Let every American, every lover of liberty, every well wisher to his posterity, swear by the blood of the Revolution, never to violate in the least particular, the laws of the country; and never to tolerate their violation by others.
As the patriots of seventy-six did to the support of the Declaration of Independence, so to the support of the Constitution and Laws, let every American pledge his life, his property, and his sacred honor; let every man remember that to violate the law, is to trample on the blood of his father, and to tear the charter of his own, and his children's liberty.
Let reverence for the laws, be breathed by every American mother, to the lisping babe, that prattles on her lap; let it be taught in schools, in seminaries, and in colleges; let it be written in Primers, spelling books, and in Almanacs; let it be preached from the pulpit, proclaimed in legislative halls, and enforced in courts of justice. And, in short, let it become the political religion of the nation; and Let the old and the young, the rich and the poor, the grave and the gay, of all sexes and tongues, and colors and conditions, sacrifice unceasingly upon its altars.
While ever a state of feeling, such as this, shall universally, or even, very generally prevail throughout the nation, vain will be every effort, and fruitless every attempt, to subvert our national freedom.
- Abraham Lincoln, January 27, 1838 Address Before the Young Men's Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois
America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves. - Abraham Lincoln
I do the very best I know how - the very best I can; and I mean to keep doing so until the end. If the end brings me out all right, what's said against me won't amount to anything. If the end brings me out wrong, ten angels swearing I was right would make no difference. - Abraham Lincoln
Every man is said to have his peculiar ambition. Whether it be true or not, I can say for one that I have no other so great as that of being truly esteemed of my fellow men, by rendering myself worthy of their esteem. - Abraham Lincoln
I freely acknowledge myself the servant of the people, according to the bond of service - the United States Constitution; and that, as such, I am responsible to them. - Abraham Lincoln
If all men were just, there still would be some, though not so much, need of government. - Abraham Lincoln
The power confided to me will be used to hold, occupy, and possess the property and places belonging to the government, and to collect the duties and imposts; but beyond what may be necessary for these objects, there will be no invasion, no using of force against or among the people anywhere. - Abraham Lincoln
To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of men. - Abraham Lincoln
Force is all-conquering, but its victories are short-lived. - Abraham Lincoln
Kings had always been involving and impoverishing their people in wars, pretending generally, if not always, that the good of the people was the object. - Abraham Lincoln
Peace is a thing which a person must be willing to fight for. - Abraham Lincoln
I appeal to all loyal citizens to favor, facilitate and aid this effort to maintain the honor, the integrity, and the existence of our National Union, and the perpetuity of popular government; and to redress wrongs already long enough endured. - Abraham Lincoln
My dream is of a place and a time where America will once again be seen as the last best hope of earth. - Abraham Lincoln
While the people retain their virtue, and vigilance, no administration, by any extreme of wickedness or folly, can very seriously injure the government, in the short space of four years. - Abraham Lincoln
I care not much for a man's religion whose dog and cat are not the better for it. - Abraham Lincoln
The world has never had a good definition of the word liberty, and the American people, just now, are much in want of one. - Abraham Lincoln
Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration. - Abraham Lincoln
There is more involved in this contest than is realized by every one. There is involved in this struggle the question whether your children and my children shall enjoy the privileges we have enjoyed. - Abraham Lincoln
My great concern is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with your failure. - Abraham Lincoln
Public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment, nothing can fail; without it, nothing can succeed. - Abraham Lincoln
You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time. - Abraham Lincoln
Allow the president to invade a neighboring nation, whenever he shall deem it necessary to repel an invasion, and you allow him to do so whenever he may choose to say he deems it necessary for such a purpose - and you allow him to make war at pleasure. - Abraham Lincoln
I laugh because I must not cry. That is all. That is all. - Abraham Lincoln
I have borne a laborious, and, in some respects to myself, a painful part in the contest. Through all, I have neither assailed, nor wrestled with any part of the constitution. - Abraham Lincoln
We must not promise what we ought not, lest we be called on to perform what we cannot. - Abraham Lincoln
It often requires more courage to dare to do right than to fear to do wrong. - Abraham Lincoln
Determine that the thing can and shall be done, and then we shall find the way. - Abraham Lincoln
I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts. - Abraham Lincoln
When I do good, I feel good. When I do bad, I feel bad. That is my religion. - Abraham Lincoln
Be sure you put your feet in the right place, then stand firm. - Abraham Lincoln
If once you forfeit the confidence of your fellow-citizens, you can never regain their respect and esteem. - Abraham Lincoln
I am in favor of animal rights as well as human rights. That is the way of a whole human being. - Abraham Lincoln
I had been told I was on the road to hell, but I had no idea it was just a mile down the road with a dome on it. - Abraham Lincoln
These capitalists generally act harmoniously and in concert, to fleece the people. - Abraham Lincoln
With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations. - Abraham Lincoln
There are no accidents in my philosophy. Every effect must have its cause. The past is the cause of the present, and the present will be the cause of the future. All these are links in the endless chain stretching from the finite to the infinite. - Abraham Lincoln
Let no feeling of discouragement prey upon you, and in the end you are sure to succeed. - Abraham Lincoln
He has a right to criticize, who has a heart to help. - Abraham Lincoln
You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today. - Abraham Lincoln
I could not have slept tonight if I had left that helpless little creature to perish on the ground. - Abraham Lincoln (Reply to friends who chided him for delaying them by stopping to return a fledgling to its nest.)
You cannot help small men by tearing down big men. - Abraham Lincoln
Worse than traitors in arms are the men who pretend loyalty to the flag, feast and fatten on the misfortunes of the Nation, while patriotic blood is crimsoning the plains. . . and their countrymen moldering the dust. - Abraham Lincoln
Any people anywhere, being inclined and having the power, have the right to rise up, and shake off the existing government, and form a new one that suits them better. This is a most valuable - a most sacred right - a right, which we hope and believe, is to liberate the world. - Abraham Lincoln
Don't interfere with anything in the Constitution. That must be maintained, for it is the only safeguard of our liberties. - Abraham Lincoln
Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power. - Abraham Lincoln
No man is good enough to govern another man without that other's consent. - Abraham Lincoln
Our defense is in the preservation of the spirit which prizes liberty as a heritage of all men, in all lands, everywhere. Destroy this spirit and you have planted the seeds of despotism around your own doors. - Abraham Lincoln
Our safety, our liberty, depends upon preserving the Constitution of the United States as our fathers made it inviolate. The people of the United States are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution. - Abraham Lincoln
I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true. I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live by the light that I have. I must stand with anybody that stands right, and stand with him while he is right, and part with him when he goes wrong. - Abraham Lincoln
We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature. - Abraham Lincoln
A house divided against itself cannot stand. - Abraham Lincoln
I have never had a feeling, politically, that did not spring from the Declaration of Independence, that all should have an equal chance. This is the sentiment embodied in the Declaration of Independence. I would rather be assassinated on this spot than surrender it. - Abraham Lincoln
The possibility that we may fail in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just. - Abraham Lincoln
The dogmas of the quiet past, are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise -- with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country. - Abraham Lincoln
I have always found that mercy bears richer fruits than strict justice. - Abraham Lincoln
I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. Corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed. - Abraham Lincoln
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
The news media needed a poll to figure this out?
This poll just in from the Washington Post: Shocking! We the People don't blame the new president (in office for less than three months) for the disastrous economy that he inherited!
Imagine that!
Good to know we're not as dumb as we look, eh? (Or as dumb as the news establishment owners would like us to be.)
But can this really be... news? Does this drivel pass for news these days?
The number of Americans who believe that the nation is headed in the right direction has roughly tripled since Barack Obama's election, and the public overwhelmingly blames the excesses of the financial industry, rather than the new president, for turmoil in the economy, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.
Obama is going after the fat cats who bled us dry and into the poor house, and he's talking about more than simply recovery; he's talking about investing in our future by making real reforms.
I think its a good budget. It may not be perfect, but he's stressing the right things - clean fuel, infrastructure, education, health care, and oversight. AIG has just proven once again why we MUST have oversight. Oversight protects us - the people - from super-wealthy predator corporations. Like that peanut company... the one that didn't want us to know we were eating contaminated ingredients in foods we consume every day.
I have always believed our job of pushing for change was going to extend well beyond the election. We need to loudly demand and continue insisting on the change we demanded when we elected President Obama last fall. We shocked the world (and ourselves;) and we can go much further. England, France, Canada and even our 'enemy' Cuba have free health care for all who live there. We're not even trying to go that far (and we should;) but there is already stiff resistance from those who can afford the best and who profit from the current system. We could have free health care - we we have free grade school education - if our corporations weren't so greedy... and so powerful.
There are more of us 'common people' than wealthy predators, and we flexed our muscles in the last election. We can outvote them, and we can out-shout them if we work together. We can't stop pushing now. America has been degraded and shamed by the greed of a few, at the expense of the many. Why are we putting up with this? We should be leaning on Congress - every day if necessary - demanding that the change we said we wanted when we voted for Obama, actually becomes law.
We have a chance now, by supporting Obama's budget.
There will be a lot of resistance from the powerful AIGs of our land. They've been running lose and reckless for decades, and have gone totally 'rogue' the last eight years. Our national media is also in the pocket of the super-wealthy elite. They are still spreading propaganda packaged as news.
We have to use our eyes and our heads and separate the wheat from the chaff. The state of our economy is proof that greed is not good (as if most of us didn't already know that to begin with.) Time to end this greedy free-for-all and pull ourselves back up out of this mud, reclaim our national pride, our jobs, homes and our moral standards.
In their worst-ever advertising and self-promotion campaign, AIG has thrown rotten eggs at your homes, and laughed in your face while taking your money (all of it) because it was supposedly necessary to take YOUR money to clean up the egg mess. While busy not really cleaning up their mess... and repeatedly insisting that they need more money... AIG decided to use some of these money on hefty million dollar bonuses to be payed to the very AIG employees who did the egg-slinging.
Yes: they used your money your children's money, and your children's children's money to pay them. Some of these employees aren't even working for AIG anymore. It just gets better and better.
AIG has advertised in no uncertain terms that we are never to trust them again. We should never EVER give them any of our business, ever, while laughing hysterically at their TV commercials, until they finally die a quiet death or we take them over (for real -- we get the stock and can fire every one of these jackels. Every single one, from top to bottom. Clean house.)
Are we angry? You have no idea. Ask Iceland how they feel -- their entire country went bankrupt because of this domino effect, all started by AIG, the company 'too big to fail' (and too irresponsible to remain in business.)
(CNN) -- AIG paid 73 employees bonuses of more than $1 million, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo informed Congress in a letter Tuesday. Congress is looking at ways to deal with the outrage surrounding AIG's controversial bonuses.
Cuomo also wrote that 11 of the employees no longer work for the company. The largest bonus paid was $6.4 million and seven more people received more than $4 million each.
"Until we obtain the names of these individuals, it is impossible to determine when and why they left the firm and how it is that they received these payments," Cuomo wrote to a congressional committee.
AIG has been under fire for awarding seven-figure bonuses to employees while being kept afloat by more than $170 billion from the U.S. government's financial bailout.
Taxing the tax cuts. The GOP thought of everything.
The modest 'economic stimulus' payment we received last year from the Bush Administration? My husband is preparing our taxes -- we just noticed that the government is taxing it. We burst out laughing.
Brilliant. Return some of our tax money, supposedly to 'stimulate the economy;' then take it right back the following year as taxes.
Taxing the tax cut. They really have this game rigged.
And I'm sure the GOP assumed it would take us awhile to notice... it wouldn't become apparent until well after the general election.
Its also great to see that he is (obviously) as frustrated as we are out here. No wonder he wanted out of the Senate. Its obviously no place for a guy who wants to make a difference.
I suppose America had to survive a Hoover and a Bush before we could appreciate a Roosevelt and an Obama. Apparently we've paid our dues, just like our grandparents' generation. We have a full-blown disaster... and a terrific leader.
Layoffs, like an economic flu bug sweeping across the nation, have now infected manufacturing and IS jobs. The job cut disease is reaching epidemic proportions; and the fever won't start to break until the economic stimulus flu medicine makes it out of congress.
So. To our 'friends' in congress... hurry it up, will you? Its cold out here.
We have almost a foot of new snow, its in the 20s (again and every day now; and this in a section of the country where 'winter weather' usually means 30s or 40s.) People are losing their jobs. People are struggling to pay heating bills that are unusually high this winter, due to the extreme cold. And of course... people are losing their houses.
Monday’s parade of negative news comes after months of announcements from other prominent companies like Citigroup, General Electric, Nokia and Harley-Davidson. As part of its acquisition of Wyeth, Pfizer said it would cut the combined workforce by 19,500 employees.
Yes, Citigroup. The very Citigroup that received a $50 billion bailout from our government, and then went out and bought a new corporate jet. Nice to see they have their priorities straight.
On Wednesday, the tally of mass layoffs for December will be released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Already, the bureau says the United States economy has shed 2.55 million jobs since the recession began, pushing the unemployment rate up to 7.2 percent last month.
“The economy is deteriorating at a faster clip than even the most dreary forecasts had expected,” said Joseph Brusuelas, an economist who, bucking the current job market trend, will soon start a new job at Moody’s Economy.com. “At the current trend, $43 billion will not be sufficient should we breach 9 percent unemployment and maybe reach into the double digits.”
Out of our taxes, into their pockets... and now injury added to insult. In a brilliant effort to increase consumer spending, the freshly bailed-out financial institutions (the banks and credit companies) have decided to slash the lines of credit that in many cases enable people in these hard times to buy groceries.
As for the 'Christmas rush' on which many businesses depend, it will likely be a dismal year (I know we aren't buying a damn thing. We're hording.) Other than the stampede that killed a Walmart worker last Friday -- the darkest of Black Fridays -- this holiday shopping season will be lean. Honestly: who has money for anything but the necessities? Its shaping up into a cold winter. If I bought anything right now it would be a wood-burning stove.
But sure Henry Paulson -- you're doin a heckuva job. The economy will just bounce right back now that your rich friends can once again afford those posh, luxury retreats.
The credit card is the second key source of consumer liquidity, the first being jobs, the Oppenheimer & Co analyst noted.
"In other words, we expect available consumer liquidity in the form of credit-card lines to decline by 45 percent."
Bank of America Corp (BAC.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), Citigroup Inc (C.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) represent over half of the estimated U.S. card outstandings as of September 30, and each company has discussed reducing card exposure or slowing growth, Whitney said.
Closing millions of accounts, cutting credit lines and raising interest rates are just some of the moves credit card issuers are using to try to inoculate themselves from a tsunami of expected consumer defaults.
I have an idea, Mr. Paulson. Of course you won't like it; and your buddies will hate it... by why don't you break these behemoths up into smaller, more manageable entities so as to pry their hands off of our collective throats? No banking or business entity should be so large, with so much power that it threatens our entire economy let alone the world's economy. Lesson learned. Of course the wealthy elite stick together, so my guess is that the lesson learned won't be enacted in any kind of meaningful way.
Banking analyst Meredith Whitney seems to be on the same page. Early on in the story:
Mortgages and credit cards are now dominated by five players who are all pulling back liquidity, making reductions in consumer liquidity seem unavoidable, she said.
Further down... another observation:
"In a country that offers hundreds of cereal and soda pop choices, the banking industry has become one that offers very few choices," Whitney wrote in a note dated November 30.
She also said credit lines to consumers through home equity and credit cards had been cut back from the second-quarter levels.
"Pulling credit when job losses are increasing by over 50 percent year-over-year in most key states is a dangerous and unprecedented combination, in our view," the analyst said.
We lost our business after 9/11. When we lost our business... we also lost our home. I suppose we started our 'Great Depression, pt. II' a little earlier than some, but we all arrived here together.
Stranger buys foreclosed home, gives it back to owner
My husband and I were driving around town this past weekend, and couldn't help but notice two huge, wooden signs posted in front of two homes in different areas of the city. Both advertised upcoming home auctions. We were horrified by the size of the signs and talked about how we hoped the people had already moved out and didn't have to suffer through that added humiliation.
Then we mused aloud about how fun it would be - if we had the money - to buy a foreclosed house at an auction and hand it back to the owner.
(CNN) -- Tracy Orr sat in the back of the room and prepared to watch her foreclosed home go up for auction this past Saturday. That's when a pesky stranger sat down beside her and struck up a conversation.
"Are you here to buy a house?" Marilyn Mock said.
Orr couldn't hold it in. The tears flowed. She pointed to the auction brochure at a home that didn't have a picture. "That's my house," she said.
Within moments, the four-bedroom, two-bath home in Pottsboro, Texas, went up for sale. People up front began casting their bids. The home that Orr purchased in September 2004 was slipping away.
She stood and moved toward the crowd. Behind her, Mock got into the action.
"She didn't know I was doing it," Mock says. "I just kept asking her if [her home] was worth it, and she just kept crying. She probably thought I was crazy, 'Why does this woman keep asking me that?' "
Mock says she bought the home for about $30,000. That's when Mock did what most bidders at a foreclosure auction never do.
"She said, 'I did this for you. I'm doing this for you,' " Orr says. "When it was all done, I was just in shock."
I immediately fired off an email to my husband -- "Someone actually DID IT!"
The fact is... this is the sort of selflessness that used to (and I believe still does) define us as Americans. We are not the sum total of the bad apples among us. Every society has people who are afraid or who hate. And we are certainly not defined by the differences that some would drum up and emphasize to make us feel alienated from each other.
NO -- I have heard it said (and by a friend in Europe) that Americans are at their best when things are worst.
Why be so generous?
"She was just so sad. You put yourself in their situation and you realize you just got to do something," says Mock, who says she has trouble walking by homeless people on the street and not helping them out.
"If it was you, you'd want somebody to stop and help you."
This is who we really are.... or certainly who we can be, at our best.
Mock didn't have the means to buy the house 'no strings attached;' she put one of her business dump trucks up as collateral for the loan. What she provided wasn't a hand out, but a helping hand to a neighbor in need. Orr was able to stay in her home... and Mock made made a new fishing friend:
Mock says she's excited for another reason too. Orr's house is located near a Texas fishing hot-spot. "She says I can come up there and fish, and I love to fish!"
Orr, who nearly lost her home, says her newfound friend has "given me back faith and hope to keep going and hold my head up."
If we are in fact facing another depression (like the Great Depression that our parents and grandparents lived through,) we will undoubtedly find ourselves pulling together as communities and taking care of each other. Not charity... just neighborly compassion, as we all seek shelter in these troubled times.
LONDON (CNNMoney.com) -- Stock around the world took another heavy beating Monday, with shares in Japan falling to their lowest level in 26 years, as fears of a global recession continued to sweep markets.
U.S. futures, which offer an indication of how Wall Street may open when trading begins in New York, were sharply lower.
European shares tumbled, with Britain's FTSE 100 down 4.8% in midday trading. The CAC-40 in Paris was down 6.5% and Germany's DAX fell 4%
In Asia, Japan's benchmark Nikkei index finished the session 6.4% lower -- its worst closing level since October 1982. Hong Kong shares were pummeled, with the Hang Seng index plunging 12.7%.
Layoffs have arrived in force, like a wrenching second act in the unfolding crisis. In just the last two weeks, the list of companies announcing their intention to cut workers has read like a Who’s Who of corporate America: Merck, Yahoo, General Electric, Xerox, Pratt & Whitney, Goldman Sachs, Whirlpool, Bank of America, Alcoa, Coca-Cola, the Detroit automakers and nearly all the airlines.
When October’s job losses are announced on Nov. 7, three days after the presidential election, many economists expect the number to exceed 200,000. The current unemployment rate of 6.1 percent is likely to rise, perhaps significantly.
There isn't much more to say. This is just more of the same economic pain and chaos we've watched unfolding for weeks. We built our economy on sand - the sly manipulations of greedy men - and now the waves are washing it all away.
Greenspan has admitted to Congress that he greatly underestimated the power of greed. I find that darkly amusing. Many of us have been watching this travesty in disbelief for half a generation. I'm sure it was simply convenient to look the other way. Like the breached levees in New Orleans post-Katrina, this was all entirely predictable (and planning for the obvious outcome -- terribly inconvenient.)
While the people retain their virtue, and vigilance, no administration, by any extreme of wickedness or folly, can very seriously injure the government, in the short space of four years.
- Abraham Lincoln
Is the disastrous state of our nation due to our own lack of 'virtue and vigilance;' or because the damage dragged on - unchecked - for eight full years instead of four?
We did surprise the establishment by sending a Democratic majority to Congress in 2006, assuming that they would push back and 'clean the place up.' They chose to do nothing. They didn't even vote to end the war in Iraq (which has cost us billions and resulted in an enormous debt to Communist China, not to mention ongoing loss of life.) They chose not to hold the Bush Administration accountable, even when the multitude of crimes committed by this administration became evident.
All of these components have led us to our current state of economic collapse and lack of respect around the globe.
President Jimmy Carter said yesterday that the "atrocious economic policies of the Bush administration had caused the worst global financial crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s." True. But what of the Democratic Congress we elected in 2006, and their responsibility to act as a check on those economic policies?
Seems to me that there is more than enough blame to go around.
My question for today: does our current state of affairs reflect badly on our vigilance as citizens, or on Democratic capitulation?
I still plan to vote for Obama. But I can't stop wondering... have the Democrats learned anything at all from this disaster? And if they haven't, do we really have any hope - other than in the foresight of one potentially great leader, Barack Obama - that this country can pull out if its nosedive?
WASHINGTON — For the second consecutive day, the Federal Reserve took bold action Wednesday in hopes of staving off a global financial collapse. And again U.S. financial markets failed to calm, extending losses for a sixth straight day while shrugging off a Fed-led, globally coordinated half-point cut in interest rates.
Crashing market, failing banks, loss of homes and jobs, climate change... are you ready?
We've been here before. Our grandparents lived through this; many of our parents grew up in the Great Depression. How did we fail to learn it's lessons? How did this lesson fail to be passed down to later generations?
"Waste not, want not."
They say if you don't study history, you are doomed to repeat it. Perhaps this time the lesson will stick.
I actually remember the famous 'Malaise' speech that President Jimmy Carter gave in 1979. I have thought about it from time to time in recent years, as it became obvious we were reaching peak oil. I haven't completely made up my mind about President Jimmy Carter's entire legacy, in regards to foreign policy; but I do know that he warned us that we would have to change our own expectations, or our future would be bleak.
Of course, we didn't want to change. We wanted everything, no strings attached. And so we embraced Reagan's promises of a joyful, prosperous future complete with military dominance, big cars and basically whatever we wanted. We ourselves... chose greed. The rampant greed we see today on Wall Street, in our corporations and in our government -- we chose this ourselves.
And now our own folly has come home to roost.
Even now we are blaming our government, Wall Street and the corporations (I know I have) for the economic mess in which we find ourselves. We are blaming everyone it seems but ourselves. But in the end... wasn't it 'we the people' who believed we deserved and should have it all? Just look around at the ridiculous number of wildly oversized SUVs still out there on the road - even though gas prices are skyrocketing to $4 a gallon. They are completely unsustainable, but their owners just won't give them up. Apparently they'd give up freedom... before their right to drive a tank.
This has led me to ponder when we Americans morphed from the 'Greatest Generation;' the generation that survived the Depression, fought World War II and then kicked off our productive boom years... into the greedy entitled consumers we are today. What the hell happened to us?
Maybe this is good for our nation. Maybe this is the only way we can learn, can wake up and join our neighbors in the entire rest of the world. Whether it is good for us or not -- it was predictable. Carter himself saw it coming, and was ridiculed and rejected by nearly everyone. Carter... who had solar panels installed on the White House roof. How symbolic that Reagan had them removed as soon as he moved in.
Personal responsibility was no longer 'in,' like it was during WWII and during the 1950s. And so we rejected Carter, rejected responsibility, and embraced the unsustainable dream. We can blame Wall Street all we want, but we'd better also look in the mirror.
Here it is - the famous 'Malaise' speech of 1979:
President Jimmy Carter, in a televised speech, July 15, 1979.
Good evening. This is a special night for me. Exactly three years ago, on July 15, 1976, I accepted the nomination of my party to run for president of the United States.
I promised you a president who is not isolated from the people, who feels your pain, and who shares your dreams and who draws his strength and his wisdom from you.
During the past three years I've spoken to you on many occasions about national concerns, the energy crisis, reorganizing the government, our nation's economy, and issues of war and especially peace. But over those years the subjects of the speeches, the talks, and the press conferences have become increasingly narrow, focused more and more on what the isolated world of Washington thinks is important. Gradually, you've heard more and more about what the government thinks or what the government should be doing and less and less about our nation's hopes, our dreams, and our vision of the future.
Ten days ago I had planned to speak to you again about a very important subject -- energy. For the fifth time I would have described the urgency of the problem and laid out a series of legislative recommendations to the Congress. But as I was preparing to speak, I began to ask myself the same question that I now know has been troubling many of you. Why have we not been able to get together as a nation to resolve our serious energy problem?
It's clear that the true problems of our Nation are much deeper -- deeper than gasoline lines or energy shortages, deeper even than inflation or recession. And I realize more than ever that as president I need your help. So I decided to reach out and listen to the voices of America.
I invited to Camp David people from almost every segment of our society -- business and labor, teachers and preachers, governors, mayors, and private citizens. And then I left Camp David to listen to other Americans, men and women like you.
It has been an extraordinary ten days, and I want to share with you what I've heard. First of all, I got a lot of personal advice. Let me quote a few of the typical comments that I wrote down.
This from a southern governor: "Mr. President, you are not leading this nation -- you're just managing the government."
"You don't see the people enough any more."
"Some of your Cabinet members don't seem loyal. There is not enough discipline among your disciples."
"Don't talk to us about politics or the mechanics of government, but about an understanding of our common good."
"Mr. President, we're in trouble. Talk to us about blood and sweat and tears."
"If you lead, Mr. President, we will follow."
Many people talked about themselves and about the condition of our nation.
This from a young woman in Pennsylvania: "I feel so far from government. I feel like ordinary people are excluded from political power."
And this from a young Chicano: "Some of us have suffered from recession all our lives."
"Some people have wasted energy, but others haven't had anything to waste."
And this from a religious leader: "No material shortage can touch the important things like God's love for us or our love for one another."
And I like this one particularly from a black woman who happens to be the mayor of a small Mississippi town: "The big-shots are not the only ones who are important. Remember, you can't sell anything on Wall Street unless someone digs it up somewhere else first."
This kind of summarized a lot of other statements: "Mr. President, we are confronted with a moral and a spiritual crisis."
Several of our discussions were on energy, and I have a notebook full of comments and advice. I'll read just a few.
"We can't go on consuming 40 percent more energy than we produce. When we import oil we are also importing inflation plus unemployment."
"We've got to use what we have. The Middle East has only five percent of the world's energy, but the United States has 24 percent."
And this is one of the most vivid statements: "Our neck is stretched over the fence and OPEC has a knife."
"There will be other cartels and other shortages. American wisdom and courage right now can set a path to follow in the future."
This was a good one: "Be bold, Mr. President. We may make mistakes, but we are ready to experiment."
And this one from a labor leader got to the heart of it: "The real issue is freedom. We must deal with the energy problem on a war footing."
And the last that I'll read: "When we enter the moral equivalent of war, Mr. President, don't issue us BB guns."
These ten days confirmed my belief in the decency and the strength and the wisdom of the American people, but it also bore out some of my long-standing concerns about our nation's underlying problems.
I know, of course, being president, that government actions and legislation can be very important. That's why I've worked hard to put my campaign promises into law -- and I have to admit, with just mixed success. But after listening to the American people I have been reminded again that all the legislation in the world can't fix what's wrong with America. So, I want to speak to you first tonight about a subject even more serious than energy or inflation. I want to talk to you right now about a fundamental threat to American democracy.
I do not mean our political and civil liberties. They will endure. And I do not refer to the outward strength of America, a nation that is at peace tonight everywhere in the world, with unmatched economic power and military might.
The threat is nearly invisible in ordinary ways. It is a crisis of confidence. It is a crisis that strikes at the very heart and soul and spirit of our national will. We can see this crisis in the growing doubt about the meaning of our own lives and in the loss of a unity of purpose for our nation.
The erosion of our confidence in the future is threatening to destroy the social and the political fabric of America.
The confidence that we have always had as a people is not simply some romantic dream or a proverb in a dusty book that we read just on the Fourth of July.
It is the idea which founded our nation and has guided our development as a people. Confidence in the future has supported everything else -- public institutions and private enterprise, our own families, and the very Constitution of the United States. Confidence has defined our course and has served as a link between generations. We've always believed in something called progress. We've always had a faith that the days of our children would be better than our own.
Our people are losing that faith, not only in government itself but in the ability as citizens to serve as the ultimate rulers and shapers of our democracy. As a people we know our past and we are proud of it. Our progress has been part of the living history of America, even the world. We always believed that we were part of a great movement of humanity itself called democracy, involved in the search for freedom, and that belief has always strengthened us in our purpose. But just as we are losing our confidence in the future, we are also beginning to close the door on our past.
In a nation that was proud of hard work, strong families, close-knit communities, and our faith in God, too many of us now tend to worship self-indulgence and consumption. Human identity is no longer defined by what one does, but by what one owns. But we've discovered that owning things and consuming things does not satisfy our longing for meaning. We've learned that piling up material goods cannot fill the emptiness of lives which have no confidence or purpose.
The symptoms of this crisis of the American spirit are all around us. For the first time in the history of our country a majority of our people believe that the next five years will be worse than the past five years. Two-thirds of our people do not even vote. The productivity of American workers is actually dropping, and the willingness of Americans to save for the future has fallen below that of all other people in the Western world.
As you know, there is a growing disrespect for government and for churches and for schools, the news media, and other institutions. This is not a message of happiness or reassurance, but it is the truth and it is a warning.
These changes did not happen overnight. They've come upon us gradually over the last generation, years that were filled with shocks and tragedy.
We were sure that ours was a nation of the ballot, not the bullet, until the murders of John Kennedy and Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. We were taught that our armies were always invincible and our causes were always just, only to suffer the agony of Vietnam. We respected the presidency as a place of honor until the shock of Watergate.
We remember when the phrase "sound as a dollar" was an expression of absolute dependability, until ten years of inflation began to shrink our dollar and our savings. We believed that our nation's resources were limitless until 1973, when we had to face a growing dependence on foreign oil.
These wounds are still very deep. They have never been healed. Looking for a way out of this crisis, our people have turned to the Federal government and found it isolated from the mainstream of our nation's life. Washington, D.C., has become an island. The gap between our citizens and our government has never been so wide. The people are looking for honest answers, not easy answers; clear leadership, not false claims and evasiveness and politics as usual.
What you see too often in Washington and elsewhere around the country is a system of government that seems incapable of action. You see a Congress twisted and pulled in every direction by hundreds of well-financed and powerful special interests. You see every extreme position defended to the last vote, almost to the last breath by one unyielding group or another. You often see a balanced and a fair approach that demands sacrifice, a little sacrifice from everyone, abandoned like an orphan without support and without friends.
Often you see paralysis and stagnation and drift. You don't like it, and neither do I. What can we do?
First of all, we must face the truth, and then we can change our course. We simply must have faith in each other, faith in our ability to govern ourselves, and faith in the future of this nation. Restoring that faith and that confidence to America is now the most important task we face. It is a true challenge of this generation of Americans.
One of the visitors to Camp David last week put it this way: "We've got to stop crying and start sweating, stop talking and start walking, stop cursing and start praying. The strength we need will not come from the White House, but from every house in America."
We know the strength of America. We are strong. We can regain our unity. We can regain our confidence. We are the heirs of generations who survived threats much more powerful and awesome than those that challenge us now. Our fathers and mothers were strong men and women who shaped a new society during the Great Depression, who fought world wars, and who carved out a new charter of peace for the world.
We ourselves are the same Americans who just ten years ago put a man on the Moon. We are the generation that dedicated our society to the pursuit of human rights and equality. And we are the generation that will win the war on the energy problem and in that process rebuild the unity and confidence of America.
We are at a turning point in our history. There are two paths to choose. One is a path I've warned about tonight, the path that leads to fragmentation and self-interest. Down that road lies a mistaken idea of freedom, the right to grasp for ourselves some advantage over others. That path would be one of constant conflict between narrow interests ending in chaos and immobility. It is a certain route to failure.
All the traditions of our past, all the lessons of our heritage, all the promises of our future point to another path, the path of common purpose and the restoration of American values. That path leads to true freedom for our nation and ourselves. We can take the first steps down that path as we begin to solve our energy problem.
Energy will be the immediate test of our ability to unite this nation, and it can also be the standard around which we rally. On the battlefield of energy we can win for our nation a new confidence, and we can seize control again of our common destiny.
In little more than two decades we've gone from a position of energy independence to one in which almost half the oil we use comes from foreign countries, at prices that are going through the roof. Our excessive dependence on OPEC has already taken a tremendous toll on our economy and our people. This is the direct cause of the long lines which have made millions of you spend aggravating hours waiting for gasoline. It's a cause of the increased inflation and unemployment that we now face. This intolerable dependence on foreign oil threatens our economic independence and the very security of our nation. The energy crisis is real. It is worldwide. It is a clear and present danger to our nation. These are facts and we simply must face them.
What I have to say to you now about energy is simple and vitally important.
Point one: I am tonight setting a clear goal for the energy policy of the United States. Beginning this moment, this nation will never use more foreign oil than we did in 1977 -- never. From now on, every new addition to our demand for energy will be met from our own production and our own conservation. The generation-long growth in our dependence on foreign oil will be stopped dead in its tracks right now and then reversed as we move through the 1980s, for I am tonight setting the further goal of cutting our dependence on foreign oil by one-half by the end of the next decade -- a saving of over 4-1/2 million barrels of imported oil per day.
Point two: To ensure that we meet these targets, I will use my presidential authority to set import quotas. I'm announcing tonight that for 1979 and 1980, I will forbid the entry into this country of one drop of foreign oil more than these goals allow. These quotas will ensure a reduction in imports even below the ambitious levels we set at the recent Tokyo summit.
Point three: To give us energy security, I am asking for the most massive peacetime commitment of funds and resources in our nation's history to develop America's own alternative sources of fuel -- from coal, from oil shale, from plant products for gasohol, from unconventional gas, from the sun.
I propose the creation of an energy security corporation to lead this effort to replace 2-1/2 million barrels of imported oil per day by 1990. The corporation I will issue up to $5 billion in energy bonds, and I especially want them to be in small denominations so that average Americans can invest directly in America's energy security.
Just as a similar synthetic rubber corporation helped us win World War II, so will we mobilize American determination and ability to win the energy war. Moreover, I will soon submit legislation to Congress calling for the creation of this nation's first solar bank, which will help us achieve the crucial goal of 20 percent of our energy coming from solar power by the year 2000.
These efforts will cost money, a lot of money, and that is why Congress must enact the windfall profits tax without delay. It will be money well spent. Unlike the billions of dollars that we ship to foreign countries to pay for foreign oil, these funds will be paid by Americans to Americans. These funds will go to fight, not to increase, inflation and unemployment.
Point four: I'm asking Congress to mandate, to require as a matter of law, that our nation's utility companies cut their massive use of oil by 50 percent within the next decade and switch to other fuels, especially coal, our most abundant energy source.
Point five: To make absolutely certain that nothing stands in the way of achieving these goals, I will urge Congress to create an energy mobilization board which, like the War Production Board in World War II, will have the responsibility and authority to cut through the red tape, the delays, and the endless roadblocks to completing key energy projects.
We will protect our environment. But when this nation critically needs a refinery or a pipeline, we will build it.
Point six: I'm proposing a bold conservation program to involve every state, county, and city and every average American in our energy battle. This effort will permit you to build conservation into your homes and your lives at a cost you can afford.
I ask Congress to give me authority for mandatory conservation and for standby gasoline rationing. To further conserve energy, I'm proposing tonight an extra $10 billion over the next decade to strengthen our public transportation systems. And I'm asking you for your good and for your nation's security to take no unnecessary trips, to use carpools or public transportation whenever you can, to park your car one extra day per week, to obey the speed limit, and to set your thermostats to save fuel. Every act of energy conservation like this is more than just common sense -- I tell you it is an act of patriotism.
Our nation must be fair to the poorest among us, so we will increase aid to needy Americans to cope with rising energy prices. We often think of conservation only in terms of sacrifice. In fact, it is the most painless and immediate way of rebuilding our nation's strength. Every gallon of oil each one of us saves is a new form of production. It gives us more freedom, more confidence, that much more control over our own lives.
So, the solution of our energy crisis can also help us to conquer the crisis of the spirit in our country. It can rekindle our sense of unity, our confidence in the future, and give our nation and all of us individually a new sense of purpose.
You know we can do it. We have the natural resources. We have more oil in our shale alone than several Saudi Arabias. We have more coal than any nation on Earth. We have the world's highest level of technology. We have the most skilled work force, with innovative genius, and I firmly believe that we have the national will to win this war.
I do not promise you that this struggle for freedom will be easy. I do not promise a quick way out of our nation's problems, when the truth is that the only way out is an all-out effort. What I do promise you is that I will lead our fight, and I will enforce fairness in our struggle, and I will ensure honesty. And above all, I will act. We can manage the short-term shortages more effectively and we will, but there are no short-term solutions to our long-range problems. There is simply no way to avoid sacrifice.
Twelve hours from now I will speak again in Kansas City, to expand and to explain further our energy program. Just as the search for solutions to our energy shortages has now led us to a new awareness of our Nation's deeper problems, so our willingness to work for those solutions in energy can strengthen us to attack those deeper problems.
I will continue to travel this country, to hear the people of America. You can help me to develop a national agenda for the 1980s. I will listen and I will act. We will act together. These were the promises I made three years ago, and I intend to keep them.
Little by little we can and we must rebuild our confidence. We can spend until we empty our treasuries, and we may summon all the wonders of science. But we can succeed only if we tap our greatest resources -- America's people, America's values, and America's confidence.
I have seen the strength of America in the inexhaustible resources of our people. In the days to come, let us renew that strength in the struggle for an energy secure nation.
In closing, let me say this: I will do my best, but I will not do it alone. Let your voice be heard. Whenever you have a chance, say something good about our country. With God's help and for the sake of our nation, it is time for us to join hands in America. Let us commit ourselves together to a rebirth of the American spirit. Working together with our common faith we cannot fail.
This statement was just released from Congressman Ron Paul:
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Dear Friends,
Whenever a Great Bipartisan Consensus is announced, and a compliant media assures everyone that the wondrous actions of our wise leaders are being taken for our own good, you can know with absolute certainty that disaster is about to strike.
The events of the past week are no exception.
The bailout package that is about to be rammed down Congress' throat is not just economically foolish. It is downright sinister. It makes a mockery of our Constitution, which our leaders should never again bother pretending is still in effect. It promises the American people a never-ending nightmare of ever-greater debt liabilities they will have to shoulder. Two weeks ago, financial analyst Jim Rogers said the bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac made America more communist than China! "This is welfare for the rich," he said. "This is socialism for the rich. It's bailing out the financiers, the banks, the Wall Streeters."
That describes the current bailout package to a T. And we're being told it's unavoidable.
The claim that the market caused all this is so staggeringly foolish that only politicians and the media could pretend to believe it. But that has become the conventional wisdom, with the desired result that those responsible for the credit bubble and its predictable consequences - predictable, that is, to those who understand sound, Austrian economics - are being let off the hook. The Federal Reserve System is actually positioning itself as the savior, rather than the culprit, in this mess!
• The Treasury Secretary is authorized to purchase up to $700 billion in mortgage-related assets at any one time. That means $700 billion is only the very beginning of what will hit us.
• Financial institutions are "designated as financial agents of the Government." This is the New Deal to end all New Deals.
• Then there's this: "Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency." Translation: the Secretary can buy up whatever junk debt he wants to, burden the American people with it, and be subject to no one in the process.
There goes your country.
Even some so-called free-market economists are calling all this "sadly necessary." Sad, yes. Necessary? Don't make me laugh.
Our one-party system is complicit in yet another crime against the American people. The two major party candidates for president themselves initially indicated their strong support for bailouts of this kind - another example of the big choice we're supposedly presented with this November: yes or yes. Now, with a backlash brewing, they're not quite sure what their views are. A sad display, really.
Although the present bailout package is almost certainly not the end of the political atrocities we'll witness in connection with the crisis, time is short. Congress may vote as soon as tomorrow. With a Rasmussen poll finding support for the bailout at an anemic seven percent, some members of Congress are afraid to vote for it. Call them! Let them hear from you! Tell them you will never vote for anyone who supports this atrocity.
The issue boils down to this: do we care about freedom? Do we care about responsibility and accountability? Do we care that our government and media have been bought and paid for? Do we care that average Americans are about to be looted in order to subsidize the fattest of cats on Wall Street and in government? Do we care?
When the chips are down, will we stand up and fight, even if it means standing up against every stripe of fashionable opinion in politics and the media?
Times like these have a way of telling us what kind of a people we are, and what kind of country we shall be.
The financial crisis entered a potentially dangerous new phase as investors worldwide frantically moved their money into the safest investments, like Treasury bills.
Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs were considered to be in a separate class from weaker banks like Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers that saw themselves evaporate.
Words and phrases we don't normally see associated with Wall Street: 'run to safety,' frantically,' 'dangerous,' 'fears,' 'weaker banks,' and 'evaporate.'
It's going to be another bad day in the office for our nation's movers, shakers and brokers.
