“The Obama administration is asking the Supreme Court to overrule a 23 year-old decision that stopped police from initiating questions unless a defendant’s lawyer is present, the latest stance that has disappointed civil rights and civil liberties groups.” (Read more from news.yahoo.com)

Yes we can!

“Nouriel Roubini wrote in March that Goldman Sachs was insolvent:

So for the Treasury to hide behind the “systemic risk” excuse to fork out another $30 billion to AIG is a polite way to say that without such a bailout (and another half-dozen government bailout programs such as TAF, TSLF, PDCF, TARP, TALF and a program that allowed $170 billion of additional debt borrowing by banks and other broker-dealers, with a full government guarantee), Goldman Sachs and every other broker-dealer and major U.S. bank would already be fully insolvent today.

Yet Goldman reported a $1.7 billion dollar profit for last quarter.

How did Goldman do it?

Well, as Floyd Norris – chief financial correspondent for the New York Times – explains, Goldman simply didn’t report results for December 2008, a month in which it took huge write-downs.

Its easy to look profitable when you can cook the books . . .” (Read more from washingtonsblog.com)

The interesting part comes at about 4:50, when Susan Witt corrects the host. The U.S.S.A. requires local currencies to be exchangeable with federal fiat notes so that government may more easily confiscate a share of economic activity.

What excites me is that despite the requirement of backing local currency with federal fiat notes, this is still a step toward freedom.

Local US currency strengthens community “For years now, citizens of Ithaca have been able to solve a growing dilemma: people had needs, time, and skills, but a shortage of dollars, so the Ithaca hours solved this problem. Today, the Ithaca hours have moved from businesses to banks and even the Alternative Federal Credit Union in Ithaca finds ways to incorporate these paper hours. Local currencies gained ground during the Great Depression and then became less popular, but with the economy in a tailspin, local money is once again gaining momentum.” (Read more from inteldaily.com)

Communities print their own currency to keep cash flowing “Workers with dwindling wages are paying for groceries, yoga classes and fuel with Detroit Cheers, Ithaca Hours in New York, Plenty in North Carolina or BerkShares in Massachusetts.” (Read more from usatoday.com)

The PLENTY Relaunch! Tuesday, May 12, 2009, 9-5 (theplenty.org)

An excerpt from the book, What Has Government Done to Our Money?, by the great Austrian Economist Murray Rothbard (1926-1995).

“Government imposes price controls largely in order to divert public attention from governmental inflation to the alleged evils of the free market. As we have seen, ‘Gresham’s Law’–that an artificially overvalued money tends to drive an artificially undervalued money out of circulation–is an example of the general consequences of price control. Government places, in effect, a maximum price on one type of money in terms of the other.”

Me: Think of how, when the our government began debasing silver quarters in the 1960s, all the true silver quarters disappeared almost instantly.

“. . . With the name of the country’s currency now prominent in accounting instead its actual weight, contracts began to pledge payment in certain amounts of ‘money.’ Legal tender laws dictated what that ‘money’ could be. When only the original gold or silver was designated ‘legal tender,’ people considered it harmless, but they should have realized that a dangerous precedent had been set for government control of money. If the government sticks to the original money, its legal tender law is superfluous and unnecessary. On the other hand, the government may declare as legal tender a lower-quality currency side-by-side with the original. Thus, the government may decree worn coins as good as new ones in paying off debt, of silver and gold equivalent to each other in the fixed ratio.The legal tender laws then bring Gresham’s Law into being. . . .

Governmental control of money could only become absolute, and its counterfeiting unchallenged, as money-substitutes came into prominence in recent centuries. The advent of paper money and bank deposits, an economic boon when backed fully by gold or silver, provided the open sesame for government’s road to power over money, and thereby over the entire economic system.” (Read more from Mises.org)

In 1976 there was a Swine Flu epidemic. Ron Paul was one of two Congressmen to vote against government sponsored inoculation. One person died of swine flu. Twenty five died from the vaccine.

The 1976 Flu vaccine propaganda film:

Sen. McCain was right and the National Review Online is wrong. Politifact, the St. Petersburg Times’ truth-testing project (which this week was awarded a Pulitzer Prize), scrutinized Sen. McCain’s statement and found it to be true. Here’s the money quote from Politifact:

“McCain is referencing the Tokyo Trials, officially known as the International Military Tribunal for the Far East. After World War II, an international coalition convened to prosecute Japanese soldiers charged with torture. At the top of the list of techniques was water-based interrogation, known variously then as ‘water cure,’ ‘water torture’ and ‘waterboarding,’ according to the charging documents. It simulates drowning.” Politifact went on to report, “A number of the Japanese soldiers convicted by American judges were hanged, while others received lengthy prison sentences or time in labor camps.”

This issue arose when warmonger, chicken-hawk, neo-con apologist Ari Fleischer was left momentarily dumbstruck in this debate with Paul Begala. It didn’t last long. He quickly filled the silence with boilerplate partisanship.

I hope I’m wrong, but unfortunately, I doubt it. We have substituted production with money printing. The other shoe must drop.

Peter Schiff is president of an investment firm and follower of the Austrian School of Economics.

This is another great Lew Rockwell podcast. Find more here.

Charles Adams, author of For Good and Evil: The Impact of Taxes on the Course of Civilization, speaks about taxes and tax resistance, from the Bible, the Greeks, and through present day.

“A big confrontation is brewing between the United States and Israel’s new government over the Palestine issue.

Since his first days in office, President Barack Obama has expressed clear support for speedy action toward the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel. Since then, he and his key advisers — Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and special envoy George Mitchell — have all quietly but firmly stayed the course in supporting that goal.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu strongly objects. He argues for starting with an ‘economic peace’ for the Palestinians, and discussing sovereignty issues with them only much later — if at all. Though he has stopped short of saying an outright ‘No’ to the Palestinian state idea, his advisers warn that he is adamantly opposed to the emergence of what he and they call ‘another Hamastan.’

Thus far, this disagreement has not erupted into an open confrontation. Netanyahu has, after all, only been in office since Mar. 31. But it may well become more acute during May, when Netanyahu visits Washington.” (Read more from myantiwar.org)

Ron Paul explains the bill to audit the Fed:

The bill now has 91 co-sponsors! Have you called your congressman?

“General Motors Corp., shuttering U.S. plants in a bid to avoid bankruptcy, is “likely” to build a new factory in China on surging demand.” (Read more from bloomberg.com)

Yes we can!

One thing I like about Ron Paul’s website, is that all the photos show him in an office, where politicians belong. When they venture out into the world and try to find meaning in their otherwise empty lives, we get wars, social engineering and ridiculous legislation like HR 669.