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08 Dec 09

Anatomy Of a Failing Presidency | The Fillmore Gazette

www.fillmoregazette.com/...anatomy-failing-presidency - Preview

Barack-Obama POTUS America disconnect Congress USA Socialist citizens patriotism

Anatomy Of a Failing Presidency
By Gazette Staff Writer — Tuesday, November 24th, 2009












































































An article from American Thinker by Geoffrey P. Hunt
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- In the modern era, we've seen several failed presidencies--led by Jimmy Carter and LBJ. Failed presidents have one strong common trait-- they are repudiated, in the vernacular, spat out.
- Barack Obama is on track to have the most spectacularly failed presidency since Woodrow Wilson.
- Of course, LBJ wisely took the exit ramp early, avoiding a shove into oncoming traffic by his own party. Richard Nixon indeed resigned in disgrace, yet his reputation as a statesman has been partially restored by his triumphant overture to China 20.
- But, Barack Obama is failing. Failing big. Failing fast.
- And failing everywhere: foreign policy, domestic initiatives, and most importantly, in forging connections with the American people.
- The incomparable Dorothy Rabinowitz in the Wall Street Journal put her finger on it: He is failing because he has no understanding of the American people, and may indeed loathe them.
- Clarice Feldman of American Thinker produced a dispositive commentary showing that Obama is failing because fundamentally he is neither smart nor articulate; his intellectual dishonesty is conspicuous by its audacity and lack of shame.
- But, there is something more seriously wrong:
- How could a new president riding in on a wave of unprecedented promise and goodwill have forfeited his tenure and become a lame duck in six months?
- His poll ratings are in free fall. In generic balloting, the Republicans have now seized a five point advantage. This truly is unbelievable. What's going on?
- No, not a narrative about himself. He has a self-narrative, much of it fabricated, cleverly disguised or written by someone else.
- No narrative. Obama doesn't have a narrative.
- But this self-narrative is isolated and doesn't connect with us. He doesn't have an American narrative that draws upon the rest of us.
- All successful presidents have a narrative about the American character that intersects with their own where they display a command of history and reveal an authenticity at the core of their personality that resonates in a positive endearing way with the majority of Americans. We admire those presidents whose narratives not only touch our own, but who seem stronger, wiser, and smarter than we are.
- Presidents we admire are aspirational peers, even those whose politics don't align exactly with our own: Teddy Roosevelt, FDR, Harry Truman, Ike, and Reagan.
- But not this president.
- It's not so much that he's a phony, knows nothing about economics, and is historically illiterate and woefully small minded for the size of the task--all contributory of course.
- It's that he's not one of us.
- And whatever he is, his profile is fuzzy and devoid of content, like a cardboard cutout made from delaminated corrugated paper.
- Moreover, he doesn't command our respect and is unable to appeal to our own common sense. His notions of right and wrong are repugnant and how things work just don't add up. They are not existential.
- His descriptions of the world we live in don't make sense and don't correspond with our experience.
- In the meantime, while we've been struggling to take a measurement of this man, he's dissed just about every one of us--financiers, energy producers, banks, insurance executives, police officers, doctors, nurses, hospital administrators, post office workers, and anybody else who has a non-green job.
- Expect Obama to lament at his last press conference in 2012: "For those of you I offended, I apologize. For those of you who were not offended, you just didn't give me enough time; if only I'd had a second term, I could have offended you too."
- Mercifully, the Founders at the Constitutional Convention in 1787 devised a useful remedy for such a desperate state--staggered terms for both houses of the legislature and the executive.
- An equally abominable Congress can get voted out next year. With a new Congress, there's always hope of legislative gridlock until we vote for president again two short years after that.
- Yes, small presidents do fail, Barack Obama among them. The coyotes howl but the wagon train keeps rolling along.
- Margaret Thatcher: "The trouble with Socialism is, sooner or later you run out of other people's money."
- "When you subsidize poverty and failure, you get more of both." - James Dale Davidson, National Taxpayers Union
- "The more corrupt the state, the more it legislates." - Tacitus
- "A Liberal is a person who will give away everything he doesn't own." - Unknown

03 Dec 09

Arming Goldman With Pistols Against Public: Alice Schroeder - Bloomberg.com

Arming Goldman With Pistols Against Public: Alice Schroeder
Commentary by Alice Schroeder
39 more annotations...
- Dec. 1 (Bloomberg)
- “I just wrote my first reference for
  a gun permit,” said a friend, who told me of swearing to the
  good character of a Goldman Sachs Group Inc. banker who applied
  to the local police for a permit to buy a pistol.
- The banker had
  told this friend of mine that senior Goldman people have loaded
  up on firearms and are now equipped to defend themselves if
  there is a populist uprising against the bank.
- I called Goldman Sachs spokesman Lucas van Praag to ask
  whether it’s true that Goldman partners feel they need handguns
  to protect themselves from the angry proletariat.
- He didn’t call
  me back.
- The New York Police Department has told me that “as a
  preliminary matter” it believes some of the bankers I inquired
  about do have pistol permits. The NYPD also said it will be a
  while before it can name names.
- While we wait, Goldman has wrapped itself in the flag of
  Warren Buffett, with whom it will jointly donate $500 million,
  part of an effort to burnish its image -- and gain new Goldman
  clients.
- Goldman Sachs Chief Executive Officer Lloyd Blankfein
  also reversed himself after having previously called Goldman’s
  greed “God’s work” and apologized earlier this month for
  having participated in things that were “clearly wrong.”
- Has it really come to this? Imagine what emotions must be
  billowing through the halls of Goldman Sachs to provoke the firm
  into an apology.
- Talk that Goldman bankers might have armed
  themselves in self-defense would sound ludicrous, were it not so
  apt a metaphor for the way that the most successful people on
  Wall Street have become a target for public rage.
- Pistol Ready
- Common sense tells you a handgun is probably not even all
  that useful. Suppose an intruder sneaks past the doorman or
  jumps the security fence at night. By the time you pull the
  pistol out of your wife’s jewelry safe, find the ammunition, and
  load your weapon, Fifi the Pomeranian has already been taken
  hostage and the gun won’t do you any good.
- As for carrying a
  loaded pistol when you venture outside, dream on. Concealed gun
  permits are almost impossible for ordinary citizens to obtain in
  New York or nearby states.
- In other words, a little humility and contrition are
  probably the better route.
- Until a couple of weeks ago, that was obvious to everyone
  but Goldman, a firm famous for both prescience and arrogance.
- In
  a display of both, Blankfein began to raise his personal-
  security threat level early in the financial crisis.
- He keeps a
  summer home near the Hamptons, where unrestricted public access
  would put him at risk if the angry mobs rose up and marched to
  the East End of Long Island.
- To the Barricades
- He tried to buy a house elsewhere without attracting
  attention as the financial crisis unfolded in 2007, a move that
  was foiled by the New York Post.
- Then, Blankfein got permission
  from the local authorities to install a security gate at his
  house two months before Bear Stearns Cos. collapsed.
- Blankfein somehow anticipated the persecution
  complex his fellow bankers would soon suffer.
- Surely, though,
  this man who can afford to surround himself with a private army
  of security guards isn’t sleeping with the key to a gun safe
  under his pillow. The thought is just too bizarre to be true.
- So maybe other senior people at Goldman Sachs have gone out
  and bought guns, and they know something. But what?
- Henry Paulson, U.S. Treasury secretary during the bailout
  and a former Goldman Sachs CEO, let it slip during testimony to
  Congress last summer when he explained why it was so critical to
  bail out Goldman Sachs, and -- oh yes -- the other banks.
- People
  “were unhappy with the big discrepancies in wealth, but they at
  least believed in the system and in some form of market-driven
  capitalism. But if we had a complete meltdown, it could lead to
  people questioning the basis of the system.”
- Torn Curtain
- There you have it. The bailout was meant to keep the
  curtain drawn on the way the rich make money, not from the free
  market, but from the lack of one.
- Goldman Sachs blew its cover
  when the firm’s revenue from trading reached a record $27
  billion in the first nine months of this year, and a public that
  was writhing in financial agony caught on that the profits
  earned on taxpayer capital were going to pay employee bonuses.
- This slip-up let the other bailed-out banks happily hand
  off public blame to Goldman, which is unpopular among its peers
  because it always seems to win at everyone’s expense.
- Plenty of Wall Streeters worry about the big discrepancies
  in wealth, and think the rise of a financial industry-led
  plutocracy is unjust.
- That doesn’t mean any of them plan to move
  into a double-wide mobile home as a show of solidarity with the
  little people, though.
- Cool Hand Lloyd
- No, talk of Goldman and guns plays right into the way Wall-
  Streeters like to think of themselves.
- Even those who were
  bailed out believe they are tough, macho Clint Eastwoods of the
  financial frontier, protecting the fistful of dollars in one
  hand with the Glock in the other.
- The last thing they want is to
  be so reasonably paid that the peasants have no interest in
  lynching them.
- And if the proles really do appear brandishing pitchforks
  at the doors of Park Avenue and the gates of Round Hill Road,
  you can be sure that the Goldman guys and their families will be
  holed up in their safe rooms with their firearms.
- If nothing
  else, that pistol permit might go part way toward explaining why
  they won’t be standing outside with the rest of the crowd, broke
  and humiliated, saying, “Damn, I was on the wrong side of a
  trade with Goldman again.”
- (Alice Schroeder, author of “The Snowball: Warren Buffett
  and the Business of Life” and a former managing director at
  Morgan Stanley, is a Bloomberg News columnist. The opinions
  expressed are her own.)
- To contact the writer of this column:
  Alice Schroeder at aliceschroeder@ymail.com.
  
  Last Updated: November 30, 2009

02 Nov 09

YouTube - G20 2009: Police Attack Students at University of Pittsburgh

There are times the authorities/police make matters worse by their conduct. Of course, this may have been an excuse to get some practice in on all those shiny, new, expensive toys the Fed Govt has been providing to our local "militarized" law enforcement.

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G20-summit september-24-2009 pittsburgh-pennsylvania students university-campus elite Lucies USA citizens SS police

G20 2009: Police Attack Students at University of Pittsburgh
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- ptaflerw
  
  September 26, 2009
- Police used teargas pepper spray and rubber bullets against University of Pittsburgh students during the Pittsburgh G20 Summit. Many of the students were not part of any demonstration but bystanders, curious to find a mass of armed riot police on their campus. For more information and videos
  Armed Police Seize University of Pittsburgh Campus, Fire Tear Gas On Students
  
  Pittsburgh Riot Police Trap University Students on a Staircase and Deploy Chemical Weapons
  
  G20 Riot Police Assault Young Couple
  
  G20 Police State 12 - SHOCKING! G20 2009 Police Attack Students at University of Pittsburgh
  
  Police Brutality Against University of Pittsburgh Students
- nwo new world order obama g20 police state riot PNC BANK Windows Broken Bloomfield Luke Rudkowski Bullhorns The Elite PROTEST GIRL THROWS BIKE AT POLICE LIVE ARREST ON TV Attack Students of police brutality state martial law cops out of control university pittsburgh g20 wake up fema trains inside job man made swine flu mind vaccine vaccinations h1n1 pandemic quarantine burgermeister activism shots truth bible love peace freedommkf
  
  Armed Police marched on the University of Pittsburgh campus after students gathered in hopes of getting a glimpse of Barack Obama at the Phipps Conservatory. There were maybe 20 protesters, and several hundred watching, at first. The police threw tear gas into the crowd, but the crowd reassembled. Later that night the police used serious intimidation techniques, including firing tear gas into crowds, using rubber bullets on students, beating people on the sidewalk with batons, and charging at crowds and arresting those who didn't run fast enough. Also, a new weapon called a Sound Cannon was fired on students, marking one of the first times the weapon has been used in America. (The first time was at a march earlier today, which I was also at.)
  
  Police MARCHED INTO OUR DORMITORIES and told us we needed to get in our rooms immediately or face arrest and expulsion.
  
  These are various snippets of video I took throughout the event.

23 Oct 09

State launches boycott of 'unconstitutional' federal laws

www.wnd.com/index.php - Preview

tennessee US-Govt firearms states-rights Governor-Bredesen HJR-108 montana states bill-of-rights BATFE patriots citizens

State launches boycott of 'unconstitutional' federal laws
Urges 49 others to join in combating government's 'abuse of authority'
26 more annotations...
- Posted: October 21, 2009
  11:50 pm Eastern
  
  By Chelsea Schilling
  
  
  
  
  © 2009 WorldNetDaily
- Tennessee is urging 49 other states to come together and create a "joint working group between the states" to combat unconstitutional federal legislation and assert state rights.
- Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen signed HJR 108, the State Sovereignty Resolution on June 23.
- According to the Tenth Amendment Center, the resolution created a committee to form a joint working group between the states to enumerate the abuses of authority by the federal government and seek repeal of imposed mandates.
  - Sounds eerily like the committee that came together to produce the Declaration of Independence - on 2009-10-23
  Add Sticky Note
- State Rep. Susan Lynn recently wrote a letter to the other 49 state legislatures, inviting them to join the group and warning that the role of the federal government has been "blurred, bent and breached."
- "The national government has become a complex system of programs whose purposes lie outside of the responsibilities of the enumerated powers and of securing our natural rights; programs that benefit some while others must pay," Lynn wrote.
- "Today, the federal government seeks to control the salaries of those employed by private business, to change the provisions of private of contracts, to nationalize banks, insurers and auto manufacturers, and to dictate to every person in the land what his or her medical choices will be."
- She continued, "Forcing property from employers to provide healthcare, legislating what individuals are and are not entitled to, and using the labor of some so that others can receive money that they did not earn goes far beyond securing natural rights, and the enumerated powers in the Constitution."
- Lynn said that the people created the federal government to be their agent only for certain enumerated purposes.
- "The Tenth Amendment defines the total scope of federal power as being that which has been delegated by the people to the federal government, and also that which is absolutely necessary to advancing those powers specifically enumerated in the Constitution of the United States," she wrote. "The rest is to be handled by the state governments, or locally, by the people themselves."
- She noted that the Constitution does not include a congressional power to override state laws, nor does it give the judicial branch unlimited jurisdiction over all matters. Attempts to include such provisions in the Constitution were rejected by the Founding Fathers.
- "With this in mind," she wrote, "any federal attempt to legislate beyond the Constitutional limits of Congress' authority is a usurpation of state sovereignty – and unconstitutional. Governments and political leaders are best held accountable to the will of the people when government is local. The people of a state know what is best for them; authorities, potentially thousands of miles away, governing their lives is opposed to the very notion of freedom."
- In one example of Tennessee's battle against federal government policies, federal gun regulators wrote to gun dealers around Tennessee in July, dropping the hammer on a state law that exempts weapons made, sold and used inside the state from interstate regulations.
- The letter was distributed to holders of Federal Firearms Licenses.
- In it, Carson W. Carroll, the assistant director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, told dealers the Tennessee Firearms Freedom Act, adopted this year, "purports to exempt personal firearms, firearms accessories, and ammunition manufactured in the state, and which remain in the state, from most federal firearms laws and regulations."
  The exemption is not right, the federal agency letter contends.
- More recently, the state of Montana filed a lawsuit against U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder seeking a court order that the federal government stay out of the way of Montana's management of its own firearms.
- As WND reported, the action was filed by the Second Amendment Foundation and the Montana Shooting Sports Association in U.S. District Court in Missoula, Mont., to validate the principles and terms of the Montana Firearms Freedom Act, which took effect Oct. 3.
- The law provides guns and ammo made, sold and used in Montana would not require any federal forms; silencers made and sold in Montana would be fully legal and not registered; and there would be no firearm registration, serial numbers, criminal records check, waiting periods or paperwork required.
- The idea is spreading quickly. Similar plans have been introduced in many other states.
- Montana's plan is called "An Act exempting from federal regulation under the Commerce Clause of the Constitution of the United States a firearm, a firearm accessory, or ammunition manufactured and retained in Montana."
- The law cites the 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that guarantees to the states and their people all powers not granted to the federal government elsewhere in the Constitution and reserves to the state and people of Montana certain powers as they were understood at the time it was admitted to statehood in 1889.
- "The guaranty of those powers is a matter of contract between the state and people of Montana and the United States as of the time that the compact with the United States was agreed upon and adopted by Montana and the United States in 1889," the law states.
- The lead attorney for the plaintiffs' litigation team is Quentin Rhodes of the Missoula firm of Sullivan, Tabaracci & Rhoades, PC. The team includes other attorneys working in Montana, New York, Florida, Arizona and Washington.
- "We're happy to join this lawsuit," said Alan Gottlieb, founder of the SAF, "because we believe this issue should be decided by the courts.
- "We feel very strongly that the federal government has gone way too far in attempting to regulate a lot of activity that occurs only in-state," added MSSA President Gary Marbut.
- "The Montana Legislature and governor agreed with us by enacting the MFFA. We welcome the support of many other states that are stepping up to the plate with their own firearms freedom acts."

15 Oct 09

Gerald Celente explains ‘Obamageddon’ forecast amid call for The Great American Renaissance

We are also being crippled by outlandish, across-the-board corruption, and it must be stopped.
48 more annotations...
- In light of Gerald’s comments, I must note that research indicates a majority of Americans do not trust mainstream news outlets.
- Although many will not want to hear it, this degradation in confidence is partially attributed to lingering questions about 9/11; in the absence of any mature discourse on the subject, an unstoppable, ever-growing assortment of conspiracy theories have emerged within the public domain.
- At the same time, international media outlets are beginning to question the “official story”, while in the US, Truthers™ are unwittingly exploited by hoodwinks, which causes politicians and media to shun them; out of respect for the near 3,000 victims of 9/11, this state-of-affairs is collectively inexcusable.
- Over the past eight years, the media has also demonstrated a perceivable complicity in promoting lies to rally Americans behind ill-fated policies, such as the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq;
- furthermore, some outlets now appear to unapologetically support President Obama in every action, as if he is our best friend – and not a politician.
- Media executives should recognize that few will continue tolerating the brainless assumption that news outlets exist to merely report what the government tells them; such ignorant evasions will not validate the continued existence of organizations that are derelict in their mandated duty, which is to objectively question every alleged fact.
- Perhaps that is precisely why the oligopoly of media conglomerates is now impotent in mitigating the collapse of many sub-entities?
- If ever there was a time for the mainstream media to prove its worth, the time is now: a whirlwind of major political scandals are ripe for exposure, and they cannot be suppressed.
- Any outlet that demonstrates fortitude, and accurately reports on these emerging “gates” – particularly in the financial arena – will reap the massive benefits associated with public trust; in short, your audience shares will increase, along your advertising revenues.
- Directors at Fox News are ecstatic that the network’s viewership continues to grow, so bear with me as I state the obvious: political conspiracies offer an unparalleled level of appeal.
- To prove my point, one of this conglomerate’s most successful recent TV dramas – Prison Break – thrived due to its sharp, ongoing integration of high-level political conspiracies; at the same time, the show was obviously a smash because of its handsome breakout star, Wentworth Miller, a brilliantly talented man.
- Either way, imagine the ratings that Fox News would generate – and the income for its shareholders – if it were to integrate a model-of-the-sort in its news programming.
- Obviously, your exposures of ACORN have been groundbreaking, so why not have Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, Bill O’Reilly, and/or Greta Van Susteren look into the following?
- Recently, 60 Minutes exposed the true nature of derivatives and how they have been used to manipulate markets in recent years; furthermore, right in this very article, Gerald Celente – whom Bill and Glenn have had on their shows – is on the record acknowledging rampant derivatives frauds, which if left unchecked, may destroy the US capitalist system as we know it.
- Glenn, I know that the collapse of capitalism is something you fear greatly, is it not?
- In the following, heavily underreported clip, Steve Kroft fearlessly addresses these de facto scams known as derivatives – primarily credit default swaps – and notes that they are:
  
  A form of legalized gambling that allows you to wager on [financial] outcomes without ever having to actually buy the stocks, and the bonds, and the mortgages [that they are written against]. It would have been illegal during most of the 20th century under the gaming laws, but in 2000, Congress gave Wall Street an exemption and it turned out to be a very bad idea.
- After viewing this explosive video, you will have seen Harvey Goldschmid, a Columbia University law professor, and former commissioner and general counsel of the Securities and Exchange Commission acknowledging that the provisions of the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000 were made into law “at the height of Wall Street and Washington's love affair with deregulation, an infatuation that was endorsed by President Clinton at the White House and encouraged by Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan.”
- At the very least, both gentlemen owe the American public real explanations as to why they supported such moves, and while we have their time, let’s ask about the allegations being directly lobbied at them by Mr. Christopher Story FRSA.
- In all fairness, though, it would not be right to lay the political blame for this disaster solely on the shoulders of former President Clinton, his administration, and Mr. Greenspan;
- no, we must give a fair share of attention to former Senator Phil Gramm, who is now vice chairman of the investment banking division at UBS, a criminal organization that recently agreed to pay nearly $800 million in fines to settle any US prosecution of its role in facilitating tax evasion.
- Mr. Gramm, whose utter contempt for the American public has been thoroughly demonstrated time and again, can also be thanked for sneaking the unmitigated, disastrous CFMA provisions – which were unlikely to have ever passed through Congress in a stand alone bill – into a Christmas-season appropriations bill that most House representatives clearly failed to read.
- The Senate later approved these toxic addendums in a unanimous vote, which coyly allowed CFMA to be signed into law.
- Obviously, many aspects of CFMA – particularly all clauses that provide legal certainty for unregulated OTC derivatives – must be rescinded immediately; however, this alone will not lead us, and the entire world, out of the financial crisis.
- As all of us know, the belief that some firms are too big to fail is, in-and-of-itself, an abject failure; accordingly, we must reverse this policy and dismantle every insolvent, transnational, all-in-one financial institution that has come to life – and collapsed – over the past decade.
- At this process unfolds, we need to examine why the Financial Services Modernization Act of 1999, also known as the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Clinton.
- This rubbish-encrusted non-improvement repealed key aspects of the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933, which became effective during the height of the Great Depression, and prohibited any one financial firm from partaking in commercial banking, investment banking, and/or insurance at the same time.
- A quick reflection brings two thoughts to mind: the first is that the use of the word modernization in finance bills tends to serve as an indicator that future problems will arise, so let’s refrain from using such terminology moving forward.
- Secondly, Mr. Gramm has once again demonstrated how connected his own hands are to this financial crisis, hook, line and sinker.
- With friends like you, Phil, who needs enemies? I urge investigators to keep that question in mind, especially as they continue to uncover the actions of Gramm and others, who literally believe they can do whatever they want, whenever they want.
- To be fair to the former senator, who has received a decent portion of this writer’s indignation, we should also pay close attention to the following 155 present members of Congress – 101 in the House, 54 in the Senate – that voted in favor of FSMA one decade ago.
- Thanks to the Center for Responsive Politics, we are able to deduce exactly how much money each of them have received in financial contributions, through 2008, from the very same industry that directly benefited from these changes.
- We need to reform our campaigning and election laws, and in doing so, we should adapt a more European model, which shuns the use of private funding, and severely limits overall campaign seasons, typically to around six weeks.
- The previous list, which totals into hundreds of millions of dollars, hammers the nail on why the influence of corporate funding is dangerouos, while the years 2007 and 2008 in America speak to the latter.
- Elections are not meant to be elaborate, multi-media rock concerts; they are supposed to be elections, plain and simple.
- Dr. Ron Paul – perhaps the only true, remaining Statesman in Washington, D.C. – deserves much gratitude from the American public;
- his courageous, uninterrupted opposition of the Federal Reserve spans back many years, and it ultimately proves why he is a major ally for those of us seeking The Great American Renaissance. Congresscritters should note his leadership skills, and follow them to the tee.
- Personally, I believe The Creature from Jekyll Island should have been instantaneously abolished earlier this week, when it emerged that the Fed has committed a fiduciary perjury against Americans (and the rest of the world) – the Treasury Department has, too –
- but something tells me that once the books and activities of this parasitic fiend are exposed, by audit, or otherwise, Dr. Paul will ultimately get his way, and we will finally End The Fed, once and for all.
- I cannot understand why any politician or businessperson would support the continual operations of a privately-controlled central bank that has caused the US dollar to lose an estimated 95% of its value over the course of its near 100-year reign.
- That’s just me though, and while I am an advocate for a return to the gold standard, at the very least, the elimination of the Fed would provide one giant leap forward for all of mankind, and one hell of a kick start for The Great American Renaissance.
- The final key to our economic recovery, if published reports are true – and a much-needed lifeline for the US dollar – may be provided to America by our greatest and most important ally, the UK.
- As many foreign nations now appear ready to flee the dollar, we must investigate the sincerity of a purported offer – apparently on the table now for several years – that is directly attributed to Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, among others.
- God willing, the Dollar Refunding Operation is indeed a bona fide pro bono offer from the British Monarchy.
- I cannot – and will not – claim to know what the full story is behind these proposals, but if any official US sources are willing to comment on this, they are encouraged to do so without delay. Our entire nation is on the brink of collapsing, as demonstrated herein.
- I am fully aware that by raising certain topics in this article, my life might be placed in jeopardy.
- I am also aware that when I say God Almighty directs my actions, it will provoke cynical feedback from certain parties; regardless, that is indeed the fact-of-the-matter from my perspective, and thus, no one can tell me to believe otherwise.
- I will not stand idle as this Great Nation risks unimaginable suffering, especially when there are numerous ways for us to mitigate, or prevent that from happening altogether.
- In the end, as they move to rebuild their nation's finances, leaders around the world should follow the very wise advice of His Majesty King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck of Bhutan, who has so prudently said, "I care less about the gross national product and more about the gross national happiness."

11 Oct 09

YouTube - Steve Quayle on Alex Jones Tv Bioterrorism 7/7

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alex-jones steve-quayle bioterrorism US-Govt vaccination flu fear-mongering martial-law citizens NWO vectors airlines tyranny

Steve Quayle on Alex Jones Tv Bioterrorism 7/7
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- Hashstarr
  
  August 06, 2009

YouTube - Steve Quayle on Alex Jones Tv Bioterrorism 4/7

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alex-jones steve-quayle bioterrorism vaccines US-Govt NWO america middle-class US-Military citizens coup dollar economy

Steve Quayle on Alex Jones Tv Bioterrorism 4/7
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- Hashstarr
  
  August 06, 2009

09 Oct 09

YouTube - Steve Quayle on Alex Jones Tv 5/5 The Red & Blue List!

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alex-jones steve-quayle red-list blue-list america NWO US-Military government satanic veterans citizens end-time

Steve Quayle on Alex Jones Tv 5/5 The Red & Blue List!

YouTube - Steve Quayle on Alex Jones Tv 3/5 The Red & Blue List!

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alex-jones steve-quayle red-list blue-list NWO US-Military army citizens tyranny end-time veterans military-assassinations

Steve Quayle on Alex Jones Tv 3/5 The Red & Blue List!

YouTube - Steve Quayle on Alex Jones Tv 1/5 The Red & Blue List!

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alex-jones steve-quayle veterans tea-parties US-Military celente COINTELPRO spies citizens americans patriots red-list blue-list

Steve Quayle on Alex Jones Tv 1/5 The Red & Blue List!

07 Oct 09

Alex Jones’ Prison Planet.com » DHS Video Portrays Average Americans As Terrorists

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john-elway DHS video gun-owners watches napolitano NWO americans citizens Blacks Whites US-Govt tyranny divide-conquer

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- DHS Video Portrays Average Americans As Terrorists
- Owning gold or firearms, donating to charity, finding out information about things all constitute suspicious activity to be reported to the authorities
- Paul Joseph Watson
  
  Prison Planet.com
  
  Wednesday, October 7, 2009
- A new video produced in association with the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI and narrated by former Denver Broncos quarterback John Elway urges people to report suspicious activity that could constitute terrorism,
- behavior that includes buying gold, owning guns, using a watch or binoculars, donating to charity, and all manner of mundane things.
- The eight minute video was produced by the Colorado-based Center for Empowered Living and Learning (CELL) in conjunction with the International Association of Chiefs of Police conference to promote CELL’s $7 million dollar exhibit entitled “Anyone, Anytime, Anywhere: Understanding the Threat of Terrorism,” which is currently on display at the Mizel Museum in Denver, Colorado.
- The production was funded by a $30,400 grant from the Department of Homeland Security and made in association with the Colorado Information Analysis Center.
- The video wastes no time in advancing the DHS agenda to single out average Americans as the new target of the war on terror, a process that we have exhaustively documented for years through all manner of official reports, from the infamous MIAC document to the DHS “Domestic Extremism Lexicon” memo that equates people who question authority with violent extremism and terrorism.
- In every single instance portrayed in the CELL video, the terrorists are either white or black American citizens.
- As the Denver Westworld blog notes, in John Elway’s world, everything is suspicious and everything is indicative of “a world where average-looking white people want to murder you and everyone around you.”
- “Anyone can become a victim of terrorism, any time, anywhere. Together, we can change this. Each of us has a responsibility to protect our community and we can do so by recognizing the signs of terrorism and taking proper action to stop it,” says Elway.
- The clip characterizes all manner of mundane activities as potential signs of terrorism, splitting them into eight different categories, and shows other Americans reporting people to the authorities for such behavior.
- Under the heading of “funding,” the video shows an image of U.S. Liberty Head gold coins, suggesting that people who buy or handle gold bullion are probable terrorists.
- In the same montage, an image of a handgun is flashed, implying that gun owners are also under suspicion.
- Using a watch, a pair of binoculars, or donating to a charity are all potential Al-Qaeda behavior, the video implies.
- Do you use e mail or the telephone to find out information about things? You’re probably a terrorist, according to the DHS, which classifies such behavior as “elicitation,” one of the eight signs of terror.
- Do you occasionally monitor police radio, as thousands did during the recent G20 protests in Pittsburgh? You’re a terrorist.
- Do you notice surveillance cameras or occasionally attempt to watch big brother back? You’re a terrorist.
- Petty criminal behavior such as theft and trespassing is also flagged as a sign of terrorism.
- “The success of defending our community’s safety depends upon our shared commitment,” says Elway at the end of the clip. “It’s a beautiful day here in Colorado and there can be many more like this with the help of people like you.”
- In other words, report your neighbors for everyday activity otherwise you’ll be hit by another 9/11.
- As we have continually highlighted, the entire apparatus of the war on terror has been shifted to target the American people.
- By defining mundane activities as potential terror, those in power want to create a society where everyone feels under suspicion and guilty even if they are a completely law-abiding citizen.
- Indeed, the implication is that only those who join the tyranny and become informers for the state can feel truly patriotic and avoid the glare of big brother.
- As we discussed with the MIAC report and a whole host of others, the federal government apparently has very little concern for any perceived terrorist threat to America coming from the MIddle East or Al-Qaeda cells within the country,
- and indeed if any such threat existed we are only in more danger, because the feds have been busy training law enforcement and brainwashing the public that law-abiding American citizens who exercise their legal right to purchase firearms, who own gold, who take photographs, donate to charities or who attempt to find out information about things, are potential terrorists who should be grassed up to the authorities without delay.
- Watch the CELL video below.
- 165 Responses to “DHS Video Portrays Average Americans As Terrorists”
- Aidan Monaghan Says:
  
  October 7th, 2009 at 5:41 am
  
  Divide and Conquer on Steroids.
  
  Once upon a time, divide and conquer was aimed at creating division based on culture, gender, religion, nationality or other oreintation, perhaps to deter unity against centralized power.
  
  The current drive to divide neighbor against neighbor based on induced irrational fears is the height of societal manipulation.
- Aidan Monaghan Reply:
  October 7th, 2009 at 5:42 am
  John Elway Is Being Used
  
  John likely doesn’t know what we know.
  
  Hopefully our very active friends in the 9/11 Truth community in Colorado can help John Elway and others tied to this clever propaganda campaign to understand the phenomena of false-flag terror. If the NFL’s Mark Stepnoski can understand 9/11 as we do, so can John Elway with help.
  
  Notice that the portrayed “terrorists” in the video are “westernized” black and white males and females, not foreign-appearing males – a subtle yet bold shift of focus from foreign threats to alleged neighborhood threats scrutinizing normal activities.
  
  Quite alarming.
  
  And the campaign’s cornerstone? 9/11
- SLICKDAWGMAMMA Reply:
  October 7th, 2009 at 6:53 am
  I HAD TO STOP THIS VIDEO HALF WAY THROUGH BECAUSE IT IS JUST ABOUT THE MOST PATHETIC THING I HAVE EVER WITNESSED. WHEN THE BRONCOS WON THE SUPERBOWL BACK IN 2000 IT WAS A RIGGED GAME, AND NOTICE HOW IT WAS IN DENVER, THE HEART OF THE NWO UNDERGROUND.
- THAT SUPERBOWL FUNDED DENVER AND ALL THE SHADY UNDERGROUND THAT GOES WITH IT. JOHN ELWAY IS A SELL OUT FAKE, HAS BEEN FOR QUITE SOMETIME.
- THE VIDEO FROM THIS POST IS COMPLETE NWO AND ANY WHO PROMOTE IT ARE THE ENEMY.
- FROM THE WORDS OF JOHN ELWAY HIMSELF ACTUALLY BACK UP THE OFFICIAL LIE OF THE 9/11 TERRORIST DUPE WHEN WE ALL KNOW IT WAS A CONTROLLED DEMOLITION AND AN ILLUMINATI HIT. AL-QUEADA DOES NOT EXIST. ALL TERRORISM ARE HIRED ILLUMINATI THUGS.
- ROCKEFELLER IS YOUR TERRORIST. ALL THE BIGBOYS THAT CANT BE TOUCHED ARE THE TERRORISTS. THEY PLAY WITH OUR LIVES LIKE IT WAS A HAND OF CARDS.
- THE PATRIOT ACT AND HOMELAND SECURITY ALL CAME FROM 9/11 AND WERE ALREADY PLANNED OUT AND WAITING FOR THE TRAGEDY. THOSE WHO PROMOTE HOMELAND SECURITY AND THE PATRIOT ACT ARE THE TERRORISTS. THEY ARE WIPING OUT YOUR FREEDOM FOR NWO WHICH IS DEMONIC TYRANNY. THEY ARE THE DEMONIC NETWORK AND THEY HAVE TURNED THIS NATION INTO A SEWAGE HOLE OF LIES, DESPAIR, AND MISERY….
  
  NETWORKING FOR TRUTH ON ALEX JONES MYSPACE BLOGS…
- Get a Life Reply:
  October 7th, 2009 at 8:21 am
  Are you STUPID, NO SUPERBOWL WAS EVER PLAYED IN DENVER! Get you facts
  
  straight you raging FLAKE!
- Philochatus Reply:
  October 7th, 2009 at 8:54 am
  He did not say Superbowl ever was in Denver. Get your computational linguistics straight.
- Jim Shores Reply:
  October 7th, 2009 at 8:54 am
  Eating, sleeping, saying hello, wearing clothes, breathing, wearing a hat, washing your hands, petting a dog, looking at cat videos on You Tube, buying a noose paper, riding a bus, voting, buying milk, eating a hot dog, walking, twiddling thumbs, watching traffic before crossing a street, sending Christmas cards,washing a car, waving, riding a bicycle, raising an American flag, writing down a recipe for pancakes, playing drums, going indoors, buying toilet paper, buying gas at a gas station, owning a pencil, owning an eraser, possessing paper, owning tennis shoes, mowing a yard, owning a rake or shovel, giving a stranger directions, praying, looking at the sunset, moving your arms while walking, calling your mother, drinking chocolate milk, buying cigarettes, wearing sunglasses, whistling while you walk, having trees on your property, mentioning a roof, attending a movie, or any natural human activity are banned by Homieland Security and the FED until this war on Tearrer is won. Signed John (horse mouth) Hellway.
- Logan Freeman Reply:
  October 7th, 2009 at 6:44 am
  Personally, I believe that we should watch anyone gobbling out of the public trough. Watch your mayors, council members, etc. THEY may be terrorists. I’m a stay-at-home mom; I’m obviously some kind of subversive freak! O.O

30 Sep 09

US under Obama could slide into military dictatorship, says Gore Vidal - Times Online

www.timesonline.co.uk/...article6854498.ece - Preview

gore-vidal america americans obama military POTUS comments liberal intelligence indictment USA citizens criticism

September 30, 2009
US under Obama could slide into military dictatorship, says Gore Vidal
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- Barack Obama is failing as President and the US is in danger of sliding into a
  military dictatorship, says Gore Vidal, the American essayist and
  intellectual.
- In an
  exclusive interview with The Times, Vidal, 83, reveals that he regrets
  switching his allegiance from Hillary Clinton to Mr Obama during last year’s
  campaign to secure the Democratic presidential nomination.
- “I was hopeful,” he said of Mr Obama. “He was the most intelligent person
  we’ve had in that position for a long time. But he’s inexperienced. He has a
  total inability to understand military matters. He’s acting as if
  Afghanistan is the magic talisman: solve that and you solve terrorism.”
- America should leave Afghanistan, Vidal said. “We’ve failed in every other
  aspect of our effort of conquering the Middle East or whatever you want to
  call it.”
- Vidal, a friend of President John F. Kennedy, became an
  Obama backer because he “grew up in a black city” (Washington) and was
  impressed by Obama’s intelligence.
- On Mr Obama’s plan to reform healthcare, he said: “He f***** it up. I don’t
  know how, because the country wanted it. We’ll never see it happen.”
- Vidal added: "He loves quoting Lincoln and there’s a great Lincoln quote from
  a letter he wrote to one of his generals in the South after the Civil War.
  ’I am President of the United States. I have full overall power and never
  forget it, because I will exercise it’. That’s what Obama needs - a bit of
  Lincoln’s chill.”
- He also predicted Obama may be assassinated:
  “Just one lone gunman lurking in the shadows of the capital.”
- America has no intellectual class and is rotting away at a funereal pace, he
  believes.
- “We’ll have a military dictatorship soon, on the basis nobody else
  can hold everything together. Obama would have been better off focusing on
  educating the American people.
- His problem is being overeducated. He doesn’t
  realise how dim-witted and ignorant his audience is.”

28 Jul 09

Idaho police sodomize man with Taser

carlosmiller.com/...police-sodomize-man-with-taser - Preview

Boise Idaho police perp taser torture anus threats law-enforcement domestic-dispute thugs cops civilians citizens USA

Idaho police sodomize man with Taser
July 23rd, 2009 · 71 Comments
20 more annotations...
- By Carlos Miller
- Boise police already had the suspect handcuffed when they rammed a Taser gun into his anus and fired.
- Then they placed the Taser gun against his genitals and threatened to do the same.
  
  At the time, the domestic violence suspect was lying face down with three officers on top of him, according to the Idaho Statesmen.
- He couldn’t even breathe.
- It was all caught on tape. Here is the exchange that took place:
- Cop: Do you feel this?
  
  Suspect: Yes, sir.
  
  Cop: Do you feel that? That’s my …
  
  Suspect: Okay
  
  Cop: … Taser up your ass.
  
  Suspect: Okay
  
  Cop: So don’t move.
  
  Suspect: I’m trying not to. I can’t breathe.
  
  Cop: Now do you feel this in your balls?
  
  Suspect: I do, sir. I’m not going to move. I’m not gonna move.
  
  Cop: Now I’m gonna tase your balls if you move again.
  
  (A full minute goes by)
  
  Cop: Okay, I’m gonna take this Taser out of your asshole now. Are you going to fight with me?
  
  Suspect: No, not at all, sir.
  
  Cop: (to another cop) So far, for the last two minutes, he’s been cooperative. But then my Taser’s in his ass.
- Not only was the exchange documented on the cop’s own tape recorder, the suspect ended up with burns on the inside of his right buttock. These were evident in photographs taken ten and 13 days after the incident.
- Also, another cop who taped an interview with the suspect at the jail later that night ended up erasing the taped interview.
  
  So you would think the first cop would be prosecuted for sexual assault? Or maybe the second cop be charged with tampering with evidence?
  
  After all, we have a case in Florida where a group of 14-year-old boys are going to be tried as adults because they sodomized one of their classmates with broomsticks and hockey sticks.
- But the rules are different when you are a cop.
- After an internal investigation, police determined that the first officer violated the department’s use-of-force policy. And the second officer also violated department policy when he erased the taped interview.
  
  Both officers have been “disciplined”, according to police.
- But details of the discipline were not released. And neither were the names of the cops.
  
  After all, police say, this is an “internal personnel matter.”
- That’s right, nothing to see here. Move along now.
- In fact, we would probably not have even heard of this story if it wasn’t for Boise’s Community Ombudsman, Pierce Murphy, who happens to be a former cop. His job is to investigate complaints of misconduct against cops.
  
  Although he never names the cops, he did provide an extensive and graphic 43-page report on his findings.
- The officers all told Murphy that the suspect was fighting, resisting and using profanity the entire time they were dealing with him, yet he notes that none of this is evident in the audio recording.
- The Complainant was not completely still in response to the orders from police to stop moving. The Complainant was moving his torso and his legs in a manner consistent with trying to breathe more easily. The Complainant’s movements were not consistent with trying to escape from the police, attempting to head butt them, trying to kick any officer, or assaulting the officers.
- Discussion of Finding: Consistent statements from the Complainant, Officer #1, Officer #2, Officer #6, and Officer #7. Although Officer #4 described the Complainant as “fighting” with the officers, yelling profanities, not doing what was commanded, kicking, and attempting to head butt them, the audio recording does not support her contention. No yelling of profanity by the Complainant can be heard. When the officers first entered the residence, the Complainant exclaimed, “God damn it. What the fuck?” The Complainant used no profanity after this. Officer #3 also stated that the Complainant was kicking. However, no officer can be heard on the recordings telling the Complainant to, “Stop kicking,” or, “If you kick again, I’ll tase you.” Instead, between the two of them, Officer #3 and Officer #4 told the Complainant several times to, “Stop moving,”.
- Murphy also determined that the officers could have killed the suspect by piling on top of him like they did.
- In the course of this investigation, it was clear that the involved officers were familiar with the concept of Positional Asphyxia as it relates to prisoners who are hobbled. However, none of the officers seemed to be aware of the possible danger posed by Positional Asphyxia to the Complainant in this case. This was a situation where a heavy, not terribly physically fit, middle-aged man had engaged in heavy physical exertion at the door. He was then placed face-down on the ground and handcuffed with his hands behind his back and the weight of three officers on his body. This may have had the effect of restricting the expansion of the Complainant’s chest and diaphragm, thus inhibiting the ability of the Complainant to get adequate oxygen and exhale sufficient carbon dioxide to compensate for the physical exertion in which he had just engaged.
- Around the nation, many in-custody deaths have been attributed to Positional Asphyxia. The following is taken from an article appearing in the June, 1995, National Law Enforcement Technology Center Bulletin produced by the US Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice.
- But despite the sodomy, the torture, the destruction of evidence and even the attempted manslaughter, Murphy’s recommendation was that these officers simply needed more training.

31 Mar 09

DRUDGE REPORT: GOV WEBSITE TO WARN OF SADNESS/CRYING OVER ECONOMY 2009®

www.drudgereport.com/flashns.htm - Preview

federal-government us-government website warning nanny-state citizens usa anxiety depression warning-signs

NANNY STATE: GOVERNMENT WEBSITE TO WARN OF SADNESS/CRYING OVER ECONOMY
Mon Mar 30 2009 18:43:56 ET
5 more annotations...
- The U.S. government is set to offer an online emotional rescue kit!
- "Getting Through Tough Economic Times" will launch Tuesday with a media push across all platforms.
  
  The site is meant to help people identify health concerns related to financial worries.
- It will raise warning flags for: Persistent sadness/crying; Excessive anxiety; Lack of sleep/constant fatigue; Excessive irritability/anger.
- The feds will warn of depression, suicidal thinking and other serious mental illnesses.
- The guide will be available starting at midnight at http://www.samhsa.gov/economy.
  
  Developing...
  - The Government can take their false concern and stick it up their "Nanny" hole! - on 2009-03-31
  Add Sticky Note

27 Feb 09

YouTube - Summer of Rage Coming to the U.S.? - Feb. 24 2009

www.youtube.com/watch - Preview

glenn-beck summer-2009 rage riots europe usa civil-unrest us-military cia guests americans martial-law bubba-effect veterans citizens revolt

Summer of Rage Coming to the U.S.? - Feb. 24 2009
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- OneWithTheTruth
  
  February 24, 2009
- keywords-
  
  Glenn Beck Founding Fathers Constitution Totalitarianism NWO George Washington Federal Reserve Depression American America Revolution Benjamin Franklin Thomas Jefferson ron paul illuminati

16 Jan 09

YouTube - James Bamford on Democracy Now! - 10-14-2008

James Bamford on Democracy Now! - 10-14-2008
3 more annotations...
- reprehensor
  
  January 04, 2009
- James Bamford describes the NSA's subcontracting to Israeli firms for mass surveillance of U.S.-based electronic communications. Further information, and how this relates to 9/11 at 911blogger.com;
- http://www.911blogger.com/node/18981

11 Jan 09

Eastman - Time We Start Seeing Ourselves Differently

Oddly...and with all modesty and I can muster: I was preparing to go to sleep the other night; mulling the financial mess my nation is in and the same idea that Mr Eastman talks about here, is exactly the solution I came too. And I am not even a high powered, business school educated, high mukety-muck on Wall Street.

www.rense.com/diff.htm - Preview

dick-eastman independence america china international-bankers banksters gangsters demi-gods elite citizens resources reclamation economy freedom

Time We Start Seeing

Ourselves Differently
By Dick Eastman

1-11-9
10 more annotations...
- It would require debt repudiation and therefore
  the loss of all credit from the International Credit monopoly.
- A nationalistic program of social credit could end this
  depression in 3 months.
- The National
  credit would have to replace it. We would have to find a way to feed
  ourselves without imports, through emergency measures.
- We would pioneer a global revolution by our example,
  as did the American revolution of 1776. But it would be for the first
  time that the American republic had gotten out from under international
  finance.
- And it would be the first time that we were all working together
  without tricksters playing us one against the other.
- Even with all of the resources that have been torn from
  our land and sent to China, we still have the means of self-sufficiency
  and an amazing and wonderful future that that once dreamed of fifty years
  ago.
- Men are not merely eaters, unless they are kept in prisons. And
  we have been in a continental debtors prison far too long.
- We have forgotten
  what the free human spirit which owns some land and capital and is not
  enslaved to debt and taxes is capable of.
- A few international bankers are bringing the human race
  to destitution and slavery in order to make themseves gods --
- and only
  you and I -- yes the people who are so used to merely watching and
  commenting on world events -- ar ethe only ones who can do the job.

09 Jan 09

Martial Law, the Financial Bailout, and War

For thirty years I have been writing about the persistence in America of a war mentality that, time after time, trumps reasonable policies of negotiation, and leads us further into armed conflict. This dominant mindset is not restricted to any single agency or cabal, but is rather the likely outcome of on-going tensions between hawks and doves in the internal politics of Washington.
If a container of rocks and gravel is shaken vigorously, the probability is that the gravel will gravitate towards the bottom, leaving the largest rocks at the top.
48 more annotations...
- There is an analogous probability that, in an on-going debate over engaging or withdrawing from a difficult military contest, the forces for engagement will come out on top, regardless of circumstances.
- Available military power tends to be used, and one of the most remarkable features of history since 1945 is that this tendency has not so far repeated itself with atomic weapons.
- Let me explain this metaphor in more concrete detail. Progressive societies (in this era usually democracies) tend to expand their presence beyond their geographic boundaries. This expanded presence calls for new institutions, usually (like the CIA) free from democratic accountability. This accretion of unaccountable power, in what I have elsewhere called the deep state, disrupts the public state’s system of checks and balances which is the underpinning of sane, deliberative policy.
- We might expect of progressive democracies that they would evolve towards more and more rational foreign policies. But because of the dialectic just described, what we see is the exact opposite – evolution towards foolish and sometimes disastrous engagements.
- When Britain became more democratic in the late 19^th Century, it also initiated the Boer War, a war very suited to the private imperial needs of Cecil Rhodes, but irrelevant if not deleterious to the interests of the British people.
- Hitler’s dreams of a Third Reich, entailing a doomed repeat of Napoleon’s venture into the heart of Russia, suited the needs of the German industrialists who had financed the Nazis; but from the outset sane heads of the German military staff could foresee the coming disaster.
- For over a half century now, beginning with Vietnam, unaccountable forces have been maneuvering America into unsustainable adventures on the Asian mainland.
- We now know that Kennedy did not intend ever to commit U.S. combat troops to Vietnam.34 But the fatal planning to expand the Vietnam War north of the 17^th parallel was authorized in the last week of his aborted presidency, probably without his being aware.
- When elected, Jimmy Carter was determined to reduce the size and frequency of CIA covert operations.36 Yet his national security advisor, Zbigniew Brzezinski, initiated maneuvers in Afghanistan that led to the largest CIA covert operation (and in my view, one of the most deleterious) of all time.37
- Our archival historians have not yet fully understood either paradox, or the forces behind them. And as the philosopher George Santayana famously observed, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."38
- The Future: Military Escalation Abroad and at Home?
- Among the latter are his unqualified desire to “finish” (i.e., “win”) the war in Afghanistan, and his support, along with his party’s, for the final version of the Paulson bailout. In my view they go together.
- Like both Kennedy and Carter, Barack Obama is a complex mix of hopeful and depressing qualities.
- Like the government negotiated resolution of the savings-and-loan-scandal of the 1980s, the financial bailout undisguisedly taxed the public wealth of the republic to protect and even enrich those who for some time had been undeservedly enriching themselves.
- Old-line leftists might see nothing unusual about this: it conforms to their analysis of how the capitalist state has always worked.
- Before that time governmental policies were more likely to be directed towards helping the poor; afterwards the ideology of free-market literalism, even under Clinton, was invoked in numerous ways for the enriching of the rich.
- But it is only characteristic of the American state since the Reagan revolution of the 1980s.
- The result of these government policies has been summarized by Prof. Edward Wolff:
  
  We have had a fairly sharp increase in wealth inequality dating back to 1975 or 1976. Prior to that, there was a protracted period when wealth inequality fell in this country, going back almost to 1929. So you have this fairly continuous downward trend from 1929, which of course was the peak of the stock market before it crashed, until just about the mid-1970s.
- Since then, things have really turned around, and the level of wealth inequality today is almost double what it was in the mid-1970s…..
- Up until the early 1970s, the U.S. actually had lower wealth inequality than Great Britain, and even than a country like Sweden. But things have really turned around over the last 25 or 30 years.
- In fact, a lot of countries have experienced lessening wealth inequality over time. The U.S. is atypical in that inequality has risen so sharply over the last 25 or 30 years.39
- Past excesses of American wealth, as in the Gilded Age and the 1920s, have been followed by political reforms, such as the income tax, to reduce wealth and income disparity. But as Kevin Phillips has warned, this type of reform must happen again soon, or it may not happen at all:
- As the twenty-first century gets underway, the imbalance of wealth and democracy in the United States is unsustainable. . . . Either democracy must be renewed, with politics brought back to life, or wealth is likely to cement a new and less democratic regime—plutocracy by some other name.40
- Judged by this criterion, the Paulson bailout as passed was not just an opportunity missed; it was a radical leap in the wrong direction.
- It is not reassuring that the bailout was passed with the support of Obama and the Democratic Party. This is rather a sign that plutocracy will not be seriously challenged by either party in their present state.
- Warren Buffett may have been correct in saying that the bailout was necessary. But it is not hard to think of reforms that should have accompanied it:
- 1) there should have been transparency, not secrecy
- 2) public funds should not have been made available for bonuses or dividends (The richest 10 percent of Americans own 85 percent of all stock).41
- And as a bailout for the automobile industry is debated, two more reforms seem self-evident:
- 3) any reduction in income should not affect workers alone, but all levels of employees equally
- 4) as has often been suggested, a limit should be established by law to the maximum ratio of the highest remuneration to the lowest in any industry – perhaps a ratio of twenty to one.
- I am not making these obvious suggestions with any expectation that they will be passed or seriously debated. The plutocratic corruption of both our parties makes such a prospect almost unthinkable.
- America escaped from the depression of the 1890s with the Spanish-American War.42 It only escaped the Great Depression of the 1930s with the Second World War. There was even a recession in the late 1940s from which America only escaped with the Korean War.
- What I do want to contemplate is the serious prospect of war.
- As we face the risk of major depression again, I believe we inevitably face the danger of major war again.
- In the meantime, some aspects of the financial meltdown, although they arose for many reasons and were not the result of some conspiratorial cabal, may be prolonged because of their utility to the war-minded.
- Consider that, from the perspective of maintaining America’s imperial thrust into Afghanistan (and even Pakistan), the financial crisis has had some desired consequences:
- 1) The dollar’s value against other international currencies, notably the euro, has improved, thus improving America’s balance of payments and also offsetting the threat to the dollar’s important role as the primary unit of international trade.
- 2) Thanks to the determined international marketing of overvalued derivatives based on predatory lending, the resulting financial crisis has been internationalized, with economies elsewhere suffering even greater shocks than the United States. This has relatively improved America’s capacity to finance a major war effort overseas (which has always had a major impact on the U.S. balance of payments).
- 3) The price of oil has plummeted from $147 a barrel last July to under $40, thus weakening the economies of Russia, China, and especially Saudi Arabia, the country whose international foundations have been supporting Al Qaeda.
- The Afghan situation is grim, but it is not hopeless. Two skilled observers, Barnett R. Rubin and Ahmed Rashid, have proposed a political solution for the entire region that would promise greater security for the entire area than Obama’s ill-considered proposal to send 20,000 more U.S. troops.43
- In Rashid’s words,
  
  President-elect Obama and Western leaders have to adopt a comprehensive approach that sees the region [with Afghanistan's neighbors, including Pakistan, India, Russia, China, Iran, and the former Soviet states] as a unit with interlocking development issues to be resolved such as poverty, illiteracy and weak governance.
- There has to be a more comprehensive but more subtle approach to democratising the region and forcing powerful but negative stakeholders in local power structures - such as the drug mafias - either to change their thinking or be eliminated.44
- That observers with such recognized status are offering a sensible political solution does not provide me with much optimism. For three decades now Barnett Rubin has been offering sound advice on Iran and Afghanistan to Washington, only to be ignored by those lobbying for covert operations and military solutions.
- This dialectic is reminiscent of the Vietnam War, where for over a decade reasonable proposals to demilitarize the conflict were similarly ignored.
- I repeat that the future is unpredictable. But I fear that Obama’s proposal to send 20,000 additional troops will carry the day, with its predictable consequences of a wider war in both Afghanistan and Pakistan.
- With this I also fear an increased use of the U.S. Army to control protests by the American people.
- I earnestly hope that my fears are misplaced. Time will tell.

06 Oct 08

MUST WATCH: Naomi Wolf - "Americans are facing a coup, as of this morning. It's happened" | Voter Bomb 2008 - Impeach our irresponsible congress

www.voterbomb.com/158 - Preview

michael-nystrom naomi-wolf america coup october-5 interview nwo us-government treason citizens illuminati fascism nazis tyranny video

MUST WATCH: Naomi Wolf - "Americans are facing a coup, as of this morning. It's happened"
1 more annotations...
- Posted October 05, 2008 by Michael Nystrom

05 Oct 08

New, controversial FBI guidelines go into effect - Yahoo! News

news.yahoo.com/...usjusticeintelligencefbi - Preview

fbi new guidelines gestapo america neo-nazis fascists fascism united-states citizens mukasey mueller domestic-spying senator-patrick-leahy opposition us-government

New, controversial FBI guidelines go into effect
Sat Oct 4, 11:45 AM ET
11 more annotations...
- WASHINGTON (AFP) -
  US Attorney General Michael Mukasey has signed new guidelines for FBI operations he said are designed to better protect the country from terrorist attacks, but that raise concern of some lawmakers and civil rights groups.
- "These guidelines provide more uniform, clearer and simpler rules for the FBI operations ... are designed to allow the FBI to become, among other things, a more flexible and adept collector of intelligence," Mukasey and FBI director Robert Mueller said in a statement Friday.
- "Since the 9/11 attacks, the FBI and the Department of Justice more broadly have set priorities for and reorganized their activities to prevent future terrorist acts against the American people," the statement said.
  - On the contrary: the are designed to protect the traitors and criminals operating under color of the U.S. Government. - on 2008-10-05
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- The new, revised regulations -- the original version met strong criticism from congressional committees last month, comprise 50 pages dealing with five areas of FBI investigation, including criminal, national security and foreign intelligence.
- Mukasey said most of the new, streamlined rules "will be available to the public ... As a result, the general public will have access in a single document to the basic body of operating rules for the FBI's activities."
- But despite Mukasey's assurances that the new regulations "reflect consultation with Congress as well as privacy and civil liberties groups," not all concerns over their effect on privacy rights were dispelled.
- Senate Judiciary Committee chairman, Democrat Patrick Leahy said the new guidelines expand the FBI's powers of surveillance.
  - The "Gestapo" spreads out across the American nation - on 2008-10-05
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- "It appears that with these guidelines, the attorney general is once again giving the FBI broad new powers to conduct surveillance and use other intrusive investigative techniques on Americans without requiring any indication of wrongdoing or any approval even from FBI supervisors," Leahy said in a statement.
- "The American people deserve a vigilant Justice Department that does not sacrifice or endanger their rights and privacy," he added.
- The American Civil Liberties Union, who had called for an investigation into the first version of the FBI regulations, said the new rules "reduce standards for beginning 'assessments.'"
- "More troubling still," it added, "the guidelines allow a person's race or ethnic background to be used as a factor in opening an investigation, a move that the ACLU believes may institute a racial profiling as a matter of policy."