Editorial

It is time for America to stand up and say "ENOUGH DAMNIT!"

Last week Glenn Beck blew the doors off a story that he had been cooking for a while: an undercover independent film-maker and associate had walked into an ACORN office pretending to be a pimp and prostitute and "asked for help" in cheating the government by obtaining both a housing subsidy and committing tax fraud.

But that's not where they stopped - they disclosed "intent" to bring in underage girls from El Salvador as the essence of their "business" to serve as prostitutes as well.

In short, they declared themselves as traffickers in the sexual abuse of children and asked this government-supported and funded "community organization" - an organization that Barack Obama was associated with very closely in his time as a Chicago "machine" politician before he ran for President - for help.

Instead of being tossed out on their tail (or having the cops called) they instead received advice from ACORN on how to swindle the United States Federal Government in the promulgation and practice of their alleged-unlawful scheme!

When the first tape broke there was outrage.

The second, in Baltimore, provoked a threat from the prosecutor - a threat to prosecute the filmmaker for "unlawful wiretapping" under Maryland statute.

(Note that not one word was said about prosecuting ACORN for suborning felony tax evasion, say much less suborning felony transport of minors across state and international borders for the purpose of prostitution!)

Once is a "rogue employee."  Twice is "troubling."

But now a third tape has surfaced of the same pair asking the same questions in an ACORN Office in NYC.

You decide what this is for yourself.

As someone who has spent more than two decades trying to rid The Internet of kiddie porn, as someone who has worked with law enforcement in the past in the development of strategies to combat this heinous (and felonious) act, as an individual who had multiple death threats made against him and his family in the 1990s for standing up repeatedly IN PUBLIC and stating that Internet Providers who were carrying Usenet groups that comprised 70% of the total volume of traffic under names such as "alt.binaries.pictures.teen-$#ck" were knowingly suborning and contributing to felonious conduct and should be prosecuted I will make my position clear:

In my opinion once is a rogue person in an organization a second time is deeply troubling, but with three separate tapes in three separate locations and three separate groups of staff, one must now ask: Is this systemic, organized support and suborning of felonious conduct?  And if so, does it not rise to the level of racketeering and thus demand a full and complete federal prosecutorial response?

Where are the cops folks?

Have we descended into such a sea of lawlessness in this nation with all the bankster bailouts and hiding of "white collar" scams and frauds through the use of taxpayer funds that the apparent suborning of not only felony tax evasion but trafficking in underage girls as prostitutes - one of the most heinous and outrageous acts of exploitation of children and a bona-fide worldwide problem - is overlooked by our Federal Prosecutorial apparatus because the organization involved has strong ties to our President and his administration?

AGAIN: IS THE GOVERNMENT A FELON?

ARE THOSE  OF YOU WITH DAUGHTERS GOING TO SIT ON YOUR FANNIES AND ALLOW THIS SORT OF SCANDAL TO BECOME NOTHING MORE THAN  A PISSING MATCH BETWEEN FOX NEWS AND ACORN'S SPOKESWOMAN?

OR ARE THE MOTHERS, FATHERS, GRANDMOTHERS, GRANDFATHERS AND ALL OTHER GOOD, SOLID AMERICANS FINALLY GOING TO STAND UP AND SAY:

NO MORE DAMNIT, WE HAVE HAD ENOUGH!  LOCK EACH AND EVERY ONE OF THE CROOKS UP - THE CROOKS ON WALL STREET, THE CROOKS ON K STREET, THE CROOKS IN BALTIMORE, DC, NEW YORK AND EVERYWHERE ELSE.  ALL OF THEM.  AND BY THE WAY - THIS IS NOT A REQUEST; WE CAN AND WILL DO WHATEVER IS NECESSARY TO PRESS OUR DEMAND.  YOU WORK FOR US, NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND, AND WE WILL NO LONGER SIT, WATCH AMERICAN IDOL, AND TAKE THIS OUTRAGE.  PERIOD.  NOW GET OFF YOUR ASS AND GET TO WORK.

Just eight short years ago a handful of madmen flew aircraft into buildings in the United States on purpose, killing over 3,000 Americans and threatening to destabilize our financial and political systems.

One day later, on 9/12/2001, America came together and said "Like Hell." 

230 years ago a handful of madmen thought they would dictate to those across an ocean that they should pay taxes yet have no representation in how that money was spent.  They said "Like Hell" and went to war.

Two days ago over a million Americans descended on Washington DC and stood on The Mall, rallying around a singular viewpoint and position:

YOU HAVE CROSSED THE LINE WASHINGTON.

They came to protest "big government" in all its forms. 

Socialized health care, banking system bailouts, automakers who got in over their heads and demanded money from ordinary Americans, US Government Officials crowding Representatives and Senators into a room and threatening the collapse of the economy and imposition of martial law unless their "buddies" were given $700 billion taxpayer dollars.

All forms of taxation without representation; do recall that when TARP was under debate public sentiment was one hundred or more to one against passage of the bill to enact the ransom demanded in the dead of night, yet Congress passed it anyway.

A shot across the bow?  Yes.

A peaceful shot?  Yes.

Will it remain simply a mass of fed up Americans making speeches on The Mall, will it turn to voter anger, or will it become something even more ugly.

That depends on Congress and The White House.

No government has the right to exist other than by the consent of the governed.  This is not a "radical position", it is a foundational principle of The United States, and every Congressperson, President, or other person employed by same swore an oath to protect and uphold that very foundational principal, up to and including with their life.

Public service is a choice. 

The oath of office and what it means, once taken, is not a choice. 

It is a sacred obligation.

The people who came to Washington this last weekend had many beefs in detail but only one in principle: Our government no longer stands for what it did 230 years ago.  It no longer stands for the rule of law.  It no longer stands against oligarchs who would plunder private property and the public treasury alike.

Our government was founded by men and women who yearned to be free.  To practice Capitalism.  To witness "the invisible hand" of a free market convey wealth upon those who make good choices, and ruin upon those who make bad.  To live with a government that feared the people, not among a people who feared the government.

Bernie Madoff supposedly was a "little person" who made it big.  In reality he lied and swindled.  For this he was sentenced to prison for a term that amounts to the rest of his natural life.

Yet many large financial institutions and some not-so-large did things not so different from Bernie Madoff.  They created securities they either knew or should have known were worthless.  They concocted "lending programs" that had onerous penalties and fees associated with them, not to make a legitimate loan to a person who wanted to borrow money, but as a means to skim yet another piece of "vig" off a transaction for themselves.  They enlisted the federal government to stop state lawmakers from putting an end to these programs once The States called them out as scams - that is, contrary to public policy.  They entered into bets with companies they knew or should have known could not pay, yet claimed they were "covered" and reported billions in "profits" that in fact never existed.  They paid dividends out of fictitious "earnings" that they had every reason to believe would never be realized as actual cash.

Lehman didn't bring down the financial system because it wasn't rescued.

Lehman failed for the same reason Bear Stearns failed and the same reason that Goldman, Morgan Stanley and JP Morgan, not to mention Citibank and Bank of America should have failed - they made loans to people who could not pay, either knowing or willfully disregarding the fact that they were lending on what amounted to an unsecured basis hundreds of billions of dollars more than they had in capital.

Let me be clear: So long as a bank never has more outstanding in unsecured loans (that is, beyond the market value of collateral pledged) than it has in excess, liquid capital (cash) itself, that bank will never go broke.

But as soon as any bank does lend out more in unsecured loans that it has in excess capital it is broke at that instant, and any claim otherwise is nothing more than a legally-permitted LIE.

We have not fixed any of these problems in the banking system.

None.

We have simply allowed the liars and thieves to steal some more - this time from the US Treasury, with its full faith, credit, and (unbelievably) actual support.

Mark-to-market was called "wrong", yet the fact remains that subprime MBS that in the "panic" were trading for a nickel are, today, trading for..... four cents.

Those trading for a quarter a year ago in the height of the panic are, today, trading for..... 22 cents.

Wrong? 

Nope. 

In fact the market was right - these securities will never recover their value, and the people who bought them were and remain screwed.

The latest outrage was Obama's "Health Reform" proposal - a bill that has over 300 pages that have never seen the light of day by the common man held up in Senate Committee.  Why?  What is The Senate so afraid of?  Is it that there really are "death panels" in the bill?  Is it that there really is federal preemption in yet more of our markets?  Is there yet another giveaway like Medicare Part "D" to the pharmaceutical industry, which raised drug prices seventeen percent in the year that "benefit" was passed? 

We the people don't know, but we're expected to live with the consequences.

Mr. Axelrod appears to be unhappy with on 9/12 America took to The Mall in protest, calling them "a fringe":

White House senior adviser David Axelrod said Sunday that the protesters, part of the "tea party" movement, do not represent the views of the broader public when it comes to health care reform. 

"I don't think it's indicative of the nation's mood," Axelrod said on CBS' "Face the Nation." "You know, I don't think we ought to be distracted by that. My message to them is, they're wrong." 

Arrogance is dangerous Mr. Axelrod.  We do remember leaked sealed divorce records during senatorial campaigns and other similar dirty tricks, and an awful lot of America is quite sure that you don't give a good damn what America thinks on this issue or any other.  That is why over a million people showed up in Washington DC Mr. Axelrod, and if you ignore their voice, it will simply grow stronger - until you can't ignore it any longer. 

You think this is a fringe eh?  This time-lapse security-camera video is damning evidence - that's not a few thousand people, that's almost certainly north of a million, and maybe two.

And here's a still shot down The Mall from the inauguration - compare for yourself:

That's close to equal or better than came to DC to watch Obama be inaugurated.  You might want to contemplate on that for a while sir, and what it could mean if you choose to ignore the message being sent in a rather-clear form.

Finally, here's another shot sent to me by a participant (no time stamp on it):

There were 56 men who signed The Declaration of Independence in 1776.  I'd expect we could find at least that many in Congress today who will stand on the steps of the Capitol tomorrow and say in one, loud, coherent voice:

You, American Business and we, The Representatives and Senators of this nation, have gone too far. 

Whether you be bankers, lobbyists, pharmaceutical companies or any other form of business, the days of corruption and grift are over.  We confess that we have sinned against the Founders and the People of this great nation and you shall confess your sins, effective today.

We assert that we shall not take upon ourselves nor force upon the people of this nation debt that they are unable to pay in a futile and fraudulent attempt to cover up past scams.

We shall return to a Constitutional and law-abiding system and form of government. 

We shall not permit banks to make loans for which they have no collateral value and no excess capital, and we shall impose this standard upon them each and every day.

We demand, today and every day forward, that every firm shall produce a true and correct balance sheet, marked to the market, with no off-balance sheet games - without exception.  We shall insist that those who refuse or lie go to prison.

We demand the strong application of anti-trust laws to the banking system, a lowering of the maximum concentration of deposits from 10% to 1%, a break-up of all institutions that exceed this amount, a reinstatement of Glass-Steagall in its entirety and an absolute ban on cross-ownership of banks and investment, finance or insurance-related firms.

We demand that bills be filed with sufficient time to read them before being voted upon, in full, with "sufficient time" being at least one full business day for each 100 pages of bill, without exception, and that the full and complete text be made available both to us and to the public before the clock begins to run.

We demand that every law that compels a government agency to act shall have as a default "or else" clause the immediate removal from office of any official who willfully disregards that law's tenets.

Finally, we assert that we work for the people as their representatives, and for good or bad, we shall listen to and be beholden only to them.  In furtherance thereof any lobbying contact of any sort shall be recorded or in written form and be made available to the public immediately, so that all speech from corporate interests shall be disclosed to the people for their consideration, without exception.

If we cannot find at least one hundred good men and women in Congress who will stand on the steps of the Capitol tomorrow and make this speech then it is clear from the 9/12 protest that the next step shall and must be the ballot box next year, where we shall be forced to remove you from office and replace you with men and women who actually will and do represent us.

And should that fail?

Let's hope it does not for the good of all in America.

Come talk with us today at 3:30 Central at http://blogtalkradio.com/marketticker where we will explore the Tea Party, ACORN and more.