The Stage Is Set For a Nuclear False Flag
By Alex Thomas
May 29th, 2011
The stage has been set for a nuclear false flag in America.
Many in the alternative media have wondered if a false flag nuke attack within America is a real possibility. Would they do it? Who would it be? What cities would be targeted?
Recently, The New York Times reported that the United States is running out of a rare gas that is used to detect smuggled nuclear materials.
The reason given is that one arm of the Energy Department is selling the gas much quicker than the other is able to accumulate it.
While this could possibly be a legitimate reason, it seems highly suspicious that a government that is installing a police state nationwide to supposedly save us from terrorists would be unable to obtain the gas needed to detect smuggled nuclear weapons.
Wouldn’t a nuclear attack on America be the MOST important threat to combat?
Unfortunately there is a long history of suspicious nuclear activity in the United States, with cover story after cover story being spread throughout the corporate controlled media.
At this junction in history it seems prudent to lay out some of the more ludicrous stories that have been planted into the minds of the American people.
Laying The Groundwork
One of the more recent nuclear cover stories was released in late March. This story was just that, a complete and utter fabrication of what Al Qaeda can actually do.
25 letters that claim nuclear bombs are hidden throughout the United States were supposedly sent to multiple investigators and citizens in the Chicago area.
“The idea that Al Qaeda could place over a hundred nuclear weapons into government buildings throughout the United States is 100% impossible. Cave dwelling ninjas do not have the ability to either steal or create nuclear weapons, fly them over to America, and somehow plant them in government buildings.”
Last year Obama labeled a nuclear attack on America as the biggest single threat facing our nation yet we are unable to obtain the gas used to detected them?
Calling terrorists with nuclear weapons “the single biggest threat to U.S. security,” Obama said that the “central focus for this summit is getting the international community on the path in which we are locking down that nuclear material in a very specific time frame with a specific work plan,” Politico reported in 2010.
PhotobucketIn late July 2010, The National Research Council released a report titled, Nuclear Forensics: A Capability at Risk.
The report outlined the fact that the United States is no longer able to track nukes threatening our shores!
Gordon Duff, writing for Veterans Today, speculated that this was a cover that could be used in the event of a false flag nuclear attack:
“A powerful group within the United States, one with influence over the press and the ability to derail an investigation as was done with 9/11, has been “tasked” with laying the groundwork for a terrorist attack on America, one using nuclear material.”
In the same article Gordon wrote about a somewhat unknown raid that took place in Indiana that he believes was related to smuggled nuclear weapons.
“Another piece of the puzzle involved a federal task force, Defense, Energy, FBI, descending on a warehouse in Greenfield, Indiana under the guise of a “records search.” This “Waco style” assault on a facility storing furniture for college dorm rooms was much more than it seemed. No case, criminal or civil, provided any underlying reason for the search.”
In 2002, World Net Daily reported on a book by an FBI consult that claimed that Osama Bin Laden had bought 20 suitcase nukes from KGB agents in 1998!
A new book by an FBI consultant on international terrorism says Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida terrorist network purchased 20 suitcase nuclear weapons from former KGB agents in 1998 for $30 million.
The book,“Al Qaeda: Brotherhood of Terror,” by Paul L. Williams, also says this deal was one of at least three in the last decade in which al-Qaida purchased small nuclear weapons or weapons-grade nuclear uranium.
Obviously this book was one of the first attempts to implant the possibility of Al Qaeda nuking the U.S. into the minds of the American people.
And then there is the now infamous 2007 Minot Air Force Base fiasco which involved nuclear weapons that were apparently missing for up to 36 hours.
“According to a wide range of reports, several nuclear bombs were “lost” for 36 hours after taking off August 29/30, 2007 on a “cross-country journey” across the U.S., from U.S.A.F Base Minot in North Dakota to U.S.A.F. Base Barksdale in Louisiana.
Reportedly, in total there were six W80-1 nuclear warheads armed on AGM-129 Advanced Cruise Missiles (ACMs) that were “lost.” The story was first reported by the Military Times, after military servicemen leaked the story,” reported Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya.
Drills
Hundreds of large scale simulated nuclear drills have taken place in America and abroad during the last ten years.
One of the more ominous drills, TopOff 4, took place in Portland Oregon. The exercise simulated a large scale dirty bomb attack in the heart of downtown Portland.
The Oregon fact sheet on the exercise read like a Hollywood movie.
Remember we have lost most of our freedom due to the threat of terrorism yet we are supposed to believe that cave dwelling terrorists can outmaneuver multiple western intelligence agencies.
The T4 full-scale exercise is based on National Planning Scenario 11 (NPS-11). Terrorists have planned attacks in Oregon, Arizona, and the U.S. Territory of Guam. They have brought radioactive material into the United States.
The first of three coordinated attacks occurs in Guam, with the detonation of a Radiological Dispersal Device (RDD), or “dirty bomb,” causing casualties and widespread contamination in a populous area. Within hours, similar attacks occur in Portland and Phoenix.
Interestingly enough, the drill took place at the same time as Vigilant Shield, a massive operation which simulated detonation of three radiological dispersal devices within the USNORTHCOM and U.S. Pacific Command areas of responsibility.
A quick search of the internet will reveal hundreds of similar drills in numerous different cities all with the same mind set. A mind set that is based off the false premise that terrorists can obtain nuclear material without the help of major governments.
Predictive Programming
The corporate controlled media and Hollywood have played a huge part in implementing a possible terrorist nuclear attack into the minds of people worldwide.
This idea is not only an American fear mongering operation.
Operation Blackjack, a set of slide show comics that depicted nuclear bombs detonating in major cities throughout the world, was mysteriously released in 2009 by The London Telegraph.
The slide shows had numerous embed codes and symbolism that to some indicated it was a very real operation that would happen on June 22nd 2009 or 2010.
Obviously those dates have come and gone but the IDEA that this could happen was cemented into the minds of the hundreds of thousands who read the comic like slide shows.
Interestingly enough, Jericho, a popular TV show in America, depicted a very similar scenario as Operation Blackjack.
The nuclear attacks in Jericho were actually carried out by rogue elements of our government who immediately instituted a North American Union, martial law, FEMA Camps, and private military death squads.
Doctor Who, a popular family show in Britain ran an episode that is a clear cut case of predictive programming. Nuclear attack, martial law, and labor camps!
While the sheer amount of predictive programming in regards to nuclear attacks makes it impossible to list them all, these three paint a clear picture of the mind control that we the people have experienced.
Questions Remain
It is clear that the groundwork and cover for a nuclear false flag in a major American or European city has been slowly put into place.
Many questions remain. Will the numerous hardworking, patriotic Americans in the government and military stop such a horrific act from happening?
Will the powers that be realize that the blame for such an attack would be pointed directly at them?
Will a different, more feasible, false flag be used instead?
These are questions that must be answered. We the people must let it be known that we will no longer stand for any form of false flag terrorism.
Take note America, as we continue to lose our freedoms in the name of security, we have become more vulnerable then ever to a large scale false flag on par or more extreme than 9/11.
Link:
http://theintelhub.com/2011/05/29/the-stage-is-set-for-a-nuclear-false-flag/
Monday, May 30, 2011
America is getting poorer...
Do you ever have the feeling that there are holes in your pockets? These days our money seems to slip through our hands faster than ever. The Federal Reserve keeps telling us that the rate of inflation in 2011 is "close to zero", and this is causing confusion for many Americans because they are making just as much money as they did in previous years but it doesn't seem to go nearly as far. So what in the world is going on out there? Well, sadly, the truth is that we really don't even know what the government considers "inflation" to be anymore. The way that the U.S. government calculates inflation has changed an astounding 24 times since 1978. You see, it is always politically beneficial to have a low inflation rate, so recent administrations have been changing the formula constantly in an attempt to look good. But these days most Americans know something is up. All they have to do is stop at a gas station, go shopping for food or open up their bills. The reality is that inflation in 2011 is about as bad as we saw back in the 1970s, it is just that the government is much less honest about it now.
Many years ago Kenny Rogers released a song that contained the following lyrics....
You got to know when to hold em, know when to fold em
Know when to walk away and know when to run
You never count your money when you’re sitting at the table
There’ll be time for counting when the dealer’s done
Well, the U.S. middle class has been dealt a losing hand, but in the game of life you just can't fold.
Over the past 3 decades, the average household income for the bottom 80 percent of Americans has been remarkably flat. In fact, over the past several years we have actually seen median household income decline several times. If you do not know about how the U.S. middle class is being ripped to shreds, just read this article. Without a doubt, America is getting poorer.
Well, not the top 1 percent, but the vast majority of the rest of us sure are.
Meanwhile, prices have started to rise with a vengeance.
According to an article in the Daily Mail, a Memorial Day cookout will cost you 29 percent more this year than it did last year.
That doesn't sound good.
Will it be 29 percent more expensive again next year?
Perhaps some of us will just have to stop having Memorial Day cookouts because we can't afford them anymore.
The price of gas is also digging into our paychecks big time.
A gallon of gas costs about a dollar more than it did a year ago, but we can't avoid buying gas. All of us have got to get to work and drive to the store.
Sadly, each time the price of gasoline goes up 50 cents it takes about $70 billion out of the U.S. economy (on a yearly basis).
A recent article in USA Today described the kind of impact these high gas prices are having on average American families....
For every $10 the typical household earns before taxes, almost a full dollar now goes toward gas, a 40 percent bigger bite than normal.
Households spent an average of $369 on gas last month. In April 2009, they spent just $201.
But don't worry, according to Ben Bernanke we barely have any inflation at all in 2011.
Some companies are trying to avoid raising their prices by reducing their package sizes. A recent article posted on Marketwatch entitled "Inflation diet: same price, less product" explored this phenomenon in detail. Millions of Americans are going to the supermarket and are finding that many of their favorite products are now 10 or 20 percent smaller and yet they are paying the same price as before.
Another thing that is happening is that product quality is going down. Have you noticed how things just don't seem to be made the way that they used to? This is not a coincidence.
Read more:
http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/inflation-2011-honey-they-shrunk-our-paychecks
The banksters are heroes according to HBO...
by Jens C. Kolbjørnsen
"Fascism should rightly be called corporatism, as it is the merger of corporate and government power." ~ Benito Mussolini
Now that we are pushing the three years anniversary of the dramatic financial events of September 2008, it is fair to say, for anyone who has researched the subject on their own, that this movie is nothing but a popularization of the mainstream version of a crisis that only has been postponed and worsened. It portrays the criminals of the revolving door between Washington D.C. and Wall Street as heroes, without so much as touching upon the real reason for the boom and bust phenomenon.
Let’s dissect the movie scene by scene.
The introduction shows the Clinton administration repealing Glass-Steagall and how home ownership all of a sudden became a part of the American dream. How Bush Jr. meant that inflating the largest mortgage bubble in history was "good not only for the soul, but also for the pocketbooks of the country." Several news clips are shown, none of which include the accurate warnings given by free market economists such as Peter Schiff or Jim Rogers. Surprised talking heads announce how Bear Stearns are being sold for pennies on the dollar to JP Morgan before the story kicks off in Lehman Brothers’ CEO and Chairman Dick Fuld’s office.
Fuld seems surprised with the situation of his financial Titanic, which makes little sense considering the outrageous repurchase transactions he undertook prior to September 2008 to cover for the bank’s true leverage ratio. Fuld’s scapegoat is instead the police of the markets, the short sellers!
Morally correct Hank Paulson can’t recommend private investments, when being asked by Fuld to get in touch with Warren Buffett. Paulson’s advisers work hard throughout the story, but as Dennis Kucinich has pointed out in Congress, the question is who they are working for...
Value Warren doesn’t like what he sees unfolding in the banking sector (until he gets a friendly phone call from Blankfein later in the film) and refuses to touch Lehman at the current price. Fuld jokes about how no one forced mortgages on home buyers, but we all know of one institution that highly encouraged the credit mania with artificially low interest rates for years.
During Hank and Helicopter Ben’s weekly breakfast Hank says he has just spoken to Alan Greenspan who complains about the over-supply of housing, a problem which, according to Greenspan, easily can be solved by buying up all the houses and then burning them. This is a wonderful example of the broken window fallacy these people seem to live by. Letting the artificial bubble burst would make housing affordable, but burning houses to encourage economic (GDP) "growth" is seen as a better idea.
The Bernank mostly eats porridge throughout the movie, besides claiming he has spent his entire academic career studying the great depression. The detail that not unexpectedly is missing in this Krugmanian porn flick is that the measures now being implemented are strikingly similar to the ones that accelerated the JP Morgan margin call-triggered crash of 1929 into a depression that lasted until the central planning of WWII loosened its grip of the US economy in the late forties.
Back at Lehman "it’s not just a bad quarter" and management is panicking. Dick Fuld blows the deal with potential Korean buyers by trying to convince them that the firm’s portfolio of asset backed securities isn’t as bad as it appears. Fuld calls Kashkari at the Treasury out of desperation, but refuses to listen to his advice of selling at a lower price.
The following day, Timmy Geithner is "managing" the collapse of Fannie and Freddie from the squash courts. Obama is giving empty campaign promises of stability, which in all other languages than doublespeak means further instability, saying that nationalization of the two mortgage lenders may be an option. On his trip to the Beijing Olympics, Paulson receives a warning from the Chinese that they and the Russians might trash the entire mortgage market unless the US Treasury takes action (to prop up the phony credit-based economy).
It seems this sequence is supposed to justify breathing tax payer air into the corpse that is Fannie & Freddie.
Paulson scares Bank of America by sending a message that bailing out Lehman is not an option. When telling Geithner there is no legal support for the bailout, even though they just helped Jamie Dimon pick up Bear Stearns, Geithner replies that "legally, we haven’t figured out how yet" – a statement that should make red flags fly all over the place.
The Lehman stock keeps sliding and Paulson orders the Bernank to summon all the banks’ CEOs to a lockdown meeting at the Fed, where they surely already know their way around. At the airport Hank and his team meet with Christopher Cox from the SEC who asks whose private jet they’re flying. "That’s a rental, Hank put it on his card," is the reply from another former (current) Goldman (Government) Sachs employee. SEC asks with authority if there’s anyone in the Treasury who isn’t from Goldman, whereupon we get a reassuring: "Chairman, just to be clear, there’s no conflict of interest here, Hank sold all of his shares in Goldman before he took office. Thanks for clarifying this, script writers.
The reproduction of the infamous mahogany meeting at the Fed is as full of clichés as it was in Wall Street II and climaxes when Cox from the SEC reaches out to the banksters: "Gentlemen, you are great Americans undertaking a patriotic duty." This statement is so laughable that even Jamie Dimon cracks up.
After BofA decides to take a stake in Merrill Lynch, it becomes evident that Lehman has to go. But there is another problem arising, namely AIG "running out of cash." The same fear mongering we were delivered through the media is being presented here; everything from airplanes to construction projects to life insurance relies on AIG in one way or another. The world would practically freeze unless AIG gets bailed out. We’re all familiar with the billions of dollars of CDS-related obligations the insurance giant held toward Goldman. The rest is unfortunately left to speculation, as the US justice system refuses to touch GS even when being handed rock solid proof on a silver platter by Carl Levin’s recent Senate hearing.
Other critics have mentioned how Paulson is portrayed as a financial Jesus in Too Big to Fail, an image that becomes embarrassing when he nearly cries to his wife over the phone about how the fourth largest investment bank is about to go down "on his watch." The next day however, Hank and his team celebrate how media and Congress respond to "his decision" to let Lehman go.
Now the toxic assets really hit the fan and even IMF candidate Christine Lagarde complains to poor Paulson, "how did you dear to let Lehman go." General Electric makes it clear how business in America will shut down unless the economic overlords take action to stimulate the banks. This is the build-up to the justification of the TARP bill. Paulson’s team basically comes up with the official version of the financial crisis in less than three minutes, again without mentioning the main facilitator behind the mortgage madness. "The whole financial system?," asks the press secretary in awe after the briefing, almost in tears. "And what do I tell them when they ask why this wasn’t regulated?" "You tell them it’s already been overregulated through price control and subsidies for decades, you ignorant economic hitwoman," is the reply she should have gotten in the movie...
One of the most shocking statements comes from the porridge-eating Bernank on the day of introducing TARP. The breakfast club partners in crime realise they can’t keep blatantly dumping money on companies of their liking, so they have to come up with a way of doing it complicated enough for the alphabet soup illiterate public not to understand that the exact same thing is going on: "This is a democracy. We cannot be men behind the curtains pulling the strings," says the chairman of the unconstitutional creature from Jekyll Island which, according to Greenspan himself, is above the law.
The first draft of the TARP legislation is three pages long. Way too short for lobbyists who prefer bills to be at least a couple of thousand pages, but two pages too long for Ron Paul who has suggested new legislation should be readable for the people voting on it. When it comes to the size of TARP we learn the exact calculation behind 700 billion dollars. In reality, a Treasury spokeswoman told Forbes.com; "It's not based on any particular data point. We just wanted to choose a really large number."
Paulson tells Bernanke before meeting with the legislators that the only way the bill will go through is "to scare them shitless." The Bernank doesn’t think this should be a problem. In Too Big to Fail, Paulson kneels before Nancy Pelosi, before having to beg the banks to receive more money. In reality, Paulson did scare members of Congress shitless and threatened with "martial law in America if this bill didn’t go through." After the Bernank lectures the financial sub-committee about how the great depression did not play out, and after some spin management and additional fear mongering from the White house, the bill passes and Paulson saves the day, the economy and the world.
The only question left is whether the banks will start lending again, which Paulson confirms they will. In closing, we learn that after the passage of TARP, banks made fewer loans and the markets continued downwards. Unemployment rose to ten percent and millions of families lost their homes, but that in 2009, the markets stabilized and "the slide into a global depression was averted." The biggest banks even repaid their TARP loans. In reality, all economic indicators are down, price inflation and unemployment are at record levels and the banks have ironically gotten away with the largest bank robbery in history.
Too Big to Fail expectedly ignores most of the issues that Austrians have been pointing out all along. In addition to completely misleading the viewer when it comes to economic facts like the catastrophic consequences of monetary central planning and expansion of the money supply, the criminals behind what to most people appears to be an orchestrated bank robbery are shamelessly portrayed as heroes. I’d rather recommend picking up Meltdown by Dr. Thomas Woods for a proper understanding of the events presented in this establishment fairy tale.
Link:
http://lewrockwell.com/orig12/kolbjornsen1.1.1.html
Sunday, May 29, 2011
From the horse's mouth...
Israeli Minister: Shouting "Anti-Semite" is just a trick to avoid the facts.
Despite being savaged by the mainstream media, who fear him, Ron Paul's message appears to be getting out to the people...
Gary Howard
As the 2012 GOP Presidential field begins to take shape, recent polling shows Congressman Ron Paul emerging a top-tier candidate and a credible threat to unseat assumed front runner Mitt Romney.
A recent number of polls on the race for the Republican presidential nomination have consistently shown Dr. Paul surging and in many cases running a clear second.
In the latest Gallup poll from May 26, 2011, Ron Paul comes in second, ahead of all other declared candidates for the Republican presidential nomination. In New Hampshire’s most recent UNH Survey Center poll, Paul again scores second place ahead of all others officially in the race. And once again in the most recent CNN poll, Congressman Paul ties for second place versus all other announced candidates.
Several other polls from a month earlier, including Quinnipiac, Fox News, Rasmussen, and McClatchy, have all shown Ron Paul either tied for second or coming in at a very close third among declared candidates.
Our campaign firmly believes that Dr. Paul’s long track record of consistent, staunch economic conservatism, proven fund raising prowess and unmatched leadership on inflation and dollar devaluation will continue to push him up in the polls.
Link:
http://www.prisonplanet.com/paul-surging-in-latest-polls.html
Maybe we wouldn't need Memorial Day if we only listened to Presidents Washington and Eisenhower...
If we only followed the advice of two of our nation's greatest military leaders as they prepared to return to civilian life after serving as our president, we might not have to have holidays such as the one we are commemorating this weekend. Yeah, I know that Memorial Day began as a consequence of the American Civil War, but we didn't have to add to that list of Americans who have lost their lives in the many conflicts our leaders have led us into the past 150 years. We no longer have chief executives who seek congressional approval to plunge our nation into wars overseas as our Constitution requires. We have used the United Nations and NATO to circumvent the constitutional process to send our troops into harms way in Korea, Viet Nam, Iraq(twice), Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Libya to name a few. The peace dividend we should have experienced as a result of the end of the Cold War has been squandered away trillions of times by spineless leaders who cannot or will not stand up to the military-industrial complex Eisenhower so wisely warned us about.
Washington's warning to avoid foreign entanglements could have saved tens of thousands of American lives in World War I and the subsequent war that inevitably followed.
It just seems so tragic that those we honor who died defending our freedoms might have actually died needlessly as a result of decisions that sent them to their deaths that were motivated by other nefarious factors. I do not deny those who died their rightful place in our memory and gratitude for their sacrifice, but we should also focus our thoughts on what the motivations of our leaders, whose decisions sent them and continue to send them to their early graves, were and are based upon...
Obama: The robot president...
The Excavator
The image of Barack Obama is carefully crafted, obsessively controlled, and completely different from the man. The Obama that is known by the general American public and the world is a marketing creation, as journalist John Pilger said in a lecture in 2009. The man in the White House is Obama the automaton, not Obama the leader of the free world; Obama the mechanical and manipulative machine, not the caring and faithful servant of the American people.
Obama’s role is merely functionary like almost all American presidents since the public execution of John F. Kennedy. Modern American Presidents, especially Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama, are not real men who speak their own minds and make speeches from their hearts. They are self-created myths and robotic spokespersons for the American oligarchy, the parasitic private central banks, the military-industrial complex, the national security crime syndicate, and other powerful forces that dominate Washington.
The continuity of agenda between the Bush and Obama administrations means that presidents have no say, they are actors who are put there to read scripts and steamroll policies regardless if they are popular or lawful. Their job is to sell the destruction and impoverishment of America as good and inevitable, and continue the cover up of 9/11, the war on terror, Wall Street’s robbery and destruction of the middle class, and the secret birth of the transnational technofascist police state.
People say politicians are whores, but they are more like machines. To be President of the American empire you need a schizophrenic personality because you must constantly lie to the American people, play a double game, and pretend to uphold American ideals with a straight face, while working behind the scenes to secretly advance ruthless and treacherous policies which harm the American people, the country, and the world.
It was interesting to see that the extension of the controversial Patriot (Traitor) Act on Thursday did not require President Obama to be present in the country. A device known as an autopen that reproduces Obama’s signature was used to sign the legislation. This little handy device may be a trivial piece of hardware to most people, but I think it symbolizes the true function and personality of the President of the United States of America. It seems natural and fitting that the autopresident has his own autopen.
Deconstructing The Obama Myth
Eugene Jarecki, the filmmaker behind the 2005 documentary “Why We Fight,” demythologized the Reagan myth in his new documentary “Reagan,” and brings the real Reagan to life, who I think is more likeable than the false image created about him. Jarecki told the Wall Street Journal when he premiered the film at the Sundance Film Festival in January that “what we learn today about Reagan from too many people is simply false.” Since Reagan’s death an industry to satisfy the Reagan cult has sprung up in America. Many politicians shamelessly use his manufactured persona to draw Reagan loyalists to their own cause and campaign. And it is easy to misrepresent Reagan because he was a larger than life character who personified an entire decade.
Barack Obama has compared himself to Reagan, which is true in one way: both men created their own myths but in reality they stand for nothing. From Reagan to Obama America declined from a superpower to a third-world terrorist state.
Obama likes to make other people perceive him as larger than life by using glorified rhetoric, but his accomplishments are slim. He gave empty speeches to get elected and then betrayed his country when he stepped in the White House by refusing to prosecute criminal bankers, ending the criminal wars, and stopping the rape of the U.S. constitution.
Sir Nigel Sheinwald, the British ambassador to the United States called Obama “aloof and insensitive” in a letter he sent to then Prime Minister Gordon Brown before Obama was elected President. Others who have had contact with Obama have made the same observations. Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal described him as cold and aloof when he had discussions with him during the Gulf Coast oil spill crisis about the economic consequences of putting a moratorium on oil drilling. Obama shrugged off the concerns. The Obamabots think Obama is cool, but the truth is that he is a cold, heartless son of a bitch just like Bush and Clinton.
Professor Cornel West, who was a vocal supporter of Obama, has painted the same picture of him: cold, calculative, clever, emotionless, manipulative, cunning, ungrateful, disloyal, indifferent, robotic. In Chris Hedges’s article ‘The Obama Deception: Why Cornel West Went Ballistic’ West tells a story about how Obama shunned him and threw him under the bus after he did so much to get him elected. From Hedges’s article:
“There is the personal level,” he says. “I used to call my dear brother [Obama] every two weeks. I said a prayer on the phone for him, especially before a debate. And I never got a call back. And when I ran into him in the state Capitol in South Carolina when I was down there campaigning for him he was very kind. The first thing he told me was, ‘Brother West, I feel so bad. I haven’t called you back. You been calling me so much. You been giving me so much love, so much support and what have you.’ And I said, ‘I know you’re busy.’ But then a month and half later I would run into other people on the campaign and he’s calling them all the time. I said, wow, this is kind of strange. He doesn’t have time, even two seconds, to say thank you or I’m glad you’re pulling for me and praying for me, but he’s calling these other people. I said, this is very interesting. And then as it turns out with the inauguration I couldn’t get a ticket with my mother and my brother. I said this is very strange. We drive into the hotel and the guy who picks up my bags from the hotel has a ticket to the inauguration. My mom says, ‘That’s something that this dear brother can get a ticket and you can’t get one, honey, all the work you did for him from Iowa.’ Beginning in Iowa to Ohio. We had to watch the thing in the hotel.
West says that the experience taught him that Obama “had no sense of gratitude, no sense of loyalty, no sense of even courtesy, [no] sense of decency, just to say thank you.”
Obama is clearly heartless who does not care that the American people are suffering due to misguided, short-sighted, treacherous, and criminal government policies. Like every other presidential puppet, including Bush, Clinton and Reagan, Obama favors manipulation, lying, and propaganda over truth-telling and honest debate.
Obama does not believe in a free society. He thinks the state is God and wants people to obey whatever they are told without questioning anything that the government says or does. His speeches are based on simplified logic and filled with rhetorical tricks like repetition that have the effect of deadening the rational faculties of the listener. Buzz words like “hope” and “change” are used to present a saintly image of himself. As Aldous Huxley wrote, “slogans, the unqualified assertions and sweeping generalizations are the propagandist’s stock in trade.”
Obama can lie to the American people on a constant basis because he views the people as a herd who should be ruled and controlled by a technocratic elite. His conception of human nature is anti-democratic and consistent with Socrates and Hitler, who are very different individuals except for the fact that they both thought of the people as sheep who should be lied to and led as their all-knowing leaders see fit.
A lot of people say Obama and other top political leaders in the West who are betraying the people and covering up the 9/11 attacks are psychopaths and/or sociopaths, depending on the person. I don’t have the psychological expertise to say definitively that Obama is a sociopathic individual, but obviously he is very heartless and arrogant. It does not get anymore anti-social than lying to billions of people about acts of state murder and acts of high treason.
Obama, Clinton and Bush are evil and selfish men, but they are not on the same level of crazy as Stalin, Hitler and other arrogant despots in history who headed authoritarian regimes that were responsible for the slaughter of millions of people. The public face of the hijacked American empire does not have to be a cruel monster to operate the machinations of the regime, he just has to say the right words, and put on the right face for the American and global public, like any good actor. But you also can’t be an ethical, empathic and psychologically healthy individual to be President. Since lying is the biggest part of the job anyone who wants to become President must be egoistic and have a view of human nature that is elitist and authoritarian.
Sooner or later the shadow side of Obama, the real man as opposed to the fake mask, will be revealed to the American people and the world because unnatural things cannot survive during this time of crisis and renewal. At the same time, people will come to know the shadow state of America and the shadow history of the last half century. Obama is just the latest puppet who was ambitious and vain enough to become the autopresident.
Link:
http://disquietreservations.blogspot.com/
Saturday, May 28, 2011
OOPS!!! Too cold for roses in Portland...
"A rose! Ah, ha, ha!" whooped Hillary Joseph, bending over to inspect a button of orange, the only color bobbing in an aggressive sea of green at the International Rose Test Garden at Washington Park, where the great majority of approximately 8,500 roses are certain to be a no-show for the Portland Rose Festival.
Thomas Wickboldt, Joseph's friend from San Francisco, was good-natured about missing Portland's iconic flower. "Since it's the City of Roses, it would be nice to see the roses. But it's not that big of a deal."
The wishy-washy sun of spring has been unkind to the warm-blooded plants. A season of record rainfall and well-below average high temperatures make 2011 the latest-blooming rose season in memory. Only six days rose above 60 degrees; on average, there are 26.
"The weather is crazy," says Gretchen Humphrey, drawing out the word like pulling a piece of taffy. As chair of the Portland Rose Society Show, she's holding out hope for a warm spell to get the pouting roses to cooperate. But the forecast of continued cool and rainy days makes the chances of that happening extremely unlikely.
"If we had decent weather of 70 to 80 for at least 10 days, we'd be in great shape, says Harry Landers, curator of the International Rose Test Garden, where the roses have not been this late since he started keeping track 22 years ago.
Regular show competitors, such as John Sitton of Albany, are disappointed.
"I don't remember a later growing season when it comes to roses. This is the latest -- by far," says Sitton, who started his garden 28 years ago and now has 300 roses. "I'm really worried about the Portland show. I love to compete. My goal is to win the big queen award, but I don't believe I will have anything to show."
Link:
http://www.oregonlive.com/rosefest/index.ssf/2011/05/anxiety_grows_for_the_portland.html
Have you had enough of this nonsense?
79 Senators vote to trash the Constitution: The “War of Terror” on the US grows
Marti Oakley
If you haven’t received the memo yet, let me update you on your status as it pertains to the Constitution and your civil liberties; you have neither. 79 Senators who snickered as they swore an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States, voted to render you guilty in advance, with no chance of proving your innocence. The unlawful data mining and collection, the compilation of dossiers on virtually every person in the US, the unwarranted wire-tapping, the rifling through personal records of all kinds for no other reason than to collect information to be used at a later date if the government decides to prosecute you for whatever reasons, was extended.
The Patriot Acts were sold to the public as part of the war of terror perpetrated by the Bush administration after the false flag attacks of 9/11. A “War of Terror” is being perpetrated by our own government against its own people and is blessed by both Democrat and Republican alike. “We the people” are the terrorists the government fears. The Constitution be damned.
Nothing in the Patriot acts is remotely connected to fighting terrorism from foreign invaders. It is a precisely targeted bill which amounted to a massive assault on liberty and freedom right here at home.
We had more than 1500 laws already on the books (never invoked) to fight terrorism prior to this Act, and even these could not stop an attack; what makes anyone think or believe the Patriot Acts could perform such a feat? If you think this Act could prevent terrorism, try waving a copy at a TSA agent and see if he (or, she) runs away in fear.
Had the intent of the Patriot Act actually been to fight terrorism, the federal government would have had to turn its efforts inward and waged “war” on itself.
The Patriot Acts are the systematic criminalization of American citizens. Terrorists, and terrorism are only mentioned when the assaults on Constitutional rights and civil liberties were so egregious, so blatantly obvious that the veiled threat of another attack, if we objected, was ever present.
No true terrorist gives a rat’s behind what laws we pass; if they did, they wouldn’t be terrorists. Nothing in the Patriot Acts will stop terrorism especially when it emanates from within.
These Acts will however:
Stop YOU from traveling unmolested by government agents.
Will also violate your right to privacy and to be,
Secure from illegal search and seizure
Makes legal (not lawful) warrantless searches
Allows unwarranted data mining of any and all information on you, including:
Any comments, beliefs, political opinions, social positions, religious beliefs, political party affiliation, and any other belief system or political view not approved by government.
These Acts are the foundation of the police state being systematically assembled and implemented by Homeland Security
The hunting of the American people
They aren’t looking for terrorists…..they are looking for you.
There is far more to this police state Act than we can go into here. We all know this Act for what it is: The end of our Constitutional Republic and the rise of the police state. And 79 of our Senators took it upon themselves to vote away our liberty and to allow this monster to grow.
Too many of us dutifully comply with the sexual assaults perpetrated by TSA agents across the country. As passengers mewl and whine about how they “are just trying to keep us safe” I have to wonder just how egregious the invasion of our property and most especially the invasion of our persons has to become before we admit that what TSA is doing has nothing to do with your safety. It has everything to do with conditioning and training you to submit and comply, and god knows there are plenty of perverts more than willing to spend their days fondling the genitals of compliant passengers or watching the naked body scanner images. The sexual assaults perpetrated on the public have produced not ONE terrorist unless of course you count the TSA agents.
TSA is now planned for public buildings, malls, train stations and stadiums. And bunches of you sheeple will whine about how they are just trying to keep you safe! And to add insult to injury, the 2002 homeland Security Act has been amended to include a snitching-for-dollars program which we like to call “The Stool Pigeon Protection Act”.
Fusion Centers are proliferating across the country. These centers do nothing but data mine, snoop, and collect any and all data they can, indiscriminately and without regard to your liberty or civil protections. These are manned by your friends, neighbors and family members who lack morality and any sense of patriotism; people who quickly forgot who they are and where they come from.
Obama and several state senators and governors are contemplating a “per mile” surveillance tax system to be paid for by taxpayers. This new system would require surveillance equipment to be installed on your vehicle, not so much to generate revenue, but more to track your movements so that information could be added to your CIA/FBI/NSA dossier. Once identified in this new system, your ability to purchase gas could be shut off instantly simply by deactivating your vehicle ID number. It could shut off access for one vehicle . . . or all vehicles.
Our police and sheriff departments have been militarized under Homeland Security. Our police and sheriff department vehicles no longer have the words “To protect and Serve” emblazoned on the sides. This, thanks to a SCOTUS ruling that said law enforcement was under no obligation to protect us unless they arrest us, and then only in a limited fashion . . . and besides . . . they are essentially military units now.
They are hunting you and me…..do you get it yet?
SCOTUS has become a threat to the country at large, ruling time and again against the Constitution and your liberty and protected rights, and in favor of corporate interests many of whom now openly run various agencies of government. When Citizens v United came down, this court should have been immediately disbanded. This decision vested incorporeal, fictional entities with human rights.
We have major cities across the country now purchasing military equipment for use against their communities. A 911 call will elicit a SWAT team response, replete with star wars gear and uniforms, worn by badge heavy, testosterone pulsing storm troopers who don’t care if you have committed a crime or not. They have guns and other weapons and carte blanche to break any and all laws (that apply to civilians) in defense of “government”. These law enforcement officers, once the hero’s of children and many adults are now a menace to their communities and present a greater threat than your run of the mill criminal.
For those law enforcement personnel who swear to uphold the law and your rights and to refuse orders to violate your rights, the Southern Poverty Law Center will quickly add their names and organizations to their lists; lists which are then sold for millions of dollars to the federal government indicating which groups and individuals are to be targeted. These men and women are now “unique terrorists”, suspected terrorists; to be viewed with suspicion and arrested whenever possible. And why? For refusing to violate your rights and for refusing to participate in the growing police state. Anyone who expresses patriotism is considered a “nativist extremist” by SPLC. Think about that the next time you say the pledge of allegiance; maybe it will keep you from thinking about the McCarthy-esque nerds populating the SPLC.
Homeland Security has ordered 500 roving vans complete with x-ray scanners to be used across the country. You can be scanned walking down the street, in public places or even in your own yard. Why? You might be a terrorist. With our economy in shambles, and the national debt posing a real threat, the best they could come up with is to spend another estimated ½ billion dollars on vans to cruise our streets and surreptitiously x-ray to see if we have weapons on us? Really?
There is far more to this than the few items listed here. A repeal of the Patriot Act 1 and the misnamed “Security Enhancement Act of 2003”…an expansion of the first Act, would go along way in restoring the integrity of government and our freedom. But today, 79 Senators decided you were not worth it. 79 Senators committed an act of treason against the people they are supposed to represent and sold off their freedom, liberty and rights.
79 Senators…that’s all it took to lay waste to the Constitution. Not to worry! Several of them will be on various cable news shows talking about “keeping America safe”, “national security”, “the war of terror”, and trying to convince us that the only way we can be safe is if we forfeit our rights, freedom and our Constitution.
79 Senators…and not one of them will admit that the terrorists you need to fear, the people you need to be protected from…..is them.
Link:
http://www.activistpost.com/2011/05/79-senators-vote-to-trash-constitution.html#more
Marti Oakley
If you haven’t received the memo yet, let me update you on your status as it pertains to the Constitution and your civil liberties; you have neither. 79 Senators who snickered as they swore an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States, voted to render you guilty in advance, with no chance of proving your innocence. The unlawful data mining and collection, the compilation of dossiers on virtually every person in the US, the unwarranted wire-tapping, the rifling through personal records of all kinds for no other reason than to collect information to be used at a later date if the government decides to prosecute you for whatever reasons, was extended.
The Patriot Acts were sold to the public as part of the war of terror perpetrated by the Bush administration after the false flag attacks of 9/11. A “War of Terror” is being perpetrated by our own government against its own people and is blessed by both Democrat and Republican alike. “We the people” are the terrorists the government fears. The Constitution be damned.
Nothing in the Patriot acts is remotely connected to fighting terrorism from foreign invaders. It is a precisely targeted bill which amounted to a massive assault on liberty and freedom right here at home.
We had more than 1500 laws already on the books (never invoked) to fight terrorism prior to this Act, and even these could not stop an attack; what makes anyone think or believe the Patriot Acts could perform such a feat? If you think this Act could prevent terrorism, try waving a copy at a TSA agent and see if he (or, she) runs away in fear.
Had the intent of the Patriot Act actually been to fight terrorism, the federal government would have had to turn its efforts inward and waged “war” on itself.
The Patriot Acts are the systematic criminalization of American citizens. Terrorists, and terrorism are only mentioned when the assaults on Constitutional rights and civil liberties were so egregious, so blatantly obvious that the veiled threat of another attack, if we objected, was ever present.
No true terrorist gives a rat’s behind what laws we pass; if they did, they wouldn’t be terrorists. Nothing in the Patriot Acts will stop terrorism especially when it emanates from within.
These Acts will however:
Stop YOU from traveling unmolested by government agents.
Will also violate your right to privacy and to be,
Secure from illegal search and seizure
Makes legal (not lawful) warrantless searches
Allows unwarranted data mining of any and all information on you, including:
Any comments, beliefs, political opinions, social positions, religious beliefs, political party affiliation, and any other belief system or political view not approved by government.
These Acts are the foundation of the police state being systematically assembled and implemented by Homeland Security
The hunting of the American people
They aren’t looking for terrorists…..they are looking for you.
There is far more to this police state Act than we can go into here. We all know this Act for what it is: The end of our Constitutional Republic and the rise of the police state. And 79 of our Senators took it upon themselves to vote away our liberty and to allow this monster to grow.
Too many of us dutifully comply with the sexual assaults perpetrated by TSA agents across the country. As passengers mewl and whine about how they “are just trying to keep us safe” I have to wonder just how egregious the invasion of our property and most especially the invasion of our persons has to become before we admit that what TSA is doing has nothing to do with your safety. It has everything to do with conditioning and training you to submit and comply, and god knows there are plenty of perverts more than willing to spend their days fondling the genitals of compliant passengers or watching the naked body scanner images. The sexual assaults perpetrated on the public have produced not ONE terrorist unless of course you count the TSA agents.
TSA is now planned for public buildings, malls, train stations and stadiums. And bunches of you sheeple will whine about how they are just trying to keep you safe! And to add insult to injury, the 2002 homeland Security Act has been amended to include a snitching-for-dollars program which we like to call “The Stool Pigeon Protection Act”.
Fusion Centers are proliferating across the country. These centers do nothing but data mine, snoop, and collect any and all data they can, indiscriminately and without regard to your liberty or civil protections. These are manned by your friends, neighbors and family members who lack morality and any sense of patriotism; people who quickly forgot who they are and where they come from.
Obama and several state senators and governors are contemplating a “per mile” surveillance tax system to be paid for by taxpayers. This new system would require surveillance equipment to be installed on your vehicle, not so much to generate revenue, but more to track your movements so that information could be added to your CIA/FBI/NSA dossier. Once identified in this new system, your ability to purchase gas could be shut off instantly simply by deactivating your vehicle ID number. It could shut off access for one vehicle . . . or all vehicles.
Our police and sheriff departments have been militarized under Homeland Security. Our police and sheriff department vehicles no longer have the words “To protect and Serve” emblazoned on the sides. This, thanks to a SCOTUS ruling that said law enforcement was under no obligation to protect us unless they arrest us, and then only in a limited fashion . . . and besides . . . they are essentially military units now.
They are hunting you and me…..do you get it yet?
SCOTUS has become a threat to the country at large, ruling time and again against the Constitution and your liberty and protected rights, and in favor of corporate interests many of whom now openly run various agencies of government. When Citizens v United came down, this court should have been immediately disbanded. This decision vested incorporeal, fictional entities with human rights.
We have major cities across the country now purchasing military equipment for use against their communities. A 911 call will elicit a SWAT team response, replete with star wars gear and uniforms, worn by badge heavy, testosterone pulsing storm troopers who don’t care if you have committed a crime or not. They have guns and other weapons and carte blanche to break any and all laws (that apply to civilians) in defense of “government”. These law enforcement officers, once the hero’s of children and many adults are now a menace to their communities and present a greater threat than your run of the mill criminal.
For those law enforcement personnel who swear to uphold the law and your rights and to refuse orders to violate your rights, the Southern Poverty Law Center will quickly add their names and organizations to their lists; lists which are then sold for millions of dollars to the federal government indicating which groups and individuals are to be targeted. These men and women are now “unique terrorists”, suspected terrorists; to be viewed with suspicion and arrested whenever possible. And why? For refusing to violate your rights and for refusing to participate in the growing police state. Anyone who expresses patriotism is considered a “nativist extremist” by SPLC. Think about that the next time you say the pledge of allegiance; maybe it will keep you from thinking about the McCarthy-esque nerds populating the SPLC.
Homeland Security has ordered 500 roving vans complete with x-ray scanners to be used across the country. You can be scanned walking down the street, in public places or even in your own yard. Why? You might be a terrorist. With our economy in shambles, and the national debt posing a real threat, the best they could come up with is to spend another estimated ½ billion dollars on vans to cruise our streets and surreptitiously x-ray to see if we have weapons on us? Really?
There is far more to this than the few items listed here. A repeal of the Patriot Act 1 and the misnamed “Security Enhancement Act of 2003”…an expansion of the first Act, would go along way in restoring the integrity of government and our freedom. But today, 79 Senators decided you were not worth it. 79 Senators committed an act of treason against the people they are supposed to represent and sold off their freedom, liberty and rights.
79 Senators…that’s all it took to lay waste to the Constitution. Not to worry! Several of them will be on various cable news shows talking about “keeping America safe”, “national security”, “the war of terror”, and trying to convince us that the only way we can be safe is if we forfeit our rights, freedom and our Constitution.
79 Senators…and not one of them will admit that the terrorists you need to fear, the people you need to be protected from…..is them.
Link:
http://www.activistpost.com/2011/05/79-senators-vote-to-trash-constitution.html#more
OOPS!!! That traditional Memorial Day ski trip....
Aspen Mountain will reopen for skiing this weekend with a better base depth of snow on Memorial Day than it had on New Year's Day.
The base depth has hovered around 70 inches at the mountaintop since the Aspen Skiing Co. announced last week it will extend the skiing season. The base was 38 inches on Jan. 1.
The ample amount of snow convinced the Skico to fire the chairlifts back up on Aspen Mountain for the long holiday weekend and for future weekends as long as conditions hold up. There will be 25 trails and roughly 136 acres of mostly intermediate terrain open Saturday, Sunday and Monday, May 28-30. All the open terrain will be served by the Ajax Express lift from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The Silver Queen Gondola will run for rides up and down the mountain. There will be no top-to-bottom skiing.
Temperatures have been below freezing at night so the snowpack has been pretty well preserved since Aspen Mountain closed on April 10, Skico spokesman Jeff Hanle said. The snow gets sloppy as temperatures climb during the day, so skiers and riders should be prepared for variable conditions.
“Bring some wide skis and do some water skiing,” Hanle advised.
Skiers and riders who purchased the various premiere passes for the 2010-11 season will ski for free during the extended season. All other passholders must pay for a lift ticket. The price is $19 for adult and senior pass holders, ages 18 to 69; $15 for senior passholders, ages 70 and up; $13 for youth passholders, ages 13 to 17; and $10 for child passholders, ages 4 through 12.
The price for adult single-day tickets for non-passholders is $32 per day. Tickets will be sold at the Aspen Mountain ticket kiosk on the gondola plaza. The Sundeck will be open for food and beverages.
Link:
http://www.aspentimes.com/article/20110527/NEWS/110529856/1077&ParentProfile=1058
The only thing both parties agree on, taking your Constitutional rights away from you...
The Patriot Act's section 215 – just renewed by Congress – permits almost unlimited powers of surveillance of US citizens
Dan Kennedy
Remember section 215?
It was a notorious provision of the USA Patriot Act, renewed on Thursday, that allowed the government to snoop on what library books you'd borrowed, what videos you'd rented, your medical records – anything, really, if investigators thought it might have something to do with terrorism, no matter how tangential.
I wrote about it for the Boston Phoenix in 2003, as an example of the then budding excesses of the Bush-Cheney years.
Well, section 215 is back – not that it ever went away. Charlie Savage reports in Friday's New York Times that two Democratic senators, Ron Wyden of Oregon and Mark Udall of Colorado, have accused the Obama administration of using Section 215 for purposes not intended by Congress. Russ Feingold, then a Democratic senator for Wisconsin, raised similar alarms in 2009.
The senators know what the White House is up to because they were privy to secret testimony. But under Senate rules, they can't reveal what they learned. Thus they have demanded that the White House come clean with the public. "Americans would be alarmed if they knew how this law is being carried out," Udall is quoted as saying.
Julian Sanchez of the Cato Institute recently described section 215 in an interview with Salon, so:
"It allows investigators to get an order from the FISA court permitting them to compel the production of any tangible thing that is relevant to an investigation. It's pretty unlimited in scope. Any record or other thing that pertains to a suspected agent of a foreign power or someone in contact with them is under the law considered to be 'presumptively relevant'. That means the judge has no discretion to deny such requests. The records don't have to belong to anyone who is thought to be guilty of anything."
FISA, you may recall, is the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. At the height of the Bush years, the White House didn't even bother with the niceties of going to a FISA court before ordering wiretaps. But as Sanchez notes, the FISA provision isn't much more than a figleaf, anyway.
Which reminds me: the Obama justice department recently issued a subpoena ordering James Risen, one of the New York Times reporters who broke the story about the Bush administration's secret wiretaps, to reveal his confidential sources.
President Obama's approach to civil liberties has been similar to that of his predecessors: for them, when convenient; against them, when upholding our rights would interfere with his exercise of untrammelled executive power. Last year, ACLU executive director Anthony Romero pronounced himself "disgusted" with Obama's civil rights record.
George W Bush and Dick Cheney remain outliers because of their embrace of torture, secret rendition and the like. Otherwise, though, Obama fits into a long pattern of presidents whose actions on civil liberties are very different from their pious words.
Read more:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/may/27/patriot-act-civil-liberties
Profits over people...
Drugmaker sent data to FDA through 'improper channels'
JoNel Aleccia
Hundreds of reports of suicides, psychotic reactions and other serious problems tied to the popular stop-smoking drug Chantix were left out of a crucial government safety review because Pfizer Inc., the drug’s manufacturer, submitted years of data through “improper channels.”
Some 150 suicides — more than doubling those previously known — were among 589 delayed reports of severe issues turned up in a new analysis by the non-profit Institute for Safe Medication Practices.
“We’ve had a major breakdown in safety surveillance,” said Thomas J. Moore, the ISMP senior scientist who analyzed the data. The serious problems — including reports of completed suicides, suicide attempts, aggression and hostility and depression — had been mixed among some 26,000 records of non-serious side effects such as nausea and rashes, with some dating back to 2006, the year Chantix, or varenicline, was approved.
They echo previous claims that the drug can induce extreme reactions in people trying to quit cigarettes, including vivid nightmares, crippling depression and sudden, violent outbursts.
“It’s really chilling,” said Moore, who analyzed 26 Chantix reactions in a paper published in the September 2010 issue of the Journal of Pharmacotherapy. "This seems to unleash something in people. It can be violence to anything around."
Read more:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43187290/ns/health-health_care/
And we are wondering how to balance the budget...
By Marjorie Censer, Published: May 27
The Army’s Comanche helicopter was envisioned as “the quarterback of the digital battlefield,” a technologically superior aircraft that could hide from enemies, operate at night and in bad weather, and travel farther than any other helicopter.
Gen. Richard Cody, a former vice chief of staff of the Army, called it the “most flexible, most agile” aircraft the country had ever produced.
It is one of 22 major Army weapons programs canceled since 1995, ringing up a price tag of more than $32 billion for equipment that was never built. A new study, commissioned by the Army and obtained by The Washington Post, condemns the service’s efforts as “unacceptable.”
The study is the latest indication that the Pentagon — and the defense industry, in turn — is undergoing a seismic shift in its approach to new programs. As pressures mounted in Iraq and Afghanistan, the military retreated from its ambitions for multibillion-dollar, technologically superior systems. Instead, it was forced to make better use of tried-and-true equipment.
For almost a decade, the Defense Department saw its budgets boom but didn’t make the kind of technological strides that seemed possible.
“Since 9/11, a near doubling of the Pentagon’s modernization accounts — more than $700 billion over 10 years in new spending on procurement, research and development — has resulted in relatively modest gains in actual military capability,” Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said in an address last week.
That outcome, he said, is both “vexing and disturbing.”
Gone are the days of “no-questions-asked funding requests,” he said. The Defense Department must make do with less. It is focusing on fixing up older equipment and taking a more measured approach to weapon development.
The shifting strategies and a shrinking defense budget have triggered the biggest restructuring in the defense industry since the end of the Cold War. Contractors big and small have been rethinking their portfolios and buying and selling accordingly. Northrop Grumman, for instance, spun off its shipbuilding unit. And Robert J. Stevens, chief executive of Lockheed Martin, said last week that the company’s workforce, which has shrunk by 20,000 since 2009, “may well continue to decline.”
While the defense industry has always had an unusual business model in which it’s hard to predict future needs, officials say an uncertain trade has become all the more so.
“We can invest and make a great product and set a good price point, but demand is completely out of our control,” said Linda Hudson, who heads BAE Systems’ Arlington-based U.S. operations.
In recent years, the Pentagon has killed off some of its most heralded — and most pricey — weapons programs, and many of those that remain are not certain to move forward. In some ways, this represents a market correction — and a realization that the Defense Department has to live within its means and buy weapons it can afford.
Read more:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/capitalbusiness/army-report-military-has-spent-32-billion-since-97-on-abandoned-weapons-programs/2011/05/23/AGwuqjCH_story.html
The best is yet to come for silver...
Bill Murphy : the public is just waking up to Gold and Silver in the United States
Bill Murphy, chairman of the Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee (GATA), : ..free market price of gold if it kept pace with inflation would be $2500 right now and it is only $1500 and change , well that seems like a lot compared to years ago when it is done but that's an example of what the price suppression scheme has done , all these gold cartel can do now , because they do not have the gold that people think they have is manage a retreat keep an excitement to a minimum try to keep gold out of the headline as a barometer of bad tidings for the financial world , but these gold cartels been losing they are gonna lose they are in deep trouble is no telling what silver can do in the upside the public is just waking up in the United States to Gold and Silver the ownership of each is tiny , it is a very exciting time for , to be involved in precious metals and also for GATA .....
Link:
http://beforeitsnews.com/story/668/577/Bill_Murphy_:_the_public_is_just_waking_up_to_Gold_and_Silver_in_the_United_States.html
Bill Murphy, chairman of the Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee (GATA), : ..free market price of gold if it kept pace with inflation would be $2500 right now and it is only $1500 and change , well that seems like a lot compared to years ago when it is done but that's an example of what the price suppression scheme has done , all these gold cartel can do now , because they do not have the gold that people think they have is manage a retreat keep an excitement to a minimum try to keep gold out of the headline as a barometer of bad tidings for the financial world , but these gold cartels been losing they are gonna lose they are in deep trouble is no telling what silver can do in the upside the public is just waking up in the United States to Gold and Silver the ownership of each is tiny , it is a very exciting time for , to be involved in precious metals and also for GATA .....
Link:
http://beforeitsnews.com/story/668/577/Bill_Murphy_:_the_public_is_just_waking_up_to_Gold_and_Silver_in_the_United_States.html
Friday, May 27, 2011
Why does the economy still suck? Some questions and answers...
The following are some of the kinds of questions that the American people are asking about the economy these days....
Why does it seem like it is harder to get a job today than it used to be?
Well, it is because there are far fewer jobs available and far fewer people are getting hired. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, an average of about 5 million Americans were being hired every single month during 2006. Today, an average of about 3.5 million Americans are being hired every single month.
Is there much hope that the unemployment rate will start to decline significantly?
Unfortunately there does not appear to be much reason for optimism. Initial weekly unemployment claims have been above 400,000 for 7 weeks in a row. The "jobs recovery" we have been promised simply is not materializing. Only 66.8% of American men had a job last year. That was the lowest level that has ever been recorded. At the rate we are going things are going to be about the same this year.
So where did all of the jobs go?
They are being sent overseas at a blistering pace. The United States has lost an average of 50,000 manufacturing jobs per month since China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001, and the U.S. trade deficit with China is now 27 times larger than it was back in 1990. Amazingly, the United States has lost a staggering 32 percent of its manufacturing jobs since the year 2000.
Why does it seem like nearly all of the jobs that are available right now are crappy, low paying jobs?
Well, because most of the jobs that are available are crappy, low paying jobs. The following is a brief excerpt from a recent article posted on Tomdispatch.com.....
According to a recent analysis by the National Employment Law Project (NELP), the biggest growth in private-sector job creation in the past year occurred in positions in the low-wage retail, administrative, and food service sectors of the economy. While 23% of the jobs lost in the Great Recession that followed the economic meltdown of 2008 were “low-wage” (those paying $9-$13 an hour), 49% of new jobs added in the sluggish “recovery” are in those same low-wage industries. On the other end of the spectrum, 40% of the jobs lost paid high wages ($19-$31 an hour), while a mere 14% of new jobs pay similarly high wages.
Why are so many Americans afraid to start businesses?
Maybe it is because the overregulation of business in this country has now reached extreme levels. For example, the U.S. Department of Agriculture recently slapped a fine of $90,000 on one family from Missouri because they sold more than $500 worth of rabbits in a single year. The $4,600 in rabbits that they sold ended up netting the family only $200 in profits.
If people are not able to make a decent living, then how are they providing for their families?
Sadly, an increasing number of Americans are simply not able to put food on the table anymore. Today, one out of every eight Americans is on food stamps and one out of every four American children is on food stamps.
For the first time ever, more than a million American homes were repossessed during 2010. So is there any sign that this will turn around in the years ahead?
Sadly, things could get even worse. Today, there are 6.4 million homeowners that are delinquent on their mortgages or in foreclosure. Of those, 675,000 have not made a payment in at least two years.
Will the U.S. housing market ever recover?
Hopefully we will see some sort of a recovery at some point, but right now things don't look good. In April, signed contracts to buy homes fell to a 7-month low. There are 120 million more people in the U.S. than there were in 1963, but home purchases are currently at about half the level they were back then. The truth is that there are dozens of indications that the U.S. real estate crisis may get even worse before things start getting better.
Why does it seem like health care costs so much these days?
Sadly, it is because the entire U.S. health care industry has become a giant money making scam. According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, health care costs accounted for just 9.5% of all personal consumption back in 1980. Today they account for approximately 16.3%. One study found that approximately 41 percent of working age Americans either have medical bill problems or are currently paying off medical debt. Health care costs continue to increase far faster than the general rate of inflation and so this crisis is going to continue to get worse.
Is "retirement" rapidly becoming a luxury that only the wealthy can enjoy?
According to stunning new research, 54 percent of all American workers plan to keep working after they retire. A different study found that American workers are $6.6 trillion short of what they need to retire comfortably.
Why does it seem like U.S. companies are hiring so many temporary workers?
It is because American businesses are hiring them by the bushel. A whopping 26 percent of all the workers hired in 2010 were temporary workers. That is way, way above historical norms. Temporary workers are far cheaper and much easier to get rid of.
Is the gap between the rich and the poor growing in America?
Yes, it most certainly is. Between 1979 and and 2007, the average household income of the top 1% of Americans soared from $346,600 to $1.3 million. During that same time period the average household income for middle class Americans increased only slightly. At this point, the poorest 50% of all Americans collectively own just 2.5% of all the wealth in the United States.
Does how much money you make tend to alter your view of how well the economy is doing?
Well, according to recent Gallup polling, 46% of those Americans that make less than $30,000 a year believe that we are in a depression right now, while only 23% of those making $75,000 or more believe that we are currently in a depression.
Why do members of Congress seem to care so little about average American workers?
Perhaps it is because 58 percent of the members of Congress are millionaires while only about 1 percent of the general population is made up of millionaires.
So if the economy is in such bad shape why do we still have such a high standard of living?
Sadly, the truth is that we have only been able to maintain our incredibly high standard of living by going into massive amounts of debt. The U.S. national debt is now more than 14 times larger than it was when Ronald Reagan took office. America has become absolutely addicted to government money. Any politician that threatens to reduce government payouts usually gets voted out of office fairly quickly. 59 percent of all Americans now receive money from the federal government in one form or another. U.S. households are now actually receiving more income from the U.S. government than they are paying to the government in taxes. In 1980, government transfer payments accounted for just 11.7% of all income. Today, government transfer payments account for 18.4% of all income. As long as the American people continue to be addicted to receiving government payouts the federal government will continue to be drowning in debt...
Read more:
http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/why-is-the-economy-so-bad
Building what? Manny Badillo...
Manny Badillo On False Flag Terror And Building What Campaign Round 2
"The U.S. government borrows about 168 million dollars every single hour."
A day is coming when the rest of the world will decide that it no longer has faith in U.S. dollars or in U.S. debt. When that day arrives, the game will be over. Traditionally, two of the biggest things that the U.S. economy has had going for it were the U.S. dollar and U.S. Treasuries. The U.S. dollar has been the default reserve currency of the world for decades. All over the globe it was seen as a strong, stable currency that was desirable for international trade. U.S. government debt has long been considered the "safest debt" in the entire world. Whenever there was a major crisis, investors would flock to U.S. Treasuries because they were considered a rock. Sadly, all of this is now changing. Today the rest of the world is losing faith in the U.S. financial system. In fact, even the United Nations is now warning of the collapse of the dollar. But if the U.S. dollar and U.S. Treasuries collapse, that will be an absolute nightmare for the U.S. economy. If the rest of the world does not want our dollars someday, then what are we going to give them in exchange for all of the oil and all of the cheap imported goods they send us? If the rest of the world does not want our debt someday, then how in the world are we going to be able to continue to consume far, far more wealth than we produce?
The rest of the world is watching the U.S. government run up record-setting budget deficits and they are watching the Federal Reserve print money like there is no tomorrow and they realize that the U.S. financial system is slowly imploding.
As mentioned above, now even the United Nations is warning that the U.S. dollar could collapse. The following is a brief excerpt from a recent news report put out by Reuters....
The United Nations warned on Wednesday of a possible crisis of confidence in, and even a “collapse” of, the U.S. dollar if its value against other currencies continued to decline.
In a mid-year review of the world economy, the UN economic division said such a development, stemming from the falling value of foreign dollar holdings, would imperil the global financial system.
But it is not just the United Nations that is concerned about the U.S. dollar.
On April 18th, Standard & Poor’s altered its outlook on U.S. government debt from "stable" to "negative" and warned that the U.S. could soon lose its prized AAA rating.
At one time, it would have been unthinkable for Standard & Poor's to do such a thing.
But today it is amazing that it has taken them so long to make such a move. U.S. government finances are falling apart.
When the credit rating of U.S. government debt starts declining, interest rates will go up. Just ask the government of Greece how painful that can be. Today, Greece is paying over 16 percent on 10 year bonds.
The following is what John Williams of Shadow Government Statistics recently had to say about why Standard & Poor's issued such a warning about U.S. government debt....
S&P is noting the U.S. government's long-range fiscal problems. Generally, you'll find that the accounting for unfunded liabilities for Social Security, Medicare and other programs on a net-present-value (NPV) basis indicates total federal debt and obligations of about $75 trillion. That's 15 times the gross domestic product (GDP). The debt and obligations are increasing at a pace of about $5 trillion a year, which is neither sustainable nor containable. If the U.S. was a corporation on a parallel basis, it would be headed into bankruptcy rather quickly.
Look, the rest of the world is not stupid. They know that the U.S. government is hurtling towards financial disaster. The appetite among foreigners for U.S. government debt is decreasing rapidly.
In fact, according to Zero Hedge, foreigners are dumping U.S. debt at a very rapid pace right now.
In addition, the cost to insure U.S. debt has risen sharply in recent days.
Right now, the Federal Reserve has been buying up most new U.S. government debt with dollars that it has created out of thin air. This is a giant Ponzi scheme, and it is a major contributing factor to the decline of faith in the U.S. dollar.
The dollar has fallen by 17 percent compared to other major national currencies since 2009. What makes that fact even sadder is that all major currencies have been rapidly losing value compared to hard assets over that time period. The dollar is just sliding faster than almost all of the other global currencies that are constantly losing value as well.
Anyone with half a brain could have seen that this would be the end result of reckless government borrowing, but unfortunately our politicians have been ignoring this problem for decades.
Now a day or reckoning is fast approaching and it is going to be very painful.
The U.S. government has piled up the biggest mountain of debt in the history of the world. Just consider a few shocking facts about this unprecedented debt....
*If the U.S. national debt (more than 14 trillion dollars) was reduced to a stack of 5 dollar bills, it would reach three quarters of the way to the moon.
*The U.S. government borrows about 168 million dollars every single hour.
*If Bill Gates gave every penny of his fortune to the U.S. government, it would only cover the U.S. budget deficit for 15 days.
*It is now being projected that by the year 2021, interest payments on the national debt will amount to $1.1 trillion dollars a year.
Read more:
http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/when-faith-in-u-s-dollars-and-u-s-debt-is-dead-the-game-is-over-and-that-day-is-closer-than-you-may-think
I guess we won't be needing those boots and stilts...
The latest data has been added to the Aviso site, and sea level is dropping through the floor. Europe’s Envisat satellite has been collecting data since 2004, and now shows that sea level is the lowest it has been since they started collecting data.
Since the start of the year, sea level has dropped almost 10 mm.
Link:
https://stevengoddard.wordpress.com/2011/05/27/sea-level-plummeting-lowest-level-since-at-least-2004/
OOPS!!!
72% Of The US Below Normal Temperatures In May
Climate midgets (McKibben, Cook, Romm, etc.) have been claiming that the extreme US weather this month is due to warming. They say that warm air holds more moisture, so we get more rain and violent weather.
The warm air only exists in their mind though.
Flattening the color scheme, it becomes clear that the extreme weather has occurred in cold areas, and that more than 70% of the country has been below normal temperatures this month.
When the air is colder the saturation vapor pressure of water drops, so rain and snow form.
As is normally the case, climate alarmists are not interested in actual data or actual science.
Link:
https://stevengoddard.wordpress.com/2011/05/27/72-of-the-us-below-normal-temperatures-in-may/
Climate midgets (McKibben, Cook, Romm, etc.) have been claiming that the extreme US weather this month is due to warming. They say that warm air holds more moisture, so we get more rain and violent weather.
The warm air only exists in their mind though.
Flattening the color scheme, it becomes clear that the extreme weather has occurred in cold areas, and that more than 70% of the country has been below normal temperatures this month.
When the air is colder the saturation vapor pressure of water drops, so rain and snow form.
As is normally the case, climate alarmists are not interested in actual data or actual science.
Link:
https://stevengoddard.wordpress.com/2011/05/27/72-of-the-us-below-normal-temperatures-in-may/
Another good question...but there doesn't seem to be a good answer...
Why Does America Have A “Special Relationship” With Israel?
Liam Fox
Is it because of the oil? No, Israel doesn’t have any. Is it because they’re a major trading partner? No, not unless you count the military goods they buy from America, some of it with American tax dollars. Does America need it as a base because one of Israel’s neighbors declared, or committed an act of, war against the United States? No. Is it a good way to stay close to the oil? Yes, but it’s not the only way, or even the best way. So, what is the basis for the “special relationship?”
The most common reason, by far, that Israel’s neighbors give to explain their anger with America, is America’s support of Israel and the Israeli state’s aggression against the indigenous population. So, America must support Israel because it helps to protect America from the people that are upset at it for supporting Israel?
Palestine, over the past century or so, was a British colony, a UN protectorate, and now America’s “special friend.” What does that mean, and why? The recognition of a country, as America recognized Israel in 1948, doesn’t automatically imply a special relationship; otherwise there would be “special relationships” with ever country America recognizes. Does America share any unique history with the nation of Israel, different than what it shares with any other nation, even an ally, prior to their 1948 recognition of the state? No. Was Israel part of the political genesis of America, as was Britain? No (this question does not imply that such a shared history automatically presumes unconditional support or a “special relationship”). Was America part of the birth of Israel before recognizing them in 1948? No, certainly not while the British were hanging onto the last remnants of their empire.
American involvement in Israel, and the recognition of Israel, served two main purposes; a means to counter soviet popularity in the region and support from a strong and vocal lobby for Harry Truman during a very difficult campaign. While the current Republican party still strives to use Israel as a means to garner support from the religious right, the threat of soviet expansion in the area has long been put to rest.
Is it religion? For many, the relationship cannot be defined without referring to Judeo-Christian theology. Is this really what it’s all about? Is it some sort of vestige from the crusades, trying to keep a foothold against the Saracens? Has America become a Christian theocracy with it’s foreign policy bound to Biblical doctrine unsupported by archeology and historiography, and absent of political pragmatism and fiscal conservatism? Other than substantial private investment and capitol holdings in America, it seems that the “special relationship” with Israel costs America both financially as well as politically, and the nature of the American national interest that is being served is somewhat ambiguous. Is the billions of dollars in aid and military support, and the regional instability, all to maintain a non-Islamic enclave?
Somehow Israel has become embedded in domestic politics. Other than as a very powerful lobby with connections to the pinnacle of the financial sector, unconditional support of Israel has become a ‘value’, a ‘principle’ of the religious and socially conservative right-wing, synonymous with, or intrinsically connected to, their patriotism, as if it was enshrined in the pre-fourteenth amendment constitution. For many others across the political spectrum it is similar; without perhaps the end-times, religious fundamentalist, Armageddon, messianic, irrational hyperbole… but, it is still an ‘understood.’ It has become an ‘assumed’, something that has been repeated so often – “Israel is our valued friend and ally”- that it exists in the national dialogue without anyone even thinking, let alone daring, to question it.
If one does question why America has a “special relationship” – just the question mind you – with Israel, or they disagree with Israeli national policy, or foreign policy, they run the very real risk of immediately being accused of Antisemitism; something that happens even though you talk about the government policies, and not the people themselves, their culture, or their religion. Criticism of Israel, not Judaism or the Jewish people, Israel, has become a non dit; verboten, kinjite, especially during a political campaign, which in America seems to always be the case.
National and foreign policy cannot be shielded from scrutiny by charges of racism, ethnocentrism, and religious bigotry. This is disingenuous. Criticism of Israel, Israeli policy, or the Israeli government, does not equate to a criticism of all Israeli people, any Jewish people, or the Jewish religion. However, using the Jewish holy text, or any holy text for that matter, as the basis for geopolitical claims is problematic. This is not Antisemitism. If a holy text cannot be proven, and contains data proven to be inaccurate, how can it be used as the basis, the proof, for a claim? This goes for any holy text, not only Judaism’s.
Israeli’s have a right to live in peace. They have a right to live without oppression, or tyranny, or threats of violence. They have the right to responsible government. They have a right to their security, safe from the threat of being thrown out of their homes, and off the land. They have a right to work and provide for themselves and their families. They have a right to all the rights outlined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. But, so do the Arabs.
Israel has been conducting itself without any concern for cooperation or diplomacy. Emboldened by the unconditional support received from America, Israel has conducted a brutal campaign against the indigenous people of Palestine. Human rights organizations unanimously condemn what is described as genocide, apartheid, an illegal occupation, and crimes against humanity. The resulting resentment and hatred cannot be used as justification for the atrocities, they must be addressed and reconciled in a just, equitable, and peaceful manner.
A fragile balance of power has been maintained through the institution and support of dictatorial and tyrannical regimes in the region. The revolutions throughout north Africa and the middle east are changing those dynamics. There are new realities that Israel, and America, must face. Democratic governments throughout the region will not be purchased as easily as the dictatorships they replace. They will not turn a blind eye. Democratic Arab countries will no longer abide Israeli aggression and expansionism. A free and informed voting public will not allow it. Israel must negotiate and compromise, and perhaps make reparations for past transgressions.
In September, the majority of the United Nations General Assembly will recognize a Palestinian State. The ensuing disagreements, between Israeli claims and aspirations, and a newly recognized Palestinian state, will likely result in military action. Israel does not have a record of successful diplomacy and cooperation in the region. Their expansionism, settlements, and inhumane treatment, has impoverished and oppressed the people that surround them. Israel has surrounded themselves with people that they have mistreated, and abused, and who, thanks to Israel, have nothing less to lose. Israel has created a very tense situation, for Israel.
How far does America’s “special relationship” go? Can Israel rely on America to keep it from having to cooperate, negotiate, make concessions, or pay reparations? Are more American lives worth protecting the intransigent stance of Israeli policy, biblically based claims, and hostile expansionism? Should America support a government guilty of systematic discrimination, oppression, bigotry, and human rights abuses? Why again is it that America has a “special relationship” with Israel, and what is the nature of that “special relationship?”
It’s is a question worth asking, and answering. The discussion cannot be disallowed by false claims of Antisemitism. The not too distant future may require Americans to choose whether or not they will allow their soldier’s blood to be spilled, or to spill the blood of another, based on this “special relationship.” It needs to be answered honestly. If it’s because of resources, what are they? If it’s because of Israeli investment in America, how much, and for what that it would warrant going to war over? If it’s religion, pro-Judeo-Christian and anti-Islam, then it needs to be stated as such so that there can be a national discussion, and understanding, about how this came to be a tenet of national policy, and how to end it… unless America somehow became a Christian theocracy and is engaged in a crusade by proxy.
American support for Israel must not be at the expense of the Arab people. America should support a peaceful and secure resolution rather than any belligerent combatant. Instead of offering blind allegiance, and a carte blanche, to an old frienemy, America, and the world, would be better served if America develops a “special relationship” with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the democratic revolutions sweeping the world.
Link:
http://weeklyintercept.blogspot.com/2011/05/why-does-america-have-special.html
Liam Fox
Is it because of the oil? No, Israel doesn’t have any. Is it because they’re a major trading partner? No, not unless you count the military goods they buy from America, some of it with American tax dollars. Does America need it as a base because one of Israel’s neighbors declared, or committed an act of, war against the United States? No. Is it a good way to stay close to the oil? Yes, but it’s not the only way, or even the best way. So, what is the basis for the “special relationship?”
The most common reason, by far, that Israel’s neighbors give to explain their anger with America, is America’s support of Israel and the Israeli state’s aggression against the indigenous population. So, America must support Israel because it helps to protect America from the people that are upset at it for supporting Israel?
Palestine, over the past century or so, was a British colony, a UN protectorate, and now America’s “special friend.” What does that mean, and why? The recognition of a country, as America recognized Israel in 1948, doesn’t automatically imply a special relationship; otherwise there would be “special relationships” with ever country America recognizes. Does America share any unique history with the nation of Israel, different than what it shares with any other nation, even an ally, prior to their 1948 recognition of the state? No. Was Israel part of the political genesis of America, as was Britain? No (this question does not imply that such a shared history automatically presumes unconditional support or a “special relationship”). Was America part of the birth of Israel before recognizing them in 1948? No, certainly not while the British were hanging onto the last remnants of their empire.
American involvement in Israel, and the recognition of Israel, served two main purposes; a means to counter soviet popularity in the region and support from a strong and vocal lobby for Harry Truman during a very difficult campaign. While the current Republican party still strives to use Israel as a means to garner support from the religious right, the threat of soviet expansion in the area has long been put to rest.
Is it religion? For many, the relationship cannot be defined without referring to Judeo-Christian theology. Is this really what it’s all about? Is it some sort of vestige from the crusades, trying to keep a foothold against the Saracens? Has America become a Christian theocracy with it’s foreign policy bound to Biblical doctrine unsupported by archeology and historiography, and absent of political pragmatism and fiscal conservatism? Other than substantial private investment and capitol holdings in America, it seems that the “special relationship” with Israel costs America both financially as well as politically, and the nature of the American national interest that is being served is somewhat ambiguous. Is the billions of dollars in aid and military support, and the regional instability, all to maintain a non-Islamic enclave?
Somehow Israel has become embedded in domestic politics. Other than as a very powerful lobby with connections to the pinnacle of the financial sector, unconditional support of Israel has become a ‘value’, a ‘principle’ of the religious and socially conservative right-wing, synonymous with, or intrinsically connected to, their patriotism, as if it was enshrined in the pre-fourteenth amendment constitution. For many others across the political spectrum it is similar; without perhaps the end-times, religious fundamentalist, Armageddon, messianic, irrational hyperbole… but, it is still an ‘understood.’ It has become an ‘assumed’, something that has been repeated so often – “Israel is our valued friend and ally”- that it exists in the national dialogue without anyone even thinking, let alone daring, to question it.
If one does question why America has a “special relationship” – just the question mind you – with Israel, or they disagree with Israeli national policy, or foreign policy, they run the very real risk of immediately being accused of Antisemitism; something that happens even though you talk about the government policies, and not the people themselves, their culture, or their religion. Criticism of Israel, not Judaism or the Jewish people, Israel, has become a non dit; verboten, kinjite, especially during a political campaign, which in America seems to always be the case.
National and foreign policy cannot be shielded from scrutiny by charges of racism, ethnocentrism, and religious bigotry. This is disingenuous. Criticism of Israel, Israeli policy, or the Israeli government, does not equate to a criticism of all Israeli people, any Jewish people, or the Jewish religion. However, using the Jewish holy text, or any holy text for that matter, as the basis for geopolitical claims is problematic. This is not Antisemitism. If a holy text cannot be proven, and contains data proven to be inaccurate, how can it be used as the basis, the proof, for a claim? This goes for any holy text, not only Judaism’s.
Israeli’s have a right to live in peace. They have a right to live without oppression, or tyranny, or threats of violence. They have the right to responsible government. They have a right to their security, safe from the threat of being thrown out of their homes, and off the land. They have a right to work and provide for themselves and their families. They have a right to all the rights outlined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. But, so do the Arabs.
Israel has been conducting itself without any concern for cooperation or diplomacy. Emboldened by the unconditional support received from America, Israel has conducted a brutal campaign against the indigenous people of Palestine. Human rights organizations unanimously condemn what is described as genocide, apartheid, an illegal occupation, and crimes against humanity. The resulting resentment and hatred cannot be used as justification for the atrocities, they must be addressed and reconciled in a just, equitable, and peaceful manner.
A fragile balance of power has been maintained through the institution and support of dictatorial and tyrannical regimes in the region. The revolutions throughout north Africa and the middle east are changing those dynamics. There are new realities that Israel, and America, must face. Democratic governments throughout the region will not be purchased as easily as the dictatorships they replace. They will not turn a blind eye. Democratic Arab countries will no longer abide Israeli aggression and expansionism. A free and informed voting public will not allow it. Israel must negotiate and compromise, and perhaps make reparations for past transgressions.
In September, the majority of the United Nations General Assembly will recognize a Palestinian State. The ensuing disagreements, between Israeli claims and aspirations, and a newly recognized Palestinian state, will likely result in military action. Israel does not have a record of successful diplomacy and cooperation in the region. Their expansionism, settlements, and inhumane treatment, has impoverished and oppressed the people that surround them. Israel has surrounded themselves with people that they have mistreated, and abused, and who, thanks to Israel, have nothing less to lose. Israel has created a very tense situation, for Israel.
How far does America’s “special relationship” go? Can Israel rely on America to keep it from having to cooperate, negotiate, make concessions, or pay reparations? Are more American lives worth protecting the intransigent stance of Israeli policy, biblically based claims, and hostile expansionism? Should America support a government guilty of systematic discrimination, oppression, bigotry, and human rights abuses? Why again is it that America has a “special relationship” with Israel, and what is the nature of that “special relationship?”
It’s is a question worth asking, and answering. The discussion cannot be disallowed by false claims of Antisemitism. The not too distant future may require Americans to choose whether or not they will allow their soldier’s blood to be spilled, or to spill the blood of another, based on this “special relationship.” It needs to be answered honestly. If it’s because of resources, what are they? If it’s because of Israeli investment in America, how much, and for what that it would warrant going to war over? If it’s religion, pro-Judeo-Christian and anti-Islam, then it needs to be stated as such so that there can be a national discussion, and understanding, about how this came to be a tenet of national policy, and how to end it… unless America somehow became a Christian theocracy and is engaged in a crusade by proxy.
American support for Israel must not be at the expense of the Arab people. America should support a peaceful and secure resolution rather than any belligerent combatant. Instead of offering blind allegiance, and a carte blanche, to an old frienemy, America, and the world, would be better served if America develops a “special relationship” with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the democratic revolutions sweeping the world.
Link:
http://weeklyintercept.blogspot.com/2011/05/why-does-america-have-special.html
But some of my co-workers have told me there is no inflation...
One sausage or two?
You may be lucky to get half at this weekend's Memorial Day cookout, which is set to cost 29 per cent more than last year, thanks to inflation.
Those thinking of hosting a BBQ - even a modest one - can expect to fork out an extra $45 on food to serve a dozen guests.
The total cost comes to $199, or around 29 per cent more than last year... and that's before soda and alcohol, according to the latest data for metro New York.
Lettuce has sky-rocketed 28 per cent since last year's traditional BBQ, while an ear of sweet corn is now 50 cents, up from 20 cents last year.
Those who don't like tomatoes are in luck though: they're up a staggering 86 per cent on last year.
Nationwide the story is the same.
Ground beef is up 12.1 per cent on last year and sausages are up 6.2 per cent, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
And don't even think about potato salad. The apple of the ground is up 13.4 per cent.
Ice cream is up 5.1 per cent, beer up 2.4 per cent and coffee has increased by 13.8 per cent nationwide.
The ever increasing price of gasoline is being blamed for the hike in food prices. Over the past year the cost of gas has increased by 33.6 per cent, along with similar diesel hikes nationwide.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1390822/Memorial-Day-cookout-cost-29-year-thanks-inflation.html#ixzz1NbAmIk7a
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