personally I believe they (Wash,DC) tried to do it to Chavez as well

Communist influence in the western hemisphere.

** Cables written by U.S. Ambassador Edward Korry after Allende's election, detailing conversations with President Eduardo Frei on how to block the president-elect from being inaugurated. The cables contain detailed descriptions and opinions on the various political forces in Chile, including the Chilean military, the Christian Democrat Party, and the U.S. business community.

** CIA memoranda and reports on "Project FUBELT"--the codename for covert operations to promote a military coup and undermine Allende's government. The documents, including minutes of meetings between Henry Kissinger and CIA officials, CIA cables to its Santiago station, and summaries of covert action in 1970, provide a clear paper trail to the decisions and operations against Allende's government

** National Security Council strategy papers which record efforts to "destabilize" Chile economically, and isolate Allende's government diplomatically, between 1970 and 1973.

** State Department and NSC memoranda and cables after the coup, providing evidence of human rights atrocities under the new military regime led by General Pinochet.

** FBI documents on Operation Condor--the state-sponsored terrorism of the Chilean secret police, DINA. The documents, including summaries of prison letters written by DINA agent Michael Townley, provide evidence on the carbombing assassination of Orlando Letelier and Ronni Moffitt in Washington D.C., and the murder of Chilean General Carlos Prats and his wife in Buenos Aires, among other operations.

These documents, and many thousands of other CIA, NSC, and Defense Department records that are still classified secret, remain relevant to ongoing human rights investigations in Chile, Spain and other countries, and unresolved acts of international terrorism conducted by the Chilean secret police. Eventually, international pressure, and concerted use of the U.S. laws on declassification will force more of the still-buried record into the public domain--providing evidence for future judicial, and historical accountability.

we have to have a strong military and we have to remain a strong military presence in the world

Right so why not vote for someone who has a Socialist agenda?...sorry, the economy concerns everyone and the rich should not be punished because they have succeeded. Each individual is responsible for themselves, those who are not physically capable deserve our assistance everyone else has equal opportunity to succeed..

Sounds like proactive law enforcement to me. Great idea.

name them

I think that they are complete idiots. The evidence is undeniable. The only thing open to debate is the degree to which humans have contributed to it.

I think the movie "An Inconvenient Truth" is very enlightening and informative. I believe those who sneer at it are people who either would not change their ideas about global warming no matter who gave them evidence or what the evidence was or people who just don't like Gore.

We should hit Iran and hit them hard. I see no reason to trust them. Ahmadingdong, has made threats before and presently. The first time he opened his mouth to act like a tough guy, we should have took him out. I see no reason to let people who threaten us and our allies, continue to be a threat.

Rep. Ron Paul: The US is heading into an illegal attack on Iran

by Attorney Harold H. Burbank II

Global Research, August 9, 2008

Rep. Ron Paul (R-Tex.) has warned millions of radio listeners that the United States is heading into an illegal attack on Iran, stating his amazement at members of Congress who have openly voiced support for a criminal nuclear strike.

"If we do (attack) it is going to be a disaster," the congressman told the Alex Jones radio show. "I was astounded to see on one of the networks the other day that the debate was not are we going to attack, but are we going to attack before or after the election?" Paul continued.

Paul recently voiced concern over House Congressional Resolution 362 which he has dubbed a "virtual Iran war resolution."

"If that comes up it is demanding that the president [put in place] an absolute blockade of the entire country of Iran, and punish any country or any business group around the world if they trade with Iran," Paul told listeners.

Experts have predicted gas will rise to $6 per gallon if the resolution passes. Paul believes that may happen anyway, just by anticipation.

"The frightening thing is they say they are taking no options off the table, even nuclear first strike," Paul said. Paul believes from talking with his contacts in and around Congress that a strike on Iran has already been green-lighted.

Care to tell me where Al Qaeda really is then?

According to Le Figaro:

"Dubai... was the backdrop of a secret meeting between Osama bin Laden and the local CIA agent in July [2001]. A partner of the administration of the American Hospital in Dubai claims that "public enemy number one" stayed at this hospital between the 4th and 14th of July. While he was hospitalized, bin Laden received visits from many members of his family as well as prominent Saudis and Emiratis. During the hospital stay, the local CIA agent, known to many in Dubai, was seen taking the main elevator of the hospital to go [up] to bin Laden's hospital room. A few days later, the CIA man bragged to a few friends about having visited bin Laden. Authorized sources say that on July 15th, the day after bin Laden returned to Quetta [Pakistan], the CIA agent was called back to headquarters. In the pursuit of its investigations, the FBI discovered "financing agreements" that the CIA had been developing with its "Arab friends" for years. The Dubai meeting is, so it would seem, within the logic of 'a certain American policy.'" (http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/RIC111B.html )

I'm offended by busybodies. Who do I write/call to see about getting rid of them all?

It’s a game people if you don’t like it don’t buy it.

"The willingness of the NYT to publish an Israeli genocide-ethnocide advocate tells us about the strength of the ties between a purportedly ‘liberal establishment’ pro-Israel publication and the totalitarian Israeli right: It is as if to say that for the liberal pro-Israel establishment, the nonJewish Nazis are off limits, but the views and policies of Judeo-fascists need careful consideration and possible implementation." by Prof. James Petras July 30, 08

What Global Warming?
Such as it was is over


by Phil Brennan

July 22, 2008
etherzone.com

Fact: All history reveals that time after time this planet of ours has experienced periods of warming and periods of cooling. A century of slight global warming, about half a degree, ended in 1998.

Fact: In this century a global cooling has set in. In 2008 most of the northern hemisphere, except for Western Europe, is coming out of what most scientists say has been the harshest winter in decades.

Malta, Israel, China and India's New Delhi have been subjected to record low temperatures. In Afghanistan, more than 900 people and 316,000 head of cattle died as a result of bitter cold weather according to Reuters.

In a letter to U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon 13 top scientists including one Nobel Prize winner, pointed to the fact that while CO2 levels have continued to rise, global temperatures have fallen, dramatically contradicting the claim that CO2 levels cause global warming. They wrote that the UN Climate change Panel "must be called to account and cease its deceptive practices - Policies based on False science must be ended."

Meteorologist Anthony Watts says that the total amount of cooling ranges from 0.65C up to 0.75C -- a value large enough, he says, to erase nearly all the global warming recorded over the past 100 years.

In a news conference held in Orlando, Florida John L. Casey, Director of the Space and Science Research Center, issued a landmark declaration on climate change.

“In an opinion echoed by many scientists around the world, the Space and Science Research Center (SSRC), today declares that the world’s climate warming of the past decades has now come to an end. A new climate era has already started that is bringing predominantly colder global temperatures for many years into the future. In some years this new climate will create dangerously cold weather with significant ill-effects world wide. Global warming is over – a new cold climate has begun.”



Fact: Lack of Sunspot activity portends the onset of global cooling. The sunspot number should stand close to 100; instead it's zero

The level of activity on the Sun will significantly diminish sometime in the next decade and remain low for about 20 - 30 years," said Ian Wilson, lead author of a study appearing in the June issue of PASA, Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia.

The result is a strong, rapid pulse of global cooling, said Wilson. "On each occasion that the Sun has done this in the past the World’s mean temperature has dropped by 1 - 2 C.”

"A 2 C drop would be twice as large as all the warming the earth has experienced since the start of the industrial era, and would be significant enough to impact global agriculture output."

Got it? Global warming, such as it was, is over. Done with. Kaput.

That however, had failed to dampen the enthusiasm of the global warming fear mongers. It has, instead, fueled a spate of often ludicrous claims of an impending planetary disaster due to alleged global warming. As meteorologist and Weather Channel founder John Coleman has said all the proponents of global warming can do is to lamely suggest that global warming has gone on vacation and is taking a ten-year hiatus on account of the absence of sun spots. “If this weren’t so serious it would be laughable” Coleman said.

“It is the greatest scam in history, he said. "I am amazed, appalled and highly offended by it. Global warming; it is a scam. Some dastardly scientists with environmental and political motives manipulated long term scientific data to create in allusion (sic) of rapid global warming. Other scientists of the same environment whacko type jumped into the circle to support and broaden the “research” to further enhance the totally slanted, bogus global warming claims. Their friends in government steered huge research grants their way to keep the movement going. Soon, they claimed to be a consensus.”

Yet the beat goes on, and gets more ludicrous with one member of Congress actually telling a bunch of kids that global warming caused Hurricane Katrina and led to the deaths of Americans in the Blackhawk Down espoused in Somalia. He forgot to mention it also causes tooth decay, body odor and underarm perspiration.

Global warming is clearly over, yet Al Gore and his acolytes keep warning us that the planet is heating up even as it continues to get colder.

One definition of insanity is the compulsion to make the same mistake over and over again all the while expecting a different and successful outcome.

If that suggests that Al Gore and his fellow global warming fantasists are nuts, well , ...

Phil Brennan is a veteran journalist who writes for NewsMax.com. He is editor & publisher of Wednesday on the Web and was Washington columnist for National Review magazine in the 1960s. He also served as a staff aide for the House Republican Policy Committee and helped handle the Washington public relations operation for the Alaska Statehood Committee which won statehood for Alaska. He is also a trustee of the Lincoln Heritage Institute and a member of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers. Phil Brennan is a regular columnist for Ether Zone.

Formicidae
Ants have been acclaimed for their wisdom since ancient times.

Ants attack and defend themselves by biting and in many species, by stinging, often injecting or spraying chemicals like formic acid.

With their combined weight greater than the combined weight of all humans, ants are the most numerous type of animal.

Mukasey to Congress: Defy the Rule of Law
by Stephen Lendman

Global Research, July 23, 2008

Along with other past and present administration officials, Attorney General Michael Mukasey supports lawlessness and police state justice. Weeks after the Supreme Court's landmark (June 12) Boumediene ruling, he addressed the conservative, pro-war American Enterprise Institute (on July 21) and asked Congress to overrule the High Court - for the third time. His proposal:

-- subvert constitutional and international law;

-- authorize indefinite detentions of Guantanamo and other "war on terror" prisoners (including US citizens designated "enemy combatants"); and

-- deny them habeas rights, due process, and any hope for judicial fairness.

Since June 2004, the (conservative) High Court made three landmark rulings. Twice Congress intervened, and Mukasey wants a third time. In Rasul v. Bush (June 2004), the Court granted Guantanamo detainees habeas rights to challenge their detentions in civil court. Congress responded with the Detainee Treatment Act (DTA) of 2005 subverting the ruling.

In June 2006, the Supreme Court reacted. In Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, it held that federal courts retain jurisdiction over habeas cases and that Guantanamo Bay military commissions lack "the power to proceed because (their) structures and procedures violate both the Uniform Code of Military Justice and the four Geneva Conventions (of) 1949."

In October 2006, Congress responded a second time. It enacted the Military Commissions Act (MCA) - subverting the High Court ruling in more extreme form. In its menu of illegal provisions, it grants the administration extraordinary unconstitutional powers to detain, interrogate, torture and prosecute alleged terrorist suspects, enemy combatants, or anyone claimed to support them. It lets the President designate anyone anywhere in the world (including US citizens) an "unlawful enemy combatant" and empowers him to arrest and detain them indefinitely in military prisons. The law states: "no (civil) court, justice, or judge shall have jurisdiction to hear or consider any claim or cause for action whatsoever....relating to the prosecution, trial or judgment of....military commission(s)....including challenges to (their) lawfulness...."

On June 12, 2008, the High Court again disagreed. In Boumediene v. Bush, it held that Guantanamo detainees retain habeas rights. MCA unconstitutionally subverts them, and the administration has no legal authority to deny them due process in civil courts or act as accuser, trial judge and executioner with no right of appeal or chance for judicial fairness.

On July 21, Mukasey responded, and immediately the ACLU reacted in a same day press release headlined: "Attorney General Wants New Declaration of War Allowing Indefinite Detention and Concealment of Torture." It called Mukasey's speech "an enormous executive branch power grab....authoriz(ing) indefinite detention(s) through a new declaration of armed conflict." He asked Congress to redefine habeas through legislation "that will hide the Bush administration's past wrongdoing - an action that would undermine the constitutional guarantee of due process and conceal systematic (lawless) torture and abuse of detainees."

Like his two predecessors, Mukasey mocks the rule of law and supports harsh police state justice. He wants Congress to "expand and extend the 'war on terror' forever" and let the president detain anyone indefinitely without charge or trial. ACLU's Washington Legislative Director, Caroline Fredrickson, called this "the last gasp of an administration desperate to rationalize what is a failed legal scheme" - that the Supreme Court thunderously rejected three times.

Mukasey proposes lawlessness and cover-up, "but there is no reason to think that Congress will assist him." It "won't fall for this latest (scheme) to (suppress) its wrongdoing." Besides, the House Judiciary Committee is now investigating whether high-level administration officials authorized torture and abuse. Mukasey wants to hide it and is asking Congress to "bury the evidence."

The ACLU is righteously outraged by this latest attempted power grab. It rejects Mukasey's lawlessness and states there is "no need to invent yet another set of legal rules to govern the detention and trial of prisoners held on national security grounds, and the rules that (Mukasey) is proposing are fundamentally inconsistent with" constitutional and international law.

The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) Responds

After Mukasey's September 17, 2007 nomination for Attorney General, CCR issued the following November 1, 2007 statement:

"Michael Mukasey is not fit to be Attorney General because he supports torture, illegal spying on Americans, and limitless powers for the Executive Branch." As the "country's highest law enforcement official," he's obligated "to enforce the law" - not make excuses for the government when it's in violation. CCR stands "firmly against Mukasey's nomination....Our country cannot afford to make compromises to our laws, our morals, and our humanity any longer." The Senate must reject Attorney General candidates who'll "undermine American justice and shred the Constitution."

CCR expressed equal outrage on July 21. Its Executive Director, Vincent Warren, denounced Mukasey's proposal in the following excerpted statement:

"What Mukasey is doing is a shocking attempt to drag us into years of further legal challenges and delays. The Supreme Court has definitively spoken" in Boumediene v. Bush and its two prior rulings. "For six and a half years," the administration and Congress "have done their best to (deny due process) and prevent the courts from reviewing the legality of the detention of the men in Guantanamo. Congress should be a part of the solution this time by letting the courts do their job."

For the past six years, CCR litigated for Guantanamo detainee rights and continues to do it. It organized and coordinated over 500 pro bono lawyers for everyone held there illegally. Most recently, it represented plaintiffs in the landmark Boumediene v. Bush case - argued on December 5, 2007 and ruled on June 12, 2008.

The Wall Street Journal Reports and Editorializes

Its July 22 article states: "Mukasey Seeks Law on Detainees - Congress Is Urged to Limit Rights of Terror Suspects....in light of a rebuke by the Supreme Court." It quotes Mukasey wanting:

-- legislative "principles" for "practical" limits on the right of detainees to challenge their incarceration;

-- Congress to give the administration freedom to detain combatants "for the duration of the ('war on terror') conflict;"

-- a "reaffirmation of something that was enacted in legislation after September 11, 2001" (a menu of harsh repressive laws);

-- no "enemy combatants" released in (or brought to) the US (even to appear in civil court);

-- no intelligence (or harsh interrogation) methods revealed (so evidence of torture and abuse is suppressed), and

-- military officers (and intelligence officials) to be excused from testifying (because what they know is damning).

On its editorial page, the Journal is supportive. It called Mukasey's proposal "modest" on a "difficult" issue over which "different judges even on the same court will disagree." Mukasey wants congressional "guidance" because there's risk of "inconsistent rulings and considerable uncertainty."

According to the Journal, Mukasey "was right in stepping forward to say that someone has to take responsibility for the consequences of the Supreme Court's 5 - 4" Boumediene ruling. It wants "Congress (to) give one court jurisdiction over (all detainee) cases" and not let the process "bog down into a Babel of conflicting procedural and legal rulings." Mukasey is "right" to ask Congress to settle the issue, (regardless of three landmark High Court rulings). In other words:

-- constitutional and international laws don't apply;

-- judicial fairness is a dead letter;

-- presidential power is supreme; and

-- Congress must support the executive and overrule the highest court in the land....A "modest (police state) proposal" according to the Journal and one it clearly supports.

who they think their real enemies are.

US Peace and Civil Rights Activists added to Data Base of Terrorist Suspects

Maryland troopers spied on activist groups

Protesters added to database of terrorist suspects

Shaun Waterman UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL
Friday, July 18, 2008

Undercover Maryland state troopers infiltrated three groups advocating peace and protesting the death penalty — attending meetings and sending reports on their activities to U.S. intelligence and military agencies, according to documents released Thursday.
The documents show the activities occurred from at least March 2005 to May 2006 and that officers used false names, which the documents referred to as "covert identities" - to open e-mail accounts to receive messages from the groups.

Also included in the 46 pages of documents, obtained by the Maryland chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, is an account of an activist's name being entered into a federally funded database designed to share information among state, local and federal law-enforcement agencies on terrorist and drug trafficking suspects.

ACLU attorney David Rocah said state police violated federal laws prohibiting departments that receive federal funds from maintaining databases with information about political activities and affiliations.

The activist was identified as Max Obuszewski. His "primary crime" was entered into the database as "terrorism - anti govern(ment)." His "secondary crime" was listed as "terrorism - anti-war protestors." The database is known as the Washington-Baltimore High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, or HIDTA.

"This is not supposed to happen in America," said Mr. Rocah. "In a free society, which relies on the engagement of citizens in debate and protest and political activity to maintain that freedom ... you should be able to attend a meeting about an issue you care about without having to worry that government spies are entering your name into a database used to track alleged terrorists and drug traffickers."

Mr. Rocah called the surveillance "Kafka-esque insanity."

State police Chief Col. Terrence B. Sheridan said the agency "does not inappropriately curtail the expression or demonstration of the civil liberties of protesters or organizations acting lawfully."

The surveillance of Mr. Obuszewski, of Pledge of Resistance-Baltimore, and another person came to light during his trial for trespassing and disorderly conduct in a 2004 protest outside the National Security Agency's headquarters in Fort Meade, Md.

Documents released by the prosecution revealed that the protesters had been under surveillance by an entity called the Baltimore Intelligence Unit.

The Maryland ACLU sued last month, claiming the state police refused to release public documents about the surveillance of peace activists.

THE BALTIMORE SUN VIA ASSOCIATED PRESS ACLU staff attorney David Rocah (sitting left) was alongside organizer Max Obuszewski, whose name was entered into a counterterrorism database, at a press conference in Baltimore.
The documents, which include intelligence reports and printouts from the database, show that several undercover officers from the state police's Homeland Security and Intelligence Division attended meetings of three groups: Mr. Obuszewski's group; the Coalition to End the Death Penalty; and the Committee to Save Vernon Evans, a convicted murderer who was slated for execution.

The documents show at least 288 hours of surveillance over the 14-month period. The undercover officers attended at least 20 organizing meetings at community halls and churches and a dozen rallies against the death penalty, including several at the state's SuperMax jail in Baltimore.

Included in the documents are references to a proposed sit-in at the offices of Baltimore County State's Attorney SandraA. O'Connor. However, they show no trooper reports of violence or threats of violence. Organizers repeatedly stressed the importance of peaceful and orderly demonstrations, the documents show.

"There were about 75-80 protestors at the rally and none participated in any type of civil disobedience or illegal acts," said one report of a demonstration against the death penalty at the SuperMax jail. "Protesters were even careful to move out of the way for Division of Correction employees who were going into the parking lot for work."

Still, information about the protesters and their activities was sent to seven agencies, including the National Security Agency and an unnamed military intelligence official.

"Americans have the right to peaceably assemble with others of a like mind and speak out about what they believe in," Mr. Rocah said. "For state agencies to spend hundreds of hours entering information about lawful and peaceful political activities into a criminal database is beyond unconscionable. It is a waste of taxpayer dollars, which does nothing to make us safer from actual terrorists or drug dealers."

Nine Republicans Vote for Impeachment Hearings, Ten Abstain
by Ralph Lopez


Global Research, July 20, 2008
Daily Kos - 2008-07-16

In a stunning development which fell with the silence of a feather yesterday, 9 Republicans broke with their iron-fisted party to put country first, and voted to send Rep. Dennis Kucinich's article of impeachment HR 1345 to the Judiciary, where Chairman John Conyers will hold hearings on abuses of power by the Bush administration, according to the Congressional Quarterly's CQToday.

Ten Republicans abstained in this critical moment, while only 5 Dems did. The vote was neck and neck at many moments, with "Nays" pulling ahead twice.

Those Republicans are (Yea 238 - Nay 180):

Congressman Kevin Brady (TX)
Congressman Wayne Gilchrest (MD)
Congressman Walter B. Jones (NC)
Representative Don Manzullo (IL)
U.S. Congressman Tim Murphy(PA)
Congressman Ron Paul (TX)
Congressman Dave Reichert (WA)
Congressman Christopher Shays (CT)
Representative Mike Turner (OH)

One of the Republicans, Walter Jones, represents Camp LeJeune in North Carolina, one of the largest Marine bases in the country, and one which has borne heavily the sacrifice of the Iraq War.


Global Research Articles by Ralph Lopez

Disliking Israel and disagreeing with their policies doesn't make someone antisemetic. The entirety of the political world may disagree with that statement, but it's true.

"every time we do something you tell me America will do this and will do that . . . I want to tell you something very clear: Don't worry about American pressure on Israel. We, the Jewish people, control America, and the Americans know it." Ariel Sharon , October 3, 2001

Status Report on the Collapse of the U.S. Economy

by Richard C. Cook (July 16, 2008)

With the economic news of the week of July 14—the continuing crisis among mortgage lenders, the onset of bank failures, the announced downsizing of General Motors, the slide of the Dow-Jones below 11,000—we are seeing the ongoing collapse of the U.S. economy.

Even the super-rich are becoming nervous as cries for an emergency suspension of short selling ring out.

What is really taking place, however, is that the producing economy of working men and women is being crushed by the overall debt burden on households, businesses, and governments that could reach $70 trillion by 2010. The financial system, including mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, is bankrupt, as the debts it is based on cannot be repaid.

This is because the producing economy of people who work for a living simply can no longer generate enough purchasing power for people either to pay their debts or allow them to purchase what is being sold in the marketplace. In turn it is the debt burden and the loss of societal purchasing power that are crashing the stock market. Thus the collapse of the financial economy has started to destroy the producing economy as well.

It’s a “perfect storm,” the result of a 200-year-old financial system where money is largely created by bank lending and where since 1980 our industry and jobs have been increasingly outsourced abroad to cheap labor markets. Thus domestic incomes have stagnated while the nation’s GDP has not been able to keep up with the exponential growth of debt.

While the mainstream media are blind, deaf, and dumb as to the causes, the victims within the middle and working classes are seeing their livelihoods ruined, jobs taken away, pensions eroded, homes foreclosed on, and are being saddled with ever-increasing debt and forced to work under more and more stress due to rising burdens of taxation, gas and food price inflation, and bureaucratic rules and regulations. The only places a more-or-less normal life may still be possible will be the wealthiest imperial centers like Washington, New York, Houston, Chicago, or San Francisco.

All that the current bailouts being engineered by the Federal Reserve are doing is to create more debt to shore up failing financial institutions. No new wealth is being created. It’s band-aids on band-aids.

The problem politically is that control of the U.S. long ago was turned over to the bankers and the financiers of the Western world. It was called financial “deregulation,” accelerated under President Ronald Reagan, and has run amok since then. From a longer historical view, it’s the same phenomenon that first created and then ruined the British Empire , and it’s what created and is now ruining the American Empire today.

A side-effect of control by the bankers and financiers is that they are also Zionists, so we have the added multi-trillion dollar burden of trying to conquer the Middle East on behalf of the international oil interests and the state of Israel .

The situation has deteriorated sharply since the 1970s as U.S. affairs have been managed on behalf of the financial interests by what you might call the “Three Amigos”—Henry Kissinger, Paul Volcker, and Alan Greenspan. Kissinger, while Nixon’s secretary of state, made the U.S. dependent on the Middle East for oil, lavished billions on Israel ’s war machine, and created the petrodollar to support our trade and fiscal deficits. Volcker, while chairman of the Federal Reserve, crashed the U.S. producing economy in the recession of 1979-1983, leading to the rise of the “service economy.” Greenspan, during his own Federal Reserve chairmanship, presided over the bubble economy which was created through massive official fraud in home mortgage lending and is now sinking like the Titanic.

The politicians have enabled these financial crimes. Above all it’s been the Bush family which has served as a political Trojan Horse for the financiers for three generations, with affairs having become much worse since George H.W. Bush invaded Iraq for the first time in 1991. The enablers have included a majority of the members of the U.S. Congress. (See the conclusion of Patrick Buchanan’s new book, Churchill, Hitler, and the Unnecessary War for an account of how the U.S. since the Bush I presidency has replicated the catastrophic errors of failed British imperialism.)

The American people are not entirely innocent. We have been so lulled to sleep by the financier-owned media that we have allowed these disasters to take place and are now reaping the consequences. We have been the fodder for their wars and the signers of their loans. We have tried to carve out our own piece of the pie which is now crumbling.

What is taking place is not just the collapse of the U.S. , but more than likely the final crash of Western civilization, since we are the last of the world empires to go down the drain. World War I saw the end of the German, Austro-Hungarian, Russian, and Ottoman empires. World War II saw the disappearance of the French, British, Japanese, and Italian empires, along with Nazi Germany. The Soviet empire collapsed in 1991. The American is next. The danger is that we may lash out and start a nuclear World War III out of frustration and to appease the elitists of the world who see war and famine as their pathway to world control. Such a war would also mean a military takeover domestically to manage the pathetically weak nation that we are becoming.

The bankers and financiers do not care if nations and empires destroy themselves and each other, because they are internationalists. In fact, the more war and mass starvation there is the better off they feel. All they need is a base from which to operate. London has been their main base of operations since the Bank of England was founded in 1694, though they have a strong presence in other nations. They have been especially influential in northwest Europe , where elitism in the form of Freemasonry endeavored since the time of the French Revolution to destroy the authority of the Catholic Church.

In fact, World War I was a project of the Freemasons in dismembering Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, both largely Catholic. This destruction allowed the masters of usury to flourish within the atheistic and materialistic culture that Freemasonry fostered across Europe . World War I also resulted in the virus of Communism, largely egged on by the internationalists and Freemasons, though it had such a tragic impact on Russia and Central Europe before spreading to China and East Asia .

It is theoretically possible that the US as a nation could still save itself through an internal revolution, while playing a much reduced role in the world. After all, England , France , and Italy still exist as shadows of their past greatness. But, realistically, all ordinary people can do today is try to survive, perhaps by working with friends and neighbors in planting food and living within the underground economy. At least people might not then have to starve to death, because hard as it is to believe that “it could happen here,” widespread famine in the U.S. seems a real possibility over the next several years. Nations take such risks when they allow capitalist agribusiness to destroy local agriculture.

On a national level, it is likely that as a response to the economic crisis some attempt will be made by desperate politicians to try to replicate the New Deal, but to do this effectively would require political control by a nationalistic reform party. Even then, additional reform measures such as control of credit as a public utility, a basic income guarantee, and a national dividend would be needed for real economic security to replace the current madness that could soon make the U.S. a relic of history.

Richard C. Cook is a former U.S. federal government analyst, whose career included service with the U.S. Civil Service Commission, the Food and Drug Administration, the Carter White House, NASA, and the U.S. Treasury Department. His articles on economics, politics, and space policy have appeared on numerous websites and in Eurasia Critic magazine. His book on monetary reform, entitled We Hold These Truths: The Hope of Monetary Reform, will be published soon by Tendril Press. He is also the author of Challenger Revealed: An Insider’s Account of How the Reagan Administration Caused the Greatest Tragedy of the Space Age, called by one reviewer, “the most important spaceflight book of the last twenty years.” His website is at www.richardccook.com

I sometimes find myself thinking I could find more intelligent discussion stopping by the local Chuck E Cheese.

Stern is a former chief economist of the World Bank.

The Terrorist Watch List reaches 1,000,665 Names and is still Growing!

by Rev. Richard Skaff
Global Research, July 15, 2008

Are you an activist, an author, a journalist, a patriot, or maybe a scholar who speaks out his or her mind in the defense of democracy? If you are, then, the chance of having your boarding pass stamped with the ominous symbol of “SSSS” on your next flight from the United States is very high.

SSSS stands for “selectee for enhanced security screening.” That means that Home Land Security and TSA have labeled you as a US citizen-security risk, and used your tax money to transform themselves into your dictators.

According to a tally maintained by the ACLU, the nation’s terrorist watch list has hit one million names and is still growing by the minute. That is based upon the government’s own reported numbers for the size of the list. Members of congress, nuns, war heroes, reverends, former assistant attorney general, ACLU administrator, people with difficult names and all American names like Robert Johnson and Gary Smith, have become caught in the vast tentacle of this list. [1].

Once you are on it, a rigorous procedure short of a divine intervention would become necessary to have you taken off this list. Many are wary of raising this issue in fear of additional fascist strategies like harassment, retaliation, and intimidation would be used against them.

The ACLU also announced on July 14th, 2008 the creation of an online form where victims of the watch list can tell them their stories. The link to the form is www.aclu.org/watchlist or directly at www.aclu.org/watchlistform. [1].

It appears that the watch list is designed to ensnare innocent citizens, intimidate and silence the voice of dissent, crush activism, and pave the way for a robotized, frightened, fascist, and military society.

The key questions to ask are the following: How could this happen in our great republic? Why would a democracy prepare itself for martial law if it is a true democracy?

Have sadism, and bullying replaced civility and constitutional rights?

Has fear transformed our free society into a nation of prisoners who are helpless, dependent, and frightened?

Has the alleged war on terror become a domestic war on US citizens that is tailored to control, subdue, and microchip everyone?

Have the citizens of the United States fallen asleep at the wheel?

Or have they simply become so brainwashed and consumed with fear, apathy, self-alienation, and desperation that they have given up their hopes and dreams, and abandoned the greatest gift of liberty that the framers of this nation have given to them?

Finally, I would like to add that it is always difficult to believe the stories that are told by others, until they happen to you. By then, it is too late! Don’t be fooled with party rhetoric, or false political promises, because both parties have equally collaborated and conspired to create the neo- America . Our leaders are supposed to be public servants who answer to the people, but in actuality these leaders are pre-chosen slaves who answer only to their global corporate masters.

Therefore, I would like to urge citizens to learn and to practice their civic duty as well to learn their constitutional rights, awaken from their deep trance of political illusions and propaganda, and hold accountable the charlatans they elected into office who are the true highjackers of our democracy, in order to save this great land!

Reference:

1. http://www.aclu.org/watchlist

Rev. Richard Skaff is the author of “The Human Manifesto.”

JFK would be rolling over in his grave if he knew of the Liberal press that undermines his great country.. the country he once knew.. the party he was once proud of that has now branched off to extremism and terrorist sympathizers.

Who owns CNN? or MSNBC? ABC?
by systemfailure Wednesday, Apr. 09, 2003 at 1:43 AM


GENERAL ELECTRIC --(donated 1.1 million to GW Bush for his 2000 election campaign)

Television Holdings:
* NBC: includes 13 stations, 28% of US households.
* NBC Network News: The Today Show, Nightly News with Tom Brokaw, Meet the Press, Dateline NBC, NBC News at Sunrise.
* CNBC business television; MSNBC 24-hour cable and Internet news service (co-owned by NBC and Microsoft); Court TV (co-owned with Time Warner), Bravo (50%), A&E (25%), History Channel (25%).
The "MS" in MSNBC
means microsoft
The same Microsoft that donated 2.4 million to get GW bush elected.

Other Holdings:
* GE Consumer Electronics.
* GE Power Systems: produces turbines for nuclear reactors and power plants.
* GE Plastics: produces military hardware and nuclear power equipment.
* GE Transportation Systems: runs diesel and electric trains.
==================================================

WESTINGHOUSE / CBS INC.
Westinghouse Electric Company, part of the Nuclear Utilities Business Group of British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL)
whos #1 on the Board of Directors? None other than:
Frank Carlucci (of the Carlyle Group)

Television Holdings:
* CBS: includes 14 stations and over 200 affiliates in the US.
* CBS Network News: 60 minutes, 48 hours, CBS Evening News with Dan Rather, CBS Morning News, Up to the Minute.
* Country Music Television, The Nashville Network, 2 regional sports networks.
* Group W Satellite Communications.
Other Holdings:
* Westinghouse Electric Company: provides services to the nuclear power industry.
* Westinghouse Government Environmental Services Company: disposes of nuclear and hazardous wastes. Also operates 4 government-owned nuclear power plants in the US.
* Energy Systems: provides nuclear power plant design and maintenance.
================================================================
VIACOM INTERNATIONAL INC.
Television Holdings:
* Paramount Television, Spelling Television, MTV, VH-1, Showtime, The Movie Channel, UPN (joint owner), Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, Sundance Channel (joint owner), Flix.
* 20 major market US stations.
Media Holdings:
* Paramount Pictures, Paramount Home Video, Blockbuster Video, Famous Players Theatres, Paramount Parks.
* Simon & Schuster Publishing.
=============================================
DISNEY / ABC / CAP (donated 640 thousand to GW's 2000 campaign)
Television Holdings:
* ABC: includes 10 stations, 24% of US households.
* ABC Network News: Prime Time Live, Nightline, 20/20, Good Morning America.
* ESPN, Lifetime Television (50%), as well as minority holdings in A&E, History Channel and E!
* Disney Channel/Disney Television, Touchtone Television.
Media Holdings:
* Miramax, Touchtone Pictures.
* Magazines: Jane, Los Angeles Magazine, W, Discover.
* 3 music labels, 11 major local newspapers.
* Hyperion book publishers.
* Infoseek Internet search engine (43%).
Other Holdings:
* Sid R. Bass (major shares) crude oil and gas.
* All Disney Theme Parks, Walt Disney Cruise Lines.

On July 9, 2008, the US Congress overwhelmingly passed legislation permitting government spying, including immunity to telecommunications companies involved in secret domestic surveillance programs. With the stroke of George W. Bush’s pen, the US is now a police state by definition.

The extent of the spying program, and its larger implications, have been revealed by Mark Klein, who blew the whistle on secret domestic spying program of Bush/Cheney’s National Security Agency (NSA) and AT&T:

AT&T whistleblower: spy bill creates infrastructure for police state


The update of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, called the "FISA compromise", or more appropriately, the "spy bill", largely completes the triumph of the Bush/Cheney administration and a bipartisan criminal consensus. By convenient design, the FISA revision derails pending law suits filed against the Bush administration’s corporate spying partners (AT&T, Sprint Nextel, and Verizon), silences (the largely empty-to-begin-with) congressional investigations into Bush administration’s illegal domestic spying program. Presidential nominee Barack Obama and the Democrats have now moved to silence all discussion about the issue.

I asked for an apologist, and I recieved.

I personally hope that Cheney becomes a proctologist when he leaves office. I mean, all these years of experience. Why waste his talents????

COX-2 Inhibitors
Vioxx® non-steroidal, anti-inflammatory drug intended to treat menstrual and arthritis pain. However, the drug is believed to do far more harm than good: VIOXX®, believed to be a defective drug, is known to cause heartburn, nausea, diarrhea, upper respiratory tract infection, swelling of the lower extremities, high blood pressure, itching, stomach ulcers or bleeding, fatigue, vomiting, dark urine, and black stools. Additionally, recent studies have also linked VIOXX® to an increased risk of heart attack and stroke.

Bextra® nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) designed to alleviate the symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis, including joint inflammation and swelling. The drug, classified as a COX 2 inhibitor, reportedly prevents the stomach ulcers and gastrointestinal bleeding believed to be caused by other NSAIDs. However, some research shows that like Vioxx®, Bextra® can cause a number of serious side effects, from stomach bleeding to upper respiratory infection.


Celebrex® non-steroidal, anti-inflammatory COX-2 inhibitor drug intended to treat joint inflammation and arthritis pain - but, like Vioxx®, it has been deemed dangerous: Celebrex® has been linked to at least 10 deaths, 11 cases of gastrointestinal bleeding that required hospitalization, and an increased risk of stomach ulcers. There is also some evidence that taking Celebrex® can increase or double users' risk of blood clots, heart attack, and stroke.



Cholesterol Drugs
Crestor® HMG-CoA reductase inhibitor drug, or statin, designed to lower cholesterol levels by halting production of a certain enzyme in the liver. The drug has been linked to a slew of serious health problems, ranging from muscle weakness and asthenia to kidney damage and total renal failure. This possibly defective drug is particularly dangerous to pregnant or nursing mothers, although it is not on the list of drug recalls.

Baycol® a potentially defective statin drug, was commonly prescribed to lower cholesterol by preventing lipid production. Unfortunately, it was also linked to at least 31 deaths in the United States and more than 52 worldwide. Baycol® has also been said to cause rhabdomyolysis, a typically non life-threatening but nonetheless serious muscle ailment that puts undue stress on the kidneys. Symptoms of rhabdomyolysis include fatigue, muscle pain, joint pain, dark urine, nausea, and other discomforts.



Erectile Dysfunction Drugs

Viagra® & Cialis® was approved by the FDA in March of 1998 for the treatment of erectile dysfunction (ED) and has since been prescribed to millions of men in the U.S. and around the world. Two months after approval, Pfizer™ issued a letter warning of sudden drops in systemic blood pressure in a majority of patients taking Viagra®. Doctors were advised to take their patients’ cardiac status into account before prescribing the drug.


In November of 1998, new product warning labels were placed on Viagra® bottles in response to the potential dangers associated with its use. Viagra’s® new warning labels mentioned the possibility of heart attack, sudden death due to cardiac complications, hypertension, and priapism, a serious disorder requiring immediate medical attention in which a man develops a painful and prolonged erection.
Side effects are not limited to cardiovascular complications alone. A study completed in January 2006 suggested that men with a history of high blood pressure and heart attack who take Viagra® or Cialis® are ten times more likely to suffer from a vision threatening condition called NAION. Prior to this report, the Journal of Neuro-Opthalmology published the results of a study in which seven men experienced NAION within three days of taking Viagra® and other ED medications. According to a subsequent CBS News report, over 8,000 ED patients claimed to have experienced vision problems while taking Viagra®, Cialis® or other related medications.



Atypical Anti-Psychotics
Risperdal® was approved by the FDA in 2003 as a treatment for bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and other psychotic illnesses that are characterized by symptoms of mania, hallucinations, and/or anxiety. These symptoms are thought to be caused by chemical imbalances in the brain; Risperdal® seems to readjust the balance of these chemicals, helping to control symptoms. Risperdal® was intended to have fewer side effects than older anti-psychotic drugs, and millions of adults and children have used it.
However, a 2003 study reported that there were 49 percent more cases of diabetes among patients taking Risperdal® than among patients using older anti-psychotic drugs. Risperdal® has been linked not only to type 2 diabetes, but to hyperglycemia, other blood sugar disorders, and pancreatitis—a dangerous inflammation of the pancreas. After the study, the FDA required Risperdal® to carry a new warning label that recommends its users be monitored for blood sugar abnormalities.



Seroquel® belongs to a class of drugs known as “atypical anti-psychotics.” AstraZeneca’s Seroquel® is used to treat schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and a wide range of other psychotic illnesses that share such symptoms as delusion, thought disorders, hallucinations, and social withdrawal. Millions of patients have taken Seroquel® since the drug was approved in 1997.
Data from a 2003 study suggested that there were 3.34 times as many cases of diabetes among Seroquel® patients than among patients taking older anti-psychotic medication. Seroquel® is linked not only to type 2 diabetes, but to hyperglycemia, other blood sugar disorders, and pancreatitis – an inflammation of the pancreas. After the study, the FDA issued a MedWatch safety alert about Seroquel®.



ADHD Drugs
Adderall® amphetamine-dextroamphetamine, was approved in 1996 for the treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The Federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released a report in February 2006, describing a potential link between Adderall® and the occurrence of heart attacks, high blood pressure and other cardiovascular complications that may result in sudden death. The FDA report cites 51 deaths that may have resulted from the use of Adderall® and Ritalin®, two drugs widely prescribed to treat ADHD.
Many reputable medical experts believe that Adderall® and Ritalin have been prescribed far too frequently as a treatment for behavioral problems in school-aged children. Because Adderall® is highly addictive and lends itself easily to abuse, these critics argue that the benefits of the drug are often outweighed by its risks and that, therefore, its prescription should be limited to very specific cases of ADHD.

Ritalin® has been widely prescribed to patients of all ages to combat an array of behavioral and attention deficit related disorders. A February 2006 FDA report indicates that Ritalin® may pose serious health risks including heart attack, stroke, high blood pressure, and other potentially fatal cardiovascular problems. The report finds that 51 deaths may be linked to the use of Ritalin® and Aderall®.
The FDA has been hesitant to suggest a definitive link between Ritalin® use and sudden death, but regulators have been warned to closely monitor the use of all ADHD drugs for potentially fatal side-effects.



Other Defective or Dangerous Drugs
Accutane® Once the most often-prescribed acne medication on the U.S. market, Accutane® is now considered a defective drug, having been associated with depression, suicide, psychosis, and birth defects, namely mental retardation and physical deformities. Accutane® is still available by prescription, although women who are at risk for becoming pregnant while on the drug must sign a waiver that informs them of the risk before they are given a prescription.

Fen-Phen® A combination of fenfluramine (Podimin), phentermine (Ionamin), and dexfenfluramine, Fen-Phen, a defective drug, was used weight loss drug used by at least 6 million Americans until it was recalled in 1997 after reports linked it to heart valve disease, primary pulmonary hypertension (PHH), heart failure, lung failure, aortic and mitral heart valve damage (regurgitation), and other serous conditions.

Ketek® is an antibiotic commonly used to treat an array of respiratory infections, including pneumonia, bronchitis, and sinus infections. According to the FDA, three people have suffered severe liver damage as a result of taking Ketek®. Each of these people developed jaundice, a yellowing of the skin and eyes, and produced abnormal blood tests consistent with diminishing liver function. All three had been in good health and had not been taking any other medications. Of the three, two have died.

Mirapex® drug prescribed to alleviate some of the symptoms associated with Parkinson’s disease. However, a Mayo Clinic study released in July of 2005 suggested a possible link between the drug and compulsive gambling disorder. This study built upon past studies that have found a connection between dopamine agonist, the generic name for Mirapex®, and a general rise in compulsive disorders.

Oxycontin® most recently made headlines when radio announcer Rush Limbaugh admitted his addiction to the powerful, heroin-like painkiller in 2003. The opiate, which is highly addictive for both legitimate and illegitimate users, is covered by most insurance plans, thereby making it significantly cheaper than illegal drugs- so cheap, in fact, that Oxycontin® has been nicknamed “hillbilly heroin” and “poor man' s heroin” on the street.
Oxycontin®, which many consider to be a defective drug, is also heavily marketed by its manufacturer, Purdue Pharma. Its accessibility, affordability, and extremely addictiveness make Oxycontin® inherently dangerous. It has been associated with more than 100 deaths, most of which involve mixing the drug with alcohol. Critics blame Purdue Pharma for these tragedies, claiming that the corporation failed to sufficiently warn doctors and patients of 1) how addictive Oxycontin® truly is and 2) that mixing it with alcohol could be so deadly.
Oxycontin® has yet to become a subject of a drug recall.

Paxil® is an antidepressant drug belonging to a class of medications known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). Paxil® is believed to be very addictive, and many users report severe withdrawal symptoms after discontinuing use. Some experts even link Paxil® to an increased suicide risk.
GlaxoSmithKline Corporation, the manufacturer of Paxil®, has been accused of misleading the public and the medical profession by downplaying side effects of the drug. In response, many victims have banded together and filed class action lawsuits against Glaxo Smithkline Corporation.

Prempro® A hormone replacement therapy (HRT) drug prescribed to treat menopause symptoms, Prempro® was recently a subject of a drug recall. It was pulled from shelves in 2002 after the Women' s Health Initiative Study found that it increased women' s risk of stroke by 41 percent, cardiovascular disease by 29 percent, and breast cancer by 26 percent. Warnings from the American Heart Association and the Journal of the American Medical Association also prompted the recall.

Rezulin® is an anti-hyperglycemic drug used to treat Type II diabetes. While it is not an insulin substitute, Rezulin® helps the body better use the insulin it does produce. But this isn't without consequence - Rezulin® is rather dangerous for many patients. In fact, since its approval by the FDA in 1997 (the same year Great Britain withdrew the drug from its market), Rezulin®, now believed to be a defective drug, has consistently been linked to heart failure, thickening in the left ventricular wall of the heart, severe liver damage, liver failure, an increased demand for liver treatments, and at least 63 deaths. Rezulin® was finally yanked from shelves in March 2000, but for many, the damage was already done.

Tequin® Tequin® (gatifloxacin) marketed by Bristol-Myers Squibb Company is a prescription antibiotic which has been associated with cases of hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) and hyperglycemia (high blood sugar), conditions especially dangerous to those with diabetes.
Tequin® is an antibacterial medication administered either in tablet form or as an injection to treat infectious diseases including pneumonia, bronchitis, infections of the urinary tract, kidneys, and skin, as well as a form of gonorrhea. Tequin® received Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval in 1999. On February 16, 2006, FDA advised the public that Bristol-Myers Squibb was labeling Tequin® to alert medical professionals to the possible risk of hypoglycemia, hyperglycemia, and related complications, and to the fact the fatalities may be related to the use of Tequin®.

Trasylol® is an injectable drug also known as aprotonin; it is used during cardiopulmonary bypass surgery in order to inhibit inflammation and prevent blood loss during the operation. Produced by Bayer, Trasylol® was approved in 1993 and marketed to be a safe and vital component of bypass and other heart surgeries. Millions of patients have had the drug administered to them during their surgeries.
In January 2006, an article in The New England Journal of Medicine stated that Trasylol® can factor into life-threatening, post-surgery complications. The use of Trasylol® increased the risk of heart attack by 48 percent, heart failure by 109 percent, and stroke by 181 percent, according to a study of 4400 patients. They also found a significant risk of renal (kidney) failure and damage to brain tissue. The FDA issued a public health advisory in February 2006, stating that they will conduct a safety evaluation of Trasylol® to further examine its risks.

Zyprexa® In 1996, the FDA approved Zyprexa® as a treatment for bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and other psychotic illnesses. It effectively controls the hallucinations, delusions, withdrawal, and various symptoms typically associated with such conditions - but not without a price. In late 2001, researchers linked Zyprexa®, now deemed a potentially defective drug, to diabetes, diabetic ketoacidosis, hyperglycemia, pancreatitis, and diabetes-induced heart attack or coma. Patients under age 54 - especially adolescents - are at highest risk. Zyprexa® has not yet been the subject of a drug recall.

The other thing i find funny is so many want to condemn the President of the United States. Yet, he was voted into office ... not once? but twice?

When I see Iran and that nut-job Ahmadinejad testing nukes and shaking his fist at Israel

Goodness ... get the word out ... it's not the republicans << it's your peoples

It's not President Bush.