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Occu-Party Interviews
Occupy Lexington throws a dance party on Saturday, October 22. I interview several people.-
- Monkey_Films
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The Homeless Chronicles : Giving a voice to the voiceless #1
The economy is hurting everyone. Some more than others. In this series I will talk to the homeless about each individual situation and how they got there.The economy is hurting everyone. Some more than others. In this series I will talk to... more-
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Mexican Drug Mafia Invades Texas
The United States is under attack by narco terrorists invading from the failed state of Mexico and Obama and the federal government are doing nothing about it.
In June, the Mexican drug mafia forced the closure of the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge in Arizona. Authorities in Arizona admit that criminals now control a drug and human smuggling corridor that stretches from the border into metro Phoenix. Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu explained in June that the Mexican Mafia controls three counties in his state.
Now drug smugglers are repeating the pattern in Texas.
On Saturday, the Cypress Times, an online newspaper in Cypress, Texas, reported that the murderous Los Zetas has crossed into the United States and taken over at least two ranches in the Laredo, Texas area. The owners of the farms have evacuated and were not harmed.
“I can personally vouch that this info came in late last night from a reliable police source inside the Laredo PD,” Jeff Schwilk, founder of the San Diego Minutemen, told the online newspaper. “There is currently a standoff between the unknown size Zeta forces and U.S. Border Patrol and local law enforcement on two ranches on our side of the Rio Grande.”
Kimberly Dvorak, writing for the Albuquerque Examiner, reports that two sources inside the Laredo Police Department have confirmed the incident. “We consider this an act of war,” said one police officer on the ground near the scene. There is a news blackout of this incident at this time and the sources inside Laredo PD spoke on the condition of anonymity, writes Dvorak.
The DBKP blog contacted the the Laredo Police Department on Saturday. “We have been advised to say nothing. The Webb County Sheriff is taking the lead on this and they’re advising that they can’t confirm anything either,” a spokesperson told the blog.
On March 30, 2008, the Dallas Morning News reported Mexican drug cartels operated military-style training camps in at least six such locations in northern Tamaulipas and Nuevo León states, some within a few miles of the Texas border, according to U.S. and Mexican authorities and the printed testimony of five protected witnesses who were trained in the camps.
“Traffickers go to great lengths to prepare themselves for battle,” a senior U.S. anti-narcotics official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the newspaper. “Part of that preparation is live firing ranges and combat training courses…. And that’s not something that we have seen before.” In the state of Tamaulipas, Los Zetas train with other mercenaries, including the Kaibiles from Guatemala, the officials said.
The Justice Department warned local police in Arizona and California about Los Zetas violence along the border. “The violence will spill over the Mexican border into the United States and law enforcement agencies in Texas, Arizona and Southern California can expect to encounter Los Zetas in the coming months,” warned an intelligence bulletin issued by the feds. The Justice Department and Homeland Security consider the Mexican drug cartels as the greatest organized crime threat to the United States.
Los Zetas was founded by an elite force of assassins from Mexican Army deserters and is now integrated by corrupt ex-federal, state, and local police officers. Los Zetas was first hired as a private mercenary army for Mexico’s Gulf Cartel, but since February of this year have gone independent and are now enemies of its former partner.
In the first eleven months of 2008, Los Zetas killers were directly responsible for the deaths of 5,300 people, including soldiers, their own operatives, civilians, journalists, and rival drug traffickers.
In 2006, Mexican president Felipe Calderon supposedly declared war on the drug cartels. Since Calderon’s declaration, more than 25,000 people have been killed in Mexico due to drug violence. In June of this year alone hundreds of people in Mexico died from drug-related violence.
Last week CBS News said Mexico’s drug Mafia had adopted “al-Qaeda tactics” after a car bomb exploded across the border from El Paso, Texas, in Ciudad Juárez, killing two federal officers and a musician and injuring 11 people, including several bystanders. In late June, the El Paso City Hall was struck by gunfire from a deadly narco terrorist attack across the border in Juárez.
In May, Obama announced that 1,200 troops would be sent to the border to crack down on smuggling and drug cartel violence. Critics have called it political posturing in the run-up to November congressional elections and a response to Arizona’s recently passed immigration law.
Republicans in Texas consider the deployment of 250 troops in their state an insult. “The National Guard troops are not an adequate or long-term solution — they’re only a Band-Aid,” a spokeswoman for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bill White told the Star-Telegram. “Maybe Texas should sue the federal government for not doing its job,” added U.S. Rep. Michael Burgess, R-Lewisville.
Senator Kyl of Arizona said in June that Obama is refusing to secure the border until Congress passes so-called immigration reform. “The problem is, he said, if we secure the border, then you all won’t have any reason to support comprehensive immigration reform,” Kyl said at a town hall organized by a local Arizona Tea Party.
In June, the banksters admitted they fund the Mexican drug Mafia. Wachovia and Bank of America have moved money for Mexican drug smugglers.
“The admission came in an agreement that Charlotte, North Carolina-based Wachovia struck with federal prosecutors in March, and it sheds light on the largely undocumented role of U.S. banks in contributing to the violent drug trade that has convulsed Mexico for the past four years,” Bloomberg reported. “Wachovia’s blatant disregard for our banking laws gave international cocaine cartels a virtual carte blanche to finance their operations,” Jeffrey Sloman, the federal prosecutor who handled the case, told Bloomberg.
Bankster participation has also financed the Mexican Mafia’s expansion into Texas and Arizona.The United States is under attack by narco terrorists invading from the failed state... more-
- im1mjrpain
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Federal Reserve Must Disclose Bank Bailout Records (Update5) - Bloomberg.com
March 19 (Bloomberg) -- The Federal Reserve Board must disclose documents identifying financial firms that might have collapsed without the largest U.S. government bailout ever, a federal appeals court said.
The U.S. Court of Appeals in Manhattan ruled today that the Fed must release records of the unprecedented $2 trillion U.S. loan program launched primarily after the 2008 collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. The ruling upholds a decision of a lower-court judge, who in August ordered that the information be released.
The Fed had argued that disclosure of the documents threatens to stigmatize borrowers and cause them “severe and irreparable competitive injury,” discouraging banks in distress from seeking help. A three-judge panel of the appeals court rejected that argument in a unanimous decision.
The U.S. Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA, “sets forth no basis for the exemption the Board asks us to read into it,” U.S. Circuit Chief Judge Dennis Jacobs wrote in the opinion. “If the Board believes such an exemption would better serve the national interest, it should ask Congress to amend the statute.”
The opinion may not be the final word in the bid for the documents, which was launched by Bloomberg LP, the parent of Bloomberg News, with a November 2008 lawsuit. The Fed may seek a rehearing or appeal to the full appeals court and eventually petition the U.S. Supreme Court.
Right to Know
If today’s ruling is upheld or not appealed by the Fed, it will have to disclose the requested records. That may lead to “catastrophic” results, including demands for the instant disclosure of banks seeking help from the Fed, resulting in a “death sentence” for such financial institutions, said Chris Kotowski, a bank analyst at Oppenheimer & Co. in New York.
“Whenever the Fed extends funds to a bank, it should be disclosed in private to the Congressional oversight committees, but to release it to the public I think would be a horrific mistake,” Kotowski said in an interview. “It would stigmatize the banks, it would lead to all kinds of second-guessing of the Fed, and I don’t see what public purpose is served by it.”
Senator Bernie Sanders, an Independent from Vermont, said the decision was a “major victory” for U.S. taxpayers.
“This money does not belong to the Federal Reserve,” Sanders said in a statement. “It belongs to the American people, and the American people have a right to know where more than $2 trillion of their money has gone.”
Fed Review
The Fed is reviewing the decision and considering its options for reconsideration or appeal, Fed spokesman David Skidmore said.
“We’re obviously pleased with the court’s decision, which is an important affirmation of the public’s right to know what its government is up to,” said Thomas Golden, a partner at New York-based Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP and Bloomberg’s outside counsel.
The court was asked to decide whether loan records are covered by FOIA. Historically, the type of government documents sought in the case has been protected from public disclosure because they might reveal competitive trade secrets.
The Fed had argued that it could withhold the information under an exemption that allows federal agencies to refuse disclosure of “trade secrets and commercial or financial information obtained from a person and privileged or confidential.”
Deep Crisis
Oscar Suris, a spokesman for Wells Fargo, JPMorgan spokeswoman Jennifer Zuccarelli, Bank of New York Mellon spokesman Kevin Heine, HSBC spokeswoman Juanita Gutierrez and RBS spokeswoman Linda Harper all declined to comment. Deutsche Bank spokesman Ronald Weichert couldn’t immediately comment. Bank of America declined to comment, Scott Silvestri said. Citigroup spokeswoman Shannon Bell declined to comment. U.S. Bancorp spokesman Steve Dale didn’t return phone and e-mail messages seeking comment.
Bloomberg, majority-owned by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, sued after the Fed refused to name the firms it lent to or disclose loan amounts or assets used as collateral under its lending programs. Most of the loans were made in response to the deepest financial crisis since the Great Depression.
Lawyers for Bloomberg argued in court that the public has the right to know basic information about the “unprecedented and highly controversial use” of public money.
“Bloomberg has been trying for almost two years to break down a brick wall of secrecy in order to vindicate the public’s right to learn basic information,” Golden wrote in court filings.
Potential Harm
Banks and the Fed warned that bailed-out lenders may be hurt if the documents are made public, causing a run or a sell- off by investors. Disclosure may hamstring the Fed’s ability to deal with another crisis, they also argued.
Much of the debate at the appeals court argument on Jan. 11 centered on the potential harm to banks if it was revealed that they borrowed from the Fed’s so-called discount window. Matthew Collette, a lawyer for the government, said banks don’t do that unless they have liquidity problems.
FOIA requires federal agencies to make government documents available to the press and public. An exception to the statute protects trade secrets and privileged or confidential financial data. In her Aug. 24 ruling, U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska in New York said the exception didn’t apply because there’s no proof banks would suffer.
Tripartite Test
In its opinion today, the appeals court said that the exception applies only if the agency can satisfy a three-part test. The information must be a trade secret or commercial or financial in character; must be obtained from a person; and must be privileged or confidential, according to the opinion.
The court said that the information sought by Bloomberg was not “obtained from” the borrowing banks. It rejected an alternative argument the individual Federal Reserve Banks are “persons,” for purposes of the law because they would not suffer the kind of harm required under the “privileged and confidential” requirement of the exemption.
In a related case, U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein in New York previously sided with the Fed and refused to order the agency to release Fed documents that Fox News Network sought. The appeals court today returned that case to Hellerstein and told him to order the Fed to conduct further searches for documents and determine whether the documents should be disclosed.
“We are pleased that this information is finally, and rightfully, going to be made available to the American public,” said Kevin Magee, Executive Vice President of Fox Business Network, in a statement.
Balance Sheet Debt
The Fed’s balance sheet debt doubled after lending standards were relaxed following Lehman’s failure on Sept. 15, 2008. That year, the Fed began extending credit directly to companies that weren’t banks for the first time since the 1930s. Total central bank lending exceeded $2 trillion for the first time on Nov. 6, 2008, reaching $2.14 trillion on Sept. 23, 2009.
“It’s gratifying that the court recognizes the considerable interest in knowing what is being done with our tax dollars,” said Lucy Dalglish, executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press in Arlington, Virginia.
“We’ve learned some powerful lessons in the last 18 months that citizens need to pay more attention to what’s going on in the financial world. This decision will make it easier to do that.”
The case is Bloomberg LP v. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, 09-04083, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (New York).
To contact the reporters on this story: David Glovin in New York at dglovin@bloomberg.net; Bob Van Voris in New York at vanvoris@bloomberg.net.March 19 (Bloomberg) -- The Federal Reserve Board must disclose documents identifying... more-
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Exposing the Great American Bubble Barons: Join Us in the Investigation | | AlterNet
Join AlterNet's collective investigative project into the bubble barons who got obscenely rich as they destroyed our economy. Help hold them accountable with Citizen Journalism.
February 24, 2010 |
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A century ago, the robber barons at the helm of the U.S. economy were easily identifiable titans of industry: Andrew Carnegie of Carnegie Steel, John D. Rockefeller of Standard Oil, financier and steel magnate J.P. Morgan. It was easy to draw the link between the robber barons' brutal business practices and their immense wealth; it was clear that these businessmen were, quite literally, robbing the American people in the course of amassing their fortunes.
The influence of today's super-rich is significantly harder to trace. Much of their wealth is managed in opaque Wall Street investment vehicles and byzantine corporate structures. They are less likely to slap their names on their ventures, and their profitable relationships with the most destructive segments of our economy are hidden behind layers of corporate control. In our post-industrial economy, they amass wealth not by producing things with actual value, but rather by riding waves of speculation, such as the housing bubble, to dizzying heights of wealth.
Today's super-rich are not robber barons, but bubble barons: they extract their fortunes from intensifying cycles of imaginary wealth creation and destruction, live at a far remove from their businesses, and evade accountability in the public spotlight. The robber barons stood behind their economic crimes; the bubble barons, for the most part, do not.
Beginning today, AlterNet and LittleSis.org are partnering in an investigation of these bubble barons -- a select group of American multi-billionaires who saw astronomic gains in wealth during the housing bubble, and who so far have evaded all accountability in the midst of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. Who are they? Where did their wealth come from? Where has it gone? How do they exercise their influence?
To find out, we need your help: Click here to sign up with LittleSis.org and join AlterNet's investigation of America's bubble barons. (E-mail citjo@alternet.org if you have any questions.)
Once you sign up, you'll receive instructions about how you can help with our research. You will also receive instructions on how to use LittleSis, a platform for collaborative research on influential Americans, which we like to call an "involuntary facebook."
We've identified 67 "bubble barons" (also listed below) to target with this investigation. All are worth $2 billion or more, and all have ties to the industries that benefited most from the housing bubble: real estate and finance. Some, such as New York mayor Michael Bloomberg, have enjoyed increases of over 400 percent on what were substantial fortunes in the pre-bubble years. Others, such as former Enron trader John Arnold, are newly minted billionaires.
Following the bubble barons' money will be a key component of our investigation; naturally, this will entail a closer look at their charitable and political activities. Bloomberg, for one, supports public health initiatives through his family foundation. George Soros is a well-known funder of progressive causes through his Open Society Institute. The Koch brothers, on the other hand, are prominent backers of conservative organizations.
All of these fortunes were built on the illusion of a sound economy -- an illusion that came crashing down for most of the country in 2007 and 2008, as record numbers of Americans lost their homes to foreclosure and saw their jobs disappear.
But the illusion didn't come crashing down for the bubble barons. The U.S. government came to their rescue, in the form of massive, taxpayer-funded Wall Street bailouts and a monetary policy that rewards wealth, above all -- the bubble barons, above all. While Americans struggle under the burden of double-digit interest rates on mortgages and credit cards and see their savings accounts eek out gains measured in basis points, the bubble barons are essentially getting paid unprecedented amounts to sit on their money, simply because they have lots and lots of it.
More at the link above:Join AlterNet's collective investigative project into the bubble barons who got... more-
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Fighting on Frontlines of the Foreclosure Crisis: Citizens Take on the Monster Banks | | AlterNet
East Boston is one of those urban neighborhoods that is easy to pass through and hard to get to. It's separated from downtown Boston by a river, bisected by two tunnels and a freeway, and hemmed in by Logan Airport on the east. Sonny Noto's restaurant is a reminder of the days when it was heavily Italian, but it's now overwhelmingly Latino, mostly Mexican, Salvadoran and Colombian immigrants, their desires for ice cream and cumbia CDs catered to by the Heladeria al Jardin and El Poder Musical.
East Boston has been hard hit by foreclosure. More than 400 buildings there have been foreclosed, says Dominic Desiata, a community organizer for City Life/Vida Urbana. He estimates that out of a population of 40,000 people, 500 to 700 have faced eviction because of foreclosures.
Unlike the rest of the country, most of the victims of foreclosure in the Boston area are renters. Steve Meacham, a longtime City Life/Vida Urbana organizer, estimates that three-fourths of the people facing eviction in foreclosed properties are tenants.
"The foreclosure crisis is mainly affecting the three-decker," says Zoe Cronin, an attorney with Greater Boston Legal Services, referring to the three-story, three-apartment wood buildings that are urban New England's iconic working-class housing.
But Boston has also seen a strong campaign against foreclosure evictions. Combining grassroots organizing, legal action, political and media pressure on the banks and eviction-day sit-ins, it's so far been able to keep dozens of people in their homes.
"We've kept many, many people in their apartments," says Desiata. "We don't want to be displaced at the right price. We want to stay and keep the community together."
The banks, he says, don't want to renegotiate mortgages, and want the buildings vacant once they've been foreclosed. So they have to be pressured to let residents stay and pay rent, or to sell the building at the current appraised value instead of the housing-bubble mortgage value.
Canvassing
Salvadoran immigrant Alfredo Martinez became an organizer with City Life/Vida Urbana two years ago, when he was fighting eviction. A short, stocky engaging man in a brown outdoor-work jacket and a baseball cap, Martinez first came to the United States in 1973 and settled in East Boston after several trips back and forth. He's worked in restaurants and construction, as a bricklayer, tiler and plasterer.
In 2007, Citizens Bank foreclosed on Martinez's landlord, and then moved to evict him. He got a Legal Services lawyer to contest the eviction on the grounds that the building needed repairs. Eventually, he won a $12,500 settlement and the right to stay, signing a lease with the new owner, although his rent was raised to $900 and he's still trying to get repairs done.
Now he spends Saturday afternoons canvassing East Boston. Organizers—mostly tenants who have fought their own evictions—trek through the neighborhood in pairs, knocking on the doors of recently foreclosed buildings to try to get the residents to join the movement against displacement.
On Brooks Street, a toddler peers out the window of a two-story clapboard home. Someone immediately pulls the curtains shut. A lot of immigrants have miedo—a fear of strangers, Martinez explains; they're scared that outsiders could be immigration agents or police.
The upstairs apartment has five names listed on the mailbox, a common sight in the neighborhood. That's nothing, Martinez says. He once lived in a house with 24 people.
More at the link:East Boston is one of those urban neighborhoods that is easy to pass through and hard... more-
- WeAreChangeKy
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Congratulations! You’re Donating $2,000 per Family to Wall Street’s Bonuses « SpeakEasy
President Obama won’t tell us in his State of the Union address. The deficit hawks won’t crow about it. Don’t expect the Tea Party or Rush and Beck to highlight our generosity either. But the sad fact is this: During the worst year since the Great Depression, with 30 million people out of work or forced into part-time jobs, Wall Street is awarding itself $150 billion in bonus money…..and it comes from us!
That’s $500 for every man, women and child in the country — $2,000 for a family of four. (Maybe we should try deducting it from our income taxes as a charitable donation.)
Had we not bailed out the financial sector, there would be no bonus pool this year. Zip, zero, ziltch.
It seems like financial Alzheimer’s setting in as many forget how all this happened. Wall Street, and no one else, crashed the economy through its fantasy finance extravaganza. It created, sold and traded a slew of newfangled financial instruments that were supposed to remove risk from risky investments. Wall Street went begging for subprime debt in order to create and market their new financial securities, the most profitable activity in their history. As a result of their securitization casino, which leveraged bet upon bet, the housing market turned into a bubble and finally burst. Wall Street had miscalculated, big time. The risk returned with a vengeance.
Not matter what Rick Santelli proclaims, government interference didn’t cause the crash. Greedy, stupid home buyers didn’t cause the crash. Poor people backed by the Community Reinvestment Act didn’t crash the system. And China didn’t cause it either. The book should be closed on this: Wall Street’s fantasy finance casino did us in. (Please see The Looting of America for a fuller account.)
Once housing prices stopped their meteoric rise, the entire precarious structure of bets piled upon subprime loans, turned toxic. The banking system froze and the real economy was tossed off a cliff. We truly were on our way to the next Great Depression.
Policy leaders of all stripes bailed out the financial system because they thought there was no choice–and that was true to an extent. Preventing total financial collapse was necessary. The choices to be made were about how to prevent a further collapse and what kinds of demands we’d make on the banks that had brought disaster upon themselves and the rest of us. Bush, Paulson, Bernanke, Obama, Geithner, Summers and Congress made their choices. They poured money into the banking sector like never before. We gave the Wall Street banks gigantic loans and enormous guarantees on their toxic assets. We gave them TARP. It all totaled to more than $12 trillion, with most of it still in play, even after the TARP repayments. (See Nomi Prins’s excellent accounting..)
We can, and should, argue about whether the bailout was put together properly. A strong case can be made that the victims (the public), rather than the perpetrators (Wall Street’s casinos), should have received our support. Clearly, there were much better ways to rescue the failing economy and produce jobs, which is still by far our number one problem.
Wall Street was saved from bankruptcy, including Goldman Sachs which now cavalierly insists that it didn’t really need the bailout money (yet it took $12.9 billion of taxpayer support via AIG, and tossed it into its bonus pool.) Wall Streeters actually think they’ve earned the $150 billion in bonuses through their own cleverness. Think again. It’s nothing more than taxpayer welfare.
Of course, no one wants to admit that we put the richest people in the world on welfare. It’s embarrassing to acknowledge that we are rewarding those who killed millions of jobs. And worst of all, our political establishment doesn’t have the nerve to take our money back.
More at the link:President Obama won’t tell us in his State of the Union address. The deficit... more-
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Americans Need Debt Relief -- Is Obama Brave Enough to Make It Happen? | | AlterNet
Stung by the election of Scott Brown in Massachusetts, the abandonment of his health care initiative by members of Congress and fearful of a political backlash, President Obama may have realized that he himself is not "too big to fail." He has now "pivoted," to use a favorite phrase from the pundits, and shifted his focus to trying to fix a still deteriorating economy.
He has gone from coddling the banks to turning on them with strong rhetoric that has financial stocks reeling, and progressives cheering. Analysts who have looked at the content of his new rules though, say they are vague enough to dive a supertanker through. Another reform in name and gesture but not in reality!
The administration is also floating new proposals to reenergize a foreclosure relief program that has brought little relief to beleaguered homeowners. More liberal terms for loan repayments are being introduced especially for those who have trouble paying their mortgages because they have lost jobs.
Today, default/delinquency/foreclosure rates continue to skyrocket and soon there will be more prime mortgages in arrears than subprime ones. More than 25% of all homes are now "under water." Millions more families are at risk. Foreclosures continue to rise. The housing crisis at the center of the financial crisis has not been "fixed."
What to do? Doing nothing is no longer an option.
This crisis will spill over into the political arena unless the Administration does a lot more than it is doing.
For nearly two years, I have been calling to modify loans, not foreclose on homes. The government said they would do it but their programs don’t appear to be working because banks and real estate companies make more money foreclosing than making deals that keep homeowners under their roofs.
The consequence: 14 million families—and we are talking millions of children too—forced into the streets or worse conditions.
The New York Times blamed the President's Making Home Affordable program for increasing the agony of homeowners:
Since President Obama announced the program in February, it has lowered mortgage payments on a trial basis for hundreds of thousands of people but has largely failed to provide permanent relief. Critics increasingly argue that the program, Making Home Affordable, has raised false hopes among people who simply cannot afford their homes.
Wrote a critic on the Atlantic website:
Obama's Making Home Affordable program is actually increasing the agony of homeowners, who pour money down the rat hole of their mortgage rather than recognizing the loss and starting over. In the meantime, the modification programs disguise the true condition of bank balance sheets (because modified mortgages are not yet non-performing mortgages), and slow down the process of recovery.
The Washington Post found, "The government's foreclosure relief program is sputtering, according to government data showing that the pace of help being offered to struggling homeowners slowed last month and many borrowers are at risk of losing the aid they have already received."
The LA Times went further:
Only 31,382 of more than 700,000 mortgage modifications under the federal program had been made permanent by the end of November…The numbers reinforced the bleak picture that Treasury Department officials painted last week when they said the number of permanent reductions was low. They unveiled new measures, including the threat of fines, to push mortgage servicers to improve their performance.
When airport security doesn’t work, they junk it. It is time to do the same with programs that are not helping homeowners. These half-measures that are being so half-heartedly implemented are a cruel disgrace.
More at the link above:Stung by the election of Scott Brown in Massachusetts, the abandonment of his health... more-
- WeAreChangeKy
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One Planet Earth, One Humanity, One Concept, One Obstacle.......Greed. One Question. Why?
I began my life in the mid 60s. My father was in the Air Force at the time so we didn't stay in one place long. The thing about being a military 'brat' is that you learn to adapt and to make friends quickly. My travels included living in a trailer at a military base, stays in Wisconsin, Georgia, Kentucky, Colorado, California, Illinois and back to Kentucky. Not long after graduating high school I started my own business. My business had clients in all counties of Kentucky and some in Indiana, Ohio, Tennessee, and West Virginia. After ten years the business closed and I took a job traveling all over the country; a new town in a new state every week. Occasionally, I was hired to travel out of the country. On one trip we left Detroit and entered Canada. I had several days off of work so after the wedding I attended in Canada I decided to drive across Canada hugging the small rural roads near the Great Lakes and making my way to Niagara Falls. From there we left for Kentucky through the states. I even spent 4 weeks in San Juan and befriended a cab driver immediately at the airport. The rest of the time, when I had free time, I road around with the cab driver to get a native's perspective and meet his passengers. Why do I tell you this? I tell you this to lend credentials to what I am about to tell you. We are all the same, basically. The average Joe is the average Joe no matter where you go.
So....why do we fight between the left and the right? Because they told us to.
So....why do we send our brother and sisters off to war? Because they told us to.
So....why did we bail out the same banks that have been ripping us off for years? That's right.
Because they told us to.
So....why do we sit here, helpless, after Geithner stole our money? Because they told us to.
So....why do we allow the war crimes of torture to be committed by our government? Yes, because they told us to.
So....why do we allow our Bill of Rights and Constitution to be shredded by a government 'Of The People'? It's a sure bet, because they told us to.
So....why do we stay inside, watch TV, avoid the sun, the neighbors, the Earth? You got it. Because they told us to.
So....why do we kill thousands of innocent foreigners? Because they told us to?
So....why did we invade Iraq? Because they told us to.
So....why did we stop questioning our government and holding them accountable? Because they told us to?
So....why do we sit here while our planet is destroyed and our brothers and sisters around the globe are murdered in the name of resources and profit? Because they told us to.
We are all one humanity. All with one wish. The wish to be left alone, to live free, to help out our neighbor and expect the same from them. The wish to love one another, cherish freedom, cherish the Earth, and all benefit from what everyone has to offer.
Our governments now have the power to do unimaginable things with technology. The question is WHY? Why do we spend so much on bombs when we are bankrupt? Why do we kick Americans out of their homes when everyone's home could be paid for with the money spent on wars? Why do people still live on the streets in America when shelters could be built in every single town with the money we spend on wars? Why do we allow Banksters to give bonuses at all with the money borrowed from our children's future? Why do we taze little children and elderly women? Why do we allow lobbyists to buy and sell our 'representatives'? Why did the Supreme Court rule that there's no limit to how much a corporation can spend to buy your government? Why did the Detroit 'bomber' get help passing all security while boarding the plane?
WHYWHYWHYWHYWHYWHYWHYWHYWHYWHYWHYWHYWHY.........................?
Time to grow up and stop doing what they tell you to do. Ask questions, demand answers.
Christopher Hignite for We Are Change Ky and Monkey Press copyright 2010I began my life in the mid 60s. My father was in the Air Force at the time so we... more-
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How Main Street Got Shafted While Wall Street Bounced Back | | AlterNet
Unless you work on Wall Street, you've probably had a hard year. Don't expect 2010 to be any better.Unless you work on Wall Street, you've probably had a hard year. Don't... more-
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New Years Resolution for America: Stop Fighting the Bankers' Wars
Former Soldiers like, Mike Prysner, come together to tell why they oppose war.
Our real enemy is not the ones living in a distant land whose names or policies we don't understand; The real enemy is a system that wages war when it's profitable, the CEOs who lay us off our jobs when it's profitable, the Insurance Companies who deny us Health care when it's profitable, the Banks who take away our homes when it's profitable. Our enemies are not several hundred thousand miles away. They are right here in front of us
- Mike Prysner Former U.S. Soldier
The chain reaction of
evil... wars producing
more wars... must be
broken, or we shall be
plunged into the dark
abyss of annihilation
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
If tyranny and oppression
come to this land, it will be
in the guise of fighting a
foreign enemy... The loss of
Liberty at home is to be
charged to the provisions
against danger, real or
imagined, from abroad...
- James Madison
Read that last quote again. Why do we ignore the advice of the men and women we respect most in this country? James Madison understood the concept of False Flag attacks. He understood that, if given a chance, elements in our government are capable of treasonous acts against the People. We the People are the government of this country. Let's remind them.
After the last poll closes on election day, the work is not over, We must be ever vigilant, we must write letters, call our Congress, Senate, State and local officials. Every time you close your eyes another liberty is taken. We can say NO! Even after they are elected we can still say NO! NO more wars, NO more lies, NO more bailouts. NO more lobbyists. NO more corruption. NO more deception. NO rigged elections.
Vote Independent for an unwavering candidate and support them every way you can. We need CHANGE! It's obvious nothing has Changed with Obama except his promises. Wall Street owns Washington and convinced Washington, when the economy failed, to give them more of your money essentially making everything worse for you. THIS MUST STOP!
Let's make 2010 the year the We The People take America back! Are you with me?
We need more soldiers, police officers, national guardsmen, firefighters and you, yes you to become a NEW AMERICAN HERO like Mike Prysner. Stop the wars!
Christopher Hignite
Monkey Press 2010
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwr-y6OxGqk&feature=relatedFormer Soldiers like, Mike Prysner, come together to tell why they oppose war. Our... more-
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