The slippery slope

The slippery slope keeps getting slipperier with each passing day...

And the slope has been aligned with the downward forces of marxist-socialism and now overflows with the oil of power and the grease of control.

A quickening slide that shall lead us to a place that is distant from the freedom and liberty for all as espoused in our constitution.

who will run the Fed

These times continue to present more amazement than one ought to enjoy!
Instead of dealing with root causes and then carefully writing and enacting laws to ensure appropriate results our fearless leaders continue to press for power...and we end up having a bandaid placed upon the wound that required micro surgery and the wound ends up festering and becoming a bigger problem...there seems to be no thought of the future and the effects that legislation will have on our country (or do they!)

Two quotes to consider:
- Lawlessness and distorted truth triumphs when political expediency becomes the decision maker

- When the power of political payback becomes the leading driver in moving legislation we have reached a crisis point in our system of governance – collapse and failure are imminent

prb

From: "Dan Hogan"
Date: Mon, 14 Jun 2010 06:42:09 -0500

For 97 years the 12 regional banks of the Federal Reserve system have operated relatively free of political interference from Washington. The looming financial reform bill threatens that independence, not least through an effort to impose
new presidential appointees at the regional banks.
The biggest underreported threat comes from Subtitle I, Section 1801 of the House financial reform bill titled "Inclusion of Minorities and Women; Diversity in Agency Workforce." Sponsored by California Democrat Maxine Waters, the
provision requires each federal financial agency, the Fed Board of Governors and the 12 regional Fed banks to "establish an Office of Minority and Women Inclusion."

So what else is new, you say? Don't the feds already dictate racial and gender hiring? Yes, they do, through the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and assorted other federal laws. As a matter of racial and gender diversity, the
Waters provision is at best redundant.

But Ms. Waters and the House are hunting bigger game-to wit, the political allocation of credit. They want to put a network of operatives at the highest level of government who are responsible for making sure that regulators put the
hiring of, and lending to, minorities at the top of their priority list. The House provision makes that very clear by making each diversity officer a Presidential appointee who must be confirmed by the Senate. The post, says the bill, will be "comparable to that of other senior level staff." The law says this diversity czar will "ensure equal employment opportunity and the racial, ethnic and gender diversity" of the work force and senior management of these institutions. More ominously, this creature of Congress and the White House will also be charged with "increas[ing] the participation of minority-owned and women-owned businesses in the programs and contracts" of each agency and conducting "an assessment" of stated inclusion goals.

Mull over that one for a minute. Having recently lived through a financial mania and panic caused in part by political pressure for "affordable housing," Congress will now order regulators to allocate credit by race and gender. Isn't
the point of this financial reform supposed to be to make regulators better judges of systemic risks, which means focusing on financial safety and soundness? If the Waters provision passes, federal regulators will have to put racial and gender lending at the top of their watch list when they do their checks on the banks and hedge funds they are regulating.

This is especially pernicious at the Fed regional banks, which have long operated independently of political intrusion. Federal Reserve bank presidents aren't appointed by the President precisely to avoid Treasury and White House control. They are appointed by their regional bank boards.

However, in another threat to Fed independence, the Senate bill departs from that tradition by making the president of the New York Fed a Presidential appointee. Blame for this Congressional intrusion goes to Treasury Secretary Tim
Geithner and former Goldman Sachs executive Stephen Friedman for orchestrating the selection of former Goldman economist William Dudley as Mr. Geithner's replacement at the New York Fed.

Mr. Friedman chaired the search committee to replace Mr. Geithner even as he increased his ownership of Goldman shares. Though this violated Fed rules, Fed Vice Chairman Donald Kohn and the Board of Governors gave Mr. Friedman a conflict-of-interest waiver. Congress has now seized on this to justify putting the New York Fed chief on a Washington political leash.

The Waters provision will also give Congress and the White House a new and powerful lever to influence the operation of the 12 regional Fed banks. Accusations of racial or gender indifference, much less outright bias, are politically deadly. With the threat of such an accusation in their holster, the Waters czars will have enormous clout to influence Fed governance and regulatory decisions, perhaps including monetary policy.

Fed regional presidents are often the main proponents of tight monetary policy. The presence of a diversity czar is one way Congress and the White House can intimidate these regional presidents to go along with the policies they favor. No Fed bank president will want to take the risk of being hauled before Congress to answer a report that the banks under his jurisdiction aren't racially or gender sensitive enough in their lending.

This political sway is already clear from how meekly the Fed as an institution is bowing to the Waters provision. The Senate bill doesn't have the same provision, so it could be removed in the House-Senate conference that begins this week. But we're told that Fed officials in Washington have told the regional banks to keep quiet because it can't be stopped and Ms. Waters and the House might punish them if they try. In other words, the political intimidation is already obvious even before the provision becomes law.

The public debate over Fed independence has focused on Congressional demands for an audit, but that's benign compared to the threat of political appointees sitting on the senior staff of the regional banks and Board of Governors. While masquerading as reform, the Waters and New York Fed provisions are the most brazen attempt to hijack central bank policy since its founding nearly a century ago.

The law will make it harder for regulators to do what ought to be their main job, which is making sure that they don't again let a credit mania run out of control. It's one more way in which this much vaunted reform will make the
financial system even more politicized, and thus more vulnerable to another panic

quotes to consider

- Lawlessness and distorted truth triumphs when political expediency becomes the decision maker

- When the power of political payback becomes the leading driver in moving legislation we have reached a crisis point in our system of governance – collapse and failure are imminent

- Naïve and self-serving ideological zealotry has instilled within its ranks and pursued a callous disregard for the foundations of personal freedom and liberty, which are unashamedly declared in our founding documents, for the citizens of this country

prb 5/2010

The Blind Side - the message within the message

Have you seen the movie 'The Blind Side'.....there in a nutshell is the picture of what government can and can not do...Michael left the gov't supported housing projects (government involvement in 'helping the poor' stay poor) because he knew that it would not mean life for him....it would be slavery to the 'system' as seen by those who stayed there....

Only thru the involvement of the individual can true 'social justice' (what ever that really means!) be accomplished....it is those who live a life of perseverance, who long for liberty and freedom and understand the unhealthy dependence that sustained gov't intervention creates.
It also takes those individuals who live a life of charity and know where their hope truly comes from...and it is NOT the government...

something to ponder on this 'historic' day

The insidiousness of the federal government's unprecedented drive in our day to regulate and control more and more of life's daily activities belies its stated purpose. This continued unmitigated concentration of power at the federal level
is the antithesis of what this country was founded upon and what made it a great nation. The striving for freedom and liberty that every soul longs for and is the foundation of our constitutional form of government is slowly being usurped
for what is being sold to us as the 'greater good'. But is it really? World history has proven that the concentration of power never results in more freedom and liberty but less. With statistics reflecting a steady increase in dependence upon the public dole within our country the ebb and flow of reliance bodes well for the continued concentration of power at the federal level.
Americans' antipathy towards forsaking their freedoms and liberties have long held the government's power grabs in check but recent history has proven the proverbial 'frog in boiling water' analogy - slowly, consistently and no one will notice until we are all cooked! I believe we have reached the boiling point and people are beginning to feel the heat.
Shall we become a feudal state with the federal government as our lord and master? The recent show by a handful of our federal elected officials (they are public servants no more) arrogant and flagrant push for unilateral power should shock all freedom loving Americans. The continued disdain for individual freedom and liberty shown by these 'servants of the people' and their plan to push more people into the bondage, that is reliance on the federal government, underscores their unrestrained appetite for the greater consolidation of power. And here is what we shall reap as our reward for following this path:
- Individual freedom restrained - replaced by control of an oppressive benefactor
- Self reliance rebuked - total dependence upon the system becomes the objective
- Liberty destroyed - indentured servitude of the many resulting from autocracy’s victory
- Hope for the future will be transformed into a hopeless longing for what we have given up

prb

Here are some quotes from history to consider:
Woodrow T. Wilson -
“Liberty has never come from Government. Liberty has always come from the subjects of it... The history of liberty is a history of limitations of governmental power, not the increase of it.”

Marcus Tullius Cicero -
“When a government becomes powerful it is destructive, extravagant and violent; it is an usurer which takes bread from innocent mouths and deprives honorable men of their substance, for votes with which to perpetuate itself”

William Moulton Marston -
“Every crisis offers you extra desired power”

James Madison -
“The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny”

Mount Vernon statement Feb 2010

Constitutional Conservatism
A Statement for the 21st Century
We recommit ourselves to the ideas of the American Founding. Through the Constitution, the Founders created an enduring framework of limited government based on the rule of law. They sought to secure national independence, provide for economic opportunity, establish true religious liberty and maintain a flourishing society of republican self-government.
These principles define us as a country and inspire us as a people. They are responsible for a prosperous, just nation unlike any other in the world. They are our highest achievements, serving not only as powerful beacons to all who strive for freedom and seek self-government, but as warnings to tyrants and despots everywhere.
Each one of these founding ideas is presently under sustained attack. In recent decades, America's principles have been undermined and redefined in our culture, our universities and our politics. The self-evident truths of 1776 have been supplanted by the notion that no such truths exist. The federal government today ignores the limits of the Constitution, which is increasingly dismissed as obsolete and irrelevant.
Some insist that America must change, cast off the old and put on the new. But where would this lead -- forward or backward, up or down? Isn't this idea of change an empty promise or even a dangerous deception?
The change we urgently need, a change consistent with the American ideal, is not movement away from but toward our founding principles. At this important time, we need a restatement of Constitutional conservatism grounded in the priceless principle of ordered liberty articulated in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.
The conservatism of the Declaration asserts self-evident truths based on the laws of nature and nature's God. It defends life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It traces authority to the consent of the governed. It recognizes man's self-interest but also his capacity for virtue.
The conservatism of the Constitution limits government's powers but ensures that government performs its proper job effectively. It refines popular will through the filter of representation. It provides checks and balances through the several branches of government and a federal republic.
A Constitutional conservatism unites all conservatives through the natural fusion provided by American principles. It reminds economic conservatives that morality is essential to limited government, social conservatives that unlimited government is a threat to moral self-government, and national security conservatives that energetic but responsible government is the key to America's safety and leadership role in the world.
A Constitutional conservatism based on first principles provides the framework for a consistent and meaningful policy agenda.
• It applies the principle of limited government based on the rule of law to every proposal.
• It honors the central place of individual liberty in American politics and life.
• It encourages free enterprise, the individual entrepreneur, and economic reforms grounded in market solutions.
• It supports America's national interest in advancing freedom and opposing tyranny in the world and prudently considers what we can and should do to that end.
• It informs conservatism's firm defense of family, neighborhood, community, and faith.
If we are to succeed in the critical political and policy battles ahead, we must be certain of our purpose. We must begin by retaking and resolutely defending the high ground of America's founding principles.
February, 2010