Free Republic

A new global currency should replace the US dollar as the international reserve currency, as the long-term deterioration of America's economy and the greenback is fuelling a "currency-regime crisis", says Martin Wolf, associate editor and chief economics commentator of the Financial Times. Wolf, who has honorary doctorates from three universities, bases his argument in part on the Triffin dilemma, an economic paradox named after economist Robert Triffin. The paradox shows that the US dollar's role as a global reserve currency leads to a conflict between US national monetary policy and global monetary policy. It also points to fundamental imbalances in...

Wednesday, December 23, 2009 Why Does Interpol Need Immunity from American Law?   [Andy McCarthy] You just can't make up how brazen this crowd is. One week ago, President Obama quietly signed an executive order that makes an international police force immune from the restraints of American law.Interpol is the shorthand for the International Criminal Police Organization. It was established in 1923 and operates in about 188 countries. By executive order 12425, issued in 1983, President Reagan recognized Interpol as an international organization and gave it some of the privileges and immunities customarily extended to foreign diplomats. Interpol, however, is also...

ENGLEWOOD, N.J. (CBS) ― Click to enlarge1 of 1 David Muneton, an eighth grade honor student, needed reconstructive facial surgery after being savagely beaten by a gang of 11 students on Dec. 18, 2009, in Engelwood, N.J. David Muneton, an eighth grade honor student, needed reconstructive facial surgery after being savagely beaten by a gang of 11 students on Dec. 18, 2009, in Engelwood, N.J. Police said as many as 11 students beat up the eighth-grader leaving him severely injured, and he may even lose his sight. CBS 2 HD spoke with some of his friends about what led to...

Senator Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) pointed out some rather astounding language in the Senate health care bill during floor remarks tonight. First, he noted that there are a number of changes to Senate rules in the bill--and it's supposed to take a 2/3 vote to change the rules. And then he pointed out that the Reid bill declares on page 1020 that the Independent Medical Advisory Board cannot be repealed by future Congresses:

President Barack Hussein Obama is proceeding to destroy America and has opened up a six-front war to do so: 1. He has a Democratic controlled Congress that is willing to rubber-stamp his wildest schemes, without even reading them…as we’ve already seen. The Democratic Party is now aiding and abetting the demeaning and destruction of America and has become the voice of leftist extremism. The moderates have disappeared or been transformed, issuing only occasional squeaking and whining before following the liberal party line drawn by Mr. Obama. Where have all the Democratic moderates gone? 2. Mr. Obama has immense executive authority,...

LEWISTON — In the early evening on the first day of summer, a large group of Somali boys approached a woman on the corner of Ash and Pierce streets. According to police reports, they intimidated the woman and slapped her in the back of the head before scattering into the downtown. Five days later, shortly after midnight, a man was accosted by a group of Somali boys outside the Big Apple on Main Street. Police reports say several members of the group punched the man and took money from him. They then fled in a car. Later that night, a...

Here is a "blog novel" about the collapse of the dollar, and the consequences to the USA. The writing is at the very highest level. If it was in a printed, published hard copy form, I'd buy it and recommend it. Yet here it is, for free, just click to it and enjoy. (If enjoy is the word.) The link takes you to Part One of "The Day the Dollar Died."

Hardcore survivalists cherish what I call the "George Romero Scenario." It goes like this: The proverbial poop has hit the propeller. Cities collapse into chaos. But we, the prepared, are...well, we're prepared. We hunker in our rural bunkers, clutching our Super Whiz-Whacker 3000 combat arms, eagle-eyed and ready for any eventuality. We boldly fend off wave after ravenous wave of starving city folk who stagger at us like unstoppable zombies in a Romero horror flick. These zombies crave not our living flesh, but our six-gallon, mylar-lined superpails of dried lentils, our root cellars full of last year's carrots, and our...

Britain and other countries with fast-rising government debts must steel themselves for a year in which “social and political cohesiveness” is tested, Moody’s warned. In a sombre report on the outlook for next year, the credit rating agency raised the prospect that future tax rises and spending cuts could trigger social unrest in a range of countries from the developing to the developed world. It said that in the coming years, evidence of social unrest and public tension may become just as important signs of whether a country will be able to adapt as traditional economic metrics. Signalling that a...

"The New World Order came into being at 4:25 Tuesday afternoon (NB: November 10, 2009). It arrived at the Capitol, until that moment the seat of American government, in the form of the stooped and bespectacled figure of Ban Ki-moon, who as U.N. secretary general is the de facto leader of what conspiracy theorists call the One World Government. One floor beneath the Senate chamber, Ban, a South Korean national, took his place behind a lectern bearing the Senate seal and spelled out his demands. "I would certainly expect the Senate to take the necessary action; that's what I have...

Seventy-one percent (71%) of voters nationwide say they’re at least somewhat angry about the current policies of the federal government. That figure includes 46% who are Very Angry. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that only 27% are not angry about the government's policies, including 10% who are Not at All Angry........ The data suggests that the level of anger is growing. The 71% who are angry at federal government policies today is up five percentage points since September. Even more stunning, the 46% who are Very Angry is up 10 percentage points from September.

The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, frustrated by the Justice Department's failure to explain the dismissal of charges against New Black Panther Party members who disrupted a Philadelphia polling place during last year's elections, has subpoenaed the department demanding records showing how the case was handled. David P. Blackwood, the commission's general counsel, said Tuesday in a letter to the Justice Department that efforts since June to obtain an explanation had proceeded "without any success" and the "dearth of cooperation" had prompted the commission to issue subpoenas. "We are both mindful of the sensitivity of the subject matter involved and...

Control: The House and Senate climate bills contain a provision giving the president extraordinary powers in the event of a "climate emergency." As chief of staff Rahm Emanuel says, a crisis is a terrible thing to waste. If you thought the House health care bill that nobody read has hidden passages that threaten our freedoms and liberty, take a peak at the "trigger" placed in the byzantine innards of both the House-passed Waxman-Markey bill and the Kerry-Boxer bill just passed by Democrats out of Sen. Barbara Boxer's Environment and Public Works Committee. As Nick Loris of the Heritage Foundation points...

Chamber of Commerce CEO Tom Donohue is a wanted man -- at least according to the liberal activist group that's put a de facto bounty on his head. A network of liberal groups known as Velvet Revolution started an ad campaign offering $200,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the man whose trade organization has become a thorn in the side of the Obama administration and congressional Democrats. The group is not leveling any specific charges of criminal behavior. Rather, it is casting a wide net, fishing for any whistleblowers from Donohue's past who might come forward...

WASHINGTON – Officials tell The Associated Press that the Environmental Protection Agency has concluded greenhouse gases are endangering people's health and must be regulated. The EPA will announced its findings at a news conference Monday. The announcement is timed to boost the Obama administration's arguments at an international climate conference — beginning this week — that the United States is taking actions to combat global warming, even though Congress has yet to act on climate legislation. Under a Supreme Court ruling, the so-called endangerment finding is needed before the EPA can regulate carbon dioxide and five other greenhouse gases released...

This is a very slickly produced 16 minute short film, showing what Civil War Two might look like, on the first day of the 2nd American Revolution.It's very sobering, and very well worth watching. Land of the Free, Part One

Goldman Arming Itself? :-> This is a riot (well, ok, I might be a week - or a month early on that): Dec. 1 (Bloomberg) -- “I just wrote my first reference for a gun permit,” said a friend, who told me of swearing to the good character of a Goldman Sachs Group Inc. banker who applied to the local police for a permit to buy a pistol. The banker had told this friend of mine that senior Goldman people have loaded up on firearms and are now equipped to defend themselves if there is a populist uprising against the...

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton expressed "great regret" in August that the U.S. is not a signatory to the International Criminal Court (ICC). This has fueled speculation that the Obama administration may reverse another Bush policy and sign up for what could lead to the trial of Americans for war crimes in The Hague. The ICC's chief prosecutor, though, has no intention of waiting for Washington to submit to the court's authority. Luis Moreno Ocampo says he already has jurisdiction—at least with respect to Afghanistan. Because Kabul in 2003 ratified the Rome Statute—the ICC's founding treaty—all soldiers on Afghan territory,...

Unreal. Team Obama may allow US soldiers to be tried in the Hague for war crimes. The Wall Street Journal reported, via Jihad Watch: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton expressed “great regret” in August that the U.S. is not a signatory to the International Criminal Court (ICC). This has fueled speculation that the Obama administration may reverse another Bush policy and sign up for what could lead to the trial of Americans for war crimes in The Hague. The ICC’s chief prosecutor, though, has no intention of waiting for Washington to submit to the court’s authority. Luis Moreno Ocampo says...

According to AmmoLand.com, data released by the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) reported 1,233,982 NICS Checks in October 2009, a 4 percent increase from the 1,183,279 reported in October 2008. So far that is roughly 11,403,417 gun bought this year. The total is probably more as NICS background checks may cover the purchase of more than one gun at a time. "This latest jump in background checks show that Americans are solidly in-favor of keeping firearms in the hands of law-abiding citizens," Ammoland reports in an no-byline article. "This clearly shows that the Obama Administration’s OK to...

China continues to operate a network of "black jails" to detain poor people who attempt to go to Beijing to complain about injustices at the hands of corrupt local officials, according to Human Rights Watch. The unofficial jails, which have been found in the basements of hotels, hospitals and even government ministries, are guarded by privately-hired thugs and "retrievers" who are paid to abduct complainants before they reach senior officials in Beijing. The New York-based rights group's 53-page report , "An Alleyway in Hell", is based on interviews with former black jail inmates, Chinese journalists, lawyers and academics, and has...

I am preparing a text which I will publish at The Brussels Journal in the not-too-distant future, but I will begin the discussion here first. When I read the various comments at Lawrence Auster’s place and Dennis Mangan’s blog, Takuan Seiyo’s recent piece at TBJ and the latest post by El Inglés at Gates of Vienna, I get the feeling that tensions are building up and that something big is going to happen within the coming generation, probably within the next five to ten years. Since I have been writing about geology lately I will use an analogy from plate...

But he's not "us." I won't go so far as to say that "he's 'them'," because that always degenerates into a discussion of who "them" really are, but Simpson did a nice job of helping clear up the identification. "President Obama is not trying to lead America forward to recovery, prosperity and strength. Quite the opposite, in fact. ... Obama and the Democrats are overwhelming political opposition to their plans with a flood of apocalyptic legislation. Their ultimate goal is to leave us so discouraged, demoralized, and exhausted that we throw our hands up in defeat. As Barney Frank said,...

It is time to cast aside all remaining doubt. President Obama is not trying to lead America forward to recovery, prosperity and strength. Quite the opposite, in fact. In September of last year, American Thinker published my article, Barack Obama and the Strategy of Manufactured Crisis. Part of a series, it connected then presidential candidate Barack Obama to individuals and organizations practicing a malevolent strategy for destroying our economy and our system of government. Since then the story of that strategy has found its way across the blogosphere, onto the airwaves of radio stations across the country, the Glenn Beck...

It's time. No, I am not some crazy fringe lunatic. I am one of the most law abiding citizens around. I don't even have any moving traffic violations ever, in 40 years of driving, only a ticket once in college for an unnoticed (by me) expired inspection sticker. Never drank, never smoked, never tried drugs. I am the LAST person anyone would expect to say NO, NO MORE, NO WAY!!! But it's time. I served my country voluntarily for 31 years, and did my level best to give back to the Army and my soldiers more than they gave me....

Société Générale has advised clients to be ready for a possible "global economic collapse" over the next two years, mapping a strategy of defensive investments to avoid wealth destruction. In a report entitled "Worst-case debt scenario", the bank's asset team said state rescue packages over the last year have merely transferred private liabilities onto sagging sovereign shoulders, creating a fresh set of problems. Overall debt is still far too high in almost all rich economies as a share of GDP (350pc in the US), whether public or private. It must be reduced by the hard slog of "deleveraging", for years....

On Wednesday the Obama administration took its first major step in a plan to ban all firearms in the United States. The Obama administration intends to force gun control and a complete ban on all weapons for US citizens through the signing of international treaties with foreign nations. By signing international treaties on gun control, the Obama administration can use the US State Department to bypass the normal legislative process in Congress. Once the US Government signs these international treaties, all US citizens will be subject to those gun laws created by foreign governments. These are laws that have been...

Pelosi On Jail Time For No Health Care: "The Legislation Is Very Fair In This Respect" KOMO-TV: Do you think it’s fair to send people to jail who don’t buy health insurance? Pelosi: .. "the legislation is very fair in this respect." Video

There is a division of the house. On one side are the politically correct in government, the leftist mainstream media, and a raft of Islamist apologists. One and all are tripping over each other in reassuring us the mass murderers such as Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan and suicide-bombers who detonate their explosive vests in crowded marketplaces and even mosques are individual anomalies and Islam is not responsible for what they do. On the other side are those fed up with the innumerable daily horrific acts throughout the world that are clearly committed under the banner of Islam. In all fairness,...

Today, Ranking Member of the House Ways and Means Committee Dave Camp (R-MI) released a letter from the non-partisan Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) confirming that the failure to comply with the individual mandate to buy health insurance contained in the Pelosi health care bill (H.R. 3962, as amended) could land people in jail. The JCT letter makes clear that Americans who do not maintain “acceptable health insurance coverage” and who choose not to pay the bill’s new individual mandate tax (generally 2.5% of income), are subject to numerous civil and criminal penalties, including criminal fines of up to $250,000...

In less than a year the U.S. government has gone from being one of the chief opponents of the proposed UN Small Arms Control Treaty to being a strong supporter. Elections do matter and have consequences. As many predicted, the United States has changed its United Nations Gun Control Treaty position by joining other countries in the UN’s General Assembly First Committee on Disarmament And Peace, with a resolution calling for the drafting of an International Arms Trading Treaty. This Treaty, which will be up for a final UN vote in 2012, will regulate small arms, as well as other...

The White House has been barraged with requests to release the names of its visitors. Today they release the first 500 visits, all from the period of Jan 20-July 31. Some of the Names you can find on the list are Bill Ayers 2x, George Soros 4x, Michael Moore 8X, the head of the ACORN affiliated Union the SEIU Andrew Stern 20x,Jeremiah Wright, GE/NBC head Jeff Immelt 5x, Jesse Jackson 6x, John Edwards2x, Al Sharpton 2x, and of course television goddess Oprah Winfrey. Strangely each party's house leader Pelosi, and Boehner were only at the WH once. The Senate leadership...

Many years ago, at a certain academic institution, there was an experimental program that the faculty had to vote on as to whether or not it should be made permanent. I rose at the faculty meeting to say that I knew practically nothing about whether the program was good or bad, and that the information that had been supplied to us was too vague for us to have any basis for voting, one way or the other. My suggestion was that we get more concrete information before having a vote. The director of that program rose immediately and responded indignantly...

Lou Dobbs describes his home being shot at.

Social Upheaval, How Close Are We? Politics / Social Issues Oct 24, 2009 - 02:33 AM By: Michael_T_Bucci Many authors who have contributed to The Market Oracle have expressed concern - some overtly and some in passing - about the possibility of social upheavals in the US caused by economic dislocations and what impact these events would have on the markets. How close are we? An excellent synopsis by Mr Andre Damon of the current status of economic conditions extant in the US and the world on the eve of the G20 conference contains a prescient conclusion: "These different factors...

In a report released to the US Congress recently, analysts assessed what they termed "preparedness tests" between the US military and government agencies at the federal, state and local levels. U.S. Northern Command (NORTHCOM) exercises to test preparedness to perform its homeland defense and civil support missions. The Government Accountability Office was asked to assess the extent to which NORTHCOM is consistent with Department of Defense guidelines for training and exercise requirement involving interagency partners and states in its exercises. NORTHCOM’s exercise program is generally consistent with the requirements of DOD’s Joint Training System, but its exercise reporting is inconsistent....

In light of Lord Monckton’s recent dire warning about how a new treaty on carbon emissions is actually meant to institute a global bureaucratic authority, I thought it would be useful to point out the particulars and provide the background showing that, if anything, he has understated his case. It may take years before it becomes evident, but this IS about global government, with your rights and property signed away to a remote and unaccountable undemocratic bureaucracy at the flick of Barack Obama’s pen, the moment he signs said document. “Sign” did I say? Don’t treaties have to be ratified...

Just one year ago, would you have believed that an unelected government official, not even a Cabinet member confirmed by the Senate but simply one of the many "czars" appointed by the President, could arbitrarily cut the pay of executives in private businesses by 50 percent or 90 percent? Did you think that another "czar" would be talking about restricting talk radio? That there would be plans afloat to subsidize newspapers-- that is, to create a situation where some newspapers' survival would depend on the government liking what they publish? Did you imagine that anyone would even be talking about...

*snip* When the Constitution of the United States was framed it placed the exclusive legislative authority in the hands of Congress and with the President. Article I, Section 1 of the United States Constitution is concise in its language: “All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.” That is no longer true. The Bill of Rights protected Americans against loss of freedoms. That is no longer true. The Constitution provided for a balanced separation of powers. That is no longer applicable. Perhaps it...

What is on appearances possibly just another right wing publicity stunt is actually something that law enforcement and military commanders need to notice and to put in check. The "Oathkeepers" are a group supposedly dedicated to keeping the "Oath" to protect the Constitution. Fact is, they already took that oath, This new thing is an attempt to rile up disdain for the Obama Administration, masquerading as concern for American freedom. Who are the "Oathkeepers?" Groups of law enforcement and military personnel who swear a new oath of allegiance to ideals put forth by the group, not by consent of the...

Truly malignant ideas crop up in a democracy with the frequency of toadstools after a summer rain storm. Most of these ideas are dismissed by the great majority of citizens after public debate in one fashion or another. Some of the ideas hang on despite evidence to the contrary (sorry Texas was readmitted to the Union and the Income Tax was ratified by the requisite number of states) but attract no real following. Truly pernicious ideas, however, seem benign at first glance but in truth strike at the heart of our system of government. The “Oath Keeper” movement is one...

Hoyer Says Constitution’s ‘General Welfare’ Clause Empowers Congress to Order Americans to Buy Health Insurance Wednesday, October 21, 2009 By Matt Cover (CNSNews.com) – House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said that the individual health insurance mandates included in every health reform bill, which require Americans to have insurance, were “like paying taxes.” He added that Congress has “broad authority” to force Americans to purchase other things as well, so long as it was trying to promote “the general welfare.” The Congressional Budget Office, however, has stated in the past that a mandate forcing Americans to buy health insurance would...

Video at site

Senator Obama was nearly 17 minutes into his July 2, 2008, speech in Colorado Springs, Colorado when he deviated from his pre-released script and performed without the teleprompter net saying: "We cannot continue to rely on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives that we've set. We've got to have a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tt2yGzHfy7s In January, without any recognizable corporate media coverage, Rep. Bob Filner, a California Democrat, introduced H.R. 675. http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-h675/show The bill would amend title 10 of the United States Code and extend...

Ready to Revolt: Oath Keepers pledges to prevent dictatorship in United States Group asks police and military to lay down arms in response to orders deemed unlawful Depending on your perspective, the Oath Keepers are either strident defenders of liberty or dangerous peddlers of paranoia. In the age of town halls, talk radio and tea parties, middle ground of opinion is hard to find. Launched in March by Las Vegan Stewart Rhodes, Oath Keepers bills itself as a nonpartisan group of current and retired law enforcement and military personnel who vow to fulfill their oaths to the Constitution. More specifically,...

At [the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference in] Copenhagen, this December, weeks away, a treaty will be signed. Your president will sign it. Most of the third world countries will sign it, because they think they’re going to get money out of it. Most of the left-wing regime from the European Union will rubber stamp it. Virtually nobody won’t sign it. I read that treaty. And what it says is this, that a world government is going to be created. The word “government” actually appears as the first of three purposes of the new entity. The second purpose is...

Article III of the Constitution defines treason against the United States in three ways: levying war against the country, adhering to the country's enemies, or giving aid or comfort to enemies. The punishment for treason is death, but the article requires a high burden of proof. It is the only crime defined in the Constitution. Sedition, on the other hand, is defined by statute and has a lower burden of proof. Sedition is an attempt to disrupt or overthrow the constitutional government of the United States or incite resistance to lawful authority. Here is the relevant US Code: Whoever knowingly...

Just eight months into a Democratic administration, Newsmax is running a piece speculating about a military overthrow of the elected leadership of the United States government. Seriously. Newsmax columnist John L. Perry encourages his right-wing readers not to "dismiss" the notion of an American military coup as "unrealistic." America isn't the Third World. If a military coup does occur here it will be civilized. That it has never happened doesn't mean it wont [sic]. Describing what may be afoot is not to advocate it.... Imagine a bloodless coup to restore and defend the Constitution through an interim administration that would...

Famous political journalist says Obama's legitimacy attacked just like what was done to Israeli PM before his assassination. "I hate to write about this, but I have actually been to this play before and it is really disturbing," New York Times political journalist Thomas L. Friedman, writes in a column published Wednesday, comparing between the hostile atmosphere in Israel before former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin's murder and the current atmosphere in the United States in terms of smears directed at President Barack Obama. "I was in Israel interviewing Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin just before he was assassinated in 1995," Friedman...

It's just what the primetime cable news lineup needed - another hour-long program tilted toward left-of-center politics with character assassination on conservatives. CNN Headline News debuted its "The Joy Behar Show" on Sept. 29, which included appearances by lefty comedian Jeanane Garofalo, CNN's Jack Cafferty and actress Bette Midler. Garofalo doubled down on her low regard for conservative 9/12 and tea party protesters, labeling them as racists. Cafferty went after President Barack Obama for his disregard of the carbon footprint his lobbying efforts in Copenhagen for Chicago to host the 2016 Summer Olympics. However, actress-turned-Vegas entertainer Bette Midler went straight...