ZERO An Investigation Into 9/11

There’s nothing wrong with questioning events and proposing alternate theories; yet you wouldn’t know this, from the way many who do this are treated. An intelligent, logical, critical-thinking person can see that, many things which happened on 9/11, were highly abnormal and inconsistent with the explanations we were given, by those in the government and media.

How is it that many supposedly educated, critical-thinking individuals, have been so well trained to protect government claims and government propaganda, instead of thinking for themselves and arriving at their own conclusions? Why do we allow these government propagandists, or people who have been duped by this propaganda, to keep us from having a substantial public inquiry?

It has now been nearly 10 years since 9/11 and while a substantial portion of the population now questions the official stories; it is still considered taboo, under most circumstances, to pose questions which indicate a non-belief in the official version of events.

Discussing these theories has lead to many firings and quite often ostracism from friends, co-workers and family; but these questions are perfectly logical questions. Why do people resort to such immature measures in response to simply questioning an event? Why not just answer the questions and come to the conclusions reached using logic?

Is there, perhaps, a fear of using logic to question these events? Might the conclusions reached possibly put people in a position of conflict with long-held views? Read the rest of this entry »

Constitutional Amendment to Equalize Congress with the People in the Eyes of the Law

The message quoted below has been floating around via email for some time. I figure that I should post it here for the maximum effect.

What we have in this country is a political elite who are often exempt from the laws which govern the people. One example is the healthcare legislation which was recently passed by the Congress. If you look, I’m sure you will find countless other examples of preferential treatment towards the elected officials in Congress.

It is very difficult to amend the Constitution and we must do so carefully; because we are tinkering with the very underpinning of our liberties. Regardless of how unlikely this reform is to make it into the Constitution; nevertheless, it is worth a try.

For too long we have been too complacent about the workings of Congress. Many citizens had no idea that members of Congress could retire with the same pay after only one term, that they didn’t pay into Social Security, that they specifically exempted themselves from many of the laws they have passed (such as being exempt from any fear of prosecution for sexual harassment) while ordinary citizens must live under those laws. The latest is to exempt themselves from the Healthcare Reform that is being considered…in all of its forms. Somehow, that doesn’t seem logical. We do not have an elite that is above the law. I truly don’t care if they are Democrat, Republican, Independent or whatever. The self-serving must stop. This is a good way to do that. It is an idea whose time has come.

If each of you who agree will contact a minimum of twenty people on your e-mail address list, and in turn ask each of those to do likewise.. In three days, most people in The United States of America will have the message. This is one proposal that really should be passed around.

Proposed 28th Amendment to the United States Constitution: “Congress shall make no law that applies to the citizens of the United States that does not apply equally to the Senators and/or Representatives; and, Congress shall make no law that applies to the Senators and/or Representatives that does not apply equally to the citizens of the United States “.

TSA Wants Kids and Grandmas Naked

John Tate | Campaign for Liberty

After a lone Nigerian would-be terrorist tried to detonate explosives in his underclothes Christmas Day on a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit, TSA immediately grabbed for even more invasive power over American citizens.

Most disturbingly, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) wants to implement full-body scans at the nation’s airports-allowing unelected bureaucrats to virtually strip-search and gawk at kids, moms, grandmothers, grandfathers — you and all other American passengers — through your clothes.

Predictably, misinformation on the graphic nature of the images and ability of TSA personnel to copy, photo, and save the images poured forth from TSA flaks.

I have included direct contact information for the TSA at the end of this post. Call them today and let them know how disgusted you are with their latest plan to invade our privacy.

It’s a peeping tom’s dream, and a nightmare for those of us who believe in the great American principles of liberty, restrained government, and privacy.

Unless we stop this outrage, TSA agents will be snooping at the undergarments of such “threats” as American kids, grandmothers, and grandfathers. And if you or they refuse? You will be physically searched by TSA employees just like a criminal after being arrested.

The TSA’s dirty little secret is the agency has been pushing for full-body imaging since 2002 and even introduced the technology at a handful of airports in 2007-without ensuring that passengers knew they were being watched in this manner.

As Congressman Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) said, “Nobody needs to see my wife and kids naked to secure an airplane.”

Despite self-serving assurances from the TSA, these full-body scans are an unconstitutional, unacceptable intrusion into the privacy of American passengers nationwide.

Last year, Campaign for Liberty Director of Development Steve Bierfeldt sued the TSA for detaining him for carrying cash. Because Steve so strongly stood up to them, the TSA backed down from its unconstitutional searches of passengers’ non-terrorism-related property.

But such victories for liberty are rare in today’s America and must be fought for by a vigilant public jealous of its liberty.

We now risk losing the gains we have made against the surveillance state, all because of the “systemic failure” of the federal government-as Obama himself called it. Now the TSA wants to know far more about us than just the amount of cash we’re carrying.

Use the numbers below to contact them today as we show the TSA that the freedom movement will not sit idly by in this fight.

Just as Big Brother advocates jumped on the intelligence failure of 9/11 to nationalize airport security, they once again want to use their own failure as an excuse for more power.

But we know that this latest move will not keep us safe. So far, it has been passengers and flight crew who have stopped such incidents as this and the attempted “shoebombing” of December 2001.

They can keep stripping away our privacy and liberty, all to foil the last attack, but the terrorists will continue to circumvent any of their freedom-crushing “security” measures.

As Judge Andrew Napolitano has explained, “Airline travel is safer today because pilots have guns, cockpit doors are like bank vaults, and the passengers have become courageous. All this was done by individuals in the private sector, not by the government. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, if the feds had not stripped us of our natural rights to keep ourselves safe-by keeping and bearing arms-9/11 would never have happened.”

If we want to diminish the threat of terrorism and fly more safely, we can restore the Second Amendment, hand airline security back to the private sector, and end our government’s policy of foreign interventionism.

Contact the TSA’s “Office of Civil Rights” by phone toll free at 1-877-EEO-4-TSA (1-877-336-4872) or (800) 877-8339 (TTY) and by email at TSA-ContactCenter@dhs.gov.

Benjamin Franklin said, “Those who give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”

Let us do our part to show Washington and the TSA that Americans not only deserve and want both, but that we will not stop until our privacy and all our other freedoms are secure.

On the Narcissism of Obama’s Most Fanatical Supporters

One of the attributes shared by many of Barrack Obama’s more fanatical supporters, is an acute form of Narcissism. It seems as if they enjoy Obama’s presidency so much, because he reflects the same kinds of personality disorders that are endemic in the supporters’ own minds.

The problem these individuals face, is the fact that neither Obama, nor his supporters, seem to realize what the administration’s policies may do to the country, if fully implemented. For the most part, they are not genuinely interested in hearing what anyone else has to say either, if it isn’t directly supporting the administration’s stance.

In fact, many of these supporters are unaware of the details of Obama’s policies; often they may not know more than the title of the bill, the abstract or some sound bytes they heard via the media. As anyone who has actually read bills knows, these tidbits rarely convey the true nature of the meaning and scope of a proposed bill.

It seems as if one of the main attractions to Obama is his rhetoric and his personality. Certain types of people are attracted to him like a magnet, regardless of the implications of his policy agenda. Some of them even admit that his policies don’t matter, and all that really matters is his “leadership.” This is one of the most fatally flawed viewpoints I can imagine driving an executive’s support base. Read the rest of this entry »

Geithner’s Hog Wallow

Mike Whitney | Counterpunch

This time the banks are zeroing in on Geithner’s cash giveaway bonanza, the “Public Private Investment Partnership” (PPIP). As expected, Bank of America and Citigroup have angled their way to the front of the herd, thrusting their snouts into the public trough and extracting whatever morsels they can find amid a din of gurgling and sucking sounds. Here’s the story from the New York Post:

“As Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner orchestrated a plan to help the nation’s largest banks purge themselves of toxic mortgage assets, Citigroup and Bank of America have been aggressively scooping up those same securities in the secondary market, sources told The Post…

But the banks’ purchase of so-called AAA-rated mortgage-backed securities, including some that use alt-A and option ARM as collateral, is raising eyebrows among even the most seasoned traders. Alt-A and option ARM loans have widely been seen as the next mortgage type to see increases in defaults.

One Wall Street trader told The Post that what’s been most puzzling about the purchases is how aggressive both banks have been in their buying, sometimes paying higher prices than competing bidders are willing to pay.

Recently, securities rated AAA have changed hands for roughly 30 cents on the dollar, and most of the buyers have been hedge funds acting opportunistically on a bet that prices will rise over time. However, sources said Citi and BofA have trumped those bids.”(“Double Dippers; Citi and B of A buy laundered loans at lower rates”, Mark DeCambre, New York Post)

Thus begins the next taxpayer-subsidized feeding frenzy, featuring all the usual suspects. The race is on to vacuum up as much toxic mortgage paper as possible so it can be dumped on Uncle Sam at a hefty profit. These are the same miscreants the Obama administration is so dead-set on rescuing. Better to let them sink from their own bad bets.

How is it that industry rep Geithner couldn’t see that his latest round of corporate welfare would create incentives for the bank scoundrels to game the system again? Naturally, if the government goes into the business of buying crap-loans from teetering financial institutions, the speculators and snake oil salesmen will follow. And so they have. Citi and B of A are just the first to respond to Geithner’s pigwhistle. Next will be the hedgies and the Private Equity porkers, all nuzzling up to the Treasury’s feedbin.

Geithner’s plan is a disaster from the get-go. It jacks up the price of garbage assets, rewards the misallocation of capital, invites rampant fraud, and prolongs the recession. Worst of all, it transforms the FDIC into a hedge fund putting individual bank deposits at greater risk. Economist Jeffrey Sachs sums up Geithner’s “public-private” boondoggle in his article “Will Geithner and Summers suceed in raiding the FDIC and Fed?”:

“Geithner and Summers have now announced their plan to raid the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and Federal Reserve to subsidize investors to buy toxic assets from the banks at inflated prices. If carried out, the result will be a massive transfer of wealth — of perhaps hundreds of billions of dollars — to bank shareholders from the taxpayers (who will absorb losses at the FDIC and Fed)…

The FDIC is lending money at a low interest rate and on a non-recourse basis even though the FDIC is likely to experience a massive default on its loans to the investment funds….In essence, the FDIC is transferring hundreds of billions of dollars of taxpayer wealth to the banks…The public will not accept overpaying for the toxic assets at taxpayers’ expense. Thus, it is very likely that the Administration will attempt to avoid Congressional oversight of the plan, and to count on confusion and the evident “good news” of soaring stock market prices to justify their actions. ….

Other parts of the plan support subsidized loans from the Treasury and, even more, from the Fed. The Fed is already buying up hundreds of billions of dollars of toxic assets with little if any oversight or offsetting appropriations. Since the Federal Reserve profits and losses eventually show up on the budget, the Fed’s purchases of toxic assets also should fall under the Federal Credit Reform Act and should be explicitly budgeted. (“Will Geithner and Summers suceed in raiding the FDIC and Fed?”, Jeffrey Sachs, Huffington Post)

As Sachs points out, the Fed’s liabilities will eventually be shifted onto the taxpayer. But that hasn’t stopped Bernanke from writing checks on an account that is overdrawn by $11 trillion. Nor has it compelled Geithner to seek congressional authorization before he leverages the FDIC up to its eyeballs. These decisions are all being made by a small coterie of bank loyalists who operate independent of any oversight or government supervision. They do what’s best for their constituents and let the chips fall where they may.

Earlier this week, Geithner asked Congress for additional powers to take over insolvent non-bank financial institutions. The Washington Post:

“The Obama administration is considering asking Congress to give the Treasury secretary unprecedented powers to initiate the seizure of non-bank financial companies, such as large insurers, investment firms and hedge funds, whose collapse would damage the broader economy, according to an administration document.”

Geithner must think he’s a shoe-in for the new “systemic regulator” post because of the exemplary way he handled the AIG bonus scandal.

Of course, in the bizarro world of Washington–where failure typically catapults one to higher office–it’s only logical that Geithner would be elevated to Uber-Regulator, not only controlling the public purse, but using his own peerless grasp of the marketplace to decide which institutions pose a systemic risk and need to be sidelined, and which need stepped-up government support via limitless capital injections.

Prediction: If Geithner is granted these special powers by the braindead Congress, the country will undergo the greatest period of bank consolidation in its 230 year history. This is a blatant power grab by a shifty character who has risen to his present pay-grade by nosing his way up the political stepladder. Congress had better get its act together and put an end to this nonsense or the nation will continue its fast-paced metamorphosis into a feudal oligarchy run by the Bank Mafia and Wall Street racketeers. The first step, is to give Geithner, Summers and any other of the Rubin-clones a full-body bacon-rub followed by a few brisk dunks in the shark tank. Then, hose down Treasury and bring in a whole new team.

Nobel Prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz summed up Geithner’s “public-private” fiasco like this:

“Quite frankly, this amounts to robbery of the American people. I don’t think it’s going to work because I think there’ll be a lot of anger about putting the losses so much on the shoulder of the American taxpayer.”

We’re All Terrorists Now

Edgar J. Steele | NickelRant.com | March 25, 2009

MP3 Audio: Listen to the Entire Broadcast

“The history of liberty is a history of resistance. The history of liberty is a history of limitations of governmental power, not the increase of it.”
— Woodrow Wilson (Speech in New York, September 9, 1912)

“Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit upon his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats.”
— H. L. Mencken (1880-1956)

We’ve come through the Looking Glass. On this side, however, is Wonderland with a decidedly Orwellian twist.

The Red Queen has morphed into a Marxist President (still red and still in charge, though).

The Mad Hatter is Little Timmy Geithner, wannabe Treasury Czar of the World, whose Tea Party is hosted on Wall Street while other “tea parties” are convened by patriots throughout America in response.

The maddening Cheshire Cat is our media, with that smile conveying nothing but misdirection and gibberish.

“Some are more equal than others,” said Orwell through his piggy little Animal Farm overseer. We know who are the “others.” Thee and me, of course. For extra points, guess who are the “some” of whom Orwell wrote.

Painting the Roses Red

“We’re painting the roses red,” sang the playing-card soldiers when asked by Alice why they were drenching all the white roses in the kingdom with bright red paint. All the minions of the new Administration are busy repainting roses throughout America.

However, as observed by Shakespeare, “What is in a name? A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” Bush’s policies still are the same, regardless of the spin now being accorded them by the Obamatrons. We’re still in Iraq. Gitmo still is in business. America’s southern border still is wide open. The Bush bailouts continue unabated, but now are on steroids.

It’s enough to make your head spin, isn’t it?

Each week brings a fresh batch of outrageous events and news items that further marginalize an ever-growing percentage of Americans. Last week brought a bumper crop, headed by an incredible document leaked by someone in the Missouri police bureaucracy. Entitled “The Modern Militia Movement,” the Missouri Information Analysis Center (MIAC) document popped up on Alex Jones’ web site and promptly sent shock waves throughout the patriot community.

You’re a Terrorist Now

Have you ever supported in any way Republican Ron Paul of Texas? How about last year’s Libertarian Party Presidential candidate, Bob Barr? Or the Constitution Party’s Presidential candidate, Chuck Baldwin? According to MIAC, you are a “militia-influenced terrorist.” Yep, you heard me right. You are a terrorist. Look, I couldn’t just make up stuff as outlandish as is this sort of thing. Truth continues to be stranger than fiction. We’re painting the roses red.

Better go scrape that bumper sticker off your car, because MIAC specifically identifies it as evidence that you should be watched and approached with caution. MIAC is just one of 58 “fusion centers” funded throughout America by the federal Department of Homeland Security with over a quarter-billion dollars, tasked with identifying “potential trends or patterns of terrorist or criminal operations” (per the MIAC web site) in America.

Are you opposed to the coming North American Union (NAU), whereby America is subsumed within a new government encompassing all of North America? How about the New World Order (NWO), whereby America surrenders her Constitution altogether in favor of becoming just another cog in a world government? Speak out against either the NAU or the NWO in any way and you are a terrorist, says MIAC, courtesy of your tax dollars spent in its support. Read the rest of this entry »

When Hypocrisy Matters

by Anthony Gregory | Campaign for Liberty

Questions as to whether Timothy Geithner, Obama’s pick for Treasury Secretary, has paid all his taxes or followed immigration law concerning his housekeeper raise an interesting point. The scrutiny surrounding confirmation hearings presents one of the only opportunities politicians get to see what it is like to be harassed like a normal American citizen. Only during scandals like these are government officials given a taste of their own medicine, and it is such a bitter taste that the more humane among us might sympathize even with our would-be rulers as their lives and finances become open to inspection and public criticism.

Consider the rich irony in Geithner’s case. He seeks to be the head of the Treasury, and thus the head of the IRS, which commands an apparatus of staggering intrusiveness nearly unparalleled in all of human history. The IRS notoriously enjoys a certain exemption from the standards of Anglo-Saxon law; the presumption with tax cases is that you are guilty until proven innocent. Every year, millions of good Americans are terrorized by the organization. Many have their homes, their savings, their businesses confiscated, all supposedly in the name of creating a great society for all. IRS agents give the wrong advice to Americans filling out their taxes about a third of the time, but getting it wrong under their instruction is no excuse when error is found.

In addition to the nightmare of mid-April, the Treasury and other departments have burdened Americans with thousands of regulations that invade every facet of financial life. Democrats are even worse rhetorically than Republicans in this regard. In response to cries for immigration reform, the most common proposal from Democrats is to crack down on employers, to spy on them and threaten them with fines and imprisonment if they do not pry into all their employees’ lives to ensure none are illegal aliens. Aside from being a threat to the freedom of contract, this guarantees increasing government involvement into business and erosion of privacy and civil liberties. Much of the rationale behind the horrific Real ID Act can be attributed to this particular desire to ferret out illegal immigrants.

And so what a scene we have: A national Democratic leader in potential trouble for violating employment regulations; the chosen chief of the Treasury, which brings in trillions of dollars annually by taking it by force from those who earned it, himself accused of not putting in his fair share.

From the standpoint of freedom, however, Geithner’s true rip-off of the American people is not in his alleged tax evasion. All by itself, not paying taxes is not a scandalous crime. An everyday taxpayer would not deserve media attention for this. And as head of the New York Federal Reserve, Geithner did far more to compromise economic fairness than he could have possibly done with his tax forms; as Treasury Secretary, he would undoubtedly do much more. Furthermore, from the perspective of liberty, Geithner’s villainy is not in the fact that he might have hired an illegal alien so much as it is in the hypocrisy by which he and so many other government officials hold themselves to a standard of law radically different from that to which they hold the rest of us.

A little hypocrisy is ubiquitous in nearly any society, but the issue of government always raises the stakes and makes it all the more egregious. It may be an insult for someone to verbally criticize you for a vice, such as smoking, only to light up himself minutes later. But for the government to impose the will, the ethics, the standards of some politicians on you by force even as they do what they claim should not be done—that is a different, much worse form of hypocrisy altogether.

Which brings us to William Corr, Obama’s choice for the second slot at the Department of Health and Human Services. Corr is an anti-smoking advocate and both he and Obama seem to support an agenda, to be carried out by the Democratic Congress, of “increasing federal regulation of cigarettes, raising taxes on tobacco products and approving an international tobacco control treaty,” as the New York Times puts it.

Obama has gotten attention as the first open cigarette smoker to be elected president since Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and yet he seems to have no problem pushing around smokers, making their habit more expensive (tobacco taxes always hurt the poor the most), and even internationalizing an issue that should not even be dealt with at the national level under our Constitution. In a free society, tobacco, along with other drugs, would be handled locally, and ideally by the family and community, and not at all through the criminal justice and regulatory systems. Yet politicians who drink alcohol or smoke tobacco or even have tried illegal drugs think very little of taxing, regulating, harassing and even jailing their fellow citizens for doing the same.

It has long been frustrating to watch a politician who smokes tobacco or drinks alcohol champion the war on drugs, all to stem the tide of chemicals that don’t kill nearly as many people as tobacco and alcohol do. Perhaps it is even more frustrating to see a president who smokes cigarettes wave the anti-smoking banner. Government crusades against drugs, cigarettes or other vices always fail to uplift the moral character of the people, but they are great ways to destroy liberty and personal responsibility and are reliable sources of high hypocrisy.

Just this week we have seen two exemplary cases of political hypocrisy pop up in the area of Obama’s political appointments. Again, such appointments are one of the few occasions when the media really explore the hypocrisy saturating the personal lives of politicians. If they were watched this closely year round, we would find ever more examples all the time. But in all such cases, whether it is Al Gore consuming enough electricity for 20 people as he flies around condemning carbon emissions, or a Republican leader caught straying from the very family values he has claimed should be imposed on us all by national planning, the real problem in the hypocrisy is not usually the politicians’ personal indiscretions, which usually fall short of any offense against the public safety or liberty. No, the real problem with such hypocrisy is that it is borne by politicians who implement their plans for a Brave New World on their compatriots without considering the human costs, the destroyed wealth, the uprooted lives, the lost liberties, the jailed innocents. If Geithner agreed to butt out of our finances, and Obama agreed to let people smoke as they will, it is doubtful we would not happily reciprocate and leave them alone as well.

They Beat the Man Who Gave Bush a Fond Farewell

As the Butcher of Baghdad, George W. Bush, made his final visit to Iraq. Muntadar al-Zaidi decided to send him, just a tiny taste, of the sentiment towards him. He threw both of his size 10 Iraqi-made shoes at the disgraced President. Fortunately for Bush, he managed to dodge the bullet; which is more than I can say about the countless Iraqis who have been killed by the senseless war.

Bush is a disgrace to the united States of America, and to the human race in general, as is his entire family; all the way back to their Nazi-banker grandfather Prescott Bush. Under the Bush family’s influence, we’ve witnessed our once great nation crumble to the brink of collapse. Now even the most die-hard Bush loving blowhards admit that the man is a disgrace.

Now they see that the Bush regime truly is communist at its very heart. This family is not here to protect the American people; instead they are here to scuttle the ship and then profit from the demise of the republic.

I know that Bush is proud of himself, because this was his goal from the start. I also know that the sell-outs who backed him from the start are proud of themselves as well.

All of these cowards will pay for their indiscretions tenfold, that is the law of karma that has held true for all of time; there is no escaping divine justice.

Shoe thrower ‘beaten in custody’

BBC News

The brother of the Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at US President George W Bush has said that the reporter has been beaten in custody.

Muntadar al-Zaidi has suffered a broken hand, broken ribs and internal bleeding, as well as an eye injury, his older brother, Dargham, told the BBC.

Mr Zaidi threw his shoes at Mr Bush at a news conference, calling him “a dog”.

The BBC tried to contact Iraq’s top security official but he was not available for comment.

Meanwhile, offers to buy the shoes are being made around the Arab world, reports say.

Mass rallies in support of Mr Zaidi have also been held across Iraq, calling for his release.

Dargham al-Zaidi told the BBC’s Caroline Wyatt in Baghdad he believed his brother had now been taken to a US military hospital in the Iraqi capital.

Hero figure

Mr Zaidi told our correspondent that despite offers from many lawyers his brother has not been given access to any since being arrested by forces under the command of Mowaffaq al-Rubaie, Iraq’s national security adviser.

The Iraqi authorities have said the 28-year-old will be prosecuted under Iraqi law, although it is not yet clear what the charges might be.

Iraqi lawyers have speculated that he could face charges of insulting a foreign leader and the Iraqi Prime Minister, Nouri al Maliki, who was standing next to President Bush during the incident. The offence carries a maximum penalty of two years in jail.

Our correspondent says that the previously little-known journalist from the private Cairo-based al-Baghdadia TV has become a hero to many, not just in Iraq but across the Arab world, for what many saw as a fitting send-off for a deeply unpopular US president.

As he flung the shoes, Mr Zaidi shouted: “This is a goodbye kiss from the Iraqi people, dog.”

Dargham al-Zaidi told the BBC that his brother deliberately bought Iraqi-made shoes, which were dark brown with laces. They were bought from a shop on al-Khyam street, a well-known shopping street in central Baghdad.

However, not everyone in Iraq has been supportive of the journalist’s action.

In Baghdad, the head of the Iraqi Union of Journalists described Mr Zaidi’s action as “strange and unprofessional”, but urged Mr Maliki to show compassion.

“Even if he has made a mistake, the government and the judiciary are broad-minded and we hope they consider his release because he has a family and he is still young,” Mouyyad al-Lami told the Associated Press news agency.

“We hope this case ends before going to court.”

Abducted by insurgents

The shoes themselves are said to have attracted bids from around the Arab world.

According to unconfirmed newspaper reports, the former coach of the Iraqi national football team, Adnan Hamad, has offered $100,000 (£65,000) for the shoes, while a Saudi citizen has apparently offered $10m (£6.5m).

The daughter of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, Aicha, said her charity would honour the reporter with a medal of courage, saying his action was a “victory for human rights”.

The charity called on the media to support Mr Zaidi and put pressure on the Iraqi government to free him.

Mr Zaidi, who lives in Baghdad, has worked for al-Baghdadia for three years.

Muzhir al-Khafaji, programming director for the channel, described Mr Zaidi as a “proud Arab and an open-minded man”.

He said that Mr Zaidi was a graduate of communications from Baghdad University.

“He has no ties with the former regime. His family was arrested under Saddam’s regime,” he said.

Mr Zaidi has previously been abducted by insurgents and held twice for questioning by US forces in Iraq.

In November 2007 he was kidnapped by a gang on his way to work in central Baghdad and released three days later without a ransom.

He said at the time that the kidnappers had beaten him until he lost consciousness, and used his necktie to blindfold him.

Mr Zaidi never learned the identity of his kidnappers, who questioned him about his work before letting him go.

The Betrayal of the U.S. Government’s “Bailout” Plan

Comrades, we are faced with a situation whereby the government, now more Socialist than ever, flat out refuses to listen to the will of the people; despite the fact that their constituents oppose their bankster “rescue” plan 9 to 1.

I watched, disgusted, as so-many representatives spoke on the floor of the house.  Most of them only concerned with the pork and incentives for idiots (like increasing FDIC insurance), who won’t understand that they are really being screwed and that the FDIC insurance is going to be worthless at any level if the fiat money system collapses.

Imagine that, trying to buy a few votes, versus the future of our nation.  The incredulity of these so-called “representatives” is beyond reproach and I am quite certain that their actions will be are sorely regretted legacy, just months from now when “bailout” Barney’s farce is realized for what it actually is.

Betrayed by the Bailout: The Death of Democracy

William John Cox | GlobalResearch.ca

On this date, October 3, 2008, the American people were betrayed by those whom they had elected to represent them. The members of Congress who voted for the Wall Street “bailout” violated their oath of office to “support and defend the Constitution” … “that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same” … “and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: …”

Without holding any meaningful hearings or public discussions and listening only to those most responsible for the economic disaster, Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, Congress abdicated its responsibility to the American people.

Locking out most members from all discussions, the congressional “leadership” emerged from their backrooms with legislation that grants Secretary Paulson the ability to spend at least $700 billion to “take such actions as [he] deems necessary” … ” to promote financial market stability.”

Entrusting tremendous political and financial power (and a ton of borrowed money that taxpayers will have to repay with interest) into Paulson’s sole discretion, members of Congress must have been aware that, prior to his cabinet appointment in 2006, Paulson worked for 32 years at Goldman Sachs, one of the Wall Street firms that stands to benefit greatly from his “actions.” Read the rest of this entry »

Fiat Empire: Why Bailouts Will Not Save America

There’s clearly an awful lot wrong with the financial system of today.  The talking heads and bureaucrats will tell you that they need more money powers to sort the situation out.  They say that they must create trillions of dollars and have the ability to take over large companies; all of this is to bail out the financial institutions.

When you are thinking about this situation, you have to realize that the original purpose of the Federal Reserve banking system was to give the large Wall Street bankers the peace of mind of knowing that they would always be bailed out, so they would never lose any of their own money.  With a system of this sort in place, financial institutions take risks that they would not have otherwise taken.

Lately, the investment banks such as Lehman and Merrill Lynch have gotten into the habit of “investing” 30 dollars for every dollar in capitol that they have.  It doesn’t take a genius to realize that this is incredibly irresponsible. Read the rest of this entry »