The United States has little in common with a banana republic.

(The Corruption is about the same)

It has no bananas.

(Bush, B & H Clinton, J McCain, The Senate & Congress all bananas)

It is a republic.
(However the people fail to use it.)

I put in my vote for Dr. Paul this morning in Phoenix, AZ. At least I'll be able to say I did something...

While I hate to blow the mighty horn for only one set of ideas, Richard C. Cook is someone who dares to present such proposals. His ideas are at least a beginning toward closing the gap between empty complaints about problems and the formulation of real-world solutions.

While I also hate to post a comment comprised mostly of someone else's opinion, Cook does such a nice job of summarizing his ideas in the following excerpt, there is little point in my attempt to paraphrase. Here is a link to some of his most recent work:

http://www.economyincrisis.org/articles/show/1196

And here is the excerpt:

"What then is the remedy? In my opinion, our economy can only be restored by a program that recognizes credit as public utility, that restores our infrastructure, that eliminates debt, and that puts sufficient purchasing power directly into the hands of the people. Above all, our monetary supply should be created through the federal government spending money directly into existence, not through bank lending.

"Among the measures I have been proposing in my articles on Global Research and elsewhere are, first, an income guarantee to all citizens similar to the annual payments to persons in Alaska through the Alaska Permanent Fund. These payments today amount to almost $1,700 per person per year or $6,800 for a family of four.

"What I am calling a National Dividend would be a substantially larger amount and should be provided to everyone in society, whether they work or not. In other words, a subsistence level of income security should be a human right. Such an infusion of purchasing power would also encourage economic growth, particularly at the grassroots level, by allowing people to buy what they need without borrowing or else pay off what they currently owe.

"The second measure is a new system of public finance, starting with a federal self-collateralized infrastructure bank similar to the Reconstruction Finance Corporation that rebuilt America during and after the Great Depression. Such a bank has been proposed by Senator Chris Dodd and others, but the bank I have in mind would channel money directly into the economy without going through the Federal Reserve or the private banking system.

"A National Dividend combined with a self-collateralized federal infrastructure bank would also create a new American currency different from debt-based Federal Reserve Notes.

"Finally, the abuse of credit by the banking system should be stopped by outlawing the practice of lending for speculation, including most leveraged buyouts, mergers, acquisitions, and hedge funds. In other words, no more bank-created bubbles. Of course this is the system that is now crashing anyway.

"These programs would lead to real income security and revitalize the U.S. economy. It would do the same if applied in other nations. By contrast, a pittance of a tax rebate combined with slightly cheaper bank loans is a bad joke."

i'm going to take some kits of whipping cream later so i can get a real good nights sleep. i have bills to pay in the morning.

but my personal spring plot to add value to my share of the homestead involves, collecting charcoal from the wood stove and store them in some galvanized buckes with matching lids.

then come spring time, i'll be doing a charcoal retort in my old scrap barbie.

i'll heat up some scrap iron i scavenged at my old factory job.

dip the blanks in a red hot fire, and hope i remember to do the time transform and get the bar out of the pit before it reaches triple point.

anyway, i'll set up my mail order anvil and one of my old hammers and beat the tarnation out of that scrap.

it's music to my ears, up to a point, because to make demascus steel i'll have to insert some of my mail order foam ear plugs.

but, that's too time intensive and i need my sense of hearing more than the speed reading.

but i have all sorts of tanto designs and a new french curve version with a reverse french pin drive.

i've done oak handles, and i've done maple handles, i've done birch handles, and i've done a rosewood handle. me gonna take a chance and lot for something new with my chain saw, aka big red....

but to breach another subject, it's gonna be difficult and expensive to get too the Henniker NH harware store. See, i make my own rivets and i new the secret ingrediant.

CODE patetern onnn.....

i befroe e except after c, except when you get voewls exchanged with dipthongs.

Could this partly explain market buoyancy in the face of economic despair?