The Seeing...

The way this thing comes
It deprives me of sight
Lies in wait for all I will see, anyway.

I was alive once.

And all that you have to offer
Seems like dead wings on doomed flight
I still come to the day...

I come to the day
When I was alive once.

You want all that I have
And you will waste it, won't you?
You were born to waste.

I am alive.

I have recovered my eyes and I can see
I can see the ghost of your doom
I can see the dead memories of your thoughts
I can see the road that dies...before it can rise.

I can see, can't I?

I can feel the grip of your plunder
I can feel the death of your want
I can deny nothing of it...if I cannot
Claim myself.

You are dying...you were alive once.

I am alive...I can see, can't I?

It is in me to cry for you
It is in me to mourn your waste
It is in me to die before I will become
You.

I am alive.
I can see.

So again, I'm picking one of these posts, just because there's not a better or worse one to pick.

What the hell? This is the best we can do...huh?

Raped talking points...put down your two lines...or your two cents...and you're anted into the game, right?

Yeah?...Really...okay, I guess.

Is anyone talking about what we'll be doing after all of this actually happens. Because, baby...it's not only going to happen....it sure as hell is, right now.

I posted a couple of days ago about all of this...said if it happened, I'd quit...I had alot of positive feedback on that one....I had one pin head tell me that "standing on principle....didn't benefit society".

How interested is anyone here in "benefiting society"? I'd like to know. Isn't that kind of the rancid disease we're all fighting against?

Man, I'd like to know who I'm standing with here....I'd like to know that I'm standing with people that are standing with themselves...for themselves...not me. You see, I can STAND with those people...cause they stand for themselves....and they stand on their own.

Look, when they blow all this crap by...and you know they will....you've got to be prepared to deprive them.

If you're going to say that is you that makes this country what is....then it must be you that refuses to make it what it was never intended to be....it must be you that makes you what you were never intended to be: slaves.

Deprive them. That is the power in your hand.

I read this over several times before I responded.

Initially, of course there was the desire to jealously defend my posit.

But my intent was not to provoke debate...nor entertain opposing or diverging views. Yes, I've read Atlas Shrugged, and in some way, I suppose this could be construed in that light.

It was declaratory. It's what I will do if what I continue to earn...is the subject of plunder. It's not a threat....it's not a philosophy, certainly...it is not a novel...I'm not nearly that interesting.

It's the simple declaration that I will not be the instrument of my own demise.

I'm concerned that anyone here who values their freedom could define anything that intends to defend it as "nonsense"....but not too concerned. I suppose that your critique is as much devised to find a way to defend it...as my declaration was.

And if you disagree with the premise...I assume you have another one in the alternative.

My premise, though...is not Ayn Rand....it is not Atlas Shrugged.

It is the hundreds of thousands of dollars I have already paid as toll....to simply earn and keep what is mine.

I'm tired of negotiating for my own product.

I won't do it anymore. I won't pretend like there is a ratio there that, somehow makes it acceptable.

I'm acting on principle....and it, quite possibly will cost me.

But the most profound words I ever heard in my life ring in my ears.

"What shall it profit a man....if he should gain the whole world, but lose his own soul?"

No, this is a matter in my soul.

I posted similarly on the Healthcare topic from today.

I think it's fine to monitor the vote of your congressman, and likewise you should exercise whatever of your rights with relation to peaceful assembly. You should voice your opinion whenever and wherever you want with respect and honoring the better angels of your nature.

But speak from the heart...and with conviction.

Voting....in an election? Give me a break...I need a good laugh....c'mon somebody suggest it again, if for no other reason.

Your representation continues to spit in your face and pick your pocket and, as I assume we're in polite company, I'll refrain from more graphic metaphors....

This government is a disease. If either this legislation....or mandatory health care passes....as a small business owner....I'll pass. I'll do the one thing they have NO CONTROL over....I simply STOP.

I won't produce. I won't produce revenue to be taxed....I won't employ people....at all.

You see....I'm a small business owner....and I refuse to be a victim....and I refuse to purchase the rope to hang myself with.....anymore.

A few weeks ago I saw a gentleman from Iran on the television. He was conjecturing that the next step in the protests over the election there was a GENERAL STRIKE. He said something that really hit home, as I watched people being beaten and shot.

It was profound.

He said, "You can't shoot bullets at a failing economy".

In an earlier post I asked what are you going to do with your economic vote? Forget your political one....if history has shown us anything in the last 100 years....it's damn near worthless.

So....what are you going to do with your other vote? Your economic vote.

Everyone wants an easy answer here....I hear it all the time...."what should we do". I hear the folks on TV ask it of their guests....I'm tired of hearing the question asked....as if just asking it were actually going to accomplish anything.

There is something that you can do. You can set aside your ambitions....you can refrain from going to that store to buy that new flat screen TV....or that new video game for your kid. You stay home and cook your own supper....brew your own coffee in the morning and carry it in a thermos to work....you can find some simple joy in your life....stay home. Don't take that vacation.....don't spend money you don't have to.

If just a fraction of us stopped producing....business owners and employees alike and we took what we have to cover our bare necessities and SACRIFICED a little for OURSELVES....it would just grind to a halt....all of it.

I know it's difficult to look at it....it requires something. You can sacrifice a little now....for yourself....or you can sacrifice everything later....for others.

Brothers and sisters....the power truly is in your hands....and you have two of them. Close the one and open the other and look at what REAL POWER is....economic power.

Everyone here is so keen on whose money is being used for this abomination....does it occur to you that if you simply stop producing....stop consuming....then your POWER can really be realized.

I'm a small business owner. I employ people. I pay them a living wage, I do not have a single person on my payroll making the Federal minimum in a business where that is the norm.

I review each employee's wages 2 yearly. I often issue raises, especially when the profit grows.

My business grosses over $250,000 annually.

I keep this country running. I keep this country working. I produce...I do not pillage; I do not plunder.

I provide matching funds for the morally and financially bankrupt Social Security scam...as well as the Medicare abomination.

I'm not scared....you can't do what I do and what millions of other producers in this country do...and be scared.

I have been prudent with my profits....I own my life....I own my home....I own my vehicles....I own all the assets of my business. I am debt free....and solvent. I live a simple life free from extravagance and excess.

I continue to work because it is my purpose in life to produce. I am not in business for anyone's benefit, but my own. Were it not for this....those that derive a living from me...couldn't.

I'm not scared. Should this bill pass, mandating me to do anything I do not choose....or Cap and Trade.....

I will STOP. I will QUIT. I will refuse to produce anything further....and I will urge all that can find their way clear to do the same thing.

While it is my purpose to PRODUCE....it is my highest purpose to be FREE.

I refuse to be a victim....I will be plundered NO MORE.

Pay attention America....pay attention Washington....if you define the price of success as victimization....you will starve....we WILL stop.

I've looked it over...I'm beginning to think it's the only way.

We're all simple people here. I'm nobody. I'm very simple. I'm one man. I was taught that in order to worthy of freedom....you must be responsible for it. Necessarily if you feel that freedom and responsibility are inseparable...then you have no choice but to understand from where it springs. You must go out and meet that proactively and not consign it to others....nor remain in ignorance and wait for others to explain it to you....or become an interceding force between you....and it. If it is to be mine...then I must earn it and be worthy of it...through understanding and homage....and humility.

That's my service to the country....yours....well, I'm simply awed by yours. I understand that it is through service, such as yours....that mine results. Thank you.

First of all...thank you for your service.

In my mind...in my view, all the abuses of the Federal Government essentially can be distilled to one, central issue: States' rights.

If you look at the debate around the ratification of the Constitution, a significant amount of that debate and the resistance to the Union was the concern that the individual states would lose their autonomy, control of their individual economies....which were quite diverse, and be subject to laws which originated from afar.

It was the very issue that caused them to fight England, in the first place.

The Constitution was crafted to form a Federalist system of government, whereby the national authority for government was derived from the states' ceding a small amount of their authority to the Federal Government....in order to derive "a more perfect Union...and secure the blessings of Liberty".

I recounted the history of the Central Bank to show that this is not a contemporary issue alone. It is one that has been central to the founding of the Union and has persisted through each phase of the development of the country. From the beginning, the objection to the Central Bank was that, by nature, it violated the rights of the States and undermined their autonomy. Some argue, as within this string....that by virtue of that, the Central Bank concept, itself...is Unconstitutional. And it is a very valid argument. I've offered otherwise, simply because if you concede the Constitutionality of the First and Second Bank you create expediency in the argument against the Third....the Fed.

If you agree with that premise, then there is a triad of events that have delegitimized the current government.

1. The ratification of the 16th Amendment
2. Passing of the Federal Reserve Act of 1913
3. Ratification of the 17th Amendment

And you are absolutely correct, in my opinion, that one of these events is the ratification of the 16th Amendment. Prior to the ratification of the 16th Amendment the Federal Government was severely limited in revenue collection. As our Founders foresaw...providing a direct taxing authority to the Federal Government was necessary...but dangerous. They designed a system, whereby, a significant portion of the country's revenue came indirectly though the states, themselves....the 16th Amendment eliminated that check.

It is precisely why the Income Tax needed to be enacted by Amendment to the Constitution, as opposed to an Act of Congress. Were it an Act of Congress...States' could have brought suit in the Federal Courts to determine the Constitutionality of creating such authority...where the Constitution did not authorize it. Instead the Constitution and the debate surrounding it, specifically sought to LIMIT the direct taxing authority of the Federal Government.

There is still argument as to whether an Amendment to the Constitution can be made such that the intent and effect of its Articles can be materially altered through Amendment. But by nature....these questions cannot be answered in Courts...as the Constitution itself, supersedes the authority of Courts to determine such questions.

That, similarly may only be addressed by Amendment.

By re-instituting the Third Bank (The Fed), Congress essentially preceded that action (16th Amendment) with the mechanism to concentrate the revenue of that taxing authority in an institution that answered to no authority but it's own, thereby eliminating the States' ability to control the taxing authority (16th Amendment) or effect direct influence on the finances of the Union and the monetary policy from which that revenue was derived (The Fed). Traditionally, and rightly so...strict Federalists viewed the Central Bank as a concept alien to the American experiment....and nothing more than a club to beat opponents into submission....or remove the States' rights under the Constitution by circumventing them.

And finally, with the ratification of the 17th Amendment and the provision for the direct election of senators, the final blow to the concept of Federalism and the Constitution was dealt. Prior to that Amendment, the Senate was composed of 100 members....2 from each state and elected, not by the people, whose representation is secured in the House...but by the State House's themselves. The Senate was made the Upper Chamber and obtained equal representation for each state and provided that Senators answered to and acted for the States themselves their actions were answerable to the State House's...it is from the State House that they were elected....in order to ensure that the States themselves obtained representation and provided for the continuous. limited, balanced and checked flow of power from the states....to a legitimate Union of those states by such mechanism.

It was beautiful...a triumph of intellect and common sense...not perfect, at all...but glorious in its accomplishments and its premise. In three blindly fast, quick and successive and precise actions...the Constitution was used....to destroy itself. It was done so not by those that loved the Constitution...but by those that lusted power...not Liberty....not Justice.

Privately held corporations are not the subject of public audits. They can be audited summarily only by the Internal Revenue Service.

Publicly traded corporations are the subject of public audits...through the regulatory authority of the SEC...or through majority vote of the stockholders, if the by-laws of such corporation authorize it.

The hubris here is not in Washington.....it's in New York. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York is the most powerful of the 12 Regional Reserve Banks.

ACORN similarly....is a privately held corporation.

If you authorized the Federal Government to summarily audit privately held companies...not only would you be violating the 5th Amendment....you would be tying the rope into a noose....placing it over your head....and jumping off.

The Legislation required to audit the Fed is intricate....it must allow for the causation to audit such a privately held corporation....to be explicitly limited to that entity for some closely defined extraordinary reason.

Excellent!!!

Many thanks for this. It's a very cogent distillation of a complicated matter. Of course, I agree with your conclusions and I suspect you may have spent much time in consideration....or banking and finance.

Either way I think it's very important that this institution be de-mystified. I believe that if knowledgeable people take the time to explain it....conclusions regarding the institution will become self-evident . If people believe that understanding is inaccessible....it tends to defeat them from the outset....or diffuse the impact of information that may come to light.

I'd be interested to know, since your reply to my Fed post yesterday under the Senators string was fairly general...what exact opinion that I offered....bothered you?

I'm guessing...but I suspect it was my assertion that the first two Banks were Constitutional. Truly...that is a matter of opinion. While I believe they were just inside the boundary...allow me to clarify....I did not agree with Hamilton...in that, nor in many of the opinions and conclusions offered in his Federalist Papers.

I believe Madison made a mistake chartering the Second Bank and I believe Madison came to regret it. My agreement resides with Jackson.

I believe Central Banking is just a bad idea...I think nearly anything can be crafted to be plausibly Constitutional....that doesn't make it right.

Anyway, I enjoyed your post here...I love it when people use language precisely and intelligently to explain complex things in simple terms. Thanks.

I think this discussion, of all that I've seen so far in my brief time here is the most useful. I notice that Rahthrae has gone to some length to give a very cogent explanation of how the Fed does what it does in relation to the fractional reserve rate. People that are providing hard information on these posts should be thanked for taking the time to explain it.

Most people don't know about the reserve rate. Generally you get your first taste of that mechanism as an individual....or a small business when the Fed changes the reserve rate....and your bank calls your loan to meet the new rate.

I had the opportunity to view the wonders of that power and how it works in 1974....when they called my dad's business loan based on a reserve rate "adjustment"...and in the process bankrupted a successful business and foreclosed the collateral....our home.

But make no mistake the actions of the Fed touch each and every one of us on a daily and ongoing basis even if you do not experience direct economic impact such as I describe above....and Rahthrae's conclusions of what an audit would reveal are accurate, in my opinion....and I'm certain that you will find much agreement here with those conclusions.

But don't just listen to anyone else...as accurate as their account may be...READ the Act itself. It is available here:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/3930884/Federal-Reserve...

Too many of you continue to misunderstand the nature of this institution...some are citing that, in some way their tax dollars are involved, others are complaining that government needs to be transparent. None of these complaints are applicable to this discussion. The Fed is not the Federal Government....your tax dollars are not funding it....it is a privately held corporation this is providing those dollars against which you are taxed....and it is setting the policy that dictates what those dollars are worth.

Look any piece of currency in your pocket...and read what it says across the top...."Federal Reserve Note". Now go get a book....or visit a website ie www.banknotes.com and watch the history of the Federal Reserves hijacking of the wealth of the country written across the currency....over time. Each change in the currency....indicates a change in the policy of the Fed with regard to that currency. It's right in your hand....and the story has been written in the notes you've been exchanging.

Ask a grandparent if they can remember when you could walk into any bank in the country or the Treasury, for that matter with a United States Note in your hand....and walk out with a commensurate amount of gold....or silver depending on the denomination....and note your were holding.

In recent days, you've heard about sweeping legislation that is 1000's of pages long...this Act...this revolution against common sense...is a mere 24 pages. It's the legislative equivalent of Einstein's E=MC2....so eloquent in its brevity....and sweeping in its effect. Take the time, read it....leave a tab open for the reference material of your choice....dictionary.com, wikipedia...whatever. If you run into a word whose definition you don't know....look it up.

It's your responsibility to understand this, if you are going to demand audits....of what use are they to you if you are in no position to understand the results of those audits? Nor the mechanism that is the subject of your demands?

Alot of you will be directed to YouTube posts..."The Creature from Jekyll Island", I suspect. Wonderful film...G Edward Griffin...wow it's amazing to me that I find Mr. Griffin's name in the mainstream...you should check out other of his books and films off this subject. I suggest "World Without Cancer". Mr Griffin has been around a long time.

And one more thing.....Auditing the Fed is a powerful idea...but it is not a panacea. The Fed, egregious as it was from the beginning, was unleashed to realize the full abomination you see now when Nixon removed us completely from the gold standard....if there was any small check built into it....that removed it completely...and for good.