Paul Craig Roberts

I have come to the conclusion that Big Brother’s subjects in George Orwell’s 1984 are better informed than Americans.

Americans have no idea why they have been at war in the Middle East, Asia and Africa for a decade. They don’t realize that their liberties have been supplanted by a Gestapo Police State. Few understand that hard economic times are here to stay.

On October 27, 2011, the US government announced some routine economic statistics, and the president of the European Council announced a new approach to the Greek sovereign debt crisis. The result of these funny numbers and mere words sent the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index to its largest monthly rally since 1974, erasing its 2011 yearly loss. The euro rose, putting the European currency again 40% above its initial parity with the US dollar when the euro was introduced.

On National Public Radio a half-wit analyst declared, emphatically, that the latest US government statistics proved that the recovery was in place and that there was no danger whatsoever of a double-dip recession. And half-brain economists predicted a better tomorrow.

Europe is happy because the European private banks, the creditors of the European governments, have agreed to eat 50% of Greece’s sovereign debt and to be recapitalized by public money handed to them by the European Financial Stability Facility rescue fund. The President of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy, thinks that Greece’s debt is the only sovereign debt to be written down and that the debt of Italy, Spain, and Portugal will somehow be bailed out through other means, including a Chinese contribution to the EFSF rescue fund. Obviously, if all EU sovereign debt has to be cut by 50% as well, the rescue fund would not be up to the job.

For our corrupt financial markets, any news that can be spun as good news can send stocks up. But what are the facts?

More »

Desiree Smith

The Patriot Act is not about terrorism. It is about control of
United States citizens. - It's about dictatorship & tyranny.

“The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve nor will he ever receive either”.

These are some of the wisest words ever spoken in history. For without freedom people are subject to slavery. Naturally the first thing that came to mind when I read up on this subject was the President George W. Bush’s Patriot Act first signed in 2001. Supposedly this act was signed so the government would have a better ability to detect terrorists in America after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the twin towers.

There has been a lot of controversy about the lack of proper oversight over certain provisions that seem to infringe upon the civil liberties of Americans. One of these provisions is section 215 in the USAPA, which allows the government access to records and other items under the foreign intelligence surveillance act. The House of Representatives had passed this act with no judicial oversight on the provision that allows the government to search library records.

Because of 9/11 our whole country was in a state of fear and in my opinion, as well as the opinions of many other Americans, the representatives for the Patriot act used this catastrophe as a scare tactic in the mainstream media. They made the impression that our country was in a delicate condition needing protection from anyone that possibly posed a threat to the government and our nation. This tactic was obviously used to try to convince the House and the American people that the Patriot Act was the only solution to finding possible terrorist threats that might endanger our country.

In the meantime they were completely dismissing the fact that this act infringes upon several of the rights granted to the American people by our Constitution and Bill of Rights. The people of the United States of America were given these rights by our founding fathers, who fought and died in a war to ensure that the freedoms that they had risked their lives for would remain intact.

Americans should not have to give up their privacy and liberties that were granted to them over 200 years ago so the government can keep us safe from our own citizens who may be considered terrorists or involved with a terrorist group. The terrorist profile was designed by the Secretary of State, who was given this power by the makers of the Patriot Act, and has a ridiculous list of what attributes makes a domestic terrorist or terrorist group.

More »