the last hold out of a fair deal...you want to know what happened to America? Follow the money. There were no billionaires and gazillionaires, and the few millionaires paid 90% tax rates. So that America had the greatest public works projects in the world. Now the rich pay miniscule taxes, and they invest in slave camps overseas. You want to target the problem in America? It isn't the workers, it's the rich who have destroyed the Middle Class, and taken all the tax breaks of the past thirty years and invested it in workshops in foriegn lands. It was the rich who moved America's factories, not the workers.

===

"This story makes the Republicans look bad and next week we will read one where Dems are bad. Both are bad. they are owned by the Elite bloodlines. they are one big family. We are slaves."

===

AN HONEST MAN IN GOVERNMENT GETS PUNISHED

IT IS OUTRAGEOUS THAT CERTAIN, SELECT PRISONERS CAN BE NOT ONLY HELD INCOMMUNICADO, SO THAT EVEN THEIR ATTORNEYS CANNOT CONTACT THEM, BUT THAT THEY CAN BE HELD INDEFINITELY. BRADLEY MANNING HAS BEEN IN NERVE-WRACKING SOLITARY CONFINEMENT, SUBJECTED TO HUMILIATION, DEPRIVED OF HIS CLOTHING EVERY NIGHT, HAS NO BLANKET OR PILLOW, IS GOING TO BE CHARGED, NO DOUBT, WITH TREASON.I CONSIDER HOW LEE HARVEY OSWALD WAS TREATED, AND ASK ALL READERS TO DEMAND THAT LAWYERS AND FRIENDS HAVE ACCESS TO MANNING, THAT CLOTHING 24 HOURS A DAY BE PROVIDED FOR MANNING, AND THAT THOSE WHO CRITICIZE THE GOVERNMENT --SUCH AS P.J. CROWLEY,WILL NOT BE FORCED TO RESIGN FOR SATING THE OBVIOUS. WEAKILEAKS GETS QUOTED AGAIN AND AGAIN WHEN CRISES OCCUR. IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT THE WORLD IS IN THE HANDS OF THE PEOPLE,WHERE, BEFORE, WAS ONLY DARKNESS.
ONLY A FEW COMPANIES OWN MOST OF THE COMMUNICATIONS OUTLETS AND MEDIA GIANTS NOW. WHEN ALL DISSENT IS QUASHED, WHAT COMES NEXT?

Washington (CNN) -- P.J. Crowley abruptly resigned Sunday as State Department spokesman over controversial comments he made about the Bradley Manning case.
Sources close to the matter said the resignation, first reported by CNN, came under pressure from the White House, where officials were furious about his suggestion that the Obama administration is mistreating Manning, the Army private who is being held in solitary confinement in Quantico, Virginia, under suspicion that he leaked highly classified State Department cables to the website WikiLeaks.
Speaking to a small group at MIT last week, Crowley was asked about allegations that Manning is being tortured and kicked up a firestorm by answering that what is being done to Manning by Defense Department officials "is ridiculous and counterproductive and stupid."
Crowley did add that "nonetheless, Bradley Manning is in the right place" because of his alleged crimes, according to a blog post by BBC reporter Philippa Thomas, who was present at Crowley's talk.
"The unauthorized disclosure of classified information is a serious crime under U.S. law," Crowley said in a statement Sunday. "My recent comments regarding the conditions of the pre-trial detention of Private First Class Bradley Manning were intended to highlight the broader, even strategic impact of discreet actions undertaken by national security agencies every day and their impact on our global standing and leadership.
"The exercise of power in today's challenging times and relentless media environment must be prudent and consistent with our laws and values," Crowley said. "Given the impact of my remarks, for which I take full responsibility, I have submitted my resignation."
Crowley has told friends that he is deeply concerned that mistreatment of Manning could undermine the legitimate prosecution of the young private. Crowley has also made clear he has the Obama administration's best interests at heart because he thinks any mistreatment of Manning could be damaging around the world to President Obama, who has tried to end the perception that the United States tortures prisoners.
Nevertheless, Crowley's political fate was sealed Friday when Obama was asked at a White House news conference about his comments regarding Manning.
Obama revealed that he had asked Pentagon officials "whether or not the procedures that have been taken in terms of (Manning's) confinement are appropriate and are meeting our basic standards."
In a comment that drew howls of protest from liberals, Obama added that Pentagon officials "assure me that they are. I can't go into details about some of their concerns, but some of this has to do with Private Manning's safety as well."
Manning's treatment has become a flashpoint for liberals, with Amnesty International noting he has been confined to a windowless cell for 23 hours a day, is stripped down to his boxers at night and is not given pillows or blankets.
Manning's lawyer also says the young private recently had to sleep in the nude because defense officials thought there was a suicide threat and decided to take away his boxer shorts.
Crowley is highly respected on foreign policy matters, dating back to his time as National Security Council spokesman under then-President Bill Clinton. He has been the Obama administration's public face on many international stories as the daily briefer at the State Department for Secretary Hillary Clinton.
But he has not had a completely smooth relationship with officials in the Obama White House, and eyebrows were raised several months ago when White House aide Mike Hammer was sent over to the State Department to serve as Crowley's deputy.
A senior White House official stressed that Crowley's exit was in the works for months and said the MIT incident only "hastened that departure."
"Everybody likes P.J. This was more a situation where it wasn't the right fit," said the official, noting there were times when Crowley wasn't on the same page as Clinton, let alone the White House.
Hammer will replace Crowley as the assistant secretary for public affairs, Clinton said in a statement Sunday.
She said she accepted Crowley's resignation "with regret."
"P.J. has served our nation with distinction for more than three decades, in uniform and as a civilian," she said. "His service to country is motivated by a deep devotion to public policy and public diplomacy, and I wish him the very best."
A little-known factor in Crowley's comments about Manning was revealed Saturday by April Ryan, a White House correspondent for American Urban Radio who covered Crowley in the Clinton White House.
Ryan wrote on Twitter that Crowley "dislikes treatment of prisoners as his father was a Prisoner of War."
While it's true that Crowley's father was imprisoned during World War II, people close to him downplay that as a major factor in his comments about Manning, saying the biggest factor is simply that Crowley believes what he said.
In his statement, Crowley said he leaves with "great admiration and affection" for his colleagues and "deep respect for the journalists who report on foreign policy and global developments every day, in many cases under dangerous conditions and subject to serious threats. Their efforts help make governments more responsible, accountable and transparent."

LAND OF THE FREE: Chicago artist faces 15 years in jail... because he recorded his own arrest on video

Chicago artist's protest backfires as he faces 15 years in jail... because he recorded his own arrest on video
By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
24th January 2011

[NOTE BY JVB: I'M AN ARTIST---WHILE ARTISTS ARE FAMED FOR SELLING THEIR ART ALONG THE SIDEWALKS OF PARIS, NEW ORLEANS, ISTANBUL,AND EVEN ALONG THE STREETS OF LONDON--DON'T TRY IT IN CHICAGO. I SUPPOSE MARY POPPINS' ARTIST FRIEND WOULD HAVE BEEN ARRESTED FOR DRAWING CHALK PICTURES ON THE SIDEWALKS OF CHICAGO! ARTISTS' RIGHTS ARE BEING TRAMPLED BY EU REGULATIONS, TOO--HOW CAN ANYONE CREATE AN OIL PAINTING, USING THE BOLD MASTERS' OIL MEDIUMS, AS I PREFER, WHEN AN AMERICAN ARTIST IS ONLY ALLOWED 90 DAYS IN AN EU COUNTRY? EXILED OR UNESTABLISHED ARTISTS HAVE THE CHOICE OF WORKING IN ART SWEATSHOPS OR STARVING. SOME CHOICE.]

An artist who used a video camera to record being arrested by police is facing up to 15 years in prison.
Chris Drew has been charged with Class 1 felony under the Eavesdropping Act in Chicago, Illinois.
The bemused activist said he did not know anything about the law when he was protesting about restrictions on where artists can sell their work.
Now scroll down to see the video

Activist: Chris Drew was protesting about restrictions on selling art

What are you doing? He is confronted by a police officer
He has resorted to civil disobedience in his fight against rules he regards as draconian – and got a friend to record his arrest on an Olympus camera.
Mr Drew expected police to take him into custody before releasing him over the misdemeanour – but now he’s facing up to 15 years in jail.
He will go on trial on April 4 charged with using a digital recorder to capture his arrest on December 2, 2009.
He was selling silk-screened patches for $1 when he was stopped by police.
Footage of the incident has been posted on YouTube.


Surrounded: Three police officers gather round while the incident is filmed on a Olympus camera
Three officers surround him in the tape before he is led away across the road and put into a vehicle.
The suspect told the Chicago News Cooperative: ‘I expected to be charged with a misdemeanour.
‘I didn’t know about the eavesdropping law. But when you fight for your rights, you have to expect anything. I have a ’60s bent to me. I won’t back down. I won’t be intimidated.

Breaking the law: Activist had set out to get in trouble
‘From the moment I comprehended these charges, I knew we had to change this law.’
Mr Drew, the founder of the Uptown Multi-Cultural Art Center, had set out to get himself arrested for selling items in the street three times before he was finally stopped by police.
Under the Eavesdropping Act, which applies in 12 states, all parties must consent to a recording being made.
Maryland, Illinois and Massachusetts are the only states where it is illegal to record conversations with the police.
In Illinois police are currently prosecuting nine people for alleged breaches of the law.
The maximum penalty is only three years behind bars for the first time the law is broken and five years if it is done again,
But anyone recording a judge, attorney general, state attorney or police officer can be sent to jail for up to 15 years.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1349966/Chicago-artist-Chris-Drew-faces-15-years-jail-recorded-arrest.html#ixzz1Epq1rxs7

SOUTH CAROLINA: "MALEVOLENCE" AND VOTING FRAUD

DID FOLKS THINK THEY WERE VOTING FOR THIS MAN?



CANDIDATE AL GREEN WON IN A LANDSLIDE WITHOUT AN OFFICE, A RALLY, OR AN INTERVIEW



The General Assembly resumes its misrule of S.C.
Back on the Job
by Will Moredock

One more way the system has found to screw us

It's not easy to know whether our state Legislature is just plain stupid, or if there's something deeper — a genuine, intrinsic malevolence.

With regard to our current budget crisis, it's easy to believe we are looking at stupidity. Four years ago, the Republican General Assembly gave huge property tax rollbacks to some of the wealthiest residents — and biggest campaign donors — in the state. They sought to make up the difference with a hike in the sales tax. They did this even as economic advisers and tax experts warned that this was folly, that when the economy slowed down, sales tax revenues would tank.

That's exactly what has happened as South Carolina wallows in the deepest economic crisis since the Great Depression. Today the state faces an $829 million budget shortfall, and this after the budget already has been slashed by $2 billion over the last two years. There is pain throughout the land as agencies reduce services, close offices, furlough workers, cut Medicaid, and even contemplate trimming 10 days off the school year.

One suspects that this is gross stupidity. After all, the anger and anguish of this poor state is aimed directly at the Lege. Our solons look helpless and stupid, and we know that was never their intention, for they are nothing if not vain. They played with fire, and they got burned — along with the rest of us.

Yes, we can mark that one up to stupidity. But the economy is not the only crisis in our state. We have a crisis of democracy, as exemplified by our broken election system. We saw this all too vividly in the Democratic primary last June, the primary in which an unemployed man who had never sought public office, who did not have a campaign staff or an office or even a computer, defeated a seasoned and well-funded political figure who had been campaigning around the state for months.

There has never been a credible explanation for Alvin Greene's 20-percentage-point victory over Vic Rawl. Cynicism about the Democratic primary was inevitable in light of several well-publicized technical and human failures since the iVotronic machines were purchased in 2004 to serve all 46 counties. Most recently, there were at least two major snafus in the 2010 general election.

In November, Colleton County reported 13,045 votes for statewide offices, though only 11,656 ballots were cast. The problem stemmed from voting machines counting 1,389 votes twice, an acknowledged problem with these machines.

In Lancaster County last fall, a Freedom of Information Act request revealed that the usual digital files resulting from an election did not in fact exist. Totaling the votes was done manually. There was a discrepancy between the database at county headquarters and the databases in the individual machines, making the automatic aggregation of votes from individual machines impossible.

These are just a couple of the problems with the iVotronic machines in recent years. In other cases, miscalibrated machines resulted in names lighting up on the touch screen that voters had not selected. Dr. Duncan Buell, chairman of the University of South Carolina Department of Computer Science and Engineering, has warned that the state's voting machines can be hacked.

There is one solution that would solve almost all the voting machine problems and go a long way toward restoring public faith in the electoral process: have the machines issue a printed record to each voter of the ballot he just cast.

"We have no ability in South Carolina to count anything except what gets stored in the memory chips of the voting machines," Buell told a Spartanburg TV station. "There is no paper record."

It just happens that there are several pieces of legislation dealing with election law that have been prefiled as the General Assembly returns to begin its 2011-2012 session. Unfortunately, giving our voting machines a paper record is not one of them.

No, our GOP Legislature is intent on passing laws to reduce opportunities for early voting and absentee voting and forcing voters to produce a photo ID to cast a ballot, even when they have a voter registration card. Research shows that all of these measures have the effect of restricting the vote, and those most often disenfranchised are the poor and the elderly. Why do the GOPers want to push through these changes in the state's election law? They say it is to prevent voter fraud, yet there have been fewer than a dozen cases of voter fraud recorded in the state in decades.

With all the election problems we face in this state, the GOPers are intent on solving a problem that does not exist, even as they disenfranchise thousands of voters in the state. That, my friends, is not stupidity. That is malevolence.

TO BE AS FAIR AS WE CAN BE, HERE IS ONE EXPLANATION OF HOW THE BIG WIN FOR 'AL'OCCURRED:
Why are people over-thinking Alvin Greene’s victory in the Democratic Senatorial primary in South Carolina, where he garnered some 60 percent of the vote? Some suggest he’s a plant of Republican Senator Jim DeMint, his general election opponent, or other evil forces of the Right. Others speculate voter fraud was involved. Still others insist it’s the luck of the alphabetic draw.

Let there be no mystery about how Mr. Greene accumulated his 100,000-plus votes. Here’s the full story behind Greene’s canny three-pronged strategy to beat his well-funded primary opponent Vic Rawl.

Roughly a third of Al’s votes came from soul and pop music lovers who believed they were voting for sexy Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Al Green, nee Albert Greene. Green, who was a superstar who sold millions of records in the ’70s, also evoked sympathy from voters who remembered he was once doused by his girlfriend in a sea of boiling grits. When citizens heard Al’s signature song, Let’s Stay Together, on the radio, they took it as a compelling campaign theme. Here’s one woman’s explanation of her vote.

Candidate Alvin Greene

Another 300,000 or so votes came from Democrats convinced they were casting their ballots for the Reverend Al Green, who, in service of his ministry, recorded many Gospel hits beloved by black and white audiences alike. (Hat tip to Bob Adels.) This association had the added benefit of mitigating the damage from the prospect that Alvin Greene might be jailed for showing dirty pics to a college coed

The final chunk of pro-Greene-ers were folks who thought Rep. Al Green (D. Texas) had carpetbagged over to South Carolina to capitalize on the “If Rand Paul can be a Senator, so can I” craze.
Cleverly, Alvin never staged any rallies or campaign events or gave any interviews, thus avoiding probing questions from investigative journalists about his true identity.

Though Greene wouldn’t tell post-victory interviewers how he raised the $10,500 filing fee to run in the primary, here’s the scoop on that: Every now and then Alvin gets a sizeable, misdirected royalty check meant for soul singer Al or Rev. Al, who, it turns out, are one and the same guy.

Michael Sigman

Michael Sigman is a writer/ editor, media consultant and the president of Major Songs, a music publishing company.

Crossposted from Huffington Post with the author’s permission.

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THE AMERICAN MONKEY CAN'T LET GO --AND IT WILL DESTROY US

I'VE SADLY LIVED LONG ENOUGH TO WATCH ALL THE ERRORS MADE, BEGINNING WITH THE GOVERNMENT'S MURDER OF JOHN F.KENNEDY, AT WHICH TIME WE GAVE BACK OUR DOLLARS TO THE FEDERAL RESERVE AND STARTED OUR WAR MACHINE THAT RUNS JUST AS DESCRIBED BELOW, WITH DEADLY AND PERMANENT CONSEQUENCES FOR AMERICA AND OUR PEOPLE.

THUS, I AGREE WITH THIS ASSESSMENT.
JVB


REPRINTED FROM LEWROCKWELL.COM:
The American Monkey Can't Let Go

by Fred Reed

Recently by Fred Reed: Awaiting the Storm



Pondering Whither America, I reflected on a story, probably apocryphal but which I am going to believe because I like it, about catching monkeys. Tribesmen somewhere craft a heavy pot with a hole in it large enough that a monkey could insert an open hand, but not withdraw a closed fist. They then put monkey food in the pot. The monkey reaches in, grabs the food and, refusing to let go when the hunters approach, is caught and eaten.

Here we have our politics in a paragraph. The American national monkey can’t let go. The party is over, boys and girls, but we aren’t going to adapt.

For example: When people recently found that they could no longer afford the SUVs, the McMansions, the buying of absurdities in a frenzy of competitive consumerism, they just put it on the credit card. The monkey can’t let go. And now they are screwed.

Same-same domestic policy. The US has played War-on-Drugs for half a century, with no results but to make drugs an integral part of the economy. The evils engendered are great. Yet the monkey can’t let go.

It is internationally that the monkey principle really bites. The country is well on its way to being a merely regional power militarily, economically, and diplomatically. Short of a miracle, short of a conceivable but unlikely catastrophe in China, Americans will soon be medium potatoes. There is nothing we can do about it, but we will bankrupt ourselves trying. We can’t let go.


If you look beyond the Reader’s Digest patriotism of Fox News, and the high-school cheerleading of little Sarah Palin, if you look beyond the national borders, all of this is obvious.

By Chinese standards, America is a small country, having a quarter of its population. Their economy grows at close to double digits. Yes, it may slow down, or it may not. Short of unforeseen disaster, the question is not whether but when the Chinese economy will dwarf the American economy. Tell me why this is not true.

All power springs from economic power. While America decays, plays, and sucks its thumb, China invests. Everywhere. There is nothing unprincipled in this. It is just intelligent commerce.

Do not underestimate these people of the epicanthic fold. I have lived among the Chinese, in Taiwan years ago. I liked them, and still do. I know them to be smart, disciplined, studious, practical – as well as nationalistic and very racially conscious. No, we do not think these attitudes proper. It doesn’t matter what we think.


Note that China has that perfect government, an intelligent dictatorship concerned with advancing the country. The American government consists of self-interested lobbies and Wall Street looters. China is run by engineers, America by lawyers. Watch.

The US is midway through an inexorable suicide. If a country does not manufacture things, it does not have an economy, and manufacturing has fled American shores. Ship-building, steel, consumer electronics, railroads: gone. You may think your HP laptop is an American product, but in all likelihood every component was made overseas and it was assembled in Taiwan.

The country as a whole, as always, looks inwards and doesn’t understand, doesn’t know what stirs without. Communism no longer protects America from Chinese competition.

America is the world’s greatest debtor nation, China the greatest creditor. We cannot possibly repay what we owe, so we must either default or inflate. If another choice exists, I am unaware of it. And yet the government spends, spends, spends, and borrows, borrows, borrows. No one is in charge. No one cares. All line their own pockets. Wait.

Rationally, this would seem a good time to let go of unaffordable luxuries. But no. The US continues to buy things it can’t pay for, to play roles it can no longer maintain, because it pains the national vanity no longer to be the biggest kid on the block. The monkey can’t let go.

The millstone around the American neck is the Pentagon. The direct cost alone of feeding the military contractors is almost mortal to a sinking economy: $720 billion this year, plus another $120 billion requested for the unending wars, plus huge black programs, the Veterans Administration, and so on. A trillion wilting green ones, call it. The more perceptive note the opportunity cost of wasting so much engineering talent, so much money for research and development, on martial zoom-wowees.


China, Russia, the Moslem world, Latin America and all the rest who detest the US must be enjoying the spectacle. Spend on, spend on, oh round-eyed fools….

Vanity. We do not garrison South Korea because Pyong Yang may send its troops across our common border into Arkansas. We do it because we think it our birthright to rule the world. The monkey cannot let go.


Our practical choice is between retracting the military or going down hard. But we cannot retract. Once you have made your economy dependent on huge unproductive expenditures, there is no quitting. It might seem wise for example to reduce the military rolls by the 30,000 troops in South Korea. But they would simply increase the rate of unemployment, already dangerously high. Since most of the military contributes nothing to the defense of the United States, releasing all unneeded soldiers into joblessness would probably precipitate an armed rebellion.

There is worse. Towns spring up around large bases to supply the troops and their families. Close the bases, and the towns die. Closing Camp Lejeune would kill Jacksonville; Fort Bragg, Fayetteville; Fort Hood, Killeen. Further, huge companies – Lockheed-Martin, much of Boeing, and dozens of others – being unable to compete in the civilian economy, have become obligate military suppliers. Cut their big programs and you unemploy tens of thousands for whom there are no civilian jobs.

The federal bureaucracy is much the same, employing vast numbers yet producing nothing. Politicians drone about wanting “smaller government.” How? Eliminate the Departments of Education, or Housing and Urban Development, or Commerce – and where do the people go?

We can pretend that the current recession is temporary, and not a manifestation of dying opulence, just as a fading beauty can pile on the make-up and hope that men don’t notice. We can spend while others grow, buy their goods on credit – for a little while longer. The monkey can’t let go.

And any who say that we ought to put our house in order and come to terms with reality? They will be said to Hate America. Well and good, until the bill comes due.

January 13, 2011

Fred Reed is author of Nekkid in Austin: Drop Your Inner Child Down a Well and A Brass Pole in Bangkok: A Thing I Aspire to Be. His latest book is Curmudgeing Through Paradise: Reports from a Fractal Dung Beetle. Visit his blog.

Copyright © 2011 Fred Reed

NIST: Liars or Just PLANE Stupid? You Decide... (1/4)

NIST: Liars or Just PLANE Stupid? You Decide... (1/4)

WATCH THESE FOUR YOUTUBE VIDEOS AND ASK YOURSELF WHAT THE FUTURE OF OUR COUNTRY IS, SINCE WE THE PEOPLE APPARENTLY WILL SWALLOW ALL GOVERNMENT LIES WITHOUT ANY PROTEST, AND WILL JUST ROLL OVER AND WAIT FOR THE NEXT LIE...EVER SINCE KENNEDY WAS KILLED AND YOU HEARD THE LIE THAT THE INNOCENT LEE OSWALD KILLED KENNEDY, WE THE PEOPLE HAVE BEEN CONTINUED TO BE LIED TO, TO THE DETRIMENT OF OUR NATION AND OUR FUTURE AS A FREE COUNTRY.
"YOU ARE A CONSPIRACY THEORIST!" -- SHOULD BE CONSIDERED A BADGE OF HONOR BY ALL GOOD AMERICANS. IF WE DO NOT SPEAK OUT, WHO WILL? GOD HELP US.


#1: THE ALUMINUM PLANE MELTS INTO THE SIDE OF HEAVY STEEL "LIKE A KNIFE THROUGH BUTTER"





#2: SLOW-MOTION CRASHES SHOW THE TRUTH: NEWTON'S THIRD LAW --THE SMALL PLANE SHOULD HAVE "SPLATTERED" AGAINST THE BUILDING



#3: PEDDLING A HOAX: A FALSE FLAG TERROR EVENT



#4:



I LIKE THIS COMMENT ON THE 4TH VIDEO:

"Well, I don't think it was an animation. There were too many people who were there and saw something hit the WTC. Now I'm not saying it was a plane. But you can't discount the thousands who were there. I think it was a missile of some kind. Maybe even one that was dressed up to look like a plane." 

mattxr2i 2 weeks ago

GET EDUCATED: THE TRUTH ABOUT THE KENNEDY ASSASSINATION

THE PARKLAND HOSPITAL DOCTORS SAW KENNEDY'S HEAD WOUND IN DALLAS -- CLEARLY THE RESULT OF A SHOT FROM THE FRONT (THE OPPOSITE DIRECTION FROM OSWALD'S LOCATION). THIS OBVIOUS FACT WAS COVERED UP BY THE GOVERNMENT.

AFTER WATCHING JFK II, BELOW, PLEASE VIEW THE YOUTUBE VIDEO "JFK AND LEE HARVEY OSWALD" BY LOLA4JVB4LHO.


THE FINE FILM "JFK II" TELLS US THE TRUTH.



JOHN F.KENNEDY LOST A LOT WHEN HE WAS ASSASSINATED, BUT SO DID THE AMERICAN PEOPLE AND THE WORLD.

THE RESULT WAS THE VIETNAM WAR, WATERGATE, IRAN-CONTRA, THE IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN WARS, THE NINE-ELEVEN "TERRORIST" ATTACK, AND THE DEGRADATION AND DESTRUCTION OF A GREAT NATION -- THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

THE GOVERNMENT LIED ABOUT WHO DID IT. LEE HARVEY OSWALD, AN INNOCENT MAN,WAS FALSELY ACCUSED. THE BOOK ME & LEE: HOW I CAME TO KNOW,LOVE AND LOSE LEE HARVEY OSWALD REVEALS THE TRUTH ABOUT OSWALD, WHO WAS MURDERED TO STOP HIM FROM REVEALING THE TRUTH: THAT OSWALD TRIED TO SAVE KENNEDY'S LIFE.

SECRET SERVICE AGENT ABRAHAM BOLDEN HAS REVEALED, IN THE EXCELLENT BOOK BY JAMES DOUGLASS --JFK AND THE UNSPEAKABLE--WHY HE DIED AND WHY IT MATTERS -- THAT AN INFORMANT NAMED 'LEE' SAVED KENNEDY'S LIFE WITH A TIP-OFF IN CHICAGO, GIVING KENNEDY THREE MORE WEEKS OF LIFE.

THE GOVERNMENT COVERED UP THE TRUTH.

PASS THIS INFORMATION AROUND AND CONSIDER, MOST CAREFULLY, WHAT WE SHOULD DO TO GET OUR COUNTRY BACK.

JVB