IT'S HAPPENING HERE!

Every American needs to purchase this DVD (since the film hasn't been shown in that many theaters--for obvious reasons); every American needs to watch this DVD multiple times; every American needs to show this DVD to his/her family members, friends, colleagues, and other associates. With last year's Real ID Act, the formation of the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (which will bring neither security nor prosperity for America's struggling middle class and working poor), bad Supreme Court decisions like Kelo, and this year's revelations about the North American Union in the works--and finally the Military Commissions Act of 2006--we probably have no more than four years to turn this tide back, and may have less than two years!

Here is Michael Revero's review of the film.

"America: Freedom to Fascism"

By Mike Rivero, WhatReallyHappened.com:

AMERICA: FREEDOM TO FASCISM

I finally received a DVD of the full length movie, and watched it last night.

The short review is that if Fahrenheit 9-11 won the "Palm D-Or", then AMERICA: FREEDOM TO FASCISM deserves the whole tree! This is the film that F/9-11 aspired to but failed to be.

Far from the extremist screed that its attackers portray it to be, "America" starts out as a genuinely objective search to find out the reality behind the claims of the Tax Honesty movement. In scene after scene, Aaron Russo tries to get the answer to one simple question; what is the law that requires American workers to pay income tax on their wages and salaries. At every turn, he is rebuffed by IRS officials, with one notable exception. Aaron did secure an interview with former IRS Commissioner Sheldon Cohen who makes the amazing statement that US Supreme Court rulings are irrelevant when it comes to interpretation and enforcement of the IRS code, and moreover chides Aaron for refusing to "believe" that he owes taxes. By this time, Aaron and the audience are convinced that the Tax Honesty people are onto something!

Numerous examples are given of cases against non-filers collapsing in court when the prosecutions are unable to produce the law they supposedly are in violation of. These are juxtaposed against successful prosecutions in which the judges clearly browbeat the juries into accepting at face value what the prosecutors claim. In one frightening case, a Federal Judge rules from the bench that the government is not under any legal obligation to show any laws it claims are being broken during a trial.

Russo them moves into the police state tactics used by the IRS in enforcement actions, detailing how accusation alone (in this case, false) can trigger the complete ruin of the victims' homes and businesses.

Having laid the foundation that the income tax on wages may be as big a hoax as Iraq's 'nookular' bombs, Russo takes his film into the reality of life in America, where far from the freedom we are told we enjoy, one must get the government's permission to do just about anything these days, while the government watches our every move. With the planned national ID card, things are likely to get worse.

This is a film that will probably give nightmares to those who have not been following the nation's devolution here on the internet for the last several years. The film is a convincer, and Russo has carefully laid out the path for his audience, who will be reluctant to see what Russo sees, to follow.

This is a movie you MUST see. This is a movie the government MUST keep you from seeing. Call your local theaters and ask when it will be showing. When enough people call, the film will be booked, because after all, in America, money rules all. - M. R.

Following Hurricane Katrina, government thugs entered New Orleans and seized all firearms, lawfully owned or not. Of course, this left law-abiding citizens defenseless against predators. But what was this all about? Was it about having a trial run, for the day when the Feds finally move nationwide against gunowners? The Second Amendment was placed in our Bill of Rights for a reason. It was not about the rights of hunters to shoot ducks. It was based on the realization that an armed citizenry is the best defense against tyrannical centralized government. Those who wish to seize power and rule by force rather than according to law, must therefore render those to be ruled over disarmed and helpless. That, I submit, is what this is all about. Read the following letter, from the president of the National Rifle Association.

Add to it the fact that under the Military Commissions Act of 2006, resisters can be labeled "unlawful enemy combatants," rounded up and thrown into a legal black hole, without any Constitutional protections.

It might be worthwhile to check this out as well:


Dear Fellow NRA Member,

I want you to visit NRA's new web site www.givethemback.com today. Please do it today, when you have a few minutes. This is important.

This site gives gun owners a stark and brutal reminder of why we must defend our firearm freedoms with passion and vigilance in Congress, in state legislatures, in the courts... AND ON ELECTION DAY.

This site makes it clear why gun owners can never, ever sit on the sidelines during an election. This site is a slap-in-the-face wake up call for every gun owner who thinks anti-gun politicians don't have the nerve or the will to confiscate our guns.

And why they must be defeated before they ever get their hands on power.

Take a long hard look at the section titled "Brutally Disarmed" on www.givethemback.com. You'll see unbelievable violence caught by Fox News when police entered the residence of sixty-year old, Patricia Konie, and demanded that she evacuate her home.

You'll see them body-slam this tiny woman into a wall-sending dishes flying-then confiscate her firearm and drag her from her home.

You never saw this footage and you never will see it on ABC, NBC or CBS. You never will see the photos or read about these crimes in The New York Times, The Washington Post or any of the major dailies.

The anti-gun media doesn't want you to see it because it will prove that everything they've been saying about how politicians and bureaucrats can be trusted to protect your Second Amendment rights IS A LIE.

Please help NRA guarantee that the first time guns were confiscated in New Orleans is the LAST time in America. Act now to get your DVD, Never Again! www.givethemback.com.

Patricia Konie is just one of hundreds of gun owners who felt the heavy hand of gun confiscation in New Orleans.

When Hurricane Katrina wrecked New Orleans, the local police chief unleashed a wave of gun confiscations with these chilling words. "No one will be able to be armed. We will take all weapons. Only law enforcement will be allowed to have guns. All firearms, lawfully owned or not, will be seized."

No words can express the horror of these gun owners at what the anti-gun politicians did to THEM. That's why we've built this web site. I urge you to go to it today...look at this shocking video footage compiled by NRA... Then forward the link to every gun owner you know.

For 25 years, hundreds of anti-gun politicians like Charles Schumer, Dianne Feinstein and Hillary Clinton have been telling me:

"Come on, Wayne, you're just trying to scare people. Nobody's
going to break down doors and take away guns from law-abiding
Americans. ...That will never happen."

Guess what. They did and we have it on videotape...Chilling proof that Katrina blew a gaping hole in Constitutional freedom that a convoy of confiscators will roll through until we roadblock them.

Because what happened in New Orleans can now happen anywhere in America.

Don't let anybody tell you this is the NRA attacking rank and file police. Nothing could be further from the truth. Rank and file police support NRA.

I met a lot of them down in New Orleans. They hated what they saw. They were horrified when they were ordered to confiscate citizens' firearms. Rank and file officers don't want political leaders to make them instruments of tyranny who disarm their fellow townsmen-townsmen who are their friends and families!

The law is the law, the Constitution is the Constitution. If ONE local mayor or police chief can decide what the Second Amendment means, it opens the door to tyranny-where ANY mayor or police chief can say what the Second Amendment means.

We can't allow this reckless disregard for law of our land to become standard operating procedure for any anti-gun government official.

Because you know as well as I do that it's only a matter of time before the next disaster hits. Then what do we do? Sit huddled in our pitch-black homes waiting to be terrorized at the hands of some armed-to-the-teeth thug?

In the days after Hurricane Katrina-right up to today-NRA has fought for the return of the confiscated firearms to their rightful and law-abiding owners.

Even though NRA secured a court order demanding their immediate and unconditional return, almost every single confiscated firearm remains locked in government trailers. Now, New Orleans gun owners are showing up at these trailers, with serial numbers of their firearms, expecting Nagin and his band of anti-gunners to respect the Federal courts.

They are met by stony-eyed bureaucrats who say serial numbers aren't enough- and that gun owners now need PROOF OF PURCHASE of these firearms.

How many of those gun owners do you think had original receipts for those firearms? And even if they did, how many do you think could find those receipts in the wreckage of a hurricane?





Please help NRA guarantee that the first time guns were confiscated in New Orleans is the LAST time in America. Act now to get your DVD, Never Again! www.givethemback.com.




Many of these firearms were passed down from father to son, generation to generation. Some are precious heirlooms. Some are collector's pieces won in our wars. Others are workaday hunting rifles or handguns used for self-defense. And they were all lawfully owned and they must be returned to their owners.

But the anti-gun officials who are behind the confiscations are laughing at the law and the courts.

That's why I need your help in putting an end to this bald-faced abuse of power. Can I count on you to Vote Freedom First this Election Day? Can I count on you to spread the word? And help NRA make the first time in New Orleans the last time in America?

I hope your answer is YES, because your NRA is fighting back and we need your help with our three-pronged battle plan...

1. With your help, we will file an injunction against Nagin that bars city
officials from destroying, keeping, selling or auctioning any of the
firearms in their possession.

2. With your help, we will demand that Nagin publish a list of confiscated
firearms and spend the money needed to locate firearm owners and return
every firearm. We will demand that Nagin spend as much money as he
did finding lost voters who moved to other states--voters he needed to win
re-election!

Last, and most important...

3. With your help, we will help file lawsuits on behalf of every victim of this
gun confiscation, so that Nagin, Compass and Riley pay civil AND financial
penalties for their illegal assaults on our freedoms.

The gloves are off and we will use every tool and tactic within our reach. We will shoot holes in every legal trick and stalling tactic. We will answer them blow for blow.

That's why I'm also asking you to make a special contribution help freedom-loving Americans win this critical battle for the future of our Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms.

Your contribution will help us send this crystal-clear message to every anti-gun mayor and police chief in America: If you trample our Constitution and seize guns from the law-abiding, you will pay a heavy price.

I'm making this request to friends who've pulled NRA through thick and thin. Friends who've come to NRA's rescue when freedom was on the line. I'm making this request of you because we don't have any time to waste. There won't be a second chance to win this fight.

This is the second Battle of New Orleans. And just like freedom-loving Americans did in 1814 when the British came to seize our guns and liberties, we will fight this battle to the bitter end.

You know as well as I do that it's only a matter of time before the next disaster hits. Whether it's a terrorist attack, earthquake, wildfire or bird flu-when government breaks down and the police are AWOL-the only thing that stands between you and injury, assault or death is your Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms.

With your help we're going to make the first time in New Orleans the LAST time in America.

Even though you didn't ask for it, this fight is your fight, too. And it's a fight you and I need to win together. Thanks for your help.

Wayne LaPierre
Executive Vice President
National Rifle Association

Is it still possible to criticize Executive Branch policies directly to members of the Executive Branch without facing arrest and possible jail time? With the Military Commissions Act of 2006, will such people as this Colorado man begin simply to disappear down a government-military black hole?

I say Executive Branch instead of Bush Administration because no one really thinks this problem will go away when Bush leaves office. If the problems are not addressed within the next couple of years does anyone realize what a quantum leap in dictatorship we might be looking at if by some chance Hillary Rodham Clinton is elected president in 2008?????

This has been sent to me by several individuals.

Man files suit over Cheney encounter

Golden resident was cuffed, jailed after comment to VP in Beaver Creek encounter
by Charlie Brennan, Rocky Mountain News

October 4, 2006

Steven Howards saw a news story one morning this summer reporting the latest casualty totals from Iraq, and a few hours later had the rare opportunity to voice his feelings to a man he considers directly responsible.

Doing so, Howards said, sent him to jail for allegedly harassing the vice president of the United States. And now he is responding with a federal lawsuit against the Secret Service agent who put him in handcuffs.

The suit filed Tuesday alleges that Howards was arrested in retaliation for having exercised his First Amendment right of free speech, and that his arrest also violated his Fourth Amendment protection against unlawful arrest.

Howards' lawyer, David Lane, said at a Tuesday press conference that he believes it's possible the case could land Vice President Dick Cheney on the stand as a witness in the case, or even be added as a defendant.

The lawsuit stems from a chance meeting on an outdoors mall in Beaver Creek on June 16, when Howards and his wife were walking their two sons to a piano camp.

They were surprised to see Cheney there, posing for pictures and shaking hands with members of the public.

"Many of us fantasize what would we do if we had the opportunity to really tell Mr. Bush or Mr. Cheney how we feel," said Howards, 54, of Golden.

"And to be honest, when I passed him, my initial thought was to keep walking. And then I said, I couldn't with a clear conscience let this opportunity pass."

So Howards approached the vice president and told him, " 'Your policies in Iraq are reprehensible.' And I moved on. I didn't want to give anybody any excuses to come after me."

But a few minutes later, according to Howards, he was walking back across the mall with his younger son, Jonah, then 8, when he was approached by an agent identified in the lawsuit as Virgil D. "Gus" Reichle Jr.

The agent, Howards said, "came out of the shadows and literally said, 'Did you assault the vice president?'

"If this had happened, I would think if they were doing their job, I would have been face-down in the concrete five or 10 minutes earlier," said Howards. "To me, this was just absolute, transparent harassment."

Howards denied touching Cheney, repeated for the agent what he had said to the vice president, and promptly found himself being handcuffed and taken to the Eagle County Jail, where he said he remained cuffed for three hours prior to being bailed out by his wife.

Howards' lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Denver and requesting unspecified damages and a jury trial, states that he was told by Reichle he would be charged federally with assaulting the vice president.

In fact, Howards was charged in state court with misdemeanor harassment, punishable by up to one year in jail. The harassment charge was then dismissed July 10 at the request of Eagle County District Attorney Mark Hurlbert.

Initially, Hurlbert said Tuesday, "We had information that . . . he had pushed the vice president. That was our original information."

"Later on, it appeared it was just essentially his disagreeing with the vice president's policies. That's not harassment."

Hurlbert said he has seen no information indicating that Howards' arrest came at Cheney's request or direction.

Lane said it's possible the agent's superiors, and those who trained him, could eventually join Reichle as defendants.

A Secret Service spokesman in Washington, D.C., declined comment on the suit. U.S. attorney's spokesman in Denver Jeff Dorschner said Reichle could elect to be defended either by the U.S. attorney's office or by a private attorney.

Reichle did not return a call left for him at his Denver office.

Howards is formerly the executive director of the Denver Metropolitan Air Quality Council. He currently works as a consultant to public and private sector organizations on environmental issues.

"This (lawsuit) is really about whether we in fact live in a free nation, whether we in fact still have the ability to speak freely in our opposition to government policies," Howards said.

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5040783,00.html

Of course, some (and to some extent I am among them) prefer the phrase North American Community, as if this was a difference that really made a difference. This is an ongoing process that has been going on for years, and only in the present decade begun really to accelerate. I've reproduced the Introduction; link to the Timeline itself is below. The Timeline is loaded with links. The documentation for this is simply overwhelming--so overwhelming that the temptation some doubtless feel to dismiss all this as "Internet conspiracy theory" is laughable.

Timeline of the Progress Toward a North American Union

Canadian, U.S., and Mexican elites, including CEOS and politicians, have a plan to create common North American policies and further integrate our economies. This plan goes by various names and euphemisms, such as "deep integration", "NAFTA-plus", "harmonization", the "Big Idea", the "Grand Bargain", and the "North American Security and Prosperity Initiative". Regardless of which name your prefer, the end goal of all of these plans is to create a new political and economic entity that would supercede the existing countries. Advocates refer to it as a "North American Community", but it is also known as the North American Union (NAU). Theoretically, it would be similar to and competetive with the European Union (EU). The individual currencies of each country would be replaced by a common currency called the "Amero" and everything from environmental regulations to security would be brought in line with a common standard.

Vive le Canada.ca offers the following timeline as a resource to educate the general public about the progress of the three countries toward a new North American Union (NAU).

Vive le Canada.ca opposes the creation of the North American Union (NAU) because we believe it will mean the loss of Canadian sovereignty and democracy and hand over more power to giant, unelected corporations. We also believe that unlike the EU, the countries joining the NAU are not roughly equal in size and power and that this means the U.S. will most certainly be setting policy for all three countries. Considering the unpopularity of the Bush administration and its policies in the U.S., Canada, and around the world we believe that erasing the borders between our countries and adopting U.S. policies at this time is a bad idea and will create economic, political and military insecurity in this country. We hope that raising awareness about the plan to create a North American Union (NAU) will create opposition and encourage debate in all three countries, but especially in Canada.

Read the Timeline here.

Probably because of who controls the neocon establishment that really controls the country just now, of who controls the banks that in turn control the flow of most of the money supply, and who is the primary motive force behind the gathering New World Order.

Have you heard . . .
You probably haven't. After all . . .

Almost no one bothered to report it. A search of the nation's largest newspapers turned up nothing in USA Today, the Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Chicago Sun-Times, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, San Francisco Chronicle, Seattle Times, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Houston Chronicle, Tampa Tribune, etc.

There was nothing on CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN, PBS, NPR, Fox News.

Nothing.

The LA Times, the Washington Post, the New York Times, and Associated Press each had one sentence, at most, telling about her. All three left out the details, the LA Times had her age significantly off, and the Washington Post reported that she had been killed by an Israeli tank shell.

It hadn't been a tank shell that had kille[d] her, according to witnesses. It had been bullets, multiple ones, fired up close.

Neighbors report that Israeli soldiers had been beating her husband because he wasn't answering their questions. Foolishly or valiantly, how is one to say, the 35-year-old woman had interfered. She tried to explain that her husband was deaf, screamed at the soldiers that her husband couldn't hear them and attempted to stop them from hitting him. So they shot her. Several times.

Her name was Itemad Ismail Abu Mo'ammar.

She didn't die, though. That took longer. It required her life to flow out of her in the form of blood for several hours, as Israeli soldiers refused to allow an ambulance to transport her to help. Her husband and children could do nothing to save her.

Finally, after approximately five hours, an ambulance was allowed to take her to a hospital, where physicians were able to render one service: pronounce her dead, a few days before the commencement of Ramadan, a season of family gatherings much like the Christmas season for Americans. She left 11 children. None of this was in the Washington Post story, which had reported her death in one half of one sentence.
Her husband's brother, who lived in the same house, was also killed. He was a 28-year-old farmer.

Why did this all happen? The family lived behind a resistance fighter wanted by Israel. They were simply "collateral damage" in a failed Israeli assassination/ kidnapping operation.

All together, five Palestinians were killed that day. The other three were young shepherds killed in another area, two 15 years old and one 14, who seem to have simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time. Gaza.

None of this was reported in most of America's news media, and so the American public never learned about a mother bleeding to death in front of her children, or young shepherds being blown to pieces.

Apparently, it just wasn't newsworthy.

Of course, THEY are the ones who decide what's newsworthy and what is NOT.

If your mother dies because she was shot several times and left to bleed to death before your eyes because she was trying to protect your deaf father from bloodthirsty soldiers, will "the media" report it?

That depends - on whether she was human and whether it was newsworthy.

And of course, THEY get to decide.

Make no mistake - it's just a matter of time before those who treat other human beings like they did this woman do the same to US.

Whenever the actual effects of the 1990s-2000s cult of "diversity" are studied, we get results indicating that it is destructive rather than beneficial. "Diversity" is just the more recent term for the less and less popular cult of multiculturalism (the idiotic notion that "all cultures are equal") protected by political correctness (thought control). Ultimately these contemporary myths tie back into affirmative action programs, those ghastly cultural wrecking balls dating from the 1960s and 1970s that ended up discriminating in reverse against white men, provoking more racial/ethnic and gender hostility than they solved, thus creating the need for the strategy of protection provided by political correctness. With that in place, the affirmative action mindset ("proportional representation," meaning favoritism towards the "underrepresented") soon evolved into multiculturalism and the cult of "diversity" which now controls academia.

With our country being invaded by Mexicans, and the open borders mindset placing us at risk of eventual genuine terrorist attacks on U.S. soil, one wonders how long it will take before Americans actually rise up and resist the cult of "diversity"--as oppose to waiting on college professors to produce "studies" providing data to "prove" what ought to have been common sense.

Harvard study paints bleak picture of ethnic diversity

Financial Times
All Financial Times News
October 8, 2006

A bleak picture of the corrosive effects of ethnic diversity has been revealed in research by Harvard University's Robert Putnam, one of the world's most influential political scientists.

His research shows that the more diverse a community is, the less likely its inhabitants are to trust anyone – from their next-door neighbour to the mayor.

This is a contentious finding in the current climate of concern about the benefits of immigration. Professor Putnam told the Financial Times he had delayed publishing his research until he could develop proposals to compensate for the negative effects of diversity, saying it "would have been irresponsible to publish without that".

The core message of the research was that, "in the presence of diversity, we hunker down", he said. "We act like turtles. The effect of diversity is worse than had been imagined. And it's not just that we don't trust people who are not like us. In diverse communities, we don't trust people who do look like us."

Prof Putnam found trust was lowest in Los Angeles, "the most diverse human habitation in human history", but his findings also held for rural South Dakota, where "diversity means inviting Swedes to a Norwegians' picnic".

When the data were adjusted for class, income and other factors, they showed that the more people of different races lived in the same community, the greater the loss of trust. "They don't trust the local mayor, they don't trust the local paper, they don't trust other people and they don't trust institutions," said Prof Putnam. "The only thing there's more of is protest marches and TV watching."

British Home Office research has pointed in the same direction and Prof Putnam, now working with social scientists at Manchester University, said other European countries would be likely to have similar trends.

His 2000 book, Bowling Alone, on the increasing atomisation of contemporary society, made him an academic celebrity. Though some scholars questioned how well its findings applied outside the US, policymakers were impressed and he was invited to speak at Camp David, Downing Street and Buckingham Palace.

Prof Putnam stressed, however, that immigration materially benefited both the "importing" and "exporting" societies, and that trends "have been socially constructed, and can be socially reconstructed".

In an oblique criticism of Jack Straw, leader of the House of Commons, who revealed last week he prefers Muslim women not to wear a full veil, Prof Putnam said: "What we shouldn't do is to say that they [immigrants] should be more like us. We should construct a new us."

Copyright 2006 Financial Times

This, from the latest International Forecaster (dated Saturday, October 7, 2006). Contact information: P. O. Box 510518, Punta Gorda, FL 33951-0518. An international financial, economic, political and social commentary. Published and Edited by: Bob Chapman E-mail Address International_forecaster@yahoo.com
www.theinternationalforecaster.com


The economy healthy because the Dow hit a new high last week? Don't bet on it! Continue buying gold and silver if you are doing so. Thanks to Cal S. for this.

U.S. MARKETS

We just happened to catch a Wednesday mid-morning CNBC flash. The Dow is making new highs quickly followed by a dissertation as to why gold is falling.

Finally more financial market participants are realizing that our government and its agents are intervening in our markets. The chief investment strategist for Raymond James cited as we did in an earlier issue that the change in the gasoline component of the Goldman Sachs Commodity Index and the massive selling this caused in gasoline futures, was responsible in part for the collapse in gasoline prices. They speculated as we did that this had something to do with the coming elections and the Republicans desire to have lower gasoline prices before voters go to the polls. Raymond James was correct, it is just that they were three weeks late. Another reference that lends credence to our and their synopsis is that the DOE has delayed the purchase of oil to fill the Strategic Petroleum Reserve until at least after the winter heating season.

The new high on the Dow is a total scam. While the Dow hit a new high this week, not a single component stock did. Seventy percent of the components are 20% or more. How can this be?

Only seven stocks made their new high in 2006, and of these only three of them are within 5% of their new high today, Wednesday, with 21% of the 30 Dow stocks, or 70%, down 20% or more.

Using the BLS’s inflation statistics, it would take a Dow of 13,817 to equal the Dow high of 11,750 of 2000. Inversely 11,754 is equal to 9,995 in 2000.

If you calculate the Dow using gold, the Dow is 5,100. Using an average gold price of $275.00 in 2000 and today’s price of $580, we have a 52.5% drop equivalent to Dow 5,000. Why is the Dow supposedly hitting new highs in October, when it is almost always the worst month? It’s the election of course. That is why gold was off $40 in two days.

The latest hedge fund to stumble is Vega Asset Management. It has $3 billion in assets and is off 75% in two years. 1,071 hedge funds have shut down in the past two years. They, like others, have made concentrated bets that have backfired. Vega two years ago managed $12 billion - that is now $6 billion.

A number of hedge funds are in trouble and for those of you who have not studied history, these same kind of investment pools were significant pools in part responsible for the collapses in 1929 and 1932. That is why they were outlawed and why banks were banned from having brokerage firms. That, of course, has changed again. A consolidation in hedge funds is about to take place and once the market collapses again, they will be outlawed again. Yes, in almost two years 2,622 new hedge funds have been launched. Once the market begins its decent the world had best run for cover.

Whirlpool announced it will fire 1,200 workers in Arkansas and Indiana and shift production to Mexico. Let’s hear it again for free trade and globalization.

The latest statistics show us that consumers depended on new debt for 88% of their cash flow during 2005. 2006 should run about the same. Historical usage has been 45% of cash flow. As home equity declines the consumer has two choices – either cut back on credit, borrowing, and spending, or increase debt to continue spending somewhere near current levels. We do not know as yet which way they will go, but we will find out over the next six months.

As you know we believe the economy topped out in the first quarter and if consumer direction is not changed the final quarter of 2006 could well be a negative one. M2 hasn’t changed since June and our estimated M3 in August was somewhat lower. We will have new figures in another week. We won’t know until early to mid-November where we are really headed, if then.

We wonder why politicians take trips and gratuities, which are legal, and then deliberately don’t report them? We ask how Oregon Speaker Karen Minnis can forget to file her $4,000-trip to Israel last year, paid for by the Portland Jewish Federation. It just isn’t Minnis – its scores of politicians that conveniently forget to report legal payoffs they received usually from lobbyists or specialized groups. Why hide them? The practice is so widespread that we believe those taking the trips are ashamed of what they are doing.

Jack Abramoff was told on 3/18/02 by Karl Rove that there was an up coming war with Iraq.

New orders at factories were unchanged in August. If transportation was stripped out they fell 0.7%. Transport orders rose 4%. Excluding defense overall orders fell 0.2%.
The ISM service index fell to 52.9% from 57 in August. Their measure of prices declined to 56.7 from 72.4, the biggest slide since the survey began in 1997.

The State of Ohio will use RFID chips to track all of its 44,000 prison inmates. The $415,000 contract went to Alanco Technologies. Inmates will wear “wristwatch-size” transmitters that can detect if prisoners have been trying to remove them and send an alert to prison computers. Staff will also wear the technology on their belts so they can be tracked for security purposes. Wardens can activate an alarm themselves, but the alert will also be sent if the transmitter is forcibly removed or the warden is knocked down. Facilities in Michigan, California and Illinois already employ the technology and evidentially three more states are ready to sign up.

The Bush administration has had another disastrous foreign policy debacle. Paraguay has refused diplomatic immunity for US troops and will not renew its military cooperation pact. Another factor was that European and Asian nations helped with road, hospital, school and infrastructure projects, which the US had no interest in doing. Their attitude was it is our way or the highway. The Mercosur bloc, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Venezuela have completely outflanked the US. Eventually South American countries will all be in Mercosur, they want to make their own mistakes and run their own lives.

Democrats held leads in races for 11 of 15 key Republican-held House seats as the Speaker is being pressured to resign over the Mark Foley child molestation-pedophile scandal. Remember, do not vote for an incumbent unless he has voted the way you wanted him to at least 80% of the time.

Mortgage applications rose by the most since June 2005 as borrowing costs hit an 8-month low. The MBA Index of applications for both purchase and refi loans rose 11.9%, the second highest level this year. Refinancing surged 17.5% and home purchases 7.6% last week. The average rate on the 30-year fixed rate mortgage was 6.24%, up from 6.18%. Applications y-o-y fell 29%. Purchase apps fell 24% y-o-y.

Prices of existing homes fell in August for the first time in 11 years. The y-o-y median price of new homes fell in August as well. Inventories of new homes were the highest in more than 13 years. Housing starts fell 6% despite more than 50% of builders giving rebates.

Teddy Roosevelt once wrote, “Speak softly and carry a big stick ˆ you will go far.” Had Roosevelt been speaking at a recent Federal Reserve luncheon, rather than addressing the public at the opening of the Minnesota State Fair in 1901, he might have chosen to write, “speak loudly and carry a little stick ˆ you will have discovered economic spin.” Along those lines, the Fed continues to speak loudly against the evils of money creation and inflation. Unfortunately, total bank credit and money creation (estimated M3) continue to increase 8 and 8.5% year-over-year, respectively. Not only has the Fed mastered the art of speaking loudly, they do so without the need to carry stick. Just like the calculation of M3, sticks can be very expensive.

With the help of little in the way of wage increases until this year corporate profits have grown at a double digit rate for 17 consecutive quarters, which with offshoring and outsourcing have offset higher interest rates and energy prices. Wall Street looks forward to more of the same in 2007 with S&P 500 earnings of 12.9%.

Not so fast, wages are now increasing at a 5% rate, the cost of doing business overseas is rising and a housing slowdown has already affected consumer spending. It could be that lessening of the wealth affect and a consumer cutback in spending could take earnings down to 4 or 5 percent. This is what happens when wage gains are double productivity gains. Six years of labor exploitation are over. The era of the home being an ATM machine is nearing an end as well. Household savings are still -.5%. We do not see improvement in exports even if the dollar falls. All we have left for export is services and their costs are increasing, making them less competitive. In spite of what Wall Street thinks, 2007 will be a year of declining profits.

Nearly three years after hearing arguments in the case, a federal judge has ruled that the ACLU challenge to the constitutionality of the USA Patriot Act may proceed. The ACLU contends Section 215 of the Act, which allows the FBI access to any tangible things, such as books and documents through an order from a secret court, does not require investigators to show probable cause. The ACLU wants the judge to declare Section 215 unconstitutional, and block the Justice Department from using that part of the Act.

Sen. Joe Lieberman, the Democratic Senator from Connecticut running for reelection, as an Independent, says the party leadership has assured him he would keep his seniority if he returns to Congress. Local Democrats are responding in disbelief and Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) denies making a decision. Reid is a disgrace to even consider such a thing and Lieberman is a liar.

A study of 70 top CEO’s says most believe the economy will deteriorate over the next six months. 45.6% see problems and 41.2% see improvement.

House prices in metropolitan areas in Las Vegas and Washington may decline by more than 10% in the months ahead as borrowing costs increase. The slump may last into 2009.

On 9/21/06 Homeland Security announced Boeing has won a $2.5 billion contract to install sensors and radar along the US border. We’ve been told the sensors won’t work. When Chertoff was asked why Boeing was chosen, he refused to answer. The reason is the Boeing team includes an Israeli military contractor, which will play a lead role. It is called Kollsman, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Elbit Systems of Haifa, Israel. They will man 1,800 towers on the borders with cameras developed to spot people nine miles away.

The AP/IPSOS Poll found abut 50% of likely voters say recent disclosures of corruption and scandal in Congress will be very or extremely important when they cast their votes.

Our contacts tell us the US is training Sunni militias in Iraq that will eventually add to the chaos in that mutilated land. Our occupation forces now back both Shia and Sunni militias in different areas of the country. What can these people be thinking of?

The AP/IPSOS Poll also showed Bush’s handling of the war was 37% down from 41% last month and his handling of foreign policy and terrorism fell from 47% to 43%.

Apple Computer got caught backdating options and CEO Steve Jobs knew all about it. Corporate corruption marches on.

Freddie Mac says refinancing activity jumped 18% last week, accounting for 46.7% of total applications for the week and up 17.5% from the previous week. The 30-year fixed rate mortgage was 6.30%, down from 6.31%. The 15’s were 5.98%, unchanged and the one-year ARM averaged 5.46%, down from 5.47%.

The Monster Employment Index fell to 172 in September from a record 173 in August.

First time claims for jobless benefits fell 17,000 to 302,000 for the week ended 9/30. The four-week moving average fell to 313,500 from 316,250. Those collecting state unemployment benefits rose to 2.448 million from 2.433 million.

Service industries grew at the slowest pace in more than three years in August as the ISM Index of non-manufacturing businesses fell to 52.9 from 57. This includes banking, retailing and construction that account for almost 90% of GDP. This is the biggest fall since the survey began in 1997. There is little doubt as we predicted that the economy is slowing.

The MBA Index of applications rose 11.9%. Refi’s surged 17.5% and home purchases 7.6%. They saw the 30-year fixed rate mortgage at 6.24% versus 6.18% in the prior week. Year-on-year apps fell 29%. The purchase index fell 24% y-o-y. The y-o-y median price also fell in August, the first drop since 2003. Inventories are at record levels.

It was not a good week for the economy, despite the higher stock market. Our Fed Chairman finally has admitted housing is in a substantial correction. That is in spite of his having stopped raising interest rates and continuing to raise money and credit by more than 10%. The service industry and manufacturing industries are in the worst slump in three years and the job situation deteriorates.

Prosecutors in California have filed criminal charges against former Hewlett-Packard Chairwomen Patricia Dunn, and four others implicated in a corporate spying campaign, including a private investigator. Pretexting was part of the charges or lying to obtain the personal phone records and other data about company directors. They are accused of using false or fraudulent grounds to obtain confidential information from a public utility, unauthorized access to computer data, identity theft, and conspiracy. Corporate America continues to wallow in crime.

Sen. John McCain manages both the anti-Bush group within the party as he enables Bush to accomplish all his goals. He in great part was responsible for the torture bill and the warrantless spy bill. After challenging the bills both were passed in almost their original form. A scam pure and simple. The bills presently won’t stand up to the Supreme Court, but as we mentioned before, one more change in the court and they will uphold Bush’s tyrannical rule. Just pray that doesn’t happen. McCain votes 90% of the time as an ordinary right-wing conservative, and when push comes to shove, he gives the corporatist fascists what they want. He has even made overtures to the religious right. McCain is a dangerous phony who wants the presidency at any cost.

Gas prices have fallen, on average, almost a full dollar per gallon over the past six weeks or so. How serendipidous, right before an election now less than a month away. The question in many people's minds: is someone at the very top of the economic hierarchy in this society manipulating the market in an effort to ensure that the Republicans retain control of Congress--a control jeopardized by this country's involvement in two increasingly unpopular foreign wars and mounting unease over domestic police-state legislation at home? If the superelite wants Republicans in control, it is probably because they can be counted on to take this country into globalist socialism far more smoothly than the Democrats, who always get tied up in disruptive shenannigans (witness the Clinton era--although the Mark Foley debacle proves that Republicans are hardly free of this sort of thing).

Here is one very interesting theory about what might be happening. Before turning this one loose, I should note that Goldman Sachs is part of the vast Rothschild-controlled global network. Having researched the House of Rothschild for the past year, there is no doubt in my mind that this is possible.

Gasoline Price Manipulation Before the Elections

by Peter Stojan

http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig7/stojan1.html


Is Goldman Sachs manipulating the gasoline futures market to push prices down before the November elections?

It sure looks that way.

An article appeared this Saturday in the New York Times pointing to some unusual trading by Goldman Sachs in the gasoline futures market. As Raymond Keller, who spotted the article, points out, "They always hide the good stuff in the low circulation Saturday edition."

What’s Goldman doing?

Here’s how the Times reports it:

Politics and worries about oil supplies may have caused gasoline prices to go up at the pump earlier this year, but one big investment bank quietly helped their rapid drop in recent weeks, according to some economists, traders and analysts.

Goldman Sachs, which runs the largest commodity index, the G.S.C.I., said in early August that it was reducing the index’s weighting in gasoline futures significantly. The announcement did not make big headlines, but it has reverberated through the markets in the weeks since and some other investors who had been betting that gasoline would rise followed suit on their weightings.

"They started unwinding their positions, and those other longs also rushed to the door at the same time," said Lawrence J. Goldstein, president of the Petroleum Industry Research Foundation. The August announcement by Goldman Sachs caught some traders by surprise. The firm said in early June that it planned to roll its positions in the harbor contract into another futures contract, the reformulated gasoline blendstock, which is replacing the harbor contract at the end of the year because of changes to laws about gasoline additives. Later in June, Goldman said it had rolled a third of its gasoline holdings into the reformulated contracts but would make further announcements as to whether the remainder would be rolled over. Then in August, the bank said it would not roll over any more positions into gasoline and would redistribute the weighting into other petroleum products...

Some traders speculated that Goldman might have been concerned about the liquidity of the reformulated contract and whether other traders would embrace it because there were so few contracts outstanding. The open interest, or number of futures contracts taken out, has increased ninefold in the reformulated contract since then.

Unleaded gasoline made up 8.72 percent of Goldman’s commodity index as of June 30, but it is just 2.3 percent now, representing a sell-off of more than $6 billion in futures contract weighting.

A sell-off of more than $6 billion in gasoline futures contracts? Let’s put it this way, a $6 billion trade is not decided on at the lower levels of the firm.

Keller provides some insight into the curious timing of this trade:

President George W. Bush nominated Henry M. Paulson, Jr. to be the 74th Secretary of the Treasury on June 19, 2006. The United States Senate unanimously confirmed Paulson to the position on June 28, 2006 and he was sworn into office on July 10, 2006. Before coming to Treasury, Paulson was Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Goldman Sachs. So what does Goldman do just weeks after Paulson is sworn in as Treasury Secretary? It announces a subtle move that drives down gasoline prices, short-term. Nice move, coming just months before the election.

Now it may be hard to swallow for some that market manipulations go on, but they do at all levels. Penny stock promoters cook up their schemes, and power players have their schemes. In traders jargon, it’s called painting the tape. Indeed, the Washington Post has revealed that the government has formed something that is casually known as the Plunge Protection Team. PPT is supposed to jump in and buy stocks when things are unruly. Ronald Reagan formed the PPT when he signed Executive Order 12631. It’s just another way of painting the tape (Using your tax money, or newly printed Federal Reserve dollars, of course). Goldman is a member of the secretive PPT.

But some just don't believe these kinds of manipulations go on. I have had some email discussions in recent days with some pretty sophisticated economists who don’t believe Goldman has manipulated the gasoline market. Their argument goes: "I will continue to be an economist and look at the supply and demand issues."

My reply has been, Goldman Sachs understands supply and demand – and they also understand trading. When you sell-off $6 billion in gasoline futures contracts, you are going to have an impact – as the New York Times story correctly pointed out. That is an awful lot of supply. Further, this type of aggressive selling will result in selling by others who will receive margin calls they can’t meet. And by trend followers, who will suddenly dump gasoline and other commodities. This is, indeed, exactly what is happening. Goldman Sachs didn’t get to be Goldman by not understanding this stuff. Supply and demand can explain this manipulation completely.

My email correspondents also raise a few other points.

They ask, "Why would Goldman Sachs trade this way and lose money?" The answer here is that Goldman doesn’t lose money. This is a managed commodity index. Goldman manages the index, but the actual money put up comes from institutions, hedge funds and other unlucky saps that trusted Goldman to manage the commodity index as a hedge against inflation – not to bail out of $6 billion in contracts over a few weeks. The result: Unlucky saps – Major losses. Goldman – Zero losses and their man running the Treasury. Which side of this trade would you want to be on?

But, my email correspondents continue on with one more charge: "Are you trying to tell me that refiners are trying to deplete their inventories and leave themselves with real supply problems in the future? That does not make sense to me." In fact, depleting inventories is exactly what refiners would do. If the price of gasoline is plunging in the futures market, they are going to push out the door as much inventory as they can, to make room for the new cheap gasoline they can buy up on the futures market.

Bottom line, Goldman had to know they were going to plunge gasoline prices short-term with this type of trading. This smells to me like a Paulson operation all the way. He is the ultimate behind the scenes operator if there ever was one, and future biographies of him are very likely to note such.

October 7, 2006

Peter Stojan [send him mail] has traded commodities full time for over twenty years.

Copyright © 2006 LewRockwell.com

A brawl erupted yesterday when leftists disrupted a campus appearance by Minutemen founder Jim Gilchrist. Note the reference to "free speech" by one of the protesters. Free speech for us, but not for you. That's the totalitarian mindset of political correctness speaking, which is very much aligned with the open borders / dissolve the borders movement, and explains further why, if that movement succeeds, it will be the end of whatever is left of genuine freedom in the U.S.

Protestors Rush Minutemen
Gilchrist's Speech Cut Short by Ensuing Brawl
By Laura Brunts
Columbia Daily Spectator
Issue date: 10/5/06 Section: News




Protestors took the stage minutes after Jim Gilchrist, founder of the Minuteman Project, came to the microphone in Roone Arledge Auditorium Wednesday night, sparking a chaotic brawl involving more than 20 students, other attendees, and guests.

Two students in the International Socialist Organization unfurled a yellow banner reading, "No human being is illegal!" which prompted other protestors to rush the stage. Gilchrist supporters then clamored on stage while the speakers were ushered out of the auditorium.

"We were aware that there was going to be a sign and we were going to occupy the stage," said a protestor who was on stage and asked to remain anonymous. "I don't feel like we need to apologize or anything. It was fundamentally a part of free speech. ... The Minutemen are not a legitimate part of the debate on immigration."

Read the rest here.

Watch a video here.

New article on NewsWithViews.com here. I should note that this is the lengthened version of an article originally done for the local (Greenville-based) Times Examiner. Here's a fragment:

QUIETLY, QUIETLY BUILDING THE NORTH AMERICAN UNION

By Steven Yates
October 5, 2006
NewsWithViews.com

Just when you thought it might be safe to go on to topics other than regional integration and trade practices driven by the love of money and the lust for power, you get blindsided again.

While ordinary Americans were reflecting on the fifth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, globalists of Canada, the U.S. and Mexico were making their way quietly, quietly, to Banff, Alberta for the North American Forum held at the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel Sept. 12–14. The meeting was closed-doors. According to some reports buses with attendees were arriving at night. There was no print media coverage in the U.S. and very little in Canada; I was able to download an article from the Toronto-based Star. Those who do not get their news from the Internet remain in the dark about one of the biggest unfolding events of the present decade: the globalist social engineering of a North American Union.

WorldNetDaily was able to obtain materials marked Internal Document, Not For Public Release. The whistleblower, Mel Hurtig, noted Canadian author, publisher, and leader of the National Party of Canada, told WorldNetDaily that the “secret meeting was designed to undermine the democratic process…. It was clear that the intention was to keep this important meeting about integrating the three countries out of the public eye.”

Representing the U.S. in Banff was Former U.S. Secretary of State George Schulz. Representing Mexico was Former Mexican Finance Minister Pedro Aspe. Representing Canada was Former Premier of Alberta, Peter Lougheed. The first session featured opening comments by each. The sessions that followed had names like, “A Vision for North America: Issues and Options,” “Toward a North American Energy Strategy,” “Demographic and Social Dimensions of North American Integration,” and “Border Infrastructure and Continental Prosperity.”

The event was co-hosted by the Canadian Council of Chief Executives, the business wing of Canada’s superelite, and the Canada West Foundation, a “think tank” that has been promoting regional integration.

Prominent on the panel of the “Vision for North America” session was none other than Robert Pastor, who might go down in history as the Father of the North American Union. Paster is the author of Toward A North American Community (2001) published by the globalist Institute for International Economics. He chairs the Council on Foreign Relations’ Task Force on North America and served as lead author of the CFR’s Building a North American Community (May 2005). Among other things, this document proposes a North American “security perimeter” around all three nations by 2010. It was this that inspired CNN commentator Lou Dobbs to wonder, last summer, if our elites “had gone mad.”

Providing the keynote address at the Banff confab was our very own Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense, U.S. Department of Defense. Rummy’s speech was entitled, “Opportunities for Security Cooperation in North America: Military-to-Military Cooperation.”

When the powerful begin reading papers on “cooperation” between the military hierarchies of three nations, are there really grounds for doubt that we are looking at compromises of U.S. sovereignty and possibly security on an unprecedented scale? Currently there is a North American Cooperative Security Act, sponsored also in 2005 and languishing in committee, but doubtless far from dead. The plan here is to integrate Mexican and Canadian security forces into the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

The terms security and prosperity were bandied about freely. This, of course, ties the North American Forum—actually the second (the first, at Sonoma, Calif. in October 2005 was also held in maximum secrecy)—to the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP), now housed in the NAFTA office of the U.S. Department of Commerce where it has received the full backing of our Secretary of Commerce Carlos M. Gutierrez.

The watchword, however, was deep integration ....

To read the rest, go here.

Now this, courtesy of Ken Porter of Spartanburg, S.C. I get more convinced everyday that those who rationalize the invasion/colonization of the United States by illegal aliens with abstract economic arguments like, "They do the jobs Americans won't do," are just idiots who have spent too much time either in the ivory tower or the antiseptic think tank office or the upper echelon corporate boards. They have no idea what is going on in the real world.

THE COST OF TOMATOES & MAIDS & GARDENERS

From an American school teacher - - -

"As you listen to the news about the student protests over illegal immigration there are some things that you should be aware of:

I am in charge of the English-as-a-second-language department at a large southern California high school which is designated a Title 1 school, meaning that its students average lower in socio-economic and income levels.

Most of the schools you are hearing about-South Gate High, Bell Gardens, Huntington Park, etc.-where these students are protesting, are also Title 1 schools.

One hundred percent of the students in this school and other Title 1 schools are on the free breakfast and free lunch program. When I say free breakfast I'm not talking a glass of milk and roll --but a full breakfast and cereal bar with fruits and juices that would make a Marriott proud.

The waste of this food is monumental, with trays and trays of it being dumped in the trash uneaten. (OUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK)

I estimate that well over 50% of these students are obese or at least moderately overweight. About 75% or more DO have cell phones.

The school also provides day care centers for the unwed teenage pregnant girls (some as young as 13) so they can attend class without the inconvenience of having to arrange for babysitters or having family watch their kids. (OUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK)

I was ordered to spend $700,000 on my department or risk losing funding for the upcoming year even though there was little need for anything; my budget was already substantial.

I ended up buying new computers for the computer learning center; half of which, one month later, have been carved with graffiti by the appreciative students who obviously feel humbled and grateful to have a free education in America. (OUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK)

I have had to intervene several times for young and substitute teachers whose classes consist of many illegal immigrant students here in the country less then 3 months who raised so much hell with the female teachers, calling them "Putas"(whores) and throwing things that the teachers were in tears.

Free medical, free education, free food, day care, etc., etc., etc. Is it any wonder they feel entitled to not only be in this country but to demand rights, privileges and entitlements?

To my bleeding-heart friends who want to point out how much these illegal immigrants contribute to our society because they LIKE their gardener and housekeeper and they like to pay less for tomatoes: Spend some time in the real world of illegal immigration and see the TRUE costs.

Higher insurance, Medical facilities closing, higher medical costs, more crime, lower standards of education in our schools, overcrowding, new diseases, etc., etc., etc. As for me, I'd be glad to pay more for my tomatoes.

We need to wake up. The guest worker program will be a disaster because we won't have the guts to enforce it.

Does anyone in their right mind really think they (the illegal immigrants) will voluntarily leave and return?

There are many hardworking Hispanic/American citizens that contribute to our country and many that I consider my true friends. We should encourage and accept those Hispanics who have done it the right and legal way.

It does, however, have everything to do with culture: A third-world culture that does not value education, that accepts children getting pregnant and dropping out of school by 15 and that refuses to assimilate, and an American culture that has become so weak and worried about "politically correct" that we don't have the will to do anything about it.

If this makes your blood boil, as it did mine, forward this to everyone you know."

This email was cleaned by emailStripper, available for free from http://www.papercut.biz/emailStripper.htm

Holy smoke! If this doesn't say it all.... After the latest draconian legislative Act was supported 100-0 in the Senate (last Friday) even though it turns U.S. citizens into potential "enemy combatants" at the will of the President, we should be hearing a few alarm bells, although as usual, the American sheeple remain blind, deaf and dumb--still more interested in sports than anything else.

Weighing the available evidence, you decide.

America the Tyranny
Manuel Valenzuela, thepeoplesvoice.org



October 3, 2006

The Road to Authoritarianism

Behold and bear witness to what has become of America, in this era of uncertainty and bewilderment, in this time of fear and intimidation, that since towers were brought down and demolished has methodically fallen into the viper pit of neocon decadence, becoming, as it stands today, an authoritarian’s heaven and a corporatist’s promised land, its people ignorant, as always, to the barrage of waves systemically eroding centuries of rights, freedoms and liberties. From sea to shining sea, despotism is what today those who pay attention see.


The road to fascism is being paved at a clandestine yet alarming velocity, across valleys, prairies and forests, surrounding cites, towns and states, from Atlantic to Pacific, immersing 300 million individuals into a fog of engendered tyranny, who without a care or whisper or concern remain trapped by comfortable surroundings born through perpetual indebtedness. Even as their rights and freedoms and liberties are made to disappear, even as their Constitution is burned, even as their nation hangs on the precipice of despotism, even as their collective destiny is being destroyed those residing inside the belly of the beast hear no evil, see no evil and feel no evil, preferring to gossip about pedophile politicians and celebrity failings than informing themselves to the last throes of the American republic.

The waves of autocracy are upon the shores of America, the demons of the past find themselves resurrected once again, free to unleash fear, intimidation and enslavement onto hundreds of millions of human beings. The high tide of tyranny has returned from the unlearned lessons of history, again engulfing humankind with human wickedness and Machiavellian rule, soon to subjugate the masses in the slavery endemic throughout man’s brief – yet thoroughly destructive – reign over Earth.

Read the rest here.

Today is the official publication date of my latest piece, "Your New North American ID Card," in The New American. Here is an excerpt:

Your New North American ID Card (Excerpt)
by Steven Yates
October 2, 2006

One element of the merger of the United States, Canada, and Mexico is an effort to create a common "North American" ID card.

Steven Yates, Ph.D., teaches philosophy at the University of South Carolina Upstate and Greenville Technical College.

Beef cattle come down a loading chute leading into a slaughterhouse, mooing as they walk. Each steer has a yellow ear tag containing a radio frequency identification (RFID) device, which is scanned by a tag reader to assure that the proper animals are in the proper place.

The RFID system was promoted as a means to prevent the spread of animal diseases into the food-supply chain and to prevent bio-terrorism. But there were already adequate measures in place to stop diseased cattle from getting into the food chain, and many ways that the deviously minded would be able to circumvent the RFID system. Critics of the system pointed out that there must be some ulterior motive to the government's insistence on requiring such a tagging system, such as increased profits for importers of non-tagged foreign beef.

Now, in the name of national security, it's our turn to be "tagged."

It is true, of course, that America faces a serious terrorist threat. But instead of instituting commonsense, non-intrusive security measures, such as securing our borders so that terrorists cannot come here undetected, we are openly inviting unscreened foreigners across our borders. Any terrorist able to get into Canada or Mexico could then easily come here. Terrorists among us then serve as the rationale for monitoring the American people themselves through the use of a RFID national ID card....

To continue reading the complete article, place an online order for a PDF version of the October 2nd issue of The New American, and get instant access to the full-text of this article along with the full-text of all the other articles in the same issue. Similarly, if you place an online order for one or more copies of the print version of the October 2nd issue, you'll receive a complimentary link to the PDF version of that issue, also giving you instant access to the full-text of "Your New North American ID Card" article and all of the other articles in that issue.

Indeed, there has been such a flurry of activity on this topic that it would be impossible to list all the relevant links; most can be found on WorldNetDaily.com which has given this developing story good coverage, and also on Human Events where Jerome Corsi publishes semiregularly.

There is also the secret Banff, Albert meeting of the 2nd North American Forum, the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America, the Trans-Texas Corridor, and much, much more. The attempt by the superelite to dissolve our national borders and merge the U.S., Canada and Mexico may turn out to be the third biggest story of the present decade (after the 9/11 attacks and the Iraq War)--and the biggest story that the mainstream news media refuses to touch.

They may have to touch it sooner or later. For Rep. Virgil Goode Jr. (R-Va) has introduced a resolution (H.R. 487) that would express "the sense of Congress that the United States should not engage in the construction of a North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) Superhighway System or enter into a North American Union (NAU) with Mexico and Canada."

There are three co-sponsors: Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.), Ron Paul (R-Tx.), and Walter Jones (R-N.C.). For details go here.