The politics of greed is what keeps this world wrapped in corruption. If you want to stick around for a while longer, I suggest you educate yourself and try to do something constructive to help save what little good, honesty, and trust we have left.

A motto for us old vets: Take one with you!

Use your Go Back and Go Forward commands to get to where you were in a previous file.

Go to Home

Highest Go To numbers are the latest Links of all coruption pages.


Go to 13179
http://www.roguegovernment.com/news.php?id=8207
The Elites Plan For Internet Shutdown
04-11-2008
www.roguegovernment.com
Lee Rogers

As the Internet continues to give rise to the alternative media, the technocrats are getting ready to bring its replacement online. Internet2 also known as “the grid” will have speeds 10,000 times faster than a regular broadband connection. Researchers are set to activate this new network over the summer so they can use it to collect information from a supercollider that they hope will recreate the big bang and the conditions that lead to the creation of the universe. Some believe that this experiment might cause the inadvertent destruction of the planet, but that’s another story. Unlike the Internet which was established off of existing telecommunications infrastructure, the Internet2 will be based entirely off of fiber-optics. It will take seconds to download full length feature films and even transmitting holographic images will be made possible. Even though these capabilities sound really good, there has been a continuing effort by the establishment to censor and stifle the free flow of information on the existing Internet. By convincing everyone to make the move from the Internet to Internet2, the establishment will be able to force all of Internet2’s users into abiding by a new set of rules.

Social networking sites like Digg and MySpace already appear to be beta tests for a more controlled version of the Internet. On these sites, users have to register with the site and play by the rules of the site controllers. There have been numerous complaints by users on both sites that certain material is deliberately censored. Digg which claims that it is some sort of digital democracy has failed miserably in every aspect. Groups of users affectionately known as the “bury brigade” have been caught red handed censoring particular stories including ones related to 9/11 truth and other subjects that the site controllers see as taboo.

Some researchers believe that the new Internet will be so fast that people will eventually trust all of their information to the network itself. The following is taken from a MemphisRap.Com article on Internet2.

According to Ian Bird, project leader for CERN’s high-speed computing project, grid technology could make the Internet so fast that people would stop using desktop computers to store information and entrust it all to the Internet. Users would use the new "Cloud computing" as a common way to organize personal and private information that would be stored on the Grid and accessible from any where.

If the establishment is successful in convincing the people of the world to put all of their personal and private information on this network, this will be the equivalent of Big Brother on steroids. The establishment is not going to make the same mistake with Internet2 as they did with the original Internet. The Internet has provided people more freedom than they had ever could have imagined and they certainly can't have anymore of that. The people behind Internet2 are large universities, government agencies and multinational corporations. Now, would it be in their best interest to allow Internet2 to have the same freedoms and free flow of information that the Internet currently has? Absolutely not. Below is taken from the "About Us" page of the Internet2 consortium.

Internet2 is a not-for-profit advanced networking consortium comprising of more than 200 U.S. universities in cooperation with 70 leading corporations, 45 government agencies, laboratories and other institutions of higher learning as well as over 50 international partner organizations. Our organization is governed by an executive Board of Trustees and strategic councils consisting of leaders who represent our broad membership.

A new network infrastructure will be built for Internet2 and there are already stories propagandizing how the increase of video sharing on the Internet means that it will be overloaded in a few years. This is absolute bull, as all they’d have to do is upgrade the existing network infrastructure currently used on the Internet. Instead, they want to get everybody to move over to Internet2 that will have different rules set by the corporations, universities and government agencies behind the Internet2 project. Another words, it will be a faster Internet that is heavily policed and regulated by the establishment.

Overall, Internet2 or “the grid” is definitely something to watch out for. By moving to a new network the establishment can claim that they are not censoring the Internet by getting people to move to the Internet2 system voluntarily. If the establishment has its way, it is very likely that Internet2 will be heavily policed and censored. We must not allow this to happen.



Go to 13178
http://www.roguegovernment.com/news.php?id=8208
Anti-Terror Laws Used To Spy On Family
04-11-2008
London Independent

A family who were wrongly suspected of lying on a school application form have discovered that their local council used anti-terrorism surveillance powers to spy on them.

The family, from Poole in Dorset, said they had been tailed for three weeks by council officials trying to establish whether they had given a false address in an attempt to get their three-year-old daughter a place at a heavily oversubscribed local nursery school, which their two older children had attended. The family had in fact done nothing wrong, and the investigation was eventually aborted.

Yesterday it emerged that Poole borough council had legitimately used the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act to monitor the family. This involved keeping a detailed log of their movements for two weeks, following the mother's car as she took her three children to school each day and even watching the family home to ascertain their sleeping habits.

The Act, passed in 2000, was supposed to allow security agencies to combat terrorism.

The 39-year-old mother, a businesswoman who wished to remain anonymous, said: "I can't imagine a greater invasion of our privacy. I'm incensed that legislation designed to combat terrorism can be turned on a three-year-old. It was very creepy when we found out that people had been watching us and making notes. Councils should be protecting children, not spying on them."

The council defended its right to investigate families in a covert manner, saying it had used the law twice in the past year to successfully prove parents were lying about where they lived.



Go to 13177
http://www.roguegovernment.com/news.php?id=8213
Cities Tamper With Red Light Cams For Profits
04-11-2008
Left Lane News

Six U.S. cities have been found guilty of shortening the amber cycles below what is allowed by law on intersections equipped with cameras meant to catch red-light runners. The local governments in question have ignored the safety benefit of increasing the yellow light time and decided to install red-light cameras, shorten the yellow light duration, and collect the profits instead.

The cities in question include Union City, CA, Dallas and Lubbock, TX, Nashville and Chattanooga, TN, Springfield, MO, according to Motorists.org, which collected information from reports from around the country. This isn't the first time traffic cameras have been questioned as to their effectiveness in preventing accidents. In one case, the local government was forced to issue refunds by more than $1 million to motorists who were issued tickets for running red lights.

The report goes on to note these are just instances that have been identified, and there may be more out there, and urges visitors to send in their own findings.



Go to 13176
http://www.roguegovernment.com/news.php?id=8215
Senators Accuse DHS Of Bullying States
04-12-2008
American Free Press

MEMBERS OF THE SENATE JUDICIARY Committee have criticized the Department of Homeland Security for pressuring balky states to adopt new federally approved drivers licenses, with one accusing Secretary Michael Chertoff of “bullying” the states into compliance under a threat of blocking citizens’ travel.

“We ought to engage in a fairer, more productive negotiated rule-making with the states,” Chairman Patrick Leahy, a Democrat from Vermont, said. “Maybe people want to have a national ID card in their state. In my state, they don’t.”

The hearing dealt with a range of homeland security issues, from the border fence to the backlog in the naturalization process. But the discussion kept returning to the initiative for a uniform drivers license, known as the Real ID program.

“Bullying the states is not the answer, nor is threatening their citizens’ rights to travel,” Leahy said. “From Maine to Montana, states have said no.”

Seventeen states have passed bills or resolutions rejecting Real ID. More need to join the fight.



Go to 13175
http://www.realjewnews.com/?p=155
AMERICAN JEWRY’S STRENGTH lies in its racial solidarity. This solidarity extends beyond America’s shores throughout Europe.

Because Jewry has persecuted Christianity beginning with the French Revolution; up through the Bolshevik Revolution; the decimation of Eastern European Christianity; the Spanish Civil War; the expelling of Palestinian Christianity; and of late, the handing over of Orthodox-Christian Serbia’s Kosovo province to the Muslims - the Gentile host nations of Europe have been rendered “diverse” before a monolithic Jewry.

In America, the relentless attacks by the Jewish mass media of TV, films, newspapers, text books, and magazines, against:

+ Jesus Christ;

+ Christian priests and pastors;

+ Christian European roots of America;

+ And Christian morality - has rendered the Gentile host nation of America a “pluralistic” society before a monolithic Jewry. Thus “Dilute & Conquer” is American Jewry’s War Cry!

AMERICAN JEWRY’S INTERNATIONAL CONNECTIONS

AS THE SAYING GOES, “Put 2 Jews in a room and at the end of the week they will form 5 organizations!” Here is a VERY partial list of American Jewry’s International connections:

1) American Jewish Congress (AJC) Here
1a) World Jewish Congress (WJC) Here

2) American Zionist Movement Here
2a) World Zionist Movement Here

3) American Association Of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists Here
3a) International Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists Here

4) American Jewish World Service Here

5) B’nai Brith International (Anti Defamation League Is Subsidiary Here

666) Jewish Agency (Invisble Owners Are The Rothshilds) Here


Is It Any Wonder That Jews In America Are Tagged With The Name,
“The International Jews?”

See: “Jewish Organization Finder” Here

AMERICAN JEWRY’S CONTROL
OF INTERNATIONAL CORPORATIONS

THE EXTENT OF JEWISH FINANCIAL CONTROL is indicated by examining the roster of the Directors of America’s leading International Corporations. By the 1960’s for instance, Sidney Weinberg of Goldman, Sachs Bank was on the Board of Directors of the Ford Motor Company.

By the 1970’s, other Jewish partners of Goldman, Sachs Bank were on the Board of Directors of such companies as: McKesson & Robbins; B.F. Goodrich; and Sperry-Hutchinson.

Partners of the Jewish banking house of Kuhn, Loeb (now Shearson-American Express) are directors of: Westinghouse; Getty Oil; and Kennecott Copper, to name a few.

Lehman Brothers Banking partners are directors of: Pan American Airlines; RCA; and Caterpillar Tractor, again to name only a few.

Lazard Brothers Bank (NY & France) has controlling interest in such companies as Lockheed Aircraft and IT&T.

And all of these Jewish Banks are co-owners of the privately-held Federal Reserve System!



Go to 13174
http://educate-yourself.org/lte/HDtvcovertsurveillanceagenda12apr08.shtml
Covert Surveillance Agenda Attached to Mandatory HD TV Conversion?

Subject: Coupons for HDTV conversion
From: Fran F.
Date: Fri, April 11, 2008 7:07 pm
To: Editor

Dear Ken,

I was wondering if you have any info about why the gub'ment is providing $40 coupons to help people buy conversion boxes to upgrade older TVs to receive HDTV signals? Our government doesn't HELP us do ANYTHING. Why this? Are those conversion boxes some sort of surveillance device?

Just wondered if you know why they are doing this -- and, by the way -- where is all this money coming from?

Thanks,
Fran F.

***

Hi Fran,

Yes, the forced conversion to High Definition TV means we will only be able to receive a digital TV signal instead of an analog TV signal starting in 2009. They will then have the ability to manipulate that digital signal in any direction desired, for any purpose desired.

In addition, there is little doubt in my mind that all of the newer wide-screen High Definition TVs you find in retail outlets today have both tiny cameras and audio detection devices covertly installed within them so the NSA can both SEE and HEAR everything that goes on in your home.

The conversion boxes that they are offering with those free government coupons will surely have the same detection and surveillance devices which I assume are being installed in the newer HD TVs.

Do I have proof? No, but common sense tells me this is where it's going and it fits with the escalating evidence of the Big Brother, police state controlled society which we are being forced into.

I'm EQUALLY confident that covert monitoring/tracking chips have been installed in all automobiles manufactured since perhaps 1990 (maybe even beginning in the late 80s).

How to get around it? I haven't thought it out much, but here's a few ideas off the top of my head:

1. Don't buy the newer HD TVs and don't get their conversion box. Forget getting TV from broadcast or cable or satellite directly. One idea is to watch TV shows from your older computer with currently availabe TV reception hardware/software (newer computers probably have the surveillance devices installed) or send the video and audio from the computer into the AV jacks on your TV or VCR.

2. Watch TV shows from programs previously recorded on VHS tapes or from DVDs using your older TV and VCR equipment. This could become a cottage industry overnight if enough people become aware of the covert surveillance agenda riding along on the coattails of the forced conversion to High Definition digital television.

3. You can listen to only television audio from many inexpensive radios that include the TV audio bands from channel 2-13 In most cases, audio is good enough for me. I'm mainly looking for those few comedy offerings here and there that will provide a laugh. Most sitcoms are just awful: 'boring' or 'banal' would be complimentary descriptions.

It's also possible that some bright boys out there will be able to find and neutralize the camera and audio detection devices being installed and render them useless. Time will tell.

I'm certainly not going to buy a HD TV or get that conversion box. 95% of what you see on broadcast TV is total garbage anyway. It's intentionally designed to turn a person into an intimidated, dumbed-down, brainwashed zombie. So who needs it?

Regards, Ken

***

Subject: Re: Coupons for HDTV conversion
From: Fran F.
Date: Sat, April 12, 2008
To: Editor

Thank you, Ken. I guess the best choice for me is to not do anything with my old TV and just let go of TV entirely -- no great loss, actually, except I do like to see what spin the network news is putting on stuff.

Do you have any reference to articles about the nefarious nature of this forced conversion? All TV will now be microwave transmission, right? Just what we need more of ... if that's part of the reason for all the honeybee deaths. I've thought the thought, but am not aware of an effort to educate people on this issue. (If you have something on your site, I apologize that I haven't read it there already, but point me in the right direction, please.)

Best wishes,
Fran F.



Go to 13173
http://www.wave3.com/Global/story.asp?S=4934566
Car Powered By Water A Reality
By Eric Flack

(LOUISVILLE) -- Along Florida's Gulf Coast, water is everywhere. From the bay to the beach to the town of Clearwater, that is where we found Denny Klein. A man driven by water, literally.

Klein has invented the world's first water powered car. It runs on what he calls "Aquygen." Aquygen is water or H2O, broken down and turned into HHO gas, something scientists once thought impossible.

"Any PhD or library, they say you can't mix hydrogen and oxygen. And still to this day we get a lot of people who don't believe us because that's what they were taught," Klein said.

But people are quickly learning Klein and his car are for real.

Klein says his design will retrofit any piston engine.

An economic development team from the county and local government TV got a demonstration while we were there.

Klein says he initially developed Aquygen to create a safer, less polluting blowtorch. Klein realized Aquygen would clean up car emissions as well. The only thing that would come out of the tailpipe was water.

Soon, his vision became a reality.

Like most alternative fuel cars, the prototype is actually a hybrid. It runs on a gas and Aquygen mixture. Whenever you're ready, you flip the switch and the Aquygen kicks in.

The result is up to a 50 percent jump in gas mileage. Klein's Ford Escort prototype gets 384 miles on a tank of gas. 576 miles with a little Aquygen mixed in.

Klein sees a totally Aquygen powered car sometime in the future. With that, he says you could drive 100 miles on 4 ounces of water. "You just drive it like a regular car. The infrastructure is already in place to get it serviced so we don't have to reinvent the wheel," Klein said.

For now, Denny Klein is content to perfect the hybrid version of the car. He says it could hit the market in as little as 2 years.

Aquygen units for industrial use are already for sale and Klein says other uses for it remain on the horizon. After all, with Aquygen, the possibilities are as endless as the supply.

If you're worried about losing power, don't. Unlike some other alternative fuel cars, Klein says he actually gets a couple extra horsepower when he uses Aquygen.

There are two hurdles to a car that runs totally on Aquygen. One: long-term impact on the engine. Will the water speed up rust or corrosion over time? Two: figuring out a process to tank the gas for distribution.



Go to 13172
http://www.tbrnews.org/Archives/a2831.htm
TBR News April 11, 2008
The Voice of the White House

Washington, D.C., April 10, 2008: “The CIA has never done anything right and its blunders have been very costly in human life and destructive to anything or anyone who gets in the way of what their idiotic leaders believe is in their own, not the nation’s, interest.

As a case in point, here is an overview (if I printed this verbatim, they would turn this place upside down to find and prosecute me) of the CIA’s meddling in Chinese affairs, both actual and projected.

Know that no one controls the CIA. For many years, they controlled us in that they had strong connections with corporate media and the top levels of the government. They could do as they liked.

A friend of some deputy director was having his overseas properties grabbed by some local dictator so the CIA wrote a fake position paper that “proved” the evil Communists were taking over the government in that country and Something Had To Be Done! And it was.

The students rebelled, (the CIA is big on infiltrating and supporting the volatile student population of target countries) dissidents in exile were given money and guns and guess what, the evil dictator was replaced with someone the CIA hand-picked.

Here we have Guatemala but now they are aiming at total disruption of the PRC.

The Company is behind the uproar in Tibet and is fomenting rebellious thoughts in the China ’s muslim population. They feel that Taiwan is now a lost cause so the Station in Islamabad is leading the fight to cause so much internal trouble in China that it starts to fall apart from within.

Under discussion has been the possible introduction of a laboratory-concocted blight aimed at the Asian rice crop. Since all of Asia depends on rice as a staple diet item, the sudden (and unexplained) spread of a blight that ruins the crop would do terrible damage all over Asia but especially in China .

One of the Islamabad reports, a copy of which is circulating here, explains that China is ripe for internal collapse. She has a huge population which she is having problems feeding and she has no oil for her burgeoning industry and has to import all of it. China is also now a meat-eating country and they need American corn to feed their cattle.

The CIA has worked it so that American farmers are growing corn for Ethanol and not for export. Oh, there is enough corn for domestic consumption but interestingly enough, not enough for export except at a very high price.

They are taking a leaf from Vladimir Putin’s book. He took Russian oil away from the pro-US Jewish oligarchs and nationalized it. Now, he controls the oil and the U.S. is getting squeezed. The CIA is doing the same thing to the Chinese and they reason that if the food supplies start to dry up there and by some means their oil imports can be cut back, China will implode and cease to be a potential threat to the U.S. And if the potentially rebellious Chinese minorities can be roused up, like their past actions in arming the Taliban against Russia in Afghanistan , they have a winner.

With the CIA’s connections with corporate media, look for more sad horror stories about Tibet . Tibet resonates far better than Dafur does with the American people. They, and Bush, are very upset about the shift in political winds in Pakistan . It looks like assonating Bhutto did not work they way they wanted it to because all it did was to guarantee that the wrong people came into power and now our wings have been clipped there. It is not too difficult to off one woman but to take out all of the Pakistan judicial system and their legislators is too much even for the CIA. The Ukraine operation (taking the Ukraine out of Putin’s orbit) was typical of their style but they waited too long and mis-stepped in Islamabad

At any rate, look for more fireworks about the Olympics and know the whys and wherefores of that situation.”.

Tibet : Will the USA Launch a New Secret War “Under the Roof of the World”?

March 18, 2008

by Andrei Areshev

iraq-war.ru

The current unrest in the Tibetan autonomy of the Chinese People’s Republic (seemingly unexpected) has continued for over a week. Manifestations organised by Buddhist monks on the occasion of an anniversary of Tibet’s annexation by China led to mass clashes with police, violence, fires and robbery. The tragic events coincided with the regular session of the All-China Assembly of People’s Representatives, acquiring a dramatic scale and have already led to deaths, forcing Beijing to use active army to crack down on the riots.

Western sources report the spread of unrest in the provinces neighbouring with Tibet (in particular Sichuan ) and mass repressions by the Chinese authorities, holding them up in an utterly negative aspect. And here we have an evident parallel with the way western media covered the activities of the Yugoslav army and police in Kosovo in 1998, immediately before the NATO aggression. Primary sources of information whose precision is hard to verify, are chiefly Tibetan émigrés in the neighbouring countries and western human rights NGOs. For example, according to Thubten Sampkhel, a representative of the Tibetan “government–in-exile” 80 protestors were killed and 72 wounded. He says eyewitnesses in Tibet who did the actual counting verified the figures. Official Chinese sources say that 10 people died. Some pro-Tibetan reports are deliberately over dramatising the situation. For example there are reports about the involvement of Chinese troops in mass killings of Tibetans; others say the “Tibetans in Amdo province have no intention of surrendering and are resolute to continues protests till the start of this year’s Olympic Games in Beijing”1.

The current developments can indeed do great harm to China taking place shortly before the 2008 Summer Olympic Games. Demonstrators in Lhasa have become the gravest challenge to the Chinese rule in Tibet over the past two decades, raising a worldwide wave of protests, and holding China up in an unfavourable light on the eve of the Olympics,” – the Associated Press puts it flatly. However the current events in that mountainous district have also an even greater geopolitical significance.

Experts on events in different continents and nations including Africa , Latin America , Myanmar , the Central Asia , the Middle East or Pakistan constantly stress the presence of elements of Chinese and American confrontation that is not always evident but nevertheless not less tense. In particular, one of the causes of the intervention in Iraq and the incessant threats to Iran can be accounted for by the striving to give China very poor energy rationing2.

It can be confidently argued that the present-day troubles faced by Washington ’s chief geopolitical rival would be completely taken advantage of with an eye to pushing their development in a favourable direction. U.S. State Secretary Condoleezza Rice has already called on China to exert “moderation” in order to overcome the current political crisis in the Tibetan autonomy. Having said she was sad over the unrest in the Tibetan administrative centre, Lhasa that followed protests and caused deaths, Condozleezza Rice said she was worried over reports about the growing police and army presence in Lhasa, calling on both sides to refrain from violence. Mrs. State Secretary preferred not to say that setting shops and buildings on fire and robbery did not fit well in the picture of peaceful protesting. She rather recalled that president Gorge W.Bush “has consistently called on China ’s government to have a constructive dialogue” with the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhists both directly or negotiating with his representatives…” On behalf of the U.S. administration Mrs. Rice called on Beijing to modify those aspects of its Tibetan policies that “have led to tension caused by their impact on the local religion, culture and sources of subsistence.”

It can be assumed that over the past several years the Tibetan national movement has become significantly more radical, so Beijing would find it hard to see eye to eye with it. In the oblique way this is evidenced by the scope and the skill of organisation of protests, as well as the wave of anti-China manifestations simultaneously sweeping over many countries from the United States and France to Nepal and Australia . The Kosovo independence issue could not fail to inspire supporters of complete Tibet ’s independence from China either. Washington realises this and for the time being continues to make a stake of the Dalai Lama, the champion of “peaceful non-violent forms of protest”, some sort of the “Tibetan Ibrahim Rugova.” The Tibetan spiritual leader enjoys a wide public support in the West, suffice it to recall his meeting with G.Bush, Sr. at the ceremony of awarding the Dalai Lama with the Gold Medal of U.S. Congress in October of 2007.

The spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhists has already called for an international inquiry into China ’s crackdown. His statement in Dharamsala3 says: ”The relevant international organisations should look into the Tibetan situation to clarify its causes.” The Dalai Lama has called the activities of Chinese authorities as “cultural genocide.”4

The Dalai Lama – willingly or not – is effectively preparing starting grounds for more radical forces that are about to launch an attack, enjoying political, propaganda and other sorts of support primarily from forces across the Atlantic .

The U.S. involvement in the internal affairs of Tibet and its relations with China have developed for several decades. After China annexed Tibet in 1949 and after the annexation of Hamand and Amdo provinces in 1956, on the initiative of the U.S. government the CIA started its “secret war” in the mountains of Tibet . In October of 1957, an aeroplane with no identification marks took off from a field aerodrome near Dakka carrying the first two Tibetans the CIA had trained for a month. Landing in the designated location close to Lhasa they soon established contacts with the leader of local insurgents. The Lhasa uprising started soon after, and the Dalai Lama fled. In 1958, in total secrecy, over 30 Tibetans began their training at the Camp Hale base in Colorado . Overall, more than 300 Tibetans were trained there. Starting from July, 1958 the CIA began flying C-130 aircraft from its secret base in Thailand , delivering weapons, ordnance and trained militants. More than 400 tonnes of cargo were delivered in 1957 through 1960. In one of the sabotage operations by Tibetans Chief of the Western Tibetan military district was killed, having on him vitally important documents of the Chinese Communist party. Langley obtained priceless information about China ’s domestic situation, the state of its army, the PRC nuclear programmes and the rifts between Peking and Moscow that began to take place. By the early 1960s U.S. secret services spent an annual $1.7 million a year in Tibet with about $500,000 allocated for the support of 2,100 guerrillas (including 800 armed militants), mainly based in Nepal , and some $180,000 for the Dalai Lama’s personal needs. When later relations between Washington and Beijing improved, the activities of Tibetan agents were temporarily suspended. Tibetans paid a death toll of 87,000 in crackdowns of uprisings and armed clashes only…

It is to be noted that the then role of China and its economy in world affairs was not very big, but Washington was adamantly pursuing its policies of interference in Chinese internal affairs in one of its “problem outskirts.” This has become even more evident in modern times when the global struggle for influence and resources has become fiercer than ever. With the Dalai Lama completing his mission one day, he will be replaced by other people who, with the support of external forces would attempt to challenge China ’s national unity as a state. There will also appear other points of “application of force” aside from Tibet , for example Xiangyang-Uigur autonomy and Inner Mongolia … External policy complications would not take long to arrive. It can be assumed that the current situation would dramatically affect relations between China and India , whom Washington is aggressively trying to draw into its orbit, and more than that.

Unrest in Tibet can unforeseeably echo in Russia , especially in the territories with a sizeable number of Buddhist population. Shows of support of Tibetan manifestators can happen in Kalmykia, Buriatia and Tuva. Ch. Budaev, Chairman of “Lamrim” Buddhist community and the Central Spiritual Buddhist Authority has already expressed hope that the developments in Tibet would lead the way for democratic changes in the Chinese society. According to him, democracy in Russia was consolidated after the well-known events of the 1990s that were given broad international coverage.

“I’d like to believe,” – Ch.Budaev said, “that the alarming developments in Tibet we are now witnessing would in the long run lead to democratisation of the Chinese society.”5

Thus, attempts of the external forces to propose a Gorbachev-Yeltsin scenario of China ’s “democratisation” directly bring the developments in Tibet into the realm of Russia ’s foreign and domestic policies.

The Coming Storm

When Malthus wrote his essay on population, his second chapter stated that while the population increased geometrically, food supply only increased arithmetically. Malthus was right but at the time he wrote, no one actually believed him. Now, we are experiencing the truth of his wordy thesis. The following articles deals with the rapidly accelerating worldwide shortage of food. Countries producing rice are now keeping as much of it as necessary to feed their own populations. A hungry people can make revolutions. We have seen food riots recently in Haiti , Cairo and Italy but the real proof of the Malthusian theory is yet to come. Wheat-growing countries like the United States , Canada and the Argentine are facing the question of continuing exporting of the crop or keeping it to feed its own people. There is no question what their decisions will be or of what will happen around the world. Australia , once a large wheat grower, has had almost a decade of terrible drought and is no longer considered a reliable source of supply. China has an enormous population, almost no natural resources, especially oil, and suffers from uncontrolled grown coupled with an equally uncontrolled capitalism, wedded to a thoroughly corrupt Marxist government. They must export goods for capital and import food for political stability. At one point, the ascending graph lines of population increases intersect with the descending ones of food production and the results are entirely predictable. BH

Editorial

The World Food Crisis

April 10, 2008

New York Times

Most Americans take food for granted. Even the poorest fifth of households in the United States spend only 16 percent of their budget on food. In many other countries, it is less of a given. Nigerian families spend 73 percent of their budgets to eat, Vietnamese 65 percent, Indonesians half. They are in trouble.

Last year, the food import bill of developing countries rose by 25 percent as food prices rose to levels not seen in a generation. Corn doubled in price over the last two years. Wheat reached its highest price in 28 years. The increases are already sparking unrest from Haiti to Egypt . Many countries have imposed price controls on food or taxes on agricultural exports.

Last week, the president of the World Bank, Robert Zoellick, warned that 33 nations are at risk of social unrest because of the rising prices of food. “For countries where food comprises from half to three-quarters of consumption, there is no margin for survival,” he said.

Prices are unlikely to drop soon. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization says world cereal stocks this year will be the lowest since 1982.

The United States and other developed countries need to step up to the plate. The rise in food prices is partly because of uncontrollable forces — including rising energy costs and the growth of the middle class in China and India . This has increased demand for animal protein, which requires large amounts of grain.

But the rich world is exacerbating these effects by supporting the production of biofuels. The International Monetary Fund estimates that corn ethanol production in the United States accounted for at least half the rise in world corn demand in each of the past three years. This elevated corn prices. Feed prices rose. So did prices of other crops — mainly soybeans — as farmers switched their fields to corn, according to the Agriculture Department.

Washington provides a subsidy of 51 cents a gallon to ethanol blenders and slaps a tariff of 54 cents a gallon on imports. In the European Union, most countries exempt biofuels from some gas taxes and slap an average tariff equal to more than 70 cents a gallon of imported ethanol. There are several reasons to put an end to these interventions. At best, corn ethanol delivers only a small reduction in greenhouse gases compared with gasoline. And it could make things far worse if it leads to more farming in forests and grasslands. Rising food prices provide an urgent argument to nix ethanol’s supports.

Over the long term, agricultural productivity must increase in the developing world. Mr. Zoellick suggested rich countries could help finance a “green revolution” to increase farm productivity and raise crop yields in Africa . But the rise in food prices calls for developed nations to provide more immediate assistance. Last month, the World Food Program said rising grain costs blew a hole of more than $500 million in its budget for helping millions of victims of hunger around the world.

Industrial nations are not generous, unfortunately. Overseas aid by rich countries fell 8.4 percent last year from 2006. Developed nations would have to increase their aid budgets by 35 percent over the next three years just to meet the commitments they made in 2005.

They must not let this target slip. Continued growth of the middle class in China and India , the push for renewable fuels and anticipated damage to agricultural production caused by global warming mean that food prices are likely to stay high. Millions of people, mainly in developing countries, could need aid to avoid malnutrition. Rich countries’ energy policies helped create the problem. Now those countries should help solve it.



Go to 13171
http://www.rense.com/general39/skol37.htm
The Overthrow Of The
American Republic - Part 37
Testing A Coup
by Sherman H. Skolnick
skolnick@ameritech.net
www.skolnicksreport.com
7-27-3

Supposing there was a sizeable military unit. And they threatened violence in the main city of the Republic. They demanded that the President and the Cabinet resign. Why? The rebellious military accused them of corruption and the President of orchestrating fake terrorist violence by way of controlling the country that way.

Was there such a test and who instigated it? The experiment was in progress on July 27, 2003, in Manila, the Republic of the Philippines. (The capital being Quezon City.)

The President stated, that as Commander-in-Chief, she is informing the rebellious military unit that they crossed the line of professionalism. That she is giving them such and such number of hours to surrender or forces will be sent to put down the rebellion (implying that there were forces loyal to her as President and Commander-in-Chief).

In 1972, a previous Philippine President, to entrench his dictatorial power, staged fake would-be-violence against himself, stating there was in the works, a movement to overthrow him. That Philippine President thereafter, suspended the Philippine Constitution invoking Martial Law. These tests were/are important because the Philippine Constitution is patterned after, if not identical, to the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights.

Was it an "accidental" happening in 1972? Is it just a coincidence in 2003, when the occupant and resident of the U.S. White House was installed by a Military-Style, five person Junta of the U.S. Supreme Court? And that drumhead Justice installed who was to be the occupant and resident of the White House. Were ordinary Americans aware of, if not shocked, by what some called "The Gang of Five", declaring in a just-before-Midnight proclamation that Americans have no fundamental right to vote for President, rather, just a very limited right to vote for Presidential Electors who, in turn, meeting as the Electoral College, after the supposed Presidential Election, to themselves choose who, if anyone, is to be in the White House.

Through website and foreign news items, important questions have been raised. [1] That the tragedy of September 11, 2001, did not, in being actually carried out, involve Arabs. That the bloodshed against Americans on that day was greatly patterned after the Northwoods Project, planned by dictatorial Joint Chiefs of Staff in 1962, wanting to justify an invasion of Cuba. The documents were first publicized in a book coming out shortly before 9-11, namely, "Body of Secrets" by James Bamford, an expert on the super-secret NSA, the National Security Agency. [2] The Arabs were not actually on any of the accused aircraft in 9-11, but were blamed for the happenings by the White House with the aid of the lapdog press. Some of the Arabs were actually Saudi exchange students studying how to fly airplanes and such, while living on U.S. Military facilities. At least seven of the supposed 19 Arab hi-jackers actually are still alive residing in North Africa, among other places.

The problem of understanding 9-11 is purposely intensified by the oil-soaked, spy-riddled American monopoly press which promotes short attention span and that ordinary Americans are to be fed news like to eight year old children. So in reporting the coup test in Manila now, the press will purposely forget the prior Manila event of 1972 and Martial Law test.


Also part of the problem obstructing ordinary Americans from understanding all this is both the education system combined with the mass media.

The subject of the Aristocracy, the Establishment, "the powers that be", the Ruling Class, whatever THEY are called, is a forbidden topic. The criminal underpinnings of the Aristocracy is not a subject, in high schools, or colleges and universities. And the popular press does not/will not ever deal with such subjects. Why? Simple. It would cause ordinary Americans to be class conscious, unlike Europeans who generally are so aware of that. Those who control Congress, the White House and the Executive branch, as well as the Judiciary, from behind the scenes, are not identified, generally not pictured, or referred to.

Books such as "The Rich and The Super Rich", by Ferdinand Lundberg, published in 1968, are mostly unknown to many ordinary Americans. And his other opus, "The Myth of Democracy" is likewise so. Gustavus Myers' book, "The Great American Fortunes", published in the 1930s, and documenting the criminal past of the Ruling Families, is seldom nowadays referred to or to be found in many libraries. Some Americans are merely amused by Gore Vidal's blistering statements that those who rule us are not the ones we see on the television but persons behind the scenes.

Who dares refer to the Bush Crime Family? And that they are not the aristocracy but merely scapegoats and stooges for the plans of the British and the Monarchy, to take back this continent, reverting ordinary Americans to be just subjects of British colonies. Who among the popular pundits in the press, on the tv or radio, refers to the persistent efforts of the British to overthrow the American central government? Starting, at least since the War of 1812, when in 1814, they burned down the U.S. Capitol? And what about the three U.S. Presidents assassinated for the benefit of the British who wanted to snuff out American industrial development (Abraham Lincoln, James Garfield, and William McKinley. In addition, the American Civil War, seldom properly identified, was instigated by the British to promote the natural friction between the Industrial North and the Agricultural South, and the divisive issue of slavery. That is to divide up this nation, to Balkanize America).

It remains to be seen how the Manila experiment will play out. Has it been secretly instigated as a test later to be for real in the U.S.? Is the American Central Government facing military disasters in Afghanistan and Iraq? Has the most monstrous treason been committed against ordinary Americans? That is, treachery calculated to be falsely blamed onto Arabs, such as 9-11?



Go to 13170
http://atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/JD10Dj03.html
Apr 10, 2008
The Black Death of financial collapse
By James Cumes

The financial and economic crisis now upon us is by far the most menacing of the past century - even more so than the Great Depression of the 1930s. It is not just a "subprime" crisis; it is systemic - affecting the entire financial system. It is also global, affecting various countries in various ways but affecting them all. In achieving a certain "globalization", we have been uniquely successful in globalizing collapse, chaos and misery. It is a globalization which, in our short-sighted negligence, we never envisaged.

In this crisis, even a country such as Australia is no more than a subordinate, neo-colonial, financial and economic dependency. In essence, we have reverted to what we were before and during the Great Depression of the 1930s, when Whitehall, Westminster and

the Bank of England played the tune to which we jigged. Then, from 1945 to 1969, for the first time, we played our own tune of full employment and stable economic growth. Wild radicals such as minister Eddie Ward in the governments of John Curtin (1941-45) and Ben Chifley (1945-49) warned us to be wary of Wall Street.

The cynics might now say that Eddie, who died in 1963, was right. After 1969, we forgot his warning. Indeed, the Americans themselves forgot to guard against the chicaneries of Wall Street, where eternal vigilance should always be the watchword. They forgot what the mania of Wall Street can do to the reality of Main Street; and we shared their amnesia.

From 1969 and especially from 1971, when the United States cut the dollar link with gold, Australia surrendered any worthwhile independence in its economic and financial thinking. We swallowed American financial and economic formulae, whether we were academics or policymakers, industrial entrepreneurs, banks or providers of "financial services."

We did not entirely switch off tunes played by Britain, the more so as its prime minister Margaret Thatcher formed her slapstick band with US president Ronald Reagan to drum up support for "free" markets, "free" trade, privatization, globalization and the free flow of almost everything, including speculative capital in unqualified pursuit of private profit. Corporation and consumer greed marched in step towards global disaster.

Rational economics based on real investment, productivity and production died in favor of speculative and often Ponzi pretensions. The cowboy junk-bond merchants of the 1980s metamorphosed into respectable, mostly young and usually idolized financial wizards who "perfected" sophisticated, highly complex credit devices. From the 1990s, these highly leveraged instruments took the form of derivatives, private-equity, hedge-fund and mortgage securities, abbreviated to CDOs, SIVs and the rest.
Allied with "free" markets, deregulation and the uninhibited flow of all kinds of finance, those financial devices destroyed industries and the jobs that go with them. With casual indifference, they also destroyed the self-reliant working and middle classes until then typical of robust free-enterprise economies.

Theirs was not Joseph Schumpeter's "creative destruction" but wholesale destruction of their own economies and, eventually, their own financial "system". They destroyed personal savings and created massive indebtedness. They undermined the power and security of the United States itself as they "outsourced" real economic strength and stability to countries especially in Asia.

The Asian Tigers, China and others grew into "powerhouses" whose creation, historically, would otherwise have taken them generations. Our eminently creditable aim of peaceful change through development of developing economies was distorted, largely through negligent inadvertence, into financial, economic and social self-destruction. Looming global collapse, with political and strategic uncertainties, are our inevitable legacy.

Consumerism rages, industry gutted
The speculative, Ponzi mania spread especially to Anglo-Saxon countries and to other developed countries in lesser degree. Australia took to "free" markets, "free" trade, free-floating currencies, deregulation, privatization, globalization, derivatives, hedge funds, private equity, wildcat mortgages and leverage-without-limit as a duck to water. Consumerism raged. Industry was gutted. Debts ballooned. The value of the currency fell at home and abroad. Despite low-cost imports, inflation flourished. In 2008, the Australian dollar can perhaps buy as much in real terms as five or 10 cents did in 1969.

A situation in which real public and private investment was replaced by "ownership investment", massive leverage and speculative finance, in which consumption grew and debts spread, could not persist, except so long as ever more money flooded in to support the insupportable. Once the flood slowed or stopped, a Ponzi-type collapse was inevitable.

But few saw it that way. Warren Buffet belatedly called derivatives weapons of mass destruction; but most saw the financial devices as belonging to a "new era". They represented a "new paradigm". Far from being a threat to stable growth in a stable financial system, they "spread risk" and made everyone more secure and of course more wealthy.

The wealth effect was a particular feature of the residential mortgage business. Funds were available from many new banking and non-banking sources, including hedge funds and private equity, as well as pension and mutual funds; and sources that, in their magnitudes, were new, such as the carry trade. Funds marketed wholesale and retail mortgages. Liability could be shifted even or especially for debt in the deepest sense sub-prime. Mortgages also enabled homeowners to expand consumption through mortgage-equity withdrawals (MEW).

In a real sense, MEWs were symptomatic of multitudes of individuals - and, in effect, whole societies - high-living it off their capital. That enabled a process of growth that was both irresistible and inherently unsustainable.

However, the Ponzi scheme to shame all others may yet be waiting to deliver its coup de grace. One commentator has drawn attention to "the bad news [which] is the US$500 trillion derivatives market". He says that "This is an area that the general public does not even know exists. Few professionals understand this market. There is no regulation as government just let it go ... and go it did. You must expect a 5% default problem. That is a $25 trillion number ... It can create insolvent institutions all over the world ... It is the making of the first global depression. The world is not ready."

Unprepared for depression
Australia is not ready either. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd told us late in March that Australia's economic prospects remain "sound, strong and good". The Reserve Bank of Australia shares that view. Eerily, they echo US President Herbert Hoover in 1929 immediately before the stock market crash of that year.

Australia's situation contains some positive features. High commodity prices, it can be argued, are likely to persist, even though volatile, at least in the short term. A member of Iceland's central bank board recently said that "fears of a meltdown in my sub-arctic homeland are vastly overblown. True, the current account deficit was 16% of GDP last year, but that's an improvement from more than 25% in 2006. And while net private-sector debt is about 120% of GDP, there is virtually no public debt in Iceland. This is largely the result of unparalleled political stability and continuity."

Australia's situation may not be as dire as Iceland's; or indeed as dire as that of the United States or New Zealand; but all three of us have some negatives like those of Iceland.

Like all booms of such size and speculative character, the Australian housing boom must soon demand payment of its account. From their peak, prices could fall 30% to 50%. Industry researcher BIS Shrapnel does not agree; but we must expect that our housing boom, even more robust than the American, will collapse along the same general lines as the bust occurring right now in the United States.

The high "unaffordability" of housing for the average home-seeker, as distinct from speculator, suggests that the bust will be savage. The real-estate, building and associated industries will suffer severely, with massive job losses. Simultaneously, profitable investment opportunities elsewhere may have vanished with the widespread collapse of the "financial services industry".

How likely is such a collapse? So far, although some non-banking financial institutions have gone to the wall, the four major banks have seemed largely immune. "The take-up of the Australian economy is still good," Rudd said last week in New York. Australia had "limited exposure" to the subprime mortgage woes that erupted in the United States last year, he said. "We have excellent balance sheets in terms of our principal corporates and the banks themselves ... The default rate in Australia is minuscule by Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development standards."

We don't know how far banks and other potentially exposed institutions have concealed their liabilities and to what extent and how soon they will be forced to reveal whatever bad news there is. Within this broad question, we also do not know how far they are exposed to losses from the massive and still largely mysterious menace of derivatives.

In some measure, Australia's major banks have certainly been involved in the wide range of structured securities - CDOs, SIVs, and the rest. A report on April 4, 2008, that local councils in New South Wales have lost US$200 million and perhaps up to $400 million on investments in CDOs is a worrying sign that other and even bigger losses may yet be revealed in a variety of institutions, including banks. It seems scarcely credible that an economy which, for so many years, has absorbed so much of American theory and practice - so much of the American financial character - can be wholly immune from the penalties inflicted on its American model.

The subprime crisis first hit the United States after a housing about-turn that began as far back as 2005 or 2006. An unequivocal downturn in housing in Australia has yet to check in; but non-bank lenders are already withdrawing from the market. Wholesale mortgage lenders are closing shop, perhaps as a prelude to a sharp housing decline.

The carry trade which has presumably provided funds for mortgages and other financial services in Australia has been volatile for some time. If it unwinds completely, that could not only intensify mortgage problems but also impact on Australia's external balances.

Our deficits have so far tended to persist at a less healthy level than the commodity boom might have encouraged us to hope. Our aggregate private overseas debt is said to amount to the order of half a trillion dollars. Against that background, the current depreciation of the United States dollar might foreshadow what awaits our own currency.

Lagging impact
Economic and financial change in the United States tends to have a lagging impact on Australia. An acute awareness of the severity of our crisis may consequently not emerge before the second half of 2008.

When it does, what will the Rudd government do? Currently, it seems as unaware of the magnitude of the challenge it faces as the James Scullin government was in 1929. So the present government might become just as bewildered as Scullin and stagger just as blindly and ineffectually when they are called on to act. In the 1930s, we listened to the likes of Otto Niemeyer of the British Treasury who was also a director of the Bank of England. Will the Rudd government this time listen to the Americans and the likes of US Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke? If they do, catastrophic outcomes might not be in short supply.

Our only real hope lies in clear, independent thinking by those not too steeped in the flawed policies responsible for our current crisis. We must see clearly that fundamental, comprehensive financial and economic reform is imperative. We must adapt that fundamental reform to our own needs, as the John Curtin and Ben Chifley governments did between 1941 and 1949. As we did then, we must simultaneously try to guide the international community out of the calamitous course that has evolved since 1969, and return it to the goal of stable, peaceful, global change which, as a primary objective, we pursued between 1945 and 1969.

While we embark on this journey, a high level of political volatility in Canberra is inevitable. Rudd might succeed; but the Labor Party and government might split two or three ways as they did between 1929 and 1932. Another Joe Lyons, prime minister from 1932 to 1939, might emerge. Whoever he might be, the odds are that he will be even less likely to find quick or easy solutions than Lyons was during the long and bitter years of depression. Those years ended only in the even deeper tragedy of world war.

James Cumes is a former Australian ambassador to the European Union and Australian representative at the United Nations. He is the author of among other works The Human Mirror: The Narcissistic Imperative in Human Behaviour.



Go to 13169
http://www.rense.com/general81/irss.htm
The IRS And The Paperwork
Reduction Act Of 1995
By Mary Sparrowdancer
©. 2008 by Mary Sparrowdancer
All Rights Reserved
4-12-8

While the entire population seems to have been blinded by the glare of IRS hubris for over a half-century, it is the IRS that appears to have an ongoing criminal record of law violations severely impacting our rights and privacy. According to a 1995 summary written by tax litigation consultant, Daniel Pilla, in 1993, "taxpayers were overcharged $5 billion." In addition, he wrote, "a General Accounting Office audit of the IRS in 1993 found widespread evidence of financial malfeasance and gross negligence. The IRS could not account for 64 percent of its congressional appropriation." (17)

The Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) (44 U.S. Code) was passed by Congress and signed into law by the President in 1995. It added additional restrictions to the PRA of 1980, regarding Federal agencies and their ability to collect personal information from the public. The purpose of this law is to have "Federal agencies become more responsible and publicly accountable for reducing the burden of Federal paperwork on the public, and for other purposes." It directs the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to regulate the Federal forms used to demand or collect private information from the non-Federal public. Before each form can be approved, the agency wishing to collect such information must show the statute authorizing it to legally collect such information, and it must comply with other laws and regulations. (1)(2)

Obtaining information from the public on Federal forms is specifically referred to as "information collections."
According to the PRA of 1995, (Subsection 3507) no agency shall collect non-Federal, public information unless in advance they have submitted "copies of pertinent statutory authority" authorizing them to collect such information. Upon approval, the information collection form is then issued an eight-digit OMB code number to be displayed on the form. Approval may not be for "a period in excess of 3 years." All Federal agencies within the scope of the PRA must comply. Nearly all do comply.

A study identified as a Congressional Research Service report gives a history of the PRA, stating that the Carter Administration endorsed and helped bring about a PRA that brought the Treasury within the scope of the PRA and its requirements. In November 1979, President Carter issued Executive Order 12174 "with a view to minimizing further the paperwork burden 'imposed on persons outside the Federal government.'" The General Accounting Office (GAO) (since renamed the Government Accountability Office), recommended more strict collection regulations and the result was, the "OMB engendered the enmity of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the Treasury Department, which objected to OMB's attempts to review IRS regulations containing reporting or recordkeeping requirements." (3)

The report goes on to state that in order to settle the dispute, "OMB sought an interpretive opinion from the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC), Department of Justice, that would be binding on the agencies. Rendered on June 22, 1982, the OLC opinion concluded that reporting or recordkeeping requirements set out in prior, existing regulations were not subject to OMB review under the PRA. The opinion was largely viewed as a substantial defeat for OMB for various reasons, not the least of which was the fact that IRS regulations accounted for almost half of the federal government's paperwork burden." This ruling, therefore, sheltered the IRS from OMB review, but one must wonder why the IRS was in need of such a shelter. Why were they unable to simply comply with the PRA requirements?

In a 2001 whitehouse.gov memorandum, 487 violations of the PRA were documented by various agencies and compliance was again called for. The memorandum further repeats, OMB approval for such forms "can last for a maximum of three years," perhaps in part because a number of violations appeared to stem from OMB numbers that had expired. In addition, "The Act prohibits agencies from penalizing those who fail to respond to Federal collections of information that do not display valid OMB control numbers. The Act also prohibits agencies from penalizing those who have not been informed that a response is not required unless the collection of information displays a valid control number. Both of these public protections 'may be raised in the form of a complete defense, bar, or otherwise at any time during the agency administrative process or judicial action applicable thereto.'" (44 U.S.C. 3512). (4)

The full wording of Subsection 3512, "Public Protection," is as follows:

"§ 3512. Public protection

(a) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, no person shall be subject to any penalty for failing to comply with a collection of information that is subject to this subchapter if--

(1) the collection of information does not display a valid control number assigned by the Director in accordance with this subchapter; or

(2) the agency fails to inform the person who is to respond to the collection of information that such person is not required to respond to the collection of information unless it displays a valid control number.

(b) The protection provided by this section may be raised in the form of a complete defense, bar, or otherwise at any time during the agency administrative process or judicial action applicable thereto." (5)

According to 44 U.S. Code, Subsection 3506: "With respect to general information resources management, each agency shall--

(B) ensure that each information collection-
(i) is inventoried, displays a control number and, if appropriate, an expiration date;
(ii) indicates the collection is in accordance with the clearance requirements of section 3507; and
(iii) informs the person receiving the collection of information of-
(I) the reasons the information is being collected;
(II) the way such information is to be used;
(III) an estimate, to the extent practicable, of the burden of the collection;
(IV) whether responses to the collection of information are voluntary, required to obtain a benefit, or mandatory; and
(V) the fact that an agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, a collection of information unless it displays a valid control number;" (6)

Subsection (D) of 3506 states that each form shall be: "written using plain, coherent, and unambiguous terminology and is understandable to those who are to respond."

Violations of the PRA occur when forms expire but continue to be used by agencies, or when forms are changed without first obtaining OMB approval. The situation is usually corrected by requiring the agency to comply and submit their form. According to a Fiscal Year 1997 Report to Congress, for instance, the Treasury Department's Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) violated the PRA by carrying out an "Unauthorized Collection." This was discovered when a public individual noticed that ATF had revised one of their forms without OMB approval, and notified authorities. After the violation was noted, the stated response was: "Treasury has assured OMB that ATF will reexamine its internal procedures to ensure future compliance with the PRA." (7) (8) (9)

Other brief examples of violations stemming from changing an information collection form without first obtaining approval can be seen in such cases as when the OMB noticed that substantial modifications were made to the "Annual Report (5500 Form)" by the Department of Labor. Another when the public notified OMB that the wording of an Affirmative Action Plan Scheduling Letter had been changed without OMB approval. Numerous other violations can be viewed online along with the agency responses and their subsequent commitments to comply.

Standing almost alone in its field, however, is the department responsible for placing the largest Federal paperwork burden on the non-Federal public. According to the government's own report, this agency is one of the most persistent violators of Federal laws, thus resulting in a government OMB compliance rating of "Poor." This is the Treasury Department. The Treasury's IRS, alone, is now responsible for over 76 percent of the public's time- consuming, unregulated and confusing paperwork. (10)

One need not look very far to find an example of the willful failure to file on the part of the IRS when it comes to compliance with the PRA of 1980 and the PRA of 1995. One need only look at the familiar IRS 1040 information collection form. In checking the OMB number on this form, one can see that the IRS has been using the same OMB number, 1545-0074, on various altered forms since the early 1980s. According to statements presented as factual evidence in an "unpublished disposition," the government complied with the PRA of 1980 in 1985, when information pertaining to 1545-0074 was published in the Federal Register. What was the cause of the five-year delay in complying with the law? (11).

Almost a quarter-century beyond the "maximum of three years" law, during which time modified forms have been used without new OMB approval codes, this well-known OMB number continues to be used, and in fact, is now being used on numerous additional forms due to what is currently referred to as a "new methodology" recently embraced by the IRS. According to this "new methodology," the IRS claims it has administrative discretion to put whatever it likes under one single OMB control number, apparently creating a one-size-fits-all OMB, forever and ever.
This "new methodology," however, clearly violates the PRA, and thus places the IRS in a position that is again above the law and beyond the reach of reasonable and responsible Federal review and accountability. (12) (13) (14) (15)

In addition, it should be noted that unlike the other Federal departments and agencies, the IRS apparently does not even recognize the PRA of 1995 or recognizes it only with contempt as seen by their ongoing refusals to comply, and ongoing violations.
The IRS has instead elected to refer to, and to lead the public to believe it is operating according to the lesser restrictive PRA of 1980, as can be clearly seen in their current IRS instructions for Form 1040, year 2007. There, they write again, "and the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1980 require that when we ask you for information . . . " (16)

One must wonder why the IRS is publicly giving the appearance of ignoring the PRA of 1995 and operating instead as they did back in a bygone era, clinging to an old OMB number that appears to have been obtained by a grandfather-clause shelter given to the IRS in the 1982 ruling by the Office of Legal Counsel. One must also wonder what the real reason is that the IRS has no newer OMB numbers for the 1040 form demanding information from the public.
Is the answer that they have been unable to fully comply with the PRA? Is the IRS unable to cite the actual statute giving them the legal, lawful authority to demand from the non-Federal general public the information collections, the monies, the personal wages and the horrific penalties that it has been extracting from the non- Federal general public for over a half-century?

There are other questions to be asked, as well. If the IRS is selective about the laws it recognizes and operates under, which laws are we - - the non-Federal public who remain at its mercy - - expected to abide by? Shall we ignore standing laws such as PRA 1995 when we deal with the IRS? Shall we abide instead by older, more obsolete laws, or shall we accept its "new methodology" moves that violate the essence of the PRA?

The PRA instructs us to use the PRA protection provisions as our own legitimate defense in cases of OMB code violations. The courts, however, have only infrequently dared to challenge and investigate the IRS activities, choosing instead to sacrifice unknown numbers of innocent non-Federal people for such vague and consistently unproven charges as "willful failure to file a tax return." This charge is based upon "IRC Sec. 6012. Persons Required to Make Returns of Income." The word "returns," however, implies giving something back to the source from which it was first obtained.

While the entire population seems to have been blinded by the glare of IRS hubris for over a half-century, it is the IRS that appears to have an ongoing criminal record of law violations severely impacting our rights and privacy. According to a 1995 summary written by tax litigation consultant, Daniel Pilla, in 1993, "taxpayers were overcharged $5 billion." In addition, he wrote, "a General Accounting Office audit of the IRS in 1993 found widespread evidence of financial malfeasance and gross negligence. The IRS could not account for 64 percent of its congressional appropriation." (17)

One might assume that after such a scathing review, the IRS would have moved to correct its areas of weakness and noncompliance, but as though it cannot conduct its business unless also simultaneously violating the Constitution and other laws, it apparently has no intention of changing. In a 2003 Opinion written on the case of "Dixon v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue," in which the IRS was ruled to have defrauded the court in order to win 1,300 tax shelter cases, Judge Michael Hawkins used a quote from an earlier Opinion as his opening title: "The truth needs no disguise."

He further wrote, "We must decide whether the Tax Court's finding of a pattern of government misconduct amounts to a fraud on the court and, if so, whether such a fraud requires a showing of prejudice to justify relief. We conclude that the misconduct, including its persistence and concealment, did indeed amount to a fraud on the court."

In his Opinion on this case, a case that would result in two IRS lawyers having their law licenses suspended, Judge Hawkins further wrote, "The IRS had an opportunity to present its case fairly and properly. Instead its lawyers intentionally defrauded the Tax Court. The Tax Court had two opportunities to equitably resolve this situation and failed. Enormous amounts of time and judicial resources have been wasted. In addition, the IRS has done little to punish the misconduct and even less to dissuade future abuse." (18) (19)

Indeed, according to the New York Times, each of the two IRS lawyers had received $1000 bonuses for their efforts. When Michael Louis Minns, a tax lawyer representing 124 of the tax shelter buyers, asked the IRS in which states their two lawyers were licensed so that he could seek their disbarment, the IRS refused to say, stating such disclosure would violate their confidentiality.

Now, as the 2008 tax season approaches its annual frenzy, we see that various media are abuzz with the shocking news that due to massive security flaws, the IRS computer system containing millions of Americans' most private and confidential information can be easily hacked and identities stolen, accessed, or routed off to third parties. While the IRS has protected its own despite their having engaged in egregious misconduct, it has done little to protect the innocent general public. This, however, is not really news, nor should it be shocking. Daniel Pilla warned us about this in 1995. While the truth needs no disguise, for the agency that represents the exact opposite of the truth, no disguise could ever suffice.

* * * * * * * * *
Mary Sparrowdancer is an independent, investigative journalist and the author of a bestselling book, The Love Song.
www.sparrowdancer.com She wishes to thank Congressional Candidate Mark Yannone (AZ-3), for his comments and input in the creation of this paper. http://www.yannone.org/

* * * * * * * * *
Cited References:

1. OMB-Watch. (4/9/08)
Go to 13168
http://www.ombwatch.org/article/articleview/2881/1/360?TopicID=7

2. Paperwork Reduction Act (4/9/08)
Go to 13167
http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/laws/paperwork-reduction/

3. Report to Congress. (4/9/08)
Go to 13166
http://ftp.fas.org/sgp/crs/secrecy/RL30590.pdf

4. Still not quite at goal. (4/9/2008)
Go to 13165
http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/inforeg/pra_memo111401.pdf

5. The Little David and Goliath Law (4/9/08)
Go to 13164
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/44/usc_sec_44_00003512----000-.html

6. More of Same. (4/9/08)
Go to 13163
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/44/usc_sec_44_00003506----000-.html

7. Department of Labor Complies. (4/9/08).
Go to 13162
http://www.dol.gov/cio/programs/pra/pra.htm

8. FCC Complies. (4/9/08)
Go to 13161
http://www.fcc.gov/omd/pra/about.html

9. Not Everyone Complies. (4/9/08)
Go to 13160
http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/inforeg/prarep2.html

10. PRA Compliance Rating. Treasury: "Poor." (4/9/08)
Go to 13159
http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/inforeg/icb/fy2006_icb_report.pdf

11. Unpublished Disposition ­ (4/12/2008)
Go to 13158
http://bulk.resource.org/courts.gov/c/F2/923/923.F2d.862.36-3_10.html

12. 1545:0074 Finally Expires. (4/9/08)
Go to 13157
http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/library/OMBINV.TREASURY.html

13. The New Methodology. (4//9/08)
Go to 13156
http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/inforeg/icb/fy2006_icb_revised.pdf

14. PRA of 1980 (4/12/08)
Go to 13155
http://www.thecre.com/pdf/Carter_PaperworkRedAct1980.PDF

15. Federal Register, December 2006, New Methodology
Go to 13154
http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2006/E6-21709.htm

16. 1545:0074 Revived. IRS follows 1980 Law. (4/9/08)
Go to 13153
http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i1040.pdf

17. IRS Malfeasance (4/12/2008)
Go to 13152
http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa222es.html

18. Dixon v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue (4/12/2008)
Go to 13151
http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/ca9/newopinions.nsf/ 294160FF1751D1B888256CB10004A899/$file/0070858.pdf?openelement

19. New York Times ­ Two ex-IRS Lawyers' Licenses Suspended
(4/12/2008)
Go to 13150
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/21/business/21tax.html? ex=1250827200&en=3e42f669e5580fae&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland



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