The People of America Under Siege

April 17, 2008

By Peter Amherst
Copyright Peter Amherst

Fraud, a gray, wraith-like fog that seeps into every nook and cranny, is suffocating this country, concealing the truth and enabling thousands to rob their fellow countrymens' pockets without them realizing it. Here are a few examples from last week.

Here in Washington, the Senate issued its housing bill. Instead of helping homeowners to save their homes, it proposes to take $25 billion from taxpayers' pockets and give it to home builders. Why? So that they can build more homes when we already have a glut of homes that are not selling.

Then the Senate proposed to give a $7,000 tax credit - i.e. more money from your pocket - to anybody who purchased a foreclosed home. Now, as the buyer is already getting a fantastic bargain, why does the buyer need to be further rewarded with more of your money?

But that is only the tip of the iceberg.

The New York Times reported that the Justice Department has put off prosecuting more than 50 corporations suspected of wrongdoing in the past three years. These include such high profile names as MCI and Sears. Instead, they are given "deferred prosecution agreements". If you got caught stealing chewing gum from a 7-Eleven store, would you get a "deferred prosecution agreement"? The moral? Become a big corporation and you will not be prosecuted.

Were there any yelps from either the Democrats or Republicans at this dramatic change in policy at the Justice Department? Not a one. But then, this is Washington, D.C. - that is, Washington, District for Corporations.

Over in England, things are no better. From time immemorial, the Labour Party and the Tories have been mortal enemies. So when they get together all of a sudden, one is rightfully suspicious. And suspicious one should be.

Both Labour and Tories have agreed to block criminal investigations in such corruption cases as BAE Systems - the big defense contractor for a massive Saudi arms deal. BAE has been accused of making secret payments to Saudi Arabia to get the arms deal.

The Labour government and the Tories want to block any future investigations of corporations such as BAE on grounds of "national security". Justices Moses and Sullivan, the judges in that corruption case, issued a stinging rebuke of the government's interference as unlawful. They stated:

"We fear for the reputation of the administration of justice if it can be perverted by a threat...No one,whether within this country or outside, is entitled to interfere with the course of our justice. The rule of law is nothing if it fails to constrain overweening power."

These viginettes are simply a sample of the fraud that saturates every corner of the land - from the ranchers in Texas who are compensated tens of thousand of dollars for alleged damage to their herds from the breakup of the Columbia shuttle, to the corn growers in Kansas who amass millions in subsidies when the price of corn goes below a certain point - then sell the corn anyway when the price rises.

One major area of fraud that has not received the attention it deserves are homeowner associations. Now housing almost 60 million Americans, and with a valuation in excess of an estimated $35 trillion, they have so far escaped the high profile radar screen.

In the last 40 years, an unholy alliance of rich developers, corrupt politicians, greedy lawyers and thousands of other vendors have conspired together to create a housing infrastructure in the U.S. that imprisons homeowners in an interlocking web of fees, fines and foreclosures.

Rich developers essentially bribe politicians with campaign contributions and other cash, to create laws that mandate homeowner associations. The developers then plaster a landscape with ugly, cookie-cutter homes that breathe conformity, conformity.

Citizens are then forced to buy these homes - and all the rules and regulations that the lawyers have erected for them. The more rules, the greater the chance that the innocent homeowner will break one of them - and hey, presto, the lawyer is there to pounce on you. If you do not pay the $3,000 fine, the lawyer will begin foreclosure procedures on your home.

This infrastructure is now so central to life in America, that the courts see it has their sacred duty to uphold it. Hence, if homeowners go up against their homeowner association in court, they will almost invariably lose because the judges cannot afford to let such a critical piece of infrastructure fail. And those audacious homeowners will be hit with tens and hundreds of thousands in legal fees, to serve as fiery beacons to everybody else - "Do not Sue Your HOA".

For more than 10 years now, one website in California, AHRC.com, has courageously published articles that expose the corruption in homeowner associations. It has published articles on a range of topices - from the dictatorial boards of directors that trample on fundamental constitutional rights of homeowners to the HOA lawyers who amass fortunes from homeowners by fining, liening and foreclosing on them.

Now, one of the largest of those law firms, Peters and Freedman of Encinitas, California - who claim to represent more than 700 HOAs - is seeking to close down the AHRC website, and the courts are again colluding with them. The homeowner association infrastructure must be preserved at all costs - even at the price of destroying the First Amendment rights of free speech.

The loudspeakers of this unholy alliance, tell you that this is the land of the free - except of course, when it comes to your homeowner association. Some courts have even held that free speech rights do not exist within homeowner associations. Such pronouncements, of course, are simply part of that fog with which they seek to engulf you, so that you cannot see the difference between reality and appearance - while they rob you blind at every possible opportunity.

Those who hold power in our country cannot long continue to defraud both their fellow citizens and the world. They were recently exposed to the rest of the world when their scheme to securitize mortages fell apart. As the economic pain intensifies in the U.S. every year with the export of jobs, the fraudeteers will resort to increasingly more desperate schemes to extract money from Americans.

Already in places like Ohio, Indiana, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania - where the forefront of America's third world status is emerging - there is rising palpable anger, frustration and despair. With 200 million guns on the streets of America - thanks to the fraudeteers - the potential for violence looms larger every day.

When the fraud in homeowner associations, banks, corporations, government and the like are all lumped together, the scenario is truly frightening. The solution, of course, is for the people to take back their country. To do this, they need to dissipate the fog, see things as they really are, and send the fraudeteers packing. A big task? Yes. An impossible task? No.

Websites such as AHRC.com are desperately needed to provide that public forum where ordinary citizens can relay their experiences and provide their insight, so that they can turn the country around. Otherwise, the fog of fraud will continue to hide the crimes that the fraudeteers commit on the people of America. Do what you can to help.