For Those Who Don't Believe the US Would Run False Flag Ops

During the journalism conference event, I asked Hersh specifically about this meeting and if he could elaborate on what occurred. Hersh explained that, during the meeting in Cheney’s office, an idea was considered to dress up Navy Seals as Iranians, put them on fake Iranian speedboats, and shoot at them. This idea, intended to provoke an Iran war, was ultimately rejected:

HERSH: There was a dozen ideas proffered about how to trigger a war. The one that interested me the most was why don’t we build — we in our shipyard — build four or five boats that look like Iranian PT boats. Put Navy seals on them with a lot of arms. And next time one of our boats goes to the Straits of Hormuz, start a shoot-up.

Might cost some lives. And it was rejected because you can’t have Americans killing Americans. That’s the kind of — that’s the level of stuff we’re talking about. Provocation. But that was rejected.

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/07/31/cheney-proposal-for-iran-war/

Downright Inhumane

Our Beloved Ally -- caught once again.

Cut them off -- stop sending our money to Israel. Stop selling them our top-of-the-line military equipment. Let Israel stand on its own two feet, and perhaps it will then find the gumption to make peace.

This is not how one treats human beings. Indeed, if this were done to even a dog, this soldier would be brought up on charges of cruelty.

Will ABCNNBCBS show this to the US Public? Of course not. Why are we, the supposedly most free country in the world, having our news censored? Who is doing the censoring?

If there's any truth to the adage "You can judge a person by the friends he keeps", then one must wonder how we're being judged for having Israel as such an 'ally'.

McCain Refused to Leave Captivity?

I, for one, would like to learn more about this notion that McCain was offered a chance to leave captivity in North Vietnam, but then refused.

It doesn’t smell right to me. It doesn’t seem like the North Vietnamese would have ASKED whether he wanted to leave. They would likely have just TOLD him he was leaving.

Put it in today’s reference — some terrorist down at Gitmo saying to his captors “No, no — I don’t want to leave. I want to stay here with my men.”

What do you think the US response would be? It surely wouldn’t be “Sure thing. Go back to your cell.”

Carlin: We Like War

A 3-Minute History of the USA

Retroactive Immunity For Telecoms

"Retroactive immunity is on the table today; but also at issue is the entire ideology that justifies it, the same ideology that defends torture and executive lawlessness," Dodd said.

Source

I once wondered how it was that the German people could have allowed Hitler’s power-grabs. Now I see how. It’s a sad day for our nation. Our enemies must be laughing their asses off — their sucker punch on 9/11 has turned our country into a caricature of its stated values.

We are no longer a nation of laws. ‘Rule of law’ has been quickly replaced with something one expects to find in a Kafka or Orwell novel. When a government can break the law, then retroactively make it legal, every person, of every political persuasion, should be quite worried.

Bring Back "V"!!

Okay -- they brought back Galactica after nearly 30 years. Let's hope they'll bring back V.

R.I.P. George Carlin

'Aliens' being Tortured

'Cursed is he who distorts the justice due an alien, orphan, and widow.' And all the people shall say, 'Amen.'

Deuteronomy 27:19

Many right-wingers, such as Newt Gingrich, want to tell us that the US Constitution doesn't apply to aliens. Such forms of Justice are reserved to US Citizens only, claims Newt.

Perhaps Newt, Bush, Yoo, etc., need to be reminded of this passage in their Bibles.

How Bad is it?

Spin

Disappointing Idol Results

I confess, I didn't watch all of this season's American Idol episodes. But I did watch the final two shows, and was simply shocked at the results.

While David Cook certainly is a fantastic singer and performer, David Archuleta has far more vocal range and control. Archuleta's performance Tuesday night was, as Simon put it, a 'knock out'.

My American Idol 2008 winner, hands-down is:



I am curious, though... Both artists can play instruments -- Cook is great on guitar, and Archuleta is wonderful on piano. Why is it, then, that Cook was constantly seen with guitar in-hand, while Archuleta was deprived of his piano?

Money as Debt

I Want One!

New York Times Picks up on McCain's Eligibility Issue

Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina and one of Mr. McCain’s closest allies, said it would be incomprehensible to him if the son of a military member born in a military station could not run for president.

“He was posted there on orders from the United States government,” Mr. Graham said of Mr. McCain’s father. “If that becomes a problem, we need to tell every military family that your kid can’t be president if they take an overseas assignment.”

Source

Lindsey, you can't have it both ways. You can't argue that the US Military bases are not US Soil for the purposes of US Court jurisdiction, and then turn around and argue that they are for the purposes of presidential eligibility.

Retroactive Immunity = Ex Post Facto

No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed.

---U.S. Constitution - Article 1 Section 9

3.4 Billion Dollar Senator

But Keating was more than a constituent to McCain--he was a longtime friend and associate. McCain met Keating in 1981 at a Navy League dinner in Arizona where McCain was the speaker. Keating was a former naval aviator himself, and the two men became friends. Keating raised money for McCain's two congressional campaigns in 1982 and 1984, and for McCain's 1986 Senate bid. By 1987, McCain campaigns had received $112,000 from Keating, his relatives, and his employees--the most received by any of the Keating Five. (Keating raised a total of $300,000 for the five senators.)

After McCain's election to the House in 1982, he and his family made at least nine trips at Keating's expense, three of which were to Keating's Bahamas retreat. McCain did not disclose the trips (as he was required to under House rules) until the scandal broke in 1989. At that point, he paid Keating $13,433 for the flights.

And in April 1986, one year before the meeting with the regulators, McCain's wife, Cindy, and her father invested $359,100 in a Keating strip mall.


Source

Leaving aside the question of McCain's not having been born on US Soil (he was born at Coco Solo Air Base, in the Panama Canal Zone), it seems McCain is hoping that the US Taxpayer's have forgotten about his Keating Five scandal.

Sin of Omission

DALLAS, Feb. 21 (UPI) -- The Secret Service told Dallas police to stop screening for weapons while people were still arriving at a campaign rally for Barack Obama, a report said.

Police stopped checking people for weapons at the front gates of Reunion Arena more than an hour before the Democratic presidential hopeful appeared on stage Wednesday, the Fort Worth (Texas) Star-Telegram reported.

Police said the order to stop using metal detectors and checking purses and laptop bags constituted a security lapse, the newspaper reported.

Dallas Deputy Police Chief T.W. Lawrence -- who heads the department's homeland security and special operations divisions -- told the Star-Telegram the order had been intended to speed up seating of the more than 17,000 people who came to hear the candidate speak.

Lawrence said he was concerned about the large number of people being let in without being screened, but that the crowd seemed "friendly," the newspaper said.

Several Dallas police officers -- speaking on condition of anonymity because the order came from federal officers -- told the newspaper it was worrying to see so many people get it without even a cursory inspection.

The Star-Telegram said the Secret Service did not return a call seeking comment.

Source

In Dallas, nonetheless...

US Consumer Confidence Plummets

Confidence among US consumers has fallen to a 16-year low, as fears grow about a recession and job cuts, a closely-watched survey has found.

The University of Michigan index of consumer sentiment fell to 69.6 in February, from 78.4 in January.

The report said the index had only been this low during past recessions.

Its findings come a day after Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke warned that the outlook for the US economy in 2008 is deteriorating.

Source

The so-called 'service economy' is a farce. The USA is shipping both jobs and money overseas in record amounts, and selling the whole charade as good for America. It's not good. Correction. It's not good for the majority of people in the USA. It is, however, good for those people who own businesses (stock holders) that profit from lower wages found overseas.

The free-trade plan these globalists have in mind will have a leveling effect on wages and skills across the world. Citizens in countries where there are many skilled workers will find themselves chasing lower and lower wages, or risk seeing their jobs sent overseas. And citizens in countries where there are many unskilled workers will find themselves with record employment levels, albeit at slave-like wages. Given enough time, such a system, if allowed to play out completely, will create balance -- great if you're currently on the low end of the scale, in say Africa or so. But not so great if you're in the majority of Western countries and watching your wages drop and jobs sent away.

Notice how Hillary Clinton loves to take credit for the successes of her husbands Presidency? Well, when was the last time you heard Hillary talk about how great NAFTA has been for the USA?

InfraGard

Today, more than 23,000 representatives of private industry are working quietly with the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security. The members of this rapidly growing group, called InfraGard, receive secret warnings of terrorist threats before the public does—and, at least on one occasion, before elected officials. In return, they provide information to the government, which alarms the ACLU. But there may be more to it than that. One business executive, who showed me his InfraGard card, told me they have permission to “shoot to kill” in the event of martial law.
InfraGard is “a child of the FBI,” says Michael Hershman, the chairman of the advisory board of the InfraGard National Members Alliance and CEO of the Fairfax Group, an international consulting firm.
...
“The meeting started off innocuously enough, with the speakers talking about corporate espionage,” he says. “From there, it just progressed. All of a sudden we were knee deep in what was expected of us when martial law is declared. We were expected to share all our resources, but in return we’d be given specific benefits.” These included, he says, the ability to travel in restricted areas and to get people out.

But that’s not all.

“Then they said when—not if—martial law is declared, it was our responsibility to protect our portion of the infrastructure, and if we had to use deadly force to protect it, we couldn’t be prosecuted,” he says.

Source

IRS Above the Law?

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is flouting three court orders requiring it to regularly provide a nationally recognized researcher with the statistical data she needs for her studies, according to a court action brought today by the researcher.

The new motion was by filed by Public Citizen and the Seattle, Wash., law firm of Davis Wright Tremaine on behalf of Susan B. Long, a professor at Syracuse University’s Martin J. Whitman School of Management. For more than 30 years, Long has used the IRS’s own statistical data to examine how this powerful agency has been enforcing the nation’s tax laws.

Source

Who Runs The World?

A picture is worth...

Welcome Bythios

Bythios has joined this blog as an author. I've known him for nearly 20 odd years now, and it will be interesting to see his 'lawyerly' approach in action.

Cold War Re-Ignites?

In a nationally-televised speech, he condemned Nato's expansion and the US plan to include Poland and the Czech Republic in a missile defence shield.

"It is already clear that a new phase in the arms race is unfolding in the world," Mr Putin said.

"It is not our fault, because we did not start it," he said.

Source

Poor people are not generally the ones who are paid to manufacture these instruments of death. They are generally manufactured by the upper class -- people who make more than the mean income of the nation. These are exactly the people that Bush and his Republican party are expected to keep happy, in order for their campaign donations to continue coming in.

'Service' Economy Tanking

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Stocks tanked Tuesday afternoon, after a report showing a big slowdown in the services sector of the economy amplified fears that a recession is underway or imminent.

With just over 2 hours left in the session, the Dow Jones industrial average (INDU) had lost about 300 points. Should the blue-chip index end where it stood at roughly 1:45 p.m. ET, it would be the Dow's second biggest one-day point loss of the year.

Source

A country which runs a trade deficit can only move money around inside its borders, it can't prosper. As the rich continue to get rich, they are doing so to the detriment of the lower and middle classes.

Job Creation at a Glance

Source

Sensenbrenner Confronted by Prothink

Notice how this representative tells a constituent to go ahead and move to Cuba. Disgusting!

First Artificial Life-Form on Earth

"Foolish people are often reckless, attempting feats that the wise avoid." -- Alexander Pope.

A Failure of Central Banking

It has been forgotten by many that before 1913, there was no central bank in the United States to bail out troubled commercial and associated financial institutions or to keep inflation in check by trading employment for price stability. Few want inflation but fewer still would trade their jobs for price stability.

For the first 137 years of its history, the US did not have a central bank. The nation then was plagued with recurring business cycles of boom and bust. For the past 94 years the Federal Reserve, the

US central bank, has assumed the role of monetary guardian for the nation, yet recurring business cycles of boom and bust have continued, often with the accommodating participation of the Fed. Central banking has failed in its fundamental functions of stabilizing financial markets with monetary policy, succeeding neither in preventing inflation nor sustaining growth nor achieving full employment.

Source

But it has made certain people quite a bit of profit from usury. The US Constitution gives the power to coin money to the people, via their elected representatives. If we wish to print/coin more money, the Constitution provides us that ability WITHOUT ANY INTEREST PAYMENTS TO PRIVATE PARTIES. The whole idea of paying interest on our national debt is ridiculously unconstitutional.

Dead Peasant Policies

Few Americans are aware that for at least 16 years big business and banks have been secretly taking out millions of life insurance policies on their rank and file workers and naming the corporation the beneficiary of the death benefit without the knowledge of the worker. The individual policies are frequently in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. If the employee leaves the company, no problem; big business is still allowed to collect the death benefit and they track the employee through the Social Security Administration to keep tabs on when they die. These policies are commonly known as "dead peasant" or "janitor" policies because they insure low-wage earners including janitors. Some of the largest corporations in America have been boosting their income statements by including cash buildup in the policies as well as receiving the death benefit tax free.

http://www.counterpunch.org/martens02022008.html

This should be illegal. We are forced to give our SSN to our bank and employers in order to comply with the US Government's policies regarding taxation and social security. If the employers are then taking our SSN and taking out life insurance policies on us, with themselves as beneficiaries, then they are using our SSN in ways we did not authorize.

Secret History of the Credit Card

Curious how Credit Cards became such an integral part of life in the USA? Interested in how laws against 'usury' simply vanished as though they never had a purpose? Then watch:

S&P May Cut More Ratings

Standard & Poor's said it cut or may reduce ratings of $534 billion of subprime-mortgage securities and collateralized debt obligations as home loan defaults rise. The downgrades may extend losses at the world's banks to more than $265 billion, S&P said.

The securities represent $270.1 billion, or 47 percent, of subprime mortgage bonds rated from January 2006 to June 2007, S&P said. The ratings company also said it may cut 572 CDOs valued at $263.9 billion.

Source

The Real Reason For The Recent Rate Cut?

Financial Guaranty Insurance Co., the world's fourth-largest bond insurer, lost its AAA credit rating at Fitch Ratings after missing a deadline to raise capital.

The bond insurer was cut two levels, to AA, Fitch said. The company had been AAA since at least 1991. Moody's Investors Service and Standard & Poor's are also reevaluating their ratings.

FGIC guaranteed $21 billion of home-equity securities, $8.8 billion of subprime mortgage debt, and $10.3 billion of collateralized debt obligations backed by subprime mortgages and other loans, the Web site shows.

Source

70 Billion More in Writedowns?

Jan. 30 (Bloomberg) -- Citigroup Inc., Merrill Lynch & Co., UBS AG and other banks may post another $70 billion in writedowns should bond insurers lose their top credit ratings, according to Oppenheimer & Co. analyst Meredith Whitney.

Citigroup, Merrill Lynch and UBS together stand to lose 45 percent of the total were Moody's Investors Service and Standard & Poor's to cut the AAA credit ratings, Whitney said. The banks suffered $61 billion of the industry's $133 billion in losses from the collapse of the subprime mortgage market, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Source

US Oil Companies Bribing Iraqi Representatives?

An Iraqi MP preferred to remain anonymous told the newspaper that highly confidential negotiations took place by representatives from American oil companies, offering $5 million to each MP who votes in favor of the Oil and Gas law.

The amount that could be paid to pass the votes do not exceed $150 million dollars in the case of $5 million to each MP, pointing out that the Oil law requires 138 votes to pass, which the Americans want to guarantee in many ways, including vote-buying, intimidation and threats!

Focusing on the heads of parliamentary blocs and influential figures in the parliament to ensure the votes, the Americans guaranteed the Kurdish votes in advance but they are seeking enough votes to pass and approve the law as soon as possible.

Source

How Far East Does the West Go?

MOSCOW (AP) - A senior Russian diplomat said Monday that Moscow has prepared an action plan that envisages close coordination with Serbia should the West recognize any Kosovo declaration of independence.
Alexander Botsan-Kharchenko, the Russian Foreign Ministry's special envoy to the Balkans, said Moscow is encouraging more talks between the Serbs and the province's
ethnic Albanian majority. He said, however, that chances for such talks are rapidly decreasing, with Kosovo's leaders expected to declare independence soon.
Botsan-Kharchenko said at a meeting with Russian lawmakers that the ministry had worked out a plan of action if Kosovo declares independence, and the United States and the European Union members recognize it. He wouldn't give details but said the plan «envisages a close coordination of action with Belgrade.
Kosovo's ethnic Albanian leaders had been expected to declare independence in February or March. Kosovo's independence is supported by the United States and most European Union members, including Britain and France. Serbia and its ally Russia strongly oppose independence for the province.
Kosovo, though legally part of Serbia, has been under U.N. and NATO control since a NATO bombing campaign in 1999 ended a Serb crackdown on separatist ethnic Albanians.

Source

Liberation Theology

The modern conception of Christianity involves the well-to-do reaching down to bring the less-fortunate up. Of course, the well-to-do expect to profit from this noble endeavor. Indeed, they expect to be propped up on the backs of the less-fortunate, in exchange for token exchanges of technology.

Liberation Theology envisions a bottom-up system, where the less-fortunate build themselves up, without the help of the well-to-do.

He (Pope John Paul II) criticized radical liberation theology, saying, "this conception of Christ as a political figure, a revolutionary, as the subversive of Nazareth, does not tally with the Church's catechisms." However, he also expressed concern over, "the ever increasing wealth of the rich at the expense of the ever increasing poverty of the poor". He also affirmed that the principle of private property "must lead to a more just and equitable distribution of goods, ... and if the common good demands it, there is no need to hesitate at expropriation itself, done in the right way." On balance, he offered neither unqualified praise nor universal condemnation.
Source

Perhaps John Paul II forgot that all-important story of Jesus' tirade against the money changers. Or perhaps Catholicism has minimized that account in its 'catechisms'.

Remember this, the next time Bush or his ilk mention 'our way of life'. It is a parasitic way of life, and the less-fortunate shouldn't be expected to prop up the living standards of the well-to-do.

Is the Bible the Literal Truth?

Fundamentalists are usually long on opinion, and short on historical understanding. The ancient Hebrews had two traditions -- the Oral Tradition, and the Written Tradition. And when one considers the changes that languages undergo over the course of thousands of years, it becomes quite clear why both traditions are necessary.

Oral Tradition is very contingent upon sound -- obviously. And what few Fundamentalists realize is that languages undergo shifts in sound. Indeed, the English language had a rather dramatic shift during The Great Vowel Shift. In addition to vowel shifts, you have the added confusion generated by homonyms -- words that sound exactly the same, yet have very different meaning.

Written Tradition might seem the perfect solution, until one realizes how few people actually knew how to read or write, or how words actually change in meaning throughout time. How many of us consider an 'imp' to be a 'young shoot of a plant'?

The word 'Literal' comes from the Late Latin word lit(t)eralis, which means 'of or belonging to letters or writing'.

So is the Bible the Literal truth? Of course it is. Does that mean that it isn't mythological in nature? Of course it doesn't.

Abdullah pwns Bush

Pakistani ISI/CIA

The Missing Link

The FBI confirmed in late September, in an interview with ABC News (which went virtually unnoticed) that the 9-11 ring leader, Mohammed Atta, had been financed from unnamed sources in Pakistan:

"As to September 11th, federal authorities have told ABC News they have now tracked more than $100,000 from banks in Pakistan, to two banks in Florida, to accounts held by suspected hijack ring leader, Mohammed Atta. As well . . . "Time Magazine" is reporting that some of that money came in the days just before the attack and can be traced directly to people connected to Osama bin Laden. It's all part of what has been a successful FBI effort so far to close in on the hijacker's high commander, the money men, the planners and the mastermind."9

The FBI had information on the money trail. They knew exactly who was financing the terrorists. Less than two weeks later, the findings of the FBI were confirmed by Agence France Presse (AFP) and the Times of India, quoting an official Indian intelligence report (which had been dispatched to Washington). According to these two reports, the money used to finance the 9-11 attacks had allegedly been "wired to WTC hijacker Mohammed Atta from Pakistan, by Ahmad Umar Sheikh, at the instance of [ISI Chief] General Mahmoud [Ahmad]." 10 According to the AFP (quoting the intelligence source):

"The evidence we have supplied to the U.S. is of a much wider range and depth than just one piece of paper linking a rogue general to some misplaced act of terrorism." 11

Pakistan's Chief Spy Visits Washington

Now, it just so happens that General Mahmoud Ahmad, the alleged "money man" behind 9-11, was in the U.S. when the attacks occurred. He arrived on the 4th of September, one week
before 9-11, on what was described as a routine visit of consultations with his U.S. counterparts. According to Pakistani journalist, Amir Mateen (in a prophetic article published on September
10):

"ISI Chief Lt-Gen. Mahmoud's week-long presence in Washington has triggered speculation about the agenda of his mysterious meetings at the Pentagon and National Security Council.

Officially, he is on a routine visit in return to CIA Director George Tenet's earlier visit to Islamabad. Official sources confirm that he met Tenet this week. He also held long parleys with unspecified officials at the White House and the Pentagon. But the most important meeting was with Marc Grossman, U.S. Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs. One can safely guess that the discussions must have centred around Afghanistan . . . and Osama bin Laden. What added interest to his visit is the history of such visits. Last time Ziauddin Butt, Mahmoud's predecessor, was here, during Nawaz Sharif's government, the domestic politics turned topsy-turvy within days." 12

Nawaz Sharif was overthrown by General Pervez Musharaf. General Mahmoud Ahmad, who became the head of the ISI, played a key role in the military coup.

Source

Bush at a Glance

The Hidden History Of Zionism Part 2

The Hidden History Of Zionism Part 1

Who is wiping whom off the map?

Feds open subprime mortgage probe in 14 companies

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) - Federal investigators have opened criminal inquiries into 14 companies as part of a wide-ranging investigation of the subprime mortgage crisis, The Wall Street Journal reported on its Web site Tuesday. None of the 14 companies were named in the report.

Source

WASHINGTON – Federal investigators have opened criminal inquiries into 14 companies as part of a wide-ranging investigation of the subprime mortgage crisis, focusing on accounting fraud, securitization of loans and insider trading, among other areas, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said.

The FBI wouldn't identify the companies under investigation but said that generally the bureau is looking into allegations of fraud in various stages of mortgage securitization, from those who bundled the loans, to the banks that ended up holding them.

Source

Evangelical Corruption of Meaning

Ruwach (Hebrew) = Breath/spirit

Nephesh (Hebrew) = Living/Breathing Creature

Psuche/psucho (Greek) = Breath or animal sentient principle

Pneuma (Greek) = Rational element of the Soul


The Hebrews had no conception of an immortal soul. And as the quote from Einstein below indicates, Judaism is not a 'transcendental' religion. When you die, you are gone -- though you may be 'kept alive' in the memories of others.

The Greeks, however, believed that the 'Pneuma' was eternal. But that only makes sense when you understand what 'Pneuma' actually means. To the degree that your brain operates RATIONALLY (follows the rules of logic), you have 'Pneuma'. And, obviously, reason/logic doesn't cease to exist when you do.

The 'Psuchikoi' are physically living (breathing), yet intellectually dead. They operate on 'gut' or 'emotions' only.

The 'Pneumatikoi' are not only physically living, but capable of intellectual pursuits.

A Little From Einstein

Judaism is not a creed: the Jewish God is simply a negation of superstition, an imaginary result of its elimination. It is also an attempt to base the moral law on fear, a regrettable and discreditable attempt. Yet it seems to me that the strong moral tradition of the Jewish nation has to a large extent shaken itself free from this fear. It is also clear that "Serving God" was equated with "serving the living." The best of the Jewish people, especially the Prophets and Jesus, contended tirelessly for this.

Judaism is thus no transcendental religion; it is concerned with life as we live it and as we can, to a certain extent, grasp it, and nothing else. It seems to me, therefore, doubtful whether it can be called a religion in the accepted sense of the word, particularly as no 'faith' but the sanctification of life in a supra-personal sense is demanded of the Jew.

Mein Weltbild, Amsterdam: Querido Verlag, 1934
from "Ideas and Opinions", ISBN 0-517-55601-4, (c) 1982, 1954

US Recession the Result of Decline in middleclass wages

An Æon Returns To The Blogosphere

After a slight bit of gentle persuasion from a dear friend, I have decided to return to the blogosphere. My prior blog had its own domain name and was hosted. This had advantages, but after awhile, I spent literally hours per day removing the robot entries. That completely ruined the experience for me. Hopefully, blogger's security features will work better than the software I was using many months ago.