The Fruit Of Silence

The Fruit of Silence is Prayer
The Fruit of Prayer is Faith
The Fruit of Faith is Love
The Fruit of Love is Service
The Fruit of Service is Peace


El Fruto del Silencio es la Oración
El Fruto de la Oración es la Fe
El Fruto de la Fe es el Amor
El Fruto del Amor es el Servicio
El Fruto del Servicio es Paz

~Mother Theresa

Corpus Cristi

Corpus Cristi

Para mi, esto es uno de los cuadros más hermsos de todos los tiempos

Condaleeza Rice Should Resign

Condaleeza Rice has been lying to us for four or five years. As this video shows, she has repeatedly stated that the United States does not torture.

But now it turns out as indicated by Phillip Sands in an article in Vanity Fair, that Ms. Rice was aware of this policy to torture and probably helped to draft the policy. "The Green Light"
She oversaw the White House memoranda that directed personnel at Guantánamo, in Afghanistan, at CIA secret prisons and at Abu Ghraib to torture. Those memos were detailed and called for various procedures that are specifically prohibited in the Geneva Convention.

Where Is The Danger That Warrants Using Spy Satellites On Americans?

The Washington Post and all the other big papers reported yesterday that the Department of Fatherland Security (DHS) is planning to take control of spy satelites that were developed during and soon after the Cold War to spy on our Communist adversaries. Apparently the administration is not afraid of the Russians any longer because Mr. Chertoff announced that these satellites are to be used to spy on America now.
This step is another in a series that unquestionably cross the line into totalitarian and unconstitutional usurpation of power by the executive branch of government under the misguided leadership of our idiot President.
There is a rising tide of incursions into the private lives of American citizens. It is steadily creeping into every crevice of our communications, transactions and movement. This universal movement towards governmental control of the populace takes a great deal of people doing many different things. In order for so many people in the administration to dedicate such effort to gradually erode our liberty there must be a powerful motivation that is shared by all of them. There must be a terrible fear of something that would lead so many departments to coordinate to violate our liberty.
I may be a little dull, but I cannot fathom what the motivation might be. Of course we can say that it is a scheme to turn America into Nazi Germany, or to formally hand everything over to the oligarchy, but that would require the cooperation of thousands in a nefarious plot. There are not that many truly evil people in the world. The true sociopath is quite rare. Dick Cheney undoubtedly is one and Dubya is so stupid as to believe that he is doing good things, but the rest of the people in government certainly think that they are doing the right thing.
They must believe that we are confronting a grave danger here at home. But there is nothing in recent crime statistics, or incursions by “terrorists”, or mass involvement in revolutionary movements to warrant such fear.
So what are they so afraid of? Have they twisted reality as they spin White House press releases for so long that they believe their own lies? Do they all share information that the lowly serfs out here beyond the beltway are incapable of reading without causing mass histeria?
Please help this slow learner understand what might be the fear or other motivation behind this concerted effort to enslave America.

The Wisdom of Dwight Eisenhower

PREVENTIVE WAR
"Preventive war was an invention of Hitler. Frankly, I would not even listen to anyone seriously that came and talked about such a thing."

MILITARY INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX
This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence -- economic, political, even spiritual -- is felt in every city, every State house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the militaryindustrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.

Dwight D. Eisenhower, President of The United States

Origins of the Federal Reserve Bank

The Fed is the bastard son of the banks that raped the Federal government as the idiot President Woodrow Wilson stood by and applauded.
It answers to Mom and Dad, but only when it wants to.

Let The Banks Regulate Themselves – And Print Their Own Money

Last Friday, George Dubya Bush announced a new system to regulate the banking industry. The new system is designed to regulate more than commercial banks. It would include the regulation of Savings and Loans, Investment Banks, Mutual Funds and even Insurance Companies. The announcement was made with a twenty two page report that is a summary of a much longer, very complex document. The announcement seemed to be in response to the latest bailout by the Fed: this time of Bear Stearns.

However the document's complexity indicates that it's confection could not possibly have been prepared in a week or two.This plan has been cooked up for some time now. The Bush White House has simply been waiting for an auspicious moment to present it. In fact this all feels very similar to what happened after 911. The Project for a New American Century, staffed by Don Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney and Paul Wolfowitz had plans ready to justify and launch an attack on Saddam Hussein's Iraq as far back as 1998. They were just waiting for an auspicious moment to present those plans. Well, it looks like the Bear Stearns meltdown, as part of the larger financial crisis, is the 911 that Paulson, Bush and Bernanke have been waiting for.

So what is the plan? It is to abrogate the regulatory responsibilities over all financial activity in the United States to the Federal Reserve Bank. The Fed would control the stock markets, both investment and commercial banking, insurance companies and other financial institutions. These companies would no longer be controlled by the SEC, the Treasury Dept, etc. All their regulated activities would be overseen by the Fed.

But the Fed is not part of the government. The Federal Reserve Bank is owned by the RegionalReserve Banks which are owned by large American commercial banks. The government's only input into the management of the Fed is through the appointment of the members of the Board. But the government cannot remove members of the Board, so the influence that our elected representatives have over the Fed Board and it's Chairman is only through reasonable argument. The Fed Chairman is required to make a periodic presentation to Congress, but they cannot force him to do anything that he doesn't wish to do. Neither the President or his Secretary of the Treasury can dictate policy to the Fed Chairman. He is the completely autonomous director of a non governmental organization.

The Fed was established by bankers in 1913 as a Central Bank in order to coin money. Laws have been passed that abrogate the Constitutional responsibility to coin money from the Congress to the Fed. Those laws are of questionable Constitutional legality, but they have been accepted for 95 years and will not be challenged now. The Fed will continue to coin money and will do so to try to stabilize the economy and create conditions for the growth of capital. They are now creating money to bail out the large mortgage banks and investment banks.The Chairman of the Fed confers with the President and the Secretary of the Treasury as a matter of courtesy before doing these things, but it is only courtesy, he need not pay them any heed

The Fed Chairman is more liable to listen to the owners of the institution that he manages: the commercial bankers. So the Fed is really representing bankers. Now think for a moment: Is it a good idea to put the banks in charge of overseeing the banks at the same time that the banks have the power to print money to bail out the banks? Is that how things should by done in a representative government? If we decide that regulation of financial institutions is a good idea, and that seems to be the consensus, then in a country with a government established for the people and by the people, shouldn't the people ultimately control how that regulation is conducted?

Bush and Paulson say no, the people should have nothing to say.

Unbelievable!

Chuck Hagel Tells Bush That War Should Not Be A Political Issue

Here you see a great American, fed up with the neocon Republican Party. God bless you Chuck Hagel.

Misunderstandings About the Financial Crisis

I have heard many people say that this economic crisis is not the banks' fault; that no one forced unqualified borrowers to take loans that they couldn’t afford.

Well, the banks are in fact responsible. Under intense pressure from the bankers' lobbyists the Congress deregulated Real Estate and banking at the beginning of the Bush Presidency. The banks changed the laws with the intention of loaning money to people, many of who would never be able to afford the payments on their mortgages. The banks and broherage houses did this in order to heat up the Real Estate market. It worked; great fortunes were made in a short period of time by speculating in the housing market. The banks wrote billions of dollars in loans with variable interest rates that were much higher than the interest that they could charge to a truly qualified buyer. Then the banks bundled the mortgages and sold them as secured equities to investors around the world. The banks were going to make a fortune too, although this wild ride could not work forever. The bubble had to burst.

The domestic Real Estate markets hit the wall and the banks are now hitting the same wall. Given the expertise in the American banking industry we must assume that they had evaluated the risk of a Real Estate market collapse, but they went ahead anyway. So considering the manpower that banks employ in risk assesment, we can assume that the financial institutions went into this on purpose with their eyes open. But, then housing prices fell, and some banks found that they didn't have enough liquidity to maintain solvency in the face of so many foreclosures. Why would they do that? There seem to me to be two possibilities:

1.- The millionaire bankers are really stupid.
2.- The millionaire bankers' lobbyists assured them that they had the votes to bail out the banks when the bubble burst at the expense of today's and tomorrow's taxpayers.

Which of those two looks more likely to you?

Given the fact that the Fed just accepted 200 billion dollars of worthless paper as collateral from troubled brokerage houses and banks in order to inject some cash into the system and given that the Fed is ready with 200 billion more, it looks like answer #2 is the winner.

So we aren’t going to have socialized medicine, but we do have socialized banking. The profits go to extremely rich men that don’t pay taxes, in fact as we see in the cases of Bear Stearns and Countrywide Financial the millionaires were giving themselves BILLIONS in bonuses weeks before their companies crashed. And now the losses are going to be paid by you and the rest of the taxpayers. This all happens while politicians tell us that the foreclosed homeowners should not be bailed out, that they should be responsible for their mistakes.

I have been told that unless I am an economist or a banker I should not opine on these matters because a great deal of specialized education is needed before a person can understand the forces at play. Greenspan and Bernanke know all, Ferrell should shut up and listen the great economists.

Why is it, that during the last year, in every economic or financial discussion in which I have participated on-line there is always someone who takes the position that only economists should voice opinions in this matter. People say the following about Mr. Greenspan "I'm sure he has a much deeper understanding of this than you do. Does anything qualify your opinion, like a comparable policy-making position or multiple degrees in economics, or you're just parroting some nutjob´s talking points?"

The normal neocon response to anyone opining about economics is that Bernanke, Paulson, Greenspan etc. know more than you, so shut up. But that is not a good argument given the very bad economic situation that we are facing today. It is clear that uncontrolled lending to unqualified borrowers is one of the root causes of this disaster. The seeds of the disaster were sown on Greenspan’s watch. He was asked a number of times (by people with less degrees than he possesses) if he wasn’t concerned that:

1. - The housing market had overheated thanks to sub-prime lending and had formed a bubble? - Greenspan always pooh-poohed the questioner. "There is no bubble" As we can see he was wrong. Really, terribly wrong
2. - Our trade deficit wasn’t going to cause inflation? - No, he said, "it will just increase foreign investment. It doesn’t matter where goods are made, everything benefits America" Wrong again! Really, terribly wrong
3. - Our Federal budget deficit isn’t going to produce inflation and or recession? - He answered "No, don’t worry, market growth will take care of everything" Wrong again! Really, terribly wrong.


He is so incredibly smart that he sent us into financial meltdown, and when he finally saw it coming he slid out of the Fed and handed the bag of flaming crap to Paul Bernanke.

Economists, like many specialists often lose sight of the forest as they concentrate on the trees. Sometimes those of us who look at the broader reality that we all live in have a great deal more wisdom.

Ron Paul's comments on Iraq in 1998

Click on the title above to read Ron Paul's debate in the Congress about war in Iraq and about how we created Osama bin Laden. Take into consideration that he said all of this ten years ago!

He was right on every point and he still is, but the country continues to sing on cue and follow the directions of the military industrial complex. Please click on the title and read the debate transcript.