I’ll admit I’m prejudiced. I think Ron Paul, the maverick Republican/Libertarian congressman from Texas, is the best friend we taxpayers have had in Washington for, oh, the past hundred years or so.  So when Ron agreed to grant me an interview on his efforts to abolish the Federal Reserve, I jumped at the chance.

If you’ve never heard Rep. Paul speak before, you might be surprised at his delivery. He is no fiery orator. He delivers his remarks in a calm, almost professorial manner. But if his manner is mild, his content most assuredly is not. What he has to say is far more radical, even revolutionary, than anything the average American is used to hearing today. Ron Paul would actually enforce the U.S. Constitution!

Since he (rightly) regards the overwhelming majority of things Big Government does today as unconstitutional, that means he has never met a spending bill he likes. Or intervention in a foreign land without a congressional declaration of war. There is a good reason that, among both friends and foes in Washington, Ron Paul is known as “Dr. No.”  (In his private life, Dr. Paul is an obstetrician who has delivered thousands of babies.)

After years of toiling in obscurity, in the past couple of years Ron Paul’s message of limited government and unlimited freedom really caught fire. When he decided to run for President in the Republican primaries last year, even he was startled by the size and enthusiasm of the crowds he attracted. “Yes, I admit I was pleasantly surprised by the response to my message,” he told me. “I think something has been rumbling in the country for a long time, and I happened along just when people were waiting to hear this message.”

And then he made an extremely important point: “I think we’re a lot further along in the freedom movement than some of us have realized.  We’re seeing a major shift in the attitude of many people. I think this is happening for two reasons: First, a lot of people have been exposed to free-market economics and the principles of freedom. Second, they are being confronted with dramatic evidence that the current system isn’t working. So whether you’re on the receiving end of government giveaways, or you’re one of the ones whose wealth is being taken, both sides are starting to realize, Hey, there’s something wrong!”

Ron’s message has found especially fertile ground among young people. When I introduced him at a conference in Las Vegas a year ago, I was astounded by the numbers, the energy, and the enthusiasm of most of his supporters, many of whom were high school students. The average age of the crowd was probably around 25, which certainly gave new inspiration to all of us oldsters who were there.

And by the way, I want to offer a few words of praise and encouragement to my fellow seniors who’ve been preaching the message of freedom for many, many years. I know we’ve all-too-often despaired that our message was falling on deaf ears. Not true, my friends! Young people have been listening, they’ve been reading, and they’ve been asking some tough questions. And believe me, they are no longer satisfied with the reassuring platitudes they get from today’s politicians.

As Ron put it when we spoke, “Young people in particular grasp our message. They feel as though they’re going to be — if they’re not already — victimized. Whether it’s foreign policy or an attack on their personal liberties and personal choices, they’re very concerned. They’re worried about jobs and how they’re going to pay their bills. About Social Security indebtedness and all of those things.”

“The most exciting part for me has been seeing their interest in monetary policy. They’re actually asking shouting out their support for abolishing the Federal Reserve! That’s been amazing to me.”

Ron told me the story of how his “End the Fed” campaign began. “This followed a debate in Detroit during the primaries.  We were talking about the economy and I was claiming we were already in the middle of a recession. Well, my Republican opponents didn’t want to hear that.”

“Afterwards, I went to a rally at the University of Michigan. This was early in the campaign and I didn’t expect very much, to be frank. But there were 4,000 or 5,000 young people there. During my speech, they started to chant: ‘End the Fed!  End the Fed!’  Some of them even began pulling Federal Reserve notes [you know them as dollar bills] from their pockets and lighting them on fire.

“I could never forget the image of that happening. So of course it became part of my campaign. When it came to picking a title for my book, that was an easy choice to make.”

(Quick commercial plug: Ron’s book, End the Fed, climbed to the top of the New York Times’ best-seller list and stayed there for many weeks. It’s dropped a bit recently, which is good news for you if you don’t already own a copy. Because it means you can find them at Barnes & Noble or Amazon.com for a substantial discount off the $21.99 cover price.  Get ‘em while you can. And think about what a great present one would make for all of the students on your list.)

To be honest, I don’t think it’s necessary to read every word of every chapter of Ron’s book. Unless you’re simply amused by mumble-jumble and government jargon, you can pretty much skip chapters six and seven (“Conversations with Greenspan” and “Conversations with Bernanke”).

But please pay careful attention to chapter ten, “Why End the Fed?”  Here’s how it begins:

“The Federal Reserve should be abolished because it is immoral, unconstitutional, impractical, promotes bad economics and undermines liberty. Its destructive nature makes it a tool of tyrannical government.”

So of course I had to ask him, “Other than that, Ron, what’s wrong with it?”

“Bad government destroys liberty” was his succinct reply. “And the Federal Reserve leads to bad government and bad monetary policy. Not only did they cause the present economic crisis, they’re perpetuating the problem.”

Rep. Paul has introduced legislation to audit the Federal Reserve every year for the past dozen or so years.  And every year it gets bottled up in committee and never sees the light of day.

But this year is different.

When we spoke, Ron already had 301 co-sponsors for the legislation. That is every Republican member of the House of Representatives and a bunch of Democrats, too.  So it’s a shoe-in to pass, right?

Wrong. Although Ron has gained some surprising support for the measure, including Massachusetts’ very liberal (but very powerful) congressman, Barney Frank, the powers-that-be are dead-set against the measure. He expects House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to do everything possible to prevent a floor vote.

But at least the measure has been voted out of committee. In an email to me after that action, Ron wrote, “I was pleased last week when we won a vote in the Financial Services Committee to include language from the Audit the Fed bill HR1207 in the upcoming financial regulatory reform bill. As it stands now, if H.R. 3996 passes, because of this action, the Federal Reserve’s entire balance sheet will be opened up to a GAO audit. We will at last have a chance to find out what happened to the trillions of dollars the Fed has been giving out.”

Does either of us expect an easy victory in Congress this year? Of course not! And even if his measure did pass, despite everything Nancy Pelosi and her cohorts did to stop it, the chances that it will be approved in the Senate and signed by the President are just about zero.

And even when the bill does get signed into law, expect the manipulators of our money system to do everything in their power to protect their trillion-dollar benefactor.

No, folks, this will not be a quick or an easy fight. Ron Paul expects the battle for honest money and limited government to last the rest of his life and beyond. So, frankly, do I.

But rejoice that the battle has been joined! The enemy has been identified! And the weapons we need to win — truth in the hands of an informed public – are all we need, and all we have.

Let me end this article as Ron Paul concludes his book. Here are the last three paragraphs of End the Fed:

We have a natural, God-given right to our lives, our liberties, and the fruits of our labor.

Protecting those rights is the only role that government ought to have in a free society.  To restrain the government from doing more requires a morally determined people willing to assume self-responsibility, rejecting dependence on government force to mold the economy, society, or individual behavior.

If the freedom movement continues to grow as it has these past two years, I would say there’s plenty of room for optimism.  Freedom and central banking are incompatible.  It is freedom we seek, and when that precious goal is achieved, the chant ‘End the Fed’ will become a reality.

Amen to that. When that happens, all of us at The New American will be thrilled to say we told you so.  And yes, we did our part.

W.W. “Chip” Wood was a contributor to American Opinion and one of the founding editors of The Review of the News, two publications that merged to form The New American. He was also the National Director of Ad Hoc Committees for the John Birch Society for many years. In that capacity, he often spoke to patriotic groups across the United States.

Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/282591

Last Thursday, the House Finance Committee, by a vote of 43-26, voted to approve an amendment to finally audit the Federal Reserve.

The Paul/Grayson amendment, HR 1207, is attempting to audit the Fed, which would mean a public disclosure of all its most recent economic activity, especially what it has done with TARP funds.

Ryan Grim at The Huffington Post sums up the importance of this vote very well.

The measure, cosponsored by Reps. Ron Paul (R-Texas) and Alan Grayson (D-Fla.), authorizes the Government Accountability Office to conduct a wide-ranging audit of the Fed’s opaque deals with foreign central banks and major U.S. financial institutions. The Fed has never had a real audit in its history and little is known of what it does with the trillions of dollars at its disposal.

It may seem like a small battle that has been won, but what this vote can possible represent is the slow, but necessary, exposure of the Federal Reserve, which is one of the, if not the most, corrupt government institutions in the US.

Created in 1913, the Federal Reserve is a quasi-private bank with virtually no oversight that has the ability to control the flow of credit (through the manipulation of interest rates). By lowering interest rates, the Fed’s policies create an economy drunk on credit, and many businessess or ventures that would have never been started suddenly start popping up all over the place. When this artificial bubble pops, as it did in 2008 (and in 1929), the painful bust ensues.

This expansion of the monetary supply is essentially inflation, which is a hidden tax, directly harming the poor and middle-class the hardest. In almost 100 years, the Fed-induced inflation has caused our money to lose almost 95% of its value.

The Fed is also a tool of the schemers and central planners that always tend to gravitate towards DC. Without a central bank that can literally create money out of thin air, wars would have to be funded through direct taxation, which might cause many more Americans to grab pitchforks when handed the bill for empire. Welfare, too, becomes much easier to fund when there is no limit to the goodies that can be spread around.

The existence of a centralized bank whose strings are pulled by the government is absolutely incompatible with a free society. Karl Marx once wrote that there are two crucial things to destroying a market based economy: the levying of an income tax and the centralization of credit into state hands. As a firm defender of free markets and the sovereignty of every individual, the very existence of the Fed is an institutionalized evil that I oppose unconditionally.

So it’s no surprise then that all of the influential Beltway types are opposing this amendment. From the war-mongering “conservatives” at the Heritage Foundation to former Wall Street crooks Fed chairmen Alan Greenspan and Paul Volcker, the DC establishment is shaking.

The Paul-Grayson bill, with over 300 trans-ideological co-sponsors in the House, will hopefully be the first of the Federal Reserve’s many corrupt bricks to fall.

_

This article originally appeared in SF’s (d)N0t blog.

Continue reading on Examiner.com The passing of Ron Paul’s HR 1207 means we are one step closer to abolishing the Federal Reserve – San Francisco Sunset District Libertarian | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/sunset-district-libertarian-in-san-francisco/the-passing-of-ron-paul-s-hr-1207-means-we-are-one-step-closer-to-abolishing-the-federal-reserve

Congress Launches Climategate Investigation

Climategate: E-mail Scandal Could Melt Copenhagen Plans

IPCC Researchers Admit Global Warming Fraud

Global warming alarmists are scrambling to save face after hackers stole hundreds of incriminating e-mails from a British university and published them on the Internet.

The messages were pirated from the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) of the University of East Anglia (UEA) and reveal correspondence between British and American researchers engaged in fraudulent reporting of data to favor their own climate change agenda. UEA officials confirmed one of their servers was hacked, and several of the scientists involved admitted the authenticity of the messages, according to the New York Times. The article opined, “The evidence pointing to a growing human contribution to global warming is so widely accepted that the hacked material is unlikely to erode the overall argument.”

Climatologist Patrick J. Michaels challenged that position. “This is not a smoking gun, this is a mushroom cloud.” The e-mails implicate scores of researchers, most of whom are associated with the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), an organization many skeptics believe was created exclusively to provide evidence of anthropogenic global warming (AGW).

Among the IPCC elite embarrassingly, if not criminally, compromised is Phillip D. Jones, a Ph.D. climatologist at the University of East Anglia whose work figured prominently in the IPCC Third Assessment Report of 2001. Jones also contributed significantly to the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report in 2007 (AR4), but he failed to follow through when skeptical investigators asked to review raw data associated with that report. They announced intent to use UK Freedom of Information laws to obtain the data, so Jones sent the following e-mail to one of his collaborators: “Mike, Can you delete any e-mails you may have had with Keith re AR4? Keith will do likewise…. Can you also e-mail Gene and get him to do the same?… Will be getting Caspar to do likewise.” The Mike in this message is Michael Mann, professor of meteorology at Pennsylvania State University, whose influential “hockey stick” graph warning of pending global warming eco-catastrophe was found by a congressional investigation to be fraudulent. In another correspondence about AR4 labeled HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL, Jones contacted Mann regarding research critical of their global warming platform. “I can’t see either of these papers being in the next IPCC report,” wrote Jones. “Kevin and I will keep them out somehow — even if we have to redefine what the peer-review literature is!”

Mann received another incriminating e-mail from Dr. Kevin Trenberth, a New Zealander now with the University of Colorado and Head of the Climate Analysis Section at the National Center for Atmospheric Research. “The fact is we can’t account for the lack of warming at the moment and it is a travesty that we can’t.” An incredulous Trenberth simply blamed “our [inadequate] observing system.” Yet he and his colleagues are now dodging the “Climategate” bullet, indignant that global warming skeptics are supposedly taking their comments out of context. One wonders if they might be referring to a message from Jones who wrote about a statistical “trick” he used to “hide” data. Or perhaps they mean Mann’s reference to climate change skeptics as “idiots.”

Now that AGW is revealed as a farce, will big-spending politicians in the U.S. Senate halt efforts to impose a cap-and-trade system to ostensibly combat greenhouse gases and global warming? Of course not. Cap and trade is about raising taxes and increasing government control over our entire economy. Our socialist politicians in Washington will never stop pushing this issue, even if global-warming alarmism is disproven to the point that Hell really does freeze over.

Will widespread and irrefutable knowledge of scientific fraud silence the socialist promoters of a new United Nations Climate Change protocol? Nonsense. In the name of saving the planet, the UN Copenhagen Treaty they intend to impose on the world would help to shackle it. Specifically, their “green” agenda would impose international controls, diminish the industrial might and living standards of developed nations, and transfer wealth from rich countries to poorer ones in an emerging world government. Internationalists and socialists will not back away from their long-sought-after global designs simply because the “science” supporting runaway global warming is shown to be flawed. No doubt they will continue to demand retributions for climate debt from the United States and the largely agreeable EU, despite Trenberth’s observed “lack of warming.”

The good thing is that even more than in the past, these false scientists and their alarmism will be countered with their own words. Even now reliable researchers are compiling the information in apublication that should shake our nation — and maybe even a few Democratic politicians.

Climategate: George Monbiot’s Lament

CLIMATE BOMBSHELL: Hacker leaks thousands of emails showing conspiracy to “hide” the real data on manmade climate change

WALL STREET JOURNAL:
Rigging a Climate ‘Consensus’
About those emails and ‘peer review.’
[note: the title of this post was CHANGED FROM "How to FORGE a Consensus" which WAS the title when the article was first published - and BEFORE it was 'reviewed']

Michael Mann first of climate change scientists to be investigated

Climategate: Penn State Professor Mann under investigation

Inhofe Announces Climategate Investigation on Fox News

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1qa9xprJ4s

Climate-Gate (Alex Jones)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPQIm9yXA1I

BBC: CLIMATE GATE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zV1XlJLVeOs

Hacked climate emails include calls for ‘Earth Government’ as foundation of new world order, splitting of America

RELATED: CLIMATE BOMBSHELL: Hacker leaks thousands of emails showing conspiracy to “hide” the real data on manmade climate change

One of the leaked climate emails was apparently a press release from “Earth Government” Newsletter dated 27 Mar 2003. The document calls for a ‘democratic’ world government that would amalgamate and reform the prevailing global institutions including the United Nations, IMF, World Bank WTO, NAFTA, FTAA and others “for the good of all.”

It further refers to an “Earth Court of Justice to deal with all aspects of the Governance and Management of the Earth.” The document also makes mention of the “Foundation for the new world order, Earth Government” and “The splitting of America into separate independent states living at peace for the good of all.” Is this a revelation of the true intentions of certain environmental advocates, or just one of many emails in the background of calls to “hide the decline” of global temperatures (despite intense claims of global warming).

It is eerily similar to newly named EU President Herman Von Rompuy’s calls for Copenhagen to establish “global management” of the planet and Queen Elizabeth’s recent declaration during her throne speech at the opening of Parliament that “My government will seek effective global and European collaboration through the G20 and the European Union to sustain economic recovery and to combat climate change, including at the Copenhagen summit next month.”

Climategate: The Phil Jones University could break into children’s television, big time

Damian’s revelation that Futerra has gone so far as to train even CBeebies researchers in “green” communication may offer a lifeline to embarrassed academics at the beleaguered “University” of East Anglia. The ever-helpful BBC might be able to channel them towards a less challenging audience than those brutal sceptics who are holding the Phil Jones University up to so much painful ridicule. Might there not be very promising alternative careers for Phil Jones and Michael Mann if a happy collaboration between CBeebies and, say, Blue Peter could be devised?

“And now children, here are Phil and Michael to show you how to make your own global warming statistics at home.”

“Hello, children, I’m Phil. Can anyone tell me what Michael is holding? Yes. It’s a hockey stick. Does anybody know what that is for? No, Timothy, it is not to beat the crap out of nasty sceptic Pat Michaels, though that is a very good thing to do. It is to save the world. No, Prunella, Mr Brown did not do that last month, he was only speaking metaphorically. Michael…”

“Right, children. Now, watch what Phil is doing. That thing with steam coming out of it is called a computer. What do you think Phil is putting into it? It’s called data. There we go… lots and lots of lovely codes and nice warm data… Oh, look! Phil is frowning. Something isn’t quite right… So, children, now Phil is feeding in his lucky number… and his doggie’s birthday… and his social security number. It’s getting warmer, that’s good. Now he’s adding in the number he first thought of and – wow! It’s getting really hot. Look at all that smoke coming from the computer – don’t try this at home. I’ll just print off that graph and let you see the pretty picture.”

“Hi, kids, now I’ve finished working with the computer, let’s see what Michael is holding. It’s a graph, showing how hot the world is getting because of motor cars and American Republicans and horrid people called Deniers – Oh, look, Michael is holding his graph upside down. No, he’s not being silly, he’s being responsible. Because, you see, although the words are upside down, the lines are pointing upwards, which is what matters. And when we send it to our colleagues in New Zealand, who are becoming almost as famous as we are, the words will be the right way up, because it’s an upside-down country…”

“Thanks, Phil. That was good. Now, kids, if you’ll watch very carefully, Phil will show you how to fill in a very useful piece of paper called a grant application form. You can send that to some very nice people in America – they’re like Father Christmas, but all the year round, and they give out lots of lovely money that people all over America pay them. Phil…”

“And what do we do now, children? Just like tidying away your toys at home before bedtime? We wipe the computer clean, in case burglars try to break into it and let people see what we’ve been doing. After all, it’s none of their business!”

Al Gore confronted on Climategate in Chicago

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwkR3uuZMIM

On November 19, the House Financial Services Committee advanced a bill that calls for the General Accounting Office to conduct a comprehensive audit of the Federal Reserve by the end of 2010.

A 43-26 committee vote rejected a substitute proposal offered by North Carolina Democrat Mel Watt. Its provisions would have sanctioned retention of the long-standing ban against congressional scrutiny of the Fed’s monetary policies.

Despite opposition from committee chairman Barney Frank of Massachusetts, the measure written by Texas Republican Ron Paul survived its first test. Success came because of 313 House cosponsors and a huge outpouring of citizen backing. Yet Frank claimed that the proposed audit would “be seen as weakening the independence of monetary policy with consequent negative implications.”

Frank’s opinion has regularly been buttressed by Fed chairman Ben Bernanke who urgently favors retention of the Fed’s independence. Practically all opponents of the Paul measure pointed to the need for the Fed to continue operating without oversight. Former Fed research specialist Michael Feroli, now an economist with JPMorgan Chase, urged the Fed to “do whatever it takes to stop this from going forward and eroding confidence in the Fed’s independence.”

But it is precisely a loss of confidence in the Fed that has generated unprecedented support for opening up the central bank’s books and supplying the American people with heretofore hidden information. The Fed certainly had a role in bringing on the current economic downturn. Chairman Bernanke’s refusal to answer questions about the Fed’s role has added more muscle to the growing demand for scrutinizing the Fed’s books. If the Fed has nothing to hide, detractors ask, why do its leaders and supporters fear scrutiny?

Should the measure gain full House and Senate approval and a presidential signature (surely steep hills to climb!), the Fed will have to bare details about its emergency lending programs, bailouts of financial institutions, dealings with like institutions in foreign capitals, and the process it employs in setting interest rates. Chairman Frank has sought to calm the fears of Fed supporters by indicating that the Paul measure will be “revisited” when the full House considers the bill. Piggybacking the measure onto another bill, such as the proposed Financial Stability Improvement Act, might be one tactic to undo it. Without doubt, roadblocks will be erected to gut the bill, and the big guns seeking to preserve the Fed’s vaunted “independence” will surely be trotted out as the measure proceeds through the legislative process.

Few supporters of our nation’s central bank care to note that the creation of the Federal Reserve parallels a call in Marx’s Communist Manifesto for “centralization of credit in the hands of the State, by means of a national bank with State capital and an exclusive monopoly.” The Fed was actually pushed toward creation in 1913 by President Wilson’s powerful and manipulative guru, Edward Mandell House, who earlier had written of his desire for “Socialism as dreamed of by Karl Marx.”

But note that Marx sought a central bank “in the hands of the state.” Those who created the Fed in 1913 went a huge step further and made it a private institution free of congressional scrutiny. Fed creators actually out-Marxed Marx by shielding it from examination. The result? Under its management, U.S. currency has lost 95 percent of its value, a trend that continues. The American people are being cleverly divested of their wealth. And power over what happens in our nation sits more with the Fed than it does with Congress. The American people need to know what the Fed has done and continues to do.

Congressman Paul has also introduced a measure to abolish the Federal Reserve outright. His recently published bestseller End the Fed provides reasons why management of the nation’s economy should be terminated, fiat currency should be discarded, and commodity money reestablished. His efforts over many years, long considered extreme or even absurd by the establishment, have attracted enormous popular support as evidenced by the audit measure’s 313 cosponsors.

What will happen as the audit bill moves through the congressional process is unknown. But the awakening of a large number of Americans to the secrecy and power of the Fed should already be considered a stunning victory for Constitution-minded Americans.

House Financial Services Committee approved Ron Paul “Audit the Fed” * House Attacks Fed * Call for Geithner to Quit *

Critical Vote on Audit the Fed!

Congressman Paul will offer an amendment in Committee restoring an audit of the Fed’s entire $2 trillion balance sheet, but we have received word that some of the Democrat members may be waffling on their support for his amendment.

For example, Watt’s amendment prevents the GAO from auditing or reviewing decisions to authorize, modify, extend, or terminate loans or liquidity facilities.

Fed balance sheet can be audited, panel says

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) – A key congressional committee approved legislation on Thursday that would allow for government audits of Federal Reserve monetary policy as well as how much the central bank has lent and will lend to specific banks in response to the financial crisis, despite major opposition from the central bank. The measure, introduced by Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, has the support of 309 members of Congress.

House Attacks Fed, Treasury

Panel Votes for Tighter Political Rein on Central Bank; Some Call for Geithner to Quit

WASHINGTON — Political frustration over the rescue of Wall Street and high unemployment erupted in Congress Thursday, with one committee threatening to impose tighter scrutiny on the Federal Reserve and another excoriating Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.

The House Financial Services Committee voted, 43-26, to approve a measure sponsored by Texas Republican Ron Paul, vociferously opposed by the Fed, that would direct the congressional Government Accountability Office to expand its audits of the Fed to include decisions about interest rates and lending to individual banks. The Fed says the provision threatens its ability to make monetary policy without political interference.

Treasury chief Geithner faced a House Republican who told him, ‘The public has lost all confidence in your ability to do the job.’ He shot back: ‘What I can’t take responsibility is for the legacy of crises you’ve bequeathed this country.’

The vote was the latest blow to the central bank, which has been become a lightning rod for politicians responding to popular anger that Wall Street was bailed out while the public was not. The Fed faces a stinging backlash from legislators from both parties who argue that has too much power and too little oversight. On Thursday, the Senate Banking Committee began debating legislation that would largely remove the Fed from bank supervision over the objections of both the Fed and the Obama administration.

The Paul-Grayson Amendment
by Ron Paul and Alan Grayson

“It is encouraging to see the issue of Federal Reserve transparency receiving so much attention during this current markup. Today we plan to offer an amendment to the Financial Stability Improvement Act that expands on the many extant proposals to enhance Federal Reserve transparency. Our amendment is based on HR 1207, the Federal Reserve Transparency Act, which has broad bipartisan and grassroots support. The bill is cosponsored by 309 Members of Congress, including all Financial Services Committee Republicans and 13 Financial Services Committee Democrats.

The amendment removes restrictions on GAO audits of the Federal Reserve, as HR 1207 does, but makes a few changes to take into account some of the concerns that the Fed has made known in public testimony.

Unlike proposals that target the Fed’s 13(3) facilities, the Paul/Grayson amendment opens up the entire $2 trillion Federal Reserve balance sheet to a GAO audit.

Mr. bernanke, do THEY have OUR gold? or did THEY sell it to Europeans for $35/oz within years of being CONFISCATED from the American people at $25/oz after THEY bankrupted us in 1933?

Learn more about the corrupt “Federal Reserve System”:
http://americanbuilt.us/videos/federal-reserve-system.shtml

OUCH! [this "stimulus" LOAN will probably cost your children $300B just in interest]

Here’s a stimulus success story: In Arizona’s 15th congressional district, 30 jobs have been saved or created with just $761,420 in federal stimulus spending. At least that’s what the Web site set up by the Obama administration to track the $787 billion stimulus says.

There’s one problem, though: There is NO 15th congressional district in Arizona; the state has only eight districts.
And ABC News has found many more entries for projects like this in places that are incorrectly identified.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/jobs-saved-created-congressional-districts-exist/story?id=9097853

In this special edition of the Reality Report Gary Franchi is joined by Michael Badnarik the elected president of the CC2009 Continental Congress. Do not miss this powerful interview.

Michael J. Badnarik was the Libertarian Party nominee for President of the United States in the 2004 elections, and placed fourth in the race, behind independent candidate Ralph Nader.

CC2009: November 11-22, delegates representing The People of the fifty states will join together in the tradition of the Founding Fathers and their Continental Congress of 1774. Continental Congress 2009 will convene as a national assembly of We The People and attest to the increasing abuses of Constitution.
http://cc2009.us/

CC2009 LIVE BROADCAST starts at 2pm CST November 11. The live video will begin 30 minutes to 1 hour befor 2PM.
http://freedom.tv/live

The Bill of Rights: Amendment I Freedoms, Petitions, Assembly:
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

Dobbs gave up on $9M

Nixed CNN pact in ‘Obama birther’ flap

Lou Dobbs Quits CNN, John King Will Step In

CNN Anchor Lou Dobbs announced on the air on November 11 that he was resigning from the network to pursue other unspecified opportunities. John King, currently anchoring the Sunday political news program State of the Union, will step in to replace Dobbs early next year. Various anchors will fill in for Dobbs until then.

Having been with CNN since its beginning in 1980 save for two years off to start the website space.com, the 27-year veteran anchor has recently focused his Lou Dobbs Tonight program on the impact of U.S. trade policy on the American economy, the loss of middle class jobs, and the growing problem of illegal immigration. He would like to find a venue where he can address these topics without constraint.

“Over the past six months, it’s become increasingly clear that strong winds of change have begun buffeting this country and affecting all of us,” Dobbs stated in the opening to his program. “And some leaders in media, politics and business have been urging me to go beyond my role here at CNN and to engage in constructive problem-solving, as well as to contribute positively to a better understanding of the great issues of our day. And to continue to do so in the most honest and direct language possible.”

AllYourTV.com reported on November 11 that Dobbs might embark on a presidential campaign in 2012. “It’s not that he sees himself as a politician,” said an associate of Dobbs. “But he honestly believes that this is his time, that he has something constructive to contribute to the political discourse.”

Dobbs said on air that the issues of trade, jobs, and immigration “are now defined in the public arena by partisanship and ideology rather than by rigorous, empirical thought and forthright analysis and discussion. I’ll be working diligently to change that as best I can.”

CNN President Jonathan Klein revealed his aversion to Dobbs’ “forthright analysis and discussion” when he addressed network employees via a conference call on November 12. Speaking of John King replacing Dobbs, Klein said: “John doing that show is obviously a statement about the importance of real nonpartisan news to CNN, and also the importance of political coverage to CNN.” According to an employee who transcribed the call, Klein added, “Having made a statement that we’re all about nonpartisan journalism and outstanding journalism, we have to live up to that. We have got the hardest mission.”

Klein may think it’s hard to join the rest of the mainstream media in their bias toward the liberal left, but he obviously refused to take the harder course of retaining Dobbs in the face of complaints from radical groups. Roberto Lovato, co-founder of the Latino empowerment website Presente.org, celebrated Dobbs’ departure as a victory for his group’s campaign to have Dobbs fired.

“Our contention all along was that Lou Dobbs — who has a long record of spreading lies and conspiracy theories about immigrants and Latinos — does not belong on the ‘Most Trusted Name in News,’ ” Lovato said. “We are thrilled that Dobbs no longer has this legitimate platform from which to incite fear and hate.”

If Lovato thinks Dobbs is inciting hate, then what would Lovato say about a shot fired at Dobbs’ home while his wife was outside? Fox News reported on October 29 that this incident came after Dobbs received threatening phone calls. The hate in this case likely belongs to radical forces willing to use violence to silence critics of illegal immigration.

Dobbs hasn’t been talking to Fox News about employment, though a position with the network is not hard to imagine. “At this point, I’m considering a number of options and directions,” Dobbs said. “I assure you, I will let you know when I set my course.”

source: New American

The text of Mr. Dobbs’ announcement about leaving CNN:

This will be my last broadcast here on CNN, where I’ve worked for most of the past 30 years, and where I have many friends and colleagues whom I admire deeply and respect greatly.

I’m the last of the original anchors here on CNN and I’m proud to have had the privilege to helping to build the world’s first news network.

I’m grateful for the many opportunities that CNN has given me over these many years. I’ve tried to reciprocate with a full measure of my ability and my energy.

Over the past six months it’s become increasingly clear that strong winds of change have begun buffeting this country and affecting all of us, and some leaders in media, politics and business have been urging me to go beyond the role here at CNN and to engage in constructive problem solving as well as to contribute positively to the great understanding of the issues of our day. And to continue to do so in the most honest and direct language possible.

I’ve talked extensively with Jonathan Klein — Jon’s the president of CNN — and as a result of those talks, Jon and i have agreed to a release from my contract that will enable me to pursue new opportunities.

At this point, I’m considering a number of options and directions, and I assure you, I will let you know when I set my course. I truly believe that the major issues of our time include the growth of our middle class, the creation of more jobs, health care, immigration policy, the environment, climate change, and our military involvement, of course, in Afghanistan and Iraq.

But each of those issues is, in my opinion, informed by our capacity to demonstrate strong resilience of our now weakened capitalist economy and demonstrate the political will to overcome the lack of true representation in Washington, D.C.

I believe these to be profoundly, critically important issues, and I will continue to strive to deal honestly and straightforwardly with those issues in the future.

Unfortunately, these issues are now defined in the public arena by partisanship and ideology rather than by rigorous, empirical thought and forthright analysis and discussion. I’ll be working diligently to change that as best I can. And as for the important work of restoring inspiration to our great free society and our market economy, I will strive as well to be a leader in that national conversation.

It’s been my great honor to work with each and every person at this wonderful network. I will be eternally grateful to CNN, to Ted Turner, and to all of my colleagues and friends, and of course to you at home. I thank you, and may God bless you.

Mr. Dobbs then went to a commercial break.