RipUp

Governor Snyder and the High Speed Bus

2011-10-26T19:20:00.001-07:00

I read today that Governor Snyder is proposing a high-speed bus network for southeast Michigan. He’s going to another layer of government to the corrupt Charter County of Wayne, the paralyzed Detroit City Government and SEMCOG (also known as the solution waiting for a problem).

He’s not just poking around in southeast Michigan, however, his new plan , a new regional authority to oversee it. The State pushing its way into local politics.

The worst part is new vehicle registration fees allowing counties or regions to raise funds for local transit projects. ‘Allowing’ – he’s going to ‘allow’ you to pay higher fees so that your county or region is ‘allowed’ to raise funds for local transit projects.

I can understand town, village, city, county, state and I even willing to include ‘Charter Township’ when it is done for reasons other than greed – but what form of government does a ‘Region’ fit into?

As for the high speed busses – Governor Snyder recently endorsed Pete Hoekstra as Republican Candidate for United States Senator. He said Hoekstra is the ‘right man’ for the job.

Pete Hoekstra’s family business puts together, sells, leases and maintains busses all across the State of Michigan.

From Hoekstra Transportation’s website :

“Welcome MDOT Agencies and Local Units of Government. This site is your resource for all open Hoekstra bus contracts as well as a source for links to the documents and forms required in completing your bus purchases.”

When it gets this bad and obvious then what’s next?

The Wars End Now

2011-10-16T05:33:00.001-07:00

I am going to borrow from George McGovern and paraphrase his remarks about Vietnam and turn them now to Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Uganda. I have taken the frame of what he said and have expanded upon it just as the architects of destruction have taken the Vietnam plan and expanded upon it. An escalation in murderous action, after all, requires an escalation in opposition to it – if one is to preserve one’s spirit.

Every Senator, Representative and Citizen in the United States is partly responsible for sending more than 6,230 young Americans to an early grave in Afghanistan and Iraq. The Senator Chamber, the House of Representatives and the Oval Office of the White House reeks of blood. Every Senator, Representative and the President is partly responsible for the human wreckage at Walter Reed and Bethesda Naval and all across our land – totally more than 35,000 - young men and women without legs, or arms, or genitals, or faces or hopes.

There are not many of these children who think this war is glorious anymore or who feel that war as a means of spreading democracy is reasonable. Go and sit at their bedsides or talk to their parents and friends about or national honor, courage, voting rights in Afghanistan, abortion clinics in Pakistan or the price of land contracts for oil fields in Iraq. It does not take any courage at all for a Representative, Senator or the President to wrap himself in the flag and say we are staying in Afghanistan, Iraq, bombing Libya and invading Uganda because it is not their blood that is being spilled. It is not their bodies that are being blasted. It is not their families that are being torn asunder. It is not their lives that are being blown apart. But they are responsible for those young men and women, their lives and their hopes. If they do not end these damnable wars these young men and women, like tens of millions of Americans today and nearly one billion people around the world will curse them and all the people of the United States for our pitiful weakness in allowing the Executive Branch of the United States to take for itself like a thief in the night the responsibility of waging war that the Constitution places on our elected representatives.

Please keep that in mind even if you decide to do nothing now. Keep these words in mind and the lives lost and the opportunities missed and the destruction of our way of life and undermining of our beliefs as elections draw near. These sitting Senators and Representatives and this sitting President – all of them – they need to be set aside so we can begin again. They need to be set aside so we can live in peace and prosperity. The United States of America is not the crime ridden, drug soaked, greedy, murderous, killing machine that the current President and members of the Congress have turned it into.

Let them be retired and put aside to do something else with their lives and they can watch as we make a new and excellent nation. Let them be put aside before they lay waste to yet another nation – to yet another generation – to yet another world.

It is all up to you.

Will you let them take even one more life?

Judges Dying

2011-10-15T05:24:00.001-07:00

"Five judges from the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals have died this year, worsening an already critical case backlog and spotlighting President Obama's inability to put his judicial choices and stamp on the powerful court."
The Department of Justice has been dispensing drugs and guns to criminals. The judges in the Judicial Branch are quite aware of this behavior but have done nothing and said nothing. Obama sits on one of the most vicious and cruel administrations this nation has ever seen. It is ravaging our economy and the government is stealing from itself. It is not just a measure of his incompetence in the matter but reasonable people do not want to see him infect the judiciary the way he has crippled the Department of Justice. Obama is highly intelligent and wily - less judges mean less likliehood that he and his cronies will get caught in their wicked ways. Representative Giffords was shot for her political views and now it turns out judges are dying and not being replaced. The evidence is here before our eyes.

The Engine of War - American Troops in Africa

2011-10-15T05:23:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately, as I predicted some years ago, President Obama has sent American soldiers to fight in a ground war in Africa. Only a hundred at first...plus the thousands it will take to get them there, feed them, support them and help bring in more...God save the United States of America. The soldiers are going to Uganda where the previous American sponsored assault on the 'Lord's Resistance Army' ended in the loss of the Guatamelan soldiers sent to find it. The 'Lord's Resistance Army' is led by a man named Kony - he is accused of war crimes by the Ugandan Army (which is guilty of war crimes). Perpetual war. Exporting weapons, military training, high tech killing machines - all at substantial profit. Who says America isn't a world leader? The final product however, is the creation of enemies in every corner of the known world and the result that Americans are welcome no where and friends to no one. The engine of war to fuel industry is destruction. Film at 11.

Boss Bloomberg

2011-10-14T04:24:00.001-07:00

I have reluctantly come to the conclusion that the protesters at Wall Street and elsewhere are just drawing attention away from the true problems we are facing. A Department of Justice that sells drugs and guns - empty promises of ending the War In Afghanistan - a President who leans on 'Drones' to kill whomever whatever department tells him to (drones made by companies who donated millions to his election campaign) - an immigration policy driven by profit instead of need - under representation in Washington and State capitols and the fact that the protesters main message seems to be not reformation of our financial system. They state, in fact, that they are against corporations - but more importantly every time some spokesman makes that statement they also neatly include the statement that the Tea Party is against government. I would take them more seriously if they had occupied the real center of greed and incompetence in New York - that would be City Hall where Boss Bloomberg rules the roost and rots the world with a Ponzi scheme the size of the Great Pyramid of Egypt.

Occupy Wall Street

2011-10-12T04:20:00.001-07:00

The people who are involved in the ‘Occupy Wall Street’ media event have struck me as an odd group. I was watching Univision, the Spanish language cable station, yesterday and saw a reporter interviewing a student from Spain and then another from Argentina. They were wearing designer jeans and nice shirts. They were clean and looked healthy and bright…but they were in New York.

I believe that the large banks and stockbroker houses in New York must be broken up so that they can reform.

The mob sleeping on Wall Street in their designer sleeping bags wants more than that. It’s not quite clear what. The gang is made up literally of Communists, Anarchists, wealthy students with time on their hands, thrill seekers and criminals.

Not the stuff for a revolution.

Some compare these mob scenes to the American Revolution, however, the Continental farmer/soldier was not dressed in Ralph Lauren jeans and supported by a team of lawyers in designer suits.

This crisis will only end when Mommy and Daddy grow tired of sending money to kids sleeping in the streets.

As for the unions ‘supporting’ them – a union dock worker unloading foreign goods from a ship in Seattle and passing the goods to a union rail worker who passes them to a union trucker who then delivers them to a store with union clerks has not done me or America any good. They’ve just stuffed their ears with Chinese Communist money because they don’t want to hear the truth.

Michael Bloomberg and Wang Jianzhong

2011-09-30T04:31:00.001-07:00

What is wrong with the runaway economy in China?

One aspect of it is something called ‘ramping’.

Prior to 2006 a man by the name of Wang Jianzhong had become known as China's "god of stocks" for his amazing ability to pick stocks that were about to rise.

At the peak of the trading frenzy in China, which is still continuing right now, his influence was so great that reports by his company, Beijing Shoufang Investment Consulting, republished in dozens of influential newspapers and websites, were, it is said, many times considered the main reason for a particular share price rising.

Do you recall the commercial, ‘When E.F. Hutton talks, people listen.’ ?

When Wang Jianzhong talked people listened also.

It is reported that by late 2006 it any companies Wang recommended in his columns would turn out to be some of the biggest gainers the next trading day in the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock markets.

It must have become apparent to Wang and he reportedly put that knowledge to use.

Records indicate that between January 2007 and May 2008, Wang bought shares in 38 companies, wrote reports on them, and then sold the stocks after his recommendations seemed to help lift the share prices.

That is what is called ‘ramping’. This was a lucrative ramping scheme. According to investigators in 55 separate transactions during that time, Wang pulled in 125 million yuan ($19.5 million).

That’s not much, though, is is? 19.5 million. Chump change for Wall Street.

Now we get to another issue.

The Mayor of New York. I do not mean to impugn his reputation or attack his character but I want to point out to you, as a fellow American citizen a couple of important points about the present Mayor of New York.

It has been reported that in 1973, Bloomberg was a general partner at Salomon Brothers. He headed equity trading and systems development.

Not often mentioned, it appears that in 1981, he was fired given a $10 million severance package.

He then went on to set up Innovative Market Systems.

Merrill Lynch became the new company's first customer. They installed 22 of the company's Market Master terminals and invested $30 million. The company reformed as Bloomberg L.P. in 1986 and by 1987 it was operating more than 5,000 of these information terminals.

Expanding on this the company added other products including Bloomberg Tradebook (a trading platform), Bloomberg Messaging Service and Bloomberg newswire.

As recently as 2009 it is reported the company has more than 250,000 terminals operating around the globe.

The company has a radio network.

Bloomberg took some time off from his company to become the Mayor of New York. The company is now run by president Daniel Doctoroff, a former deputy mayor under Bloomberg.

So – there he is and there you have it.

You can come to your own conclusion, but ask yourself this, if this kind of information company and its political protection is so good for capitalism and our nation what exactly is going on right now all around us?

The New World

2011-09-29T04:28:00.001-07:00

The Department of Justice sells guns and drugs.

The Department of Defense attacks other nations without warning.

The Department of the Treasury borrows money.

The Department of Environmental Protection sells licenses to pollute.

The Department of Agriculture pays farmers not to plant crops.

The Department of Education censors schoolbooks.

The Department of Labor pays people not to work.

Covington Out of Kansas City

2011-09-28T04:15:00.001-07:00

Kansas City, Mo., Superintendent John Covington is on his way to Michigan.

He has been lured away from his job attending to the education of children in Kansas City to a job here in Michigan under Governor Rick ’Made In Taiwan’ Snyder.

Is he coming because the children here in Michigan are more discouraged, more tossed around by politicians or because of MORE MONEY?

It seems that Mr. Covington may have been enticed to come here by Snyder’s offer of MORE MONEY.

You can expect Covington to bring the same wild eyed attitude he showed in Kansas City, Missouri. He rolled into the troubled Kansas City Missouri School District in 2009 under the banner of change.

The type of change he applied was to shut down nearly half the district’s schools, fire teachers, cut staff and invent curriculum while exciting the district’s parents and representatives. When you close schools and fire teachers the Covington Model produces fewer problems…for politicians.

Covington is the only candidate to lead Michigan’s new Education Achievement System, a statewide school district made up of Michigan’s lowest-performing schools.

Part of the ‘curriculum’ Covington created for Kindergarten Social Studies - “Students experience the expanding environment from self to communities, regions and the nation through geographical, historical, government, and economic perspectives.”

Michigan schools should provide reasonable, grade-level instruction to our children not line the pockets of politicians and bureaucrats. Governor Snyder is importing Missouri Misery.

Mr. Covington has deserted his post in Kansas already. When will he desert us?

Hoekstra and Poverty

2011-09-26T20:11:00.001-07:00

Pete Hoekstra wants to be a United States Senator from Michigan.

What has he done?

Has he started a school and provided good education to children?

Clark Durant has done that. I don’t think Hoekstra has.

Has he addressed the problem of failing schools and provided a solution that can be repeated throughout Michigan and across the nation?

Clark Durant has done that. I don’t think Hoekstra would understand the first thing about what happened.

Has Hoekstra faced up to the sky rocketing price of gasoline? You know – the cost of petroleum fuels has driven prices of everything up – food, furniture – even doing any kind of business.

Clark Durant has done that. I believe Hoekstra counts as his friend some petroleum companies with offices in other states and other countries.

What one thing has Pete Hoekstra done that Clark Durant has not?

Pete Hoekstra was, for a short time, a Congressman from the second Congressional District of Michigan. That’s on the west side of the state where most of the money backing him for Senate comes from.

In the Second Congressional District in the State of Michigan it is estimated there are over 33,000 children living in poverty.

To ask again – what has Hoekstra done that Clark Durant has not?

Hoekstra has, in my opinion, stood by and let politicians take food from children – our children – Michigan’s children – American children.

That, in my opinion, is what Hoekstra has done that Clark Durant has not.

Will you keep that in mind?

Career Politician - Pete Hoekstra

2011-09-26T04:27:00.001-07:00

Peter Hoekstra (his nickname is Pete – isn’t that imaginative?) – is running for United States Senate.

He likes to say he is running against Senator Debbie (Carl Levin’s Siamese Twin) Stabenow but the real contest is with Republican candidate Clark Durant.

Governor ‘Made In Taiwan’ Snyder ‘endorsed’ Hoekstra. Yes, Governor of Michigan is interfering in Federal politics. The mess doesn’t stop. Peety Hoekstra doesn’t have a chance against Stabenow. His decision to run for this office is apparently because it’s the only way he can get his shoe back in the door.

See – Peety Hoekstra is what is known as a Career Politician. It’s his job. Guys like Hoekstra and women like Senator ‘Lady Levin’ Stabenow – feel that they deserve the opportunity to serve. It is clear to me after reviewing Stabenow’s record which is nearly a mirror image of Carl Levin’s actions in the Senate that she is just waiting her to turn to move up and become the Senior Senator from Michigan after Carl Levin steps aside – which should be in about 50 years.

The Michigan Republican Party is financed by tycoons like Snyder, who made money selling an American computer company to the Chinese.

They stand in line waiting for the next office to open up – so, here is the Senate race, who is ‘next’ in line? Pete Hoekstra. Is he able? Is he ready? Is he actually qualified to do the job? Not really – he’s just next. Do you want your Federal Government ‘Made In Taiwan’ too?

Dorothea Dix Versus Janet Napolitano

2011-09-25T05:01:00.001-07:00

The United States has no shortage of great women.

One was Dorothea Dix. In the 1840’s it became apparent to America mental health reformer Dorothea Dix that mentally ill people in Massachusetts, both men and women and all ages, were incarcerated with criminals and left unclothed and in darkness and without heat or bathrooms. Many were chained and beaten. Over the next 40 years, Dix worked to establish 32 state hospitals for the mentally ill. On a tour of Europe in 1854-56, she convinced Pope Pius IX to examine how cruelly the mentally ill are treated.

She helped establish Saint Elizabeth’s in Washington, DC.

The hospital was established to provide care and "enlightened" curative treatment of the insane of the Army, Navy, and District of Columbia.

Today the Congress suspended funding to place the headquarters of the Department of Homeland Security on those grounds. This suspension is enough to bring attention to the signals being sent.

The DHS offers courses to anyone willing to pay :

Bomb-making Materials Awareness Program – if you can’t afford the whole course you can get ‘Bomb-making Materials Awareness Program / Suspicious Behavior Cards’ to put at cash registers.

Is it wise to tell anyone with cash how to make bombs or is it insane?

Do you think that Janet Napolitano, Director of the Department of Homeland Security will be remembered like Dorothea Dix or will the influence of the insane that certainly work for the government and may actually be running it spread ever wider?

The Rich and Powerful of Michigan

2011-09-24T04:21:00.001-07:00

The rich and powerful of Michigan, Governor Rick Snyder.

Some Michigan citizens know his remarkable career achievements.

He worked at Coopers and Lybrand – in the tax department. Coopers and Lybrand is now part of PwC – a foreign corporation in England.

Snyder was CEO of an American manufacturer called ‘Gateway’. Gateway was sold to a Chinese company in Taiwan.

Snyder seems to be taking advantage of his political office to do things that people, who were brought up to do the right thing, would never do.

Cutting off welfare payments after four years of receiving them may seem tough but it is irresponsible. This economic mess could last more than ten years. That is the reality. It seems the point of cutting benefits is to force people to leave Michigan altogether, not to get them work.

I know a 70 year old woman. She is disabled. She cannot walk. She cannot talk. She has no education and no skills.

Until Snyder arrived she got 104 dollars a month Michigan for food.

$3.46 per day.

Reduced to 92 dollars – $3.06 per day.

Snyder pays over 21 bucks to feed inmates.

Snyder’s ‘Sausage and Liquor Party’ Republicans are taking food from people unable to care for themselves.

Is the same logic that chases unemployed workers away being applied here? Is the ultimate goal to starve her to death so that the Accountant-In-Chief along with the fat politicos in Lansing can save three dollars a day?

What kind of State are you living in?

Michigan's Political Sausage Machine

2011-09-23T20:37:00.001-07:00

The ‘halls of power’ in Washington, DC have, in my opinion, been taken over by unruly and unprincipled people. Men and women, like Debbie Stabenow, seem to have made a career from pretending rather than representing. Working towards retirement, for themselves, while leaving us abandoned.

They are so addicted to the work they can’t stay away and crave more and more and more. Look at Ex-Representative Hoekstra. He is, in my opinion, a failure. Voted out of office he was put aside by the people of the Second Congressional District of Michigan but the political machine remade him – as if stuffing a rotten sausage in a new skin makes it safe to eat. How’s that?

Hoekstra is lurching along beside Debbie Stabenow for Senate. Governor Snyder likes him - that should make anyone concerned about Hoekstra. Right?

Clark Durant is a principled, strong leader with real world administrative and business experience.

Unlike Hoekstra – honorary member of the ‘Liquor and Sausage Party’ – and unlike Senator Stabenow, whose main goal in life appears to be Senator Carl Levin – Clark Durant presents news leadership, real world skills and abilities that these career politicians have never had, will not develop and so will never exhibit.

There are times in our nation when we must wipe the slate clean and begin again. One of those times is now.

Have you had enough taken from you? Are you going to let the Political Sausage Machine in Michigan take everything from you or will you stand up?

Clark Durant for Senate

2011-09-23T20:36:00.001-07:00

Clark Durant for Senate

Warren Buffett Rule

2011-09-22T04:29:00.001-07:00

The ‘Buffett Rule’ has made headlines.

It is amazing to me that one man, who is a stranger to most of the 400 million Americans in this nation, could make a few remarks and get the President to act.

Mr. Buffett seems a nice fellow who does not want his actions to be regarded for the facts but as a gentle fantasy that seems to have settled in on him – placed there by admirers who refer to him as the ‘Oracle of Omaha’.

It is a uniquely American situation where one individual in his Pop-Culture disguise can have such a powerful effect on the nation’s society.

His remarks on taxation and the rich seem to reflect middle class values but the fact remains he is not middle class. The statements more rightly indicate deflecting attention away from the things that he seems to hold most dear. Corporations. A web of which he ‘controls’ for his own personal interests and I expect, his own personal pleasure.

These problem children in our economy - corporations - do not pay their fair share in taxes and fees. They do not even pay out reasonable dividends against their income as they should. Mr. Buffett's diversion is very complex and it is serving Mr. Obama well to use it to cover some very simple and ugly truths.

American Corporations have trillions of dollars in other countries – but they won’t bring it back because there are rules that allow them and even encourage them to keep the money out of the United States. For example – there is no tax on profits made in other countries for American corporations as long as the profits are kept out of the country. It is quite complex and reassuring to accountants but it is clearly taking advantage of our system of national defense to help them ensure their continued profitability by the threat of force against the host nations in which they are operating.

So – we have a rich man dressing himself in rags – that is Mr. Buffett.

I believe that Mr. Buffett believes that because he is in the position he is in that he is right. I believe that Mr. Obama, because Mr. Buffett believes what he believes and Mr. Obama agrees with it and he, likewise, is in the position he is in, believes he is right also. So the error is magnified by the seemingly harmless deflection of truth.

Lights Out for Solyndra

2011-09-21T04:00:00.000-07:00

      The more I hear about the Solyndra solar mess with the energy department, the less I am concerned with it and the more worried I become about the personal agendas of the people shouting about it – like Representative Issa of California and Representative Stearns of Florida – both sunny states dependent heavily upon oil and energy companies.
     I don't think the government should be investigating but I think it should create more of these companies right now.
     Issa and Stearns appear to be trying to drive solar power out of favor.
     I think crooks should go to jail and solar panels need to go to market. There is too much at stake to stop developing solar.
     In any case - not all the businesses started during the Great Depression were successful. It's not like every project of the Tennessee Valley Authority was successful from the beginning.
     We have to keep going. More solar companies, more support from the government. Keep the Communist Chinese out of our markets. Ensure that money and assistance is available to homeowners and businesses to install solar panels.
     The power companies and the oil companies are afraid to their core that California and Florida will go solar - and so we get Representative Issa from California who is on the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, of which he is the Ranking Member and Florida Representative Cliff Stearns, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations
      Are they helping or hurting?

The Fire Chief

2011-09-20T04:35:00.001-07:00

      It was a time when the leaders were the strongest yet not necessarily the wisest. It was a time when the women were afraid even of their own men. A messenger came. A Peace Maker. A Messenger.
     He brought the message of the Great Law and the Great Peace. A respect for Life. Thanksgiving for Life.
     The ones who had been killing and drenched in blood would not listen to this message of Peace and Good Will because it was from chaos and warfare that they extracted their rights to power and control.
     The Peace Maker continued and through word, thought and action showed the people that peace was preferable to war.
     He showed there is a preferable alternative to kill one the other in a war of attrition whose beginning cannot be found nor has any meaning and whose ending would remove the cruel ones from power.
     He proved to be more powerful than all the leaders.
     To appease him and welcome him he was given the Head Seat at the Mighty Council that was formed. He was made the Fire Chief and his first act of Power was to give his power to the leaders among them and told them that they would no longer make war but would use the law to rule the world and would use their minds for reason. The people were set to use their minds and so the council was called ‘The Council of the Good Minds’.
     War, then, was no more.

Corporate Challenge

2011-09-20T04:17:00.001-07:00

Of the 100 largest economic units in the world 49 are countries and 51 are
corporations.
Corporations are the driving force of decision making in the world today.
Corporations are not concerned with human rights, human life nor providing a proper wage for
people laboring for them.
What kind of decisions do they make?
A corporation has the same rights as an individual and is considered by the courts to be a ‘citizen’
like you and I.
A corporation can buy and sell another corporation. If you buy or sell another individual that is
illegal because that is slavery.
A corporation can take a part of itself and create a new corporation. If you could do that it would be cloning.
A corporation can kill or destroy property but it is never sent to jail. BP has destroyed our ability to extract food from the Gulf of Mexico for decades but still they sell gasoline in cities across our nation. If you did something

like that you would either go to jail for life or be executed. Grace killed many with asbestos but was
allowed to buy forgiveness.

General Electric’s nuclear technology creates materials that need care for thousands of years. You are forbidden the secret knowledge they use to do such things because the claim is that they do these horrible things to protect you – yet their technology and activities are exported to nations who have dedicated themselves to our destruction.
Do you see some problem with a process that gives to a mysterious entity that has no flesh and blood the same rights as your yourself and the powers of God?
If you are in business – you are charged with the leadership of the world. It is your responsibility not the government’s to design the world market to be as naturally productive and beneficial as the natural world. You are challenged to the tremendous responsibilities placed on your shoulders – for they are of life and death.

My Friend Said

2011-09-19T18:54:00.001-07:00

"We need to teach our daughters to distinguish between a man who flatters her - and a man who compliments her. A man who spends money on her - and a man who invests in her. A man who views her as property - and a man who views her properly. A man who lusts after her - and a man who loves her. A man who believes he is God's gift to women - and a man who remembers a woman was God's gift to man...And then teach our boys to be that kind of a man."

Roosevelt and Obama

2011-09-11T04:57:00.000-07:00

I cannot agree that President Obama's speech resembled the oratory of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. President Obama's speech sounded like the haranguing style of a tenured professor faced with a class full of students who were failing his class because it was composed of confused and conflicting messages and so threatened his ability to keep his job. He sounded scared and angry. On the other hand the oratory of President Franklin Roosevelt was clearly directed at solving problems with hast. While Obama has initiated a program to 'solve' the mortgage problem which involved extending mortgages for ten years (which does not help the millions who are really affected) Roosevelt stated in his inaugural address "It can be helped by preventing realistically the tragedy of the growing loss through foreclosure of our small homes and our farms. It can be helped by insistence that the Federal, the State, and the local governments act forthwith on the demand that their cost be drastically reduced. "

For example - the worth of my home has been reduced, therefore, the bank must reduce my mortgage to reflect that. Whereas Roosevelt was concerned with the solvency of Americans President Barack Obama seems more concerned with the solvency of the ruling, oppresive and cruel Communist Party in China and the corrupt banks who financed his election campaign.

Another difference is in the works programs. Whereas President Roosevelt provided opportunity for Americans trapped in cities to go to the country and take on farms, homes and other businesses that had been abandoned President Obama is allowing Mexicans to flood our countryside while the cities become ever more mired in poverty and social madness.

Here is my another example of the difference between the empty rhetoric of President Obama and the skillful framing of the problem and correct response by President Roosevelt. When faced with corrupt banks and stockbrokers houses President Obama not only lent them money but gave them money and allowed the United States Treasury Department and Federal Reserve Bank to change their behavior to protect the banks. When faced with a similar crisis in the 1930's President Roosevelt said, "And finally, in our progress toward a resumption of work we require two safeguards against a return of the evils of the old order; there must be a strict supervision of all banking and credits and investments; there must be an end to speculation with other people's money, and there must be provision for an adequate but sound currency."

Then Roosevelt, along with a like minded Congress intent on prosperity, went ahead and did it.

President Obama is a very intelligent guy. He does not appear to be a good leader and his connection and relation to America and Americans seems to be second-hand - probably due to his being raised in repressive and backward Indonesia. His understanding and actions concerning fiscal responsibility and finance seem also to be lacking - he has apparently mistakenly decided to rely upon the very criminal elements that caused the problem in the first place to 'help' him corrrect it. That will never happen.

Where President Roosevelt created a jobs program that put millions of Americans to work, rebuilt ports and provided electricity across the nation - President Obama's jobs program seems limited to repairing the same roads over and over again while extending unemploment benefits.

To compare the two Presidents is just not something I can do with a straight face.

A new and bold approach must be made and President Obama will not, it seems, suddenly become able to produce it.

Tax Fraud or Planned Giving

2011-03-18T19:04:00.001-07:00

Tax Fraud or ‘Planned Giving’ – You Decide

Planned Giving and the Cult of Death at the Temple of the MET

It started simply enough. I had heard of an investment system at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City that seemed at first blush to be a reasonable deal. My initial inquiries provided me with some unique information but the more I learned the more I became concerned and then alarmed.

The materials often warned me that the Metropolitan Museum of Art and its ‘Planned Giving’ office were not providing me with legal or financial advice, however, there seemed no other way to describe it.

“A rose by any other name…”

But what I smelled coming from the Metropolitan Museum of Art and its ‘Planned Giving’ office was no rose.

What is the Metropolitan Museum of Art?

According to their website :

“The Metropolitan Museum of Art was founded in 1870 by a group of American citizens – businessmen and financiers as well as leading arists {sic} and thinkers of the day – who wanted to create a museum to bring art and art education to the American people.”

In 1999 the annual operating budget of the MET was reportedly $130 million dollars, for urrently the annual operating budget of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York is reportedly about $220 million dollars. Most of the budget is drawn from the “Metropolitan Museum of Art Endowment Fund”.

According to ‘Business Week’ :

“Metropolitan Museum of Art, Endowment is an endowment fund with $1.7 billion in assets under management. The fund engages in the following alternative investment strategies: buyouts/corporate finance, distressed debt/turnarounds, energy/oil & gas, hedge funds, international private equity, real estate, timber/farmland, and venture capital. Metropolitan Museum of Art, Endowment is headquartered in New York.”

As of February of 2011 members of the ‘Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Business Committee’ included (among others) :

Jewelle W. Bickford

Senior Strategist

Genspring Family Offices

Leon D. Black

Founding Partner

Apollo Management, L.P.

Richard L. Chilton, Jr.

President and Chief Executive Officer

Chilton Investment Company, Inc.

Rena DeSisto

Senior Vice President, Marketing and Communications

Bank of America

James E. Fitzgerald, Jr.

Executive Vice President, Northeast Division

Wachovia

Patrick Gaston

Executive in Residence

Clinton Bush Haiti Fund

James P. Gorman (Co-Chair, Business Committee)

President and Chief Executive Officer

Morgan Stanley

Rajat Gupta

Senior Partner Emeritus

McKinsey & Company, Inc.

Dennis M. Nally

Chairman, Senior Partner

PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP

Jeffrey M. Peek (Co-Chair, Business Committee)

Vice Chairman, Investment Banking

Barclays Capital, Inc.

Ruth Porat

Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer

Morgan Stanley

Grant A. Porter

Vice Chairman

Barclays Capital

James D. Price

Co-Head, Wealth Management Advisor Group US

UBS Financial Services, Inc.

Felipe Propper De Callejon

First Vice President

Smith Barney

William R. Rhodes

Senior Advisor

Citi

E. John Rosenwald, Jr.

Vice Chairman Emeritus

J. P. Morgan

David Tepper

Senior Partner

Appaloosa Management L.P.

Enzo Viscusi

Senior Advisor

ENI SpA

The Email from the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Dear Mr. Brock,

Thank you for your inquiry about supporting the Museum through planned giving. I would be happy to send you some information and wondered if you would like for me to include an illustration of how a life income gift, such as a charitable gift annuity, would work for you specifically? If so, please send me your date of birth at your convenience and I will get the example to you. Thank you again for your interest in the Museum.

Sincerely,

Natalie G. Taylor

Development Officer for

Planned Giving and Major Gifts

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

212.650.2387

natalie.taylor@metmuseum.org

Planned Giving and the Denial of Giving Legal or Financial Advice from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York

The Met provides for people to donate many different things to the museum. It also provides information about how these gifts can be used to lower or even, in some cases, eliminate them altogether.

Even though the Met claims not to offer legal advice I draw your attention to the legal phrases that they freely provide with their literature.

Bequests

You may arrange for the Museum to receive:

1. a specific dollar amount

2. specified assets, such as securities, real estate or tangible personal property

3. all or a percentage of the remainder of your estate after all other obligations (a residuary bequest)

4. You may make a bequest to the Metropolitan by preparing a new will or adding a codicil to your present will.

5. An outright bequest to the Metropolitan is fully tax-deductible for estate-tax purposes.

We've suggested language you may find useful in writing your will. Please see How to Make a Bequest: Useful Language.

Suggested language for making an unrestricted bequest:

"I give, devise and bequeath [the sum of ____ dollars], [all or ____ percent of the rest, remainder and residue of my estate of every kind and description (including lapsed legacies and devises)] to The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1000 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York, for its general corporate purposes."

Suggested language for a specific purpose:

Important Note: If you do specify a use for your bequest, the following language will ensure that your gift will always remain productive: "If at any time in the judgment of the Trustees of The Metropolitan Museum of Art the designated use of this bequest is no longer practicable or appropriate, then the Trustees shall use the bequest to further the general purposes of the Museum, giving consideration, where possible, to my special interest as described above."

Charitable Gift Annuities

An agreement between you and the Metropolitan that provides you with regular fixed payments annually (an annuity) for life in exchange for transferring assets to the Museum.

Gifts can be made with cash or marketable securities. The minimum gift is $10,000.

The fixed payment amount you receive will be determined by how much you contribute and your age at the time the gift is made.

Income for life may be paid to one or two annuitants. The minimum age at which an annuitant can receive payments is 65.

A portion of the payment is tax-free.

A charitable deduction is available for a portion of your contribution on your income tax return in the year you make the gift.

It is possible to defer receiving payments for one or more years. This will result in higher annuity payments, higher tax deduction (available in the year you make the gift), allowing you to enjoy increased retirement income.

Example 1

Mrs. Butler, who is 75 years old, establishes a $10,000 gift annuity for the eventual benefit of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. At her age, she will receive payments fixed for life at 6.4% ($640 per year) paid in quarterly installments of $160, some portion of which will be tax-free, and can claim an immediate charitable deduction of about $4,096 on her federal income tax.

Example 2

Ms. Wise, who is 55 years old, establishes a $10,000 gift annuity that defers payments for ten years. She can claim an immediate charitable deduction of about $2,039 on her federal income tax. When she turns 65, she will begin to receive payments fixed for life at 8.4% ($840 per year), some portion of which will be tax-free.

Ms. Wise can add significantly to her retirement income by establishing a new deferred-payment gift annuity each year for a number of years, creating a growing stream of income for her. She will be able to claim a charitable deduction on her income tax each year a new annuity is established.

Example 3

Mr. Young, who is 66 years old, has already retired. He is comfortable with his income at the moment but is concerned that he will outlive his resources. Therefore, he establishes a $100,000 gift annuity with payments deferred for six years. He can claim an immediate federal income tax charitable deduction of about $39,065 on his income tax. When he turns 72, he will begin to receive payments fixed for life at 7.7% ($7,700 per year), some portion of which will be tax-free.

Charitable Remainder Trusts

An agreement between you and a trustee that can provide fixed or variable income to meet your specific financial needs, at the termination of which the remaining assets are passed to the Museum.

The donated assets (typically cash, securities, and/or real property) are irrevocably transferred to a Trustee.

There are two variations:

A charitable remainder annuity trust—pays income as a fixed dollar amount that remains constant for the term of the trust.

A charitable remainder unitrust—pays income that varies from year to year.

At the termination of the trust, the remaining assets pass to the Metropolitan for its general purposes or for the use you specify.

A charitable deduction for a portion of your contribution is available on your income tax return in the year you make the gift.

Example

Mr. Kim is 72 years old and, while he would like to make a significant gift to the Metropolitan Museum, he is concerned about providing for his 71-year-old wife. He decides he can do both by creating a charitable remainder annuity trust from which she will receive the income during her lifetime. He takes $750,000 of appreciated securities and establishes a trust to pay 6% ($45,000) a year to his wife for her lifetime. Mr. Kim knows that if he sold the stock, the capital gains tax on the appreciation would consume a good portion of the proceeds. By establishing the trust, Mrs. Kim will enjoy income from the full $750,000 as well as claim a federal income tax charitable deduction. His greatest pleasure comes from knowing that the Metropolitan will receive the principal remaining when the trust ends—a much larger gift than he ever thought possible.

The Metropolitan Pooled Income Fund

An agreement between you and the Metropolitan that operates somewhat like a mutual fund, accepting gifts from many donors, managing them as a common fund, and providing variable annual income.

You can make gifts with cash or marketable (but not tax-exempt) securities. The minimum gift is $10,000.

The income may be paid to one or two beneficiaries and will vary depending on the earnings of the fund.

You will receive an immediate income tax charitable deduction for some portion of your gift.

Upon the death of the beneficiary, the remaining principal passes to the Metropolitan for the purpose the donor has stipulated or for the Museum's general purposes.

Example

Mr. and Mrs. Deitch, who are 57 and 64 years old, have $10,000 worth of stock that they bought in 1974 for $6,000. Although it has appreciated, the annual income from the stock is quite low. If they sell the stock, however, they will have to pay capital gains tax. Instead, they use the stock to make a gift to the Metropolitan Museum Pooled Income Fund and receive the following income and tax benefits: payments to both spouses and then to the survivor, for life, at about 4.8% for the first year (future income will vary with fund earnings), based on the full $10,000; and an immediate charitable deduction of about $3,005 on their federal income tax.

Charitable Lead Trusts

An agreement between you and a trustee that provides income to the Metropolitan for a period of years, at the end of which the trust property typically passes to an heir.

Income-producing assets that are expected to gain in value such as stock or income-producing real estate are irrevocably transferred to a trust. A minimum gift of $100,000 is recommended.

The Museum receives income from the trust for a specified number of years, after which the property in the trust is transferred to the heirs without the imposition of any additional taxes.

An immediate charitable deduction on your gift tax return is available for the present value of the total income stream the Museum will receive during the trust term.

This gift can reduce or effectively eliminate the gift and/or estate tax that would normally be payable on the transfer of these assets to your heirs.

Example

Mr. and Mrs. Wheeling, who wish to make a significant gift to the Museum, have a son to whom they would like to transfer a substantial block of stock. He is young and they do not wish to burden him with the management of these assets at this time. They have good reason to expect that the value of the stock will appreciate in the coming years, and would like to remove it from their estates so as to avoid estate tax in the future. Since they do not depend on the income from these assets, they decide that a charitable lead trust may be the way to fulfill both of these objectives.

With this plan, the Wheelings are able to accomplish the following:

•The Museum can plan for the use of a stream of income for a number of years.

•When the trust terminates, the assets in the trust will pass, with no additional tax, to their son.

•The trust property has been removed from—and therefore is not taxable in—their estate.

Retirement Assets, Life Insurance, Real Estate

Read information about using these assets as a gift to the Museum.

Retirement Account Assets

Retirement account assets, if left to anyone other than a spouse, may be subject to very high taxation. However, by designating the Metropolitan Museum as recipient of any benefits remaining in your retirement plan, you may effectively reduce the taxes on those assets.

Real Estate

The gift of your home is a unique and meaningful way to support the Metropolitan Museum.

You can enjoy the satisfaction of making such a gift during your lifetime—without affecting your current lifestyle—by a special arrangement called a retained life estate.

Real estate can also be a valuable asset when used to fund either a charitable remainder trust or a charitable lead trust.

Life Insurance

You may wish to make the Museum the beneficiary of a policy.

With gifts involving any of these assets, there are many variables to consider. Please call the Planned Giving Program directly to discuss your particular situation.

Planned Giving Glossary

Provided here are definitions of some financial words and phrases that are used when talking about Planned Giving.

Many financial words and phrases appear in the Metropolitan Museum's information about Planned Giving. Below are some simple definitions to help you read the pages.

Annuitant

One who receives annual fixed payments from an annuity

Annuity

A fixed sum payable annually

Appreciated securities

Stocks and/or bonds that have increased in value since they were acquired

Beneficiary

The person named to receive the income from, or remaining assets of, a trust

Bequest

A gift through one's will

Capital gains tax

The tax imposed upon profits realized from the sale of financial assets that have increased in value since they were acquired

Codicil

An addition to a will that either modifies it or revokes part of it

Gift tax

A tax imposed on someone who gives money or property to another person without compensation

Irrevocable gift

A gift that cannot be annulled, undone, or changed

Mutual fund

An investment company that invests the money of its shareholders in a diverse group of securities of other corporations

Present value

The value, in today's dollars, of assets to be received at some future time

Principal

The initial sum invested or borrowed, or the remainder of that sum after payments have been made

Real property

Immovable property; land, together with all the property on it that cannot be moved, together with any attached rights; often referred to as "real estate"

Retained life estate

The right to use property for life (usually a residence or a farm) after contributing the remainder interest to a charitable institution

Retirement accounts

Qualified plans like IRAs and 401(k) accounts that permit individuals to accumulate savings tax-free for retirement

Tangible personal property

Includes movable objects (e.g. china, books, cars, clothes, art, etc.) but does not include land, buildings, or other forms of real estate (real property—see above), or stocks, bonds, copyrights, cash, or other "intangible" personal property

Trust property

Property held in trust by one person (trustee) for the benefit of another (beneficiary)

Variable income

Payments received on a regular basis that are subject to change, not fixed

Planned Giving at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Cult of Death

The unofficial mascot of the Metropolitan Museum of Art is pottery statue of a hippo covered with metal and lacquer. It has been widely purported to be over 4,000 years old.

They call it ‘William’.

There is a group you can join if you donate cash, stocks, bonds, real estate or life insurance and other things to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

It is called ‘The William Society’.

In a document entitled ‘Planning Your Gift’ the Metropolitan Museum of Art included such phrases as :

“How gifts can be made advantageously under existing tax laws”

-pg. 1 ‘Planning Your Gift’

“How these laws can help you to give more than you thought possible”

-pg. 1 ‘Planning Your Gift’

In that same booklet – ‘Planning Your Gift’ – the museum states that there is no minimum gift amounts, dues or fees associated with membership in ‘The William Society’.

If you want to actually be a member of ‘The William Society’, however, you actually do have to contribute something, unless you are ‘appointed’ to ‘The William Society’. Therefore – the statement that there is no minimum gift amounts, dues or fees is, in my opinion, clearly untrue.

This is only the beginning of a description of a strange and bizarre arrangement at the Metropolitan Museum of Art that appears to be some sort of quasi-religion.

The persons who indoctrinate those who wish to join are the associates, directors and managers of the ‘Planned Giving’ department.

The priests and functionaries of the religion, are, of course, the artists and curators and the Board Members form a sort of bridge between the gods and humanity. The bridge is built with money. The ideals and ideas being offered point to a promise of everlasting life.

This bizarre mystical promise is heavily laced with information encouraging citizens to avoid paying their taxes.

Even though the quasi-religion of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York offers immortality to participants the rites of the religion center on the death of the believer, who must, after all, die in order to achieve the ultimate status in ‘The William Society’ of a member who will be able to “know they are helping to maintain the Metropolitan’s standard of excellence for future generations.” – pg. 2 ‘Planning Your Gift’.

Other strange language appears throughout the ‘Planning Your Gift’ booklet :

“You may find that including the Metropolitan Museum in your will allows you to make a more significant contribution to the Museum than is possible during your lifetime.” -pg. 3 ‘Planning Your Gift’

“Your will can be a creative vehicle through you can make thoughtful gifts to family and friends and also to those organizations that you supported during your lifetime.” -pg. 3 ‘Planning Your Gift’

“An outright bequest to the Metropolitan is not subject to federal or state estate or inheritance taxes and is, in fact, deductible in calculating the taxable estate. There is no limit on that deduction.” -pg. 3 ‘Planning Your Gift’

“The one or two beneficiaries you name will receive payments for life, after which the bequest will pass to the Museum.” -pg. 3 ‘Planning Your Gift’

“An opportunity to increase your income from low-yeild, highly appreciated securities while reducing or, in some cases, avoiding tax on the appreciation.” -pg. 6 ‘Planning Your Gift’

“Reduced estate taxes.” -pg. 6 ‘Planning Your Gift’

“Any capital gains tax that is generated will be spread over your life expectancy if you are an annuitant, rather than being paid in the year you make the gift. -pg. 8 ‘Planning Your Gift’

“Payment rates that are higher in many cases than current interest rates.” -pg. 9 ‘Planning Your Gift’

“Generate significant tax benefits.”

-pg. 10 ‘Planning Your Gift’

“The deduction will be calculated in a manner similar to that for a gift created during your lifetime.”

-pg. 13 ‘Planning Your Gift’

The William Society and the Cult of Death at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York

From the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s web site :

“One of the most popular ancient Egyptian figures in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum—and sometimes referred to as the Museum's unofficial mascot—"William" was originally intended to provide protection and power in the afterlife. As the symbol of The William Society, this beloved hippopotamus embodies the enduring qualities of The Metropolitan Museum of Art.”

Additionally from the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s web site for educating children :

“"William" is a bright blue hippopotamus just under 8 inches high located in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Egyptian galleries. He is made of faience, a ceramic material that is fired at a high temperature, and is decorated with lotus blossoms, which represent the hippo's creative forces in nature.

An Englishman, Captain H. M. Raleigh, and his family owned a picture of the hippopotamus, which they named William. In 1931 the captain wrote an article for the magazine Punch about his picture of William. The name caught on, and since that time the little blue hippo has been known as William to almost everyone.”

Actually the hippopotamus is a huge, deadly animal capable of killing a person with little effort.

The Ancient Egyptians fearfully worshipped the hippopotamus for its physical strength and its supposed spiritual powers.

Fishermen often found themselves in conflict with these massive beasts. The hippos flipped boats that entered their territory or crossed their paths and caused many deaths. Hippos were hated because they destroyed crops and could bring on starvation.

The hippopotamus became a central figure in Egyptian art and religion.

A few Ancient Egyptian gods were represented by the hippopotamus.

One was was Tawaret, a goddess of fertility and childbirth. Normally shown as a pregnant hippopotamus standing on hind legs. Sometimes depicted as half human, half hippo. Pregnant Egyptians would often wear amulets around their necks as protection from harm or evil forces.

The one god commonly associated with the hippopotamus in the way that ‘William’ of ‘The William Society’ is depicted, however, is the Ancient Egyptian god known as ‘Seth’.

These faience hippopotami, like ‘William’, were often decorated with lotus flowers, reeds, and other plants found living near or in the Nile and are usually a beautiful turquoise or green color.

‘William’ is a depiction of ‘Seth’.

The male hippo was considered an animal of ‘Seth’ and therefore an evil animal. This little blue hippo which a cash-strapped captain from Victorian England used to drum up some money through an article in ‘Punch’ is a depiction of the god whose modern equivalent is ‘Satan’.

‘Seth’ is known as the ancient Egyptian god of chaos. He was considered the embodiment of hostility and even of outright and absolute evil.

Also the god of war he was the ruler and maker of deserts, storms, and the menace of foreign lands.

As the desert god he protected caravans because he could cause sandstorms with which to destroy them.

In the myths of Osiris the story is that Seth killed his good brother and scattered the remains all over Egypt.

That little hippo is not a cute little object. It is not an item that should be boasted of. It is not war booty. It is loot.

The Museum curators should know this but the commercial arm of the Metropolitan Museum of Art have latched onto it and exposed a world of children and adults to a symbol of death as if it were a toy or plaything.

Consider ‘The William Society’ which contends that it can extend the influence of the dead onward many generations into the future.

The reality is that once the dead are gone if they gave money to the Metropolitan Museum of Art they obviously have no further control over it. It belongs to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The idea and ideal offered to the persons being enticed into giving is that they will able to ‘live on’ in their gifts. This is beyond ludicrous.

Combined with the fact that many funds like the one that is supporting the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York are ‘under water’ (they are paying out more than they are taking in) and that shenanigans involving the changing of wills at the last minute or while ‘benefactors’ were incapacitated by drugs or pain – and you are looking at what could be an enormous fraud.

Certainly any fund paying out more than it is receiving and promising new contributors that they will receive outrageous returns (by being paid money from earlier donors) then you have a Ponzi scheme worthy of someone like Bernard Madoff.

Frame of Reference – the DSO and the MOMA

The Detroit Symphony Orchestra and the Museum of Modern Art at 11 W 53^rd Street in New York City have some things in common.

One of them is a detailed and involved process for what appears to be tax evasion.

They each have a system which allows patrons to donate money, stocks, bonds, personal property, real estate. They also provide detailed instructions on how to avoid paying taxes.

At this time the Detroit Symphony Orchestra alternately claims it is in financial straits because of an ongoing musician strike which has cancelled this year’s season and releasing news briefs that it is flush with cash from continuing donations to its funds.

Recently a fifty-four million dollar loan to the Detroit Symphony Orchestra was called by banks consolidating the debt they were handling for the Orchestra fund. A confused process led to the orchestra’s lenders (among the JP Morgan Chase) to paying off bondholders at the end of last year.

Further complicating the matter are contentious labor talks which have presented the comical appearance of tuba and bassoon players marching in picket lines wearing tuxedos and expensive fur coats toting around signs stating ‘DSO On Strike’ and ‘Keep the Quality, Keep the DSO Great’ and ‘33% Pay-Cut for DSO Management’.

The Museum of Modern Art in New York’s web site proudly states, “Yes! I would like to support MoMA's Annual Fund with my fully tax-deductible contribution.” as it encourages patrons to log on and avoid taxes in several different ways.

Patrons are directed to the ‘Planned Giving Director’ at the Museum of Modern Art. This individual is the point person for various methods of ‘donating’ cash, securities or property to the Museum of Modern Art. Some of the complex arrangements offered allow patrons to defer income, redirect income or even receive an ongoing revenue stream all while avoiding local, state and federal taxes.

The web site and printed material from the Museum of Modern Art concerning ‘Planned Giving’ states : “It is not intended to provide specific advice about the legal or tax .”. In spite of this warning the material goes on to provide specific information and even legal language to use when creating these ‘Planned Giving’ bequests.

A big problem with this system is that there have been reports that persons have been pressured on their death beds or their personal papers and financial matters have been changed during times when they were incapacitated and unable to stop these manipulations. The biggest problem with the system is that ‘non-profit’ organizations are able to use their friendly face to set up what appear to be Ponzi schemes where the earlier investors’ (most soon to die) funds are used to make the payments to the newcomers (most of whom it is planned will not last too long).

Bait and Hook

Please be aware that is has been generally established that most of these Foundations, Funds and ‘Planned Giving’ schemes have been ‘under water’ for the past few years.

The phrase ‘under water’, when used in reference to a mortgage indicates that the person holding the mortgage owes more in mortgage payments on the property that is mortgaged than the property is worth.

The phrase ‘under water’ when used in reference to the Foundations, Funds and ‘Planned Giving’ schemes being discussed her indicate that the fund is taking in less money than it is paying out. That is, of course, an unsustainable situation. It is also, if the Foundations, Funds or ‘Planned Giving’ schemes continue to state that they can provide ‘guaranteed’ income, a type of fraud.

The Director of ‘Planned Giving’ at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City is Emmett Watson.

Their address is :

The Museum of Modern Art

11 West 53 Street

New York, NY 10019

Phone: (212) 333-6527

Fax: (212) 333-1168

E-mail: planned_giving@moma.org

The Museum of Modern Art claims that is not providing legal or tax advice, yet, in some literature that I have the ‘Planned Giving’ organization gives detailed wording to be used in legal documents such as wills and provides outlines of arrangements that can continue to bear financial fruit for those persons seeking to reduce or eliminate their tax obligations.

In short – these documents sketch a rather intricate manner in which a person interested in doing such things could avoid paying taxes on taxable income. This is sometimes referred to as a ‘tax dodge’. Another phrase for it is a ‘tax haven’. Combined with the fact that most of the organizations are ‘under water’ – that is paying out more then they are taking in – we can clearly see a Ponzi scheme in shape and purpose.

Consider that organizations like the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and the Museum of Modern Art in New York are operating in every state in the union and that many of them have begun taking in ‘donations’ from other states in an effort to increase their fund base as well as providing a nice sidestep to regulation by individual states – and we can see that the amounts of tax revenue and business activities like the consolidation of bonds and other interest bearing tax free instruments that are being hidden in and by these tax shelters is likely in the hundreds of billions of dollars each taxable year nationwide.

Some states may be sacrificing billions of dollars in potential income to double-finance organizations like poorly performing (or not performing at all) symphonies like the Detroit Symphony Orchestra or confused organizations like the Museum of Modern Art or questionable social organizations like Planned Parenthood.

Do not be limited by the Arts when considering the apparent illegal behavior of these tax havens. They work closely with national banks who finance the arrangements and tend to the funds.

Clearly the laws were not written to allow the sort of fraud and greed that has gripped these desperate organizations who are fighting tooth and nail to avoid facing the same severe economic problems that industry, government and the general economy has had to face.

Consider the following types of institutions allowed to behave in this way in the United States :

A. Any charitable, religious, benevolent or educational organization, pecuniary profit not being its object or purpose, after being in active operation for at least 10 years

B. A nonprofit corporation organized and controlled by a hospital licensed by the State Department of Health Services as a general acute care hospital

C. An incorporated educational institution offering courses of instruction beyond high school

D. Every organization or person maintaining homes for the aged for pecuniary profit.

The result is that others in the community – who are paying taxes to support these ‘tax free’ organizations – are saddled again and taxed twice to provide these organizations with the funds and expertise that they immediately use to apparently defraud their local government, their state government and the federal governments of their rightful tax income.

The following is a list of items that the Museum of Modern Art encourages individuals who want to get in on the scheme to donate. This list was extracted from the Museum of Modern Art’s website.

Each of these items is supported by other literature distributed by the Museum of Modern Art, can be used to avoid or reduce taxes of many kinds. In some cases the proceeds of the investments can actually be enjoyed for decades without being encumbered by taxes.

Cash and Securities

The simplest method of donating to the Museum is with an outright gift of cash or securities.

Cash

A gift of cash is the most popular way of supporting MoMA. Gifts of cash are ordinarily tax deductible up to 50% of your adjusted gross income (AGI) in the year of your contribution (with a five-year carryover for the excess not utilized).

Securities

Next to cash, readily marketable appreciated securities are the assets most commonly donated to MoMA. When you donate appreciated securities, you generally do not incur any capital gains tax. You also may be eligible to receive a federal income-tax charitable deduction (up to 30% of your AGI with a five-year carryover) for the securities’ full fair market value if you have held them long term (i.e., for longer than 12 months). If the donated securities were held short term (i.e., 12 months or less), your deduction may not exceed your cost basis. Because a gift of appreciated securities generally avoids capital gains taxes, this type of gift may have a lower after-tax cost to you than an equivalent gift of cash.

In addition to stock, you may donate bonds and mutual fund shares to MoMA.

If you are considering making a gift of securities to MoMA, contact the Office of Planned Giving at (212) 333-6527 for information on the proper procedures, including Depository Trust Company instructions.

Bequests

Bequests (specific, residuary, and contingent gifts made by will) are the most popular type of planned gift and have been crucial (along with remainders from charitable trusts) to the extraordinary growth and success of The Museum of Modern Art since its founding. Whether you wish to provide general operating income for the Museum to use wherever it is most needed (which provides the most flexibility for MoMA) or to support a specific department or program at the Museum, your bequest expresses your lasting commitment to MoMA. A bequest to the Museum may also help you meet your financial and estate-planning goals since an estate-tax charitable deduction for the entire amount of the gift is allowed. While your will (or codicil) should be prepared by your attorney in consultation with your advisors, the Museum's Office of Planned Giving would be happy to discuss any of the various giving opportunities with you.

Contact the Office of Planned Giving at planned_giving@moma.org or (212) 333-6527 for further information.

Charitable Remainder Trusts

Charitable remainder trusts allow you to make a gift to MoMA and at the same time retain a benefit from the assets you give. These separately managed trusts can be tailored to meet your financial goals with respect to the payout rate, type of income stream (variable or fixed), and payment schedule. To establish a remainder trust, you make an irrevocable contribution of cash, securities, or other property, which is placed in trust. The trust pays an income stream to one or more named beneficiaries (which can include you) for life and/or for a set term of years (not to exceed 20), and the Museum receives the right to principal as a remainder interest. The two most common types of charitable remainder trust are: (1) the annuity trust, which pays a fixed dollar amount each year based on a percentage (at least 5%) of the initial fair market value of the trust assets; and (2) the unitrust, which pays a variable income stream based on a percentage (again, at least 5%) of the fair market value of trust assets as revalued each year. A deferral feature is available for charitable remainder unitrusts. Because charitable remainder trusts (like an IRA or 401(k)) are tax-exempt, this deferral feature can make them a useful retirement planning tool if you are in a position to defer your receipt of an income stream. Charitable remainder trusts are typically funded with assets worth $100,000 or more. Establishing such a trust generally entitles you to claim an immediate income-tax charitable deduction. You should consult with your financial, tax, and legal advisors for more information on charitable remainder trusts as they pertain to your particular situation and needs.

Contact the Office of Planned Giving at planned_giving@moma.org or (212) 333-6527 for further information.

Charitable Lead Trusts

A charitable lead trust is the reverse of a charitable remainder trust; the gift to MoMA is the income stream from the trust, not the remainder. Charitable lead trusts enable you to provide an income stream to the Museum immediately for a set term of years or for a term measured by one or more lifetimes after which the trust assets pass to you or your estate or to your heirs. Leaving the asset to heirs can significantly reduce the gift or estate tax that would otherwise apply. If you think a charitable lead trust could be a useful way to structure a gift to MoMA, you should review the alternatives for structuring the trust with your financial, tax, and legal advisors.

Contact the Office of Planned Giving at planned_giving@moma.org or (212) 333-6527 for further information.

Retirement Plan Assets

Assets in qualified (tax-deferred) retirement plans may represent a large portion of your total assets and therefore may be an important factor in planning testamentary charitable gifts. Retirement assets generally considered suitable for charitable gifts include such plans as IRAs, Keoghs, SEPs, 401(k)s, 403(b)s, and ESOPs.

Left to family members or friends, these assets are subject to income tax and may also be subject to estate tax and generation skipping transfer tax. Because of this potential double layer of tax, retirement plan assets may be particularly attractive as an asset to leave to MoMA. In other words, if you designate the Museum as a beneficiary upon your death of all or a specified percentage of a retirement plan, the portion of the plan payable to the Museum will generally escape estate taxes, and MoMA, as a tax-exempt institution, will not be required to pay income tax on the distributions. As a general rule, if you intend to make both noncharitable and charitable gifts at death, it makes sense to consider using your tax-deferred retirement plan assets for charity and other assets for heirs. If you are thinking about donating retirement plan assets to the Museum, you should discuss the matter with your advisors beforehand.

Contact the Office of Planned Giving at planned_giving@moma.org or (212) 333-6527 for further information.

Life Insurance Policies

Naming the Museum the beneficiary of an existing life insurance policy that is no longer needed to provide for dependents offers a simple way to support MoMA. Since you are the policy owner, the value of the policy will be included in your estate, but an offsetting estate-tax charitable deduction will generally be allowed. You may also be able to assign an existing whole life policy to MoMA, irrevocably making the Museum the owner and beneficiary, and claim an income-tax charitable deduction for the lesser of either your basis in the policy or its fair market value in that year. If the policy is not paid up and additional premium payments are due, you may donate cash or the equivalent to MoMA to pay the premiums each year and claim a full tax deduction for the gift. Lastly, you may be able to purchase a new policy naming MoMA as owner and beneficiary, pay the annual premiums (through MoMA), and claim the premium amount as a charitable contribution.

If you are considering donating a life insurance policy to MoMA, it is important that you consult your advisors about the possible state law restrictions on such a gift and about the amount of the charitable deduction you can expect to receive.

Contact the Office of Planned Giving at planned_giving@moma.org or (212) 333-6527 for further information.

Tangible Personal Property

Tangible personal property, such as books, artwork, jewelry, antiques, and the like, may be donated to MoMA during your lifetime or by bequest. The Museum must give special consideration to such gifts before it can accept them, and we advise you to contact the Office of Planned Giving if you are contemplating donating tangible personal property to the Museum. (See note on gifts of artwork below.)

As with gifts of appreciated securities held long term (longer than 12 months), a donor of tangible personal property held long term and accepted by the Museum is potentially entitled to claim an immediate income-tax charitable deduction and avoid capital gains taxes. The extent of the allowable income-tax deduction for such a gift, however, would depend on whether the Museum uses the property in a manner related to its tax-exempt mission.

If the use of the contributed property is related to MoMA's exempt purposes (e.g., gifts of modern or contemporary artwork accepted into the Museum’s collection), the donor is generally entitled to claim an income-tax charitable deduction for the full fair market value of the property (up to 30% of AGI with a five-year carryover). If the use of the contributed property is unrelated to MoMA's exempt purposes, or if the donor held the property for 12 months or less before making the donation, then the donor's income-tax charitable deduction is limited to the cost basis in the property.

Contact the Office of Planned Giving at planned_giving@moma.org or (212) 333-6527 for curatorial department contact information.

The Detroit Symphony Orchestra also offers a diversified list of items that they will accept as payment towards the ‘Planned Giving’ scheme that they are operating.

They can be contacted at :

DSO Development Office at (313) 576-5400.

Max M. Fisher Music Center

Detroit Symphony Orchestra

Development Department

3711 Woodward Ave.

Detroit, MI 48201

Following is a list of the items that the Detroit Symphony Orchestra is seeking. Please pay special attention to the statement that ‘Your planned gift will help the DSO continue to fulfill its mission for generations to come.’ The implication is that a person who dies after having donated cash, securities or other valuable property will live on in the work of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. This may sound ludicrous at this time but later in the report more clearly illustrated examples will be provided thanks to the bizarre quasi-religion that the Museum of Modern Art has created.

Generations to Come

Whatever your goals and circumstances, Planned Giving can help you find ways to give that are right for you. The following might give you ideas about how to plan your gift but is no substitute for the personal advice you'll get from the Detroit Symphony Orchestra's professional planned giving staff and, of course, your own advisors. Your planned gift will help the DSO continue to fulfill its mission for generations to come.

Securities

Though gifts of cash are always welcome, there can be desirable tax advantages to giving securities. When you contribute securities that have increased in value, you can keep your cash for other uses and avoid the capital gains tax incurred when you sell appreciated assets. You also get a charitable tax deduction for the full market value of the asset, regardless of what you paid for it.

Real Estate

Gifts of real estate offer similar advantages. If you give property that you've owned for more than one year, you're entitled to a charitable tax deduction equal to the full value of the property. You also avoid paying a capital gains tax on the appreciation.

Bequests

Securities, real estate and other properties can also be donated by will, or bequest. You can also will life insurance or IRAs to the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and reduce your family's estate-tax burden after you're gone.

Legal and Tax Advice

A Few Words About Estate Taxes

One of the most overlooked areas of planning is the federal estate tax. Everything you own may be subject to this tax. To cut down on your estate tax liability, consider the charitable deduction, which allows you to deduct every dollar you give to charity through an outright bequest. In addition, property placed in a charitable trust generally will not be subject to the federal estate tax when the beneficiary dies.

Gifts That Provide Income To YouCharitable Remainder Trust

By transferring highly appreciated, low-yield property into a Charitable Remainder Trust you can bypass capital gains taxes, increase your income, and enjoy a charitable income tax deduction that could significantly reduce your current income taxes. After your lifetime, or a term of years, the principal remaining is your gift to the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.

For example, you might transfer into a trust stock that originally cost $25,000, but now has a fair market value of $100,000 and a current yield of 3%. If you select a 7% payout rate, you will increase the annual income from your investment from $3,000 to $7,000. You will also bypass the $75,000 gain and receive a substantial income tax deduction.

It is important to note that a trust pays a variable income based on a percentage of the fair market value of the trust assets, as revalued annually. You choose the payout rate based on your own needs. A low rate allow the trust assets to grow more rapidly, providing you with the opportunity to increase your future income.

Charitable Remainder Annuity Trust

A annuity trust pays a fixed income based on the percentage you choose, and the value of the assets when the trust is established.

For example, if you establish a 7% two-life annuity trust with assets of $100,000, you and your spouse would receive $7,000 each year for the rest of your lives.

Charitable Gift Annuity

Like the charitable remainder annuity, a charitable gift annuity pays you a fixed dollar amount for life, or for a term of years. The amount is determined at the time of the contribution and is based on your age and, if you have designated another beneficiary, on his/her age as well. For senior citizens, annuity rates may be 8% or 9%, or even higher. Part of the annuity payment is tax-free, and the initial charitable deduction offers substantial income tax savings.

Deferred Gift Annuity

With a deferred gift annuity, you can defer the receipt of income until a later date, such as retirement. This offers several benefits: your annual income will be higher when the payments begin, and the contribution secures a larger current income tax charitable deduction.

Gifts That Allow You To Keep Your Assets Retained Life Agreement

This agreement allows you to continue to live in property you own for life while receiving a substantial tax savings today. You would simply retain the use of your home and deed the remainder interest in the property to the Detroit Symphony Orchestra so that the DSO will own the property after you pass away. The deduction could save you substantially on your current income taxes, and is especially attractive if you plan to transfer property by will.

Charitable Lead Trust

A charitable lead trust is the reverse of the charitable remainder trust and functions as a temporary gift, or loan, to the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. That is, instead of paying income to you, the trust pays income to the DSO for a term of years, before the principal reverts back to you, a family member, or another beneficiary. A lead trust can greatly reduce estate taxes, allowing you to make a significant gift to the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and ultimately pass more to your heirs.

The Detroit Symphony Orchestra Planned Giving Team goes one step farther with clearly spelling out the “advantages” of giving.

•An immediate federal income tax deduction for all, or a portion, of the value of the gift.

•Elimination of capital gains tax at the time of the transfer if the asset is in the form of securities or real estate that have appreciated in value.

•Increased financial security for you or your heirs while providing meaningful support for the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.

•Income for life paid to you and/or another beneficiary, such as your spouse or another family member.

•Increased income if a gift is made to a life-income plan that produces a higher yield than the donated asset, which is often the case with securities.

The Cult of Planned Giving and the Promise of Everlasting Life

The Cult of Death at the Museum of Modern Art is particularly strong.

It has taken on the rarified air of a religion that promotes promise of everlasting life both by inference and sometimes by what appear to be direct statements of fact.

The process for joining this religion is to offer up cash, stocks, bonds, real property or other items to the Museum. The Museum acts as the Temple of the religion.

The ‘Planned Giving’ coordinators, managers and directors are the bureaucracy of the organization which allow the ‘chosen’ to be indoctrinated into the religion and to finally gain access to the Priests (the Museum Curators) and the Prophets (any living artist can fulfill this role).

One of the more benign groups that organizes itself around the ‘Religion of Planned Giving’ at the Museum of Modern Art in New York is ‘The Modern Circle’. It is a rather tame expression of what we are going to be shortly discussing a little more at length.

The Modern Circle

“The Modern Circle, chaired by Agnes Gund, recognizes members and friends who demonstrate their deep commitment to modern and contemporary art by making a planned gift or including the Museum in their estate plans. Through their foresight and generosity, these individuals play a key role in establishing a sound foundation for MoMA and ensuring its growth and success in the future. Members receive invitations to selected Museum events and programs. They are acknowledged, with their permission, in Museum publications.”

A group at the Detroit Symphony of Orchestra which also promotes the Cult of Planned Giving is ‘The Musical Legacy Society’.

The Musical Legacy Society

“The DSO introduced the Musical Legacy Society during the 1999-2000 season to honor and recognize individuals who provide for the DSO through their estate planning. Ways in which to become a member include making bequests in a will, gift of a life insurance policy; Charitable Remainder Trust; Charitable Lead Trust; remainder interest in a residence; and naming the DSO as a beneficiary on an IRA, CD, savings account or retirement plan.”

“Members of the Musical Legacy Society enjoy the satisfaction of knowing that they are supporting outstanding symphonic music for generations to come. Additional benefits include:

•Recognition in Performance, the DSO's magazine and concert program;

•Invitation for two to Musical Legacy Society events, a DSO open rehearsal and the annual Donor and Volunteer Appreciation Concert;

•A Musical Legacy Society lapel pin.

•Personalized ticketing assistance;

•Subscription to the DSO's bi-annual planned giving newsletter;

•Advanced notice of DSO special events. “

The Museum of Modern Art provides us with one clear example of the ‘Cult of Giving and the Promise of Everlasting Life’.

It is called ‘The William Society’.

I will try to explain it and the ramifications of its actions to you as best I can.

Proof of the Problem

The Detroit Symphony Orchestra has been collecting money and increasing the size of their ‘Planned Giving’ funds throughout the past year even though the orchestra has not played one note.

This is not due, as might be imagined, because of the deep commitment of citizens across the economically crippled area of Southeast Michigan – it is based, apparently, upon the promises made concerning guaranteed income and the surety that the donations will be tax free and the general acknowledgement that this sort of tax fraud and tax evasion and tax haven is ironclad.

Organizations like the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and the Museum of Modern Art in New York are quasi-governmental organizations already. They receive the right to exist from the government and they continue – with endowments, tax breaks and other financing and real estate arrangements as an appendage of local government.

During times of economic pressure – as in the present case – they are often the targets of efforts to ‘save’ them because they engender some sort of mysterious cultural power.

It seems they have taken advantage of this role they play in our society and have begun to metamorphose into parasites rather than harmless, beautiful and entertaining appendages.

The reorganization of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra’s finances did not appear to extend into any reorganization of the complicated and intricate dealings associated with the ‘Planned Giving’ funds.

The list of interested parties in the financial circus that the Detroit Symphony Orchestra has become includes such banks as JPMorgan Chase, Comerica and Bank of America

A Final Example – ‘Washington University in Saint Louis’

http://aisweb.wustl.edu/alumni/PlannedG.nsf/pages/SecuritiesTime

“Charitable trusts. For the philanthropically minded, a charitable remainder trust or a charitable lead trust can be an excellent way to obtain tax-free diversification of appreciated assets. There is no capital gains tax when the trustee sells low-basis, high-value assets and reinvests the proceeds for higher yield. A wide variety of choices is available to those designing a charitable trust, enough to meet both charitable and private financial objectives on a tax-efficient basis.

*The stepped-up basis is scheduled for partial repeal when the estate tax is repealed in 2010. Just $1.3 million of assets will then receive a stepped-up basis. Any excess will carry over the decedent’s basis. An additional $3 million basis step-up will be allowed on assets going to a surviving spouse.

Private annuities. A private annuity is a sale by one family member to another in exchange for the buyer’s unsecured promise to make specific periodic payments to the seller for life. There is no gift tax due on a properly structured sale, and the assets will be removed from the seller’s estate. A portion of each annuity payment is a return of capital (part capital gain and part nontaxable return of basis), and the balance is taxed as ordinary income. However, annuity payments by the buyer are not deductible, and so are made with after-tax dollars.

Family limited partnerships. A fairly new approach to managing family wealth is the family limited partnership. This technique provides for consolidation of assets for convenient management, segregation of assets for protection against claims of creditors, and the potential for gift tax valuation discounts. Typically, parents act as general partners, making gifts of small limited partnership interests to children over a period of years. Properly structured, such gifts generally qualify for the $11,000 annual gift tax exclusion.

A Legacy of Death

Lately non-profit groups have been going out of state to raise money.

For example last year the Phoenix Industrial Development Agency in Arizona sold bonds for two private schools in Manhattan, the Nightingale-Bamford School and the Friends Seminary School.

Planned Parenthood of America is also making arrangements to float bonds to help it continue to be the nation’s number 1 provided of abortion services in the country.

Reportedly Stuart Schear, a spokesman for Planned Parenthood stated, “We are exploring our options for out-of-state financing in several states.”

This would allow them, for example, to raise funds for abortions in New Jersey from investors in Wisconsin and to finance abortion centers in Washington State with a little help from their friends in Hawaii or Georgia.

Not only is this sort of activity misleading it is exceedingly dangerous from a financial point of view. Deceptive practices such as this eat at the core of the financial system which is rotten as it is.

Proof of the Weight of Financial Gain and Tax Evasion

Even though the Detroit Symphony orchestra was on strike for 23 weeks the organization that handles the donations to the organization has realized more than $450,000 in new and increased gifts.

That is because the relationship between the financial organization that accepts charitable donations and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra itself do not have a one-to-one relationship. The charitable fund in this case and in the case of the Museum of Modern Art in New York are not only responsible for providing a pool of money for some uses at their respective charitable locations but they also need to provide an income and return on those persons contributing money to the fund.

During this year’s annual fund campaign alone the Detroit Symphony Orchestra reported that it had raised about five million dollars of the 11 million dollars it hoped to collect this year. That is a direct result not of the symphonic excellence of the symphony but because of the unique arrangements of the charitable fund and the ability it has to act as a tax shelter and to allow wealthy donors to enjoy their personal gains and reduce or eliminate state and federal taxes at the same time.

It is like a pooling of resources. The older investors in the scheme are paid off by monies collected from later investors and from gains on the investments and donations of earlier investors.

During last year there were only 1,600 individual, corporate and foundation donors paying into the fund. This year there are more than 3,000. This is likely due to the advertising campaigns that funds like the one that collects donations for the Detroit Symphony Orchestra have successfully carried out. It also helps that accountants and clients have become well versed in these shadow funds that can hide their income and provide an income at the same time while avoiding taxation at the local, state and federal levels.

In one week the fund took in over one million dollars.

If you consider the number of funds like this in the country that are operating at any one time the amount of money that is being hidden from taxation dwarfs even the current mammoth financial failures that are going on in New York and have been occurring for the past two years.

Planned Giving for Planned Parenthood

‘Planned Parenthood Federation of America is the nation's leading sexual and reproductive health care provider and advocate.’

So it is said.

Information from 2006-2007 seems to indicate the following points :

Planned Parenthood’s income break-down for 2006-2007 fiscal year

Planned Parenthood clinic income: $356.9 million

Planned Parenthood Government grants and contracts: $336.7 million

Total profit: $114.8 million

Total income: $1.02 billion

2006 Planned Parenthood service numbers

Number of abortions (medical and surgical): 289,750

Total number of abortions per week: 5,572

Adoption referrals: 2,410

Ratio of adoption referrals to abortions: 1 per 120

‘Planned Parenthood’ is also involved in actively encouraging ‘Planned Giving’.

As has already been established this process has the potential for tax fraud. Like the quasi-religion that has grown up at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York another quasi-religion has grown up at ‘Planned Parenthood’. Whereas at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York the worship is centered on donating money to the ‘Temple of the Arts’ in order to gain eternal life the worship at ‘Planned Parenthood’ seems to be focused on the sacrificing of babies in order to achieve everlasting life.

They may be contacted at :

Planned Parenthood Federation of America

Office of Gift Planning

434 West 33rd Street

New York, New York 10001

212-541-7800 or

Toll-Free 800-319-7564

gift.planning@ppfa.org

Following are some of the items ‘Planned Parenthood’ is seeking for donation :

“You can make a crucial difference in the ability of Planned Parenthood to provide reproductive health care in the United States and abroad. Remembering Planned Parenthood in your will, a trust, or through an annuity is one of the most meaningful gifts you can give future generations.”

The above paragraph is offensive to me. ‘…reproductive health care…’ Since when does reproduction include the termination of the item being reproduced?

‘…one of the most meaningful gifts you can give future generations.’ – I don’t know how to address the audacity and horror contained in a sentence like that coming from an organization that has already extinguished several generations of human beings from societies the world over.

As at the Museum of Metropolitan Art in New York and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra there is a special group with special privileges and honors that a person providing a ‘gift’ to Planned Parenthood can become a member of. It is called ‘The Legacy Society’.

The definition of “Legacy” - anything handed down from the past, as from an ancestor or predecessor.

In the case of ‘Planned Parenthood’ the legacy seems to ensure that it will stop at the next generation to receive it.

‘Planned Parenthood’ like the Museum of Modern Art and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and the tens of thousands of other non-profits that are using ‘Planned Giving’ schemes claims it is not providing legal advice, however, ‘Planned Parenthood’, like the others previously mentioned, clearly uses phrases like ‘…your attorney may wish to include language similar to the following…’

Here is some information referencing ‘Planned Parenthood Planned Giving’ :

The most common planned gift is a bequest through your will or living trust. You can arrange a gift of a specific amount, a percentage, or even all or part of the residuum of your estate. If you would like to make such a gift to Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA), your attorney may wish to include language similar to the following:

"I give, devise, and bequeath to Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Inc., now or formerly in the City of New York, 434 West 33rd Street, in the State of New York, (dollar amount, percentage, or __ percent of the rest, residue, and remainder of my estate), to be used for its general purposes."

Giving Retirement Funds, Insurance Policies, and Bank or Brokerage Accounts

If you are interested in creating a legacy for Planned Parenthood, but have no interest in writing a will or trust, you can name Planned Parenthood as beneficiary of your

retirement account

insurance policy

bank or brokerage account

Retirement Funds

You can create a legacy by naming Planned Parenthood as beneficiary or contingent beneficiary of an IRA, 401 (k), 403 (b), Keogh account, or other retirement plan. When a retirement account is left to a charity, the organization does not pay the income tax otherwise due if left to a friend or family member. For very high net worth individuals, assets in these accounts may be taxed twice if they are part of your estate, resulting in asset depletion. To make such a gift requires completing a change of beneficiary form. There will be no fees involved, and it does not require any work on the part of an accountant or attorney. If you name Planned Parenthood as beneficiary, you can change your mind at any time by updating the change of beneficiary form. If you need help obtaining a change of beneficiary form, please contact us.

If you are married, please note that changing beneficiaries may require the permission of your spouse. There also may be additional tax and financial planning issues, so when considering these assets in your plans, you should consult your legal or financial advisor.

Insurance Policies

Life insurance may be used to create a legacy by naming Planned Parenthood as beneficiary or contingent beneficiary of the policy. This requires that you complete a change of beneficiary form with the insurance company. You do not have to work with an attorney or accountant, and there are no fees to arrange such a gift. If you name Planned Parenthood as beneficiary, you can change your mind at any time by updating the change of beneficiary form. If you need help obtaining a change of beneficiary form, please contact us.

Bank and Investment Accounts

You may name Planned Parenthood as successor to your bank or investment account in most states. The arrangement is known as TOD/POD or Transfer-on-Death/Payable-on-Death. This requires that you complete a form directly with your financial institution. You do not have to work with an attorney or accountant, nor are any fees involved to arrange such a gift. TOD/POD gifts are completely revocable — you may change your mind at any time by filling out a new form.

Giving Through a Donor Advised Fund or a Private Foundation

You can make gifts to Planned Parenthood from an existing donor advised fund or private foundation. If your donor advised fund ends upon your passing, you can arrange to name Planned Parenthood as the ultimate beneficiary. If your donor advised fund continues beyond your lifetime, you can name successors to oversee your donor advised fund and instruct them to make grants or contributions to Planned Parenthood in your memory. A spouse, child, or other descendant or representative can serve as a successor.

A donor of a private foundation may decide managing their foundation no longer fits their plans or that of their heirs. We are delighted to accept assets from a private foundation and would welcome questions regarding this matter.

Our staff can assist you as you consider making a planned gift to Planned Parenthood. Please contact us for assistance.

Make a Gift from Your IRA Account

The "Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010" has extended the IRA Charitable Rollover for 2010 and 2011. Originally passed in 2006 as part of the Pension Protection Act, the IRA Charitable Rollover allows you to make direct transfers totaling up to $100,000 per year to charity without having to count the transfer as income for federal income tax purposes.

If you are 70½ or older, you are required to make minimum withdrawals from your retirement plans each year according to a federal formula. If you do not need these withdrawals for personal use, this is a great way to make a gift to Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA). While you are not entitled to an income tax charitable deduction for the gift, the IRA charitable rollover will count towards your minimum required distributions for the year and you will not have to pay federal income tax on the withdrawn amount.

The rules for making a gift from your IRA:

• You must be 70½ or older at the time of the transfer and can give up to $100,000 (aggregate total) each year.

• If you and your spouse have individual accounts, you can each give from your accounts; doubling your family's possible gifts up to $200,000.

• Your gift must be made directly from the custodian of your IRA to PPFA. If you have retirement assets in a 401(k) or 403(b) you must first roll those funds into an IRA, and then you can direct the IRA provider to transfer the fund from the IRA directly to PPFA.

• Your gift counts towards your required minimum distribution.

• You will not pay federal income taxes on the withdrawal for the gift, so you cannot claim an income tax charitable deduction.

• To allow taxpayers to benefit from the law for 2010, Congress extended the deadline for 2010 gifts to January 31, 2011. Your IRA plan provider must make the transfer to PPFA on or before January 31, 2011 (for a 2010 gift) or December 31, 2011 (for a 2011 gift).

Please instruct your IRA plan provider to make a direct transfer from your traditional IRA or Roth IRA to:

Planned Parenthood Federation of America

Attn.: Office of Gift Planning

434 West 33rd Street

New York, NY 10001

Tax I.D.: 13-1644147

Certain states may not exclude gift amounts withdrawn from an IRA for state income tax purposes. When planning your gift, please be sure to check with your plan provider or tax preparer on whether your state of residence will tax your intended charitable distribution.

As most companies will not add your name to the reference on the check, please contact us via letter, phone, or email with your name, gift amount, and company when you request the rollover so we can identify the check from your plan provider.

For more information, please contact us at 800-317-7564 or gift.planning@ppfa.org.

Please take a close look at the advertisement for these following items. It declares :

“Gifts that give you income for life:”

Charitable Gift Annuities

Examples Given

"As a businessman, I established a Charitable Gift Annuity with Planned Parenthood because it's a smart move. At my age, my annuity provides me with an 8.6 percent fixed payment rate. My rate will never change, and the payments are guaranteed for life.

"If you want to have more cash now, to spend as you desire, while supporting a great cause, a Charitable Gift Annuity is a win-win project." — R.T.

Are you interested in making a meaningful contribution to Planned Parenthood today, supporting future generations tomorrow, while receiving fixed income for life, an immediate charitable tax deduction, and reduced capital gains tax? Then a charitable gift annuity may meet your objectives.

A charitable gift annuity is a special giving arrangement in which, in return for a gift of $10,000 or more (or $20,000 for two annuitants), Planned Parenthood provides guaranteed, fixed payments to you and/or another person for the rest of your lives. The rate of your payments is based on your age when the gift is made and will not change. A portion of your annuity payments may be tax-free, depending on the specifics of the gift. A charitable gift annuity also entitles you to partial income tax charitable deduction and may provide capital gains and estate tax benefits. After your lifetime, the remainder of your gift will support the work of PPFA or a designated Planned Parenthood affiliate.

Example:

Donor

one person, age 77

Amount of Gift

$20,000

Annuity Rate

6.7%

Annual Annuity Payments

$1,340 per year for your lifetime

Income Tax Charitable Deduction

approximately $9,145

Our staff can prepare personalized, confidential gift examples for you. If you would like more information, please contact us.

Charitable Remainder Trusts

"Over 20 years ago while working and traveling in India, I saw firsthand the social, economic, and political problems that result from unintended pregnancies. I’m passionate about the work of Planned Parenthood because it helps empower women so they can make informed decisions and improve their children’s lives. I established a charitable remainder trust to provide for my loved ones and leave a legacy for Planned Parenthood so it can help future generations. Everyone wins!" — T.C.

If you are interested in making a significant gift to Planned Parenthood that will provide benefits to you during your lifetime and leave a legacy for the future of family planning, a charitable remainder trust may meet your objectives. Charitable remainder trusts can be customized to meet your personal and family needs, particularly if you want to provide for a friend or family member during or after your life.

To establish a trust in the Planned Parenthood Charitable Remainder Trust Program, you would make an irrevocable gift of $100,000 or more for a distinct trust fund in your name. You would qualify for an income tax charitable deduction. If you make your gift with appreciated securities, you avoid the capital gains tax on long-term appreciation. Trusts can be set up to provide a fixed payment amount each year or a fixed percentage, with variable payments each year.

Example of a Charitable Remainder Unitrust:

Donor

two people, ages 80 and 75

Amount of Gift

$100,000

Income Tax Charitable Deduction

approximately $53,2000

Payment Rate

5% of trust revalued annually

Income

$5,000 in the first year. For subsequent years, the income is variable, based on an annual valuation. Your income can increase or decrease based on market conditions and performance.

Example of a Charitable Remainder Annuity Trust:

Donors

two people, ages 80 and 75

Amount of Gift

$100,000

Income Tax Charitable Deduction

approximately $46,000

Payment Amount

at least $5,000 or a fixed percentage of the initial gift

Income

a fixed amount each year that does not change

Our staff can prepare personalized, confidential gift examples for you. If you would like more information, please contact us.

Pooled Income Fund

If you are interested in making a special gift to Planned Parenthood and earning some income during your lifetime, a gift to Planned Parenthood’s pooled income fund may meet your objectives.

"Planned Parenthood is my favorite organization. If anyone is going to save the world, they are!" — E. W.

To participate in the Planned Parenthood pooled income fund, you would make an irrevocable gift of $5,000 or more, in return for shares in the fund. Your gift and that of others is invested in the Pooled Income Fund for the duration of your life. You will receive the income earned by the fund in proportion to the number of shares you own. All donors qualify for an income tax charitable deduction. If you make your gift with appreciated securities, you avoid the capital gains tax. Your annual income will fluctuate based on the fund performance. The income is taxed as ordinary income to you. Most importantly, you have established a legacy for Planned Parenthood or one of our affiliates.

Example:

Donor

one person, age 80

Amount of Gift

$10,000

Income Tax Charitable Deduction

approximately $7,200

Payment Rate

variable, based on earnings

First Year's Income

$400 estimated, income can increase (or decrease) in future years.

Our staff can prepare personalized, confidential gift examples for you. If you would like more information, please contact us.

Afghanistan – War, Waste and Genocide

2011-03-18T18:55:00.001-07:00

Afghanistan – War, Waste and Genocide

The Cold War and Afghanistan

I read in the The Wall Street Journal on July 13, 2010 that the United States spent more than one hundred million dollars to upgrade a power plant in Lashkar Gah, Afghanistan.

This is somewhat misleading. Rebuilt an American made power plant might have been more to the point.

Lashkar Gah is located at the historic site of the city of Bost. The city is in the southern part of modern Afghanistan and is the capital of Helmand Province.

I use the word ‘modern’ because the borders of Afghanistan have been changed several times during its history - the most recent change taking place in 1947 when Pakistan was formed following pressure from the forced exchange of millions of Muslim and Hindu Indians after India was granted its independence.

Part of Afghanistan was incorporated because the administering authorities from the British Foreign Office and Pakistani government representatives were not sure how much land they would need to accommodate the flood of fleeing Muslims from India’s western provinces.

As it turned out the northwestern provinces of new territory of Pakistan were already inhabited by Afghans. This area is now referred to as the ‘Tribal Areas’of Pakistan but historically (from the mid-twentieth century) that area was part of Afghanistan.

These Afghans living in the northwestern part of Pakistan were the ones referred to when Pakistan asked for assistance from the Americans with the ‘Afghan’ problem. They claimed that millions of refugees were pouring into Pakistan from Afghanistan as a result of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. In point of fact many of these ‘refugees’ that the Pakistani government wished to repatriate to Afghanistan were in their homelands already. Even though the Soviets caused a major disruption in Afghanistan the breadth of the problem seemed to be overblown by the political machinations and territorial plans of the Pakistani Muslim government.

When the refugees from India had arrived in Pakistan to escape the religious killings in India (and as the Hindus in Pakistan fled to India to escape the religious killings in Pakistan) they clustered mostly in the southwestern portion and along the coast of the new country. The western portion of Pakistan and most of the coastline was at one time the coastline of Afghanistan. This too was taken away ‘officially’ by the departing British bureaucrats as they withdrew their administration after triggering the mass migrations between Pakistan and India in a misguided attempt to bring order.

This, of course, solved the problem of Soviet Russia getting a warm water port through Afghanistan by direct invasion from the north. The Pakistanis were then combined with the Afghanis to form a blockade of nations to further Russian expansion to the south which would have put them in an advantageous position to spring into the Middle East or spread their influence there.

The city we are discussing, Lashkar Gah, is situated between the Helmand and Arghandab rivers and as such is strategically and economically important.

Kandahar to the east, Zaranj to the west, and Herat to the north-west are all connected to Lashkar Gah by highway.

It is an arid and desolate location.

Even so, large irrigated farms exists around the Helmand and Arghandab rivers.

The location has been settled and abandoned many times in human history. The present city of Lashkar Gah was built as a headquarters for American engineers working on the Helmand Valley Authority (HVA) irrigation project in the 1950s, modeled after the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) in the United States. Lashkar Gah was built using American designs, with broad tree-lined streets and brick houses with no walls separating them from the street. In the wake of the Soviet invasion and the long Afghan civil war, it is reported that the trees were mostly destroyed and traditional walls went up.

Average yearly rainfall in the area is about four inches. Temperatures range from 18 to 110 degrees Fahrenheit. Humidity is low, and strong dry winds frequently cover the western part of the valley. Forty percent of the country's total water resources flow through the valley. The obstacle against agricultural development in the Helmand Valley was not the availability of water but a lack of irrigation to get the water from the rivers to the fields.

Afghans made a feeble attempt in 1910 to expand agriculture in the valley when a portion of the ancient irrigation canals were reconstructed. The first functional canals were operating by 1914.

Foreign assistance arrived in the 1930s when the canal project was expanded with German and Japanese assistance. The Germans provided engineering assistance. The Japanese, through the years of 1937 to 1941, dug about nine miles of canals near Boghra. Another 16 miles of canals were put in place between the years of 1941 to1946 by Afghan contractors.

With this historical perspective we can see why it was so easy for the United States to coax Japan and Germany into sending armed troops into the area. They have had interests there for some time – as has the United States.

The point being here is that Afghanistan had been a pawn of the British Empire in the 19^th Century and into the 20^th Century and then became a pawn during World War II and during the Cold War the country took on its final form – still a pawn – and still dominated by outside forces. In the last case it was the United States.

As Vietnam escalated, however, American interest in Afghanistan dwindled away as it seemed that the Soviets had firmed up their southern borders and would not attempt to approach the Middle East as nations like Iraq and Iran had allied themselves to the United States and appeared to be ready militarily to oppose Soviet expansion. However, Iran fell to religious terrorists and shortly thereafter the Soviets pushed into Afghanistan.

Then led the series of events that culminated in Texas Representative Charlie Wilson’s interference in the situation which then, coupled with economic and military moves by a reckless President Reagan led to the collapse of the Soviet Union.

In the ensuing years, however, it was little noticed that individuals most responsible for the Holy War in Afghanistan were also wildly anti-American and anti-Western in general. It was from the core group of those men that Osama Bin Laden rose up and along with his Saudi Arabian compatriots arranged a successful terror attack on the United States on September 11, 2001.

Referring back to the recent history of Afghanistan it was during World War II that the English from their position in India to the East and the Russians to the North directed the Afghan government to expel all German, Italian and Japanese nationals or face attack and invasion. This phase of the Helmand project was immediately abandoned. Decay began to set in as trade and assistance was removed.

The pain and suffering this caused throughout the region was nearly as devastating as a direct attack by bomb, bullet and bayonet could have been. Financial arrangements, business efforts and the simple process of providing food to the populace was slowed considerably. The beginning of modernization of the country was brought to a screeching halt. The reverberations of this aggression have echoed through the decades with the result facing us now.

The educated and less traditional leaders in the country at the time were disgraced. The traditional, ignorant, religious factions began at this time to assert themselves militarily. Even though foreign technical aid had ceased the flow of modern weapons into the region had only just begun. English profiteers moved guns and ammunition into the area in ever increasing amounts.

What amounted to a sacking of the country then ensued as rights to land, precious objects and other items were traded in lopsided agreements with English traders and Russian operatives. Both the English and Russians were hungry for money, metal and mayhem. The region was destabilized almost as quickly as it had started to organize itself into a functional and independent government.

It was this weakness and confusion that later allowed the English to arbitrarily lay the outline of Pakistan and carve out nearly one-third of Afghanistan and hand it over to the Muslim Indians from the East as a peace offering.

At the conclusion of World War II in 1945 arrangements were made between the faltering Afghan government and Morrison-Knudsen, an American company based in Boise, Idaho.

This was the massive Helmand irrigation project. Beginning in 1945 the activity continued into the 1970s. It created one of the most extensive farming zones in southern Afghanistan. It opened up many thousands of acres of desert to cultivation and habitation.

The project focused on three large canals: the Boghra, Shamalan, and Darweshan. The responsibility for maintaining the canals was given to the Helmand Arghandab Valley Authority (HAVA), which was a semi-independent government agency whose authority rivaled that of the provincial governors.

At present this area in Helmand is the deadliest province for U.S.-led coalition troops. The area is where more than a quarter of total fatalities in the nine years of the war have occurred.

The irrigation project and the repairs going on at the Lashkar Gah power plant are helping to irrigate thousands of acres of fields used for poppy production. So the money being spent to generate electricity for remote villagers in Afghanistan is causing a surge in poppy production which is used to make opium. Opium is used to manufacture heroin.

American and coalition soldiers are dying to ensure that illegal trade in heroin not only continues but flourishes and expands.

Morrison-Knudsen originated in Idaho's Boise Valley in the early 20^th century when a two named Morris Hans Knudsen and Harry W. Morrison. They joined together to reap the profits offered by the National Reclamation Act of 1902. The United States government used cash subsidies to irrigate the deserts of Idaho and other Western regions.

Morris Hans Knudsen was Danish.

He had moved to Idaho in 1905 and became well known for his skill using horses and scrapers to move dirt. Harry W. Morrison was born in Illinois and moved to Idaho in 1904 and continued as a concrete superintendent for government water reclamation projects.

1912 saw Harry W. Morrison and Morris Hans Knudsen working together on their first job. Work at a pumping station. Their early work did not make much money.

Then they starting working on dams. In 1914 they worked on the Three-Mile Falls Dam located in Oregon.

That work established their organization as the ’go-to’ group for dams. That is where the company continued to make most of its money during its long operation. They have reportedly built more than 150 dams including the Brownleeon the Snake River for Idaho Power; the Karadj, near Teheran, in the Islamic Republic of Iran, the San Luis Dam in California and a couple of large dams in Montana.

Morrison-Knudsen worked on the construction of two diversion dams, one on the Helmand River and the other on its chief tributary, the Arghandab River. The worked to enlarge an irrigation canal and worked on the construction of roads in the valley.

In 1946 an agreement was reached, but it is not clear with who, which resulted in the formation of Morrison-Knudsen Afghanistan Inc. (MKA). The headquarters of that company were in San Francisco.

The MKA Helmand Valley Project (also referred to as the HVP Project) was an important turn of events in the history of modern Afghanistan.

In 1996, a company called the Washington Group acquired Morrison-Knudsen Co. of Boise. Morrison-Knudsen, besides working on the projects listed also was one of the consortium of firms that built the Hoover Dam and the San Francisco – Oakland Bay Bridge, the Trans-Alaska Pipeline and many other large projects of American infrastructure.

Morrison-Knudsen was also involved in the construction of rail projects such as the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) extension and reportedly built 80 of the C2 passenger cars for BART. Each car can carry up to 200 passengers in a ‘crush’ load They also built the single track Apoera-Bakhuys railway in Suriname between the years of 1976 and 1977.

At one point the company built other rail passenger cars and light rail and locomotives.

Morrison-Knudsen’s origins date to 1905 when Harry Morrison met Morris Knudsen when working on the construction of the New York Irrigation Canal in southwestern Idaho.

Morrison was a 27 year-old concrete superintendent for the Reclamation Service and Knudsen was around fifty and a Nebraska farmer (of Danish nationality as has been noted) who ran a team of horses and a fresno scraper. A fresno scraper is the horse drawn precursor to modern earth moving machines – commonly referred to as road graders.

They worked first together was in 1912 on a pump plant in Grand View where they reportedly lost money but gained experience. For several years following they dug irrigation canals, expanded logging roads and built railway sections. They incorporated in 1923.

During World War II Morrison-Knudsen became a large contractor for the Federal Government. They built airfields, storage depots and ships.

Following the war the company found lucrative contracts paid for by the Federal Government or supported or arranged by the Federal Government in foreign construction.

For example, it built the locks on the St. Lawrence Seaway, the Distant Early Warning system (which is a series of military bases in the Arctic designed to warn the United States of imminent nuclear attack from Russia), Minuteman missile silos, NASA's Kennedy Space Center, and over 100 further major dams.

Knudsen died in 1943 and so did not live to see the company expand into what appears to have become the Construction Department of the United States Government. Morrison died in 1971.

As time went by Morrison-Knudsen attempted to branch out from profiting primarily from government contracts. It went bankrupt in 1995 and was bought by the Washington Group International in 1996.

Washington Group International was an American corporation which provided engineering, construction and management services to businesses and governments around the world.

Based in Boise, Idaho, about 25,000 people were employed by it. Their offices were located in over 40 states and more than 30 countries.

Its primary areas of expertise were: infrastructure, mining, industrial/process, energy, environment and power.

It was subsequently purchased itself by by URS Corporation of San Francisco in November 2007 for $3.1 billion and is currently operating as the "Energy and Construction Division" of URS.

URS Corporation is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the stock symbol URS. It was founded in 1951 in San Francisco. Its area of operation is reported as being ‘worldwide’.

Martin M. Koffel is the Chief Executive Officer. He was born in 1939. He is 72 years old.

Revenue for the present company is reported at US$ 9.249 billion from 2009.

In 2010 the company reported having 46,500 employees on its payroll.

They are primarily an engineering design firm and unabashedly a United States Federal Government contractor.

Their most recent appearance in the news was in regards to a bridge collapse over the Mississippi River in Minnesota which killed 13 people and injured 145.

In 2003, URS was retained by the Minnesota Department of Transportation to conduct a fatigue evaluation and a redundancy analysis of the bridge. Lawsuits filed in 2008 and 2009 cite the company with negligence. In 2010 these lawsuits were settled out of court without the finding of negligence or wrong doing on the part of URS.

On September 10, 2010, URS completed its acquisition of the British engineering firm Scott Wilson Group.

The Berger Group is a company operating out of Morristown, New Jersey. It is a firm not unlike URS and it relies for a large part of its income on government contracts.

The Berger Group is the company that is performing the upgrade of the power plant at Lashkar Gah. The plant is known as the Kajaki hydropower plant.

URS and the Berger Group have worked before. The Department of Defense selected the Berger Group, in association with URS, to upgrade Iraq's transportation network.

The $565 million contract has them managing over 170 individual projects, including improvements to the Baghdad, Al Basrah and Mosul airports - upgrade of Umm Qasr Port. They have also contract to rehabilite of 101 railway stations and build nearly 600 miles of roads.

The two companies have also been involved in what appear to be exclusive contracts to rebuild parts of the Panama Canal.

Both URS and the Berger Group are active in Afghanistan.

After more than 66 years – dating from the time that Martin M. Koffel, CEO of URS, was about 6 years old – the remains of the company that Morrison-Knudsen ran have returned in a way to the projects they started in 1945. I wonder if Mr. Koffel appreciates the historical perspective his company enjoys.

Afghanistan remains a pawn in the world stage. Today President Barack Husein Obama claims the war there is a ‘Just War’. It is generating record profits for engineering firms, experience for battle worn soldiers not to mention dead soldiers and record harvests of opium and ever higher production levels of heroin which are finding their way into international markets.

The partition of Afghanistan by the British Empire on behalf of the Pakistani government has led to a serious problem in the region. It is not only an ethnic and religious problem but one of race. Both the Pakistanis and the Afghanis in the area are descendants of Aryan races. Many of the inhabitants of central and southern Afghanistan are descended from Semitic tribes taken from Israel and most specifically Judah by Nebuchadnezzar II and settled there by him.

The Pakistanis are of a much darker complexion and during World War II they became acquainted with eugenics and the idea of a Master Race as described by Nationalist Socialists in Germany. They combined these ideas with the ideals and social structure they inherited from India and have created a new caste system that does not include the lighter skinned Afghans.

It seems that the Pakistani government has conspired to exterminate the peoples living in the Tribal Areas in order to resettle their poor, illiterate and backward population. Currently their population is centered mostly in the eastern and southern parts of their country. The land is not very fertile and the population density is high. By expanding to the north and west they are taking the 19^th century ideals of British Colonialism into the 21^st century.

The problem for them has been, however, that the area is settled already and so the final solution for them is to kill all the Afghans and take their land.

This is an additional and modern pressure that the Afghan people are facing. It is the true and real danger to the area and it is the reason that illiterate and insane religious fanatics from Tajikistan and Saudi Arabia have been able to form and maintain the group known as the Taliban.

Pakistan now has nuclear weapons. It is a continuing threat to India to the East because of these weapons. Now it is a growing and malignant threat to Afghanistan to its West through the weapons of starvation, mass murder, gun smuggling, drug smuggling, money laundering and what appears to be a coordinated effort at genocide in order to expand their territory at the expense of their neighbors’ lives.

The Berger Group has interests in Pakistan including the port of Karachi.

Retired Senator William Frist of Tennessee is on the Board of Directors of URS Group and has been since 2009. Even though he is a retired United States Senator he is listed as ‘Senator William Frist’ as a member of the board.

Also a member of the board for URS is General Joseph W. Ralston, USAF (Ret.) whose duties included Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in Washington, D.C. from 1996 to 2000 and Commander, U.S. European Command and Supreme Allied Commander Europe, NATO from 2000 to 2003. Those duties give him a unique perspective and probable influence into the crafting and signing of construction projects in the War Zones of Iraq and Afghanistan.

One of the ways that the United States is aiding and abetting Pakistan in this widespread murder by bullet and bread is that the United States is apparently accepting at face value the information provided by the corrupt and violent Pakistani ‘Intelligence Community’ to identify the persons to kill with drones or midnight attack.

From what I have read it seems that many of these people that the Pakistanis are targeting are not enemies of the United States but are people that the Pakistanis fear themselves might call for independence from their violent regime so that they can rejoin their native lands to Afghanistan.

In this way the United States is creating more enemies by attacking the enemies of the Pakistanis. At the same time money and effort is wasted on false targets while the true terrorists and criminals behind the murder and mayhem continue on in office and in rank without fear of reprisal or of being called accounted for their actions.

It is as if the United States had, during the Vietnam or Korean Wars, accepted intelligence reports from the Chinese and Russians about who to attack. Do you think our enemies will tell us to attack them?

It seems that Pakistan is taking advantage of the situation and is acting to destabilize the region for its own short sighted gain.

Just look at their Constitution to see a glimpse of their national priorities, “Wherein the territories now included in or in accession with Pakistan and such other territories as may hereafter be included in or accede to Pakistan shall form a Federation wherein the units will be autonomous with such boundaries and limitations on their powers and authority as may be prescribed;…”

…territories as may hereafter be included or accede to Pakistan…

Also consider these items :

“Wherein the principles of democracy, freedom, equality, tolerance and social justice, as enunciated by Islam, shall be fully observed;…”

“PART IX - Islamic Provisions

227. Provisions relating to the Holy Qur'an and Sunnah.

(1) All existing laws shall be brought in conformity with the Injunctions of Islam as laid down in the Holy Quran and Sunnah, in this Part referred to as the Injunctions of Islam, and no law shall be enacted which is repugnant to such Injunctions.”

Now we turn to Afghanistan’s Constitution which states :

“Article One

Ch. 1. Art. 1

Afghanistan is an Islamic Republic, independent, unitary and indivisible state.

Article Two

Ch. 1, Art. 2

The religion of the state of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan is the sacred religion of Islam.

Followers of other religions are free to exercise their faith and perform their religious rites within the limits of the provisions of law.

Article Three

Ch. 1, Art. 3

In Afghanistan, no law can be contrary to the beliefs and provisions of the sacred religion of Islam.”

A Glimpse of the Human Cost of the War in Afghanistan

Sargeant David Senft was buried at Arlington National Cemetery on December 16, 2010.

He died in a parked sport utility vehicle on an American air base in Afghanistan.

It appears he committed suicide.

Sergeant Senft was 27 years old. He was a crew chief on a Black Hawk helicopter in the 101st Airborne Division’s aviation brigade.

The ‘official’ reason for his death is recorded as "injuries sustained in a noncombat related incident" at Kandahar Air Base on November 15, 2010.

The Army has repeatedly declined to specify the actual cause of death. As of January 1, 2011 the Army stated that three separate inquiries into the death were under way.

His father is an electrician from Grass Valley, California. He reportedly had worked in Afghanistan for a military contractor. Performing such work is very lucrative. It is reported that the first eighty-five thousand dollars in earnings are tax free.

His father is reportedly convinced that his son committed suicide. According to what I read so are many of his friends and family members and soldiers who served with him.

This young man who had been put in charge of an attack helicopter had reportedly already attempted suicide twice while stationed at Fort Campbell, Kentucky.

He had been sent to a mental institution near the base.

I read that after arriving at Kandahar, Afghanistan early in 2010 that the Army took away his weapon and forced him into counseling.

Suicide among American troops have been increasing.

National Guardsmen, who signed up to serve in their home states have been sent into a war zone under questionable circumstances by two Presidential Administrations and a Congress that is ignoring its duties under the Constitution.

In 2004 the United States Army reported 67 soldiers on active duty committed suicide.

In 2009 the number was 162.

In 2010 the United States Army reported 144 suicides through to November.

Suicide in the Trenches

I knew a simple soldier boy

Who grinned at life in empty joy,

Slept soundly through the lonesome dark,

And whistled early with the lark.

In winter trenches, cowed and glum,

With crumps and lice and lack of rum,

He put a bullet through his brain.

No one spoke of him again.

You smug-faced crowds with kindling eye

Who cheer when soldier lads march by,

Sneak home and pray you'll never know

The hell where youth and laughter go.

Siegfried Sassoon - 1918

American Congressional Interference in the Internal Affairs of Afghanistan

On the walls of his Capitol Hill office, Representative Michael Rogers of Michigan reportedly displays a tomahawk made of metal from a Soviet tank given to him by Afghans, and a long knife given to him by Pakistanis.

Having read this description of this legislator’s office I recalled some lines from a movie I had seen regarding a man who had collected an array of weapons and spent ammunition and kept them in his office for display. The spoken lines are these : “Any man with a collection like this is a man who's never set foot on a battlefield. To him a miniball from Shiloh is just an artifact. But to a combat vet, it's a hunk of metal that caused some poor bastard a world of pain.” – Robert Redford in ‘The Last Castle’

Let’s leave behind the world of popular entertainment for now and consider the facts.

Representative Mike Rogers of Michigan reportedly displays a metal tomahawk made from a Soviet Tank – given to him by Afghans. The United States gave money and materials to Afghans to fight the Soviets. It turned out that the Soviets were fighting a people and culture that was far more degenerate and dangerous than theirs. The result of the ‘victory’ of the mercenaries and killers in Afghanistan led to a brutal religious dictatorship in the country and allowed a band of Saudi Arabian lunatics led by Osama Bin Laden to attack New York City on 9/11.

Now Representative Mike Rogers of Michigan is displaying a war prize won by the bloodthirsty Taliban and terrorists that have taken up arms against the United States on the wall of his office in the Halls of Congress.

As if that were not bad enough – he reportedly is displaying a ‘long knife’ given to him by Pakistanis. We need a little history for this one but not much.

Prior to World War II Adolf Hitler put a murderous plan into effect called ‘The Night of the Long Knives’. It was a political purge that took place between June 30 and July 2, 1934. It was a calculated series of political executions.

Pakistan does not have political relations with Israel.

Pakistan does not recognize Israel as a country.

Like many other Muslim countries Pakistan would not mind seeing the entire nation of Israel wiped off the face of the earth.

Now back to that ‘long knife’ on Representative Mike Rogers’ wall.

What sort of message or messages is Representative Mike Rogers sending? Is this the sort of activity and message that the people who voted for him believe in? Do the people that voted for Representative Mike Rogers even know what he has been up to? What sort of people would put a man who would hide under such symbols into office in the first place?

Representative Rogers of Michigan is, in my opinion, one of the ‘new’ politicians that have arisen in the past two or three decades. At one point he was employed as an agent at the Federal Bureau of Investigation. This government employment seems to have been the stepping stone he used to elevate himself into the political position of being able to run for public office.

This behavior has become all too common in the United States.

Representative Rogers of Michigan is just one example.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation that Representative Rogers comes from has come under a cloud of suspicion and allegations of incompetence. It has recently been cited as overstepping its bounds and concurrently not fulfilling its duties to the American people.

Practices at the Federal Bureau of Investigation appear to include entrapment but these charges are hard to press because of the secretive nature of the process used by the Federal Bureau of Investigation to gain indictments. The Federal Grand Jury system at this time is cloaked in mystery and is believed by some to be riddled by corruption.

The State of Michigan, part of which Representative Rogers represents, is an entry point for illegal aliens from Canada. They cross openly by boat and land along the Detroit River at various points on a regular basis. Harsens Island is an example of the way the illegal immigration occurs in Michigan. It is known that landings take place there fairly often. The reporting structure for these invasions is that if local residents notice people who look like illegal aliens running across the golf course they call the Sheriff.

Drugs, illegal immigration and the transport of weapons are fairly common activities in Michigan. The activities of the Federal Bureau of Investigation appear to encourage this activity as they seek out the ‘source’ of the criminal activity. It is a sad and sorry situation where the Federal Bureau of Investigation furnishes drugs, money and stolen material along with a scenario to commit a crime in order to arrest someone. In some of these cases it appears that the activity has gone beyond simple entrapment into the realm of daytime television drama. These soap opera scripts are carried out sometimes to tragic conclusions.

When these ‘investigations’ are underway local, city and state police may be warned off arresting someone because of an ongoing investigation. The ripple effect of crime, despair and negative civil impact has a real economic price attached to it which is not appreciated by the persons who have unleashed this tragi-comic police state on the people of Michigan.

That is, in my opinion, the type of law enforcement agency that Representative Rogers and his political ideas spring from.

It seems to me that Representative Rogers is eager to make his imprint in the world. Like his predecessor from Texas, Representative Charlie Parker (to whose name has been attached the origin of the modern strife and war in Afghanistan) it seems unclear to me if he understands the ramifications of his actions and words as they appear to be targeted at undermining international cooperation, expand war and generally confuse American policy for personal interest.

In my opinion Representative Mike Rogers and the interference of other Congressmen with like mind represents the wrong approach at the wrong time.

Representative Parker created Osama Bin Laden.

What sort of monsters is Representative Rogers of Michigan creating?

It seems time to exit Afghanistan and bring the United States Army back home.

The real enemy is to the south of the United States and it is the Mexican Government. Representative Mike Rogers, for all his worldly experience with the Federal Bureau of Investigatin, is, in my opinion from a sheltered location. In my opinion he lacks real insight into international matters and has exploited the ignorance and hatred of some Michigan supporters to gain the votes he needed to get into office.

Perhaps Osama Bin Laden will surface again and our military can finally do their job and kill him. Right now he is hiding with impunity, apparently with the very people that Representative Rogers has so closely identified himself with in that region. It is this sort of interference and unnecessary politicking by Congressmen that has taken the focus of the effort in Afghanistan from winning the war into a way to make money from confusion and mayhem.

We need the army home now to deal with the evil and perverted Mexican government but the political will in Michigan and nearly every one of the fifty states by politicians who profess to support the United States of America but who seem more bent on personal gain at the expense of victory, peace, stability and propserity.

A story I read indicated that Representative Mike Rogers was visiting a military base in Afghanistan and he reportedly witnessed persons whom he was told were Taliban loading rockets to attack the base.

The story continued that he asked an officer what they were going to do about it and the officer replied that they could do nothing because the fighters were in Pakistan and the Americans could not cross the Pakistani border to get them.

It was said that Representative Rogers left the base which was then attacked that night with rockets.

There was no report of fatalities or injuries from the alleged attack.

Not unlike the movie version of Representative Charlie Wilson it is said that Representative Rogers was frustrated by the responses he had received.

It was further reported that he took it upon himself to carry out a campaign to force the George W. Bush Administration to do more about these alleged attacks from Pakistan.

The story which I read was widely publicized but it stated that in a story that was known only to a small group of participants Representative Rogers played the lead role in convincing President Bush to issue a July 2008 order that increased the number of Predator drone strikes against alleged fighters in Pakistan – fighters that were identified by what appears to have been the Pakistani military and possibly their intelligence agency.

It seems then that Representative Rogers’ frenetic activity as a forceful front man for the secret drone program helped to expand it even further by President Obama.

Reportedly because of this Representative John Boehner, Republican Leader of the House named Representative Rogers as the chairman of the intelligence committee.

Representative Peter Hoekstra of Michigan reportedly stated, “Mike went out and found the ground truth on this stuff.”

Apparently the rate of American unmanned guided missile attack in the ‘tribal area’ of Pakistan is now on the average of two a week.

According to what I have read Representative Mike Rogers declined to comment on the drone program.

On October 16, 2010 Representative Mike Rogers attended a ribbon-cutting ceremony at General Dynamics, the makers of the Stryker MGS (mobile gun system) along with company employees and reportedly Representative Candice Miller of Michigan, Senator Carl Levin and his brother Representative Sander Levin of Michigan and Senator Debbie Stabenow. Also at the ceremony was the mother of convicted political criminal Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, Representative Carolyn Kilpatrick. Several Macomb County and Sterling Heights officials also attended.

General Dynamics also sought out and acquired contracts with the United States Air Force to produce drones. General Dynamics reportedly contributed about $7,500 to Mike Rogers’ 2002 Election Campaign.

Also in 2002 United Defense, apparently a part of BAE Systems, contributed $7,000 to Mike Rogers’ Election Campaign. BAE Systems is a foreign owned company headquartered at 6 Carlton Gardens, London, SW1Y 5AD, United Kingdom. That’s in Europe.

In 2004 General Dynamics donated $6,000.

In 2006 General Dynamics forked over $10,960 and Lockheed Martin donated $4,000. Boeing also threw in $3,000 in 2006.

BAE donated again in 2008 with $5,500 and General Dynamics with $8,250 and Lockheed Martin with another $4,000.

In 2010 General Dynamics provided $10,000 and Honeywell also donated $10,000. Lockheed Martin donated $7,000 and Boeing followed with $6,000. Raytheon donated $10,000.

General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, BAE, Honeywell and Raytheon all manufacture drones intended for direct attack, reconnaissance and in the case of Honeywell for use by American law enforcement to be used in observing Americans in the United States.

It has been widely reported that innocent people are often killed in these drone attacks.

These reports are widely denied by those carrying out the drone attacks.

In 2007-2008 Raytheon gave Senator Carl Levin $9,000 and Representative Peter Hoekstra $10,000.

In 2007-2008 BAE Systems gave Senator Carl Levin $10,500 and Representative Peter Hoekstra $5,000.

In 2007-2008 General Dynamics gave Senator Carl Levin $22,050 and his brother Representative Sander Levin $6,000 and Representative Peter Hoekstra $7,000.

In 2007-2008 Lockheed Martin gave Senator Carl Levin $10,000 and his brother Sander Levin $2,500 and Representative Peter Hoekstra $9,000.

In 2007-2008 Boeing gave $11,000 to Senator Carl Levin and his brother Sander Levin got $10,000 while Peter Hoekstra received $10,000.

In 2007-2008 Honeywell gave Senator Carl Levin $10,000 and his brother Representative Sander Levin $10,000 and Representative Peter Hoekstra $5,000.

In 2007-2008 President Barack Obama received $64,955 from Raytheon.

In 2007-2008 President Barack Obama received $32,312 from BAE Systems.

In 2007-2008 President Barack Obama received $48,117 from General Dynamics.

In 2007-2008 President Barack Obama received $136,000 from Lockheed Martin.

In 2007-2008 President Barack Obama received $196,652 from Boeing.

Disgrace for NATO and Advantage for Pakistan – Genocide by Proxy

On February 20, 2011 yet another report was made of a massacre of innocents by foreign troops in Afghanistan.

This time the government of Afghanistan contended that 50 civilians were killed in a battle which occurred in a remote part of eastern Afghanistan. The location was in Kunar province which is on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. It is one of the areas that Pakistan would be interested in undermining and destabilizing as it pushes against the native Afghans who were trapped inside Pakistan when the nation was arbitrarily formed in 1947.

Afghanistan reported that 22 of the 50 civilians killed were women. Other dead included young boys and old men. Another village destroyed. An Afghan tragedy. A Pakistani ‘victory’.

NATO denies this assertion and claims that exactly three dozen insurgents were killed and no civilians. They promise to investigate.

These attacks are often egged on by Pakistani officials keen on depopulating the area in order to make it easier to continue mopping up operations on their side of the border as they drive people born into a civilization that has persisted there for over 2,000 years.

Pakistan's Interior Minister Rehman Malik claimed that Osama bin Laden was most likely hiding in Kunar Province in the spring and summer of 2009.

Malik is quoted as saying, "According to our information Osama is in Afghanistan, probably Kunar, as most of the activities against Pakistan are being directed from Kunar.”

‘…activities against Pakistan…’

There are no recorded activities against Pakistan – but there are repeated instances of Pakistani soldiers attacking villages and towns in their northwestern region.

Combined with uncanny specific descriptions of persons that Pakistan believes the United States and coalition forces want to kill these brutal actions of the Pakistanis have taken on the tinge of genocide.

The persons they hand information over to the Americans to attack with drones and the towns and villages their army destroys are nearly always of the same one or two ethnic groups that live in the region.

Following the attacks, if they are successful, there is evidence that over the past 20 or 30 years that Pakistan then carries out a process of colonization in order to deal with its own overflowing population and to satisfy its bloodthirsty territorial goals in the region.

It seems as long as the Pakistanis conjure the name of Osama Bin Laden then the Americans will keep killing any one the Pakistanis point out.

In the meantime Osama Bin Laden is still at large and the nation which spawned him and his terrorist gang – Saudi Arabia – continues to enjoy favored nation status even as it drives its own population into poverty and breeds new generations of terrorists.

President Hamid Karzai, ‘Our Guy Karzai’ to the Americans, has been trying to get rid of the Americans and NATO and these constant civilian murders have become a rallying point for his administration.

In a strange coincidence tales of corruption and ineptitude within his administration increase in volume and crowd the news media outlets each time he calls out against these senseless deaths and horrific injuries.

He is stormed with a public relations mob each time he points out that the murder of innocents will only increase ill will and each death or injury will make more enemies and push the conflict even further into the future.

Over the years Pakistan has provided ‘information’ that Osama Bin Laden was in the Afghanistan provinces of Kandahar, Zabul, Paktika, Paktia, Nangarhar, Kunar, Badakhsan and Helmand – all of them bordering on Pakistan.

In October of 2010 a NATO official announced that they had information that Osama Bin Laden was not in Afghanistan at all and was living in protected comfort in Pakistan.

“Allying Ourselves With the Next United States”

Inspired by John Kerry’s Attempt to Interfere With Internal Egyptian Matters

Following the explosive events in Egypt Senator John Kerry took it on himself to write an ‘Op-Ed’ piece in the New York Times giving detailed instruction to President Mubarak of Egypt on how to deal with the present situation and Senator Kerry also offered apologetics for the Obama Administration to some extent. Following is a satire of that ‘Op-Ed’ piece which puts the focus of the issues on President Obama rather than President Mubarak.

Room for Debate: President Barack Husein Obama’s Role and Mideast Peace

EVEN if the job loss and home evictions destroying the American peace subside in the next few days, which, I admit, is not likely, the chaos of the last two years of Obama’s regime has forever changed the relationship between the American people and their government. The corruption and ignorance forcing a diverse range of citizens out of the homes and jobs and being thrown into the streets will not disappear without sweeping changes in the social compact between the people and the government.

President Barack Husein Obama must accept that the stability of his country hinges on his willingness to step aside gracefully to make way for a new political structure. One of the toughest jobs that a leader under siege can perform is to engineer a peaceful transition. But Americans, sorely used and abused these past few years have made clear they will settle for nothing less than greater democracy and more economic opportunities separated from advantages given to New York Banks, Stock Brokers and Chicago Politicians.

Ushering in such a transformation offers President Barack Husein Obama — a great nationalist ever since he stopped smoking marijuana and learned that his father’s generation of revolutionaries helped their country escape the last vestiges of British colonialism in Kenya — the chance to end the violence and lawlessness, to begin improving the dire economic and social conditions in this country and to change his place in history.

It is not enough for President Barack Husein Obama to pledge to “play fair” in the economy, as he has done on a nearly a daily basis, including Saturdays and Sundays. The most important step that he can take is to address his nation and declare that neither he nor Joe Biden nor any of his cronies will run in the next presidential election. Americans have moved beyond his regime, and the best way to avoid declining business opportunities from turning into a Major Depression is for President Barack Husein Obama to take his parade out of the equation.

Further, he must guarantee that the election will be honest and open to all legitimate candidates and conducted without interference from the military or security apparatus and under the oversight of international monitors. The American people are demanding wholesale transformation, not window dressing as men like John Kerry and John McCain have proposed. As part of the transition, President Barack Husein Obama needs to stop working with New York Banks and Stock Brokers immediately so that the confusion and disharmony he is creating in national and global markets will cease.

President Barack Husein Obama has contributed significantly to Middle East peace though it is not clear exactly how or why he did it – but he won a Nobel Peace Prize and that must be worth something – I think it’s worth something like 1.5 million dollars. Now it is imperative that he contribute to prosperity in his own country by convincing American that their concerns and aspirations are being addressed and the best way to do that is to step aside and reduce is inflammatory rhetoric and decrease to zero his furious schedule of public appearances. He appears on the television, in the newspaper and on the radio at least once a daily in nearly every market in the United States. His cult of personality has drained the news media of trust from the public. It has come to appear that the press is merely another of the hundreds of departments that President Barack Husein Obama has created and presides over. If he demonstrates leadership and accomplishes those goals, he can turn the America into a model for how to get rid of incompetent and scheming politicians.

Given the events of the past week, some are criticizing Democrats’ and Republicans’ past tolerance of Obama’s regime. It is true that our public rhetoric did not always match our private concerns. But there also was a pragmatic understanding that our relationship benefited American foreign policy and how much money we could make for ourselves individually before getting caught. And make no mistake, a productive relationship with people with lots of money remains crucial for both Democrats and Republicans.

To that end we must accompany our rhetoric with real assistance to the American people. For too long, financing nearly every third world dictator’s military has been a cash cow. For too long we have been spending money we don’t have and could never hope to make. For too long we have been stealing from the American people. For too long we have been lying to the American people. For too long we have been misstating facts, misrepresenting the people we are supposed to represent and last but not least for too long have the upper offices in government been dominated by incompetents, drunkards and perverts. Congress and the Obama regime need to consider providing civilian assistance that would generate jobs and improve social conditions in the United States, as late as that may be and as untrustworthy as the Obama regime has been. We need to guarantee that American military assistance is reduced around the globe immediately.

The awakening of Americans across the nation must bring new light to Washington, too. Our interests are not served by watching our friends collapse under the weight of the anger and frustrations of their own investors. Nor by transferring power to radical groups that would spread low interest rates and conduct fair trade. Instead, the best way for our stable friends to survive is to respond to the genuine political, legal and economic needs of their investors. The Obama regime must step aside so that these needs can be met.

At other historic turning points, we have not always chosen wisely. We built an important alliance with a free Philippines by supporting the people when they showed Ferdinand Marcos the door in 1986. But we continue to pay a horrible price for clinging too long to Iran’s shah. How we behave in this moment of challenge in Washington is critical. It is vital that we stand with the people who share our values and hopes and who seek the universal goals of freedom, prosperity and peace.

For many years, the United States pursued an Obama policy. Now we must look beyond the Obama era and devise an American policy.

The Absurdity of Leading With No Direction

A quote from President Barack Obama about democracy in the United States :

"This is what change looks like," Obama said in Philadelphia. "In a big, messy democracy like ours, a country that's huge and diverse, you know, it's not smooth. But it's worthwhile."

Let us compare, “No change of circumstances can repair a defect of character. “ - Ralph Waldo Emerson.

President Obama also stated, "As a consequence of reckless decisions that had been made, the economy was on the verge of collapse. Those same businesses now are profitable; the financial markets are stabilized. The only thing that we've said is that we've got to make sure that we're not doing some of the same things that we were doing in the past that got into this mess in the first place."

“Those who want the Government to regulate matters of the mind and spirit are like men who are so afraid of being murdered that they commit suicide to avoid assassination. “ -

Harry S. Truman

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron. ~Dwight D. Eisenhower, speech, American Society of Newspaper Editors, 16 April 1953

The Secretary of Homeland Security in Afghanistan

Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano visited Afghanistan in December of 2010. The trip was reportedly to meet troops and discuss security.

It was not clear why the Secretary of Homeland Security would need to meet with American soldiers in a war zone in another country.

She reportedly went there to discuss border security and measures to secure the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

It was not clear whether she was there to learn about border security or to share the miserable failures that the Department of Homeland Security has repeatedly experienced along the United States – Mexico border.

Even though the flood of illegal immigrants, drugs and weapons continues nearly unabated from Mexico into the United States Janet Napolitano had the gall to visit Afganistan and travel throughout the Middle East and Europe to discuss ‘international and regional security’.

It was reported that Napolitano was accompanied by six Department of Homeland Security customs and border agents who will join other American Department of Homeland Security personnel in Afghanistan to try and provide civilian security assistance to local officials.

It is not clear what experience these and other American Department of Homeland Security employees have had with suicide bombers. They are being directed, however, to assist in trying to secure Afghanistan’s border from militants, gun smuggling and drug smugglers.

Considering their record here in the United States, where they are based and where the speak the language and can pretend to know the land I wonder if the people and government of Afghanistan have been informed of their ineptitude and record of failure in these same activities on behalf of their own nation.

According to reports Secretary Napolitano stated, "In the last twelve months, DHS has expanded its effort here in support of President Obama's policy of civilian engagement. It is an honor to meet with our dedicated military and civilian men and women who are helping to bring peace and stability to Afghanistan, and I thank them for their continued efforts and sacrifices here to make the American homeland safer and more secure."

In February of 2011 reports surfaced of retired and active American law enforcement officers – police, sheriffs, deputies – being offered lucrative one year contracts to live and work in Iraq.

Rather than the Department of Homeland Security handling this however, the State Department is taking on police powers and has been meeting with local and state law enforcement officers to work out attractive opportunities that will be made available to them in Autumn of 2011.

The Obama Administration, faced with illegal immigration, drug crime and general strife due to loss of jobs to ‘Free Trade’ has decided to take full responsibility for creating Iraq's police and border forces starting on October 1.

Even though President Barack Husein Obama has declared the war over in Afghanistan he is now working to create a network of paramilitary police agencies in Iraq to replace the violent and oppressive police agencies that flourished under Sadam Hussein.

The original announcement for beginning this new scheme was made the day two bombings killed six policemen and wounded at least 22 people in western Iraq.

Pakistan Nuclear Weapons

2011-01-31T04:17:00.001-08:00

President Obama signed a nuclear treaty with Russia. It did not change the number of nuclear warheads in the world - just the way the United States and Russia counts them. For example - the Russian Tu-160 can carry 5 nuclear bombs but according to the treaty there is only one weapon. That is how the numbers were ‘reduced’. At the end of 2008, by the way, two of those planes flew into Venezuela.
It was recently revealed that Pakistan now has about 100 nuclear bombs.
They are not only religious fanatics they are racists. They are conducting a genocide in their ‘Tribal Areas’. The army kills or drives people from their homes and then Pakistanis come and take their land.
Pakistan’s borders were drawn, along with Afghanistan’s by England long before any of this happened. The border cut off a large part of Aghanistan in the northeast and cut off its access to the ocean.
Like Egypt the state religion is Islam.
The name of the country is ‘The Islamic Republic of Pakistan’. The name of Egypt is ‘The Islamic Republic of Egypt’.
It is in Pakistan, violent, repressed, murderous - that there are 100 operational nuclear bombs. It is in Pakistan that the United States is using some of the most highly efficient and scientifically advanced remote controlled missiles and rockets to kill ‘terrorists’ - many of them fingered by the Pakistani government.
There are 100 more explosive reasons for the United States to leave Afghanistan right now.

Cotton Incorporated and American Textiles

2011-01-30T19:27:00.001-08:00

What you are going to read here may cause you some discomfort, as it presents information about a wrong that has gone on so long, it has nearly taken on the appearance of being right. Millions of children are involved, and our entire American textile industry.
Almost 40 years ago there was a crisis in the United States for cotton farmers. Manmade fibers were making inroads into the textile business. The cotton farmers were provided relief by the Federal Government. They were allowed to take one dollar from every bale produced and put it into a pool.
What happened before this plan got off the ground is quite astounding. Americans from coast to coast became aware of the problems associated with the manmade fabrics. Keeping them clean, uncomfortable wear in cold and hot weather and the danger of fire as they melt into human flesh. So, without prompting, Americans stopped buying the manmade fibers, and within 2 years, cotton was once again taking a large market share of the fiber market.
A company named Cotton Incorporated was formed and took responsibility for the turnaround.
For 20 years the company concerned itself with advertising and quiet dealings with mall owners.
Then a change came. 20 years and over 1.2 billion dollars later, cotton prices are as low as ever. In fact, they are so low, that the Federal Government has to pay out price support payments to keep the farmers planting, even while they force a cap on contract prices.
Cotton Incorporated is a failure for the farmers and American consumers.
The farmers are planting more than ever, and more than half of the crop is exported. A Federal price support program, set up to benefit farmers and domestic mills is benefiting countries like communist China, which annually takes nearly a quarter and sometimes nearly half of our cotton crop at artificially low prices. They process the cotton into yarn, fabric and finished goods and dump them back into our economy at unrealistic prices. Recently there has been a 26 to 30 percent drop in average prices of goods originating from Asia. In a further bizarre twist, every time this happens, Cotton Incorporated and the National Cotton Council receive cash from an import duty imposed on the cotton goods coming back into the United States. They are in no hurry to reverse this trend. The result is a loss of 60,000 American jobs, just last year. The total number of jobs lost has been in the hundreds of thousands over just the past few years as this destructive economic engine con
tinues to tear at the fabric of our nation?s economy.
In spite of scientific evidence that cottonseed oil, cottonseed meal and cottonseed itself are more suitable for uses such as the manufacture of shoe polish, fertilizers, insecticides, herbicides, dyes and explosives, the material is finding its way into more and more foods on grocery shelves in greater and greater quantities. Cottonseed contains a chemical called gossypol. This chemical causes sterility in animals - it doesn?t take much. Cotton Incorporated has been pushing roasted cottonseed as a feed additive for dairy farmers. The cottonseed needs to be roasted in order to assure that there is little aflatoxin left, as cottonseed meal is prone to contamination of this sort. Often, information is not provided to the farmer that strict guidelines must be followed in order to avoid sexual sterility in the animals fed, and to ensure that the milk is not altered so as to produce a butter that more closely resembles a plastic than a food. Losses have been recorded on a reg
ular basis.
Cottonseed oil is now showing up in school lunch programs. It has historically been used as a base for soaps, shoe polish, floor wax, insecticides and herbicides.
Cotton is the most heavily chemically treated crop in the United States. The cotton plant itself could reduce the amount of manmade herbicides, insecticides and fertilizers used in its culture if the chemicals present in cottonseed, hulls and stalks were put to better use. It has proven advantageous to the USDA to push the Federal Government into allowing more cottonseed oil into the marketplace because they monitor foods, not industrial products. Everyone in this little scheme profits at the expense of the cotton farmers and American taxpayers. Many scientists consider it dangerous to feed cottonseed oil to children because it contains complex fats, phenols and gossypol. In spite of this knowledge and the real danger it poses it is being fed to children in ever increasing frequency in a dizzying array of foods. Farmers, in the meantime, are cautioned not to feed it to pigs.
Pigs that eat cottonseed will die. Cattle become sterile. Chickens lay eggs with enlarged, green yolks. There is a town in China where no children were born for nearly a decade. The cause was traced to cottonseed oil that was widely used for cooking in the town. China is using gossypol as a male contraceptive, which is just another name in that country for male sterilization. Women are also effected by gossypol. Their menstrual cycle will become erratic or stop altogether.
The increased availability of the noxious cottonseed oil is beginning to impact the corn oil, soybean oil and canola oil markets.
Cotton Incorporated, for some time, has also been developing software to assist mills in mixing their cotton, accepting it, warehousing it, and exchanging market data with other companies, and in many cases assisting with sales. The software is called, EFS, the ?Engineered Fiber Selection System?, which is a cleverly disguised averaging program to determine which bales of cotton to use in a warehouse. It includes a random number generator in order to use up bales outside normal parameters.
This is clearly unfair competition to private software companies. They cannot compete with the price offered by this pseudo-government agency and lack the contacts to break the stranglehold. Cotton Incorporated leases the software, and so, avoids detection by not selling the product. The company leases the software to anyone that promises to use at least 50% of American cotton in their product. It is impossible to prove or disprove this assertion by a mill, especially a foreign mill unless the people at Cotton Incorporated have access to this vital market data, and even if they make one product which contains 50% American cotton, there is nothing to stop them from using it to make products that do not contain American fiber. If they have this information, and they clearly have the means and reason to get it, they would be able to predict market fluctuations. A general investigation of the financial situation and financial activities of all of the employees of Cotton Incorp
orated and the National Cotton Council, the Cotton Council International and the Cotton Board should be carried out immediately. They are barred from profiting from their information not only by the nature of their business but by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
In practice, Cotton Incorporated apparently offers this software to anyone with money in hand and the right connections. They are also running an information exchange program ? the CI~EDI system which sends and receives confidential shipment information from mill to shipper and back again. There is a serious question as to the involvement of the company at this level of cotton transactions. They are supposed to be a marketing company ? not a cotton market ? but that is apparently exactly what they are doing. They are not assisting in trade, they are carrying it out to the disadvantage of private firms.
The practice results in foreign textile firms with an advantage over American firms. Some are located in the jungles of the Phillipines, in Ireland, Bogota, Columbia (cocaine capital of the world), Mexico, and several European countries. They are being given free access to a portion of the American market that they should not have so readily and so easily without working for it. Foreign textile firms are able to produce fabric that mimics fabrics produced in the United States because they are using technology developed in the United States. American textile firms are further assaulted. A textile mill in the jungles of the Phillipines does not have the overhead of even the worst paying American mill. They have no health benefits to attend to, no pollution controls to worry about. There is only the matter of shipping the material to the United States, which again, is assisted in a big way by Cotton Incorporated, the National Cotton Council, the Cotton Council Internationa
l and the Cotton Board.
That is correct, no less than 4 entities with uncomfortably close government connections exist that are actively providing unfair access to American textile know-how. They freely provide contact information to foreign mills, importers, exporters and shippers. Each year foreign countries violate the import quotas of the United States. Each year a flood of illegal drugs is pouring into this nation and destroying the fiber of our nation. The next time you go to a department store, take a look at the labels, and even if they have the cotton logo on them you will notice that a vast majority of the materials for sale are NOT made in the USA. The main export of the United States these days appears to be paper money. For every dollar coming in, if fifty go out, that is not advantageous to the United States. The economy is bleeding at a rate that cannot be sustained.
Cotton Incorporated also maintains an unhealthy relationship with mall owners across the nation. Just a few years ago the American Textile Association invented a device that allows consumers to be measured by light, and then order custom clothing whenever they choose, either through the internet, from catalog or over the phone. The clothes would always fit perfectly and would be made custom at a cheaper price than is now available in stores ? because rents would be a lot lower for stores that only need house the light machines. Shipping would be direct from the textile mills ? which now would effectively be tailors. This technology threatens Cotton Incorporated and the ?work? it does in making fabric suggestions to the mills and the marketing favors they perform on a daily basis for mall owners around the nation. The resurgence of the American Main Street is being held hostage by companies associating with Cotton Incorporated. Small business is suffering.
Our enemies are waiting for the day when we don?t produce even our own underwear in this nation. When we depend solely upon them for our clothing and textile needs. Just recently it was revealed that the communist Chinese, the same people that scurried over here to buy the wreckage of the World Trade Center and who are in business with our enemies, like Iraq and Libya, had the contract to manufacture the berets for the United States Army.
In Texas, the cotton farmers earn more money some years from drought or flooding than they do from bringing in a successful crop because of the liberal farm crop insurance system in the State of Texas.
Even the President of the United States has declared that better opportunities have to be found for American textile exports ? that is going to be hard to do if no one is making any American textiles to export.
It is time for Cotton Incorporated to be set out to pasture, along with the Cotton Board and the Cotton Council International and the National Cotton Council. The money that each farmer makes belongs to each farmer. The money is not supposed to be taken from them anymore ? the Supreme Court has declared it unconstitutional. In spite of this and in defiance of the Supreme Court and the Constitution of the United States of America, these people, who are little more than agents of foreign nations are going to try and take the money again.
A few years ago, a group of cotton producers won a court case and forced Cotton Incorporated to be audited. The resulting audit was sealed when it was completed. So ? the producers got the audit they wanted ? but they were never allowed to see the result.
The CEO of Cotton Incorporated, Berrye Worsham, like Spencer Abraham of the Department of Energy, had little scientific knowledge of the group to which he was appointed leadership. His background was initially announced as that of a Certified Public Accountant at Case International, a maker of agricultural equipment, but is now touted on the Cotton Incorporated web site as having been a marketing leader at that same company. The only thing that is certain is that Case International now markets heavily to the cotton producers in the United States, even though many people recognize the inferiority of their machines to those manufactured by the John Deere Company. The point being, that, as director of Cotton Incorporated, Berrye Worsham has access to the personal information of the cotton producers, such as name, address, and is even close to production and earnings information ? all he has to do is reach out to get it. This should not be allowed and the company has become al
l too enmeshed in a portion of the economy that they were never intended to enter.
Almost half a century ago, a man by the name of Sasser invented a little spring that enabled a device known as a strength tester to be operated thousands of times within a very tiny window of tolerance. This device has been used by mills around the world and by the USDA to test and classify cotton strength. It is a funny little device, invented by a company headquartered in Texas, but which has transferred the technology to a foreign company. It is a funny little device, because after studying it, one comes to the conclusion that it is little more than a toy. First of all, the device destroys the sample it is testing. Second of all, cotton is and has been produced within a narrow frame of standards for nearly two hundred years. It is amazing to see how closely cotton of today resembles cotton of fifty years ago. In any case, Dr. Sasser had been in line to succeed Mr. Hahn, however, was passed over by the younger, lesser known Berrye Worsham. Dr. Sasser claims vociferou
sly that he is of no relation to Mr. Sasser ? ex-ambassador to China, an office that has also been held by ex-President Bush.
Political power was brought to bear in California a few years ago, when a woman by the name of Sally Fox was popularizing colored cotton. Cotton, being made of cellulose makes fibers in many different colors, red, green, violet, brown, orange, yellow ? and gossypol actually forms a brilliant blue pigment, discovered in the 1930?s that has never been pursued commercially. The reason that political muscle was brought to bear is that the cotton farmers in the San Joaquin Valley did not want to have their cotton cross pollinated with the colored cotton. You see ? colored cotton is not covered under current government payment programs. So ? as an indirect result of government interference an agricultural advance that should push America forward has been forced to hide in a remote valley in the SouthWest. Colored cotton was spun at Cotton Incorporated headquarters in North Carolina and the fabric was fine and produced excellent color. However ? as they were using Japanese and
German spinning frames that could not handle the fiber they declared the fiber unfit for mass production. This fiber has been successfully spun and woven in other locations. The report Cotton Incorporated provided should be revisited.
A cold weather strain was unexpectedly discovered while an experiment was being conducted on early fruiting cotton plants. The plants will grow as far north as North Dakota and provide good fiber. This information has likewise been suppressed.
Cotton Incorporated reported another stilted view of another ?study? they conducted. A mixture of cotton and American Hemp was run that produced a cloth superior in every way to 100% cotton and cotton/manmade fiber blends. It is stronger, moisture resistant, color fast and just plain beautiful to look at. Cotton Incorporated once again reported it was not fit to manufacture because their Japanese and German machines had difficulty with it.
The textile industry itself cannot avoid responsibility. For example, anyone with an Excel Spreadsheet program or an Access program and a little textile know-how can create a process superior to the Engineered Fiber Selection System, and yet, incredibly, the textile executives don?t realize they have the power to defeat these people ? it lies within their American employees. They must demand these raw materials in order to get them, and they must stop moving their manufacturing equipment out of the United States into Mexico and other Latin American countries in a frantic pursuit of cheaper labor. It only proves to be more expensive because they are less educated and less willing to work. Americans now see the cheating form of government that has been at work in Texas and people outside the United States now know why American companies want to employ them, and they don?t appreciate it. No one wants to work at jobs that are here today and gone tomorrow, and pay only enough
to get you a tin house. Would you want that?
By merely rejecting Cotton Incorporated?s interference, which now should be clear, American capital can finally be brought to bear against backward thinking politicians who call themselves American but act on the behalf of foreign interests. Like those in Alabama, who continue to fight against American Hemp because it suits their interests while opening the door to Japanese car companies to assault our manufacturing industries.
American ingenuity and know-how can create the devices necessary to work with the fibers discussed here. They can no longer be shackled by ignorant lawmakers and pseudo-governmental agencies that are more concerned with their retirement funds and cocktails rather than the security and economic well being of the United States of America.
I don?t want to live in a Mexican colony or in a Chinese protectorate.
Do you?
The false politicians are decrying governmental interference. They constantly whine and complain about the dangers of big government and all the while they are growing things like Cotton Incorporated and the National Cotton Council, and the two other parasitic appendages to the cotton plant, the Cotton Council International and the Cotton Board.
Let us see if Cotton Incorporated can exist on its own for five years without government support. I suggest five years, because, most likely the first year they will support themselves from either the missing money or through contacts at the National Cotton Council and shippers like Dunavant Enterprises ? until it is apparent to these entities that Cotton Incorporated just isn?t worth it.
Let the textile industry take care of itself. Stop these people from giving away our secrets to our enemies and stop the tyranny. Cotton Incorporated is NOT a non-profit organization, each year it and the other bodies mentioned above operate with a considerable surplus which is never refunded to the farmers, but, rather, invested without consulting the farmers. It is common sense that if you take something from someone for one purpose and use it for something other than that which you promised, and profit from it, that it is theft.
The proceeds never return to the farmers. Every once in a while a bunch of them are flown to North Carolina, paraded around the brand new, unnecessary Cotton Incorporated ?headquarters?, where they get to see a few pieces of spinning and weaving machinery. They are then whisked back to the airport and on back home.
Investigate their finances to bring out the particulars.
By the many years it has existed and drained down support unfairly from cotton farmers and cotton importers ? Cotton Incorporated is playing the role of a government agency. The fraud must be brought to an end immediately.

Reduce the Boot Print

2011-01-30T06:12:00.001-08:00

Feel betrayed?
During President Obama’s 2011 State of the Union address he talked about increasing energy efficiency. It’s the propaganda our children get - reduce your carbon footprint.
I encourage my friends and neighbors to be conscious of what they consume. Part of my patriotic duty to reduce our dependence on foreign oil and do my bit to reduce the deficit. I thought it a way to support our troops and the country.
I understand President Barack Husein Obama has been giving President Muhammad Hosni Mubarak of Egypt over 1.2 billion dollars a year.
So much for saving.
They convince our children to live their lives in such a way so that when they die it is as if they never lived. Can you imagine what this country would have been like if all our heroes had done as little as possible?
Our heroes are reduced to zeros.
In 2010 he said, “We're working with Muslim communities around the world to promote science and education and innovation.”
Part 1, Article 1 of the Constitution of the Arab Republic of Egypt states, “Islam is the religion of the state and Arabic its official language. Islamic jurisprudence is the principal source of legislation.”
Obama has routinely given 1.2 billion dollars a year of our tax money to Egypt whose government is based on intolerance and oppression religious laws.
Do you think we have any reason to be messing around at all with Egypt?

What can make President Obama reduce his boot print?

Tyrants in Egypts and Elsewhere

2011-01-29T21:09:00.001-08:00

I have been reading about the violence in Egypt.
I hope everything works out for them.
I do not want to see any American military forces in Egypt.
I do not want any United States involvement in the internal affairs of Egypt at all.
Why have our embassy staff not been recalled?
I am outraged that President Barack Husein Obama has been quietly handing over 1.2 billion dollars a year to President Muhammad Hosni Mubarak of Egypt.
I am disgusted that while American children are going hungry that my tax money has been sent to the vicious and sadistic “security” forces of Egypt.
Americans have to get loans from banks to go to college and yet Egypt is given - 1.2 billion dollars to run a dictatorship.
Secretary of State Clinton urged the people of Egypt to ‘express themselves peacefully’.
If an Egyptian were to write a letter to a newspaper or to anyone - even a relative - they might reasonably expect a knock at the door in the middle of the night and never be seen again.
1.2 billion to Egypt is bad enough.
I pay taxes for American roads, defense, water, sewer - not to finance torture cells at the local Egyptian police station.
When will this stop?
Into the pockets of how many other tyrants is he stuffing cash?
Egypt is none of our business.
The fight in Egypt is their fight. No Americans have any business in Egypt.
How many other tyrants is Obama financing?

Al-Taqiya the Alligator

2011-01-29T05:56:00.001-08:00

What is going on in the world today?
What war is being fought and why?
What is the ‘War on Terror’?
I often say ‘Afghanistan is a mistake’ but without backing it up people look at me funny.
They tell me the ‘War on Terror’ must be taken to the enemy.
I had no answer. Now I have one.
How is it that small groups of Arabs have been able to successfully dominate the cultures of nations far larger than them? Take for example North Africa - most of the North Africans are NOT Arabs but their ‘leaders’ (dictators) have been for centuries. Even when the Europeans ruled them in Empire briefly in the 19^th and 20^th century the Arab traders still ran the show.
How did they do that? How did a small band of desert nomads come to settle in the ruling houses across the Middle East?
A political technique called ‘Al-Taqiya’.
The word comes from the root ‘Ittaqu’. Sound it out in English and it is kind of like ‘I attack you’ doesn’t it?
This is the method that Mohammed and later rulers used to spread their oppressive governments. They would send soldier-spies who were often trained in religion and presented themselves as ’Imams’ into war zones or areas they wished to annex.
These spies were trained to plant the seeds of discord and sedition.
They were mujahedeen trained to undermine the enemy's resistance and mobilization.
The main objective and the one I am focusing on was to cause a split in the enemy's camp.
They worked to convince their targets that the Jihad, or Holy War, was not aimed at them and that the general population were not targeted only the corrupt government that made them suffer.
At a higher level they convinced Jews that they would protect them from Christians, whom they consider pagans, while at the same time telling Christian leaders that they would take care of the Jews for them.
It is historical fact that they signed peace treaties separately with each enemy promising each side they would solve all the problems if they would just subject themselves to their authority - without war.
So the despots were established and rule to this day across the Middle East and stretching even into Asia.
The basic concept of this can be called ‘divide and conquer’. The method is the use of ‘Terror’.
The ‘Terror’ is not of the enemy, however, the ‘Terror’ they use is to convince us to be afraid of each other. When we fear each other we become weak and they become strong.
They have a problem with the United States, however, because our motto is ‘From Many, One’.
Do you believe that creed or will you allow these monsters to drive us into panic and flow over us like the fetid wind that has withered thought and science and life across the entire northern part of Africa for centuries?
Think about that as you consider whether or not to allow clerics like Feisal Abdul Rauf.
He is touring the United States with words that appear to be of peace and understanding but his speeches change as he addresses crowds of different religions or political beliefs - he adapts his lies to fit his needs and appears to be the only solution to the dramatic events that are in motion.
In the ‘Art of War’ Sun-Tzu states, “If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.”
The product of ‘Al-Taqiya’ has been the Second Dark Ages. Using that technique these men have drawn blinders over some of the brightest civilizations on Earth, from Egypt to Iran to the Far East. Will you succumb to their lies and deceit as well? Are you so afraid of your neighbors and friends that you will allow a stranger from a strange land to take over your nation and dictate your destiny?
The final result of ‘Al-Taqiya’ is being seen in Tunisia and Egypt. God help us if ‘Al-Taqiya’ will being used again to subvert and strangle freedom as it struggles to release the hearts and minds of peoples who have been enslaved by despots and dictators by the simple art of teaching them to be afraid of each other.
They are not seeking to make us afraid of them - they seek to make us terrified of our neighbors and friends and allies. They are not seeking to terrorize us directly - they want us to terrorize each other.
Please keep in mind that "A house divided against itself cannot stand.".
Those are the words of Abraham Lincoln and they take on an ominous tone in this modern world as radical religious fanatics roam among us claiming we are divided and that we should succumb to fear and obey their confusing and baseless commands.
…having said all this and not wishing to alienate anyone, and I mean that most sincerely, I will bring your attention to the words of Jesus in the New Testament. I ask that those of faiths other than Christian allow me this quote because it is drawn from ancient wisdom and is apt here, “Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand.”
Finally, recall the American oath of allegiance, ‘I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen; that I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I will bear arms on behalf of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform noncombatant service in the Armed Forces of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform work of national importance under civilian direction when required by the law; and that I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; so help me God.”
‘We the People of the United States of America’ have the tools and brains and ability to see, understand and reject the cruel and nasty intent of ‘Al-Taqiya’. I will not fear my fellow Americans nor will I allow my enemies to sow discord among us or entertain their corrupt attempts to undermine our free government with a call to heed a false god or prophets.
Whatever happens in North Africa, may God help them all, the fact that those people are fighting against the pigs that have crushed their faces into the dirt with the boot of oppression for centuries should be a light to the world and a wake-up call to us all.
Keep well guarded the ramparts of our nation by keeping your heart clean and free from the fear of your neighbors - which is only a fear of yourself. We face a common enemy and it is dressed in sheep’s clothing.
Did you know that an alligator can mimic the sounds of other animals - like chickens? It lies in the water waiting, clucking and waiting…slowly the chicken comes along pecking at the ground, afraid of everything around it, wary - even of other chickens. It moves along - nervously - until it is close enough and then - the alligator eats it.
Beware of Al-Taqiya the Alligator.

Illegal Immigrants from Mexico are Refugees

2011-01-28T20:00:00.001-08:00

Recently Secretary of State Clinton visited Mexico for what was believed to be talks about Mexico’s exploding drug trade violence.
She was to meet Mexican Foreign Minister Patricia Espinosa in Guanajuato and then speak with President Felipe Calderon.
Calderon reportedly ordered attacks on ‘drug cartels‘ using the Mexican Army starting in 2006.
Five years later, there is an increasing flood of refugees crossing the border from Mexico into the United States. Unlike the heady years when Ronald Reagan and William Clinton were in offices the people making the desperate crossing carrying few goods and even infants are not seeking a better life in the United States - they are trying to save their life by escaping from war ravaged Mexico.
These people are not immigrants - they are refugees and must be returned to their nation under international law after their country is stabilized.
Using the Mexican military turned out to be a very bad idea.
Weapons, training and ammunition - much of it supplied by the United States are involved. It is not clear what the Mexican Army is doing.
"Certainly this is a national security threat." State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley was reported to have said about the situation.
"One of the key elements of sovereignty in any context is a monopoly on the use of violence.“, he continued, "These international criminal organizations -- they have assets and weapons and people that certainly can challenge any security force."
When can our Army leave Afghanistan and clean up Mexico?

Sergeant Hurley of Hartford, Michigan

2011-01-27T18:37:00.001-08:00

Sergeant Hurley of Hartford, Michigan lost his small Michigan house in direct violation of a law intended to protect active military personnel from predatory creditors.
Deutsche Bank agents forced Sergeant Hurley’s wife, Brandie, and her two young children to get out and find shelter elsewhere.
This all happened while he was fighting in Iraq as a member of the Michigan National Guard - for you.
Your soldier, honor and duty bound to protect you, who offered up his life for you and left his wife and children here in your protection had his American land stolen and family thrown out into a Michigan winter by a German bank who sold it to a greedy developer from Chicago, Illinois for $76,000.
When Sergeant Hurley returned to the United States of America, land that I love, in December of 2005 he found himself driving past the deep, wooded property on the banks of a river near Hartford. He reportedly could see the little home he had put there but the land had been sold to some guy from Chicago.
Sergeant Hurley has been patiently moving through the court ‘system’.
Federal court said it was against the law.
Deutsche Bank Trust Company and its co-defendant, a Morgan Stanley subsidiary named Saxon Mortgage Services have been disputing any payments ordered for Sergeant Hurley.
Over 100 other military mortgages have been raided by Deutsche Bank over the same time.
I respect our military.
Do you?
It is my opinion that Sergeant Hurley needs to have his property returned to him immediately - regardless of any red tape, lawyerly notices, bank notes, lying contracts, international agreements, free trade or anything else.
It boils down to this - are you going to allow a Michigan Citizen Soldier of the United States of America to be thrown off his own land, against the law, by a foreign national bank and their buddies in New York City?

Davos and World Economic Forum and Powder

2011-01-22T12:15:00.001-08:00

Shortly the World Economic Forum will meeting Davos, Switzerland.
They are going to discuss whether or not global economic growth is to meet consensus forecasts.
What does that mean to you?
That means that if you are getting forced out of your home by a bank you will still have to leave. If you are out of work you will probably remain out of work. If you are hungry – keep looking for food. It means General Electric will be allowed to give Communist China access to advanced gas turbines and jet engines because they want to and because Obama is out of touch with American reality.
It means more of the same and a little more of the worse.
"Globally, financial protectionism may constrain cross-border financing, a key to the provision of sufficient credit in the next decade, as global imbalances persist," the World Economic Forum said.
That’s the sort of talk that allowed banks to cross state lines in the United States and eventually become concentrated in New “Sodom and Gomorrah” York and ultimately lead to our present business problems.
These business problems won’t be solved by pandering to the people that cause them.
So – let’s hit the powder! Davos – an extraordinary ski resort.
Lately there’s been plenty of new precipitation and the snow down already has been packed hard. 58 of 58 ski lifts are open and over 277 kilometers and ski trails await the enjoyment of bankers and stockbrokers intent on stealing what little you have left.

Solar Panels

2011-01-22T12:14:00.001-08:00

In the town where I work there are many large buildings with flat roofs.
They are ideal for solar panel installations – especially the kind that is mounted on layers of Styrofoam and glued to the roof. The panels are then interconnected into a grid. The roof gets an additional layer of insulation while at the same time providing electricity to the structure – enough to power all the lights, computers and equipment in the building.
In the town where I work such installations are frowned upon because they could ‘detract from the architectural plan approved on by the planning commission’.
In the town where I work there is a very large company that has instructed its workers to avoid use of the elevators. This is a plan arrived at by “forward thinking” executives to reduce the use of electricity.
This is a perfectly good example of ‘penny-wise, pound foolish’.
Let me use another example.
A person has ten thousand dollars.
The same person has a deadly disease that is killing them.
They go to the doctor for treatment.
The doctor refuses to treat the disease because the result would not ‘look nice’ but offers a face lift for the same price.
You have a choice in your home if not at your place of business.
You can remain chained to local utilities who are using technology from the 1800’s or you can get more bang for your buck and modernize your house.
Why would you keep yourself in a losing position?

Willandra Lakes Region - Australia

2011-01-21T19:28:00.001-08:00

I read that the Willandra Lakes Region had been put on the United Nation’s ‘World Heritage List’.
This was done because it seems there have been humans living there for more than 45,000 years.
Not only that there of items that were imported to the area where they are not found naturally.
Sadly I discovered the descendants of the people that lived at that location for 45,000 years were packed up and sent to a reservation because sheep herders wanted their land. Some of those people then having their children taken away to join the ‘Stolen Generation’.
At this time Australia is fighting in Afghanistan helping to kill sheepherders that have the mistaken idea that their country belongs to them.
Considering these things I cannot understand why Australians are standing by mutely while the United States is steadily arming Communist China.
China is a non-market economy with an occupying army sitting in Tibet committing atrocities and carrying out genocide and using North Korea to threaten nuclear attack.
It is a repressive and aggressive society.
Even so the U.S. is allowing and encouraging General Electric to provide them with super-powerful gas turbines, jet engines (which can be adapted for use in rockets) and other advanced technology easily adapted to weaponry.
Does Australia have any national interest other than trying to defend the wool market from cave men in Afghanistan?
Isn’t a heavily armed Communist China being supported by an naïve President in the United States cause for even a little concern?

Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry

2011-01-21T19:05:00.001-08:00

I salute Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry.
First American slain in the undeclared Second War With Mexico.
It is a dishonor to the Border Patrol and all of the arms of the military serving the United States of America that one full month after this heinous and cowardly act on American soil that the prosecutors still have not taken the simple steps necessary to charge the murdering bandits that did this.
Because of the nature of this present undeclared war between the United States of America and the United Mexican states it seems that local prosecutors and other law enforcement agencies are either afraid or unwilling to carry out their sworn duties.
The idea that local law enforcement should not enforce immigration law and arrest criminals and assist the flood of refugees is more than distasteful to me. Here in Michigan local law enforcement routinely, brazenly and cowardly (if the two can co-exist) actually REFUSE to do their duty and defend this nation from attack.
In Arizona the disease is clearly illustrated by Santa Cruz County Sheriff Tony Estrada who is quoted as having said, “It's a cat and mouse game that we're playing here on a daily basis. The border is secure, but the border is not sealed, because you cannot seal the border. I don't care what party comes in, Republicans, Democrats, it'll be the same thing. They'll say they can secure the border, and when the time comes, they will find out that they cannot stop everything."
This is why the United States Army needs to return from Afghanistan and enter Mexico and destroy the evil and corrupt government that has grown up there.
Ex-President Fox has been touring the United States encouraging the legalization of drugs - I guess so his friends can overrun the United States the way they have destroyed Mexico.
War is not pretty but sometimes it is necessary.
It is necessary now.
Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry is a hero.
An American hero.

The United States of China-America

2011-01-19T18:55:00.001-08:00

I was born in the United States. I think of myself as ‘American’ - as unpopular as that might sound these days.
My passport says I am American.
I was schooled in the United States so maybe my geography teacher goofed.
I have been reading stories about Chinese-Americans, Italian-Americans, German-Americans, Irish-Americans, Latin-Americans and my favorite - Mexican-Americans.
I looked on the map and I can’t seem to find the United States of China-America. I figured if I could find the United States of Italy-America or the United States of German-America I could work my way around to the United States of Ireland-America but I haven’t been able to find any of them.
I tried several times to find the United States of Mexico-America but I always end up laughing too hard and my wife tells me to stop.
I believe one day that the United States of America and the United Mexican States will one day form a nation that is powerful to our enemies and strong and prosperous for all of its citizens.
At some point I expect to Canada to join us as well unless it is annexed by the Republic of India or the Republic of China.
The United States of America stretching from pole to pole. The United States of the Western Hemisphere. Peace and prosperity.
Ah, forget it. Fighting Cave Men in Afghanistan is the new American dream.
Welcome to the United States of whatever you want to call it.
Is this anyone’s nation anymore?

Karzai and Bloomberg

2011-01-19T18:54:00.001-08:00

I don’t think the United States Army belongs in Afghanistan.
I think the United States Army needs to clean out the Mexican government and make that country livable for the people there - so they don’t keep coming here causing instability.
Recently ‘Our Guy Karzai’ in Afghanistan announced that he was delaying the seating of Parliament because an illegal court he set up to investigate fraud had not been given information to them by the Afghanistan Election Commission.
He has arbitrarily decided to extend his stay as the sole power in Afghanistan even though the law says otherwise. He could have learned a lot from Mayor Michael Bloomberg who changed the law about term limits before he violated it.
One Western diplomat in Kabul (that’s the capital of Afghanistan) said, “Is a delay the endgame, or is it no Parliament for another year that’s the endgame, or is it a throw-out of the Parliament altogether?”
I’ll tell you what the game is in Afghanistan. The game is the ‘Get out of my country now game.’
It’s the ‘Don’t build anymore abortion clinics in my country game.’
It’s the ‘Your in debt to your eyeballs to the Communist Chinese and they are on our border game.’
It’s the ‘You invaded with the British to fight the people you armed to fight the Russians and now the British are drilling oil for the Russians game.’
Actually, it’s not a game. It’s a war.
It is Barack Husein Obama’s war.
So why continue?