Freedom Isn't Free?

Create your own human rights bill. Try it. Sit down. Grab something to write with and jot down what human rights you would expect from the people you interact with every day. What rights would you want to guarantee for yourself? Free speech? Free practice of religion? How about the freedom for like-minded individuals to assemble? Many of the basic rights of individuals are easy. In fact, most of the bill or rights is a no-brainer. This is ironic because the people who are supposedly protected under the ten articles of the constitution known as the bill of rights can’t even name the five freedoms guaranteed by the first amendment. Less than 1% of American citizens, in fact, can’t name all five of these basic human rights1. When this few people can even name the rights that they are guaranteed, it is very easy to take those rights away from them.

The First Amendment is, ironically, the first article of human rights to be purged in the name of sustaining control. Notice that I did not stipulate that the first article of the Bill of Rights to be purged is not the First Amendment. In order for concentrated power to exist, other Amendments contained in the Bill of Rights must be systematically smothered.

The Ninth and Tenth Amendments, namely the provisions that give the citizens the power of legislation outside of the powers of the federal government, will be moot in the presence of a concentrated centralized government. If the federal government grants itself powers and legislates restrictions on the citizens of the country, in such a heavy way, the ability of the people to choose, disappears. It does not take any warming up or stretching to concede this point. The correlation between a super-concentrated power’s control and the rights of individual citizens is most certainly inverse. This is the case on both the right as well as the left. The corruption of power does not discriminate. In fact, the one trait that is decidedly consistent with both the right and the left is their hunger for control.

The concealment of the Ninth and Tenth Amendments is the canary in the coal mine which tells us that our ability to breathe is about to become severely strained. At this point, the federal government and the few people in charge of it can do just about anything to limit the basic rights of the citizens.

Like stated earlier, there is a priority of the governors to insure the success of their plans and agendas. In order to acquire such insurance, the willingness and ability of the citizens to dissent must be minimized. I encourage you now, before it’s too late, to review that list of human rights you thought of. Pay careful attention as they are picked off one by one, flagrantly and systematically throughout history.

The first thing to be pointed out about some civil rights is that there will always be a justifiable reason to abridge these rights, as reported by the governing body. The most simple argument is one that says: if you’re not doing anything wrong, you won’t have anything to worry about. If you’re not a drug dealer, you should worry about your Fourth Amendment rights. If you’re not a terrorist, an infringement on your Fifth, Sixth and Eight Amendment rights should not be met with hostility. And finally, if you aren’t speaking out in dissent of the government, you don’t need to worry about the First Amendment. We should worry, though.

September 11, 2001 gave the controlling powers of the United States unchecked power. In the aftermath of tragedy, the governing elite scavenged on American fear. The Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism (USA PATRIOT ACT) Act of 2001, is an excellent example of systematic obstruction of the basic and unambiguous rights of humans. The Patriot Act was passed in an overwhelmingly bipartisan effort. The bill was easily forced through congress with a senate vote of 98 - 1. The Patriot Act received a scandalous welcome from both parties, considering the bill was introduced and passed both houses in less than 48 hours. This affirms the need, from both parties, to retain any control they acquire. In fact, the larger of the two houses, the House of Representatives, suspended the rules and passed the bill after only being proposed 14 hours earlier. The 132 page document was passed 357 - 66 at 11:03 am after being proposed at 7:15 pm the previous evening2.

In it’s haste, congress undoubtedly overlooked the serious implications of this brazenly restrictive piece of legislation. Now you can eliminate any hope of having the freedom of speech without persecution or prosecution. Provisions of the still standing legislation include the coupling of the abridgment of habeas corpus and the restriction of free speech; a recipe for oppression. Section 201 and 202 of the bill explicitly give federal agencies the ability to perform “roving wire taps” and perform surveillance of electronic communications. Section 412 gives the Attorney General, through the vague and unconstitutional definition of terrorism as outlined in the bill, to detain indefinitely any person suspected of terrorism. Evidence need not be disclosed in such cases. Reading: no court shall have jurisdiction to review, by habeas corpus petition or otherwise, any such action or decision; habeas corpus is voided3.

In such cases, does a person really need to be a terrorist for the government to detain them? Without any scrutiny or accountability, what is to stop the government (made up of a concentrated few) from absolutism?

In reality, a majority of the bill of rights was gutted by the swift legislation following the September 11th attacks. Remember those five parts of the First Amendment that nearly no one could recall? With the exception of the religious provisions, all of them were vacated. In the vague description of terrorism that was defined in the Patriot Act, speech, press and assembly were no longer free activities. The right to petition was gutted by the indefinite detention of terrorists. The Fourth Amendment was destroyed by “sneak and peek” provisions and “roving wire taps.” As already discussed, the suspension of habeas corpus and any hope for due process nullified the Fifth, Sixth and Eighth Amendments. Why would government “representatives” be so quick to pass a bill that is so clearly in opposition with the bill of rights?

The Money Cycle

As the economic cloud hanging above this country grows, the inevitable flood will drown those not privileged enough to have a life-raft. Don’t be fooled into thinking that the establishment of this country can hold back the weather. The forces of the market cannot be controlled as easily and manipulated as effortlessly as Bernanke would have you believe. Freedom, including freedom in enterprise, should not be manipulated, as has been the case since 1913. Those who have been assuring the public of their power and command over the natural forces of the economy, have been and will continue to profit from the economic crisis that we have grown to be desensitized to.

The establishment, on both sides of the aisle, have benefited greatly from this economic turmoil that they have created. The only real defining feature of the political parties that have continuously volleyed control of this country back and forth with each other, is their mascot. Both have benefited from continual crises in this country. They will continue to benefit, as long as there is misfortune to prey upon.

If you’re wondering who could possibly benefit from an incredible recession, ask yourself some questions. First, have you personally seen any benefit, money or otherwise, from the already trillions of dollars worth of bailout money? Second, do you know anyone who has? Didn’t think so. So where is all of the money going? How could we have companies being handed more money than some countries’ GDP and still be making cutbacks?

If you’re still not convinced, follow the money trail. JPMorgan was a leading contributor for both the DNC and the RNC. Why, you might ask? Because they don’t care who wins. They only want to make sure that they are taken care of by the next administration. And taken care of, they were. JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon was given exclusive meetings with President Obama and afterward was able to buy Bear Stearns at about $2 per share.

How was JPMorgan able to avoid plague? $25 billion was given to JPMorgan by the Bush administration during the first round of bailouts. JPMorgan then financed the DNC with $372,373 and the RNC with $413,742. JPMorgan obviously recognizes that both sides of the aisle are sympathetic to their interests and are willing to spend money to keep the minions in office.

JPMorgan is just a small crumb off the cookie, though, compared with the overall impact of financial institutions in keeping the establishment in power. Goldman Sachs got an immediate $12 billion bailout after supporting Obama’s winning campaign to the tune of a mere $1.1 million. Interestingly, Goldman Sachs did not spread the wealth as evenly across party lines, only contributing $221,365. They clearly had a favorite, but as long as they can ensure gross profit margins for their investors, they’re happy. This is a common practice for a variety of firms. 8 of the top 10 contributors to the DNC were either financial institutions or the legal entities which represent them. Across the aisle: the list of RNC contributors is a VIP list of financial institutions and law firms specializing in money management. The most important question that continues to be raised, however, is: Where did the money go?

In order to understand each branch of the money trail, you must first understand where the money comes from. Unfortunately, the corruption and fraud that is to be uncovered by such an exploration cannot possibly be discussed in one article...