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Bank Ordered to Take Down Religious Displays [UPDATE: The Order Has Now Been Revoked] yea, yea, yea
Eugene Volokh • December 17, 2010 4:07 pm
KOCO-TV reports,
A small-town bank in Oklahoma said the Federal Reserve won't let it keep religious signs and symbols on display.
Federal Reserve examiners [who came for a regularly scheduled inspection visit] deemed a Bible verse of the day, crosses on the teller's counter and buttons that say “Merry Christmas, God With Us.” … inappropriate. The Bible verse of the day on the bank's Internet site also had to be taken down….
Specifically, the feds believed, the symbols violated the discouragement clause of Regulation B of the bank regulations. According to the clause,
Quote:“…the use of words, symbols, models and other forms of communication … express, imply or suggest a discriminatory preference or policy of exclusion.” …The Oklahoman reports that
Quote:“The Christian-themed decorations are back at Payne County Bank after federal regulators relented in their demand that religious items in the bank's lobby and website must be removed.” -
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SOURCE: http://www.americanf…killer_248.html
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WIFE OF 'KILLER' SPEAKS
By Pat Shannan
When Cyndi Steele, the wife of imprisoned lawyer Edgar J. Steele, first heard that her husband had been arrested and charged with hiring their handyman to have her and her mother killed, she simply didn't believe it. Then, as FBI agents attempted to persuade her to accept the nonsensical “plot,” she became suspicious of the agency and went into seclusion.
Mrs. Steele recently spoke with AFP in an exclusive interview, relating how she now believes her husband was framed.
Steele has been held in solitary confinement since his arrest on June 11, 2010. In October, Mrs. Steele was finally allowed to visit with him.
“[The FBI] lied to me from the beginning,” said Mrs. Steele, explaining how FBI agents accused her of cheating on her husband. “First they claimed they had a private investigator who had pictures of [me and my boyfriend] together, but I knew they couldn't, because there is no boyfriend. Finally, they admitted they had made that up and then jumped over to the next lie: that Ed had a Russian girlfriend, and that's why he wanted to kill me. They just kept trying to intimidate me into believing their own lies.”
Amore likely scenario might be that Steele was targeted because of his history defending the politically incorrect in court.
Unbeknownst to the Steeles, the man at the center of the crime, handyman Larry Fairfax, had been a longtime FBI informant when the Steeles hired him last December. Steele had been recuperating from a near-fatal heart operation at his home in Idaho. It's believed the FBI had re-enlisted Fairfax to spy on Steele when he told them where he was working. However, when Fairfax was unable to turn up anything incriminating, the feds resorted to more drastic measures.
Fairfax claims that Steele had offered him $25,000 to murder Mrs. Steele and her mother. According to Fair fax, this amount and “maybe even more” would be paid after Steele collected on the life insurance. Conveniently, because the mother-inlaw resides in Oregon, the “crime” qualified for federal jurisdiction under the FBI.
Mrs . Steele has finally brought to the table the piece of evidence that has the federal prosecutors scrambling for yet another new motive: There is no life insurance. The Steeles had canceled it after the last child left home a few years ago. Another perplexing point is the mystery man who rode with Fairfax to the Oregon home of Mrs. Steele's mother to inspect and possibly install the pipe bomb discovered under Mrs. Steele's car.
Mrs. Steele's attorney Wesley Hoyt received an anonymous tip naming the accomplice as James Maher, a neighbor and friend of Fairfax. When Hoyt and client played the tip for federal prosecutor Tracy Whelan, she admitted that Maher was the ride-along friend but claimed he had done nothing wrong. Maher is the brother of prominent HBO television talk show host and comic Bill Maher. (Issue # 51, December 20, 2010)
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Amen, pastor Franklin.
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Concerning Wikileaks,
Governor Mike Huckabee said:
“If we want to keep our nation's secrets 'SECRET,' store them where President Obama stores his college transcripts and birth certificate.”
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EDITORIAL: Sent by a reader. We didn't write this.
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Australian's get it RIGHT—Don't Blame the Messenger of Bad News!!By Free Inhabitant DaveThe latest US media—and I contend government-sponsored– blitz is to find disgust with Australia's blame of the US State Department for sloppy handling. An understanding of how classified material is ORDAINED to be handled in the US will reveal Australia correct—but ironically, because of same policy to not reveal weakness, no real security officer will admit same. Let me explain.
All people who handle highly sensitive material are given briefings for handling same—usually by a security officer. Mine was no different having been given fortunately by the head of a major US air-force base security office. Now this was during the cold war when America's secrets were to be very well guarded—so I can assure you, the principles have not changed.
During this briefing, I was given the usual speeches and then led past all the guards to several rooms and in some cases vaults [for super classified material] where I would be working. In those rooms were tons of regular plain-jane file cabinets with simple ¾ inch steel bar and government-approved padlocks on them with signs marked open and closed. Also on the table were big black tarpaulin cloths covering the desk top's “working papers” —some padlocked to the table on the corners.
The security officer started with the briefing speech about the padlock I was given for my cabinet:
Quote:“You get to pick the combination. Do not use your birthday or some combination of your SSN. Don't be like the idiotic Phd scientist's we have here and use some combination of 12-24 or 07-04 for your combination because they are so smart they are forgetful.”I found this immensely funny and started to laugh but then I asked this officer:
Quote:“Excuse me for laughing but while on the subject of humorous, I find it funny how ANYONE could think those padlocks and steel bar sufficient to prevent ANYONE from gaining access to that information. It would be a piece of cake to defeat that bar or cut that lock. I know you have several guards posted that people have to get through, but anyone inside could technically gain access to the other guy's classified information and thus destroy the 'need to know' purpose. Why it could be the janitor even!”Now this fellow was up in age and had worked security for a very long time. He looked me straight in the eye and said:
Quote:“It's designed that way. You appear a smart guy but you don't know the reason why, so I'll let you in on the secret very few people know. All our security is designed to reveal when it has been breached or tampered with. Think about it: It's almost as important to know when information has been compromised, as to keep it secret.”Security principles are the same all over the world and the TRUE security officer's “in the know” realize what this fellow revealed to me: It's very important to know when your material has been compromised—nearly as important as the material itself.
Now consider the State Department's stupidity! Consider: (1) Not only did they allow someone with “no need to know” access to this information but (2) without Wikileak's they would have never known it was STOLEN AND (3) would have never known of the vulnerability! Three strikes, you're out!
It's LITTLE wonder the state department has been quick to distract people with the “blame elsewhere game” isn't it?
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SHOCKER: U.S. State Dept 'cleared' the release of Wikileaks Documents published so far.
http://www.pakalertpress.com/2010/12/04/shocker-us-state-department-%e2%80%98cleared%e2%80%99-the-release-of-wikileaks-documents-published-so-far/
Paul Wolf, December A. D. 2010
PAUL WOLF | Friday | 2 December 2010
http://WWW.PAKNATIONALISTS.COM
WASHINGTON, DC—For the last four days, newspaper headlines around the globe have covered a cornucopia of diplomatic scandals, resulting from the “leaking” of some 250,000 cables of the U.S. State Department to the New York Times and several other newspapers. In case there is anyone left on the planet who hasn’t heard of this, the cables were leaked to the media by “wikileaks,” a mysterious non-governmental organization which purports to publish classified documents while guaranteeing anonymity to the providers.
The scandals covered a variety of topics of interest to the American public and government, from China’s interest in the re-unification of Korea, to Iran’s purchase of missiles from North Korea, to Pakistani General Kayani wondering whether the US would support him in a military coup. (1) Oddly enough, there are no scandals of any significance involving Israel or any other American ally.
The reason for this appears to lie in the editorial process of the world’s newspapers ‘of record.’
Despite public perceptions, Wikileaks does not make the material it receives available directly to the public. It sends the documents to newspapers, which decide what news is fit to print. As of this writing, Dec 2, 2010, four days after the New York Times and other newspapers began publishing scores of articles; Wikileaks has only posted 623 of the 250,000 documents they claim to have released to their website. (2) Neither the New York Times, the Guardian or the other newspapers apparently in possession of these materials have published them either.
Worse, these 623 ‘leaks’ were apparently cleared by the State Department itself. According to noted American civil rights attorney Michael Ratner, “In the recent disclosure, Wikileaks has only posted cables that were reviewed by the news organisations and in some cases redacted. The news organisations showed them to the Pentagon and agreed to some of the government’s suggested redactions.” (3)
Wikileaks’ reluctance to post the materials to the internet probably results from a combination of factors. First and foremost, they have been threatened with prosecution in the US – although this author believes that is no more than a bluff – and accused of having “blood on their hands” already, despite the fact that even after several months, they haven’t yet released the scandalous “Afghan war logs” documents which, among other things, accused the Pakistani ISI of running a suicide bomber network in Kabul, and former DG ISI Hamid Gul of being the ISI’s liaison to the Taliban.
(4) Pakistan is left with no way to defend against these accusations, since it does not even know the nature of the sources, although Afghan intelligence (led by Amrullah Saleh) is suspected. And apparently, Wikileaks’ priority is to put more materials into the hands of the NY Times, rather than putting them on the internet.
It’s not a matter of resources. There are dozens, if not hundreds or thousands of people who would gladly volunteer to post this material to their websites. One of them is John Young, who really is what Mr. Assange, spokesman for Wikileaks, pretends to be. For the past 14 years, Young has posted the most remarkable materials to his site, including personal information and photographs of the homes of CIA officials. (5) Young joined Wikileaks when it formed, but in January of 2007, left the organization, claiming it was a CIA front. While this author does not join him in making that accusation, it is noteworthy that the person who has actually done what Wikileaks claims to do, not only thinks Wikileaks is fake, but is a disinformation campaign.
Julian Assange will likely be arrested on rape charges any day now, for incidents that allegedly occurred on a speaking tour he did in Sweden. Assange claims that the women are part of a Pentagon “dirty tricks campaign” to discredit him. There are continual media reports that he is living a kind of underground fugitive existence. And now reports that the Wikileaks website is being hacked to the point that the mundane Afghanistan documents they did post online are no longer there. This is all an overreaction to what Wikileaks has actually done, which is act as an intermediary between persons unknown in the government, and the ever-compliant news media. The Wikileaks paranoia comes across as self-serving and insincere.
The solution to all this, of course, is quite simple. Wikileaks should hand over the goods to someone who will actually post them to the internet. Then we would at least have a fair process wherein people of different political ideologies could put whatever spins they wanted on them. Failing that, Assange should just take a job at the New York Times and stop being such a poser.
Mr. Wolf is a human rights attorney based in Washington DC. Description of his work as an anti-war lawyer is available on his website, http://www.paulwolf.org.
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franklin,
Fabulous post. Mega dittos.
One of our members is described in that post. Thanks for the kudos of that member.
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Quote:“One of the most difficult things you could ever do is pack up your life, leave everything familiar, and head to a new world full of uncertainty.”
– Simon Black of SovereignMan.com
Leaving America Redux: Sovereign Man's “Next Steps” Guide To Expats-In-Waiting
The musings of Simon “Sovereign Man” Black, whose prior post ; about leaving America as the only intelligent way to lead a noble fight against crony capitalism and a corrupt regime, provoked a very spirited conversation, received well over 20k reads, indicating this is a very sensitive topic to many potential expats currently on the fence about abandoning this once great country. Today, exclusively on Zero Hedge, we present Black's follow up thoughts on the topic of expatriation as the noble way of winning the fight with the “mob-installed government beast”, by avoiding the fight entirely. For all those who are considering pulling the cord on abandoning an increasingly oppressive regime where the concept of liberty is now whispered about with the hushed tones of increasing nostalgia, here are some suggestions on what one's next steps may be. If nothing else, this should certainly engender another possibly combustible discussion on the benefits of passive versus active patriotism.
(Incidentally, Black's daily musing from various known and unknown corners around the world are extremely informative and entertaining, and we suggest everyone who wishes to get an unbiased perspective of the world to subscribe to the Sovereign Man's free newsletter – link <http://www.sovereignman.com/>
.From Simon Black of SovereignMan.com <http://www.sovereignman.com/>/
*Writing today from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia*
Freedom, independence, and awareness are undoubtedly in decline in the western world, particularly the US. In the last 10-days, Homeland Security has started seizing Internet domains from 'rogue' webmasters, and TSA has begun labeling dissenters of its new security procedures as domestic extremists.
It's as if the government's actions are being ripped from Atlas Shrugged and 1984… and yet the trend, at least for now, is still more government control, fake security, and reduced freedom.
Earlier this week I published a controversial article about the nature of patriotism. In the article, I suggested that when you find yourself increasingly isolated from your country's declining values, it's probably time to pack up and head somewhere else.
Many people found this idea to be cowardly and weak. Obviously I believe the opposite to be true. One of the most difficult things you could ever do is pack up your life, leave everything familiar, and head to a new world full of uncertainty.
Just about everyone reading this had ancestors who did just that. These were not cowards, they were pioneers; they were trading tyranny for opportunity, heading to a land full of bright prospects where they could carve out a life accountable for their own successes and failures.
Granted, we have it easier today than our pioneering ancestors… but leaving behind the familiarity of home is still a difficult concept for most people to commit.
It's like staying in a bad marriage or dead-end job… people do it because their paralyzing fear of the unknown is often greater than the routine misery to which they've already grown accustomed.
Taking action requires a catalyst, and that's what we're experiencing today– perhaps a mother who watches a government agent fondle her child, or an entrepreneur whose assets are wrongfully frozen, or a student who realizes that social security will no longer exist when she hits retirement age, etc.
One by one, people will wake up and consider their options.”Stay and fight” is just a bombastic rallying cry of the institutionalized, not a real option. The fact is, there is no enemy, there is no fight… there is only gradual erosion of freedom and opportunity.
Unable to change what we cannot control, productive people will eventually reach a breaking point and leave. The “stay and fight” crowd who remain will congratulate themselves on their patriotism, chastise the “cowards” who have left, and resolve to go down with the mob-mentality, mafia-controlled sinking ship.
This is neither honorable nor courageous, and unless you see Davy Crockett staring back at you in the mirror, the “stay and fight” crowd should question their own actions first– what are you doing to change things? Who exactly are you fighting?
Here's the bottom line: your country is controlled by a very small group of people, and you're not one of them. You cannot control the machine, you can only control where and how to invest your time. Fortunately, there are a lot of options around the world for the open-minded.
One commenter this week lamented, “Leave to where? Guatemala? Panama? What other hellhole can you name, and what do you do when you get there? Raise chickens?” as if every other country on earth is a 'hellhole' with no economic prospects for talented, creative people.
Stop listening to what Sean Hannity tells you and see for yourself, the world is full of opportunity. I've traveled to around 100 countries and done business in dozens– some of my favorites:
Chile: the new America. Strong, independent, civilized economy, you'll think you're in Europe given how modern it is.
Singapore: Too much to say here… you need a job? They're hiring. You need capital? They're investing. You hate taxes? So do they. Singapore is ideal for families, and obtaining residency (and citizenship) is simple.
Colombia: Forget everything you've ever heard and go see for yourself. With similar geology to Venezuela and peace at hand, the country is poised for a bonanza.
Sri Lanka: Ditto, except that the Sri Lankan government is bending over backwards to provide some of the strongest investor incentives I've ever seen. Oh yeah, it's one of the cheapest (and most beautiful) countries in the world.
Malaysia: Peaceful, beautiful, cheap, and thriving, Malaysia will constantly surprise you and exceed your expectations for its modernness and opportunities.
Estonia: With its flat tax structure, streamlined government, and brilliant work force, Estonia provides ample opportunity for entrepreneurs, particularly those looking for entry into Europe's harmonized customs union.
I could go on– Brazil, Indonesia, Uruguay, Tanzania, China, etc., but you get the idea. Sure, you could pick apart any country for its faults. I call these the 'yeah, buts' as in “Estonia? Yeah, but it's cold.” It's not going to look like Black Friday shopping in Topeka, but the idea is freedom and opportunity, and once on the ground, you'll feel it.
In case you're geographically constrained, you can still take steps to increase your freedom. Start by moving some money to an overseas bank account, and store gold in an offshore vault– this safeguards your wealth from government bureaucrats who could otherwise freeze or confiscate your accounts on a whim.
Also consider buying some land overseas, even if it's just a small piece. This is a great way to move money, and it gives you a starting point if you ever need a place to go.
Remember, these options are not exclusive to the wealthy– anyone who is willing to reject institutional programming can find opportunity overseas or start protecting what they have at home; it takes an open mind, creativity, readiness to learn new skills, and the will to act.
The above article first appeared AT ZeroHedge.com
Until next issue, stay cool and remain low profile!
Privacy World
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Great case. However, this is a franchise issue so we moved it to the correct forum.
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Franklin,
Very well said. Meg dittos. We're glad to see that there are at least a few people who “get it”. There is so much material and writing on this website from us already on this subject that it's pointless to add more here.
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Prollins,
That's the way we see it as well. The real issue to focus on is the franchises, and people moving into federal jurisdiction under them, which in most cases is not only ILLEGAL, but CRIMINAL. These people don't like looking in the mirror and claiming their part of the responsibility for why the system is so screwed up. Ignorance of the law is the real problem, for the most part, as you correctly pointed out. The Bible points this out too:
Quote:“One who turns his ear from hearing the law /i][img]../../images/pdfsmall.gif[/img] [i]God's law or [url url=”http://famguardian.org/TaxFreedom/LegalRef/LegalResrchSrc.htm”]man's law[/url, even his prayer is an abomination.”[Prov. 28:9, Bible, NKJV]
”This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”
[Joshua 1:8-9, Bible, NKJV,
IMPLICATION: If you aren't reading and trying to obey God's law daily, then you're not doing God's will and you will not prosper]
“But this crowd that does not know [and quote and follow and use] the law is accursed.”
[John 7:49, Bible, NKJV]
“Salvation is far from the wicked, For they do not seek Your [God's] statutes.”
[Psalm 119:155, Bible, NKJV]
Of course there are also a few things that can and should be fixed in the constitution, and these things are identified in the following.
Self Government Federation: Articles of Confederation, Form #13.002
DIRECT LINK: http://sedm.org/Form…ArtOfConfed.pdf
FORMS PAGE: http://sedm.org/Forms/FormIndex.htm
What we should be focusing on are the reforms listed in the above document, not the tenth amendment. Those reforms are identified in section 3. We should also be focusing on what the Declaration of Independence says our DUTY is, which is to form a better government and fire the bastards, using the above document.
Below are additional things we should focus on that will REALLY make a difference:
1. Reforms We Seek
http://sedm.org/Mini…formsWeSeek.htm
2. About Us page, section 1. This lists the evils we are fighting.
http://famguardian.o…try/aboutus.htm
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Feds 'Disappear' Edgar Steele – Mystery Deepens
http://www.rense.com/general91/stl.htm
Date: 7/10/2010
![/i][img]../../images/pdfsmall.gif[/img] [i]God's law or [url url=”http://famguardian.org/TaxFreedom/LegalRef/LegalResrchSrc.htm”]man's law[/url](/?page=%2Fi%5D%5Bimg%5D..%2F..%2Fimages%2Fpdfsmall.gif%5B%2Fimg%5D_%5Bi%5DGod_39_s_law_or_%5Burl_%22http%3A%2F%2Ffamguardian.org%2FTaxFreedom%2FLegalRef%2FLegalResrchSrc.htm%22%5Dman_39_s_law%5B%2Furl){kind=link}