Sundown in America

America is facing the most dangerous crisis in the history of our nation. It is not simply an economic crisis. It is a crisis whose outcome may well determine whether America continues to survive as a representative republic ... and whether America remains strong enough to face the massing, determined enemy outside of her borders.

The ‘economic’ portion of this crisis did not occur by accident. It occurred, in large part, as a result of leftist ‘social engineers’ who are intent on circumventing the Constitution to use pretended altruism in order to expand their power and further implement their left-leaning ideological agenda. And they cannot succeed unless the noble foundations upon which our republic was built are completely dismantled.

The current economic crisis, and all of its ramifications, represent a giant step in that insidiously evil crusade.

This economic meltdown is occurring largely as a result of socialist special interests pressuring their friends in congress to relax the underwriting standards for home mortgages. Those friends in congress used all manner of grotesque extortion and shakedown techniques, made legal through changes in law (most notably the Community Reinvestment Act), to pressure the banking/mortgage industry to grant hundreds of thousands of loans to low-income and minority citizens whose economic backgrounds exhibited little or no ability to repay those loans.

When the CRA was created during the Carter administration, the administration also funded with tax dollars numerous ‘community groups’ that have helped the Fed, the Comptroller of the Currency, and other federal regulatory agencies to enforce the act. Under the CRA, if a bank wants to make virtually any change in its business operations — merging, opening up a new branch, getting into a new line of business — it must first prove to regulators that it has made ‘enough’ loans to the government's preferred borrowers. The (partially) tax-funded ‘community groups’ like ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) can file petitions with regulators that stop the bank's activities in their tracks, perhaps defeating them altogether. The banks routinely buy off ACORN and other ‘community groups’ by giving them millions of dollars as well as promising to make even more dubious loans.

Yes, there were other contributors to this meltdown, but years of such pressure and pandering to special interests were the major contributing factor in the crisis we are facing today (and tomorrow ... and beyond).

One of those special interest groups that participated broadly in this dramatic change in banking/mortgage procedures was indeed ACORN (the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now), one of the largest radical left-wing groups in America.

Barack Obama’s affiliation with ACORN is longstanding and deep. He ran an ACORN-sponsored massive voter registration effort (which was later accused, and continues to be accused, of engaging in massive voter fraud). He later became a trainer for the group, as well as its lawyer in numerous election law cases. He received strong financial support from ACORN in all of his election campaigns, and his affiliation with the group and its radical activities remains strong today.

Many involved in the current congressional negotiations on the economic bailout proposal are attempting to make the public aware that the proposal being pushed by the democrats would have a large portion of the taxpayer-funded ‘bailout’ money diverted to whom?

Is the public becoming aware of this fact? No. Why? Because those in congress who are attempting to sound the alert are being righteously ignored by the mainstream media.

Lindsey Graham (R-SC) stated today, … this deal that’s on the table now is not a very good deal. Twenty percent of the money that should go to retire debt that will be created to solve this problem winds up in a housing organization called ACORN that is an absolute ill-run enterprise, and I can’t believe we would take money away from debt retirement to put it in a housing program that doesn’t work.

Our current economic crisis threatens America’s existence on five major fronts:

(1) It threatens to plunder from the American taxpayers for generations to come, reducing their standard of living, threatening their hard-earned retirement security, and placing debt upon the shoulders of their children not yet born. And why? In order to correct the ‘errors’ made by our leadership, and brought about by the pressures of special interest groups.

(2) It is already succeeding in nationalizing major sectors of American private enterprise, in the banking and insurance industries ... with more to come.

(3) No matter the bailout plan that is adopted, more government regulation over the private sector will be enacted, dramatically increasing bureaucratic government interference in the free market system – i.e., placing yet another socialist anchor around the neck of our capitalist system.

(4) No matter the bailout plan that is adopted, our national debt will increase beyond our ability to pay it down, to the point where our national priorities will, of necessity, be transformed from one in which our safety, security and sovereignty take a perilous second place to our need to merely pay down the money that we borrowed to get ourselves out of this economic meltdown.

(5) Unless those who played an activist role in fomenting this crisis are sought out, investigated, and prosecuted where called for, and unless the citizenry demands an accounting and a broad excising of the corruption in their leadership, once the dust settles -- and it will settle, temporarily, after any bailout program takes effect -- nothing will change. No reform will occur. And our future will be filled with more of the same -- adding to our debt, taking away from our liberties, and putting our survival in jeopardy.

Now reflect back on the fact that the current leader in the race for the presidency has had, and continues to have, close activist ties with a radical organization that played a major role in the above cataclysm.

Why is ninety-nine percent of the American electorate unaware of that connection?

President Bush delivered an address to the nation two nights ago. The subject of that address was the current economic crisis.

In his attempt to explain the causes of this crisis, he insinuated that it all started because America’s economy was considered so healthy that it attracted investors from all over the world. As a result, banks and financial institutions were awash in money, and that state of affairs planted the seed for this debacle.

Our President offered up the greatest whitewash of the reasons for this catastrophe imaginable.

John McCain and Barack Obama participated in the first of four televised presidential debates tonight. Because of recent developments, despite the fact that foreign policy was scheduled to be the topic of the debate, much of their debate centered on our economic ills.

Barack Obama pointed the finger of blame for those ills at 'eight years of Bush economic policies -- policies that were embraced by John McCain.'

Did John McCain refute that argument by finally educating the American public regarding his opponent’s personal affiliation with a radical leftwing organization that played a significant role in creating the sub prime debacle? No, he simply spoke in platitudes about how we must all work together, in a bipartisan way, in order to solve this monumental problem.

I am aware (as are many of you) of the major causes of this crisis. And if I am aware of the part that Obama and those of his political ideology played in this catastrophe, surely my President and my candidate are as well.

What is keeping them from making that association a major issue in this election?

At the bottom of this travesty (the magnitude of which I don’t believe we have seen in either our or our parents’ lifetimes) are four crucial, potentially deadly, considerations:

(1) The virtually unbridled power of the mainstream media – who routinely turn our focus (because we allow them to) toward superficial nonsense, and away from information that would be extraordinarily dangerous to those whose ideology they share.

(2) The fact that, even during their deliberations in attempting to solve this economic crisis, most of the democrats in Washington still do not consider the safety and prosperity of the people of this country to be their main focus. Their main focus, even in these troubling times, is the amassing of power and the implementation of a leftist ideological agenda. Why else, when the economic (and possibly physical) safety and security of every American is hanging in the balance, would they still be attempting to divert a large portion of this gargantuan, taxpayer-funded bailout into the pockets of a left-leaning organization bent on social engineering (and an organization that played an activist role in the catastrophe to begin with)?

(3) If republicans in congress resort to compromise, as they have so often done over the past eighteen years, they will have committed the final betrayal. They will have saddled the American taxpayer with an unbearable burden – in the form of financial extortion, the crumbling of our capitalist system through the nationalization of private enterprise, and the granting of oversight powers to the government that were never envisioned by our Founders – all of which conditions are expressly forbidden by our Constitution. Individual liberty will be the major casualty – with security and sovereignty to follow, a distant, but definite, second.

(4) Congress, bowing to the enormous pressure of powerful, radical left-wing special interest groups, started this crisis by pressuring, in an entirely unconstitutional manner, the banking/mortgage industry to do what their special interest lobbyists wanted. Yet among the major end results of any temporary bailout will be the granting of significantly more 'oversight' powers, this time made legal by 'post-meltdown' legislation. The government will be granted enormous additional power to look over the shoulder of private industry and dictate the parameters under which it can function. Talk about rewarding crime, and positioning the country for more of the same ... now legalized ... much deeper, and much more threatening to our capitalist foundations.

I have little faith that the electorate will recognize the genuine nature of the man they are about to elect to the presidency. The media will not allow it. And the citizenry is too lazy to look beyond the mainstream media for answers.

I have little faith that our ‘leadership’ in Washington will once again begin to represent the best interests of the people. The corruption is too deep, and the power of special interests is too unwieldy and unaccountable, and growing moreso every day.

There are enemies at the gate. Enemies of the sort that the world has never known – who see it as their destiny to conform us to their image, or see us dead. When they decide to break down that gate in a brutal manner that goes far beyond the taking of three thousand innocent lives in two skyscrapers, an office building, and a commercial airplane, they will find little resistance. Not because the people within the gates weren’t once rugged individualists who valued freedom ... but because they no longer are.

I pray, fervently and daily, that I am wrong, or that He will somehow intervene.

>I suspect that, beginning in 2012, we may have elections like the former USSR used to have, where we have a choice between the hand-picked candidates.<

You didn’t notice how the MSM handpicked these two from all of the other candidates? Sit back and ask yourself how we were so lucky as to have a young, handsome, exuberant, Marxist Communist running for President. His mentors and heroes are all true blue, died in the wool, solid Communists. He is about as inexperienced as they come with just 143 days on the job. His wife hates America so that should qualify her a First Lady in the new, changed America, shouldn’t it?

I am not going to rant about John McCains loves for illegal aliens or the fact he is a fully developed socialist. His strongly held beliefs are to the Left of John Kennedy’s. His record of backstabbibg the Republican voter is well known.

I truly believe that these two were selected from the list because of their firmly held beliefs that America needs to be a socialist nation. The fact that 99.5% of our major media outlets are also supporters of Barack Obama. Some of them are so obvious it hurts, yet we don’t see a single independance, liberty loving American out on the street in front of their offices protesting their actions. Has any Republican attorney filed a formal complain with any Court or legislative agency about this bias yet? Not that I have heard or read.

ASOC, I too am a Veteran, two tours in Nam. I know the American that you’re talking about but having the courage to stick our heads up and return fire at someone who is trying to kill us doesn’t qualify us for political leadership positions. Yes, we do have a quiet fire burning within our guts. We are looking for a face to attach the blame to so that we can kill it. The only face I’ve yet seen is those of people I love. Why didn’t they take a day off from work and march in the streets when there was yet another obvious distortion and corruption of the Constitution by the elected legislators so many years ago.

Their reluctance to fight back when America was being raped in Congress grew into the widespread complacency we are seeing today. We all want to leave the dirty work to someone else because the costs might be too high. We may get arrested and have to spend all our savings on attorneys fees. Our wives would get upset with us and there would be arguments about what’s going to happen to the kids if we end up in prison. I guess each of us will have to decide the question for ourselves. Is it better to end up in prison for a few years or do we allow the Communists to take over? What would our kids prefer we do? We proudly fight communism in foreign countries but we refuse to fight it within our own borders!

Then there’s the fools like me who refuse to give up the fight. I don’t know if I am too proud or simply too stupid to lay down and die. Hooked up to my O2 concentrator there’s not much I can do except wish for the best.

>I have said for 10 years that the greatest danger to this country is the Clinton Crime Machine. And that the most dangerous terrorist to this country was the Senator from NY.

I was wrong.

It is the entire Democratic party - a criminal machine.

The Republican Party has some few brave stalwarts left in it for the truth - but it was infiltrated by the enemy.<

PLEASE Open both of your eyes!

Since 9/11, our Constitutional rights have been systematically dismantled by a REPUBLICAN PRESIDENT!

1. USA Patriot Act - A 342 page document presented to Congress one day before voting on it that allows the government access to your bank and email accounts, as well as your medical and phone records with no court order. They can also search your home anytime without a warrant.

2. USA Patriot Act II - This one allows secret government arrests, the legal authority to seize your American citizenship, and the extraction of your DNA if you are deemed a potential terrorist.

3. Military Commissions Act of 2006 - Ends habeas corpus, the right to an attorney, and the right to court review of one’s detention and arrest. Without this most basic right, all other rights are gone too since anyone can be detained indefinitely. Now anyone may be arrested and incarcerated and nobody would know.

4. NSPD 51 - A directive signed by George W. Bush on May 9, 2007, that allows the President to declare martial law, effectively transforming the U.S. into a dictatorship with no checks and balances from the Legislative or Judicial Branches. Parts of this directive are considered classified and members of Congress have been denied the right to review it.

5. Protect America Act of 2007 - Allows unprecedented domestic wiretapping and surveillance activities with a reduction in FISA court oversight. Probable cause is not needed.

6. John Warner Defense Authorization Act - Signed by George W. Bush on October 17, 2007, this act allows the President to declare a public emergency and station troops anywhere in America without the consent of the governor or local authorities to “suppress public disorder.”

7. Homegrown Terrorism and Radicalization Act - Passed overwhelmingly by Congress on October 23, 2007, is now awaiting a Senate vote. This act will beget a new crackdown on dissent and the Constitutional rights of American citizens. The definitions of “terrorism” and “extremism” are so vague that they could be used to generalize against any group that is working against the policies of the Administration. In this bill, “violent radicalization” criminalizes thought and ideology while “homegrown terrorism” is defined as “the planed use of force to coerce the government.” The term, “force” could encompass political activities such as protests, marches, or any other form of non-violent resistance.

Get your head out of your butt, open both eyes and look in the mirror. YOU are a major part of the problem! Yes, you! You refuse to search for the truth. Our entire political system is corrupt. It stinks worse than a rotten fish.

What is the Sam Hell makes you think that the goals of the Republican Party are not just as evil as the Democrats? Loss of personal liberty doesn’t mean anything to you? No, then you are a socialist! No better than a Democrat. I hope you aren’t my neighbor and you had better hope that I’m not your neighbor.

Well argued.

And I would support your last words: We need to pray that God will intervene and prevent this catastrophe from destroying our nation.

All last spring and summer I said that Hillary and Obama were disasters, but I couldn’t justify voting for McCain, either, on his record. So there was not much to do but pray.

I think our prayers have been answered, with McCain’s shift in many of his main positions, his recognition of his need for conservative support, and his nomination of Sarah Palin.

We need to pray again, that God will help our country turn itself around and reform itself rather than destroy itself.

It reminds me of the choice gave Israel in Deuteronomy. God said he had put two choices before Israel: obey the Covenant and choose life, or disobey the covenant and choose death. With His help, let us pray that America chooses LIFE.

It is a crisis whose outcome may well determine whether America continues to survive as a representative republic ...

I hope I'm not the fist one to break this to you, but we stopped being a Constitutional Republic A LONG TIME AGO.

It's a little hard to pin the exact date on it, but FDR's executive order requiring citizens to turn in all their gold currency (arguably the only type of Constitutional money) might be as good a day as any. 4/5/33.

Having succeeded in taking the peoples real money from them he went on to nationalize all sorts of things, set up a huge government of commissions and bureaucrats, create all sorts of permanant agencies, and of course force the total fiat-money and credit system on us that is collapsing around us.

The Constitution is quite clear on what the Federal Government was allowed to do. These are the enumerated powers of Article 1, Section 8 of the US Constitution. Using corrupt Supreme Court justices, whom he (FDR) appointed (using intimidation and threats of 'revolution' to get the Conservative judges to resign) he pulled off a soft Coup d'etat.

We will need another revolution of some sort to get back to the limited governmnet the Constituion provided. Neither McCain nor Obama has the least interest in restoring the Republic to its original design, sadly.

Perhaps the one outside chance would be to appoint enough Conservatives to rule the New Deal unconstitutional. This is unlikely, but it's the 'deep game' movement conservatives have been playing since Reagan.

Bush1 did not support this goal, so he put liberals, not 'strict constructionists' (ie: justices who will adhere to the written law of the Constitution, not make up new laws to suit their benefactors and popular sentiment) on the Supreme Court when he had a chance.

Bush2 was forced to appoint true conservatives only after he tried to put his cronies in and was rebuffed by both parties.

Still any judge who becomes senior enough to be a potential nominee to the Supreme Court is unlikely to be enough of a revolutionary to reach back 60 years and undo the New Deal, in my opinion.

Imagine if Social Security were ruled Unconstitional. I can't see it happening.

When Free Republic was founded the mission statement included "Restore the Constitution". Over time even FR has toned it down to "support slowing the complete Socialist takeover of the USA" or something like that.

Both McCain and Obama insist that we muddle on in the post-Constitutional pseudo-democracy that we inhabit. There really is no large constituency for restoring the Constitution. Ron Paul was the closest we've seen. He was widely derrided as a "kook" here on Free Republic, perhaps deservedly. Perhaps it's a "kooky" idea now to live by the law of the Constitution. FDR's New Deal is widely accepted by both the left and most so-called Conservatives, including those on Free Republic.

In summary, perhaps we should be very scared over the financial mess. Many are. But we should not be lamenting the loss of our Republic anymore than one would spend a day in mourning for your great-grandfather who died in 1935.

Buy gold, buy ammo, and have a great day!

Excellent article, joanie-f!

I would rather have NO bill come out of these "negotiations" than ANY bill that funds ACORN. Rather than that, I'd prefer the economy to go down in flames, and let the chips fall where they may. Enuf is enuf.

I e-mailed my two senators and congressperson yesterday to say "not one thin dime of taxpayer money for ACORN. If this bill passes with ACORN funding still in it, and I see you've voted for it, then you can kiss my vote for you goodbye forevermore."

Of course, that's a pretty toothless threat I suppose. Plus the fact is, I have never voted for any of these people ever (i.e., Kennedy, Kerry, Tsongas), and would never consider doing so.

Sigh. I gather the e-mail servers at Capitol Hill are pretty clogged up these days. I haven't had a response from any of these people, and probably won't get one. Still, as a taxpayer, I had to weigh in as strongly as I could. These people need to know that some folks are actually paying attention, and seek to hold their representatives accountable for their actions.

Again, joanie-f, thank you ever so much for your outstanding essay/post!

slow it down, b4.

I have not said that the Republican Party is the answer.

I have said that there are a few conservative Congressmen in Congress who have tried - as best they can - to hold back the night.

In case you didn’t notice - all but 1 or 2 in Congress belong to one of two political parties.

That is just a fact.

Your harshness to me and/or to Joanie f is misdirected.

I am on here and paying attention and learning - and have learned from your post - information I did not know.

So get a grip and direct the anger to the people who are DOING THIS damage to this country.

And I am not one of them.

I apologize. It’s just that I have had it up to here reading posts by FReepers who have been so indoctinated, no brainwashed is a better choice, that the Republican Party is the answer to all of their problems. Contribute to the GOP and we’ll make everything fine. The Party shills on FR make me sick.

The constant criticism of every other party on FR is downright stupid. Yes, stupid. There are true patriots in every party. People who believe in the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the 2nd Amendment and are against Roe V Wade. It is the leaders of our major political parties who need to be tried and shot for traitorism. They are the ones selling off our sovereignty and culture to the UN for more political power.

Sorry buggers like Hank Paulsen, Bernacke and Cox who can only recognize your existence if you control their purse strings. They don’t care about the corruption in our government as long as they can control it.

Looking at your tag name makes me ask, “When do you think we lost control of our government?”

Beware, the quiet man, with ineer fire buring,

How about this one while you look...

THE WRATH OF THE AWAKENED PATRIOT
(with apologies to Rudyard Kipling)

It was not part of their blood,
It came to them very late,
With long arrears to make good,
When the Patriot began to hate.

They were not easily moved,
They were icy -- willing to wait
Till every count should be proved,
Ere the Patriot began to hate.

Their voices were even and low.
Their eyes were level and straight.
There was neither sign nor show
When the Patriot began to hate.

It was not preached to the crowd.
It was not taught by the state.
No man spoke it aloud
When the Patriot began to hate.

It was not suddently bred.
It will not swiftly abate.
Through the chilled years ahead,
When Time shall count from the date
That the Patriot began to hate.

We - meaning the citizens of this country - lost control - meaning it is no longer of the people, by the people, and for the people - a long time ago to be truthful.

Back about the time we left the gold standard for our money.

However, here is another fact. NO ONE who has been in office since then has made a serious effort to change that situation.

But that is not the issue right this second.

The issue is that we are facing a time and a crisis that has never been faced in this country before.

And it is not directly coming from those anti-freedom edicts that have been passed by congress or issued by the President (from your previously posted list).

It is directly coming from the total abuse of the financial companies/lending/debt trading companies and it is coming from the openly communistic tactics of Obama and his fellow communists in the Demonrat party.

There are decent Republicans in office.

I do not know of ONE decent Democrat in office. Not one.

They are UNITED in their determination to destroy freedom in this country and to make sure they stay in power no matter what - including no matter what crimes are committed.

This is the ESSENCE of communism.

THAT is what I know a lot about.

You may call it the new world order.

Another name - same essence.

But new thing - it is happening NOW - in actual reality - in our nation - and it is totally sickening.

And with the news that the Democrats in office in Missouri are now coooperating with the Nazi like tactics openly and with no objections from their fellow Dems around the country or from the supposedly against censorship press in this country - lets us know how far down the road we have gone.

I am all for strategy for these times.

We are going to need it.

I asked, “When do you think we lost control of our government?”

You replied, “But that is not the issue right this second.”

That brings me to the question, “How do you expect to gain control of this situation/crisis if we don’t have control of our own government?” What makes you think that the elected legislators have our best interests in mind? They know that we no longer determine what happens in America. Electronic voting machines allow them full control over the elections while the shills tell us how important it is that we get out and vote.

The news was saying that 75% of the people are against a bailout. Guess what is going to take place. A bailout!

It’s nice to think that we can stop the ever advancing communism but until we are willing to at least load our rifles, it will continue eating away our rights.

People Should Not Be Afraid of Their Governments, Governments Should Be Afraid of The People’

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