"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; Before you were born I sanctified you."
(Jeremiah 1:5)
I Knew You
Dear Friends,
Greetings. We have not included so many news articles this week. What we have done, is to include an absolutely incredible talk by a courageous young woman, Gianna Jessen. We are sure you will be as thrilled by her testimony as all of us were at "People of the Keys".
God bless and inspire you as you watch.
"For indeed, as soon as the voice of your greeting sounded in my ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy." (Luke 1:44)
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(One who increases his possessions by usury and extortion Gathers it for him who will pity the poor. Proverbs 28:8)
articlesbase.com
Irish Police Cite Irish Government in Treasonous Activity! I Thought That Was a Crime? Arrest Them All!
Cops Charge Irish Government With Treason
By Gabriel Donohoe
22nd July 2010
When a national police association accuses its government of what amounts to treason it is time to sit up and pay attention.
Michael O'Boyce, President of the Garda Representative Association (GRA), said at its annual conference in Limerick, at the end of April, 2010, that the Irish Government had been 'corrupted' and had been 'bought' by developers and bankers. (A garda is an Irish policeman, gardaà in the plural.)
Mr. O'Boyce, speaking on behalf of the country's 11,000 gardaÃ, charged government ministers with sacrificing the country to protect 'wealthy cronies' who had bankrolled the leading government party, Fianna Fáil. Such criticism of a serving government by its police force is unprecedented in Irish history and extremely rare in any western democracy.
Smarting from recent government disparagement of the gardaà a rankled Mr. O'Boyce pointed to an aggravating Fianna Fáil gaffe. While the government referred to the gardaà as 'self-serving, overpaid, underworked and dishonest people', it at the same time praised the 'entrepreneurial skill' and 'business acumen' of failed banksters like Sean Fitzpatrick (Anglo Irish Bank) and Michael Fingleton (Irish Nationwide Building Society), two people who played a huge part in bringing the Irish economy to its knees.
Clearly infuriated by collapsing living standards and the abject state of the economy, Mr. O'Boyce intended to deliver his speech directly to the Minister of Justice, Dermot Ahern, who was scheduled to attend the annual conference of the GRA. However, Mr. Ahern was sent a copy of the speech in advance and hastily declined to attend.
Mr. O'Boyce would have castigated the Justice Minister directly by saying, "The Government of which you are a long-serving member has mismanaged the wealth of this country for more than a decade by allowing our assets to be plundered and robbed by bankers and speculators, and you are making generations of Irish workers pay the price for this treachery...
"...You did this because bankers and speculators have bought your party, and in return you have sacrificed the greater good and prosperity of the Irish nation for the benefit of the few - the few who have now taken their ill-gotten gains and secured them in tax havens around the world. Truly, a government of national sabotage."
Gardaà present at the meeting gave Mr. O'Boyce a standing ovation for the speech of which they were aware but which was never actually made. Nonetheless, the speech was angrily criticised by politicians and others who said that a police force should not intervene in politics. Justice Minister Ahern said that he utterly refuted the allegations made in the speech and that such remarks "besmirch the reputation of the force and have no place in a modern democracy."
Government backbencher Niall Collins said, "...[F]or me to hear a member of An Garda SÃochána accuse a sovereign Government of robbery, corruption and treason, and this coming from a member of An Garda SÃochána who are the agents of the State to investigate and prosecute these types of crimes, it's just clearly not sustainable."
This is an amazing attack on a modern democratic government described by the country's own police association as "a government of national sabotage." What prompted such wrath and fury from the GRA and does the Association have any basis for charging the Irish Government with treachery or treason?
The underlying cause of garda frustration and anger is the state of the Irish economy. The gardaÃ, like most Irish citizens, blame government incompetence and collusion with banksters and speculators for economic collapse. The government itself points to global recession and international bank failures as the cause of Irish woes but the reality goes much deeper than that.
The economic depression in Ireland is much more severe than anywhere else in the world. The fallout from global recession was seriously exacerbated by shortcomings of Irish Government Ministers, i.e., flagrant failures of governance through incompetence, self-interest, and criminal recklessness. These failures were further amplified by the cronyism and cosy intimacy of Fianna Fáil politicians with bankers and developers, by the utter ineptitude of government regulators, and by the laissez-faire attitude of the then Finance Minister, Brian Cowen, towards an alarmingly inflating construction bubble. (Cowen is now the Irish Prime Minister or Taoiseach and is stubbornly clinging onto power even though his personal rating is a paltry 18% in opinion polls.)
What angers the GRA, apart from hair shirt budgets, welfare cuts, and cuts in public sector pay, are the huge amounts of money given to renegade banks. These astronomical sums, cavalierly tossed into the laps of fraudulent bankers, are underwritten by the ever-suffering Irish taxpayer. A massive 22 billion euro has gone into the corrupt Anglo Irish Bank which has the dubious distinction of being the worst bank in the world. It is the biggest loss-maker of any bank on the planet and the Irish bank bailout is the most expensive bailout anywhere on the globe.
The Irish people are now learning that they will never see a penny of their 22 billion euro again - it has disappeared into a black hole of bankster-generated debt. The new chief executive of Anglo has admitted that the money would never be seen again and Prime Minister Cowen grudgingly confirmed, only after four attempts by opposition leaders to get a straight answer, that the 22 billion euro is gone forever. This is a heartbreaking loss for a small country of less than 5 million people, many of whom are calling the bailing out of Anglo an act of criminal recklessness.
Responding to a recent government decision to extend the bank guarantee to Anglo Irish Bank, Labour Party leader Eamon Gilmore said, "I believe that the decision was made to save the skins of a number of individuals, some of whom are connected to Fianna Fail. If my belief is correct, and I have not been convinced to the contrary, then that decision was an act of economic treason."
Strong words indeed from Mr. Gilmore which echo the sentiments of Michael O'Boyce and the GRA.
Even worse than the Anglo Irish Bank fiasco is the government bank bailout programme called NAMA (National Asset Management Agency) which covers 5 Irish banks including Anglo Irish. The government says that NAMA will clean up the banking system by paying the banks 54 billion euro of taxpayer money to purchase toxic loans from their balance sheets. This is a huge risk which could blow up spectacularly and put several generations of Irish people into excessive debt.
Already we are seeing evidence that the banks lied about the quality of the loans on their books. At the time of agreeing values on their toxic property portfolios the banks assured the government that 40% of their loans were income producing. Now we find out that the real figure is only 25%. What the percentage will be in a year's time is anyone's guess.
Apart from NAMA and the Anglo Irish Bank bailout, the Irish Government has already recapitalized other Irish banks and financial institutions to the amount of some 13.5 billion euro. This was supposed to release funds and provide much needed credit to Small Business and to mortgage seekers. But the banks which were bailed out by the people of Ireland are not responding in kind to the people of Ireland. They are holding onto their funds while businesses are failing in unprecedented numbers for want of working capital. Much of the bailout money is being used by the banks to strengthen their balance sheets or to make safe investments elsewhere.
(In the United States, banks find it more profitable and free of risk to borrow from the Federal Reserve at .25% interest and buy 5-year Treasury bonds at 2.5% return rather than lend money to cash starved businesses. They can make enormous profits while thousands of businesses go to the wall.)
When one adds up the amount of money committed to recapitalization and bailout of Irish banks one arrives at a figure of some 90 billion euro.
If the Irish Government had invested this 90 billion in a state owned bank they could have implemented that sleight of hand practice so beloved of banksters called "Fractional Reserve Lending" whereby they could create and lend some 12 times the amount of capital invested. This would exceed 1,000 billion euro!
Ireland would be awash with cash and with prudent management the economy would have been turned around very quickly. Small businesses would have adequate working capital, home seekers could buy homes, public projects and infrastructure could be easily financed, and Ireland would return very swiftly to full employment.
But the government did not take that option. Instead, they pledged a colossal amount of money to private banksters to save them and their investors from losses incurred by their own criminal recklessness. In doing so, they have mortgaged the future of Ireland and the Irish people for generations to come and crippled the economy to levels often seen in the Third World.
By giving billions of public money to maintain the fortunes of its former cronies in banking and property development the Irish Government has created a living hell for its struggling citizens: almost 500,000 people out of work, 200,000 emigrating in search of jobs, tens of thousands of mortgages falling into arrears, hundreds of small businesses going to the wall, and suicides alarmingly on the rise. The land is filled with misery and despair when it could so easily have been triumph and prosperity.
Is Michael O'Boyce and the GRA correct when they charge the Irish Government with treason?
You decide.
guardian.co.uk
David Cameron: Israeli blockade has turned Gaza Strip into a 'prison camp'
Prime minister intervenes in Middle East dispute and hopes Turkey can stop Iran's nuclear weapons programme
27 July 2012
David Cameron defended his remarks at a press conference with Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Photograph: Pool/REUTERS
David Cameron used a visit to Turkey to make his strongest intervention yet in the intractable Middle East conflict today when he likened the experience of Palestinians in the blockaded Gaza Strip to that of a "prison camp".
Although he has made similar remarks before, his decision to repeat them on a world stage in Turkey, whose relations with Israel have deteriorated sharply since it mounted a deadly assault on the Gaza flotilla, gave them much greater diplomatic significance.
Cameron's comments, in a speech to business leaders in Ankara, prompted the Turkish prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, to issue another strong condemnation of how Israel dealt with the flotilla.
Erdogan likened the behaviour of Israeli commandos, who shot dead nine Turkish pro-Palestinian activists, to Somali pirates.
Cameron's criticism of Tel Aviv came when he called for Israel to relax its restrictions on Gaza. "The situation in Gaza has to change," he said. "Humanitarian goods and people must flow in both directions. Gaza cannot and must not be allowed to remain a prison camp."
He strongly condemned Israel after the assault on the Gaza flotilla. "The Israeli attack on the Gaza flotilla was completely unacceptable," he said. "I have told prime minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu we will expect the Israeli inquiry to be swift, transparent and rigorous. "Let me also be clear that the situation in Gaza has to change."
Cameron defended his remarks at a press conference with Erdogan. "My description of Gaza is something I said in the House of Commons several weeks ago. Perhaps this is final proof that if you want to keep something completely secret you should announce it in the House of Commons."
Hansard, the House of Commons' official record, shows Cameron said on 28 June: "Everybody knows that we are not going to sort out the problem of the Middle East peace process while there is, effectively, a giant open prison in Gaza."
His choice of the words "prison camp" instead of "open prison" is likely to be seized upon. But a Downing Street source later tried to play down Cameron's comments. "This is not an elevation of the rhetoric. This is equivalent language. The prime minister remains concerned."
Cameron said Britain remained opposed to the blockade of Gaza. "The fact is we have long supported lifting the blockade of Gaza, we have long supported proper humanitarian access. Even though some progress has been made we are still in the situation where it is very difficult to get in, it is very difficult to get out. So I think the description is warranted."
At the press conference, Erdogan heaped further criticism on Israel over its treatment of the flotilla. "What we saw happening was taking place in international waters and this attack in international waters, as such, can only be termed as piracy. There is no other way to describe it.
"The pirates are there in Somalia and we take our measures. When a similar situation occurs here ... political leaders, who are there to establish a fair life for everyone - they should not remain silent."
WND
Yipe! Look what Obama's buddy wants to make mandatory
Measure orders U.S. citizens to perform duties under Obama for 2 years
By Chelsea Schilling
Posted: July 27, 2010
A bill introduced in the House of Representatives by Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., would reinstate a compulsory military draft during war time and require U.S. citizens not selected for military duty to perform a "national service obligation" - as defined by President Obama - for a minimum of two years.
Rangel introduced the Universal National Service Act, or H.R. 5741 on July 15. The measure was referred to the House Armed Services' Subcommittee on Military Personnel on July 23.
Rangel introduced similar bills in 2003, 2006 and 2007. His current bill does not have a co-sponsor.
Rangel took to the floor of the House to reintroduce HR 5741, stating, "I have introduced legislation to reinstate the draft and to make it permanent during time of war. It is HR 5741, and what this does is to make everyone between the ages of 18 and 42 - whether they're men or women, whether they're straight or gay - to have the opportunity to defend this great country whenever the president truly believes that our national security is threatened."
According to an announcement released by Rangel's office, the bill provides for:
A national service obligation - either military or civilian - for every citizen and permanent resident, male and female, of the U.S., aged 18 to 42.
Persons may inducted to perform military service only if a declaration of war is in effect, or if the president declares a national emergency necessitating the induction of persons to perform military service and immediately informs Congress of the reasons for the declaration.
Defines "national service" as either military or civilian service as defined by the president that promotes national or homeland security.
Give the president the authority to establish the numbers of persons to be selected for military service and the means of selection.
Requires those not selected for military service to perform their national service obligation in a civilian capacity for a period of two years.
Directs the president to prescribe the regulations necessary to carry out the act.
Deferments for education are only permitted through completion of high school, to a maximum age of 20.
Deferments may be made for physical or mental disability, or under claims of conscientious objector.
"What troubles me most about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is the total indifference to the suffering and loss of life among our brave young soldiers on the battlefield," Rep. Rangel said. "The reason is that so few families have a stake in the war which is being fought by other people's children.
"The test for Congress, particularly for those members who support the war, is to require all who enjoy the benefits of our democracy to contribute to the defense of the country. All of America's children should share the risk of being placed in harm's way."
Prison Planet writer Rob Dew referenced the following video posted on YouTube and noted, "This echoes the sentiment of President Obama who asked Congress in February 2009 to send him a bipartisan bill in the spirit of national service."
CNN
Obama team's panic over losing whites
Pat Buchanan: Administration's recent actions meant to limit shedding of Caucasian support
July 22, 2010
On Monday, the Department of Agriculture demanded the resignation of Shirley Sherrod over a two-minute videotape where she appeared to describe to a cheering crowd of the Georgia NAACP how she denied assistance to a poor white farmer about to lose his land.
Declaring itself "appalled" at this "shameful" act of racism, the NAACP said it would investigate the Georgia crowd that cheered her and praised the Department of Agriculture for firing her.
On Wednesday, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack was begging for Sherrod's forgiveness, and the NAACP was burbling apologies.
For the video turned out to be an excerpt from a speech in which Sherrod described her growth from a bitter black woman whose father was murdered by a white man into one who found joy helping poor white folks keep their farms.
What was it that caused the rush to judgment by Vilsack, the NAACP and a White House that supported the ouster of Sherrod without talking to her or viewing the full tape?
Panic. The White House fears it is losing white America because of a false perception that it harbors a bias against white America.
Outrageous, rail those journalists who celebrated the NAACP's accusation that the tea party is harboring racists and is too cowardly to confront them.
Erik Rush's brand new book is bold, daring and needed: "Negrophilia: From Slave Block to Pedestal - America's Racial Obsession"
Yet, as things perceived as real are real in their consequences, if the White House does not eradicate this perception, its lease may not be renewed. Whence comes that perception? Several incidents.
First was the startling accusation by Attorney General Eric Holder, days after Barack Obama was inaugurated in a gusher of good feeling, that we are all "a nation of cowards" when it comes to facing issues of race.
A real icebreaker for a national conversation.
Second was the instantaneous verdict of the president, when asked about the arrest of Harvard's Henry Louis Gates by Cambridge cop Sgt. James Crowley. With no knowledge of what happened, Obama blurted out that the cops had "acted stupidly."
It took a White House beer summit to detoxify that one.
A third was the revelation that Obama's first Supreme Court nominee, Judge Sonia Sotomayor, the "wise Latina" herself, had gone to extremes to see that the case of Frank Ricci and the New Haven, Conn., firefighters never got to the Supreme Court. Ricci and co-defendants had been denied promotions they had won in competitive exams solely because they were white and no black firemen had done as well.
The fourth was the Justice Department's dropping of charges against members of the New Black Panther Party, whose intimidation of voters in Philadelphia had been captured on tape.
When a department official resigned in protest and went to the Civil Rights Commission to accuse officials at Justice of ordering staff attorneys not to pursue such cases, that explosive charge, too, was ignored by Justice.
Came then the NAACP smear that the tea party was harboring racists, which Joe Biden explicitly rejected on national television on Sunday, before the Monday firestorm over Sherrod.
Now, whatever one's views on each of these episodes in which race played a role, white Americans are being forced to address them. And, surely, the White House understands this is bad news for Obama and the Democratic Party.
For though the black community remains solidly behind Obama and the white majority is shrinking toward minority status by 2042 or 2050, depending on which Census survey one uses, whites in America still outnumber blacks five to one. And if forced constantly to come down on one side or the other of a racial divide, most folks will wind up with their own.
In past elections, Democrats have raised race - allegations that black churches were being torched in the South, that George W. Bush's opposition to a hate-crimes bill meant he was coldly indifferent to the dragging death of a handicapped black man - to solidify and energize the minority vote. And, today, that vote remains solid behind Obama.
Where the erosion is taking place is in white America, among working- and middle-class folks who voted for Hillary Clinton in the primaries but took a chance with Obama in the fall. Now, every time some new incident erupts, these folks are being tarred.
Opposition to affirmative action is racist. Supporting the tea party gives aid and comfort to racists. Opposing health care puts you in league with folks who used racial slurs on Rep. John Lewis. To raise the issue of the New Black Panther Party is to play the race card.
One understands the bitterness of tea-party folks who carry signs that read: "What difference does it make what this placard says? You'll call it racist anyway."
As the National Journal's Ron Brownstein has been reporting, white America is increasingly alienated and distrustful of all our major economic and political power centers - the banks, big corporations, the government.
And, for the first time in our lifetimes outside the South, white racial consciousness has visibly begun to rise.
Until next week...
Almondtree Productions