Auditing the Fed Is a Sideshow: Who Audits the Auditors?

Daily Bell
Anthony Wile

No To Transparency:  Harry Reid vows to kill
bill to audit the Federal Reserve

On Wednesday, Ron Paul's bill to audit the Federal Reserve was overwhelmingly passed by the U.S. House of Representatives. The vote was 327 to 98. You would think that a bill with such overwhelming support would easily become law. But it won't, because Barack Obama and the Democrats plan to kill it. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has already said that the Senate will not even consider the bill. But of course if Barack Obama called Harry Reid and told him that he wants this bill to get through the Senate so that he could sign it then Harry Reid would be singing a much different tune. Sadly, we all know that is not going to happen. Barack Obama's good buddy Ben Bernanke called the Audit the Fed bill a "nightmare scenario" last week, and Obama is certainly not going to do anything to upset Bernanke - especially this close to the election. – Daily Caller


An audit of the Federal Reserve would be nice but really it wouldn't change anything. In fact, it would likely prove a kind of sideshow from reality, which is that monopoly central banking should simply be abolished.
And that probably won't happen until people get so sick and tired of being driven into bankruptcy and despair that they begin to kick the doors down and arrest the criminals cowering inside.

And they ARE real criminals. The system is responsible for debasing currency the world over and driving billions into poverty and even suicide. In the West it has blighted the hopes and dreams of millions who scratched and saved and then found their portfolios devalued by half or whole on a single day.

But it is worse in Third World countries. The money never even trickles down in these countries. Billions of people live on literally a couple of dollars a day.

This despite the United Nations and other international institutions that are supposedly dedicated to eradicating poverty. In fact, these institutions create the poverty they supposedly wish to remove. They do so via institutionalized violence costing trillions. War is the health of the state but it sickens everyone else.
It's not as if people don't already know the depths of the depravity that is the modern money system.

There's really no justification for the Fed, a monopoly central bank that issues fiat money as it chooses.
The exposure is irrelevant to the evident reality. The reality is that a small group of white, middle aged men can never figure out how much money an economy needs at what price.

The reason to audit the Fed is to find out what "they" are up to. But we already know that. A limited audit examined transactions during 2008 when the world's financial system froze up. It found the Fed had loaned out more than 16 trillion dollars, almost interest free, to the "too big to fail" banks.

This is not exactly astonishing. The same men who have built this dysfunctional system handed out trillions to various cronies when the system was in danger of collapsing.

So here is what a Fed audit would discover: More of the same. It would likely also discover that a shadowy group of dynastic families control the workings of the Fed, as they do of other central banks, and use money-from-nothing to further implement world government.

Of course, even if an audit-the-Fed bill passed by some miracle it still wouldn't be effectively implemented. The best we've got is the "fox guarding the hen house," and that effectively precludes any real investigation into central banking, specifically or generally.

We can see this at work even with the audit-the-Fed bill the House just passed. Eight co-sponsors of the legislation actually voted against the bill and most of them, when contacted, refused to explain why.
This is to be expected. Money Power is a vast and intimidating force. If you want to get ahead in this world, one way to do it is to advance the agenda of Money Power, which seeks world government.

Money Power flourishes because it is resistant to the kinds of investigations offered by Ron Paul's audit. Money Power works busily many layers deep.

Money Power in aggregate is not fazed by an audit. An audit that blows up the current system would probably usher in a state-run gold standard or some new form of money, perhaps SDRs, also controlled by the power elite. Out of chaos, order ...

We don't know what societies would look like absent monopoly central bank money stimulation. The past 100 years have hyped the world's banking and industrial systems into overdrive. It's considered normal but there is nothing normal about China's empty cities or the razing of Detroit.

Long ago, the Rothschild family helped found the system under which we now labor but they've been aided and abetted by hundreds and thousands and then millions of others. The men at the top understand full well what is going on. Congress, both House and Senate, are complicit in what's taking place, which is no less than the slow-motion rape of the American people.

A Federal Reserve facility that can issue US$ 15 trillion in a weekend to preferred clients is not an entity that should stand another minute. And the political institutions that tolerate this sort of facility should be removed as well.

Congress is a bastion of bought-and-paid for front men. Those in Congress have created a US$ 3 trillion Leviathan that bestrides the world with tax collectors, murderous Intel agents, endless warfare and the poisoning of millions, including US vets, with depleted uranium.

Now this same Congress has brought down the curtain of fascism on the American people via "Homeland Security" with its groping, ID checks and poisonous radiation machinery.

This is the group that is supposed to audit the engine of this dysfunctional, murderous funding?
Even if it did, it wouldn't make any difference.

The cleansing must go far deeper. It starts with ... you.

Dennis Kucinich and 'Wackiness'

Common Dreams
Glen Greenwald

Last week, Rep. Dennis Kucinich was defeated in a Democratic primary by Rep. Marcy Kaptur after re-districting pitted the two long-term incumbents against each other. Kucinich’s fate was basically sealed when the new district contained far more of Kaptur’s district than his. His 18-year stint in the House will come to an end when the next Congress is installed at the beginning of 2013.

Establishment Democrats have long viewed Dennis Kucinich with a mixture of scorn, mockery and condescension. True to form, the establishment liberal journal American Prospect gave Kucinich a little kick on the way out, comparing his political views to the 1960s musical “Hair” (the Ohio loser talked about “Harmony and understanding”!), deriding him as “a favorite among lefty college kids and Birkenstock-wearers around the country,” and pronouncing him “among the wackiest members of Congress.” Yes, I said The American Prospect, not The Weekly Standard.

The Prospect article also praises as “great” a snide, derisive Washington Post piece which purports to “highlight some of the particularly bizarre facts about” Kucinich. Among those is the fact that “he introduced impeachment articles against former President George W. Bush and former Vice President Cheney for their roles in the Iraq war” and “proposed a Cabinet-level agency devoted to peace.” What a weirdo and a loser. Even more predictably, a team of four interns at The New Republic – the magazine that spent years crusading for the attack on Iraq, smearing Israel critics as anti-Semites, and defining its editorial mission as re-making the Democratic Party in the image of Joe Lieberman – denounced the anti-war Kucinich as “ludicrous,” citing most of the same accusations as the Prospect and the Post. [...]

So let’s recap the state of mental health in establishment Democratic circles: the President who claims (and exercises) the power to target American citizens for execution-by-CIA in total secrecy and with no charges — as well as those who dutifully follow him — are sane, sober and Serious, meriting great respect. By contrast, one of the very few members of Congress who stands up and vehemently objects to this most radical power — “The idea that the United States has the ability to summarily execute a US citizen ought to send chills racing up and down the spines of every person of conscience” — is a total wackjob, meriting patronizing mockery.

Both the Prospect and Post recite the trite case demonstrating Kucinich’s supposed weirdness. He’s friends with Shirley McLaine, who believes in reincarnation, and he once (according to McLaine) claimed to have an encounter with a UFO. Is any of that really any more strange than the litany of beliefs which the world’s major religions require? Is Barack Obama “wacky” because he claims to believe that Jesus turned water into wine, rose from the dead and will soon welcome him to heaven? Is Chuck Schumer bizarre because he seems to believe that there’s some big fatherly figure sitting in the sky who spewed fire and brimstone at those who broke the laws he sent down on some stones and now hovers over him judging his every move? Is Harry Reid a weirdo because he apparently venerates as divine the “visions” of a man who had dozens of wives, including some already married to other men?

Neither the Prospect nor the Post would ever dare mock as “wacky” the belief in invisible judgmental father-figures in the sky or that rendition of life-after-death gospel because those belief systems have been deemed acceptable by establishment circles. ”Wacky”, like its close cousin “crazy,” is a term of establishment derision exclusively reserved for those who deviate from such conventions. And that’s the point worth making here: the real reason anyone with D.C. Seriousness, including many establishment liberals, relished mocking Kucinich is because he dissented from the orthodoxies of the two political parties. That, by definition, makes one wacky and weird, even when — as is true for the Obama assassination powers and so many other bipartisan pieties — the actual wacky and crazy beliefs are those orthodoxies themselves (we’ve seen this repeatedly with those who stray from two-party normalcy). In reality, the actual crazies are those who fit comfortably within that two-party mentality and rarely challenge or deviate from it, while those who are sane, by definition, dissent from it (just today, the Super Serious Democratic Sen. Carl Levin, a prime co-sponsor of the indefinite detention bill passed late last year, called for a naval blockade of Iran). [...]

Read the rest of this article including updates here.

IMF calls for US to raise debt ceiling and cut spending

Editor's Note:

As Suggested by Mike Rivero of WhatReallyHappened.com, raising the debt limit is not necessary. Congress has the right to revoke the Federal Reserve's charter - at any time.

Call or email your local congressman and ask them,

"Why does the government insist on borrowing money from outside banks when Article 1, Section 8 of the constitution allows the government to simply print its own money?"

Contact the Whitehouse:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact

Contact Congress:

http://weeklyintercept.blogspot.com/p/complete-contact-list-for-us-congress_15.html

BBC News

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has called on US politicians to act urgently to raise the country's debt ceiling.

The IMF also called for a "comprehensive solution" to reduce the US deficit over the medium term.
Without this, IMF directors warned, the markets could lose confidence in Washington's ability to pay its debts.

The US risks default on its $14.3tn (£8.7tn) debt without a deal to raise the borrowing limit by 2 August.

"These risks would also have significant global repercussions, given the central role of US Treasury bonds in world financial markets," the IMF said.

Competing plans
 
"Directors [on the IMF board] highlighted the urgency of raising the federal debt ceiling and agreeing on the specifics of a comprehensive medium-term consolidation programme," the IMF said as part of its review of the US economy.

It went on to call for specific actions to reduce spending - an area of intense debate between the Republicans and Democrats over how to cut the deficit.

"The strategy should include entitlement reforms, including additional savings in healthcare, as well as revenue increases," it said.

But warning that US growth was likely to remain subdued over the medium term, the IMF advised against fast cuts which could impact on consumer spending.

Later on Monday, Republican House Speaker John Boehner and Democratic Senate Majority leader Harry Reid are to unveil separate deficit reduction plans with their respective House and Senate caucuses.

Aides said Mr Boehner's plan included $1.2tn (£736tn) in cuts and spending caps, a $900bn debt ceiling increase, and a congressional committee charged with producing close to $2tn in additional cuts.

Mr Reid's proposal was said to include $2.7tn in spending cuts.

Nervous investors
 
Mr Obama meanwhile dropped two fundraising events in Washington scheduled for Monday evening so that he could focus on the debt issue.

He told a Hispanic civil rights convention earlier in the day that the US could not solve its budget problem solely by reducing spending.

"We can't just close our deficit by cutting spending," Mr Obama said, adding that revenue increases were also necessary.

Global markets were down slightly on Monday amid concerns about a lack of a deal as the 2 August deadline looms.

If the ceiling is not raised, the US Treasury could run out of money to pay all of its bills - which could lead to interest rate rises, threaten the US economy and in turn the global recovery.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said she is "confident" Congress will reach a deal to raise the US debt ceiling.

"Let me assure you we understand the stakes. We know how important this is for us and how important it is for you," Mrs Clinton told Hong Kong business leaders.

Mr Obama was joined by congressional leaders at the White House again on Saturday, but the deadlock continued.

On Friday, negotiations between Mr Obama and Mr Boehner collapsed, with each side blaming the other.

The US federal government is running a large budget deficit - equal to $1.3tn, or more than $4,000 per person, during the 12 months to June this year.

Mr Obama and fellow Democrats have been seeking a deal with Republicans, who control the House of Representatives, to cut the annual budget deficit in return for a rise in the total debt ceiling.

Mr Obama wants the debt reduction deal to include a combination of spending cuts and tax rises, but Republicans in both houses of Congress are strongly opposed to the latter.

Democrats, meanwhile, are against any cuts to healthcare and welfare programmes for pensioners and the poor.

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Obama and Boener to Cut Social Security and Lower Taxes for Rich

Washington Post
Lori Montgomery
Paul Kane

President Obama and House Speaker John A. Boehner rushed Thursday to strike agreement on a far-reaching plan to reduce the national debt but faced a revolt from Democrats furious that the accord appeared to include no immediate provision to raise taxes.

With 12 days left until the Treasury begins to run short of cash, Obama and Boehner (R-Ohio) were still pursuing the most ambitious plan to restrain the national debt in at least 20 years. Talks focused on sharp cuts in agency spending and politically painful changes to cherished health and retirement programs aimed at saving roughly $3 trillion over the next decade.

More savings would be generated through an overhaul of the tax code that would lower personal and corporate income tax rates while eliminating or reducing an array of popular tax breaks, such as the deduction for home mortgage interest. But the talks envisioned no specific tax increases as part of legislation to lift the debt limit, and the tax rewrite would be postponed until next year.

Democrats reacted with outrage as word filtered to Capitol Hill, saying the emerging agreement appeared to violate their pledge not to cut Social Security and Medicare benefits as well as Obama’s promise not to make deep cuts in programs for the poor without extracting some tax concessions from the rich.

When “we heard these reports of these mega-trillion-dollar cuts with no revenues, it was like Mount Vesuvius. . . . Many of us were volcanic,” said Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski (D-Md.).

White House budget director Jacob J. Lew denied that a deal without taxes was in the works. “We’ve been clear revenues have to be part of any agreement,” he told reporters.

After a lunchtime meeting between Lew and Senate Democrats, Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) made no attempt to hide his anger, telling reporters that his caucus would oppose the “potential agreement” because it appeared to include no clear guarantee of increased revenue.
“The president always talked about balance, that there had to be some fairness in this, that this can’t be all cuts. There has to be a balance. There has to be some revenue and cuts. My caucus agrees with that,” Reid said. “I hope that the president sticks with that. I’m confident that he will.”

New backup plan would let Obama raise debt ceiling without congressional OK

Chicago Tribune
Lisa Mascaro

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid speaks to the media after meeting with
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, right, about the debt limit.

Editor's Note:  As Suggested by Mike Rivero of WhatReallyHappened.com:

Raising the debt limit is not necessary. Congress has the right to revoke the Federal Reserve's charter - at any time.

Call or email your local congressman and ask them,

"Why does the government insist on borrowing money from outside banks when Article 1, Section 8 of the constitution allows the government to simply print its own money?"

Contact the Whitehouse:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact 

Contact Congress:

http://weeklyintercept.blogspot.com/p/complete-contact-list-for-us-congress_15.html


WASHINGTON — A plan by the Senate's two top leaders to allow President Obama to raise the debt limit without congressional approval is emerging as the most likely strategy to avoid a looming federal default.

The plan being drafted by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada would lock in roughly $1.5 trillion in deficit reduction over the next ten years — a figure considerably smaller than Republican leaders or President Obama had been seeking.

Administration officials have said they still would prefer a more sweeping deal on the deficit, but they signaled the idea would be acceptable to Obama.

Conservatives, particularly in the House, seem likely to oppose it. But with efforts to deliver a larger deficit-reduction deal still stalemated, the new plan, which builds on a proposal put forward earlier in the week by McConnell, could provide a way out of a dead end that has become politically and economically perilous.

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) indicated such "last-ditch" efforts may become more palatable in the time ahead.

"What may look like something less than optimal today, if we're unable to get to an agreement, might look pretty good," Boehner said.

Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.), the House majority leader, toned his hard-line stance Thursday, saying, "There is a dose of pragmatism in all that we do."

The plan came as Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner warned that time for debate was running out. The nation's bond-rating, and with it the financial stability of the nation, hinge on the ability of Congress and the White House to approve more borrowing before the government begins running out of cash on Aug. 2, he said.

"We're running out of time," Geithner told reporters after a private lunch meeting with Senate Democrats.

Underscoring Geithner's warning, the government of China, which is one of the largest holders of U.S. debt, issued a statement urging American officials to act "responsibly."

Congressional leaders met at the White House for a fifth straight day Thursday. There were no plans for a session on Friday, but Obama gave congressional leaders 24 to 36 hours to evaluate options, and planned a news conference Friday morning. The president said he and his staff were available and willing to meet over the weekend.

"It's decision time," Obama told those meeting at the White House, according to a Democratic official familiar with the session and who would describe it only condition of anonymity. "We need concrete plans to move this forward," the president said.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), who was criticized after confronting Obama during a meeting Wednesday, was more restrained at Thursday's talks. The Democratic official said the meeting was "cordial."

Having No Emergencies or Pressing Issues at Hand, U.S. Senate Passes Resolution Threatening to Suspend Aid to Palestinians

Haaretz

Serving Israel and AIPAC Instead of the people of the United States

Resolution 185 calls on Palestinians to halt bid for unilateral recognition at UN, calls on Obama to veto September vote.

The United States Senate has passed a resolution threatening to suspend financial assistance to the Palestinian Authority if its leaders "persist in efforts to circumvent direct negotiations by turning to the United Nations or other international bodies,” and called on U.S. President Barack Obama to veto a UN vote on unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state.

“Palestinian efforts to gain recognition of a state outside direct negotiations demonstrates absence of a good faith commitment to peace negotiations, and will have implications for continued United States aid,” the resolution declares.

Senator Ben Cardin, who initiated the resolution along with Senator Susan Collins, said after the vote late Tuesday that “The Senate has delivered a clear message to the international community that United Nations recognition of a Palestinian state at this time does not further the peace process.”

Resolution 185, co-sponsored by 87 Senator, states the two-state solution as the official U.S. policy for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and also calls for a review of the reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas.

It also calls for the Palestinian unity government to “publicly and formally forswear terrorism, accept Israel's right to exist, and reaffirm previous agreements made with the Government of Israel.”

The Senate also called on Obama to announce that the U.S. will veto any resolution on Palestinian statehood that comes before the UN Security Council which is not a result of a peace agreement – and asked him to “lead a diplomatic effort to oppose a unilateral declaration of a Palestinian state and to oppose recognition of a Palestinian state by other nations.”

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said in a statement following the resolution passage “the United States of America will not give money to terrorists bent on the destruction of the State of Israel. America’s willingness to continue our current aid program will depend on the Palestinian government’s insistence that Hamas recognize Israel’s right to exist, that it renounce violence and that it honor the commitments made by prior Palestinian Authority governments.”

AIPAC, which lobbied for the passage of the resolution, welcomed the vote's result.

Clinton To Congress: Obama Would Ignore Your War Resolutions

TPM

Update: Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA), who asked Clinton about the War Powers Act during a classified briefing, said Clinton and the administration are sidestepping the measure's provisions giving Congress the ability to put a 60-day time limit on any military action.

"They are not committed to following the important part of the War Powers Act," he told TPM in a phone interview. "She said they are certainly willing to send reports [to us] and if they issue a press release, they'll send that to us too."

The White House would forge ahead with military action in Libya even if Congress passed a resolution constraining the mission, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said during a classified briefing to House members Wednesday afternoon.

Clinton was responding to a question from Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA) about the administration's response to any effort by Congress to exercise its war powers, according to a senior Republican lawmaker who attended the briefing.


The answer surprised many in the room because Clinton plainly admitted the administration would ignore any and all attempts by Congress to shackle President Obama's power as commander in chief to make military and wartime decisions. In doing so, he would follow a long line of Presidents who have ignored the act since its passage, deeming it an unconstitutional encroachment on executive power.

Other than that, the lawmaker said he learned nothing new during the classified briefing by Clinton, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

A cross-section of Democrats and Republicans are opposed to President Obama's decision to authorize air strikes in Libya without seeking a resolution of approval or a declaration of war from Congress. Lawmakers ranging from Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) to Sen. Richard Lugar (R-IN), the top Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee, have groused about not being consulted before Obama took military action.

The War Powers Act of 1973, passed in the aftermath of the Vietnam War, puts limits on the ability of the President to send American troops into combat areas without congressional approval. Under the act, the President can only send combat troops into battle or into areas where ''imminent'' hostilities are likely, for 60 days without either a declaration of war by Congress or a specific congressional mandate.

The President can extend the time the troops are in the combat area for 30 extra days, without Congressional approval, for a total of 90 days. After that, is unchartered territory. The act does not specifically say what Congress could do if the President turns a blind eye to Congress and refuses to have his role as commander-in-chief constrained, as Presidents have routinely done.

The only options Congress would have at that point is to cut off funding for future military operations and override what would likely be a presidential veto of any such measure.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has asked his caucus to postpone any Libya resolutions until after they receive a classified briefing Wednesday evening. Afterward, Reid said, all bets are off and Democrats can offer any type of war powers resolution they want.

"I've told my caucus, 'Come loaded with all your questions; ask questions in this classified setting. And then if in fact you want to do more legislatively, you're entitled to do it,'" Reid told reporters Tuesday. "The War Powers Act we believe is valid, is very clear, setting forth timelines."

Reid said he read sections of the War Powers Act to his caucus at a lunchtime policy meeting Tuesday.