A day that will live in infamy

Today our House of Representatives voted for the bailout of Wall Street. They had previously rejected it on Monday. The Senate took the bill added an additional 150 billion in earmarks, passed it, and sent it back to the House. The polls showed public opinion at an amazing 50-1 in opposition to this bill, yet it still passed! When the Founders of this country declared independence from England, they stated why they had to break away in a list of grievances. Some things written in this declaration are strikingly relevant today. Among the grievances listed were:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

We are all going to experience the loss of purchasing power through inflation. That is a hidden tax that we all pay and we pay it for the benefit of the banks. Most don't understand how it happens, and if they did, would not consent. In 2006 Congress passed the Military Commissions Act, which allows for permanent detention of "enemy combatants" without ever having to press charges. No contact with your family or a lawyer and certainly no trial by jury, all this on the say so of one man, no probable cause needed. The CIA has openly admitted to the use of extraordinary rendition. We currently live in a Country that, has "free speech zones", allows warrentless wire tapping of our phone calls and emails, tortures people, and has taken away habeas corpus. Our most important rights as free people are being gutted from our Constitution.

So here we are faced, we are told, with an economic meltdown. We are being told that we must give unprecedented power to unelected officials. The fear-mongering on this issue has been great. Every major "leader", including the President, the Secretary of the Treasury, the Federal Reserve Chairman, both presidential nominees, the leader of both parties in both the House and the Senate, all have claimed the sky will fall if Congress does not act immediately. In spite of the warnings the American people in record numbers contacted Congress to tell them NO, DO NOT PASS A BAILOUT. Some polls showed as high as 200-1 against this bill. So Congress goes ahead and passes the bill, and not only passes it, but adds on an additional 150 billion of taxpayer money in giveaways to special interests. The people's message to congress seems to have fallen on deaf ears.



After listing all of the grievances the colonies had, Jefferson wrote this:

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

When will we come to this conclusion again?

--Jeff Avitabile