The Department of Justice offered a defense Thursday for President Obama’s controversial decision to make several recess appointments while Congress was holding pro forma sessions.

In a memo, Justice argued the pro forma sessions held every third day in the Senate do not constitute a functioning body that can render advice and consent on the president’s nominees. It said the president acted consistently under the law by making the appointments.

“Although the Senate will have held pro forma sessions regularly from January 3 to January 23, in our judgment, those sessions do not interrupt the intrasession recess in a manner that would preclude the president from determining that the Senate remains unavailable throughout to ‘receive communications from the president or participate as a body in making appointments,’” Virginia Seitz, assistant attorney general for the Office of Legal Counsel, wrote in the memo dated Jan. 6.

The Office of Legal Counsel concluded the president has authority to make recess appointments during a recess and that Congress can only prevent the president from making such appointments “by remaining continuously in session and available to receive and act on nominations,” not by holding pro forma sessions.

Republicans, who had set up the pro forma sessions to prevent Obama from making the appointments, are expected to challenge them in court.
Obama used his recess-appointment powers to place Richard Cordray as director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. He also named three people to the National Labor Relations Board.

Seitz offered several points in defense of Obama’s actions.

The memo noted that pro forma sessions typically last only a few seconds and require the presence of only one senator.

CONTINUED at The Hill.

*Written by Rob Rimes.

We are practically 30 debates in and we still have like 120 left. There are so many now that I have to date the debates in the article title. I can no longer write early, mid or late before the month. It’s only the 9th of November and this is the second debate just this month. We still have at least three more in November alone. There is actually another one in just three days. It’s maddening and it is getting to the point where chronicling all these GOP shit shows is taking a lot more time than I ever anticipated. At the end of the day, I do actually like writing about them and bringing you, the reader, my extended two cents. It’s just time consuming and intrusive to my life when I work more than full-time and party on top of that every waken moment. But whatevs, I’m out of mini bottles of Seven Tiki at the moment, so I guess it’s time to direct my attention at something much more important.

This debate was pretty good overall, other than the typical lack of time given to Ron Paul. However, Ron Paul, when given time, was on his goddamned A game! He was hotter in this debate than any other. His answers were on point and exacting. I think in the eyes of the standard Fox News watching conservative viewer, he may have gained some points simply for the fact that this debate was strictly economic. This allowed Paul to hit some home runs without being scrutinized every other question like when the talk of the moment is foreign policy. Not that Paul is wrong on foreign policy, he is dead right but conservatives refuse to accept reason, logic or common sense and instead continue down the path of repetitive stupidity and fear-mongering when it comes to handling our “enemies”. Anyway, this is about the debate, not conservative idiosyncrasies.

CNBC hits us weakly with their subpar video introduction which makes note of the fact that the debate is all about economics and that it is in Michigan, in the backyard of the companies that received the auto industry bailouts. Thanks for cluing us in and reminding us that Detroit is in fact in Michigan. CNBC, after the intro, lets us know that there will be no opening and closing statements, as they want to dedicate more time to the debate. Well that’s nice of them! We can’t have Bachmann wasting five minutes on telling us how her 18,371st foster kid Bruce whittled a recorder out of oak with a wolverine’s broken jaw bone. It is probably worth noting that Michigan native Romney got the loudest pop from the crowd during the brief introductions.

The moderators for this debate were pretty decent and straightforward for the most part, although this was overshadowed by the fact that they had Jim Cramer from “Mad Money” on the panel. This guy is a fucking dickwad that claims to be a real capitalist while calling for more regulations and other ridiculous bullshit. Not only that but Cramer is just a loud obnoxious moron that sounds like he is cutting a wrestling promo against his opponent whenever he asks a question. Having Jim Cramer as a debate moderator is like having the Ultimate Warrior read children’s stories after he rubbed angeldust on his gums. He’s a about as colorful, as scary and as unfunny as a clown’s dick. I’d rather have CNN’s John King throat gurgle through the entire debate than listen to Cramer ask even one question.

Another thing worth noting, moderator Steve Liesman looks like Todd Packard from “The Office”.

I’m going to start off with Rick Santorum, just to get him out of the way. Per usual, he was ineffective and barely noticeable in this sea of shitpickles. His inclusion in these debates has gone beyond just being a joke and has gotten to the point that he is wasting everyone’s time, even his own. He needs to graciously bow out and just support whomever he feels he needs to latch onto to stay somewhat relevant. Problem is, Santorum staying relevant is like a stripper staying on the night shift after her 30th birthday.

It’s hard to even pay attention to Santorum, as he just spews his relgiotarded nonsense to the point that even the relgiotards aren’t listening anymore. His poll numbers are dismal and if Gary Johnson isn’t invited to most of these, Santorum shouldn’t be either. The same could be said for Jon Huntsman but I’ll get to him in a sec.

All I learned from Racquetball Rick this round is that he was a coal miner’s daughter. There was talk of Jesus and tennis but none of that really funny whining and crying he is synonymous with. Although when Ron Paul and some others were touting health savings accounts, Santorum said that he has been on that train for years and that he pretty much invented them. When everyone is asked about Obamacare, he is the only one without a real answer, as he just uses his time to boast about all the things he has done for health care. None of these things were really solutions, they were just attempts to build up and reinforce his wobbly house of cards with an empty hand. And that’s it for Santorum. He contributed nothing except his douchenugget dorkdick smile.

Jon Huntsman, another ding dong that needs to bow out was at least a bit more engaging than Santorum. At least a few of his answers and points come to mind when looking back, where Santorum gave us nothing.

The first thing Huntsman said that is worthy of a mention is that banks that are too big to fail will cause economic contagion. He also said that he is the president of the 99% but also the president of the 1% because he was going to unify everyone. People aren’t Voltron lions dude; they don’t just come together in times of need. He also said that spending $68 billion on bank bailouts was wrong. No shit cockwart! Huntsman also says that the government needs to charge extra fees to bailed out banks to alleviate the burden shoved onto the taxpayers.

As for Obamacare, Jon Huntsman says that as president, he would sit down with all the state governors and work out state specific health care options. Huh? WTF? Are you meeting with all of them at once or on a one-on-one basis? Cause this shit could take a while homie and we ain’t got the time! I guess it’s better than spending 90% of your time playing fucking golf though. Huntsman promises to find a solution to the high cost of health care. He needs to elaborate on this but really that’s just a waste as there are far simpler options.

On Mitt Romney’s plan to deal with China, which will be touched on here in a bit, Huntsman says that it isn’t a real solution and that he is just pandering. I’m assuming he means that Mitt is pandering to the crowd because I feel the same way. Mitt claims China is manipulating currency but Huntsman points out the the U.S. is manipulating its own currency with quantitative easing. Huntsman then goes on a rant about oatmeal and swords or something and that’s it.

Michele Bachmann was her typical self and just like a throwback to mainstream media Palin bashing, I have to point out this lady’s poor fashion choice. Basically her jacket was the exact same jacket Dr. No wore in his self-titled film “Dr. No”. Granted that was a James Bond movie, but Dr. No jacked the film title like Bachmann jacked Dr. No’s jacket. In any event, I could’ve sworn I saw Bachmann wiping 007′s blood off of her sleeve when she thought the camera wasn’t on her. Sorry, this makes Bachmann bashing too easy but it is hard to knock the guys fashion sense since they all were dapper suits. Being a woman in politics must suck because of assholes like me. Whatever, just stop dressing like a high-ranking member of SPECTRE and I’ll shut up.

Bachmann once again proves that she is just too fucking nice when the moderators give her a the perfect opportunity to go after Romney. She praises him and then switches to her standard Obama-bashing rhetoric. We’ve heard the catchphrases a few thousand times now lady. All I know is that she compared taxes to Happy Meals or something. Um dude, Happy Meals are happy, taxes are sad. I’m not following you.

When asked another question, she doesn’t really answer it. She just informs us, who are apparently clueless, on how Obama is doing it wrong. Well what is the right way lady? People who are supporting this woman are just supporting senseless substance-less Obama-bashing without any real answers, solutions or fixes. Bachmann calls Obama policy “lunacy”. Yes, she described something as “lunacy” and she wasn’t even looking in the mirror.

Michele Bachmann then warns us that the Chinese live in the Pentagon’s computers. I can understand that since the country is very heavily populated and they might want some peace and quiet from the hustle and bustle of Chinese life. Bachmann also points out that they are building secret tunnels to hide weapons and snacks. She says that the American taxpayers are the ones paying for it as we keep borrowing from China. Wait.. have we been paying them back? Damn! Well I want a ride on the Chinese aircraft carrier then!

Bachmann doesn’t say anything else. Well, she does but I have a hard time with my idiocy filter on. Yes, I am probably too hard on her but she is another candidate like Huntsman and Santorum, as she is just wasting everyone’s time. These debates would be so much better if we trimmed the fat. It’s about time for this to start happening. And unless she has some more concert tickets to give away for straw poll votes, her campaign is doomed at this point.

Another candidate that should definitely hang’m up, especially after this debate, is Texas Governor Rick Perry. This debate was career suicide for Perry and as much as I severely dislike this guy, I almost felt sorry for him. The biggest fuck up in debate history that I can remember came when Rick Perry went to tell us the three government agencies he would eliminate. After he listed the first two, his mind drew a 53 second blank on the third. The extremely awkward moment was capped off by him staring at the moderators completely dumbfounded until he uttered, “Oops”. The fact that he can’t even remember the basis for a huge part of his platform is fucking scary!

See for yourself:

Knocking Rick Perry on this is just too easy and the world has given him enough heat already. He’s still an asshole in my eyes and always will be but damn, I’d be surprised if he could win a fourth term as Texas Governor at this point.

There are some other notable Perry moments from the evening. The first is when Perry sends a message to the big banks when he says, “If you are too big too fail, you are too big.” M’kay? Perry then spends time pimping out his tax plan and other ideas he has, it only took him months to get his shit together and give us something. All previous debates were sprinkled with, “I’m working on it! You’ll see it soon at RickPerry.com! Yeeeeeehaaaaaw!!! (accompanied with gunfire)”.

Perry also goes on about how America needs to get energy going. He tells us that regulations are killing America. He then gives props to Santorum, thus giving the audience a little Rick on Rick love. I bet Santorum gives Perry tennis lessons.

When it comes to the Obamacare questions, Rick Perry says that people need to be given a “menu of options”. He says, “Doctors need to be given incentives on health care rather than sick care.”

He then goes on about how he created a job creation climate in Texas with no regulatory strangulation. He says that his tax plan will help balance the budget in 2020. Yeah bro, that’s like 8 years away. Is this so that you don’t have to answer to critics when your plan fails because just by chance, if you became president, and even won a second term, this would be at the very tail end of your eight year lease in the White House. 2020 is not today, we need a fix now!

Perry goes on a tangent about how universities need to be forced to be more efficient. Okay sir, did you get that idea from Hugo Chavez? Perry then closes out his portion of the debate by bitching about the corruption caused by corporate lobbyists. As he says this, he pauses to check his Wells Fargo app on his iPhone to make sure that check from Merck cleared.

The time thief Mitt Romney was successful at monopolizing every moment he could once again. I don’t blame Mr. Mittens however, as CNBC, just like Fox News, CNN and MSNBC, spent more time asking Romney questions than anyone else. I think Mitt alone gets about 30-40% of the time in these debates. That’s the mainstream media for ya though, proppin’ up their fancy handpicked golden boys.

Romney is first asked if the United States should bailout the European Union. The fact that the moderators even ask this question is proof at how many dumbasses work under the NBC banner. Romney says that the EU can take care of their own problems and that we don’t need to bail them out. Romney goes on to say that Europe needs to take care of their own problems and the United States shouldn’t be bailing out our own banks let alone Europe’s. I can’t disagree with that. When pressed however, Romney admits that he supports the World Bank and the IMF. Yep, I knew he couldn’t give a good statement without finding a way to fuck it up. After this, Mitt claims that he saved the Olympics. From what dude? Did the Skrulls attack or something?

Mitt’s had some other noteworthy quips and I’m not referring to the little swirl at the top of Dairy Queen products. Mitt said that we need profitable businesses that can hire people and the current administration is failing at this. He also says that we need to simplify the tax code but we need to lower taxes first. When asked about Obamacare, he says that health care should be a state issue. He also agrees with Ron Paul’s point that we need to push health savings accounts. Mitt also said that people need the broadest array of health care options.

In the second hour, Romney goes on to explain that Obama is only focused on his re-election. Apparently Romney needs to re-focus on his hair because it’s starting to melt under those hot lights. Maybe his hair is wax! He’s really just some weird bald guy under there!

Disregarding his wax sculpture, Mitt tells us that he promises to not raise taxes and that he will cut spending dramatically. Funny, because Reason Magazine analyzed Mitt’s fix-it plan and discovered that his “cuts” would actually expand the federal budget (read this).

Mr. Romney then tells us a spooky tale about the Chinese boogeyman. He states that he believes in free trade but not with China because they are evil. Actually he calls them “predatory” about a dozen times over the course of two minutes. Mitt says that China is hacking our computers and manipulating our currency. This causes Huntsman to butt in with the QE comment I referenced earlier. All I hear is “I love free trade but..” and “I love free trade but..” Mitt is a doublethinker and doublespeaker. Mitt’s solution in dealing with China is to assault them with tariffs. Yep, great idea ass bastard.

In the shadow of his sexual harassment circus, Herman Cain tried to ignore the media assault in an effort to see if he could fit the slogan “Nine.. nine.. nine” in the debate 999 times. I think he succeeded. In all seriousness, I’m fucking tired of this goddamned slogan and the people en masse are vehemently opposed to this plan. Then again, there are still a shit ton of Cain Brains supporting this inexperienced hack, who quotes Pokemon, can’t answer tough questions and often admits he spoke without thinking. With all of his weaknesses and with it being incredibly apparent that his inexperience is a major hinderance, this guy is still polling insanely well. Well, lets look at Herman Cain Superstar and his performance this debate.

All things considered, with all the shit he has been put through the last few weeks, Mr. Cain did pretty well overall. That is, if you’re into his flavor of Tea. For starters, he gets the first question and being the show starter he tells us that “We must assure our currency is sound.” That’s laugh-out-loud funny coming from a Federal Reserve insider that spends a lot of his time defending and pimping the most tyrannical institution in our country’s history.

Even though the moderators said the debate was to be focused on economics, the NBC-paid moderators are quick to question Cain’s character over the sexual harassment allegations. Cain brushes off the bullshit attempt to catch him in a “gotcha” question. The crowd erupts when Cain essentially says “I did not sleep with that young intern (or the other women either)!” They asked Cain if voters care about character. Cain responded by saying that voters don’t care about character assassination.

The next time Cain is questioned, he malfunctions (or does he) and starts chanting “Nine.. nine.. nine.. nine.. nine.. nine.. nine..” over and over. He says that his solution is the only solution to the tax problem. Sure, if you believe hype and pro-Federal Reserve rhetoric. When challenged, once again, at how his plan could possibly stay at the rates of 9-9-9 with government being government, Mr. Cain said that it is transparent and that Americans will make politicians keep the rates at 9. ROFLMFAO! Yeah, just like Americans have been able to get those Tea Party Republicans to balance the budget and solve our economic woes as they promised before the 2010 midterm elections. C’mon people, unless we’re going to start cloning Ron Paul, Rand Paul and Justin Amash, all we’re ever going to get is full of shit candidates like everyone else. Maybe Cain just assumes that Republicans and Democrats are never going to hold office again. But wait.. he’s a Republican, so never mind.

Cain spends almost every other question finding a way to insert “nine.. nine.. nine..” in his answers. When he doesn’t say “nine.. nine.. nine..” he says “I have a bold solution” and then winks nine times.

When not shoving the number nine down our throats like the Count on Sesame Street, he does give us some substance. For instance, after referring to Nancy Pelosi as “Princess Nancy”, Cain tells us that the solution to Obamacare is to pass H.R. 3000. Wait, didn’t Cain say he wouldn’t sign any bill longer than three pages? Well H.R. 3000 is 270 pages. Maybe he meant he’ll sign every three pages. If that’s the case, he’ll have to sign H.R. 3000 into law 90 times! Seems like a waste of BIC SoftFeel Retractable Ballpoint Pens. I need to read up on H.R. 3000 but it seems like crap to me.

Towards the end of the debate, Cain actually talks in rhyme a few times. C’mon dude, really? We need a fucking president man! Are you running for the highest office in the land or are you auditioning for the role of Roadblock in the next “G.I. Joe” movie? FYI bro, the role was given to The Rock.

One thing is for certain, Cain is on to something. Every single time I heard the number nine, I felt a pain in my stomach and the need to drop a shit. I have a feeling that the 999 Plan is the long lost key to discovering the legendary brown note.

Now I’ve got to talk about Cain’s sweetheart, Newt Gingrich. Rumor has it that they were holding hands, when the camera wasn’t on them. Newt’s doesn’t care though, Newt doesn’t give a shit. Honey Badger comes out with a bang and with the first question asked him, his answer receives the loudest pop of the night. Not even because it was a great answer, it was just typical Newt. It was how he said it that got the reaction. Newt, who was considered “dead on arrival” by all the expert pundits when he entered the race, is now the hottest muthafucka in the streets since that time Nas dropped his Jay-Z diss track “Ether” back in 2001. Newt’s proving that he’s Stillmatic.

Out the gate, Newt calls the results of Ben Bernanke’s policies “wreckage”. Newt’s right but I love how all these conservatives are loudly applauding Newt’s criticism of the Federal Reserve when he’s just recycling the same talking points Ron Paul has been using for decades. Yet, conservatives still can’t see that Ron Paul IS the solution. Nope, but they’ll continue to jack his policy points and call him crazy.

Some Newt highlights are when he challenges the Occupy Movement by asking if Bill Gates and Henry Ford were a part of the 1% or the 99% when they started out. Point being, the 99% can make something of themselves if they try. The moderators try to “gotcha” Newt a few times but these people are just like the buzzing of flies to him. He treats “gotchas” like steak and devours the fuck out of them! Newt bashes Dodd-Frank and says that if you want the housing to come back, that the economy must come back first.

When his turn comes up on the Obamacare issue, Newt says that it is a state issue and that we need to focus on brain science. He also uses the moment to challenge Obama to a 3 hour Lincoln-Douglas style debate on health care. While that would be great, Obama would never accept the offer because he knows he’d get destroyed like Apollo Creed in “Rocky IV”.

Other Newt Points include him pimping out the Chilean model for social security and letting the world know that college is not a right therefore tuition isn’t free. In the end, Newt just kills it. Like I’ve said again and again, I don’t agree with several of his points but he has the skill and the fire to run the show, more so than anyone else on that stage. However Dr. Paul is still the best all around, which brings me to him.

Ron Paul had his best debate yet; he keeps getting better and better. I hope he keeps gaining steam through January. Truthfully, it was pretty fortunate for him that this debate was strictly economic. It allowed him to hit his economic points without having to defend himself from confused conservatives that don’t “get” his crazy stance on foreign policy.

Ron Paul says that our debt is unsustainable and that we need to liquify it. He says that our current actions are just prolonging our agony and that drastic changes must be made quickly. He calls spending a disease and points out that spending in and of itself is a tax. He promises to work towards eliminating the income tax altogether by cutting a trillion dollars from the budget each year and curing our fiscal idiocy. Paul also promises that he will try to combat price fixing. He says that the market should determine interest rates. He basically gets a “fuck the Fed” in there without actually saying it.

With Obamacare, Ron Paul says that we have to get the government out of medicine. He is the first to bring up medical savings accounts, which gets support from Mitt Romney.

On education, one of the moderators points out that students loan debt is near a trillion dollars and that Americans owe more in tuition debt than credit card debt. She also points out that college seniors have more than $25,000 in debt on average. A video is then played about how tuition rates have increased by 428% since 1990. The moderator then refreshes us on the fact that Ron Paul has said that he wants to get rid of the Department of Education. She then asks, without the DOE, how would he make college more affordable. Ron Paul points out to the idiot moderator that her argument proved that the Department of Education is obviously ineffective and a total failure. Dr. Paul then points out to the moderator that was so sure of her stupid argument, that the quality of education has gone down, the cost has gone up because of inflation and students are essentially getting ripped off and the burden is falling on the taxpayer. Ron Paul then makes sure that everyone knows, which they already should, that the Constitution does not give the federal government the authority to be involved in education.

Ron Paul is asked if he thinks that Rick Perry is a crony capitalist. Ron Paul refuses to answer the question and says that people in this country need to understand the difference between capitalism and crony capitalism as many don’t. With that, the debate is over with about ten minutes to spare on the clock.

Luckily for us there were no fights like the last big debate. I mean, that shit was entertaining but in the end, it just took away from the meat and potatoes and made the candidates involved in the bitch and whine fests look like bitches and whiners. This debate just flowed so nice and CNBC did a decent job. Well that is except for including that over-caffeinated freak Jim Cramer. I thought homeboy’s heart was going to explode a few times.

In the end, nothing really changed, everyone looks like they always do. Paul and Newt were on fire, everyone else was typical. Like I said, a couple of these people need to realize that it is time to step the fuck off.

I missed Gary Johnson, as always, but he was tweeting during the debates and in one of his tweets he texted, “I will be proposing a 43 percent reduction in federal spending. 1.5 trillion dollar reduction in federal spending.” God I hope so! He just upped the ante on Ron Paul by half a trillion! If they are going to waste our time with Santorum, Huntsman and Bachmann then Gary Johnson should at least get some time. Ah well, fuck these debate organizers.

Grading Scale:
Grade A+: Ron Paul
Grade A: Newt Gingrich
Grade C: Mitt Romney
Grade C-: Herman Cain
Grade D: Michele Bachmann
Grade D-: Jon Huntsman
Grade F: Rick Santorum
Grade F: Rick Perry
Grade I: Gary Johnson

*Taken from the American Dream.

All over America today, desperate people are doing desperate things.  As the economy continues to crumble, the American people are starting to become very frustrated.  Millions have lost their homes and millions have lost their jobs.  As hopelessness and despair rise, an increasing number of Americans are turning to crime or are lashing out in unpredictable ways.  Many parts of America are rapidly turning into lawless hellholes.  In some of the areas that have been the hardest hit by the declining economy, police forces are being severely cut back and desperate criminals are being given a lot of freedom to roam.  In fact, in some major cities (such as Oakland, California), the police have announced that there are certain types of crime that they will not even respond to any more.  For a couple of decades, crime had been steadily declining in the United States, but now we are seeing very disturbing reports from all over the nation of desperate people doing desperate things as they scramble to survive or as they vent their frustrations.  If the examples that you are about to read are any indication, then America is headed down a very dark path.

Today, there are a whole lot of young people that feel as though all hope is gone.  Less than 30 percent of all teens had a job this summer.  Only 14 percent of Americans that are 28 or 29 years old are optimistic about their financial futures.

CONTINUED..

My Two Cents: It’s official, your tax dollars have spawned the worst rap song in history. Thanks federal government! Run-DMC wrote a song about the EPA; it was called “Sucka M.C.’s” End Two Cents.

EPA Rap Song:

Run DMC – “Sucka M.C.’s” (LIVE): Lol.. is that Vincent Gallo (known here as Prince Vince) in the beginning of the video? Why yes it is!

*Written by Rob Rimes.

Let me start this bitch off with a bang and keep it real, Earth Day is lame as fuck. It is a stupid ass tradition that pretty much forces the whole world to participate in this anti-human “we’re all evil” hippie asshole festival. I don’t know about you but I’m not a hippie nor do I want to be forced to party with them and plant a fucking tree to replace the one I cut down because I thought it was in the way. Wait, I think you plant a tree on Arbor Day. Why do we have two of these stupid hippie holidays? One of them is fucking more than enough! Besides, have you ever been around a hippie? They talk stupid, act stupid and reek like the area between the ball sack and the asshole of a sweaty gorilla.

You see, it is not global warming, pollution and deforestation that we need to worry about. The real enemies here are the crazed anti-human eco-fascist environmentalists who want to force us to put the rights of a leaf before our right to freedom and our right to live. Why do I say such insane and outlandish things? It’s pretty easy to have this opinion when you’re sporting a fair amount of common sense like myself.

Environmentalists aren’t concerned with a clean Earth and making the world better. They are about “saving the planet” but they want to save it from the evolution of the human mind. They want to limit humanity and its greatness by punishing innovation and technology. Earth Day itself isn’t a celebration of the planet, it is a call to arms against human beings, the greatest thing on this planet.

It has become the “Great Holy Day” for sick sadistic eco-nuts that worship the Earth like religious zombies. They feel the void due to a lack of Jesus and can’t handle it, so they have their green religion to help make them feel relevant. Why can’t they be more like me? I have a lack of Jesus and I’m just fine. Well, that’s because I stopped having faith in an imaginary friend and started having faith in myself. Environmentalists have no faith in themselves; they are sad shitty joiners looking for a morally superior, holier-than-thou cause to make them feel important. Their parents failed to give them enough love.

You can’t look at Earth Day without looking at why it even exists. It was created over 40 years ago by Senator Gaylord Nelson, who was an environmentalist. Yes, Gaylord. It grew in popularity from its creation in 1970 and all the hippie leftovers from the 1960′s latched onto it like hideously disgusting barnacles. The hippie leftovers created a large movement towards “saving the planet” and Earth Day was a seemingly harmless way to get the country to participate and learn about environmentalism.

Considering it was a leftist movement, it wasn’t hard to get this crap in public schools where the masses could be indoctrinated from the very beginning of their educational process. They always made me participate in this idiot holiday when I was in elementary school and that was before Earth Day was even an international phenomenon. I was just taught that Earth Day is something we celebrate because (insert scary environmental threat here) was real and we had to appreciate Mother Earth and repent our green sins. I didn’t know it at the time because I was like 7 and shit, but I was being indoctrinated with green guilt and the pseudoscience faux-fact that mankind was evil and not respecting the rock it was raping like drugged Vegas hookers.

When I was in 4th grade, Florida Governor Bob Martinez came to my school to celebrate Earth Day. I was all excited because he was the governor and I had never met a politician before. He wasn’t even a Democrat but apparently he had bought into the Earth Day scam. It was 1989 and the Republicans had already become victims of this anti-human epidemic. Oh, how the epidemic would evolve.

Earth Day and the environmental movement are part of a long-term plan. This is a plan to make money. While they attack big business, technology and innovation, they have become a big business and utilize technology and innovation in their own way. The environmental movement has poisoned government and now eco-fascist bureaucrats have implemented governmental regulation and meddling that stifles the market and every industry in it. The environmentalists practice the worst kind of crony capitalism.

Now these eco-fascists want to force us to conform to the threats of global warming, now known as “global climate disruption” because the term “global warming” just doesn’t fly anymore. Why the change? Well, we have had record cold winters lately. However, the whole cold thing is caused by the whole warming thing or so they say. They can never get their story straight. Just like the oceans are going to rise a hundred and seventeen feet in six weeks but Al Gore, the greenie messiah, is buying beach front property. The hypocrisy between their scary rhetoric and their actions is pretty clear to anyone not wearing green goggles.

To give you an idea of how evil this movement is here is an excerpt from environmentalist philosopher Paul Taylor’s book “Respect for Nature: A Theory of Environmental Ethics”:

The ending of the human epoch on Earth would most likely be greeted with a hearty ‘Good riddance!

In 1989, biologist David M. Graber wrote this in the Los Angeles Times:

Human happiness (is) not as important as a wild and healthy planet…Until such time as Homo sapiens should decide to rejoin nature, some of us can only hope for the right virus to come along.

In response to these two insane passages, Dr. Michael Berliner of the Ayn Rand Institute wrote:

Such is the naked essence of environmentalism: it mourns the death of one whale or tree but actually welcomes the death of billions of people. A more malevolent, man-hating philosophy is unimaginable.

Pretty profound shit, eh? Dr. Berliner’s statement is spot on. These eco-tyrants are calling for the death of mankind! Whether they have completely succumbed to green guilt or they are evil architects working the minds of the masses into accepting a green police state doesn’t really matter. The fact is, the essence of this movement is pure evil.

Environmentalists put scrub jays, fire ants, mice and trees before homebuilding, industrial development, practical energy sources, medical research and human ingenuity. If they had it their way we’d all be living like Ewoks in hippie communes worshipping snails. Environmentalism is the enemy of humanity. Therefore, I refuse to ever celebrate their anti-human holiday, Earth Day.

I hate the fact that kids in public schools and many private schools are seemingly forced to participate in the festivities. Unfortunately, most parents and people in general are completely ignorant to the real green agenda and are already buying into the green message. God forbid they leave behind a giant carbon footprint. All that carbon must be horrible to trees since that is what they breathe naturally. I mean, oxygen is horrible for humans, right?

The thing is, the fucking Earth has been here pretty much forever. Humans have been on this planet a fraction of that time. Man made global warming is bullshit and even if we are slightly warming the globe, big fucking deal. It is a massive and complex ecosystem that can self-correct and adapt. The Earth goes hot and cold all the time and not because of man. The global warming data.. sorry, global climate disruption data has been manufactured by dishonest scientists. This fact has been out for quite some time now, yet the masses and the media like to ignore it because no one wants the truth, they just want to believe in the romanticism that comes with “saving the planet”.

The weather changes and species die without human intervention. Nature does its thing. I’m not saying that we shouldn’t be conscious of what we do. We have to be responsible and respectful to our environment but we don’t have to be fascist fucking morons. The world isn’t going to end tomorrow because you forgot to recycle that tuna can. In fact, the world won’t even notice.

All this movement is, is a way to control you. The green disease starts in your mind and before you know it, they own your body. In a green utopia, there would be no innovation, no human rights, no progress and no future. They want your bodies and they want your money. Sounds like the ultimate system for tyranny to me and there are more of you that are on board with it than those of us who aren’t.

So if you love tyranny and hate human rights, celebrate Earth Day. If you hate that shit, kick a fucking tree in the face. End of rant.

*Written by Rob Rimes.

1. Introduction:

Nothing pisses me off as much as the goddamned Drug War. It is one of those issues that people seem to get super-sensative about because they don’t want their kids living a life addicted to a bunch of crap while destroying the very fabric of our society. If you believe that that is what is going on, then you are a clueless and helpless dolt that needs to kick a hole in your T.V. because you’ve listened to and accepted the bullshit hype and scare tactics that the moronic media has been shoving down your throat for years. People like you don’t have the ability to look at a problem, truly analyze it and find a reasonable solution. The solution that the masses seem to put their faith in is one that combats the problem only to magnify and fuel that very same problem. The current solution enables the problem and IS the problem, plain and fucking simple.

Stop listening to guys like O’Reilly while taking in their bullshit rhetoric as gospel. Because while you are clicking on stupid ass “Pinhead or Patriot” polls, there is a war going on that most of you don’t even understand. So with this article here, let’s talk about reality. Let’s talk about what’s real. The truth is harsh and hard for most people to swallow. If you’re a little bitch, go read something else. Maybe that copy of “Bold Fresh” you’ve been using as a paperweight is your cup of tea. Anyway, let’s move this bitch forward.

2. Prison & The Police State:

The Drug War is quite possibly the biggest waste of fucking money and resources that our government is thievishly pulling directly from our pockets. Hell, the War on Poverty is also a tyrannical project that rapes our paychecks but that topic is for another day. The War on Drugs is the fish to fry right now.

To start, our prisons are full of thousands upon thousands of small time drug offenders that did nothing but smoke a damn joint and didn’t hurt anyone else. In most cases, their actions didn’t even have a negative effect on anyone else except maybe themselves and that is debatable. Point is, prisons are overcrowded and cost a shit-fucking-load of money that comes out of our pockets. Personally, I don’t mind contributing to the prison system when it keeps a serial rapist away from society. However, I do have a serious fucking problem when I am paying for the prison sentence of some guy that was just selling a bit of weed to pay for his monstrous cost of tuition. Why should that guy be sitting in a cell with the serial rapist and be treated in the same way? Is the dude selling a few joints as evil as the guy who has forcibly raped dozens of women with a knife to their necks? The law says “yes”.

See, that is how this fucked up system works. Nixon’s bullshit War on Drugs destroys the lives of small time offenders and in some cases, the lives of their families and children as well. I am not condoning that a parent should be pushing chronic and blow but I am certainly not condoning a police state that kicks in doors, shoots the family dog and terrorizes small children all because they got a tip that the guy inside has a fucking joint. This may seem like an extreme case but it happened in Columbia, Missouri in February of 2010.

In 2008, the police of Prince George’s County, Maryland were tipped off that there was marijuana at the home of Cheye Calvo. Apparently, a box of marijuana was accidentally sent to the residence during a half-assed drug smuggling operation. The cops then raided the house, scared the hell out of his family, shot his dogs and then arrested Mr. Calvo. It wasn’t until later that they realized that they made a huge mistake and that Mr. Calvo was actually the mayor of that very same town! After the incident, Mayor Calvo had this to say:

“When this first happened, I assumed it was just a terrible, terrible mistake but the more I looked into it, the more I realized (it was) business as usual that brought the police through our front door. This is just what they do. We just don’t hear about it. The only reason people heard about my story is that I happened to be a clean-cut white mayor.”

Another example of police state terrorism created by Nixon’s War on Drugs happened in Atlanta, Georgia back in 2006. A botched drug raid resulted in the murder of an innocent 92-year-old woman. Kathryn Johnson was shot to death by narco-cops during a warrant-issued “no knock” raid on her property. It was later revealed that the raid was based off of falsified evidence that claimed that illegal drugs were in the home. There were absolutely no drugs. This resulted in the Johnson family receiving a settlement of $2.9 million as well as a complete overhaul of the Atlanta drug unit. Three officers were also sentenced to prison after being exposed conspiring to cover-up the incident.

According to Reason Magazine’s statistics, there are over one-hundred police SWAT drug raids in the United States daily. 4,000 people are arrested every day for drug crimes in America. This is more people than those arrested for assault, burglary, vandalism, rape and murder combined! How many of these are legit raids and how many of them bring about terror and harm to those involved in the incident? How many are actually effective and justified? To put things into perspective, here is a map provided by the Cato Institute that shows where there have been botched raids or raids that have turned really ugly.

3. Drug Cartels, Terrorism & Organized Crime:

Are the risks and wasted resources really worth all the trouble? Is this war a war that can even be won? The fact of the matter is, this war has been going on for over 40 years and we have made no progress whatsoever. Sure, big arrests are made, massive stashes of drugs are found and turned over to authorities and here and there a life is saved but when one looks at the bigger picture, we are worse off today than we were during the Nixon era when it comes to drug crime.

Today, Mexican drug cartels terrorize our southern border and drug production funds the Taliban/Al-Qaeda network as well as other terrorist organizations. Two of our greatest threats have been created due to the existence of the counterproductive and incredibly destructive War on Drugs. What I am implying here may come across as completely fucking ludicrous but let’s look at facts, which in this case, disproves the logic used by the pro-Drug War masses.

For a pretty solid example, one has to look no further than alcohol prohibition. When alcohol was banned in the United States from 1920-1933, drinking became incredibly romanticized. The new law created a society where many more Americans were breaking the law because fuck the man, drinking was cool! When the Beltway suits made it illegal, they made it even cooler. Now one was truly living on the edge when they disregarded the new rules and decided to sneak into their local speakeasy to down fistfuls of bootlegged hooch. No one wanted to listen to Congress because no one wanted to be told what they can and cannot put into their own bodies. People chose to be rebels and to ignore the consequences of their actions. Many people were greatly fined and even jailed over sneaking sips of whiskey. However, that wasn’t even the worst part.

The prohibition of alcohol created large organized crime families in the United States. These families knew that the people wanted the freedom to drink and they provided them with that service. It was organized crime that created the speakeasies and made the moonshine the customers desired. Hell, the mob even snuck exotic types of alcohol into the country. This was done quite easily: bribing cops and killing anyone else who stood in their way. The prohibition of alcohol created a huge business opportunity for those who don’t have any respect for the law. You see, when you make an entire industry illegal, that industry will not cease to exist. Quite the contrary, it will go underground and exist in a way that causes a hell of a lot more harm than it did when it was left alone. This is exactly the problem we have today with the Mexican drug cartels and the Taliban.

With drugs being illegal, it is the darkest elements of society that will supply the rapidly growing demand. This creates the crime because if there is some sort of dispute in the illegal drug industry, that dispute can only be solved with violence as drug cartels and drug dealers can’t turn to law enforcement to help them sort out their problems. Just like during alcohol prohibition, rival gangs kill one another and if innocent people get caught in the crossfire, too bad for them! Prohibition doesn’t kill the dangerous product, it just makes it even more dangerous.

4. The Myth of the Risks:

There are also a lot of bullshit myths surrounding drugs that are manufactured and served on a silver platter to the nonintellectual masses. Many political pundits of the left and the right eat this crap up like the all-you-can-eat soft-serve ice cream at Sweet Tomatoes. All one has to do though, is look at the facts to see the mainstream media’s bullshit agenda in helping the easily duped plebeians support the War on Drugs. They’ve got to fight the nightmare and save the children!

Well, children today aren’t in as bad of shape as fucktard foundations like Drug Free America want you to think. Isn’t it NBC that uses their TV stars to pimp that whole “The More You Know” campaign? Well, they’re right. “The more you know” the more you will be able to see through the lies and deceit and falsified information.

When looking at things statistically, there are a lot of people that try marijuana and even harder drugs that don’t get addicted. The pro-Drug War foundations will lead you to believe that nearly everyone that tries anything will pretty much be instantly hooked. The truth is, very few people who try any of these drugs actually become hooked on them. It is much more common for someone to try something and decide that it isn’t for them. I’m not saying cases of instant addiction don’t happen but they are a lot less common than they would ever want you to know.

According to the federal government’s own data, 8 million people have tried crack yet there are only about 300,000 crack users. That means that only 3.75% of the people who have tried crack in the United States are regular users. That seems like an awfully small amount doesn’t it? Well, the DEA has the number at around 17% because they have to look like they are fighting an epidemic. Weird how the government’s data isn’t consistent with one of their own agencies, albeit the primary agency that is fighting this bullshit war. Anyway, crack isn’t the only example of these kind of shenanigans. The ratio of those who have tried to those who regularly use is virtually the same across the board with all the other drugs.

Another area where there is blatant misinformation and manufactured scare tactics is in the way that every couple of years or so the government announces that there is a new drug on the streets that is much stronger and much more highly addictive than anything we have ever seen. Beware and lock up your children otherwise they will become zombies whoring themselves out to greasy old men for quick fixes of this week’s new nightmare drug. Yeah, it’s fucking hogwash.

In the 20′s it was alcohol that was the target, in the 30′s it was all about “reefer madness”, then came opium and heroin and morphine and other “nightmare” drugs that they claimed were more potent and addictive than all the ones prior. In the 80′s it was cocaine and then crack. In the 90′s it was ecstasy and other “raver” drugs. Then it was crystal meth and a slew of others. There will be more in the future, trust me. The DEA and the Drug War cronies have to pimp their agenda and the only method that works is falsifying information, scaring the shit out of people and parading around with a few stashes and guns that they confiscated through a big raid here or there.

5. My Personal Experiences:

Now I am not going to sit here and try to preach that drugs aren’t addictive and aren’t harmful and aren’t a horrible thing to get involved in. There are those who can handle them and there are those who cannot. Word to the wise, it is best not to try and find out. However to act holier-than-thou and claim I am perfect would be a grave hypocrisy and it is something I cannot do. I have had my fair share of drug experiences: good ones and completely fucking devastating ones. The reason why I am sharing this is because I want you to understand that this opinion comes from someone who has experienced all the good and bad drugs can bring into one’s life.

In high school, I didn’t do many drugs. I would party and drink like a fucking pro and I would smoke some weed every now and then but as far as the hard shit and pills, I didn’t really partake in them. Well, at least not voluntarily anyway. I did have less than a handful of experiences were I came into contact with heavier stuff and inadvertently indulged in them.

On one occasion I noticed that my weed tasted a little odd. It also smelled different but my inquiries about it were met with “don’t worry man, it is just some really good shit.” That it was, because I came to find out that it was laced with cocaine. I was tweaking like a motherfucker and I quickly found out that cocaine makes me incredibly testy, if not just blatantly angry and incredibly destructive. On the car ride home, I found out that the guy driving was the one who laced the joint. Upon discovering this, I wailed on the asshole while he was driving. We were a couple of coked up violent forces of nature beating the shit out of each other. Actually, it was quite one sided, I was just hitting him and he was frantically trying to pull over before getting into an accident. He pulled over and jumped out of the car, it took three others to hold me back from killing the idiot. I got a ride home from someone else, calmed back down and eventually went to sleep. Cocaine was definitely not my cup of tea. The kid I tried to kill came over and apologized in person the next day. I had to respect him for that.

I also had other occasions were the weed I was smoking was laced with weird shit. One time it was laced with opium, which I loved. Another time it was laced with crack, which almost ended violently like the cocaine situation. I have even had weed that was laced with Raid. Yes, the bug killer. I was young and stupid and borderline suicidal. Actually, I was more genocidal I’d have to say. Anyway, after these adventures, opium became my drug of choice, at least when I could get it.

In my early twenties, I partied harder, went to raves, popped some pills here and there and tried to fuck as many chicks as I could. Ecstasy was fun and it made sex better, which didn’t help my sex addiction issues (which I later beat without drugs, therapy or any new age bullshit). When your cute girlfriend encourages you to do it just to have awesome sex while going out to find other chicks to join in the fun, your dick makes you listen. It makes you listen hard.

I did get through that phase pretty much unscathed and without disease or children (thank fuck). However, I did have an incident after that era of my life that started to change my outlook. Essentially, I died. If it wasn’t for my girlfriend reviving me in my bed, where I wasn’t breathing and my heart wasn’t beating, I would have been dead at 23. Instead, I got up, like a second wind hit me, I told her to leave the house and I woke my mum up and had her drive me to the ER. In the hospital I flatlined and had to be revived again. This nightmarish fiasco ended with yours truly being locked up in the psych ward on the 4th floor of Naples Community Hospital for nearly two weeks. I spent the first anniversary of 9/11 sitting around the television set with a bunch of addicts eating oatmeal, quoting the Bible and telling me how to live my life. I’m assuming most of them have returned there for several visits, I however have never been back.

That was the turning point. I woke the fuck up, started giving a shit and even though I knew I would be homeless shortly after that (a situation that I talked about in the article “Free to Lose: A Personal Statement on Socialism“), I refused to have to give in and not fight for something better. I chose to no longer escape. Luckily for me, I never became addicted to the substances I was using. I just liked them and was able to easily walk away from it all. Seeing the destruction I created around me, couldn’t prepare me for the heartbreak and hell I would feel when someone I truly loved died of drugs a few years later.

Further down the timeline, I had a very close intimate friend who I planned to marry. She and I talked about it quite often and it really started out as a joke that we would get married. As the years went on, the joke became a little more serious and there were feelings developing between us that were much more than friendship. There was a point, just before her death, where we were inseparable. I knew she had gotten into drugs pretty heavily but I didn’t realize how bad until it was too late. It was something I talked to her about but couldn’t truly put my foot down because of how I was in the past and the fact that she had witnessed a lot of it. Back during my hardcore party days she was the voice of reason that I ignored. When the roles were reversed, I felt like too much of a hypocrite to really put a stop to it and realistically, she would’ve done what she wanted anyway.

She died a few days after my 27th birthday from an overdose. I was devastated and it took about 2 years before I could get my wits together and even function like a normal human being again. In my mourning, I started experimenting again because a part of me wanted to join her. Luckily, I found my way out of the abyss and became much stronger for having lived through that devastating process.

The point of all this, is that even after going through everything I have experienced with drugs, I still do not want the fucking government having that control over me or my body. I chose the path I took and so did all of the friends that I lost. We knew the risks and there was no one that could have made us stop until we were ready to stop. The law being against us just made the act of complete disobedience even more justified. We all wanted to be rebels and even though we were killing ourselves, our actions were a big “fuck you” to the system. Sure, it sounds stupid now but one doesn’t think like a 32-year-old when one is 20. Especially when one is 20 and high.

Hell, it isn’t even about just control over our bodies, the War on Drugs just doesn’t work. All it does is make drugs look cooler to the users while creating criminal empires to supply those users. With alcohol being legal, you don’t see gang wars over who is going to import the bordeaux. In Amsterdam where drugs are legal, marijuana use by teens is much smaller than it is in the United States. Why? Because the Dutch made drugs boring.

6. Conclusion:

When one truly understands the War on Drugs, common sense should take over and tell you that it is a horrible monstrosity that must be abolished at all costs. I understand the dangers of drugs but as long as those who use them don’t harm anyone else or threaten their liberty, than whose business is it? If you want to smoke a joint in your home while watching a movie, you should be able to. I’m not saying that we shouldn’t punish those who get behind the wheel of a car but we have that system in place and if someone gets pulled over for being under the influence of drugs, it should be treated exactly the same way as if they were drunk. Actually, it is treated this way already. However, even though drug addicts get high and get behind a wheel now, there would be fewer addicts driving in a society without drug prohibition. As the numbers of users would go down, so would the number of users behind the wheel. Fact is, everywhere drug prohibition has been lifted, drug use has gone down and so has drug related crime. God forbid the DEA lets that cat out of the bag.

The War on Drugs, like most aspects of life that are plagued with government intervention, needs to be reanalyzed and looked at with reason and common sense. It has been proven ineffective yet the government still pushes it on us and convinces most of us that they are getting the job done. Apart from the War on Poverty, this is the longest running war in United States history. It is time to end this war. Shit, the effects that it would have on the economy would be fucking amazing. In 40 years, the War on Drugs has cost more than one trillion dollars! It would be nice to really cut government spending by cutting this cancerous growth out of our economy. Don’t expect the fiscal conservatives to do anything about it.

In closing, drugs are definitely bad but that doesn’t mean that it is the federal government’s job to regulate and prohibit them. Prohibition has never worked. Luckily for the citizens of the United States during alcohol prohibition, the government realized the folly of their ways in just over a decade and rectified the situation before it became much worse. The government doesn’t seem to be as smart as they used to be. Really though, they know what is going on. They know it doesn’t work. They just don’t give a fuck. Their stubbornness has been responsible for the incarceration of thousand upon thousands, if not millions, of people for minor drug crimes: people who may have been caught with a couple of joints or who may have just been trying to make a quick buck off of their buddies. Prison overpopulation wouldn’t even be an issue if the government could just effectively do their job and at the end of the day, do what is right.

The War on Drugs will probably never end. For it to end, the United States government would have to admit that they were wrong. There are way too many egos in Washington for that to ever happen, let’s be real. Look how much senseless bloodshed went on for over a dozen years in Vietnam before Congress finally pulled us out against the wishes of the stubborn president, who at that time was the idiot Gerald Ford. Unlike Vietnam though, we are not pulling out due to bloodshed. Quite the contrary, we are continuing to fight as the bloodshed is sold to us an effect of the drugs themselves, when in fact it is not. What it really is, is an effect of the Drug War. The federal government is victimizing all of us by trying to prevent others from victimizing themselves. So we all have to suffer to save the few who don’t even care and who most likely don’t want our help. But hey! That’s pretty much American policy on anything.

Milton Friedman talks about drugs:

Bill Cosby talks about people on drugs:

Ahttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzSAjNlOfaI

*Taken from the Wall Street Journal.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke in April will start holding quarterly, televised news conferences, in the central bank’s latest effort to better explain its actions.

Fed policies have drawn increasing fire in recent years from lawmakers, foreign policy makers and others. Issues include the central bank’s interest-rate policies during the housing bubble, its reaction to the financial crisis and its current easy-money policies. Mr. Bernanke has responded by stepping up his public opportunities to counter the criticism.

The chairman will hold a news conference four times a year, beginning in April, after each policy-making meeting at which the central bank updates its economic forecasts, the Fed said in a statement Thursday.

“The introduction of regular press briefings is intended to further enhance the clarity and timeliness of the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy communication,” the Fed said.

Mr. Bernanke has held news conferences only twice before. Last month, he took questions from the media at the National Press Club in Washington, rejecting complaints from China and other emerging economies that the Fed’s policies were driving up food and energy prices around the world. Two years earlier, he took questions from the press to defend the government’s controversial bank rescues during the financial crisis.

A television interview Mr. Bernanke gave in 2009 was the first by a Fed chairman in more than two decades. He has participated in just one other, last December.

The Fed chairman’s traditional reticence contrasts with the policies of several other major central banks. Mr. Bernanke’s counterparts at the European Central Bank and the Bank of Japan hold news briefings after each policy meeting, and the governor of the Bank of England takes press questions after releasing quarterly inflation reports.

Still, for the Fed, Mr. Bernanke’s latest step is a big one. It marks the most significant change in Fed communication since 2007, when the bank doubled the frequency with which it publishes economic forecasts to four times a year.

And holding news briefings carries some risks—that the chairman will stumble, for example, or that the public or financial markets will interpret him wrongly. New York Fed President William Dudley was recently derided by an audience in Queens for saying he believed underlying inflation was low, referring to measures of inflation that exclude food and energy prices, which have surged recently.

The Fed, established in 1913, has opened up very gradually over the decades. It wasn’t until 1975 that it started reporting to Congress twice a year on the economy and monetary policy. In 1994, the policy-making Federal Open Market Committee began releasing statements disclosing its interest rate policy actions, but it wasn’t until 2000 that it did so after every committee meeting.

Fed officials hope that by holding news conferences, the chairman can help the central bank deliver a stronger and more unified message, which in turn could increase the effectiveness of the Fed’s policies.

Vincent Reinhart, formerly a senior Fed official who worked on communications strategy, said the benefits of a news conference are greatest when the issues are complex and the central bank isn’t speaking with one voice—which is what happened late last year when the Fed embarked on a program of buying bonds to boost the economy.

When he became chairman in February 2006, Mr. Bernanke’s plan was for the Fed to be less personality-driven than under predecessors Alan Greenspan and Paul Volcker. The financial crisis and the uneven recovery from the recession have put Mr. Bernanke under a brighter public spotlight than he anticipated.

Ron Paul on Freedom Watch (3/21/11):

Dennis Kucinich on Freedom Watch(3/21/11):

Professor Williams explains how acting in our own enlightened self-interest frequently results in service to our fellow man. http://www.LibertyPen.com