Inflation

I started paying attention to our monetary system since watching the very disturbing America: Freedom to Fascism.

Two Ron-Paul clips about how inflation happens:
–Speech in Iowa — inflation is often a transfer of wealth from the working masses to the bankers and government institutions that spend newly-printed (and not yet inflated) money.
–On the floor of Congress discussing the integrity of the dollar.

The occasion for this post is this: The Federal Reserve (which is about as federal as Federal Express) has just injected $31.25 BILLION into the economy. I think the key to understanding this is picking apart the process behind the word “injected.” It results in the transfer of wealth described by Ron Paul in the clip above. That’s not to say money should never be printed, but it ought to be done by Congress, as specified in the Constitution. In 1913, they abrogated their responsibility by creating the private and very secretive Federal Reserve.

Strange Things: Violent Censorship. Dying Researchers.

Sometimes with blogs, it’s hard to know what to believe. Wouldn’t it be great if America had a functional, dedicated mass media that served the public with rigorous, unbiased, investigative journalism?

For your consideration:

Christopher Bollyn, American journalist, beaten and imprisoned for reporting the wrong things.

Did twenty-two British SDI researchers commit suicide? Very strange. Very scary. For all the steps we’ve taken toward fascism in the US, at least we don’t have an Official Secrets Act, as the British do. I first became skeptical of Britain’s seemingly progressive government after reading Marilynne Robinson’s Mother Country.

Advertising Iraq

Ari Fleischer, Mr. There-is-no-question-that-Iraq-has-weapons-of- mass-destruction, is now running a $15 million dollar ad campaign to sell their war to America. His television commercials feature wounded veterans and relatives of dead soldiers. I can tell you, they don’t speak for all veterans, not for me, and not for all families either. This man speaks for me.

Hear Bill Moyer’s brief commentary on the new wave of advertising.

82nd Soldiers on Iraq

I’ll admit it. I’ve always thought the mighty eighty deuce, my old division, was head and shoulders above all others. How can it not be, when it has soldiers and NCOs smart enough, articulate enough, and courageous enough to write this. I’m so proud.

Here, you can see a representative from the pro-war media playing damage control, and here is a great comparison between the soldiers’ Op-Ed, and a recent paper by the Brookings Institute, an increasingly neo-con “think” tank, which thinks hard about how to best convince America to keep sending its children into harms way for dubious reasons.

On Privacy

Here’s a great CNBC special on privacy. What I learned:

1) Every digital picture you take is encoded with the camera’s serial number.

2) Every Google search you do is stored and can often be connected to your name. Already, a man’s Google searches have been used against him in court. (He deserved it, but that doesn’t justify the invasion of privacy.)

3) Federal agencies are forbidden from keeping information on private citizens, so contractors do it for them. You’ve never heard of these companies, but they’ve heard all about you.

You can Google search anonymously here or here.

CIA editing Wikipedia

In many ways, the innocuous changes described here are not news. Since tuning in to indy press (InformationClearinghouse, RawStory, PrisonPlanet, HuffingtonPost, WhatReallyHappened), I’ve taken federal tentacles in the media as a given, and have considered the freedom of the internet the current battleground. Nevertheless, here is the CIA with their pants down. Perhaps this is just carelessness, or a rogue employee. It’s a no-brainer for them to simply use non-CIA computers for the real dirty work.

Beating the War Drum to Iran

I’m hearing more and more about an attack into Iran. That last time things got this loud was in February/March 2007. Things quieted down for a while, but now they’re picking up. There’s speculation about an attack during the August congressional recess.

Indication of War:
–Chertoff’s Gut. There’s nothing like a terrorist attack to whip up public support. How much do we spend on the department of homeland security? And it’s a gut feeling? Like, gas? Evidence? No? Just a gut feeling. Maybe I should stock up on duct tape.
–Rice confirms Chertoff’s Gut. I’ve known privates who inspire more confidence than these people.
–Israel invasion gets thumbs up from US, EU, NATO, says Israel’s Minister of Strategic Affairs Avigdor Lieberman.
–Israeli general says time is running out.
-State Department issues travel advisory for Israel / Palestinian Territories.
-Joe “The Chicken-Hawk” Lieberman lays legal ground work for war with Iran.
–A column in Britain’s Guardian Unlimited.
–Another discussion.

Indications of Peace:
-Iran’s 30,000+ Jewish community rejects bribes to renounce their nation. Their long-standing peaceful existence, I think, stymies the warmongers.
–UN hails Iran nuclear agreement . . . and the warmongering, chicken-hawk, neo-cons, cry all the way back to the drawing board.
-Israel’s new U.K. envoy tells British Jews to put Iran on the agenda. I think (hope) this means they aren’t buying it.

My car battery died yesterday. My gut feeling is that Iran was behind it. Can we bomb them now? Pretty please?