One nation under God

Liberty and Justice for All

2006-09-21

Feds Claim Liberty Dollars are a Federal Crime

More Smoke and Mirrors From the Wizard of Oz...

The United States Mint recently issued a warning regarding NORFED and the Liberty Dollar, even though spokespeople from the Treasury, Secret Service, and Federal Reserve officials have said over the years that there was nothing illegal or wrong with issuing or using the Liberty Dollar as private currency.

Could it be that the Mint sees the Liberty Dollar as a threat to its revenue stream? And considering the fact that the Liberty Dollar represents the beliefs of the anti-tax, anti-Federal Reserve patriots, I suppose this was only a matter of time and it should really come as no huge surprise.

Since the Mint claims that United States Department of Justice has concluded that the use of NORFED Liberty Dollar medallions is a violation of federal law, but there has been no prosecutions or grand juries, it appears to be a "prosecution by press release."

Time for Toto to pull back the curtain and end the charade...

Gina Weiss

SEE THE LIBERTY DOLLAR PRESS RELEASE

"Liberty Dollar Says NO to the US Mint Allegations"

2006-09-19

Do US Actions Betray American Values?

George Bush claims that 'torture is never acceptable',  yet we have only to look at the interrogation techniques used in Guantanamo Bay and the horror of  Abu Ghraib to see that the culture of dehumanization and brutality has become commonplace in our culture.

Though the interrogation techniques used in Guantanamo Bay may fall slightly short of a 'legal' definition of ‘torture’ I think most of us would agree that they do still constitute torture.

US intelligence has devoted much time and effort in devising interrogation techniques and claim their methods are "not really" torture. The CIA abducting terrorist suspects and transferring them to states such as Egypt and Syria, where torture is routine, the excuses become a bit transparent; the US appears to be heading up a multinational torture network which includes Afghanistan, Cuba, Gambia, Iraq, and finally, Uzbekistan -  notorious for brutal torture methods.

Many terrorist suspects have been relinquished to Egypt, where a state of emergency is in force and torture is widespread. Since 2002 when the US government declared that its Al Qaeda and Taliban prisoners were not prisoners of war but ‘unlawful combatants’, the US has been allowed to detain its prisoners indefinitely, and the obligation to treat them ‘humanely’, removed.

This is not a humanitarian strategy. Inhuman or degrading treatment has never been synonymous with America. Don't these abuses betray the very values we claim to be defending? Aren't we becoming that which we disdain in this "war on terror?"

Gina Weiss





Posted at 09:14:45 PM  |  Post Comment  |  Read Comments (1)

2006-09-02

Is there still cause to celebrate?

Each year, as Labor Day approaches, we are reminded once again of the Labor movement of the past century and the effect of the Labor unions in America.

With the widespread corruption of the Teamsters in 1957 which resulted in their expulsion from the AFL-CIO, and the criminal acts of its leaders, many Americans became disillusioned in the labor unions. Though readmitted to the AFL-CIO in 1988, the Teamsters and Service Employees subsequent withdrawal in 2005, along with the United Food and Commercial Workers, was considered by many to be organized labor's worst crisis in seventy years.

Is there still cause to celebrate?

The American labor movement and labor unions were born from a need for change in the working world. Laborers worked too many hours for too little money in dangerous conditions, and labor unions were negotiators and watchdogs for the American workforce to maintain quality standards and to ensure employers hired skilled laborers from home.

Formed in 1955 by the merger of the American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial
Organizations, the AFL-CIO represents nearly 9 million working women and men nationwide and another 1 million members of Working America, and describes labor unions as working people working together to solve problems, build stronger workplaces and give working families a real voice.

According to the AFl-CIO, unions give workers a voice on the job about safety, security, pay, benefits—and about the best ways to get the work done. Union workers earn 28 percent more each week than nonunion workers and are much more likely to have health and pension benefits. Unions give working people a voice in government. They represent working families before lawmakers, and make sure politicians never forget that working families voted them into office.
 
Economists may argue that though for more than a century, labor unions have been celebrated as
champions of the downtrodden working man, and "the bosses" are depicted as coldhearted exploiters of employees, from an economic standpoint, unions are simply cartels that raise wages above competitive levels by capturing monopolies over who companies can hire and what they must pay.

They further argue that though many unions have won higher wages and better working conditions for their members this reduces the number of jobs available; therefore, if unions raise the price of labor, employers will purchase less of it, according to the basic law of demand, making unions the major anticompetitive force in labor markets, their gains coming at the expense of consumers, nonunion workers, the jobless, and owners of corporations.
 
Whether we agree or disagree with the basic foundation of unions themselves, one thing seems certain: unions as we know them, are on the decline.

In 2006, the term "labor" can apply to professional unions, the national holiday, and college and universities academic departments. The American labor movement has grown from its grassroots in colonial America to national associations numbering millions. For many Americans, Labor Day may simply be the signal to the end of the summer. But for the American workforce, the holiday remembers those who have labored for our country since its founding.

What is clear from the past century is that labor unions fought to honor the American worker.

That, my friends, is cause to celebrate.

Gina Weiss





Posted at 06:03:15 PM  |  Post Comment  |  Read Comments (1)

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