Only Hustler Magazine brave enough
DID YOU KNOW?
Yes, America is Still in an Official State of Emergency
(see further below)
But first,
GOTO WIKIPEDIA and look up
Sibel Edmonds
and THEN read this:
'Sibel Edmonds: The Traitors Among Us' in March Issue
of Hustler Magazine (Now on Newsstands)
The article brings the story of Edmonds, who was
twice-gagged by the Bush Administration's outrageous
use/abuse of the "States Secrets Privilege," fully up
to date following her naming of names, finally, under
oath, in remarkable testimony last summer. (Some of
those names: Hastert, Burton, Blunt, Lantos,
Schakowsky, Wolfowitz, Perle, Grossman, etc.)
The Hustler piece, "Sibel Edmonds: The Traitors Among
Us," also explores reasons for the
perhaps-even-more-remarkable complete avoidance of her
4-hour, detailed, video-taped testimony by the
corporate media (Pat Buchanan's American Conservative
magazine excepted, if you consider them to be
"corporate media") concerning allegations of blackmail
of sitting U.S. Congressmembers, the theft and sale of
nuclear secrets to the foreign blackmarket, and other
allegations of treasonous activities by top State and
Defense Department officials over the last decade or
more.
So there's your latest excuse to go buy Hustler. While
you're at the newsstand, please pick up a copy of the
February issue of Maxim as well, featuring Simon
Worrall's feature article on the formerly-'censored'
story of the mysterous death of GOP IT guru Mike
Connell, as detailed in our recent exclusive preview.
=== Yes, America is Still in an Official State of Emergency =====
February 11, 2010 "WB" Feb. 09, 2010 -- A reader asked
whether the U.S. is still in an official state of
emergency, and if so, what that means.
The answer is yes, we are still in a state of
emergency.
Specifically:
On September 11, 2001, the government declared a state
of emergency. That declared state of emergency was
formally put in writing on 9/14/2001:
"A national emergency exists by reason of the terrorist
attacks at the World Trade Center, New York, New York,
and the Pentagon, and the continuing and immediate
threat of further attacks on the United States.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the
United States of America, by virtue of the authority
vested in me as President by the Constitution and the
laws of the United States, I hereby declare that the
national emergency has existed since September 11, 2001
. . . ."
That declared state of emergency has continued in full
force and effect from 9/11 [throughout the Bush
administration] to the present.
On September 10 2009, President Obama continued the
state of emergency:
The terrorist threat that led to the declaration on
September 14, 2001, of a national emergency continues.
For this reason, I have determined that it is necessary
to continue in effect after September 14, 2009, the
national emergency with respect to the terrorist
threat.
Does a State of Emergency Really Mean Anything? Does a
state of emergency really mean anything? Yes, it does:
The Washington Times wrote on September 18, 2001:
"Simply by proclaiming a national emergency on Friday,
President Bush activated some 500 dormant legal
provisions, including those allowing him to impose
censorship and martial law." Is the Times correct?
Well, it is clear that pre-9/11 declarations of
national emergency have authorized martial law. For
example, as summarized by a former fellow for the
Hoover Institution and the National Science Foundation,
and the recipient of numerous awards, including the
Gary Schlarbaum Award for Lifetime Defense of Liberty,
Thomas Szasz Award for Outstanding Contributions to the
Cause of Civil Liberties, Lysander Spooner Award for
Advancing the Literature of Liberty and Templeton Honor
Rolls Award on Education in a Free Society: In 1973,
the Senate created a Special Committee on the
Termination of the National Emergency (subsequently
redesignated the Special Committee on National
Emergencies and Delegated Emergency Powers) to
investigate the matter and to propose reforms.
Ascertaining the continued existence of four
presidential declarations of national emergency, the
Special Committee (U.S. Senate 1973, p. iii) reported:
"These proclamations give force to 470 provisions of
Federal law. . . . taken together, [they] confer enough
authority to rule the country without reference to
normal constitutional processes. Under the powers
delegated by these statutes, the President may: seize
property; organize and control the means of production;
seize commodities; assign military forces abroad;
institute martial law; seize and control all
transportation and communications; regulate the
operation of private enterprise; restrict travel; and,
in a plethora of particular ways, control the lives of
all American citizens." (Most or all of the emergency
powers referred to by the above-quoted 1973 Senate
report were revoked in the late 1970's by 50 U.S.C.
Section 1601. However, presidents have made numerous
declarations of emergency since then, and the
declarations made by President Bush in September 2001
are still in effect). It is also clear that the White
House has kept substantial information concerning its
presidential proclamations and directives hidden from
Congress. For example, according to Steven Aftergood of
the Federation of American Scientists Project on
Government Secrecy: "Of the 54 National Security
Presidential Directives issued by the [George W.] Bush
Administration to date, the titles of only about half
have been publicly identified. There is descriptive
material or actual text in the public domain for only
about a third. In other words, there are dozens of
undisclosed Presidential directives that define U.S.
national security policy and task government agencies,
but whose substance is unknown either to the public or,
as a rule, to Congress." As former United States
congressman Dan Hamburg wrote in October: While ...
Congress and the judiciary, as well as public opinion,
"can restrain the executive regarding emergency
powers," nothing of the sort has occurred. Under the
1976 National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1601-1651),
Congress is required to review presidentially declared
emergencies. Specifically, "not later than six months
after a national emergency is declared, and not later
than the end of each six-month period thereafter that
such emergency continues, each House of Congress shall
meet to consider a vote on a joint resolution to
determine whether that emergency shall be terminated."
Over the past eight years, Congress has failed to obey
its own law, a fact that casts doubt on the legality of
the state of emergency. As far as public opinion is
concerned, how many Americans are even aware that a
state of emergency even exists. For that matter, how
many members of Congress know? ... The Obama
administration is essentially arguing that the United
States is currently in a state of resisting foreign
invasion a full eight years after the attacks of 9/11!
This is ludicrous. [Dr. Harold C. Relyea, a specialist
in national government with the Congressional Research
Service (CRS) of the Library of Congress] argues that
Congress and the judiciary, as "co-equal branches of
constitutional government," serve as a check on the
executive power. As we have seen, Congress has either
been shut out of this process, or, as in so many cases,
it has capitulated. Dr. Relyea then offers that public
opinion can restrain the executive. But the public
doesn't even know they're living under a state of
emergency. The media doesn't report it, and the
government is certainly not in the business of
providing information that might raise the hackles of
real Americans. It's time for the American people to
rise to this challenge. Write your member of Congress,
and your senators. Tell them to obey their own laws.
Tell them to end this phony and treacherous state of
emergency that imperils the freedom of us all.
Hamburg's must-read article also discusses the
suspension of Possse Comitatus, the operation of
Northcom inside the U.S., and the refusal of the
Department of Homeland Security to provide information
on the state of emergency to Congress or even to
Congress members on the Homeland Security committee
with the highest security clearances. The Effect of a
State of Emergency on the Economy and Business The
continuous state of emergency in effect from September
2001 to the present may have had a substantial affect
on the economy and business. Initially, as William K.
Black - senior regulator during the S&L crisis,
professor of Economics and Law, and an expert on white
collar financial crime - has repeatedly pointed out,
the government knew about an epidemic of mortgage fraud
a long time ago. For example, the FBI warned of an
"epidemic" of mortgage fraud in 2004. However, the FBI,
DOJ and other government agencies putted their agents
off of financial fraud investigation and forced them to
focus on terrorism instead. See this and this And as
Reuters noted last week: U.S. securities regulators
originally treated the New York Federal Reserve's bid
to keep secret many of the details of the American
International Group bailout like a request to protect
matters of national security, according to emails
obtained by Reuters. The national security claim may
seem outlandish, but it is nothing new. As Business
Week wrote on May 23, 2006: President George W. Bush
has bestowed on his intelligence czar, John Negroponte,
broad authority, in the name of national security, to
excuse publicly traded companies from their usual
accounting and securities-disclosure obligations. In
other words, national security has been discussed for
years as a basis of keeping normal accounting and
securities-related disclosures secret. While "national
security" and a state of "national emergency" may not
be exactly the same, they are variations of a single
theme - an existential threat to our nation - which has
dominated American since September 11. Similarly,
Congressman Brad Sherman, Congressman Paul Kanjorski
and Senator James Inhofe all say that the government
warned of martial law if Tarp wasn't passed. Last year:
* Senator Leahy said "If we learned anything from 9/11,
the biggest mistake is to pass anything they ask for
just because it's an emergency" * The New York Times
wrote: "The rescue is being sold as a must-have
emergency measure by an administration with a
controversial record when it comes to asking Congress
for special authority in time of duress."
***
Mr. Paulson has argued that the powers he seeks are
necessary to chase away the wolf howling at the door: a
potentially swift shredding of the American financial
system. That would be catastrophic for everyone, he
argues, not only banks, but also ordinary Americans who
depend on their finances to buy homes and cars, and to
pay for college.
Some are suspicious of Mr. Paulson's characterizations,
finding in his warnings and demands for extraordinary
powers a parallel with the way the Bush administration
gained authority for the war in Iraq. Then, the White
House suggested that mushroom clouds could accompany
Congress's failure to act. This time, it is financial
Armageddon supposedly on the doorstep.
"This is scare tactics to try to do something that's in
the private but not the public interest," said Allan
Meltzer, a former economic adviser to President Reagan,
and an expert on monetary policy at the Carnegie Mellon
Tepper School of Business. "It's terrible."
Most of the Fed and Treasury's looting of America to
funnel trillions in bailouts, loans, guarantees, and
other favors to the too big to fails was done under the
justification of an "emergency".
I don't know whether the official declaration of a
"state of emergency" in effect from September 2001 to
today was directly used for financial looting. But
again, the fear of an existential threat to our country
was used to justify the looting.
And many people allege that the government has taken
drastic steps to manipulate market prices. If true, the
president's ability to use emergency powers to
"stabilize the markets" no doubt makes manipulation
easier.
Congress Has the Power to Revoke the State of Emergency
A note to Congressional staffers: Congressman Hamburg
is right. Congress does have the power to revoke the
state of emergency.
Specifically, the National Emergencies Act, 50 U.S.C.
Sections 1601-1651 (passed in 1976), gives Congress the
power to countermand a presidential declaration of
national emergency. Indeed, in 1976, Congress rescinded
all of the declarations of national emergency made
since World War II, as many of them had been on the
books for years and were giving the executive
unrestricted powers which were undermining the
Constitution.
In 1983, the Supreme Court struck down a portion of
Congress' power to countermand a declaration of
national emergency. But Congress got around that ruling
by amending the National Emergencies Act in 1985 to
confirm Congress' power to countermand - through a
joint resolution between the House and Senate - a
declaration of emergency by the president (see this).
Moreover, in 2007, the Bush Administration tried to
ignore the National Emergencies Act by issuing National
Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directive
51. But that dog won't hunt. The Constitution does not
allow the president to unilaterally cut Congress out of
the picture.
As former Chicago Federal Reserve economist and Senior
Morningstar equity analyst William Bergman wrote in
2001:
Lord Acton's famous saying that 'power corrupts, and
absolute power corrupts absolutely' provides a valuable
warning. In light of the sweeping powers seemingly
provided by statutes like 12 U.S.C. 95a and 12 U.S.C.
95(a), those who care about democratic principles and
freedom may wish to monitor the implications of these
and other laws for government choices before conditions
arise giving rise to assertions of emergency authority,
in addition to behavior arising amidst an emergency
itself. This study could usefully include a renewed
assessment of the constitutionality of these and other
emergency statutes, as well as more fundamental review
of their welfare implications per se, including work
along the lines produced for the Senate Special
Committee to Terminate the National Emergency in
1973.[i]
[i] See for example Special Committee on the
Termination of the National Emergency, "Emergency
Powers Statutes: Provisions of Federal Law Now in
Effect Delegating to the Executive Extraordinary
Authority In Time of National Emergency." United States
Senate Report 93-549; November 19, 1973.
David Ray Griffin April/May 2010 Speaking Tour
Itinerary
(1) Des Moines, Iowa - Friday,
April 23
Organizer: James Hufferd
Contact Info:
Name
Of Venue: Bulldog Theatre Auditorium, Cowles Building
Address Of Venue: Drake
University, 25th University Ave.
Starting Time of
Event: 7:00 pm
Approximate Seating Capacity: 300
Name/Names of
Organizations/Sponsors/Donors: 9/11 Truth of Central
Iowa
(2) Minneapolis, Minnesota - Saturday, April 24
Organizer:
Bruce Stahlberg
Contact Info:
Name
Of Venue: MaCalester Plymouth Church
Address Of Venue: 1658 Lincoln Avenue West - St. Paul,
MN 55105-1949
Starting Time of Event: 7:00 PM
Approximate Seating Capacity:
Name/Names of
Organizations/Sponsors/Donors: mn911truth.org
(3) Peoria, Illinois - Sunday, April 25
Organizer: Dan Sutton
Contact Info:
Name Of Venue:
Address
Of Venue:
Starting
Time of Event:
Approximate Seating
Capacity:
Name/Names of
Organizations/Sponsors/Donors
(4) Chicago, Illinois - Tuesday,
April 27
Organizers: Ragen Gillam and Richard Fobes
Contact Info:
Name Of Venue: Address of Venue:
Starting
Time of Event:
Approximate Seating
Capacity:
Name/Names of
Organizations/Sponsors/Donors:
(5) Louisville, Kentucky - Wednesday, April 28
Organizer: Russ
Osborn
Contact Info:
osborn.russ--at--gmail.com (502) 592-1321
Name Of Venue:
Address
Of Venue:
Starting Time of
Event:
Approximate Seating
Capacity:
Name/Names of
Organizations/Sponsors/Donors:
(6) St. Louis, Missouri - Thursday, April 29
Organizer: Donald Stahl
Contact
Info:politicstahl--at--hotmail.com Message Phone:
314-567-8845
Name Of Venue: Winifred Moore Auditorium
Address Of Venue: 470 E. Lockwood Ave. Webster
Groves, St. Louis, MO 63119
Starting Time of Event: 7:00 pm
Approximate Seating Capacity:
250
Name/Names of
Organizations/Sponsors/Donors: Webster University
(7) Milwaukee, Wisconsin - Friday, April 30
Organizer: Matthew Naus
Contact Info:
nausmr--at--yahoo.com
Name Of Venue: Clarion Hotel &
Conference Center
Address
Of Venue: 5311 So. Howell Ave. (across the street from
airport entrance)
Starting
Time of Event: 7:00 pm
Approximate Seating Capacity: 300 or
more
Name/Names of Organizations/Sponsors/Donors: Take A
Stand For 9/11 Truth www.ts911t.org
(8) Kansas City, Missouri - Saturday, May 1
Organizer: Ed Kendrick
Contact Info:
Name Of Venue: Uptown Theatre
Address Of Venue: 3700 Broadway
Starting Time of Event: 7:00 pm
Approximate Seating Capacity: 250 to
2000
Name/Names of Organizations/Sponsors/Donors: Dr. Ed
Kendrick
(9) Toronto, Ontario/ Canada - Sunday, May 2
Organizers: Adam
Parrott - Eric Hancox - Graham MacQueen
Contact Info:
Name Of Venue: Robert Gill Theatre
Address Of Venue: 214 College Ave.
Starting Time of Event: 7:00 pm
Approximate Seating Capacity: 170
Name/ of
Organizations/Sponsors/Donors: Waterloo 9/11 Research
Group waterloo911.clubs.feds.ca
(10) Montreal, Canada - Monday, May 3
Organizer: JF Ranger
Contact Info:
Name Of Venue: Univerisite de Montreal a Quebec
Address Of
Venue:
Starting Time of
Event:
Approximate Seating
Capacity: 700
Name/Names of Organizations/Sponsors/Donors:
www.globalresearch.ca world911truth.org
michele911truth.org Michel Chossudovsky Mike Pengue
Michel Elbaz
(11) Hanover, New Hampshire - Tuesday, May 4
Organizers:
Shelby S. Grantham - John Joline - Lynn Rosenblum
Contact Info: Lynn Rosenblum -
roseyvt--at--myfairpoint.net - 802-333-4689
Shelby Grantham - Shelby.Grantham--at--Dartmouth.edu -
802-649-5142 Name Of Venue: Howe Library (The Mayer
Room)
Address Of Venue: 13 South St. Hanover, NH 03755
Starting
Time of Event: 7:00 PM
Approximate Seating Capacity: 82 seated
(177 without furniture)
Name/Names of
Organizations/Sponsors/Donors
(12) Blue Hill, Maine - Wednesday,
May 5
Organizer: Robert Shetterly
Contact Info: Nelson
Monteith 202-348-6301 or Marcia Cola 202-348-5681
Name Of Venue: The Reach Performing Arts Center
Address
Of Venue: Rt. 15 Deer Isle - Deer Isle Elementary
School
Starting Time of Event: 7:00 PM
Approximate Seating
Capacity:
Name/Names of
Organizations/Sponsors/Donors: Island Peace & Justice
Americans Who Tell The Truth
americanswhotellthetruth.org
(13) Portland, Maine - Thursday, May 6
Organizer: William Slavic
Contact Info: Name Of
Venue: Talbott Auditorium in Luther Bonney Hall
Address Of Venue: University of Southern Maine,
Portland Campus
Starting Time of Event: 7:00 pm
Approximate Seating Capacity:
Name/Names of
Organizations/Sponsors/Donors:
(14) West Hartford, Connecticut - Friday, May 7
Organizer:
Cheryl Curtis
Contact Info:
Name Of Venue: The Auerbach Auditorium In Hillyer Hall
Address Of Venue:
University of Hartford - 200 Bloomfield Ave. - West
Hartford, CT 06117
Starting Time of Event: 7:00 pm
Approximate Seating Capacity:
180
Name/Names of
Organizations/Sponsors/Donors:
(15) Boston, Massachusetts - Saturday, May 8
Organizers: Rich
McCampbell and Joe Lopisi
Contact Info:
Name Of Venue:
Address Of
Venue:
Starting
Time of Event:
Approximate Seating
Capacity:
Name/Names of
Organizations/Sponsors/Donors: boston911truth.org
Yes, America is Still in an Official State of Emergency
(see further below)
But first,
GOTO WIKIPEDIA and look up
Sibel Edmonds
and THEN read this:
'Sibel Edmonds: The Traitors Among Us' in March Issue
of Hustler Magazine (Now on Newsstands)
The article brings the story of Edmonds, who was
twice-gagged by the Bush Administration's outrageous
use/abuse of the "States Secrets Privilege," fully up
to date following her naming of names, finally, under
oath, in remarkable testimony last summer. (Some of
those names: Hastert, Burton, Blunt, Lantos,
Schakowsky, Wolfowitz, Perle, Grossman, etc.)
The Hustler piece, "Sibel Edmonds: The Traitors Among
Us," also explores reasons for the
perhaps-even-more-remarkable complete avoidance of her
4-hour, detailed, video-taped testimony by the
corporate media (Pat Buchanan's American Conservative
magazine excepted, if you consider them to be
"corporate media") concerning allegations of blackmail
of sitting U.S. Congressmembers, the theft and sale of
nuclear secrets to the foreign blackmarket, and other
allegations of treasonous activities by top State and
Defense Department officials over the last decade or
more.
So there's your latest excuse to go buy Hustler. While
you're at the newsstand, please pick up a copy of the
February issue of Maxim as well, featuring Simon
Worrall's feature article on the formerly-'censored'
story of the mysterous death of GOP IT guru Mike
Connell, as detailed in our recent exclusive preview.
=== Yes, America is Still in an Official State of Emergency =====
February 11, 2010 "WB" Feb. 09, 2010 -- A reader asked
whether the U.S. is still in an official state of
emergency, and if so, what that means.
The answer is yes, we are still in a state of
emergency.
Specifically:
On September 11, 2001, the government declared a state
of emergency. That declared state of emergency was
formally put in writing on 9/14/2001:
"A national emergency exists by reason of the terrorist
attacks at the World Trade Center, New York, New York,
and the Pentagon, and the continuing and immediate
threat of further attacks on the United States.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the
United States of America, by virtue of the authority
vested in me as President by the Constitution and the
laws of the United States, I hereby declare that the
national emergency has existed since September 11, 2001
. . . ."
That declared state of emergency has continued in full
force and effect from 9/11 [throughout the Bush
administration] to the present.
On September 10 2009, President Obama continued the
state of emergency:
The terrorist threat that led to the declaration on
September 14, 2001, of a national emergency continues.
For this reason, I have determined that it is necessary
to continue in effect after September 14, 2009, the
national emergency with respect to the terrorist
threat.
Does a State of Emergency Really Mean Anything? Does a
state of emergency really mean anything? Yes, it does:
The Washington Times wrote on September 18, 2001:
"Simply by proclaiming a national emergency on Friday,
President Bush activated some 500 dormant legal
provisions, including those allowing him to impose
censorship and martial law." Is the Times correct?
Well, it is clear that pre-9/11 declarations of
national emergency have authorized martial law. For
example, as summarized by a former fellow for the
Hoover Institution and the National Science Foundation,
and the recipient of numerous awards, including the
Gary Schlarbaum Award for Lifetime Defense of Liberty,
Thomas Szasz Award for Outstanding Contributions to the
Cause of Civil Liberties, Lysander Spooner Award for
Advancing the Literature of Liberty and Templeton Honor
Rolls Award on Education in a Free Society: In 1973,
the Senate created a Special Committee on the
Termination of the National Emergency (subsequently
redesignated the Special Committee on National
Emergencies and Delegated Emergency Powers) to
investigate the matter and to propose reforms.
Ascertaining the continued existence of four
presidential declarations of national emergency, the
Special Committee (U.S. Senate 1973, p. iii) reported:
"These proclamations give force to 470 provisions of
Federal law. . . . taken together, [they] confer enough
authority to rule the country without reference to
normal constitutional processes. Under the powers
delegated by these statutes, the President may: seize
property; organize and control the means of production;
seize commodities; assign military forces abroad;
institute martial law; seize and control all
transportation and communications; regulate the
operation of private enterprise; restrict travel; and,
in a plethora of particular ways, control the lives of
all American citizens." (Most or all of the emergency
powers referred to by the above-quoted 1973 Senate
report were revoked in the late 1970's by 50 U.S.C.
Section 1601. However, presidents have made numerous
declarations of emergency since then, and the
declarations made by President Bush in September 2001
are still in effect). It is also clear that the White
House has kept substantial information concerning its
presidential proclamations and directives hidden from
Congress. For example, according to Steven Aftergood of
the Federation of American Scientists Project on
Government Secrecy: "Of the 54 National Security
Presidential Directives issued by the [George W.] Bush
Administration to date, the titles of only about half
have been publicly identified. There is descriptive
material or actual text in the public domain for only
about a third. In other words, there are dozens of
undisclosed Presidential directives that define U.S.
national security policy and task government agencies,
but whose substance is unknown either to the public or,
as a rule, to Congress." As former United States
congressman Dan Hamburg wrote in October: While ...
Congress and the judiciary, as well as public opinion,
"can restrain the executive regarding emergency
powers," nothing of the sort has occurred. Under the
1976 National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1601-1651),
Congress is required to review presidentially declared
emergencies. Specifically, "not later than six months
after a national emergency is declared, and not later
than the end of each six-month period thereafter that
such emergency continues, each House of Congress shall
meet to consider a vote on a joint resolution to
determine whether that emergency shall be terminated."
Over the past eight years, Congress has failed to obey
its own law, a fact that casts doubt on the legality of
the state of emergency. As far as public opinion is
concerned, how many Americans are even aware that a
state of emergency even exists. For that matter, how
many members of Congress know? ... The Obama
administration is essentially arguing that the United
States is currently in a state of resisting foreign
invasion a full eight years after the attacks of 9/11!
This is ludicrous. [Dr. Harold C. Relyea, a specialist
in national government with the Congressional Research
Service (CRS) of the Library of Congress] argues that
Congress and the judiciary, as "co-equal branches of
constitutional government," serve as a check on the
executive power. As we have seen, Congress has either
been shut out of this process, or, as in so many cases,
it has capitulated. Dr. Relyea then offers that public
opinion can restrain the executive. But the public
doesn't even know they're living under a state of
emergency. The media doesn't report it, and the
government is certainly not in the business of
providing information that might raise the hackles of
real Americans. It's time for the American people to
rise to this challenge. Write your member of Congress,
and your senators. Tell them to obey their own laws.
Tell them to end this phony and treacherous state of
emergency that imperils the freedom of us all.
Hamburg's must-read article also discusses the
suspension of Possse Comitatus, the operation of
Northcom inside the U.S., and the refusal of the
Department of Homeland Security to provide information
on the state of emergency to Congress or even to
Congress members on the Homeland Security committee
with the highest security clearances. The Effect of a
State of Emergency on the Economy and Business The
continuous state of emergency in effect from September
2001 to the present may have had a substantial affect
on the economy and business. Initially, as William K.
Black - senior regulator during the S&L crisis,
professor of Economics and Law, and an expert on white
collar financial crime - has repeatedly pointed out,
the government knew about an epidemic of mortgage fraud
a long time ago. For example, the FBI warned of an
"epidemic" of mortgage fraud in 2004. However, the FBI,
DOJ and other government agencies putted their agents
off of financial fraud investigation and forced them to
focus on terrorism instead. See this and this And as
Reuters noted last week: U.S. securities regulators
originally treated the New York Federal Reserve's bid
to keep secret many of the details of the American
International Group bailout like a request to protect
matters of national security, according to emails
obtained by Reuters. The national security claim may
seem outlandish, but it is nothing new. As Business
Week wrote on May 23, 2006: President George W. Bush
has bestowed on his intelligence czar, John Negroponte,
broad authority, in the name of national security, to
excuse publicly traded companies from their usual
accounting and securities-disclosure obligations. In
other words, national security has been discussed for
years as a basis of keeping normal accounting and
securities-related disclosures secret. While "national
security" and a state of "national emergency" may not
be exactly the same, they are variations of a single
theme - an existential threat to our nation - which has
dominated American since September 11. Similarly,
Congressman Brad Sherman, Congressman Paul Kanjorski
and Senator James Inhofe all say that the government
warned of martial law if Tarp wasn't passed. Last year:
* Senator Leahy said "If we learned anything from 9/11,
the biggest mistake is to pass anything they ask for
just because it's an emergency" * The New York Times
wrote: "The rescue is being sold as a must-have
emergency measure by an administration with a
controversial record when it comes to asking Congress
for special authority in time of duress."
***
Mr. Paulson has argued that the powers he seeks are
necessary to chase away the wolf howling at the door: a
potentially swift shredding of the American financial
system. That would be catastrophic for everyone, he
argues, not only banks, but also ordinary Americans who
depend on their finances to buy homes and cars, and to
pay for college.
Some are suspicious of Mr. Paulson's characterizations,
finding in his warnings and demands for extraordinary
powers a parallel with the way the Bush administration
gained authority for the war in Iraq. Then, the White
House suggested that mushroom clouds could accompany
Congress's failure to act. This time, it is financial
Armageddon supposedly on the doorstep.
"This is scare tactics to try to do something that's in
the private but not the public interest," said Allan
Meltzer, a former economic adviser to President Reagan,
and an expert on monetary policy at the Carnegie Mellon
Tepper School of Business. "It's terrible."
Most of the Fed and Treasury's looting of America to
funnel trillions in bailouts, loans, guarantees, and
other favors to the too big to fails was done under the
justification of an "emergency".
I don't know whether the official declaration of a
"state of emergency" in effect from September 2001 to
today was directly used for financial looting. But
again, the fear of an existential threat to our country
was used to justify the looting.
And many people allege that the government has taken
drastic steps to manipulate market prices. If true, the
president's ability to use emergency powers to
"stabilize the markets" no doubt makes manipulation
easier.
Congress Has the Power to Revoke the State of Emergency
A note to Congressional staffers: Congressman Hamburg
is right. Congress does have the power to revoke the
state of emergency.
Specifically, the National Emergencies Act, 50 U.S.C.
Sections 1601-1651 (passed in 1976), gives Congress the
power to countermand a presidential declaration of
national emergency. Indeed, in 1976, Congress rescinded
all of the declarations of national emergency made
since World War II, as many of them had been on the
books for years and were giving the executive
unrestricted powers which were undermining the
Constitution.
In 1983, the Supreme Court struck down a portion of
Congress' power to countermand a declaration of
national emergency. But Congress got around that ruling
by amending the National Emergencies Act in 1985 to
confirm Congress' power to countermand - through a
joint resolution between the House and Senate - a
declaration of emergency by the president (see this).
Moreover, in 2007, the Bush Administration tried to
ignore the National Emergencies Act by issuing National
Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directive
51. But that dog won't hunt. The Constitution does not
allow the president to unilaterally cut Congress out of
the picture.
As former Chicago Federal Reserve economist and Senior
Morningstar equity analyst William Bergman wrote in
2001:
Lord Acton's famous saying that 'power corrupts, and
absolute power corrupts absolutely' provides a valuable
warning. In light of the sweeping powers seemingly
provided by statutes like 12 U.S.C. 95a and 12 U.S.C.
95(a), those who care about democratic principles and
freedom may wish to monitor the implications of these
and other laws for government choices before conditions
arise giving rise to assertions of emergency authority,
in addition to behavior arising amidst an emergency
itself. This study could usefully include a renewed
assessment of the constitutionality of these and other
emergency statutes, as well as more fundamental review
of their welfare implications per se, including work
along the lines produced for the Senate Special
Committee to Terminate the National Emergency in
1973.[i]
[i] See for example Special Committee on the
Termination of the National Emergency, "Emergency
Powers Statutes: Provisions of Federal Law Now in
Effect Delegating to the Executive Extraordinary
Authority In Time of National Emergency." United States
Senate Report 93-549; November 19, 1973.
David Ray Griffin April/May 2010 Speaking Tour
Itinerary
(1) Des Moines, Iowa - Friday,
April 23
Organizer: James Hufferd
Contact Info:
Name
Of Venue: Bulldog Theatre Auditorium, Cowles Building
Address Of Venue: Drake
University, 25th University Ave.
Starting Time of
Event: 7:00 pm
Approximate Seating Capacity: 300
Name/Names of
Organizations/Sponsors/Donors: 9/11 Truth of Central
Iowa
(2) Minneapolis, Minnesota - Saturday, April 24
Organizer:
Bruce Stahlberg
Contact Info:
Name
Of Venue: MaCalester Plymouth Church
Address Of Venue: 1658 Lincoln Avenue West - St. Paul,
MN 55105-1949
Starting Time of Event: 7:00 PM
Approximate Seating Capacity:
Name/Names of
Organizations/Sponsors/Donors: mn911truth.org
(3) Peoria, Illinois - Sunday, April 25
Organizer: Dan Sutton
Contact Info:
Name Of Venue:
Address
Of Venue:
Starting
Time of Event:
Approximate Seating
Capacity:
Name/Names of
Organizations/Sponsors/Donors
(4) Chicago, Illinois - Tuesday,
April 27
Organizers: Ragen Gillam and Richard Fobes
Contact Info:
Name Of Venue: Address of Venue:
Starting
Time of Event:
Approximate Seating
Capacity:
Name/Names of
Organizations/Sponsors/Donors:
(5) Louisville, Kentucky - Wednesday, April 28
Organizer: Russ
Osborn
Contact Info:
osborn.russ--at--gmail.com (502) 592-1321
Name Of Venue:
Address
Of Venue:
Starting Time of
Event:
Approximate Seating
Capacity:
Name/Names of
Organizations/Sponsors/Donors:
(6) St. Louis, Missouri - Thursday, April 29
Organizer: Donald Stahl
Contact
Info:politicstahl--at--hotmail.com Message Phone:
314-567-8845
Name Of Venue: Winifred Moore Auditorium
Address Of Venue: 470 E. Lockwood Ave. Webster
Groves, St. Louis, MO 63119
Starting Time of Event: 7:00 pm
Approximate Seating Capacity:
250
Name/Names of
Organizations/Sponsors/Donors: Webster University
(7) Milwaukee, Wisconsin - Friday, April 30
Organizer: Matthew Naus
Contact Info:
nausmr--at--yahoo.com
Name Of Venue: Clarion Hotel &
Conference Center
Address
Of Venue: 5311 So. Howell Ave. (across the street from
airport entrance)
Starting
Time of Event: 7:00 pm
Approximate Seating Capacity: 300 or
more
Name/Names of Organizations/Sponsors/Donors: Take A
Stand For 9/11 Truth www.ts911t.org
(8) Kansas City, Missouri - Saturday, May 1
Organizer: Ed Kendrick
Contact Info:
Name Of Venue: Uptown Theatre
Address Of Venue: 3700 Broadway
Starting Time of Event: 7:00 pm
Approximate Seating Capacity: 250 to
2000
Name/Names of Organizations/Sponsors/Donors: Dr. Ed
Kendrick
(9) Toronto, Ontario/ Canada - Sunday, May 2
Organizers: Adam
Parrott - Eric Hancox - Graham MacQueen
Contact Info:
Name Of Venue: Robert Gill Theatre
Address Of Venue: 214 College Ave.
Starting Time of Event: 7:00 pm
Approximate Seating Capacity: 170
Name/ of
Organizations/Sponsors/Donors: Waterloo 9/11 Research
Group waterloo911.clubs.feds.ca
(10) Montreal, Canada - Monday, May 3
Organizer: JF Ranger
Contact Info:
Name Of Venue: Univerisite de Montreal a Quebec
Address Of
Venue:
Starting Time of
Event:
Approximate Seating
Capacity: 700
Name/Names of Organizations/Sponsors/Donors:
www.globalresearch.ca world911truth.org
michele911truth.org Michel Chossudovsky Mike Pengue
Michel Elbaz
(11) Hanover, New Hampshire - Tuesday, May 4
Organizers:
Shelby S. Grantham - John Joline - Lynn Rosenblum
Contact Info: Lynn Rosenblum -
roseyvt--at--myfairpoint.net - 802-333-4689
Shelby Grantham - Shelby.Grantham--at--Dartmouth.edu -
802-649-5142 Name Of Venue: Howe Library (The Mayer
Room)
Address Of Venue: 13 South St. Hanover, NH 03755
Starting
Time of Event: 7:00 PM
Approximate Seating Capacity: 82 seated
(177 without furniture)
Name/Names of
Organizations/Sponsors/Donors
(12) Blue Hill, Maine - Wednesday,
May 5
Organizer: Robert Shetterly
Contact Info: Nelson
Monteith 202-348-6301 or Marcia Cola 202-348-5681
Name Of Venue: The Reach Performing Arts Center
Address
Of Venue: Rt. 15 Deer Isle - Deer Isle Elementary
School
Starting Time of Event: 7:00 PM
Approximate Seating
Capacity:
Name/Names of
Organizations/Sponsors/Donors: Island Peace & Justice
Americans Who Tell The Truth
americanswhotellthetruth.org
(13) Portland, Maine - Thursday, May 6
Organizer: William Slavic
Contact Info: Name Of
Venue: Talbott Auditorium in Luther Bonney Hall
Address Of Venue: University of Southern Maine,
Portland Campus
Starting Time of Event: 7:00 pm
Approximate Seating Capacity:
Name/Names of
Organizations/Sponsors/Donors:
(14) West Hartford, Connecticut - Friday, May 7
Organizer:
Cheryl Curtis
Contact Info:
Name Of Venue: The Auerbach Auditorium In Hillyer Hall
Address Of Venue:
University of Hartford - 200 Bloomfield Ave. - West
Hartford, CT 06117
Starting Time of Event: 7:00 pm
Approximate Seating Capacity:
180
Name/Names of
Organizations/Sponsors/Donors:
(15) Boston, Massachusetts - Saturday, May 8
Organizers: Rich
McCampbell and Joe Lopisi
Contact Info:
Name Of Venue:
Address Of
Venue:
Starting
Time of Event:
Approximate Seating
Capacity:
Name/Names of
Organizations/Sponsors/Donors: boston911truth.org
Earth's magnetic field:
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