This selective government shutdown over Obamacare, the first since 1996, where an an estimated 800,000 federal employees have been furloughed, with NASA leading the pack with 97% of its workforce impacted, is highly suspicious because it makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. Obamacare launched its insurance exchanges the same day as the shutdown, yet the shutdown continues. Talk about closing the barn door after the horses flee.
This "shutdown", which will shut down what used to be accessible information to interested folks, occurs just as Comet ISON is due to pass Mars.. In addition, BRISSON (Balloon Rapid Response for Comet ISON failed in its mission to collect data, the Air Force Command discontinues its space surveillance due to "resource constraints", and then, coincidentally NASA is out of commission?
“ The electrical grid, as government and private experts describe it, is the "glass jaw" of American industry. If an adversary lands a knockout blow, they fear it could black out vast areas of the continent for weeks [if not much longer]; interrupt supplies of water, gasoline, diesal fuel, and fresh food; shut down communication, and create disruptions of a scale that was only hinted at by Hurricane Sandy and events of 9/11.
This is why thousands of utility workers, business executives, National Guard officers FBI antiterrorism experts and officials from government agencies in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico are preparing for an emergency drill in November that will simulate physical attacks and cyberattacks that could take down large sections of the power grid."
There is lots of Internet chatter concerning the subject of Comet ISON, ranging from the possibility of a mini "solar system" of companion comets, meteorites and space dust moving into ours (lots of military activity around Learmonth (Project Wormwood-joint US/Aussie) Observatory in Australia), to what sounds more plausible: Comet ISON, disrupting the asteroid belt. Maybe, it's something as simple as they do not want us to find out that comets are not dirty snowballs. I do not know, so I do not subscribe to any of these rumors, however, I have no doubt that the government is trying to not only distract us, which is par for the course, but also limiting our access to what's really going on in space.
What conclusion can be made when all the government solar monitoring sites go down at the same time so many large events are taking place? NASA already received its funding so there is no reason to shut down operational servers-- over 60 satellites and telescopes it is using to observe ISON--unless they want to shut it down.
“ ...comet ISON recently turned GREEN showing it is connecting electrically with Mars as i predicted ... this started on the 24th ... standard science claims this is due to UV light from the sun ... more fairy tale science ... if that is the case there is UV light all over the solar system ... why do some comets not show green at all and others are very green ... they never explain such dichotomies (they do not have to since in the controlled press no one else gets to insert even a comment) ... i predicted this brightening as the comet connects electrically with mars ... heading for a close bypass on october 1st ... more as this develops ... jim mccanney (and note the internet nut cases will be creating all kinds of WOO WOO scare stories using this as a basis ... many of which are controlled by the disinfo crew and many trying to misuse my name and work ... the disinfo engine is in full swing to keep the public dumb about the electrical nature of comets ... why ??? because if the public knew they would ask why we cannot connect to outer space to power our society with energy from the electrical solar system that surrounds us ... read my books especially THE DIAMOND PRINCIPLE for details ) -- Jim McCanney
The Mena Connection (below) is only the tip of a very dark iceberg of government/corporate operated drug trade that dates back to the 1700s when the British East India Company established a monopoly on the opium trade.
Half of all child porn is produced in America, and child porn and/or child trafficking is the fastest growing crime in America. Estimated to be anywhere from $3-$20 billion industry, it grows at a rate of 150% per year!
Unfortunately, our Department of Justice doesn't seem all that interested in this issue. In fact, if you work directly for Eric Holder, and you're caught viewing child porn on the taxpayer's dime, it's all good, apparently, because Holder refuses to prosecute.
Below, Prof Lori Handrahan of American University outlines cases where U.S. military officials with top security clearance, members of the judiciary, the police, and the foreign service are being protected by the Department of Justice when they are caught using child porn and discusses the IRS Whistleblower Program.
In addition to the 5,200 Pentagon employees with child porn on their work computers--1,700 of which have never been investigated--here are a few examples of federal employees, or government contractors arrested for engaging in child pornography:
The death ofAaron Swartz, co-founder of Reddit, co-author of the specifications for the Web feed format RSS 1.0 (Rich Site Summary), pioneer of open-source, and Internet activist against the monopoly of information, was sadly, a death that was coerced. Yes, he apparently killed himself, but it's the government--with the assistance of MIT who over-zealously persecuted through prosecution, and pushed him to that point. Not the first time, I might add.
The issue here is the abusive treatment of citizens, in particular, one citizen who courageously spoke truth to power, Aaron Swartz, by a government bureaucracy intent on intimidating activists. In this case, prosecuting a person accused of a victimless "crime," if it was a crime at all, and threatening a severe sentence--35-years in jail-- in retaliation for, in this case, advocating on behalf of the free flow of information on the Internet.
What was Aaron Swartz's crime? Attempting to liberate taxpayer paid research journals--that already belonged to the public--to the public for free, journals that the "owner" of the records, JSTOR, declined to press charges. Swartz did not seek to profit from the information he liberated, and the writers/researchers had already been compensated for the work, unlike all of corrupt banksters, CEOs, and politicians, who not only go free but are rewarded for intentionally bringing down the global economy.
“..he used an open network connection at MIT, which explicitly allowed free guest access, to download academic research papers that were available for free for any user on that particular network."
According to a good friend of his, Aaron Swartz had a "much broader agenda than the information freedom fights for which he had become known." He was also a "political activist interested in health care, financial corruption, and the drug war." To sum it up, Aaron's goal was making "life a little less unfair." And for that, he paid the ultimate price.
Here are some of the more unusual aspects in this case:
Two days before Aaron Swartz was arrested, the Secret Service took over the investigation.
"On the morning of January 4, 2011, at approximately 8:00 am, MIT personnel located the netbook being used for the downloads and decided to leave it in place and institute a packet capture of the network traffic to and from the netbook.4 Timeline at 6. This was accomplished using the laptop of Dave Newman, MIT Senior Network Engineer, which was connected to the netbook and intercepted the communications coming to and from it. Id. Later that day, beginning at 11:00 am, the Secret Service assumed control of the investigation."
The top federal prosecutor, U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz and her assistant Stephen Heymann rejected any deal that did not involve a prison sentence.
“In his suicide note, James said he had no faith in the justice system, which he believed were trying to tie him to a crime he did not commit.
'I have no faith in the "justice" system. Perhaps my actions today, and this letter, will send a stronger message to the public.
'Either way, I have lost control over this situation, and this is my only way to regain control.
'Remember, it's not whether you win or lose, it's whether I win or lose, and sitting in jail for 20, ten, or even five years for a crime I didn't commit is not me winning. I die free.'
James was the first juvenile put into confinement for a federal cyber crime case.
And last, but certainly not least, from emptywheel, who seems to be breaking most of the news regarding the death of Aaron Swartz, the Department of Justice invoked Aaron Swartz’ manifesto to justify investigative methods.
“And look at the passage from the Manifesto they quote in the brief, which appears in this larger passage.
“There is no justice in following unjust laws. It’s time to come into the light and, in the grand tradition of civil disobedience, declare our opposition to this private theft of public culture.
We need to take information, wherever it is stored, make our copies and share them with the world. We need to take stuff that’s out of copyright and add it to the archive. We need to buy secret databases and put them on the Web. We need to download scientific journals and upload them to file sharing networks.
In context, much of the manifesto advocates for things that are perfectly legal: sharing documents under Fair Use. Taking information that is out of copyright and making it accessible. Purchasing databases and putting them on the web.
Aside from sharing passwords, about the only thing that might be illegal here (depending on copyright!) is downloading scientific journals and uploading them to file sharing networks.
Precisely what the government accused Swartz of.
But they don’t cite that passage. Rather, they cite the “making copies” passage–something not inherently illegal. As if that justified the investigative tactics they used.
Used as it is in this page-limited brief arguing why their tactics were legal, the citation is really bizarre. But it does seem to admit that the government considers Swartz’ role in the Open Access movement to be as much proof he was a criminal as that he chose to download the documents at MIT and not Harvard.
This is just one more example of how distorted the whole US justice system has become in order to please the elite few who want to retain their power and wealth at any cost.
“For remember, we live in a world where the architects of the financial crisis regularly dine at the White House — and where even those brought to “justice” never even have to admit any wrongdoing, let alone be labeled “felons.” Harvard Law Professor Lawrence Lessig,
Last month, the New York Times published an article about President Obama's "secret kill" list. This list includes Americans and two teenagers, of which the one "looked even younger than her 17 years". One has to ask what is the objective here? Why does our top secret government want this information made public? Moreover, why hasn't there been any follow-up? And why aren't more people demanding discussion on this issue?
In answer to the first couple of questions, there are a few possibilities. One, they're trying to rile us up into revolution in order to crack down and declare martial law. This possibility is clearly not working. Two, when the slaughtering state sets you in its sight, you cannot say you were not warned. Three, it's a continuation, and I might add, an escalation, of the desensitization process, which is clearly working. Four, to instill terror, ensuring obedience to a ruthless state, plain and simple. Five, all of the above.
As to the rest of my questions, either we don't care, we don't take it seriously, or we would rather not face the fact that the Obama administration has just announced that it signed off on extrajudicial murder of people all over the world.
Could it be that the apathy of citizens, the lack of any kind of reaction is primarily due to this president's political affiliation: the Democratic party? I mean, imagine, if you will, this "kill list" article coming out at the time President Bush occupied the White House. Somehow, I think there would be outrage, and rightly so.
Now, is President Obama the first president in the history of the US to have a secret kill list? Absolutely not. To be sure, both former President Bush's, and Reagan had their secret kill lists. What makes President Obama's kill list stand out is the deliberate publication of such a list, not to mention the method by which he creates it on a weekly basis.
And to think this is an election year should tell you all you need to know.
The following documentary is a MUST-SEE for everyone! I have yet to see anything so fully documented that exposes the extraordinary measures that the FDA will resort to in order to ensure that cancer remains the killer that it is, and that Chemotherapy remains the torture-chamberous non-curing treatment that it is. Not to mention, this film, in addition to detailing the FDA's 14 year campaign to remove Dr. Stanislaus Burzynski, who found a cure for cancer, from society, also reveals the battle Dr. Burzynski had with the National Cancer Institute, who is just as bad.
"Our bodies contain two categories of genes that allow cancer to flourish: oncogenes, and tumor suppressor genes. When someone has cancer, they have a higher level of oncogenes switched on, with a higher level tumor suppressor genes switched off.
The goal is to tell the body to both switch back on the tumor suppressor genes, and turn off as many oncogenes as possible."
It comes to no surprise to most of us that the median annual American pharmaceutical company profits triples the median annual profits of all of the Fortune 500 companies. But, how does Big Pharma maintain these astounding profits? Well, through its gatekeeper: the FDA, and the National Cancer Institute.
"Big Phama" didn't manifest overnight. It was an ongoing process that started in the 1970s and 1980s. At the time, profitability of the pharmaceutical industry was two times greater than the median of all industries in the Fortune 500. In the 1990s, when the Prescription Drug User Fee Act (PDUFA)- which authorizes drug companies to pay "user-fees" to the FDA for each brand-name drug considered for approval, greatly speeding up the approval process - kicked in, the drug industry's profitability grew to almost four times greater than the median for all industries in the Fortune 500.
After the PDUFA was enacted, the part of the FDA that reviews new drugs received more than half its money from user fees and it grew by leaps and bounds. Meanwhile, the part of the FDA that monitors safety, ensures manufacturing standards, and checks ads for accuracy deteriorated. Not only that, the approval process for brand-name drugs shortened to 3 months, from its previous 21 months. Yet, here it is 2011, and Antineoplaston Therapy has been waiting approval since 1977.
On June 21, 1977, Dr. Burzynski's attorney's investigated both state and federal law to find out if it was legal for him to start his own biomedical research company to make the Antineoplastons (non toxic cancer treatment) and administer them to patients within his private practice. He found out it was legal as long as he avoided interstate commerce.
However, it was not soon after that Burzynski's patients found themselves harassed by the Texas State Board of Medical Examiners(TMB) to file charges against their doctor, and the FDA started its witch hunt.
In 1983, the FDA obtained an injunction from a federal district court prohibiting Dr. Burzynski and the Burzynski Research Institute from shipping antineoplastons in interstate commerce without first obtaining the approval of the FDA. The injunction, however, did not preclude intrastate distribution of the antineoplastons.
On July 28, 1986, the TMB began investigating Dr. Burzynski, even though no formal complaint had been filed, and on November 18, 1986, a notarized agreement between Burzynski and the TMB was created requiring the doctor resent a list of 40 successful cases. He submitted double that number. He never heard back.
Dr. Burzynski faced numerous battles with the federal government over the years. Between 1986 and 1994, he was subjected to three federal grand jury investigations. No indictments were ever handed down. However, during that time federal officials raided his research clinic and confiscated his patients' medical records.
Then in March 1995, Dr. Burzynski appeared on the CBS TV show "This Morning," accompanied by three of his patients. That very afternoon, the FDA raided his clinic again. A fourth federal grand jury investigation got underway, and by November 1995, charged Dr. Burzynski with 40 counts of distributing a non-FDA approved drug in interstate commerce, 34 counts of mail fraud, and one count of contempt of court for violating the order against interstate delivery of Antineoplastons. Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) noted that a grand jury's failure to indict someone after three attempts is "virtually unprecedented."
On February 9, 1996, US District Court Judge Sim Lake ruled that Dr. Burzynski cannot treat patients outside of clinical trials. In other words, he issued a death sentence for hundreds of Dr. Burzynski's patients.
This prosecution marked the first time the FDA had tried to jail a scientist for using a drug on which he was conducting FDA authorized clinical trials. This trial alone, which was not even based on whether or not antineoplastons work or not cost the American taxpayer $60 million, while costing Dr. Burzynski over $2.2 million!
On March 4, 1997, due to a dead-locked jury, a mistrial was declared.
The FDA still did not back down. A second federal trial got underway May 19, 1997 to try Dr. Burzynski on the contempt of court charge. A federal jury acquitted Dr. Burzynski on May 27, 1997.
At the same time, Dr. Burzynski was fighting the Texas Medical Examiner's Board and the FDA, the National Cancer Institute, under Dr. Michael Friedman, tried to co-opt his discovery and render it ineffective.
A former employee of Dr. Burzynski, Dvorit Samid, betrayed him when she partnered with Elan Pharmaceutical through her employment with the National Cancer Institute and tried to hijack Burzynski's discovery. The problem was that she used only one component of the antineoplaston, phenylacetate, which when isolated, has very little clinical effect.
When that didn't work, the National Cancer Institute said they would accept Dr. Burzynski's antineoplastons; however, only if they could revise the protocol that Dr. Burzynski had perfected. Burzynski refused. The NIC threatened with patent infringement. Finally, they came to an agreement. Yet, within a very short time, in March 1995, the NIC tried to drastically alter Burzynski's protocol to make his treatment less effective!!
Four years after the NCI trials were closed and two years after Burzynski defeated the FDA, winning his freedom, the NCI, in February of 1999, decided to vindictively publish the scientifically invalid Antineoplaston trials in peer-reviewed medical literature. However, whoever published the invalid trials forgot to leave out the dosage, which in some patients was 2.7 times lower than the protocol demanded, and in other patients, 36 times lower, and, in even other patients, 170 times lower!
Li-Chuan Chen, PhD, who worked as a scientist for the National Cancer Institute from 1991-1997, said that when the NCI or assigned entities conducted trials on alternative cancer therapies they always altered the protocol and let it fail in order to discredit the therapy. He went on to say, "Scientists never look at it carefully, because as he says, Popeye is telling you something and you don't question him...under the capitalist sun, there is nothing sacred."
Here's the kicker. On October 21. 1991, the United States of America as represented by the Department of Health and Human Services, along with "Inventor": Dvorit Samid filed a patent for Antineoplastons. On October 12. 1993, the US and Dvorit Samid file for a second patent on Antineoplastons. And on March 7, 1994, the US and Dvorit Samid file its most comprehensive patent spanning 111 pages. Seven months later they file a fourth one. On 6/6/1995, the US files its 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th extended patent. The next day, the US files its 9th, 10th, and 11th patent. A few months later, Dr. Michael Friedman leaves his position at the NCI and becomes Deputy Commissioner of Operations for the FDA, working directly under Dr. David Kessler.
In the three years (1997-2000) after Dr. Burzynski was indicted, all of the US patents for Antineoplastons were approved. However, one paragraph within these patents, in particular, is quite revealing:
Since 2009, the only obstacle in the way of Antineoplasmons is the $300 million pricetag on the final phase of FDA clinical testing...and the FDA's requirement that children with inoperable brainstem glioma to also under go radiation treatment in these Phase 3 trials, claiming it would be unethical to do otherwise.
Isn't it funny how the FDA has no problem approving substances like aspartame that's responsible for more complaints to the FDA than any other additive considering that 75% of grievances to the FDA are the result of this highly toxic ingredient...an ingredient that the FDA lists 92 symptoms for, including brain tumors and death! Yet, wants to outlaw walnuts? Does anyone get the idea that the FDA may be trying to outlaw healthy immune systems?
But why would they want to harm we, the people? Well, it's not so much the desire to harm us, as it is their #1 priority to ensure Big Profits for Big Pharma, Big Agriculture and Big Chemical. Remember, they're people, too...far more important then the flesh and blood kind of people like us.
In July, Natural Newsreported that the FDA "quietly unleashed a regulatory scheme that, if fully implemented, could ban virtually all dietary supplements in the USA that were formulated after 1994".
Which brings us to walnuts are drugs. Yep, you read that right. Why? Because Blue Diamondwants to declare walnuts heart-healthy, so, the FDA says, "walnut products are drugs", and must be regulated as such.
FDA letter to "Blue Diamonds"
"Your walnut products are drugs...they may not legally marketed ...in the United States without an approved new drug application."
Two words to watch out for: Codex Alimentarius which was created in 1963 by UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and World Health Organization (WHO) to develop food standards, guidelines and related texts such as codes of practice under the Joint FAO. Sounds innocent enough, right? Well, I'm sure it was until the pharmaceutical industry infiltrated. Now, it appears to be the propaganda arm of the international pharmaceutical industry. In other words, Codex alimentarius is one of the major entities behind the effort to take away our access to nutritional products and information.
Wasn't it Henry Kissinger who said, "Control oil and you control nations, control food and you control the people"? Well, it looks as if these words were more of an agnda, than merely a statement.
Natural Solutions Foundation is a “network of networks” created to disseminate the facts, challenges and triumphs in our shared battle to protect, preserve and defend our right to make our own health choices based on what we, not the government, believe are the best choices for ourselves.
We have a confused understanding of the federal money system because we base it on what we know about our own personal bank account, and we were never taught that the federal system does not operate in the same way. If you look at a chart of historical national debt and compare it to a chart of national money supply, they're the same. They both go up at the same rate. Why? Because the federal debt IS our money supply. Our money is credit and debt.
The federal government can initiate the supply of money by writing checks (debits in fed acct) that directly jumpstarts our economy. When the government writes checks to its employees, for real goods and services, that shows up as credits in real people's accounts that they, in turn, spend into the economy. The federal government can also write checks for infrastructure, which shows up as credits in commercial accounts, and creates jobs, thus creating credits in real people's accounts that they can spend into the economy.
States can create their own credit, as well. North Dakotais the only state that escaped the credit crisis. They own their own bank, which partners with the local banks and keeps credit moving within the state. So, why aren't all 50 states taking control of their money supply in the same way? Well, this would greatly threaten the international banking cartel (ibc). And, when you threaten the ibc, you end up like Libya, who had the nerve to create their own central bank that issues the money and issues credit for the nation's infrastructure, interest free; therefore, they had the lowest debt to GDP ration in the world.
However, unlike the political leaders in North Dakota, Khadaffi was trying to mobilize all of the African countries to follow his lead, while setting up an African monetary fund that would compete with the International Monetary Fund.
So, yes, we have the money to do anything we want to do. That's what money is: the credit of the nation, and the nation can advance the credit for what it needs to do.
The question that needs to be asked is, who do they plan to battle? Well, we, the people, of course.
Currently, the U.S. Department of Justice, relying on the All Writs Act that dates back to 1789, is determined to make sure that a case in Colorado will set a legal precedent allowing it to force Americans accused of crimes to decrypt their computers' hard drives. Fortunately, an encryption defense attorney is fighting the DOJ demands, applying the Fifth Amendment to encrypted information stored on computers.
Gene "Chip" Tatum, a former CIA Black Ops Assassin and OSG2 NWO insider, who was also involved in Iran-Contra knew what would happen to him if he spoke out and showed his documents, but he did it anyway, and in 2007, Chip’s tortured body washed up on a beach in Panama.
In the video (below), Chip discusses his "involvement in Operation Red Rock, Task Force 160 and OSG2. Hear him reveal the names of high profile officials who were integrally involved in these CIA covert killing sprees and/or narco-trafficking, directly or indirectly: Oliver "Ollie" North, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton. You’ll learn from an "insider" about outrageous U.S. government felony crime and corruption and the impending New World Order destruction of America. You’ll hear his amazing insight concerning the Nixon Administration and the dirty politics of the Vietnam War. This is the last interview prior to his sudden disappearance in 1998.
Excerpts:
Full interview:
Interview with Chip's wife:
Ted Gunderson interviews Nancy Tatum, the wife of Black Ops-Operative Chip Tatum. In this film you'll learn from Nancy how her and Chip were stalked, harassed, intimidated and eventually railroaded into Federal Prison for Chip's refusal to turn over secret documents to U.S. Intelligence Agencies because he knew that they "knew" he had first-hand knowledge of shadow government narco-trafficking into the United States by powerful, high profile officials. Chip knew that he would be murdered if he gave up his "evidence" to Oliver North at the behest of his handler, George H.W. Bush. This video exposes how absolutely corrupt the Federal so-called "justice" department and courts have become-to the point of aiding and abetting in the conspiracy and cover-up of U.S. government "spook" agency participation in narcotics trafficking into the U.S. She warns how anyone and everyone can be destroyed by the corrupt justice system. http://www.1-free-dvd.com free download of 'The Tatum Chronicles:' http://www.scribd.com/doc/1434148/The-Tatum-Chronicles free download of 'Nixon's Darkest Secret:' http://www.scribd.com/doc/520461/Nixons-Darkest-Secret free download of Tatum's C.I.P.A. Briefing: http://www.scribd.com/doc/504636/USA-vs-Chip-TatumCIPA-Briefing-Transcripts free download of Nexus magazine interview of Chip Tatum: http://www.scribd.com/doc/504761/The-Pegasus-Fileex-CIA-deep-cover-agent-Tatum-interviewed
Here is a link to the text and copies of the documents “The Tatum Chronicles” including an order on White House stationary signed by George H.W. Bush to Chip to recover documents by whatever means necessary including death. He would not be held accountable.
Well, according to Press Core World News, the US government ordered the HAARP (High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program) website down, three weeks ago, "to conceal US weather modification and earthquake inducing warfare activities against foreign states."
The Environmental Modification Convention (ENMOD) prohibits the military or other hostile use of environmental modification techniques or weather warfare, "which is the use of weather modification techniques for the purposes of inducing damage or destruction."
Now, because HAARP is never mentioned by those in the mainstream media, too many people assume - that is, if they've even heard of HAARP - that HAARP is nothing more than a benign weather monitoring station ...just another crazy conspiracy theory cooked up by those who have too much time on their hands.
You see, time - and resources - is something the ruling class does not want you to have; because, then, clandestine operations can easily be passed off as wacky conspiracy theories of the deranged and demented, when, in fact, those operations are very real and very lethal.
Read more...
Currently there are 319 executive and independent agencies at the federal level, and every year 70,000 pages of new and proposed regulations are added to the federal register. There are over 4,000 federal statutory crimes, and somewhere between 10,000 and 300,000 regulations with criminal sanctions attached.
Does that sound like a government of limited power with maximum freedom for the individual? Because that was the vision of our Founding Fathers according to Robert A. Levy and William Mellor, authors of The Dirty Dozen: How Twelve Supreme Court Cases Radically Expanded Government and Eroded Freedom which argues that twelve Supreme Court case decisions, since the New Deal have eroded our freedoms and expanded government, thus have altered the course of American history.
“The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined,” wrote James Madison in Federalist Paper No. 45. And Alexander Hamilton wrote in Federalist Paper No. 78, "Whoever attentively considers the different departments of power must perceive, that, in a government in which they are separated from each other, the judiciary, from the nature of its functions, will always be the least dangerous to the political rights of the Constitution; because it will be least in a capacity to annoy or injure them." In other words the judiciary is the weakest branch of government.
If the power is not granted to the federal government by the Constitution it does not have power to act. The Constitution is "animated by a presumption of liberty"[1] and that should be the starting point for any judicial inquiry, however this is not the case anymore.
Instead the Supreme Court, by way of back door, has condoned and enabled the unchecked growth of federal authority outside the amendment process. Unelected justices with lifetime tenure have effectively amended the Constitution without input from or accountability to we the people. The words remain the same but their meaning has profoundly changed, vastly expanding federal powers. This has changed the presumption of liberty to a presumption in favor of government authority on the part of the courts.
Although an excellent book, keep in mind this is the opinion of two men regarding the the Supreme Court's failure to interpret the constitution in a reasonable manner. The "Living Constitution Theory" which espouses that the Constitution should be interpreted in the context of modern challenges and conditions and evolving standards of decency is criticized for "judicial policy-making". "
"Where the Constitution's text is unambiguous, that text controls. But where provisions are unclear, it is entirely proper for courts to consider the broader values underlying the Constitution, like democracy, equality or privacy, in deciding what's constitutional and what's not."
12 Supreme Court cases and associated issues:
Helvering v Davis (1937) declared Social Security was not a contributory insurance program.(Issue:Promoting the general welfare)
Home Building & Loan v. Blaisdell (1933) declared government can unilaterally void parts of private contracts despite Article I Section 10's explicit language to the contrary (Issue: Rescinding Private Contracts)
Korematsu v. U.S. (1944): U.S. declared program of internment for Japanese Americans was constitutional (Issue: Civil Liberties Versus National Security)
Bennis v. Michigan (1996) declared government can use civil forfeiture to take property without compensation that is involved in a crime even if the owner of the property has no involvement in that crime. (Issue: Asset Forfeiture Without Due Process)
Kelo v. City of New London declared governments can seize private property in order to give it to other private hands (Issue: Eminent Domain for Private Use)
New government sponsored programs help with student loans:
The Income-Based Repayment (IBR) plan was proposed as part of the College Cost Reduction and Access Act of 2007 and will become available on July 1, 2009.
Income-based repayment is intended as an alternative to income sensitive repayment (ISR) and income contingent repayment (ICR). (Both ISR and ICR plans will continue to exist.) It is designed to make repaying education loans easier for students who intend to pursue jobs with lower salaries, such as careers in public service. It does this by capping the monthly payments at a percentage of the borrower's discretionary income, which is based on the borrower's income, family size, and total amount borrowed. The monthly payment amount is adjusted annually, based on changes in annual income and family size.
The College Cost Reduction and Access Act of 2007 established a new public service loan forgiveness program. This program discharges any remaining debt after 10 years of full-time employment in public service. The borrower must have made 120 payments as part of the Direct Loan program in order to obtain this benefit. Only payments made on or after October 1, 2007 count toward the required 120 monthly payments. (Borrowers may consolidate into Direct Lending in order to qualify for this loan forgiveness program starting July 1, 2008.)
This contrasts with the loan forgiveness of the remaining balance after 25 years of repayment under the income-contingent and income-based repayment plans for borrowers who are not employed full time in public service jobs.
More than wealth, guns, knives, attack dogs, alarm systems, heavy armor, etc., our first line of defense against what life can dish out in today's society - protecting ourselves from private industry, our government, financial and legal system - is learning to read. The average reading level in America - approximately 8th grade - enables the "average" American to read and comprehend the New York Times. Some may argue that that's not good enough. However, when you consider the average IQ is 100, the vast inequity built into our education and socioeconomic system - the number of people struggling to put food on the table - America's reading level is just about where it should be. In other words, American citizens are doing the best they can with what they've got to work with.
Assuming we the people, have lived up to our end of the bargain, what can we expect from the federal government? What is their role? Well, according to the U.S. Constitution, the role of the federal government is to "promote the general welfare". That is, government should provide a level playing field as much as possible that allows every citizen the chance to take advantage of what the United States has to offer. This is certainly not the case when institutions are allowed to write documents and disclosures in such a way that the complexity far surpasses the average American citizen's reading capacity. Credit card disclosures, mortgage contracts, and credit derivatives, especially, surpass the reading level of some of the most learned people in the United States!
Why can't we demand that every American has the right to understand what we pay for, vote for, and depend on a daily basis? Why is it legal that corporations and institutions can obscure documents and disclosures on purpose, clearly, for their own gain?
The answer is easy. A confused American is very profitable American. The objective is clearly to make most Americans feel powerless and stupid. No one likes to admit their failure to comprehend the tax code, real estate papers, statutes, executive orders, affidavits, jury instructions, insurance contracts, investment contracts, 16 page credit card agreements (printed on tissue paper in microscopic type, written on the "twenty-seventh" grade reading level) and all consumer-finance contracts and anything and everything written in legalese.
What would happen if every piece of legislation, every contract, credit card agreement, and basically anything legally binding had to pass through the Eighth Grade Clarity Committee (EGCC), made up of a diverse group of high achieving eighth graders of average to above average intelligence, as a final test of clarity. If all the eighth graders appointed understand, it passes...if not, it must go back for a rewrite until the EGCC grasp whatever it is being tested with little effort.
It's been proven that complex subjects can be translated into plain language with no loss of accuracy or precision. It's been proven that plain language saves time, money, and most importantly, sanity.
People like myself will be most appreciative and I think we would see a thriving, productive, and most importantly, an informed America evolve.
Catholic Charities USA, President Father Larry Snyder urged our federal government to do more for the poor when he described the current state of poverty in the United States as both "unacceptable" and a "moral crisis".
"Poverty in America: Beyond the Numbers",a report that offers a national and state-by-state snapshot of how and where local Catholic Charities agencies across the country are serving the greatest numbers of individuals in need of healthcare, food, employment, and housing services," shows Catholic Charities USA served 7.9 million clients (1 out of every 10 people below the poverty line) in 2006.
Between 2002 and 2006:
The number of clients receiving food service programs increased 60%.
Request for temporary shelter increased 24%!
45% of Catholic Charities' clients were either under 18-years old or over 65.
In April of 2007, Father Larry Snyder gave testimony before the Subcommittee on Income Security and Family Support of the House Committee on Ways and Means on the steady increase in the number of families seeking assistance.
"Through our daily work at Catholic Charities agencies across our nation, we see the impact of poverty on families. The many misconceptions about the nature of poverty in the United States reinforce the commonly held view that poverty is due to failures and deficiencies of individuals, rather than the failures of structures that we put in place through the economic and political choices we make as a nation. While it is true that individual choices and behaviors do influence one’s chances of living in poverty, these individual behaviors are frequently outweighed by the structures and policies that shape the opportunities of people who are poor." -- Father Larry Snyder
