Superstar CBS Reporter Blows the Lid Off the Swine Flu Media Hype and Hysteria | Mercola.com

Sharyl Attkisson is a CBS News correspondent and investigative reporter. She’s covered Capitol Hill since February 2006 and has been a Washington-based correspondent there since January 1995. She was also part of the CBS news team that received the Edward Murrow Award in 2005 for overall excellence. Additionally, she received an Outstanding Investigative Journalism Emmy in 2002 for a series on the Red Cross.

In case you didn’t realize it, Sharyl Attkisson is the investigative reporter behind the groundbreaking CBS News study that found H1N1 flu cases are NOT as prevalent as feared.

In fact, they’re barely on the radar screen.

How did this startling information come about, and why is the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) painting a different picture entirely? I spoke directly with Sharyl Attkisson to find out.

Two Videos

The first video is an amazing interview I did with Sharyl about ten days ago and what the bulk of this article is based on.

The second video is brand new and was done at noon yesterday in which I was videoed in the CBS studio in downtown Chicago. Sharyl was gracious enough to invite me to be on with Dr. Bernadine Healy, the former director of the NIH. We both were in agreement about the swine flu and opposed to the stance the CDC is taking, but we had different views on mammograms.

Please also watch the second interview as it is very entertaining.

Getting Started on the Swine Flu Trail

Ms. Attkisson says:

“The reason I looked into this is a couple of months ago, I got tips from three or four different segments of public healthcare, with folks telling me the CDC has recommended that they go ahead and stop testing for and counting swine flu cases.

Each different entity that contacted me was concerned, thinking that this should not be happening. They really felt that it was necessary for the swine flu to continue to be tracked in some details. So I went about trying to find out why this decision was made and what the ramifications would be.

… I started by contacting the CDC and the HHS and asking some basic questions. I felt like I pretty much got stonewalled with some of the information I really needed to get at, especially what I needed from the states data, and information on the rationale behind this decision to stop counting and testing for swine flu.”

Because the CDC did not initially respond to Attkisson’s requests, she contacted all 50 states directly, asking for their statistics on state lab-confirmed H1N1 prior to the halt of individual testing and counting in July. She also asked states, one by one, to help explain the rationale behind the CDC’s decision to stop tracking H1N1 cases.

Attkisson continues:

“One of my good sources within the government said to me that they’re either trying to, in his opinion, over-represent the swine flu numbers or under-represent by not counting them anymore. He said, “You need to find out which it is.” And so to find out which it might be, I really wanted to see the data that the CDC had at the time it made the decision to quit counting the cases.” 

What Her Investigative Report Reveals

If you listen to most media outlets and even to government agencies, you get the impression that virtually every person who has visited their physician with flu-like symptoms in recent months has H1N1, with no testing necessary because, after all, there’s an epidemic.

We are all being led to believe that every case diagnosed as “swine flu” or even as “flu-like illness” is, in fact, swine flu.

But Attkisson’s investigation revealed a very different picture right from her first contact with individual states. She explains:

“Across the country, state by state, they were testing [for H1N1] until CDC told them not to bother. They were testing, in general, the cases most likely to be believed to have been swine flu based on a doctor’s diagnosis of symptoms and risk factors such as travel to Mexico.

These special cases were going to state labs for absolute confirmation with the best test — not the so-called ‘rapid testing,’ but the real confirmation test.

Of those presumed likely swine flu cases out of approximately every hundred of what was tested, only a small fraction were actually swine flu. In every instance, perhaps the biggest number of cases that were swine flu was something like 30%. The smallest number was something like 2% or 3%.

Maybe there’s one state where it was just 1%.

The point is, of the vast majority of the presumed swine flu cases recognized by trained physicians, the vast majority were not flu at all. They weren’t swine flu or regular flu; they were some other sort of upper respiratory infection.

And here is the clincher that it seems the CDC just doesn’t want the American public to know …

The CDC explained that one of the reasons they quit counting was because of all the flu that’s out there, most are swine flu. Well, that’s true. Most of the flu that was out there was indeed swine flu, but they failed to say that most of the suspected flu was nothing at all. And I think that’s the caveat the public just didn’t know,” Attkisson explains.

She gives even more striking examples of the numbers the investigative report revealed. For instance:

• In Florida, 83 percent of specimens that were presumed to be swine flu were negative for all flu when tested!
• In California, 86 percent of suspected H1N1 specimens were not swine flu or any flu; only 2 percent were confirmed swine flu.
• In Alaska, 93 percent of suspected swine flu specimens were negative for all flu types; only 1 percent was H1N1 flu.

Freedom of Information and Getting the Truth Out
It is not easy for journalists to access this type of information, and they often have to wait weeks, months or even years for information from the CDC and the FDA — information that is readily available and supposed to be clearly public.

Attkisson expands on the difficulties she faced in trying to get simple data regarding swine flu cases in the United States:

“They [CDC’s public affairs] quit communicating with me when I pressed on why I couldn’t get certain information. They just wouldn’t answer my emails anymore. So I had to file a Freedom of Information request, which is usually my last choice because I know I was going into a deep black hole many times and I’ll never get an answer.

But in this case, I got an interesting response on October 19 from the CDC when I had asked for some simple, public documents that would have been easy for them to obtain too quickly.

Journalists are allowed to ask for expedited processing of their Freedom of Information request because, for obvious reasons, they’re working on a story that may have public impact or be of public interest. The agencies are not supposed to use the Freedom of Information Law to obstruct or delay the release of this information.

This may be the first time I was denied that expedited processing from Freedom of Information that we’re entitled to as members of the press; a letter from HHS or Health and Human Services (the CDC is under HHS) said to me that one of the reasons they’re denying my expedited processing is because this is not a matter of ‘widespread and exceptional media or public interest.’

In other words, the CDC doesn’t think these questions about swine flu prevalence and these other things that we’ve been asking are, at least in their opinion in this letter, not a matter of widespread and exceptional media or public interest.”

Yet, while the CDC expressed that questions about swine flu prevalence were not a matter of widespread media or public interest, the President had declared the swine flu a national public health emergency!

The inconsistencies at the CDC are nearly incomprehensible.

The Ramifications of the Swine Flu Policy

According to Attkisson’s CBS News study, when you come down with chills, fever, cough, runny nose, malaise and all those other “flu-like” symptoms, the illness is likely caused by influenza at most 17 percent of the time and as little as 3 percent! The other 83 to 97 percent of the time it’s caused by other viruses or bacteria.

So remember that not every illness that appears to be the flu actually is the flu. In fact, most of the time it’s not.

Curiously, the CDC still advises those who were told they had 2009 H1N1 (and therefore should be immune to getting it again) to get vaccinated unless they had lab confirmation.

But because very few people have actually had a lab-confirmed case of H1N1 (and in most cases those people told they had swine flu probably did not), this means nearly everyone is still being advised to get the swine flu vaccine.

Attkisson has been one of the few to speak out against this flawed system and point out the serious ramifications that come when a public health agency is secretive about their health data.

Attkisson says:

“From a public and journalistic standpoint, I believe the mistake comes when you don’t fully disclose to the public as you go and discover the mistakes. Try to disclose and fix things that come up.

Everybody understands that there isn’t a perfect system, but I think you need to be upfront with them, explain what you’re doing, and explain what you’re discovering. If you’ve made a mistake or you feel like you need to correct something, say that, too, but don’t just try to keep information from the public.”

I couldn’t agree more, and Attkisson’s CBS News report has stood out like a bright light of truth among all the clouds of misinformation.

If you’d like to learn more about the report and its findings, you can read all the details in the past article CBS Reveals that Swine Flu Cases Seriously Overestimated.

Source: Mercola.com

Resources:
H1N1 Videos

Immunization H1N1 Vaccine Commentary | Liberty International

Be aware the H1N1 swine flu is being touted by government and health agencies worldwide as the next pandemic and are selling millions of vaccines.

In our opinion the fear of pandemic is being intentionally created without considering the side effects and possible health consequences of this and other vaccines which remain controversial at best.

Additionally, the nasal mist introducing a live virus which may make the receiver contagious if they breath or sneeze near others. Become informed!

You can view a few selected videos here and download a State of Oregon brochure and find out more about personal, religious or medical exemptions.

Nobody can force you or your child to take a vaccine!

American & the World Beyond 9/11 | Liberty International

By Johnny Liberty

Author’s Note: This article was written a few years after 9/11/01. I re-post it here for your reflection on the 8th anniversary.

Preface: In these times, to dare to speak the truth about 911 is heresy, a revolutionary act. The future has been unfolding in the media like a novel written with malice towards freedom-loving, God-loving people everywhere. The “war on terror” is a war for the minds and souls of the people, a war on consciousness. On this eight-year anniversary of 9/11, this is a call to action, to speak out, to stand and to think for yourself. What really happened? Who is really responsible? What are you going to do about it? This is another judgment day. May you not remain blind to the engineered events designed to shape our world. What you believe is a choice of consciousness. Will you choose a world of fear and perpetual terror, or a world of love, tolerance , diversity and freedom for all? The choice is yours.

Artwork: Norman Rockwell’s Famous Four Freedoms (Fear, Religion, Speech and Want )

In the hours and days following the tragic event of 9/11, I experienced a strange and wakeful honesty in the American people. As if a spell cast by dark forces had been broken, I witnessed honest emotions and tears huddled around television sets, on the streets, in the bars, offices, synagogues and churches, even in the confused looks of the newscasters reporting the news who had no clue what was happening. For the first-time, nobody was cuing them in their earpieces, spinning the news and telling them what to say. They had to improvise.

These hours and days following the collapse of the World Trade Center, the plane crash in Pennsylvania and the Pentagon, was a time of breakdown and breakthrough. Not since the assassination of John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King and John Lennon, had I experienced such a tragic yet spiritual and emotional awakening in America. These are the times that try mens souls.

What do you remember feeling that day? When did the grief really hit you in the heart? When did the shockwave’s of disbelief rock your world? 9/11 changed everybody and everything forever in America and the world. Whether it changed for the better or worse depends on what you are willing to look at and question.

So what happened in your world beyond 9/11?

Did you go back to sleep? Or did you finally wake up to the spin-master engineered news, false flag covert operations and pretense of lies and deceit comprising much of our daily intake of “reality?”

What are you going to do about it? How are you going to change your life in the future for the better? How are we going to change our strategy for ending “terror?” What can you and I do to prevent such an atrocity from ever happening again? How can we win this “war on terror” and ever achieve true security? What are you willing to do to create “another world order” where another 9/11 is unthinkable anywhere in the world, not just in America?

What are you willing to admit about America’s responsibility, we the people’s responsibility for creating conditions in the world over the last five decades that have left millions of people in enough despair and hopelessness to hate us? Why haven’t we listened? Why haven’t we cared enough? Why haven’t we done enough to respect those who think and believe differently than we do?

What really happened that day? Who is really responsible for engineering that event? Did the 9/11 Commission get to the bottom of it and tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth to the American people? Was Bin Laden really the culprit or was he just the fall guy like Oswald or another CIA asset?

What have you learned?

Three years later on the anniversary of 9/11, what have you learned?

I learned to stay more awake to what’s really important in my life. My priorities shifted. I learned to be more watchful of what’s being said in the media, listening carefully to the lies between the lines. I am more willing to stand in disbelief than to rush into a false belief or conclusion. I’m not as willing to believe without questioning authority and the status quo. According to a Zogby International poll released last month, almost 50% of New Yorkers believe the government knew 9/11 was going to happen and did nothing to stop it.

Have you learned history often happens by design, not just by an accident of fate. An old proverb sums it up. “If we don’t learn from history, we are condemned to repeat it.”

History teaches that 9/11 could very well have been planned by a cast of characters much larger and closer to home than we’re being told or have been willing to believe. Remember the Reichstag? Hitler planned it to discredit his opponents and seize power. He accomplished his goal by a secret act of terror against his own people. Is it possible something similar happened with 9/11?

Are you more willing to question external authority and doubt the veracity of our leaders? Are you more willing to trust your own internal authority? Are you more willing to become a leader in your own life and in the lives of those around you? Are you more willing to find out the truth for yourself and use your own mind to discern truth from lies?

Awake or asleep?

Have we as a people, as a nation awoken more to the truth since 9/11, or returned to sleepwalking through our existence? Are we just too busy surviving, too tired, too lazy and too scared to live in the truth? Have we returned to the business of struggling to survive, just paying the bills, drugging ourselves with anti-depressants while entertaining ourselves and struggling to succeed in a no-win, dead-endgame? Or are we beginning to question external authority and the mainstream media story? Are we the people going to wake up for good or fall hopelessly back asleep? You decide.

Believers or doubters?

Are we the people still true believers in the mainstream media story spun hours and days after the tragic event of 9/11? Or are we willing to discover the truth for ourselves, at least doubt enough to question? Bin Laden as the perpetrator of 9/11 was spun out long before there was any evidence. In my mind, 9/11 was written like a movie script, not a real world event. There are too many unanswered questions and missing pieces to be a sound explanation. What are they hiding and where is Bin Laden? Why are we not getting the whole truth and nothing but?

Are we the people tired of being lied to, tired of being cheated and robbed of the truth in broad daylight? Are we ready to step into our own power and face the uncomfortable truth? There are huge and credible doubts being illuminated from many competent and credible sources? There are mountains of evidence that not only have the American people and the world been lied to by the mainstream media and our leaders, but high-level officials in several governments were complicit if not altogether in on the planning and implementation of 9/11.

Truth is stranger than fiction

During our darkest and most dangerous hour, agencies and individuals with the power and capacity to defend America acted incompetently. Instead of defending the country as they are obliged to do, the FBI, CIA, Pentagon, security at the airports and strategic air defenses all failed to prevent the attacks. That became clear after the 9/11 Commission reports.

They could have shot those planes out of the air before they hit the buildings. They didn’t. Why not?

Who was in charge? Who gave the order to disengage the strategic air defenses (AWAC) violating long-time standard procedures? Only two people in the world have that power: President George W. Bush Jr. and the NATO commander-in-chief.

Attack on America and the world

America was attacked on September 11th, 2001, but so was the world. Yes. America was attacked on her own soil, but by whom and for what purpose? Who benefited? Who profited? Who is paying the price? You and I are losing our freedoms, losing our liberty in the name of a perpetual “war on terror,” losing our country and our way of life. This loss is as much a result of the attack on America as our reactive and immature response.

Since the war in Afghanistan and the war in Iraq America and the world is no safer, but less secure since 9/11. The Department of Homeland Security promotes “terror” at home and abroad. “Terror” is now institutionalized. “Terror” is now part of the American dreamscape. America has changed forever, and at this juncture America has changed for the worst not the better.

It’s not Bin Laden and Al Queda causing economic instabilities at home, although he’s a great scapegoat. Our economic decline is directly a result of failed leadership, shortsightedness, greed and complicity as a people permitting the loss of liberty to fight this no-win “war on terrorism.” America is finally paying a price for our sins.

Change in America and the world

America is now a dying nation, just a memory of a once free country of free people, rapidly becoming another third world country economically. Who looks each other in the eyes on the streets and extends a warm welcome anymore? Who do you trust? Why are we projecting so much fear and suspicion upon each other? America is a nation no more.

America is acting like a global tyrant and bully in the eyes of most of the civilized world. America is looking and feeling more like fascist Germany or communist Russia these days, not the America I love. Flying into New York City after the Republican National Convention last month, I witnessed a city and a government under siege, under military occupation with troops and helicopters, police and barriers everywhere. How long can the U.S. Government hide behind their prison walls and keep the truth from us?

We the People as a nation are dying. Liberty and justice for all is dying. Are you going to help America be reborn as a free country or let it die in your arms? You decide what you are going to do about it.

Do you accept in your mind without question, without concern, these profound changes in America, our republican form of government and the limited power delegated to our leaders? Have you changed your mind to accommodate the perpetual “war on terrorism,” or is it still just a bad dream? Will you stand up for the nation America could be again?

The wisdom of insecurity

Do you accept airport security systems as a necessary sacrifice in the “war on terror”? Or do you avoid airport security systems by refusing to fly commercially?

The Transportation

Security Authority haven’t to my knowledge caught a single terrorist at any airport, yet millions of us must suffer delays, interrogation, blacklisting and invasive searches on a daily basis just in case one is found. This is not a security system. This is an insult, an indoctrination system for the American people. Get used to the police state. Today, it’s more security at the airports. Tomorrow, it’s the military policing your hometown or in New York City or Washington D.C..

The day after 9/11, I knew in my gut that America had changed forever. I knew it then and see it now. If I could push a magic button and whisk America back to September 10th, 2001, I would push that button now. But I cannot. I don’t have that power. Pandora will never go back into the box. Sooner or later, we the people must step beyond denial and look squarely into the eyes of our future, for better or worse depends completely on you and I.

A simple 9/11 theory

Here’s a simple theory about 9/11. 9/11 was an inside job planned by high-level officials in several governments (e.g., United States, United Kingdom and Israel). 9/11 was a covert operation planned by several intelligence communities (e.g., CIA, British intelligence, Mossad, Pakistani intelligence) on behalf of these governments and other powers in collaboration with Bin Laden and Saudi Arabia. 9/11 was another stepping stone for establishing world government and destroying national sovereignty.

The purpose for 9/11 was to change America’s democratic form of government into a fascist form of government by emergency decree of the President and by reorganizing the federal government’s police powers in a Department of Homeland Security.

The purpose for 9/11 was to perpetuate a “war on terror,” justify America’s empire-building around the world in 162 countries where America has a military or police presence to secure future oil and continuous profits from war. 9/11 was a coup d’etat of the American political system which succeeded royally in duping the public to accept a change in government. 9/11 ushered “neo-conservatism” and the Israeli lobby for American military superiority in the Middle East into power.

Look at America today. Compare America with 2001 before 9/11. America’s not the same country. The whole world has changed.

The U.S. Congress lost its spine after the “anthrax” scares post-9/11. The U.S. Congress voted and passed the “USA Patriot Act” and will do whatever they’re told for fear or retribution of losing political favor and reelection. Why we the people still believe the government’s lies is anybody’s guess. As Mark Twain once quipped, “How do you know the government is lying? They’re moving their lips.”

Did you know the term “homeland security” was extracted directly from Adolf Hitler’s “Mein Kampf.” The global elite bent on imposing world government for their benefit alone are not only laughing at America, they are killing our sons and daughters on the battlefield of war while we the people stand by watching television and reading the same old manufactured news in the papers. Read the writing on the wall? You don’t need a crystal ball to see where America is going?

Neo-Conservatism = Global Fascism = Global Communism = Global Empire

Do you still believe it was Bin Laden who orchestrated 9/11, acting alone or in consort with Al Queda? Do you still believe Saddam Hussein had anything to do with 9/11? Are you not aware both Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein were put into power, provided guns, weapons and trained by the CIA? Do you still believe Al Queda, created by the CIA while Bin Laden was under their employ, exists independent of our own intelligence community? Factions within the U.S. Government created a new enemy for the global elite in Al Queda so America could fight the perpetual war for profit and change our form of government more to their liking.

Terrorism and war

All our expensive and futile efforts at fighting this elusive “war on terror,” post 9/11, have done nothing to stop “terrorism” or catch and prosecute a single “terrorist” responsible for the attacks. If anything, our efforts have poured gasoline on the fire and created more terrorists. If anything, our efforts have stimulated and institutionalized the perpetual continuation of the problem of “terrorism,” not its resolve.

We’re chasing ghosts of America’s past interventions and acts of terror against 162 countries since 1801. We’re chasing boogie men. We’re attacking innocent nations instead of the perpetrators and pointing angry fingers at any Arab-looking person we can blame. How do you blame 2.5 billion people for such a crime?

No matter how much fiat money and military force is thrown at the problem of “terrorism,” it will not and cannot be solved by those in power or those seeking it. Neither George W. Bush or John Kerry have the leadership or the prowess to solve this problem of “terrorism.”

Because the global power structure and the global elite considers the “war on terror” a solution, a means to maintain absolute control on the world as they’ve engineered it. The “war on terror” is the means for keeping power by perpetuating any highly profitable war and making the people pay for it with blood and taxes. It’s a no-win scenario, but the chosen strategy of the hour. There must be a better way to attain world peace.

With few exceptions, our present leaders will not change it. They have a vested self-interest to maintain the status quo at all costs, even a “fascist” status quo leading us down the road to global communism and a total police state.

The change in policy and tactics must come from people with a vision outside the government, from leaders independent of the political process with the capacity for communications, diplomacy and statesmanship. The agenda is to implement massive change of our political and economic landscape. It must come from you and I.

There must be a massive revolution of consciousness, sovereign-minded and compassionate people willing to step into uncomfortable situations and take leadership where the banks, the government, the politicians, the courts and corporations have failed.

The“war on terror” will not end without addressing the roots of war: poverty, injustice, ideological differences, religious intolerance and tyranny. This war will not end by imposing the idea of “democracy” at any nation, Arab or otherwise, then proceeding to rule them by dictatorship as we’re doing in Iraq. Such hypocrisy only inflames their hatred towards America. This war will not end without intelligent conflict resolution and diplomatic skills wielded by statesmen and stateswomen detached from political or personal gain.

Bully in a china shop

America is blundering through the world like a bull in a china shop. America has become a threat to freedom and democracy everywhere. As the world’s only superpower on behalf of global corporate interests, America has become a bully pursuing self-interest and exploiting anywhere we please. America is the new bully on the block. America has lost its vision, its moorings, the foundation of liberty and justice for all. Mostly, America has lost its sense of leadership and respect in the world.

America lashed out at Afghanistan and the Taliban in a rageful fit, yet none of the purported terrorists were from Afghanistan. Most were identified as Saudi Arabians, yet we did not attack Saudi Arabia. If Bin Laden was in Afghanistan, he was well-hidden in some cave, or sequestered in a luxury hotel somewhere unbeknownst to American, British and Israeli intelligence? Or has Bin Laden been dead for years and the CIA has been doctoring up some old videos to make us think he’s still alive and masterminding his next attack on America? You can’t believe everything you watch on television or read in the newspapers.

America lashed out at the people of Iraq and Saddam Hussein looking for weapons of mass destruction that were not there. Or was the war really about confiscating the oil for American and British companies? America struggles to occupy an Islamic country that has no interest in foreign rule, especially from “infidels.” America is isolated and alone in the global community, with few allies in this effort.

What happened to the justifiable outrage after the attack on America? Has it turned upon America and the world in a strange, twisted and self-destructive way? Have we poisoned the soul of a nation and turned into our own worst enemy perceived as a threat even by our friends in the global community? Are we just another example of an another empire destined to collapse, not from foreign invaders, but from a collapse of integrity within?

Our daily lives in America and in the world have changed forever. Elected representatives, political opportunists and judicial activists at home have taken advantage of our character weakness, our fear and confusion to foist a new way of life upon America inconsistent with long-held principles inherent in the founding of this country. Instead of grieving with us on this day, the opportunist at home serves their greedy self-interest and bolsters an un-American agenda. Anyone of sane mind, might dare call it treason.

We now live in a police state, a virtual dictatorship by the President resulting in less freedom, less liberty, more incursions into our daily lives, spying by the FBI into our private lives, attacks upon our liberties by the Department of Justice, all using the same lame excuse of fighting a “war on terror,” a war that cannot be won.

The Department of Justice acquired sweeping new powers under the “USA Patriot Act.” The President can list anyone as an “enemy combatant,” strip them of the writ of habeas corpus, due process and a trial, even representation by an attorney to defend themselves. This is a dangerous precedent and has no place in a free country, a republic of, by and for the people. Although, this power has been somewhat restricted by the U.S. Supreme Court, it’s still a dangerous power and precedent.

I repeat, the “war on terror” cannot be won anymore than the “war on drugs,” the “war on poverty” or any of the other so-called wars declared by the U.S. Government. These wars are marketing concepts created by government public relations departments, not solutions to pressing problems and global issues.

Problems are not solved by declaring war or creating a new government bureaucracy. Problems are solved by thoughtful examination of all the factors involved and implementing a careful conflict resolution process addressing the underlying roots and causes. It takes a great mind and deep heart to take opposing ideas and resolve conflict, not a bully.

Empowerment and change. So what can we do about it?

As Gandhi once said, “It may seem very insignificant what you do, but it is very important you do it.” Large or small actions, each one of us can make a difference in America and the world. Together we can shift the tide towards liberty and justice for all, limited government and the rule of law and compassion.

We can wake up, get educated, become prosperous and share wealth with others. We can implement a bigger idea of “sovereignty” in our lives, take responsibility and reclaim title to self and property. We can work on the environment, raise a child, create new businesses to solve problems and provide services to those in need.

We can identity the causes, problems and conditions underlying terrorism and create new results and solutions. It takes resolve. It takes willpower, competence, intelligence and leadership. Are you willing to step into leadership now?

It’s not the few truly evil people in the world that concerns me most. It’s the good people, good men and women who stand by and do nothing when evil does its dance. Do something, anything to make a difference. You can.

The choice is yours.

Resources:
911 Commission Report (pdf) & Response (pdf)
911 Historical Timeline
911 Video Archives (Camera Planet)
America and the World Beyond 911 by Johnny Liberty (pdf)
A Hard Rain (pdf)
Awaken to Consciousness by Dalai Lama (pdf)
Chief Arvol Looking Horse’s Perspective (pdf)
FAA Destroys Terror Tape (pdf)
Inside Job Music (mp3) by Don Henley
Let’s Roll 9/11
Lies a Sixth Grader Would Not Accept by Michael Ruppert
Painful Questions Ad (pdf)
Self-Evident Poem and Music (mp3) by Ani DiFranco
Reflections After 911 by Johnny Liberty (pdf)
USA Patriot Act (pdf)

Intelligent news for the rest of us.

Reflections on 911 | Liberty International

By Johnny Liberty

Author’s Note: This article was written a few days after 9/11/01. I re-post it here for your reflection on the 8th anniversary.

Here we sit at another crossroads. Life offers so many opportunities for reflection. Where are we? What have we done? How is our way of life changed forever, for better or worse? What is the state of our nation? Are we a “kinder and gentler America” as Senior Bush once promised during his campaign for the presidency? Or are we set on a course towards oblivion?

During the fall of the Roman Empire most people couldn’t imagine life being any different. Ask anyone who was there. Most people believed, I imagine, that the Roman Empire would continue forever. That it was too big, too large, too entrenched, too much the status quo for change to ever happen. Yes, they believed then as we believe now, that the American Empire will go on forever.

Now that America is the world’s only superpower, we can arrogantly do whatever we want. We can invade Afghanistan. We can attack Iraq because we don’t like their leader. We can topple governments and establish dictatorships more akin to our way of thinking. We are America after all. America is good. America is God. America can do no wrong.

So then why do so many people hate America around the world. Why is America seen as a threat? Why would anybody want to blow up the World Trade Center buildings and kills innocent civilians as an act of terror, an act of war? Have we stopped shopping long enough to really consider this question?

Hmm. I don’t think we’ve learned the lessons from 9/11. And until the American people learn the lesson, the teacher is going to continue to pursue terrorist attacks against America at home and abroad. And all our efforts towards establishing “homeland security” will be ineffective and absurd.

The only ones more secure are the terrorists themselves, secure in knowing that if the conditions around the world and in many poor countries don’t change, that if American foreign policies don’t change, that if the rich continue to plunder the poor, that more terrorist attacks will be justified, in fact necessary to tame the beast.

But American’s will have to stop shopping and watching television long enough to reflect upon these conditions, to inform and educate themselves about global issues and concerns. And if we fail to do so, our way of life is destroyed. Our so-called democracy has failed and tyranny and absolute dictatorship will replace it.

Furthermore the American Empire will fall just like the Roman Empire did. Bush fiddled while America and the World Trade Center towers burned. We have a lot to learn. What does 9/11 mean to you and what have you learned?

THE PATRIOT ACT

What I’ve learned since 9/11 is that the USA Patriot Act has amended fundamental law unconstitutionally to provide additional powers to the goverment, to the Executive Branch, the FBI and the Attorney General’s office in the Department of Justice, and especially to the banker’s. This is a banker’s bill to protect the Federal Reserve Banking cartel and punish those who might compete with them, foreign or domestic.

This bill was passed by the U.S. Congress without reading it after 9/11. It was prepared for the U.S. Congress by the attorneys for Morgan-Chase, the largest bank in America. All of these actions are unconstitutional as they contradict our unalienable rights as a sovereign people. So you have to ask yourself under this law, are there any possible situations where you might be considered a terrorist by your own government? So who and where are the real terrorists? I think you know by now.

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE PATRIOT ACT
© 2002 Associated Press

Freedom of Association:
Government may monitor religious and political institutions without suspecting criminal activity to assist terror
investigation.

Freedom of Information:
Government has closed once-public immigration hearings, has secretly detained hundreds of people without charges and has encouraged bureaucrats to resist public records requests.

Freedom of Speech:
Government may prosecute librarians or keepers of any other records if they tell anyone that the government subpoenaed information effects without probable cause to assist terror investigation.

Right to Legal Representation:
Government may monitor federal prison jailhouse conversations between attorneys and clients, and deny lawyers to Americans accused of crimes.

Freedom from Unreasonable Searches:
Government may search and seize Americans’ papers and effects without probable cause to assist terror investigation.

Right to a Speedy and Public Trial:
Government may jail Americans indefinitely without a trial.

Right to Liberty:
Americans may be jailed without being charged or being able to confront witnesses against them related to a terror investigation.

Resources:
911 Commission Report (pdf) & Response (pdf)
911 Historical Timeline
911 Video Archives (Camera Planet)
America and the World Beyond 911 by Johnny Liberty (pdf)
A Hard Rain (pdf)
Awaken to Consciousness by Dalai Lama (pdf)
Chief Arvol Looking Horse’s Perspective (pdf)
FAA Destroys Terror Tape (pdf)
Inside Job Music (mp3) by Don Henley
Let’s Roll 9/11
Lies a Sixth Grader Would Not Accept by Michael Ruppert
Painful Questions Ad (pdf)
Self-Evident Poem and Music (mp3) by Ani DiFranco
Reflections After 911 by Johnny Liberty (pdf)
USA Patriot Act (pdf)

Intelligent News for the Rest of Us

9/11 Commission Charade | Lew Rockwell

Editor’s Note: I looked through my archives and brought this article forward in memory of the tragedy of 9/11 and the inadequate investigation that followed. There’s are still  many unanswered questions and too many in government office that were not held accountable for their actions or inactions in the face of a national emergency. Shame on America for letting this happen.

By Ron Paul

August 24, 2004 – The 9-11 Commission report, released late last month (i.e., July 2004), has disrupted the normally quiet Washington August. Various congressional committees are holding hearings on the report this week, even though Congress is not in session, in an attempt to show the government is “doing something” about terrorism in an election year. The Commission recommendations themselves have been accepted reverently and without question, as if handed down from on high.

But what exactly is going on here? These hearings amount to nothing more than current government officials meeting with former government officials, many of whom now lobby government officials, and agreeing that we need more government! The current and past architects of the very bureaucracy that failed Americans so badly on September 11th three years ago are now meeting to recommend more bureaucracy. Why on earth do we assume that former government officials, some of whom are self-interested government lobbyists, suddenly become wise, benevolent, and politically neutral when they retire? Why do we look to former bureaucrats to address a bureaucratic failure?

The 9-11 Commission report is several hundred pages worth of recommendations to make government larger and more intrusive. Does this surprise anyone? It was written by people who cannot imagine any solution not coming from government. One thing you definitely will not see in the Commission report is a single critique of our interventionist foreign policy, which is the real source of most anti-American feelings around the globe.

The Commissioners recommend the government spend billions of dollars spreading pro-US propaganda overseas, as if that will convince the world to love us. What we have forgotten in the years since the end of the Cold War is that actions speak louder than words. The US didn’t need propaganda in the captive nations of Eastern Europe during the Cold War because people knew us by our deeds. They could see the difference between the United States and their Soviet overlords. That is why, given the first chance, they chose freedom. Yet everything we have done in response to the 9-11 attacks, from the Patriot Act to the war in Iraq, has reduced freedom in America. Spending more money abroad or restricting liberties at home will do nothing to deter terrorists, yet this is exactly what the 9-11 Commission recommends.

Our nation will be safer only when government does less, not more. Rather than asking ourselves what Congress or the president should be doing about terrorism, we ought to ask what government should stop doing. It should stop spending trillions of dollars on unconstitutional programs that detract from basic government functions like national defense and border security. It should stop meddling in the internal affairs of foreign nations, but instead demonstrate by example the superiority of freedom, capitalism, and an open society. It should stop engaging in nation-building, and stop trying to create democratic societies through military force. It should stop militarizing future enemies, as we did by supplying money and weapons to characters like Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein. It should stop entangling the American people in unholy alliances like the UN and NATO, and pledge that our armed forces will never serve under foreign command. It should stop committing American troops to useless, expensive, and troublesome assignments overseas, and instead commit the Department of Defense to actually defending America. It should stop interfering with the 2nd amendment rights of private citizens and businesses seeking to defend themselves.

More than anything, our federal government should stop deluding us that more government is the answer. We have far more to fear from an unaccountable government at home than from any foreign terrorist.

Source: Lew Rockwell

Resources:
911 Commission Report (pdf) & Response (pdf)
911 Historical Timeline
911 Video Archives (Camera Planet)
America and the World Beyond 911 by Johnny Liberty (pdf)
A Hard Rain (pdf)
Awaken to Consciousness by Dalai Lama (pdf)
Chief Arvol Looking Horse’s Perspective (pdf)
FAA Destroys Terror Tape (pdf)
Inside Job Music (mp3) by Don Henley
Let’s Roll 9/11
Lies a Sixth Grader Would Not Accept by Michael Ruppert
Painful Questions Ad (pdf)
Self-Evident Poem and Music (mp3) by Ani DiFranco
Reflections After 911 by Johnny Liberty (pdf)
USA Patriot Act (pdf)

“There is no longer any serious doubt that Bush administration officials deceived us into war. The key question now is why so many influential people are in denial, unwilling to admit the obvious…

But even people who aren’t partisan Republicans shy away from confronting the administration’s dishonest case for war, because they don’t want to face the implications…

After all, suppose a politician – or a journalist -
admits to himself that Mr. Bush bamboozled the nation into war.
Well, launching a war on false pretenses is, to say the least a breach of trust.

So if you admit to yourself that such a thing happened,
you have a moral obligation to demand accountability -
and to do so in the face not only of a powerful,
ruthless political machine but in the face of a country
not yet ready to believe that its leaders have exploited
9/11 for political gain. It’s a scary prospect.

Yet, if we can’t find people willing to take the risk -
to face the truth and act on it – what will happen to our democracy?”
–Paul Krugman, The New York Times, June 24, 2003

Intelligent News for the Rest of Us

Fiji Water: So cool, so fresh, so bad for the environment?

By Sarah Gilbert

The story of Fiji Water, as detailed in a startling and detailed investigative piece in Mother Jones magazine this month, seems familiar. Leafing through the story, I found myself trying to remember where I’d read this tale before; like an old melody at the back of my brain, it hovered, just beyond memory.

Suddenly it came to me: it’s Dole, it’s West Indies Sugar Corporation, it’s the old, old story. A company located in a lush, tropical location with a totalitarian government that welcomes foreign interests with deep pockets. It doesn’t tax them, gives them access to the country’s most precious natural resources, and stands by with heavy artillery in hand, protecting them while they strip the country.

Meanwhile, the country’s citizens struggle with terrible poverty, hunger and squalid conditions. The only part of the story that Fiji Water has not yet repeated is the inevitable depletion of the resource — in this case, a 17-mile-long aquifer to which Fiji Water has “near-exclusive access” — and the subsequent abandonment of the country.

What makes this story so difficult to swallow is how eagerly the U.S. seems to have embraced Fiji’s co-owners Stewart and Lynda Resnick. On this side of the Pacific, the pair cheerfully line the pockets of any political figure in sight (they supported both McCain and Obama in the past election) while selling Fiji’s best, cleanest water at a huge profit. On the other side of the ocean, the people of Fiji suffer under terrible water conditions that have led to outbreaks of typhoid and parasitic infections.

It appears that America has embraced the Resnicks: Lynda brags that she knows “everyone in the world, every mogul, every movie star.” These relationships have proven handy, as the Resnicks have reaped $1.5 million a year in water subsidies for their almond, pistachio and pomegranate crops in the U.S.

These agricultural water subsidies must be viewed in context: the stress from travelling to pollinate the almond “monoculture” crops like the ones the Resnicks grow, along with the pesticides they sell, are considered to be some of the major reasons that bees are succumbing to colony collapse disorder. And the Resnicks control an enormous amount of California water infrastructure that was built by public funds. They have a 48 percent interest in the Kern Water Bank, which was meant to collect water from aqueducts and the Kern River and to redistribute this water in times of drought.

The Resnicks and their Paramount Farms and Paramount Citrus could use the water to irrigate their fields (which are already subsidized by the government), or they could sell it to municipalities. According to critics, the Resnicks are “trying to ‘game’ the water market the way Enron gamed the energy market.”

So the Resnicks are not known for their even-handedness with politicians or water, and their practices in the U.S. are not the greenest of all possible greens. In fact, they could share responsibility for many of our environmental woes. They could have a hand in California’s future water shortages, during which they could profit gloriously. All the while, they are loudly and proudly marketing Fiji Water as the most environmentally friendly bottled water company in the world.

This, of course, is not saying much. Bottled water is notorious for its position in top five lists of “what not to do” for the planet. One day, future civilizations will look back on this decade and wonder in disbelief why it was that we pumped water out of one part of the planet, encased it in plastic, then encased it again for shipping, and spent many many non-renewable resources to bring it to another part of the planet where clean water was already plentiful. It’s patently ridiculous.

The story is disturbing because of the truths it tells us about ourselves and our society. It’s not just the water thing. It’s the marketing. Lynda Resnick has been repeatedly described as a marketing genius for her ability to transform Fiji Water into a must-have accessory for environmentally-conscious celebrities and politicians, despite its heavy use of plastic and questionable commitment to environmentally sustainable practices. And oh, we are drinking the marketing at far greater rates than we are drinking the water. Our celebrities both enormous (Obama, Paris, and their ilk) and minor (the geekarati at the SXSW festival) can’t live without it. So neither can we. Whatever celebrities sell us? YUM. Damn the consequences.

It’s troubling, at the end of the story, that the company is not, as Anna Lenzer writes in her follow-up to the story (after Fiji Water spokesman Rob Six defended his company) doing anything about the military junta now controlling Fiji. “A UN official . . . in a recent commentary . . . singled out Fiji Water as the one company with enough leverage to force the junta to budge.”

The commentary, by the way, was titled “Why Obama should stop drinking Fiji water.”

Source: Daily Finance & Mother Jones

Bernanke, BATF, Border Patrol, Digital TV, and the Power of the Sheriff | Reality Report

In this edition Gary Franchi presents another update from Ron Paul on the Audit of the the Federal Reserve system and a shocking admission from Ben Bernanke that he’s clueless about where the money is, and he provides a story about the new global currency, and presents an update from the pastor that was beat up by the Border Patrol.

Gary will also present to you the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms response to Tennessee and Montana’s recent legislation against federal intervention in their state firearms laws. He will also share what a recent IBM employee thinks will happen to the new swath of frequencies recently opened up by the abandonment of the analog TV signal, and present part one of a series on The Power of the Sheriff, presented by Sheriff Mack.

Resources:
Video

9/11 Commission Counsel: Government Agreed to Lie | PrisonPlanet.com

BY Paul Joseph Watson

The senior counsel to the 9/11 Commission – John Farmer – says that the government agreed not to tell the truth about 9/11, echoing the assertions of fellow 9/11 Commission members who concluded that the Pentagon were engaged in deliberate deception about their response to the attack.

Farmer served as Senior Counsel to the 9/11 Commission (officially known as the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States), and is also a former New Jersey Attorney General.

Farmer’s book about his experiences working for the Commission is entitled The Ground Truth: The Story Behind America’s Defense on 9/11, and is set to be released tomorrow.

The book unveils how “the public had been seriously misled about what occurred during the morning of the attacks,” and Farmer himself states that “at some level of the government, at some point in time…there was an agreement not to tell the truth about what happened.”

Only the very naive would dispute that an agreement not to tell the truth is an agreement to lie. Farmer’s contention is that the government agreed to create a phony official version of events to cover-up the real story behind 9/11.

The publisher of the book, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, states that, “Farmer builds the inescapably convincing case that the official version not only is almost entirely untrue but serves to create a false impression of order and security.”

In August 2006, the Washington Post reported, “Some staff members and commissioners of the Sept. 11 panel concluded that the Pentagon’s initial story of how it reacted to the 2001 terrorist attacks may have been part of a deliberate effort to mislead the commission and the public rather than a reflection of the fog of events on that day, according to sources involved in the debate.”

The report revealed how the 10-member commission deeply suspected deception to the point where they considered referring the matter to the Justice Department for criminal investigation.

“We to this day don’t know why NORAD [the North American Aerospace Command] told us what they told us,” said Thomas H. Kean, the former New Jersey Republican governor who led the commission. “It was just so far from the truth. . . . It’s one of those loose ends that never got tied.”

Farmer himself is quoted in the Post article, stating, “I was shocked at how different the truth was from the way it was described …. The [Norad air defense] tapes told a radically different story from what had been told to us and the public for two years…. This is not spin. This is not true.”

As we also reported in August 2006, released portions of NORAD tapes from 9/11, which were featured in a Vanity Fair article, do little to answer skeptic’s questions about the impotence of U.S. air defenses on 9/11 and if anything only increase focus on the incompatibility of the official version of events with what is actually known to have taken place on that day.

Make no mistake, Farmer is not saying that 9/11 was an inside job, however, Farmer’s testimony, along with that of his fellow 9/11 Commission members, conclusively demonstrates that, whatever really happened on 9/11, the official story as told to the public on the day and that which remains the authorities’ version of events today, is a lie – according to the very people who were tasked by the government to investigate it. This is a fact that no debunker or government apologist can ever legitimately deny.

Research related links:

1. Mukasey Denies Request for Special Counsel to Investigate CIA Interrogators
2. In Their Own Words: Admissions from the people who wrote the 9/11 Commission Report that it was compromised
3. Lehman: Commission Purposely Set Up So that 9/11 Staff Had Conflict of Interest
4. Walter Mondale and Mark Dayton Support New 9/11 Investigation
5. Obama: Trilateral Commission Endgame
6. Pentagon Faxes Charges for September 11 Military Commission
7. British Commission Hypes Bioterrorism Threat
8. Commission Recommends U.S. Use ‘Direct Force’–If Needed–to Stop Iran, N. Korea Nuke Programs
9. McCain’s Economic Snake Oil Commission
10. What Do NORAD’s 9/11 Computer Chat Logs Reveal?
11. UN Human Rights Official Wants Investigation Into US Government Role In 9/11

Source: PrisonPlanet.com

CNBC Anchors Mortified That Ron Paul Was Allowed Air Time

Steve Watson
Infowars.net
Thursday, Feb 26th, 2009

CNBC anchors were left dumbfounded and acted overtly cantankerous yesterday after Congressman Ron Paul’s opening statement at the House Financial Services Committee was broadcast live to an audience of millions.

CNBC went live to the House, clearly without knowing that the Texas Congressman had the initial Republican statement at the hearing of Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke.

After the Congressman spent two and a half minutes lecturing Bernanke on sound money principles, warning that the financial crisis cannot be solved by merely creating credit out of thin air, CNBC cut back to the studio.

Anchors Erin Burnett and Mark Haines were so perturbed by what they had just heard that they immediately cut to a commercial break:

Haines: “This is not going as planned”

Burnett: “No it is not”

Haines: “We were told that there would be a very limited number of opening statements, and it seems to be getting out of control.”

Burnett: “Here’s what we forgot, everybody is taking this live, you know what that means? Why would they miss an opportunity for free air time?”

Haines: “We’re going to take a commercial break and get them out of the way, so that when something really substandard [he must mean substantial?] is happening, we don’t have to interrupt them.”

The Congressman’s speech was powerful and eye opening:

“This is the end of an era,” said Paul, “we can’t reinflate the bubble….if we think that we can reinflate this bubble by artificially creating credit out of thin air and calling it capital, believe me we don’t have a prayer of solving these problems – we have a total misunderstanding of what credit is versus capital.”

Of course, in the eyes of the corporate media shills for the Fed, the Treasury, and Wall Street Paul’s words were “out of control”. How dare he speak such sense and actively question the logic of the almighty ones, our only hope, our saviors (who also happen to be the very same set of criminals that led us down the path to economic ruin in the first instance).

Then again, how could we expect anything else from the likes of CNBC’s Burnett and Haines, who have previously demonstrated a total lack of understanding of the underlying causes of the financial crisis, even commenting that gold has “no inherent value”.

Research related articles:

1. Ron Paul Grills Bernanke: “You Can’t Reinflate The Bubble”
2. CNBC Analyst: Global Bank, Global Currency Within 15 Years
3. Ron Paul: Bernanke Deliberately Destroying Dollar
4. Ron Paul Slams “Born-again Budget Conservatives”
5. Ron Paul Hits Out At “Arrogant” Greenspan
6. Ron Paul: Secretive Elite Control America
7. CNBC Host Recommends Statins be Put in the Water Supply
8. Obama Win Will Not Change Rigged Economy
9. Paul Lectures Bernanke: U.S. Moving Towards Fascism
10. Why The Fed Allowed Derivatives Trading on a Sunday
11. Ron Paul: Greenspan, Bernanke Should Be Criminally Charged
12. Ron Paul: Stimulus Packages Will Turn Recession Into A Depression

Source: InfoWars

Final Version of the Economic Stimulus Plan: How It Impacts Your County (e.g., Jackson County, Oregon)

President Obama has just signed a $790+ billion “stimulus” package for the economy, but do you really believe that will actually help our local economy (or just make government bigger, increase the debt and put more burden than ever on the rest of us)?

If you want to see where the money is being spent (your share of the $2,600 per capita increase in the federal debt) for the “Economic Stimulus Bill” read the following summary:

• Senate Final Stimulus Bill Summary

Articles:
• Oregon Governor Targets Federal Stimulus Dollars
• Senate Stimulus Bill

Your fair share?

The State of Oregon will have to compete for it’s share of the $30 billion slated for the states. At last count Jackson County was slated to receive only $400,000 of that money.

Since the federal debt is increasing at $2,600 per capita for this single expenditure alone (that’s a future obligation for each individual in the country, every man, woman and child), wouldn’t it be a better idea to organize our own local capital and resources to provide for our own needs instead of relying on government to do this for us?

Wouldn’t it make more sense to stop relying on the federal government to bail us out, and start doing this ourselves?

So let’s do the math.

According to the 2006 census Jackson County has a population of 197,071 (updated to 198,615 according to recent statistics on the county website). In effect each of us in Jackson County owes an additional $2,600 to the Federal Reserve Bank (or roughly $520,000,000 given a population of 200,000). That’s a lot of money theoretically leaving Jackson County (if indeed the Fed ever called in the debt).

If each of us in Jackson County had the ability (and the desire) to pool our own local capital of $2,600 per capita and funded our own developments and capital projects (instead of the trickle down effect from Washington DC), we’d have a capital fund in excess of $520,000,000 (that’s right millions of dollars, five times the annual budget of the City of Ashland) instead of a mere trickle down of $400,000 from the Economic Stimulus Plan.

Something is terribly wrong with this economic picture.

• Problem 1 is we cannot create money out of thin air the way the government and banks do.
• Problem 2 is government spending at this magnitude will not only increase the debt per capita, but devalue the currency (meaning you’ll get less bang for the buck, in effect less purchasing power). This will make the economy worse, not better for most of the people.

Yet all those smart people in Washington DC (and a few newly elected) don’t seem to understand the consequences of such spending for the rest of us. You get my drift?

Now, it’s up to us to do something about it.

How can we refocus our efforts to the LOCAL AND REGIONAL community? What positive and hopeful visions and projects would you like to bring to the table and invest your time, effort, energy and resources (including money)?

U.S. Public Debt

The United States total public debt, commonly called the national debt, or U.S. government debt, is the amount of money owed by the federal government of the United States to holders of U.S. debt instruments. Debt held by the public is all federal debt held by states, corporations, individuals, and foreign governments, but does not include intragovernmental debt obligations or debt held in the Social Security Trust Fund. Types of securities held by the public include, but are not limited to, Treasury Bills, Notes, Bonds, TIPS, United States Savings Bonds, and State and Local Government Series securities.[1]

As of February 12, 2009, the total U.S. federal debt was $10.76 trillion [2], or about $37,703 per capita. Of this amount, debt held by the public was roughly $6.45 trillion.[3] In 2007, the public debt was 36.8 percent of GDP [4], with a total debt of 65.5 percent of GDP.[5] The CIA Factbook ranked the total percentage as 23rd in the world.[6]

Public debt is the amount owed by the government to its creditors, whether they are nationals or foreigners. External debt is the debt of all sectors of the economy (public and private), owed to foreigners. In the U.S., foreign ownership of the public debt is a significant part of the nation’s external debt. The Bureau of the Public Debt, a division of the Department of the Treasury, calculates the amount of money owed by the national government on a daily basis.[7][8][9][10] Source: U.S. Public Debt

The estimated population of the United States is 305,670,162 so each citizen’s share of this debt is $35,252.68. Source: U.S. Debt Clock