Saving America and America's Economy

With the economic crisis now foremost in American's minds, pushing back their concerns for the ongoing War in Iraq (a manipulated crisis at it's core, occurring just prior to the 2008 elections mind you), below are some suggestions for getting our economy back on track the "old fashioned," way - by abiding by the Constitution. I am concerned with Obama's suggestions, since as a Constitutional lawyer you would think he might consult it with respect to his policy making before making any more of his mesmerizing speeches. But it is clear this Administration is simply another promise of "change" without substance, that much has been clear since the changes in position he has made on both the war, and his economic plans.

1. Rescind the 700 Billion Dollar fraud of a bailout that was rushed through before the American people could become none the wiser, and which was covered up by the mainstream media acting in concert. This bailout was nothing more than a "payback" for those members of Congress, and the two presidential candidates, for their loans for their campaigns, billed at the American people's expense and will result in inflationary taxes that, no matter what pittance is rebated to the American people in the form of a stimulus package will only stimulate the coffers of the government once again in tax revenue. Obviously, the individual Americans had had it with the two party system that has merged essentially into one in defrauding the American people time and time again for their own agendas and purposes. It is called bi-partisanship, but is actually treason against the Constitution. A Ponzi scheme if ever there was one.

Instead:

2.Call in the loans of all countries whose balance sheets are now in the black, and whose currency is thus now also more stable, for all the foreign aid and loans we have made to them while our own economy has sunk in the process. No more foreign aid unless and until America gets some of those loans repaid, with interest.

3. Recall immediately all non-essential service personnel now serving in Iraq, leaving only the career army and diplomatic corp to oversee the arrangement of the transferring of the costs of the rebuilding efforts to their own government, since we were so very gracious in dethroning their latest dictator rather than abiding by the original Congressional Resolution calling for the capture of those strictly responsible for 9/11....Osama bin Laden and all those who directly gave him aid and comfort. The costs of this ongoing frivolous conflict are putting is putting our children and grandchildren's welfare and continued safety at risk, and also their own economic futures. If Mr. Obama cares about his two daughters, I am sure he would see the wisdom in such a position, unless it is his own financial future which is more important, or temporary political legacy as the "winner" of a "no-win" conflict. How can you defeat any enemy whose personal beliefs hold that dying for their jihad earns them their right in heaven. The logic of this continuing war based on that simple premise continues to astound me, and a good many other Americans.

4. Pass effective legislation calling for accountability of the Federal Reserve, and no more independent actions outside the oversight of Congress, per our Constitution that gives Congress, and Congress alone, the power to print and value our currency. Since that provision was unlawfully transferred by the Wilson Administration, then at the very least also provision should have been included to provide for strict regulation and oversight, not our Congress essentially working for them and their agendas. Also, enact sufficient oversight and regulation of those private banks who are recipients also of loans from the Federal Reserve and their policies in their dealings with the public. No more freewheeling and fraudulent bailouts, especially not for global industries, such as AIG.

5. Repeal the 16th Amendment that affords the majority of legislator's time and now a year around Congress to be bribed and forsake their oaths of office to the American people in favor of corporate and global interests and using their tax dollars in order to so do. We are at this point funding the entire world's economy, and tying our economy into that of other nations is how we got to where we are today, in debt and at the mercy of those international bankers.

6. Repeal the 17th Amendment calling for state legislative election of Senators, so that they again have a voice at the federal levels, and are not simply lobbyists at the federal trough for pork bills as another special interest group. No campaign election fraud with respect to the election of Senators, and Constitutional government once again. Institute the provisions that campaign contributions may only be accepted for House members from citizens, not corporate interests, that live in their districts. No outside state or federal funding. You cannot have a government of the people when the representatives serve outside interests, and not the people at all.

7. Since corporations only pay income taxes on their profits, tax them to the hilt. Then maybe those profits will trickle down to either the employees, or into research and development costs in order to protect their investment the old fashioned way - by reinvesting in it rather than the Boards of Directors and upper level management skimming the profits. Institute regulations that call for investor/stockholder approval of all severance and bonus packages to eliminate "golden parachutes." The investors own the company, so should have a say in the compensation for which these top level management employees are entitled and worth. Not them self-determining, in many instances, their own salaries and severance packages.

Those are just a few, but there are so many more Constitutional abridgements which have been enacted, that it would take days to address them all. But those "Lucky 7" would truly be the legal and Constitutional way to reverse what has brought us to this point, at least initially.

The Obama Inauguration: Get Your Boogie On

Reading this week of all the hoopla and gala events planned in Washington for the Obama inauguration, and with our country now on the precipe of an economic depression, also with an ongoing engagement for which there still appears no end (since the Bush accord recently signed with the Iraqi parliment calls for a three year plan for troop withdrawal, and Obama has made noise now about Pakistan and India), the delusion of the American people to most of us who have ascertained that this new Administration will most likely be another Federal Reserve/Council of Foreign Relations exercise in formenting the global world government they seek with simply a "change" in mouthpieces has been simply too incredible to believe.

It appears that the events as planned, the cost of which also will be billed to the federal deficit and American taxpayers in the guise of the "Inaugural Committee," will be the most expensive inauguration ever undertaken, and with all the trappings of a Hollywood premiere. Even Arianna Huffington is having her own little soiree, as is Oprah Winfrey. This event is a far cry from the inaugurations of those first presidents, and their solemn occasions and dignity that was inherent in both the position, and the costs as public funds. Mr. Obama, it is clear, enjoys the celebrity lifestyle and all the trappings since his candidacy has been likened to the Kennedy era, of course with that Administrations over the top excesses and Hollywood connections also now historically documented. Politics and Hollywood have made strange bedfellows since that era, although had been put under wraps until this latest election cycle and study in excess.

As a citizen now who is suffering economically from both the housing crisis, and who has been opposed to this war since the invasion of Iraq and abandonment of the original mission, I find it rather offensive that while those men and women are serving in Iraq, some of whom were woefully misled upon their enlistment and now serving their second and third tours of duties, Obama will be boogeying with the likes of Rhianna. While the costs daily continue to mount, even on Inauguration Day. No word in Obama's economic plans at this point in transferring the costs of the war to the Iraqi government, which is in the black while we are deeply in the red. The presidency is a position of service, not celebrity, and should be accorded the same ceremonial simplicity as such, and not a coronation.

Give me the good old days of our first hundred years. A solemn ceremony from the White House balcony with Mr. Obama swearing his oath and fidelity to "defend, protect and uphold the Constitution of these United States," and a leader whose ego understands that as a representative of the people, such an exercise in excess in light of the ongoing war and economic crisis this country is now facing could be seen as quite offensive, and that the ceremony should match the circumstances of those he is bound to serve and protect. Not the Hollywood elite.

In other words, give me a another humble Jefferson or Lincoln, not an elitist Kennedy or George H.W. Bush. Campaigning in Germany and Europe and now this. Happy days are here again. Or are they?

I hope this isn't a replay of Rome and Nero.

Corporate Tax Breaks and Bailouts - Are They Constitutional?

Below, verbatim, is the actual language within Article 8, Section 1 of the U.S. Constitution and Congress's limited authority with respect to it's powers of duties. Granted, these powers have been unlawfully expanded and increased - particularly by the Wilson and FDR Administrations with respect to social welfare, and under subsequent administrations in corporate welfare, most egregiously by this last Bush Administration and the 700 billion dollar campaign finance fraud bailout for the banks and financial sectors. Nothing more than enforced campaign contributions for the 2008 elections at the American public's expense. Here is the actual, LIMITED powers and duties for which Congress has been assigned. These powers were so limited in order to place most legislation within the state's purview, the more local government, and thus more accountable to the people. It has been successive abridgements of the Constitution, therefore, which have brought us to where we are today, and getting progressively worse under each Administration and far less accountable to the point where the U.S. budget and dollar is no more than monopoly money with no true backing whatsoever.

Section 8. The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States; but all duties, imposts and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;

To borrow money on the credit of the United States; To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several states, and with the Indian tribes;

To establish a uniform rule of naturalization, and uniform laws on the subject of bankruptcies throughout the United States;

To coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin, and fix the standard of weights and measures;

To provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the securities and current coin of the United States;

To establish post offices and post roads;

To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries;

To constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court;

To define and punish piracies and felonies committed on the high seas, and offenses against the law of nations; To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules concerning captures on land and water;

To raise and support armies, but no appropriation of money to that use shall be for a longer term than two years;

To provide and maintain a navy; To make rules for the government and regulation of the land and naval forces;

To provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the union, suppress insurrections and repel invasions;

To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the militia, and for governing such part of them as may be employed in the service of the United States, reserving to the states respectively, the appointment of the officers, and the authority of training the militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;

To exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten miles square) as may, by cession of particular states, and the acceptance of Congress, become the seat of the government of the United States, and to exercise like authority over all places purchased by the consent of the legislature of the state in which the same shall be, for the erection of forts, magazines, arsenals, dockyards, and other needful buildings;--And

To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this Constitution in the government of the United States, or in any department or officer thereof.

Those are the specific powers granted to Congress. And per a subsequent provision, any and all powers not specifically enumerated or prohibited by our Constitution are left to the states and the people, respectively. There is no "general welfare" clause, that language is intended simply as an introduction to the "intent" of the Section and provisions contained within it. Since incorporation by any business in and of itself is a voluntary act and governed by the laws of the state in which the business is incorporated, then any "bailout" of any U.S. corporation, such as the Big 3 automakers, or the financial institutions, should have been sought through the states in which they were incorporated themselves, not at the federal level. And of course due to also the "privileges and immunities" clause barring any unequal privileges and immunities to any specific class contained in most state and the federal Constitution, then those bailouts should have beeen unilaterally denied, unless of course Congress amended the Constitution and transferred federal bankruptcy authority to Congress, rather than to the oversight of the federal judiciary.Insofar as corporate tax breaks, that is another story, since taxation per the same Section, does not have to be equal, and as the founder's envisioned, corporations as property were to be taxed in order to offset the costs of government and any regulatory powers needed over them, not the income of the private citizens. Congress has already afforded large major corporations the ability to "write off" research and development costs from their bottom line profits, in addition to also providing federal grant monies for such R&D costs - and it is their bottom line profits alone upon which they are taxed. The U.S. automakers have been given tax breaks already in order to facilitate the development of alternative energy vehicles, even though such research costs are clearly tax deductible from their profits on the sales of their existing gas powered autos. The Big Three are in trouble primary due to lack of regulation of foreign imported vehicles as in the past which are in direct competition with U.S. industry, and lack of protection of the stockholders and investors in the remuneration which is paid to high level executives who sit on the Boards determining their own salaries and severance packages. This is where Congress should place it's attention, since it is the investors and public that need to be protected, and if the Big Three were being adequately protected from competing foreign interests it would place them in the black once again, or at least competitive with those foreign imports. If an imported auto were to be tax sufficiently and the supply regulated as the founder's intended with their "protectionist" beliefs, it would encourage Americans to "buy American" once again, or if an import is what they desire, then they should have to pay extra for it. That is why Belgian chocolate is more expensive than Hershey's, yet Hershey is the largest seller of chocolate in the U.S. This strategy has been abandoned by Congress with respect to the automakers, and the American people should not have to pay for their errors nor should the Big Three executives not expect Congress to do it's Constitutional duty and place those protective measures once again for American industry in future legislation.

As far as past history, the details of that recent 700 billion bailout have been hidden from the public for one specific reason, and one reason alone. They were fraudulent bankruptcies to begin with, one involving a global international insurer to boot, over which Congress has no right to indebt the American people and their posterity for a globally based concern.The treasonous actions of the Bush Administration and the 110th Congress will live in infamy in the annals of American history, and most likely will be referred to as the genesis of the anniliation and destruction of the late, great United States of America as global reach and indebtedness contributed to the fall of that other great exercise in republican and democratic government, Rome.