Sovereignty Resolutions in 20 States

by Tim Gatto -Atlanticfreepress 04 March 2009

Today South Carolina, my home State, sent a H3509 to the Senate. The Senate sent it to the Judiciary Committee, and I know that it will soon become law, as South Carolina is a fiercely independent State that has always believed in States rights. If you are wondering what H3509 is, you may know it as “TO AFFIRM THE RIGHTS OF ALL STATES INCLUDING SOUTH CAROLINA BASED ON THE PROVISIONS OF THE NINTH AND TENTH AMENDMENTS TO THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION.”

What is going on? What measures and provisions do the ninth and tenth amendments contain. In short, here is the crux of the matter;

Whereas, the South Carolina General Assembly declares that the people of this State have the sole and exclusive right of governing themselves as a free, sovereign, and independent State, and shall exercise and enjoy every power, jurisdiction, and right pertaining thereto, which is not expressly delegated by them to the United States of America in the congress assembled; and

Whereas, some states when ratifying the Constitution for the United States of America recommended as a change, "that it be explicitly declared that all powers not expressly and particularly delegated by the aforesaid are reserved to the several states to be by them exercised"; and

Whereas, these recommended changes were incorporated as the Ninth Amendment, where the enumeration of certain rights shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people, and as the Tenth Amendment, where the powers not delegated to the United States by the constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people; and

Whereas, the several states of the United States of America, through the Constitution and the amendments thereto, constituted a general government for special purposes and delegated to that government certain definite powers, reserving each state to itself, the residuary right to their own self government. Now, therefore,

Be it resolved by the House of Representatives, the Senate concurring:

That the General Assembly of South Carolina, based on the above principles and provisions, hereby declares by this resolution, that any act by the Congress of the United States, Executive Order of the President of the United States, or Judicial Order by the federal courts which assumes a power not delegated to the government of the United States of America by the Constitution and which serves to diminish the liberty of any of the several states or their citizens shall abridge the Constitution. The General Assembly further declares that acts which would cause such an abridgment include, but are not limited to:

(1) Establishing martial law or a state of emergency within one of the states comprising the United States of America without the consent of the legislature of that state;
(2) Requiring involuntary servitude or governmental service other than a draft during a declared war, or pursuant to, or as an alternative to, incarceration after due process of law;
(3) Requiring involuntary servitude or governmental service of persons
under the age of eighteen other than pursuant to, or as an alternative to, incarceration after due process of law;
(4) Surrendering any power delegated or not delegated to any corporation or foreign government;
(5) any act regarding religion, further limitations on freedom of political speech, or further limitations on freedom of the press; and
(6) Further infringements on the right to keep and bear arms including prohibitions of type or quantity of arms or ammunition.

Be it further resolved that a copy of this resolution be forwarded to the United States Senate, the United States House of Representatives, and each member of the South Carolina Congressional Delegation.

Notice that the very first part of the Resolution is that martial law cannot be proclaimed in SC without the consent of the State Legislature.
Why is this so important? If you remember when the first closed session of Congress met, you will remember what some members of Congress told the media, that the government was considering martial law if Congress didn’t act swiftly to curtail the economic tsunami that was approaching. (Rep. Brad Sherman) Rep. Burgess: Congress under Martial Law to pass banker bailout bill)

The rest of the provisions of this bill are self-explanatory. The 6th provision I believe was initiated due to Attorney General Eric Holder’s intention to begin a program that would require a Federal license to own a handgun. South Carolina is a “shall issue” State. This means that unless cause to deny weapons permit is shown, the State has no recourse but to issue the permit. Most of the States above the Mason-Dixon Line are “may issue” States that require that permit seekers to prove cause to own a handgun, which States will only issue the permit when there is a need
shown by the permit applicant.

South Carolina is not the only State to issue a Sovereignty Resolution. In an article dated March 3, 2009 in The World Net Daily, Jerome R. Corsi wrote; So far, eight states have introduced resolutions declaring state sovereignty under the Ninth and Tenth Amendment to the Constitution, including Arizona, Hawaii, Montana, Michigan, Missouri, New Hampshire, Oklahoma and Washington.

Analysts expect that in addition, another 20 states may see similar measures introduced this year, including Alaska, Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Nevada, Maine and Pennsylvania.

This should be talked about on our crippled mainstream media rather than “The Alternative Media” that is only read by people that already know what is happening. The idea that States must pass “Sovereignty Laws” in order to stay free and independent from government censorship and the loss of rights that are clearly spelled out in the Constitution is a stain on our American Republic. " Source

Food stamp enrollment jumps to record 31.8 million

Reuters 05 Mar 2009 (hat tip to CLG): A record 31.8 million Americans received food stamps at the latest count, an increase of 700,000 people in one month with the United States in recession the Bush Depression, government figures showed on Thursday. Food stamps, which help poor people buy groceries, are the major U.S. anti-hunger program, forecast to cost at least $51 billion in this fiscal year ending September 30, up $10 billion from fiscal 2008.

Europe's banks face a $2 trillion dollar shortage

The secret of the weird dollar appreciation against fundamentals and logic is explained by a criminally foolish past behavior of European banks:

From Blacklistednews Published on 03-05-2009:

European banks face a US dollar "funding gap" of almost $2 trillion as a result of aggressive expansion around the world and may have difficulties rolling over debts, according to a report by the Bank for International Settlements
The BIS said European and British banks have relied on an "unstable" source of funding, borrowing in their local currencies to finance "long positions in US dollars". Much of this has to be rolled over in short-term debt markets.

"The build-up of large net US dollar positions exposed these banks to funding risk, or the risk that their funding positions could not be rolled over," said the BIS.

The report, entitled "US dollar shortage in global banking", helps explain why there has been such a frantic scramble for dollars each time the credit crisis takes a turn for the worse. Many investors have been wrong-footed by the powerful rally in the dollar against almost all currencies, except the yen.

British banks had accumulated a dollar "funding gap" of $300bn by mid 2007. The latest BIS data up to the third quarter of 2008 shows that this exposure has been trimmed by "deleveraging" but it still largely hanging over the UK financial institutions.

Swiss banks had a funding gap of $300bn at the onset of the credit crunch, an extremely high figure relative to Swiss GDP. German banks were $300bn short, and Dutch banks were $150bn short. Belgian and French banks were neutral.

The BIS said the total "funding gap" in dollars was around $2.2 trillion at the peak, when money market liabilities are included. This had fallen to around $2 trillion by the time of the Lehman Brothers collapse.
The data is collected with a lag but it appears that there are still huge dollar liabilities to be covered.

Simon Derrick, currency chief at the Bank of New York Mellon, said the implications are obvious. "The global bullion of the last eight years was funded on dollar balance sheets, so the capital destruction we're seeing leaves banks starved for dollars. Dollar is clearly going to appreciate a lot further," he said." Source

Pakistan Cricket Attack “Inside Job” Theory Goes Viral

From Steve Watson - Infowars.net - Thursday, March 5, 2009: "The mainstream media has embraced suggestions of an “inside job”, as evidence continues to mount that Tuesday’s attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team was a carefully staged event, rather than a hit and run strike.

Articles in the Independent, the Times, the Daily Mail, Agence France-Presse, and the Telegraph have today focused on unanswered questions and suspicious activity regarding the attack which which killed six police and two civilians, and wounded 19 people.

The evidence that the attack was carefully coordinated has been summarized as follows.

None of the 12 gunmen were killed or captured and CCTV footage has emerged of some of the attackers making a leisurely getaway from the scene in the aftermath of the assault, past an approaching police vehicle, without the security forces chasing them...

...With allegations of Pakistani intelligence involvement and Indian intelligence involvement, it must also be noted that the region is strategically important, both states are nuclear and other globalist led intelligence agencies such as the CIA, Mossad and MI6 have much to gain from playing off India and Pakistan against each other.

However, once again, the overriding story that is being sold paints Pakistan as the problem state.

Will this latest tragedy be used as another excuse to expand the war on terror and increase U.S. military activity inside Pakistani territory?

Yesterday the top American diplomat in Kabul warned that Pakistan is now a bigger threat than Afghanistan.

“From where I sit [Pakistan] sure looks like it’s going to be a bigger problem,” Christopher Dell, who runs the U.S. embassy in Kabul, said." Read all here

Where has the Money Gone: Collateral lists central to understanding government’s response to financial crisis

Just in from Global Research [my emphasis]: "The Federal Reserve Board of Governors receives daily reports on bailout loans to financial institutions and won’t make the information public, the central bank said in a reply to a Bloomberg News lawsuit.

The Fed refused yesterday to disclose the names of the borrowers and the loans, alleging that it would cast “a stigma” on recipients of more than $1.9 trillion of emergency credit from U.S. taxpayers and the assets the central bank is accepting as collateral.

Fed secrecy was the focus of a Senate Banking Committee hearing today in which the panel’s top two members said the central bank’s reluctance to identify companies benefiting from the American International Group Inc. bailout risks undermining public confidence in the government. ...

...The Board of Governors contends that it’s separate from its member banks, including the Federal Reserve Bank of New York which runs the lending programs. Most documents relevant to the Bloomberg suit are at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, which isn’t subject to FOIA law, according to the Fed. The Board of Governors has 231 pages of documents, which it is denying access to under an exemption under trade secrets...

...Bloomberg sued Nov. 7 under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act, requesting details about the terms of 11 Fed lending programs.

The Bloomberg lawsuit said the collateral lists “are central to understanding and assessing the government’s response to the most cataclysmic financial crisis in America since the Great Depression.”

Fed Vice Chairman Donald Kohn told the Senate panel today that revealing the names of AIG’s counterparties would make companies less likely to do business with any recipient of government aid, risking further turmoil at the insurer and financial markets.

“I don’t consider that an adequate” response, “to put it mildly,” Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat, told Kohn at the hearing. “The public is deeply, deeply troubled.”

Shelby told the Fed vice chairman that “your answer here is very disturbing.”

“People want to know what you’ve done with this money,” he said.

Kohn said the Fed wouldn’t reveal the counterparties in Maiden Lane III, a company formed by the central bank to purchase collateralized debt obligations on which AIG’s financial products unit had written credit-default swaps.

“The Fed and the Treasury can be secretive for a while, but not forever,” Shelby said.

The Fed stepped into a rescue role that was the original purpose of the Treasury’s $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program. The central bank’s loans don’t have the oversight safeguards that Congress imposed upon the TARP....

...Total Fed lending exceeded $2 trillion for the first time Nov. 6 after rising by 138 percent, or $1.23 trillion, in the 12 weeks since Sept. 14, when central bank governors relaxed collateral standards to accept securities that weren’t rated AAA. Fed lending as of Feb. 25 was $1.92 billion.

On Feb. 23, the Fed disclosed a breakdown by broad categories for $1.81 trillion of collateral pledged by banks and bond dealers as of Dec. 17 after Congress demanded more transparency from the central bank.

The largest portions of collateral being held by the Fed at that time were $456 billion in commercial loans, $203 billion in consumer loans and $159 billion in residential mortgages, according to the central bank’s Web site. It didn’t identify any loans or provide their credit ratings and said it will update the figures about every two months.

Government loans, spending or guarantees to rescue the country’s financial system total more than $11.7 trillion since the international credit crisis began in August 2007, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. In return, banks left collateral with the central bank that effectively acts as a credit line that lenders can draw on without posting additional assets...." Read all here

a free book about the new action method to intrude in the private life of high-placed persons.

Just received from Joost van Steenis. Seems interesting:

"While waiting for the paper version of my last book I corrected and sometimes updated some older books.

*“THE POWER OF THE AUTONOMOUS HUMAN” , Theory and practice of attacks on humans, *is a book full of ideas and actions showing why the new action method to intrude in the private life of high-placed persons has much more effect than demonstrations, petitions or ballot boxes.

In the last chapters you find case studies of some actions that really took place.

Free download of the pdf-version (467K).

It is still the beta version and in particular my English has to be improved.
Maybe once I will publish this book on paper.

Friendly greetings, Joost van Steenis