“It’s not WHAT backs our money, it’s WHO controls the QUANTITY!

”
- Bill Still

FREEDOM’S VISION POLITICAL REFORM

This May be the Last Fight

Simon Johnson, a professor at MIT’s Sloan School of Management, was the chief economist at
the International Monetary Fund during 2007 and 2008, and is an outspoken critic of the way
money is influencing politics in America. The opening to his article titled The Quiet Coup, had
this to say about the relationship of money to politics:

The crash has laid bare many unpleasant truths about the United States. One of the most
alarming, says a former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund, is that the
finance industry has effectively captured our government—a state of affairs that more
typically describes emerging markets, and is at the center of many emerging-market crises. If
the IMF’s staff could speak freely about the U.S., it would tell us what it tells all countries in
this situation: recovery will fail unless we break the financial oligarchy that is blocking
essential reform. And if we are to prevent a true depression, we’re running out of time.”

Most people in America, and for that matter the world, do not realize how important it is who
controls the quantity of money. This influences history and the people living it immensely.
Right now it is the private banks who are issuing the vast majority of money, it is backed by
debt, AND the quantity is out of control. To say that those are unfavorable circumstances for the
vast majority of Americans is the understatement of the century.

It is a rare prospect throughout history that in one person’s lifetime they see the progression of
their money; from thousands, to millions, then billions, and finally trillions. There is no currency
in the history of mankind that has ever made the transition to quadrillions. The U.S. Dollar will
not be the first. The math of debt to income will not allow it and will produce “events” that
interrupt the current parabolic growth. Supporters of Freedom’s Vision would prefer not to
allow such “events” to unfold. We are getting close. Should we fail to take action and affect
real change soon, then we will undoubtedly be living through such historical events. Truly, this
fight could be the last fight.

Most may not realize it, but our money system is failing right now. Our nation is practicing
piecemeal default as it is no longer able finance its debts and thus we have resorted to the
practice of “quantitative easing” and the buying up of toxic debts cast into citizen’s laps by the
private financial industry. How could this happen in America, the land of the free, the home of
the brave? It shouldn’t. We must understand history and our money system or we are destined
to repeat past failures.
In the video that follows, money expert, Bill Still, producer of The Money Masters and The
Secret of Oz, explains how the British successfully used “Tally Sticks” as their currency for 726
years, more than seven times longer than our current debt backed system! This system of debt
free, government-issued money gave rise to the greatest empire in history:

Bill Still - The History of Non Debt-Backed British Tally Sticks...

Right now there is a huge backlash growing in the United States – many people view their
government as the source of the problems, the reason that the quantity of money has allowed to
get out of control. But that’s simply not the entire story; the origins of their mistake were made
in the year 1913 with the creation of a “Federal Reserve” who is no more Federal than Federal
Express. The bankers are the ones who created out-of-control credit dollars. They fought to
create a money system that is backed by debt and uses taxpayer productivity to pay themselves
interest! Since that time, our money systems’ days have been numbered. The compounding
math of debt works against the people and in favor of these now very powerful special interests!

Bill Gross, Managing Director of one of the world’s largest bond management companies,
Pimco, recently spoke out about the need for political reform:

Bill Gross Investment Outlook 2010:

"Question: What has become of the American nation? Conceived with the vision of
liberty and justice for all, we have descended in the clutches of corporate and other
special interests to a second world state defined by K Street instead of
Independence Square. Our government doesn’t work anymore, or perhaps more
accurately, when it does, it works for special interests and not the American people.
Washington consistently stoops to legislate 10,000-page perversions of healthcare,
regulatory reform, defense, and budgetary mandates overflowing with earmarks that
serve a monied minority as opposed to an all-too-silent majority. You don’t have to
be Don Quixote to believe that legislators – and Presidents – often do not work for
the benefit of their constituents: A recent NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll
reported that over 65% of Americans trust their government to do the right thing
“only some of the time” and a stunning 19% said “never.” What most politicians
 apparently are working for is to perpetuate their power – first via district
gerrymandering, and then second by around-the-clock campaigning financed by
special interest groups. If, by chance, they’re ever voted out of office, they have a
home just down the street – at K Street – with six-figure incomes as a starting wage.

"What amazes me most of all is that politicians can be bought so cheaply. Public
records show that combined labor, insurance, big pharma and related corporate
interests spent just under $500 million last year on healthcare lobbying (not much of
which went to politicians) for what is likely to be a $50-100 billion annual return.
The fact is that American citizens have never been as divorced from their
representatives – and if that description fits the Democratic Congress now in control
– then it applies to Republicans as well – past and present. So you watch Fox, or is
it MSNBC? O’Reilly or Olbermann? It doesn’t matter. You’re just being conned
into rooting for a team that basically runs the same plays called by look-alike
coaches on different sidelines. A “ballot box” pox on all their houses – Senators,
Representatives and Presidents alike. There has been no change, there will be no
change, until we the American people decide to publicly finance all national and
local elections and ban the writing of even a $1 check for our favorite candidates.

William Gross
Managing Director

Bill Gross is one of the most respected investment experts in the world today. He specializes in
the trade of bonds (DEBT) and is well aware of the debt crisis this country faces. While we may
not see eye to eye on all subjects, when it comes to the need to separate special interests and their
money from politics, we are definitely on the same page.

The spiral into special interest influence is insidious and is about to get much worse despite the
current crisis:

Courts Roll Back Limits on Election Spending

WASHINGTON — Even before a landmark Supreme Court ruling on campaign
finance law expected within days, a series of other court decisions is reshaping the
political battlefield by freeing corporations, unions and other interest groups from
many of the restrictions on their advertising about issues and candidates.

Legal experts and political operatives say the cases roll back campaign spending
rules to the years before Watergate. The end of decades-old restrictions could
unleash a torrent of negative advertisements, help cash-poor Republicans in a
pivotal year and push President Obama to bring in more money for his party.

If the Supreme Court, as widely expected, rules against core elements of the
existing limits, Democrats say they will try to enact new laws to reinstate the
restrictions in time for the midterm elections in November. And advocates of
stricter campaign finance laws say they hope the developments will prod the
 president to fulfill a campaign promise to update the presidential campaign
financing system, even though it would diminish his edge as incumbent.
“It will be no holds barred when it comes to independent expenditures,” said
Kenneth A. Gross, a veteran political law expert at the firm of Skadden Arps in
Washington.

What you are witnessing is the fourth branch of government, the Financial Branch, using their
self made, taxpayer backed money to influence the other three branches of government. You
know, the three that are actually mentioned in the U.S. Constitution – Executive, Legislative, and
Judicial – the ones that are supposed to have checks and balances. No longer. The new and all
powerful Financial Branch provides backing for everyone in the other three, including the
Judges, and there are no checks and balances.

The oligarchs profiting from the current system have aggregated more wealth in the hands of the
few than at any time in modern history. They use this wealth to finance both parties in the
United States, thus ensuring their interests are protected no matter which candidate wins.

They create “hot button” issues that pit one American citizen against another – divide and
conquer is what that is called, and we’re seeing more division now than at anytime in the past
century.

They use our two party system to box the issues and “solutions” between the “left” and the
“right,” again buying both sides and profiting from either outcome. The solutions that benefit
the vast majority of our citizens are hardly ever discussed and are never the solution that occurs.
Once citizens are duped into believing they have a voice when in truth they do not.

The fourth branch of government has turned our citizens into “consumers,” and our politicians
into debt pushers. They now “must get credit (debt) flowing again” at all costs including our
children’s future, our morals, our ethics, our sense of pride, our well being, and quite possibly
the very existence of our country.

Thus it is time for the people to step up and enforce the rule of law. This is the very act of self-
determination that made America the greatest nation on Earth and it is time to end the advantage
that special interests and their money have. Below are the simple and common sense Political
Reform suggestions found within Freedom's Vision:

POLITICAL REFORM – While we are blessed with our Constitution, special interests
have grown so rich and so powerful that they have achieved super human influence in the
realm of influencing politics and politicians. The following rules set about to separate the
money those special interests possess from our government (the word “politician” below
includes all elected and appointed government representatives on all levels of government,
including judges and members of the military. The term Congress generally means the entire
legislative branch unless the power is already specifically Congress’s. Exact legal language is
required).

This addresses the root causes of our financial crisis as without pressure from these mega
companies, politicians on the national level will be able to mount effective campaigns that no
 longer run in the hundreds of millions of dollars, while all will be able to make decisions that
support the collective people in the long run, not just the profit oriented short run. Therefore:

A. No form of Corporation or business shall be permitted to donate any more than the
personal campaign limit to any political campaign regardless of size. It shall be
illegal to set up shell corporations to circumnavigate said rule.
B. Personal campaign contributions to any single politician shall be limited to no more
than 5% of the median annual household income level at the time of the previous
election cycle. For example, in 2007 that level was $50,233. Thus the maximum
individual or corporate contribution would be 5% of that figure, or $2,511(the
corporation still has the advantage as they can make this donation to an unlimited
number of politicians). This amount should remain relatively stable over time once
the above economic reforms are instituted. No candidate may spend more than 1,000
times the maximum individual amount of their own personal money on any single
personal campaign.
C. Corporations, businesses, and their representatives shall not be permitted to pay
lobbyists or hire employees for the purpose of lobbying government. Corporate
officers and employees may, however, meet with politicians with the same access and
rights of any individual. Groups of people may form together in “lobbying groups,”
however such groups cannot be backed with any corporate money or benefits
whatsoever.
D. Politicians shall not, while in office, influence any fiscal decision regarding any
industry in which they were previously a Corporate Officer (Vice President or
equivalent or higher). This does not prevent politicians from working on legislation
in fields which they are familiar unless they were on the Officer level. It also does
not mean that government representatives cannot contract to have private work or
development accomplished on behalf of the people.
E. Politicians after leaving office shall not go to work for any corporation following
their service for which their office had any oversight, contractual connections, or
control over while in office for a period of 5 years following their time in office.

Doing these simple things will accomplish more for America than it would appear at first glance:

Huge special interests would no longer be the largest contributors to political

campaigns. This shifts the power from the special interests and back to the people
where it rightfully belongs.

The amount of money spent on campaigns would fall dramatically.

Our REPRESENTATIVES could then get elected on a level playing field where they
could make long term decisions on behalf of the people, not the military industrial
complex, not the health care insurance industry, and not the bankers!

The incentive to attach “earmarks” and to insert other loopholes into legislation is
greatly reduced.
 Without this pressure to return the support those interest groups who support them,
politicians can then make decisions that don’t spiral the quantity of money out-of-
control.

There is still time to improve this language and to make it even better, thus we are open to
receiving your input before we begin our push for actual legislation.

The monetary, political, and job producing directional reforms of Freedom’s Vision all work
together to create a strong foundation for a prosperous and healthy America. The benefits of
Freedom’s Vision are many:

1. Avoid the disaster about to unfold – regardless of how we get there, by inflation or
deflation, the math of debt that underlies our currency does not work. This would break
that math and preempt the negative events that are going to follow should we fail to take
action.

2. No more debt backed money for our Federal Government. Lower taxes and more
productivity result.

3. Direct and immediate relief for people in debt, accomplished in a way that’s fair to
everyone including those who are not in debt and without creating excessive price
inflation, deflation or a giant “moral hazard.”

4. Direct and immediate compensation for those who are savers and have been damaged by
past practice.

5. Relief for States, almost all of whom are in deep debt trouble.

6. Cleanses the banks and financial businesses of unserviceable debts and derivatives and
would ensure that they stay that way. All banks would survive the transition, immediately
benefiting from improvements in our citizen’s balance sheets. The same process would
be used to cleanse other financial like businesses.

7. Businesses, both large and small, would immediately benefit from our citizens and the
banks improved balance sheets.

8. Unfunded liabilities would immediately get better with zero percent price inflation.

9. Limits on special interests would separate their money from politics lessening the
pressure to continually increase the quantity of money. This allows long term decision
making. Special interests associated with the banking, oil, defense, food, insurance, and
other industries would no longer have their huge pull. Thus politicians would not have to
focus on spending our resources on special interests, but instead on the interests of the
people. Budget pressures would decrease as a result.
 10. States would exercise more control over their own destiny. Lower taxes on the state
level, more productivity. Low cost money would become available to repair and upgrade
current infrastructure and to build the infrastructure of tomorrow’s commerce.

11. The powers possessed by the central banks would be greatly diminished freeing our
country and others from their methods of control via debt, now even issued worldwide by
the IMF. Countries would no longer be working to pay central banks interest. Instead
they would work to develop their own rule of law. Their productive labors could be used
to improve their own infrastructure, to feed and cloth themselves, and to build a future for
themselves. In other words, they need to be taught how to fish, not simply given a fish
and asked to pay it back forever and ever.

12. No price inflation eroding away future savings. People who take on reasonable debt
could once again make progress towards paying it off.

13. Massively supports education, underpinning progress so that we may continue to lead the
world in innovation and the production of meaningful technologies.

14. Provides a national mission - focused on creating the energy and infrastructure of the
future. REAL and meaningful economic growth would ensue and massive new
employment would result.

Turning these reforms into reality is absolutely possible. We are going to rise our collective
voices to DEMAND that they are. YOU have more power than you know, especially when you
demand what is fair and JUST. We are not asking you to place your name on some petition. We
are asking that you stand erect, lift your head high where it belongs and COMMAND our
representatives to implement these reforms. Failure to do so will cost them their jobs and they
WILL do as they are commanded by US, the people.

The SWARMS are coming, please stay involved and stay tuned.

Velvet Revolver - The Last Fight:

*Cover art by AZ Rainman