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From USA Today:

The number of federal workers earning six-figure salaries has exploded during the recession, according to a USA TODAY analysis of federal salary data.
Federal employees making salaries of $100,000 or more jumped from 14% to 19% of civil servants during the recession’s first 18 months - and that’s before overtime pay and bonuses are counted.

Federal workers are enjoying an extraordinary boom time - in pay and hiring - during a recession that has cost 7.3 million jobs in the private sector.

The highest-paid federal employees are doing best of all on salary increases. Defense Department civilian employees earning $150,000 or more increased from 1,868 in December 2007 to 10,100 in June 2009, the most recent figure available.

When the recession started, the Transportation Department had only one person earning a salary of $170,000 or more. Eighteen months later, 1,690 employees had salaries above $170,000.

The trend to six-figure salaries is occurring throughout the federal government, in agencies big and small, high-tech and low-tech. The primary cause: substantial pay raises and new salary rules.

“There’s no way to justify this to the American people. It’s ridiculous,” says Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, a first-term lawmaker who is on the House’s federal workforce subcommittee.

Jessica Klement, government affairs director for the Federal Managers Association, says the federal workforce is highly paid because the government employs skilled people such as scientists, physicians and lawyers. She says federal employees make 26% less than private workers for comparable jobs.

More proof of the growing fascist threat and the dire need for a seperation of everything and the State.

I have decided it is time to capitalize on the declining value of the dollar and to help organize and facilitate trade between individuals and business in an increasingly regulated world.

I have decided to pursue becoming a Community Trade Coordinator for the American Open Currency Standard. 

I first learned about the AOCS at the Campaign For Liberty Seattle Regional Conference. I have been intrigued since then at the prospect of using silver and gold as a barter mechanism to facilitate trade- trade that would hold its value at a much more stable rate than that of the Federal Reserve Note.

The goal of the AOCS is to establish a private and voluntary network of individuals and business who wish to utilize the asset preservation power of gold and silver to facilitate trade amongst themselves. Many city-specific currencies have sprung up since this depression began and long before that merchants have opted to provide their customers with the convenience of gift cards. But what if that local currency loses its luster? What if the store from whom you have purchased your gift card goes out of business?

The AOCS seeks to remedy this problem by providing a barter token that is by itself a valuable commodity- 1 Troy ounce of .999 silver for every ‘fifty’ barter credits (and to a lesser extent gold). There are over 26,000 merchants nationwide who have agreed to be listed that they accept transactions based on barter- and given the current state of affairs that number will surly rise.

Many people purchase Gold and Silver to hoard it for use at some date in the future when our fiat currency system fails (as historically everyone has). But consider this- we are two generations away from when the last remnants of the gold standard were severed from the American financial system. When the collapse of the Federal Reserve note comes, will your local grocer be ready and have the knowledge to trade value-for-value? What about the local gas station or restaurant? How about transactions between businesses themselves?

The reality is that despite the massive awaking to sound currency as a result of the efforts of Dr. Ron Paul and the Campaign For Liberty, very little progress has been made in restoring the role of Gold or Silver in the marketplace. The AOCS seeks to be the force that provides support and education to local merchants who desire a better way to do business in an increasingly command-and-control economy.

First things first: I am looking to place the initial order of AOCS Silver rounds as soon as possible. Given the increasingly top-heavy threats from the Obama administration, we must act in all prudence and seek to organize our private, voluntary currency networks as soon as possible. If this concept interests you, or if you desire a better way to capture your customers’ loyalty, please feel free to contact me. As soon as I get the details worked out with AOCS I will open an online store of sorts to facilitate the purchase of AOCS Silver rounds.

In the meantime, take a look at the American Open Currency Standard website to decide if this is right for you.

Also, take a moment to learn about Dr. Ron Paul’s efforts to Audit The Fed and repeal Legal Tender laws. 

With the right amount of innovation, the Free Market will never be defeated.

From Foxnews:

The Obama administration is warning Congress that if it doesn’t move to regulate greenhouse gases, the Environmental Protection Agency will take a “command-and-control” role over the process in a way that could hurt business.

The warning, from a top White House economic official who spoke Tuesday on condition of anonymity, came on the eve of EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson’s address to the international conference on climate change in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Jackson, however, tried to strike a tone of cooperation in her address Wednesday, explaining that the EPA’s new powers to regulate greenhouse gases will be used to complement legislation pending in Congress, not replace it.

“This is not an ‘either-or’ moment. It’s a ‘both-and’ moment,” she said.

But while administration officials have long said they prefer Congress take action on climate change, the economic official who spoke with reporters Tuesday night made clear that the EPA will not wait and is prepared to act on its own.

And it won’t be pretty.

“If you don’t pass this legislation, then … the EPA is going to have to regulate in this area,” the official said. “And it is not going to be able to regulate on a market-based way, so it’s going to have to regulate in a command-and-control way, which will probably generate even more uncertainty.”

From the San Francisco Chronicle:

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s formal declaration Monday that greenhouse gases jeopardize public health paves the way for federal regulation of carbon dioxide emissions from refineries, chemical facilities and power plants - even if Congress rejects climate change legislation.

The EPA’s finding that carbon dioxide endangers the public also will give President Obama political ammunition when he goes before world leaders in Copenhagen next week to promise U.S. emissions cuts as part of international climate change negotiations that started Monday.

Although the EPA’s formal declaration does not directly impose new carbon dioxide caps, it establishes the framework for regulating carbon dioxide and five other greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act.

Monday’s action satisfies a legal hurdle for the EPA to finalize the first-ever national limits on tailpipe emissions, proposed earlier this year. Industry and EPA lawyers say the vehicle emissions rule and the endangerment finding would compel the agency to regulate - under the Clean Air Act - the heat-trapping gases released from industrial operations and other stationery sources, possibly by next spring.

Do not say that Libertarians and the Freedom and Liberty movement didn’t warn you. We did- loudly.

Tyranny is about to be imposed on us and it will forever change the way our freedoms, commerce, life and our culture operate. There is no mandate for these changes, but is being advanced and imposed by a scientific dictatorship that has carefully presented and cultivated a view of life that a free humanity is the problem. A free humanity that operates under Nature’s Law and Nature’s God. A free humanity that operates in accordance with our inalienable rights. All of this is about to be stripped from us under the auspices of fighting climate change.

Please do not be surprised when they- the government- come out and say the increasing amount of regulations, fines, fees and taxes they will impose as a result of this mandate is doing nothing to combat ‘global climate change’. Please do not be surprised when those said regulations, fines, fees and taxes increase in severity and amount year after year. Please do not be surprised when the climate data they present to you shows no net improvement of our overall global climate.

It is time to get prepared now- a huge underground and secondary economy is about to spring up. The free market will never be defeated- it will just be driven underground and taken off the ‘official’ books and tax records. Barter, trade and exchange will become the new norm in the face of increasing government burden. Given what we will be facing, it only makes sense that economy and production will have to be done out of the eyes of government.

We can only hope that the act of just being born, and society’s cultural respect for it, will be able to ward off the social and economic penalties that the scientific dictatorship will seek to impose.

From Rasmussen:

Running under the Tea Party brand may be better in congressional races than being a Republican.

In a three-way Generic Ballot test, the latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds Democrats attracting 36% of the vote. The Tea Party candidate picks up 23%, and Republicans finish third at 18%. Another 22% are undecided.

Among voters not affiliated with either major party, the Tea Party comes out on top. Thirty-three percent (33%) prefer the Tea Party candidate, and 30% are undecided. Twenty-five percent (25%) would vote for a Democrat, and just 12% prefer the GOP.

Among Republican voters, 39% say they’d vote for the GOP candidate, but 33% favor the Tea Party option.

…

Seventy percent (70%) of Republican voters have a favorable opinion of the Tea Party movement while only seven percent (7%) offer an unfavorable view. Interestingly, 49% of Democrats have no opinion one way or the other.

Forty-one percent (41%) of all voters nationwide say Republicans and Democrats are so much alike that a new party is needed to represent the American people. Republicans are evenly divided on this question, while Democrats overwhelmingly disagree. However, among those not affiliated with either major party, 60% agree that a new party is needed, and only 25% disagree. Men are far more likely than women to believe a new party is needed.

Perhaps the most telling statistic:

Among the Political Class, not a single respondent picked the Tea Party candidate.

Enough said, I believe.

From Rasmussen:

Ben Bernanke begins the formal process tomorrow for confirmation to a second term as chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, but 41% of Americans think President Obama should name someone new to the post.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that only 21% of adults believe the President should reappoint Bernanke to another four-year term. But a sizable 39% aren’t sure what the president should do.

Fitting then, that Senator Jim DeMint, the main sponsor of S.604, would place a hold on the re-appointment of Chairman Ben Bernanke until a simple up-or-down floor vote on the Federal Reserve Sunshine Act takes place.

From Senator DeMint’s office:

“Mr. Bernanke has been one of the chief proponents of the Fed’s easy money policy that created the current financial crisis. He ignored asset bubbles, dismissed concerns about the weakness of the dollar, and helped encourage the credit mania that led to the financial panic. Even worse, Mr. Bernanke has refused to accept any responsibility for his role in these actions prior to financial crisis.

On July 6, 2009, Senator DeMint attempted to get a vote on S. 604, which would remove restrictions on auditing the Fed’s discount window operations, funding facilities, open market operations and agreements with foreign central banks and governments. The vote was blocked but Senator pledged to keep fighting to force the Senate to vote on the measure.

“I will also object to floor consideration of Mr. Bernanke’s nomination until the Senate votes up-or-down on the Federal Reserve Sunshine Act. This bipartisan legislation, sponsored by Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, has over thirty cosponsors and would allow the Government Accountability Office to conduct a full audit of the Federal Reserve. Americans deserve to know how their money is being managed so these mistakes never happen again.

And now, my dear readers, we have a war. Let us not tire, falter or fail in our efforts to End The Fed. We know they will use their abilities to craft monetary policy to make this bill appear as a threat; we must stand ready to educate and reach out. The real enemy is not Bernanke, but the Creature From Jekyll Island that has brought us wars, centralized government planning, inflationary monetary polity and the destructive boom-and-bust cycle that interferes with the free market.

Contact your Senators TODAY, make it clear: We demand an up-or-down vote on the Federal Reserve Sunshine Act!

“Hope and Change” rhymes with “More of the same”.

From Politico.com:

Is libertarian rock star and Texas Republican Ron Paul going mainstream?

He’s got everyone from South Carolina Republican Sen. Jim DeMint to Minnesota moderate Democrat Collin Peterson to California liberal Barbara Boxer on his side in his audit-the-Fed crusade. He’s drawing liberal support in his push to rein in the cost of the war in Afghanistan. Senate candidates like Democratic Rep. Paul Hodes of New Hampshire are finding Dr. No’s populist economic anger to be useful in the campaign, echoing Paul’s criticism of the Federal Reserve.

Even Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) is delivering backhanded compliments, taking credit for merely allowing a vote on Paul’s amendment to audit the central bank.

This convergence of odd bedfellows, and the economic angst that’s driving it all, is yet another signal that President Barack Obama is going to have more and more trouble keeping his traditional Democratic allies on his side as the economic debate continues. It seems that everyone is looking for something new to latch on to in the economic debate - even if those ideas belong to one of the more eccentric members of Congress.

“This brought people together [from] the whole political spectrum, from progressives and liberals and libertarians and conservatives. … they all came together. That, to me, is what is really so important,” said Paul, who has been introducing his audit-the-Fed measure since the early ’80s.

After so many tries, this time Paul’s measure attracted 313 co-sponsors in the House, representing every possible point on the political spectrum. It also scored a strong vote in a key committee and has a companion in the Senate that’s supported by a bipartisan coalition of senators.

And Paul’s economic views, long dismissed by the political establishment, seem to be resonating more broadly than just the audit-the-Fed measure, both in the larger financial reform debate and the growing concern about the cost of continuing the war in Afghanistan.

To be sure, Paul’s bill to abolish the personal income tax or to end the United States’ membership in the United Nations still puts him well outside the mainstream.

But lawmakers - and, more important, the voters they represent - are starting to believe that the financial meltdown and the dramatic government rescue effort seems to have gotten Wall Street back on its feet quite nicely while leaving regular folks on the curb, analysts say.

“On financial regulation matters, most Americans sympathize with Ron Paul’s outrage,” said Cook Political Report House analyst Dave Wasserman.