io organic industrialism on 25/10/2008 at 19:04

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Actually no, I really think that.

:(

Stereoprismatic on 25/10/2008 at 21:24

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I just can't in all conscience vote for either of these guys.

-Their foreign policy is basically identical (check out Obama's AIPAC speech. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVLXqHgLSTM) Same warlike rhetoric that Bush and McCain use against Iran). The differences are cosmetic.

-Neither of their economic policies make any sense (McCain has even admitted that he knows next to nothing about economics, and Obama wants to add 800 billion to domestic spending - where's the money going to come from with our 10+trillion dollar debt? Probably from printing more dollars and bringing even more ruin to our economy)

-Neither of them seem to give any respect to the Constitution (McCain-Feingold, anyone? and Obama voted to re-authorize the Patriot Act in 2004, which allows federal agents to go into your home without a warrant, a product of the criminal Bush Administration).

-Neither one shows any real interest in scaling back the already-declining American Empire (700 bases in 130+ countries - we are the new Roman Empire - stretched too thin).

-Niether one has any interest in bringing real change to our fiat/counterfeit monetary system. Our dollars are based on nothing. Inflation is a tax. Check out lewrockwell.com or mises.org for the explanation.

I don't believe in the lesser of two evils bullshit. The left-right paradigm is a lie. Pull out of that trap while you still can.

metal dawn on 26/10/2008 at 00:43

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Netflix called; they really need you to return your Prison Planet DVDs.

Trance on 26/10/2008 at 13:44

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^

That article cites no sources to check facts with except for another sourceless article. The Barney Frank bit is true, I've known about that for a month. Everything else came up blank (from my own searching, feel free to provide sources that I missed). And basically all Orson did was repeat the article he linked and pile on a spiel about Obamarama. I'm sure there's an adage somewhere which says that if you count yourself as "the last honest reporter", you probably aren't.

For facts, I usually consult (http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/who_caused_the_economic_crisis.html) FactCheck.org, and I'm going with their version of the story. I've never believed that a few people or even a whole party is to blame for this financial crisis. Like the link says, to screw up the economy this badly "takes a great deal of cooperation".

Stereoprismatic on 26/10/2008 at 19:09

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So, what are your answers?

My answer would be a return to the rule of law and the Constitution. The reason we're in this economic crisis is not only because of stupid housing companies. Our entire financial system, as it exists today, is completely insolvent.

Read the Community Reinvestment Act: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_Reinvestment_Act)

All those bad loans that housing companies have been making for the last, oh, I guess 20 years? The government has been forcing many of these companies to loan to people they knew could never pay for those homes, in the name of "housing equity". They don't care to try to get homeless people in houses, these politicians just care about getting as many people into new houses as possible. It's this artificial wealth that has brought so much calamity to the system.

But even beyond that, our currency is printed by a small, private group of bankers, unaccountable to congress or the american people. The dollar has plunged in value 95% since 1913, when the Federal Reserve Act was passed. The Fed should not be the ones determining interest rates. When you have artificially low interest rates, people are going to make bad decisions regarding their loans. There's blame to be laid everywhere, but the central cause is our banking system. We didn't have a Great Depression until the Federal Reserve was created. Central Banking is destroying our economy, bit by bit. And thanks to the socialist Bailout legislation, we're definitely looking at a Depression hitting very soon. But it's going to be worse than the Great Depression was, because now the debt is astronomical, and it goes beyond our borders. If you add up everything, national debt, housing loans, credit loans, etc... it comes up to around 100 trillion that the US owes everybody else. If they left this housing thing alone, let the stupid wall streeters go bankrupt, the recession might last a year or so. People would suffer for that year. But the bailout bill has set it in that this problem will not go away for at least another decade. And they're risking the downfall of our currency.

Article 1, Section 10 of the Constitution enumerates that only Gold and Silver be used in payment of debts. The answer I have read of, and which makes much more sense to me than using filthy paper based on nothing but faith and a promise in men, is a privately-produced currency based on commodities like gold or silver. Free up competition, let the American People decide what currency works best for them.

Many Economists of the Austrian School ( (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austrian_economics) ) have been warning of the mess we're in for years. They have been right every time, whereas the mainstream "economists" of the Keynesian school focus on little facts and figures, all symptoms of the problem and never the root problem itself.

A very good start to understanding how Gold and Silver could work in a free-market economy is Murray Rothbard's "What Has Government Done with our Money?" Read it here for FREE: (http://mises.org/money.asp) http://mises.org/money.asp

Also, in order to understand the Federal Reserve and the stranglehold it has over our economy, check out these two videos:

Money, Banking, and the Federal Reserve:
(http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-466210540567002553&hl=en)

Fiat Empire:
(http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5232639329002339531&hl=en)

Starfall, I don't think these are superficial facts. They get to the root of the problem. If you can disprove any of this, I'd love to hear it, because everyone I've ever debated the Federal Reserve with has not been able to answer some simple questions about it:

Who owns it?

Who does it benefit?

Why did the richest families in the world have a hand in creating it?

Why do they determine interest rates?

Why are they propping up the banksters to "save" everybody when that's part of what got us into the Great Depression?

At the very least, the Fed should be auditied. Our currency should not be in the hands of a small elite group of people in ivory towers.