The Definition of Insanity

by Steve Shute

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Boy, these “representatives” in Washington just don’t get it, do they?

Even after constituents, in many cases by a 100-to-1 margin, made their voices heard against Czar Hank Paulson’s ill-conceived (and, in the end, ineffective) $700-billion Wall Street bankers’ bailout — and it passed anyway…

…even after those same constituents spoke out against the $14-to-34-billion bailout of the auto industry — and it was done anyway by executive fiat…

…and even after people from across the political spectrum have now expressed severe reservations about ruler-to-be Barack Obama’s government-rich “stimulus” plan…

…the crazy train keeps rollin’ along, toward the cliff.

Now, as a vote on the second half of the $700 billion TARP money is about to take place, Obama is threatening a veto of the proposed legislation barring release of the funds to the Treasury to do lord-knows-what with… and he’s not even president yet.  (So much for having “one president at a time,” eh?)

By now, it should be crystal clear to everyone that it doesn’t matter what the ”serfs” think (the auto bailout was done in the face of 61% public opposition, and the TARP was approved by legislators in the face of much more overwhelming disapproval) - our “rulers” will do what they wish anyway, for the “greater good.”  In other words, we’re obviously too dumb to understand the complexities of these matters, so they will just do the thinking for us.

Ever heard of “taxation without representation?”

 I believe that was the justification (among other things) for the American Revolution.

Of course, we haven’t even gotten to the part where this has all been tried before, with (at best) mixed results.  But it cannot be denied by any objective measure that the same people that got us into this mess in the first place are the very same ones who are now insisting that they are the only ones to fix the mess they created.

Easy money, over-lending, over-spending, and encouraging (some would even say requiring) businesses to make reckless decisions is what created this unprecedented asset bubble that has burst with devastating consequences.  And what is the solution that these brainless wonders are proposing?

MORE easy money (in the form of “stimulus”). MORE over-lending and debt creation.  MORE malinvestment and reckless decision-making, that government will require and compel businesses to undertake, in the name of “job creation.”

And, in the end, even more attacks on our freedoms and on the prosperity of future generations – until, as in Ayn Rand’s magnum opus Atlas Shrugged, there is nothing left.

If the definition of insanity is truly doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results, then I believe we have all gone mad.  Or, at least our “leaders” have.

Or, maybe we need to ask ourselves:  Are they really crazy… like a fox?

Government Spending: A Ticket to Prosperity, or Oblivion?

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Amidst the swirl of bailouts, buyouts, and sell-outs occurring on Wall Street, K Street, and Main Street, the latest talk in Washington and Chicago is centering on the notion that government spending – ahem, “investment” – and central planning initiatives (such as massive public works projects) will lift the nation into prosperity and create millions of jobs.

But, does history bear this out - and is there really a place in our nation for government intervention in private enterprise - or is it just a slippery slope that leads directly to economic stagnation and socialism?  We will discuss this timely topic at our next Hope for America Coalition Kansas City Metro Chapter meeting this coming Tuesday, December 16.

Our meeting will take place at the Antioch Branch of the Johnson County Library, 8700 Shawnee Mission Parkway in Mission.  (To avoid confusion, this is the “old” library just off of I-35 at the corner of Shawnee Mission Parkway and Antioch Road – this is NOT the Central Resource Library.)  We will start with a potluck reception from 7:00 – 7:30, and our regular meeting will start at 7:30.

We’ll also be discussing and voting on our final HFAC Statement of Principles, we will get a Legislative Update about the coming session that starts next month in Topeka, and we will be taking a very close look at City Council and School Board seats in Johnson County and elsewhere.

(And, we will also be discussing our January HFAC chapter meeting, which just happens to fall on Inauguration Day – we are working on something ”extra special” for that meeting!)

We also urge all of you who are coming out to the meeting to bring a donation – be it cash, a non-perishable food item, or toiletries – to the Harvesters Food Network.  We will be collecting these donations on-site and sending them to Harvesters, so that they can help those in need this holiday season.  (Please make checks payable to Harvesters.)

And, we will have some really cool merchandise (bumper stickers, lapel pins, “Proud Member of the Old Right” buttons and lapel stickers, as well as T-shirts) available at the meeting.  You can also go to our online store and order these items (and many, many more)directly from the Web.

If you have questions about the upcoming meeting or to RSVP, please send us an E-mail at freedom@hfapac.org.

We look forward to seeing all of you there on Tuesday at this very important meeting!

Here a trillion, there a trillion…

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This morning, talk on Wall Street is all about the unveiling of President-elect Barack Obama’s economic team and yet another government bailout, this time of Citigroup (one of those well-capitalized banks deemed “too big to fail” by the powers-that-be) to the tune of $20+ billion.  (Heck, what’s a billion when our national debt is now increasing by an estimated $3.5 billion EVERY DAY?)

But what’s also being discussed – not very loudly, mind you – is the next financial “stimulus” package in the works by your “friends” in Congress - a monstrosity of a boondoggle that looks to put the taxpayers of this country in hock to the tune of another staggering $700+ billion, while creating government-expanding “make-work” projects that would make FDR blush with envy.

Remember, this is in addition to the ill-advised and unconstitutional Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP), in which Congress, in case you’ve forgotten, has already given “Czar” Hank Paulson the virtually unlimited authority to spend $700 billion of our tax dollars on basically anything he wants, without any meaningful Congressional oversight.  (Remember when he wanted to use the TARP money to actually buy up troubled assets?  Now, it’s being used to buy stakes in banks so that they can buy other banks – and, as of this past week, American Express and GM are being considered as “banks.”)

If Obama and his allies in Congress get what they want, additional “emergency” spending for 2008 alone will top an almost-inconceivable $1.687 TRILLION dollars (and that’s a conservative estimate, as we will probably never know exactly how much it’s going to cost to nationalize Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac).  And, remember, none of this even includes the additional non-discretionary Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid outlays in coming decades that are expected to amount to over $400,000 for every man, woman, and child in the United States – money that that no one knows how we will possibly be able to come up with.

Self-proclaimed Depression “expert,” “Helicopter Ben” Bernanke once remarked in a famous speech in 2002 that “…the U.S. government has a technology, called a printing press (or, today, its electronic equivalent), that allows it to produce as many U.S. dollars as it wishes at essentially no cost.”  Obviously, by looking at the bailout numbers so far (below), we can see that Bernanke’s printing presses have been working overtime:

• Economic Stimulus Act of 2008:  $152 Billion;
• Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac:  at least $50 Billion*;
• AIG “Restructuring”:  $150 Billion (and counting)**;
• TARP:  $700 Billion;
• Proposed Economic Stimulus II:  at least $700 Billion.

* – The potential final cost of Fannie and Freddie debt may end up being in excess of $1 trillion, according to experts.

** – The original AIG outlay was for $85 billion in loans; it has since ballooned to $150 billion, and the government does not know how much more will be required.

Who exactly is buying up all of this money?  Right now, sovereign wealth funds and foreign central banks seem to be the primary recipients, with Japan, China and Saudi Arabia owning approximately 25% of our outstanding national debt.  But signs recently seem to point to the start of a loss of appetite for United States-backed Treasury notes, as China just recently announced that they will be looking to “substantially increase” their gold reserves by paying for them with US currency reserves.  As more central banks and sovereign wealth funds follow China’s lead in the coming months, expect this deflationary cycle to reverse itself – perhaps violenty – and be replaced with accelerating levels of inflation as people bail from the dollar like rats off of a sinking ship.

Thomas Jefferson said it best when he famously stated that

“If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issuance of their currency, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all their property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.”

We are in real danger of seeing the past prosperity of the last 50 years, and any chance of any prosperity in the next 50, evaporate before our eyes, unless we as a people stand up and say “enough is enough.”  We need to demand an END TO BAILOUTS until the people that did this pillaging can be held ACCOUNTABLE for their actions.

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We also want to say “Thank you” to all of you who came out to the “End the Fed” Rally in Kansas City! The rally was a tremendous success – we had almost 200 people show up, and we received coverage in the Kansas City Star and Fox 4 News.  Actions like this will open people’s eyes to the debt situation and will go a long way toward making a real difference in the future.  Also, many many thanks to Bryon Huber from End the Fed KC and Catherine Bleish from the Liberty Restoration Project for their many hours of tireless effort bringing this event together.

We will be having many more of these events in the future, so be sure to stay tuned into the HFAC blog and check out our Calendar page.

END THE FED!

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Tomorrow morning, on November 22 (coincidentally, the 45th anniversary of the assassination of John F. Kennedy), concerned Constitutionalists and Liberty advocates from across the Midwest will be gathering at the aptly-named Liberty Memorial in Kansas City to rally against the unconstitutional Federal Reserve Bank.  The “End the Fed” Rally will start promptly at noon and will also involve a march to the Internal Revenue Service building only three blocks away (that is probably NOT a coincidence).

The Federal Reserve Act, passed literally in the “dead of night” on December 23, 1913 (while many members of Congress were en route home for Christmas recess), created a PRIVATE entity, the deceptively-named “Federal” Reserve System, which allowed the Congress to abdicate its Constitutionally-mandated role to coin and print money in favor of a “fractional” reserve lending system.  The Federal Reserve prints currency instruments (“Federal Reserve Notes”) that are then loaned to the Treasury for a set interest rate.  This basically means that private banking interests – protected as a cartel by willing accomplices in the government – actually make money by giving more and more money (printed out of thin air) to entities that then turn around and use it to basically buy power, influence, and votes.

This fraudulent and unconstitutional system has allowed the Federal government to engage in obscenely large amounts of deficit spending while simultaneously destroying the value of our currency – a dollar today would only be worth $.03 in 1913 currency (a 97% depreciation).  This hidden “inflation tax” has affected every man, woman, and child in this country and has bankrupted not only our current citizens, but future generations as well.  In a nutshell, if the Federal Reserve didn’t exist, we wouldn’t see the expansionist, interfering, debt-addicted, intrusive government that we see today.

We invite you to join the Hope for America Coalition at the rally – please come dressed in BUSINESS ATTIRE if you wish to attend (but wear comfortable shoes!), as we want to be differentiated from any “professional” protestors or anarchists.  We want to show that we are law-abiding citizens that are first and foremost concerned about the direction of this nation, and are united by a common commitment to the Constitition and its principles.

Also, please stick around after the rally for fellowship and a movie (we will be watching Aaron Russo’s “America: Freedom to Fascism”), and building contacts and relationships.  For more information, please contact Bryon Huber at End the Fed Kansas City (bhuber3@kc.rr.com).

We hope to see you there!

HFAC Monthly Meeting This Tuesday, 11/18

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Join us for our next Monthly Meeting of the Hope for America Coalition this coming Tuesday, November 18, from 7:30-9:00pm at the Johnson County Library (Antioch Branch), 7800 Shawnee Mission Pkwy, Mission, KS.  This is an open meeting for HFAC members and their invited guests to come together and discuss topics of the day as well as organize our efforts to bring Constitutional values and principles back to government.

Agendas will be posted in advance here at the Hope for America Coalition website.  Please RSVP to Steve Shute at steve.shute@hfapac.org, or JC Alonzo at jc.alonzo@hfapac.org.

This month, we will be discussing the past elections and their significance; we will have the latest committee reports (including a vote on our final Statement of Principles); we will explore the upcoming City Council and School Board elections in Johnson County; and we will talk about the End the Fed rally scheduled for November 22 (Bryon Huber from End the Fed KC will be our special guest speaker).

We hope to see you there!

Democratic Socialism has Officially Come to America

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Or, should we say, Amerika?  So blogs the Kansas Citian today:

http://thekansascitian.blogspot.com/2008/11/democratic-socialism-has-officially.html

With all pretense of the bailout being about buying up toxic mortgage assets being dropped in favor of all-out nationalization, and with a far-left Congress with a taste for government control and punitive regulation of business ready to push legislation to newly-elected President Obama faster than you can say “spread the wealth,” you can expect this trend to accelerate over the next six months.

Our advice to Hope for America Coalition friends is to get active locally, to work within your communities, and to continue to spread the word of limited, accountable government, sound monetary policy, and personal freedom and responsibility.  It may take many years to reverse this all-out assault on the Constitution, but we will be there to lead the charge.

Off to Minneapolis-St. Paul!

by Steve Shute

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In less than 18 hours, I will be on the road to the Twin Cities to participate in the largest Freedom Movement event in history – the Campaign for Liberty’s “Rally for the Republic” at the Target Center in Minneapolis.  More than 14,000 believers in the Constitution will assemble on September 2nd to send a loud, clear voice to the Beltway insiders, cynical politicos, and the people of this nation that we will NOT go away, and that we will work tirelessly to restore the Constitution as the law of the land again.

Personally, I couldn’t be happier that this is happening.  And not just because I have the honor of leading the Kansas delegation to Minneapolis.  I believe that this event symbolizes the arrival of a true grassroots movement to the nationwide political consciousness - and it’s long overdue.  (My fervent hope is that it’s not happening too late, to be honest.)

To celebrate and commemorate this historic event, I will be blogging daily starting tomorrow from Minneapolis St. Paul, giving all of you the low-down on all things Rally, as well as chronicling events surrounding the “other” convention in town, the Republican National Convention (RNC) at the Xcel Energy Center in downtown St. Paul.

I hope that you will check back often at www.HopeForAmericaCoalition.org for the latest updates.  See you in the Twin Cities!

Hope for America Coalition Open House This Saturday

Please feel free to pass this invitation along to all you know.  You can RSVP your attendance to Steve Shute at 352-585-2246 or via E-mail at freedom@hfapac.org.

We hope to see you there this weekend, and please bring a friend!

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My Field Trip to Prison

by Steve Shute

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Last Thursday (7/31), at the invitation of Johnson County (KS) Sheriff Frank Denning, I had the opportunity to spend a good chunk of the evening in prison.  Actually, I spent it in two prisons – the Johnson County Adult Correctional Facility in downtown Olathe, and the New Century Adult Correctional Facility near Gardner.  No, I didn’t break any law – I was one of two citizens that accepted the Sheriff’s open invitation to tour the jails, as well as the Johnson County Crime Lab in Mission, at one of the “town hall” meetings regarding the 1/4 cent sales tax initiative for public safety on today’s August 5 primary ballot.

A Majority of One CAN Make a Difference

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We received this letter from one of our Founding Members, Adam Pence, who’s running for Precinct Committeeman in Olathe, KS.  If you don’t believe that the efforts of a determined “majority of one” can carry the day, then you need to read this letter.  He gives some very good canvassing strategies that all of us can use in future campaigns, especially those of us in contested Precinct Committee primary races (Kansas’ primary election is this coming Tuesday, August 5).

By the way, Adam is looking for assistance for his efforts this weekend, and he would really appreciate it if people took him up on his appeal for help.  If you’re interested, let us know at freedom@hfapac.org.