Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Higher TaxesWritten by J.J. Jackson
On Thursday, June 23rd, 2005 Supreme Court of these United States declared war on people. On that dark day, five black robed tyrants, issued a decision that rewrote our unalienable rights as Americans; something that term “unalienable” meaning derived from God was supposed to prevent. Judicial fiat has rewritten words upon which our nation is founded and trumped private property rights of citizens and these self made gods wiped their rear ends with Constitution and Declaration of Independence. The words that we are “endowed by [our] Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and pursuit of Happiness” have been changed. Now, apparently our rights are really government’s rights and are now to be read as “Life, Liberty and pursuit of Higher Taxes”.Am I angry? No. I am not angry -- I’M PISSED OFF! I cannot believe for a minute that this ruling which says that government has right to take your property and give it to someone else so they can make more money was even conceived much less agreed to by a majority of those that have been entrusted to uphold rights of Americans. All For The Public “Good”: In rationalizing this horrendous destruction of our rights Justice John Stevens wrote for majority "The city has carefully formulated an economic development that it believes will provide appreciable benefits to community, including - but by no means limited to - new jobs and increased tax revenue." It’s eerily reminiscent of way we used to try and trick our teachers into thinking we knew more about a subject that we really did isn’t it? You know, when teacher would ask you what major exports of Mexico were and you would name one item and then conclude with “…and many other things.” Might I ask a serious question here Justice Stevens? When did we become a truly communist State where land is doled out to people as government sees fit and where they are allowed only to reside there by grace of bureaucrats? When did we become a country where ANYWHERE it is mandated function of government to provide “new jobs” for people? Did I miss that somewhere in Federal Constitution in Article I, Section 8? And I dare say that I will guarantee you that if I look at Constitutions of our 46 States and 4 Commonwealths that vast majority, if not ALL of them, make no such reference to that power either! Jobs, my dear, deluded and sick Justice Stevens are created by people not by government mandate. And let’s be honest here “jobs” issue is just a red herring government is throwing out there to disguise that they just want more tax revenue to spend on every little pet project they can dream up and entrench them deeper into power. Joined with Justices Souter, Ginsburg Kennedy and Breyer Justice Stevens and Supreme Court has successfully surrendered United States of America to oppressive ideology that we have spent so many years fighting against. They have surrendered us to Communism which surprises Hell out of me since I cannot remember that anywhere among their enumerated powers in Constitution is right to surrender United States to enemy. But now five men and women have surrendered us to exact same enemy that brave Americans have shed their blood and given their lives to protect us from for decades. The Liberals Expose Themselves Again: This decision comes from liberal and progressive wing of court. I want to see left wing noise machine try and claim that it is really liberals that are “for little guy” after this. Because it is “little guy” that is going to be hurt most. It is going to be “little guy” living in a modest $50 - $100k home, paying a small amount of taxes, that is going to be target to have their homes seized and bulldozed for mini-malls and office buildings worth millions to a developer and that will bring in huge tax windfalls to local government.
| | The World Bank and the Spread of the American EmpireWritten by Dene McGriff
The World Bank and Spread of American Empire By Dene McGriff I must confess to being a “cog” as in “cog” in a machine. Did I know I was? Nope, but I have gradually come to see that I was a “cog” in building of American Global Empire. Please don’t get mad at me for my confessions, for I certainly didn’t realize it at time. In fact, most of us are oblivious to what is really going on around us. I certainly was, but more I look into my past, more I realize my role – as apparently innocent as it appeared to be. I spent most of my life in international work but little did I know what I was really involved in. I was a little cog in a great big machine that was creating greatest global empire in history of world. We didn’t carry guns, just a briefcase and a laptop! We were new empire builders! Please let me explain. Background America has been building a vast global empire for past century. By end of WWII, it was undisputed leader with only Russia and its satellites standing in way of global hegemony! A couple of quick little wars in Korea and Vietnam showed futility of winning by conventional means. But a much more serious war was on whose goal was to turn entire world into client states of America – tied to us by our apparent generosity and good will. How did this process work? The end of World War II left Europe and Japan in shambles (the developed world). How were they to be rebuilt? What was strategy? Very simple, we opened our markets to them. We invested in their business and infrastructure. But what of rest of undeveloped world? How were we going to bring them into Twentieth Century? In true American form and efficiency, we launched a multi-pronged attack. The Peace Corp sent out young people throughout world to identify and develop projects. These were best and brightest. They were bilingual, sensitive cross-culturally and became source for great expansion of international business, international aid and development and CIA. The Peace Corp spawned birth of companies known as “the beltway bandits” – consulting companies eager to help government spend USAID, World Bank, IMF and other monies. I worked on and off for these consulting companies over a period of 25 years. Christian relief and development agencies also got involved in act (World Relief, Catholic Relief Services, World Vision, Food for Hungry, etc.) as well. I worked with two of them as well. These minions of “do gooders” (myself included) fanned out across globe developing relationships, identifying needs, writing grants and business plans to bring economic development to “undeveloped” world. I personally worked all over Central and South America, Far East (Thailand, Indonesia and Philippines), Africa and Middle East. All this time, I had no idea I was a part of machine Phase I The back drop of all this is that developed world – Europe, Japan, America and Canada represented about 20 percent of world population. Latin America, Africa and rest of Asia, India, Pakistan and Southeast Asia represented other 80 percent. They needed infrastructure – water, power, transportation, industry, bridges, dams, technology. How were we to get that to them and where would this all lead? The seductive part is that out goal was so good. Most people were dying from diseases caused by drinking bad water. Cholera, typhoid, malaria – so many diseases could be taken care of just by improving sanitation. Agriculture could be improved, natural resources exploited, industry developed, housing improved, etc. So army of volunteers, consultants and corporate executives spread throughout world looking for opportunity. But who would pay for it? These countries certainly didn’t have excess money to pay for costly infrastructure! The same foundation that was laid to rebuild Europe and Japan was used – IMF and World Bank, United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Inter American Development Bank, Asia Development Bank, etc. USAID is a part of State Department and works closely with, if not for CIA (as I found out hard way). The “political” and “economic” officers and attaches of our embassies were almost always CIA (Central Intelligence Agency). Reports produced – whether on health care, agricultural development, education, population control (known as “woman and child health”) – all ended up in CIA reports. There was a tremendous amount of overlap between different agencies and companies working with them. As development occurred, USAID tended to phase out and World Bank took over and “bilateral relationships” were established with developing country governments. Here is how it worked. Acquaintances were made, and friendships established especially through Peace Corps and Christian missionaries who were there as “scouts” for empire. They were followed by consultants who would be hired by USAID to identify needs, and develop specifications for a project. This would result in an RFP (Request for Proposal) which would go out in formal government digests. Consulting companies or businesses would then develop proposals in response to RFP. There would usually be a committee consisting of USAID employees and counterparts in host government that would go through a selection process. Eventually, it would be awarded to a US firm. I personally worked on hundreds of proposals and numerous projects. Here is an example of how it works. In 1985, I was selected as team leader to evaluate a $27 million health infrastructure project that had been awarded to Westinghouse Health Systems. This was mid term evaluation of a multi-year project. It was an exciting time – machine gun fire and mortars going off constantly up in mountains above Holiday Inn where we stayed. I spent better part of summer there. The Salvadoran people were gracious and hard working. The folks staying in hotel either worked for a consulting company, CIA, paramilitary or adoption agencies. There were even a couple of Russians. It was quite an eclectic mix. There were four other people on my team looking at different aspects of project. Westinghouse was providing training, buying medical supplies, ambulances, etc. Two really important things came out of study. The first and most important is that only about $2 million was a grant. The rest, about $25 million, was a loan that had to be paid back. I found that this was quite common. Most of our “aid” was really in form of loans – hundreds of millions in all that had to be paid back! The other is that health budget for country didn’t increase by $27 million. In fact it didn’t increase at all. I asked Minister of Health why not? They spent it on other things – mainly guns. This aspect of report became very controversial as report hit Congress. They tracked me down in Kingston, Jamaica to ask me about it. It turns out that USAID health and population officer in charge of project told Congress it was additional money to budget. He was furious with me and later got caught doing deals under table and ended up going to jail for a few years.
|
